I am happy that it is starting to be berry season because berries, especially strawberries (my favorites), are lower in carbs. I’ve been struggling to get lower than 100grams of carbs a day in my diet. I hover between 100-130 on my “low carb days”, which doesn’t really feel low carb if you ask me. BUT I am still not eating bread, rice, potatoes or pasta sooo….in that aspect I’m doing well.
I’ve done some reading and it seems like a true low-carb diet, like Atkins, is somewhere around 20 grams of carbs a day. That sounds INSANE to me, and definitely not something you can keep doing long term.
Progress
The blip last week fixed itself this week! I’m down to 169! Woot Woot! Happy to be out of the 170’s finally. It was hard to break that threshold when I was yo-yo-ing up and down the same 5 pounds.
So far in the last month, or so, I’ve lost 6 pounds. I’m pretty happy with that!
Challenges
Last week Michael and I had a date night to see Joe Rogan’s stand up here in Portland.
We went out to dinner at Reverend’s BBQ and I was able to stay on my diet for the most part! I REALLY wanted the mac n’ cheese or hushpuppies but I ordered smart. We shared some deviled eggs:
And I got brisket with the collard greens. (So delicious!)
My carbs came from the BBQ sauce and the wine:
Despite that, I was able to stay around 100g of carbs total for the day of my eats. I’m happy that even eating out at a restaurant I was able to make good choices.
Friday or Saturday nights are usually the day I choose for my “cheat meal” but this Friday I stayed on track and the “cheat” was having some wine with dinner:
I had a salad with blackened salmon and cottage cheese.
Last week we tried cauliflower pizza for the first time. It was pretty good, but not quite right. Michael wanted to experiment and try again. So the day before he made the riced cauliflower even finer and then cooked it and tried to dry it a little more overnight. It didn’t really work so we ended up having homemade pizza.
It was an unexpected carb “cheat” meal that I was a little disappointed to have (because I was having some momentum and wanted to keep that going a few more days before having a cheat meal) but in the end it turned out to probably be a good idea. Going too long in “denial” phase can lead to binges.
The pizza was sooo good!
New This Week
Saturday for breakfast I tried having my breakfast burrito in a low-carb wrap:
Each wrap is 70 calories, 10g of carbs, 4g of fiber, 5g of protein. Good numbers if you ask me. So how did it taste? Not great…not as good as a flour or corn tortilla. I was kind of bummed out by that because I had high hopes! Especially considering the usual flour tortilla we use is 26 grams of carbs. BOO!
I think the Flat-Out wraps are also pretty low in carbs. I might check those out next week.
Elaine
Congrats on your weight loss- good job! Keep up the good work!
Lisa Eirene
Thanks Elaine! I’m happy to see it working.
Jan Schifter
Congrat’s on the weight loss!!!!!! I started Weight Watchers again and I really think this time it will stick. Five other ladies in my office are doing it too so that helps tremendously. I lost 7.8 my first week.
I never got really that into the numbers on the scale. It’s more about changing my thinking about food, hunger, portions etc. By the way, on http://www.vitacost.com there is a product made by Walden Farms that has very very low carb BBQ sauce, Maple Syrup and others. Keep up the awesome work!
Jan
Lisa Eirene
Good for you!!! I am so glad that WW is working for you. It’s very encouraging to get immediate results. It makes it easier to make those sacrifices when it’s working.
Thanks for the link. I will check it out!
Susan
Congrats on your weight loss!
Now if only they made low carb and gluten free wraps that would be cool!
Having to eat gluten free I miss the fluffiness of wheat breads and pizza of
course! Once I quit eating the gluten free substitutes I dropped down from
163 to 146 with hardly any struggle. Also I find now that I am in my 50’s
less intense exercise is the way to go. Once I quit running and started to
walk plus I lift weights 2x a week my belly finally got smaller.
Lisa Eirene
I think you are on to something…after having the low carb wrap I was kind of like…I’d rather skip the carbs entirely than eat a substitute… š
Good for you on your weight loss! Glad you found a combo that worked for your body.
Lori
Great job on your progress! I think a true Atkins of 20 g or less of carbs is so difficult to do, but they also take into account net carbs, so in reality they eat more than 20 grams, but just subtracting the fiber carbs. Still too low for me. 100 grams is a nice sweet spot, IMHO, where you get enough carbs to keep you steady, but not so many that you get bloated or not get in enough protein.
Lisa Eirene
I agree with you Lori! I’ve been doing this diet for a month now and I am somewhere around 90-130 carbs a day. (I don’t subtract the fiber) It seems to be working and I don’t feel deprived or shaky or like I’m going to crash (except for one day I did). It’s a hard balance to find but once you figure it out, I think it’s doable. Of course, I will probably have to reduce the carb intake in the future when I hit a plateau…but like you 20g is NOT going to happen for me!