The storm is over, repairs are mostly done, and tomorrow morning will start back to full-throated work and school. I enjoy having my life disrupted by natural (non-life-threatening) events, but I'll enjoy being back to a routine as well. I only got one gym session in last week. My food was under control, in that I didn't eat any forbidden carbs, but I definitely under-ate in the leafy green department, as I yearned for hot satisfying comfort foods.
I'm fairly well prepared for meals for the coming week. It feels like I was in Whole Foods three times a day this weekend, but only for vegies and the food bar. Our big freezer is nearly full of stuff we had stockpiled, and we decided to mostly empty it before any more CostCo sprees. I've written down a meal plan, and I've got something defrosting in the fridge right now. I do have lunches for the week: tuna (most recent Consumer Reports says no more often than once a week), leftover steak and asparagus, chicken apple sausages to garnish a salad from the work cafeteria. Breakfasts will be cheese and olives, most likely.
I've reset the clocks; the coffeepot and alarm clock should work in the morning. One thing about the power being out: I stayed under the covers till it was light enough to move around. Not tomorrow- up before the sun to get a running start to work. Routine. I do like it.
- iPhone uPdate
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Off Topic: Enduring the outage.
I've been extremely distracted by the disruptions caused by our little snow storm and the subsequent power outages. I did manage to stay on my eating plan generally, but didn't have the time to track anything since I didn't have computers at home and wanted to save my iPhone battery. All planning went by the wayside, as we left the freezer doors shut and either ate or tossed everything in the fridges. It's astounding to me how simply time-consuming it was to be without power. All the angst, time spent on hold reporting conditions, checking email when I was away to hear if it had been restored or anybody knew anything, physical visits to houses with no working phones, all of this just sucked up too much of my days and nights. Soon I'll get back on track - it's now Sunday afternoon and I need to turn my thoughts toward planning the week ahead - but I wanted to check in on some overall thoughts about enduring the outage. Some of this comes from an email I sent my brother (who is a consultant to electric utilities), seeking information about statistics on utility performance.
Folks here are up in arms about the poor performance of our utility, Pepco, after our mere six inches of snow. They are outraged, and there is much testimony about how they never had any power outages before living here. I have to agree I've had a lot more interruptions in service here than ever before. On the whole, though, I'm much more philosophical about it than most - it was a heavy snow, I had three tree branches down in my own yard, on a tree that had been pruned just in December. And for me, three cold nights inside (42 degrees by morning!) and 67 hours total, was truly no more than inconvenient and annoying, not life threatening or dangerous. I've been camping in much worse conditions, I continued to have hot water, and I had enough blankets to sleep cozily. I would have been very cranky if I wasn't warm enough to sleep! The first night, we all played Risk together and really enjoyed it. We've got flashlights and candle lanterns and battery powered radios. It made us feel like hardy self sufficient pioneers. I know if I were very old, or had small children, or less money so I didn't have an iphone and the ability to go out to restaurants, it would have been a much bigger deal. And there were live lines, with sparks, down in wet streets for more than 24 hours before action. Very bad.
Folks here are up in arms about the poor performance of our utility, Pepco, after our mere six inches of snow. They are outraged, and there is much testimony about how they never had any power outages before living here. I have to agree I've had a lot more interruptions in service here than ever before. On the whole, though, I'm much more philosophical about it than most - it was a heavy snow, I had three tree branches down in my own yard, on a tree that had been pruned just in December. And for me, three cold nights inside (42 degrees by morning!) and 67 hours total, was truly no more than inconvenient and annoying, not life threatening or dangerous. I've been camping in much worse conditions, I continued to have hot water, and I had enough blankets to sleep cozily. I would have been very cranky if I wasn't warm enough to sleep! The first night, we all played Risk together and really enjoyed it. We've got flashlights and candle lanterns and battery powered radios. It made us feel like hardy self sufficient pioneers. I know if I were very old, or had small children, or less money so I didn't have an iphone and the ability to go out to restaurants, it would have been a much bigger deal. And there were live lines, with sparks, down in wet streets for more than 24 hours before action. Very bad.
It seems to me a lot like the airlines, which is something I know a great deal about. First and foremost, they can't control the weather, but they can and should predict it and get ready for it, and have thought through recovery plans ahead of time, rather than be surprised and reactive. News reports say Pepco didn't request help until after the storm was over and outages were widespread, by which time our neighbors had lined up all the adjacent states so our aid came in from Indiana. Second, providing information to those dis-serviced is totally crucial. After Hurricane Isabel several years ago, Pepco said "everybody will get power back within 8 days" and they did that, and acted surprised that wasn't considered sufficient. But of course no-one cares about "everybody" only themselves. Can you imagine an airline announcement "everyone will be moved within three days" with no other information? Now, Pepco has automated reporting and response, which tries to be more specific. Yet, they were just plain wrong and unhelpful several times over the past few days. They provided an initial outside estimate (11 pm Friday - this they said Thursday morning) and then extended that to 11 pm Sunday just before they hit the Friday deadline. They switched from automated reporting to live people at some point, but didn't leave the option to just do the automation - yet had twenty minute waits to talk to someone. Since I had to be protective of my cell phone battery life I wasn't going to wait, but could have punched buttons and gotten the info onto their map. I had a very rude and barely competent person on the phone Friday morning (had to spell my name three times, for example). Again, extremely annoying and inconvenient, but not dangerous. These things are management issues that can and should be handled better. But how about the issue of experiencing the outages in the first place? And the time to repair them? I can't judge how well they are doing.
After the airlines screwed up publicly a lot in the mid-nineties, the federal government required extensive reporting about their on-time performance, which is published, widely available for consumers to make comparisons, and the basis for a lot of subsequent regulation on passenger protections as well as federal investment decisions about expanding aviation capacity. Working with this data is a big part of my current job. I wonder, is there any similar set of easily accessible and comparable reliability data for electrical supply to consumers? Everyone here has anecdotes about how much worse we are than anywhere else. Airlines constantly complain that you can't compare performance in the snowy and thunderstorm prone northeast to performance in Honolulu, yet the data does get reported and used, with all of the nuances worked through when it matters. Getting the data in consistent and available formats would give us an idea of how much to be outraged, and our politicians some idea about who should pay to do better. We've got a lot of energetic activist neighbors here in the people's republic of Takoma Park, but I hate regulation by anecdote. Data would be so much better.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Camping out at home
The power has been out now for just over 24 hours and the house is very cold. The bedroom thermometer reads 48 degrees. Now that it is dark out, its harder to walk around and do things. I have an extensive collection of candle lanterns acquired for decorative purposes a few years ago. However, I must confess the collection grew, along with the candles and matches to light them, in advance of Y2K. They were decorative, but also part of my disaster preparedness. They were a way of feeling prepared without having everyone feeling I'd gone off the deep end. The family got a lot of camping essentials for Christmas that year, without my ever really explaining why.
These days, battery operated LED lanterns that are much brighter and safer and last longer are the way to go (for the au courant disaster-ready family) but I like my lanterns with their friendly little yellow flames. It's good to have a little light in each room when you are moving around. Such a drag to have to keep one hand full of a flashlight if you don't keep something going in different rooms.
Here's a bright side to how cold it is in here: for all practical purposes the kitchen is the same temperature as the fridge should be so we don't have to minimize the times we open the door. And for those teens that just can't seem to get the milk back in the fridge, they are finally off the hook.
More bright side: I went shopping for long underwear (excuse me, base layers) last weekend. It's winter camping sale time, and I was stocking up for my trip to the Arctic next July. So now I have a chance to try them out, along with the "array of fleeces" my packing list recommends.
I hate to be cold. I often need more layers than those around me. This is especially true when sitting still if I'm working, I'll shed layers as I go. So I dress to look like the Michelin man, or the Stay-Puft marshmallow man. Right now, I have on long johns, sweat pants, a camisole, a thermal base layer, a polar fleece sweatshirt, a polar fleece hoody (with hood up), and thick wool socks. The only reason it's so little is because I'm in bed, with my bottom half under two blankets and a down comforter.
I lent part of my disaster kit to the family, so they can listen to the radio by cheerful candlelight while playing board games. Some part of them is enjoying this time mostly unplugged, though charging up smart phones to stay connected is taking on some urgency.
I'm not worried about pipes freezing- it is predicted to dip below freezing tonight, but not by much. The way my kitchen faucet drips, there's no way the flowing water will freeze.
Tonight we ate out, and I brought home a large cup of coffee. I still have hot water, and I heated the thermos before loading it with the coffee. I think it'll be warm enough to drink in the morning, making me legal to drive to work.
Of course, the power could come back on at any time, but I'm figuring sometime during the day tomorrow is more likely.
7:30 am update (post failed last night) 44 in bedroom. Coffee tepid. Off to work. Was toasty under covers however.
These days, battery operated LED lanterns that are much brighter and safer and last longer are the way to go (for the au courant disaster-ready family) but I like my lanterns with their friendly little yellow flames. It's good to have a little light in each room when you are moving around. Such a drag to have to keep one hand full of a flashlight if you don't keep something going in different rooms.
Here's a bright side to how cold it is in here: for all practical purposes the kitchen is the same temperature as the fridge should be so we don't have to minimize the times we open the door. And for those teens that just can't seem to get the milk back in the fridge, they are finally off the hook.
More bright side: I went shopping for long underwear (excuse me, base layers) last weekend. It's winter camping sale time, and I was stocking up for my trip to the Arctic next July. So now I have a chance to try them out, along with the "array of fleeces" my packing list recommends.
I hate to be cold. I often need more layers than those around me. This is especially true when sitting still if I'm working, I'll shed layers as I go. So I dress to look like the Michelin man, or the Stay-Puft marshmallow man. Right now, I have on long johns, sweat pants, a camisole, a thermal base layer, a polar fleece sweatshirt, a polar fleece hoody (with hood up), and thick wool socks. The only reason it's so little is because I'm in bed, with my bottom half under two blankets and a down comforter.
I lent part of my disaster kit to the family, so they can listen to the radio by cheerful candlelight while playing board games. Some part of them is enjoying this time mostly unplugged, though charging up smart phones to stay connected is taking on some urgency.
I'm not worried about pipes freezing- it is predicted to dip below freezing tonight, but not by much. The way my kitchen faucet drips, there's no way the flowing water will freeze.
Tonight we ate out, and I brought home a large cup of coffee. I still have hot water, and I heated the thermos before loading it with the coffee. I think it'll be warm enough to drink in the morning, making me legal to drive to work.
Of course, the power could come back on at any time, but I'm figuring sometime during the day tomorrow is more likely.
7:30 am update (post failed last night) 44 in bedroom. Coffee tepid. Off to work. Was toasty under covers however.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Habits, Rituals, and Sprints
I've been reading a book at work, the newest flavor of the month in corporate training. Like all of these books, I see it as basically taking things I already know, but assembling the nuggets into a different order and stated as a philosophy that promises to completely change your life. This one has a number of clear statements on what to do that really ring true for me right now, enough that I've been reading no more than 3-4 pages a day at lunch but persisting on through the book and thinking about it in between.
So here are some of the nuggets I've been thinking about:
Every endeavor - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual - benefits from periods of pushing yourself hard to your limits followed by rest and recuperation. Interval training is clearly helping me advance in running, and the exhaustion followed by rest is basic to weight and strength training. But the authors argue this is true in other areas. "Think wind sprints, not marathons" they say. No-one can stay in a meeting for more than two hours without a mental break to recover, for example. Writers need to focus then take a break. Emotionally, sometimes you need to just watch American Idol with your girl rather than keep on trying to solve your problems.
Nothing really earth shattering there, is it? All makes sense. But then they go on to talk about what that actually looks like in your daily life - how to make the rest and recovery happen. They say you should construct rituals to ensure you get the recovery. A ritual, they say, is action that is imbued with meaning. Do it often enough, a ritual becomes habit. But it remains a ritual unless it loses its meaning and becomes empty gestures. (This chapter comes after the "values" chapter where they say to make sure your actions reflect your values.) So you thoughtfully construct your rituals, and make sure you practice them. They say, unlike the "3 weeks to become a habit" people, it talks a good eight weeks for a ritual to become part of yourself. When it does, it takes very little energy to perform it, but a ritual constructed around the rest and recovery principals is likely to enhance your energy, concentration, and commitment when you go back to whatever it was you interrupted for your ritual.
I would say by their definition, my lunch time walk is a ritual. It reflects my values about being fit and about taking time for myself. Talking to my girl while making dinner is a ritual. The holiday season is filled with rituals. I want to find a few more rituals to break up and manage my days and my energy. Something to ponder as I get ready for the week.
So here are some of the nuggets I've been thinking about:
Every endeavor - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual - benefits from periods of pushing yourself hard to your limits followed by rest and recuperation. Interval training is clearly helping me advance in running, and the exhaustion followed by rest is basic to weight and strength training. But the authors argue this is true in other areas. "Think wind sprints, not marathons" they say. No-one can stay in a meeting for more than two hours without a mental break to recover, for example. Writers need to focus then take a break. Emotionally, sometimes you need to just watch American Idol with your girl rather than keep on trying to solve your problems.
Nothing really earth shattering there, is it? All makes sense. But then they go on to talk about what that actually looks like in your daily life - how to make the rest and recovery happen. They say you should construct rituals to ensure you get the recovery. A ritual, they say, is action that is imbued with meaning. Do it often enough, a ritual becomes habit. But it remains a ritual unless it loses its meaning and becomes empty gestures. (This chapter comes after the "values" chapter where they say to make sure your actions reflect your values.) So you thoughtfully construct your rituals, and make sure you practice them. They say, unlike the "3 weeks to become a habit" people, it talks a good eight weeks for a ritual to become part of yourself. When it does, it takes very little energy to perform it, but a ritual constructed around the rest and recovery principals is likely to enhance your energy, concentration, and commitment when you go back to whatever it was you interrupted for your ritual.
I would say by their definition, my lunch time walk is a ritual. It reflects my values about being fit and about taking time for myself. Talking to my girl while making dinner is a ritual. The holiday season is filled with rituals. I want to find a few more rituals to break up and manage my days and my energy. Something to ponder as I get ready for the week.
The Party
I went to a large potluck dinner last night with old friends, and it was a particularly tough diet situation.
First, almost all diets say you have to plan out your eating in advance. Think things through carefully. Make your trade-offs ahead of time, not in the moment. Even, if you are counting and calculating, do some of those measurements ahead of time.
But with a potluck, that is particularly hard to do. I had no idea what would be there. So I followed one of the common sense rules: bring a dish you know you can eat. There was some light coordination going on, and so I was able to sign up for a salad. That also met my laziness target - I just bought stuff, and brought along my favorite cilantro-lime vinaigrette. So what ever else was being served, I'd be able to have a big plate of leafy greens.
I also ate a snack in the late afternoon before going. Rather than "save up" during the day expecting to eat big at the party, I decided to moderate my hunger with a new treat: crunchy almond butter on celery sticks. Yum! The idea is to fortify my will power by minimizing the actual need to eat. I also decided not to drink any alcohol. This is not a huge sacrifice at a winter party. I knew there would just be beer and wine, nothing luscious and daring.
So everything went very smoothly at first. I did pause for an instant at the array of micro-brews in the beer cooler, but only for an instant. They had a big pitcher of ice water and I made it my friend. Thirsty or not, I wanted something in my hand to sip from and keep me looking social with everyone else. Then, pleasant surprise, the appetizer table included a big plate of shrimp. So I was able to indulge. The cocktail sauce no doubt had the same sugar most commercial ones do, but the grand total volume attached to all my shrimp was probably no more than a teaspoon. Dinner, too, went well. Someone had said something about "lasagna" which made my heart sink, but there were other dishes as well. Pulled pork. Spiral cut ham. A truly luscious salad casserole - broccoli, peas, other small-cut vegies with a little bacon and mayonaise - and a baked dish with broccoli and cheese.
I ate well, felt no deprivation, enjoyed the company, and stayed away from the dessert table. But towards the end of the evening, I drifted back over to eye it while most people were in the other room. Nothing store-bought on it. Cakes that looked good, but full as I was, not so tempting. But some very intriguing looking small cookies - a hard lacy-caramelized cookie sandwich with a solid dark chocolate filling. Surely just one little cookie wouldn't throw everything off? They were terrific, a homemade version of a cookie I know not to buy any more at Trader Joes. And then the wall of resolve just disappeared.
I would take one, go out to where the other people were to eat it, then drift back to the table for just one more. I was stopped only because they were packing up to end the party. How many did I have? I honestly don't know. Five? Eight? Surely not as many as ten? No, definitely between four and nine, but even though each involved walking between rooms, I truly can't say. If each was twelve grams of carbs (an educated pure guess) that is between 48 and 108 grams. And me with a daily budget of 25 carb grams, certainly exceeded on volume of food alone before hitting the dessert table. Two to four days worth.
What to expect as a consequence? According to my understanding of sugar regulation, I am likely to be hungry and have more sugar cravings for the next few days. Like when I started, though without the incredible strength and optimism that always is present at the beginning of each endeavor. Be on guard, and make a plan. Atkins specifically says to drop back on the carb allowance after a slip, but never below twenty grams. Keep those leafy green volumes up, because fewer carbs and less fiber is not a good ideal. Also, both sugar and water regulation will be screwed up, so don't be surprised if the scale is unkind this week. (It already is-two pounds higher today than yesterday. That would be water, and what I do next determines whether it turns to fat stores.)
What could I have done differently? Besides the simple "just say no next time-firm up your backbone" resolve? What could I have done differently so that I would have been able to withstand the temptation? Why was I not able to manage this? What was I thinking?
I think it comes back to the subject of my previous post on Treats. I don't think I'm prepared to lead a life feeling I'm being deprived, just for the sake of weight loss. Some systematic form of rationed treats - genuine treats, not some horrible fake sugar diet form of so-called treat - is really necessary for the long run. I could have said no to all the desserts if there was a single jewel of a treat waiting for me at home. I might have been able to control the cookie intake better if I started the evening with a plan to allow a single precious treat right at the end. And one thing I did do right - I postponed the crumbling as late as possible in the evening, so the damage was limited purely by opportunity. Perhaps I should have surveyed the dessert table, decided on my single special jewel, and taken it then but not eaten it then, instead saving it for the very end just before departure. Truly, each cookie was very tasty, but the first taste is so much better and more important psychologically than the eighth, or even the second.
I think that "set aside" logic has promise as a future technique. See, the post-game analysis does add value - I think I've learned something here, not just beat myself up and moaned about it.
What do I do now? It's Sunday morning, and I do not yet have a plan for managing my food and my family's food for the week. I've got supplies in both houses, but I need to make a plan. I need to make it easy to stick to the plan by making sure I've got the ingredients and timing worked out for all the meals. And this week's challenges include some out of the office business lunches and sort-of social events. Time to look forward, not back.
First, almost all diets say you have to plan out your eating in advance. Think things through carefully. Make your trade-offs ahead of time, not in the moment. Even, if you are counting and calculating, do some of those measurements ahead of time.
But with a potluck, that is particularly hard to do. I had no idea what would be there. So I followed one of the common sense rules: bring a dish you know you can eat. There was some light coordination going on, and so I was able to sign up for a salad. That also met my laziness target - I just bought stuff, and brought along my favorite cilantro-lime vinaigrette. So what ever else was being served, I'd be able to have a big plate of leafy greens.
I also ate a snack in the late afternoon before going. Rather than "save up" during the day expecting to eat big at the party, I decided to moderate my hunger with a new treat: crunchy almond butter on celery sticks. Yum! The idea is to fortify my will power by minimizing the actual need to eat. I also decided not to drink any alcohol. This is not a huge sacrifice at a winter party. I knew there would just be beer and wine, nothing luscious and daring.
So everything went very smoothly at first. I did pause for an instant at the array of micro-brews in the beer cooler, but only for an instant. They had a big pitcher of ice water and I made it my friend. Thirsty or not, I wanted something in my hand to sip from and keep me looking social with everyone else. Then, pleasant surprise, the appetizer table included a big plate of shrimp. So I was able to indulge. The cocktail sauce no doubt had the same sugar most commercial ones do, but the grand total volume attached to all my shrimp was probably no more than a teaspoon. Dinner, too, went well. Someone had said something about "lasagna" which made my heart sink, but there were other dishes as well. Pulled pork. Spiral cut ham. A truly luscious salad casserole - broccoli, peas, other small-cut vegies with a little bacon and mayonaise - and a baked dish with broccoli and cheese.
I ate well, felt no deprivation, enjoyed the company, and stayed away from the dessert table. But towards the end of the evening, I drifted back over to eye it while most people were in the other room. Nothing store-bought on it. Cakes that looked good, but full as I was, not so tempting. But some very intriguing looking small cookies - a hard lacy-caramelized cookie sandwich with a solid dark chocolate filling. Surely just one little cookie wouldn't throw everything off? They were terrific, a homemade version of a cookie I know not to buy any more at Trader Joes. And then the wall of resolve just disappeared.
I would take one, go out to where the other people were to eat it, then drift back to the table for just one more. I was stopped only because they were packing up to end the party. How many did I have? I honestly don't know. Five? Eight? Surely not as many as ten? No, definitely between four and nine, but even though each involved walking between rooms, I truly can't say. If each was twelve grams of carbs (an educated pure guess) that is between 48 and 108 grams. And me with a daily budget of 25 carb grams, certainly exceeded on volume of food alone before hitting the dessert table. Two to four days worth.
What to expect as a consequence? According to my understanding of sugar regulation, I am likely to be hungry and have more sugar cravings for the next few days. Like when I started, though without the incredible strength and optimism that always is present at the beginning of each endeavor. Be on guard, and make a plan. Atkins specifically says to drop back on the carb allowance after a slip, but never below twenty grams. Keep those leafy green volumes up, because fewer carbs and less fiber is not a good ideal. Also, both sugar and water regulation will be screwed up, so don't be surprised if the scale is unkind this week. (It already is-two pounds higher today than yesterday. That would be water, and what I do next determines whether it turns to fat stores.)
What could I have done differently? Besides the simple "just say no next time-firm up your backbone" resolve? What could I have done differently so that I would have been able to withstand the temptation? Why was I not able to manage this? What was I thinking?
I think it comes back to the subject of my previous post on Treats. I don't think I'm prepared to lead a life feeling I'm being deprived, just for the sake of weight loss. Some systematic form of rationed treats - genuine treats, not some horrible fake sugar diet form of so-called treat - is really necessary for the long run. I could have said no to all the desserts if there was a single jewel of a treat waiting for me at home. I might have been able to control the cookie intake better if I started the evening with a plan to allow a single precious treat right at the end. And one thing I did do right - I postponed the crumbling as late as possible in the evening, so the damage was limited purely by opportunity. Perhaps I should have surveyed the dessert table, decided on my single special jewel, and taken it then but not eaten it then, instead saving it for the very end just before departure. Truly, each cookie was very tasty, but the first taste is so much better and more important psychologically than the eighth, or even the second.
I think that "set aside" logic has promise as a future technique. See, the post-game analysis does add value - I think I've learned something here, not just beat myself up and moaned about it.
What do I do now? It's Sunday morning, and I do not yet have a plan for managing my food and my family's food for the week. I've got supplies in both houses, but I need to make a plan. I need to make it easy to stick to the plan by making sure I've got the ingredients and timing worked out for all the meals. And this week's challenges include some out of the office business lunches and sort-of social events. Time to look forward, not back.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Treats
Most diets have some form of "controlled cheating" or saving up for "treats". The idea is to give yourself a safety valve for those cravings and special substances. Back decades ago on Weight Watchers, they had points you could save up and use for a beer on Saturday night. The Carbohydrate Addict's diet, which I followed during the Big Loss, every single evening had a Reward meal, where you could eat anything in moderation. I was a big fan of Why Women Need Chocolate, a fairly ineffective diet that emphasized exercise at a more vigorous level, and chocolate, of course.
Not so this version of Atkins I have. There are very strict food lists, and there is no deviating from them. As you move through the phases, a wider variety of foods are added, but it never gets to the Cream Cake with Chocolate Mousse Filling that is our office birthday staple (from CostCo, $20, incredibly good, serves 30). And moving through the food lists is supposed to be in specific order, with careful note taking. All references to sweets are in terms of "mistakes".
This is a bit too joyless for me. I totally understand the up front elimination of sugars and the gradual adding back foods that might trigger an insulin rush and follow on carb cravings. I also understand that even small amounts of the wrong thing at the wrong time can be the trigger. But I've got to figure out the right things at the right times.
I miss my treats. I think I miss my habit of treating myself, alone in my house before bed, as much as I miss the actual treat food: chocolate. The treats don't have to be chocolate or even sweet, but I think I need that little treat ritual. The truth is, I really focused on it too much. It both mattered to me a lot (I'd get in the car and drive to get those Dove Darks even if I was already in my jammies), and it often was getting out of hand (three Dove Darks is 100 calories, but nine or ten starts to get into serious calorie and sugar loading).
I've started to figure out some treats to fit within the current restrictive food lists I'm following. I had a third of a cup of blueberries (from Chile) mixed in with an equal amount of mascarpone as my after dinner treat on Sunday. It was absolutely terrific, very special and "treat-y". I bought some nice hard cheeses, and last week I had a small piece of pate de campagne. I'm stocking olives from the olive bar at Whole Foods. (Today's lunch of tuna salad was made special with the olives.) I've got an array of new teas to try from Whole Foods, and I buy these really terrific but ridiculously expensive flavored waters from Whole Foods.
This is all good stuff and will help keep me from getting bored and going off on a carb loading binge. But I do have to know I'll be able to work some of my favorite foods into the plan at some point. There is advice in the book on how to order and eat in restaurants, but its all about how to find the right foods, not how to incorporate some off-plan food into special occasions without throwing away weeks of work. The only mention of "chocolate" in the index has two recipes mixing unsweeted cocoa powder into ricotta cheese with sucralose. I actually did this once (its on the South Beach diet) and its not terrible, but its also not a chocolate treat.
One thought - the original Atkins had alcohol coming back in by the second week. Dr. Atkins allowed red wine nearly from the start. This newer version is more strict, but it does come back, because who would live without drinking? (They do suggest staying permanently away from regular beer. Not going to happen.) I'm going to read about their approach for that, and then figure the carb grams in Dove Darks can't be worse for me that an equal amount of alcohol carb grams. I'm going to postpone the chocolate, but I'm not going to say good-bye forever. However, I'm imagining tiny little perfect gems of sweets - a demitasse of hot chocolate, minimally sweet. A single Dove Dark. One slice of my boy's sour dough bread, toasted with farm fresh butter. Oy, I feel my insulin levels rising with these thoughts, so its time to turn to bed instead.
Not so this version of Atkins I have. There are very strict food lists, and there is no deviating from them. As you move through the phases, a wider variety of foods are added, but it never gets to the Cream Cake with Chocolate Mousse Filling that is our office birthday staple (from CostCo, $20, incredibly good, serves 30). And moving through the food lists is supposed to be in specific order, with careful note taking. All references to sweets are in terms of "mistakes".
This is a bit too joyless for me. I totally understand the up front elimination of sugars and the gradual adding back foods that might trigger an insulin rush and follow on carb cravings. I also understand that even small amounts of the wrong thing at the wrong time can be the trigger. But I've got to figure out the right things at the right times.
I miss my treats. I think I miss my habit of treating myself, alone in my house before bed, as much as I miss the actual treat food: chocolate. The treats don't have to be chocolate or even sweet, but I think I need that little treat ritual. The truth is, I really focused on it too much. It both mattered to me a lot (I'd get in the car and drive to get those Dove Darks even if I was already in my jammies), and it often was getting out of hand (three Dove Darks is 100 calories, but nine or ten starts to get into serious calorie and sugar loading).
I've started to figure out some treats to fit within the current restrictive food lists I'm following. I had a third of a cup of blueberries (from Chile) mixed in with an equal amount of mascarpone as my after dinner treat on Sunday. It was absolutely terrific, very special and "treat-y". I bought some nice hard cheeses, and last week I had a small piece of pate de campagne. I'm stocking olives from the olive bar at Whole Foods. (Today's lunch of tuna salad was made special with the olives.) I've got an array of new teas to try from Whole Foods, and I buy these really terrific but ridiculously expensive flavored waters from Whole Foods.
This is all good stuff and will help keep me from getting bored and going off on a carb loading binge. But I do have to know I'll be able to work some of my favorite foods into the plan at some point. There is advice in the book on how to order and eat in restaurants, but its all about how to find the right foods, not how to incorporate some off-plan food into special occasions without throwing away weeks of work. The only mention of "chocolate" in the index has two recipes mixing unsweeted cocoa powder into ricotta cheese with sucralose. I actually did this once (its on the South Beach diet) and its not terrible, but its also not a chocolate treat.
One thought - the original Atkins had alcohol coming back in by the second week. Dr. Atkins allowed red wine nearly from the start. This newer version is more strict, but it does come back, because who would live without drinking? (They do suggest staying permanently away from regular beer. Not going to happen.) I'm going to read about their approach for that, and then figure the carb grams in Dove Darks can't be worse for me that an equal amount of alcohol carb grams. I'm going to postpone the chocolate, but I'm not going to say good-bye forever. However, I'm imagining tiny little perfect gems of sweets - a demitasse of hot chocolate, minimally sweet. A single Dove Dark. One slice of my boy's sour dough bread, toasted with farm fresh butter. Oy, I feel my insulin levels rising with these thoughts, so its time to turn to bed instead.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Spaghetti Supper
I decided I wanted to give spaghetti a try. But after reading label after label, I realized I was going to have to work from scratch.
A lot of my motivation was digging through the big basement freezer and finding some sweet Italian sausages that really needed to be cooked. I thawed and fried them all up and set them aside. They were from Costco, they were pork, but the ingredients were pretty much pork and fennel and other spices - no bread filler. That was a start.
I had already settled on spaghetti squash. I've tried it before and it's ok. It doesn't taste like spaghetti, or have the texture of spaghetti, but at least it slightly resembles spaghetti visually. I was surprised to find it on the Atkins food lists fairly early on. But each half cup serving only has five grams of carbohydrate - really a bargain. The net carbs are even less, after deducting the fiber. The only problem is it takes at least an hour to prepare in the oven, so not a good weeknight choice. I didn't go to work today, so I had time.
The sauce was the unknown. I read label after label on spaghetti sauces, at Whole Foods and Trader Joes and the Giant. Carb grams for a half cup serving ranged from six to twelve. It seems to be driven by the sugar added. So I decided to go from scratch. Sauteed garlic and onions in olive oil, added matchstick zucchini to the pan, then a couple of cans of diced tomatoes. Plenty of spices to make it yummy. According to my MasterCook software, that should come out to only three grams of net carbs. How cool is that!
Even cooler is the fact that my kids liked it. As I push vegies on myself, they are starting to pick them up and try them, too. This is a real victory.
So the dinner in total was only twenty grams of carbs. Once the fiber was deducted, my breakfast spinach-egg casserole, steak salad for lunch and spaghetti supper only gave me twenty-one net carbs for the day. I'll have a club soda and lime apertif and call it a day.
A lot of my motivation was digging through the big basement freezer and finding some sweet Italian sausages that really needed to be cooked. I thawed and fried them all up and set them aside. They were from Costco, they were pork, but the ingredients were pretty much pork and fennel and other spices - no bread filler. That was a start.
I had already settled on spaghetti squash. I've tried it before and it's ok. It doesn't taste like spaghetti, or have the texture of spaghetti, but at least it slightly resembles spaghetti visually. I was surprised to find it on the Atkins food lists fairly early on. But each half cup serving only has five grams of carbohydrate - really a bargain. The net carbs are even less, after deducting the fiber. The only problem is it takes at least an hour to prepare in the oven, so not a good weeknight choice. I didn't go to work today, so I had time.
The sauce was the unknown. I read label after label on spaghetti sauces, at Whole Foods and Trader Joes and the Giant. Carb grams for a half cup serving ranged from six to twelve. It seems to be driven by the sugar added. So I decided to go from scratch. Sauteed garlic and onions in olive oil, added matchstick zucchini to the pan, then a couple of cans of diced tomatoes. Plenty of spices to make it yummy. According to my MasterCook software, that should come out to only three grams of net carbs. How cool is that!
Even cooler is the fact that my kids liked it. As I push vegies on myself, they are starting to pick them up and try them, too. This is a real victory.
So the dinner in total was only twenty grams of carbs. Once the fiber was deducted, my breakfast spinach-egg casserole, steak salad for lunch and spaghetti supper only gave me twenty-one net carbs for the day. I'll have a club soda and lime apertif and call it a day.
I Love My Coffee
I am certainly more a morning person than a night person. Yet, I have a horrible time getting up in the morning some days. I really really need my cup of coffee. My dad always brought my mother her first cup while she was still in bed, and it was a gesture that really meant a lot to her. I've long had a joke that the problem sometimes is having to make coffee before you've had you first cup of coffee. But I like good coffee, and that means freshly ground beans.
It's not that hard. But I'm so very stupid in the morning. It doesn't have to be complex to be nearly impossible. My most amusing screw up was years ago when I poured whole beans directly into the pot and stared at it for over a minute trying to figure out what I did wrong. After a series of those problems, I found myself first heating up yesterdays' coffee, then going instant, rather than deal with a coffee grinder in the morning. When I lived in Chicago, I would roll out of bed and find myself all dressed and in my car pointed at Starbucks before I knew what was happening. (There was a joke that it ought to be illegal for me to drive to get coffee before I have any coffee.) Now, I have a coffee pot that automatically grinds the beans immediately before brewing the coffee (which makes the coffee incredibly good) but it does add a small level of complexity to the process. My pot has a reservoir for beans, and grinds the amount for the number of cups you dial in. Sadly, the pot is not plumbed into the wall, so I still have to pour in water, in a quantity to match the number of cups for the beans. I also have to put in the filter, close it up, position the basket under the grinder, place the pot on the ring, and push the button.
I know I am still tired or stressed when I make a mistake in making coffee, as I did yesterday. I failed to execute that sequence of steps not once but twice yesterday, each time resulting in a big mess but no coffee. I had been awake for some hours in the middle of the night (stressing about teens) and then slept later than I have in months. Finally I moved myself to the kitchen, with bad results. Both times, I set it up wrong (left the filter out the first time - left the pot off the second) and then left the kitchen to stare blankly into space while coffee and grounds dripped all over my counters. By the time I had the messes cleaned up and the third pot brewed and was finally able to have some, it was pushing noon and I was having a major caffeine withdrawal headache.
I did a little bit of reading about this, from that authoritative voice, The Internet. While the amount of coffee I drink daily (eight cups on the machine dial = three mugs) is not considered excessive, the fact that it is constant does indeed mean I should expect the caffeine headache if I don't have any. It only takes one small cup to make the headache go away (Tylenol didn't seem to help while I was waiting) though it took nearly an hour. I am a little concerned about being dependent on a substance and so thrown for a loop when its not available. Apparently the headache comes from low blood pressure in the brain, which in my case could be exacerbated by the Atkins low blood pressure. It could also account for my stupidity.
But I love love love that coffee. I love what it does for me. I love the way I can feel my body waking up and coming alive during the first half hour the caffeine takes effect. On my mornings with early gym call, I set up the pot the night before and my first move is from the bed to the pot. I really try to suck in that first cup at least twenty minutes before getting to the gym because it will make a big difference to my performance. I can especially feel it in my balance. It also comes across in my taciturnity. Only at the end of the gym session am I able to talk and joke with the trainers.
As I said, I really like freshly ground beans. I first started with this right after college, when my house-mates were already in that habit. They had a Braun coffee mill and a Chemex pot, and we had to stand there and pour in the water.It seemed the height of sophistication to me, and the results were incredible. Mr Coffee first hit the market around then, the first counter-top drip brewer for the home. Before then people had stove-top percolators. We had to make a pilgrimage to a gourmet food and liquor store on the edge of Ann Arbor to get whole beans in those days - the late seventies. In a pinch, the old A&P had whole beans though they expected you to want it ground.
Now, I like a variety of different types of beans. This is good, because there certainly are a lot of choices out there. Besides the variety and roast of the beans, there are organic, fair trade, shade grown, options all to consider. I experiment around with different types, but mostly I buy big barrels of fair trade beans in blends from Trader Joe's. My taste has recently migrated to preferring a medium to dark roast, from years of going for the darkest roasts available. I get nervous if the quantity of beans in the house gets too low, and I do keep an emergency stash of coffee bags in the house.
Both my stove and my coffee maker are electric, and we have power outages at irregular but frequent intervals. I keep a coleman propane stove just for these occurrences, though unless its a widespread disaster like a hurricaine, it's generally quicker to head to Starbucks or even 7-11. Anything to keep the headache away. Gotta have that cuppa Joe.
It's not that hard. But I'm so very stupid in the morning. It doesn't have to be complex to be nearly impossible. My most amusing screw up was years ago when I poured whole beans directly into the pot and stared at it for over a minute trying to figure out what I did wrong. After a series of those problems, I found myself first heating up yesterdays' coffee, then going instant, rather than deal with a coffee grinder in the morning. When I lived in Chicago, I would roll out of bed and find myself all dressed and in my car pointed at Starbucks before I knew what was happening. (There was a joke that it ought to be illegal for me to drive to get coffee before I have any coffee.) Now, I have a coffee pot that automatically grinds the beans immediately before brewing the coffee (which makes the coffee incredibly good) but it does add a small level of complexity to the process. My pot has a reservoir for beans, and grinds the amount for the number of cups you dial in. Sadly, the pot is not plumbed into the wall, so I still have to pour in water, in a quantity to match the number of cups for the beans. I also have to put in the filter, close it up, position the basket under the grinder, place the pot on the ring, and push the button.
I know I am still tired or stressed when I make a mistake in making coffee, as I did yesterday. I failed to execute that sequence of steps not once but twice yesterday, each time resulting in a big mess but no coffee. I had been awake for some hours in the middle of the night (stressing about teens) and then slept later than I have in months. Finally I moved myself to the kitchen, with bad results. Both times, I set it up wrong (left the filter out the first time - left the pot off the second) and then left the kitchen to stare blankly into space while coffee and grounds dripped all over my counters. By the time I had the messes cleaned up and the third pot brewed and was finally able to have some, it was pushing noon and I was having a major caffeine withdrawal headache.
I did a little bit of reading about this, from that authoritative voice, The Internet. While the amount of coffee I drink daily (eight cups on the machine dial = three mugs) is not considered excessive, the fact that it is constant does indeed mean I should expect the caffeine headache if I don't have any. It only takes one small cup to make the headache go away (Tylenol didn't seem to help while I was waiting) though it took nearly an hour. I am a little concerned about being dependent on a substance and so thrown for a loop when its not available. Apparently the headache comes from low blood pressure in the brain, which in my case could be exacerbated by the Atkins low blood pressure. It could also account for my stupidity.
But I love love love that coffee. I love what it does for me. I love the way I can feel my body waking up and coming alive during the first half hour the caffeine takes effect. On my mornings with early gym call, I set up the pot the night before and my first move is from the bed to the pot. I really try to suck in that first cup at least twenty minutes before getting to the gym because it will make a big difference to my performance. I can especially feel it in my balance. It also comes across in my taciturnity. Only at the end of the gym session am I able to talk and joke with the trainers.
 |
| Chemex pot |
Now, I like a variety of different types of beans. This is good, because there certainly are a lot of choices out there. Besides the variety and roast of the beans, there are organic, fair trade, shade grown, options all to consider. I experiment around with different types, but mostly I buy big barrels of fair trade beans in blends from Trader Joe's. My taste has recently migrated to preferring a medium to dark roast, from years of going for the darkest roasts available. I get nervous if the quantity of beans in the house gets too low, and I do keep an emergency stash of coffee bags in the house.
Both my stove and my coffee maker are electric, and we have power outages at irregular but frequent intervals. I keep a coleman propane stove just for these occurrences, though unless its a widespread disaster like a hurricaine, it's generally quicker to head to Starbucks or even 7-11. Anything to keep the headache away. Gotta have that cuppa Joe.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Food Shopping
Following this newly strict eating discipline has made me change my shopping habits. I had gotten in a rut so I could wisk through the aisles on autopilot, with just a quick glance at my list before beginning.
Now, I'm really focusing on those fresh vegies. Buying fruit for the rest of the family, but greens for me. I'm having to think through complete meals instead of dishes. It slows me down, but I need this level of planning and concentration to not end up with nothing I either can or want to eat.
I do most of my food shopping at Whole Foods despite the expense. I buy organic often, but only when its as easy as conventional. (It's less about my health than the impact on the earth and health of the farmworkers for me.) I don't stick to local there - not much to choose from in our grey fields. So bumping up the green food, this week I got:
- two big boxes of ready to go salad greens, plus one of spinach for my egg cheese casserole
- avocados on sale
- snow peas and other stuff for a stir fry
- matchstick zucchini to go with spaghetti
- spaghetti squash
- cauliflower for making pureed cauliflower with cheese (like mashed potatoes)
- Meyer lemons for juice
- blueberries for a special treat
That took a long time and wandering around and backtracking. Then to the meat - I try to only buy all my poultry and much of the rest of my meat at Whole Foods based on animal welfare - though many of the high protein diet folks talk about the much higher value we get from animals raised on their natural foods. By then I was tired and ready to quit. Last week I spent long minutes examining the labels of sauces and salad dressing looking for minimal carbs. I don't buy foods labeled low carb - they generally have some form of fake sugar in them. Instead, I look for use of ingredients that don't include sugar or starch. There are sauces made that way, but they will sit on the shelf right next to a sauce sweetened or smoothed out with ingredients I don't want.
Whew. I need to develop some new habits. I need to know which bottles to reach for on the shelf. I need to be in a rhythm of "spaghetti on Tues, get the zucchini, stirfry on Thursday, make sure you've got the greens". This will speed things up and make it less burdensome.
So sure enough, two weeks is not enough to make a new habit, but is about the maximum period I can sustain the focus and consciousness of how I want to be eating. I ended up last night with nothing cooked and nothing planned - so dinner for me was deviled eggs and avocado. I've got stuff for breakfast now for the week, some tuna for fall back lunches, and need to start up cooking dinners to make sure I've got the leftovers for the rest of lunches.
Now, I'm really focusing on those fresh vegies. Buying fruit for the rest of the family, but greens for me. I'm having to think through complete meals instead of dishes. It slows me down, but I need this level of planning and concentration to not end up with nothing I either can or want to eat.
I do most of my food shopping at Whole Foods despite the expense. I buy organic often, but only when its as easy as conventional. (It's less about my health than the impact on the earth and health of the farmworkers for me.) I don't stick to local there - not much to choose from in our grey fields. So bumping up the green food, this week I got:
- two big boxes of ready to go salad greens, plus one of spinach for my egg cheese casserole
- avocados on sale
- snow peas and other stuff for a stir fry
- matchstick zucchini to go with spaghetti
- spaghetti squash
- cauliflower for making pureed cauliflower with cheese (like mashed potatoes)
- Meyer lemons for juice
- blueberries for a special treat
That took a long time and wandering around and backtracking. Then to the meat - I try to only buy all my poultry and much of the rest of my meat at Whole Foods based on animal welfare - though many of the high protein diet folks talk about the much higher value we get from animals raised on their natural foods. By then I was tired and ready to quit. Last week I spent long minutes examining the labels of sauces and salad dressing looking for minimal carbs. I don't buy foods labeled low carb - they generally have some form of fake sugar in them. Instead, I look for use of ingredients that don't include sugar or starch. There are sauces made that way, but they will sit on the shelf right next to a sauce sweetened or smoothed out with ingredients I don't want.
Whew. I need to develop some new habits. I need to know which bottles to reach for on the shelf. I need to be in a rhythm of "spaghetti on Tues, get the zucchini, stirfry on Thursday, make sure you've got the greens". This will speed things up and make it less burdensome.
So sure enough, two weeks is not enough to make a new habit, but is about the maximum period I can sustain the focus and consciousness of how I want to be eating. I ended up last night with nothing cooked and nothing planned - so dinner for me was deviled eggs and avocado. I've got stuff for breakfast now for the week, some tuna for fall back lunches, and need to start up cooking dinners to make sure I've got the leftovers for the rest of lunches.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Two Weeks of Atkins
I've followed Atkins faithfully for the last two weeks - and how has it gone? First, the results.
The first week I lost 4 1/2 pounds. Last week I lost one pound, for a total of 5 /12 for the first two weeks.
This sounds better than it is. My starting weight was ballooned up from the trend I had been on, fueled by holiday excess. Most of the holiday weight, it turns out, probably was water. Most or all of the first week's weight loss was certainly water. The Atkins book even asserts that it is likely water because on this diet you retain less salt and thus it is naturally diuretic. They urge being careful to not get dehydrated, and even up your salt intake to make sure your blood pressure doesn't drop too far (and of course, if you have blood pressure issues or medication, talk to your doctor first). Here's a picture of how my weight loss first stalled at Thanksgiving, ballooned up at Christmas, and now is back on track.
So hooray for me! This is good, worth celebrating, but hardly a miracle. I did follow the eating guidelines faithfully, completely cold turkey on chocolate and other foods. That has resulted in a middling calorie intake, 1500 to 1800 calories. The carb target has been 20 net carbs, and I've been slightly higher than that many days, but not more than 25 grams. I've followed the food lists, but my preference is for hearty vegetables like broccoli. Even the leafy vegetables I prefer cooked which lowers the fiber count and thus ups the net carb total. To actually keep the carb totals low, while still achieving the goal of eating lots of vegies, more salads are necessary. I'm strategizing how to get there.
I have felt pretty good. I have gotten hungry, especially at the half way point a week ago. I've eaten an egg/spinach/cheese bake for breakfast almost every day, and it wakes my appetite so I'm hungry for lunch and dinner. I've added in an afternoon snack most days, as I've found foods that are allowed and easy. This has been cheese and/or olives most days, either grab and go in the office or at home as I make dinner.
Now comes the hard part: deciding where to go from here. Atkins, like many diets, has phases. The first two weeks the idea is to de-tox your body from carb-fueled insulin levels. After that induction phase, the idea is to gradually add back carbs - both types of foods and total net carbs - until weight loss stalls. This requires assiduous tracking and self assessment. You need to track your food in order to count your carbs. But you also need to monitor what types of foods you are eating to see if certain ones seem to trigger cravings or hunger. Those foods are ones to eliminate, potentially forever for all practical purposes.
This part is really work. Tracking and adding up is actually a lot of work. The more you cook combination foods from raw ingredients, the harder it is to enter into any automated tracking program which will do the math. They do single foods great, they do name brand prepared foods great - good databases, and easy to enter a new one you will use again - but cooked from scratch foods with many ingredients are guesses or stretches for close matches. I've started entering my recipes into my recipe program on the computer, generating a nutrition analysis out of that program, and then entering it into the tracking database. Lots of work, and of course I never actually make anything the same way twice.
But I think I'll stick with the very limited induction program for another week. I'll add in some lemon juice as an ingredient, almonds as a snack, and give myself a one time treat this weekend of blueberries in creme fraiche. Then decide what to do the week after that.
The first week I lost 4 1/2 pounds. Last week I lost one pound, for a total of 5 /12 for the first two weeks.
This sounds better than it is. My starting weight was ballooned up from the trend I had been on, fueled by holiday excess. Most of the holiday weight, it turns out, probably was water. Most or all of the first week's weight loss was certainly water. The Atkins book even asserts that it is likely water because on this diet you retain less salt and thus it is naturally diuretic. They urge being careful to not get dehydrated, and even up your salt intake to make sure your blood pressure doesn't drop too far (and of course, if you have blood pressure issues or medication, talk to your doctor first). Here's a picture of how my weight loss first stalled at Thanksgiving, ballooned up at Christmas, and now is back on track.
So hooray for me! This is good, worth celebrating, but hardly a miracle. I did follow the eating guidelines faithfully, completely cold turkey on chocolate and other foods. That has resulted in a middling calorie intake, 1500 to 1800 calories. The carb target has been 20 net carbs, and I've been slightly higher than that many days, but not more than 25 grams. I've followed the food lists, but my preference is for hearty vegetables like broccoli. Even the leafy vegetables I prefer cooked which lowers the fiber count and thus ups the net carb total. To actually keep the carb totals low, while still achieving the goal of eating lots of vegies, more salads are necessary. I'm strategizing how to get there.
I have felt pretty good. I have gotten hungry, especially at the half way point a week ago. I've eaten an egg/spinach/cheese bake for breakfast almost every day, and it wakes my appetite so I'm hungry for lunch and dinner. I've added in an afternoon snack most days, as I've found foods that are allowed and easy. This has been cheese and/or olives most days, either grab and go in the office or at home as I make dinner.
Now comes the hard part: deciding where to go from here. Atkins, like many diets, has phases. The first two weeks the idea is to de-tox your body from carb-fueled insulin levels. After that induction phase, the idea is to gradually add back carbs - both types of foods and total net carbs - until weight loss stalls. This requires assiduous tracking and self assessment. You need to track your food in order to count your carbs. But you also need to monitor what types of foods you are eating to see if certain ones seem to trigger cravings or hunger. Those foods are ones to eliminate, potentially forever for all practical purposes.
This part is really work. Tracking and adding up is actually a lot of work. The more you cook combination foods from raw ingredients, the harder it is to enter into any automated tracking program which will do the math. They do single foods great, they do name brand prepared foods great - good databases, and easy to enter a new one you will use again - but cooked from scratch foods with many ingredients are guesses or stretches for close matches. I've started entering my recipes into my recipe program on the computer, generating a nutrition analysis out of that program, and then entering it into the tracking database. Lots of work, and of course I never actually make anything the same way twice.
But I think I'll stick with the very limited induction program for another week. I'll add in some lemon juice as an ingredient, almonds as a snack, and give myself a one time treat this weekend of blueberries in creme fraiche. Then decide what to do the week after that.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Calories Down
So I'm sticking totally to the strictest part of the Atkins rules and my total calorie consumption is way down - around 1500 total each day. Maybe its just because I've cut out the evening chocolate habit. Maybe it's because I pass up all impulsive eating opportunities, and am planning each meal well in advance. It's actually really hard to eat as many leafy greens as the book says I should - I just had three cups of mixed lettuces plus a cup and a half of sauteed shredded red cabbage to go with my pot roast, and I got more carbs from the pot roast and gravy than the vegetables. (Side note on the pot roast - mixing old and new. Local grass fed beef on sale at Whole Foods sauced with Lipton's Onion Soup and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom - yummy mix but with sugar and carbs. Only possible because my mother was there to pop it in the oven by four this afternoon. I made mashed potatoes for the rest of the family.)
Tomorrow - egg spinach and cheese baked on the weekend, lunch in the microwave of salmon in pesto sauce on a big bed of shredded zucchini (leftovers) and for dinner chicken marinated in bottled ginger-lime sauce and steamed broccoli and a side salad. I'll do rice for the rest of the family with dinner.Yum, but maybe better bring cheese in case I feel like snacking during the day.
Gym pre-dawn tomorrow. Past my bed-time already.
Tomorrow - egg spinach and cheese baked on the weekend, lunch in the microwave of salmon in pesto sauce on a big bed of shredded zucchini (leftovers) and for dinner chicken marinated in bottled ginger-lime sauce and steamed broccoli and a side salad. I'll do rice for the rest of the family with dinner.Yum, but maybe better bring cheese in case I feel like snacking during the day.
Gym pre-dawn tomorrow. Past my bed-time already.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The Atkins Stigma
There is a real stigma attached to the Atkins diet. I wrote a bit about Atkins a few days ago (here), when I picked up the newest book and decided to follow it. Dr. Atkins invited and welcomed controversy. But the science has moved on, and the diet has evolved. I see it as a very healthy alternative way of eating, and I think it is going to really work for me.
But the stigma and the controversy remain. So much so, I'm not telling many people that's what I'm doing.
If you haven't been living in the low-carb world, perhaps it continues to appear radical and risky. My own low-carb history starts back in the 1970's, when my mother lost a large amount of weight on a more-radical diet that was Stillman. Since my mother cooked for the family, I managed to lose a fair amount of weight while she was following it faithfully, while my father was traveling for a couple of months. At least as I remember it, that was an all-meat and fish and dairy diet, without any vegetables at all. It was known on college campuses as the "hamburger and water diet". The summary from my mother was, "it works, but it's not particularly healthy, so don't ever do it for more than four weeks at a time". I skimmed the book she had, and my takeaway was "it simulates diabetes", so that reinforced for me the unhealthy aspect of it. This was a serious misunderstanding of ketosis, which I will eventually explain, but maybe not in this post.
My next venture into low-carb world was The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet. I read a tattered paperback my mother had received from a friend, and perhaps it was a pivotal moment for me, in terms of how my life as a dieter has evolved since then. It had to have been the mid-nineties, because the book is copyright 1993. I had been on Weight Watchers once or twice with limited success, but I was very fat and getting fatter. I had totally subscribed to Jane Brody's Good Food Book, which I sum up as "ditch the fat and ditch the meat", and translated for me into massive amounts of starch to replace the lost items. I don't remember a focus on fresh green vegetables. I had a vegetarian house-mate in the eighties, and that moved me along the starch path as well. Again, not such a big focus on fresh or green. Bread and pasta were my go-to foods. The biggest bagel factory for the Chicago area was in between my home and office, and I took them to the office all the time - and at least once was known to eat FOUR of them. This was the era of "low fat is everything". There were commercials about the clamor and scarcity for the new line of sugar-loaded but low fat "snackwells". And I got fatter and more ashamed of myself all the time.
What clicked for me in reading Carbohydrate Addict were the pages that focused on the science behind it - insulin. This first book is very unsophisticated in its discussion, but for the first time, it began to make sense to me why this approach works - not just to lose weight, but to reduce cravings around carbs and make it easier to stick to. They also were careful to distance themselves from Atkins. The basics of the diet as I first tried it in 1995, then used for the Big Loss in 1998, is "you can eat anything you like in moderation for an hour a day, the rest of the time is no or low carb". So there was no deprivation - if there was candy or a sweet to be had, I could set it aside to eat at dinner. The emphasis was on protein, not on fresh green vegies. But their main hook is: if you keep your insulin levels managed by few carbs most of the time, cravings will go away. They asserted like Atkins that calories don't matter, weight will be lost from the insulin management. I decided it didn't matter to me whether calories mattered or not, because following this mode of eating meant my calories stayed relatively low with no serious need to suppress cravings or desires.
I followed this approach closely for two years, and loosely for a decade. I lost fifty pounds, and it has never come all the way back. As I loosened my discipline, weight did come back. When it came back, it stayed, unless I went back on the discipline. In the meantime, I read massively about the science behind it. I also found and read many other low carb books. There is a whole sub-culture out there. It is the worst kept secret in the diet world. I finally read Atkins, and was put off by the pugnaciousness of Atkins - but also appalled by the backlash and attacks that regularly came his way. The attacks were personal and vehement, and not based on results or science. I was particularly incensed by an American Heart Associate attack that I took the time to write a rebuttal to-without any justification it defined a "healthy diet" as one low in fat and then scored low carb diets against that standard -and guess what -they scored low, and thus were unhealthy.
As I read more and more of the science, I completely accepted the insulin argument about carbs, cravings, and fat storage. This has moved more and more mainstream, but there is still a visceral rejection of meat and fat. There is a disconnect between the science as I understand it, and translation into eating advice. At my gym, "eating healthy" is assumed. The ideal would be no-fat vegetarian food, manufactured low fat vegetarian food like substances, and bananas. Not for me. Hasn't been for years. I've had incredibly intense cardio health screening, and my low carbohydrate but relatively high fat diet has not lead to any apparent issues.
So I'm mostly not telling people I'm doing Atkins. I am completely comfortable in my own mind about the health, safety, and effectiveness of the eating approach I am on. But I don't want to have to go through all the explanations and justifications to others, and so I'm keeping it quiet. Even with my family. I'm planning meals with the same old meat or fish centerpiece, making starches for sides, and adding salads and green vegetables. No lasagna or pizza for a while, because I can't separate out the starches, but mostly I'm doing this under the radar. We'll see how things go.
But the stigma and the controversy remain. So much so, I'm not telling many people that's what I'm doing.
If you haven't been living in the low-carb world, perhaps it continues to appear radical and risky. My own low-carb history starts back in the 1970's, when my mother lost a large amount of weight on a more-radical diet that was Stillman. Since my mother cooked for the family, I managed to lose a fair amount of weight while she was following it faithfully, while my father was traveling for a couple of months. At least as I remember it, that was an all-meat and fish and dairy diet, without any vegetables at all. It was known on college campuses as the "hamburger and water diet". The summary from my mother was, "it works, but it's not particularly healthy, so don't ever do it for more than four weeks at a time". I skimmed the book she had, and my takeaway was "it simulates diabetes", so that reinforced for me the unhealthy aspect of it. This was a serious misunderstanding of ketosis, which I will eventually explain, but maybe not in this post.
My next venture into low-carb world was The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet. I read a tattered paperback my mother had received from a friend, and perhaps it was a pivotal moment for me, in terms of how my life as a dieter has evolved since then. It had to have been the mid-nineties, because the book is copyright 1993. I had been on Weight Watchers once or twice with limited success, but I was very fat and getting fatter. I had totally subscribed to Jane Brody's Good Food Book, which I sum up as "ditch the fat and ditch the meat", and translated for me into massive amounts of starch to replace the lost items. I don't remember a focus on fresh green vegetables. I had a vegetarian house-mate in the eighties, and that moved me along the starch path as well. Again, not such a big focus on fresh or green. Bread and pasta were my go-to foods. The biggest bagel factory for the Chicago area was in between my home and office, and I took them to the office all the time - and at least once was known to eat FOUR of them. This was the era of "low fat is everything". There were commercials about the clamor and scarcity for the new line of sugar-loaded but low fat "snackwells". And I got fatter and more ashamed of myself all the time.
What clicked for me in reading Carbohydrate Addict were the pages that focused on the science behind it - insulin. This first book is very unsophisticated in its discussion, but for the first time, it began to make sense to me why this approach works - not just to lose weight, but to reduce cravings around carbs and make it easier to stick to. They also were careful to distance themselves from Atkins. The basics of the diet as I first tried it in 1995, then used for the Big Loss in 1998, is "you can eat anything you like in moderation for an hour a day, the rest of the time is no or low carb". So there was no deprivation - if there was candy or a sweet to be had, I could set it aside to eat at dinner. The emphasis was on protein, not on fresh green vegies. But their main hook is: if you keep your insulin levels managed by few carbs most of the time, cravings will go away. They asserted like Atkins that calories don't matter, weight will be lost from the insulin management. I decided it didn't matter to me whether calories mattered or not, because following this mode of eating meant my calories stayed relatively low with no serious need to suppress cravings or desires.
I followed this approach closely for two years, and loosely for a decade. I lost fifty pounds, and it has never come all the way back. As I loosened my discipline, weight did come back. When it came back, it stayed, unless I went back on the discipline. In the meantime, I read massively about the science behind it. I also found and read many other low carb books. There is a whole sub-culture out there. It is the worst kept secret in the diet world. I finally read Atkins, and was put off by the pugnaciousness of Atkins - but also appalled by the backlash and attacks that regularly came his way. The attacks were personal and vehement, and not based on results or science. I was particularly incensed by an American Heart Associate attack that I took the time to write a rebuttal to-without any justification it defined a "healthy diet" as one low in fat and then scored low carb diets against that standard -and guess what -they scored low, and thus were unhealthy.
As I read more and more of the science, I completely accepted the insulin argument about carbs, cravings, and fat storage. This has moved more and more mainstream, but there is still a visceral rejection of meat and fat. There is a disconnect between the science as I understand it, and translation into eating advice. At my gym, "eating healthy" is assumed. The ideal would be no-fat vegetarian food, manufactured low fat vegetarian food like substances, and bananas. Not for me. Hasn't been for years. I've had incredibly intense cardio health screening, and my low carbohydrate but relatively high fat diet has not lead to any apparent issues.
So I'm mostly not telling people I'm doing Atkins. I am completely comfortable in my own mind about the health, safety, and effectiveness of the eating approach I am on. But I don't want to have to go through all the explanations and justifications to others, and so I'm keeping it quiet. Even with my family. I'm planning meals with the same old meat or fish centerpiece, making starches for sides, and adding salads and green vegetables. No lasagna or pizza for a while, because I can't separate out the starches, but mostly I'm doing this under the radar. We'll see how things go.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
My Week in Activity
Not very impressive this week on the moving front. Pretty much, I kept my gym appointments, but didn't do much else. A big part of the problem was tossing and turning during the night - the last week was about the worst sleep I've had in months. The rest of the problem is the pace at work. We are phenomenally busy, doing many different things, some of which are really rewarding, others which make a difference, and others which do both, and of course those that do neither. I've got new staff, and more new folks coming on soon, so this pace will not last forever, but its going to last quite a while.
So how bad was the week? Sunday, I was an indoor slug and didn't make total calories. Monday, I made total calories primarily because I was able to walk down to another office building a half mile away, and walk back as well. Tuesday, gym appointment. I had to go to a meeting down by the ball park, and hoped to be able to walk back. But the meeting ran late and someone called to squeeze in another huddle, so I had to metro back and even eat lunch on the fly in my ad hoc meeting. (Luckily I had brought it, just needed the extra four minutes to microwave it.) Wednesday, never left the building and didn't even take the time to walk up my nine flights of stairs. Thursday,before dawn gym but then confined to a meeting room for six hours. Actually a bright spot occurred: long enough lunch break to stroll in the vivid through frigid sun, then home before dark and just over a mile through the park at a rapid clip. Friday, I never even budged from my own office complex, with adrenalin pounding over getting pieces of paper pulled together to meet fairly arbitrary deadlines on unessential things. I love my job, but some things are just silly, and it frustrates me that I have to sacrifice my energy breaks for these kinds of things.
Today I was awake and alert at the (post-sunrise) gym, and stayed to jog on the treadmill. If I really wanted to move ahead on the running, I would need to do it more than one day a week, but I don't see that happening any time soon. But still, I'm pretty confident that I'm progressing. I love those intervals. I watched my distances, and I complete two miles in exactly 30 minutes, so the average pace is easy to figure out. I jogged in four intervals for a mile and a quarter of the two miles total.
I did a quick search of "couch to 5K". There are several different versions of six or eight week training programs, relying on intervals, to get to be able to run five kilometers, which is just over three miles. I would love to get there, but it would take at least three sessions a week, at least 45 minutes each. I'm not going to be able to allocate that time for at least a little while longer. Something to noodle around, however.
So how bad was the week? Sunday, I was an indoor slug and didn't make total calories. Monday, I made total calories primarily because I was able to walk down to another office building a half mile away, and walk back as well. Tuesday, gym appointment. I had to go to a meeting down by the ball park, and hoped to be able to walk back. But the meeting ran late and someone called to squeeze in another huddle, so I had to metro back and even eat lunch on the fly in my ad hoc meeting. (Luckily I had brought it, just needed the extra four minutes to microwave it.) Wednesday, never left the building and didn't even take the time to walk up my nine flights of stairs. Thursday,before dawn gym but then confined to a meeting room for six hours. Actually a bright spot occurred: long enough lunch break to stroll in the vivid through frigid sun, then home before dark and just over a mile through the park at a rapid clip. Friday, I never even budged from my own office complex, with adrenalin pounding over getting pieces of paper pulled together to meet fairly arbitrary deadlines on unessential things. I love my job, but some things are just silly, and it frustrates me that I have to sacrifice my energy breaks for these kinds of things.
Today I was awake and alert at the (post-sunrise) gym, and stayed to jog on the treadmill. If I really wanted to move ahead on the running, I would need to do it more than one day a week, but I don't see that happening any time soon. But still, I'm pretty confident that I'm progressing. I love those intervals. I watched my distances, and I complete two miles in exactly 30 minutes, so the average pace is easy to figure out. I jogged in four intervals for a mile and a quarter of the two miles total.
I did a quick search of "couch to 5K". There are several different versions of six or eight week training programs, relying on intervals, to get to be able to run five kilometers, which is just over three miles. I would love to get there, but it would take at least three sessions a week, at least 45 minutes each. I'm not going to be able to allocate that time for at least a little while longer. Something to noodle around, however.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Pants
It's so important to get pants that fit right. My office designated "casual Fridays" just a couple of years ago, and I decided I needed nice chinos (khakis) to set aside for that. I squeezed myself into my old ones a couple of times, but not a good idea to be popping out in the office. In fact, because of my thighs, I think they wore out on the inside seam. So I bought a new pair a year ago last December, a size bigger, from LL Bean.
I've bought from LL Bean for years. When I worked at a company that was all casual all the time, my work wardrobe consisted entirely of cotton pants and shirts from their catalogue, refreshed by mail order seasonally. Their sizing is almost always spot on. So I can track my ups and downs by what size of their stuff I wore. At my very peak of fat, back in the last century, I wore an 18 petite. This bigger size a year ago was size 16 - the first time I needed them since I gave them all away in 1999. But the size 16s were crisp and new and really quite nice. And they came out of the dryer crisp and pleated, a more successful miracle fabric than previous attempts.
By March last year, however, they were too big. With some trepidation, I sent off for the next size down - 14 petite. They were perfect! They also showed off my weight loss, thus far, very nicely. As the ultimate pear-shaped woman, who carries most of her weight below the waist, I really can't be seen in too-big trousers ballooning out over my already ample hips very often.
By the way, LL Bean has these pants in roughly a gazillion different very slightly different variations, with three different rises and plain versus pleated fronts and regular and elastic waists. I must say, I really don't care for the currently fashionable lower rise. I have a very distinct waist and I like to fasten my belt around it, letting it rest above my hip bones. (My waist-to-hip ratio would signal good health, if it wasn't built on such very big hips!) And I don't think its flattering to me to cut my length (by different colors or textures) at my widest point.
Now, I am reaching the point where I am seriously thinking about going yet another size down. I'm going to hold off a couple of weeks to make sure the holiday weight is truly gone. But it's pretty exciting to me - size 12! I haven't seen that for a few years. It'll take me a bit to work my way through the 80 gazillion choices to buy pants that look just like the ones I'm replacing, but I think it will end up making a difference in how I look. And I'll probably allow myself a bonus frivolous buy from the same catalogue as my reward. The fleece queen may gain another prize!
I've bought from LL Bean for years. When I worked at a company that was all casual all the time, my work wardrobe consisted entirely of cotton pants and shirts from their catalogue, refreshed by mail order seasonally. Their sizing is almost always spot on. So I can track my ups and downs by what size of their stuff I wore. At my very peak of fat, back in the last century, I wore an 18 petite. This bigger size a year ago was size 16 - the first time I needed them since I gave them all away in 1999. But the size 16s were crisp and new and really quite nice. And they came out of the dryer crisp and pleated, a more successful miracle fabric than previous attempts.
By March last year, however, they were too big. With some trepidation, I sent off for the next size down - 14 petite. They were perfect! They also showed off my weight loss, thus far, very nicely. As the ultimate pear-shaped woman, who carries most of her weight below the waist, I really can't be seen in too-big trousers ballooning out over my already ample hips very often.
By the way, LL Bean has these pants in roughly a gazillion different very slightly different variations, with three different rises and plain versus pleated fronts and regular and elastic waists. I must say, I really don't care for the currently fashionable lower rise. I have a very distinct waist and I like to fasten my belt around it, letting it rest above my hip bones. (My waist-to-hip ratio would signal good health, if it wasn't built on such very big hips!) And I don't think its flattering to me to cut my length (by different colors or textures) at my widest point.
Now, I am reaching the point where I am seriously thinking about going yet another size down. I'm going to hold off a couple of weeks to make sure the holiday weight is truly gone. But it's pretty exciting to me - size 12! I haven't seen that for a few years. It'll take me a bit to work my way through the 80 gazillion choices to buy pants that look just like the ones I'm replacing, but I think it will end up making a difference in how I look. And I'll probably allow myself a bonus frivolous buy from the same catalogue as my reward. The fleece queen may gain another prize!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Averages Should Be What Counts
Well, yesterday was 32 net grams of carbohydrate, and today was 23. Today it was the sauce in the sloppy joes that bumped it up. Yesterday it was the summer squash and cabbage. If you average with my day with 11 net carbs, I'm not so very far off track...
Today's schedule permitted two short walks in the daylight, enough to get my steps in at least.
But no time to do a lot of analysis now. I'm still tossing and turning so that my sleep graph looks like a bar code. Got to at least hit the sack early, in the hopes of getting some quality time before I wake up to start tossing again.
Today's schedule permitted two short walks in the daylight, enough to get my steps in at least.
But no time to do a lot of analysis now. I'm still tossing and turning so that my sleep graph looks like a bar code. Got to at least hit the sack early, in the hopes of getting some quality time before I wake up to start tossing again.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Yikes!
Only 11 net grams carbs today! With a total of 1400 calories. Salad for lunch, salad for dinner.
But I also only got 5 1/2 hours sleep last night and the night before. This with more than seven hours in bed; the tossing and turning is way out of control. So, I'm off to bed now rather than staying up to write.
But I also only got 5 1/2 hours sleep last night and the night before. This with more than seven hours in bed; the tossing and turning is way out of control. So, I'm off to bed now rather than staying up to write.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Cannoli Cake Calling
Department of Not Thinking Things Through:
Each of the kids got cooking-related gifts. My college boy got a terrific book on bread baking, and some accoutrements useful for a dorm kitchen; the middle boy got a fancy pie plate, server, and food-porn pie cookbook; and my little girl got The Cake-Mix Doctor cookbook. And now, here I am on the no-carb diet, while all the kids are trying out their new toys.
There is a terrific-looking cannoli cake in the kitchen. Here's an oddity about my family: they all eat sweets in moderation (most of the time) and often cakes will go stale before they are all gone. It would be a shame to waste such a special cake, so I wrapped up a piece carefully and put it in the freezer. I may never eat it, but it comforts me to know it is there, for me when I'm ready. Right now, I'm newly motivated, totally strong, and can resist the pull of its call. I'll probably forget about it and discover it months from now at a weaker moment.
But I definitely had an evening sweets habit. I've gone cold turkey - trying to get all the carbs out. As I said, I'm strong right now, but I should probably hide the Dove Darks where I'll forget them before I hit a weak spell.
Today I had 24 net carbohydrate grams. Versus the target of 20. Second day in a row over slightly, out of three total. Not such a good average. My afternoon snack was an avocado. I intended to eat half, but suddenly the whole thing was gone. I'll need to think about tomorrow's snack.
On the new Atkins, there is no time where the sweets are welcome, or even introduced as a scheduled, planned treat. I haven't read the whole book, but there is no "chocolate is encouraged in tiny amounts every day" or "save up your points for a weekly treat". This is so different from many other diets, high and low carb. My last month shows I can't be trusted with freedom, so I'm comfortable going cold turkey for a short period of time. But I'm going to have to think about how to handle this over the long haul. If I follow their protocols strictly, at least by the time local fruit starts coming in, it would be allowed into the totals. Also, I will not be craving sweets physically (versus wanting them emotionally) if the no carb detox does its thing in the next week. In my experience, it has happened in the past.
Activity report: Brilliant sunshine during the day and a clear crisp evening at least got my number of steps up above the minimum. I'll be back at the gym tomorrow morning at 6 am.
Each of the kids got cooking-related gifts. My college boy got a terrific book on bread baking, and some accoutrements useful for a dorm kitchen; the middle boy got a fancy pie plate, server, and food-porn pie cookbook; and my little girl got The Cake-Mix Doctor cookbook. And now, here I am on the no-carb diet, while all the kids are trying out their new toys.
There is a terrific-looking cannoli cake in the kitchen. Here's an oddity about my family: they all eat sweets in moderation (most of the time) and often cakes will go stale before they are all gone. It would be a shame to waste such a special cake, so I wrapped up a piece carefully and put it in the freezer. I may never eat it, but it comforts me to know it is there, for me when I'm ready. Right now, I'm newly motivated, totally strong, and can resist the pull of its call. I'll probably forget about it and discover it months from now at a weaker moment.
But I definitely had an evening sweets habit. I've gone cold turkey - trying to get all the carbs out. As I said, I'm strong right now, but I should probably hide the Dove Darks where I'll forget them before I hit a weak spell.
Today I had 24 net carbohydrate grams. Versus the target of 20. Second day in a row over slightly, out of three total. Not such a good average. My afternoon snack was an avocado. I intended to eat half, but suddenly the whole thing was gone. I'll need to think about tomorrow's snack.
On the new Atkins, there is no time where the sweets are welcome, or even introduced as a scheduled, planned treat. I haven't read the whole book, but there is no "chocolate is encouraged in tiny amounts every day" or "save up your points for a weekly treat". This is so different from many other diets, high and low carb. My last month shows I can't be trusted with freedom, so I'm comfortable going cold turkey for a short period of time. But I'm going to have to think about how to handle this over the long haul. If I follow their protocols strictly, at least by the time local fruit starts coming in, it would be allowed into the totals. Also, I will not be craving sweets physically (versus wanting them emotionally) if the no carb detox does its thing in the next week. In my experience, it has happened in the past.
Activity report: Brilliant sunshine during the day and a clear crisp evening at least got my number of steps up above the minimum. I'll be back at the gym tomorrow morning at 6 am.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Getting the Carbs Out
Going down as low on "net carbs" as the induction phase of Atkins says to is not easy. I'm at 23 net carbs (the target is 20) and while most of it comes from a huge helping of broccoli, a lot of it comes from estimates of sauces I used in cooking. I am going to need to make my own sauces, or hunt out the few bottled sauces that don't have "sugar" listed in the top five ingredients. Standard serving sizes are 2 tablespoons; I've got to find sauces with fewer than two grams of carb per serving. I just bought some mayo with zero carbs - that will help in the tuna department.
I'm entering the week with a good stockpile of breakfast and lunches ready to grab and go in the fridge, and a good plan for dinners. Sadly (for me), my boy who got an excellent book on bread-making from Santa has taken it to heart and is baking away. I can do anything for a week or so, and this week is critical to my mindset. I've got to make a clean break from the holiday food.
I'm entering the week with a good stockpile of breakfast and lunches ready to grab and go in the fridge, and a good plan for dinners. Sadly (for me), my boy who got an excellent book on bread-making from Santa has taken it to heart and is baking away. I can do anything for a week or so, and this week is critical to my mindset. I've got to make a clean break from the holiday food.
2010 was NOT a disaster
Last year, over all, was a good year for the ol' bod.
And even the end of the year wasn't so bad... Who am I kidding? Of course it was bad. Very bad. I'm just convinced the effects will wear off quickly.
So how did I do last year?
The good news is I saw in the New Year exactly TWENTY-ONE and a HALF pounds lighter than the year before!!!! How about them apples? Wooo Hooo!!!! Yay me!!!!
More good news? I can do ten real push-ups! I couldn't do that ten years ago, much less one year ago. I'm enjoying jogging on the treadmill, getting close to actually running. Who knew I could like pushing the intensity up like that? This is truly a first for me, perhaps in forever, certainly in my memory of the last many years.
And wait, there's more! I'm wearing clothes that have been put away for more than five years! I'm digging into the inaccessible depths of my closet (half worried I'll accidentally end up in Narnia by mistake) and finding good quality, classic clothes like my momma always told me to buy. And my butt seems to have lifted up some from where it used to be, reversing some of the effects of gravity.
The bad news?
The first time I saw the weight I was this New Year's was in October. If I only had a few datapoints to go on, I'd be thinking I've lost a whole three month's progress. Luckily, I'm able to look at the weight in perspective, but it's still a very big deal.
OK, having sugar coated everything (what a Freudian slip just as I'm detoxing from all carbs in my new Atkins lifestyle), here is the picture:
Yikes, look at that spike up there at the end!
No, wait a minute, let's just savor the big drop for the year. This is the longest sustained loss since The Big Loss of 1998. More than twenty pounds is a major accomplishment. Yay, me!
OK, let's get real now, and admit how bad it was last week. Look at this in a six month close-up:
Here, the grid lines are two pounds apart, so I shot up more than four pounds in weekly average weight, and have an eight pound jump over the course of two weeks. But as I said at Thanksgiving (and it proved to be true), a rapid bump up is no more "real" than a rapid shot down. Homeostasis is already pulling me back to where I was stable before the holiday weeks. And I'm very confidant that my new current discipline will carry me through and down to where I want to be.
Another twenty pounds this year? That would put me essentially at goal weight. The goal weight I've held in my mind for twenty years. It could happen. If it does, it won't be an accident. It will be the result of hard sustained work.
And here's the really cool thing. This blog, the "DIY" diet buddy, has led to some real-life diet buddies. Together, we're going to accomplish miracles, and have a lot of fun and eat plenty of good food along the way.
And even the end of the year wasn't so bad... Who am I kidding? Of course it was bad. Very bad. I'm just convinced the effects will wear off quickly.
So how did I do last year?
The good news is I saw in the New Year exactly TWENTY-ONE and a HALF pounds lighter than the year before!!!! How about them apples? Wooo Hooo!!!! Yay me!!!!
More good news? I can do ten real push-ups! I couldn't do that ten years ago, much less one year ago. I'm enjoying jogging on the treadmill, getting close to actually running. Who knew I could like pushing the intensity up like that? This is truly a first for me, perhaps in forever, certainly in my memory of the last many years.
And wait, there's more! I'm wearing clothes that have been put away for more than five years! I'm digging into the inaccessible depths of my closet (half worried I'll accidentally end up in Narnia by mistake) and finding good quality, classic clothes like my momma always told me to buy. And my butt seems to have lifted up some from where it used to be, reversing some of the effects of gravity.
The bad news?
The first time I saw the weight I was this New Year's was in October. If I only had a few datapoints to go on, I'd be thinking I've lost a whole three month's progress. Luckily, I'm able to look at the weight in perspective, but it's still a very big deal.
OK, having sugar coated everything (what a Freudian slip just as I'm detoxing from all carbs in my new Atkins lifestyle), here is the picture:
Yikes, look at that spike up there at the end!
No, wait a minute, let's just savor the big drop for the year. This is the longest sustained loss since The Big Loss of 1998. More than twenty pounds is a major accomplishment. Yay, me!
OK, let's get real now, and admit how bad it was last week. Look at this in a six month close-up:
Here, the grid lines are two pounds apart, so I shot up more than four pounds in weekly average weight, and have an eight pound jump over the course of two weeks. But as I said at Thanksgiving (and it proved to be true), a rapid bump up is no more "real" than a rapid shot down. Homeostasis is already pulling me back to where I was stable before the holiday weeks. And I'm very confidant that my new current discipline will carry me through and down to where I want to be.
Another twenty pounds this year? That would put me essentially at goal weight. The goal weight I've held in my mind for twenty years. It could happen. If it does, it won't be an accident. It will be the result of hard sustained work.
And here's the really cool thing. This blog, the "DIY" diet buddy, has led to some real-life diet buddies. Together, we're going to accomplish miracles, and have a lot of fun and eat plenty of good food along the way.
A Day on the Diet
(I will post a brief summary of the previous year, but I'm all about looking forward right now, and I want to ride this wave.)
So I'm sick with a sore throat and feel crummy, but I won't blame that on Atkins. I think I'll be able to make these first two weeks of a very restricted diet work for me. One key - I'm able to log in the food on the go through the iPhone. I can't build new foods - have to be on the computer for that - but the logging in the palm of my hand from anywhere is very helpful, especially in these early days of focus focus focus.
Yesterday was a lazy day due to feeling crummy - but again, the low energy is hardly coming from less than 24 hours of no carbs. More likely coming from my "last night" indulgence on NY's eve.
Even though my logging program does not encourage a low-carb approach, it does provide the information I need to track what I'm doing. All of the data lives on the internet, and the very detailed reports and looks at the data require a full up browser running flash. There are pdf reports that can be generated, but they don't have as much information. Specifically, the nutrition information includes total carbs, but not the fiber count necessary for counting net carbs. On-line, there is a recap that includes that information. This is an excuse for the poor quality of the report I'm posting here - I got it from an elaborate series of steps - printing my screen from the browser to a pdf, then converting and cropping it to a jpg.
I actually ate fewer net carbs than they encourage - 35 grams total carbs minus 21 grams fiber for a total of 14 grams net carbs. The limit for these first two weeks is twenty grams; and they want at least 15 grams net carbs coming from leafy greens. I had no leafy greens yesterday - no salads, no cabbage dishes. I got my carbs from mayonaise and cauliflower and an avocado. But, I'm about to make an egg-spinach casserole for breakfast, and I've got salad fixings a-plenty in the fridge, so I'll be doing better from here on out.
The yellow in the pie graph is fat, the purple is protein, and the green is carbs. This is why classic nutritionists freak out at Atkins. The picture gives me pause, but I have done enough reading to understand the science says you don't get fat from eating fat, you get fat when your body decides to store fat, and the most controllable factor in when my body decides to store fat is when I have too much insulin because I eat too many carbs.
Excelsior!
So I'm sick with a sore throat and feel crummy, but I won't blame that on Atkins. I think I'll be able to make these first two weeks of a very restricted diet work for me. One key - I'm able to log in the food on the go through the iPhone. I can't build new foods - have to be on the computer for that - but the logging in the palm of my hand from anywhere is very helpful, especially in these early days of focus focus focus.
Yesterday was a lazy day due to feeling crummy - but again, the low energy is hardly coming from less than 24 hours of no carbs. More likely coming from my "last night" indulgence on NY's eve.
Even though my logging program does not encourage a low-carb approach, it does provide the information I need to track what I'm doing. All of the data lives on the internet, and the very detailed reports and looks at the data require a full up browser running flash. There are pdf reports that can be generated, but they don't have as much information. Specifically, the nutrition information includes total carbs, but not the fiber count necessary for counting net carbs. On-line, there is a recap that includes that information. This is an excuse for the poor quality of the report I'm posting here - I got it from an elaborate series of steps - printing my screen from the browser to a pdf, then converting and cropping it to a jpg.
I actually ate fewer net carbs than they encourage - 35 grams total carbs minus 21 grams fiber for a total of 14 grams net carbs. The limit for these first two weeks is twenty grams; and they want at least 15 grams net carbs coming from leafy greens. I had no leafy greens yesterday - no salads, no cabbage dishes. I got my carbs from mayonaise and cauliflower and an avocado. But, I'm about to make an egg-spinach casserole for breakfast, and I've got salad fixings a-plenty in the fridge, so I'll be doing better from here on out.
The yellow in the pie graph is fat, the purple is protein, and the green is carbs. This is why classic nutritionists freak out at Atkins. The picture gives me pause, but I have done enough reading to understand the science says you don't get fat from eating fat, you get fat when your body decides to store fat, and the most controllable factor in when my body decides to store fat is when I have too much insulin because I eat too many carbs.
Excelsior!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
The New Atkins
Yesterday, cruising the book store for my annual New Year's crop of motivational books to back up my resolutions and goals, I was surprised to stumble on The New Atkins for a New You. I knew that "Atkins" was a company that would have survived the accidental death of its eponymous founder. I also knew that each diet program has to come out with regular new versions at regular intervals. So of course they have a new book. Since I'm confirmed low carb in philosophy if not always practice, I decided to pick it up.
I'm about halfway through it, and very pleasantly surprised. I'm going to commit to trying to follow its guidelines closely, for at least the next two weeks. This is fairly unusual for me - I haven't followed any diet "rules" per se since early in the Big Loss in 1998 when I was doing the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet. So this will be new for me - paying attention to food lists, having to count carbs, buying and planning different foods than my normal routine. This is all good - I've read about how periodic changes in Weight Watcher's plans keep their adherents energized and focused - it just makes you have to stop, think, and plan - which is a large part of the overall set of changes required to actually lose weight.
So what is so appealing about this? Let me start with what was unappealing in the "old" Atkins - its pugnacity in the face of fierce opposition. Dr. Atkins was an iconoclast who apparently reveled in the role. He personified the diet - it had his name - and was personally demonized as irresponsible. He came out swinging, and seemed to enjoy focusing his diet advice on the stuff that drove his critics wild. And his justification was largely based on his experience - his advice worked if you actually followed it.
But aside from the fact he loved steering his diet advice to "steak with bearnaise sauce - perfect dish for losing weight and lowering your cholesterol!", I think he really was not very much into food. One of the advantages of Atkins is that your cravings do go down, you are satiated, and just eat less. Not strictly from boredom, but from satiation. But that doesn't mean one doesn't wish for real food. I don't think Atkins had ever experienced brussel sprouts less than twenty-four hours from the farm, for example. These are the things that make food interesting, not just satiating.
So this new Atkins plan is absolutely terrific in this regard. It builds not just on all the science that has been done (which I've read and accepted a long time ago and will write about another time) but also on current food trends for fresh and local. Their advice has a lot in common with Michael Pollen - shop the outer walls of the supermarkets - produce and meat - skip the inside where all the prepared foods with sugar and starch lie. From the first day, there is a requirement to eat large portions of the low-carb leafy vegetables- a minimum of 15 grams. They suggest raw, but allow for cooked versions. The list of allowed versus prohibited vegies for these first two weeks is very logical - all the leafy lettuces and cabbages and spinach - as well as lower carb snap beans and summer squashes. But the higher carb winter squashes, and whole beans, are off limits. Their general plan is, two weeks on this restricted diet of meat and vegies, then gradually add in berries and nuts and beans and other vegies and other fruits. Whole grains come in at the end, and refined grains and white potatoes are forever considered special treats for special occasions, along with other sweets.
These first two weeks of focusing on adding green vegetables up to 15 grams of carbs is actually going to be the most challenging part of the diet for me, and why I want to actually follow the food lists carefully, plan menus and and then shop for them and fix some food in advance. Atkins have adopted practices from several other diet books I've read, and one of the most significant is the concept of net carbs. Basically, since fiber isn't digested, it is not part of your carb count - so net carbs are total carb grams minus fiber grams. Atkins recommends two salads a day as the easiest way to make sure the carbs are coming that way.
I've looked over some of my food logs (back in November when I last logged fairly often) and it's going to be a real challenge to stick to 20 grams net carbs a day. I'm also going to have to spend time creating my own recipes to log from, because I've used a lot of approximations in the logging software, focusing on total calories rather than the composition. So for example, there was a "lamb stew" already in the database, and it seemed to have about the right number of calories - but its carb count is much higher than my recipe would yield.
So I've got my work cut out for me in this remaining holiday weekend. I know the workweek will be incredibly hectic. I'm going to be drowning at work starting early Monday morning. So I've got be ready with food for breakfasts and lunches all prepared and ready to go. Dinners need to be planned in advance, and I need to skip the recent staples of spaghetti and lasagna. Back to stir fried chicken, tacos (salad), and salmon. It's all good, but I just have to plan.
Since cottage cheese is off the list for the next few weeks, I'll make egg casserole today - eggs, cheese, and spinach baked and cut into squares. I'll make cabbage soup flavored with some lamb neckbones I picked up, and have that in containers for lunch. Then I'll cook meat for dinner, and take leftover portions to add to salad bar at work. I've got one lunch out of the office this coming week - I already know I can pick up a classic chicken caesar salad at the closest quick place, and I now know to tell them to hold the croutons and no bread on the side.
This new Atkins emphasizes exercise, but suggests not adding a lot of new exercise in the first two weeks. That works for me. I'll continue to go to the gym and walk when I can, but making my minimums will be enough for now. If I really do the eating right, it will take more prep time than I've been doing.
Time to begin my day, and my year. Excelsior!
I'm about halfway through it, and very pleasantly surprised. I'm going to commit to trying to follow its guidelines closely, for at least the next two weeks. This is fairly unusual for me - I haven't followed any diet "rules" per se since early in the Big Loss in 1998 when I was doing the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet. So this will be new for me - paying attention to food lists, having to count carbs, buying and planning different foods than my normal routine. This is all good - I've read about how periodic changes in Weight Watcher's plans keep their adherents energized and focused - it just makes you have to stop, think, and plan - which is a large part of the overall set of changes required to actually lose weight.
So what is so appealing about this? Let me start with what was unappealing in the "old" Atkins - its pugnacity in the face of fierce opposition. Dr. Atkins was an iconoclast who apparently reveled in the role. He personified the diet - it had his name - and was personally demonized as irresponsible. He came out swinging, and seemed to enjoy focusing his diet advice on the stuff that drove his critics wild. And his justification was largely based on his experience - his advice worked if you actually followed it.
But aside from the fact he loved steering his diet advice to "steak with bearnaise sauce - perfect dish for losing weight and lowering your cholesterol!", I think he really was not very much into food. One of the advantages of Atkins is that your cravings do go down, you are satiated, and just eat less. Not strictly from boredom, but from satiation. But that doesn't mean one doesn't wish for real food. I don't think Atkins had ever experienced brussel sprouts less than twenty-four hours from the farm, for example. These are the things that make food interesting, not just satiating.
So this new Atkins plan is absolutely terrific in this regard. It builds not just on all the science that has been done (which I've read and accepted a long time ago and will write about another time) but also on current food trends for fresh and local. Their advice has a lot in common with Michael Pollen - shop the outer walls of the supermarkets - produce and meat - skip the inside where all the prepared foods with sugar and starch lie. From the first day, there is a requirement to eat large portions of the low-carb leafy vegetables- a minimum of 15 grams. They suggest raw, but allow for cooked versions. The list of allowed versus prohibited vegies for these first two weeks is very logical - all the leafy lettuces and cabbages and spinach - as well as lower carb snap beans and summer squashes. But the higher carb winter squashes, and whole beans, are off limits. Their general plan is, two weeks on this restricted diet of meat and vegies, then gradually add in berries and nuts and beans and other vegies and other fruits. Whole grains come in at the end, and refined grains and white potatoes are forever considered special treats for special occasions, along with other sweets.
These first two weeks of focusing on adding green vegetables up to 15 grams of carbs is actually going to be the most challenging part of the diet for me, and why I want to actually follow the food lists carefully, plan menus and and then shop for them and fix some food in advance. Atkins have adopted practices from several other diet books I've read, and one of the most significant is the concept of net carbs. Basically, since fiber isn't digested, it is not part of your carb count - so net carbs are total carb grams minus fiber grams. Atkins recommends two salads a day as the easiest way to make sure the carbs are coming that way.
I've looked over some of my food logs (back in November when I last logged fairly often) and it's going to be a real challenge to stick to 20 grams net carbs a day. I'm also going to have to spend time creating my own recipes to log from, because I've used a lot of approximations in the logging software, focusing on total calories rather than the composition. So for example, there was a "lamb stew" already in the database, and it seemed to have about the right number of calories - but its carb count is much higher than my recipe would yield.
So I've got my work cut out for me in this remaining holiday weekend. I know the workweek will be incredibly hectic. I'm going to be drowning at work starting early Monday morning. So I've got be ready with food for breakfasts and lunches all prepared and ready to go. Dinners need to be planned in advance, and I need to skip the recent staples of spaghetti and lasagna. Back to stir fried chicken, tacos (salad), and salmon. It's all good, but I just have to plan.
Since cottage cheese is off the list for the next few weeks, I'll make egg casserole today - eggs, cheese, and spinach baked and cut into squares. I'll make cabbage soup flavored with some lamb neckbones I picked up, and have that in containers for lunch. Then I'll cook meat for dinner, and take leftover portions to add to salad bar at work. I've got one lunch out of the office this coming week - I already know I can pick up a classic chicken caesar salad at the closest quick place, and I now know to tell them to hold the croutons and no bread on the side.
This new Atkins emphasizes exercise, but suggests not adding a lot of new exercise in the first two weeks. That works for me. I'll continue to go to the gym and walk when I can, but making my minimums will be enough for now. If I really do the eating right, it will take more prep time than I've been doing.
Time to begin my day, and my year. Excelsior!
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