Thought I would take another day and show you the various things I am reading and thinking about today:

This little jaunt actually started last night when I was making my rounds in the blog world.  I visited this site and learned about a study that says we eat too much red meat.  Ok, been there, done that.  This woman backed up her post with a followup chatting about her thoughts on red meat consumption here.  Makes a good deal of sense in my opinion.

So, I went through a couple of posts over at the Raw Paleo Yahoo Group (now people, before you think I have completely gone bonkers, I am not a fanatic, I wont do some of the things these people do, but they have their hands on the pulse of some pretty great information) and I found this article on Egg Yolks that I thought very VERY interesting.

I went back to the Fanatic Cook because I wanted to listen to a PodCast of a program that talked about Omega 3′s and Omega 6′s that was in one of her comments.  It’s a long PodCast, but interesting.  The conclusion that I get from the listen is that ‘balance’ is the key.  LOL – but there was something mentioned there that I want to spend time on researching – but at another time.  That is the statement that seed and seed oils slow down the metabolism.

So then, I am putzing around the house, and I remember a conversation I had with my sister yesterday about something that her and her husband had tried over the weekend.  Let me just back up a bit and say something about my sister, whom you all know that I completely adore.  She is amazing – but I think I have caught on to her little game she plays with me, and has for many, many years.  Yes, it’s taken me this long to figure her out, but it hit me like a ton of bricks this morning as I was looking up information on what she was talking about.  She loves me, this I know with every fiber of my being, but she plays this little “I am gonna try something, tell Biz about it, she will do the research to find out if it’s OK or not and then she will start it and do it and then she will be more healthy” – HA!  Caught you Miss Lilly – and see, ultimately she benefits cause then I know all this stuff about something and I tell her what I found and she gets healthier too.  OMG – how ingenious she is!!!

So anyway, she told me about this product that her and her husband used for pain – they were spending a quality weekend at a friends house on the Big Island (Hawaii) and she said that she used something called Titanium Tape while she was there.  She said she thought of me because of my back, so when I sat down and did some research on this stuff, it seems to have ‘miracle’ qualities (well, so did hCG the first time I sat down to research it – and yes, you can thank Miss Lilly for the hCG too!) – so I bookmarked some sites regarding titanium tape for research at another time – here and here.

I use Google for my start page on my browser, which gives you the ability to configure it the way you want it – I have several ‘categories’  that have things I am interested in daily such as a ‘how to’ section, a ‘healthiest foods’ section and a ‘weight loss’ section – and what these different categories do is search out relevant information on the internet that it think I might enjoy and post it every time I open a new browser.  One thing that I follow that totally cracks me up (as in ludicrous) is the The Diet Blog – every time I see a new article they post there, I just shudder that people actually take this as ‘serious’ weight loss advice.  But sometimes some of the stuff is actually helpful, but that isn’t too often.  Today’s article for example focuses in on Getting your Five-A-Day: What Counts – interesting to see what our lovely FDA (they actually mention governments around the world which I need to do further research to see if this is really true) considers “healthy eating” – it amounts to around a pound of days of some sort of combination of fruits and veggies.  Ok, I can handle that philosophy.  Here is the site that backs up the campaign: Top Tips – 5 A DAY

Well, it’s time for me to get busy with my offline duties – just a little inkling on what I focused on this morning.  Hope you found it interesting!

Question of the Day:  What is something new YOU learned today?

My stats can be found on this page: Current Stats

Monica – WOOT WOOT!  Don’t you think it’s about time?  I mean, come on, I have only been talking about BOOKS for a LONG time!  I hope you enjoy the book!

Allicat – I think I got you handled on the forums, let me know ok?

DebbieK – Drop me a PM on the forum and I will give get you into the ‘inner sanctum” – HA!  I make it sound so much MORE than it is, it really isn’t all that!

Gina – Maintaining is what it’s all about, if you can’t do that then why even go on Protocol!  HA!!!

A very quick post today. I am so excited I can’t even stand it!!! I say “quick” but you know it’s never that way with me. HA!

The dreams I have been having about sharing hCG to the masses are coming true, one small step at a time!!!

When I lost my first 50 pounds on the hCG Protocol, I knew at that point that I was a part of something truly wonderful and my mission started then to help as many people as I could. I knew I wanted to share this precious gift with the masses, but really didn’t know how, nor did I have the tools available to make that a reality.

So much has happened since that time. I have learned so many lessons. I have fallen and I have picked myself up. I have surrounded myself with a jam up community of people that share similar goals and that has made me stronger. There is absolutely nothing I don’t know about this protocol. If some issue hasn’t happened to me directly, then I have witnessed it happening to someone else and have learned from it as well.

I have not just dealt with people online about the hCG Protocol – I cannot tell you the amount of people OFFLINE that I have been able to help. People that are now at GOAL – people that are now much healthier, feeling so much better about themselves, well, it just does this heart good ya know? Sure, I am tooting my own horn, but dangit, I deserve it.

No matter what has happened, I have never given up on the Protocol – it works, it continues to work. It’s US that is the issue if there is one. It’s US that doesn’t let it work it’s magic. Along the way we have discovered so much more than just weight loss – things about ourselves, things that will carry on for the rest of our healthy happy lives. We are not the sort that shrink back, but we carry on, learning every step of the way.

Correction Days

So then, what is this about?  Most of you know about BootCamp – it’s this little thing I started when I figured that losing weight on the hCG Protocol was EASY, it as the maintaining that was the hard part.  Kevin Trudeau really was not factual when he said that after doing Protocol, you would be able to eat ANYTHING you want and never gain.  HA!  There is no way on earth you could even consider returning to your old eating habits that got you fat in the first place and be able to maintain that weight loss.  Ok, that is a rant for another day.

I started BootCamp with the intention of teaching people how to maintain.  How to look at food differently, how to gather nutritional informaion, how to make good decisions in every day eating.  During that time of managing BootCamp, there has been many things discovered.  Thanks to that information gathered, many people have benefited tremendously.

I am pleased as punch to be a part of a great community at Happily Thinner After. The website is great, it’s creating a super duper class of happy healthy people losing and maintaining their weight.  It is with great pleasure to announce our very first eBook:

CORRECTION DAYS

All that information that has taken months and months of research and daily checkins at BootCamp is now going to be available in eBook form,  this is only Book 1 that will be a SERIES!!!  Ok, so here comes the begging, you ready for it?  You knew there would be a pitch right?  BUY IT – it’s like what, less than $10???  How much benefit have you gotten from my rants for almost two years?  I have never asked anyone for a DIME, yet I continue to offer thoughts and coaching for FREE not only here, but in the forums and then let’s not even go into all the eMail help I have dispensed over time – help us out here people!!!  HA!  Even in pitching, I crack myself up.

But really folks, I do spend an incredible amount of time making sure that all of you get information that I willingly research about.  Help us out by supporting the site in anyway you can.  Help my dreams become reality, and I promise you, I will be here to help YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE to be able to live HAPPILY THINNER AFTER!!!

Question of the Day:  What eBook would you like to see HTA write?

My stats can be found on this page: Current Stats

Ok, so  a little update.  I had a couple of rough days.  I ate late one night and gained a pound, lost it the next day, had the cravings for some COOKED proteins yesterday so I indulged in 4 harb boiled eggs and then I was over it and went back to my raw – ended up having two rather large salads with lettuce, spinach, avocado, alfalfa sprouts, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions and my own raw ceasar dressing.  I lost .6 today.

My sons have to go visit their mother this weekend, so AC (my eldest) decided to stop early and then resume on the 10th – it’s a couple of days early, but he has been doing raw with me and kinda enjoys it and said he will eat raw as much as possible with his mom and then we will get back on the juice on the 10th.  So in other words, yesterday was my LIW for about 10 days.

I am not gonna worry if I continue to lose, I am definitely staying raw for the most part, I think my body has converted and is actually craving the foods now.  Like yesterday, after I ate the 4 HB eggs, I was over it and it was almost as if my body was like HEY!  WHERE IS THE RAW???  So if I continue to lose, since I have already lost this weight before, I don’t think I am doing it at the expense of “normal fat reserves” – WOOT WOOT!

Ok, so I know your dying here.  Look at that delectable meal there.  That is Tuna Carpaccio – one of my husbands specialties.  It’s made with Raw Tuna, avocado, mango, tomatoes, green onions and a “special sauce” my hubby makes with EVOO, vinegar, soy sauce and pepper (usually there is papaya too but I couldn’t find one).  OMG DELISH.  Whoda thunk you can eat like this on Protocol?

Linda – OMG!  You came to visit me!  WOOT WOOT!!!  All dried fruit has to be RAW quality, and that aint easy to find.  You have to make sure it doesn’t have sulfur dioxide as a preservative and it has to be SUNDRIED!  AND OMG it’s delish!

Jerye Lee – Thanks for visiting.  If you go to my archive section here and start with March 16 posts, that will start you off on my Round 6.1 and how I did it raw.  If you need some help navigating, just let me know, I did send you an eMail offering help.

Monica – What do you think of that one huh?  Isn’t that just divine, and I can tell you it tasted as good as it looks!  MMMMMM

Mary – I saw!  WOOT WOOT!  Get back on that losing train woman, you know you can do it.

Gina – What only matters is what your head can take at any time.  If your head is in the game then keep on keepin on, if it’s not then don’t fight it and take a break.  hCG will continue to work no matter how many times you go back on it.  It’s very dependable!  And sweetie, don’t be disappointed, if you want to LOAD then LOAD – just be prepared for whatever happens.

M – My sweet little losing machine!!!  Yeah, I am convinced loading on fats is the only way to go!

Amie – If you need help coming up with recipes, just let us know, there are enough of us around that can help!  I am loving the raw thing, really, it’s GREAT.  This will get your head in the game QUICKLY!

Allicat – HA!  I wish I could come to Seattle!  That salad with the crunch in it was delish!  OMG – this was even more delish.  There is a section on the forums that we are secretly using for RAW PROTOCOL – no one knows (well they do now!) and if you want to be a part of it, just let me know ok?

Quite a bit of interesting responses to my last post. Hmmm, my one and only purpose in writing is to make people think, and I do believe that I have accomplished my goal.

I would like to go one step further in my discussion about the average daily loss thing.

I do believe we need to revisit the whole “loading” thing. This seems to be at the crux of the situation of why people are using different formulas on what to average out for daily losses. Dr. Simeons gives us specific instructions on what to do the very first time we ever go on the hCG Protocol – he tells us:

One cannot keep a patient comfortably on 500 Calories unless his normal fat reserves are reasonably well stocked. It is for this reason also that every case, even those that are actually gaining must eat to capacity of the most fattening food they can get down until they have had the third injection. It is a fundamental mistake to put a patient on 500 Calories as soon as the injections are started, as it seems to take about three injections before abnormally deposited fat begins to circulate and thus become available.

Ah yes, I remember my very first loading, the complete carte blanche to eat everything and anything I wanted and in any quantity. The clinic I went with gave me 3 days instead of 2 like Dr. Simeons and I remember how incredibly disappointed I was by the 3rd day to not be able to fill myself up on anymore food. Being so totally sick of food, promising I would NEVER EVER eat again.

I also remember getting up on my 4th day, ready to start VLCD and looking at the scale in disbelief that I did not gain a single solitary ounce over the past 3 days of gorging and being somehow disappointed in myself to have possibly done the protocol wrong at the very start. Little did I know then what I know now.

I loaded properly, but what I didn’t realize is that my fat reserves were full – I had all but given up by the time I had gotten to the hCG stage and was eating pretty much anything that I felt like thinking that no matter what, I was doomed. Two weeks later, my friend JPS started protocol and gained 7 lbs on her loading, and she was just coming off of Atkins so what does that tell you? That Dr. Simeons was right, he said LOADING was for those of us that were IMPROPERLY DIETING prior to getting into the course of treatment.

So then, let’s fast forward to the next course of treatment. Did Dr. Simeons give us any guidelines to follow then? Well yes and no. This is one of those things in his manual that is left up to deduction. Why?

Well for one, we are going to have to assume that during the ‘breaks’ between rounds we are following to a “t” exactly what Dr. Simeons told us to do, and that was to maintain our losses at 2 pounds plus or minus of our last injection weight. That means by the time we get into our next course of treatment we are not considered “patients whose general condition is low, owing to excessive previous dieting” – in other words, our fat reserves should be just fine.

So then, what does he tell us to do? Well this is a little read phrase that quite frankly packs a powerful punch – under “Unforeseen Interruptions of Treatment” he says:

If an interruption of treatment lasting more than four days is necessary, the patient must increase his diet to at least 800 Calories by adding meat, eggs, cheese, and milk to his diet after the third day, as otherwise he will find himself so hungry and weak that he is unable to go about his usual occupation. If the interval lasts less than two weeks the patient can directly resume injections and the 500-Calorie diet, but if the interruption lasts longer he must again eat normally until he has had his third injection.

Notice what I bolded – EAT NORMALLY – and this was to take place AFTER the two weeks. Ok, sure he says this in the “unforeseen interruptions of treatment” – but what is interesting is that he really says nothing else in his entire manual about what to do about loading for subsequent rounds.

Now that all being said, if you decide to LOAD on your subsequent rounds, which is totally a decision you make on your own, you have to be prepared for you to take some time getting rid of the load. Especially if you went into the round with a hefty gain to begin with. Sure you will have some pretty nifty losses during the first few days, but please consider how that might play into how it shows up for the rest of the round. If you instead plan to load ‘normally’ or better yet ‘high fat’ – how does that relate to losses for the rest of the round? Funny, because this is what I decided to do this round and I lost 2.6 even before I started, which is pretty substantial, and yet my losses to date have been pretty normal.

So really then, answer me this, how do YOU LOAD???

My stats can be found on this page: Current Stats

Again, things are working well for me on this “RAW PROTOCOL” – I have lost a total of 12 pounds in 14 days, or a total of .86 per day.  I am finding that I keep my calories between 750 – 1000 a day and I am just jim dandy fine.  Usually by this time during the protocol I am counting down the days when I can be back on P3 – but this time?  Not so much.  Even more amazing is that my loss in inches are a whopping 14 inches!!!  WHODA THUNK???

I am not playing around too much on the “RAW” – I was eating quite a bit of avocados, but quite frankly, I am tired of them and so I have not added them over the last few days.  Bananas on the other hand are a daily staple for me.  If I thought I could consist on bananas I would.  I have found however that I am eating only when I am hungry and not before.  And only what it takes to satiate my hunger.  I am really becoming ONE with my body again and that feels really good.

Attached is something I made the other day that I am calling my “Apple Crunch Salad” – basically it was spring mix, with apples, walnuts, raisins, red onions, and a dressing I made with homemade mayo and agave nectar and it was MMM MMM GOOD!  Funny how when we let our bodies experience the sensations that raw and alive food gives us, we are rewarded beyond belief.

Gina – Hey, thanks for the reminder, it helped me formulate my post today.  I do hope you consider NAET as this really has helped more than a few people!

M -Totally understand your point of view my friend, so no worries ok?  I always welcome different points of view.  My main reason for posting is to make people think!

Amie – You totally went MIA where are you???  I need my AMIE FIX!!!