Day 10 - Weight 123 - To Cheat or Not to Cheat - Bison & Cabbage Soup

I didn't sleep well last night and this morning I woke up with a sore throat and a general feeling of being "under the weather," tired, and more than a little cranky. Read: witchy with a "b." Oh, and an overwhelming feeling of "I AM STARVING!!!!" It's the first day that I've actually woken up already hungry. I think for the people that I know that eat breakfast within minutes of waking, they would be hungry every morning of this diet. I don't eat breakfast anyway and I think it's really helped me with the whole "not eating until noon" thing. But why isn't it getting easier? 10 days? It seems like the body would be adjusting.

So, the truth is... I cheated today. My definition of cheating is different than my husband's. (But then what's new there? Isn't men and women's definition of cheating always different? lol!) First of all, I made a decision to cheat. I knew what I was doing. Second, I didn't go "off protocol" as far as foods go. I didn't eat anything that was forbidden: sugar, starch, fat. Instead I decided that I simply didn't want to feel this hungry today. Frankly, I haven't felt this hungry any other day on the diet. It felt weird. Almost like something was wrong. Not scary wrong. But "off" somehow. OK, so how did I cheat? You can see it on the menu...

SNACK - Eaten at 10am, not 11:30 like I usually do.

• Grapefruit
  
• WASA bread

LUNCH

• 110 grams of Chicken
• Asparagus, steamed in salted water

I marinated the chicken for 30 mins. in 3 TBSP lemon juice, spray of Bragg's Aminos, Thai Spice, about 1/8th of a cup of hot water. Then I baked it in a 375 degrees oven in a covered baking dish for 20 mins. While I was waiting for my oversized chicken portion to cook, I took my second cheat: I ate two bites of steak out of the fridge. Yesterday, I had pre-grilled a steak so that it would be ready for my husband to take it to work for his lunch. I don't know what I was thinking because today is Saturday and he doesn't need to take a lunch anywhere. (All the days are just blending together, I guess). So, today that steak, all sliced up and ready to put on top of a salad, is sitting in the refrigerator staring at me. Now I'm staring back. Now I'm reaching for it and... BOOM! In one day, or wait, in one hour, I've upped my planned protein portion, I've "snacked" on other food, and I've mixed my proteins. Know what? I don't feel bad about it. I'm too hungry to care.

SNACK

• Apple
  

DINNER - Bison Cabbage Soup

• Bison, ground
• 110 grams of Cabbage
• WASA bread
  

I made a soup by simply browning the bison in the pan with pepper, garlic powder and Sambal Ulek. For my husband's I substituted Thai Spice for the too spicy Sambal Ulek. I deglazed the pan with a shot of Bragg's Aminos and then added 3 C of water. Bring to a gentle simmer and hold for about 6-8 mins. Add the chopped cabbage and continue to simmer until the cabbage is soft.

The soup was delicious mostly because the bison can hold it's own. (Remember when I made the Asian flavors fish soup and the fish wasn't really powerful enough to give the broth much flavor?) Hubby and I both learned the value of adding water to our meal - it's alot more filling. I'll definitely be having more soup for the remainder of the diet. Before I started cooking dinner, I ate another bite of steak out of the fridge. I figured that I already cheated today and I might as well make it count.

Oh yeah, I said that my husband doesn't really think I cheated. Why is that? Well, he thinks that only going "off"the diet with banned foods would really be cheating. While I agree that it would definitely be worse, breaking the rules is still breaking the rules. I know I may have to pay for it. At AmaraMedSpa they said that if you cheat, it takes about three days, staying on the strict protocol of course, to get back on track. Basically, three days wasted. I realize that this is mostly for people who go out and have a "real" meal. Still, I will have to see what happens to me because of my "indiscretions."

Tonight I found a disturbing blog. It's called Fat Loss Chronicles . It documents one woman's journey on the HCG diet and it didn't go well for her. It's the first really negative story I've heard about HCG. There are some things, though, about the diet protocol that she was on that are totally different than Dr. Simeon's Protocol or the diet program that I was prescribed at Amara. Some really big differences that I noticed were:

1. Amara requires that you take a daily multivitamin supplement AND a presciption potassium supplement. Near the end of the diet, she mentions taking magnesium and potassium supplements but I don't know if she took them throughout and she makes no mention of a daily multi-vitamin.
   
2. You must be mixing up your food intake, eating different proteins and vegetables at each meal every day as well as choosing broadly from the choices given on the protocol. This woman ate chicken as her protein of choice for nearly every meal, never ate beef or fish, and most commonly ate the same vegetable for fruits and vegetables for both snacks and both lunches/dinners. (The only times she didn't eat chicken she substituted with off-protocol items like cottage cheese or egg whites).
   
3. She regularly ate fruits and vegetables that are strictly NOT on the protocol. Oranges and broccoli are big no-no's and she ate them alot. Lots of sugar...
4. She ate breakfast.
   
5. Sadly, she was coming down with a cold before she even started the diet and fought that illness throughout most of the diet.
6. She really counted calories. I haven't counted calories at all. I've weighed my food religiously and, OTHER THAN TODAY, eaten exactly what I was prescribed on the protocol. Nothing more. Nothing less.
   

Overall, it seems that the diet did not work for her. That's concerning to me and I feel bad for her, too. If I went through all of this and didn't have better results than she had, I would be really upset. I've already lost almost as many inches as she did in her entire first cycle. So, clearly we're doing something very different. We better be.