A quick Before and After

 This was Before HCG.   This past Fathers Day.

This is 30 Lbs lighter in October. 

With the Holidays coming to a close, I will be starting another round of HCG on January 9th.  I accomplished 2 small rounds of the diet, one of them in between Halloween and Thanksgiving and lets be serious, they were buffers for this wonderful time of the year.  All in all, I've stayed within a 3 lbs window through it all. 

It's time to get serious again.  Back to keeping track of my day to day in this blog.  I have another 30lbs to go, so let's get to loosing.

My News Years resolution will be to commit to this diet again, and all the things that made it successful for me the first time.

R2D5 VLCD

FYI, R=Round D=Day VLCD=Very Low Calorie Diet

Down a little more this morning, -.5 to be exact!

Starting weight R2:  190

Today's Weight: 182.4

Total Loss R2:  7.6 Pounds

It's nice to be back into the week as I find I do better on this diet when I'm at work.  It's easier to manage and keep my mind off things at work.  So I'm hoping this will be a strong week for me.  My losses slowed a little over the weekend.  I think that happens to correspond with TOM, but I'm still losing, which in the land of HCG is a miracle!

Here's to drinking all my water today!  FOCUS!

Round 2, Day 4, Deja Vu!

Today I'm on Round 2, Day 4 of VLCD.  I feel like things went well in the maintenance phase.  I held strong at 184.6 for most of the phase.  There were good days and bad, I just had to remember what I was doing and use the tools to help me along the way.

Last weekend I had a few get togethers, so I figured it would be a good weekend to Load!  I was right, BUT, my drops didn't show up till Monday, so after I consulted my HCG support group on Facebook, I found myself loading for two more days WITH the drops.  I ended the load days seeing a number that I never wanted to see again! 

Day 1 VLCD (after a goof of loading 2 days without drops and 2 days with)
Starting Weight: 190

Day 4 VLCD 
Weight: 182.9

So in 3 days on the diet, I was down 7.2 Pounds!!!  Thank God!

This feels like same old, same old, all over again.  Man, I remember this part like it was yesterday.  I'm trying to remember all my tricks that got me through the tough times.  I'm drinking lots of tea again.  Smooth move, Good Earth, anything with a punch of flavor.

LOTS of mineral water and ice tea too!

This is a great reciepe that I've already made.  If your on the diet, I recommend it!  It reheats well the next day for lunch.

Picante Chicken

1 package of fresh chicken breasts (4-5 total)

3-4 cans of Organic Stewed Tomatoes (no sugar added)

Cumin

Onion Powder

Garlic

Salt

Throw this in a crock pot, use the seasonings as much as your taste buds like!  Let this baby cook all day, and then shred the chicken.  You can eat this like a soup, or count the tomatoes as your fruit and throw this over lettuce!  Yummy!!!

No one said this was easy!

Hey All!  So, life in Maintenance has been tricky.  Just when you think things are going good, you get comfortable and it all changes.  I guess that's why this is a Life Change, right.  I'm trying to get things all figured out.  I can't eat whatever I want, and that has been hard because this part of the diet is not as strict as the Low Calorie round.  In Phase 2, it was very very clear what you could and couldn't eat in order to maximize your weight loss.  In Phase 3 (or maintenance), you have to calculate your BMR, eat from a long list of foods, and just work at stabilizing.  Your one tool is a steak day.  You do that when you have gained more than two pounds.  Sounds easy, right?  It should be.  But that is where I'm stuck.  I'm in a little bit of a twilight zone right now.  

I know that I don't want to mess up the work I've done.  So the best thing is to get a handle and not let it get away from me.

I'm sitting at 2.3 pounds above my lowest weight.

I should have done a steak day today and I didn't.

So that's where it's at, and I'm trying to get a game plan in place to fix it.

HERE is where I"m going for all my support!  If you are doing this diet, at any Phase, this is where to go for help and answers.  It's the best support I've found!

Keepin it real! - M1D4

I haven't posted in awhile.  I realized that I was needing time to just be for a little bit.  Things in life have been busy at work and home, and I was just pulled in too many places at once.  Now don't go thinkin that I checked out of this diet or anything!  That would just be CRAZY!  No no, I've just mustered up the courage to take the plunge and head into new territory with the Maintenance Phase of this diet, or better referred to as M1.  I stopped taking my drops last Thursday, and had to use my weight from that day as my lowest daily weight for entering into Maintenance.  Why, because that was the last day I took the drops....Eeek.

So life since drops has been good.  I'm getting to eat food again, like Avocados, FRUIT, Salmon and so on.  I calculated my BMR, and for my weight and activity level, I'm supposed to consume 1900 calories a day to 'maintain' this new weight.  That is the trick right now, to keep it even.  Don't go 2 pounds below or above that lowest daily weight.  2.1 in any direction will result in action being taken.  I"m doing a steak day today, which technically wan't necessary, but I just felt I needed it!  I was close, a little to close. 

Getting in the 1900 calories of the things I'm supposed to eat is a little hard.  I'd like to think I can just catch it up with a little chocolate here and there.  A few hundred calories of that, and we should be good to go!

Not so.  Protein is KING right now, along with healthy fruits and veggies.  No STARCH, No SUGAR!

So, it's day 4 and I'm holding steady.  I will start posting some recipe's now that I"m feeling like getting a little creative.  I'll keep in better touch now, I promise.

I've also discovered a pretty good deal on drops that I feel I can share now that I've tried them and think they work.  Head on over to Amazon (woot woot), and check these puppies out!  I used THESE drops for the last part of my round and can't complain.

I'm going to go drink another glass of water now and climb into bed.  More later, I promise.

P2D40

Today was a good day.  I didn't have time to post yesterday, the day as a whole just got away from me.  However, I did find a pretty new pillow for my living room and some matching twin bedding to redo my girls room.  I'll have to post all of that over at my other blog, so CHECK IT!

But, back to updating my weight loss.  About 3 pounds in the last two days.

Yesterday was a loss as was today, and I can't remember what the difference between the two days was, so this post will have to be a combined post and were all good with that, right?

Stats:

Starting Weight:  206.5

Today's Weight: 182.6

Total Loss:  23.9 Pounds.  I'm getting a little tired of ending in all these .9's.  It's like a tease for the next number.  C'mon!

So needless to day, I'm very happy with my near 24 pound loss.  I'm feeling really really good about that.  I think I'm going to keep doing the drops all weekend, stop them on Monday and start the 1500 calorie maintenance phase on Wednesday.  It would be nice to get on the other side of 25 pounds so that I end closer to 30 instead of 20 pounds lost.

This has been a really crazy journey.  I'm completely nervous about transitioning into the maintenance phase.  Can I stabilize this new weight, or will it just be all over the place.  While VLCD has been hard, it's also been easy to follow.  It's very specific and clear.  That can feel boring some days, but it's really important to learning about yourself and your body.  I can tell that my taste buds have changed.  They are more sensitive to natural sweetness for example.  Even my Tom's toothpaste tastes sweet now.  I can also feel the fat that is in something, literally coating my tongue.  Weird! 

I think I need to just keep my head wrapped around the fact that things don't stop now.  It's the most important part of this journey coming up!  I HAVE to stabilize this new weight!!!!!!! 

The challenge continues.

P2D38 - A little Closer

So TOM has passed and I finally saw a drop this morning of -.9 Pounds!  Thank God!  I thought I was going to have to end this thing at 20 pounds, and I know I can do more.  So the next four days are going to be a mad dash!  Get ready, get set, GO!  Let's see how far down I can get.......  YE HAW!


Starting Weight:  206.5
Today's Weight:  185.6
Total Weight Loss:  20.9 Pounds (That's .1 from 21 pounds FYI)

I'm hoping to see the 70's before this round is over.  I hope that I will, I'm going to hold out for sure!  If I'm on a roll this weekend, I might push it for a few more days, we will just see what kind of roll I get on!

Hope you are all having a great day, whatever diet or change you are tying to make in your life!