Please join in on our weekly FOCUS challenge, this week's focus is on TRACKING

Pull out your measuring cups and food scale, get real with what you're really consuming & look up the numbers if you'd like

At a minimum, list the foods you ate - but I do recommend the weighing and measuring at least one day this week, it never fails to surprise me!

Of course, add your own twist to this focus - a lot of you did well eating induction-level carbs last week, you could easily keep that up and still join this challenge!

Also, please leave your suggestions for next week's FOCUS challenge - we'd like to make a rotating set of weekly challenges (last week was an INDUCTION challenge, and that will rotate back in a couple of weeks) - share your ideas on the next ones!

Daily weights for challenge :
185.4 May 5

Monday Plan :
B : bulletproof coffee
L: bone broth soup, leftover cabbage & beef
D : roast beef, raw broccoli salad, coconut milk & berries

I have some cooking to do of things that are my diet staples (raw broccoli salad, bone broth soup, crackslaw) and I am glad we are having this TRACKING challenge because I will actually measure my ingredients and calculate the proper amounts in each serving - I get sloppy with this and never make these exactly the same way twice (I don't follow a recipe at this point) so it will be good to do - does a serving of the soup really have 1/2 cup spinach and 1 T of coconut oil? Since these are 3 foods I rely on eating most days of the week, it will be good to get accurate counts for them!

Good morning!

May 5th. 149.6

B. 2 hard eggs, decaf w/ half nd half, 2T great lakes gelatin, decaf offer, then herbal tea, 1 scoop whey protein powder
L. 4 oz Chicken breast with a touch of homemade curry sauce, 4 peanuts
D. 6oz wild salmon filet, romaine lettuce, 1 oz goat cheese, EVOO

30 minute walk, 1 hour Pilates Reformer class

Ok I'm in. I realized yesterday I had not journaled for 3 days, so maybe this will get me back on track!

Breakfast: 2eggs, I.5 slice cheese, 3 slices bacon, 1.5 tsp. butter 24 oz water. 2 carbs
Lunch: Salad with grill chicken, ranch dsg 7 carbs
Supper: buffalo chicken dip, brocolli 1/2 cup 16 oz water 4 carbs
Snacks: protein bar (2), coffee (4), 28 almonds (2) , 32 oz water. 8carbs
Total: 21 net carbs

Daily weights for challenge :
185.4 May 5
186.0 May 6 (day 12 flat line...)

Monday Plan :
B : bulletproof coffee
L: bone broth soup, leftover cabbage & beef
D : roast beef, raw broccoli salad, coconut milk & berries

Monday Actual :
B : bulletproof coffee
L: bone broth soup, leftover cabbage & beef, 1/2 oz dried coconut
D : bone broth soup, raw broccoli salad, coconut milk & berries

In the evening I made 3 things that are diet staples for me - a bone-broth based soup, raw broccoli salad, and chicken crackslaw (crackslaw.com, but the main recipe is better than w chicken, I just had chicken I had to use up).

I try to do big batch cooking once a week or so, usually Sunday but this week I was working on my writing project & didn't get to it. And I'm following my husband's suggestion and doing more of eating the same foods over and over to simplify my food because on this restricted diet figuring out what to eat was taking a lot of time (I'm still doing Wahls Paleo Plus from AIP). And in fact I'm a creature of habit most of the time anyway, so it just made what I do de-facto into an actual plan, and therefore easier to organize.

Anyway, food scale & measuring cups were out, and I did all the cooking, realized that I've probably been over-estimating the caloric density of the soup and salad, perhaps even the crackslaw because I put in far less oil/fat for the cooking than I thought I did. I've been counting at least 1/2 a tablespoon per serving and cooking the whole batch I used far less than that (I measured for once, but tried to really watch and put in as much as I ususally do without measuring). Anyway all those things are now stocked and will make it through the week until my trip, with several servings of both soup & crackslaw for the freezer so even the day of our return I'll have no excuses.

I'm not going to copy over the details item by item, I'm tracking with LoseIt on my phone so here's the day's totals

Calories : 1138 (not very hungry! I had meat planned with dinner but didn't feel like it - this is good, I try to have one day a week of under-eating but it's been several weeks since I achieved this!)
Fat : 63% (83g)
Protein : 16% (48g) --> too low to make this a regular day but no biggie for a one-off
Carbs : 21% (63g / 19g fiber)

With most of what I plan to eat this week now already made and portioned out I feel like this tracking challenge might be too easy! But the discipline to measure out olive oil when I have salad today, etc is useful too from time to time...

Plan for Tuesday :
B : bulletproof coffee
L : bone broth soup, salad, roast beef
D : broccoli salad, crackslaw, leftover veg if I find any hiding in the fridge, berries/coconut milk

Thank you Sarah for creating this... I just won't be able to do this this week... After yesterday and then tomorrow (dinner with Parents) I am kinda lost with tracking of anything. I will join in next week!

I hope you all do Great!

Sarah, that was a fantastic run down of your planning for the week. I too am very much a creature of habit.

5/5. 149.6
5/6. 149.4

Have I mentioned I lose very slowly? No problem when going the right way.

I've decided to go deeper ino Atkins '72 and lower carbs more for this week. That's my personal challenge but it means tracking as I always do. I have been a daily tracker for decades.

B. decaf, half and half, 2T Great Lakes Gelatin, 5oz pork shoulder steak fried in butter
L. 4 oz chicken thigh, 1 oz goat cheese, 1 cup romaine, EVOO .5T, drizzle balsamic
D. 1cup romaine, lamb blade steak 6 oz fried in EVOO.

Cal 1350 69/39/2%. Carbs 6 fiber 1

For tomorrow (well starts tonight for me lol):

Supper: pan fried fish and Asparagus sauted in butter. Carbs 4
Lunch: Ham. Patty with cheese, 1 cup raw brocolli, 2 T ranch dsg. 4 carbs
Breakfast: 2 eggs, cheese, 3 slices bacon. 2 carbs
snacks: coffee, protein bar, almonds 9 carbs
18-20 total carbs. 80-100 oz water.

5/5. 212.8
5/6 212.8

Daily weights :
185.4 May 5
186.0 May 6
186.2 May 7 (day 13 flat line...)

Plan for Tuesday :
B : bulletproof coffee
L : bone broth soup, salad, roast beef
D : broccoli salad, crackslaw, leftover veg if I find any hiding in the fridge, berries/coconut milk

Actual for Tuesday
B : bulletproof coffee
L : bone broth soup, salad, avocado, leftover pork tenderloin 3oz
D : broccoli salad, crackslaw, leftover roast beef 4oz, broccoli, cucumber berries/coconut milk

Calories : 1353
Fat : 61% (97g)
Protein : 21% (74g)
Carbs : 18% (64g / 26g fiber)

Plan for Wednesday :
B : bulletproof coffee
L : bone broth soup, crackslaw
D : broccoli salad, roast beef, leftover veg, berries/coconut milk

Unlike some of you, I'm not a fan of tracking (that's why for me it's a challenge!) but it's good to see what 4 oz of meat looks like!

I don't think it's a coincidence that the week I'm working on carefully measuring and weighing my food my calories are down a bit from the previous weeks... I do, however, note that my weight is NOT MOVING which of course is usual for me, but still darn annoying...

Daily weights :
185.4 May 5
186.0 May 6
186.2 May 7
187.0 May 8 (day 14 flat line...)

Plan for Wednesday :
B : bulletproof coffee
L : bone broth soup, crackslaw
D : broccoli salad, roast beef, leftover veg, berries/coconut milk

Actual for Wednesday :
B : bulletproof coffee
L : bone broth soup, crackslaw, bacon, coconut chips 1/2 oz
D : broccoli salad, roast beef, broccoli, cucumber, romaine w strawberry vinaigrette, berries/coconut milk (small portions of all of this, by the way), 13g dark chocolate (trial reintroduction!)

Calories : 1536
Fat : 58% (103g)
Protein : 26% (105g)
Carbs : 16% (62g / 18g fiber)

Plan for Thursday :
B : bulletproof coffee
L : broccoli salad, bone broth soup, crackslaw, bacon, coconut chips if still hungry
D : lettuce, lobster w butter, asparagus, berries/coconut milk & another 13g dark chocolate for trial reintroduction

5/5. 149.6
5/6. 149.4
5/7. 149.2
5/8. 149

I always track everything in MFP but since lowering my carbs more, I have to really pay more attention. 20 carbs is really different than 35 in terms of veggies. Once I deduct fiber they are lower.

Yesterday: calories 944. Fat 65 protein 63 carbs 20 fiber 6. Those are all grams.

Thanks for the focus Sarah!

Did not weight this morning - early wake up to catch our plane. My husband and I are off on our first kid-free trip in about 2 years (just a weekend).

I do NOT plan to stay low carb the whole time, but I do commit to tracking at least as a written list all that I eat, and I don't plan on going crazy either.

I know I'm really adapted to low carb when I feel like I'm sneaking a giant treat because I threw an apple into my purse - because I'll be way happier with an apple for a treat than some gluten-filled garbage they'll offer for "breakfast".

Not sure I'll have a chance to check in before Monday - enjoy your weekend

Does anyone have a challenge idea for next week? I'd be up for something extreme if anyone is wanting to do that (could be "extreme low carb : meat & eggs, fat fast, whatever your hard core extreme plan is...") or something else - but I'm guessing I will not be happy with he scale on Monday and I'll be wanting the extras off quickly!

Have fun!

I'm happily at 149 this morning.

I vote for extreme low carb since I'm doing that and want to continue. Goal is to be under 148 consistently.

I failed on my plan to carefully track while away for the weekend. There were so many indulgences that after 2 meals tracking seemed really senseless anyway...

But I'm back in the low-carb swing today, a little hungrier than usual but that's probably no surprise since I've been full of carbs for a couple of days.

Sarah.. Welcome back and I hope you had a REALLY WONDERFUL Time tho on your weekend!

It is hard sometimes with all the "foods" staring at us and to just want to relax and eat anything... (Me too this whole last week!) But back on the wagon and moving forward is such a great accomplishment! Such lessons we learn! You can and will do it ! I just betcha!