R2P2 - Day 22

Today was measurement day.  I must say that I am pleased with the results.  I finally lost in my waists and in all areas except I gained a half inch in bicep.  Don't know what that's about.  I weighed in at 195.5 this morning.  11 pounds down.

It could have been more like 12 had it not been for my party on Thursday night.  But I'll tell ya what!  I can't believe that it wasn't any worse than that!  I had problems with the cookies that I was making for the party and had to keep tweeking and tasting and tweeking and tasting.  So my diet through the day consisted of cookies and nothing else.  Then at the party, I had 1 of the sammies, tasted BBQ sauce, and tried the potatoes.  I might have gone home and eaten something also, I just don't remember.  But with all of those cookies, I should have probably gained weight but actually held steady for a day.  So, if nothing else, I should at least been down to 195 today if not for those cookies but I'm not beating myself up over it.  It's not bad at all.  I have also been in ketosis consistently.  Yesterday I lowered my HCG dosage slightly because I'm sick of feeling like I'm starving and I was already at 180 (I do this instead of 175 because of the needles they send me only go in increments of 20) so I didn't want to go all the way up to 200 so I dropped to 160.  That is what they say to do.  Sometimes, if you're still hungry, you may need to raise the dose BUT you may need to lower.  So I lowered since I was already on the high end.

So, that's goin on with my HCG weight loss journey, so far.

OH! I have also found FOUR pair of my old "skinny" jeans that I fit back into again!!!!   YAYEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!  :D

Y'all have a great Labor Day weekend!

R2P2 - Day 19

Weight loss is going well.  Down to 196.5 lb this am.  That makes a total of 10 pounds in 19 days.  Tomorrow's gonna be bad.  I'm doing my kick off hostess show for Pampered Chef and I'm baking cookies and making little baked gourmet ham sammies for the guests. Then the party, we will be making pork tenderloin, BBQ sauce and mashed tators.  Looks like I will be tasting all day and all evening.  Probably looking at another set back.  

R2P2 - Day 17

After my major (not really that major) screw up Saturday night, I came back like a champion!  I didn't have much of a set back at all!  So, without the cheat that night, I would have woken up Sunday morning at about 197.5 and this morning at 197 pounds.  Well, instead, after my hard work yesterday, I woke up this morning at 197.5 and expected I would only be at 198 so that is huge.  Usually after cheating like that, it can cause a 3 or 4 day set back and since I took a lot of action the very next day with the apple day and detox bath, I was only set back by 1 day.  That makes me very happy. 

I am only going to continue this round for the rest of this week to make it a 23 day round.  I am doing this because I am leaving to go out of town for my 83 year old grandma's aortic valve replacement/triple bypass surgery next Monday and it is way too much of a hassle to try to do the injections and the VLCD while out of town.  I did it when I started this round because she went into the hospital on my second loading day so I had to go down there on my 3 injection day/my first VLCD so I had no choice but to do it then but what a pain in the ass it was. 

Anyway, this round is going sooooo much better than round 1 went.  :)  So happy about that and hoping that round 3 goes just as well or better.  I am also hoping that ending this round early doesn't screw up my third round.

Good night, ya'll!

R2P2-Day16

OOPS!  201 pounds this morning!  Yesterday I had a strawberry cheesecake mousse for lunch.  It is 100 grams fat free cottage cheese, this is your protein, 1 tbs milk, I didn't use that much, several drops of cheesecake flavor drops, and stevia to taste, purée til smooth.  It's pretty good.  So, I went to my cousins 40 bday party and I had celery and broccoli with a very little dip, also a few deli spirals.  That was all I had at the party I thought I did really good considering all of the pIzzas they had and the other snacks and junk.  That was all I ate all day long.  It probably didn't total my 500 calories, though they were the wrong kind of calories in the deli rolls.  I didn't get Ll of my protein and veggies in and THEN!  After I got home, my house mate made a digiorno pizza and I caved :(  I had 2 pieces.  So when I saw the 3 pound weight gain this morning I opted for an apple day and a detox bath.  Before I came to bed I got on the scale, and instead of gaining weight through the day like your suppose to do, I lost 2 pounds.  Down to 199.  Mission accomplished!  Thank God!  So in the morning I should be back to 198 and last nights mistake only set me back 2 days.  It's not good but hindsight is 20/20 and must move forward.  I am just happy that I corrected my mistake as quickly as possible.

Peace out and good night!

R2P2-Day14

Well, this is day 14!  The end of week 2.  Measurement day!  Measurements aren't looking so good :( .  I have only lost 2-3/4".  None of which was from my waist, which is my "biggest" problem!  What up wit dat?!  I've lost 1 from my hips (that's cool!), 3/4" from my thigh (which is also great!), an inch from my bust!!!!!!  Why not from my waist and NOT my bust!!!!  That sucks!  I could stand to lose some from the bicep too.  Trust me, it isn't just turning into muscle!  It's just a bunch of flab.

On a positive note, I am down to 198 this morning bringing my 2 week total to a loss of 8.5 pounds.  This is better than the 5 pounds I lost R1P2-day14 I'm glad to say.  I don't think I'm doing anything different though.  Just getting better results for some reason!  Thank God!

Tonight is going to be a challenge!  It's my cousin's 40 bday party.  This is the type of thing that I usually like to drink at and they will be having all of that party food that is hard to resist.  I can't really get out of going because I need to be there to leave when my grandparents leave so I can make sure they don't get lost coming back over here to mom n dads ( who live down the street from me).  I think I will do just fine!  I have done very good in other settings like this so I am sure I can do just as well with this one.

Ya'll have a great weekend!

R2P2-Day11

On day 8, after my last post, I ended up pigging out.  I felt like... Screw it!  Why am I eating this rabbit food and starving myself to death when I am craving GOOD food and I'm not losing any weight for the last 3 days now ... So I just ... Well, I didn't really pig out. I had a few gluten free cookies and gluten free chips and a square or so of dark chocolate. I had also taken a detox bath earlier that day which got rid of the water weight that I had been retaining.  Anyway, I hit 203 lb's for a 4th day in a row, obviously!  I got back on track that next day, though.  Now, on day 11, I am down to 200 lb's.  I did good with my diet the last couple of days.  I could probably do better if I would stay off of the almonds.  I just need that something to crunch every once in a while and then I will only eat 1 or 2 except at bed time and then I tend to eat 1 or 2 hand fills.  

I also started up my own Pampered Chef business recently which involves cooking shows and cooking classes and meetings with food but I am proud to say that I am doing very good and only eating the VERY MINIMUM that I need to, to make sure that I got the flavor right ( I AM a chef by trade so I am trained to taste the food that I make). 

At this point I am back on track and losing weight again and feeling good about things again. 

Keep your eyes out for links to my Pampered Chef blogs, website and Facebook page.

Good night!!!

R2P2-Day 8

3rd day in a row at 203 lb.  I did end up eating a bunch of almonds all night last night after my last post.  These particular almonds are salted too so that doesn't help none at all!  So far today,  I have done good again.  I have also started taking my topiramate (medicine to control my binge eating) so hopefully that will keep me off of the nuts tonight.  Fingers crossed.  I am having real issues today.  I am VERY hungry!  I am wanting to eat any and everything.  I am tired and week and even have an aggravating headache.  These symptoms are suppose to be during the first 2 or 3 days which I did not have then.  And now it's a week later and I am having them???? Confusion!!

R2 - The other half of day 7

I did really good today.  I followed protocol ALMOST to a "T".  I sprayed some Pam Olive Oil spray on my halibut before I baked it off but I am almost positive that there wasn't enough to make much of a difference.  I also tried ONE SMALL potato chip about the size of a half dollar coin just to try it because it is a new flavor, "Chicken and Waffles".  EEEWWWW!  It was NASTY! And last but not least, I just got done eating 2 squares of a dark chocolate w/ sea salt.  I guess I will find out in the morning how much damage it did.

I am thinking about doing a detox bath tomorrow.  It's a hot hot hot bath, as hot as you can stand it with 1 lb of baking soda and 1 lb of Epsom salt (there are other recipes for this but this is the one that works for me).  You soak for a minimum of 20 minutes, rinse and dry then watch a couple pounds magically drop off.  It is just water weight that you lose but I can tell that I am retaining a lot of water right now so I need to get rid of it.  There are many other recipes for this detox bath, ummmm, the one that I did a couple of years ago also included sea salt.  The amounts of salt and baking soda that you use differ from one recipe to another and some call for you to add orange or cucumber slices too.  But the one constant in all of the recipes is the hot hot hot water and soak for 20 minutes.  I always try to stick it out for at least 30 minutes.  Trust me!  This is not easy to do.  You do get extremely hot and start sweating like a pig.  You may also get light headed or sick to stomach.  If you do, I highly recommend getting out immediately but do so USING CAUTION as to not fall or pass out.

I forgot to post my pics at the beginning of this round.  I did take them on the first day, though.  So here they are.  I hate this part!!!!

There ya have it!  They don't look much different from my first round's pictures.  Hopefully, at the end of this round, there will be a bigger difference.  For comparison, here is one of my Round 1 pics:

Now, I wish I could figure out how to put them side by side.  It's easier to compare that way.  Oh well!  Maybe by the time this round is over I will have figured it out.

That's all for tonight!  Peace out!

R2P1, Days 5 and 6 (and half into day 7)

I am on day 7 now.  Day 5 I was at 205.5 lb which put me down below my starting weight (which was 206.5) before my loading days.  Then on Friday, day 6, 203 lb's making me below my last injection day in Round 1.  Today, no weight loss.  Still at 203 but I did not really stick to diet yesterday.  I had extra beef while making my cabbage and beef dish and then after I was done eating, I still had several more bites.  I also had a couple of bites of my P3 pudding/mouse stuff and ate way too many almonds and pistachios (not allowed at all on this phase).  I did start going into ketosis before that.  I hope, though, that this is not the beginning of little to no weight loss like what happened with Round 1.

Today was measuring day too.  I seemed to add a quarter to half inch here or there and lost a quarter to 1/2 inch here or there.  You never can really tell for sure with measuring until you lose more inches due to possible inaccurate measuring and water weight, etc.

Round 2/Phase 1, Days 1 &2 and Phase 2, Days 3 & 4

Ok.  Today is Wednesday, August 14.  I started my Round 2 on Saturday, August 10.  So, Saturday and Sunday were loading days.  I think I did really good on loading.  Next round, though, I think I am going to do "clean" loading days.  I have to do some research on what to have for to do this "clean" fat loading thing.  Anyway, I started with a weigh in at 206.5 lb's which is 2 lb's more than I weighed on my R1 LIW.  That's not too bad.  Then on my loading days I went up to 211 lb's.  After my 3rd day, which was my first day back on the VLCD, I dropped to 209 and the next day down by only another 1/2 pound to 208.5.  My first VLCD I went over my calorie limit by about 65 calories but yesterday and today I am having a difficult time getting more than 350 calories in.  I am eating all of my food that I am suppose to but the calories aren't adding up to enough.  I don't know what the hell to do in this case.  I mean I have eaten the servings and portioned sizes that I am suppose to eat but it still isn't adding up to the 500 calories that I am suppose to have.  I know that you aren't suppose to eat less than 500 calories.  I just don't know what to do about this.  Should I add more protein or add more veggie or add a little more of both or add an extra fruit?  I guess I will also have to do some research on that.  I hope it's not going to keep me from losing weight.  My last round I had problems where my calories kept going OVER the 500 calorie limit.

This week Grandma went into the hospital for her heart and I have been down here with her and the family since Monday, my first VLCD.  This could affect weight loss or gain.

2 Days Until Round 2

This has been a major roller coaster in this stage.  I am still staying right at 206.5 pounds and my LIW was 204.5.  I actually go back and forth between 205 and 206.  I am still finding it hard to eat "clean".  They say that after eating the VLCD during P2 that you will stop craving all of that bad stuff.  I did feel yucky when I first started eating the sugars and starches again but now am not having a problem with any food except for the weight gain.  I am really looking forward to this next round an losing some more weight.  Hopefully I will get it right this time.  I have made mistakes that I will hopefully not make this time.  So, Saturday I start loading again and I am not looking forward to those loading days!  I am looking forward to having SEVERAL cocktails with some old friends before I go back on my VLCD though.  I'll get a good drunk out of my system and hopefully I'll be good on that for the next 40 days.  I know! Alcohol doesn't have fat in it so it really doesn't qualify for the loading days but I am incorporating it anyway :)

Until next time, ya'll.  I will try to get back to my dailies starting Saturday, R2P1Day1.