WHUMP!

That, my friends, was the sound of me falling off the wagon. Hard.

I went a little crazy last night. Ok, a lot crazy. It was 100% emotional. My husband has been gone and now is sick, the kids were driving me bananas and I just lost it. I binged.

I ate chocolate, chips, ritz crackers with homemade chicken salad and a bowl of cereal. And then I got very sick. Now, here's where it gets dicey. See, I've had digestion problems forever; I don't know what else to call it. With all of my pregnancies I was very ill and threw up a lot. Because of that, my gag reflex is very sensitive. SO, if I get sick and need to throw up; I can. It's just a hair shy of bulimia, I'd say. Because the thing is, I can also (sometimes) hold it in and NOT throw up.

But I didn't hold it in. I knew I'd done some major damage and I took advantage of my body's weakness and threw up. It was like my body knew I was sabotaging it and was waging a civil war. Part of me was so so ill and needed to get the junk out and the other part was holding on to all that fat and sugar for dear life. It was not my finest moment.

It was a huge wake up call. I have to be responsible for my actions, for what I put in my mouth. Just because my body has a weakness and throws up easily does not give me license to eat whatever I want and then let my body take care of the rest. I'm ashamed and properly humbled. I disappointed myself.

This morning my weight was the same as yesterday. 143.2. I ended up taking the last of my drops last night and was planning to do low cal today. I started off great with an apple. Then I had to take my kiddos for immunizations and what should have been a 20 minute appointment ended up taking over 1.5 hours. We came home stressed and starving. I made peanut butter popcorn for the kids, and I ate 5 bites of it. Then I ate a bit of rotisserie chicken.

The dumb thing is that the peanut butter popcorn totally didn't live up to my expectations. I was expecting this delicious, mouth watering, tantalizing treat and it just wasn't. If I never eat it again I won't be sad. I can live without it.

Anyway, I think I'll take it easy with food the rest of the day. Maybe eat a few apples and call it good. I'm not feeling so hot. I know PMS is playing a big factor right now, but I haven't really ever just full on binged like that, shoving food in my mouth like a maniac. It was frightening. Sure, I've eaten more than I needed to at times, but this was different.

So today is a somber day for me. A wake up call that I will be heeding. It's very humiliating to write this all out, but I'm not going to lie and pretend like everything is roses and sunshine if it's not. I am very glad that I am taking the whole month of August and the first 2 weeks of September off from HCG. I need to regroup.

In other, happier news, my friend left me this happy little arrangement yesterday:
Don't you just love it!? That cup makes me smile really big. I can't wait to enjoy a warm cup of coffee out of it, preferably with creamer and good friends! ;-)

Kate once again obliged me as my personal photographer. Here I am in my pre-children jeans.
I feel like the vest makes me very blocky. So I took it off.
Hmmm, not much difference. :-P

I hope you all are doing well! Have a wonderfully fun and relaxing weekend. :0)

PS. Ummmm, am I totally overdoing it with the emoticons? I am? Hmmm. Ah well, it is what it is. :-D

Cracking

Hi Friends!

Boy howdy, it seems every day my will power cracks a bit more. I was up 0.2 this morning, although I'm sure it is due to the salt/fat from the rotisserie chicken. I'm not worried; in fact, I didn't even move my ticker to reflect the gain. I know it will come off at some point during my maintenance phase. I don't even care if I don't lose another ounce. Apparently. This morning I ate 2 turkey sausage links and drank a cup of coffee with creamer. SO NOT on the diet of allowed foods!

I had a friend here; she lives in a city about 2 hours away and was up our way so I invited her to spend the night. She did, and we had a lovely chat over breakfast and coffee. I wouldn't change it, even if it means the scale goes up more tomorrow.

I'm back on track now and have eaten an apple. My drops will run out tonight.

Now, technically, you're supposed to do 3 additional days of 500 calories while the drops get out of your system. In my experience, (and my mom's) the drops clear your system much faster than that. Within 24 hours you can tell they're gone BECAUSE you get ravenously hungry. The drops aren't opening up your fat cells for energy anymore.

My plan is to do my darndest to stick to low cal tomorrow and then on Saturday start my full fledged maintenance portion, which means eating what I want, when I want, sticking to a loose Atkins diet and not gaining 2 pounds in a day. ;-) We'll see how successful I am. :o)

August is going to be an insanely busy month; we have things going on almost every single week and weekend up until school starts. All of it fun. :-D I'm not sure how often I'll be able to blog but I will promise to blog when I can. It just won't be every day.

Hope you all are well; all day today I've been thinking it's Friday. I'm so disappointed when I realize it's only Thursday. GAH! Ah, well. Tomorrow will be here soon enough. =)

Thank you so much for all the kind comments on the pictures I posted; I don't even think the second one is that flattering, but it was the best I could do for now. I'll try to get some better ones and post them at some point later.

I can't remember who mentioned it to me in their comment... but about baking a chicken in the oven. Can you post directions/a recipe? That sounds really good and I'd like to try it.

Well, I'm off to sit in the sunshine on our deck!

Rotisserie Chicken

Howdy, Folks!

I lost .6 today. Only 3 days (including today) left of drops, but I'm not sure if I have enough drops for all 3 days. I'm sort of hoping I run out a day early. ;-)

I'm picking up a rotisserie chicken today; I can't believe I didn't think of it before. It probably has a tad more fat than a baked chicken, but at this point I don't care. I simply can't choke down one more bit of baked chicken. It's starting to taste really "gamey". Bleh. I'm also out of low fat hamburger, but don't want to buy more since I'm almost done.

Today I'm wearing a vest that had previously "fit".... like a sausage casing! Today it zipped up with ease and there is even room to spare!! I am sooo excited about this. I'm also wearing my pre-children jeans... and they are starting to fall off, straight from the dryer! Not bad enough that I need to change, but still sliding down. Guess I'll have to hit up Maurice's for some new jeans! YAY!!!

Last night was incredibly difficult. I spent all day cleaning and working, and then once the kids were in bed and I was settled in with my book (again with the non-stop mention of cheese danish!) I was craving the Sour Cream and Cheddar chips, the Norwegian milk chocolate bar and the Cinnamon Crisp cookies in my pantry. Dear goodness me, the cravings were SO strong! PMS much!? LOL :-) It was all I could do not to run out and grab my goodies, jump back in bed and munch and read to my heart's delight.

But, I didn't do it. I can tell my self-control is wearing very thin, however. I'm hoping that once i start maintenance and can eat solid, yummy food again that I won't feel as hungry and tempted to junk food. I do remember the last few days being the absolute hardest before, so this isn't new.

My sister and my mom just finished their rounds of HCG and both lost around 18 pounds. Not too shabby for 21 days! 19 if you don't count the binge days. My sister has lost a total of 25 pounds; she started HCG but ended up getting really sick and had to stop. She took a few weeks off and started again, and completed the whole second cycle with no problems.

KUDOS to you both, Mom and Liz!!!

Anyway, I'm off to get my chicken and take lunch to my hubs. Since he commutes 45 minutes to 1.5 hours each way (depending on traffic) it will take up a good chunk of the day, which is just what the kiddos and I need. To get out of the house and see our favorite guy. He's been gone a lot recently and it's wearing on all of us. So, we're off to treat ourselves to a mid-day Daddy visit!

30 pounds gone!

WOOT! Today marks 30 pounds gone from my highest weight. (Ok, I may be 4 ounces shy, but I didn't have a scale that read in increment of .2 when I began, so I don't know exactly what I started at. I just know it was below 173.6) I started this blog when I was doing calorie counting/exercise and had lost 7 pounds on my own. Then I stalled forever until I began doing HCG. Today I am 30 pounds lighter!!!!

Here is what I looked like at the beginning of the HCG diet. Excuse the photo; my daughter took it, I wasn't ready, but none of the other ones turned out. ;-)



This is me yesterday. Again, sorry for the small/dumb picture. Since I broke my camera we were using my cell phone. "We" being my 5 year old daughter. ;-)


Those are my size 10 capris that I miraculously fit into. It's very strange for me to wrap my brain around. I went clothes shopping over the weekend and I was pulling sizes 10-14 off the rack to try on. The 14's were definitely too big. I fit mostly 10/12's. Insane. But a good insane!

I have 4 days left of drops. I can't wait to be done, although today I have kept myself very busy with cleaning... and I mean DEEP CLEANING... my house. It has been interesting to note that I haven't been nearly as hungry or tempted to eat as when I sit around and read or surf the web, etc... So I plan to keep myself busy these last 4 days.

If I can get down to 142 by Friday I will have lost 10 pounds this round and I will be very pleased with that. Even if I don't, I'm not disappointed with my results. The only dumb thing is that I am definitely going to have to do another round. I had hoped to be in the 130's and get the rest off with Atkins. I plan to do Atkins once I finish the drops, as that is what Dr. Simeon (the man who "created" the HCG diet) recommends.

Atkins works well for me because I LOVE meat and cheese. And I can drink all the sugar free zebra (white and milk chocolate) americanos with cream I want! ;-)

Hope you all are having a great day!

5 more days

Happy Monday, folks!

How was your weekend? I had a lovely one; yesterday my husband and I even reclined outside on our deck in our new deck chairs, reading in the sun while all 3 of the kids napped. It was pure bliss, I tell ya!

Today is Day 17, so I have 5 more days until I'm done with the drops! I am so excited; the last week has always been hard because it's so close yet so far away from being able to eat real food. Anything other than chicken, hamburger, and salad. ;-)

This is what the scale said today:
I'm happy with those results. Honestly, I really don't even care if I lose more weight this round. I'm just trying to hang in there til Friday... well, Saturday really. I so want to just blow off these last few days and EAT. Part of the problem is that once again it's PMS time and I am HUNGRY. So I want to eat everything in sight. =)

Hope you all are doing well and had a fabulous weekend!

Onion Rings

Hi Folks!
Well, I ate 3 apples and 5 onion rings yesterday and my body apparently didn't like it. I only lost 0.2 pounds. Ah, well. It was worth it.

The onion rings were fabulous! Definitely not the thick coated, beer battered yumminess you'll find in a pub or restaurant, but still.

I used a sweet onion and it was so good. My eyes popped open; I was surprised that it actually ended up being so tasty.

For lunch today I had a chicken, celery, apple salad with a citrus dressing. It was really good too; it reminded me of Thai food. I think it was the dressing; lemon juice, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, salt and sugar (Truvia in my case). It was good, but not nearly as good as the Strawberry Vinaigrette I plan to eat tonight. =)

My good friend Annie, who has also done HCG, had a good point when I checked in with her this morning. We text every day with our weight updates. ;-) She thought maybe my body was going into starvation mode, because you're only supposed to do an apple day if you haven't lost anything in 4 days. It was a good reminder that I need to eat. Since I haven't been starving this time, like I was last time, I've tended to focus more on losing weight instead of food. So when the scale doesn't show big losses, then I jump straight into apple days.

I'll continue to eat all my allotted food until this round is up... 8 more days! I have several goodies stashed in my freezer for when I'm on maintenance. Some cookies I made that are pure bliss. Think cinnamon sugary, buttery goodness. Snickerdoodles raised to the next level. YUM.

I also have some Norwegian chocolate. It makes Hershey's taste like plastic. It is SO GOOD. Pure milk chocolate. Be still my beating heart! I also have some homemade cheese bread stashed in there that I made yesterday. It smelled so delicious yesterday.

Here it is, served with the lasagna I made my family last night:
And here are the onion rings and diet root beer I had for "dinner". ;-) The picture does them no justice.
I will definitely be making the onion rings again, even when not on the diet. Here is the recipe, for any who are so inclined to be so tedious as to make HCG friendly onion rings. :-D

80g of onion (preferably sweet, like Vidalia or Walla Walla)
1 grissini (this is a crunchy breadstick)
1 T milk
1/4 t cayenne pepper (I used smoked paprika instead)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Heat the oven to 450*.
Grind the grissini in a blender or food processor until fine powder.
Combine milk and spices in a bowl.
Coat a ring of onion with the liquid batter. Continue until all rings have been coated. Let sit 2-3 minutes, then coat again.
Roll the onion ring in the ground grassini to coat. (It's a VERY THIN coating!)
Place on a greased sheet of foil and bake 6-7 minutes, flip and bake 6-7 minutes more.

Enjoy immediately!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I hope my weigh in on Monday has me at 144 something, but we'll see. I've been stuck at 145 all week with minimal losses, so we'll see.

Recipe

I forgot that I was going to include the recipe for the Spinach, Chicken and Strawberry salad. I think you'll enjoy it, even if you aren't on the HCG diet. ;-)

2c spinach (or romaine)
100 grams chicken (or more, if you aren't on a diet) :-)

Vinaigrette:
4 or 5 strawberries, washed and de-stemmed.
1 T lemon juice
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 packet of Truvia... you could use sugar as well, and I'm guessing you'd need 2t or so.
Dash of salt

Combine vinaigrette ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour over chicken and spinach and enjoy!

You can use fewer strawberries in the dressing and cut them up on the salad, but I *hate* a dry salad, so I prefer to have a lot of dressing. ;-)

This makes enough for one scrumptious salad!

Oops, I messed up a bit

Good Morning!

I was down 0.2 this morning, but I'm not surprised that it was so little. I had a little oopsie moment yesterday. I didn't cheat! Well, not on purpose.

Allison at http://lovingmycomplicatedlife.blogspot.com/ sent me a link a while back to an HCG recipe website. I forwarded it to my mom and sister, who are both doing HCG with me. My mom immediately started trying the recipes and was raving about the Chicken, Strawberry, Spinach salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette. She told me to try it, and I finally did, yesterday.

It was SOOOO good! I ended up eating it twice; and then I realized that in doing so I went over my fruit allotment for the day, because I had also eaten an apple. I also doubled my meat both meals, since that really seemed to make a difference with my fatigue/weakness/dizziness. I also had a very poor day concerning water intake. So, I'm just thankful I lost at all.

I'm doing an apple day today. I enjoy the apples and it's not hard for me, so I may as well. Tomorrow when I eat normally again, I think I will go back to eating 3.5oz chicken and 3.5oz vegetable with 2 fruit options. If I start to feel dizzy, I will just eat a portion of fried egg whites.

Other than that, all is well. I had a significant victory this morning. I was talking to my husband, making plans for tonight. After our conversation, I realized that I was excited about tonight (we don't even have big plans... we'll probably just watch a movie at home or play a game) BUT for the first time ever my excitement didn't revolve around the snacks we would eat. The food didn't even come to mind! I was just excited to spend some time with my hubby.

So, I'm making progress! Life isn't about food. Having a fun time doesn't have to mean there is food involved. Hooray!

In other news, today is my niece's 1st birthday! Happy Birthday, Savannah Grace!!!!!! I can't believe I'm not there to celebrate with her. =( I'll make up for it when I go down in August.

In other, other news Josh and I booked a vacation for later in August!!! This will be our first out of state vacation to a warm place since our honeymoon, 6.5 years ago. I am SO SO excited. We wanted to go to Mexico, but Josh doesn't have that much time off. Well, he totally has 2 weeks of vacation, but he is so busy that it would be shooting himself in the foot to take it right now. So we're going for 4 days to Indio, CA. We have a timeshare there and have heard good things about it.

So on that happy note, I'll bid you adieu for today. =0)

Moving and Grooving

WHEW! The apple day worked and I'm down a pound. =)

It's interesting; in my head I don't think I've realized that I'm really in the 140's. Every time I go to update my weight ticker, I type 154 instead of 145 or whatever. It's a good reminder.

I ate 5 apples yesterday and felt good. I am contemplating doing an apple day once or twice more during these last 10 days of drops. Sometimes it's nice to just have crisp, refreshing apples all day.

Not much else to report, really. Busy with my sister-in-law and kiddos, housework, errands, the usual stuff.

Oh!! Funny story. Yesterday after I changed out of my shorts, I pulled on some capris. They fit nicely, but felt a tiny bit more snug than I remembered, so I asked Kate (my 5 year old) to look at the tag and tell me what numbers were on them. She said, "There's a 1 and a 0". WHAT!?!?! I was wearing size 10 capris!!! And they fit! By the end of the day they had stretched out and were sliding down my bum. Not anywhere close to falling off, but definitely not tight. I wore them comfortably all day long. YAY!!!!

I need to buy some new jeans. The 11/12's I just bought are definitely too big. When I button/zip them there is a good 2 inches between the band and my stomach. They fall down a lot, which is annoying. ;-)

Well, I'm off to start my day. I got some good sleep last night and it is amazing how much better I feel today. Like a different person, really. :-)

So Frustrated

UGH. Double UGH!

I did not lose one single, solitary ounce today. How can that be!? I had 1 apple and 1 salad with chicken yesterday. I don't understand at all. Now I'm unsure as to whether I should do another apple day, and eat 5 apples like you're supposed to, if I should fast until dinner or if I should eat normally; well, eat the normal HCG diet way. I'm leaning towards eating normally because I'm worried maybe my body thinks I'm trying to starve it.

It's so frustrating to be so strict with yourself and then have a day of no change. I'm trying to focus on NSV (non-scale victories) today.

*I wore a pair of jeans on Sunday that I haven't been able to fit into in 5 years. They are pre-children pants, and they are a JUNIORS size 13.

*Today I tried to wear a pair of shorts that I couldn't button or zip a few weeks ago. They are too big. I don't want to pull a Dawnie and have my pants around my ankles today, so I had to change. ;-)

*I can see in the mirror that I am significantly smaller.

*I have lost 26 pounds. I'm over half way to my goal.

*My rings are getting too big and will need to be re-sized. I'm waiting until I hit my goal weight to do it, though.

*My back fat is drastically reduced. There aren't any lumps and rolls anymore, unless I scrunch down in my seat and lean over. :-D

*My rear end looks/fits better in my nice undies from Victoria's Secret.

Whew, just typing that out helped me feel better. And remember that life is not all about losing weight. It's a part of my life, right now, but it's not the most important thing. Not by a long shot. So I'm off to have a good day with gremlins, um, I mean children, who apparently have no need for sleep. ;-)

Hmmm, it seems I've lost my cursor. Weird. I can't tell where I am on the page. Guess that's my cue to get off the computer!

Taking a day. An apple day.

Hello Friends,
Just a quick post today. I have my SIL staying with us and it's been really nice. Only problem is we've been doing more things than usual so A) I'm tired and B) I've had to be creative with my eating. For instance, yesterday we were gone over the lunch hour so we stopped at Burger King. Obviously I can't have a burger and fries, so I ordered the garden salad with grilled chicken, threw away the carrots, tomatoes and cheese that came with it, and used 1 tablespoon of the light Italian dressing. I'm sure it was still much higher in fat and calories than what I'm supposed to have, but that's life.

I am going to try to do an apple day today, which means all I eat today is 5 apples. I'll have to see how I do with the dizziness, which by the way, has gotten much better. If it comes back, I'll have to go back to my protein.

Here is what the scale said today:

So it's moving in the right direction. =)

Hope you all have a wonderful week! I have my doc appointment on Thursday to see if I have kidney or gall stones, and if not, try to find out what the mysterious pain I have is.

Ciao!

Quickie Update

Just a quick post to say I'm down another pound, yippee!

I am still getting lightheaded, but not as much or as severe. So for now, I'm sticking with the plan. I'm happy about this.

I went clothes shopping today with 2 of my sister-in-laws and I actually had fun! I liked what I saw in the mirror. There is still room for improvement, but I don't feel like the beached whale I was 26 pounds ago. I'm excited to finish my journey and see where 130 pounds will take me. =)

I get to go on a date with my hubby tonight so I had 3 strawberries and 3 apple slices for breakfast. I'm fasting the rest of the day until dinner, and I plan to order baked/grilled chicken breast and steamed veggies. We'll see if that affects my weigh in tomorrow, but even if it does I don't really mind.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Update to my Update ;-)

Wow, it's like the old days when I'd post 2-3 times a day! :-P

Just wanted to share what I had for lunch:

That is 100g of strawberries (and according to this, I was eating WAY too many strawberries before... my packet said 6 large strawberries and these strawberries are not "large" in my opinion. That is a child size plate. But I digress...) I also had 1/4c of egg whites, fried with some spices and a veggie burger. That's about 15g of protein and 3.5g of fat. Technically egg whites aren't one of the foods you're supposed to eat, but they are a good source of protein without the fat.

I'm giving it until tomorrow evening to see how I do. I'll keep ya posted! ;-)

Update from Beth

Here is the reply I got from Beth, regarding my weakness and fatigue:

"Nice to hear from you. Wish you would have contacted me sooner so I could help you through this :)
You need more protein! Especially if you are on the go with 3 little children :) And all the swimming, etc.
No wonder why you felt "weak". You could have even added in a "low carb" protein drink and that would
have made all the difference for you.
It doesn't hurt to "stop" the diet............especially if this is your second time around. The reason you
wouldn't is that you need to get the 20 days in to "balance" that hypothalamus. That has already been
done first time. So you did OK.
Blessings, Beth"

So my plan for now is to add in more protein. I plan to double it for each meal and see how I feel. I'll check into the protein drink and maybe replace that for one of my meals. If this dizziness doesn't go away, I'm going back to maintenance. It is literally EVERY SINGLE TIME I stand up that I have to grip on to furniture, the counter, anything to keep from keeling right over.

So I'll keep an eye on the scale and my weakness and go from there. For now, I'm basking in the luxury of eating 7 whole ounces of meat at each meal. ;-)

Hiccups and the importance of water

It's so weird, but every single time I do this diet, somewhere along the way, I get the hiccups. And they last all day long. And sometimes more than one day. Very odd!

I was down only .4 today... about 6 ounces. However, I drank basically no water yesterday. I haven't been feeling very well and straight water to my stomach doesn't help. I've been trying to lay off the Crystal Light stuff, but then I don't drink my water. Guess I'll be getting some more CL today. I also ate a veggie burger with my hamburger on Wed, so maybe that caught up with me.

I really don't know what's going on, but I don't feel as healthy, alive or vibrant this time around. Yesterday, once the afternoon hit, I got SO dizzy every time I stood up that I had to hold on to something so I wouldn't fall down. I had to lay my head on the counter or whatever furniture was around and try not to pass out. Very strange. I upped my potassium intake and today am working on drinking more water.

I think maybe I didn't let enough time lapse between my last round and this one. I was reading up, and I guess it's not a very good idea to start and stop within a 2 week period. Maybe that's what is going on? I'm pressing on... but if I start feeling worse or lose any more energy or continue getting dizzy then I'll stop. I don't want to, but I'll quit, wait 3 weeks on maintenance and then start again. It'll prolong the journey, but if it helps me feel better, it's worth it. I'm going to email Beth, the lady I bought my original drops from, and see what she suggests.

My body is definitely getting smaller. My size 11/12 jeans are definitely too big, but I just bought them last month! Guess I need to go shopping again. =) I'm not sure if I'll fit comfortably in size 10's yet though. Maybe when I get a little closer to the lower 140's. 148.2 is still pretty high to be wearing a 10 (in my case... it seems like every body is different, since Dawne can already fit nicely into 10's). I guess I'll just have to go out and see what fits. ;-)

I am so incredibly happy it's Friday!!!! My kiddos woke up between 6 and 6:30 (after a late bedtime of 9 last night... this is late, as they are only 5, 4 and almost 3 years old) and they all jumped off the wrong side of the bed with a vengeance. It's been an interesting morning, and I feel weak and tired. I may attempt the library later, but Lord knows I'll need some sort of fortification in order to be able to do it!

I can't wait for my hubs to get home tonight; Friday is pizza night in our house so I know I don't have to cook. And we have a new disc of Ally McBeal to watch, so it should be a relaxing evening once the kiddos are in bed. Gotta love that!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! I will keep you posted with Beth's recommendation and whether I continue on the HCG or switch to maintenance. =)

Another One Bites the Dust

Pound, that is. ;-)

It's very interesting; this time around I feel like I'm losing more weight each day, but I also am much, much, much more fatigued and just generally drained/tired. By the end of the day I am a limp noodle and if I haven't started dinner earlier, we usually end up eating something really easy. Last night we had hamburgers, but I had patties in the freezer so it wasn't a big undertaking. The night before I made meatballs in the crockpot and then made some noodles to go with it.

It's not as hard to eat my food this time, as opposed to what my family is having; I'm not angry at dinner time. ;-) I'm just annoyed that I can't eat what I want, but I'm not dying of hunger.

I'm excited to see the scale moving down, but won't lie... I'll be glad when this is over and I can eat normally again. Luckily my body really seems to have maintaining down to a science, so if I just don't eat too many carbs/bread/starches I don't gain copious amounts of weight.

I'm reading some mystery books right now that are set in the South, and in them there is SO MUCH talk of food. Coffee and Cheese Danishes to be exact; goodness gracious does that make my mouth water!! When you're on a restricted diet, there is food to be found EVERYWHERE. TV shows, books, even the grocery fliers that come in the mail!

Well, I need to go and start my day. The kids are clamoring for bubbles and water paint so I'd best get them set up before they take matters into their own hands. :-D

Hip Hip Hooray!

I AM FINALLY IN THE 140'S!!!!

Yesterday saw a GAIN of 3 ounces. Yes, a gain. I do not know how that happened, as I had only eaten 500 calories the day before, and it was not a matter of needing to use the bathroom. So weird!

Today I lost the 3 ounces I gained and another pound, so I'm down to 149.4. YAY YAY YAY YAY! I'm thinking of you, Dawne, and can't wait until you get to do your happy dance at seeing that number on the scale. =)

This time around has been much more difficult for me. I just don't want to do it; I don't want to be restricted in my eating choices. I also feel really, really tired. Of course, that may have something to do with the really draining week I had last week, but who knows.

Seeing the 140's helped, and I am going to just keep chugging, I'm going to persevere and be determined enough to finish what I start. My goal at this time is 130. I may try to lose an additional 5 after that, but we'll see.

For now, I'm just concentrating on today. I'm concentrating on drinking all the water I need to be drinking. I'm concentrating on enjoying my apple, chicken, broccoli, hamburger, cauliflower and strawberries. ;-)

It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day here, so I plan to take the kids to the playground or on a walk. Hopefully my energy doesn't dry up before I get out of the house! :-P

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!

Home Sweet Home Sweet Home

Wow, a whole week without a post?! That's a record for me. ;-)

We're finally home and settled back in. I am so incredibly lucky and thankful for Josh; he is an amazing man. He is not scared of housework and is the biggest help. All our things from the week are put away, there are clean linens on all the beds, the laundry is all done and the kitchen is clean. I couldn't have done it without his help. I heart him. :-D

I started my HCG drops on Saturday, so Saturday and Sunday were binge days. I gained a pound after Saturday's binge, but lost a pound this morning. I overdid my binging yesterday and ended up getting sick and throwing it all up. So this is my starting weight as of this morning:

It's a bad picture because I had a terrible time getting one! I broke our camera last week, WAAAAHHHH!!!!!! I am so so so sad about that. I dropped it and the lens cracked and it's not under warranty. =( Anyway, so I was trying to take it with my cell phone camera and the shadows kept getting in the way so the picture is not great.

ANYWAY, we're back at home, my chicken is baking as I type and I'm enjoying a cup of tea. I'm looking forward to FINALLY getting into the 140's. I'm glad I didn't gain weight with my off week last week; it was basically a moot week and for that I'm thankful. But now it's on to bigger and better places! Or, I guess I should say smaller and better places!! Hee Hee ;-)

I finally passed the place where I have lost more than I have left to lose, YAY!!!

I'll be posting much more regularly now that we're back.

Wednesday Update

Hello All,
Thanks for your concerns regarding my son. It was very frightening and I'm just glad we didn't have a true tragedy on our hands.

Erin-The helmet wasn't fitted professionally, but it is a round helmet; not spiked in the back. Let me know what the bike specialist people say about helmets on the kiddos in the bike trailers.

I lost 2 pounds on Tuesday, and then 3oz today--I'm currently sitting at 151.4. So I'm still about a pound away from my lowest weight, but I am very happy with that. I haven't been trying very hard at all, so I'll take each and every ounce that I go down.

It's been a bit rough being a single mom this week. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, since I'm the primary caregiver at home and at our church vacation center there is SO MUCH for the kids to do. But everything just takes a lot more work when you aren't in your own home/kitchen, etc...

And it does take a LOT of energy to do so much with 3 small children. Just getting them ready for swimming takes a full on battalion of lotions, potions and equipment. And then I have to reapply the sunscreen every hour because they are little fish and are in the water non stop. Then it's showers (I bathe them after each swim session since they are already wet and need to wash the chemicals off) getting dressed again, hair done, etc.. It all just adds up in the energy department.

Last night I broke down and ate 2 banana bread muffins, so I was actually quite surprised to see a loss today, albeit a small one. But considering I'm not taking the HCG drops and not eating 500 calories, I'm just thankful not to be gaining.

Not much else to report; I'll be back when I have time and internet access. =)

Detour

Hi Folks!
Phew, I have so much to fill you guys in on. So let's get started!

1) Helmets are NEVER supposed to be worn in cars, especially on toddlers in safety seats. We had a scary episode where my 2 year old wanted to wear his new helmet for the ride down. I thought it was fine... until he choked and threw up everywhere. He fell asleep, his head fell forward, and the chin strap choked him. I didn't even care about the puke everywhere, because all I could think about was "what if he silently suffocated/was strangled and we didn't know it!". It was horrible and we'll never make that mistake again.

2) It was sheer insanity to think I could survive on 500 calories while I'm a single parent this week and the kids are busy swimming, riding bikes, running everywhere, etc... So I'm doing Atkins maintenance this week and will resume my HCG drops when I get back home.

3) Yesterday I weighed 150.4!!!!!

4) Today I weighed 153.0!!! :-P

5) I got mixed up yesterday and in my head I was doing Atkins, so I was doing high fat meat and cheese, etc... But at the same time I indulged in a piece of delicious cheesecake/almond/torte/fresh berries and 2 Norwegian pastries AND a blended coffee drink. So no wonder I gained 3 pounds. ;-)

6) Today I'm back on Atkins, and trying to really limit how much I eat in an effort to hopefully lose 2 of the gained pounds by tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. I'm not super stressed about it because I do need to erm... use the bathroom and also I know it will come off if I am conscious of what I eat from here on out. I also am really dehydrated and need to drink much more water.

7) I've been reading my scale wrong. For example, if I went from 151.8 to 151.4, I thought that was a loss of 4 ounces. Turns out I can't do math. ;-) The way my scale works, each "0.2" equals a little more than 3oz. So when I thought I lost 4 ounces, I really lost closer to 7. :-D

8) I'll be checking in and posting but it will be fairly sporadic. We're having a lovely time, but my internet reception and time to be on the computer are both much more limited than I thought.


9) I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day!

10) I'll catch you on the flip side. ;-)

Super Good Input

Oh, dear blogger friends, I do love you so!

Erin, Tereza, Jen... thanks for the input on gall stones. I will totally research it and get it checked out. (Erin, no need to apologize for your comments/thoughts/input!! I know you love me, so I don't take it the wrong way.) :)

So, maybe I have gall stones!? I will see if I can get in to a doctor soon. I have to find one and pick one, but maybe after we get back from our vacation next week.

I'm feeling better; the pains are getting less frequent and less intense, thank you Lord!

I was down 6oz today. Meh, I would've liked to have been down more, but I did eat 2 bites of cake yesterday. :-0 I am currently sitting at 151.8, so so close to the 140's but I wouldn't be surprised if it takes me until Monday to actually see them. Maybe even longer, as I seem to lose only a few ounces a day on this diet. BUT the scale continues to go down, so I'll stick with it.

I'm also noticing that my clothes are fitting better/differently. The size 11/12 pants I just bought now slide down and I can pull them off without unbuttoning them. =)

I decided to throw out some pictures today, just for fun. Not of me. Okay, one of me. My little SIL took this one and I didn't know it was on my phone until I was scrolling through my pictures last night. ;-) Apparently there is a "postcard" option on my phone, so she made me into a postcard.


This is what my family had for dinner last night:
Crepes with strawberries and whipped cream, as well as turkey sausages. They smelled SOOOO delicious and I wanted one so super bad. I made them and was frying crepes til kingdom come, it felt like, all the while drooling over them. ;-)

BUT, I resisted and ate this for dinner:
A less salty version of the same thing I had last night. Except, this time it was very bland so I added some mustard to my hamburger. It didn't taste nearly as delicious as I imagine the crepes did. ;-)

While on my maintenance phase, I indulged in these delicious lovelies:

S'mores and Challah bread. I ate the Challah with butter, then sliced it up and made french toast out of it the next day. It was SOOOOO good!!!! I can't wait to make it again. =)

Today I'm packing up for the trip. I've been talking about it, but today I'm actually really doing it. ;-) I have been a baking fool the last few days so we'll have goodies and snacks for our trip. Yesterday alone I baked cookies for 3 loooooong hours. I also made a cereal mix, a spin off of Chex Mix. Ah well, here's a picture for your viewing pleasure:
It has corn chex, honey nut cheerios, fruit loops, honey roasted peanuts and craisins (cherry and regular) all mixed up with a dressing of butter, brown sugar and orange juice concentrate. It too, smells divine.

I've also made banana muffins. Have I already said all this? I feel like I've taken leave of my senses and all I talk about is food. ;-)

Anway, time for me to get back to my work. I'll try to check in tomorrow night, if not it'll be sometime on Sunday.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!

Chugging Along

Hey Y'all =)

I was up 0.2 today (2 ounces) but I'm not worried for two reasons. 1) I *need* to have some waste management action and 2) I accidentally overdid it on the salt yesterday.

I made what could have been a delicious dinner; it was still good, just VERY salty.

This picture does NOT do it justice. ;-)

That's 3.5oz of extra lean ground beef, seasoned with onion, Worcestershire sauce (hey! I spelled that right on the first try, WOOT WOOT!) and too much Montreal Steak Seasoning. And although it looks like fluffy mashed potatoes, it's not. It's cauliflower. I boiled it till it was falling apart, then mashed it up with 5 sprays of I Can't Believe It's Not butter and more salt.

So yeah, too much salt. I fully intend to make this again, just with about 3/4 less salt! :-D

Today has been good. We visited a friend this morning and we took our kids to the marina. The tide had just gone out so they had fun finding crabs under rocks and shells and stuff. Then we walked on the pier where everyone was crabbing and took a gander at the the crab and shrimp that were caught. =) Fun stuff. ;-)

Back to our friend's for lunch, where I was SEVERELY tempted by the homemade tres leches cake with fresh whipped cream and berries she had made. I admit, I had two tiny bites. It was delicious. I told her I'm coming back when I'm not on my diet so I can have a full piece. :-D

This afternoon I baked a gazillion cookies for a tea party my oldest daughter is going to. They were tempting me too, even though they shouldn't have... they were made with Kool Aid for crying out loud! But I am majorly PMSing and want to shove all things sweet, salty and chocolate right down my gullet.

It's much harder to be disciplined and faithful when the scale doesn't move, or moves in the wrong direction. I know it's not my fault; I did everything right yesterday. In fact, I didn't even eat my second apple, so I ate about 100 calories less than usual. But not being down the pound I had hoped really messes with me. Not enough to give up or go overboard, but enough to take 2 small bites of tres leches cake.

My stomach pains come and go throughout the day. I've had this pain before, but never for this long. Usually it only lasted 24 hours and this is going on Day 3. I wake up at night because of the pain; last night it was shooting into my ribs and between my shoulder blades, as well as in my stomach. Very strange. Tereza mentioned maybe it's food allergies, but I haven't been eating wheat, dairy, eggs or nuts. ??? If I'm allergic to something it's either chicken, beef, broccoli, cauliflower or celery. Oh, or apples. Because that's what I've eaten the last 6 days. ;-)

I have another playdate for the kiddos tomorrow and then I will be busy packing, packing and more packing for another week back home. So I'll be off and on with my posting, but once we get settled in on Saturday I'll try to keep you updated regularly. :-)