My usual mug of coffee with 4 tablespoons of cream started my day at 5 am.
A hard-boiled egg was breakfast – if you don’t count the 400 calories of cream at 5am – at about 9:30am
Around 11:30 I had 3/4 of the Italian chicken from yesterday. Tasted better today – or maybe I’m hungry.
I finished the stuff up close to 5pm.
Evening was odd in that it didn’t fit my normal pattern (rut) for some reason. I ate rather light, and I was craving sour.
I had a pickle with cheese, and a small cup of pickle juice, even. I made kielbasa and sauerkraut and had maybe 5 slices inside some small sweet peppers. Nutritiondata.com says that these little guys are only 5 grams of net carbs, which is fine – you need some carbs, in my estimation, and peppers might be one of the best places you can get these from.
I also had at least a cup of the sauerkraut by itself. And seltzer with a little lemon juice.
Lastly, a small chunk of Stilton cheese. Never had it before, reminds me of a mild bleu cheese.
It would be hard to imagine a more sour meal.
In the evening I had a slight stomach ache – perhaps from all the acidic food, but it was gone when I woke.
The day seems odd for the number of normal routines that were not apparent – it wasn’t like I was trying, really, they just happened:
- I just had that one cup of coffee in the morning – I had none at work
- I did not have my bulk of calories in the evening
- I didn’t have any wine with dinner
- I drank water during the day more from desire than duty
- I didn’t feel the need to satisify my sweet tooth.
If I had consciously tried to do all of these, it wouldn’t have worked, I think.
The scale did not reward me of any of this – perhaps it’s fed up with me. I was 208.8 – only a bit lower, which one might explain as water retention from all the sodium – I drank pickle juice for goodness’ sake – what else would I expect?
On another topic, I was thinking of the fact that there are a number of foods that, while low carb, I feel guilty about eating. The part of me that is a pragmatist says: whatever it takes – if it’s low carb and you want it, eat it. Don’t restrict yourself too much as it makes the ultimate goal that much harder – and it’s already hard enough as it is.
The other part says: I don’t believe that, long-term, these things are healthy. I wish I could avoid these foods and ingredients.
This list includes:
- Splenda: it’s made from sugar, right? It’s almost natural. Well, cyanide can be made from apricot pits, so this imaginary association that it’s ‘natural because it’s made from sugar’ doesn’t sit well with me. It’s not natural sugar improved by the molecule being altered so we can’t absorb it – it’s a chemical made from sugar which might or might not have an impact on us long term – nobody knows – even if they say they do. Also, the fact is that even the taste of sweets can set off an insulin response in some people. The quandary here is that it’s hard enough to live on artificial sweeteners – I can’t quite imagine living with a total prohibition of sweets – even artificial ones. Here’s a detailed article in defense of Splenda if you’re interested – put your thinking cap on.
- Nitrated meats: I once found an article that said that nitrates might have some protective aspects to them. I also once read that it is silly to get hung up on nitrates in meat if you eat vegetables – they are full of nitrates from their fertilizers. To confound this further, I also read that there is a molecular difference in these two nitrates, so there is some difference in how they impact you. The short of it is: the preponderance of data points to nitrated meats as increasing the risk of cancer. There is also the increased risk of listeria bacteria. I think I’d be better off staying away from the stuff, but I love a good hot dog now and then – and don’t get me started on bologna. Now, I know that they make hot dogs without nitrates, but the food handling warnings on the labels make them sound truly dangerous – and not very enticing.
- Low carb crap food: example: Atkins bars and shakes. Sorry, Atkins Nutritionals, I freely admit that I lost almost 90 lbs. at one point using your products, and I still use them, but I’d rather not need this crutch. Still, your revenue stream from me appears safe as I can’t imagine I can banish my sweet tooth forever. Still, the Atkins stuff is heads above their competitors. I once had to use the SlimFast low carb shakes – yuck! – did the people who manufactured these ever taste it themselves?
Low Carb Confidential 
Dr. Dan, I think it’s because he drank more water, didn’t drink alcohol, didn’t drink as much coffee, ate more vegetables and spread his calories out through the day more.
But I think where most people go wrong is in thinking “if eating a little less meat/fat and a little more veg is good, I should give up meat/fat and subsist on vegetables!” It *appears* to be working fine short-term, but I really stripped out my body’s reserves doing that. I lost 50 pounds in about 7 months doing that ten years ago, but I let my work environment coax me back into the dining-out and catered-meeting eating and couldn’t sustain it. I lost 35 pounds in 11 months doing calorie restriction and then tried switching to low-carb. I’ve lost less than three pounds in as many months. Now, part of that is because I’m already a healthy weight, but I have to wonder about why I’m not losing weight like everybody else does eating low carb even though I eat moderate calories and have a high activity level. The only things I won’t give up are artificial sweetener and diet soda. Like your coffee, LCC, it’s non-negotiable.
So where does that leave me? Trying something else to shed the last ten pounds and then using low-carb for maintenance? That seems workable to me. I just don’t want to restrict calories too much and end up slowing my metabolism more. I think maybe trying to strike a balance of slightly higher carbs and slightly lower fat/calories and LOADS of patience in that it might take more than a year to get rid of these last ten (can you imagine?!).
Marochka,
Do you really think water has anything to do with it? I’ve read research that says that the health benefits of drinking a lot of water are all wet, so to speak.
But as a tool to accelerate weight loss, I don’t know.
LCC
Yeah, I do. If you want to keep from retaining water, you drink it. All that pickle juice will make you hold onto it. I should know; I gained a pound of water weight yesterday from a cup of au jus and pickled salad-y stuff at dinner last night.
I don’t know that it accelerates weight loss per se, but if you don’t get enough of it, your body doesn’t run optimally, including hampering weight loss efforts. I don’t think you have to go nuts about it like other people do, but I think a couple of quarts a day is necessary, yes.
First of all, regarding yesterday’s post – chicken breasts? Are you kidding? My first act of decadence when I started Atkins was eating chicken THIGHS…with the SKIN on! So much tastier. Eating some right now.
Myself having been frustrated by a weight plateau, I was reading on Dr. Eades blog that he recommends, first, remove nuts and cheese from the snack rotation. Don’t know about you, but these are regular go-to’s for me. Point being, these 2 things are low carb but pack a fat wallop, and if you’re overconsuming (easy to do), you’re taking enough fat into your system each day that your body doesn’t have to dip into reserves. Second, for people who are really stuck, he recommends one or two weeks on a meat only diet. So, that’s what I started this week. A little weird, but certainly not a sacrifice. This is only day 3, so I don’t really have any results to report.
Thought you are some others out there might be interested.
BTW – a bunch of people I work with have just started a 7-week weight loss challenge. Of course, they’re all going the low fat, calorie-restriction, starvation route. I just want to blow them out of the water, eating steak and bacon!!
Hi Jenny,
I ate so many thighs when I first started Atkins that I’m a little put off by them now. Maybe I need to revisit them – it’s been awhile.
Good luck blowing your coworkers away. I did the same thing, they were amazed – but they *still* didn’t try low carb!
Go figure.
LCC
This is SOooo interesting. I ran across your blog after Googling irvingia three days ago. I am now addicted to reading it! You are a fbulous writer and should publish these posts into a book. My 2 cents.
Okay, on to ME! 🙂 I am not fat, and have never been worried about my weight until 6 months ago when I !suddenly! spotted a spare tire growing and didn’t feel 100% comfy in a bikini. All I can say is….I have seen everyone of my girlfriends and family yo-yo diet on everything you can imagine. Low carb DEFINITELY works of you are willing to live that life forever. I, for one, am NOT. I know the big “secret”, eat less and exercise more. However, as age catches up, you suddenly realize you have to really cut back and exercise a hell of a lot more! In order to try and avoid any lifestyle changes (I have a good life!) , I have decided to try irvingia for 30 days.
You are so smart and funny…you clearly know that you need to cut out the CRAP from your diet…and I do not mean carbs! I mean the processed foods, my friend! Yes, I am 25 pounds over skinny, but I have to believe that the ONLY reason it is only 25 pounds and not 125 pounds is that I am a veggie (very, very heavy on the carbs!) that doesn’t eat any processed foods. If you can se your ingredients I figure you are okay 🙂
Please keep up this highly fun and useful blog!
Thanks for writing BG.
I’ve seen the success that some people have had living vegetarian – I myself had lived mostly vegetarian for years. I was following Dean Ornish’s ‘Eat More, Weigh Less’ diet – and not only did everyone in my house hate the food I made, but I was hungry all the time, and didn’t lost a pound.
Low carb works better for me, but everyone’s different. I think there’s room in the world for differences – we don’t have to get our shorts twisted just because someone else thinks differently than ourselves, don’t ya think?
I actually *like* people with radically different opinions than my own – if it doesn’t descend into name-calling, it can be a stimulating intellectual discourse – and expand everyone’s thinking.
So please, if you have vegetarian tendencies and they work for you – feel free to post about it.
Smart posts are welcome from any nutritional point of view.
If it bugs anybody, they need to grow a thicker skin.
Regards,
LCC
LCC, try erythritol. It’s a sugar alcohol but it does not cause gastric side effects like the others. It’s natural, made by fermentation from sucrose, so it exists naturally in wine and miso and in other foods, even in the body. It’s 70 percent as sweet as sugar, which is plenty for me… in three weeks on a low carb diet, things are just SO much sweeter than they used to taste. It has negligible calories and absolutely NO carbs. It has a slight “cool” taste if you don’t dissolve it thoroughly in a liquid, but otherwise it tastes and cooks great… we would use it instead of sugar at my house even if we weren’t low-carbing diabetics. XylitolNow.com is having a special at the moment and their price is the lowest I’ve found this month.
I should be more specific. When I say that erythritol has no carbs, I mean it has no glycemic impact. Zero. So even though it is basically all carbs (sugar alcohol after all) it has no carb effects.
LCC – I use Stevia in my coffee. It now comes in packets like Splenda and now I can’t have anything else.