Low carb menu

"If you wonder what you were doing in the past, look at your body; to know what will happen to you in the future, look at your mind." ~Dalai Lama

- Parmesan breaded pork chop with low carb ketchup
- Dottie's green bean casserole with hamburger added
- Two low carb brownies with peanut butter frosting
- Two pieces of meatloaf
- Another pork chop with broccoli and cauliflower with a little cheddar cheese

My girlfriend got my car running again! We took my car over to Autozone and they said my battery would not hold a charge, so we got a replacement and she put it in along with some coolant. I'm too impressed and happy to be back on the road again.

Weigh-in tomorrow because it's the first of the month. I feel like I have lost some weight this month.

Low carb menu

- Two sausage patties with three scrambled eggs
- Two pieces of meatloaf
- Ham/hot dog/broccoli quiche
- Pork chop

Low carb menu minus the popcorn

- Two tuna patties with two tomato slices, mayo and low carb ketchup
- Popcorn
- Two tuna patties on an oopsie roll with mayo, low carb ketchup, lettuce, tomato and cheese
- Ham/broccoli/red pepper/cauliflower cheesy casserole
- Two low carb brownies with peanut butter frosting

We saw The Descendants. It was heart-wrenching but good.

Low carb menu

- Three pieces of low carb pizza
- Ham/broccoli/red pepper/cauliflower cheesy casserole
- Two tuna patties with two tomato slices, mayo and low carb ketchup
- Low carb brownie with low carb peanut butter frosting
- More ham and cheesy casserole

Low carb menu

- Ham/broccoli/red pepper/cauliflower cheesy casserole
- Two pieces of low carb pizza with parm and ranch
- Three tuna patties with an oopsie roll, cheese, tomato, lettuce, mayo and low carb ketchup
- Low carb lemon pound cake with low carb lemon frosting
- Chef salad with egg, ham, celery, red peppers, ranch and cheese

Vadim, you have found my blog before! It's been a while and you have a lot going on, so I'm not surprised if you don't remember... We were both on the blog roll for Jimmy Moore's low carb menu blog... That is how I found you! It was years ago, but I'm sure you remember... Along with Shezug and Oct, too! You left me comments over the years, so I know you have been to my blog before, but it just has changed format and my pic is different on my blogger profile.

Low carb menu

- Two tuna patties
- Three pieces of low carb pizza with ranch
- Lemon pound cake with low carb lemon frosting
- Three scrambled eggs with a sausage patty
- Two tuna patties

Low carb menu

- Four chicken strips breaded with parm dipped in low carb honey mustard
- Two tuna patties with cheese on an oopsie roll with lettuce, tomato, mayo and low carb ketchup
- Ham/broccoli/red pepper/cauliflower cheesy casserole
- Low carb lemon pound cake with low carb lemon frosting (new recipe to come!)
- Two pieces of low carb pizza with sausage, ham, pepperoni, and red peppers

I forgot to mention, last week my nurse told me that it's too early to be doing much exercise on my knee and that I really need to wait for it to be fully healed. Therefore, my relationship with Jillian Michaels has been put on a temporary hold for now. I was bummed, but it's understandable since I'm still in pain with my knee. I'm sure some pain will always be there, but this was pretty excruciating.

I celebrated my 5 month anniversary of my open wedge osteotomy and also SMOKE FREE for five months, so that is pretty amazing. My chiropractor is amazed not only at my weight loss, but how straight my legs are now. It's like I'm in a whole new body! She loves how I lost the weight, too, and she is completely grain-free herself and has dropped fifty pounds. I go in for x-rays soon and then February 15th is my big appointment to determine if I need a second surgery. Wish me luck! This one has just been so successful, but also a huge pain in the ass being non-weight bearing on my knee for months on end, so either way is good news in my book.

If I do need the surgery, I will probably end up with even better, more-even legs. We will see what the doc says.

Last time I left his office on December 1, I was horrified because I wasn't walking on my cane yet, but now I'm up and around and walking around without my cane half the time. It's amazing at how straight my knees look! I found a picture from 7th grade, and I even had one crooked leg in that photo due to the surgery-gone-wrong the year before. When you have one crooked (and therefore too short) leg, it really takes a toll on your spine and such, so my chiro can't be more excited that I'm so much better.

She is largely against "medical doctors," but she has deemed this sugery as very succesful and necessary for an issue like mine. She is thrilled that I have lost about 110 lbs and am SO CLOSE to "normal weight," too. But nobody is as happy as I am.

Low carb menu

- Three scrambled eggs with two sausage patties
- Chicken tenderloins, breaded with parm
- One and a half low carb cheesecake brownies
- Tuna patty
- Chef salad with ham, chicken, red pepper, celery, cheese and ranch

I added diced red peppers and some minced onion with the tuna patties this time. They are really good.

Low carb menu

- Cheese omelet with two sausage patties
- Eight slices fried zucchini (breaded with parm) dipped in low carb honey mustard
- Turkey/cheese oopsie panini with red pepper, tomato and low carb honey mustard
- Salad with hard boiled egg, ham, red pepper, hot pepper jack cheese, parm and ranch
- Another turkey panini
- A few bites of low carb cheesecake brownie

Low carb menu

- Two zucchini slices, bread with parm
- Turkey, swiss and tomato on an oopsie roll with mayo and honey mustard
- Chicken, breaded with parm
- Low carb cheesecake brownie
- Cheese omelet with two sausage patties
- More chicken

Low carb menu, breaded with parm

- Two sausage patties with three scrambled eggs
- Dirty cauliflower "rice" with chicken, sausage, celery, green pepper, mushrooms, green onion and cheese
- Chicken tenderloins, breaded with parm
- Low carb cheesecake coconut flour brownie
- Pork chop, breaded with parm with low carb ketchup
- Fried zucchini, breaded with parm

Low carb menu

- Pork rinds with butter, cinnamon and Splenda
- Parm-breaded pork chop, pan fried, dipped in low carb ketchup
- Chicken tenderloins, breaded with parm
- Two sausage patties with two pancakes
- Dirty cauliflower "rice" with chicken, sausage, celery, green pepper, mushrooms, green onion and cheese
- Low carb cheesecake brownie
- Some popcorn at the movies with one small piece of gf's candy

We saw War Horse and it was good. A must-see if you are an animal lover.

Low carb menu

- Pork chop, breaded with parm with low carb ketchup
- Two chicken tenderloins, breaded with parm
- Low carb cheesecake brownie
- Chef salad with ham, hard boiled egg, celery, cheese and ranch
- Dirty cauliflower "rice" with chicken, sausage, celery, green pepper, mushrooms, green onion and cheese
- Scrambled eggs with three low carb pancakes
- A few pork rinds with cinnamon and splenda

Stop Internet Censorship!

Stop internet censorship!!!

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I made a call to my senator's office and it was quite easy. I told her to tell my Senator to vote no on the PIPA and she said she would add me to the count. PLEASE check out that link and pass this along to as many people as you know.

Censorship and the Internet just don't go together and you know we have big lobbyists against the little guys, so please pick up the phone. We have to stick together on this!

https://twitter.com/fightfortheftr

Low carb menu

- Chef salad with ham, hard boiled egg, celery, cheese and ranch
- Cheese omelet
- Two low carb pancakes
- One and a half pieces of low carb pound cake with Splenda-sweetened strawberries and home made whipped cream
- Low carb cheesecake brownie
- Four parm-breaded chicken tenderloins

The organization has begun! I have four boxes (one really big) to donate to Goodwill and I am so excited about cleaning out my closet. My art supplies are finally getting sorted out and I'm getting rid of a slew of stuff that I don't need. Then the art fun can begin!

My knee has been hurting so badly. My doctor says "no pain, no limp" regarding my reconstructive knee surgery (open wedge osteotomy), which leads me to believe that I should lay off it when there is pain. I don't want to get overly ambitious and screw up the healing process. Yeah, I'm excited about getting in shape and it's important to me, but not at the expense of my knee. So I think the Ripped in 30 is on hold just until the pain subsides. I lost most of my weight without a lot of exercise anyway... That is what is so good about low carb. But I can still use my ab roller, right??

Low carb menu

- Scrambled eggs with ham and low carb ketchup
- Two sausage patties and low carb pancakes with sugar free syrup
- Unpotato salad
- Crock pot beef stroganoff with mashed cauliflower
- Chef salad with hard boiled egg, ham, celery and cheese with ranch

Exercise: Ripped in 30, week one

Low carb menu

- Pumpkin bake
- Unpotato salad
- Two sausage patties and three eggs, scrambled with low carb ketchup
- Low carb chocolate pudding, made with half heavy cream and half water
- Two low carb pancakes with sugar free syrup and ham
- Crock pot low carb beef stroganoff over mashed cauliflower
- Half of a piece of low carb lemon pound cake (so good)

Exercise: Ripped in 30, week one

Low carb menu from Saturday

- Chicken, breaded with parm with low carb honey mustard
- Scrambled eggs with low carb ketchup
- Shrimp cocktail with low carb cocktail sauce
- Ham, broccoli and deviled eggs
- 3 oz salted almonds
- 1.5 coconut flour brownies with low carb chocolate frosting

Low carb menu from Friday

- Unpotato salad
- Pumpkin bake
- Chicken chunks, breaded with parm and honey mustard
- Pumpkin bake
- Unpotato salad
- Two hot dogs with half an oopsie with cheese, tomato, mayo, mustard and low carb ketchup
- A few more bites of chicken

Low carb menu

- Three egg omelet with cheese and low carb ketchup with two sausage patties
- Chicken breast nuggets, breaded with egg and parm with low carb honey mustard
- Low carb chocolate pudding
- Unpotato salad
- More chicken nuggets
- Low carb crock pot beef stroganoff (from Dana Carpender's low carb crock pot cook book) with mashed cauliflower

I never have been able to find the Carb Countdown milk, so I used half heavy whipping cream and half water. I don't remember where I read it, but I have found that a good low carb substitute for milk in recipes is half heavy cream and half water and I have had success with that. I have even started buying the two pint containers of the heavy cream at Walmart.

I think that I have been overdoing it on my knee lately because I have pain around the plate... but maybe that is just from the cold weather also. My surgeon would probably tell me to take it easy, but after months of not being able to do much, it's hard to just sit there!

Low carb menu, cheap almond flour and etc

- Half pound cheese burger patty with tomato, mayo, mustard and low carb ketchup with unpotato salad (with diced bell pepper added)
- Seven chicken breast nuggets, breaded with Parmesan cheese with low carb honey mustard
- One strawberry
- Three low carb pancakes with sugar free syrup
- A few bites of crock bot beef stroganoff

Exercise: Ripped in 30, week one by Jillian "Ripped" Michaels

If you are looking for a cheap place to order almond flour (within the USA), then you must try almond flour from Honeyville! It's 29.99 plus shipping but they have a deal through January 17th to get 20% off your order, with the coupon code of 2012. That is a really good price for a five pound bag. We already have some, but I'm tempted to take advantage of that offer. I also ordered Wheat Protein Isolate 8000 from there and I've had great success with their products.

I stole some tastes of the beef stroganoff while I was seasoning it. It's sooo good! I borrowed Dana Carpender's low carb crock pot cooking book from the library and it's quite good and was very easy to whip up. Beef round was on sale at our local supermarket (as were boneless, skinless chicken breasts) so that usually dictates what is on our menu for the week.

My brother is an RN and I have an aunt who is an RN, also. My godmother was an LPN-turned-office manager and they have all loved their careers. My brother actually is head nurse at a very large hospital frequently and he is good at what he does. A doctor offered to pay for him to go back to school to be his physician's assistant, but he really enjoy his career as a nurse.

To get on with it, my girlfriend plans to eventually be an RN, but first she is going to go to CNA training, which is exciting. It will involve a substantial pay raise plus she will get to work indoors and with patients, which she adores. She works as an assistant manager at a quickie oil shop, which can be quite stressful, believe it or not. She needs to take two classes before she can begin CNA training and we have a few more months to wait before she can be considered for in-state tuition. After she moved here, she couldn't get her driver's license for a few months because we were waiting on her out-of-state birth certificate.

The good news is, my brother told my mom to have my gf call him because he said that he can tell her how to get her CNA training paid for, which is awesome.

I've been getting around a lot better now and I even find myself doing laundry (in the basement), cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, doing cooking and dishes and feeling like I am hardly even needing my cane anymore. I do try and use it because when I don't, I do experience pain around the hardware in my knee from my osteotomy and the surgeon has the rule "no pain, no limp" for me as far as using my cane goes.

My 87 year old grandmother lost her last sibling, which is quite sad. She was one of six or seven kids so she never thought she would be the last one kicking. Just this past Christmas, she joked with her only remaining 92 year old sister that she didn't want to be the last one. Her sister assured her that she was going to outlive her, and my grandmother is just still quite shocked by this news. She is not up to going to the funeral, as it's about 11 hours of a drive each way and her energy level has been dwindling. She still does great for her age, still drives her friends around who are younger than her, recently stopped volunteering in the past year and still maintains an active social life.

My mom's radiation for her breast cancer (which is now gone) is taking quite a toll on her. I think she has about a dozen more zaps of radiation left and she is really in pain in the breast that had the cancer. That is where they are zapping her and she says that it hurts so bad that she can't even wear a bra. It's just really painful and almost like a sunburnt feeling. She will be back to work within a month, I think and I know she can't wait. She thought her sick pay re-started in January, but as it turns out, it would not re-start until March, so she is eager to get back to work as soon as possible. My girlfriend and I will have to bop over there to see her soon because her grand doggies always make her smile and she is fun to hang out with, too. My gf says that seeing my mom really eases her homesickness. Maybe we will take some pork chops and low carb lemon strawberry muffins or something fun like that.

On a lighter note, we have to hit the grocery store when we go there to get the locally-famous coney dogs! Coney dogs were made founded in Jackson, Michigan, which is my birthplace and you can actually buy authentic coney meat in one-pound tubs at various local grocery stores near my mom's house. It's kind of sad because all of the Todoroff's that were coney places closed. The deli that I used to work at served coney dogs (and probably still do) and I always made myself coney meat salads, which were shockingly good and quite low carb. No, it was not on the menu, but they let us deli girls make whatever we felt like in the kitchen. My colleagues would cringe at my "coney meat salad," but they have no clue what they were missing! If the ingredients are listed on the coney meat container, you bet your bottom dollar that I will be experimenting with the recipe!

Low carb menu

- Two low carb pancakes with two sausage patties and sugar free syrup
- Three quarter pound hamburger patties with tomato, mayo, mustard and low carb ketchup
- A few bites of unpotato salad when I was making it (to taste it, of course!) with green pepper chunks added in
- One chicken breast nugget, breaded with Parmesan cheese and fried
- Small bowl of hamburger/cabbage/tomato/mushroom/onion thing

Exercise: Ripped in 30 by Jillian Michaels, day one plus around a 25 minute walk with the dogs and gf

Demanding health and happiness.

- Two sausage patties and three scrambled eggs with low carb ketchup
- Pistachios and a few strawberries
- Two low carb pancakes with sugar free syrup
- Chicken breast chunks, breaded with egg and Parmesan cheese, pan fried then baked with low carb honey mustard
- Too much movie theater popcorn

We went to see the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and it was really good. It was just us and two other couples in the movies. We ended up getting this bucket from the movies with free refills, so I'm sure there will be more movie nights to come. It is refillable until April 1. I think a movie night every other week is okay, but next time, I won't eat so much popcorn. I was almost going to stay on-plan, but sometimes it helps me to have a planned deviation so that I feel like I don't have to make up for it after the fact. A few Halloweens ago, I didn't eat any sweets and I felt so deprived that I literally "made up for it" (aka binged on horrible foods) for months to come. A little bit of a planned deviation goes a long way for me.

I notice that especially with the working out, my body is changing. My waist is getting a lot smaller. At Goodwill, I got eight new tops, all size Large in women's. It's so nice to no longer be in an XL or even plus size clothes at all. There was a point where I was at the bigger end of plus size clothes and I still can't believe it when I'm in the "regular" department in the store.

I knee news, it's holding up pretty great. (For new people, I had a femoral open-wedge osteotomy which basically is just a fancy term for sawing my femur in half and inserting a wedge of my own bone in the inner part of it and allowing new bone to grow in the space that was created. My surgeon calls it fancy carpentry tricks with my bone and calls me his hero for whatever reason.) I often times find myself walking around the house without a cane and even forgetting where I placed it. I'm only taking half of a pain pill now instead of a full pill and I'm down to 2.5 to three pills a day, whereas before I was up to seven or eight a day. My rx allows me to take up to twelve a day, but I've never needed that many. This surgery was just so severe pain-wise and lifestyle wise that I really hope that I do not need another surgery. I will find out February 15th. In some ways, I do hope that I will get it done (on the recommendation of my surgeon) because my knee is still grinding and I do have the 3/8 of an inch leg length difference. I got a pair of shoes and boots before Christmas and I had a 3/8 of an inch lift put in them and they are so much better than the full one inch lift. Even walking around feel so much difference with my knee being at the correct angle where the femur comes together with the rest of my knee.

I have to give huge props to my gf for being so supportive about this whole thing. When we first met, she was just shocked at how awful my knee was and when I bent my knee, it felt like glass breaking, it was grinding so badly. She was confused as to why I wasn't seeking help for it. She later understood that my knee was in the shape it was in mostly due to a surgery gone wrong, so of course, I was leary to have correction surgery when the surgeon who operated on me for knock knees did the surgery way too early, which caused it to "overcorrect" (read: be very deformed).

I have to take the credit for going under the knife and that was single handedly the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It felt like I ran off of a cliff and only hoped that a net would catch me. She has been there for me to cook for me, do my laundry, help with our expenses, help me shower, on and on. When you are a strong-willed, once-independent woman like me, it's hard to even ask for help, much less from your significant other.

Losing weight, quitting smoking and getting the surgery done have all been life-changing, but they are all at the root of them, due to me being happy and wanting a long and happy life for myself. Before the surgery, I really considered myself as damaged goods and thought I would probably die young, so why bother going through with the surgery at all. Subconsciously, I was killing myself with cigarettes, marijuana and food. I would use all of the above to zone out and not even be able to cope with the reality I created for myself.

Since meeting my girlfriend, I feel like a whole new world has opened up for me. She has also for the first time in her life been able to lose weight and keep it off, from eating real foods. Since meeting one another, something just clicked in our own minds that makes us want to be healthy and she swears we will both live to be 100 years old. Even though we have only been together less than ten months, I swear that I have made more positive decisions for my life than I ever even dreamed of. I sought happiness, found love and now I demand health and happiness... That is the difference. Since my first e-mail to her, we have both lost close to eighty pounds each, but what we have gained is a lifetime together.

Low carb menu

- Chicken/mushroom/sausage casserole
- Several bowls of cabbage/mushroom/onion/tomato/hamburger thing made in crockpot, inspired by Mom's crazy cabbage recipe

Exercise: Ripped in 30 by Jillian Michaels, week one

Low carb menu

- Two sausage patties
- Three hot dogs on half an oopsie roll with diced green peppers, two tomato slices, mayo, mustard and low carb ketchup
- Two low carb pancakes with sugar free syrup
- Two sausage patties with two pancakes and sugar free syrup
- One and a half pieces of drumstick treat

Low carb menu

- Two sausage patties
- Two low carb pancakes with sugar free syrup
- Half pound burger on an oopsie with all the fixins
- Another burger on an oopsie roll

Exercise: 37 minute walk with the dogs and gf

Low carb menu

- Chicken/mushroom/sausage casserole
- Three hot dogs on half an oopsie with mayo, tomato, mustard and low carb ketchup
- Burger on an oopsie with mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion and low carb ketchup
- Drumstick treat (as a late night snack)
- Drumstick treat (when I got up with my dog just before 5am)

Exercise: Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30, week one

Low carb menu

- Zucchini taco with taco meat, lettuce, salsa, sour cream and cheese
- Chicken/mushroom/sausage casserole
- Big ol' burger on an oopsie with lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard and low carb ketchup
- Taco salad with cheese, salsa and sour cream

Exercise: Ripped in 30, week one

Low carb menu

- Meatloaf
- Tuna salad
- Meatloaf with mockafoni and cheese
- Chicken/sausage/mushroom casserole

Exercise: Ripped in 30 by Jillian Michaels, week one

Low carb menu

- Meatloaf with half an oopsie with onions, mustard, mayo and low carb ketchup
- Low carb brownie with walnuts and low carb chocolate frosting
- Mockafoni and cheese
- Zucchini taco shell with taco meat, lettuce, cheddar cheese, salsa and sour cream and pork rinds on the side

Exercise: Ripped in 30 by Jillian Michaels, week one

Low carb menu for January 1

- Two pieces of sausage quiche with mushrooms, onions, peppers and low carb ketchup
- Two sausage patties
- Three low carb pancakes with Mrs. Butterworth's low carb syrup
- Taco salad with taco meat, cheese, salsa and sour cream with some plain pork rinds

Two Thousand Twelve

I did the obligatory weigh-in for January 1, and I'm back in the 100's!

I weighed in at 199.4 and I actually got a weigh-in of 197 point-something, too, but I stepped on time and time again and it was between this number and that number.

Either way, I'm glad that I survived the holiday season and I'm less than what I started the season out at. Getting on the scale is SO HARD for me and I have no clue why.

Last January 1, I weighed in at 280.8, so this is certainly an improvement. I did not get serious about low carbing until late February/early March, so it's clear that it really works for me.

Yesterday was spent very hung-over.

I'm determined to get to a normal weight this year and I'm very excited about it! With the help of eating smallish, low-carb meals consisting of real foods and Jillian kicking my ass through the work outs, I have no doubt that I will achieve my goals!

Happy New Year, ya'll!

Angieloo