Tues 6 Jan 09 11:30 am-EOD

Updated below for the end of yesterday

Vitals:
BP - not taken today - took it around 6 pm and had 144/85 with pulse of 72.....a bit higher on the first number
Weight: 190.5 - woo-hoo! down 2 lbs from yesterday!!
Cholesterol: HDL, LDL, Tri: ???
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Exercise:
Stretching this morning: minimal, it's a late late start today, not fully awake yet even - got several of these in during the day (still working with tendinitis in shoulder, arthritis in hands, too (mostly in the morning)- end of day: 15 min stretching
Dancing in the kitchen: hmmm, with fiance at home today not likely if he works (tho I think he called in for a personal day, not a work-at-home day) - still, I'll need to deal with someone around and who will need personal attention - probably what most of you deal with constantly, too, especially if your children are still at home. By end of day, did 15 minutes zumba!
Walking - the two of us took Bailey for a while, slow at first, but we did 20 min and I feel a bit warmed up now. I could feel the work in my muscles on the rises (hills), too. So, better than I thought after the first 8 minutes :) Total: 20 min

Water: None yet - about 1/2 a bottle now - or 16 oz. in addition to the coffee and a cup of decaf tea, but I want to count water only. Stayed up after 9:30 when fiance turned in for the night and finished water while playing text twist, hearts, mah jong, free cell, and spider solitaire - went to bed at 11 pm. Total for the day: 96 oz (plus all the coffee and some decaf tea)

Food:

Breakfast: 6 slices crispy bacon(microwave), 3-egg omelet with 2 T of the sauteed mushroom/onion mix made the other day. I'm trying my fiance's egg-beaters this time. We bought them in bulk at Sam's the other day. I also always microwave bacon, but this stuff is pre-cooked (bought in bulk also) and cooks very quickly. I made him some scrambled eggs, too. Always some coffee (:)) on my second cup now: 2 mugs of coffee w/1 T of milk & sweet'n'low (S/L)
Lunch: Pretty much breakfast is lunch today - we both got up late, after staying up late for the game last night (Texas beat Ohio State, boo hoo, tho my niece's husband went to Texas, so half of the family was against me) then Bailey got caught in the rain this morning about 5:30, so we rescued him and went back to sleep. Slept til 10:30. About to eat breakfast now at 11:30 am.
Dinner: Had the other half of the dinner from last night - Michael Angelo's Chicken something - delicious! - has artichokes and capers in it, some tomatoes, too - plus some leftover veggies (picked out the carrots - it was a Green Giant Infusion Steam-in-bag (for 2) mix I found at Walmart or Target or some-such).
Snack: 1/2 oz of melted cheddar
Dessert: 4 oz of creamed cheese with cinnamon and splenda, heated in the microwave til it gets fluffy - my fiance tasted it and turned his nose up, but for me, it satisfies the sweet tooth cravings for a while (and I'm one who likes a small piece of chocolate after a meal...) Discovered this raiding a work fridge in a conference room - we had a whipped cream cheese by Philly in the fridge, it had cinnamon in it. I was allowed cream cheese (Atkins), so I took some of that one day. Note - this was our public fridge for guests, not co-worker's stashes - I also did not take a lot, but learned I liked the flavor of cinnamon with the cream cheese. So, don't be afraid to try something new. As I told me son who had to eat meals with me - it's only one meal (which you can always spit out), and since it won't kill you to eat it one time (think of the depression-era folks, folks!), think of it as fuel and go on. Just don't make it again if you don't like it. Adventures in food! Let the games begin, hee hee....
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NOTES:

Cholesterol numbers may be called into me today; awaiting another call from doctor in Ohio's office;
Wt: happy with 2 lbs down from yesterday's weight, which was up a bunch from my last weigh-in before that (like about 5 lbs!) Maybe it was no sugar yesterday, maybe it was releasing water since I hadn't drank all my water on Sunday and I did on both Saturday and Monday. *************************************************
Assignment:

Progress so far:

Doctor Appt: I called the doctor's office in Ohio; they couldn't find my file but will get someone to find it and the numbers and call me back (at least that's their plan; I suspect the file may be hiding now.)
READ THE BOOK: I read a few of the chapters yesterday - they are hard to get thru at times, but there is so much information giving reasons why and how this diet works, that it's pretty vital that we understand. I know it helped me whenever I had to adjust the diet on the run, shooting from the hip, flying by the seat of my pants....you get all these cliches? Most diets allow no deviation, but life is not like that - stuff happens. Reading this book prepares you to deal with unexpected circumstances on your own. You will know what to do, or at least have a clue. Then you go back and read that part again, so you understand the information even better. When you get hungry, you'll know what to eat and why. You'll know why eating low-fat is not going to help you and will probably really throw off your ability to burn fat in the beginning, plus knowing how to read labels and know "low fat" usually means higher sodium (salt) and/or higher sugars.
****New assignment: Learn how to read labels! ****
Still need to read the chapter on Induction then create a menu for a week.

NEW ASSIGNMENT: Prepare menu for 1 week, using book and lists of foods (induction chapter), then create shopping list. Also, learn how to read labels.
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I still need to buy some new Ketone strips at CVS.

If you're reading this, chime in and let me know by leaving a comment (anonymous or otherwise, I don't track) letting me know if you've chosen a food plan yet and what it is. Have you made a commitment yet? Have you chosen a food plan? Where are your areas of most difficulty? Is anyone doing low carb? If so, which one did you choose?

Inspiration for the Day: NO SUGAR * NO SUGAR * NO SUGAR...It's Day TWO!

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Random Thoughts: My breakfast is getting cold, but it can be zapped in the microwave if too cold, just about 20 seconds would reheat it well without overcooking it.
12:30 pm - ate it cold, tasted great. I think I ate it quicker tho. I'm feeling cold again, and so reheated the rest of my coffee. Feeling hungry again, but know that I should not eat again yet - I had enough to eat (mentally know this), so what are these feelings that make me want to eat?
Psychological - could be because my tummy is used to being bigger, pressing against my clothes, after I eat? So, psychologically I feel I can't be done eating? Also, eating it cold and so quickly, I've eaten it but it hasn't registered yet.
Cold - it really makes me want to eat.
Not feeling full - makes me want to keep eating stuff that tasted good.
4:10 pm - not a lot of progress today. Someone online mentioned deviled eggs today; fiance morphed that into egg salad. Boiled some eggs (cover with water, boil water, then turn off and let sit for 20 minutes, simple). Added a low-fat mayo to his with salt and peppah; used regular mayo for mine, it had zero carbs (his had 1) per serving. His on high-fiber bread, mine plain. I added some dill to mine as well, then thought shredded parmesan might be good. Not so sure on that; maybe it should have been melted or room-temp first? Making some decaf tea with splenda - family size tea bag in a pitcher 5 min in the microwave, add splenda to taste (about 1/2 the amount of sugar I used to use for sweet tea - which was 1 cup before - this southern gal loves sweet tea and this is no substitute, but it does stave off cravings....hope it doesn't cause any today. --- I do need to get out and get some exercise somehow today or tonight. He slept all day by the tv (which I turned off).
PERSONAL HAZARD - fiance had bag of cookies out, some on-sale xmas hard candies. I put those in the pantry so I wouldn't have to look at them, then teased him about putting out hazards for my diet. After yesterday, I know I can do this (hey, there's plenty of cheese in the house and i have eggs, bacon, and sausage, so I should be able to find something warm and filling and full of protein if I get cravings to eat. I'll focus on those for my emergency foods.)
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"To Thine Own Self be True, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
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Planning Vacations

Recently someone on E*Diets reported she was on Day 3 of Atkins and doing well, then mentioned her upcoming vacation in August where "everyone (would be) eating pasta and drinking wine" and wondered how she'd deal with that. Here's a reply I wrote to help her, having gone through that myself - in more ways than one - during my own journey to drop 40 pounds; perhaps it can help you plan for your upcoming vacation, too!

"Hi Jazzee*,

You are right to think about the trip and vacation with everyone else eating pasta and drinking wine. Now is the time to develop a plan that works for you and that will deal with that. If you are very strict with the induction and continue til vacation time, including increasing your exercise a little bit each day (and taking a rest day or two per week so you don't feel you are killing yourself), plus drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water, you will have more leeway in what you can do while on vacation.

I would suggest the following:

1. Make a plan to ensure you get enough water per day THAT YOU CAN DRINK and work on a plan that will ensure you DO just that.

For example, if the tap water is not drinkable, can you buy bottled water for each day or the entire week or so that you are gone and label them for each day so you can keep track without having to think about it while on vacation?

If you CAN drink the tap water, do you have a system in place for vacation-time that helps you keep track of how much you drink without having to work too hard at it during vacation? I find - must be the golfer in me :) - that I cannot count past 3-4 and remember. With things that "look the same" in my memory (like the same bottle or glass), this holds true anyway.

So, I buy 32-oz gatorade bottles and either save the gatorade in a pitcher for my son or others, or empty it, so that I have a good wide-mouthed container which fits in MY van's cupholders (not my fiance's SUV unfortunately) easily.

I started needing to drink 3 per day and am down to 2-1/2, tho I am trying to up that to 3 since I am trying to lose weight (10 lbs I regained falling in love and the effects on all three areas with time constraints mostly).

2. Food - do you like chicken or steak Caesar salads? These, and those with meat/cheese primarily and caesar, blue cheese, ranch, and some italian dressings are easily found at italian restaurants (tho I can't speak for Italy itself if you're going there!). Chicken wings, meats, eggplant parmigiana, etc, can work well ESPECIALLY if you can FORGO the pasta itself.

Italian restaurants did me in back in January, starting at New Year's Eve and going to 3 such places within a month. The first one I did pretty good at, but then I gave in to the pasta.

3. Find a way to exercise daily - 10 min of stretching in the morning, racing (for you) up and down flights of stairs for 3-5 minutes at some point during the day (or just walk an extra one til your heart or breath feel it, then maybe one more if you can), and then 15 min of stretching at night.

If you can turn on a song and dance like it's 1999 thru the whole thing (i.e., full gusto of joie de vivre involved, no matter which beat you choose), try that once a day too.

If you can go dancing, do that and choose water to drink instead of alcohol.

4. Try to limit your wine to 6 oz of red wine per day, enjoying it thoroughly while you do. There are heart benefits to this, even tho it's verboten during induction. Only 4 carbs for red wine - more for the others.

5. Game plan alternatives to staying OP (cause we all know you won't, the above are ways to LESSEN the effects):

a. goal is to maintain weight loss (no gain)

b. goal is to say the heck with it, and start over when you return (remember day 3 of Atkins is the hardest, but you will eventually beat the cravings).

Remember, we do this so we can enjoy the things that matter the most to us. Weigh each bite against the enjoyment obtained with the work it will take to get that off again, assuming you want to work it off, too. Some things are worth it; some are not.

Have a great time! When do you leave?"

*Name changed.

Another thing I did not mention in my reply to her - because she had not mentioned it in her own post - was dealing with car trips, where boredom on the road can lead to road munchies and crunchies (my favorite are Carb-heavenly Combos and Gummy Bears). I learned that I needed NEW MUSIC to keep me entertained. With a child in the car, that means (s)he might need headphones so the adult(s) can play their own music without listening to whining, too. Always have back-up water sources in the car, too, in case of highway stalemates that come up in the middle of nowhere and lead to road/block parties for 1-2 hours or more. Plan for potty breaks as well.