Summer Fatique

Yes, there is a downside to summer.  The heat exhausts me.  I could actually spend the summer reading on the couch or napping on that same couch.  I am always sleepy in the summer.   Yesterday I finally "got into" my new book.  "The Wreckage" by a favorite author, Michael Robotham.  I started with "Lost" or the "Drowning Man" and was hooked.  I also have a new, the last, Wallander to read.  I had the time to read because G suggested letting the dog stay at day care and I would have a few hours alone at home to relax after work.  It WAS nice.

The dog is outside this morning and I have on my Pilates clothes and my intentions, good ones, are to go upstairs and do my 30 minute routine before I eat breakfast.  My weight has stalled at the new lower weight  (which isn't really low) and a return to the exercises may help.  Not quite where I had hoped to be at this point in the "diet" (7-8 weeks in).  I think I might be happier, psychologically, if the number was 5 pounds lower.  I could make myself either happier or sadder by trying on my "test pants" to see if I have lost inches.  I can tell, by the way everything is fitting this week, that the test pants would still be too tight. Water retention.

We are working  shorter days at the greenhouse.  Fewer customers.  More watering.  More boredom.  More heat and humidity.  Yesterday there was even a snake to make things more gruesome.  The only entertainment was in catching chipmunks in the live trap and then taking them for a ride.  I suggested tagging them somehow so we could see how soon they returned.  One chipmunk was trapped in the lunchroom over the 4th and was busy chewing the door trim off the door.  Another was swimming in the toilet.  The chipmunks have gotten very brazen now that Maxine the cat is dead.  We need a new cat.

I am fighting the urge to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast.  Cereal and yogurt are the two things I want to have back in my daily diet right now.  I can live without the bread, pasta and rice.  I can live without potatoes, beans and corn products.

The Oopsie Roll. I found them to be useful as a "vehicle" to enable the Atkins dieter to pick up and eat food with their hands.  The rolls do not add anything to the taste of the food other than allowing food to be held in the hands.  Is that what a hamburger bun actually is?  Something to think about.  These Oopsie Rolls are made of cream cheese mixed with egg yolks folded very gently into egg whites beaten to stiff peaks with cream of tartar.  The recipe is one egg to one ounce of cheese.  This would make 2 "rolls" baked at 300 degrees for 30 minutes and then left to cool for a few hours.  Six eggs would create 12 rolls.  The Revolution Rolls were made with cottage cheese.  The Oopsie with cream cheese (which must remain cold).  A suggestion was made in the comments that ricotta cheese would be a better way to go.  I may try it once more and I may bake them a bit longer.   The cheese in the recipe must be subtracted from the 3 to 4 ounces of daily cheese allowed in Induction.

Strict Induction is required in order to switch the body chemistry.  After that, you can modify the diet to suit your needs.  I see many, many dieters restarting Induction, multiple times in a few weeks, on the forums. Dr Atkins didn't think that was a good thing.  I see so many recipes for Induction.  Really, it's 14 days.  Eat the same thing every day for 14 days and be done with it. I have four things I eat nearly all the time.  They fill me up, I have no cravings and they taste good (to me).  If I still feel hungry, I eat one of those things again.  Here's what I eat.

Tuna mixed with mayo and a large green salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing.
Thinly sliced imported Swiss (2 oz) and baked ham rolled up together eaten with radish slices dipped in salt.
Two eggs, bacon, one oz cheese and a MIM (only one per day).
Eggbeaters,  small amounts of ham, onion, peppers and spinach in an omelet.
All beef chili with cheese (1 oz), jalapenos and sour cream (2 T).
Two grilled burgers with bacon, onion, lettuce, cheese, pickles and mayo.
Salad with Ranch Dressing, Feta cheese and 5 Greek Olives

I have prepared and eaten some recipes off the Atkins site but they don't fill me up (very skimpy portions) and they seem to have too many carbs.  I have a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer which I haven't decided what to do with, yet.

I just wish it was working for me.  Perhaps one of the Readers who is also doing Atkins can critique my menus and see where I may be going wrong?  I try and drink ice water with lemon with all my meals. I have two or three cups of coffee with Splenda and coffee cream each day ( this is where I use carbs).  Dessert is rhubarb sauce (less than 1/2 cup) with whipped, unsweetened heavy cream (2 T).  The rhubarb is an allowed "vegetable" (1/2 cup cooked is 1.7 nc) and the sauce is 8 cups rhubarb, granulated Splenda (1/2 cup)  and water cooked down until thick (about 6 cups total).  Or I have sugar free jello. but eating dessert isn't an everyday thing for me.  Four portions of jello has lasted almost three weeks in the fridge, I ate the last one last night.  The dessert item is just "available".  Sort of a safety net.