~P3-P4-Simeons-protocol-week-7/8~

[LaraSuzz]

New thread =)

[LaraSuzz]

Hi all, excited to start the new week. Yesterday I added tortillas, but body said whoaa! I'm up, boo. Not sure what the plan is yet. Everyone keeps inviting me for lunch so I wil blame it on them, yes, it's their fault. I'm up 6. Four weeks until another round. This week will be really challenging because every day theyre catering food at work.

[suzi7]

one more week for me... and up a pound! (that's been my P3 so far. up and down a pound. not too bad.... when I can remember to eat. lol)

Actually I am "cycling" (no P4) and going back to P2 after loading this weekend. I want to take full advantage of my summer (when I don't think of food much anyway) and my lay-off (still interviewing... sigh) and get this weight under control. This will be my last round I think, and it will probably be a long one (body willing). and after it a nice sensible P3 and a long P4. and where ever I end up when the body says enough, I will probably just switch to something else like Atkins for a "live-it" and lose the last bit of weight eventually and slowly. ... at least that's the plan.

I am really thankful for hHcg, cuz it has given me hope of getting back down to my "fighting" weight again, when nothing else worked for me.

[pandora174]

D7P3. Have stabilized nicely until today in which I went 2.7 lbs over LDW I blame it on the sugar free syrup I used on my almond flour pancakes or maybe the cantaloupe I had as well. Well doing my steak day today & boy is it rough ! Can't wait to sleep & get it over with. I hope I have a nice loss tomorrow. Then planning on eating clean for the next 2 days before I reintroduce cheese & berries. If all goes well (and I really hope so) I'll have some Cocoa Crack on Fri as a treat.

My 2nd & hopeuflly next round was going to be on 8/20 but now I'm thinking of moving it up a week or so since we're going to Disney 8/4 to 8/9 & I will be eating what I want but in moderation. I will then come back from the Happiest Place on Earth & start my next round. I hope with all the walking in Disney I won't gain but I'm still taking my scale with me since we drive.

[CaTriGirl]

Where is everyone? Surely there are more than us on P3 & P4.

I hope this week is starting well for everyone. I just LOVE P3! Feels so freeing after P2.

I am on D5P3 and have been so happy with my stabilization. I have been within .4 up or down.

Yesterday was my highest calorie day of just over 1800 cals and I was expecting a gain after all the calories and having a snack of an apple and 2 TBS of Sunflower butter TWICE!! And I only had 2 glasses of water because I was busy taking care of my son who's been sick. But today I was the same weight as my LDW. Yay!!

I am going to make flax pancakes today! Yummmy!

[LaraSuzz]

Ok so im in P4 week 4 lol and today is pizza and salad day at work.

I can try to eat lunch only and ive skipped breakfast and will skip dinner....

OR I would just eat a bunch of salad? I'm already 6 over doing another p2 the first week of august trying to control myself... lol what do you guys think?

If I do one meal today chances are I wont gain but, I'm still 5.8 over.

[CaTriGirl]

Yay for P4!!

Be careful of having too little of calories you can gain by doing that especially for not enough protein. I personally would have a bunch of salad and 1 slice of pizza. For dinner have some protein and veggies. No carbs & lots of water. You will be fine. You don't have to go all or nothing.

[shelbyla]

Hi everyone!!!!! Thanks for the new thread, Lara!

Back from Cancun, dealing with post-vacation blues, right now. Missing my buds who are still there (d@mn their hides!) and scuba diving and spearfishing as we speak! At least I have a KILLER tan! Anyway, my pants are saying that I am sitting around 145 or so which I will happily accept after Mexico. In Mexico I really tried for the "eat to hunger" scale and I think it served me pretty well, all in all. I had carbs in the form of chips and drinks, very few veggies, and LOTS of fruit and cheese, as that was easiest for breakfast. Dinner was usually ceviche of some sort--very low fat/low carb, except for the aforementioned chips alongside it! Water consumption was generally exceeded by beer consumption on a daily basis but I was also swimming several hours daily and sometimes hiking carrying scuba tanks so I think that evened out pretty well.

Day 2 of "get back to normal life" mode right now with coffee 'n hnh, salad for lunch, protein and veg for dinner. Giving myself a week or so of good clean eating (Boo! BOOOOOO! ) then will weigh Saturday and assess from there. I may do a cd sometime this week for the heck of it--then again, I may not. I will see how I feel and take it from there. My LIW of 137 was far too thin for my frame so if I can land somewhere between 140 and 145 that makes me happy and "the girls" more normal! I am going to try and keep myself busy so I can STOP THINKING ABOUT BEING ON A BEACH AND NOT AT WORK!!! (And also stop thinking about holiday romance with a younger man--but that's another story entirely! )

In other news, I made a pan of sf brownies (recipe courtesy of our friend CocoaPeanut) yesterday and had to put them away. Way too deadly all warm and melty from the oven! Yum!

Happy (?) Monday to all!

[misslatte]

Hey all!

P3 time for me - just got back from a long weekend vacation and am UP UP UP. Doing a chicken thigh CD today, clean or GYCD tomorrow. Hope I can knock out the vacation pounds and focus on maintaining - if not a TON of progress I might jump back to P2 for a wee bit. Hrmm decisions decisions.

Welcome back Shelby!

[C'Marie]

I usually post on the all phases thread but I'm in P3 transitioning with JUDDD..... will be on vacation starting Saturday along with starting P4 - horror.... but I will be ok because I will be continuing maintenance level JUDDD rotations even with alcohol. It will kinda be a bummer to have to keep counting calories on vacation but I'd rather do that than come back with a fat @$$ LOL.... At least after this redo round I fit into my $100+ bathing suits! I know I will have one UP UP and AWAY day when we go to a luau, but other than that I will enjoy moderation and relaxation.

[shelbyla]

Well, I am darn proud of myself! Came home from work and sweated my little butt off for 30 minutes on my treadclimber, did lesson one on learning to speak Spanish, had a nice lc dinner, made a date for tomorrow, caught up on some work-work, had a reasonable conversation with my ex, and only ate 4 sf brownies. Monday...accomplished!

[shelbyla]

Originally Posted by C'Marie

I usually post on the all phases thread but I'm in P3 transitioning with JUDDD..... will be on vacation starting Saturday along with starting P4 - horror.... but I will be ok because I will be continuing maintenance level JUDDD rotations even with alcohol. It will kinda be a bummer to have to keep counting calories on vacation but I'd rather do that than come back with a fat @$$ LOL.... At least after this redo round I fit into my $100+ bathing suits! I know I will have one UP UP and AWAY day when we go to a luau, but other than that I will enjoy moderation and relaxation.

Have a FANTASTIC vacation--you deserve it!

[cocoapeanut]

HEY y'all!

I haven't posted in a million years, and it probably doesn't help that I don't have Internet right now. Boo. I've gone crazy with the eating the last few days and need to get back down about 5-6 pounds ish (well at least I'd like to!) so I'm using this week to experiment with various CDs. Tried a GYCD today just out of curiosity so we'll see how I do on the scale in the morning! I expected I'd be really hungry but the hunger has actually been milder than I thought it would be, thankfully.

Dangit all of your vacations!! Hehe.

Pandora you just made me realize I haven't tried cocoa crack yet!! What is WRONG with me?!

Hope everyone is marvelous :]

[misslatte]

Mornin all!

Down 2.5 from my chicken thigh CD yesterday - *sigh* it's progress but not enough. I wasn't joking when I said I can really GAIN on vacation.

[LaraSuzz]

just an update down 2 lbs from my pizza salad party skipped dinner and breakfast no snacking just a diet squirt. yay me! ttyls

[suzi7]

must be a "down" type day all around.

As for me, well, today is my b-day

and for a present, my body decided to surprise me... pleasantly for a change. Day 19 of my P3 and I was a naughty girl the last few days... ok, I ventured into Carb Land both days. (Sunday I cooked a huge chicken dinner for my fam and couldn't resist snitching some stuffing. and last night, someone brought over some ice cream for my bday and was sweet enough to buy the sugar-free kind (still had carbs tho.) but I didn't want to ruin the moment so I had a bowl. heck, a BIG bowl. It was good! lol) so for this morning's weigh-in (expecting the worst).....



I busted an O. yeap. 149.6 finally made it below 150 and still in shock! (loss of 1.6 over yesterday (and the last week).

one of the best presents ever. lol. Thank you, God (cuz I know I didn't deserve it.) (course a winning ticket to last night's $2M lottery would have been nice to go along with it. but I did win $8! which will just make enough cash on hand to treat my two boys at home here to wings tonight from my favorite pizza/wings place, which just happened to send me a coupon saying that if I spend $10 there, they will send me an email voucher for a free pizza of my choice!!... to be used this weekend during my loading days! (so , me! lol)

[dawnyama]

suzi!!!

[shelbyla]

Originally Posted by cocoapeanut

HEY y'all!

I haven't posted in a million years, and it probably doesn't help that I don't have Internet right now. Boo. I've gone crazy with the eating the last few days and need to get back down about 5-6 pounds ish (well at least I'd like to!) so I'm using this week to experiment with various CDs. Tried a GYCD today just out of curiosity so we'll see how I do on the scale in the morning! I expected I'd be really hungry but the hunger has actually been milder than I thought it would be, thankfully.

Dangit all of your vacations!! Hehe.

Pandora you just made me realize I haven't tried cocoa crack yet!! What is WRONG with me?!

Hope everyone is marvelous :]

Well????? Don't keep us in suspense! How'd you do on GYCD???

Originally Posted by misslatte

Mornin all!

Down 2.5 from my chicken thigh CD yesterday - *sigh* it's progress but not enough. I wasn't joking when I said I can really GAIN on vacation.

2.5 is great (wouldn't we ALL like it to be 5-6!)! I'm not weighing until Saturday so you can see how *I* feel about vacation gain!

Originally Posted by LaraSuzz

just an update down 2 lbs from my pizza salad party skipped dinner and breakfast no snacking just a diet squirt. yay me! ttyls

Um, pizza and salad correction day??? WTG dodging THAT bullet!

Originally Posted by suzi7

As for me, well, today is my b-day

and for a present, my body decided to surprise me... pleasantly for a change. Day 19 of my P3 and I was a naughty girl the last few days... ok, I ventured into Carb Land both days. (Sunday I cooked a huge chicken dinner for my fam and couldn't resist snitching some stuffing. and last night, someone brought over some ice cream for my bday and was sweet enough to buy the sugar-free kind (still had carbs tho.) but I didn't want to ruin the moment so I had a bowl. heck, a BIG bowl. It was good! lol) so for this morning's weigh-in (expecting the worst).....



I busted an O. yeap. 149.6 finally made it below 150 and still in shock! (loss of 1.6 over yesterday (and the last week).

one of the best presents ever. lol. Thank you, God (cuz I know I didn't deserve it.) (course a winning ticket to last night's $2M lottery would have been nice to go along with it. but I did win $8! which will just make enough cash on hand to treat my two boys at home here to wings tonight from my favorite pizza/wings place, which just happened to send me a coupon saying that if I spend $10 there, they will send me an email voucher for a free pizza of my choice!!... to be used this weekend during my loading days! (so , me! lol)

Niiiiice! New decade! Lovely bday present! Have a great one!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Got up early this am to exercise again! That's twice in less than 24 hours! I'll be working on this all week as well as eating clean (well, as clean as I can with those brownies in the house! ) with my eye on Saturday for weigh-in/damage assessment. No booze, limited cheese/dairy, limited nuts, etc. Got a date tonight--AAAAND the search goes on for Mr. Right (Now). Gotta love being 40+ and single in LA! Hey, at least I look better at 44 than I did at 24!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

[cocoapeanut]

Originally Posted by shelbyla

Well????? Don't keep us in suspense! How'd you do on GYCD???

Got a decent result actually: -2lbs. It wasn't too bad actually, just was a bit hungry at night. I figure that's usually the case with the CDs where you have an eating limit though.

I'm both happy and sorry that the brownies are so damn good...haha! We are both eating clean this week. Enjoy your super hot date!!

[Bitsky]

Hello everyone,
Well the family reunion over the weekend went well. I didn't eat lots of food but the foods I did eat were not on the 'good' list plus I had some drinks but suprisingly enough, when I got home I stripped down and got on the scale just to see what happened I was the exact same weight as when I left!! That made me feel good. I did however, notice how yucky my body felt after eating stuff I shouldn't! So it's nice to know I can have a treat once in a while but I know that if I overindulge I'll just feel sick plus chance having a gain the next day.
Now my problem is my fit day calculator, I love the idea of it and the food database is great but by the end of my work day (before I've eaten supper) I'm either at the limit or waaay over my daily carb % allowed. Usually the carb count goes up because I'm eating fruits and veggies, my mind hurts because am I not supposed to be eating fruits and veggies??? Shouldn't those be 'empty' carbs, or is there a way to subtract good carbs??? If I go by my pie chart today I'm maxed out in the carb dpt already so that means I just have to have a bit of protein and tons of fat for supper...no veggies or berries etc... that makes me sad. Does anyone have any good news for me?
thanks

[shelbyla]

Originally Posted by Bitsky

Now my problem is my fit day calculator, I love the idea of it and the food database is great but by the end of my work day (before I've eaten supper) I'm either at the limit or waaay over my daily carb % allowed. Usually the carb count goes up because I'm eating fruits and veggies, my mind hurts because am I not supposed to be eating fruits and veggies??? Shouldn't those be 'empty' carbs, or is there a way to subtract good carbs??? If I go by my pie chart today I'm maxed out in the carb dpt already so that means I just have to have a bit of protein and tons of fat for supper...no veggies or berries etc... that makes me sad. Does anyone have any good news for me?
thanks

What targets are you trying to hit? Percentages or total grams or what? What is your target calorie range? I'm sure you've mentioned this in previous threads--just trying to catch up!

[Bitsky]

Originally Posted by shelbyla

What targets are you trying to hit? Percentages or total grams or what? What is your target calorie range? I'm sure you've mentioned this in previous threads--just trying to catch up!

Yes I've asked about it before on the forums but I think it gets missed sometimes because I seem to post right before a few people post right after so I might get bumped to the previous page LOL
Anyway I can't really remember where I got my 'goal' #'s but I'm trying to go for: 55% fat, 25% protein & 20% carbs OR 100-120g protein and fats, 60-80g of carbs. Just looking at my fit day now...the gram goals are different then the % goals...argh! So yeah I'm not really sure what I should be aiming for.
My first few days I was coming in around 65% fat, 27-31% protein & 4-7% carbs. Then a day later my carb count went to 27% and looking back to my fit day, it was all because I had an apple and 1/2 bell pepper.... why would those 2 things that are good for me put me at the limit?? I want to eat fruits and veggies!!

[shelbyla]

Ok that helps. So I am going to try and go off of your protein/fat gram targets. Protein has 4 calories per gram so that would give you 400-480 calories in protein. Fats, 9 calories per gram, so 900-1080 in fat. Math geek here...

Protein 400 calories = 25%x (x = 1600)
Fat 900 calories = 55%x (x = 1636)

Protein 480 calories = 25%x (x = 1920)
Fat 1080 calories = 55%x (x = 1964)

So your calorie range with those targets for GRAMS is 1600-1964. Carbs have 4 calories per gram (and that INCLUDES fiber carbs which are NOT calorie free).

Carbs 20% of 1600 = 320 calories in carbs
Carbs 20% of 1964 = 393 calories in carbs

A 7oz apple, which I would consider to be a "medium" apple (normal sized, approximately 3 inches in diameter) is right around 100 calories. Even if you had 2 per day, with LOTS of veggies, you should be way under your carb calorie counts.

A couple of things come to mind. First, are you eating enough calories? Do those calorie counts sound about right? If your calories are lower, the carbs will show up as a much higher percentage. Second, you may be using some wacky ****** entries. I use some standard raw and cooked entries every time to make sure I am getting the right calorie counts. I will look them up and post in a minute.

HTH

[cocoapeanut]

Yeah I'm also not sure the counts are entirely right - I eat lots of fruit and veggies myself and usually come in around 15-20% when I'm not eating starch.

[shelbyla]

I almost always weigh things as I find the "cup" or "whole" or "medium" measurements of foods on ****** to be wildly inaccurate in many cases, particularly for proteins. I also make a lot of custom foods (peanut butter, protein powders, bacon, etc.) so that I know I am getting the right macronutrient breakdowns.

Here are some of my ****** standards...

Chicken, thigh, roasted, broiled, or baked, skin eaten
Chicken, breast, roasted, broiled, or baked, skin not eaten
Beef, ground, 95% lean meat / 5% fat, raw (a.k.a. hamburger)
Beef steak, broiled or baked, lean and fat eaten
Fish, roughy, orange, raw
Fish, roughy, orange, cooked, dry heat

Let me know if you eat something else regularly and I will see what I can find (these are standard for me).

A typical day at 2300 calories for me looks like this...

B - Protein shake with coconut milk (~300 calories)
S - Hard boiled egg plus one serving of bacon or sausage (~200 calories)
L - Salad with 5oz lettuce (a LOT!), 7oz fatty protein, 1 whole avocado, 2T full-fat dressing, 1 medium apple (~700 calories)
S - 8oz full-fat Greek yogurt with 3oz blueberries (~300 calories)
D - 7oz fatty protein (usually baked, pan fried, or grilled), 7oz green veggie (a LOT!), 1T butter, 7oz strawberries w/2T HWC (~700 calories)

~2200

I will tinker with this menu when I get to dinner to see if I need an extra T of butter or one less of HWC, but on the whole, it usually ends up being very close to this. I also balance fat and protein grams and find that as long as I do that, I don't usually have too much trouble adding carbs--I just eat less protein/fat. So for example, if I have 100g of protein and fat, I can have 100g of carbs. If I have 120g of protein/fat, I usually have about 80g of carbs, total.

[julieboolie]

Just a quickie from P2 land! Miss you guys! You all sound good! Wish I were here w/ you! P2's going well. No complaints. Practicing Woodall's suggestions w/ a new attitude toward strict protocol. All good.

[Bitsky]

Originally Posted by shelbyla

Ok that helps. So I am going to try and go off of your protein/fat gram targets. Protein has 4 calories per gram so that would give you 400-480 calories in protein. Fats, 9 calories per gram, so 900-1080 in fat. Math geek here...

Protein 400 calories = 25%x (x = 1600)
Fat 900 calories = 55%x (x = 1636)

Protein 480 calories = 25%x (x = 1920)
Fat 1080 calories = 55%x (x = 1964)

So your calorie range with those targets for GRAMS is 1600-1964. Carbs have 4 calories per gram (and that INCLUDES fiber carbs which are NOT calorie free).

Carbs 20% of 1600 = 320 calories in carbs
Carbs 20% of 1964 = 393 calories in carbs

A 7oz apple, which I would consider to be a "medium" apple (normal sized, approximately 3 inches in diameter) is right around 100 calories. Even if you had 2 per day, with LOTS of veggies, you should be way under your carb calorie counts.

A couple of things come to mind. First, are you eating enough calories? Do those calorie counts sound about right? If your calories are lower, the carbs will show up as a much higher percentage. Second, you may be using some wacky ****** entries. I use some standard raw and cooked entries every time to make sure I am getting the right calorie counts. I will look them up and post in a minute.

HTH

thanks for the info. I'm not a math geek so I was a little lost
according to my fit day my apple (medium) clocked in at 72 cal,0.2 fat, 19.1 carb & 0.4 protein. The carbs seem so high for how healthy the apple is supposed to be.
My first few days of P3 I was into the higher calories but it's definitely gone down. I just don't feel like eating tons of stuff...I was mentioning before I wish there was a pill or drink I could take to fullfill the rest of my requirements. Anyway, the first few days I was reaching 1400-1600 cal/day, now for the past couple days I'm around 700-1200 cal/day. I guess I just keep thinking, if I want to eat something I should have veggies or fruit...maybe some cheese...I don't want to think, "hey I should eat a tablespoon of butter or coconut oil." but that seems to be the case. It's just feels odd, to go against everything I've been taught thus far in life and eat the things I thought we weren't supposed to.
I'm finding it hard...or maybe just too time consuming now to look for meal plans and the nutritional value for each thing and making sure it's got enough of this and less of that in it... I would love to just have someone either tell me exactly what to eat daily or cook for me!!! LOL

[shelbyla]

Hi Julie! We miss you!

[shelbyla]

Originally Posted by Bitsky

thanks for the info. I'm not a math geek so I was a little lost
according to my fit day my apple (medium) clocked in at 72 cal,0.2 fat, 19.1 carb & 0.4 protein. The carbs seem so high for how healthy the apple is supposed to be.
My first few days of P3 I was into the higher calories but it's definitely gone down. I just don't feel like eating tons of stuff...I was mentioning before I wish there was a pill or drink I could take to fullfill the rest of my requirements. Anyway, the first few days I was reaching 1400-1600 cal/day, now for the past couple days I'm around 700-1200 cal/day. I guess I just keep thinking, if I want to eat something I should have veggies or fruit...maybe some cheese...I don't want to think, "hey I should eat a tablespoon of butter or coconut oil." but that seems to be the case. It's just feels odd, to go against everything I've been taught thus far in life and eat the things I thought we weren't supposed to.
I'm finding it hard...or maybe just too time consuming now to look for meal plans and the nutritional value for each thing and making sure it's got enough of this and less of that in it... I would love to just have someone either tell me exactly what to eat daily or cook for me!!! LOL

How tall are you, how old are you, and what is your exercise level? And I am assuming your current weight of ~125 is correct?

[CaTriGirl]

Originally Posted by suzi7

must be a "down" type day all around.

As for me, well, today is my b-day

and for a present, my body decided to surprise me... pleasantly for a change. Day 19 of my P3 and I was a naughty girl the last few days... ok, I ventured into Carb Land both days. (Sunday I cooked a huge chicken dinner for my fam and couldn't resist snitching some stuffing. and last night, someone brought over some ice cream for my bday and was sweet enough to buy the sugar-free kind (still had carbs tho.) but I didn't want to ruin the moment so I had a bowl. heck, a BIG bowl. It was good! lol) so for this morning's weigh-in (expecting the worst).....



I busted an O. yeap. 149.6 finally made it below 150 and still in shock! (loss of 1.6 over yesterday (and the last week).

one of the best presents ever. lol. Thank you, God (cuz I know I didn't deserve it.) (course a winning ticket to last night's $2M lottery would have been nice to go along with it. but I did win $8! which will just make enough cash on hand to treat my two boys at home here to wings tonight from my favorite pizza/wings place, which just happened to send me a coupon saying that if I spend $10 there, they will send me an email voucher for a free pizza of my choice!!... to be used this weekend during my loading days! (so , me! lol)

and NICE going on that 0 weight gain!!

I hate to break the nice losses. After really stabilizing nicely I ate a whole head of cauliflower last night (aside from two bites I threw away = WHY didn't I do that WAY sooner!) I made cauli-tots and they were to die for and I could not stop eating them! I also ended up having a few bites of cookie butter. UGH!!

Up 2 lbs today. Luckily I was at my LWD so I didn't have to do a correction day THANKFULLY! So today and tomorrow I am eating very clean. Hope I get back down fast.

I ended up freezing the cookie butter so it will no longer be a temptation and I won't be making cauli-tots any time soon!