The short version: it doesn’t work. Well, at least not the way I’m doing it. I totally agree and can see that if you eat carbs – that is what gets turned into fat. There’s no disputing that. But just not eating carbs isn’t enough to make you lose weight alone. Even though I’m not creating fat – I’m also not doing anything to BURN fat either. I think two things need to happen in order for that to happen:

1. Portion Size
While it may be that I can eat until really really full, and not gain weight (which would not be the case if I was eating carbs); I’m not losing weight either. I think I need to under-eat. Probably don’t even need to go to the point of really feeling hungry – but just cut the size down a bit.

2. Exercise
This is probably the biggest and most important one. I’m not exercising. Life is unbelievably hectic right now. Going to 24 hour fitness for Zumba ended up being an endless source of frustration. The classroom is too small, and the class size is too big. Which is fine if you’re not dancing and flailing around – but you move in Zumba. A lot. The other problem is that if you don’t get close to the front – you can’t see the instructor that well (see previous note about class being too packed) – so you just half-ass it until you can figure out what move the instructor is doing. I got the XBox360 Zumba game – which is awesome… except it’s done at home. Which means everyone in my family can’t resist the urge to try and pull me away from my exercise and answer questions about “what are we having for dinner?” “What are we doing on Saturday” “When are you going to do xyz for me?” “Can you help me do abc?” etc. etc. Seriously. One hour – I can’t get peace.

I used to run which was going pretty well, until my knees started to really hurt. Also – there’s a short window I can get out to run before it gets dark (and there’s no lit running tracks nearby)

So my conclusion for now – unless I can figure something else out… is that I’m going to continue to eat like this (no carbs during the week – 1 day I let loose) as it’s a great way to *maintain* my current weight without really going hungry or counting calories. But until I can fit in at least 1 hour a week of exercise – I’m putting my hope of losing weight on hold. It’s not realistic.

I’m in the middle of changing jobs – three of them actually. It’s complicated… Very complicated. I’m basically working 2 jobs at the moment – trying to phase them out so I can start a third – ideally free of the previous 2. I have my day job – and then I work in the evenings and weekends too. Aside from not exercising, non-stop work like this isn’t healthy either. I’m trying to change things – but like I said – until I can – the best I can hope for is no-fuss maintenance. Not loss

So my little experiment for the week (Would removing beans get me back on track) proved that yeah, beans are not helping me with the weight-loss. I dropped down lower than I’ve been able to get to on this diet, almost immediately after dropping beans off the menu. Can’t wait to see how next week goes!

So I’m focusing on eating veggies, meat (steak, chicken, turkey, fish) and eggs. So far my breakfast and lunch repeat. Every day I have 2 eggs, (no sugar added) salsa, 2-3 slices of bacon and 1 or 2 cups of coffee with half-and-half. Lunch this week was: Meatball & veggie soup (not loving the soup, but meatballs we’ll be having again!), tuna fish salad over coleslaw mix, and egg salad over coleslaw mix.

That coleslaw mix is my new best friend. I am totally in LOVE with it. I don’t care what diet you’re doing – I can’t think of a single diet that wouldn’t work with that stuff. It’s low carb, low calorie, packed with vitamins. It’s crunchy, filling, yummy. LOVE IT! I was lamenting over the fact that egg salad or tuna fish salad NOT on bread just aren’t the same… but I’ve decided that on coleslaw mix… WAY YUMMIER.

I’m still looking for more options for lunch though. I wish I could eat that tuna fish salad every day – but I’m worried about the other negative health issues with canned tuna (mercury, etc.). I can probably get away with eating it 2 days a week – but I wouldn’t push my luck for more than that on a regular basis.

In any case, this week was much better than last. Feeling good, skinnier… but looking forward to binge day! LOL! Last week, I never made it to Jamba Juice, so hoping to get there this week on binge day (My son has been begging for a smoothie too so that will make both of us happy). There will be many jelly beans eaten. (Totally addicted to those) Pancakes. Pizza (maybe) – or maybe I’ll just do Chipotle again (I love their burritos stuffed with cilantro rice!!)

So as evident by my weight chart – I’m not losing weight. I hit a nice low the first week in, but my weight came back up a little and then really hasn’t moved as much – and didn’t get back down to the low from the week before. My suspicion is the whole bean theory. I’m feeling less and less convinced that the carbs in beans is really “safe”. I think that while it won’t promote weight-GAIN – it doesn’t promote weight-LOSS either. If I was looking to maintain my weight – then I think this works. Eat as much beans as you need to fill up. The carbs in beans won’t ADD fat – not like the carbs in pasta and bread does – but if you’re looking to LOSE weight, then beans can prevent that from happening. At least that’s my theory. From what I’ve read from other people as well – when they weren’t losing weight – removing the beans helped them start to lose again. Being that I’m only looking to lose between 10-15lbs now, I may need to really restrict what kind of carbs I bring into the picture in order to get down to where I want to be. It may be that if you’re looking to lose 40+ lbs – beans are ok. (Although Sam is doing the diet with me too, and he has a good 70lbs to lose but while his weight loss was big the fist week too, he also is kind of stalled out)

So now the issue will be to modify my meals so that there are little to no beans. Most of the dinners I’ve been having on this plan – that’s not a problem. And Breakfast was usually hard-boiled eggs, and I think I can keep that up for a good long time. But lunch was a heavy on beans. I would make a huge batch of bean salad and I’d just grab a serving and go and I’d be all set for lunch. I’ll need to find another easy to make ahead and grab and go kind of lunch.

I also still plan to keep “binge day” as it’s the main thing that will keep me sane on any particular diet. Maybe I won’t go out of my way to make myself sick – but I will go for items I’d been craving that week. Today happens to be binge day.

On the menu:

Pancakes (check)
French fries
Chipotle burrito
Jamba Juice Mango-a-go-go
and a chocolate macaroon I saved from last week

I’d also like to keep trying to snap a pic of my food. It’s funny how easy it is to forget. I remember about half way through a meal usually – but at that point, it seems kind of too late.

Really trying to make taking pics a habit – but it’s really hard! Lunch was awesome yesterday. Went to a Mediterranean restaurant and had grilled lamb kabob and grilled veggies (zucchini,  and peppers). That would have been a good pic! For dinner I made this Spiced Bacon Lentils recipe. It was pretty good. I think when I make it again, I’ll probably add some cauliflower. It just needed something else in there too – by the time I realized it though it was too late and people were hungry. So another meal without a pic!

Good news is I am down another 2lbs today (yay!). Go Slow Carbs!

My weight was crazy this morning – up at 147. (1.2 lbs more than yesterday – which was 145.8 – not as bad as I was expecting for the morning after the binge day) I’m not going to freak out. For some reason, my weight is always highest on Monday mornings. No idea why. By Thursday – that’s when I see my lowest weight. So, hanging in there. As soon as I can figure out how to add a graph (that I can easily edit) into my sidebar – I’ll just enter my weight in there. That way I can see the up/down pattern better.

I know one of my biggest problems is that I don’t drink enough water. I literally can not stomach it. I drink when I’m really thirsty – but it’s rare for me to get a big glass of water and just drink the whole thing. Don’t lecture – I know it’s bad. But I can not stand it. I drink water, and it literally make me nauseous! I can add lemon or cucumber and that helps a little, but as soon as I see all the little floaties from the lemon/cucumber – it turns my stomach and I can’t drink it. The other thing is that I can’t drink it if isn’t totally freezing ice-cold. Warm water makes me want to spit it out. I downloaded a few different apps to “remind” me to drink a glass of water – I had to shut them off – it was too annoying. I need a plan to become a water drinker like they have those “couch to 5k” programs… start me off with just 1 glass of water a day.. working up to two, etc.