We don't eat disembodied poultry. We don't buy packages of oversize breasts of chickens, or the thighs of a couple of birds. We eat in the traditional style: you cook a whole bird, divide the meat up into 2 or so meals and use the bones to make broth.
When I look at other people's blogs and food logs, they don't cook like this. They tend to buy convenience cuts of factory poultry and prepare them one breast, thigh, wing or leg at a time. This is awesome for making an ultra fast meal.
It means that I also don't see any soups from other 4HB'ers.
Perhaps I'm in a unique position in the community; I work from home and also run a home making whole foods for three other people. I'm the one who does all the meal planning, prep, cooking and the bulk of the cleaning. Oh, to be my husband who just eats what he's given!
I'll be honest, the entire process is a bit fatiguing. I already have days when I can barely stand to think about food.
Perhaps this is why, for the last two days I've had an extended binge?
Yup, I ate lots of forbidden foods on what was supposed to be the first two 4HB days of the week. After gaining a couple of pounds last week, instead of losing - though, to put the weight gain in context, it looks like gain could have been in muscle because my BMI went down at the same time my weight went up, according to Wii Fit - you would think I'd be pretty gung ho in my quest to conquer the fat.
But, a curious thing happened.
I started Sunday with a hunk of protein right away. I ate the slab of meatloaf left over from the meal out my family enjoyed at our favourite restaurant (I had a broth based seafood soup and a main of meatloaf and mash - I couldn't eat more than a couple forkfuls of the mash and only one of two giant slabs of meatloaf). I didn't do eggs, beans or veggies, but darnit, I ate me about a 1/3lb of beef!
During the day I indulged in a flavoured latte style tea, a Hello Dolly bar (I was powerless when I saw that beautiful specimen full of happy childhood memories and, well, condensed sweetened milk. Hello!? How was I supposed to pass THAT by?!), a Big Mac meal (damned kids and errand running) and a late night Skor cinnamon bun that arrived on Saturday in our community baking allotment. Dinner was 4HB compliant, though: salad w/ chickpeas and veggies, broccoli and two turkey frankfurters.
A curious thing happened in the morning. When we pulled out the Wii Fit board to get our morning weigh in going, both my husband and I were down from the day before.
Let me say that again: despite a number of cheats on the day immediately after our cheat day, my husband and I LOST WEIGHT!
So, how did that happen?
Did we do lots of exercises to "burn off" the excess calories or encourage our muscles to convert fat and calories to muscle? Nope.
Did we eat really small portions to limit the carbs and simple sugars we ate? Nope.
Did we take some great supplements, drink some funky teas or otherwise take some sort of magic pill-like substance that limited our glucose spikes, influenced how the food energy was used or sped up digestion and therefore limiting the calories taken in by the body? Nope.
We started with some protein in the morning and had a protein rich, slow-carb supper. That's it.
One of my goals was to track my weight during the week, on a daily or near daily basis, in order to give myself more usable info to improve my fat loss efforts.
I think this modified, unplanned extra cheat day shows how having that info is important. The data reminds me that protein is important in the morning and that falling off the wagon can happen, we can minimise its effects and quickly get back on track with few problems.
Ever onward!
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