PHASE 2 – PART DEUX
DAY 10


Not a long blog today, just a couple of interesting notes:

1) Lane and I made cabbage chili Monday night for dinner. It was wonderful. I will make it when we are not doing phase 2. It was extremely simple and cooked in minutes. It made so much I couldn’t eat it all. [Lane was happy to eat my leftovers as well as the extra in the pan] I’ll include the recipe at the end of the blog.


2) All three of us were ‘UP’ on Tuesday. Lane and I ate the same food for dinner, but Jill had something entirely different. Very strange. At first we thought it was the chili because both of us gained, but when Jill said she was up too, well, then it just got weird.


3) All three of us were back down today. Very strange indeed.


CABBAGE CHILI [one serving]

3.5 OZ GROUND BEEF [ Browned]
2 C WATER
¼ CABBAGE [Chopped]
1 TOMATO [Chopped small]
1 Tsp CHILI POWDER
1 Tsp OREGANO
1 Tsp CUMIN
SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE
2 GARLIC CLOVES [Chopped]


[We will also add some chopped onion next time around. I didn’t have any cumin and I don’t even know what it is.]


BROWN GROUND BEEF, ADD ALL INGREDIENTS TO LARGE SAUCEPAN AND BRING TO BOIL. COOK UNTIL CABBAGE IS TENDER. [10 – 15 minutes]

PHASE 2 – PART DUEX
DAY 8


We are one week into the new program. Lane is down 15 pounds, I’m down 6 pounds, and Jilly is down 10 pounds.


Jill said she is so excited because there is no way she ever would have lost this much weight using a more traditional method.


This time around, Jill has introduced us to boiled radishes [not as bad as you might think], and baked radish chips. Radishes are only 1 calorie per radish, so they are a great choice as an add-on.


I’m still getting really hungry between breakfast and lunch, but I expected that. That time of day has always been my worst hunger time. A nice warm herbal tea does help to kill the stomach rumbling. Late nights have been fine. It just shows me that eating late at night is more of a habit than a need.


I’m eating a lot more steak this time. I’m hoping it will help me get past the .02 and .03 ounce losses I experienced last time. Early in phase 2, the first time, I chastised a fellow HCG blogger for eating steak every day. I was pretty brutal about how I felt about that and how stupid I thought she was, since beef is higher in calories than chicken or fish. I later apologized to her in one of my blogs because I had eaten a couple of beef meals and dropped some good weight. I still don’t understand WHY it works, but I know it does. Phase 3 taught us that if our weight went up, we would do a steak and apple day and it would be back down the following day.


Jill was not on the diet at that time, but she was visiting and decided to try it. It worked so well for her she formally adopted it and began incorporating ‘Steak & Apple’ days into her life. She bought a lot of steaks to start this program because she already 'gets it'.

PHASE 2 – PART 2
DAY 4

We started Phase 2 on Monday, Sept 6th. We were camping at the property [and without water most of the time, it really WAS like camping!], so it was pretty easy to do a loading day. I fixed a huge breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, muffins, and pancakes. [actually Mark-son made the pancakes].


We got really busy in the afternoon and ended up skipping lunch. I did snack a lot on ‘stuff’, but we were leaving early, so between the packing and closing up the trailer, we just didn’t eat. Also, we were all full from breakfast and no-one wanted to eat. [Jilly is doing phase 2 with us this time]


After getting home around 5 p.m., Jill and I were lucky enough to get nail appointments, so we left Lane with the girls and we dashed to Walmart. By the time we came back it was getting close to 7:00 pm and we were starving! Lane couldn’t wait for us and had eaten a hamburger with the girls. We talked him into grilling us some steaks and we had fresh corn that an IPC had given me. Jill and I finished up with a piece of Amish Friendship bread and a scoop of ice cream.


Tuesday was day 2 of the ‘loading days’. Breakfast was my normal shake, I ate in the TNI café for lunch, and had baked Hungarian crepes. They sound better than they tasted. Lane brought home KFC chicken fried steak for dinner [yuk], and I ate m&ms before going to bed.


The ‘loading’ worked because I was up two pounds on Wednesday, which was the first day of the actual diet. I was a bit hungry during the morning but I remember that as being the most difficult time of the day for me. I did fine during the afternoon and didn’t get to my snack until 5:00 pm. We ate dinner at 6:00, then went to Salt Lake to see a grandson in the hospital. We got home about 9:30 pm and I went to bed at 10:00. I was not hungry at night.


Today I was down to my starting weight. The extra two pounds are gone. [Lane lost 6 pounds!] I had to bring both lunch and dinner to work today because my RS group is coming to view the gardens this evening. I’ll be staying here so I can greet them and show them out to the gardens. I’ll eat my dinner at my desk and just hang out until they come at 6:00.

PHASE 4 – WEEK 8 ½


FINAL FOLLOW-UP


I was looking back through the blog posts and found this statement from the June 28th post. I thought it was worth a re-visit.


‘Phase 4 of the HCG Diet requires you to exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet and avoid overindulging. This doesn't mean that everything eaten must be healthy - it simply means to keep everything in moderation and avoid overindulgence.’

SO – O – O – O with this being the last week of Phase 4, how are we doing? I’ll take it point by point.


1) ‘Phase 4 of the HCG Diet requires you to exercise regularly’ - - Yeah, I’m not being so good on this one. I usually walk with the girls from work for a mile around the gardens during the day, but after I get home there are too many distractions. Lane and I were being fabulous about walking in the evenings around the rec center track, but when it got really hot, we stopped going, and I found other things to fill my time. Actually we had plans to go last night, but daughter #3 came over with her littles, and the evening just went by too fast. It was dark before we could go, and this is a perfect example of what I was saying about distractions. I have also re-discovered my paints, and that is another distraction. A sedentary one. [however, when I paint, I have to remember to eat]



2) ‘Eat a healthy diet’ - - We really have tried to be good on this one. We like eating better. I do a protein shake for breakfast, lunch is usually lean meat and a sliced pepper (or other veggie), and dinner is lean meat or fish with a fresh veggie. Of course we love the summer fruits, and an occasional dessert. One fun find has been two delicious coleslaw recipes. Tropical slaw and Apple/Cinnamon slaw. Both are made with yogurt as the dressing, so they are low fat, low calorie, and very yummy.



3) ‘avoid overindulging’ - - This was really easy the first few weeks of phase 4. We simply didn’t want to overeat or eat ‘naughty’ things. But I am finding myself slipping a bit on this point lately. I’m back in the habit of thinking I ‘need’ something to snack on at night. When I’m offered goodies, I usually take one, even when I don’t really want it. I seriously need to learn to say ‘no’, just like I did in phase 2 and 3. I think Lane is struggling with this more than I am. He has gained a few pounds back and I think it’s due to the night eating again, and larger portions.



4) ‘keep everything in moderation and avoid overindulgence’ - - I think we are doing well, overall. I need to up my exercise quotient, and Lane needs to reign in the night eating.



This was a beneficial check-up. Basically – we need to STAY FOCUSED and STAY COMMITTED to our goals.

[and I need to hurry and eat more salmon before Sept 1st!]

Recipe for Apple/Cinnamon slaw:

¼ lg. cabbage, chopped
1 lg apple, diced
½ C chopped pecans [or walnuts]
1 C vanilla yogurt
2 TLB apple juice [or milk]
¼ tsp. cinnamon
Combine cabbage, apple and nuts. Mix yogurt with juice or milk to thin, then stir in cinnamon. Add yogurt mixture to cabbage mixture and let stand before serving. [can be eaten right away, but it seems to be better after sitting for a while, so you can make it early in the day and serve with dinner.]

PHASE 4 – WEEK 8

THE WEEKEND!


Lane said I needed to blog about my weekend. He said it was worth writing about. That means that several ‘out of the ordinary’ things happened this weekend.
1) I got my FIRST ever speeding ticket. And yes, I deserved it. I was going down a hill [a steep one], and the speedometer got to 41 [in a 25 MPH zone]. He was nice enough to drop the speeding to 9 miles over the limit to ’limit’ my fee. Lane says if I take a class I can get if off my record. I guess I’ll be taking a safety class very soon.


2) My cell phone died. I don’t mean it ran out of battery. I mean it is officially deader than a doornail! They will be shipping me a new one, but in the meantime - - I’m incommunicado.


3) [Here’s the weight reference] - - - - I was up 4 pounds from my maintenance weight. DRAT!


4) I have recently picked up my paint brushes again, and our trip this weekend was to include buying more figurines to paint. I took some money from my 'savings stash' to pay for the figurines. I lost it. I searched high and low and could not find it. I was so bummed! I pulled more money from the stash, but was not happy about it. Lane searched, I searched, but to no avail. [when we got to Camelot, I took my debit card from my pocket, and Voila, there it was, stuck to my card. This at least had a happy ending!]


5) Traveling to the trailer we got into a construction zone that was a ‘no passing’ zone. Well, of course some people could not go 40 MPH and not pass. Three cars zipped past in the ‘no pass’ zone and the 3rd car shot a rock into my windshield! I got a huge crack in the windshield from that impatient driver. [wish I had a license plate number!!]


6) We got into a bug storm on the way and we didn’t dare use the wipers due to the crack in the windshield. We drove to the property looking between the spots.


The good news was that when we got up there, it was peaceful, beautiful and [almost] worth the travel trials.

PHASE 4 – WEEK 7


I recently taught a Relief Society lesson about how Christ organized his Church when he was on the earth. The last part of the lesson talked about the apostasy and what happened to the Church after Jesus died and the Apostles were killed. Little by little, old pagan ideas began to find their way back into the teachings. Old Jewish traditions were again being used. Soon, the Church that Jesus organized was corrupted and confusion reigned.



Now, what does that have to do with weight loss? Well, I think there is a significant connection. It is directly tied to human nature. We tend to go back to what we know. We do the same things we did before being ‘enlightened’. FOR INSTANCE: After a marvelous success with losing the weight and keeping it off during the maintenance period, I can see some insidious little habits begin to creep back into my life, corrupting the value of what I learned in May, June, and July.



Why do we do that????? I am up 3 pounds today, and I know it is the direct result of making ‘little’ choices that I know are harmful to me. I ate 2 brownies on Sunday. I have been ‘nibbling’ away at the ‘Wunderbar’ in my desk [you know, just cutting off a small piece each day - -], snacking on peanuts and m&ms in the evenings, not keeping up with my evening walks or exercise tapes. Little things that make a big impact.



Sept 1st is fast approaching, and we’ll be going back on Phase 2. I think it’s a good thing. I apparently need another kick in the pants to get back on track.

PHASE 4 – DAY 37

GOOD ADVICE!


I saw this picture and liked the message. It may not be the most profound message of the day, but I think it has great value.


Look around you. I mean, really look around you. Go to Wal-Mart and people-watch for a few minutes. Just when you thought your problems were enormous, you see someone whose life is so much harder than yours. Maybe it’s more physically challenging, maybe they are dealing with other issues that are noticeable, but you can always find someone who is worse off than you are.


Instead of taking ourselves so seriously this week, let’s do what we know we should do. Be thankful for the abundant blessings we are given on a daily basis. Allow yourself to notice the small things that we are given, instead of focusing on the difficult or stressful things.


This blog is about weight loss, so here is something I need to focus on:


THE WEIGHT I'VE LOST – and not on the pound or two I’ve gained. I know how to lose those two pounds, so I just need to do it. Steak and apples, baby! With our daughter and her girls safely back in their own home, we can now go back to fixing the meals we normally prepare. Easy, peasy.