Slow-carb Diet Day 5: Settling In, Looking Forward to Saturday

Today was another good day, with everything pretty much going as planned. The usual breakfast (579 cals), then lunch was a repeat of last night's dinner, minus the lentils (576 cals). Maybe I should've added them again, because I got a bit hungry around 4, so I had a leftover hotdog frank and some of the chilli (269 cals). Then dinner was baked porn chops (very nice loin chops from Jordo's, with tamarind, lime and chilli glaze), rice & gravy (for the boys), and mixed veggies (610 cals).

All that plus a couple of cups of coffee came to 2013 calories, and I did six 15-minute sessions on the cross-trainer -244 cals each, 4.5-4.8 km) left me with 547 net calories for the day.

According to CalorieKing, my average food calories for the past week (including my Eat-Whatever-I-Want Day) has been 2,471. And I've averaged 94 minutes of exercise, burning 1,539 calories, for an average 932 net calories.

It also says that my calorie breakdown averages out to 35.6% fat, 34% protein, and 30.4% carbohydrate. Is that good? I'm not sure. I hope so.

My morning weigh-in number was 150.5 kg (331.8 lbs), so that's a 0.7 kg (1.54 lb) loss for today. I'm not sure exactly when, but at some point today I realized that the title of yesterday's blog entry, a small loss, was kinda stupid. I'm still thinking about the numbers in terms of weekly weigh-ins. Over a half a kilo in a week would be a small loss. In a day, it's pretty fucking excellent.

I've lost 5 kg (11 lbs) in a week. I haven't gone hungry, and even though I'm tired at bed-time, I don't feel lethargic or dopey during the day. In fact, I feel pretty good. I've got more energy, I'm generally in a better mood, and I'm feeling good about my progress.

Slow-Carb Test-Drive Day 2

Had the same again for dinner, and made it for the boys as well. They got roasted potatoes as well, but I skipped them and stayed slow-carb for the second day in a row. I ended up with 1810 cals in, 690 burned, for a net of 1120. I'm very interested to see what happens at weigh-in on Saturday. I'm pretty sure I'll be over my last weigh-in by a couple of kilos, but if my bathroom scales are anywhere close to being right, I think I might've already dropped a kilo by then. If so, that's pretty freaking sweet!

I think I've worked out a reasonable solution for the coffee situation. I'm leaving the saccharin pills for Bill, and I bought some stevia today instead. And I think the reason why Tim recommended cream instead of milk is because he meant non-dairy creamer. For now, I'm going to go with the idea that one coffee a day, with a shot glass of actual real milk isn't going to be a problem. If it turns out that I'm wrong, I'll make adjustments as necessary.

But for now, this cup of coffee is tasting pretty damned good. I might even drop into a cafe on Sunday morning and have a cup there. If a little artificial sweetener is the price I've got to pay for losing weight and getting a coffee, I think I can live with that. For a while, at least.

As far as Weight Watchers goes, this is working out great in terms of Points. 30 out of a daily allowance of 66, plus I've got my 49 weekly bonus points, and 47 activity points. Even if I pig out one day a week, I think I'd have to get really nutty to blow out my Points.

One thing I have noticed is that I've had headaches coming and going the last couple of days. Not bad enough to start eating pills or anything, but just the nagging sort. I wonder if that's from cutting down on coffee, or maybe from sugar? I've also noticed that I am damned tired, but there's no mystery there. Getting to sleep at 12:30 and then up at 5:30 ain't the way to do it. I'm getting my ass to bed early tonight.

Weekly Menu Plan, Nov 12 - Nov 18

If I had any damned sense, I'd get our weekly meal plan worked out before the morning I need to order the groceries. Some day, I'll be that organized. But once again, today was not that day. But now it's all done, and this week we're doing it this way:

Friday - hotdogs for the kiddies, steak and veggies for me

Saturday - Pork Chops With Apricot-Dijon Sauce and Lentils with Spinach

Sunday - Bangers & Mash (sausages and mashed potatoes) green peas, glazed carrots

Monday - Curry Chicken and Tomato Pilaf

Tuesday - Chorizo & Lentil Stew

Wednesday - Spaghetti Bolognese

Thursday - Tuna Noodle Casserole

Nothing revolutionary in there, but I think it's a good mix of new and familiar recipes. I've been thinking about that steak for over a week now, so I think it's time. :)

The pork chops are a little different, and I don't think I ever would've thought to serve them with lentils, but that's what's in the picture, and it seemed like a good idea, so I'll give it a try.

The sausages will be a nice, easy meal to prepare on a Sunday night (I was going to roast a chicken, but didn't really want two chicken meals in the same week).

The chicken pilaf was a request from Jack (not specifically, but anything with curry in it) and at first James objected, until I mentioned this one, which he's had before and he really likes.

The chorizo and lentil stew is because I've been wanting some chorizo, and I'm hoping Jordo's is as good as the rest of his meat has been. And I don't know if I've seen a recipe for it before, but putting chorizo and lentils together seemed like it should work pretty well, and I googled it and found out that a lot of other people thought so, too. I love teh internet.

Spaghetti because it's Wednesday, and even though Thursday night is usually the one night of the week I leave it to Karen to cook (for the kids, I mean; she cooks for herself every night), she's got a big week next week, so I thought that it might help her out if I put the casserole all together, so that all she had to do was pop it in the over for half an hour, then dish it up.

I picked up a couple of cookbooks from the library this week, so I might have some new ideas for next week. Maybe I'll be a clever, organized type of guy and get it all worked out over the weekend. Yeah, that'll happen. :)