Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Low-Carb basic menu

This is the basic menu structure i plan to adhere to Monday-Friday:

Breakfast options: 
-eggs, any style (hardboiled, fried/scrambled in butter, omelet with spinach and cheese, etc), OR
-low-carb protein shake
-coffee with heavy whipping cream, coconut oil, and splenda

Lunch options:
-6-8 ounces meat (roast chicken, steak, ground meat or fish), 1-2 cups of green veggies sauteed or roasted in butter or olive oil (zucchini, spinach, squash, broccoli, cauliflower), OR
-vegetable salad (lettuce, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, a few tomatoes) with added meat (chicken or salmon) and fatty stuff (dressing, cheddar cheese, bacon, chopped eggs)<-----[looking forward to this the most], OR
-tuna or egg salad made with mayo and served on a bed of greens
-bunless burger with a side salad

Dinner options:
-same as lunch

Snack/dessert options:
-hardboiled eggs
-cut up raw veggies (celery, cucumbers, peppers) with ranch
-tuna/egg salad
-sugar free jello
-sugar free hot chocolate

I plan to look up 1-2 recipes from Low Carb Friends to try each week, to keep things fresh and exciting. One thing I'm NOT into is all the low-carb processed foods and "substitute" foods. I want to try and stick to non-processed foods as often as possible, without the crutch of using franken-foods all the time to try and fool my tastebuds.

Carb Cycling vs. Low-Carb

Day 2 of my Information Binge...i've been combing the internet for any and all info I can find to help me succeed with a lowcarb WOE, and this is an interesting tidbit i found:


Carb cycling is generally thought of as strictly a weight loss tactic, but can also be used for muscle building or to promote maintenance of lean muscle mass during a fat loss phase.  For the purposes of rapid fat loss, it’s effective (and I’d go so far as to say essential) for the exact same reasons the cheat day is so clutch:

1) High carb days boost slipping leptin, thyroid and other hormone levels that have fallen due to consecutive lower carb days.  This hormonal bump is KEY to keeping metabolism high during a weight loss diet.
2) By cycling days of lower and higher carbs, we can manipulate insulin levels and maximize muscle building and muscle sparing (preventing lean muscle breakdown) effects according to your overall body transformation goals.
3) Because higher carb days follow several days of lower carb intake, most of the added carbs consumed will be put to good use by refilling glycogen stores in liver and muscle, rather than being stored as fat.
4) Carb cycling offers a huge psychological upside as well.  Besides all the internal benefits, you get to look forward to days where it’s not only okay to eat more carbohydrate-rich food, but it’s required by the diet plan.  This scheduled ‘break’ from lower carb dieting can be a game changer when it comes to staying on track the rest of the week.

Source: http://www.topfatlosstrainer.com/2010/07/08/carb-cycling-for-fat-loss-cheat-day-fast-day/

 There are multiple websites and sources that clam that carb-cycling is much more effective for fat loss and muscle maintenance than straight low-carb. This is very intriguing! I can definitely see myself doing the 20 grams or less thing Monday-Friday, knowing that i can relax and consume plenty of carbohydrates on Saturday. Psychologically, this is a PHENOMENAL discovery for me, and I will definitely be giving this a try! *happy dance*

Monday, November 28, 2011

Transitioning to Low-Carb Lifestyle

I'm switching up my approach a bit. Up until now, my plan has been:
-diet: no concrete plan, just reducing calories in general. Lots of cheating.
-exercise: cardio, cardio and more cardio

I've lost 18 pounds since September doing this, but I'm getting bored and need something fresh and effective. so I;ve decided to change to:

-diet: low carb (1-2 weeks of Induction, then transition to MODIFIED, realistic low carb lifestyle)
-exercise: man focus on RESISTANCE/circuit training to speed metabolism and body shaping.

My theories:
-the low carb diet will take the place of the excessive cardio i'd been doing to be the main factor in my body's weight/fat loss
-I'll have less energy (for the first week or two) on low carb, so lifting weights instead of killing myself on the elliptical will help ease the transition until my energy levels increase.
-focusing on resistance training will speed up my inch loss and body shaping!

I'm combing the internet all day today, between LHCF threads, Atkins.com, Low Carb Friends and Google, arming myself with information.

In the past, I've abused Induction by staying on it too long (just for the quick weight loss), and then abandoning the plan altogether to return to my awful eating habits. This time, i want to do it RIGHT!

3-week wrap-up

I know I havent posted in almost 3 weeks, but here's the gist of November:

-I continued with my sloppy/haphazard low calorie diet, with not much of a structure, and got down to 242 pounds (yay me)

-skipped a ton of workouts

-Ate like a horse the entire week leading up to Thanksgiving.

-Now, after the holiday (and right before my period), I'm back up to 248.

-^^^(and hoping that half of those pounds are just premenstrual)


In a nutshell!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

November 10 - Diet

9:00 OEP, 8 oz water

9:30 oatmeal w/ half n half (170 cals), maxi hair vitamin, 8 oz water

10:00 coffee w/creamer (70 cals), 16 oz water

1:00 1 mi run (12 min), 16 oz water

2:30 protein shake (300 cals), maxi hair vitamin

(got super hungry---i've got to start adding more calories in the morning)

4:30 (mcdonalds) double cheeseburger (440 cals), medium fries (380 cals), diet coke

November 10

Been slacking on the posts, smh....


current weigh: 244.4 (yay me, 16 pounds gone!)

so i just downloaded a free app from android market called Lose It!

once u put in your height, weight and goals it spits out a recommended daily calorie intake to achieve it. Mine is 1742 (in order to lose 2 pounds per week and go from 245 to 179 by June 29, 2012).

I've suspected all along that my calorie count was too low, and that may be the reason why I'm losing slower than i'd like even though i work out like a maniac. So for one week, i'll try to keep my calories between 1500-1750

I'm also thinking of doing lowcarb/low sugar. Not Atkins Induction, but more modified (maybe 50-75 carb grams per day). i really think that keeping my blood sugar down and steady will help tremendously. I've bee reading up on it and joined lowcarbfriends.com

Anybody else doing/thinking about doing lowcarb?

OK, thats enough rambling from me

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

November 2

WARNING - Terrible, processed food ahead.

So Lady Red showed up FIVE days early to knock me out of my Halloween-weekend high. I havent worked out in 2 days, and can't be bothered to prepare anything healthy. Today is all about the grab and go. One thing i do want to focus on is getting at least 8 glasses of water in, to help with the bloat.

9:00 2 poptarts (400 calories)

11:30 10 oz juice (100 calories)

1:30 bag of chips (150 calories), multivitamin

took a nap from 1:45-2:45 instead of working out. I feel like crap :(

3:00 frozen meal (320 calories), 16 oz water

4:30 coffee w/cream (70 calories), pack of oreos (270 calories)----MAN i've been hitting that vending machine hard today!