Food Combining

I found this today while looking up cycling on HCG. It's very interesting on what should and should not be eaten with what. (MANY thanks to J Beanie on the HCG Forums for this!)

Food Combining

This isn't specifically related to cycling, but I'm posting here just so I know where to find it quickly.

Many people report they are having issues when adding foods back in during P3 and P4. Some attribute this to food allergies or food intolerance. While this may be the case, I also think leaving out groups of foods can lead to digestive problems. If you are having issues and have ruled out allergies or intolerance, you may want to consider food combining. Be sure to adapt the concepts to the particular phase you are in as some of the rules don't always apply to P2 or P3.

It may be helpful to print this Food Combining Chart for a quick reference. I tape mine to the inside of a cupboard so it's handy.

This is a list of the basics I compiled from MH's book as a companion to the food chart. Note there is a section on alcohol which should come in handy for those of us who enjoy a refreshing alcoholic beverage now and then.

The Basic Rules of Food Combining

1. Do not eat proteins and starches together. Your body requires an acid base to digest proteins and an alkaline base to digest starches. Proteins and starches combine well with green, leafy vegetables and no starchy vegetables, but they do not combine well with each other.

Acids and Alkalines neutralize each other. Proteins and starches require different digestive enzymes which function at different pH levels in the body. Pepsin digests protein in the highly acidic environment of the stomach, and starches prefer alkaline environments such as the intestines. Combining these two types of food traps them and slows down the digestive process. The undigested food causes digestive problems such as gas, bloating, constipation, and weight gain. When you eat proteins (acid) and starches (alkaline) together, everything gets neutralized and nothing gets digested.

2. Do not mix fruit with proteins, starches, or any kind of vegetable. Fruits digest so quickly that by the time they reach your stomach, they are already partially digested. If they are combined with other foods, they will rot and ferment. Only eat fruit with other fruit.

3. Melons digest faster than any other food. Therefore, you should never eat melons with any other food, including other fruits. Always eat melons on their own.

4. Do not mix acid and/or sub-acid fruits with sweet fruits at the same meal. Acid fruits, such as grapefruits, pineapple, and strawberries, can be mixed with sub-acid fruits, such as apples, grapes, and peaches, but neither of these categories can be mixed with sweet fruits, such as bananas, dates, or raisins.

5. Eat only four to six different fruits or vegetables at one meal.

6. Fats and oils combine with everything (except fruits) but should be used in limited amounts because while they won’t inhibit digestion, they will slow it down.

7. Wait the following lengths of time between meals that don’t combine:
Two hours after eating fruit.
Three hours after eating starches.
Four hours after eating proteins.

Suggested: Divide the day into three food combining segments. Fruit in the morning, a protein lunch, and a starch dinner. This gives a cleansing fruit meal first thing in the morning, an energy-packed protein lunch in the middle of the day, and the slow, steady release of energy from eating complex carbohydrates at night.

If you miscombine food, there are ways to offset the bad combination. If you eat a protein with a starch, you can eat some legumes with the starch, and it will “convert” the starch to a complete protein. Let’s say you eat chicken with rice for lunch. If you eat some beans (any kind), the chicken-rice combination will digest more easily than if you don’t eat the beans. If you eat sushi (fish with rice) which is automatically a bad combination, make sure you add miso soup. Or to help round out your miscombined meals, you can always (in a pinch) eat some peanuts after the meal to offset the bad combination. Speaking of nuts, another good tip is that if you’re going to eat a lot of nuts, make sure you eat an acid fruit with them (ex. glass of orange juice).

Alcohol guidelines: When eating starches, it is better to drink beer or grain alcohol (vodka, scotch, etc.), since they are starch-based. Ideally, you should drink wine and champagne only with fruit. Wine with fish balance each other, too.

Liquids should be consumed fifteen minutes before a meal or one hour after eating. Ideally, you should never drink anything with your meal because it dilutes the digestive juices, thereby interfering with proper digestion. But, if you have to, make sure you sip rather than gulp your drink.

Food Combining “Fix It” Chart

If you eat protein and starch during the same meal, eat some legumes.
If you eat nuts, eat an acid fruit with them.
If you still eat dairy, make sure to eat an acid fruit.
If you’ve overloaded on pasta, eat an apple the next morning.
If you’ve eaten too much sugar, eat grapes the next morning.
If you’ve eaten too much salt, eat watermelon the next morning.

The Food Combining Chart in .pdf

Day 17 total (day 15 VLC) and I unstalled!

So I finally dropped .4 after sitting at 213.8 for the past couple of days. And it's official: I have dropped 15lbs in 15 days! WOOHOO! Let's hope I can keep this up! No hunger either and I'm finding I have to practically choke down food and my water.
I'm hoping to stop by July 7th and move on to Phase 3 only because I have a vacation planned in September and I have to be at least moved on to Phase 3 in my second round by then. There's no way I'm going on vacation and only eating 500 calories and have to prepackage everything!

I'm going to a wedding today and that's going to try to mess me up. But I've got things planned to pack my dinner and try to sneak out and eat it or not stick around for the dinner there. Something. I'll figure it out, I guess.

That sucks because I love gatherings and getting all the food and drinking for free. The even worse news is I'm going to be surrounded by family so that's going to put even more stress on me to want to eat. :( I really do not want to go but it's my baby cousin's wedding. I'm not close to her anymore since she's had 3 kids. I can't relate to any of my cousins so I'm not close to anyone. I really don't like my family very much. No matter how much I have tried in the past, no matter how nice I am on the outside, I still feel like I am an outsider. My mother told me I have to love them because they are my family, but I learned I don't have to even try. They are people who I cannot connect with; I do not have to love anyone like that.

But anyways, in the last couple of days I received my Miracle Noodles, my Braggs's Liquid Aminos and Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar, and I am waiting on my Capella Flavor Drops so I can make better coffee and smoothies. And I also stopped at GNC to get some unflavored protein powder because I don't think I'm getting enough protein. It seems I've saved a lot of money getting healthy by not buying fast food every day of the week so I thought I could splurge a little and get the things I need to stay healthy.

They taste like rice noodles when you wash them and boil them right!

I had to share this as I have been having problems getting my coffee to taste right in the last 2 weeks. I need to have 1 good tasting cup of coffee a morning and today I finally did it with lots of thanks to my new awesome Ninja blender:

1 cup of coffee, 1 dash of peppermint extract, a dash of powdered stevia, 1 tbs of milk, 1 tbs of cocoa powder, a swish with my ninja and POOF: The best tasting peppermint mocha I have ever had! Way better than Starbucks.


I can't even believe how much easier this is getting. I also found a website with low carb recipes called Linda's Low Carb Menus and I cannot wait to try some of her desserts!

Well, since my phone cannot connect to my computer, I have no pictures to share that I took. I'll just grab some random stuff from the web and toss up here.
:)

The Liquid Aminos tastes just like soy sauce and the ACV is a bit brutal but worth it! I'm going to try an ACV rinse in my hair today. We'll see how that goes!



Well, hope everyone has a great weekend and wish me luck with my family today. *gulps*

Day 9 VLCD

Today has been better than yesterday. Hunger pains are about gone and I'm feeling almost 100%. I think that 7 drops a day dosage is working and if I don't improve in 2 days, I'm backing down the dosage.

Yesterday was an interesting experience. I wanted to get a blender to make smoothies, just to give me something else to curb the craving of ice cream and such. So I went to Walmart, got the blender then thought I'd look around for some extracts but ended up walking down every isle practically drooling at all the food I couldn't have. It was almost hysterical in an insane kind of way as I looked at cookies, nope, can't have those. Then chips, nope can't have those! To salad dressings and really, REALLY wanting ranch dressing! I had a mental image of myself sprawled on my back in the middle of isle 12 in Walmart, covered in opened boxes of crackers, cookies, and croutons, covered in ranch dressing and passed out!
Then I sighed, counted to ten, let my tummy rumble as I picked up some apples and cilantro and headed for the counter.
Now, I don't know about ya'll, but for some reason my Walmart has 20 billion lanes with only 2 regular ones open and 1 ten item or less and 1 20 item or less opened! Annoying, especially when I was about to have a carb attack!
As I waited and watched this uber thin woman in front of me, maybe about my age, with one kid on her hip and another in her shopping cart I started to sweat. I tried not to look at the candy and focused on how I wanted to be like this chick in front of me when I have kids one day. I grabbed a bottled water while waiting and really debated opening it up before I got to the register. My back was getting hot and sticky as I could smell the chocolate candy in front of me! My sense of smell has improved 10 fold. Like when I noticed it after quitting smoking, too, but this makes it worse because I can't HAVE anything! UGH.

Regardless of my mild attack, I made it out of Walmart only slightly dizzy and to my car where I downed the whole water bottle. I felt better.

I get home and opened my new blender, cleaned it out, tossed in some strawberries, powdered stevia, and a tiny bit of coconut extract and HEAVEN!

The ice was perfect smoothy/slushy mixture and it tasted like a strawberry pina colada! I really, really needed that!

Here's the awesome Ninja blender I got:

Pretty cheap and it has a blender part and a little mixing bowl part if you want to do some food processing. I'll probably make my salsa in it tomorrow but I just wanted it for the ice chopping!



Oh, yes, my weight for the day is 216.8 which is a -1.4lb drop overnight. :) I'm pretty happy about that. :D


Lunch yesterday was tilapia on a bed of spinach and dinner was cajun style shrimp with raw celery. I didn't know how much celery to have, so I just grabbed like 5 stalks. I was hungry by dinner!

Today's lunch was veal on the go and cucumbers with my apple for breakfast and my usual cup of coffee. I did stop at Mustard Seed Market which is this big, fancy, slightly pretentious organic food store and got some Vanilla Creme liquid stevia.

(which was $14 btw! WTH? Too expensive!) I'm going to try it in my coffee tomorrow as everyone says it's great in coffee. I think I might try it in a strawberry smoothie for my snack today.


Some random things I was thinking about this HCG diet as I was driving around today: I'm on a birth control called Reclipsen which allows me to skip my periods up to 3 in a row so I don't have to worry about that dreaded "time of the month" like most women. I'm happy about that!

I adjusted my drops up 1 extra drop per dose, but people say to decrease your drops if you're feeling ick. If I am after this weekend, I'm dropping them down to 5 drops 6 times a day.

I'm drinking only coffee, water, and my slushy today. No green tea. I want to see how it effects me with out the green tea. Tomorrow I'll drink it again, but someone said on the forums you want the majority of your liquids to be just plain water.

I noticed a difference in how I looked today when I was going to the bathroom in the store. I can see it gone in my belly, with my sides and top belly fat shrinking and my boobs. Would love to get the fat off my arms, soon. Legs, I can cover them as it's not terrible. I have muscular legs from all the walking and dancing I've done. I am looking forward to taking more dance lessons as soon as I can. Also, I need to read up how long I should be on P3 before I jump into round 2. Or do I have to do P3 and P4? (adding of more foods then adding of sugars and starches) I need to figure that out. I updated my ticker all the way at the bottom of this blog...10.6 pounds lost and 57 to go. I'm going to be happy when I at least get this 34lbs off. A few more weeks, maybe?

Day 8 VLCD6 and...

I feel MUCH better today! I think it had to do with I added another drop to my dosage and I was getting over my physical addiciton and crankiness. I think it's kicking in today!

Woke up to 218.4# which is a 1.2 # loss since yesterday! Hurray! Also today is measurement day (I'm doing it every week on Thursday since I started on Thursday) and it's as follows:
W: 44in B: 43in Hips: 45in No change in my arms and legs yet, though they feel a bit different. That's 2in off my waist, 4inch off my bust, and none from my hips yet. Can you tell I need to lose it more in my tummy and boobs? However, I feel good about this now. I was skeptical and yesterday was a trying day but it seemed to really pay off after only 1 week of hard work.

If it's hard then it's worth it! That phrase has gotten me through a lot of tough times in my past. I can do this because it's hard and rewarding in the end!



Last night I was so grumpy about food, while I sipped my chamomile tea and watched So You Think You Can Dance for 2 hours I kept track of every single food commercial. Neurotic, I know, but I was also curious as to the brainwashing, errr advertising we get constantly.

Wendy's x3
Can't Believe It's Not Butter
Kit Kat x2
Olive Garden x2
Subway
McDonald's x3
Magnum Ice Cream x2
Red Lobster
Reeses's PB cups minis
Taco Bell
Jello
Chili's
Panera Bread
And even 2 non food commercials LOADED with close ups of food to tempt me: LG Appliances and Charter One Bank


It's interesting, isn't it? In 2 hours I was bombarded with poor food choices on tv and if I wasn't conscious of my food decisions (okay, desperately craving bad foods!) then I wouldn't have noticed the advertising and brainwashing being done.
All of these foods are not good for you. Either high in fat, sugar, processed foods, man-made ingredients, and not healthy foods, at least, that's not what they are advertising directly!

I loved Subway's the best because they are making you believe you are making a healthy choice by adding avocado to their menu. *snorts* Sure, you can go in there and get a salad with all of their..."fresh" vegetables that come from a bag or jar, (I know this because I've had friends that work at Subway and won't eat there ever again!) and don't get me started on their processed meats! Twist the truth anyway you want, Subway, but I don't buy it and I won't again! Remember that whole Jared thing? Yeah, I loved that. Get one guy in a billion to say he lost weight losing their food and make him your spokes person and instant star overnight! Oh, he's a real person, he did it eating Subway, now you can, too! But the normal person goes in, buys a whole sub, cookies, chips, and a fountain drink and don't do the low fat choice. Why would they? That would be HARD to make that decision alone when you are bombarded by advertising to eat more than you need every day!
And it's not just Subway. Wendy's was advertising their Berry Almond Chicken Salad which has 450 calories, 16g of fat, 42 carbs, 30 sugars, but high in vitamin C, A and protein. Sure, it might be a healthier choice, but then you have to add the human factor into it. Maybe I'm paranoid, or getting more paranoid, but it's hard for me to trust fast food workers anymore. (A friend of mine found a piece of chewed gum in her salad from a well known fast food place. Will not say where!)

I honestly now prefer to make and prepare my own food. That way I know what I'm getting into my body and making a better choice for myself instead of someone making it for me.

Speaking of which, I had a great breakfast of sliced apples that tasted like apple pie!
I combined the juice of 1/2 lemon, a capful of ACV, a small dash of imitation vanilla, a dash of stevia, some cinnamon and nutmeg, and put it in the microwave for 20 seconds. Then I coated the apples in the mixture, then poured the rest on top of the plate and nuked it again for another 30 seconds. SO GOOD I can't even tell you! Just try it yourself.

I also needed to up my coffee since I like coffee with my creamer, not vice versa.
I added 1 TBS of cocoa powder, a dash of vanilla, 1 TBS of our allotted milk, and stevia and mixed it together with my coffee! MUCH better. Like a mocha which I really needed today. Going to make lunch in a bit and I'm not hungry! YES!

Today is a better day. :D

Seriously? To Capacity?

Have you ever purposely tried to eat bad food in larger amounts than what you are used to? I mean, without an emotion behind it like at Thanksgiving around family, football, your Aunt's favorite dish that only comes out once a year. Or maybe for a birthday with cake, ice cream, friends and family around you. Or maybe even when you're down, depressed, upset, hating yourself. (yeah, that's when I want my bad foods.)

But eating high fat foods to your own full capacity for this diet for two days is insane. IN sane. Since food is directly connected to my emotions, I have been looking at it these past weeks as therapy. And I don't mean, like I eat cake and I feel better. In fact, just the opposite. I don't NEED cake to feel better. I want to feel better because I feel better; healthier inside with good for me foods. Not fast food, restaurant food, cakes, pies, cookies, lattes, doughnuts, pop (or soda, whatever you wanna call it!) alcohol, or deep friend snickers bars. I'm breaking the crap food habit as I did with smoking. If I can quit smoking and be disgusted by it now, then I can do this eating thing. But seriously? This part is hard for me! Eating crap foods and feeling like CRAP.

So yesterday I couldn't get heavy cream as some one suggested so I got the next best thing: Ravioli in Alfredo sauce with meatballs. Sounds good, right? Here's a picture:

It was good, yes, but after the Big Mac attack I had in the afternoon, I was spent!


This morning, I woke up, did my drops, weighed myself (225.08# down a bit from yesterday, weird) and didn't want to eat breakfast. But someone said deep fried and fatty is what I need today so I went to Dunkin Doughnuts and got 2 with a coffee and lots of creamer. A Boston cream and a Bavarian cream. One had powdered sugar all over it, which I think was the Bavarian. I opened my mouth and I had Déjà vu all over again: driving with crap falling over my shorts, legs, and black shirt. On the same road as yesterday even! Another memory pops into my head as I chewed in the deep fried and sticky outer shell of the doughnut.


My mom would bring me with her to drop my dad off at work very early in the mornings. I think sometimes I would be asleep and laying across the backseat of the car. (this was way back before car seats or at least my parents never had me in one that I can remember!) She would drop my dad off at work, a large factory in Lima, Ohio. I would sometimes wake up, hug my dad goodbye, and then go to the front passenger seat. I remember watching the sunrise many times from the front seat of the car with my mom driving. I remember that well because if she stopped suddenly, she would throw her arm in front of me like a second seat belt! Some days we would get McDonald's and some days we would go get doughnuts and head back to the house where my older brothers were either still sleeping or awake watching early morning cartoons. I would eat the long doughnut with cream in the middle and chocolate frosting on top. Those are my favorite. DD was out of them this morning. :(

Again, more good memories with my family, which is few and far between. More therapy as I licked the powdered sugar off of my fingers and looked down at the mess on my legs. More memories I shouldn't forget, but have to understand that things have changed, I have changed and I'm still changing. For the better. I can't control how my mother treats me now, but I can control how I eat. See how that works? I just have to remember that.


Anyways, for lunch I had broccoli and cheddar soup in a bread bowl from Panera because I couldn't really find anything on the menu that looked desirable after breakfast. I didn't eat the bowl and gave it to some chickens that I see in the afternoon at a customer's house. I take care of their ponies and if the rooster is out, I like to give him something to eat so he doesn't attack me. Mean effing rooster!

Then it was time to go grocery shopping for this week. I had my list!

I couldn't find melba toast but I did find the grissini bread sticks and not the ones with the olive oil, just in case! I got veal but no lobster or shrimp because it's just too expensive. I was at Giant Eagle, but there's a local grocery store I'll go to tomorrow afternoon to get better meat and grapefruits, because GE didn't have grapefruits for some reason. I also stocked up for one night only snacks for tonight. We're going to the drive-in to see Kung Fu Panda and Thor and I want to get some popcorn. Again, more memories will hit me again, I'm sure. The boy and I...well that's another story. Tonight will be a good date night and we'll have fun, I hope.

On my way home I thought about it and said, wth, I need one last burger from Wendy's since I am saying goodbye to all my fast food places. This is what I got...a double with cheese that should have come with a crane and a pickup truck to get my fat ass back home!

I can't even believe I ate it all. I didn't think I could but the soup didn't help fill me up earlier. And on top of feeling like crap after eating said giantastic burger, I cannot forget the site I saw in the Wendy's drive-thru.

2 older than me women in a minivan in front of my car. The image of the lady who stuck her hand out of her window to get the food will forever haunt me: She was so fat, her elbow and wrists had fat. That's all I needed to see!! I don't ever, ever, ever want to be that way. EVER! Did I say ever? 'Cause I meant for ever as in ever and ever!!!

So....here's to tomorrow. A new day and my first real day on the protocol. I need to re-read my diet sheet for lunch and dinner, but I think I'll be okay. I have my new food scale ready to go. I'm going to do this, the hard way, the right way, and the only way for me. I'm ready to be thin and healthy and work through my physical and mental problems to get happy again. I don't have any other choice because it's this or be unhappy. What choice do I have?

It made it!

My package arrived in the mail, finally! Hurray!

So the cat's outta the bag. I'm doing the HCG diet protocol as discovered by Albert T. W. Simeons while he was working with prego women and some fat boys with pituitary problems in India.*

It's controversial, it's horrible, it's like religion, however, I'm looking at it the smart way. If I commit one month to eating better, getting fit, really, REALLY trying to get healthy, and I happen to lose weight in the process with this little bottle's help? I have to try it. I have to. That's why I'm keeping it to myself and this blog for now. Because I can't be fat anymore. It's ruining me. I feel like a beautiful thin person in here but what I show on the outside is just some tall, fat chick who happens to have a pretty face. "Potential". I don't want to BE potential anymore. I want to be how I feel inside. I know it's hard work, I know I can do it. I just need some help. And if this helps me, then screw all!

I want a slow motion entrance. In a beautiful red dress, nice high heels, perfect hair and make up. I want all the boys to stop and stare as I walk into a room.
Then I don't want anymore attention, but maybe it will never stop? I've complicated that way when I want it, I want it now and hard and fast and then...okay, go away. lol

I also would like to be able to wear a bikini in public for once in my life. And maybe actually continue with the Burlesque dancing I got into last year but this time with more self confidence and a better body for it!


Anyways, I've been researching. I know what I have to do and starting tomorrow, June 8th, 2011, it's a day closer to my slow motion entrance and bikini body. Tomorrow I will weigh and measure myself.

It all begins tomorrow. For the rest of my life.

Here's to getting healthy and trying to be happy!










ref: *HCG wiki*