Eggs

Photo Credit: Sin City Farm Girl

One area that I struggle with is ensuring that I get enough protein each day while still keeping my calories in check. One food that is great for this is eggs. I’m not a huge fan of eggs, but I am trying to incorporate them more and more into my diet. You can eat eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner; they travel well when hard boiled and there are almost unlimited ways to prepare them.

Photo Credit: Sin City Farm Girl

While fresh eggs are always better, I have found that  the convenience of using egg whites from a carton to make a quick omelet before work really increases the likely hood of me eating breakfast. And having a protein rich breakfast helps to make me feel full for longer, cutting down on my mid-morning snacking.

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Some Eggy Facts:

One large egg has

• 6.3g of protein – that is 7% of my daily requirement
• 70 calories - 50 from the yolk and 20 from the whites
• Almost no carbs – 0.4g

Courtesy The Egg Nutrition Center

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Eggs and Weight Loss

In a recent study, researchers found that people who ate two eggs and toast for breakfast lost 65% more weight, had an 83% greater reduction in waist circumference and had higher energy levels than people who ate a bagel and yogurt for breakfast.*
*Dhurandhar, N.V. Egg breakfast enhances weight loss. Presented at Experimental Biology 2007. [Research supported by the Egg Nutrition Centre and American Egg Board.] 

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Recipe

A new recipe that we have added to our dinner repertoire is not only yummy and nutritious, but quick to prepare.  

Check out the recipe:  Eggs Baked in Avocado

 

Back at it

For the last two weeks I have not focused on weight loss.  I didn't track my calories, I didn't worry about eating ice cream, I didn't wear my pedometer and count my steps.  I also didn't go completely overboard, making healthy choices when I could. We've also had a car for the last 10 days which has meant no walking and a lot more fast food.  My focus was on getting ready to run my first 5K.

So the results on the scale this morning were not at all surprising.  In 2 weeks I gained 7 pounds. This week we are back to low carb meals and 2 days of Fasting.  I anticipate that the weight will come off fairly quickly and I can get back to working towards my goal weight. 

Weigh In February 17th

Starting Weight - 217 on January 1st, 2013
Current Weight - 204.8

Weight lost this week -  3.1 lbs

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photo credit: Buzzle.com

I am loving the low-Carb approach to things!  I not only lost 3 pounds this week, I did it without ever feeling hungry or deprived.

I averaged 1815 calories each day which is slightly on the high side for what my goal should be.  The average would have been lower, but we splurged on a fancy dinner for Valentine's Day.  I also averaged 93 g net carbs a day (109 g carbs minus 16 g fiber) .  Considering my average before trying this approach was closer to 280 g net carbs a day, I think I've done well.  I don't think I could get as low as 30 g of carbs, which some diets suggest.  Given my weight loss results for the week, I really don't see the need to go that extreme at this point.

It was very interesting to not feel hungry or have any other negative effects from reducing carbs in my diet.  I was worried that I would hangry or head-achy all week, but I wasn't.  I had a good sized breakfast before leaving for work, small snacks throughout the day and a great dinner every night.  I also drank lots of green tea and water all day long, which I'm sure helped me to feel more full.  I did eat a lot more meat than I usually do.  Hilary indulged me by cooking pork chops, chicken, salmon and steak for me.  A meat with 1 or 2 veggies on the side makes for a very satisfying meal.  I also ate eggs, twice!  Hilary made a fabulous spinach frittata, one of the few ways the I enjoy eggs and on Saturday after TaeKwon-Do I even made myself an omelet.

We've decided to try another week of low carb eating.  It was not that difficult (or more expensive) to put together lunches for me to take to work, and Hilary doesn't mind the meat/veg approach to dinner.  The one thing that I am going to try to change up this week is my breakfast.  Instead of having oatmeal/quinoa with greek yogurt, which has 40 g of carbs in it, I'm going to try cooking myself some eggs (and maybe even bacon) for before I leave for work.  A 2 egg omelet has 1/2 the calories of the quinoa dish and only 1 g of carbs.  Win-Win.  Of course, cooking at 6:00 AM might be a challenge!


I owe a big thanks to my SIL for her fabulous suggestion!  If I can keep things up I may actually reach that elusive goal of 199 lbs.