Days gone by used to include meat and potatoes, rice and fish or cornbread and BBQ. Tofu and hummus or some sort of veggie burger is replacing those things today. There is a huge movement in changing over to an alternative eating style. The “organic” movement in particular shows that a healthy dose of the population is looking for their foods to be a bit more pure and natural. Sometimes you can get confused about what all the terms are, what they mean, and how they might apply to you directly.

There have been conclusions reached over the past 6 months or so in the HTA Community that there is entirely too much protein eaten daily and that is one of the causes of obesity, or in relation to the goals at Happily Thinner After, the inability to maintain your weight loss. It was once believed that 100 grams of protein was a great number to go after which is double what Dr. Simeons allows on the Protocol, but with more and more research (including the findings of Dr. K with his HIGH FAT OPTIMAL DIET) there are discoveries being made that this might be a bit too much as well. These findings now need to come with alternative recommendations.

There are numerous different alternative-eating lifestyles out there, the focus will be to give you a general run down of the most popular – there will be no attempt to recommend one over the other, these are personal lifestyles alternatives. The focus of this article is to be informed.

Vegetarianism – This eating lifestyle excludes meat, fish (including shellfish) and poultry. Most vegetarians will consume dairy products, and many will eat eggs – the three popular terms are:

Lacto-vegetarianism includes dairy products but excludes eggs
Ovo-vegetarianism includes eggs but not dairy
Lacto-ovo vegetarianism includes both eggs and dairy products

Veganism – This eating lifestyle excludes the use of animals for food (in any form) but includes not using animals for clothing or any other purpose. The ethical treatment of animals is the basis of this alternative eating style. This lifestyle will exclude the use of honey and silk.

Raw Foodism – This eating lifestyle promotes the consumption of un-cooked and un-processed food. In the raw food world, a person is considered a raw foodist if 75-100% of a person’s total food consumption is raw food. There are four main types of raw foodists:

Raw Vegetarian and Raw Vegan – these are raw versions of the above definitions
Raw Omnivorous – this lifestyle focuses in on raw plant and animal sources – this may a selection of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs, fish (such as sashimi), meat (such as Carpaccio), and non-pasteurized/non-homogenized dairy products (such as raw milk, raw cheese and raw yogurt).
Raw Carnivorous – this lifestyle focuses in on raw animal sources only

The above list is over simplified, but it gives you an overview of the different alternative lifestyles that are available.  There are many that are not included (pescatarian, fruitarian, flexitarian) as they are different off shoots of the main ones listed above.

On to my day! I eliminated another .8 – WOOHOO!!!

My stats can be found on this page: Current Stats

So I know most of you are frothing at the bit to find out what I am doing, but I think by now you are able to figure it out.  Since I started VLCD I have not had a stitch of meat.  I thought at first it would just a couple of days a week but as it turns out I am enjoying it so much I have decided to continue it.  But included in that is the addition of a raw food lifestyle.  Which would include some raw fish.

In the research I have done so far, it seems that raw food is processed differently than cooked food, so the theory is that you can take in more calories in a raw food Protocol then one that is with cooked foods.  How many calories is the test that I am running right now.  We all know that during the first week you can’t do much wrong so I want to have at least half the cycle done before I share my findings.  What you see right there is what I had for lunch, which was basically an avocado, tomato, onions, cilantro with a splash of lemon and S&P.  And if I could eat like this daily, I would be a happy camper.

I do intend on adding some raw fish into the menu.  Yesterday I added a raw egg to my smoothie to get my protein count up.  As you can see, it worked just fine!  I can tell you that it’s easy to become full on raw foods.  eGads! 

Ann – my sweet Ann, thank you so much for being a faithful follower of my blog for what seems like eons!  Oh yeah Ann, follow closely cause if this works you become my guinea pig!  WOOT!

Dawn – hmmm, I wonder!

Welcome to my own little party in my corner of the blogging world! Let me introduce myself to all my new visitors! I am Biz, mother of 3, wife of one, and self proclaimed busy body of all things. I am a WAHHM (Work at Home HOME SCHOOLING Mom) which keeps me sorta (UNDERSTATEMENT) busy day by day. My blog is centered round the hCG Protocol developed by Dr. A.T.W. Simeons – this is a medically proven effective weight loss program that enabled me to lose 110 pounds in 16 months.  You can go to Happily Thinner After to find out more information if you so desire!

If you have a few minutes, watch this video and it will show you what hCG has done to transform lives:

I was part of the 2007 Ultimate Blog Party, but last year I was heavily deep into my weight loss adventure that it seems I had no time for anything else. I did have a barrel of fun in 2007 so I joined up again. I cannot wait to meet all of you – please leave a comment on my blog and I will come and visit you. I am going to attempt to visit as many blogs daily as I can, but I will be sure to visit those that comment for sure!

Have fun! And if there is anything I can answer about the hCG Protocol, please let me know! I am here to spread the word, after all, I am a busy body!!!

A bit more than 7 years ago I met JPS online. We were both on Atkins and we both found our way to a support board and quickly we became friends. She was in Chicago at the time, and she was always saying something to me about my “research” – she would ask me if I was working on a “little r” or a “BIG R” depending on whatever I was into at the moment. Some research I would do would take days for me to come to conclusions, some would be almost immediate. And I did then, what I do now, shared with anyone that would listen.

She used to joke with me all the time about doing research for a living. You see, this woman has a PhD in Sociology and has done her share of research in her time in school, college and post graduate studies. She knew first hand that people make a lot of money researching things for other people. I would always laugh and tell her it’s just something I enjoy doing. HA!

I thought it would be interesting for you to see what a typical day in the life of Biz goes like when I start obsessing about something. What is quite something is that I am always obsessing about SOMETHING so this is pretty much how all my days go. And just so that you don’t think I don’t do anything else but look at the computer all day, please understand that I home school, run BootCamp – I am a mom and homemaker, and I do crafts, so my days are pretty filled. But research is a fun hobby of mine, and thank goodness for the internet cause that makes it so much easier to research than the hours I used to spend at the Library, cause yes, this has been like this my entire life.

My obsession started yesterday when chatting with Dawn on Yahoo. If you want to get technical, something happened on my load – from Sunday to Monday. Monday morning I woke feeling positively AWFUL after my protein fest at Golden Corral. I hadn’t eaten that much protein in an awful long time, and when I woke up on Monday the mere thought of eating anything related to meat pretty much grossed me out. I decided early in the day to do a veggie type day, and actually enjoyed it immensely. So Tuesday I feel like I can do this again, but this time let me try Vegan and yes, that worked well too.

Yesterday, I found myself going out of town for a bit without being prepared so I ended up grabbing a few bananas at the convenience store thinking that would last me till I got home and it did. I ate like 3 oz of cooked pork and then hopped on the computer and found Dawn in chat. She asked me if I had seen something on a site I don’t exactly care for about doing hCG Vegan and I was like, no, and then she brought out some points that she had read (but didn’t save) so I proceeded to head over to that site and look for what she was talking about.

So one thing lead to another and I started obsessing about Protocol and Vegan. Could it be done? What are the ramifications? Is it a good idea? How can I make sure I get enough protein? Will it last? All sorts of questions that needed answers. Dawn and I chatted a bit last night and I was doing a bit of research on it, to which I continued today.

This morning I started with trying to find some new recipes to make green smoothies. I ended up at Green Smoothie Girl – wow, chalk full of information there. Some things I agree with, some things I don’t – her myths are well worth the read so I would encourage it immensely. While reading her stuff, I came across a name that was unfamiliar to me, and this was a Doctor that had done some extensive studies about proteins and such in what has now known as The China Study – wow, that one pretty much blew my mind. Read it, Dr Colin Campbell is one amazing human being.

So this blew my mind, so much so that I discussed with my Vegan friend this morning this book and if it was worth the cost of buying it, so she told me YES by all means get it and we could read it together. Ok, done. So that is on it’s way. While I was fiddling around the HTA site, I got a Twit from a professional blogger I follow on the subject of The Internet Is Getting Gray – it looked interesting so I went ahead and clicked on the link and was fascinated by the fact that older people are getting on the internet – like really older people, like the 70 – 74 year olds. That was fascinating to me because I just found out one of the members of HTA who has just recently joined BootCamp is 80 years old. I was just thrilled beyond belief to find that out, that just positively RAWKS!!!

So I am still obsessing about doing protocol Vegan, and even considering doing more than a few days a week when off of protocol Vegan and so I asked myself, hmmm, what would I miss if I were Vegan? Better yet, if I did it RAW Vegan??? First thing was Hummus, can Hummus be made Vegan? This lead me to this video on Raw Hummus – ok, another thing I would miss is mayo, can mayo be made raw? And lookie here – it sure can! Raw Mayo

So again, Dawn and I are chatting a bit and I am telling her I am really concerned about getting enough protein trying to do a raw lifestyle and asked her what her thoughts were on adding a raw egg to my smoothie, so I started doing research on if people did this, and for sure they DO. I found this site on making Raw Smoothies with Raw Egg and in it, was something called Goat’s Milk (or Goat’s Protein). Now what is so interesting about Goat’s Protein is that I had just had a conversation with my sister about dairy proteins.

Seems that Terrie (My ND) had told my sister that it’s not necessarily that people are allergic to dairy but that the protein found in cows milk is very “heavy” and that it is meant to be that way because their bones need it, but our bones don’t need to be as dense as a cows, so we develop inflammation because our bodies cannot assimilate the proteins (that is a very OVER SIMPLIFIED EXPLANATION) – ok, so I told this to Dawn, and Dawn agreed. Then Dawn proceeds to inform me that there are actually cows that are being bred out there that have a different type of protein and that their “milk” is much better for us. Ok, this is weird. I was like Dawn, where did you see that. Dawn shows me this article about Dairy and Milk Proteins and then shows me this kicker on THE A1 vs A2 MILK STORY – at the end of that article was something that says “Devil in the Milk” so I Google that and came up with this fascinating video – A1 and A2 Milk Proteins. O.M.G.

Ok, so then I try to go back to where I was before in how much protein do I need and I find this articleHow much protein do we really need? – again, a very interesting read.

Then it was time to play mom and get dinner going and stuff. But that is what I go through each and every day in regards to the protocol. It’s fun, it’s interesting, and it contributes to a healthier lifestyle.

So I ask you, are you impressed? HA! You will be more impressed when I come up with a conclusion. I just wanted the masses to know that a lot of thought process goes into everything I go off about. It’s not just willy nilly passing thoughts. It is sometimes days, more often weeks of careful examination of things before I share my findings. The stuff a lot of you get in BootCamp has come from months and months of research. Conclusions from dealing with literally hundreds and hundreds of people to figure out what works and what doesn’t. I love it, I really do, but sometimes I think there are some out there that think I fly by the seat of my pants. Well I don’t. So there.

Today? I was RAW – I am not gonna move forward with my ‘findings’ until I figure out if this works or not. So give me a couple of days ok? Have I steered you wrong yet, wait, don’t answer that!

In case you haven’t already looked at my current stats, I lost 1.2 overnight. I am thinking I will have another great loss tomorrow! WOOHOO FOR ME!!!

By the way, my stats can be found on this page: Current Stats

NNN – oh yeah, you got that right, we do have to be obsessive for this to work! Well then, we qualify!!!

Allicat – oh well, if your gonna go off, then going off on mac nuts are the only way to go! HA! I will share, soon, I promise!

Amie – ha! Yup, how did I know you would take JUST such an attitude! HA! Gotta love stability!

Monica – awwww, really Moni, your sweet, thank you. I know you girls wont let me go wacky on you!!!

Cat – I hear that Cat – let’s lead the way together! HA! I always said I was the pied piper leading the rats to their destruction! HA!

M – omg, no I can’t be responsible for that, don’t worry, it wont be TOO much longer!!!