Kitchen fun ...

... just having fun in the kitchen. The dang steak kept rolling so I used those skills I have from having watched Food Network years ago when I had cable, when I had TV. But the end result was real good.

Tasty

Amazingly it is a lot simpler than it looks ... well not the meal but sure the meal. Essentially this one is just a salad, turkey meatballs in a Cabernet marinara sauce (extra garlic) with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Tasty ... super low carb content, good protein and good fats. But what I am going back to is what my nutritionist, after the strokes, had me doing. It always made me feel healthy. It is just two good handfuls of salad (I prefer a herb salad with flavorful greens ... this one was what was on sale and my budget for groceries was super tight and not my favorite) and then protein. I fleshed this meal out with the sauce to add a few more carbs to get my quota for the day of healthy ones.

I like eating like this though. Salad and protein. For lunch it was chicken breast with herb greens and broccoli with a little bit of cheddar on top. Simple. Fulfilling. Good for me. I like eating like this.

I spent some time talking to Nathan and Raymond today at work. Both have done remarkable things for weight loss and both have not had nearly as far to go as I do but everyone finds their own way. Nathan did his through a shake and banana for breakfast, a 90 calorie bar snack, shake and fruit for lunch, 90 calorie snack and healthy choice dinner. Twice a week he allowed himself to enjoy, once at the weekly Tuesday team lunch (not over indulge but enjoy) and once on Sat or Sun with the family out for a meal. Raymond is taking the Jenny Craig approach.

I find that I cannot do that routine. I need to have the ability to chose. Same thing every day would drive me batty. So I am truly enjoying the course of simple breakfast (no grains), low carb snack, salad and protein lunch (it can be flounder, salmon, tilapia, beef, chicken, pork, eggs ... whatever I want it to be), protein shake or snack in afternoon and then veg/salad and protein for dinner. I am feeling clean again. Feeling like I did when I followed my nutritionists advice. Not all the way though ... she was totally restrictive on dairy and fats ... we all need some healthy fats in our day.

Enough of my rambling. Have a great day.

Spicy Quiche

Spicy Quiche (my variation on a sausage quiche recipe)
 
1 pound beef, browned
8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded (I used a spicy cheese blend with jalapenos)
6 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
1 cup heavy cream 

Put the beef in the bottom of a large pie plate, needs to be a nice deep pie plate. Top with the cheese, I only used about 6 oz as my pie plate is shallow (jalapenos if you want them). Beat the eggs, salt and pepper, then beat in the cream. Slowly pour the egg mixture evenly over the beef  and cheese. 

Bake at 350º for 35-45 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. 

Let stand about 10 minutes before cutting. 

6-8 servings:
Per 1/6 Recipe: 607 Calories; 52g Fat; 31g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 3g Net Carbs
Per 1/8 Recipe: 455 Calories; 39g Fat; 23g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 2g Net Carbs.

I served myself my 6th of the quiche with a spinach/herb salad, a dollop of sour cream and a dash of wonderful Tabasco sauce.  It was totally wonderful. Leftovers in the fridge for lunch with salad Thursday and Friday at work and one half frozen for later in the week or beginning of next week. 

All about choice

Will I eat pasta? From time to time possibly. Will I eat lots of bread like I used to? No I just can't do that anymore. Do I use sugar in coffee and tea? Not anymore.

Something I am learning. Limit those indulgences to really an extreme measure thus they become little morsels of total enjoyment, while making the right choices every day.

Will I still enjoy a piece of cake, cheese cake or pie? At times I will but I usually only chased them at special occasions anyhow so I am not missing much. What about chocolate? Sure I will have that - mainly dark with berries in it. Surprisingly I have found that dark chocolate with raspberries in the bar have much less carbs than just a plain dark chocolate bar. Now of course I, unlike my Uncle, can consume a chocolate bar over the course of a few days, he wolfs it down in 10 seconds.

I find that I am more satiated with proteins and vegetables. Above was last nights dinner after work. A thin steak cooked in a hot skillet (ended up being just over medium), celery, there are also carrots and a little mozzarella sun dried tomato combination. Very fulfilling and refreshing - I really like raw vegetables, or just slightly steamed.

These choices of protein and vegetables was what the nutritionist I had for a couple of months after the strokes taught me. It also matches what Krystal (who has brilliantly lost over 100 lbs) has shown me works in her lifestyle of low-carb. It is what I realize makes me feel so much better inside.

So it is all about choice. When faced with an option you choose. Do you choose something healthy that tastes great and is good for you or do you choose something that is not so healthy that tastes great and is probably not so good for you? I choose the first choice of great and healthy with a reality check that every once in a while I may need my mint chocolate chip ice cream single scoop (not double).

Good day to all.

Learning and doing

So I spent a couple of weeks reading all and learning what I could about low-carb diets. How to do it right without damaging yourself. The reasons for and those reasons why people dislike it. I came to the conclusion that I have to try. I have to see as it pretty much mimics what my nutritionist, last year after the strokes, asked me to do and what I lost that first 75 lbs with. This allows dairy and more protein in my diet than the nutritionist had and that was one thing that I did miss.

First I purge the apartment of everything that I needed to eat and consume that would not work with this. I still have a few things and I kept sugar here for those visitors who prefer that in their tea or coffee. I still have not made it through one of those 5 lb bricks of sugar in what ... 4 years here. Amazing.

But last week was the first week and tomorrow will be my first week weigh in. I will see.
I have noticed that by looking at everything from bacon to salad dressings to marinara sauce it is hard to find something that does not have sugar in it. Sugar is, or should I say has become, a staple of this culture we live in. You have to look to find the things without it and of course, without and ingredient they cost more ... go figure.

But it is true, I feel, to say that we are addicted to this granular substance. I did well on meeting the goals this first week. I have the issues that many many people have when switching from a diet with carbs to a diet that has only 20 net carbs a day in it ... and I expected them. I was prepared for lack of energy as the body shifts from burning primarily carbohydrates (in the form of glucose) to burning fat (including the fat that is stored in your body) for energy. You are retraining a living organism and it will fight what it has become accustomed to over the years. But if this is the process that is finally forcing me to get between 8-9 hours of sleep a night I will take it.

Back to my thoughts on sugar ... I was tempted with piles of candy on Sunday night (Halloween) with all the little trick or treaters that showed up on the front porch, with costumes and amazingly polite happy attitudes. So I had a single ... little tootsie roll. Oh my goodness. Just 6 days without that sugar made me drool and the urge for more kicked in. It was both scary from a psychological and physiological point of view as it was amazing to realize that there was truth behind what I had been reading.

So I tested that hypothesis with the single tootsie roll at work today ... of course all the left overs were brought in. Once again I had been doing great all day long. Low carb bar for breakfast,  beef and broccoli for lunch, whey protein shake for snack, chicken with veggies for dinner and then the test. Wham ... one tootsie roll set the craving really high for all those candies all over the place. Thankfully I did this test late in the evening so the shift was almost over and I could flee to my resting place, 32 oz of water and healthy stuff.

So I am sure I will have more thoughts on this to share in the future. I have a coach who lost over 100 lbs herself and her husband lost 130 lbs so we shall see where this goes. Yes the doctor is aware ... remember always make sure your doctor is aware and agrees with your choice of action before starting it if you have conditions that have to be monitored.

But for now ... I keep watching my carbs and staying away from sugar.

Crutch

There are days were we go through the status quo and there are days were there is epiphany after epiphany. Today was a day of examination and resulted in realization ... an epiphany.

Tomorrow starts a contest that I am totally excited about. I know I mentioned it as it is a two person challenge with success measured on many levels with the foremost being weight loss. I needed this. I posted those pictures. I don't see myself like that and I was mortified. So this is great ... timing is right, photo's timing was right and then I got scared. What if I fail?

Well that is why there is really no failure built into this contest, Philip. Oh that is right. If someone gets to their goal before the end of the 75 days then guess what they win. If they do not then it is the one closest and the grand prize is based upon self evaluation of ourselves and each other. Cool.

So before the day ended I went to McDonalds. I ordered a bacon and cheese angus burger as it will be my last little bite of fast food for quite some time (maybe longer if I am able to do what I expect to do). As I was driving to work with this horrible meal besides me I flashed back in time. I think my subconscious had been tackling why did I get fat for some time. I have always known that I have this crutch to blame it on, but I know that I should not.

You see in 1988 I was a brilliantly stupid college kid, underage drinking, smoking and over extending everything from bank accounts, credit lines and not sleeping. I was doing some crazy decathlon sports event on campus and had gone from rugby, to basketball and was now on the racquetball court when it happened. I blew out my L5 disc. Pain was incredible. Next day paralysis of the left leg. Diagnostic clinic. Confined bed rest, flat on back, supposedly on a wooden board. Those were the days.

Then after time I was supposed to go therapy. I went once maybe twice and I said no way ... I can do this myself. Cocky little bastard I was back then thought I knew it all. But that was the beginning of my lethargy. My excuse was pain and pain I have lived with for 22 years. But it is how you live with it. I have used it as a crutch for 20 of those 22 years. I have lost weight remarkably well once and then last year with the strokes started on an amazing recovery path.

But I fell and broke my elbow at the beginning of the year and that became a crutch. I managed to maintain the weight loss due to purely not wanting to eat as much as I used to but also by using lent as a reason to change eating habits. But the elbow was a crutch. Thus I badly needed to refocus and gain back the momentum I had before. I needed to stop seeing food as comfort and more as a source of life. A source that cannot be abused by me as it can give life and take life if used poorly.

So I was flashing back to realize from where I had come, how I had allowed myself to become the whale of a man and refocus on the continued repairing, learning and living of the new me. So in about 12 hours I will weigh myself on a rather inaccurate scale in my house but that is OK. It is a basis of my measurement as I will use the same scale over and over again for the next 10.5 weeks and once a week share the weight with my Tammy. But in about 12 hours the focus and intensity starts again, the crutches are discarded and I move forward again.

For me. For Tammy and our life together. For my family. For my friends. For you.

If you have a crutch in your world find it, look at it, examine it and learn from it. Then when you are ready and only when you are ready let that crutch fall to the wayside, chop it up as kindling and burn it, allow mother nature reclaim it and move forward in your sense of whom you are now and not whom you have been.

My goal is 25 lbs in 75 days (personally I am shooting for 30). Let me see what I can accomplish.

Namaste

Quick eats

Soybeans and quick garlic shrimp ... almost equal amounts garlic and shrimp. I have missed cooking and I am thoroughly enjoying doing more of it. 15 minutes tops for dinner.

Peace.