Carb Rehab – Day #2

Be sure to catch Carb Rehab Day #1 Here.

The thing about blogging about your carb rehab progress…is that it keeps you super accountable. I do NOT want to admit on a blog post that I didn’t work out again. In fact, I would encourage you to be public about your own carb rehab. It doesn’t have to be a blog (although it might be). Another great method is to email with a friend. Highly recommended!

Historically Day #2 is the harder one for me, although I am happy to say it wasn’t terrible. I drank water like crazy and most importantly…I kept busy. You know what I mean by this. Some keys to success: plan ahead for meals & snacks, and stay busy. Right?! Who’s with me!!!

You know there is something else I’ve realized too. The longer I’ve lived my life as a low-carber, the easier this process has become. When you first eliminated breads, pasta, rice and so on…it’s really hard. You notice how much you were eating it. You realize how often you are around starches. You have NEVER had to say “no thank you” this often. You haven’t had to plan this much in advance. It’s overwhelming.

But just like anything in life, the more you do it…the more natural it becomes. Planning ahead doesn’t take as much work because it’s really second nature. It’s my normal. Eating sweets last week was not my normal. Oh…it was FUN but it’s atypical of me anymore. Physically it’s still difficult to go through this first 3-5 day period of getting rid of the sugar and starches from my body, but as a whole it’s very easy to get back to something I’ve been doing for years.

(Warning…tangent ahead…) Once again it reminds me of budgeting. In my opinion, financial management and weight management are very similar things. When I went on my first budget it was HARD. It was painful to look at the money I was spending. I didn’t know if I was getting any better when I felt like I was trying so hard. But now?? If we go on vacation and splurge a little…get off our normal budget routine…when we get home it’s super easy to get back on track with the budget. Why? Because it’s our normal. Splurging on a vacation is not our normal. All the hard work really does pay off- for years and years. These habits really do stick with you. (I wrote a series on Money Management and Weight Management-  you can find the first one here.)

So here is my recap of Carb Rehab Day #2. Thanks to this blog, I stayed on it once again!

6:30A EAS AdvantageEdge Shake and coffee with 1 tbsp sugar-free creamer

9:30A Chocolate Protein Shaker Bottle

10:30A 2 calcium chews

Did I mention I drank about 6 Camelbaks of water?!?  Camelbak Eddy Bottle (0.75-Liter/24-Ounce,Charcoal)

12:00P leftover baked chicken with 1 tbsp bbq sauce and carrots

12:30P Yes! I really did stay at the gym this time!!! I only had about 30 minutes so I stayed on the spin bike, doing some intervals of higher and lower intensity. Felt great to get back in there. It’s not a good sign when the guy who works there says “Hello Stranger!” I mean come on! It was only a week!!!! 

1:45P starving on my way to a meeting. Had a few minutes to spare and stopped at a Gas station for a SOBE LifeWater Zero. This is a life saver for me, when I’m really struggling with the empty pit in my stomach (even though I just ate) I go get a flavored water of some sort. Blood Orange Mango got me through this time! Sobe Lifewater Variety Pack – 12/20oz Bottles

2:45P Decaf coffee with 1 tbsp sugar-free creamer

3:30P 1/2 cup cottage cheese with 5 blackberries and 1 cheese stick

5:30P SUPER hungry while making my cauliflower crust pizza that I ate one of theses small protein bars- well actually it wasn’t this brand, it was the Aldi version! Small enough that it didn’t overly fill me but had enough density to help me for another hour :) Nature Valley Peanut Butter Protein Bar, Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate, 7.1-Ounce (Pack of 4)

6:30P loaded pizza made with a cauliflower crust (recipe will be posted today- promise!)

8:00P half a glass of red wine. YEP. I did it, so I’m telling you about it! At dinner with friends, I ate before I got there (good for budget and carb rehab) but sipped on some wine. My goal is to get starches and sweets out of my diet again, but I’m not on a weight loss program so a little wine was just fine for me.

I will be honest in that I’m feeling a little leery of today (Day #3) because Day #2 wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I’m starting this morning with a prayer once again (yes, I do believe praying about this is a huge key to succeeding!) but mentally preparing myself in case, as my friend Jennifer said yesterday, my arm starts looking like a french baguette.