August 31, 2011: Day 94 after Slow-Carb, Post 242

 Goal Weight: 188 pounds 

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Today's Weight:        202.2 lbs
Yesterday's Weight:    203.2 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:         - 1.0 lbs

This is my daily weight chart since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

Another small victory, even as I prepare to make changes and going back to a slightly modified version of the Slow-Carb eating plan.

Anyway, it was pretty easy eating yesterday, should be the same today.

Food Log

Breakfast

Spinach, mozzarella cheese and eggs with chipotle sauce and bacon.

Lunch

From the salad bar: Taco filling, hard-boiled eggs, mixed greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, turkey, ham, roast beef and blue cheese dressing. Not shown: Cottage cheese.

Snack

Almonds and brazilnuts and Greek yogurt.

Dinner 

Smoked turkey with red cabbage on a salad of baby spinach and romaine lettuce, with balsamic vinaigrette. Not shown: Cottage cheese, almonds, brazilnuts, walnuts.

Snack

Protein Shake: Whey protein powder with 48g of protein. 


Liquid Intake

    Coffee:  24 oz,   Water: 106+ oz. 

August 30, 2011: Day 93 after Slow-Carb, Post 241

 Goal Weight: 188 pounds 

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Today's Weight:        203.2 lbs
Yesterday's Weight:    205.2 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:         - 2.0 lbs

This is my daily weight chart since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

A nice drop - now I'm ahead of last week, and I hope to be further ahead by not having screwed up the day's eating in any way.  

Still, the modified (shake for breakfast) Slow-Carb eating plan is looking more and more attractive to me. Reasons? 


For one thing, I have a problem, given my regular schedule (which is, actually, not so regular, being completely different on weekends than weekdays) of eating 6 times a day. For another, I don't want to track calories, or worry about portion control when it comes to eating things that are good for me. Another is that I like the idea of keeping things simple, which means eating mostly the same meals all the time. 


Lastly, the 'straw that broke the camel's back' on SCD was constipation, a problem that did not go away when I switched diets. But I think I have fixed that problem now: By eating cabbage every day, and chewing xylitol gum and changing my daily probiotic supplement, I have been nice and regular, thank you.

Oh, a semi-fail today: It was supposed to be a moderate carb day, and I forgot. Will be having one Thursday, instead.

Food Log

Breakfast

Spinach, mozzarella, eggs with balsamic vinaigrette. And coffee.

Lunch

Smoked turkey with tomatoes and red cabbage on a salad of baby spinach and romaine lettuce, with balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack
Almonds and brazilnuts and Greek yogurt.

Dinner 

Grass-fed ground beef with whole-seed Dijon mustard and a salad of baby spinach, romaine and red cabbage, with balsamic vinaigrette. Not shown: Mozarella cheese. 

Snack

Protein Shake: Whey protein powder with 48g of protein.


Liquid Intake

    Coffee:  24 oz,   Water: 104+ oz. 

August 29, 2011: Day 92 after Slow-Carb, Post 240

 Goal Weight: 188 pounds 

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Today's Weight:        205.2 lbs
Yesterday's Weight:    205.4 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:         - 0.2 lbs

This is my daily weight chart since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

This falls into the category of: At least there was no gain!

In theory, I should have been at my goal weight 3 months ago. That was when, after I stalled out on Slow-Carb, I decided to try other programs that had worked for me in the past. Now I'm thinking about changing back. I'm thinking about a single modification I could make to the Slow-Carb diet that might restart my weight loss, which has, for all intents and purposes, been stalled for the last 4 months.  Four months ago, I weighed a little less than I do now. 

During that time, I lost about 12 pounds - and since then, have yo-yo-ed up and down in a 7 pound range - no loss seemed sustainable.


I still don't understand why. Which is to say, the theories of all the diets that I have tried this year do not predict or deal with this. Part of the problem is no doubt related to lifestyle:  I frequently get too little sleep, and frequently modify my meals - within the food-type limitations of the diet du jour - and end up with higher calories consumed. Although I am not a believer in the calories in-calories out theory of weight loss (create a calorie deficit to lose weight), there is certainly a case to be made that the surplus calories I consume may be affecting my weight loss.


That being the case, the Slow-Carb diet represents my most recent success. That it also represents a failure for me means I cannot go back and restart with no modifications. I am thinking about starting the day with a protein shake, then following the rest of the guidelines for my other 2 meals.

Food Log

Breakfast

Spinach, mozzarella, eggs with chipotle sauce. And coffee.

Lunch

Tuna salad (with celery and homemade mayonnaise) on red cabbage and Spring Mix greens.

Snack
Pumpkin seeds, Greek yogurt, baby carrots.

Dinner 

Grass-fed ground beef with salsa with a salad of baby spinach and romaine and red cabbage, with homemade mayonnaise with caraway seeds. Not shown: Mozarella cheese, cottage cheese and celery. 

Snack

Protein Shake: Whey protein powder with 48g of protein.


Liquid Intake

    Coffee:  22 oz,   Water: 106+ oz. 

August 28, 2011: Day 91 after Slow-Carb, Post 239

 Goal Weight: 188 pounds 

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Today's Weight:        205.4 lbs
Yesterday's Weight:    202.0 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:         + 3.4 lbs

This is my daily weight chart since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

Well, here we are, back again at my recent high weight. I'm not certain what it means. I'm still evaluating. I'm considering going back to the Slow-Carb diet. For now, just thinking about it.

Food Log

Breakfast

Protein-vegetable smoothie: 2 scoops of whey protein powder with 48g of protein, 2 eggs, 1/2C coconut milk and 2C of frozen spinach with cinnamon and stevia-erythritol sweetener.

Lunch

Pepperoni, tomatoes and parmesan on Spring Mix greens and red cabbage with balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinner 

Ground grass-fed beef with a salad of Spring Mix greens, red cabbage and tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack

Mozzarella cheese and cottage cheese and celery..



Liquid Intake

    Coffee:  20 oz,   Water: 88+ oz. 

August 27, 2011: Day 90 post Slow-Carb, Post 238 - Measurement Day, Cheat Day

 Goal Weight: 188 pounds 

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Today's Weight:        202.0 lbs
Yesterday's Weight:    205.0 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:         - 3.0 lbs

This is my daily weight chart since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

               Last week     This week     Gain/Loss

  Weight:     201.0  lbs    202.0  lbs    - 0.2  lbs
  Chest:       39.00 "       39.00 "      - 0.00 in
  Waist:       38.00 "       37.00 "      - 1.00 "
  Hips:        37.00 "       38.00 "      + 1.00 "
  Total in:   114.00 "      114.00 "      0 0.00 "
  % Body Fat:  16.5  %       16.8  %      + 0.3  %

This is a chart of my weekly weight since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

This is a weekly chart of inches lost (sum of chest, waist, hips) since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

Today is the 90th day since I switched from the Slow-Carb Diet. Currently following the Cheat Your Way Thin (CYWT) diet plan.

After my second CYWT week, I am slightly heavier. I simply never got all the weight off from an exorbitant cheat day, and some unusual circumstances threw the timing of my meals off most days last week.

As is fairly typical for weekends, I started the day late. Mostly, I wasn't hungry, and ended up having "breakfast" at almost 6 o'clock.  I ate quite a lot in the next 4 hours, but did not eat anything too late. Still, if I had to guess, my weight will be up substantially, since I had my whole day's worth of eating and calories concentrated like that - the inevitable result is a spike in insulin, which will store the extra calories as fat.

Of course, that's what the cheat day is supposed to do - because along with the insulin hit, there is an increase in the production of leptin, which lasts longer than the insulin, and will regulate appetite as well as insulin and glucogon production - in a positive way.

That's the theory of the CYWT diet plan. Unfortunately, I seem to be eating too many calories, even thought they are the right kind.

Food Log

Breakfast
Skipped.

Snack
Skipped.


Lunch
Smoothie with 2 scoops of vanilla whey protein (48g protein), 1 egg, 2C frozen spinach, 1C frozen wild blueberries, 1/2C coconut milk, cinnamon and stevia-erythritol sweetener.

Dinner

Thai salad.

Curry puffs, with a sweet honey-cucumber dip (which I didn't like).

Kwoi-Tiew-Lad-Nha - chicken and shrimp with rice noodles and vegetables in  peanut sauce.

Not pictured (but eaten): 1 chocolate-covered Joyvah halvah bar and 1 Ferrara dark chocolate with almonds bar.

Liquid Intake

    Coffee:  0 oz,   Water:76+ oz. 

August 26, 2011: Day 89 after Slow-Carb, Post 237

 Goal Weight: 188 pounds 

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Today's Weight:        204.8 lbs
Yesterday's Weight:    203.4 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:         + 1.4 lbs

This is my daily weight chart since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

I am kind of bummed. This is my 8th day above 200 pounds. I have, in fact, only been under 200 pounds 22 days since the beginning of the year, and less than 25% of the time since I went off the Slow-Carb Diet. Looking at the chart, I am seeing a weight swing between ~198 pounds and ~205 pounds. 

I'm getting pissed off, because I was under 205 85 days ago. This is not progress.

I have to think about what I'm going to do.

Food Log

Breakfast

Skipped.

Lunch

Spinach, kidney beans and parmesan cheese omelet with salsa.

Snack
Pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, brazilnuts, green peppers.

Dinner 

Chopped grass-fed beef and a salad of Spring Mix greens, kidney beans and red cabbage with balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack

Protein Shake: Whey protein powder with 48g of protein.



Snack

Protein Shake: Whey protein powder with 48g of protein.

Liquid Intake

    Coffee:  20 oz,   Water: 84+ oz. 

August 25, 2011: Day 88 after Slow-Carb, Post 236

 Goal Weight: 188 pounds 

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Today's Weight:        203.4 lbs
Yesterday's Weight:    204.0 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:         - 0.6 lbs

This is my daily weight chart since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

Today is a pretty standard day. Not much to be said, not much of interest. Except that I was out very late, and didn't have my bedtime snack until 2am... That is going to be a big negative tomorrow.

Food Log

Breakfast

Spinach-pepperoni-mozzarella omelet.

Lunch

Turkey salad (w/celery and home-made mayonnaise) on red cabbage and Spring Mix greens.

Snack
Pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, brazilnuts, cottage cheese and celery.

Dinner 

Chicken-feta cheese-spinach sausage with whole-seed Dijon mustard and a salad of Spring Mix greens and cabbage with balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack

Protein Shake: Whey protein powder with 48g of protein.

Liquid Intake

    Coffee:  42 oz,   Water: 84+ oz. 

August 24, 2011: Day 87 post Slow-Carb, Post 235

 Goal Weight: 188 pounds 

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Today's Weight:        204.0 lbs
Yesterday's Weight:    204.0 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:         - 0.0 lbs

This is my daily weight chart since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

Last night's late protein-and-fat feast prevented what would have otherwise been an excellent weight loss day from manifesting. So it goes. At least I didn't gain any weight, which is what I was expecting when I went to bed.

I deviated from the norm in a few ways today. First, I started the day with a breakfast-modified protein shake. Then, I had dinner out - with few choices that fit my low-carb requirements, I made the best of a bad situation by having some pepperoni (0 carbs) beforehand, then having a salad with chicken and blue cheese dressing at the restaurant. 


What came in between was pretty easy and standard. 

Food Log

Breakfast
Protein shake with 2 oz of vanilla whey protein (48g protein), 1/4C coconut milk, 2C frozen spinach, 1 whole egg, 1/2t stevia-erythritol blend.

Lunch

Turkey with tomatoes on baby spinach, romaine, and red cabbage with balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack

Green pepper slices and an ounce of almonds, and another ounce of brazilnuts and walnuts.


Dinner 

Pepperoni, and a tossed salad with grilled chicken breast and blue cheese dressing.

Snack

Protein Shake: Whey protein powder with 48g of protein. Then, pepperoni and shaved parmesan.

Liquid Intake

    Coffee:  42 oz,   Water: 84+ oz. 

August 23, 2011: Day 86 post Slow-Carb, Post 234

 Goal Weight: 188 pounds 

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Today's Weight:        204.0 lbs
Yesterday's Weight:    205.4 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:         - 1.4 lbs

This is my daily weight chart since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

Yesterday went fairly well. Missed a snack. Had to go shopping after work, missing another snack, and ended up getting hungry enough to open the groceries and eat pepperoni out of the bag. Which ended up, when I finished the bag, being dinner (I just added a salad, and... done!).

Today is Slow-carb diet redux. All my meals had protein, vegetables and beans. 


This is what I think my eating plan will look like going forward, with or without weight loss - as long as there's no weight gain: Cheat day followed by 2 days of low carb, 1 day of slow-carb. Repeat the previous 3 days. Since cheat day is Saturday, that means Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday are low-carb, Tuesday and Friday are slow-carb. 

More than enough variety. We'll see how that goes.  


Meanwhile, I again succumbed to the late-night munchies (no, no pot smoking here), and had a pepperoni and cheese after-snack snack. I'll be wearing that tomorrow, for sure...

Food Log

Breakfast

Spinach and black beans with eggs and parmesan cheese.

Snack

Baby carrots and an ounce of almonds, and another ounce of brazilnuts and walnuts.


Lunch

Turkey and black bean salad (with homemade mayonnaise) on baby spinach, romaine, and red cabbage.

Snack

Celery and cottage cheese.

Dinner 

Chicken-feta cheese-spinach sausage with Dijon mustard, and a salad of red cabbage, romaine, baby spinach and shaved parmesan with balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack

Protein Shake: Whey protein powder with 48g of protein. Then, pepperoni and shaved parmesan.

Liquid Intake

    Coffee:  42 oz,   Water: 104+ oz. 

August 22, 2011: Day 85, Post 233

 Goal Weight: 188 pounds 

Please leave a comment if you visit my blog. Thank you!

Today's Weight:        205.4 lbs
Yesterday's Weight:    203.2 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:         + 2.2 lbs

This is my daily weight chart since ending the Slow-Carb diet.

Woke up without any back pain today.  That was the good news. The bad news was the 4-1/2 hours of sleep I got after drinking my protein shake at 1am.

Given the bad news above, I should not be the least bit surprised* at the weight gain. It follows a familiar post-cheat day pattern of weight gain for two measurement days after a cheat. Yesterday's food was pretty spot-on as far as carbohydrate-eating was concerned, but the plan says 6 snacks/meals per day, wants calorie consumption to be in the 1500 calorie range, and wants 3-4 days a week of exercise. I'm 0 for 3 in regards to meeting those requirements. 

Oh, well. 

*Shout out to Dorothy Parker, whose birth date is today: "If all the young women who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I shouldn't be the least bit surprised." DP quotes are always handy (even if only approximately - I can't remember most of them exactly, and the famous ones have been reused and slightly reworded so many times, that without looking it up, you can't be sure...).

Food Log

Breakfast

Spinach with eggs and mozzarella cheese, topped with chipotle sauce.

Lunch

Turkey on baby spinach, romaine and red cabbage with tomatoes and balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack

No snack.

Dinner 

Romaine, baby spinach and cabbage with shaved parmesan and homemade mayonnaise. Not shown: 1/2 pound of pepperoni I ate as an appetizer.

Snack

Protein Shake: Whey protein powder with 48g of protein.

Liquid Intake

    Coffee:  22 oz,   Water: 128+ oz.