Should we weigh in every single day?

This question, the question of whether or not to weigh in every day has come up a few times in my HhCG community over on Suzannes site: Protocol 2 Health.  And, well, NOT weighing every day does seem to help some people to keep their spirits up, and I 'get it', because I sure can get gloomy if the scale shows me a stall for several days - (Booo!)

However, weighing yourself every single day IS part of Dr Simeons protocol.  It's what he told us to do.
Why?  Well, I think because it keeps us on track, gives us accountability, and let's us know when there's a problem.

Just a few days ago I was shocked to see a +2.8 lb spike in my weight and if I had not been weighing every day I would not have known I had a serious problem in what I had eaten.  I would have no clue why on earth I only shed 1 lb this whole week, and would not have known there was anything wrong or that needed fixing.  It actually took me 3 days to figure it out, that I'd mistakenly eaten the kids's full fat cottage cheese. I only realized it when I opened their container and saw I'd portioned it out as if it was MY fat free container! Yikes.  So, it has taken about a week away from my 40-50 day shed to recover, but that's Ok, because now I FULLY realize the consequences of eating 1/2 a cup of full fat cottage cheese and can be EXTRA careful about checking which container I'm reaching for.  The same sort of thing happened when I was eating a wee bit of unsweetened baking chocolate, thinking I could sneak it in without consequences - but nope.  Good to know!

So, for me, I'm weighing in, like Dr Simeons suggests, at the same time every day, unless I totally forget and drink a bunch of tea first, which I've done too :), and then I just will wait till the next morning.  But there really is a reason and a purpose for everything he has as his protocol and I do best when I follow it to the letter.

Today I weigh 155, and I'm feeling good, but I'm already more than half-way though this round, so I don't want to lose ANY more days to slip-ups!  I'm really hoping to get a lot closer to my goal before the clock ticks down to phase 3, so wish me luck!

If you want to check out my true daily weigh-in, click here.

Happy shedding everyone!

Sick kids, homeopathy and vitality

Whoooeeeee last night was a doozy.  

At around 3am I actually bandaged a warmed, peeled garlic clove, dipped in olive oil, against my 4 yr olds aching ear, stroked her neck (trying to milk the pressure from the eustacean tube) (as per this ear ache fix link!) and tried to sleep with her on the couch, but nope, so I carried her back to bed...

...just in time for my 2 yr old to wake up crying and coughing and hot, so I gave her some homeopathic tablets, (spongia tosta, pulsatilla, belladonna and I forget what else) and she fell right back asleep, 

...just in time for my 6 yr old to wake up claiming he could not sleep, so I gave him some homeopathic for restlessness and went to get him water, by the time I brought it to him, he was back asleep, 

...just in time for my 3 month old to wake up mad, she is teething and her nose is snuffly and though the teething pain seems to come and go, she hasn't experienced being sick before, so I think it's all making her grumpy, so I gave her some Hylands homeopathic teething tablets but she would NOT fall back asleep nursing, did NOT want to lay on Mama in bed, or rock in the rocking chair in Mama's arms and she definitely did NOT want her diaper changed (oh my goodness no, she really communicated well about that) so I put her in her swing and - wow.  

She went right to sleep.  Of course, I didn't, and Daddy was all muttering sleepily; " I'd help you but it's a big day at work tomorrow" yeah, yeah yeah, but it's ok, he gets the big kids up, packs their lunches and drives them to school, so I can deal with night time rigamarole, and he does help at night too, just not last night...

...but my point in all this is: despite the crazy night - 

I woke up to a big 2.6 lb shed!!! Yay!!!! Hooray!!!! 

And my 4 yr old slept in, and woke up to a pain-free ear! 

"Guess what, Mama?! This thing in my ear really worked! My ear doesn't hurt anymore!" she yelled, holding the garlic clove at arms length with her fingertips - too funny, this kid HATES stinky things and yet she was able to put up with the wierdness as well as honor the helpful, albeit stinky, clove.  Awesome.  

And my 2 yr old woke up fever-free, she seems completely better, ready to play!  And the big kids all returned to school today, and the baby is giving me big gummy smiles after sleeping late, everyone seems much better!

I really appreciate how following this Pounds & Inches protocol has taught me to trust in homeopathics, to shop for clean foods, and to believe in our bodies ability to heal itself and work correctly, given the right tools; like fresh air, sunshine, fresh fruit, veggies, and un-processed foods, plus a nudge from homeopathics. 

I've been visiting a chiropractor lately, even had all the kids adjusted (at $5 each, pretty great, huh!) and there's a magazine in the office there called 'Pathways to Family Wellness' that I just love - and the underlying premise is 'vitality'.  I never knew or understood chiropractic before, but apparently it's a whole belief system about helping the body achieve vitality - a "'vitalistic" philosophy.  

Anyway, I find it all very interesting and helpful, and Dr Simeons's protocol fits right in with it all; healthy, clean living, with a nudge from homeopathics or a slight adjustment in alignment and most times the body can correct itself, heal itself.  (Of course, not always, but maybe if we lived clean from the start, we could side-step many of the diseases that can't be treated this way, that more and more we discover come from acidic bodies, indoor living, toxic environments and toxic foods.)  Maybe even the 'hokum' about energy flow and spinal adjustments and alignments is actually true and helpful, and even vitality producing!   

To attempt to live full of vitality, I think it's worth trying!

Following Jorge Cruise vs. Following Dr. Simeons Pounds & Inches Protocol

Ok.  So I had a(nother) baby (Nov. 2nd)
(That's big brother with our newborn pixie)
I started 'officially' trying to diet Dec 1st (I'd gained about 60 lbs but by Dec I'd dropped 10 lbs and was down to 180.)
Aaaaaand 2 months of dieting ala Jorge Cruise later...

By Feb 1st I'd only lost 5.4 lbs.
(you can see my progress here)
So, basically that's 5 1/2 lbs in 62 days.
That's less than 1 lb per week.
That's less than 1/2 a lb per week! That stinks!!!
At that rate it would take me MORE than a YEAR to lose the 50 lbs I need to shed!!!

Ok, now let's compare that to following Dr Simeons Pounds & Inches Protocol:
I 'officially' started his protocol on Feb 11th (with the homeopathic version of HCG in a spray).
Today is Feb 17th.
I have followed his protocol for 1 week so far and shed 6.2 lbs. thus far.
So in 7 days I lost MORE than I lost in 62 days of constant dieting? Hmmm.

What this says to me, is:
a) I wasn't following Jorge Cruise's plan properly somehow?
or
b) Jorge Cruise's plan can work if you are not breastfeeding?
or
c) Jorge Cruise's plan does not work for me.

I dunno.  His plan worked for my mom, she shed a pound a day for 20 days.  (Then she lost interest.)
But me, maybe breastfeeding made me too hungry to eat small enough portions? Or maybe my overall daily calorie intake was just simply too high? (but he says you don't need to count cals!)  - I was eating full fat cottage cheese, and creamy sauces on my veggies  - low carb, but maybe too high in calories?  Funny thing is, as an exclusively breastfeeding mom, I'm supposed to be burning 500+ cals daily just by feeding my baby, so you'd think I be buffered and able to eat high cal as long as I avoided sugars and starches, which I DID!  Ugh.  Oh well. It's a mystery to me, maybe someday I'll understand more about how hormones and weight gain/loss works.  For now, I am just SO HAPPY that I had Dr Simeon's Pounds & Inches and HhCG in my back pocket and that I decided to get back on protocol!!!!

On a side note, baby is nursing fine,she's not fussing, lot's of wet and poopy diapers, and I still occasionally leak therefore I think my milk supply is fine, - all fine - and she has moved on to size 3-6 mos clothes -  and best of all I'm noticeably less hungry(!).  Hardly hungry at all except a bit at mealtimes (which is exactly how it should be, right?!) Thanks to the HhCG spray.  Normally I'm quite hungry and was snacking 2x daily (Jorge Cruise sanctified snacks like a cheese stick), but now, on the spray, I eat my 2 meals and I'm good.  Wowzers.  Seriously, ask any breastfeeding mom about hunger and she'll tell you she's pretty hungry all the time.  But we're not hungry on the spray, why? Well I believe it's because on the spray, your bloodstream is flooded with the formerly stored calories that have now been released from your fat cells.  An average of 2500 to 3500 calories per day.  So your bodily needs are satisfied plus you are eating an additional 500 cals, so your tummy is satisfied.  And, as a nursing mom, I'd like to posit the theory that I am asking my body to release even more calories - to nourish my HhCG 'baby' as well as make milk for my real baby.  I think this may be true, because I have lost an average of one pound per day on protocol, but the average for women is 1/2 a lb per day. (For women.  Men average a pound a day on protocol, the mean bastards! hahaha)
Whatever the science is behind it all, it works.  Wow am I happy it works too!
If you'd like to join me in shedding weight quickly and healthfully, email me for a link to the product I'm using, or you can buy a very similar-though not exact-spray from Suzanne at Protocol2Health -who's link is posted on the right under 'Order your HCG Spray'.

Stay tuned, I'm gonna keep on blogging and shedding! That's my promise to you AND to myself.

Feb 15, 2012 172.2 lbs

Happy Valentine's Day! (ok, a day late, but I was BUSY!)  2nd day on spray and had to make Valentine's Day special for my family!  A love note for each kid, a love note for Mr (who I adore, btw, those are MY Valentine flowers he brought me there behind the cookies!  Primroses, my springtime favorites!), a big lasagna dinner, cookies with everyone's initial, and, oh gosh, an enormous heart shaped tin of chocolates for Mr and mini heart-shaped boxes of chocolates for the kiddos.  Sweets for the sweet!  And the kids all brought home candy from school too.  We were swimming in sugar - funny, because my Mr and I both know sugar is the enemy - but we're willing to allow the kids a sugar rampage a few days each year - Halloween, Easter, and Valentine's are our big sugar blitzes - and now, the day after, all that has not been eaten has been whisked away - either to Daddy's workplace or to, er, the bin.  :) Gotta protect the young'uns from themselves!
Here's the thing, I'm only on Day 2 of Phase 2, and I had only been spraying for 4 days, yet I was able to cook basically all day without even being tempted.  Cool, huh?
I did not indulge in even the tiniest taste of all that Valentine's feasting, instead I had my P2 meal (tomato salad with vinegar dressing, and a cottage cheese and strawberry smoothie, sweetened with stevia) and relied on the spray to dull my appetite.  It did.  I'm SO proud of myself, but really, it wasn't that hard.  I just made the decision not to taste anything, and the spray allowed me to stay on course.  I will only eat protocol foods, and I will do what Dr Simeons says and I will be nearly to my goal of 50 lbs off by late spring.  Gosh, maybe even by Easter (April 8th).  If not, then by Mother's Day (May 13th).  Won't that be awesome?!  Oh I am so excited!!!
If you want to drop weight yourself, email me for the link to the product I'm using and I'll email you back lickety split and we can lose this weight together! :)

Feb 8, 2012 172.2lbs and a note on breastfeeding and a question of when to start the spray

Gee whiz.  This is some slow going weight loss. :(  It's been a week of Jorge Cruisin and I'm sure not moving downward as fast as I'd like!  If I was on HhCG I would have shed about 10 lbs by now, not 3-ish.  Ho hum.
At least it's downward!  I'm tempted to start to spray, I really want to see some progress before spring!  There's Veronica - she likes to see her Mama happy! :)

A note about breastfeeding - I've been waiting to start the spray because I am breastfeeding my now 3 month old baby.  No formula, no bottles...and I'd like to continue exclusively breastfeeding her even after I start spraying with the HhCG.  I did just fine before with my baby Lucy, who was 8 mos old when I started the HhCG spray, my milk did not seem to diminish at all...but that's the thing - I don't really know.  (Please don't tell me I would have 'known' if I was pumping into bottles - the pump never extracts as much milk as baby does, so that is a completely misleading way to measure.)  What I do know is she never seemed extra fussy or hungry, had zillions of wet and poopy diapers and I still had enough milk to occasionally soak through my shirt if I went too long between nursings (ugh) ...and she grew and grew and grew.  And I shrank and shrank.  Gosh I'd sure like to shrink like that again(!).Got a bottle just sitting here, waiting for me to be ready(!!!)...

Another concern some people have about breastfeeding while on HhCG is that one's fat stores are also where toxins are stored and that to release fat means to release toxins into breastmilk and thus 'toxify' the nursing baby with the weight-shedding mother's milk.  Well, bah, I say.  My body, however 'toxic' it may be, made a baby - and then it fed a baby for nearly two years, and she is big and smart and talkative and sweet - she's a good one, and I did not poison her by losing weight while breastfeeding her.  Not that I didn't worry and do a bunch of research and have her weighed at a bunch of random well-baby visits, I did.
Dr Jack Newman convinced me I was doing the best for my baby AND myself when I read his article about toxins in breastmilk.  Ultimately, he says that a baby's best defense against toxins is to be breastfed.  And I knew it was in my best interest to lose weight for all the usual health reasons - my blood pressure was high after the birth of Lucy, my mom and grandpa had diabetes, etc, but also because my 'mental health' was suffering and my family was suffering in that I was really unhappy fat and felt stuck at 200lbs - because I was stuck at 200 lbs! Anyhow, you know that story if you read around on this blog.  So I felt like, for me, I needed to lose the weight and baby Lucy was old enough to be ok if my milk dried up.

So now, I wonder...I did ok before...should I try?  I feel healthy and strong, been eating good, wholesome and organic foods...fruits AND veggies (yay for veggies) and taking vitamins...maybe I could,...and it wouldn't just be for me, but also an experiment for all you moms out there whose weight is stuck fast...hmmm.  I could lose weight for the greater good? Hahaha maybe!

Ok, lastly, I wonder if my body is even sensitized to the HhCG yet since I'm only about 3 months post partum...?  Dr Simeons would have his patients on the actual HCG hormone and they would become immune or de-sensitized to it over time and so he'd have them re-sensitize by taking longer and longer breaks between rounds...I think 90 days was the longest break he'd prescribe...

Well, if I were to get pregnant right now, I'd start making my own massive amounts of HCG anyhow, right? To nourish the growing fetus, right?  And I'd still be nursing baby Veronica of course, as I've nursed all my babies while preggers with the next, with no complications and with my doctor's approval? Hmmm.  I know when making your own HCG while pregnant, you make a whole lot between week 7 and week 16 (peaks at millions of units) and then it tapers off, but at week 40, full term, you're still producing between 3400-117,000 thousanth international units per millileter (mIU/ml) (check out the chart here)...so that's a lot to de-sensitize from...but we do, right? To sustain the next pregnancy? Oh, I'm sure I'm over-simplifying the science...
...but I think I just talked myself into starting my spray!!!

Oh my goodness!
:D

Feb 1, 2012 = 175.4 lbs

Feb 1, 2012  - 175.4  =  +1.4lbs
Felt too sick to eat really 'well' (meaning low carb, I felt like I needed some fruit), after eggs and (veggie) sausage for breakfast I didn't feel so well and snacked a bit through lunch...cheese and salami and an apple, and 2 tangerines, and later a spoonful of peanut butter (no sugar) with a banana and then a cottage cheese and banana and yogurt smoothie for dinner...and about 50 almonds over the course of the day. Carbalicious.  And so I'm up today.  Well, today's a new day, and I'm feeling a bit better - wonder if it's all the Vitamin D I've dropped on my tongue these last few sniffly days?...

Jan 31, 2012 174 lbs

Howdy.  Here I am again, fat again. 174 at 5'5".
Yup, that's me last week, bringing in the cake for my 6 yr old's birthday.  Sorry it's blurry but if you think you're gonna see me standing still to get my picture taken - think again. No way.  More likely to get a shot of my rear as I hustle out of the frame. (Sheesh.) (Could be worse, but could be better!)
 It's my bodies fault, I can't seem to make a baby without making myself fat (see our new baby here) - I'm sure it's a hormonal thing - so, I'm trying to control my metabolic hormones with food, instead of with HhCG, for now, while the new baby is exclusively nursing.  Ok, so right now, since December 2011 I've been trying to follow Jorge Cruise's tenets: eat low low carbs, avoid sugars like the devil, and eat high protein and high fat.  But my weight is not dropping.  (Click to see my chart here.)  Alrighty.  So, I'm going to start tracking my foods on Fitday and then report back here with my calories - because I must be eating too many, or getting too many carbs or some such thing that I can't 'see' without getting more specific about it all.
Wish me luck! (and time and patience, and stamina, and health!  I need it!)  :D

P4 D89

P4 D89 02/27/2011 - 136.8 (+0.0) Sigh.  Thought I could get down to 133 again - you would think a few weeks of tracking and I'd be there.  Instead, it looks like I'm able (and my body is happy) to maintain at 135/136 and that's that, given the way I am eating and want to eat.  I should be HAPPY!!! I'm still a size 8, and I can eat what I want and stay a size 8! If I want to lose weight, I'm going to have to figure something else out. :) 
I'm going to start by adding a nightly 2 mile walk into my routine.  Get ready, Blue! Wanna go for a walk?!

P4 D88

P4 D88 02/26/2011 - 136.8 (+1.4) Dang. And still no elimination. I don't get it. Yesterday I ate swiss chard(!), lean beef, eggs, cottage cheese, lots of spinach, 1/2 a tomato...no bread, no sugar - and stopped eating at 7pm...really thought I'd see a drop this am...Ok. Going to add Natural Calm back into my routine...went for a walk plus did 40 min of Callanetics... and we'll see what tomorrow brings... 

I'm reading yet another interesting book: "Neanderthin" by Ray Audette...very very interesting....hmmmmm...
He's not a doctor or a scientist, but a guy who (clearly) spent about a zillion hours researching in medical libraries all the info that helped him to heal his body and eliminate his rheumatoid arthritis and dibetes.  I wonder if maybe he had celiac disease and didn't know it?) Originally published in 1999, it may be out of print now, surpassed by the 'Paleo diet' books, written by an overweight college professor.  (Check out his video.) (Sorry. I know I'm being a real jerk here but I want to know what works, not what you hypothesize might work.)  I looked into the paleo diet but after reading all the reviews that said to check out Neanderthin instead, I'm glad I did. 

P4 D88

P4 D87 02/25/2011 - 135.4 (+0.6)
Ok. This is boring. Sorry. I thought I was making progress? (hmm. but I have not had an 'elimination' yet today - maybe that explains the gain?) I also ate cottage cheese with shredded coconut, 2 strawberries and fresh ground flax seeds late last night - 8pm - so, that was dumb.  Otherwise, I had a great eating day (see below)...

P4 D86

P4 D86 02/24/2011 - 134.8 (-1.2) Goodness! Wow. Had a sort of modified steak day, Fasted till 5:30pm, then ate 2 small steaks cooked in butter...and a cheese stick and a double espresso with about 5 Tbsp of whipped cream...oh, and a 1/2 grapefruit.  My goal is to get back to my LSW of 133.  Yoday I will add even more veggies while returning to my normal eating day - a spinach, tomato and cheese omlette instead of just scrambled eggs with cheese, and maybe sausage and grilled veggies on a bed of greens for lunch, and sea scallops sauteed in butter, asparagus, and more salad for dinner. More plants than other foods. But still plenty of protein and fats. 

P4 D85

P4 D85 02/23/2011 - 136.0 (-0.4) Dropping! I added more veggies to my day! Ate tuna with celery and real mayo on a big salad of baby spinach, and a small steak with big side of green beans and onions sauteed in coconut oil and sprinkled with peanuts  -plus 2 leaves romaine...also had 1/2 a grapefruit...and cottage cheese...no almonds, no yogurt.  Also had a ACV soda pop with honey! Real honey! Bwahahahahhaaaaa!

P4 D85

P4 D85 02/22/2011 - 136.4 (-0.2) Shoveled the driveway -big snow, sore today! :) Had a sort of moderate day of eating, though I did have homemade hollandaise sauce on my 2 eggs and eziekiel 4:9 bread, upped my fruit, (ate 1/2 a banana with almonds) had a whole tangerine with my cottage cheese, plus some blueberries - do need to eat more veggies though...today - I will try to eat mostly plants - to see what that means and what happens.

P4 D84

P4 D84 2/21/2011 - 136.6 (+0.0) No shed no gain - now I'm thinking that this may indicate that I really do eat too many cals normally and in attempting to pare it down, I end up at a calorie total that keeps my weight steady.  I really do believe we need to eat some fats and not avoid them - but not over-indulge either in them either, I suppose. What, 'moderation is key'? Hahaha.  Ok.  I hear you. So, going to have a 'moderate' day. Gonna try. :)

P4 D83

P4 D83 02/20/2011 - 136.6 (+0.0) No shed but no gain either AND that's with about 6-8 Windmill cookies (they were broken, and hard to count) and 2 great big handfuls of almonds.  My reduced calorie day turned into a 'cheat day' after all that talk about cheat days.  Funny but true.  I've been very successfully avoiding most carbs, yet gaining weight. Now I'm thinking that was an oversimplified understanding and avoiding carbs made me extra sensitive to them! Oh well. Today I'm trying to just eat well. Wholesome yummy food. Pancakes (whole wheat/oatmeal/flaxmeal pancakes) with maple syrup for breakfast.  Salami w/ cheese for a snack, Broccoli with cheese sauce for another snack, (or maybe that was lunch?) 1/2 an apple with almonds, and planning a light but yummy dinner with veggies. Drinking more water than usual...Obviously not doing a steak day today - I've fallen off the wagon.  Sorry, Silvana. Maybe next week I'll try again.  For now, I'm going to try and eat @1400 calories and see what happens. :) (couldn't keep track, sorry)

P4 D82

P4 D82 02/19/2011 - 136.6 (+0.4)  Well gollee gee. I don't get it.  I did a good 'steak day' - ate fish, cooked in parchment with coconut oil and lemon - and was so hungry I ate both pieces...Then I finished with 1/2 a small apple. I had green tea and coffee all day - 2 cups coffee/4 cups tea - to keep my mind off being hungry...and water.  I drank a lot of water, more than usual.  No bm could also be the problem...Did not sleep great - Olivia has a new croup cough...oh well.  Today I'm going to try a new tactic - eating way way less cals like on a real diet.  I have a book that I lost weight with once - and I see the total calories are like 1100 per day and the foods are all protocol compatable - so I'll try that to better guide my food choices today.  Because I'm supposed to do a 'mini-protocol day' today and my first one was probably too high in cals, is the theory. :) Ok - way less cals today.

P4 D81

P4 D81 02/18/2011 - 136.2 (+0.4) hmmm. Why the gain? According to Fitday.com, I only ate 1645 calories, (no bread, no starch, no sugars and less than my usual 2000+ calories), trying to keep my calories very low - because I'd like my weight to drop...and my weight went up instead.  Is it possible I am becoming even more sensitized to carbs, by avoiding them so rigorously?  I don't think I went into 'starvation mode' because I ate regularly, in small portions...Breakfast: 2 eggs with only one sausage, no bread, no cheese (instead of my usual 3 eggs with cheese and 2 sausages) - Lunch: 1/2 a chicken breast for lunch on a bed of salad, tossed in olive oil, lemon and s&p, Snack: 3/4 cup of cottage cheese w/stevia and cinnamon, 1 Tbsp shredded unsweetened coconut, no almonds, and 1/4 of a tiny clementine. Coffee with half and half - not whipped cream, Dinner: 1/2 chicken breast on baby spinach, tossed with olive oil, lemon, garlic and s&p. Desert: 6 blueberries in one Tbsp of whipped cream.  That's all I ate.  No bread, no crackers, and no sugar.  A teensy tiny amount of fruit - even less than usual, and that has been very little for about a week now.  I suppose I could have avoided fruit altogether...also had a yoga class, but I'm not even sore today...and I got a good amount of sleep, but I bet I did not drink enough water - was counting my teas and coffees as 'water'... This is puzzling. Ok - onward! Properly following the rotation of steak day and low calorie days, today is supposed to be another steak day, but I think steak day might not work, because I think the gain indicates my calories were too low yesterday, but I'm going to try it nonetheless.
Feels like there is a puzzle piece missing here.  I have been reading that some people have 'treat days' to increase their leptin production (the hormone that decreases appetite) - that one treat day of 1-2 treat meals per week- is ideal.  Is that what's going on? I have not had any treat days, I have not deviated from the low carb/low sugar, and now my body is lazy and can't even handle 6 blueberries and 1/4 a clementine?  I was not ravenous yesterday, or in need of lowering my appetite - I felt pretty good all day.  It's a puzzle. Oh well.  Steak day it is.  I'm going to have fish, btw. :)

P4 D80

P4 D80 02/17/2011 - 135.8 (-2.6) I did a modified 'steak day', and Silvana's suggestion was to eat chicken or fish instead of steak.  So I chose chicken - except I could not just eat a chicken breast, I ate it at 5:30 pm in a garlic/dill Piccata sauce and on top of a small handful of baby spinach. So it wasn't a steak, but it probably wasn't lower in fat than a steak either.  On the other hand, I was perfectly sated and just ate the one chicken breast, not two - and did not feel the need to sample my child's birthday cake, so that was good...very unscientific of me though, to deviate from your plan Silvana, sorry - but I was trying to make it more like food and less like protein (since I have discovered I am guilty of 'nutritionism' and I need to eat more delicious food and less 'scientific nutrients'). :D Today I'm going to lower my calories and eat P3a foods.  We'll see how it goes!

P4 D79

P4 D79 02/16/2011 - 138.4 (+1.4) Wow. And I'm not cheating! I also am not following good common sense - did not drink much water, overdid coffee, ate 1 small salad instead of 2, probably overdid my calories somewhat, and went to bed at 4am again.   Dumb.  Today I'm doing a steak day with chicken - going to follow Silvana's plan and see if it works for me.

Phase 4, Day 78

P4 D78 02/15/2011 - 137.0 (+0.4) Did I eat more veggies? - not really. Am I having a hard time walking the talk? Yes. While I am able to avoid sugars for the most part - I have not stocked up on veggies and so, all I ate veggie-wise was one serving of asparagus and about 3 small florettes of brocolli - no lettuce. No greens. I will go shopping today.  Onward!