In an effort to keep track of what I eat, I've been taking pictures of some of my meals.  As you'll notice, I missed one of my meals on the weekend so it's not foolproof!  But I think it's been kind of fun using photos as a food diary and I'll try and keep up this week.  So my results for last week were...



A few takeaways from the week:

• We added a little more variety to the diet which made things more interesting.  I can only eat so many eggs at a time.
• Lavash is a type of flatbread that can commonly be found close to the deli counter.  It's semi low-carb, I think around 8g of net carbs for a whole piece.  We loaded it up with ricotta, cheese, and turkey pepperoni.  I'll post a recipe once I find the perfect combination of seasoning for the ricotta spread.
• The cream of broccoli soup was actually incredibly filling!  I loved the silky texture of it.  The cheese "crackers" were something Nestor looked up online and make an interesting side for the soup.

A few takeaways from the weekend:

• Like I mentioned above, I totally missed what I ate on breakfast for Saturday!  All I know is we stayed home that day so it was probably something egg related.
• I'm in love with the Alaskan Pollock Fish Burger patties.  These were a sample at Costco one weekend and I was surprised by how tasty they were.  Even Aiden ate a few bites!  They aren't completely zero carb, but they are low enough in carbs and calories that I think it's acceptable.
• Sauteed cabbage is my new favorite side dish.  I've never been a big fan of salads so incorporating them into my diet has been hard.  But give me cauliflower or cabbage any day!

This weekend it was a little hard to stay on track.  We were out at get-togethers all weekend and, of course, there's very little that's low carb when you go to parties.  Saturday was probably the worst.  We went crazy with the Baconators.  I know.  They are low carb, but high calorie so still not good for you.  But by that time, I was just too tired to care.  Aiden had a blast at both parties, but he really wore me out chasing after him everywhere.  That boy is full of curiosity.

    A few takeaways:

• I need to start watching my calorie intake, not just the carbs.  I will probably still lose weight, but a lot more slowly than if I kept it to a reasonable caloric amount.
• We ate before going to both parties and that really helped us stay away from all the yummy carbalicious foods.  
• I'm not afraid to admit it...I wanted to rub my face into Aiden's slice of pizza on Sunday.  Seriously...it was a close call.  And don't get me started on how difficult it was to stay away from the Cake Love cake and cookies on Saturday.  If they had a Baltimore Bomb pie, I would have been a goner.  That's my kryptonite when it comes to sweets.
• I'm pretty happy that I made my step goal on Sunday!  It helped that we weren't at the party too long and I was able to run errands afterwards.  Aiden had a bit of a meltdown and we had to cut our stay short, but he was able to unwind and relax in the car.

Week 2 was definitely not the easiest week with social events going on.

Week 2 is done!  I saw a few pounds lost, even if it was probably only water weight.  Still...progress is progress!

A few takeaways from the week:

• I really should push myself to hit my goal of 11,000 steps.  
• Trying to remain low carb when going out for happy hour is VERY hard.  Let's just say I failed on Thursday.  Thank goodness that cider beer was delicious.
• Since I did so badly on Thursday, I tried to make up for it on Friday.  I did 2.5 miles on the elliptical and stayed within my carb limits of 20g net carbs.  Happy to say that the plain fried chicken wings fit into the diet!
• Next week, I'll try to incorporate different items into the diet to have a little variety.
• Just because I break the rules of my diet doesn't mean I plan on giving up!   

If you're interested in seeing how I'm handling a low carb diet, here are some of my previous posts.

My first weekend doing low-carb hasn't been too bad.  It really does help if we stay in instead of going out to eat because I can easily control the number of carbs I eat.


Just like last week, I've written down exactly what I ate and the number of steps a day I've been doing. 

A few takeaways from my first week:

• COFFEE.  This has been my go-to solution for reducing my need to snack.  There's something about the act of sipping a hot beverage over a period of time that kind of takes away my cravings.  Plus...I just love coffee.
• The longer I'm on this diet, the less I really have felt the need to snack.  I am a compulsive snacker when I'm bored so I just now either sip coffee or take a couple of laps around the office.
• I don't feel as hungry anymore after a meal.  In general, I just feel more satisfied.
• I find myself craving sweets even though I'm not a sweets-eating kind of person.

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.