Andrea's Day(s) - Friday 27th & Saturday 28th February

Friday was a bit hectic so having to get back to blogging on schedule!

Friday:
Breakfast: 2 egg omlette. Tea
Morning snack: banana
lunch: Chicken salad
Afternoon snack: Atkins bar
Dinner: Chilli con carne with one spoon of rice. Handful of dry roasted peanuts. One small glass of red.

Saturday morning news - LOST 3lbs since first weigh in last week! Quite happy with that

Breaksfast; Special K red berries. Tea
Snack: A bite of my other half's pork pie (!)
Lunch: Plate of cheese, salami, olives, radishes
Dinner: Trout with a homemade fancy sauce of horseradish, cream and chopped cornichon, with salad & one spoon rice.

I'm certainly not wanting to eat the same portion sizes as before and in general am not feeling as hungry as I used to. Before the low carb diet I would have cracked open a packed of crisps while cooking dinner and would have been eating loads more snackie things during the day. Onwards and upwards!

Atkins style ham and cheese sandwich

Now this is what a low carb sandwich looks like! Yum

Stuarts Day 3 of Our Low Carb Diet

Unfortunately I didn't have any eggs left so yesterday's breakfast was just bacon and sausages.

I dropped in at Sainsbury's on the way to work and bought some small cheese pieces, 2 small packs of chicken breast and a bag of carrots and these kept me going almost all day with the exception of an Atkins bar that I had mid morning and a piece of 85% cocoa chocolate that I had in the evening.

I went to an event at the local school in the evening and whilst others were tucking into hot dogs and hog roasts I waited to get home and have the rest of my chicken and carrots. All in all this was my lowest net carb day to date which was OK but I think I got a bit bored of raw carrot by the end of it. More variety is required!

I found this article on 3 Ways Carbohydrates Can Make You Fat which is quite interesting and worth a read.

Andrea's Day - Thursday 26th Feb

Breakfast is the hardest 'no carb' bit for me. I just have to have cereal!


Breakfast: Special K with berries. Decaf tea.
Snack: Atkins Chocolate & hazelnut bar
Lunch: spiced chicken with lettuce and antipasti veg (same as yesterday)
Afternoon snack: Low carb banana pudding
Dinner: Veg soup with added bacon bits & chilli seeds! (oh yes). Handful of roasted peanuts. One glass of red.

Day 2 of Our Low Carb Diet

Well I was a bit better prepared today so it was 2 rashers of bacon, 3 lincolnshire sausages and an egg for breakfast with a cup of coffee for around 2 net carbs.

During the day I had 4 small chicken legs that I cooked up yesterday, a small pot of nuts, some cheese and 20g of 85% Cocoa Fairtrade Chocolate (just 3.8 net carbs in 100 gram bar!). For drinks I had some caffeine free teas. So thats about another 9 net carbs.

I also had a packet of pork scratchings which turned out to be a bit of a disaster as I managed to crack a tooth whilst eating them and the NHS Dental Surgery near us was closed for lunch when I went up there!

For the evening meal I had a fish pie which comes in at around 20 net carbs.

So with a glass of wine and a few more nuts today will come in at around the 35 net carb mark.

I must admit that I have had a headache this evening and I had one yesterday afternoon too. I know this is because of the lack of caffeine so I'm going to have to have another coffee this evening. It has been a big jump going from 6 or 7 cups a day to 1 so I think if I have two a day then I have a better chance of weaning myself off the caffeine.

Andrea's Day - Wednesday 25th Feb

Got on scales first thing - lost 3 lbs since Saturday. This turns out to be a bad move since instead of spurring me on, makes me a bit cocky and I go and have 2 weetabix for breakfast, no sugar tho. Will not get back on the scales until Saturday morning!

Todays menu:
Breakfast: 2 weetabix & milk. Decaf tea
Snack: Atkins chocolate & hazelnut bar. Actually quite scrummy and, it says, less than 3g of carbs.
Lunch: Cooked chicken with lettuce & antipasti veg (left over from night before)
Afternoon snack: An Apple
Dinner: Satay pork & very small portion of rice. One glass of red.

Quite odd to think that the apple is one of the the worst things I ate today.

Getting going on the low carbs

Well things didn't quite go so well this morning as I didn't get breakfast and so I ended up in Sainsbury's to stock up for the day. It was therefore mainly meat and cheese today with 2 small packets of chicken slices (1 with a sweet chilli flavour on it.) 2g of carbs for both packs though. 120g of cheddar which was almost another 2g and some pepperami x 2 for another 1.2g.

Normally I would like a packet of crisps in the morning but today we went for the 'heart attack in a bag' option of a largish packet of pork scratchings which came in at around 0 carbs.

So thats about 5.5g of cards consumed during the day except for my sin!! A pear which comes in at a whopping 16g on its own.

The evening meal with some sausages, veg and a small amount of potatoes and gravy which I would estimate is about 40g for the meal.

Ok it's hardly the Atkins induction coming in at around 61g so far and with a couple of glasses of wine this could be 65-67g but I had been having a McDonalds Sausage & Egg McMuffin Meal with a Large latte for breakfast and that comes in at the same number of carbs just for the breakfast so all in all that is a big change to what I have been used to.

I bought some sausages and chicken legs on the way home so I'm gonna cook them up for tomorrow and make sure that I get my egg, sausage and bacon breakfast first thing.

Ok, here goes - The diet!

After seeing a friend lose 23lbs on the Atkins diet , thought i'd give it a go. I only want to lose about 10lbs and it sounded like a piece of cake (eh-hum!) but after a weekend of Atkins INDUCTION I felt doomed for failure and pretty miserable. Decided not to throw in the towel though but to do a low-carb version of my own and record the results, warts 'n' all, in this blog. Not sure if i'm gonna declare my weight on here yet but will certainly note my losses (and mood swings) as the diet progresses. Motivation comes from my game brother who has decided to join in! Here's what i've consumed today:

Breakfast: 2 egg omlette, decaf tea (not that bad actually).
Mid morning snack: banana (ouch!)
Lunch: Large chicken & beansprout salad
Dinner: Mixed antipasti veggies, salami & cheese. One glass of red. Low carb chocolate dessert

I feel full but not bloated. Hope i don't need to raid the fridge later.

Getting Ready For The Diet!

Before I get cracking on our low carb diet I have had to go and buy a set of bathroom scales so that I can monitor my progress. Prior to this my last few years have been a living in ignorance bliss but now I will monitor what is going on. My plan is to show my current score on the site since the day I start so look out for those updates.

Anyway the scales I got are the Salter 9021 Eclipse Electronic Scale with Ultra Slim Technology. From John Lewis in Peterborough they are £34 but you can get them from Amazon.co.uk for about 2/3rds of that price. (see picture).

I have also found a couple of carb counter websites and I will be pop some links on the right hand side of the page to their sites.

Welcome To Our Low Carb Diet

This blog is about the experience that we are having by engaging in a low carb diet. We are inspired by Atkins but we will each be going our own way with regards to how closely it is followed and we will record total weight loss on this blog.

Keep coming by for regular updates from myself Stuart and my sister Andrea.