Phase 3 - Day #10 (AKA: Eureka! Maintaining Through Maintenance)

So apparently I've discovered the true way to stabilize my weight... it's actually very simple. All you have to do it... avoid all carbs and sugar! Who knew?! Yes, yes, yes. I bow to the brilliance of the HCG diet and agree, once again, to follow all of your rules and guidelines. You will lead me in the right direction to skinny-mini-me.

It really is as simple as avoiding anything with sugar in the ingredients or carbs on the nutritional info, within reason, I mean. For example, yesterday I ate ALOT. I had everything from pepperoni and bacon to peanut butter and chocolate pudding! The pudding was the no sugar added stuff with only 1g of sugar and 1g of carbs and I had TWO of them! I was convinced I would be having a steak day this morning but TADA! I weighed less this morning then I did yesterday! I'm only up 0.4lbs above what I was 10 days ago. I'd say that's pretty good.

I've read other HCG blogs where people put on 15lbs in between their first and second rounds!! That's crazy!! I haven't worked THIS damn hard just to screw it up when I need to maintain. All of my cravings are now gone because I can basically have anything I want, within reason. I mean, I'm not having bread or anything like that but seriously, who craves bread? I was craving chocolate milk and ice cream but the pudding has fixed that.

On another note, I'm really done with not having any jeans that fit. Seriously! My jeans are hanging off of my butt, don't fit to my legs and my belt makes the waist overlap. It's very frustrating but it's raining today so I can't wear a dress. I suppose I COULD go shopping but dammit, I'm going to lose more weight in 4 or 5 more weeks and it just seems redundant. Even my spandex pants and tops are hanging off of me. Didn't even know that that could happen! ...not that I'm complaining.

Phase 3 - Day #4 (AKA: WTF?! I Thought the Hard Part Was Over!)

So it's been 4 days since my last VLCD day. After Phase 2 (40 injections, 43 days of Very Low Calorie Diet) I moved on to Phase 3, maintenance, finally! The goal of this phase is to keep within 2lbs of my weight on the last VLCD day. This is much harder than it sounds because you must do this while avoiding carbs and sugar. Do you know how much shit has carbs and sugar?! Like... EVERYTHING! The books say that most people drop in weight during that time and have a hard time keeping their food intake up... so far, not had that problem...

After over a month of barely eating anything I maybe, possibly, just a teensy bit... went a little overboard on my first day. I quite possibly cheated... a lot. I had half a slice of garlic bread, a forkful of Nick's pasta, a little coolwhip with my strawberries, and a whole bunch of delicious, crunchy mixed nuts. These probably aren't the worst cheats in the worth but yes, they are still cheats and I paid for them the next day by gaining 3.5lbs above my goal weight. So, what's a girl to do? A steak day!

A steak day, for those who are unaware, is the greatest thing ever. It is a little different from the mini-steak days I did in Phase 2. In phase 2 a mini-steak day would consist of eating nothing at all until dinner time and then having 100g of lean steak and an apple. On phase 3 a steak day consists of eating nothing all day but then at dinner time... you find the biggest, juiciest, FATTEST motherfuckin steak you can possibly find, grill it on the BBQ or fry it in butter or oil and devour every last morsel of it... also, you eat an apple or a raw tomato with it. See the official explanation and why it works below:

The HCG Diet "Steak Day" is used during Phase 3 when your morning weight exceeds the weight you had on the last day of HCG by more than two pounds.
The Steak Day requires that you abstain from all food during the day and eat one large steak as your evening meal. The steak should be cooked in oil or butter and should be eaten with one apple or a raw tomato.
The steak eaten should be a large serving of beef, usually 24 - 32 ounces. It may be any cut of meat your prefer including a Porterhouse, T-bone, Rib-eye, New York Strip, Filet Mignon, Kobe Beef or Sirloin Steak.
It is VERY important that the Steak Day diet is followed as soon as the two pound limit is breached, as this allows the hypothalamus to be corrected and function properly again.

The Steak Day works because it naturally corrects the metabolism for a condition of excess calories on the previous day. This decrease in caloires evens out the metabolism by working through the hypothalmus, allowing the body to further stabilize itself in Phase 3.
If the Steak Day is not done immediately after the 2+ pound weight gain, this natural correction does not occur. In cases where this happens, it is not productive to try a Steak Day the second day or to try two Steak Days in a row.

I love steak so much I could cry when I read that... it's just so... heavenly. I especially love a big, fat rib eye steak with lots of gristle and charred bits from my awesome BBQ. Steak days are my most favorite thing and that's really good because apparently I'll be doing a lot of them. The second day I did my steak day and the weight was lost. I was then only 0.3lbs above my goal weight which is perfectly acceptable.

The third day I was much more careful about what I consumed. I avoided as much sugar and carbs as I could. For breakfast I had ants on a log (celery, peanut butter and raisins), a handful of mixed nuts and a pepperoni stick. For lunch I had a hotdog (no bun or condiments) and a salad with greek dressing, feta and lettuce. For snacks I had beef jerky and pork rinds (both very much allowed! Fat content is not as important as lack of carbs and sugar) for dinner I had a giant salad and a hotdog with mustard and ketchup. The dressing on the salad may have been my downfall as it came with the salad and I think it had too much sugar. I thought it may have come from the apples but don't really trust it.

Then this morning I weighed myself and it was bouncing around for a while before finally deciding that I was 2.8lbs above where I want to be... 0.8lbs outside of the safe zone. Looks like another steak day for me. So sad/awesome.

Tomorrow when I go back to a non-steak day I will not have any nuts and see if that is what's affecting it. Anyone have any suggestions for where I can get lots of protein as a super easy grab and go snack? I'm having a really hard time finding stuff I can eat while in my car. I can't eat a sandwich or a wrap because of the carbs so now I'm at a loss. Help!

VLCD Day #43: -1.4 (AKA: Before and After Pictures!!)

So today is my final day in Phase 2, I move on to Phase 3 tomorrow! In June, before I started my diet, I took some before pictures. I didn't realize at the time how different I looked from how I pictured myself. I mentioned a few times that I felt like I couldn't see myself losing any weight since the beginning. Even though the scale was going down, I simply did not see where it was coming from! Thank goodness I took the before pics because today I took the after pics and MAN! What a difference!! The pics are a little risque but I figured we were good to go.

Look at my collarbone! Look at my neck! Look at my stomach from the side! Look at my adorable little ASS! Woo! 30lbs and I'm an entirely different person. Hell, it looks like I ATE another person!

Let me know what you think.

Please enjoy below:

Day #40: -1lbs (AKA: Last Day of Shots... 3 Days Left...)

Wow, that was a very tough 40 days!! The first 25 days were the easiest, the last 15 were super tough. I have had non-stop cravings and a lot more cheats than I should have been having. A little lick of peanut butter here, a tiny nibble of potatoes there. Bad bad girl. But, I have still lost a substantial amount of weight and will get refocused for my second round in a couple of months! I am pretty proud of my losses and can really see the difference now with my clothing.

When we moved I had to go through all of my clothing and have found a ton of old stuff. I am actually too small for some of the clothes that I was wearing last summer! They hang off of me! I also have bras that fit me so much better now than they used to and my dresses look a lot better on me. It doesn't seem to have made enough difference for people to comment on it yet but the next round will fix that.

So, today is my last shot. I will be on the VLCD for today and the next three days and then I move on the Phase 3: stabilization. I will be working to keep my weigh within 2lbs of my final weight. This is to reset my body to think that my new weight is healthy rather than my old weight 30lbs ago. It will be tough but I'm welcome for new foods. Man I want to eat a big fat steak with a big mixed salad and some peanut butter, dammit! Too bad I still can't have carbs. Peanut Butter toast will still have to wait...

VLCD Day #33: -1.2 (AKA: 25lbs Lost in a Month!)

So I've finally hit the 25lbs mark!! Woohooooooo!! Clothes are definitely fitting better and I'll need to go shopping soon. I can't even wait to do my next round in about 2 months. I can't believe that I might eventually be skinny?? This is the lowest weight I've been since high school! Amazing.

I am almost as excited to do my next round as I am to have potatoes again haha. In between the rounds I will be doing some excercise, I'm thinking weights will be the most helpful. Get my muscles up so it will tighten everything!

Anyway, really looking forward to real food but also psyched that I'm still losing and have surpassed my goal for this round. Let's see if I can hit 30 lbs! Only one week left...

VLCD Day #31: -0.8 (AKA: Almost There...)

Down almost a full pound today! I hope that keeps coming. I've been fighting a cold the last few days so I'm scared that another stall is coming but since I've got just under two weeks to go I'm setting my goal for 25lbs and just working hard to hit that number. I've already done the math and should be starting my secnod round at the end of September but I'm going to be timing it that my loading days will be during the last couple of days of TOM so I will not risk running into another major stall in the dead middle of my P2.

I've really got to get back on track. I've gotten very lazy about timing my shot, drinking my water and measuring all of my foods. I even had some NeoCitrin the other night (which has a lot of sugar) and snuck in some of my favorite steak spice. Bad girl. I'm going to start really focusing on everything and hopefully I can get back to losing a lb per day like I did for the first two weeks before TOM.

Wish me luck, friends. I'll need it!