I got home from my Low Carb Vegas Trip late Wednesday night. My feet and legs were swelling terribly after two flights and a 3-hour drive.
This is a GREAT article that explains why you bloat up and experience swelling when you travel.
I woke up on Thursday morning weighing 154 pounds (2.2 pounds heavier). I took a nap that afternoon, and woke up again… weighing only 151.6 pounds. 🙂 On Friday, I weighed in at 150.2 pounds.
That’s less than I weighed before I left for my trip!! 🙂
I always bloat up a little when I travel. That’s totally normal. It just takes a day or two for your body to adjust back to your normal routine – and altitude.
Here’s a photo of me on Friday at 150.2 pounds.
I felt LEAN! 🙂
The fluffy/puffy bloating was gone (lol), I was down another pound or so, and I was even down almost a whole inch in the waist & hips!
I could cry happy tears, lol.
Size 10 feels SOOO good!!!
It’s been a long haul, but SO worth it…
I was scared when I first started eating low carb, asking myself if I could really do it. I wasn’t entirely sure what to eat at first either, so I started with this Atkins Food List and just picked out things I liked. I read a lot of their articles too.
Just the other day I was doing a little happy dance (lol) over my weight loss, and had this conversation with @AtkinsInsider on Instagram:
That totally made my day! ME, an inspiration?! My struggle has been HARD. I cannot tell you what that meant to me, along with your support & encouragement!
Atkins has supported my journey, and our group, from the beginning. In fact, they are sponsoring a giveaway contest for YOU here on my blog. 🙂 Be sure to enter!
Living Low Carb In My Shoes: A 3-Day Photo Tour
I am not perfect, I don’t eat perfect, and I’m a “lazy lowcarber” lol.
Keep that in mind as you browse this 3-Day Low Carb Meal Diary, and also keep in mind that I just got home from an awful trip – totally jetlagged and crabby. 😛
On Wednesday I decided to eat off plan, but not terrible. That was the day I was traveling home. I kept it at 100 carbs for the entire day – which is still relatively low carb by most standards.
I did have a big healthy salad for lunch at the Timberline Grille in the Denver Airport. It was a beautiful Caesar Salad with Salmon & Fried Egg. 🙂
That was an easy, fast low carb lunch while traveling!
I also burned 499 EXTRA calories that day (1,924 total) according to my Fitbit.
In addition to traveling, I did what I call “CARdio” on the drive home. 🙂
That’s where I dance while driving – which yes, looks pretty funny (lol).
I focused on my abs, butt & thighs while jamming out to a Group Love album. 🙂
I’m determined to exercise daily, plus I knew my legs & feet really needed some movement to improve my circulation – and reduce the swelling from traveling. 😉
Thursday’s Low Carb Meals At Home
I was SO happy to wake up in my own bed on Thursday morning! I had my favorite low carb breakfast “cereal”: 1/4 cup Daisy brand cottage cheese, 1/3 cup crushed pecans & 3 medium diced strawberries. (5.5 net carbs and 83% healthy fats)
I didn’t really feel like cooking that day, or even eating really, so I snacked on Atkins bars here and there. The Atkins Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bar (3 net carbs) is pretty good, and I still had a few leftover from my trip – so that was easy.
For dinner I grabbed a Low Carb Thickburger from Hardee’s, and said “Make it a double!” 🙂 lol. I order mine without onion, tomato & ketchup. That makes it zero carb, according to the nutrition facts on their website.
Yes, this is on their menu! Along with a low carb grilled chicken club, and a low carb breakfast bowl.
Here’s my entire MyFitnessPal Food Diary for Thursday:
Friday’s Low Carb Meals
For breakfast I had the “low carb cereal” again. I make it a little different every time. This time it was 1/4 cup Daisy Brand cottage cheese, 1/2 cup crushed pecans, 2 strawberries & a chopped Atkins bar (Peanut Butter Granola) – for a total of 9 net carbs. Delicious!
For lunch I made ham & eggs. Let me backtrack… Remember when I went to Hardee’s the night before? Well, I also bought a “Hot Ham & Cheese” and stashed it in the fridge. I just could not be bothered to get dressed and go to the store after all that traveling. 😛 So this was my version of “grocery shopping” lol. Anyway, I ditched the bun and chopped up the ham (3 ounces) and put half of it away…
I scrambled the other half (1.5 ounces) with two eggs and called it lunch. 🙂
And then, for dinner, because thinking about food was too much work (lol) I just got another Hardee’s Double Low Carb Thickburger – plain with cheese & mayo (Zero Carbs).
Here’s my entire MyFitnessPal Food Diary for Friday:
Saturday’s Low Carb Meals
By Saturday I was running out of low carb foods at home. I had a bit of this, a bit of that, some eggs and half a block of cheese in the house. 😛
For breakfast I had to make my “cereal” without berries, so I used Sugar Free Strawberry Preserves instead (Polaner brand, I got it at Wal-Mart).
1/2 tbsp sugar free preserves, 1/2 cup crushed pecans & 1/2 cup Daisy brand cottage cheese (7 net carbs).
I was bored with it, and REALLY hungry that morning for some reason, so I chopped up an Atkins Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bar and stirred it in (3 more carbs).
For lunch I used the rest of the ham, added .46 ounces of Colby Jack Cheese (off the block) and scrambled it with 3 eggs – in real butter.
Dinner… sigh. 😐 I had a date…
It did not go well, lol. I got up and left by the time my water hit the table. Seriously. I got in my car and went somewhere else, and enjoyed a beautiful low carb dinner – alone. 🙂 It was a little joint, a quiet place, called Rafael’s Italian Restaurant (yes, Italian lol – it’s quiet in there!).
I ordered grilled chicken smothered with (extra) mozzarella & mushrooms with roasted broccoli as my side. I had to special order it a bit (no rice, no bread, no noodles, etc).
Anyway, it was delicious. And no “attitude” or “bs” with my meal. 🙂
Knowing I had hardly any food at home, and feeling a little annoyed (pissy!) at that point, I ordered the exact same meal… to go – also. The guy must have thought I was crazy to eat alone and order two identical meals (yes, me and my invisible friend! haha) – but I didn’t care. This is my version of “grocery shopping”. 🙂
Besides, the guy that served me was MUCH nicer than my date. 😛
I kinda blew my carb count later that night with a delicious low carb dessert. I just felt like indulging! It was a Jello Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding Cup with Reddi-wip. 🙂 Amazingly delicious, but totaling around 10 net carbs – Ack!
That’s more carbs than I prefer, but at least it wasn’t _____ (censored!). 😛
Here’s my entire MyFitnessPal Food Diary for Saturday:
I mentioned my CARdio on Wednesday. On Thursday night at 11:40pm – and Day One back home – I realized I hadn’t worked out yet! I jumped up and did a workout to YouTube videos for the last 20 minutes of the day. 🙂
I’m really making a serious effort with this exercise thing. 😛
I use a Fitbit (plum, above) to track my steps, and I have it synced up to MyFitnessPal too. This is how I track net carbs in MyFitnessPal by the way. It’s easy to set up!
I didn’t work out Friday or Saturday though. The trip caught up with me and I felt jet lagged, so I just took it easy and caught up on rest and work.
You’ll be happy to know I finally went grocery shopping last night. 🙂 After that “date” I’m ready to stay IN for awhile! 😛 LOL
See this post for the grocery discussion & some easy low carb recipes. 🙂 Also see this low carb grocery list – and the comments with tons more low carb food ideas.
I hope that didn’t bore you to death, and at least gave you some easy low carb meal ideas. Now that I have some groceries back in the house I’ll be getting a little more creative with my low carb meals. 🙂
Stay tuned for some fun EASY recipes in my next low carb food diaries…
Best,
Lynn Terry,
aka @LowCarbTraveler
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