My Big Fat Low Carb Life

It’s been a hell-uva week here. It started really on Friday when I went to the grand opening of Trader Joe’s in Mt Pleasant. The parking was awful and the crowds were crazy but in the end it was worth it to buy grass-fed beef for about $3 per pound. I filled my cart with all sorts of meaty goodness, 99 cent coconut milk and reasonably priced nitrite free bacon. I’ll still be going to the farmer’s market on Tuesday to get my fruits and veggies because there is nothing like tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peaches and cantaloupe grown and ripened locally. I’m pretty excited about getting some zucchini because my sweet, sweet boyfriend gave me food dehydrator for my birthday. Now I know most of you gals out there are probably cringing at the thought, but not me. I can’t wait to make some fresh zucchini chips and beef jerky. So, TJ’s is about 14 miles from my house, I will probably not go every week, but it’s definitely worth a trip every couple of weeks for essentials.

One of the things I bought at TJ’s was organic whole chicken, which I split into 2 separate methods of cooking. I tend to really dislike chicken breast except for in chicken salad. So I separated the breasts from the thighs, wings, and legs and poached them with herbs, whole peppercorns and two halves of a lemon. The dark meat I roasted in my cast iron pan in the oven with herbs, lemon juice (from the lemons I put in the poaching water), and TJ’s 21 herb/spice mix. A drizzle of olive oil and about 35 minutes in the oven and I was left with succulent deliciousness. I reduced the sauce and thickened with a pat of grass-fed butter and OMG – so good. I need to test the recipe a couple of more times and then I’ll post it. All I can say is I’m so glad that I eat the way I do, where I get plenty of veggies, fruits, meats and healthy fats. Which leads me to an observation on a totally different note…

Sometimes when I work out on my stationary bike I like to watch Dr. Phil – it’s totally a guilty pleasure sort of thing. As I worked out to my latest gadget (a bunch of Mp3′s for Interval training), I watched an episode about a 14 year old boy who was so afraid of eating food, especially fat, that he would become abusive to his mom if even the tiniest bit of egg yolk ended up in his egg white omelet. All I can says is Wow. I mean really. I get that this kid needs treatment, but all his parents are doing is enabling him to continue being abusive to them. The boy needs some serious help – which is of course why they were spilling their guts on national tv to Dr. Phil. Of course Dr Phil got the boy into a treatment facility to help him deal with his eating disorder. Hopefully he’ll be able to get over his fears and deal with his anger and his body image. It makes me think about my own body image, and why I’m going through the eating and exercising and how I feel about my own body. I’m not in the best shape right now, which is why I’ve come back around to eating Low Carb/Paleo and started exercising again. My goal is not really to be skinny, but to be healthy, to improve my cholesterol and blood sugar and ultimately lower my markers for inflammation. I cannot imagine going through what that kid is going through, but I struggle with my body image just like everyone else. I will say that at 44, I am more comfortable in my own skin than I ever have been. If only I could bottle that feeling and sell it to twenty-something girls, I would be so rich.

If eating paleo is wrong, I don’t want to be right. It’s too delicious to give up. Too simple to make (as long as I have ingredients on hand). Of course I’ve only been doing this a week so maybe I’m in the honeymoon phase, but still. Tonight I made a very simple dish. Shrimp sauteed in nitrite free, pastured pork bacon grease. (Man that’s a mouthful) in a light lemon parsley vinagrette over a bed of lettuce and a few organic grape tomatoes thrown in for color. To say the least, it was deeee-licious.

Shrimp salad

1 pound of shrimp cleaned and deveined (tail removed)

2 tbsp bacon grease

salt

pepper

1 heart of romaine, chopped

Vinagrette

Juice of 2 lemons

2 tbsp of chopped italian parsley

1/4 tsp crushed garlic

pinch of salt

pepper to taste

1/4 cup good extra virgin olive oil

In skillet, heat bacon grease. Dry shrimp thoroughly then salt and pepper. Saute shrimp until pink and cooked through.

In a bowl, squeeze lemons, add salt and pepper and parsley. Start whisking olive oil into the mixture until well incorporated and the mixture looks “cloudy”. Pour 1/2 of the dressing over the shrimp toss to coat. Place on top of bed of lettuce. Garnish with Tomatoes. Eat and enjoy!

For years I’ve been a low carber. I’ve counted carbs and allowed myself to eat all sorts of junk all in the name of “low carb.” After reading Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution, Protein Power by Dr Mike and Mary Dan Eades, and following some awesome blogs like Life as a Plate, and Everyday Paleo I decided to totally nix the grains, artificial sweeteners, and dairy for 30 full days. Yep, I’m taking The Whole 9′s challenge to eat good food, mainly meat and vegetables, some fruit and nuts. On top of that I’ll be exercising. But it won’t be your normal 45 minutes of cardio. Nope, it will be short (30 minutes tops) and it will be intense.

I started this adventure on Sunday and have actually enjoyed really cooking simply again. I have some cookware that I’m totally in love with. If I could marry my All-Clad 4 quart saute pan I would. It would be a June wedding and there would be no option for divorce. That’s how much I love this pan. The only pan I use more is my mother’s cast iron frying pan.

I love to cook, but Paleo cooking is somewhat challenging. No grains – I can do without the Low Carb wraps.  That’s what lettuce is for after all.

No dairy – that’s a little harder because I love cheese and cream. But it’s just 30 days, right? The hardest thing is my EZ Sweetz. (liquid sucralose). I use it to sweeten tea, to sweeten sauces and anything else that needs a little sweetness.

So drinking more water is also on the agenda. I haven’t had tea since Sunday. Again with the hard. I am after all a southern girl and tea is the house wine of the south.

It’s only 30 days though. I can do anything for 30 days. And after that we’ll see. So far, I feel great. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going and the nice nifty recipes that I come up with.

We’re starting the Eliminate the Waist  weight loss challenge  this week at work and because I’ve been successful at weight loss this past year I’ve been asked to be a motivator, which I’m really excited about because I love helping other people.

It got me to thinking about setting goals for this eight week competition because the person that loses the most weight wins.

So we have an eight week time frame – how much weight can a person lose in that time? Lots of numbers go through my head. BIG numbers. I think a better question is how much SHOULD a person lose in that time.

The human machine – we’ve all heard that expression. And to some extent the body is an amazingly complex machine made up of cells driven by perfectly tuned electrical impulses and hormonal flow with only one goal in mind – survival. When we decide that we need to lose some weight, we can upset that balance pretty easily. Restrict calories too much and the body puts on the brakes, slowing the metabolism. Eat too many calories and the body will release insulin to help take care of the extra energy by storing it as fat to be used at a later date. The body will also hold onto water when its fat stores are threatened.  

So how do we set realistic goals that won’t compromise our metabolisms or send our bodies into survival mode holding onto fat stores? Well, if you’re doing Atkins Induction or South Beach Phase 1 you can expect to lose between 2 – 7 pounds in the first week and 4 – 15 lbs in two weeks. I know personally when I go through Atkins Induction I typically shed 7 – 8 lbs in those 2 weeks. Now 3- 5 lbs of that is water weight which leaves me with an actual loss of 2 to 4 lbs or 1 – 2 lbs per week.  Losing 1 – 2 lbs a week is safe and recommended. The more you lose up front the more likely you will stall a little bit as the amazing machine that is your body catches up and becomes OK with shedding some of that fat it stores.

So what does that mean to you? Basically, set a realistic goal. In 8 weeks you can expect to safely lose 1 – 2 lbs a week or 8 – 16 lbs by the end of it all. Someone who has more to lose, who has never dieted before, or who is male (sorry ladies – men just shed weight easier because of muscle mass) may lose more. Those of us who have dieted throughout our adult life, or yo-yoed may lose less.

As it stands right now, I’d love to lose 16 lbs, but I know how my body loses weight and I’ll really be happy if I lose 10 lbs.

Either way losing makes me a winner because reducing my weight by just 5% helps to reduce my risk for Heart Disease, Hypertension, Diabetes, Cancer, Sleep apnea and Arthritis.

So, what’s your goal?