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.

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!

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!

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!

The Introduction and The Protocol

So, I have the world's greatest best friend. You know your best friend? Yeah? Mine's better. How do I know? She tells me all her craziest ideas. And then I research them and decide it's an awesome idea and we do it. Like, for example, the HCG Protocol.

Now, this is not her idea. She just found it. She first read about it in a thread on Mothering.com and then found Dr. Simeon's book. She read it and then told me about it. So I read it. And ordered my HCG before I was even done reading.

I did a little Googling of my own along the way, of course, and found that there are lots and lots of places to order HCG from. And, seriously, if you Google "HCG Diet" a gajillion sites show up. How the hell did I never know about this before? I also found, of course, that the diet has lots of nay-sayers. But for every person who gives their reasons for not digging the protocol, there are two people who have lost significant amounts of weight and have kept it off.

Reading the Mothering thread, and the doctor's book, explaining the research behind it, was enough to get me on board to at least give it a try. If it didn't work, I was out a measly $37 on the HCG drops I ordered. I've spent way more than that on the latest diet, nutrition, or exercise products, that ended up doing nothing.

So here's a quick breakdown of how the diet works. For a more complete picture, really, read Dr. Simeon's book. Also, you can visit the Skinny Me Forum, which has the most AMAZING breakdown of every single aspect of the protocol I've found anywhere. Seriously, I give the girls over there at Skinny Me a ton of credit, because that must have taken a ton of time to put together.

So, HCG is a hormone that is most frequently associated with pregnancy. In fact, it's the hormone that pregnancy tests pick up in urine to give you that cute little pink line. It's also used as a treatment for various maladies, including, but not limited to, infertility in women, and "failure to become manly" in men. (I don't know. What would YOU call it?)

When you take HCG, either by injections, or sublingual (which are drops under your tongue. I had no idea what that meant when I first heard it. Thank you Dictionary.com), it's like popping the lock on the fat you hate and want to get rid of. It tells your body, it's okay to burn this fat. Release it. Let it go.

Let's take a quick stroll down memory lane. Remember how I mentioned, in my previous blog, that I was sick as a dog in the beginning of both my pregnancies, and couldn't eat anything? Yet my babies grew, completely healthy, despite my eating only Fruity Pebbles and cheddar cheese for three months. (Not together. Gross.)

Turns out that's because the rising HCG was telling my body, "Burn that fat! Grow that baby!"

So, if you can introduce a little more HCG into your body, and then restrict your calorie intake, it takes that fat and burn, baby, burn.

Ah, so about that calorie restriction? Yeah, it's 500 calories a day. Shut up, because I know what you're thinking. First of all, yes, if you ate 500 calories a day without HCG you would totally lose weight. But you'd lose a lot of muscle mass and be passed out on the floor at some point, too. The HCG ensures that you're burning fat, and not muscle. Also, yeah, 500 calories a day sounds like you're going to be massively hungry. But the HCG really helps with that. A lot.

The best part about this protocol is that you're actually RESETTING your body's set weight. For the past several years, I've been hanging out around 165 pounds. Just hanging around there. Down a couple pounds one week, back up to 165 a little later. It's become my body's "set weight". That's why, even though I lost weight after having my girls, I slid right back up here, in no time.

The protocol has several phases. Phase I is called the "loading" phase, and it lasts two days. During those two days, you take your HCG and eat as much fatty stuff you can gorge yourself on. This is to give your body something to work with while the HCG works on getting the rest of the fat mobilized. I loaded on Thanksgiving and the day after. Pass the green bean casserole, please.

Phase II is where I am now. It's called the Very Low Calorie Diet phase (VLCD for short). During the VLCD you eat a very low calorie diet (duh) while taking your HCG. That's 500 calories a day. And you're restricted as to what foods you can eat. But there are also tons of awesome recipes floating around cyberspace that can help you feel like you're not eating the same thing over and over. And really? I'm not eating the same thing over and over. Even though it's restricted, I find there is enough variety that I'm okay. Phase I and II together need to be a minimum of 23 days. So, if you can't commit to 23 days of this.... Come on, it's less than a month. You can do it! The max, by the way, is 40 days. You can do another round if you need to.

Phase II ends with the suckiest idea ever. It's two days where you continue the VLCD without the HCG. It's critical to long term success, though, apparently. Maybe it won't suck as bad as I'm thinking, though. I mean, I'll be used to eating this amount of food by then. And it's only a couple days.

Phase III is the stabilizing phase. Three weeks of no starch, no sugar. Not a big deal. You haven't had starch or sugar since Phase II. This phase is where you reintroduce fats, pretty much. Like cheese. Oh, how I miss you, my cheddar. We shall be together again, soon. You keep yourself within 2 pounds of your weight on your final day of Phase II here. Keep counting calories. And you are resetting that "set weight".

Yay, science!

Finally, in Phase IV, you begin to slowly reintroduce starches and sugars. Honestly? My plan is to be done with sugar. I have no problem admitting I am a sugar addict, and not just plain old boring sugar. Give me some High Fructose Corn Syrup, and I'll drink it straight from the bottle. Just FYI, I'm using liquid stevia to get my sweet fix while I'm on protocol, and am planning on continuing that when I'm done.

So, sounds nuts, right? Or maybe you've already started looking for where you can get your HCG yourself? No? Oh! You want to know how it's working for me!

Well, as I mentioned, I loaded on Thanksgiving, which was a week ago, tomorrow. So, counting Thanksgiving as Day One, here are my numeros:

11/26 165.4

11/27 164.4 (Yes, I lost a pound while loading. I ate chips and dip with a spoon. And I lost a pound.)

11/28 161.4

11/29 159.4

11/30 158.2

12/1 157.4

That's eight pounds in five days.

Yes, I know it's fat and not muscle. My super awesome scale also measures body fat percentage. I've gone from 32.8% fat to 30.4%

Do I expect to keep these amazing results up? Not exactly. The average loss for a woman on the protocol is about half a pound a day. Most people lose more per day in the beginning, and then it stabilizes out, and they start losing a little less. That's born out in my own numbers. Down 3 pounds on the first day of VLCD, I was down 0.8 this morning. Which is fine. I mean, half a pound a day is still nothing to sneeze at.

I have no "official" before picture. But I'll find something that shows me at my largest. One of my wonderful Facebook friends probably has something LOVELY posted of me somewhere. (With friends like these, who needs Facebook?) And I hope to start taking "during" pictures tonight. Like, in a sports bra and shorts. So you can REALLY see my nastiness. Prepare your stomachs and hide your children.