Wow you really sound in focus - and I love the sound of all those meals you organised - it sounds to me as if you get so focused on your jobs that you forget to eat, so it's great to have stuff prepared. Chicken wings/thighs etc are good for that too, and boiled eggs.
Re the baking, I did have some success with almond flour cookies (using bad, full of chemicals, sugar free maple syrup
) and they were very nice. I'll see if i can find the recipe.
I'm definitely easily distracted and when I realize I'm hungry I want food IMMEDIATELY and can't be bothered with cooking something healthy. I think a lack of planning is one of my biggest downfalls, because then I make awful choices. (Of course cravings are sometimes an issue too, but that's another matter.) Now that I've got a more flexible lifestyle and more free time I'm trying to develop some better habits and routines...some days are more successful than others.
I bake with almond flour all the time.You can use ground almonds for baking especially if you only going to do it now and again.
Thank you! I actually came across some blogs where people were making their own almond flour using a coffee grinder and wondered if it might be the way to go. I may have to try it sometime.
Not bad...this is the longest I've stuck with any diet ever, so I guess that's an accomplishment. The cheat days help keep me sane, although the food I think I can't live without is never as satisfying as I think it will be. Maybe that's a sign that I'm starting to break some of my food addictions? Not sure.
I don't want to trigger anyone and I'm going to be mentioning foods that aren't low carb friendly, so anyone struggling with willpower today might want to stop reading here.
Today is a planned cheat day. It's funny but I always find the anticipation the hardest. By the time the actual cheat day rolls around I'm less desperate and tend not to do quite as much damage as I think I'm going to. It was the same way when I did calorie shifting...on the down days I was dying to eat all kinds of bad stuff, but on the up days I was usually less obsessed with the idea.
Honestly I've been able to find low carb substitutes for a lot of my favourite foods, so there isn't a lot I miss. Sometimes it isn't quite as good as the real thing, but it's a decent trade off. I eat a ton of cauliflower. I use it in the place of potatoes, as rice and sometimes even as a pizza crust. While spaghetti squash may not be the best low carb veggie ever, I don't even think of eating actual spaghetti anymore, so I'm going to look at that as a victory. I do miss ice cream sometimes but my Da Vinci syrup, whipping cream and avocado shakes help.
The one thing I really, really miss is nachos with plenty of salsa. I've found low carb substitute recipes online but they seem to use pork rinds and I can't find them here. I'm thinking maybe they aren't as common in Canada as in the United States, because the junk food aisles at the grocery stores in my town definitely don't have them. So anyway, that's the one thing I always want when I cheat.
So today I had a big bowl of corn flakes for breakfast. Lunch was total junk: a big Pepsi slushy and homemade nachos. I think that itch has been scratched for a long while. I will likely have some drinks but not until late tonight because I want to drive out to watch the fireworks first. I think I've had enough bad stuff today, so dinner will be a bunch of fruit. I've got frozen peaches and strawberries thawing at the moment which I'm quite looking forward to!
While I understand that fruits have a ton of sugar and often a lot of carbs, that's one part of this way of eating that bothers me a bit. Well, that and all the fat. I feel like fruit has so many health benefits and I've not eaten any since April aside from avocado, tomato, a tiny bit of lemon and the occasional berry. I'm glad I've started eating lots of salad greens again but I miss the variety - not just because of taste but also for the different nutrients.
After today, I'm going to focus on eating much more chicken, turkey and fish. I want to cut way back on beef and pork. I'm not quite sure what to do about fat. To be perfectly honest I've been considering making the switch over to South Beach or similar just because I question what I might be doing to my health (yes I've read the studies, but I've also read other studies that say how dangerous this diet is - sometimes I'm not sure what to think). That said, I feel good. Even though I haven't lost weight lately I find it easier not to gain, even in spite of some poor decisions and big cheats in June.
Given the way I've been eating, I'm wondering if my cholesterol is sky high. I've been careful about eggs - I usually only use one egg at a time and mix in liquid egg whites to make sure I'm not eating too many yolks. But the way I've been eating red meat and fat lately has me worried. I deliberately upped my fat intake because I saw some people say they didn't start to really lose weight until they were eating much more fat...but I'm still struggling with the idea that what I'm doing must be incredibly unhealthy.
Part of me wants to go in for my annual blood work now instead of waiting until the fall, which will be one year. But I think for the time being I will concentrate on making healthier low carb protein choices and limiting cheese and cream while getting fat from smarter sources. I'm hoping that if I do this properly I will have lost ~10lbs by the end of July, but if I don't then I may need to reevaluate what I'm doing and whether I want to continue with this way of eating or move onto something else.
In any event, I feel like I've learned a lot about carbs and sugar. No matter what I end up doing dietwise, I think I will always take parts of the Atkins way of eating with me. I had absolutely no concept of carbs before whereas now it's become a bit intuitive. I've also seen firsthand the role that sugar has in food cravings, which was a pretty powerful realization.
