Day 41. Fun in the Sun

Hiya, today was like a Summers day except in March, and because it was sooo warm outside and sunny, I couldn’t stay indoors, I just had to get outside and enjoy this glorious weather, afterall it is in limited supply in the UK.

Oh, but I didn’t just stop there, oh no… In fact I jumped into my car, drove over to Newborough Beach and went hiking (roughly four hours +). It was awesome, I saw lots of beautiful sites and because the sun was fairly strong I even got myself a slight red glow ;o) Opps :o)

Its amazing to have such nice weather at this time of year, I hope there is more to come.

Other than this I didn’t do too much, basically chilled from doing any work for a change. I am hoping to have shed a few pounds with all that walking too :o)

Day 40. Opps I did it Again...

Hey folks I got lost in the Game earlier. I picked up a friend from the airport, only trouble was 3 hours later than scheduled (Due to the flight being delayed), and because I left home super early in the morning without a proper breakfast (My bad for not getting up early enough) I kind of slipped on my lunch - food choice… eck! Anyhow to cut a long story short, I kind of broke my diet a little, but not by much. Basically because I was starving due to me not eating properly that morning, AND the flight being delayed AND because I was hours from getting home AND my friend wanted McDonalds, I kind of snuck and ate a Cheese Burger with the Bun…!

Anyhow so yup I’m guilty. I hope the Atkins police don’t hear about this. Other than that, it was all good :o) I still ate fairly healthily throughout the rest of the day :oX hehe! So maybe they won't catch me :oD Besides I did lots of walking, around an one hours worth.

Day 39. Little Fishy Dishy

HiHi! I just want to apologize to all you readers out there for my very brief posts. Just to summarize I have a lot of work and pressure on at the moment, hence my lack of material. Actually when I have some more time, I have a little gift for all you low-carbers to share, but you will just have to wait and see what it is ;o)

Something I ate earlier though is worth a mention. I decided to mimic fish and chips for dinner but in a low carb fashion, and I have to admit I definitely pulled it off in style. My food substitute for potato is celeriac instead, secondly I only had salmon in my fridge, so I had salmon instead of cod too. I am so glad I made this meal, I urge anyone to try it for themselves. Its pretty quick and simple to make, here is a run down of how I did it :oP

• Peel celeriac, and chop into chunky fries (Used Desired Portion to Your Diet).
• Boil some water in the Kettle (or Pan if you don’t have a kettle).
• Then put celeriac fries into the boiling pan of water.
• Cook on medium heat for 7 minutes or so, or until slightly tender.
• Pre-heat Oven, nice and hot I used 230 degrees.
• Drain water from pan and place celeriac chips onto a baking tray.
• Drizzle plenty of Olive Oil over the Fries so that they are bathing in the tray.
• Cook for about 20 minutes or until brown and crisp.
• Whilst cooking Celeriac Fries, Oven Grill or George Forman Grill the Salmon.
• And Voila done a tasty very filling meal.

You could probably cook celeriac fries in a deep fat fryer without boiling them, only problem is though, I don’t have a deep fat fryer, but if anyone does try this let me know, I would be very greatful to hear ;o) Perhaps post a comment below :oD

Day 38. Lean is Mean

One cool thing happened to me earlier: I haven’t seen some of my uni friends for two weeks, and then all of a sudden I bump into them in the reading room (A place where I study a lot) and without prompt, the first thing they said to me was… “I can’t believe how much weight you have lost, you are looking much leaner” :o) Cool stuff don’t you think, I thought soo :o)

This then gave me the idea to check over my progress. Well I’ve lost a total of 9.2 kg in the last 6 weeks, and browsing over my weekly pictures (I take a picture of myself each week) you can really see the difference :o) BTW I haven't published my pictures on this blog – however I will publish them closer to my goal… at the moment they look a little embarrassing and hideous – Sorry!

Day 37. The Road is Long

Today I left my Dads house and drove all the way back to University, all 300 + miles of it in my new but old car. New as in, it’s new to have it back, but old because it used to be mine, well technically it used to be my sisters car, then she gave it to me, then I gave it back to her, and then she gave it to back to me again, but this time its probably going to be mine for good now…. Phew! It’s a good cheap little runner though and living three miles away from town, university and shops, it can be a God send when it’s raining cats and dogs outside. So what does this have to do with today’s Diet? Well nothing really, except I haven’t done much other than travel all day. So nothing much to report.

I didn’t eat too much either, this was partly down to my laziness to prepare food for my trip and lack of low carb food choices in service stations to purchase, therefore tut tut on me. Anyways I made it safe and sound home so now its time for bed. Ciao :o)

Day 36. The Show Down

Start of Week 6 and my results are in and it’s a positive sign. From 93.4kg (205.9 lbs or 14.7 Stone) to 92.4kg (203.7 lbs or 14.6 Stone). Granted I didn’t lose a tremendous amount this week, but hey I did mix my diet up just a little with the odd splurge-a-roonie ;o) Actually I thought I would have put on weight if anything ;o) But back to my normal eating plan now.

Checkout my loss though, a whole Kilogram within a week, that’s just awesome especially because of my slight deviations whoops!

It was another day for product testing too. I tried some more of the Atkins range. This time I ate the delicious “Atkins Endulge Crispy Milk Chocolate Bar” and wow I was totally impressed with the taste of this bar in fact I reckon I could get addicted to these. My only two gripes are the size and cost. As usual £1 a bar is a bit steep especially when it’s only 40 grams in size but then again only 1 net carb can’t be bad :oP

Day 35. Off the Beaten Track

Holy smokes… here I am writing a blog on my weight loss journey and then I go out and have a huge dish of Fish and Chips with a Battered Sausage (A great English delicacy btw)…. What is going on? You’re probably asking yourself. Well if you look at post "Day 33", it’s all explained there :o) But just so you all know my splurge period is over. No more diversions, no more slip ups, well not for another 6 weeks or so anyways ;o)

It’s back to the committed Atkins plan for me as of tomorrow. It was delicious to have fish and chips again though, and it was in aid of a special occasion, a family get together type treat :oP Especially as I will be heading back to university either tomorrow or the next day and my sister is off to Japan, so yep that’s what this splurge is all about :o)

Another point I want to make if your following along with my food choices, please don’t use my Fish and Chips record as a low carb food idea, because this is not a low carb dish ;o) This message is for all those people who need a contains nuts label on a pack of nuts :o)))) hehehe!

Nonetheless tomorrow is the big day, will this week be a good or bad weigh in experience…. Stay tuned to find out, I hope one meal hasn't underdone all my hard work :oS

Day 34. Net Carb Overdose Trilogy!

Do you want to know the good news or the bad news? Well I like to start with the bad news first because good news leaves a sweeter after taste.

So the Bad News is, I’ve eaten a tremendous amount of net carbs. The chocolate egg alone contained 70g of net carbs… shocking don’t you think!

The Good News, no more chocolate distractions left, therefore I cannot fly off the rails anymore ;o) Well I guess I still have a family splurge meal to attend, but still no more chocolate concerns.

This got me thinking too of my old eating habits, which you could say got me into my obese situation in the first place. This is a typical example of how weight can spiral out of control so quickly eating soooo many carbs.

Before I started Atkins I would have eaten so much bread, pasta, potatoes, rice etc and then I would have a nice desert to finish off (Mainly something chocolaty) And this would occur on a daily basis. No wonder I put on weight.

Keeping this log truly does reflect that keeping net carbs under control helps to reduce weight.

Day 33. More Shenanigans & Happy Easter Everyone

Hola amigos, it’s like day two of my dodgy splurge ways but the good news is….am almost done with my Easter feast, but I have one chocolate egg still to gobble and perhaps a family meal to attend :oP But what a difference it makes eating and mixing junk food on Atkins, today I measured my net carb intake to be 57.2 which is a lot.

To hopefully make up for some of my indulgences I did play some basketball earlier, albeit for only 20 minutes but still better than nothing :oS

I do wonder how this deviance is going to play out with my results this week. Will it have a negligible or negative effect on my weight… could this be the first time since the start of Atkins that I gain. I guess we are just two short days away from finding out :o) Nevertheless it was nice to have some chocolate ;o) Yum yum yum!

So there we have it, another short post, till tomorrow take care & Happy Easter :o]

Day 32. My Bad!

Hum, I have a tiny confession to make… today I’ve been a bit of a bad boy, basically I ate something which was on the Atkins naughty list. It all came about when my dad bought me a Chocolate Easter Egg (with 2 x Snickers bars attached). My dad gave me this a few days ago obviously as an pre Easter present. I tried to resist not eating it, but when it’s in front of you and you walk past it daily, it's kind of difficult to ignore, so am sure you can imagine what happened next… :oS

So yup, I ended up munching on a snickers bar, it was very nice too ;o) Now normally I wouldn’t break my diet or even buy such things, EXCUSE TIME --> but as I’ve lost a lot of weight and its Easter time, and its coming up to 6 weeks of being on Atkins now <-- EXCUSE OVER - I thought what the hell, why not :oP Plus it was really starting to drive me nuts, salivating and not being able to eat it.

Some of you clever boffins may have noticed that I only ate one bar, and probably did the math, and are wondering what happened to the rest of my Chocolate delight. Well I managed not to eat the rest of it and the reason for this is, that I’m planning a splurge day very soon. Now for the people who don’t know what a splurge is, it’s basically a time you pick to vent your High Carb cravings. Now for some people this might not be a good idea to do, but for me I don’t think it will cause me to deviate from my plan… and am sure it will help me to stay focused on my future goals.

So what does a splurge consist of??? Well basically it’s a time you plan a meal, just one sitting where you can eat anything you want and as much as like, including desert. You can hear more about this idea from Jimmy & Catherine’s video found below:

Now some people would say this is cheating or could be a detrimental idea. But you know what, for some this might just be, but on the flip side, I kind of see this as a good reward and a motivator to keep me more focused and committed :o) Plus it was a gift, so hence…

After eating my snickers bar I don’t feel so guilty, and up until now I have committed 100% to my plan with amazing lweight oss results ;o) So just to let you guys and gals know, I’m planning to eat the rest of my Easter egg and snickers bar over the next couple of days and perhaps go out for a meal with my family, so don’t be to alarmed over my intentions of the sheer amount of net carbs consumed :o) Besides it’s a gift and its Easter, so Happy Festivities :oP

Day 31. O’Buddy O’Pal

This is just a brief post as I’ve just got back from a longish road trip. Today I caught up with some buddies of mine where I used to live. It was cool catching up with them. I also mentioned my blog ;o) So if you know me and are reading this ahoi :o) and watch this space, hehehe!

On my travels I also visited the local fish and chips shop, and am glad I did because I had a juicy deep fat fried jumbo sausage, it was delicious (& without Chips ;o). Oh and I had another low carb Milkshake from Tesco, this time the chocolate one. It was very tasty but I definately prefer the Strawberry flavor, its more refreshing.

Anyways this is everything I've eaten today :oP

Day 30. Try Outs!

If your wondering about today’s title, it’s not about me trying out for some team, audition or anything, but exploring my taste buds and discovering some more low carb products. First up I tried another product from the Atkins range. If you’ve been following my progress you might remember on Day 18 I had my first Atkins treat the “Atkins Advantage Chocolate & Hazelnut Crunch Bar”. Well today I tested the Atkins Chocolate Decadence version instead.

I have to admit its almost identical to the Hazelnut bar in everyway (as far as texture and size is concerned) but obviously without the nutty (Hazelnut) flavor ;o) Both bars are very chewy, not quite like eating a milk chocolate bar, but enjoyable all the same. The best thing is though, they’re a very fulfilling treat, plus knowing that you can eat them and still lose weight is always a bonus :oP

The second product I tried was a Low Carb Strawberry Milkshake and yum this was sooooo nice :oP Its part of the low carb Tesco range, so if your in the UK and wondering where I got it from, now you know. I was expecting it to taste very similar to the normal milkshakes I make from whey protein, however I was pleasantly surprised. The shake had a very smooth sweet refreshing strawberry taste. The downside to it though, was its not very cheap at £1 a carton. Still I will no doubt buy another one soon.

The third product I tried was Aspartame Free, Diet Coke Cola. I don’t know about all you, but every now and then I really like to enjoy a soft drink or two, BUT with most diet soft drinks it’s extremely difficult to find a drink which is aspartame free unless you go for non diet fizzy drinks, but that would defeat the point in the first place right. Anyhow my dad buys this drink from ASDA supermarket a lot. So I tried it, and I must say it’s not all that bad either. Just so you know the aspartame is substituted with the sucrelose sweetener instead.

So there you go a few new alternatives you can check out. If you have any cool suggestions, recommendations or ideas of alternative foods, please let me know am always happy to hear them.

Day 29. Weigh-in Week 4 & Measurement Accuracies

Yippee what a result… :o) This week I’m a loser check out my stats ;o)

That’s a 2.6 kg (5.8 lbs) loss ;o) from 96kg (211.7 lbs). I was a little concerned earlier in the week that I would have a repeat of last weeks results….. so phew finally the stall is over…!

I did notice a small problem, and that is, I realized that it’s more difficult to take consistent body measurements than I thought, and hence if you look at my statistic’s closely in comparison to last weeks, I seem to be bigger in measurements in certain areas. Which prompted me to search on the net to learn how to take body measurements correctly, and I discovered something…

I discovered that I have been taking my measurements wrong all along. Especially because I didn’t know how to measure my thighs, waist, chest and hips properly doh!

I educated myself by reading these two well written articles:

• How To Take Body Tape Measurements

• How to Take Body Measurements in Five Simple Steps

Please check them out, even if you think you have been measuring yourself properly, still read just in case, I wouldn’t want you to be making the same mistake as I have been all this time!!!

Therefore the previous body measurements on my blog should be void and today’s results onwards should be the ones everyone should be keeping their eye on, doh!!!

Hope this helps. Anyhow I have still lost weight which is a good thing and here is today’s food.

Till next weeks weigh in, stay tuned & keep up the good work if your also losing along with me :o)

Day before the Big Day :o)

Wow its official, week four is over and tomorrow is results day. Has it been a good or bad week for weight loss? Well I guess you folks are just going to have to wait and see, hehehe ;o)

I’ve been pretty dedicated to my diet, with only a few slips ups, like today’s overdose in food and the chocolate birthday cake that I had earlier in the week. Occasionally I missed eating every six hours too :oS But to be honest… I wasn’t exactly hungry when this occurred.

As far as exercise is concerned, it’s been a pretty disappointing week because I haven’t been able to do Volleyball or Badminton training. However as a substitute, I’ve done a little walking and cycling but nothing too major. Ecck!

K enough said, but before I go, I do want to say how nice my Turkey Stew was, you should definitely give it a go. It was shared between three people, so I cannot exactly tell you the exact quantities of all the net carbs, but I have roughly guessed. My family are also on Atkins as well ;o) so it was All Atkins kosher :o)

Day 27. Is Shopping Exercise?

Hey ya ol ;o) Hum, its been a cool day. Got out with my ickle Sis and Dad and went to Brighton, not just for site seeing but shopping too. Wow, am quite impressed with Brighton, it’s a huge city with plenty going on. I ended up buying a few things, but mainly a nice hoody jumper which am well impressed with ;o)

One thing I am wondering though…. would people class shopping as exercise???? ;o) I could imagine it probably is, but should I record it in my blog as exercise? After all, you walk around the high street, in and out of shops, up and down multiple floors, all whilst carrying bags of goodies. To be honest am not that big of a fan of shopping, but every now and then, needs must. Nevertheless I’ve decided to include this shopping escapade in my exercise section ;o)

Anyways dinner tonight was awesome, had loads of chicken with a side dish of spinach and cheese bake. From my table you can see I didn’t eat many net carbs but believe me I ate loads :oP One of the beautiful things about Atkins and still lose weight :o)

Day 26. Mini POst

Hey Guys this is just a mini Post, mainly to keep you updated of my progress, and because I am still settling in at my Dads place which is leaving me minimal time. You know how it is, when you first visit your family and you have loads of catching upto do.

I've eaten quite well though as you can see below:


Anyhow ciao for now ;o)

Day 25. Meet the Downes's

Today I traveled a huge journey (Roughly 300+ miles) from my University home in North Wales to my Dads crib way down south in England. You may have noticed I haven’t eaten much for breakfast or dinner. That’s because I had a lazy day in bed, hence I missed breakie. Then I kind of did the brunch thing which filled me up until late afternoon.

In the evening I was sort of obligated to eat my Dads birthday cake which was saved for me. Although this really wasn’t much of an obligation or difficult task, after all it was a huge Chocolate, Fudge and Caramel cake slice which just melted in my mouth, yumm! But me being a bit of a martyr, I was a little apprehensive and concerned about indulging in this Chocolate wonder :oP because if you remember last week, I didn’t loose any weight and I didn’t want to affect my ketosis! Nevertheless I enjoyed it and there’s no going back now :o) hehe! I also saw this was a bit of an award and celebration, one for my Dads Birthday and two because I am in my fourth week of Atkins :o) Only problem is though, I didn't have the packaging for the cake, so I cannot tell you how many net carbs I consumed. It probably a good thing I don't know anyways :o)

Although all this traveling around didn’t allow for much eating, again it meant I missed eating every six hours + not being able to eat some proper vegetables as well, doh!

Day 24. Yum Yum Yum… Daddy’s Chips :oP

Wasssup :o) Hurray finally the Easter Holidays are here. For me its one of these days where finally the weekend felt like it couldn’t come quick enough. I just need to take a break from my studies and chill, and now its here... kind of! Although I still have lots of studying planned this Easter period, thanks to my wonderful Lecturers who decided to set plenty of assignments and work, bless their hearts.

Here's just a sneak preview of the work to be done:

• Work through “Sams Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days” book over the next 3 weeks;
• Complete 4 Java Labs;
• Research and Learn about integration of Java Databases so it can be incorporated in our teams Software Hut Project.;
• Make a start on my De.lis.ous bookmark plugin Java Assignment;
• I also need to Learn Javascript & SVG;
• Create a Website with a Dynamic Shopping Front End with Javascript, XHTML, CSS & SVG technologies.
• Complete a Database Assignment;
• Complete two Intelligent Agent Assignments;

So basically not too much to do then :o( Fingers crossed though as long as I do something everyday I should be able to achieve all tasks, but don't get me wrong this is alot of work :oS and Holidays are supposed to be holidays right…. Perhaps not this year!

Anyhow enough about work, you probably didn’t come hear to read about that. I guess I just wanted vent and share a little insight into my Uni days :o)

Hum…what else is new… well I tried making chips today, and not with the usual potato, but instead with Celeriac, and I am very glad to report, they where very tastie. To be honest this idea came about when browsing the Induction Foods list and realizing I had never eaten Celeriac before (Like other things). Therefore I decided to buy some from the super market not realizing what I could do with it. I then spoke with a friend about this, and she mentioned to me Celeriac is kind of a cross breed between parsnips and a potato which then gave me the bright idea to make CHIPS :oP

Chips as in French Fries for all those people who are not British and are thinking that chips are what we call Crisps. Confused I hope not :o)

I chopped up roughly 300g of celeriac into the shape of French fries, boiled them, and then baked them in the oven with oil. I think if I had a deep fat fryer I could skip boiling the chips, but unfortunately I don’t have one, and therefore oven baking had to suffice with lots of olive oil. Once they are crispy there ready to eat :oP Yum… I definitely recommend this idea if you are craving chips <-- one of my favorite foods by the way :o)

Anyhow table of Goodness can be found below:

Day 23. All About Atkins

Hey Peeps, I have an interesting video to share. I stumbled across it on YouTube in between my work breaks. Actually for a long while I have been looking for it on the net. I once caught half of the documentary on BBC 1 (English TV ;o) and I was in a desperate search to find it again to see how the rest played out. Now thanks to the super YouTuber --> lowcarbshow <-- its available for all to see. Thanks lowcarbshow man :o)

It’s a video about the Atkins diet and it’s really informative with the Facts, Myths and Science behind the Atkins Lifestyle. I would advise anyone to watch this. It’s not necessarily biased for or against Atkins, rather it keeps neutral ground. So perhaps for some low carb viewers it may outrage you, it did me during some parts, but in other scenes it cleared a lot of confusion and I learnt a few things. Take a peek, and leave some feedback what you think, by dropping a line or two in the comments section + don’t forget to thank lowcarbshow for uploading it on youtube :o)

Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Part 4.

Part 5.

Now to the Food of the Day table.

I have to admit I kinda broke the eat every 6 hours rule today, but with a good excuse. Basically I’ve had sooo much work to do. I completed not 1, not 2 but 3 assignments to meet my deadlines. I was awake and working @ my university from 6am up until 10pm so I could finished them on time. I even missed Thursday Badminton session :o( The Last training session this side of the Easter holidays … boowho! Yeah so all this busyness away from home, kept me from eating to be honest though I wasn’t feeling hungry anyways :oP. Regardless once I got home I had a lovely pizza and chilled to a movie… “Rocky Balboa”. It was a good flick, abit of escapism, and I recommend anyone to watch it, who is a Rocky Fan :o)

Day 22. Weigh-in Week 3. LossLess!

Ok Ok already… I hear you wanna see my results :oS I have to admit though this week is rather dismal. I totally stuck to the plan, and eaten all the right things with exercise…. But I’ve been told scales don’t lie and from the results below you can see not much has changed. Slight loss in the measurements… but only marginal :’o(

My weight has stayed exactly the same as last week which is a bit of a bummer from a weight loss point of view. But on the other hand still no weight gain… so yippee! Something must be stalling my loss, I will have to investigate... Although speaking to my dad, he did advise me that this is natural, especially after a large drop in weight. Apparently the body has to have time to adjust to its new weight level and then once it’s adjusted, weight loss will continue to occur again, provided of course you carry on with the Atkins lifestyle. So fingers crossed :o) Besides Dads are always right…….right! And he did mention that he got this source from the Atkins Book itself. ;o)
Must be a later chapter I haven’t got to yet!!! Gets the book out *o)

The one thing that does concern me though is: if this is not the case, does this mean I must be really sensitive to Carbohydrates :oS eecck! After all I’m currently sticking to the Induction Phase at the minute, which is still phase one of the diet and the lowest point of net carb intake… and if I cannot lose any more weight whilst in this state am I doomed :o( Oh well I guess I will have to be patient, lets see what the new week brings.

Wish me Luck!!!

Day 21. Site Update & Big Brother…!

Hey hey, new day new style. I hope you like the fresh change, I decided to lighten up the blog a little and add more colour e.g blue, one because its my favourite color and two because black has to go out of fashion sometime :o] Plus now you can see all of the YouTube video posts, instead of the cut of right hand sides ;o) I have even added a new feature to my site… a statistics counter…

Out of curiosity I put this tracking counter here just to find out, how many people actually visit my site! The reason for this is because;

• I want to gauge just how many people actually come and read my blog.

• and to find out if I am I wasting my time? Writing and Posting information.

One of the main reasons why I am writing such a journal is just to report my personal highs/lows and potential successes whilst on the Atkins Diet. Additional to this, my challenge is to also inspire, find new friends and possibly build a little library of information to help up and coming low carbers have a smoother ride, so that they can be successful with their weight loss challenges too.

Then in the future I can look back or draw others to my site to prove that Atkins truly does work. I am now a firm believer how effective the Atkins Lifestyle can be, and I want to try educating people and eradicating the myths and rumors of “bad health awaits those who choose low carb lifestyles”. So feel inspired here… Atkins isn’t difficult you basically eat yourself thin ;o) and hopefully I will prove this with my blog progression and on the way help support others in need :o)

Today’s post is just to say that if there are any readers out there following my journal, please take some time to post a comment or two. It would surely be appreciated and cheer me up in times of need. I am not biased either, your welcome to post your comments no matter if you’re for or against Dr. Atkins Revolutionary Diet.

I do spend a lot of my time finding out and researching more information each day so I can share with you guys my latest discoveries. So I would really find it grateful and would find it extremely encouraging if you could just pop a few comments below any of my posts. Since I have started my blog I haven’t had a single post… so be the first ;o)

Moving on to my Diet… well guess what!?!?! Tomorrow is weigh-in Day 3. Can you believe it? I can’t, Week 3 Over already! Like a flash, this week has speedily flown by and to think I imagined the Induction Weeks to be a grueling food marathon …! As a matter of fact, I think I will continue with the Induction Phase a while longer. It’s all well and safe to do so according to Dr. Atkins book and I am not bored of his food recommendations either. Quite the opposite, I cannot wait to try out wannabealoser's pizza recipe. Which I might dabble my hand in the kitchen at tomorrow ;o)

Day 20 Oh the Hunger…!

Hum… well today for the first time in a long time I have felt rather peckish. Since Atkins started I noticed how my appetite disappeared… however today all of a sudden I saw a mild version of it returning. On paper it shows that I’ve eaten many net carbs, but in reality I still feel like I haven’t eaten too much.

Likewise I have started to notice my addiction towards these Breakfast cereal bars too, muhahah! There soooo yummy! But this is not a bad thing I guess except on the pocket, I am known for my chocolate antics + cravings…and the best thing, at least its all low carbs and allowed. If you live in the UK and are wondering what bars I am buying / talking about, you can get them from Tesco, and at the moment they are on offer for £2.09 for 5 bars. Normally its £3.99 which is a shocking price… but miles cheaper than Atkins bars @ £4.70 for 5 :oS

If anybody in the states is feeling rather generous, and wants to donate a couple of chocolate bars, Stallone puddings or other lovely desert goodies (all low carb of course) to help my cause… feel free to get in contact with me via the comments section below, hehehe cheeky :o) Maybe even a company would be so kind to send me some freebies, in exchange for a cool review of their product(s) :oP

Some of you may have observed (Especially in the UK) that low carb diet food is not as well supported in shops like it is in shops over seas i.e. as in the United States. But wait… I may have just found the answer for us UK folks, check out this site: low-carb.org.uk It has loads of low carb food suggestions as well as tips and tricks you can sink your teeth into. The site was created by a lovely lady called Nikola Howard aka Nikki, it’s a little dated but has some really cool stuff. Also check out her success story and possibly join her user-group. She is currently lobbying to sway the markets over here in the UK to put more low carb foods on our shelves ;o) yippee! Am sure she won’t mind a few positive comments either… It’s a little tricky to find her e-mail but if you want to contact her try this address :o)

"Nikola . Howard AT low-carb . org . uk"

To save her from getting spammed I wrote out her e-mail like this...to e-mail her replace the AT with the @ sign and remove the spaces.

Food of the day:

Day 19. I love Cauliflower Rice

Hey Wassup :o) Just want to say Good Morning, Afternoon, Evening or Good Night depending on what time of day it is there. Wow I had a great meal earlier... probably one of the best since I've been on Atkins so far. I had Cauliflower Rice with a few vegi’s and soy sauce, yum yum yum and I urge you to try it out if you haven’t already.

I got the original recipe from another low carber on YouTube, her name is Kelly or aka wannabealoser ....She has some real cool recipes, and I just found her Pizza version, which looks extremely nice…. Check out her video below... Feel free to post her nice comments too ;o)

What I will say though is... its probably a good idea to cook your meat before cooking the cauliflower rice. Unlike what she does in her video... she is obviously using pre-cooked meat with her dish not RAW. I didn't try making my rice with egg either (as in egg fried rice) but used finely diced mushrooms instead. But perhaps tomorrow I will try this recipe again, as it tastes sooooo good :oP

If you liked Kellys video, also check out her site wannabealoser.com

Anyhow my food for the day can be seen below:

I also took part in Volleyball today, which was fun :o) It seems like I am becoming a regular coach on Sundays now… :oS Again I hope everyone had fun who attended the session :o)

Day 18. More Cheese, Chocolate & Eggs

Hey, today has been a mad day as far as food is concerned. I tried a few different recipes after tones of shopping, which I needed to get, before I sell my car this Sunday :oS

So after buying all kinds of food it was time to chill and munch. So first up I tried the Dr. Atkins Advantage Chocolate and Hazelnut Crunch bar, and I have got to admit it was a very tasty and rather filling snack. Although not too crunchy, I did find it very chewy, and not sooo chocolatie either, but delicious all the same, accompanying with that was a nice slice of cheese on the side.

Later when I got home, I then thought I would try and make my own chocolate cookie. Following another "Cooking with Amy" recipe. So I gathered all the ingredients, 1tbsp of Splenda, 1 egg & Chocolate Whey Protein (1 Scoop) and added a little water. Mixed together and slammed in the microwave for about 40 seconds. 40 seconds later I open up the microwave door to find this weird spongy pudding. It didn't look to bad I guess, but taste wasn't all that nice, rather rubbery and not very sweet. I did add whipped cream to the dish, but decided to just eat only the cream in the end and threw away the rest instead. I also bought some Vanilla Whey Protein, and made a shake from this, but it was pure disgusting, so I ended up emptying that down the sink too.

In the evening for my main dish I then tried The Pizza Omelet. My ingredients for this where, eggs, pepperoni, tomato puree and cheese. I created my omelet pizza base, smothered that with tomato sauce, then added some pepperoni and cheese and flipped one side over the omelet, until the cheese was melted. Voila...

It was then down to the eating part. For me I didn't find this dish so appealing. It wasn't quite what I imagined it to be, in fact I found the flavors rather contradictory of each other and it left a disappointing after taste, so I probably won't try this again. Perhaps it would be better with chicken???

And then for the rest of the day I ate more cheese, eggs and a chocolate bar. Also on my shopping spree I found out they now sell my chocolate breakfast bars for half price. As in a pack of 5 bars for £2.00 instead of £3.99, therefore I made sure to stock up on 4 extra packs ;o) There is my desert worries over for a while.

For tomorrow night I am going to make a Chinese dish, rice stir fry with soya sauce. I will keep you posted how this will taste :oP

As for the table of food, for the day.... here it is:

Notice how the chocolate food pudding I made isn't on the list... that’s because I didn't eat it! 1 bite was enough to chuck it away. Same with the Vanilla Whey Protein Shake, pure disgusting :o( Perhaps you guys have more luck. Or if you have any cool idea please feel free to share :o)

Day 17. The Wonders of Sleep

Hey peeps, am feeling much better, especially after a nice kip (sleep). Its amazing how clear you can think after a good nights sleep. Anyhow I thought about my weight and I realized actually I lost a lot of weight with this weeks attempt. Although my scales don’t seem to show this… I noticed when I look at my weight in lbs, it does seem I have lost a fair bit (as in 4.4 lbs). Normally a dieter can look forward to a healthy loss of 1-3 lbs a week, so as I have lost more, I have decided to stop stressing about it and instead reward myself with a pat on the back :o)

I did however have a bad Java exam. I can’t believe how badly I sucked in this exam, in fact it got me thinking about the subject whether to pursue it more or work on my other strengths such as Web Design.

The thing is the exam was easy… but for me, I just had brain freeze… I just couldn’t perform or even think how to answer any of the questions, so much so, that I only managed to partly do one question and that was badly structured. For me that could have been the worst possible exam I have ever sat, and I am not exaggerating. Still Easter is coming and I think its time for a crash course in Java. What really bothered me the most however, was I thought I was actually getting good in this subject, and then to do so badly has really hit home hard! Are nevermind….!

I tried out a new dish tonight. A couple of days ago I tried a similar dish the "Courgette Quiche" as seen on YouTube posted up by "Cooking With Amy". Nevertheless I wasn’t really all that impressed. So I thought I would explore this time with a bit of Broccoli and Cauliflower in the Quiche, and to be honest it was much better, but still there was something missing, like some kind of herb or spice. I guess this could be a working progress... but if you have any idea's feel free to recommend ;o)

Tomorrow I will try the Pizza omelet :oP It sounds delish.

Below are my carbs of the day:

Thank God its Friday though, time to take a break, it seemed like such a struggle to get here this week. Phew!

Day 16. Mr Grumpy Pants

Hey everyone today I am grumpy git… for a couple of reasons, one because of my poor weight loss results, I guess its still bugging me that I didn’t lose much after all of last weeks efforts.

Secondly because I have soooooo much darn computer work to do…. And what makes it worse is, I have a fat module slap bang in the middle of my semester when we have lots of work to do already, which makes my days at uni really long and arduous. Learning from 9:00am to 6:00pm and then further studying at home with brain fog with assignment worries on the brain is not my idea of fun. My mind can only take soo much aaarrrgghhh!

Plus because of this uni work it meant I couldn’t go to badminton, which for me is very rare and much to my displeasure…!

Good news is, tomorrow is another day and am sure I will be ok, after all my day consists of more and more lectures plus a Java exam eeeck! :oS But one thing is for sure…. Here comes the weekend…. Phew!

Ok anyways, this is going to be a short post, am sure you don’t want to really be hearing more of my tirades grrrrrrrrrr!

Food shown below :oP I was chocolate bingeing mostly today, all low carb stuff of course :o)

Day 15. Results Day Take 2.

Well induction period over… or is it?!?!? Normally for the first two weeks of the Atkins Diet you follow Phase 1: Induction Period and then afterwards you move to Phase 2: Ongoing Weight loss…but unfortunately after this weeks results, I think I will extend my Induction Week a little while longer!!!

So the moment you have all been waiting for, the weigh in, I have to tell you in advance it’s disappointing!!!

I now weigh 96 kg (15.1 Stone, 211.7 lbs). That’s right I lost a total of 1.5 kg which I guess sucks in comparison to last week, as I had high hopes to losing more, but the main thing is at least I didn’t put weight on! When I look back at the food consumed last week though, it doesn’t make sense that I didn’t lose more weight… so I think I will try to watch out on a daily basis of any foods which could affect my loss. Ok below is today’s munch:

I can see now why people get frustrated working all week to create results and then find there was little to no change :o( doh! Are well lets see what next week brings :o)

Day 14. The Importance of Exercise

Hey hey!... in my crusty the clown voice... and yes I am a Simpsons fan, am a bit like Homer ;o) do'h!

Anyhow, I wanted to chat about exercise today. I am not a personal trainer or anything but I do know a bit about Exercise & Physiology, Nutrition etc. I have a degree in Sport, Health & Physical Education and I just want to share a few pointers.

First of all, if your taking up exercise for the first time in a while, perhaps go see your doctor especially if your overweight or suffer from any health issues. I do advise that you also seek professional help albeit from a personal trainer if you can. But the main thing i want to talk to you about is, how to burn the maximum amount of FAT during exercise.

Exercise improves health and can reduce weight immensely, in fact a lot of people will say just exercise alone can help you to achieve your ideal weight without dieting. But imagine the combination of eating healthy whether on a low carb diet with exercise... in no time you could reach your dream goal!

A lot of people have the misconception that to lose weight they have to work hard with a "No Pain No Gain" attitude when exercising. Now don't get me wrong this does get results for very athletic sports people who want to push further in their abilities, but for normal or relatively overweight people this is just not true and can be dangerous to health & further lead to injuries. People who have be doing sports for years have conditioned their bodies to work at such high levels, where's as non sport folk haven't. Also if your suffering with high blood pressure (hypertension) this could also lead to disastrous results as in a myocardial infarction (heart attack) or stroke, hence why you should see a specialist trainer if you have no clue.

Although please watch out, some gym trainers really don't know what their talking about, and its all well and easy to think they do (But some are after your money only with no interest in you). So listen up, here is the advice...

What if I told you that you don't have to work out to hard to lose fat? Would you believe me? Well its true, Google around if you don't believe me... its all about cardiovascular exercise, 3-5 times a week (6 days a week is best) for roughly 15minutes a time or more. You can do this exercise just by simply walking (perhaps with the dog), jogging, swimming, gardening, teams sports or at the gym.

Basically the body uses two fuel states depending on what level of what intensity you work at. Between 55% to 65% of your target heart rate you tend to use fat stores as the main energy source, while higher than this you use glucose stores 65% to 85%. Therefore if you want to burn more fat you need to work in the range of 55% to 65%.

Take a look at the chart to see:

Source taken from: doctorsamimi.com <-- please check out this site for more details.

But how do you work out your heart rate zones, and how do you monitor these zones... good question.


To Work Out You Heart Rate Zones

Hum well to work out your target heart rate you need to do some simple maths. Basically by using this equation:

220 - Age = Your Maximum Heart Rate

So for instance I am 28 years old so;

220 - 28 = 192 beats per minute (bpm) <-- 192 is my Maximum heart rate. Its called maximum heart rate, because if you go beyond it, it could be dangerous.

Men have slightly higher maximum heart rates, but this equation normally suffices! To then find out my target heart rate zones, I need to work my Lower (55%) and Upper (65%) levels of 192bpm. So my lower and upper target heart rate levels I need to maintain to burn the most amount of fat are:

Fat Burning Zones
Lower Level: 108bpm
Upper Level: 125bpm

Once you know your values, all you need to do is, do some form of exercise which you enjoy and that keeps you between the upper and lower levels of your target heart rate zone for 15 minutes or more (Idealy 30-45minutes). You have to manage at least a minimum of 15 minutes of work for this to work, if you can't straight away, don't worry do your best and eventually you will get there!


How to Monitor you Heart Rate Zones

Well you could run around with your finger on your pulse and count every 60 seconds, but you may find this difficult whilst exercising ;o) However... if you belong to a a gym, this should be no problem as most cardio workstations now have heart rate monitors built in. Some even calculate your zones for you and tell you what phase you need to work out at.

However if your out walking or lightly jogging, swimming etc you will need a heart rate monitor, which normally comes with an elasticized band which wraps around your chest and syncs with a watch. The watch then outputs your current heart rate, and can inform you of your level of exercise, as in some beep when your not working out in your selected zones.

This would be the kind of heart rate monitor you need:



A couple of more words of advice, depending on your level of fitness and how overweight you are etc... you may find this intensity too easy or too hard. Often overweight people can surpass their fat burning target zone just by walking real slow, but this doesn't mean your not exercising, in fact... you are and therefore should not run or train harder than this to lose weight.

On the other end of the scale you may find working in these target zones are too easy, but if you stick to them, then you will burn a lot of fat and you will find you will be able to exercise longer. Again you don't have to stick to these levels, you could do intervals in a higher zone for a couple of minutes or so then resume your fat burning target zone.

If you stick to these target levels you will also find, that you will have less fatigue in your muscles (as in less stiffness) and therefore the next day you will be ready to train again.

To be honest this is the best way to exercise and I encourage you to try this out. Start off with a 20 minute target and build on it. Again if you can't manage 20 minutes try working towards reaching 20 minutes. Set yourself goals ;o) And make sure your participating in something you enjoy... Not everyone enjoys the Gym, I don't do Gym instead, Volleyball, Badminton and Cycling more sort of social activities.

Some of the best cardiovascular exercises are walking, swimming and cycling, because these are very low impact exercises and am sure you will agree their enjoyable too.

Another note weightlifting is not a good idea, basically because its working on toning muscles not removing fat. If you tone your muscles but have lots of fat on top of them, then you won't see the definition results. Same goes for ab workouts. On the other hand if you want to strengthen muscles your, then weightlifting is a good idea, but I am not going to go into this, as we are talking more about weight loss.

Before exercise you should drink plenty of water and do at least 5minutes of stretching. After exercise you should repeat what you did in stretching. Also take in plenty of water during exercise.

I hope this helps and rant over.... I would really enjoy anybodies comments about this... so feel free to post your messages below.

Oh and here is my food consumption for today:

Till next time take care and keep on losing!