Carb-a-licious

We're going to have to hold up on the Atkins entry.  I'm not ready for another foray into nasty low-carb eating.

This past weekend, I attended a conference for my job, so it was pretty difficult to do the low-carb thing.  Every time you turned around there was a waiter bringing out a basket of bread.  Bread, glorious bread.  Fluffy rolls, buttery croissants, slices of warm sourdough bread, baguettes...any kind of bread you could imagine.  And next to the bread basket was a plate of butter.  I love butter!  And bread and butter together?  There's nothing better.  Half way through my first meal, I gave up on being cute and grabbed some bread, slathered some butter on it and went to town.

At the banquet on Saturday evening, once again there was a bread basket on the table, and it was calling my name.  I was seated near the butter, so I knew that fate had to bring us together.  Me, the bread and the butter...what a great team!  My girlfriend Ann who has conquered the carb thing, and is looking all fit and trim told me, "Girl, don't do it.  Don't take the bread."  I tuned her out and grabbed a piece anyway.  She shook her head at me in disgust.  I knew I let her down, but a girl had to do what a girl had to do.

Yesterday, my family and I traveled to VA for a funeral.  We were down in the country, so I was looking forward to wrapping my lips around a real down-home soul food dinner.  However, I spent half of the time after the funeral riding around town looking for my various relatives.  By the time I found them, they had eaten, but I hadn't.  And when I don't eat, you had better watch out.  Talk about attitude!  At that point, I would have settled for a piece of KFC chicken, but Mom convinced me to stop and get some gas first.  I drove up the road looking for the gas station and before we knew it, we were headed out of town and towards the endless miles of corn fields and dirt roads.  However almost 2 hours and a 100 miles later, we found the gas station. 

 If it hadn't been for my 6-year-old nephew with the ever-expanding stomach, I might have had a whole sandwich to enjoy on the way.  My sister (his mom) fixed about 17 sandwiches before we left MD; you would have thought we were driving to Disney World with all the food she packed.  PB&J sandwiches, baloney & cheese, cold cut sandwiches -- she had it all.  And my nephew ate it all.  We hadn't been on the road 10 minutes yesterday morning before he started asking for a sandwich!  By the time we reached VA, he had eaten a little of everything.  Every time someone pulled a sandwich out of the bag, he wanted some of it.  I was able to get a scrap of the baloney & cheese, and later a morsel of the PB&J.

It's been a very high-carb weekend.

Ewwww

I just had the nastiest, most disgusting, horrible tasting breakfast ever...

I know, I know it's been a while since I've last posted to The Notebook, but I have been trying to catch up on all of the errands that I had put off during Cicada Season.  Plus, I've been trying to adjust to a new eating habit, and I'm going through carb withdrawal.

Just a little while ago, I fixed some scrambled eggs using Egg Beaters, and toasted two slices of wheat bread, slathered them in butter and then topped them with sugar-free jelly.  Before I go any further, I must admit, I am a breakfast food junkie.  Anyone who knows me well can tell you that I love breakfast, and can eat breakfast food all day, every day.  My absolute favorite restaurant is IHOP -- no kidding.  When I turn 40 (which is a little ways down the road for me), I'm going to have a huge bash and have a catered breakfast food menu.  If you don't like it, then I won't be offended.  That's just more breakfast food for me.

Anyway, I've been doing pretty okay adjusting to an "alternate carb lifestyle".  (I refuse to call it "low carb" because that sounds so depressing to me.)  I've dropped a few pounds in the past week, but that's only because it's been very strenuous for me to drive past McDonald's, Wendy's and Popeye's and pass up my beloved Filet-O-Fish, french fries, chicken nuggets, chocolate chip cookies and buttermilk biscuits.  Resisting temptation has been a real workout.

I've switched to whole wheat bread and kaiser rolls, and for the most part, I only indulge in whole grain foods when I want something carby.

Tonight, I had decided to scramble some eggs and fix a couple of pieces of whole wheat toast.  Nothing extravagant or complicated.  However, the food was nasty.  Just nasty.  The eggs were fake -- rubbery with an after-taste, and the sugar-free jelly was horrendous.  Smuckers should be ashamed of themselves.  Their jelly was tasteless except for a slight grape after taste.

Breakfast is much better in its high fat, high carb glory -- the way breakfast is supposed to be.  Amen.

TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR ANOTHER ENTRY:  Atkins Pancake & Waffle Mix

Carbed Crusader

Hi, I'm Mattsaunti, and I am a carb addict.  For the past week and a half, I've been on a self-imposed carb embargo.  Instead of enjoying delicious chicken cheesesteaks, scrumptuous cakes and other yummy carb delights, I've tried to eat healthier shoveling endless quantities of fruits, vegetables, healthy meats and whole grains down my throat.  It has been a trying time.  In my past health quests, I've done everything from the South Beach Diet to the Grapefruit Diet to Weight Watchers.    I didn't last 4 hours on the South Beach Diet; by lunchtime on Day 1 I was looking for a piece of bread.  Right now, I'm more or less following an eating plan called the American Fare 1400.  Actually, I've remixed it a little bit, occasionally adding some of my favorite foods to my daily meals.

As I am writing this entry, I am munching on three delectable chocolate chip cookies and some fries from McD's  (a remix on American Fare's Thursday snack).  One of my kind co-workers saw me struggling with some nasty, low-carb yogurt this morning and knew just the thing that could cheer me up.  He should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.  Every writer needs some inspiration, and in this case, three hot-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies and a half-order of fries are mine.

This journal will be about my love of carbs, and my quest to strike a balance between healthy eating and eating what I want when I want (which isn't all that healthy.)  Don't worry, I won't bore you with lists of my daily meals.  The last time I tried that was when I had to keep a food journal for Weight Watchers, and I didn't have enough room to write down all of the yummy, gooey, delectable foods I was eating.  So I didn't bother.

If you're looking for diet or healthy eating tips, then this isn't the journal for you.  If you're looking for healthy, low-calorie, low-carb recipes, then you need to look elsewhere.  This ain't that kind of party.