R4 Phase 4 Day 114

Weight - 144.6

Well only a small drop and I expected it.  I'd planned two meals today, but life got in the way.  By the time I even thought about lunch it was already 2 pm.  I had a facial scheduled for after 3 so I decided to wait to eat until dinnertime.

My oldest son got in to see the neuro doc today.  He needs a laminectomy and discectomy at L5/S1.  Right now the earliest surgery date is December 20th.  This will mean some changes for Christmas plans, but we will manage.

Dinner - (583 calories)
240 g cooked chicken breast
1 package Green Giant Healthy Vision  Veggies
2 tbsp Maple Grove Farms Sugar Free White Balsamic Vinaigrette


Total calories for the day 583
Daily Calorie Composition: 9% from carbs, 37% from fat and 54% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Day 113

Weight - 144.8

Ouchie..  2.6 pounds.  I'm sure based on previous times I'm in for a couple of days of this before it starts to drop off.  I'm doing a steak day, but since I had steak last night, I'm doing about a pound of 90/10 ground sirloin as two burger patties with the works on the side.  Between today and eating well tomorrow I'll see a fair amount of this drop off.

My oldest son has had back issues for a couple of years now.  From steroid injections to chiro visits stretching, aligning and adjusting, it's time for a neurosurgeon.   He was scheduled for an MRI today and to see the surgeon on Friday, but he sneezed this afternoon and everything from lower back down went numb.  A trip to the ER and MRI subsequent to that shows a very herniated L5/S1.  He's got less than 3mm of space left for the nerves in his spinal column.  He's having referred leg pain and sciatic issues.   They allowed him to go home, but he's on total bed rest.  Hoping to get him in to see the neuro doc before Friday. 

I was doing okay on my correction day until I got to worrying about my son.  I devoured a bowl of Life cereal before bedtime.

Dinner - (865 calories)
16 oz 90/10 Angus ground sirloin
50 g lettuce
50 g roma tomato
40 g onion
2 baby dill pickles
1 tbsp Maries Blue Cheese yogurt dressing
2 tbsp Kraft fat free mayo
1 tbsp Heinz Reduced Sugar Ketchup

Late night - (153 calories)
3/4 cup Life Cereal
1/4 c 2% milk

Total Calories for the day 1,018
Daily Calorie Composition: 16% from carbs, 45% from fat and 39% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Day 112

Weight - 142.2

Tons of carbs yesterday so of course I'm up today, but only by 0.2 lbs which surprised me a bit.  I've not slept well the last few days.  Today is a crazy food day, so tomorrow will be a steak day and then I'm going to go from there doing what I do during the week to drop back in range.

The list of food for today is crazy and delicious but because it's a major restaurant meal I can't even begin to put a guess on the total calories.  It's a fair amount.

I snacked on veggies during the day.  Dinner was at Asado in Tacoma.  Love Love Love that place

We shared a queso frito and a calamari appetizer.  I had the quinoa salad, flat iron steak with poblano polenta.  We shared deserts.  Also split a bottle of malbec wine between the group.

I'll be up tomorrow I know and then correcting again.  Such is life.  I'm learning not to sweat it so much.

R4 Phase 4 Day 110

Weight - 140.6


Up 1.2 pounds.  Very little, sleep, no output and perhaps too much sodium.  Today is shot to all hell.  My daughter-in-law is supposed to be loading this weekend.  She's been wanting Mexican food.  I can do that without much trouble.  Then I did Indian food for dinner.  Not bad.  BUT  after dinner my mouth was on fire.  We went to Coldstone and I got ice cream.  I've not had Coldstone in probably two years.   I know I'll be up tomorrow.  The question will be by how much.  We have brunch on Saturday and there will be pancakes.  I'm going to do a salad for dinner on Saturday.

We have dinner out Sunday night already planned.  I am going to eat that meal only on Sunday and then Monday will be a steak day of some sort.  Then I'll go from there on Tuesday.

Lunch - (630 calories)
Chicken Carnitas (no rice or beans)
Side salad with low cal Italian dressing
1 corn tortilla
1 flour tortilla
a few chips and salsa

Dinner - (1,806 calories estimated)
half portion Chicken Tikka Masala
1/4 portion basmati rice
small piece of garlic naan bread
Gotta Have It Coldstone (Yikes)

Total calories for the day 2,436
Daily Calorie Composition: 49% from carbs, 36% from fat and 15% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Day 107

Weight - 139.6

The rebound weight is back off.  Nice.  Eating two meals and including some fat today to get my calories well above 1,000.  Then I'm thinking I'll do 2 or 2.5 days of the lean eating of the 17 Day Diet to try to drop a bit more before the weekend.  My daughter-in-law is loading for her third round this weekend.  She's made the request for a couple of restaurants.  Oh Joy.

Lunch - (681 calories)
3 large eggs
70 g mushrooms
60 g onion
1 tbsp butter
minced garlic
4 Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage patties
2 tbsp Smuckers Sugar Free Syrup
4 tbsp half & half in several cups of coffee


Dinner - (413 calories)
200 g chicken breast
120 g romaine
80 g cucumber
80 g tomato
40 g onion
3 radishes
3 tbsp Maple Grove Farms Sugar Free White Italian Dressing

Total Calories for the day 1,094
Daily Calorie Composition: 13% from carbs, 51% from fat and 36% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Day 106

Weight - 141.0

A 1.4 pound bump.. could be rebound, could be pie.  I had planned two meals today, but didn't get lunch at a decent time so I turned it into a steak and salad sort of day.  I know I didn't get in enough calories.

Half n Half in Coffee during the day

Dinner - (666 calories)
260 g NY Steak
100 g romaine
100 g cucumber
40 g onion
3 large radishes
3 tbsp Kraft Fat Free Italian Dressing

Total Calories for the day 736
Daily Calorie Composition: 10% from carbs, 58% from fat and 32% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Day 105

Weight - 139.6

A nice 3.4 lb drop from my steak day.  Now I typically rebound a bit the next day so I'm eating a bit less today on purpose.  We revisited our Thanksgiving leftovers, but I manage to just have some turkey and a salad.  Well then there was the slice of Boston Creme Pie that I've been craving for two weeks.

Snacks while prepping - Veggie tray with some ranch dip
Glass of sweet white wine

Dinner - (636 calories)
3 oz turkey breast
1 dinner roll
garden salad with fat free Italian dressing
1 slice Boston Creme Pie

Total calories for the day 909
Daily Calorie Composition: 52% from carbs, 34% from fat and 14% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Day 104

Weight - 143.0

Holy cow.  I dropped 2.6 lbs from yesterday.  I'm astounded.  Really have been retaining fluid that is finally leaving and I also managed some output overnight.

Steak day today then I'll see which way I want to go with things tomorrow.

Dinner - (1,258 calories)
450 g Rib eye steak
150 g roma tomato
garlic butter

Total calories for the day 1,258
Daily Calorie Composition: 3% from carbs, 66% from fat and 31% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Thanksgiving Day After

Weight - 145.6

Only up .6 today?  I know what it means.  My body had retained a lot of fluid from what I ate on Wednesday.  During Thursday, some of that fluid left while I ate willynilly for Thanksgiving.  The net result was the .6 gain.

My plan was to eat one meal today with leftovers and do the steak day tomorrow.  Best laid plans.  With my recent cravings for Boston Creme Pie, I had purchased two cream filled donuts.  I ate them both today as well as a piece of pecan pie.  My reasoning behind it was "Get it all out of here now".  Yeah.. I know.. silly. 


Today's food in no particular order -

2 Creme Filled Donuts
1 piece of pecan pie
2 white chocolate macadamia nut cookies
2 dinner rolls
1 sandwich on whole wheat white bread with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and mayo

Total Calories for the day 1,883
Daily Calorie Composition: 51% from carbs, 36% from fat and 13% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Thanksgiving

Weight - 145.0

Wow.  So no more eating cheesy tortillas and cereal at midnight before Thanksgiving.  Total ouch.  Well the plan is to eat today and Friday, do a steak day on Saturday, then reassess.   Originally we were to go to my parents' on the coast for today's meal and having a traditional Thanksgiving meal at home on Friday.  Instead we had to stay home and I did our Friday meal today. 

And I ate.  Boy did I eat.  As we started out of town everyone wanted Burger King Breakfast.  We stopped for that and then plans changed and we came back to the house for pain meds for my son.  We decided to wait a while and see how he was doing.  Then went to IHop for a bite because I'd been raving about the pumpkin pancakes.   After we got home the kids were talking about turkey so I ended up throwing dinner together and we ate that around 7.

Here's a list and a guesstimate on the calories.

Burger King Sausage Crossanwich (before we found out where weren't making the 2 hour drive).

Ihop Eggnog Pumpkin Pancakes, with 3 scrambled eggs (before we decided to have the turkey Thursday and not Friday)

Turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, hash brown casserole, broccoli rice au gratin, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and a Boston Creme cupcake.

Total Calories for the day 2,178 estimated
Daily Calorie Composition: 43% from carbs, 44% from fat and 13% from protein.

17 Day Diet Cycle 1 Day 12

Weight - 140.0

Sad when I eat pretty clean and gain a pound.  Maybe the calories were too low.  Who knows.  Eating more calories today and we shall see.  I'm going to eat pretty much typical Thanksgiving meals on Thursday and Friday and then plan a steak day on Saturday.

Breakfast - (129 calories)
6 oz Fage 0% Greek yogurt
60 g raspberries

Lunch - (483 calories)
280 g chicken breast
1 tbsp olive oil
100 g romaine
80 g tomato
3 tbsp Kraft Fat Free Italian dressing

Afternoon Snack - (232 calories)
6 oz Fage 0% Greek Yogurt
28 g Nature's Path FlaxPlus Pumpkin Granola


Dinner - (256 calories)
228 g veal, sliced thin
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp capers
100 g romaine
30 g fat free balsamic dressing

Total Calories for the day 1,100
Daily Calorie Composition: 20% from carbs, 27% from fat and 53% from protein.

17 Day Diet Cycle 1 Off Day

Weight - 139.8

A drop of 1.8 lbs.  Nice.  We were out shopping this afternoon and ended up at Red Robin.  I did okay there, but later in the evening ate a small Dairy Queen Blizzard.  Hopefully the combination doesn't blow up on me.

Dinner - (1004 estimated)
**Red Robin
Shared appetizers - fried mushrooms & cheese sticks
Prime Chophouse burger, double patty
side salad with balsamic 

Evening - (464 calories)
Most of a small banana cream pie blizzard

Total Calories for the day 1,468
Daily Calorie Composition: 25% from carbs, 52% from fat and 23% from protein.

17 Day Diet Cycle 1 Off Day

Weight - 141.6

Well interestingly enough even after a midnight right for pumpkin pancakes, I'm only up .6 today.  Because were are going out for dinner tonight, I am eating one meal.

Dinner - (911 calories estimated)
**BJ's Brewhouse
Shared appetizer - Spinach & Artichoke Dip
Crispy Fried Artichokes
Black & Bleu Burger, bunless
side salad with Italian

Total Calories for the day 911
Daily Calorie Composition: 23% from carbs, 51% from fat and 26% from protein.

17 Day Diet Cycle 1 Off Day

Weight - 141.0

Down 1 lb of my gain.  Today and tomorrow are planned off days.  I don't want my body getting used to 1,000 calories a day.  So 2 days out of the week I'm trying to eat more normal.   Today was also hair day.  Went to the salon with my daughter-in-law and granddaughter.  Afterward we hit a local Indian restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner.

Breakfast - (256 calories)
.75 c Life Cereal
.25 c 2% milk
114 g banana

Lunch - (875 calories estimated)
2 pieces naan bread
1 bowl mulligatawny soup
1/2 portion Chicken Tikka Masala
1/4 portion Vegetable Korma
1/4 c basmati rice

Total Calories for the day 1,131
Daily Calorie Composition: 67% from carbs, 18% from fat and 15% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Day 82

Weight - 139.8

Well boo.  As I figured, some rebound.  I'm doing a nut day today.  Maybe alternating clean days, correction days, and a few splurges will at least get things to settle at some point.  Had to take two bearded dragons and my African Grey for check ups today.  That was sure interesting.

I spaced out several ounces of various nuts throughout the day.

In total I had
1.5 oz macadamia nuts
2 oz pecan halves
2 oz walnut halves
4 tbsp half & half in two mugs coffee

Total calories for the day 1,141
Daily Calorie Composition: 7% from carbs, 90% from fat and 3% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Day 81

Weight - 138.6

Down 2.2 from steak day.  I'm sure there will be some sort of a rebound tomorrow.   I'm sick.. sore throat, tonsils are swollen, body aches, and a headache that won't quit.  Not fun for eating.  I just want comfort food.

Lunch - (577 calories)
3 large eggs
1 Al Fresco Garlic Chicken Sausage link
50 g onion
50 go mushroom
50 g bell pepper
20 g provolone cheese
1 tbsp diced green chilies
2 tbsp enchilada sauce
2 tbsp half & half in two mugs coffee

Dinner - (530 calories)
Campbells Select Garden Vegetable Soup
130 g 96/4 ground beef
8 saltines
1 slice Oroweat Fiber and Flax bread

Total calories for the day 1,107
Daily Calorie Composition: 30% from carbs, 39% from fat and 31% from protein.

R4 Phase 4 Day 78

Weight - 141.2

What goes up, should come down.  1.2 lbs today.  We'll see how tomorrow goes before I do anything crazy.  We had a blast taking the grandbaby to the mall for trick or treating and then through the neighborhood a bit.  She was a zombie pirate this year.  She loved it and was totally too pooped out to eat much candy.

Brunch - (502 calories)
3 large eggs
1 Al Fresco Garlic Chicken Sausage link
50 g onion
50 go mushroom
50 g bell pepper
20 g Cotija cheese
2 tbsp half & half in two mugs coffee

Afternoon Snack - (164 calories)
1 small container Fage 2% greek yogurt
50 g strawberries

Dinner - (503 calories)
Progresso Savory Beef Barley soup
116 g eye of round steak
5 saltines

Total calories for the day 1,169
Daily Calorie Composition: 26% from carbs, 36% from fat and 38% from protein. 

Fat  47 g; Fiber 7 g; Carb 74 g; Sodium 2,908 mg; Protein 109 g  

R4 Phase 4 Day 77

Weight - 142.4

So.. how, you ask, do I gain 3.6 lbs in one day when I ate steak?  Easy.. eat IHop Pumpkin Pancakes at 1am.  Yeah.. I caved.  It's all in my head too.  What's bad I guess is that I know why I did it.  After dropping well for a few days in a row, I saw three days of gains and it got to me.  I was eating decently and had a gain?  Well why not eat what I want if I'm going to gain.  Now it probably wouldn't have been so bad if it had not been at 1am in the morning.   Ah well.. I'll live to see another day.

So today, I'm eating one meal, Mexican.  I know I've overcounted on the calories so I'm going to leave it at what I actually had.

I ordered Barbacoa with the rice and salad instead of the beans.  I had a few bites of the rice, all of the beef, with some cilantro, onion, and sour cream mixed in, as well as a few corn tortillas.  Then I went to town on six peanut butter cookies and some chocolate.  Too many carbs, but we shall see.  My plan is to eat a decent P3 menu for a few days and see where I am before working on it more.

R4 Phase 4 Day 74

Weight - 137.6

Down 0.2 lbs so I'm adding back some fats today. Eating a more normal calorie, by safe menu then perhaps back to some lower again to see if I can drop 4 lbs.

I ran errands this afternoon and driving down through this one local park, I literally had to stop and take some pictures. The trees were just beautiful.

Breakfast - (35 calories)
2 tbsp half & half in a mug of coffee

Lunch - (627 calories)
14 oz Fage Total Classic Greek Yogurt
100 g strawberries
.5 tbsp Nutivia coconut oil
stevia to taste

Afternoon Snack - (74 calories)
1 tbsp half & half in a mug of coffee
.5 tbsp Nutivia Coconut oil

Dinner - ( 706 calories)
2 - 4 oz Omaha Steak Burgers
1 tbsp Hain Canola mayu
1 tbsp  Heinz Reduced Sugar ketchup
50 g dill pickle
50 g grape tomatoes
20 g onion

Total calories for the day 1,442
Daily Calorie Composition: 8% from carbs, 72% from fat and 20% from protein.

Fat  115 g; Fiber 3 g; Carb 27 g; Sodium 870 mg; Protein  73 g

R4 Phase 4 Day 73

Weight - 137.8

Oh my!  3.4 pounds.  I didn't think based on last night's weight that I'd drop, let alone drop that much.  Nice.  More of the same today with a bit more calories.  I'm going to ride this out.  If I don't see a drop tomorrow I'll do a day or two of higher calories and then go back to it again.

Oh and someone asked me a few days ago about the tracker that I use.  It's called a FibBit .  I've had one since they first came out a couple of years ago.  It's much like the BodyBuggs that they wear on Biggest Loser except that the FibBit is compact, about the size of a USB flash drive, and costs under $100.  Their only tracking is free, where most others require a monthly fee.  There is an extensive food list for tracking in a food log.  I've previously used FitDay and others, but have used the FibBit exclusively for the last two years.

Lunch - (299 calories)
**Tuna salad & a few Grapes
1 74g pouches Starkist Chunk Light low sodium Tuna
1 hardboiled egg
30 g dill relish
20 g celery
20 g onion
2 tbsp Kraft Fat Free Tarter Sauce (bleck)
1 tbsp half & half in a mug of coffee
handful of grapes

Afternoon Snack - (151 calories)
150 g strawberries
1 square - World Market All Natural 99% Cacao Chocolate

Dinner - (446 calories)
**Beef eye of round steak & Cucumber salad
168 g beef eye of round
1 tbsp Melt Buttery Spread
1 tsp minced garlic
250 g cucumber
20 g onion
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp light extra virgin olive oil
garlic powder, salt and pepper

Total calories for the day 896
Daily Calorie Composition: 15% from carbs, 50% from fat and 35% from protein.

Fat  56 g; Fiber 11 g; Carb 38 g; Sodium 1,184 mg; Protein  90 g