A few years ago, I had started a low carb diet in an attempt to lose weight.  It was great for awhile!  I lost close to 20 lbs in a couple of weeks and some of my less fat clothes were starting to fit again.  Then I hit a plateau on the weight loss and things stayed stagnant for a long time.  On the other hand, Nestor continued to lose weight.  There's nothing more discouraging than having someone who started the process with you, did the same exact things as you, and is all of a sudden moving farther ahead than you.

So that really sucked.

And then I got pregnant and had my sweet baby boy.  My weight at the end of my pregnancy was at an all time high of 230 lbs.  Yikes!  Thankfully, breastfeeding is a weight loss miracle waiting to happen and I got back down to, and much past, my original weight of 199 lbs.  The lowest I was able to go was around 165 lbs.  I hadn't seen that weight in years.  It felt really good.

At around 9 months, I decided to start feeding Aiden with formula and reduced the number of pumping sessions.  This also reduced the number of calories I was burning and my weight crept back up pretty quickly.



So here I am today back at 199 lbs.  Whoa...feels scary stating my actual weight out here in public.  But here I am going to try all over again to lose it.  My ideal weight would be around 130 lbs so I have quite a bit to go.  I plan on beginning a low carb diet again based off the Atkins diet starting in Phase 1 (Induction).  During this go around, I'm also plan to pair it with more daily activity as monitored by my Fitbit Charge.



I had tried this whole Fitbit thing in the past, but that sort of fell off to the side after a while.  This time, I have a little more motivation to move!  Several of my coworkers have also gotten Fitbits and it's been a lot of fun joining the workweek and weekend challenges together.  Lots of smack talk going on throughout the week.  Somehow, having a bunch of people trying to beat me really motivates me to move.  I still have my off days, but I try and make myself move so I'm not dead last.



And then there are weeks where I totally rock it and hit some all time highs of over 100,000 steps in 7 days!  To hit this all-time high, I was literally jogging in place at 10:30P on a Sunday night trying to beat my co-worker.  I was not about to lose! 

This is Week 1 for this diet and I'm hoping I can stick to it for a while.  It really is a big change in how we're eating since a lot of it is preparing meals at home.  In case you're thinking of starting a low carb diet as well and are curious about what kinds of meals you can have, I've outlined my week's menu below.  I've also included my step totals just to give you an idea of the amount of activity I actually do.  My actual daily goal is 11,000 steps and I really only hit that once this week.  Shame on me.   

A couple of notes about this week:

• I started the diet on Monday.  Next week I'll post what I ate for the weekend.
• I was in training the first two days of the week and it shows with the iced coffees I bought from Dunkin Donuts.  Gotta stay awake!  I also kept my steps up by doing laps around the building during our breaks.
• Some good snacks for me were thin deli slices of smoked turkey and swiss cheese that I rolled up and dipped into a little mayo and mustard mixed together.
• Wednesday was Nestor's softball game so I was on bedtime duty that night.  Explains the Baconator from Wendy's.  That is not a normal thing.  
• Friday was our normal day off and we spent it at the National Aquarium at Inner Harbor.  I feel like I should have researched more on what I could eat from Cheesecake Factory.  Nestor was just craving really hard for something sweet so we indulged in a shared slice of Low Carb Cheesecake.  I chose the Spicy Cashew Chicken and tried to remove most of the breading before I ate the chicken.  I only ate about 10 cashews and had steamed broccoli instead of rice.  This was obviously my worst day for following the diet plan.

 All in all, I think I did pretty well for my first week.  I lost a few pounds already, but I know it's pretty much just water weight.  Still...seeing those numbers drop even just a little makes me feel good. 

Have you also started a diet or are struggling to stay on it?  Have you joined the Fitbit craze and are tracking your steps?  Let me know if you want to join up on a challenge!  Weight loss is always easier when shared with others.