Saturday

just a few things today. You know how when you take vitamins, you notice your urine changing color and having a unique odor. Well, sorry for the TNI but pateints complain about it all the time. The reason is that we usually take an excess of what we need and so what is left over is spilled in the urine. I have noticed none of that since I started Ideal protein. What that tels me is that they really have calculated the exact amoutn of what you are going to be deficient in and supply them to a tee. Not that I had any doubts........we canadians are pretty smart cookies (My mom is canadian, so I call dibs on being one too).
Oh, and the chicken pesto salad from Which wich worked again.... I saved some pesto for emergency purposes. Sorry for all the potty talk, but I guess thats what being cooped up with 4 of them over Thanksgiving break will do to me :)
Beta group starts tomorrow......misery loves company. Just kidding, I am just excited to share thsi with everyone.

I have been busy

THANKSGIVING WEEK
Sorry, I think I left off last weekend. Saturday went to the office and set up the new clinc, got a phone number, ordered business cards and did inventory. Phew. Getting ready for next Sunday when I start my employees  (lucky, they get to enjoy Thanksgiving first!). When I got home kids wanted to play just dance on the Wii. Had to drag Mano away from his airplanes and antennas and force him upstairs.....I have created a monster, now he wants to play all the time! Granted Maddie kicked all of our butts, but I learned that in an hour you can burn off like 300 calories! No wonder  I was huffing and puffing.
Sunday we go sailing and I am so proud of myself from yesterday I have a "light beer" then I read the label afterwards and find out that the crap that I drank that only had 55 calories also had 13 g of carbs!! From now on I will stick to Michelob Ultra with only 2.6 and it tastes better. I am terrified to get on the scale, but I do on Monday (since I know everyone will ask) and I am up to 8.5 pounds lost! Not bad.
Monday and Tuesday are easy, back at work. I think I am working so hard I forget to eat all my food for the day. I have started only adding half the crystal light to each water bottle......thats like drinking one bottle with and one without right? I still can't get used to drinking nothing but water. Perrier is allowed though.
Wednesday.....week 1 done. Only a few times did I fall off the wagon, and not hard either. So the grand total is......10 POUNDS! OMG and I feel great, I have tons of energy, I haven't even been tempted to cheat. And why should I when lose 10 pounds in a week? I have also found my fitness pal app to be extremely helpful, and I had a salad today at which wich: chicken pesto, has more flavor than I have had in a week. It says only 305 calories with 9 g of carbs...friggin amazing! So what if I can barely make it to the bathroom an hour later....at least I wont need to take a laxative anytime soon:)
Thursday.......Thanksgiving. The biggest carb-load day of the year. The program says you can give yourself a day off, but in moderation. So in full anticipation of my sweet potatoe casserole, potatoes au grautin and stuffing....I load up on nothing but protein. You know there are no calories in cooking, so I smell the oven often, and just enjoy the process of cooking. So much more satisfying than a bunch of salads. I have a tablespoon of each along with a lot of Turkey. Another hour of just dance and Wii tennis to give myself some more wiggle room. I even reward myself with a glass of wine. I was worried I would feels the effects of the alcohol potentiated and/or sick from all the carbs. I feel fine. So either I didnt cheat as much as I thought, or my body was so happy to have the carbs it didn't dare complain.
Friday: I refuse to weigh, knowing it would just piss me off, but I get back of track, even when we go to our friends and I am supplying the dessert. How ironic, huh? But I am wearing a pair of size 14 capris and they are a little loose.

continuing

how weird that I am hungry for the first time all week......maybe because I am actually doing what I am supposed to do? Had southwestern puffs and celery for lunch.
pomegranate cranberry bar for a snack.....YUMMY.
gonna have Mano take me for sushi tonight......8oz smoked salmon and tuna + edamame.
I worry it will be hard this weekend and especially while I shop and prepare for thanksgiving......

offcially Day #2

couldn't resist.....got on the scale. 184# That means I am down 7.5 in only 4 days. ketosis induced euphoria??? I think not.
I know 3# of it is likely water weight but still.
And I had the wild berry yogurt last night for dinner, with ice in the blender and it was awesome!
Started my vitamins and I didnt realize that I was having some muscle twitches. Now they are gone. Hmmmm. Also woke up today for the first time without a headache.

officially Day #1

Strawberry Banana shake for breakfast. awesome. not thick and gooey.
Forgot my vitamins....damn.
On the way to work I remember. We have our Thanksgiving lunch at work. That is going to be hard. Again tempted to weigh but I restrain myself. I would rather pretend like the suffering from the past 3 days has paid off, ignorance is bliss. la la la la.
I fill everyone in at work at how I am doing, lots of questions and everyone seems excited. Our first meeting is Sunday November 25. I will have a head start by then and will hopefully make it through Thanksgiving without too much of a set back, But I am amazed at my will power. I have no desert at lunch. Only ham and turkey, lots of green beans, and half a spoonful of stuffing, mac and cheese, sweet potatoes....I don't want to be rude!! Don't even plug it into my app. But I do find out that they have ideal protein stuff in their data base. I think I would rather do that and print it out for the week than use their little food diary.
Heard from my friend who had ironically started this the week before I comitted to the program. She has lost 17.8 pounds in 30 days. In 30 days I will be on a cruise. I better be down that much!
But I feel good. Tons of energy today. No headache.  I did feel a little flushed in the face after lunch, I am sure my system was like HEY! What the hell? Gotta be good tonight.....will continue tomorrow.

Dr. Angel is on a diet

As I begin this "journey" (doesn't that sound nice and fluffy), I thought I would keep track of my daily progress, what works and what doesn't and have a place to vent when it gets tough.
About a year ago, my friend Dr. Jean Paicurich in Stephenville, TX told me about this diet program she had adopted into her office. "Ideal Protein" she said it had changed her life and she had tons of patients that had done it. My first thought was "damn, business must be slow in Stephenville" and later "I can't believe that Jean would actually advocate something like this in her office....I mean we are serious Ob/Gyns, not diet doctors!". I put off meeting with the company until after my wedding (yay me) in March. I read some of the info, but realistically I was only agreeing to meet with them because I told Jean that I would. Anyways, I sat down with them at the beginning of the summer. When I heard about the program, and more importantly the science behind it, I was floored. I thought I was doing an okay job telling women for years that low carb diets are the only thing you can expect to work (mostly because I had done Atkins years ago....and hated it), but I didn't know enough to tell them HOW. I also thought every diet had to be miserable, you were destined to be hungry and bitchy, and eventually gain all your weight back since who can stick to any diet forever? I started having tremendous guilt that I had let down my patients for so long. I threw the "diet and exercise" phrase out there, then left them hanging. I started really paying attention to the numbers of patients every day that ask me my advice. As my practice has gotten older, so have I....... and my patients have grown right along with me. They figure I have the same struggles as them (clearly....at a size 12-14), so what am I going to do about it myself? I had shared my pregnancies with them, they saw me go through a horrible divorce, I sympathized with the inability to find a decent man at our age. We talked about our kids, and school and I even bared my soul about my exhusband's alcoholism and his physical abuse towards me. Why wouldn't they ask me about a diet? Well they did.....and I had nothing. Ideal Protein has given me that something.
Not to delve into the merits of the program, but the bottom line is it makes sense, it focuses on education, it is easy and at the end......people are healthier physically AND emotionally, and are educated to make better choices to end the cycle of weight gain/weight loss. That is not to say that I am never going to have chips and queso with a cold corona ever again, or that I am going to learn to love the gym and wake up at 5 am to go and work out. Are you nuts?? But with this you don't have to. There is a way to balance this with real life. And this time I am doing it for ME. What a concept. Not doing it for my abusive ex-husband who used to call me a "fat ass".....can you say resentment and passive aggressive eating on my part? I have a wonderful husband now who tells me daily how beautiful I am (I think he is smoking crack) and how he loves me the way I am (.....really good crack), I am at the best place in my life to be doing this. And lets face it.....I am not getting any younger. neither are my patients.
So, I made the call, did my research, signed up, invested money and waited to begin.
I was actually excited to start, not just to start losing weight (especially before my cruise in December....well maybe that was a little part of it),  but because I started paying attention to my body and my habits. How bloated I felt, how I overate even when I was not hungry any more, how I was tired and felt awful. I started working out at lunch so that I could avoid eating out, and it was really the only time I could squeeze in, but I ache and I creak and my poor ankles and knees pay the price for days after. I also started looking at my food and rationalizing "is it worth it to eat you?" knowing that it was just going to be added on as fat to my butt.
I waited for the food to arrive, but just to prove to myself that I needed a "program" and I couldn't just go "low carb" with the stuff at my home and at the grocery store, I started Monday. Here is how it has gone so far.

Monday: Day #1
get on the scale for the first time in over a year. That does not say 194.5#......... No frickin way!!! OMG yes it does.
get on my app that I have downloaded "My fitness pal". that I have had for ages. The first message says "Angela Angel has not logged in for many months. She may need some encouragement" No, I need a swift kick in the ass which I just got when I stepped on the scale. I don't think I look like I weigh almost 200#. I am in total denial.
I go downstairs (I am off today) and grab some water.....not a diet coke.....and take a multivitamin. That's 2 things I don't do enough of. So far so good, right?
I have a cup of low fat cottage cheese for breakfast.Whee!
Maddie is home sick, so while she munches on hawaiian rolls smothered in butter, I have a spinach salad with blue cheese crumbles, steak and a boiled egg, another bottle of water mixed with crystal light. By this point I have a raging headache. Pretty sure its because I am lacking caffeine. But I march on.
I cook dinner and grill more steak, steam asparagus and have some sauteed mushrooms on the side. If only I didn't have to work every day and I could cook like this all the time. Mano has a glass of wine......bastard.
My app tells me my calorie goal is 1560 (remember I haven't started Ideal Protein yet) and I only got in 973! only 35 carbs, 115 of protein. (I think I remember Atkins you can have up to 40 carbs a day) I can do this!!!

Tuesday: Day #2 at work....in Dallas where we always have a bunch of crap laying around. Luckily I am in the O.R. most of the morning.....what I don't see won't hurt me :)
End up grabbing a mojo bar to eat while I am on the way. I know it has more carbs than I want but it has to last me from 6am to noon. Lunch is another salad and I keep pounding the water and crystal light including one that has caffeine so the headache isn't bad today. I break down and have 2 string cheese sticks in the afternoon.....mostly so I am not starving by the time I get home.......Mano is cooking and he is Greek.......turkey breast smothered in gravy that I try and scape off without him noticing, and his famous brussel sprouts....steamed and covered in butter AND bacon grease (because the butter isn't fattening enough?!). I try some portion control but am fully ready for disappointment when I log into my app. Surprise! only 884 calories, 37 carbs but only 79g protein.

Wednesday: Day #3 In Rockwall. Fed ex should make the delivery today. I so excited to see all the goodies and stop having to do math, and measuring. It is exhausting! I am so tempted to weigh myself but they say that a lot of the weight in the first week is water, so I don't want to get falsely excited. And I am peeing a lot. And all the talk about constipation......when did I poop? Will have to keep an eye on that. That may be an extra pound or so anyways, right? More like an ounce with what little I have been eating....sorry probably TMI for most of you, but I promised to be honest!! 
Another Mojo bar for breakfast......it didn't screw things up too badly yesterday
Can of soup for lunch with 2 string cheese. Found Ruby Red grapefruit with caffeine crystal light. Not too sweet, tart and it helps my head. I am kicking butt!! checked my ketones (on a whim) and they are already moderate. Bring on the ketosis! What I have read is that it causes a decrease in appetite and euphoria.......I did wake up hysterically giggling over a dream I had.....about cake, potato soup and beer. I guess I do miss the carbs a bit.  
Dinner was more steak (can we get a little chicken up in here?) and green beans. so how did I eat 1198 calories? 50 carbs? But the delivery came. I opened up the boxes like it was Christmas. No way! cheese protein puffs? chili? pomegranate bars? wildberry yogurt? All packaged and pretty and ready to go. Got lots more info too. So after I unpack the new blender I bought on Amazon I crack it open. It says the goal each day is 700-800 cal a day, 100 protein and ???carbs. Damn , I suck.

Tomorrow I start the real deal.