April 28th, 2009

The new entry way. You can see the old automatic door leaning up against the window on the left. The old entry was cold and commercial, I believe the new entry is much warmer. I still have to install the intercom for after hours. Do you like the rosemary plant?? I hope to have another herb to grow on the right side as well :)

A view from the inside.

Menu

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled

Snack: Atkins Bar

Lunch: Double Quarter pounder minus buns and condiments

Snack: Atkins Bar

Dinner: 2 pork sirloin steaks and 1/2 cup steamed broccoli

Well, I thought I would post some pictures of a couple things that have been keeping me busy. I have been remodeling my house and school (I own and run a after school program for kids and teach cooking) by myself in my spare time. I also teach at a high school while raising four wonderful children.

About three weeks ago I tore out the schools automatic entry way and replaced it with a 9 foot tall door. I softened the entry way to make it more American. Check out the pictures.

April 27th, 2009

Breakfast: 2 Scrambled eggs with 3 slices of bacon, 1/2 cup sauteed spinach and one pan fried piece of salmon.

Lunch: New LC meal replacement shake. 2 scoops of Walkers LC shake mix, 1/3 cup frozen blue berries, 3 straw berries, 2 oz cream cheese, 1 tsp Psyllium Husks, 5 grams of Kanten Powder ice a dash of heavy cream and water.

Dinner: 3 small pork medallions pan fried, last of the BBQ pork and some stewed cabbage, chicken and tomatoes.

The new meal replacement shake was good but maybe too high in carbs.. I have not figured the carbs yet.. but I had fresh strawberries and I wanted to give it a whirl :) Will figure out the carbs and get back to you. ** okay I plugged it into Fitday and I came up with 12 net carbs per serving.

The Blueberries being the major culprit at 5 grams of carbs. So next time I will do either strawberries or bluberries and lower the net carbs so its around 8-9 net carbs.

I am happy with it though because this shake is high protein, high fat, and high fiber. Overall a decent balance for a LC diet.

April 26th, 2009

Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs, with leftover BBQ pork. (almost gone :)　）

Snack: Atkins Bar

Lunch: 3 MacDonald's hamburger patties and 8 shiyomomo yakitori from street vendor and the chicken was free range chicken (chicken on the stick-thigh meat that is seasoned with salt & pepper and then cooked over coals) I chose this rather than yakitori that is dipped in "tare" (usually a concoction of soy sauce, Mirin, Sake and brown sugar) in other words loaded in carbs.

Dinner: Spicy Steak( marinated in garlic, paprika, cumin, cardamon, nutmeg,salt & pepper and freshly squeezed lime juice) and a side of sauteed spinach and kraut.

Just another lazy day. Hope you all have a wonderful LC week :)

Dessert: Strawberries n Cream sweetened with a pinch of Stevia :)

April 25th,2009 & Contest Winner Announcement

Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with left over BBQ pork

Snack: Atkins bar

Lunch: Cheddar burger and salad( green no tomatoes)

Snack: No Sugar Jello ( Another product review :) )

Dinner: Japanese Steak and small salad

Another day has come and gone. Today, I was very lazy. I sat around with the children and watched videos all day long. A well deserved break from the riggers of daily strife. I tried a new Jello product and I will have a review up soon. ( I hope LOL)

Now for the big news. The steak contest winner. Well, it was very close.

The American steak had good taste and texture. It was cooked medium rare so it was fairly tender, however, some parts definitely needed a steak knife to be able to carve into mouth size pieces. The steak overall was very good. Here are the scores; Taste 3, Tenderness 2, and Cost was a 4. Composite Score is 9.

The Japanese steak was different from the get go. No knife was needed to coax this steak into bite size pieces. The taste.. well lets say there was a richness and decadence that was not found in the American steak. The steak had a buttery flavor and the steak melted away in your mouth with just enough texture to let you know that you were really eating meat. The steak was also cooked to a medium rare. Overall, this steak would satiate any meat lovers need for meat that was a notch above the rest. Here are the scores; Taste 5, Tenderness 5, and Cost 1. Over all score 11.

The winner is the Japanese steak. Yet, the price demands that it be eaten on special occasions. While the American steak is an everyday type of steak.

April 24th, 2009

Breakfast: None

Lunch: American shoulder steak and salad.

Snack: 4 strawberries

Dinner:??

Hopefully, more to come :)

Steak Contest: Japanese or American??

The American Contender

Japanese KuroWagyu Beef

I have decided to have a steak cook off. I bought two steaks; one American and one Japanese. Iwill eat one of the steaks for lunch, today. I will eat the other steak tomorrow. I bought two of the same cut of steak, that are similar in size and weight. I will cook both the same way with limited seasoning, salt and pepper only and serve it with the same salad and dressing.

Please compare the above pictures. In the blue corner we have a Japanese Wagyu Shoulder steak weighing in at a whopping 187 grams ( 6.7 ozs) and costing $16.15 (@100 yen to the dollar exchange rate) which equals a whopping $47.00 a pound. No joking :)

In the red corner we have the contender from America, an American Beef shoulder steak weighing in at 168 grams (6 ozs) and costing $3.32 at the same exchange rate as above which equates to roughly $8.00 a pound.

The steaks will be judged on a scale of 0-5 for the following; taste, tenderness, and cost.

I will announce the winner tomorrow.

April 23rd, 2009

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs (3)

Snack: Atkins Bar

Lunch: Leftover pork and chicken scrambled into eggs(2)

Snack: 4 strawberries

Dinner: Pan fried Chicken Breast and a Green Salad

Well another day has come and gone, I am making an order to the states to get some baking supplies and was wondering if any of you knew of a good supplement or food that will help reduce H. pylori bacteria found in the stomach. Here in Japan there is a yogurt drink that does exactly that I used to drink 3 ozs every day but unfortunately since I started low carb I can't drink it any more because it contains sugar.

So if any of you know of anything please tell. Thanks. I read that broccoli sprouts do well but I can't fond them here and I don' have a green thumb.. :)

April 22nd, 2009

Breakfast: None ( ... this is starting to be a bad habit :( )

Snack: 12:00 Atkins Bar

Lunch 2:00 2 pork sirloin chops

Dinner: 2 pan fried pork chops and a side of Kraut. ( Breading: Bob's low carb flour mix, Parmesan cheese, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic salt and some salt) Salsa and sour cream sauce.

For dinner I wanted something different so I breaded some pork sirloins in low carb breading and pan fried in olive and canola oil. I then mixed the last of our sour cream some salsa and lime juice to make a sauce.

Over all it was a very tasty and satisfying dish.

Another Jelly :)

Time for some more product testing :) For those of us residing in the far east, especially Japan we are blessed with a plethora of different types of Jello like drinks, desserts, and supplements.

The pictured product spans the spectrum and is a no calorie grape flavored Jelly drink fortified with co-enzyme Q10 and 4 B vitamins.

The base for the Jelly uses Konyaku flour, (the same ingredient that shirataki noodles is made from and also qualifies as being vegetarian safe :)) so the texture resembles a softened Jello. Taste..hmm was actually quite tasty. Nutrition wise, it is fortified with with four B vitamins along with the Q10 enzyme and because it is made from konyaku flour it is also a good source of fiber. For sweetener it uses three; Sucralose, Stevia and Acesulfame K. Total carbs came to 5.2 for the 180 gram (about 6 oz.).

So where to classify this? A dessert?? A supplement? A Snack?? I am going to place it in the healthy snack department. I find it lacking to be a supplement and not sweet enough to be a full fledged dessert.

Overall, I would buy this again when I was on the road or needed something in a pinch. It would also be good for a break during some kind of sporting activity.

April 21st, 2009

Breakfast: None

Snack: Atkins Bar

Lunch: Left over chicken and pork and spinach

Dinner: Hamburger steak, Tomato and Daikon sprout Salad( tomato, daikon sprout, salt, pepper, lemon juice and a dash of Parmesan cheese)

Well the scale has not been moving very much so I figured this week I would cut out nuts, I am also cutting down on dairy to see if that helps me start losing again.. If I was down to my last 15 pounds I would not be anxious but I still have a long way to go.. I really must make time to exercise every day no matter how busy I am.

April 20th, 2009

Breakfast: None

Lunch: 3 scrambled eggs with Parmesan cheese

Dinner: Sauteed spinach, small salad and left over chicken and pork :)

Snack: 4 slices of Cheddar Cheese

April 19th, 2009

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled with cheese

Snack:Atkins Bar

Lunch: BBQ ribs (recipe posted)

Dinner:1 chicken breast some sliced pork BBQ and a largish salad (Pictured)

Well, I had all that good sauce left over so I figured I would put it to use..I threw three chicken breasts and 1 k of thinly sliced pork into the left over sauce and cooked it for 20 minutes.. it was good but next time I will add some more stuff to the sauce to make it a little more potent.. the sauce was found lacking the second time around..I figure if you are going to use the sauce twice you had better add some more chili pepper or hot sauce and vinegar to brighten it up a tad..and maybe a little more sweetener of choice :)

Pressure Cooker BBQ Ribs

2.5 lbs pork spare ribs

1 1/2 T Chili pepper

2/3 cup vinegar

2/3 Worcestershire sauce

2/3 LankantoS ((Luo Han Guo)

1 can diced tomatoes (16 oz)

3 cloves of garlic

1 T Mustard ( Dijon, Yellow or Dry Mustard)

1 Onion Diced (If you can afford the carbs)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Brown the ribs and put them in the pressure cooker pour the remaining ingredients over the ribs put the lid on the cooker and cook for 35 minutes. I was very happy with this new recipe. Please feel free to make it your own recipe or try it as it is you will be very happy no LC aftertaste and good for you. IF you like it hot throw in a tsp of cayenne pepper or add some of your favorite hot sauce. Serve with mashed cauliflower or faux rice. To save on carbs don't drink the sauce.. tempting as it might be :)

April 18th, 2009

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrabled with cheese

Lunch: 3oz pecans and 8 small strawberries

Dinner: Hamburger steak and a small green salad

snacks: 2 atkins bars

Zero Calorie Kanten Jelly Sweetened with Stevia

I found this product in a local convenience store so I thought I would give it a whirl. I glanced at the ingredient list and saw that it was made from Kanten(agar agar) and was sweetened with Stevia.

I was really excited about trying this new LC product because it fit my needs of being LC, high in fiber (kanten is 80% fiber)and sweetened naturally. However, upon tasting it..I found it to be rather bland and the texture was a little off. There was also a strange LC aftertaste that I usually find with products sweetened with Splenda. So I double checked the ingredient list and sure enough farther down the list I found sucralose, aspartame and one other sweetener that ends in a K that I don't know the English for.

After eating the jelly I was satiated for quite a while as Kanten triples in size once ingested and absorbs water. Overall, it's not something I will eat regularly but if I am on the road and I need a snack, well, its a safe bet to tide me over till I can get some real wholesome LC food.

A little about Kanten(agar agar)

Kanten is a gelatinous substance derived from Tengusa seaweed. That has been used in many Japanese desserts for centuries. Kanten can be used as a laxative,thickener for soups or even a vegetarian gelatin substitute. Because of its natural ability to triple in size once ingested it has become a very popular fad diet here in Asia.

I am going to come up with some new recipes to use this product(kanten not the jelly) that I hope will tickle the taste buds and be wholesome as well. One can only stand so much psyllium husks while living LC.

April 17th, 2009

Breakfast: Atkins Bar

Snack 3 oz pecans

Lunch: 3 Scrambled cheesy eggs fried in pork sirloin steak drippings

Dinner: Fajita Pork Steaks small salad with tomatoes

Well, today no extravagent or new recipies..just good low carb food.. food was good but I think next time I will make sure to drain the drippings and add a T back to the pan.. with the cheese the eggs were way too greasy..

April 16th, 2009

Breakfast/Lunch: 12:30 pm 3 eggs scrambled with cheddar and mozzarella cheeses

Dinner: 3 pork loin chops side of kraut and 35 grams of pecans

Snack: 8:00 Rakuten Diet Jelly.. I will do a product review..

Today, was very busy yet again. I am so close to finishing the new entry way.. I have several products lined up to review.. and this weekend I will be trying a new recipe I dreamed up.. hopefully I will have the recipe and pictures up if its edible :) Cheers!

PS notice how the chops are cooked..the fat is really crispy yet the centers are not overcooked.. my 12 year old daughter fired those up for me :)

April 15th 2009

Breakfast: none

Snack: 1:00 pm Atkins Bar

Lunch: (pictured) 3 eggs scrambled with pork, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, soy bean sprouts and 1/2 of a small tomato.

Dinner: coming soon

April 14th, 2009

Breakfast: 8:00 am 3 scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese

Lunch: 2:00 2 fried pork steaks garnished with cheddar cheese, kraut, salsa and sour cream.

Dinner: not yet more to come

I had a craving for a New York style loaded dog, I though about how I could make one LC and this is what I came up with :). I over seasoned the steaks with garlic, salt and pepper and then pan fried them in canola oil, garnished with the condiments listed above. I have one word to describe them.. Delish!! I will definitely be making these again.

New Natural Sweetener

Since I live in Japan, I thought I would start showing some of the LC products that are available here in the land of the rising sun. I found this natural sweetener.. (I have not tried it yet) I am waiting until next month. The product is called LakantoS and it is now available in the US as well. http://www.lakanto.jp/english/ It seems like a really good product. Please check it out and post what you find here. Tell me what you think :)

o.O and just to make sure I am in no way affiliated or have anything to do with the makers of LakantoS.

April 13th, 2009

Breakfast:none

lunch: 5 pm 3 small pork tenderloin slices fried, kraut

Dinner: 3 pieces of yellow tail fried in butter and marinated in oil, salt, white pepper, garlic, dill and Japanese Yuzu (Japanese lime) and 3 eggs scrambled with bacon and cheese..

I am trying to add in more fish into my diet. Unfortunately, I really dont like fish all that well.. I mean I love fish and chips, sashimi, sushi etc but I dont care for baked fish and I hate little bones.. but todays marinade did wonders on the fish and it was delish :) Do try it :)

I was very busy again today. Things will slow down till Thursday then they will pick up again.

I almost got the door finished.. I will finish it of this weekend.. then I start on the kitchen hehe

Breakfast:....none

Lunch: At 2:00.. 3 eggs and 3 slices of bacon

Dinner: Fresh sashimi(pictured) 4 McDonald's hamburger patties and miso soup

I was so busy trying to finish that I forgot to eat breakfast, then my children made me some eggs and told me to take a break.. :) For dinner our neighbor, a local fisherman brought over some fresh sashimi :) and another friend brought me McDonalds.. Mega Mac, side salad and diet coke.. I passes on the coke :) and ate the side salad.. I can't remember if I mentioned this before but McDonalds dressing is sweetened with Stevia :)

Hopefully I will have time to cook soon..

April 11th, 2009

Breakfast: 3 eggs bacon cheese salsa and sour cream

Lunch: Was too busy trying to get the wall built that I tore down..Now, I have a new wall and door.. and forgot to eat..

Dinner: I made another Texmex burger with a side of kraut

A small snack of pecans..

I will try to get a before and after pictures up soon but to be brutally honest I am beat and sore so I am going to bed. :)

April 10th, 2009

Breakfast: 3 eggs 2 slices of cheese

Lunch: Mega Mac without bun and condiments and side salad with a sesame dressing sweetened with Stevia

Dinner: Texmex burger and kraut..

I must admit that I am a little bit dismayed as today was a weigh in day for me.. and I weighed 469.8 which means I have dropped only a minuscule amount this week, even though I stayed away from Atkins bars and other sweets.. I was really hoping for a big loss.. so I don't know if I hit a plateau, ate too many pecans but its most likely the fact that I have really done little if any exercising..

But I will continue to push along no matter what the scale says..

April 9th, 2009

Can anyone say cut and paste :) So no pictures..

Breakfast: 3 eggs 3 slices of bacon

Lunch: Small salad and Bowl of soup left over from last night

Snack: 1 oz pecans

Dinner: 2 pork chops and the last of the creamed spinach..

I know boring leftovers but I go shopping tmrw :)
Going to make some fun stuff this weekend.. :)

Apirl 8th, 2009

Breakfast: 3 eggs 3 slices of bacon 2 slices of cheese

Lunch: 1 pork chop and creamed spinach

Snack: 1 oz of pecans

Dinner: Homemade faux creamy chicken noodle(shirataki) soup and small salad with homemade pickles and vinaigrette

I nice easy day but I have been lazy NO exercisng..need to do more.. so I dont stall..

April 7th, 2009 Menu

Breakfast: 3 eggs 3 slices of bacon scrambled with Parmesan cheese

Snack: 3 oz of pecans 2 slices of cheese

Lunch: 2 pork chops and 1/2 cup of steamed broccoli

Dinner: 2 pork chops 1 cup of creamed spinach (bacon, shirataki, garlic, heavy cream, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, pepper, and some boulion..o.O and of course spinach)

I kinda took the idea from Harry about the creamed spinach and souped it up a little.. it was so so good :) There was enough cream sauce that I added one pack of shirataki maybe I should have added two packs.. tasted almost like a good spinach Alfredo :) As you can see Ieat a lot of pork because as I mentioned before beef is very pricey here in Japan and pork is much more reasonable.. and unfortunately I ran out of all my rib eye steaks that I bought at Costco..5 hours away by car.. so I will continue to eat pork :) I have thought up a new pasta using shirataki noodles.. I will try it out soon and let you know how it turns out :)

Today, I don't think I had enough veggies I will try to up the amount I eat tmrw..

Todays Menu

I had an early morning meeting so I ran to McDs' for a quick bite, unfortunately they were out of side salads so I ate a Double cheese burger without condiments and bun and drank 800 ml of water.

For lunch I wasn't very hungry so I fried up a quick pork chop so the fat was crispy but the meat was still moist and nuked some fresh broccoli with a little butter...( when I say nuked I cut up some fresh broccoli put it in a microwave safe bowl with some butter and cover it with saran wrap so the veggies actually steam cook...) very tasty actually :)

For a snack I had 34 grams of pecans

For dinner I had a beautiful medium rare rib eye steak with a side of broccoli and small salad with homemade vinaigrette dressing.. oops I used liquid Splenda in the vinaigrette dressing.. ( I made it before I decided to go artificial sweetener free) I will use it until its gone then make a new batch without any artificial sweeteners. I wrote this as my steak was being cooked by my 12 year old daughter..turns out the steak was medium..just a tad of pink left but still juicy and good :)

For desert I had 4 luscious strawberries.

Most importantly I drank my water quota for today and I took my only supplement..psyllium husks..

Aprils Goal

Here are some more pictures my daughter took of cherry blossoms, a picture of me and my kids for BayouBabe and finally a picture of our food at Wendy's notice the empty buns.. and no I did not eat any of the chili fries hehe but I did partake a couple spoonfuls of chili although I did take the beans :).

Okay guys thanks for all of your comments.. after some reflection on the past months I have decided to have some fun with my food consumption.

I am going to try one month 98% natural using NO artificial sweeteners.. I leave off the 2% because towards the end of the month I will be doing some long lectures and during those times I will limit myself to 1 Atkins bar.. the rest of the time I will be doing it natural :)

I will also be posting my daily menu.. Now, you may ask why?? Well, simply I want to try and see if there is a difference and see what makes me happier.. Pooti said some really true things about sweets.. I fall into the category of being a sweets lover.. I will always be so.. an I must keep it in check. This will be a way to test my tolerance level of no sweets.

Then in May I will add in artificial sweeteners and at that time try NV's new brownie recipe :)

Following up in June I will again cut out anything artificial and add in nuts and berries as snacks.

Anyway, I will be keeping a journal of my exercise and weight loss and compare the differences.

Again this is a personal challenge that was influenced greatly by Pooti and Harry. I have been so busy in life that I have not been able to post that much, but I have committed myself to posting more so all of you can enjoy this journey with me. I really get inspiration from all of you guys and hopefully, I can help inspire some more people. Lastly, I want to be happy to eat rather than eat to be happy. It will take a long time but I will get there eventually, I also need to find out what really makes me happy when it comes to eating. If I am happy and content then I will have found the way to lead a healthy and content life.

Monthly Weigh in

Well, I got on the scale today and to be honest I was disappointed.. I was hoping to be in the 460s but alas I was the same weight that I was on Tuesday the 31st. (My goal is 20lbs a month so I lost about 16lbs a little short..) It seams that when ever you throw in a trip your weight loss slows down.. Check out the pictures of Japan during the cherry blossom season..

O.o a little about my trip we had to renew my children's passports so we drove 4 hours to the nearest consulate, applied for the passports, went to Wendy's.. my kids favorite burger shop.. and we donut have one where we live.. then for the grand finale we went to Costco :) I stayed on plan and ate rotisserie chicken for dinner.. while my kids garbled up pizza and hot dogs..

I will be eating well, rib eye was on sale only 218 yen per 100gram.. about $2.18 per 4 Oz's..yes that is not a typo..LOL Sometimes I really miss the good ole USA..

I had one of the steaks and some fresh broccoli for dinner tonight it was.. very good :)