Days 109-117: UP and DOWN

Once back from Thanksgiving I've been back to high protein, veggies, and BEANS! Hummus is my best friend these days as even opening a can of beans seems to take too much time and effort! We've been very busy with work and rehabbing a rental that we wanted to lease by January 1! When all margin in life goes, guess what? So does food prep! So the days of making dishes and sharing have gone by the way side and it's been every man for himself. I can tell you that has made it harder to stay on the diet and to eat well.

Yesterday I came unprepared for lunch and ended up eating a brownie for lunch! oh my, how far I've fallen! Well, the house is now completed and rented so no more excuses!!!

I have had some good days too. My wife and daughter are now eating along with me and that has helped to have another cook contributing to the meal offerings. This is a salad Deanna put together for us that we've eaten off of breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Usually for breakfast I'm solid. I feel as though I singularly support the egg industry! Pulling some turkey sausage from the freezer is easy, and if we've made some bean and veggie salads ahead then grabbing a cup of that is easy as well. I made up the broccoli-bacon-slaw last week. That is definitely a winner for all - healthy and really tasty! I believe I've blogged that recipe in the past and if I was a really good blogger there would be a link (HERE) for it...but since life is full, you'll have to use your imagination! :-)

And finally, just so I don't disappoint my "Cheat Day" fan club, even though I've been cheating during the week, I somehow still feel that I deserve a major cheat on Saturdays! A few days ago that meant I started at Juicy-Os and had my fill of donuts, a skillet and pancakes. Christmas cookies were sprinkled through the day and a treat-filled Christmas celebration with my sister and her family. So no fears, I kicked that metabolism way up!

Days 97-108: Hanging In There

The last few weeks have been hard. Coming back from thanksgiving vacation with sugar coursing through my veins made for a very hard return to a strict "no sugar for 6 days diet." That coupled with the increase of Christmas goodies around the office and house has led me to a new concept of "cheat hours."
It hasn't all been bad. I've had moments of sheer low carb genius like the 3-bean salad below made in the time it took to open the three cans!

Of course on Saturday I enjoyed cheating, despite the fact I had been doing so the whole week prior! I enjoyed my French Toast layered with peanut butter and bananas...Elvis would have been proud!

Starting last Sunday I did get back on track and for the most part have eaten well. My weight is up about 3 lbs from my lowest (now at 162) and I still have to use the lowest notch on my belt...so all in all I think I've kept the body fat percent pretty close to my last BodPod measurement.

I'm expecting that from now until the New Year there will be intermittent cheating...but I'm OK with that. If I can maintain where I am I'll get back to taking off the last few percents in January. So Happy Holidays to all!!! (Note the very small serving size! ha!)





Days 87-96: Thanksgiving Vacation

But first a confession to my faithful blog flowers (yes, all three of you!), the last two weeks have had more packed into them than should be allowed by one human being. Mostly all good things mind you, but nonetheless, things that took my attention away from posting on 12percentJohn. And I wonder if not having to sit down and really think about what I was eating, showing you pictures, telling you stories about my journey made it easier for me to cheat.

And cheat I did on Thanksgiving vacation.  That wouldn’t have been so bad if the vacation had been a few days, but our entire family went to Florida to spend a week at my parents home. Dad decided that he was tired of 80 degree weather and casting into the surf, so he had headed to the cold North and went hunting for turkey, deer, and bear – oh my!

John, Katherine, Deanna on the water

They say that when you go back to your family of origin you also go back to old habits and patterns of relating. Well in my case that means back to old habits of having dessert after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I’m not joking. The first night we arrived we went to a great deli called TooJays. www.toojays.com after consuming a piece of killer cake for dessert we took home a box of Rugalach to have for breakfast.

Ben with his Nan at TooJays

That set the tone for the week and I mentally threw in the towel and decided I was on vacation, I had good food available to me, I wasn’t going to stress about it, and I’d still control how much sweet I ate. Hmmmm, well that last point didn’t happen. To say that sugar is a drug is no exaggeration. Man that stuff gets in my system and I just crave more of it. You know I’ve been really good on this diet in that regard, but not Thanksgiving week!!!

The Pumpkin Chiffon Pie I made for Thanksgiving Dessert

I came home with 8 more pounds than I’d left with and because I was not working out as actively I’m sure that weight gain was both muscle loss and fat gain. The fun was over…it was time to get back on track! And finnaly a picture to leave you with that will paint the picture...

lunch dessert! Chocolate Ganache filled cupcakes and more!