Four pounds in a week sounds pretty rockin’, but I’m thinking I must have broken a mini-plateau, because last week I was up a pound, wiping out the loss from the week before. Still, I officially weighed in under 250! Woo-hoo! My 250s have been the hardest 10 pounds of this process to get through so far. I’m not necessarilly expecting my 240s to be any easier, but one can always dream.
What’s fun is to look down at my cairn terrier who weighs around 14 pounds, and say “I’ve lost more than two of you.”
I wasn’t significantly better about my exercise level this week… possibly worse because the weather was gloomy. I was better about my food choices. Even when I was a little carb-heavy, it was generally minor: a bison burger on a whole-wheat bun with a handfull of french fries, some chips and guacamole with a fajita salad, some whole wheat pasta in a home-made pork chow mein with a soy-honey-ginger sauce.
One thing I did was cut back on my diet cola consumption a bit when I go out to restaurants. For example, when we go to “the peanut restaurant” (my son’s favorite restaurant that has a “kids eat free” special every Tuesday), I’ve taken to ordering water instead of soda. It’s not because I’m trying to be healthier, though. It’s because they charge $2.49 for a soda. Sure it comes with free refills, but with tax and tip that’s closing in on $3.15… to have soda… with just one meal. So that’s probably 100 mg less sodium, less aspartame, less artificial flavor, less caffeine… all because I’ve been feeling cheap.
I continued using my low-carb flatbread quesadillas as my breakfast crutch. My local Costco and my local Safeway carry low-carb flatbreads from Flat Out. Costco has the 8-gram ones with flax. Safeway has the 6-gram ones. There’s not a huge difference in flavor between the 6-grammers and 8-grammers, though the 8 grammers feel a little more whole-grain and less gummy, plus because I buy them at Costco, they’re about 30% cheaper. I cook them in a large covered skillet with a couple ounces of cheese and a little lunch meat (usually some turkey). It’s really predictable, but it works for me.
And that’s about it. I’m really happy about dropping 4 pounds this week, but I’m not expecting that pace to continue. As I’ve said before, this is about making healthier choices and building a food lifestyle I can maintain for the rest of my life, rather than being on a diet. I’ve found that when I consider a restrictive, temporary diet, I want to lose weight as fast as possible, not just because I want it off, but because slower weight loss means punishing myself with the diet longer. With the mindset that I’m not on a diet, but living healthier, I know I’m going to keep eating this way, even when I reach my goal weight. When I keep that in mind, I still want to reach my goal weight sooner rather than later, but the urgency to “finish” the diet is gone and I’m happy to lose a pound or two a week.
See ya next week.
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Cut out the soda and you will feel better and sleep better, not to mention all of the sodium you will not be consuming. What I have done in the past (if you are needing the caffeine fix) is to drink home-brewed iced tea. I add lemon and sweetner. It’s a lot better for you than soda, plus it’s a good disguise for drinking all the water you need to drink during a diet
Try it, it works!
Yay! You can do it! I’m cheering you on! I will say that while you are making lots of good healthy choices, in the end, the most important factor for your health is your weight, so focus on total calories, and worry less for now about all the other stuff like whole wheat, caffeine, carbs, sugar, sodium, etc. Start researching recipes for white fish and steamed veggies and you will be able to eat more food for less calories.
So you had me curious enough about the Flat Bread that I bought some at Costco this weekend. It’s not bad! I am a pizza freak, so I decided to make one. Used a little tomato sauce seasoned with Italian Seasoning and red pepper flakes. Grated some low cal jack cheese (about 1 ounce) and topped it with mushrooms and tomato. Baked in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350…and I’ll tell you, not bad for a thin crust pizza! I was only about 350 calories total! Dieting is all about making modifications to the things you already love to eat and making smarter choices with the ingredients…..Eating low carb is the easiest way to curb your appetite. Keep it going!
The really interesting thing is that multiple studies have shown that eating high-protein is the best way to make yourself feel full and stay fuller longer. When you start reducing bad carbs and reducing fat, protein just naturally becomes a bigger component of your diet. So you don’t feel hungry even though you’re eating less.