01gt4.6

Funny you should ask. Last night my GF says "don't think I mean anything by this, but........ we should try to track down that guy and see who he is." I have no clue, probably just some tourist. He definitely "fits" in the photo.

01gt4.6

okay, I think I'm going to go back on the hcg diet (without the drops next week). I was asked in a PM about my honest opinion about it. Y'all should know me by now that I don't mind giving an honest opinion, or review. Last year I went high fat/ low carb (and was very successful) and went into great detail about it. I figured I'd show my response to the PM along with my follow up with the diet plan.

WARNING~~ I apologize if anything I say in this PM offends anyone.

Honest opinion... me? For the first two weeks I followed it to the letter. I lost 13.4 pounds in two weeks. Then I started slacking, PB&J sammich here and there, then the occasional cheat day. I continued to slowly lose. I got down to 180.0 from 197(.4), so I was down roughly 17 pounds in a month, while cheating.
Does the HCG work? I don't know. Did I lose weight? Hell yes. I don't know if the drops played much of a role because we all know it's cals in vs cals out. So I think the (hcg) diet was the key, not so much the drops, but I could be wrong. I did notice that even when I was eating 500-700 cals a day, I wasn't really hungry. I don't know if it's because of the drops or me just knowing "hey this is all you can have, no more, no less!" I think knowing you can ONLY eat x amount of x,y or z keeps your mind from THINKING you are hungry because you know you can't graze. So... 13.4 pounds in two weeks, was it easy? I'd say yes, because it was structured. I didn't even need to log my food because I knew what I could eat. So the only thing I'm unsure of is if the drops actually curb your appetite or if it's a mental thing. Either way, I dropped the weight. On the flip side, I got off the drops and my diet slipped even more and of course a few pounds came back. Then we went of vacation and I figured that I didn't need to worry about what I ate since we effing walked our legs off, up hill both ways (and I got back up to 187)! Actually after a while I started to feel like down hill was just as bad as uphill. I know that Louisiana is flatter than a 10 year old girl but OH MY GOD San Francisco has some grueling hills! So back to the hcg (sorry, did I ever mention I have ADD?), some things I learned with the diet.
1) Having a limited "menu" of certain meats, fresh fruits and veggies helps a lot.
2) knowing your quantity limits helps a lot.
3) Apples are a natural diuretic!

When I hit a plateau I would eat ONLY apples for a day. I had like 5-6 apples (and water) and that's it. Even eating only apples, I didn't feel hungry. Not sure if it's b/c the fiber fills you up or once again just knowing that's all you get. Anyway, never failed after an apple day, the weight would fall back off.

Penni also did it but the weight didn't come off as quickly this time for her. I think she lost 10 pounds in the first two weeks and like 15 pounds in a month.

The diet is super clean, nothing special to buy. If you want I can scan it and send it to you, if you want to try it without spending the money on the drops.

Follow up

I don't think there is a limit. I'd do it until you've lost the weight that you want and then start adding in food. The diet this time calls for approximately 1000 calories, I cut back from it, I think I was probably around 700 calories.

Sometimes I'd do my snack (piece of fruit) before lunch and I'd have a snack (piece of fruit) between lunch and dinner (it was my fruit that I should have had at dinner)

So it often looked like this:
Basically for the first 2 weeks I was strict.
Breakfast - 2 eggs, scrambled with a little cooking spray and 1 slice of 45 calorie toast (dry). I'd slap the egg on the toast, fold it up and have a sammich.
Snack - apple or strawberries
Lunch - (4-6oz) protein, (1-2cup) veggies (steamed in microwave) and no fruit
Snack - apple or strawberries
Dinner - (6-8oz, maybe 10oz if I was active) protein, (1-2cup) veggies (steamed in microwave) and no fruit

Basically I cut out one fruit a day from the plan, cut back a little on the protein and veggies.

It's a pretty simple, very basic diet. All foods were measured raw. I only drink water, so that was never an issue. The B12 may have helped with energy but I made sure to take a daily vitamin every day. My energy was really good, probably because I was eating foods that had actual nutrients.

Another thing that made it easy, if I got a pack of chicken breast, pork chops... whatever, I would weigh it and package it all out. The days that I ate beef, it was hard to drop weight. That didn't stop me from firing up the grill and slapping a (sometimes) 10 oz steak on it!

I think that most people probably think that the diet is probably some crazy shit, but it's really foods that we should be eating anyway (IMO). When Penni first did it, it was a 500 calorie diet. That's probably why she didn't lose as fast this time.

Try it and see how you like it. You could probably do a scaled back version like I did for a week and lose a few pounds (or more). Make sure to drink plenty of water and take a vitamin!

dmartz

The 'approved' food list looks like what I usually eat now, except it's missing bananas and avocados. And I try to stay away from lobster (too much cholesterol). Oh, and I add chocolate, all types.

I'm now going on 18 continuous months of logging practically everything I eat, which works best for me.

- Donna

01gt4.6

Donna, yeah it's pretty basic. The reason why I mentioned not having to log is for some (like me), after a while logging can seem to be a real PITA. I know that logging is truly the way to go but I just needed a break from it. I also knew if I was eating the same stuff over and over and I was steadily losing weight, that could be the break from logging that I needed. The hard part of the diet being so basic... is that it's so basic. Something as simple as you make a salad and go to put dressing on it and it's like "nope, that's not on the list." But, that's also the good part of it, if it makes sense. The old diet was much more restrictive, I don't think it allowed for salt or spices. I think it cut out the spices because most had sugar.

So my plan is to start on Tuesday. My "vegan" daughter is coming down and she wants crawfish on Monday. I'll be boiling crawfish and grilling, after that it's on. I will get back in the 170's again. I was oh so close.

Robingen

Goals for this week:

1. Green tea 1x per day: M-Y, T-Y, W-Y
2. Calories 1200-1400: 1837, 1286, 1326
3. Swim once
4. Gym once: W
5. Walk at least 2x: T, W
__________________

I like the rolling average as well, I may change this next week.

Robingen

fiddleheads.jpg

Saw this on Facebook. Apparently from NYC..........I picked a bunch of these and froze them.........in minutes lol.

01gt4.6

what is it? Never heard of that.

Robingen

Known as "fiddleheads" they are a fern before it fully sprouts. They grow wild in forested areas by rivers, and around here, are ready for harvest for about 2 weeks first of May. You can usually harvest a patch and go back the next day and there will be more. They are delicious, nutritious and low cal and FREE to pick. Try some in frozen foods. Not as good of course. Fitday does have nutritional info on them.

lilbits120

How do you prepare them. I ate them with gobs of butter and salt but haven't had them in a while. Show me a better way.
CW187.7

lilbits120

Fresh asparagus will soon be available in Ontario. I boil it and eat it naked.
You know what I mean. My weight is coming back down after the long weekend binge and I was doing so well too. Does any one drink green tea cold? How do you make it taste good? I want a go to drink for the hot summer weather coming our way.