2014 Atkins Induction - Day 1

Start the New Year right! Low carbohydrate nutrition tastes great!

Slow cooker "barbecue" pulled pork is easy and
makes great leftovers.

Many of you know I follow a low carb, alternate day fasting diet where I eat a calorie restricted level every other day and eat an Atkins-style OWL diet the rest of the time. It's worked very well for me because of a few health issues: recovering from late stage hormone positive breast cancer, PCOS (pre-surgical menopause)-which is now considered Syndrome X, asthma, diabetes type 2, and familial Parkinsonian tremor, among other fine diseases of metabolism. I have familial hypertension and am on inhaled asthma drugs and also take a hormone inhibitor for cancer therapy which is called an aromatase inhibitor. Any one of these diseases has weight gain listed as a side effect of the disease and the medicine that controls it.



I tell you this background to update everyone and to explain why it's necessary for me to take extraordinary measures (low carb in addition to alternate day intermittent fasting) in order to lose a single pound -- veeeeerrrrry slowly!

Most of you do not have to go through these gyrations in order to regain health, lose weight, and control eating patterns run amok. Consider yourself blessed and fortunate! Most of you benefit by simply doing one or the other: alternate day fasting or low carbohydrate eating. I can tell you by eating the way I have, I've been able to remain medication-free with controlled blood sugar for over 14 years and was able to help increase the efficacy of cancer treatment. Yippee!

But in saying that, please know, I'm not telling you that low carb isn't enough or doesn't work. Nor am I telling you that on non-fasting days you need to low carb or otherwise restrict your eating in order to lose weight and regain health through intermittent fasting. There are just some tough nuts to crack is all! I'm one of the tough nuts!

Pulled pork is easy to make!

I'm going to show you two weeks (give or take) of Atkins Induction type nutrition in order to inspire you to get down and dirty and barefoot in your kitchen. I want to inspire you to know that 20g of net carbohydrates a day is NOT deprivation! And learning to cook is the healthiest thing you can do to control the progression or to prevent disease!

I will show as many photos as possible and will be hopefully getting to recipes down the road. You can click on the images to see them larger and close-up! Heck, maybe even in a mini-book on pdf if anyone is interested? Time and energy are limited due to health issues. Most recently a bad infection in my irradiated arm which took me out for the holiday season.

I will continue my alternating pattern of fasting, so on those days, I will only eat one or two small meals totaling 500 cals per day and staying under 20g net carbs per day. (Again, extraordinary measures for my measly weight loss, but I'm more focused on the health going on underneath it all.)

Let me know if you have interest in these posts. If you don't want to see them - we don't have to do these types of posts.

So here you go.

New Years 2014 - Atkins Induction Day 1

Day 1 Total: 1244 Calories; 86g Fat (60.3% calories from fat); 86g Protein; 41g Carbohydrate; 21g Dietary Fiber; 751mg Cholesterol; 20g Net Carbohydrate

(Remember, I warned you I would be eating a Southern NYD meal that would not be Induction-friendly, but it is and was OWL-friendly and daily totals fell right at 20g net carbohydrates for the day! Woot! How's that for a feast day?)

Breakfast (290 Calories; 21g Fat (65.2% calories from fat); 18g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 435mg Cholesterol; 4g Net Carbohydrate)
2 large eggs
2 bacon strips
3 cups baby spinach, Taylor Organic
1 clove garlic
1 ounce grape tomatoes
1 teaspoon olive oil

Lunch (326 Calories; 20g Fat (53.2% calories from fat); 30g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 124mg Cholesterol; 7g Net Carbohydrate)
1 can sardine in olive oil
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 portion pork skins
1 small tomato
2 pickled okra

 

Slow cooker barbecue pulled pork with homemade low
carb barbecue sauce, turnip greens with ham and
low carb "corn" jalapeno corn bread. Yummy!

Dinner (628 Calories; 45g Fat (61.8% calories from fat); 38g Protein; 25g Carbohydrate; 16g Dietary Fiber; 192mg Cholesterol; 9g Net Carbohydrate)
6 ounces pork shoulder roast
1 cup turnip greens, frozen
1 tablespoon turkey ham
2 tablespoons black eyed peas, frozen
4 tablespoons Low Carb Barbecue Sauce
1 serving Jalapeno Coconut "Corn" Bread






NOTES: We found smoked flake salt not too long ago at the local HEB store (on the spice isle) and we're pretty thrilled! I've never been a big fan of liquid smoke, but the smoked salt adds a hint of smokiness to cheater-style "barbecue."

Naturally smoked flake sea salt - FalkSalt - has
gorgeous crystals.

If you can't find it at the grocery, you can order FalkSalt, a naturally smoked sea salt, online. It's beautiful too!

Turnip Greens in ham stock with ham and onions.

I have to confess, frozen turnip greens are WAY easy to make, no washing 3 times to remove grit and dirt, pre-chopped and the turnips in it are delicious and huge. We always have ham at some point during the holidays and it's so easy to throw the ham bone into a pot of water with a few veggies like garlic, onion, celery and carrots to make a great stock. Portion and freeze it for quick and convenient veggies bases! I cooked the turnip greens in the stock and added a bit of ham and onion.

Homemade barbecue sauce will beat store bought any day! It's very easy to make, but does require a bit of patience while it boils down to thicken and concentrate flavors. Even without the smoke from a true smoked meat, it's delicious and I appreciate knowing what's in it!

Homemade low carb barbecue sauce rocks!

Low carb Jalapeno "Corn" Muffins rounded out a great meal!

The meal tasted great, especially with low carb jalapeno cornbread made from coconut flour, oat fiber, Carbquik and pork rind crumbs. I sometimes use a spoon or two of Carbquik because I'm allergic to almond flour and ground flax. Those would have been my first choices since I try to avoid gluten and Carbquik does contain gluten. You can buy Carbquik online on Amazon or Netrition.

Hope you enjoyed the food porn and are inspired to go home and cook up delicious, nutritious, low carb vittles of your own!