Low Carbing

I've been having a lot of fun lately. But fun for me often equals a lot of eating and drinking. I've been slowly putting on some weight over the past few months, and after an "extra fun" St. Patty's day weekend, I decided it was time to do something about it.

My roommate mentioned she was going to try to remove carbs from her diet. I was at first skeptical (as I always am about any sort of restrictive diet), but decided to do some research. 

Here's what I learned (in a nutshell): 

When you eat carbs (which are typically high in sugar), your body releases insulin into your blood stream. The insulin tells your cells to absorb the sugar out of the blood and tells your fat cells not to release any fat to burn (because the carbs are doing it). Apparently, insulin is a pretty hard worker, because it wipes all of the sugar from the carbs out of your blood, and you end up craving more sugar, and more carbs. 

So insulin is great -- it saves you from having too much sugar in your blood, which can lead to some pretty bad health problems -- but in the process it makes your body store fat and prevents it from burning fat. When you eat a lower carb diet, there is less insulin in your system, so your body burns any fat you eat as fuel, and if you need more, your fat cells release freely release fat into your blood system to be burned as fuel. 

So I decided to give it a shot. A 7-day shot. I'd been so unmotivated and uninspired so I felt like a little structure could only do me good. Plus, I have a lot upcoming that I want to feel more comfortable and energized for. So one week later, here's how it went:

The Rules:

1. No counting calories and no "extra attention" to portion control (aka I always look at portions, but I'm not going to be measuring and counting things)

2. Eat when I want to, even if it feels often

3. Eat as much as I want of:

- Meat (grass fed preferably)

- Fish and shellfish

- Eggs

- Natural fats like real butter, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado

- Veggies (everything but potatoes, basically)

- Full fat dairy products like cheese, sour cream, Greek yogurt (milk in moderation)

4. Eat in moderation

- Deli meat (Boar's Head or Whole Foods brand only, low sodium if possible, 0g sugar)

- Nuts and seeds (including nut butters)

- Berries and other fruit
- Olives

- Wine or cocktails without sugar (vodka based preferably)

- Dark chocolate

- Natural sweeteners like honey (rarely)

- Sweet potatoes (small amounts)

5. Avoid

- Sugar and unnatural sweeteners
- Starch: All bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc.

- Legumes
- Low fat or fake dairy products like margarine
- Beer :-( :-(

6. Keep casual track of carb amounts -- aim for ~30 carbs/day

What I've been eating:

Skinny Taste's cauliflower "fried rice" -- so good!

Thai dinner! I really wanted drunken noodles...

Blurry pic, but this is steak and brussels sprouts

I was very proud of this perfect bacon!

Snack bag: sunflower and pumpkin seeds, a few dark chocolate chips

Burger (bun removed, salad instead of fries)

Tuna melt, didn't eat the bread

Exercise:

I'm still going to PT for my foot so exercise is pretty moderate. This week I did yoga twice, strength trained twice, sat on a bike once, and did a decent amount of walking. Plus my PT exercises every day (or almost every day).

Results in Week 1/How I've Been Feeling:

- I really missed bread and pasta for the first few days. It was also hard to sub out fries/not eat bread at restaurants, especially when surrounded by friends eating them. That being said, I didn't feel SO bad about it. This isn't a permanent change and no one was forcing me to make these choices except me. I also feel astonished in general that I went an entire week without any bread/grains. I never thought I'd be able to do that!

- I had the hardest time with breakfast, so prepped better this week. More on that in another post.

- I didn't eat chicken once this week, and probably ate more red meat than ever in my life. I'm going to make sure I include some leaner meats in my diet like turkey and pork.

- I miss fruit. I was eating fruit with almost every meal AND as snacks before this. Now I'm sticking to berries with breakfast and a few slices of orange if I need it. I definitely don't plan on eating this little fruit for the long run.

- Full fat cheese is amazing. I've had the best time exploring the Whole Foods cheese counter. No wonder I felt like I needed to eat multiple cheese sticks to be satisfied!! Also, regular bacon is a million times better than turkey bacon. Duh.

- I felt pretty tired the first few days and had a bad headache on day 2. I didn't think I was eating a lot of sugar but clearly I was. On Wednesday morning I started to feel different -- definitely more energized and awake. I've woken up almost every day before my alarm goes off.

- This takes A LOT of prep and a lot of dish washing, but I've, dare I say, been enjoying it.

- I'm spending a lot of money on this. Protein and fresh veggies are expensive. BUT, I didn't have even one sip of alcohol this week so I easily saved some $$ there.

- After the first two days I haven't felt hungry at all. I didn't expect this to happen to me because my appetite is usually constant. Protein really IS more satiating! Plus, having no restrictions on when/how much I eat is helpful in not making me feel deprived.

- I think my skin is clearer than it's ever been. I was struggling with a lot of breakouts on my back the last few months, and they've nearly all cleared up at this point. I took this picture yesterday when I was wearing very little makeup because I thought my skin looked so clear!!

(Probably could have smiled)

- I weighed myself this morning and I lost 9 POUNDS!! In one week. That's Biggest Loser shit right there! In my many years of dieting, I have never ever experienced anything like this. I imagine a lot of it was water weight, but I was shocked when the number popped up on the scale.

I feel so motivated and excited about this! Last night I spent 3 hours cooking and tried out a couple new recipes. Onward!