caged liberty's Journal, 13 July 2008

Its a really odd feeling to have a car in the garage. You want to go out but dont know WHERE to go!!

Its like having to learn to live again. Being in an enclosed environment for the past couple of years has made me a little anxious about leaving my home. I lived in Pakistan for 3 years and rarely ventured out. In the daytime it was because of the extremely hot weather. In the night, it was due to safety concerns that I hardly went out. (Also, being financially restricted meant there wasnt much to do if you cant buy anything).

Since my return to the USA in Oct 2007, I have very rarely had the car to myself to get out. I still havent made any real friends to hang out with, and this town is mostly dead (we would call this place a village back home in England).

Anyway, I will find my feet again soon and then I will be out all day. Freedom will truly come when the kids are back at school and I have the car all to myself. I think I will probably try to enroll in some classes or do some voluntary work part time. I am not allowed to work on my visa so getting some pocket money is out of the question.

Onto things of a dieting nature. I have had a grocery drought for two weeks now. No meat, poultry or salad. I weighed myself about three days ago and was 143.6lbs, 3lbs up from my previous weigh in. OK..this is where it gets interesting. Two days ago, I received a shipment from vitacost.com (bullys and my fav store for vitamins and supplements!!).

I had ordered some amino acids in addition to other products and have started taking them. My weight this morning was 141.3lbs!! Yesterday, I had pizza, watermelon and cheetos (yes..that is all my house seems to be stocked up on!!)NOT very healthy or low carb.

Two nights ago I was reading Dr. Atkins book and I was on the chapter about metabolic resistance. He stated that sometimes he had to encourage the use of supplements for patients who were metabolically resistant. It turned out that most of the ingredients he mentioned were in my amino acids or my mitrochrondial energy booster (another supplement from vitacost).

Well I had already been taking the energy booster so the only new addition to my diet has been the amino acids. I wonder if that has helped in lowering my weight in the past two days even though I am not dieting?

Finally..Nisa isnt Nisa unless she is asking for some advice! I know several buddies have mentioned really good low carb cook books and after Andees success at finding atkins books in a thrift store I am encouraged to finally purchase some cookbooks too. (suitable for Atkins or south beach diet I guess)

Could you guys give some recommendations? I would prefer dishes my whole family could eat as baking etc..requires a lot of effort for only one person. However, any book that you guys have found yourself using frequently is probably a good bet.

Thanks. (Now you can go and have a rest after this long journal!!)