HCG & Me (My Summer Diet Plan)

After a lot of careful research I decided to try the HCG diet plan. I chose to go through an actual clinic rather than just completing the diet online; this way professionals can monitor me & I (hopefully) cannot screw it up.

The program consists of HCG spray, B-12 drops, and an appetite suppressant/energy pill. For the money, it's not a horrible deal. The problem is that it's an insanely strict diet! I'm limited to 500-800 calories a day and of those calories, I can only have certain food items. I feel like a rabbit! :D

I technically started the diet on Friday, June 25, 2010.

The first 2 days of the plan are "binge" days; I was told to eat twice as much as I normally do - OK! I can totally do that! I had some yummy-licious, totally bad for me meals (chili fries and nachos for dinner - SCORE!) and then on Saturday night, as my poor hunny had a horrific headache, I said good-bye to "normal" food for the next 6 weeks with a round of chicken taquitos :D (Like I said, horribly bad for me!)

On Sunday morning, I woke up & weighed in 3 pounds heavier than my starting weight on Friday morning. *gasp* That's a lot (but normal according to the documentation I was given). The meals for Sunday were simple; fruit, veggies, protein. I must confess that it was difficult. Not impossible, but extremely difficult. Went to bed Sunday night feeling a tad hungry, but nothing too uncomfortable.

Monday morning, weigh-in: down 3.2 pounds. Not too shabby! This could be awesome. Day 2 was difficult. Sooooo difficult. I felt like I was starving ALL day! I tried grilling whitefish - that sucked. Had more rabbit food for dinner & definitely went to bed hungry.

Tuesday morning - day 3. Weigh-in: down 3.9 pounds. Holy smokes, seriously?!?! This, I can definitely get used to. Granted, I know the first 10 pounds is "water weight" but still, with the amount of water I have to drink daily, I feel like I may float away. This is fantastic. Had breakfast on the run as I went out to do errands; by lunchtime, I'm staaaaarving! Made some yummy shrimp stir-fry with cabbage, celery & onions. Again, rabbit food, but it "looks" normal. Hoping today I can fill up a little better & not be so damn hungry by 10PM.

My biggest problem, I think, is that I am an afternoon/evening eater. I can go pretty much 6-8 hours after waking without eating, but by 3PM I am starving & ready to eat everything in site. Luckily, HCG doesn't allow me to do this. It's going to be a challenge, but I welcome it. Goodbye fat me! :D

I will definitely be tracking what's up over the next 6-9 weeks!

Sister Dinner Night = massive amounts of Chicken Enchiladas!

Tonight is our weekly "sister" dinner night. Once a week, we get together and have dinner as families (my family, Tori's family, & Becky's family). It's pretty freaking awesome. We had to skip a couple of weeks because of the stomach bug that was going around, but now we are back on track! We'll be going on vacation together in two weeks as well - that blog will be fun!


For my triumphant return to family dinner night, I chose to make chicken enchiladas. I cooked the chicken last night, letting it get super tender & making it much easier to shred. I then stewed the shredded chicken with green chilies and diced tomatoes. Add enchilada sauce and stew for about 30 minutes longer & viola! the stuffing. Elli helped me by shredding the cheese and setting the table. She's an AWESOME helper! :D

Magnifique, no? :D

To go along with this yummy-licious dinner, I made traditional black beans & rice, and we had chips, salsa & bean dip. It was an extremely successful meal. <3>

Easy-Peasy Chili Pie

Greetings and salutations! After some encouragement from Patrick, I am back to blogging. Tonight, I took a recipe straight out of the Bisquick recipe book to create their Easy Chili Pie. The prep time was about 20 minutes and cooking time was approximately 35 minutes. Pretty tasty dinner, less than an hour. Not too shabby.

Tomorrow night I am hosting "the sisters'" weekly dinner. Stay tuned for chicken enchiladas! Yummage!

Adios!

Day 14: Breakfast, smreckfast!

Two blogs today; one to make up for missing yesterday, starring yesterday's lunch & today's starring breakfast! I have been craving hash browns and eggs all week, so I figured I might as well satisfy my need to eat those. I also cooked up some bacon for the family, as bacon hasn't been around much the last few months.

I simply used my Vidalia chopper to cut the potatoes, fried them up using non-stick Pam spray (no butter or anything extra) with just a hint of onion for flavor. Those cooked for about 15 minutes while I cooked the bacon (this is extra thick cut bacon cooked extra crispy and blotted with paper towels). Patrick & Elli opted for egg & cheese omelets while I opted for a "yolky" egg style egg. It's especially yummy to break the yolk over the potatoes. Don't knock it til ya try it! Tomorrow night we are back on schedule for dinner. I'll be discussing some delicious kahlua pork with cabbage.

Ta-ta-for-now!

Disney Day! Lunch at Pizza Planet?!??! Well, as close as we could get!

Houston, we have a problem! Tucked away in the back of Tomorrowland at Disneyland (which is actually near the front of Disneyland if you are looking at it from above - it's complicated...moving on!) is a deliciously decadent hidden secret called the Pizza Port. Fashioned to be similar to Pizza Planet from Toy Story, this adorably colorful pizza joint caters to the basics in Italian cuisine: pasta, salad, breadsticks, and GIANT slices of pizza. You also have the option to buy the entire pizza, but check out the pic! There's no way a family of less than 6 could finish off these giant pies!

As this was our first official meal at Disneyland yesterday, I let Elli get breadsticks and a banana. She had a good breakfast and a churro at snack break time, but lunch need to "stick." This pizza was seriously OUT OF THIS WORLD! The giant pieces of pepperoni were a bit scary at first, but the taste was just enough marinara sauce for the amount of cheese on the slice. Disney had a huge basket of parmesan cheese packets which we generously added to our pizza as well.

The average meal is supposed to cost about $10 per person, and that's about what I spent. Not too shabby. This eatery is located next to Space Mountain, which, if you have a sensitive-to-being-thrust-around-in-the-dark stomach like mine, isn't really the smartest place for a pizzeria.

If you are meandering through Tomorrowland and decide that you too are bummed that they have closed Tomorrowland Terrace eatery for "rehab," stop in to Pizza Port and give them a try! Make sure you go thru the futuristic automatic doors at the back of the restaurant tho! They are super awesome!

Until next time Space Rangers!

Hong-Kong Fooey!!!!! It's a Chinese kinda night!

Tonight, we went Chinese. Orange chicken from Contessa with brown rice and veggies, and Potstickers with Potsticker dipping sauce. Yummage!!!

Contessa does "pre-made" dinners that you simply have to cook. It literally took 15 minutes to make the orange chicken dish (that Patrick ate like it was candy!). The potstickers take a little more time to cook and they require a bit more attention. You're not supposed to use a non-stick pan to cook potstickers, so if you do, they will stick. It makes ABSOLUTELY no sense, but that's been my experience every time I've made these delicious little treats! I had some low-sodium Kikoman soy sauce on hand as well, just in case. This is truly a fantastic dinner. Elli got to use her chop sticks, so she was stoked, and Patrick loved it so much he went back for seconds. All in all, a very successful meal!

Tomorrow we will be *attempting* to blog from Disneyland! Saturday night I'll be back to the kitchen! Have a fantastic Friday & don't work too hard!

Zai jian(再见) (That's good-bye in Chinese!)

Plans Thwarted - Emergency McMeasures Taken! Plus, the average lunch of a 7 year old

>Patrick and I originally had an early Valentine's date night planned. Unfortunately, the plans fell through, leaving me at 5:30PM with no plan for dinner.

Thank goodness for McD's! In a pinch, they're always awesome. Elli & I had some delish chicken nuggets (she had apple dippers, such a good girl!). Patrick elected to eat his usual Quarter Pounder with cheese, plain. While it's not the most "romantic" dinner in the world, it worked for tonight.

I also wanted to share with you the make-up of Elli's typical lunch. We make her lunch every day, either in the morning before school, or the night before depending on how strapped I will be for time in the AM. Her average lunch consists of a sandwich (usually peanut butter & jelly or honey on wheat, but occasionally she'll want ham & cheese), a bag of chips (Fritos, Doritos, SunChips, Veggie Straws, BBQ & Sour Cream & Onion are her favs), fruit (sugar free applesauce, sugar free peaches, oranges, apples, bananas, prunes), some sort of "bar" (Special K bars are favored, but she likes Rice Krispie treats and frozen Go-Gurts as well), and a juice! You might think, wow, that's a lot for a little girl, but it's not ALL for lunch. Unfortunately, Elli starts school at 9AM & eats lunch at 11AM, then has to go until 3:15 before she gets a snack. That's a long time for a little person. So I make sure she has snacks for after school, so she's not starving by the time she gets home.