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READER'S DIGEST VERSION OF THE FIRST TWO DAYS AFTER A CORRECTION DAY

Okay, this ORIGINALLY started out as a brief bulleted list, but folks seemed to want more of an explanation of the points. So it got longer. It's STILL shorter than the whole guide, so it qualifies in a sense as a "shorthand" version.

Here it is:

• Sooooo....no carbs the first two days -- NONE whatsoever. Higher calories from grams of fats than calories from grams of proteins -- keep your fats at around 60% (or higher), proteins around 40% (or lower). When you find out your new PCDS calorie limit will be for the first couple days of the strategy, that's the amount you'll be using for divvying it up between fats and carbs.

Note: you need to keep your protein grams (this time it's the grams themselves, not the calories from the grams)....keep your protein grams at 120% of your LIW. Example: my LIW is 122.6; my protein gram limit is 147.12. I can't go over that by more than 5 grams without starting to gain. See what I mean? And, the ultimate rule: whatever your protein limit is, in grams, your tracker will tell you how many calories from
those grams are.

Quick math: 4 calories per gram of protein; 9 calories per gram of fat. I'll use me as an example: 1425 calories are my calorie limit for PCDS, first two days for sure. My LIW is 122.6; 120% of my LIW in grams of protein is 147.12 (rounded down to 147). I then multiply 147 grams of cooked protein grams by 4 calories for each of those cooked protein grams, and I get 588 calories from those grams of cooked protein -- that's how many calories are in those grams, and that calorie/gram amount is my MAX AMOUNT of protein to eat, but not what you have to eat in protein (it's just what I should not go over).

Now, the question remains: how much of the Daily Caloric Limit is this amount of protein? So I divide 588 by 1425. That leaves .412 -- I then bring the decimal point two spaces to the right, equaling 41.2%. So. On my tracker, I had to be sure to not eat anymore protein in my ratio of protein to fat...than 41%. I didn't, and that worked out well. Note: always, always, ALWAYS: keep your fats higher than your protein consumed. No matter what. Don't try to "even out" the two. And as a rule, 60 fat/40 protein is a rule of thumb that usually works for most people. But, if your max protein is lower than this THAT IS OK. In fact even if your fats go beyond 60%, that's ok too. So be cautious on the protein, and liberal on the fats whenever possible. A tracker is invaluable, and often free; it will DO ALL THIS MATH FOR YOU! And, it'll save your head from all this math with your food in the future too! What's a tracker? Read on, dear reader....

• Get a tracker so you can see the ratio of calories from grams of fat to calories from grams of protein. You NEED accuracy; counting just "grams on the label" isn't correct, because 1. you're not counting grams, you're counting calories from grams 2. anything on the label is for raw food, and those amounts change in proportion to each other during cooking 3. math is hard, and easy to screw up; a tracker will always be right. Best one: http://www.mynetdiary.com.

• Follow a "eat a certain amount of your total daily calories at each meal" strategy. Eat less at breakfast (which should be 11%) than at lunch (which should be 21%), eat less at lunch then your afternoon snack (which should be 48%), and eat about the same amount at dinner that you ate at lunch (20%). I'm talking about "less" as in "less calories" only.

• Total amount of calories for your post-correction days needs to be discovered by: using the "sedentary" setting on the calculator here: http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html ....and use that for your first two no-carb days, and also until your body begins to stabilize at your LIW once more or gets to 1 lb below your LIW.

• No vegetables are to be eaten at all for the first two days. There is no vegetable on earth that does not have carbs. If you read labels, and see a canned vegetable for instance, that has "0" carbs, they're able to say that because a serving has less than 1 gram of carbs for whatever veggie this is you're looking at (olives are a good example of a carb that says it's no carb, but isn't no carb!). So, labels are deceiving. If it's a vegetable just don't eat it. At all. And if something you're eating has pieces of vegetable in it (like sausage that had onions and garlic in it, for instance)....DO NOT eat it. Ever.

• During these first two days, eat no grains, no breads, either. Even if they're "gluten-free." Even if they say carb-free. Nothing produced in a bakery, no matter what.

• No sausage, or anything else processed, at all. This is due to processed foods being laced, most of the time, with hidden "spices" (vegetables like small pieces of onions and garlic, which are carbs), and TONS of sodium. Keep sodium on a tight leash! DO NOT EAT TONS of sodium. That means you should not be loading up your food with salt. And if you DO use salt, use Sea Salt -- it is very low in sodium. And....NO SOUPS. Eat nothing out of a can!

• Avoid pork. This is mostly due to reading about the experience of folks who eat pork in P3. And also due to the fact that many pork products are high in sodium. Pork chops, ribs, all that...not as high in sodoum as bacon or pork sausage, but pork nonetheless seems to affect stabilization in P3. So just avoid it until P4.

• Re-introduction of carbs and calories will increase after these two days, but this will need to be done at a sloowwww pace, with specific numbers (new calorie limit and new carb goal to get to) in mind to get to when you're increasing. More info on this part of the strategy is posted elsewhere in my blog.

• All goitrogens need to be avoided in P3. What they are and how to offset their effects is also listed elsewhere in my blog.

In short: take these two days as seriously as you took any day in Phase 2. It's just that important. This is ESPECIALLY true if you've been having a difficult time stabilizing; your body is in a state of stress, and needs to switch into a different gear. If you're gaining like nobody's business, your body is stressed; "yo-yo" dieting -- starvation mode -- is where it thinks it is. Don't let it stay in that state any longer! USE this Post-Correction Day Strategy (PCDS), and get your body back on track, ASAP. Note: if you find yourself having to correct in Phase 4, that's okay. This method calms the body down and gives it a break from the cycle of gaining it was stuck in, no matter when you start or stop the strategy.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me! Best to you, hope you have a great day, everyone.