Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Low-Carbing for the Nth Time

It's been about a month since my wedding. Around that time I was more or less 113 lbs. After post-wedding binging and a 7-day cruise, I am currently at 120.8 lbs. *sigh* I figured it was time to either go back to Jenny Craig, or time to take out my South Beach Diet cookbooks yet again. After consulting with my husband and a bit of persuasion from my low-carbing and karaoke buddy Katie, I went with the South Beach cookbooks. Michael convinced me it was better to be more in charge of my food options. So, here I am starting South Beach Phase 1.

Phase 1 is basically a very low-carb, low-fat diet. I cheat a little bit with bacon or mayo sometimes, but it's better to add those every once in awhile rather than eating white bread or things full of sugar. It's the strictest phase of the diet and lasts about 2 weeks. I generally last until the weekend when Michael asks if I want Indian food. :) It's been years since I actually got through 2 weeks bad-carb and sugar free. Here's to hoping!

The original SB book had menus for every phase. When I started it for the first time I followed the menu religiously. Since then I've realized it's very boring and unrealistic. First of all, I can't make a different dish for every single meal and snack of every day. That'd be a full-time job. So I now make several servings of 4-5 entrees for the week (breakfast is usually pretty easy so I don't count that). It also helps that I have 2 other South Beach cookbooks and plenty of recipes I can tweak online.

Here's my menu for the week starting tomorrow:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AuZCIl3H85D3dGhfQk8wb0xYV1BWQVg0N3p1WWZlOWc&hl=en&authkey=COef9_UB

Technically today was my first day low-carbing. I'm proud to say I went to Olive Garden with Katie and DIDN'T HAVE THE BREADSTICKS. But since I didn't really follow a menu, I'm not counting it. This weekend should be a challenge too since we're trying out our raclette grill (a gift from my aunt) with Michael's family. I guess the cheese will just have to go over broccoli instead of potatoes.

4 comments:

ettible said...

I actually eat a lot of Indian food while low-carbing, and although I know the sauces have some sugar in them usually, I know I'm saving myself from ziiiiiillions of carbs just by not eating the white rice.

One of my favourite combinations is chicken tikka tandori and daal. Since the tandori doesn't come with any sauce, I cut it up into the daal to soak up the juices the rice usually would. That way I get lots of protein AND lots of nutrients from the lentils, and the carbs in the lentils are the kind I feel good about eating.

I hope I didn't tempt you too much by eating that 1/3 breadstick. I was surprised that it didn't even taste that good to me.

danztilya said...

I tried to do that with Indian food the other day (lamb vindaloo on top of sauteed broccoli and cauliflower). After that, Michael made fun of me for not eating some pastries I bought in Mexico as I was looking for low-carb dessert. So I ate them, and then proceeded to make a wrap out of naan and the rest of the vindaloo. FAIL. Also, Indian food sauce and basmati rice are my greatest weaknesses I think. They just belong together.

I didn't even notice you had eaten part of a breadstick. I was too busy enjoying my delicious food.. (Hear that Olive Garden haters?!?)

Tracey said...

If it makes you feel any better, my post-wedding binge lasted a year and two months, and I gained over thirty pounds.

I maintain that it was worth it to spend my first year of wedded bliss not caring one bit what went into my mouth, but now that I'm trying to take it back off AND lose more to get to my original goal weight, I do kick myself for it once in a while.

danztilya said...

I'm always torn between feeling good about trying to be healthy, and feeling sad that I'm missing out on all the awesome food I could be eating. So I feel a little better, and also feel a little jealous. Before the wedding my husband commented we should tighten the purse strings a little after all the festivities to which I replied "That's ok because I'm going to be eating pop tarts while watching TV for months." Sadly that did not happen, since I immediately felt terrible when I couldn't wear some of my clothes and started having breathing problems at work. I think maybe the health thing is more of an issue because if I walked around chunky but feeling super I don't think I'd get enough motivation. So now I'm back on SB and figuring out what expensive ingredients I can cut from my menu in order to stay on budget.

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