On to Phase 3 and Low Carb Shepard’s Pie
I’m excited to report that I have been able to maintain my weight loss for the past week. You might be wondering why I’m excited about that when I still have so much more weight to lose. On the Omni-Drops program, you need to take a few weeks off (3 weeks during round 1) for your Hypothalamus to reset itself to your new weight. Also, if you happen stay on the drops for longer than 45 days, there is a chance your body could become immune to them. So, it’s important to take a break and let your body catch up to everything. My husband finished up his first round of phase 2 also – his stats – he lost 27 pounds in 21 days. I’m very impressed and a bit jealous as men normally lose more per day, on average, than a woman does. Although I’m really happy for him. He’s in the military and it’s important he maintains a healthy weight. Over the past few years he’s been struggling with his back and other body aches and pains that has made him put on some extra pounds. He’ll be leaving the military soon (after 33 years) and we both want to make sure he steps off with a healthy weight. Okay – back to the Omni-Drops diet – what is different about phase 2 and phase 3? On phase 3 you are no longer taking the Omni-Drops. You also get to double your amount of protein and vegetable intake. You need to stop eating oranges and your crackers. Instead, you can add back in healthy oils, lots more vegetables and even more fruit. All must be low in sugar or carbs and you need to continue to avoid eating any carbs and sugar, overall – except the natural ones in your fruit and vegetables.
Over the next three weeks, I’ll be trying to recreate some of my favorite meals but low-carbing them. Today I’ll share with you my version of my all time favorite meal, Shepard’s Pie. I normally make it with hamburg, corn and mashed potatoes. I set out to find something that would give me the same textures and similar tastes. I think I came up with something very close.
Spicy Cabbage Salad
This was really good. I served it with the mini meatloaf. My husband compared it to a salsa. I’m not a fan of raw radishes but in this dish they worked really good and I actually enjoyed them.
Mini Meatloaf (Meatloaves)
I made these mini meatloaves using a pan I had originally bought to make brownies in. You can also use a cupcake pan or any other pan that has individual serving size slots.
Chicken EggRolls and an Update on my Husband
My husband decided to join me on the weight loss train and almost two weeks ago he started the Omni-Drops. I’m happy to report that he’s on day 12 and he’s lost 17.8 pounds already. I love when we both are eating healthy together although it has been a challenge at times. He’s a bit lot more cranky when he’s not able to eat large amounts of food whenever he feels like it.
I’ve been perfectly happy with the amount of food I’ve been eating. I’m rarely hungry. I keep telling him that I think he’s not really hungry but it’s more of a habit to eat when he wants to. Remember the tv commercial they had for awhile where they showed people trying to quit smoking and they would talk about smoking a cigarette while eating breakfast, while driving
their car, etc? Well that’s my husband but with food. He’s a habitual eater and when taken out of his comfort zone, he gets cranky.
Two more days for me on the drops during Phase 2 and then I move onto Phase 3. I’m excited about being able to add in fats and dairy to my diet, along with all the additional vegetables and fruits I can have but there’s been something comforting about having a small list of foods I can eat. I have really enjoyed the dishes I have made and put up here on the blog. Everything has been really flavorful and made from scratch.
I have a few catch-up recipes to post here. I’ll do them individually so they are easier to find while searching my blog.
Here’s the one for Chicken Eggrolls.
Bun-less Sloppy Joes
Tonight’s dinner was Bun-less Sloppy Joes. It was really quick to make (approx. 10 minutes total time0. Now that my husband is doing the diet also, I end up cooking two batches of both meals. Our son is eating along with us but is enjoying at least a double portion of what we eat plus tonight he did put his mixture on top of some bread.
If you’re following the Omni-Drops plan, this is a phase 2 recipe.
Total weight loss for today – 22 pounds in 27 days (R1P2D27)
Homemade Chicken Nuggets
Last night for dinner we made homemade chicken nuggets. No more processed, frozen nuggets for this family. These turned out so good. They were crispy and flavorful. I served them with a side of homemade BBQ sauce and roasted asparagus.
Eating Clean and Feeling Great – A Week of Dinners
If you’ve been reading my blog, then you know I started a new diet at the beginning of January, on the 2nd to be exact. I am feeling great. The thought that my body hasn’t had sugar, oil or processed food is wonderful. It’s the journey I have been longing for and it’s even effecting the scale. I’ve lost a total of 17.8 pounds.
One thing that I’ve noticed over my 30 years of trying to lose weight, is how much attention we give to the number that’s on the scale. If it’s not moving downwards then we get discouraged and give up. I’ve been a victim of that. I once exercised for 5 months straight, 5 times a week for one hour and didn’t see any difference in the number on the scale. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort and gave up. When the scale isn’t budging, it’s important to look at the other positive things that are happening within you. For me, although the scale is going down, I do celebrate my “non-scale” victories. For example, I have so much more energy then I had before I started eating clean. Also, last weekend my sister and I went to visit my parents in upstate New York. They live near a casino and we had plans of going to bingo a few times during our stay. We stayed on plan the whole time, no cheating from the two of us. We met my parents at bingo and my mom packed us each a salad with grilled chicken. We both packed some “approved” foods from our eating plan so we were prepared. I brought in my homemade Honey Mustard Dressing and BBQ Sauce to put on our salads. For dinner we went to the restaurant and asked what vegetables they had as a side, none of them were what we could eat. My sister asked if they had access to any asparagus and the waitress replied that the neighboring restaurant had some. She ran next door and picked us up two side orders to go with the 8oz sirloin steak that we split. Unfortunately the asparagus wasn’t very much but my sister had packed a cucumber with her and I had packed my food scale. We weighed out the asparagus and supplemented with the cucumber. It felt so good to be successful by being prepared.
So, two tips for today: Celebrate the Non-Scale Victories and Be Prepared.
Here’s what I ate this week:
Roasted Cabbage and my Diet Update
I’m on day 13 of my weight loss journey and I’ve lost 13.8 pounds. Hoping I hit the 15 pound mark by the end of the week. I didn’t realize I was four days behind on blogging, wow – time is flying by. I can’t remember what I ate each day but I will provide you with some food porn photos. 🙂
I’ll start first with tonight’s dinner. We had Chicken and Roasted Cabbage. It was my first time trying Roasted Cabbage and I really liked it. It had a kick of lemon on it.
Roasted Cabbage and Chicken
Omni Update and “Spaghetti” and Meatballs
I know I’ve been MIA the last couple of days, sorry about that. My daughter is home visiting from college and I’m trying to spend time with her before she heads back. Here’s my Omni-Drops update: R1P3D8 – I’ve lost a total of 11.4 pounds so far and my energy has been wonderful. For the past 8 days I haven’t had to deal with the afternoon nap bugging me and dragging me down. I’ve also been having a harder time going to bed. I normally go to bed around 10pm but I’m finding myself laying in bed at midnight, awake. I’m taking my NiteLite and it’s giving me a great nights sleep. I need to start making myself take it before I’m actually tired so I can get back to an earlier bed time. Since I skipped a day, I’ll be listing two days of menus. Wednesday: Breakfast – 1/2 grapefruit Lunch – BBQ Chicken Salad Dinner – Omni Burger Sliders and Asparagus Snack – Granny Smith Apple