Diet change!

I am no longer doing the hHCG diet. Almost immediately after my last post I got to talk to my husband about his exercising goals, and we decided to start exercising together the 2nd of April. Since that didn't give me much time to prepare I stopped taking the hHCG pellets and switched to Atkins Induction.

Today is my second day of low-carbing it, and I feel a sense of relief. I don't want to make it sound like the HCG diet is bad, because it really is a lot better than I was expecting it to be, but my mood was suffering pretty badly towards the end. I already feel a tiny bit better emotionally, but that is most likely due to the planning part and not the actual dietary part. I did the HCG Protocol for 30 days, and when I can get my husband into taking my "after" photo, I will post my totals.

The exercise part of our lifestyle change is scary, intimidating, and just flat daunting. There is only one workout my husband is interested in doing, and that is P90X. P90X is a Beach Body workout series by Tony Horton, and if you've ever stayed up late watching tv during the dreaded infomercial hours you probably know what it is. If you go to bed at a decent time though, and are clueless what P90X is, I'll explain a touch. P90X stands for Power 90 Extreme. The Power 90 series was a pretty intense workout (I've never actually done it) and this is the extreme version that is supposed to completely transform your body in 90 days. The workouts are about 60 minutes each with an additional 15 minute ab routine every other day. The workouts are intense and pretty difficult, and use muscle confusion to keep you from plateauing. I have done this workout before, but only for a couple weeks. There were other things that got in the way and I just wasn't able to find the time to workout. My husband has done the workout previously as well, and you really do start seeing results very quickly (he had a noticeable size increase and toning on his biceps in only one week).

This time we made a schedule with Google Calendar and made time every morning for the workout. I am not a morning person at all, and am not really looking forward to getting up so early. On days were my husband works early, we will be getting up just after 4 am so he has time to get ready for work and eat breakfast after the workout. Yes, I will be getting up at 4 in the morning, and I am dreading it. This is going to be such a hard change to make, but I think the pay off will be worth it. I have been impressed with Google Calendar (never really used it before). My husband and I both have separate calendars, but we share them. I can see and make changes to his calendar (handy, since he doesn't really have time for doing this kind of thing) and can even print them off (this is awesome for school purposes as it makes it easily available and there is room for jotting down quick notes). We can both have access to the calendars on our phones and have alerts and reminders set up. I only wish the color coding showed up on the phone app, seeing as how I went to the trouble to color code everything, lol

The plan is for working out to be a "forever" lifestyle change, and not just a short term thing. Previously we have worked out in our living room space, but I am not going to put up with putting away my husband's weights for the next several years. Our solution is to make a dedicated space for working out in our basement. There is some work involved in this, but it should be pretty cheap to do (hopefully we will only need to buy some mats for the floor). There is some rearranging and sorting to do mostly. We have an old tube tv down there, and there should be enough room to set up a pull-up bar and have the weights out and ready to use. This has been unusable space for us so far, since the basement isn't finished and the stairs aren't very kid friendly. It will be nice to finally have a use for the space before it gets finished (some day we really are going to finish it, though it isn't that high on the priority list at the moment). I am excited about getting the space ready for working out.

In other news, the pencil sharpener comes today! Hooray! lol Probably not a big deal for most people, but as a homeschooling mom who has been manually sharpening pencils for the past 5 days, it is a huge deal, lol I recently gave my box of approximately 100 colored pencils to my children, and while sharpening them my old sharpener quit. This also happened to be shortly after buying a bunch of new coloring books from the dollar store...right before the weekend. I am so tired of manually sharpening pencils and I was actually starting to get a blister! (see, this is beauty related ;p). Anyway, the new sharpener is an X-ACTO ProX commercial grade sharpener, and it had better not poo out on me in the middle of sharpening 100 colored pencils! It was a bit of an investment ( $55) so I expect it to last forever during heavy school use.

Week #4 summary

Okay, so the update is a few days late. I have been pretty upset about my weight loss lately as it has been slow and I gained a pound this morning :( But here I am, finally getting to it ;)

Day #19                                                                     Day #26
     Weight...................202.0 lbs                                      Weight...................198.4 lbs
     Waist.......................36.8 inches                                 Waist.......................36.0 inches
     Hips........................43.0 inches                                  Hips........................43.0 inches
     Body fat %.............27.6 %                                         Body fat %.............27.6 %

Again my losses were pretty good this past week. 3.6 lbs lost is .6 more than I lost the week before. I also lost just over 3/4 inch off my waist. I am curious as to why I haven't lost anything off my hips for two weeks in a row now...hopefully that trend doesn't continue much longer. Over all, last week was a productive weight loss week.

I am currently on VLCD#28 and I am really starting to struggle with the diet. I am having a lot of head hunger and some rather strong carb cravings. I don't know what is going on, but it is frustrating. I shouldn't be craving carbs at all, but our last grocery shopping trip was pure torture! (I didn't cave, thankfully). I have stopped eating the fruit and am only allowing tomatoes as my fruit, and I try to keep that at only one serving each day. Hopefully here in another day or two the carb cravings will stop or at least lessen.

I am becoming pretty tired of the diet as well. I am starting to feel like I've been doing this for much longer than I have. I am not really getting bored of the food or having any real issues, it just seems like I am not quite where I should be emotionally. Either I am getting really close to my time of the month, I am deprived of dietary fat, or I am just plain going crazy. I know in my head that I am doing very well and losing fat and inches really fast, yet I feel like I am not making enough progress. I have made so much progress and I know that I should feel pleased, yet I am confused as to why I don't feel good about my progress. I am thinking this may have something to do with decreasing my fat intake and the effect that has had on my mood. I have 11 whole days left, but I am thinking I may need to stop before then and switch to Atkins just for my mood's sake.

Exercise has been entering my mind a lot lately. I am not supposed to exercise on this diet, and I don't believe exercise leads to weight loss anyway. I wouldn't even be considering exercising or thinking about it at all if it wasn't for my husband. He is wanting to start working out again. The problem with that is that I would like to do the same workout, but I don't want to start it months after he has. It would be much easier for me to start it the same time he does and just do the workouts alongside him. It would be good to tone up some, but I am still on the fence about whether to start now or later. If I don't start when my husband does, then there is a pretty good chance I won't do it at all. I don't really feel ready to start working out quite yet, but I don't really want to ask him to wait since it seems to be pretty important to him. I want to make a decision on it pretty soon, as I will need to have switched to Atkins for a while before I could start working out.

That's all for now. I am really hoping to have lost my pound gain tomorrow. I have really been loading up on liquids today, so hopefully that helps some.

VLCD#24

I had a .8 pound loss today, so I am exactly at 199 lbs. I am doing really well losing weight, but I don't emotionally feel it right now. Encouragement hasn't exactly been abundant, and I've been struggling with keeping positive. I know in my head that I am doing good, but for some reason I don't feel like it is good enough.

I thought going shopping for new pants would make me feel better, but it didn't. Instead of being a rewarding experience it was frustrating and discouraging. We went to Target, and I have to say, I hate Target's pants. The jeans that are supposed to sit just below the waist, were a good 3 inches below my belly button. Either Target has no clue where a woman's waist is, or they make their clothes for people with extremely short torsos. Besides the issue of their pants just not working, they have very unflattering mirrors in the changing rooms. Like most women, I feel I look worse than I actually do. Target's mirrors made me look worse than I feel I look. I can't see myself trying on clothes there again anytime soon. After the not so good experience at Target, we went to Walmart (shudder) and I bought the only pair of size 12 long jeans they had. Why are they nearly always out of my size, no matter what size I am?

I am looking forward to switching over to Atkins in a couple more weeks. I don't mind this diet as much as I thought I would, but my mood has suffered. I can't wait to get back on a high fat diet and have a sunnier disposition. I can't say that I'll miss these vegetables and extra lean meats at all. I am looking forward to having a stir-fry, stuffed pork, and hamburgers again.

Anyway, that's all for tonight. Hopefully tomorrow is a good day :)

Blog updates.

As you can see, I've made a few aesthetic changes to my blog. I changed the background to something bright and fun, and I change some font and font colors. I like the new look, and it subtly reflects my fondness of Japanese culture.

I also added a weight ticker and badge to the bottom of my blog. I will still do updates about my weight loss, but thought they were a fun extra. It is nice seeing how far I have come and how much weight I have to lose until my goal.

That's all :)

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!

Weight update.

I am not sure what day of the diet this is, and I don't feel like looking it up right now. It is late and I am headed to bed. I just wanted to leave a quick update that while I didn't lose weight yesterday, I was down 1.2 lbs today. I am so close to being out of the 200's that I don't want to risk a stall at all. I only have .8 lbs to lose until I am there and I can't hardly wait. It sure does feel good to be a "loser." :)

Week #3 summary.

Week #3 is officially over. Here are my stats.


Day #14                                                                     Day #19
     Weight...................205.0 lbs                                      Weight...................202.0 lbs
     Waist.......................37.5 inches                                 Waist.......................36.8 inches
     Hips........................43.0 inches                                  Hips........................43.0 inches
     Body fat %.............29.0 %                                         Body fat %.............27.6 %


Week #3 wasn't so bad for progress. I only lost 3 pounds, but I lost (very nearly) 3/4 of an inch off my waist and 1.4% body fat. My total weight loss so far is 13 lbs, and 5 1/4 inches off my waist. That is pretty decent progress for 3 weeks time, especially considering this weeks cheat. I should get below 200 lbs next week, and I am very excited for that. I am getting tired of being in between jean sizes, so am really looking forward to losing a little more. Seriously, it has been annoying having my size 14 jeans wiggle down and the size 12 being just too tight that they cause a noticeable roll of belly jiggle around my waist.

I am getting pretty tired of the food choices, which is making meals more unpleasant than they should be. I am getting to the point of hating vegetables and loathing that I must force myself to eat them. This evening I made my cabbage tolerable by dousing it in soy sauce as it cooked, which isn't exactly protocol, but I couldn't have eaten it plain. I have no idea what I am going to do for veggies during week #4. Everything sounds gross (everything that I am allowed anyways).

That's all for today :)