August 2011 - Maintenance Update

I am 9 pounds over LIW from round 5, and not only can I feel the difference in my body, because I’ve regained it in my tummy, my head says "you're fat". Well, I know I'm not exactly fat, just my tummy is, and that does not make me fat!

I have been able to get in 1-2 workouts on the elliptical a week over the past month or so, and I’m working on getting to my goal of 3 per week.  Eventually I want to add in Pilates, too, because even at the lower weight I could tell my stomach muscles are shaped outward, from when I was powerlifting.  I need those muscles to work at supporting my back and internal organs, like they are meant to.

I found early on that I need to track my calories, but I detest doing it.  I really want to be able to eat with a sense of what I should have to fuel my body, with maybe an occasional treat, so have really resisted that step.  I need to re-train my brain to see it as a helpful tool, not a leash.

Round 5 Summary

LIW:  151

I got super busy and didn’t follow through with my blog on Round 5, so here it is:

My Last Injection Weight was 151!  I maintained at 153 in P3 for 1 1/2 – 2 weeks until a birthday party came up.  I decided I was probably close enough to getting to adding in carbs to try some of the BBQ burger (no bun), veggies and watermelon, as well as the red velvet birthday cake and ice cream.

What was I thinking?!?!?!?

After I had eaten the burger I found out that it was laced with BBQ sauce, you know, where it was mixed into the raw meat before cooking.  There’s so much sugar in commercial BBQ sauce!

So, I gained 4 pounds from that day, only to lose 1 of them by the end of that week.  I maintained at 156 for 2 weeks, then ate at a restaurant.  Trying to eat well, I had 1/2 sandwich and some jambalaya soup.  Gained 2 more pounds, and without being able to lose any of that by protein days, extra water, or exercise, that put me at a solid 158.

Another event, which I don’t remember right off the top of my head, has had me between 159 – 160 for the past 2 weeks.

So very discouraging, on the one hand, that it seems to be creeping so insidiously back.  However, I’m determined that this will not be my life, I am not going back to the weight or mindset I came from.   I am in charge of my health, my weight, and my life.

I can say that, being 50 pounds lighter than I was, I have much more energy, I feel like my old self, and have been able to accomplish so much more than I have in the past 5 years.  I will take all necessary measures to protect that asset!

Right now I am giving my body a rest from the diet.  I did 5 rounds over the course of a year, and it’s needed.  I’m observing how my body is responding  to “normal” food and activities.  Ultimately, it’s up to me to maintain whatever loss I achieve, and I want to make sure it’s a realistic goal.

I’ve been looking at my schedule, and will consult my doctor, to confirm when I think is a good time for another round, hopefully my last one (I’ve said that before).  I’m seriously considering October, after I come back from a quilting conference, but we’ll have to see what life brings.

R5VLCD5 - 157

Weight: 157

I’m officially past my LIW!

I’m really pleased, too, because I’m at the beginning of this round and I have my sights on the 140’s!

I’ve really not been hungry, either, although today we worked in the yard and the landscaper came by to rototill the garden at 11.  I ate lunch at 10:30 because I knew I wanted to start planting right away, as it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, possibly even tonight.

With such an early meal, I saved my lunch for a snack, only to find that I only had apples and oranges at my disposal.  In the first round, I discovered that oranges make me stall; either that, or I was already eating too much.  Well, I decided to try it, and ate a small orange at 1pm, as I wanted to save my apple for my late evening snack.

I was really proud of myself when, at 3pm, I was needing another snack and water wasn’t working; I heated up some asparagus, added seasonings, and had a very healthy snack.  I didn’t even consider anything off protocol!

I’m pretty tired tonight, though, so I’ll have to wait for the outcome.  It’s supposed to be rainy and windy tomorrow, and I plan to work on the computer and quilt.

R4–R5: Resuming From Planned Interruption

Weight: 161

On April 16th, I hit 157.5, but my lowest was 154.5.  I’ll have to look up when that was, because, weirdly, I didn’t blab that to the world!

I suspended that long 4th round, because I found that after day 27 I was cheating quite a bit, and did that for 2 weeks!   I couldn't justify the expense of the shots to keep cheating without making progress, and obviously my head wasn’t into it, so I decided to take a planned 2 week interruption.

In Pounds and Inches, they describe a planned interruption as “resuming” where you left off, but since I’d done a long round, I’m not sure that actually applies.  Not only that, I’m concerned that if I resumed for only the 8 days of hCG that I have left, that I wouldn’t be able to stabilize, nor would I lose the amount I want to.  I contacted my doctor, and he issued a prescription for another 15 days, to add to my remaining supply, and I’ll do a short round, ending in time to have burgers, sans bun, for Memorial Day weekend!

I'm not re-loading, but going to take 2 days of shots and start VLCD on Monday.  I'm not sure that is exactly protocol for a planned interruption, I think I've seen it referred to as cycling.

I’m taking measurements today…so, we'll see what happens!

R4VLCD41–157.5

Weight: 157.5

I’m at the end of my 4th round.

In considering where I am in this whole process, I still have what I call a “baby muffin top” around my middle, so I think I’ve only got about 10 pounds left to go.  That’s really frustrating, because if I hadn’t screwed up the last 2 weeks, I could be done already! The problem is that I’ve really been struggling with staying on protocol for that time, resulting in gaining and re-losing the same 2-3 pounds.

The round started out very strong, the first VLCD was March 7th, at 170 pounds. At day 27, I weighed in at 157 pounds. My average loss was almost a pound a day this round, which has been a very encouraging change from the other rounds. That’s a 13 pound total loss in 27 days, including the load days.

Where I started struggling is that I’ve started to get hungry, which I know is the indicator that my body is done for the round. Sometimes it’s a matter of a lighter hunger in the morning that grows into being really hungry because I haven’t had my veggie snack with me to get me through, such as when I’m at a customer’s desk. I started adding two hard boiled eggs for breakfast, and then later even added 2 Mozzarella string cheese sticks to that because I’ve been hungry in the mornings. The times I’ve tried to wait, I got too hungry by lunchtime, ate too fast, and then wasn’t very satisfied when I was finished eating.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve just gotten super hungry in the afternoon, before I get home from work, and I’ve already eaten everything I took with me for the day. When I get home, I have to have a snack so I can make it to dinner, and I’ve gone way overboard. So, letting myself get too hungry has been the biggest problem, one I thought I could work through and finish out for the remaining 8 days, but I’m doubting how effective those remaining days will be. I try to eat high protein foods, rather than carbs, when I get that hungry. It might be, too, that the extra food is causing me to really crave sugar; hard to say.

The other problem has been social situations. One, yes, I’d gotten too hungry and ate a quarter of a chicken quesadilla that was offered to me, and I was so grateful to have it. The other, however, was a get-together last week where I couldn’t resist the brownies, cake and deviled eggs (I was trying to eat protein, so started with them first). I’d eaten dinner before going, and have resisted the treats in the past, but I really ate a lot that night, so much so that I was still full the next morning.

I’m thinking that taking a 2 week break and then doing a 23 day round might be the perfect time to let me re-group, as well as start working on changing the Armour dose.  I’ll work with my doctor to see what his opinion on this is and go from there.

In the meantime, I have to get through the next couple of VLCD eating.

R4VLCD32–156.5

Weight: 156.5

Yesterday started to go swimmingly, and I’m feeling really good about continuing my round.  That is, until I didn’t have my lunch with me and I was out of time to retrieve it and still make my lunch date.

I didn't realize my 10am meeting was going to end at lunch time, RIGHT where I was going to meet my quilting buddies for lunch, and didn't take it with me. So, rather than walk back and forth across campus to get my lunch and come back, while I was REALLY hungry, I decided to buy a Chik-Fil-A grilled chicken salad. Not too bad, I thought...although really no taste to it, and I swear only 2 oz of chicken in the whole thing!

....and then…

I couldn't refuse a 1/4 of a chicken quesadilla that my buddy offered me...and it was WONDERFUL! (still drooling!!)....because even while I was eating the salad, I was STILL hungry and I could tell that salad was NOT going to do anything for me, not fill me up, not to satisfy me, nor to nourish me.  What a sad statement about veggies!

I know I shouldn't have eaten it, and was expecting another spike in my weight.  The first time I got on the scale, though, I even saw .5 drop!…and then 3 more times at the same weight.  So, I can’t really complain at all, because I also had extra chicken last night.

More than likely, this will be a stall weight for a few days and I just need to slug it out.  My only concern is the short amount of time remaining on this round to meet my goal, and I still need to deal with my overall 2 pound gain from earlier in the week.

Sigh....but still hoping to break 150!

R4VLCD31–156.5

Weight: 156.5

I’m up 2 pounds because on Sunday I had a hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) episode and I ate to compensate for it.  Pounds and Inches states that this can happen suddenly when you’re close to your goal weight.  I started with honey, because Pounds and Inches says to take a teaspoon of sugar, and after about 30 minutes I still needed something else so I added some Mozzarella cheese sticks, and I ate more chicken at dinner, and added some mixed nuts.

Needless to say, going off protocol like that caused a 2 pound gain!  Aaagghh!

Monday I still didn’t feel quite right, and I added a breakfast of scrambled eggs and stir fried veggies.  Of course, breaking routine is a sure way of setting myself up, and I’ve had a hard time keeping to protocol, and I’ve cheated.  So, up another .5 pounds yesterday, when I hit 157.

I started considering taking a planned interruption, to try to re-focus.  I've only got about 12 days left of 200cc shots to finish out a long round.  I know, though, that with this gain that I will be fighting this 3 pound gain for at least a week, all the while consuming my precious shots and not getting anywhere.  I'm only about 10 pounds away from my goal weight (I still have a baby muffin top around my middle).

I'm worried, though, that, according to a normal course, I'm supposed to do at least 21 days of shots to reset the metabolism.  My support group says they’ve done this before, but it’s not really clear in P&I about how long the  number of days on the extended portion needs to be.

This morning, I’m down .5 pounds, even after adding an extra serving of eggs in the morning and skipping a dose, so I’m going to finish out my shots.  The Physician’s Assistant also recommended not doing a planned interruption, so that reinforces my sense of direction.

Here’s to keeping my blood sugar stable, the “hungries and munchies” away, and to shedding that last 10 pounds!