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Thursday, August 28, 2014

Weekly Weigh In: Starting Phase 3

Sorry I have been a little busy this week and didn't get my normal weekly weigh in post written on Monday/Tuesday like usual.  Its Thursday now and I'm well into Phase 3 Week 1.  So far - I'm loving it.  The hardest thing to manage is that there is an expected weight gain of a couple of pounds (3-5).  The info packet for Phase 3 explains it all and it makes perfect scientific sense.  Its still hard to be OK with it when I've spent 6 months losing weight :) but I will accept it as part of the process.

So now in addition to my daily IP food journal, I'm tracking everything with MyFitnessPal.com.  They have both an internet website and android app so its really easy/convenient to use.  You can import recipes via a URL link into the web tool and it will match ingredients and compute nutrition information for you ... SO cool!!

I've pulled a bunch of recipes in from the original website and then when I eat a serving I can just add the recipe to my food list for the day.  I'm really excited by that as I try different food going forward.  I've look into a lot of paleo/low carb/gluten free recipes as a way to still have treats but control the carb intake.  Not all GF/paleo recipes are created equal when it comes to carbs though.  The whole idea there is not to control carbs but gluten so its not a guarantee that a GF recipe will be lower in carbs than a regular recipes.  I've been lucky with a couple of websites (www.BeckysMindfulKitchen.com which is a local chef I've taken classes from and www.AgainstAllGrain.com which  is an amazing resource for GF /paleo recipes)

I've made a few treats (dark chocolate peanut butter "granola" bars, fudgy grain free brownies) and I made my first batch of homemade ricotta cheese too.  I plan on making yogurt once the yogurt maker gets here from Amazon and I'm going to make homemade mozzarella cheese next week.  Imagine sweetened ricotta on your toast in the morning (and 2 weeks ago I couldn't even imagine toast in the morning :) )and fresh mozz in the lunch time salad ... ummmm - pardon me whilst I day dream a little :)

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Oh and Phase 4 has a cheat day - honest, I'm not making that up!!  So pasta will be on the menu one day soon.  Possibly home made pasta since I have pasta rollers and cutters from the wedding.  ANd maybe alfredo. :D

The biggest challenge to Phase 3/4 will be food management.  All things are permissible but not all things are profitable.  This is one of the reasons why I wanted to be on Phase 4 when we go to Italy next month.  I want to have a good starting point on things to eat so I'm not sick.  I may very well gain weight (>5 pounds) and be back on Phase 1 when I get back.   In fact I'm kind of planning on it.  But what I don't want is to be sick while we're there because I overindulged in things my system isn't happy to handle any more.

Stay tuned.  The ride is really just starting!






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