Day 1 of 30

Day 1 of my 30 day Atkins Induction phase challenge

March 2, 2013 - Day 1, and weigh in day!

Current Weight: 212.2 lbs

First mini goal: 199 lbs

Final Goal Weight: 135 lbs

Loss this week: Coming Soon

Breakfast was delicious this morning.  It's one of those meals that you'd never think that you were dieting.  That's what I love about Atkins though.  I'm a total meat and veg girl though, so this was ideal.  Even the kid and hubs loved it (added an English muffin for the kid, since he needs the carbs).

I made a delicious sausage scramble for brunch today.  We usually wake up late on the weekends, and enjoy a coffee first thing, so we usually have brunch and and early supper on weekends.  So no lunch entry today.

Sausage Scramble

My sausage scramble consisted of two eggs, two turkey breakfast sausage links, 1/2" red pepper strip chopped, 1 mushroom, and 0.5 oz of pepper jack (add salt and pepper to taste).  Sauteed (fried sounds so bad for you!  LOL!) the sausage, then mushroom and pepper, then stirred in the eggs until cooked.  Topped with pepper jack and kept warm until melted.  It was terribly yummy, and will be a repeat, because you can play with the veggies added, along with the types of sausage.

This delicious plate was 292 calories, and only 2.9 g net carbs.  Not only that, it packed a whopping 25.8 g of protein!  An almost perfect Atkins meal!  We have a veggie loaded supper tonight, so I wasn't too worried about the lack of breakfast veggies.  We'll want a snack at some point too, so we'll get some veggies in then too.  

I love veggies and dip, and cucumber and celery are great during induction, in terms of serving size to carb ratio.  A stalk of celery (sliced into 9ish pieces), half a cup of cucumber, and half a cup of broccoli will net you 3.5 g of carbs, plus another 2 g of carbs in 2T of dip (watch the labels, you'll have to look for dips that provide this ratio - try Wishbone no sugar added ranch), equals a 5.5 g net carb snack, which will leave you full for awhile.  The secret to dips, is to measure out the dip into a container, and once the dip is gone, it's gone.  When you just dip until the veggies are gone, you're bound to go over the serving size.

So, after breakfast, snack, and coffee (I use half and half in my coffee, for an extra 2.6 g of carbs a day), I'm sitting at a whopping 11 g of carbs so far today.  That leaves me 9-14 g for supper, which is totally doable!  Especially with a delicious dinner of tilapia, beet tops, and salad.  Mmmm.  

So, I grilled my tilapia with a yummy garlic-sage butter (mash 1T of butter with a clove of garlic and T of sage), for 1.3 net carbs, steamed some beet tops (about one cup), for 0.2 net carbs, which I sprinkled with a touch of  balsamic vinegar (my 3 g carb splurge), and had a nice side salad (mixed spring greens, 2g net carbs) with my favourite Riverhouse Parmesan herb dressing (3g carbs).  In total, dinner was 389 calories, and 9.5 net carbs.  

Rounded off the day with a hard boiled egg snack, to keep me full through the night, and up the protein and calorie count a bit, since both were a bit on the low side.  

All in all, a good day.  20.5g of carbs, which is perfect for the 20-25 g net carb allowance for Atkins Induction, and the meals were delicious.  It was a bit low on protein for the day, at only 63 of the 75 g goal, but that comes with missing a meal, and having that later breakfast. Total calorie count for the day was 1050 calories, perfect for a controlled, but fast weight loss!

Introduction to Me and Why

Why I'm doing this!

New years resolutions are the equidistant of morale destruction, amirite?  There's nothing like getting a strong start that first week or two, then slowly sliding back into your usual habits.  I do this every freaking year, and this year, FOR REAL THIS TIME, it has to stop!

While I'm not at my heaviest, I'm really darn close.  Too close for comfort, literally and figuratively.  I have shelves of cute clothes that I can't even think about trying on.  Jeans that won't even pull up to my knees, because when I bought them brand new off the shelf, my thighs were the size that my calves currently are.  

That moment, when you see a picture of yourself, and realize that even your elbows are gaining rolls.  SO cute on a toddler, not so cute on a 30 something woman (34 to be exact).  And with a 30 something roll, comes a 30 something metabolism.  Non existent, for real.

Yesterday (March 1st) was the final straw.  Even my fat clothes, which used to always give me confidence with their camouflage powers, made me look fat.  Looking down gives me an extra chin, any type of slouching gives me an extra stomach, and my boobs are out of control (40DDD - what?!?).

So today, I'm taking action.  My meal plan is drawn up for 30 days of Atkins induction.  My shopping lists are made, and this weeks purchases are in the fridge, awaiting my culinary creativity.  Time to take a very limited list of foods, and turn them into delicious creations, to keep me going!

March's Induction Phase Menu

I know, I know, oatmeal is not an appropriate induction phase item, but if I don't get it at least once a week, I know I'll fall off the wagon.  I love the stuff!  I'll work extra hard on that day to make sure that any other carbs I eat will be minimal, since the oatmeal serving has 20g of carbs anyways (only leaving 5 carbs for the rest of the day).

I'm going to commit to exercise at least six days a week somehow.  I'll post more about that as I get confident in what that's going to consist of, and what days.  I'll track it on my monthly calendar, and daily on here (along with my food creations).  Maybe by next month I'll have a solid plan, and can include that in my monthly challenge.  I have P90X, Turbofire, C25K, and TRX training available, along with a weight bench, some dumbbells, resistance bands, balance balls, and some other random equipment.

So here goes.  I'm putting this out to the world wide web for accountability.  I can do this!  Hopefully I can inspire you to do the same, if you're at the end of your rope, like I am.

Good luck!