Examples of my HCG meals.

I have posted a fair bit about about my progress through the 40 day HCG Protocol, but I haven't talked about the food much. Why not do that on a lazy Sunday afternoon?

I only eat 500 calories per day, split between two meals and two snacks, but even so, the meals don't have to suck. I have found a few recipes online (there are sooooo many available for free) and I have created some myself. For Example today I am having crab and tomatoes for lunch and chili for supper.

 This is my lunch. I used half a package of precooked imitation crab (that's 1.5 servings), and 5 oz of quartered golden snacking tomatoes. I threw them in a nonstick skillet on medium heat, added a splash of lemon juice and a Tbsp of soy sauce. For spices I used black pepper and a small sprinkling of poultry seasoning. I cooked it until everything was hot and the tomatoes had softened. It was very good and quite filling. I don't really get hungry on this diet, but the meal made me feel "full." I like that it was super easy, fast, and pretty cheap too. Total calories for the meal - 190.

 This is the HCG Chili that I am going to have for supper tonight. I found this recipe on Netritions forum site Low Carb Friends. They have a lot of good recipes, but chili is one of my comfort foods that I have missed a lot while low-carbing. I knew it was okay to use black soy beans, but I avoid soy products as much as I can, and the thought of beanless chili just didn't seem right. This recipe contains no beans, but I decided to try it anyway and I am glad that I did.

The original recipe:

7 oz tomatoes, chopped 

100g ground beef - 96%

1T + 1t Chili powder     

1t paprika                      

1/2t cumin                     

1t onion powder            

2t chopped garlic          

salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste

Brown beef in fry pan with 1t chili powder, then add all ingredients in a saucepan and cook covered on low heat until done, adding water when needed and to get desired consistency.

I made a few changes for this batch (I quadrupled the recipe to get 4 meals worth out of it instead of just 1). I used onions instead of onion powder (using the onion as my veggie and the tomato as my fruit) helping to bulk it up some. I also opted to use Frank's Red Hot sauce instead of cayenne powder. I am letting it simmer on low for a few hours before I divide it into four equal portions and put it away in the fridge. It smells really yummy already, so I am looking forward to having chili for supper tonight! Total calories per serving for how I made it - 213 calories. After both meals I will have 97 calories left for the day which will allow me a strawberry sorbet and some creamer in my coffee. That isn't too bad for the day :)

 These are a couple items I wouldn't be able to live without. Franks is a very nice tasting hot sauce that goes great on just about everything. Kikkoman's soy sauce is my favorite and I often use it when pan frying vegetables and meats. This is a great way to make "riced" cabbage taste really good.

 The Keurig is something else that has made dieting so much nicer. There are so many great choices of coffees, teas and hot cocoas for this thing. I can't hardly stand to drink brewed Folgers after using the Keurig, and my husband has became a complete coffee snob (he complains that coffee shop's coffee tastes bad compared to what we make at home). I love to make iced coffee with this. I fill a glass with ice and brew the coffee right over the top, add some sweetener and creamer and you have a really yummy iced coffee in hardly any time at all.

 

This is just something that we recently discovered at our local Sam's Club. It is basically just flavored sparkling water, but it tastes really good (even my picky husband likes it). It does not have any phosphoric acid or aspartame in it, and they are only 55 cents a bottle. I am not really supposed to have stuff like this on the diet, but I am allowing it as a once a day treat since it is 0 calories and does not contain the harsh chemicals that diet sodas have.

No picture here, but there has been something else that has been an invaluable resource to me during this diet; the MyFitnessPal app. It is really easy to use and has a huge food bank in it. I was even using it while shopping at Sam's Club. If there was a food that I couldn't find nutrition info for, I could just scan the bar code and voila! It is so easy to track foods eaten, calories consumed, and weight lost. The only thing I don't love about the app is that you can only set daily calorie goals. I will keep using this once I switch over to Atkins, but it would be really nice to be able to put the focus on carbohydrates instead of calories. I can go into the daily summary to see how many carbs I've eaten, but it would be really nice to be able to switch the focus to carbs so that info was on the diary page as well. I could use the Atkins app, but the food database is tiny and everything else has to be entered manually, plus it has some issues with bugs and not working right all the time. Another feature I like is that you can have friends on the myfitnesspal app. My husband can see certain news feeds like how much weight I've lost, and if I've completed my food diary for the day. It is really handy to keep an eye on if my husband is bothering to weigh himself, and we can send encouraging notes to each other within the app. Did I mention that it is free?

There is one other piece of big dieting news today. I weighed 199.8 lbs this morning! I am finally under 200 lbs! I am so happy to finally get out of the nasty 200's. I am going to go buy a new pair of jeans tonight as a reward. I am so excited to have reached this goal! I am only on the 3rd day of week #4, and I've already lost 2.2 lbs this week. I plan on drinking tons of water today to make sure tomorrow is a good day for the scale as well. I am so much more encouraged and positive about my weight loss than I was just a couple days ago. Since my highest load weight I have lost 20.2 lbs (in just over 3 weeks!). I can't wait to see what I weigh in another couple weeks!