Saturday Oct. 29 - Halloween Snow!

Well this has been a very busy week!  I've been trying to catch up on paperwork for our home improvements business and think I finally have things under control in that department.  We also run another business that involves taking care of nine rental properties that my in-laws invested in seven years ago.  We basically run every aspect of the business from checking out prospective tenants, collecting rents,maintaining the properties, and even evicting if we have to. This week two really nice college girls moved out of one of our townhouses and I've been trying to post ads, show the property and run credit checks.  We are down to two prospective tenants so hopefully we will have it rented very soon.   It was also homecoming week at my son's high school and this year because of the proximity to Halloween their theme was "Haunted Homecoming".  Fun!  My son got into it and went in different costumes for the different days of the week.  I don't think I've helped out with costumes for him since elementary school.  It was a lot of fun.  Tonight is the homecoming dance but.........we woke up to snow!!  According to the weatherman we haven't had snow before Halloween since 1979 (the year I graduated- but I don't remember it).  Anyway at about 12:00 noon we got an email from the school saying the dance has been postponed to November 12 due to inclement weather.  It's not too big of a deal for my son, but I feel bad for all the girls that were getting their hair and nails done and stuff like that.  So instead of getting ready for a dance we carved Halloween pumpkins today with the snow blowing around outside.  It's still snowing now.  I don't know what is happening with the weather in our area this year but its getting weird.  We've had an earthquake, a hurricane and now this early snow!!    Here is what my backyard looks like today:

 

I lost one of my Bradford Pear trees :(

I've been doing pretty good on the BFC.  Besides some oatmeal in the morning with a few walnuts and blueberries, the coconut bread, and of course my almond coconut "cookies", I've pretty much cut all other grains out of my diet.  I was looking up the other day about why I could lose clothes sizes and not pounds and I found this interesting article by Sonya Tilley over on Carbsmart.  I'll copy the part of her article here that explains why our bodies can sometimes lose sizes but not pounds, because I think that has definitely happened to me. 

"Let me tell you what happens when you lose a pound of fat. Your body has been saving this fat for that long hunting expedition you're going to have to go on to track, kill, dress and retrieve that huge animal. It keeps the fat in little pillows distributed throughout your body. When you start losing fat, it doesn't trust you to continue whatever insane path you have chosen that is causing the fat to dissipate. So, when the fat comes out of the pillow, it injects water as a "place holder." Sometimes that water actually replaces the weight of the fat it lost. Sometimes it replaces the volume.
Water weighs more than fat just like lead sinkers weigh more than feathers. If you stuff a pillow with a pound of feathers, you'll have a nice big pillow. If you stuff a pillow with a pound of lead sinkers, you'll have a nice (but rather hard and uncomfortable), small pillow. Now, let's say your body removes a pound of fat and replaces the weight with a pound of water. Your weight will stay the same, but you will be smaller. But, if your body decides to replace the lost fat by volume, that is a quite different story. Remember the great big feather pillow as compared to the tiny lead sinker pillow? Well, now think of a gallon of feathers and a gallon of lead sinkers. Try to pick up the gallon of feathers. Piece of (you'll pardon the expression) cake. Now, try to pick up the gallon of lead sinkers. Sucker's heavy, ain't it? So, you will be smaller, but you will have gained weight.
Eventually, your body makes the executive decision that you are not going to replace the fat you lost, and it lets go of the water. In the words of Danny Skaist: "When your body accepts the fact that they are no longer needed, the water will be expelled and the cells closed. This is known as the "whoosh."

That being said I did manage to lose 2 lbs this week and my size 12 pants are fitting perfectly.  I am still hoping to have my "whoosh" one of these days.  Tonight I'm making my husband the cauliflower crust pizza and the boys are having "make your own" night.  I do that every once in awhile on a Saturday night when everyone has some crazy schedule and also as a chance to let the boys learn to cook thier own meals once in awhile.  I don't want my future daughter-in-laws to hate me!
Hope everyone has a really nice rest of the weekend and I hope you are enjoying FALL not Winter!!

Monday October 24

Hi you guys!  I just wanted to pop on and post the cookie recipe that we've been eating a lot of over here.  I make these every Sunday so that I can put them in my son's school lunch.  I always have enough left over so that I can have one or two a day also.  They are made with coconut flour so I think they are permitted on the Fast Track too.

Chocolate Coconut Cookies

5 Tablespoons of butter or coconut oil (I use coconut oil)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup of cream
1  1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup of sugar equivalent ( I use 1/2 cup of erythritol or xyitol plus 1 truvia)
4 eggs
1 cup of unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup of coconut flour
almonds

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 F

1.) Melt coconut oil (or butter)  and pour in mixing bowl
2.) Whisk in cocoa powder until blended.  Whisk in salt, vanilla and sweetner
3.) Taste.  Make sure it is sweet enough for you.  If not add more here.
4.) Whisk the eggs into mixture until well blended.  Add cream and blend.
5.) Add your unsweetened coconut now while you can still mix.
6.)Add coconut flour and blend well.  The flour will absorb a lot of the moisture and it will look like cookie dough in a minute.

  

7.)  Using cookie scoop or tsps, drop cookie dough onto cookie sheet.  You can space them pretty close together because they don't spread.

 

 8.) Push each scoop down and place an almond in middle of each

 9.) Bake at 350 F    I bake mine for about 10 -11 minutes so they are still a little fudge-like.  If you bake them too long they come out too dry (like all coconut flour products that are cooked too long).

Makes about 24 cookies  and per cookie they are 4 carbs, 1 sugar, 2 fibers  (and for those that count 92calories)


Hope you like them, and have a great day!

BFC week - 28

I had a fun day today. Instead of worrying about the family and the business (too much) I had a "me" day.  I drove about an hour to a town a couple of towns over from me and went shopping at the Whole Foods.  I've been there before but it was before I started the BFC and back then I was just admiring the store because of my love of  "Top Chef".  Whole Foods is where all the chefs always go for their food shopping (me and my second oldest LOVE that show).  Anyway  today I went there looking for BFC motivation and goodies and I found both.  I found some things that are not at my local grocery store like that I've been wanting to try like:

They don't sell this near me.  They only sell the Dairy free version not sugar free.

Or these either!  I haven't tasted either yet but I plan to

I went looking for the Apple Cider Tea but they unfortunately did not have any.    So I looked around at the other flavors.  I LOVE the Double Dark Chocolate Mate but still have a bunch at home so I decided to give this a try!  Had a cup as soon as I got home and it is SO good!!  If you like mint chocolate chip ice cream you'll probably like this.

I also saw this one there.  I like bananas but I don't miss them that much, but I know some of you said that you miss bananas so this might be the perfect tea for you!

Then I saw these!  They have 4 sugars per TABLESPOON!  They would be perfect on top of some steel cut oatmeal or on some of those pumpkin muffins or cookies!  You wouldn't even need anywhere near a TBS. 

Besides these goodies, I also found some St. Josephs sugar free crunchy peanut butter, and the St. Josephs sugar free cookies.  They also had Zevia on sale for half price so I got a six pack to save for pizza night (that's the only time I really crave a soda).  They also sold Zevia individually so I picked up a different flavor to try besides my favorite ginger root beer.   I wish we could always just try just one of something instead of having to buy the whole pack before we know if we like it or not.  The only thing I couldn't find at Whole Foods was the Nature's Hollow sugar free Jam which was a bummer, but the rest of my haul made up for it!  So, after going to Whole Foods  I stopped at the J.C.Penny's nearby and bought a pair of jeans and a pair of cords in a size 12!  It's so weird because the scale does not seem to be moving but yet I'm in a size 12 jeans.  I'm 5'6" and a medium/large build and I've never been much below a size 12 - maybe a size 10 way back when.   It's also weird because I was getting discouraged with the BFC just yesterday to the point of looking up other diets and seeing if there was anything else out there for me. I get discouraged because I'm strict about this diet and feel like the weight should be falling off instead of staying the same or coming off so slowly. The problem is that no other diet looks good to me.  I don't really want to start anything new.  I don't want to change my mind about what I can and can't eat.  I'm used to eating this way and nothing else looks good to me or feels right to me. So today when I strolled through Whole Foods I was trying to get myself motivated again and I think I did that.  Once I got my new jeans I felt good about myself. (Although I still think they must be making clothes bigger these days if I'm getting into a size 12 at this point.) I've also decided that this week I'm going to go through all my old recipes and find the ones that will work on the BFC.  I'm sure I have a lot of soups, stews, and pot roasts and things like that that would work just fine,.  I'm going to dig them all up and put together my own little BFC cookbook of things I like and things I know my family likes.  Then I'm going to just keep going. I hope I'm not being too negative on here.  I just try to be honest about my journey on this food plan.  I really do appreciate everyone's thoughts, ideas,  support and also just reading about everyone else's journey too!  You're all awesome!

Monday - Oct. 17th

Hello everyone!  It's Monday evening and I just thought I'd pop on and check in.  My 14 day Fast Track officially ended yesterday although I still have not had any grain carbs.  I think I stayed on it pretty well.  I definitely did not have any grain carbs for the full 14 days, except I did not give up my Benefiber.  I tried to give it up and get my fiber from vegetables  but I could not eat enough.  I also did not realize that green beans were not allowed on FT and I did have those the first week too!   This past week I broke down and added the coconut bread back in.  I really missed the lemon coconut bread in the morning and also the coconut chocolate cookies that I make my son.   I know coconut flour is allowed on FT but the eating of baked goods just seemed wrong.   So,all in all for me,  the FT did not seem to make much difference in my weight loss.  I lost 2lbs in the beginning and then gained them back somehow.  I haven't weighed myself again on my "official" scale since last Wednesday and will do an official weigh in this Wednesday.   I do feel like eating without grains was not that difficult to do.  I don't think I'll stick to it 100% though.  I don't think I eat that many grain carbs as it is, but I might want a piece of toast with my eggs now and then, or a pizza for lunch made with St. Joseph's Pitas.   The weird thing about this eating plan is that even though I've been stuck on a certain weight for awhile I'm still going down in clothes sizes.  How can that be?  It's weird and I don't really get it.  I think I will just keep going the way I've been going and even it it takes me a whole year or longer I will finally get to my goal weight of 150lbs.    By the way I have been loving the different recipes people have been putting on their blogs.  Yesterday I made those Pumpkin muffins that Amber had posted and I have to tell you they were VERY good.  I got 11 medium sized muffins out of her recipe and they came out very moist and delicious.  I also made the chocolate/mascarpone candies that Dawn had linked on one of her blogs.  I had to use the Simply Lite candy bar melted down for the chocolate coating on the candies though since the cocoa powder coating didn't work for me.   I also just saw a post about Republic of Tea selling Apple Cider Tea!  Doesn't that sound perfect for Fall?!  I think I might have to try it.

Wednesday - Fast Track day 11 / BFC week 27

Weigh in day today and it was disappointing.  Got on the right scale this morning and weighed in before coffee and breakfast and I'm back up two pounds - 172lbs again.   I have to say it's disappointing.   I thought this FT was going to help me move past this stupid 172 plateau, but here I am still at the same weight.  I can't even point at a particular mishap like eating something off plan, or eating too much of something.  I just don't really get it.  My food yesterday was:

Breakfast - two scrambled eggs with Canadian bacon, spinach, & parm. cheese mixed in.
Lunch - 4 slices Genoa salami, 2 slices Swiss cheese 1/2 cup pecans
Snack - 1 cup of decaff with stevia and heavy cream
Dinner - chicken fajita salad with sour cream, spinach, onions and colored peppers
After dinner - 1 cup decaff with stevia and heavy cream 2 squares of Lindt 85%

In trying to figure out the reason for the gain I looked over my food tracker for the past week.  The only thing I could come up with was the day before yesterday I had smoked sausage (no sugar in ingredients) and Amish sauerkraut and roasted Kale chips for dinner.   When I recorded that on My Fitness Pal food tracker I saw the sodium content was HUGE on that meal.  Maybe I need to start watching the sodium content more because I'm retaining water or something.  I still drink 5 or 6 glasses of water a day at least but it might not have been enough for that huge sodium hit I took.
I've also been staying away from coconut flour for the past 11 days even though it is technically not a grain.  It doesn't seem to be making any difference in my weight loss so I'm going to add that back in .., probably starting with today.
I'm not giving up but it is so hard to follow something so exactly and just maintain.  I know I have at least twenty more pounds to go.  Hope everyone else has better luck this week!

Monday -October 10

So still following the Fast Track and today will be day nine already!  As far as I know I haven't dropped anymore weight since my last check in, but I haven't weighed in on my primary scale since last Thursday - I can never get to it before my coffee and stuff.  I would move the scale somewhere else but my husband and son use it too so I leave it in the shared bathroom.  On Wednesday weigh in day I'll get up even earlier than 6:15am to see what my weight really is.  Sticking to the no grains hasn't really been that hard for me but I think that's because like I told you I've done a diet like this before and I'm a bit used to it.  I noticed that everyone has still been making coconut flour products even on the FT.  I've been avoiding them for some reason.  Even though I know coconut flour is not a grain, it just seems like it once you're eating pancakes and bread.  I think after my 14 days are up I will start incorporating the coconut bread and other products back in to my diet but try leaving out wheat grains for a while longer and see how that does.  Dawn always has such delicious looking treats and things that she comes up with using coconut bread or almond flour - I'm dying to try some of them!

Other than BFC  things have been going ok.   I've got my dog on heart medicine now for his enlarged heart/congestive heart failure.  The vet says there might be another pill we could try that may improve his quality of life and maybe even extend his life by many months.  The only thing is the pill would NOT be good for him if his enlarged heart was caused by something other than a bad valve.  The vet is guessing that he has a bad valve, but the only way to know for sure would be a very expensive echocardiogram .  Without it I would be taking a gamble of the pills helping or hurting him.  Why is life always so difficult with these difficult decisions to make.

My oldest son that got his degree last May and has been sending out a million resumes since while living at home, finally found a job last Thursday!  The only twist, is that it is a start up graphic design/web design company and he would have to start out as an independent contractor.  That means getting paid for each job he does, not getting benefits and paying his own taxes.  I told him to take it.  Anything is better than sitting in his room all day sending out resumes.  The main thing everyone is looking for these days is experience on top of the degree.  This way, even if this company folds, he will have gained a bunch of experience.  If the company doesn't fold and ends up taking off, then he would the first designer hired and could really move up in the company.  So either way its a no brainer win/win for my son.

My son that is in Towson University with the two partying roommates, got de-tripled last week!  Yeah!  He was a little stressed because the college made him move to a new room in a new building and the move had to take place after 7pm at night on a Tuesday, so that the RA's would be on duty to sign him in and out.  Nothing like moving everything you own and sleeping in a new room with a new complete stranger in the middle of a school week on top of classes and homework.  My oldest son and I went over to help him move and it all turned out pretty well.  At least he is now in a room with only one other guy.  The new guys seems pretty nice and is definitely mellow.  He has posters all over his side of the room about how pot should be legalized.  But Nick says he is nice and won't bring his habits into the room.  Nick has already pretty much decided that he wants to do his next 1& 1/2 years at the community college near our house.  I just think he is not ready to live on his own just yet and misses home and his brothers.  Doing community college to get his gen ed's out of the way is fine with me.  It will save us money too - that is always a good thing!

Thats about it around here.  My husband and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary on Saturday by going craft shopping and then seeing the movie, "The Ides of March" the political thriller with George Clooney.  We had dinner at Carrabbas which we love because you can get Italian food without the pasta. Mine was cheese stuffed chicken breast with a lemon garlic cream sauce over the chicken and the julienne zucchini that went with it.  Delicious!  Hope everyone has a great day!

Thursday 10/6 -Fast Track Day 5/BFC Week 26

Today is the start of day 5 on the Fast Track.  I actually got into the bathroom before anybody else today and was able to weigh myself before even my first cup of coffee.  The scale read 170lbs!  That is a two pound loss for me -FINALLY!!  I think this FT may have nudged me past my plateau.  I still think that in this stage of the game I'm just losing slower than I was in the beginning, but that's really ok.  The other day I noticed that I was constantly hiking up my size 14 jeans, so when I was in Walmart the other day I grabbed a cheap pair of 12's thinking they would be too tight but at least I'd have them for when the 14's were really too big(I'm just doing cheap jeans now until I get to goal)  When I got home I tried them on and they actually fit.  I am still surprised because I didn't have to suck it in and really pull to get them buttoned or anything - they just fit.  Now this doesn't mean I don't still have some extra fat on top of the jeans,because I most definitely do.  The "old" size 14's do not create any "muffin top" because they are a bit big,, but the size 12's do create a bit of a "muffin top" so that I wouldn't want to wear a tight shirt with them.  Still work to be done and weight to be lost for sure.   I do believe that wherever we have our BIGGEST trouble spot is going to be the LAST place to lose all the weight.  I mean if you are a big thighs person then that might be your last hurdle, for me it's always been the stomach area that is my trouble spot so that will probably be my last hurdle.

I'm following the FT for 14 days but not exactly the menus in the book.  I'm making sure all my meals are fats/proteins and no grains or carbs except for veggies.  I'm still putting my meals into the food tracker to see how I'm doing, even though technically we are not supposed to count anything on the fast track.  My fiber seems to be suffering a little I think its down to about 16 or 17 grams a day.  But hey, that's the best I can do on the FT and it still seems to be working.  Yesterday I ate:

Breakfast - two coffees with cream, left over chicken breast, and celery with a cream cheese artichoke spread
Lunch - I was running around doing errands so I managed about 4 pieces of genoa salami, a few more celery sticks, a handful of macadamia nuts that I keep in the car and one Hint water.  (normally my lunch is a salad with grilled chicken, some raw broccoi and ranch dressing)
Snack - After that  small lunch I needed a handful of pecans, a cup of hot tea and one square of Lindt 85% to keep me going until dinner.
Dinner - I made homemade regular pizza for the boys and the Cauliflower pizza for me and my husband.  I just have to say that it was my first time making the cauliflower pizza and it was delicious!!  Couldn't even taste the cauliflower!
After dinner - one square of Lindt 85% and one decaff with stevia and cream
Also had another cup of hot tea later while watching Mythbusters with my son.

I love how everyone is keeping us posted on the FT news and regular BFC/other diet news!  I think it also helps to see the foods people are eating.  I know I like to see the menus. I'm hoping this FT will get me down into the160's!  (hopefully did not just jinx myself there)

Our sun finally came out yesterday after what seemed like two weeks of gloom & rain!  Hope the sun comes out for everyone today!

Monday Oct. 3 - Fast Track

Wow the weather has turned cold!  We went from having our A/C on last week, to turning it off and opening windows, to closing windows and turning on the heat - all within a matter of days!  This morning it was 48' outside! Brrr   

I officially started the Fast Track yesterday.  I weighed in first thing in the morning and the scale jumped back and forth between 172lbs and 171lbs and finally settled on 171!  Hooray!  Maybe the one pound difference means I'm on the move again - or maybe it was a fluke and I'm not really down a pound.  I'll know for sure on my official weigh in day of Wednesday.
My first day on the Fast Track started out pretty well.  I spent the afternoon at the grocery store stocking up for what I'd need plus, since my boys eat me out of house and home,  I needed to replenish grocery's for them as well.  Here is what I had yesterday:
Breakfast - Two egg omelet with cheddar cheese, three slices of pepper coated bacon and two coffees with heavy cream
Lunch  - Three pieces of salami, one piece of provolone cheese, 1/4 piece of leftover chicken breast
Dinner - Scampi style Shrimp, with added artichokes and spinach.  Four stuffed mini colored peppers, stuffed with a cream cheese blend of cheese, avacodo, garlic, and jalepeno pepper.
Snacks for the day - Just a couple of cups of tea and two pieces of 86% chocolate

So not so bad for a first day.  I didn't miss grains at all, but of course it's only the first day. To mentally get ready for this challenge I've been reading a lot of stuff by Gary Taubes over the weekend.  He is the one that wrote "Why We Get Fat", and I think he was a big influence for the Belly Fat Cure.  There is a lot of science on how carbs (especially sugars) are what are making us fat, clogging our arteries, and numerous diseases.  He talks a lot about how the conventional stuff we've been taught about "calories in and calories out", saturated fats being bad for your heart, and exercise helps you lose weight are all wrong.  He says a lot of the reason we've been told the wrong thing is big companies that have a lot of money run surveys and tests that sway public opinion towards thinking the way that is best for their companies.  Very interesting, but since all the low fat, low calories nutrition stuff has been pounded in my head since I was young it is hard to start thinking any other way.  I mean I'm convinced the sugar is bad and causes a lot of diseases but it's hard to not believe that saturated fats do not actually cause heart disease.  Have any of you guys read the scientific stuff by Gary Taubes?  I'm still reading.

Kyle & brother Ben being goofy as always

Other than BFC.  We all went to the Renaissance Fair in Crownsville, MD  on Saturday.  We have been going every year since the boys were small and now we take them and their girlfriends.   It is a lot of fun if you like the Medieval time period - and what boys do not like knights, swords and jousting?!  There are shows like sword swallowing, hypnotists, a joust, King Henry the VIII and his court, and stuff like that.  My guys put on capes and medievel hats when we go because about 2/3 of the people at the Fair are dressed up and talk to you in character.  My youngest son, Kyle, put on this knight stuff from an old Halloween costume and for some reason wanted to wear a fake beard and he looked pretty cool, and way older than his 16 years!

Hope everyone else is having a great beginning of the week whether you are going Fast Track, regular BFC,  maintenance, WW, or something in between!