Day 5

I'm down a bit more again today (0.4 lbs) and Wayne lost a bit as well. I put cool little charts at the bottom of the page to show our daily progress, or at least the days we will weigh ourselves!

Today I stayed within my carb limits, but I think I may have overdone it a bit on the protein. I had a LOT of it, starting with another protein shake. I had chicken for lunch (with tomatoes, mozzarella and gorgonzola... yum!!!). Dinner was at an office party, and the food was all Israeli (the director of the department is from there). Wayne and I had chicken and beef shwarma (sp?) and a tasty salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, and onions. I'm going to have to find a recipe for the shwarma because it was delicious! The salad was also good, and we made something similar when we got home.

Tomorrow I have a book club meeting at my house, and I'm making a nice low-carb spread for everyone to nosh on while we chat. I think this is going to be the menu:

• Breakfast casserole (I'll post the recipe)
• Cheese cubes
• Sausage bits (Salvadoran chorizo, cooked and cut up)
• Veggie platter (green pepper, cucumber, grape tomatoes, broccoli)
• Veggie cream cheese spread (it's the pre-made whipped cream cheese with veggies in it)
• Strawberries
• Blackberries

One of my friends offered to bring something, but last time she brought the most delicious (devious!) homemade brownies I've ever tasted. I don't think I'm at the point where I can resist that sort of temptation, yet!!

Day 4

We're both still losing! I'm down almost 4 lbs now, and Wayne is down just over 6 lbs. We both had a smaller loss today, probably because of eating way too much for dinner last night.

Today I wasn't hungry most of the time. I had another shake for breakfast (used 1/4 cup whole milk and some flaxseed oil this time) and leftover turkey and mayo on a low-carb tortilla for lunch. We went to Chevy's for dinner, and I had steak and carnitas fajitas (only ate about 2/3 of the meat and all of the guacamole) with a side salad (used some salsa for dressing). It was nummy! When we returned home, Wayne whipped up a batch of cream with splenda and we had it on strawberries and blackberries.

Tomorrow we're going to my mother's for brunch, and I already requested a lower-carb version of a very yummy brunch casserole she makes. It has sausage, hardboiled eggs, sour cream, cheese, and breadcrumbs. I asked her to cut the breadcrumbs for the one she's making :-D

Wayne's starting to get pissy about eating on plan. He skipped lunch today, and then didn't eat anything at Chevy's. I asked him if he was feeling full after he eats, and he said he wasn't. After a bit more prodding I discovered that the only meal he's felt full after was the hefty omelet I made him the day we started. So I'm going to try making that for him again. Just have to get some more eggs since between the two of us (mostly him!) we've eating almost 3 dozen eggs in 4 days!!!

I'm not going to post my stats for today, since they're in my handy-dandy FitDay journal, and I'm tired!!

Day 3

Wayne and I both lost some more weight :-) He's now down 5.9 lbs and I'm down 3 lbs. Here are the numbers for what I ate today (see my FitDay journal for more info):

• 39 carbs - 16 fiber = 23 ECC
• 156 protein
• 120 fat
• 1842 calories
• 35% protein, 60% fat, 5% carbs

We went out to dinner tonight, so some of the numbers might be a bit off. We ate at a local Mongolian grill and I had some salad with cheddar, bacon bits, and bleu cheese dressing. I made two trips to the grill and had mostly meat. The first trip was about a cup of ribeye steak (chopped), a few strips of peppers, a few pieces of broccoli, and a little bit of soy sauce (1 tbsp), peanut sauce (about 1 tsp), and garlic. The second trip I had about 1/2 cup of chicken (I think it was breast and thigh mixed), rosemary, garlic, "mixed herbs," and a tiny bit of lemon pepper. I ate too much, but funny enough it wasn't as much as I used to eat at this place!

Review: Syntrax Nectar, Fuzzy Navel

I tried the Syntrax Nectar, 2.11 Lbs., Fuzzy Navel I ordered from Bodybuilding.com for breakfast this morning. I used two scoops of powder, mixed with 16 oz of water and 2 tbsp of heavy cream for a very tasty breakfast shake that had:

• 283 calories
• 1 carb (no fiber)
  
• 47 protein
• 11 fat

I mixed just the water and powder together in a shaker first, and it had a bit of an off smell, but I couldn't detect any strange taste. I then added the heavy cream and shook it all up again, and then poured it over ice into a large cup. Not bad!

I think next time I'll add a little bit of Flax Seed Oil and cut the heavy cream to 1 tbsp. I may also try adding some strawberries and then running everything through the blender with some ice to see how it turns out. Wayne might even like this :-)

So far, so good :-)

I lost a pound on my first day! WOO!! I'm now down to 190.2 lbs (still 5'2" hehe)

Today was pretty good. I had a protein shake for breakfast (I'll review that in a bit). I used to be fine with having just that, but I felt a little nauseous about 2 hours after I had it. I don't know if it was lack of carbs or what, but I ate my lunch (ham & cheese wrap w/ mayo, 1/2 cup strawberries) and I immediately felt better. I managed to get through Whole Foods (the grocery store) without going crazy, and had a hard boiled egg afterwards while my daughter ate her yummy-looking cranberry orange muffin. My mother came over for dinner and we had the rest of the chili that Wayne and I made last night, along with a salad. After working late, I had a craving for something sweet (as usual) and ate a slice of flax bread (5 ECC) with 1 tbsp of almond butter and about 1/4 cup of strawberries. It totally hit the spot, and didn't knock me over the edge with my carbs. Yippee!

Here are the numbers for what I ate today (see my FitDay journal for more info):

• 45 carbs - 21 fiber = 24 ECC
• 131 protein
• 88 fat
• 1441 calories
• 37% protein, 56% fat, 7% carbs

Wayne had to work today, so we packed up breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for him to take to the office. When I spoke with him this afternoon, he said he was having some cravings, but nothing too terrible. He had eaten what we packed, so we'll see how he does when he weighs himself tomorrow morning when he gets home. He lost over 2 lbs on the first day, so I think he may be coming around on this way of eating.

So far, so good!! :-)

Review: Pure Liquid Sweetness

I'm not even going to post the link to the web site for this stuff because, well, they suck :-P

I placed an order for Pure Liquid Sweetness on 11/27/2007 after reading rave reviews of the product on several forums. I wanted to find a no-carb way to get Sucralose, since the packets do have some filler in them which provide some carbs. (or so I've always heard)

As of right now (1/1/2008) I haven't received my Pure Liquid Sweetness. I e-mailed the company several times after waiting 3 weeks for my order (or even an e-mail confirming it had been sent), and finally filed a dispute on PayPal. Still no response. So on 12/25 I escalated the dispute to a claim (Merry Christmas!!). Guess what? That's right, still no response! The seller has until 1/4/2008 to respond to PayPal or the claim will be decided in my favor. Which probably won't mean a whole lot if they don't have any money in their PayPal account.

So, big thumbs down for Pure Liquid Sweetness!! Try Anabolic Innovations Liquid Sucralose instead :-)

First Day!

So today the whole family started Protein Power. Here are our current stats (except for Claire, we're not going to track her):

• Wayne
• Current Weight: 257 lbs (BMI=34.9)
  
• Goal Weight: ??? It should be about 180, but he just says "38-inch waist!
  
• Height: 6' <-- I don't expect that to change, but just to see it vs. the weight!
• Current minimum protein requirement: 46
  
• Chrissy
• Current Weight: 191.2 lbs (BMI=35)
  
• Goal Weight: 130 lbs (BMI=23.8)
  
• Height: 5'2"
• Current minimum protein requirement: 40
  

I'll do measurements for waist, hips, etc... tomorrow (for me). Wayne doesn't want to do those, but I'll try to convince him to do it on Thursday.

We are shooting for 7-10 ECC for each meal and snack, which should give us 30-40 ECC per day. Today I had:

• 33 carbs - 12 fiber = 21 ECC
• 110 protein
• 106 fat
• 1509 calories
• 30% protein, 64% fat, 6% carbs
  

I was going to put everything we ate in here, but it will probably become way too much of a pain :-) So I'm going to try to keep track of my menu in my FitDay account. Wayne eats about the same thing, but somewhat larger portions (his protein requirement is higher) and he may eat more snacks. I'm hoping he'll eat just what we pack for him for work tomorrow, but considering his line of work that may not happen.

The Family that Low-Carbs together...

My husband told me today that he has to lose a bunch of weight and get in shape for work. He is around 250 lbs and 6-feet tall. From what I've read, a healthy weight for him would be around 180 lbs, so he needs to lose about 70 lbs. He carries a lot of his weight around his middle, probably from all the beer he drinks ;-)

I suggested that he join me in my soon-to-be low-carb way of eating. At first he balked, but I told him he wouldn't have to figure out his counts and all since I'd be doing all of that for myself, and he said he'd give it a try. His biggest worry is that he'll be hungry on a "diet." I know from previous experience that I was rarely hungry while doing low-carb. He also worries that he'll want to binge on forbidden foods. I'm thinking that if we end up doing Protein Power that having fruits allowed on-plan would help a bit with that.

We're also going to try going to the gym. Bally Fitness is giving out 8-week free memberships for participating in the Discovery Health National Body Challenge. The membership starts January 5, 2008, but hubby wants to start NOW, so he might go pay for a membership somewhere else. Geez, men!

Which Diet? Protein Power

I finally had a chance to do a bit of reading on Protein Power, and I must say, I'm pretty impressed. Like many of the other diets I've researched, it has three phases:

1. Intervention
2. Transition
3. Maintenance

During intervention you can eat 7-10 grams of effective carbs (carbs minus the fiber) at each of three meals, and 7-10 carbs/day for a snack for a total of less than 40 carbs (I believe I read it should be around 30 carbs). You also are supposed to eat a minimum amount of protein at each meal, based on your lean body mass. They don't give a limit for fat. You stay in intervention until you're close to your goal (health-wise or weight-wise).

Dr Michael Eades and Dr. Mary Eades developed this way of eating, and I skimmed through three of their books. One of them is a no-fuss 30-day plan for getting into the way of eating, complete with a menu and recipes. I like :-)

One thing I really do like about this diet is that it's pretty structured. All three books provide lists of protein sources for each meal, along with possible carbohydrate accompaniments which you can then mix and match. For example, you can choose eggs with cheese for protein, and add salsa and a low-carb wrap. The possible combinations keep you under the recommended carbs for each meal.

Another thing I like about this diet is that fruit is allowed. This means that I might actually be able to use this as a way of eating for my whole family. My daughter doesn't need to lose weight (she actually could stand to gain some!!), but my husband and I do. We can all eat the same protein, fat, and vegetables for meals, and we can just add some extra fruit (which she LOVES) and other carbs (brown rice?) for my daughter.

Right now Protein Power is at the top of my list.