A Day For New Goodies!

So today I decided instead of getting my car's a/c fixed, I was going to make a detour and go shopping for some new kitchen stuff. I'm trying to get everything ready for my trip to Florida next week, so I needed a few things anyway.

I know this may come as a shock, but I have not been in a Bed Bath & Beyond for at least 10 years... maybe 15. I mean I was a BAYBAY last time I went in there and I hated it. What child wants to spend hours looking at wine glasses, dishes, cooking utensils, storage bins, kitchen appliances, and the like? Not I  said the fly, not I! But as a 21 year old who now loves to cook, BBnB was like Heaven on earth! I think I got there at 1:30 and didn't leave until 3. And the only reason I left was because I knew Ross was next door... DANGEROUS!

So here's what I managed to salvage at Ross for waaaaay less than I would have to have paid at BBnB....

And now to introduce you to my new friends.....

Orange and lemon... bakery emulsion? I had been planning on buying orange and lemon extract or Capella drops, but these were only 3 bucks and it's 4oz. They are very delicious! I already made orange "soda" hahaha. And they're in my new little bin that I got for 50 cents... I actually got 2/$1 ^_^ I was content. As you can see from the top picture, I used the other one to store my bottles of stevia and my army of Capella drops. 

nomnomnom! It's hot outside... We hit a high of 107 with the heat index today... and like a dummy I was out shopping instead of fixing my a/c. That's how I roll. Anyway I got a 32oz bottle ($3.99 for that bad boy!) that has a nice little ice thing that goes down inside it and a straw and everthang. However in this photo I was too impatient to wait for the thing to get cold so I'm drinking room-temp water. Oh boy. Haha. 

Cute little ice... fruits. Reusable ice? I'm in! And only $1!! I hate filling up those stupid ice trays all the time hahaha. Hmmm wait a second... apples, strawberries, grapefruit/orange slice... sound familiar?

It's HCG fruit! We have to kick the little grape out though... Poor lil guy.... 

Also, helping me show off the fun lil ice cubes is my new (and VERY heavy glass!) dessert dish... grapefruit sorbet here I come! I think that one was $1 also? *happy dance*

Annnd what else did I get? OH YEAH! My favorite one... I finally got a cool glass to drink out of! Only 75 cents!!!! 

Here it's filled with sparkling water and Vanilla Creme stevia... "Creme" soda! Yum! You can't really see it, but it does say "Coke" on it. 

So that was my shopping for today and I'm pretty pumped to use all mah new stuff!!!! Now I'm off to make dinner... would you believe I'm going to make chili even though it's 107 outside? I told you I'm crazy. Oh wait, did I not? Oops! ;-)

Gel-OH!

DISCLAIMER: The desert you are about to embark on making is calorie free. It is delicious. I cannot take responsibility if you eat it all in one setting. I also plead innocent until proven guilty. And pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Gel-OH!

This recipe is gluten-free, HCG Phase 2 friendly (and beyond of course!), sugar-free... Can't beat it.

1 packet gelatin

3/4 c cool water

1 c boiling water

5 packets of stevia (or to taste)

choice flavor of Capella drops or extract (check ingredients in flavor extracts)

Sprinkle gelatin over cool water and let dissolve for about 1 minute. Add boiling water and stir, then stir in stevia and flavored drops. Make the sweetness and flavor a little stronger than you actually want it - it mutes when it chills.

Pour into mold or dish and chill for 2-3 hours. Remove from fridge, slice into cubes (optional of course ;-) and serve!

Try steeping 2 of your favorite fruity tea bags in in the boiling water for 5-10 minutes instead of the flavor drops... it will also have color if you do it this way! :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie D'OH!

Just a quick post today, with pics of my deliciousness to come next time I make some... I um... kindof ate it all. Hahahaha!

I've been craving sweets like CRAZY the last 2-3 days, which I finally figured out... *shifty eyes*... TOM is hanging around apparently. Ugh. I tell him constantly he's not welcome but he keeps coming back! Someone else wanna take him off my hands??! Moving on ---> Cookie D'oh

So because of my sweet cravings, I didn't want to give in to a bunch of refined sugars and end up feeling like a squished dog pile on the side of the road (that's what I feel like when I eat sugar... pretty much sums it up!), and I also didn't want to use any grains really because well, they make me feel like a dog pile slightly off the road, and unsquished, yet a dog pile nonetheless.

I looked around for some gluten-free/sugar-free recipes and saw a bunch, but most of them had way too many ingredients that I didn't feel like messing with (wonder why?!? -.- ). I switched over to my former life, RAW foods, and found one that looked promising. Something about cashews always remind me of cookie dough. I based my recipe on one that I found, but wasn't true enough to cookie dough's real flavor. Tweakage is my middle name, dahling! Well not really... that would be... weird.

So here's my Chocolate Chip Cookie D'oh! recipe...

3/4 cup raw cashews
2 tbsp almond flour (maybe 1/4 cup whole almonds?)
about 9 soft dates, pitted
1 dropper-full of stevia (I have vanilla stevia)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup unsweetened carob chips (alternatively: insert other form of chocolate as desired)

Grind up the cashews and almond flour together until fine and flour-like. Add in dates and puree until it forms a sticky mess. Add in stevia and vanilla and puree a bit more. You really can't puree it too much... I left it running and Facebooked.

Once it's all sticky-fied, move it to a bowl/container and stir in the chocolate chips (this is totally optional, as I'm sure you figured out. It's just as good without them :) I left mine just like that and popped it in the freezer... ate it by the spoonful after it was cold. Cold cookie-dough was always the best! Next time I'll make it into little bars or something (like a Larabar?).

Hope you like it as much as I did! I couldn't stop eating it... <<<<fatbelly>>>>

Finally! Cinnamon Rolls!!!

I've only been craving a nice, warm, gooey cinnamon roll for oh about a year now. Or actually about 3 years. Lol. So, this morning for breakfast, I decided it was time to break out and break the rules. I was going to eat a HUGE cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting and gooey cinnamon-y filling.

And that's exactly what I did.

Except the cinnamon roll I ate had no sugar & no grains, and had lots of protein and TONS of flavor!!

So how did I do it, you may be wondering??!

I started with a bowl.

Then I grabbed a fork.

Then somewhere in the kitchen I managed to find my measuring cups.


Hahaha okay seriously though - here's the recipe.

1/2 cup almond flour/almond meal
1/8 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
1 egg
1 dropper of vanilla stevia
few drops either almond, maple, or vanilla extract
3 dates (not dried - if you use dried soak them in warm water overnight first)
cinnamon for filling

frosting:
1 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp nonfat greek yogurt
cheesecake capella drops
few drops vanilla stevia


In a small/medium mixing bowl, stir together dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, beat egg, then add in stevia and extract (optional).

Mix wet into dry ingredients - dough will form a loose coagulated kindof mess. You should be able to shape it but it has no gluten or fillers so it won't stretch without breaking.

Shape into a long rectangle and spread with either mashed or chopped dates. Sprinkle cinnamon over the dates if you like, and I even added some chopped walnuts.

Carefully roll up into a bun/roll/wad type of thing, then bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, until nicely browned and dry on top.

Spread room temperature frosting on top, slice in half and eat! Makes enough for 1 big cinnamon roll or 2 smaller ones.

Clean Eating Works!

Wow - so this has been a rocky first week of Phase Life! I was doing great - then went to a krav class and gained over 2 lbs overnight! Crazy shnizz! So I was working on eating clean and waiting for the water weight to go away from my muscles (which were very sore!)... I made a booboo. I was working late - from 5-10pm, and when I got home I had the munchies like you would not BELIEVE. And there was banana bread. Sigh. I totally gave in. Ate the banana bread. Dammit. I felt like crap afterwards and knew I should have made some tea or even eaten something NOT sweet if I was really that hungry, but no.

Spent 3 hours driving home - arrived at 3 in the morning - and felt like crap the whole way because of the sugar and refined flour coursing through my system. Light headed, nauseous, and guilty. Not a good combo! I drank tons of lemon water during the drive but not sure how much it really helped. Woke up the next morning at 10, and was up nearly 3lbs from the weight I had gained at krav! That put me about 5lbs above LDW.

Saturday was my grandpa's 70th birthday, so I just took it easy, didn't worry about calorie counting, and ate VERY clean. Mostly eggs since they travel easy and the party was 2 hours away, and LOTS of water and tea. My calories came in low, but since I'm past the stabilization phase I wasn't too terribly worried about it. Made it through the day, still upset at myself for eating the banana bread but trying not to be, and by evening I was extremely distraught due to boyfriend problems, and I drank 2 beers.

Basically what's been going on is my boyfriend and I are madly in love, and we want to spend our lives together, but he doesn't want to marry me because we have a big age gap and he's worried about my future with him. We've never been in a fight, never argued, never been angry at each other. Best friends for 3 or 4 years, and fell in love about 8 months ago. It was perfect - like a fairy tale. This has been our only issue, and it's becoming big, so I told him until he decides what he wants to do, I'm moving home. It's crushing me because we are SO in love, but I can't stand the back and forth of yes, no, maybe, no, yes, maybe, yes, no from him. So until he decides, I'm moving home. That's a TON of the stress that's been getting to me lately that I've mentioned.

So back to the beers. I had 2 beers to relax and stop crying, and was hoping I wouldn't pay for it the next day. Woke up Sunday morning to a 2.6lb loss! I was down to only 2.2 above my LDW. SCORE. I ate clean again yesterday, got about 1000-1200 calories, and 5-6 cups of green veggies. Dinner was actually at a sushi place, so I got a box of sashimi and some sliced cucumbers, and it was deeeelicious! I wanted a drink so bad, but I didn't want to risk drinking 2 days in a row while I was still trying to get back into my LDW range, so I skipped it.

Then this morning I woke up down to only .8 above my LDW - I'm back in my range! Still keeping it pretty clean today because I'd like to get down to my LDW, but adding in some protein powder to get my calories back to 1500. I don't think 3 days of low calories would be good for me this soon out of Phase 3, and since I *am* in my range, I'm just keeping it nice and clean today. Hoping the clean eating sticks and I don't go right back up tomorrow. I know HCG works, and I know the clean eating really does work, but I still get so nervous about it sometimes!

Going to finish out the day chillin and watching movies with my sister... got a long drive back to Austin tonight, but I'll be back home soon! Asked for my transfer at work last week, and if they can't transfer me then I'm going to quit and just take a break for a few weeks while I look for a job in the medical field probably, since that's what I'm going to school for anyway. But enough for now! On to the Proposal... ;-)

Phase Life, Days 2 & 3

Have I mentioned recently that I love hCG??! Just sayin.

Yesterday I was still holding at 1lb above my LDW, making 3 days in a row of the same weight. I love it when that happens! No more updownupdownupdown haha. That's the beauty of stabilization!
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Phase Life, Day 2

Since I had to be at work by 6, I threw together my normal breakfast, since I've made it so many times now I can whip it all together in about 2 minutes hahaha. Okay maybe 10 but close enough, right? Munched down my breakfast and headed to work with my little packed up bento box. I forgot to take pics yesterday, but I did the same thing that I did with it when I brought the salmon burger salad to school, except this time it was 2 small cans of tuna & spicy mustard instead of salmon. And that jalapeno mustard is GOOD stuff! Oh, I also brought a piece of Ezekiel bread to eat it with this time. I'm in love with that stuff!

Got home from a long day at work and had PLANNED on making a Jay Robb shake & then some salmon later for dinner... well... didn't go so great. Got home and had some drama going on, so my appetite went right out the window. I sobbed nonstop for probably 2 hours, prayed nonstop for the same, and talked to my sister for about half of that. I am so blessed to have her in my life!! And so proud of her! I know I'm the eldest, but I would truly be lost without her in my life. Just had to say that because I want everyone to know how lucky I am to have her. :) Anyway back to my story... so I sobbed and sobbed, and then went to meet up with my boyfriend at our usual meeting place, the Texican Cafe. It's like a cantina/mexican food restaurant, but we are there ALL the time so all of the waiters know us and it's just... idk... it's "our place" haha. Well, I know I was only on day 2 of Phase Life at this point, but I knew I wouldn't be able to say what I needed to if I didn't relax, so I texted my bf and asked him to order me a beer. To hell with the scale tomorrow is what ran through my mind.

I've never drank a beer that fast in my life. 2 beers, actually. He had barely even started his second and I was done with both of mine! I'm glad though - I had been praying the whole way to the restaurant about what to say, and for strength, and I know the liquid courage helped a lot with being strong enough to say it. Anyway enough about that.

Got home in time to eat dinner, but um yeah. I don't think so. Skipped it and hung out with my roommate and her boyfriend, which I'm glad I did because they were able to make me laugh, as usual! I love them both so much :) Yeah if you couldn't tell I'm pretty emotional right now hahaha! And no, it's not TOM either... just a lot going on right now.

Before bed I decided to rehydrate after the beer, so I drank 2 glasses of water and then made some tea with lemon, which really helped relax me even more, and by 10:30 I was barely able to stay awake! Crashed in bed and didn't move once last night.

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Phase Life Day 3

So what's my weigh in after the beer? I dropped a pound. Yes, you heard it. Don't go using it as an excuse to drink dark beers right out of Phase 3 (that's my disclaimer LOL!), but I dropped back to my LDW. Even if it's just for today, I'll take it!

Breakfast today... yum. I'm trying to eat a lot this morning because I'm supposed to meet with my boyfriend again this afternoon and I doubt I'll have much of an appetite after that.

I made chorizo & cauliflower hashbrowns, a flax pancake topped with chocolate greek yogurt (thank you Capella drops!), half a grapefruit, and a tbsp of almond butter. I can't even tell you how good that pancake was with the chocolate yogurt. Wowwzzzerrrsssss! So now I'm just sipping my coffee, trying to stay calm and not think about later today, and blogging. Haha no kidding, right?

So now that I'm in Phase Life, I don't know that I'll be blogging every day. I might, but no promises! Haha. I am definitely going to start posting recipes & tips, both for Phase 2, Phase 3, and Life! I have a whole TON of pictures on making plum babyfood... what?! Don't look at me like that. You know you love it. I'm also going to post about my Apple Flax Pancakes that I make all the time, my Cauliflower Hashbrowns, I'll post my Chocolate Delight recipe I'm sure, and anything else that pops up along the way.

Well that's all for now - I'll update later tonight if I'm awake enough!

Phase Life, Day 1

Today turned out to be in interesting food day! I came in about 200 calories short, with higher fat to protein than I normally like to get, too. And unfortunately both lunch AND dinner were protein shakes! Hahaha. Yikes. Hopefully it's not too bad tomorrow - I only have a pound of leeway as I enter my life phase, so idk how that will go! I have my meals planned out for tomorrow, but it may end up being an egg day!

I added 1 tsp of peanut butter this morning. It was pretty good - I hadn't had an appetite for it at the beginning of P3 because I loaded with it, so when I tasted it a few weeks ago it made me nauseous. Bleghhh. I tried a dark roasted kind today and it was actually really good! Guess there's hope for me, yet!

Breakfast was my normal eggs, chorizo, grapefruit, and cauliflower hashbrowns. The coconut milk I picked up at Kroger was "Taste of Thai" instead of my normal "Thai Kitchen" brand, and I did NOT like it! It was all clumpy and gross and the flavor was only half as good - it tasted really diluted. Oh well, live and learn, right? Back to Thai Kitchen, for me! Well, I have some almond milk to drink, first. That's good stuff right der!

As far as introducing stuff, I'm not really sure how to go about it this time. Being as this is my last round ever, I don't really know what to do now! LOL! I want to introduce stuff slowly, but I'm finding that I'm still really sensitive to things like nuts/dairy, which I never was before. So that's kindof sad for me, but hopefully given time it will lessen. I'm not a big dairy person, anyway, but I do love yogurt. I'll be sad if I'm sensitive to yogurt for the rest of my life! :(

Lunch was protein powder chocolate chip ice cream, some homemade plum babyfood (it's my comfort food... plum babyfood or prune babyfood - either one!), and then a small salad with mustard for dressing and a pickle. Hahaha. After lunch I picked up my boyfriend and drove us back to Austin, but we got here around 6 so dinner was about an hour later than normal! Whoops. Hopefully that doesn't mess anything up, either!

I will take a moment to blog about something other than foodstuffs for a moment... when I drove up and saw him standing there today, I have never seen anything that wonderful before in my life. 10 days without half of yourself is hard to get through. I could see he was exhausted from a 30 hour trip from Tel Aviv to Dallas. I saw wounds on his face from sparring, and he was walking with a limp on his injured ankle, and I knew he was going to be much too tired to hardly even speak. But all I needed was his presence... When he got in the car and I looked in his eyes, I literally felt warmer inside. The moment his skin brushed against mine as he touched my shoulder, my heart raced. Every time he spoke, his voice was like a soothing song to me. How I've missed him! When he fell asleep in the seat beside me, I couldn't stop staring at his sweet face (probably not a good thing since I was driving LOL!). Sigh. I love him so much. I hope God helps us through the trials we face right now - that's the only thing I can say at this point.

Back to food... now that I am thoroughly in a romantic mood and REALLY thinking about turning of Hidalgo and watching something worth watching. Hahaha! I used to LOVE this movie, but it's like, really? Here's what I posted on my sister's facebook wall earlier hahaha...

OMG. Okay.... um... Hidalgo is like... SOOOOO CHEEZY. I seriously think they made this movie JUST so girls could see Viggo in cowboy clothes. There's like.... no other point to this movie. Must be why we only ever watched it at 4 in the morning! I can't believe we dropped water in our eyes to stay awake for this. -.-

It's so sad!! And yes, we would stay awake so late that we would get cups of water and drop drops of water in our eyes to stay awake. The things we do for... fun? XP

Anyway, dinner tonight was 2 servings of Jay Robb because I was ENTIRELY too far under on my protein/calories since lunch was so light and I was eating dinner late - I didn't want to eat anything that would be hard to digest (like meat. haha.) I made a nummy chocolate shake, then ate about a teaspoon of almond butter with it. I also whipped up a batch of chocolate delight with espresso beans inside.... YUM! verah good.

So that's about it for now... off to finish the movie and text my behbeh, if he's awake. Lol.

P3 Days 20 & 21 (LDW +0.2, LDW +1)

I can't believe it! I made it through 21 days without a single correction day! Phase 3 is done - I am now moving on to Phase Life. Kindof surreal! I know I can't just jump into it, so it'll be about the same as P3 for a few more weeks as I add things in slowly, but I mean... I'm done. It's so cool to think about!!

P3D20 (LDW +0.2)

Steady for 3 days! W00t!

Breakfast for day 20 was french toast made with Ezekiel bread and topped with "banana" yogurt. It was really yummy, but I think I prefer my bread just toasted with coconut oil :-) With that, I had 2 fried eggs, some sausage & broccoli, half a grapefruit, and instead of coconut milk in my coffee I went ahead with some unsweetened almond milk! It was really good - I think I liked it better than the coconut milk because the flavor wasn't as overpowering.





Lunch was HUGE because I had to get to work at 12:30 and was leaving for Ft Worth as soon as I got off, so I knew I wasn't going to have time for a big dinner. I made a mocha peppermint Jay Robb shake, and needed to use up some leftovers so I had 2 pieces of SF bacon, 2 oz of chicken, & 2 oz of chorizo that were defrosted, so I mixed them all up and then for my veggie I made Spanish "rice." It's a recipe I've used before, back when I was on my Raw Food kick - and man is it ever delicious! The rice base is made with cauliflower, then you throw in some peppers, tomato, avocado, and spices and mash it all together... omigoodness it's so good!

Got home from work and quickly pan-cooked a piece of salmon, and threw a salad together. Finished packing and headed to Ft Worth for Mommy Day, and to pick up my BF from the airport on Monday.

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P3D21 (LDW +1)

Agh! Wasn't excited to see a 0.8 gain, but it could have been one of two things: 1) every time I eat broccoli I gain. I have NO IDEA. Don't ask. Haha. 2) I did succumb to the pressure of dairy while I was at work and I added about a tablespoon of cream to my Americano. Perhaps I overdid the dairy - I've been soooo sensitive to that!

Anyway - breakfast today was cooked back at home, so I had to run to the store to get eggs and some supplies. For some reason every time I come home my sister is TOTALLY out of groceries! I think I'll accidently forget all the food I bought/brought this time... hehehe. While I was at the store I walked past the coffee and it smelled soooo good... so I picked up 2 sample-size packs of flavored coffee: Caramel Truffle and Chocolate Toffee. They were both SOOOO good! Hahaha. The chocolate one was even better with the Rum flavoring that I got for making CD put into it. Yummers!

By the way... the Rum CD was da bomb. There wasn't any cocoa powder on hand, so I ended up using the unsweetened baker's chocolate. It made it WAY more rich and I couldn't eat as many! Perhaps a good thing... hahaha. More to come on experimenting with that! Lol. I also used the rum flavor to make "cocktails" with my lemon water last night. Teehee! Very relaxing though... amazing how much of that is just mental! LOL.

So dinner last night was LATE since we were at the movies with Mommy for Mommy Day. We went and saw Fast Five (nothing like a movie full of hot guys for Mom Day! LOL), and by the time the movie was over it was 7! Yikes! I hadn't even thought about that, so I was totally unprepared. Crap. On the way home we were able to stop by Central Market and I got some Jay Robb, some turkey breast lunchmeat (the "herbs de province" turkey breast from HEB has no added sugars or nitrates!), and some spinach... like a LOT of spinach. Hahaha. Got home and whipped up a chocolate Jay Robb shake, and at spinach/turkey roll ups with some of the dijon mustard I found in mom's fridge (which may conveniently accidentally find its way into my backpack on the way back to Austin. Just sayin'... >.>) The only bad part was by the time I was done eating, it was almost 8pm! Wow - I haven't eaten dinner that late since... last summer? I was praying praying praying that the scale didn't go up on my first day of P4. Which it didn't, thankfully! Amazing how this stabilization thing works... it's mind blowing!

We all stayed up until midnight watching clips of In Living Color, Eddie Izzard, and Gabriel Iglesias on youtube and laughing. We also went back through wall posts on my sister's facebook wall (and mine) and we were CRACKING. UP. My sister is such a joy in my life! She always makes me laugh. Finally hit the hay around 12 or 12:15, and I'm feeling it this morning! I'll blog about today later on in it's own blog, but man, I am so not used to being up that late anymore. Crazy!


So here's goodbye... Goodbye Phase 2, farewell Phase 3. You were both kind to me and taught me many things about life, and though I gave you both second and third chances, I'm not coming back again. I've learned enough and grown stronger, and it's time for me to move on. Phase 4 is waiting for me, and P4 has promised me to never abandon me as long as I stay faithful. So, P2 & P3, thank you for all you have done for me, and I wish you both happy times without me. Adieu.

P3 Days 18 & 19 (LDW +0.2, LDW +0.2)

I am sooooo terrified! I hope my weight is stable enough that I don't spike for any reason. I'm waiting to introduce ANYTHING that I'm afraid may cause me to gain. Keeping my almonds to about 6 instead of my normal 12, not doing any dairy at all, and definitely getting all my calories and lotsssss of veggies!

P3 Day 18
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 I wasn't too thrilled to see a 2lb increase, but it's still right at LDW so it's not that big of a deal really. I was looking over my charts from last round and my weight went up and down like this, too, just not quite as severely. Guess it was just a lucky round?

So food yesterday was pretty thrown together and I didn't get pics of breakfast or lunch because it was pretty rushed, but it was good! Breakfast wasn't anything different than normal. For lunch I made some REALLY yummy curried tuna patties! Wish I could remember what I did, exactly, but I'm definitely going to try to make them again and write down the recipe as I go. I also made a spicy curry mustard and dipped the patties in it... nomnomnom.

For dinner I used my MB to make some homemade fresh tomato sauce out of a roma tomato that I picked up from the little natural grocery store down the road. I diced up some chicken breast, squash & zucchini, & some green onion and simmered it in the tomato sauce until it was all nice and soft and thick. Soooo delicious.

After dinner I prepped my lunch to take to school today - using my uhh... I guess you could call it an Americanized Bento box?

Bottom layer: salad base. Greenleaf lettuce, diced onions, and tomato slices. 

Middle layer: salmon burger on one side and a couple pickles on the other side. Top layer: mustard dressing on one side, and in the morning my extra 1/2 grapefruit went right there where there's nothing 

:-)

And there it is with the top on! I like the top - it works good as a bowl :) hehehe

I rounded out the night with a couple of cups of tea & an hour of Eddie Izzard, a cali kicker, and a detox bath. I slept like a BABY after that bath, too! Great sleep and I actually dreamed! Haven't done that in a while.

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P3 Day 19
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Yay! Exactly the same as yesterday. I'm starting to see a trend here... I stay at the same weight for 2 days, then either go up or down and stay there for 2 days, then come back to the "middle" for 2 days. Not sure why? Just Phase 3 taking its course perhaps.

Breakfast today was amazing. I decided to be brave and add a piece of Ezekiel bread! I toasted it with a little bit of coconut oil on each side instead of butter (it's soooo good that way!). Then I ate it with my 2 fried eggs on top of it. Hit just dont git much better dan dis! Gobblegobblegobble. I really am scared to see the scale tomorrow, though.

My bento lunch was really good, but felt a little heavy in my stomach since I was a little upset after my morning class. I took some digestive enzymes and got a cup of calm tea, then went an hour early to my next class (the room is empty all day until my class) and watched Eddie Izzard for a bit to laugh. I feel MUCH better now that I've smiled and laughed. I'm so ready to go home. I just need a shoulder to lean on. Geez.

For dinner I'm making January's P3 pizza recipe - it uses eggs as the crust, then I'm going to lay some chicken, sauteed onions, broccoli, green peppers, and fresh tomato sauce on top. Yum! Skipping the cheese... I haven't tried ANY cheese yet and being this close to the end I'm just gonna wait a while longer. No biggie - I don't really like a lot of cheese on my pizzas anyway.



Hopefully my day gets better... but otherwise that's pretty much it for now. :-)

P3 Day 17 (LDW -1.8)

YAY! I'm maintaining! *knocks on wood, throws salt over shoulder*

I'm terrified that I'm going to go under/over. Idk why - I'm stabilizing really well now that I'm controlling my stress levels when I eat dinner and afterwards. School was REALLY pissing me off today (pardon me), so I'm done for today or I'll be upset while I'm eating dinner and that is not good. Gonna watch some Eddie Izzard or something funny while I eat and afterwards to lighten the mood. Might go for a walk tonight, too! I wanna start exercising when I get into P4, but I'm gonna start slow so I don't gain a ton like I did last time! LOL. Last time I rode my bike about 15 miles right off the bat and gained 3 lbs! I know it was water weight but I still had to do a correction day anyway, and I think that kindof set off a long chain of bad reactions inside mah hypothalamus! I probably should have just done a clean eating day, but I didn't know anything about those back then. "Back then" lol.

Today's breakfast was a blueberry/banana (banana capella that is) pancake with banana cinnamon yogurt on top, some chorizo, and some spinach. Oh yeah and a grapefruit and some almonds :) Before work I threw together some CD with a couple almonds for a snack later.

Oh yeah and 1/4 of an avocado - totally forgot about that until I saw it in the photo! LOL!

Work was fun today - only a 6 hour shift so it went by quick. It's sooo nice being able to eat breakfast every day!!!! Can't even believe it.

Speaking of work, I stayed a little late at work since they were shorthanded, so lunch needed to be fast since I was STARVING hahaha. It was tuna salad and pickles, and a Cafe Vanilla frap. Actually it was vanilla Jay Robb protein and a pack of decaf Via... omg it was SO good!! I am loving P3!! After I input all my calories from lunch & dinner (I defrosted some salmon), I realized I was WAY short because apparently the salmon was only half the weight I thought it was! Yikes! What to up calories with? Hmm....

Then I remembered that one of my facebook friends (through the hcg support group on FB) had an AWESOME looking recipe for CD using Jay Robb vanilla protein as a "base".... I gave it a try and holy wowzers I nearly died! This girl comes up with the most amazing recipes.... I can't wait to try them all!!

The recipe I made was 2 tbsp of coconut oil mixed with 2 tbsp of vanilla protein powder. Put it in the freezer for a minute, then I put a recipe of toffee CD on top of that and stuck it back in the freezer for another couple minutes. It was hard not to just EAT all of that protein/coco oil stuff as I was spooning it into the dish! How amazinggggg it tasted... so sinful!

Here's how mine looked after I broke it into pieces...

Hopefully the extra tbsp of coconut oil and the extra couple of tablespoons of jay robb/cocoa powder help my calories even if it's just a lil bit. I don't wanna fall below my 2 lbs when I'm this close!

For dinner I used the rest of my Greek yogurt to make a spicy Tex-Mex "sour cream" sauce, then I pan cooked a salmon fillet with a bunch of southwestern spices and wilted some spinach on top. Topped it all off with a couple slices of tomato, and made some homemade lemonade to go with it. Yum! Now I'm watching some of Happy Gilmore so I can laugh a little bit and not be stressed, and then I'm gonna get stuff ready for lunch & breakfast tomorrow. Oh yeah and my walk! Hahahaha almost forgot! ;-)

P3D18, here I come!

P3 Day 16 (LDW -1.6 WHOA DUDE!)

OKAY SO... no cali kicker for me today! After a 3lb loss overnight, I'm um like really close to going UNDER my 2 lb limit! No clue what's up with that. My only thoughts are: Cali Kicker, getting stuff off my chest and actually being able to sleep, and getting in all my calories after 2 days of lower end cals. Whatever it was, I'll take it! Now I just hope I don't GAIN 3 lbs tomorrow.

So for the 2nd time this P3, I added in Greek yogurt and flax seed. I did ok with the almonds I added in yesterday, but I left them out today so I could experiment with the yogurt/flax combo. Hopefully I'm ok since I'm nearly done with P3 - just 5 days left!

Breakfast was a flax pancake with greek yogurt on top, zucchini hashbrowns, and 2 chorizo patties. Yummmm. Oh and of COURSE there was coffee with coconut milk involved!

After breakfast I did some housework, then ran over to the old apartment to finish picking up my stuff and check the mail. I also ran by Sprouts while I was down there, since we don't have a Sprouts this far north yet. Well there is one, but it's all the way over at I-35, which is like a 20 minute drive! Crazy. Grr. Haha. Ok so where was I? Oh yeah. Got back from doing that and cooked lunch - I used my MB again to make mashed cauliflower. Put that on top of chicken with mixed veggies and voila! Shepherd's pie. It was sooooooo good!

Oh, while I was at Sprouts I discovered that all vitamin section products were 25% off, so I picked up a bag of Vanilla Whey protein powder by Jay Robb's. Instead of $21 for 12oz, I got it for $16. Sweet! So my afternoon snack today was a peppermint mocha frappuccino, as promised! I made an extra bit of CD this morning with peppermint in it and crushed it into my frapp so it gave it that java chip kindof bite to it. Delicious! Can't decide what kind I'll make tomorrow (if I need to, that is). I really like having that extra little snack in the afternoons - I actually seem to be hungrier for dinner when I have a protein snack after lunch.

Speaking of dinner - tonight's was amazing. I love that I have time to cook dinner again. Back before P2 I was training in Krav every night from 4-8, so dinner usually consisted of a chicken breast baked the night before or something, and I usually ate it on the road on my way to Krav. Having evenings to cook and enjoy dinners has really been nice - I'm getting back into coming up with recipes and using new spices/seasonings and making new flavors. I love cooking! It's so therapeutic for me.

For dinner tonight, I made a spicy cinnamon chicken. It was SOOOO good - definitely one for the recipe cards! :-)

Tomorrow is a work day, so I'll be up about 2 hours earlier than I was today (yeah - didn't even make it to 8. I was up and wide awake at 7:15! Haha.) Wondering if that will affect my weight? I'm trying to figure out how to balance that so it's even-keel. I'm thinking getting 7-8 hours of sleep, plus making sure I'm done eating dinner 12 hours before I will be weighing has a lot to do with it. As far as the rule of how long to wait before going to bed - when I eat something VERY light like egg whites or just veggies, I can go right to bed and not see an increase. If I eat any meat or any fat of any kind, it seems, I have to have 4 hours after my meal before I go to bed or it shows on the scale the next morning. But that's what this is all about - figuring out how my body works!

So today was pretty productive... I actually got some homework done and feel refreshed, even though my heart is still heavy with all the issues I've got going on right now. All I can do at this point is pray.

We shall see what tomorrow brings! It's a short day at work, so hopefully I won't be too tired when I get home and I can blog. :-)

Spicy Cinnamon Chicken (P3/P4)

8oz chicken breast

1/4 onion, sliced thinly

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp Bragg's or tamari

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

little bit of salt (opt) & black pepper

cinnamon

2 cups fresh spinach

Start cooking the onions in enough chicken broth or water to soften them. Add the garlic and let cook a minute or two. While the onion is softening, season the chicken with the braggs, red pepper, salt and pepper, and enough cinnamon to cover the chicken on both sides, lightly. Place the chicken in the pan and add a little bit more broth/water, and cover. Reduce heat to simmer and let cook until chicken is cooked through, turning over several times to cook evenly. Takes about 10-12 minutes to cook through. 

At the very end, place spinach on top of the chicken and replace the lid to the pan to wilt the spinach. Remove to plate, and serve! Serves 1.

P3 Days 14 & 15 (LDW +1, LDW +1.2)

Grrrrrr. At least I'm still in my range :) Planning on a detox bath tonight, plus I was able to get my calories and protein up good today.

Day 14: (LDW +1)

For breakfast I made egg foo yung with 3 eggs and half a cup of bean sprouts, and some braggs/tobasco sauce. On the side I had half a grapefruit and some wilted green chard (still one of my favorite veggies of all time!

Lunch was, uh, OH. Lunch was made at 1pm but not eaten until 4. I am wondering if that had something to do with my .8 gain the next day. OH WAIT no the .8 was from the day before - that was the wine that night - put me up .8. LOL. I guess I wasn't quite stable enough for it, but it was TOTALLY worth it - I wouldn't have been able to sleep without it! Ok so no and lunch was not eaten at 4 yesterday it was eaten at normal time. Hahaha wow what weekend it has been. Lots of emotions running crazy. I'm considering moving back home after this semester - just waiting until my boyfriend gets back from Israel to decide. There's some stuff going on there but not gonna go into that right now. Anyway, back to lunch. Yesterday lunch was a 12oz lean steak - around 325 cals, with 4 cups of wilted spinach. Yeah, I pretty much copied Friday's dinner! Hahahaha.

Left for Austin and brought a can of tuna and some spinach for a salad, and ate that on the way down after I let myself calm down a little bit. I cried a lot the first hour or so because I didn't want to leave home. I miss my sister more than you can imagine. Austin is lonely lately. I hate being lonely. But I'm glad I'm not turning to snacks for my emotions anymore - I did that for a while. Doesn't work out so well.

OH! Forgot - on the way home I *DID* manage to find a brand new Magic Bullet on craigslist for $25 whole dollars! I'm already addicted to it and I've only used it once. :D (see below)

Got home around 8 or 8:30 last night, got a confirmation from my beau that he had landed safely in Israel, and fell asleep by 9:30. Unfortunately my calories came in about 500 short yesterday - around 1000ish. I'm thinking that contributed to my .2 gain. That, along with the fact that my sleeping schedule went from midnight-8am on the weekend to getting up at 5am today. Yikes!

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Day 15 (LDW +1.2)

Woke up at 5 to get ready for work. It was SO NICE to actually have time to sit down and eat breakfast! My new manager scheduled me an hour later than my other manager did, so I can actually live a normal life. Can I get a hallelujah and an amen? Thank you, I see you there in the back. Amen to that. Lol.

Anyway, for breakfast I had an omelet with 2 slices of that delicious bacon that I boughteded the other day and some sliced onions/zucchini, and then I had half a grapefruit annnnnd oh a cup of coffee with some coconut milk. And then on my way out the door, I snuck 5 almonds. I couldn't help it - they were lonely and crying. Out of sheer mercy I put them out of their misery. I also snatched my serving of CD for the day while I was getting dressed for work.

Brought another tuna salad with a pickle to work for lunch, and a granny-smith apple for a snack between breakfast and lunch. It was good with my vanilla red tea! Yummmmm. Work was a BLAST at my new Sbux. I transferred to a drive-thru store and I REALLY love it! I thought it would be stressful and confusing but the headsets are really cool!

On my way home, after putting in my calories for the day so far on my Sparkpeople mobile tracker (on my Blackberry), I realized I was like... only at 800 calories or something. LOL. So I stopped by HEB on the way home and got some chocolate Jay Robb and some meat for dinner. My snack was a Mocha Frappuccino made in my new and most beloved MB (Magic Bullet), and then a cup of coffee to warm up afterwards with some peppermint CD (it was like 50 degrees here today. I know. May 2nd.)

For dinner, I pan cooked some spicy red pepper chicken and fresh cauliflower, and then wilted some spinach over the top. Finishing touch? About 1/2 tbsp of butter to up the calories and put me just below 1500. I never felt like I was sinning so badly in my life! I haven't eaten butter on vegetables ever. Not even growing up... mom just didn't use butter she was always the EVOO type girl! Those veggies tasted like they could be made out of sin. Just pure evil. But it's totally fine because I needed the calories, my fats were low for the day, and the butter is organic/grassfed! Win/win. Duh, winning. I win here I win here, now what? Ok ok moving on.

Tonight, when my roommate and her boyfriend (my adopted big brother) got home, I was sipping on some chocolate red tea and watching (more like staring through) tv. We ended up talking for about an hour and a half and I cried a lot. Talking about life and relationships and such.... it was good and we needed to have that talk. I felt so much better knowing that her and my big bro have my back still, no matter what happens. Anyway this isn't a therapy session this is my food blog! Hahahha.

So I stayed up for a little while longer since I'm off work tomorrow, meaning I can sleep until 8 or 9 or 10 or 2... whatever floats mah boat... lol. But I stayed up so I could calm my nerves and not go to bed upset. Decided to drink some capella water (first PB/Banana, then PB/Chocolate Brownie. Oh yeah), and then I went ahead and made a Cali Kicker. I've never had a reaction to one of those like that! Maybe because I'd just had the sweetness of the capella flavored water? I took a sip of my Cali Kicker and I literally jerked from my head all the way to my foot, and then laughed really hard because I felt like a dweeb! Who does that? I mean really? So I put some stevia drops in it and it was actually bearable. Guess that's why the actual recipe calls for stevia! Durrrr. I'm a maroon.

So now I'm off to sleep - it's about 2 hours later than my normal bedtime during the week, so my eyes are slightly confused as to why they are still open. Haha. Hopefully I don't gain anything tomorrow... I don't have a lot of buffer left and I want to start adding in some new stuff! If I can stay stable, then I've only got 6 days left of P3 official! Woohoo!! :D

On to tomorrow. On to the future. On to life.


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Mocha Frappuccino Recipe

1 serving Jay Robb chocolate whey protein powder

1 scoop Amazing Greens chocolate cacao powder

1/3 cup cooled strong coffee

1 tbsp coconut milk

probably 2/3 or 3/4 cup ice cubes (enough to make it nice and thick!)

2 drops english toffee stevia (opt)

Whirr everything together in the 20oz MB cup until nice and smooth. Eat with a spoon or drink with a straw... it's pretty thick and delicious both ways!! :D 

[and... Next time I make this I'm going to add some peppermint extract... my favorite Frappuccino is a mocha peppermint frapp. Yum!!]

P3 Day 13 (LDW +0.4 OH YAYUH BAYBAY)

OMG! It worked! Loading up on leafy greens and eating clean really worked! I lost 1.6lbs, and on top of that I wasn't in bed until 2 in the morning and didn't sleep much at ALL... and officially woke up by 8:30. I felt horrible missing my "healing window" (my body likes the healing window LOL) but it was a good night anyway and worth missing that. Moving on!

So I stepped on the scale and almost cried. You know what this means? I'm stabilizing! I can control this! My weight doesn't have to control ME. All it takes is clean eating (and doing it RIGHT. Not cheating like I used to do!) and my body wants to go back to it's set point. Hallelujah! HCG makes me so happy sometimes. Well, like, all the time. Haha.

So for dinner last night I ended up eating 3 whole pickles, 2-5oz cans of tuna over a HUGE bowl of dark leafy lettuce, and some braggs/hot sauce for dressing. It was so good! Then my mom and I ran some errands even though it was 8:30 in the evening by the time we got off the couch from watching Sinbad and laughing our bootays off, and I got some new hot sauce and some canned mung bean sprouts while we were out. Oh and some sliced garlic pickles. I'll admit it - I have a pickle addiction. There are worse things to be addicted to, right? When we got home I was pretty hungry (a good sign, I think, during P3 lol) so I opened a can of the bean sprouts (did you know a whole can of mung bean sprouts only has 20 calories? the ENTIRE CAN!) and ate probably 1/4 cup with some Bragg's as my late night snack. I'm slowly getting back out of the habit of eating late, but I figured if I was going to eat something late it might as well be pretty much empty in calories. LOL. It worked fine since I released 1.6 lbs! Hahaha I'm going to keep saying that, too. 1.6lbs! *said like Doc Emerson 1.21 gigawatts!*

Breakfast today was my standard - slightly different because I made my sausage homemade this morning instead of using the chorizo from Sprouts. I did my sausage recipe a LOT different, too, because I was starving and didn't want to take the time to do chop peppers and all that. And no, I didn't take a picture, but it looked EXACTLY like breakfast from last weekend LOL... like this:

Same tablecloth, same computer cord, same fishtank base (yes that's what that is), same plate. 3 fried eggs, cauliflower potatoes, half a grapefruit, and 2 sausage patties. Except today my grapefruit half wasn't split up. Oh and I have a Dave & Buster's mug instead of a Colorado horse mug... and it's Vanilla Creme coffee instead of plain! Teehee! Guess it's not EXACTLY the same - but close. Ah, breakfast, how I love thee. 

Sausage Recipe (alternate version - even faster and deliciouser... because it's faster. LOL)

3 oz 85/15 organic ground beef/bison

1 tsp hot pepper sauce (any kind you like - check ingredients!)

scant 1/4 tsp each salt and fresh pepper

scant 1/4 tsp cumin

dash coarse red pepper

dash onion powder

dash garlic powder

TINY dash of cinnamon, and even TINIER dash of cloves

Mix it all together with your hands and form into 2 patties. Fry about 3-5 mins on each side, until cooked through and nicely browned (or if you're like me - charred to a crisp! LOL)

Hint: the drippings make for EXCELLENT cauliflower hash.... just sayin'....

So I'll update more with pics/menus from the rest of today latah. Off to chillax and wait for my BF to arrive! <3

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UPDATE:

Lunch equaled 5oz ground buffalo and 4 cups of fresh spinach (wilted down a little), with some pickle slices & mustard almost like a salad. Then for a snack later on, I had a can of sardines with a little bit of guacamole. Dinner was, well, late... and I was out and unprepared so I went to Sprouts and got some Applegate Farms hotdogs, some green chard leaves, and some spicy jalapeno mustard. Makes for a great on the run dinner! I ate 3 hotdogs, each one wrapped in a big ol' leaf of chard with lots and lots of mustard on it. OH and when I was standing at the register they had little packets of Amazing Grass, so I grabbed one of those and a bottle of water. Needless to say, i got lots of greens in today! Hopefully that will balance out this...........

I couldn't help it. Besides, I had very little fat today and zero carbs after my grapefruit at like 2 in the afternoon, and Dr. S even says in Pounds and Inches that:

"...even small quantities of alcohol, such as a glass of wine with meals, does no harm"

But yeah, I needed this tonight. I've been really needing some wine or beer or sake or vodka (bwahaha jk jk) the last couple of weeks, but I swore off beer until my birthday and I didn't want to introduce wine too early on in P3. Hopefully I don't have a bad reaction from it tomorrow. Usually (at least, last time during maintenance phase), I would either stay steady or lose a little bit the next day after drinking anything, as long as I didn't eat anything with it. When I ate with my alcohol before, though, I never just ate a regular meal... it would end up being very fatty or very starchy because alcohol makes me crave fats and carbs. Weird but it's not a horrible craving and it's easy for me to have another half a glass of wine instead of indulging in my fatty/carby craving and then it goes away. WOW ok that whole paragraph was pretty much pointless. Lol. Can you tell I've already had a glass? Heehee.

So ummmm I don't really remember what I was going to write about other than that? OH! I was uploading the pics hahahaha. OH and I was going to tell you why I wanted the wine so bad! My boyfriend left this evening for Israel for 9 days. I've been praying for him soooo hard - he texted me when he was boarding the plane and asked me to say a prayer. I don't know if mom could tell while we were out, but I've been a nervous wreck since 9 when the plane took off. I won't be able to relax much until I hear from him after he lands - he's landing in London, then has a 10 hour layover before getting one more flight into Israel.

We shall see how the wine affects me tomorrow morning! :-) And hopefully I have a text message from my baby. I love him so much <3

P3 Days 11 & 12 (LDW +0.8, LDW +2.0)

Good Lordy. This P3 is turning out to not be so great! I was hoping for a round similar to my last round where I never even got TO my LDW, let alone passed it! I nearly needed a flipping steak day today! I better go down tomorrow or I'm going to be mad. :( I'm 12 days in - that means I'd have to start my 21 days allll over again, and I would not be terribly happy about that!

Anyway, yesterday I was up, not sure why. I had added almonds and done ok, so I was eating a few of those, and I had some half and half, but not much so it shouldn't have been that. Needless to say I cut out all nuts and seeds yesterday, save for an avocado half that I didn't think about and ate with my eggs at breakfast. Other than that, I ate clean and got in about 1600 calories. Went to bed right at 3 hours after dinner because I was absolutely exhausted, but I went to bed upset. I've been so stressed this week with school, moving, my boyfriend, life in general. Ugh. I'm wondering if that's contributing to this, because I'm always stressed and I don't digest well when I do that. Plus I know stress messes with hormones and all of that, too. 

So today, hoping and praying to see at least the same weight as yesterday (which was 0.8 above LDW), I nearly threw the scale through the wall when it read 2.0lbs above LDW. That's a 1.2 gain OVERNIGHT. And I didn't eat any problem foods yesterday! WTF! 

Needless to say, today I've been eating clean. Not going to worry about calories. I had 2 eggs cooked in some coconut oil for breakfast, then for lunch I had 10oz lean steak and 4 cups spinach, cooked with the steaks. It was DEFINITELY delicious! I figured I would do steak and spinach just in case this is TOM related. I know I already feel mentally better after all of the nutrients/vitamins in that meal! Wow! You know what, I take that back - last round I did go over my LDW by .4 lbs once, but I had been steady at 2lbs below so I did a high protein day (it was Thanksgiving, so I ate breakfast and then pigged out on turkey breast meat at dinner LOL) and dropped a pound the next day. Hopefully I can do that again here so I can get stable! Geez. 

Not sure what I'll be having for dinner, as I'm driving up to Fort Worth again this weekend. I might end up moving back home after school is out - we shall see. I miss my family.

I'm also drinking a TON of water today, and some lemon juice in some of it now that I'm back home and not at work. And I'm taking some detox teas with me to have after dinner tonight, and possibly doing a detox bath, too. I've already had 4 cups of leafy greens, so I plan on having at least 2 cups of broccoli at dinner, perhaps some more spinach for a snack in a little bit here before I hit the road. I talked to Carol Ensminger earlier (from the miracleskinnydrops site/facebook group) and she told me that the more greens you eat, the more you lose. She said to aim for min. 4 cups of dark leafy greens & broccoli, so I figured if I could eat 4 at lunch (the wilted spinach), then 2 cups of brocco plus maybe another cup of spinach/chard or something like that at dinner I should be covered in greens! :)

Well, that's all for now. Here's hoping the evil scale has a streak of kindness tomorrow. 

P3 Days 4-8 (or... 6-10, as I found out)

What a week. My stress level is definitely going to be hard to deal with right now, which is not a good thing. I thought P3 would be easy - didn't know I was going to be dealing with a bunch of bullshit through this. I've been wanting a beer so bad the last few days - just something to relax me. I don't ever get to see my boyfriend anymore, my roommate is kindof a bitch and makes me feel VERY unwelcome with her. I need way more money than I have to pay for school, and I only have like 2 weeks to get it. I miss my sister more than anything. Overall I'm just VERY depressed right now.

Hopefully I can still stabilize through Phase 3. I'm not sure whether to force myself to eat even though I have no appetite or just let myself be depressed and not eat. I think not eating would really be bad for me at this point, but I know eating when I'm upset I usually feel like my stomach just sits and doesn't really digest anything.

UPDATE: took a break from blogging for a couple of hours and drove down to see my boyfriend, and got an herbal tea from Starbucks and I'm working on a venti cranberry tea before bed now. I feel much better and I don't feel heavy after being able to eat a fairly light dinner so I'm hoping I don't pay for eating while I was upset.


MOVING ON...
So this whole time, I had been counting the last 2 days without drops (er... 72 hours so as not to confuse anyone ;-) as part of my Phase 2 still... I found out this morning that those 72 hours are part of Phase 3 days! So I'm actually on D10 instead of D8 like I thought. BOOYAH! Halfway home, baby! That is, if I can stabilize. I'm doing fine so far, but I'm knocking on wood as I say that! I am up .4 above LDW today, but I hadn't had a BM for like 3 days until today so I'm hoping that was it. Speaking of... I'm TOTALLY cleaned out, now! Fair warning - just because smooth move doesn't work on the day that you drink it doesn't mean it's not working! I drank 2 cups that steeped for 15 minutes each yesterday and I was like "really? nothing?" so I went to bed. Woke up and spent about 80% of my day ready to run to the bathroom! Terrible, I know, and gross. Hopefully you're not eating. Needless to say I'm not stuffed up anymore Hahahaha!!

Easter weekend was great - I stayed below LDW all weekend and my sister and I had a great time cooking. I love cooking breakfast, so I went nuts when I cooked for her! We had eggs, some sausage (some ham... allinsideasandwich! LOL) grapefruit, and cauliflower hash one day. I don't remember what else I made but I know I made her my hotdog chili, which she loved. We spent all day Monday watching movies and making up stories about how Han Solo was in love with us. It's so great to have sister time... such a blessing!!

Got back "home" (more like "Bonnie's house") and my room was a disaster. The entire rest of the house was put together, painted (no lie!) and everything, but my room had boards and boxes everywhere. Thanks, thanks a lot. I don't mind the boxes - that's my stuff to deal with. But could I at least have a MATTRESS??! No! So I made a cubby on the floor. My boyfriend was going to come help me set up my bed yesterday, but didn't make it. So I updated my floor-pad to a more bed like state.  (see below... LOL)




Eating in Phase 3 is great - I'm adding foods in slowly but it's still great! Although I don't like the whole being absolutely stuffed to the gills thing... it's so hard to get 1500 calories in!! I never thought that would be hard. Although I will say today I added in 1oz of almonds and getting to 1500 was WAY easier. Gotta be careful with that, though... don't wanna overdo it! I added in almonds a couple days ago and did fine with them - yesterday I added broccoli and felt like crap and gained .4 but not sure if it was lack of sleep, lack of BM, or just water-weight. Hopefully it was one of those and not an actual gain! Anyway I'm still well within my 2lb range and as long as my weight doesn't spike I can catch it with a clean eating day or an egg & steak day (2 eggs, steak & cheese, steak & cheese) and bring it back down. I've been getting around 140g of protein, making about 40% of my calories protein calories. Seems to be working so far!

So far I've added in almonds, coconut milk, half and half (seem to be a little sensitive to this so I don't do a lot), and today I added Greek yogurt, flax, and raw cacao nibs. They are the BOMB diggity in some chocolate delight! Oh, I made peppermint CD. Probably my favorite so far.

I did go explore the HEB that's by our new house. It's HUGE! And amazing. I love HEB... don't get me wrong I feel like I'm living in hicktownRus again (which I vowed I would never do. Just goes to show, children, eat your green vegetables and NEVER say NEVER!), but I do love that HEB. And thank the Lord I'm only 8 miles away from Krav. I can escape there whenever I bloody well want now with much less gas penalties. Anyway, so while I was at HEB for some lemons and cocoa powder (lol), I stumbled upon something I don't ever really indulge in... pork.... and I wanted it. It was so delicious looking, and I DO need some more breakfast items... and it WAS sugar-free with no fillers....... so I buys. LOL.

Well, that's about all for now. Hopefully I can climb out of this funk by morning.

P3 Days 2 & 3 (LDW -0.8, LDW -0.8 BOOYA)

OK! Sorry I couldn't get any time in to blog yesterday... school, date night, then a 3 hour drive back home for Easter weekend.

Yesterday I went up 0.8 lbs, but I think not only because I had like an entire cup (like 8oz lol) of half and half while I was at work, I also had a handful of macadamia nuts, AND there is actually food in my body now! LOL. So yesterday I was careful about not doing too much cream, but still getting in my calories. I used a Jay Robb strawberry protein shake to add my last calories for the day, which put my right at 1500. I was TERRIFIED to see the scale this morning though, because last night was date night with my boyfriend and he took me to a really nice restaurant with a patio and a little waterfall thing and a garden oh wow it was so great. He is so romantic! Anyway, I looked over the menu, and everything actually looked GREAT and it was all really healthy (kindof modern-mexican style food), so I got a spinach & avocado salad with roasted ancho peppers (OMG I love ancho chiles!) and a cilantro lime dressing, but I got the dressing on the side and there was enough avocado mashed onto the spinach leaves that it didn't need any dressing anyway! My boyfriend tried some and he actually liked it, too. Score!

Anyway, after I got home I ate some turkey lunchmeat I had bought in case of just such a protein emergency as dinner was (thank you Applegate Farms!), then finished packing and loaded up my car before heading to Sprouts for some grapefruit and protein powder. Sadly I found out the hard way that my local Sprouts doesn't carry individual packs of the Jay Robb protein powder. What??! But it was worth going in anyway to get a grapefruit the size of my head for 11 cents. Yes, grapefruit are on sale for 11 cents each this week at Sprouts. I know - it's insanity. Since I couldn't find my Jay Robb mix, I ran over to HEB and was glad to find out they have the individual packs, and probably for a LOT cheaper than Sprouts would have had them for, anyway. I've never had the Strawberry kind (I've only ever had their Vanilla Egg White protein) but I was in the mood for strawberry so I got 2 packs of the Strawberry Whey protein and one pack of the Pina Colada. Hello, my name is Jessica, and I'm addicted to Coconut.

OH I also got, just in time for my trip home to see my sis, my Amazing Greens Chocolate powder!!! I got it on sale from Your Way to Wellness and didn't have to pay shipping! That saved me like 10 bucks right there! I may have to try them for some Jay Robb protein powder, too. Haven't checked out all the deals yet but it all looks pretty good. Can't wait to try this chocolate green stuff! I miss having green supplements - they're always soooo tasty! Yes I know, I'm weird like that.

I'll quickly go over my meals yesterday and then move on to today's plan...

Breakfast: 3 eggs, 3oz beef chorizo, and a bunch of chopped chard, all inside a sandwich! HAHAHA just kidding - couldn't resist. It was an omelet. Then I had half a grapefruit, plus the rest of the grapefruit as a snack.

Lunch was 2 salmon burgers from Costco (best things invented ever! I know: there are a LOT of best things ever in my book) on a HUGE pile of lettuce, with diced onions, tomatoes, some avocado, and some mustard. Oh and a pickle. I love pickles. I think I ate 4 pickles yesterday! Hahahaha.

I already talked about dinner, so there. Mleh.

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P3D3

No cream in my coffee today but I plan on getting some coconut milk for tomorrow/later tonight. I'm finishing my blog and watching Family Man, then when that's over I'm going to Town Talk (discount organic food store... wish we had one in Austin!) to see what goodies I can snag.

Breakfast was A-MAZ-ING. I can't wait until I don't have to eat breakfast on the go every morning before work. I love breakfast. <3

I had 2 homemade sausage patties (recipe below), 3 fried eggs, half a grapefruit, a slice of avocado (not shown... I ate it too fast LOL), and cauliflower hashbrowns with garlic and onions. Oh and coffee. Yes, must have coffee. Always. Or else.

I've got my day planned out, so lunch is 2 organic hot dogs (thank you again to Applegate Farms!) with some homemade hot dog chili. Using lettuce as buns of course. :)

(photo added later.... and OMG that chili was amazing!)

And dinner is going to be chicken uhhh... spaghetti? Gonna save some of my hot dog chili and spiralize a zucchini for pasta, then cook a big chicken breast to put over it for protein. I'll have to add in a Jay Robb shake sometime today for some calories (oh DARN.), too. Probably strawberry again - it really tastes JUST like I imagined strawberry milk to taste! (I haven't had strawberry milk since I was like 3 and I don't remember how it tasted, but this was pretty darn greatness! I just mixed it with about 10oz water. YUM).

Well, off to Town Talk - movie's over in 7 minutes and I still have to upload these photos! Hahahaha... Pictures of lunch/dinner will be updated tonight or tomorrow!


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Recipes used today:

Quick & Easy Homemade Sausage (P3/P4)

1 lb ground bison/organic beef/venison 

2 jalapenos, red or green (I did one of each), finely diced or pureed

3 tbsp beef or bison stock

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp onion powder

2 cloves garlic, crushed

sprinkle of coriander &

-marjoram &

-savory &

-sage &

-mustard &

-thyme

Use a food processor to mix the bison and jalapenos (or just mash it all together with your hands - I've done both). Using your hands, mix all spices and broth into the meat - this will take some time to distribute evenly!!

Use as you would any other bulk sausage. If you form it into patties, keep them fairly thin so it doesn't dry out since Bison is lower fat than pork. 

Makes 8-9 patties.   Per patty: 91cals, 5g fat, 10g protein

Homemade Hot Dog Chili (P3/P4)

For one serving (enough for 2 hotdogs)

2oz ground beef  

 3 tbsp minced yellow onion 

 1 clove garlic, crushed/minced

 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes 

 1 tbsp yellow mustard  

 1/2 tsp Braggs aminos 

 S & P to taste 

 paprika, cumin, turmeric 

 dash tobasco or other hot sauce

 Heat small saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute onion until it begins to sweat. Add in beef and garlic and cook until meat is cooked through. Deglaze pan with 1/4 cup water, bring to a boil, then add in remaining ingredients and mix well. Bring back to boil, cover, reduce heat to simmer and simmer 10 mins, until thick. Serve over your favorite organic hot dogs! YUM! You could slice the hot dogs and add them directly to this and eat it like a bowl of chili, too. 

Without hot dogs:  166cals, 9g fat, 12g protein