So I am a swinging single for a bit. My wife is working on a tour as an assistant stage manager for the tour of Peter Pan. She comes home for a couple breaks during this time, but the tour is scheduled till January. I will say that it has only been one week and miss her, but our cat Rosie keeps me company and helps out. The big question is, What does all this new time alone mean for me? Well turns out when my wife is gone I tend to eat a bit more low carb. Its easier to do when you can just eat scrambled eggs for every meal. I would say that the meals are a little less rounded without her i.e. the steak dinner I had last night. A wonderful steak with a side of more steak only top be washed down with more steak. No veggies or anything. When the wife is around there would be a salad and some sides. I guess I was just to lazy to cook more. for myself.  I did make some pulled pork the other day that was pretty killer. Anyone can do that. You just put it in the slow cooker and turn it on. Simple and yummy. 

    Besides doing little low carb cooking I am trying to figure out what to do with some extra time that I have. So if you have a suggestion let me know. hobbies. movies to see. books to read. life goals.

I was thinking about making some PMA videos. Thoughts?

p.s. My wife has a blog about her tour. You can read it here.

    So over the last few years I have lost a lot of weight doing my Atkins diet. Its been a life changing experience that has totally changed my outlook on food, exercise, and life. Going through the process of dropping pounds was so exciting and refreshing, but as we all know even the process of dropping pounds can be tricky and can present some new challenges. 

    One of the biggest challenges I came into was that of getting new clothes that fit right. For a while I would wear my old dress shirts and kakis and they were enormous on me after losing the weight. So I would go to the store and pick out a new shirt and pants, pay the money for my new outfit. and in 2-3 moths they would be too big again. Its a great problem to have, don't get me wrong, but it can get pretty costly to always be adding now clothes to your wardrobe and always be throwing out the old. Even now I still wear dress shirts to work that are too big and frumpy on me because It just is not possible to go out and totally re-buy a whole new wardrobe in one day. And when you wear frumpy clothes, you feel frumpy. Its hard to fully enjoys the weight loss when it gets so pricey.

    Because of the cost of always needing new cloths constantly I have fallen in love with Old Navy and Target all over again. Now I understand that quality is not always the best at those places, and you run a risk of seeing twelve other people in a single day wearing the same thing but when you can get a dress shirt for $10 or jeans for $30 it seems like its worth it especially if you know you have a lot more to lose. 

    I do however refuse to wear the novelty t-shirts both those two stores sell. I am sorry, but I left the days of wearing shirts with cereal brand names in Junior High where they belong.

Our car broke down. We fixed it.
Then the battery went. Got a new battery
Then it broke again. Now its getting looked at once more.

Sometimes you just cant get ahead. Things like this make me want chocolate.

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    When carbs were more than just a stumbling block for me in my younger days Boston Market was a magical place for me. I used to live right down the street from one so the fresh meat and sides were a real treat. I wasn't really sure if Boston Market would be a great place for me these days, but when I ran into one recently I couldn't resist the chance to go inside and see what they have for the low carb lifestyle. 

    Boston Market is a chain that is primarily on the north-east part of the country that specializes in rotisserie chicken, turkey, ham, meatloaf and a various collection of sides like mashed potatoes, cinnamon apples, and mac & cheese(I was a sucker for their sweet potatoes). It's kinda like home cooked fast food and it is tasty.

    I went inside and got the Turkey meal with two sides. I chose fresh veggies, and creamed spinach. It was really good too. I was worried that the veggies would taste like something from a hospital cafeteria but they were seasoned and full of flavor. Also, the creamed spinach is great. It almost has a little sweet taste to it. A great side, very yummy, and it has lost of fiber in it for you too. Lastly the turkey was super most and tender. Some turkey gets cooked too long and is dry, but this stuff tasted like it was something mom made on Thanksgiving. So good. They guy pt gravy on my turkey even though I said gravy on the side. I think next time I might just say no altogether Cause the turkey didnt even really need it. 

    All in all it was pretty good. My only problem is that Boston Market walks the line of becoming kinda pricy. The meal I got was around 7.50 and that doesn't even include a drink. A combo would set you back around 10 bucks when its all said and done. You could probably go to the grocery store and get yourself a whole roasted chicken and some sides for a lot less. Still, anything that feels like something mom made is a plus.

Turkey       Carbs 0        Fiber 0
Veggies      Carbs 8        Fiber 3
Spinach      Carbs 12     Fiber 4
       Net Carbs      13

    So it's confession time. I am a gamer. Not a hardcore-gamer. But I am gamer. I grew up playing Nintendo during my youthful summer vacations, had a subscription to Nintendo Power Magazine, and I have watched the movie The Wizard more times than anyone should. These days I play Xbox 360 and with my time spent with this gaming system I have learned something about myself I couldn't pinpoint before. I love Achievements. 

    Achievements are these little awards that Xbox and game developers do for completing a specific task. For example one achievement in a game may be to shoot 100 guys in the head. After you do this over the course of your game a little message pops up with a sound effect that says you got the achievement and how many points it was worth. They are not needed to beat the game, just added to make games more fun and re-playable. Well, for me I can tell you that they drive me to play more. In some cases it begins to feel less like play and more like work to get them. I can't relax until I feel like I accomplished something.

    This idea carries over to me in the real world as there are many tasks I do simple to achieve something. I find myself adding movies to my netflix I really don't want to watch but I add them simply because I know I should see them because the critics say so. I struggle through books I find boring only because once I start them I feel like I want to be able to say I finished it. Like achievements I can't ignore my daily tasks either. They haunt me. I cant relax until I finish what I need to do. After finishing a meal I have to clean the dishes right away so they are out of my mind and then I can sit with my wife and relax. But to sit at the table those extra 5-10 minutes, when there are dishes to be done, unthinkable. 

    In a lot of ways it's a curse to feel obligated to do tasks before I can relax. I need to achieve something before I can do nothing. However, if it wasn't for this mentality, I may never have been able to do my exercises everyday and get my weight down. I usually go right after work. There are plenty of times that I want to put it off, but then the idea of working out later haunts me and it is all I can think about. So I I get to it. I need that daily achievement.

    All that to say, Thanks xbox. 

    I'm not sure why I went on this rant, just something I was thinking about recently.

Any time a new eating establishment is opened near my work I am compelled to check them out. Even if its just walking in to read the menu, I'll give any new place nearby a once over. Sometimes I just need a new place to eat at and if there's a chance that a new place will have some options to break the routine for a low carb meal then its an epic win.

One such new place that just popped up near me is called Croutons. Its a salad and sandwich place. Their big thing is their salads though. Fancy, fresh, well put together salads. Sounds right up our alley huh. Well it is.

I checked out their menu and went straight for the old standby of the cobb salad. If they can make a good cobb salad then the other salads should be just a win too.

It was wonderful. Smoked turkey, bacon, egg, avocado, tomatoes and greens. i topped it with a fiesta ranch. So good.

I don't know if they are a chain that is going to be spreading more, but I definitely see that they could have mass appeal to people that are fans of Panara Bread and other fresh fast food establishments

Yes I grilled three burgers tonight and stacked them with colby cheese only to enjoy in their greasy medley of taste. And yes, I thought about the judgement I would receive from the watchful eyes of the hardcore atkins internet posters. 

But don't worry, I would be worried but I am almost postive there will be a unison sigh of hunger to be heard across the land once I hit the post button. 

3...2...1...Moan

    Its been busy in our home the last week. We added an addition to our family. Ladies and gentlemen of the interwebs, I give you Rosie

Rosie likes:
-Climbing on my wife's hanging dresses in the closet.
-Hiding in couch cushions to gain the element of surprise for a good pounce.
-Attacking the television during intensio games of Call of Duty.

Rosie Dislikes:
-Garbage Disposals.
-Being removed from the closet while attempting to climb on the wife dresses.
-Star Wars Prequels

My sister in-law found this online the other day. We thought it was fitting.

    Summertime. Everyone has their traditions when the season kicks into its hot months. Going to the beach or lake. The park picnic. The neighborhood block party. We fill our time with activities that have that summer flare to them. One tradition that happens in our house is the annual visit to the fair. 

    What once was a celebration of crops and livestock that the local farmers had raised has morphed into something completely different in the past years. Sure, you can still go see the 4H clubs collection of bunnies and there may be the hanger with cows somewhere, but its a bit more corporate now. Bright carnival rides and games covered in neon lights decorate the walkway, and a festival of vendors selling their as-seen-on-TV wares litter the hallways. Despite these changes and updates, one thing has always remained the same. Food. You cant go to the fair and ignore the food. It's impossible. Corn dogs, ice cream, Deep fried...well deep fried everything. And it all smells heavenly. No you can't go to the fair without having some tasty treats. But the question is what can you have that is still on the safe side of the Atkins diet.

    My wife and I recently attended the OC Fair (whose themes was coincidentally "lets eat") and regardless of the deep fried treats we were bombarded by we did take the time to notice some wonderful treats that were lower carbe. Here are some suggestions for your next trip out.

Turkey Legs - Feel like a king with one of these massive legs of meat in your hands. See how you earn the respect of those around you instantly as you show others that you are not happy to simply eat an animal, but an entire leg of one. Its in our nature as carnivores to hold a drumstick in the air and celebrate our recent battle. what Battle? Why the battle of taste of course.

BBQ Ribs or Beef Brisket - Yeah, there is sweet BBQ sauce on them. But the smoky flavor of meat that has been slowly cooked all day is a hard thing to ignore. And you can eat like its going out of style.

Sausage and Grilled Veggies - A lot of these come on a large bread roll that i suggest you just ignore. You should be able to and still get your fill of food cause if you get the right one it will still be huge. Many of these will come with yummy grilled peppers and onions with it if you ask. It may be a little extra, but its very tasty.

Fresh Fruit - There were several stands offering fresh cold berries to eat. Juicy, plump and full of sweetness. Why not go back to the days of old when a simply fresh strawberry was a celebration of the hard work and efforts of the surrounding farmers. Some stands may offer some whip cream to enjoy them with too. Simple and delicious.

Every fair has its local items too, So look around and stay strong. You don't have to sacrifice flavor when you eat low carb at the fair. You may have to sacrifice oil, grease, batter, and wooden sticks to hold them all on; but never flavor.