I am pretty surprised that this restricted-carbohydrate way of eating is turning out to be not-so-hard.  This week I made it through a week of travel, market research, 2 business dinners, 4 flights & rarely being in control of my lunch choices and still did okay.  I think I’m eating too many nuts (because they are one of the few semi-legal foods I can easily have on hand) and I’m still cheating with berries, but overall it’s going well.

I am premenstrual and was really craving chocolate last night and so I took out 5 grams of chocolate chips, then decided to trade them in for 5 grams of a really good dark chocolate bar (after tasting one chip and it’s waxy, cheap consistency).  And then I only ate half of what I had carefully measured out, because I felt guilty for the chocolate and after a few teeny bites the taste need was satisfied.

I bought ketostix at a pharmacy on my travels and was pleased to see it turning pink, which means my body is indeed breaking down fat.

Turning down bread and pasta and dessert has been really easy - it’s fruit I miss the most, but I am finding that juicy veggies like cucumbers and peppers do a reasonable substitution.

Most interesting to me is that I am really not very hungry except after about 5  hours between meals (or less if I ate really lightly).  And by having the nuts in my bag I have an accceptable choice with me.

I must say the ability to eat cheese living in France is nice.  I don’t miss the bread with it, which is strange, because I always used to have bread w cheese.  Last night our dinner was cheese and salad (and cauliflower for me).  We had all kinds of cheese collected from my husband’s travels and from the local cheese shop, and it was kind of strange to eat cheese on a diet.  But there is a limit of how much cheese one feels like eating, even if it’s a smorgasbord of choice and there is no ‘limit’.  Similar to meat and roasted chicken.  I can eat a lot of roasted chicken but no matter how hungry I always seem to stop at the same point… Meat is a little differerent, as I sometimes just get grossed out by meat and stop in the middle of eating it.

I have found that the best breakfast is 2 fried eggs and tea w half and half.  If I have more eggs I get grossed out, and 2 keeps me satisfied all morning.  If I add anything to them they seem too strong.  At home this is fine, on the road I’ve been lucky as most of the hotels where I’ve stayed these weeks have served eggs to order.  This week is a different hotel, we’ll see how it goes…

I was expecting eating out to be a real challenge but it turned out okay.  I can usually find a salad or similar for a starter, and a main course that is mainly protein and I just don’t eat whatever starch comes with it if I cant sub it out for veggies.  As for desserts, it’s always acceptable to pass on that, and at one of the meals there was a cheese plate that I split with 2 other colleagues.  The chocolate Easter bunny will be harder to fake, but since I was barely in the office this week I didn’t open it, and this week I will open it, break it into peices, and leave him to be devoured by my staff while we sit in a meeting all day.  I’m sure no one will even notice that I’m not eating him…

I’m down a pound again this week - not the rapid loss I was expecting, but given the nuts and cheese and fact that I’m premenstural it’s okay, and it’s the right direction, and it wasn’t too hard to achieve.

Bottom line : I’ve decided to stick to this for a few more weeks and then re-evaluate.