#35by35 – Week 1 on Atkins20
Long time readers know that I’ve been struggling to drop weight for a while now. I’ve done everything from Nutrisystem to Slim-Fast to Weight Watchers, however I tend struggle with my sweet tooth on all of them.
I’ve been doing Weight Watchers for the past six months with I realized something, I was a points hoarder. I would consume meal bars, shakes, or other low point foods during the day than blow the rest of my points on gummy sweets (my ultimate weakness). So after doing some soul searching and research on the interwebs, I’ve decided I’m gonna give Atkins another go. Now I did Atkins in my early 20’s to some success but the program seems to have been polished a bit since then, plus they have sweet treats, meal bars, and shakes for my non-cooking self.
Since I am a carb lover (I love carbs, they don’t love me back), I eased myself into this over the last week. I knew if I tried to give up everything cold turkey I’d fail and in a moment of darkness I’d rush over to Olive Garden and STUFF MY FACE. Now I didn’t go balls to the wall here, every night I would allow myself a little something, a goodbye meal if you will, but for the most part I was all protein, all the time.
I’m not going to say it was easy, I found myself really wanting to Postmates or Seamless pizza at 1am or dive headfirst into the bagels at the office, but I held strong. I found that the Atkins products help. I have a Daybreak bar before I leave the house so I’m not tempted at Starbucks or one of the hundred bagel joints I pass on my way to work. Around 11am I have a shake, I keep my the fridge at the office fully stocked with them (much to the annoyance of my co-workers). I do lunch around 1pm, here I either have a meal bar if I’m too lazy to go out or I run downstairs and get some grilled chicken and string cheese. I’ll admit that I don’t always get my afternoon snack in but when I do I try to go for some 100-calorie almond butter, and lately I can tell when I skip it because I’m starving by the time 6/7 pm rolls around. Dinner is usually grilled chicken, turkey or pork and a green juice of some kind. I don’t eat veggies but I’ll drink them (it’s a texture thing). Around 9 pm I have my sweet treat, usually in the form of the Peanut Caramel Cluster Bar (it’s like a Payday bar). I’m working really hard at not eating anything after 10 pm.
Today was my first weigh-in and I dropped around 5lbs, which is great. Next I’m going to start trying to get in my low-impact exercise in and hopefully I’ll meet my phase 1 goal of 35-lbs by my 35th birthday in July.
This post was NOT sponsored in anyway, I personally chose to go on the Atkins program and all products were purchased by me.