I love food. Pretty much all food actually. But if I had to fine tune that opinion even further, I would have to say that I am a carb head. I LOVE CARBS. Bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, pizza, crackers, chips, pretzels, couscous . . . I probably haven’t met too many carbs I haven’t liked. Or loved actually.
I have dieted on and off most of my adult life. Weight Watchers. Calorie Counting. Glycemic Index Diet. Grapefruit Diet. Cabbage Soup Diet. No matter my weight issues over the years the one diet I ALWAYS swore off was Atkins. But mind you, I also LOVE meat (and especially after living in Buenos Aires where we ate it A LOT!!!) but having meat and no french fries? Having a burger with no bun? Meatballs without spaghetti? Nope, that just wasn’t for me.
I work in an industry where I live and breathe food and wine all day. I read about it. I buy it. I cook it. I photograph it. I even dream about it. We both had lost some serious weight in the past couple of years so we figured we were in good shape to take on this new culinary endeavour of starting an online gourmet food site.
Well, all of that has finally taken its toll on the two of us. The pounds crept up ever so slowly until one day we took a look in the mirror and let’s just say. . .we did not like what we saw. And we saw a lot of it. While we didn’t gain it all back we knew we better nip this thing in the bud sooner rather than later.
Mike had mentioned something about the Slow Carb diet. I of course was adamant about not going on any diet that even mentions “carbs” in the title, as I figured I would be denied my true love. But with Mike being ever so persistent I began my research. The premise of the diet is eating foods with a low glycemic index. I was like “Wait a minute. . .I have done that before. That wasn’t too hard and it actually worked.”
As mentioned in the earlier post, the bulk of the diet is: eggs, fish, grass-fed beef, lentils, beans, vegetables (like spinach, broccoli, cabbage, radish), mushrooms, fermented foods and drinks (natto, kimchi, sauerkraut), unsweetened tea or coffee and water. Calorie-dense nuts and legumes such as pecans, chickpeas, hummus, and peanuts are allowed under careful portion control. Plain coffee is allowed, but all milk products are to be avoided except cottage cheese. Plus we each get a glass or two of wine each day. To be honest, I already eat most of this (with the exception of eggs. I REALLY do not like eggs) so how difficult could it be. And the best part is the once a week cheat day.
The week started with high hopes. We weighed in and took pictures (not to be seen for awhile) and had our first meal. Another thing with this diet is that you HAVE to eat and I must say, it is a lot more than I am used to. For example, you MUST eat breakfast within 30 minutes of getting up. And the most common breakfast meal consists of eggs. Urgh, this is going to be tough for me. But thankfully, Mike made some really great sousvide scrambed eggs with our favorite Truffle, Parmesean and Black Garlic Seasoning and BAM. . .breakfast was delicious. Lunch was a large healthy salad with freshly cooked chicken. I made cauliflower fritters for our afternoon snack and then it was meatloaf for dinner. Seriously a lot of food but we never felt overly full.
The week progressed with lots of creativity. We needed to create dishes so we wouldn’t miss what we really wanted. This led to the Multi-Bean Burgers, cauliflower fritters, turkey and bacon lettuce wraps. and we even experimented with cocoa powder and pureed cottage cheese (which we would NOT recommend). But we did create a most tasty dip of whipped cottage cheese. Two cloves of black garlic, Korean Black Garlic Seasoning and some salt and VOILA!! What a treat. Most, but not all, of our experiments were successful.
But yesterday was our first weigh in and our first cheat day. And oh what a day it was.
Our one week weigh in resulted in a 3lb loss for me and a 6lb loss for Mike. Damn men!! They always lose more weight and lose faster than women!! But all in all we were pleased with the results, especially considering how easily the week went.
But that was not the best part of the day. The best was yet to come. . . CHEAT DAY!! And cheat we did.
Knowing that there would a plethora of food and drink, we opted to leave the car at home and did a very un-Angelino thing. We took the bus over to Hollywood to La Poubelle Bistro & Bar for brunch.
What to eat, what to eat, what to eat. Do I do breakfast? Lunch? Or a little of both? We started off with unlimited Bellini’s for me and unlimited Kir Royale’s for Mike.
We got home and kicked back for a few hours as we knew we still had one more meal left on Cheat Day. We opened up a bottle of wine to go with the amazing Joe’s Pizza we ordered. Sadly we were a little tipsy and quite starving (miraculously) when it arrived and we never even had a chance to take a picture.
It was when we finished that last slice that we were officially finished with Cheat Day.
Cut to the present. . . weigh in day was not so pleasant. I apparently gained 2 1/2 lbs and Mike gained 2. All I can say is: I hope this is normal. Only time will tell exactly how these cheat days truly effect one’s weight loss. But if at the end of 2 weeks I lose 5lbs . . . I will be pretty darn pleased!! Will keep you posted.
