Day 33

Yesterday - 205.5
Today - 206.5

+1 lb.

LOL. I knew it! I drank almost a gallon of water, right before I went to bed (I chugged that sucka down!). Now I don't usually do THAT but I guess I got so overenthused by the apple day results. I tried to measure how much the water weighs before I finished it. I put my bottle on my scale first then tried to subract that weight when I reweigh with water. And I learned something that night: My scale only goes up to 6 pounds. Anything more it'll read "Err", I guess that's how food scales spell error. I believe it was biz who said water weighs 8 pounds? I'll take her word on that. But this morning, needless to say, I took the longest piss of my life.

Day 32

yesterday - 206.5-207
Today - 205.5

1-1.5 lbs.

Now that's what I'm talking about! Finally out the funk! I only had 3 apples yesterday. I didn't feel like eating more. I thought I would be really hungry only having to eat apples but it was the opposite.

And today I felt normal. Not much hunger. a few Cravings, but no hunger. and those cravings lasted for 2 minutes literally. I've only had a bottle of water. I can probably try and drink half a gallon now until I go to bed (I've done it before) but I know that will register as a gain or a stall tomorrow. It usually does. But I really need to get back to drinking my water. I guess that's all I have to report for now. I'm really noticing a difference in my shoulders and collar bone. They square off more and aren't as "plump". Awesomeness.

Something I wanna change: I try to eat my meals at a certain time whether I'm hungry or not, just to keep a steady schedule. But I think from now on I'm just going to eat when I'm hungry. honestly sometimes I don't feel like eating two meals, but I still have this notion in my mind that I have to eat something because we all learn that skipping meals is a bad thing. But, on this protocol it isn't an issue, because what I forget is that the body is being flooded with the release of our fat storages. And this is what I want to get in to the habit of doing. Only eating when I'm hungry. It's weird. On the apple day when I ate only when I was hungry I only had 3 apples. Today I ate according to a schedule and I still had some cravings between meals, even though they'd quickly disappear. So I wonder if it's a physical or mental thing? One thing this protocol has let me do is be more in tuned with my body and I notice a lot of things about myself. I tell you though I'm eager to do my second round and compare the differences.

Yesterday - 206.5
Today - 206.5/207 (grr.. stupid fickle scale again)

So today I decided to do the apple day. I've have only 2 apples so far. I'm a little tired right now... but that probably contributes to staying up till 3:something to finish a project I had to present today [in french]. So I think I'll go and take a nap, and dream about inches melting away or something like that. à bientôt!

Day 31

Yesterday - 206.5/207
Today - 206.5


So....

Instead of me ripping my toilet from the floor and crashing it on the scale, I quickly decided to go measure myself with a tape measure to find out what the *$@! was going on...

I -lost- inches.

I'm definitely losing fat.

It's apparent to me now that I've plateaued.

Now, rereading the plateau part in Dr. Simeons manuscript I don't NEED to do an apple day because what's going on internally isn't being affected. Soooooooo, because I'm confident that I'll get under 200 before round 2 is up, I'll keep going.

Now, if Dr. Simeons meant plateau as in not losing anymore weight on the scale but still lose inches, I'll go ahead with the apple day. Although I'm gettin to the point where I'm starting to appreciate the tape measure loss almost as much as the scale loss, psychologically speaking, I -need- to see that scale read below 200. And that's that!

Day 30

Yesterday - 206.5
Today - 206.5/207 (scale is fickle today)

Uh... ok. So, I've been hovering around 206.5 for the past 4 days. I think this calls for an apple day. I'll go ahead and do the VLCD for today, but if I don't see a budge in the scale I'm busting out mah apples. I feel great otherwise.

They were taking pictures of our group for our research presentations on Splenda and we just got the pictures. I was suprised at how small I look. Granted in one photo I'm standing in the back and the shortest out of my group, but I could definitely see a difference in my face. It was hard to tell in the rest of my body with what me having black hair and dressed all in black looking like Darth Vadar. But yeah, I was shocked - I noticed my face looking more squarer and not so round. It just dawned on my that I have a strong jawline under all that fat. What I see in the mirror is not what I saw in those photos. Isn't it funny how differently we perceive ourselves with our own two eyes?

Anyways, I have roughly two weeks left of my protocol and only 6-8 pounds away from my round 1 goal, which was to be under 200. Wouldn't that be something? (and good for me too cause I put 188lbs. on my driver's license!)

Day 28

Yesterday - 206
Today - 206.5

+.5 lbs.

Well, I guess I'm back to my regular diet. I grew some balls and started cheating to test out what I can get away with ever since Thanksgiving.. must have been a one time thing. But I also noticed that my stair step approach to weightloss is a little weird. It seems to be more like a downward wave. I think. well, so much for the pound per day deal. I guess it was expected, me being female and all (damn you guys and your metabolisms).

Today I bought all natural beef chuck. I haven't figured out which cut of meat is the leanest (fill me in if you know). Anyways I got the idea (from camping) that I would put each piece of 100g. meat in a piece of foil with my favorite season Tony's Creole and a splash of liquid Braggs Aminos. Then I would take a handful of veggies and put them in each foil, close them up tight and bake at a low temperature. I used handfuls of chopped onions in one, cherry tomatoes in another one, cut up asparagus in another, cabbage, and so one. I baked at 300 for like an hour or so and the meat came out really tender and made it's own juices. Everything from the meat to the veggies were so flavorful, it was like cooking in a crock pot. I put all the foil pockets in a big container, so when it's time for lunch I can just take one out, pop it in the microwave and eat (w/the foil removed!) . Woohoo. Lunch made for the week.

Day 27

Yesterday - 207
Today - 206

-1lb.

WHAT!?? HOW!?? It's not possible!??

How the hell did I LOSE weight on Thanksgiving?!?!?!? I went ahead and decided that I wasn't going to hold back, I'd just enjoy myself and eat whatever I want, although I decided to skip out on the apple pie cake. But I ate turkey with skin and gravy, the classic green bean casserole with bacon bits, cranberry dressing, pilaf, and a sweet potato casserole full of walnuts, pecans, butter, coconut oil, brown sugar, marshmallows, and butterscotch schnapps (my secret ingredient). How can I eat this and still lost weight?! And I had a bit of amaretto sour. What in the world? Oh, and to top it off, a few bites of an egg roll and half a bite size pack of twix.

Here's what I did. I decided to not eat anything but the thanksgiving dinner, that way in case I over indulge it wouldn't be that bad. Even though I said I'd stuff myself I was very conservative about my portions in the beginning, although I was planning on going for seconds, even thirds! Here's what ended up happening. My "seconds" were about 2 tablespoons of green bean casserole and 3 tablespoons of sweet potato casserole. I didn't finish my turkey, cranberry sauce, green beans, and pilaf. There were even some sweet potatoes left (although not by much). I was actually -full-. Sure I probably could've just as easily eaten more, but the "desire" to eat more just wasn't there, as simple as that. I was completely satisfied with what I ate. It was insane. Was it the hcg? Or was it my hypothalamus on the verge of resetting? I don't know. According to Dr. Simeons I was supposed to gain, or at least not lose anything. I can't understand it either. I was soooo expecting to see a gain when I got on the scale this morning. I was planning in my head what meals I was going to prepare to bring my weight down the quickest after my so-called glutfest. So you can imagine the shock on my face when the scale showed a LOSS instead of a gain. I'm wondering if it's water weight, but I thought my body would want to hoard my water for not drinking enough the day before. I just don't know.

I should be happy and excited and I really am, but at the same time, it doesn't make a darn sense to me and I wanna know why. When my family and I were fixing that dinner we didn't hold out on butter or flavor. I have to say though, we used healthier alternatives. Instead of sugar we used brown sugar. I only used half the butter for the sweet potato casserole and used coconut oil for the rest. The turkey was naturally free of hormones and whatnot. in fact, the only thing I can think about that was processed was the cream of mushrooms and the french fried onions for the green bean casserole which were canned. The green beans were fresh. Even the gravy.

As a biology major it drives me crazy that I can't explain the internal physiological reactions for this. But all in all, I'm glad thanksgiving is over. I guess I should just shut my mouth and be happy!

Day 26

Yesterday - 208.5
Today - 207

-1.5 lbs.

3 lbs over 2 days. Not bad. Not bad at all. Course as you know today is thanksgiving day, so, uh yeah lol. I'm thinking this is because I'm still sorta sick, I didn't get that much better over night, and I tend to lose several pounds when I'm not feeling well anyway. Like I said, it'll be very interesting the next few days.

Day 25

Yesterday - 210
Today - 208.5

-1.5 lbs.

Cool, cool. I would be overly ecstatic about this, but today I'm ill. That or it's allergies. I started out with runny nose then it turned to nasal decongestion, soar thoat, watery eyes... definitely allergies. I was warm for a little while then cold, then warm, now cold. Tomorrow I'm gonna go ahead and eat what I want, but in tiny portions. I'm not gonna fight anymore. I'm just hoping I don't gain like 5 pounds. Since I was sick all day too I forgot to drink my water. The next few days will be interesting.

Day 24

Yesterday - 209
Today - 210

+1 lb.

Argh! Now I'm a little ticked off. At first I was thinking it was the catfish. That's the only new thing I intorduced to my diet. But after looking at some of the approved foodlists in the group files, catfish was indeed an ok fish. And then it hit me. I did two things I wasn't supposed to do. First, I prepared my meals for the week with my bare hands. I totally forgot I mixed up the meatloaf with my hands AND I handled all the fish with my bare hands which so happens that catfish has a higher fat content than other fish (actually more than my extra lean ground beef). It didn't occur to me at first because I've done this before, but then I realized I was unknowingly very conservative about it, and I never worked the meats like I had with the meatloaf. And when I was tossing the catfish in the seasoning I was tossing with my hands. Argh! Stupid stupid stupid. Another thing, I put lotion on my arms. I did it out of habit but it didn't phase me cause I've put a pea size amount on my hands and face before for those very dry moments and I was fine. Blah. Just, grr.. @&*(_#!*$!*$^!)_%*$^%&*!%^&!%%&#!@&*%!!!!!!!

The moral of the story is: It only SEEMS like you're able to get away with certain things, but it's only because you haven't crossed the threshold yet. And when you do, you realize you were dancing around that fine line the whole time! I guess we all have to learn the hard way! So if anyone is reading this, LISTEN TO DR. S AND FOLLOW THE DIET TO THE "T"!

Day 23

yesterday - 209.5
today - 209

-.5 lb. lost

Hey I'll take whatever I can get. Since I'm over half way through my protocol I might just stair step like what most people are doing. It's kind of interesting how that works.

So today I decided to take a trip to the market. I came back with ground beef and catfish. I wasn't sure at first if we could have catfish since the fishlist doc from hcgdieters is blank, but it was white so I got it.

Well I tried new things today. It was much better than yesterday. And now that I'm cooking for myself I can make things as spicy as I want. This weeks menu is lemon pepper catfish and meatloaf cupcakes. heheh.

I found some very lean ground beef today. I've heard of this brand before too. They make buffalo franks and it taste really good. Better than regular hotdogs.

meatloaf cuppies!

And catfish!

Oh and I sprinkled some cinnamon and nutmeg on some apple slices and put them in the food dehydrator. Makes for good snacking! If you don't have a food dehydrator you can stick them in the oven on the lowest temperature (usually 150-200 degrees) for 2-3 hours, it works the same way.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meatloaf Cupcakes (makes 5 servings)
500 g (or 1lb. 1.5 oz) very lean ground beef
5 melba toasts crushed to almost powder or use a food processor
1 onion very finely chopped
a good splash of Liquid Braggs Aminos
Salt and pepper
2 finely chopped galic cloves
Spices (oregano, cumin, pepper flakes, mustard seeds, cayenne. whatever you can think of)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix everything in a bowl, and mix VERY WELL. You want everything evenly distributed. (Don't use your hands, or wear gloves if you do)

3. To make sure you're dividing it equally, weigh the whole mixture, divide that number by 5, and make 5 balls accordingly. From there you're at a point where you can just eyeball and split those balls in half ( so now you have 10 little balls), and press each into a cupcake pan.
4. Cover and bake for 35 minutes.
5. 2 meatloaf cupcakes equal one serving.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seasoned Catfish (very simple)
100 g catfish fillets (however mnay you're gonna cook)
lemon pepper seasoning (read the label)
if you don't have that, use lemon juce, black pepper, and sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Toss fillets in the seasonings, throw in a pan, cover and bake for 18 minutes.

Day 22

yesterday - 209.5
today - 209.5


Blah! I'm stupid. While I was eating my seasoned fish with some left over curried cabbage I realized, "oh crap I already had my second meal for today, what am I smoking!". And it's a miracle I didn't gain anything. Watch the scale go up or something tomorrow. I tell ya all the times I could have lost but didn't were for the stupidest mistakes! I tell ya I'm soooo ready for phase 3! I almost considered stopping this week cause to tell ya the truth I'm plain bored of this diet. Not hungry, just bored! I'm the kind of person that loves to try everything at least once. I love exotic and ethnic foods. I grew up eating all sorts of indian and african dishes. I'm trying to think of things creative to do. Grrr.. at first it was fun seeing what I can come up with with the strict types of foods. but now I just want it all to end (as fas as phase 2 is concerned). The only thing that keeps me from going into phase 3 is this fantastic weightloss I'm experiencing. I was even trying to psyche myself out, "well ya know, you did lose over 20 pounds... that's a lot right there," or, "you can always do another round of phase 2 later". No no no.. I'm gonna try for the full 40-something injections. bleh. I hate acting like a grownup... sometimes.

I almost forgot

Since this is the half way point, it's time for me to make my second batch of hcg.


Oh and tonight I thawed up some flounder I had in my freezer. I weighed them and they were all around 95 grams, so no needing to trim. I decided to do blackened style, then halfway through doing that I sort of, well let's just say that without using butter or oil the fish stuck to the pan and made it sorta messy. So yeah I guess we'll just settled for seasoned flounder after a couple of tries. I have this blacken seasoning I wanted to use, but it had onion powder in it and I know some people said they had problems using that. So I mixed my own seasons using these spices:

And it was awesome.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seasoned Flounder
1 flounder fillet (100g)
1 tsp. of the following mixture:
salt
paprika
Black pepper
oregano
cayenne pepper (omit if you can't handle the heat! Or use little pinch of it)
garlic powder (if you don't have rosemary garlic season)
1-3 tbsp water or chicken broth


1. Heat a skillet to medium heat.
2. rub season mix on both sides of flounder.
3. Add a few tablespoons of water or broth to the skillet.
4. Drop in Flounder and cook for 5 minutes covered (don't peak!), if your fillet is thicker than a half inch ad a few more minutes.
5. Turn over and cook for a few minutes, maybe 2-4, longer for the thick fillets (my fillets were really thin, less than a half inch). You may have to add 1-2 more tbsp. of water/broth.

Note: if you don't cover your fish while it's cooking your fish will very likely stick to the pan if you're not using nonstick cookware.

Day 21 Halfway mark

Yesterday - 210.5
Today - 209.5

-1 loss!

So I don't feel so bad for trying that piece of cake anymore. Heh. But on another note, it's my halfway point! Being so, it's time to check my progress in inches now. *Drumroll*

inches before/inches after
bust - 50/47.5 -2.5
chest - 40/37 -3
waist - 38/36 -2
stomach - 46.5/43.5 -3
hips - 50/48 -2
thigh - 31.5/29.5 -2
calf - 17.5/16.5 -1
upper arm - 17/16 -1
forearm - 12/10.5 -1.5
total - 301.5/284.5 -18

Omg. I've lost on everything. I'm a frikkin' loser. ^_^ to be honest I couldn't see that much of a loss in any of those areas, but I did notice my shoulders were slimming up and looking squarer, as well as my neck which is strange... kind of makes me feel like one of those bobbleheads. Now looking at myself in the mirror I do notice a smaller proportion of myself. I'm glad my chest and bust are shrinking. As much as I like that hourglass shape I do like just a tad bit more hips and but!

My parents have noticed that I'm losing weight too. They don't know I'm doing the weightloss protocol although I told them I was on a specific diet and I was eliminating certain foods, like breads and sugary fruits. My mom is here trying to guess what I'm doing. She thinks I'm doing the atkins diet but I'm eating fruits so she's like, "ah ha I got it, the low carb diet". I really wanna tell them and yet I don't cause they're doctors and I don't know how they'd react to such a nontraditional restrictive program. I'll tell them in a year. There we go. =P

Day 20

Yesterday - 210.5
Today - 210.5

No gain. No loss. It was the sacrifice I had to pay for letting my dad shove carrot cake down my throat. Okay, he didn't literally... sort of. He made this awesome carrot cake from scratch, which I automatically said to myself, oh you're so not going anywhere near the kitchen today. But when I went downstairs to refill my water, he put a big chunk to my mouth and said, "taste". Argh! he spent all day making that cake and wanted my approval. Gah - flour, carrots, sweetened coconut flakes, brown sugar, egg yolks, olive oil...this was all going through my head and all of the ingredients were taunting me. Oh well... I'm just glad I didn't gain.

Day 20

Yesterday - 212
Today - 210.5

1.5 loss

So I'm back on track again! woohoo! So that's a tototal loss of 21 pounds in 20 days. Not bad, not bad at all. Oh and since I got tired of my onion chicken for lunch I decided to look for something new to fix up, and then was born, beef n' curry cabbage! Not only was it good, but it was filling, thanks to the cabbage, which is very low in calories - 7 calories per ounce. I think I found a regular. I cooked the cabbage separate and sliced up some leftover steak (100g).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Curry Cabbage w/Beef

1 head of cabbage (for one serving use 1/4 of the head and adjust the seasonings for one)
1/3 c low sodium fat free broth (or close to it)
1 tbsp. indian curry (or which ever is available)
1 tsp. cumin
1-2 tsp chilli powder
Salt (just enough to your taste)
1 tsp cayenne powder (only if you like it hot)

1. Preheat stove from medium to medium high heat.
2. Slice cabbage into very thin strips.
3. Pour a little broth into the pan.
4. Dump the shredded cabbage into the pan following the rest of the broth.
4. Add all the seasonings and mix/toss within the pan.
5. Let it be for a couple of minutes or until it starts to wilt on the bottom then toss again.
6. Do this until you get to the desired firmness/softness of the cabbage.
7. Add 3.5 oz. of steak sliced into strips to 1/4 of the cabbage for one serving. The rest of the cabbage can be used for other dishes or stored for later. One medium head of cabbage has about 225 calories so cutting into quarters yields 56 calories or 45 calories if you divide the servings by 5.

Suggestions: instead of beef try shrimp. Lightly cook the shrimp with a little season for a few minutes then add (one serving) cabbage and follow the directions.

Day 19

Day 18 - 211lbs.
Today - 212lbs. +1 gain

!%$#($@&!!!!

I think I know what happened. I stayed after school to work on a project and came home at around 8:ish. I had dinner but I didn't want end the day with so few calories so I waiting a little while to have my second meal. Argh! I think I didn't wait long enough. It was probably like eating 1 big meal altogether. That and I was 2-3 cups shy from my half gallon.

The moral of this story: Stop being a workaholic and go home to take a lunch break. Drink more water throughout the day. yeup.

You'd think this would bring me down. But the overall success of this protocol is too profound to be disturbed by a pound of fat. Or a few for that matter.

Day 15-18 (coming back from the mirror =P)

Day 12- 217lbs.Day13 - 216lbs.Day 14 -214.5lbs.

Day 15 - 214lbs. -.5lbs
Day 16 - 214lbs. blah!
Day 17 - 213lbs. -1lb. (that's what I thought!)
Day 18 - 211lbs. -2lbs. WOA NELLY!

I'm not even fretting about day 16 cause I lost 2 frikkin' pounds! woohoo. *electric slide* that means I lost a little over 20 pounds in 18 days! And I even had one sunchip too (not that I condone cheating but dangit it was a new apple caramel flavor! and oooooooooh it was good). I'm starting to wonder if it was because I drink most of my water during nighttime (it's probably why I wake up 2-4 times to use the restroom). I also had my cottage cheese delight dish. I wonder if that had anything to do with it. Hmm..

By the way, cottage cheese by itself taste good as a dip with my melba toast. I wonder how it would taste if I added a little onion and chives... hmmmm.

oh and by the way, I thrwarted another temptation. At my work sometimes the boss will go ahead and order pizza for us, which he did today, the first time since me being on phase 2. I knew one day I'd have to deal with this. Fortunately my shift was over right when the pizza got here. But as soon as I was about to walk out my other supervisor said pointing a finger at me, "make sure you get some pizza... it's free!". So I casual walked to the back and opened the boxes: Papa John's. Cheese. Supreme. Meat Lovers. Damnit. Once my supervisor saw me open the boxes and got distracted to her office by a customer, I sneaked out the store not touching one slice. Whew.

Day 13-14

Day 12- 217lbs.
Day13 - 216lbs.
Day 14 -214.5lbs.

I lost 1.5 pounds!

If I had a mirror I would make out with myself! Holy crap. And yesterday according to sparkpeople I went OVER my calorie limit. maybe I just put down the wrong kind of beef. I made chili with my 100g. of lean beef, with a big tomato. Because of my +1 gain I was determined for my weight to go down yesterday. So I ate accordingly, no cheating (except I popped one grape in my mouth. it's a habit I can't shake it!) AND to make sure I get plenty of water I drank nearly a gallon, or at least 3 liters. I drank my whole half gallon jug, but just to make sure I take that pound away I filled my empty jug again to over half. I probably would've filled it to the top except my mom looked at me as I was refilling my jug and was like, "are you REALLY going to finish that whole jug before you go to bed?" She's just jealous cause I'm showing her up! But anyways, I proved her wrong and downed that jug in an hour... needless to say I woke up 3 times to pee in the middle of the night. and all those times I had crystal clear piss. I was peeing frikkin' ghost piss. I don't know if that was too much information.... but lo' and behold I lost 1.5 pounds the next morning.

So the moral of the story is: Drink! It makes a difference!

Day 12

yesterday - 216lbs.
Today - 217lbs.

+1 lbs.

Uugghhhh! I gained a pound! Bleh! *shoots pound with a rifle*

Actually I have no right to complain. All this time I've been getting away with "micro-cheats": eating a grape here, sucking on a quater piece of starburst there. Then I grew some balls and had the yolk of a hard boiled egg with mayo and that was probably the final straw. X-O

Okay hcg I learned my lesson! Can you please take this pound away now?!?! Pretty pretty pleeeaaaase!! I'll be good I promise!

DAY 11

Yesterday - 217lbs.
Today - 216lbs.

Whew! 1 pound lost **happy dance**.

Ok, I'm through dancing. So while I was at that Publix yesterday I grabbed some pickles. I mean, it's really a cucumber right? Anyways I also saw these tiny pickle packs. They are the perfect snack for me to take along when I need something salty to eat (since I can't eat Gardetto's for the time being) other than my usual apple. I count them as one of my vegetables. And here's the kicker. The label says zero calories! Hah. Riiigggghhht. Of course what that means is, "we paid off some people in order to say zero if it's less than a certain amount of calories." But seriously, still, cucumbers are very very low in calories to begin with and I know most of the sodium is in the juice, which I don't drink. I ate these and still lost my pound.

I sliced my steak horizontal, so now it looks like I have two steaks. =). It's a psychological thing I guess. I cooked the asparagus in beeth broth and it was surprisingly good. I'm trying to diversify my veggies but on this protocol I know most of my nutrients and micronutrients are coming from the fat cells, so I'm like, why bother? **cause you're going to want to eat a good variety of vegetables after the protocol is over** (Shut up conscience!).

Another thing. I was either going to stop phase 2 before thanksgiving if I got below 200 or just stick it out if I don't. BUT NOW my parents are thinking, hey let's go to Florida for thanksgiving and lets go for the whole week. Drats! So I'm looking in the manuscript cause I know I read something about this and I found this:

"If an interruption of treatment lasting more than four days is necessary, the patient must increase his diet to at least 800 Calories by adding meat, eggs, cheese, and milk to his diet after the third day, as otherwise he will find himself so hungry and weak that he is unable to go about his usual occupation. If the interval lasts less than two weeks the patient can directly resume injections and the 500-Calorie diet, but if the interruption lasts longer he must again eat normally until he has had his third injection ... Interruptions occurring before 20 effective injections are most undesirable, because with less than that number of injections some weight is liable to be regained. After the 20th injection an unavoidable interruption is merely a loss of time..." (Simeons, Pounds & Inches)

Sooooooo what that means is I'll be able to do Thanksgiving after all without 'giving myself away'. *sigh* Now... the only thing I have to worry about is saying know to stuffing =(

Day 10

Yesterday - 217lbs.
Today - 217 lbs.

0 pound lost!

Lol! I knew it! Just as Dr. Simeons forewarned. I cheated and didn't lose. But I didn't gain either. I attribute that to not eating all my alloted apples and breadsticks. Today the Publix store was cruel to me. They were serving samples of baked redfish smothered in a gourmet alfredo sauce with cherry cobbler and they were handing it out in little sample plates and sample cups to hold the cobbler. Everyone around me was eating up their delectable mini-dish while I was holding a bag of organic apples. I looked at them with the intention of knocking their plates out of their hands with my bag of apples and running to my car. But I do wish to continue being a customer there, so I reconsidered my proposal. In the end I boiled down my options to either take the sample dish, or lose 100 pounds [almost] effortlessly. Call me stupid, but the latter sounds like the better deal. When I thought of it like that, it wasn't very hard to say "No Thank You" and walk away.

I reread parts of Dr. Simeons manuscript and parts of the exerts of it in the yahoo group. I haven't thought about cottage cheese but it said that once in a while when the thought of meat is disgusting 100 grams of cottage cheese made with skim milk is permitted. With that I went ahead and ate that instead of my usually beef. I was playing around in the kitchen and I came across some stuff to really "kick it up a notch" (thank you Emeril).

======================================================
Cottage Cheese Delight
100g. nonfat cottage cheese
3 strawberries chopped
4-7 drops of vanilla creme liquid stevia
1 pinch of cinnamon
1 smaller pinch of nutmeg

Combine all ingredients and enjoy! Man this tasted so good. [Note: if you overdo it on the stevia it'll end up tasting bitter]

Day 9

Yesterday - 218lbs./-1.5lbs. (skip day)
Today - 217 lbs./-1lb.

I had little cheats today: 2 gummi bears, and a small chunk of my grandmas chicken curry. I also tore a small corner off of some homemade blueberry muffins. Not looking forward to weighing in tomorrow! To counter it I only had 1 melba toast and one apple, along with my meals. My grandma cooked so many wonderful indian dishes today I was so angry she didn't make them while I was LOADING. I kept telling myself she'll make them again, and again.

Good news. No headaches today. Although now that the ill feeling/brain fog is over my hunger started to creep back up on me. So I tried to make something filling for dinner. I made french onion soup with sirloin steak. Talk about a filling meal. I just cubed up my steak and added it to the soup. And I made my lunch for the whole week. Vinegar 'n onion chicken. Probably doesn't sound appealing to some, but it's actually tasty. Think of salt n vinegar potato chips with an onion flavor. As soon as I get some pictures loaded I'll put the recipes for that (and the onion soup) on here.

D8P2R1

Day 1 (loading day) - 226 lbs.
Day 2 (loading day) - 227 lbs. /+1
Day 3 (start VLCD) - 231.5/ +4.5
Day 4 - 227 lbs. /-4.5
Day 5 - 223.5 /-3.5
Day 6 - 220.5 /-3
Day 7 - 219.5 /-1
Day 8 Today - 218 /-1.5 (skip day)

I'm starting to wonder if I should keep adding these updates every post. Eventually it's going to get long. But it's so good to keep seeing my results! I decided to make Saturday my skip day since I like to sleep in and NOT wake up before 7am thank you.

I was playing tennis with my mom and she made an interesting comment. She noticed I kept spitting on the court and finally she said jokingly, "Why do you keep spitting? What are you pregnant or something!?!" LOL, I didn't know pregnant women spat, or produced extra saliva. But I'm not active like that so I'm not pregnant which leaves the hcg. Intriguing.

Today I wasn't hungry at all. I had half of a grapefruit in the morning with vanilla creme stevia which taste really good by the way. For lunch I made a burger without the bun, just a melba toast. I know someone told me that American ground beef is not good on this diet, but I don't plan on eating anything else for today, as I'm just not hungry enough.

I've been feeling the brain fog again today, and I think I have the slightest headache. I've been told potassium should help so I'll be getting that at my health food store.

I bought a water jug at Walmart for $2-3 and it's perfect for this diet as it holds half a gallon of liquid so I know exactly how much to drink every day, plus I can take it around with me.