End of January

Last week I talked about how important a variety of vegetables is in a healthy low-carb diet.

Now let's talk about fruits. Many people believe you can't enjoy fruit if you're on Atkins. Not true.

No fruit is forbidden, especially if you're fit and just want to improve your health through real foods.

However, the recommendations regarding fruit will vary depending upon your goals.

If you wish to control your blood sugar, you'll want to limit high-sugar fruits like bananas.

Bananas, apples, grapes, etc, have less impact on blood sugar if you limit the serving size.

And if your goal is serious weight loss, you'll want to forego those sweeter fruits, for now.

To satisfy a sweet craving, berries are your best bet. Not only are they naturally 

low in carbs, but they are nutritional powerhouses, packed full of antioxidants.

Strawberries are my personal favorite, followed by boysenberries, raspberries,

blackberries, and blueberries. There are sure to be many others that work, as well.

 *Note: fruit juices are off the list! Orange juice, grapefruit juice, cranberry juice, whatever:

Stripped of the fruit's fiber, you may as well hook yourself up to a sugar-water IV!

The first month of 2016 is gone, and I managed to avoid all temptations and stick to my low-carb resolution. And it paid off. I lost 16.4 lbs in the 31 days of January! It's paying off in other ways, as well. 

The best of these benefits is the change in my fasting blood sugar levels, since I've been pre-diabetic  for 4 years. (I suspect it hasn't become full-blown diabetes yet because I do tend to eat low-carb most of the time, despite the frequent periods of cheating.) During the first week of January, my blood glucose levels fluctuated between 115 and 125. Not the worst, but not good either. Anything below 130 is okay (according to the American Diabetes Association), but ideally it should be between 70 and 100. My numbers have been dropping over the past few weeks: 113, 111, 104, 118, 102, 112... Then this morning I did my finger-prick, stuck the stick into the meter, and my number came up as 88! I checked it twice to be sure, because it's been a couple of years since I've seen a number so low. I know it will continue to fluctuate for a while, but it's so good to be hitting the target at last.

Meanwhile, my blood pressure continues to be lower. Soon I hope to hit normal there, too.

At this point, I'd like to give a shout-out to my daughter, Sarah, who jumped on the low-carb bandwagon with me last Sunday. After her first 7 days, she had already lost 13 lbs! I could see immediately that she'd lost substantial weight when she walked in the door yesterday for our weekly family dinner. If I'm not careful, she's going to pass me by! Way to go, Sarah!

And now, the past 7 days...

SATURDAY 01/23

LATE BREAKFAST: I made myself 3 Eggs, Scrambled in butter with a drizzle of heavy cream cooked into it.

LATE LUNCH: I threw this together quickly before heading out for some shopping: 1.5-oz. slice of Monterey Jack Cheese and a small piece of leftover Beef Roast (from Friday night's dinner) drizzled with olive oil.

DINNER: Mark and I were shopping at Walmart and it got kind of late (7:30). The last thing I wanted to do was go home, put away groceries, and then have to start making dinner. (My post-surgery knee is still a long way from being fine.) So we stopped for dinner at the McDonald's inside Walmart.

I ordered the Double Quarter-Pounder again, and this time they brought it to me without the bun, as I'd requested. There's sugar in the ketchup, but it's such a squirt that I won't stress over it. It's funny how, when I'm not low-carbing, I wouldn't dream of having a lone burger with no sides for dinner. (I never order soda, don't care for it, so water is fine.) Without at least two items in front of me, I'd feel almost panicked, as if I'd starve if I didn't have those large fries, too. (I do love fries, and Mark's smelled sooooo good...) At this point in the diet, though, I feel full after just the bunless burger, so the panic is gone. Completely. So I'm eating less than half what I used to eat at meals. That's a gift of enjoying fat and protein without guilt.

DESSERT: For dessert around 10:30, I enjoyed a cup of sugar-free Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate with two sugar-free Dark Chocolate Pecan Delights by Russell Stover.

SUNDAY 01/24

BREAKFAST: I didn't feel like messing in the kitchen, so I just ate 2 squares of Ghirardelli's Dark Chocolate Intense Dark Twilight Delight (72% cacao). It actually satisfied me enough to not be hungry for a few hours.

LUNCH: I made some Deviled Eggs and enjoyed 3 of them (6 halves) for my lunch.

SNACK: 1.5-oz slice of Monterey Jack Cheese.

DINNER: For our weekly family dinner, Mark suggested that we throw a pork roast into the slow cooker and have shredded pork burritos. The pork roast in my freezer was kind of small to feed eight people, so I threw a larger beef roast into the crock pot with it, along with diced onion and garlic and spices. They both came out perfectly tender and flavorful!

Of course, I can't eat the tortilla (muy grande carbs), so Sarah made a lovely green salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and celery. She had decided on this day to start eating low-carb herself, so no tortillas for her, either. While the guys made their burritos, Sarah and I tossed our shredded pork and beef into a bowl with the salad and mixed it all up with some olive oil and red wine vinegar. Yummy! I didn't even miss the tortilla!

Mark shredded up both roasts and placed the meat on the platter.

Shredded Beef and Pork Salad for dinner!

DESSERT: None on this night because I was still perfectly satisfied from my big salad.

WORK WEEK 01/25 to 01/29

BREAKFASTS

Monday: 2 Deviled Eggs (4 halves)

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 2 Eggs, fried in butter

MID-MORNING SNACK: Each day I took my 1.5-oz slice of Monterey Jack Cheese. I told you it's a favorite of mine!

LUNCHES: Every day of the week I took my usual frozen Atkins Meal. Below, these are the ones I chose for this week:

AFTER-SCHOOL SNACK:

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Each of these days I had 2 squares of 72%-cocoa Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate.

Thursday: I had my post-op, follow-up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon right after school, so I didn't have an after-school snack on this day.

Friday: I enjoyed two Prosciutto Paninos (mozzarella cheese wrapped in prosciutto ham), which I'd purchased at Walmart the night before. One frustration I have with eating low-carb is the amount of planning required. Eating garbage is easy: grab a bag off the shelf and then stuff your face. No cooking or planning needed; compulsive eaters welcome! So I'm always happy when I can find a grab-and-eat low-carb item. (Never as cheap as a bag of Lay's potato chips, alas...) The trick with these is keeping them away from Dylan, who loves them, too. He's stolen one already!

DINNERS

Monday: There was a bit of leftover salad and leftover roast from Sunday night's dinner, so I had a leftover Shredded Beef and Pork Salad for dinner.

Tuesday: I made Stuffed Bell Peppers for dinner. Most recipes for stuffed peppers call for low-carb-unfriendly ingredients like rice, but these work great on my diet. Here's the recipe...

All the ingredients you'll need. Usually I use green peppers, but these were on sale!

Start by pouring 1 cup of lower-carb spaghetti sauce into the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish

(tomato sauce if you prefer). Set aside the rest of the spaghetti sauce for now.

Crumble 3 lbs of ground beef into a large bowl. (Feel free to cut the recipe in half.)

Mix it well with a large container of ricotta (24 oz, I think), 2 cups shredded mozzarella,

the remaining spaghetti sauce, and salt and paper to taste. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Meanwhile, slice the tops off the peppers and take out the seeds and ribs.

Cut small slits in the bottoms of the peppers so the grease can drain as the meat cooks.

Next, stuff the peppers with the meat mixture and place in the sauce in the 8x8 dish.

Then top the stuffed peppers with some extra shredded mozzarella cheese.

Spray some aluminum foil with nonstick cooking spray and place it sprayed-side down

over the peppers (I do an extra pan of meatloaf for Dylan, who hates bell peppers.

That's the reason I make such a huge batch of the meat.)

Bake covered for 30 minutes, then remove the foil.

Bake another 50 minutes, and then enjoy!

Wednesday: I made Mark a sub sandwich for dinner, and then I ate the one leftover Stuffed Bell Pepper!

Thursday: After my follow-up visit with my orthopedic surgeon, Mark and I headed to Walmart to do some shopping (we seem to do that a lot). He wanted a frozen pizza for dinner, so I bought a roast beef sub (smaller than usual, since it was just for me) and made myself a Sub Platter. With added mayo and tomato slices, of course!

Friday: I made some Lazy Chicken Soup for dinner, just Mark and me since the guys had gone out with friends. It's easy to throw together:

On the right is the soup itself. On the left is after garnishing with cheese.

Combine and heat well: about 1.5 lbs of diced, cooked chicken

(this time, I used the precooked and diced frozen stuff you can buy in a bag),

6 cans of chicken broth, and one packet of taco seasoning.

After it's good and hot, add an 8-oz block of cream cheese.

After it melts into the soup, remove from heat. Garnish with shredded cheese.

I used cheddar and Monterey jack. Spicy goodness!

DESSERTS

Monday: Sugar-free Hot Cocoa with 1/4 cup heavy cream and 2 Russell Stover sugar-free Dark Chocolate Pecan Delights.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 2 Russell Stover sugar-free Dark Chocolate Pecan Delights.

Friday: No dessert. I was too stuffed from the soup!

SATURDAY 01/30

BREAKFAST: Mark made us all some Scrambled Eggs and Chorizo to start off our day.

LUNCH: It was kind of an unusual lunch. I had about 70 papers to score for my two freshman English classes, so I just wanted something to munch on while I graded. So I had a cup of sugar-free Hot Cocoa with Heavy Cream, a 1.5-oz slice of Monterey Jack Cheese, and 3 Russell Stover sugar-free Dark Chocolate Pecan Delights.

DINNER: Mark and I shared the leftover Lazy Chicken Soup (and he made himself a sub sandwich on the side).

DESSERT: No Dessert tonight. Soup sure does fill you up!

SUNDAY 01/31

BREAKFAST: I was still working on my grading (I had about 30 left to do), so my quick breakfast was 3 Russell Stover sugar-free Dark Chocolate Pecan Delights.

LUNCH: Still grading, so more strange food choices. I had a cup of sugar-free Hot Cocoa with Heavy Cream, a 1.5-oz slice of Monterey Jack Cheese, and one Baby Dill Pickle. Dill pickles are actually okay on a low-carb diet, especially the baby dills, which have less than 1 carb each. So you could actually eat 2 or 3 if you wanted, but one seems to do it for me. Sweet pickles, on the other hand, are not on the menu. Too many bad carbs.

SNACK: I had Boiled Eggs to make more deviled eggs for rushed school mornings, and one had cracked open in the pan, so I ate it with some salt as a before-dinner snack.

DINNER: It was time for Sunday's weekly family dinner again! We decided to do burgers, with buns and potato chips and dip for the guys, and Bunless Burgers and Green Beans for Sarah and me, since we're both now dieting. Sarah and I topped our burgers with cheese, tomato, onion, and a big dollop of toasted onion dip! Just because we couldn't indulge in the potato chips didn't mean we couldn't enjoy the creamy-onion flavor of the sour cream-based dip. It was quite satisfying.

DESSERT: None!

All in all, January was as successful in lost poundage as I had dared to hope for. The cravings are gone and I feel satisfied with what I eat. I don't spend my time thinking about my next snack or meal anymore, and that's a big win!