15 lbs down exactly!

15 down is a great feeling! My pants are once again too big and my chin is noticeably smaller. Although, I'm sure no one else would notice this because it's my little pet peeve. Last August I weighed in at 206 lbs and today I way 180. And I'm still feeling great.
Yesterday was the hardest day that I've had on this diet and today I know exactly why. I'm taking echinacea and everyone else in my house has a cold. I think that the echinacea helped avoid all of the symptoms for me except aching muscles and fatigue. I have so much on my to do list with deadlines and I spent all day exhausted and worrying. At about 4pm yesterday, I wanted to go into my usual emotional eating mode to sooth the stress and I couldn't. Grrr, I was totally mad at that. I wasn't hungry, just pissy. Today, I feel glad that I was aware of my feelings about it.
I feel much better today, getting a few more things done and feeling much more peaceful. Looking forward to the next phase but without a sense of urgency.

Sooo much better than the last time.

I can't believe how much easier this round is. Good for me, but also good for my family. I've been back to cooking again for them since I don't seem to feel hungry at all and love the smell of food. It's a good way to keep my mind off my stomach. I cook theirs when I'm cooking mine, so I feel calm knowing that I'll be eating soon as well.
I'm also so much less cranky too, unless it's shot time. The last time I did the diet, the shots never hurt but left bruises on my arms and legs almost every time. And those little bruises itched pretty bad too. This time was a breeze. No pain AND no bruises. Well yesterday, when Matt was kind enough to do the duty for me, he must've hit a nerve in my arm or something because when he poked in, it hurt like a mother... Then he plunged, even though I'm screaming, and that STUNG! I've had a baby naturally, and I've had a dry socket, among other huge painful experiences, and I'd like to think I can deal pretty well with a little sting, but I actually cried this time. What are the chances of hitting a nerve? Probably one in a million. Interesting though, Matt was a real crabby ass at that time and we were a little edgy with each other. Maybe he did it on purpose. ;)
I made the best chili for lunch today with buffalo and my veggie being tomatoes. I added some fresh garlic, chili powder, cumin and salt. And I really let it simmer for a while. A couple of days ago, I added fresh chopped basil to my tomatoes with a fresh garlic and balsamic vinegar dressing. That was wonderful as well.
I've also had a few flops. I love grilled onions topped on meats or pizza or anything appropriate. So I thought I would choose onion for my veggie and grill it in the George Forman grill. Then I added some curry to a can of tuna and mixed it all together. When I'm eating normally, I love curried tuna wrapped in lettuce. But this was the most vile, disgusting thing I've ever eatin". And the taste stuck with me for a while as well. I'm sure that you all knew it would be nasty before I told you, but I guess I had to learn my lesson. But as sad as I am to admit this, I actually gave the onions another go the next day. Yes, that is how stubborn I am. This time I cooked them in a pan with some garlic and paired it with a lemon garlic tilapia. You'd have to admit that it sounds a LITTLE better, right? WRONG. It was equally as bad. Maybe by the time I do this diet for the 5th time, I'll actually have a clue.
I'll post total weight lost in a few days.

Post 2 of Phase 2.(what a boring title...yawn)

I am already halfway through this 20 day VLCD round. I've lost 11 lbs and still doing well. I think the only real annoyance is that I've been a little more tired throughout the day, nothing too major, and some brain fog. That is definitely a pain in the butt. I can't seem to remember simple...um what's do you call those things we use to communicate? Oh yes, words. :) And I have very little motivation to get things done on my daily to-do list. I admit that I'm allowing the rest of my family to eat junk through this diet because I have no motivation to cook them healthy meals. I really don't feel guilty though because I feed them pretty well most of the time.
I would really like to do this at least one more time before summer. I've defintily got the pre-weighed frozen meats for another round. I didn't bother to do the math when I was preparing for this round. Hey, less work next time.
To all a lovely day!

Let's try this again.

Hi all,

Sorry that it's been so long since I last posted. I'll give you a quick rundown. I only ended up doing 5 weeks instead of 6 on VCLD. I'm positive now that I had a round of shots that were bad in some way and in the last couple of weeks I was extremely hungry and felt sickly. I tried with no avail to get a replacement batch but the creep at the pharmacy wouldn't budge. When it was all said and done, I lost 28 lbs. in that 5 weeks.

In the time between early September and New Year's Eve, I gained back about 18 lbs of that weight. I've had some health issues during that time that I've been treating and doing much better. So now it's time to give it another go. I feel stronger and more balanced than I have in a long time. It's time to pick myself up, dust myself off and get back on those damn jeans!

To tell you the truth, I've been back on VCLD for 7 days now. I waited to blog to see if I could stay on it successfully and so far I am blown away by how much easier it is this time having gotten my shots from a different pharmacist. I wish more than anything that I had the name of the last pharmacist that screwed me, but sadly I threw away the package without thinking. My body and brain were starving by that point. Anyway, I've lost 7.6 lbs in the last 7 days and feeling great. I have much less hunger and much more energy than I did last time. And I'm only doing a 20 day round this time which is so much easier mentally, hopefully creating more success in the long run. I admit that I was a little scared after my last experience.

I learned so much from the last time that made this round much easier. Like, it's o.k. to take an appetite suppressant if you need one. And for me, decaf coffee between 2 and 4 pm really helps me get through that time. I've been adding some stevia, cinnamon and vanilla to my coffee to give it a sweet dessert taste. And drinking so much hot tea, my stomach is bloated with liquid by the end of the day. That's partly due to the extremely dry, cold weather in Colorado these days. I could really do without getting up to pee several times a night though.

This time I'm taking it easy. I'm going to blog every few days instead of everyday and I'm going to try and move my body a little more this time than last time, and most of all, I'm not going to stress about any of this, even if I have a day (or more) when I've lost no weight at all.

Ta Ta for now!

A little problem

I'm sorry that I haven't written all week. I've ran into a little problem with my second vial of HCG. Not a big deal, but I did have to start phase 2 while I wait for a new vial. Trust me, it's no skin off my back. I get to eat whatever I want as long as it has no sugar or starches. Taco salad, here I come! I get to have a lot of yummy food that I haven't had in what seems like years, but was really weeks.

This may be a blessing in disguise because the lady at the clinic told me that people often stop at 3 weeks, go to phase 3, then do another 3 weeks of the shots. This is so that they can maximize their weight loss. Most people loose a bunch of weight in the beginning, then it slows after a few weeks. When I start again, it'll be like it was in the beginning of this round. I had some significant losses those days.

So I will write again when I start phase 2 again. I'm not sure when that will be.
Ta-ta for now!

Day 28

Today I'm down to an 18.6 loss all together. I'm creeping up on the big 2-0. How exiting. My fat pants are unwearable and I'm fitting into most of my size 16s again. Without a muffin top! :)
Yesterday I tried an apple day. I had 6 apples through out the day to try and speed up my loss. It was pretty easy. Much easier than a steak day and my loss was higher than the day before. I might try and do it a few more times to try a make up for the days that I gained or didn't lose anything.

My sister Amy wrote a comment yesterday that was really helpful. She told me to stop freaking out so much about pounds and start paying more attention to inches. She did tell me to do that in the beginning of all this but I really haven't kept up. So I'm going to start taking my inches again. This morning I measured for the first time since I started and was amazed. I lost 3 1/2 inches around the biggest part of my waist, 3 inches off my waist, 3 inches off my butt, 3 1/2 inches of my thigh, and 1 inch off my arm. I should've measured my chin. lol

Day 26

Yesterday was one of the hardest days on this diet. When I woke up and got on the scale, I had lost nothing at all. Zip, Zilch... True, I didn't gain. I'm thankful for that. But this was different than the other 2 times I gained. This time, I had been cutting my calories by leaving out fruit and Melba toasts for days to try and get out of a slump. When I gained, I had control of that. This time, it was out of my hands completely. It really shook me up. So I decided to do my version of a mini-steak day. I don't think it would even count as one. I had an apple at about 1:00 and then another at 3:00 after stupidly taking my vitamins on an empty stomach. Then had dinner at 5:30, which was 100 grams of steak and a Melba toast.

I guess my efforts worked because I woke up to a 1 pound loss this morning. I'm at 17 lbs lost all together and (drum roll).... I'm back in the 180's Yay! 189.4 to be exact. I am officially on my 80's comeback tour! I'm feeling nervous that he slump will return so I think my big goal today is to get myself feeling positive again.

Day 24

Hello again.
I'm down to 16 pounds lost exactly. That's not much since I posted last on Day 22. It seems that I may have entered a dreaded slump. I've read that slumps are very normal in this diet. I've been leaving out my second fruit and exercising a little more to try and get a boost. But so far I've only lost a half pound each day for the last 2 days. Plus before that I had the sunscreen drama, so thanks to that it's really been one pound in 3 days. Yikes! I've been thinking about doing a mini-steak day again, hoping this time would be different. But I just haven't felt full enough to do it. I do get hungry at mealtime but I'm not hungry at all in between those times. I'd like to be one of those people that I read about that feels so not hungry that they practically have to force feed themselves. Or this other woman that has a HCG twitter. She lost 28 lbs in 2 weeks! What's the difference between her body and mine? Don't get me wrong, I love love love my 16 lb loss. But I am absolutely focused on getting the most I can out of this round. Wish me luck on breaking this streak.

Day 22

Sorry I skipped a day yesterday. I was thinking that maybe I'd start blogging every other day because I'm running out of things to say. Anyone who knows me will be absolutely shocked to see that coming from me.

Yesterday was a bummer in that I gained .6 lb due to a mishap with sunscreen. I was spending the day with my son at the pool and I was careful to bring only recommended oil free sunscreen. I brought Alba for my son. I had learned a big lesson the last time I went to the pool that I have to put on the sunscreen often or else I will burn so fast and so furious. This time I had an 80 spf which was recommended to me by my super fair sister in law. "Mexico tested, gringa approved" she said. But as the day progressed I could feel my skin holding in that heat. It was becoming red, hot and splotchy and I was getting nervous. I was spraying the suncreen almost constantly, but it wasn't working for me. Finally, not thinking at all about the diet, I had my son put the Alba on my back and shoulders which seemed to work like a charm. My son is 8, so of course he put on a gallon of the stuff so my back was totally white. That would be the .6 lb that I gained right there. I remembered the diet shortly after and tried getting as much off in the shower as I could.

Today was better, I lost 1.2 lbs again which puts me back at 15.6 lbs lost all together. My weight is 190.8 and I'm really loving this loss, but I admit that I'm definitely frustrated by the setback.

Day 20

1.6 lbs lost which puts me at 15 lbs all together!
When I started this diet, I had two vials of HCG. I mixed one vial and put it into 20 syringes. Today I start my second set of 20 and my second vial of HCG. I'm halfway through phase 2! Part of me is exited to be closer to being done and part of me wants as much time as possible to lose more. I still feel like this is one of the best things I've ever done for myself and for my health.

Day 19

I lost that pesky pound that I gained due to water weight gain which puts me back to 193 lbs and 13.4 lbs lost all together. I'm hoping that I wasn't just maintaining the last few days. I'm hoping that I was still burning fat under all that water. But it has yet to show if it's true.

I had the coolest dream last night. I was looking in the mirror and I was thin. My stomach was perfectly flat. It was just a little glimpse of this dream but I remember it vividly and I feel so exited about my future.

Yeehaw!

Skip day (no injection)

O.k., it's definitely a little un-nerving that I gained another .4 lb today. That brings me to a whole pound gained. A whole pound of water weight gain? That seems like a lot. I wonder if this is how it is for other woman during their period. I wonder if the fat is still burning in my body underneath all that water. I guess I'll find out in the days to come.

I had a great conversation with my nurse friend Leah about the shots. She said that the HCG would be more easily absorbed by the body if I could get it into the muscle. But, that would be doubtful with the little 1/2 inch long needle I have. I admit that the thought of going into the muscle really freaked me out, but the next day, my mom and I tried our best with what we had. I'm no longer freaked out by it. I have no idea if it worked or not, but I will get a longer needle for the next round in January. What we did was really pulled my thigh as taut as I could. Then my mom poked in the needle, pulled back a little bit to see if she hit a vein, and plunged. Leah said that in all her years as a nurse that she'd never hit a vein. Blood would come up when you pull back on the plunger if you did. I guess I thought maybe it would really hurt to go into the muscle. But it didn't at all. These shots don't hurt at all. That's the scariest part of this diet for most people, including me. But I'm telling you. I've had them on my arm, thigh and hip and it's never hurt. I've never had a problem. And people with diabetes do it all the time. Yet, it's funny that I still can't inject myself. I felt better that even though Leah is a nurse and has injected people hundreds of times, she had a really tough time injecting herself as well. I'm not alone in my unruly anxiety.

I'm already almost half way through this round of shots. Time flies when your getting thinner.

Day 18

I am happy to know WHY I've gained .6 of a lb today. Water weight gain from, you guessed it, my period is here. Oh Joy! So I have no worries that the weight will come off soon. I will be continuing to take my HCG even though some books encourage skipping one or part of these days. And some don't. So I'm opting out of an additional skip day. My sister continued to take it and all was well. Besides, I have a skip day coming tomorrow anyway.

On to a more pleasing topic...food. I took some pics of a few of my meals so you can get an idea of what that 500 calorie diet looks like and what's allowed. It looks like more than you thought, right?

-The first picture is shrimp with tomatoes, seasoned with apple cider vinegar and my Costco organic salt free herbs. This is a great meal if you're in a hurry. That's actually only 1 cup of tomatoes. If you get the cherry tomatoes and cut them up, it looks like a lot more.
-The second picture is of my "taco salad". I use ground buffalo because it's much leaner than beef and I season it with the same taco seasoning I've been using for years. I use Bearitos seasoning from health food stores or the natural isle in the grocery store. I put that over 2 cups of spinach or mixed greens depending on my mood. This is the meal that will get me through this diet.
-The third one is tilapia with a cucumber salad. One thing I love about the tilapia is that it looks pretty big when you divide it into 100 grams. That's about half of one fillet. I mixed apple cider vinegar and again, my Costco herbs with the cucumber. And I love to spice up my fish with a tiny bit of cayenne pepper and some garlic powder. 2 cups of cucumber is just about a whole one if it's not colossal. But who doesn't love a colossal cucumber? just kidding.
-And of course, the dumb little Melba toast on the side. They are actually good. Kinda buttery and crunchy. If only they were twice the size. I can only dream.
And believe me I am dreaming.

Day 17

I woke up at 193 this morning which puts me at a 13.4 lb weight loss. It is so cool to see it just melt away.

It has been drawn to my attention that I need to do more explaining of what the phase 2 protocol requires and what I'm eating. These are the days after the first 2 gorging days and the whole rest of the time of taking the injections. For me that is 40 days. The VLCD (very low calorie diet) portion of the diet allows this:

-Skip breakfast, but coffee with stevia is allowed. I laugh at the 1 tbsp of milk you can use daily. I don't even bother. But I am a fan of the chocolate stevia.
-Lunch consists of 100 grams of lean meat and 1 or 2 cups of 1 kind of veggie. The list of allowable veggies is fairly short. But I try to keep a good variety in my week.
-Dinner 100 grams of a different lean meat or seafood than you had for lunch and 1 to 2 cups of a different veggie.
-2 Melba toasts anytime you want. I like to have them with my meal. It makes me think I'm more satisfied for longer. I just felt irritated when I used them for an in-between meal snack being that it's a small cracker. Yeah, like that's gonna fill me up.
-2 fruits. You can have an apple, 7 med strawberries, an orange or 1/2 grapefruit. Sometimes I will have an apple as my breakfast if I feel hungry.
-As much water and tea and coffee as you want.
-The juice of 1 lemon is allowed. Sometimes I cook with it and sometimes I make lemonade with stevia.
-You can use salt, pepper, and many other herbs and spices as long as it doesn't have any sugar in it. Sugar can be hidden in strange places so read all labels. My favorite seasoning is Costco brand organic salt free seasoning. It's yummy on everything, especially shrimp and veggies.
-Some recommend taking 2 tbsp a day of apple cider vinegar. I try to include that in my veggies on most days.

That's it. I'll talk more about phase 3 when I get there. And in the days to come I will post food pics and go into more detail about what I'm eating and what I'm using on my skin. Stay tuned. :)

Day 16

A .8 loss overnight puts me at 194 lbs and a 12.4 lb loss all together. In an attempt to bring my weight loss up to a pound a day average, I did a mini steak day yesterday. I'm suspecting that my impending monthly friend could be the reason that I didn't even lose a whole pound. Hopefully, there will come a day when I do get to see the results. For those of you that don't know the diet well, a steak day may be called for after the phase of injections is done. If you weigh more than 2 lbs over your last injection day weight. This keeps your weight at the new set point. During a steak day, I would eat or drink as much water, tea or coffee as I want, but not eat anything until dinner. Then I would get a large steak and an apple. A mini steak day is the same only I get 100 grams of steak. It wasn't too bad. I wasn't very hungry. I had a growling stomach but none of the other symptoms of hunger. And my stomach was easily tamed with a large glass of water or tea. I drank enough water to pretty much keep me on the toilet for the whole day. I really just should've put on a Depends. I made this decision yesterday when 1 o'clock came around and I wasn't even hungry for my lunch at all. But, I kept the pressure off. I wanted to feel like I could eat if I had to without feeling like a failure. So, I kept it open until after dinner. That's when I wanted to eat more but I had come that far, I had to get a little tougher with myself. It was overall pretty easy. I didn't even have to get out the bull whip to keep myself out of the fridge.
I read the coolest blog yesterday and I've got to share it with you. It makes me so exited for life after HCG. Please check this out. You'll get a glimpse into my future.
http://montanahcgjourney.blogspot.com/2009/07/phase-4-and-living.html

Day 15

1.6 lbs lost this morning which brings me up to 11.6 lbs lost all together. Yesterday, I was crabby and tired and just wanted to quit the diet. This is not a hard diet but I was being a big baby and just wanted a little more variety in my meals. I miss salsa, avocados and salads with a bunch of different veggies. I told Matt that I want to quit this stupid diet and get liposuction when we're rich. And he was like "o.k., I'll go get your fat clothes back out of the closet". That was a good response. It shut me up. I didn't really mean it when I said that I wanted to quit. I guess that sometimes I just have to throw that out there once in a while to curb the unconscious monkey mind fears that I will have to do this diet forever. You know when you're sick with a nasty flu, there's a part of you that can't imagine yourself feeling well. Maybe even a slight fear that you might actually die. That's the monkey mind blowing things out of proportion trying to survive, even though our logical minds can see that things will be fine soon. Well I'll tell you what, I'm not going to let my monkey mind throw poo on this diet.

Day 14

A .4 lb loss this morning puts me at an even 10 lbs down. Yay!!! I'm a milestone kinda person. I like to celebrate adult birthday's at milestones, ect. That's just my style. I feel like every 10 lbs. is it's own little milestone up til that day when I hit my goal weight. I'd love to tell you what that weight is, but honestly, I don't know. I would say that I'd like to be the same weight I was as a teenager, but even though I was pretty thin, my inner thighs have always had a fat pocket and I've always had a tummy. I couldn't wear dresses without shorts or tights even when I was 13. So, whatever weight I need to be to get to wear dresses without shorts. That will be my goal weight. I might have a better idea of what that will be during my second round in January.

Day 13

1.6 pounds down from yesterday. And I didn't even have the shot yesterday. That's huge! I personally think anything over one is pulling a good number for the day. So, that means that I have no idea why I really gained that pound and I may never know. I guess I'll just chalk it up to cheating on Wednesday and move on. I'm at a 9.6 loss since I started which puts my weight at 196.8. Today, I will be gone for part of the day so this will be the first time that I will have to plan to bring a meal. I'm having my yummy taco salad at home and a bowl of herbed shrimp and tomatoes that I'll bring in case I'm gone at dinner. I feel like today is going to be a good day.

Skip day (no injection)

I thought about skipping today's blog all together when I got on the scale and gained a pound. Bummed, yes. But I'm not looking to hide the pound. I just wanted to know the reason before I posted. But, I decided to post anyway because it'll probably be a few days before I know for sure. It could be one of two things that I can think of. 1) Cheating on Wednesday may have shown up a little delayed, and 2) I may be bloated due to p.m.s.. If it is p.m.s., then I would assume that I'd be stalled for a few more days until the big P arrives. That could be a whole week. If it is just a delayed reaction to a little celebrating, then I should be down again in two days. I won't be down tomorrow because today is the day I skip the HCG.
The good news is that I finally have my hunger resolved. Hallelujah! It took longer than most people because I didn't have a correct dosage for a while. I would recommend to anyone going on the diet to spend the extra money and get the premixed HCG. My sister did that and it was so much easier for her.
I've just got to remind myself to keep going forward. One step, one meal, one day at a time and I'll get there.

Day 12

Wow! What a great night I had with my family yesterday. And this morning I am so thankful to see a .2 weight loss. Which puts me at an even 9 lbs. down. I may have given up a pound last night. I'm just going to have to suck it up and move on. This is what happened. My brother and his fiancee have a baby on the way. Lacy is due in November. They were also set to have a wedding Sept 5th. Last night I was told that we were having a meeting about the wedding and also making invitations at my parents house. So I packed up my kids and went down. Feeling lazy I went with no makeup, my hair was a mess and I was wearing a tank top with a ripped hem that showed my bra straps. Keep that in mind when I tell you that as soon as I walked in the door Lacy came to me and whispered that my step mom is reading the announcement. The announcement said that they eloped. When? "Oh in about a half an hour" said Lacy. Leslie (step mom) and I flipped. We went into a mad rage to get ready. The officiant was on her way! I threw on some mascara, raided Leslie's closet, tried to wrap my head around it all, and it was on. It was in the same spot I got married 6 years ago. It was beautiful. My brother found himself a wonderful family and I am so happy for them. I'm also thankful to have a new sister in law that is also a friend, with 2 great new nieces whom I adore.
So yeah, good BBQ and cake. That' s how it happened. I don't regret it. And it was a tiny amount that I munched...happily.