I'm nibbling on a block cream cheese and nori

 173lb.

Supposedly you aren't supposed to eat TOO MUCH protein while on keto. I saw something about the body being unable to utilize so much protein and I saw something else about high protein consumption still causing insulin spikes and thus being as bad as carbs. 

So when I got hungry, I nibbled on a block of cream cheese and some crispy nori. It would be more accurate to say I nibbled on an entire STICK of cream cheese.  I'm pretty sure that isn't a healthy habit... But short of drinking some healthy oils like avocado oil, I don't know what else to do . *yuck* ... that just sounds gross.

Today was VERY VERY stressful because of work. I have a few more project coming onto my plate... and one of them requires touching hardware which I haven't touched since 2019!!!! It is SO STRESSFUL DUSTING OFF THIS HARDWARE AND TRYING TO MAKE IT WORK~~~~~

I wanted to stress eat so badly. Supposedly getting in ketosis will help me bypass the sugar cravings... but what will the sugar cravings be replaced by when I'm stressed? Can you imagine eating a bunch of bacon to ease my stress?  That doesn't sound healthy either.

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, hot links, saute zukes and green bell pepper

Lunch: chicken cobb salad (breast meat... would have been tastier with skin on thigh meat). Some tri tip, and lots of sugar-free salami,

Snack: Some Hamachi sashimi.  YUMMY~~~~ And Roasted carrots, asparagus

Dinner: More hamachi, bacon, and saute broccoli

I guess I will try Keto diet for a while

174lbs.

I did some research on Keto. It's basically <50 grams of carb a day. Not too much more protein, and a lot of fat an healthy oils. It's to train your body to burn fat for fuel.  For comparison, a low cab diet is usually <150 grams of carbs a day.

Since I bought 15 keto meals from my friend's business (www.gourmet-gains.com) ... I guess I might as well try going on keto for at least this week.  It takes anywhere from 2- 7 days for the body to enter ketosis. I will probably buy some more meals from him until I figure out what cooking a a keto diet means

Keto diet? low carb diet?

 A high school friend started a food delivery business gourmet gains (www.gourmet-gains.com). He used to work at Disneyland as a chef. But because of the pandemic he has been laid off.

To show my support, and also try to make life easier I ordered 15 meals from him and they will be delivered tomorrow morning. I clicked the box to have all the meals be 'keto-style.'  I don't think I will be going on a keto diet. But I just didn't want to pay for rice or potatoes or pasta... all of which I could easily make on my own. 

I'm still trying to decide who is going to eat those meals? Thanks to the pandemic, we are all working from home and the kids are home for all 3 meals everyday. Even though I don't want to, we end up 'cooking' breakfast and lunch and dinner for them everyday. THAT IS A LOT OF WORK. Who wants to COOK 3 meals a day, 7 days a week?!  I really need to teach the kids how to reheat leftovers...

One of my kids is pretty good about just pouring a bowl of cereal or making a toast and moving on.  The other kid has loves long, lingering meals and loves carbs. I once woke up and saw that she cooked herself an entire block of udon AND served herself a bowl of rice with furikake FOR BREAKFAST.  @_@  I was so pissed at her Dad for letting her have such a terrible breakfast.  But that does make me want to ask... what would a HEALTHY breakfast look like? 

weight: 176 lbs.
BTW: I'm now the mom of 3 kids! 10,7 and 1 :-)  The baby was not an accident. She is my mid-life crisis baby.

Day 3 Potato Diet

Weight: 173

WOW!  Dare I say it? I've lost weight! I haven't seen the scale this low in a while! But it's been tough. Day 3 landed on a Saturday! That means I'm home all day, preparing and eating meals with the children. Do you know how hard it is to cook something without tasting it? It's VERY HARD. To make it worse, my husband made the best tasting chicken picatta for dinner!

So what did I do? Simple, I quit the potato diet halfway through day 3.  ^_^  I think I will start it again when the work week starts. Or maybe, I'll just replace 2 meals a day with potatoes. That might be an easy substitute.

I have noticed a lot more bowel movements. I'm going to have to research what potatoes do to gut bacteria.

~~~~  Edit ~~~~
Weight: 174
I've tried going back on the potato diet with varying degrees of success. I didn't have time to peel and boil potatoes so Monday was bust. Then on Tuesday I tried using instant mashed potatoes instead of real potatoes. That was effective to a tiny degree. I wasn't as hungry, but I wasn't as satisfied either.  In fact my craving for junk food went up.  I even went to the vending machine and got some pork rinds.

Now it's Wednesday. I washed 8 yukon gold potatoes and then microwaved them for 6 minutes.  I've been snacking them as if they are boiled eggs.  Not too bad. I've had two potatoes so far, and my desire for any type of food is minimal.

Potato Hack Day 2

Weight: 174lbs

WOW! A 3 pound reduction already???  Talk about giving me potivation! That must be water weight, right? 

Loss of water weight is usually because you're body (especially your liver) is depleting it's glycogen stores.  To use the glycogen, it unbinds the water molecules from the glycogen to do something chemical and tadda! Rapid weight loss!  Glycogen is stored in the muscles and liver when your body has excess blood sugar so the execess sugar gets stored as either glycogen or (when your muscles can't store any more glycogen) fat.  What is water weight anyway?

But I just ate 3 pounds of potatoes, shouldn't that mean my glycogen stores are fine???  Wish I understood the science behind this more.  By the way, 3 pounds of potatoes is only 900 calories. So I know I had a decent calorie deficit yesterday/

So how do I feel? I feel alright. I felt a bit peckish last night, but I was so tired I fell asleep without a problem.  I didn't wake up hungry either.  This morning, I was very grateful that I had already preboiled my potatoes for today's consumption.  So far, this diet has been easy. Preparing the food is super easy and fast, so I still have enough time and energy to prepare meals for the rest of the family. 

The bad thing is, some of my friends found out that I was going to only eat potatoes for 3 days, and they instantly started telling me how unhealthy this was going to be. PEOPLE! IT'S ONLY THREE DAYS!!! Relax! As you can tell by my current weight, I have plenty of fat stored up in me... which means I should have lots of fat soluble vitamins stored up too. There should be no fear of malnutrition in only THREE DAYS.  

Potato Hack Day 1

Day 1: Potato Hack
Starting weight: 177lbs

I just came back from a trip overseas, so I am quite jetlagged and puffy from all the delicious food I had.  At the same time, I had gotten a pretty new hairdo, and I need a new body to match this sexy hairdo.

So what is the potato hack?
Basically, 2-5 pounds of potato a day. PLAIN potato. No butter, no sour cream, no oil... and very little salt/vinegar/herbs/spices.  You want it so bland, that there is almost NO pleasure in eating. This strategy is to help prevent eating for entertainment.   A guy who worked for the potato commission ate 20 potatoes a day for 60 days to prove that potatoes are healthy. So what happened to him at the end of 60 days?  Well, simply put: He was healthier than when he started.

So I asked my husband to buy a big bag of potatoes from Costco.  He got me a 15 pound bag of yukon gold potatoes. When I woke up at 3AM (thanks jetlag), I started peeling potatoes. I peeled 6 pounds of potatoes, boiled them, and put them in the fridge.  I heard that heating, then cooling will transform the normal starch in the potato into resistant starch.  What is resistant starch?  So I guess I'll be aiming to eat cold potatoes for the next 3 days.

I had separated the potatoes into different containers so I wouldn't eat all 6 pounds in one day. After all, this isn't a potato eating contest!  I ended up eating 2 pounds of potato before it was even 12.  During lunch time, the office was full of the savory smells of everyone's food. So I had to leave the office.  In the mid afternoon, I had another pound of potatoes with some Tabasco sauce.  I needed some tingle on my tongue.

I skipped dinner because jetlag was killing me, and I felt like I could pass out to sleep quickly.

Day 9 of Atkins

Day 9 of Atkins

I felt very down yesterday. All last week, I avoided candy and sweets and all refined carbs such as rice and noodles. It wasn't TOO hard. I lost a few pounds, and I didn't feel hungry.  But by day 7, I noticed that the weight wasn't dropping off anymore.  I had even gone to the gym and worked out!  But after 1 week, I had only dropped a total of 3 pounds!  3 pounds of probably only water weight... What was wrong

Yesterday I calculated how much carbs I had eaten for breakfast.  Stir fry bean sprouts + mushroom, and some sausage.  I was already past 25 grams of carbs! That had me so disappointed. How can I possibly stay low on carbs??? I'd have to limit my consumption of vegetables!  

So I said SCREW IT! I fell off the atkins wagon and ate RICE and crackers and drank JUICE!  I know... I guess I felt a little bit self destructive yesterday.  But then I talked to a friend who has been doing this low carb lifestyle for nearly a year and has lost 40+ pounds.  She encouraged me to keep going, and don't worry too much about the carbs in vegetables.  And really focus on avoiding the refined sugars.  She also told me, "one cheat day" a week is okay as long as you don't go overboard with it. 

I felt very encouraged by that talk. So today, I'm back on the wagon. This morning I made myself some liver pate and ate it with a cucumber.  Yes... cucumber has carbs... but I'm not going to worry about those carbs anymore.  I'll just try to eat sensibly while avoiding refined carbs.    And I'm also going to add in a bit of portion control.

Summary:
1. Implement portion control
2. Continue avoiding refined carbs ie: starchy vegetables, rice, noodles, sweets, fruit
3. Allow one cheat day where I allow myself some "healthy" sugars such as fruit and 1 bowl of rice
4. Sensible eating! No more late night snacks!  Even if it is bacon....