R1 Day 6

This morning I weighed in and there was no loss. As my scale measures only by half pounds, it didn't move at all. I guess I should be glad that it didn't go up but it isn't much of morale booster. I have contemplated doing an apple day but I don't think I'm ready to do that according to the protocol. It would appear that you have to stall for at least 3-4 days. I might be okay if I just continue on. Maybe I did do something but I can't measure it because of my scale. I really wish I could lose a pound a day. That would be great. This is difficult for me to continue on because I've heard it is supposed to do so much and I don't feel like it is for me. Maybe I should incorporate some exercise into my days. I normally do walk daily but a sick child got me out of my groove and then the weather hasn't helped either.

TOM
My TOM pretty much only lasted a day. I did have two days prior of spotting and then the one day I did have was really light. I don't know if that is due to the HCG or what but I don't really have any explanation for it.

Soup for you

So today has been very filling. I don't often get to have soup as The Man does not really like it. I like very simple soups. For breakfast I had half a grapefruit which, surprisingly, was very good. It has been years since I have eaten grapefruit which is weird because I like it. The only thing about that is that I wanted to have more than just half. For lunch I had chicken and spinach soup which was so good! So I had it again for dinner. The broth is very filling and makes me feel like I have actually eaten a full meal. I also had a mid-afternoon apple. It is about 7 in the evening and I am ready for bed. I haven't had much sleep lately which is my own fault but I can't help staying up with The Man when we have time together. I love that man. He said the sweetest thing today. Thing One asked him what his favorite holiday is and he replied, "no, holiday, not Christmas, not birthdays, just when I'm with your mom." Made my day! So I had to write it down so that I never forget it. He is wonderful! I don't know what I'd be without him. And so it is partly for him that I am trying to lose the weight. I want him to always be attracted to me and proud to tell people I'm his wife.

P2 Day 5

It's strange to think that I've already been doing this for 5 days! I have made a huge effort not to cheat and therefore there is no eating out which is good. I weighed in this morning with a loss of 0.5 lbs but also with the realization that my usual morning BM has been absent pretty much for the last 3-4 days. I don't like that at all. I have a little bit of gas but no discomfort. However, I can only imagine what will happen once I actually have one. YIKES! So I took some herbs this morning in the hopes that it will get things going. If it doesn't, I'll definitely try some of the other suggestions that people have made regarding constipation.

So far this morning I just took my drops but haven't eaten anything yet. I did drink a little bit of water to take some herbs. I'm sure it's all in my head but I feel like I can already feel things starting to move. Fingers crossed!

I haven't really exercised yet on this protocol. I normally walk daily but it's been cold lately and I haven't mustered up enough gusto to get my butt outside and walk. I guess I could do a tape or something like that. That should get things going too. Hopefully.

I guess I won't be able to tell for certain what kind of effect my melba toast had unless I repeat my meals without the toast. I just figured that adding that in might change things up a bit.

At the end of the day

At the end of the day this "diet" is kind of a crap shoot for me. Trying to vary my vegetables when I would rather not eat some of the choices partly because I don't even know what chickory is and also because sometimes I have no idea what to do with them. I also prefer chicken to beef and so I only eat beef on occasion just for variety. I also don't eat seafood as I am allergic and veal just does not appeal. My fruit has pretty much been apples or oranges but I have grapefruit and frozen strawberries in reserve. With a good loss this morning I am wondering what tomorrow will bring because I tried the melba toast this evening mostly because I was afraid this would end up being like the Atkins all protein no carbs. I got the classic melba toast because it didn't have sugar on the list of ingredients but it did have molasses. I hope that doesn't kick me in the butt tomorrow at weigh in. If it does, I may have to forgo that little tidbit.

Today I had an apple for breakfast, lunch was late but I had a 1/4 of a cabbage and chicken, then for dinner I had chicken with broth and a couple slices of cucumber to try to reduce my calories because last time I had the cabbage I gained. I also had two slices of melba toast and finished off my day with what was left of my baby's apple which ended up being about 80% of it. I didn't count my calories today but I hope that I am within range. Fingers crossed for tomorrow's weigh in!

P2 day 4

Weigh in: -1.5 lbs

With my 0.5 lb gain yesterday I am happy that I lost more than 1 lb. I know that these are small increments but it made me happy to see that I had actually lost even though I am on my TOM. I also had to "cheat" and use lotion last night because my hands were cracking. If I lose again next weigh in I think that will boost my spirits even more to where I feel like I can really continue doing this. But I guess that is the point. I hope this has lasting effects for me because I haven't had any of the carbs because I gave up bread. It doesn't like me and I think it makes my skin worse. I didn't give up gluten, but since you are limited on this diet I just omitted it.

 I am thinking my headaches have been because of my back and not due to the HCG drops but who knows. I didn't have a headache yesterday but my hips have been hurting which is why I still am not ruling out the HCG. My ankle has also been feeling like it needs to "pop" and it won't.

TOM

My cycle has really been light so far. It has done this before so I don't know that I can attribute that to the HCG. Whatever the reason, I'll take it. I do feel like I have been more ornery than usual. I have been  a bit short tempered with my kids and had to restrain myself from overreacting. I also don't know if that is due to the drops. As for right now, I am feeling okay other than a little bit of hip pain, and fatigue. I haven't gotten much sleep in the past few days. I have had more than one late night up with The Man. I definitely need to get more sleep. I'm certain that will help this whole process along.

I don't see a difference in my face or my body yet. My clothes still fit the same. Nothing has changed for me physically and no one has commented on anything but it is still early in the game to be expecting that. I don't notice other people's weight loss until it is significant and then sometimes not even then. It really depends on how often I see them and if I even pay attention to that with them.

So at the beginning of day 4 I have lost a total of 6.5 lbs since my highest weight during load days. it doesn't feel like I have lost that much though because I am about where I am normally. So it really only feels like I have lost 1-2 lbs.

P2 Day 3

This day began as kind of a bust for me. I weighed in at +0.5 lbs which I think was in part due to my cabbage dinner probably putting me over on calories and not drinking enough. I continued my day with an apple for breakfast, a chicken salad for lunch, and I had a makeshift beef stew with a tomato on the side for dinner. I know my food diary is getting messed up since I began in the middle of the day but for now I'll just write breakfast through dinner on each post just for the ease. I tried to get all my water in and I did okay but not great. It is still quite a bit more than I normally drink, sad as that may be. I peed so frequently that it put me in a bind and I had to "cheat" kind of. I have really bad skin issues where my hands dry out and crack. They also form blisters if I'm not careful so with all the washing of my hands my fingers are starting to crack and I really don't need that so I broke down and used some lotion which is frowned upon according to the diet. I also haven't changed any of my soaps or toothpaste. According to the diet one should not have any oils of any kind. This means no lotions, moisturizers, shampoos with oils or butters, etc. Well, my body wash, face wash, hand soap, and shampoo all have oils of some sort in them. I didn't stop using anything other than lotion. But I may just have to use that on my hands because if I don't, I'll be using a steroid cream to get them back to where they are manageable and that is worse than just using lotion.

Food diary

So I have read that one should keep a food diary to see what foods affect you in negative and positive ways. I guess I'll do that so that I can keep track of things.

Load day 1 I had misc snacks, microwave popcorn, chocolate, candy, ginger ale, Betos breakfast burrito with bacon, potatoes, and eggs with a hefty portion of grease on the tortilla.

Load day 2 I had and egg mcmuffin breakfast with regular bacon instead of canadian bacon, more microwave popcorn, chocolate eggs, ginger ale, and a quarter pounder meal from mcd's. I don't normally eat so frequently at Mcd's.

P2 Day 1 I had chicken--browned with no oil and then stewed into broth with half a cucumber with a Tbs of apple cider vinegar, no breakfast, and the same chicken meal for lunch.

P2 Day 2 I had an orange for mid-afternoon snack, GF grilled chicken with garlic/onion powder and salt, no breakfast, an apple for mid-morning snack, a GF grilled chicken salad with apple cider vinegar for dressing

P2 Day 3 I had an orange for mid-afternoon snack, and chicken with 1/4 head cabbage for dinner and I am stuffed!

I am so stuffed after dinner that I feel like I ate too much. Calorie wise I don't think I did but it feels like it. Here's hoping for another loss tomorrow morning!

P2 Day 2

So I totaled up my calories for yesterday and I came in short. I think. I still had 199 calories left. I think. According to caloriecounterabout.com I came in short for calories. But according to acaloriecounter.com I came in just barely under because 100 grams of chicken comes out to be 119 calories raw or 177 stewed.That's also assuming that I chose the right kind of orange or tomato on the list. It's really subjective as to how these calories sites measure their stuff. I didn't put anything in my chicken really. I put my measured 100 grams of chicken in with some garlic powder, onion powder, and salt. Then I just added water to deglaze my pan and essentially just my chicken soup. That's it. So, I don't really know if I should be adding more calories to my days or what. I don't want to do this thing wrong but it seems pretty easy to do it wrong because of the calorie counting. Some of the recipes I have gotten have given specific amounts for vegetables and such but even that is iffy to me. I guess this will pretty much be a crap shoot for me to see how I do on the food and just adjust accordingly.

Weigh in:
So I weighed myself this morning and I came in with a loss of about 6 lbs. I say about because my scale is ghetto and only weighs every half pound so none of this .3 loss/gain stuff. I'm okay with it though. I think it will give me more drive to do better or know that I'm doing well. I don't put much stock in this first weigh in because it's only about 2-3 lbs more than I have been weighing lately. I know that sounds weird since I said that I didn't really gain much on the load but at the risk of TMI, I am beginning my monthly cycle.

TOM

There has been a lot of disagreement as to what to do during your TOM but here's what I plan on doing. From all the things that I've read this is the most sound advice I could find. I am going to continue to take the drops but if I have heavy flow days I won't take them on those days. We'll see how that goes.

I still have headaches but I actually think it is due to my back and neck being out. This, however, could be a side effect of the HCG because while you're pregnant your body produces relaxin and if this is mimicking pregnancy in some way it could be mimicking the relaxin also thereby making it easier for my joints to get out of whack while I sleep. I have not done research on this, I am just surmising. I could be totally wrong on this count. All I know is that when I am pregnant I have a hard time stretching my back like I do normally and that is what is going on right now. I think if I could just get my back into alignment I would be fine. I haven't taken anything for it as far as medication though. I did, however take a multivitamin last night just to be sure that I am not missing anything. I think I will take one morning and night since you don't keep it all.

I have been peeing like mad! I don't think I peed this much during actual pregnancy. I think I got in about 80-90 oz of water yesterday and I hope to do better today. I have read that if you don't drink enough water you can stall and retain it. Obvious, I know, but still something to remember.

I think as far as calories go, I am just going to go by the raw chicken calorie amount since that is how I have to measure it. That means that I can up my green vegetable amounts.

Day one

Technically my day one is complete. I guess. I have drank more water than I normally do but I'm sure it's still not enough. I need to drink more but I've been peeing all day long. I have a headache and my back is sore but that could be totally unrelated. I am hungry but I don't know if it is out of habit or hunger. I skipped breakfast entirely because I haven't bought any tea yet but hopefully I'll get out today and do it. I think I may have skipped a morning snack, too. I have to figure out how to total my calories because I don't know how much anything is worth. So I can't be sure that I'm even getting the correct number of calories. I just went to a calorie counter website and it appears that I am short on my calories. I guess I'll have to up the numbers on that. Here's hoping all goes well. I weighed myself fully clothed and I am only up about 1 lb from this morning when I was just in my underwear.

The end of the load

So I did my 48 hrs of loading and frankly, all I feel is bloated. I have read that some people have gained 5 lbs overnight but I didn't do that. I may have gained 1 or 2. My guts are in a knot over all the grease and fat I consumed and even so, I think that it was less grease and fat than other people have eaten. Since I started my drops in the afternoon, I ended my load day in the afternoon. I have not really been feeling any symptoms yet but it hasn't really been that long. I had planned on not eating because I started Phase 2 (P2) late. I did have an apple around 4:30. I have actually been waiting for P2 to start because I have been feeling so crappy trying to find out what to eat to stuff myself. So, oddly enough, I did feel hungry but not until 8:00 pm. So I had a makeshift chicken soup with half a cucumber on the side. And I feel pretty good. I actually feel kind of full. I spent some time this afternoon separating all my meat. It's weird because I didn't think that it made that much but if you consider it, that much meat would normally have made only 5 or less meals for my family before and now it's going to last me about 20 days. As I write I am feeling a little congested, not nasally, but in my chest like I ate too much. My stomach is also feeling a little icky. I think everything is coming back at me. I am starting to wonder if I just haven't realized how awful crappy food makes me feel. How sad is that?! I have been eating poorly so long that it feels normal. Maybe this will get me back to where I should be. Don't get me wrong, I don't eat all that bad but since I got married I eat worse. A lot worse. The Man did not grow up the same way as I did. Most of his food presented itself in a box or a can. I had a garden and ate a lot of vegetables growing up. I made dinner at his parent's house once and they had no idea what some of the vegetables were. I get that at the grocery store, too.

Starting over at rock bottom

I haven't been doing much of anything as of late. Since my last post I have run a half marathon successfully in 2 hrs 23 minutes. It was a great accomplishment for me. I really thought I'd never be able to do it. I signed up for a marathon relay race this May. In it I could run anywhere from 3 miles up to 13 miles. We'll see as it gets closer. I never really lost any weight while training for the half marathon. This fact alone really upset me. Hard training for at least 4 months, drinking water more than I would normally, and probably eating better and I feel like nothing much happened. I suppose some people said that I looked like I had lost weight but I don't think I had. I have always said that I could weigh 200 pounds as long as I could fit into a size 2. I was wrong. As I will never be a size 2 nor have I ever been a size 2 I could definitely not ever weigh 200 pounds and this proves it. So here I am, feeling like I have hit rock bottom. I probably haven't but it feels like it. I have been considering quick fixes more frequently and my self-esteem has suffered. I am not usually one who has low self-esteem, I'm usually just "ok" with myself. But after hearing so much about this "diet" from my walking buddies I succumbed to the pressure. I was weak! What can I say? Both of them lost weight successfully and kept it off. So...I guess I am trying it. HCG...even the name of it raises questions. Pregnancy has never agreed with me and I can't imagine putting more "hormones" into my body. I bought the homeopathic drops so we'll see how I do. From the research that I have done it seems that I take anywhere from 6-15 drops 3-6 times a day depending on my appetite cravings. I am starting out taking the drops at 3:40 in the afternoon today because I am random like that. Most people I'm sure, start first thing in the morning but I got a wild hair this afternoon after assessing all that I had eaten today. And then it didn't help that the Man stopped for a breakfast burrito and so I figured, what could it hurt to make the most of my gluttony. So I got home and took the drops. From what I gather, you take the drops under your tongues and hold them there for 10 minutes and then swallow. Considering the fact that you can't swallow for 10 minutes there was a lot of spit. After swallowing my 10 drops, (which kind of burned as my drops contain 25% alcohol) I waited my 30 minutes and ate my very fatty breakfast burrito. Nothing says fat like bacon, potatoes, and eggs wrapped up in a tortilla with grease showing through. MMMmmmm. Sounds good doesn't it? Frankly, I think I'll be paying for it tonight or tomorrow. I don't think it will take long. It is 5:55 as I write and so far I have had one symptom. I assume it is a symptom from the drops as I didn't have one before but I started to get a headache so I drank some water. This seems to have alleviated it a bit. I think this may be helpful as to remind me that I need to drink. That is a big problem for me. I haven't weighed myself today as it is so late in the day but I'll do it in the morning. Thing 3 has been pretty sick this past week or so and because of that, I haven't been out walking in over a week. I am tired but that is probably due to lack of sleep. I'll have to work on that too. I really want this to work and I want to give it my all so I guess no late nights on pinterest. That site is seriously addicting. It's a good thing it isn't near a big holiday where I bake. Not because I'd eat it all but because I spent probably 30 hrs researching what to give my neighbors for Christmas. I'm silly like that.

So, I started my load day drops at 3:40 I'll probably take my drops again at 9:00 tonight and then in the morning around 7:30 and from then on I'll do 7:30-12:30-5:30 just for continuity. I hope this all works out.

I'm off to drink some more water to see if I can get this headache to go away completely.