Wrapping Up Week 1

Well, today is the last day that I have to be ultra low-carb! It hasn't been easy, but I've managed to stick to it pretty well :-) The only cheating I did was super-duper minor at a baby shower yesterday, and I honestly don't feel too guilty about because it was so small. I'm really proud of Charlie. He has complained most of the week about the things he misses eating, but he has stuck to the plan pretty hard-core. There were two days this week that he had the opportunity to eat out, and everything he ordered was something that he was able to eat most of and the things that he couldn't eat he just left on the plate. Now that's willpower! And I really admire that about him :-)

As the week has progressed, I've managed to get a little more creative with the foods that I'm allowed to eat. Today, I really enjoyed my lunch! I had a salad with iceberg and romaine lettuce, with fresh spinach, chicken, and egg. I used Annie's Organic dressing, which I found at Sprouts, and it only carries 1 gram of carbs in it! This is the buttermilk flavor, not to be confused with buttermilk ranch. This has a more sour taste than ranch does (the ranch flavor had 3 grams of carbs in it, and that was just too much!) With the chicken and egg in the salad, the dressing actually has a really good flavor and wasn't too sour at all, although I kinda puckered my lips when I did the finger-in-the-bottle taste test. I've also found that the dry ranch dressing mix doesn't have any carbs at all in it. I use the Kroger brand because I really think it's just the best tasting ranch dressing that can be found in a store. I've been adding the dry mix to hamburgers (bun-less of course), the previously mentioned cheese sauce on top of chicken, and I rubbed a little bit of it onto the chicken that I put on my salad today.

Next week begins the macro-patterning cycle. The cycle is made up of three kinds of days: baseline, carb-up, and carb-down. Baseline days mean that I can eat one serving of a carb food before 3 pm. The rest of my meals will be like this weeks have been. Carb-up days mean that I can eat two servings of a carb food at two separate meals before 7 pm. Carb-down days mean that I will just eat all my meals similar to this weeks meals. Week two starts right off with a baseline day, so I'm really looking forward to adding in a carb! The book states that you must eat your carb with a protein (think oatmeal with an egg on the side, or spaghetti with meat sauce). I'm so excited! My mouth is watering just thinking about all the yummy things I can eat again! There are a few things that I'll need to wait until week three to eat, like regular bread and any alcohol that I want. And I can't add in a cheat day until week three either. The good news is, that I'll be able to do all those things by the time TMEA rolls around. I can't wait to share mexican food and margaritas on the riverwalk with one of my best friends! Not to mention we'll be sharing some work-outs afterwards :-) Also during week two, I'll have to keep a better watch on my fat intake and start regular exercising. This week I've used fats to help keep me full in place of the carbs I cut out. It didn't matter too much if I had a little extra fat because my glycogen was so low and my body HAD to go to the fat stores for energy. Since we'll be adding the carbs back in and rebalancing the glycogen levels, I'll have to watch that I don't take in too much fat since now my body will be burning both sources, not just glycogen like before and not just fat like this week. Also, since there won't be an energy deficit from the lack of glycogen to cause my body to burn all the fat, I'll have to create an energy deficit by exercising regularly. Thank goodness the weather is getting nicer... I can start taking Taryn back out for long walks and I guess I'll get back to doing kick-boxing and pilates to help tone muscles.

More to come soon about the pattern of week two, including what I can eat, and how my exercise is going. I'll have to make time to do the appropriate exercise every single day, so wish me luck on that.

Ten pounds down, ninety to goal!!