Domestically Violent Food

Okay onto day 5. Staying strong, still no sugar, not one slip up. I had to order pizza for work today and I LOVE PIZZA! I mentally prepared myself for the smell and the lure of the melted cheese and the pepperoni that i knew would be calling to me. I got two cheese lovers, a veggie lovers, Hawaiian and pepperoni. I also got a couple of salads for those of us that don't like...wait who am i kidding...won't/can't eat pizza. I looked at it, smelled it and wanted it. But I head straight over to the salad and went and took my place and I was really proud of myself. I feel like i won a battle...and it's those little battles that win the war! Normally I would have eaten probably 4 slices and then taken home the left overs and had 3 more slices when I got home. Then I would be sick and pissed at myself for eating all of that..I mean it tastes good but who wants to feel sick from it. It's like i have/had a domestic violence relationship with food. I love the bad stuff and I eat it and it hurts me and i keep going back for more. Who does that? The worst part is as i was eating it i knew that i was not going to feel good after and it didn't stop me at all. Well i am done with that. I feel like i am finally in the routine of this diet and so far i really like it. I'm not bloated, I have a lot of energy and I a losing weight! I have to keep it up!

Start Weight 5 Days Ago: 196.4
Weight Today 6:00 pm after eating a huge salad: 192.8

I'm taking myself to the spa when i get to 180!!

Quinn

Bad wrap...

So technically Quinn and I are on the Atkins diet. But not just the Atkins diet, the revised Atkins diet. I don't know anything about the original but I have got concerned comments from friends and family about the fact that we are only eating meat. I just want to clear it up and tell you all what we are allowed to eat. We can have meats, cheeses, eggs and vegetables. Don't forget that this is phase 1 which is very strict and only allowing us to have 20 grams of carbs. If you want something to compare that to the next time you are eating a bag of chips or really anything take a look at the carb count and see how much is in what you are eating. Basically 20 grams is nothing. We get all of our carbs from cheese and veggies. For any of you out there who are worried about us we are eating a variety of things and keeping very hydrated. I drank about 80 ounces of fluids today so I am doing pretty good. 


I know it is weird and you may be thinking...so what types of meals do you eat in a day? For breakfast I had 3 eggs with 1/4c of cheese and 3 slices of canadian bacon. Lunch was tuna in a cabbage leaf and dinner was a salad with chicken, cheese and avocado. I am supposed to eat 19 ounces of meat a day for my height (5'11'') and I am not even meeting that criteria. 


The key to any diet or healthy eating is to plan ahead. We like to take several recipes and buy our groceries around that for the week. My cousin plans a menu for the week and sticks to that. Whatever works for you but I have found that it is easier to make your lunch the night before instead of staring into the fridge when you are half asleep in the morning. 


Day three check onto another day...
Cheers
     Brittany

The Third Day

Third day was not the charm. First day at work on the diet. I thought I was really prepared. I brought eggs for breakfast, some meat for a snack a huge salad for lunch and a hard boiled egg for a snack. Breakfast was great ...and then i headed into my meeting where there were plates piled high with bagels, bananas, muffins, danish's, doughnuts. I felt like someone did it just to punish me. It smelled so so good and for a moment i thought to myself, what if i just have a little bit. Instead I sat as far away from the food as possible, even though that meant yelling to my colleagues across the room. Thank god for the distance on the table between me and the pastries...i could have gone down a bad road! After the meeting i left and everything was fine, out of sight out of mind! Third day with no sugar and i am down 4 pounds as of this evening!!! I feel really good. Have to stay prepared and bring more snacks tomorrow, don't want to be hungry which could lead to a black out moment where i eat everything in sight.


One other funny story. I went to the grocery store to stock up on meats and some more veggies. I needed a lime for a recipe. Well, I saw the them in a pile and there it was,  a glistening jewel of a lime and I knew immediately that was the one I had to have. I went for it without thinking, not wanting anyone else to take my beautiful lime! God only knows why they put the good ones on the bottom, where this particular beauty also happened to be. I was to excited to think about the logistics of the situation or the structural integrity of the pile and of course they all came tumbling down. Green lime balls rolling around all over the floor. Good thing they don't break...because I would have been buying!

Pre Diet Follies

Lovely last supper meal!

 As we play with our blog and get used to being "natural bloggers" we will post pictures and videos on more accurate dates. The pictures and videos included in this post are from the pre diet aka the night before we started the diet. As you can clearly see I am holding up our fat bags of high carb foods. Let me just say, we thoroughly took advantage of our last meals. Not only did I have a large meal I also took advantage of cleaning out the fridge and our pantry by consuming large amounts of sugar. This included drinking out of the bottle of sweet white wine and taking licks of my lollipops between swigs. Disgusting.

Currently we are having technical difficulties posting videos but we are going to keep trying to figure out how to upload them for your viewing pleasure.

Induction aka Phase 1

Induction...what does that even mean? Am I being "inducted" into the rock and roll hall of fame? NO surely not! I am being inducted into a diet that might just put me over the edge. I'm not going to lie today was the first day and it was bloody hard. All I could think about was the valentines day suckers that we had to give away that I wanted to eat or the funfetti cake mix that I wanted to bake or really anything with sugar. I am definitely going through withdrawals! I am just craving just the teeniest bit of sugar on my tongue. I am a big gum chewer and we aren't allowed to have that in this phase. I am hoping that I will start to shed the pounds in the next couple of weeks and it will be worth the pain and suffering. According to the Atkins book you will lose on average 15 pounds in the first two weeks of the diet. The first 4 to 6 pounds will be lost in the first 3 days. I stepped on the scale tonight and no weight lost yet. I know I shouldn't be jumping the gun but today felt like it was a week long. Food is such a large part of my existence and I have gotten myself into some bad habits that I never realized how they really affect me. I am trying to stay positive and look towards a healthier me. 


Cheers
     Brittany

Day 1 The Purge

Today was the first day on the diet and i think it really went well. I felt really motivated to start strong and I was proud of myself as I shopped refusing samples and keeping my eye on the ball. Momentarily as i walked by the bakery entrance of Costco the smell of sugar almost had my head spinning and for a split second I thought about running in and taking a gigantic muffin....but i didn't want to ruin the first day, crisis averted. I also wanted a glass of wine at the end of the night. My cousin was drinking it and it smelled so good and I could just imagine how wonderful and relaxing it would be to have a glass, but thankfully my sister was there and because I wouldn't let her have a blow pop she was not going to let me cheat either, crisis averted.

I think the hardest part of the day was when my cousin called and asked us over for dinner. She wanted to make pizza, which is my VERY favorite thing. I didn't tell her we were starting the diet and just told her we would be there, thinking in my mind that I would figure something out so we could still have fun and not blow our diet. I don't really know why i didn't want to tell her. Realizing this was a recipe for disaster I called her back and told her we were starting a low carb diet and she was happy to change the plan so we could have a salad. I was so relieved, I don't think I could have resisted the pizza! We went over and had an amazing salad with chicken and a yummy avocado dressing. She was so supportive altering the recipe to take out some of the ingredients we couldn't have. Moral of the story, spread the news far and wide that you are starting your diet. Family and friends will be more supportive and accommodating than you think and they may learn something in the process as well!

Day 1

Carbs-  19grams

Protein- 17 grams

Fat-       89grams

Calories-1355

I am an avid calorie counter so it is going to be a challenge to change my mindset to think less about the calories and pay more attention to the carbs. 

sweet (low carb) dreams!

Quinn

The Last Supper

Today was the last day of so many things. It was not only the last day of my long week, but it was also the last day that I will be eating mass amounts of carbs for an infinite period of time. Imagine the pile of food that I brought home for our last meal...I brought my sister Quinn a bag of Taco Bell and I stopped by my favorite hawaiian barbecue take out place. My order included chicken teriyaki, two scoops of white rice, a scoop of macaroni salad and six cream cheese fried crab rangoons. Quinn's order had a chicken burrito, Doritos, a crunch wrap supreme all complete with a "small" Dr. Pepper. If that isn't carb overload I don't know what is.

If you know anything about my family you know that we are big eaters. I was raised in a home where we thought about food constantly. At breakfast we would all be thinking about what was for lunch and my mom would always be planning the next home cooked 6 course meal in her head. We had so many amazing meals complete with just about any kind of food you could think of. I learned to love to cook and bake. But as I am getting "older" (I know I am not that old only being 23 but still) I feel that I want to take control of my weight as a young woman. My family has a history of diabetes and heart disease and that is not something I want to have to deal with as I grow older.

Now, don't get me wrong I am not a person who is a horrible eater, but I am a person who has room for improvement like we all do. So, long story long we are going to take on the Atkins diet. The first two weeks will be called the "induction phase" and then from there we are able to add other foods into our diet. We are hoping that this will translate into a lifestyle change and eventually we won't have to call it a diet anymore.

Our first step tonight on our weight loss journey, even though we technically haven't started, was to get rid of all of the things that will tempt us in our apartment. We put all of the carbs in bags and are planning on donating them either to our cousin's fridges or to a food bank this weekend. We don't want to have anything around that could potentially tempt us. Our fridge looks so bare and just plain sad looking. Tomorrow I am looking forward to bulking it up again with new tupperware and our good foods.

Quinn and I will both be blogging daily about our experiences. We hope that you will stick with us on our adventure of shedding pounds and hey maybe you might learn something along the way!

Cheers
     Brittany