Brownie postmortem

I made the brownies yesterday as planned. The truvia used amounts to 3/4 cup. They were a little too dense and did not have the right texture. They needed less or no almonds, and more flour- textured product, maybe replace almonds with soy flour. Maybe a bit more truvia. Less butter. They were also too big. (What!?) Well, with all of that dietary fiber, they are a little bulky... let's just say they moved things along in a healthy, metamucil kinda way. I have had three healthy movements since eating these last night. I've been cleansed! Lol. I think cutting them into 12 portions would be better, and would spread out the carbs and fiber a bit more. To be revised!

2/15/11 - day 24 - v day massacre!

Last night was Valentine’s Day, and my husband and I had a very nice dinner in – and it was completely on the diet.  We split a bottle of champagne – so I had three small glasses.  Hey, it was V Day and I haven’t had any alcohol in more than a month!  Plus, I&N say that in Phase II (which I am entitled to be on if I wanted to because I’ve been on this diet for 3+ weeks), it is okay to have a glass or two of champagne.  So I did.  This morning, I woke up and weighed myself (I know, daily weighing… slap my wrist), and I gained 5 lbs since yesterday morning.  I also did not have a super poop this morning, and I woke up feeling cotton mouthed (read: dehydrated).

I looked up champagne nutrition, and although carbs in champagne can vary by maker, it is safe to assume that the extra brut we consumed last night had about 5 grams of carbs per glass, times three glasses = 15 carbs.

Oh God.  The chili that I made….  I have rethought my recipe and realize that I inadvertently made some carby chili and then ate about 2 servings worth of it.  It was basically made up of turkey Italian sausage, peppers, onions, garlic, a container of simply enjoy vodka sauce (which is 12 g of carbs), and ½ pack each of mccormick sloppy joe seasoning mix (8 g carbs) and mccormick chili seasoning mix (6 g carbs).  Total 26 grams of carbs, not including the veggies, and I probably ate about 1/3 of it.  Oh no.  8+ grams of carbs, not including the carbs that came from the veggies I added. 

The horror!  At least 23 grams of carbs from those two items alone.  Okay.  Time to be a very good girl!

Day 20 - 2/14/11

I am attacking this diet with renewed ferocity!  Watch out!  Yesterday, I drank at least 9 or 10 large glasses of water, ate a ton of fresh veggies, and was really careful about my carb intake. 

This morning, I had yet another super poop.  Holy crap that was some crap.  Sorry to be gross, but this is totally bizarro and a completely different kind of poop than I've ever had before.  And I experience absolutely no discomfort during its prep and execution, which is new for me.  Once again, I pooed last night before bed - a normal looking, normal sized poo.  This morning, I deposited a long, smooth, thin snake in the toilet that was well over 1 foot in length.  It was effortless, it took only seconds to evacuate.  I think that it is a good sign.  I&N talk about "super poops" as being a sign that the diet is going well.  I've been really careful with following the diet the past few days, and I've been rewarded with 2 super poops in a row in the a.m. 

I daily weighed today.  I just couldn't help it - I had to see what effect my super poops were having on my weight.  It was kind of an experiment.  I'm down 1 pound since yesterday at the same time.  That's it for my daily weighing this week, though.  I am not going to let myself get discouraged.

Week 3 weigh in 2/13/11

Well, this has been a hell of a week. I've been in the hospital with my dad every day, and city stuff went a little haywire on Tuesday, leading to a very public showdown with other members of the administration. It played well, but still produced much anxiety (as if I didn't have enough to start with). Happily, dad's surgery went as expected, and he is recovering well. In the meanwhile, I haven't put the intention and drive into this diet that I have in the past weeks. I didn't cheat this week. However, I didn't do everything i was supposed to, i didn't drink enough water,, i didn't eat leafy greens everyday, and i overindulged on the protein. I actually forgot that the diet required one to eat 2cups of leafy greens everyday. I went back and looked at the book and there it was. One thing that I have noticed is that when my regular schedule is thrown off, such as my being at the hospital all the time, it is hard to get all that water in - i usually just forget to drink until i realize that i am parched, and by then I'm already pretty dehydrated. I should have noticed that I haven't been urinating every 45 minutes to an hour the way that i was when i was guzzling the water in week 1. Also, notably, we did a lot of eating out this week, and its hard to guarantee that what you are eating is as low carb as it seems.

Weigh In
I weighed in this morning at 233.5 lbs. This reflects a weight gain of 2 lbs, for a net weight loss of 8 lbs. Needless to say that i am disappointed a bit, but I have determined what i think i did incorrectly, and i am going to give myself a break because it has been a crazy week. I am also going to give myself a lot of credit for sticking to the diet even when faced with extremely limited food choices and high stress situations, where in the past i would have "treated myself" to a full out pig out. Also, I have not been exercising and i need to do that.

Physical changes i have noticed
I realized this week that i have not had either gas or heartburn since i began this diet. Also, i have never felt sickly over full, as i used to after nearly every meal. My gastro system seems to be working more effectively and healthily without all of the carbs. even though I gained wight this week, i have to say that i feel slimmer than i did last week. I have this persistent impression that my belly fat is melting away. There is some evidence of that in the way that my pants fit. It was so striking this week, that i finally went out and bought a tape measure to record my measurements. I will do those later and update the stats page.

Number 2
Today i had a super poop. I have never seen anything like it. It was fluffy textured, healthy looking, chestnut brown, and unbelievably, approximately 18 inches long. It was like a soft textured snake in the toilet. And my belly wasn't even uncomfortable before i went. Even after i was done, i had absolutely no idea what i had produced. I have literally never seen anything like this in my entire life history of pooping. And I think i pooped last night before bed too. It was bizarre. Where did it come from? I mean i don't think I even ate enough yesterday to supply my body with enough stuff to make it. Wow. I wish i took a picture. It was that crazy.