Day Four

It sure makes a difference when you have a plan for the day!
Without a plan, this is how my day went:

Breakfast:
Strawberry/ cottage cheese shake - still good, but it's getting old now - tomorrow will be different!

Off to bible study and had some tea and strawberries there.  I felt really tired today and needed a little boost, so I had less that 1/4 of a raisin/cinnamon bagel - see - no plan!  This messed me up a bit, but wanted to get right back on track.

Lunch:
Black bean, corn and rice mixture 1/3 cup of each)  with salsa.  It was just what I needed - I felt better and was ready to run my errands.

Got home at 3:30 and was famished - forgot my drops and had a cucumber with hummus, then had two melba toasts and eventually a whole tomato - NO PLAN!

Ran off to pick up/drop off the kids for sports - still no drops.  ugh!
Came home, hungry again and had a coffee/cottage cheese shake.  yum.

Grabbed two handfuls of goji berries - NO PLAN!

Just realized I hadn't taken my drops yet, so now I'm waiting 15 minutes while I type this out.

So, to avoid this problem with tomorrow's busy schedule - here is my plan for tomorrow:

Breakfast:
2 egg whites (34 cal) /brown rice (50 cal)/scallions/tomatoes/green pepper (20 cal)/low sodium soy sauce.

Lunch:
Big taco salad with tomatoes (40 cal), 3 oz of taco flavored ground beef (200 cal) , salsa  and 1 T (15 cal) fat free cottage cheese

Dinner:
3 oz filet mignon (200 cal) , 1/2 potato (80 cal)  with 1T cottage cheese (15 cal) , salt and pepper
grilled vegetables (80 cal) (frozen, prepared)

Snack:
peach shake:  1 peach, 1/3 cup cottage cheese, ice, water and vanilla extract

I'll make my brown rice now so breakfast will be easy.
Tomorrow is a higher calorie day, but I'm very low energy today, so I think I need a boost.  I also need to make sure I don't become anemic.

Ground beef tip: after browning my ground beef, I always rinse it out well with hot water which makes any ground beef quite lean.  This probably sounds gross, but I've done this for years and many people comment on how great and lean my lasagna is.  Try it!

Gotta paint a room before I go to bed.  That's all for now!

Day Three

Going strong.  I squeezed in a morning swim today -  it felt so good.
I always think a lot in the pool as I do my laps.  After talking to an HCG company representative the other day and learning that they have an 850 calorie diet, I've decided to make some modifications to my program to make it more personally appealing and more healthy in my opinion.  I don't really believe that 500 calories is right for me, so I plan to consume between 650-900 calories which makes the menu more flexible and fun to plan.  I'd also like to try adding some other fruits occassionally.  I look at this as an experiment between what I know and what I don't know.

I will also mix in some macrobiotic components, especially brown rice, miso soup, legumes and some other less familiar foods like burdock root, seaweed, daikon, etc.  Many of these foods are extremely nutritious, cleansing and they also help to burn fat and prevent cancer.

I feel like I'm at a point in my life where I need to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and use every tool in my arsenal to achieve my weight loss goal.  I've never been a "diet" person, following one crazy diet after another.  Well - maybe I did a bit of that when I was younger, but it's certainly not my mantra.  Even the calorie counting has been so passe for me.  I have spent time (and money!) learning about the macrobiotic approach to diet and living.  It has helped me to get to know my body better and know what properties each food has and how it is used to benefit vital organs.  The health of the kidney and liver is so important.  Losing weight can really stress these organs, so it's important to take care to eat the proper foods that help to strengthen them.  I will continue to write more about this, but I need to limit my time on the computer each day so this blogging doesn't become a chore.

Breakfast - just guess!
Yep - my favorite new Strawberry/Cottage cheese shake - I know it's time to change it up, but man, it is soooo good!

I wanted to share my lunch with you - here's a pic:


 Hummus with Veggies and Melba Toast

1 cup garbanzo beans

1 T Walden Farms, fat free, sugar free bacon dressing

1 T Walden Farms, fat free, sugar free russian dressing

3 cloves fresh garlic, pressed

Salt and pepper to taste

Lime juice, approx 1 tsp.

Garnish with fresh basil

Makes two servings.  Served with cucumber, red pepper slices and melba toast

Calories:  Garbanzo beans 1/2 cup, 110 cal, red pepper, 20 cal, cucumber 15 cal, melba toast 50 cal, total 200

Comments:  This was delicious, but I must say that the russian dressing does contain sucralose which made the hummus too sweet and then I had to add more salt than desired, so I would skip the russian dressing.  I just thought that having some kind of flavor and creamy texture from the dressing might help to substitute for the olive oil and tahini that I usually use in my hummus.  Play around with this recipe and leave comments please!

Plans for dinner:

Chicken (3oz) and grilled vegetables with fat free, sugar free balsamic marinade - 250 calories

Snack - shake with coffee, fat free cottage cheese, ice.  1 peach 150 calories

Day Two

Well - I wrote a long piece today and then when I published it, it was blank.
I'm not retyping it as I have other things to do with my day today.
Suffice to say, I had a strawberry shake, same as yesterday, 100 cal, for breakfast.
For lunch, I mixed 1/3 cup each of brown rice, 65 cal, black beans, 100 cal, and frozen corn, 45 cal, total 210 for lunch
Snack will be 1/2 grapefruit or one whole if I feel too hungry.
Dinner will be a large mixed salad with chicken and balsamic vinagrette.

Day One

Welcome to my blog.

I've never done this before, but I feel this is important to my success.  I need accountability!

I know several people who have had great success with the HCG diet and so I am going to give this program an honest attempt.  I realize that there are some risks, but I feel that they pale in comparison to the risks of living in this obese body.  

This is my promise - I will share everything I experience, openly and honestly, so that  you can form a more realistic interpretation of whether this approach may work for you.  I know I haven't read everything there is to read about HCG, but I have read a fair amount.  I do have some concerns and I will share them too.  

My goal in setting up this blog is twofold - 1) it gives me a place to log my experiences in an organized manner which provides accountability for me and  2) I hope that I may help you in making a wise decision about your personal health and fitness.  

I have no interest in promoting any product or service.  I am simply a woman who has battled obesity my entire life and I wish to put this battle behind me.  I want to wake up every morning with energy and vitality.  I want to move on to continue my life's dream of promoting fitness in children and teens.  

Tuesday, Sept 7th

Today is the first day on the VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet - 500 calories).  I started taking the sublingual drops on Sunday and Monday, 3 doses each day (10 drops for each dose under my tongue).  This morning was the first day of school for my kids, so I took a short walk with my dog after seeing them off at the bus stop.  I understand that it is best to get some type of mild activity each day, but not anything too intense/high calorie burning.  The walk was perfect.   I'm very sore today, so I only walked about one-half of a mile.

Since then, I've been on the computer too much - so after setting up this blog, I'm going to keep this to a brief update each day so it doesn't become a chore!

I plan to follow the protocol closely, but I am making adjustments too.  For instance, I plan to include some type of protein in each meal because I believe that eating a balanced meal is very important.  The protocol suggests eating protein with the two small meals and only having a fruit in the morning.  I changed this and I absolutely loved the shake I made - I make protein shakes frequently, but had never done this one before - it was perfect!  Give it a try:

Breakfast - Strawberry Protein shake:

1/4 cup fat free cottage cheese - 45 calories

5 oz fresh strawberries  - 50 calories

1 cup crushed ice

water
Blend well in blender or with a handy dandy immersion blender.  If you don't have one of these, get one now!  It's indispensible.  It can also be messy if you're not careful and never leave it unattended - ha!

Green tea

Plan for the rest of the day:

Lunch:

Large salad, mixed greens - about 40 calories

3 oz boiled chicken, (preseasoned with a pampered chef Moroccan rub) 100 calories

juice of one lemon - 10 calories
Green tea (pomegranate and raspberry)

Dinner:

1 oz   brown rice - 40

3 oz boiled fish - 100 calories

lemon

1 large fresh cucumber - 40

cabbage/tomato soup with  onion, celery - 15 calories

Snack 

1 small apple - 50 calories

1/4 cup fat free cottage cheese or plain yogurt - 45 calories