New Blog, New Beginning~

I started a new blog.. It's Called: "My Life's Metamorphosis"..
please join me there!

http://mylifesmetamorphosis.blogspot.com/

Some amazing art photo work (like on the left here!) can be found at BomoBob's etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/bomobob?ref=seller_info










WELL today has been sort of “iffy” as far as low carb. I HAVE stayed “low carb” today but I had decided no cheese and had cheese for breakfast!

I am not sure what happened but before I knew it I was munching on some smoked sharp cheddar I had picked up for the genius I married’s lunches this week.

I LOVE cheese.. adore it so much and was going to abstain because I want to sort of do LC “anti-candida” style for a while and that means no cheese or mushrooms or wine (and a few other things that normal low carbers CAN have) for a while.

Anyway I slipped but I am not concerned, I will still come in under my 20-30 grams of carbs for the day.

I got a deli roasted whole chicken (quick and easy) – a nice way to ease myself into all the cooking that has to take place to do low carb WELL. I am making asparagus to go with. Simple foods for me for a while. I got too enamored of my food and cooked too many fancy recipes when doing low carb in the past. This really stalled my weight loss because YES calories do count.. they just happen to count a little less on low carb than a normal counting calorie diet. I really want to keep it very simple and eat to live.. not live to eat you know so my meals will pretty much just be meat and veggies and nice salads with homemade dressings.

Speaking of dressings I wanted to share my fav. one right now.
It’s a Japanese style ginger dressing sort of like you would get on your house salad at a Japanese sushi restaurant:

Low Carb Ginger Dressing (also works as a great marinate)

Grated orange rind or a few drops Boyajian tangerine oil
Soy sauce - small amount
Ginger (fresh grated.. lots)
Celery (fresh grated, a bit)
1 stalk green onion chopped fine (only a bit of the green – too much is bitter)
Rice vinegar
SF apple flavor crystal lite (a bit for a touch of sweet)
Sesame oil (just 2-3 drops more and it gets bitter)

Water as needed

As you can see I don’t give amounts because I have never measured, I just make it to taste. There is no oil but you could add some if you wish. I make it stronger for a marinate. It’s such a nice fresh flavor!

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Will be glad with ketosis kicks in!! Loves the lack of appetite I get.

I need to set a weight loss goal. I think I will shoot for 8# in the next 6 weeks. That’s a good goal for someone like me that loses pretty slowly!

Oh did you know that Greek women munch on fennel seeds to help with weight loss? “Fennel seeds-greek for "to grow thin. Is known to help metabolize fat”



I have seen a few Indian restaurants that have small bowls of seeds by a table as you leave (sort of like we have mints in our American restaurants). It’s interesting. I have some in the freezer. I like them but I love licorice. I think I will have a few thru the day…

I am going to start posting my previous days carbs and calorie counts each day. My official weigh in day is Monday (keeps me real thru the weekend) so I will list my pounds lost on Mondays.

Yesterday's counts were 25 carbs and 1700 calories. I of course am not in ketosis yet.. it usually takes me 3-4 days.

Well my dears, Cheers to Atkin’s Induction - Day two. Oh and I lost a half pound overnight!

Monday.. I LOVE Mondays.

Well my friends, today I am back to my old fav. Low Carb. (I usually do Atkins with extra veggies and start with 30 grams of carbs a day - this will take me into ketosis, I know from experience I don't have to go to below 20 carbs IF my carbs are from mostly veggies. I ALSO know from experience that I don't lose well on Atkins IF I don't watch my calories. I can eat WAY too many cheese and nuts so for right now, they will be off my plate.



A NOTE to anyone just starting out on Atkins. I recommend doing the program by the book for several weeks (to months) to really get to see how it works. I know Atkins (New Diet Revolution) very well and have done it on and off for years. I know from experience what works the BEST (more veggies a little less fat) for me but certainly gave the program 100% for quite a while before I started tweaking. PLEASE do the same. READ the book. It can change your life even if you are NOT overweight.

OK, so I am doing VERY good weight loss wise lately with my counting calories so now I will be combining both calorie counting and carb counting. It sounds daunting but actually I know the carbs in just about any REAL (not packaged) food without even looking it up so it's EASY for me.

This morning I was up a pound but only had 1400 calories yesterday so I a didn’t actually GAIN. I am supposed to start my period on Wed. so I am retaining water... This actually does not bother me in the least.. to the contrary, I love how my body is predictable about this. Like clockwork.

I woke in the middle of the night with this old itching (the start up of eczema) on my way lower back and the front of one of my shins. It's been around for years, I think it is caused by blood sugar (maybe Candida related?) or a food allergy but every time I go on LC for a while, it disappears.

So I am going back to my Low Carb diet for at least 2 months. That will put me in October. Then I will see about starting back on a normal calorie counting diet for rolling thru the holidays. It's easier for me.

I don’t expect to lost 10# right off the bat with induction this time because I am sure my glycogen stores are already fairly low simply because I have been dieting.

I AM going to count freaking both carbs and calories damn it.. I am doing too good with low cal. It should be easy to stay low cal because I don’t get extremely hungry on low carb.

I always come back to LC. It’s such a great way of life for me. The energy I get is incredible BUT it takes a couple of weeks for my body to adjust and in that time my energy is NIL.

I am excited actually..
Having a couple of soft boiled eggs with butter for breakfast! My fav. LC way to make eggs. I will make Patrick scrambled with cheese (I will be staying away from cheese for the first month).

I want to find some good turkey ham to go with.

One thing NOT good lately is I am back to drinking Diet Cokes. My nemesis, well I quit smoking so it's my last vice left. I had quiet Diet Coke for quite a long time...

Love you my LC peeps!

XOXO

Nice Peaceful Sunday Morning...

I really am doing well, this last week was near perfect. It is a rewarding feeling and has not been all easy.

It is getting difficult the last couple of days. I am three days out from my period.. or in three days it SHOULD be the day I start. I am wondering if I am going to have a normal cycle now that I am off Low Carb for over a month. I really would like it to come back to normal. Low Carb screwed with my cycle. or at least I THINK it was LC. Will see soon enough.

Last night was pretty hard. I wanted to munch… I was truly not hungry but I just wanted to FILL. I had pigged out (well ate lots, maybe not a pig out, calorie wise because the total for the day was only 1800) on Sushi the night before last and knew I had to get motivated again, it's difficult at night and the last couple of days have been remarkably harder.. I am thinking it has to be hormonal. I just have to be ready for days (nights actually) like this. I have to stay motivated and be prepared with good mental thoughts - I have an "emergency" text doc. I made just for these times (wish I knew more about building a blog.. would add it as another page here if I knew how!.

I did fantastic on calories yesterday. This morning I woke up feeling the best (emotionally) that I have in a while. I have a glimmer again of the fact that I AM IN control of my weight.

If I want this enough, I actually know now that I can do this. I felt it. An interesting feeling/thought flashed thru my mind quickly as I was getting off the scale this morning.

A feeling of just knowing. I don’t know how else to describe it.. but I know I am going to do this. It was a certainty I felt almost felt like a thought from my future self, sending me a message... sounds strange I know but thats what it felt like.

Right on!

Well…

I am down another pound. Freaking YES! I actually can’t believe it. I have been eating around 1600 cal a day the last three days. Of course I still need to lose a million pounds (Ok.. you have not SEEN my arse!) but I am over the moon happy.

It seems that lately I am wanting to cut back more and more. I go thru these phases. I have learned from my past though and know not to push myself TOO far. Something about the success of late seems to niggle at me to cut back more.. just cut back more. I know this is dangerous thinking. I have been here before. It’s hard though. I am so damn tired of this FAT.

Last night I made a beef tenderloin. I seared it on the outside and then roasted it on 375 for only 18 min. (I like my beef med. Rare). It was SO good! It was only 150 calories for 4oz. I ate 7 ounces! I only made a simple veggie salad to go with so my dinner was only 350 but it was so good.

I LOVE a good fresh salad. I got some nice romaine and a good Vidalia onion and tomato and cucumber also. It was a nice large salad. I added this Old Cape Cod ginger dressing to go with (found it at Walmart – I hate Walmart but that’s a different post!). Anyway I love ginger, I have a recipe somewhere I came up with when I was doing a counting calorie diet in the past. It’s got fresh ginger, grated celery, a sprinkle of apple flavor crystal lite and some other stuff.. it’s a GREAT really fresh dressing. I need to find that recipe.

Feeling really, really good about myself today. Tiffany, I will be over to check out your confessions part on your blog! That sounds FUN!

Not much more to say today. Here are a few more motivational pix from my personal collection (all body styles that are hourglass NOT rail thin!):





XOXO my lovelies!

Fasted Yesterday...

... and I am down a pound and a half this morning. I had noticed I didn't even get hungry yesterday until after 3pm and decided to just make it a fasting day. I have found lately that at certain times in my cycle I can do this more easily. It sort of came naturally yesterday. Some days I am FAMISHED and eat every 3 hours and some days I can eat very lightly. I don't totally fast very often. It's been quite a while but it was not very hard. I had a bit of hunger at dinnertime but then was very surprised to notice at about 9:30PM (we usually eat around 8pm) I was not hungry. I think I was sort of just hungry at dinner time because it's normal for me to eat then.

Today I feel good. I immediately got up and had some low sodium V8 (over 1000mg potassium in that stuff!).. I needed sustenance but didn't want to eat a huge breakfast so I had the V8 and my espresso with 2T half n half and was fine until now.. and it's almost 1pm!

Sometimes prolonging eating in the AM helps my total calories for the day and keeps my hunger down until later in the day which really helps. I am not one that buys into the fact that you HAVE to eat in the morning. It seems as soon as I eat for the day, the rest of the day I am hungry.. I don't seem to have any of the voracious hunger I had before my time on Low Carb (I am no longer doing true Atkins style LC - Just low GI) and keep a keen eye on my actual appetite. I eat fairly often but I am having snax. Like an apple with PB or cheese or Ryevita and Laughing Cow triangles or a large tomato and cucumber salad with turkey (around 150 calories).

It's a fine line, trying to eat only when I am truly hungry and only as much as I need to NOT be hungry. I have finally got down the eating slowly, and eating smallish portions. I am working on stopping before I am truly full and waiting. My sense of fullness always seems to catch up with me at about 10 minutes out. It is interesting the difference between comfortable and full. I WANT to eat too much. I WANT that feeling of being drugged sometimes. I know it's not what I NEED and so far I am walking that line. It's working so far.

How is everyone doing today?! I've been playing in photoshop, what did you think about my pink peacock?

Some musings on being “40 something”.

If you are close to my age you might remember "A Clockwork Orange".. one of my fav. movies.. He was SUCH a horrid person in this movie but I've always thought he was too damn good looking.
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Ah.. 40 something.. whatever.. I am 46. I was thinking this morning about how
I don’t think I will ever be able to just relax and be happy with my body.. to me this always feels like “just let myself go” and be happy being overweight. I want to be in amazing shape when I turn 50.

I think about diet and nutrition and the way I feel and my appearance, constantly. I don’t think I will age “gracefully”.. I am sure I will fight and kick and scream at “old”.

I feel very young “inside”. I think it’s because Patrick and I didn’t have children. I think I have never truly grown up. I am not sure if that is good or bad but it is what it is.

I know that I will get to my goal – whatever that goal will end up being I am yet to decide. I think just happy in my own skin and svelte. I like that word “svelte”.. I don’t like “skinny”.. it makes me think of a bag of bones.

I see so many women my age that just appear to have given up. Maybe I am vain but I can't. I might be missing out on some kind of happiness, but I just can't.

You see many women that are older and look superb. They are sleek and look great. I saw this one women, she may have been 50, in a bar the other day. I had met a friend of mine for a drink and a salad.

This woman was slender and had straight blond shoulder length hair. Her makeup was simple, her clothes were classic and she looked very comfortable in her own skin. She had on jeans and black high heels, a simple sheer white silk looking tank with a gray short sleeve shirt over. She had on a long silver chain with gray pearls spaced throughout it (I am a jewelry designer and kept the image of it in my head - I am going to make myself something similar).

I thought to myself, this is the look I want. She looked approachable and yet seriously great. I bet she hardly ever eats. I know the older you get, the less you can eat and keep a nice shape. I am still lucky that I am overweight.. I can actually eat a decent amt. of calories and still lose.

The last couple of days have been great. My appetite is well under control. I ate at around 1200 cal on Sunday and 1700 on Monday. (shooting for between 1100 and 1800 a day). Today I am really not hungry yet at all.. it's already 1pm and I have not had to eat yet. I AM craving a skim milk cappuccino..lucky me that I have my own machine! I can make a lovely one with a dusting of cinnamon for only 50 calories. This is my treat often.

I am losing very slowly now. I have stopped walking. It’s so damn hot. Even early in the morning it’s already almost 90deg. I should start setting my alarm an hour early but I don’t know that I will.. ya.. sleep IS important to me. I like to wake naturally. I wake up almost exactly the same time every day.. around 6:50am. Like clockwork.

By the time I get that genius that I married up and ready (pour espresso in him~!) and his breakfast and lunch good to go.. It’s already after 9:30am. (he is HARD to wake up.. he’s a night owl, stays up till at least 2am every night.

He is one of those crazy brilliant (seriously, he is a certified genius!) people that don’t need much sleep – well he gets by fine on 5 or so hours. I don’t know how he does it but after 12 years of marriage I know he does.

Geeze I am rambling… I was talking about how late it usually is by the time I get him out the door. It’s too fracking hot for me by then. I SHOULD start working out to a video at home.. but right now I am just dieting.

I am so damn tired of looking matronly. I have got to get this weight OFF!

Don’t have bunches more to say really yet today. Lots of stuff to do around the house. Got to get to it!
Have a great day my lovely friends! More later….