Checking in
 

Hi everyone , well I got thru day four so far, lol

It's funny how I have noticed already that I have a little more energy than normal. I guess all that sugar slows ya down. I'm glad to see y'all are doing good too.

Hi Lindsey,

Thank you for all of your insight and tips...

I can totally relate to the first paragraph above. You have given me good food for thought as well.

Tip from the sports med doc has motivated me to do what I have been planning for my mornings, however, after Phase 1 is over. I have read exercise is discouraged during Phase 1.

Can someone point me in the direction of the Moroccan chicken recipe, can't find it. I made the Baked Chicken Pesto the other night, it was great and used the leftover in a great veggie salad last night.

Thanks again. Have a great day!

Here's the Moroccan chicken recipe:

Prep time: 20 mins; cook time: 25

Ingredients:
4 (6 oz) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne
1 lemon
4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
3/4 summer squash, thinly sliced crosswise
1/3 cup pitted green olives
2 Tbls water
2 Tbls chopped parsley

Directions: Pound chicken breasts between two sheets of waxed paper to 1/4 inch think. In a small bowl, mix together cumin, ginger, cinnamon, pepper, allspice, salt and cayenne. Finely grate zest from lemon into spice mixture Squeeze 1 Tablespoon juice from lemon and add to spice mixture. Add 3 teaspoons (=1 Tablespoon) of the oil to the spice mixture and stir to combine. Spread mixture on both sides of chicken breasts.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, in batches if necessary, and cook, turning until blackened on the outside and cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and loosely cover with foil to keep warm.

Add remaining 1 teaspoon oil to the skillet and return to medium-high heat. Add reserved onion slices and cook, stirring constantly with wooden spoon and scraping up any browned bits, 3 minutes. Add squash, olives and 2 Tablespoons water. Season lightly with additional salt and pepper; stir well Cover and cook until squash is tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the pan from heat. Squeeze a little more lemon juice over chicken and vegetables, sprinkle with parsley and serve warm.

Makes 4 servings.
Nutrition: per serving, 264 calories, 8 g fat, 1 g sat fat, 41 g protein, 6 gram carb, 2 g fiber, 314 mg sodium.

Personally, I don't care for olives, so I omitted those and I thought it was great. Also, note that the oil is in teaspoons, not tablespoons. When I saw 3 teaspoons, I misread it and thought it was tablespoons because you never see 3 teaspoons, but rather 1 Tablespoon. I see that they did because there is a total of 4 teaspoons of oil used, 3 in one part and 1 in another. I screwed this up the first time with too much oil.

I also find that I double the spice mixture because I didn't think there was enough of it as written. With double the mixture, you can fully coat all the chicken breasts.

I just saw this thread. Hope you don't mind if I join a little late. I started this Monday. I had did SB last year and dropped 10lbs in a month and then it was Christmas and I gained it all back and then some. I really liked it when I did it and never felt deprived.

I was always slim when I was growing up. Before my 30th birthday I found out that I had an underactive thyroid which explains why I gained 20 lbs since I had gotten married (my eating and exercise habits hadn't changed that much). It makes it hard for me to lose weight but I think SB will do it for me. I do Zumba once a week and yoga twice. I wish I could do Zumba more often but right now I cannot make it to the other classes.

The Moroccan Chicken looks yummy. I'll have to try it.

My goal is 118 lbs. I am 142 right now. Mini goal is to get under 140.

Looking forward to hearing from all of you.

Hi Ladies (and welcome to Mescelestus)! How is everyone doing?

So, day 5 and still going strong. I too, Judy, am starting to notice a change in energy levels. I'm not sure if it's I feel that I have more energy exactly, but I feel like it's consistent. I'm not having any of the lows or feeling sluggish, especially in mid/late afternoon which used to be the most challenging time of the day for me. Now, I'm just chugging along and feeling really good. I feel really clear headed and better able to focus. I never would have guessed changing my diet would have such an effect, but it really does.

OMG--I tried the peanut butter cup last night and it blew my mind. It was incredibly decadent. I can't believe that would be allowed on any diet plan. It's so yummy!!! It's like my brain knows all the ingredients and how they're all okay on SB, but the combination is just so good, that it's hard to believe. So thank you so much for that. I'll be having that as my dessert option often!

I'm down 3.5 lbs..woohoo!!! I know 95% of it's water weight, but it's still exciting to see the numbers go down, especially because I feel so good and am not hungry or feeling deprived at all.

How is everyone else doing? I'd love to hear it.

Welcome redautumn! Glad to have you.

If you have an underactive thyroid, are you on medication to help that? If not, I thought that may help with the weight loss. I had an ex that didn't have a thyroid (had thyroid cancer when he was younger) and adjusting his thyroid medication always had big effects like that. He'd start putting on weight mysteriously, and yep, the medication was too low. His doc would adjust it and the weight would come off pretty easily. So I thought such a thing may apply to you too. Either way, welcome and we're glad to have you on this journey with us!

I know Lindsey...doesn't that PB cup seem totally sinful!!! lol

I'm down 3.5 since Monday...hoping to hang onto that over the weekend. I did indulge in one glass of white wine last night....sigh. Oh well. I'm also feeling more energy and less sluggish. I was actually 45 minutes early for work today because I woke up early and didn't even feel the need to sleep more...which is VERY unusual for me :)

I even took a 30 minute walk at lunch break today...go me!!! I gotta get off my butt and get movin' more. I really need to do the morning exercise thing too...hopefully that'll help burn more of this fat off my tooshy ;)

Thanks for the welcome Lindsey!

I am on medication right now. They discovered back in March that my dose was too low and needed to be adjusted. Right now we are trying to find the right dose. Since they have increased it I have felt so much better. It explained a lot of what was going on. I have also not gained any weight but haven't lost any either since March. I hope eating healthier and keeping up my exercising will do the trick. I notice I feel better and more energetic when I do exercise.

redautumn, I am 5' 3" also and went from 140" January of '08 to 115# by May of '08 and have been able to maintain my loss over 2 years now. SB is the only way of eating that I have been able to get that low and maintain without feeling like I'm on a "diet". I love SB! :)

Anne~That is encouraging! I hope I can stick with it.

I have been looking into different breakfast options. I am getting tired of eggs. I usually save my leftovers from supper for my lunch the next day. The lunch today will probably be salad since we went out for supper last night. I had a really good taco salad. I don't ever eat the shell.

Chicken tonight but not sure what recipe I will use. Usually it ends up being Parmesan Chicken but I need to try something different. I think my family wants something different. I may have to try the Moroccan Chicken recipe.

Redautumn -- I do the dinner, next day's lunch thing too (you'll have to let me know how the Moroccan chicken goes over). My diet ends up not being as varied as the one in the books, but most of the time, I'm only cooking for one (just me and the bf, sometimes he eats the same dinner, but he's one of those folks with a naturally high metabolism and can eat anything he wants to). But I find it's a good balance to me because if I had to cook everyday, 3x a day, something that was new, I think I'd get really frustrated with all the effort.

Sorry I don't have any suggestions on the eggs. Plain eggs can get boring pretty quickly, so I usually end up having an omelette with low fat cheese and ham. Then I make up the vegetable hash from the book and have that four days with eggs as my breakfast most of the time. I've been eating broccoli like it's going out of style, so I think I need to mix up the veggies, though I am going to try the creamy broccoli soup that's in the supercharged book. I'll let you know how it goes...

Otherwise, feeling pretty good. No mad cravings or anything, though I'll definitely be looking forward to my first piece of whole fruit in 9 days. I think that's the thing I miss the most---I'm a huge fruit fan. I have some lovely nectarines that I bought before deciding to do the beach, and they're perfectly ripe right now but there is no way they're going to last until I'm allowed to eat them. Meh...

Jyoyo, I too need to really get my tush into an exercise routine. Aside from the dog walks, not much else going on thus far. Baby steps, but I look forward to the time when the food will be more second nature so I can start focusing on a good exercise regime next. I really need to get back to Bikram--perhaps tomorrow!

Okay, the bf and I are off to the store to go and buy some Halloween decorations. After Christmas, it's my favorite holiday to decorate for.

Hi everyone! I'm new to the site, but am hoping that this will be my saving grace this time around with my diet!

I've done SB in the past and have really great success with it, but life got a bit difficult in the past year and I really let myself go (gaining 20 lbs in a year!) I'm starting Ph. 1 tomorrow and am really motivated, but just need some support. I think we all know how hard it is :/

Part of my struggle is that I have to eat out for the most part. I'm out and about most of the day, so I can't take anything substantial with me (no refrigeration during the day). Also, I don't get home until 9:30 or later, so unless I eat something out earlier for dinner, I'll be ravenous by the time I get home and eat whatever I can get my hands on.

My plan this time around is figure out a few places nearby where I can tailor salads to meet my Ph. 1 needs.

I'd really appreciate any help/suggestions from you girls! Any favorite salads/etc?

You can carry nuts and sandwich meats w/u.

Hi, I hope you don't mind if I reply here, also. I'm starting phase one today and absolutely determined to do it! I have been such a slacker. It's amazing how when you slack just one day, that paves the way for every other day! I lost 30 lbs on SBD at the beginning of the year and have gained almost 15 of that back. And I can sure tell! I feel awful. I've been trying to get started again for while, but have fallen off the wagon. So, today is day one:)

Welcome both lavcalla and lyssas! Absolutely, you should both join us! The more support, the better. I can totally relate with losing weight and gaining it back. I think we've all been there---I know I have. I gained over 30 lbs last year when life got rough, so lavcalla, I can totally relate.

One of the things that helped me was changing my perspective. After this recent weight gain, I came to realize how much I had been using food as a coping mechanism. And strangely, how much the mental aspect of being thin really affected me. I know it may sound counter-intuitive, but I realized that I had some unresolved fears about being thinner. When I lost the 30 lbs 2 years ago, I was conflicted. On one hand, I loved fitting into my clothes again and getting compliments from friends and family, but I realized it also scared me too. I was getting a lot more attention from men and it sort of freaked me out. I think that contributed to the weight gain far more than I realized---I felt much "safer" fatter---kind of crazy, huh? My doctor suggested a book that dealt with some of the psychological aspects of dieting and losing weight and it was really eye-opening for me. It's called Diets Don't Work (by Bob Schwartz), and I highly recommend it to anyone that may want to look at some of these issues within themselves as well.

I saw some of the childhood eating patterns and my own fears that led to a lot of my self-sabotage. Looking back on it, I think it had far less to do with lack of will power, than these other hidden enemies within myself that I was totally unaware of. Just something to think about for those that like to read up on such things.

Lavcalla -- do you have any ability to bring a small cooler with you (perhaps store it in your office or your car if you're traveling a lot)? Then you could take some refridgerated-needed items in that. Put some cold packs in it, and you can carry your cheese, coldcuts, etc. with you so you have snacks on hand as necessary. And eating out salads can probably work well, especially if you can have chicken added to them. Just get the dressing on the side and opt for things like vinaigrettes, and I bet you can be pretty south beach friendly.

As for me, going pretty good. I cheated a little yesterday, but not too badly I think. I was at a music festival all day (the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco). I packed a lot of SB-friendly fare, though I did have a couple handfulls of kettle corn and two bites of someone's brownie. Considering the vast majority of the time, I opted for my shrimp, tomatoes or asparagus (and was even able to get a steamed artichoke from one of the food vendors), I'm considering the whole day a success even if not perfect.

That's another thing I struggle with -- the perfection thing. I cheat a little, and in the past, I'd turn those two bites of a brownie into a whole wasted day, figuring if I couldn't be perfect may as well just cheat the whole day. I'm proud that I resisted that temptation and just was able to stay on track for the rest of the day. Every once in a while, you'll take a step backwards or sideways, but I'm not letting those missteps throw off my whole new SB outlook anymore. That is a small victory in and off itself for me!

As for the weight, it's been pretty consistent at 195 for the last few days. I'm going to throw in some serious exercise this week (Bikram today!!) and see if that further fuels some weight loss. I feel like I'm generally doing pretty good with the food, so putting a real exercise regime together is my next goal.