A new start

So, manymany people on Atkins didn't stay on the straight and narrow during Easter.  I, myself, can even say I slipped up yesterday.  Not someting I'm proud of, but things happen.  Today is a new start.  It's monday and it's almost summer.  Lets get back on track and get looking good for those summer shorts and swim suits!  Good luck ya'll!

Low carb sugar free hot drink mix

If you like your french vanilla or suisse mocha, Maxwel house makes a sugar free version that is only 2 carbs a serving, not so bad if you really want some cappachino!  It is also decaffinated and has only 30 calories!  These are great to use to make homeade frappachinos as well.

The French Butter Dish

I know for myself, I tend to eat a lotta butter on the Atkins diet. If I wanted soft butter on the spot, i'd have to microwave what I needed.  It usually ends up getting runny and that's not what you normally want to happen.  I invested (23.95 plus shipping) in a french style butter dish.  You can put 1-2 sticks of butter into it and it sits in water, so it stays fresh, room temp - soft!  The water makes contact with the butter and it creates a seal so that the oxygen doesn't get to it.  What cool about ordering it from the individual that I did, is that each dish is unique, no 2 are the same.  I thought about looking for a cheaper one, but with his, he adds a hole on the side of the cone that holds the butter so it has more contact with the water (better freshness).  Plus, i think it's great when you can support an individual instead of a corporation.  Here's the link to his site: http://www.frenchbutterdish.com/index.php

Great Low Carb links

Here's some links that are helpful on a low carb diet:
-1 http://www.atkins.com/
-2 https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwwamot.blogspot.com%2F&h=e5f84
-3 http://julianbakery.com/
-4 http://www.zevia.com/
-5 http://www.fathead-movie.com/
-6 http://www.hulu.com/watch/196879/fat-head
-7 http://www.frenchbutterdish.com/products.php?cat=10
-8 http://www.dreamfieldsfoods.com/
-9 http://www.eatwild.com/basics.html
-10 http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com/
-11 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_sc_0_18?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=nutiva+coconut+oil&sprefix=nutiva+coconut+oil
-12 http://www.fatsecret.com/
-13 http://stellastyle.com/newPM/cgi/pm.cgi?action=show&temp=story&session=session
Lemme know if there are some that you think need to be added, please and thank you!

George Stella - a must read!

I came across the name of a man (on the atkins FB page) who lost a ton of weight doing a low carb diet.  George Stella!  I decided to google the name and see what came up.  He has a website and is an advocate for low carb eating.  He's kept it off for 5 years!  He has 4 published cook books that you can buy on amazon.  I bought 2 today and I think that both his and his famlies before and after pics he has posted on his website (at this link: http://stellastyle.com/newPM/cgi/pm.cgi?action=show&temp=story&session=session ) are awesome.  If you haven't made the step to go low carb yet, this may be the motivation and proof you need.

Vanessa's thick cheesy sauce

I was cooking some chicken breasts for lunch for when my hubby came home on his break and I wanted to make a quick sauce to put over them.
Here's what I came up with on the top of my head:
-2T heavy cream,
-2T butter
-1oz cream cheese
-1/4 cup cheddar cheese (more or less to preference).
I melted the 4 ingredients in a saucepan and then put it over the chicken when I was serving. Followed by some pepper. It was like a thick cheesy alfredo, it was great!
The recepie above made enough for my both of our chicken.

Great on chicken, i'm sure it would be good on some low carb "Dreamfields" pasta or on some broccli. 

Soo close to my first goal AND some great food for thought!

.8 pounds til my basic training weight!  Thank you Dr. Atkins!!  Then once I reach that, onto my second goal, which is 20 pounds to go. 

Tom Naughton (director and maker of the movie/documentary "Fat Head") recently told someone this after the doctor told this certain someone that he's destroying his kidneys and needs good carbs for a balanced diet (other than veggies): 

The "destroy your kidneys" idea was based on faulty logic: Damaged kidneys leak protein, therefore it must be too much protein causing the damage. As it turns out, kidneys are damaged by excess refined carbs (especially excess fructose), ...and then protein leaks out. It's like blaming the water if acid causes a pipe to leak.

The nutrients in vegetables and low-sugar fruits are beneficial, but no human on earth needs grains or sugars to be healthy. If you want a few more carbs in your diet, paleo foods like nuts and sweet potatoes are fine, but I'd skip the grains entirely.

 

There you have it!

Good news and another dessert recepie!

So, I started this diet/lifestyle march 13 and today is april 10th. I have lost 9.7 pounds (can we just round up to 10?).  I find this amazing!  And for people who have a bigger amount of weight to lose, the pounds will fly off faster.  When I was starving myself and doing weight watchers, I lost about 10 pounds a month, but it wans't really satisfying or healthy. I have started going to a local butcher shop buying meats w/o antibiotics, growth hormones, grass fed, etc.  Free range chickens and eggs....you get the jist.  And i'm able to eat a diet high in fat, much enjoyable than a super low cal diet, weight watchers or low fat.  Not to mention healthier than those 3. 

Here's a recepie for "Jello fluff".  It's super easy to make and is pretty tasty:
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/jello_fluff.html

WHITE CASTLE HAMBURGER PIE

WHITE CASTLE HAMBURGER PIE
1 pound ground beef
seasoning mixture (see recipe below)
2 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup heavy cream
8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper, to taste

Brown the hamburger with about half of the seasoning mixture below *; drain the fat and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the seasoning mixture and put the meat in a greased 9-10 inch pie plate. Stir in half of the cheese, then top with the remaining cheese. Whisk the eggs, mayonnaise, cream and a dash of pepper well; pour evenly over the meat. Bake at 350º for 30-35 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 6-8 servings
Can be frozen

*Seasoning Mixture:
2 teaspoons onion powder and 1 tablespoon dry minced onion. You can also sprinkle a little onion powder in with the egg/mayonnaise mixture.
Per 1/6 Pie: 476 Calories; 41g Fat; 24g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 2.5g Net Carbs
Per 1/8 Pie: 357 Calories; 31g Fat; 18g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 1.5g Net Carbs

Serving Suggestion: For a true White Castle experience, top each serving with dill pickles and mustard. Or, make a sauce of dill pickle relish and mustard.  **make sure you count in the carbs for the pickles** 

This stuff tastes awesome and is something you can make for people you have over or make 2 of and take to an event (such as a church luncheon or work event) and they won't know it's a low carb recepie.

super creamy chocolate mousse!

new dessert and it's super easy!
-1 oz of cream cheese
-1 tablespoon of cocoa
-2 packets of truvia
-1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream.
*optional* -1 tablespoon all natural peanut butter
...blend all ingredients until it forms into a mousse-like consistincy (a hand mixer works great). Makes 2 servings, tastes delish!
I'm addicted to this stuff, i eat it almost everyday!

Get that Beach Body

Ok, so this is the time of year that a lot of articles come out telling you how to give you a "beach body".  It will usually consist of a low fat and a good amount of carbs.  Why not try a different diet this time around?  How about high fat and low carb?  There's already studies that are showing a high fat diet is more beneficial and those who maintained the diet lost more and kept their weight off long term compared to those who did low fat. 
A sample of some daily food you could be eating:
Breakfast: eggs and bacon/sasuage
Snacks: olives (green or black), cheese, atkins shakes/bars, pork rinds, hard boiled eggs, etc.
Lunch: Cheeseburger with mayo wraped with lettuce
Dinner: Peperoni pizza with hot wings (pizza crust made using califlower and cheese based crust, sounds weird, but my husband and I can tell you that it's pretty great). 
Dessert: atkins endulge bar, low carb ice cream, etc (many dessert recepies on the atkins website).

Pair this new lifestyle with working out and THAT is your beach body plan.  Who knew you could fight fat with fat?! 
The only catch is that you have to keep up with this diet.  you can't just lose your weight and decide to be done and revert to your old ways, cuz as with any diet, you will gain everything back.  The low carb way is a lifestyle to live with.  I'm loving it. 
I'm a big believer in the" fat head" movie, if you read some of my other blog posts, i've refered to it before.  I think it helps people on the fence about starting a low carb lifestyle make a decesion and stick to it, here's the link : http://www.hulu.com/watch/196879/fat-head

No-Bologna Facts

These facts are on Tom Naughton's "Fat Head" movie website and I think they are great!:

• There’s never been a single study that proves saturated fat causes heart disease.
• As heart-disease rates were skyrocketing in the mid-1900s, consumption of animal fat was going down, not up. Consumption of vegetable oils, however, was going up dramatically.
• Half of all heart-attack victims have normal or low cholesterol. Autopsies performed on heart-attack victims routinely reveal plaque-filled arteries in people whose cholesterol was low (as low as 115 in one case).
• Asian Indians – half of whom are vegetarians – have one of the highest rates of heart disease in the entire world. Yup, that fatty meat will kill you, all right.
• When Morgan Spurlock tells you that a McDonald’s salad supplies almost a day’s allowance of fat, he’s basing that statement on the FDA’s low-fat/high-carbohydrate dietary guidelines, which in turn are based on … absolutely nothing. There’s no science behind those guidelines; they were simply made up by a congressional committee.
• Kids who were diagnosed as suffering from ADD have been successfully treated by re-introducing natural saturated fats into their diets. Your brain is made largely of fat.
• Many epileptics have reduced or eliminated seizures by adopting a diet low in sugar and starch and high in saturated animal fats.
• Despite everything you’ve heard about saturated fat being linked to cancer, that link is statistically weak. However, there is a strong link between sugar and cancer. In Europe, doctors tell patients, “Sugar feeds cancer.”
• Being fat is not, in and of itself, bad for your health. The behaviors that can make you fat – eating excess sugar and starch, not getting any exercise – can also ruin your health, and that’s why being fat is associated with bad health. But it’s entirely possible to be fat and healthy. It’s also possible to be thin while developing Type II diabetes and heart disease.
• Saturated fat and cholesterol help produce testosterone. When men limit their saturated fat, their testosterone level drops. So, regardless of what a famous vegan chef believes, saturated fat does not impair sexual performance.

It just boggles my brain that all my life I've been lied to by the gov't about what foods are healthy for me.  I should have known better I guess.
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/no-bologna-facts/ the direct link to his website.  Also, if you havent yet watched the fat head movie, you need to!  Go to http://www.hulu.com/ and search for "fat head". 

strange craving

So, I really love this diet.  I find myself craving fat, like butter and juicy burgers!  What's nice is that I'm actually eating a way that allows me to eat these things vs my old low fat diet.  I remember when I ate low fat, I told myself oils and fats were gross.  I was trying to fool myself!
 It's not hard for me to eat low carb.    Now while I do love my chocolate, but I can still have it on atkins (certain recepies and products).  There's even low carb cake recepies, so you can have your cake and eat it too!  Thank you Dr. Atkins!

I bet many of you have heard this myth:

And that myth is that Dr. Atkins died of his own diet.  FALSE!
The information I found below can be found at the following website along with some backround information, but this info was widely spread by "the Vegan group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and related groups and individuals".  Here's the link to the info: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/atkinsdiet/a/dratkinsdeath.htm

Atkins' Death

On April 8, 2003, at age 72, Dr. Atkins slipped on the ice while walking to work, hitting his head and causing bleeding around his brain. He lost consciousness on the way to the hospital, where he spent two weeks in intensive care. His body deteriorated rapidly and he suffered massive organ failure. During this time, his body apparently retained an enormous amount of fluid, and his weight at death was recorded at 258 pounds. His death certificate states that the cause of death was "blunt impact injury of head with epidural hematoma".

There you go, so you can no longer say "I'm not going to do a diet that killed the guy who made it", because that isn't true!

stop making excuses!

Why not do atkins?  "there's too many limitations".  Nonsense!
When you can have butter, full fat cream cheese, eggs WITH yolk, delicious tasting low carb bread, bacon, sasuage, chicken WITH  the skin, full fat sour cream, pork chops and steaks w/o trimming the fat, pork rinds and the list goes on. 
When you are craving something sweet, there are atkins bars, shakes and recepies for chocolate bark, fudge, mousse and other desserts. 
I'm no doctor, but this is something i've learned from researching this diet and watching the documentary "Fat Head".  We only get ONE body.  While the medical field has made it possible to replace some body parts, patch things up as good as new and give us meds for everything, why let it get to that if you can stop it early on?  Many docs put people on atkins who have diabeties - wouldn't you think that the atkins lifestyle would be great to PREVENT diabeties?
what exactly is diabeties? it's a disease in which a person has a high blood sugar (glucose) level as a result of the body either not producing enough insulin, or because body cells do not properly respond to the insulin that is produced.  For most people, it devlops from all the years of eating too many sugars and too many carbs.  Our bodies produce insulin to fight the high levels of sugar, after soo much abuse to this system, the body devlops diabeties (and it's not just a condition that affects old people).
Did you know that breads and cereals are full of carbohydrates (both regular and whole grain)?  These carbohydrates covert to sugar.  While you are trying to live the low fat healthy life the doctor prescribed, your efforts are being sabotaoged.  Why does the gov't tell us to eat soo many servings of grains?  BECAUSE THEY ARE CHEAP. 
Switching to low carb can be hard for you, but not all things in life are easy.  I've gone through air force basic training, military police training and I have had 2 children.  Those were not easy things, but were well worth my efforts.  Yes, going low carb will change the way you eat, but isn't it worth it to take care of yourself, live long enough to see your grandchildren and have good health instead of shelling out thousands to the doctors?  I know for me, i love the low carb lifestyle VS. the low fat lifestyle and for people that know me, I lost 100 pounds in high school following a super strict low fat and low calorie diet (which was terrible!), so i know a thing or 2 about dieting.
If you have questions, find me on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/vanessa.mcneil

How I lost 2 1/2 pounds in a day

so, i have been trying to get past my plateau, here is what I ate yesterday to help me out (it's kinda similar to the older atkins induction in the older books, except i had that slice of bread and in the old books, you don't eat shakes or bars):
breakfast: 3:00an
1 cup of grean tea
multiviatman
1 egg
1 slice of Julians Bakery carb smart bread
1 oz of cream cheese

snack:6:30
hardboiled egg

snack:8:30
chocolate chip granola atkins bar

snack: 10:30
2 hard boiled eggs
1 slice (1 oz) of colby jack cheese)

lunch: 12:30
atkins shake

snack: 3:00
2 hard boiled eggs
1 oz of colby jack cheese

dinner: 6:00
2 pieces of gordons frozen fish, 0 carb 90 calories a piece
1/2 oz of pork rinds

I also drank a gallon of water (which was gone by dinner), so i drank another 16 oz bottle with dinner.

hope this helps people

calorie count: 1399, i didn't bother to calculate fat or carbs, but i know the carbs are under 10 and the fat is up there pretty good.

Goodbye to weight watchers, low fat, calorie counting and near-starvation diets!

Hello new lifestyle! 
Yes, I'm done with those diets, i've done them all!  First of all, I must share the movie/documentary that changed my life.  It's called "Fat Head".  It's a comedic documentary about how the gov't doesn't really care about our health, they push high carb diets because grains are cheap. (and if we have health problems, then hey, that helps out the medical/medicinal people, along with others.) (( I think it's important that we keep in mind that unlike what we'd like to believe, the gov't doesn't always have our best interest in mind.  All they see is money signs.  Just because they give you a nutrition pyramid to follow, doesn't mean it's correct.))  It even shows how the highly popular documentary "super size me" is just a lie and in "fat head", he eats fast food for 28 days and loses weight!  It's def worth a watch!

So, after watching this documentary on friday, march 11th 2011, I started the Atkins diet on march 13th.  I wouldn't have even probably watched it on, but my husband was working a swing shift, the boys were in bed, so i found i flipping through netflix.  Since starting, i've lost 8.3 pounds.  ((BTW, if you wanna watch the documentary responsible for my change of mind, go to http://www.hulu.com/ and type in "fat head" in the search bar.  It's about an hour and 44 min, it should pop up)).

You may wonder, what diet are you on to make you lose 8lbs in less than a month. 
It's the atkins diet.  NO, it won't kill you and NO, Dr. Atkins (the founder) did NOT die on his own diet (a popular myth).
The basis of the diet is high fat, moderate protein and low carb.  You are supposed to get a majority of your carbs from certain veggies and fruits, not grains.  No bread, pasta, rice, cereal, beans and sugar it sounds tough, but it's just  a matter of retraining your mind, cravings and taste palette.  Now you have to teach your brain that fat is GOOD for you!

There are lots of alternatives on this diet:  instead of high carb bread, if you must eat bread, there is a recepie for the highly coveted recepie - a "MIM" (muffin in a minute, there are many enjoyable variations you can find thru google or the atkins website) and also, there is a bread made by "Julians Bakery" and it's a wonderful tasting 1-carb-a-slice bread ( http://www.julianbakery.com/).  If you like mashed potatoes, there's a recepie called "fauxtatoes" (even my husband likes them) and if you love pizza, then there's a recepie for that as well! ( http://blog.yourlighterside.com/2009/05/low-carb-pizza-dough-cauliflower.html).  Kroger chain grocery stores sell a low carb yogurt that i'm a fan of and you can still have sweets, thanks to russell stovers sugar free items.

So now you want to know: "how do i get started?".  Check out the atkins website for videos on the 'stages' as well as some info you can read up on, the documentary I mentioned and the new version of the atkins book, "A New Atkins, A New You".

One thing you need to remember is that this diet isn't really a diet, it's a LIFESTYLE CHANGE.  If you decide once you lose your weight that you wanna go back to your old ways, you WILL GAIN IT ALL BACK.  Now, that's not saying you cant have a cheat meal once a month or so and maybe once a week once you reach your goal weight.  If you are like me, you might find yourself not missing the dear foods you didn't think you'd be able to live without.  I think it's very important to watch "fat head" to get a full understanding of this lifestyle. 

If you are looking for a big support network, join the atkins facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=16921&post=79739&uid=51386773550#!/AtkinsDiet).  They offer great tips, you can share your success with them and they really care.  you also get lots of opinions if you post something. 

Now that I got all of this explaining out of the way, the rest of this blog will be mostly of recepies, my weight loss, tips, exercising, links to other blogs i like and whatever else i decide, but the main vibe of my blog will be Low Carb.

***update***Dec 15 2011** when I started Atkins, I was 213lbs.  I am now about 175lbs - all thanks to atkins.  My total weight loss since having my son 1 year and 2 days ago is 75 pounds, thanks to atkins, i'll be able to keep it off.  Below is some info on my weight to put things in perspective :)
179 - my lowest ever in high school (I lost 100 pounds during my sophomore and junior high school years)
186 - meps ship-out weight
200 - bmt graduation weight (either I ate too well or a ton of muscle gain, maybe both)
214 - when i found out I was prego (I was doing security work and cured boredom with food, bad choice)
255 - what I weighed 2 weeks post pardum
220 - my weight when I got prego with baby #2
250 - 2 days post pardum
213 - my weight when i started the atkins way of eating in march
175 - my current weight. 
my goal was to meet my lowest high school weight, i've beat that, so my new goal is 169.