Saturday, October 20, 2007

P3 Day 6

LIW +2.0

Argh. I'm exactly two pounds over LIW. How frustrating! I'm really confused about why this is. Some people tell me I'm not eating enough calories. Some say too much. I'm eating nothing off plan and I simply can't get my weight to stabilize. I try varying my calories between 1500-2000 and nothing seems to be working. I really don't want to have to do a steak day every couple of days. It would be one thing if I was pushing the limits of phase 3, but I'm not.

I'm not doing a steak day today since I wasn't technically more than two pounds over LIW. So that means tomorrow, the day of 3 birthday parties, will most likely be a steak day for me. Ugh.

All this makes me want to do is take a ride in my trusty time machine & speed up the days so that I can get back on phase 2. But I have to admit that this worries me on how maintenance will be once I get all the weight off. I don't want to have to do a steak day every other day for the rest of my life. I don't see me following through with that and I don't think it's always feasible. Frustrating. At least I'm no longer feeling nauseous, but I am feeling depressed and just want to cry.

Hopefully most of this is due to my menses arriving way early and things will settle soon. I know Dr. S. makes mention of when to end your phase 2 so that it doesn't end close to your menses arriving. I made sure that there was a 2 1/2 week break between then, but that didn't work since apparently me getting off of the hcg triggered my period to begin early.

Please know that I'm not saying any of this to worry you lovely P2ers, simply giving you my experience. What is my experience, will not necessarily be yours. I only want to be real with you as to what is honestly going on with me while on this journey.

Update:
After doing some thinking today, I've decided I'm going to try something a little different. I read in P&I the following in regard to a steak day:

Most patients hardly ever need to skip a meal. If they have eaten a heavy lunch they feel no desire to eat their dinner, and in this case no increase takes place. If they keep their weight at the point reached at the end of the treatment, even a heavy dinner does not bring about an increase of two pounds on the next morning and does not therefore call for any special measures.

The point that stands out at me is where Dr. S. states that if someone has eaten a heavy lunch, then they have no desire to eat dinner. He doesn't state this is a bad thing or that we must eat in order to maintain a specific caloric intake. This conflicts with what I've come to understand based on previous messages I've read about what I should be doing on phase 3. I have been stuffing myself to try to keep myself at a calorie amount. This has left me feeling like a failure which leads to low self-esteem as I also feel like I'm forming bad habits by eating when I'm not even hungry. I don't think that's working for me - or my body. So, for now, I'm going to stop counting calories altogether and simply eat when I am hungry. This doesn't mean I'm cutting my calories drastically or anything like that. Only that I'm not going to push myself to reach a specific caloric point if I'm not that hungry for some reason on that day. That simply makes more sense to me and pretty much matches up with what Dr. S. says about all of this. And honestly, I have nothing to lose at this point.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Renee -- your update is right-on. I have avoided the boards lately as everyone is turning this protocol into Atkins/Pritikin/whatever past diet they're familiar with. It seems to me that what is being touted as "the way to do it" was never mentioned by Doc. S. I think you're exactly right as far as the calorie thing -- after all, we are supposed to learning better eating habits. So. Stop worrying about getting enough calories. Your body will let you know. I couldn't have said it better than you did.

beachbrights said...

Renee-You know your body best. Good for you for stopping and listening. We get so wrapped up in what others are saying we forget sometimes to listen to ourselves. I believe you have found the answer...I look forward to hearing about your weight stabilizing! Thanks for posting.

Renee said...

L-
Thanks, woman. You know I love ya. I think sometimes we get sidetracked and start to believe something as truth if we hear it enough times. Hopefully things will simply settle down soon. These fluctuations are enough to drive me nutty(er).

CB-
You're totally correct. Thank you for that. Hopefully my body will get this sorted out soon but I'm pretty sure I'll have to do a steak day tomorrow. And then - hopefully- things will balance out soon. :)

Amy's Blog said...

Gosh I sure hope you don't have to do steak every other day either! I sure can understand your frustration.

I'm not even sure why the steak day works to lose 2 lbs... is it the lower calories? the lower carbs? the one meal? or the type of protein? All I remember is that Dr. S seems to emphasize 'adequate' protein in P3. Not much discussion about carbs & fats...

I hope your experiment works out... I pray that you will achieve stable weight soon!

BizBuzz said...

Renee, you know I don't have to tell you the following, but I am going to anyway, just cause I love ya.

Remember also that Dr S says to "eat as you please" (no sugars and starches) - provided you watch the scale and that he also said there would be wild fluxes even following that one simple rule.

I don't think it's a science with each and every body, you have to find out what is right for you. What was right for my body was not right for JPS's body - she had to do three steak days, and her cals seldom went over 1500 - I didn't do any steak days and my cals seldom were under 1900 - I did find with me that if I went undedr 1500 I started to gain. Why is that?

My theory is that since our hypo is reset, that our metabolism is working better. And what happens when our bodies don't get enough food? We go into starvation mode and then our body starts to hoard. So our metabolism actually enjoys more cals now then before.

Notice I said "more cals" not more food. I was having issues with eating so much food. I was like, what is this teaching me? Then a lightbulb went off in my head. I had to disregard everything I ever heard in my dieting life, and start just listening to my body.

I started realizing I didn't want that much food, but I desired high calorie dense foods without a lot of mass. And I would eat every 3 hours. We have been taught that our metabolism wants that constant work out or it becomes lazy.

So I started eating 2 oz of cashews between meals, an apple and peanut butter between meals, and adding betewen 300 - 600 cals with just those two snacks.

Was I adding a ton of food to my daily cal count? Nope, but I was adding a ton of cals, and that proved to be the thing that kept my weight stable.

How else can you explain my constant losing on P3 and eating over 1800 cals a day?

I so agree with you in the aspect of "listen to your body" but I also agree with Dr S when he says "eat as you please" - that means, do not deprive.

What is good for someone else, is not good for you.

One more thing. Paula figured out her week of huge fluxes were contributed to her menses. One menses was over she is maintaining just fine.

Ok, I have written entirely too much. I just had to share. I hope you figure it out soon. I miss you and I am sorry for all the hardships you are facing this past week. But I have to say I did a "WOO HOO" when I heard you got your menses! Sigh of relief! Love ya!

Amy's Blog said...

Biz, you have not written too much at all. A summary of various experiences may provide ideas that could work. It helps to know the variety of experiences. You're right... we aren't all the same. I hope JPS worked out OK.