I've been meanning to write about this for awhile, but never seem to remember it when I sit down at a keyboard. I've started going to curves last month; I started the curves challenge diet last week. Feel free to skip the rest of the entry if you have no interest in hearing the specifics of me on a diet.

***

The diet consists of 3 phases, I'm in the 2nd week of the 1st phase as of today. Right now its a low carb/high protein diet though I think that becomes more equal as you go further on in the program. I finally bit the bullet and decided to try to break my long term commitment to carbs. I've often wondered if I qualified as a carb addict. I want to do what I can now to avoid things like diebetes in the future too. But before this I was chicken.

I've never really had much success with that type of ratio, usually because I become too miserable to live with. Well, this time I seem to be soldering on. I'm not happy, I'd eat a cookie in a minute, but I'm also not completely miserable.

Anyway, if you were wondering about it, this is what I've noticed about me without carbs:

1. Apparently my famed patience is acutally made out of 90% carbs. My fuse is now only 1 inch of protein. I feel like I'm in a monga; I go from "hmmmmmmmm" to "WHAAAAA?!?!!?" in 3 seconds.
2. I am more awake than before on average, but I don't have as much focus.
3. Fine motor control is also not as good before. I'm shooting pens, glassses, tools all over the place.
4. I am soooo cold after exercising. Curves does a lot of strength training mixed with arobic stuff.
5. I break out more now then I EVER did eating chocolate regularly. I suspect the only way chocolate is linked to pimples is if it sits around long enough in your system to become fat. Ah, the lies of my youth.
6. I think I'm in ketosis now. I get this wierd icy-hot sensation in my stomach after eating protein.
7. My time off is so boring. I had not realized how much of my weekend was dedicated to recreational munching. I was feeling a bit antzy yesterday being cooped up in the house.
8. Any time I sit on the couch I'm hungry.
9. Since I've got to plan meals, I actually plan my day more too. What was crazy is that last week, while I was doing all this dieting and exercising, I acutally got 41 hours in at work too. I probably could have goten more, but usually I had to buzz out to get to curves before they close.
10. My kitchen is spotless. I do so much more cooking then I did before as well as having so much prep time for the day, that I'm always trying to stay on top of the dishes and our crappy dishwasher, and putting taboo food away so it's not sitting there grinning at me when I get home.
11. Exercising makes me less hungry. I still get the occational dip in my blood sugar, but more and more I end up just being very thirsty.
12. Curves has made it much much much easier to breath here. The altitude was making me feel very out of shape. Not so much of a problem any more.
13. After this kungfu. Actually I am seriously considering taking something like judo or thai chi if I can turn myself into an amazon over the next 2 years.Hey, at that point, what do I have to loose?
14. If I get through this, I plan to only eat things that taste good. I picked that up from reading over ferret's blog and I think it is an excellent piece of advice.
15. Something I noticed from this entry: my grasp on verb tenses seems to be slipping.

If you decide to try this thing, I highly suggest the following:

1. The shakes are great if you put them in a container and actually shake them. I use to try and mix them with a spoon and it was just gross.
2. Do not cheat. The clock restarts if you cheat. kind of like a time out.
3. Do it with a group. It is too hard to do alone.
4. Curves in itself is a great place to go, even if you aren't dieting. I've got some very specific goals in mind, but you certainly don't have to do the diet to benefit from the exercise.
5. I hate fish, so I've been substituting tofu when ever the book tells me fish. It's been a completely new experience to cook with tofu. Guru is mortified.
6. One word: BROIL. I've nevered broiled before. It is the coolest way to do meat EVAR. I can have a meal ready when I get home in 15 minutes. And that includes defrosting. And we can have steak for the first time in a long while. Guru is pleased with this turn of events.
7. Stay off the scale. Since you are building muscle as you are burning fat, it is very hard to tell what your weight is going to be on any given day. Use a different messurement, like inches, or that fat to body mass percentage. The scale will only tell you stories.

So yeah, I'm pretty pleased with myself. I really didn't think I would make it through the first week without cheating disasteristly. (see point 2 above) In fact, most of the beginning of this week, my motivation was to prove the group at curves wrong, and the instructor and the author of the program. (see what I mean about the fuse) It's amazing how motivating that can be. Of course, I can still screw up. I'm staring down a tunnel of 7 days of salads, meat, and cheese. My birthday is probably going to be very bland, but I think it will be worth it.

***
PhI:Wk2:9of75#