Losing the weight for the 3rd time!

Those of you who have ready my story know that I had been injured before and gained back 130 lbs after losing a little over 200 lbs when I was on bed rest for 6 months. It took a few years to recover and get the weight back off and then I lost even more and got to 249 lbs lost. I had maintained that and built some more muscle and was sitting in a comfortable range for a few years. Then I got injured again last year... well it was a combination of several injuries starting from the summer before that and each one made it progressively worse. 

I gained back 65 lbs within about 5 months time.  Aside from being injured I had some very stressful issues going on in my life at that time and I just couldn't get the weight back off. I wasn't sleeping well, wasn't drinking enough water and slowly let some less than desirable food choices sneak in. I was still on low carb, but not as low as I should have been. 

So the last 17 weeks I've now lost 52.6 lbs and I'm feeling a lot better. Still injured but the weight loss is helping. I'm in the process of moving, planning a yard sale, selling a house and job hunting. Luckily most of the moving is done... but there's about 80 boxes of stuff for my yard sale, or possibly a bon fire after the yard sale? Haha. I've found that for me it makes a big difference when I get enough sleep. That's something that's often hard to do. 

Here's my weight report chart from FitDay, it says 51.4 lost because I made it yesterday but didn't get time to take a new pic and post until today. As you can see I stalled twice along the way and that's ok, your body needs time to adjust. I had been losing 15 to 20 lbs over the winter time and then I would get sick and have to take medicine and the medicine and chicken soup would make me gain it back. This went on from October until the end of February. It was most annoying, so I was so glad to get over all of the colds that went around my workplace and get back to losing the weight!

BBQ and Picnic Foods

How to survive BBQ's, Picnic's and other Summer Time Outings. 

Tips and Tricks:

• Offer to Bring Something- "Thank you for inviting me, can I bring a veggie tray or deviled eggs?", "How about a green salad?", "Would you like me to bring some finger food like pinwheel sandwiches or roll ups?", "How about some unbreaded chicken wings?" if you bring something Low Carb then you at least know that you can eat something there.
•  Be Prepared- Whenever I have to go to a gathering and I'm not sure what food people are bringing or what might be in something I always try to pack a small lunch bag and keep it in my car or have a protein bar or ziploc bag of bacon in my purse as a back up.
• Food Allergies- If someone asks why you're eating something different you don't have to say that you're Low Carb or that you're trying to lose weight. You can just say that you have food allergies or you're allergic to sugar and carbs or  you can't eat it. I normally say "I'm allergic to Sugar, Flour and Soy" or "I can't have sugar or carbs".  Some people will ask if I have Celiac and I say no, but it's kind of similar. They usually don't ask more after that unless they also have problems with certain foods.
• Don't Trust Gluten Free- Gluten Free does not equal Low Carb! A lot of times I've found that Gluten Free items actually have more carbs than the normal product does. If you can't check the label and see what's in it then don't trust that any Gluten Free item is Low Carb because it's probably not. 
• Beverages- I always bring my own water bottle or a bottle of something that I can drink and no one ever acts put off by it. Lots of people carry water bottles and especially in the heat I doubt anyone would make a big deal about it. You could even offer to bring Crystal Light Lemonade or offer to bring soda and then make sure some of it is diet. It's certainly not the most healthy option and I don't recommend drinking soda all the time, but it's better than filling yourself full of sugar in my opinion. 

Food Suggestions (as shown above):

1. Garden Salad
2. Garden Salad with Tuna, Chicken, Steak, or any unbreaded meat.
3. Hamburger patty without the bun.
4. Low Carb Pinwheel Sandwiches.
5. Cream Cheese and Lunch meat Roll-ups.
6. Bacon Cream Cheese Squares.
7. Celery with Cream Cheese and Bacon.
8. Celery and Carrots with Ranch.
9. Chicken Wings - Unbreaded with Buffalo or Garlic Parm sauce.*
10. Deviled Eggs.
11. Any kind of unbreaded meat that isn't covered in BBQ sauce.**
12. If bringing a sandwich tray make yours with lettuce instead of bread. 
13. Bell Pepper and Onion kabobs to add flavor to your bunless burger.
14. Macaroni Salad with Dreamfields Low Carb Pasta***

* Most are kinds of Buffalo Sauce are fairly low sugar, but not all. Ken's is ok and the kind from Buffalo Wild Wings has 2 carbs for 5 wings in both the Buffalo and the Garlic Parm.

**Some sauces have 17 grams of sugar per tbsp. I look for pieces not drenched sauce or if possible ask for one with no sauce or rinse it off or at least scrape off the excess.

***It's very important to follow the cooking instructions on Dreamfields pasta and DO NOT overcook it. Drench it in cold water and keep rinsing it until it's cold. Don't reheat it either. I've never had any issues with it but I'm also OCD about the cooking process so that may be why. If it stalls you then don't eat it. I like it and use it sparingly and have no issues with it. 

Good Luck! Enjoy your time with friends and family and if you do eat something questionable don't beat yourself up too much, just make sure you get right back on track with the following meal.

Watch out for added Carbs/Calories in Frozen Drinks!

With summer sometimes comes more temptation with summer time parties and celebrations and everyone drinking slushies, milk shakes and frozen alcoholic beverages in various colors and flavors. It's important to remember how much sugar those drinks contain and avoid them.

 

Alcohol also has sugar in it and can lower your inhibitions and let your judgement slip on just how much food you should eat. It can also cause you to need more food to offset the effects of it as well. Also those who are Low Carb will get intoxicated a lot faster than someone that consumes more carbs due to not having anything to absorb the alcohol. If you feel that you must have some kind of drink then maybe opt for something mixed with Crystal Light instead of a sugary mixer.

Summer Time can also bring discouragement when it's time for an event that involves bathing suits... that's when you need to step back and take a look at your progress and be happy with how far you've come so far and with the fact that you're taking steps to improve your health. Then look for a style of bathing suit that covers your problem areas the best and opt for a cover up or swimming skirt or swimming shorts to go over it if you don't like your thighs etc.

Maxi dresses that gather under the chest are often good choices, knee length summer dresses are good if you like your legs, mesh tops help with those who don't like their arms and the swim skirts and shorts help with those who don't like their thighs. There's a lot of cute coverups out there.

Having a melt down or a panic attack or getting mad at people for inviting you to an event won't help the situation and will only take longer in the fitting room...

I've had a few friends experience this in the past few weeks so I thought a reminder would be helpful in case anyone else was also feeling that way. It also does not help to get frustrated and fall off the wagon either.

Hang in there and focus on the good parts and enjoy your summer. You can't go back and relive the summer and you could be missing out on some fun memories if you avoid pool side gatherings. 

What's for lunch at work?

I often get asked what I eat for lunch at work. Normally it's bacon and eggs but today I got tuna and boiled eggs from the salad bar and put some bell pepper in it with some mayo. Yummy and simple! :)

Atkins Bars...

I often get asked if I eat Atkins bars and if so how often... 

I occasionally eat them as a treat or when traveling or sometimes when I have to work late and my other options are not healthy. 

I can't have soy and most of their bars contain soy so I avoid them except for the "Caramel Chocolate Nut Roll" flavor that only has soy in the chocolate. I still use them sparingly and not as a staple. 

Now..... when I have Girl Scout Cookies sitting in my office, yeah... I'll eat the Atkins bar if I was craving something. But I'm actually not hungry so I'm fine.

 

I don't recommend eating the Atkins bar's if you can't eat just one. If they will trigger you to eat the whole box then leave them alone. If they stall you, then save them for maintenance. A BIG part of long term success on ANY kind of healthy eating plan is that you learn self control. For me, it's easier to stick to my bacon and eggs and not worry about other foods. If I don't have many carbs then I don't crave carb loaded foods. But once I eat something with carbs then I want EVERYTHING! A side effect of PCOS is actually that you crave carbs. So if you have PCOS, I highly recommend that you don't have "off days" very often because it's like an alcoholic trying to give up booze when you go back to low carb after being off plan.