Lost 25 lbs as of Today

Heck yes! I feel great today. I am wearing jeans that I used to have to always wear a hoodie with because of my muffin top, with just a T-shirt, and they are even baggy and I have to keep pulling them up. That feels awesome! Way better than feeling like an elephant all the time.

There are a few new things that I have learned that have helped me get here and made this diet much easier.

#1: Chelsea gave me a new book called "The HCG Victory Tool Kit" by James Walker. It is a great book with loads of info about why the diet works, what you can eat, and what you can do to lose the most weight while you are doing this diet.

#2: The book gave info on some things that we did not know on our previous HCG diet. Such as you can eat EGGS! AND COTTAGE CHEESE! I cannot tell you how much easier the diet has been with these two add ons. I make dressings and dips with the cottage cheese, and Chelsea and I want to even make a Carb Free Lasagna! mmmmm. Eggs are so amazing, and quick and easy too. I just make a few in my egg cooker and eat them as my lunch protien, and in salads, yummy. It even tastes a little bit like Ice cream when I eat it all by itself in this little Gelato cup with a gelato spoon that I have kept around. It is all about fooling your mind right?

http://mylifemybody.com/2010/07/cottage-cheese-benefits-five-things-you-should-know/

This link gives great info on the benefits of cottage cheese along with some great low fat ideas.

#3: Chelsea also introduced me to Dessert Delights Extra Sugarfree Gum. The most amazing gum ever!!!. There are three kinds I have been able to find: Key Lime Pie, Starlight Mint Ice Cream and Strawberry Shortcake. The best thing about them is that they really do taste like what they say they are! I don't gain when I eat even like 5 sticks throughout the day. When I am craving ice cream at 10 pm I just eat some of the Starlight mint gum, and I am in heaven. I highly reccomend picking some of these up and keeping them handy for cravings.

#4: Carolynn (my cousin) told me about making your own flavored drinks using mineral water. I have been adding different juices and stevia to my Perrier water and even though it is not diet coke or Dr. Pepper, it tastes great. My favorite so far is mixing vanilla liquid stevia with Lemon Juice, like a sparkling sweet lemonade.

#5: JOSH. He has been so awesome thought this whole thing. He tries not to ever eat in front of me, and told me that while I am doing this diet I don't need to make him food so that it would be easier for me. So sweet. He also didn't mind this week when I spent $8.60 on just a steak from Juniper Takeout. He is amazing, and I love him so much. He keeps giving me positive feedback about how I am looking too, which helps a ton.

Other things going on besides the diet....

I got to babysit for the girl who used to be my visiting teacher last night while they went on a date. I had so much fun with their 18 month old little boy. We played with balls, and playdo, and colored, and he showed me all of his toys. Seriously, I want a baby so much. I didn't even want to put him to bed because I was enjoying everything. His laugh, how excited he got while we were playing with his toys, man I just love kids.

I have been reading a lot lately. I finished "Water for Elephants" last week. It is a movie that is coming out soon about the Circus in 1930. (Robert Pattinson aka Edward Cullin will be the lead with Reese Witherspoon) So stoked. I just finished Nicholas Sparks latest called "Safe Haven". It was really good too if you like his style.

We are trying out a Free month of Netflicks on the XBOX 360. We watched "Fire in the Sky" last night and I couldn't sleep for hours, that movie scared the crap out of me when I was little too. I am looking forward to watching some of the old movies I saw on there with Josh.

When I was an my Grandma Redd's house last weekend, she made this soup that looked and smelled so amazing. It is her hamburger soup, so I asked for the Recipe to see if I could make an HCG version. Here is what Chelsea and I came up with.

HCG Hamburger Soup

3 oz Hamburger
1/4 onion chopped in square pieces
1/2 Large tomato or 1 small tomato cut in cubes
3/4 cup Cauliflour heads with no stems
2 tsp Tomato paste
Water
Oregano
Celery Seed
Basil

Brown your hamburger with the onion slices in a small frying pan. Once browned spoon it into a small saucepan and add enough water to cover the hamburger and about a half and inch more to cover the vegetables you will add. While the water comes to a boil chop up your vegitables and add them to the pan. Stir in dashes of the spices and tomato paste. Boil the soup until the cauliflour is as soft as you want it to be. Remove from heat and salt to taste.

Such a good soup on a cold day.

Anyways, I am off to run errands. Hope things are going well and I apologize for not writing as often as I would like.