Moonwatcher's Atkins Diary

[moonwatcher]

Friday 3rd May

Evening all!

This is my sixth day on Atkins so I thought it was time to start a diary here. I have gone from 17st 7lbs in October 2011 to around 15st, first on SW, then WW and a couple of months on JUDDD. Since Christmas though I seem to have been drifting up and down over the 15st mark - was 14st 9lbs before Christmas but just didn't seem able to get back there and beyond!

I have done Atkins in the past and lost well on it, plus felt well physically too. Too much wheat affects me badly and my OH has lingering blood sugar issues. We know from last time that Atkins helps with the blood sugar too, so it seems the way to go at the moment.

I work as a Learning Support Assistant for Special Needs pupils in a local High School and College, so cake and biscuit temptation is often around, but so far, so good. I do find the fact that you just 'can't' have even a small bite is often easier to deal with than being able to have a little bit!

Food for today has been:

Breakfast - egg and cream cheese lemony cooked custard
Lunch - cheese and tuna salad
Dinner (any minute now) will be jerk roast chicken with veg - broccoli or a mixed stir fry, maybe half a small avocado as a starter, if it's ripe.
Snack - one pickled onion with leerdammer cheese and salami
Drinks - water, water and more water, green tea, one coffee with double cream (will stick with real coffee for the moment unless I am not losing)

A bit 'cheese heavy' but within limits!

 

[moonwatcher]

Sunday 4th May

Made a last minute decision to go to the coast for a walk today instead of tackling the garden! Had to rethink food plans for the day, as normally we would get something to eat while out, but didn't want to risk that today, so packed a quick picnic.

Breakfast - two boiled eggs with black pepper and butter
Late lunch/tea - in cliff-top gardens in sun! Picnic of cold jerk chicken, celery sticks with cream cheese, olives, one pickled onion, cucumber, salad greens, slice of smoked cheddar and cold asparagus tips fried in olive oil and butter with garlic and lemon juice
Drinks - two coffees with cream while at the coast. A bit of drooling over a gluten free honey nut brownie took place but that was as far as it went!
Evening - nothing yet as still not hungry, but will be a late night, so will grab something soon - with some sliced pepper to make up veggies.

 

[moonwatcher]

Sunday 5th May

What a glorious sunny day. We have a busy day planned in the garden as we need to cut down a huge laurel hedge to about half its height. The menus for today are:

Breakfast - bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese and chilli, chorizo, tomatoes and mushrooms
Lunch - smoked mackerel pate with salad and toasted flaxseed 'loaf'
Dinner - beef stew with cabbage and teeny amount of broccoli which needs using up.
Drinks - water, one tea (had unsweetened soya milk in it - am calling it OK for induction at the moment) coffee with cream, more water with a splash of lime, more water...
Snacks - maybe one spiced ginger flax biccie with coffee, if I get a chance to make them before I am called into duty in the garden. My OH often gets home before me and has sneaked a couple of Belvita biscuits this week so these will hopefully be an alternative to those, which are now in the bin!

I hope everyone enjoys their Sunday. I am heading to the kitchen!

 

[moonwatcher]

Oh, and not quite sure how I managed to forget this, but WI this morning is 14st 9lbs - 6.2 lbs off for first Atkins week and back to my pre Christmas weight. I am thrilled - have been trying to get back to that since... well since Christmas funnily enough!

I am fired up now to get into the 13s.

 

[dizzydelly]

Hi moonwatcher
well done on your loss! X

 

[moonwatcher]

Hi and thanks. Was very pleased.

 

[moonwatcher]

Didn't have the stew in the end yesterday as we were far too full after the breakfast, biccies and the smoked mackerel pate salad, which was delicious.

More garden work today as this hedge we are reducing by half is huge. It is going to take longer than we thought. I'm a bit stiff after yesterday so not looking forward to more of the same, but it has to be done!

Planned food for today:

Breakfast - egg and cream cheese lemon custard
Lunch - the remainder of the smoked mackerel pate with salad and flaxseed bread
Dinner - beef stew with broccoli and cabbage
Snacks - flax sweet biscuit, ham, salami
Drinks - waters, tea with splash soya milk, coffee and cream

 

[moonwatcher]

Monday 6th May

Had a busy day in the kitchen and the garden again - lovely to have good weather on a Bank Holiday weekend for a change.

Yesterday I made a herby flax loaf which we had toasted with the smoked mackerel pate. It was OK and once I mentioned to the OH that I was thinking of trying a garlic version that was it - he just HAD to try it today! So for lunch we had garlic fried courgette matchsticks, mushrooms, chorizo and peppers topped with cheese sauce and served with cheesy garlic flax bread with chillies. The rest of the day's food was as planned above, but without the ham and salami snacks as just didn't need them!

I was going to upload some food pics, but cannot get anything to load on to the site tonight, so will try them again tomorrow.

 

[babyweightx3]

Well done on your loss I am currently trying to get back on the wagon after bad carby week could I have the recipe for your lemon custard??? It sounds yummy x

 

[moonwatcher]

Well done on your loss I am currently trying to get back on the wagon after bad carby week could I have the recipe for your lemon custard??? It sounds yummy x

Hi, sorry for not answering sooner, but I work in a school and we had an OFSTED visit this week, so no time for anything else!

The 'custard' is based on a recipe that seems to be on a lot of low carb boards - usually called a 'danish' I think, although I'm not sure why as it doesn't seem anything like a danish to me! Anyway what I do is this...

One or two eggs broken into a bowl and whisk quickly with a fork. Add cinnamon or nutmeg or mixed spice and/or a little vanilla essence, lemon juice to taste, tspn sweetener and 1-2 oz of cream cheese. The amounts aren't too critical - it still works, it depends how you like it and what you have in the fridge! I then put it in the microwave for a thirty second burst, just to soften the cream cheese, then I mix/mash it all together to make it as smooth as possible. Back into the microwave until it is just cooked - still a teeny bit wobbly in the middle as it will continue to cook when you take it out. Sometimes I add a knob of butter in the mix, or on top to serve. I don't always add the spices/vanilla - it just depends how I feel. I'm not on fruit at the moment, but if you are it's very good with blueberries or other berries either in the mixture or on top with cream!

I have cooked them in the ordinary oven too, but obviously it takes a lot longer and you really need the bowl to be in a hot water bath, which is all a bit of a faff for breakfast, which is when I usually have them.

 

[moonwatcher]

Well when we got to the coast the place we were going to to eat was closed! In a seaside town on a Saturday in May? We never dreamt for a moment it would be shut. It was a shame as they do a build your own breakfast where you can simply pick exactly what you want, whereas everywhere else in the town has set breakfasts. Anyway not to be outdone we found somewhere else and asked if they could do us egg, bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms. It was obviously not a normal request! Much head shaking and frowning took place, together with a lot of key pressing on the till! We ended up with the all day breakfast minus the beans and toast and with tinned tomatoes and mushrooms instead. They charged us 60p more each though. After that I decided asking for coffee with cream instead of a latte/cappuccino etc. would be a step too far, so we ordered two black coffees and I whipped out my mini container of cream instead! So, food for today:

Breakfast/Brunch - egg, bacon, toms, mushrooms, coffee with cream

Dinner - Creamy jerk pork and smoked sausage casserole with cabbage and celeriac

Snacks - cheddar cheese, half an avocado with a tspn of mayo and some home-made chilli sauce

Drinks - two small coffees with cream, waterrrrrrrrrr.

 

[moonwatcher]

Subscribing!....you don't get away that easy xx

Haha! Will be posting some food pics in a while - but for some reason my kindle just will not upload any like it usually does, so will have to do them via my laptop instead!

 

[moonwatcher]

Right - a few random food pics - mainly from last weekend:

Chicken and veg stir fry with sour cream and chilli sauce

The first flax loaf - herby

... and the second - garlic

Smoked mackerel pate with salad and flax toast with butter

Last Sunday's breakfast - bacon, scrambled eggs with chillis and smoked cheddar, toms and mushrooms

Afternoon tea in the garden last Sunday - ginger flax biscuits and coconut oil lime biscuits

 

[Debridger]

Watcha - thought I'd pop by...excellent loss there - well done.
Hope this continues, and you & OH see improved health too

 

[Atomic pink]

Subscribing to your proper diary.

Food pics look lovely, the flax bread actually looks very "bread-like" which I am surprised about. Definitely looks like a very usable bread-substitute.

Thanks for the info about the rebound. I am intrigued by the Atkins/ low carb approach. And the quicker losses definitely appeal to you at the moment but the complete lack of results when I tried low carb before do kind of put me off. And I know I am naturally not a low-carb eater so not sure how well I would do in the long long-term with it. I might try and pick up a cheap Atkins book to have a proper read about the later stages to see if I think it would be achievable for me.

 

[moonwatcher]

Watcha - thought I'd pop by...excellent loss there - well done.
Hope this continues, and you & OH see improved health too

Hi Deb and thanks for dropping by. WI this morning confirms 14st 7lb, so 2 more gone this week which makes my total for the two week induction 8.2lbs. My OH has lost exactly the same amount! We both feel much better - less tired and loads more energy.

 

[Atomic pink]

Great news on the weigh in result

 

[moonwatcher]

Subscribing to your proper diary.

Food pics look lovely, the flax bread actually looks very "bread-like" which I am surprised about. Definitely looks like a very usable bread-substitute.

Thanks for the info about the rebound. I am intrigued by the Atkins/ low carb approach. And the quicker losses definitely appeal to you at the moment but the complete lack of results when I tried low carb before do kind of put me off. And I know I am naturally not a low-carb eater so not sure how well I would do in the long long-term with it. I might try and pick up a cheap Atkins book to have a proper read about the later stages to see if I think it would be achievable for me.

Hi Atomic.

I have to admit I'm not naturally low carb either. In fact my food of 'choice' definitely veers more towards high carb, but I have to admit that I (we) feel so much better eating low carb, and once that pull towards high carb has been broken by a few days hardcore Atkins induction I find the desire wanes.

The only issue I find is for eating out - especially in the earlier phases. Yesterday was a good example - the 'build your own breakfast' place was shut, and despite there being loads of other eating places in the same town we could not find another single place where the 'set' meals were Atkins induction friendly, unless we went for a salad. I don't think we're very good in this country at meeting customer's dietary needs where they deviate from the set menu. With the uproar it caused when we asked if we could go off menu you would have thought we were asking for something quite terrible, difficult and time consuming! It was a freshly cooked breakfast, so opening a tin of tomatoes (no fresh ones ) is NOT more difficult than opening a tin of beans is it? It most certainly was not service with a smile!

My OH asked what I would say if they didn't like the fact that I had put my own cream in the black coffee and I said that I would tell them I was deeply allergic to milk in its milk form and that one sip of it would cause me to be violently ill and in need of an ambulance to take me straight to intensive care! You can probably tell that they rattled my cage a bit with their reaction!

 

[Atomic pink]

It is the eating away from home aspect that would bother me as well. I really struggle with asking for specific things when I am eating out, especially if I am with people other than OH, so that would be a worry. Its ridiculous the big deal the restaurant/ cafe made about your request. When they do freshly cooked breakfasts how much more effort really is it for someone to request exactly what they want?? Absolutely none.

The majority of the meals I was eating when I tried low-carbing were really nice and satisfying and I wouldn't object to that most of the time but I know I would end up wanting a bowl of pasta or something at least once a week. I'm going to stick to what I am doing for the moment but I am going to bear this in mind if things still aren't moving. I feel like i am running out of "easy to live by" diet options so it might be a case of having to try some of the ones that I always dismissed as too difficult if I really want to get past the 13 stone mark.

 

[moonwatcher]

Oh, and some pics from yesterday which may give a bit of a clue why we wanted something hot, and not salad, while we steamed dry again! (Just like last week!)

Start of the beach walk - still some sun through the clouds


Getting darker!


Stormy and misty - 10 minutes later. We were soaked and sheltering at the Lifeboat Station at this stage.

Eventually we decided it wasn't about to stop and we were already wet, so we splashed back to the town through the rain, which did lead to a couple of silly choruses of Neil Sedaka's 'Laughter in the Rain', earning us a few raised eyebrows going past a beachside cafe (not the one we went into ) Sometimes I think I'm too young for my age!