The Cook's Nook and Eating Out

Soooooo. I was so busy I didn't blog for a couple of days! 

Well, here's the lastest scoop

1. I found my watch buried deep in my new little purse. Sorry for all the bad thoughts I thought about the people at the pool. I can hear my sister laughing all the way across the ocean, in Greece-- I did also find that dress, Paula, in a plastic bin in the basement. What was I thinking when I put it in there??

2. My pounds are up by 3, but given that I'm eating a much greater quantity of food that's also sticking to my insides some, not surprising. I learned that I need to take in more salt to be more "regular" - the Newest Atkin's book says drink 2 cups of broth a day to make sure you get enough. I'm measuring now bust, waist, abdomen and hips now and the inches are lookin good! At least two inches off  or more everwhere I Place the tape measurer. And Clothes continue to loosen up. Awesome.

3. I WENT OUT TO DINNER LAST NIGHT!! Now, I didn't share his with my husband but that almost brought me to tears. After all, I've been workin really hard in the kitchen for the past couple of weeks, and I was counting on staying away from restaurants till the end of July-- so an evening at the Marblehead, which always makes me feel like I"m "down the shore" as we Jersey Girls like to say, was a real treat - not to mention the FOOD!  Here's what I had- strict Atkins style: Crab and fliet mignon tips, zuchinni and broccoli in butter, and a nice big wedge of iceberg with blue cheese and bacon crumbles. And a diet coke with lemon. I couldn't eat but half of the crab and steak, (Eat till your satisfied but not stuffed, is the mantra and it's not like pushing aside piece of chocolate cake, at all - its much easier to say no to heavy duty protein.)  SO I'm having the leftovers for lunch today. I also snagged the butter and the sour cream my husband didn't use. -- after all - those are valuable ingredients now. (Isn't this a crazy, upside down world?!!)

I'm graduating to OWL (ongoing weight loss)  because I did induction a while back and I think I've got the carb cravings pretty well under control and am probably burning fat - since I haven't had any bread, pasta, potatoes etc in a month -- but the BEAD diet was actually mostly carbs and milk sugar -with the fruits and the whole milk and veggies like butternut squash -- which you can't have till Pre-maintenance in Atkins. Imagine that, no WISE FRIES?

So that basically means I can have tiny portions of berries and some nuts..

It's a little nutty counting carbs, which I've never really done in a detailed way because I've never done much more than the induction phase...I bought the newest Atkins book -- 2010--which is co-written by 3 top docs and is VERY detailed.  It's interesting reading and also a litle overwhelming. I have Veronica Atkin's nice, colorful, lots of pictures, cookbook which seems great- and you can tell at a glance whether a recipe is good for your phase. I'm making a pumkin pecan cheesecake for a 4th of July Picnic -- and some vanilla custard icecream for another one....but staying aware of portion control-- you really can't sit down and eat a big bowl of icecream--you have to have enough fat and protein and yet not go overboard. -- and that seems to be pretty easy. You need to eat salad greens twice a day and some veggies too --so it's healthy and makes sense.  Its not, as some people think, eggs, steak and bacon all day, every day.

I have found that it's best not to wait TOO long to eat --but for me that means don't wait till 12 when you ate at 5:30 AM-- that's almost 7 hours and when I got home at 11:30 the second day-- I was so ravenous I did eat my max in cheese -- 3 slices of provolone which was 3 ounces --- before I could get my shrimp salad on the table.

I've not tackled any fancy dressing yet - to add fat to the salads. But red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper taste terrific to me right now.And since it's permissable to have 2 Atkins bars a day (though its' advised not to rely on them too heavily)  that little indulgence is truly a wonderful thing....

I've been ruminating how to get my husband's diet turned around, little by little, but he has so many ingrained habits and distinct food preference (don't we all)  it will really have to come from him -- today I made his yoghurt from whole milk and blueberries instead of giving him the diet stuff. It wasn't much, but he might not like it!  I had to put xanthum gum it it to thicken it up after I ran it and the blueberries through the mini blender. If I change one little item in his favorite recipes--he'll always say-- What did you do???!

Well, as I keep this up, he'll automatically get some of the beneft and as I keep losing --he will probably get jealous...Time to go shop for the Makin Bakin doodad. We had one but I must have dumped a couple of the t-bars in the trash. They now sell it at K-mart. Their homepage still has a picture of the little girl who came up with the idea when she was 8, but guess what-- she's now 34!!!