Well, HI!!!!.....

I am so sorry to my faithful followers that I have not posted in quite a while!

So, here's the deal-yo...

I am NOT doing HCG! I LOVE that diet, but for my busy lifestyle it's just not doing it for me at this time....maybe when things calm down HA! I am doing a diet that I did right after highschool called Protein Power. Basically, you eat meat and veggies and 30 net carbs a day. Easy, convenient and I dont have to think ahead about what I am going to do for dinner if I am not at home. Some fast food faves that I have are: Hardee's low carb burger...it's a hamburger patty wrapped in lettuce with cheese, onions, pickles, mayo, ketchup and mustard...; McDonald's grilled bacon ranch salad...the bacon makes this salad!....; Sweet Peppers chicken salad on deli greens...my FAVE...Those are just a few. At home, I just eat the meat of whatever I fix. Tonight is "fend for yourself night" so I ate Buddig turkey and cheese on lite bread with mayo and mustard.

So far I have lost about 10 lbs...which is good, don't get me wrong, but for the 2 weeks I have been doing this diet I can't help but think about how much more weight I could lose with HCG....BUT like I said, it's just not fitting with our lifestyle.

So, that's that...I will check in probably once a week and give updates on weightloss.

Thanks for reading!

WE

I'M BACK!

....WOW is all I can say about these last couple of weeks. I kinda fell off the wagon, got back on, fell off again, and then the last couple of days I have been half on, half off...:)

Today, I am leaving for KY with one of my most precious friends, Laura. Laura and I (and I know this is going beyond the "diet blog") met when we were both selling Premier. We hit it off immediately and, at the time, were both SAHMs with little kids so time allowed us to grow closer and eventually be very much like sisters. Well, needless to say, when you are both working full time and now have kids in school, an hour and half distance (she lives in Pelham) and busy schedules makes for a year (almost) going by without laying eyes on one another except on Facebook. So, today, she and I will drive 5 hours to KY to see our faves on the SYTYCD tour and then drive 5 hours back tomorrow....we are thinking we may not shut up! :)

Anyway, since I will be travelling, today and tomorrow will be my two gorge days for this round of the HCG diet. I am totally ready to tackle this round with full force. And this time, I have a partner in crime! My sweet hubby!!! With him eating the same foods I am, I am praying that this round will go quickly and that we can be support for one another! I will post only about me, unless of course he wants me to share HIS weightloss :)

Please, if you are supporting me by following my blog and keeping me accountable, continue to do so, adding lots of prayer. It's getting down to crunch time before Disney and there is no room for cheating or failing this time! Gotta get all the way back up on the wagon and stay there for the next couple of months! Thanks in advance for prayers and encouragment! It means so much!

God bless you and thanks for reading!!! I gotta go GORGE! ;)

K

I have LOST my focus....

How can a person be doing so well and losing weight and then totally lose focus that quickly? I know it's Satan all up in my biz, but I gotta get back into control! PLEASE pray for me. I am not doing badly, I just have not really stayed completely on plan. Anyway, hoping that there will be some loss after today's cheat.

BTW, my gain was 4 lbs, which is not as bad as I thought it would be.....I did not weigh until this morning...Our mornings have been NUTS! Homecoming week and trying to dress up everyday has thrown our morning routine off like crazy!

Anyway, please say a prayer for me. I am struggling this week!

Seriously???????

This is what I was asking myself after I went to the CFA drive thru today and ordered not a salad, but a Chicken sandwich and FRIES! I am not sure what is going on with me! Ok, let me back up and give the rest of the ridiculous story. I started my injections back today and packed a pre-measured baggie of beef (I pat it out and cook it in my microwave at work....saves time at home), cherry tomatoes and an apple for lunch. When I opened my lunch tote at lunch time, a HORRIBLE, NAUSEATING smell erupted and I realized that my beef had been in the fridge a little too long. So, needless to say, I couldn't eat that. Well, Plan B should have been either eat the apple and the tomatoes and forget the meat OR go thru a drive thru and order just a grilled ck patty and eat it with my tomatoes and apple. BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOO....I used that as an excuse to "wait til tomorrow". That phrase is part of the reason I am where I am. UGH!!!! Anyway, tomorrow IS going to be better because I am cooking food tonight for the rest of the week. I did not get on the scales this a.m. due to lack of time and I just plain forgot but I will tomorrow and I will report the sad news. BUT, back on track, I hope to re-lose what I have gained and keep it up for the next 7 days. Thanks, J.H., for your (in your best disappointed voice) "KAREN....." this afternoon. It shamed me and that is a GOOD THING! :) Hoping to get back on track tomorrow with food that does NOT smell like something DEAD! :)

Thanks for reading!

....I am human!

I finally got my monthly visitor on Thursday night. Friday I did very well with eating the protein/no sugar, no starch. Saturday, I BLEW it!! Today I am kinda back on track but tomorrow starts the 500 calories again. I hate messing up because tomorrow morning there is no telling how much weight I have gained. I gain FAST! Anyway, I am hoping to be back in my right mind after TOM is GONE for a while! I have one more week of 500 calories and then off a couple of days. I am going to re-start on the 23rd and then go thru a full 23 day round!

still waiting........

Well, I was thinking that TOM was RIGHT around the corner...apparently not! However, I was getting so hungry the past couple of days, even with the injections, that I decided to go ahead and come off injections, maintain and then as soon as TOM comes and goes, I will go right back on injections and 500 calories. So far, so good on the maintenance...we shall see. Today I had a grilled ck salad with ranch, but I am hoping that doesn't make me gain.

More later...I am EXHAUSTED!

I almost forgot!!!

I did not meet my 15 lb goal today, but I am down 14.6, so hopefully I will be be down 15 lbs or more by morning! That would be great! :)

Ok, I'm done for today! :)

Maintenance and Stabilization

The maintenance portion of this diet is designed to maintain the weight on your LAST injection day. During maintenance, you can eat anything except starch and sugar. It's basically the "protein" diet except that you can have carbs, just not starch. Maintenance is to last for 3-6 weeks after your last injection. During maintenance, you are not supposed to gain or lose over 2lbs from the LIW (last inj weight). If you go over the 2 lbs (even by .2) you are to do what Dr. S called a "steak day". On this day, you drink lots of water, skipping breakfast and lunch and then at dinner time you eat a HUGE steak and either and apple or tomato ( I would have to break this up into lunch and dinner or I would have to be scraped off the floor). This is supposed to reset your weight to the previous day and then you can start back with the maintenance plan. After 3 weeks you can begin adding starch and sugar but still abiding by the 2lb rule and doing a steak day anytime you are over that 2 lbs. So far, I have not done the maintenance the way it should be done, HENCE the weight gain! By doing this maintenance your body is supposed to basically get "stuck" at this weight so that in reality you should be able to eat whatever you want, which is why this is called the CURE to obesity! I have always just done the 3 weeks of maintenance and then started right back with gorge days and vlcd since I am not "done" yet. This time I am committing to do the steak days when necessary!

Ok, so back to while I am on my TOM. Instead of starving AND having immense pain, I am just going to add ounces to the veg. and meat for a couple of days and then after it's over, I will go right back on the vlcd and injections. Hopefully this will allow me to maintain over those days and not be miserable! I feel like since this diet was invented in the 50's I can test variations. haha! I am also only going to be on maintenance for about a week before I go right back on injections. I am going to KY for SYTYCD and I have planned it out so that I am gorging while I am there AND I am trying to fit in 3 rounds before Disney! And let me go ahead and tell you that I WILL eat at Disney, but plan to inject those 4 days so that I can consider those days "gorge" days. You can gorge up to a week. So, while I may gain a little more than I would on the normal 2 gorge days, I will still be indulging myself within the legal limits of the diet! :)

So, I hope that this makes sense. It really does help so much to be able to put it out there.....it helps me with my planning! :)

Thanks for reading!!!

that time again.....

.....that FANTASTIC time that we ladies look forward to each month...it's right on the horizon and I am feeling it!!! Here's the way the diet is supposed to work during this time. You are supposed to skip injections but stay on the 500 cal. I am not real sure why that is....do we naturally produce hcg during TOM? Whatever the reason, you aren't supposed to inject. Anyway, I have never had to deal with this because I usually plan my diet around this time. Well, I know for a fact that I will STARVE on 500 cals without the HCG and it only takes like 24 hours to actually get out of your system. So....I think what I am going to do is actually go into the maintenance portion of the diet during my TOM and then pick back up with injections/500 cals after it's over. Luckily mine only lasts 3 days so I won't be off the diet for long. And I am willing to sacrifice the weightloss for 3 days in order to avoid starving!

I don't have time right now, but I will talk about the maintenance portion later on!

Uh Oh....

Well, my "cheat" caught up with me. If it's not on the food list, there is a reason. Yesterday when I got up and weighed I had lost another 1.3 lbs to make the grand total 12.6...yay me! BUT remember the other day when I ate the most delicious, yet most illegal peanut butter? Yeah, I guess it finally caught up with me because this morning I got up and had just maintained. I know that is better than a gain, but still.......

Today I am cooking chicken and green beans for a couple of meals. I LOVE chicken but I don't like to thaw and cook it. So, I have to get ahead of the game on that. Yesterday I had 2 meals with beef (which could be another reason for a stall today). For lunch I made about 10 mini meat balls...they were so cute and so YUM! With that I ate some mustard and a pickle. Then last night I cooked beef and onions with lots of garlic and chili powder. They were DELISH! I love onions!!! :) I ate my 2 apples for lunch and dinner. Overall it was a very good day. The only thing is the water. I drank 96 oz, which is alot, but not as much as I feel I need on this diet. So today, I must do better!!!

So this is a short post but just wanted to update my loss and stall :( for the weekend. I am still hoping to reach 15 lbs by tomorrow morning...I better go drink some water! :)

Thanks for reading!!!

God is good!

So, before I begin, I wanted to show you what the "old" me looked like. I hope to refresh my own memory by posting pics every now and then of what I used to look like! This was about 3 1/2 years ago at my aunt's wedding. Right?? Packed on the poundage huh?! It disgusts me to think that in the face of stress and worry while Jason was jobless and life was just not great, that I decided to turn to food instead of GOD and let it control my life in such a way that I gave up feeling good and feeling good about myself. Anyway, just a glimpse into my past soon to be future! Ok, now I'll blog.....

In the face of much temptation this week, God has really given me some mighty strength! Yesterday with the cookies and then today with cupcakes and ice cream (a bday party in my classroom)...and this afternoon I took the kids to CFA for ice cream and just the smell of that place makes my mouth water! I could eat it morning, noon and night! That and pizza....yum. Ok, back to that mighty strength....HAHA!

Last night, I did a no no, but for a no no I thought it was a wise choice. I buy "natural" peanut butter for myself because I can eat that during the maintenance portion of the diet. So, remember how I said that eating at 4:45 was a good thing and that I would eat nothing else all night? HA! I got hungry around 7:30 and since I had already had all my foods for the day, I was stumped. I drank tons of water but also had 1/2 an apple and a tsp of natural peanut butter. PB is not even on the diet! OOPS....BUT it beats having a doughnut or a nutty buddy bar (another fave...) However, when I got on the scales this a.m. I had lost another 2.2 lbs. for a grand total of 11.3!!!!!! I met my goal! And that was only DAY 3!!!! I am so excited!

Today, I had beef and tomatoes again for lunch and I'm gonna eat chicken and green beans for dinner. I was going to try my canned asparagus, but since I was already cooking green beans for the kids, I thought I would just wait on the asparagus. I had strawberries for my lunch time fruit and I am thinking a delish McIntosh apple for dessert tonight....minus the peanut butter!!!! :)

Hoping that this weekend I will be up to at least 15 lbs lost which should be a pretty reachable goal! Hope everyone has a great Friday night! Mine will be spent going thru my kids Winter clothing to see what is going to need to be purchased....fun times!

Thanks for reading!!! :)

.....wow

Today, I have been laughed in the face by choc chip cookies, m&m cookies (both in my classroom), doughnuts and HOMEMADE mac and cheese! But, I definitely did NOT eat any of it but I was tempted......

I woke up this morning and weighed in and had lost another 2.9 lbs for a total of 9.2! I am so stoked!!! Hoping to be over 10 lbs in 3 days by tomorrow morning, and since I ate dinner early (4:45ish) and won't have anything else, I think this will definitely happen!

Today, I had a beef patty and tomatoes for lunch with a handful of strawberries. It was good but I feel like I inhaled it. I was leaving work early and was working and eating and passing out lunches to the kiddos all at the same time. By the time I was done with all of that, I could barely remember eating! The kids and I went to Bham this afternoon (after I bought tags...boo!) so I had packed my dinner to eat at my mama's. Chicken, green beans (breaking my veggie rule again...maybe I will just forget that rule) and another handful of strawberries...YUM-O! I love this diet because I literally don't even think about food until it's actually lunch time and the same for dinner. I love not being hungry during the day!

Well, baths and homework await me, yet again. Thanks for reading!

Grocery shopping is always fun.....

Since my precious hubby does not have football practice on Wednesday anymore, I informed him this morning that he would be meeting me at the grocery store after school because it was going to take 2 buggies to buy all we needed....and it did! We had run out of everything!!! This is probably TMI, but we were even down to our last roll of tp and were passing it back and forth from bathroom to bathroom...sad day, I know! Anyway, 2 hours and 2 HUGE buggy fulls and $400 (that is the highest bill we have ever had at the grocery store...I mean we were out of EVERYTHING!!!) later our pantry, fridge, cleaning bucket, etc is fully stocked and we feel like a new family! While I am on this subject, I will go ahead and talk about the items that I bought for my diet: Lean ground beef, more green beans, more chicken, cherry tomatoes, canned asparagus (never tried this, but thought it wouldnt hurt), strawberries, my FAVE McIntosh apples, bag salad, and onions. I bet my little part of the grocery bill is like $50 max. :)

Moving right along....today was a great day! My injection kicked in quickly and once again today, I was feeling extremely satisfied until noon when I ate (once again) baked chicken with green beans and an apple. Tonight I think I am going to have a beef patty and I may break my rule of "same veggie" cause I am hungry and don't wanna wait on green beans to cook. I forgot to mention this other "fudge" that Jason and I started. PICKLES! We figure it's a cucumber and we ate them last time and still lost. However, this is only an every now and then kind of thing because of the sodium. So, I guess tonight it's going to be beef and a pickle. I had my other apple for snack today so after I eat dinner, that will be it for the night.

Thanks everyone for your encouragement!! It really means a lot to me! Thanks for reading!!!

My day is made, and my focus is BACK....!!!

Ok, I REALLY don't have time to blog in the morning, but I could not hold this in all day long! Over the past couple of times I have tried restarting this diet, I would get half way through a VLCD and then blow it once I got home. Because of that, I have not experienced the awesome weight loss after that first VLCD day! Well, this time, that is NOT the case! This morning I could not wait to jump on the scales and what do you know?????? I lost 6.2 lbs!!!!! I am jumping for joy!

So glad I was able to have a few extra minutes to share this news!!! :)

OH! I just remembered that I am baking CHOC CHIP Cookies with my preschoolers today......I will not be tempted!!! :) I will check back this afternoon with food list and we're going grocery shopping so I will share what foods I got to eat over the next couple of weeks! Until then, have a blessed day in our LORD!! :)

Thanks for reading!

Day 1 VLCD...

Today was my first day on the VLCD after loading on whatever I could find within my reach yesterday. It went pretty well! I got up this morning and weighed in. The weight on the morning after loading (I like to call it GORGING) is the "starting weight. I won't share my weight but let's just say that it is NOT 135lbs...ha! After weighing in I gave myself my injection...now, before you start freaking out, let me just say that the injections are painless! The needles are super tiny. I have always used a 1 inch 30 gauge needle but forgot to order more ( I order them from Amazon) so this time I got insulin needles. I did plenty of research and decided that it would be just as effective to use a 1/2 inch needle to avoid having to order and then wait ANY longer to begin the diet. Sidenote: you can mix HCG and take it by mouth, but I prefer the injections. Anyway, on this diet, "breakfast" is your injection. Once you inject the HCG, it gets that abnormal fat moving through the body and even though you have not consumed calories, it works as if you had. So, even if I wake up a little hungry, once I inject it almost immediately makes the hunger go away. So, until noon, I was fully satisfied with just my water and one stick of gum :) At noon, I ate 3.5 ounces of baked chicken breast and 1/2 can of green beans. Green beans are not actually on Dr. Simeons original food list, but I know lots of people who have done this diet, ate green beans and been just fine. So, this time I am doing green beans! I also ate an apple. The diet says I could have a grissini breadstick (basically a saltine cracker) or melba toast, but I am ok without it so I don't eat it. For dinner I will either have the same meal as lunch or a lean beef pattie and green beans. I try to keep my veggie and fruit the same at both meals. Not sure why, I just do. Maybe I was told by someone that was the way to do it, I don't know. As of right now I have drank 3 of my 32 ounce water bottles (96 ounces) and will probably drink at least 64 more ounces if not more. This diet calls for LOTS and LOTS of water to flush out that abnormal fat. So, the more you go, the more you lose! And trust me, I go ALOT!!!!!! Hopefully the scales will reflect that tomorrow! :) Right now, I am feeling a little hungry but this is my "hungry time" of day anyway. I will probably go ahead and eat my other apple now and then wait a little later to eat dinner. Usually once I eat my apple, or whatever fruit I am eating that day, I can go several more hours and not have any hunger. (because the abnormal fat is still circulating in my body and being flushed out by my gazillion ounces of water) ;)

Ok, so I wanted to post the food list but I can't figure how to copy and paste. If anyone can enlighten me, please do so. So, here goes. This is Dr. Simeon's VLCD:

Breakfast: HCG injection or drops by mouth, coffee or tea with no sweetner
Only 1 tbsp of milk allowed within a 24 hour period; sacchrine or stevia can be used
SIDENOTE: I do not use stevia. I do drink at least one diet coke per day but no more than 2. Today I have had 2.

Lunch: 1. 100 grams of veal, beef, chicken breast, fresh white fish, lobster, crab or shrimp. All visible fat must be carefully removed before cooking and the meat must be weighed raw. Must be boiled or grilled without any additional fat. Salmon, eel, tuna, herring, dried or pickled fish are not allowed. The chicken breast must be removed from the bird.

2. One type of vegetable from the following list: spinach, chard, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage.

3. One breadstick (grissini) or one melba toast

4. Apple, orange or handful of strawberries or 1/2 grapefruit. ( I have fudged the fruit a little and eaten grapes and watermelon, but not much!)

Ok, so that's it. I know it seems very rigid and it is! But, this is the only kind of diet I can do! I cant do WW because there are too many choices and the only other diet that I have actually had success on was LA Weightloss and their food list is also extremely strict.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I am off to eat my other apple for the day! I will weigh in the morning and give an update of my loss and also about my day. Thanks for reading! :)

HCG Diet Explained - Dr. Simeons Pounds and Inches

The beginning....

Ok, so I am so not a blogger, but I feel that I need something to hold me accountable and to keep me on track. If noone reads it, that's ok, but for me, to know that it's public and someone COULD stumble upon it, is huge!

I guess the first thing to do would be to decribe "the diet" that I do and love...when I can stick to it, that is. It's the HCG Diet. I first heard about this diet from my friend Stacy. I thought she was NUTS when she told me that she injected herself with the pregnancy hormone HCG and then only ate 500 calories a day. And this isn't just any 500 calories, it's 500 calories of food from a very strict list. So, like I said, I thought she was crazy, coo-coo, out of her mind....UNTIL I saw her at Collin and Brylie's baptism and she was TINY!!! We have battled weight together since 9th grade and when I saw her, I knew I had to have some of whatever it was she was doing! So....last year, I started the HCG diet and lost 50 lbs. HA! I know, it really looks like it now huh? I have pretty much gained all but maybe 15-20 back and I am miserable! I do not like the way I look or feel and it's time to do something and get SERIOUS about it. I like to think I have lots of will power but here lately, I am not sure what is up. I really think being alone alot (the life of a coach's wife) has alot to do with it. I am bored, so I eat....sad, I know. OK, so back to the description: I thought I would type it all out but instead I found a great youtube vid that decribes it perfectly! So, I would encourage you, if you plan to follow me through this journey, to watch the video in my previous post.

Ok, so hopefully you have seen the video and understand somewhat about the way hcg and a vlcd (very low calorie diet) works.

Last night I decided that today was the day! Since I had not been on the injections in a while, I went ahead and did a load day where you eat and eat and eat. I am really good at that. This helps you get through the first couple of days without starving until the hcg is in your system really good. Tomorrow will be my first 500 calorie day. I have already prepared food for 4 meals and I am very excited about restarting! I will do 3 23 day cycles before we leave for Disney and worst case scenario, that should be close to 70 lbs. We shall see.

I am not posting my weight here but will post my losses and gains, food that I have eaten during the day and how I feel. If you are following me, thank you! It means alot to me. I really hope that this is the key to getting myself moving and away from my ridiculous obsession with FOOD!