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!!]