January 29, 2009

I started the day with bacon, as I commonly do. No carbs, 10g protein.


Lunch was at Buffalo Wild Wings; I had their Naked Tenders, which are just grilled chicken, with wing sauce and blue cheese, and a side salad, no croutons, also with blue cheese. About 4g carbs, and about 30g protein.


I don't count calories or fat, exactly, but it's my feeling that I've been running pretty light on both these last few days. So I had a pretty high-fat dinner, with a dozen meatballs and about 3oz of cheddar. About 12g carbs, and 48g protein.

Dinner was pretty late, so no snacks tonight. Totals for the day are 16g carbs, 88g protein.

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January 28, 2009

Breakfast this morning was out at McDonald's -- I had to get one kid to school crazy-early to leave for a field trip, so the other kid and I had breakfast out. Scrambled eggs and a sausage patty gave me 2g carbs, and 22g protein.


I ate lunch at Chili's; the entrees sounded too big for my appetite, so I had the Caesar salad, no croutons, with garlic-lime shrimp. Great! There's a little bit of carbs still; let's call it 6g carbs, and 23g protein.


I am a total sucker for seasonal candies, and I know I would feel deprived if I let Valentine's Day get past without even a single box of chalky hearts. But one of the things I really like about low-carb eating is that it's restored my ability to eat just part of something sweet, and not crave the rest of the package. This is one quarter of a box of Necco conversation hearts; I'll eat another little pile like this in a few days, and so on, parceling them out until V-Day, and that way I'll get my little holiday treat and never do violence to my plan or my blood sugar. I could probably work in a whole box -- it's 28g carbs -- but this is better, because it doesn't set up a craving. 7g carbs in this portion, and no protein, of course.


Dinner was simple; more of the roasted turkey from last night, plus a whole pile of green beans. About 7g carbs, and 32g protein.


I also had the rest of my Morbier cheese, about 2oz worth. This is probably my least favorite of the new cheeses I've tried; not awful, but I don't think I'll buy more. About 1g carbs in this, and 12g protein.


I also had some kalamata olives. They've got a little more carb than the manzanilla olives I've been eating, so about 3g carbs, no protein, in this portion.

Totals for today are 26g carbs, and 99g protein; I knew I was running a bit high on protein, which is why I opted for the no-protein olives as a second snack when I was still a bit hungry.

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January 27, 2009

Back to bacon for breakfast; it does a better job than low-fat yogurt of getting me through the morning. No carbs, 10g protein.


A cup of chicken soup, and a Greek salad, from Panera; the soup is pretty high in carbs, but worth it. I counted this a bit high the last time I had it, as I forgot to subtract the fiber (fiber is disassembled into fatty acids in the large intestine, so it doesn't count as effective carbs); also, I didn't eat the pepperoncini, so I'm subtracting 1 for it. 18g carbs, 11g protein.


For dinner I had roasted turkey breast, Parisienne carrots, and baby Brussels sprouts. I realized after eating this that I was pretty low on protein for the day, so I went back and had another 4oz of turkey, not shown. 10g carbs, 65g protein.


I had 2oz of gouda after dinner. No carbs, 12g protein.


And I'd been craving chocolate all day, so I had two Lindt truffles, for 10g carbs and 1g protein.

Totals for today are 38g carbs, 99g carbs -- I overcompensated a little with the turkey, but still just within my parameters.

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January 26, 2009

I started the day with CarbMaster yogurt. I really like yogurt, and I'm happy to have found this that I can have without tripping my carb numbers much, but I think I may start saving it for snacks; it's only 80 calories and not quite filling enough for breakfast. Again, I really wish they'd done it as full-fat instead of low-fat! 3g carbs, 12g protein.


Lunch was the pot roast from the Black Eyed Pea again, although I ate there instead of bringing it back to my desk this time. A little tougher to resist their great bread that way, but at least they're not pushy with it if you send it away (unlike Macaroni Grill, which brought a loaf of bread three times last time I was there). 10g carbs and 40g protein.


I had some mixed nuts in the middle of the afternoon. 5g carbs, 6g protein.


Dinner was a few meatballs, and quite a lot of broccoli. About 12g carbs, 17g protein.


For a bedtime snack, I had 2oz of fontina cheese, and some kalamata olives. Maybe 2g carbs, and 12g protein.

Totals for the day were 32g carbs, 87g protein.

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January 25, 2009

Sunday was a very "snacky" day for me; it's not uncommon for me to eat like this on a weekend, with several smaller meals instead of any big ones.


I started off with bacon; no carbs and 10g protein.


And then a bit later I had chocolate -- Vosges sugar-free Red Fire. 6g carbs and 1g protein.


I wasn't very hungry at nominal lunchtime, so I had 2 oz each of beef summer sausage and gouda. 1g carbs, 18g protein.


Mid-afternoon, I had some tuna salad, made with Miracle Whip and sugar-free sweet relish. 3g carbs, 22g protein.


And a bit later, I had some olives. About 2g carbs, since I ate quite a few; no protein.


For a late dinner, I put together something at least a little like a meal; I had a spinach salad with blue cheese dressing and about half an ounce of shredded cheese, and 4 eggs, deviled (yum!). About 10g carbs, 30g protein.


I still felt hungry at bedtime, and after distracting myself a bit and pondering it, decided it was actual hunger, so I had some cheese -- 2.5oz of Islington Applewood, which is kind of like a mild cheddar with a distinct smokey flavor, really nice. No carbs, about 15g protein.

Totals for the day are 22g carbs, 96g protein, so even though it seemed like I ate all day long, I came in right on my targets as usual.

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January 24, 2009

I managed to get out of the house without grabbing breakfast, so I was reduced to eating sunflower seeds. I like them, but they aren't much of a meal. I had two handfuls about like this; I estimate about 3 tablespoons, which is a serving. 7g carbs, 6g protein.


Fortunately, lunch was more substantial. Chili's has added to their "Guiltless Grill" menu, and actually has some items that don't start out carb-loaded. This is the carne asada steak, with pico de gallo and lime, and broccoli with parmesan. About 6g carbs and 50g protein.


Since lunch was so high in protein, my mid-afternoon snack was mostly fat -- 16 olives, for a total of 1g carb and no protein.


Lazy dinner -- pre-made meatballs heated up in the microwave and micro-steamed Brussels sprouts. 16g carbs (the meatballs run about 1g each) and 28g protein.

Totals for today were 30g carbs, 84g protein.

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January 23, 2009

CarbMaster yogurt for breakfast again; 3g carbs and 12g protein.


I often eat lunch pretty late on Fridays, so I had some beef summer sausage bites as a late morning snack. No carbs, and 6g protein in half a dozen bites.


Wow, great lunch! I went to DiMassi's Mediterranean Buffet, which I haven't been to for a couple of years at least, and now I'm wondering why not. I had quite a lot of low-carb veggies (cucumbers, cabbage, eggplant, cauliflower, etc.), and some really nice kabob pieces of chicken and lamb. About 8g carbs, as an estimate, and 40g protein.


I'm still experimenting with low-carb pancakes, made from protein powder and egg. The recipe I've got comes out really runny as stated; I think this is a difference between my powder and the author's powder. I upped the protein powder this time and it was better, although still thinnish -- I think if I'd had the courage of my convictions and put the extra powder in at the start, it'd have been better, but I added it after adding the egg and I find it difficult to get the powder to mix at that point, since the egg white wants to encapsulate it. I also had 4 sausage patties; the syrup was zero carb. 3g carbs, 32g protein.


For a bedtime snack, I had the last three low-carb macaroons I'd made, and 1.5 ounces of Morbier cheese. About 4g carbs, and 12g protein.

Totals for the day are 18g carbs, and an even 100g protein.

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January 22, 2009

See, more CarbMaster yogurt for breakfast, just as I said. I'm glad I found this; I really like it, although it'd be nice if they'd made it full-fat instead of low-fat. 3g carbs, 12g protein.


This was a great lunch! We've got a local Mexican food chain, Los Cucos, that does the best carne guisada (basically, beef stew) I've ever had -- it's got beef, peppers (bell and jalapeno), onions, and tomatoes, but the spices and the size and proportions of the veggies vary by who's in the kitchen; it's never the same, but it's always delicious. I had them leave off the beans and rice (their rice is delicious also, but of course very high carb, and I like it too much to just resist it), and they sent out a bowl of chicken soup instead -- it was okay, but not what I was in the mood for, and the carne guisada was amply filling by itself. I'm going to figure 7g carbs, and 40g protein.


I had a meeting in the evening, and confined myself to the one carb-friendly choice -- raw veggies with a sour cream dip. About 6g carbs, 3g protein.

I should have taken a picture of the cake I didn't eat -- gingerbread with cream cheese icing! It looked delicious, but I wouldn't know, because I left it alone.


For dinner after the meeting, I had the last of the roast chicken from the other night (so good, I gotta get another of those), enough blueberries to give me 5g carbs, and about 2 oz of Fol Epi cheese (from France, similar to Swiss but milder and slightly nutty -- yum!). About 6g carbs, about 28g protein.


Okay, so the uneaten gingerbread cake was haunting me. To shut it up, I had some truffles -- three of them, 65% dark chocolate from Hershey's Cacao Reserve. Marvelously indulgent, and only 12g carbs, 2g protein.

Today's totals were 34g carbs, 85g protein. Right on the targets, although the carbs were a little more end-loaded than I usually allow to be the case.

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Tracking labels

You may notice I've stuck a few more labels on certain posts. I'm doing this so I can keep track of my frequency of eating several foods, and compare my perceptions to my actual records. For instance, I had the impression that I was maybe going overboard on the chocolate, having it practically every day -- it turns out I'm not, and that it's really only a couple times a week. On the other hand, applying the labels made me realize that I ate beef every day for a week, which is maybe okay but is not great on the variety. Right now I'm tracking my consumption of eggs, beef, chocolate, cheese (but not small amounts, half an ounce or less, sprinkled onto something), and nuts -- the latter two because they can really torpedo weight loss on a low-carb diet, and while weight-loss isn't a primary goal, I have been shedding some and would just as soon not bring it to a halt carelessly. And days when I exceed my limit of 50g carbs get a CARBFEST tag; so far these have all been birthday-cake related.

There are some other labels I use. Every food diary entry has a "diary" tag, so if someone wants to view just those and not the other blathering, they can. Posts where I go off on an extended discussion of something are labeled "lecture." And posts like this one, where I talk about what I'm doing with the blog itself or adjustments to my eating plan, get a "metadata" tag.

January 21, 2009

I really liked the CarbMaster yogurt that I had last week, so I got some more of it; I'll be having it for breakfast the rest of the week, unless someone snitches my food from the office refrigerator. 3g carbs, 12g protein.


This is a large roast beef sandwich from Arby's; I ate only the beef and the horseradish sauce, no bun. Arby's, by the way, has a nice layout of nutritional info on their website, which lets you subtract the ingredients you don't eat and get a good read on what you really had. 4g carbs, 36g protein in this as eaten.


For dinner, I made an omelet (about 2.5 eggs, because I gave about half an egg worth to my daughter), and folded shredded cheese into it. The end's a little brown, because I got the butter a little hot before adding the eggs, but it tasted just fine. I had a couple of sausage patties with it, and some baby Brussels sprouts. About 7g carbs and 27g protein.


I felt like I was running just a bit light for the day, and my protein was just at my daily minimum, so I had a snack -- 12oz of low-carb milk, blended with ice and some sugar-free Torani raspberry syrup so it was all frothy and fruity, yum! About 5g carbs, and 12g protein.

Totals for the day are 19g carbs, and 87g protein. Right on target.

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January 20, 2009

Nobody is surprised to see bacon for breakfast. The microwave at my office is so odd, though; today's bacon is on the limp side (which I consider perfect, but which I understand to be a minority opinion), yesterday's was crispy, on the same time and power settings. I never know what I'll get -- it's like bacon bingo! No carbs, 10g protein.


I gave in to the temptation of Starbucks Mint Mocha truffles at my office, but I just had one and it kept me out of the cookies! It wasn't that bad; dark chocolate usually keeps the carbs down. 7g carbs, about 1g protein.


This is so not diet food -- I bet there's a quarter cup of butter in the sauce, alone -- but well worth it. From Romano's Macaroni Grill, this is their Portofino Shrimp -- nice fat shrimp, fresh spinach, mushrooms, and pine nuts, sauteed in a lemon butter sauce. On the menu, it comes with capellini; I subbed grilled asparagus instead, keeping it nicely in low-carb compliance. About 7g carbs, and around 35g protein.


For dinner, I had leftovers of the roast chicken from the night before, and baby Brussels sprouts, which are just about my favorite veggies. 6g carbs, and about 40g protein.

No snack, because while I'm not really counting calories there's no need to go overboard, and lunch was big; I didn't need one, anyway. Totals for today are 20g carbs, 86g protein, right where I want to be.

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January 19, 2009

Weekend's over, back to bacon for breakfast. No carbs, 10g protein.


IHOP for lunch -- this is the migas (eggs, jalapenos, onions, cheese, salsa) and broccoli. About 13g carbs, 30g protein.


Dinner was more broccoli, and some roast chicken. About 5g carbs, 40g protein.


A couple of ounces of gouda just before bedtime -- about 1g carbs, 12g protein.

Totals for the day were 19g carbs, 92g protein -- I'm happy with that.

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