45 lbs!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I finished my first 6 week "P2" (phase 2) last week. It was both easier and harder than I'd thought. Once I got into the swing of things with some new recipes, it was pretty easy to maintain the new habits I was forming. The harder parts were when I went to family type fatherings or a party where there was food everywhere.

The first few weeks I was perfect! No cheating, no snitching anything I shouldn't, etc... But then I started to take a bit here & there, mix my veggies a "little" (you can only have ONE veggie at a time on HCG), and generally not be as strict. I had one day that really made me open my eyes... My friend was moving back to CA and I cooked 2 of my specialties for her: crepes & my cheesy potatoes. I had several bites of both, then snitched some cheese, a few bites of bread, and I don't know what else... I gained 5 lbs in one day! It took nearly a week to get it all back off. So I was more strict again after that.

Here's my before & after pic. I can't believe the difference in my face and how LOOSE these capris are!

This diet is AMAZING!!!!

Drum roll please.....

As of this morning I am down 41.3 lbs!!!!! Yesterday was my 4 week mark on the VLCD. I can't believe how this weight just melts off! So far, no issues with skin sagginess (I won't even worry about that part until I've lost closer to 100 lbs. At this rate it looks like I may even exceed my crazy hope of losing 50 lbs in 6 weeks!!!

Just under 2 more weeks until I start phase 3. I'm kind of excited to have more variety of meats and veggies, but hope I stabilize easily too. I know that some people fluctuate wildly their first few days. But others have no problem at all. Here's to hoping for the best!

PROGRESS!!!!

(before pictures)

I can hardly believe it, but I've lost 20 lbs in just over a week!!!! I started taking some homeopathic HCG drops on 6/27 and started the VLCD (very low calorie diet) on the 29th. The first two days are called "load days". You eat as much as you can on these two days (like a bear before it hibernates) It is supposed to help stock your fat stores and get your body ready for the 500 calories a day that are coming. Since I was researching and getting ready for nearly a month - I was already SICK of loading. I'd been saying "goodbye" to my favorite off-limit foods all month! So when it came time to load, I didn't eat enough. *Don't get me wrong, I ate a lot - but my Mom said she ate so much she was physically ill! My point in all this is that my first two days were HARD!!! I was hungry - A LOT!!!! While my mom was totally not hungry and did just great! Besides not loading enough, I'd remembered the dosage for the drops wrong! My mom's friend Jackie got the drops for us and walked us through all the hows/whys. I wrote notes, but I remembered the number wrong! I'd only been taking 5 drops 3x a day, when it should have been 8 - so I was missing a whole dose for almost 4 days before I figured it out. The afternoon of the 2nd day on the VLCD, I was in tears talking to my hubby about how hungry I was! (He was so cute and supportive!!!) After I upped the dose - it was a whole new world! The occaisionaly dizziness was gone as was the constant knawing hunger. Now I'm rarely hungry. When I feel a little rumble in my tummy, I go get a drink. If that doesn't do it, I check the time and see if it's time for a snack, drops, or a meal.

I can't believe how fast 20 lbs came off - it just seems unreal. Of course this makes me a bit nervous about gaining it back, but A LOT of people have followed this protocol to a "T" and are maintaining just fine! I know I can do this - I've got the support of my family & friends and the power of prayer on my side!

I'm planning on doing 40 days on the VLCD and doing the 6 weeks off (phase 3 & 4) where I gradually add in other foods. I think I need that finite time to have a firm end/goal in mind (besides my goal weight - which still seems so far off) Then I'll start the process all over again (load days, VLCD, etc...) It'll pretty much be 6 weeks on & 6 weeks off. I can TOTALLY do that! It helps me to divide it like that. My mom is planning on just doing the drops till she's done. She figures 30 lbs a month x 5 = 150 lbs. I wish her luck, but I don't want to drop it all that fast - nor do I think a my body (and mind!) could handle months on end of the 500 cal diet! She'll be seeing a doc once a week (or so), so I'm sure she'll be just fine & he'll tell her to take a break if her body needs it.

For anyone interested.....

Basic info:

http://www.hcgdietinfo.com/

Dr. Simeon's Protocol (the rules & "why"s of the diet)

http://www.hcgdietinfo.com/Dr-ATW-Simeons-Pounds-and-Inches.htm

The cheapest place I've found yet to buy H-HCG (about $30 including shipping)

http://www.healthyourselfsite.com/buyhcgnow.html

What happened to May???

I guess that old addage is right - time DOES fly when you're having fun! I managed to get back in the habit of walking last month. Only missing a few days out of a whole month of 6 days a week walking. I started just doing about a mile a day, and now I do 3 miles almost every day. This week I started walking with one of my best friends here - Melanni Lang. She's a great walking partner - especially since she keeps me working a bit harder than I'd push myself if I was alone.

Weightloss - although I was exercising, all through may I kept losing and gaining the same 3-5 lbs. Memorial day weekend, I decided that I would get serious again and stop eating stupid things. But having eaten a lot over the holiday weekend, I managed to gain back those same 3 lbs + 3 more! All was not lost though... Last week (my 1st week being "back on the wagon") I lost all 6 lbs! So I'm hoping to lose another few lbs this week. Looking good so far this week!

My goals for the week

I set myself some goals for this week and emailed them to my weightloss email group: The Incredible Shrinking Violets - http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Incredible_Shrinking_Violets/ So I figured I should record it here too. The notes in blue are how I've been doing so far:

1 - Eat more fruits/veggies
a - Eat a salad for lunch every day (main dish or side salad)
I only had a lunch salad once, so far - but am doing better at upping my veggies
b - Have my carrots w/dip for am snack
yes! When I'm being "bad" I always forget how much I actually MISS my yummy carrots!
c - At meals, eat veggies first - S L O W L Y ! ! !
Still need to slow down - mostly a matter of remembering
When I think back on when I've been really successful at losing weight, I remember that I ate a LOT of veggies, so that's going to be my #1 tool this week. I also find that I eat WAY to fast. When I eat more slowly, my body will have time to register that I've had enough to eat.
2 - Exercise
a - Walk to/from gym (1 mile each way)
I haven't gotten my full 2 miles in yet, but I did about 1.5 miles on Monday (no gym buddy - so I just walked). Tuesday I had bread in the oven, so I only had 30 minutes to walk a bit and get a little workout in. But yesterday, I walked to the gym, worked out for 30 min and my buddy drove me home. I'm feeling really good about my exercise!
b - Climb stairs at home 10x daily
Haven't remembered to start doing this yet, but I know it'll be good to get me going at various points during the day. *OH! I just had an idea! When my butt's tired of sitting when I'm doing a bunch of jewelry orders in one chunk - I can get up and do a couple up/down stairs to break it up. Now if I can just remember to try that! LOL

For my exercise goal, I decided that letting someone else's schedule determine whether or not I will exercise is stupid (that's a no-brainer, right? lol) So here's my plan that I'm starting today: I'll call my gym buddy at 7:15 (that's when her kids leave for school on the bus) and tell her I'm walking out my front door now, so I'll be at the gym in about 15 minutes. She needs as much motivation as I do, and knowing that I'm on foot and on my way will help her get there too. So it should help both of us. Plus it will get my heart rate up before I even get there, so I can have a more effective workout too. Sometimes all the benefit of the gym is moving around and stretching and not much sweating.

3 - Portion control
a - Smaller entree size (1/2 plate veg, 1/4 protein, 1/4 carb)
Haven't really focused on this one yet, but other areas are better!
b - Limit carbs more
Last night we had one of my favorite easy dinners. I buy these amazing frozen sesame breaded chicken breast nuggets at our local grocer, crisp them in the oven (instead of frying them), toss them in my "chinese chicken" sauce (it's a plum sauce recipe that I make with peach jam and bottle it myself every year - tastes a bit like the sauce on orange chicken, but with a bit of kick to it), and serve it over a bed of rice. Not exactly a low-carb dinner. What I've done to help this is to reduce my serving of rice, add a tiny bit of butter to it, then I top the rice with a BIG handful of brocoli slaw (MAN, I love this stuff!), some cilantro, green onions, and then the sauced chicken - chopped extra small so I get a bit in every bite.

My portion sizes have been getting larger and larger.... I need to get back to smaller sizes... SO I CAN GET BACK TO A SMALLER SIZE! LOL!!!! That last part just struck me as funny as I wrote it. I'm so frustrated with myself that I can't wear any of the cute spring/summer tops that I wore last year. I've gained about half of my 80 lbs back! Arrrrrrrgggghh!!!

I've also made some good flylady goals for the week. I've got several rooms in my house that don't really need more than 30 minutes of attention and they'd be great, but I just haven't done it yet! So I want to finish them up this week. My computer desk is one of the biggest ones! It's cluttered, but I know I could get my whole office done in less than 30 minutes!

Time to get back to work!

In January of 2007, I started a diet/weight loss journey/life style eating change... whatever you want to call it. I managed to lose 80 lbs in about 9 months. (and Joe lost 70 in about a year) Then I got stuck... I lost a few more lbs before I started to slowly gain some of it back. Unfortunately, I've gained back about half of that success (and of course, Joe only gained about 10!) So now I need to figure out how to get back to the right mindset that will be good for having successful weight loss again. I've GOT to get this weight off again. I miss the good healthy feeling I had before and want to get back there. I can do it!