P4 Day 12

Long time no see! I'm sorry to all my lovely friends that I've been absent, but things really have been a zoo around here. First, we were vandalized on Halloween. Our car windows were broken out. Luckily, my baby was (as always) in the garage. Then we had a death in the family so we had to leave town & take care of all of that. Finally, the flu hit us. Both of my kids and my husband, anyway - I was spared. One of my sons is on his 2nd round of it and it still home from school today. It seems all I do is clean & disinfect.

I wanted to be sure to let you all know how phase 4 is treating me. It's unfreakingbelievable, that's what it is. I started P4 a few days early (so I'm probably more on day 15 of P4) as Halloween candy was everywhere and I wanted some. Plain & simple. I've been consistently eating bagels, pitas, falafel, tortillas, rice, bread, etc. with absolutely no problems. The only thing I've found didn't sit well was potatoes. I ate a baked potato and felt bad for the rest of the night. No gain to be found, I only felt ill to my stomach. I have to admit to even going a few days without weighing myself. It's like I KNOW that my weight is stable and I don't need to worry about it. The other night we went to BK and I had an italian chicken sandwich & onion rings. I actually lost the next morning. I remember one night we went out for sushi and I was worried the sashimi and tempura might put me over. Nope, weight didn't budge. It really is amazing. I have also enjoyed a few oreos with milk and even birthday cake & ice cream. To clarify, I've also eaten plenty of healthy foods, I merely wanted to highlight that my body handled the other foods just fine as well.

This is all proof to me that this protocol is the answer. It takes simply listening to your body on phase 3 and phase 4 to know when you're hungry. I think it's very easy to overanalyze these two phases as we are so accustomed to having everything spelled out for us while on P2. As soon as I learned to relax and only eat when I was hungry (not eat to reach a specific caloric/protein amount), all was well. I've also put all my worries to rest that P4 would be a huge challenge. Most everyone I've spoken with has taken a shortened P3 and never even went into P4 between rounds, so now I'm proof that it does in fact work. Whew.

I'm starting P2 again next week and already anxious about it. I'm ready to start, and yet nervous all at the same time. I'm so excited to start losing again.

I hope this update finds everyone well. I'll try to no longer be a stranger. :)