Day 21 --- down 18.5 lbs - wearing my old clothes again!

I know, I know, I'm a slacker. It's just that once I got in the swing of this diet, it was just an every day thing and there are only like 6 veggies and 6 meats and a few fruits to vary it up, so it wasn't a very exciting thing to write about I guess.

I have been pretty steadily losing .5 to 1.5 lbs each day; gained .5 once or twice and then lost it back; also stayed the same a couple times but still haven't plateaued at a certain weight for more than a day or so.

This has been pretty easy; it's plenty of food, I tend to spread out the food instead of eating all at lunch and dinner time. The apples work well for me for both fruits of the day and it hasn't affected my ability to lose weight. I did notice that when I exercised a lot (walking usually) my weight stayed the same or gained .5; do you think I actually increased muscle in one day and it weighed more? Could have just been a fluke, plus I think when you exercise it pulls more water into your muscles so maybe it was water weight. Who knows? I lose just as much laying in bed or on the couch so this is fabulous! I haven't been able to exercise much for the last 5 years so this is definitely the diet for me. Just hope I'll keep it off; I understand the most important part of that is really following the diet plan for the 3 weeks after you go off the 500 calorie.

I'm so used to what I'm eating that I don't weigh the food anymore. My fave is still chicken cooked with fresh tomatoes; also shrimp and cabbage is fabulous; I buy my apples at the Sunflower farmers Market; they are SO good there. I still kinda miss my breakfast but it's really not bad. I get hungry and get a drink of water or some herb or green tea and I'm good. If I'm real hungry, I'll eat my melba crackers and that seriously takes care of it.

As for the BMs, haha, it's normal to only have them every 2-4 days and some people need something to help that along. You're taking in so little food that is going to turn to "waste" that you really don't need to go that much and you're perfectly fine. I did get some "sort of" diarhhea on day 2 but I thought that was from gorging because I'm not used to eating that much (but it was so YUMMY, I ate more Krispy Kreme's than every before, haha!) You just have to make sure you're drinking lots of fluids or you'll probably get very constipated.

What else? Oh Jenn "cheated" and ate a ramen noodle cup of soup and gained 5 lbs the next morning. Half came off the next day; not sure where she is now but she was unhappy to the Nth degree! She said she could see the puffiness in her face and chin and she hated it; she will never do that again. I'm sure that must be water weight though because you can't get puffy like that overnight and gain a true 5 lbs, not by eating a cup of ramen. I'm sure it's the chemicals and preservatives and sodium. our bodies are used to all this pure food for the last 19 days and doesn't want the other stuff at all. This is a very GOOD thing though!

OK, I think that's it for now! I am just a couple pounds away from my #1 goal, 20 lbs, I'll probably stay on at least another 10 days and hope that I can lose more. The next goal after the 20 is 24 and then 29. I doubt I will be able to get that far but I am very happy at the point I am at anyway. And you can actually continue to lose weight during that 3 week phase after you go off the 500 calories & shots so that would be nice too.

Day 12 - still down 11 lbs, no weight loss today BLAH!

I've been more hungry than usual the last couple of days but today isn't too bad; then again I've stayed busy and took a walk. I didn't even eat my second fruit last night, so I'm really disappointed that I didn't lose anything today! Maybe tomorrow (sigh!) I will definitely be eating my fruit today though! I walked by the fruit stand on my walk and oh my gosh, I'd LOVE to eat one of those peaches! Just one! Please! Oh but I can't defile the diet so maybe I can get some to freeze; but everyone knows there is nothing like eating a fresh peach, ARGHH! Although this is "painful", it still supports my theory that all of these "cravings" are MENTAL and not actual hunger and I really don't like that my mind causes me to want food that my body really shouldn't have (oh but it tastes SO good!, see there it goes again!) I am hoping that after this diet I will not want to go eat every single yummy thing out there and will be able to choose better foods; I love all kinds of foods, not just sweets, in fact, the only sweet that I can't resist is ice cream; not cakes or pies or cookies, although if you put cookies out, I will eat some. Anything small that you can grab and eat real fast is a downfall for me when I'm hungry; I will need to learn to keep celery, etc in the house for snacks and that will help.

I don't know what today's food plan is; I'm thinking maybe cabbage and chicken? I love cabbage and I got some at the Sunflower Farmers Market yesterday.

Yesterdays food was: these really thin eye of round steaks that cook up in a minute with fresh tomatoes. My fruit was an orange. (Lunch)

I ate celery on the way to the temple; at home I made a mahi mahi fillet cooked with the tomatoes (jenn ate those); I ate my crackers but bought some different ones with the same calories that was recommended on another HCG diet site (maybe that was the difference in not losing weight? Maybe it has more salt? Although salt is allowed without any specific limits) Did not end up eating my fruit after because I was full and it was getting late.

I don't have as much weight to lose as Jenn so I can expect to lose at a slower rate; but a half pound would be nice every day to keep me encouraged. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Day 11 - down 11 lbs total 1lb today

Sunday - crackers in the morning & apple but didn't get time to have lunch before church; after church I ate both meals but didn't eat the 2nd fruit.
Monday - burger with tomatos for lunch, chicken with celery for dinner, strawberries in afternoon and apple after dinner.

I've been much more tired the last couple of days and much more hungry. Although eating just a little really satisfies the hunger; maybe I should go to splitting the foods up throughout the day again? I'm wondering if this set of shots are different somehow? Or maybe this is just a phase we have to go through. I'll give it another day or so and see if it gets better.

I really don't want to go out to stores or anything like that because I feel like I'm distracted by all the foods I can't eat. Even though I might not really be hungry. All of that food that's so bad for you is so dang tempting! At least the weight loss is continuing so that is a huge motivator and Jenn is losing nearly twice as much as I am so that's fantastic!

Day 8 Food

melba crackers
celery
mahi mahi fillets with lemon juice & pepper cooked in tin foil on the grill
small orange
(lunch eaten about 1pm - it's easier and easier to lose track of time and not be that hungry)

Planned dinner:
eye of road steak
asparagus
melba crackers before if hungry before dinner is ready
apple or strawberries for dessert

Babysitting again today so don't know if I'll be able to get some extra exercise, depends on how cooperative Emily is. We were going to go to the pool and swim but she ended up taking a nap; hopefully we will get a nice long walk in later.

We measured today and I lost the most inches around my ribs, but nothing in my waist & stomach, 1/2 inch from arms & calves, 1 inch from my hips; not bad but you'd think the stomach & waist would be the first areas to go down; guess I need to exercise them!

Day 8 - down .5 lb, total - 9.0 lb

Only 1/2 lb! Hmph! Oh well. Still better than I would have lost on a regular diet, huh? So I'm ok with that. Even at 1/2 lb a day for the next 30 days, it would be 15 lbs more which would be 24 lbs total and I would be very happy with that. So we'll see. I did go for a walk yesterday morning so I'd hoped the extra exercise would be helpful but I guess not; I need to keep doing that though and build my muscles while losing weight so it all comes together in the end. Still need to do my measuring today but Jenn has my measuring tape :-) She's doing so well!

My ideas for why only 1/2 lb are: yesterday didn't eat my evening melba cracker, too much green tea (3 bottles I believe), hamburger too many days in a row (maybe need to vary that more although I always had something different between lunch & dinner), or maybe it's just random because I don't have a larger weight loss goal and I expect to plateau earlier than Jenn will because of that. I will be sure to eat all of my foods today and stay away from the hamburger today; probably the mahi mahi for one meal and a steak for the other (I'll need to shop for the steak today though!) And I'll be sure to do different veggies today too; and I'll try to get more exercise in. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Day 7 food

1:45pm Lunch - chicken cooked in garlic & onion (didn't eat the onion, saved that)
spinach sald w/lemon juice
melba crackers

3:30pm Snack - apple

Dinner - hamburger, cucumber

Nighttime snack - strawberries

(melba crackers somewhere in between!)

Day 7 - down 1.0 lb total down 8.5 lb

Blah! I feel tired today; didn't sleep great last night; weird dreams, hot, moved to another room. Gonna go read my scriptures for awhile, then start the day with a walk to the high school; I need to find some energy to go do that and the scriptures may make me more tired so we'll see if I get over there or not. Definitely need to walk today though, get some exercise. I babysit Emily today and Saturday & Sunday and that makes for a very long weekend; I need more energy and she needs to be more cooperative, it just wears me out. Football game tonight but I don't know if Tim will be able to play or not.

10:45am - walked to Timpanogos after my reading time; it's not even a mile round trip but it is hot out there today! It's going to be blazing later. So at least I got some exercise. Took Hans' ipod and listened to some music to keep me walking at a good pace; the rhythm of music is good for that. So naturally a couple bottles of water were needed already this morning; one before I left and one for the walk itself; now I'm going to rest for a little while before I decide which "project" I want to try to get done today before Emily gets here. I'm working on getting the scrapbooking stuff in better order so I can find what I want; that will probably be my choice!