Motivations...

Today I am looking for motivation, my real reasons to keep me plodding along - because my kids are sick, and I'm not sleeping much, and sleep is SO important to shedding weight (check this out here)...and I need to re-focus on why I'm doing this, this strict 2 meal a day business, and remember why I'm not going to just stop and have myself a slice or two of the steaming hot pizza Mr brought home last night or maybe have a big ol' mocha java this morning...

Ah, well, 'plodding' isn't quite right, is it.  I mean, this weight is evaporating at an average nearly a pound a day!  I should be ecstatic!  Funny how a morning's disappointing weigh-in can trample my good feelings.  Even though I KNOW these stalls are not really stalls at all, but a necessary toning and tightening process as the fat is shed, so the rest of the body can catch up, and re-shape.  It's GOOD!  But still a bummer to see the scale 'frozen' for a day or two.  Sigh.  It's just a day or two, Autumn!

Ok, so my motivations are:
To be thinner, because being thinner means:
To be healthier
To set a good, healthy role model for my kids
To be more active (soon as Phase 3 hits, baby!)
To be more energetic
To live longer and better
To look better and feel better THIS Mother's day, than I did on THAT  Mother's Day.
To fly a kite this coming Mother's Day with my kids, in my jeans that wait on my shelf
To buy cute new, NON-maternity clothes and go out on a real date with Mr!
To go back to yoga class, unembarassed
To shop for cute new yoga clothes! :)
To get that family picture taken FINALLY!!!
To climb my kids's bunk-beds and change sheets easily
To go for a run, without hurting my knees
To fit into everything in my closet
To go swimming
To avoid Diabetes

I'm sure there's more, maybe I'll continue this list as they occur to me...
:)

Down 13 lbs in 15 days!

13 lbs in 15 days! And I might have shed even more if I hadn't made that unsweetened chocolate mistake which caused a 3 day stall.  This protocol works!  I spray twice a day and I'm not even slightly hungry except at mealtimes!!!  I know I'm burning off my reserves, my fat stores - and I'm feeling pretty great, lots of energy, and for some reason, lots of inspired cooking for the kids - like I recently made homemade flour tortillas AND corn tortillas from scratch, and hosted a birthday party, cake and all, and yesterday I made a kugelhopf (like a brioche cake/bread, pictured there on the right) among other yummy things for my family, and I didn't have or want even a taste of any of it.  I mean, sure, I was curious how it all tasted, but I wasn't really hungry plus I am determined to get as close to my goal as I can! (50 lbs off !)

On this spray, I know even a nibble can cause weight gain, so I'm not nibbling, and the spray gives me the power not to nibble.  It's amazing.  Normally I would crumble into itty bitty pieces and eat.  But not on the spray! It really works 100% if you follow protocol 100%!!!  And you can live your life and still shed weight like crazy!

In fact, today I plan on making peanut butter cookies and another Kugelhopf, but I'll be fine, I have tools! What tools? My spray, seasalt, stevia, green tea, lemonade, apple cider vinegar and my meals.  I'll be just fine.  See you tomorrow!  :D

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 13, 2012 Let the shedding BEGIN (again!) with HhCG

Hello and welcome to my third round of HhG!

Feb 13, 2013  -  175.8 loaded and ready! (ready? YES!)
Today is Day 1 Phase 2 (P2D1)  I'm so excited, gonna get my body back and fit into the clothes in my closet, gonna feel better in my skin and I'm gonna set the best example I can for my kids.  If something is bothering you, you can fix it!  Be the best you can be!  I'm going to be the best I can be, taking it one day at a time, moment by moment.  I can look great by spring (with the help of Dr Simeons Pounds and Inches Protocol)! YOU can do this.  If you are looking for HhCG spray (the homeopathic version of HCG), go here and sign up with Suzanne.  I think you need to email her to get invited onto the site.  She's lovely, the people are lovely, and her site is new, but she has several years of experience from the other site (which shut down) and she has helped hundreds, if not thousands lose weight.  She helped me so much during my first 2 rounds and I'll be popping over there for this third round, to talk with Suzanne and my ol' buddies - if you come by, please say hello! :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?...

On blood sugar and weight...

 

=

Weight gain, weight loss, and maintainence: It's all about blood sugar.

Is eating fruit really equal to eating candy? Well, no, not really.  But the fructose in fruit and the sugar in candy really do affect blood sugar in dramatic ways. 

Blood sugar, blood glucose. Phase 3 and beyond is all about maintaining the happy levels of blood sugar and metabolic hormones such as insulin and leptin and ghrelin that we were able to achieve by following protocol for 6 weeks, eating no table sugars, and 'eating' (or, really, "re-eating") all those stored calories released by the spray from our own fat stores.

If a person were to eat meals designed to continue to keep blood sugar levels stable, that person will have great success in P3a+b and beyond. I think some people are stumbling onto that way of eating because it works - and if you start out P3 with level blood sugars and stable metabolic hormones, (and in finishing P2, that's exactly what has happened) then it is amazingly easy to continue eating foods that keep our blood sugar levels stable - for example, the people who report back that the nibble of cake tasted 'nasty!' to them - because we don't need the cake anymore to bring us up from a low sugar drop - we no longer ride the sugar rollercoaster! :)

Now, if a person goes into P3 with the idea that 'I am used to eating tiny amounts of food now and I'll just eat a tiny bit more - maybe a salad- and maybe I'll lose even more weight!' that person's body will sense the lack of calories right away and that person will GAIN.
Why?
Because that person's body will go into 'starvation mode'. What does that really mean? Going long periods without eating causes a dip in blood sugar. And then when some bite of food is eaten, the body overreacts with a big insulin surge. And since insulin is a fat-storing hormone, you end up storing whatever calories you just ate, instead of burning them as fuel. NOT what we want.
What we want, because it will allow us to maintain our LSW, is called glucose homeostasis— a constant blood-glucose level.

I believe that Dr Simeons, had he lived to see all the nutrional information available to us today, I believe he would have concluded that all of us were in a pre-pre-diabetic state, and over-sensitive to carbs and BECAUSE we were able to effect such drastic lifestyle/food choice changes while on the HCG hormone, we were able to stop the raging internal floods of insulin and leptin and ghrelin among others which work together to control hunger and appetite and metabolism.
(Leptin wasn't discovered until 1994, and ghrelin not till 1999. Obestatin, another hunger hormone, was even more recently discovered in 2005. All play key roles within the hypothalimus and are key factors of metabolism. Do we understand these fully yet? I doubt it, but we're trying.)

In P3, if a person is having trouble maintaining, I believe it is one of two things; either they are not eating enough calories (starvation mode=insulin surge when some food IS eaten=weight gain), OR they are eating too many carbs(sugars) in the form of yogurt, nuts, and especially fruit (fructose) (sugars in the blood stream=insulin surge=weight gain). Some people are even doing a bit of both(!) -  hardly eating enough and then when they do eat, it's with too much focus on yogurt, nuts and fruit, not enough protein and fat or vegetables.  Eat your veggies.  The fiber keeps blood sugar stable.


You can enjoy eating your vegetables by making them calorie dense - put the calories on top -
Think brocolli with cheese sauce, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, artichokes too, eggplant and zucchini grilled in olive oil, cole-slaw made with homemade mayonaisse and stevia, not sugar, celery spread with peanut butter or cream cheese, zucchini in olive oil alongside chicken kabobs, etc. When you eat chicken, eat 'Chicken Piccata'! That sauce is 304 calories alone! Or make baked chicken with mozzarella on top! Yum! 170 calories for 2 slices!

Blood sugar. Eating protein and fat helps keep blood sugar stable, and slows down insulin's entry into the bloodstream. If you avoid sugar and starch, you almost totally avoid an insulin spike, almost. But if you also avoid starvation mode and eat less yogurt, nuts and fruits and more proteins and fats, then you WILL keep blood sugar stable. And you will NOT gain.

If you were to start your day without fruit, I think you would have a better day. Fruit contains the simple sugar fructose which sends the body a signal to produce insulin to deal with the sugar load. So you get a spike in insulin, and an insulin spike = weight gain! You can slow down the insulin response by eating fructose (ok; fruit) with proteins and fats, (like an apple with peanut butter) but the higher the insulin spike, the bigger the weight gain. Body builders avoid fructose almost entirely. If we really limit our fruit intake, and ONLY eat it with proteins/fats, such as an apple WITH peanut butter, or strawberries WITH whipped cream/stevia and vanilla - and limit the strawberries to 4 or 5, then I believe we'd do much better. (The best fruit for morning, if you really love it seems to be the ol' 1/2 grapefruit eaten along WITH your eggs and all.)

A large person requires a large amount of calories to nourish that person without he or she slipping into 'starvation mode'. However, it IS possible to eat a large amount of calories without gaining weight, overeating or even feeling 'stuffed' or bloated. Check out my  'Olive oil'  post - that's a plan for how to eat 3200 calories comfortably - and that's without coconut flakes, larabars, or creamy Piccata sauce!

So, that's my theory, based on my best efforts to try and understand the 'why' of it all - My sources are The Mastering the Zone: The Next Step in Achieving SuperHealth and Permanent Fat Loss books by Dr Barry Sears, whose original focus was on helping diabetics, and Jorge Cruise's Belly Fat Cure which is all about the hidden sugars in our foods that are making us fat, Gary Taubes Why We Get Fat and What to do About it (maybe my favorite), and Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food (also a favorite)
...and my own P3 experiences, and my husband's, and in participating and learning on the Ketomist support site and also now, as I am trying to learn as much as I can as I try to help my aged parents battle full-blown diabetes. I'm doing loads of homework daily and plan to keep on updating here to share my growing understanding.
I want to get an 'A+' in this. :)

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. :)

Come watch me winnow, wriggle and whittle my weight back down to my LSW, and hopefully, beyond...

**************************************LSW 133.2*********************************
P4 D77 02/14/2011 - 136.6 (+1.0) Sheesh.  I'm thinking this is water retention I'm puffy, and only got 4 hrs sleep...wah.
Oh well.  Yesterday I ate only protein and fat.  No veggies, no fruit. An experiment.  Dumb? Maybe. Maybe not.  Today my plan is to have 1 serving veggies at every meal.  Breakfast was eggs, cheese, (butter) and asparagus.  And I plan on adding lettuce to my next 2 meals...see how it goes...
P4 D76 02/13/2011 - 135.6  (0.0)  Breakfast: Cottage cheese-n-yogurt-n-coconut-n-half-a-clementine, 7 almonds, Lunch: 6 oz tuna w/homemade mayo and celery and avocado on a bed of shredded romaine, -  Oh, and let me not forget the half of a sopresseta salami that I ate while driving kids around: 4 servings @ 0 cargs, 8g protein/8g fat each - so 24g protein and 24g fat - which means I ate 440 calories from that salami alone!  Also, 1/2 a banana and whipped cream, and half a date.  Funny, but that half-a-date tasted 'over-sweet' to me...ate 7 more almonds to counter the sweetess but was struck with a 'wow, why'd I eat that?' feeling. Funny. I used to eat dates 2 and 4 or more at a time and now 1/2 of one is 'too much'. Feels like my body chemistry is changed. :)
(still not enough sleep - maybe need more H20 as well...)

Come watch me...archives

P4 D75 02/12/2011 - 135.6 (-0.2) Wow. Happy. Keeping my carbs really low - by eating less fruit than I used to -Breakie: 3 eggs, cheese, 2 veggie sausage and 1 slice Eziekiel 4:9 bread w/butter(!) Lunch: 4% cottage cheese w/ greek yougurt/ground flax/shredded coconut/half a tangerine/cinnamon/7 almonds and stevia for a nice, filling lunch, Dinner: made my own mayonnaise yesterday, made a big chicken salad with 2 enormous heaping Tbsp's of it (w/celery, pecans and 1/4 of an apple)...had about 1/4 cup whipped cream w/stevia and cocoa powder (chocolate mousse!) for desert, because I still felt a bit hungry.  And as always, the whipped cream filled me up, did not overdo it, and shared the rest of the batch with the kids -who loved it! :D (3 kids were up in the night - so still did not get quality sleep - oh well.)
P4 D74 02/11/2011 - 135.8 (0.0) Yay!  Ate lots of low carb whatnot - grilled chicken salad w/shredded parm, artichoke hearts, and sundried tomatoes dripping with oil but no bread :D Cottage cheese with greek yogurt is my fav go-to snack/small meal, I like it with stevia and cinnamon and grated coconut- Ate some almonds, not more than 22... Dinner was Chicken piccata with creamed spinach and onions.  Cream, butter and more cream and more butter.  Went to bed full - but not over-full - too bad baby won't sleep anymore - but no gain! Yay!!! But still, grumpy today.  I need more sleep than I've been getting lately. (feeling grumbly about the new look too - oh well.)
P4 D73 02/10/2011 - 135.8 (-0.4) Whoop-whoop! just really keeping my carbs down and eating VERY little fruit - but still having some fruit - 1/8 cup blueberries and 1/2 a date - lots of fats and proteins: cottage cheese and lunch meat and cheese sticks, eggs, coconut oil , shredded coconut, a carrot, tuna salad w/ celery - maybe 7 almonds all day - feeling good/better about this...
P4 D72 02/09/2011 - 136.2 (-1.4) Wow.  Ok, that was not a steak day, that was more water and sleep.  And more recovery from the uber-intense yoga class...People- I cannot stand tracking my food.  I apologize.  But I am just not good at it.  I keep forgeting to add items during my day and then I can't remember what I ate - I only know I am avoiding sugar and carbs as best I can, eating when hungry and stopping when full.  I take it one food label at a time/one meal at a time.  Last night I ate veggie kielbasa sausage and onions and orange and red peppers for dinner, sauteed in coconut oil.  It was delish and at 29g protein per link, I hoped it would balance the carbs in the onions and peppers - and looks like it did just that. :D
P4 D71 02/08/2011 - 137.6 (+.8) Ok WHAT?! I am certain I ate low carb and high protein and stopped when I was full, so I am kicking myself for not tracking it accurately - sorry self, sorry all - I will track today!  I am learning that this is not a simple in-vs-out equation, and that we are living organisms with many many processes happening all at once - and so I should not discount the crummy sleep I've been getting - Baby is teething and up every few hours and last night I barely slept...SO, maybe that's part of the complexity and conundrum - but whatEVER! Ok - to yoga!
P4 D70 02/07/2011 - 136.8 (-0.0) doing good maintaining, now need to drop some cals and shed a bit more
P4 D69 02/06/2011 - 136.8 (-0.0) more low carbs high protein and fat...breakfast: fried egg-in-a-hole with Ezekiel bread, veggie bacon, Lunch: cottage cheese, cinnamon, half an apple, peanut butter, 2 whole grain crackers, salami, cheese stick, Dinner: a steak w/side of creamed spinach and onions (yumm!), cheese, cheese sticks, 22 almonds
RESULT: maintained weight
P4 D68 02/05/2011 - 136.8 (-2.2) (3.6 over LSW) (yeeehaaawww!) making sure I eat some veggies today, ate when hungry, stopped when full, low carb, high protein and fat...
RESULT: exactly maintained weight
P4 D67 02/04/2011 - 138.0 (+0.2) (+4.8 over LSW)
Yikes. Ok, so today I would normally do a steak day, but I think this gain is really from my sore sore overly-yoga'd body and because I only got 4 hrs sleep last night (kicking myself -ouch!) and maybe because no bm? Anyhow, instead of steak day, today I'm just going to do better. Yes. But boy it sucks having to admit my mistakes on here and tell y'all about my new crummy weight. BUT, today is a new day, full of opportunity to do better. Onward!
Breakfast- (at breakfast time! Yay me!) 1 egg-in-the-hole (with Ezekiel 4:9 bread) cooked in combo of butter and coconut oil and 2 veggie sausage links.  Green tea and coffee with half and half.
Snack - 22 almonds
Lunch - 1 cup cottage cheese with 1/2 cup greek yogurt, w/cinnamon and stevia and 1 cheesestick wrapped in 1 serving of turkey breast w/mustard.
Snack - Pepper jack cheese stick and 2 slices of salami, and 11 more almonds.  And one date. And a Doppio Con Panna.
Dinner - 1 more heaping cup of cottage cheese, no yogurt, w/cinnamon and shredded coconut.  I did not eat any vegetables today? Really? That is not too smart - and repeating the cottage cheese? Oh dear.  I don't think I did do better after all.  Needed to go grocery shopping, but it's sooooo cold out and I'd have to have taken all the kids with me and the baby has a runny nose...oh well, tomorrow is a new day - I'm going to at least get some sleep. Night all!
RESULT: -2.2 loss (!) (probably sore muscle/water weight in there - but I'll take it!)
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P4 D66 02/03/2011 -  137.8  (+0.6) went to yoga and skipped breakfast (!). Telling the truth here, keeping myself accountable is the plan.  Had lunch at the club, grilled chicken on baby spinach with sun-dried tomatoes, parmesean cheese and drenched in a canola oil/balsamic vinegrette. (Do not love canola oil, but it was what they had.) Also ate 1/4 of my kid's grilled cheese on whole wheat - because it was there, because I was still hungry, because it was not fried, but baked and because it was on whole wheat. Also because yoga class was really really hard and I felt like I had 'earned' those bites. (I promise not to rationalize too many more food choices! LOL)
Snack- 1 cheese stick wrapped in 2 slices of turkey breast and 1 slice salami.  Green tea. 11 almonds. Doppio Con Panna (yum yum yum)
Dinner- hard to calculate - a baked egg, cheese, Eziekiel 4:9 bread, broccoli and veggie-sausage dish - a casserole? Oh dear. Do not know how many calories/carbs, but I ate 1 serving and 1/2 a grapefruit and 2 Tbsp whipped cream for desert and felt sated. At least the kids liked it even if it messed me up.
RESULT: +.2 gain. :(
Possibly also retaining water - muscles are SO sore from that intense yoga class
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P4 D65 02/02/2011 -  137.2  Breakfast 1 cup cottage cheese/half cup greek yogurt/1/4 of an apple/cinnamon/stevia/22 almonds/2 tbsp unsweetened organic shredded coconut. 1 cup Green tea with half and half, 1 Doppio (double shot espresso) Con (with) Panna (whipped cream) sweetened with stevia. Drinking water too.
Snack- 7 almonds and 1 slices colby jack cheese...then 2 slices hard salami...more tea
Lunch- ate when I was hungry - kinda late, @2:45pm...baby spinach leaves and avocado and steak salad, sprinkled w/ sunflower seeds and tossed with olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing and 3 slices provolone cheese. Plus 14 (one serving) Trader Joe's Supper Seeded Tortilla chips! and tea, water...water, etc.
Snack- another 1/4 apple with 2 tbsp peanut butter. And another Doppio Con Panna. Mmmmmm.
Ok. Not hungry for dinner. Not at all. All that whipped cream maybe? According to fitday, I'm already at 2506 cals anyway! (fat 67%, protein 21% and carbs 11%)   *see below>>>>>>>
SO, I am skipped dinner. Honestly, was not hungry in the slightest.
Let's see what the scale has to say about all this tomorrow! (fingers crossed)
Finishing my day with a nice warm cup of Natural Calm, sweetened with stevia and the juice from 1/4 grapefruit.
Nightie-night all!
:D
RESULT: +.6 lbs.
(writhing in remorse and feeling stoopid)
Lesson? 2506 calories 2763 calories is too many. (hahahahahahahaha- Duh.) (Even though I did it low carb and had no bread? OMGoodness, I now recall I ALSO ate 1/2 of my child's leftover 'Amy's Organic' bean and cheese burrito!!! that's at least an extra 200 cals AND it was, of course, wrapped in bread. Whole wheat bread, but I ALSO ate a date and forgot to record that as well - so what am I - nuts?!)
Um, so, I actually ate 2763 calories. Plus more sugar than I thought? Oops.
Actual:

Calories: 2,763

Fat: 192.2g

Carbs: 113.4g

Protein: 136.4g

                        Fat: 63%    Carbs 16%      Protein: 21%
Ok I think I get it. Being too full to eat dinner indicated something in my day of eating was out of whack. Yesterday I ate lots of fats, trying to avoid feeling hungry, and it worked. Too well.  I already KNOW I do better eating 3 regular meals and 2 snacks. Eating fats, yes, but in moderation, and yesterday was not in moderation.  Ok okay okay.  Plus, I'd had lots of caffiene, which, in my experience, helps me delay eating - but then hunger hits too hard when the caffiene wears off and then I reach for an extra cheese stick or two...or three...(sigh). This is good - forcing me to really examine what I am doing. But puzzling because really, I WAS under 120g carbs for the day. Hmmm.
Ok. Onward.
:D
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A quick summary of my journey to this point: I am 42 yrs old,  5'5" tall and small boned and I weighed 200 lbs before starting the spray.  I did 2 full rounds (June-Oct 09) and ended @ Halloween at 133 lbs, but accepted 135 as a comfortable enough weight to maintain.
I have been able to maintain 135 pretty well, but my weight seems to want to creep up.  I do have steak days here and there when my weight gets to 137, or 138.  In truth I am rather sedentary, just doing housework and chasing kids is my main activity, although I do go to yoga 2x a week but I do not go for walks and I'm thinking I better start.
I have 'big theories' about why weight creeps up, and how to prevent that - but MY weight? Seems to want to creep up.  I am learning how to count carbs and sugars ala Jorge Cruise, and I also learned a lot with the 'Zone' books, and now I look forward to reading Why We Get Fat and What to do About It (looks like it will be a great read) but am still waiting for my Amazon order to arrive...
In the meantime, maybe I need a bit more accountability in my eating.
So here is a blog to keep me honest,
and to help me 'walk the talk'.

My plan? To avoid sugar (hidden or not) and to get back down 4 lbs to my real LSW (and maybe even lower?!)
by limiting carbs, concentrating on proteins but still eating vegetables and some small amount of fruit.  To count calories again, for a while, till I figure out what's going on. And to get more active.

Wish me luck! :)

How to Add Olive Oil as your FIRST new food on P3

Here is my best advice for beginning P3, by introducing olive oil as your first new food once 'The Hunger' kicks in. (How I Woulda/Coulda/Shoulda begun P3 if I had only figured this out sooner!)

Aiming for 3200 calories:

(adjust as necessary, by omitting/or adding an egg/or a snack)

You will need:

to make homemade  mayonnaise (or be extra super careful and double-triple-check your store-bought mayo lable for starches and sugars) and buy 4% Cottage Cheese, *Whole Milk and Olive Oil, and also make sure you have the following P2 groceries in larger quantities: uncooked Chicken, Eggs, Grapefruit, Lemon, Apples, Spinach, Celery, Strawberries, Asparagus, Fish (Tilapia?), Sea salt and Stevia.

Breakfast:

3 eggs + 2 Tbs milk, scrambled, cooked in 1 Tbs olive oil.
Tea, with 2 Tbs 1/2+1/2 (and stevia?),
1/2 Grapefruit.
Snack:
1 cup 4% cottage cheese

1 apple

Lunch:

Chicken salad made with cooked chicken (grilled or poached or sauteed in olive oil), and then chopped and tossed with homemade mayo (egg yolks and olive oil, sea salt, etc) and celery. (I use 2 1/2 rounded Tbs of mayo)

Strawberry milkshake (1 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup water and ice cubes and 4-5 strawberries blended together + stevia)

Snack:

1/2 Grapefruit

Dinner:

A nice piece of fish (Tilapia?) wrapped in tinfoil w/olive oil and lemon, broiled until flaky, served on a bed of baby spinach w/Sauteed veggies (in olive oil and sea salt and fresh black pepper) on the side (I'm thinking asparagus)

Desert:

Baked apple (microwaved or actually baked) w/ lemon juice and cinnamon and a 1/2 cup of pureed cottage cheese with stevia, cinnamon and vanilla as a kind of pretend ice cream.

According to the Fitday.com calorie calculator = approx 3158 cals

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In the beginning of my first P3, I counted all my calories on the Fitday.com calorie calculator. I tried to keep my protein between 40-50%. (My first mistake, I do believe.)

After a week of counting calories, I re-read Dr Simeon's Pounds & Inches 'Concluding a Course' pg 29-30 and stopped counting calories, because I felt overwhelmed and because he never said that was what we needed to do.

However, by logging my foods for that week in order to count cals, I did learn a LOT, like I discovered that eggs are not very calorie dense, but coconuts are.

On Fitday.com, there is a very cute pie-chart showing the percentage of fat to protein to carb ratio of what you entered. HOWEVER, because you are eating (in P3a) a No starch/No sugar diet, some days might seem to register rather alarmingly high in fat %, and yet you will NOT gain weight if you are avoiding starches and sugars. (Just exactly like Dr Simeons says.)

You can basically ignore the pie-chart of fat, protein and carb percentages.  I know the 'Golden Ratio' for body builders is 40-50% protein, 25-35% carbs, and 20-30% fat.  But this ratio does not apply when you are avoiding starches.  Take starches out of the equation and suddenly the idea that you can eat 40-50% protein becomes an impossible quest - I tried it.  Could not be accomplished without protein shakes and then I felt over-fed and awful. That was a big discovery - that my math was off.  So now I ignore the pie-chart and understand that the so-called 'Golden Ratio' does not apply to me or to us.

Here's what Dr Simeons says, in  Pounds & Inches:   in the 'Concluding a Course' section, on pg 29;  that "...the patient may now eat anything they please, except sugar and starch...". He never says to add one new food in per day, and he never says to count calories or to note protein-to-fat percentages. He simply says avoid sugars and starches and weigh yourself every morning. And stay within 2lbs of your final weight(LSW).

So, really, you could just eat!!!

Happy P3 Eating!!!

:)