DAY THREE! Still at it!

Breakfast was a boiled egg sprinkled with hot chili sesame oil which love and I realized I can have. I also had a "Choice" brand Bancha tea which is toasted green tea. It was strong and satisfying, the green tea is definitely helping with missing my black tea. I'm not really sure why on the plan you can have green but not black tea but whatev.

Lunch was leftovers, a salad with cilantro, carrots and thin sliced steak dressed with lemon juice and toasted sesame oil and a little garlic. Also some stir fried squash carrots and onions. After lunch I had another of those Caramom Cinnamon "teas" (contains no black tea) and put some unsweetened almond milk in it.

While watching TV I had several servings of pecan halves, yum.

Dinner was a nice white meat chicken soup I made with home made broth, onions, yellow and green squash, carrots, a few broccoli stalks, raw cashews, basil, dill, turmeric, lemon juice, cilantro, salt and hot chili sesame oil. I even shared the soup with friends who liked it, which made me happy that I could make something that fits the diet that also is nice enough to serve to friends.

I really wanted a glass of wine at one point while watching TV with my pals, but I managed to resist! Day 3 successful!

Thanks 6mimi, I feel maybe only a slight difference already, I was doing some knee bends/lunges today and it just felt smoother like less of my knees "talking to me" as I did it. I don't think it was just wishful thinking, seems like maybe it really does help. Between that and the rapid weight loss since I started it's helped motivate me to stick with it.

DAY FOUR:

Breakfast was a boiled egg sprinkled with hot chili sesame oil and a hand full of my raw nut mix.

Lunch was a bowl of leftover chicken veggie soup.

Dinner was nice, I made pureed carrot soup with ginger. I adapted the recipe replacing a potato with more carrots and replacing wine with lemon juice and it came out great. My neighbor shared some with me and raved about it. We also had some more of the stir fried veggies I made recently as well.

During a movie I snacked on raw nuts and a little bee pollen. I was concerned at one point I shouldn't include bee pollen (even though I love it) because it has trace amounts of honey but I did some research and found not only it is allowed on the diet it's even recommended because it seems to inhibit yeast! So I enjoyed a teaspoon of bee pollen as a "sweet" but allowable treat tonight. Now sitting down to a peppermint tea.

DAY SEVEN
Still feeling great.

Today I had the leftover half porkchop with a small salad with avocado for breakfast. (along with my usual lemon water and green/white tea)

Lunch was really a snack, a big handful of pecans. Today was one of those 2 big meals rather than 3 little ones kind of days.

Dinner was great. I boiled some large shrimp from raw (frozen) in their shells. I also lightly cooked up some broccoli to go with the shrimp. Just a little butter on the broccoli. I used my spicy salad dressing (lemon juice, toasted and hot chili sesame oils, and mashed garlic) to dip the shrimp in. For desert I had a couple of teaspoons of bee pollen which sounds weird but it is slightly sweet chewy yummy goodness lol. Later I found I was still hungry and had a snack of a quarter avocado with a few crushed pecans and a little of the spicy dressing on it and it was YUM!

Figured it's Saturday and I've been so good this week I rewarded myself with 2 glasses (5 to 6 ounces each) of cabernet. I figure if I'm avoiding sugar this intently then surely I can save some of it for the occasional glass of red wine.

Made some lamb shanks a couple of nights ago and they were yum! Had a huge salad today with some cooked sliced brussels sprouts in it, cauliflower, carrot, salmon, pecan, and avocado. It was great. I used my usual lemon and sesame/olive oil dressing with fresh garlic in it. That stuff has become a standard thing, great to dress salad and great to marinate meats so I've been just keeping it on hand.

A victory today that I thought worth posting about was that I tried drinking some of the almond milk plain and was surprised to find it more tasty than I expected. I had an idea that my chai type teas might taste better if I brewed them in all almond milk rather than the way I had been (in water then adding just a little almond milk.) So I tried it today with my Thai mocha spice tea and it was a lot tastier that way! And the unsweetened almond milk is guilt free enough that it doesn't seem like a big deal calories wise to do it this way.

For a long time I'd given up creamy drinks due the calories, then I gave up dairy completely. So it's a real treat to have such a creamy warm drink and have it be guiltless. Yay!

Taps the mic *tap tap* is this thing on? lol. I thought I'd write and update.

Still doing great on the plan. I wouldn't say I've been perfect but I've made a *lot* of changes and clearly my body likes it because maintenance and weight loss has been much easier with less exercise and more food even! So I'm sold. I'm sure I'll have off plan items on occasion but when I do it's a conscious choice that I try to keep within reason.

Some stuff has been easier than others. Still love my wine, still mostly sticking to the lower sugar cab sav lately, and when I taste white or sweet wines now they taste SUPER sweet to me compared to in the past and I notice that and am more likely to limit them. I've gotten used to the tea and almond milk trick I mentioned in an earlier post is still working great when I want something like a chai.

I've managed to almost completely avoid mushrooms for all that I dearly love them. Haven't had hardly a scrap of cheese, but it's hard to resist on rare occasion when I'm out and there's cheesy appetizers.

The nice thing is discovering foods I had forgotten I liked so much. Like raw pecans and avocado.. together even as I mentioned in a post above.

Lately standard breakfasts are I'll have either a quarter avocado on Ezekiel bread toast with a little of the lemon sesame dressing on it. Or a boiled egg sprinkled with sesame oil and spices and a few cooked veggies with butter/spices on them. Or as an occasional treat a little portion of high quality unsweetened apple sauce with cinnamon and crushed pecans in it. That's been my only fruit allowance for awhile.

As far as dinners, I was already cooking meat and veggie dishes often but there was a lot more carbs and cheese.. and beans. The beans I've been seeing as an allowed occasional thing but not keeping them around a lot yet still. I've been careful with the carbs as far as sticking to the Ezekiel bread which I do really like, (or brown rice or quinoa which I've had some on occasion but haven't been keeping around all the time.) The Sesame Ezekiel bread is great, that I HAVE been keeping around all the time.You need to keep it in the freezer and break off slices to toast. Otherwise it breaks down quickly because of the sprouted grain and lack of preservatives.

I've been rotating a meat menu of shrimp then chicken... salmon, steaks and occasionally pork chops. I'm trying to add in lamb more often, like lamb shanks. Some members of my family dislike pork and others of us love it lol. But we all love lamb seems like, I made lamb shanks awhile back and was amazed how long they take to cook for their size, they're so dense. The meat is very tasty and seems easy to digest somehow to me.

I made some bacon wrapped scallops out of big sea scallops and fresh butcher bacon as a special treat recently.

I also tasted local cruelty free "veal" complete with the marrow in the bone which is supposed to be so good for you. Usually I wouldn't order veal but I knew this to be of high enough quality that I did because I wanted to taste the marrow. This is only the 2nd time I think in my life I've had veal, the first time I had thought it unremarkable so why eat it for ethical reasons, I'll stick with other similar things like chicken and lean pork. But this particular veal shank I had recently was amazing I will say.

So I've actually been very satisfied on the diet. While I've had the occasional treat of wine or chocolate, or gourmet restaurant lemon cake with cappuccino gelato. Those have been rare treats though not every day. Which seems to be working as far as the effects I'm seeing from the diet. Even not being perfect on it I'm seeing huge results.

I do find it easier personally to be strict with myself during the day. Nights and weekends as well as special occasions and parties are harder but it's getting easier to be sensible even at those times. I've been sticking with 3 small well proportioned meals lately, although sometimes I have 2 meals and one is a big meal. I haven't been closely tracking numbers but my sense is I'm eating more calories and still losing. I'm definitely getting more protein than I was which seems to really satisfy for a long while the way I'm eating now.

So anyone who's listening let me know your tactics and how it's going for you?

Best wishes!

Another meal victory today. While my housemates ate a processed Stouffer's lasagna.. I enjoyed:

A large salad with fresh local greens, carrots, avocado, fresh cooked asparagus, home made pico de gallo, a dash of fresh cilantro pecans and sesame lemon dressing. Brown rice pilaf with almond slivers with sautéed yellow squash and onions.

Extremely filling, delicious, high protein, low carb, no sugar, full of nutrition.. I WIN!!!

Anyone else have a meal victory to share???

Hi Emily,

I've been mostly avoiding vinegar as a source of sugars and all dairy other than butter. Sometimes I have small cheat amounts of cheese/dairy but mostly I've gotten used to avoiding it.

I would make your turkey/chicken salad just without the vinegar. And I'd be incredibly sparing with the yoghurt if I had any. It would still be yummy to me that way.

I also only have low glycemic type fruits (apples and berries) and if so it's a small fruit meal of only fruit or unsweet applesauce so the other recipe with the bananas I probably wouldn't do. I'm tempted though, it does sound yummy and a much healthier take on pancakes.

I LOVE koftes! I'll check that recipe out for sure.

Thanks!!!

Sure! I should get back to logging my good meals here to give you guys ideas. Today I was pretty good. Brunch was piece of grilled chicken breast on sprouted bread with lettuce, tomato slices, and a quarter avocado mashed up as a condiment. Dinner was about 12 large steamed shrimp with lemon butter and a big bowl of mixed frozen veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, green & yellow squash) that I steamed up and ate with butter and spices. I've had herbal and black tea today (I need to restock my toasted green tea which is more on plan than the black tea but that's one I worry less about) and as a treat this evening I had a cup of hot chocolate made from unsweetened almond milk and a carefully measured portion of all natural hot chocolate mix which includes a small amount of real sugar but that was my only sugar indulgence today.