Too Much of a Good Thing?

I weighed myself this morning, and I wasn't very happy with what I saw.  I haven't lost a single ounce this week.  NOT ONE!

Do you know frustrating that is?  Eating nothing but protein and veggies and to see that I'm just maintaining the weight I lost last week.  It's just not right.

But then...I start to think about what I've eaten this week.  What's different from last week?

To start, I've eaten from the school salad bar every day.  I have a small serving of whatever meat is being served, and then load up on a salad...with no dressing.  And when I say "load up", I mean it.

I should have heard the warning when the school coach made the statement "you're doing Atkins, and you're allowed to eat that many vegetables?"

A statement like that is like an oxy-moron.  That many vegetables?  As in I'm eating too many?  Ridiculous!

But, then I think about my dinners I'm eating at night.  Small piece of meat - huge pile of veggies.

Just last night I ate 6ozs of chicken breast and a whole bag of steamed cauliflower.  The bag says it has 3 servings...so I ate 3 servings.  And I know that sounds a lot - but it's really not.  It's 1 1/2 cups of steamed cauliflower, being that a serving size is 1/2 a cup.

When I put the food in to my tracker, I realize that 3 servings of steamed cauliflower holds 12g of carbs.  That's below my 20-25g allowable amount, but not when it's paired with the veggies I ate at lunch and my breakfast and the carbs from the dairy products I eat (cheese).

I could chalk up my not losing any weight to the protein I'm eating.  But, that's not right... it can't be.  I've been so good at measuring my protein portions and keeping the fat content down to a minimum.

Could it be I'm really eating too many veggies?

I have to admit, this week has been somewhat of an eye opener.

My brain has been programmed to tell me that veggies are good, wholesome, and "free"...meaning I can eat as many as I want.  But, last week I portioned and controlled and lost 5lbs.  This week, I'm being more "free" with my veggie intake - and not losing anything.

Something to think about, right?

Especially when I'm supposed to be limiting my carb intake...and all my carbs at this point are coming from veggies.  Well, almost all of them.  You know it's impossible to find foods that aren't just meat that don't contain carbs, right?

I was so happy and excited, last week, when I was watching the weight disappear before my eyes.  And now I'm starting to feel a little deflated.  Not anywhere close to throwing in the towel, but definitely reevaluating my food choices.

Last week, I lost weight because I followed the program to the T.  This week, I got a little lax and figured there was no harm in eating more veggies if I was still hungry.  Hmmm... not really hard to see where I might of messed up.

Of course, there really isn't a belief with Atkins that you can eat "too many veggies".  Atkins promotes eating veggies as the main source of carbs.  After a quick read through some of the forums helped me discover that many people didn't lose weight the second week because that's when the body was adjusting to the changes.   I'm trying to train my body to burn fat instead of carbs, so some people on the plan found that the second week in, their bodies started to stall... because the body was waiting for carbs to burn.  Once the body realizes that the complex carbs aren't coming - it will start fast tracking to burning fat.

Maybe I should read more of the forums before getting worried.  

Oh well... all stuff to think about and keep in mind.