Well, I’ve been busy with my husband’s surgery and the holidays and just neglected to write anything about the last days of the diet. Suffice it to say that I wasn’t perfect, and I didn’t ever get below 151 pounds, which I’m OK with if I don’t gain it back! My goal for a max weight is 155 because I don’t feel good at more than that.
Now I’m in P3, the carb-only phase, for the next 3 weeks. Make that the next 2 weeks, since this week has already gone by!
This past week I’ve fluctuated a bit, back and forth between 153 and 155. Part of the fluctuation can be attributed to eating some carbs when I’m not supposed to, but it really depends on what type of carbs they are. Fruit, specifically oranges and apples, have been OK, but brownies are not. Hmm, go figure, right? 
I’ve done protein days, with lots of water, when I’ve gotten to 155 and has worked to get me back to 153. I also seem to be having problems eating blue cheese dressing, but that’s not terribly surprising with all of the food sensitivities I have.
It would have been nice to get into the high 140’s, but I was hungrier the last couple of weeks and ate more calories; maybe I not as determined as I needed to be to push through that. It’s been a long journey and I’m tired of dieting. I want to move to a more normal life of eating and exercising because it’s healthy for me to do so. Now I feel good about myself and don’t have the extra stress on my body with all of that extra weight. That doesn’t mean I don’t still have work to do, mentally, emotionally or physically, or can lower my guard. These new habits and feelings of self worth are fragile and need reinforcement.
I still have fat on my belly, which I detest, and it’s still round. Some of that comes from powerlifting, where I pushed against the belt and trained the muscles to have a concave shape, and some of it is hereditary. I’m hoping that exercise, Pilates specifically, will help re-shape my abdomen so it doesn’t stick out so much. I’m also hoping that my body will adjust and re-distribute some of the weight as time goes on, but I can’t imagine where else it would go! I’ve got measurements to check against, so that will be interesting to see in the next 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.
One change I made on this last round is that I ate more calories at the end, and my weight pretty much stabilized in the low 150’s during that time. I’m hoping that by doing this I will help my body stabilize at this weight permanently; it’s where I am now. This approach is not what is prescribed in the protocol, though, so it will be interesting to see how this differs from the other rounds.
In total, I’ve lost 55 pounds since I started getting rid of the extra weight. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But in this Year of Eleven, my special year, I’m taking this as the start of something great.
