A pudding and weigh in

Yesterday I began to really feel the affects of dropping the carbs and sugars. My brain was transformed into a slug creature, and after school I let my son entertain me with watching Literal Videos on YouTube. What are they ? Imagine if the lyrics to a music video were changed to reflect the actions in the video. Thins like "stare at floating cloth, sing in front of candles " and so forth. I was also sh0wn what a Rick Roll is ( get someone to look at a video clip of Rick Astleys song Never gonna give you up). It just cracked me up and helped me to stay awake if nothing else. I do know from past experience that this is normal with switching to a low carb diet, and it passes in a couple of days. Meanwhile, much of my joint pain has dissapeared in the process. Carbs, even whole grain ones, can really aggravate arthritis and other joint conditions.

In the evening I was looking for something a little different for my snack. Nuts and eggs are okay, but I wanted something a little more dessert-ish, so I tried some flaxmeal breakfast pudding

This one is very easy to make ! Take 1/4 cup flaxmeal, 1/4 cup water, 1 egg(or equivilant egg beaters) , sweeter to taste and mix ins. Stir well, microwave for 45 seconds, stir, microwave another 45 seconds and eat. For mix ins I chose cocoa powder, splenda and coconut. For this you get 1 gram carbs, 9 grams fiber, 12 grams protein, and 243 calories.Why splenda over stevia ? I learned that in people who have insulin resistance, stevia aggravates the condition. Same is true with agave nectar, and it is problematic for people who are going GFCF.

We weighed in this morning, and here are the results
Me- DOWN 1.4
Son - DOWN 1.8
Hubby -UP1.0 ( due to a business meeting where they were fed monster burritos from Chipoltle that had about 2 cups of rice in each) The nature of his job makes it very difficult for him to avoid these things

So begins another week. Tonight we are going to try flax meal pizza crust. It should work out well, as the flax meal bread works for holding sandwich fillings . Pictures to follow.

Bread and me

One of the big challenges to a low carb diet is bread. Theoretically it seems like an easy thing to live without, and today because of so many people living lo carb, there are some amazing ideas out there for bread and "starchy " sides like pasta, rice and tortillas. However, there are some times when you really just want "bread" to make a sandwich.I have tried the alternate breads like rice bread, and frankly I would rather go hungry than eat those dry things. While I was doing some research on low carb options, I can across some new to me ideas for flax meal in bread. What a brilliant idea ! Flax is high in fiber, high in essential fatty acids, high in protien, and something I really love the taste of . So why not give it a try ?

Here is the finished product. It comes out like a great big foccacia, and you can cut it into any shape you desire or any size. I found the recipe here, which has links to many other flax bread ideas. I loved the smell of baking coming from my kitchen once again, and decided it would be fun to try another low carb bread thing, the almond muffin. I also figured this would be a good day to stock the freezer with bread sort of things incase life gets really crazy during the bathroom redo

These are called basic lo carb muffins, and I followed the recipe here, but swapped the butter for olive oil. I was surprised they came out so much lighter than the muffins pictured. Nick and i split one of these to taste test and a smll peice of the foccacia to test. The muffins were good, but had a definite eggy taste to them. The foccacia on the other hand was great ! Will make a good sandwich or sure. I grabbed a piece with my lunch instead of the planned on Arnolds Thin, and I think I can definately live with this.

Finally, while snapping pictures it dawned on me that it has been a while since i had a picture taken of me , so I asked my son to take one. Here I am in my glamerous oversized tee shirt and capri pants ( my mom uniform), and hopefully it will serve as a mental reminder to have some pictures of me on this blog as well. I am the shutterbug of the family- hubby and son think about pictures only once in a great while, and I have not mastered taking pictures of myself.

The taste of success

It seems that my body is adjusting nicely to this lower carb -higher protein approach . A few years back I did Atkins, and one of the first goals to get your body flipped from burning carbs to burning fat had a teltale sign of a strange taste in your mouth. That started yesterday for me- which is a lot faster than it happened in that attempt. I am not rejecting carbs- just limiting them in my intake. I am taking this taste as a good sign that I am indeed making some progress. Another thing that is a sign for me is that I am once again running to the bathroom frequently. When my body flips to the weight loss mode, the potty becomes my best friend !

Two of the dishes I tried yesterday. The first one was my alternate grilled cheese sandwich. I took a handful of button mushrooms, a red onion and about a cup of broccoli, sauted it in olive oil and topped it with a slice of mozerella cheese, then microwaved it for 30 seconds to help the cheese melt.

I served it with sliced cucumbers and tomato- very tasty, simple and filling.

I found out sometime within the next 2 weeks our bathroom is going to be totally remodeled in a day , no definate date for it yet, and we will spend the day without water or facilities of our own. While this seems like a nothing, for me it is really stressful because of the weight loss side affects. The are going to give us access to one of the vacant apartments for the remodel, but still I am very anxious about it. So I spent much of the afternoon trying to figure out how to handle different scenarios with this while playing with the Wii boxing. Best way I can handle anxiety is to use logic and get my body to do something productive with the energy.

Dinner was something I am calling "Fakeroni and cheese with Ham

Take one head of cauliflower, break it into florettes and boil for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile make a white sauce ( roux and milk) and add garlic powder , a pinch of dried mustard , a cup of mozerella( or any other shredded cheese) and a cup of ham cubes. Cook till thick, then put the cauliflower in a casserole dish, pout the cheese sauce over and mix. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 min. Serve with a tossed salad- really good !

Today I am going to try the flax meal bread recipe. I had no ill affects from yesterdays Peanut butter flax cereal, so I am good to go .

Flax Finds

I am discovering several interesting things that can be done with ground flax as a substitute for other grains. It can be made into bread, muffins and...hot cereal ! We just tried it this morning for breakfast. You take 1/4 cup ground flax, 2 T peanut butter and 1/4 tsp cinnamon, add 1/2 cup of boiling water, let sit for about two minutes and stir. Here is what you get -

It comes out creamy, thick and pretty darned filling. Nutritional stats for this are 351 calories, 5 grams of carbs, 14 grams protein, 5 grams of effective carbs, 29 grams of fat and 10 grams fiber.

I am going to try to make the flax seed foccacia bread as well, but I will hold off a day or two with that one. I am a little concerned that this level of fiber may be a bit "explosive" . Ground Flax is a time honored herbal remedy for dealing with cronic constipation. Should prove interesting to say the least.

In other news, it seems my body is responding to the lowered level of carbs with an amazing level of brain fog. Yesterday I sat trying to figure out two lunch options for over 3 hrs. Granted, there are a lot of variables I have to deal with, but this is ridiculous ! It will get better as my body adjusts, but till then coffee is going to be an absolute mandate around here. Needless to say because of the time spent in serious brain fog, it was a very bad day for exercise. Today I have to plan lessons for next week's homeschool, and I am hoping I can scape together three brain cells to do the job. They are predicting snow today , so the weather is cold and damp- not good for aching joints. looks like it is going to be a day spent with the Wii Fit Plus !

Intuitive leanings

Over the weekend I was reminded in two ways about something that my body seems to be wired for- that I really do not like starches or sugars. By not like I mean have a physical aversion to.

Some examples- when I was young, my parents would buy these presweetened cereals because , after all, that is what all kids liked. Not me ! I would LOVE it when we ran out of the junk and be forced to eat cereals like Total. Even better those mornings when we would eat eggs and bacon. The sweet cereal always made me feel sick to my stomach. Even wore were the mornings when mom would make pancakes ! To this day, if I eat pancakes it gives me instant heartburn . Oatmeal I can tolerate, as well as polenta. If I eat cold cereal it has to be something like Special K or homemade granola ( not premade variety's)

I was never a fan of candy, until I tasted my first bite of candy with nuts, and then I would eat it strictly for the nuts. I could never be bribed, swayed, tempted or influenced by candy. However, if you tried to do the same with nuts or meat, you would have no problem. It is something about that kind of fat or protein that I CRAVE, and in large quantities.

It was so intense, that as a kid I used to steal packs of lunch meat ( and liver sausage was my favorite) , hide behind the couch and eat the whole thing. If there was ever any leftover meat in the house I would devour it. One year on the day after Thanksgiving when I was a teen , I ate half of a leftover 22 lb turkey. Did not get sick in the least, and felt pretty energetic afterwords. My mother , however was horrified because there went a couple of days planned meals for the family. When we would go to the store and be promised a reward for good behavior, it was always the promise of picking something from the candy rack. Know what I would pick ? Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or beef jerky- never candy. My parents thought I was crazy.

This weekend while we were eating dinner I took a bite of the Bread of the Dead and passed it on to the guys because it was giving me instant heartburn. I mentioned it to Bob and he reminded me that I have always been like this, and perhaps my system is and has been protein deficient for a long , long time. I am begining to wonder if this is not true. With weight loss you have to get your metabolic rate to a level where it burns more than you injest, and this is done through diet and exercise. The more muscle you build, the higher your resting metabolic rate is. If your system does not have enough protein ( the nutrient that builds muscle tissue) , I believe your body fights harder to compensate and an imbalance is created. If you increase protein, there is more supplies for your body to build with.

So this week I am trying to lean a little heavier on protein, lighter on carbs , and we will see what happens. I know it works for me - in the past I did Atkins and lost 70 pounds . I quit because I became severely constipated and I was concerned about eliminating so many potential nutrients in my body.

I am planning next weeks menu today, and I am seeking out some healthy, low carb , high protein options to work into the mix.

Monday and back to the grind

What a great weekend ! Other than the incident with the cinnamon coated pecans, no damage was done. We were planning on heading to the cemetery yesterday but I was just wiped out mentally , and I needed to replace my French Press coffee pot. The little one was a victim of a can falling out of the cupboard, and mornings without coffee qualify as national disasters. So it was off to Meijers instead in search of a pot, a new crocopot and whatever other trouble we could get into for the afternoon.

While there my son insisted we visit the electronic game section, and I noticed two noteworthy new games for the Nintendo Wii- The Biggest Loser Workout and DaisyFuentes Pilates. While I would be very curious as to what the Biggest Loser one does, I think I will buy the Pilates one instead in a few weeks. Reason being that Pilates does not involve stomping- which is a big plus in this third floor apartment ! Till then, I will continue to be content with the Wii fit plus.

Plan for today is workouts, homeschool, the weekly houseclean , dispose of the Halloween items and cook down two pie pumpkins. I may then try my hand at some homemade pumpkin butter- we found some a few weeks back at Trader Joes, love it on oatmeal , but ran out and have not bought more. Sounds like a reason to try to make some !

Just to let you know

I wish to announce that there are such a thing as cinnamon coated pecans in the store. Cinnamon and brown sugar or white sugar to be exact. Furthermore, I wish to announce that these are indeed like crack !

Going down to the cemetary on this bright but cold day to pay my respects to the family and burn off the several handfuls of the above mentioned food. No regrets- whatever damage I did in eating these was well worth it !