I Lost Twelve and a Half Pounds in Three Weeks.

This morning I weighed 151.5 pounds. It's January 27.

January 5--22 days or about three weeks ago--I weighed 164 pounds.

That's 12 1/2 pounds in about three weeks.

I'm almost to the lowest weight I ever reached on Atkins (150.5), except I get to eat fruit like apples and oranges and bananas, and I get to have grains like oatmeal or bread (just very small amounts of the latter--about one slice a day).

I'll see how far I get eating 1300-1500 calories a day. I'm hoping for 145 or even 143. That's what I weighed about twelve years ago when I was in my very early 30's. But at this rate, it doesn't seem impossible. Yes, the weight loss is slow after the first two weeks. But this is the way I want to eat for the rest of my life: reasonably, eating the good stuff, controlling the quantity.

--E. R. O'Neill

New Challenges: Eating Outside the Home.

I'm currently facing the challenge of eating outside the home. Since my work is in small spurts, I'm only away from home for four or five hours per day. That means I can make and eat most of my food at home. At work I just bring along a piece of fruit and a protein bar as a stopgap measure.

But today I went to work and from thence to Ikea to get a wardrobe to get my clothes more organized. I left around 9 am and returned around 6 pm--kind of like a normal workday.

So I faced the challenges of Eating Away from Home.

Preparation is still key.

At home, I prepare snacks like carrots in snack-sized bags which have calorie and fiber info on the sides.

You can also just weigh your prepared food so each serving has some round number of calories--50, 100, 150, 200, e.g.

I had brought an apple and a banana to work, along with a protein bar. (I should have brought a second one. I could have used it.)

Driving through Half Moon Bay en route to Ikea (the scenic way), I stopped at Coastside Gourmet Coffee & Tea for one of their famous chai's. The owner would not make it for me with low fat milk, nor with Sweet'n'Low instead of sugar--bless him!

So I just accepted that it was preferable to have something delicious and special but fatty & sugary than to go across the street to Starbucks to the same nonfat latte you can get pretty much anywhere.

I considered having a salad at Ikea but wasn't that hungry.

Tip: hot liquids seem to be very filling. After a single (110-calorie) nonfat latte, I'm full for several hours.

In any case, I got home only having had two pieces of fruit and a protein bar at work, along with the chai.

I just counted the chai as 200 calories and gave up counting fat and protein for the rest of the day.

Instead, I started just rounding everything to 100 calories, and I still came out with only about 1300 calories that day.

I snacked on a little bit of low fat cottage cheese. Then dinner was some Knorr instant soup mix made with chicken broth and fresh ground pepper. I also had two whole wheat crackers, which brought the meal, with some carrots to crunch on, to an even 150 calories.

A desert of 2T of popcorn popped in 1 t. of oil added on another roughly 100 calories.

Some nice hot herbal tea made a light--you can say that again!--desert.

And the next day I woke up 1 1/2 pounds lighter. Mind you, I had stayed at 153 pounds for several days. Your body will do that. Decide one weight is the one to be, then realize after a few days' resistance that in fact it needs to lower your weight to match what you're eating.

Obviously, your body doesn't really have articulate thoughts like this. But that's the impression it gives.

So it can be done! You can eat outside the home and still lose weight. (The same day, even.)

You have to remember that hunger is not a cue to eat.

Your brain must tell you when and what to eat, not your body. Because you have a caveman's body, and it wants to be fat for the long winter. Don't listen!

--E. R. O'Neill

It's a Crepe! It's an Omelette! It's a Fritatta! It's...

...I don't know what it is.

But I made it, and it was good.

And it's only 215 calories.

The "it" here was my attempt to make an omelette but with less egg. Or a crepe with less flour--less batter-y. Or a fritatta but with less cooking.

So I came up with the idea of making a batter that had very little flour and only one egg. I thought I'd cook it like a crepe--very thinly, in a frying pan, like an unlayered omelette.

And I wanted vegetables and a little cheese on top.

Well, it worked, and it was good. And here's the recipe.

Crepomeletta.

Beat 1 egg. Add 2 T. flour. Mix until smooth.

Add 2 T. low fat milk. Mix well.

Season with salt and pepper, e.g.

Steam some chopped vegetables--such as broccoli.

Heat a large frying pan on low heat. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Pour the batter into the heated pan and slide it around until it very thinly coats the bottom.

Top with the steamed vegetables. Add 2 T. grated cheese.

When the batter's surface is dry and the cheese is melted, use a spatula to ease the edges away from the surface.

Roll the creation up, like a thin omelette.

Serve.

By my calculations, that's 215 calories, 9.5 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, and 13.8 grams of protein.

And it's yummy good.

--E. R. O'Neill