The results are in, and they're unimpressive

I'm calling this experiment over.  The four pounds I lost in the last month are not sufficient motivation for me to continue a diet with which I'm not particularly happy.  I have no issue with egg whites and low fat cheese and lean meat, but I don't want to eat them to the exclusion of so many other things that I like.  And I'm tired of not eating "healthy" foods such as carrots and brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes because they dare to have too many carbohydrates in them.

Am I going to eat precisely the way I did before I tried low carb?  No, because I liked some of the things I tried.  Blackberries and blueberries in my yogurt?  Delish!  Spiced pumpkin seeds?  Totally yummy.  Spinach salad?  Surprisingly, now a regular thing.  Which I like.  Do I want to add rice or potatoes to my dinner?  Not particularly.  Do I wish to eat cereal instead of eggs in the morning? Yes I do.

Mainly I want things like apples and bananas (and mangoes, in season) back in my diet.

Some observations:

1)  On a low carb diet, my blood sugar (or rather the observed effects, as I wasn't poking my finger hourly) seemed more stable.  Although I prefer cereal in the morning, that egg white omelet does serve me better.  As does the spinach in it, probably.  But you know what?  I don't like cooking in the morning.  I just want my dang bowl of high protein, high fiber cereal.  Or oatmeal with flaxseed meal in it.
2)  For endurance activities, low carb just doesn't do it for me.  I started supplementing my activities with higher carbohydrate snacks (or mixes such as trail mix, which have both sugary dried fruit for short term energy and proteiny/fatty nuts for long term energy) if they were going to last more than about 90 minutes.  And as you might have noticed, some of my activities last a LOT longer than 90  minutes. 8-10 hours is fairly normal for me on backpacking days.  14 hour days happen.
3)  Even with all the vegetables I was eating (A LOT) I had a hard time getting in enough fiber.  Whole grains and beans are key, for me.  And those flax muffins?  Edible, but not enticing.
4)  I liked the extra veggies.  I intend to keep having them.
5)  It can be very difficult to avoid both real sugar and artificial sweeteners.  Upon carefully reading labels, I find sucralose and aspartame in almost everything.  Even in foods that are also sweetened with real sugar (or high fructose corn syrup).

So, with a heartfelt sigh, I am going back to just counting calories and eating a more normal ratio protein/carbohydrate/fat.  And probably not losing weight.  And trying not to feel bad about it.  And the REASON I'm trying to not feel too bad about it is that 8-10 hours of hiking.  I figure, if I can do that and feel good, then I'm pretty much okay.

Next up, probably?  How annoying it is to try to figure out how much food you're eating when you're not eating something prepackaged.

PS: Remember to change your clocks tonight.
PPS:  I might ride a horse tomorrow.
PPPS:  Backpacking next weekend woo!

Ideas for low carb backpacking, which I shall try out soon

So I've been eating mildly low carb for the last few months, at the behest of my naturopath.  I am a bread/pasta/sweets lover from way back.  It was a big change for me.  I am planning a backpacking trip in a couple of weeks, and I realized I needed to really think about what I was going to carry with me.  I already talked to the doc and she was not okay with me doing my traditional high carb menu for backpacking.

I went to the grocery store to look around this evening and I have some ideas.

In no real order:

hard boiled eggs
baby carrots
beef jerky
trail mix made with seeds, nuts, and dried fruit - I grabbed a premade bag from the organic section at Giant
fantastic foods hummus or black bean mix
freeze dried bacon and egg mix for breakfast, from REI or online  Eggs and bacon at REI
peanut butter - either super wholesome but not individually packaged, individually packaged Jif, or those natural Justin's nut butter packets from REI  http://www.justinsnutbutter.com/
cheese
quinoa
dehydrated chicken from online
foil packs of tuna, chicken, spam
individual packs of cream cheese
low carb wraps - I got some of these at Giant to try: http://www.latortillafactory.com/
dried fruit - raisins, prunes, dried apples, dried mango, dried apricots

The organic section at Giant had a big selection of bars.  I got a variety of Lara bars to try.  The ingredient lists are impressively minimal and meet my nutritional requirements.  Will be interesting to see what they taste like.  http://www.larabar.com/

If you haven't seen True Orange, True Lime, and True Lemon, you might want to look at them.  They're zero calorie additives to flavor water.  They are sweetened with stevia and cane juice, so there is a minute amount of sugar in them - probably like half a gram.  Not enough to show up on the nutritional information.  I tried True Orange in my water tonight and I like it.  http://www.truelemon.com/

So, what I'm planning to carry on this next trip is:

Breakfast:  either oatmeal, one of my alpine air granolas, or eggs / bacon - not sure yet
Snacks:  Lara bars (if they don't suck), dried fruit, nut/seed/fruit trailmix, maybe some additional almonds, jerky
Lunch:  baby carrots, wraps, cream cheese or string cheese, a hard boiled egg (in need of another sandwichy ingredient - chicken?  craisins?  walnuts?)
Dinner:  quinoa, spam if I can find it, if not spicy tuna, probably some spices to add to it
Other:  nido, olive oil, pero, crystal light, true orange or true lemon, truvia, maybe some herb tea, some dark chocolate for dessert

Whew!  That was exhausting.  Planning from scratch wears me out.