Hi Guys,
I'm so sorry, but I don't have any pictures or even a cool post for you. We've had guests all weekend, today was another crazy day of visiting other friends, we have tired, overstimulated kids, etc...
I'll post a proper post and picture of the scale tomorrow.
Hope you all had a wonderful day!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
It worked!
I'm happy to report I am down 2.4 pounds today! I'm down to 158.4.
I also need to have a bowel movement in a major way, so I'm off to the store to buy milk of magnesia tablets.
Last night we had some guys over in addition to our friends who are visiting. We sat around chatting and EVERYONE else was munching on Pub Mix. It's this delicious mix of garlic cheddar twists, sesame seed chips, pretzels, oriental rice crackers and some other stuff. I wanted some so, so, so, so bad. I contemplated eating just one. Or maybe just sucking the flavoring off. Seriously. I was that desperate.
But I resisted. Although, I admit, I did smell them. :-P I just kept drinking lots and lots of water.
I do not like artificial sweeteners at all, but I have come to a truce with them for this diet. The little tubs of flavored powder that you mix with water to make strawberry lemonade or whatever totally help me drink more water. So, I'll be drinking it for now.
I'll post a pic of the scale tomorrow for your viewing pleasure. ;-)
I also need to have a bowel movement in a major way, so I'm off to the store to buy milk of magnesia tablets.
Last night we had some guys over in addition to our friends who are visiting. We sat around chatting and EVERYONE else was munching on Pub Mix. It's this delicious mix of garlic cheddar twists, sesame seed chips, pretzels, oriental rice crackers and some other stuff. I wanted some so, so, so, so bad. I contemplated eating just one. Or maybe just sucking the flavoring off. Seriously. I was that desperate.
But I resisted. Although, I admit, I did smell them. :-P I just kept drinking lots and lots of water.
I do not like artificial sweeteners at all, but I have come to a truce with them for this diet. The little tubs of flavored powder that you mix with water to make strawberry lemonade or whatever totally help me drink more water. So, I'll be drinking it for now.
I'll post a pic of the scale tomorrow for your viewing pleasure. ;-)
Saturday, May 29, 2010
An Award!
Dawne from 365 Days to A New Me gave me an award!
I am supposed to tell 7 things you may not know about me.
1) I turned Josh down the first time he asked me out.
2) I do not like watching movies in the theater.
3) Unlike most the members of my family, I have ZERO artistic abilities. Like, I can't even draw stick figures. Well, maybe barely.
4) I've never had my hair professionally cut.
5) I love socks. I wear them all the time. Even to bed. Except when it's 95* outside and I'm barefoot.
6) I love Bon Jovi. Love.
7) If I had to give up ice cream for the rest of my life, I could. If I had to give up chocolate... I'd die.
Well, blogger friends, today I only lost 2oz. So I did what you're supposed to do in that instance. I ate 2 apples and a salad. And that is IT!
I am not hungry, really. I've been drinking my water, so that helps. We'll see what tomorrow's weigh in brings.
I am supposed to tell 7 things you may not know about me.
1) I turned Josh down the first time he asked me out.
2) I do not like watching movies in the theater.
3) Unlike most the members of my family, I have ZERO artistic abilities. Like, I can't even draw stick figures. Well, maybe barely.
4) I've never had my hair professionally cut.
5) I love socks. I wear them all the time. Even to bed. Except when it's 95* outside and I'm barefoot.
6) I love Bon Jovi. Love.
7) If I had to give up ice cream for the rest of my life, I could. If I had to give up chocolate... I'd die.
Well, blogger friends, today I only lost 2oz. So I did what you're supposed to do in that instance. I ate 2 apples and a salad. And that is IT!
I am not hungry, really. I've been drinking my water, so that helps. We'll see what tomorrow's weigh in brings.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Baby Steps
Yo, I only lost 4 ounces today. 4 ounces!! I think I need to be more diligent to drink all 2 liters of my water before having any Diet Root Beer. I bought some last night. It's the BOMB. SO SO SO good. I think the first week would have been 50% easier if I'd had some A&W to sip on when I was starving. Ah, bygones.
I heard back from Beth and the vegetarian options are totally an alternative to the chicken, so I will be heading to the store to look at the options they have there. And I can eat egg whites. Thank goodness, I was about to start clucking from all the chicken I was eating! ;-)
I have a very busy day ahead, so I probably won't check back in until Monday. Although I might pop on to drool over Sunshine Mama's Fantasy Food Friday pictures... oohhhhh yum!
Have a great weekend, Y'all!!!
I heard back from Beth and the vegetarian options are totally an alternative to the chicken, so I will be heading to the store to look at the options they have there. And I can eat egg whites. Thank goodness, I was about to start clucking from all the chicken I was eating! ;-)
I have a very busy day ahead, so I probably won't check back in until Monday. Although I might pop on to drool over Sunshine Mama's Fantasy Food Friday pictures... oohhhhh yum!
Have a great weekend, Y'all!!!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Update
Erin asked a very good question... she asked if I measure my meat raw or cooked. I measure it raw, since that is what you're supposed to do. 3.5 ounces raw comes out to about 2 ounces cooked.
She also pointed out that I ate 3.5oz of COOKED GROUND BEEF!!
Um, oops!?!? Ha ha, I didn't even think about that. Good thing Erin is a smart one!
That could very well be why I only lost half a pound despite drinking so much water and tea that I literally was in the bathroom every 8-10 minutes. All. Day. Long.
Thanks, Erin!!! And I'll have to look and see if Republic of Tea is in my grocery store. Right now I have Celestial Seasonings and Stash.
She also pointed out that I ate 3.5oz of COOKED GROUND BEEF!!
Um, oops!?!? Ha ha, I didn't even think about that. Good thing Erin is a smart one!
That could very well be why I only lost half a pound despite drinking so much water and tea that I literally was in the bathroom every 8-10 minutes. All. Day. Long.
Thanks, Erin!!! And I'll have to look and see if Republic of Tea is in my grocery store. Right now I have Celestial Seasonings and Stash.
A short novel for ya =)
Good Morning, Folks!
I lost half a pound today. The turtle ticker I chose only moves in 1 pound increments, so when I lose just half a pound, she doesn't go anywhere. BUT since I've lost half a pound TWICE, she gets to inch forward just a bit more. =) 13 pounds down. I've lost 8.5 pounds in 9 days and I'm happy with that. I figured out if I lose 17 pounds each time I do it (as I plan to do the diet twice) I will be back at the weight I was at before getting married and having kiddos. It's been about 7 years since I've seen that number, so I am MORE than ready to embrace it once more. =) 130 is the magic number for me.
To answer a couple of questions I've been asked:
The binge days... I'm not entirely sure since I didn't research this myself. I just took the advice of my friend's mom who has lost 70 pounds so far. She said to binge hardcore with LOTS of fat the first two days. Apparently it helps your body let go of the fat easier, since it's just been inundated with it. Now, having said that, I did binge. I gained 2 pounds. So now, I keep thinking to myself, "Dang, if I hadn't gained those two pounds, I'd weigh 2 pounds less right now!" So I don't know if I'll go so all out next time.
If you'd like more info on the diet, you can simply google "HCG Diet" or else you can look at this website where I purchased my drops from: www.handstoheavenonline.com
I haven't researched any other blogs or forums yet.
As far as how I cook my chicken, I've been buying chicken tenders from Costco. They are precut into smaller portions, and 3.5 ounces ends up being between 1.5 and 2 of them, depending on size. I place them on my Pampered Chef stoneware pan that has a lip, sprinkle them with a tiny bit of garlic powder and a generous amount of Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning. Then I bake for 25 minutes, or until done. I let them cool and then package each portion into a snack size baggie, which I store in the fridge. When it's time for lunch or dinner, I just grab a baggie of chicken and then decide which vegetable I'm going to have. It makes it SO MUCH easier to have it done ahead of time.
If you are contemplating doing the diet, you HAVE to buy a digital food scale. It makes everything so much easier, from weighing your meat to weighing your vegetables and knowing you've got the right amount. It's $20 (at least mine was) but worth every penny.
Couple of other things... I did 3 things yesterday that I haven't done so far in this diet.
1) I bought fat free creamer and used it in my coffee instead of the 1% milk.
2) I drank a Diet Coke.
3) I had hamburger for dinner instead of chicken.
The creamer isn't going to work out for me. For some reason both yesterday and today when I used it in my coffee, the coffee tasted weak and bitter. I thought it was a fluke yesterday because my husband doesn't like his coffee as strong as I do, but today I made it and it was buhscusting. So I will be sticking to tea for now.
The diet coke... you're actually allowed 2 diet sodas a day on the diet. I haven't been drinking any because I just really don't think those chemicals are good for you. I do have to say though, it TREMENDOUSLY helped when I was hungry and couldn't eat anything. I don't particularly like Coca Cola, so I'm going to buy either Diet Dr. Pepper or Diet A&W Root Beer to have on hand.
The hamburger... You are allowed to have hamburger, but it is supposed to be very lean; 86% meat to 4% fat. Mine was not; I think it was 15% fat. I had cooked it up, drained the fat and that's what my family ate with their tacos 2 nights ago. Last night I couldn't face the chicken, so I measured out 3.5 ounces of meat and 3.5 ounces of shredded lettuce (also from our taco meal) and made myself a faux taco salad. And it was BLISS. So incredibly good. ;-) So I will be investing in extra lean beef as well.
I emailed Beth, under the ruse that I had a vegetarian friend who wanted to do the diet, and what they could substitute for meat. Mostly, I wanted to know for myself ;-), but I figured that maybe some of you vegetarians might want the info too. Anyway, she wrote back and said many vegetarians have done the diet successfully substituting their kind of protein- whether that's beans, soy products, whatever- in place of the meat. I think the most important thing to be aware of is to make the calories and fat match as closely as possible.
For example, there are approximately 165 calories in 3.5 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breast and about 3 grams of fat. So you'd have to make whatever you're planning to substitute match that as closely as possible. The goal is to stay right around 500 calories a day, total.
Anyway, when I get closer to my goal weight I might give eggs or beans a try as my protein, instead of the chicken or hamburger.
I must say, the hunger pangs have basically gone away 100%. I am so glad!!! It was really excruciating to prepare food and even grocery shop, when all I wanted to do was eat everything in sight. This morning I made my kids scrambled eggs, turkey sausage and toast with no problem at all; my mouth didn't even water. ;-)
I'm enjoying my cup of tea. I feel really dehydrated today. My lips are chapped and my head and joints hurt. I'm not sure if it's from the extra fat from the hamburger last night, or if I'm just coming down with a cold. I can't take Emergen-C or Airborne because it has too many calories!
I have friends coming in to town tomorrow for Memorial Day weekend and I'm also meeting up with another friend before that so our kiddos can play together, so I probably won't blog Sat or Sun. I will be back on Monday with a picture of the scale for you. =)
I lost half a pound today. The turtle ticker I chose only moves in 1 pound increments, so when I lose just half a pound, she doesn't go anywhere. BUT since I've lost half a pound TWICE, she gets to inch forward just a bit more. =) 13 pounds down. I've lost 8.5 pounds in 9 days and I'm happy with that. I figured out if I lose 17 pounds each time I do it (as I plan to do the diet twice) I will be back at the weight I was at before getting married and having kiddos. It's been about 7 years since I've seen that number, so I am MORE than ready to embrace it once more. =) 130 is the magic number for me.
To answer a couple of questions I've been asked:
The binge days... I'm not entirely sure since I didn't research this myself. I just took the advice of my friend's mom who has lost 70 pounds so far. She said to binge hardcore with LOTS of fat the first two days. Apparently it helps your body let go of the fat easier, since it's just been inundated with it. Now, having said that, I did binge. I gained 2 pounds. So now, I keep thinking to myself, "Dang, if I hadn't gained those two pounds, I'd weigh 2 pounds less right now!" So I don't know if I'll go so all out next time.
If you'd like more info on the diet, you can simply google "HCG Diet" or else you can look at this website where I purchased my drops from: www.handstoheavenonline.com
I haven't researched any other blogs or forums yet.
As far as how I cook my chicken, I've been buying chicken tenders from Costco. They are precut into smaller portions, and 3.5 ounces ends up being between 1.5 and 2 of them, depending on size. I place them on my Pampered Chef stoneware pan that has a lip, sprinkle them with a tiny bit of garlic powder and a generous amount of Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning. Then I bake for 25 minutes, or until done. I let them cool and then package each portion into a snack size baggie, which I store in the fridge. When it's time for lunch or dinner, I just grab a baggie of chicken and then decide which vegetable I'm going to have. It makes it SO MUCH easier to have it done ahead of time.
If you are contemplating doing the diet, you HAVE to buy a digital food scale. It makes everything so much easier, from weighing your meat to weighing your vegetables and knowing you've got the right amount. It's $20 (at least mine was) but worth every penny.
Couple of other things... I did 3 things yesterday that I haven't done so far in this diet.
1) I bought fat free creamer and used it in my coffee instead of the 1% milk.
2) I drank a Diet Coke.
3) I had hamburger for dinner instead of chicken.
The creamer isn't going to work out for me. For some reason both yesterday and today when I used it in my coffee, the coffee tasted weak and bitter. I thought it was a fluke yesterday because my husband doesn't like his coffee as strong as I do, but today I made it and it was buhscusting. So I will be sticking to tea for now.
The diet coke... you're actually allowed 2 diet sodas a day on the diet. I haven't been drinking any because I just really don't think those chemicals are good for you. I do have to say though, it TREMENDOUSLY helped when I was hungry and couldn't eat anything. I don't particularly like Coca Cola, so I'm going to buy either Diet Dr. Pepper or Diet A&W Root Beer to have on hand.
The hamburger... You are allowed to have hamburger, but it is supposed to be very lean; 86% meat to 4% fat. Mine was not; I think it was 15% fat. I had cooked it up, drained the fat and that's what my family ate with their tacos 2 nights ago. Last night I couldn't face the chicken, so I measured out 3.5 ounces of meat and 3.5 ounces of shredded lettuce (also from our taco meal) and made myself a faux taco salad. And it was BLISS. So incredibly good. ;-) So I will be investing in extra lean beef as well.
I emailed Beth, under the ruse that I had a vegetarian friend who wanted to do the diet, and what they could substitute for meat. Mostly, I wanted to know for myself ;-), but I figured that maybe some of you vegetarians might want the info too. Anyway, she wrote back and said many vegetarians have done the diet successfully substituting their kind of protein- whether that's beans, soy products, whatever- in place of the meat. I think the most important thing to be aware of is to make the calories and fat match as closely as possible.
For example, there are approximately 165 calories in 3.5 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breast and about 3 grams of fat. So you'd have to make whatever you're planning to substitute match that as closely as possible. The goal is to stay right around 500 calories a day, total.
Anyway, when I get closer to my goal weight I might give eggs or beans a try as my protein, instead of the chicken or hamburger.
I must say, the hunger pangs have basically gone away 100%. I am so glad!!! It was really excruciating to prepare food and even grocery shop, when all I wanted to do was eat everything in sight. This morning I made my kids scrambled eggs, turkey sausage and toast with no problem at all; my mouth didn't even water. ;-)
I'm enjoying my cup of tea. I feel really dehydrated today. My lips are chapped and my head and joints hurt. I'm not sure if it's from the extra fat from the hamburger last night, or if I'm just coming down with a cold. I can't take Emergen-C or Airborne because it has too many calories!
I have friends coming in to town tomorrow for Memorial Day weekend and I'm also meeting up with another friend before that so our kiddos can play together, so I probably won't blog Sat or Sun. I will be back on Monday with a picture of the scale for you. =)
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
I'm a genius and didn't even know it!
This morning I was steeping my tea. To do that, I put my tea, Truvia and hot water in a big ol' mug. It's huge. And then I place one of my salad plates on top of the mug to keep the steam in. Like so.
Well, this morning it just so happened that I was enjoying my apples with cinnamon at the same time. For convenience I put the apples on the plate, on top of the mug. I got distracted with something and came back a few minutes later...
The apples were warm and cinnamony! The closest thing I'll ever get to apple pie on this diet. And apple pie with vanilla ice cream is my all time favorite dessert!
Genius, I tell you.
Sherah asked if I had found a blog or forum for support on the HCG diet. I hadn't even thought to research that. I might look into it. The thing with me is that I'm highly competitive. Either I go overboard and get all intense trying to "win" or else I feel defeated before I even start and it saps my motivation. So I just have to be careful. ;-) But I'll definitely look into it.
I can tell today that the hunger pangs are less intense. I've been up since 6:30 and thought the day would be extra long, as there were more hours for me not to eat in. ;-) But I've had my apple, a cup of coffee, working on my tea and some water and I don't feel starving like I have the last few days. Hopefully this is the turning point!
Well, this morning it just so happened that I was enjoying my apples with cinnamon at the same time. For convenience I put the apples on the plate, on top of the mug. I got distracted with something and came back a few minutes later...
The apples were warm and cinnamony! The closest thing I'll ever get to apple pie on this diet. And apple pie with vanilla ice cream is my all time favorite dessert!
Genius, I tell you.
Sherah asked if I had found a blog or forum for support on the HCG diet. I hadn't even thought to research that. I might look into it. The thing with me is that I'm highly competitive. Either I go overboard and get all intense trying to "win" or else I feel defeated before I even start and it saps my motivation. So I just have to be careful. ;-) But I'll definitely look into it.
I can tell today that the hunger pangs are less intense. I've been up since 6:30 and thought the day would be extra long, as there were more hours for me not to eat in. ;-) But I've had my apple, a cup of coffee, working on my tea and some water and I don't feel starving like I have the last few days. Hopefully this is the turning point!
Hungry Hungry Hippo
I do believe I've used that title before. But it aptly describes how I feel. ;-)
I was down another pound today! With luck I'll be in the 150's tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :0)
You guys. I never knew grocery shopping could be torture. But it CAN! I am seriously so hungry ALL. THE. TIME. My stomach is rumbling and has PANGS of hunger. Everything looks delicious. Choosing food for my family and not being able to eat it? Well, that's just mean and wrong.
Dinner time is especially hard for me. I find I actually get MAD about not being able to eat. Last night my family had soft tacos... OH, the beef, the cheese, the avocado, the tomato, the sour cream, the soft, warm tortillas.... I'm drooling. Literally. And what did I have?
My tiny chicken and some (super) mushy asparagus. I accidentally overcooked it and it was honestly pure mush. Think baby food consistency. It was all I could do to choke it down.
I'm not giving up. I'm just keeping it real. Although this has physically been by far the easiest way to lose weight... emotionally it is totally draining. All day I think about food. Because my stomach is telling me it is in need of food! It takes all my willpower not to shove my kiddos' peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my mouth. All my willpower not to rip into a bag of chips and eat the whole thing.
It's not all bad, though. It is nice to see the scale moving down. I honestly had started to wonder if it was possible. ;-) And 99% of the time I enjoy the food I'm able to eat. The oranges and strawberries are really sweet and yummy. I've started cutting up my apple and sprinkling it with cinnamon and that is very tasty. It's just... a small amount of food to eat all day.
On another note, BONUS POINTS for me as I have been drinking at least 2 liters of water a day. This is nothing short of miraculous for me. I've always had to choke down water.
Thank you for all your words of encouragement!!!
I was down another pound today! With luck I'll be in the 150's tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :0)
You guys. I never knew grocery shopping could be torture. But it CAN! I am seriously so hungry ALL. THE. TIME. My stomach is rumbling and has PANGS of hunger. Everything looks delicious. Choosing food for my family and not being able to eat it? Well, that's just mean and wrong.
Dinner time is especially hard for me. I find I actually get MAD about not being able to eat. Last night my family had soft tacos... OH, the beef, the cheese, the avocado, the tomato, the sour cream, the soft, warm tortillas.... I'm drooling. Literally. And what did I have?
My tiny chicken and some (super) mushy asparagus. I accidentally overcooked it and it was honestly pure mush. Think baby food consistency. It was all I could do to choke it down.
I'm not giving up. I'm just keeping it real. Although this has physically been by far the easiest way to lose weight... emotionally it is totally draining. All day I think about food. Because my stomach is telling me it is in need of food! It takes all my willpower not to shove my kiddos' peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my mouth. All my willpower not to rip into a bag of chips and eat the whole thing.
It's not all bad, though. It is nice to see the scale moving down. I honestly had started to wonder if it was possible. ;-) And 99% of the time I enjoy the food I'm able to eat. The oranges and strawberries are really sweet and yummy. I've started cutting up my apple and sprinkling it with cinnamon and that is very tasty. It's just... a small amount of food to eat all day.
On another note, BONUS POINTS for me as I have been drinking at least 2 liters of water a day. This is nothing short of miraculous for me. I've always had to choke down water.
Thank you for all your words of encouragement!!!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
When life gives you tomatoes....
OK, so I'm having a bit of a conundrum.
Each day I take a multi-vitamin, my digestive enzyme and a potassium supplement.
The problem is that every time I take the potassium I am hit with a KILLER stomach ache. I've thrown up once, just because of the pain. I don't know why; I've tried taking them on a full stomach, an empty stomach, just before bed (in hopes I'd fall asleep before the cramps kicked in)-- nothing has helped.
So, my other option is that vile V8 juice. I decided to try to heat it up and eat it like soup today. I added some chopped onion, Italian seasoning and a tiny bit of garlic salt.
It was definitely an improvement over cold tomato juice, but I still didn't manage to eat the whole bowl. It's not creamy like tomato soup is (I usually make mine with milk, hence the creaminess.)
So I'll be looking into other options about how to get my potassium in.
Interesting fact... V8 has 820mg of potassium in 8oz. The potassium supplements I'm taking are only 99mg each. I corresponded with Beth, the lady I bought the HCG stuff from, and she said 1 pill a day is fine. SO, if my logic is correct, you don't NEED 820mg of potassium a day. V8 Splash (the kind that tastes like fruit and is far tastier, in my opinion, than the tomato version) has 150mg of potassium in an 8oz glass, and only 2g more sugar.
Sooooo, all that to say I may go that route. I'm just terrified of doing something wrong and gaining a whole bunch of weight. So we'll see what ends up happening once I talk to Beth again. I'm sure she's sick of me now, as I've emailed her twice already in the last 7 days. ;-)
Each day I take a multi-vitamin, my digestive enzyme and a potassium supplement.
The problem is that every time I take the potassium I am hit with a KILLER stomach ache. I've thrown up once, just because of the pain. I don't know why; I've tried taking them on a full stomach, an empty stomach, just before bed (in hopes I'd fall asleep before the cramps kicked in)-- nothing has helped.
So, my other option is that vile V8 juice. I decided to try to heat it up and eat it like soup today. I added some chopped onion, Italian seasoning and a tiny bit of garlic salt.
It was definitely an improvement over cold tomato juice, but I still didn't manage to eat the whole bowl. It's not creamy like tomato soup is (I usually make mine with milk, hence the creaminess.)
So I'll be looking into other options about how to get my potassium in.
Interesting fact... V8 has 820mg of potassium in 8oz. The potassium supplements I'm taking are only 99mg each. I corresponded with Beth, the lady I bought the HCG stuff from, and she said 1 pill a day is fine. SO, if my logic is correct, you don't NEED 820mg of potassium a day. V8 Splash (the kind that tastes like fruit and is far tastier, in my opinion, than the tomato version) has 150mg of potassium in an 8oz glass, and only 2g more sugar.
Sooooo, all that to say I may go that route. I'm just terrified of doing something wrong and gaining a whole bunch of weight. So we'll see what ends up happening once I talk to Beth again. I'm sure she's sick of me now, as I've emailed her twice already in the last 7 days. ;-)
2 new recipes
Morning!
I lost about half a pound today. I am retaining water though, so I'm not too concerned. I accidentally had quite a bit of salt yesterday. I say accidentally because it was one of those situations where the salt came out too fast but I couldn't throw away my precious ration of food! ;-)
Here is what I ate last night:
Chicken and broccoli sprinkled with Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning and (too much) garlic salt.
This is what my family had:
Cheese biscuits (made from Bisquick with some mexican cheese mixed in) and lentil chili topped with more mexican cheese and sour cream. It turned out really good... so I hear. ;-) My daughter asked for seconds, my middle guy hemmed and hawed but ate it all. My 2 year old had a lengthy time out but ended up eating it in the end. =)
The recipe was really simple, and BONUS POINTS since it can be made in the crock pot, which I did. =)
I dumped this all into the crock pot:
4c Organic Vegetable broth
1 1/4 c lentils (washed and drained)
1 14.5oz can of stewed tomatoes with basil and oregano (juice and all)
1 t chili pepper
1 t thyme
1 t oregano
Since I didn't think about it until 1:30pm, I put the crock pot on high and let it cook for 4 hours. It soaked up almost all the broth and ended up being a hearty meal. It was especially delicious (at least it looked and smelled fantastic) once the mexican cheese and sour cream were mixed in. Chock full of protein, and if you use low fat cheese and fat free sour cream it won't be high in fat either. I saved a bowl in the freezer for when I can eat "real" food again so I can try it for myself. =)
The next recipe I have is from one of my bestest friends, Jen. She originally got it from HERE. If you haven't been introduced to Eat, Live, Run go there now. Jenna has an amazing site with LOTS of good recipes.
Anyway, I thought SUNSHINE MAMA in particular might like this recipe, as it has no flour or sugar in it and is fortified with lots of protein.
The recipe on Jenna's site only makes 2 large pancakes, so I quadrupled it. I got 12 pancakes out of a quadrupled batch. They are very hearty, so you don't need a big ol' flapjack. ;-)
I put:
2 cups egg whites (I just bought the carton of egg whites from the store. My friend Jen said she just measured out the same amount of whole eggs... so crack however many eggs it takes to get to 2 cups.)
2 cups oatmeal (I only have rolled oats, but I am going to buy steel cut and try those as well).
Anyway, you mix the egg whites and oatmeal and let it sit overnight. So this is a make-ahead recipe. You probably could make them sooner, you just have to let the oats soak up the eggs and get nice and soft.
Then I added 2 bananas (they were very ripe and easy to mash), 1T vanilla, 2t baking powder and 1t salt.
Mix it all up and fry it on the griddle. The batter is NOT like traditional pancake batter; it's not runny- it's pretty thick. I just spooned the batter onto my griddle, which I had greased with some butter (but you can also use Pam or whatever).
NOTE: IT'S IMPORTANT TO SPREAD THE BATTER FAIRLY THIN. Otherwise the pancakes rise too much (so maybe I should just cut back on the bkg powder) and the pancakes tend to fall apart. If you spread the batter evenly and thinly it cooks through and doesn't crumble.
Then you can top it with almond butter, peanut butter, jam, mashed banana, whatever your little heart desires.
SO here's the condensed version of the recipe:
2c egg whites
2c oats
2 bananas, mashed
1T vanilla
2t baking powder (but you could probably get away with less)
1t salt
Mix egg whites and oats and let sit overnight in the fridge. In the morning mix in the rest of the ingredients and fry up on a griddle. Top with whatever you want and enjoy!
(That batch is the batch I made too thick. You can see how they are sort of separating and just too thick)
So there you have it, 2 new recipes. Hope you enjoy them!
My kids didn't like the banana in the pancakes, so I'm going to try substituting cinnamon applesauce or maybe even pureed strawberries next time. I also think that I didn't mash the banana enough, so there were some chunks of banana that were too slimy for my kids. So I'll be trying the banana again as well, and just making sure it's smooth before adding to the batter.
I'm off to drink my cup of tea. Have a wonderful day, everyone!
I lost about half a pound today. I am retaining water though, so I'm not too concerned. I accidentally had quite a bit of salt yesterday. I say accidentally because it was one of those situations where the salt came out too fast but I couldn't throw away my precious ration of food! ;-)
Here is what I ate last night:
Chicken and broccoli sprinkled with Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning and (too much) garlic salt.
This is what my family had:
Cheese biscuits (made from Bisquick with some mexican cheese mixed in) and lentil chili topped with more mexican cheese and sour cream. It turned out really good... so I hear. ;-) My daughter asked for seconds, my middle guy hemmed and hawed but ate it all. My 2 year old had a lengthy time out but ended up eating it in the end. =)
The recipe was really simple, and BONUS POINTS since it can be made in the crock pot, which I did. =)
I dumped this all into the crock pot:
4c Organic Vegetable broth
1 1/4 c lentils (washed and drained)
1 14.5oz can of stewed tomatoes with basil and oregano (juice and all)
1 t chili pepper
1 t thyme
1 t oregano
Since I didn't think about it until 1:30pm, I put the crock pot on high and let it cook for 4 hours. It soaked up almost all the broth and ended up being a hearty meal. It was especially delicious (at least it looked and smelled fantastic) once the mexican cheese and sour cream were mixed in. Chock full of protein, and if you use low fat cheese and fat free sour cream it won't be high in fat either. I saved a bowl in the freezer for when I can eat "real" food again so I can try it for myself. =)
The next recipe I have is from one of my bestest friends, Jen. She originally got it from HERE. If you haven't been introduced to Eat, Live, Run go there now. Jenna has an amazing site with LOTS of good recipes.
Anyway, I thought SUNSHINE MAMA in particular might like this recipe, as it has no flour or sugar in it and is fortified with lots of protein.
The recipe on Jenna's site only makes 2 large pancakes, so I quadrupled it. I got 12 pancakes out of a quadrupled batch. They are very hearty, so you don't need a big ol' flapjack. ;-)
I put:
2 cups egg whites (I just bought the carton of egg whites from the store. My friend Jen said she just measured out the same amount of whole eggs... so crack however many eggs it takes to get to 2 cups.)
2 cups oatmeal (I only have rolled oats, but I am going to buy steel cut and try those as well).
Anyway, you mix the egg whites and oatmeal and let it sit overnight. So this is a make-ahead recipe. You probably could make them sooner, you just have to let the oats soak up the eggs and get nice and soft.
Then I added 2 bananas (they were very ripe and easy to mash), 1T vanilla, 2t baking powder and 1t salt.
Mix it all up and fry it on the griddle. The batter is NOT like traditional pancake batter; it's not runny- it's pretty thick. I just spooned the batter onto my griddle, which I had greased with some butter (but you can also use Pam or whatever).
NOTE: IT'S IMPORTANT TO SPREAD THE BATTER FAIRLY THIN. Otherwise the pancakes rise too much (so maybe I should just cut back on the bkg powder) and the pancakes tend to fall apart. If you spread the batter evenly and thinly it cooks through and doesn't crumble.
Then you can top it with almond butter, peanut butter, jam, mashed banana, whatever your little heart desires.
SO here's the condensed version of the recipe:
2c egg whites
2c oats
2 bananas, mashed
1T vanilla
2t baking powder (but you could probably get away with less)
1t salt
Mix egg whites and oats and let sit overnight in the fridge. In the morning mix in the rest of the ingredients and fry up on a griddle. Top with whatever you want and enjoy!
(That batch is the batch I made too thick. You can see how they are sort of separating and just too thick)
So there you have it, 2 new recipes. Hope you enjoy them!
My kids didn't like the banana in the pancakes, so I'm going to try substituting cinnamon applesauce or maybe even pureed strawberries next time. I also think that I didn't mash the banana enough, so there were some chunks of banana that were too slimy for my kids. So I'll be trying the banana again as well, and just making sure it's smooth before adding to the batter.
I'm off to drink my cup of tea. Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday Morning Madness
Hello Fellow Bloggers!
How are ya? How was your weekend? I had a wonderful weekend, visiting my family (who are also my friends! How lucky am I!?).
I must say, the HCG diet is going exceptionally well. Truly, honestly, I feel A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I haven't felt this good in a long, long time. I never got weak or shaky. I'm not lethargic. My head is clear, my emotions/hormones are much more stable, and I'm losing weight!!! I think a LOT of all this greatness has to do with the fact that I've basically been forced into a gluten/wheat/sugar free diet. It's amazing to see the difference.
Here is my weigh in for this morning:
Can you believe it?? 6 pounds in 5 days... with today being Day 5 of the reduced calorie diet. On Saturday I had lost a pound and yesterday I lost 2 pounds. Today I lost another pound.
I do feel hungry quite a bit. Like, all day. :-P But it has been very empowering for me to see that I *CAN* say no to food. Before, I just was like "Oh, I'm hungry I'll go find something to munch on." Or, "I'm bored, a snack would be great right about now." But I've seen that it really doesn't take THAT much food to survive.
Honestly, when I'm done eating my 3.5 ounces chicken (which is only like a little over 2 ounces once it's cooked) and 3.5 ounces of broccoli/spinach/cucumber/celery I actually DON'T feel hungry anymore.
Dawnie, I GET IT!! I know what it feels like to eat to just before full! Could I continue eating? Heck, yeah! But do I NEED to? No. No, I do not.
I'm really excited to learn to read these cues from my body, to learn what a normal portion size is, to make healthy choices. I don't think I'll give up sugar/flour entirely for the rest of my life. Thanksgiving *IS* my favorite holiday after all... I mean the FOOD! Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole... Oh my I am seriously drooling!! But I digress.
My point there before I got all crazy thinking about Thanksgiving food was that I'll allow myself to have what I want to eat. But in a very moderate portion. I don't need to fill a dinner size plate to heaping with food. A little bit of each goes a long way.
I must admit, I DO think about food. A lot. On the trip down to see our families we stopped at Burger King. Oh. My. Goodness. You want to talk about torture? THAT was torture. It was raining and I was freezing cold. Josh was eating a big, fat, warm, cheesy, whopper and fries. And I had a cold chickenlet (I call it that because the portion is pretty teeny) and some cold celery. Torture, I tell you!
BUT I RESISTED! I can do it! I didn't know I could, but I've proven to myself that I can. I've also learned to take small bites eat slowly, so as to stretch the meager portion of food longer. ;-) I've also been drinking a lot of tea.
If you have any teas that you just love, let me know what they are! So far I'm drinking peach, raspberry, spicy chai and vanilla chai. I can have Truvia (derived from the stevia plant) but no cream... which is how I usually drink my black tea. It's hard to adjust to no cream in it. I am allowed 1T of milk, but I've been drinking one cup of sweet black coffee and using my allotment of milk in that.
I hope you all had a good weekend! Happy Monday!
P.S. Check out my turtle! Look at her go! She's finally making forward progress!!
How are ya? How was your weekend? I had a wonderful weekend, visiting my family (who are also my friends! How lucky am I!?).
I must say, the HCG diet is going exceptionally well. Truly, honestly, I feel A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I haven't felt this good in a long, long time. I never got weak or shaky. I'm not lethargic. My head is clear, my emotions/hormones are much more stable, and I'm losing weight!!! I think a LOT of all this greatness has to do with the fact that I've basically been forced into a gluten/wheat/sugar free diet. It's amazing to see the difference.
Here is my weigh in for this morning:
Can you believe it?? 6 pounds in 5 days... with today being Day 5 of the reduced calorie diet. On Saturday I had lost a pound and yesterday I lost 2 pounds. Today I lost another pound.
I do feel hungry quite a bit. Like, all day. :-P But it has been very empowering for me to see that I *CAN* say no to food. Before, I just was like "Oh, I'm hungry I'll go find something to munch on." Or, "I'm bored, a snack would be great right about now." But I've seen that it really doesn't take THAT much food to survive.
Honestly, when I'm done eating my 3.5 ounces chicken (which is only like a little over 2 ounces once it's cooked) and 3.5 ounces of broccoli/spinach/cucumber/celery I actually DON'T feel hungry anymore.
Dawnie, I GET IT!! I know what it feels like to eat to just before full! Could I continue eating? Heck, yeah! But do I NEED to? No. No, I do not.
I'm really excited to learn to read these cues from my body, to learn what a normal portion size is, to make healthy choices. I don't think I'll give up sugar/flour entirely for the rest of my life. Thanksgiving *IS* my favorite holiday after all... I mean the FOOD! Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole... Oh my I am seriously drooling!! But I digress.
My point there before I got all crazy thinking about Thanksgiving food was that I'll allow myself to have what I want to eat. But in a very moderate portion. I don't need to fill a dinner size plate to heaping with food. A little bit of each goes a long way.
I must admit, I DO think about food. A lot. On the trip down to see our families we stopped at Burger King. Oh. My. Goodness. You want to talk about torture? THAT was torture. It was raining and I was freezing cold. Josh was eating a big, fat, warm, cheesy, whopper and fries. And I had a cold chickenlet (I call it that because the portion is pretty teeny) and some cold celery. Torture, I tell you!
BUT I RESISTED! I can do it! I didn't know I could, but I've proven to myself that I can. I've also learned to take small bites eat slowly, so as to stretch the meager portion of food longer. ;-) I've also been drinking a lot of tea.
If you have any teas that you just love, let me know what they are! So far I'm drinking peach, raspberry, spicy chai and vanilla chai. I can have Truvia (derived from the stevia plant) but no cream... which is how I usually drink my black tea. It's hard to adjust to no cream in it. I am allowed 1T of milk, but I've been drinking one cup of sweet black coffee and using my allotment of milk in that.
I hope you all had a good weekend! Happy Monday!
P.S. Check out my turtle! Look at her go! She's finally making forward progress!!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Friday Weigh In and a Mess Up
Good Morning Folks!
Ok, so I already messed up on my diet. BUT, not with food! GO ME!
I forgot to take my drops last night. I'm supposed to take the HCG and Weight Aid twice a day, in the morning and evening, 12 hours apart. Last night I was exhausted and both Josh and I hit the hay at 8pm and I forgot to take them.
I just have to take them 3 times today and everything should be fine. WHEW! I have my alarm on my set now, to remind me.
I weighed in today:
A 2 pound loss; not too bad considering I'm totally constipated. Also, just because it DOES matter ;-) The camera weighs 4 ounces. That's 1/4 of a pound, so it's a lot when you're looking at the scale for weight loss purposes! :-P
I'm happy with the 2 pounds and hope to see more as the week goes on and I (hopefully, fingers crossed) get things moving again in my GI tract.
Ok. Don't laugh. Well, okay, you can laugh if you want to. I took a full body picture. Actually, I didn't take it. Kate did. She's 5. She's never held a camera before. This is the best one of the bunch... and it's not "best" in any way! ;-)
So there I am in all my 5'4", 166.8 pound, pin head, Buddha body glory, feetless. :-D I'll take another one at the end of the diet.. Well, I'll probably have Josh do it. It's good for me to see pictures of myself, because they don't lie. Yep, I've got some weight to lose! And I'm on my way.
We're going to be out of town this weekend, but I plan to bring my scale and I'll update you on Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Ok, so I already messed up on my diet. BUT, not with food! GO ME!
I forgot to take my drops last night. I'm supposed to take the HCG and Weight Aid twice a day, in the morning and evening, 12 hours apart. Last night I was exhausted and both Josh and I hit the hay at 8pm and I forgot to take them.
I just have to take them 3 times today and everything should be fine. WHEW! I have my alarm on my set now, to remind me.
I weighed in today:
A 2 pound loss; not too bad considering I'm totally constipated. Also, just because it DOES matter ;-) The camera weighs 4 ounces. That's 1/4 of a pound, so it's a lot when you're looking at the scale for weight loss purposes! :-P
I'm happy with the 2 pounds and hope to see more as the week goes on and I (hopefully, fingers crossed) get things moving again in my GI tract.
Ok. Don't laugh. Well, okay, you can laugh if you want to. I took a full body picture. Actually, I didn't take it. Kate did. She's 5. She's never held a camera before. This is the best one of the bunch... and it's not "best" in any way! ;-)
So there I am in all my 5'4", 166.8 pound, pin head, Buddha body glory, feetless. :-D I'll take another one at the end of the diet.. Well, I'll probably have Josh do it. It's good for me to see pictures of myself, because they don't lie. Yep, I've got some weight to lose! And I'm on my way.
We're going to be out of town this weekend, but I plan to bring my scale and I'll update you on Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
HUNGRY
Today has gone swimmingly well!
I generally am not hungry in the mornings, so it didn't bother me a whit to skip breakfast. I had an apple mid-morning, as well as a cup of tea.
Lunch was 3.5 ounces baked chicken, seasoned with Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning and 3.5ounces fresh broccoli with a smidge of fat free dressing.
I had 6 strawberries for a snack around 2 or so.
Now I'm RAVENOUS and all I have to look forward to is 3.5 ounces of chicken and 3.5 ounces of veggies. FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT!
I have drunk 2 quarts of water, along with 3 cups of tea. Yes, I've been in the bathroom quite a bit today. =)
I am also supposed to drink a glass of V8 for the potassium, but that stuff is NASTY. I am freezing cold today, so I'm contemplating heating it up and pretending it is tomato soup.
I will not cheat. I will stick it out and follow it through.
It's weird how foods I don't normally even care about sound so delicious right now!
Tuna sandwiches with cheese and apples? Yes, please!! Fried egg sandwich? Don't mind if I do! Grilled cheese with a dill pickle? Count me in!
But I can't have any of that. So, I'm off to eat my 3.5 ounces of chicken --which, by the way, is a VERY small portion-- and my 3.5 ounces of fresh spinach and then drink some more water or tea.
I think the key here is to distract myself. So instead of wandering about the kitchen looking at all the things I can't eat, I'll run a hot bubble bath and have a good soak with a book and then head to bed.
That's my plan of action for now. =)
I generally am not hungry in the mornings, so it didn't bother me a whit to skip breakfast. I had an apple mid-morning, as well as a cup of tea.
Lunch was 3.5 ounces baked chicken, seasoned with Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning and 3.5ounces fresh broccoli with a smidge of fat free dressing.
I had 6 strawberries for a snack around 2 or so.
Now I'm RAVENOUS and all I have to look forward to is 3.5 ounces of chicken and 3.5 ounces of veggies. FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT!
I have drunk 2 quarts of water, along with 3 cups of tea. Yes, I've been in the bathroom quite a bit today. =)
I am also supposed to drink a glass of V8 for the potassium, but that stuff is NASTY. I am freezing cold today, so I'm contemplating heating it up and pretending it is tomato soup.
I will not cheat. I will stick it out and follow it through.
It's weird how foods I don't normally even care about sound so delicious right now!
Tuna sandwiches with cheese and apples? Yes, please!! Fried egg sandwich? Don't mind if I do! Grilled cheese with a dill pickle? Count me in!
But I can't have any of that. So, I'm off to eat my 3.5 ounces of chicken --which, by the way, is a VERY small portion-- and my 3.5 ounces of fresh spinach and then drink some more water or tea.
I think the key here is to distract myself. So instead of wandering about the kitchen looking at all the things I can't eat, I'll run a hot bubble bath and have a good soak with a book and then head to bed.
That's my plan of action for now. =)
200th post, Day 3 of HCG Diet
Today starts the reduced calorie portion of my diet, and I must say I'm excited about it!
I weighed in this morning.
So I was successful in gaining weight during my binge days. ;-)
I am currently enjoying a warm mug of peach tea with Truvia; a natural sweetener derived from Stevia. It's really good.
I have all my chicken baked and separated into individual serving portions. All my broccoli, cucumbers, celery and strawberries are washed and cut up. I need to go to the store for more apples and oranges, since my kiddos ate the ones I bought for the diet.
Other than that, I'm ready to go!! I'm excited to start see the scale going down. I really don't think it's going to be that hard to stick to this... at least not initially. Maybe smack dab in the middle of the 3 weeks when I'm sick of chicken. ;-) And I'll be eating much healthier than I've managed to for a very long time.
So here's to a new day, a new beginning, a new me! =)
I weighed in this morning.
So I was successful in gaining weight during my binge days. ;-)
I am currently enjoying a warm mug of peach tea with Truvia; a natural sweetener derived from Stevia. It's really good.
I have all my chicken baked and separated into individual serving portions. All my broccoli, cucumbers, celery and strawberries are washed and cut up. I need to go to the store for more apples and oranges, since my kiddos ate the ones I bought for the diet.
Other than that, I'm ready to go!! I'm excited to start see the scale going down. I really don't think it's going to be that hard to stick to this... at least not initially. Maybe smack dab in the middle of the 3 weeks when I'm sick of chicken. ;-) And I'll be eating much healthier than I've managed to for a very long time.
So here's to a new day, a new beginning, a new me! =)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Binge Day #2
Today is Binge Day #2.
I kicked off the day with 2 Krispy Kreme donuts. =)
I woke up feeling incredibly ill. My head was pounding, throbbing, aching. I felt nauseated. My joints ached.
I drank 24oz of water and started feeling better fairly quickly, so I decided to eat my donuts.
I think I need to eat some fat that isn't so sugary. ???
Anyway, the weird thing is that I'm totally looking forward to the next part of my diet. Chicken, fruits and veggies. I'm cooking up all my chicken and preparing (washing and cutting) my fruits and veggies and separating it all out into the 3.5oz servings I'll be eating.
I'm headed back to see my friends and family again this weekend, so having it all ready to grab will be invaluable.
I'm so excited to see the scale start going down! I will weigh myself tomorrow and post it. I'm NOT looking forward to that weigh-in; I know it will be up from all the fat and sugar I've been eating. But if it goes down in the end, that's all I care about.
I need to go find some more fattening stuff to eat. Maybe I'll make those peanut butter cookies. I just have to make sure they are all gone by tomorrow!!
I kicked off the day with 2 Krispy Kreme donuts. =)
I woke up feeling incredibly ill. My head was pounding, throbbing, aching. I felt nauseated. My joints ached.
I drank 24oz of water and started feeling better fairly quickly, so I decided to eat my donuts.
I think I need to eat some fat that isn't so sugary. ???
Anyway, the weird thing is that I'm totally looking forward to the next part of my diet. Chicken, fruits and veggies. I'm cooking up all my chicken and preparing (washing and cutting) my fruits and veggies and separating it all out into the 3.5oz servings I'll be eating.
I'm headed back to see my friends and family again this weekend, so having it all ready to grab will be invaluable.
I'm so excited to see the scale start going down! I will weigh myself tomorrow and post it. I'm NOT looking forward to that weigh-in; I know it will be up from all the fat and sugar I've been eating. But if it goes down in the end, that's all I care about.
I need to go find some more fattening stuff to eat. Maybe I'll make those peanut butter cookies. I just have to make sure they are all gone by tomorrow!!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Stuffed
Okay, Folks. Here's the rundown of what I've eaten today:
3 crepes, 1 plain and 2 with sour cream and strawberry jam
1 chocolate muffin from Costco
1 cup of coffee with cream
1 bowl of cereal (Honey Bunches of Oats) with almond milk
1 Big Mac, 3/4 of a large fry and 1/2 of a large strawberry milkshake.
Josh is working late, but was so kind as to pick up some Krispy Kremes without me even asking! I think this might be the first time ever in my entire life I cringe at the thought of a Krispy Kreme.
Dudes and Dudettes--- I am SO FULL. I can't imagine how people eat large meals from McDonald's on a regular basis. It's So. Much. Food. I mean, the large fry has got to be at least 3 or 4 potatoes worth. The Big Mac has 590 calories and 34g of fat. A large fry has 500 calories and 25g of fat. JEEPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By the time Josh gets home tonight I think I'll be able to manage a Krispy Kreme or two, for the sake of the diet. ;-) Each doughnut (original glazed) has 200 calories and 12g of fat. That seems like nothing compared to everything else I've packed away today.
I have no idea what I'll do tomorrow, besides eat another muffin. I thought maybe I'd be able to eat 2 muffins a day, but so far, no dice. They make me sick. And it's pointless if I end up throwing up my binge food.
So here I sit, fat as Humpty Dumpty and full as I can be, feeling a bit green around the gills. I don't plan to move much until the food settles a little.
Between the muffin and the Big Mac and fries I think I've binged quite well.
3 crepes, 1 plain and 2 with sour cream and strawberry jam
1 chocolate muffin from Costco
1 cup of coffee with cream
1 bowl of cereal (Honey Bunches of Oats) with almond milk
1 Big Mac, 3/4 of a large fry and 1/2 of a large strawberry milkshake.
Josh is working late, but was so kind as to pick up some Krispy Kremes without me even asking! I think this might be the first time ever in my entire life I cringe at the thought of a Krispy Kreme.
Dudes and Dudettes--- I am SO FULL. I can't imagine how people eat large meals from McDonald's on a regular basis. It's So. Much. Food. I mean, the large fry has got to be at least 3 or 4 potatoes worth. The Big Mac has 590 calories and 34g of fat. A large fry has 500 calories and 25g of fat. JEEPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By the time Josh gets home tonight I think I'll be able to manage a Krispy Kreme or two, for the sake of the diet. ;-) Each doughnut (original glazed) has 200 calories and 12g of fat. That seems like nothing compared to everything else I've packed away today.
I have no idea what I'll do tomorrow, besides eat another muffin. I thought maybe I'd be able to eat 2 muffins a day, but so far, no dice. They make me sick. And it's pointless if I end up throwing up my binge food.
So here I sit, fat as Humpty Dumpty and full as I can be, feeling a bit green around the gills. I don't plan to move much until the food settles a little.
Between the muffin and the Big Mac and fries I think I've binged quite well.
Binge Day #1
Today is Binge Day #1. I thought it would be easy and fun, but it's not.
I had two crepes this morning with sour cream and strawberry jam and a cup of coffee with creamer. And I felt sick.
I'm working on a chocolate muffin from Costco now. I got that genius idea last night. Each muffin has 692 calories and 38 grams of fat. Can you even BELIEVE that!?!?!? It's so insane.
So I'm going to scrap all that other stuff and just stick with the muffins; they have plenty of fat all by themselves.
I'm feeling better now. I tried to buy just six muffins, but they make you buy 12. They just split the packages up. So I'm planning to put the other 6 in the freezer for the next round binge.
I plan to do the HCG diet twice. Once you do the 21 days and then the 3 week maintenance, you can start another round. I think with 2 rounds I will be able to get down to my goal weight and then really focus on weights to tone.
It's interesting the emotional conflict I feel. I can hardly eat that dang muffin because it's SO BAD FOR YOU. But if that's what I need to do for the diet to work then I'll do it. It's not easy or enjoyable though. Weird, huh?
I'll post again tonight with the rundown of what I ended up eating. I'm thinking I may get some french fries at some point, but other than that I don't plan to chow down on anything quite as fattening as those muffins.
I'm still in shock that they even make such an unhealthy thing and then make you buy 12 of them. :-O
I had two crepes this morning with sour cream and strawberry jam and a cup of coffee with creamer. And I felt sick.
I'm working on a chocolate muffin from Costco now. I got that genius idea last night. Each muffin has 692 calories and 38 grams of fat. Can you even BELIEVE that!?!?!? It's so insane.
So I'm going to scrap all that other stuff and just stick with the muffins; they have plenty of fat all by themselves.
I'm feeling better now. I tried to buy just six muffins, but they make you buy 12. They just split the packages up. So I'm planning to put the other 6 in the freezer for the next round binge.
I plan to do the HCG diet twice. Once you do the 21 days and then the 3 week maintenance, you can start another round. I think with 2 rounds I will be able to get down to my goal weight and then really focus on weights to tone.
It's interesting the emotional conflict I feel. I can hardly eat that dang muffin because it's SO BAD FOR YOU. But if that's what I need to do for the diet to work then I'll do it. It's not easy or enjoyable though. Weird, huh?
I'll post again tonight with the rundown of what I ended up eating. I'm thinking I may get some french fries at some point, but other than that I don't plan to chow down on anything quite as fattening as those muffins.
I'm still in shock that they even make such an unhealthy thing and then make you buy 12 of them. :-O
Monday, May 17, 2010
It Came!!
And who knows how long it has actually been here... My husband came home and informed me there was a package sitting on our front porch. Doh! In my defense, they didn't ring the doorbell and I never heard the truck pull up.
In any case, this is what $106 bucks will get ya these days:
A blurry picture, taken with my cell phone because I didn't want to bother with camera cords. The HCG and Weight Aid drops!
Also, about my "bingeing in moderation" (if such a thing even exists)... well, scrap that. I talked to my friend today (her mom has lost 70 pounds on it so far) and she said that the binge is supposed to be a BINGE. As in, it's no problem at all if you gain 2-4 pounds in two days! :-O Say what!?!?!?
Apparently it tricks the brain into thinking it's a time of feast, so it lets go of the initial fat more readily AND it creates a "euphoria" that takes you through the the first 3 hard days of low calorie dieting.
So, here's my battle plan:
Krispy Kremes, if I can find a store close enough.
If not, some other kind of donut; probably an apple fritter. YUM.
Brownies.
A Big Mac with fries... interestingly enough the reason I'm wanting one is that I watched Supersize Me. Now if that isn't an oxymoron I don't know what is! If you haven't seen this documentary... watch it.
Continuing on...
Nachos with sour cream and salsa.
Reese's Peanut Butter cups and Snickers
And I don't know what else. My husband is very skeptical and to be honest, so am I. I mean, how can that be good for you!?!? I guess we'll see.
A full body shot of myself... EEK that would take some courage. Perhaps I'll have my husband snap a shot; I've been thinking about doing it for my own purposes, just to see for myself the transformation. I mean, check out 266. If you haven't checked out her blog, go now. Scroll down until you see her pictures on the right. I'll wait. GO!
Or look at Dawne. The pictures tell the story in a completely different, more tangible way than just the written word. So I think I will take a picture. I just have to get up some courage first. And I'll probably copycat 266 and do it in my black tank top and black yoga pants. You know, cuz black is so flattering. ;-)
In any case, the journey begins tomorrow! Come along for the ride!
In any case, this is what $106 bucks will get ya these days:
A blurry picture, taken with my cell phone because I didn't want to bother with camera cords. The HCG and Weight Aid drops!
Also, about my "bingeing in moderation" (if such a thing even exists)... well, scrap that. I talked to my friend today (her mom has lost 70 pounds on it so far) and she said that the binge is supposed to be a BINGE. As in, it's no problem at all if you gain 2-4 pounds in two days! :-O Say what!?!?!?
Apparently it tricks the brain into thinking it's a time of feast, so it lets go of the initial fat more readily AND it creates a "euphoria" that takes you through the the first 3 hard days of low calorie dieting.
So, here's my battle plan:
Krispy Kremes, if I can find a store close enough.
If not, some other kind of donut; probably an apple fritter. YUM.
Brownies.
A Big Mac with fries... interestingly enough the reason I'm wanting one is that I watched Supersize Me. Now if that isn't an oxymoron I don't know what is! If you haven't seen this documentary... watch it.
Continuing on...
Nachos with sour cream and salsa.
Reese's Peanut Butter cups and Snickers
And I don't know what else. My husband is very skeptical and to be honest, so am I. I mean, how can that be good for you!?!? I guess we'll see.
A full body shot of myself... EEK that would take some courage. Perhaps I'll have my husband snap a shot; I've been thinking about doing it for my own purposes, just to see for myself the transformation. I mean, check out 266. If you haven't checked out her blog, go now. Scroll down until you see her pictures on the right. I'll wait. GO!
Or look at Dawne. The pictures tell the story in a completely different, more tangible way than just the written word. So I think I will take a picture. I just have to get up some courage first. And I'll probably copycat 266 and do it in my black tank top and black yoga pants. You know, cuz black is so flattering. ;-)
In any case, the journey begins tomorrow! Come along for the ride!
Still Waiting
Still no sign of the drops, although I assume they'll show up at some point today.
In the meantime (and since it's naptime and I have some time) :-P I thought I'd blog a little about big heads on small bodies.
Yep, you read that right. Some people are way too thin for their own bodies. Their heads look oversized and disproportionate to their bodies.
See, this is what I mean:
Doesn't that just look ODD? It's like they are too skinny; they need more meat on their bones to counter the size of their head.
I, on the other hand, have the opposite problem.
I've got a pin head. A very small head. A child size head. No joke; I can wear children's sunglasses and hats. My body, however... well, that's a different story.
If you could take a pinhead and put it on a buddha-ish body... that's a fairly accurate description of moi. :-D
So what I'm hoping to attain during this diet is the right head to body proportion. My head is small, my wrists are small, my fingers are small. I definitely have extra, extra, extra padding on top of my smaller frame. So my goal is to say adios to that fat and be a slender, proportionate person.
That's my hope anyway. No more pin-sized-head-on-a-buddha-body for me. Just a normal looking, healthy girl. That's what I'm aiming for.
All images are courtesy of Google Images. ;-)
In the meantime (and since it's naptime and I have some time) :-P I thought I'd blog a little about big heads on small bodies.
Yep, you read that right. Some people are way too thin for their own bodies. Their heads look oversized and disproportionate to their bodies.
See, this is what I mean:
Doesn't that just look ODD? It's like they are too skinny; they need more meat on their bones to counter the size of their head.
I, on the other hand, have the opposite problem.
I've got a pin head. A very small head. A child size head. No joke; I can wear children's sunglasses and hats. My body, however... well, that's a different story.
If you could take a pinhead and put it on a buddha-ish body... that's a fairly accurate description of moi. :-D
So what I'm hoping to attain during this diet is the right head to body proportion. My head is small, my wrists are small, my fingers are small. I definitely have extra, extra, extra padding on top of my smaller frame. So my goal is to say adios to that fat and be a slender, proportionate person.
That's my hope anyway. No more pin-sized-head-on-a-buddha-body for me. Just a normal looking, healthy girl. That's what I'm aiming for.
All images are courtesy of Google Images. ;-)
Monday Morning
Good Morning Everyone!
So that fat percentage number really disturbed me. I mean, it seems rather high, doesn't it? Does 35 pounds overweight really equal absolute and total obesity? I'm choosing to think that the body fat percentage calculator isn't that accurate; since several of you have told me so. ;-)
I was up a pound today, to 166.
It's a bad picture because I used my cell phone instead of my camera.
I'm hoping my drops come in today, which means I will start the diet tomorrow. I plan to eat a lot of fat, since that's what they say to do, but I don't want to go completely loco and binge my head off. I guess I'm going for a controlled explosion, LOL! Pizza and breadsticks with yummy butter garlic sauce, maybe make some peanut butter cookies. I don't really have it all planned out yet.
I have purchased all the fruits and veggies I'll need, as well as some peach tea. On the diet you don't eat breakfast; you drink as much tea or coffee or water as you'd like, then have your morning snack of fruit. I'm hoping the tea is good and will replace my coffee habit. I can use Truvia, which is a natural sweetener derived from the stevia plant; which is good because I like my tea sweet.
Not much else to report; I'll pop on ASAP as soon as those drops arrive on my doorstep! :0)
So that fat percentage number really disturbed me. I mean, it seems rather high, doesn't it? Does 35 pounds overweight really equal absolute and total obesity? I'm choosing to think that the body fat percentage calculator isn't that accurate; since several of you have told me so. ;-)
I was up a pound today, to 166.
It's a bad picture because I used my cell phone instead of my camera.
I'm hoping my drops come in today, which means I will start the diet tomorrow. I plan to eat a lot of fat, since that's what they say to do, but I don't want to go completely loco and binge my head off. I guess I'm going for a controlled explosion, LOL! Pizza and breadsticks with yummy butter garlic sauce, maybe make some peanut butter cookies. I don't really have it all planned out yet.
I have purchased all the fruits and veggies I'll need, as well as some peach tea. On the diet you don't eat breakfast; you drink as much tea or coffee or water as you'd like, then have your morning snack of fruit. I'm hoping the tea is good and will replace my coffee habit. I can use Truvia, which is a natural sweetener derived from the stevia plant; which is good because I like my tea sweet.
Not much else to report; I'll pop on ASAP as soon as those drops arrive on my doorstep! :0)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The Good News and the Very, Very Bad News
I used my new scale today. It was quite the bittersweet experience.
The good news is, I'm down to 165. I'll take it.
The bad, shocking, horrible, gut wrenching news is that I also found out what my body fat percentage is. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea. I fall firmly in the Obese category.
Are you sitting down? 38%. Yes, my friends, I am over one third FAT! Is that disgusting or what!? I struggled to even write this out; it's so shameful! I mean, really, what kind of person has 38% body fat!???? A fat one, that's what!
Anyway, it was a huge wake-up call and it has totally put a fire under my bumdiggity to change that embarrassing fact. I really hope with this HCG diet releasing my stored fat that that ugly number will quickly begin it's descent into a healthy range.
Obese is considered anything over 32%. An "acceptable" percentage for women is 25-31%, the percentage for an active woman should be 21-24% and for hardcore women athletes they should be around 14-20%. Or so the world wide web tells me. ;-)
So anyway, there it is. The good, the bad and the ugly. I am really, really looking forward to changing things around here, to learning to live a healthy lifestyle of moderation and getting into the healthy range for both my weight and my body fat percentage.
The good news is, I'm down to 165. I'll take it.
The bad, shocking, horrible, gut wrenching news is that I also found out what my body fat percentage is. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea. I fall firmly in the Obese category.
Are you sitting down? 38%. Yes, my friends, I am over one third FAT! Is that disgusting or what!? I struggled to even write this out; it's so shameful! I mean, really, what kind of person has 38% body fat!???? A fat one, that's what!
Anyway, it was a huge wake-up call and it has totally put a fire under my bumdiggity to change that embarrassing fact. I really hope with this HCG diet releasing my stored fat that that ugly number will quickly begin it's descent into a healthy range.
Obese is considered anything over 32%. An "acceptable" percentage for women is 25-31%, the percentage for an active woman should be 21-24% and for hardcore women athletes they should be around 14-20%. Or so the world wide web tells me. ;-)
So anyway, there it is. The good, the bad and the ugly. I am really, really looking forward to changing things around here, to learning to live a healthy lifestyle of moderation and getting into the healthy range for both my weight and my body fat percentage.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
The Website
If you are interested in more info on this diet, I ordered the kit from here:
www.handstoheavenonline.com
There's lots of good info about how it works, how to do it, etc...
You can buy the HCG hormone other places on the web, for cheaper, but I chose to go through this website because they include a Weight Aid that helps with blood sugar regulation and hunger pangs. They include those things in their HCG also.
Let me know if you have any other questions... ask away! :0)
www.handstoheavenonline.com
There's lots of good info about how it works, how to do it, etc...
You can buy the HCG hormone other places on the web, for cheaper, but I chose to go through this website because they include a Weight Aid that helps with blood sugar regulation and hunger pangs. They include those things in their HCG also.
Let me know if you have any other questions... ask away! :0)
Prepping for the Big Diet
Today I bought a new scale (and it reads body fat as well... NOT excited to see that particular nugget of info!) and a food scale with which I'll weigh my portions for the HCG diet. I also loaded up on the vegetables and fruit I can eat.
Dawne asked what the hormone does exactly. This is from the website: "This hormone allows the body to metabolize fat and use it as energy for both mother and fetus. This acts as a “fail-safe” mechanism when energy is needed immediately. For weight loss, we use only a very small amount of HCG to capitalize on this same mechanism. Using HCG in this way does not mimic pregnancy; in fact, it can be safely used by both men and women."
So apparently it allows the body to metabolize stored fat and use it for energy.
I must say, I am very excited to begin this diet. I know if I am faithful to stick to it that I'll see great results, and I think that will motivate me to continue on. I do plan to regularly go to the gym once my energy is back up; not sure exactly when that will happen, though. I can tell I am very, very out of shape. My muscles quiver and ache when I carry the groceries up the 2 flights of stairs into the house and I get out of breath.
So I'm excited to get in good cardio shape, and also work in some weight lifting perhaps to tone my muscles once a good portion of the fat covering them is gone. From what I've read most people lose approximately 20 pounds per round of HCG. I'm doing it this once for sure, and I may do another round later this summer. I have to do some more research to see if there is a recommended waiting period between doses, but so far it looks like you just need to give yourself 3 weeks after the diet for your weight to stabilize and your hypothalamus to be reset.
If I did it twice and lost 20 pounds each time, that would put me a few pounds below my goal weight of 130. I've never been below 130; at least not since my weight stabilized as an adult. I will be measuring myself during the diet; it's highly recommended you do so, as the scale may stop dropping so drastically but the inches continue to melt off. So, for me it doesn't matter so much what the number on the scale is. I'm more looking to get down to a healthy size; an 8 or so.
I will definitely be blogging every step of the way. I am mentally preparing for the first 4 days to be excruciatingly hard. Actually, now that I think about it, I should make some meals and put them in the freezer for those days. Good thought. =) In addition to the food menu they suggest, I will be taking a multivitamin and also drinking one glass of low sodium V8 a day for the potassium.
I'm excited to see how things will go! I'm especially excited to see the number on the scale start moving down, and for my poor little turtle ticker who has been stranded at 7 pounds lost to be able to move forward. :0) I think I will weigh every Monday and post a picture of what the scale says. I've seen other bloggers do it and it's more exciting to see the real thing than for me to just say, " I lost xx amount of pounds". So you'll get to see my little tootsies once a week; a good excuse for a pedicure, no?
Dawne asked what the hormone does exactly. This is from the website: "This hormone allows the body to metabolize fat and use it as energy for both mother and fetus. This acts as a “fail-safe” mechanism when energy is needed immediately. For weight loss, we use only a very small amount of HCG to capitalize on this same mechanism. Using HCG in this way does not mimic pregnancy; in fact, it can be safely used by both men and women."
So apparently it allows the body to metabolize stored fat and use it for energy.
I must say, I am very excited to begin this diet. I know if I am faithful to stick to it that I'll see great results, and I think that will motivate me to continue on. I do plan to regularly go to the gym once my energy is back up; not sure exactly when that will happen, though. I can tell I am very, very out of shape. My muscles quiver and ache when I carry the groceries up the 2 flights of stairs into the house and I get out of breath.
So I'm excited to get in good cardio shape, and also work in some weight lifting perhaps to tone my muscles once a good portion of the fat covering them is gone. From what I've read most people lose approximately 20 pounds per round of HCG. I'm doing it this once for sure, and I may do another round later this summer. I have to do some more research to see if there is a recommended waiting period between doses, but so far it looks like you just need to give yourself 3 weeks after the diet for your weight to stabilize and your hypothalamus to be reset.
If I did it twice and lost 20 pounds each time, that would put me a few pounds below my goal weight of 130. I've never been below 130; at least not since my weight stabilized as an adult. I will be measuring myself during the diet; it's highly recommended you do so, as the scale may stop dropping so drastically but the inches continue to melt off. So, for me it doesn't matter so much what the number on the scale is. I'm more looking to get down to a healthy size; an 8 or so.
I will definitely be blogging every step of the way. I am mentally preparing for the first 4 days to be excruciatingly hard. Actually, now that I think about it, I should make some meals and put them in the freezer for those days. Good thought. =) In addition to the food menu they suggest, I will be taking a multivitamin and also drinking one glass of low sodium V8 a day for the potassium.
I'm excited to see how things will go! I'm especially excited to see the number on the scale start moving down, and for my poor little turtle ticker who has been stranded at 7 pounds lost to be able to move forward. :0) I think I will weigh every Monday and post a picture of what the scale says. I've seen other bloggers do it and it's more exciting to see the real thing than for me to just say, " I lost xx amount of pounds". So you'll get to see my little tootsies once a week; a good excuse for a pedicure, no?
Friday, May 14, 2010
Well, this is one way to lose weight...
Illness. I tell ya, we have been sick basically since we moved! Colds, bacterial infections, ear infections and now, apparently, the flu.
So gross and yucky. We're all just laying around feeling queasy. Occasionally making a mad dash for the bathroom. The crazy thing is that last night we were all perfectly healthy and fine! We even went to a lake and had a picnic.
I took this picture for DAWNE... reminded me immediately of her daughter who rows. =)
I should be getting my HCG kit tomorrow, but I won't start it until I'm healthy. The first two days you start you're supposed to "pig out on fatty foods". I kid you not. That's what the website says! So I don't want to be sick for that. :-P
Hope everyone is healthy and has a happy weekend!
So gross and yucky. We're all just laying around feeling queasy. Occasionally making a mad dash for the bathroom. The crazy thing is that last night we were all perfectly healthy and fine! We even went to a lake and had a picnic.
I took this picture for DAWNE... reminded me immediately of her daughter who rows. =)
I should be getting my HCG kit tomorrow, but I won't start it until I'm healthy. The first two days you start you're supposed to "pig out on fatty foods". I kid you not. That's what the website says! So I don't want to be sick for that. :-P
Hope everyone is healthy and has a happy weekend!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
I'm Going For It
Well, after lengthy talks with my husband and lots of pondering, I've decided to give this HCG diet a try. I'm scared, to be honest. I just don't want to/can't mess it up. I purchased the Diet Kit today... $106 bucks for the HCG, the Diet Aid and shipping.
It's very restrictive, but I've asked Josh to help me out... help keep me on the straight and narrow and also help pick up the slack around the house the first few days.
I'm excited and nervous. I hope it starts things moving in the weight loss department. I'm hoping that by continuing to see the scale go down that I will stay motivated.
Here's what a sample menu looks like, during the 21 day diet:
Breakfast: as much coffee or tea as I'd like... without creamer. I can use an artificial sweetener, such as stevia.
Snack: an apple, orange, 1/2 a grapefruit or 6 strawberries
Lunch: 3.5oz chicken and 3.5oz of one type of vegetable, NOT including potatoes, carrots or corn
Snack: apple, orange, 1/2 grapefruit or strawberries
Dinner: 3.5oz chicken and 3.5oz vegetable
Water- A LOT; minimum of 2 liters a day.
So I guess I'll have to wait on those Mary's crackers. I'm still going to check into the Miracle Noodles, though. I also need to get a working scale.
I don't plan to try to work out on top of the diet, at this point. I will take walks with my kiddos, but don't know if I'd manage a workout at the gym. Not at first anyway. If I get into it and am feeling fine I'll perhaps head to the gym for a 20 minute HIIT workout on the elliptical. We'll see how that goes.
I want to really use the diet to learn new portion sizes and make healthy choices. Obviously while I'm on the diet I'm limited to chicken and vegetables/fruit. Which isn't so bad. Once the diet is done and my 3 weeks maintenance afterward is over I will slowly allow baked goods into my diet, but in moderation.
I'll post regularly to chronicle this journey. =)
It's very restrictive, but I've asked Josh to help me out... help keep me on the straight and narrow and also help pick up the slack around the house the first few days.
I'm excited and nervous. I hope it starts things moving in the weight loss department. I'm hoping that by continuing to see the scale go down that I will stay motivated.
Here's what a sample menu looks like, during the 21 day diet:
Breakfast: as much coffee or tea as I'd like... without creamer. I can use an artificial sweetener, such as stevia.
Snack: an apple, orange, 1/2 a grapefruit or 6 strawberries
Lunch: 3.5oz chicken and 3.5oz of one type of vegetable, NOT including potatoes, carrots or corn
Snack: apple, orange, 1/2 grapefruit or strawberries
Dinner: 3.5oz chicken and 3.5oz vegetable
Water- A LOT; minimum of 2 liters a day.
So I guess I'll have to wait on those Mary's crackers. I'm still going to check into the Miracle Noodles, though. I also need to get a working scale.
I don't plan to try to work out on top of the diet, at this point. I will take walks with my kiddos, but don't know if I'd manage a workout at the gym. Not at first anyway. If I get into it and am feeling fine I'll perhaps head to the gym for a 20 minute HIIT workout on the elliptical. We'll see how that goes.
I want to really use the diet to learn new portion sizes and make healthy choices. Obviously while I'm on the diet I'm limited to chicken and vegetables/fruit. Which isn't so bad. Once the diet is done and my 3 weeks maintenance afterward is over I will slowly allow baked goods into my diet, but in moderation.
I'll post regularly to chronicle this journey. =)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Noodles
So, my good friend Dawne posted about these miracle noodles on her blog. Check them out HERE. I'm super excited to try them out... I mean, they are NOODLES with ZERO calories and are wheat and gluten free. Amazing! And even more amazing, they are sold right here, in the city I live in!
I am excited to try them out.
As far as the HCG diet goes... it does seem unreasonable and crazy and unhealthy. But when you do the research, it makes sense. Yes, you're only eating 500 calories a day, but your body is getting all the rest of the calories it needs from burning your body fat. It's natural; not a synthetic drug or anything. And the process resets your hypothalamus, so you'll continue to burn fat with an increased metabolism after you're done with the diet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still leery of it. Mostly I'm afraid that I'll do it wrong and gain a bunch of weight. If you do it correctly, that won't happen--even after you're done with the diet. But if you do it incorrectly and cheat, it can cause weight gain. I think I will give it a shot. I'm going to talk with my husband and make sure we're on the same page, make sure I can stick with it.
Sherah also brought up a very valid point... that if it makes me freak out on my kiddos then it's NOT worth it. My good friend who is doing it right now says the first 4 days are pretty hard and basically all you should expect to get done is feeding your kids and yourself. No housework or anything. But once your body start really letting go of that stored fat, you don't feel hungry and shaky anymore.
So we'll see. I'll let you know if I end up doing it. I need to buy a new scale if I do, because part of the process is to weigh yourself every day after the initial 21 days of taking the HCG.
Anyway, I've never been into fad diets or extreme dieting. It's so not worth it to do something if you're just gonna pile the weight back on as soon as you stop doing it. But this seems a bit different, even though it absolutely is extreme. It actually is resetting the hypothalamus and because you're eating small portions for almost a month, your stomach shrinks so you don't require as much food to feel full. And it is actual fat that you're burning and losing, not muscle.
It also helps that I know people, in real life, who are doing it and have been successful with it. My friend's mom has done it since Sept and has lost 70 pounds so far. It's just comforting to see people I know who have done it, been successful and are still alive and well. ;-)
I don't know, I'm totally on the fence. The idea of losing many pounds quickly, of FAT, is very tempting. I feel like if I can get a jump-start on that, it will be easier to go to the gym and continue to eat sensibly and healthfully. I have this weird mentality where I feel like I need to lose weight before I go to the gym. So weird, I know.
I also know that if I cut calories and exercise I will see the same results. Maybe not as quickly, but I WOULD lose weight. The only problem with that is I seriously have no energy. I'm not sure why; I don't know if my thyroid is wonky again or what. But I wake up tired and go to bed bone tired. It's all I can do to make meals and do laundry, much less go to the gym and actively WORK OUT. Does it sound like I'm making excuses? ;-) Maybe I am, but I really do have low energy levels.
ANYWAY, in the meantime I will definitely be checking into those noodles; if they really are calorie free it seems I would be able to eat them even on the HCG diet and they would help with the hunger pangs.
I'll keep you posted. =)
I am excited to try them out.
As far as the HCG diet goes... it does seem unreasonable and crazy and unhealthy. But when you do the research, it makes sense. Yes, you're only eating 500 calories a day, but your body is getting all the rest of the calories it needs from burning your body fat. It's natural; not a synthetic drug or anything. And the process resets your hypothalamus, so you'll continue to burn fat with an increased metabolism after you're done with the diet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still leery of it. Mostly I'm afraid that I'll do it wrong and gain a bunch of weight. If you do it correctly, that won't happen--even after you're done with the diet. But if you do it incorrectly and cheat, it can cause weight gain. I think I will give it a shot. I'm going to talk with my husband and make sure we're on the same page, make sure I can stick with it.
Sherah also brought up a very valid point... that if it makes me freak out on my kiddos then it's NOT worth it. My good friend who is doing it right now says the first 4 days are pretty hard and basically all you should expect to get done is feeding your kids and yourself. No housework or anything. But once your body start really letting go of that stored fat, you don't feel hungry and shaky anymore.
So we'll see. I'll let you know if I end up doing it. I need to buy a new scale if I do, because part of the process is to weigh yourself every day after the initial 21 days of taking the HCG.
Anyway, I've never been into fad diets or extreme dieting. It's so not worth it to do something if you're just gonna pile the weight back on as soon as you stop doing it. But this seems a bit different, even though it absolutely is extreme. It actually is resetting the hypothalamus and because you're eating small portions for almost a month, your stomach shrinks so you don't require as much food to feel full. And it is actual fat that you're burning and losing, not muscle.
It also helps that I know people, in real life, who are doing it and have been successful with it. My friend's mom has done it since Sept and has lost 70 pounds so far. It's just comforting to see people I know who have done it, been successful and are still alive and well. ;-)
I don't know, I'm totally on the fence. The idea of losing many pounds quickly, of FAT, is very tempting. I feel like if I can get a jump-start on that, it will be easier to go to the gym and continue to eat sensibly and healthfully. I have this weird mentality where I feel like I need to lose weight before I go to the gym. So weird, I know.
I also know that if I cut calories and exercise I will see the same results. Maybe not as quickly, but I WOULD lose weight. The only problem with that is I seriously have no energy. I'm not sure why; I don't know if my thyroid is wonky again or what. But I wake up tired and go to bed bone tired. It's all I can do to make meals and do laundry, much less go to the gym and actively WORK OUT. Does it sound like I'm making excuses? ;-) Maybe I am, but I really do have low energy levels.
ANYWAY, in the meantime I will definitely be checking into those noodles; if they really are calorie free it seems I would be able to eat them even on the HCG diet and they would help with the hunger pangs.
I'll keep you posted. =)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
I'm back... with a broken scale
Hi Friends!
Sorry for the long delay in updates. I did have internet access, but I did not have time. It was a whirlwind weekend, full of fun and mishaps and overall great. But didn't leave much room for getting on the net.
I got home yesterday and was all pumped to get on the scale this morning and then head to the gym. I got up and stepped on the scale. Nothing. Took the (new) battery out and put it back in. Nothing. Took the battery out again and turned it upside down. Nothing. I managed to get an "E" message and an "ERR" message. I hop in the shower and remember that Kate has a check up this morning, which means no gym.
Then I had to take Christian to the doc and it turns out he has double ear infections. Owen is just a whiny, grumpy young man. So no gym for me today.
I'm okay with that. My kids aren't in any shape to go to the daycare there anyway.
I'm contemplating doing something new and drastic as far as diet goes. My good friend is doing it, her mom did it and I'm tempted to. It's the "HCG Diet". Yep, that's the pregnancy hormone for all you who might recognize it. Nope, I'm not pregnant. ;-) Anyway, you take low doses of the HCG hormone and eat no more than 500 calories a day. The HCG causes your body to release your stored fat and burn it for fuel/energy. So you lose a LOT of fat without losing muscle mass.
It's expensive, and honestly... I don't know if I can eat just 500 calories a day. You can't have ANY fat. You can't use suntan lotion, even, because of the oil in it. You can't take fish oil or Vitamin D, because it's fatty. You have to do the low calorie diet for 21 days, then 3 days of low calorie without taking the HCG and then you have to be really careful with what you eat.
It's extreme. But it works. And I want to see results. I'm contemplating it.
You can read more about it HERE if you're interested.
Thoughts?
Sorry for the long delay in updates. I did have internet access, but I did not have time. It was a whirlwind weekend, full of fun and mishaps and overall great. But didn't leave much room for getting on the net.
I got home yesterday and was all pumped to get on the scale this morning and then head to the gym. I got up and stepped on the scale. Nothing. Took the (new) battery out and put it back in. Nothing. Took the battery out again and turned it upside down. Nothing. I managed to get an "E" message and an "ERR" message. I hop in the shower and remember that Kate has a check up this morning, which means no gym.
Then I had to take Christian to the doc and it turns out he has double ear infections. Owen is just a whiny, grumpy young man. So no gym for me today.
I'm okay with that. My kids aren't in any shape to go to the daycare there anyway.
I'm contemplating doing something new and drastic as far as diet goes. My good friend is doing it, her mom did it and I'm tempted to. It's the "HCG Diet". Yep, that's the pregnancy hormone for all you who might recognize it. Nope, I'm not pregnant. ;-) Anyway, you take low doses of the HCG hormone and eat no more than 500 calories a day. The HCG causes your body to release your stored fat and burn it for fuel/energy. So you lose a LOT of fat without losing muscle mass.
It's expensive, and honestly... I don't know if I can eat just 500 calories a day. You can't have ANY fat. You can't use suntan lotion, even, because of the oil in it. You can't take fish oil or Vitamin D, because it's fatty. You have to do the low calorie diet for 21 days, then 3 days of low calorie without taking the HCG and then you have to be really careful with what you eat.
It's extreme. But it works. And I want to see results. I'm contemplating it.
You can read more about it HERE if you're interested.
Thoughts?
Thursday, May 6, 2010
And another one bites the dust.... and another one plus that!
Ugh. Another fish died, and the last 2 are on death's doorstep. Not sure what went wrong, but since we are going out of town for the weekend I guess it's okay we won't be leaving any live fish behind. :-P
I didn't get to the gym yet; the kids have sneezing colds and I don't want to infect other kids there. Although this is the 2nd time they have come home sick from the daycare there. Hopefully they'll start building up their immune systems and hopefully other moms will be respectful and NOT bring sick kids to the gym.
ANYWAY, we are going to take a walk this afternoon instead of go to the gym. There is a paved walking trail I've heard about that is just minutes from our house, so we're gonna ride bikes/walk that for a bit.
Food-wise things are... eh. Mary Beth asked if Cheez Its are replacing Wheat Thins. Here's the thing. I'm impulsive. I'll eat whatever is currently suiting my fancy in great heaping hordes and then I'll be done with it for months. I have a box of wheat thins that I brought with us when we moved, and it's still untouched. Hopefully this cheez it craziness will dissipate soon.
We signed up for Netflix and get 2 dvds at a time, so I started watching Ally McBeal. Anyone remember that show? Anyway, last night Josh and I were watching it and I was munching on Cheez Its. I majorly overdid it and ended up getting violently sick. It was not pleasant and I think I may finally be over the Cheez Its.
I went grocery shopping and bought some egg whites. I plan to start making a scramble of sorts with them, to give me an easy wheat free option. Otherwise I end up having whatever I make the kids: oatmeal pancakes, crepes, french toast. None of it wheat free.
My lettuce all went bad. I guess I'm really THAT lazy and need to buy the pre-washed, pre-packaged stuff because I just don't take it out and use it when I buy romaine heads. And then I end up eating something dumb, like chips or whatever is easiest and handiest.
We are leaving tomorrow to go back to visit our family and friends, so I'll be gone til Tuesday. I'm not sure if I'll have internet access or not. If I do, I'll blog. If I don't, I'll be back on Tuesday. =)
I didn't get to the gym yet; the kids have sneezing colds and I don't want to infect other kids there. Although this is the 2nd time they have come home sick from the daycare there. Hopefully they'll start building up their immune systems and hopefully other moms will be respectful and NOT bring sick kids to the gym.
ANYWAY, we are going to take a walk this afternoon instead of go to the gym. There is a paved walking trail I've heard about that is just minutes from our house, so we're gonna ride bikes/walk that for a bit.
Food-wise things are... eh. Mary Beth asked if Cheez Its are replacing Wheat Thins. Here's the thing. I'm impulsive. I'll eat whatever is currently suiting my fancy in great heaping hordes and then I'll be done with it for months. I have a box of wheat thins that I brought with us when we moved, and it's still untouched. Hopefully this cheez it craziness will dissipate soon.
We signed up for Netflix and get 2 dvds at a time, so I started watching Ally McBeal. Anyone remember that show? Anyway, last night Josh and I were watching it and I was munching on Cheez Its. I majorly overdid it and ended up getting violently sick. It was not pleasant and I think I may finally be over the Cheez Its.
I went grocery shopping and bought some egg whites. I plan to start making a scramble of sorts with them, to give me an easy wheat free option. Otherwise I end up having whatever I make the kids: oatmeal pancakes, crepes, french toast. None of it wheat free.
My lettuce all went bad. I guess I'm really THAT lazy and need to buy the pre-washed, pre-packaged stuff because I just don't take it out and use it when I buy romaine heads. And then I end up eating something dumb, like chips or whatever is easiest and handiest.
We are leaving tomorrow to go back to visit our family and friends, so I'll be gone til Tuesday. I'm not sure if I'll have internet access or not. If I do, I'll blog. If I don't, I'll be back on Tuesday. =)
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Speed Bumps
Ah, gotta love it. Just getting into a groove and then along come.... speed bumps.
Things like, oh say, Christian pushing Kate down a flight of stairs. She is ok besides a bump and bruise on her forehead and waist.
Or maybe something like not being able to fall asleep until after midnight, being woken up by hubby's alarm clock at 4a.m. and then trying to function.
Or maybe a little speed bump like losing 2 more fish in the night. I swear I have a black thumb-- plants and fish come here to die.
Those speed bumps catapulted me into a morning filled with eating... wheat. And stupid, processed, not even homemade wheat! Cheez Its. My arch nemesis. Quesadillas, because they are quick and easy. And now I'm sucking down Diet Coke, which is pure chemicals. I mean, really, how on earth can something have ZERO calories?! It's not right, I tell you what.
So unfortunately, I have not made it to the gym. I'm hoping to go this evening when Josh gets home. After I go grocery shopping and take Kate to the hair salon to fix the whack job I did on her hair. Sheesh. I was just trying to trim it and she ended up with a full-on bob. And an uneven one at that.
I'm going to hop in the shower for now. I think that's a good start to getting this day to a better finish than the way it started. =)
Things like, oh say, Christian pushing Kate down a flight of stairs. She is ok besides a bump and bruise on her forehead and waist.
Or maybe something like not being able to fall asleep until after midnight, being woken up by hubby's alarm clock at 4a.m. and then trying to function.
Or maybe a little speed bump like losing 2 more fish in the night. I swear I have a black thumb-- plants and fish come here to die.
Those speed bumps catapulted me into a morning filled with eating... wheat. And stupid, processed, not even homemade wheat! Cheez Its. My arch nemesis. Quesadillas, because they are quick and easy. And now I'm sucking down Diet Coke, which is pure chemicals. I mean, really, how on earth can something have ZERO calories?! It's not right, I tell you what.
So unfortunately, I have not made it to the gym. I'm hoping to go this evening when Josh gets home. After I go grocery shopping and take Kate to the hair salon to fix the whack job I did on her hair. Sheesh. I was just trying to trim it and she ended up with a full-on bob. And an uneven one at that.
I'm going to hop in the shower for now. I think that's a good start to getting this day to a better finish than the way it started. =)
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Tuesday Shmoozeday
Hi Folks!
So, Sherah has made the brownies with black beans and her kids ate them. They can't be THAT bad! ;-) I'll definitely be trying them at some point.
Today has been nice. I had a couple of friends over with their kiddos today. It was lots of fun, very busy, and they made me eat cake. ;-) Well, they didn't MAKE me, but they did bring a delicious boston creme, strawberry type cake. I ate a mini piece and don't feel bad about it. It was wheat and sugar and fat, but I could have eaten a LOT more. I had light string cheese and turkey breast for breakfast (weird, I know) and then chicken caesar salad (with no croutons) for lunch, a small slice of the cake and 2 cups of coffee. Oh wait, 3 cups. :-D
No work out today, but I plan to hit the gym tomorrow. The older two kids are asking when we can go back, so that's a good sign. Owen still cries when I leave him, but is fine a few minutes after I leave.
I'm really looking forward to the weekend and seeing all my family and friends!!!!!
So, Sherah has made the brownies with black beans and her kids ate them. They can't be THAT bad! ;-) I'll definitely be trying them at some point.
Today has been nice. I had a couple of friends over with their kiddos today. It was lots of fun, very busy, and they made me eat cake. ;-) Well, they didn't MAKE me, but they did bring a delicious boston creme, strawberry type cake. I ate a mini piece and don't feel bad about it. It was wheat and sugar and fat, but I could have eaten a LOT more. I had light string cheese and turkey breast for breakfast (weird, I know) and then chicken caesar salad (with no croutons) for lunch, a small slice of the cake and 2 cups of coffee. Oh wait, 3 cups. :-D
No work out today, but I plan to hit the gym tomorrow. The older two kids are asking when we can go back, so that's a good sign. Owen still cries when I leave him, but is fine a few minutes after I leave.
I'm really looking forward to the weekend and seeing all my family and friends!!!!!
Monday, May 3, 2010
Interesting Brownie Recipe... Anyone Brave Enough?
I found this today and am HIGHLY intrigued. I need to get some of the ingredients, but I'm going to give these a whirl and I'll report back my findings. ;-)
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/amazing-black-bean-brownies-recipe.html
Yep, brownies made with black beans. :-O
In other news, today has gone swimmingly well on the bettering-my-health homefront. I had eggs with turkey sausage and a sprinkling of cheese for breakfast. Lots of water while I worked out. Romaine with cubed, baked chicken for lunch. Nothing for dinner yet. I know, I know, it's nearly 7pm but I've been busy all day.
I had a lovely, lovely visit with a friend here and then I had to take the dog to the vet. Then I had to get the kids dinner (which was leftover French toast-not something I wanted to eat since I'm shying away from wheat), then jammies and bedtime, yada yada yada.
Anyhoo, I'm thinking I'll put some smoked turkey and mozzarella cheese on a white cheddar rice cake with a bit of mustard and enjoy with a few Kettle Cooked BBQ chips. There may or may not be a bubble bath, book and glass of Arbor Mist in my future as well. ;-)
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/amazing-black-bean-brownies-recipe.html
Yep, brownies made with black beans. :-O
In other news, today has gone swimmingly well on the bettering-my-health homefront. I had eggs with turkey sausage and a sprinkling of cheese for breakfast. Lots of water while I worked out. Romaine with cubed, baked chicken for lunch. Nothing for dinner yet. I know, I know, it's nearly 7pm but I've been busy all day.
I had a lovely, lovely visit with a friend here and then I had to take the dog to the vet. Then I had to get the kids dinner (which was leftover French toast-not something I wanted to eat since I'm shying away from wheat), then jammies and bedtime, yada yada yada.
Anyhoo, I'm thinking I'll put some smoked turkey and mozzarella cheese on a white cheddar rice cake with a bit of mustard and enjoy with a few Kettle Cooked BBQ chips. There may or may not be a bubble bath, book and glass of Arbor Mist in my future as well. ;-)
I DID IT!!!!
I went to the gym and I did not get off my machine until 500 calories were toast. And it was INFINITELY easier than last Monday. So YAY! =)
Off to make that salad for lunch; I'm really hungry now.
Off to make that salad for lunch; I'm really hungry now.
Take 37.... aaaaaaaaannnndddd ACTION!
This morning I weighed in at 167, down half a pound. No idea how that happened, but I'll take it.
I had a major case of the crazies last night. I got really, really disgruntled with myself. I saw a very unflattering picture of myself and it just crushed me. So I determined that today I would start hardcore with exercise and good eating. But that meant I had to clear out all the junk food, right? I ate a twix, a little bag of Lay's potato chips and some Cheez Its.
I had decided not to buy stuff that tempts me. Instead of buying Cheez Its, I would get goldfish crackers for the kids, etc... Well, Josh ended up going shopping and wouldn't you know it he bought the Economy Size package of Cheez Its from Costco. LOL! So I'm going to get to practice moderation and self-control.
I'm off to make breakfast and hit the gym. I have 2 chicken breasts that need to get eaten today and some romaine lettuce, so I'm going to have salad for lunch. I am going to make some eggs for breakfast and also take a banana with me to the gym, so I can manage to get to 500 calories burned. At some point I am going to try spinning. I have 2 friends here who do it and love it, but I'm very intimidated by it at this point. It'd pretty embarrassing to fall of the bike and have a heart attack at the ripe old age of 31. ;0)
Thanks for your kind words; Josh's back is slowly getting better and things are starting to return to normal. I've decided to change my mindset. I am a really negative person by nature, but I am going to consciously work on thinking positively. Plus, this weekend we get to see all our family and friends again, WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great Monday!
I had a major case of the crazies last night. I got really, really disgruntled with myself. I saw a very unflattering picture of myself and it just crushed me. So I determined that today I would start hardcore with exercise and good eating. But that meant I had to clear out all the junk food, right? I ate a twix, a little bag of Lay's potato chips and some Cheez Its.
I had decided not to buy stuff that tempts me. Instead of buying Cheez Its, I would get goldfish crackers for the kids, etc... Well, Josh ended up going shopping and wouldn't you know it he bought the Economy Size package of Cheez Its from Costco. LOL! So I'm going to get to practice moderation and self-control.
I'm off to make breakfast and hit the gym. I have 2 chicken breasts that need to get eaten today and some romaine lettuce, so I'm going to have salad for lunch. I am going to make some eggs for breakfast and also take a banana with me to the gym, so I can manage to get to 500 calories burned. At some point I am going to try spinning. I have 2 friends here who do it and love it, but I'm very intimidated by it at this point. It'd pretty embarrassing to fall of the bike and have a heart attack at the ripe old age of 31. ;0)
Thanks for your kind words; Josh's back is slowly getting better and things are starting to return to normal. I've decided to change my mindset. I am a really negative person by nature, but I am going to consciously work on thinking positively. Plus, this weekend we get to see all our family and friends again, WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great Monday!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
In a mood
Golly gee. Things just seem to be going in the wrong direction over here!
Josh hurt his back pretty badly; we're not sure exactly what all happened, but there is a chance he cracked his rib. He was playing basketball with some guys and one of the young guys came up behind and "tackled" him. His back popped audibly and he has been in excruciating pain ever since. He went to urgent care, but they didn't do any x-rays because they said there's nothing they can do for broken ribs anyway. So he's on heavy duty pain meds and really out of it.
I got sick with whatever Kate had, although I didn't throw up. We're on the mend now, but the whole week was a wash. I only exercised once on Monday, and only burned 300 calories.
I have no energy and just sat on the couch most of the week reading, only getting up to make meals, change diapers, etc...
This week I hope to get back into a more healthy groove. Spend less time on the couch and more time doing stuff. I want to get to the gym 3 times; maybe Josh and I will go together since the hot tub has really been helping his back. Since we have the daycare, we may as well go as a family. Only problem is we can't go until he gets home from work, which would mean after dinner as well. So maybe I'll work out in the morning and then sit in the hot tub with him later. Just thinking "out loud" here. ;-)
I need to clean out my pantry. It's a major stress point for me right now. It's all helter skelter since we moved in so I want to organize it. Once I do that I'll know what I have and I can work on cutting out wheat again. I need to plan my meals out, or at least pre-prepare some stuff so I'm able to do that. I did bake up some chicken, which is good.
I'll weigh myself again tomorrow and will think positively that this week will be better than last. :0)
Josh hurt his back pretty badly; we're not sure exactly what all happened, but there is a chance he cracked his rib. He was playing basketball with some guys and one of the young guys came up behind and "tackled" him. His back popped audibly and he has been in excruciating pain ever since. He went to urgent care, but they didn't do any x-rays because they said there's nothing they can do for broken ribs anyway. So he's on heavy duty pain meds and really out of it.
I got sick with whatever Kate had, although I didn't throw up. We're on the mend now, but the whole week was a wash. I only exercised once on Monday, and only burned 300 calories.
I have no energy and just sat on the couch most of the week reading, only getting up to make meals, change diapers, etc...
This week I hope to get back into a more healthy groove. Spend less time on the couch and more time doing stuff. I want to get to the gym 3 times; maybe Josh and I will go together since the hot tub has really been helping his back. Since we have the daycare, we may as well go as a family. Only problem is we can't go until he gets home from work, which would mean after dinner as well. So maybe I'll work out in the morning and then sit in the hot tub with him later. Just thinking "out loud" here. ;-)
I need to clean out my pantry. It's a major stress point for me right now. It's all helter skelter since we moved in so I want to organize it. Once I do that I'll know what I have and I can work on cutting out wheat again. I need to plan my meals out, or at least pre-prepare some stuff so I'm able to do that. I did bake up some chicken, which is good.
I'll weigh myself again tomorrow and will think positively that this week will be better than last. :0)
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