I know yesterday's post was pretty heavy. We're going a little lighter today. Pun intended.
Nasser and I started this new diet, in support of my brother-in-law Jeff, but also because we both wanted something to help us lose some weight. I really go up and down a lot with my weight. Right now I'm about back to the weight I was at Halloween last year when I started the weight challenge with friends. The weight challenge did actually go decently well, I lost about 10 pounds, but gained back 3 or 4 when I got sick and stopped exercising for awhile but didn't lose the appetite. Then after the holidays I wasn't really watching what I ate, because I figured I was exercising enough. Nope. I gained it all back now.
Anyway, I'm still rather skeptical about this new diet. It's technically Atkins, but not the Atkins from when it first came out. It's low carb, not no carb, and it does balance more with veggies than it used to. Still, we've totally cut out breads, sugary snacks and desserts, and (this is the part where I'm more skeptical) all fruits for the first 2 weeks. Right now all our carbs should be coming from veggies and nuts, supplemented with lots of protein and fats. It's weird to be so generous with the fats, oils, creams. I've switched to coffee with heavy cream in it, and I'm pretty well accustomed to the lack of sugar now. My breakfast this morning was actually quite delicious. Spinachy, cheesy eggs with a serving of salsa on top.
My breakfast + coffee was a whopping 5.8g of net carbs, where my daily goal is 18-22g (at least says the app). This is quite low, compared to normal people intake of 225-325g. I still haven't decided if I'm doing the easy version of the diet which allows a bit more, around 40g I think. This is my first day actually counting and not just saying oh, that's low, I can eat that.
There's definitely different schools of thought out there on whether or not this is a healthy diet. It does seem to work and it gets your body into fat burning mode rather than carb burning mode. Which seems like a good thing to me for what I need right now in life. I guess we'll see how well it works. The idea is eventually, when you get to your goal weight, you do increase the daily carb intake to like 100g.
Ugh. I hate doing diets. It's frustrating, annoying, it makes me grumpy, and this one seems to have made us feel a little weird for a bit. It's normal while the body is transitioning from the carb burning to the fat burning, and we're doing things to shorten this period of time, replenishing our electrolytes by drinking mugs of warm broth (because you know, Gatorade has too much sugar in it), eating lots of fats (ummm, yeah, I may drink sips of cream straight from the carton every so often when I feel the sugar cravings).
I also hate the idea of "going on a diet" and that's exactly what I'm doing. I totally respect and believe that we shouldn't have to aim for some ideal body type. And yet I want to lose some weight. Part of it is I want to be healthier. I want to fit better in my clothes and feel more confident in my body. I also want to be a better athlete and be less prone to injuries.
I was probably stupid to change my diet right before my 10mi race this Sunday. I've done 2 runs so far while on the diet, plus a kickboxing workout, so I'm definitely able to exercise. And although I've felt weird and not up to the exercise prior to doing it, I've felt good while running so far on this diet. But I definitely need to plan enough time to make eggs before the race. Can't eat anything quick like cereal or granola or an energy bar (aaah those things are all full of sugar!).
I've become one of those anti-sugar people in just 5 days on this diet. Man I am going to have trouble baking. That sounds tough.
Luckily I have the internet, plus a cousin who doesn't really do sugar and keeps a food blog, I'm sure I'll find plenty of ideas out there.
Back to my run this Sunday. I'm starting to get the nerves in the stomach. They're forecasting rain now for this weekend, which I'm not sure what to do with. I've run in heat, I've run in cold, I've run on snow, I've run in flurries, but I'm not really one to run in the rain. Especially for such a long run. I guess that requires some additional internet research.
That's all for today. I have an article about depression that I'm saving for another day when I feel like talking about depression. Plus I am pretty happy right now and don't want to mess with that.
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