We have a full kitchen at my office because we share it with the second floor of the building, which is a residence hall of sorts for a dozenish college students. This makes potlucks and stuff interesting because some people will bring in food and cook it in the kitchen. Fresh hot good food that isn't reheated... yum! Anyway, no potluck today but one of my co-workers decided to make shrimp etouffee for everyone in celebration of the holiday. It looks mostly harmless, shrimp and some veggies in a broth of some sort, which probably means it's NOT.

I decided to dish myself up a small serving. About 1/2c of white rice with about 1/2c etouffee. It's quite tasty! About halfway into it, I started wondering what exactly was in it so I slowed down and just focused on looking, smelling and tasting. Smells shrimpy, not a big surprise there. The color is sort of a brown with hints of pink. I can see pepper, black and red, in the sauce, as well as an herb of some sort. The tasty little tender shrimp are accompanied with celery, onion and green chiles of some sort. The sauce has a richness to it, which told me that there was probably butter in it. Then I remembered that it was probably made with a roux of butter/flour for thickening/richness.

On the whole... yum. I'm glad I limited myself to a small portion because of the richness of the sauce. Not sure how to count it calorie-wise so I'll just call it 'lunch' and have an apple this afternoon for a snack. I also have some shredded lettuce and chicken breast I brought in for lunch originally so I can munch a small bit of that if I get hungry. I think I'll be okay with the apple, though.

This reminds me of what I do. I just call it 'lunch' too when I can't count the caloric intake. It sounds very tempting, Squeak, I would have treated myself too. I love shrimp. My fav is garlic wine shrimp.

If I feel really weary about treating myself, I simply cut back on my calories for the rest of the day. If I were to eat this, I'd prolly cut back about 2 or 300. Basically I'd elminate my PB and J sandwich. Once you get used to doing things like this, it becomes routine and second nature.

I love shrimp too. It's one of my favorite proteins but I don't have it very often. I've been having more of it in the last few weeks though, since I learned how great it is nutritionally. Nothing like learning I can eat shrimp cocktail without guilt as long as I go light on the cocktail sauce! The trip I made to Red Lobster the other week was the best night out I've had since I started trying to lose weight. They may not be the best seafood restaurant in the world but they have their nutrition info really clearly posted on their web site and there were a lot of things I could choose from to keep my plate healthy.

I could probably live on shrimp and chicken with the occasional steak and be content. With veggies, of course!

Feel like I'm really spinning my wheels trying to make a menu plan for next week with the 60g net carb goal. I'm not a morning person, there's no way I'm going to be able to get up and make myself some complicated breakfast every morning. As it is, most of my breakfasts involve dry cheerios and some sort of fruit eaten at my desk when I get to work. >.<

So, ok I can scramble eggs with various veggies ahead of time and bring them to work to heat up. Do I really want to eat eggs every day? And what do I eat *with* them if I don't want to blow half my daily carb allotment on toast? All the other low carb breakfast suggestions I'm finding involve special types of flour/meal and no-sugar sweeteners to make pancakes, waffles, muffins and hot cereals. None of these things sound remotely convenient or interesting to me. And this from a woman who pretty much never ate breakfast aside from the occasional egg mcmuffin for most of her adult life.

*grumbling* I just want to eat NORMAL food. Maybe I need to see the doctor again before I try this, maybe even see about getting an appointment with a nutritionist, because really... I just feel like I'm driving around an unfamiliar city without a road map.

I read something recently that said the average 8 8oz glasses of water daily does not pertain to all people as it is an average. What the suggestion was instead was to look at the water after you urinate and if it is clear, then you are hydrating enough and if it's yellow or orange, you need to drink more. Also, they suggest adding the water a glass or two at a time so you aren't in the bathroom every 20 minutes.

Good Luck!

Thanks, photo! I read some similar stuff; of particular interest was a note that some of your daily water intake actually comes from the food you eat. So I've mostly just been drinking when I feel thirsty (learning to distinguish hunger from thirst has been an interesting study) and watching my urine as best I can with the toilet water being blue (ha!). I've found a pretty good balance and have learned to stop drinking water about 2 hours before bedtime so I don't have to pee in the middle of the night.

Heh, Once I start drinking water, I can't stop. I crave it and it's so vicious.. I wake up at night to go potty.. damn the water. heh.

It's hard to start drinking it but when you do, you can't stop! I agree with photocrazed, it is so viciosly addictive! :-)

Today is not the best of days so far.

A call from the doctor's office first thing in the morning is rarely a good thing, and this time it meant that my test results are in and I might have to have my gallbladder removed. Yay. Have a consultation with a surgeon on Thursday, I'm sure you can imagine how much I'm looking forward to that. On the one hand... having said gallbladder out will mean the end of some symptoms I have been having for months that I didn't learn until recently could be attributed to gallstones. That's good. The thought of going in for surgery though... terrifying.

Blood test results were also in, my blood sugar is up and my doctor continues to push the 60g net carb diet plan. I told the nurse that I was concerned about cholesterol and that lowering carbs would mean increasing protein/fat. Her response? Lowering carbs doesn't have to mean increasing protein. Ok, that's true. But lowering carbs by over 50% does change my calorie intake a bit, if I don't replace it with *something* I'm just going to make myself ill. >.< So.. back to the drawing board, so to speak.

In other news, last night my husband reported that he's lost 14 lbs since the last time he weighed (which was probably a couple months ago) and that he was sure it was in part due to my healthy food kick forcing him to eat more balanced dinners. So I'm happy for him. Which is good, because other than that I don't have a lot to be happy about today.

Ok, so that's not true. I'm sure if I thought about it I have lots of things to be happy about. I have a job, even though I may not like it much. I have a roof over my head, and I'm not strapped for cash. I'm loved. I can dance, if I want to. (I can leave my cares behind... 'cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance well they're no friends of mine...)

Ok, now I have Men at Work stuck in my head. At least I'll be toe-tapping my way through moodiness today.

Breakfast: Cheerios & blueberry yogurt.
Lunch: Grilled chicken breast + salad.
Snack: Apple.
Dinner: ??? (Friday used to be grocery day. Now it's 'put off groceries until Saturday' day. >.> I have a steak in the fridge I could make, but I don't think it would serve two.)

I'm sorry to hear about your medical complications, Squeak. My mom had her gall bladder removed quite a few years ago, it's not an easy process. I'll be praying for you!

I think at times, when we're all drowning in self-doubt and frustration, we have to think about what we're blessed to have. You're totally right. I find it hard to do sometimes, but after I consider how terrible being without the things I need most is, I feel better.

We just have to keeping smiling at the thought of being alive.

Weekly weigh-in done, ticker updated. 301.5! I should be back in the 200's next week (knock on wood), and I'm sooooo excited. That's all for now, I just had to gush a little.

WOW!! CONGRATULATIONS!!

I'm so proud of you! Gush away, honey. You deserve it. You've worked hard to get here, you can take pride in it for a while. There's no problem with feeling accomplished. It's good for you. Not only does it put you in a good mood, it makes life seem A-okay for the rest of the day.

I'm so proud of you Squeak, keep this up chica! I can see you reaching the two-hundreds by next week! You can do it!

So, one of my daily tasks at work is to clean out our e-mail spam filter. Every now and then a subject line catches my eye. This morning, it was 'Oxygen debt'... but I read it as 'Oxygen diet'. What followed was a bit of entertaining musing about what an 'oxygen diet' would be.

"Hey, wanna go outside and breathe for a few minutes?"

"Oh, I can't... I'm on an oxygen diet, trying to cut back."

OR

"This oxygen diet is great! I can have all I want and I don't gain an ounce!"

OR

"I'm on an oxygen diet. I eat three square meals a day and breathe deeply in between."

Heh. Yeah, I'm weird. That's OK.

In other news, I had a nice day off work yesterday but didn't want to come back in today as a result (big surprise). Nutritionally I'm doing well. I'm on day 4 of my 60g net carb diet and I think I might actually get close to 60g today. The last few days I've not quite made it due to overcompensation. I think one day I crested 27g. I've found that I don't miss the bread as much as I missed the cheese when I was doing a more traditional nutrition plan.

I have a friend who has been doing South Beach and she gave me a wonderful tip that should get me past the struggle I've been having trying to figure out what to have for breakfast. I'm not even remotely a morning person, so on weekdays it's all I can do just to get out of bed and get out the door in time. That's why I usually reach for cereal of some sort I can eat on the go or at my desk when I get to the office. Well, she makes what she calls 'mega muffins'. She got a couple of those muffin tins for large muffins (6 per tin) and on the weekend she frys up some ground turkey with whatever veggies she wants. Then she beats a dozen eggs and mixes it with the meat/veggie mixture and ladles the result into the muffin tins (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray). Bake at 350 until they're done, then cool and freeze in individual sandwich baggies or plastic containers. A couple minutes in the microwave and she has a fresh hot breakfast every day that she can throw in her lunch bag and take to work to heat up there if she's running short on time in the morning.

Genius. GENIUS, I say. I am resolved to try this.

I've given my weight loss blog address out to a few more friends. I find that the more people I give it to the less I am worried about them reading and finding out what my weight is. I've been ashamed of it for so long... now that it's coming off, I find that keeping it secret doesn't matter as much to me.

I'm also really proud of my friend that is doing South Beach. She had to start a weight loss plan for medical reasons.. she was on a medication that was actually making her gain weight, so she went on a diet originally just to maintain. But after a few weeks she discovered she was actually losing and I think she said last night she had lost over 25 lbs. I can tell. I see it in her face, which had grown more rounded over the years that I have known her. She looks more now like she did when I met her, and I'm so happy for her. Even though we're not on the same exact diet, we can still share low carb meal ideas and support each other. Talking with her last night really made me feel better about choosing to follow the nutritional guidelines my doctor put forth. I guess the scale on Sunday will be the final judge of whether or not it works for me... in the meantime, I'm doing my best to stick to it.

Not only did this update make me laugh, it made me feel happy as well. It's so great that you have someone you can confide in in person. Support like friends, makes our journeys so much easier.

Those muffins are genius! I'll have to try something like that. They sound filling as well. I can go for protein and not just cereal in the morning...

I think we've all felt ashamed of our weight loss struggles. It took me a while to admit how heavy I was as well. It gets easier as time goes by, provided you feel good about yourself. It's if and when you put the weight back on you feel disgusted again. But I have faith in you, you're in this for the long haul. You'll be skinnier and fresh looking just like your friend in no time at all!!

Kudos to you for feeling this diet impertinent. There are times I doubt myself too, but I always confide in myself that I'm doing the right thing by watching my cals. There are moments though, when I wish so badly I could eat whatever I want and not gain a pound. I wish wishful thinking would die, or come true. (The latter being preferable of course)...

I hope you're having an awesome Tuesday, Squeak!!

It's going alright, Invariant (I've heard you called so many different things in your diary I think I'll just stick with Invariant for now. ). Thanks for stopping by!

Today I signed up for Curves (doctor recommended it) and did my first workout. It is deceptively easy when you're going around the circle, but when I finished and went to stretch/cool down it all suddenly caught up with me. My heart was racing and every muscle in my body felt completely exhausted. I could barely stand, and when I got down on the floor to finish the last few stretches all I could do afterward was lie there for a minute or two like a beached whale trying to summon the energy to pick myself back up again.

It took about an hour for me to get some of my pep back, and I'm feeling ok now but the muscles that haven't seen a workout in years are still protesting a bit. I know I'm going to be in a world of hurt tomorrow morning, so I might try taking a nice hot shower before bed to loosen everything up. I don't have ready access to a hot tub this time of year.

I think the hardest part of going to Curves was dealing with the super-peppy instructor. I'm really shy around strangers, so having her in my face the whole time was kind of difficult. I think now that I've been shown how to use all the machines that they will pretty much leave me alone to do my thing unless I'm doing something wrong.