Grrr umpy!

Today neither Lance or I lost any weight.  Lance actually gain a few ounces.  One of the things we are learning is to try to not get frustrated when this happens and give up.  Some of the factors that go into how much weight you loose at this stage of the game might surprise you.  Using lotion can counter act the effectiveness of the HCG.  When your body is so starved for oil/fat it will use what is absorbed through the skin from lotion or other things like make up.  Well I refuse to go to church without make up on so maybe that is what did it for me.  Lance has SUPER dry skin so I think he probably is still applying lotion when it gets so itchy he can't stand it. Hannah inherited Lance's propensity for dry skin and I applied moisturizer to her face yesterday so I am sure I absorbed some while applying it.  Another aspect that we have both had to contend with it the grumps - (me probably more than Lance).  You really can't sugar coat this aspect of most any diet - sometimes you just feel really grumpy and unfortunately you sometimes take that out on your family members.  Remember that saying "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy"?  Ya that is really true and when "momma" gets a certain amount of comfort from food -she ain't going to be happy ALL the time on a diet! Sorry to break it to you but that is the raw truth.

As promised here is a breakdown on what we can eat during this phase of the diet. 

Breakfast - nope you don't get a breakfast although if I could drink coffee or tea, that would be a option.  I sure wish I could get away with sugar free hot cocoa - I love me some hot cocoa on a cold morning.

Lunch -
100 grams of meat (yes if you are going to do this you need a food scale!)
The meat options are as follows:
veal
ground beef
chicken breast
fresh white fish (tilapia is what we like - look for it in the frozen section)
lobster
crab
shrimp
All visible fat must be removed and it must be weighed raw.  You can boil or grill it or steam it (Ziploc steam bags are awesome!) You can't use any fat to cook it. That hasn't been a problem for us although another one of our friends used a small amount of olive oil and was still successful with the program. You can season your meat with granulated garlic, sea salt or half a lemon. We have also used fresh ground pepper and paprika as well as other spices called for in specific HCG recipes.

A handful of veggies of a single type
Your veggie options are as follows:
spinach - Costco has nice big bags of fresh spinach all ready to go
chard
chicory (no clue what that is)
beet greens
green salad
tomatoes
celery
fennel
onions
red radishes
cucumbers
asparagus
cabbage
To be truthful between Lance and I this list gets whittled down quite a bit.  We use the spinach and green salad the most. I like celery raw but Lance doesn't, he likes tomatoes raw but I don't. We both like onions as long as they are cooked.  I like cucumbers in sushi but not a real fan of them elsewhere.  We tried asparagus in the steamer bags but both decided we didn't like it much.  We bought some cabbage but haven't used that yet.  The Zeller's turned us on to an awesome line of dressings by Walden Farms which are pretty much free of everything - not sure what they are made of but they taste good and work great for this diet.

Now for the clincher for all you carbaholics like myself.
 You can have one breadstick (grissino- which means it is the width of a pencil and just a little big longer than a pencil) or three of the small Melba toasts.  Melba toast has become our go to carb.  They taste pretty good with other food but eat them alone and they taste like flavored sawdust. But hey when the kids are eating a hot piece of butter toast you can crunch down on your Melba toast and pretend it is the same thing they are eating!

And now for dessert  . . .
Your choices will be
apple
orange
handful of strawberries (which unfortunately are not that great out of season)
or half a grapefruit

I am ok with eating any of the above - I usually have my grapefruit in the mid morning around 11 to tide me over til lunch time. Lance on the other hand only likes apples and strawberries. Asher LOVES that we have all this fruit on hand - if he could get away with it that is all he would eat.

Now that you have made it this far you might be wondering what's for dinner.  Same choice as above only you can't eat the same things that you had for lunch. 

Lance and I have found that we can make some of the recipes up ahead of time which makes it possible for Lance to take food to work for lunch and also to plan ahead for really busy days.  Premeasuring your meat and putting it into little bags or containers is also a helpful way to speed up the process. 

Here are two recipes that we like and are great for making ahead of time, each are designed to feed only one person:

Chili
100 grams lean ground beef
1 cup chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned is good too - we like the no salt added kind)
1/2 cup water
1 Tb minced onion
2 cloves of crushed and minced garlic (invest in the bottle of already minced garlic - so worth it!)
pinch of garlic powder
pinch of onion powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
pinch of oregano
Cayenne pepper to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Brown ground beef in small frying pan, add onions and garlic.  Stir in tomatoes and water.  Add spices and simmer slowly until liquid is reduced.  The longer it cooks the more tender and flavorful.  Add a little water as needed to prevent burning. This takes care of your protein and your veggie for the meal. Melba toasts taste pretty darn good dipped in the chili!

Meatloaf
100 grams of lean ground beef
1 serving Melba toast crumbs
1 squirt of ketchup - we used the Walden Farms ketchup
1 Tb chopped onion
1 clove of minced garlic
cayenne to taste
1/4 tsp paprika

Crush Melba toast into fine powder.  Mix with the ground beef, chopped onion and spices. We put the mixture into a muffin tin and put a little of the ketchup on top. It made three meatloaf muffins for each of us.  Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.  This counts as your protein and your carb so you can have a salad or other veggie with it and of course your fruit.

Both of these taste really good!