15

I'm rounding up.

My goal was to be 15 lbs down by today and I'm 14.8...so I'm rounding up. One good pee and it would be 15.

I feel great. I'm happy at my progress and proud of myself for sticking to this. I'm convinced this is the right path for me and I'm going to keep pushing forward.

In other non low carb related news, I've been reading like a crazy person. Summer is often full of reruns on TV. I've been known to leave the TV on and completely veg in front of it. I decided about 5 weeks ago to turn off the TV. I watch the news, and maybe a couple little shows, but turn it off by 7. Then I read. I've ready 10 books in the past 5 weeks. Not all are literary WOWs, but some are. I don't have any "rules" around reading heavier books over mushy books. I just want to keep reading and keep the TV off.

Some of my favorites:
The Light Between Oceans. This is the book club book for this month and I was hooked. It's a great story that builds slowly, peaks then let's you down easy. I adored this book.

Speak This is book's audience is probably more teens, but I found it interesting. It's about a girl, a rumor, and the truth. Easy quick read.

Echoes BY FAR the best book I've ready all year. I love Maeve Binchy and this book did not disappoint. I found myself when I was done wondering if the characters made it to the city. I got wrapped up in the lives and the story.

The Girl You Left Behind. Ohhhh this book. I can still feel how I felt when reading this book. Jojo Moyes also wrote Me Before You - which I loved. So I wasn't too surprised this was such a good book. It takes place in WWII and the story is so delicate and so raw that I couldn't put it down.

So get reading. Got any recommendations?

Breakfasts are hard

This low carb thing requires I eat breakfast. I am not a breakfast person, but have learned that I have to be. It does make a difference. All that "it's the most important meal of the day" I think is kinda true.

What makes breakfast hard for me is I'm not an egg fan. I've had to come up with other alternatives.  But what makes it easy for me is I could eat cold pizza for breakfast....in other words, traditional breakfast foods are not required for my breakfast.

So I thought it might be worth dropping a few "recipes" of what I've done for breakfasts.

Bento Boxes
My favorite has been my "Bento Box Breakfast". You see them at Starbucks all the time and those are pricy, but they're easy to make. I bought myself some "bento" lunch boxes on Amazon and use them for  my breakfasts.

Ham Bento - Total Carbs - less than 3, protein around 20 grams
2 oz Black Forest Ham (or any ham you like)
1 hard boiled egg
1 oz hard cheese

I swap out ham with turkey or salami occasionally. Getting the hard boiled egg down is always a struggle for me. I eat it first so I don't say "i'm full" and then not eat it.

I've also done bento boxes with salami, cucumber, cheese and almonds. You can do a combination of anything. The options are endless.

Ham/Cream cheese roll ups
2 oz black forest ham
1 to 2 Tablespoons cream cheese ( you can use the lower fat, but I don't bother)
I spread the cream cheese on the piece of ham and roll it up. It's surprisingly good. Sometimes I've put a green onion in the middle and roll it, but not that often.

Easy Keto Ham and Cheese Rolls
These were fantastic. I did egg "muffins" before, but they were too eggy. These turn out like muffin tops. I've made them with bacon as the protein and ham as the protein. I prefer the bacon. You could toss anything into these too: onions, mushrooms, spinach, etc.

My most recent favorite is these protein, cheese "burrito" rolls.  Mission has carb friendly (I think they're called Carb Balance) tortillas. The wheat tortillas are 13 grams of carbs, but 10 grams of fiber per tortilla - which means it's 3 grams net carbs (carbs minus fiber). I've been taking those and slathering with a combo of mayo and mustard, putting 2 oz ham (or turkey) and 2 oz swiss cheese and roll those babies as a burrito. These have been the perfect breakfast so far.

There are a ton of blogs with Keto friendly, low carb recipes. Again, I'm not doing Keto, but their recipes are exactly what I needed to get this moving forward.

First 4 weeks of the rest of my life

I have officially been eating low carb / high protein for 4 weeks. A lot has changed in those 4 weeks. Here's a small list...

1. Heard the big "D" word...
2. Lost 12 lbs
3. Averaged 68 grams of carbs (should be between 50 - 70)
4. Averaged 87 grams of protein (should be closer to 110)
5. Way too many eggs eaten - blech
6. Averaged 3 gym visits a week
7. Feel fantastic!
8. Learned that eating carbs in large amounts makes me sick
9. I can do this!

It's been quite a trip for 4 weeks. I've learned a lot about food, what's in it, what to avoid, what to eat more of, etc. I have a lot more to learn.

I've learned my body doesn't like large amounts of carbs anymore. The Saturday's when I allowed myself to eat carbs I've felt like crap. So not worth it anymore. And I don't seem to crave it as much now as I did. Though after a big workout I really crave salt and my salt go to has always been chips.

I've learned to read labels. In fact, I fell for some marketing around cauliflower pasta. I was all excited to try it. Only to find out it has as many carbs as regular pasta. You gotta read what's in it. The "diet" world is sneaky and they will misinform.

I probably have a lot more to learn and I look forward to what my life holds ahead of me...with less carbs in me.