An Experiment in Cottage Cheese - 02.06.08 - D16P2R4

R4P2 Starting Weight 184.4
Yesterday - 167.4
Today - 167.0
0.4 lb LOSS Overnight
8.4 lb UNDER LIW of Round Three (175.4)
17.4 Lost Since Start of R4 (VLCD) 01/22/08
83.8 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Here is my menu for yesterday. This is what I had:

I am going to discuss in detail what I ate yesterday further below, but for the interest of continuity, I am going to post it here as well. Cottage Cheese and Strawberries with Cinnamon for Lunch, a snack of Broccoli, Dinner was a Baked Italian Cottage Cheese, Broccoli and Tomato thing.

A total of around 353 calories divided this way: 1 Fat, 53 Carbs, 39 Protein

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Our FAQ Question this go round is the following, please spend some time if you can answering this survey:

Thanks goes to Anne, Jeanne, Rosie and Chris for filling out the FAQ yesterday! I will leave this up for a week! This time we are going to focus in on Phase 3 - Please help out if you can!

Phase 3 - The Stabilizing Period

An Experiment in Cottage Cheese

When I reached my goal yesterday for this round, I figured I was in a position to 'test the limits'. I know, every other normal person out there would stick to what works and keep letting it do it's job. Not me! In the interest of "research" I was wanting to broaden my menu.

Now keep in mind that what works for me, won't necessarily work for you, like I always say, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) - but, I am a pretty good test subject me thinks. Almost everything that can happen to a person while on this protocol has happened to either me or JPS and so I am in a pretty good position to do the testing. Anyhow, JPS let's me try everything first to see if it works! ROFL

Anyhow, I already knew before yesterday that if I got to my goal ahead of time, I was gonna try cottage cheese. It's one thing I truly TRULY miss while on protocol. So, I went ahead and got some Fat Free. Now in looking at the label, I find that the calorie content and the protein content are not high enough for my tastes - A typical piece of protein on this protocol is around 110 - 130 calories, with about 15 - 25 in protein grams - one serving of this cottage cheese (126 grams) is only 80 cals and 12 protein. So I felt very comfortable in rising the amount allowed to fill the gap of protein I felt I needed.

For lunch I had 6 ounces (108 cals and 16 protein) - I had this with 5 ounces of cut up strawberries. I sprinkled cinnamon and Sweet and Low all over it and I savored and enjoyed every single bite! I truly felt I was indulging, can you imagine??? I knew I needed to get my veggies in so I chomped on some Broccoli.

So during the afternoon as I was pondering over what to have for supper, I had an idea to look up some recipes that had cottage cheese and broccoli in them to see what might inspire me for supper. Viola - I came across this recipe:

Italian Broccoli Cheese Bake

I modified it to come up with my own! I layered broccoli, canned diced NO SALT tomatoes and cottage cheese in a little oven proof bowl (adding garlic powder, basil and oregano) and I baked it for an hour at 375 degrees.

IT WAS NUMMY!!!

Now, I would do it differently next time (oh yes Virginia, there will be a NEXT TIME) - I will precook my broccoli (I put it in frozen), and I will use FRESH tomatoes - the reason being that it turned out a bit too watery for my taste. It was good mind you, but I have already tweaked it in my head to be BETTER.

This is the issue I see with using cottage cheese as a protein. It certainly does not have enough cals or protein grams in it to be a substantial part of your meal. But I can tell you that when you are in the mood for something decadent, this is the way to go. It wouldn't be an all the time thing, because I do feel that adequate protein on this protocol is VERY important. But oh momma, I felt I was truly OFF protocol yesterday!

Hmmmm, what is my next plan of attack???

Let's Not Forget The Numbers!

I completely skipped the numbers yesterday, how silly is that???

Day 15 (Complete) - Round 4 = 9.44% Body Weight Loss
Day 15 (Complete) - Round 3 = 7.97% Body Weight Loss
Day 15 (Complete) - Round 2 = 6.72% Body Weight Loss
Day 15 (Complete) - Round 1 = 6.30% Body Weight Loss

Things are catching up with each other!

On to my commenter's - these are my responses to yesterday's comments:

Crystal - You know? I have to give myself a reminder to drink the Dandi tea daily - at first that stuff was ick, but I have actually grown to like it! But I have to remember to drink it! ROFL

Mary - Thanks!

Ed & Jenn - Well I already told you that I spewed my water when I read your comment! You are way too funny girlfriend! ROFL You know how I feel, we don't need to go into it here...

Wendy - Girlfriend, thanks for stopping by even tho you had a rough time of it, it happens ya know??? We are all here for support, each and every one of us has gone through at least something that will be able to say just the right words.

Mariel - HA! You and boyfriend are WAY TOO FUNNY! It is the smack tho isn't it??? When my son was on the protocol, I had to figure out things that TEENAGERS would like, do you know how hard that was??? When I came up with the mustard dressing, he said he could LIVE on it! ROFL

Becca - thank you for your thoughts. And WTG on a great GREAT post! I was LOVIN it! Keep on keepin on!

Have a nice one people!

Biz