R2 VLCD Day #11: -0.9lbs (AKA: Eggs - Get Cracking)

Down almost a full pound today! I have lost 35 lbs from the beginning of my first round to this very morning at 7:30am. Oh man am I in heaven or what?! I'm only a quarter in to this diet and am kickin ass and taking names! Woo!

My facialist, whom you know is also on this diet, told me that she had had some hard boiled eggs when she was doing this phase which is amazing since I didn't even think about eggs! This is what Dr. Simeon says about eggs and Phase 2:

"Occasionally you can have eggs in lieu of a meat. 1 whole egg and 3 whites poached, boiled or even scrambled."

This is so exciting for me! I love hard boiled eggs and am totally sick of grilled chicken and mini-burgers. I was kind of hungry the other day and just needed something solid and ta da! I grabbed a couple of hard boiled eggs from the grocery store and devoured them. Both whites, both yolks. I was nervous about the second yolk as it suggests you only have one but what do ya know? The next morning I'd had a full pound loss! No adverse effects to the eggs at all for me. Yipee! I've been eating hard boiled eggs for a few days now and I'm still losing like crazy. Have I mentioned how much I love this diet? I have? Oh. Well. There ya go.

Tomorrow I will upload a special treat for all of my dedicated readers out there! I will be uploading a video of me injecting myself!! Yaaaaay..........

Hey... why did it get so quiet in here? Hello? Oh jeez... will somebody grab that chick some water? She's looking kind of green... Okay, good times. So yes, a video of me stabbing myself (gently, this time) with a teeny tiny needle and injecting myself with pregnant lady pee horomones. Man that sounds like the next viral video, doesn't it? I think I'm going to be kicked off of youtube.

Tune in tomorrow, kids! Same Bat time, same Bat channel!

R2 VLCD Day #4: -1.8lbs (AKA: Nom nom nom nom nom... Yummy Food Today!)

Another 1.8lbs down this morning! Very impressive loss, is it not? If I keep going at this rate I'll lose 10lbs in one week which would be totally amazing! 

Another amazing thing is the food I had for dinner tonight. My friend (let's call her Rambo) sent me this salad dressing from Toronto a couple of weeks ago. It's balsamic vinegar and it touts  "Calorie Free Salad Dressings. No calories, fat, carbs, gluten or sugars of any kind!" ...you must be thinking what I was thinking: Ew. Right? After she sent it I had a little taste and it was okay but nothing special, the special part are the ingredients! See the nutritional info below:




Now, if you've been keeping up to date, these are all things I can actually eat on this diet! Basically any spices, white vinegar, balsamic vinegar, mustard and up to half of the juice of a lemon per day. I am all over this shit! I would prefer to remove the things I cannot pronounce but for what the flavour is doing to my dry ass chicken and juicy tomatoes is incredible! I dumped this dressing all over my dinner tonight and I was in heaven! I can definitely eat this for the next 36 days, no problemo. Sooo yummy. Hey Rambo, wanna hook me up with another bottle? This one will be gone in no time.


Other than that, it was a pretty regular day. I am drinking loads of water and one Venti Americano every day (with Splenda, woohoo) and am really enjoying my time so far. No temptations as of yet, still too high on my loss every morning and after doing my first round, 36 more days just doesn't seem that long. It is just so worth it.


I am having more and more trouble with my clothing though, I can barely fit into anything, or at least it can't fit me...? How do I say that everything is too damn big? Whatever, anyway, the things I can fit in to that don't look ridiculous just clearly don't fit right. I want to go shopping so bad but just can't waste the money yet. I am so looking forward to shopping when this is all over though! Nothing better to keep me motivated then a new pair of jeans and not shopping in the petite plus size sections anymore. Does anyone know how to measure your dress size? I usually just went for the largest size and worked my way down until it fit right. I have clothes ranging from a size 12 to an 18 and they all fit the damn same. 


Ah well, that's for future me to worry about. Also, future me is incredibly happy and past me is super jealous... in fact, current me is super jealous. Boo-urns future me.. also, you go girl. That made sense, right?

Phase 3 - Day #4 (AKA: WTF?! I Thought the Hard Part Was Over!)

So it's been 4 days since my last VLCD day. After Phase 2 (40 injections, 43 days of Very Low Calorie Diet) I moved on to Phase 3, maintenance, finally! The goal of this phase is to keep within 2lbs of my weight on the last VLCD day. This is much harder than it sounds because you must do this while avoiding carbs and sugar. Do you know how much shit has carbs and sugar?! Like... EVERYTHING! The books say that most people drop in weight during that time and have a hard time keeping their food intake up... so far, not had that problem...

After over a month of barely eating anything I maybe, possibly, just a teensy bit... went a little overboard on my first day. I quite possibly cheated... a lot. I had half a slice of garlic bread, a forkful of Nick's pasta, a little coolwhip with my strawberries, and a whole bunch of delicious, crunchy mixed nuts. These probably aren't the worst cheats in the worth but yes, they are still cheats and I paid for them the next day by gaining 3.5lbs above my goal weight. So, what's a girl to do? A steak day!

A steak day, for those who are unaware, is the greatest thing ever. It is a little different from the mini-steak days I did in Phase 2. In phase 2 a mini-steak day would consist of eating nothing at all until dinner time and then having 100g of lean steak and an apple. On phase 3 a steak day consists of eating nothing all day but then at dinner time... you find the biggest, juiciest, FATTEST motherfuckin steak you can possibly find, grill it on the BBQ or fry it in butter or oil and devour every last morsel of it... also, you eat an apple or a raw tomato with it. See the official explanation and why it works below:

The HCG Diet "Steak Day" is used during Phase 3 when your morning weight exceeds the weight you had on the last day of HCG by more than two pounds.
The Steak Day requires that you abstain from all food during the day and eat one large steak as your evening meal. The steak should be cooked in oil or butter and should be eaten with one apple or a raw tomato.
The steak eaten should be a large serving of beef, usually 24 - 32 ounces. It may be any cut of meat your prefer including a Porterhouse, T-bone, Rib-eye, New York Strip, Filet Mignon, Kobe Beef or Sirloin Steak.
It is VERY important that the Steak Day diet is followed as soon as the two pound limit is breached, as this allows the hypothalamus to be corrected and function properly again.

The Steak Day works because it naturally corrects the metabolism for a condition of excess calories on the previous day. This decrease in caloires evens out the metabolism by working through the hypothalmus, allowing the body to further stabilize itself in Phase 3.
If the Steak Day is not done immediately after the 2+ pound weight gain, this natural correction does not occur. In cases where this happens, it is not productive to try a Steak Day the second day or to try two Steak Days in a row.

I love steak so much I could cry when I read that... it's just so... heavenly. I especially love a big, fat rib eye steak with lots of gristle and charred bits from my awesome BBQ. Steak days are my most favorite thing and that's really good because apparently I'll be doing a lot of them. The second day I did my steak day and the weight was lost. I was then only 0.3lbs above my goal weight which is perfectly acceptable.

The third day I was much more careful about what I consumed. I avoided as much sugar and carbs as I could. For breakfast I had ants on a log (celery, peanut butter and raisins), a handful of mixed nuts and a pepperoni stick. For lunch I had a hotdog (no bun or condiments) and a salad with greek dressing, feta and lettuce. For snacks I had beef jerky and pork rinds (both very much allowed! Fat content is not as important as lack of carbs and sugar) for dinner I had a giant salad and a hotdog with mustard and ketchup. The dressing on the salad may have been my downfall as it came with the salad and I think it had too much sugar. I thought it may have come from the apples but don't really trust it.

Then this morning I weighed myself and it was bouncing around for a while before finally deciding that I was 2.8lbs above where I want to be... 0.8lbs outside of the safe zone. Looks like another steak day for me. So sad/awesome.

Tomorrow when I go back to a non-steak day I will not have any nuts and see if that is what's affecting it. Anyone have any suggestions for where I can get lots of protein as a super easy grab and go snack? I'm having a really hard time finding stuff I can eat while in my car. I can't eat a sandwich or a wrap because of the carbs so now I'm at a loss. Help!

VLCD Day #27: -0.4lbs (AKA: Cheat Day! Woohoo!)

So today was my cheat day! My friend's birthday party was held at Earl's instead of korean bbq and the entire day I just drank tea and had some dehydrated apples so by the time dinner came I was ready for some eats!

I started off my naughty dinner with chili chicken and crispy won tons that I shared with a friend. Luckily we ate it pretty early because by the time we finished it I was pretty full. I drank a ton of unsweetened iced tea and water and then for dinner had the cajun chicken with fingerling potatoes and a side salad. Delicious. I also shared dessert (campfire s'mores) and it was all so yummy!

After that night of decadence I am definitely ready to get back to the proper diet. I hadn't seen most of these friends since the first day of the VLCD and they all said they can see a difference. They said I look much smaller in general. My waist is smaller, my shoulders and arms are smaller. They said in general I just look like all of me has shrunk some. I was thrilled to hear someone notice a difference! Although I will definitely be paying for dinner last night tomorrow morning. Hopefully the food will be kind... either way, tomorrow is a mini-steak day!

VLCD Day #17: +0.1lbs (AKA: Steak Daaaaay!!!)

So as you can see, I went up 0.1lbs this morning which I'm assuming is due to TOM. So, I decided to go on a mini-steak day to try and counteract the stall. A mini-steak day is where you don't eat anything all day except for a 100g steak and one apple for dinner. I also didn't take my HCG shot today because apparently you're not supposed to when TOM is around. Hopefully this will help with my weightloss tomorrow and get me back on track. If not, I will just suck it up and let TOM do his worst.

I thought I would be hungry today since I haven't eaten anything and haven't had the shot but I barely noticed. I cooked up a bunch more chicken, beef burgers and steak but that's when I got hungry... so I ate my steak and now everything is A-Okay! I'll have my apple before bed because it takes away the heartburn from my coffee.

Lets hope this works and I lose some more tomorrow. This stall is getting on my nerves. Wish me luck!

VLCD Day #15: -0.8 (AKA: 15 Days Down, 25 to Go...)

I've lost just over 16lbs and I haven't really been able to notice yet. My clothes fit a bit better but nothing spectacular. I googled why I wouldn't have noticed the difference and the site I read said that when you lose the first bit of weight it is taken incrementally from the entire body so it's difficult to notice. They also said that after the first 15 or 20lbs it will start focusing on smaller areas, like your stomach or your legs and will be noticed easier. I'm looking forward to that portion of the loss!

I am also looking forward to getting through Phase 3, making my way through the 6 weeks of non-dieting and then starting a second round to lose the remaining weight I will have. I am pretty happy with this diet so far and am excited to get down to a normal weight and start living a cleaner, healthier life. This diet has helped me realize that I eat when I'm bored, I eat without thinking, I eat because something tastes good but never simply because I'm hungry. Kind of a crazy revelation for me! This has helped me get a major grip on my cravings and helping me realize how many times a day I think "Oh, one little burger won't hurt. One little candy won't hurt. One extra sandwich won't hurt..." because when you add all of those "one littles" it really starts to affect you.

I haven't felt much hunger over the last few days. If I get hungry I just eat something. I don't feel like I have to eat all of my meal calories in one sitting so I'll just nibble here and there. It's pretty great! I have been getting wicked heartburn almost every night so I leave my apple to the end which takes it away pretty efficiently. I've also been drinking more and more water. I get thirsty very easily now if I don't have water within a half hour or so.

I'm trying to drink 3 litres of water each day. So far I'm at 2 litres today but I'll make sure to finish the 3rd tonight. I also made some chicken burgers for dinner today, not too shabby! I love the burger style because it feels like cheating and no matter how long they're in the fridge they won't dry out whereas the steak and chicken non-grounded does.

I'm having balsamic vinegar today as a test. If I still lose tomorrow then I'll know that balsamic is okay for me which will be soooo awesome for my salads. Wish me luck!

VLCD Day #12: -1.2 (AKA: So Close I Can Taste It...)

Down another 1.2lbs today! Only 0.9lbs away from my next goal of 15lbs. I wore my belt today and had to take it in two extra notches then I had when I bought it. Love to see those little things! Really wish I had taken measurements though before starting. Then I'd have a better idea of where I'm losing it all. I'll definitely take them before my second round though a couple of months from now.

Today was pretty normal except I didn't drink nearly as much as I should have. I had a couple glasses of tea, a 500ml bottle of water and three glasses before I sat down to write this. Really should be drinking much more than that but I was on the road all day today heading to Whistler and back. I did go for a short walk though and did 10mins of cardio on my elliptical. Hopefully that will help for tomorrow.

Today marks exactly one month until the end of the VLCD. It will be over on August 13 and then I will be starting Phase 3: No carb, No sugar. I am so excited for that portion and I've been looking at all of the things I'll be able to eat! Although I am SHOCKED at how many things have sugar in it!! Did you know that flavoured deli meat chicken has powdered sugar as it's like.. third ingredient? Powdered fucking sugar. WTF? It was mediterranean flavour for goodness sakes! Just toss some greek spices on it and you're good to go! But no, apparently there was a need for powdered sugar. Go figure.

Either way, lots of other good stuff that I definitely cannot have now. I love chips and popcorn which are both no nos but apparently pork rinds are okay. Who woulda thunk it? Plain and BBQ flavour is what the book says. I'll be doing all of my shopping at Whole Foods so I'll have a better choice of healthy crap.

Can't wait to taste the glory of peanut butter again... or basically any flavour besides mustard and apple cider vinegar.

VLCD Day #8: -0.6 (AKA: Back in Action?)

So today I dropped the 1/2 lb I put on yesterday and added a little tiny 0.1lb to my loss. Now at 9.1lbs lost all together! Let's hope tomorrow is a nice drop and we keep moving forward. If I don't lose tomorrow I will definitely do the apple day. An apple day, for those who don't know, is a day where you eat nothing but 6 apples throughout the day. Fortunately, I like apples so it shouldn't be too difficult.

Today wasn't too bad, I felt a little hungry around 11:30am so I had my apple and mini-burger with mustard and then munched on a couple of cucumbers throughout the day. Dinner was pretty lame with some grilled chicken and a Melba toast. Although I have convinced Starbucks to make me a new yummy drink... it's called the Blended Iced Americano. I order it just so I can see the weird looks the cashier gives me and the confusion it causes to the baristas. Very entertaining but also a yummy drink. It's basically a frapuccino but without the sugar or milk. Or it's basically an Iced American but they stick it in the blender for a few minutes. It's just blended ice and coffee except it goes all weird without the milk I guess? It ends up looking like a giant frap but with lots of foam and the coffee all sinks to the bottom but it is super good with a good dose of Vanilla Stevia! It helps with my frap and slurpee cravings.

I've drank a lot of water today as well but forgot my fiber this morning. Let's hope it all works out tomorrow though. I'm trying to convince Nick to film me getting the HCG ready and injecting it but he seems very freaked out by the idea... I think I'll have to wait for someone else to help me out haha Stephanie, I'm lookin at you!

VLCD Day #7: +0.5lbs (AKA: Blame it on the Sa-aa-a-a-a-a-alt.)

BOO-F*CKING-URNS! I woke up this morning ready to hit the 10lb mark and instead I was +0.5!! I am assuming it was from the pickles. It is not technically allowed but I figured because it was a cucumber and had no sugar in the ingredients I'd be good but I'm guessing it is from the salt in it. I'm sure I'm retaining salt and that's why I didn't lose anything and instead put some back on! Today I will avoid all salts and just drink ridonkulous amounts of water starting with my fiber supplement and two glasses of tea.

I had an insane dream last  night. Seems that instead of having sex dreams I am having food dreams. I dreamt that I was at a party and started eating a sandwich and chips. Halfway through the sandwich I remembered I was on the diet and told my friend as much. He told me to stop eating then and I said I would in a few bites and started running around the room grabbing as much food as I could and stuffing it in my mouth. I woke up, feeling insanely guilty, just before I had a bite of ice cream and chocolate cake. When I woke up I was dog tired and still thought that I'd broken my diet for a few minutes! I think the dream happened because I felt so annoyed by not losing weight this morning (I woke up at 5am to weight myself then went back to bed). I was going to be so happy being able to say "Lost 10lbs in the first week!". Ah well, c'est la vie. Back on track!

I went for a decent walk today and drank lots of water. Let's hope it's been enough. If not I will do an apple day tomorrow. I'm going out dancing with some friends tonight so that should be good times. Been a long time since I've been to a club haha I'm sure I'll be ready for bed by 9pm.

For dinner I had a strawberry and shrimp spinach salad. I used a bit of balsamic vinegar... I hope that's not a cheat? I skipped my Melba's today just in case. Wish me luck that tomorrow is a drop instead of a gain!

VLCD Day #5: -0.2 lbs (AKA: Damn You Peri Peri Sauce! Please Be Kind, Sunblock...)

Soooo only 0.2lbs down today to make it an even 7lbs lost in 5 days. I blame the Peri Peri sauce that I put on my shrimp last night. Boo-urns.

I decided to be extra super duper careful today and drank lots and lots of water, had some fiber this morning and went for a nice walk. Only problem? It's pure sunshine and about 23 degrees outside. And I'm irish. I burn almost instantly! I know I shouldn't be using Sun Block because of the diet but I couldn't resist putting some on before I went in the sun. I put it on my nose and cheeks, the places that burn the easiest, and only used about 1/2 tablespoon but who knows how it will hurt me tomorrow. I'll probably have a sun burn though! The lobster colour will go well with my tong hands.

Today, when I got home, I started having wicked cravings. I want cheese so bad. I want peanut butter too. I want pizza with butter chicken on it topped with some fried chicken. Mmmmmmmm... but I have resisted. I made some shrimp again but this time with a tiny bit of lemon juice, pepper and fresh garlic. I am also having asparagus with salt and pepper. For lunch I had a mini burger patty with mustard, a pint of tomatoes and 6 strawberries. Hopefully this will help with the cravings, I'm also going to have some tea and more water until I feel full. God I want a peanut butter sandwich...

VLCD Day #4: -1.8lbs (AKA: Hunger? Huuuunger? Where aaaare you?)

Woohoo! Another 1.8 lbs down!! This is the best diet ever! The hunger is completely gone now. I didn't feel hungry at all today!! Hell, I didn't even finish my orange for lunch. It's 7:45pm and my yummy looking dinner is sitting beside me as I write this and I'm not even tempted. This is a very bizaar feeling. To think about what I've eaten all day and then realize I'm not hungry and I'm not craving anything. So weird! The way my cravings have been working is if I see something in front of me that I like I will think about having it and then remember the diet and walk away. Fortunately, none of it is impulse grabs like a bowl of candy or anything, I actually would have to prepare it, like chocolate milk. I just feel so guilty when I think about eating anything that isn't allowed. My brain says "Oh come on, just one bite won't hurt!" and then everything in me tells it to shut up and that I will ruin everything.

One thing I especially like is that I don't feel like I'm on a diet. I'm not hungry, I'm enjoying the meals, it's insanely simple and there's not a lot to remember because I premade everything! It's brilliant. Today I picked up some extra lean ground beef and made some burgers and I also seperated my shrimp into 100g. Roughly 10 shrimp = 100g which is pretty impressive! More than enough.

Speaking of food, I thought I would show you all my deeeelicious dinner tonight! I had BBQ shrimp (put some peri peri sauce on it, it has no sugar or fat or carbs etc. so I'm hoping it's HCG safe!), asparagus with garlic, salt and lemon juice, strawberries and my little bitty Melba toast. Looks good, don't it? Tastes even better! I don't feel like I'm missing out at all. Did I mention how much I love this diet?

Yesterday I bought myself a present to celebrate my first 5lbs. It is a necklace made by a local designer that says:

 "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail"

I love that question. What would try to do if you knew you wouldn't fail? Would you apply for a better job? Would you go back to school? Would you run a marathon? I felt like this question represented my weight loss very well. I think that the idea of failing has stopped me for a long time. I was afraid of telling people I was trying to lose weight in fear that I would give up, like I often did. I would attempt to change my lifestyle so I could live healthier and longer as well as look better. Hell, I'm attempting to do that right now and there is no reason I should fail!

 I'll get myself something else when I hit 15lbs which should be any day now at this rate. I'm thinking it will be a nice leather purse or something.

Anyhow, I'm off to take the dogs for a walk. Wish me luck for tomorrow morning! I love waking up and hitting the scale. Best part of my day to see the number go down.

Preparation Cleanse - Day 2 (AKA: Whoopsie Daisy!)

Today I've been a bad bad wittle wabbit. The day started off good, had a nice breakfast of one peice of bread with some peanut butter and for lunch I had steamed veggies and multigrain pasta but then my mom came in to town. We're going shopping in the USA tomorrow so she came in early so we could hang out. We went to one of my accounts, Hidden Lounge in downtown Vancouver, and had one of the best meals EVER... also one of the baddest! It was so decadent and delicious, everything from fried buttermilk chicken with watermelon salsa and waffles to mini pizzas with pulled pork and blue cheese. So deadly. Highly recommended.

It was so good I barely even felt guilty! It's just a cleanse, right? Not the end of the world. Then we went to an art show just off of Main St. (Hipster's paradise) because my mom is an artist (http://www.artofthecoast.com/). After that we hit the downtown chinese market and once again, disaster hit. We had a little pancake thing... not too bad... and then a Hurricane potatoe.. definitely bad and to finish it all off, I had half of a lamb skewer. My mom tricked me, I didn't even think I liked lamb! But you know those asian markets, sooo greasy I could see through my stomach after!

Well, tomorrow we're off to the states so I will make sure to be extra super duper good. I am just slowly easing myself into diet mode. I was googling HCG recipes and I've discovered that SO many people totally cheat on HCG! Either by mixing veggies or just eating whatever they want as long as it's under 500 cals. That drives me crazy because then they bitch about how they didn't lose any weight and it made them lose muscle mass etc. It's giving the diet a bad name and confuses us newbies.

I'm heading to the island on Thursday for camping so I will premake all of my meals this week. I am looking forward to experimenting with some salad dressings and yummy drinks. I have never tried apple cider vinegar but damn I hope I like it!

Any recommendations on some yummy HCG recipes? Please let me know!