My Journey with HCG

2008-03-21T07:32:00.002-05:00

Still on vacation! Will try to update again after we return home and when I start back on protocol after the 1st of April. Happy losing to everyone!

VLCD Day 16

2008-02-22T10:46:00.002-06:00

Injection #16

Loss Today: <1.2>
Round 4 Loss: <14.4>
Loss Total: <72.4>

Oh, my poor sweet neglected blog. I don't know why I can't get into posting updates lately. I guess I'm really trying to limit my computer time and unfortunately that's where this falls.

Firstly, I have to say thank you for all your comments. I want you all to know I appreciate each one of you greatly, and I never meant to insinuate you didn't care. Only that I didn't know if it was worth checking my blog to only read numbers. I love and thank you all for your support.

OK, now let me try to give a bit more of a detailed update of how this round has gone. As you all know, I took an interruption of about 11 days. Company came to town, life was grand, and phase 3 was easy shmeasy. I ended up hovering right around 3 lbs+ LIW and I wasn't stressed over it. In fact, I find that that's where my body likes to sit while in P3. The 2 lb mark just doesn't work for me. That was going well until PMS started - the DAY BEFORE I was due to start P2 again. Lo & behold, this put me up another FIVE pounds. That's right, folks. So suddenly I was EIGHT pounds over LIW. In one day. And no, it had nothing to do with what I ate, it was all PMS, baby. Ugh. I was mortified, and felt like all was wasted, but in the end knew it would come off again. Let me also add here, that while on HCG, it's amazing how I continue to lose or stay the same while on menses. Because when off HCG, it's normal for me to gain 3-5 lbs. Another wonderful thing about our buddy, HCG.

Anyway, my losses this round have been slower than others. I figure PMS'ing with all that water bloat didn't help in the beginning when the big losses usually hit. Also, my menses started on about Day 6 or 7 so that slowed things down. And then, directly after my menses, I entered a period of about 3 days where I only lost .2 of a pound TOTAL. I didn't do an apple day or anything of the sort, I just let it run its course. I figure I'll be taking my last injection this coming Thursday and then be on P3 for at least the following 4 weeks. I probably won't start up again until around the 1st of April or so.

I've come to the conclusion, that for me anyway, it's really important to time my P2s to start at certain times of the month. I definitely think Dr S was on to something when he talks about this in the protocol:
In menstruating women, the best time to start treatment is immediately after a period. Treatment may also be started later, but it is advisable to have at least ten days in hand before the onset of the next period.

In order for us women (or, at least me) to maximize losses, I really do need to start at the appropriate time he designates. Now let's hope I can remember that when I start itching to start up P2 again. :)

I hope everyone is doing fantastically. Happy Friday!

VLCD Day 9

2008-02-15T14:41:00.002-06:00

Injection #9

Loss Today: <1.4>
Round 4 Loss: <11.6>

Here's a quick update. To be honest, I haven't really felt like blogging as things have been incredibly busy and I just haven't been in a blogging mood. I do, however, try to stop by everyone else's blogs as often as I can. I wasn't sure if I should still update here with just my stats everyday, or if that's something nobody really cares about.

I'll try to give more details about this round in a later post. I am going ahead & calling this my round 4 since I took an 11 day break and it's just easier for me to track this way.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday and enjoys their weekend!

P3 Day 5

2008-02-02T09:29:00.000-06:00

Well, so far so good. I'm hovering every day within the +/-2 LIW. I am, in fact, over my LIW today as I was really bad about my water yesterday. I find that while in P3, I have to force myself to remember to drink enough water. It's funny that while in P2, it's so natural to drink it, but then all of that goes out the window once I'm off VLCD. Bad, Renee, bad.

Some good news. While picking up the kiddos from a friend's birthday party, I went up to talk to the hosting mom as I hadn't seen her in a while and wanted to quickly catch up while the party was wrapping up. As I was walking up to her, she looked puzzled and then suddenly this look of shock traveled across her face. She then started screaming, "OMG! OMG! I didn't even know that was you. You look AMAZING!" I had to tell her she made my day as many people don't say a single word about weight loss. It really felt fantastic to have someone acknowledge my hard work. Combine that with the fact that this morning I tried on my super-comfy uber-fantastic 'ooooh, look at my rear in these!' most-favorite Patagonia size 12 cargo pants and they fit. Wow. We have another birthday party today and I'm going to wear them and yes- probably check myself out in the mirrors all day long.

I've been doing some thinking on when to start back on VLCD. I was going to start on Monday, but I just found out that the out-of-towners aren't leaving until Thursday. Now, I'm not going to wait until Thursday. But I would really like to partake in the luncheon on Monday as everyone is going out for sushi. That's something I don't want to miss. So it's looking like I'll start back on Tuesday and then continue for 21 injections, wrapping up on 2/25. I'm anxious to see how the losses go after this short break. Better? Same? We'll seeee.

Sorry for the delay in posting. Preparing for out-of-towners all the while my husband has been up in SD alllll week left things a little goofy around here. I apologize I haven't had the time to make the rounds on everyone's blogs. I hope to be able to do that soon. I miss you all!

Happy weekend, everyone.

VLCD Day 23

2008-01-28T12:16:00.000-06:00

No Injection

Round 3 Loss: <22.6>
Loss Total: <66.2>

Things were insanely busy this weekend so I didn't have time to update this blog o' mine. I did want to say a big thank you to all of you who chimed in on my planned interruption. Your thoughts definitely helped me wrap my head around what I was going to do.

I did, in fact, stop injections on Saturday, Jan 26th. That was my 21st injection. I'll start VLCD + injections up again on Monday, Feb 4th. We'll see how this all works out.

I'm still tracking my weight, and I've stalled & been at the same weight since Friday. I think this might be due to the fact that I'm ovulating. I have to say, I'm glad I had already decided to take this break before the stall happened. My mind is definitely in a better spot and that 'stall' isn't fretting me one bit. Now, if I had been looking at another straight 20 days of VLCD, I might be more concerned.

One last quick bit of news. Yesterday, we all went out to see Cloverfield and as I was getting ready I saw the size 12 jeans I recently purchased calling my name and thought for a laugh I'd try them on and see how much farther I have to go to get into them. They totally fit and I wore those suckers right to the movies. I couldn't believe it. So much so that I caught myself checking out my rear end, legs, etc. at every window we passed, even the cars in the parking lot. I haven't tried on my favorite size 12 cargos yet, but I'll definitely have to pull those out of my 'skinny' storage over the next week or two.

I took my measurements for this short round and the most impressive numbers came from my waist and hips where I lost 3.5" and 3" respectively. In only 20 days. On my third round. Unbelievable.

I'll try to keep updating as I can during this break. Happy Monday to everyone.

VLCD Day 19

2008-01-24T12:04:00.000-06:00

Injection #19
Loss Today: ?
Round 3 Loss: <21.2>
Loss Total: <64.8>

No update on my losses for today. I had an early meeting at school and had to leave a couple hours before my normal weigh-in time, so I really have no idea where I'm at today. It makes me a bit nervous only because I like to know where I'm at each day. I am very thirsty today which may have something to do with the fact that
apparently my menses is still hanging around. It mysteriously appeared out of the blue again today so I'm still having to put up with that. That silly thing just needs to go already. :)

I've been giving some thought to taking an interruption next week. We're going to have some people come in from out of state and we'll be celebrating three birthdays total (including mine from the beginning of Jan.) and the wine and martinis will be plenty. And the beer. And the gin & tonics. Ok, now Jennifer isn't the only one sounding like a lush. ;)

You all know me, so you know my decision on this will change 30 times before next week comes. However, this is one idea I've been tossing around. To stop this weekend after 22-23 injections, take the 72 hours, live life like a really, really short modified P3 over the rest of that week & the weekend. It would be about 4 days. Then that Monday start up injections/VLCD again which would give me 21 more injections before I'm wanting to stop around 2/24. However, I'm not sure what this would do. One concern I have is that I would gain 2-3 pounds (or more) and then my hard work over this entire past week (or longer) would be shot. I'm not really sure I'm willing to risk that. On the other hand, I'm thinking maybe taking a short break might kickstart losses again and it's a theory I've been wanting to test - especially since 225 is a set point for me and I just might need an extra boost to get past it. Since this was due to be a 50+ vlcd round for me, I'm wondering if this isn't the time to find out and maybe a short break isn't a bad thing when doing an extended round. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing since I am mentally/emotionally in a good place on this round and I don't really want to do anything to sabotage that, or my losses. Buuuuut, I'm curious. And obviously confused. Who knows, it might not affect anything and I'll continue to lose at the normal rate which would be just as wonderful. I probably won't make a decision until Sunday or Monday and see how my losses go up until then. So that's what has been bouncing around in this ol' head o' mine.

On to my menu for yesterday.
Again, my fruits were green apples. I have so many of those from the past fall and will probably be eating them for months. Luckily, I love them.
Lunch was Cinnamon Curry Chicken Soup.
Dinner was a veggie burger and sliced tomato.
Fluids included 2L water and 1L oolong.

I'll run around visiting everyone's blogs later tonight after I get home. I hope everyone's Thursday is a great one.

VLCD Day 18

2008-01-23T10:45:00.000-06:00

Injection #18
Loss Today: <1.0>
Round 3 Loss: <21.2>
Loss Total: <64.8>

Whew. I am so glad yesterday is history. It was such a trying day emotionally. I love teaching, but there are times when the beaurocracy of it all could drive one completely bonkers.

On another note, I lost a pound! Woo! It's wonderful to see a big number once again. TOM is officially gone (see ya!) and now hopefully this extra bloating will go as well.

Not much time to post as I want to spend this short bit of time checking up on everyone else's blogs instead of posting on mine. ;)

Menu for yesterday:

Lunch was grilled steak & onion.
Dinner was tomato soup with shredded chicken.
Fruits were green apples.
Fluids included 2.5L water and 2 c coffee (with zsweet).

VLCD Day 17

2008-01-22T15:46:00.000-06:00

Injection #17
Loss Today: <.2>
Round 3 Loss: <20.2>
Loss Total: <63.8>

Short post today. I'm having one of those very trying, stressful days. Nothing to do with the protocol, just everything else hitting all at once. I thought I should go ahead & get my stats up though. Even if it is a piddly .2/lb, it's still that much closer to my goal. And I did actually hit the next 'tens'. Hopefully this silly menses will go away soon enough as well.

Big thanks to all of you who commented yesterday. To answer your question, Jenn, my goal for this round was to get to the 100s. Now, that's a big goal and might not be attainable since it's still 29.8 lbs away. I am, however, shooting to do a longer round this round, so I might get close. The closer the better, of course. I do want to be done with this round sometime around the 25th of February so I can be on phase 4 in time for our trip to Paris in March. Wish me luck! ;)

Menu yesterday included 2 green apples, grilled steak & onion, and grilled chicken with lettuce & homemade dressing.

More tomorrow. Happy losses to everyone.

VLCD Day 16

2008-01-21T14:34:00.000-06:00

Injection #16
Loss Today: <.8>
Round 3 Loss: <20.0>
Loss Total: <63.6>

Darn! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm happy with .8 of a loss. But I was SO looking forward to possibly hitting the 220s today, and here I am at 230.0. I just know that next decade is around the corner, and the last time I was at 220, I was into those size 12s and I'm so anxious to be there again. Even though it's not my goal weight, it's a size that I feel really comfortable with, and I still have my favorite cargos waiting for me to get back there. It's one of those goals I'm itching to get to.

My menu for yesterday was:
Lunch - green apple, grilled steak & onion.
Dinner - orange, baked bbq chicken, and sliced tomato.
Fluids included 2.5L water, 3 c coffee, and 1L oolong.

Back on the subject of people noticing when you've lost weight. It's funny how people will tell me now that I look like I'm already done dieting. Trust me, I am by no means thin (especially at 230.0!), but I am over 5'10" and so my height sort of spreads everything out. I told a close friend how much I weighed and she wouldn't believe it. She said there was no way I was over 200. The main reason I'm putting this out there is that this is something I have to watch for myself. Because once I get to that size 12, I will get somewhat comfortable, especially with everyone making those sort of comments. So I'll have to push myself a bit to keep going. The good news is that I know now, with hCG, that I will be able to continue on to get back to my goal weight where I am MOST comfortable and, more importantly, MOST healthy. And it's so amazing to have that confidence in something (and yourself) to KNOW that all of that is attainable.

Yay for all of us.

VLCD Day 15

2008-01-20T09:28:00.000-06:00

Injection #15
Loss Today: <.8>
Round 3 Loss: <19.2>
Loss Total: <62.8>

Well, I finally started my menses so hopefully all this bloating will go away soon. At least my moods have settled and I can start acting more like a "normal" person.

My menu for yesterday included green apples, grilled steak & onion for lunch, and a veggie burger with sliced tomato for dinner. 2L water, 2 c coffee with zsweet, 1 c raspberry leaf tea.

On another quick note, I think it was on Ed & Jennifer's blog that Maryg911 made a comment about some people sometimes not noticing (or more aptly, saything anything about) weight loss. I think this is something we all experience. Most of our family/friends probably aren't comfortable with knowing whether we want our weight brought up (again). I recently hit the 60# mark and my in-laws just started to comment and say how great I am looking. And to be honest, I'm just starting to see the difference myself. I can look at the numbers and paper, and know that I'm losing and getting smaller, but it wasn't until this past week or so that I could look at myself in the mirror with almost a shocked look on my face and see such a big difference. I think in part this translates to how I carry myself, exudes confidence, and therefore allows others to see the changes in my body as well. I'm also wearing clothes that actually fit instead of trying to hide my body in such baggy clothes all the time.

I also went on a bit of a small shopping spree yesterday to pick up some new pieces. The good news is that the size large tops will fit me even at my goal weight since my boobs aren't going anywhere and even at my smallest a medium is just too tight in the chest. I also picked up another pair of size 14 pants and a couple size 12s - because I'm an optimist and know I'll be in those 12s again soon enough. I hate shopping, so it was wonderful to be able to walk in, grab my size, and not worry about it not fitting or how it will look. Fantastic.

Enjoy your Sunday!

VLCD Day 14

2008-01-19T23:08:00.000-06:00

No Injection
Loss Today: <.4>
Round 3 Loss: <18.4>
Loss Total: <62.0>

I'm posting this late today and I'm on my way to bed soon, so I'll update more properly on Sunday.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Menu for yesterday was green apples, grilled steak and onion for lunch, and grilled chicken and steamed bok choy for dinner. 2L water, 1L oolong, and 2 c coffee.

VLCD Day 13

2008-01-18T11:07:00.000-06:00

Injection #14
Loss Today: <.2>
Round 3 Loss: <18.0>
Loss Total: <61.6>

At lunch, so I'll perhaps update more later. Still grumpy, still pms'ing, still bloated enough to float my way to China. Here's hoping that subsides soon.

Yesterday's menu included green apples for my fruit, 2L water, 2 c coffee (with zsweet) and 1 L oolong.

Lunch was grilled steak and onion. Dinner was grilled chicken & sliced tomato.

VLCD Day 12

2008-01-17T11:58:00.000-06:00

Injection #13
Loss Today: <1.2>
Round 3 Loss: <17.8>
Loss Total: <61.4>

Today is a snow day, so again, not much time to properly blog.

I did want to make a quick note that I went back to my journal notes sometime this morning and saw that I'm pretty close on this round to where I was on my first round. In R1, I had lost 17.6 pounds at this point, which was about 6% of my weight so far. In this round, I'm at 7%. I'm a bit surprised that this round is seeming to go so smoothly and that I'm losing so well. Not that I want to jinx it, of course. I haven't started my menses yet, and I'm still holding water and having some mood swings. I hope that it all starts soon - for many reasons.

My menu for yesterday included green apples for my fruit. At lunch, I had grilled steak & onion. Dinner was a veggie burger and sliced tomato.

My fluids included 2.5L water, 2 c coffee (with zsweet), 1L oolong, and 2 cans of diet pepsi. I know, the soda was bad. I blame the PMS. Because I can. :)

VLCD Day 11

2008-01-16T11:11:00.000-06:00

Injection #12
Loss Today: <.8>
Round 3 Loss: <16.6>
Loss Total: <60.2>

No time today as I'm on lunch break, but I wanted to post a quick update. I'll try to get to comments & my menu, etc. later tonight after kids are in bed and I (hopefully) have a few minutes for myself. Thanks everyone for your wonderful support.

Menu for yesterday was:
Lunch- grilled steak & onion.
Dinner- scrambled eggs & diced tomato.
Green apples for both of my fruits.

Fluids included 2L water, 2 c coffee (with zsweet), 1 can diet pepsi, and 1L oolong.

I'll also include yesterday's stats in this posting since I didn't have time to post yesterday.

VLCD Day 10
Injection #11
Loss Today: <.6>
Round 3 Loss: <15.8>
Loss Total: <59.4>

Yesterday's menu for lunch was grilled chicken, sliced tomato, and a green apple. Dinner was a green apple, veggie chik'n strips, and grilled onion.

Fluids included 2L water, and 2 c coffee (with zsweet), and 1 can diet pepsi.

VLCD Day 9

2008-01-14T16:10:00.000-06:00

Injection #10
Loss Today: 0
Round 3 Loss: <15.2>
Loss Total: <58.8>

Well, it was due to happen sooner or later. That, and it was totally expected. When I woke up this morning and went to weigh, I looked in the mirror and let out an audible 'whoa' at the sight of my apparent bloat. I'm due to start my menses within the next few days and I can see my body preparing for it. Not to mention my mood swings which seem to increase while on hcg and have been crazy today. Oh joy. At least I can still button my size 14 jeans. :)

Yesterday menu:
Lunch- grilled chicken and onion.
Dinner- veggie burger & sliced tomato. I also had a dill pickle slice.

Fluids included 2L water, 1L oolong, and 2 c coffee (with zsweet).

VLCD Day 8

2008-01-13T08:45:00.000-06:00

Injection #9
Loss Today: <1.0>
Round 3 Loss: <15.2>
Loss Total: <58.8>

I have to admit that I wondered if I'd still get a great loss today. Yesterday I ran into a bit of a quandry. At dinnertime, I found I had nothing thawed. Well, nothing I wanted. I (thought I) had taken out a chicken serving, and upon readying it for preparation, discovered it was indeed fish. Oops. I wasn't in the mood for fish. I thought about fixing eggs, but I have to be in a certain mood for eggs. And yep, the egg-mood wasn't there. So I decided to take a jump and try having a veggie burger. I've had them sitting up in my freezer waiting to use on the protocol to see if they would have any adverse affects. I served it up with some grilled onion with Braggs (surprise, surprise) and it was so yummy. I'll have to have them again as I always have these on the ready for the kids (and myself off-protocol), and I've always leaned more towards being vegetarian than carnivore. But, I still like my meat on occasion.

Somewhat on this same subject, I also had the option to use a protein shake for my evening meal as I know some of our veggies (and others) have used those successfully. I, however, have not. I noted whenever I've used it, I don't lose. Which, honestly, is fine by me. I really prefer to chew my meals anyway.

Just to add in, for lunch I grilled a steak and served it atop lettuce with sugar free dressing. Also to note, I've used those dressings throughout all of my phases with no problem. I sometimes make my own, but those dressings come in little packets and it makes it really convenient for when I'm on the go.

Busy day planned for today. At least the sun is out. That always helps keep me a bit more sane. Happy day, everyone.

VLCD Day 7

2008-01-12T09:29:00.000-06:00

No Injection
Loss Today: <1.0>
Round 3 Loss: <14.2>
Loss Total: <57.8>

I'm happy to see the gauntlet has not yet dropped and I'm still getting those big numbers. Love those!

Yesterday for lunch, I made a hungarian rub for my steak and grilled that with some onions. I'm so addicted to grilled onions drizzled in Bragg's it's not even funny. For dinner, I had Wasabi Fish and sliced tomato. I had a green apple for both of my fruits.

I'm slowly getting back into the internet game. I really needed that sabbatical I took, however. I've been on the internet since 1995(?) and it felt good to unplug for a while. I actually received some handwritten letters from friends. That was so nice. People just don't do that enough anymore.

Thankfully, I have a pretty relaxing day planned. My week was entirely too hectic and I'm hoping to get some me time today.

Happy Weekending!

VLCD Day 6

2008-01-11T10:48:00.000-06:00

Injection #8
Loss Today: <1.0>
Round 3 Loss: <13.2>
Loss Total: <56.8>

Not much time, but I wanted to post an update so I can possibly maybe perhaps start to form this habit again. We'll see.

Happy Friday!

Update

2008-01-10T16:13:00.000-06:00

She has returned. Well, at least for today. I'm certainly not going to promise to return to my daily postings, but I thought I should update this sad, neglected blog o' mine. And play catch up with my buddies.

Things have been very busy here. I'm back teaching full-time and I'm also volunteering some nights as a child advocate. Combine that with the holidays and all sorts of family drama and me wanting to get more painting/sculpting time, and the old habit of updating the blog never registered on my radar.

Phase 2 Round 2
I did have a chance to complete a shortened phase 2 from 11/24-12/19. I think my final total for that round was around 21 pounds. That round was a mess for me. For starters, on my first VLCD day, my menses came two weeks early. So I didn't see the big losses in the beginning that this program usually brings. That put my mind in a not-so-great place. Also, I didn't really load for that round and I think that hurt me because I was really hungry for almost the entire round. I had cravings like crazy and even cheated towards the end. It was like I just couldn't control myself. The thing is, I was totally at ease with my cheating. I even planned which day of the week I was going to cheat, and I did it. I loved it, enjoyed it, then went straight back to being vigilant. And then, I started my menses again at the end of the round. I also noted that I didn't lose hardly any inches that round. I think my hormones must have been wacky and I was retaining water a lot. Who knows but I'm glad that round is over.

I started at 260.8 and finished at 239.4.

For the next couple of weeks after completing the round, I ate whatever I wanted. My weight would fluctuate between 3-6 pounds above LIW. It didn't really phase me much. I blame that on the fact that I KNOW this protocol works and I KNEW at the time that the weight would come off whenever I started up again.

Phase 2 Round 3
I decided to only take a 2 week break between rounds and started loading (in my own healthy, natural way) on 1/4, and just like my first round, I've yet to experience hunger. It's fabulous.

Some stats so far:

VLCD Day 1 250.0
VLCD Day 2 246.4 <3.6>
VLCD Day 3 242.6 <3.8>
VLCD Day 4 239.6 <3.0>
And today, I was at 237.8 <1.8>

So in 4 VLCD days I've lost 12.2 pounds. Not bad. Every single day so far I've eaten the exact same thing. In a rut? Perhaps. But I've been too busy to really want to play with my food much. Pretty unusual for me.

Mid-morning I have a green apple for snack. Lunch is a steak & grilled onion. Mid-afternoon - another green apple. Dinner is grilled chicken & sliced tomato. Easy stuff.

I feel pretty good this round and am sort of just going through the motions. The plan is to stay on phase 2 until the end of February. I'm not sure if I'll go until then or change my mind 308 times before then. I'd really like to see the 100's before I stop this round, however. And we're going back to Paris in March, so I'd like to time it so I can really enjoy some nice wine & bread around that time. We'll see how it all goes from here.

Missed you all! Happy losing to everyone.

P4 Day 12

2007-11-16T10:17:00.000-06:00

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. :)

P3 Day 16

2007-10-30T10:39:00.000-05:00

LIW <.4>

Breakfast was a veggie scramble with 2 pcs NSA turkey bacon.

Mid-morning I had a chocolate-blueberry smoothie. I'll post that recipe today, too. So good!

Lunch was some homemade polish sausage, sauerkraut, and stuffed olives on the side. The polish sausage is really easy to make. Next time I make it I'll write it down so I can post the recipe.

I wasn't all that hungry by dinnertime so I fixed tuna with hardboiled eggs, mayo, spicy mustard, relish, and tabasco all wrapped up in romaine. Even the kiddos ate it that way. On the side we had some baba ghannouj with celery, mushrooms, etc for dipping. Oh, I also had a glass of wine.

Throughout the day I also ate a ton of the biggest, juiciest red grapes. Yeah, literally a ton. LOL! Little did I know that grapes apparently work just as well as milk of magnesia for moving things right along! ROFL! Sorry for the TMI, but I just realized that might explain me being down today. Good to know. :)

Well, lookie there. I'm actually below my LIW. I've done nothing differently, so it's just one of those things. It feels so wonderful to not have to worry about counting calories and just eating when I'm hungry. P3 really is a snap if you just listen to your body and Dr. S. as to what you should do during this time. It's amazing.

Lots going on here today. Contractors galore and it's really, really, really hard to concentrate with all the racket so I pretty much forgot everything I wanted to post this morning. That figures. I'll try to post more later. The sun is beaming like crazy here so I have to go soak some up! Happy Tuesday!

P3 Day 15

2007-10-29T15:50:00.000-05:00

LIW +.6

Well this weekend wound up being busier than I anticipated so I didn't have much time to post. My husband's antique kimono didn't make it from Japan (surprise, surprise), so we were running around everywhere after football to try to find him a replacement. We couldn't find what we were looking for anywhere. We ended up getting some asian silk fabric and whipping him up something. I am by no means 'crafty', but it worked and he got all sorts of ooooh's and ahhh's at his costume, so it did the trick. I didn't get pictures but someone else did so hopefully they'll send them to me.

In between football and the party we stopped in at a chinese buffet for lunch/dinner. There was plenty for me to eat there and still stay on phase 3. That was a relief. I didn't have time to bake anything to take to the party that evening, but didn't think I'd be that hungry anyway. The hostess ended up having a huge spread which included lots of things I couldn't have, but more importantly things I could have - a veggie tray with spinach dip, deviled eggs, and stuffed olives. The party was just okay. I'm not a big party person. Well - not that sort of party. I don't really see the point in sitting around someone's house and getting drunk. Perhaps I'm just getting old - even though everyone else there was older than me. LOL! Anyhow, I was mostly just sort of annoyed all night. It just wasn't my scene, man. :)

On Sunday, we went to Worlds of Fun and spent the day there riding coasters and soaking up the sun. When it came time to eat we left the park and headed for Subway. We never eat at the park as the food at those parks is overpriced junk we don't eat, so we either usually take a picnic lunch, or head to a close restaurant. Subway worked out well as you can turn any of their subs into a salad instead. It wasn't necessarily the best tasting, as the veggies were bland bland bland, but it was food. When we got home we all crashed for the night and then woke up a bit late for school this morning. Oops!

I'm also still on my menses. This makes day 13. My period has never lasted this long before. I figure if it doesn't wrap it up by the end of this week I'll get in to see my doctor. Ugh.

I think that covers it. I'll probably think of everything I forgot to include in a bit. For now, I'm off to rake leaves. Does it ever end?

P3 Day 13

2007-10-27T10:33:00.000-05:00

LIW +.2

Breakfast was a couple scrambled eggs and NSA bacon.

Mid-morning I had a pineapple/coconut smoothie. Yum yum yum.

I wasn't very hungry at lunchtime so I had a small salad with cottage cheese, celery, cukes, tomato, and red bell pepper.

For dinner I had planned on making chile relleno, but when I went to my stash of poblano chiles, half of them had gone bad. Erg! So instead of making something else I informed the family we were headed out. We ended up at an Italian place and the choices for me there were very, very limited. Most everything that fit the bill for phase 3 was $29.99 and over. I decided on a glass of wine first & foremost, along with a house salad which had artichoke hearts and feta topped with red wine vinegar & olive oil. I also got the antipasto appetizer for one and it had some salamis, cheeses, pepperoncini, stuffed olives, toasted ravioli, fried mozzarella stick, and fried eggplant. I gave the ravioli to the kiddos but the mozzarella stick and eggplant were still sitting there taunting me. I really love my eggplant. I took all the breading off of one of the eggplant pieces and ate it. Blah. Wasn't all that. So the other one I ate breading and all. I know I know - starch starch starch. But it was SO good. As was the mozzarella stick that I ate as well. I figure I did a good enough job simply staying away from that fresh baked bread and butter with the herbed oil. So looking at the scale this morning it didn't seem hurt me at all and that's good to see - not that I'm going to be making a habit of that.

Later that night, I ate a small piece of sugar free dark chocolate. It was pretty good and hit the spot.

So Amy pointed out to me that I haven't mentioned anything about hunger while on phase 3. This made me realize I haven't talked much about the protocol at all for a few days. LOL! OK, so I ramble sometimes. ;)

Anyhow, things have really seemed to balanced out for me now. I don't count calories. I don't keep track of them in any way and I no longer even journal all my foods like I did during phase 2. I do keep somewhat of a mental note so I can post it in my blog so you all get some idea of what I'm eating. The only thing I'm doing is what Dr. S. said - no sugars, no starches. I'm eating any fruits I want, even those that others have called 'off-limits'. I eat bananas. I eat pineapple. I eat peaches, grapes, and pomegranates. For me, this is what works. I made banana pancakes (mushed up bananas, egg, spices) with some homemade strawberry syrup for the kids the other day. They ranted & raved about it, so with their seal of approval I'll try to get that recipe up on the site this weekend. It makes for a nice change from eggs, eggs, eggs. I also like to have smoothies and toss in raw egg whites for a bit of protein. I find that I'm most hungry in the mornings and not so much for lunch or dinner. I also try eating every few hours to keep my blood sugars level, whethers it's snacking on celery sticks and NSA peanut butter or chomping on a piece of fruit.

I drink beer, wine, even gin & tonics. I don't drink them every day, but when I want one, I have one. I started out tasting those low-carb beers I bought to try and most of them were cuh-rap. I like beers that have body & flavor and they simply didn't. I've stayed away from Guinness and similar stouts, as that's an entire meal in itself, but no real restrictions when it comes to others.

We're going to that Halloween party tonight so that might be a bit of a challenge. I'm going to sit down this afternoon (in between football and costume gathering), and make up a list of some R.I.P. halloween dishes I'll take with me. I've thought of taking a spider pumpkin cheesecake, booberry muffins, or bloody cheese fingers. Miss Indecisive has not yet made a decision, but will eventually.

Lots more to blog about but just checked the clock and I'm running so late already. I'll make my rounds later today. Happy Saturday! It's sunny and gorgeous here so I must soak it all in while it lasts!

P3 Day 12

2007-10-26T06:14:00.000-05:00

LIW +.6

Breakfast was a veggie scramble with a side of NSA sausage and a plum.

For lunch I had some homemade polish sausage, a small salad with feta, olives, cukes, and sprouts, and some celery with NSA peanut butter. OK, I'm not usually a big fan of peanut butter, but that was the damn best peanut butter I have ever tasted! LOL!

Dinner was completely changed at the last minute and the boys & I made pork stir fry with peppers, onions, zucchini, and sprouts.

Typing it out makes it look like a lot more than what I thought it was. I guess it was just that I didn't do much snacking on fruits/veggies/cheese throughout the day.

OK, so I'm posting this early in the day just for Biz. :)

Well, I stepped on the scale this morning and was surprised to see it down. Not just down, but down 37 pounds! I couldn't figure it out. Step on, step off. Back & forth over & over and it still saying 37 pounds lost! What the heck? Hubby was still here as he's going in late today and told me to check the bottom since I apparently never even thought of that. Duh. Sure enough, there was a piece of dog food that had snuck underneath it that was setting it slightly off balance. Too funny, though. I was happy to see those 220s on the scale even if it was all a mean scale-tease.

The kids are home and I'm so so tired. My husband didn't get home until 4am so I stayed up painting/reading. On top of all that, I'm out of coffee! Oh, the horror! We'll be running up to the grocery very quicklike as I'm not going to make it very far into this day without some.

We have a pretty busy weekend ahead of us. Football game tomorrow afternoon, followed by a Halloween party that night. Yay! Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday. We had planned on being Shrek & Fiona this year but I changed it at the last minute (of course). So now we're going as a Samurai and a Geisha. Funny thing, all that's came so far for my husband are his shoes and his wig. I ordered an antique kimono for him with the promise that it would be shipped so we would receive it by today. Well, it wasn't shipped until Wednesday - from Japan! We're screwed. His pants & sword are due to arrive today so I told him worst case he will go as a topless Samurai. He said only if I will as well. Yeah right!

My oldest twin is going as SWAT and the youngest as Mario from Mario Bros. Even though they're twins, they're so very different. I love it. I'll try to remember to take pictures. I always forget as I've intentionally been hiding from the camera for so long.

Sunday we are going to Worlds of Fun for some coaster riding. We love coasters! We'll probably spend the whole day there and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

We also have a birthday shindig to squeeze in there at some point. Not enough hours in the day sometimes for sure!

I'll try to update this weekend when I can. Happy Friday, everyone!

P3 Day 11

2007-10-25T18:36:00.000-05:00

LIW +1.0

Crazy crazy day. I've been having entirely too many of those as of late. Ends up one of our very good family friends that we've known over 15 years (who also happens to be my husband's direct boss) was involved in a car accident up in NE today. Someone ran a stop sign and his car is completely totaled. My husband just returned from NE a day or two ago (I'm losing track) and now has turned around and headed up to visit him in the hospital. He just called me and apparently they're going to release him tonight so he's going to drive him back down here. These experiences really reinforce that you need to use every opportunity to tell those close to you that you love them. Ever since I lost my dad unexpectedly years & years ago, I've tried to remember to do just that. It never hurts to put out a reminder, however. :)

I'm very glad our friend is okay, but I have to admit selfishly that I'm glad my husband left NE early. He would have been riding in the passenger side on the way to this appointment and that's the side that got t-boned. Scary just thinking about it.

Anyhow, I've been a ball of stress today and haven't eaten as much as I should. I know, bad me. Hopefully it won't affect me too much tomorrow.

So, in closing, standing true to my word - I love you, man! You all have each played an integral part in me succeeding (finally) in a weight loss protocol and I feel as if I owe each of you all so much. Thank you, big hugs, and mushy mushy kisses all over your ever-shrinking cheeks. That is, the cheeks on your faces, you perverts.

P3 Day 10

2007-10-24T08:53:00.000-05:00

LIW +1.6

I had a pretty busy day yesterday and therefore didn't even notice my blog post wasn't really posted. Oops! I also can't remember most anything I ate yesterday so there's no menu to post. Seriously, where the heck does one's memory go sometimes? We had a double-header football game this weekend and one of the moms asked me what my favorite TV shows were. Now, I'm not really a TV watcher, but I couldn't think of one single tv show I enjoyed, even though I knew they were out there. Then as we're driving home I exclaim in the car "Californication!". My family thought I was nuts (nothing new), but at least I remembered. Sheesh.

I was also contacted yesterday by someone at zsweet.com. They apparently want to use my pumpkin pie recipe on their site. I haven't replied yet as it still seems as if I'm being punk'd. That's sort of neat-o though, yes?

Most importantly, I received the most wonderfulicious package yesterday from my dear friend, Lili. It really made my day, nay month, and I felt so appreciated, and loved, and spoiled! I know I told you privately, but thank you again, L. You're the best.

And now to fully completely my ramble, I've been doing some thinking lately. Something that most of you don't know about me (since this is primarily an hcg blog) is that I love to travel. Now, I don't simply mean I love to travel, but I must travel. If I don't travel often, I truly die slowly inside. It drives my husband crazy as he could take it or leave it, but experiencing and living in other cultures really is a huge part of who I am. I am artist, hear me roar.

Today is the day we were supposed to leave for Paris for a short stint. My husband has only been on this continent (while I've been on almost all of them) so I was excited to get him the heck out of here finally. I did, however, end up deciding to postpone the trip due to this protocol. I knew I would be on phase 3 by this point, but I still wouldn't be able to enjoy bread. Seriously, being in Paris and not eating bread??? That's criminal. The last time I was there I had to lengthen my trip simply because I found this quaint neighborhood deli around the corner of my hotel and they made the best baguettes I'd ever tasted. Not to mention they had a beautiful fountain with these little benches right out front which made an ideal spot for sketching. Perfection. So we'll be doing that sometime next year.

Talk about digressing.

Anyhow, I've been getting this mad itch to once again flee, dragging the entire family along with me. I was talking to my MIL and my BIL won't be able to make it up for Tgiving due to work obligations. This upset me quite a bit. Some backstory on him. About 3-4 years ago he met (supposedly) the love of his life over the internet. He picked up & moved his entire life (after them flying back & forth for 6 mos or so) and moved to LA. During this time he worked day after day, supporting her & her ever-growing college tuition, all with the plans that as soon as she was done, she would start working & would then return the favor and help pay for him to finish his schooling. Now that she's a few months away from being done with undergrad (and tuition is paid), she dumped him. Four years and then one day out of the blue she comes home and says I no longer love you, move the heck out. He has literally fallen apart. Such a sweet sweet young man and my heart breaks for him. He's been through so much while down there due to Katrina, quite a bit of bad luck, and now this. I know it's best he knows now rather than after they got married (they were engaged) and I know he will get through this, but it has to be that much harder when you have no family there for support.

Yes, my name is Renee and I am a habitual digressor.

Soooooooo, I made the official decision that we're going to pile in the car & drive down there for Tgiving. I spoke with my MIL to make sure she wasn't going to be upset by us not being at her house. We don't really do all that much with my side of the family as they are crazy. And I don't mean ha-ha crazy, I mean crazy. Don't get me wrong, I like crazy. Hell, I'd rather hang out with crazy people any day over people that insist on acting 'normal'. But these people put a whole new spin on over-the-top closed-minded maniacal crazy. So talking with MIL, it turns out that her & FIL might go down with us! I have visions of us cooking in his new apt, then him dragging in late that night to a huge spread of Tgiving dinner. To me, it sounds perfect. Especially with dear MIL there to do all the baking! HA!

We also have a few other trips over the next few months in the works and I can't wait. I've done most of my traveling solo, but I really look forward to opportunities to enjoy my passion with everyone else along with me. Kids love it, husband puts up with it. ;)

Today & tomorrow kids have half days & then Friday is no school. We had talked about camping this weekend, or going somewhere but funds just won't allow it. With so much house renovation, etc - it's probably best I simply put up with being locally bound for a while. I'll survive, but I have to admit my feet are itching to walk the earth once more. Soon!

P3 Day 9

2007-10-23T06:14:00.000-05:00

LIW +1.2

I'm going to try to remember what I ate yesterday since I'm no longer really keeping track.

For breakfast, I started off with a plum and then had my usual omelet, this time filled with NSA sausage, feta, and veggies. Mmm mmm good.

I had a salad for lunch that was filled with all sorts of yummy stuff. I'd been craving those veggie filled salads for a while. So glad I can finally have them! I also had some celery, broccoli, etc dipped in some homemade baba ghannouj. I couldn't resist. I just had to make me some. Thanks, Lili! ;)

Dinner was shirataki noodles with homemade pasta sauce and ground turkey meatballs. The rest of the family got to enjoy fresh baked bread with theirs. Man, that smelled good! Talk about torture! However, my dinner was nothing to sneeze at. Really delicious and I've missed my usual pasta sauce.

I also snacked some throughout the day on bits of cheese and surely some other things I can't quite remember.

OH! After dinner I also had a small bowl of NSA vanilla ice cream and NSA chocolate syrup. Now that was a treat!

Holding steady. I'm feeling so much better since I made those slight changes. I'm much less stressed which I think helps my body overall. Now, if this silly period would be on its way all would be sweet. Funny how all I wanted was for this menses to arrive and now I can't get it to leave! Figures.

Remember me mentioning yesterday that my husband was out of town? Well, about an hour into his drive he got a call that he wasn't needed until Tuesday so he turned around and came home. Needless to say, he was at home all day so nothing really got done around here. At least nothing *I* needed to get done. Here's hoping today is more productive!

P3 Day 8

2007-10-22T08:53:00.000-05:00

LIW +1.2

Wow. Yesterday was one busy day. It started out at the farmer's market where I can spend entirely too much time, especially on a day when I apparently didn't have any time to waste. I left with arms full of eggplant, and cabbage, and avocados, oh my - among many other things. Then went to the china town market and wandered through the grand opening of a store there looking at all the packages for which I knew none of the ingredients. Then it was off to Whole Foods to pick up a few items for my morning of baking before the festivities began. I made a blueberry cream cheese coffee cake, blueberry muffins, and chocolate cupcakes. Everything went over really well and they didn't even realize it was 'diet' food. I think we might need a new oven though. It's cooking at crazy speeds. If something normally takes 30 mins, our oven is cooking it in 15. Weird.

I had no problems staying on phase 3 yesterday. My only issue was when we went to my in-laws, I expected one of her fabulous fresh from the garden salads, and it was nowhere to be found! There was plenty of corn, and baked potatoes, and bbq beans, and fettucine alfredo, however. Too bad for me! ;) So I settled on the grilled chicken, fresh tomatoes, and cottage cheese. Sound familiar phase 2ers?!

So much to do today and so little time. Amazing how quickly a house can turn into a wreck when mom suddenly gets ill. Time to get started!

Happy Monday!

P3 Day 7

2007-10-21T08:44:00.000-05:00

LIW +1.8

Pretty dang relieved to see no need for a steak day today.

No time to really update in a proper manner. We have those three birthday parties and my husband is going out of town (again) come Monday morning so there's lots to get done. I felt really good yesterday just eating what I felt was necessary (for me). Also, I'm 100% ready for this period to be over done fini. I usually only go 2-3 days and as of today I'm at 5 days and counting. I know - more info than what you bargained for but it's time for this horse to move out to pasture already.

P3 Day 6

2007-10-20T10:35:00.000-05:00

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.

P3 Day 5

2007-10-19T12:35:00.000-05:00

LIW +.0

The past couple of days have been a dose of very eventful days. Not only was I full of the grumps due to my inconveniences and hellacious pain in my eye, but I also started my menses and had to do a steak day. Upon waking yesterday I was 2.8 lbs over my LIW. Holy shocker. I figure that it was a combination of the vicodin I was popping and the fact my period arrived - over two weeks early. "Happy Birthday, Honey. Not only did I not bake you your pumpkin pie, but I can't see much of anything, I'm going to be a complete b!t@h for a couple of days and I started my period! Hooray!" Well, to be honest, the latter was a bit of a present as we both thought there was a possibility I was pregnant due to an uh-oh moment not long ago. No longer a need to worry about that! Also, my boys & my husband have been complete gems while I've been hurt. It's amazing how much the slightest injury to your eye can have such huge effects on your simplest of movements. I slept the day away yesterday not even leaving bed until around 3pm. And then had no problems at all going to bed & sleeping again around 10. Crazy.

Anyhow, at first I was somewhat looking forward to doing the steak day. I thought, here I'm being told exactly what to eat again. What a relief - I can do this. But as the day wore on, I didn't enjoy it much. Not eating anything really played havoc with my hypoglycemia. I started feeling pretty weak and light-headed. I decided to break the rules a bit and ate my apple at 2pm. Then around 6pm, I ate the big steak. Not being much of a steak-lover, that was somewhat of a chore, but I got it down. And, of course, it paid off this morning with me once again being exactly at my LIW.

My eye is still not fully healed but I can at least open it now without a shooting pain running through my head. I still won't be online much or checking emails as the computer really hurts my eye(s). The boys only had a half day today so they helped me get this one posted. Hopefully by Monday I'll be able to be back online as normal. Hope everyone is having fantastic losses. I'll check back in soon.

P3 Day 4

2007-10-18T08:20:00.001-05:00

Short & sweet. I can't update properly today as I hurt my left eye yesterday and I'm currently not able to see out of it. They say it should heal in a few days, so for now, I'm stuck being half blind. The thing is, when I have my good eye open and my bad eye closed, when my good eye blinks it also blinks the bad eye which makes it rub against the eyelid. Ouch. So, for now, I'm stuck bumping around the house all day wearing my night eye mask which covers both eyes. Oh, what a sight I am.

To make matters even better, my husband left this morning to go out of town for a couple of days. Hopefully things get better soon so I can at least function a little better around here. Sheesh.

I'll post again when I can. My son had to bring up the site so I'm typing blindly. Here's hoping you can even read this jibberish. :)

P3 Day 3

2007-10-17T09:25:00.000-05:00

LIW +.6

Pre-breakfast, I again had NSA yogurt with sliced banana.

Breakfast was a 3 egg omelette with purple bell pepper, onion, tomato, a touch of habanero, and mozzarella. I love the fact I can finally enjoy all the veggies from the garden. Yum!

I once again wasn't feeling very hungry at lunchtime. I made some pinwheels out of sliced roast beef, spreadable pepperjack/jalapeno cheese, and cucumbers. Really simple and made for a quick lunch when I wasn't all that hungry.

We went out last night for dinner with some friends (after 2+ hours of football practice - ugh) for my husband's birthday. It was this local new york style pizza place that has a fantastic salad bar. It was so wonderful to enjoy a salad with all those healthy fixins. Divine. I also ate the toppings (only) off of one slice of pizza. It was alright. I'm not a pizza person and it tasted too greasy - which probably explains my stomach upset for this morning.

Calories were once again right around 1800.

Man, this is really scary. Logically, I know this is what happens. I know that my weight will fluctuate, especially this first week. I know that I trust this protocol and that if these fluctuations go too much over my LIW, I can do a steak day. I know that I'm doing everything right and not eating any forbidden foods. I know all of this. And yet, there's that little part of me that's doing the freak-out dance. The part of me that says 'here we go again'. It's psychologically difficult to see that scale increase. I thought it was hard on phase 2 to only see it go down .4. Pfffft. For me, this is much harder and now puts everything more into perspective.

I have to say, I really miss phase 2. P2 was good for me as it was very strict. It told me what, when, why, how. I loved it. I needed it. After all, those foods on P2, that's what my family usually ate every day of our lives anyway. This phase 3 throws me for a loop, however. I know what I can/can't eat, but for some reason it still makes me very uneasy. I'm going to take some time today to plan out my meals for the rest of this week. The family is eating what I'm eating, so all of this really shouldn't be as difficult as what I'm making it. I know it's simply my uncertainty that's causing me to feel this way. And if my mind isn't comfortable, neither is my body.

Today is my husband's birthday so we're all going out for sushi tonight. Sticking to phase 3 won't be a problem there and I'm looking forward to it. Even though the scale was up today, I'm glad it wasn't 2 lbs up. I was worried it might be and then I'd have to do a steak day on hubby's birthday. That would have been a stinker. I'm making him a birthday dessert that will be phase 3-friendly so I can share it along with the family. It will probably be a cheesecake or a chocolate cake (made with almond flour) as those are his favorites. I'm not really a 'baker' so here's hoping they turn out edible. :)

Also, I'm taking a break from posting at the yahoo groups for a bit. Now whether this is only for today or for a week or for longer - I don't know. I only know that I'm currently feeling very disillusioned and I don't feel like putting any more of myself out there in regard to those groups. I'll try to continue to read sometimes, but the days of contributing hours of myself are over. For now.

Sorry for the negative nelly type of post today. I blame the clouds. I don't mind the rain, just give a girl some sunshine, too.

Happy losses to everyone.

Quick update:
I just returned from the grocery to pick up a bunch of things to make hubby's bday dessert. I ended up grabbing enough to make a pumpkin pie, a pumpkin cheesecake, a cherry cheesecake, and a chocolate cake. You'd think I was PMS'ing or something. Anyway, I probably should have called him before going to the store to find out what he wanted, but at least now I have these things on hand. We have a total of 19 birthdays in our family for this month so there's always a party going on. This will give me the chance to try out even more on-protocol desserts and see how they turn out.

Oh, he picked the pumpkin pie. I will post that recipe tomorrow.

P3 Day 2

2007-10-16T09:31:00.000-05:00

LIW <1.0>

Pre-breakfast I had NSA strawberry yogurt.

For breakfast, I had a 3-egg omelet (with purple bell pepper, onion, tomato, and monterey jack) and 2 slices of NSA bacon. I also had a weird craving for a glass of milk, so I had it. I don't even like drinking milk but it tasted SO good. Weird.

Mid-morning I had a venti latte and it was heaven.

By lunchtime I was not hungry at all. I emailed Biz to ask her if I just HAD to eat lunch - knowing full well what her answer would be. Surprisingly enough, Miss Sunshine wasn't at my beck & call so I was on my own! I knew I had to eat something, so I had 10 green olives, a banana, and tuna salad. I also had about 4 oz of Sauvignon Blanc but I blame the fact that I had to taste-test it since I was using it for dinner. Oh the sacrifices I shall make!

Dinner was turkey, stuffed mushrooms, a quick version of green bean casserole, and a Rock Green Light beer. Everything was wonderful except for the beer. Way too watery for my tastes. I'm in the process of checking out all these different low-carb beers that are out now. I certainly hope I find something I like. When I was at the grocery, I saw they let you build your own 6-pack for $7 so I picked out 6 different ones to try. We'll see how that goes.

Well, it's still sort of hard to see that gain on the scale. I know it's all a part of this process, but I've been programmed to really look forward to those losses. Really though, I almost felt like I should have gained 87 pounds after all that food I ate yesterday. It felt like so much!

All in all, my total cals for the day was around 1800.
1800!
I freaked out a bit when I put in my cals for breakfast and they were more than I ate in a whole day while on VLCD! I know, I know, I'll get used to it. It was just a bit shocking at first.

Also, today I feel horrible. I'm sorry to bring all you lovely folks down, but my system isn't liking this switch. I know it will take a few days to balance out, but I am incredibly nauseated and feeling downright ill. Hopefully that will pass as my body readjusts. It's almost 10am and I still haven't eaten anything. I know I need to since the day is going to get away from me quickly.

Here's to a happy loss day to all of you. More later...

P3 Day 1

2007-10-15T08:42:00.000-05:00

LIW <1.6>

Well, folks, here we go! I have to say, I'm hungry! I haven't eaten yet but I'm certainly ready! I also noticed that after my 2 or 3 trips up & down the stairs in our home this morning, that I am really fatigued. That never happens! I think my body is trying to tell me to give it some d@*n fuel! Last night, I could not get to sleep for the life of me. I tossed and turned until about midnight. I had this weird ache in my belly (possibly hunger?) and I was full of nervous anticipation for today. I'm anxious to see how this phase plays out.

OK - I couldn't wait. I had to go grab me some sugar-free yogurt. Holy goodness! Seriously, people, if I could have this yogurt's babies right now, I would. Sorry all you phase 2ers, but I'm in freaking strawberry yogurty heaven right now.

Also, I have to ask. Do you think a recipe blog is even necessary for phase 3? I've started adding recipes to my new blog and it's seeming to me that most of them are just regular ol' recipes that people might not really even need for this phase. So please give me your thoughts. Thanks!

VLCD Day 45

2007-10-14T09:03:00.000-05:00

48 Hrs past last injection

Only one more day to go! I thought I would be hungry by this point since I haven't had any hCG in over 48 hours. But I'm not. I also have to admit I never weighed myself yesterday. It felt a bit like vacation to be able to wake up, not take a shot, and not have to worry about what my weight would be. I knew that since I was still on the VLCD everything would keep on grooving along. I won't be skipping the weigh-ins any other time, mind you. But it was nice for that one day. When I weighed this morning, I was down over a pound from my LIW so that gives me a little extra wiggle room once Phase 3 rolls around tomorrow.

Speaking of which, I still have no idea what I'm eating tomorrow. I haven't been daydreaming about it and have no real cravings to speak of. Well, that's not entirely true. I've been thinking of feta cheese stuffed olives a bit. Also feta cheese & olive stuffed mushrooms. See a pattern, yet? I'll also be picking up some of my favorite local-made lebaneh. Mmmm. OK, see - this is why I don't daydream about food possibilities. My stomach just growled!

Here's to a Happy Happy Loss Day to everyone on phase 2!

Update: It's 4pm and I'm still not hungry! I had to force-feed me my lunch about 2:30pm. I really didn't want it, but I knew I had to eat. I'm wondering if this non-hunger is also psychosomatic in some way. Meaning - that since I'm ready & wanting to eat some of those yummy Phase 3 foods tomorrow, that none of these phase 2 foods sound appetizing so it translates in my mind to not being hungry. Just a thought. If I'm not hungry later, I'll probably just make a smoothie with raw eggs (no ewwww's, people), ice, and strawberries. That way I'll at least get my protein in. Who knows though, by 7pm tonight I could be famished! We'll see!

9pm: Well, I'm still not hungry. CRAZY! I did run out to the store and found some sugar free turkey bacon that I'll have in the morning with my omelet filled with all sorts of garden veggies, mushrooms, and CHEESE! LOL! I have no idea what I'm doing for the rest of my meals. I'll have to do some planning tomorrow. I didn't get much at the store tonight since I had the hubby & kids in tow, but I did find room in the basket for that bacon, cheese, and (mmmm) beer. I'll let everyone know how I feel in the morning!

VLCD Day 44

2007-10-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

24 Hrs past last injection

OK, I hope I can remember what all stats to include here. If I forget anything, someone speak up! My mind is a frazzled forgetful foolish machine lately.

I began the VLCD on 8/31 @ 293.6
My last injection and LIW for this round is 257.6.
That is a total loss of 36 pounds.
Average loss of <6.0> lbs/week.

Here is a graph showing my progress. Remember: You can always click any of these images to make them bigger.

When I began on 8/31, my BMI was 42.13.
At my LIW on 10/12, it is 37.0.

On my inches:

That is a total loss of 27.5 inches!!!

And now, for the pictures. I don't see all that much of a difference, but there is a slight one. So I'm posting them anyway. Here goes. Eep!

Can I get a

OK, that's enough smilie action for the day. I hope everyone has a fantastic loss & a happy Saturday! 48 hours and counting until I hit phase 3!

VLCD Day 43

2007-10-12T10:12:00.000-05:00

Injection #40
Loss Today: <.6>
Loss Total: <36.0>

Well, I've hit 40 injections and have officially decided that today is my last injection day due to some personal reasons. I won't get into them here on the public internets, but feel it is best that I stop today. It's a bit disappointing as I didn't want to have to go so long between rounds, but I know in the end all the weight will come off anyway. I just hope I can stick with everything for the next 5-6 weeks. That seems so LONG! But really, if I can stick with the VLCD for 6 weeks, it shouldn't be a problem, right? RIGHT! I'll try to post all my final stats with LIW, etc this weekend.

These last few days have been a stressfest. I'm trying to get my teaching situation worked out and it's just not as easy as I had hoped. Next week, I'm going to talk with someone at the district regarding a teaching position they are creating at a different school. Hopefully I'll find out more about that soon.

Also, my mother isn't speaking to me. At all. I swear, her midlife crisis is enough to drive me to a rubber room. I simply wish she wasn't so passive-aggressive (pet peeve alert!) and would talk to me about what's bothering her. We're so different in that regard as I want to talk about everything. I'm also a hugger - and I don't think she's hugged me since I was 5 years old. That's something I really love about my husband's family. They hug constantly. It feels so warm & snuggly & comforting. I love it. I know, I'm getting off-track. I just really have not one clue what I could have done to upset her and my frustration is causing me to babble. We were at my boys' football games last weekend and she wouldn't even sit next to me. So frustrating! It really hurts and it's weighing on me, but what can I do. *sigh* Such is life.

I have to get back. I'll try to post more later.

VLCD Day 42

2007-10-11T22:19:00.000-05:00

Injection #39
Loss Today: <.8>
Loss Total: <35.4>

I've had a bit of a stressful last 24 hours. I'll try to enter a proper blog entry tomorrow. I'm sorry I've been AWOL and I'll answer emails as soon as I can. Even though it hasn't been very long, I'm missing you all already.

I hope everyone's doing well.

VLCD Day 41

2007-10-10T11:27:00.001-05:00

Injection #38
Loss Today: <.8>
Loss Total: <34.6>

Sorry to cut this so short but I'm not at home so I'll have to update this more later. I just wanted to get my stats up before I forgot. Busy day at the school today - and hopefully I'll be back to full-time teaching come next semester! Have to run...

Happy Wednesday!

VLCD Day 40

2007-10-09T09:19:00.000-05:00

Injection #37
Loss Today: <1.0>
Loss Total: <33.8>

Today is usually my injection skip day, but since I might be wrapping up this round on Saturday, I figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead & inject today. Not that that should give any indication that I've fully made up my mind about when I'm concluding this round. Because that still changes hourly. LOL!

Now that that's out of the way,

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

I'm now in the 250s!!! This is a huge milestone for me! I realize it may not seem like a milestone to some of you, but for me - GINORMOUS! To get past 260 is usually quite a struggle for me. My body likes it at 260. It likes being a size 18, even though I dislike it. (Although I don't dislike it too much now since I was a size 22 only just over a month ago!)

So to now be in the 250s (even if just barely) makes this round of phase 2 all that much more fulfilling. I only expected to get into the 260s by the end of this round so this is all just gravy from now until I stop. Woweee!

VLCD Day 39

2007-10-08T15:34:00.000-05:00

Injection #36
Loss Today: <0>
Loss Total: <32.8>

Oh, what a Monday. I apparently had a complete blonde moment since I thought I had already posted my update for today, but upon checking again - I must have forgotten. Oops! So here goes.

As you can see, no loss for today. Disappointing? Yeah. But not crushing. I figure I can attribute it to one of three things-

I drank more than double my usual amount of fluids yesterday. We were at the in-laws for a long while and I simply had to fill my belly with water/tea in order to distract myself from thinking about all the homemade goodies that were staring me in the face. Funnily enough, out of everything that was there (including homemade lasagna, made from scratch brownies, etc), the item that looked the most decadent was the fresh from the garden salad. I really had to tear myself away from that one! Now I can't wait until phase 3 and I get to make me one of those. Mmmm the fresh onions and bell peppers and made from scratch cheese! To die for.
I'll make this one short since it's probably TMI for everyone, but I haven't had a BM in a couple of days. I'll make sure to add some tabasco/chili paste and have asparagus for one of my veggies and I'll be good to go! Literally.
I'm currently at a weight which my body seemed to like for a good long while. I fear that it might want to plateau here, and if that's the case then I will most likely be stopping this phase 2 once I hit my 40th injection. I woke up excited to see that I would be in the next tens this morning, alas, it did not happen. Hopefully tomorrow. I still have no idea when I'm going to end this round. It's a daily conversation I have with myself to see what's going to happen. So far so good.

Or, of course, that little zero is just one of those things that happens for which there is no explanation. Either way, I'm not all that disappointed. There is that initial bit that hits as soon as you step on the scale, but it dissipates pretty quickly. After all, it's pretty hard to be disappointed when I've lost over 32 pounds.

VLCD Day 38

2007-10-07T09:06:00.000-05:00

Injection #35
Loss Today: <1.2>
Loss Total: <32.8>

Whew, when I hit those 1 pound markers each day it still boggles my mind!

I have to say, I set the goal for myself to lose 30 pounds this round, so to already be above that is so amazing for me psychologically! I know I can do this for another two rounds, or however long it takes for me to reach my goal. Never before have I felt so empowered that I know my goal weight is within reach. It's hard for me to even put into words what that does for me. It gives me hope that I've never had before. It gives me the power to know that come next summer I'll be able to start competing in races again. That gives me such joy and confidence that I haven't had in so very long. So, not only is this protocol giving me my healthy body back, but it's giving me back (wrapped up in an all-new improved shiny bow). And I can never thank Dr. Simeons enough for that.

Lunch: I had an early lunch before leaving for the in-laws so I ate an egg/tomato omelet with apple slaw on the side.

Dinner: I still have no idea what I'm doing for dinner. Something with chicken - LOL! I picked a bunch of habaneros off of our lone habanero plant - about 30! So tonight I'm making the family some hellacious habanero chili, and tomorrow they'll be having some of my hottest of the hot hot hot wings. Tomorrow my day will be filled with canning some habanero salsa, and then I'm going to have to freeze some of these babies so I can partake in their habanero-ey goodness come phase 3.

The weekend is almost over! I hope everyone had a wonderful one.

VLCD Day 37

2007-10-06T06:43:00.000-05:00

Injection #34
Loss Today: <.4>
Loss Total: <31.6>

OK, .4 is a loss is a loss is a loss is a loss is a loss is a loss. I must keep saying that over & over in my head. AND I am still on my menses so any loss I shall take. Whew. Got that out. Now it's time for:

MEASUREMENTS DAY!

Since VLCD Day 2 I have lost <21.0> inches! Although it's most likely more since I'm only measuring one side of my body. No matter, I love to see those numbers dropping!

We have a busy Saturday ahead which includes a double header football game. And it's going to be about 90 degrees - in October. Ugh.

Happy Saturday!

VLCD Day 36

2007-10-05T10:38:00.000-05:00

Injection #33
Loss Today: <.4>
Loss Total: <31.2>

One very positive thing about keeping these daily blogs is I can look back over my progress and compare notes. I can say now, without a doubt, that the hcg + my menses = day of depression. I thought the last time my bout of sadness hit that perhaps the depression was simply because of my body adjusting to the hcg, etc - but going back and reading my journal, I had just started my menses then as well. I had notes regarding being sad and crying and not feeling like myself. This surely isn't a coincidence. So, while the hcg doesn't seem to affect me by giving me worse cramps, heavier flow, etc - it does indeed affect my moods greatly for at least one day during my menses. So there ya go!

I feel much better today, back to my "normal" self. Now that I have made that connection, I can better prepare myself for it in the future.

Thank you to everyone for their kind words. They really mean a lot to me and did help me in those 'woe is me' moments. :) Big hugs to you all.

Lunch: I had an apple for a mid-morning snack and then had chile chicken with tomato soup. I ended up shredding my chicken and adding it to the soup. Good stuff and sooo filling.

VLCD Day 35

2007-10-04T15:17:00.000-05:00

Injection #32
Loss Today: <0>
Loss Total: <30.8>

I'm having a very emotional day today - on the verge of tears for most of the day. I'm not entirely sure why, only that today my menses finally arrived so that could have something to do with it. I'm also a bit hurt and disappointed for entirely other reasons I won't get into. I woke up this morning feeling there would be no loss as I could plainly see and feel the bloating and water retention. Ah well. It will work it out eventually.

I probably won't be updating again today as I'm going back to lock myself in my studio and continue working on a painting.

Toodles, for now.

VLCD Day 34

2007-10-03T08:34:00.000-05:00

Injection #31
Loss Today: <1.0>
Loss Total: <30.8>

I hit 30 pounds! It's really good to see that number. I can't believe in just 33 days I've lost 30 pounds. And without being hungry at all. Unbelievable!

I've been putting some more thought into when I'm going to stop this phase 2. I have about 9 more injections on the 40 injections schedule. This would put me wrapping up injections around Oct 13th or so. I might, however, see how I feel at that time and continue on for a couple more weeks. I feel wasteful to just toss out the rest of my mixed hcg and if I can continue on, that would give me a 3 week phase 3 before I start my next round 2 - and load on Thanksgiving! Like I said, though, it really depends on how I feel. If I need a break, I'm taking a break. I'm certainly not going to push my luck.

More later...

Lunch: I realized this morning that I had (once again) forgotten to take something out to thaw. I had remembered to take out some frozen roasted tomatoes and ground turkey to make spaghetti sauce for the kiddos later, but for me - nada! Sooo, I decided to have soup for lunch. I made cinnamon curry chicken soup with a grissini on the side. Yum-my!

Dinner: Tonight, the boys & I stopped at the sushi place for them to have one of their first take-out dinners since I've been on protocol. One of the things I always get there is their fresh crab salad. It is so incredibly good. So, I came home and made my own version of spicy crab salad- and it was scrumptious! The only thing it usually comes with that it was missing was sesame seeds, so I replaced them with crumbled grissini. It was so light & refreshing & perfect!

Besides that, my foot had a run-in with the boys' rocketship hamper and I think I might have a broken toe. Or sprained. Or just freaking hurt! It's throbbing, I can't really bend it, I can't walk on it, and it's looking like I might have to slip myself an ibuprofen or two before I head to bed. Time to go put on some ice. Ouch!

VLCD Day 33

2007-10-02T13:22:00.000-05:00

No Injection
Loss Today: <.2>
Loss Total: <29.8>

Well - at least it's down and not up. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

This is one crazy busy day. For some reason, I always think I'll have all this extra time on my hands when my husband goes out of town but it never works out that way. I'm really tired today too, full of family and work stress, and a bit grumpy and annoyed. What a great combo! Tonight I'm definitely going to plan on getting more than 4 hours of sleep.

Lunch: I had crockpot "roast" along with a bowl of tomato soup.

Tonight, I'm planning on whipping up some cilantro pesto. Hopefully my fish will be thawed by then.

I hope to post more later...

Dinner: I fixed cilantro whitefish and had a sliced tomato on the side. Mmmm, so very good.

VLCD Day 32

2007-10-01T10:22:00.002-05:00

Injection #30
Loss Today: <1.2>
Loss Total: <29.6>

Well, my menses is still not here. Tomorrow is technically my scheduled start date so I'll just keep riding this out until it hits. Tomorrow is also a skip day and that usually triggers it as well. We shall see.

I must say, I never thought I would be sharing the details of my monthly cycle with the world but lately I have been. Sorry if too TMI but that's how it goes. I'm all about full-disclosure.

I have so many recipes sitting in the edit bin that I need to get converted and posted onto HCG Recipes. I'm planning on posting at least 5 each day this week. We'll see if that holds true. Hubby leaves for Nebraska tomorrow morning for the next three days which just might toss my entire schedule onto its head.

Happy Monday!

VLCD Day 31

2007-09-30T10:34:00.000-05:00

Injection #29
Loss Today: +.4
Loss Total: <28.4>

Boo. Hiss. That's certainly no fun to see the scale go up instead of down. I could feel that things were a bit off with me this morning before I even stepped on the scale. I didn't get all my usual water in yesterday. I only drank 1-1.5 litres which is about a litre less than most days. I can also feel that my body is working overtime to get this period started. Not cramps, necessarily - just bloat and slight uncomfortable feelings. Hopefully it starts today.

Off to fix an early lunch as we have another busy day ahead.

VLCD Day 30

2007-09-29T09:51:00.003-05:00

Injection #28
Loss Today: <.4>
Loss Total: <28.8>

Alright, so today's loss isn't anything to write home about. But it is a loss. And with my menses almost here, I'll take anything I can get. Besides that-
Today is, in fact, MEASUREMENTS day!

Since VLCD Day 2 I have lost <17.5> inches! As long as those inches keep dropping, I don't mind seeing those baby steps in weight loss. It all gets me to where I want to be in the end anyway.

Busy busy day planned. I need to get to figuring what I'm going to eat and when.

Happy Weekend!

Lunch: I fixed an omelet with the perfect homegrown tomato. Yum.

Dinner: I had kung pao chicken which was so good & so filling & absolutely nothing like diet food. MMm MMm. I'm stuffed.

VLCD Day 29

2007-09-28T10:20:00.001-05:00

Injection #27
Loss Today: <.8>
Loss Total: <28.4>

Today I am so incredibly moody that I almost wish I could detach from myself for the day. And it's only 10am. At least it's only usually one day that I have to put up with myself being this way, now if only my period would hurry the heck up. Also, I have gotten none of this so-called euphoria that others have talked about while on hcg. I'm still just me. No more energy, no less energy. I've always been the energetic sort, however, so maybe that has something do with it. Who knows.

I'm off to the store. To replace two cups that came broken with my new set of dishes. Erg.

Lunch: I had an apple for my mid-morning snack. One of the best honeycrisp I've ever tasted. Perfect.

Later I fixed my version of a french dip with a side of onion rings. I'm still stuffed! Tonight I'm having soup. I'll try to remember to post that recipe later this evening.

Dinner: For once I actually stuck with my planned meals for the day and didn't switch it up last minute. I prepared some Cioppino with a grissini on the side. I couldn't even finish it all, but I made sure to eat all the protein in it.

Tomorrow is measurements day!

VLCD Day 28

2007-09-27T10:57:00.000-05:00

Injection #26
Loss Today: <.2>
Loss Total: <27.6>

There's that pesky .2 again. ;) I'm not surprised, and actually expected it to be less. Yesterday, my face started breaking out which is usually my first clue that my menses is soon approaching. I expect it to be here within the next 5 days. I have to say, I will gladly take that .2 loss when pre-HCG I would gain 3-5 lbs during my bouts of PMS. Besides, by now I'm used to stepping down these weight-loss stairs, instead of sliding down the slide only to land on my rear and get mulch in my shorts. And that's just fine by me.

Lunch: I had a mini meatloaf with bbq sauce and a few slices of tomato.

Just had some applesauce for a mid-afternoon snack. Yum!

Dinner: I quickly fixed some lemon mustard chicken. So yummy & so moist. I also had some steamed cabbage.

Another day down. :)

VLCD Day 27

2007-09-26T08:48:00.001-05:00

Injection #25
Loss Today: <1.2>
Loss Total: <27.4>

I have to say, it's still a bit of a shock when I lose more than a pound in one day. Here I am 27 days into this and I'm still averaging just over a pound a day. Shocking, I tell you! I also can't believe I'm already more than halfway through this round. At first it seems to go by really slowly and then suddenly you're on day 27! Crazy. I have a busy day ahead but two new recipes I worked out last night on the schedule for today. Hopefully I'll have time to get to them.

I'm also feeling so much better today than the past two days. It definitely feels wonderful to be back to "normal".

Happy Day!

Lunch: I had hot & sour soup with a grissini. So so good. And I just finished off my strawberry sorbet. Another yummy meal.

Dinner: I didn't really feel like fixing my kung pao chicken (as I had planned) for dinner since I was feeling just a bit under the weather. I knew I had to eat though so I prepared deviled eggs with a tomato on the side. It was alright. I much prefer to fix a big omelet when choosing eggs as my protein, though. I guess that's what I get for being lazy. ;)

Hopefully tomorrow is a good day for all of us.

VLCD Day 26

2007-09-25T10:01:00.000-05:00

No Injection
Loss Today: <.6>
Loss Total: <26.2>

I'm still feeling not so great. My throat doesn't feel as swollen but I do feel slightly feverish and just a big bag full of funk. We did have storms roll in last night so it could just be my allergies going wacky all of a sudden. Or that full moon that's due to hit on the 26th that's apparently causing anyone & everyone to lose their freaking minds. Don't even get me started on that rant.

I'll update more later.

Lunch: By mid-morning I was still feeling a bit down and not quite right so I fixed an award-winning comfort food. Apple Crisp. It was so warm and gooey and delicious. Alright alright, so it's not really award-winning, but my sons both claim it to be better than Grandma's.
They are such sweet, wonderful liars.

A couple hours later, I prepared the rest of my lunch and had Biz's Thai Cucumber Beef Salad. I'm telling you folks, that right there is an award-winner! So so good. I was a bit disappointed when I reached the bottom of my bowl.

I'm taking it a bit easy today and slowly feeling a bit better. I'm also still applying aloe like I own majority stock and it seems to not be hurting my losses at all. That's very good to know as I used to apply aloe to my face every day (before starting the protocol) to control breakouts and redness. Aloe is such my friend. :)

Dinner: This afternoon I tossed together some white chili in the crockpot and just ate that for dinner. I poured off most of the broth, added my tabasco and wowza! Nice spicy stuff. I'll have an apple in a while.

I'm feeling a bit better physically, but emotionally I'm a tad perturbed. Ah well, another hot bath and an early night to bed should help that some.

See everyone tomorrow!

VLCD Day 25

2007-09-24T07:27:00.000-05:00

Injection #24
Loss Today: <.8>
Loss Total: <25.6>

Woohoo! There's that 25 pound mark! It seemed to take forever these last few days to get there but I did! So happy to see that one.

Lunch: I fixed baked cajun chicken with a side of celery and a grissini. The chicken was sooo moist and juicy - and spicy! Loved it. I also had an apple for my mid-morning snack.

Dinner: Feeling really under the weather this evening. I fixed french onion soup tossed in some chicken and called it a night. I can feel my throat swelling so I'm going to take a hot bath, pop some ibuprofen, and hit the hay. Hopefully that won't affect my loss too much in the morning.

VLCD Day 24

2007-09-23T21:36:00.000-05:00

Injection #23
Loss Today: <.2>
Loss Total: <24.8>

Honestly, I am 100% surprised that I lost anything today. My fingers are so tight and swollen and I feel like a bloated whale. I'm assuming this is from getting too much sun yesterday. I've been hydrating well today so hopefully that will help. I've also been applying aloe like it's my new best friend. I'm not sure if that will affect me or not, but I'm not going to go without it.

Lunch: I ground up a steak and formed it into a burger. Then coated it with this and quickly grilled it. I served that with a side of mustard and a bowl of french onion soup. Mmm, the soup was even better after sitting in the refrigerator overnight. I also had an apple for my snack.

Dinner: I had a late night so I fixed curried broiled fish. I haven't eaten my fruit yet and might skip it since it's getting so late.

I'm not feeling so great for some reason and I'm not sure why. Perhaps because I'm still feeling bloated and 'tight'. Hopefully will be better tomorrow.

VLCD Day 23

2007-09-22T06:08:00.000-05:00

Injection #22
Loss Today: <.4>
Loss Total: <24.6>

Another week has gone by so it's measurement time. I took them this morning and the new update is a total loss of 13.5 inches! My BMI has dropped about 4 points as well. I love those dropping numbers!

I'll be posting my weight, etc after a bit as it's not time yet this morning for my daily weigh-in. The boys' first football game is today so I'll need to make sure I eat lunch before that. They are already both out of bed and raring to go. And so the day begins. :)

Happy Saturday!

Lunch: Not much time so I grilled some chicken with a sliced tomato. I also chomped on an apple on the way to the game.

Dinner: Pre-dinner I fixed French Onion Soup with a grissini. Mmm mmm good. Even though it was a very hot day, that really hit the spot. Then later for dinner I prepared Wasabi Whitefish for everyone. I fix the husband's and mine a bit spicier than the boys', and everyone cleared it all out. Good stuff.

VLCD Day 22

2007-09-21T08:56:00.000-05:00

Injection #21
Loss Today: <1.2>
Loss Total: <24.2>
Average: <1.1>/day

Wooo! I hit the next tens. I hit the next tens. I hit hit hit hit hit the next tens.

Yes, that was me just now dancing around the kitchen singing my new favorite tune. Now I'm so close to hitting 25 pounds - and I'm only about halfway done. I was thinking yesterday that I might see if I can continue on for 3 more weeks past when I was scheduled. Then I will start up my next round around my birthday at the beginning of the year. I'm not setting anything in stone as I will mostly go by how I feel along the way and I really don't want to push my luck. I'll update more on that later.

I said I wasn't going to do this until the end of this round but I don't know if I can hold out much longer. This may be simply from the euphoria of my 'being in the next tens' moment but here are my stats. I'm just over 5'10" and I started at, oh man here goes, 293.6 pounds. Man, that hurts to type. My goal weight is between 170-175 depending on how I feel when I get there. I may go for lower than that, who knows. I've been at 140-150 and I felt it was too small for me. At 160-170 I was a size 6 and I felt really good at that weight. So - we'll see. Well, there ya go. All my 'secrets' are out.

Today is a half day at school so I'm not doing much work today. I'll update when I can. I have lots more recipes to post this coming weekend as well!

Lunch: I ate an apple for my mid-morning snack and then fixed chili with a grissini. Good stuff.

Dinner: I tried out Biz's catfish recipe and it was yummy. I then had an apple for dessert and that wrapped up my day.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

VLCD Day 21

2007-09-20T08:54:00.000-05:00

Injection #20
Loss Today: <.6>
Loss Total: <23.0>

Well, I thought the loss would be bigger since I didn't even weigh myself yesterday. Can you hear the disappointment in my type? I know I know - I can't let it get to me. Perhaps I didn't get in all my water yesterday since I was running around like a chicken missing its head all day. And I woke up SO thirsty this morning. Ah well. I must remember to look at the big picture. 23 pounds in 21 days is an average of 1.10 pounds per day. That's huge and I could never accomplish that on any other program. I'll simply keep repeating that to myself over & over & over again. :)

I went to the in-laws to pick up some of our fish that we had caught & frozen. I'll be adding more of that into my diet and see if that makes any difference. So I'll definitely be posting up quite a few more fish recipes soon. I hope to have a minimum of 500 recipes posted on HCG Recipes one of these days. I'm also going to be switching both this blog and HCG Recipes over to their own website so it's all in one easy location - eventually. That way I won't have to be hopping back & forth - and neither will you. :)

Here's to another great day for all of us!

Lunch: I fixed Teriyaki Fish with a side of Roasted Asparagus, and a grissini. So filling and very yummy. I previously had an apple for my mid-morning snack.

Dinner: Well, I wasn't such a good girl this evening. I didn't cheat, no way. In fact, I didn't even eat my dinner. Last night was a really busy night and we left early and then we didn't get home until late. While we were out, I did eat an orange but that's it. No protein and no veggies. I fell asleep on the way home and didn't feel like eating something when we got back so I didn't force myself. We'll see how it reflects on Friday.

VLCD Day 20

2007-09-19T15:14:00.000-05:00

Injection #19

I didn't weigh myself today as I was up before the sun kissed the sky and didn't get home until just now. I was afraid of weighing myself not at my normal time and didn't want to 'cheat' on what my actual weight was. It feels a bit weird not knowing if I lost anything or not, but it is what it is. I'll find out tomorrow.

Lunch: I had previously cooked some chicken with onions so I warmed that up. I also had a mini-thermos of applesauce with me. I love that stuff. I've been feeling kind of down all day so that warm applesauce was the perfect comfort food.

I'll check back in later. Back to the grind!

Dinner: I grilled chicken with asparagus spears. I also had a grissini as a side and an apple for dessert.

VLCD Day 19

2007-09-18T10:05:00.000-05:00

No Injection
Loss Today: <.8>
Loss Total: <22.4>

Well at least that silly scale moved today. Whew.

I just returned from picking up some meat from my local grocery. And it was FREE! I traded some emails with the Store Director about their meat selection and my specific needs. He told me he would order whatever I needed and get them in for me to try for free. Today I left there with 12 steaks and a roast. Did I mention they were FREE?! Yeah, free meat apparently makes me the teeniest bit excited. This will save me from 1) having to travel 25 mins to the Whole Foods store and 2) having to wait on my farm buddy to butcher some more meat. I'll still be ordering from him, but it's nice every once in a while to be able to simply pick up a few steaks rather than to always order a half a cow. :)

Lunch: I started off and had my dessert first, simply because I can! Last night I had made a few batches of the strawberry sorbet so I had some of that. Then I made meatballs with marinara sauce. Wow. Those totally hit the spot! So so good.

Dinner: We had a busy night so for dinner I shredded some boiled chicken and made quick chicken salad wraps. It was quick & easy, but I had something else altogether planned so it left me a bit unsatisfied. Ah well, there's always tomorrow!

VLCD Day 18

2007-09-17T16:44:00.000-05:00

Injection #18
Loss Today: 0
Loss Total: <21.6>

There's that silly little zero rearing its ugly head again. Shoo shoo! Well - it happens. What can ya do? I'm sure it's just my body's way of balancing things out and I'm not going to stress about it. Too much. ;) It's funny though that it was almost exactly a week ago that the same thing happened. Perhaps my body just feels like it needs a weekly catch up? Who knows. Let it do what it wants to do as long as most days it gives me those losses.

Lunch: I ate an apple for my mid-morning snack. Then around lunchtime I was a bit rushed so I threw some chicken on the George Foreman with some ground pepper. When that finished just a few minutes later, I sliced up a tomato, tossed a tiny bit of Bragg Liquid Aminos onto my chicken and I was good to go. Plus my trusty grissini!

Dinner: Tonight I fixed my version of shrimp fried rice. Not exactly rice but it was really filling & yummy. And it certainly didn't give me that bloated feeling that rice always does. I also had strawberry sorbet for dessert. That one never fails!

Here's hoping the scale moves tomorrow. I know it will, but it always sits in the back of my mind that perhaps it won't after these 'zero' days mess with the little sense I have left.

VLCD Day 17

2007-09-16T19:17:00.000-05:00

Injection #17
Loss Today: <.6>
Loss Total: <21.6>

Lunch: Today we're heading over to the in-laws so I fixed me a somewhat early lunch. I sliced a tomato and ate those with breaded chicken cutlets. So good! Then I ate my apple in the car on the way over. My mother-in-law always has so much yummy stuff that I thought it might be difficult for me. Not to mention she's one of the best bakers around. She had cupcakes and fresh baked coconut cream pie and strawberry cheesecake. Everything looked delicious but I didn't touch a single thing. I simply sat and sipped my water while everyone else chowed down. Woe is me. ;)

Dinner: For dinner I had my husband shell me some crab. He's much better at that than I am. Then I fixed Krabby Patties for everyone. They ate theirs with thai noodles and I ate mine with celery. And then we all had an orange julius for dessert. Those little buggers stealing my oranges! ;) It was a really light yet very filling dinner. Yum.

VLCD Day 16

2007-09-15T09:28:00.001-05:00

Injection #16
Loss Today: <1.0>
Loss Total: <21.0>

Another one bites the dust! Yes, I was actually hopping around my kitchen singing that after seeing another one of those pounds drop off my bod. It was also measuring time so I took my measurements. After two weeks, I'm already down 11.5 inches! That's nothing short of phenomenal to me. I'm so excited!

I had to run out to Target the other day to buy a new food processor and I was wearing my ol' stretchy yoga pants. They were literally falling off of me while I was walking through the store. I had to have one hand on my pants and the other on the cart. I couldn't believe it! It will be nice to finally be down to a size again where there is not one bit of elastic in the waistband. I have lots of size 12s cargo pants, etc sitting around that are just waiting for me to get there. And then, I'll be working towards those size 6/8s that are hidden in the back of my closet. Someday! It will still be a while, but I'm finally in a mindset where I know I will be there eventually. And that feels wonderful.

Lunch: I just might have had the best lunch I've had so far on this protocol. Mmmmm. I fixed fried chicken tenders with some homemade buffalo wing sauce (I'll add that recipe later this weekend), tomato soup, and a baked apple. I'm finding there's really no reason for anyone to think this protocol is anything close to a diet. The food can be just as (or even moreso) wonderful than so-called 'normal' food. Love it! I'm not sure what's happening for dinner yet, that all depends on how my evening goes. More to come...

Dinner: We ended up getting free tickets to see the Wizards tonight so I had to toss together a meal I could take with me. I ended up making boneless hot wings with hot sauce and a side of celery. Perfect! I certainly got in my water after eating those. :)

It ended up being a wonderful night and I wasn't even tempted with all the nachos and hot dogs and (mmmm) beers rolling by. They let you carry in sealed bottles of water so I loaded up the kids & hubby and I was all set with filling up on water while we were there. And we won! In the end, so did I with absolutely no cheating here. Another day down!

VLCD Day 15

2007-09-14T09:23:00.001-05:00

Injection #15
Loss Today: <.6>
Loss Total: <20.0>

Lookie there! I hit the 20 pound mark! Yaaaaay! 15 days. 20 pounds. Never hungry. Unbelievable. I'm still blown away by it all. What a way to start the weekend! I hope everyone has a fantastic Friday! I'll update more later today.
WOOHOO!

Lunch: Another quick meal so I grilled a steak on the George Foreman, steamed some cabbage and ate an apple.

Dinner: After I got the family settled I finally had a very short chunk of time to prepare my meal. I fixed boiled shrimp which only took a few minutes and ate that with celery sticks. I hadn't had celery in a while so that was nice & refreshing. For dessert I had an orange julius. Mmm mmm good! After the kids tasted it, I ended up having to make two more for them. That one was a winner all around!

That's it for today. Happy weekend!

VLCD Day 14

2007-09-13T11:26:00.001-05:00

Injection #14
Loss Today: <.4>
Loss Total: <19.4>

Lunch: For lunch today I grilled a marinated steak and paired it with some onion rings. It was sooooo good. I'm getting ready to fix me strawberry sorbet for dessert. I'll probably have to wait until I return home later to enjoy it, however, since I'm so stuffed!

Dinner: Go figure, we were out late again tonight. When we got back I wasn't really in the mood for meat so I scrambled eggs with tomato. Mmm mmm good. I again fixed apple slaw for me and the rest of the family. They had theirs drizzled with some melted caramel, however. Oh man, just the smell of that caramel almost made me sick! Waaaayy too sweet. It's funny how now an apple satisfies any ache of my sweet tooth. I love it!

VLCD Day 13

2007-09-12T09:21:00.000-05:00

Injection #13
Loss Today: <1.4>
Loss Total: <19.0>

For as long as I can remember, 13 has been a lucky number for me. And once again it comes through. It's very reassuring to know I can continue to skip one injection a week without any side effects (hunger, no loss, etc). That Simeons sure did know his stuff. Man, I'm so close to that 20 lbs I can just almost see it over the horizon. So exciting!

Hopefully today will be a bit more calm & laid-back. I have lots to do but at least I'm not scheduled to the max. I do have 2-3 new recipes on the agenda for today so here's hoping they turn out in an edible manner. :) More later!

Lunch: Soooo my veggie recipe didn't turn out so well. Come to find out I doubled one thing and halved another and it resulted in one pile of mush even the dog wouldn't eat. I blame the FedEx woman for interrupting me right in the middle so I completely lost my train of thought. Ah well, I'll try that one again another day!

What I did have was my usual apple. I also had some boiled chicken that I had used for broth and topped that with my recipe for gravy. Yes, gravy. It really spiced up the chicken and was a nice change of pace. I also had a side of cabbage that I steamed up with some salt/pepper. And I'm stuffed! I have two new recipes planned for tonight so we'll see how those go. Happy afternoon!

Dinner: I sometimes wonder why I even plan things sometimes when it always seems it all goes straight out the window. Hubby ended up coming back home last night so I took the time to visit with him instead of working on my new recipes. And then we had a gazillion places to run around to last night and there went my evening. I ended up quick grilling up some shrimp & onions. It was good, but not what I had been thinking about all day so it tasted a bit 'blah'. I wasn't hungry afterwards, however, and that's the important thing. Onward & upward! Or downward in our case! :)

VLCD Day 12

2007-09-11T08:03:00.000-05:00

No Injection
Loss Today: <.4>
Loss Total: <17.6>

And the scale moves again. :) It seems so far I'm averaging about 1.46 lbs/day and that still blows me away. I'm so excited and thankful to be finally doing something that WORKS!

Lunch: I didn't have much time for lunch so I grilled up chicken and sided that with some cabbage and a grissini. And then I had my sweet apple for snack later.

Dinner: Again, no time to really prepare much so I warmed up some previously grilled chicken in a pan with some onions, tossed on some spices and I was good to go. I finished everything off with a strawberry smoothie. Good stuff.

After 2+ hours of football practice tonight, I'm complete wiped out. Hubby ended up having to stay in MN for an extra day so I'm missing him a bit as well. At least I get the bed to myself for another night. Even if I do miss him, I must admit that being able to sprawl out and hog all the covers and pillows every once in a while is pretty darn nice. Not to mention the absence of snoring.
Here's to being one day closer to the endzone!

VLCD Day 11

2007-09-10T09:21:00.000-05:00

Injection #12
Loss Today: <.6>
Loss Total: <17.2>

Whew. Even though I tried not to stress over it, it was certainly good to see that scale move again this morning. What surprised me more than anything is my resolve. Any other diet I've ever been on, that simple stopping of the scale would have sent my emotions into extreme turmoil and I most likely would have headed straight for food. That option didn't even cross my mind this time. It was discouraging, yes, but any sort of cheating just isn't on my radar. That's almost a complete miracle to me.

Lunch: Sometime around 10am I munched on an apple. Then at lunchtime I fixed Chicken Pizzaiola with a grissini.

Dinner: Mid-afternoon I had some Green Apple Slaw which was so refreshing and crisp. Tonight for dinner I tried out my new recipe for Mexican Chicken Soup. I know I'm biased but I really liked it. It was perfect on this slightly chilled evening. It tastes a lot like Tortilla Soup but without the tortillas. :) I couldn't even finish it all. I did make sure to eat all the chicken out of it so I got all of my protein, however. Here's to another day!

VLCD Day 10

2007-09-09T07:54:00.000-05:00

Injection #11
Loss Today: 0
Loss Total: <16.6>

Well, I talk a big talk, now I must walk the walk. And it's a bit difficult. I knew a full-stop of some sort would pop up eventually, and I thought I was fully prepared for it, but I have to admit it's the tiniest bit discouraging when the scale shows no movement at all. I assume this is either just a regularly scheduled catch-up that my body felt it needed, or it could be due to the fact that yesterday I didn't get in all the fluids I usually do. I'll just chalk it up to both. I know I have still lost an average of 1.66 lbs/day, so I won't let this get me down. But it is a bit of a mindgame.

I have another full busy day/evening ahead, but this time I'll plan ahead to ensure I have all of my water, etc with me. Well technically yesterday I did as well, but at football practice I let some of the kids raid my water stash since they forgot theirs so I came up a bit short. Oh, those pesky kids making me stall! I'm kidding, of course. Hopefully my body will just work this out. I probably won't be able to update again today so I'll check in tomorrow when I can.

VLCD Day 9

2007-09-08T08:34:00.000-05:00

Injection #10
Loss Today: <1.0>
Loss Total: <16.6>

Another pound is history! I also took my measurements this morning. It's been one week since I took the first set. As of today, I've lost 5" as well! Very happy about that, of course. I lost everywhere except the bust which surprised me since that's almost always the first to go. Not that I'm complaining. I'll take whatever I can get!

We're off to enjoy this beautiful Saturday and most likely spend some time at the Spinach Festival in Lenexa, KS. I'll try to come back with lots of new ideas for spinach recipes. :)

Lunch: I grilled up some chicken tenders with sliced tomato. Served it up with an apple and grissini & I was good to go.

Dinner: I prepared some Shrimp & Asparagus Stir Fry. I love that one because it's very simple and takes no time at all to prepare. Sometimes a quick fix meal is a must! I also had an apple & grissini. Broken record yet? :)

We never made it to the Spinach Festival today. At the last minute we found out the boys' first football practice was today so we had to reorganize our day a bit. Pretty pack-filled day and luckily I was able to be home at the appropriate times to eat. Whew. Anxious to start another day!

VLCD Day 8

2007-09-07T07:43:00.001-05:00

Injection #9
Loss Today: <1.0>
Loss Total: <15.6>

The day has just started but so far I'm feeling much better. We'll see if that carries throughout the day. I did hit the 15 pound mark! Woohoo! If that doesn't shake a sad state, I don't know what will. :)

Lunch: We're being overrun by tomatoes from the garden so I really must use them more often. So for lunch I decided to break out of my funk and try to whip up something new. What followed was Steak Pizzaiola. The steak was so tender and so juicy and so flavorful. And the tomato - yum! My husband came home early from work and walked in & immediately wanted to know where his was. The house smells so great!

Dinner: We're heading out soon to visit with my mother so I had to cook up something quick for me to eat. I didn't want to be tempted by anything she might have lying around. I grilled some chicken and then wrapped that up with romaine and drizzled it with a bit of Bragg Liquid Aminos. I had to fight the kids off with a stick - they love that stuff.

Oh, I forgot to add that I had an apple and an orange for my mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks.

I'm also happy to report that I am feeling so much better today. Thank goodness. We're now off to enjoy the evening! Happy weekend!

VLCD Day 7

2007-09-06T07:36:00.000-05:00

Injection #8
Loss Today <1.2>
Loss Total <14.6>

Crazy busy day today. I'm glad to see the scale continue to move down and that apparently at least this time around my menses didn't cause a stall of any sort. No bad cramps or anything that others have reported is happening here either. So far so good!

Lunch: I grilled up a steak & onion and had an apple a bit earlier for a snack.

I'm feeling a bit depressed this afternoon. I don't know why. Nothing has happened. All of a sudden this afternoon I was sad, almost like I could start crying at any minute. A bit strange. I don't know if its the hcg or the pms or just my crazy self. I noticed that it immediately made me start thinking of food. Nothing like cravings really, just wanting to snack. It's funny (or not) how tied into our emotions our eating can be. It makes me wonder how many times I've been sad or down before and immediately ate something without even realizing it. I imagine quite often.

Dinner: Not in the mood and no time at all to really experiment with recipe ideas tonight. I'll have to save that for another day. An apple was my very quick-fix mid-afternoon snack. Then for dinner some chicken and cabbage made for a quick and easy meal. I wasn't even all that hungry but knew I had to put some kind of fuel into the bod. I think I'll be wrapping it all up with an early night to bed. And hopefully wake up to a brighter day. :)

VLCD Day 6

2007-09-05T08:41:00.001-05:00

Injection #7
Loss Today: <1.2>
Loss Total: <13.4>

I'm back riding the injection train. And I was down again this morning.
I need to stop worrying myself at night as to what the scale will read in the morning. It's definitely a hard habit to break. I suppose it will simply take some time of these consistent numbers to get it through my thick skull that yes, this is working for me, too. I keep waiting for it to drop less than a pound - and I'm ready for that. It's the anticipation and nervousness that it might actually go up instead of down even though I've been following everything to the letter. I'll get it through my noggin eventually. Hopefully sooner than later.

Update: Beware - this could be defined as TMI.
Well, I was just thrown for a loop. I apparently just started my menses one week early. More than likely I had miscalculated and this could very well be the time when it was supposed to start anyway. However, I had planned on this happening in a week or so & me not injecting during that time. I'm thinking now though since I just skipped an injection yesterday (could that have caused my menses to start early?) and already injected today, that I'll see what happens if I keep on injecting. I'll have to see how it all affects me today as some have said that if they injected while on their menses their flow was greater and cramps stronger. If I have any problems, I'll just start skipping injections tomorrow while finishing the rest of my menses which usually only lasts a couple days. I certainly didn't expect this! More later...

Lunch: I already had lunch prepared so it was a grab & go situation for me today. I had chicken, cabbage, an apple, and grissini. I'm feeling a bit tired but I'm going to chalk that up to being pretty busy today and the cup of hot tea I drank not long ago.

Dinner: Well, hubby was gone, kids were fed, so I had some time to fix up something new for dinner. Before tossing my shrimp on the GF, I started whipping up & tweaking my recipe for on-protocol tomato soup. Yum yum yum. I ended up chopping up my grilled shrimp and tossing it in, along with part of my grissini. It was so warm and so filling and so delicious. It totally hit the spot of a yummy warm in my tummy soup. In a bit I'll be chomping up my apple & I'll be done for the day. Another one down!

VLCD Day 5

2007-09-04T08:41:00.000-05:00

No Injection
Loss Today: <1.4>
Loss Total: <12.2>

Well, today is the first day I'm skipping an injection. It seemed a bit strange to skip over that this morning as it's become part of my daily routine. We'll see how this goes for me. I'm sure it will be fine (as Dr. Simeons recommends it), I just wonder if it will make me hungry in any way. Only time will tell!

This may end up being the only day I skip an injection, along with the days I'll skip while on my menses. That will put me wrapping up 40 injections right around mid-October which is exactly where I'm wanting to be, so that I will be completing another full round of phase 2 right around the first of the year. AND it will put my next round of loading days on Thanksgiving. That certainly can't be a bad thing. :)

Off to start my day! Happy Tuesday!

Lunch: For lunch I broiled up a steak and boiled some cabbage. It was perfect. I also fixed up 'dessert' which was Green Apple Slaw and it really hit the spot. I can't believe how full I am!

Dinner: I fixed steaks up for the family but since I had already had mine earlier in the day, I grilled me up some chicken. Team that up with a side of cabbage, a grissini, and some strawberry sorbet and I was all set. And once again stuffed.

It seems skipping the shot today had no effect on my hunger at all. That's definitely good to know. I am a bit worried as to what the scale is going to say in the morning. I know I said I wouldn't do that anymore, but I sort of am and I'm not sure why. I'm guessing it's due to me skipping a shot so I must feel as if my routine is a bit disrupted. However, I'm going to try to continue thinking happy, positive thoughts. 12.2 pounds so far! 12.2 pounds so far! 12.2 pounds so far! That oughta do it. :)

VLCD Day 4

2007-09-03T08:57:00.000-05:00

Injection #6
Loss Today: <2.6>
Loss Total: <10.8>

Well that was certainly a pleasant surprise this morning. I didn't expect anything more than a pound this morning and I got a whole 2.6! I thought it would be more difficult this weekend with the entire family at home for the holiday, but surprisingly it's pretty easy to stay on task. I've fixed their foods with no taste-testing and haven't been hungry at all except when it's time for my regular meals. That's so fantastic that I can barely put it into words.

Lunch: I ate an apple about 11am and then ran out to do errands. We didn't get back until 1:30 or so and by that time I was pretty hungry & ready for lunch! I whipped up some quick shrimp on the George Foreman with fresh basil & lemon and wrapped them up in romaine, with a side of grissini. Really quick & satisfying. I think tomorrow I might pre-cook up some of my meats so I have them ready on hand if I need to take them with me.

Dinner: Again, I had something entirely different planned and then switched it up at the last minute due to things happening here at the house. I ate a baked apple as a snack between lunch and dinner. For dinner, I baked up some chicken and then had cucumber salad. And a grissini! I love that crunch. I'm stuffed and not currently nervous for waking up to the scale. I am fully expecting these losses to slow down & I'm now (I think) fully prepared for it. Here's to another great day!

VLCD Day 3

2007-09-02T08:51:00.000-05:00

Injection #5
Loss Today: <2.4>
Loss Total: <8.2>

I really hope there comes a time when I can go to bed without that frantic feeling in the pit of my stomach that I'm going to wake up to a huge gain. I know that feeling originates from failing on diet after diet after diet many times before. I know I simply have to trust this protocol since I have seen proof that it does in fact work. I know I also have to in trust myself as I truly am following everything exactly as ordered and there will be slight fluctuations in my weight each day and that is okay.

This protocol has surprised me so far as I was really afraid I would be hungry all the time. Which I'm not. I thought I would have mad cravings that would send me teetering at the edge. Which I'm not. I can't believe I don't even miss ice cream yet. That's almost criminal. :)

It's time for me to sit down & plan out my daily menu. I really enjoy this time of day as I get to relax, drink some coffee and come up with a new way to fix some grub - all the while focusing on me. Us moms don't have a chance to do that very often so it feels really great. Yeah, I'm pretty easily to please.

AND even though I already posted it up there, I just have to mention again that I was in fact down 2.4 lbs today. It looks like the grissini still likes me after all. So far.

Lunch: For lunch I took it pretty easy & simply stuck an eye of round steak on the George Foreman and sprinkled it with black pepper. It was sooo juicy. I almost couldn't eat it all. I served that up with some asparagus and an apple. Great lunch.

Dinner: Tonight I fixed the family up some homemade chicken enchiladas. They smelled so yummy that I altered the meal I had planned for tonight. While I was fixing their dinner I chomped up an apple so that I wasn't tempted to taste any of that enchilada goodness. After getting them all set I dry-fried up my chicken, then shredded it in a bowl. Chopped up my onions put those & the chicken back in the pan and topped it with taco seasoning and a bit of water and made up my own sort of mexican dinner. It was really filling.

And in other news, I'm also busily preparing up some on-protocol pickles! We'll see sometime later this week if those end up being any good. If so, I'll definitely share the recipe over on HCG Recipes. I'm anxious to see how they turn out. That would certainly be another great way to eat those yummy cucumbers!

VLCD Day 2

2007-09-01T09:32:00.000-05:00

Injection #4

Totally scared. Yep, that's exactly what I was before I stepped on that little monster of a scale. I have to admit last night I stepped on it before going to bed and saw I was down a pound. I was so hoping there would be more this morning and there was! I am officially down 5.8 lbs!!!

I'll definitely take that number! I know it won't be as much over the rest of these days so I'm going to hold onto that one & give it a big ol' hug.

So far this morning I'm not even hungry but that could always change. I'm headed off to the farmers market for veggies and it just smells entirely too good there! Eep!

Lunch: I marinated some cucumbers with my Cucumber Mint recipe along with a dash of dill. While that was marinating I shook on my Blackened Chicken seasonings and let that sit in the fridge for 20 mins or so. Then I popped it on the George Foreman for a few minutes and served it up next to my cucumber salad. Yum! Soooo moist & juicy! Oh - I also had 1 grissini. I already had my apple as a mid-morning snack so I'm good to go. So far so good. :)

Dinner: This was pretty easy tonight. I wasn't that hungry and thought I'd go the shrimp and spinach route which ended up being a lot more to eat than what I thought it would be. I'm completely stuffed!

I ate my apple first. Then cooked up some Lemon Shrimp & Spinach. I also had a grissini since I seemed to be a little short on calories. I hope those don't throw me off. Weird - it feels like I'm eating so much which puts the fear into me that the scale won't be moving in the morning. We shall see.

VLCD Day 1

2007-08-31T08:24:00.000-05:00

Injection #3
+1.8lbs

8AM: Well well well, I actually did gain! I was hoping so in a weird sort of way. To prove to myself that I did actually load enough, I suppose. We'll see if that rings true over the next few days.

The injection was so easy today. I guess I simply had a temporary case of wimpitis.

I'm usually not all that hungry for breakfast but this morning was a bit tough. I was making my boys a simple eggs/toast breakfast and it smelled so good - and I don't even really like eggs! And then I found my 70% extra dark cacao organic chocolate bar that I forgot to eat over my load days. Ouch. I'll have to make sure my husband makes good use of that tonight. I certainly don't want it sitting around here. We also received in the mail yesterday a salty, chocolately organic product for us to product test and I made him & the kids take them all to work/school today to test them. Again - the less temptation the better for now. I have to head out to the store to pick up a few more things for this momentous occasion. I already have dinner planned for all of us but need to figure out lunch. Decisions decisions! :)

Lunch: Mmmm. So for lunch I tossed some asparagus spears on the George Foreman and sprinkled with salt & pepper. After those were done a few minutes later, I put on some eye of round steak that had been rubbed down with this BBQ Rub. I love rubs and they are so easy to make yourself without buying store-bought rubs and not knowing exactly what's in them. I'm off to eat my fruit of the moment - which shall be a gloriously ripe organic apple. I did find myself a bit hungry this morning but nothing unbearable. I think it was more of me thinking about food than me being actually hungry. We'll see how tonight goes. Off to drink more water!

Dinner: We just finished up dinner & I'm surprisingly satisfied. I have to admit when I was dividing up some chicken into 100g servings - it looked very small. However, it was exactly the right amount as I feel satisfied and not stuffed - which is a very good thing.

Tonight for the entire family I made chicken kebabs. I marinated theirs in olive oil & spices, etc - mine simply got the Caribbean Chicken Rub treatment. Yes - I am in a rubbing sort of mood today! I'm actually converting all my rub recipes, etc to be protocol friendly and decided today is as good day as any to start putting them to the test. So good! I just popped it on the George Foreman and it was done in a jiffy. I also roasted myself a tomato and it was so sweet. I loved it. I'm still due to eat a fruit (1/2 grapefruit) and I also had another recipe I wanted to test out for "dessert" but that might have to wait until tomorrow. I did get a bit hungry this afternoon but nothing serious. No headaches or anything of the sort - I think more just me missing food, if that makes any sense. I really hope things go well with the scale tomorrow. I'm nervous.

7:30PM: Alright, I tested out my "dessert" recipe. It was simply a Simple Frappuccino and I loved it. Now I'm really nervous for the scale tomorrow. That almost felt like cheating!

Day 2 Loading

2007-08-30T07:39:00.000-05:00

7AM: Surprisingly enough, I'm down .8 lbs this morning. I didn't expect that after that gorgefest yesterday. I suppose it was all that hot air I was expelling. Or, most likely, it's due to me weighing at an hour earlier. I'll be sticking to this schedule more closely now. Hopefully I ate enough yesterday and hopefully I had some hcg running through my system after that injection mishap - that has me a tad worried. We shall see. I'm off now to have a much better run at today's injection (go positive thinking!) and then eat a big fatty breakfast of some sort. I have no idea what.

8AM: I just had to update that my injection went swimmingly this time. I wrote down step by step instructions in my own handwriting and just went through it at my own pace. I was much more relaxed and actually managed to put in the entire injection. Whew. It really is surprising that I simply can't feel those needles going in at all. Thank goodness for that.
Now for breakfast...

8PM: Well, I don't know if I really ate enough today but it's almost too late now to fix it. I ate some breakfast - eggs, bacon, toast. I hate regular bacon, but choked it down.
For lunch - I had a turkey sandwich. I know, not high-fat at all but it's all I had and I was too busy to leave to pick something up. At least I loaded it with some mayo & avocado so that helped. I also tried to do a bit of snacking throughout the day but I simply wasn't hungry - even moreso than yesterday. I never felt sick, just no appetite at all.
Dinner - I just prepared some homemade pizza crust then topped it with pepperoni, ital sausage, green & red peppers, onions, olives, tomatoes, and mozzarella. Lots of it. I hope that's enough for today. Tomorrow's the big day. :)

9PM: Aaaaaaaaand a chocolate shake. Done!

And So It Begins

2007-08-29T11:12:00.000-05:00

Injection #1 - Day 1 Loading

I've been really dreading these two loading days. I know many see it as an opportunity to 'cheat' and eat all the stuff they won't be able to eat for a while but for me - I already mostly only eat the foods allowed on protocol. That probably sounds strange coming from someone that needs to lose 100 lbs but there you go.

For breakfast I ate some sausage and egg and cheese with a bagel and I was feeling SO sick just 15 mins later. I know I'll get through these days but I'm already miserable. :( And it's time for lunch and I'm nowhere near hungry. Ugh.

I'll try to cover more on the mixing/injection process later today - maybe. It went horribly for me. I literally was a blumbling mess. I was looking at so many different instructions since they all say something different & I think it just fed my confusion. I'm glad I only have to mix every so often. And the injection itself was an entirely different nightmare. It burned a bit and then bled for a while afterwards even though I aspirated and had no blood. I think I might have also tried to inject too quickly because I thought I was done & removed the needle and then looked at it and there was still some left! Who knows if there's even hcg running through my system at all. I hope it goes more smoothly tomorrow. Holy stress fest. I need a drink. :p

2PM: Bleh. For lunch I had to go pick up some ground beef at the store since all I have here is ground turkey breast. I ended up fixing a grilled hamburger with cheese & mayo and then some homemade onion rings. Still feeling disgusting. I hope I'm eating enough because I don't feel there's any possible way I could be eating more. I'd almost rather have a starving feeling for the next 6 weeks than to feel this sickly. Of course, that's easy to say now, eh? :) I think I need to either go take a hot bath or lie down for a bit. Or both. More later...

730PM: Back from dinner. I'm actually not feeling as bad now. We went to have sushi for dinner. I know - not the best high-fat choice but I had to have it one more time before VLCD starts. I did have squid tempura so that was high in fat. Also a rainbow roll topped with salmon, tuna, and eel. And then the Chefs special roll which had eel sauce and a bunch of stuff all deep fried. So I did get some fat in. It was very yummy. I certainly hope I ate enough today. There was no chance I could have fit any more in this bod.

Beware: Stop reading now if you don't want to venture into TMI territory.

I have to say that I'm also passing gas like a crazy person. Even the dog doesn't want to sit near me. I'm guessing this is another of my body's responses to putting all of this crap into it today. The family just might suffocate of air poisoning by the end of all this tomorrow.

I suppose that's it for today. Sorry to end on such a smelly note. See you tomorrow for day two!

The Eagle Has Left The Nest

2007-08-23T08:23:00.000-05:00

Can I get a hallelujah and it's about damn time?!

Whew. Finally.

I'll be sure to update when it lands. Let's hope it's closer to the 7 than the 18 business days. I still haven't heard anything back about the other bird. Its wing must be broken or its on vacation on Maui. It's nearing on three weeks, however, and I'm getting to be one impatient frustrated cat, jack. Soon soon soon.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

2007-08-22T17:40:00.000-05:00

Keep movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapprovin',
Keep them doggies movin'
Rawhiiide!

Ahem. Sorry, lil' doggies, I'm just too excited that I have now received my 50lb Digital Postal / Postage Shipping Scale- or as I like to affectionately call it - my food scale. Not that I'll ever be weighing 50lbs of food - holy frijoles. I've tested it out & it seems to be accurate and working like a charm. I really *heart* getting all of these new goodies in the mail. Now I'm ready to put them to use! Well - almost.

I have a homemade pizza crust with a topping or two in the oven that I need to watch so I can't type much. This is one of the last times my family gets to have that for a while. Too bad for them! I just had to hop on here and share my burst of excitement with someone. Happy Wednesday!

Another One Bites The Dust

2007-08-21T15:52:00.000-05:00

One more thing to check off of my list. I received my last batch of supplies from Research Supply today. On both of my orders they shipped same day via UPS and it only took a couple of days to arrive at my doorstep. I really recommend them for all those misc. supplies you need (minus the hcg).

The following is what I ordered (albeit I had to order in two separate shipments since I had a temporary blonde moment and forgot the smaller needles. Ouch!):

(MISCAO) Ampule Opener

(SOLVBW) Bacteriostatic Water USP 30ml

(STERAM30) 30 ml Amber Sealed Sterile Glass Vial

(SYRO60ML5E) 60ml luer lock Syringe w/o Needle Exel 5ct

(SYRN3ML1.518EB) 3ml with 1.5" 18g Exel 100ct.

(NEEDTSK30G1B) TSK Steriject 30g x 1"; Box 100ct.

Note that I am injecting IM (intramuscular) hence the need for the 30g 1" needles. The 18g syringe/needle combo is simply for mixing. Also, the quantity of each item you need is dependent on how many rounds of this protocol you will be completing. For lots more information on how to mix, how much you need, etc - I suggest visiting/joining HCGDieters(it's back up & running now!) as the amount of info there is beyond helpful and the people are some of the best on these internets.

That's it for now! Time to go organize the rest of my new goodies. :)

Dancing Monkeys

2007-08-20T16:17:00.000-05:00

I feel a tad guilty from ignoring this little blog space o' mine, but there's simply nothing on the hcg horizon for me to update. I'm still waiting for the product to arrive and there's only so many times one can announce that it's taking forever.

At least this past weekend and the days prior have been craaaazy busy with us running around like dancing monkeys (without the cute vests) preparing for school to start up again. Oh - and I've had all day today to be tormented by the littlest of a little singular hair that pops up under my chin everytime PMS seems to rear its ugly head. Too small for tweezers and yet somehow so ginormous that it causes me to go bonkers. How glorious.

I'm expecting to receive my new food scale in the mail on Wednesday so at least there is that to look forward to. Also, it seems the HcgDieters yahoo group is apparently having some technical problems so an alternate group has been set up at:

HcgDieters2

I'm unsure if that's simply a temporary solution or if it's around to stay, but either way it's nice to be able to be back in the loop to read about everyone's adventures and successes.

I will update again soon...hopefully. :)

Attn: Walmart Shoppers

2007-08-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

I must admit I'm not a typical Walmart shopper. I don't mean that in any sort of derogatory fashion, I just don't much like the store. There are always SO many people running around, shoving carts into people, racing to get that everyday low price. As if it's going to go anywhere. I was not impressed at all with the very little amount of organic products they offered. And the 'regular' veggies they offered looked horrendous. I really am spoiled by farmers markets, for sure. It's a bit funny how people are all about Made in the USA products until they hit the produce section (or any other grocery section for that matter), and then they're all about made in the South America or New Zealand or everywhere else products. But THAT is an entirely different rant altogether.

Last night, I was out & about searching the town for a scale. Oh, the dreaded scale. I had scaled (punpunpun!) several stores and hadn't found anything particular I liked. So - I ventured to the surely-to-have-it megastore. And they did. *cue heavenly music* In fact, almost any type of scale your heart desires. I decided on their most expensive version (surprise, surprise) that measures body fat, body hydration, and your weight (whew). Introducing:
The Health O Meter Professional Body Fat Monitoring Scale. Da da da!! Looking at it in the store there are also 4 buttons where 4 people can measure/store each of their information. Eureka! And there's four of us in my family. How perfect is that? Of course, the magnitude of this decision didn't hit me until we made it home and started with the programming.

My husband sets it down on the floor and I begin reading the instructions to him. Hit this button, enter height, hit this button, enter goal, etc etc etc. He goes through himself, our two boys, and then it's my turn. With these three sets of eyes looking at me wondering why my mouth is no longer moving. It's then, I finally realize I would have to show them my weight on the scale in order to get it programmed. WHAT?! So what if this man has loved me for 16 years, as soon as he sees that number it's SPLITSO! And my boys? They might just har-har-har and run out & scream that embarassing weight to the heavens so all the neighbors would hear. The horrrrror!! I know, I know. None of this would ever happen, but that's exactly where my mind went in a period of about 4 seconds. I ended up telling them that I'd do it myself today since we had just eaten dinner and even the slightest variation would surely send me into a sad state. I also realized this morning that any of our visitors could check out our scale while here and easily tell which button/weight is mine. Right. It looks like this scale will be put up when company comes over.

And now, while typing this blog, a bit of anxiety hit me with what is the realization that I will soon be typing out my weight on this very page for the world (or at least myself) to see every single day. I'm trying to embrace this as a good thing, however. That it will symbolize the last hurrah for that weight. An adieu to that number. An adios to the scale wanting to TILT! Danger, Wil Robinson! A complete bon voyage to ever waddling around at this weight again. And even though it might paaaaain me momentarily to type out that ginormous number, it will be the last & only time I'll have to do it, and that feels pretty damn good.

While visions of injections danced in their heads

2007-08-10T12:21:00.000-05:00

I find myself having dreams about this protocol and I haven't even started it yet. I dream of the shots and of the mixing and of the weight loss and of the non-loss and of all the possible ups/downs that my twisted dream-filled mind thinks might occur. I dream of my husband giving me the shot and me yelling at him he did it wrong (oh how that's a possibility :) ). I dream of leaving for work and me having forgotten to take my shot and spending my day trying to find a way to sneak back home so I won't screw up my entire 6 week process. At least all of these dreams are giving me plenty of giggles upon waking up each morning. :)

I know all of these are most likely due to my ever-increasing readiness to get started and the fact that I seem to be read read reading so much on all of this lately. I am slowly starting to convince myself that this wait of receiving the product is for the best in the end and will try to keep my whining/complaining to a minimum. :) Hopefully I'll be able to start up in the next couple of weeks, and that will put my end date of this round sometime around mid-October. In fact, the simple fact that I should be done with all of this current jiggle in my wiggle by next Spring already puts a bounce in my step and makes all of these tortured dreams and seemingly-foreverlong-waiting minutes worth it.

The Wait (Weight) Game

2007-08-09T17:10:00.001-05:00

Everything is ordered (I'll say from where after I receive it) and now all I have to do is wait with this weight. I plan on doing a candida cleanse as soon as I hear back from an RN. I won't be doing a colon cleanse as water + veggies cleans out the colon just fine & quite well. I'm already eating non-processed organic foods so I'll just keep on that path until all of my supplies arrive.

I am waiting oh-so-impatiently with anticipation. So many great inspiring people have succeeded with this protocol and I want to be one of them. Of course I'm having that "Oh, but I'll be different" feeling...but I know I can do this. It really helps that there is such a great support system in place for those choosing this path. Truly a wonderful thing to find on these internets.

Note to self: Must remember to buy more teas. Teas teas teas, please! One can never have enough.