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R5P2 Starting Weight 176.8
Yesterday – 165.4
Today – 165.4
0.0 lb LOSS Overnight
3.4 lb Over LIW of Round Four (162.0)
11.4 Lost Since Start of R5C1 (VLCD) 05/06/08
85.4 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Went thru the weekend in this stall. Oh well, it happens. Something is happening tho. Even tho I am not at my LIW yet, I had issues with clothes over the weekend. All of a sudden, nothing was fitting. I mean NOTHING – I had to go somewhere early Saturday morning and I pulled out my regular outfit, and it didn’t fit, so I said, ok, let me grab this … and that didn’t fit either. So even tho I am smack dab in the middle of a stall, my body is doing something. So as long as it’s doing something I am a happy camper.

Today? I am going to try a P2 steak day, let’s see what happens – give myself a little jump start to things.

It’s time to continue on to our discussions on Superfoods!

Superfoods – Spinach

Popeye isn’t the only one that loves spinach – it’s been classified as a superfood for decades. Our mothers must have known something about spinach long before we discovered just how truly wonderful this superfood is. Spinach has a very interesting history.

Did you know that spinach actually originated in the Middle East, most likely Persia (Modern Day Iran) – it was brought to Spain from the Moors sometime around 800AD and 1200AD. In the USA, spinach started to be cultivated around the very early 1800′s. In the 1600′s spinach became the favorite vegetable of Catherine de Medici (Italian Renaissance) – when she left her home in Florence, Italy to marry, she brought with her her own cooks that knew many different ways to cook spinach – because of this, many dishes that are served on a bed of spinach are called “a la Florentine” – isn’t that interesting?

So what are the benefits of spinach? To know this, we have to be familiar with what phytonutrients are – we haven’t done a definition on that yet.

“Phyto” comes from the Greek word “plant” – so basically the nutrients derived from plants. These basic nutrients are what give us the benefits of health. There are different classifications of phytonutrients, something I will go into at another time. What is interesting, is that phytonutrients are not considered essential nutrients (fat, proteins, vitamins and minerals) – but they ARE necessary for us to promote better health. Essential nutrients are needed just for us to live. See the difference?

Phytonutrients can act as antioxidants (we learned about this the other day), they can stimulate detox enzymes and the immune system, they can positively affect hormones, and they can acts as antibacterial or antiviral agents. So in other words, phytonutrients are important for us.

What does this have to do with spinach? Spinach is LOADED with different classifications of phytonutrients. Let’s just look at some of them:

• Lutein – this is an antioxidant phytonutrient (WOW, double bang for the buck) – what does lutein do? It has been shown to help with ARMD (age related macular degeneration) which is a leading cause of blindness in older people.
• Folate – wow, this is pretty powerful stuff here. This phytonutrient helps produce and maintain new cells. Gosh, I wonder how important that would be to our health? Also, folate helps reduce the blood levels of the amino acid homocysteine – which has been proven to be a risk factor in developing cardiovascular disease.
• Coenzyme Q – spinach is LOADED with this – this has been particular helpful in treating people with Parkinsons disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, cancer.

I have only skimmed the tip of the iceberg here.

American’s as a whole (culture) eat way too much acid producing foods – all of the junk food eaten are all acid producing foods. It’s been reported that cancer loves to live in an acid rich environment – whatever we can do to make our bodies more alkaline will be better for our health. Spinach is one way to accomplish this task. Spinach is loaded with alkaline abilities!

My goal when done with the protocol is to get at least 15 servings of greens a day (1 cup equals one serving), with the majority of this being spinach, this wonderful superfood. My goal is to make at least three green smoothies with each one containing at least 5 oz of spinach. That will take some getting used to but it’s worth it for me.

Tomorrow: Dark Chocolate – for real? A superfood?

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R5P2 Starting Weight 176.8
Yesterday – 165.2
Today – 165.4
0.2 lb GAIN Overnight
3.4 lb Over LIW of Round Four (162.0)
11.4 Lost Since Start of R5C1 (VLCD) 05/06/08
85.4 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Ok, this is getting simply ridiculous! ROFL – In all my rounds I have never done this two steps forward, one step back thing. But I had to experience it sometime, I guess. I wonder if I am more issues this time with TOM because I am at a lower weight? I have to remember what Dr S says:

any gain of more than 100 grams is invariably the result of some transgression or mistake

So since .2 lbs is only around 90 grams, there is nothing for me to worry about. So again, another chalk one up to TOM and be on with my day!

I didn’t eat anything yesterday off protocol. I had a smoothie for lunch of cottage cheese, grapefruit, cocoa, and spinach. And then for dinner I had P2 spaghetti sauce with green beans. Oh well. I am still on target.

Phase Two Deviation Recovery

Ok, it happens – at least at one point in a round, something will happen and we either eat too much food, have a protein craving, we are stuck out unprepared, but we eat something we don’t mean to and the next morning we are faced with a gain. There are tricks that might help when such occurrences happen.

Please keep in mind before I offer these suggestions, that this does NOT give you the license to deviate. I am only trying to provide some guidance if the situation was truly unplanned or unexpected. And yes, these things DO happen. Life happens. And these suggestions will help you get past these places and move on. Please remember that Dr Simeons says the following (under “Duration of Treatment“):

It seems that even in the mildest cases of obesity the diencephalon requires about three weeks rest from the maximal exertion to which it has been previously subjected in order to regain fully its normal fat-banking capacity.

That being said, and I am NO doctor or research scientist, but I do have a feeling that Dr Simeons saying you need at least 21 days of rest for your diencephelon in order for the course to be effective means just that. It needs to rest for 21 days. So keep that in mind if you suffer a deviation. It just MIGHT be harder for you to stabilize in Phase 3 should you deviate in Phase 2, unless, after the deviation, you give your diencephelon an additional 21 days to rest. Make sense? I’m just sayin …

Ok, so you find yourself in this predicament, and you are 1 – 2 lbs heavier the next morning, what to do? The point is to fix this issue as soon as it happens, don’t give up, get right back on that band wagon and start again. Here are TWO suggestions for deviation recovery:

1) Modified P2 Steak Day – Easy enough. You save all of your allowed protein for a supper meal – 7 oz of whatever protein you choose. What works best is the beef, but there are people out there with an aversion to beef, so pick your protein. 7 ounces tops raw, and then with an apple or tomato. Nothing to eat during the day, only waters, teas or coffee (without cream). This will produce a lost sometimes of the whole gain, or very close to it. In my research, will not be followed by a bounce back.

2) Modified P2 Egg Day – Now this can be handled two ways, one you can use real eggs. The other you can use Egg Beaters – your choice. If you use real eggs, your choices are very limited as real eggs add up very fast. The trick is to maintain the 500 cals on an “egg day”. Since one egg as a whole equals around 75 cals, you can have 6 whole eggs in a day. If you choose to use Egg Beaters with yolk, you can get up to 12.5 servings (since one serving is 40 cals).

Keep in mind, with my research, the P2 Steak Day seems to have more success than a P2 Egg Day, so the choice is yours. In any case, here is help for you to recover from a Phase Two deviation!

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R5P2 Starting Weight 176.8
Yesterday – 166.4
Today – 165.2
1.2 lb LOSS Overnight
3.2 lb Over LIW of Round Four (162.0)
11.6 Lost Since Start of R5C1 (VLCD) 05/06/08
85.6 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Yes, now that is what I am talking about! Only 5.2 pounds more to go till I get to my goal for this cycle, HA! And only 3.2 pounds to reach my LIW of Round 4 – I knew it would take this round to at least get back down to where I was on my LIW day. So this is just fine with me. Here are my stats compared to previous rounds:

• Round 1 (10 completed days) – 4.55% of body weight lost
• Round 2 (10 completed days) – 5.78% of body weight lost
• Round 3 (10 completed days) – 6.31% of body weight lost
• Round 4 (10 completed days) – 7.81% of body weight lost
• Round 5 (10 completed days) – 6.56% of body weight lost

Here is an interesting stat as well, this is my average weight loss per day:

• Round 1 – .66 loss per day (8 week round)
• Round 2 – .64 loss per day (6 week round)
• Round 3 – .85 loss per day (3 week round)
• Round 4 – .86 loss per day (26 day round)

If I average those numbers out, I can expect to lose around .75 per day, that is around 3/4 of a pound. Using that figure, and counting today, I have 11 more injections to LIW day. That means if I stick right, and live by my averages, I could stand to lose around 8 more pounds. That means I might see the 150′s on this round! OMG! Wouldn’t that be totally AMAZING!

Yesterday I had coffee for the first time in a while, I was just so cold, and I didn’t feel like drinking tea. I also saved my food up so that I could have a double portion of my husbands spaghetti sauce that he made special for me and JPS with no salt cans of tomato stuff. I ate mine on top of green beans, so I had like a modified steak day. During the afternoon tho, I had a snack of lettuce with feta and WHITE balsamic vinegar. OMG! That was simply delish, that is a definite keeper that WHITE balsamic!

Rebellious Eating

Ok, I hope I didn’t freak some of you out with my title. No, I didn’t have “Rebellious Eating” – but I was broached on this subject in my journal over at the My HCG Journey Community Forums – in part this is what was asked to me:

A certain member had a pristine Round 1 Phase 2 with a subsequent Phase 3 that was clean also – now they went on their Round 2 Phase 2 and pretty much all heck broke loose and they started feeling deprived and it was a hard round (aren’t all second rounds pretty much the pits???) and now this member is on Round 2 Phase 3 and is feeling very rebellious about their eating. She was wondering if I have ever felt that way?

Um, hello??? HA! I could definitely be this person, seriously. Oh sure, I might sound like I have it all going on at times, but nothing could be further from the truth. There is this constant rebellious spirit inside me that is screaming to just let her have her way. This alien inside is really mad when she sees her husband and her number two son eat what they want, and when they want, with what seems like no repercussions – but what repercussions is she looking for? Well the only one she knows how to look for, and that is weight gain. But is that all there is?

This protocol is so much more than just weight loss. It teaches us so many different things. The most significant thing it has taught me is my relationship to food. For instance, I have figured out that for the most part I am a perfect happy camper while at home and able to make my own food choices, able to stick to plan, whatever plan that may be. But when I travel, and get with friends and family, I start to throw caution to the wind because I feel that these are special occasions, I “deserve” to live it up and face my consequences when I get home.

Well, this girl has learned her lesson. This last family trip I took cost me 16 lbs when I got back. Because I chose to throw caution to the wind while in California, I am paying for it by being on this round 10 days so far and still not hitting the weight that I was back on February 17th (LIW Round 4) – that is not acceptable – rebellious spirit or not. I have worked TOO hard to get this far to screw with this again. Fact is, I am bigger than this rebellious spirit in me and I am worth TOO much to let this happen again, it’s about time I really accepted that as truth. The worth too much part. I deserve to be thin. I deserve to be healthy. I deserve to enjoy good healthy food that will make my body thrive. I am no longer that person that has to hide behind bad food choices.

So what does the rebellious spirit get me? What does any rebellious spirit get anyone? Nothing but heartache and pain. I have to stand up and do what is right for this machine I call my body. I have to feed it things that will enable it to be a well oiled machine that can last many years into the future.

Before I end this … I want to go back to the question I asked earlier about watching my husband and my number two son eat what they want with no repercussions … I asked, is that all there is? Do I just see weight gain as a repercussion? Well, no, that isn’t all there is. Because of the bad food choices that my husband and number two son continue to make, they might not gain weight, but they are sure paying for it in other ways. Both have IBS – my husband is dealing with liver problems, gall bladder problems, now he is complaining of pain in his left shoulder. My number two son deals with lethargy. All of these things are made better by eating a more healthy diet, but they will not change their eating habits. I can only inform them of the benefits of healthy eating, I cannot force feed them. What will it take for them to come to grips with this and do something about it? What did it take me? I have to give them enough rope … I’m just sayin …

Tomorrow? I am gonna talk about handling a deviation on Phase 2 …