And on to the rest of my life...

I've gotten down to the mid-140's and have decided I've gone as far as I want to on HCG. I'm sure I could stand to lose another ten pounds or so, and maybe I will, but quite possibly not on HCG.

It is a HARD diet, you guys. Yes, there are dramatic results, because it is a dramatic diet. And because it's so dramatic, it is hard.  The key, if you decide to do it yourself, is to remind yourself that it is super temporary. 3 weeks on Phase 2, if I can do it, anyone can.

It gets really hard when you're getting closer to your goal weight and the pounds aren't dripping off anymore. It gets even harder when you're close enough to your goal weight that you start thinking things like, "eh, what's another 10 pounds, anyway? This is close enough."

I'd love to tell you to just muscle through these thoughts, but since I can't do it, I'm certainly not expecting anyone else to.

So the rest of my life...what shall I do?

One of the things that I love about the HCG protocol is that I cut out all the really bad stuff in my diet, overnight. After a couple brief days of detox, I felt amazingly wonderful. Light, and happy, and energized. Without exception, every time I finished a round, and started going back slowly to bread, rice, crackers, etc, I started to feel sluggish, bloated, moody, and well...more like my "regular" self.

This past round, in fact, I cheated one evening with a donut while I was on Phase 2. Within 20 minutes or so of eating the donut, my mood plummeted, my stomach was bloated and distended, and I had stomach cramping. I was so uncomfortable. And I know that this is how I was mostly living before. I never realized it wasn't normal, for example, to feel bloated after eating.

But here's the deal,  it's not.  After eating, we should feel energized!  We just ate ENERGY!  Quick aside, did you know that in Europe, calories aren't listed as "calories" in nutritional information? They're listed as "energy."  Food is energy!

If you're not eating foods that energize you, I posit that you are eating the wrong foods. Like I've been doing for a good long time.

Being on HCG showed me what it really feels like to eat foods the work with my body for optimal wellness. It also showed me what it really feels like to eat foods that work against my body. And I don't like that.

So, somewhere over the last couple rounds, I started wondering with some of my friends, what are we going to do next?  When we get to the end of our weight loss with HCG, how will we eat?  Almost all of us said that we don't think we ever want to go back to sugar and nearly the same amount have decided to do without wheat.

While we were in the middle of these discussions, one of my friends mentioned Mark's Daily Apple, which is a site dedicated to "Primal Blueprint" living. Mark's a cool guy, he lays it out as it is. He's done his research and he knows his stuff.
 

The Primal Blueprint way of life is basically approximating our lives to being as close to those of our ancestors, the cavemen. He uses "Grok" as an example of such a person, and gives us really easy ways we, too, can "party like a Grokstar."

When we first got our dog, his trainer mentioned giving him a biologically appropriate diet, instead of buying kibble at the grocery store. We researched it, and decided that we didn't like the idea of commercial dog food, and went in the direction suggested by his trainer. Baxter has been eating foods that his canine body has been designed to digest.

In similar fashion, I think humans should be enjoying foods that our bodies were designed to digest. That includes meat, vegetables and fruit. A little dairy. But no grains.

Yep, NO GRAINS.

As it turns out (and if you want to read all the research, I highly recommend Mark's book, although you can also find a ton of information on his website), humans weren't exactly designed to digest grains.  This has played out in my own life, as I've explained, with the vast differences in how I feel on HCG and off HCG.

Here's the really amazing thing about this. When I shared a lot of the body of evidence that Mark sets forth in Primal Blueprint, against grains, my husband agreed. He said it made a lot of sense. Guess who else is grain free, now? We're working on the kids.

I don't want to give you the idea that if you stop eating grains you'll be living a primal lifestyle. I mean, that's a nice start, but there are other things involved.  Take a good look at Mark's website for a ton of information.

I also don't want to give you the idea that Mark is the grand high guru of primal living (although he did "write the book"so to speak). There are other books out there, there are other websites. There are TONS of people who are doing this, who are writing about, who are advocating it. It just so happens that I find Mark's information to be the most accessible. He thoroughly researches, then reports back everything in a humorous and easy to read way that makes me look forward to reading about all these boring reports he's slogged through.

So this is where we are for now. We're finding it not as hard to be grain free as we'd thought. We're working out some kinks (if we're friends on facebook, I'm sure you read my status update about thickening gravy without flour!) and we're finding some new stuff that we love. (Coconut bread, for example, is like a yummy morning muffin, without all the ick and bloating that goes along with regular morning muffins.)

This is working for our family right now. We feel great, we're losing weight (I'm still losing weight, even off protocol and without really trying at all!--The kids, I should mention, are not losing weight. LOL They definitely don't need to!), and we're excited about this way of life. It's not a diet, or even just a dietary change. It really is a way of life, and we're looking forward to this journey together.

Shattering the Stall

I didn't just break that stall, you guys, I shattered it. It didn't work right away. Yesterday, the scale didn't move. Today, though, 2.6 down!  That's about seven and a half pounds in a week, which averages out to a little more than a pound a day.

I think I'm losing a little better on this round than I have on previous ones.  I should tell you that I'm using different drops this time around. I snagged these on sale at CVS.  They are not homeopathic and contain "HCG amino acid." I dig that they're not homeopathic, because it means I can keep up my mint tea habit and I can dye my hair without worrying about these things negating the homeopathics.  It tastes absolutely awful, but I only have to deal with it twice a day, and I'm actually getting used to it. I don't make my "cough medicine face" after I down it now.

So when I took the time to sit down and think about it, I'm pretty sure I figured out that my stall was caused by too much red meat. I'm going to try to keep my beef meals to one or two a week and rely on chicken and eggs for the rest of my  protein. This would be much easier if I ate fish at all. I wish, for the three billionth time in my life, that I could stomach seafood.

Two women at the bank today asked me if I've lost weight. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, that is the best feeling in the world.

Anyway, looking forward to the coming two weeks, I see Thanksgiving rapidly approaching. My husband asked me today if I'm going to be on protocol through Thanksgiving and I said yes. We're cooking here, so I am planning on making veggies that are completely protocol friendly, cheating slightly with turkey instead of chicken and cheating a little more with a sugar free, gluten free (ie Phase 3 friendly) dessert.  I've been looking at a few pumpkin custard recipes and am trying to find my favorite one. I'll totally be topping it with some sugar free whipped cream, as well.

Quick note to anyone who hasn't read through this blog much, when I say "sugar-free" I am totally NOT talking about nutrasweet, asparatame, or any other artificial sweetener. My sweetener of choice is liquid stevia.  It's totally yummy, completely natural, and doesn't cause an insulin spike like sugar does.

Unless something more exciting happens, next entry, I'm going to talk about how I'm successfully "cheating" on this round. Yeah, I'm cheating. It involves chocolate. Stay tuned.

I hate stalls with a serious mad passion.  But I've come to expect them. So I'm not totally freaked out that the scale didn't move at all this morning.  In fact, I seem to have entered Challenge Mode without even realizing it. I spent the better portion of my online time this afternoon looking for tried and true methods to break through a loss stall on hcg.

Here are some of the better ideas I've found, just in case you also require a way to beat a stall into the ground.

1. The Apple Day. I actually kind of love Apple Days, and I've been known to do one even when the scale is moving just fine.  On an Apple Day, you get six of the biggest, juiciest apples you can find and eat them throughout the day. That's it. And by "that's it," I mean, that's all you eat and that's as easy as it is.  The first time I decided to do an apple day, I was very apprehensive. Apples are yummy, sure, but  nothing except apples for an entire day? Blech.  However, I found that I really enjoyed the freedom of not having to plan my meals or carry food around with me if I were going to be out during a meal time. I just brought a couple apples with me.  So on days when I know I'm going to be running all over creation, I sometimes will do an Apple Day, just because it's easier.

2. The Detox Bath. I am a big fan of baths. I love to sit in warm water with some music playing, a large glass of water and a book or magazine.  It's one of my favorite ways to unwind. This bath is like that, just a little different.  This bath is full of all kinds of fun stuff to help pull the gunk out of you. Through your sweat pores. If you don't like to sweat, get over it.  Add 2 cups of baking soda, 2 cups of epsom salts and 1 cup of sea salt to a bath that's as hot as you can stand it.  If you've got some, throw in some ginger, maybe a little tea tree oil. If you want it to smell good, add some lavender oil, or another that you love. Soak in it for 40 minutes. You are going to sweat. If you're not sweating, make the water hotter.  I also use a portable heater to make my bathroom warm, since my skin is pretty sensitive to hot water. When the 40 minutes is up, drain the water and rinse off in a warm shower. Don't plan on taking a normal shower and washing your hair and stuff. Your body needs to rest.  In fact, this is an excellent time to go to bed. You may continue to sweat for a good while after your bath. Awesome! More detox! (If you have high blood pressure, you probably should skip this bath.)

3. Journal your Food. I use SparkPeople to track what I've eaten throughout the day and my daily weigh ins. When I'm not on protocol, I also use the site to track my workouts and calories burned.  If you're not writing down everything you eat and making sure you're hitting and/or not exceeding your allotted 500 calories for the day, you might want to start doing that during a stall. Remember, not eating enough is just as bad as eating too much!

4. Check your labels. I'm not talking food labels; I'm talking personal care products.  If there is oil in, say, your moisturizer, your skin may be absorbing enough that it's having an impact on your scale. And check all of it, not just obvious things. Oil can be in anything from lip gloss to shampoo.

5. Add some variety.  If you're eating chicken and spinach for two meals a day, your body is liable to think there's not enough food around, and start holding on to everything it's got. If you're stumped for things to eat, check out Lianne's blog over at My HCG Cooking for some great ideas.

6. Chinese Water Torture. Okay, not really. But upping your water intake can get the scale moving again.  You should be drinking 2L of water per day, as it is. If you're doing that and still facing a stall, try drinking even more.  My rule of thumb, whether I'm on protocol or not, is that my pee needs to be nearly clear. If it's not, I'm not drinking enough water.

7. Poop. Yeah, I said it. There's something about this diet that makes bowel movements somewhat rarer than they'd been previously.  Lots of people swear by Smooth Move Tea. I am not a big fan.  A friend who is an RN suggested Milk of Magnesia instead, and on the few occasions I've used it, I've been happy with the results.  Please understand that taking any kind of laxative is not PART of this diet and is not in any way required.  If you haven't had a bowel movement in a few days, though, you could be facing some compact issues, and might need a little boost in that department. Some people suggest taking a daily fiber supplement while you're on protocol to avoid this problem altogether.

8. Exercise. A little.  Too much strenuous activity on 500 calories a day is going to backfire. You're likely to make your stall last longer, and do some damage to your body in the process.  Best case scenario of overexercising while you're on the Very Low Calorie Diet, you're gonna end up with hands like Madonna or Sarah Jessica Parker. (Google them. Frightening.) So you definitely don't want to overdo it. But, a nice walk, or some gentle yoga, even a little extra playing in the yard with the kids can help to break through a stall.  Again, I'd avoid anything having to do with weights, because, seriously, look at SJP's hands!

For my part, I did a nice detox bath last night, drank enough water to drown a cow, and took a half mile walk today.  I'll report back in the morning!

HI! Miss me? ;-)

I missed you too! I took pretty much the entire summer and most of the fall off from all things HCG, and here I am, ready to start my next (and possibly last!) round.

I must confess that I have gained some of my weight back. I'll tell you why.  First of all, I haven't done a full, real Phase 3 since my first round, and second of all, wheat is not my friend.

Phase 3 is just as important as Phase 2. In Phase 2, you lose the weight. In Phase 3, you tell your body, "Okay, this is where we want to stay." Phase 3 is vital to stabilizing. Obviously, I KNOW this. I just have a hard time DOING it.  Interestingly, I'm back to where I was at the end of my first round. You know, the time I did a full Phase 3. (headsmack)

I cannot tell you how much different I feel without wheat, in any of its insidious forms, in my body. I spend the first few days of any Phase 2 talking about how light I feel, and how energetic. I'm not bloated, I'm just...different.  A better different.  Then I leave Phase 2, do a half-assed Phase 3 and remember how delicious mozzerella sticks are. (headsmack 2) Here's the thing; in moderation (for me), yes, mozzerella sticks are fine and delicious. When you eat something breaded and fried more days than you don't.... problem.

I was doing okay, honestly, and then I went on vacation. Somehow in my mind, vacation=license to eat everything on the menu. Twice.  And I went on TWO vacations. A week with my family and then four days in Vegas. It's kind of amazing, really, that I haven't gained everything, plus some, back.  Again, I point to the fact that, eating whatever I wanted, for a couple MONTHS, has put me back to the point of my last real Phase 3. This just goes to prove that Phase 3 really is resetting our hypothalmus, and it's not all smoke and mirrors.

So, I loaded this past weekend, and in the past five days, I'm back down 4.8 pounds.  That puts me about 10 pounds away from my lowest weight on protocol and about 15 pounds from my goal.  I might be able to eek that out on one round. We shall see!

In the meantime, I'm making meatloaf for everyone tonight and I am really excited to eat mine with a little of Lianne's ketchup, designed specifically for Phase 2. :-)  Go to her site and browse the recipes, there is some incredibly yummy stuff on there. I am so jonesing for some Phase 3 pizza!

WOOHOO!

Guess what I did today?  (Besides, obviously, writing a new blog on this poor, neglected site.  ;-) )

I had a Groupon to use at Old Navy and so I hit it up today between getting my hair cut and a meeting.  I wanted a pair of their 5" shorts, but could NOT find a size 10 anywhere.  Well, I could, but in mustard yellow. No thank you.

So, out of desperation, I snagged a size 8, and figured I'd try them on, see how bad it was, and then decide if I was going to get them or not.

I hit the dressing room with those shorts, and a couple other finds, and the very nice (very gay... I wouldn't mention it if it weren't important. Stay with me.) gentleman showed me and my seven items to an open stall.

I figured I should get the most depressing part of this over and done with first, and grabbed those size eights. I eyed them against myself, first, and raised my eyebrows.  They actually didn't look as small as I remember size 8's to be. They looked like they might actually fit.

I pulled them on, zipped them up, did the button, took a deep breath, and let out a "WHOOP!"

Remember that very nice gentleman working in the dressing room?  From outside, I heard, "Oh, Lawd, Jesus! Are you okay in there, honey?!"

I nearly laughed my butt off, except, like, you know, there's not too much there anymore to laugh off, and assured him that I was fine. I shoved the other shorts and the skirts I had over the door and asked if he could find them in size EIGHT for me.  I heard him pause while he, I'm sure, looked at the label to see what size they were. And then, a whistle and a "You go, girlfriend. I'll be right back."

While he was gone, I snapped a photo and was going to text it to half a dozen people, but ended up just posting it on FaceBook. Just easier.

He brought back the rest of my stuff in the appropriate size, and holy crap, you guys, the ALL FIT!  I had a seriously hard time choosing what to buy, because I was so excited, I suddenly wanted to buy one of everything in size 8 that they had in stock.

Oh, Lawd, Jesus, indeed.  I own size 8 shorts, and they freaking fit. I haven't seen size 8 since a year before I got pregnant with my princess. That's like, EIGHT YEARS ago, people!

In other news, I got to see one of my besties who has also been doing HCG this past weekend at the Princess' birthday party. She's down over 60 pounds and looks A-FREAKING-MAZING.  I wish I could easily see all my other friends who are doing this, but we are scattered all over the country.  Luckily, we have the internet. ;-)

I feel like a cheerleader. YAY, HCG!  I'm almost the same size a cheerleader!

Dr. Oz talks HCG

Did you catch Dr. Oz talking about the HCG diet recently? If you missed it, you can catch the entire segment, in a few parts, here.

Dr. Oz isn't typically my favorite talk show host, but I did appreciate the treatment he gave the HCG diet. He basically says that, while no studies have been done that show that this stuff works, the results he sees from people who have done it prove that this stuff works.  He advocates against the homeopathic versions you can get on the internet, and suggests instead, that we all spend upwards of a thousand bucks to get the injections of real HCG from a physician who can monitor our progress.

Well, that's a nice thought, but I don't have that kind of money, and the HCG drops certainly seem to be working for me.

Side note, remember those size 12 jeans I was so ecstatic to get into shortly before Christmas? Well, my BFF is wearing them today, and I couldn't be more excited for her!  (So much so, that I'm mentioning it in my blog. That is love, folks. ;-) )

Today I had ground beef, with cabbage and tomatoes for lunch, which reminds me so much of my grandmother's stuffed cabbage, I get a little misty when I eat it.  Tonight it's garlic chicken and spinach.

What did you eat today? Did you sneak any of your kids' goldfish crackers? (I ask because I had to talk myself down from them before, myself!) Are you drinking enough water?

Summer's almost here! Who's going to be wearing a bathing suit at the beach with me?!

The Black Jeans

I'm going to share some information that might make my husband blush.  He'll have to deal with that.

So, back when we were dating, I had these jeans. They were black Bongo jeans.  They had the typical early 90's high waist and tapered leg.   Apparently, they did great things for my ass.  I know this, because, almost 20 years later, if I say to my husband, "Hey, remember those jeans?" he perks up and says "Oh, The Black Jeans?"

Yeah, The Black Jeans.

When I nearly lost my mind because I was wearing size 12 jeans at Christmas, he said "When will you fit back in The Black Jeans?"

When my favorite ever size 10 jeans fit up over my hips, he said "You are really doing great. But, um, when will you fit back in The Black Jeans?"

When I could button those size 10's, guess what he said?

Yeah.

Don't get me wrong, Paul is the most wonderful, loving and supportive husband ever. When I first decided to start this diet, he challenged me to a contest to see which of us would lose the most weight. He dropped out when I plowed past him, but you know, he got my competitive juices flowing.  He is totally on board, completely behind me.

Part of it is because he loves me. Part of it is The Black Jeans.

So, I got my butt into my favorite size 10 jeans. I don't mean that out of all my size 10 jeans these are my favorites. I mean that out of all the jeans I have ever owned in my entire life, these size 10s are my favorite.  I can wear them every day if I want to, now.  I do, actually, wear them ALL THE TIME.

Right around the time that I realized I could pull them up, zip and button them, and still be able to breathe, I started to have problems staying on protocol.  I didn't see it at the time, but taking a step back and staring it down, now I can see that my self-sabotage had kicked in.  And it had brought reserves.

Well, first of all, let me say that, I think we all have a bit of the self-sabotage bug in us. How many times in your life have you been so close to something you wanted... so close you could almost touch it... only to have it fall out of your reach.  And when you think about it, was there something you could have done to change that? Yeah, that's self-sabotage. Maybe a less violent form than what most people would think of as self-sabotage.  But that's it.  Maybe you were shooting for a promotion and then forgot an important report. (Maybe you didn't even forget it, so much as you just never got around to it?)  Maybe you were losing weight, and could see your goal on the horizon, only to end up at McDonald's for lunch. And, hey, once you ate that Big Mac....

So, I know I have a tendency towards self-sabotage. I was waiting for it to show up, and here it is.

But, you know, this was more than self-sabotage.  I mentioned reserves, and guess what they were? Complacency.  Comfort. I was content.  I was fitting in my favorite jeans again. Why on earth was I still trying to lose weight?

I realized this little bit of slime was worming its way through my subconscious one day while I was chatting with a couple friends. And when I realized it, I was determined, right at that second to kill it.

And I thought of The Black Jeans.

The original pair of Black Jeans were a size five. Well,  now, I've had two kids and my hips have spread a bit. I think a size five might be a little unrealistic and I don't want to set myself up for failure, which will just kick my self-sabotage back into gear.  So, I went for a size seven.

Apparently, Bongo doesn't make the exact same jeans anymore. No more high waists. Which, like, okay. It is 2011 and not 1992. And, I am destroying my muffin top, little by little. So, I ordered a pair of low waist, SKINNY black Bongo jeans.  In size seven.

I gave myself something to work for; something to look forward to. The numbers on the scale weren't enough for me anymore. I needed something tactile to move towards.

The Black Jeans.

Then I moved to Phase III, so I wouldn't do any damage till I got my head on straight.

So, The New Black Jeans arrived, and just to see how far I had to go, I threw myself into the bathroom and pulled them up.

Did you catch that? I PULLED THEM UP!

No, of course I can't button them or zip them just yet. BUT I PULLED THEM UP!

I'm feeling ready to jump back in again. Thank goodness. I'm 145 pounds, a little over 20 pounds gone. That is nothing to sneeze at, but it's not where I want to be. I know I can lose more than this, and I want to. In fact, I've been rethinking my goal.  I've been saying 135 all along, but really? I think I can go down a little further, and give maybe even give myself a little leeway to gain some back.

Now, when I say "gain some back", I'm talking muscle mass and not fat.  I have plans to start jogging this spring, and I'm saving part of my tax returns for P90X, I think.

Wow, I am looking forward to physical activity. I can't even tell you when the last time was that I was looking forward to physical activity. Probably last time I was in the Original Black Jeans.  Hmm, wonder if there is a correlation there? ;-)

I'm going to spend some time putting together a menu for next week today or tomorrow. Lianne is thinking of putting meal plans up on My HCG Cooking Blog, so don't forget to check her out and subscribe for new posts. Oh, she's got a Facebook page, too! So go "like" her. Yay for delicious, EASY, HCG friendly food!

One other thing I wanted to mention is that it seems Amazon has pulled most of the HCG they carried, including the D140 that I've gotten for this round.  You don't have to buy it from Amazon, if it turns out to be awesome.  Once I finish guinea pigging it for you, I'll find a good, reputable, and reliable resaler for everyone who is interested. Unless it sucks. And then we're all going back to EVOKE.

Smoochies!

No, I didn't die from lack of food

I'm still here!  Still eating!  I'm back in Phase 3, and stopped blogging for the past month or so, because my head was someplace else entirely.

I'll tell you what, I'm getting close to my goal, and I think my natural tendency towards self-sabotage has been kicking in.  I'm working on that. Probably anyone who does this diet should have a therapist on hand. Or at the very least, a group of really good friends who you can talk this all out with. I have the friends. And a blog, which is kind of like therapy. Right?

Anyway, a couple new things on the HCG front. First, it seems that there is a questionable batch of EVOKE HCG drops floating around. So far, two friends and one complete stranger have reported problems with their drops, all from lot number 90476. The people at EVOKE are suggesting that it could be improper storage, or body chemistry changing. However, I think that's highly unlikely, given the fact that we're dealing with three different people, who were all having the same issues, before discovering that their bottles all had the same batch number.

What issues were they having? Well, they were hungry all the time, dealing with impossible cravings and barely losing weight. They all mentioned that their drops tasted different this time, too. I'm really not sure what the problem with this batch might be, but if you're feeling like you're starving, instead of feeling good on this diet, check your lot number, and please notify the company if you have a bottle from batch 90476 and feel that it's not working. They have promised to send a new batch to one of my friends. I'll keep you guys posted on how all that pans out.

In the meantime, I had to order a new bottle of drops for my next round, and was hesitant to order EVOKE again until I knew what was going on there. I will say, now, having seen how they handled this (offering to replace the product to one person that I know of at this writing--I'll update if I learn anything about the others), I would not hesitate to order from them again in the future.  I had no problems at all on the EVOKE drops for my first two rounds.

My next round, however, I'll be using D140 Dr. Simeons Drops w/ Thyroid, Hypothalamus, Pineal Support.  I'm intrigued by the extra "support" offered with these drops, and I"m looking forward to reporting back to you guys to let you know if I'm feeling any different, better or worse, on them.

The other thing I want to tell you guys about is a little more exciting. One of  my BFFs has started an HCG cooking blog, STUFFED with yummy HCG friendly food. Stuff for Phase 2 and Phase 3. She's got everything arranged very intuitively and even goes through the trouble of letting us know when something isn't 100% protocol, by putting ROGUE in the title.

Mmmmm rogue food.

The other great thing she's doing over there, that I think more cooking blogs need to work on, is giving really basic tutorials on things that some cooks think we should all know already. Like how to make whipped cream. Or how to hard boil an egg.  Seriously, I still call my mother to find out how long to cook those stupid eggs for.

One last thing I wanted to tell you guys: I bought a pair of size 7 jeans the other day. There is a story behind that, which I shall share in a forthcoming blog. Size SEVEN y'all. I'm not there yet. But almost. :)

Slow and Steady Wins the Race, right?

Holding steady at 20 pounds gone. Still.

I'm getting frustrated, but hanging in there.

PSA: If you're new and wondering about my diet, please read the post linked in the sidebar. If you're wanting to try it yourself, check out the links, also in the sidebar. It's IMPORTANT.

Today, I'm going to begin challenging myself to go back to the beginning of this diet. Back to the basics. I was careful, in the beginning of the last round, to count every calorie, and make sure I was getting enough water. (Half my body weight in ounces. Which was 10 more ounces last round than it is now!) I'm going to go back to that, and take it one day at a time.

I CAN stop after this week, if I find that I'm burning out. But, with only ten more pounds to goal, it seems counterproductive to move to P3 and give myself three more weeks at 145-ish.  I'll have to gauge where I am one day at a time.

Which is what we should all be doing, right? Living one day at a time?

Crap, did I just start my own 12 step support group or something?

Ten pounds left, but the chocolate won't let me go!

Hi! If you're visiting from IComLeavWe, thanks for stopping by!  If you're new here, please take a few minutes to read the post in the sidebar!

Holding steady at 20 pounds gone. That's fine. According to my super awesome scale, I'm also retaining water like that kid from WonderTwins.  (Have you ever seen my brother and I do our Wonder Twins impersonation? Oh you totally have to. I'll video tape it one day.)

I'm having a hard time with The Munchster this round. I did great last time, but this time, I am finding that it's easier for me to pop little things into my mouth throughout the day. I have a particularly hard time when I'm cleaning the kitchen. Or walking through the kitchen. Or thinking about the kitchen.

I'm not having huge binge cheats. The bag of Doritos I didn't get to when I was loading is still there, unopened. But, I'll snag a Hershey Kiss from my kids' snack box. Or...ugh...I found a chewy Werther's in my cabinet yesterday and snarfed it before I could even blink. 

WTH?  Trying to get my head back on straight, because these last ten pounds are going to fight me every single way possible. Sneaking pieces of chocolate isn't going to encourage my body to release them any quicker. 

So, today, lunch will be chicken soup, which I'm really looking forward to, because I've got a wicked cold coming on.  How about you? What's for lunch, folks?

My Magic Roller Coaster Ride

Down a little, up a little, down a little, up a little.

Sigh.

I have decided that I was entirely too rough on my poor womanly functions last time around. My weight loss has followed the exact same pattern this round, without a visit from AF.  So, maybe it wasn't my period's fault that my weight loss slowed down.

I'm forever preaching about reading Dr. S' book and following it to the letter. You'd think I'd have believed him when he said that the weight loss will slow down as you get closer to a healthy weight!

In any case, I'm still 20 pounds from where I started, and have decided that it's highly unlikely that I'll lose my last 10 pounds in the next 10 days, which is when my period is supposed to start back up. So I'm going to keep on keeping on, I think, and push right through that week.  We'll see how it goes.

I'll tell you what, it is HARD to stick to this diet when you're not losing a good amount a day. It's even HARDER when the scale creeps back up some. But, I still fully believe that it is totally worth it.  I mean, hello! I haven't been 145 pounds since after my little monster was born. I think. I don't even know for sure that I hit it then.

I am finding it harder to stick to protocol this round, but I think it's all mental. I KNOW it's all mental. I'm going to spend some time today in prayer and meditation and try to get my head on straight.  Other than that, it's all about swimming. You know, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming....just keep swimming, swimming, swimming." :-)

Oh! Look what I found! The HCG Diet Gourmet Cookbook: Over 200 "Low Calorie" Recipes for the "HCG Phase"  I'll be ordering that, and requesting super quick shipping, I think!  Also pulling some great recipes from The Liquid HCG Diet page. Just click on the HCG recipes tab at the top of the page.

Off to drink my second glass of water and get my poor dog fed. He's like, "Really, woman, I'M not on a diet!"

Smoochies and Huggles!

-21.2 Total

Yep, that's not even close to a lie. So far, I'm down a little over 20 pounds on the HCG protocol. That's 2/3 of the way to my goal.

Are you thinking about doing this? Make sure you read the post in the sidebar, and check out the links to Dr. Simeons' book, and the SkinnyMe Forum. I didn't put them there because they're cute, people!

Sorry for the incredibly short post today, just wanted to celebrate TWENTY FREAKING POUNDS with you, but I also have an insane amount of backed up work for a client or two, and yay. Another snow day.

Love you, sweets! Smooches and huggles and all that other stuff.

The scale lives to weigh another day...

Long day, and it's only half over. Sigh.

But, you guys, I do NOT have to drown my scale tonight. I'm down 1.8 pounds today. So, now I weigh 146.2. That's 1.2 pounds away from 20 lost.  That's 11.2 pounds away from my goal.

That's freaking awesome.

So, the HCG diet seems too good to be true, doesn't it? All those ads on TV for all those pills and supplements and diet plans and all the rest, and here's this HCG stuff, that is scarcely heard of, seems be the "miracle product" that everyone is looking for.

If I were doing one of those loud, bright commercials, the first shot you'd see would be a picture of me, probably one of the hugely embarrassing ones of me from the Dove Chocolate Discoveries conference I went to in August ("hugely" there, can be used in a couple different contexts. If you know what I mean.) And then the 146 pound me would bust through, in my size 10 mommy-waist jeans and a low cut shirt. (I have one in mind. My husband's favorite.) I'd spread my arms out wide and my grin would be even wider, and I'd say something really cheesy, like, "HCG worked for me!"

Ugh, I just shuddered at the thought of this commercial.

Anyway, then I'd go on to talk about the benefits of HCG. It'd look like this:

• Lose a pound a day!
• No hunger!
• No dangerous chemicals or compounds!
• Enjoy amazing food and fabulous recipes!
• Eat out and still lose weight!

It would say all that, with the little asterisk, you know. *Results not typical

Except......

These results ARE typical.  I haven't met ANYONE who hasn't lost weight on this diet. If you follow the protocol, you can't help it.  

Give me another couple weeks, and I'll change this commercial. Instead of wearing my husband's favorite shirt and size 10 jeans, I'll be in a bathing suit. 

(Not a bikini. I've had two kids. A bikini will never happen again. I'm cool with that.)

Crafting Concrete Shoes for my Scale

I've read that it takes about 3 days to recover from a cheat. So, today is day 3.

MOVE, SCALE. MOVE TOMORROW OR YOU'LL SLEEP WITH THE FISHES.

I'll tell you what, that slice of pizza I ate at Chuck E. Cheese, or the small slice of cake, or the glass of wine I had when I got home with friends.... none of that was worth this. I hate not seeing the scale move. It is really hard to stick to a 500 calorie diet (even if you're not hungry, which, dude, I am not), when the scale is showing no results.

(I almost typed resluts, which is one of my favorite typos. Just thought I'd share that.)

The other side of this, and I think I mentioned this in yesterday's blog, is that I'm kind of close to my goal. I'm only 13 pounds away from 135, which is where I wanna be.  When you're doing ANY weight loss plan, the closer you get to the end, the slower the weight comes off. I'm thinking about contestants on the Biggest Loser, after about midway into the season, you stop seeing lots of double digits on the scale, you know?

I'm going to try pushing through this time, even if I'm not to my goal by the time my TOM rolls around again. (Even though I said I'm never going to stay on this diet through that again.) I'm just so close, it seems really ridiculous to move to Phase 3 for three weeks to lose whatever is going to be left in two weeks.

So, my game plan for the near future, is to stick to protocol, get better about counting calories, because I haven't been counting very closely, and just keep keepin' on.

I'm not officially discouraged yet, because Dr. Simeon did say it can take 3 days for an indulgence to correct itself. So, good. Day 3 of correction. And boom. Tomorrow, I will lose eight pounds. Right?

Shoot me some encouragement here, hcg folks!

Round Two, and I'm coming out swinging!

Well, hello there! It's been about three weeks, and I've been busy. Also? There is just not too much to talk about in Phase 3. It's not like you're losing any weight, so my blogs would have looked like, "Well, I ate a bunch of cheese and some nuts before. And now I'm eating some chicken. I might have steak for dinner. Keep you posted." And that's just no fun to read.

On the other hand, Phase 2 is a great time to write, because WOOT for weight loss!

So, I'm here tonight to report that I ended my stint with Phase 3, and have happily jumped back into Phase 2 following two loading days.

I've been at it for about a week, and am down about 7 pounds. It would have been more, no doubt, but I had a weekend of birthday parties and one of them was my own daughter's. So stress eating abounded. I wasn't even hungry at Chuck E Cheese, but I ate a slice of that nasty pizza anyway. Because, you know, woohoo.

Anyway, I'm in the middle of recovering from my cheat-ie weekend (and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I really didn't cheat that much. You need to follow this diet to the LETTER, man), so didn't lose anything today. Hopefully being back on track today will get some pounds off by tomorrow. I'm only 12 pounds from my goal, so I wouldn't be surprised if I lose slower now, but I'd still like to be LOSING.

As we all know from my last round, being on HCG and NOT losing weight AT ALL really sucks monkey tush.

So, that's where I'm at, folks. Where are you at? Leave me some comment love so I know I'm not the only one reading this! ;-)