I think I’m going to stop eating avocados as it seems they make me hungry. Though low carb and good for you, they might be one of those foods that I have an idiosyncratic response to.

I got the blood work back from the endocrinologist. Nothing worrisome enough to treat. Testosterone 614. A1C ‘slightly elevated’ at 5.9, fasting blood glucose 110. No mention of thyroid at all, so I suppose that nothing is wrong there either – I’m expecting the actual results in the mail this week and will review it for more detail.

Getting into ketosis was another big milestone – only took me 3 months…I do indeed suck at low carb – it’s just that I am persistent.

For the coming week I’d like to focus on:

• Continuing the exercise thing. Don’t get any more ambitious than I currently am. If I do this week exactly what I did last week, I’ve hit a home run. It’s not how many reps, on what machine, and at what weight that matters – it’s instilling a habit that becomes an unconscious part of my life that’s most important.
• Stay in ketosis. This can be tricky because the keto sticks don’t always measure ketones accurately, and sometimes too much protein can allow your body to produce enough glucose to thwart ketosis. Really, the focus is not on measurement as much as following a course of healthy low carb eating.
• Continue the calorie-counting. As much as I loathe calorie-counting and believe that it is part of a diabolical plan to make us eat processed food (explained in this post), I still feel that it a great guide to monitoring intake for a short period of time to allow one to get a better feel of what portion control looks like. Once you internalize what adequate portions are, you can drop the calorie-counting like a hot potato.
• Once again, bring my focus back to what ‘healthy eating’ is. The Atkins shakes have helped me as they do indeed satisfy my appetite and keep me feeling full and content way beyond the calories contained in them. I just don’t want to live my life dependent on processed foods. Being pragmatic, however, I don’t need to adhere to all-or-nothing thinking, and keeping these to one-a-day isn’t a big deal in the larger scheme of things if it helps me get to my target weight of 185.

Sunday, March 11, 2012 – 203.4

After my morning infusion of coffee, I had an Atkins shake at about 9:30, followed by a few leftover pepperoni from the pizza the other day. I had some kimchi, the Korean pickled vegetables about mid afternoon. I worked around the house, and exercised, and had a yogurt. I also had some roast beef wrapped in babybel cheese and then pork rinds with salsa.  I also drank a lot of water. Whenever I have this unusual thirst, I know the scale will be unkind. Something was amiss. I was a bit hyper, energetic – almost manic. Not in a bad way – just not my usual self, though.

About 5pm the bell rang and our neighbor’s son had sent over a tray of home-baked cupcakes for my daughter (they’re both 5).

I had one without thinking (Diet? What diet?) – and it was off to the races. I recall some Lindt chocolate, a slice of bread with butter and lots of port rinds with salsa.

As is usual when I do this now – I felt sick afterward. Not guilt or some emotional thing – just sick like I wanted to puke. I went to bed early. Oh boy, what’s the scale going to say tomorrow?

Total calories for the day (rough estimate): 2327. Fat: 165g, Net carbs: 92g, Protein: 117g (63/17/20%)

Monday, March 12, 2012 – 205.6

Progress! Last week’s blowout made me gain 7 pounds – this one only 2.2. Really, in the total scheme of things, one day out of the past 7, with calories still relatively low, this transgression isn’t all that much. Scale’s not happy, but I’ll recover. In general, I’m still going in the right direction. Weekends are always tough.

I awoke with numbness in my right arm this morning – notable only because this used to be a daily occurrence for me when I was fat – now it happens so rarely that it strikes me as worth noting here. Did the carbs last night have something to do with it? I have no clue.

The wife had made brisket the night before, and we also had some leftover zucchini with ham cooked in butter. I brought that for lunch and guesstimated the nutrition info. I had the shake at noon and the leftovers mid afternoon, and that left me satisfied for the day. Stopped to exercise on the way home, and cooked in the evening with the wife and kid. Hungry, I picked on stuff while they cooked – a bit of pork rinds with salsa, some kimchi, some of the sausage from the leftover soup, a can of tuna with mayo.

The wife and kid ate trout and zucchini – I was at my caloric max by then.

Total calories for the day: 1617.  Fat: 123g, Net carbs: 9g, Protein: 110g (69/4/28%)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012 – 204.0

Had a mean case of the hungries and the grumpies today. Had 2 shakes for breakfast – the first one didn’t seem to do anything. I even thought of stopping for a deli sandwich on the way in to work – I haven’t thought that in a while.

I resisted, though I did have a yogurt and 4 ounces of beef and half a stick of butter by 1pm. I had such a grump on I walked around the office building three times. I find myself looking to exercise (the pathetic amount I do) as medicine now. It helped a bit, but I still had work itself to get me all ornery again.

Came home, stopped to exercise, and it seemed tougher than yesterday. When I got home I wasn’t necessarily hungry as much as thirsty, so I grabbed a bottle of water – but before I did I tested for ketones and weighed myself. The keto stick was dark red and the weight was 202.2.

It was a perfect night for an Atkins shake and bed, as I was in no mood for anything – but my daughter felt sick, and I went to the kitchen to get her something…and all Hell broke loose. It was unconscious eating – 1/2 McDonald’s Hamburger, a leftover bit of bagel with cream cheese, then a pile of cream cheese on a piece of bread. Not satisfied – or a case of WTF setting in, I had maybe 6 lindt chocolates, 2 kit kats, and maybe 1/2 dozen of these thin almond cookies.

Now, as the LoseIt! app scans bar codes, it makes it easy to quantify this blowout.

Total calories for the day: 2450.  Fat: 158g, Net carbs: 120g, Protein: 100g (60/23/17%)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 – 202.6

I’ve seen this happen before. Curious, isn’t it? The ‘eat candy and lose weight’ diet. While I’m happy the scale went down, I’m not trying to perfect the candy diet and I don’t believe candy is all that healthy for you – I just still can’t reckon having a relatively high-calorie, high-carb day (including candy) – and losing weight. Perhaps everyone is wrong about what brings about weight loss? Or maybe just a little statistical ‘blip’ that mean nothing. Tough to quantify when you’re an experiment of one – and a bad subject to boot.

The day actually didn’t turn out bad, I returned to my regular grumpy self (as opposed to extra-grumpy) at work, wasn’t really hungry, continued the daily exercise streak and it almost seemed I was going to go to bed with only 500 calories or so in me – 2 shakes and a can of tuna don’t add up to much. I thought that a bit low for health, even though I wasn’t hungry and had 2 hot dogs on lettuce, some pork rinds and butter and salsa, ans some asparagus.

I had mentioned ‘when hungry eat, when tired sleep’ as a goal last week – and broke it because I thought eating too little might be harmful…but is it? I’m trying to get thin – not get sick, but I have so little faith in the accurate interpretation of science surrounding nutrition and health that I wonder if it would have been totally harmless not to eat.

Total calories for the day: 1253.  Fat: 88g, Net carbs: 9g, Protein: 94g (64/5/30%)

Thursday, March 15, 2012 – 202.2

If I recall, the Ides of March wasn’t all that great a day for Caesar, either…

If you don’t mind, we’re going to have to put this day down as my 12-week plan version of a ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card’. It was a very stressful day at work and while I brought healthy stuff, I needed a reward, so at lunch I went out and bought mortadella and american cheese. I feel sorry for people on strict low-calorie diets – what do they do – have an extra rice cake?

Problem was – I ate a bit much, and it made me awfully thirsty, so I had a diet soda – the first I can remember since last year. No biggie, but the appetite was not under control. I also forgot my keys in the car, which I never do – I think it reflects just how distracted and stresses I was. I’m also coming down with a cold. I exercised, but it was the hardest it’s been since the beginning. I had to drag myself there, and my self-talk that tried to talk me out of it had a hard time convincing me I couldn’t do 10 freakin’ minutes.

I had certainly eaten my fill by the time I had gotten home, hung with the kids and wife, and I went to bed, but hunger was gnawing at me, so I raided the fridge: pizza, baguette with butter, some home-made apple pie. A Lindt chocolate or 2. I also downed a liter of seltzer, which with all the carbs I ate, will slosh around in me for a few days.

When I’ve had blowouts before, when I tallied the calories, it really wasn’t all that bad. Regardless, I had too many itsy-bitsies, so I’m sure my tally is off a bit.

Summary: I fucked up – now to get over it and try again tomorrow.

One small ray of hope: my wife, who really has no need for a diet from a weight perspective, is going on the Ultramind Solution Diet to feel better – and this restricts sugar, dairy and wheat. Not a perfect overlap, but it might reduce the number of goodies I can find about the house when in the vacuum-cleaner mode.

Total calories for the day: 2,879.  Fat: 205, Net carbs: 104g, Protein: 141g (64/16/20%)

Friday, March 16, 2012 – 205.6 

The shake on the way to work, then some roast beef and butter. Early afternoon I found myself, seemingly helpless, going  to Dunkin Donuts for an extra-large coffee with cream. The thing is huge, and assuming 180 calories for the cream might be too low – and it’s not like the crack team at Dunkin Donuts uses a graduated cylinder to measure the stuff out. I also found my self – again, seemingly helpless, eating an emergency Atkins bar stowed away in the car.

My stomach not feeling at all well in the afternoon, I had another Atkins shake on the way home while wondering if anyone attempted to make a low carb White Russian with one of these by adding vodka. A passing idle thought, since I don’t drink at present.

At home I stopped to exercise and went through my routine rather quickly, though a bit sore. I ran through 2 rounds of the 3 machines rather quick – maybe too quick, as I found myself dizzy and winded for a brief spell, then finished up after a rest. I did calculate that the 70 pounds on each of the 3 machines at 10 repetitions is me hauling a little more than 1 ton each time – so I’m moving 3 tons of metal each workout.

When I got home, the wife wanted to get out of the house – she worked from home and was restless. We ended up walking the neighborhood, then took a ride for coffee for her and a walk in our nearby downtown.

At least 3 days this past week I’ve walked for at least 20-30 minutes, just because I felt like it. I think exercise leads to exercise naturally, which is perhaps why I am so conflicted about it: some people think it a moral imperative to exercise – I like to look at things I do in life in a joyful fashion. It’s all play – everything – when you approach it in the right way, and it’s a helluva less miserable and sanctimonious way to go through life.

Despite the fact I didn’t get home and settled in until after 9pm, I still went on a tear in the kitchen and had a mortadella and cheese sandwich – yes, with 2 slices bread, some pasta (it was sitting on the counter, just asking for it), some asparagus, and a huge portion – maybe 8-10 ounces – of skirt steak leftover from earlier in the week. I topped that off with the remains of the Lindt chocolate candy that I ate on my wife the other day – she can’t have it on her diet – so it’s like I was doing her a favor…right?

Total calories for the day: 2,966.  Fat: 198g, Net carbs: 85g, Protein: 175g (61/15/24%)

Saturday, March 10, 2012 – 204.0

Strange week, for a number of reasons. I started at 203.4, and ended at 204.0 – a 0.6 pound difference is insignificant. I also ate a lot, ate a little, was in ketosis – and wasn’t – and my weight stayed within a 3-pound range. If all this was simple calories in-calories out, I’d gain weight when I eat a lot of calories, and lose when I ate a few. Instead, the week shows that I ate more than I planned and lost weight – and ate less and lost weight.

When you look at it, really, it seems that nothing I do - short-term at least – matters. I can eat double the amount of calories from one day to the next and maintain my weight just fine.

Right at this moment I am wondering if I should try to go low-calorie next week or high calorie. Maybe I should try the ‘fat fast’ notion and get the fat up and eat near 3000 calories – just to see what happens. I’m toying with the idea.

As it’s the weekend after a very stressful week, it might be a good idea to tackle the ‘eating quality food’ issue, as I don’t think I really covered that this past week. Some of what I ate was OK, but I don’t consider Atkins shakes or pork rinds ‘health food’. I think they’re OK – a shake a day for convenience and the pork rinds as an occasional snack are fine – the rest should be real food.

To this end I’ve lined up the ingredients from this ‘Mexican kale recipe‘ but will substitute spinach and make a bunch – see if I can subsist on this for a number of meals this week. I’m also going to try a cauliflower pizza crust recipe one commenter suggested.

If I succeeded anywhere this week, it was in continuing the exercise habit, or the ‘practice’ of exercise. I keep relating it to meditation, and approach it in the same way – a practice, not focused on the quality, or counting, or really going anywhere with it at present. I do the same brief workout every day – and that’s it. I don’t bother to count the exercise in my calorie counter because I don’t believe that exercise helps you lose weight – and I’m not doing this: “I exercised X and burned X calories, and now I can eat the equivalent in Snackwells cookies.”

I’m not exercising to lose weight. I’m exercising to exercise. Might it help with weight loss? Might I get some muscle definition? Might it improve my metabolic rate? Might it lead to better health?

Maybe – maybe not. It’s not why I’m exercising. If I was doing it for any of these reasons and they didn’t appear on some expected schedule, I might stop exercising. It’s exactly how one should approach meditation. Does meditation help with focus, concentration, calmness? Maybe  - but that’s not why you meditate. You meditate to meditate. It’s the end in itself.

I am less happy with the goal of calorie-counting. Not because I didn’t do it, but because I did. Calorie-counting sucks, and the only reason I am doing it is as a feedback mechanism. It’s an interesting data point, and I am hoping that it will reveal info I can use. Right now it’s told me that when ‘I eat a lot’ – some times it’s not a lot. A quick look on the Internet says an average guy should eat around 2500 calories a day. My average this week – if I didn’t screw up the average – was 2,250. I also seem to eat about 60% fat without trying. As to carbs, even on a day with me eating chocolates, my carb level – 120 – is still lower than what my doctor considered a ‘low carb diet’ – 150. The average was 65 grams.

As to eating this day, as is usual for the day after a lot of carbs, I was hungry early and had an Atkins shake. I also had 1 fried egg – a leftover from the eggs I cooked my younger daughter. With the wife at the dentist, the kids and I headed to the store to get the ingredients for ‘Bangers and Mash’ – the English pub meal of sausages, mashed potatoes, onions and brown gravy that is awesomely good – but none for Daddy (hopefully) – this is for the wife and kids. I’ll stick to my concoctions.

Around noon I had some kimchi, and a bit after that I went to make a hot dog for my younger daughter, went to the kitchen and found my older daughter had left most of a hot dog before leaving with my wife for the afternoon. I offered it to my younger daughter, but her 5-year-old palate isn’t sophisticated enough for mustard yet – she’s a ketchup-on-hot-dog kind of gal.

Before I knew what happened – I ate it. WTF?!? Then it happened again. A piece of old cheesecake – gone, just like that. Then half a tub of Hagen Daz Blueberry Crumble Ice Cream my daughter picked out at our earlier shopping trip. I dutifully recorded it in my LoseIt! iPhone application. Ok…it isn’t going to be a low carb day by any stretch, but I might be able to keep the calories to a reasonable amount…

I then did some research to figure out what was going on – it seemed that I had lost control or something. A quick search turned up the answer: Alien Hand Syndrome. From the article:

Alien hand syndrome (AHS) is a rare neurological disorder that causes hand movement without the person being aware of what is happening or having control over the action. The afflicted person may sometimes reach for objects and manipulate them without wanting to do so, even to the point of having to use the healthy hand to restrain the alien hand.

I told my daughter this when I explained that I ate half her ice cream. She didn’t buy it and told me it was: “because I had no backbone.”

“That hurts.” I told her.

Seriously, though, what I found strange was that after the ice cream, I was satisfied for hours. Usually, carbs set me off for an uncontrollable hunger. This didn’t. All I had the remainder of the day was some weak coffee and half-and half, then I did have a bit of the ‘bangers & mas’h I made for the family – mostly the sausage, some of the fried onion, and maybe a tablespoon or 2 of the potatoes.

Total calories for the day: 1,743.  Fat: 118g, Net carbs: 64g, Protein: 79g (63/18/19%)

To be continued…

Sunday, March 4, 2012 – 211.0

On this day I had my Atkins shake in the AM, then a Greek yogurt around 1pm. Convenience does help. I just haven’t been in the mood to cook as of late. I also exercised – just the weights 3 circuits on 3 machines for the arms and chest like last week. Weekends, where I usually have more flexibility in my time, is a good opportunity to get in exercise 2 days in a row, though I do want to be careful not to hurt a body that considers exercise something done while bringing fork to mouth.

I do enjoy it, especially when not in a rush, though I run the risk of having developed arms with everything else flabby.

I suppose I’ll take that chance.

Evening eating was some roast beef and butter, some pork rinds and salsa, a slice of bacon and a few slices of American cheese. I was satisfied at the amount and didn’t continue eating to meet some caloric ideal – a problem I think I had the last week.

Total calories for the day: 1207. Fat: 85g, Net carbs: 16g, Protein: 90g (64/7/30%)

Monday, March 5, 2012 – 208.8

I suppose the theme for the week so far goes back to the one of the many answers to the question ‘What is Zen?’

One answer is: “When hungry eat, when tired, sleep.” Not bad advice no matter what your beliefs are, actually.

I threw out the ‘scientists say eat breakfast because blah blah blah..’ and had my Atkins shake when I was hungry – maybe 9am – 4 hours after I woke. While my resolution of coffee seems to have gone out the window, I am living on a weaker brew which I sip during the day. Black, of course. Late afternoon was a yogurt, then the evening was a trip to the gym for the usual routine. Home was dinner, which was roast beef and butter, and cheese and lettuce. Later in the evening, still hungry, I had some of the family’s leftovers from TGI Fridays (chicken and ketchup). Yeah, my compliance slipped a bit here, but I think the damage was minimal – not in the ‘frozen Walmart pizza’ category.

Total calories for the day: 1514.  Fat: 103g, Net carbs: 31g, Protein: 91g (65/10/25%)

Tuesday, March 6, 2012 – 206.2

While losing 5 pounds in 3 days is awesome, it must be remembered that I GAINED 7 lbs in ONE DAY.

That, my friends, is the awesome power of low carb – and what happens when you abandon it and drink a liter of Orangina and have Walmart frozen pizza. I suppose I can look on these events as further justification for living the way I do. Why do I low carb? Why live like this when there are people out there who I respect (Matt Stone, Anthony Colpo) that believe there’s evidence that low carb might not be all that great?

The answer is because it has proven itself to work for me above all the other things I’ve tried, and while in my ninth year of it the pounds don’t exactly melt away, they sure do rush back in when I eat high carb crap, and I can prove this over and over.

I should also mention how sick I felt after the crapfest. I felt physically ill. To think as a young adult I ate like this daily - and many people do – and think nothing of the fact they feel awful all the time because they are totally used to feeling awful and being incapable of staying awake through the afternoon blood sugar plunge brought about by their crappy diet.

On another topic, mood is a strange thing. I found myself wanting to exercise yesterday. Thinking about it during the day – even looking forward to it. I also had a mood of well-being, though outside circumstances (my crazy job) should have made me feel otherwise. This could be temporary – a form of inebriation that I will simply become used to – and immune to. I am so good at being lazy – it’s a shame to leave a vast body of work in sloth behind.

As for eats, It was an Atkins shake maybe 10am, then a yogurt at maybe 2pm? A little later I had a can of tuna, and before leaving work near 6pm I had 2 tablespoons of butter with 4oz of roast beef.

On the way home I stopped – 4th day in a row – to work with the weights. It doesn’t take long  - maybe 15 minutes – and I find myself looking forward to it. I am also not sore – not like when I started. It also seemed that the weights I started with that once felt heavy seem, well, lighter.

When I went home, I decided to try something different – I had an Atkins shake instead of dinner. They do satisfy. They are a friggin’ shake, not a steak – don’t get me wrong: when I say ‘satisfy’ I mean ‘I am not hungry after I have one.

I did have maybe a quarter cup of peanuts before bed, and that was my day.

Total calories for the day: 1393.  Fat: 94g, Net carbs: 10g, Protein: 117g (62/4/34%)

Wednesday, March 7, 2012 – 204.0

7 pounds in 4 days? Fabulous. Remember again, though – it was Orangina and frozen pizza that made me gain the 7 lbs in 1 day. That’s how fine-tuned (or fucked up) my metabolism is. And now comes the hard part – getting below 200 lbs. I doubt the weight is going to continue to roll of from here, but I am trying to internalize one commenter’s notion of thinking this a ‘cleansing’. A temporary one, not a lifestyle change – I know how to keep the weight off and enjoy my food (I think) – I just need to get to my target weight first. Apparently, that requires some extra effort.

The day has become a routine of Atkins shake, greek yogurt and roast beef and butter. Hitting the gym has also become daily – a quick 15-20 minutes after work. I did have a second Atkins shake on the way home, worked out and weighed myself – just for kicks – 202.8. OK – this is serious territory now.

I also tested for ketones – yep – I’m in ketosis now. I did notice that my weight workout seemed a wee bit harder than yesterday. Perhaps that’s the ketosis kicking in.

This is *USUALLY* about the time I go off the rails…but this night I don’t. Out with the kids to a school event and then home at 9pm when I had some cheese and iceberg lettuce.

First mention from the wife that she’s noticed my nascent muscles. I’m beginning to get a little muscle tone in my arms.

Total calories for the day: 1367.  Fat: 97g, Net carbs: 16g, Protein: 96g (66/6/29%)

Thursday, March 8, 2012 – 203.0

8 pounds down in 5 days. I feel OK. I could even go so far as to say I feel a heightened sense of well-being. That could be because we’ve finally had a sunny day that went above 60 degrees, and I love spring as much as I hate winter. Still in ketosis, though light. That could be that I am not ‘spilling’ ketones in my urine, but rather using them all. This could be because I am doing a low-calorie diet – let’s face it – this is a low-calorie diet first and foremost – I am using the low carb aspect to reduce hunger. Fat is more satisfying than carbs (at least to me – I’ve seen some claim otherwise and people are different) and ketosis suppresses appetite.

This day was a bit different in terms of how I felt. The coffee I usually drank made me a bit more jittery than usual. I was a little more intense – sometimes to the delight or chagrin of my coworkers. My mood was OK. I did stick to the shake / yogurt / roast beef / butter routine, but I ate more butter and roast beef than usual. I felt a heaviness and an unsteadiness late afternoon. Maybe a little headachy (I don’t take anything for headaches, I just tough ‘em out).

I’ve felt this before. This is hard-core ketosis kicking in. I thought about skipping exercise, but went anyway. As it’s sunny and warm in the east and I was wearing a polo shirt, I decided to skip changing for the gym and did my usual 3 sets of 10 on the 3 upper body machines. This was tough. I remembered how light these weights felt the other day – they felt a lot heavier now. I got through these and went home. Jeez, I am actually developing muscles with this workout and without changing, it probably took me less than 10 minutes.

At home I checked my weight – 202.4. Nice. I also checked for ketosis – a very dark red. This explains how I feel. Ketosis – this hard-core ketosis by having essentially zilch in terms of carbs does a number on you while your body acclimates to it. The trick here is to make it through the acclimation. What lies on the other side is a ‘keto-adapted metabolism’ where your body runs off ketones as well as a good part of your brain. The small amount of sugar your brain does need is produced by creating it from protein. Once you adapt, which takes a week or two, some people can run in this mode indefinitely.

This is super controversial. Some of you folks in the know would think this smart to say – others believe it to be stupid and dangerous. I’ve come down on the side that it is harmless in general and beneficial for weight loss, because ketosis reduces hunger.

The latest research on this can be found in The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable by Phinney, Stephen; Volek, Jeff  (2011-07-08). I’m basing my current experiment in extreme low carbing on some of the info presented in this book – well worth the read if you can read a very sciencey book written for physicians.

Anywho, one thing they note is that the weirdness one feels getting into ketosis can be countered by salt. Salt is supposedly a very different thing when you are on a ketogenic diet and you can easily become salt-depleted. Hungry at home, I had some Claussen pickles in the fridge and figured I’d have some with cheese, but I overdid it, eating 4 pickles and 8 slices of cheese (4oz). I also has a tomato with slices of cheese, and a few slices of prosciutto. I was also ravenously thirsty, which is unusual for me, and drank a liter of seltzer in about 10 minutes.

If I needed salt on this day – I got it. The LoseIt app says it was 7,300mg. Depending on who you believe, I should either go to the emergency room right away, or it’s not a big deal.

Oh, yeah – I also got back my blood results from the endocrinologist. Thyroid and testosterone levels are normal. Blood sugar is a little high – and she recommended losing weight and exercise. I’m on it, doc.

Total calories for the day: 1869.  Fat: 125g, Net carbs: 34g, Protein: 142g (61/8/31%)

Friday, March 9, 2012 – 204.4 

Still in a deep ketosis. The weight gain is explained by the salt and liquid that, if the past is any indication, will be flushed from my body in a day or so. Did I notice that I am using a new belt notch this morning when getting dressed? I think so. Ate relatively light throughout the day. The am shake didn’t happen until late am, then I had a can of smoked oysters and a small raw zucchini I found lonely and abandoned in the veggie drawer in the morning. Around 5pm I had my yogurt.

Stopped on the way home to exercise. Same routine. I don’t time myself, but it can’t take more than 10 minutes. Seemed a bit easier than yesterday, but not by much.

At home there was Sicilian pizza. I ate the pepperoni off one piece and asked myself – can I really resist the yummy goodness of a real Italian pizza made my real Italians that watch Italian TV in their Italian pizza joint? This ain’t the chain stuff – this is the real deal.

Despite my own estimate of a massive fail here, I didn’t have any. I grabbed a shake and went to bed instead.

I was pretty light on the calories – but if you recall, I mentioned I didn’t want to live by the numbers but how I felt – and I wasn’t hungry.

Total calories for the day: 852.  Fat: 53g, Net carbs: 20g, Protein: 63g (58/12/30%)

Saturday, March 10, 2012 – 202.4

7 days ago I was 9 pounds heavier. If I wanted to be intellectually dishonest about this, I would tout this as some great success – but the point of me writing this is to be honest. It’s not that big a deal. I was 200.8 on February 9th – and I was eating way more food in terms of calories and not exercising. I just checked my unpublished stuff from about that time and I ate a boatload of Girl Scout cookies 2 days prior and was certainly not in ketosis.

So, really – what’s the point?

I think the answer lies in that I am better prepared for the last 20 pounds to come off. I also thing being at this weight eating good and exercising is better than being at this weight sedentary and eating cookies. I am exercising. I am quite frankly shocked at the muscle definition I have gotten from my lame-o 10-minute daily workout. I see the other jokers at the gym huffing and puffing and straining, with looks of agony on their faces. My workout is relatively mild compared to this. I still hold contempt for these hyperkinetic gym rats, though I am attempting to turn into one of them.

I also look at this diet analogous to meditation practice. I don’t meditate, but I have read about the practice of meditation. ‘Practice’ needs to be understood as not counting the failures – really, the practice of meditation is not to be good at it – the practice of meditation is to practice meditation. It is an end in itself.

This 12-Week experiment is similar to that. If I learn to enjoy exercise and eat austerely when it doesn’t matter yet be able to eat what I want in moderation when it does matter – and my weight stays in its current range, the scale might not tell me what I’d like to hear, but my health would be much improved because of it.

Even if I don’t lose – I can’t lose.

I had an Atkins shake early, some cheese and pepperoni off last night’s cold pizza (couldn’t resist). Around 11am I had an avocado with chopped zucchini and salsa. It was great, but I was real hungry after the avocado. I recall this happening the last time I had avocados as well. Maybe I need to avoid avocados. If they don’t satisfy, they gotta go.

Hungry as I was I had some pork rinds with salsa and some hard cheese. This put me at 1,200 calories rather early in the day, but considering I exercised and only ate 800 yesterday, I’d call it even.

I made my recipe for kale soup and had 2 cups and 1/2 of a sausage on the side. I also calculated the nutrition info – it’s in the comments for the post. Still peckish, I had another Atkins shake before bed.

Total calories for the day: 2122.  Fat: 139g, Net carbs: 55g, Protein: 144g (59/14/27%)

To be continued…

I know – I’ve been trying since January. It’s February 26 as I write this.

I’ve been chronicling all this, but it’s rather boring. I ate this, I did that – and I’m more or less the same weight. Yawn.

I’ve hit a stall in a very successful run of weight loss last year, where the elimination of alcohol combined with low carb during the day and a controlled amount of any carbs I liked at night led to me pulling off 25-30 pounds. And they’ve stayed off. If I were to announce: my target weight is 204 to 208 – a range just shy of obese, then I’ve made it, baby. Peeled of 60 lbs.! Kept it off! And I see no reason nor evidence that I couldn’t maintain this indefinately.

I’m NOT satisified, though. I want to peel off 20 lbs. more. I had originally wanted to get to a weight of 177, which would put me at a weight defined as ‘normal’ by the BMI, but I realized that this wasn’t realistic. When I lost my weight prior I was looking a little emaciated at that point, and while the BMI is a simple rule of thumb that’s great for gathering stats on large groups of people, its an awful tool for an individual to be beholden to.

There is also the ‘off the rack’ factor. Another 20 lbs will make me a 36 waist. A comfy 36. Not ‘thin’ but not a bad place to be considering where I’ve been. The weight my body has settled on is an awkward spot between 36 and 38. One’s too big, the other a bit snug for comfort.

There’s another factor that I’ve been hesitating to admit, just because it’s a topic that can suck the air out of a room and make this post sound like it needs sad piano music playing as background while your read this: my Dad – or what’s left of him – is suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s. His body is being kept alive through medicines that know how to extend life but don’t know how to guarantee it has any quality to it. My Dad has been diabetic for 30 years, and while he did his best to control it, there’s a known link between diabetes and dementia and it’s caught up to him.

Both my older siblings already got diabetes by my age – my lower-carb lifestyle has probably prevented it so far.

I’m beginning to get to that age where AARP starts sending the occasional mailing to see if I’m interested. Fuck you, AARP! I’m not old!

Unfortunately, the calendar and the mirror tell a different story: I might not be ‘old’, but I grew a beard over my vacation and left it. While somewhat controversial with my wife and daughters, a number of people in work have commented that they like it – it makes me look ‘distinguished’. Uh-oh.

OK – so I’m no spring chicken any more. Maybe I’m a summer chicken.

I would like to make some changes now to make sure my remaining 30-40 possible years have quality. I honestly don’t think I am afraid of dying; I’m afraid of ending up like my Dad and my daughters remembering me not like I am now, but like I would be then.

OK – maudlin section of the post is over – it’s safe from now on.

I think that it’s important to know WHY you want what you want – it’s an important anchor when setting goals – something to hold onto when life and your own weak will conspire to thwart your desires.

So I’ve made clear that I see low carb and weight loss not just an aesthetic goal, but a matter of life and death. That’s the way to ‘juice up’ a goal!

And that, I think, is how I was able to eliminate alcohol. I love the stuff, but I can honestly say: I have drunk enough and now it’s time to put it behind me. I can’t drink and maintain my weight. My weight it tied to my health. Maintaining my health as I approach the half-century mark is more important, hence – I don’t drink. Simple equation.

That was last year, however, and now I need something else to get down another 20 pounds – another behavior/lifestyle change as signifigant as the abstention of alcohol to break through this plateau.

Upon reflection – and reading the book The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable, I am even more convinced than ever that low carb was a great bet I placed almost 9 years ago, and that going even lower in low carb might bring not only the weight loss I’m looking for, but better health.

(Minor digression: this book is written for physicians by physicians. It’s a bit of a slog for the layman, but chock-full of the latest research. It’s also worth your time if you’re a nutrition nerd or an ‘advanced’ low carber interested in the science. Check out Dr Eades’ review if you’re interested.)

So as I see my further progress in some other change, I experimented with different things – upping the beef and reducing the carbs. Reducing the cheese and other dairy, swapping out eggs as they can be insulinogenic. Adding a multivitamin and magnesuim daily. Reducing my coffee, then upping it again, though making it weaker then before. Sometimes I adhered to the new plan I made up – sometimes I didn’t and ate crap.

Nothing really changed – my weight never really went out of my 204 – 208 range. I felt like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.

So last Sunday I pulled out the big guns: calorie-counting and exercise. I laid out an ambitious 70-day plan to reach my target of 185 some time in early May. When I started this I was 210.8 – 25.8lbs. from my goal.

During the week, I got myself to the gym and worked out with 4 of the weight machines. I didn’t get all anal about weight and counting – I just wanted to establish a routine. I went for high weights and did reps until I couldn’t.

This left me feeling OK the next day, but real sore for the next few days after that.

I did the treadmill for 20 minutes later in the week, though I don’t see the treadmill as doing much. My entire reasoning for exercise is to build muscle as the building and maintaining of muscle burn calories – even when you are not exercising. Aerobics don’t do that – their ability to burn calories stops when you stop doing them. Aerobics are for people who like aerobics. Not for weight loss.

That’s it for now – if I come to enjoy it, or see other benefits in it moving forward – great – but that’s not what motivated me to the gym this week.

I got to the weights a second time, but my muscles were still sore so I couldn’t do as many reps. Really – right now it’s a major accomplishment to get to the gym.

As to eating, I was all over the place. While I kept it honest during the day, evenings were a crapshoot. Sometimes I did good, other times sucked.

It also became apparent that I was taking in way too many calories.

There’s a difference between a low carb metabolic advantage where you can effectively metabolize your food, and a caloric pig out that might not induce fat storage but will certainly not induce weight loss.

There’s an old saying that states: anything worth doing well is worth doing badly at first.

I hope this is true, as doing badly is about what I’d estimate my performance at this last week.

So at the end of week 1 of 7, I have gone from 210.8 to 208.4 – 23.4lbs. from my goal. That leaves me already behind the 8-ball.

Good news is: you can always set another goal. So now my goal is 12 weeks from now. So now my schedule is moved out to May 20, 2012.

For the coming week I’ve decided to try something new that’s old: breakfast – specifically an Atkins Shake first thing in the AM – even before coffee.

I don’t typically eat breakfast until 4 or 5 hours after I get up. Supposedly this is bad. Even I recall writing that I felt breakfast was an important aspect of my original weight loss. I also considered ‘breakfast’ at the time an Atkins shake. So why not give that a try again?

A few reasons might be: I’m trying to avoid processed foods as well as artificial sweeteners. My answer/rationalization for this? I’ll give it a try and see if it works – it is not going to kill me short-term, and if it helps me ease in to the notion of breakfast – and helps with the other side of the coin that might be part of my problem – night eating – it is certainly worth giving it a go. If I establish a habit of breakfast and this helps reduce caloric intake and leads to weight loss, then it’s a big win with a relatively small downside.

I did have one concern: I noticed that the stuff uses sunflower oil. Sunflower oil is frowned upon as being high polyunsaturated oil. It’s not recommended in the latest Atkins book -what up with that? I emailed someone at Atkins that I know about this and she responded (on a Saturday night) that its a high-oleic sunflower oil, which by definition is 80% monounsaturated.

By the way – to all you folks coming to this low carb stuff fresh – Atkins is a great place to start on a low carb diet. They pretty much give away for free what other weight loss sites charge for. They make their money on their low carb foods – which you don’t have to buy. It worked for me – and when I want to take another go at a fresh start, I always end up back at Atkins.

So the coming week will include the shakes in the AM, greater attention to the calorie-counting, continuing the exercise, and trying to avoid the night eating and the night carbs – and hopefully this leads to ketosis and a weight loss of 5 pounds as I drop water weight from too many carbs this week.

Stay tuned.

• A relatively small jar of Bubbies sauerkraut is $4.99. That’s a lot for about 25 cents worth of cabbage. It just bothers me
• A much larger and cheaper jar of Claussen sauerkraut contains additives ‘to preserve flavor’. I’d rather not do the preservatives – and it’s still way expensive for what is probably 50 cents worth of cabbage.
• I’d also like to be able to have my sauerkraut made from organic cabbage and avoid pesticide residues and GMOs – but that’s just me.

So I began to research making your own sauerkraut. It seemed kinda easy, only requiring cabbage, a little technique, and a little patience. I found a recipe on About.com and on Mark’s Daily Apple. I also found a link and a video for ThePerfectPickler.com which offers a nifty-looking kit that I might buy sometime in the future – but I wanted to experiment first.

Briefly, the science as I understand it. Please – if anybody reading this knows more than I do and I got it wrong, please correct me. The cabbage will ferment all by itself just by the naturally occurring bacteria on it. The fermentation process is an anaerobic process, however, so air is bad. The fermentation process, however, will create carbon dioxide gas, so there needs to be a way that gas can escape.

The problem here is that if gas can get out – air can usually get in. This problem requires some creativity on the part of putting the shredded cabbage in the jar. First, you want to keep the cabbage itself under the liquid to keep the air off of it and to ensure it ferments. With the jar open to allow air to escape, however, white mold can or will form as a film on top. This is supposedly harmless and can be skimmed off when it’s done. There’s a huge YUCK! factor to this, of course, and this, I believe, is solved by the Perfect Pickler and its unusual glass tube out the top.

The twisty glass or plastic tube (I don’t know which) can be filled with water and acts like the drain in your kitchen sink. The U in the glass will let gas out, but no air in, which I think keeps the air out, and the mold from growing.

Clever idea – but I wanted to try anyway without. So for this experiment I used:

1. 1/4 head of organic, locally grown cabbage, with one outer leaf washed and reserved (you’ll see why)
2. 1/2 teaspoon salt (which ended up being 1.5 tsp)
3. Old peanut butter jar
4. French rolling-pin – really just a flat stick
5. My mandoline – what I consider to be my most dangerous kitchen gadget

It patiently waits for me to be careless...

I first used the mandoline to shred the cabbage, being careful due to the fact that the mandoline, in order to use it, requires you to push your fingers toward a very sharp cutting edge repeatedly. That safety guard they sell it with? They don’t actually intend you to use it – it’s useless – their lawyers just make them put it in the box to defend against the lawsuits from people missing bits of fingertip due to these things.

I placed the shredded cabbage in a bowl, washed it, and drained it as best I could, then I salted it and mixed it about a bit. In one of the instructions, I think, it said to let it stand for a bit, but I don’t follow directions.

Ready to go: my French rolling-pin and peanut butter jar

Now, as the video on the perfect pickler website showed, I placed the cabbage in and pounded it with the end of the French roller:

The phrase 'pounding the cabbage' sounds risqué, doesn't it?

Once all the cabbage has been added, there is the challenge of keeping the cabbage below the level of the liquid. I borrowed a bit from the Perfect Pickler guy, but I’m lazier than him. He uses 2 layers of cabbage leaf, seemingly cut to high precision. Me – I just used the lid of the peanut butter jar to cut out 2 rounds of cabbage leaf.

Cookie-cutting, but with cabbage

This gave me 2 perfectly round cabbage-leaf  ’covers’ – these would help keep the shredded stuff under the liquid.

Well, as 'perfectly round' as one can make a cabbage leaf...

Now they went into the top of the jar to cover the shredded cabbage.

See?

The next thing was to make sure it was under pressure – pushed down below the line of the liquid. There is also the notion that the liquid will expand, and this also explains why it’s not filled to the top – to leave room for expansion.

To hold the stuff down, I found a little glass ketchup bottle – a mini size, meant for restaurants to give out to individual customers. I put water in and boiled it in the microwave to sterilize it. I knew it was sterilized when I heard a small ‘boom’ in the microwave and saw that the majority of the water had exploded out of the bottle, leaving it mostly empty.

I then put this in the jar on top of my circular leaves. Before doing so, I wiped the sides of the jar to remove the stray cabbage shred, thinking this might reduce the grossness later.

These two are going to be new best friends

Here’s the finished product, with the top only just threaded on so as to allow gasses to escape.

Ready for fermenting

I now had to find a place to put this so it will remain unmolested and at about 68 degrees. The back of my cupboard seemed to be a good place, so it went there.

The next morning, surfing about on the topic still, I noticed I made perhaps a fatal flaw – too little salt. I checked out the jar and honestly, it looked exactly like it did yesterday, and did not seem to smell of anything other than what shredded cabbage would smell like.

While less than ideal, I added another teaspoon, making the total number of teaspoons 1.5. I put the top back on and shook it, which I thought less than ideal, but the best it was going to get – I wasn’t going to take the entire thing out and remix at this point.

One week later I checked out the jar. It looked fine, actually. None of the harmless mold that I was told would form was there. I gave it a sniff – smelled like sauerkraut. I took out the little bottle holding the contents below the liquid line, wiped the inside surface of the glass above the liquid clean just in case there was any mold I couldn’t see, and stuck it in the fridge.

The next day I got up the courage to try it. I briefly thought of googling ‘death by improperly fermented cabbage’ but forged ahead and filled a small bowl with the stuff.

I ate some. Actually, pretty good. The salting was uneven due to my putting in more salt at the last-minute, so some parts seemed a bit salty, but other parts were just fine. The fermentation flavor I got was less intense than the store-bought types, but still prominent, with slightly different flavor notes, but definitely prominent, and not half-bad. I finished that cup and went back for more. Good stuff.

It’s the next day and I did not die in my sleep from improperly fermented cabbage, which encourages me to try this again. I now have some mason jars I got for $1.00 each, a technique that seems to work. I’ll have to try this again.

© 2012, LowCarbConfidential.com

• 5 oz. package of baby kale the wife bought on sale and I could imagine no one eating
• 5 strips of bacon leftover from some other experiment
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 small zucchini, grated
• 1/2 cup of Argentine parmesan cheese (similar in flavor to the authentic stuff but softer) – feel free to substitute here
• 6 eggs
• 1-7oz container Fage whole Fat plain Yogurt
• 4 tablespoons butter
• Salt and pepper
  

I’ve been trying to involve my daughter in cooking as I think it’s an important life-skill to be able to cook at least a little bit, and it’s also great father-daughter time together. She’s usually willing to help – as long as I chop the onions. She took the stove duty while I prepped the ingredients.

First the butter was melted, then the onions went in. As she was cooking these, I tackled the bacon. The recipe I riffed off said to microwave the bacon.

Microwave? I’ve never seen that done, at least successfully, but hey – she pulled it off – I’ll give it a try.

Thinking the stuff would splatter all over the inside of the microwave, I placed the bacon in a single layer on a dinner plate, covered the bacon with a paper towel and cooked for 6 minutes. It worked perfectly. The paper towel soaked up some of the bacon drippings, but not all of it – good – that’s going in the Quiche.

I then used a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the bacon it bits – WAY less messy than transferring them to some surface and chopping them, making every surface greasy.

In the meantime, the kid had thrown in the baby kale and it had cooked nicely. I tossed the bacon and the drippings in the pan and the kid cooked it a little more. She put in salt and pepper. The salt she estimated at about a teaspoon and a half – the pepper was fresh cracked – maybe 4 or 5 turns.

I also grabbed a small zucchini and using a box grater, grated it over the skillet, which took about a minute.

I then put the grated cheese in a deep bowl and put in the 6 eggs. My daughter and I poured the contents of the skillet into the bowl and mixed them together, then the result was poured into a well-greased 12″ circular baking dish and popped in the preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

So where’s the pictures? It came out beautiful and rose nicely, and I wish that I had the *chance* to take a picture but my family descended on in like a flock of hungry ravens, leaving only a 1/4 of the thing left. Even my younger daughter, who would choose to live on candy if she could negotiate it, enjoyed it.

I had my reservations about using the kale, but it’s flavor went well with the others – I most certainly would use it again.

With a little help like I had, the prep is low enough that this can be whipped together after work if you’re feeling energetic. I can see myself doing this as a routine with my daughter, and no one in the family apparently would object.

As to carbs, I can’t imagine each piece having more than 2 or 3 grams – and all of them the highest quality. This is a fine recipe to get into induction with.

© 2012, LowCarbConfidential.com

The other day, before the start of yet another meeting at work, someone brought up Dr. Oz. One person said: “I always used to think that drinking skim milk was good for you, but Dr. Oz said you should drink 2%.” It was said as a revelation, a shock.

I couldn’t help myself: “You know, fat isn’t necessarily bad for you. In fact, fat can actually help you lose weight.”

I got either nervous giggles or blank stares. I fell for it again. I shouldn’t have bothered and just kept my mouth shut. I learned long ago that while my coworkers seem to like me, those that know something about my predilection toward low carb tend to think I’m something of a loony.

I once had a very intelligent and medically-trained co-worker who knew me well professionally explain me to a new hire as we discussed diets: “You have to understand he has some peculiar notions about nutrition.”

The other day, I shoveled snow for about an hour. Not one for exercise (at least not yet – it’s a resolution for 2012), the exertion tuckered me out.  I collapsed on the bed to recuperate.

My wife, who by the way did not help with the snow and was instead laying  in bed, said: “Your way of life is poisoning you.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The way you eat. Look at you – you’re exhausted!”

I said back: “So you’re saying that if I hadn’t gone on a low carb diet eight years ago and lost 60 pounds, and instead ate pie all those years that I would have shoveled the snow in front of our house and still had enough leftover energy to shovel out a neighbor’s house?”

“Yes.” She said, only half-facetiously.

I have been putting up with this for eight years. From everyone. My doctor, my co-workers, my friends, my older kid (indoctrinated by school as to what ‘healthy eating’ is) – even my wife, who saw me go from puffy, bloated and lethargic to slimmer and more energetic.

Even if they like and respect me, they seem to make a sort of  ’carve out’ in their heads to accommodate me, as if I was this really nice guy they know who just happened to think he had been abducted by aliens.

I have found that if I discuss low carb with some people, at times it literally makes them uncomfortable. So I’ve stopped, for the most part – and keep my thoughts to myself, to anyone interested (less than I could count on 1 hand in the past 8 years), and this blog.

Now, although this galls me to no end, I have made an uneasy peace with this.  I was already a non-conformist by nature before I went low carb, so people had already categorized me as ‘off the wide part of the bell curve’ already, so my  low carb lifestyle was only a change in degree rather than a change in kind.

I just became a little more wacky to them than before. I didn’t go from normal to wacky.

But what about people who identify with ‘normal’? I’m a pretty live-and-let-live kinda guy, and I don’t expect people to conform to my way of thinking or seeing the world. There are many people, however, that do want their friends and peers to think along the same lines as they do. They like the self-validation of being surrounded by like-minded people.

I suspect that these people have a terrible time at low carb dieting, especially an Atkins-style VLCD (Very Low Carbohydrate Diet) and ketogenic diets. If they were to go on a conventional diet, they have peers who are most likely doing the same thing. They watch their fat intake together and have lively discussions was to the relative merits of the different varieties of Snackwells cookies and Lean Cuisines.

However, if one of this pair were to go on a low carb diet, the camaraderie would disappear in a flash – they would have no common ground, no self-validation that what they are doing is the right thing – either of them – and if the low carb dieter were to assert that those Lean Cuisine frozen dinners were actually doing the other harm, they would probably cross a line in their relationship that could not be fixed until one of them came into alignment with the other.

Sadly, despite the fact that in the decade or so since the Atkins Carb Craze more and more research showing that low carb does indeed have benefits, in general, people still haven’t got the message.

Do you know how damned hard it is to find a yogurt that isn’t low-fat or no fat? It truly drives me batty.

I guarantee you - nearly every one is low fat and full of sugar

So while there have been some gains in the past decade – certainly the demonization of trans fats – for good reason – has taken hold with the general public and the food companies have responded by getting it out of a lot of products, there are still 100 products proudly labeled ‘low-fat’ compared to 1 product labeled ‘low-carb’.

So people who are comfortable in the wide part of the bell curve are going to have to deal with the social pressure of being an outsider – along with all the standard difficulties that come with a low carb diet – like finding products.

Even Gary Taubes mentioned this outsider feeling in an article he wrote for Prevention a few years ago:

 Perhaps the worst aspect of following a diet that most of your peers consider “a fad” is that you may often feel a compulsion to prove that you’re justified in doing so. This requires not just slimming down but actually living longer and remaining healthier than any of your friends. Because bad luck can be as much a factor here as genes and diet, you’re now in a delicate position, one that will last a lifetime (you hope). On the one hand, the temptation to treat your friends’ medical misfortunes as minor or even major victories is compelling, but you’ll have to keep this secret deeply hidden if you want to continue to enjoy their company. Then, of course, should anything unfortunate happen to you–”even moles in [your] front lawn,” as the New York physician Blake Donaldson, an early proponent of carbohydrate-restricted diets, noted in his 1961 memoirs–everyone will blame it on your diet.

Gary Taubes! The man has made this a career as well as his life’s work for over a decade and spent a good portion of that time doing serious research to justify his conclusions – and he still feels an outcast of sorts. Read the article in its entirety – it’s well worth it.

So…what’s the takeaway from all this?

I suppose if my hypothesis is correct that we can predict who has a better chance of succeeding on low carb and who has a better chance of failing on low carb by administering a psychological examination that tests for conformity. Doing a little research on tests of conformity brought me to The Asch Conformity Experiments.  Here’s a rendering of the test.

Participants were asked which line on the right matched the line on the left.

Easy, Right?

They were in a room with other people – all in on it with the researchers. When the group majority chose the wrong line, the actual research subject did so as well the majority of the time, meaning that a majority of people will go along with the group even if they are fully aware the group is wrong.

Do they do it to avoid conflict or because they want to conform? It doesn’t matter from our perspective – the Low Carb version of the Asch Conformity Experiment will probably see a lot of people bail not because low carb doesn’t work, but because they cannot cope with the social pressures from feeling the outcast.

Another takeaway is that we should be more generous to our brethren at the opposite end of the bell curve above – the vegans and vegetarians. Their way of life might be 180 degrees opposite of ours, but they go through many of the same issues we do in society, worrying about what is being served at some event so that they don’t go hungry for 6 hours, driving to 4 or 5 stores to find the ingredients they want – and then paying an arm and a leg for them, and having to endlessly endlessly explain their choices and their lifestyle to people who think a prefab microwaved TV dinner in plastic leaching chemicals into the food is ‘normal’.

© 2012, LowCarbConfidential.com

I have already stated – somewhere – that as part of my 2012 resolutions I was going to try to ditch the drink mixes.

the reason I’m writing about MiO, however, is because my resolutions are not necessarily your resolutions, and I thought you’d appreciate an honest review.

Prior to going on vacation, I wanted to bring some drink mix and stopped in the local grocery store – and this stuff was all that I could find that didn’t come in huge tubs or contain Nutrasweet.

I grabbed 2 – Berry Pomegranate and Strawberry Watermelon. They are little squirt bottles, and as long as I packed them in my luggage and not my carry-on, they probably wouldn’t be considered potential explosive devices by the TSA.

When in the Caribbean, we’re big fans of Badoit sparkling water – a brand I never saw in the US. Here’s a pic for the hell of it:

I drank a lot of the Badoit with these 2 mixes. I found 2 squirts were about right on the rocks. The 2 containers lasted me the entire 10-day trip, with only a little left over.

These containers are certainly more portable than the SodaStream soda mixes, that’s for sure, and as I’ve NEVER used the Sodamix the way SodaStream expects me to (pouring a cup full of flavoring into the liter bottle), this packaging concept works quite well for me. In fact, the MiO bottles are refillable (I’m sure they don’t want you to know that!) and I could see myself – if I were to continue to use the Sodastream soda mix, to actually pour the stuff into these little squeeze bottles and use it that way.

As to the flavors I got – I enjoyed them both. Maybe I liked the pomegranate a tad bit better.

I didn’t do a direct cost comparison. These were a bit pricy, but I don’t know if the stuff inside is more concentrated than the Sodastream stuff.

As to the ingredients – same artificial crap, more or less. I’m not faulting them there – it’s a drink mix – what do you expect?

You can check out their website, and their awesome, over-the-top advertising copy that seems like they cured cancer AND found a way to convert the simple intake of fluids into a religious experience.

http://www.kraftbrands.com/mio/index.html

I have chronicled my efforts at weight loss before. I don’t like the word ‘journey’ – it sounds so romantic: I imagine swelling movie music, perhaps standing nobly, chin up, on the deck of some beautiful ship, below a brilliant blue sky, sailing to some magical place, perhaps with a woman (in my case my wife, of course), standing beside me in an elegant (and slightly revealing) gown, hand in hand, beginning some pleasant and terribly interesting adventure.

This won’t be like that. Weight loss feels inexorably slow, and it’s frequently more boring than anything else. There’s a sense of aloneness at times, deprivation at others.

Sometimes it doesn’t feel like that – it’s exhilarating to fit into clothes that haven’t fit in a long time, getting a new wardrobe, or seeing the look of total shock and surprise on a friends face who hasn’t seen you in a while as they marvel at your lost weight like you parted the Red Sea in front of them, or perhaps levitated a car.

These moments are few and far between, however. They give you a warm and fuzzy feeling and a sense of pride.

And then it passes and you go back to the boredom, the hard work, the real, unseen effort it takes to lose significant weight. The stalls. The inexplicable weight gains when you’ve done everything right. Watching some thin person eat a second piece of chocolate cake in front of you while you sip an herbal tea, perhaps – and you wanting to drive a fork through their throat.

There is a quote I heard that I use frequently for other parts of my life that also applies to this:

In order to succeed, you need a cup of love, a barrel of understanding, and an ocean of patience.

So don’t call this a ‘journey’, OK?

I’ve decided to format this not by date, but rather by what I did to lose 10 lbs. Since I’m shooting for a 60 lb. loss, that means, if all goes as planned, there will be 6 installments – this introduction being the first. I chose this format because I think it will work better for me from a motivational standpoint, and it might be a little easier on my time constraints.

In between I’m sure I’ll write on other topics, but the weight loss march will be chronicled in these posts.

Ya gotta love this blog if you enjoy watching the best of intentions crumble in the face of a box of cookies.

Well, here we are – another year – 2011. 2010 was my worst year in all my seven years following a low carb lifestyle. In the past year, I gained 20 lbs.

I believe that at the beginning of 2010 I was 214. On Jan 1, 2011 I was 234.

I attribute this partly with just getting old. At 48, I’m starting to really feel my age. I’ve always considered moving my body a means to an end, not an end in itself. I’ve always felt my body was designed to move in order to perform a task – like crossing a room to pick up a bag of chips, for example. My favorite activities usually involve sitting quietly.

I felt a spiritual pride at losing 80 pounds on low carb without real exercise.

That was then.

I started exercising the day before Thanksgiving. I chose the treadmill not because I think it’s a great exercise – I don’t, really – but more as the easiest way for me to habituate myself to a daily exercise routine where I am least likely to hurt myself.

The notion is to get the habit instilled – then I’ll explore better alternatives to the treadmill.

That first day on the treadmill was awful – 25 minutes at 2.5 miles per hour left me winded to the point I could not talk, and got the heart rate up to the mid 130s. I more or less have kept this up since that day, and now that 25 minutes seems to go by a lot faster (tip: DON’T WATCH THE CLOCK!) and my heart rate barely goes above 120 – and that’s with the speed at 3.0 mph.

I also started a ketogenic low carb regime at the time and lost about 9 pounds before my vacation began. As for the fact that, as many times as I’ve tried to prove it wrong, I can’t lose weight and drink alcohol – so this was ditched as well.

Then I went on vacation for 10 days.  The place I went is NOT a place one goes for low carb cuisine and healthy life habits. I recall the waitress at the hotel asking if I would like a drink – it was 9am. We asked for tortilla chips for the kids, and she told us that, while alcohol was available at 9am, orders for food start at 11am. I pointed this interesting fact out to the waitress and she just smiled – it’s a very different place. It is not unusual to see people drinking beers as they walk the streets – and open containers of alcohol in cars are the norm.

I saw some cable installers in their van, their dual cup holders holding open beers. Hopefully, their install for the day went well.

I tried to adhere somewhat to my diet, frequently eating sardines for breakfast, and saving my intake of high carb stuff for only the best: crepes and croissants from a little hole in the wall place overlooking a small bay. Foie Gras on a hot baguette, a gourmet meal that cost a king’s ransom, but was so good it was not a meal, but an event – each course was explained, the ingredients detailed, and recommendations made how to best eat it and combine the flavors.

It wasn’t a meal as much as a performance – like a broadway show, yet done in a friendly, unpretentious, fashion.

I kept to my exercise at least every other day, and in a place where a liter of vodka costs less than a liter of orange juice, I had a glass of wine and half a beer the entire trip.

Bad news was I picked up smoking again – an entire carton there costs about what 2 packs do here. I told myself I’d only smoke on vacation…

I came back 1.5 pounds heavier, which I considered a success.

Then came the great Northeast blizzard, which gave me the opportunity to shovel my ass off for most of a day, helping to work off the excesses of a Xmas Eve and Xmas meal that negated any ketogenics, then go back to work. 2 more meals – New Years’ Eve and New Year’s day remained. I had been given a bottle of vodka by my boss as a gift, so that was part of the festivities. I don’t think Jan 1 is when you start your resolutions – I think Jan 2 should be. The gluttony is over then, and it makes one somewhat less the pain in the ass at family gatherings by refusing foods that were lovingly prepared, insulting the people who put all their effort and love into it.

On January 1, I also had my last cigarette. Did I say I would only do it on vacation? Ha! How I convinced myself of that, I’ll never fathom.

So today I did my exercise 3.0 mph, 10 degree incline 25 minutes. surprisingly, my heart rate stayed low – even after the ciggies, I still retained much of the conditioning I gained from a month of exercise, though I was a bit more winded.

Then I bought the nicotine lozenges – not for weight loss – it doesn’t work – believe me – I attribute THAT bone-headed idea to part of my weight gain this year, so it’s the end of the cigs.

Just a quick aside for people who don’t keep up with this blog: I thought to try an experiment last year. I thought to myself: if people who smoke gain weight when they stop – what if I use nicotine lozenges to curb appetite and lose weight?

I doesn’t work. I spent a lot of time and gained a lot of weight to learn that it does, in fact NOT help you lose weight, but when you stop, your weight goes up just like a smokers!

The past year also had some medication changes that might have contributed to the weight gain – as well as too much night eating, and a general lackadaisical approach to low carb – as well as a kind of fed-up-ness with everything that made me give up on low carb for a while – maybe the type of fed-up-ness with everything you might get stopping nicotine?!?

I also gave up taking vitamins completely. The reasons here are complex and will probably occupy a post some time in the near future, but my general thinking is that I should attempt to get my vitamins from food – which means buying and eating better quality food – with the thought that the greater food expense might be offset by the money saved not buying vitamins.

So here I am: older, wiser, and fatter – and ready for a fresh go at it.

It’s important to set goals – I’ve done it a lot – and every once in a great while, I follow through on them.

Why I might have a better shot at it this time?

Because this year I’ve felt my age more than ever – and I don’t like it one bit.

So my goal for the year is to be 174 by December 31, 2011. That’s 60 lbs. That’s a lot.

I think I have a chance this time because I am committing to exercise this year – not for weight loss as much as for general health. There is, of course, the side benefit of calorie burning when you exercise, but I’m not obsessing over that little display that pretends to tell you how many calories were burned when you run a certain time on the treadmill – I think that’s bullshit.

The exercise is a ‘move it or lose it’ proposition. I don’t want to be one of those folks in the electric scooters at the malls any time soon – and I think I’m approaching a narrowing window where I can’t put off taking better care of my body and need to add exercise to my low carb lifestyle.

There’s a lot more to this – call this the ‘back story’ for the coming year. I’ll document my progress (or lack thereof) – and for all the rest of you out there starting the new year attempting to stare down a seemingly impossible goal…you’re not alone.

Happy New Year.

I enjoyed this, my family enjoyed it, so this faux-recipe gets posted:

• 1 bag Trader Joe’s frozen scallops
• Old Bay Seasoning to taste – I used maybe 2 teaspoons
• 1/3 stick salted butter

After defrosting the scallops, I put the entire bag’s contents – including the wonderful scallop juices that I had previously thrown away – into a circular baking dish, placed pats of butter on top, and placed in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Total time – including fumbling around to find the Old Bay Seasoning and trying to shoo my 4-year-old away from the oven while Daddy put the scallops in: 30 minutes.

Done like this, the scallops remain quite moist, and the remaining liquid becomes a condiment or a sauce for the scallops.

I ate it in a small bowl with the liquid, and the liquid was consumed entirely – it was so good.

A check of the nutritional data at NutritionData.com shows scallops to be more or less pure protein, with a nice complement of minerals, and no carbs. While they ring their hands over them being “high cholesterol”, most of my readers aren’t spooked by a little cholesterol, right?