Mini Steak Day - Phase 2

We are back after our intermission.  I was at 150.6 this morning.  That is 3 pounds up from my lowest weight in from before the break.  Here is how I do a Mini Steak Day in Phase 2.  I did one last round to break a stall and lost 3 pounds.  I am going to be doing this every Sunday this round to speed up my loses.

Have nothing to eat all day.  Drink whatever you like, I sipped on coffee and tea all day.  At dinner we grill up a 6 oz serving of steak, trim all the fat.  I had a tomato with mine and Tom had an apple.  There are several variations online for a steak day, included how many oz to eat and how long to fast before eating.  I don't really think you can mess it up.  One post I saw while researching - ate a very large steak, probably 10oz, without trimming any fat and lost a pound.

I also cooked the steak with coconut oil.  This is something new that we have been using this round.  It has helped us both with our loses.  It helps to move the food through the digestive tract more quickly.  Plus it giving amazing flavor to the food.  We use it about 3 times a week.

Hope this helps and your scale has a big whooosh!

Pounds and Inches Autobook

http://reviews.pharmacyescrow.com/si...audio-book.mp3

Here is the original break down of the diet from Pounds and Inches written by Dr. Simeons on Autobook.

These are the ONLY approved foods from the original protocol.  I also included the calories so you can get the calories count, then you need to fill the rest of the 500 calories with veggies! ~ This is not the exact diet that I am following, mine has more foods, which I have listed in a previous post.

FRUIT: one fruit per meal; do not mix
Apple: medium = 95
Grapefruit: ½ = 44
Orange: large = 86
Strawberries: 10 medium: = 40

STARCH:
Melba Toast: 1 = 20
Melba Snack: 2 = 24
Grissini Breadstick: 1 = 20

MEAT: 100 grams - 3 ½ ounces; all visible fat removed; weighed raw; cook with no oil or fat:
Chicken Breast: = 110
Ground Beef: 95% lean = 137
Steak: (round/sirloin tip) = 142
Crab: = 84
Halibut: 110
Cod = 110
Flounder: 91
Tilapia: 96
Lobster: = 90
Shrimp: = 106
Veal: = 112

VEGETABLES: measured raw; one vegetable per meal; do not mix; ADJUST the serving sizes to fit your 500 calories per day!
Asparagus: 10 medium spears = 30
Beet-Greens: 3 cups = 24
Cabbage: 1 cup = 22
Celery: 2 cups = 32
Chard: 3 cups = 21
Cucumber: 1 medium = 45
Fennel: 1 cup = 27
Lettuce: 3 cups green = 15
Onion: ½ cup = 32
Red Radishes: 1 cup sliced = 19
Spinach: 3 cups = 21
Tomatoes: 1 medium = 22 1 cup = 27

MILK: 1 Tablespoon whole milk = 9 calories

*The protein is lean meaning it has the least amount of fat available. This allows your body to burn its own fat rather than having to deal with the fat in your bloodstream.

*The vegetables are all less that 8 kCal an oz and have an incredible amount of fiber in them for the volume. they are also rich in the essential minerals one needs to maintain metabolism.

*The fruits are extremely beneficial in antioxidants and enzymes which allows the body to continue to flush toxins

HCG Diet App

OMG! There's an app for that!  I wish I would have had this app from the beginning of the diet.  HCG Diet App.  It has a list of what you can it in each phase and how much. You just type in the name and it give you all the info. You can add it keeps track of your measurements, pictures, and water intake. Tells you when you need to take a steak day in P3 and has a count down of each phase. Also includes nice graphs do you can she how the scale looks.  What a wonderful app!  The only draw back is that it runs 12 bucks.  But I think it might be worth it. 

HCG Support Forum

I love this diet; I want to make sure everyone I recommend the diet to loves it as much as me.  I want to share this support forum to everyone that views this blog. 
http://hcgdietinfo.com/hcgdietforums/forum.php   This forum shows that there are many more people out there like me that love the diet and are loving the results.  

Dr. OZ  recently did a segment on the diet.  There is even speculation that Dr. Oz's wife lose weight thanks to the HCG diet. I feel like he missed a lot of important information that is covered in this forum.  It is so fun to see everyone's tickers and weight lose.  Some people have lost over a hundred pounds!

Maximizing Weight Loss

Tom is losing weight like crazy!  He is down another pound and a half, I jealous, I wish I was losing weight as rapidly.  I only lost a half pound. (Still great if you consider I'm still losing a least a half pound a day!) I know that men lose weight faster because they have more muscle which burns the fat off faster.  Reading online I see that I should have waited to start the diet until after I had finished my 'monthly friend.'  Womp Womp! It has to be all the water weight that is sticking around.....  :]

When we were at the Doc office yesterday he included a sheet with tips to Maximize Weight Loss, these tips will also work if you have hit a ' Plateaus'.  These include:

- Drink at least 80-100 ounces of water per day
- Trick - Eliminate the bread or fruit component from your meals and increase protein slightly for a few days.
- Make sure you are not having more then one apple a day
- Try this - Eat only 6 -6.5 oz of meat with your water only at lunch and dinner with nothing else for 2 days
- Double check (I triple check!) the foods and make sure you are not accidentally cheating! -- I had this happen just this week with Bouillon cubes that I was cooking with and making my Miracle Noodles in. 
- If you think you are retaining water, eat more water based veggies.  They are a natural diuretic effect.

Cycling

I found this online and had to share it.  Sounds very interesting for someone that has a lot of weight to lose.  It does state that you should not try cycling unless you have completed a full cycle, including all the maintenance days.

Traditional P2 & P3

The length of a traditional P2 is a minimum of 23 days also known as a short round. Days 1 and 2 are loading days followed by days 3 through 23 of VLCD (very low calorie diet) during which time you are taking hcg. After this point you stop the hcg, but continue with the VLCD for 72 hours if taking Rx hcg, or 48 hours if taking homeopathic hcg, before you start the P3 break.

The length of a traditional P3 is 21 days. During this time, you may eat anything you wish except sugar and starches. You will be stabilizing during this phase. At any point you go over 2 pounds of your LIW (or LDW), you must do a steak day the next day to drop your weight back down within the 2 pound range.

Non-Traditional P2 & P3

Cycling can be modified to fit what works for you. For example, a 2 week /1 week round looks like this:

• 2 weeks of P2: day 1 = first injection and load day followed by 13 days of VLCD
• Continue VLCD for 72 hours with no injections - days 15-18
• 4 days of P3 - days 19-21
• Cycle back to P2

While cycling, I typically load by eating P3 foods (aka a Mini-Load) and don‘t restrict the amounts; however, I don‘t do a traditional load day wherein I eat any and all foods to capacity and then some. I only load one day at the most. Some people do the traditional 2 load days and eat everything they wish, but realize if you do this, you will have to use extra days of your P2 to lose the load weight.

The key is to pay attention to your body to know what works for you. One thing you must know is this: cycling is not a way to lose more weight in a shorter amount of time. Your losses will not be greater, so if that is your objective for trying cycling, you will be disappointed. Keep in mind when doing shorter rounds, any cheat will effect the result of your round so staying on protocol is imperative because there are not extra days to recover from the cheat. Of course, you can always extend the round if you wish, but then you're likely doing a full P2.

It is recommended that before cycling, a dieter should do a complete round (P2, P3 & P4) before cycling (see Pounds and Inches for pertinent data--at the very least, you should do a full 23 days the first time). Also the last round should be a complete round as well. There are those who have been successful cycling without ever doing a P4 until their last round--this is a decision you will have to make after weighing the facts.

Although similar, cycling is not the same as a “planned interruption” as described in Pounds and Inches. A planned interruption still assumes the dieter will continue to complete a full round including P4.

A final word… cycling is not protocol and it does not work for everyone. You will read arguments both for and against cycling--at this time, there is no definitive information to know the long-term results. Again, it is a personal choice and doing your due diligence is strongly suggested.