Starting phase 3 and catching up

Hi everyone. I started P3 so I want to give my P2 results. Happy Friday!!

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HCG P2 Cabbage n Cumin Recipe

So I have a new love in my life. He's spicy, he's exotic, he's foreign (although he's been in this country long enough that he's a native here too)

he....

is....

CUMIN!

Who knew? I've had this spice in my cupboard because I have one, only one dish that requires it. When I'm cooking off-recipe I sniff it and turn up my nose and put it back in the cabinet but no longer! Cumin has moved up in the world baby! I My spice cabinet has rows with the first row being the ones I use the most and the ones behind in alphabetical order. Cumin has literally moved up in the world to my first most-used row. I wish I'd discovered this sooner in P2 - it would have saved me some heartache and given my veggies more flavor.  I've been obsessing about it on cabbage. Here is my P2 cabbage recipe:

Chop up cabbage (amount depends on how much you need for your meal/calories but usually around 250 g)
Mix in to cabbage

• 1tsp cumin,
• 1tsp red pepper flakes and
• ginger (if you use fresh i like to slice it and put it in the water that I"m steaming in - if not powdered is fine)
• pinch of Himala salt (any will do, this is just my favorite)

If you do this in a pan then take some garlic and brown it in lemon juice. If you are microwaving in a steamer dish or bag then I just throw a little garlic in.

Steam 3-5 minutes (depending on how wilty you like your cabbage) then squeeze 2 lemon wedges on top.

YUM-O!

This is also really good with spinach leaves. I add coriander when I make this with spinach.

P2 friendly homemade ginger ale - YUM

I've been missing carbonation and so I've been experimenting with different items and fizzy water. My previous favorite was peach ice tea, 10 drops of Stevia and carbonated water...but now I'm replacing it with home made ginger ale. It's super simple!

You get fresh ginger and peel it - about 6 inch piece or so. You slice it pretty thin. In a small saucepan heat 2 cups of water and 2 tsp of liquid or powdered Stevia. After it is dissolved/mixed then add the sliced ginger. Simmer for about an hour. This makes a syrup that you then mix by the glass with seltzer water. YUM! Keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Had to share - it's good stuff. I'll probably heat longer next time to give more ginger bight - I really like the spiciness!

Oh! I almost forgot. I went to buy a George Forman grill today and ended up buying a different one (Calphalon - the George looked cool but felt rickety compared to the steel Calphalon)...anyway...made grilled chicken and grilled my asparagus and it was SOOO yummy. I miss grilling during the winter so this made me so happy. The asparagus were incredible. I doused them in lemon juice then rolled in Keltic salt and black pepper. Yum-O.

Day 39 - 6 to go

Hoping for 4 more pounds to hit and even 30!!! Think thin thoughts!!!

Update VLCD 32

No weight loss today but I did well the last two. I'm down 25.2 pounds in 35 days. I was hoping for a pound a day but women average .5 so I'm above that. It's sad that no one can really tell I've lost weight because I have so much to lose but I'm proud and I am committed to not only taking off the weight but also changing my life and my relationship with food. I have really been struggling with coping mechanisms and some of the issues that I fed instead of dealt with so I've contacted a counselor that my former doctor and dear friend recommended. I'll measure tomorrow and maybe do a quick stats. I start eating Atkins style next Monday. My partner started today so there is chees in the house - but I don't think I will cheat - I only have a short time to go so it isn't worth it. I'm hoping to get a full 30 pounds out of this round before I start the 6 week break. Susan lost 33 pounds in her round - she did really well. OK, that's all for now. Just wanted to check in and write down that the scale and I have made peace for now. Hoping to see a loss tomorrow.

Oh scale, why do you taunt me?

Now the scale is taunting me. I lost zero one day, .8 the next then this morning I step on and lost zero again. What? No, that can't be right. So I step on it again (because stepping on it three times yields three different results) and it says I am down exactly a pound. OK, that's better...but which one is right? So I neurotically step on it 4 more times and it comes up with the same result three times and different results 2 times. So I don't really know what my weight loss is. I am ready to throw the scale over the balcony and let it get run over by a car and then see what it has to say. I, of course, logged the 1lb number as my loss - after all it came up with that number 3 out of 5 times. I may be in for a big disapointment tomorrow when I find out I didn't really lose a pound.

It's frustrating. I feel taunted at my most vulnerable. I have 11 days left of my low calorie diet and I want to lose another 7.6 before I end this round. If I lose 7 it will put me at 30 pounds even and I'd be hapy with that...but I'd like to be at an even number and squarely down in the 210's instead of 220's.

What kind of sacrifice do you offer the scale gods?

Last night I prayed to the scale gods to be kind to me and this morning I am down another pound. Woo hoo! This leads me to wonder...what kind of offering do you give the scale gods when they answer your petition?

Norse folklore tells of the ritual of sacrificing your first born son...um clearly that's not going to happen...

Mexican folklore talks about providing food at tha altar of the god to appease and thank it...but since we're talking about a scale that seems counterproductive...

Biblical offerings were done by burning something...which is totally against the firecode...or by slaughtering animals...I don't think my dogs would appreciate that very much...

Judaism talks about "first fruit" offerings, which used to be literally the first part of your harvest and then as professions progressed it became the first part of your earnings (now tithing in the protestant churches)...so I could certainly leave stacks of money for my scale but is bribery really the way to go? And if it were would money be what the scale wanted???

That leaves me the question of what does the scale really want? What would cause it to be kind to me today (besides the fact that I may have actually lost the pound and this has nothing to do with my pleading bed-time blog)?

I did offer to keep it in fresh batteries and that seems important to a scale. I did neglect it for a while, being on business travel for 10 days...perhaps the scale punished me for my neglect (after all how would it differentiate between me being there and not...scales do not have eyes) and is now rewarding me for stepping on it more consistently several days in a row.

So I shall give it a nice gift of rechargeable batteries and attention and we'll see how that goes. Maybe a name. All my other appliances have names...my scale needs a name. Hmmmm....what should that name be? That shall be another blog once I've come up with it.