futher success and the tyranny of sweet

On Thursday I tubed down the Delaware River with my daughter in law. We tied up our tubes and carried a cooler with water. And we sneaked two cheese sticks along in my pocket -- since were told we could have no snacks in our cooler...good thing. The river was VERY slow and it took us about 4 hours to get to the HOT DOG MAN where you can stand in thigh high water to get your "Free" hot dogs, soda and snack.

We had to paddle quite a bit, and current picked up near the hot dog stand so I was paddling and kicking furiously to make sure we made it into shore. I had no idea what time it was, but by the time we got out of the water, I was shaking -either from hunger, exertion or the adrenal rush of almost not making it in.

our "free" lunch consisted of 2 hot dogs in buns, a drink (mine a diet Pepsi) and I gave my snack to my daughter in law. Since the diet soda offered no calories to burn, I put my two hot dogs into one bun and ate them. My FIRST contact with white flour in over a month.  I was a little weirded out by that, but not too much. I knew I was burning fat and whatever else I ate today. In fact, the next day I dropped 2 pounds...probably some of it due to dehydration...though by Saturday I am still in the 186 realm...

When I came home I immediately made myself a nice big salad from red leaf and green leaf lettuce, spinach, shrimp, avocado, pumpkin seeds, purple cauliflower a sprinkle of blue cheese, baby portebellos and  oil and vinegar.  It was DELICIOUS.  Having everything handy and much of it cut up in pouches or containers makes it really fast. I have now found I really crave at least ONE BIG SALAD a day..so many flavors, no artificial sweeteners lingering after taste and the bulk is satisfying too. (Having a big bag of frozen peeled shrimp in the freezer is great for quick meals.)

FRIDAY-- the WORST CESAR SALAD EVER

On a trip with my son and granddaughter we stopped at a local deli for an early lunch. Instead of my usual turkey Ruben, I ordered a Caesar salad..yuck...what a disappointment.  She warned me that she only had ice berg lettuce, but she put on cut up toast instead of croutons (Maybe that was good, I wasn't the least tempted to eat them)  The chicken was out of one of those precooked bags, and the dressing was in a packet. Yuk. There was some shredded cheese on top. Makes you realize how easy it is to make your own dressing and how good it is!! I've been making blue cheese and ranch dressings--which taste so fresh and wonderful.


SATURDAY

Is usually communal breakfast day but I got up early to do some work and then decided to try and make low carb pancakes---using vital wheat gluten and ground almond  meal. It wasn't bad but after the first 3 I was still hungry (should have downed a glass or two of water first) and it was impossible to turn them after that--despite washing the pan and starting over.  It would have helped if the author had said make them silver dollar sized...but even so, my Emeril pans need the temp to be just right--or stuff seems to stick. And these did not get solid enough in the middle to turn easily.  I think a non-stick pan is essential for success. But the pancakes that I did manage to get out of the pan tasted good and had a nice texture.. The fake maple syrup tasted good at first too, but by the second batch I was noticing how fake it was...(Walden farms 0 calorie pancake syrup. I had 2 strips of bacon and some coffee with cream. But I'm vowing to stay away from any sweeteners the rest of the day. This was a pretty high carb meal- with 6 pancakes I may have eaten as many as 12 net carbs....(for comparison -- know that 1 cup of multi grain cheerios is 20 net carbs)

TYRANNY OF THE SWEET TOOTH
I'm still too attracted to sweet stuff -- though it's ALL about chocolate.. I'm having the max recommended 2 Atkins bars a day (2 net carbs and about the size of one ha;f a pack of an Almond Joy) ...one usually as a snack and one after dinner as "dessert." --I'm sure this is craving related rather than hunger oriented...and I'd like to cut back and make substitutes. For instance, a little natural  peanut butter on a celery stick tastes sweet to me now (no sugar in the pbutter) or a little brie with maybe a few berries would be more natural, satisfying and healthier than the bars..it's a worthy goal.....Slowly getting into having some cheeses around to sample and relish--in a house that's seen American slices for too long.