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…I got it from a blog that I read regularly.  It made me LOL.  =D

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Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  265.4  Today:  263.8
Change today:  -1.6   Loss-so-far: 16.0 lbs.

Wow was I happy to see a “3″ on the scale this morning (even if it is 3.8!)!!!  Downward is good, in fact, downward is great!!!  Next comes an upward swing but that’s okay.  I’ve seen the three!!!  Oh boy do I ever wanna see a “5″ in the middle — that’ll put me back where I was last summer which will make me SO happy!

Well the hurricane which wasn’t a hurricane but rather a tropical storm - it missed us completely.  We had a little bit of rain today and it was a little windier than normal, but nothing big, thank God.  Since both work and school had been cancelled, Hubby, son, and I went shopping, that was fun.  We went to a local grocery store which is closing, so they are selling everything out at reduced prices.  We got $189 worth of stuff for $136.

It amazes me that we could find $136 worth of stuff to buy, when we just went grocery shopping two days ago.  Of course not everything we bought was food - in fact a couple of the bigger-ticket items were not food at all.  We got a popcorn popper, the air kind.  I had seen on FitDay that airpopped popcorn was much lower in carbs than microwave popcorn, and so since popcorn is our favorite snack (Hubby and I), we had talked about getting a popper.  And there one was, at 30% off.  So of course we had to buy it.

I read somewhere that the fruits which are lowest in carbs are strawberries and raspberries.  So I bought some strawberries, hoping that I’d read correctly (or at least what I’d read was true!).  I looked it up when I got home and sure enough, a 1/4 cup of sliced strawberries has only 3g of carbs.  Woohooo so I cut ‘em up, stirred in a little granulated Splenda, and had myself another yummy treat for dessert tonight!

This is way too much good stuff for “dieting” !!!!!

1677

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  264.0  Today:  265.4
Change today:  +1.4   Loss-so-far: 14.4 lbs.

I live on the “Suncoast,” the central western shores of Florida.  My house is less than 1,500 feet from the Gulf of Mexico and we are blessed, here on the west coast, with beautiful sunsets over water 365 days a year.

The Suncoast has also been blessed in that it has not received a direct hit from a hurricane in like ninety years.  I’m hoping tomorrow’s visit from Fay doesn’t break that record.  So far the news is projecting landfall around Naples or Fort Myers (way south of where I live).  Not that I wish bad weather on the folks down there but yeah I’ll breathe a sigh of relief if this storm passes me by.

I have spent the late afternoon and evening in the kitchen, doing that thing I don’t like to do.  =D  This afternoon I made some more muffins (played around with the recipe again only this time it didn’t turn out so well) and then this evening I made peanut butter fudge.  Here it is:

I tried using Fiberfit for the first time and I think this batch tastes better than the last batch I made using granular Splenda.  I get why they call the Fiberfit “liquid Splenda” though, because it tastes exactly like Splenda - but I think that the fudge tastes more peanut-buttery.  Cool thing is, less carbs.  Only 1g carb per piece.  Cool!

If you’re interested in the recipe, it’s here:
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/peanut_butter_fudge.html

Kevin went to his friend’s house tonight, so — no more excuses — I did the Total Gym thing by myself.  It wasn’t so bad.  =)   Not as much fun as having a partner, but it is still fun to compete against myself (by beating the number of reps I did last time).  I did good!  Oh, and I’m gonna spend some quality time with my new exercise-bike-seat… I saved the end of French Kiss so I’d have something cool to watch while I pedal.  Not that I haven’t seen it five times before, lol.  

Oh, and Joy — no I don’t think I ever saw Proof of Life.  I looked it up on imdb.com, though, and it looks good, I’ll keep my eye out for it, thanks!

1634

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  265.2  Today:  264.0
Change today:  -1.2   Loss-so-far: 15.8 lbs.

Yeeeehaw, the numbers on the scale moved again!  I’m trying not to get too excited about it because on the other diet a dip like this would always be followed by a sudden spike.  I have no idea if that’s gonna happen, but just in case, I wanna be prepared.

In the meantime…  **happy dance!!!**

Yesterday I totally forgot that lillie asked me if I would post the recipe for the muffins.  Sure, I can do that.  =D

ALMOND FLOUR MUFFINS

2 cups almond meal
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 C butter — 1 stick, melted
4 eggs
4 tblsp. DaVinci syrup (Dulche de Leche or English Toffee)
2 tblsp. water

Mix, pour in muffin tins, bake at 350 about 15 minutes

Yield: “8 muffins”

I used 1 cup of almond meal/flour and 1 cup of carbalose flour, mainly because the almond meal is more expensive and I didn’t have as much of it.  I’m glad I did because the texture of the almond flour is pretty grainy - but carbalose has more carbs than the almond flour.  I also used Vanilla Davinci instead of the flavors the recipe mentioned because I happened to have vanilla.  =D

These were awesome right out of the oven but were a little dry the next day.  I nuked one and put butter on it and that took care of the dryness.  Also, for dessert I split a muffin in half, poured some Walden Farms Chocolate sauce on it (no calories, no sugar, no carbs, wooohoo) and topped it off with a bit of whipped cream.  What a yummy treat!

Oh yeah, one more thing!  Maybe I didn’t fill the muffin pan sections full enough, but I ended up with 11 muffins, not 8.  With the carbalose substitution, here’s the nutritional values:

Per muffin:  185 calories / 16g fat / 7.4g protein / 6.9g carbs / 3.7g fiber / 3.2g net carbs

In other related news, my hubby replaced the seat on my exercise bike with one he got off of a professional/gym exercise bike that they were throwing away at his work.  Wow!  What a difference!  I did 6.5 miles on the bike this evening and my a$$ wasn’t numb at all!!!

Here’s my 3FC ticker with my original starting weight:

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1584

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  265.8  Today:  265.2
Change today:  -0.6   Loss-so-far: 14.6 lbs.

I had an appointment this morning in a neighboring town and then after that I had to pick up my daughter to take her shopping for back-to-school clothes.  So I was up and out of the house by 9:30 am and didn’t get home until after 5:00 pm.  Hubby wanted to go out for dinner and then after dinner we had company until about 10:30 pm (my nephew and his family - I had a really enjoyable visit with my niece, she let me rave on and on about the low-carb eating plan and is thinking about trying it, woohoo!).

So anyway, no Total Gym time today.  Kevin’s at a friend’s house tonight anyway and it just wouldn’t be fun without him.  Besides, Kevin and I made a commitment to five days a week, not seven.  Five is good.

It’s 11:45 pm and I’m seriously considering putting a few miles in on the exercise bike.  LOL!  This is so unlike me, but I have found I really LIKE seeing the numbers on that scale move (they moved again this morning!), and on this diet - it’s the exercise that makes the difference.  I’M A FAT-BURNING MACHINE - as long as I do something, anything, to bring about the fat-burning!!!

Enough talking about it, I’m gonna go do it.  =D

Edited to add:

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Hubby came in and took a picture while I was pedaling away.  I did 5.5 miles, the first part at about 14mph and then the last two miles I revved it up and maintained 16mph.  I feel better now!

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By the way, that’s the movie French Kiss with Meg Ryan on the TV.  =D

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1544

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Wednesday:  267.8  Yesterday:  267.2  Today:  265.8
Change today:  -1.4   Loss-so-far: 14.0 lbs.

Woooohoooo the scale finally mooooooooooved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It doesn’t take much to make me happy!  =D  After a fifteen-day stall, I’m just so happy to see the scale reflecting what I feel - I feel my clothes are roomier, I feel more limber, I feel less constrained, I feel GOOD.  I knew I had lost fat, I could feel it!  And yesterday I went over to my mom’s and she hadn’t seen me in almost two weeks and immediately she asked, “Did you lose more weight?”  She could see a difference, she said.  Wooooohoooo!!!

I spent the day with my daughter yesterday (oh yeah that was fun) and didn’t get home until almost 9pm.  I was so happy to see that my new Netrition box had arrived, that I pulled out a package of frozen chicken and made taco-chicken to try on my new LOW CARB TORTILLAS, which, by the way, were AWESOME.  They tasted just like “normal” tortillas (which means they taste kinda like nothing - which in this case is a very very good thing!).

Today for lunch I had two more chicken-soft-tacos with cheese and sour cream — YUMMY!

I also ordered Carbalose flour and almond flour… I really have been wanting muffins and I didn’t want to make them with the carbquik because I figured they would probably taste like… Carbquik.  Or at the very least, like biscuits.  I mean the carbquik is okay, it just has a weird texture and an odd aftertaste.  I have tried three different biscuit recipes so far using the Carbquik and didn’t really care that much for any of them.  Well, the one with yeast in it wasn’t too bad.  The carbolose flour smells more like flour.  Real flour.

So tonight I make muffins!  I’ll try to remember to take a picture, I love it when people post pictures in their blogs, so I’ve been trying to do it more often.

Edited to add:

Here they are! 
Vanilla muffins - only 3 net carbs each - and they taste as good as they look!

I still find it so amazing, that *I* am cooking!  LOL

1476

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  267.6  Today:  267.8
Change today:  +0.2 TOM   Loss-so-far: 12.0 lbs.

Kevin and I went out school-clothes shopping tonight and his waist size is down a full two inches from when we started carb-counting just 29 days ago!  Woohooo!

I’m still not losing pounds (for the fifteenth day in a row) but I’m not gonna stress about it.  As I’ve already acknowledged, I didn’t exercise for most of those fifteen days, and now that we’re doing this Total Gym thing, I know that I’m developing muscle - ok I’m sure I didn’t develop much muscle in just three days, but still, I’m looking at the number of reps I’m able to do and they rose again today, so something’s developing!

I see that the new version of FitDay includes a place to record your measurements.  Hey it’s about time!  I’ve been using weighttracker.info all this time. 

1447

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  268.2  Today:  267.6
Change today:  -0.6 TOM   Loss-so-far: 12.2 lbs.

Kevin (DS) and I agreed that we would try out the Total Gym yesterday afternoon, so yesterday morning I went online and watched the YouTube instructional videos again, took notes, and made us a spreadsheet so we could keep track of our daily number of reps.  Wanna see it?

I know it’s kinda tiny but with the weird setup in the Admin part of this blog, I don’t have a choice to post it as a thumbnail (or if I do have that choice, I have no idea how).

Anyway, as you can see from our scribbles on it, we made a couple adjustments.  On the pull-ups and bicep curls, it was set too high (too hard!), and on the pullover triceps it was set too low (too easy).  Today we could definitely feel the soreness from yesterday - yet we were both able to do more reps on almost all of the movements.  Maybe once we get more practiced at this, we might add even more movements - but right now, I think this is a good place to start.

In addition to the TG workout, I pulled the exercise bike out and dusted it off… did 4 miles yesterday and 4.75 miles today.  This evening I made it a race, keeping my speed up above 14 mph the whole way.  Short workout for me, but fun.  I can’t do really long runs on the exercise bike because it makes my a$$ numb.  =D

The point here is… I’M MOVING!  Exercise is non-negotiable!! 

1416

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Saturday:  267.4  Yesterday:  267.8  Today:  268.2
Change today:  +0.4 TOM   Loss-so-far: 11.6 lbs.

I know it’s my TOM but geez these weight fluctuations are driving me crazy!  I feel like I’ve lost that one same pound about twelve times now!

Yesterday Hubby and I went shopping for these liner things that you put inside a bike tire (between the tire and the tube) to protect the tube from being stabbed with little annoyances like sandspurs.  Each set is 20 bucks, but they are totally worth it in terms of tube-replacement and rear-painage.  He already had a set in his bike tires, so we got a set for me and a set for Kevin.  Thus, we did not actually ride our bikes, nor did we do our home-project-thing that we were supposed to do.  But, we did something else health-and-fitness-related.

We shopped.  My husband loves thrift stores and on our way to the bike store we went past one of his favorite stores and there was a big ol’ sign out front that said, “Half-Price Sale!”  Oh, that was just too tempting to pass up twice, so on the way back from the bike store, we stopped to check it out.  Right out front was a mysterious-looking contraption that Mike recognized right away - I had no idea what it was.  It was partially folded up, so even when he told me what it was, I had a hard time visualizing how it worked.  It was priced at $59 so our cost would be $30.

He unfolded it.  I tried it.  We bought it.

On the way home, I spoke to Kevin (son) on the phone.  Here’s how the conversation went:

“Hey Kevin, Dad and I bought something at the thrift store that you and I can use.”
“Really?  What is it?”
“It’s something that Chuck Norris uses.”
“Dude!  Really?!  You got a Total Gym?!”

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Now how could he possibly have known that?  Hubby tells me it’s because it’s the only product Chuck Norris endorses.  I don’t generally watch infomercials but I could have sworn I’d seen him in several, lol.  Anyway…

I found some videos on YouTube posted by a personal trainer, telling how to use this thing.  It looks pretty cool.  We start training tonight!

1350

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8
Yesterday:  266.6  Today:  267.4
Change today:  +0.8 TOM   Loss-so-far: 12.4 lbs.

Well, we got a late start, but we did go for a bike ride.  I think we left at about 4pm, I’m not even sure what time it was exactly.  All I know is that the sun wasn’t beating down from right overhead, and I was happy about that.  Oh, it was plenty hot, but one nice thing about bike-riding, you create your own breeze.

We’d decided upon a route that started out east on a familiar route, then turned north on a road we’d never biked upon before.  We knew it was a bit hilly, but no treacherously steep hills, just gentle slopes.  At least, that’s what we thought, lol.  As I enjoyed the pedal-free cruise down one particular hill, I wondered how much fun it would be navigating that same hill on the way back.  Turns out, I never had to find out.

Kevin got a flat tire.  We’d ridden through this area where the grass had just recently been mowed and there was grass - and apparently sandspurs - all over the sidewalk.  We all had sandspurs in our tires, but Kevin’s front tire was (apparently) the only casualty.  My husband Mike has saddlebags on his bike and carries all kinds of tools and stuff but one thing he didn’t have was a new tube.  So he pumped the tire up for Kevin and we made an unexpected turn on our route — toward WalMart.  Which sits, quite nicely, on the top of a hill.  LOL.

I almost made it.  I had to stop about 40 feet from the top and walk my bike (and catch my breath) the rest of the way.  Kevin and Mike had waited for me at the top and even though they’d managed to ride the whole way, they still hadn’t recovered from the experience, lol.  They looked much worse than me, that made me feel a bit better.

We got a tube for Kevin but his front tire was holding air so Mike packed the tube in his saddlebag and we continued on our journey.  Since we were in a totally different place than we’d expected to be, we changed our plans and headed for Mike’s favorite restaurant.  It was dinnertime anyway.  Kevin and I both had almost-zero-carb dinners (grilled chicken) while Mike enjoyed his usual biscuits-and-gravy-breakfast-for-dinner feast.

When we left the restaurant, it was just starting to get dark.  We would have gotten home before dark - maybe - if Kevin’s back tire hadn’t gone flat while we were eating!  It was really flat, so Mike changed the tube right there in the parking lot.  Ai-yi-yi!

Anyway, we got home a little while ago and we’d clocked a total of 7.55 miles for the day.  It was a good start, a good beginning for our return to regular bike-riding!  I feel great!

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