Surrender Dorothy

First of all, the Good Scale told me 204.0 this morning. CS was right about small plateaus and then drops. Next of all, I only started the injections this morning. So I can hope for this continued brisk loss pace to continue, hopefully, for the next ten pounds.

This is a very low calorie diet that was used in Italy in the 1970s at one of those expensive fat farm resorts. The physician who discovered it found that the use of this hormone (HCG) tended to create rapid weight loss with decreased hunger in very low calorie diets. Like 500 calories per day. The theory is that the HCG allows stored reserves of fat to be metabolized more easily such that the person feels less hunger than they might because they are easily and readily burning fat reserves that are on board.

This may be a Total Bunch of Bull. However, I have lost eleven pounds in nine days. Clearly some of this is water. The weird thing is that this diet not only limits you to 500 calories per day, it also limits the kinds of things you can eat to make those calories. I was not a believer until I went off program last week when we were in Oregon and my choices (especially in terms of food preparation) were more limited. And I had a small gain and I had a two day plateau. It is hard for someone like me to understand why an apple is OK but a pear is not. Why Swiss Chard is lovely but mushrooms are not OK. My brain is always spinning and working and being a curious AND cynical sort of person, it drives me nuts not to understand these things.

However, I believe that I must surrender to this process and stop asking so many questions about it and stop turning things over and over in my head and just roll with it.

And indeed, I have been hunting down HCG recipes that work and OH MY GOD I found a killer one last night. So good that I am going to make it again (in larger quantities) for my family. Darling Boy asked for a bite of what I was having and then hooted "MAKE THIS FOR EVERYONE MOM!"

So, I thought I'd share it with you all: Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps

* 4 oz chicken (shredded or ground - I just cut mine into wee pieces)
* two tablespoons minced onion (I used more. I love onion)
* minced garlic - to taste (Use tons. Life is wonderful because Garlic is in it.)
* 1 minced serrano or jalapeno pepper (I used serrano)
* 2 tablespoons minced celery
* minced ginger root. If you don't have ginger root just put in a pinch of dry ginger
* 1 cup savoy cabbage (it's the kind that looks like wrinkled paper. Not stinky at all)
* 1/4 to 1/2 cup chicken broth
* juice of a lime or half a lemon
* cilantro - OMG Can I just take a moment to say bow much I love fresh cilantro? Chop it up.

Get out the wok or a big ol' skillet. Chop the chicken into wee bits. Brown it and then add onion garlic, ginger and celery. Cook for about 5 minutes or les. Add the pepper, and cabbage and broth. I laid the cabbage leaves sortof over the mixture and let the leaves steam. When the leaves get slightly wilted, fish them out. Add cilantro and lemon juice and cook another couple of minutes. Then serve this mixture on the cabbage leaves, which make these pretty little rolls. People will think you are a genius. And it's only 245 calories for the whole thing.

SMW is having a party for her darling husband, the Hilarious Pastor, on Saturday. It's his birthday. I am travelling again from Thurs through Sat afternoon for work. If I'm not just blasted tired, I think I'll make these in large quantity to bring to the party, so I have something I KNOW I can eat. I just have to not eat tooo many of them. My wee recipe made about four cabbage leaf roll thingies, btw.

I surrender slowly, but it's 9 days in and I haven't said "oh fuck it" just yet.

And that's something, isn't it?