February 26, 2010 Low-Carb Menu

5:15AM
3 eggs cooked in butter with cream cheese
Splenda-sweetened diet soda

1:45PM
Avocado salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, avocado and Ranch dressing
Taco salad with beef, lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, tomatoes, and cheese
Diet Coke with lime

9:00PM
30-minute competitive basketball

1:00AM
Mozzarella cheese

NOTE: What a crazy day! Christine and I woke up bright an early this morning to leave on our trip to New York City for a conference with the Nutrition & Metabolism Society. But it appears Mother Nature had something else in store for us as we were making our way up I-85 to the Charlotte airport en route to LaGuardia. We got that automated call to my cell phone informing us that our flight had been cancelled due to that freaky blizzard that hit the Northeast today and so I called the organizer of the event to let her know what was happening. Since 95% of the attendees at this conference were flying in and no flights were being allowed into NYC, they postponed it. Bummer!

We actually got all the way to the Charlotte airport entrance when we heard from Laurie at N&M stating it wasn't gonna happen. Christine was exhausted when we got back home to Spartanburg and she crashed on the couch immediately. I did a little bit of work on the computer before it "hit" me and I was zapped, too. That's what getting only a few hours sleep will do to ya! I decided to spend the rest of the day with Christine playing the Wii and such when it dawned on me that our church was having a men's retreat this weekend that started tonight down the road about an hour away. With Christine's blessing, I went to that where our pastor DJ taught on the subject of David having courage and conviction for being brave enough to face the giant Goliath.

After the Bible study and group time, it was time to have some fun. A few of us braved the cold and went down to the outside basketball courts to shoot some hoops. The temps were probably in the lower 30s, so that ball literally felt like a rock. My left ankle is still a little sore, so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make any cut moves playing offense of defense. But it held up well. My team won that first game and I told the guys I'd had enough. All that cold air in my lungs wasn't feeling so good on the body, so I trekked back up the hill to the warm cabin where the other (smart!) men were playing some Texas Hold 'Em.

I was disappointed to see so much junk food laid out for the guys to eat: M&M's, Cheetos, Doritos, pretzel snack mixes, candy bars, sugary sodas, and more were literally everywhere. The closest thing to "healthy" they had other than water and diet soda was peanuts seasoned with sea salt. Jimmy Moore did without. How sad was it to watch all these guys stuffing their faces with this literal garbage that quite frankly has no business EVER being consumed by anyone, much less grown men. This is the culture that we battle with the message of livin' la vida low-carb and I'm trying to live by example for people like this with my own diet.

After playing cards into the wee hours of the night (coming in 2nd place in the Texas Hold 'Em tournament and even putting out my pastor from the game--HA!), I journeyed back home and was starving! When I entered the door, the first thing I headed for was the refrigerator to get a little bit of cheese to make that gnawing feeling go away. I don't like being hungry and a good piece of fat/protein usually does the trick! It was a thrilling day--although not exactly what I thought when I woke up this morning!