R4P3D32 of 33 - REPOST (sorry for the Blog issues) -- I'm rounding the Round 4, Phase 2 Finish Line

August 23, 2012

Round 4 (R4), Phase 2 (P2), Very Low Calorie Day (VLCD) #32 of 33

Well, my friends, I have hit my Last Dosage Weight (LDW).  Today, I am 84.1 pounds off (that means, I lost 24.1 pounds in R4.  Of course, only 7.1 of those are new territory.  But, I hit some milestones and made up for  (redeemed, I will say) the pounds I gained from "stress eating" in R3P3/R3P4, and then moved the needle down a bit.  I'll take it.  I'm "down" with down.  I'm satisfied.  And, I am determined to make R4P3 (remember, P3 is eating proteins for 21 days to stabilize the weight I've lost) count this time.

In order to make this P3 count, I did some menu planning for P3 (at least the first week or 2).  I plan on eating approved foods, but less of the, "stay away from veggies and fruit" motto I had adopted (and that's not plan, really) in the last 2 of 3 Rounds.  I only ate meat and cheese in the first week.  And, I wasn't eating enough calories.  So, this time, I'm eating my veggies too, and approved fruit. 

That said, last night, I did a boat-load (I should say, CR-V load, as the back of my car was full last night) of P3 grocery shopping last night.  Here's my grocery list (for you HCG-ers or those trying to eat low-carb who have asked me what I can and do eat in P3):

• Red/yellow/orange peppers
• Spaghetti squash
• Cherry tomatoes (I LOVE those, but can't eat them in P2, because they have more natural sugar content, which can cause a stall in the VLCD P2)
• Mixed salad greens
• Jicama (can't wait to try that ... it's supposed to have the consistency of an apple, but the flavor of a vegetable!)
• Celery
• Avocado
• Mushrooms
• Sweet onions
• Green onions
• Strawberries
• Watermelon
• Cantaloupe
• Apples (well, not yesterday ... I'm buying apples at Tanner's Orchard on Saturday).  For you non-locals, it's a great apple-buying spot in the late summer, early-autumn.
• Frozen cauliflower (for my oh-so-yummy cauliflower bake!)
• Steel-cut oats (I almost wrote GOATS ... yikes, those would hurt).  I'm going to try having them at the end of P3, even though they are carb-y (no, that is not a word, and yes, I did just use it)\
• Black olives
• Green olives
• No sugar added (agave nectar only -- again, at the end of P3) strawberry jam (my fave!)
• Mary's Gone Crackers (spelt grain, again, breaks down like a veggie, not a carb)
• Duke's Mayo (only kind without sugar)
• Whole green chiles (I'm making chile rellenos soon --- eggs, cheese, chiles, yummy!
• Spaghetti sauce (checked for sugars ... hard to find, but I found some, vodka sauce, actually!)
• Lara bars ("gone nuts" flavor -- all nuts)
• Natural peanut butter (I know which brands to buy, but if you do, be careful, many of the "natural" brands have honey, agave nectur, high fructose corn syrup in them ... the non-naturals have stuff with "-oxe" or "-ose" at the end, and that is a chemical form of sugar ... it's in EVERYTHING I tell you!)
• Fage Greek Yogurt (plain is the only one without sugar, so I'll add Stevia to it and fruit ... I have some 3-year-old frozen Michigan blueberries in my freezer I will use)
• Laughing Cow French Onion cheese wedges (35 calories a wedge) which I put in the peppers (I'm also going to try making stuffed peppers, with quinoa or farro instead of rice -- it tastes like rice, but it a natural product that breaks down as a veggie carb, not a "bad" processed carb in the body)
• Eggs (LOTS of eggs)
• Kroger brand low-sodium bacon (it's the only one I've found ANYWHERE without some form of sugar in it (HCG-ers reading this, pay attention!)
• Jimmy Dean's savory sausage (roll -- again, the only one I've found without sugars of any kind ... yes, I'm going to make a bread-free egg casserole!)
• Cottage cheese (it was hard to find one without sugars, but I did, in the end -- it's in almost everything in one form or another!)
• Milk (whole!)
• Devonshire clotted cream
• Heavy whipping cream
• Sour cream
• Cream cheese
• Ground sirloin
• Bison
• Lamb
• Veal
• Crumpets (I know, I know, carb-a-rama ... I won't eat them until P4, but I was there, they were there, and they went right into my freezer)
• Shrimp (I will soon be making Linda's Mom's recipe again -- shrimp grilled in butter and garlic!)
• Cashews (I'm staying away from them for the first few weeks)
• Ezekiel bread (it's a spelt grain bread that is whole grain, but, again, breaks down as a veggie, not a starchy carb)
• Ezekiel tortillas
• Ezekiel sandwhich wraps
• Ezekiel English Muffins

I should be good until about February 2020 with that amount of food.  Just kidding.  But, clearly, you can see I wasn't kidding when I said car-load, huh?  I can mix it up a bit, with "treat" things in P4.  For example, I bought a couple of small loaves of pumpkin+chocolate chip / banana / zucchini bread at Fresh Market 2 weeks ago & immediately froze them.  I might have some in P4, maybe with my Gram, since she loves sweets.  When I go to Tanner's this weekend, I'll probably buy some caramel too ... yum, apple fritters).
Uh oh.  Mind on the game, Julia.  Mind on the game.

I'm back.  Okay, so today and tomorrow, I keep eating P2 foods (two 3.5 ounce meat portions of either white fish, chicken or very lean beef/bison, a tomato and either a cucumber, onion, some spinach, 2 grissini bread sticks, 1 Tbs of milk, and 2 apples).  Even though the drops are done (which is why this is called, "Last Dosage Weight" since it's the last day I took the drops -- this morning), I need to be 48 hours without drops in my system before I go to P3.  I loaded for 48 hours, I have to wait 48 hours to get them out of my system.  If I start eating P3 right now, I'll gain.  That's what I did in Rounds 2 & 3 ... I "couldn't wait" for P3, so I ate P3 for dinner on my lat night in P2.  And, duh, Julia!  I gained.  So, this time, this trap of a mouth is saying NO to P3 until Saturday morning at 8 a.m.  That'll be about 48.5 hours since I took my last drops.  Then, hello eggs for breakfast! 

Whoah there, Nellie.  Maybe I should say, "Hi, eggs."  Hello sounds like I plan on eating a dozen.