2/9/2012 218 Weekly Menu Plan for P4

There are cravings and there are CRAVINGS I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING BUT SWEETS. I had the latter. So after a couple failed rounds, I am making a weekly P4 meal plan that I can follow and making my own healthy meals with new recipes I find on the internet. I've make healthy changes such as milk to almond milk, salads for lunch and soup for dinner, protein snacks, and new healthier yummy foods like quinoa and greek yogurt. I am incorporating more veggies and fruits. I am food shopping and preparing meals on the weekend for the entire week. This is my fifth week and I want to share the menu plan for next week.

Menu planning takes time. I consider what foods are in season, which ones I have a taste for and look at my recipes or go hunt for new ones. One of the best places to find recipes and great recipe websites is on Pinterest, my new fav iphone app.

This week at work there will be lunch provided on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and dinner on Wednesday and Thursday. And I have a lunch with a friend on Monday. For the lunches I am going to bring my own salad anyway. For the dinners I am going to order protein with veggies.

I usually come up with 3 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinner veggies, and 5 snacks. All meals that are starred must be prepared on the weekend in advance.

A daily menu would consist of these meals and calorie counts: B 200, SW 200, L 300, SW 200, D 300, SH 200 for a total daily calorie count of around 1400-1700 (gives me some room for extras, cream in coffee, etc.) and good satifying tasty food every few hours.

I work late so during the week I don't really like protein for dinner and prefer just soup or veggies with a fruit snack, so I am making protein snacks for those days. Most of my snacks are more like mini-meals, so I have a breakfast, then a second breakfast, lunch, a dinner snack, then a small late dinner and a dessert if I feel like one.
 
Week 5 Menu Plan
Key: B - breakfast, L - lunch, D - dinner, SW - snack work, SH - snack home

B Quinoa* 1/3 c with greek yogurt 2 T and blueberries 1/2 c
B Spinach bacon egg square*
B Sweet potato quinoa sausage hash*

L Chicken Caesar salad in a jar*
L Salad with chicken in a jar either greek or orange balsamic dressing*

D Tomato parmesan soup*
D pan fried brussel sprouts with parmesan*
D cabbage slaw*
D tofu recipe*  (I bought some on a whim, so here goes...)

SW Protein balls*
SW Cinnamon roasted chick peas with cashews*
SW Salmon cake on greens*
SW Baked cinnamon apple slices sprinkled with oats, dried fruit and nuts* 
SH chocloate covered strawberries (for my valentine ME!)

7-14-2011 Update 195.0

It's been a while so here's what I've been doing. I never was able to handle the cravings for carbs I felt during Round 3 so after trying for a month, I decided to take a break from the HCG and VLCD and have some of the foods I had missed for nearly 8 months. I had the strongest cravings for pancakes so I went to iHop and had some and they were good, sweet but good. I gained 2 pounds. I craved a hamburger on a bun with fries so I went to McD and had them and gained a pound. I craved Chinese buffet foods and take out 3 separate times so I had them and gained 2 more pounds. I ate cookies and cakes now and then which I think added another pound. Altogether I am up 13 pounds.

Round 3 taught me that I need to be fully ready to commit to following the protocol 100% to make the round a success. At the start of that round, I knew I was pushing myself into it and I was trying to ignore the cravings I was having. I think that my body was telling me to take a break. But I feel better now. I'm not craving them any more. I know that carbs cause immediate weight gain. They turn right into fat. In fact I am craving P3 style recipes, with more fat, which do not make me gain. I am looking for low carb alternative recipes for some of my favorite foods so I will be able to incorporate them into my diet more often.

So, in a few more weeks I am going to start on Round 4.

R3P2D23 Sunday - Resume

It's Sunday morning and the scale says 189.1. That is 1.1 pounds over my LDW from Round 2. So here's what happened. I made a huge slip when a cookie bouquet ordered by my best friend came for my daughter's graduation and my daughter said she didn't eat cookies. I walked past it for 3 days until I finally decided it was going to go stale and I should have a taste. That was all she wrote and the bouquet was gone in a week causing a 5 pound gain. Worse than that it caused a massive candida outbreak which I didn't realize until today as I battled three weeks of the worst cravings thinking I could tough it out, but I ended up that I gave in almost every day. Today I put it together with the candida and started on a course of Three Lac. I feel better already. I am back on track with P2 eating and will count these 2 weeks as a break from P2 and will continue P2 for an additional 2 weeks so I can lose at least ten to fifteen pounds this round. Lesson learned is how sensitive I am to sugar. It's like alcohol or crack, once I start it takes control over me. Three Lac is awesome at taking away that control and eliminating the cravings.

Day 21 Saturday 185.9

It's Saturday and the scale says 185.9 pounds. It has been a tough week for me to stay on protocol. I was down to 182 and now back up to 185.9. I have eaten stuff I should not have so I know why the lackluster numbers. I am going to commit to the next 3 weeks and try to lose at least 10 more pounds this round to get into the 170's. Friends have commented on my smaller size this round even though the scale isn't saying much but I feel like this is more of a shaping round. My computer hard drive crashed a few weeks ago and I lost my progress data but was able to recover the weighings from the charts but I lost the inches. I just measured today and compared to the end of Round 1 I have lost 15 more inches. That makes a total of 43 inches lost since I started the HCG protocol! I'll take that!

5/1/2011 188.5 Sunday Yesterday I saw my daughter walk at the FSU graduation ceremony. I am so proud of her!!! It was a whirlwind day and I ate strawberries, chicken, cherry tomatos, steak, tomato slices, a small bite of baguette crust, and a coffee with 1 Tsp half and half. Did a lot of walking and had a great day in all.

R3P2D6 192.0 Thursday

Thursday morning, the scale says 192.0, down 1.5 pounds and 1 pound under my start weight, 3 pounds to go to get to my LDW of 188.0 from Round 2. I had a slight headache on Tuesday as my body is detoxing, but I felt good yesterday. Last night I took my dose and leaned back on my pillow and closed my eyes and almost fell asleep and swallowed my does after only 5 minutes. I hope it doesn't affect my hunger today. I've read that some people only hold it under their tongue for a few minutes, not the 15 minutes that I do, so it should be fine.

R3P2D5 193.5 Wednesday

Well, the scale says 193.5 pounds which is 3.1 pounds loss. Yay!

R3P2D4 196.6 Tuesday

This morning I weigh 196.6 pounds, down 2.9 pounds. I ate strawberries, tea with 1 tsp. half and half, chicken, spinach, burger, onion and a grissini. I feel good, and not hungry.

R3P2D3 199.5 Monday 1st Day VLCD

Started the VLCD today. Weighed in at 199.5 pounds, that's an 11 pound gain from my LDW.

Friday April 22, 2011

Tomorrow is the first day of Round 3. I am nervous about being mentally prepared to be organized about starting another round. That is what made Round 2 harder than Round 1. I wasn't as prepared. So I am making a shopping list and getting everything I need today. My weight has gone up a little at the end of Round 4 as I have been trying out more starches and sugars. My body doesn't like them much and I always show a gain between a few ounces and 2 pounds depending on how much I have in a day. So I have learned that I can have them but only with several days of clean P3 style eating in between. I am looking forward to being 20 pounds lighter in about 6 weeks!

R2P4D17 191.4 Saturday

Phase 4 is having it's ups and downs a bit but back down to within 2 pounds of my LDW so I am happy. Eating pretty much whatever I want, but more protein and veggies and fat and way less sugar and starch than I used to eat before HCG. Don't really miss my skim milk which has too much sugar since I get to have heavy whipping cream in coffee and shakes instead and I drink a lot of water. Love the sugar free bacon and use the bacon fat in cooking proteins and veggies - YUM. I really like all my new foods a lot. Jay Robb shakes are the BEST. Love coconut oil, almond flour and coconut flour too. One day this week I had chocolate mug cake and a vanilla Jay Rob shake for breakfast and lost weight and felt great that day!

R2P4D10 189.3 Saturday

Went to Chili's to help my friend with loading day 1. >:-0

R2P4D9 189.9 Friday

This week I added a few more starches and sugars into my eating. I've had a burger with a half a bun, a couple Thin Mint girl scout cookies (yes I had the box since unopened since January), dark chocolate (my vice), and macadamia nuts (probably too many). My weight has remained stable around my LDW of 189 until the last few days. I had been waiting until TOM left to correct, then I feel a cold coming on (everyone at work has it) so that may be why on Thursday it jumped from 192 to 195. I did a steak day and am happy to say I am back to 189.9 this morning. That's a loss of 5.6 pounds.

R2P4D3 191.5 Saturday

It's Saturday and the scale says 191.5 pounds. I am 2.5 pounds over my LDW of 189.0 pounds. This week is my TOM so I'm not going to try correction days until that's over. I am just going to try to go easy on the sugar and starches. That being said, Thursday was my first P4 day and I have been eating mostly P3. I was confronted with a brownie on Thursday and realized it was P4, so I one bite of it and it was really sweet, but also fudgy and quite nice. Friday I had lunch at Cheesecake Factory, the Boston salad with egg, bacon and ranch dressing was decent, and I shared a coconut fudge cheesecake slice and it also was very sweet and filling and my stomach felt heavy the rest of the day. I think I would rather learn to make my own cheesecake. With those two sugary carbs added, I only gained 0.1 pounds, so I am happy with that.

R2P3D17 189.7 Saturday

It's Saturday morning and the scale says 189.7 pounds. 0.7 pounds over my LDW and that's fine. I've done 3 correction days when I got just over 191 pounds and they all worked. Most days I am eating 1700 calories with about 10-12 ounces of protein with fat and three eggs or a Jay Robb protein shake. 2 to 3 large vegetable servings and fruit every 2 or 3 days for a treat.

R2P3D8 189 Thursday

Loving P3. Had to get some Jay Robb and Artisana coconut butter for P3. Yummy!!! Loving the fattier beef cuts and shrimp with avocado on lettuce. Love scrambled eggs with cheese, cream in coffee and whipped cream on strawberries. Love bacon with everything! All of this plus 1700 calories a day and my weight is fairly stable. I have done a few correction days because of the cheats I did during Phase 2 and at the party. I did 1 steak day, 1 egg day and 1 chicken day and I lost 1 to 2 pounds each time. I seem to be stabilizing now. Phase 3 always is a challenge for me to eat the large amount of food needed to reach 1700 calories.

R2P3D4 189 Sunday in NJ

I went to NJ for my sisters birthday. Had a great time and managed to eat P3 except at the party. In addition to the good P3 foods I ate a piece of cake, bowl of lobster bisque, about 20 almonds, 2 cookies and about 3 triscuits. Next morning was at 191 up 3 pounds (5 by her scale.) I did a steak day Sunday and now at 189 and doing a chicken day today so should be recovered by tomorrow.

R2P2D37 188.5 Sunday

It's Sunday morning and the scale says 188.5 pounds down 0.8 pound from the day before. Yesterday I had coffee with moo and stevia, chicken with taco spices and 1/4 cup of salsa on iceberg lettuce (I know that is 2 veggies), went out to dinner with friends and passed on the wine, calamari and cornbread muffns brought to the table, and had a grilled shrimp caesar (no cheese or croutons) with about 1 teaspoon dressing, afterwards passed on more wine, but ate 1 teaspoon of the yummy Baskin and Robbins mint choc chip ice cream birthday cake and 1 Hersheys kiss, and a black coffee with stevia. I was proud of myself for all the food I avoided and I noticed that I didn't really miss the foods and wine, just missed sharing those experiences with my friends, but I have the greatest friends and they were really supportive of my decisions to stick to my plan and politely didn't comment on my choice to taste the cake and have a kiss.

It's hard to believe how fast the weight comes off and how great I feel. I've lost 19.5 pounds so far in Round 2 added to the 23 pounds in Round 1 is a total loss of 42.5 pounds since October 2010 following the protocol. I've lost 44 inches overall and gone from a size 24 to a 14. I love getting new clothes. Luckily I have found a consignment shop and have been able to trade my clothes for smaller sized ones and I shop at the discount stores so it's not costing me a whole lot to look a lot better. People really notice when I am wearing smaller clothes. I'm going to Phase 3 this week and looking forward to stabilizing and adding fat back into my foods.

R2P2D40 189 Wednesday LDW

I finished Round 2 Phase 2 today and the scale says 189 is my Last Dose Weight. So I have lost 19 pounds total on this round. I did have a harder time on Round 2 than on Round 1 with dealing with more stressers, but I am happy with the results. Round 3 will start in May and until then I will enjoy P3 and P4 and stabilizing at the new smaller me!

R2P2D31 192.4 Valentines Day

It's Monday and the scale says 192.4 pounds up 0.3 pounds. This weekend was tough. I had to work Saturday and I snacked a bit too much off protocol. Yesterday, I had a strawberry slushy, two cups of coffee with moo and stevia, a steakburger with broiled tomatos, pan fried seasoned chicken with cucumber salad, 2 tablespoons of brewers yeast, a handful of Kashi Go Lean cereal, 1 piece of chocolate, an apple sauteed with apple pie spices.

R2P2D29 192.0 Saturday

Whew! This week just FLEW by. It's Saturday morning and the scale reads 192.0 pounds, down 1.1 pounds. That is 2.3 pounds for the week and 16 pounds so far this round. This week I had TOM and had a few days of gains, but that is to be expected. I skipped one dose on 2 days during TOM because my hunger level was up, and lowering dose can compensate for that, and it worked great.

Yesterday, Friday, I had coffee with moo and stevia, strawberries, grilled chicken breast with salad, 3 grissini, 1 melba, coffee with moo and stevia, homemade onion soup, broiled shrimp,  2 tablespoons of brewers yeast. 425 calories.

Saturday through Thursday I ate protocol meals and a couple extra grissinis. Sorry I didn't have the time to post all the days meals.