4kDP: Plants & P3

Can I just take a moment to whine and complain?  It just amazes me how plants have the ability to wait and wait and wait, while the weather is perfect for doing a harvest, and then, at the first sign of 100 degree weather - only then, do the plants actually become ready.  ::sighs::

It's been kind of a long haul where lavender is concerned - there's three more days of harvest still in front of me.  :(  And, I have to admit that doing something like this takes more than 500 calories a day.  I've moved into P3 and haven't looked back.

I'm bouncing all over the place, but I refuse to do a steak day with what I'm doing, physically.  It's just going to have to wait.  lol.  Regardless of my body size, life still must go on!

P3+: Early Summer Bliss Smoothie

This recipe was an experiment that went wonderfully well.  I wanted the spinach, but didn't want anyone in my family to *know* that it was a spinach recipe.  You can't taste the spinach at all.  I looked up spinach on Vitamix's website (which also has a few other recipes if you'd like to try them out!) and discovered that spinach is GREAT for the blood and eyes.

I included the links to the nutritional information on most of the fruits and veggies, too, just because it's interesting.  Most of those things automagically display the nutritional data for a full cup of these fruits and veggies, so be sure to adjust the counter for that.  This particular recipe makes about 6 servings, too, so be sure to share with your family!

The picture, by the way, just doesn't do this justice.  It turns out a pretty color, taken mostly from the blueberries.  So, it's a dark purple, rather than what you see in the photo.  Some days, the camera wins.  That's all I can say.  lol.

Early Summer Bliss Smoothie

Makes ~6 servings

1pnt blueberries
30 bing cherries, pitted
30 red grapes
1 orange, peeled
juice of 1 lime
6c organic spinach
9 ice cubes
Clean all fruits and veggies with Fruit & Vegetable Wash to get all the pesticides off them first.  Add all fruits to your Vitamix or Ninja Blender (you will only be able to add about 1/2 the ingredients at a time in the Ninja, though).  Blend until smooth.  Add spinach and blend in with fruits.  Add ice cubes and blend once more. Serve with a straw and enjoy an early summer treat!

Notes:  I think that, if you had those cute little popsicle thingies I mentioned in my last post, you could also make some terrific popsicles with this recipe.  I'll try it out and let you know, k?

P2+: BLIMEy It's Hot Popsicles

Thought I'd check in real quick.  We're having quite a busy summer so far, but it's time to start thinking about gearing up for the end of next month.  I gotta say, even though I'm really enjoying the size 18 this summer (as opposed to the 28 I was in last summer), I'm looking forward to the size 8 I plan to be in next summer!

So far, so good on the maintaining thing.  It's been easy peasy.  I am able to eat *anything* I want and just stay right where I'm supposed to!  LOVE it!

If all goes as the calendar says it should with cycles, I'm thinking August 30th is the next round start date.  Anyone want to join Mom and I for the next round?

We're planning a few surprises for the next round, too.  I'll be able to report about the tests I've been running while figuring out the secrets to maintaining.  I promise I'll tell - but I want a good solid test before I go yapping about it, k?

For now, I thought I'd share a great little summertime treat that we've all decided we like around our place (including the kids!).  It's easy.

BLIMEy It's Hot Popsicles
1t lime stevita
1c water
Mix those together in a measuring cup, so you have a "spout" to pour out of.  Pour into some of those cute little popsicle thingies they've got out these days.  Freeze at least 4 hours and savor those wonderful treats!  You could also use the other flavors, too - grape, tropical, and orange all sound great to me.

WHERE does the time go??

I'm missing 5 days! Last I knew, it was April 30th. Now, here we are at the 5th of May...

Tonight, I just want to share something a friend recommended. It's her sister's (seester) vlog - nice! It's mostly about P3, so if you're there or in interrupt, check it out for some great ideas! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JajDESic1TI

P3: Chocolate

I got the chocolate today! There's 8 bars that comes with that one pound order for $32. ($4 a bar). Kind of expensive, but it's a real treat to have a chocolate that I can just grab and eat without feeling it on the scale tomorrow.

What'd I think of it? First, I have to say that I like really dark chocolate. I'm not a milk chocolate fan - much too sweet for me and ... I'm just not a fan unless it's close to my cycle time, at which point I just want chocolate. lol.

The first bite really bites back with the bitter taste of a dark chocolate. Because I was looking for it, the second little square gave me the undercurrents of the small quantity of stevia in it.

The third little square, however, I just let myself enjoy the flavors all mingled together. It's got a sultry dark chocolate taste to it first, followed by something of an oak flavor - smokey and just hints at how the cacao beans were handled....

On the right side of my tongue, I can taste a little something of rum and the left side gets the slightly saltiness that only a dark chocolate can give. The back of my tongue, just before I swallow, shows off the rich chocolate taste. After swallowing, the mouth is left with a dryness I associate with a dry white wine.

Basically: Yummy!

Where can you get it? RIGHT HERE!

P3: Broken records

I feel like a broken record (you know, those old LPs? Maybe you don't know if you've only ever listened to MP3s, lol), but it's really important to leveling out and getting to the all important stability part of lifetime maintenance. So, here's the quote I keep saying on Facebook:

An apple a day keeps the doctor away but FOUR apples a day keeps the fat away. (Oh, and keep up your water intake!)

P3: Back under LDW

This morning, I awoke, fully expecting that I'd either have the same weight as yesterday (a test day gone the wrong direction and I was at +1.0# LDW, after I gained 1.9# overnight) or that I'd be a little heavier. I completely forgot to follow my own rule to stay at the high level of water drinking that you adapt to while in VLCD part of the Protocol. What did I do?

Um. I drank coffee. Not just coffee. I drank 10oz coffee with 10 drops french vanilla stevia, 5oz Half-n-half, and 5oz heavy whipping cream. (Absolutely divine, btw - you gotta try that one out.) Did I eat anything? Well...

[begin excuses] I was busy. I was dirty. It was cold outside. I was upstairs & there wasn't any water. The door of my room was blocked because I was moving furniture. [end excuses]

The short answer is, no, I didn't eat anything until after 3pm. Not a single thing. SHAME ON ME!

[begin thoughts at self] Naughty, naughty, naughty! No water AND no food? What are you trying to do to yourself? Gain weight again?? Stop it! You're hurting my... Quit it! [end thoughts at self]

The great news is that my body just wants to be at LDW or below right now. So, what did it do for me? It put me right back down to -.3# LDW. I love my body for this gift this morning! So, today, I've started the day off right, with 40oz of water before my first cup of Divine Coffee & an omelet and apple to go with the Divine Coffee. :)

Hopefully, I'll be rewarded even further tomorrow.

lol.

Introductions

I was just introduced to a really fun blog to read. http://cleochatra.blogspot.com/. She doesn't follow HCG, but she does follow Atkins, which is basically P3 of HCG. It's not really the process she follows, but what she has to say about dieting in general that's so great. For instance:

Don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-Weight Watchers. I'm just not for it.

In fact, in 2004, I undertook a two month trek into the vast valley of the points system, flex eating, and online membership. I purchased the little calculator, never spent my flex points, and, over the course of 60 long, hungry days, managed to lose 25 pounds.

I was too tired to jump up and down (thankfully, the floor was concrete) to celebrate the weight loss. I just wanted a piece of bacon. Or cheese. Or something with less more in it than the packaging of their convenience foods.

That's just so much fun!

She also posted a link to this article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1247216/The-Big-Fat-Lies-Britains-obesity-epidemic.html# Seriously interesting stuff written by a lawyer, Hannah Sutter. In fact, take a look at this little bit of her article:

The Government's Food Standards Agency (FSA), among others, is pumping out a template of a balanced diet that is based on flawed science that I believe is responsible for thousands of people developing health problems.

The co-defendant in the dock with the Government is starch.

While we've all been brainwashed into thinking that fat is the killer we must avoid and food manufacturers bring out more and more profitable 'low-fat' versions of foods, starch - in the shape of pasta, bread, cereals, potatoes and rice - has been quietly adding on the pounds, while we are being told that it's good for us.

The problem, I believe, is threefold.

First, we are being given dietary advice that is completely out of keeping with our current lifestyles.

The second problem is that the Government vendetta against fats, because of their apparent link to heart disease, is based on highly debatable studies.

And third, although exercise is undoubtedly good for us all, there is growing evidence that shows sweating away in the gym won't actually make you any slimmer.

And to add insult to injury, it's hard to get any research money to counter these arguments, because most research is funded by the very food conglomerates that stand to benefit most from these lies.

So, the first big fat lie we are fed is that we should eat less.

Maintenance so far

So, I've got two days with 275.0# and two days with 275.2#. That's pretty dog gone stable for the beginning of P3. It wasn't this stable last time around! I'm going to let this go on for a couple more days, to really *prove* stable this early on, and then start in on my testing for the book.

I'm so pleased with how things are going!

Maintenance going well for me...

I'm very happy to report that I'm merely .2 over my LDW. Hurray! This maintenance round is so much easier with those tools I created last maintenance round. Thank goodness for my incessant testing!

:)

Maintenance Planning

Yesterday was my first day of P3 (no sugars, no starches). I don't like life to happen to me, but rather I like to have full control of what's happening in my life. It's a border-line control freak thing - it just doesn't overflow all over other people's lives (as a general rule).

So, my first day, I did an Apple/Cheese Day. I'm now 2.5# under LDW. Tonight, I'm planning to do a semi-steak night. It's only a pseudo Steak Day because I enjoyed a breve, some cheese, some apples, and a salad. I'm just ending the night with a steak dinner. Certainly, not because I have to, at 2.5# UNDER, but it's a planning thing, so I can keep a larger buffer zone.

I like a big buffer zone. 5# ought to be about right. I am considering some ongoing losses in this phase, just to see what it does to me (test, test, test - I can't help myself!). I figure that if I'm not protein deficient, I should be doing just fine. I don't know why - really, why - Dr. Simeon said DON'T lose further after the VLCD. I'd think that if you can safely and easily release more, well. YEA! GO!

I'll be able to lock in any further releases with Round 3 (planning for mid-March on that one), so I'm not concerned about maintaining further releases.

Over all, I'll be doing a long term test this time around with maintenance. I'm continuing a test from the VLCD part just to see what it does during this period. AND I've got 8 tests to do before I can release the book I'm in the middle of for Maintenance.

Whew! That's a lot of stuff going on! lol.

P3: Steak Day video

This is a first attempt - can you see and hear everything ok?

P3 & P4 Exercise

I've finally gotten around to looking into exercise programs. Myself, I've just been walking, but the cold temperatures, I gotta say, put a major damper on that plan. I use Yoga as my next favorite thing - it's meditative, calming, centering, strengthening if you do it right, and provides an extraordinarily low impact rate on the body while you're exercising.

I think that Tai Chi would also offer the same benefits as Yoga and I'd like to learn it, but find that my body is too unwieldy still to learn the graceful dance-like poses that flow one into the other.

Recently, I've heard about a different set of exercises, 15 minutes a day, called T-Tapp. It's an interesting set. I've not yet tried it, but wanted to alert you to it's existence. The link goes straight to the "try" section that shares several of the different exercises. If you like it, they encourage you to purchase their DVDs, of course.

My test results

From my test yesterday, I've dropped yet another 3# (3.2# each time, for precision). There was only one day between the two drops - where I ate pretty much whatever I wanted to eat, too.

I'm still awaiting the results from friends who volunteered to test with me (they're all in P3 or P4) and I'm quite excited to see their results! If the test results for me are 3# loss both times, it makes me wonder about continued release in P3/P4. Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to get to 260 before I start my next round! If I can get there, I'd be able to release another 50# in P2 and be at 210 by my birthday, February 27th. Now that's impressive. Really impressive. Especially if you consider I started at 332# the end of August. That'd be ... ::think, think, think:: 122# in 5 months.

I'd plan to do this every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, but the other days would be free reign. Of course, I'd keep things under control - no running out to eat at restaurants every meal or anything crazy like that, but still. It's intriguing that I might be able to get almost the same results from doing this test that I'd get doing the VLCD and HCG; most interesting and intriguing. The main benefit from the HCG round, of course, would be the stability and reset of the hypothalamus once I got to the other side.

Maybe I need to just follow the every other day thing until I get down to 180#, then do a second round of HCG so my hypothalamus is completely reset at the weight I get to at the end of that second round.

Hmm. It'll certainly depend on the results I get from continuing this little test, but it's worth a shot!

Reminder!

DRINK WATER!

Even if you're not in Phase II, you still need to keep drinking your water. Many sugars come from the drinks that we're drinking when we eat "normally." A trick I use is to drink 20 ounces of water before a meal or a sweet drink.

Using that trick, I went from buying a 20 ounce vanilla breve (which has 2 ounces of sugar in it!) to a 12 ounce vanilla breve (which has just 1/2 ounce of sugar in it).

It's something to keep in your back pocket!

P3, Last Day

Today is the last day of my Phase 3. It's scary to be putting sugars and starches back into my diet, after nearly 11 weeks. It's odd to not crave them and it's scary that I might become addicted again. However, now begins the true test of the HCG Protocol.

I wonder how many of those foods I'll feel like I'm not allergic to.

I'll definitely keep everyone posted as I progress!

P3, T-2 Days, Recipe Book Index

I thought I'd give a preview of the recipe names included in the book! You have to click on the picture to see the larger image, but then you get to see what's in the book... :)

I just printed out a copy of it (color and had it bound) so I could see what the final product would look like, if someone ordered a hard copy of it. It cost $30 just to print it in color! YIKES! But, it's a proof and I wanted to be able to mark on the pages and make notes so I could check them off while I'm making the changes. So, Friday is the self-imposed deadline on this project - but I've already got two more projects that have come of this one! I've had requests, several times, for menu planners. And, of course, I had more than 100 recipes this time around, so I'm planning a second cookbook.

I think I may need to add a couple more pages, so the readers of the book know where to get stuff like Zevia, Butter Buds, and that sort of stuff and I didn't put down any method to contact me, either! I better fix that. Hehehehe...

P3, T-3 Days

I'm concerned that on Friday, when I start adding sugars and starches back into my system, I'm going to have problems maintaining. I sure hope this works! It works for other people... I tracked them for a year before I finally stepped in and did it. It should work for me, too, right?

P3, T-4 Days!

And the count down continues... Not only is that count down for the end of P3 for me, but it's also my deadline (self-imposed) for the completion of my recipe book.

I wasn't home *at all* today, so I didn't work on the book, either. To make matters worse, I also didn't eat like I was supposed to. In fact, I ate a single meal today; a chef salad. Not good. I hope it doesn't make me gain and get stuck with a steak day tomorrow!

Tomorrow, I'm gonna get on the stick and get things done so I don't miss my deadline! Wish me luck!

P3, T-5 Days!

Wow - five days left of Phase 3! It feels like forever ago that I started this protocol and cookbook and body reshaping and and and. I gotta say, though, I'm ready for a piece of good italian crusty bread with some butter on it. :)

And maybe a mini candy bar from the kids' trick or treat stash. Hehehe. I was soooo good and didn't cheat at all on those little candies but the peanut butter cups are still calling to me.

To get my mind off the candy and back to healthy, I focused on creating one of the final dozen recipes I need to finish my cookbook off. Even if I do say so myself, it was absolutely scrumptuous and I almost couldn't tell that it wasn't the real thing. The "noodles" sort of gave it away, but it was great with texture and I even got to turn the "noodles" over on my fork. (Nope, they're not those "miracle noodles," which I pronounced yucky and got rid of.)

I made the P2 recipe into a P3 recipe by doubling up on the meat and adding some cheese to the top of it. I know, that's sort of a pansy way to get to a P3 recipe, but it worked out well! And it was delicious, too. That's the best part.