Round 2 Phase 4 Week 2 - 140.8 (-0.2)

I have gone up an down quite a bit, have not been keeping to the HCG principals of gradually introducing more foods into your diet as I have been supposed to. I have also not been doing the 'un-hcg diet' either.  Just basically eating as I used to, which I know is not a recipe for weight loss and I still have at least 12lbs I'd like to lose, more if possible.

That said I am here about 5 days since I last posted and am down 0.2. Clearly not a weight loss regime, but nothing to be unhappy about!

So I am taking another trip to Sydney next week, and when I get home I plan to implement the un-hcg principals for 1 month to see what the results are. If I don't lose on that,  I will be planning one more round of HCG, so I guess the next few months will be interesting!

Round 2, Phase 4, Day 1, 141.0 (-2.4)

WOW!

I am not sure if its a fluke or not, but tried the 'un-hcg' diet principles yesterday. This is the result. WOW!

I really don't know what to say and of course I have no idea if it was a weight loss that was coming after my big gain anyway, or if its totally attributed to the new style of eating. Regardless, I'm at my lowest weight ever during this journey, so Ill take it!

Coincidentally, yesterday was the first day of phase 4 for me. I plan on using these same principals of 'un-hcg' over the next few days to see what the results show and will be sure to continue to post. I also think  I might buy a glucose monitor, to really try and give it a good go and see what this program is all about.

Round 2, Phase 3, Day 21, 143.4 (-0.4)

<sigh> Well, we all know that it always takes a lot longer to get it off than it does to put it on! I'm so mad at myself, when will I learn?? I hate that I am what feels like weeks back because of one bad night of eating and drinking!

I do still feel like a part of the problem is water retention, my fingers are so swollen that my wedding rings are uncomfortable and I cant even remember when that last happened!

I am out tonight for a girls night, hopefully its not too hard to make good choices, but I have to admit I don't expect any losses tomorrow, just maintaining would be nice.

I have been reading up on the blog that everyone has been talking about the "anti-HCG" diet (or whatever its called!) It is fascinating to me, but I wanted to know if anyone knows where the information can be found in a concise and easy to read way?

Though the info is interesting, it seems to be disjointed and not labelled well to be able to find things. I still don't get from all that I have read what the ratios of foods should be and what are meant by 'fats'. Clearly we cant just eat spoonfuls of mayo, so I am assuming fats means foods, though I get that fats don't mean meats, because they count as proteins, which are supposed to be eaten in a lesser manner. Are fats cheese and sauces? What other more filling items can be counted as 'fats', and where are the sugar-free dessert recipes that are mentioned? I haven't been able to find them!

OK, I guess what I need to say is I'm confused! Confused but interested and wanting to try it, but don't really know how to go about it. Also the testings that are mentioned, I am not sure if they are even possible living in Australia, unless I can get a Doctor to order them for me (highly unlikely). Any thoughts or suggestions anyone?

Round 2, Phase 3, Day 20, 143.8 (+2.4)

EEEKKK! Well as G commented the other day, when we make the right choices the weight comes off, when we dont.... this is what happens!

We had the State Of Origin last night - its a big football game (1 of 3) that we have here in Aus, that pitts all the best football players from 2 states against each other. Its HUGE (like superbowl huge) and we had an impromtu get together for it at our place which included a lot of chinese food and yummy cocktails.

This is apparently the result.

Hopefully a well-behaved day will get most of this excess gone by tomorrow. I assume a lot of it is sodium since I am thirsty as hell today!

Onwards!

Round 2, Phase 3, Day 18, 141.4 (-0.4)

Getting closer, hope the good losses continue as I make good choices!

Round 2, Phase 3, Day17, 141.8 (-0.4)

Woo hoo!

It goes to show when you put your mind to it and eat properly and do a little bit of exercise, mother nature takes care of the rest!

I am excited and motivated to try and keep this up and see where I can be tomorrow - until then...

Round 2, Phase 3, Day16, 142.2 (-0.2)

Sorry I have been gone so long, my studies have been kicking my butt. Part of the curriculum for holistic medicine is....medicine! (DUH!) I knew this but chose to believe it wouldn't be as hard as I imagined. In reality its harder! Anyway, I have been head-down in the books and have been pretty much AWOL from all my online activities. My apologies.

To summarize, I did hit over 145lbs after a (Fun!) night out with great friends, great food and too much wine and dessert :( I ended up doing a steak day and then a few days after that went right back to P2 eating but with more calories. That got me back to where I am today, and I plan on adding the fats back in gradually again. I knew I shouldnt have done it, I was being way too lax with my eating. 

I still would like to get focused to get below 140's during this phase, so that when I do my next round I could potentially see the high 120's at the finish  - a dream I never thought would be possible, but...you just never know! Ill keep working at it, but for now I have not been doing pilates and yoga as much as I wanted and haven't been doing a daily walk that I do religiously. I think as soon as I get this super hard exam out of the way, I will have a bit of breathing room and be able to focus more on diet and exercise.

I DID get myself a pair of size 29 jeans...woo hoo! And to be honest, in not-too-many-pounds I think they will be too big, they are slightly loose already. Loving that!

I hope everyone else is doing great and feeling motivated. We are going into winter here - the hardest time to diet in my experience, when warm and filling foods seem to have more calories!

Round 2, Phase 3, Day 7, 142.4 (-0.8)

What a drama with blogger being down! (and up and down and up and down again).

Its been so long since I posted I wont do all my in-between weights, this is where I am today. Down 0.8 from my last recorded weight here. I havent had too many huge fluctuations, and as I did last time, I am finding stabilizing pretty easy than goodness! I still have a goal to get to 140 before I start a new round. Surely that shouldn't be too hard, thankfully I am 0.4lbs lighter than my LIW (Last Injection Weight) anyway, so it seems that losing more is possible.

I do want to respond to some wonderful people that have left such encouraging comments on my post but I haven't had the chance, I am crazy-busy with an exam coming up in Naturopathic Philosophy, and have been trying to get as much study done as I can in my spare time.

I plan on taking Monday off and will make sure I comment and visit everyone then - if I don't cheat and take a peek before at how you are all doing! Oh and I will post my chicken soup recipe for you all too!

Hope everyone is looking forward to the weekend!

Round 2, Phase 3, Day 3, 143.2 (-0.4)

I did lose so that's great, but I want to get back in those 142's again so its a well behaved day for me!

My son has been really sick the past few days, so I have a HUGE pot of "Jewish penicillin" (chicken soup) on the stove right now. Smells delicious and its what I am planning on eating exclusively for the next 24 hours! I don't put any sodium in my chicken soup other than 2 teaspoons of sea salt, so should be OK for me.

I am finally in a position to sit down and read over everyone's blogs and progress over the past 4 or 5 days and look forward to seeing how great you have all done. Let me get to that now...

Have a great day!

Round 2, Phase 3, Day 1,2 143.6 (+0.8)

The gain was of course inevitable with going away to a winery. Of all places, a winery!

It was a great surprise and we met my sister and her boyfriend and my parents there for a fun mothers day weekend. We did a lot of walking, wine tasting, sitting by fireplaces and eating (though to my credit I tried to make good choices and not go crazy)! They had baby chicks for my son to admire and ponies for him to ride. Normally it would be a great weekend, but not exactly diet material!

That being said, I will watch carefully what I eat today and try to get it down again. I am not over the "2 lbs over last injection weight" yet, so I don't feel the need to do a steak day. Hopefully I wont need to!

Thank you to all who have commented on my blog and congratulated me, it is so appreciated! Now I am back I will get to looking at your blogs and seeing where you are at.

I trust all the mothers out there had a wonderful mothers day where you felt appreciated and loved as I did!

R2, P2, Day 23, 142.8 (-0.4) TWL 11.6lbs

I hit it!

So happy I hit the 142's! This was my ultimate goal before I started that I really didn't think I was going to hit, so I'm very grateful.

Please excuse this short post, its mother's days weekend and we will be away with our extended family at a winery for the weekend (food temptations anyone??)

This was a surprise for me from my husband so I have to run off and wont be back until late Sunday night - will be sure and check in on Monday morning.

Have a great weekend everyone!

R2, P2, Day 22, 143.2 (-0.8) TWL 11.2lbs

Its interesting to me that though I seem to have lost less per round than most other people, it looks like my losses for both rounds will be almost identical! I was so happy to see such a good loss this morning...is it possible I will see 142 before the end of this round leaving me only 10 more pounds until my goal?  I will be so excited!

Thanks SO much for everyone's comments on the photo - I hate putting photos up, I never quite like them enough, I am usually the one behind the camera in our family, so there are few photos of me and they are far and few between, so it was nice to feel the love on this one!

I know so many of you are struggling with this diet and let me tell you both rounds I have struggled too. It is NOT an easy diet despite what some people say. It takes so many things in your life to be aligned right - home life, motivation, work and social lives and a big one is support - which I think you will find in buckets in our little blogger community here, but its no good if the people around you are scarfing down burgers and ice cream right in front of your face.

That being said, if you dont make it for whatever reason, don't feel like you failed, just know that this time was maybe not right for you, for this diet right now. Continue with your healthy eating choices and some kind of excercise and the weight will come off with this formula in time, it is tried and true. Don't ever give up finding the right formula that works for you to be the healthiest and hottest you can be!

If you are interested in reading a little more about our foods and what is in them and why we need to make informed choices, I have a health related blog I write here. I am studying Naturopathy, Western Herbal Medicine and Nutritional Medicine right now, so I am learning more and more every day and love to share what I have learned with others. You might be shocked at some of the information as to what is in our food that governing bodies and big business are not telling us.

I do want to give a shout out to metamorphose-me who has recently started the diet, go on over, follow her and show her some love!

Have a great day everyone!

R2, P2, Day 21, 144.0 (-0.3) TWL 10.4lbs

A loss, though not great. I have to say at this point I'm looking forward to being done with the diet - bring on day 23! Motivation is definitely waning. lol. This round has been really a struggle for me.

I wanted to post this picture taken when I was 148lbs, (sorry iphone pic, not very good quality!)  I have lost another 4 since then and my goal is 12 pounds more slow and steady wins the race, right?

I know my most faithful follower Holly will appreciate this photo the most - she relishes any photos of me, enjoy my friend!

I am most happy that I am comfortably back in to my favorite Jeans that I love and haven't been wearing - that's a motivator if ever I heard of one! I also went back to pilates class today, which I haven't done in a number of weeks. It felt good and I'm going to commit to going 3 times a week again.

Enjoy the day everyone.

R2, P2 Day 20 VLCD 144.3 - 0.3 (TWL -10.1lbs)

This is pretty much how it went last time this far in, small, small losses that take me a week to get a pound off.

I am at day 20 and was going to mix up a new batch and keep going but considering the small losses I think I will just finish at the recommended 23 days and take a break, because I know my motivation will wane.

Last time I stabilized really well and even lost a little more weight in Phase 3, so hopefully that will happen this time. If I can get into the 143's before day 23 and then lose a pound or more I will well beat my goal of less than 144. I can't complain about that, just wish I had some of the 15+ pound losses I see other people have, but I guess my body doesn't like to give it up!

I do have to remember all the inches I have lost and that I will be about 22lbs lighter than I was an well within the 'normal' weight range for my height. AND I purchased a few clothes yesterday, in a size 6! What's not to love about the wonderful size 6?

I think I will take a little more time off between the rounds this time in case having these rounds fairly close together caused some kind of immunity to it. I will finish on the 7th and then wait until at least July to start a new round I think. I will of course continue blogging on my weight both for accountability and as a record of my journey.

R2, P2 Day 19 VLCD 144.6 - 0.2 (TWL -9.8lbs)

So in the past 3 days Ive lost only 0.4lbs. I wont lie, Im frustrated.

However, I did eat a small bit of chocolate yesterday, my son had some leftover easter eggs he was 'sharing' and I took a piece, and I ate it. And of course now I feel like it affected my loss. No one else to blame there!

I also didn't get much water at all in yesterday. After feeling like I was over-drinking the day before I reversed the whole thing and under-drank yesterday. When will I learn? Protocol needs to be followed to the letter for the losses to happen.

I have a plan for a perfectly behaved Phase 2 diet today. I have my salad and chicken ready for lunch, I have been drinking my water this morning. I am determined to see a decent loss tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

R2, P2 Day 18 VLCD 144.8 - 0.0 (TWL -9.6lbs)

Grrr.. no loss today.

I atually drank almost double the water that is suggested yesterday, no idea why really but I drank a TON and was worried it would make me gain if it didn't all go through me. No gain but no loss. Not happy of course, but whats a girl to do?

We'll see what tomorrow brings.