“I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success, but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life.”
— Madeleine Albright, secretary of state
Did not exercise in the am. Woke at 3:30 – was wide awake, so I got up.
Had my ritual coffee about 4:30.
Near 9am I had on hard-boiled egg with some Swiss cheese.
There was a breakfast for the company paid for by one of the teams – I went and checked it out – bagels and sticky buns. There was cream cheese – if I felt like getting out a spoon, I could have had something.
I didn’t bother.
“Nothing for the low carb guy.” I said to no one in particular.
“Oh, go ahead, spring for it” Said one of my coworkers.”
“The button on my pants is going to spring across the room if I eat this stuff. Thanks for being an enabler. Why don’t you find an AA meeting and help out there?”
I was hungry again today. Still feeling run down. Finished up the other egg, the remaining cheese, and the broiled Italian sausages I brought in.
Still hungry in the afternoon, I went to look at the pastries still in the kitchen. Didn’t have any. Instead, I went back and has the beat up Atkins bar I had in my bag.
The hunger did not lessen throughout the day – no sign of any appetite-lessening from the Irvingia.
When I got home, I had more of the sausages, a *lot* of mineral water on ice with a little Crystal Light lemonade mix in it.
I also cheated with a slice of regular bread, some M&Ms, some, clementines with my daughter, and some pasta.
This was a more intentional sort of cheat – sort of: I need a break from low carb for an hour or so. There wasn’t a lot of mental drama nor animal-like hunger here – it was just a break, nothing more.
Not good for the scale, which read 209.8 – all that liquid and all those carbs adding up to some awesome water weight gain.
Tomorrow’s another day.
Low Carb Confidential 
We all need a break now and then. I did it last night when I went face-first into a bowl of queso with some pork rinds. I ate a ton of food for dinner the night before too. I think I’ve been doing a little “comfort eating” due to feeling mildly deprived of all the holiday “goodies” (“slow poison”) everyone else is enjoying, and also yesterday marked the first anniversary of the death of my beloved cat after a very long illness. I want to say that I don’t do emotional eating anymore, but I’d probably be lying if I said my devil-may-care attitude had nothing to do with the sadness and grief.
Then, on my way in to work, I stopped at Star Schmucks (of all places, but I needed the facilities) and asked for black tea with cinnamon dolce sugar-free syrup. I got some crazy iced tea thing that, when I checked it out online, had some 15 grams of sugar in it!! Good thing I only drank half of it. Dammit, I haven’t had sugar in over three months, and I blew it on *THIS*?! And unintentionally, to boot. Are the people that work there asshats or something? You order something with sugar-free syrup, it’s a pretty got-dang good bet that they don’t want it in a drink with sugar in it! What I can’t comprehend is why “black tea” didn’t indicate a steaming mug with a teabag, hot water, and nothing freaking else! I didn’t ask for a “tall shaken Tazo black tea foofarrah double skim mocha latte espresso no whip extra whatever”. God, what if I was diabetic?! I shouldn’t be surprised though, since I told the cashier that I had a black tea with cinnamon dolce sugar-free syrup and that miraculously translated into a shaken Tazo iced black tea sugarfest and some kind of pastry. Huh? I didn’t order food, just the drink. If you can’t hear your patrons’ orders correctly, the music is too freakin’ loud.
Sorry about the rant. My head is throbbing from the sugar rush.
I ate a pumpkin-coconut egg custard to buffer it, so I’ve already made my next bite low-carb. Let’s endeavor to hold onto the wagon and if you see me bouncing out, grab my arm, ok?!
I think its hard at this time of year. I am struggling too and this will be the first week I gain some weight. Mine is from alcohol mostly (blush). Just a very hard time of year to be sticking to any diet plan.
Dr Dan
When you’re in this for the long haul, it’s OK to backslide a bit – you know that. It’s been said we overestimate what we can achieve in the short term – and underestimate what we can achieve in the long term.
As to alcohol – ya gotta live a little, right?