Week 6: The Punchline

This week, four overall statements can be made.

1. Between restaurant food, visiting, snacking, and stress, I only ate Power Foods for about a third of each day.

2. My featured dieter Donna did pretty dang good this week, with only a couple oopsies along the way. :)

3. I did not lose weight this week.

4. I'm feeling the wooziness of some blood-glucose issue, which I intend to remedy with Atkins Induction.

I grocery shopped yesterday, tired of the slim pickins at the house that were anything but slimming. And as I shopped, I gravitated toward Atkins-friendly food. I know I said I'd transition over to a pseudo-Atkins diet in time, but I'm trying it a month or so earlier than I planned. The Franken-Diet twist is that I'll have lean beef, chicken, fish, and eggs with pure fats (lean meat instead of ANY meat I want). I bought some salad things and avocados for veggies, and some low-carb snacks (pork rinds and jerky) which I already portioned out into serving sizes. I'll have eggs for breakfast, snacks at work, a hamburger or chicken salad for lunch, a salad with avocado and pepperoni for dinner. I used my buddy Ryan's grill-n-freeze method for fresh tasting hamburgers without having to make 'em each day. I'm counting portions and carbs, and only eating when I'm hungry. I'll be keeping my daily carb count at 20g or below and testing for ketosis at the end of the week. Ketosis has been my Achilles' heel. If I can get in, I'll be fine. I'm sure I was just screwin' up the last time I tried this version of the Franken-Diet.

The real challenge of any low-carb diet is the first two weeks, when the rules are more stringent. Other than very limited food options (a plus for lazy me!), you've got the carb and caffeine withdrawal. And you've got the higher cost of so-called "real" food that is eaten in larger quantities.

So this week's diet felt more like a bad joke. The punchline? Feeling sick AND disgusted with myself are surefire ways to make me go low-carb. :) (Oh, come on. The punchline to a bad joke isn't SUPPOSED to be funny!)

Cuddles,
Tamara

FEATURED: Donna's Path

Meet my coworker Donna. She's a real sweetheart who gave her permission for me to do an ongoing feature on her in Tamara Henson's Health Overhaul. I have permission to display, GASP, her REAL WEIGHT!!! I'll give updates on her progress periodically.

You see, I've suckered her into getting healthy with me, following my very simple plan. Now, I'm not a doctor and she knows it. :D But she can't deny that the simple mishmash known as the Franken-Diet will at least be easy to follow, if a challenge to continue. We suffer from the same pitfalls of cravings, so I really understand where she's coming from. So here's my interview with her, to get us started:

1. What health problems do you have?

"Asthma & Bronchitis, Bulging disc and arthritis in my spine due to a fall in 2008"

2. Why do you want to lose weight?

"To better my health and and view of myself. To make a better me!"

3. What is your food poison?

"Chocolate!" (Yeah, Donna. Me too!)

4. What are your current eating habits?

"1-2 times a day, whatever I want" Includes regular Mountain Dew, various sugary snacks, highly processed  convenience foods, fast food, and the candies!

DONNA'S HEALTH PROFILE:

Height: 5'6"
Age: 33
Highest weight: 357 pounds
Current Weight: 357 pounds

GOAL 1: 300lb (Timeframe, unknown)
GOAL 2: 275lb (25 pound mini-increments)

ULTIMATE GOAL: 200lb

PROCESS: Donna begins her diet today, using my Simply Filling Power Foods list and also my recipes.

This is what I told her:

"1. Eat whenever you're hungry, as often as necessary, for these first few days
2. Eat as much of the approved foods as you want until you're no longer hungry
3. Eat at LEAST 3 times a day, whether your meals are small or large. Or two meals and a snack. Every time you put Power Foods in your mouth, you rev up your metabolism.
4. Measure servings of everything, even if you eat multiple portions!

Because you're used to high calories in smaller meals, you'll want to eat more low-calorie foods to make up for it, so you don't get faint and end up sick from changing your eating habits too quickly."

I'm excited for Donna!

If you want a feature on my blog, and you're ready to do your own Health Overhaul, copy and answer all the questions and profile items and send them to tamaravmhenson (at) gmail (dot) com. Attach a photo, if I don't already know you through Facebook (where I can snatch my own pic). And if you freak out about the world knowing your weight, just enter pounds you want to lose! :)

Cuddles,

Tamara

PROGRESS: Week 5

Holiday damages aside, I honestly didn't get focused well enough to do the diet all that well this week. Candies finally dwindled to nothing. Other junk foods did the same. Restaurant food was eaten once or twice. Hot chocolate sustained me during my cold (which is also dwindling, but still present). Hot Chicken and Pasta sustained me at lunch. And sometimes at dinner. I even had a couple caffeine-free regular Pepsis. So I expected my weight to go up, not down. I did the weigh-over I usually reserve for when I think I should weigh LESS! :) And the third weigh-over of relative confusion...

Weight Last Week: 279.4
Weight This Week: 277.2

That's 2.2 pounds lost. I'll take it, and actually update the ticker so it'll be accurate.

Good Things I Ate This Week:

1. Chicken and Pasta
2. Baked potatoes with fat free sour cream

Here Are Some Things I Did:

1. Prepared the soup ahead of time
2. Baked stuffed peppers last night
3. Dutifully ate oatmeal, cinnamon and Sweet N Low for breakfast this morning
4. Otherwise, not much!

Things I Plan To Change This Week:

1. Decided that oatmeal is kinda unappetizing to me. Will probably eat some type of protein for breakfast instead.
2. WW Simply Filling is the focus of this week. I can't cheat if I don't have the food in the house to do so.

UPDATE: I entered my original weight of 300lb to be more accurate with total weight lost (not just weight lost since the blog started). And I entered my current weight for today. And I didn't cry. But here's the chart:



WHERE I'M HEADING WITH THIS:

I want to stick with Simply Filling for a month and see how much progress I make versus days on and days off. I then want to transition to an Atkins-style WW diet, incorporating my Simply Filling food list only and eating lean proteins and vegetables until I'm close to my goal weight. (Incorporation of several diets, hence "Franken-Diet") Then I want to transition again into a lifelong healthy eating habit as I shed the last few pounds. I expect my food list at that time to be the WW Simply Filling list I compiled, with perhaps pure fats and cheeses in moderation instead of unlimited fat free. That way, I'm eating mostly all natural foods that I could grow or produce on a farm. :)

I don't know how long this is going to take. I've piddled with it for a year, never really locking in a routine, even when the routine worked in the short term. So I'm going to say that in 5 months of diligence, I should be close. I'll gauge it again in a month. I don't want to wait another year to finish my health overhaul!

Cuddles,

Tamara

RECIPE: Chicken and Pasta Soup

This is an update to my Chicken Soup recipe. I made it right this time, which is to say that my noodles didn't disintegrate. My inspiration? Waking up sick and having to stay home from work Thursday. I expect this soup to be miraculous. :) 


POWER FOODS CHICKEN AND PASTA SOUP

It ain't pretty, but it's tasty!

4 Chicken Breasts
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 box wheat pasta (I picked rotini)Pepper, Ginger Powder, Italian Seasoning, Salt, Garlic Powder and Onion Powder

In slow cooker, cover chicken breasts with water (a few inches from the top of the cooker) and cook on HIGH until chicken is done. (It will sorta float!) This is the leave it until you smell it phase. I fished out the white squishy blobbies (technical term, folks!) with a fork. Tear apart chicken with two forks while still in broth. Or dirty a plate if you must. Add spices to taste, in the order they're listed, stirring chicken and broth. (I hold off on the salt as much as possible. I add a lot of pepper to cut through the cold. :D) Stir thoroughly. Add pasta and stir. Cook for about a half hour, stirring occasionally, until pasta can be easily cut with your stirring spoon but before it's gooey mush.


NOTE: I added Ginger on a whim, for it's good-health properties. And I can't really taste it much (can't taste much of anything at the moment) but it has added some extra good spiciness. I will add it to my broths from now on as the "What the heck is that good flavor?" ingredient. 


STYLE NOTE: Add celery and carrots if you must, early in the cooking process. I just didn't have any today. And other than aesthetics, the veggies don't entice me at all. With my cold, it's all about the chicken and broth. The noodles are just healthy carb filler. Adding anything else is just sneaky! :)


Sniffle-cough Cuddles,


Tamara, who gets frustrated when sick and does things like this instead of dosing up and sleeping

HOLIDAY DAMAGES: Week 4

A little late on this week's post. Today, I woke up with a cold, and feel bad, so you get the short, short version.

I weigh 279.4 today. Up about 6 pounds. Probably half water-weight, half new lard. :)

I ate sooo many good things that were bad for me. So many chocolate and peanut butter candies of different types! I did eat in moderation until the three day span of Christmas Eve, Day, and Day after, when I ate, ummm, heartily. The eating tapered off in the days hence, as the leftovers ran out.

Sick of junk food and holiday food. Making Power Foods meals for the rest of the week and beyond.

And here I am, eating chicken noodle soup. Sore throat. Runny nose. Lost voice. Hoping to feel like making some feel-good chicken and noodles later, as well as some salsa chicken with refried beans, rice and sour cream.

Cuddles,

Tamara

RECIPES: Venison

Now I should say I'm not a big fan of venison. The taste of wild deer, even when cooked "right" isn't my favorite thing. And I've eaten this critter in several forms-- jerky, steak, burger, AND stir fry. But it is very lean, therefore good for you, and if you disguise it just right... :D If you're brave, try my simple, very similar recipes and let me know how it goes! Don't worry. Bambi will forgive you!

VENISON BURGERS WITH PEPPERS AND ONIONS:

Skilleted!

4 Venison burgers (buy the meat, or get some FRESH from your father-in-law's recent kill!)
1/2 Green pepper, sliced
1/2 Sweet onion, sliced
Seasoning of choice (I chose Grippo's powder!)

Drain the burgers (lean meat = blood. Just sayin'!). Cook in skillet on low-medium heat until halfway cooked. (Just a few minutes, but I'm no expert!) Flip burgers. Dump in veggies among the cooked, ah, fat and juices (*grins awkwardly talking about blood again*). Stir fry veggies in and around the meat until onions gain some transparency. :) Turn up the heat. Flip the burgers. Liberally season one side and flip. Season remaining side and season vegetables. Flip burger. (Searing the sides a bit, to avoid the "boiled hamburger in the lunchline" look!) Move burgers to outside of pan to continue cooking. (I'd rather overcook a venison burger than under-cook it. Because it's ground meat, it doesn't become shoe leather like a steak!) Stir fry vegetables in center of pan until tender. Serve immediately. Tastes like... venison.

Plated!

NOTE: Venison has a distinctive smell when you add heat. It's the "game-y" smell that only goes away with the addition of onions and peppers, in my experience. My hubby says that onion "draws the wild out of it." I think you're covering it up with another smell, and they're cancelling each other out. Almost as soon as the onions heat up, the smell will dissipate.

VENISON STIR-FRY

4 small venison steaks, cut into thin strips

1/2 Green pepper, sliced
1/2 Sweet onion, sliced
Teriyaki sauce
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Rice wine vinegar
Sesame seeds
Prepared brown rice, optional

Rinse meat in water. Drain. Heat sesame oil in wok or skillet. Add venison and stir fry on medium-high heat. Add vegetables and stir fry until onions gain some translucency. Lower heat to medium. Add equal parts teriyaki and soy sauce to skillet (enough to thoroughly coat venison and vegetables, but not until there's standing liquid in the pan!). Stir until coated. Add a splash of vinegar to help deglaze the pan. Stir over medium heat until sauce thickens. It will incorporate with pan drippings to make a yummy thing! Sprinkle some sesame seeds over the whole thing. Serve over brown rice!

NOTE: Don't have a pic yet. But I like this recipe because you can insert your meat of choice and it'll turn out great! I usually make chicken this way, and have made pork and beef as well.

Cuddles,

Tamara

PROGRESS: Week 3, 100th Post!

Today I celebrate my 100th post with some positive progress and a little story about The Scale and I! Considering this is the week before Christmas and I've been making candy like crazy-- and only sampling tiny amounts-- it's a miracle I've gotten anywhere with it! But the period of time I'm calling "damage control" has yielded results:

Weight Last Week: 275.2
Weight This Week: 273.4

That's a difference of 1.8 pounds! With eating some of the candies for the babies of the peoples!

Good things I ate this week:

1. More turkey thin-bread sandwiches for lunch. Now I'm out of the bread, so I won't buy more.

2. Baked salmon for lunch once, breakfast a couple or three times. (Because the stink of it heating up for lunch that one time may have killed a few coworkers! :D So I made different lunches to replace those.) Pure protein goodness!

3. Power Foods Texas Hash from my recipes. With refried beans and melted Pepperjack cheese.

4. Stuffed peppers: cleared out my stock of frozen peppers so I didn't have to cook. Now will have to cook!

5. String cheese as snacks at work

6. A couple days of oatmeal with Sweet N Low and cinnamon. Meh. :)

Here are some things I did:


1. Avoided added salt.

2. Cooked Texas Hash and Salmon in advance.

3. Made sandwiches fresh each morning.

4. Measured portions for almost everything!

5. Snacked on candies in EXTREME moderation!

6. Kept busy with work or cleaning or creative pursuits. No time to idly eat!

Here are some things I plan to change this week:


1. Eat Christmas food on the day before, day of and day after, but not beyond. (No infinite leftovers!)

2. Pay more attention to the "full" feeling. Cut regular portion sizes accordingly.

3. A few rounds with an exercise video or two. Helps with health AND stress!

THE SCALE AND I-- TAMA SAYS:

Back in the day, in fifth grade, the teacher did weigh-ins in front of class. Not officially public, but may as well have been. My number (on the first digital scale I ever remember seeing) was 188. I looked at her and her assistant. They looked at me. Some kids snickered. Forget the fact that I was the tallest, strongest kid in class, an Amazon in comparison to the little boys. That was the first time I saw my weight as a health problem.

Sure, I got picked on before that day for being the poor kid, the smart kid, the shy kid, the tall kid AND the fat kid in class. But Mamaw always told me, "It's just baby fat. You'll grow up and it'll all be gone." In almost the same breath she'd comment on how so-and-so was "as big as you are, Tamara!" or "even bigger than you!" (A practice she continued-- among other unsavory ones-- until I just vacated her presence a couple years ago. Permanently. With little regret. And only the briefest meetings since.)

Regardless of the other things she said which I knew were instigating crap, I was gullible. I believed that bit about baby fat until I saw 188 on the scale. Then the struggle started. But when you're not paying the bills, you eat what you're given, which was sufficient. I hit a growth spurt after this, too. I outgrew my long hair, which "shrank" from my hips up to my bra strap. Big Macs went on sale around that time. I'd eat two in a sitting, with fries and a shake. I can't do that now! But I was literally a growing young girl.

By eight grade, I was fatter, but the weight was stretched out on a longer frame (I ended up at 6ft eventually). After a few diets-- the Grapefruit diet (blech!) and Atkins, to name a couple-- I was still overweight. Going into high school, I weighed 212 pounds. Going into college, I weighed 223-ish. (I didn't gain the Freshman 15 because I walked everywhere. I may have lost weight...) Coming out of 5 years on my butt in customer service, I weighed 275. And coming out of my one and only year of full time teaching, during which I was sick for most of it, I weighed 300 pounds. And by the time I started this blog... ummm Monday, December 27, 2010, to be exact... I was fully unemployed for the first time in my adult life and down to 291 lb. And I was finally ready to take control of at least one area of my crumbly future: my weight!

I get different comments now when people ask my weight. "You don't look like you weigh that much." "You carry it well." I don't mind these as much. And if people know you're on a diet, they'll comment on how much weight you've lost. :) Even when you haven't. It's an attempt at encouragement that I would never discourage. Most people KNOW how hard it is to lose weight.

I can't see a weight change yet. Even in ten pounds, I may not notice. But I finally remembered why owning a digital scale made me feel a grain of hesitation, why it was so ingrained in me to buy one. A digital scale is where it all started-- the downfall and the climb back up. The number 188. I think I'll set that as Major Goal Number 2 when I knock off this 100 pounds. If I do that, I'll have come full circle. :)