alcoholswab

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

Links:
- Journey
- Phase 2
- Round 1 Journal
- Weight Loss Ticker
- My Fitness Pal Diet Breakdown

Post hCG Meal Plan

Breakfast
- 1 tablespoon Coconut Oil (Fiji Organic)
- Cereal (2 cups): Shredded Wheat & Bran (Post Spoon Sized), Almond Milk (Unsweetened Blue Diamond Original)
- Shake (2 cups): Almond Milk (Unsweetened Blue Diamond Original), Wheat Germ, Borage Oil, 10g Whey Protein Powder (Ultimate High Alpha), 2/3 tablespoon Spirulina Powder (Organika Blue-Green Algae), 2/3 teaspoon Flax Oil (Barleans Omega Swirl), 2/3 cup Frozen Berries (Compliments Field Berry Blend or Paradise Trio), 1/3 cup Greek Style Yogurt (Astro)

Lunch
- Salad (2 cups): Assorted greens (spinach, butter lettuce, romaine), Assorted Vegetables (cucumber, tomato, avocado, edamame beans, onion, bell peppers), 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Bertolli), 3/4 teaspoon White Wine Vinegar (Bertolli), dash Ground Black Pepper
- 1/4 cup Cheese (cheddar, marble, mozzarella, swiss)
- 1 Wasa/Rvita Cracker
- 1/4 cup Mixed Nuts (unsalted almonds, walnuts pecans, pumpkin seeds)
- Fruit (strawberries, banana, grapefruit, kiwi, orange, apple, papaya, grapes, mango, blueberry, cantaloupe)

Dinner
- Include: quinoa, brussel sprouts, almond butter, seitan, assorted beans (including azuki)
Examples: Minestrone Soup (contains tofu), Stuffed Peppers/Zucchini, Vegetarian Chili (contains tofu), Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Vegetable Paella, Asparagus Soup, Vegetable Spring Roll, Lentil Sheppard's Pie (contains tofu), Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas (contains tofu), Asparagus Stuffed Ravioli

Notes:
- Fluid Intake: 3 litres of water, 1 litre of decaffeinated green tea
- Vitamins: 1 tab Vitamin B50 Complex (Jamieson), 2 tabs Vitamin D (Jamieson 1000 international units), 1 tab Multivitamin (Multisure for Men), 2 tabs Omega-3
- Physical Activity: A minimum of 45 minutes per day 6 days per week

Wow, congratulations on your lossees. Thank you for posting your menu. It gives me a good look at how I will eat when I get there.

My Strange Advice to Newcomers (yes, I am off my meds and off leash)
- Read Pounds & Inches. I found it a bit dry, so I downloaded the free copy from Itunes. It's 3 hours long, but that's not bad to scratch kitten bellies and relax.
- Call right now Phase 1 and get your head in the game in terms of eating cleaner and pushing water.
- Load well. It is both a nice excuse to be naughty (hey, I'm on a diet here, pass me another eclair) and very important to ensure that you have sufficient stores of reserve fat.
- Smile, you're about to be a much smaller you.
- Get a good water bottle and get used to drinking so much that your second home will be the bathroom.
- Throat punch all the nay sayers in your life that are going to inflict their opinions on you.
- This worked for me, but might be too hardcore for some others. I replaced all my plates and bowls with 500ml capacity locktop-type containers. Not only is this great for storage, but it also does wonders for portion control both on the diet and after.
- Expect to be low energy, crabby and other wonderful side effects while your body questions your motives. Plan accordingly. I stopped working out halfway into P2 after trying to be bullheaded and continue through it. Walking is important...walk loads.
- Giggle, your goal is closer than you think.
- You might go into ketosis throughout this process. That comes with some really funky breath. I chewed sugarless gum from my local health food store. Not suggesting you do it, since that's off protocol, but be aware it might be you that smells.
- Find yourself a trustworthy scale.
- Ensure that if you are cursed with family members/roommates/whomever that will decide to come home and eat your favourite foods in front of you, that they understand that you are not eating much and you will likely tear off pieces of them if they test your resolve.
- Relax, we're here to help.
- Check your toiletries for oil. If it has it, see if you can find some that doesn't have it.
- Get your family doctor on board. It takes so much pressure off when there's an MD watching out for you. Blood/urine tests are important (in my eyes) to make sure your liver and kidneys are happy through this. This is a wonderful time for a before and after of your cholesterol scores too.
- I would start weighing yourself every morning from now on, after you've gone to the bathroom, and record the weight. I am a huge proponent of charting your progress and think that this is an understated support that makes a massive difference in your success on any diet. I put mine in a bunch of places (weight loss ticker, my blog, on a piece of paper and the wall calendar by my computer). I have constant feedback of how well I am doing.
- This is the time to get all the things in place support-wise to set yourself up for success. Look ahead and find events that will make it harder on yourself, and come up with alternative plans. Get the crap food out of your fridge. Get a Foreman Grill (or something like that...this is not a product placement). See if someone else can do the cooking during your injection phase.
- Kiss your fat goodbye~

great losses Alcoholswab! Also loved to see your menu! I have been mostly staying off wheat now, interesting to see you are eating cereal. How are you liking quinoa? Are you planning to stay veggie? I know that my body does much better with meat, maybe because I am an O blood type. :-)
Enjoy P4 eating! Until the next round.... :-)

Originally Posted by tryn2getfit

Wow, congratulations on your lossees. Thank you for posting your menu. It gives me a good look at how I will eat when I get there.

Thanks so much 83.5 pounds in 309 days...crazy when you look back at how much extra weight I was carrying.

Normally people react to my diet with comments like "I could never eat like that", so I appreciate you finding it to be something to look forward to. I have 4 meetings with dietitians and loads of research into that plan, and I think it's fairly solid (though I thought that 6 months ago too and it's changed tonnes since then).

Good luck!

Originally Posted by damselflydiva

great losses Alcoholswab! Also loved to see your menu! I have been mostly staying off wheat now, interesting to see you are eating cereal. How are you liking quinoa? Are you planning to stay veggie? I know that my body does much better with meat, maybe because I am an O blood type. :-)
Enjoy P4 eating! Until the next round.... :-)

Thanks Diva~

My menu blushes with all the attention from estrogenicals today

I have a lot of strange feelings on the diet and the wheat is one of them. Just because we have amplified gains and or sensitivities to a food item does not mean that it is useless to our body. Wheat might hate my waistline, but that does not mean that I do not glean benefit from it being in my system. This might come back to bite me in the ***, but I am very interested to see what happens if I keep it around.

Quinoa is amazing! I see it as a super food and a staple of my diet now. So much protein, which makes life easier from a veggie perspective. I just need to find ways to incorporate it without cooking it, since that seems to rid it of a lot of its protein content.

I call myself a "non-committal vegetarian", which will lean towards veggies, but will eat meat as well. I figure if veggies are the staple of my diet I won't have issues processing the occasional meat products. I just feel better on veggies, so it's hard to ignore that

This was very helpful to read. I'm going to print that beginners list and hang it next to my P2 foods/calorie list. Congrats on your great losses!

Originally Posted by schmoobly

This was very helpful to read. I'm going to print that beginners list and hang it next to my P2 foods/calorie list. Congrats on your great losses!

Danke schmoobly and glad to help

WEIGHT LOSS TICKER
A ticker is a great way for both yourself and the rest of your loading group to track your ongoing progress in this journey we are undertaking together.

For my ticker I personally use (though any ticker will work)...uhm if I used a ticker...yeah that's it:

http://www.tickerfactory.com/ezticke...ner.php?type=3

Follow the bouncing ball (find a design you like, click the bubble to the left of it and hit next, fill in your stats and hit next) and then when it offers you up a link (use the bbCode link) just copy and paste it into:

Copy and paste the following into the big box

You paste is it the same place you would put the link above.

Click on "Settings" at the top right of the boards.

Click on "Edit Signature" on the left side of the boards.

Paste and save

Injections: Step By Step:
- Stay 2" away from your bellybutton.
- Change your injection site each day. I just did a big circle around my abdomen.
- Grab everything you need for your injection.
- Wash your hands with soap and water.
- Rip open the alcohol swab, and clean the rubber stopper on the top of your vial.
- Draw back the stopper on the syringe to the point you will fill it with the hCG mixture.
- Remove the needle guard.
- Sing a song about the strange turns our lives take.
- Leaving the hCG vial on the counter, place the syringe into the rubber stopper and press the plunger in. This is to stop a vacuum from forming and it is important that it is done when the vial is upright so you're not aerating the fluid.
- Invert the vial with the needle still inside and draw back to fill the syringe just past the point you wish to fill it to.
- Gently flick the syringe with your finger to coax the bubbles to move to the top.
- Press the plunger to the exact point where it has the proper amount of fluid inside of it.
- Remove the syringe from the hCG.
- Frown at your fat.
- Clean the area of your abdomen that you are about to inject into.
- Let the alcohol dry before injecting so you do not bring wet alcohol in with the injection, since that's a tad owie.
- Pinch a large fold of abdominal fat without touching where you are about to inject.
- Start humming the theme to Mission Impossible.
- In a fluid motion (not a psychopathic stabbing motion) insert the needle into your abdomen all the way at a 90 degree angle.
- Slowly depress the plunger to inject the hCG.
- Pull the needle straight out in a fluid motion along the same plane you inserted it on.
- Recap the needle and throw away.
- Enjoy the path to skinny

PHASES

Phase 1 - This is a construct built by the author Kevin Trudeau (who is in court more than he's out) and has nothing to do with the original protocol by Dr. Simeons. He offers a bunch of really solid common sense ideas to get ready for the round (walking, pushing water, green tea) and then follows it with some things I would call bat **** crazy (colonics, infared saunas, use a rebounder, electromagnetic chaos eliminator). Pretty much everything you do before your first injection could be called Phase 1.

Phase 2: Loading days in conjunction with you taking hCG for two days. Some people load longer (others load for a lifetime), but it's only those two days that I pay attention to, since they are taking it while taking hCG. The hCG at this point is non-effective since it has not built up in their system enough to help with their hunger pangs. After 72 hours the hCG is now effective and we move into the very low calorie diet (VLCD). This is where you're eating very little for the next days followed by going off your hCG and remaining on the VLCD for 72 hours. Be sure to take your weight on your last injection day (LIW), since that is important for the next phase.

The length of your round depends on how much weight you have to lose and generally does not run longer than 43 days to stave off immunity to the hCG. This is also why people that are doing injections will skip their injection every 7 days.

Phase 3: 21 days of watching starch and sugar. There's a fair amount of debate over whether this is "low" starch/sugar, or "no" starch/sugar. Some feel that they can eat natural starch/sugar, but none that have been added. I hedge my bet by siding with the "no" starch/sugar camp. Your goal here is to teach your body that this weight is the weight that it should be, and not to balloon back to your previous weight. You focus on keeping yourself +/- 2.0 pounds of your LIW. If you go too low you up your food intake. If you go too high you do a steak day. I say again that this is about stabilization and not weight loss, at this point weight loss is a very bad thing and can jeopardize all the work you did in P2.

Phase 4: Slowly re-add in starches and sugars and watch how it affects your weight, so you can track down food sensitivities (eat food A and gain disproportionate to what you would expect to gain, since your body is retaining water for inflammation = sensitivity). Between your first and second injection rounds you need to wait 6 weeks, so I set my phase 4 as a 3 week period, but loads of people just see themselves as being on Phase 4 forever. Personally I hate the idea of being on a diet for the rest of my life, so I don't see it that way (psycholingustics and/or semantics I know, but I throw it in to see how I view my world).

Your weight loss =
1 pound = a Guinea Pig
1.5 pounds = a dozen Krispy Kreme glazed donuts
2 pounds = a rack of baby back ribs
3 pounds = an average human brain
4 pounds = an ostrich egg
5 pounds = a Chihuahua
6 pounds = a human skin
7.5 pounds = an average newborn
8 pounds = a human head
10 pounds= chemical additives an American consumes each year
11 pounds = an average housecat
12 pounds = a Bald Eagle
15 pounds = 10 dozen large eggs
16 pounds = a sperm whale's brain
20 pounds = an automobile tire
23 pounds = amount of pizza an average American eats in a year
24 pounds = a 3-gallon tub of super premium ice cream
25 pounds = an average 2 year old
30 pounds = amount of cheese an average American eats in a year
33 pounds = a cinder block
36 pounds = a mid-size microwave
40 pounds = a 5-gallon bottle of water or an average human leg
44 pounds = an elephants heart
50 pounds = a small bale of hay
55 pounds = a 5000 BTU air conditioner
60 pounds = an elephants penis
66 pounds = fats and oils an average American eats in a year
70 pounds = an Irish Setter
77 pounds = a gold brick
80 pounds = the Worlds Largest Ball of Tape
90 pounds = a newborn calf
100 pounds = a 2 month old horse
111 pounds = red meat an average American eats in a year
117 pounds = an average fashion model (and shes 5'11")
118 pounds = the complete Encyclopedia Britannica
120 pounds = amount of trash you throw away in a month
130 pounds = a newborn giraffe
138 pounds = potatoes an average American eats in a year
140 pounds = refined sugar an average American eats in a year
144 pounds = an average adult woman (and shes 5'4½")
150 pounds = the complete Oxford English Dictionary
187 pounds = an average adult man
200 pounds = 2 Bloodhounds
235 pounds = Arnold Schwarzenegger
300 pounds = an average football lineman
400 pounds = a Welsh pony

hCG Biggest Loser Rules:
- Total loss from your morning weight of D1 of your VLCD to your morning weight on D23.
- This is fun and should stay that way, so please don't do anything crazy to help your losses be any more than would come of this crazy hCG program. Lose safely through starvation only? *chortle*
- All participants must have a ticker that they update often to motivate the others to stick to protocol without deviations or cheats.
- Men will subtract 10 pounds from their weight loss because the woMAN is trying to keep us down.
- We'll do a graph with updated weights per week as an additional motivation, since Fbb's graph work will have died off by then and I know she'll be looking forward to doing some more.
- We'll award the winner with a new signature proclaiming their awesomeness. Signature will be 100x420 pixels maximum (spoke with Jarret about what he would accept for signature size).

Instructions
1. Divide number of pounds lost by the starting weight.
2. Multiply the answer by 100 to get the % lost.

Vegetables: 1 cup (measured uncooked) a day. Includes artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, green beans (string beans), jicama, leeks, mushrooms, okra, onions, peppers, pumpkin, shallots, snow peas, sprouts (bean and alfalfa), sugar snap peas, summer squash, tomatoes, rhubarb, wax beans, zucchini.

Bouillon: 2 cups daily—as needed for sodium replenishment. Clear broth (consommé) is strongly recommended, unless you are on a sodium-restricted diet for hypertension or heart failure.

FOODS ALLOWED IN LIMITED QUANTITIES:

Cheese: up to 4 ounces a day. Includes hard, aged cheeses such as Swiss and Cheddar, as well as Brie, Camembert, blue, mozzarella, Gruyère, cream cheese, goat cheeses. Avoid processed cheeses, such as Velveeta. Check the label; carbohydrate count should be less than 1 gram per serving.

Cream: up to 4 tablespoonfuls a day. Includes heavy, light, or sour cream (not half and half).

Mayonnaise: up to 4 tablespoons a day. Duke’s and Hellmann’s are low-carb. Check the labels of other brands.

Olives (Black or Green): up to 6 a day.

Avocado: up to 1/2 of a fruit a day.

Lemon/Lime Juice: up to 4 teaspoonfuls a day.

Soy Sauces: up to 4 tablespoons a day. Kikkoman is a low-carb brand. Check the labels of other brands.

Pickles, Dill or Sugar-Free: up to 2 servings a day.Mt. Olive makes sugarfree pickles. Check the labels for carbohydrates and serving size.

Snacks: Pork rinds/skins; pepperoni slices; ham, beef, turkey, and other meat roll-ups; deviled eggs.

MY MANIFESTO

1. Macronutrients: Keep effective Carbs low and focusing on things I enjoy. Healthy fats high. Balance Protein consumption across meals with the lowest being for dinner.

2. Timings: Eat dinner no later than 3 hours before bed. No fruit after 2:00pm.

3. Hunger: Snack on things like nuts, berries, or vegetables if hungry. Eat slowly. Ensure 3.5 litres of fluid (water, decaffeinated green tea with cinnamon) have been imbibed daily.

4. Dessert: Corn, peanuts, and potatoes will henceforth be looked at as something akin to icing.

5. Meat: Grass-fed meat will be added as desired.

6. Guiding Light: Weight will be tracked weekly to ensure my choices do not lead me down the wrong path, but the focus will be how I feel with the choices I am making.

My plan...
- 4.0 litres of water per day due to medications.
- Eat 3 meals with no snacks.
- Significantly raise protein levels.
- Take magnesium citrate 450mg.
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil.
- Get a minimum of 1500 calories per day.
- Keep under 20 effective carbohydrates per day.
- Eating: ground beef, tuna and chicken as meats.
- Increase healthy greens in diet.
- Cook only with butter.
- Have sodium in small amounts.
- Resting, but getting activity with day-to-day requirements to move.
- Enhance my calm and accept that it might be gout, medications, or simply just where my body wishes to be.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/lokimischief

If I lose then I will remain on the same diet for a few days before I make any changes.

If you are having troubles stabilizing in P3 follow this recipe...
- Take half your current body weight and drink that amount in water in ounces.
- Simplify your eating down to large quantities of meat and healty veggies.
- Ensure you are getting your proper caloric intake for the day.
- Have half your body weight in grams of protein minimum.
- Cook with butter if your temperatures are not that high, otherwise use a vegetable oil that's able to take the heat without hitting its smoke point.
- Keep under 20 effective carbohydrates per day and try to eat the bulk earlier in the day.
- Increase healthy greens in diet.
- Have sodium in small amounts.
- Track what you are eating on something akin to MyFitnessPal, so others can help if you are still having troubles.
- Relax. The worst that will happen is your P3 will extend into your P4 if stabilization is eluding you.

To chew on later...

Originally Posted by KenWolinerMD

1. A GOOD ASSESSMENT OF CAUSES OF WEIGHT GAIN.
A. Behavior
i. anxiety issues
ii. depression issues
iii. lack of meal planning
iv. lack of food shopping / knowledge how to food shop
v. lack of meal preparation
vi. not bringing food with you (and then eating fast food, etc)
vii. etc.
B. Diet
i. excessive calorie density in the diet (beverages, carbs, fat, portion size)
ii. lack of protein in the diet
iii. lack of micronutrient density (vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, phytochemicals) in the diet.
C. Exercise
i. lack of NEAT (non-exercise activity) in the person’s lifestyle
ii. lack of muscle (that burns calories at rest)
iii. lack of regular exercise regimen
D. Metabolic Conditions
i. insulin resistance
ii. hypothyroidism (central hypothyroidism with elevated reverse T3 is quite common)
iii. adrenal fatigue
iv. estrogen dominance (in females)
v. etc.
2. A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN OF:
A. Behavior changes
B. Diet changes
C. Exercise changes
D. OTC meds, vitamin supplements, etc.
E. Prescription medications
3. IF HUNGER/APPETITE IS AN OVERWHELMING ISSUE:
A. Behavior changes
i. never let the stomach get so empty, so the patient never gets famished, and overeats. Hence, I believe in the “3-hour snack” of 1 hard-boiled egg, or something else with protein.
ii. always have a protein bar (or a baby-bell low-fat cheese wedge, etc) with you, especially when you leave the gym, so you don’t do something silly.
iii. etc.
B. Diet changes
i. “Volumetrics” describes eating fiber, air, and water – all calorie free, but they fill up the stomach.
ii. low glycemic diet, with adequate protein, so there aren’t the “hypoglycemic effects” of eating lots of starch (pigs eat lots of corn, fall asleep, and wake up “hungry as a hog”)
iii. fiber capsules and water, if needed – to fill up the stomach, and to turn off Ghrelin production.
C. Exercise
i. when trying to lose weight, I give my patients permission “to not over-exercise”, otherwise, they might get “over-hungry” and might “over-eat”.
D. Supplements
i. chromium based supplements decrease insulin resistance, help sugar get into brain cells, so the brain would not be craving carbs.
ii. fiber capsules and water (as described above)
E. Prescriptions
i. phentermine is the most potent appetite suppressant.
ii. topamax has helped some people with “binge-eating disorder”
iii. 5-HTP/Carbidopa – has been used for “anxiety eating” and “night eating” issues.
4. IF LOW METABOLISM, LOW BASAL METABOLIC RATE IS AN ISSUE:
A. check basal metabolism with a Korr Indirect Calorimetry device
B. check for insulin resistance, hypothyroidism, adrenal fatigue, etc.
C. treat insulin resistance with diet, exercise, supplements (chromium), medications (metformin, byetta, victoza)
D. treat hypothyroidism with diet, exercise, supplements (selenium, iodine, etc), and medications (T3 based thyroid medications)
E. treat adrenal fatigue with diet, exercise, supplements (DHEA, etc), and medications
F. etc.

I could go on… but that’s enough for now.