SUCCESS! (one day at a time)

Yesterday, I successfully completed Day 1 of the Atkins diet!!! There were moments where it was super easy and moments where it was super hard, but I did it. And so far today, I'm doing it too! WOOOOOOO!!!! It is way easier for me to follow strict guidelines, than to try and control my eating through counting calories. I feel like I'm going to see results too, which is always helpful!

I'm in the induction phase (phase 1) of the Atkins process. I really am thankful that all of the information/resources are FREE online Atkins Resources ... and there's a free member site (and APP for my iPhone) that allows me to enter in all my food and keeps track of everything for me. It's WAY easier than My Fitness Pal, which I had been using. Basically, the way the induction phase works is that I have a list of foods I can/can't eat. I mostly have to stick to protein and veggies. I'm supposed to eat anywhere between 18-22 net carbs a day (net carbs is total carbs per serving minus any fiber or sugar alcohols). Most proteins (excluding eggs) have no net carbs, and most veggies have very little. I've done something similar to this program before and had pretty good success. I like a lot of veggies and meat, so that makes it pretty easy. Atkins also makes different types of bars (endulge and advantage) that are kind of like desserts/treats. You're allowed to have those as well, as long as you don't go over your net carb count. So basically, I said goodbye to most of what I eat on a daily basis. It was actually SHOCKING to see how many carbs I was eating each day! I was probably eating somewhere close to 300 carbs a day.... CRAZY!

So here's what it looked like for me yesterday:

Breakfast - 3 scrambled eggs and coffee
Snack - Atkins Advantage Caramel Chocolate Nut Bar
Lunch - Grilled Chicken Salad (lettuce, chicken, 2tbs light Italian dressing, shredded mozzarella cheese
Snack - 1/2 Atkins Advantage Caramel Chocolate Nut Bar, 1 can tuna
Dinner - roasted pork shoulder shredded (basically Pork BBQ without the sauce), 1 cup green beans
Snack - 1/2 Atkins Advantage Caramel Chocolate Nut Bar

I don't plan on eating two atkins bars each day (they're expensive), but I didn't have a lot of choices at the house. I will need to eat more vegetables, but I have to go to the grocery and get stocked up. I think for breakfast, I'm going to start drinking a protein shake, because I don't really have time during the week to fix eggs. Plus, since I'm still nursing, I'm going to make the protein shake with milk so that I can get some calcium (this isn't really allowed on the plan, but I know I have to have some calcium). Here's the protein powder I plan on taking:

	Serving Size   2 Scoops
	Servings Per Container  16
	Amount Per Serving		% DV
	Calories	200.00
	Calories from Fat	30.00
	Total Fat	3.00 g	5%
	Saturated Fat	1.50 g	8%
	Cholesterol	60.00 mg	20%
	Sodium	280.00 mg	12%
	Potassium	480.00 mg	14%
	Total Carbohydrate	17.00 g	6%
	Dietary Fiber	8.00 g	32%
	Soluble Fiber	5.00 g
	Sugars	4.00 g
	Protein	25.00 g	0%

Another positive... I finally forced myself to the gym to start working out again!!!! I decided instead of trying to run a long distance (which always messes me up mentally), that I would just jog for as long as I could before hurting or getting out of breath. So I set it on 4.5 mph (I know that's slow but for someone that's 285 lbs it didn't feel slow) and I got started. I tried not to look at the time so that I wouldn't get discouraged. I made it to 8 MINUTES without feeling like I needed to quit. I was getting winded though, so I stepped off for 20 seconds then got back on and continued. I ended jogging a complete mile at 13:30 without any breaks except that 20 sec break!!! That's the first time I've been able to do that. I then figured I should continue until 20:00, so I slowed it to 3.5mph and set the incline to 15%... that was KILLER! My heart was pounding so fast. At 17:00 I lowered it to 10% and finished that way. Once I did that, I ran the stairs 12 times (about 30 stairs). Total, I burned almost 500 calories! YAY! I wasn't exhausted, but I was sore and felt like I had a good workout.

I had a slight headache going to bed last night... I figure it's from the total detox of sugar and carbs... but I think that will get better! I woke up about 4AM feeling hungry, but thankfully that feeling subsided pretty quick.

All in all, yesterday was a complete success! I'm excited for my weigh-in to see how I've done so far! I feel like this is finally going to happen and I'm FINALLY going to lose weight!!!