June 1, 2010 - VLCD Day 9

My food calories today were 480, and I lost .7lbs since yesterday. My total loss is now 12.5lbs.



I did not eat breakfast. I didn't eat until noon.

Lunch: lean sirloin stir-fried with spinach, garlic, a little green onion and kelp noodles

Snack: crab meat seasoned with lemon juice, green onion and parsley.

Dinner: Bison with cabbage and caraway seeds, cooked with garlic and a little green onion. I also added a splash of ACV. That was very tasty. I'd happily eat this while NOT dieting!

May 31, 2010 - VLCD Day 8

I'm down another 1.1lbs. today for a total of 11.8 lbs. My average daily change is 1.48, but that's including the days I lost my "load weight", which is mostly water. The average for this week should be interesting.

My food calories yesterday were 510.



For breakfast, I had a protein shake made from chai tea and the egg white protein. No fruit.

For lunch, I had a sort of chicken taco salad. Big pile of lettuce with chicken and green onion, topped with a salad dressing made from cottage cheese and salsa.

I made a snack of a salad made from fennel, chicken and half a small apple. The dressing for that involved the chicken poaching liquid from today, a little cottage cheese, lemon juice, spices and parsley. It was decent, but too thin.

For dinner I had the crab, cucumber and kelp noodles.

I'm really trying to boost protein to see how that works out. Basically, I'm eating the allowed foods in any combo I want topping out at 500 calories. I'm breaking all manner of P&I rules. Oh well. It's working really well for now. If it stops working, I'll change.

One Week Wrap-Up

I lost 10.7 lbs. the first week, and as promised, here's a shopping list to eat what I ate.




If you click on that, it will go to the google spreadsheet.

Here are my weekly stats:





I started the week at 166.8 and ended it at 156.1

May 30, 2010 - VLCD Day 7

I lost 10.7 lbs. the first week! Yay!

Today, I registered at 1.1 lbs loss, and my food calories were 463.

I went shopping, and was not at home all day. I walked two malls for seemingly hours. Ok, it was hours, and I was totally wiped out. I brought my own salad dressing for one meal (the shrimp at lettuce was at Baja Fresh), and I just went with vinegar, oregano and garlic powder for the salad at Jerry's. I wasn't expecting to eat *all* my meals out today, but that's how it happened. I brought my strawberries and a bit of cottage cheese to go with that round egg at McDonald's.



Breakfast: one MCD round egg, strawberries, home-made low-fat cottage cheese

Lunch: Baja Fresh shrimp ensalada, no tortilla strips, dressing or cheese. I brought my own dressing.

Dinner: Jerry's breadless grilled chicken sub, see above for dressing.

May 29, 2010 - VLCD Day 6

I had 502 calories yesterday, and I lost .4 lbs. Over the two days, that's a good number, so no complaints.

I think I'm going to stop tracking the non-food. I'm not doing it today anyway. I have a bunch of stuff to do that involves running errands, and there's no way I'll get the fluids right. It would just stress me out and waste time.



Breakfast: Strawberries and Egg White Protein with cinnamon and vanilla.

Lunch: Salmon salad on lettuce. I made a dressing from cooking down green onions and garlic and immersion blending that with spices and white wine vinegar. I was very black-peppery, but good.

Dinner: Ground beef cooked with spinach, green onion, garlic, ginger, cilantro and some rice vinegar at the end. It was very tasty, and I had more strawberries for dessert.

May 28, 2010 - VLCD Day 5

I had 507 food calories yesterday, and I lost 1.4 lbs. So far, I've lost 9.2lbs from my loaded weight, and I'm 4.5 lbs. under what had become my regular weight (too high, but pretty consistent).

I also did my strength exercises (I keep putting off the Met Con!), and I did really well - I'm not having a hard time on the reduced rations at all. I've crossed that line to where I'm definitely burning fat. The first couple of days are always a lot of water. I feel better, and I'm not hungry during the day. I've been a little hungry at bed time, but I can manage that. I'm not sure why it is - I think I'll schedule my food a little differently today.

I'm starting to think I have an allergy or intolerance to either chicken or nightshades. I'm not eating either today, and I will see if my tinnitus goes away. I'm hoping it's not chicken. Honestly, I don't want it to be either - I can't imagine line without hot peppers and tomatoes.

Nightshades would be better than chicken or eggs though. Earlier in the week, I thought it might be eggs, but I had a very direct reaction yesterday after eating a salad of mixed greens, chicken breast, tomatoes, onions and cucumbers at Panera. I eat chili powder nearly every day.

I know I have *some* food intolerance that I have not sorted - this is part of the reason I'm doing HCG. It's very easy to eat a simple diet, and the amounts are so small, that it's easy to spot a reaction.



Breakfast: None

Lunch: Panera Classic Cafe Salad with grilled chicken breast and no dressing. I made dressing at home and brought it with. I cooked some red onion with the Homemade Dressing Italian Seasoning and water. When the water cooked away, I put about 1/4 cup of ACV in the pan, cooked for a moment, and turned it off. I then used the immersion blender on it. It made two servings (one I'll use today), and it was very tasty.

Snack: Egg white protein shake with strawberries, cinnamon, vanilla and orange peel

Dinner: Ground beef and one fresh tomato cooked into chili with my homemade chili seasoning mix. I will *so* miss chili. Sigh. I hope I'm wrong.

May 27, 2010 - VLCD Day 4

I wasn't hungry all day, which was nice, but I slept poorly. I also only dropped .2 lbs for the period ending on 5/28. That happens - sometimes it even goes up a little - but when it's after a night of poor sleep, I tend to blame that.



Anyway, yesterday. I started with lunch. I had pre-cooked shrimp from my grocery store's fish counter with chili spiced cabbage.

I had the shake as an afternoon "snack", and it was the protein powder, strawberries, cinnamon and vanilla. It was not as tasty as the egg white protein.

For dinner, I had a ground beef patty with sauteed spinach on the side. I made that with some green onion, garlic and a little cider vinegar. I missed that on the food list, but I've already done all the stats, so you'll just have to imagine one tablespoon of ACV on there. :) I had the apple as dessert.

May 26, 2010 - VLCD Day 3

I did my HIT strength exercise today. My intention was to have my breakfast protein shake of about 100 calories before I exercised, but by 11:00, UPS had not shown up with my custom stuff from trueprotein.com.

My morning blood glucose today was 77. I wanted to see what effect fasted training would have on my BG, so I took it right before I exercised. You know, for science. It was 101, and I had eaten nothing. I guess I still had some glycogen to use up from my loading weekend! After the exercise it was 85.



For lunch:
100g grass-fed lean ground beef with 150g cabbage. I stir-fried all that with green onion, garlic, ginger and Thai Red Curry Paste. It was pretty tasty - beef and cabbage work well together with pretty much any spice.

Late Afternoon:
Protein Shake was the strawberries and egg white protein powder mixed with water, ice, cinnamon and vanilla extract. It was quite decent. I don't use any sweeteners in anything on VLCD. Not even stevia. I think that sweet tastes with no actual sugar are a real issue for the body, so I it, and real sugars are not allowed.

For dinner:
Steamed shrimp from my grocery store's fish counter and dry-roasted radishes. And an apple. I pretty much always eat my apple after dinner. I used jerk spice on the radishes, and then tossed the shrimp with them when they were done, just to coat. It was kind of unsatisfying, I think because the radishes looked like so little.

May 25, 2010 - VLCD Day 2

My food calories were 506. I lost 3.3 lbs. from yesterday.

Here's the list:



For my little breakfast, I had spinach, one green onion, one clove of garlic and an egg.

At lunch, I had chicken with my own spice mix I use to make chili. I added the cabbage to that. I had a bowl of strawberries for dessert.

For dinner, I had a salad of poached chicken breast, celery, apple and parsley. I poached the chicken with a green onion and a clove of garlic, and I cooked down that water and veg for part of the dressing. The rest of the dressing was the juice of 1/2 of a lemon.

May 24, 2010 - VLCD Day 1

My calories are over 500 because, as I said yesterday, I'm including spices, black coffee, green tea and various other seasoning items that are "free" and do not need to be counted. My counted calories are actually 487, and I lost 3.2lbs. in the period that covers this food list.








So what did I do with this stuff?

I had a shake in the morning made from the strawberries, hemp protein powder, water, ice, cinnamon and vanilla extract.

For lunch, I had chicken soup with the chicken, spinach and celery as well as a green onion and some garlic.

For dinner:

I marinated the steak (starting at lunch) with garlic, green onion, ginger and rice vinegar. At dinner, I cooked it in a non-stick pan with with the kelp noodles and at the end, added the marinade. I put that over the cucumbers which I julienned.

I had an apple for dessert and a pot of decaf chai tea while watching TV.


Macro Breakdown:



RDA Table:

Weight Loss For The Impatient

I'm sure some of my paleo followers will be horrified, but I'm doing the HCG thing again.

While my weight is in the normal range, it's high normal, and I've still not been able to shift any more fat off. I use a body fat scale, so I have data on that, and while I know the percentage is probably not accurate (BIA scales are inexact at best), the trend for *me* should be. I see changes and additional muscle, and I am definitely stronger, but I still have just as much fat as I have since early February. I am concerned that I have some kind of cortisol problem, but it could also be some food that's causing inflammation. It's a pretty short food list, so it will simplify my diet without adding any jive plastic foods, and it will still be paleo.

HCG is weight loss for the impatient, and it offers immediate rewards. Half of it for me, at this point, is the diet simplification.

HCG Rules, per meal:

Protein: 100 grams of veal, beef, chicken breast, fresh white fish, lobster, crab, or shrimp. All visible fat must be carefully removed before cooking, and the meat must be weighed raw. It must be boiled or grilled without additional fat. Salmon, eel, tuna, herring, dried or pickled fish are not allowed.

Vegetables: One type of vegetable only to be chosen from the following: spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage.

Fruit: An apple, orange or a handful of strawberries or one-half grapefruit.

(Also allowed is a single grissini breadstick per meal, but I'm not eating those. Artificial sweeteners - saccharin is specifically mentioned - are allowed, presumably so is stevia. I'm not eating either of those either.)

Seasonings: The juice of one lemon daily is allowed for all purposes. Salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard powder, garlic, sweet basil, parsley, thyme, marjoram, etc., may be used for seasoning, but no oil, butter or dressing.

Beverages: Tea, coffee, plain water, or mineral water are the only drinks allowed, but they may be taken in any quantity and at all times.

I am not doing this 100%-Pounds-And-Inches [warning! PDF!], so you will see things like protein powder or the occasional extra protein in the form of an egg. I may also "mix vegetables." I generally stick to salads for that (adding cucumber and onion to the lettuce), but today (the numbers below are actually for 5/24) I'm adding a little spinach to my menu. This is technically a third veggie. I also use green onions the same way I use garlic. I think that is kind of a gray area, but in any case, I count their calories, but I do not count garlic as it is specifically mentioned in P&I as a spice or herb.

In order to figure out how many nutrients and how much water is actually in my diet, I'm putting in beverages that are "drink as much as you like", and I'm attempting add the spices into my Fitday food journal. I will not consider these calories as black coffee, black tea, regular, non-balsamic vinegars, herbs and spices are not counted according to the plan. This means that my totals will look more like 525-550 calories because of the coffee, tea, garlic, vinegar, cinnamon, curry powder, etc. I'm pretty shocked that coffee, tea and spices can add that many calories, but it does. On 5/24, 66 calories came from this stuff, but at least they come with nutrients and anti-oxidants!

I also ate kelp noodles because I already had a package open, and they are Not Cheap. Here's the bit of P&I that I think allows it:

In many countries specially prepared unsweetened and low Calorie foods are freely available, and some of these can be tentatively used. When local conditions or the feeding habits of the population make changes necessary it must be borne in mind that the total daily intake must not exceed 500 Calories if the best possible results are to be obtained, that the daily ration should contain 200 grams of fat-free protein and a very small amount of starch.

Six calories and three ingredients, one of which is water? I'm not sweating that. I probably won't include them again for a few days anyway. People do this diet successfully as *vegans*, and there's no provision for that at all.

Dairy products and eggs are allowed in some cases. Here's the skinny on that:

Occasionally we allow egg - boiled, poached or raw - to patients who develop an aversion to meat, but in this case they must add the white of three eggs to the one they eat whole. In countries where cottage cheese made from skimmed milk is available 100 grams may occasionally be used instead of the meat, but no other cheeses are allowed.

Strict vegetarians such as orthodox Hindus present a special problem, because milk and curds are the only animal protein they will eat. To supply them with sufficient protein of animal origin they must drink 500 cc. of skimmed milk per day, though part of this ration can be taken as curds.

Am I going to eat any of that? Probably. I have never tried milk, curds (paneer, I assume) or cottage cheese as a protein source before, but I'm not ruling it out. I will definitely include eggs now and then.

So, here's the plan: Do the HCG Diet for the minimum period (three weeks). Switch to a low-carb paleo diet (I'm thinking 50g carbs at the moment, about 10-15% macronutrient-wise) for three weeks. After that, I think I'll do the classic Atkins ladder adding 5g carbs to my daily intake on a weekly basis (staying paleo except for raw dairy and high-quality cheeses) until I either hit 100g or my weight stops being stable. The low-carb paleo plan mostly involves doubling my protein portions and adding lots of healthy fats. Nuts will be added back early (all high saturated or monounsaturated, of course), and I will probably add tropical fruits and sweet potatoes back last. Those push out too many other foods if carbs are 50 or below, so I figure I'll need to get to 75g before that's even worth doing.

At the end of this week (and hopefully all the others), I will publish the shopping list based on the foods I ate.