Thread: an experiment of sorts - A super short round

HHCG works great for me. It has my complete endorsement. My wife likes it too.

On the jerky, I believe your oven could work on its lowest setting. All you are trying to do is dry the meat out. And, of course dehydrators work great too.

I will go into more detail on the tennis on my update post but let me just say that it isn't easy. A little foolish in fact.

Sounds like you had a great weekend planned.

Monday update:

Weight loss: Saturday, went up just a tad to 215.2. Sunday down to 214.0. Today to 213.8. Probably could have gone down more but the weekend plans really got in the way (more on that below)
Inches: Down to 33.5 on the waist (down 2 inches), 36.5 on the hips (again, down 2 inches) and 21.5 on thighs (1 inch). Dramatic 1 week drop.

Friday's loss was very encouraging. But after such a large loss in one day I sort of expected my body to catch up. Saturday's slight bump up by .2lbs was not a surprise.

Saturday morning, played tennis for 3.5 hours. The first hour hit with my USTA group. Had a singles match in a ladder league scheduled at 9am. My opponent showed up and we got a singles match in. He didn't really have strong strokes in his game but is a top notch athlete and has great hands. That means he could get to every one of my strong shots and get them back. Not so much with pace but always with accuracy. He had an effective lob too. The bottom line to that meant that I was going to have to run a lot. Side to side and back to front. We had a lot of long points. I ended up winning the match in 3 sets but it took a lot out of me. I considered retiring in the second set. I had a couple pieces of beef jerky before the match and one during the match. Once again, the lack of fuel didn't mess up my endurance so much as it broke my body down to where I could not perform strokes as well. In Saturday's case my main issue was closing points out at the net. Just didn't have the legs underneath me to pull those shots off. But my groundstrokes were solid. My serve was coming around too which was most welcome. (editors note: these tennis notes are mainly for me as I like to go back and read how the diet effects my tennis game differently. Last couple of rounds, my groundstrokes were really shaky). Overall, I did not feel light headed or anything like that but I was very tired.

The morning tennis really put me behind the 8 ball. I had a lunch packed of seared tuna steak with sambal hot sauce and a little left over lobster tail from the night before. Once I was done playing, I really wasn't that hungry so decided to hold that lunch for Sunday and change lunch plans to include my wife and our favorite crawfish place. Called my wife and made sure she hadn't eaten her lunch yet and made plans for a our favorite protocol meal before we headed out for our afternoon and evening activities.

So got home, showered up and packed up for the rest of the day. We were heading to my sister's house for a pool party. My mom was coming over as was my brother. As well and my niece and her husband were in town so it was going to be a great time. My sister always goes overboard with the food when they entertain so I knew it was going to be tough. I packed some salmon filets for the grill for our dinner.

Headed out to our favorite crawfish place. We normally split 4lbs when on protocol but knew that after tennis I needed extra protein so we ordered 5lbs. We didn't eat all 5lbs but left satisfied. That satisfaction was short lived when we arrived at my sister's house and saw the spread she had laid out. Chex mix, cheetos puffs, meat and cheese tray. My brother brought his homemade guacamole and tortilla chips. Brother in law had a couple racks of spare ribs on the smoker. A wagyu Picanha for later. I became crazy hungry. As in physical hunger, not mental cravings. So I did have a spoonful of the guacamole and did have to sample a rib and a piece of picanha in addition to the grilled salmon. Also had a few almonds. But I was so empty and needed something. Next morning, I was down to 214.0

Sunday: played tennis again. This was all doubles so it wasn't as physically taxing. Played longer than planned. Maybe 3 hours in all. Felt fine. Played pretty well other than one set where I really played poorly. Did some meal prepping for the week during the afternoon and did some yard work. Wife and I had dinner plans with her step sister and dad for his birthday/mothers day at a local restaurant. We ate grilled shrimp and house salad (brought our own dressing). And I had a glass of pinot noir which is notable because this is the first glass of wine I have had on protocol since my very first one back in 2009. This morning, my weight was down .2. Okay, I am not taking this as green light to sneak more wine but if the social occasion comes up I will not feel so bad about it.

I am feeling hungry today. Physically. I was around some great food this weekend but it didn't really bother me mentally. I could pass up that food and I really had no regrets. But it did trigger some physical hunger I had. I believe that when we are in the protocol we can hide our hunger from ourselves. But then again, weekends are always a struggle on the protocol and our family plans made for a difficult test. But we got through it unscathed.

My wife really cheated at the pool party. She had a rib, some chips and queso, some chex mix and a lemon bar my mom brought. She didn't weigh yesterday. Of course yesterday she really went underground. She had a few pieces of jerky, a few cherry tomatos and skipped lunch. For dinner we split a grilled shrimp entree. We each got 4 shrimp so we both got less than we needed in that meal. This morning she was down a little over a pound from her Saturday weigh in. She is 10lbs from her goal pre-surgery.

Weekdays are comforting on the protocol. I am so busy with my routine that I don't have time to notice hunger. Or mostly I am simply not that hungry. Not sure which one it is, just that I have no issues. So into the weekday protocol I go and am glad for it. My plan is to make Sunday or Monday my last dose day. I only have 4lbs to go to get to my goal of sub-210. My main concern now is timing of first P3 meal. It all comes down to my tennis schedule next week. I am playing for sure Monday night, very likely Wednesday night and Thursday night. That means that most likely I will make Sunday the LDD. But then again I my Wednesday tennis isn't necessary so if I feel I have to or really want to I can slide to Monday for that.

Really loving the 2 week protocol. It will come down to how difficult it will be to stabilize in P3 for the final verdict. But if all goes well, the 2 week protocol might be a staple in our lifestyle. Used as needed when we feel our habits begin to slip or our waistlines begin to expand a bit or the scale begin to creep.

I know that is a lot but that is kind of what Monday's are for, especially after a busy weekend on protocol

Hey there dubbles. Good afternoon to you. Good luck on your last two weeks of P2.

To beat your husband to the punch, an "early" fathers day present is always appreciated. at least by me. My wife has done that many times. Us men are not too hung up on getting fathers day gifts on fathers day. Generally we want to be able to watch the final round of the US open in peace.

As for smokers, I always believe pellet grills are a great place to start. They are easy to use so you lose some of the fun of managing a fire but that can be a blessing too. But your cooking temps are consistent so it is easy to recreate dishes. You can also smoke below 200 degrees which allows you to make beef jerky, hot smoked salmon and things like that.

As far as brand suggestions, it really all boils down to how much you want to spend. But you need to spend over $500 to get a good one and don't need to go over $1000. Mine is a Recteq 590 which comes in at just under $1000 and has plenty cooking space. It is very well made and is backed by good customer service if anything ever goes wrong. The grill is made in China but the company is in Georgia where they ship and service out of. Green Mountain and Camp Chef are a little cheaper but are really good grills too and a lot of people like them. Pitt Boss is even a little more cheaper and can be found just about anywhere. They even have an upright model for under $500. Plenty people like them. Their controllers are not as good and you will see wild temperature swings.

Of course if you really want to spend money, there are some great grill makers like Pitts & Spitts, Yoder and Mak but you should expect to spend over $2000 for these.

Weight up this morning, by .6lbs to 214.4. Had to change batteries on my scale so maybe some recent weights were not very reliable. But either way I am in range and on schedule. But going back to Friday where I weighed to today where I weighed 214.4 I seem to be on a bit of a plateau. 214.4 was my lowest weight during my January 2020 round before I injured my leg. Or perhaps the slight cheating this weekend led to this plateau and I am still paying the piper. Either way, I should break through soon and have a solid couple days of losses before pulling the plug Sunday or Monday. Either way I am in a great place now and should have no problems finishing around 210 +/- a pound or two. The success of this round will only be measured on how well I do in P3 anyway.

Down to 213.0 this morning. Wife is slightly up two days in a row. Made turkey taco meat and am not sure if that is the culprit. It shouldn't be.

Anyway, our scale is a bit haywire right now too. Weights are very inconsistent. Ordered a new scale. Will compare weights from the two and note once if new scale is higher or lower. Then move forward with weights from the new scale better or worse (just a number, right?).

212.4 this morning. Down .6lbs from yesterday. I am 11.8lbs under pre-load weight and 5.6lbs under my last rounds LDW. Either way it is solid progress. My LDD is either Sunday or Monday depending on where I am and all of that. So I will finish this short round with 13-14 pounds lost. My last rounds were all in the 3 week variety and lost 18.2, 17.4, 17.4 and 17.2lbs respectively. Really not that much of a difference. I will do a measurement on Monday to see where I ended up in the inches tally.

How do I feel? This week I have been hungry a bit. But not that bad, really. Just wanting something more. No real cravings. But the P2 diet isn't cutting it. My attitude towards the protocol isn't the best though. I really wasn't 100% on board with doing it again so soon after my last round so am not mentally all in. That considered, I am doing well. I would like to read "Weight Loss Apocalypse" again to help get my mind in a good place heading into P3. That is where the real work will take place. i will need to focus very hard and really be on point in that part of the round as I did in my previous. I know I am up to the task.

New scale arrived last night. Right out of the box the readings are just a little under the old scale. But way more consistent. This morning, both scales were more dialed in and I got identical, consistent readings from both. Of course, I stepped on the old scale one more time and it jumped a half pound. There has been a bit of multiple readings and guesswork with the old scale so there have been some readings that I just had to go with. But it is only a number and a single data point isn't as important as the overall trend. But it is nice having a more accurate and consistent scale to work with.

Morning Jeff! Are you including load days and transition days as part of your 14 day count? Just curious as I am planning a super short round in June.