Graduation Day!

Yep, it's true! Today I'm freed from all dietary restrictions. Now comes the long and difficult part of maintenance--right in time for the holidays!

Even so, this morning it was great to have sausage, and ketchup, at breakfast. And it made things so much easier to taste what I was making in advance for Thanksgiving (this morning I made this great cranberry dish and the best dip in the world, smoked salmon dip--email me for the recipe).

Tomorrow is the Big Day, both Thanksgiving, and ingestion of scarbs (simple carbohydrates). Wish me luck! Let's hope my weight doesn't shoot up the next day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Two weeks down, one to go...

...for the official stabilization period of this hcg cycle. It's going ok. I've stayed in the zone, no corrective days required.

I'll be off all restrictions on Thanksgiving. While it will be the best meal ever, I'm a little concerned about keeping the weight stable. I'm kicking myself now for continuing to put my start date off. If I had of gone when planned, I'd have had a full month of stabilization maintanance before the holidays hit.

Well, it is what it is! It will be a lean holiday season for me this year! Ok, lean on what I can eat. Not me being lean. I wish! :D

Yay!

Weight back to within a few ounces of my LIW (last injection weight). I calmed down a little after I freaked out about it going up. The days had seemed so long with Maggie being sick that I forgot it ALWAYS goes up, then back down when I start Stabilization.

Maggie's better, my weight is better. It's all good!

One week into Stabilization: hanging on

I was irked today to see I'm at the upper end of the maintance zone. Grrrr! Why? No idea. I've been following it monastically. I hope it drifts down.

If I were to take a flying guess, I'd say stress. Our Labrador, Maggie, has been quite sick, and yesterday we found out she has an aggressive form of cancer and will not be with us much longer.

This came to light when she was sick with what turns out to be food poisoning of some kind. We have no idea what she got into, but dogs will be dogs. They're treating that, and she's MUCH better. For now.

The likely progression of her illness is she'll die in her sleep when her spleen ruptures. They say it's not painful. What is painful is wondering every time she's napping if this is IT.

In the meantime, we're doing what we can to help her feel as well as possible for as long as possible and loving her to pieces!

From the vet hospital to the people hospital today to visit my friend who's there. Again.

Yesterday I really wanted some chocolate. And alcohol. We went to the store for something shortly after we heard about Maggie's diagnosis. I stayed strong, though. Wasn't easy. So, yeah. Stress. I think I'm pumping out enough cortisol these days to fuel a small city.

Stabilization Day 3: So far, so good

I got on the scale today. I didn't after the first day, because it always goes up. I mean, it has to! But, I wanted to check after a couple of days to make sure all was well. It's well! I'm still below my my LIW (last injection weight), which is awesome for this stage! I still feel weird, but in a week, I'll more than likely be feeling pretty good.

Yay! Full steam ahead.

P.s.

I weigh the least I have in two years.

Like a Holiday!

I did it! Graduation day! I made it the full monty and today...I get to eat! The final tally: 20#. Phew! This morning I've lotioned my poor, dry paws and so enjoyed half and half in my tea, it's not even funny.

I get to cook for my family this morning (when they get up). Yeah, I'm hungry, but what's another hour? After a month of constant, gnawing hunger and protein deprivation, yeah, I can wait until 7:30. :)

I found a sheet in an hcg book a friend gave me that has several places for one to measure before and after. I lost 29 inches off my body. Nice! And, my morning fasting blood sugar went down 30 points. Whoa!

Yeah, you can be happy for me. Give yourself a high five on my behalf right now. I dare you.

So, now beins the Stabilization phase. Sure, the first few days are honeymoon time, and then, being more human than most, I start whining about still wanting carbs. S'ok, they'll be here when I'm able to progress to P4 (phase 4), the slow introduction of carbs. Unfortunately, no slow intro this year as my first day without any food restrctions (formal ones, one needs to daily weigh to keep the weight down by corrective days when necessary) is Thanksgiving. Guess the day after will be a corrective day, huh?! Lol!

It's ok. It's all good.

One more day...

...'til food! Reached my goal today, though it technically doesn't count. It counts to me!

I loathe the time changes

Maybe I need to move to Hawaii or Arizona to escape the tyranny. I'm not a fan of waking up at 4:30. Most people crow over "getting an extra hour of sleep," but my body doesn't work that way. Ugh. I'll just be falling asleep with the toddler-aged crowd tonight and getting up hours before dawn for the next week or two. Lame.

Well, two days 'til food. I had to do a face palm this morning--another plateau. While weight loss at this point doesn't "count" beyond the Last Injection Weight, it's still nice to see, and a good insurance policy. Obviously, when one goes on Stabilization, weight comes up. It has to. It's supposed to. The key is keeping it within the prescribed Zone (not more than two pounds above your LIW).

And, in any case, it really pisses me off when I plateau. With all this suffering, I feel I deserve the weight loss! Ah well. Tomorrow I'm sure it'll show up. Better late than never.

Last Injection!

I was giddy as I put away my injection stuff for this cycle. The final tally: almost 17 pounds. One pound shy of my goal, but I'm ok with that.

Now, the next three days are a bit tough, no medication for support, and wanting to eat!!!!!

Day 21

Well, I've done it! I've crossed the Rubicon! I've dropped down to the next lower "decade." This is the lowest I've weighed in about two years. So, yay, me!

Tomorrow is the Last Injection Weight. So, hope today's a good weight loss day. I get to eat in four days. Woo!

Angry

I'm .4 above the next lower "decade." I was yesterday. I am today. After suffering through a brutal Halloween (going to a friend's where they had pizza and brownies, plus seeing all of Anna's candy was ROUGH), I was exhausted and a bit discouraged. But I consoled myself with the idea that I'd be down in the next 10 today--first time in quite a while.

So, when my weight plateaued, I was pissed off. I even went so far as to scoot the scale to different parts of the floor! No dice. It was firmly decided that no, I didn't lose squat. If I were a kicking kind of person, I'd have kicked it. And anything else in my path.

Sucks.

No way I'll make that goal now. Or even close to it.