My 30th birthday.

Ok - so as I posted, I am turning 30 on August 29th. I HAD planned on inviting a bunch of friends out to go to Dave & Busters ON the 29th.

Well...this past saturday (the 22nd) - my best friend and I planned to go out for lunch and then to see a movie. We went to Ruby Tuesdays and then saw The Time Traveler's Wife (FABULOUS movie, btw...)

I thought my fiance was going to be going fishing - as that's what he said his plans were for the day.

So I'm driving home from the movie and texting my fiance, telling him how great the movie was - and he asked me to park in front of the house, instead of on the side in the driveway, like I normally do.

So I did - whatever - didn't even think about it...walk in and SURPRISE!!!!!! He threw me a surprise birthday party! All of my friends and my parents were there. It was AWESOME!

Now, I had already planned that ON my birthday I was not going to care about low-carb and enjoy myself with foods I normally wouldn't eat.

So - since this was my birthday, I enjoyed myself immensly on saturday. They got me an INCREDIBLE cake - "Rent", "Wicked" and "Cats" on it. And it was my FAVORITE - red velvet.

I also had a few brownies, cookies, chips, etc...we went out that night and I had a long island iced tea and a real beer (not my low-carb beer lol)

It was great - I had an incredible time.

The next morning (sunday) I got on the scale and was 6 pounds up! ack! but I knew why (obviously) and was ok with it. I got RIGHT back on track and monday morning I was already down 2 (up a total of 4)...

This morning (Tuesday) I'm still up those 4 - so I am putting that as my weight right now.

Thing is though - while I enjoyed myself very much - I realized that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE eating low-carb. I couldn't WAIT to get back to my fatty foods! lol

Seriously though - I know that I can NEVER go back to the way I used to eat. I enjoy my new lifestyle WAY too much.

so yeah - that is my "confession". No one is perfect (although I'm damn close! lol) I enjoyed my birthday and I am now back to my regularly scheduled program!

Pizza & Beer!!! :D

I love low-carb. You all know that. I've said it over and over and over again!

On one of my atkins boards tha I post to - someone asked for "tips and tricks"...one of mine is - I have to find alternatives to foods I love - otherwise there might be a possibility of cheating and going for the gusto with the "real" thing...

I told this poster that in the past 8 months of me changing my lifestyle, I still eat BROWNIES, PIZZA, PANCAKES, BEER and even FRENCH "FRIES"...

How do I eat all of these indulging foods on ATKINS???!!! I mean - wait a minute, isn't atkins just "meats, eggs & cheese"? hahaha. yeah right um NO. not so much.

First off - for anyone who TRULY KNOWS that atkins involves TONS of yummy foods such as vegees, dairy, nuts, berries, alcohol, beans, fruit (yup, fruit!) and even potatoes and grains!

If you've never read the book and only "know" what you've heard - you're reading this going "that's not atkins!" but let me assure you it IS! Read the book. Dr. Atkins taught people how to eat WHOLE - UNPROCESSED foods and how to even eat the foods that everyone think is bad, because the INDUCTION phase tells you not to eat those foods. But the Induction phase is ONLY two weeks when you decide to start your new low-carb lifestyle. Then you climb the "rungs" of the ladder. Currently I am on rung 7 (fruit) but I have had a potato skin or two (my fiance is weird and doesn't eat the skin of his baked taters)...as well as some low-carb bread (rung 9)...

So anyways. I just wanted to share some of the things I eat such as PIZZA and BROWNIES so that you know you CAN eat those things again.

One more thing, though - before I get into those foods - you DO have to follow the rules of the carbohydrate ladder and only add these items/ingredients in small amounts, as per the "rung" you're on (for example, no almond flour until rung 3 - nuts) and concentrate more on your healthy fats, meats & VEGEES.

Now. I HAD to share my pizza I made last night. It was INCREDIBLE!!!

I was trying to figure out what we would do for dinner and thought I'd just stop by a pizza place and get my fiance a cheap $5 pizza. So I got that - but obviously I'm not going to eat a commercially made pizza with white bread crust!

So I went to my FAVORITE low-carb recipe website: Linda's Low-Carb Recipes and found a recipe for this Most Awesome Pizza Crust . I made this and while making it, I had sliced up 1 roma tomato and placed it in a bowl with some chopped up onions, basil & olive oil.

For the home made sauce I used this recipe off of recipezaar: Pizza Sauce.

Put that pizza sauce on the crust (which btw, is VERY crunchy!) - place the bruschetta mix (tomatoes, onions, oil) on the sauce - top with shredded mozzarella - bake for 15 minutes at 350 and enjoy!

And with that pizza I had my beloved Michelob Ultra beer (2.6 g carbs per 12 oz!)

I mean - really - low carb is freakin' FABULOUS! :D

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Now - I'm sure you also saw "fries" up there in this post too.

I will talk about my "french fries" in my next post! hehe - so come back!

A new experiment...

Ok - so I figured out that this damn rash is freakin' POISON IVY! ugh. :(

I'm EXTREMELY allergic to this crap and it got all over my body - including my face.

it SEEMS to be going away. :) I went to the doc and she had to give me prednisone - which is a steroid - which I didn't want to take because I know that prednisone leads to weight gain...

well - i've been on it for 3 days so far and good news is that i have NOT gained weight. :)

ok - so what is my new experiment? it's coconut oil. I've been using this fabulous oil now for about 3 months or so - but very sparingly - usually I only use about a tsp or so to fry my eggs in the morning. I have been up all night, tonight - reading about the MIRACLE benefits of coconut oil and I will definitely be upping my consumption to the 3 tbsp recommended daily.

Here's the site I've been on: http://coconutresearchcenter.org .

I am thinking I will definitely start making a smoothie every morning with my So Delicious Coconut Milk Beverage and adding 1 tbsp of coconut oil to that.

I will also be adding 1 tbsp of coconut oil to my oolong tea at work.

Then to my protein shake when I start going back to the gym (hopefully next week).

I also want to try using it as a pre-shampoo when I wash my hair,.

I will, obviously, post my findings!

laterz!

a hearing aid, a sunburn and a fish. :P

Ok - so this isn't a weight loss post (my blog, doesn't have to be about it allll the time! hehe). But yeah - so as I posted recently, I had a tympanoplasty and a mastoidechtomy done on my right ear. It's still in the healing process and tomorrow is my next post-op appointment to see how it's healing.

My left ear - on the other hand - it's technically "healed" from last year's surgery of removing the tube that was still in the ear drum - and everything is "normal" in that ear - except for the hearing. I have hearing loss in both ears and this year I got the go-ahead from my ear doc to look into getting a hearing aid.

Well after a few run-arounds of trying to figure out whether or not my insurance would pay for the hearing aid (which it does not) - I got in contact with an INCREDIBLE service called Vocational Rehabilition. They were absolutely WONDERFUL and last thursday I got my very first hearing aid. It is a God Send. Seriously - This has got to be the most incredible invention known to man. I really didn't realize how seriously deaf I really am :(. So I picked it up Thursday afternoon and Friday, at work - it was just absolutely incredible. I could converse with people and NOT have to ask them "huh? sorry - could you repeat yourself???!!!" I absolutely LOVE having a hearing aid. :)

Now - Sunday...so Sunday we (me and my fiance) were invited out to go boating/fishing with a friend from work and her fiance. It was SO fun! Dan and I brought along our golden retreiver, Chloe - and we had a BLAST! Normally, our Pug, Petey, is the spoiled on - going places with us - but we knew that he wouldn't have fun and would be more of a nuisance. Chloe, on the other hand - was soooo happy and behaved so well. It was great. We also got her into the lake - which she had a BLAST in. So we went fishing - which I have NEVER done in my life. Well, ok - my mom swears I went when I was like 4 - but c'mon that was 26 years ago and I barely remember 2 years ago! lol. But Dan is into fishing - he's gone a few times this year by himself - and he was excited to go fishing with me, to see how I'd fend. Well - I must say I actually did pretty well for myself! I learned how to bait the hook by myself, cast the line - and I even caught fish like 6 times (we found a spot on the lake which was full of little striped bass - Dan swears that catching fish like that is a fluke and NORMALLY you catch ONE in a 4 hour period, if you're lucky - not one every time you cast your line! lol). But it was really fun - I must admit I enjoyed myself. Here's a picture of the very first fish I've ever caught in my life:

Now - on Saturday I had helped Dan take down a tree in our back yard - and I don't know if it was from that - or an allergic reaction of something, but I broke out on my face something bad...so of course - Sunday, when we were out fishing, I had sprayed my body with SPF50 to make sure I didn't get burned...well - even though I sprayed myself 3 times - i still got a few stripes here and there. One of my thigh (weird stripe) - one on the top of each foot - and on both shoulder blades on my back. AND of course...my face. So on top of breaking out on my face - I now have a sunburn too. It sucks. Hydrocortisone is my new best friend! lol. :P
So anyways - yup that was my weekend!
Laters!!