I was at Jenn's place all day on Monday, so no weigh-in on my scales in the AM.
I'll do it tomorrow morning. However, I did measure myself and I've lost at least an inch off my hips and
my bust - on my way, baby!
And Carbolite brand faux-chocolate is nummers.
Although I notice they're kind of sneaky on their carb count. The stuff claims
0.46gms of carbohydrate per serving. A serving is 2 pieces. The bar has 16
pieces, in total, so the entire bar is 3.68 (call it 4gms) in toto. Still,
it's hardly anything to panic about.
139lbs! Yay! Nine more pounds 'til the final goal - anything beyond that is gravy. I can have gravy, right?
That cold is still making me hack up a lung, but I'm feeling much better today - phew! I must be getting better, I was
ravenous this morning.
Since cutting all that sugar out of my diet, I've discovered I can tolerate the taste of diet sodas much better. Not great,
but somewhat. Jennifer and I were having dinner, and I had a swig of her diet Coke, because I was wondering if it would
taste any different to me, now. To my intense surprise, there was nary a hint of the usual nasty aftertaste I encounter
with NutraSweet. I was amazed. However, when I got home, having bought myself a small bottle of diet Coke to further
corroborate my findings, the funky taste was back again. Not as strong as it had been, but strong enough to make me
not want to drink the stuff. However, if I'm dying for a sip of something sweet-tasting, then I guess I can bear it.
I don't know why I could take the taste of the stuff Jenn was drinking... maybe all the ice-melt
in her glass helped dilute it that critical
bit or something...
I finally maxed out on
the Atkins bars. They're just so bloody dry - with the exception of the
cinnamon-bun breakfast bar - I can't choke 'em down any more. So I'm sticking
to Carb Solutions brand for breakfast from now on.
So, I'm looking in the
mirror, and as far as I can see, it's all coming off my chest. Now, I
know I can lose a bit of weight from that area (and how!) but I don't want to
end up shaped like a pear! Just another reason to pick up some weights and go
walking every day, I guess - try to burn some fat in specific areas, rather
than losing it willy-nilly from where-ever my metabolism decides to grab
it.... Alas, I see a lot of sit-ups and crunches in my future, as I really
want to flatten my stomach. It's always been a 'problem' area for me (Mama
Nature has always been determined to protect my uterus with a thick layer of
blubber) so I know it's going to require some specific attention. I'm hoping
brisk walks and daily exercise will help get my thighs and tuckus into new
shape - rather than the pile of cottage cheese they currently resemble...
Actually, I measured
myself the other day. As far as I can tell (drat, I should have done
measurements before I began the diet) I've lost three inches off my bust, an
inch off the underbust measurement, an inch off my waist and one or two inches
off my hips. So, it may not be visible to the eye, but I am losing
weight.
Argh! No-one told me
that there's corn syrup in tonic water! So much for Friday's carb count -
although I think I only blew it a little... I wonder what vodka and club soda
tastes like? But I had better check the label on the club soda, first. I took
tonic water on faith, and look what happened.
Sunday, the third.
Got on the scale this morning - 137lbs. So, total loss for two weeks of only
occasional (and accidental) backsliding lost me something like eight pounds in
two weeks. Not bad at all! From this point forward, I expect to be losing one
to two pounds per week, which is a safe rate of descent - although I might
plateau a bit if this exercise thing works out. I'm still quite confident that
I'm going to make 135 by the 16th. I'm hoping to make 130 by late March. It
might take me a little longer, as I know I'm going to be blowing the diet
pretty hard for three days in the middle of February...Once I make 130 -
providing I've been exercising too - I'll take a long hard look in the mirror
and decide if I want to try for 125 or not. I sincerely doubt I will even try,
as I've not seen that number on my scales since about 1992...
I've decided to stay on
"Phase I" (20gms or less of carbohydrates per day) for the next two
weeks, as there were a couple of times (both on weekends) when I inadvertently
blew it pretty hard, and I want to burn the rest of this carb-craving out of
my system. I've discovered that at 2AM in Denny's, french fries look really
good. I only had one, I swear! But it was sooooo tasty. But I'll be a
little less hard on myself if/when I do blow it. I'll have plenty of
chances to blow the diet when I get to DunDraCon - the three days in the
middle of February.
I only actively cheated
once in the past two weeks. Last Friday, when I discovered that my vodka tonic
had about the same carb count as a regular sodapop (thank god the glass was
mostly filled with ice!) I lapsed into a furious sulk and ate a chocolate
reindeer that has been hanging around the house since Christmas. It wasn't a
particularly big piece of chocolate, but the carbs in that stuff do add
up rather quickly. And, oh wow, it tasted good.
That's the thing I'm
missing most on this diet - sweet things. I've got a hell of a sweet tooth,
and a grazing habit that doesn't know when to quit. The hardest times for me
(aside from being tired and in the presence of other people's fries) are when
I'm sitting at the computer, or reading a book, and craving 'a little
something' to nibble on. Trident gum has been filling the gap, somewhat, but
it's not the same...
Incidentally, Trident's
'bubblegum for kids' tastes very sweet (almost too sweet) but leaves a
weird gritty feeling on your teeth if you chew it for more than, oh, an hour.
However, it's low-carb (1gm per stick) and can satisfy that mouthfeel urge for
something sweet and candy-like.
Overall, this hasn't
been so bad. Sure, I occasionally had cravings for soda and potato chips, but
nothing irresistible. A definite plus to this lo-carb/hi-protein thing is that
one never has to feel hungry. Calories don't matter, just the type of
foodstuff you're using to assuage your hunger. Keeping track of every single
thing I eat has been very helpful, particularly in the first week when I was
coming off the sugar addiction and generally befuddled by everything... I kept
a little dry-erase board on the fridge, so ever time I went into the kitchen
for a snack or a meal, I would jot it down, along with the calorie/protein/carb
count and a running total for the day.
I have to admit, I
think I've had an advantage in being unemployed during this time. The
workplace encourages grazing and I think I would have had a much harder time
sticking the regime with a sodapop machine in the vicinity, and a taco-bell
down the road. Stuck in my house, which has been almost completely cleared out
of the forbidden foods, it's been easy to avoid temptation. There's no harm in
madly craving a bag of Cape Cod potato chips when there's no way for me to get
any...
Tune in next week for
next installment!