Bouillon? Bouill-off!

OK- so you want to know what I can eat?  Here it is...

30 grams of carbs. A day. 30. If you have no idea how to visualize that... just pick up any item that you normally eat and look at the nutritional information on the packaging. This plus this used to my my typical breakfast. OK... well we all know we don't actually follow the serving size on cereal boxes... so I probably had DOUBLE the total amount of carbs allowed on the new program in ONE MEAL prior to starting on the program.

So what carbs can I eat? Non-starchy vegetables. Pretty much if its green, its allowed. No grains. No fruit. No potatoes. No tomatoes. Did I mention no fruit?  We will come back to that. :) NUTS! I can have nuts.

So what else can I eat? ~15 OUNCES of protein. That's not as limiting as it may sound. You can eat a substantial amount at each meal - like you normally would- and it's not limiting.  I totally have bacon every day. Seems impossible and heart clogging... but they tell me its ok, so I'm going with it!

FAT- the rule with fat is to eat enough to satiate you. My fats of choice... butter... did I mention butter. And whipped cream. I bought one of the fancy whipped cream dispensers where you buy the heavy whipping cream and little cartridges that charge it to aerate the cream and then you magically have whipped cream. I've taken to doing that and adding a bit of water flavoring to it... and so then I have flavored whipped cream on tap! I eat a spoonful or two each evening and it tastes amazingly dessert-ish.

The final element is sodium. To get all science-y on you, there's something about when you cut carbs out of your diet, you need more sodium. Apparently, carbs normally hold the sodium in your system, but with low carbs.. your sodium can drop. So the Virta solution.... BOUILLON. Twice a day.  Like dissolve one cube in a cup of hot water and drink the resulting broth. Twice a day.  So right now there are two camps reading this- those of you that are like, OH, that's just like having a cup of soup each day. Awesome. I love brothy soups!  Easy peasy. And then the other half of you that are like What did you say? Drink some nasty hot bouillon? I don't get it. Why would you do that? And drink it?  No way, Jose.  Which am I, you wonder?

They tell you about this when onboarding and that you just bring it in a thermos and sip on it all morning, then do another one all afternoon.  OK, so I've never drunk broth before. Not a real fan of brothy soups.  But how bad could this be?

Enter Day 1: I bring my Mickey Mouse Tervis Tumbler with me to work... my Virta supplied bouillon cubes in hand (mine were all vegetable bouillion... they said they send a variety of chicken, beef, and veggie. I felt like Charlie Brown at Halloween unpacking my box... You know like where all the other kids are like, I got a lollipop, I got a chocolate bar, and good old Charlie... I got a rock. Three containers of veggie bouillon. Yum. ) But I'm full of hope and excited to get started.

I open a Bouillon cube and put it in the tumbler. Go to the work kitchen and start filling this cup with hot water at the Keurig. And here we go!  Upon taking the first sip... I swear I must have looked like I was being attacked by a roomful of spiders. My arms were flailing, total body shivers, stomping my feet.  That was the worst thing I've ever experience in my entire life. Veggie Bouillon is not really my type of drink.  But, the show must go on. So I get as straw. Maybe sucking it down through a straw the flavor will bypass my tongue and just get that sodium down. Nope. It was like drinking hot, salty celery water. (That actually sounds more appetizing than it was. )  So to finish off the day... I literally just started eating salt. Trust me, it was much more appetizing.

Day 2:  I add salt to everything (even my water.)  It quickly becomes evident that this isn't going to be sustainable (nor was the food enjoyable- just overly salty. )

Day 3: I put out a facebook SOS and hear from a friend who was in the pilot program for this and just went with Salt Tablets instead of the bouillon. Salt Tablets? Im gonna need to know more about those. They say you just ask your pharmacist about them and they will tell you where to find them. Field trip to CVS!!!!! They do indeed keep them behind the pharmacy counter (not sure how salt is contraband, but also not sure I want to know).

So now I'm officially bouill-off! And never been happier. Taking a pill of salt twice a day goes down much better than drinking the Virta kool-aid :)