Trip Summary

Weight: 176

In the past week I’ve gone from 183 to 176.  What a wild ride!

I flew to New Hampshire to visit family (those kids sure grow fast, don’t they?), I signed up for a quilt conference, I’ve gone to a Washington Nationals baseball game against the New York Mets, then off to the Boise State vs. Virginia Tech football game, where I yelled myself hoarse, BTW, and now I have a cold.  Ugh to that!

In that whole experience, I exercised once (boy, did that feel good!) and ate what I would call one really good meal; it was a pound of Gulf Coast shrimp, steamed, with a side of steamed broccoli, and I felt the best after that meal.  I didn’t get nearly as much water as I had intended, on any day.

I did not take a scale with me on the trip so I was shocked that I was over 180, but I certainly didn’t expect to be at 176 today.  My chiropractor was right, it was mostly water weight.

I’m getting ready to start the protocol again on Wednesday.  This time I’m doing the shots.  I’m not looking forward to sticking myself, but I’ll get through it; if it goes better than before then I’ll only have to do one round.  I have another 20 pounds to get rid of and this time will be a short 21+3 (24) day round.  I looked back on my previous stats and I had lost about 13 pounds in 20 days last time, so I’m looking to do at least the same this time.

I’ve been really busy since school started.  I’m making a concerted effort to keep a realistic To Do List, though, and that is keeping me sane.  Interestingly, as much as I love gadgets, I love my paper lists.

This cold, however, has me in a low energy mode and I need to get at least one Bronco quilt done this weekend, pickling some cucumbers, working on paperwork and getting ready for my quilt conference, not to mention trying to get a lot of sleep…and I still seem to be on East coast time, so I have been waking up at 3am.  I have no time for being sick!

Phase 4 – Eating Out

Weight:  177.5

Yesterday I weighed 175 and was glad to be back in “neutral territory”, so to speak.  I went to get my haircut and ran errands, so, of course, while I was out I got hungry.  I decided to go to Baja Fresh, as they use fresh ingredients and, as restaurants go, I figure they are a pretty good place to eat.  I usually order the Mango Chicken salad and have to resist eating the shell.  Instead, I had one of their new Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Burritos and a Coke Zero.  After all, I’m supposed to be able to eat stuff like this, once in awhile, right?  Well, I gained 2.5 pounds.

This morning I looked up the nutritional information…Oh, my!!…940 calories and 75 grams of carbs!!!

And today, my husband wants to go to the Fair because he wants to…eat lunch at the Fair…that’s what being able to handle extra calories does for a person.   Um, honey, I need to eat at home first….

This doesn’t exactly bode well for my upcoming trips.

Phase 4 – Second Week Summary

Weight: 176

Well, my weight has been up all week, since the big jump on Monday.  It’s been a really stressful week at work, what with the start of school, and I’m sure the stress hormones don’t help, either. 

I worked out on Wednesday; I was shocked by another pound gain up to 177.  My first reaction was “oh no, I'm not going to let THAT happen!”  It felt good to get on the elliptical and with the hot weather it's a perfect solution.  It’s easy to let that habit slip, especially now that there’s homework to do, football games are on, the garden is pushing out produce to can, and helmet liners and quilts need to be made.

I’ve really been looking forward to starting the new rounds, though; this diet brings a lot of structure to one’s life, having only certain things you are allowed to eat.  And, I can’t wait until I can drop this extra weight.

With so much going on, I won’t be keeping up with a daily progress posting until I start the shots in mid-September.  Hopefully by then I’ll have a routine down and everything under control….yeah, right!

Phase 4 – Start of Week 2

Weight: 176

I had a 3 pound weight increase in one day.  Yesterday I weighed 173, and I had been on the low end of the 170’s all week.

While that’s a bummer, yesterday was the first time I recall having blood sugar issues since starting the hCG diet, and it happened twice yesterday.  I try to eat high protein items, but when my blood sugar drops, all is fair game; I eat anything and everything in sight, and I eat often.  I’m certain that is the reason for the increase, along with not drinking enough water.

My husband bought a new breakfast sausage, Sweet Apple chicken sausage, which I suspect is the root of the problem.  Because he was trying to surprise me, I didn’t get to review the ingredients ahead of time.  While it was gluten free, it had 10 grams of carbs, mostly from the maple sugar and evaporated cane juice.  I thought it would be OK; after all, I have been eating more carbs.

I will not be eating that product again.

Phase 4 – Day 2

Weight: 175.5

Well, I went a little overboard with the carbs yesterday... honeydew melon, chocolate ice cream (dairy free), and cereal before bed!  So, I'm not really surprised that my weight is up, just 3 1/2 pounds is a little surprising!

I had really wanted some chocolate yesterday, so after dinner I had a wonderful coconut milk double-dark chocolate dairy free “ice cream” with fresh strawberries, and it was wonderful.  I ended up staying up too late, and I have a bad habit of eating instead of going to bed, hence my “cereal before bed” habit.

I drank two bottles of water yesterday, so I'll keep that up today and I think my weight will stabilize again…especially if I start using some common sense.

Phase 4 – Day 1

Weight: 172

I figure I’m down today because I didn’t eat very much yesterday, but it sure was nice to see the low number!

I’m going to have some honeydew melon with lunch today as an additional healthy carb, so we’ll see how it goes.  I haven’t had any of that all summer, although I did have a small sliver of cantaloupe the other day, and it was fabulous!

I’m getting ready to do some canning this week so I’ll be getting out the supplies and reading my recipes.  I’ve got sweet pickle relish and plum jam on the menu, I’ll post how it goes.  They will make great gifts.

Last Day of Phase 3 – Day 21

Weight: 175

I woke up pretty full this morning so I wasn't really surprised that I was up a pound over yesterday’s weight.

They say that strenuous exercise can cause a weight gain as well.  I did some in-depth housecleaning yesterday; I have the sore upper back and hip muscles this morning to prove it!  Some people might read that and think "what a wuss" but you have to understand…when I clean house it's aerobic housecleaning, and it goes on for hours!

My husband cooked a really great steak last night.  I had broccoli and some fried shrimp with it, too.  There were carbs in the coating for the fried shrimp; this is the same shrimp I had the other day when my weight went up then, too.  Later, I had a bowl of cereal before I went to bed.  So, you might say that I didn't exactly finish out “no carbs” and “no sugar” like I was supposed to, but today is my last official day of Phase 3.

I took my measurements today and they really haven't changed from a month ago, although my tummy is a tiny bit bigger.  I’ve felt a little bit more bloated in general so that doesn't surprise me.  I'm suspecting the additional sugars may be triggering some of the Candida so I need to really watch my sugar intake.  That works well in my plan to continue with a fairly low carb diet over the next 2 to 3 weeks.  I will consider myself successful if I can maintain the same measurements and weight until I start Round 2.