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| Uhhhh ... I forgot that no carbs means less fiber. |
But otherwise, I'm rocking this no carb thing. I've mastered a few new recipes, most deliciously CHICKEN RATATOUILLE. [Recipe below]
The night of Day 3 I cooked and ate, with the kids, this great Ratatouille. And then I found myself still craving sugar. What is the DEAL with that?? I have looked into sugar craving cutters, and -- not so much. Internet suggestions included fruit, cheese, juice, gum. Really? Shouldn't there be some sort of cure-all like "eat a carrot" and you'll be craving-free?
That's so annoying.
So I managed it just as I did on Day Two: I decided to go to bed. You may recall that in a previous entry I mentioned my suspicion that "going to bed" would be my best defense for this sugar craving. I was right. I may be the best rested I have been in years with this challenge. By the way, is it inappropriate to take a nap on my office floor when I find myself craving sugar at 1pm?
Day FOUR
Most irritating lesson of the day: When I eat better, I want to do other things better too. Due, I'm certain, to my Obsessive Compulsive nature, I can't just do one thing or do anything part way. Where does this leave me? Yesterday it left me at the gym at 5:30am.
To be clear, I love working out. But I hate going to the gym. Well, no, I hate waking up from my warm bed and HEADING to the gym. I love being at the gym, I love working up a sweat. And I can't work out later in the day because once I'm in Go-Mode, I can't apply the brakes. Plus, working out gives me energy and if I worked out at 6pm, I'd be up past midnight. And I prefer to be in bed by 7pm. Hmmm ... maybe the BeneFiber won't be the only way I join the Plus60 crowd. If I start eating dinner at 4:30, let's worry.
Back to the gym. What I have learned about myself is that if I just FORCE myself to get up, I'm good. Once I'm there, my competitive nature kicks in and I don't even realize that I've been on every exercise machine they own. My method of madness is achieved in three steps:
#1: I position myself on a machine next to someone who is going hard and then I constantly check their distance and calorie stats on the machine to make sure I'm winning.
#2: I make sure that if someone gets on a machine next to me after I've started, that I stay until AFTER they get off. You do that too, right?
#3: Once I'm winning, I make sure to laugh loudly and smile a lot so everyone knows how much FUN I'm having despite how HARD I'm clearly working!
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| How I see ME at the gym |
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| How I see EVERYONE else at the gym. |
Back at home after burning 389 calories, I realized how full of energy and motivation to eat well I was. So eggs and coffee in my belly, I showered and energetically got my kids up and ready for the day. Lunch was a salad with chicken -- GOOD. Dinner was Chicken and beef with vegetables -- GOOD. I did notice that my sugar cravings took significantly longer to arrive on Day Four. But satisfying them is still a mystery. Vanilla Coke Zero it is. *blah*
Maybe this means that today DAY FIVE I won't crave sugar at all? It is 9:45am and I have yet to care. Except when this lady was talking about donuts a few minutes ago. She doesn't know how close she was to getting punched in the throat for that. Lucky I let her pass.
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I should mention in all seriousness that I'm really proud of myself for yesterday. Day Four, aka January 4th, was also the 2 year anniversary of my dad's death. These two years have been incredibly hard and marked by myriad self-improvement/self-sabotage cycles. While I started yesterday feeling somewhat ambivalent about it, around 8:30am, The Universe generously hit me with full emotion that lasted all day in waves of intense to more intense levels of sadness. Not once did I try to feed the emotion with food. Not once did I try to stuff carbs down my throat to cover up my feelings.
Did you hear me? NOT. ONCE.
WHATWHAT!!
YAY ME!!!
Now ... on to face Day Five!!!
[Currently 9.5 hours into the day, I have avoided food completely because nothing sounded good. "Avoiding Food" isn't the same as "No Carbs" so I need to find me some lunch. WISH ME LUCK!]
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Great recipe:
- chicken breasts
- zucchini
- yellow squash
- eggplant
- red onion
- red, orange, yellow bell peppers
- (insert any other veggies, especially root vegetables you'd like i.e. mushrooms, carrots, potatoes if you're eating carbs)
- Place chicken in crock pot
- Chop the veggies and cover the chicken
- Add 2 Tbsp Olive Oil, Basil, Red pepper flakes, salt
- If you're feeling adventurous, add other spices like dry mustard, cumin)
- Add 2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
- Turn Pot to high for 2 1/2 hours
- Serve over brown/wild rice or eat alone.
