Monday, February 9, 2009

Day 1 0f the low carb diet

Alright it begins now! ok well in reality it began about a half an hour ago.... I'm going to try a couple of ways of doing this so this will be a little bit of a trial blog day. I'm hoping that me writing down what i eat will keep me in check especially during the first couple of days. Now this is not my first rodeo with a low carb diet and I really don't follow a specific diet ,i.e. Atkins or south beach etc., I have done my home work and had my trial and error runs with this diet so I'm pretty well versed in what i need to do. Ill try to give some little tidbits of knowledge that Ive come up with along the way.

**Disclaimer: Please remember that this is my personal view on my low carb diet and to always consult your doctor before starting any diet***

First off keep some quick snacks around that are acceptable to eat when you get that urge that most of us dieters get in the beginning to gorge cause your sooooo hungry right now and cant wait to make something. Some great examples would be string cheese, i know sounds childish but when you want something now its the easiest snack to keep around at the office in a lunch box or mini fridge and you know your kids love it so get a bunch. I usually get it at Costco in bulk, my son likes it for lunch and its a perfect mid morning/afternoon snack. Another good snack to keep around is lunch meat, any kind is ok but if you get processed ones like Bologna look at the nutritional info and try to keep you net carbs really low. Remember that most of the low carb diets out there have you keep below 20 total carbs per day for two weeks. Now to get that number you look at the total carbohydrates and minus the dietary fiber and if it applies you minus the sugar alcohols also. That will give you the actual net carbs in the product. In the beginning you want to limit your fruit if not exclude it altogether. Now I have a grapefruit tree in my yard that has great fruit on it. now grapefruit has a very low carb count and I'm sure most of you have heard all about how grapefruits are good for burning fat so i include it when i know I wont be eating a large amount of carbs for the day. Some other good snacks to have around are nuts but you have to be careful of which nuts your eat and like they told us at the workout on sat. you need to measure out the serving amount as well. Not only for carb count but fat count.
Now like I said before I really don't follow one specific low carb diet I kind of combine a few along with common knowledge of healthy eating. Its a common misnomer that low carb is all about eating only meat loaded with fat. You do eat more meat but poultry is a great substitute and its lower in fat, also pork chops are a good option and remember green veggies are great as well as cauliflower and salad. Now when it comes to dressing be careful because usually when it is low fat it is higher in carbs because they add sugar to make up for the lack of taste when they get rid of the fat. Remember to measure out your portions and look at the nutritional facts printed on all foods. Because even if you see <1 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">carb, its per serving and it might be .99 carbs which is practically 1 so that's usually what I count them as. Now if you google low carb recipe you'll get about a dozen different websites and honestly any will do fine. You will want to find a website that has a list of what carbs are in what foods. I just did a search for low carb count and found a counter easily so here's the link for that one but there are plenty others out there http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/carbcounter.shtml
There are many options out there for low carb and Ive done my research and have come to the conclusion that this diet works because is goes back to the fundamentals of food, Meat, Veggies and healthy portions. As with all diets there are limits. Just because you can eat and entire cow doesn't mean you should! And as with all diets your have to control some aspects of the diet. With this one it is carbs. I just find that I am a carb addict and this diet is the one that works for me. Remember as with all diets its great to keep a food diary to keep track of what you eat throughout the day.
So for breakfast today I had eggs, not just eggs though and i will walk you through my eggs. Now today I ate a little bit more than normal because I know the first days are the hardest, they say that it take about 3 days for your body to regulate your sugars and beat the cravings and I've found that that's about how long I have to fight with myself over my cravings. Which is why I eat a little bit more in the beginning because it helps to be full to ignore the cravings.
-Ok First of is about a tbs. of butter or margarine whichever you prefer. I then added some minced garlic and onions and sauteed them. total carbs so far is about 2, garlic has about .93 carbs per tsp. and I only used 2 cloves and onions have a little more (about 3 crbs in a 1/4" thick slice but I only put a few diced onions in and sauteed them)
-next was 1/2 cup of egg beaters which have about 1 crb per 1/4 c so thats 2 crbs
-next I added about 2 slices of turkey, just lunch meat, and 2 slices of turke is 0 crbs!
-then I added some pre-shredded cheese, I like the mexican blend for some flavor variety. 1/4c is 2 carbs.
-I also had some coffee with splenda and whipped cream, for a total of 3 carbs :)
So my total breakfast count is 9 which is really high but like I said writing it down make you aware of it. So now for lunch I will be having lunch meat and string cheese which is fine with me.
Ok another little note to remember is that certain medicines contain carbs as well and as im sick right now I have to pay attention to what I take. I had some alka-seltzer cold medicine which has no carbs that I could find in it but be careful.
Also remember to limit your caffeine intake and drink as much water as possible. I always keep a full bottle next to me. I am a diet coke addict so I try (try being the operative word) to limit my diet coke to 1 a day usually with lunch. Also I love seltzer water, or as my son calls it spicy water lol :) and it gives me a little more variety than just plain water and you can get different flavors and its cheep so yea for a change. Ok Ive been blabbing for a while so ill be back later for my lunch update. and like I said I ate more for breakfast so i skipped my snack cause I'm not hungry at all. Please comment and if you have questions ask and I will help as much as I can. Oh yea I try to weigh myself in the morning at the same time each day to keep myself accountable. Not feeling well today and completely forgot so I will tomorrow morning and post it with my breakfast listing. Thanks for reading and good luck to you all :)

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