R5P2C2 Starting Weight 169.4
Yesterday – 160.0
Today – 159.2
0.8 lb LOSS Overnight
3.8 lb UNDER LIW of Round Five Cycle 1 (163.0)
10.2 Lost Since Start of R5C2 (VLCD) 06/09/08
91.6 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

8.4 NEEDED TO LOSE TO REACH 100 POUNDS

Sorry I wasn’t around yesterday, wow, we had an incredibly busy weekend. Saturday, I ended up not eating all day and having a double portion of protein (RibEye) at night with sliced tomatoes. A non planned modified P2 “Steak Day” – it is just the way things worked out that day. I didn’t have a HUGE loss, but I did lose .8 from Saturday to Sunday – which kinda goes along with my ‘theory’ that those Egg Days, Apple Days, and Steak Days don’t work unless they are used for what they are designed to be used for.

Yesterday I was still busy, but I ate more protocol style, and quite honestly that felt alot better.

Do you see how utterly CLOSE I am to reaching 100 pounds? And I am 1 week down. WOW – do you all think it’s POSSIBLE??? I am not gonna hold my breath, just take each and every day at a time. Someone just recently reminded me that losing 90 pounds was NOTHING to sneeze at, so I am going to count my blessings and live in the now and move on.

I haven’t done the “numbers” for awhile, so let’s see where I stand one week down.

• Round 1 (7 completed days) – 3.75% of body weight lost
• Round 2 (7 completed days) – 3.54% of body weight lost
• Round 3 (7 completed days) – 5.28% of body weight lost
• Round 4 (7 completed days) – 6.40% of body weight lost
• Round 5 (Cycle 1) (7 completed days) – 6.00% of body weight lost
• Round 5 (Cycle 2) (7 completed days) – 6.02% of body weight lost

The winner was still round four – but it certainly is a CLOSE call! HA! In Round 4 during my first week completed I lost 11.8 pounds – this time I lost 10.2 – this is really nothing to complain about, just working the numbers.

Let’s see, let’s give an update on my son and JPS – incidentally – my son is loving this round – he told me last night, after I made him a dinner of “Swiss Steak over Mashed Cauliflower” that this is the easiest round he has been on so far. He loves the added variety of foods (I have given him blueberries, cottage cheese, cauliflower, broccoli) and the fact that he isn’t doing this while in school is a plus – anyway, here are their stats:

My Son’s Stats:

• Starting Weight – 190.4 (after load)
• Yesterday’s Weight – 180.4
• Today’s Weight – 179.8 – 0.6 – Total of 10.6 pounds lost!
• First week complete percentage Body Weight Lost – 5.90%

JPS’ Stats (I should be able to keep up to date with JPS now, so the numbers will be current):

• Starting Weight – 136.0 (after load, which is only like .8 over her LIW of Cycle 1)
• Yesterday’s Weight – 129.6
• Today’s Weight – 129.0 – 0.6 Loss – Total of 7.0 pounds lost!
• First week complete percentage Body Weight Lost – 5.15%

My menu yesterday:

• 2 Hard Boiled Eggs
• Strawberries and Grapefruit for Snack
• Chicken and Sliced Tomatoes for Dinner
• 2 Liters of water
• 2 Liters of Iced Tea (sweetened with Sweet and Low)

Superfoods – Pumpkin

Well now, here is one of my favorite things. I absolutely ADORE pumpkin, in almost any form. What is very interesting is that both the flesh of the pumpkin AND the seeds are equally nutritious. Oh yes, and who doesn’t like pumpkin seeds? They are a FUN and healthy snack! So let’s discuss what makes the pumpkin such a ‘superfood’.

Something we haven’t discussed yet in our articles are carotenoids. This precious orange gourd is pack slap full of them, in fact, look at what has been reported about this particular vegetable (in reality, a pumpkin is a fruit because it has seeds) and it’s abundance of carotenoids:

Pumpkin flesh is high in fibre and vitamins C and E, magnesium and potassium and a staggering quantity and variety of carotenoids, being one of the most abundant natural sources of these amazing phytonutrients. (This was found here)

So what is this Carotneoid? They have been defined as a pigment – it is what gives fruit and veggies their red, yellow or orange color – but in that pigment is where all the benefits of carotenoids lie. Some of the health benefits of carotenoids include the following:

• Lowering risks of certain cancers (lung and colon in particular)
• Lowering risks of heart disease
• Lowering risks of blindness and cataracs
• Powerful ally against aging

What is most fantastical about this superfood is that it is actually one of those things that are better for you canned – again, look at what has been reported about this fact:

In fact, in terms of both dietary fiber and beta-carotene, the nutritional score of canned pumpkin is better than that of fresh. (This was found here)

So that all being said, let’s discuss for a moment the SEEDS! I just LOVE pumpkin seeds, they are a total guilt free snack, even for PHASE 3 – chalk slap full of nutrition! When getting them pre-packaged all I warn you is to watch the sodium count. Did you realize that just eating 1/4 cup of these delicious wonderful delicacies will provide you with approximately half the daily recommended dose for magnesium and iron, in addition to high doses of zinc, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, manganese and copper. WOW! Simply amazing that this tiny bit of goodness can give you all those benefits, all that and only 186 calories per 1/4 cup!

So what are the benefits of pumpkin seeds?

• Prostate Health
• Protection for Men’s Bones
• Anti Inflammatory Benefits in Arthritis
• It has been known to lower cholesterol

What are some uses for pumpkin seeds besides snacking?

• Grind them up and use them instead of bread crumbs in recipes
• Add them coarsely ground into cookies
• Use them instead of pine nuts for your pestos
• Chop them in use on your salads, or your granola

Here is one of my favorite recipes for use of PUMPKIN – completely legal for Phase 3:

Pumpkin Serniki’s

Hope you enjoyed our discussion on Pumpkins and Pumpkin Seeds, stay tuned – tomorrow will be about WALNUTS! OMG! I just LOVE walnuts!

A question to all my readers – feel free to either comment here on the blog, use my Tag Board or use my Comment Form. Today’s Question:

What is YOUR favorite recipe using Pumpkin or Pumpkin Seeds?

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R5P2 Starting Weight 176.8
Yesterday – 163.8
Today – 163.4
0.4 lb LOSS Overnight
1.4 lb Over LIW of Round Four (162.0)
13.4 Lost Since Start of R5C1 (VLCD) 05/06/08
87.4 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Still not there, not at that elusive LIW!!! But I am still going in the right direction! I honestly think I will only make it to my goal this round, with NOTHING extra! One can only hope eh?

Yesterday’s menu was simple, grapefruit with coffee and skim milk for breakky, just catfish and green beans for lunch, and a P2 taco salad (just meat and lettuce, used salsa and that subbed my 2nd fruit). My numbers are pretty darn pathetic. But hey, that is why I keep tabs on them. That way I know if I am on target (better than Rounds 1 & 2) or not (worse than Rounds 3 & 4) – so what does that mean? I am shooting average, and that is all I could ever hope for.

• Round 1 (15 completed days) – 6.30% of body weight lost
• Round 2 (15 completed days) – 6.72% of body weight lost
• Round 3 (15 completed days) – 7.97% of body weight lost
• Round 4 (15 completed days) – 9.44% of body weight lost
• Round 5 (15 completed days) – 7.58% of body weight lost

I am so glad you all are enjoying my discussion on superfoods. There is SO much more to learn, as I am only skimming the surface.

I feel very bad that I haven’t kept up with the comments. I am trying to figure out the best way to handle them – up until a few days ago I was just answering them in the comments themselves. I need to catch up – and I will do that sometime over the next few days. But today I promise to reply to each comment that comes in. How does that sound? Have you folks tried the new ‘subscribe’ to comments? Does it work? HA! I hope so.

Superfoods – Tomatoes

Very interesting stuff learned about this particular superfood. First, let me remind you that the tomato is really considered a fruit rather than a vegetable. It has developed with the reputation of a vegetable due to its mostly veggie uses, but it’s scientific classification is “fruit – ovary with seeds”. Something I bet you didn’t know … in different ancient cultures, the tomato has been called all sorts of things – the French call it “pomi d’oro” which means “golden apple”, the Italians call it “pomme d’amore” which means the “love apple” – it has even been called the peruvian apple, but for the sake of this article, we will just call them plain old tomatoes.

Tomatoes pack quite a wallop nutritionally. They are rich in potassium, Vitamin C & A and are cholesterol free. Some studies have shown that this fruit may be able to help decrease the risk of certain cancers (prostate, breast and stomach). There have been articles published that show even the yellow jelly around the seeds provide health benefits – they have been shown to maybe stop blood cells from clumping together, which can sometimes lead to strokes and heart attacks.

Now this is where things get very interesting. You know that I have recently become a lover of the whole “raw food” life style – tomatoes are better eaten COOKED than RAW! OMG! Whoda thunk??? Yes! This is because when cooked, the very important antioxidant “Lycopene” is released.

• Please see this discussion on Lycopene – Description
• Please see this discussion on Lycopene – Function
• Please see this discussion on Lycopene – Health Benefits

Lycopene is found in the pigment – it is what gives tomatoes it’s red color. Lycopene is best absorbed throughout the body by the most simplest of forms – tomato paste. No wonder this particular staple is found in abundance in the Mediterranean Diet. A very good recipe for making your own tomato paste is found here:

To make your own tomato paste, simply healthy sauté a couple of cloves of chopped garlic and/or 1-2 large chopped onions a couple of minutes until translucent, then add 8-10 chopped whole tomatoes, a teaspoon of dried or several teaspoons of fresh chopped oregano, basil, and any other herbs you enjoy, such as parsley or rosemary, and simmer for 30-45 minutes. Remove from the heat, drizzle with olive oil, and add sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. For a fancier version, sauté chopped olives and/or mushrooms along with the garlic and onions.

The thing about making your very own tomato paste is that you will use the WHOLE tomato, which is very important – even the skins. Whereas canned tomatoes usually get rid of the skins in the processing.

Also, there seems to be evidence that suggests that absorption of lycopene is best when tomatoes are just lightly cooked with olive oil.

Try to consume at least 7 – 10 servings of tomatoes each week. One serving equals 1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes, or 3 ounces.

Superfood discussion will continue on Friday – and my discussion will be on Pumpkin. Tomorrow I am going to be dealing with an issue that came up over this past weekend on Naysayers of the Protocol.

This is new – a question to all my readers – feel free to either comment here on the blog, use my Tag Board or use my Comment Form. Today’s Question: What is YOUR favorite way to use tomatoes?

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R5P2 Starting Weight 176.8
Yesterday – 165.4
Today – 163.8
1.6 lb LOSS Overnight
1.8 lb Over LIW of Round Four (162.0)
13.0 Lost Since Start of R5C1 (VLCD) 05/06/08
87.0 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Now that is what I am talking about. It’s about time. My loss for the 2nd week was a whopping 2.4 pounds. That goes on record as one of my two slowest weeks since starting the protocol. I had another 2.4 loss in one week back on Round 2 during my final week (that round was 6 weeks long). Whatever caused the stall looks like it might have just broken. Ok, so it’s going to take me the ENTIRE time to get to my goal, but that is OK – I needed this lesson. Day #15 and I haven’t even reached my LIW – oh yes, this surely has taught me a VALUABLE lesson for sure.

My mind set just wasn’t in doing a P2 Steak Day yesterday. HA! I should have known. There is just something between me and steak days. I have an attitude. So I decided to do straight protocol yesterday, with the exception of me eating green beans. I had grapefruit twice, green beans twice, and catfish for lunch and mahi for dinner, with a small side salad with just white balsamic vinegar (have I mentioned to you yet that this stuff is da bomb?

So I am just saying, this break in my stall was not the result of any ‘recovery’ operation. I tried an egg day on Sunday, ended up with a massive headache (most likely the fat free mayo I tried, geesh, it’s in the trash now) and no weight loss. I stick to protocol standards, and I lose a significant amount. Whoda thunk?

Let’s look at my numbers now:

• Round 1 (14 completed days) – 6.30% of body weight lost
• Round 2 (14 completed days) – 6.44% of body weight lost
• Round 3 (14 completed days) – 7.25% of body weight lost
• Round 4 (14 completed days) – 9.22% of body weight lost
• Round 5 (14 completed days) – 7.35% of body weight lost

My 4th Round is still down on paper as the most kickenist round ever of all time, I would like to bottle that round up and sell it, I would make MILLIONS!

Superfoods – Dark Chocolate

Ok, I debated whether or not to include this in my discussion for a long while. I don’t want to give anyone the idea that I am recommending you over indulge in chocolate. Nothing could be further from the truth. But this is something worth mentioning because Dark Chocolate does have some very good benefits, and like with anything else, when eaten in moderation, can add to your health. Not to mention our ‘emotional’ health! ROFL

As I was doing research, I found that there were those out in the scientific community that felt the same way that I did, scared to show this to the public because they didn’t want people going off half cocked taking license to eat as much chocolate as they want just because it’s good for you. For starters, don’t expect to grab yourself a Snickers or a Babe Ruth and feel all sorts of fuzzy because you think you did your body good. No, notice the emphasis on “DARK CHOCOLATE” – most people are in love with MILK CHOCOLATE or WHITE CHOCOLATE, but turn their nose up to the benefits of DARK CHOCOLATE. So for the purposes of this article, please understand that I am FOCUSING in on only DARK CHOCOLATE, and only 1 – 2 ounces a day.

So, that being said … we need to know what flavonoids are if we are to understand what makes dark chocolate good for you, because dark chocolate is just FULL of them. The best definition I have found for flavonoids was found at this website:

Flavonoids are compounds found in fruits, vegetables, and certain beverages that have diverse beneficial biochemical and antioxidant effects. Their dietary intake is quite high compared to other dietary antioxidants like vitamins C and E. The antioxidant activity of flavonoids depends on their molecular structure, and structural characteristics of certain flavonoids found in hops and beer confer surprisingly potent antioxidant activity exceeding that of red wine, tea, or soy.

Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds that are ubiquitous in nature and are categorized, according to chemical structure, into flavonols, flavones, flavanones, isoflavones, catechins, anthocyanidins and chalcones. Over 4,000 flavonoids have been identified, many of which occur in fruits, vegetables and beverages (tea, coffee, beer, wine and fruit drinks). The flavonoids have aroused considerable interest recently because of their potential beneficial effects on human health-they have been reported to have antiviral, anti-allergic, antiplatelet, anti-inflammatory, antitumor and antioxidant activities.

I was going to try to break that down into a language we can all understand, but alas, my english isn’t all that good, and heck, I understood it just fine how they explained it.

Dark Chocolate is high in antioxidants (remember our discussion here) that are called flavonoids so it delivers quite the bunch in nutrition. As noted above, and for repetition sake, these particular antioxidants can benefit you in the following ways:

• Sharpen problem solving skills
• Reduce risks of blood clots
• Improves skin quality
• Lower blood pressure
• Increase endurance

The trick with Dark Chocolate, and to get the most health benefits, is to pick chocolate with the highest amount of cocoa by percentage. For example, for 100 grams (around 3.5 ounces) there is about 250 calories and 24 grams of fat in 100% cocoa (of which only 1.6 grams is saturated), but on the other end of the spectrum, let’s say a Snickers bar (always picking on the old Snickers, only cause it used to be my fave!) – for the same amount 100 grams, you are talking over 500 cals and 8.5 grams of saturated fat. See the difference?

The thing about using real Dark Chocolate also instead of milk or white chocolate, is that you are forced to savor each and every bite. It lasts longer, it satiates better, there is no guilt, and it’s good for you!

Here is a great recipe to try for Phase 3 or Phase 4 – this is healthy enough for you to have every day, but only 1 serving!

Coconut Bark (makes 4 servings)

4T coconut oil (please only use virgin coconut oil)
1T cocoa (I use Hershey’s Unsweetened)
1T almond butter (no salt, just ground up almond)
2 packets sweetener

Melt the coconut oil gently, very gently. Add other ingredients and then freeze on a piece of saran wrap, break into four servings. Enjoy!

Tomorrow? Let’s talk tomatoes!