I’ve been through the emotional wringer lately. A lot of that’s been self-induced. It’s obvious I have a lot of emotional baggage to dump along with the excess fat. Delightful experience, let me tell you. Losing weight is far more fun, even if there are foods that are [...]]]> 248.5 | 225.5 | 140

I’ve been through the emotional wringer lately. A lot of that’s been self-induced. It’s obvious I have a lot of emotional baggage to dump along with the excess fat. Delightful experience, let me tell you. Losing weight is far more fun, even if there are foods that are off-limits. If you have to choose between the two, ditch the fucking bread.

OK, OK, I suppose we’re happier in the long run if we dump emotional baggage, so goes the theory. But still. And I don’t quite believe I’m going through all this because I’m losing the weight. I don’t believe people get fat because they’re hiding from their feelings. I don’t have the space to get into it here, just know that I don’t believe that. It’s just another way to paint fat people as defective. Funny how we want to zero in on every possible defect except the actual one facing fat people; when it’s suggested it might just be a metabolic defect or hormonal imbalance, most people laugh that idea off. They’d rather believe we have Issues. Whatever.

Anyway. This is about my progress so let’s not get toooooo philosophical.

I took some photos today. Simple stuff but clear enough to tell what I look like now. First up, I will share the photos I took in February again. Sorry for the quality, I had the settings wrong in Paint Shop Pro and made the jpg all blocky. I keep meaning to redo it and haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Now more pics from today. I haven’t looked at them side-by-side yet, won’t until I publish this post, but I suspect my reaction will be Holy Shit, Batman…

The shirt’s a bit baggy so I put my hand over my tummy so you could see where I begin and end. I was relaxing my abs as well. If I suck my gut in, it disappears under big T-shirts now.

I can now sit down and bend over to put on shoes without knocking the wind out of myself. Pretty damn cool.

Only two and a half pounds made their way back this time. BOOYAH.

You’re bored with morning-elixir photos by now, so I won’t bother today. Brefus:

Multiply this photo by two, actually, since I had two plates of these suckers. Oh, don’t look at me like [...]]]> Alas, you didn’t quite make it.

Only two and a half pounds made their way back this time. BOOYAH.

You’re bored with morning-elixir photos by now, so I won’t bother today.

Brefus:

Multiply this photo by two, actually, since I had two plates of these suckers. Oh, don’t look at me like that. My daughter had most of them. Nice that for once I fix a recipe and she actually likes it. I don’t feel so bad about her eating them, either. I do, however, feel bad that I ate that much Polaner’s. I need to figure out something else to top these babies, or just not bother at all. Maybe extra butter would be better. The cakes by themselves, both plates together, came out to about 6g net.

My daughter has wigglebutt like you wouldn’t believe. We went for a walk to Half-Price Books and I found a copy of Protein Power. I also found two different Bloomsbury first edition Harry Potter books, but let me not get all fangirl squee on you. I had traded off all my HP books to shrink my collection and make some room and I was missing them. Happy the Dana.

On the way out we saw this little runny babbit in the grass. Sun was still up, but it was in the shade.

Then we went to Wendy’s for dinner.

I am now broke. Stupid bookstore.

Well, OK, not the bookstore. Bookstore + me + balance in my bank account = stupid. That’s closer to the truth.

But the Protein Power book is pretty awesome so far, for being over fourteen years old. *pets it*

Buh-bye, six extra pounds whut jumped back on my broad ass last week.

Damn thing blurry again. *tap tap* Stupid camera… So much for autofocus. Shaking it up a bit again for brefus, this time with a more substantial meal:

Flat-iron steak, cooked medium-rare to rare and [...]]]> 248.5 | 235 | 140

Buh-bye, six extra pounds whut jumped back on my broad ass last week.

Damn thing blurry again. *tap tap* Stupid camera… So much for autofocus.

Shaking it up a bit again for brefus, this time with a more substantial meal:

Flat-iron steak, cooked medium-rare to rare and sliced thin-ish. I melt a couple tablespoons of butter (salted tastes best, really), add in a tablespoon of coconut oil (used to be another tablespoon of butter but I think this works out better), and dip the pieces of steak in it and eat them. NOM. Flat-iron steak is tender like you wouldn’t believe when cooked properly, but it’s also relatively low in fat, so this is a way of balancing that out.

I did something a lil bit naughty for dinner. But it just… sounded good to everybody.

…No! No! Come back here! These are not wheat pancakes! I have not fallen off the wagon! Nosiree… these are the Perfect Protein Pancakes from Dana Carpender’s 500 Low-Carb Recipes. Seriously, net carbs for these five silver-dollar pancakes was about 3 grams. Shit you not. The grape jelly dots on top were half a teaspoon each; the label on the jar says a tablespoon is 4g carbs with 3g um… I think fiber? *checks* Yep. So, 1g net per tablespoon and I had the equivalent of 2 and a half teaspoons. A tablespoon = three teaspoons, you do the math. Polaner’s Sugar-Free Plus Fiber grape jelly, if you must know. Good stuff.

The cakes are pretty much just eggs, ricotta cheese, and protein powder. Not even any Splenda added. So technically, they are Induction-friendly, the same way Jamie’s oopsie rolls are. Still, word to the wise: Don’t overdo in Induction. We’re only supposed to have 4g of cheese a day, max.

I also had this:

The eating’s not bad this way if I make an effort. I’m out of black olives though. I am sad.

Kidding. I kid. I’m not obsessive about this, but weight-loss jokes make for a fine round of fish-barrel shooting. Ain’t that beautiful? I missed seeing my morning miracle through all that plastic. Weigh-in:

I’m sorry [...]]]> Screw the scale, I’m hitting the coffee first. A couple swallows is, what, an ounce or two?

Kidding. I kid. I’m not obsessive about this, but weight-loss jokes make for a fine round of fish-barrel shooting. Ain’t that beautiful? I missed seeing my morning miracle through all that plastic.

Weigh-in:

I’m sorry it’s blurry. You’ll get through this somehow. I swear. I believe in you.

…

Right. Moving on. Shakin it up a bit for brefus:

OK, OK, I was still a bit tired to be bothering with things like cooking.

Second go at the morning Nectar Of Ye Olde Coffee Cherry:

No more food pics for today, but I did finish that hat for my little girl’s due-any-day-now cousin on her dad’s side:

(A fat knitter? That never happens.) Wasn’t happy with how the crown turned out–I had tried real hard to make it turn out flat and it just wasn’t doing. I WILL figure this out eventually. Oh, yes. But at least the damn thing is done. I am way too slow knitting and have way too big a yarn stash. This has led to the culmination of an event horizon within which I will be caught in an endless knitting loop (ha! accidental pun!) for the rest of eternity. O_O

Back to your regularly scheduled boredom. Done now.

Weigh-in:

Morning elixir whut ain’t doin its proper job dangnabbit…

Who says you can’t have salad for breakfast? [...]]]> You know you’ve gone too far with the sleep dep when one night’s worth of making it up leaves you dogged the next day. I need to remember I’m nowhere near my twenties anymore.

Weigh-in:

Morning elixir whut ain’t doin its proper job dangnabbit…

Who says you can’t have salad for breakfast? Keeps me honest. Sometimes.

I didn’t bother photographing anything else today. Sorry. I’m sure you’re heartbroken.

Also, somebody call David Tennant and tell him get his ass over to my place. Actually, there’s no rush, just set it up a month in advance and tell me when so I can get this place cleaned up. It looks like the Mess Monster threw up all over my house. Yick.

Seriously?

So you’ll find [...]]]> If I’m going to stay up all night with David Tennant, why can’t it be with the real Dave here in the flesh… erm… talking about the weather, instead of trying to blow through the entire second half of his final season on Doctor Who in one overnight twelve-hour marathon?

Seriously?

So you’ll find I didn’t have much to eat today. Exhaustion is an excellent appetite suppressant. I did remember to weigh in though:

Two-thirties biznatch. Bring it.

Breakfast nectar whut keeps me sane and able to operate moderately-weighted machinery all day long:

In a different cup, I needed to run the dishwasher. Also, I am not that impressed with Kroger’s “special blend” or “special ground” or whatever the f it is, medium roast. I have some DaVinci’s syrup so I will make do, but… dang.

Breakfast. Sort of:

Muenster cheese. Couldn’t be arsed to actually cook anything.

Snacks were this nori (seaweed) that Matt picked up at an Asian grocery today, which unfortunately had sugar added but was still low-carb, and these coconut cookies. They were made with shredded coconut and maltitol and something else I can’t remember now, but the net count was low. Yeah, not Induction. I really need to quit that. But something to keep in mind for later–tweak the sweetener a bit and it’s something I could live with.

Dinner:

Couldn’t even finish it. I guess I got maybe 8 ounces of it. We had bought a pack of ribeyes on clearance last week, is where all the steak has come from suddenly. We’ve got some flatirons in the fridge too, I need to marinade them and store most of them in the freezer. Especially if the repair of the oven gets as ugly as I think it will and we wind up with no stove for a week or more. (Don’t ask. I will just start cussing. Not worth it.)

But yeah, there you go. Shame on me for no salad but I figured the seaweed helped.

Sinister-looking brown potion whut keeps me from killing people before I’m all the way awake:

Breakfast:

I can never make my eggs as pretty as the ones at Waffle House. Bummer.

Also, this is shaping up to be one boring fortnight. I’m [...]]]> …So I’ll just go ahead with the photographic food diary.

Sinister-looking brown potion whut keeps me from killing people before I’m all the way awake:

Breakfast:

I can never make my eggs as pretty as the ones at Waffle House. Bummer.

Also, this is shaping up to be one boring fortnight. I’m thinking about only doing Induction for a week this time, then kicking in some nuts (as opposed to kicking someone in the nuts–though if I run across Tony Hayward, I may do that too) after the first week.

Snack:

Medium to-go cup of Crimson Cup iced coffee with half & half and two packets of Splenda. I probably underestimated the amount of coffee, h&h et al in SparkPeople, but I didn’t drink the whole cup, so it’s all good.

Later on we were at Whole Paycheck (more on that in a minute), and I grabbed an orange-flavored Zevia because I wanted soda. Those things give me gas and I’m not sure I’ll drink them real often, but their cola and Dr. Pepper equivalent both have caffeine in them, which makes me really happy, since most diet sodas either have aspartame and caffeine or they have sucralose and no caffeine. Bummer. So thank you, Zevia, from a dieter who’d like her drug of choice to go along with a sweetener that won’t destroy her brain. I salute you.

Dinner:

Secret to not winding up with a bunch of waxy little crunchies in my salad: Mix the coconut oil with the olive oil in separate bowl first, then mix in the salad dressing, THEN drizzle over salad. Works wonders. I’m after those medium-chain triglycerides, which are supposed to do wonders for weight loss, not to mention the nutritional benefits of saturated fats in general… so I’ve upped my sat-fat intake. I’m trying to get an extra tablespoon of coconut oil in with most of my meals now, though it’s pretty hit and miss at this point.

I will try to do schtuffs to make my salads more interesting soon. I’m thinking I may try to score some ham this coming week and dice it up and have it ready and dump it in every now and again. Or boil a few eggs and cut one up. Or that kind of thing.

I wanted to hit 2000 calories, that’s my minimum, but unfortunately I ran short. But 1888 calories is not so far off. Had I had three meals instead of two, I’d have hit it easily. I also need to start remembering to add my vitamin A and D capsules back in, I’m not getting enough of those.

Edited because I forgot to mention…

So, Whole Paycheck. (Whole Foods, for the uninitiated.) I don’t usually shop there. They make me nuts. The CEO is a vegan who tries to indoctrinate his employees into his diet, and he came out against health care reform. I’m like, dude? Your little preventative programs do jack and shit for people who are already sick… Anyway, it makes me sad because I can get quite lost and happily crazed in that store. The man’s such a money-grubber that his own stated values don’t matter enough to him for him to not offer animal products in his stores. Silly man. But it’s good animal foods. They have grass-fed meat and dairy and stuff. And once in a while you run across something totally WTFery that just stops you in your tracks.

Like this.

OMG EGGS AS BIG AS MY HAND!!!1!!!one!

Oh but wait’ll you see how much they cost.

Twenty dollars! Per egg! WTF!

My first thought was, What the HELL would you do with an ostrich egg???, and now that I’m in front of my ‘puter and can look, here’s an interesting thread about that subject. Seems the price has dropped for some reason. Perhaps there’s an ostrich farm in Ohio? I really wasn’t paying attention. I was too WTF eyes bugging out and everything.

Good times… good times.

Guess one of those pounds decided to jump back off again. I’m not that excited. They come and go. Excitement will kick in when I get into the 220s and stay there. Well, until I drop down out of the 220s into the 2teens. Hope springs eternal.

Breakfast:

…I guess I wandered too close to wherever they were hiding and they jumped right back on me. That, or the lithium battery in my scale is finally wearing down and I need to replace [...]]]> On a whim I weighed again today and oh look, those six pounds I left lying around somewhere?

…I guess I wandered too close to wherever they were hiding and they jumped right back on me.

That, or the lithium battery in my scale is finally wearing down and I need to replace it.

Or, I’m gonna yell at my five-year-old one hell of a lot if I catch her stomping on the scale again. I yell anyway, but clearly I am not making the proper impression upon her tender psyche.

I started “being good” again today. Mostly. Here are today’s meals. For whatever reason, I also put them in SparkPeople, but I’m debating whether I even give a shit anymore.

Breakfast:

Coconut oil as an appetizer and not pictured, then two eggs fried over-easy, after frying four slices of bacon (each cut in two), and unfortunately the bacon wound up overcooked, so the eggs fried in little dark bits and discolored oil, OH HOW HEALTHY (repeat after me class: “Fat good, saturated fat excellent, browned bacon grease VEDDY BAD”)… At some point when the oven is fixed I will oven-cook bacon ahead of time and we won’t have to deal with this unpleasantness anymore. And the drink is two 8oz cups of coffee in one glass with 3 tbsp heavy cream and four packets Splenda since I like my coffee sweet and do two packets per 8oz cup. So. There.

Lunch:

3oz baby greens, 3oz shredded cheddar, 1oz black olives (sliced), half a Haas avocado, 1 tbsp coconut oil, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2tbsp bleu cheese salad dressing. I like my salads oily, but I also like the dressing flavor, and olive oil’s got that nice monounsaturated thang going on, so it’s my happy medium. Word to the wise, however: Do not dump a bunch of refrigerated salad ingredients on top of a tablespoon of coconut oil unless you want extra crunch. I forget how easily that stuff hardens. At least it’s not disgusting.

3oz of greens, by the way, isn’t so far off from that two cups of salad thing Dr. Atkins used to call for in his Induction Phase. And still a wash as far as carbs are concerned. Actually, with this being my one big carby meal, I still came in well under 20g net for the day.

Dinner:

11oz ribeye steak, weighed after removal from the bone, with coconut oil dribbled on top. I wound up eating about 10oz of it because the only time my daughter ever seems to want steak is if she’s taking it off my plate. I could slice up the exact same steak and put her share on her plate for her and she’d take two bites, decide it’s making her sick, hold her nose and back away. I don’t get it. Dinner-mooching as an appetizer? I’ll have to keep that in mind if she ever contracts a wasting disease.

I was going to steam up some cauliflower and add butter to it and have that as my side dish, perfectly legal in Induction and even encouraged, but I lost interest in between the steak-frying (again, dead oven so we have to do everything on the stove) and the dishes I was washing. Tomorrow, then.

So there you have it. An almost-picture-perfect Atkins Induction day. Except for two things:

1. The Crimson Cup coffee drink Matt brought home to me with no warning whatsoever. Now that he’s made me sick not paying attention to the flavor syrups he at least remembers to get those sugar-free, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still significant carb content in the drink. It’d be nice if they’d post nutritional info at their site, but I suppose they will get around to it one of these days. It is a pain in the ass doing this at home for one to three people (OK, usually just the one), never mind having to deal with it when you have fifty bazillion customers a day. In the meantime I still want to do business with them–in the form of their bagged coffee, though, not the prepared drinks. The bagged stuff is to die for, only not literally, as with their frozen blended sugar-bombs.

I dropped him a nice email about it–yes, this is a typical geek household–so now I have it in writing that I said something, as I attempt to proceed with this weight loss and he once again considers bringing home Frozen Blended Sugar Bombs or three trays of sushi “to be nice.” Dude, if YOU don’t like being able to see YOUR own toes, that’s YOUR deal. Enjoy your fatty liver, keep rockin’ that sleep apnea. If I ask you to buy me crap, that’s my fault. When you take the initiative to buy me crap, it becomes sabotage. Sabotage sucks. So do saboteurs. And not in the good way.

Wait, there was supposed to be another item here. Oh yeah. That’s right…

2.

Um.

I can’t remember now.

But I do know I forgot to take my multi today. And for all that I don’t think I was below 50 percent RDA on more than a handful of nutrients. So I think when I do remember to take that stuff I will be able to take a third of a dose and still get what I need. More so when I start adding in food groups in the OWL phase (Ongoing Weight Loss/Phase 2). We’ll see. That’s why I wanted to track to begin with.

So there you go. I may or may not do this every day. I’m leaning toward “yes”, but you know how I am. And if you don’t know, you’ll find out soon.

For what it’s worth, I apologize in advance.

(The good news is, I’m back in ketosis. In less than one day. I must not have had any glycogen stores worth speaking of… very not shabby.)