Category Archives: pizza

Day 192: Pizza lunch and some new lo-carb Indian food

Total weight loss: 31 1/2 pounds

Yesterday the entire work force got together for an emergency “fire” meeting at my boss’s house. On the way, I downed a quick low-carb yogurt and drank lots of water (I always seem to forget the importance of that).

At lunch, we were served some delicious pizza and salad. Oh yes, I forgot I DID have 2 mini donettes for a snack. It was not a good choice, but it was way way better than eating all the other bad choices that were being offered.

Back to the pizza. It was a chicken, pepper, very low sauce type, not sure what it was, but it was very good and the toppings were thick. I didn’t feel deprived not eating the crust.

I also had a small salad with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. It was 7 grams of carbs per tbsp, so I ate very little.

After the meeting, Rick picked me up and was feeling poorly. He had a really high temperature. We headed home, where I had an almond snack and worked a bit. It sure is nice not rushing over to work on the rental house.

For dinner, I had 2 beddar cheddars and some of the leftovers from Rick’s meal. He made basmati rice (which I skipped), and tried a new kind of Indian food that was very low carb. It was Passage to India brand, Korma simmer sauce, and it was very good, even all by itself in my little bowl.

Dessert was the usual fake peanut butter cup.

Day 152: Saturday – 2 meals, not good

Total weight loss: 29 1/2 pounds

Started the day at the diner with my man and my NYT crossword. Rick ordered the AUCE breakfast buffet, but it’s just a giant carb fest, so I demured.

I ordered a “choose your options” omelet. I chose cheddar cheese, swiss cheese, feta cheese, and grilled onions, with a side of sour cream, of course…oh, and bacon. YUM

Lunch/dinner. I wasn’t in the best condition after my deluge of wine Friday night, so I did a bit of napping. I then ended up eating lunch and dinner as a combo. If breakfast and lunch = brunch, I guess I had linner. And, linner was a bit off…4 pieces of pizza. This carb eating is getting out of control. I didn’t even add them up for the day. Let’s just say, they were over my keto allowance.

On the other hand, I drank about 15 glasses of water. Go, ME!

Day 120: The secret to successful spaghetti squash

Total weight loss: 24.5 pounds

Tuesday morning started with a tasty low carb banana cream pie yogurt. The boss bought pizza for everyone for lunch, so I had the toppings off of three pieces and a healthy salad.

After work, we worked on the house, put down some more molding and a couple of thresholds, then called it a day. I decided to make Cincinnati chili over spaghetti squash, since I hadn’t had it in awhile.

The sauce was simmering and it was time to start cooking that difficult spaghetti squash. Half the time, it’s so tough that I can’t cut into it. Other times, it takes a really long time to cook, and one time, it blew up in the microwave.

This time my process worked like a charm. Here is my secret method:

1. Stab the squash with a fork about 10 times in various places.

2. Put it in the microwave for 6 minutes.

3. Take it out and find it is still hard.

4.Nuke it for another 6 minutes.

5. Remove with oven mitts and plop onto a large cutting board

6. Slice in half long-ways

7. While holding in place with hotpad, scoop out seeds and membranes with large serving spoon (don’t take too much; only the really obvious goopy stuff)

8. Put one half in a flat glass cooking “Pyrex-type” dish and put about an inch of water in the bottom

9. Microwave for approximately 10-12 minutes

10. Remove with oven mitts, place on cutting board and use the large spoon to scoop out the spaghetti

If you’ve done it right, the shell should be very thin and all the squash should be scooped out

Look at that delicious bowl of “spaghetti.”

I portioned some out for Rick and myself, topped it with Cincinnati chili, onions, grated cheese, and soy black beans. Yum de yum yum! And plenty of Chili leftover for tomorrow.

Day 111: Wait a minute? I can have French onion chip dip?

Total weight loss: 20 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, May 5th

Yesterday was Sunday, and I did my usual work at the computer when I woke up. I caught up on the week’s web business invoices and records. I’ve never been a breakfast person. I have to force myself to eat before 3-4 hours have passed, just because I know I must to wake up my metabolism. However, Sunday’s I go easy on myself.

Brunch was at Pizza Hut. We had tried it for it’s keto-friendliness a couple of weeks ago, and it worked out well. I ordered the personal pan pizza, salad, Diet Coke deal for $6.99. I love building a big salad at the bar, and I topped it with creamy Italian and bacon bits. The waitress helpfully suggested that she’d ask for thick toppings when I told I’d be skipping the crust.

For dinner, I reheated the Indian Butter chicken.

I was trying to think of uses for the new cheese snacks, when it hit me! I can eat chip dip. It’s basically sour cream. So, we picked some up and I ate tiny little cheesy crisps with dip while we watched some tube.

Dessert was 2 squares of 70% chocolate topped with a tbsp of peanut butter.

 

Day 101: Buddy’s Pizza and a few drinks

Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st

Normal day at work yesterday. I skipped my traditional breakfast and ate the leftover chicken club salad from Albert’s dinner the night before.
For lunch/dinner, I waited until after work, and after I went to visit my dad at the hospital. By then, I was really hungry and we decided to go to Buddy’s Pizza. I ordered the chicken fajita pizza (4 piece) and ate only the toppings with sour cream. It was really really delicious. I also had TWO vodka and Diet Cokes. Yes, it’s been that kind of week.
At 8, I met my son, his fiance, my niece, and great nephew for some late night trivia at Marvaso’s. I had another drink and the shrimp scampi appetizer for a meal. It was just so so.
I stayed under on my carbs, ate out twice and had a bit of booze. Let’s see if that affects my weigh-in. Hope not.

Day 97: Sunday at Pizza Hut

Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st

Sunday morning at home was productive. Rick and I finished up a brochure and some more client cards. I worked a bit on our new site, and gathered more expense receipts for our business taxes.

We set out around noon to get some brunch and supplies for day 1,450 of home improvement. Rick was in the mood for Italian (it was his lunch, my breakfast). We decided to try Pizza Hut.

I had read on some blog somewhere, that Pizza Hut made a personal pan pizza without crust for a keto dieter. I ordered the personal pan pizza and salad deal and requested no crust. No such luck. The pizza came with it’s usual very think deep dish crust. I slipped off the toppings and ate them along with a huge salad from the buffet.

The bad news about the buffet was that I added a few tbsps of sesame seeds to the salad before looking up the carb count. They were higher than I thought, but I could still stay under 20 grams of carbs for the day.

The pizza and salad were really good and filling. It’s a good option, but next time, I may try a thinner crust pizza which may get me a thicker topping.

Afterwards, we picked up some supplies, then worked through the afternoon on molding in the kitchen. It was evening when we got finished and we headed home. I wasn’t very hungry, so I ate some almonds and 2 pieces of 70% chocolate with natural peanut butter. I was way under count for the day. I have to get some better nutrition going this week.

Day 75: Hostess donettes are not worth the carb intake

Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds   Next weigh-in: Sat., March 31st

Yesterday’s weigh-in put me in a happy mood. It’s slow progress, but the months add up and soon 21 pounds will be 42 and so on.

After weighing in, I had to get ready for work, and I didn’t have time to prepare for breakfast. Brandon picked me up and we went into work at 10. I did something extremely out of character. I went into the kitchen at work to get some water and there was a bag of Hostess chocolate donettes on the table for anyone to eat.

And I ate one!

This is the first time I’ve succumbed to a temptation like that in 10 and 1/2 weeks! It was gone in two bites, and I recorded it in my daily food diary: 8 grams of carbs.

Well, that was certainly anticlimactic. Those 2 little bites of processed junk food were equal to a hearty meal in carb count and were definitely not worth eating. I guess I had to get that rebellion out of my system. A lesson learned.

On to lunch time. The boss bought pizza for all of us Saturday OT workers. I ate 2 pieces with chicken toppings and one with pepperoni and Italian sausage. Of course I threw away the crust.

Later that evening at home, I made spaghetti squash and creamy alfredo and shrimp topping. The squash was tough to cut so I put it in the microwave for a few seconds, and…BLAST… the door flew open when the squash exploded. I salvaged what I could and cooked the rest properly in a pyrex dish AFTER cutting into pieces.

Dessert was sugar-free lime/cream cheese “cheese cake.”

I stayed up til nearly 3 a.m., I am really a nocturnal creature and I enjoy doing that every couple of weeks. I got hungry around midnight and ate 3 pita chips (now THAT’s control) with about 4 tbsp of crab dip. That filled up the rest of my carb allotment for the day.

 

Day 71: Taking stock of the past 10 weeks

Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th

I realized last night that I’m really getting the hang of this low-carb diet. It was around 10 pm, and I was done eating for the day. It occurred to me that I hadn’t entered any of my meals into the myfitnesspal.com website. I usually do it as the day progresses, so I can evaluate how many grams of carbs I have left.

I entered all the meals for the day at once, and, lo and behold, I was just about spot on for a carb count. I guess I can estimate what I’m eating pretty well at this point. More than two months into the plan, I think I’ve got it!

It also occurred to me that it’s been a very long time since I…

  • Ate between meals
  • Had cake, cookies, pies, or donuts
  • Ate bread, bagels, buns
  • Ate ice cream
  • Ate pasta
  • Had pizza with crust or french fries

It’s been 71 days, in fact.

I’ve found a nice pancake substitute,  low carb tortillas, and pasta, rice, and potato substitutes (usually consisting of cauliflower). I’ve eaten a couple of squares of 70% chocolate. I’ve also had maybe 4 slices of low-carb bread.

This is definitely an big life change for me. And it has not been difficult at all, in terms of cravings. It has been more difficult to saunter into any restaurant or deli and easily order a meal. It takes some calculations and substitutions, but it isn’t too onerous.

And, as usual, I have to give a big shout out to Rick, who is keeping the house stocked with low-carb food items, cooking lots of burgers and chicken, and meeting me for lunches that help take the monotony out of having a salad at work every day.

Back to the food diary:

Yesterday began with eggs/sausage.

I skipped lunch AGAIN. The work deadlines keep me so busy (and I’m so OCD) that I forget to eat. I grabbed a handful of almonds at noon.

When I got home from work at 6:30, I ate the tops off of two leftover pieces of Albert’s pizza. I threw some eggs on the stove to boil, and headed to my office to work on web company issues.  Then I needed to work on Dad’s affairs, again. I didn’t finish until 9 pm. I grabbed a vodka and Diet Coke and met Rick out on the deck.

While I was in my office, Rick barbecued some chicken. I cut up a couple of ounces and put it in 2 Mama Lupe’s tortillas with some cheese, salsa, and onion. They were great!

Oh, and I quickly peeled the hardboiled eggs and made up a dozen deviled eggs so I’d have snacks on hand. I ate about 4 of those as a pseudo dessert.

Day 70: Back to work and a lovely evening

Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th

Again, I missed breakfast. I took my egg/sausage meal with me to work, but didn’t have time to heat it. I decided to have a yogurt instead, but didn’t have time to eat that and forgot about it.

Around noon, I had a handful of almonds and I called Rick to ask him to meet me for lunch. He came up around 2 and we went to Checkers where I feasted on a Baconzilla.

After work, we went to see my dad at the nursing home. He was himself and it was a great visit out in the courtyard, so I called Marsha and the family came up to join us. We stayed until about 8 pm, then set off for dinner.

We had planned to visit for only a little while, then go find an outdoor cafe. Instead, we went up to trivia at Albert’s so I could deliver the gift card we won last week, so the team could pay for their meal. Rick and I ate pizza out on the patio. I, of course, didn’t eat the crust. I had a vodka and Diet Coke to end our beautiful, relaxing evening.

Day 62: Birthday party again

Weight loss: 15 pounds; next weigh-in: Sat., Mar 17th

I woke up the day after cheat day with no appetite and a huge stomach. I decided to have a light breakfast, so I ate a low-carb blueberry yogurt.

We attended our granddaughter Danielle’s birthday party at noon. I made some chili/cheese dip to take, but decided to use up the low-fat cream cheese I had on hand, which made it off limits for me. They served Pizza Hut pizzas, so I ate the toppings off of 2 slices.

The cake looked delicious, but I wasn’t really tempted to eat it. The Superman ice cream REALLY didn’t tempt me. LOL

Back home after the party, I worked on Ebay listings until about 8 p.m, at which time I was pretty darned hungry. Rick got out of his sick bed to bicycle up to the store for a chicken and Beddar Cheddar sausages. I ate 2 with mustard.

I hadn’t eaten much all day, so I was still hungry when Rick too his freshly barbecued rotisserie chicken off the grill. I took a small piece of the breast and whipped up some cauliflower mashed potatoes for a second late late dinner. We each had a piece of low-carb fudge afterwards. I was still 5 carbs under for the day.