People say that I make it look easy.  It isn’t.  Carbs are easy because you can get to them.  The USDA’s food chain uses carbs as the base.

So anyhow..  almost 50 down, and my guess is the next 40 is going to be the harder the half.

As many people know I am back on Atkins.  Which if you understand the Atkins diet you realize that it is mostly protein.  Which means that you have MEAT, and fish, veggies (which you can have in certain amounts)

Now many of you know that I am Eastern Catholic (I try to think of it as being Orthodox in Union with Rome, even tho my bishops would disagree.) and try to follow the Orthodox fasting regulations.

Now you must realize that these two really don’t fit… Unless you do some heavy modifications.

Lets just say that I am not going full balls on orthodox fast with respect to the backbone.  Some Orthodox fasting regulations say that you can’t eat anything with a vertebrate.  Which would mean fish.  Sorry guys..  I love you and I love the Lord, and I think the Lord wants me to be healthy i.e. weigh less, so.. I have personally added fish back into the mix for myself.  Also I do allow small portions of cheese, if I need a protein pick me up.

Now realize I am NOT eating pounds and pounds of Cheese, so the idea isn’t that I am bingeing on cheese the idea is to know your body and try to be as faithful to the fast and to your weight loss program as you can be.

So what do I eat…

Tuna, lots of tuna, lots and lots of Tuna.  Salads, lots of salads, lots and lots of salads. Veggies, but I try to keep the number of Carrots low, and work with mostly the green veggies, which are lower in carbs.

These are what you can eat

These veggies are slightly higher in carbs:

You want to keep these veggies down to less than 12-15 carbs of your daily intake when you are in induction.

Induction is the first stage of the Diet where you cut down your carbs to a minimum and this gets your body working on your fat.  It takes fat out of your body, and produces keotones, which then the body uses for energy.  This is a win win situation, you lose weight and your body gets energy.

So what is a typical day of the fast for me you ask?  Well here is one of my menus:

Breakfast:  2 Eggs, Fried using Pam on the pan or equivalent.

Snack:  1 or 2 oz Almonds, or 1 oz Macadamia Nuts

Lunch:  Large Salad, Romain Lettuce, and A serving of canned Greenbeans

Snack:  Same as above, or 1 to 2 servings of Green beans

Dinner:  Tuna Salad with Mayo (yes, I know there is oil in it… get over it) or another 2 or 3 fried eggs.

At this time I am taking a multivitamin because I know that nutritionally I am out of whack.  Even when I was eating crap, I was nutritionally out of whack, so what else is new with this life?

What we are taking is an imbalanced system, mine, and working it in the best way that we can.  My body can’t handle sugar, because of the years of abuse I put it through my Pancreas is too good and taking sugar and making fat out of it.  By removing the sugars from the body we then make the pancreas do the opposite.  The body can’t find sugar to burn, so it eats the energy it has stored in my cells.

In regular atkins, I would be allowed to eat almost anything that I wanted as long as there were no carbs, so I could have four pieces of chicken, but with the lenten fast, I can’t do this.

Atkins during Lent takes some doing, but IT CAN BE DONE.  I am now one week into the Great fast, I am running less than 20 carbs a day, I am not eating meat, Cheese is used for emergency use i.e. if I get to the point where the body needs a boost, I allow myself a 1/2 ounce to an ounce, but I have only had to do this once, and it was yesterday.

I am preparing Beef Short Ribs today.  About 10 pounds.  Here is what I am doing to them:

Line your pan with foil and spray with Pam or equivalent type of non-stick sparay

Put the ribs on the pan

In a bowl mix the following:

• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 3 teaspoons onion powder
• 3 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper (or to taste)
• 2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

This will give you a good greek tasting spice mix.

Rub the spices into the meat, and let sit for a while.  Some people let them sit in the refrigerator over night, I didn’t have the time to day.

Cover the Pan with foil and pop them in the oven at 325 degrees for 2.5 hours.

Take out and eat up.

First, no apologies.  I am from the south.  I am from Texas and I make no bones about it.  I cook with Bacon Grease and I LOVE IT.

Americans have gotten it into their head that fat is bad, well to tell you truth, our ancestors were eating bacon grease for thousands of years and guess what WE are still around.

Nothing gives eggs the right taste like Bacon Grease.  So here you go.  Cook yourself up a whole passel of Bacon, scrape the grease from the pan when it is cooled, and put it in a jar.  Place this jar in the refrigerator.

Next time that you want eggs.  Break two or three of them in a bowl, mix them up with a bit a heavy cream.  Set aside, and put your cast iron skillet on the stove, let the skillet heat up.  Throw a heaping tablespoon of BACON GREASE into the frying pan and let it sizzle.  Cover the pan and the sides with the grease and then pour your eggs in.  Scramble them together and then once done take them off the heat.  Go to the table and eat them and then PRAY to God for making pig fat taste so wonderful.

Now, I am going to take some time to mention cast iron.  If you don’t cook with it… STOP, run out and buy yourself a cast iron frying pan.

Season it.  A good seasoning will make it almost nonstick.

Here are instructions on how to season the frying pan or dutch oven:

You season a cast iron pan by rubbing it with a relatively thin coat of neutral oil NOTE: Use vegetable oils (canola, sunflower, etc.), shortening (like Crisco shortening) or lard for seasoning your cast iron pans. Place the cast iron pan, upside down, in the oven, with a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom to catch any drips. Heat the pan for 30 to 60 minutes in a 300 to 500 degree oven. Once done, let the pan cool to room

temperature. Repeating this process several times is recommended as it will help create a stronger “seasoning” bond. The oil fills the cavities and becomes entrenched in them, as well as rounding off the peaks. By seasoning a new pan, the cooking surface develops a nonstick quality because the formerly jagged and pitted surface becomes smooth. Also, because the pores are permeated with oil, water cannot seep in and create rust that would give food an off-flavor. Your ironware will be slightly discolored at this stage, but a couple of frying jobs will help complete the cure, and turn the iron into the rich, black color that is the sign of a well-seasoned, well-used skillet or pot.

I got this one off of the Atkins site.

Well, it always seems, in January that we look back on last few months and realize just how much we screwed up. During the summer and through September I had been on the Atkins diet. I was losing weight and doing well. For some reason I got into my head that I was going to just try portion control.  Well I tried it, and the result was I am again larger than I was.

I think I’m coming to the realization that white flour and sugar are not part of my life. And what really sucks is the fact that I love them so much. During that time when I was on the Atkins diet my migraines were gone, I was feeling better, and I was losing weight.

So what type of insanity causes a person to go off something that is working well? I mean, if I was feeling better why did they go back? I tell you. I don’t know (to borrow a phrase from fiddler on the roof.) So today, tail tucked between my legs, I start the long road journey back to  low carb dieting.

Now, Atkins isn’t just all meat all the time. Every time I announce them going back to this I get commentators that tell me just how screwed up that diet is. If you’re tempted to e-mail me and tell me how bad this diet is please stop. Don’t do it. I’m not listening. Truly, at the base, Atkins is the elimination of most of your carbohydrates (most which come from grains, and sugars) and eating a more naturally based diet. What? You say? More natural? Yes, more natural.

When eating organic meats, organic vegetables, more water, less soft drinks, my body will put itself into a mode where it will derive its primary energy from burning fat. This is good. I would rather have my body burning my fat than being fat and burning sugars for energy. Right now I am tipping the scales at around 250 pounds. This is not good.

In college, I lost 110 pounds by cutting out most sugars and white flour. I guess it’s time to go back to what I know rather than what I don’t know in the past diets didn’t work for me they fail the only thing that I have found that works for me is the low carbohydrate diet. So it’s back to it.

I will be putting some of my info here on the blog on what I’m doing sort of an online journal into my mind which it already owns but adding in the Atkins stuff. Again if you don’t agree with that and that’s okay, but since it’s my blog and my body I’m going to do what I’m going to do.