Decision Time after Reflecting

Well, after a couple of days to reflect on the events of the last few weeks (up, down, up, down, hunger, cravings), I have come to the conclusion that I am immune to the hCG at this point. Probably my own fault for jumping into the 2nd round before the recommended elapsed time. So, instead of risking messing up my hypothalmus, I'm going to stop and go into Phase 3.

I've been up and down the last few days right around the same mark I have been at. I will keep posting from time to time about my progress on P3.

Going Into Hiding

Well.......it's the end of a very long, trying day. A lot of personal issues that I really need to work on. So, what I'm doing is deciding NOT to post my weight here until I have reached 191. Today was a day full of emotion and emotional eating. I have no idea what the next few days or week even holds for me. I'm a bit concerned, but need to take time to reflect on how to change this part. I pray that 191 will come soon and that I'll be back to posting. But for now, nobody wants to hear about days filled with mini butterfingers. I will reflect some thoughts once I've had some time to really sit and go through these things in my head.

See you soon........

Plateau and Chicken Soup

"When you get to a plateau, think of it as a landing on the stairway to your goal. And maintenance is a lifelong plateau, so a bit of "rehearsal" for maintenance isn't the worst thing in the world." Author Unknown

I'm guessing one of two, if not both, things are happening to me. I am back up this morning and I keep hovering here at 193.9. I keep losing and coming back to this place. Either this is the plateau Simeons talks about, that place where your weight resided for MANY years and your body thinks you need to continue to be at. Sometimes these can last a week or two. I also made homemade chicken soup yesterday and included a couple of "non-approved" items.....so that could also be it. It also was made with boullion so the salt content may have been too high. OR we could be facing BOTH as the culprit. So, no more soup. I'm going to stick with what I know works. Those same meals I loved making the first round and just having ready to eat when the time came. I will have to get busy making them again today.

So, hopefully things will prove different tomorrow. At least yesterday I broke into a number I'd not yet seen. I know I can break through this challenge!

See you tomorrow......

Determining Success

Ralph Marston:
Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality.

Are our doubts greater than our goals? For much of my dieting life, that has always been the case. I've never had confidence in myself that I can succeed at losing weight. I always had a day planned, a goal, to be good to succeed then I would slip up........which was like opening the doubt gates. Doubt would flood in and suddenly my entire day was sabotaged because I convinced myself to continue to slip because the day was already ruined. I even find, from time-to-time, that I still see glimpses of that girl. The one who likes to sabotage success. The one I have let control my mindset for so long. BUT I REFUSE TO LET HER STAY. This time is different already.

The success you see on this plan in the short amount of time, allows you to really put "that girl" away. You are going so fast, you just bulldoze right over the top of her. HA HA. PLLLLLLTTTTTHHHHHHHHTTTTTTT! (spitting). It is that advantage that allows us to begin to change the insides as much as the outsides. We get a fresh new perspective and a glimpse at success, which drives us (well me for sure) to continue. To push forward and overcome challenges rather than giving up like we have on other "diets." 85% of people not only follow through, but keep the weight off on the hCG diet. I don't think Weight Watchers can even say that, not what I experienced and some of my friends experienced while on the plan (though great for many and great temporarily).

Well, I was up .3 yesterday but am down 2.4 this morning to 192.7. Drawing closer to the 190 border where I will cross into a place I have not been in so long. That is motivation to keep on keepin on.

Until tomorrow....

Day 1 back on track

Down 2.4 to 194.8 from yesterday. Feels good to be back on track again and not wanting to raid the candy, fridge, etc. So, it seems the sublingual works just fine.

Jillian Michaels' inspiration for today: Be Prepared, Kid
Now that you've decided to lose weight, make like a Boy Scout and think of yourself as being on a mission. The key to success is to have a game plan for every situation that might throw you off course. This stuff isn't brain surgery — it's common sense. If you take the time to think ahead, you can come up with ways to overcome every obstacle.

There is the whole "fail to plan, plan to fail" thing again. I planned yesterday, prepped meals for a few days and will make some more today or tomorrow. Hubby is on the plan with me now, so he'll need all the planning as well.

So far so good....until tomorrow!

New Beginnings

Well this morning didn't prove to be "as" bad as I thought it would last night when I posted. I am up 3.5 to 197.2. Which makes me inclined to think that the hCG is working, because I would not normally gain that much in one day. So, I will go with it. I will give this at least a 23 day round on the sublingual, unless there is more concrete proof that this isn't working and it's in my head.

My approach and plans

• prepare meat for at least a week ahead of time
• cut up veggies for a few days
• make sure I'm taking all of my supplements
• drink enough water

So, this is the start of a new day. I will succeed. I will post tomorrow and let you know how the day went!

A note before bed......about starting over

So, I've been super hungry lately. I've struggled from day one and I just started sublingual, of which, I mixed from 2000 iu vials of hCG. Today was a bad day, it was more like a "loading day." So, I step on the scale as I do every evening (I also do this in the morning) and HOLY CRAP.....I'm up like 6 pounds! So, I ponder more and start wondering a few things:

• could my old batch have been bad (would explain the hunger and cravings since day 1). The yahoo groups discussed some "bad batches" of the hCG in the larger quantites and this was a 5000 unit ampule I mixed for the injections.
• now that I've remixed and have started sublingual, which I have been hungry these last 3 days since starting it) I have gained the type of weight you do when hCG is working properly.
• maybe I'm not immune at all but didn't have enough hCG in my body to work, which would explain the yo yoing. up 1-3, down 1-3, up, down, up, down. Hungry, hungry, hungry. Tired, tired tired......

So, I will count today as a load day and plan on doing a 23 day cycle on the sublingual. Tomorrow being day 1, though I should've been loading this whole time if it really was that my old batch was bad. I pray pray pray the hunger is gone tomorrow, that I can and will stick thru this round. I had about 20 days left anyway.....so not too much is different other than I'm giving myself a fresh start. No more dwelling on the past......or so I say.......

I will no doubt be UP tomorrow.

Creating a Website

Hello, today is a very crazy day. I woke and was up .3 on the scale (after a slice of key lime pie yesterday). 193.9. It is another difficult day as I started the day with a schedule change that prevented me from my morning smoothie and I ate pound cake instead. We had to rush out of the house in a hurry and didn't have time to get things together. Then I ate some french fries for lunch.....homemade, not fried, baked, but still. I'm struggling a bit emotionally today as a precious 11 year old girl prepares to enter heaven after a long battle with cancer. I've been following her story for 3 years and am so sad for her family. Those eating habits during stressful times make it hard.

I'm still unsure whether or not I've hit immunity. Last round, I never craved this stuff even when I was stressed. So, we'll see. I will give it a few more days to see. If I need to take a break, I need to take a break. My husband has his loading days today, so hopefully things will be easier with someone else supporting me.

I have started a website because I have been helping so many friends get info on this protocol as well as helping many of them get started. It is still a work in progress, but check it out

www.hcgsuccess.webs.com

Until tomorrow...

Immunity

Good Morning. Most of my day yesterday was spent wondering if I'd hit immunity. I had so many thoughts. First, I was ravenously hungry. To the point that I HAD to eat something that wasn't on the menu for the day. As soon as I ate it, I was satisfied. This happened from about 11am through the rest of the day. I ate extra protein, popcorn, cheese, an extra smoothie. I have never felt hunger like this while using HCG and following the protocol.

I wondered if it was just in my head, I wondered if I was really tired or if I was trying to convince myself that my failures have been due to immunity. For those of you who don't know what immunity is, it's when the HCG has been in your system long enough that your body no longer uses it the way this protocol has designed. In other words, you suddenly become hungry, have trouble losing, and become fatigued. This most often happens in subsequent rounds. For me, I wonder if I could have reached immunity due to the fact that I was pregnant twice in 4 years. I wonder, and need to do some research, as to whether that can bring immunity on faster.

In spite of how I ate yesterday, I lost 3.6 pounds and I'm down to 193.6. So, another thing that runs through my head is, "could this just be an adjustment as my body metabolizes the sublingual differently. I've been on the forum with very few answers, but did get a response from a very "seasoned" HCGer via e-mail. Not all of my questions are answered, but I will just have to play the day out again and see how I feel. I need to be aware that if HCG is not working and I am losing weight, I am going to be losing the wrong type of weight and will need to take a break.

If you ever hit immunity, the best bet is to take a well-needed break. 6 weeks or longer. This will allow your body to clear out the HCG. If you continue to try to push through, the HCG just doesn't work and your immunity to it will become worse and extend longer. I hate the thought that I could have to take a break before I've reached my next goal. I'm going to give this a few days, then if my hunger issue is not resolved, I will take that break. I am starving this morning to say the least.

We will see what the day brings, it is the start of VLCD day 18 for me. Until tomorrow......

Sublingual

Good Morning! Friday was a day full of preparation to leave for the weekend to spend some time with some good friends. I prepared my meals and had everything ready in the refrigerator to take with me. The afternoon quickly became hectic, getting the car packed and kids ready. We left a few minutes later than we wanted to, and on the road, I realized I'd not only left my food behind but I'd left my HCG behind. OY! So, the weekend wasn't about following protocol, so the scale is up 1.5 today. 197.2. I'm surprised that is all I am up, so I'm feeling good.

Upon returning it was time to think about mixing my husband's sublingual formula and I got to thinking that I'd like to try it myself. I'm not exactly "needle phobic" but there is some sense of anxiety when I stare at that thing each day and poke myself with it. Especially as the fat in my gut reduces and sometimes it is more painful than others. I could continue to do injections, but I decided that I'd like to compare it with sublingual. I have the supplies to resume injections if I so choose, but thought I'd join the sublingual band wagon. So, today here we are......riding that wagon.

Today is the start of Day 17, I can and MAY continue the sublingual formula longer than the injections were scheduled. Sublingual offers longer rounds of Phase 2, though I've yet to figure out why. lol

Here is a little excerpt from "Pounds and Inches" by A.T.W. Simeons, the founding Doctor of the HCG Protocol.

Dietary Errors

Any interruption of the normal loss of weight which does not fit perfectly into one of those categories is always due to some possibly very minor dietary error. Similarly, any gain of more than 100 grams is invariably the result of some transgression or mistake, unless it happens on or about the day of ovulation or during the three days preceding the onset of menstruation, in which case it is ignored. In all other cases the reason for the gain must be established at once.

The patient who frankly admits that he has stepped out of his regimen when told that something has gone wrong is no problem. He is always surprised at being found out, because unless he has seen this himself he will not believe that a salted almond, a couple of potato chips, a glass of tomato juice or an extra orange will bring about a definite increase in his weight on the following day.

Very often he wants to know why extra food weighing one ounce should increase his weight by six ounces. We explain this in the following way: Under the influence of HCG the blood is saturated with food and the blood volume has adapted itself so that it can only just accommodate the 500 Calories which come in from the intestinal tract in the course of the day. Any additional income, however little this may be, cannot be accommodated and the blood is therefore forced to increase its volume sufficiently to hold the extra food, which it can only do in a very diluted form. Thus it is not the weight of what is eaten that plays the determining role but rather the amount of water which the body must retain to accommodate this food.

This can be illustrated by mentioning the case of salt. In order to hold one teaspoonful of salt the body requires one liter of water, as it cannot accommodate salt in any higher concentration. Thus, if a person eats one teaspoonfull of salt his weight will go up by more than two pounds as soon as this salt is absorbed from his intestine.

To this explanation many patients reply: Well, if I put on that much every time I eat a little extra, how can I hold my weight after the treatment? It must therefore be made clear that this only happens as long as they are under HCG. When treatment is over, the blood is no longer saturated and can easily accommodate extra food without having to increase its volume. Here again the professional reader will be aware that this interpretation is a simplification of an extremely intricate physiological process which actually accounts for the phenomenon.

My focus needs to be regained after all of my "cheating." Back at it again!!!

Perseverance-R2D16

per⋅se⋅ver⋅ance–noun: steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

Good Morning! As you can tell by the title, something must be "up." Well, yes, that is, in fact, true. My weight is up. 1.8 to 195.7. I have been sabotaging my own success for quite some time on this round. I have attributed it to the same factors that typically cause eating, stress etc. Now, what I have GOT to learn is how to change the behavior. That is a part of this plan as well. I'm not entirely sure whether the move was a trigger or if it's just "old me" coming out to play. What I do know, is I will need to PERSEVERE. Ultimately, I've been letting myself get hungry. I do great until the afternoon. I've not eaten everything that is on the menu for the day, so I end up eating things "off the menu." This round is a little different than last because my husband is around and I'm now cooking for him and the the kids. Although, he is starting the protocol next week so that will be easier for me.

My lack of planning has also been to my own detriment. I have not prepared my meats in advance as I had the last time and I have not found one of my favorites (ground chicken) at our local stores. Now is the time to start planning. No more excuses, no more cheating, no more changes. Changes are another thing that have been implemented a little too much. I've not been sticking with "what works." I started eating apples again, which on the first round, didn't really work well with the losses for me. So, I switched to grapefruit. My problem now with grapefruit is that it upsets my stomach, so it must be too acidic. I also ran out of my protein shake, of which I ordered, but hasn't arrived yet. I bought something else at the store, but it's very gross and completely the wrong thing. I have also been eating way too much beef. Beef is one thing that if I eat too often, my losses stall.

So, my goal today is to grind up my own chicken and make some taco meat and salsa. That is my favorite meal. I could eat it twice a day, and on the last round, that's exactly what I did much of the time. Ultimately, I'm not utilizing the best tools that I have at my disposal. The biggest tool I have available that I'm not using is this: PRIOR PLANNING PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE. Well, I've had piss poor performance for weeks this time. It's time to make some changes. I could be in the 180's now if I'd of just..................okay, that's where I need to stop. Should've, could've, would've but didn't. So, stop and change it NOW. That is the key. Being aware that there is a behavior problem and taking steps to change it. Behavior is what got me in this mess to begin with.

We are going to spend the weekend with our friends who live a couple of hours away. I was planning to just eat whatever was prepared in moderation, but now I'm realizing that if I want to succeed, I'd better pre-cook some of that chicken and salsa and bring it with me. Success is all about behavior modification.

A quote to ponder on: "You may delay, but time will not." Benjamin Franklin.

Really think about what that means for you. For me, it means, keep cheating, keep delaying in your successes in this protocol, and you will find yourself in the same place you've always been. Rich people (the ones who have worked for it) don't get that way because they procrastinate and sit back and watch the time pass. Time moves forward regardless of how we decide to spend it. It's time to retrain our thinking (my thinking) and allow the best utilization of my time.

Talk is cheap, action is priceless. Enough lip service. I say and I say and I say what I will do, now I need to DO it. I try to hide the fact that I'm cheating and pretend I'm doing so great. I AM still losing most of the time, but at a rate so much slower than I should be. I have 24 days to prove it to myself that this is going to change. 24 days is a very SHORT amount of time where a LOT of success can happen. It's time to allow myself to get to where I need to be.

Well, until Monday........

Round 2 VLCD Day 15

Good Morning! Down 1.0 today to 193.9. I'm creeping to that point where we break another barrier. Breaking that 190 barrier will be a place I have not seen in 5 years. 5 years ago was the last time I was "on a diet" that was "working." If that's what you'd call losing 20 pounds on the South Beach Diet to get "stuck" and hover at 20, only to be frustrated and move onto Body For Life to only lose 10 pounds when following the plan to a T. Yet, that was the most weight I'd ever successfully taken off. 30 pounds. Right about where I sit now, yet this time has been a much smoother process with FAR less frustration. I'm not stuck. I'm moving forward, still losing. I have a goal in mind and it's attainable. I have 25 days left on Phase 2, and 17.9 pounds to lose until my goal of 176. I can't even imagine weighing that, but I know I will.


Until tomorrow!!!