[4mal]

In June I was running 215 plus. I travel for my work and live in hotels at least 50 percent of the time. Eating in restauants is pretty much a given.

So I cut out Rice, Pasta, Bread and Potatoe. I started reading lables for Carbohydrate content and began a modified Atkins.

My typical diet at home is a fruit smoothie in the morning, either and Atkins Advantage Bar or a Balance Bar 'Gold' for lunch. Nut's or cottage cheese as a snack in the afternoon if I need one, if not then I skip. Dinner is something low or no carb.

On the road, it's an Atkins 'Morning Start' bar in the am, the Advantage bar for lunch or if I'm lunching with clients it's 'burned chiken on greens' aka Chicken Ceasar Salad... and then fish for dinner. If there is a Thai restaurant nearby or Japanese there are a bunch of light salads (and or sashimi) that work well for me. In general, dinner looks a lot like some form of protien on salad.

I've dropped to between 190 and 193 as of Monday. More importantly to me, I've dropped from a very fat 38 probably more like 40, down to where 36 jeans are a bit tight... What I have observed is that as I'm eating less, my appetite has also dropped. Along with eating the right stuff for weight loss, eating less of it has been key for me. I'm doing this without getting much exercise in. I joined up with a band back in July, learned 3 and now 4 sets of material and started gigging in August. Pretty much every waking minute for me has been wood shedding all these tunes.

I'm at the point now where I can actually get back to riding which is my preferred from of exercise when I'm home.

Eating in restaurants used to be a real problem, most restaurants will prepare an Atkins friendly meal if you request it. Often it's just ordering a meat or fish and potatoes dish and skipping the potatoe and getting an extra vegetable... if not, the restaurant you're in is not compatible with your diet ...