A new begining

Well it's the new year and I am so thilled to be starting round 3.  I waited longer than I had to to begin again. I went through a lot of stress in the long months since I finished round 2. I make so many mistakes, but I promise that will not happen again. My problem was that I did not do the entire 3 weeks of maintenance after my last round. I made it even worse by eating crap like candy and cakes. The first 2 months were good, only up 1 or 2 pounds the first 8 weeks. It was after that when I started eating the junk.  I tried to keep away from holiday foods, but ate it anyhow.

Going up a size has made me realize how important it is to follow the rules. I feel crappy. I am so ready for the drops. I know how wonderful I will feel in a few more days. I know I can do it right....I am too important to mess it up. I am angry at myself for starting round 3 with more to lose than I should have to lose, but I will look forward and forgive myself.

Well, I will check back in about a week. Until then.........

Nearing the end of round 2

Ok, so I have been on phase 2 for about 25 days. I have lost 11 pounds so far this round. I am going to try to stay on the drops through the end of the month. I may not have lost as much weight as I had hoped to, but I have lost a lot of inches. My size 14 butt is now a much smaller size 8...that's right...I said 8!!

With about 25 more pounds to my end goal, I am thinking about starting round 3 on Thanksgiving. I think it is a good day to start, because it will be my first load day and I plan on making a lot of yummy side dishes to go with my turkey. Two, guilt free days of eating. Who could ask for more!!!

I will post some pics when I decide to stop the drops. Until then I hope to lose 4 more pounds. If I don't, that will be ok. Almost 35 pounds in 2 rounds.......I LOVE HCG!! Try it, you will too.

Round 2........let the game begin

Friday July 23rd: Started round 2 today. Started the day eating like crazy, even though it was hard to eat because I am never very hungry anymore. I ate bagels, donuts, burger and fries, a brownie, cookies...you get the idea. I even drank soda!

Saturday July 24th: Still eating a lot. Pasta, Double 1/4 pounder and fries from McDonald's, sweets, soda, as much fat as possible.

Sunday July 25th. Back to VLCD. 500 cal.  Took my drops, drank a lot of water. Eat a small salad with tuna for lunch. Was busy and forgot to have fruit. Ate chicken with a small tomato for dinner and an apple later. Feeling very good today.

Monday, July 26th: back down 2.5 pounds. My stomach is bothering me today, but I know it's from all the fat I ate on my 2 load days. Still not hungry, but I will have my 500 cal today and lose another pound or 2.  Love this journey... love each step of my new body.

Got through the next phase

Ok. I have completed 3 weeks of the first maintenance phase and I am doing great. Staying within the 2 pound rule. I am still feeling good but not as good as when am on the drops. I can not wait to start round 2. I ordered my drops for the next round and I only have 3 weeks (or so) to go before I can start again.

The next round I know I will do even better than the first. I will make sure to weigh my food and stay at or under the 500 cal.   I noticed that when I started PH 3, it seemed hard for me to eat more. I did not feel hungry at all. I am eating pretty much the same way, but with larger portions. I have added a few things like pizza...ok, I know what you are thinking. Pizza sounds like it would be bad for you, but I am having plain or with tomato slices and not eating the crust. i will eat 2 or 3 small pieces which is not bad because when I was gaining weight, I would eat 4-6 slices at one sitting.

I am still eating at least 1 salad a day with grilled chicken or tuna on it and even I am surprised that I don't use salad dressing any more. I have had some, but only a few drops. Unless the salad is tasteless, I find that I don't need dressing.

I am sticking to the apple a day, grapefruit and strawberries for my fruits, except that I did add oranges (which are on the protocol) and some cherries to my list.

I have also added some corn, but only in salsa and some black beans, again in some salsa. I am having  1 or 2 hard boiled eggs for breakfast if I am hungry and have also added almonds throughout the day as a snack. Greel yogurt is really good when I add some frozen strawberries and some Stevia to sweeten.

Iam not having a hard time at all with limiting the foods I am eating. I want to stay close to the protocol foods because I am looking forward to the next round and want to make it as easy as possible for myself. I have found that if I really want something "bad", I take a taste. We were at Olive Garden a couple of weeks ago and I ordered this chocholet cheesecake thing for the kids. Well, I always say.."say it with chocholet". Anyhow, it looked so good I wanted to scream, so I took a fork and took about 1/4 of a forkful. I ate is very slowly and then had another 1/4 of a forkful. That did it. I had my "fix" and didn't look back. The next morning my scale did not move a gram!!  No harm...no foul!!

Anyone can do this. Anyone can do ANYTHING for 1 month. So little time to look and feel better. I can't wait for my next phase to end to get back on protocol. I will try to get a photo this time to show the weight loss and I will post it here.

Thankss for following me!!

Finished round 1

Ok, I have completed round 1 and have lost 16.5 pounds and 24 inches!! I am now in a size 10, down from a size 14. I am now on phase 3 for 3weeks then on to phase 4 for 3 weeks before starting round 2.

I am actually surprised how easy it is to eat right without the drops running through me. My first day off the drops, I ate at Olive Garden. Not a good idea, but it matters what you chose. I had chicken, grilled with veggies and angle hair pasta. The pasta was a bad idea, (not on phase 3), but I didn't have much. I even tasted the cake the kids had. Oh, I ordered it without the sauce. The taste was awesome!! 

I weighed in this morning and have not lost or gained anything! I will continue to eat well and follow the protocol. I can't wait to start round 2 to lose the rest of my weight if possible. I may need to do another round, but that is ok. I am learning to eat right and that is all that matters.

Reaching my goal, 1 pound at a time.

It's been 13 days on Phase II of this protocol and I am down 11 pounds. Not a small feat, especially for me. I usually loss about 3-4 pounds less than the total inches I lose when on a "diet". I have not measured myself yet, but I have checked my waist a time or two and I have already lost about 4 inches from my stomach/waist alone.  When I first started 13 days ago, I did not take any photos of myself. I really wish I had, so that I could see the difference from day 1 until now. I will ask someone here to take a few pictures to photo journal the rest of my journey.

Doing the HCG protocol has been one of the easiest and most rewarding things I could ever have done for myself. I do not feel hungry, in fact I sometimes feel full half way through a meal. Maybe you, dear reader, would be curious about what my "diet" looks like.

Well today, Sunday, my family went to Applebee's for lunch. Our waitress was wonderful and so accommodating. I ordered tilapia to which she suggested I get it blackened and a "salad" (just the lettuce). I drank water with lemon in it. The food was wonderful and really filled me up.  For dinner I will grill some chicken breasts and have ripe tomato slices with it. I will have an apple when I get off this computer and 1/2 a grapefruit for my snack tonight. Add in a Melba toast or two and I am done for the day.

Not so bad. Great food, clean and healthy. No fast food, which I doubt I will be able to eat again after eating so much fresh good stuff.  Part of this journey for me is to learn to eat the foods that fuel my body while tasting good. I don't need food to comfort me. I can and will learn to self comfort in a good, healthy way. Portion control and good choices is what it is all about. For the first summer in a long time, I should be able to wear shorts. Today,  I wore a sleeveless top. Now that is something I have not done since last summer on a 90 degree day. And I didn't wear a sweater with it! It is nice to feel "normal" and not like a blob. All this with only the first 11 pound gone. I can hardly wait to see how I will feel when I finally get to my weight loss goal of 50 pounds. Life will be so much better. Well, got a run. Check back in a few days. Until then....Happy journey!J

Books, etc. to make your journey easier.

My daily journey

Day 3 - Monday (aka R1P2D3)
Started my morning weigh-in at +1 lb. That's ok, today is my first VLCD day (Very Low Calorie Day)

Day 4 - Tuesday (R1P2D4)
Morning weigh-in:  -3 lbs!!!  Go me. Had a great day. Ate a little too much, but will be more careful.

Day 5- Wednesday  (R1P2D5)
Morning weigh-in: -1 lb!1 (-4 lbs total so far)

Day 6- Thursday (R1P2D6)
Morning weigh-in: -1 lb! (-5 lbs total so far)

Day 7- Friday  (R1P2D7)
Morning weigh-in: the same weight as yesterday!! Oh no, I feel like panicing. I must have done something wrong. I didn't write in my journel today, so I forget what if anything was different today. I hope to be on track tomorrow.

Day 8 - Saturday (R1P2D8)
Morning weigh-in: -1 lb!!!!!  (-6 lbs total so far) Back on track? I drank an iced mocha, not allowed, but made up for it with the lowest cal. choices for the day.

Day 9 - Sunday (R1P2D9)
Morning weigh-in:  No loss again!!  I think the problem could be not enough water and too large of food portions. I have always had a portion control problem when it comes to eating. I will be on track today!  I KNOW I can do this. It is NEVER too late to get healthy. I see it, I am it!!

Starting over

Well, it's been awhile since I even remembered that I have a blog. The "diet" I started last January went nowhere...... fast. Lost 12 pounds, stopped the diet and gained back 7 pounds. Learned nothing that would help me. 

I was in Facebook one day when I saw an ad that looked interesting. It was for a weight loss protocol using HCG. I had read about HCG in Kevin Trudeau's book, but thought it would be too hard to do. I clicked the link and read more. It always takes me a long time to decide to do almost anything, so I kept checking out the website and "thinking" about it.  A month later I decided to order the HCG drops. I also went to Amazon and ordered a couple of books to help me along my journey.

Now, with drops and books in hand......I still did not start the protocol!!  I did however pick a date that I thought would be the date I woould start.  A funny thing happened with that date...it is in the near future and by then I will be fonished with round 1 of the protocol!!

One day, actually the day before Mother's Day, I decided it was time. The first phase of the "diet" is to take your drops and eat like crazy. Took the drops Saturday, ate ok, DID NOT TAKE THE DROPS ON SUNDAY!!  Mother's day and did not stop to think about the drops. I was not sure if I needed to stop and start again, but I went on.

My lifestyle change is going well. The week end went very well. Sticking to this "diet" is easier than I thought it would be. I am "doing" one of those pre-packaged food diets. The food is good so I  know I can stick with it. I found an old recipe for the best veggie soup. I am going to share. It is counted as "free" on my diet. Have some before dinner and you will fill up and eat less. I make a big pot and take some to work. With the cold weather we have been having, it is perfect.

Tuscan Style Veggie Soup

2 - 3 cups water
1 small eggplant, peeled and cubed into small pieces
2 - 3 (14 ½ oz) cans whole tomatoes undrained and chopped (or use fresh if you want)
1 small package of mushrooms - sliced
1 - 2 garlic clove minced
3 - 4  zucchini  chopped into small pieces
1 tsp - dried Italian seasoning
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
freshly grated Parmesan Cheese put aside

Combine the all  ingredients (except cheese) in a large pot, stirring well.
Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 25 - 40 minutes or until
vegetables are soft.  Turn off heat and let sit until cooled enough to eat.

Serve and sprinkle with cheese before eating.

Like I said, this is perfect to have at lunch or before dinner. I plan on making a pot every week...until I get tired of it.... LOL. Let me know what you think.   I will be back in a day or two.

Happy "getting smaller"!!

My journey begins

I started my new me on January 4, 2010. That is the day I started to eat right and move more. I won't tell you my starting weight, but it shocked me to see how much I actually weighed. I've tried this "diet" thing before and never got to where I wanted to be. This time is different.  I am so sick of being sick.

Just before the holidays, I started a new job. I no longer had to dress up wearing "office" clothes. I can now wear jeans and be comfortable. Ok, that was part of the problem. For me to be comfortable, I needed stretch pants. You know, the kind that covers everything and moves with you. Most jeans don't stretch that much and I certainly did not have any that did. I had to go shopping to buy a few pair to get me through. One size higher than I have ever worn before. Not only that, but I needed to go up 3 sizes to fit my ever growing chest.

What really pushed me was the day I went shopping for a sweater or blouse to wear to our office holiday party. After so many failed attempts at finding something nice to wear, I ended up sitting on the floor of a fitting room in Macy's crying my heart out. I think tha was the final push I needed.