Laurie's journal - Atkins plan (comments welcome)

[LAinSEA]

The day before, the day before...

Day 22 menu: brunch - smoked salmon & cream chees w/capers, diet rite; lunch - crab salad & avocado; snack - 1 oz almonds; dinner - spinach salad w/oil & vinegar dressing, mushrooms & feta cheese, 4 oz turkey, "fake" diet coke; lot's of water. (uneaten snack: 2 oz brie & 2 oz salamie)

With so much water today - I can't figure out why I'm so darn thirsty! Maybe it's because its so warm in this control room (or I'm coming down with something - cross my fingers).

Concerns for tomorrow evening...going to FIL's for Christmas Eve (FIL loves to cook, loves to keep the wine glasses full, is very disappointed when you don't try all of his holiday cookies!) I asked DH to let him know that I'm going to be sticking with my eating plan - and ask what we could bring to share...DH promised me that he will bring some delicious low-carb selections for everyone to try (and me to fall back on).

Christmas day, my parents and grandmother are coming over for dinner. Our menu includes: roast pork, romaine salad w/bleu cheese dressing, egg & almond garnish, green beans and sugar-free creme brulee for dessert.

Other holiday family gathering is Sunday - traditional prime rib dinner at my aunt's. We are bringing the vegetables...

Everyone, thanks again for your support and please have a very safe and merry holiday.

 

[LAinSEA]

Day 23 - Christmas eve

DH and I roll over and turn off the alarm clock at 9am (yeah, we should get up, got a busy day planned and some last minute shopping to do), but we are so tired! OK, so sleep until 10. At 10am I'm up and off to the bathroom - without reliving the details - something isn't right. So back into bed for a few minutes and back to the bathroom (repeat 4 or 5 times) - DH is up and down to feed the felines...and into the bathroom, and back into bed and back into the bathroom. It's now about 11:45am and I've got to get going - so into the shower and out of the shower and wrap up in a towel and waves of nausea start and what little is left in my digestive track is up and out the other way! The kitten is freaked (21 months old and still a baby)! Meowmy just doesn't ever sound like that. Between waves I tell DH to call his dad - we're not going anywhere, Christmas or no Christmas, but back to bed.

The Flu: kitchen is downstairs...DH and I take turns refilling water glasses throughout the day and early evening. Funny how fast just H2O goes through your system when you're ill - doesn't go through the regular channels either. Fever starts after the rest of it...hard to coordinate my hot and cold running chills with DH's. Add Christmas eve to daytime TV and lots of commercials with either the doorbell or phone ringing and you begin to lose grip with reality. Neighbor comes over to delivery a gift and I actually descern the "real thing" - but not the first time he tries. He promises to give us a call to check on us in the morning from about 6 feet away from the threshold.

Low-carb & the Flu - I don't think so: about 7pm DH and I both decide that we had better eat something but what? (I actually banned watcing FoodTV at one point because it made me to nauseous.) Cheese, no, turkey breast or ham, no - veggies, that was the last thing to come up - so no. We try just plain beef boullion - stays down, but doesn't fill up the stomach enough to even think about taking pain killers. All I can think of to take up the acidity is plain white bread (and there hasn't been any in the house since before Thanksgiving!) DH remembers the bread machine and hopes that we have some yeast that hasn't expired yet. He drags himself downstairs and starts it up. We listen to it go through its cycle until its finally ready at near midnight. Warm, plain bread never tasted so good! We each each about 2 medium slices - roughly 1/2 the loaf. Meds are taken, cats are fed and we actually sleep for a few hours at time between trips to the bathroom.

 

[LAinSEA]

Day 24 - Christmas day:

Supposed to have my parents and grandmother come out for dinner this evening...we called shortly after we cancelled FIL on Christmas eve and put them off too. No use in passing this along, especially to my 89 year old grandmother!

Sleep until nearly noon - DH gets up and opens a can of progresso chicken, vegetable, barley soup and makes toast of the remaining bread. We get this down, slowly, but its tough fending off our pride - it's way past their breakfast time. I head downstair and open the can of cat food half expecting to lose it again - but find I can dish it up OK but get dizzy when putting it down on the floor. We load up the dishes in the dishwasher and start making our way back upstairs - Nicklas, the "kitten" is absolutely whining and laying on the stairs blocking our way up. The other 2, Horatio and Matilda are in the livingroom by the tree...DH goes "Oh, Sandy Claws must have come and the kitties want their stockings." DH and I may have wanted to postpone Christmas, but can't fool the cats as to what day it is. (DH had found time while the soup was heating to play "Sandy Claws" - thankfully the stockings were full.)

New cat toys allowed us to get a few more hours of "hot and cold" rest. We actually get up a few times...get the bed stripped, washed and re-made. Get the kitchen picked up. Keep the water flowing. But everything is done in little bits - more than 10 minutes up and around and exhaustion sets in. We both get a shower sometime in the afternoon and I fight off the nausea - maybe it has sometime to do with my temp rising with the hot water.

About 7pm, I ask DH if he thinks he could keep down some scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. He decides we could try that and offers to make it for dinner. We eat and scrub up and back to bed. Not counting carbs for day 24 either.

 

[LAinSEA]

Day 25 - or the day after:

FIL calls before we're up and out of bed this morning. "So, are you back among the living?" We have to agree that things are better than yesterday and much better than the day before, but between DH and I, we agree the holidays could just go away at this point. (We haven't even any gifts yet - and I confessed that some of that last minute shopping on Christmas eve was supposed to be for DH...) FIL wants to have us over on Saturday - I would have rather done it tonight and cooked for my family on Saturday, but FIL doesn't go for the "tonight" suggestion. DH and I try to figure out the rest of the holiday schedule...plans on Sunday at my aunt's, Monday with my niece and her friends at Enchanted Village for holiday lights (with my parents) and I'm back to work on Tuesday through Thursday. Would the girls eat pork roast before going to the park on Monday? Not a great choice for a party of 12 year olds. Call my folks and would they like to come down tonight for "Christmas dinner"? with warnings that the house is NOT going to be pristine for company. Grandmother is not available but they come out and enjoy pork roast, green beans, romaine salad w/bleu cheese, egg and tomatoes and french bagette bread...last minute afterthough by DH since we won't have time to make up desert for tonight. (I actually have 2 small pieces of the bread with butter - helps to settle my tummy that is still threatening to remember Christmas eve.)

While picking up, doing laundry, I didn't have much of an appetite - if at all. Nothing looked or sounded good. I had a couple of oz. of brie about 1pm so I could take some advil. Managed to get down a fair amount of water. But something about just out of the shower and nausea is still there as well as occasional chills. So I guess I'm not quite finished with this bug.

I've decided to get through Saturday and Sunday without counting carbs...just eating carefully and not overdoing anything with a high carb count. Back totally to 20 carbs or less on Monday again.

Almost got on the scale this morning...big temptation knowing that with very little food and dehydration that it has to have moved. Talked myself out of it...would rather just wait and see on Monday and not experience a loss and a gain.

 

[LAinSEA]

Day 26 - making up for lost time: DH and I are still moving slowly. We feel much better but any need to rest after doing any small chores. Appetite still has not returned for either of us.

I decided I had to eat something around noonish so I wouldn't be tempted over at FIL's home later that evening. I had about 2 oz of salamie (it was already measured) and little less than a cup of leftover green beans from the night before. Got down a few glasses of water mid-morning until we left about 3:30pm. DH made up some smoked salmon & creme cheese rollups to share at his fathers.

DH had told his dad that we were still moving slowly - this being our first venture out since Christmas eve and didn't have too much of an appetite as yet and to please not go to too much trouble for us. We just wanted to see them. But FIL decides he needs to cook another prime rib (he went ahead and cooked the one on Christmas eve without us for he and his GF). The food was wonderful - prime rib, brussel sprouts & broccoli, mixed green salad w/vinegaret dressing & au gratin potatoes (I had exactuly 1 Tb of these to try - no use in making an issue at FIL.) In fact DH and I only had small servings of everything and no seconds. FIL didn't seem amused - there's half a roast beast left in the kitchen. Thankfully he didn't prepare a desert. I politely tried the wine - but it really wasn't to my taste. DH agreed with me - however FIL and his GF finished the bottle and started another...

FIL smokes like a chimney - at 70+ it is doubtful that he'll ever stop. (He also about 100 lbs overweight.) His home is large with tall ceilings and good air flow but I almost always end up with asthma after visiting. I wish I'd actually had an issue while I'm there so he can see what I go through - but it usually comes on about the time were getting home. DH and I stripped our clothes coming in the door and showered before bed to head it off. But my attack came on shortly after midnight and this morning I feel like I'm jittery from the inhalers again. I wish medical science would find non-steriod medication for asthma. After having to use an inhaler, I literally shake for 15 to 30 minutes and my hands, feet and face all puff up for about 12 hours.

Tonight is holiday dinner at my aunt's home. We are bringing the vegetables and a basket of holiday "goodies" FIL gave us from his kitchen that I'm sure are very tasty but nothing but sugar and other stuff neither of us has the desire to eat.

 

[DoeWDW]

Laurie, here's a !! It's such a shame that you and DH were so sick!! I hope you're feeling all better soon.

You are so very brave to be going out to others' houses to celebrate even though you're feelnig awful! Get well quick!

 

[Strings]

Laurie, I;m so sorry to hear that you've been ill. I hope you are feeling better today. Take care of yourself and DH.
Beth

 

[ZerasPride]

I'm so sorry you and your husband were sick. That flu is really going around. My sister and her family are passing it back and forth between the 4 of them. Feel better soon!

 

[LAinSEA]

Thanks Doreen, Lisa and Beth - DH and I are feeling a lot better. Just hoping that now we're "immune".

Went to my aunt's for holiday dinner - one more night of prime rib (not that I'm complaining). We brought green beans with bacon, garlic & onions. I had a small spoonful of mashed potatoes and one of my mother's famous (or infamous) homemade rolls to go with the beef and beans. "Befores" were fresh veggies and sour cream "ranch" dressing - I had a few mushrooms and broccoli pieces. I was very good and skipped desert.

Earlier in the day I had leftover pork roast and green salad with bleu cheese dressing and a snack of havarti and salami. I didn't want to be hungry and tempted to eat what I shouldn't have at my aunt's.

Today (Day 28): DH and I got up and went to see the Lord of the Rings. Now the bad part - we shared a large popcorn with butter. Well, not the largest of the large - and now I've got this "hangover" not sure if it's the length of the movie or all the popcorn. Popcorn is definitely my downfall - It's something I crave. DH promised that is the last cheat for a very long time and since we don't get out to movies often, I can go along with that.

Today was also weigh in day - I was hopeful that I'd have lost something due to the flu...but I'm holding steady at 177 (nothing gained, nothing lost) but I'm also puffy from my body trying to get over the severe dehydration from Christmas eve...things have not equalled out yet. DH and I are still battling the low-grade temp and occasional waves of nausea. The scariest part of being at the movie today was the rest of the audience coughing and sneezing. If there is something worse out there - we've been exposed big time.

Going to Holiday lights with my folks and niece tonight after dinner - a low carb one.

 

[ZerasPride]

Laurie - it's good to know you and your DH are up and about.

You can't have popcorn on Atkins? I was so happy when I got to Phase II of South Beach and we could introduce popcorn. I even took my own container of I can't believe it's not butter with me in the movies and sprayed it on the popcorn. Yummy! We saw Cheaper by the Dozen. It was so cute.

Good for you skipping that dessert. I am sure after your body gets itself together you will be reporting a loss. Hang in there and take care!!!!

 

[Castillo Mom]

Laurie, don't feel bad about the popcorn, you can definitely have it on Atkins, I think a cup but don't quote me on that. I went to the movies too this weekend and experienced the same as you, lots of coughing and sneezing from people in the audience, yuck! I hope you're completely over this soon. Take care!

 

[LAinSEA]

Menu Day 28: brunch - lots of buttered popcorn at the movies w/smuggled in Diet Rite; dinner - left over pork roast, green beans; 1 1/2 hot cocoas.

Fantasy with Lights was very fun but extremely cold. My niece and her friends had a great time going on the rides (my mom and I enjoyed a few also). DH and my father skipped the rides. The temp got down to 23 degrees - and DH and I decided it would be better to get the hot cocoa to get warmed up...either that or coffee and I'm doing quite well at avoiding caffeine so watered down sugared cocoa was the lesser of two evils. Neither of us still have much of an appetite after being sick. We did a bunch of walking and hiking up and down the hills at the park...and a lot of jumping around to stay warm! Helped to throw off the movie hangover.

Menu Day 29: breakfast - 2 eggs scrambled, 2 links turkey sausage, "real" diet coke (down to one everyother day now); snack - 1 oz. almonds; lunch - 1 cup of green beans w/butter; dinner - leftover pork roast, mixed green salad w/bleu cheese dressing; snack (if I need it) - 1 oz cheese and 1 oz salami. Lots of water and 2 diet rite colas.

Popcorn: It's not that I can't have it - it's just that I'd use it to replace 2 or 3 meals daily if I could. I'm still trying to stay under 20 carbs per day until my body decides it's OK to let go some weight so much popcorn isn't really that good for me right now. DH easily ate more than 1/2 the large bag at the movie yesterday - but I'm still estimating I ate about 4-5 cups. But on the good side of things, it did help my digestive track to get moving again after the bout with the flu.

Now that I'm back to work - DH is back to packing the cooler for me. It's much easier to eat just whats there and not go out and fend for myself just yet. I'm looking forward to trying out the new low-carb menu at Subway soon - it will give my one more good fast food option close to work if I need it.

 

[Strings]

Laurie, I'm glad you and DH are feeling better. Don't feel too badly about the popcorn. You are getting over an illness. Your body might just be telling you it needs a few extra carbs right now. It takes a lot of energy to fight off the flu. Keep the fliuds going.
Beth

 

[Castillo Mom]

Glad you're feeling better Laurie. It's great that your husband is so supportive and helps you with your meals. I'm looking forward to trying Subway too. Didn't know about it until Doreen mentioned it. Take care!

 

[LAinSEA]

Day 30 menu (New Year's eve): brunch - smoked salmon, cream cheese w/capers, "fake" diet coke; snacks - 1 oz almonds/macadamia mix, 2 oz brie & 1 oz salami; dinner - mixed green salad w/bleu cheese, parmasan & tomatoes, diet rite soda, 4 oz ham. Lots of water.

It snowed last night for my drive home (I know that is nothing new you all back east, but here it's a disaster!). I have an old all-wheel drive Subaru Outback and even with not-so-great tires I got home OK. I was really worried that the commute in today was going to be awful but it warmed a little and they got on the plowing in our neighborhood early. Because of the snow, the producers and crew got together and decided we'd pre-tape our late NW show. I'm happy I won't be out driving near midnight...the crew is happy they'll be partying somewhere before midnight.

Resolutions: To find and follow a exercise program that fits with my schedule. To continue better eating habits. To be patient with DH while he looks for work and to show him more appreciation for all the help he's given me to stay on this plan.

 

[Strings]

Glad you made it home safely. Great resolutions. I'm sure you'll find a program that works for you soon. Good Luck to DH finding the job
Beth

 

[ZerasPride]

Hi Laurie!

I am sure you will find an exercise program that suits you. There are so many out there, it almost makes your head spin. I ride my exercise bike and have joined a FIRM video challenge on the lowcarbfriends board.

Sorry to hear about the snow you guys had. I was just telling DH how wonderful it is that it's January and not a snow flake to be had here in Cleveland. I know it won't last but I am loving it while it does!

I hope your husband finds work soon. I remember when my husband was out of work and it was a pretty stressful time. Take care!

 

[LAinSEA]

Day 31 menu: brunch - deviled eggs, "real" diet coke; snack - 1 oz macadamias; dinner - 3 oz turkey breast, mixed green salad w/oil & vinegar, egg, bacon bits, parmasan cheese (couldn't finish either); lots of water (snack if I need it of brie & salami), diet rite

Working on holidays is just no fun...but if you work in TV (or health care, etc.) it's just another fact of life. I did get tomorrow off (also a holiday for us this year) - keep my fingers crossed that no one calls in sick.

Speaking of sick - not sure the flu bug is gone for good yet...upset tummy and a little low-grade fever hanging around today with a new sore throat.

Not looking forward to the drive home - the snow has returned - but I'm sure the road crews are snug at home watching football not plowing and sanding. I'm not so worried about myself - lots of snow driving experience - but for some reason people here in the Puget Sound area abandon their cars in the middle of the freeway when the first flake falls.

Lisa - the firm videos are great, I'm going to head to target this weekend and see if I can pick some up (my sis took her copies to Provo). I'm also going to check out the hours and price of the Curves location closest to me.

Beth & Lisa - I'm sure hoping that DH will find work soon...after working 16 years straight, he deserves the break. However, staying home is starting to get to him - and as much as I'm really happy with all the great cooking and meal fixing, I am hoping he finds something to do part-time, contract or full-time. The economy and unemployment is really lagging behind out here. I'm trying to convince him that he should go back to school and get his teaching cert (and I'm thinking about doing that myself)...he taught undergrad biology his last year in college.

 

[LAinSEA]

Day 32: More snow...but the roads weren't too terrible. DH and I went out and about to do a little shopping and exchanging. We went to Subway for lunch and I tried one of their new wraps - the turkey bacon but skipped the green peppers and onions. It was good but I think a little more meat and cheese would be nice. The wrap itself was very tasty - almost sweet tasting. We had an early dinner of crab salad on romaine w/bleu cheese dressing, avocado, slivered almonds, tomato and parmasan cheese. I snacked on some macadamias while watching part the ALIAS first season DVD's. Lots of water and no caffeine today! Good walk around the mall.

Day 33: Again more snow...roads OK earlier and horrible now. Breakfast was 2 eggs scrambled and a real diet coke and then a couple glasses of ice water. We went grocery shopping for us and the cats...our TOP foods store now has a low-carb bread from their bakery (4 g/slice) and also carries a low-carb herb & garlic flavored torilla (4 g each) and a 4 g large wrap (like Subway's). It will be nice to have a "sandwich" as an alternative. They also had a large selection of Atkins products including the breakfast cereals and pasta. But the price is out of control. For example the Atkins indulge ice cream was 3.69 a pint - the Breyers low-carb is 3.69 for 2 pints. I'm not missing pasta that much but we are going to try to make a low-carb pizza crust soon because we are both missing pizza! Dinner tonight will be BBQ flank steak and greek salad. (DH had to brush 4" of snow off of the BBQ!)

I'm not supposed to work again until Tuesday (unless someone calls in sick or snowed in). The Curves location was closed today - if the weather moderates I'm going to go check out the particulars on Monday.

 

[Strings]

Hi Laurie,
Great job on your meals. That crab salad sounds yummy. I hope you manage to stay home. I hate answering my phone on my days off. I have a problem saying no. Fortunately I have the option to say no. Have a great weekend.
Beth