[quinn101]

I apologize for my wordiness and I hope all of this makes sense when reading....

The Purpose of this Diary- To keep me on track during this (the toughest) part of my weight loss journey by sharing my daily eating habits an weekly weigh ins.

Background- I am emotionally addicted to food. I have always had a decent metabolism, but I tend to eat everything in front of me no matter the quantity (especially pasta, pizza, and french fries!!). Low Carb has always worked for me, but since it has not been a "lifestyle," I have been riding the diet rollercoster for over 12 years in which I have wieghed as low as 185 (mom said I was too skinny ) and as much as 273 (the weight I started this program with).

To this point in my diet- I started in July of 07 and along with a few detours (especially with the temptations of a job that I travel all over the US), I was doing pretty well. I ate low carb all week and allowed one cheat meal on Saturday evening. When I stuck to that plan, I lost 2-3 lbs every week regardless of whether or not I exersized. Two weeks ago I was 215 an happy, but I had a 4 day weekend at home inwhich I drank a little too much (which causes me to crave carbs big time and I had pizza, pasta, and french fries....my wekanesses!). Worse was the next week in which I went to San Antonio and decided to enjoy the restaurants there...MEXICAN, CHINESE, ITALIAN, INDIAN, and 2 trips for fast food!! I ate without caution 3 meals a day that (last) week!! I came home and weighed myself friday morning 227 POUNDS!!!

QUICK FIX DIET- I purchased the James Zita diet (18in4) last year and had some success with it so I decieded to torture myself the next four days (last friday to yesterday) as punishment for my week and a half of hedonism. I guess I was so determined that this quick fix crash diet was much easier to follow than I remember the last time I did it. When I got on the scale this morning I wieghed 212!!...15 pound weight loss!!. I was so stoked I was about to do a second run of the diet, but cooler heads prevailed as I realized losing weight like that with that limited of calories is really unhealthy, but it did renew my focus on going back to low carb.

From this point forward...I am determined to put on this site exatly what I eat each day and how I am feeling as well the amount of weight I have lost. My only regret is the fact that I didn't do this from the get-go....I think I would have had a lot less "detours" if I had and I would have reached my goal wieght a long time ago. Still I have lost 61 pounds total and I am 19 away from my goal. THis is a tough time for me because as I approach 210lbs, I start to look really good and I lose focus easier thinking "I can always make up for a slip up" and before I know it, I am 235 and depressed....which causes me to eat more and more high carb comfort food. UGH!!! I am determined to hit 193 in which I look phenominal and stay there! Wish me luck!

Alright, I just wrote a novel so if you took the time to read it, I appreciate it. Feel free to follow my lead as this steadily works for me

[quinn101]

Day 1

I bought enough food for the James Zeta diet for a second 4 days so I ended up using a lot of that along with what I already had in my fridge.

Breakfast:
3 chicken parmasan meatballs (less that 1 carb and 1 gram of fat!)
2 mini cheese dogs from oscar myer (doubt it was healthy but only one carb)
Cherry Coke Zero
Coffee

Mid Morning Snack:
Nacho Cheese Flavored Pork Rinds (suprisingly good! and NO CARBS!)

Late Lunch (About 2:30pm)
4 oz Chicken Breast
4 oz Hamburger
2 slices of swiss cheese
more nacho pork rinds (Can't get enough!! )
Cherry Coke Zero

4 pm Workout:
28 minutes on elliptical
3 sets of 12 of Bench Press, Rowing Machine, Pec Deck, Sholder Press
28 minutes on cross trainer (new aerobic machine at gym that I am getting addicted to)

Shopping:
Going to eat like a king the rest of this week as I bout some chicken, burgers, and New York Strip along with other low to no carb goodies.

Dinner:
Ok it was 7pm and I still didn't feel hungry so I forced myself to eat some celery and a sugar free jello to keep the metabolism going.
water.

Side note- Throughout the day (including during workout) I drank close to a gallon of water.

Going to to a ketosis check daily starting tomorrow morning. I would be suprised if it comes up purple tomorrow because the Zeta diet called for 12 oz of prune juice and and apple which is about 80 grams of carb alone.

[quinn101]

Suprisingly, I did a ketone test this morning and it came up pretty purple! (moderate, mg/dL: 40)

I guess the James Zeta diet is low enough in carbs that when i ate no carbs the next day, I was already in ketosis.

This is noteworthy because it usually takes 4-5 days to get to this color!

I will post my food intake this evening. Have a great day everyone!

[quinn101]

Hmmm...weight update:

I decided to but a new scale because my current one was kind of old. I compared my weight on the 2 scales and saw that I weighd 212 on my old one and 215 on this new one. I assume the old was is calibrated wrong, so I am going to go with my current weight at 215 instead of 212 and measure my progress from there (sheesh this means I could have tipped the sales at 276 or MORE when I was at my heaviest!! :O)

[quinn101]

Yesterday:

7:30 am
Celery
cup of sugar free jello
coffee

10:00 am
southwest egg beaters
small handful of 4 cheese blend
coffee

11am
Rockstar Zero Carb Energy

1pm
Southwest chicken strips
handful of shredded cheese
32 oz of water

5pm workout:
28 minutes on crossramp
3 sets of 12 on; bicep machine, tricep machine, bicep curls on pully machine, tricept pushdowns, and dumbell curls
30 minutes on elliptical

7pm
6 oz hamburger with 2 slices of american cheese
green beans
diet soda

9-2am
Went out for KARAOKE (I am a Karaoke nerd) and had a bit of indescretion...2 vodkas, 3 jim beams, and 1 bicardi limon.
All of these beverages have 0 carbs, but they still hinder the body from affectively doing ketosis.

This morning (with a huge headache), I took a ketone test and found the strip was not quite as purple as it was yesterday morning, but still at the moderate level so from that standpoint, I was happy because my body is still using my fat stores for energy, so my prgress may have been temporarily slowed, but not stopped.

Since I have been on a very calorie restricted diet (18-4) and I had not been drinking at all for the last couple of weeks, the alcohol hit me MUCH harder than usual...I have barely eaten so far today, and there is no way I am going to make it to the gym unless I get a load of energy and my headache goes away in the next hour.

I hope my experience today will keep me from drinking in the near future!!