Showing posts with label carbohydrates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carbohydrates. Show all posts

Friday, May 22, 2020

Snoopy Dancing!!


It's a three-day weekend. And I'm so happy to have it right now.

I'm looking forward to all those available writing hours ahead of me as well as to my weekly Zoom chat with my writer besties. I'm still not sure I'll be able to tell them the book is finished though. I worked on it this morning and I have tomorrow's hours prior to our call to make it happen, but I'm not sure I accomplished enough today. Maybe I'll spend some time with it during lunch today...

* * * * *

Several months ago, my mother-in-law gave me a wonderful counter-top oven. It works great and I love it. Thanks again, Mimi! But it has lived on my counter since then and it's the size of a large microwave. So between it and my actual microwave, well, the counters are full. And I just couldn't take it any longer, so I made a purchase yesterday. A kitchen cart to put this thing on. And it's awesome. The main part of the counters are now free off all the crap that had been conglomerating on it.


It's a little taller than I realized, and I'm debating relocating it, but otherwise it's great. Those things on the shelf were also on the counter, so I was glad to get them a new home. And of course, I didn't grab a picture of my lovely, open counters. Ah, well. But every time I walk into the kitchen, I smile.

* * * * *

My carb fast is supposed to end tomorrow (Saturday). Meaning I can enjoy my reward on Sunday. Or all my rewards. I've wondered if I should keep going for another week... On the other hand, my original deal with myself was two weeks. I can set the next stint at three weeks, right? Right; okay. That's settled. :0)

I almost gave up / cheated last night. DD asked for McDonald's while I was out and about picking up my cart on the way home, and I was soooo tempted to buy something for myself as well, but I resisted. I only have today and tomorrow to get through and I can make it and enjoy all the junk I want on Sunday.

Monday, it'll be back on the wagon. Gonna give it another go and add the additional targeted exercise back into the mix. I shouldn't have the side effects this time around.

* * * * *

And that is that, I guess. Y'all have a great weekend.

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Monday, August 26, 2019

Proteins and Fats and Carbs, oh my!


It's absurd how easily affected my system has become by grain-based carbohydrates and affected badly.

When you eat something like a donut or drink a soda, you expect that you're going to experience a sugar crash at some point right?


Well, that's been happening to me from eating Cheerios and eating the carb-balance tortillas.

Last week, I had a bowl of Cheerios for an early lunch and had to take a nap because I was feeling so lethargic afterward.

It's a bummer and a blessing. A bummer because I love carbs. And not much beats a bowl of cereal on a hot summer day--except maybe--definitely--some ice cream.

Now I've given up every type/flavor of cereal except Cheerios because I buy them for DH. But it looks like now, I can only indulge every once in a while and when I can nap as needed.

Today, I had a single tortilla wrapped around some protein and even that left me feeling like I could close my eyes and sleep.

It's a blessing because I'd rather give them up than feel so out of sorts during the day. And that's gonna be better for my bottom and my bottom line.

But, man, am I bummed.

On the other hand, I've reached another weight-loss low on my way to getting back to where I was a while back.

Also, congrats to DH who has lost 11 lbs. since July 8. He put himself on an exercise and eating plan and has stuck to it. I'm so proud and excited for him.

Have a great week.




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Monday, July 16, 2018

In the interest of reducing my carb intake... (again)


I've given up the protein bars I'd been eating and also bananas.

The protein shakes have few or no carbs--why do the bars have 18 to 20?? Ugh.

I've been eating bananas with the protein shakes, chocolate or caramel, and it's quite a delicious combo. Saturday, the banana was a tick to soft for eating so I blended it into the shake and whoa!! that was delicious.

A shame I've decided to switch fruits. On the other hand, berries have the fewest carbs of all fruits, so I bought blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries this weekend. It turns out that neither blackberries nor raspberries mixes quite as well with a caramel flavored shake as the bananas, so I'll have to consume separately, which isn't a big deal.

My first week back at the gym went better than I expected. I wasn't as sore as anticipated past the first day, but I didn't jump back in at all the same weight levels that I was at when I quit, not did I run through the full routine. I'm working my way back to that slowly.

The expending of energy has definitely made me sleep hard. It was relatively easy to get back into the early-to-bed routine--but then again, I'm not really a night owl and never stayed up more than and hour or hour and a half later, so... >>shrugs<<

I had a productive weekend and hope yours was good or enjoyable--whatever you needed it to be.

The dog days of summer have arrived here in Texas--stay cool and stay hydrated.







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Monday, November 6, 2017

Getting back on the wagon...


While in Denver, I fell off the carbohydrate wagon, and I've really struggled to get my willpower up and running again. It's coming along slowly, but still, those grain-based carbs are not good for me.

It's hard to not to dangle my legs over the side of the wagon, though, because despite my indulgences, I'm still making progress in eliminating the first layer of fat. The key turns out to be a combination of things--

A) As long a fasting period each day as I can hold out. Usually, it's about 13 hours. I don't eat after 7pm in the evening and I don't eat before 8am in the morning.

Which means that when I go to the gym and work out in the mornings, B) my body is forced to fuel my workouts with energy I already have stored. Fat burn for the win!!

So that means consuming carbohydrates again hasn't stopped the fat loss. Makes it so hard to stop eating the bad ones...

But I'm making better choices day by day and eating less and less of the unhealthy ones. I need to get back to eating more vegetables and maybe my body will find enough satisfaction in those that the temptation will be easier to resist.

Hope you had a lovely and relaxing weekend. I sure did.

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Monday, August 21, 2017

Who knew??


You might have, but I didn't and learning it gave me a boost.

Apparently, when tracking carbs, you're supposed to subtract the grams of dietary fiber from the grams of carbs and that's the actual number of carbs your body's going to absorb/utilize/store...


On top of that, I discovered this Lavash bread that has very low carbs to begin with. Subtract the fiber and now I've got a super low carb way to eat my tuna and fill my tummy. I can't begin to tell you how excited this makes me. This Lavash bread is also low in calories and high in protein and is made with flax and oat bran as well as whole wheat. So WIN WIN and WIN. :0)

How was your weekend?

All prepped for the solar eclipse?

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Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Resistence is difficult, but not always futile...


I've come to discover the Fitbit has at least one snafu in it's something (I'm not sure what)--it won't always (hardly ever) register your elevated heart rate. Except it sorta does, sometimes? My higher heart rates from when I'm working out don't always register on the Fitbit's screen, but if I go into the dashboard and look at the data, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not--weird.

In order to burn fat (my long-term energy storage/source) rather than my short term energy, I need to do two things: get into fat burn mode by getting my heart rate up to a certain level and do that when my body doesn't have easy access to short-term energy reserves--those that come from recently eaten foods.

Two weeks ago, I gave up tortillas and cold cereal yet again. I fell off the wagon once, but have been good ever since.


Last Friday, I was really craving cold cereal... But as I have seen progress in losing the weight I had regained, I held fast, as difficult as it was, and was able to successfully resist that delicious bowl of sweet crunchy goodness.

My willpower paid off and I have lost a few more ounces and am 17% of the way to my target weight.

I still have several adjustments to make to my diet, but all in good time and in moderation. I figure once I've been on the wagon for a while, I won't crave them so badly. That's my hope, anyway.

This is constant state of learning and adjusting--well, isn't everything in life??-- and eventually I'll find the right combination.

Have a great rest of the week!!

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Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Bye Bye Carbohydrates...


It's been coming. I've know it and have been resisting for a while now, because I LOVE LOVE LOVE my carbs.

I have pretzels and tortillas pretty much every day as part of my regimented meal plan. Oftentimes I have pretzels as a snack before bed too. Any carbs I get from veggies or beans or what have you are bonus. And I don't mean that in a good way. Well, the stuff in veggie and beans are the good carbs, pretzels and tortillas are refined carbs...

So I've Google-searched "losing belly fat" because that's pretty much all I've got left aside from general toning. Each site I visited prescribed six to twelve things to help get rid of the nasty stuff.

I felt a bit discouraged because I've done quite a few of them...

...stop consuming non-natural sugars, especially soda (gave those up years ago)
...exercise (well I've been talking about my trips to the gym since August, so, yeah)
...eat more protein (eggs, cheese, tuna everyday; fish and chicken with green veggies mostly for dinner
...eat more fiber (see green veggies with dinner, but I've been thinking about daily salads)
...keep a regular sleep schedule even on weekends (I can't sleep in to save my life)
...reduce stress (only so much I can do, but I do what I can)
...a spoonful of apple cider vinegar a day (I have some at home, the good stuff with the "mother" even, so starting that tomorrow...)

So what's left...?

You guessed it--reduce refined carb intake. >>SOB<<

I've replaced the tortillas with some sort of wrap with half the calories. Not total elimination, but it's a start--I need some bulk to make me full. I'll also start having one of my daily tuna wraps in some sort of leafy green veggie, this week it's green leaf lettuce, but I like romaine and kale too. Red cabbage, maybe, we'll see how it goes.

DH also suggested a before-bed snack of beef jerky because the body has to work hard to break it down so it provides the right kind of energy overnight.

I've added yoga to my repertoire on days I don't go to the gym. I find that I have less energy those days too, plus it's good to alternate workouts--keep the body guessing, which is probably also contributing to this plateau.

Any other helpful hints??

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