beds, muffin tins, and weight loss...

Yesterday I pulled the ol' switcher-ooo!  I took out the crib and put in a 'big boy bed'.  Bill ended up sleeping on the floor by his bed because he fell out 5 times.  I'm hoping he quickly gets used to the new sleeping arrangment so I can have my husband back! - By the way, Enoch's is the small white bed with the teddy, Harrison's is the other one!There's something about putting things in a line that fasinates Enoch.  I found carrots lined neatly across the kitchen floor, shoes, blocks, pencils, cheerios, and yesterday he found all my muffin tins and a few mason jars and went to work.  Odd.

Today is officialy day 19.  I have found that some people refer to the first 2 days of the hCG plan as 'phase 1', then the next 24 to 40 days of eating 500 calories as 'phase 2' and then the last three weeks of 1500 calories as 'phase 3'.  In my little booklet the 2 starting binge days are considared part of phase 1.  So I have been counting my days from my first binge day. 
As you may remember I had gained a pound last post - then I woke up yesterday and Boom! I lost those stubborn pounds- and then this morning I lost .2 ....weird!  But I'm attributing it to TOM (time of month).
So here's the run down: weight minus 19.2 pounds, waist minus 5.84 inches, arms minus .75 inches. 
If you're still wondering what on earth I'm talking about you can go here.  On that blog there's a comment from Cindy Rademacher.  She has a website that sells hCG Platimun here: www.tryhcgtoday.com and it's the same stuff I'm taking.  Her price is the same as GNC, (unless you're a Gold Card memeber and get it in the first week of the month). So if you're looking for it - there you go!  She also has been great about answering my questions!

hCG

human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG)

This is what it looks like:

I won't go into the specifics of how it does what it does, you can find that out here: http://www.hcgplatinum.com/.

It's no secret, I GOT FAT!  I gained back over 30 lbs since November.  What's depressing is that I looked at my calendar from last year as I was losing weight and saw that on the exact smae day in June I weighed the same as now.  Yuck!  June through September were so agonizingly slow to get that 30 pounds off.  And then I go put it right back on so quickly... it's really enough to make a lesser woman hate herself. 

But not me!  (anymore)

I had heard of hCG when I was pregnant and attributed my ability to not gain much weight and tone up easily to it.  It used to have to be given by injections, but now they have developed a sub-lingual homeopathic drop.  Cool!

Here's a brief over view of the program:

Days 1 & 2 - take drops (7-10) 3 times daily.  Eat as much as you want of anything you want.  This is called the loading phase.  I really had no problems acomplishing that!

Days 3-24 - take drops the same way. Eat only 500 calories a day.  I know, that's like 1/2 a normal meal- for an entire day!  There are specific foods that are OK and those that are not OK.  Here's a picture of my lunch today:

That meal was around 2oo calories.  No oils, fats, sugars, breads, milk, juice, and on and on and on....This has actually been my lunch and dinner going on my 3rd day now.  For breakfast I have chickory coffee (don't worry fellow Mormons, it's all herbal, no real coffee beans or green tea - it;s realy good: http://www.teeccino.com ), and an apple, or 5 strawberries, or an orange. 

I know - how can you survive on 500 calories a day?  Well that's the beauty of hCG, the rest of the calories that my body requires are being taken from my handy dandy storage pockets of FAT.  Bill keeps asking if my energy is waning, not really.  I was always tired before, so no dif there.  I went out for a 3 mile fast walk last night (I'm entered in a 5K Walk race  in 2 weeks and thought I better get a move on my training), I didn't feel dizzy or starved or anything.  All the reviews I've read say the 1st week is the hardest to get through, so next week will be easy street!

Days 24-44 If have reached my goal (I don't know...30 lbs in 3 weeks?) I stop the drop and bump up my caloric intake to 1500 calories, this is 'set pointing' my body, or making it comfortable with the weight it's at so I don't balloon out 30 pounds in 6 months. 

There are little helps for any weight gain that might occure along the way after that.

It's expensive! $77.00 with my GNC Gold Card. (that takes me through one cycle...or 44 days - I think)

But then the phentermine I took for my last weight loss extravaganza cost $23.00 a month.  Plus I did suffer some side effects, I lost 1/3 of my hair.  It's growing back in and making me look like a candidate for the fuzziest hair contest.  Plus my energy dropped like a lead ball when I stopped taking it.  Bill thinks it messed with my thyroid or metabolism, maybe it did. 

So far, from all the things I've read on hCG, there have been no side effects.  So I'm happy about that. 

I'll keep you updated from time to time as I go along this program.  According to the scale this morning I have lost 4 pounds, YEAH!

I was going to take a 'before' picture, but I'll let this doozy from our hiking trip do the job:

vacation

It seems 90% of my friends who reside in Muncie are either just coming back from, on, or going to go on vacation to tropical paradises such as San Antonio, Las Vegas, and St. George.
I also am on vacation -
OK, so I'm still in Muncie, still in my home....
But I've been 3 months at my weight loss regime and I'm afraid I have gotten a bit lazy these past few days. My dinner last night consisted of a fresh green salad (OK- It's free from my garden and I justify everything else by eating it!), a chocolate bar, and 4 or 5 chocolate raspberry sticks. I also spent 3 hours on the hammock reading Jane Austin's "Northanger Abby". (I feel to celebrate here just a bit, I have finally read a book for the upcoming book group!) Bill is 'vacationing' at girl's camp and I tend to be overindulgent when he is away.
Today has not been much better, besides the salad, I really have eaten little of nutritional value. I rocked in the hammock another few hours riveted to "Year of Wonders", a book a friend gave me as a gift when she moved away. I shall be at it all night, since my bedchamber will be emptier than usual.
I did do some things of worth...
This morning I did my 5 miler (yesterday I had to do 3). Last week I decided to 'try out' my new body (and new shoes) by sprinting a few times throughout my walk. To the casual observer it may have looked like a casual jog, but trust me, it was as fast as I could lift one heavily muscled leg and put it in front of the other! I should be given double points because Clover (the dog) is not a sprinter and I pulled her 30 pounds behind me much like a newly wed's car decked out with tin cans bouncing behind it. I did feel the effects of some of the jarring the next day, but a good yoga session straightened me back up.
So today I made another attempt at some sprints. That should take care of a couple of raspberry sticks.... And I finished pruning, feeding and watering my tomatoes, another stick... And I did my very best in my yoga class tonight, that should take care of the slice of Papa Murphy's pizza and Tawny's homemade chocolate moose, or a few bites of it anyway.
All that being said I did knock off around a pound and a half this week at my official weigh in this morning.
Hey - how many people can say they loose weight on vacation?