The Science Fiction Diet
(Atkins, really.)
Well, let's be honest. After dropping 40 pounds, I'm still about 40 pounds overweight. I'm plateau'ed after a year of dieting. I'm determined to get off it. I am thoroughly appreciative how hard it is to lose weight, and I'm willing to be perfectly honest about mine, in hopes it may encourage others that they're not the only ones, and encourage me to be honest about what I'm taking in and what the result is. Note: for those of you who might worry, this has been thoroughly checked out with a physician, lab work is sterling, including the cholesterol levels, and a bone scan. Healthy as a horse---a draft horse, perhaps---but doing all right, nutrition-wise. This is the classic Atkins diet I'm on, with generally Atkins products. Standard caveat here: anyone contemplating a diet---consult your doctor.
I include my recipes where pertinent: I'm a pretty good cook, and do my own concoctions often as not. Never be afraid to experiment, but not when you've invited the in-laws.
Date: February 14: Valentine's.//Weight: 192.//Breakfast: one Atkins diet bar//at the rink: 2 low carb lattes//Lunch: welllll...two glasses of Chablis, two slices of garlic bread, an Alfredo concoction of shrimp, only a few strands of pasta, rest discarded, and half a cheesecake, ice cream, and strawberries with whipped cream dessert. Bad! Supper, one diet bar.
Date: February 15. Tuesday//Weight: 192.5.//Well, not too bad. Breakfast: diet bar. Rink//2 lattes, one of which wasn't low carb//Lunch: diet bar.//Supper: salmon the size of 2 playing cards and half a cup of broccoli. A small snack-bar (Atkins). Half a bag of jerky and half a bag of pork rinds, which are legal, but which are not calorie free. Talk about self-sabotage. It's a clear indication to me that I'm slipping, because if you're doing Atkins right you don't have the munchies at all. This means I'm hungry and taking in too many carbs, and it's the direct result of that Valentine's binge. That's the way it works: you indulge the day before, and 24 hours later your glycemic level, as it finally drops back, signals hunger-hunger-hunger, so you do something you shouldn't.
Date: February 16 Wednesday//Weight 194.//Sins come home to roost.//Breakfast: a ham and cheese omelet made with margerine.//Rink: tea, no milk.//Lunch: diet bar.//Supper: ditto last night, no snack.
Date: February 17. Thursday.//Weight 192.5//Better. But this is the day we stay at the rink way late and I have too many lattes, even the low carb kind. Breakfast: ham and cheese omelet, coffee. At the rink: 4 if not 5 double lattes. Way bad.//Lunch: a diet bar.//Supper. An omelet at Village Inn, no sides. A half bottle of wine at home.
Date: February 18. Friday. //Weight 192.//Going the right direction. Discovered that broccoli is higher carb than cauliflower, so vegetable du jour has changed. Breakfast: diet bar. At the rink: 2 lattes, low-carb. //Lunch: two pieces of broiled chicken, small.//Supper: salmon and 1/2 cup cauliflower with margerine, half a bottle of wine---that's got to stop; and a small dish of low-carb buttered pecan ice cream.
Date: 2/19/05. Saturday.//Weight 194.// Yep, this time it's the snacking two days ago that's got me up, with that immense salt hit. One thing you want to be careful of on Atkins is salt levels. It can make you retain water. Drink lots of fluids, but specifically lots of water. Coffee and tea don't count. Drink a full 16 oz glass of water in the morning, at noon, and at supper, at least, maybe one more, or whenever thirsty, but as with anything, moderation. For those of you who are stuck on soft drinks, they have to go. The fake sugar plays hob with your blood sugar, and will make you overeat---besides the carbonation being bad for bones. If you must have something soda-like, use the Atkins diet teas: the peach flavor is particularly nice. Take your mandated Atkins vitamins and essential oils. Regularly. Today the household menu is://Breakfast, ham and cheese omelet with real butter (just found out margerine is not the thing on this diet: internet research, looking for comforting answers about that 194.) Lunch// I'll have a slice of ham or piece of yellow, not white, cheese. You must not skip meals on this diet! Eating is your duty, as long as you're eating the right things.//Supper will be 1/8 head of cauliflower with real butter, plus a nice steak. Dessert---a dish of buttered pecan ice cream. Hopefully this will straighten out the blood sugar and get me back from the munchies. The ice cream should be legal, but it remains questionable. No more wine with dinner. It's only semi-legal, anyway, and we've decided to throw ourselves back on ketosis (extreme low carb) to try to get off this mutual weight plateau
[Recipes will appear underlined. I include very basic instructions for the absolute novice cook, because the best way to succeed on this diet is not to rely on restaurants and to learn what's really in recipes. So you want to try this.... How do you stay on the diet, if you're at work? Nature's oldest transportable food: a boiled egg and a salt packet. You can buy boiled eggs at the deli, if you can't do them at home. A slice of cheese (cheddar should be served at room temperature anyway.) Or a diet bar. Atkins makes a variety of these: chocolate peanut butter is my favorite, coconut chocolate next. If you get the munchies or the sweet-urges on break, have an Atkins peanut roll, or the like. It's only a couple of carbs, and far better than the vending machine in the break room will give you. Drink black coffee or iced tea. No sugar. If you've got a fridge, store some low carb milk, if you must have it, but cultivate a taste for black coffee or plain tea. Carry along a vial of Splenda, a legal sugar, if you must. It won't bump your blood sugar. Have a few packets of Macadamia nuts---they're legal, in small doses: just don't eat the whole bottle at once. If you tend to binge, head yourself off at the pass: put the allowable amount into packets or Ziplocks, and only take one along: you'll start doling them out as precious, not downing them by the fistful---yes, I know these habits: I've done them. "Packet-ize" any food you tend to binge on, and only take one. For the initial phase of the diet, stay below 20 carbs a day. Take Atkins vitamins, take fiber if you prove to need it, drink lots of water, and don't cheat except with Atkins label items---yes, you will cheat: everyone does, but on Atkins, because ketosis (fat-burning) is such a delicate balance, stick to things that only have 2 carbs. Believe me, you can have so much chocolate you'll choke, but stick to the Atkins label or equivalent: Carb Smart and Carb Solutions are also good, and Carb Solutions makes an excellent ice cream. You should find three things, once you've gotten through the first few days. 1: you're not cold in winter: in fact as this diet really kicks in, male or female, you may get one initial hot flash, as your system 'heats up.' 2. you're more energetic. 3. you're not hungry (you may have habit-cravings, but you can ignore those if you're not really needfully hungry.)
[What to do at a restaurant? Ask for the Atkins menu: many restaurants have one under the counter. Ask for hamburger without a bun, no fries, sub-a-salad. Many places will do that. Ask for Tabasco or Worcestershire Sauce: both are legal steak dressing. Do not get barbecue: barbecue sauce is sugar heavy. No catsup, see below, re tomatoes. Many salad dressings contain sugar: stick to Ranch or vinegar and oil. Many restaurants will sub for sides: ask for---cottage cheese, salad, or double the steamed veggies. Other safe choices: a pasta dish with a lot of meat: eat the meat and some of the sauce, leave 9/10ths of the pasta. Have the calzone or the pizza, but only eat the toppings. Have a salad to round out the corners. Mexican restaurant: don't have the chips. Order the steak. Thai: order the peanut chicken on spinach and plain tea, not Thai tea. Coconut milk is legal. Sugar isn't. American restaurant: get the steak. A 24-hour breakfast place: order the steak and egg breakfast, and if you're tired of eggs, ask them to sub cottage cheese or salad. No tomatoes. Tomatoes are too high in carbohydrates. So is tomato sauce. It is your excuse to eat a lot of steak, but potatoes have to vanish from your diet. The lack of potatoes and tomatoes may actually remove bodily aches and pains, if you're subject to them: these two vegetables contain something that a lot of people react to with flu-like aches. I'm one. At the grocery store---read labels, and read the serving-size. Add up what you'd really be consuming if you had it. And, yes, this diet increases your grocery bill in the meat department, but you'll ultimately get the money back because you'll be buying fewer groceries for life.]
My recipe for salmon: use olive oil in skillet, medium heat, coat boneless, skinless salmon fillets in Durkee's Chicken and Fish spice...note, Durkee has a lot that sound like that name, but be specific. In this case, you absolutely coat the salmon in spice, and cook on one side until it turns white around the edges, then flip (with a good broad spatula and a determined movement, because salmon will break if you try to finesse it) and cook until a gentle fork pressure causes a piece to flake past the center. If you like salmon sushi, of course, you can serve it sooner. As below, taste-test the spice with a fingertip before using to be sure you like it. If you don't, use lemon, salt, and pepper, a good basic salmon fixing, with the same general instructions. Possible accompaniments: slice of lemon; or tartar sauce; or a tablespoon of capers.
My recipe for steak: olive oil in skillet, salt steak lightly and black-pepper heavily on both sides, add a touch of chipotle sauce or chipotle powder to one side (a very little of that) and McIlhenny, the Tabasco people, have just come out with a good one) and add Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce liberally...quickly covering pan, because the Worcestershire in the olive oil will spatter, bigtime, and create a mess. Cook to preference over medium heat. It tastes like grilled, but is a bit healthier. Mind, the dusting of chipotle will make a mild tingly heat, but will not overwhelm taste if you aren't super-sensitive to pepper. Hint: test the potency of the chipotle powder or sauce on a fingertip. Adjust amount accordingly. Even a kitchen novice can manage this recipe...but always taste-test your spices to be certain in your own mind how much you're adding. Second hint: when adding any potent spice or salt, don't dump straight from the bottle, which can dump way too much suddenly onto the meat and betray you, very expensively: pour spice or salt into your hand and brush it off in the air above the steak. It distributes it more evenly and prevents disasters. If you're hosting a steak dinner, cut your own piece across to test doneness, and have a place ready to put it as it comes off the fire---once it's done, it's done, and further cooking, even for a moment while you hunt down a plate, will not improve it in the least.
Cooking vegetables: veggies come in a handful of categories---starchy and crisp, needing cooking time to convert the chemistry (like potatoes and hard squash); soft, needing only a whisk around the skillet---(tomatoes, et al.) and medium-hard, like most everything else, which can be steamed in a couple of minutes in a very little water. On Atkins, avoid all but the medium-hard, and salad, and limit yourself to half a cup of that. A third of a head of cauliflower. One stem of broccoli. Dice everything down, including the tougher stems---fiber is at a premium on this diet, and the more fiber you eat, the less carb you have to count. So don't toss the stems. Put, say, a third of a head of cauliflower into a lidded container, microwave for a very little time, or cook on the stove for equally little time, toss the water, add butter, salt, pepper, or add shredded cheese, or a sprinkle of dried basil (a spice).
Pork loin roast: for a 2 pound roast, use McIlhenny's Chipotle, about 2 tbs in a Ziplock, salt, pepper, and a dash of Worcestershire, allow to marinate 30 minutes, then bake in closed dish at 325 degrees for a couple of hours---with pork, you want really done, absolutely no rarity. But you can put it on at 4 and pretty well ignore it until dinnertime at 6, depending, of course, on size. (If your meat counter doesn't stock this item, have them make you one. If they don't know what you mean, find another meat counter, because you need better, period.)
Salad: small head of Romaine, feeds 2; lots of shredded Cheddar, salt, coarse pepper, and Cardini's Caesar dressing: it's legal if you don't go overboard with the dressing.
Date: 2/20/05. Sunday.//Weight 190.5// Yea! I thought most of that was water-weight, but I was very glad to see it proved. When you shed pounds that fast, it's water, but you'll feel better to be rid of it, and I do. For the day, breakfast, a bacon and cheese omelet. Lunch? A tuna salad sandwich, by cutting one slice of Atkins multigrain bread (3 carbs) sideways to make one slice into a sandwich. Supper: a pork loin roast with another quarter of the cauliflower divided between two people. No leftovers, no fuss. You can have as much meat as you like on this diet, limited only by your personal tolerance, which I assure you begins to decline, right along with the rest of your appetite. Later in the evening, separating supper and dessert so we can enjoy the second round, we'll have a dish of buttered pecan ice cream from Carb Solutions. I swear you can't tell it's diet. And about two small handfuls of macadamia nuts.
Date: 2/21/05. Monday. Weight 190.5.// I'm not surprised to be even with yesterday, but maybe if I hadn't weakened and had the nuts, I'd have lost something. Might, might, might. The important thing is I held steady at a weight I haven't seen since before Christmas, and I'd just drunk about 8 oz of water. So I'm happy. Breakfast today: bacon-cheese omelet. At the rink: 2 lattes, low-carb milk. Lunch: piece of cheese and a few pepperoni slices. Supper: 1/8 head of cauliflower and half a thick boneless ribeye. And no ice cream, since we forgot to stop at the store: see the blog for what threw us off our intended shopping trip.
Date: 2/22/05. Tuesday. Weight 190.0. That's the lowest I've been in years. I had to be very much on the go today, but Jane and I agreed that we were not going to have our usual hamburger every-other-Tuesday splurge. We had a cheese omelet for breakfast, two lattes at the rink (Jane had water), one latte on the road, a diet bar for lunch, a diet bar to get us home, a 2-carb candy bar for sustenance, a half a nice ribeye and a cup of salad.
Date: 2/23/05. Wednesday. Weight 190.5. Sigh. That's the way with diets. You forego the treat you've been getting away with for a year, in a gesture of extreme sacrifice, and instead of shedding half a pound---you gain it. But---it's one of those little fluctuations that happens from day to day. The important thing is the trend, and that I won't be up further tomorrow if I don't give way today---and Jane, who's been having a worse battle than I have, is actually down that half pound. Thank goodness I live with someone who's on the same diet. It's really hard if you're soloing it, and particularly if whoever you're living with is sitting there with a bag of chips in the evening. We keep each other encouraged. Breakfast: bacon/cheese omelet. Lunch: I forgot. And that's not a good thing to do. I did have a couple of pepperoni bits later in the afternoon, but we were way busy: actually did a small workout at the gym upstairs of the rink. Gym work can turn off the hungries, and it did, and I flat forgot to eat until it was time to fix supper. Which was steak and salad.
Date: 2/24/05. Thursday. Weight: 190.0. Up and down. But at least it's teetering on the verge of some territory I haven't been in for years. Bar for breakfast; bar for lunch---we were really in a major hurry today; three low carb lattes, three hours on the ice, a few situps on a slant board, and steak and salad for supper.
Date: 2/25/05. Friday. Weight 190.5. I can't believe it. I swear the jeans are looser this morning. But there is no justice. At least it's not going up more than .5 at a time, and I'm not hungry or miserable. Breakfast: sausages and scrambled eggs; lunch, a half a diet bar and a piece of cheese; supper, steak and salad yet again. Two hours on the ice, a little session in the rink gym---and I'm still waiting for results. I tell you, with this diet, you are in no danger of losing too fast. And as much as I've been exercising, I think I'm still putting on muscle, and muscle weighs heavier than fat, so I hear---but I'm not so sure of that.
Date: 2/26/05. Saturday. Weight 191.0. Well, I earned this one. Breakfast: diet bar. Lunch: diet bar. Supper: a friend came over and we had angry shrimp salad and a little over half bottle of wine apiece. A good time was, however had by all. The recipe follows.
Angry shrimp: half a pound of tail-on medium shrimp per person. Thaw under cold water if frozen, though you can bypass this step if in mortal hurry: it just plumps them a bit. Olive oil in skillet. Add shrimp. Add liberal coating of "Calcutta Heat" Spice Islands brand (it's a curry spice with some additional peppers.) Add a good dollop of tomato pesto (flavor and color: it's not tomato paste---don't go crazy: a tablespoon will do half a pound of shrimp) and dose fairly heavily with Thai Garlic Hot Sauce. Cook about 10 minutes, while fixing Caesar salad. Leave the sauce behind (sigh) and top salad with shrimp. It's not quite on the Atkins Induction scale, because of the pesto, but since it's only used for flavor, and most of the sauce isn't served, it's not bad. If you have non-Atkins guests, you can whip this up in literally 20 minutes, or less, and you can serve your own shrimp over salad and bestow the rest (with sauce) on a bed of rice or over fettucine for your non-dieters. How hot is it? Again, test the "Calcutta Heat" and Thai Garlic Hot Sauce on a fingertip and judge for yourself how much of each to add. The beauty of this recipe is that if you do the salad version, you can send a runner to the corner grocery store for frozen shrimp and bagged salad, if you just have the other ingredients on your shelf, and do supper in 10 minutes while popping in and out of the kitchen to stay in the party. It's almost impossible to burn, it can be neglected while cooking, it makes virtually no mess, doesn't smoke up the kitchen, and it turns a salad into a hot, healthy, and abundant meal.
Date: 2/27/05. Sunday. Weight 191.0. Breakfast, lunch and supper, plus one snack, diet bar. Period. I'm trying to break this plateau.
Date: 2/28/05. Monday. Weight. 191.0. Unfair! Breakfast and lunch, one diet bar. Supper, pork roast and steamed cauliflower. Dessert, a dish of ice cream. After computer meltdown: one shot whiskey.
Date: 3/01/05. Tuesday. Weight---at last! 189.5. This is the lowest I've been in a decade. Remember what it said about the second day after? Happy person here. Today it was: Breakfast and lunch, diet bar. Supper, salad, taste of chicken, which didn't taste good, so I had a diet bar.
Date) : 3/02/05. Wednesday. Weight---189.5. Diet bar, diet bar, and the angry shrimp salad for supper---plus a double shot of wine and a helping of low carb ice cream.
Date: 3/03/05. Thursday. Weight---190.0...but not that bad, counting the fall from grace last night: if my upward swing is the weight I was trying to get down to before, not too shabby. I had two diet bars, three low-carb lattes, a bacon-cheese omelet with salad for supper, and will have scotch (there's a reason: read the blog) and maybe some ice cream.
Date: 3/04/05. Friday. Weight: 190.0, and not very good diet today: diet bar for breakfast, two lattes at the rink, lunch being prosciutto wrap chicken with cheese stuffing (legal), salad (legal) garlic bread, 3 small slices---not legal! and wine, not very legal. Then supper: a diet bar. Yep, that garlic bread is a no-no. The garlic butter is fine---but the bread isn't.
03/05/05. Saturday. Weight: 190.5. Time to behave. Diet bar for breakfast. Except we went out to the ice competition at Riverfront rink and I ate out: Reuben sandwich, no bread, no fries, sub salad. And a couple glasses wine. Not great but not bad. Diet bar for supper, plus one of those snack candy bars, which is allowable.
03/06/04. Sunday. Weight: 190.0. On the road, so this is the last weigh-in I’ll get for a couple of weeks. Diet bar for breakfast, low-carb latte; lunch, one of those greasy hot dogs you get at service stations—no bun; supper, the bacon chicken wrap at Subway.
3/07/ Monday. Diet bar for breakfast; lunch at Banjo Bob’s in Casper—a half pound of brisket and a quarter cup cottage cheese with coffee, no cream; supper: Banjo Bob’s again.
3/08/05. Tuesday. Diet bar breakfast, lunch at Banjo Bob’s, and supper, likewise: brisket and cottage cheese.
3/09/05. Wednesday. Diet bar breakfast, diet bar lunch, several candy bars, steak and veggies for dinner, with a couple of glasses of wine. If I’m skating tomorrow I still have to fit into that tutu.
3/10/05. Thursday. Diet bar breakfast and lunch, couple of candy bars, dinner with friends in the evening, trying not to be too bad. This is the start of an ‘event’ appearance in OKC, when we’re to be taken out to dinner, attend a formal banquet, and all, and we’re going to try to be as good as possible. I think I may carry a diet bar or two in my purse so if what we’re served is carb-heavy, I can just leave it on my plate and sneak bites of the bar. Supper: eating out with friends: steak and salad.
3/11/05. Friday. At the event hotel: bacon and egg and cheese omelet. Lunch, Reuben sandwich, no bread, with salad. Supper: steak and salad, nibble of cheesecake.
3/12/05. Saturday. Diet bar for breakfast, diet bar for lunch, big steak dinner with vegetables, more than a nibble of cheesecake.
3/13/05. Sunday. Diet bar breakfast, diet bar lunch, coconut shrimp at Red Lobster, several glasses of wine.
3/14/05. Monday. Diet bar breakfast, diet bar lunch, supper: steak and salad at the Texas Roadhouse in Dallas, couple glasses of wine.
3/15/05. Tuesday. Bacon and eggs breakfast. Diet bar lunch. Barbecue ribs at the Texas Roadhouse.
3/16/05. Wednesday. Breakfast: bacon and eggs. Diet bar. More barbecue ribs, with roll, and peanuts.
3/17/05/ Thursday. We hit the road with a diet bar, then lunch at Whataburger, a bacon-cheeseburger, a couple of candy bars, and finally anything we could eat to stay awake on one of the most allergy-heavy highways in the south. Diet bars, candy bars, anything. In Tucumcari, we got to supper, finally, and it was inedible. We left it lying as a lost cause, walked back to the hotel, and had cheese, a diet bar, each half a cold hamburger left over from lunch, plus a handful of macadamia nuts, and a couple of shots of Scotch. It’s been a day.
3/18/05. Friday. Phoenix, and diet bars all day until we hit another kind of bar for supper: we’ve had a yen for Mexican food, and went slightly off our diet with taquitos, poppers, and quesodillas.
3/19/05. Saturday. On a breakfast bar each, we went off to watch our Mariners’ team practice, and had lunch (Reuben sans bread, side salad) as theoretically our only meal, but weakened and had another round of poppers and taquitos and quesodillas at the bar near the hotel.
3/20/05. Sunday. On the road—we held out for brunch on the way, found a lovely Country Kitchen restaurant with epically good food: omelet and sausage sides—no carbs in that. Diet bar midafternoon, and late on the road, going from Phoenix AZ to Fresno CA in a very long day, culminating in a steak and salad supper in Fresno.
3/21/05. Monday. On the road, and back on diet bars and no-carb candy until we made San Francisco, where we managed a nice if slightly illegal supper: half an order of calamari.
3/22/05. Tuesday. Diet bar breakfast, a blowout Mexican dinner with a huge margarita, two enchiladas, a tamale, and most of a relleno, and that was lunch. I was doing heavy editing, and consoled myself with the other half of the calamari, cold.
3/23/05. Wednesday. Eggs and sausage for breakfast, a few handfuls of peanuts, and a diet bar for lunch. We’re going skating this afternoon and I have hopes we’ll go somewhere good for supper, before we hit the road tomorrow, doubtless on another diet bar.//Supper turned out to be a very nasty quesadilla at Red Robin: don’t they understand they’re supposed to grill the things, not microwave them into paste? And a margarita, which sort of numbed the palate, at least.
3/24/05. Thursday. Diet bar for breakfast, diet bar for lunch, and quesadillas for supper, with wine.. We ate candy and had macadamia nuts to keep alert while driving (safety over diet, thank you!) And finally snagged a precooked chicken and some poppers for supper, with a bottle of wine, from the local grocery. I had a late-night look at the scales....202.00, and it’s not good, but counting all that indiscretion and the salt level in what I’ve been eating, it’s not that bad for late-night, either. We’ll see where we are after we have a chance to level out on a day or two of diet bars.
3/25/05. Friday. 202.5. On the road, with diet bars and candy bars and nuts, jerky, and any other thing that can keep us awake. Chile verde and a margarita with chips for lunch, then diet candy and lattes on the road, for hours and hours, with finally, 6 poppers and a large glass of wine for supper. I weighed in late at night after a salt-heavy day, so I hope a lot of it is water-weight, but we're going to have to be very good, thank you, for days.
3/26/05. Saturday. 197.5. A little better...the fact we just stuffed ourselves on our drive home and had Mexican food didn't help, but the sum of the damage of the whole trip seems to be about 7 pounds apiece. We'll buckle down to it in a day or two. Diet bars for breakfast and lunch, Thai food (peanut chicken with spinach) for supper with a tablespoon or two of rice.
3/27/05. Sunday. 197.0. Tending in a good direction, but we had Atkins pancakes for Easter breakfast and Atkins muffins (way too many) for supper, interspersed with diet bars, and this is not good to do.
3/28/05. Monday. 197.0. I'm not surprised at holding steady: we were not good. But I'm no good at cooking when I have a cold (I do) and when I'm just back off a road trip. Diet is going to be a little loosely defined the next several days until I can breathe again. Diet bars for breakfast, Tomato Street with garlic bread and grilled chicken for lunch, with wine, and Atkins-based ice cream for supper, with a small Atkins candy bar. I'd like to exhibit resolve and get back to it, but my stomach is not happy with all the cold medication I'm needing at the moment, and a little cushion for the medication is necessary here.
3/29/05. Tuesday. 196.5. Diet bar breakfast, couple of lattes (low-carb) at the rink, one on the road, forgot lunch, and had the usual every-other-Tuesday extravagance, a bacon cheeseburger (no fries) and this time, because of a sore throat, too much medication and an upset stomach, a large malted, with peanut butter and blackberry, with real ice cream...not virtuous. The problem with colds is that so many cough medicines have a sugary content, and even if it's fake sugar (except Splenda) it will kick up the glycemic index, which can make you hungry when it rebounds. The only bennie is that if you've got the nasty cold I have, you have no sense of taste anyway and food just isn't appetizing.
3/30/05. Wednesday. 197.00. Well, my misdeeds with either the milkshake or the bread caught up to me, and it's about time we got serious again, because neither Jane nor I is really losing the trip-gained weight as we've been going. I've been too tired and sick to cook, which means we're kind of at the mercy of restaurants, so I put out some pork chops to thaw, but we had a couple of diet bars while we were at the rink and were so stuffed by the time we got home that the pork chops went back into the fridge---three of those Atkins Advantage diet bars is killer, though you won't think it at first. Several low-carb lattes; 3 diet bars, and a couple of Atkins peanut rolls, plus a bit of cheese, and that's the score for the day. I'm going to have to cook tomorrow, for sure. Probably there won't be much improvement tomorrow, because too often my metabolism doesn't report a major misdeed until the second day after, so there's probably more sin to account for, but the uptick of the scales is a clear warning to behave, thank you, probably from Monday. I'm back in the skating tutu, in front of witnesses, and I really want to shed a little around the waist, which won't happen until I reach about 172. So it's get-down-to-it time. I've purged my wardrobe of everything boxy in cut, which includes everything but my absolute most favorite sweatshirts and tees, and the sheer exertion of holding in the waistline persuades me that the course of least work is just not to need to hold it in. I skate for two hours in a rink with reflection enough in the walls to remind me of this fact, constantly, and I don't let it discourage me---I just count it one of those little matters I have to work on.
3/31/05. Thursday. 195.00. Not bad. Virtue has a more immediate reward than I expected. More diet bars. More low carb lattes.
4/01/05. Friday. 195.5. No accounting, but little ticks up and down are no problem. Diet bars morning and noon, one low carb latte, one real one, on account of the snack bar running out of the low-carb milk. And this evening we ate way more than we should---I'd picked up some shrimp and salad, and they'd had a sale on strawberries. Supper was Angry Shrimp (see above) in its own broth, as a quasi soup, beside a cup of salad with Caesar dressing---it's a really good thing to cook just after getting back from a trip, because it usually takes me a few days to get the hang of cooking again, and Angry Shrimp is nearly foolproof---add spices and simmer. Dessert, now, dessert was way too many strawberries, with real whipped cream (use Splenda, add real vanilla, heavy cream, and beat the daylights out of it.) One of the things I do really miss on the Atkins diet is fruit, but berries are legal---I'd hoped for blueberries, but at 2.99 a quarter pint, they're still a bit pricy. Strawberries at 4 pints for 5 dollars were a bargain. But we can't save them---they were on sale because they're as old as they can get, that's our excuse, and we're sticking by it.
4/02/05. Saturday. 194.5. Better and better, except we went partying today. Breakfast, diet bar. Snack, one peanut bar. Lunch---oh, not too bad: a Reuben without bread, and small side salad, with wine. No popcorn at the movie...no soft drinks. But then we decided we'd reached supper time, and we shared drinks and bar food: one slice of quesadilla, not bad, but I should have skipped it; and I ordered Italian nachos, which involved strips of pizza crust, and otherwise toppings I can have, but also, at the rink, a regular latte, because they were out of the low-carb milk. Not good. Not good at all.
4/03/05. Sunday. 197.0. Well, I don't know whether it's the payback from Friday's berry-orgy or Saturday's pizza strips, but I'm going to be on bars most of the day, no lattes, maybe salmon and berries for supper...or the leftover angry shrimp. I've got another packet I can add to the first one. News flash: Jane ate the shrimp leftovers for lunch, so that fixed that. It was salmon and berries.
4/04/05. Monday. 194.5. No accounting for the miracle, again, except water retention. We do note that salmon is particularly good for this diet. Diet bars for breakfast and lunch, a couple of peanut bars for snacks, a couple of low-carb lattes, and a supper of Caesar salad and Italian chicken sausages, ala Freddy Myers meat counter, plus a dessert of low-carb butter pecan ice cream. These sausages aren't particularly easy on the stomach, but they taste quite nice, and they're pretty well on the diet.
4/05/05.Tuesday. 194.0. I didn't think I'd be down at all: I was braced for 'up.' Diet bar for breaktast and diet bar for lunch, 2 lattes (low-carb) at the rink, and then the bear's supper: salmon with Caesar salad, and not blueberries, because they're not in season, but strawberries and whipped cream, plus half a bottle of wine. I'm happy. Here's hoping I can keep after the downward track. I did bypass numerous temptations today to buy some items of clothing that I just don't have to. No more boxy cuts, not even in a nice jacket, not even in nice soft leather. I refuse to buy anything boxy. If you're like I am, this is the time to stop buying clothing that fits a larger person: go minmal. And buy things to pamper your face, man or woman, and things that make your skin and hair feel (and look) good, it's time to make friends with the mirror again and ask yourself what you'd have to do to get back where you want to be, looking your best. It's just time to put finish to any notion of buying clothing that gives you 'room" to go to any size larger than you are. This was a big one for me: I kept buying clothes 'in case' I might gain more weight, clothes "with room"---for what, I'd ask now. I'm just buying for where I am, and if the Salvation Army benefits, great: I hope to lose five pounds ever so often, and that's generally something that can just get by, hanging a little loose. When I get to where I can actually say I've lost too much and the pants are beginning to loosen up, I hold a celebration and dispose of that clothing to Goodwill. Then I buy "no-room" again.
4/06/05. Wednesday. 195.5. Well, up again. Just diet bars and salmon and salad today. No bad behavior at all.
4/07/05. Thursday. 194.5. Virtue and diet bar for breakfast, Antonios for lunch (tempura shrimp with small salad) plus wine...small sin; and then a diet bar and a couple of Atkins candy bars for supper.
4/08/05. Friday. 194.0. Haven't I been here before recently? I think so. Diet bars except for lunch at Tomato Street: wine, two slices of garlic bread, salad, and two slices of eggplant parmesan...not total virtue.
4/09/05. Saturday. 195.0 Unfair. Diet bars all day, plus a chimichanga with Atkins tortilla and a little ice cream (Atkins). Total carbs for the day, about 24.
4/10/05. Sunday. 195.5. Sigh. And up and down stairs all day, too. But I think we're plateau'ed, which is going to mean virtue to get us through this barrier. I don't know if virtue is possible while house-cleaning, but we'll try. We are going to skate today, which is our exercise, besides porting boxes. But if we find Sharon, I won't swear we won't end up at Tomato Street again. (We did. Calamari for me, with a couple of slices of bread. And wine.)
4/11/05. Monday. 197.5. Oh, me. Sin is instantly rewarded, this time. It's diet bars today, morning, noon, and night, interspersed with a few Atkins candy bars and cheddar cheese.
4/12/05. Tuesday. 195.0. Must've been too much salt. Today---diet bars and our every-two-weeks hamburger and milkshake. A much larger milkshake than I should have had.
4/13/05. Wednesday. 198.5. Sigh. This nasty result inspired me to ask the internet the question "Does muscle really weigh more than fat?" The answer is yes...22% more. So...if we've dropped 40 pounds, that's fat, because we're putting on muscle like crazy. I wasn't this solid when I was 13 and weighed 142, while riding bicycles and running hills. Which is the weight I'd like to get to...or close to it. I've been battling to get to 150-something, which means my current battle, after the initial 40 pound loss when we took up skating, is with the second 40 pounds, while exercising harder and harder, and reaching the point where, at my age, I can hit the ice sitting down and not even feel it. We're talking 'legs of steel' here, not to mention I've dropped 2 inches around the waist in the last couple of months, and the middle is getting as muscular as (ahem!) the backside. So...dare I hope that part of that 40 pounds I'm trying to shed has been converted to muscle? I know from experience (grad school) that my "2% bodyfat and too thin to sit down without pain" stage is at 135---which I was, briefly, and gained it back. So I know that when I get down to 140-something, I'm really pretty skinny. So....let's assume that this 40 pounds I'm fighting with has been converted partly to muscle, and the difference between 135 and what I weigh now is 63 pounds. So if a third of that 63 pounds were converted from fat to muscle, that would mean 20 pounds of added muscle, which would mean that if I hadn't lost any weight at all (after the initial 40) I would have gained 4 pounds---or more (22% of 20). So even if it doesn't look as if I'm making a great deal of downward progress, that lost 2 inches around the waist does represent something, and so does the general increase in muscle. Another point: interior fat, the sort that increases waist size and doesn't show on the surface, is greatly diminished: what remains to lose is all 'exterior' fat, and the muscle underneath just doesn't relax. Skating is odd exercise: you build muscle from the toes up, and it takes a while to get to the waist, because the moves you do are mostly leg-moves while you're a complete novice. As you get more adept, you begin the turns and such that put such demand on core-strength. Pilates is the recommended exercise for this stage of skating. Later on, when you start jumps, you may want to add weights and ballet. But, yes, dear readers, if you're building muscle, it does weigh 22% more, but still lives under a layer of fat.
4/14/05. Thursday. 197.5. Well, I decided, on the basis of the above analysis, that since I've lost most of the 'interior' fat, that maybe the Cortislim has done its job, and I should just concentrate on the surface stuff. So I decided to try one of the other diet pills that's on the market. Now, forget ordering anything off the internet, and pretty well forget ordering anything from television. If you see it there, you can find it at Walmart cheaper. Trust me on this. If you don't find it at Walmart, just be patient; it'll show up. And read the labels. Forget anything that promises to stuff you with cellulose (plant fiber) and make you feel full (and one of the current highly-hyped ones warns you the pill can explode in your throat if you swallow it without enough water to get it down---no, thank you!) This notion has been around since at least the 1950's, and it didn't work then. All I ever ended up with was stomach ache. After reading all the labels, I decided there were two reasonable candidates, one of which was 28.00 a bottle, and Zantrax 3 at 19-something a bottle, which have very similar ingredient lists. So we'll see. You drink a lot of water with it. Good. I had diet bars today, and then we went out to supper, where I had the most disgusting fish-sans-chips I've ever eaten. I don't think I want breaded fish for weeks.
4/15/05. Friday. 197.0. First day of the Zantrax and down a bit, after that nasty fish. Diet bars all day, and then I went to the store and bought up a few days' meat supply---mistake. The young lady left in charge of the fish counter had no clue how to run her register, and the salmon looked old. I bought what should have been frozen shrimp and sausages, and when I opened the cooked shrimp, it was a) thawed, and b) smelled like a dock in the sun. I washed it: it bubbled. This is not good. I discarded it. I cooked the sausage instead, and cooked it well. It wasn't that good. The other packet of sausage (from the same case) is going to go out, too.
4/16/05. Saturday. 196.5. Diet bars all day, and for supper, a new recipe, served with small spinach Caesar on the side. Here goes.
Enchiladas Suiza
Packet of chicken strips, heavy cream, powdered chipotle pepper, chile powder, olive oil, mozzarella shreds, sharp cheddar shreds, jalapenos (black olives or pepperoncinis would do, or nothing, if you're really scared of peppers), nutmeg, low-carb tortillas, (they come as low as 3 carbs each) hot oven, and small baking/serving dishes
In small skillet, heat chicken strips in olive oil with as much chipotle as you think sensible and a dusting of chile powder. (when using unfamiliar powdered pepper, always taste-test for strength, with a little on a fingertip, and wash down with water or tea if it's too hot---never chase pepper with a carbonated drink! (which you shouldn't have anyway, on Atkins)). In small (nonstick is best) saucepan, heat heavy cream with dusting of nutmeg, until near boiling, slight froth, but not boiled. In baking pan, lay 1 tortilla, place on it a few chipotle'd chicken bits, a little cheese, pour a little cream sauce on it, roll up. Repeat with next tortilla. Pour cream sauce over both liberally, pile on cheeses, lay garnish of jalapenos or black olives atop, slip dish into hot oven to bake about 10-15 minutes, checking occasionally, until cheese starts to brown, but before tortilla burns. Serve in dish. It's not low-fat, but it's low-carb and Atkins-legal.
4/17/05. Sunday. 196.0. Heading in the right direction. Half a pound a day is a sustainable weight loss. Diet bars all day, a minimum of Atkins candy, because I know what we're having for supper, which is Thai peanut pork and a pint of good strawberries apiece, with whipped cream (Splenda for sugar), onto which Jane added half a bottle of wine, and I finally had a candy bar.
1. Thai Peanut Pork/Chicken/Shrimp/Beef
Ingredients: meat, packet of spinach salad or herb salad, take your pick, salt, black pepper, Thai Garlic Hot Sauce, Thai Peanut Sauce (in a bottle), olive oil or peanut oil.
Slice meat (half-frozen is easier, trust me) into quarter-inch thick strips. I used boneless pork chops. Chicken breast or deveined shrimp would work, too. Place in Ziplock bag with salt, black pepper, and Thai Garlic Hot Sauce, a reasonable dose thereof. Marinate for an hour.
Fry meat well in small skillet, with oil. Heap salad on dinner plate. Add Peanut Sauce to skillet with meat, cook until hot. Pour meat and sauce onto salad. Serve with chopsticks, if you like.
II. Whipped cream and strawberries/other sweet berries, granted you don't know how to whip cream---and there is a knack to it; or how to prepare fresh berries.
Ingredients: Splenda (tm), heavy cream half pint, real vanilla: equipment, hand-mixer with a lot of energy, or a real mixer with beaters.
Whip cream until it stands in peaks when you put in a spoon and flick it upward. Add vanilla and Splenda, whip for another moment. You can also add nutmeg or cinnamon at this point. Don't beat too long or you'll have butter instead of whipped cream---no kidding here. That's how butter happens. The moment it starts to peak, add your other ingredients, and mix just long enough to get the ingredients distributed. The line between whipped cream and butter can be very quick. Half a pint of heavy cream can serve two people quite generously. Whipped cream does not store at all: consume what you want and give the rest to the family pet.
Slice strawberries: nick out the green top, brace strawberry against thumb and slice vertically with reasonably (not too!) sharp paring knife, about 3 cuts per medium strawberry. You may want to wash the sliced berries one more time: commercial strawberries often have a little clean sand adhering to them. Buying good strawberries: green is not the best to buy, but a few greenish ones are edible, just a bit more tart. Go with red, ideally. Cut out any brown soft spots: the rest of the berry is perfectly fine. White mold: discard that particular berry, wash others in cold water, and they'll be fine, but do not delay a day: you'll lose the lot. Never wash berries in heated water. Always cold. And cover, if you place sliced berries in the fridge to wait for dinner. They're fragile, and should not be prepared more than an hour before dinner., and should not be stored in water. Other berries, like blueberries or raspberries: wash and serve. Raspberries are naturally a bit tart; blueberries, if good, aren't. You can mix the two, to tame the raspberries. Peaches can go with this recipe, too, but aren't on the Atkins diet. If you have picky guests, you can easily buy varied fruits and please several palates, including mixing them.
Pile on the cream. Enjoy.
4/18/05. Monday. 195.5. This is getting spooky. I haven't particularly behaved, but the tick downward is very nice. Points to the Zantrax, so far. DIet bars breakfast and lunch, two lattes at the rink, and then a third of a bottle of Champagne and a third of a bottle of wine (a celebration) chased by a ham steak and a half a raw kohlrabi with mayonnaise. Let me state, for the record, that kohlrabi tastes like very strong raw cabbage, looks like something out of Alien, and will not be on our menu again, no matter how good it is for you. We had the Breyer's low-carb ice cream, after all, and we decided that it, more than the kohlrabi, was upsetting our stomachs. Breyer's regular ice cream is excellent. We're not liking the low-carb. We used to get the Carb Smart brand, I think it was, buttered pecan, and it was wonderful, but they discontinued the buttered pecan, darn them. We're going to try their vanilla and add a bit of peanut butter (Adams Crunchy) to it. Yes, you can have peanut butter on Atkins, but read your labels: don't buy a brand that adds sugar, even artificial sugar. Adams is a northwest brand, owned by Smuckers lately, and is the best peanut butter in the universe, besides being just plain peanuts and oil.
4/19/05. Tuesday. 196.5. Hmpf. Well, too good to be true too long. I'm not sure whether to fault the kohlrabi or the salty ham steak, but neither is a pleasant memory this morning. It'll be diet bars most of the day, and then we're off to Tomato Street to go on breaking our diet in a party---Tuesdays are hard on us. ----Well, Tomato Street didn't happen. We ended up having a wretched supper.
4/20/05. Wednesday. 197.5, and I'm absolutely disgusted with myself. I haven't given up on the Zantrax, but I never, ever, want to see another kohlrabi for the rest of my life. Diet bars for breakfast and lunch, then a real diet-breaker---Caesar salad, oysters, bread, asparagus, and a small creme brulee, which I should have forgone, along with 3 glasses of wine, which I shouldn't have had either. I'm really annoyed about the weight, when I'd been relatively good, and if this doesn't change soon (with better behavior) I'm going to take a brief hiatus for my non-favorite boiled vegetable diet, mostly boiled squash: about 3 days of that and you're no longer interested in food, period. You won't starve, and you will lose weight, but it's not in any sense fun. It's no good doing it right now: we have a dinner Friday, we have company coming next week, and Bloomsday Race, which is no time to do anything drastic, and after that, by Crom, we're going to do something to break this plateau, be it a half a week of nothing but diet bars or the boiled veggies. This is one of those times when you can get really discouraged with a diet and go out and do something destructive (we did). But having vented, via a plate of breaded oysters and a creme brulee, I just have to get right back on the diet and keep going, with better behavior, thank you, and no boo-hooing when I get the result of the lapse. Diets don't produce miracles, not short-term ones, at any rate: it's longrun stuff that counts, and as long as my longrun behavior is over all better than it's been over the last number of years, yes, the weight will go. Right now I'm stuffed, my joints are sore, and I'm not pleased with myself or my giving in to the creme brulee---but the creme brulee isn't the sin: it's the defeatest attitude that'll do me in, so that's what I've got to fix---a few days of success will cure the weight; but I'm the one that has to fix the attitude and not give way twice.
4/21/05. Thursday. 195.0. There is absolutely no sense to how we gain or lose weight: I'm convinced of it. I have three pieces of bread, breaded oysters, a creme brulee and 3 glasses of wine, and drop two and a half pounds this morning. Maybe it was the Zantac (which I am taking). Maybe it's the old 2 day lag and I'll see the result this Saturday. I don't know. Today---(in case there is a Saturday retribution for that dessert) the menu is diet bars, diet bars, and plain woodfire-cooked teriyaki chicken with a Caesar salad, immaculately legal and even healthy. I was so depressed yesterday...and that's nine tenths of the battle, fellow voyagers: it's toughing out the self-blame for one sin and having one scotch (allowable) rather than (out of remorse for the creme brulee) raiding the icebox for a pint of Ben & Jerry's to lift your spirits, which (yes, we've all been there) doesn't make you happier at all once you've done it---in fact, (including the sugar crash afterward) it only fuels depression, and does it both chemically and psychologically at the same time. So have a Scotch and go to bed before you weaken and attack the fridge. Or have a slice of cheddar and wait 20 minutes (it takes that long for what you've eaten to hit the bloodstream.) Have another. Just don't expect weight loss to follow virtue too directly. Tomorrow's dietary microresult, I swear, will be as crazy as this one's. It's the trend, after all, that makes a difference, and trends take a month or so to work out. My trend thus far is stlil tending down, and that's what counts---I tell myself. It's just frustrating when you bounce near (or worse, back across!) a plateau line you'd so triumphantly crossed. I want my 189.0 back! But in the meanwhile, I'm very glad not to have recrossed that 200 pound line. But if you're also reading the blog, you will realize that the roof just fell in, today. We're in crisis mode here, and are going to have to struggle not to do crisis eating on top of it.
4/22/05. Friday. 195.5. Diet bars, another dinner at Anthony's, with no creme brule; and a piece of cheese for supper.
4/23/05. Saturday. 197.0. Got to cut out Anthony's. Meanwhile, I've stopped the Zantac. I don't know if it contributed to the eye problem, but I've stopped all unusual medications until further notice. Diet bar for breakfast, Thai lunch (bad: I had about half a cup of rice) and meatloaf for supper. I feel like a python after a heavy meal. I shouldn't have eaten what I did---I was miserable, self-indulgent, and I shouldn't have had supper, at very least.
4/24/05. Sunday. 198.0. All right, it's diet bars today, and a strict supper. I don't feel well, and it's from over-eating. Steak and brussel sprouts for dinner.
4/25/05. Monday. 196.0. Improved, thanks to virtue. A diet bar, a legal latte, another diet bar, and then---when we found the new apartment and found ourselves driving past Tomato Street on the way home---virtue collapsed. I wasn't too bad. But we'll see.
4/26/05. Tuesday. I have no idea about my weight. I was so busy I forgot. Diet bars all day, down to a hasty supper of steak and Atkins legal Potatoes. Forget the latter. The steak was great. The alleged potatoes aren't worth the 4 carbs.
4/27/05. Wednesday. 196.5. We have a house guest, who, fortunately for us all, is also dieting. Diet bars for most of the day and then out to eat at Anthony's, fried oysters and salad, with, alas, bread (sourdough, which is better than most) and wine.
4/28/05. Thursday. 196.0. Still plateau'ed. But all things considered, it could be worse. Diet bars and then supper at the Thai place, peanut chicken with spinach, wine, and a little curry.
4/29/05. Friday. 195.0. Well, diet bar for breakfast, then lunch at Tomato Street, the ham-wrapped chicken, with, ahem, a bit of bread and wine. Diet bar for supper.
4/30/05. Saturday. 195.5. Diet bars and then the Angry Shrimp for supper.
5/1/05. Sunday. 195.0 Diet bars and then off to the big 7 and a half mile race. We finished. We headed for Anthony's, and I had a legal omelet and a not-legal piece of coffee cake, with wine. Diet bar for supper.
5/2/05. Monday. 196.5. Only I could kill myself in a cross-city walk on a very warm day and gain weight doing it. Diet bars today, down to a restaurant dinner.
5/3/05. Tuesday. 196.0. Diet bars and then the bi-weekly trip to the fastfood restaurant: I had fish, no chips, and a malt.
5/04/05. Wednesday. 197.0. Sigh. Our houseguest has flown, and we're down to carrying boxes, lots of boxes. We had lunch at Anthony's, more fish, with cole slaw. Diet bars for supper.
5/05/05. Thursday. 196.5. Diet bars, heavy carrying of boxes, lunch at the Thai place (I always get the peanut chicken) and Atkins muffins for supper. We're exhausted.
5/06/05. Friday. 197.0. Diet bar breakfast, lunch of prosciutto-wrapped chicken, and Garlic bread. Not good. Cheese and sausage for supper. We're working very hard physical labor on the move, and it's hard to go short of food. We tend to eat too much.
5/07/05. Saturday. 197.0. Diet bars and way too much Thai food. Again, heavy physical labor, and too much wine with a sausage and cheese supper. We're going to have to reform. Jane's served notice I have to cook because she's gaining weight on restaurant food. I think it's about time to boil those frozen shrimp I got by mistake.
5/08/05. Sunday. 197.0. Disgusting. But we're going on a much more restricted diet. This physical labor is a chance to lose, if we just don't eat to compensate. Diet bars 2 meals, and then a tv dinner of the low carb variety.
5/09/05. Monday. 197. Diet bars, then angry shrimp for supper. Several candy bar (Atkins) snacks and some (Atkins) ice cream. We're still not totally good, but we're trying to reform.
5/10/05. Tuesday. 196.5. Diet bars, a low-carb latte, and we're going to have tv dinners for supper. At last, a chip in the plateau.
5/11-6/02/05...I can't believe it, but I finally weighed in after our misbehaviors with nachos and french fries, I weighed in at 199.0. I have drunk too much, eaten nachos multiple times, had dessert more than once, and, while I tried to stay dietarily honest when there was a choice, there were times (if you're readling the blog, you know why we were working like stevedores for four or five weeks, not to mention Bloomsday)...so we've gone back on the Induction Phase of Atkins, which means sausage and egg breakfasts, with cheese, lunchmeat and cheese lunches, sauerkraut and sausage for supper. One tends to retain water like crazy in the interim, because it's pretty high-salt, but it will work, and I'm just glad our physical exertion was enough to keep us from ballooning. I have to be inventive---being the official cook---and I think tonight it's going to be chipotle sauce on chicken bits and a low-carb quesadilla or two. This will put us below 10 carbs for the day, which is where we need to be. The heavy work is mostly done, at least until we move the storerooms, and we're going to need to do that soon---they just raised the rates on the old storerooms, and we need to get out of them altogether.
6/03/05. 196.5. Even better. We're trying to be good: breakfast of bacon and eggs, and only legal things to eat.
6/04-07/05. I haven't a clue. We had the ice show, we ate anything we could when we could, and we're just wiped out. We've drunk things we shouldn't, eaten nachos, and generally we've been bad. This is where we reform and go for that last forty pounds in earnest. Wish us luck.
6/7-15/05. We're continuing as before, still unpacking, mostly adhering to the diet. The scales are inconvenient: I've got to fix that, as right now they're in Jane's territory, and I don't want to wake her up getting to them. We're sticking to low carb, with few gaps.
6/16-18/05. Still no scales. We're still toting boxes, now moving storerooms. But I have started (besides the skating) an exercise routine. I figure where muscle is, it will use up stored fat. By happenstance of the move, I built up muscle, and am determined not to lose it. So I agreed to a skating-oriented exercise class, and have had my first lesson, which points up the bends and stretches I need to do. This can only help the waist. We're not violating the diet too often, having, when it a hurry, weiners or other sausagelike things as the meat with a salad with allowable dressing. Bacon and eggs for breakfast. And we're feeling pretty good and staying at a high energy level. I don't know what I'm losing, but I don't think I'm gaining. Next time we go to the warehouse store, I'm getting my own scales, so I can keep this more regularly.
6/19-21/05. Well, I'm cooking again, be it sausages with salad, salmon with salad, or whatever. Back to the diet bars for lunch and breakfast, and back to regulation eating. But it's coming on blueberry season. We're looking forward to that. Blueberries and whipped cream are legal on Atkins, as long as you use Splenda instead of sugar.
6/22-25/05. 195.5. Salmon atop salad, with whipped cream and strawberries for dessert, and weight is dropping a little.
The salad: Bagged Veggielovers salad mix, into a bowl, with half a cup of shredded sharp cheddar and/or half a cup of shredded mozzarella, salt, coarse pepper, quarter cup of sunflower seeds, and Caesar dressing, stirred up. Serves 2, as main meal. Add salmon filets crusted with Durkee Chicken and Fish Spice and cooked in olive oil. Dessert: whipped cream, using Splenda, and a touch of cinnamon, over sliced berries.
6/25-27/05. I have no idea. But we had salad with sausage, too many oil supplements, too many Macadamia nuts, and both of us feel very off. Watch the fat level, even on Atkins. It can really make you feel terrible if you get excessive. Green tea and lots of it, thank you.
6/28-7/14/05. 195.0 Well, now and again we don't stick by diets---I've been bad. On the 4th, we went to the ballpark and I had two light beers and a hotdog, plus peanuts. At a number of other times, we were too harried to cook, so we ended by eating out, often fish and chips (40-50 carbs even if you skip the chips) and nachos, even worse, even if you leave half the chips. All of which is to say that we were baaaad, but not too far from the path: you can pile up hundreds of carbs in a session with dessert and potatoes, and we haven't done that, but we've also been working hard, both on the rink and physically, still moving things. So we decided to get back to the diet again the easy way: Smart Ones has a few carb-friendly items, notably the homestyle chicken with green beans and the Santa Fe Chicken, and there are other carb-friendly offerings within the South Beach brands and so on, so on evenings when we have a gruesome schedule, we're popping two of those into the microwave, having carb-friendly ice cream or strawberries with Splenda whipped cream for dessert, and we're actually headed in a good direction. We're amazingly not hungry on this regimen (keeping the fat content up while dieting prevents hunger pangs, not to mention being faithful with the diet vitamins. The Zantac was a bust; the cortisol-busters was good while I had internal fat to lose, but I'm past that. So far there's no other magic bullet, though I'm curious about the Leptoprin/pril product. I'm just a little leery of magic pills, having lost a dear cousin to the like, so it's the careful route for me.
7/15/05--7/18/05. 197.5. Too many nachos. Got to get back on the diet. I've decided to give Leptopril a try, and I'll let you know. We're both trying to be good. The Leptopril has a tendency to upset the stomach---I hope, a, that it works, and b, that I can tolerate it, which makes no difference---if it doesn't work.
7/19/05. 198.5. Still bouncing up from the previous overindulgence---these things don't have simple consequences, and reform doesn't 'take' until a few days on. We'll see if the diet pills are worth anything.
7/21/05. 197.0. Scratch the pills off my list. Leptopril (a generic Leptoprin) gave us both gastric problems, made us retain water, didn't lose significantly, and felt worse and worse. We are staying to carefully selected tv dinners with berries for dessert, and doing all right. The main thing is, I don't have to cook immediately after working out on the ice. This is a benefit. Sigh. There's one more diet preparation I might try---in the interest of saving some of my readers from laying out book money for these things.
7/22/05---8/24/05. 201.5.--200.5. Well, this has been a disgusting period. Too many trips to the restaurant, too much wine, too many little lapses, and too much self-indulgence while I've been working on the end of the book and trying to keep my concentration. Bedtime snacks---Lord! I've been bad. Now, having tried all the diet pills that promise a free ride, I can say that the only one that moderately works is Cortislim, but you can't lean on it: you still have to diet. And now we're launched on a new program: both of us have lapsed back about 10 pounds, and we're now determined. We're doing deviled eggs (1) for breakfast and lunch, then a low-carb tv dinner for supper, and cheese for snacks. The first morning after applying this new-found virtue, I've dropped a pound. I hope this continues. Two eggs a day for an extended time aren't the best thing, so we hope this works fast. I've also got a convention coming up---I will be dropping in on Nasfic---you can find me in the bar. I'm not buying a badge, and don't plan to brave the halls and the panels, but we will be there. And I've got to watch what I eat, and so does Jane, with my birthday coming up this month, and hers, next month, followed by Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.. I'm determined to drop those pounds.
8/25/05---9/5/05. 200.5---206.5. Even more disgusting. Too much celebration. Too much birthday. Too many hours in the bar. Too much bread, too much soup with thickener and fish with breading. Even trying to hold it down, I met with catastrophe. So...while we were at the convention, we talked with another friend who's had some success on Atkins, and she suggested dropping dairy to a minimum: a little milk, no cheese. Sigh. But...we are going to try it. We've laid in a stock of deviled eggs, and I'm going to start cooking, at least I'm firing up the kitchen stove.
9/06/05---9/10/05. 206.5---199.0! Well, well, well, and not even suffering too badly. We can have the eggs, the Atkins diet bars, the Atkins diet candy, and by cutting down on the rinkside lattes (with low-carb milk) to one a day, not two, and by just being careful and moderate (big slice of salmon with spinach salad; and Hormel Pork Roast au Jus microwave pack with green beans) look at the result. I'll tell you, if you've never cooked fish, it's very easy: get boneless skinless never-frozen salmon steak, coat it generously in Durkee's Chicken and Fish spice, drop onto hot olive oil in skillet, cover, cook 10 min on medium heat, flip, being sure there's enough oil, and cook 5 minutes, or until it flakes all the way through with no raw meat in the middle. Don't get too thick a piece: it requires more delicate cookery. About the thickness of a finger will behave nicely for you---unless you're a very big guy, and then use a pinky to gauge with. Anyway, no cheese, a couple of eggs, and high-mineral veggies are a help. Butter is a dairy item, alas, but olive oil isn't. You can do interesting things with oil, if you have a spare bottle: shove peppercorns, bay leaf, oregano, basil and rosemary into the bottle and put a bar-dispenser spout on top, so you can use it for, say, chicken, other sorts of fish, etc. Or on veggies that need a bit of help, instead of butter. Another tip: we're having a competitive diet---us and a friend: we refer to it as the 'pig races', because the flying pig is our emblem for tackling the seemingly impossible, and that's our mission. There can be no losers, after all, unless you don't lose at all, so you keep each other honest, and encourage one another to bypass those deadly fastfood emporiums by daily chats and strategy and commiseration sessions. Try it, by phone, honor system, whatever it takes. Friends don't let friends buy French fries. Friends might even make lunch a more healthful 'wrap', not a slider with bacon and cheese.
9/11/05---10/9/05. 205 to 200.5. We went on a trip, what can I say, and we ended up eating carbs to stay awake while driving in heavily ozoned air. We both gained shamefully, but have come back, hit the scales, and come out fighting. I've discovered a nice way to cook spareribs: recipe follows. And with that and salad and no wine (I'll allow myself one martini and Jane allows herself one Scotch: both are legal on Atkins: wine isn't) we've fought off the travel-gained weight at the rate of a pound a day. We're determined to go on like this and get rid of the whole next 40 pounds, or at least 20 of it by Christmas: I tell you, it takes fortitude to start bearing down on the diet with holidays coming, but if you cook, you control your destiny, and the nice thing about Atkins is that you can feast, as long as it's on meat, cheese, and certain veggies.
The spareribs: ideally, an iron skillet, or heavy metal pan, because this involves heat. A Pyrex or other lid, and tinfoil. Add olive oil in bottom of skillet [if you don't have a good iron skillet, use any baking dish, and line it with foil: only an iron skillet can shed the resulting encrustation]. Into the olive oil dump a generous bit of McIlhenny Chipotle Sauce (you know, the same people who make Tabasco). Coarsely ground black pepper and Grillmates Mesquite dosed quite liberally on boneless ribs (I prefer pork) and put them in the skillet/dish. Make a rope of tinfoil and put it atop the rim of the skillet/dish, then ram the lid down on that: it forms a seal and won't let things dry out. Put on at 9 in the morning at, oh, 200 degrees, and let cook all day. About an hour before dinner, crank up the heat to 350. About fifteen minutes before dinner, crank it up to 425. Serve as main course with salad on the side.
HOW TO SEASON and care for AN IRON SKILLET, for those of you who aren't Southern. The fast way: go to a Goodwill or other secondhand store and look for kitchen wares. If you find one, feel the cooking surface: it should be black as coal and wonderfully silky to the touch: if rough, don't bother. If there aren't any, go to a store that has cheap housewares and do not buy a pre-seasoned iron skillet: they're no help. Do not buy one with anything but a bare iron handle. Get raw iron, of a weight you're strong enough to lift safely one-handed, starting with as smooth a casting as you can buy [feel them all before buying and take the smoothest], rub it down with cooking oil on all surfaces including the handle, turn on your ventilation and bake it at 400 degrees [in a conventional oven, never a microwave!] for several hours. Let it cool down and pretty well remain in the oven: best do this in summer: it's a bit of a smelly process unless you have a good fan. Repeat this daily, never washing it. After it's darkened somewhat, you can begin to cook in it. After a year or so of use, it will assume that black, silky texture, and after it's done that, you can use a metal spatula to scrape it down after use: the surface will never scar or roughen, unless you abuse it with water or soap, and it will last generations. Do not wash an iron skillet: if you must disinfect it, heat it on high, with oil in it, then allow to cool, and wipe down with a paper towel. Olive oil is good for this. Re-oil after every use during that first year, and just let it sit in your oven until needed: they're not a lovely object to anyone but a cook, and the oven is a good place to hide it: it will scar and crush your other pans. You can hold it under the faucet to wash it out, but do not use soap: wipe it down with a paper towel: trust me---the heat they take during use will kill anything. You can use them to sear meat, or gently simmer: they can tolerate for a lengthy time anything your burners can dish out. If you accidentally burn something to sticky cinders in one, put oil in the skillet, and heat gently for an hour, then ruthlessly chisel the substance out in the sink with a sharp spatula: your skillet, if seasoned, will emerge unscathed. Nothing else can survive this process. Just remember that grease has a flash point, after which it will burst into flame spontaneously, and never cook anything that hot, for your own safety, and because it smells bad and ruins the food. For that reason, this kind of incident tends to happen to someone who leaves an iron skillet with oil in it unattended on the burner on High: normal common sense of smell would warn you, otherwise, that that's approaching way hot. Just never, never, never leave one of these babies unattended on high heat! If grease should catch on fire, snatch up the skillet, shove it into your oven and slam the door, depriving it of air: a lid can work if you're fast and deft. I include that warning for those of you Teflon-age cooks who have never worked with anything that hot. Don't remotely let the grease catch fire! Don't leave the kitchen while cooking on high heat! It's extremely dangerous and it will smoke up your apartment, if not worse. [But I can say your skillet will be unharmed.] If you wondered at Altair Jones' hysterical fit when Mondragon washed her iron skillet, you will learn to appreciate that sentiment. They only get better with age. While you're creating yours, haunt the Goodwill outlets and hope to inherit a good old one, because they're a thing for the ages, and I've never seen one wear out or burn up. If you buy one at Goodwill, think kindly of the former owner, who has probably graduated to that Great Kitchen in the Sky, and whose own heirs just didn't understand what a special treasure they were giving away in that ugly black object.
Date: 10/10/05. 199.5. I'm making progress. We entertained last night, and I did the chicken curry version of the spareribs---well a little different: recipe follows.
Line dish or iron skillet with heavy-duty foil. Put in as many favorite cuts of chicken as there are people, but they need to lie flat in the pan with, ideally, a little space between. Dust with Calcutta Heat---This is Spice Islands brand, and it is wonderful. Check it on the internet if you have trouble getting it. If you can't get that, use your favorite curry blend. Fold up the foil around the chicken, put the lid on the pan, put in the oven at 200 degrees F, and cook for several hours. When your guests arrive, or about 30 minutes before dinnertime, pull out, open up, add a modest dollop of sour cream, mixing the cream also into the juice surrounding the chicken: turn the heat up to 350 F for the remainder of time before dinner [the idea is really just to heat it up] and serve, plain with sauce if you're on Atkins, on a modest amount of al dente noodles or rice if you're on some diet that allows it. Hint: cooking any cheap meat at 200 degrees over three hours will make it tender as pit barbecue, and finishing it at higher heat makes sure it's done---but you must seal it with some trick like the foil rope or by cooking it in sealed foil to be sure it doesn't dry out in that long cooking.
Date: 1/21/06. 197.00. Let's just say that holidays intervened, and then a convention. I was bad. My weight went up to 208. We then decided to try the South Beach Diet, or at least our version of it, and we've had good results. The primary difference between South Beach and Atkins is fat---South Beach is low fat Atkins, so to speak, and because you reduce the fat, you can get by with a little bit of whole grain and more veggies. We could go direct to phase 2, since we were Atkins, and not only don't crave carbs excessively, too much is not comfortable. So straight to South Beach mini pizzas (whole wheat) and wraps, and low-fat milk, lowfat cheeses, lowfat eggs, lowfat everything. Now, dear friends, the trick to those synth eggs is this: use virgin olive oil, add salt and pepper, plus stir in a dollop of fatfree cream cheese. They come out with an eggy texture and a pretty good flavor. You can also add a spoonful of lowfat cottage cheese, but don't overdo. Most Atkins recipes can be rendered South Beachy just by using low fat products as well as Splenda, and by picking lean meats, chicken, and pork more than beef. The good news is, you can have beans. Lots of beans and blackeyed peas, which I love with jalapenos. So that means I can make chili---I love chili. And I'm dropping about a pound a day from the Holiday High. This won't last, of course: the Holiday High is 'soft' weight, meaning newly gained and a lot of water weight, but the fact that the trend is instantly and bigtime downward is a good thing. I can make about all the recipes given above, but sub nonfat sour cream for sour cream, etc, and use only olive oil. We can also have a little pasta, a little mixed nuts, instead of the almonds-only sort. I love brazil nuts excessively. So I got the cookbooks, and they offer some recipes that are worth following: intriguing things like peanut butter cookies that are almost totally peanut butter...etc. You can also do South Beach in a restaurant---just sub a small salad with moderate to low fat dressing for the inevitable potato or rice, enjoy a Reuben sandwich or hamburger with plain bread instead of bun, and have a glass of wine, unsugared tea, or coffee, skinny. Just evade buns, potatoes, desserts, and white sauces (use red); if you get served a mountain of food, ask for a to-go box before you even start eating, and put half of it in the box, so you don't get to talking or drinking and thoughtlessly plow through tomorrow's supper. Limit pizza to two slices of a large pizza, or its equivalent, and leave the garlic bread alone. Have a salad. Have another glass of wine while people in your party have dessert (just let them drive) and generally, a really clever trick I heard from a magazine and it works) eat only using the front third of your mouth. It makes much slower going, with miniscule bites, and intensifies the flavor of most foods.
Date: 1/25/05. 195.00. I've gone up and I've gone down by pounds or half-pounds, but the trend, hurrah, is down. I'm drinking low-fat buttermilk for a snack---I happen to love it; or having string cheese; and having sugar free jello or blueberries and Dairy Whip for desserts: it's snacks for breakfast and lunch, a couple of low-fat 16 oz lattes at the rink, and more veggies than entree at supper, which has included small pizzas and spaghetti. I may finally fit into those tutus I got for last Christmas.
South Beach Pasta: whole wheat pasta, about a dime-sized bundle per person---cook al dente: heat in skillet: chopped garlic, few dashes of olive oil, basil, oregano, salt, pepper. Add sufficient pepperoni slices for each person, toss in drained spaghetti, stir wildly, snatch out of skillet, and serve immediately. Fast, fancy, and hot. Serve with side salad, non-fat dressing. You get your pasta, but with that limited amount, you're still legal, and its very high flavor. For other flavorings in the skillet, consider sun-dried tomato, feta cheese, kalamata olives, slices of pepper.
Greek Salad: slices of pepper, all colors, crumbled feta, fresh tomato, cucumber (if you core it of all seeds and peel it, it's far less likely to upset your stomach), varieties of olives, and NO lettuce: Greek salad should not have lettuce. Toss all in virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar combo, dust with parmesan shreds, and serve, cold and crispy. Can also be used as base for chicken or salmon salad.