day 13

why don't I eat splenda?

since my herbalist said that she'd rather see me "using hard drugs than eating splenda!", I've become a bit splenda-phobic. not that I think I'm going to accidentally ingest any, or that someone is going to hold a gun to my head and make me eat splenda granular with a spoon, but I can't help but feel a bit worried about how widespread it is, and how overwhelmingly sweet and splenda-ful so many of the products taste.

I know that tons of people use it to zero ill effect (and I almost wish I were one of those people), and that's great! I for one started getting weird side effects when I used to eat it daily. my lips, hands and feet started getting numb. I'd get weird tickly feelings in my face. I had anxiety attacks. all of this stuff went away when I stopped eating splenda. I'd started eating it again on this go of atkins out of sheer laziness, which is to say I was using atkins bars as snacks here and there. sure enough, I started getting weird tingles if I ate them too often. sometimes, I just don't learn.

so where am I going with this? nowhere. hahaha! I'm using xylitol, erythritol, and stevia as sweetners these days, to no ill effect, and finding that things sweetened this way are much better tasting (ie. no chemical taste). I'm sure it's a matter of time before someone finds serious fault with these natural alternatives, but until they do and I start getting numbness, tingling, etc from them, I'm pretty sure they're ok by me. :)

anyway...rant over.

breakfast:
oopsie french toast
xylitol syrup
butter
coconut oil
bacon

snack (ish)
decaf american
cream
xylitol & stevia

lunch:
1/4 chicken breast (seriously, what's the point! ha!)
hideous green chorizo
sour cream
salad
cheesecake

dinner:
zucchini "noodles"
marinara sauce
turkey
cheese

day 12

I'm feeling queasy today. hormones + flu, I guess. TMI? possibly. :)

breakfast:
breakfast sandwich on oopsies
decaf americano
cream

lunch:
chili
sour cream
other half of the zevia

dinner:
chicken
peppers
broccoli
(still feeling sick, didn't finish any of it)

after coming home STARVING (I guess whatever was making me queasy went away), I finished my piece of chicken and broccoli. and a piece of cheesecake. ha!

day 11

scale says 204-206! so stoked! so close to being under that accursed 200 lb mark.

I'm not feeling overly hungry today. I had breakfast probably before 8 am, and now it's a little after 2 pm, and I'm just now starting to feel hungry.

the green chili chorizo was tasty this morning, but visually oh so off-putting. I like to butterfly my sausage (which sounds like a filthy euphemism) to cook it, and I didn't take into account the fact that this was FRESH sausage, ie. not pressed like what you'd normally get from a package. the casings shrank, and I essentially had two clusters of meat broccoli. holy moley, was that ever ugly! they ended up being very filling, which is good, but the VISUAL. ugh.

breakfast:
chorizo
eggs

lunch:
beanless beef chili
sour cream
pumpkin cheesecake

dinner:
same as last night, except for the mushrooms, including the cheesecake. ah, leftovers.
1/2 orange zevia

day 10

waiting for the onslaught of hormones to go with the water retention. *yay!*

I'm still coughing my face off. if it's like this tomorrow, I'll go to the doctor. meh.

breakfast:
eggs
bacon
oopsie rolls

snack:
cheese. or more accurately, crunchy baked cheese.

lunch:
see yesterday's lunch. boring, you'd think, but leaving the meat/sauce overnight resulted in an exponential increase in deliciousness!
club soda w/stevia

dinner:
chicken breast
salad w/olive oil and a tiny bit of lemon juice
avocado
broccoli
mushrooms
pumpkin cheeseckae
whipped cream

day 9

it's not even 2 pm yet, and I've already had my 100 oz of water. :)

I'm wiped today, was up a good chunk of the night, coughing my head off. booooo. so now my chest hurts. I promise I will stop whining. at some point. ;)

breakfast:
eggs
sugar-free bacon

snack:
cheese

lunch:
zucchini "noodles"
meatballs
marinara sauce
cheesecake (unless I state otherwise, it's homemade, sweetened with erythritol and induction-legal. I'm getting lazy typing here.)

dinner:
see lunch. ha! I didn't have time to buy anything, and had some leftovers, soooo...
decaf americano with coffee cream, xylitol & stevia
one TINY slice of pepperoni

day 8

I feel slightly less horrid today. more like I have a cold instead of a hellflu. thank goodness.

I was EXTREMELY excited to find sausages today with no grains and no sugar at all in them! I took my sister to a Mexican deli, and found they had chorizo, which I love, with no fillers or artificial anything, which I ALSO love! so that's two good meat finds in two days. yay!

ALSO...I weighed in this morning. so I went from 209-211.5 down to 206-208! YAY! so 3 or 3.5 lbs this week. *happy dance* it took me from july until january to lose 25 lbs, so this is huge! hopefully this week will be good too.

breakfast:
steak
americano w/cream, xylitol & stevia

lunch:
chicken, turkey, and bacon
2 oopsies
butter
mayo
red peppers
homemade low carb cheesecake
orange zevia (1/2 can)

dinner:
same cheesecake as mentioned previously. I just had no time. maybe I'll have something reasonable later.

ok, so the "something reasonable" turned out to be straight-up veggies (with guacamole and sour cream as dip) at the meeting I was at, and now I'm STARVING. so I assume my carbs were too high, dammit. I was still full from lunch when I left. I kept my daily total well within the 2-3 cup limit.

maybe I should mention that, I'm keeping all my cheese/veggies/cream/etc well within the guidelines of induction. I've just been too lazy to post the measurements most of the time. :)

day 7

first, the complaining: the flu has fully moved into my lungs and sinuses. this SUCKS.

secondly, the food.

breakfast:
about 1/4 oz of cheese (had to take supplements with SOMETHING)
about a tablespoon of leftover mousse (see above comment, add in "I'm weak sometimes")

breakfast sandwich (eggs, cheese, bacon) on 2 oopsies
americano with heavy cream and stevia/xylitol

lunch:
roast beef
turkey
oopsies
mayo
mustard
club soda w/stevia

dinner:
steak
1/2 piece chicken
peppers
club soda w/stevia
piece of erythritol/stevia sweetened cheesecake