Spinach Salad w. Sweet Grapefruit Dressing{Phase 2}

This was a definite improvement in the vegetable department!
There is hope for me after all.
::happy sigh::

I've pretty much been saving both fruit servings for the {Baked Apples w. Caramel Toffee Sauce} and the {Chocolate Covered Strawberry Ice Cream}

However, tonight my second son is getting his Arrow of Light in cub scouts and we are having a banquet so I know I'm not going to be home during the evening.  I also woke up craving a grapefruit.

As I was slurping the juice down like a crazy person drinking the grapefruit juice it occured to me that plain or even mixed with a little stevia it would make a really great spinach salad dressing.

I promptly called all the kids in and threatened them with bodily harm nicely asked them to please, please not throw my bowl of grapefruit juice remains out when they cleaned up the kitchen.
They nodded while giving each other that look where they all silently agree that Mom has once again lost her mind.

I patiently waited for lunch.
(Have I mentioned the most difficult part of this whole hcg diet is not being hungry?
In fact, I'm hardly hungry at all.  The most difficult part by far is just not being able to eat
when I WANT to.  I've mentioned that already?  Yeah?  Well, I'm mentioning it again.)

I took my grapefruit juice, mixed in a couple of drops of lemon stevia, and tossed it with my spinach.
I also had the {Grilled Tilapia} which I'm becoming quite fond of.
It was so good that I sent out an SOS to the two yahoo group that I'm on asking how big of a deal it was to have the same meal twice in one day.
Apparently it's a non issue.
For some reason in {Kevin Trudeau's book "The Weight Loss Cure"} he says not to have the same meal twice, but in the original {Pounds & Inches by Dr. Simeons} there is no such restriction.
Whew.

I may or may not have licked the plate.
I mean, no one saw me, so it didn't happen.  Right?
Apparently that theory is true in my four year old's world.

{Dear Little People}

Dearest Little People That Reside In This House,

I know I bought you the bananas and oats & dark chocolate granola bars.
I know I convinced you they were delicious.
Please do not come and ask me to open them for you.

And you know that whole "don't eat upstairs" rule we have?
Well, you can pretty much disregard that for the next few weeks.
Feel free to hide when you eat.

Love,
Mom

4 days in{the stats thus far}

I mentioned earlier that I didn't realize I would need more than a 23/26 day round.  The last time I had looked at the scale I was about 25lbs over what I would like to weigh, or so I thought.  After ordering I realized, much to my horror, that I was a whopping 46lbs over my ideal.  46?  Dude.  I mean, I knew I had gained some weight, but seriously?   ::sigh::

I should also add here that I'm not sure what my ideal should be.  I weighed 103 pre-babies, but I was barely 17 when I got married and I am now about to turn 32.  As I have been pregnant and/or nursing literally non-stop for the past 14 years until now I really have no idea what to expect from my body, but I highly doubt that a 17 year old, no baby body is realistic.  So my amazingly awesome ideal is 110, for my bone structure it's not out of the question, but I just don't know.  We'll find out.

So.  Starting weight, pre-load was about 147ish.
Starting weight after loading, VeryLowCalorieDay (VLCD) day 1 was 149.8

VLCD2 - 150.1.....what???
After moving the scale back to the original spot it read 148.7
I got that consistently a few times (whew!) so  -1.2lbs  Yay!
I had a mild headache all day on day 2.  I'm assuming it was some kind of detox.
I wasn't hungry but taking my daughter to her friend's I passed all the places where I'd normally probably stop and get a snack and it was a little overwhelming.  But a good part of my motivation in this diet is to change my eating habits, get rid of cravings, and learn to eat healthier overall, so it's good.  But it definitely takes some adjusting to.  I am learning that planning is absolutely crucial.  I cannot imagine trying to pull this off if I had a job outside the home.  I know plenty of people do it but I am super glad to be able to be at home while I'm figuring it out.

VLCD3 -1.6
That was grocery shopping day.  You know, the one I mentioned about being the day before the Super Bowl.  Costco was samples on steroids.  I was trying to figure out how much of the grocery shopping I may be able to put off on my husband these next few weeks.  :)   And taking my oldest daughter to get a burrito at Blue Coast....::groan::.......

VLCD4 -1.7
Mild headache this afternoon.  Today I refused my sweet husband's offer to go home after church and sucked it up and said the family could eat out as we often do after church.  I had brought the {Baked Caramel Toffee Apples} with me, so even though I would have loved to have eaten Zaxby's it was okay.  I also brought my stevia to put in some unsweet tea.  And a melba toast with garlic salt on it....thrilling isn't it!

Total lost so far is 4.4lbs.
Okay dokey, I'll take that.
Good thing, too.  This diet is depressing at times.

Just keeping it real, folks.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Ice Cream{Phase 2}

I am totally serious.  This will be great for doing the hcg diet on Valentine's Day without cheating!

____________________________________

4oz frozen strawberries

1/4c. cold water

10-20 drops of Chocolate Stevia (I like the Sweet Leaf brand)

5 drops or so of English Toffee Stevia

1T milk if you haven't used it for the day.  Otherwise leave it out.

After discovering this I have intentionally kept my calorie count lower so I can have a larger serving of this in the evening.  It's so nice having something to look forward to.

You could easily use other flavored stevias to have more of a strawberry vanilla ice cream or a stronger english toffee ice cream.  

 ____________________________________

Combine all of it in a blender or food processor until the strawberries are well-pureed and wala!  Chocolate covered strawberry ice cream phase 2 hcg diet friendly.  

Believe it, people.

~Adapted from Reese Ramblings which has given me a lot of great ideas starting out. 

Thank you!

Salsa and/or Bruschetta{Phase 2}{Partial Fail, but Promising}

The first day I had the grilled tilapia I had the brilliant idea to create a salsa to go with it.
A protocol-friendly salsa.
Which means I could use a tomato
and everything else was going to have to come from spices.
I had tilapia with salsa once upon a time at Red Lobster that was very good,
so I was excited.

Was.

It was a fail.
I chopped the tomato, added salsa-sounding spices
like onion, garlic salt, and cilantro flakes.
It was a no-go.
I may try again and add some pepper-spice to it, but unless I can find a jalapeno spice I'm not sure I can recreate the salsa flavor.  I'm not sure if they even make a jalapeno spice and even if they do I'm not sure if it's allowed.
But it *is* something to think about.

So I decided to turn it into bruschetta.
I added oregano and basil.
It was promising.
I think I should have looked up what all is in bruschetta but I was in a hurry to take my daughter somewhere so when I was sitting in the car and took the first bite I literally told her to run into the house and grab the oregano and basil.

I ended up eating it on melba toast.
I can see how one could create a mini-bruschetta with that.
I mean, it would be all of like two or three bites.
Or even four or five if you want to really take your time with it.  ;)

Grilled Tilapia{Phase 2}

This one is pretty straightforward.

I used the {indoor, smokeless grill} I got,
and also used the {McCormick's Perfect Pinch Garlic & Herb Salt Free} seasoning that I am currently loving.
I used a good squeeze of lemon juice on both sides and grilled until just done.

I can't remember what vegetable I had.
Oh wait, yes I do.  It was the salsa-fail-turned-bruschetta-still-a-fail-but-tolerable day.
Yeah.

Back to the fish.
I will probably do this again and utilize the skillet method I've mentioned in a few of the chicken recipes to see if I can create a glaze to go with it.

Again, I need veggie inspiration and desperate help.
The whole no-mixing-vegetables rule is not really very much fun.
I wish Dr. Simeons had bothered to include some of the recipes they used at these clinics he ran.  I could resort to salads, I suppose, and use the glaze as a dressing of sorts.
Hmmm...there is an idea.

Grilled Steak & Carmelized Onions{Phase 2}{Partial Fail}

First I should confess the carmelized part hasn't happened yet.  But it will.  The idea just occured to me and I have no reason to think it won't work.  If it ends up being a fail I will come back and alter this post.  Pinky promise.

On my very first vlcd (very low calorie day) I had a grilled steak for lunch.  It being February and all a good {indoor smokeless grill} is a very good investment on this diet.  I easily forsee our family using this a lot during the winter and possibly when we go camping.

The one I purchased is {here}  and so far it is exceeding my expectations.
Gotta love Amazon prime.

Anyway, I turned it on to like 325ish, sprinkled on some garlic salt, grilled it to medium and it was delicious.

The fail part was that I attempted to grill an onion.  I kind of burnt it.  Normally I like steak and onions but I realized I usually have other vegetables with it and in this case I was left with a very strong onion taste since I didn't have any other veggies to balance it out.

I most definitely will be having grilled steak again and will probably attempt another onion but I may try and do more of a carmelized thing in a skillet with some water and stevia.

Stevia is my new best friend.  We're bffs.  True story.