Another blogger joins the ranks!

NancyElle, from Low Carb Friends just started her own blog, Chilled White Wine. You definitely want to give this one a look -- she's not only got a very insightful post up about everyone's favorite discredited diet guru, but has also provided us with some yummy-looking recipes for low-carb pizzas.

So many talented low-carb cooks we have now -- where the heck were you guys back in 2003 when I was just starting my low-carb journey? I wish I had your talents, my most innovative low-carb recipe back then was faux sushi, which basically involved rolling thin slices of avocado and cucumber in smoked salmon and dipping it in a sauce made from sugar-free rice wine vinegar, soy, and wasabi.

Anyway, welcome NancyElle!

Elle

Redemption

I got on the scale this morning, for the first time since returning from Albuquerque and my wild "planned cheat" and usual return to Induction levels.

Damage undone! Mostly. I'm up one pound from my usual weight, but that's no big deal, particularly since The Curse of Eve is due to put in an appearance in the next few days or so.

One pound is nothing, given how even just a pint of extra water weighs a full pound. It doesn't seem that way to many people, especially those who are desperate to lose weight, but really, I don't worry very much about small fluctuations like that. In general, I don't worry about it until I see what I consider to be a true increase in my weight -- for me, that's about five pounds.

I must admit, it took me a while to get to where I really stopped worrying about those 1-2 lb increases, but I'm glad I did. Focusing on those minor gains can really mess with your head, and it sets you up for some pretty destructive thinking -- thinking that can lead to behaviors like starvation and laxative abuse. Thinking that makes you a target for diet scams, such as Kimkins.

Elle

White Rice Hangover, Redux

I'm back from a lovely four days in Albuquerque. Once again, I had my planned cheat, and once again, I enjoyed it even though I feel pretty yucky right now.

As in, bloated, tired, moody and suffering from a lovely rash on my throat and face. But, I started Induction again yesterday, and all will be well. I haven't stepped on the scale yet, mainly because I really don't want to know what it says. I'll wait till a week from now, once all the water weight I know I gained (hello, jiggly puff!) has flushed out.

We had a great time. Aside from eating a lot of stuff I shouldn't, we hung out with friends, and walked around Albuquerque's Biological Park and saw the Botanic Garden and the Aquarium. I was very impressed with the Aquarium -- it's small, but beautifully done. The Botanic Garden was lovely as well.

I also had a job interview while I was out there, one which came up quite suddenly. Dancing in Socks Guy is in college right now, and for a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with not losing a ton of credit hours, we want him to continue there. However, there's little by way of work there for me. I could, in theory, just get a routine kind of job at a testing lab there, but honestly, the pay is a big issue. Money isn't the most important thing in the world, of course, but it does need to be taken into consideration along with my career trajectory. Testing milk at the local dairy basically will not pay enough and do nothing for my career aspirations.

This job looks like a very good fit. They liked me well enough to request a second interview, which is good. Will I take it if it's offered? Possibly. There are good reasons to move out there, but there's good reasons not to. If something happened to that job, it would be very, very difficult for me to get another in a short period of time, unlike here. However, it pays well enough that we could save enough money to ameliorate any financial crunch, should that happen. We'll see.

So, think good thoughts for me, that if the job is right for me -- and I'm right for it -- that it will work out for the benefit of all involved.

Elle

Zucchini Love

I made Cleochatra's Zucchini Pizza Crust tonight.

I love Cleochatra. I mean, I think I really love Cleochatra!

I like to think I'm reasonably intelligent and creative, but she's got it all over me. It's possible I could have tripped over the cauliflower crust recipe on my own, but chances are excellent I probably wouldn't have made it. I don't particularly like the taste of cauliflower, and besides, the fact that it looks like brains squicks me. But I never would have thought to substitute zucchini instead.

Aside from the fact that the pizza was delicious and OMG so filling (I have leftovers for breakfast AND lunch tomorrow), it reminded me a lot of my grandfather, who died eight years ago. There are two reasons for this.

First, the zucchini. Grampie always had a vegetable garden. A huge, ginormous, half-acre garden. That is, the main garden, he also had bean poles alone the fence and planted herbs in borders out front.

My Nana always said you could always tell if a house was occupied by Italians because you'd see tomatoes planted in the front yard instead of roses.

Anyway, one year when I was about seven, one of his zucchini grew to an incredible size -- it had to be nearly two feet long. That was his pride and joy, and whenever I came over (so long as it was still on the vine) we'd go out back and admire it.

The other thing that reminded me of him was the pizza pan I was using. It's a square, and it came from his first restaurant, which makes it at least sixty years old. Now that's a well-seasoned pan! It's heavy, and sixty years of more or less continuous use have turned it a lovely black. It's one of my more cherished possessions.

So, it was a night of good food and happy memories. Thank you, Cleochatra!

Elle

Today's menu

Christin has a great post up, detailing her maintenance plan, one she was intending to use for Kimkins, until Heidi Diaz -- a morbidly obese fraud with no medical training whatsoever -- put the kibosh on it.

That got me thinking -- we all have different ways of maintaining our weight loss, and while some strategies work better than others, there's lots of little tricks and tips each of us knows that others might find useful. So, I thought I'd periodically post what I'm eating, in case anyone is interested, along with some little strategies that work for me. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Today's Menu:

Breakfast

• Coffee with cream, no sugar
• 8 oz water
• Four strips of crisp bacon (the texture of bacon fat squicks me, so I George-Foreman-Grill mine until they're basically linear pork rinds)

Mid-Morning Snack

• More coffee
• 16 oz water
• 1 oz peanuts

Lunch (brought from home)

• Curried chicken
• Lentils
• Butternut squash
• 16 oz water

Afternoon Snack

• 8 Strawberries
• 16 oz Water

Dinner (as planned)

• Chicken Caesar
• 16 oz water

I'm usually not hungry after dinner, but if I do want a snack, I almost always have sugar-free jello which I make up every week and keep in the fridge.

You'll notice the abundance of water. That leads me to hint #1 -- drink lots of water, just as much as you do when on Induction or OWL. The 64 oz total I listed above is a minimum, I try to drink 120 oz a day. This is a big one, because I find that the times when my weight starts to creep upwards are pretty well correlated with the times when I'm less than diligent about my water intake.

I also try to get the bulk of my calories in during the day, though I'm not always good about that. I do this for obvious reasons, that's when I'm most active. I'm not too terribly vigilant about when I eat at night, I don't have a hard and fast rule like not eating after 7 PM, for instance. But I try not to have anything too heavy, because it makes me feel yucky in the morning.

Does anybody want to share what their daily menu looks like? Hints? Tips?

Elle

Potato Hell

I've been maintaining for five years now, with a few excursions upwards from my goal weight. Funny how these excursions are never downwards. While these gains are minor and quickly corrected by a brief return to Induction levels, it occurred to me that there's something interesting about their timing. They always seem to happen just before a holiday or a vacation or some other event that promises some higher-carbohydrate food than I would normally eat.

I got on the scale this morning to find that I'd pretty much undone all the damage from my last upwards excursion. Yay! However, my Dance of Joy was interrupted when I realized that today is Easter Sunday, and at approximately 1:00 PM I'd be at my brother's house, confronted with a bunch of high-carbohydrate food.

There are some foods I can pass up with no problem at all. For instance, yesterday found me at my local grocery purchasing a pie for today's feast, a pie I have no intention of eating. That made it a lot easier to buy the cheapest pie I could find -- I've fulfilled my obligations as a guest, and it's not like I have to eat the darn thing! I have no problem buying a dessert I know I'm not going to eat, but I can't say the same for everything else that's going to be served.

My brother J is a potato freak. When we were kids, mom would make a double batch of mashed potatoes, one half for J, the other half for the other three people sitting at the table. Fortunately for J, he's got a high metabolism and a job that requires a lot of physical exertion so he can enjoy his potato habit with no worries. For that reason, it's safe to make an a priori assumption that there will be a vat of potatoes on the table.

Those kinds of foods are the problem, I love potatoes and bread and all kinds of starchy foods like that. Normally I'd just take a little of each and not worry about it, but this holiday dinner is a little different. I'm going to Albuquerque the week after this to see Dancing in Socks Guy and I know I'm going to go way off plan then. This forces me to make a choice -- go off plan today, or go off plan a week from now. I can't do both.

I started low-carbing back in 2003 and I was never under the delusion that there would come a time when, having reached goal, I'd be able to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I knew that I'd always have to limit carbohydrate, and I was fine with that. I'm one of the lucky ones -- my maintenance carbohydrate level is quite high, around 80-90 g per day. When I gain a little back, Induction takes it right off.

But I'd be lying if I didn't say that as much as I love what Atkins has done for me, as much as I appreciate the fact that I can eat most of the foods I love most of the time, and can enjoy the occasional treat -- it gets a little annoying at times to realize that I'll always have to make these choices.

I can't eat like other people do. But a little perspective helps. Those "other people" may be enjoying their hot rolls and mashed potatoes today, but come tomorrow (or even tonight) they'll be gnashing their teeth over it. They'll be worrying about their weight, and most of them will be justified in doing so, and they'll be wondering why they just can't seem to lose despite all that diet and exercise.

I'm so lucky that I found the perfect way of eating for me. It's no mystery as to what makes me gain or lose weight. I have all the tools I need to keep myself at a healthy weight for the rest of my life. It does mean that I have to pick and choose my battles, and appreciate that it's up to me to make the right choices, and that this is a lifetime commitment.

But it's worth it.

Elle

Mixed Marriage

That's what Dancing in Socks Guy and I will have. And it's not because he's Navajo and I'm Caucasian.

It's because I low-carb and he does not.

We have two very different ways of eating. He's of the low-fat, lean-protein, starchy-and-non-starchy vegetables, whole grains suasion, and I'm of the higher-fat, protein, non-starchy vegetables, very few whole grains school of thought. And it just squicks him that I eat the way I do because he can't accept the fact that you can eat bacon on a regular basis and not drop dead of a heart attack.

True, a lot of this is because he loves me and basically doesn't want me to die young. I think we're agreed on that last point, I don't want to die young either. He doesn't say much about it, but when we're together and I'm hollowing out my breakfast burrito and just eating the eggs, cheese, bacon and chili, I can see him thinking, "O God O God O God, what is she doing?"

This, despite a lot of empirical evidence that demonstrates he's got nothing to worry about. Okay, he never saw me at my highest weight, but he knows I'm prone to abdominal obesity and that with Atkins, that's gone. My total cholesterol/triglycerides are all low. My HDL/LDL ratio is pretty good too. My blood pressure runs a consistent 90/60, which is pretty low. It's always been that low, though, back in the bad old days when I smoked I used to try and kid my doctor that I had to smoke to keep my blood pressure up to where I wouldn't pass out every time I got up from a chair. She was rightfully unimpressed with that logic. And my humor, because it wasn't funny.

As I said, he doesn't say much about it but every now and then he'll say something like, "Sweetie, you should eat more rice. Brown rice is good." To which I reply, "It's good for some people, but I don't react well to any color rice, which is why it's only an occasional treat." To which he responds, "Well, what about blue corn or buckwheat or (insert grain here)?" Which is my cue to huff, "Look, beans, lentils and dried peas are about all I can tolerate on a regular basis without going into a carbohydrate coma, okay?"

He doesn't give me too much grief about it, but I can tell he doesn't really believe me. His diet works for him because he's 6'3" and a guy. Most of his family is the same way, a bunch of tall, high-metabolism beanpoles. He can really imagine what it's like to be a 5'3" woman with a deranged carbohydrate metabolism, because he's not one. He's a typical guy in that if he gains a few pounds, he just cuts back on the beer and sugar and, presto! he's back to normal. I think he really thinks that I'm malnourished because I avoid most non-vegetable carbohydrates.

I suppose after a few more years he may get over it, but I think I'll aways see that gleam of doubt/fear in his eyes as I breakfast on bacon.

Elle

Cleochatra, I salute you!

This would be an ode to Cleochatra, if I were any earthly use at all when it comes to writing poetry! Since I'm not, I'll settle for a short raving about how much I LOVE CLEOCHATRA AND HER OOPSIE ROLLS!

Seriously, where have these rolls been all my life? Or at least since 2003?

I came across them a while back, but with one thing and another (mainly my inability to remember to buy cream cheese for three weeks running) I didn't get around to making them until yesterday. They are so! freaking! good!

They remind me very much of popovers, particularly these popovers that used to be served in a restaurant that no longer exists, the Sword and Shield. The Sword and Shield was a steakhouse, which was the standard place to go for birthday and anniversary dinners in my little home town. I remember the charming decor, dark, dark wood paneling, red carpeting with some obscure genealogical coat of arms on it, big, silver colored pseudo-battle axes on the wall and -- the feature which most appealed to us as little kids -- a big suit of armor by the hostess station.

They served, well, steak, but they also used to have crackers and the port-wine cheese spread on the tables. There was also a little salad buffet thing where you could get these candy apple slices and fresh, hot popovers.

Those popovers were my favorite thing there, and if left to my own devices, that would have been all I'd have eaten. The Sword and Shield is sadly no more, having closed decades ago, and I thought that was one taste sensation that was lost to history.

But, thanks to Cleochatra's fortuitous mistake, I have re-experienced my beloved popovers. I made the standard recipe first, and when I tasted them, I was transported back more years than I care to admit and was all "OMFGBBQ! These taste like the Sword and Shield Popovers!"

So, I whipped up another batch and made them in a muffin tin, and had myself some real popover-shaped pseudo-popovers with butter. Mmmmmm.

Cleochatra, I salute you!

Elle

Why I love Atkins

As you know, I've been maintaining on Atkins for five years now. My weight usually hovers between 125-130 lbs, with 130 lbs being the oh-sh*t-I-need-to-reinduct-NOW weight.

What with all the charming work drama lately, I seem to have, uh, exceeded that. Just a little. I typically weigh myself once a week just to keep an eye on things. I'm not normally an emotional eater anyway (except for that whole bulimia thing, which is a separate issue). When I get really upset, I tend to not feel like eating at all. But, I guess this time was different. There was that brownie that one time, and those seminars where they had pizza and ...

Anyway, I found myself at, gasp, 131 lbs! Considering I started out at 163 lbs back in 2003, this is hardly insurmountable. But it explained why all my clothes were starting to get a little tight. So, I reinducted.

Since I'm so close to my "normal" weight, re-inducting doesn't usually produce those gorgeous whooshes of weight loss you see when you have a lot more to lose. I lost 13 lbs my first two weeks on induction when I was at my heaviest. Now, it's more like a 1 lb loss.

But not this time! A 3 lb whoosh! Three days after reinducting!

Thank you, Whoosh Fairy, I needed that!

Elle