What I’ve been up too

Well mom is still in the hospital, we had hoped she’d come on on Monday but that didn’t happen.  Her heart was still out of rhythm and the meds weren’t correcting it.  So they put her under and shocked her heart.  The good news is her heart is back in rhythm and her pulse is back down in the 60-70 range where it belongs.  The bad news is,  it didn’t help the breathing issues.  So her cardiologist,  Dr.  Jessen has set up a meeting with her pulmonologist to see what they can figure out. 

The pulmonologist (super doc), Dr. Torres came in to see her this afternoon and he said his advice was to let her go home tomorrow and then have her come into his office.  We don’t know if Dr. Jessen will discharger her or not, but we’re hoping and praying he will soon.

I on the other hand seem to be getting inspired to get us on a budget.  I think I have it figured out so I can get our credit cards paid off, actually it’s just one that needs help. Some how we managed to let this one get out of hand.

I’m trying to do what is called pantry shopping, which is planning menus from the food you have on hand.  So far so good, but I have to wonder what on earth I was thinking when I bought some of the food in there.

This week we bought a few fresh veggies, eggs of course, and a few house hold things like laundry powder and toilet paper.  Not too bad.

I’ve also, decided that I’ll continue with my recipe blog.  I’ve found the whole time I’m cooking I’m telling myself how to make it lower carb.  So maybe I can post recipes with both versions.  Anyway, I think I’ll give it a try.

So that’s what I’ve been up to.  I hope once mom is back home I can post more regularly.

Some changes

I started my new low carb eating plan in May of 2007. By October I had lost roughly 60 lbs. Since then it's been up and down never going below my lowest. I'd like to say I'm great at counting and recording all my meals and watching my counts like a hawk. I'd like to but then I'd be lying. I've cheated, gone completely out of control, and skimmed by. But even when I'm doing great. Keeping my carbs low, drinking all my water, avoiding diet cokes, seemingly everything I should be doing. I just can't break that number on the scale.

So, I've decided that since I'm not losing anyway, I'm going to make it easier on me. From now own I will cut my carb count down to between 10 and 20. BUT I'm no longer counting any carbs from non-starchy veggies. Yep your read that right, in my book veggies are now free foods. Of course I'll still not be eating potatoes or other starchy foods. But in my book they aren't veggies anyway, they are starches.

When I was a kid growing up, we had a protein source, a starch and a veggie at almost every dinner. Corn and potatoes did not count as vegetables. My mom called them starches, just like rice and pasta. So to me that's what they are, not vegetables at all, just merely starches.

My reasons for doing this are simple. 1) I'm lazy and this will mean less to count. 2) This will ensure that most of my carbs come from healthy nutritious non starchy veggies. 3) It just seem wrong to me to limit vegetables. I know some people say we could live without them, but what kind of life would it be with out cabbage, okra, salad greens and spinach? Not a life I want to live anyway.

So that's the way I'm going to play it from now on. With things like dairy, nuts and seed are anywhere from 1-4 net carbs per serving, or 1 serving of lavash bread being 4 net carbs. This new plan will make it impossible not to get the bulk of my carbs from veggies and that's a good thing right?

I'm so hoping this will work, but the only way I know to find out for sure is to put it into action. So far so good, but I only started yesterday.
Yesterday I had
Breakfast 1: Pork roast ( I know but I just wasn't hungry)
Snack: an ounce of roasted almonds (2)
Lunch: ChocoPerfection bar (2) and 1/2 ounce of walnuts (1) I've almost never eaten a whole bar at once before. But it was just what I wanted. Not the best lunch but it's what I had.
Dinner 2: A bowl of left over chili ( new system net carbs 2) with cheese ( 1) sour cream (1) and lettuce (0) lavash bread chips (4)
So I stayed down to 13 carb + veggies. The chili had squash in it, plus I had a good bit ( at least a cup) of romaine lettuce with it.
Not exactly what I was hoping I'd eat, but I know my carbs were low and I drank a ton of water and tea, no coke at all and even got my 30 minutes of strength training in.
This morning I started my day out with a bowl of cabbage and more pork roast... nummy nummy We'll have to see where I go from there, but if I can stick with my plans for the day, I should have more veggies, and better carb choices, at least that's what I have planned.