4kDP: Of bagels and espresso

This morning, I had a brilliant idea.  I'm allowed a piece of bread in the mornings, in addition to my milk.  The slice of bread can be up to 140 calories.  My normal bread has 160 calories, and I've been using that off and on, but I really wanted a bagel this morning.  Historically, I add cream cheese to my toasted bagel.  My bagels are generally the "everything bagels," too, so there's lots of great flavors.

All I had in the freezer today, however, was plain bagels.  I was quite disappointed until I realized that I had a little bit of 0calorie, 0fats, 0, 0, 0 garlic flavored cooking spray.  I had just enough to make a bagel size spot on my frying pan (we use cast for most of our frying).  Since a whole bagel has 230 calories, I just fried one half in my cooking spray.  It was quite delightful!  It had a wonderfully satisfying crunchiness to it and my skinny breve (I think that's an oxymoron) goes with it JUST RIGHT.

 I *feel* completely spoiled right now. That bit is important, because those small things that you can do for yourself while you are HCGing are the things that make you stay ON it.  :)   If you're feeling like you just have to do something out of the norm, try a double helping of one of your choices before you go on a binge and pay for it over the next three days.

Numbers:
Me: -1.6
Mom:  -1.2

4kDP: Double CHEATER!

I thought perhaps the first sandwich was a fluke.  Mom indicated that since I'd been losing in the half pound range, that perhaps I was "due" for a larger loss.  Well.  You can't prove anything by chance.  So, I did it again.  Two days in a row...  wait for it...  1# loss each day!

Of note is that when Mom tried it, she lost nothing.  No gain, but no loss, either.  That just goes to prove, once again, that every body is different.  Feel like doing the Subway thing?  Just keep in mind that your body could react like mine or like Mom's or, like your own.  :)  It's a roll of the dice, to be sure!

The whole days' food consisted of this, both days, for me:
1 cup milk
4oz espresso
1 eyedropper full of stevia/vanilla mix
1 Subway sandwich (see previous post for what it was, exactly)
1 cup fruit at night just before bed
~160oz water

The first night, I had blueberries.  Last night, I had cantaloupe.  Both days, I was so full after the sandwich I thought I'd made a mistake.  The whole sandwich was so satisfying, though, that I also found I didn't care!  Probably, that's not a good thing, as it harkens back to the overeating days.  But, you know, it's just not possible to leave a sandwich sit for more than half an hour when you've requested they spray on vinegar and it soaks through.  The bread is all soggy and icky then.  Yuck.

Mom says that maybe I should be following Jerry's Plan of a Sub Sandwich a day.  lol.

Numbers:
Me:  -1.0
Mom:  -0.6

4kDP: CHEAT!

I cheated.  It was a planned cheat.  It wasn't like I lost control of myself or anything. I calmly left my house to go to town 15 miles away with the express intention of having a Subway sandwich.

What news from that front?  I dropped a full pound.  I'll have to give it another shot, I must say.  I ordered a foot long sandwich:

• Wheat bread
• Ham
• Cheddar cheese (gasps!)
• The works on the veggies, minus jalapenos
• Mustard
• Vinegar
• Pepper

I ate one half of it, then discarded the bread from the second half and ate the veggies and meat from that.  So, essentially, I ordered a 6" sandwich with double meat and double veggies.  lol.

Numbers:
Me: -1.0 (this after the sandwich AND a series of half pound and no losses!)
Mom: -0.6

Cheating: Emotional Ties

So, cheating. Sooooo many of us do it. That many of us have no idea why and we beat ourselves up for doing it... I don't have a magic solution for it, unfortunately, but I do have thoughts on the subject. (Imagine that, huh?)

I'd been on several diets and never found one that 'stuck.' I always gained the weight back. Then, I read a book, "Feelings Buried Alive Never Die." THAT really opened my eyes to the emotional side of the fat I kept. That's what began my weight release journy about a year before I started HCG.

And, make no mistake, I made daily CHOICES to keep my fat. *I* did it. ME, no one else. After reading the book, I went through a lot of self examination and found the seed of why I was keeping weight.

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US. Traditionally, it's a day to think about what you've got (& not got) and be thankful for both. It's a day we get together, recall we're a family, and enjoy each other's company over a large meal that - in most cases - lasts from morning til night with gobs of leftovers for the next day.

If you're in P2 of HCG during this time, my hat's off to you! I am SO IMPRESSED! It's tough to be different and so "out there" with regaining control of your physical self. So, a few words of encouragement for you:

• You're strong! Stay strong and be proud of yourself!
• Your family is proud of you, even if you're not partaking the foods they are.
• You're absolutely beautiful. Go look in the mirror!

And, a few things to help you through:

• White Dark Cocoa
• Egg Noggin Tea & French Vanilla Stevia
• Make TWO desserts so you feel like you've got a choice. Make them pretty and showy so you feel like you're spoiling yourself. I recommend these: Orange Creme de Licious, Tart and/or Sweet Toffee Apple, or the Raspberry Jello (you can have a LOT with this recipe, too).
• Select a single fruit, make two desserts, but make them differently. So, a Tart Toffee Apple AND a Sweet Toffee Apple. Or, a Strawberry Jello (use the raspberry one and just use strawberries instead) AND a Forgo the Tequila drink. :) The longer you can stretch your "spoilmes," the more satisfied you'll feel.
• Make something decadent like the Savory Chicken & Apples with Garlic Zucchini.
• You can "drink" too - just forgo the tequila.

Where I completely expect that you'll stay 100% on protocol, temptation is greatest in situations where you've always done this or that. If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got. However, if you do decide to cheat, try to cheat within the foods you're allowed. Have an extra apple or an extra helping of HCG approved meat. It sounds a little silly, but it won't halt your losses for days to come. :) I tried it with that extra bread stick when I cheated.

But, most importantly, remember that the occasion is about love, friendship, giving, thankfulness, and emotions.

The meal is just there because we're all going to be hungry while we're enjoying each other's company.

Love to you and yours!

Happy Thanksgiving!

End of Cycle Apple Day

Today, I got on the scale and guess what. :( I'm the same as yesterday! So, here's the plan. Today is the last day of my cycle so I'm going to do an apple day today and break this dang plateau. After losing 22 pounds the first week, I'm so disgusted with the last 10 days of flat line. I can't even begin to tell you how disgusted I am.

If following the protocol weren't so easy, I'd have given up by now. I feel like I got a bite of the carrot that's being dangled in front of my nose right now and it's soooo frustrating! I completely admit that I cheated *one time* while on my cycle. I had an extra Grissini stick. Big cheat, huh? But even when I did that, I stayed within the 500 calories I'm alotted.

Luckily for me, Gala apples are just ripening on the trees around my area NOW! I can't even begin to tell you how absolutely delicious they are - juicy but crunchy with a definate sweetness followed by a bit of a tang... I think I could eat these apples all the time.

But. I'll tell you a secret. You know what I miss about going through the fall and all these apples being ripe? Caramel. Hahahahahaha!!

In the mean time, I'm going to work on creating a few more recipes. I have Mom & the kids to test the taste out for me. The kids should never even know that it's "diet food," if I make them up right. :) They're already begging me for more of my Baked Cinnamon Apples, Up Town Chicken Soup, & Garlic Basil Roast Beef. And Mom already has eaten several of the other recipes, even though she's no longer following the Protocol (doctor's orders for now). Partly, I think she's into helping with the recipes so that when she gets the green light to return to the Protocol, she's already got LOTS of recipes to choose from.

So, even though I'm doing the Apple Day today, all my readers aren't left in the cold! We'll have something new to try out (and already taste tested) later today, so keep checking. Or, you could just subscribe and/or become my Friend... :)

News of the day

So, after the 8 day plateau, I decided to whine about it to the nutritionalist who is helping me, Tami. She said that first, I should muscle test to see how many drops my body indicates I should be taking. I did that and got the number 48. I was taking just 30 drops - 10 drops 3x a day. So, I need to up the dose!

Incidentally, I have to tell on myself. Yesterday, I cheated. It wasn't a big cheat, but it was a cheat. I ate an extra Grissini. But, I did stay under the 500 calories anyway! And, more importantly, I DID NOT eat the chocolate that I craved so badly I nearly couldn't stand it.

Anyway, upping the dose meant that I needed to get more, since I'd be running out pretty rapidly. So, off to Hood River, and picked up some more. Whew! I started the increased dose today, so I'm seriously keeping my fingers crossed for an actual weight loss on the scale. I can feel it all over my jeans, but I want to SEE it and be able to count the pounds down, too. I've been stuck at 309.4#s now for 8 days. It's time for that to move down and the fat to melt, not just be moved around in a reshaping.