Another Good Find

The Biggest Mistakes Atkins Dieters Commit - found over at the Low Carb Dieters blog - is a great article to highlight the strange way that weight comes off when one is doing Atkins. It may apply to other low-carb diets as well.

If you're lowering your carbs and trying to lose weight at the same time, there are some good ideas in here about things you may be doing that can affect how that happens, plus a description of how normal is not normal when you're doing low carb.

Weight fluctuates widely?

Effects of caffeine and aspartame?

Effects of cheese?

Points to Ponder

Chinese fortune cookies have gotten pretty lightweight in the past few decades it seems, turning into mere random numbers suitable for the lottery and a ways to pretend you can learn how to pronounce a word of Chinese from reading its meaning.

One I found which fell out of this trend of frivolity caused me to ask this question: What would these things be? These "lighter things" and these "deeper joys" forecast by the following slip of paper tucked in a sugar-hardened folded edible treat:

"the lighter things in life and deeper joys will follow"

Today, this is your fortune because you chanced across it here. So it's your time to decide:

what are these things (for you)?

Quickly Checking IN; Check it OUT

Wouldn't want you all to think I'd left you (or my plans), but I'm reporting from another computer that my computer won't let me sign into the google blogger. I've tried a myriad of things related to the directions they give me (cookies, history, java, etc.) but to no avail. It's quite frustrating!

In the meantime, I'm converting my stats/vitals into a spreadsheet, which is a very useful tool that I've used before. I want to eventually upload it and link it to the main blog so that you don't have to scroll thru that, but can easily access it, and so that the data is easily digestible in both numeric and picture form.

I have found that a simple 1-month chart showing one week at a time against another week will show trends in one's weight loss.

Then I like to add factors to my notes: how much did I exercise that day, did I do weight/strength training, cardio, drink all my water? Was it TTOTM? Did I have a headache- that might be another thing to note - various health effects that you want to track. Some might simply be related to a food you ate, while others might have an effect on your weight loss.

Those are called 'anomalies' and should be noted. What you are looking for, beyond the anomalies, is a trend - up or down - and over certain repeatable time periods.

Generally many people will experience a weight gain over the weekends and a
weight loss during the week.

Determining your own trend is the first step to deciding how to adjust and even if you need to adjust. Sometimes knowing that you go up and down, but are ever trending downward, is enough to keep you going when you do get discouraged by the "ups."

Friday, Sat, Sunday: Weekend Vacation

"To Thine Own Self be True, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
Inspiration for Weekend of Week 3 Induction Continues: We don't give up; we live so we can go on, we go on so we can live...

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Random Thoughts:
Every once in a while we have to take a break. For various reasons, this was a time when I needed to take a break and concentrate on something and someone else for a change. It doesn't lessen the resolve or commitment; it admits that sometimes things have to give. We do not only "diet" so we can live and we definitely don't live to diet. Whenever you reach these points in your progress to your goal, the thing to remember is to maintain if you can, but forgive yourself for whatever does come of your stopping paying attention to the details for awhile. Things have a way of working themselves out.


PERSONAL HAZARD (S)- My fiance's birthday was this weekend and it was a time to relax some of my personal rules so that we could enjoy the weekend.
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Assignment:

Progress so far:

Doctor Appt (for your numbers): Did it. The follow-up checkup is already scheduled for March.

READ THE BOOK: Did what I needed, still referring to as I "work the system."

ONGOING ASSIGNMENT: Induction continues: Food, Water, Exercise!! Continuing to develop a schedule and alternatives for exercise. Next week, I think I will let eDiets give me menu choices and work with their menus to develop a shopping list - takes some of the guesswork and pressure off for a week - just follow the recommendations to keep me at 25 carbs (yep - gonna come out of Induction "officially" next week and let eDiets figure out where 25 carbs are (versus the 20 or 30 that could easily happen on my own.)



NEW ASSIGNMENT: Shopping is done (did on Friday) for next week. Now we just follow the plan.
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Vitals:
BP - not today
Weight: 186.0 to 187.5 (rose 1.5 pounds over the weekend)
Cholesterol: Numbers from 30 May 08 (Doctor's office):
Total: 250
Trig: 56
HDL: 93
LDL: 146
Vitals that day: Wt: 171 BP: 126/82 Pulse: 72

Exercise:
Stretching 30 min on Sunday

Cardio 30 min dancing, Saturday night
Strength

Water: very lax on this - was low by at least 32 oz on both Saturday and Sunday; definitely need to watch this on "special occasions" better.

Food: Didn't keep good track - chose low-carb options when I could, and recognized when I did not.
Breakfast:
Lunch:

Dinner:
Snack:

Dessert:
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NOTES:

Wt: End of TTOTM finally, could have done better with water, food, and exercising this weekend (as to what factors probably affected my weight gain). Since finger points all over, all over is what I will tackle.

BP: Will take again at end of month.
Ketones: Will see later in the week - maybe Friday?

SuperBowl Low-Carb Recipes (or Super Foods for SuperBowl Sunday)

A fellow Atkiners on an eDiets Support Group of mine follows the Queen of Reveloopsies (see side bar link to Cleochatra's (sp) blog on Low Carb foods thru her real-life column for the Charlotte Examiner as their "Low Carb Examiner." What's this mean?

I got a listing of all these fabulous foods for the SuperBowl - all on a different site than her blog. So, now we have another source of great foods - and one for TODAY if you haven't already set your menu in stone! Here's a good way to make the SuperBowl low-carb for you: with Super Low-Carb recipes for your super super day!!!

Humor, Walking, Getting Back on Track

I took a short vacation. It started Friday night and ended this morning. It wrapped itself around my fiance's birthday and at times I was moderate (diet cola instead of a margarita) and at times went with the flow (wine, cheesecake, and bread with dinner).

I'll catch up the daily posts after the superbowl and sometime on Monday. For now, I'll share a funny my brother sent me in the email. The author's unknown (as most of these posts go), but this harkens back to an earlier post and my fervent belief that when you're making a lifestyle change - i.e., changing your life - you gotta have a sense of humor about it all! Enjoy!

Importance of Walking - 12 steps to get you back on track

1/ Walking 20 minutes can add to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.

2/ My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60. Now he's 97 years old... and we haven't a clue where the hell he is.

3/ I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

4/ The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

5/ I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I'm doing.

6/ I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. ...apparently you have to actually go there.

7/ Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise', I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

8/ I do have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

9/ The advantage of exercising every day is so when you die, they'll say, 'Well, he looks good doesn't he.'

10/ If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

11/ I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years,...... just getting over the hill was enough.

12/ We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our skulls. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.