No food pics today because I kept it pretty vanilla on the meals. Not to say they weren't yummy, they were. I feel like I have lost more this week although I have no idea how much. My stomach feels smaller, my pants are fitting looser and that icewater feeling in my veins is greater, all good signs. I spent the most part of this day driving family in different directions so still no physical activity. That is definitely the next step for me. I can't wait to start adding cardio and some weight lifting to my regime. I have been watching the Food network and although the food, especially the cupcakes, looks good, it isn't tempting. I want this more than a little temporary pleasure. My mother has started the plan this week so I am trying to encourage her. She doesn't have near as much as me to lose so if she stays on it she should get there well before I do. I finished up the last of my 3 steaks last night. Although they were good, I don't think they were worth it. Because I bought three I needed to eat them before they went bad. Steaks certainly aren't off plan, but I think I want to keep that much red meat to a minimum. I had a nice chicken breast for lunch and must say I felt better after that than I did dinner with the steak. Day 8 I had no green vegetables so I made sure to include some zucchini and a cucumber salad to my latter 2 meals. All in all day 9 was a success.
I have 7 more weigh ins until I leave for my trip. I have to admit that after such a good first weigh in that I would like to up my goal a bit. For the next 3 I would like to average 7 pounds lost and for the last 4 I would like to lose 5 lbs each week. That would put me at 50 lbs lost before I leave. That would be a dramatic improvement over where I started and a great motivator not to cheat while I am on the road. After I get back I will be setting a new short term goal commensurate with what my weight loss is at that time.
I was reading an article recently about calories and Atkins. What I read is exactly what I am finding. Calories are not the main player in whether you lose weight on Atkins, but they are an important secondary concern. Harvard conducted a study of 3 control groups. In group 1 they were fed a low calorie, low fat diet of 1,500 calories. Group 2 was fed a low-carb diet but with 1,800 calories. The low carb diet won easily even despite the higher calorie intake. People on the low carb diet lost far more weight and a year later almost all were still on the plan. At the end of the year the low-fat individuals were all off plan. The 3rd group was most interesting. They gave the third group a low carb diet but with 1,500 calories and they lost the most of all. So although you will lose with Atkins at higher calorie counts, you still need to watch those calories. For a woman those numbers should be between 1,500-1,800 and men from 1,800-2,200. Last week I was closer to 1,600 calories so I will have to watch that. If I go too low my body will switch to starvation mode. That happened last time I was on Atkins. Then when I was frustrated with not losing weight and began to eat "normal" again my body devoured up everything and stored it as fat, pressing me higher than I've ever been before. I can't let that happen again or who knows how high I will go? I have to admit I watch the 600lb life on TV. It's scary to see where these people have gone with their weight. I don't ever want to approach anything close to that. If I didn't change though that is where I was headed.
Day 9 meal plan
Breakfast - 3 Eggs scrambled
Lunch - 5 oz chicken breast, 1 cup sauteed zucchini with butter
Dinner - 9 oz ribeye steak, 1 cup cucumber salad w/sour cream and a dash of cider vinegar
Snacks - AM - 2 Beef Sticks, PM - 1 Atkins Cookies & Cream Shake
Total counts for day 9, 15.3g Carbs, 1492 Calories, 105g fat, 109g protein
Again coming in low on all counts, I'm just not hungry enough to want more. One easy solution for carbs is baby dill pickles. They are about 1 carb each and I love them. I think in the future if I am low on carbs I will just have as many pickles as I need to get me up to the right carb count. Calories is a different conundrum though. The pickles are only 5 calories so they are basically no help at all. I'll have to make sure I get my calories up a bit tomorrow.
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