Why I am in love with "carb style" bread

There are so many low carb products readily available now that were difficult to find when I was on my first round of low carb dieting.  It makes it so much easier to stick to the diet and feel like you are eating like a "normal" person.  I really like "carb style" bread from pepperidge Farm.  Each slice has 8g of carbs, and 3g of fiber, for a total of 5g of net carbs per slice.  In case you are new to low carb diets, most allow you to eliminate the fiber count from your carb count.  The slices are definitely smaller and thinner than regular bread, but for me, having any bread is a complete joy!  Wrapping sandwiches in lettuce leaves is great, but every once in awhile, it is nice to just have tuna with actual bread.  I find that open faced sandwiches work better, because 10g of carbs can be a lot to spend at one time, on one food.  Also, a full sandwich can sometimes increase my carb cravings later that evening.  I'm not sure if this is the carb count, because I have certainly had more than 10g of carbs at a meal.  I think it may be some kind of subconscious thought around eating so much bread.  My obvious need for therapy aside, 'Carb style" is definitely a product that has improved my experience with the low carb diet.

School Lunch vs Lunch from Home

Every evening, after dinner, my children review the school menu and make the big decision.  School bought lunch or "lunch from home".  This year, I have tried really hard to make lunch from home a more popular choice.  The menu for tomorrow is BBQ pork riblets with corn.  The "hot alternative" for the whole week is a steak and cheese sub. The "cold alternative" is yogurt, a cheese stick and bread.  If I could, I would pick the yogurt for my kids, and be done with it.  I am not that interested in spending an hour wrestling four lunch boxes into my over packed, condiment filled fridge.  However, according to the rules at my children's school, I can choose school bought lunch or "lunch from home".  I may not choose what school lunch each child gets.  This is to make things easier for the teachers, easier for the lunch ladies, easier for the children, and it if I don't care what my children eat, easier for me.  There are many things in this world that I don't care about, neighborhood gossip, my ex, sports of any kind etc. Unfortunately, I do care what my children eat.  I'm not even sure BBQ pork riblets is an actual food. Since I have tried to change/bend/break this rule without success, I have engaged on a promote "Lunch from Home" campaign.   I don't want to start any food battles with my kids this early in life.  My approach has been to buy healthy foods and allow them to eat what, when and as much as their bodies tell them.   This worked really well, until Lilly, my ten year old discovered that "cool kids eat school lunch".  I'm not even sure my twins know what cool kids are yet.   In this house, Lilly is the undisputed authority on what is in and out.  She is the Justin Bieber to my Bon Jovi.  I just can't compete.  Thus, begins my "Lunch from Home is a Home Run" campaign.  (yes, I named it and yes everyone rolled their eyes at me when I said it).

So far, this campaign is already way over budget.  I am hoping for some matching contributions from the government.  Here are some of my strategies:

• Apple dippers.  These are pre-sliced green apples with a little pocket of peanut butter or yogurt.  They have caramel also, but I distract my kids, and grab the other two, before they realize this exists.  They also have the ones with baby carrots and low fat ranch dressing.  Anything that is in an overpriced single packet serving is attractive to children. If Lunch from Home is elected, I plan to switch to buying big bags and little tupper ware containers in my second term.
• Frozen Go-gurt.  These little tubes are interesting to my kids because we freeze them and they thaw by lunchtime. 
• Cool shaped sandwiches.  I got some of those large cookie cutters and use it to cut the sandwiches into cool shapes.  They are so interested in what shape the sandwich will be, that they have not noticed that I make them with 7 grain bread.
• Cool shaped cheese cubes.  I also have little cookie cutters to create interesting shapes from blocks of cheese.  It takes a little work to create these.  It helps to slice the cheese a little thinner than a cube. I take the leftover cheese nubs in my lunch.  I have given up on being cool and suffer the ridicule of my colleagues for my odd shaped cheese nubs.

We are still waiting for final results, but I belive that the campaign is showing moderate progress, as we have pulled ahead of school bought lunch by a slim margin in the polls.

The Shrimp is next to the Bagels

I went grocery shopping today.  I realize that this sounds like a rather boring event, but for me it is kind of like a jungle adventure.  I have a ten year old daughter and seven year old twins.  I am a single parent, so everywhere I go, 3 restless, snow bound, non-grocery shopping lovers go as well.  We live in a rural area and every store is at least 30-45 minutes away.  On top of that, we are on a quest to find a new grocery store.  We used to shop at stop and shop.  They have wonderful produce and fruit, but when my grocery bill hit $200 a week, we decided to look elsewhere.  (By we, I mean me, my kids have no appreciation for good sales). We tried Price Rite, one of the bag your own grocery stores that have cropped up everywhere.  You save money because they simply open the front of the boxes and stack food anywhere that it will fit.  This results is juice boxes in five different isles.  I picked up a box of capri-sun and then 3 isles later saw another box with a flavor that my kids HAD to have.  So now I am digging through the cart to find the old ones.  I am a bad person, therefore I did not go back and put the old ones where they belong.  We move into the diary isle to discover that the milk is at room temperature inside the cooler.  At this point my twins are dying of thirst, hunger, exhaustion and both need to use the bathroom.  My children view public restrooms with the same enthusiasm as a carnival.  My ten year old is also explaining to me that she is in danger of imminent death should we not abandon the store and find a Dunkin Donuts STAT.  So, we finally navigate through to the cashier to discover that you also save money because they only hire one cashier.  After having all of our groceries thrown back into the cart, bread and eggs first, we proceed to the bagging area.  At this counter, my children and I compete with thirty other families to find space enough to unload the cart, bag everything and place it back into the cart.  At this point I realize that we did not buy cheese, ground beef or celery.  My seven year old son, helps out by saying, "oh yeah, cheese was near the seafood".  I don't remember seeing any seafood or cheese.  "yeah, just past the bagels".  Oh, yes, why didn't I look for shrimp next to the bagels? We also chose not to buy the warm milk.  Out to the car in the freezing cold...and on to the mini-mart to purchase milk.

Total savings: $23.82
Total cost: My sanity and four hours of my life.

Next week we are going to try Market Basket.

Anyone who has been on any type of low carb diet knows that the first few days are the most difficult.  If you can get through three days, it gets so much easier.  After five days, the chemical reactions within your body make the low carb diet incredibly easy and rewarding.  In about a month, after you hit the first plateau, things get difficult again. 

I am on day two.  In my experience, this is the toughest day of the diet.  I feel irritable and weak.  I have a low grade headache, which stubbornly resists Tylenol.  Hoping to stay motivated, I have been thinking about all of the reasons why I love a low carb diet.  It's my own late night top ten.

1. It works FAST.  One of the best things about low carb is that you will see dramatic results very quickly. After four days, the puffiness in my cheeks will be gone.  I will just look in the mirror and know that something is working. (don't bother to tell me that it is water weight. It doesn't matter, seeing my cheekbones is a motivator).

2.The cravings will die.  After a few days the intense carb cravings will die a quick ( and I hope painful) death.

3. You can eat until you are full. One of the most attractive things about almost all low carb diets is that there is usually a restriction on what to eat, not how much.

4. You can eat cheese.  I love cheese, you can eat bacon too!

5. You will have more energy.  Again after the dreaded first few day, your energy level will increase. 

6. There are specially made low carb products.  This is a huge improvement in just a few years.  They may not be that easy to find, but they are out there.  I really like Edy's no sugar added ice cream.

7. Low carb diets make you more organized.  In order to be successful at low carb dieting, you need to plan ahead.  There are very few options available when you are driving around at 3:00 in the afternoon.  When you commit to low carb, you commit to planning ahead!

8. You actually loose weight.  A lot of weight, 134 lbs, to be precise.

9. You will lower your blood pressure.  When I am on low carb, my blood pressure is the envy of nurses everywhere. (or at least in my doctor's office)

10.  Strange unexplained benefits.  for some reason a lot of amazing things happen in my body on this diet.  My skin is smoother and has a more even tone, my PMS is more manageable, and my mood is lighter.  I have read about these things and how excess insulin can cause them, but it still seems weird.

Now I am motivated, and craving cheesecake.  It's still only day two.

Back in the saddle

Ok, maybe it is more like back in the barn, looking at the saddle and walking back into the house for a snack. At least it is a start.  Yesterday, I realized that I had relapsed on my diet.  Yes, I call it a diet.  I know full well that we are supposed to have "life style changes" and "healthy eating plans" .  I don't have a healthy eating plan, I have a diet.  A horrible, painful, depriving DIET.  Anyway, I have relapsed on my diet.  I'm not quite sure why I just realized this yesterday.  I didn't wake up in the morning with 30 extra pounds.  Somehow, things just slipped.  I stopped following the rules and stopped noticing that I was running out of clothing options.  I only realized when I was down to 3 pairs of pants that would actually button. 

Today, I have moved into the preperation stage.  This is the point where I have to prepare myself to go back to the low carb diet that I have been in a love/hate relationship with for the last four years.  I hate the low carb diet, living with it is a nightmare.  I love the low carb diet, it has helped me loose 134 pounds. 

Relapse

134lbs gone, and I have fallen off the wagon.  I teach about the stages of change.  I know that relapse is just a part of any recovery.  I talk to people about how to avoid it, identify triggers for it, cope with it and accept it.  None of the things I tell other people seem to make any sense to me in this moment. I know that if I don't take some serious action now, I will be back at 284lbs.  I will be back to shopping at, what my ex calls "Lane Giant".   The few jeans that still fit will go back into the closet and the stretch pants will emerge.  They have been hiding in the back of the closet waiting for the opportunity to take center stage again.  I wonder why I saved them. I wonder if I knew that someday I would need them again.  It is difficult for people who have never struggled with food/weight/diets to understand how comforting it can be to have them waiting there...hoping that you will never need them.  It feels like an emergency fund.