Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Day 262

In an attempt to get my zero carb zen back, I am currently doing ground beef for first hunger and ribeyes for second (if necessary). I ate outside of hunger leading up to the holidays to keep me from eating the Christmas goodies and then ate borderline ZC fare like ham, deli meat and cheese while at my parents'. That led to a four pound gain. As of today, I have lost a pound of that but hope I quickly lose the rest. My clothes still fit fine but I feel heavier than I want to.

The biggest thing I want is to get my mindset back. After my ZC reboot in August, carbs just weren't an option. This mindset grew stronger after dropping diet soda and dairy in September. However, I added dairy back while on vacation at Thanksgiving and haven't been successful in dropping it since. I haven't been cheating; I've just had more cravings and my weight loss has slowed.

Now that the holiday minefields are past, I am going back to eating smaller amounts only when physically hungry and also dropping the dairy again. As mentioned before, I actually feel better when I have a little dairy but my sinuses don't like it and I think I lose better without it. As mention earlier, food will be ground beef and ribeyes for the next week or so (longer if I can score a marked down ribeye roast after work).

Monday, December 21, 2009

Day 254

I haven't updated in a while because I have been super busy getting ready for Christmas.

This last weekend went pretty well. The exception was on Saturday. K and I were getting the presents wrapped and rounding up the stuff we bought for the boys' stockings. We have cut way back on the candy we are buying for them but we did get a few special treats.

As we were dividing it up, I started feeling sorry for myself and feeling deprived. I have avoided Christmas goodies so far but the reality of Christmas being around the corner kind of sunk in. It was almost like all of my habits suddenly resurfaced. I started thinking that going off plan until after Christmas wouldn't be the end of the world and wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Well, I didn't go off plan. What I did instead was take the advice of folks on the Zeroing In On Health forum and ate a ton of fatty meat (ground beef) instead, even though I wasn't hungry. I even included cheese with it partly to have something "special" and partly to up the fat. This worked and the cravings passed. I figured my weight would be up the next morning because of over-eating and because of the cheese but I was actually down about a half of a pound.

I have to say that I am jealous of the people that started zero carb and were never tempted to go off plan. That hasn't been my experience so far eight months in. I hope to get there some day. I think when the holidays are done I should be able to get my "ZC Zen" back. I had it from my reboot in August through our vacation at Thanksgiving. I guess I'll just have to white knuckle it at times until then.

Sunday, I was hungrier than normal and had about a pound of chuck eye for first hunger. I was hungry by dinner and ate meatloaf with the drippings (meatloaf = gb, ground pork and egg only). After that, last night I was super hot and couldn't sleep. I don't know if I went into overdrive burning off excess fuel but it wasn't real comfortable. This morning I was down to 169.0 pounds again. I was there a week ago but had bounced up to 170.2 lbs by Thursday.

I have been feeling more energetic (and have more than a little cabin fever) so have been contemplating adding in some activity. On Friday, I decided to dig out the DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) pad and play a game that I got last summer but haven't had a chance to try yet. I went through all of the songs on Easy, just to check them out. It was weird - my legs felt really heavy during the first two songs and then were fine after that. I could tell I hadn't done it in a while but I could also tell my knees and ankles appreciated having 30 pounds less to move around.

Yesterday we did our shopping for the week and scored big at Safeway. They have their big ribeye roasts on sale for $3.98/lb. These are the cuts where they cut the ribs out and then tie them back together with twine. Having the bone cut out makes it easier to cut at home. I am going to buy another roast tomorrow and leave it uncut. Then next week, I am going to do a ground beef and ribeye only week. I'll just slice off the steaks as needed. I wish I had more freezer room as I would stock up at this price.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Day 250

I had a hungry day yesterday. I rarely eat before 11 AM but my stomach was trying to tell me it was hungry when I got to work at 5 AM. I didn't think it was real, since I am never hungry that early. However, it kept insisting so I finally gave in and ate my hamburger bowl at 7 AM.

I wasn't hungry the rest of the day at work and felt great and energetic most of the day, except for a brief case of the sleepies at noon, which passed quickly. When I got home, I got to do a heavy workout called snow removal. The snow totally sucked as it was fluffy snow covered with ice, since we had freezing drizzle most of the day. It was sticky as hell and took forever to move.

When I was done, K was cooking dinner. I didn't think I was hungry but ate some chuck eye. Then my hunger kicked in and I ended up eating two chuck eye steaks (1.4 pounds) and half of a salmon fillet. I was pretty stuffed after that.

Because of the late big dinner, my weight was up a little this morning, to 170.0 pounds. However, my seven day average was 169.6 pounds, so it was a good week. For some reason, I always tend to be heavier on Wednesday and Thursday and then drop a lot on the weekend.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Day 247

I've been in the 160's for four straight days (169.6, 169.2, 169.2, 169.0), so it looks like it's sticking. I was at 169.0 lbs this morning and that was weighing at 4 AM rather than at 9 AM, when I weighed at over the weekend.

Yesterday's meals were a hamburger bowl at noon. Dinner was about a pound of sirloin roast dipped in the juices. Sirloin is not my favorite but it was okay. I thought I had bought a chuck roast last time it was on sale but couldn't find it, so this was runner up.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Eight Months ZC Anniversary (day 244)

Today is my eighth month ZC anniversary. I started April 11th of this year (the day before Easter). I have had a couple of slips over that time but consider them learning experiences.

Even though it is becoming more and more natural, I am still amazed that I am this far along. I was never able to stick with low carb for very long. I still have foods I think fondly of but all of the cravings are gone. I am still working on eliminating the "one taste won't hurt" thinking but Thanksgiving made a pretty strong impression on me so I feel pretty good about where I am now.

At dinner last night, it came out that I was eating only meat. The people I was with all knew me at my heaviest and saw me go through my various struggles losing the weight then, so they are used to my weirdness with various ways of eating. They asked a few questions but accepted it with out much fuss. They were actually more surprised that I haven't had any Diet Pepsi in over three months as they knew I drank it constantly before.

While explaining the various benefits I have seen since starting eating this way, it just reinforced to me that this isn't just about weight loss. My blood pressure has gone from around 150/90 to 110/63. I have effortlessly dropped 30 pounds, without exercise or counting calories or carbs. My elbows, which had bothered me for over a year before ZC, are fine now. A biggie is that my stomach no longer constantly hurts (a life long problem for me). There are a host of other small things - clearer skin, better nails, better sleep. I was telling K last night that it been easier than expected to keep eating this way because I feel so much better. Sure, ice cream and cookies taste great but they aren't worth the inevitable upset stomach.

I won't lie - the flat stomach and smaller clothes are a big motivator, too. It still amazes me to get out a shirt to put on and think there is no way I fit into that and then have it fit fine, or even a little loose.

I weighed this morning and am officially into the 160's! I was 169.6 this morning. That makes it exactly 30 pounds lost in the last eight months. Not super quick weight loss, but it is still lower than I ever thought possible. The funny thing is that I still feel a little bloated from the last couple of days, so my actually weight may be a little lower.

Dairy is now back out of my diet. I do feel a little better when I have it in small quantities but the sinus issues and the constant sore throat from drainage is too annoying. I am going to try to up my fat a little and maybe add some sardines occasionally to see if that replaces the dairy.

The other thing I am trying to do is to get back to being better about waiting for hunger. I was doing well before vacation and was really leaning out. I got out of the habit over vacation as I wasn't always free to eat only to hunger, being at someone's house and more on their schedule. Then when I got home, I ate more often to get over the cravings caused by eating off plan on Thanksgiving. Eating smaller amounts only at real physical hunger is definitely the key for me.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Day 237

I checked my weight today and I was down to 170.2 lbs. Two weeks ago today was the day I did my last update. I was 170.8 lbs, so there hasn't been a lot of weight loss over the last two weeks but at least it is heading in the right direction. I would normally gain over five pounds over the T-Day vacation and have no hope of losing any of it until after Easter. If I had behaved better on vacation this year, I would probably be in he 160's now. Hopefully by next weekend.

I was hungry early again yesterday. I ate a hamburger bowl around 8:30 am. Dinner was around 6:30 and was a pretty good sized T-Bone.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Day 235

Not too much to report. I am back to dairy free zero carb and it has been pretty effortless. I had a few cravings on Sunday but they passed quickly.

The week I was down in Salem, I added dairy back. It was mostly because it was difficult eating at the in-laws' and getting enough fat. Some cheese took care of that. Also, we ate while out and about several times and we found that going to Burger King and getting their $1 double-cheeseburgers (bunless and plain, of course) worked very well for the family. We could all eat and be completely full for $12 for all of us.

Most of the BK's handled the bunless thing well. The first time, I made the mistake of telling them they could could put two or three of the bunless double cheeseburgers in the same dish (depending on the order). That seemed to overload their brain cells. After that, I just ordered them individually (6 plain double cheese, no bun and 4 regular double cheese, no bun). We would get a million of the little trays but at least we got the order right.

The BK we stopped at on the way home was funny. The kid taking the order was obviously new. When I ordered the first batch, he looked at me all goggle eyed and said "Wha...?!". I repeated it and he said " But you have to have a bun?". K pipes and said "No. We don't". The kid finally calls the manager over and she shows him how to key it in. He kept looking at us and shaking his head. I guess he never heard of low carb or celiac disease.

The dairy didn't affect me weight wise that I could tell but it did stuff me up again and restarted my hay fever symptoms. I also started seeing blood again when I blow my nose. That had stopped after giving up dairy. K says I have started snoring excessively again. So - back to no dairy.

I don't know where I am with my weight currently. I said before I left that I was going to stop the daily weighing and just weigh once a week and I am sticking with that. My jeans are fitting fine, so I seem to be on track and didn't gain much (if anything) from my indiscretions.