P1 Redux

Today’s Weight: 174.5
LIW:  173.7

And Round 2 commences.  Not much to say today, other than I’m ready.  I’ve got my chicken and fish portioned out and in the freezer (I made my trip to Costco yesterday).  I have my oil-free moisturizer (this time I bought Image oil free gel moisturizer – love this product even if it is a bit of a splurge at 40.00).  I mixed my HCG yesterday – it’s on the counter as I type this coming up to room temp. 

Just a small message to myself at this point:  you can do this.  Hold tight to that resolve you had in Round 1.  No one influences your success except yourself, and failure is not an option.  JUST DO IT!  I guess that’s no small message at all, huh?  I think it’s rather monumental actually!

P4 Day 21:-.5

LIW:  173.7
Today’s Weight: 174.2
Today’s change: -.5

Breakfast:  chicken-feta-spinach sausages.  Lunch:  salmon, broccoli, salad with blue cheese dressing.  Dinner was the incredible edible steaks that TRHM bought.  These suckers were so big I had to venture into mammoth steak cooking techniques.  I coated them olive oil, then dipped them in a rub of brown sugar, garlic powder, lots of rosemary, coarse pepper and kosher salt.  I seared them on all sides in a hot skillet (literally 6 surfaces to sear – the sides of these steaks were big enough to sear since they were about 2.5 inches thick).  Once this was done I stuck them in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes.  They were a perfect medium rare – 130 degrees.  And delicious.  I think I gave the high dollar steakhouses a run for their money!  The steaks’ sidekicks were roasted asparagus, broiled tomaotes,  and cippolini onions with mushrooms .  And I had two bites of a lemon bar.  Lemon bars are a huge weakness for me, I need to just stay away from them.  I wanted at least 10 🙂 (bars, not bites).

Day 21 WOOT!  Round 2 starts tomorrow, FINALLY.  I’ll mix my HCG today and load syringes.  I must go have a burger tomorrow at my favorite burger joint.  Remembering what load days are like, I probably won’t even want to eat but I’ll give the old college try.  I bought some of the stuff I need yesterday (cabbage, chicken broth), and I need to make a trip to Costco either today or tomorrow to get chicken tenders, tilipia, celery, apples, and cucumbers….oh and some coarse ground mustard if they have it, for the salad dressing that I make.  And some Smartwater.  I think that’ll do it.

TRHM is at work today, but we’ll be spending the evening together of course.  We’re inseperable.  He was SO impressed with the meal last night!  I told him my plan was to seduce him with my cooking.  I think it’s working 😉

P4 Day 20: +.2

LIW:  173.7
Today’s Weight: 174.7
Today’s change: +.2

I was so sure that today was going to be my third steak day before Round 2.  I’m sure happy I’m still within my LIW range.  For breakfast, chicken-feta-spinach sausages.  For lunch I had my favorite Vietnamese bun dish – check out the picture (I would eat this for breakfast if I could).  I took the picture because I wanted to try out my new camera that my brother gave me for Christmas.  The quality is amazing – WAY better than the P2 pictures I took with my iPhone.  I promise you that this is the only non-P2 picture I will post.   For dinner TRHM took me to my favorite San Antonio restaurant.  He’s so sweet – he did this because I had a really bad day yesterday, and he wanted to treat me.  We shared bread and butter, calamari, an appetizer plate with smoked salmon, tortilla chips, and cream cheese, and another appetizer plate with grilled potatoes with garlic sauce.  AND,  we shared rum and sour cherry ice cream and buttermilk pie for dessert.  Now you see why I thought a steak day was imminent.  I don’t think I will ever, ever really relax when I’m indulging.  That’s a good thing.

Sooo…back to the bad day part.  I didn’t sleep well night before last, I went to work exhausted.  Dealing with the normal everyday crap at work just wore on me.  And my son got in trouble at school – I have to go to  a parent-teacher conference day today.  I was pretty darn grouchy by the end of the day.  This is life, right?  That’s ok, I can deal with life.  What concerns me about this is how I obviously took it as an excuse to eat things I normally wouldn’t.  While lunch was intentional, my dinner choices were really not so much.  I’m not freaking out over it or anything but I definitely need to be aware of emotional eating.  It’s what got me overweight in the first place.

I mentioned to TRHM last night that today would probably be a steak day. He knows about the HCG, knows what I’m doing , I’m just not dumping it all on him at one time, he would run screaming.  His eyes lit up, and he’s like Yay!  A steak day!  I told him what it was and after we left the restaurant he took me to Central Market and he bought the two biggest honking bone-in ribeyes you can imagine.  I’m talking these steaks are the size of roasts, enough to feed me, TRHM, and my son.  We’ll have a great dinner tonight.  AND, I don’t have to fast all day, but I will be adamant about having a high protein day.

Once again, wishing you the happiest of Fridays.

P4 Day 19: +1.4

LIW:  173.7
Today’s Weight: 174.5
Today’s change: +1.4

Chicken-feta-sausages for breakfast.  Big fat steak and steamed broccoli for lunch.  Pancakes, bacon, and eggs for dinner.  I don’t even regret the pancakes, they were goooood.

Got to run, I’m meeting TRHM and his daughter this morning at Starbucks for a meet and greet 🙂

P4 Day 18: -1.5

LIW:  173.7
Today’s Weight: 173.1
Today’s change: -1.5

Chicken-feta-spinach sausages for breakfast.  Salad with grilled chicken and garlic ranch dressing for lunch.  Homemade cream of broccoli soup with chicken for dinner. 

I came home after work and started watching my recordings of the new season of Biggest Loser.  I’ve been hooked on that show for two years.  I used to watch and yearn to find it within myself to do something about my weight.  Now, I’m there.  Awesome stuff.

P4 Day 17: +1.2

LIW:  173.7
Today’s Weight: 174.6
Today’s change: +1.2

Chicken-spinach-feta sausages for breakfast.  Lunch was grilled chicken with onions, serrano and poblano peppers, mushrooms, monterey jack cheese, AND avocados, and a garden salad with blue cheese dressing.  You’ve seen this item as a meal for me before – it comes from a restaurant in SA that is diner style but their food is bodacious.  I always know I can walk in this place and get something healthy to eat.  How many restaurants can you say that about?  Their list of daily vegetables numbers around 15, and they are all simply steamed.  But, I digress….dinner was a spinach salad with candied pecans, dried cranberries, gruyere cheese, incredible homemade balsamic dressing, and onions.  I should have had some protein for dinner too but I was too lazy to fix anything.

I’m dreaming about Round 2 – literally.  And the obsession starts again.  Can’t remember exactly what I dreamed but it was something to do with the HCG protocol.  Silly girl.

TRHM came over last night, we hung out and tried to watch movies, but mostly we just talked and watched each other.  It’s probably pretty obvious to state this after all my ramblings on TRHM, but we’re in love!  It was gloriously unexpected and I’m reveling in it.  It’s been a long time since I have had a man adore me.

P4 Day 16: +1

LIW:  173.7
Today’s Weight: 173.4
Today’s change: +1

Monday, blah.  Breakfast was chicken-apple sausages.  I had a late lunch/early dinner of homemade cream of broccoli soup with chicken.  That’s it.

I sat with my calendar yesterday and figured out my Round 2 schedule – this coming Sunday and Monday will be load days, and P2 will start on Tuesday Jan 19th.  I’m ready.

P4 Day 15: -1.8

LIW:  173.7
Today’s Weight: 172.4
Today’s change: -1.8

Breakfast was chicken-apple sausages (I’m kind of boring huh?  But I love them so!).  For lunch I had a small salad with blue cheese dressing, grilled chicken topped with onion, mushrooms, serreno and poblano peppers, monterrey jack cheese, and sliced avocado (wowza!).   Dinner was salad topped with steak, goat cheese, tomatoes, and balsamic dressing.

Lessons I’ve learned so far on P4:

1)  I can eat almost anything I want.  Really.  I’ve had the foods that I really love and I’ve been fine.  I haven’t forged ahead with cake and candy and fries – but oddly enough I don’t even want those things.  I don’t even want diet coke any more, and diet coke was like crack to me.  I  believe the protocol resulted in a cleansing so to speak, and many of the cravings that I used to have are gone.  That’s something worth celebrating!

2)  I haven’t needed a steak day since before Christmas – if my weight goes up I do a high protein day and all is right in my world.  Dare I say stabilized?

3)  Coffee with heavy cream is my friend.  My weight is more stable with this than if I drink black coffee.

–Update, adding another:

4) I can’t eat eggs every day – I have to limit them to occasional treats.  They consistently cause me to gain.

I’ll ponder this more and see if I have any more lessons to add.  It’s early, I’m still trying to wake up, savoring my coffee with heavy cream 🙂

Cheers!

P4 Day 14: +1.5

LIW:  173.7
Today’s Weight: 174.2
Today’s change: +1.5

Too many refined carbs yesterday (pasta and bread).  I’m not surprised at the gain – pretty sure the culprit was dinner, which was homemade spaghetti, garlic bread, and my famous and delicious goat cheese salad.  For lunch I had some of the leftover green chile I made, and breakfast was the usual chicken-apple sausages.

Live and learn.  I’m allergic to pasta.  It makes my ass swell.

P4 Day 13: -1

LIW:  173.7
Today’s Weight: 172.7
Today’s change: -1

Rock and roll!  Chicken and apple sausages (two) for breakfast.  Eight oz ribeye with steamed broccoli and a dinner salad with blue cheese dressing for lunch.  Dinner was the pièce de résistance – I picked up Vietnamese food.  My absolute favorite Vietnamese dish is basically a cool noodle salad  (also called bun) of  rice noodles served at room temperature with cool garnishes and warm toppings.  The soft rice noodles sit on a bed of cool, crunchy bean sprouts, cucumbers, lettuce, and mint, and mine was topped with sliced pork, meatballs, and one Vietnamese egg roll.  Yummy to the Nth degree.  I could eat this every day.  I have been avoiding it due to the rice noodles but with everything I’ve experimenting with lately my weight has stayed within LIW range.  So I tried it, and lo and behold, my weight today is still ok.  Gotta love it.

Checked my measurements this morning as well.  I suspected some slight changes – nothing drastic, I could just tell that things were changing a bit.  Even though my weight is pretty much the same as the last time I measured, I’m down 1/2 inch in my waist, 1.5 inches in my hips, and 1 inch in my midriff.  THANK GOD no losses in my chest, still got the girls going on, but that’s likely to change with Round two 😦  I had read that your body continues to adjust to the weight loss during P3 and P4, and I have found this to be the absolute truth.

Loving this Friday already.  I’m working from home in my PJ’s – work doesn’t get any better than that.  Tonight, a hot date with TRHM, I’m so looking forward to seeing him.  I miss him and just need to lay my eyes on him sooner than later.  He misses me too 🙂

Happy Friday!