Day 1 - 174.2 lbs.

Okay, I've started this diet again and again. The problem is, I know how to eat low carb and I know it works, but I get bored. In the past, I've tried to avoid having to think too hard and have stuck mostly to meat. I know how to bake, broil, boil, but it's still just meat! Plain chicken, plain pork chops, whatever, it's just plain! I do enjoy a good steak somewhere like Outback, but I can't afford $20-$25 several times a week just to be able to eat a good steak. I also can't resist the other scrumptious side dishes they offer....and the bread, OH THE BREAD....I digress--

So what I've learned is that I need to approach this differently. With the summer off, I tried out some low carb recipes I found on the internet. I still have to put a little effort into planning ahead...I do admit, low carb is not as snack-friendly, but I can do it without getting as bored.

I started out this morning by cooking for the day, because I knew I was gonna be out of the house for 14 hours. I found a recipe on Linda's Low Carb Menus called Cjack1's Like Velveeta Ro-tel Main dish.

It's as follows:

2 pounds ground beef (I used one to save a bit of money)
1tsp salt (I didn't measure)
1/2 tsp pepper (still didn't measure)
10 oz. can Ro-tel tomatoes (these add just enough spice)
16 oz cabbage, finely shredded, about 1/2 a medium cabbage (I just bought a bag of coleslaw mix...just had a couple pieces of carrots thrown in, but made it so much easier)
8 oz. Deluxe American cheese, diced (not cheese food) (I had an open pack of sliced cheese (7) so just added what I had.

Cook the ground beef with salt and pepper, drain the fat and add the tomatoes (undrained) and cabbage. I cooked that for 15 min. The recipe said to do it uncovered, but I covered it and it was fine. I just stirred every few minutes. When it seemed ready by cabbage being the desired tenderness, I added the broken up pieces of cheese slices and mixed.

I got 6 cups out of this which breaks down to:

7 slices x 1carb each for cheese = 7 carbs
Cabbage is 5 carbs-2 grams of fiber = 3 carbs per serving x 4.5 servings (in 1 bag) = 13.5 carbs
Ro-tel tomatoes are 4 carbs - 1 gram of fiber = 3 carbs x 2.5 servings = 7.5 carbs

This adds up to 28 carbs for the whole dish divided by 6 c. = 4.5 carbs per cup

I had a 1c. serving for breakfast, 2c. for lunch and another 2c. when I got home late = roughly 22 carbs.

This would have been a great deal...sounds boring, but it's really good so that was fine...the problem is, my Ethiopian student brought food to class! I would love to say that's a bad thing, but his wife is a great cook and I admit...I had about 1/2 c. of rice and 4 biscuit like things. I estimate that to be about 16 carbs each for the biscuits. I don't really know what they were made with so I tried to guess (unfortunately, after the fact) by using the carb counter at http://www.atkins.com/Program/FourPhases/CarbCounter.aspx and just using buttermilk biscuits...OOPS! I guess I'll have to learn to pass them up! The rice had a bit of vegetables in it, but I'm just counting the rice, I'm probably up to another 20 carbs according to that same carb counter.

I'm going to bed a bit hungry, so I'm hoping my amount of food will balance out my choices a bit and can only work with the fact that tomorrow is another day.