Weight loss breakthrough!

I missed last Sunday's post, so I decided to post today instead of waiting until tomorrow (Wednesday)

Last time I recorded a slight setback in my weight. It was the first time since I started on March 11 that I went UP instead of down.

Turns out that it must have been a fluke, because the next day I was back at 200 pounds. Maybe I was retaining water or something.....Anyway, this morning I weighed myself and for the first time, I am UNDER 200 pounds! 199 actually.

While this is really just a number, I think that psychologically, it is important. It's like an age or the sound barrier, or earning a million dollars. For me, 200 was a barrier that I was trying to break through since April 11 which was just about 2 weeks ago. I've been "stuck" at 200 since then, but now I am below that mark and I am very pleased with myself.

I've been able to maintain a low-carb diet, and have easily been able to keep intake below 30g per day. Usually, I am under 20g.

I've found that I need some more fiber in my diet as going #2 had been getting pretty difficult. Constipation seems to be common with this type of diet (Who'd thunk it???), so I am having some salad each day (4-6 g carbs per serving) and I also take one or two fiber capsules which together seems to have helped the situation.

So, that's it! I'm under 200, and aiming to be around 195 by May 11. That's 4 more pounds and I think I can do it. See you Sunday!

First setback!

Well folks, it happened. I got on the scale today for my Wednesday weigh-in, and I was at 202! That is 2 pounds in the wrong direction!

I'm not sure exactly what is going on - I'm not doing anything different as far as I can tell, so maybe it is simply a fluke, or I'm retaining some water for some reason.

I've decided to check tomorrow to see what is going on. I'll post in then.

15th weigh-in and update

Well, I weighed in today and remain at 200 pounds - which is fine for me! This week, I was able to pass up coffee cake, Dunkin' Donuts, gourmet Fruitcake from Saks 5th Ave, and Twinkies that someone brought in to work! My motivation to make this work is still high, and the effort to pull it off is still relatively low. I'm having an easy time of this so far, and my total weight loss to this point is 11 pounds!

People are starting to notice I suppose, because more than a few people have asked me if I have lost weight - and that it looks good. It certainly doesn't hurt to hear that positive feedback!

I did have one minor violation - I ate one piece of toasted bread at a restaurant to try some "Crab Dip" (which was excellent, by the way) but it was a conscious violation and I was aware of what I was doing.

So, by this time next week, I hope to have gotten below the 200-pound mark for the first time since 2001!

My overall "mood" has not changed. As a result of being on a low-carb diet, I do not feel more or less energized. As mentioned previously, I need to exercise more, and that should increase my energy-level. Some people say that folks on a low-carb diet have concentration problems. I have not experienced any negative side-effects yet, although I admit I have only been doing this for a little more than a month.

See you again on Wednesday!

11 pounds lost in 30 days.

OK, so I'm losing some weight at a decent rate, and I'm not suffering too much. For the most part, I can eat anything except things containing carbs, which isn't too hard. For example, i went out to lunch today with some coworkers, and I was able to order a western omelet (eggs, onion, pepper - something else) anyway, no home fries on the side, and no toast, but otherwise a smart choice for a low carb lunch! I find myself not missing anything, which is really good, but I am also motivated.

I think this little blog helps too! Today, I passed up some Lindt chocholates! Now that's dedication!

Anyway, today is Wednesday, March 11, and my official weigh-in number is a solid 200 pounds! That means, without too much suffering, I have lost 11 pounds in 30 days. Not bad. I'm going to aim for another 5 pounds lost by May2 which is 3 weeks from today. If I can achieve 190 pounds by sometime in June, I will start increasong my carb intake and moderating my diet some more. For now, I'll stick with what I am doing!

Easter Monday

Yesterday, I did very well except for a small piece of cake that is tradition with my family @ easter. Yes, its a bunny shaped cake, (not real bunny, BTW) and I consciously decided to have a small piece. I was in control, which IS the difference I think.

Anyway, I started this week at 203, and I am going to try getting to 200 by this time next week by closely watching my carb intake. I'm going to measure the salad, skip the mangoes, and also get some walking in after work.

Another thing I decided to start doing again is my morning stretching. I am as tight as a drum, and I feel it! When I was involved in Krav Maga, I was stretching almost daily, and it felt so good to be lose and flexible. I remember the basic warm-up stretches, and I'm going to do it before I have breakfast.

Saturday's news

Well, having off from work yesterday, I thought today was Sunday and not Saturday - so I weighed myself and clocked in at 203. I was "stuck" at 204 since last week, so I was happy to see it drop off another pound, but I think I might have reached a plateau! We'll see!

Yesterday, as I mentioned, I did very well in the carb-count keeping it well under the 20g per day I am shooting for.

Today, not so bad, but I think I messed up a bit.

I started out be getting up late (again!) and having one of my no-brainer shakes for breakfast or lunch and a coffee with the morning paper. That had me at about 6g. Strong!

For dinner, the wife and I decided on some salmon fillets, which I purchased yesterday. We fired up the grill outside, and cooked ourselves some nice salmon, which is supposed to be very healthy for you anyway. Something about the oils, I think.

Anyway, my wife can't stand salmon, but knows that it is very good for you. So, being the creative person she is, she concocted a kind of mango chutney/salsa thing that when eaten with the salmon, reduces that fishy flavor quite a bit. It wouldn't seem so, but it is quite nice, and I would recommend it if you aren't a big fan of the taste of salmon.


Well, I had this topping with my salmon, and didn't really think much about it bacause my wife assured me mangos were low in carbs. I just don't know. They are sweet, right? So, I ate it, and it wasn't until I came down into my dungeon blog-writing area that I find mangoes (raw) have about 14.8g of carbs per 100g serving. Crap.

Now, 100g is a pretty big helping of mango, and I don't think I had that much, but it's 15g of carbs I could have avoided if I just had the salmon plain with a little spice or something. I have no aversion to salmon, and enjoy it plain. Bad choice - I'll need to keep things in mind, and try to do research BEFORE I eat something, not after! Duh! Even still, I should be under 30g for the day, which isn't a total wash-out.

In that regard, I found a nice website called Carb Counter where I found out how many carbs mangoes have in them. It's slightly spammy with all the ads right up front, but it seems to be very thorough and has the carb content of over 6,000 common foods.

The learning continues!

low carb progress

Today I had off from work, so I slept in a bit! I got up around 11:30, so I was able to combine my breakfast with my lunch which cut down on carbs AND calories! (I should sleep late more often!)

Being the quasi-lazy person that I am, I decided to eat one of my Pure Protein bars in the S'mores flavor. This is a really nice bar! Not dry, not tasteless, good texture and actually very tasty. It filled me up as well!

Here are the stats for this thing. 29g protein, 280 calories and 4g of Net Carbs. I hope these guys are right when they talk about Net Carbs. I'll have to look into what all that is about, but from my basic understanding, not all carbs have the same effect on your blood-sugar levels, and so they are further broken down into "impact carbs" or "net carbs" of which this bar had 4g.

So, that along with my obligatory coffee with half and half had me starting the day with somewhere around 6g of carb intake.

I went to the supermarket where I bought some Nathan's hot dogs on sale (buy one, get one free!) some salmon fillets, and some medium sized pre-cooked shrimp on sale.

I had the shrimp for dinner (1 pound) and just before I had another coffee, so currently, I'm at about 8g.

I also found an alternative to my beloved Bomb Pop which is a sugar-free offering by Snapple. I'll try them out and let you know what I think!

Good Friday = no meat?

Again, I'm not sure how this will evolve, but I have to figure out a way to effectively title my posts! I can't name them all "carb consumption for today" now can I?

Well, last night I finished up by grilling a nice skirt-steak for dinner, and had a nice serving of romaine salad with some Newman's Own Olive Oil & Vinegar dressing.

Grams of Carbs for my dinner (approx.)

• Skirt Steak 0g
• Salad 5g
• Dressing 2g

Now, the salad has 3g per serving which is 2 cups. I think I had more than 2 cups of salad, so I put 5g above. I thought salad was better, so I'll have to measure it from now on!

The dressing has 1g per serving which is 2 tablespoons. I'll have to measure that too! So, my salad and dressing was between 7g and 10g of carbs! Woah! If I am more careful, I can have a salad and reduce the carbs from the 10g or so I had to 4-5g.

I also had 2 ice-pops called "Bomb-Pops" which seem to have 4g of carbs each. :-( I was desperate, really! +8g for the day.

So, I'm estimating I had roughly 25g of carbs yesterday, which isn't bad, but I can still do better by being more careful. The goal is to keep it under 20g per day, at least in the beginning.

April 5 low carb consumption

I'm still working out how I will format this type of post, so consider it a work in progress. I think for now, I will just bullet-list what I have over the course of the day, and put in the amount of carbs the item has (if known).

I think I will also do a weigh-in twice per week on Wednesdays and Sundays. Lets see how it goes! I took my first scale picture, but I'm not sure it is going to be as useful as I thought. Maybe I'll just post the number and you can trust me on it!

Well, so far this morning I had a nice cup of coffee with some Half and Half and equal, in addition to a Met-RX Protein Plus shake for sustenance. I know you will think this is a horrible diet, but, considering a typical breakfast used to be yogurt and some kind of cereal, its probably not too bad.

I've though of making myself an omelets or cooking some eggs or eggbeaters, but I just don't have the brain-power to do that in the morning! I'm actually amazed I can type at this hour! So, part of my breakfast need is that it is easy, and relatively thought-free, and this shake and a cup of coffee fit the bill perfectly!

To fill in any gaps, I do take a good multi-vitamin (always have done that). I'm pretty sure the vitamins have very, very little carb content, but I'll have to check on that.

So, that leaves me having the following so far....

1. Big cup of coffee with Half & Half, equal for sweetener. Half and half has 1g per serving as compared to 12g per serving with 1% milk. I know the serving sizes are different, and I haven't done the math, but if I have a choice between 2 tablespoons of Half & Half or 1% milk to put in my coffee, I'll take the Half & Half thank you!
2. Met-RX Protien Plus shake which has 5g net carbs.
3. Some vitamins with unknown amounts of carbs.
   

So, going into the day, I'm liberally going forward having consumed about 6-8g of carbs.

My low-carb diet

So, here I am trying to write about my low-carb diet. I figured that if I post about what is going on frequently enough, I will have a log as to my progress (or lack thereof!) where I can look back and see what was happening at a particular time. Like a journal, except online and for anyone to see!

The other benefit to doing that I think, is that maybe I will have some pressure to keep going. If I know that people might be reading this because they are interested in low-carb diets, or diets in general, maybe I'll feel compelled to continue. If I continue to my goal, it will have been a worthy endeavor, and maybe I'll learn something too!

I've done low-carb before, and it works like magic for me. Really, it does. The last time I did it, in 2000, I lost about 20 pounds in less than 10 weeks, but then I went off of it completely and pretty much put it all back on! Seems to happen to everyone who diets! So, I would like to keep that from happening again, and hopefully this web log will help.

So, knowing that this diet will work for me, I am embarking on it for the second time. Actually, I started it on March 11, and at that time I weighed 211 pounds. My goal is to get to 190 pounds so that means I would need to lose 21 pounds in total. I have no time frame, and I am not trying to shed as many pounds as quickly as possible. I don't really care when I get there so long as it continues toward that weight.

I weigh myself in the mornings, usually once a week so as to not become obsessed with it. As of this morning, I weighed 204 pounds which means I have lost 7 pounds so far or am 1/3 of the way to my goal. I'm happy with the progress - I don't think its too fast.

I haven't suffered too much because on this diet, I don't worry as much about calories as I do grams of carbs per day. To start, I'm trying to keep them below 20 grams per day , which is what I think is recommended when the diet is first started. (No more pizza!) So far, I'm doing pretty good with that, and I hope to log what I eat day-to-day too. Yesterday, I passed up some home-made chocolate chip cookies. I was impressed with myself as I didn't have even one!

So that's about it for my first post here. Tomorrow, I'll talk more about what I actually know about this diet (not much), my lack of exercise, and pick a day for my weekly weigh-in. Maybe I'll post pictures of my ugly feet on the scale as a proof!