Living in P4

Well, it has been over a week since I entered P4 and things are seeming to be pretty stable. I had some multi-grain chips at the fair and was okay. Didn't get enough water in so I went up a bit more than usual, but I upped my water and it came right back off.

I had brown rice with chicken stir-fry last night and I did have some peanuts late last night but they usually don't seem to bother me so my weight was hovering at the 2 pound mark, so I'm going to back off of the peanuts when I'm introducing my starches back for a couple of days.

I'm starting a cold and I don't know if that has anything to do with my weight flucuation (getting really close to the 2 pound mark), so I'm trying to get in extra liquids and extra sleep. TOM will be coming in a few days as well, so it is probably a combination of everything together. I'm going to really pump up my water and protein and go easy on the starches for the next couple of days until things come back to normal.

Keep smiling!

P4

Well today is the first day of P4. Things have been pretty hectic at my house getting ready for Fair. And even with all the added stress of getting things ready and late nights, I have not waivered from eating correctly. I have not cheated and it is paying off. I woke this morning at .4 below my LIW. I'll probably start with some croutons on my salad today as my starch and then I'll go from there, or I'll wait until this evening and try some pork-n-beans with my hamburger patty. I didn't buy any wheat buns, because I forgot that I would be in P4, so not a big deal. A little at a time.

I have people asking about the diet and how it works, and there are some when they see the results are all for it and then there are others that are very skeptical. I understand their doubt, as I had it in the beginning to, but after doing a lot of research, I went with my gut feeling and went for it. And I'm glad I did because I'll never look back at those fat pants again. It's thin days awaiting forever.

Keep strong, keep smiling.

P4 Here I come

Well, I've pretty much stablized at about 1.2 pounds over my LIW, which I can totally deal with. I go up and down but not over that 1.2 pounds.

Wednesday, I start on adding back my starches. I'll be at the County Fair with my son for 4-H so I'm not sure what I will eat. We stay down there in our motor home so I'll cook the majority of food there, but I might try a baked potato at the fair and see how I do. I didn't have any problems with potatoes or rice the last time, white bread is a no-no for me. But I can handle sprout grown grains like Ezekiel bread.

I have a ton of things to get done before tomrrow when we check in the animals, so I'll update after Labor Day as to how things are going.

Keep Smiling!!!!

Close but no Steak Day

I had a "No Sugar Added" Dilly Bar from Dairy Queen yesterday and then last night had some Carb Comfort Ice Cream. I was craving ice cream for some reason. And this morning was pushing the 2 pounds above LIW. I was a little nervous, but it is not over so I'm going to go have a chicken salad at lunch, I brought some hard boiled eggs for a snack later today and had two eggs with cheese this morning. I am going to make pork chops and some veggies for dinner, and lay off the extras right now. I didn't get in my 3 liters of water yesterday either, so that could be part of it, so I'll up my water to 3+ liters and see where the scale falls tomorrow.

Well I'm off to lunch. Everyone have a great day and Keep Smiling! Life is good.

Recipes

Here are a couple recipes that can be used in P3. One is a Chocolate Microwave Cake and the other is a Zucchini Carrot Cake.

Chocolate Microwave Cake:

4 Tlbs coconut flour
4 Tlbs sugar alternative
2 Tlbs cocoa powder
1 egg
3 Tlbs milk
3 Tlbs oil
splash of vanilla extract
1 Large Coffee Mug

Mix all dry ingredients in mug, add egg and blend thoroughly. Add milk, oil and vanilla and mix. Place in 1000 watt microwave for three (3) minutes. Do not cover mug. Cake will rise over top - do not be alarmed. Let cool and place on plate. Add a little whipped cream to top or carb wise ice cream.

Zucchini Carrot Cake:

1 1/4 C almond flour
2 eggs
1/2 C Oil
2/3 C Spenda
1/2 C plain yougart
1/2 C Vanilla flavored whey protein powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 C Shredded zucchini
2/4 C shredded carrot

Preheat over to 350.

Whisk eggs until well blended, all all ingredients and mix well. Add zucchini and carrots last.

Coat ring mold or bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and add batter.

Bake for 45 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack to cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

3/4 C Heavy Whipping Cream
1 pkg Cream Cheese (softened)
1/2 C Splenda
1 tsp vanilla

Whip heavy cream until stiff. In separate bowl beat cream cheese until very smooth, then beat in splenda and vanilla. Mix in heavy cream at lowest speed until smooth. Frost cake.


Hope everyone enjoys the recipes. They are both very good.

P3 Day 13

Well I'm on day 13 of P3 and haven't had to do a steak day. I've been maintaining this round which is really nice. I don't know if my body likes this weight or if I know exactly what to eat to keep it here without any fluculations. Either way, I'm only 1 pound within my LIW which is a good thing. Since over the weekend where there was added food and alcohol temptations. I did have a couple craberry vodka but I made sure to drink plenty of water and I didn't eat anything that I thought might have sugar or any sort of starch. I had some meatballs, veggies, and some articoke/spinach dip.

Everyone kept saying, "oh, have a piece of cake, a little won't hurt you." Then I would explain why I couldn't and then all was good, but then they wanted to know more about the HCG and how I heard about it and how they could get it. With as many people asking about it, I could have started a small business right then and there. LOL!

Well, I'll post in a few days and keep everyone aprised of my journey into P4 for the second time and now for the last time. P4 I can now consider a life time phase. I'm so excited to go back to having a few more normal foods. Potatoes are my down fall but last time I enjoyed them and did fine, so again, everything in moderation. It is weird though that I don't have any cravings for anything. Cooking dinner is hard since I'm not hungry for anything, but when I finally do decide what to cook, it tastes good, I'm just not hungry anymore. I can eat a small portion and feel full and satisified without stuffing myself.

Keep smiling!

Hanging in there

Sorry, I haven't posted for a while, but on Thursday night I got very sick and was sick throughout the weekend. I lost 6 pounds from Friday until Sunday morning, not a good thing. I was very dehydrated. So I pumped up my protein (hard to do on a ishy stomach) and started pouring the water in again. I gain back 4 of those pounds on Monday morning which I knew was all water anyways. This morning I work up back at my LIW which is all good. I had a lot of nuts yesterday, so I'm going to back off of those for awhile and stablize out a little more before eating those again, but it was the easiest snack when you don't feel very good.

Other than my being sick, nothing has happened.

I'll check in tomorrow, have a lot to do this week.

Keep smiling.

Still below LIW

Well I had two hard boiled eggs yesterday afternoon, and two trips to the salad bar last night with lettuce, tomotoes, black olives, cottage cheese, cheese, cucumbers, sunflower seeds, oil/vinegar dressing and the toppings off of a meat/cheese pizza.

This morning I had two eggs with mushroom, tomatoes and a little cheddar cheese. I had my cup of tea and then it is raining here today so I had a latte with sugar free white chocolate and heavy whipping cream. Now I'll be starting on my water consumption. I'm going out to lunch today, so I'm going to have a chicken caeser salad with extra chicken and the dressing on the side. I brought a hard boiled egg and some sliced roast beef for a snack later.

So far so good, I'll check in tomorrow.

Keep smiling everyone. It gets easier and the food gets more enjoyable. It is so worth the sacrifies you are making right now.

(-1.0 lb.)

Strange thing this morning. The scale read -1 lb. In my two previous rounds, after my LIW, I always stayed the same weight for the 3 days following. This is the first time I actually lost any weight after the shots. I was surprised this morning. I did have extra water, and tried to finish the water earlier in the day and not have so much water at night right before bed, so I don't know if this is the reasoning, or not.

Today, I brought 2 hard boiled eggs with me along with my apple, cucumber and chicken, as this afternoon will be over the 72 hours from my last injections, so I thought I jump start my protein increase this evening. I'll have a salad tonight for dinner with some sort of meat, but didn't want to have problems with the protein dificiency issues and have that water retention, so extra protein.

I'll also make sure I'm getting in plenty of water today as well. Tomorrow is the first official day of stablization or as some refer to it as P3. It will be good to be there again and then be able to move on to maintenance for life. I'm looking forward to making a zucchini lasagne this weekend since it is the season for zucchini. I'm also going to make a zucchini cake with almond flour for myself (although my family likes it as well) with cream cheese frosting. YUMMY! I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it. I haven't had any hunger pains yet, but I'm thinking by this afternoon those will probably start as all the HCG will be out of my system.

Well, hope everyone has a great Wednesday. Til' tomorrow.

Holding Steady

Okay, today is my second day of the last three VLCD days. Tomorrow is Wednesday and tomorow evening I have to go to a birthday party for my niece. I'm planning on a nice chef salad for dinner, but don't know if they serve them at the pizza place we are going to. I'm contemplating bringing a couple hard boiled eggs with me for a late afternoon snack depending on how I'm feeling and the menu. I'm going to call the place and see what they have to offer. I might just make an appearance and then go home and make a nice steak with sauted mushrooms and a salad. Still unsure, but I'm looking forward to having eggs back in my diet. I've sure missed those as well as the cheese. Thursday's menu is looking something like this:

Breakfast: 3 egg omelet with ham, cheese, mushrooms, green pepers and tomatoes.
Lunch: 6 oz. chicken breast with salad and oil/vinegar dressing.
Snack: 2 hard boiled eggs
Dinner: 6 oz. of meat (not sure yet), fried zuchini (with egg)
And of course lots and lots of water.

I'm soooooo glad to be done. First, to get rid of this excess weight I've struggled with and second, I'm really ready to resume eating real food again.

Til tomorrow. Keep smiling and stay strong.

(-.4 lbs.)

Okay, Sunday was my last shot and this morning I woke up .2 lighter. I have today, tomorrow and Wednesday of the VLCD before beginning stablization (no sugar/no starch phase). I've very excited to be so close to my goal weight. I'm about 2 pounds above that, so all in all it was a good round.

I'm going to go shopping for some new pants again, because when I went to put on my size 6 dress pants, they were too big. YIPPEEE!!!!! Size 4 here I come!!!!

Had a good weekend. Went to my in-laws' house for my mother-in-law's birthday on Saturday. They had all kinds of goodies, including the apple-crunch cake that I made and brought. Unfortunately, I didn't get to eat any of the food. It was very hard, but I managed. I'm just glad, I only have a couple more days and I'll be able to enjoy more food choices.

Til tomorrow.

(-.2 lbs.)

Two more shots and then 72 hours of limited eating. I was thinking of a chef salad, but an omelet wtih mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, and a little cheese is sounding better yet. Wednesday night is when my 72 hours are up and I can eat, I'm really dreaming of food right now. I'm 3 pounds from my goal, not too bad. Thought about going for a couple more days on the shots to get to that goal, but I'm mentally done. The family had veggie pizza last night and it the smell almost killed me. I was sooooo tempted to cheat I literally had to go the the other room where they weren't and where I couldn't smell it. Later I came back and was fine, but that first initial smell was too much for me. That's when I knew I was mentally done. Whatever my body gives up in fat on the next two days will be fine with me. I can live with being a pound or two above my goal, because I feel great, I look great and my health is GREAT!!!!!

I'll check in on Monday with my stats for the weekend. In the meantime, stay strong and keep smiling.

(-.8 lbs.)

The scale was good to me this morning. I try not to let the scale dictate my mood, but sometimes that's hard when the scale is slow to move. All I can say is that I'm glad that the scale is moving again. I only have three shots left and I'm hoping to make it to my goal. I thought about going a few days more to get to that goal, but mentally, I know I'm ready to be done no matter where I'm at on the scale. So next Thursday I'll be having a nice chef salad. Then I can have some eggs as well. I'm really looking forward to something different to eat.

Using HCG has been an amazing journey to a healthy lifestyle no matter what sacrifices I've made they all have been soooo worth it.

Til tomorrow. Keep smiling.

(-.4 lbs.)

Yesterday the scale didn't move, but today I had a .4 drop which is a good thing. I only have 4 shots left and three more days after that of the VLCD. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get to my goal, but I'm darn close, which is fine by me. I'll have to do my inches again, because I know I've lost there as there was a pair of pants that I couldn't button a month ago and now they fit fabulous.

I can say that I am really ready to enjoy a good sald with mixed veggies with a little oil/vinegar dressing. This round has been the hardest mentally for me, but I did not waiver and cheat. I stayed strong and stuck it out. I had a few days in there where I was ready to just quit, but I knew I couldn't live with myself knowing that I quit something. That's just not in my nature.

I finished reading Jillian Michael's Making the Cut book and it makes a lot of sense as does her Mastering your Metabolish. I'm going to be making some major changes in my lifestyle in regards to eating more organic and taking a good multi-vitamin and others to balance out my hormones that run my metabolism.

Well til tomorrow. Keep strong and keep smiling. Life is good.

(-.4 lbs.)

Well this weekend wasn't much to shout about, but I'm still down so that's a plus. I have 7 more shots and three days after of VLCD, so I'm hoping to drop at least another 3-4 pounds, we'll see, my body is just holding on to that last little bit. And I'm getting a little frustrated with it. I'm going to really down the water today and see if I can't get things moving again. I'm losing inches, because new pants from the back of my closet are now fitting when they didn't a month ago, so that's a good thing, so the numbers on the scale shouldn't be my focus, although that is very hard to do.

Well, hope everyone had a good weekend, and the week goes well for them. Stay strong and keep your head up no matter what as the end results are the most favorable.

Keep smiling.

(-.4 lbs.)

Things are moving in the right direction again.

Last night I was having a hard time with food, I'm very bored and I even have a cookbook for this protocol and nothing seemed to interest me, so I finally settled on some chicken and I made some onion rings in the oven with grissni bread sticks which were really, really good and it was satisfied with the food. Good thing I only have 9 shots left and 3 days of VLCD so I can have a little variety. I have a zuchini sitting and waiting for me to eat it in 13 days.

I just finished reading Jillian Michaels' book, Master Your Metabolism. And I'm totally impressed with everything she said. How our hormones gets out of whack and then cause problems because we are nutrient dificient in something and other hormones are trying to fix the problem, which doesn't work.

I know I'm going to be following her recommendations for organic, nutrients and food to keep everything in balance. After working so hard to reset the hypomathamus which she talks about in her book, it all makes sense to me now. I'm going to go buy her other two books, Making the Cut and Losing to Win (I think that's the name or at least its close enough to find it in the book store).

After reading the book, it occurred to me that I've put a lot of hard work into this protocol to get healthy, why start eating crap (pesticides, hormone injected meat, etc.) so that everything can get out of whack again. I want me and my family to be healthy. So many things can contribute to heart disease, high cholestrol, diabetes, etc. due to hormones being out of whack and I don't want that.

Okay, okay, I'm off my soap box. Anyways, I feel good today about my loss, the way my clothes are fitting, and living a healthy life. I'll catch up with everyone on Monday. Have a great weekend where ever you are!!!

(-.8 lbs)

Can you say "Oh Yeah"?

The scale finally moved in the right direction. I had this happen in both rounds before and knew just to hang on and it would happen, it just gets frustrating. I notice a drop in my clothes again, so I know I'm losing fat, which my body didn't want to let go of, but finally had no choice.

So those that are going through stalls, hang on, keep eating exactly what you are suppose to and drink extra water and it will begin moving again.

Til tomorrow.

Update

Sorry, I didn't get to blog until now, but the weekend was great and the week has been crazy. A lot of stuff to get done at work and home.

Anyways, I lost .6 on Saturday and another .6 on Sunday. Monday when I weighed in I gain .4 and on Tuesday and Wednesday been holding at the same weight. I'm not sure why the gain, except for that I know I didn't get enough water in on Sunday as we were traveling home late.

I've been trying to drink like a crazy person to push this along. I could do an apple day tomorrow or Thursday if the weight doesn't change, but I really don't want to eat that many apples when all it is for is psychological reasons. I waited out the last stalls, I'll wait this one out as well.

It was asked and so I'll post it again for those who just started following this blog. I started round 1 of HCG on January 17. I lost 25 pounds and 27 inches total. I waited three weeks and started round 2 and lost 20 pounds and 20 inches total for a grand total of 45 pounds and 47 inches. I then did my 3 weeks of no sugar/no starch again and then started reintroducing starches back. By the 4th of July I was eating pretty much anything and staying within that 2 pound range. I then ate and drink my way through San Diego two weeks ago and when I returned, I weighed in at 1 pound lighter than when I left.

I decided I had too many occassions to do a second round later, so I opted to do my last one now. So here I am on round 3, day 12 of a 23 day round and have lost approimately 7 or so pounds. I have another 10 to get to my goal, but I know that probably won't happen and I'll be okay with what I can get from this round.

This round has been a little harder for me than the first two. I had an agenda to get to a certain size/weight before I left for San Diego and I made and passed that goal, so now to stick to this again, is very mentally challenging for me since I was eating and drinking without gaining.

I'm just trying to keep strong to get through the next 11 days of shots and three extra days of the 500 calories before I can stablize again and move to a life time of eating healthy and feeling great.

For those just starting, I just taking the full six weeks off between rounds to let your mind stablize not just your body. I've discovered this protocol is a mind f*** and you have to be up for the challenge or it just doesn't work. First you get to eat like a pig, then you go to a very, very restricted diet, then you get to eat again, but just no sugar and no starches, then you get to add stuff back in and eat normally, if you don't call that a mind challenge, nothing is. The benefits that come from the weight loss is amazing so I guess a little mind game is okay since you gain a life time to enjoy.

So everyone - Keep strong.

(-.6 lbs)

Well not sure where that one in front of it went, but it is still a lose, so that' all I can hope for. I think TOM is on its way so that may be a contributing factor here.

Tomorrow will be one week since I started loading and I finally am feeling more energy again. This week has been a little bit of a drain on me with work and all my volunteering that I do for my legal association and 4-H. I think tomorrow with a little extra sleep and getting some of this under work done under my belt, I won't be so stressed and that should help move things along as well.

I'll post on Monday, so hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

(-1.4 lbs)

I like seeing the scale go down it is just a rush in the mornings. I feel better today, the last couple days I have been really tired, but I've been trying to get extra sleep and am feeling better now. I'm really trying to drink 4 liters of water a day, but have only gotten in 3 liters a day. I know that is still good water consumption, but I'm going to work on really pumping it up for the next couple of days and see if I can get some bigger numbers to drop.

So far things are going along smoothly, except the injections, since I have very small thighs, I know I'm getting either in a muscle or very close because they have been a little sore this time. When I started I had more fat, but by the end of the second round I was noticing the difference. I thought about giving them in my stomach, but decided to stay as close or in the muscle as possible for this round, which means a tiny prick of pain in my thigh. Nothing I can't live with for the benefit of the protocol and my health. LOL

Well I'll check in tomorrow and we'll see how it goes. I'm going to purchase Jillian Michael's new book as I heard it has some really good things about the brain and how our bodies work. It might give me some added insight on maintaining for life.

Til tomorrow, keep smiling!