P2D32

Wahoo! I am on the losing side again! I lost 1 lb yesterday. I will take it.

Did pretty good yesterday. No peanuts and no chocolate, but I still had that very low fat cheese stick. I just can't help it. I am exercising a lot and am soooo very hungry in the afternoon. It is my worst time. I try to stay busy and drink my water and teas, but I am still very hungry. The cheese stick and my apple really tie me over. I will try today not to have one. I will be away from the house in the afternoon so I stand a better chance.

I realized recently that I have been more successful at weight loss with HCG than I have ever been with any other program. My only other big success was with Weight Watchers when I was in graduate school. I lost 29 lbs and reached a weight that is about 7 lbs less than I am right now. It was a lot of hard work. The most bizarre thing that came out of it was that I developed a wicked sweet tooth. Seriously, I was never a sweets craver until I did that fat and fiber for points plan. Obviously, there was no resetting of my metabolism or my hypothalamus hormones. I have more hope this time.

Another fantastic recipe last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The hubby wasn't home for dinner last night so I made this just for myself. I broke my sous chef rule and made the kids some raviolis for their entree last night. I can do that without temptation because, well, I can't eat the raviolis because I am allergic to wheat and can't eat gluten. Lucky me. ;)

I made a number of changes to the recipe to make it even "more Thai." By that I mean that I made sure all the Thai tastes were in there: spicy, sweet, salty, sour and savory. If you look up Thai cooking methods that is usually listed as one of the fundamentals. I wish I could have made this with fish sauce, but I can't find one that is sugar free. Of course, the bottle I have at home lists sugar as the last ingredient and for the 1 Tbs serving it only has 10 cals and 1 g of sugar. Sigh. I used soy sauce instead.

This would also be more authentic with lime juice. If you want to be brave and go off protocol a tiny bit, you could sub lime juice for part or all of the lemon juice. Your call. I did it last night and still lost today.

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Amy's Thai Beef Salad

1 Tbs chopped cilantro, or to your taste
1 Tbs chopped mint, or to your taste
lemon juice from about 1/2 a lemon, I needed more
1 tsp soy sauce or liquid aminos
stevia, to taste
cucumber (allowed amount)
3.5 oz (100g) lean steak, sliced thinly.
1 tsp sambal oelek
1-2 tsp minced garlic
ground pepper
water

In a medium dish combine the herbs, lemon juice, stevia and soy sauce. Peel, seed and chop (or slice, whatever you prefer) the cucumber and add to the lemon juice mixture and stir well. Allow the cucumbers to marinate in the lemon mixture for at least 30 mins, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, it a small bowl combine the sambal oelek, garlic, pepper and 1 Tbs water. Add the steak and stir well to coat the steak with the seasonings. Saute the coated steak in a pan with 1 Tbs water (add more, if needed) over med-hi heat until done to your liking. My steak slices were so thin this only took a couple of minutes.

Serve over the cucumbers. Makes one HCG protein serving and one veg.
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Boy, oh boy was this delicious! It was spicy too, so adjust the sambal oelek if you want a milder dish. I am certain my hubby would have liked it and I plan to make it for a friend when we go away this weekend for a scrap retreat.

Enjoy,
Amy