Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Results are In!

So I had my physical on August 17, then had to wait a week to go back to hear the results.  They are good.  Blood chemistry is right where it should be.  Weight continues to go down (at least it did before this past weekend when I wasn't so good).  I've gotten used to fewer carbs and while I'm hungry I don't crave things.  Friday I hit my lowest weight in a year and that came after two backpacking trips hauling 30 lbs. of pack weight over 9,000 ft. mountain passes and not eating while doing it.

Tonight I made shrimp in garlic cream sauce and put it over pasta, the first pasta I've had in six weeks.  I already notice that I am still grazing around the kitchen.  It's because the pasta (refined carbs) push my blood sugar up, so my body responds with insulin, but overdoes it and then my blood sugar is low so I have cravings.  Even though my stomach is full, I still want to eat.  I contrast that to when I eat a mostly protein meal such as salads, veggies, meat, eggs or dairy.  I am hungry but I don't have cravings.  Overall, I'll take the hunger pangs over the cravings because the pangs are easier to ignore.

Bottom line is I'm pleased with the results and plan to stay on a low carb diet.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Only Two More Days

My annual physical is August 17 -- two days away.  I'm most anxious to see what the low-carb diet has done to my blood chemistry.  Even though we were on vacation last week and ate out a lot, I feel like I did pretty well avoiding carbs, particularly refined flour and sugar.  I did eat a baked potato one night at dinner (along with oven-baked catfish, which I found pretty delicious).  I also splurged at a Steak N Shake hamburger joint and had a hamburger and fries.  But I continue to pass up the rolls and bread (except for the hamburger bun), haven't eaten pasta in nearly a month, limit the servings of potatoes and rice to one occasionally, and make use of salads, meat, cheese, eggs and veggies as the mainstays of my meals.

My weight isn't going down a lot, but this morning I noticed my waist is smaller.  I pulled on my belt to tighten it to where it usually is and found that would put me in the fifth hole, rather than the fourth, where I've been for several months (and on occasion in the third).  I am speculating that the weight training I've been doing as the core of my exercise program is building muscle that is mostly replacing the fat I'm losing from the diet.  Since muscle is denser than fat, I'm losing some inches while maintaining my weight.  My overall weight loss since starting is only about 4 lbs.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Continuing Low Carb Adventures

It's been two weeks tomorrow since I started the low-carb diet.  Last week I wasn't as strict as I was the first week.  I let a few carbs in, especially some mashed potatoes (can't have Dutch oven chicken without them), and on Tuesday I visited my mom.  When mom puts a homemade meat pie in front of you, you have to eat it.  Then on Friday we went out to dinner.  I ordered fajitas.  I used two of the flour tortillas, but had no rice, so the meal was meat, onions, green peppers, guacamole, salsa and sour cream, plus the two tortillas.  On Sunday we had a big family dinner and I had my first slice of bread in nearly two weeks.  Tomorrow morning I'm planning on steel cut oatmeal for breakfast.  After 14 days I'm sick of eggs.

The cravings for refined carbs are almost gone.  My weight has dropped a little, maybe four lbs., hardly the 10-15 touted by the South Beach diet in the first two weeks.  My energy is pretty good; I'm not feeling the blood sugar drop around 10:30 in the morning and 4:00 in the afternoon like I did.  I'm still hungry, but it isn't killing me.  Once again, though, the real test is coming on August 17 when I have blood drawn for my annual physical and we see what cholesterol, triglycerides, fat and the other blood chemistry looks like.