Day 23

I’ve been busy and had some issues getting to the blog.

My weight has remained about the same for the last few days and I’ve had some issues with hunger. I skipped my shot yesterday because usually hunger is caused by having too much HCG in your system. Since my weight has been around 200.4 or so the last few days then I am eating only apples today (along with making sure I drink a gallon of water) to get past this plateau.

I feel a little frustrated, to be honest. I feel stressed out because I let myself get really behind at work and then the stress is giving me a mean case of the munchies. I just feel… off. My head is not in the game because my head has to be somewhere else so I can be successful at work. I need to make sure I am recording everything, everyday, and adding entries into this blog. It is a reminder of of the 15 pounds I HAVE lost and that I only have 15 more to go this round. I am halfway there yet I am have difficulty recognizing my own success. My face looks thinner but my body really doesn’t and I need to make my brain stop celebrating these small battles as winning the war, because I haven’t yet. Watching my weight in the graph on the top of this blog steadily go down is gratifying but I really have a long way to go still, about 60 more pounds. I can focus and get that 60 pounds whittled down to 45 by the end of the month. I need to focus on that and stop getting distracted by little things (and big things) in order to make myself proud.

Weight = 200.4

I WANT TO SEE 199 tomorrow morning

Day 17 (-1.4)

Hey, almost 15 pounds and no one has noticed yet? WTF? I’ve noticed: my face is thinner, my belly is a lot less bloated, and I feel lighter. I also have noticed that even with a lot of underlying stress I haven’t had a headache in weeks. I definitely have food sensitivities that eating clean helps get rid of completely.

Weight = 202

Day 15 (+1.4)

Well, an increase was a little bit of a surprise this morning. There was nothing that went awry yesterday though so I’m not too concerned about it sonce it’s likely just a natural bodily adjustment. I also weighed much earlier today, about 2 hours earlier, than I did yesterday. No need to panic, I’m going to just keep on keepin’ on.

Weight = 204.4

 

Day Eight (-.8)

I feel a little frustrated that I was only down .8 this morning even though it’s irrational. I like seeing nice whole numbers on the scale. I lost two pounds yesterday. .8 in a day is still amazing. I know I’m not really expecting 40 pounds in 40 days but something in my brain must really be hanging onto that idea of losing a pound a day. While dwelling on it and packing up my lunch I saw the healthy Thanksgiving food and immediately felt hungry. My solution? I drank a large glass of water with lemon juice and immediately felt satiated. Also, now that I see it in the post title I like the symmetry of day eight and -.8. 🙂

So now I am shaking that off and working on my goal-setting. My first mini-goal, to weigh 205, should be coming up soon; I am hoping that is the number I see on the scale on Monday morning. I’m also hoping that number means size 14 pants will fit me. From there I calculated 10% losses for each upcoming goal and then I realized they would probably correlate with pants size. I think I weighed around 135-145 in high school and about 155 in college. I know I was 165 when we got married. I was reading something the other day about people starting to look thinner and then they lost focus because they already looked and felt better. I’m not sure how to fight that feeling because I have definitely had that issue before. I think I will just keep journaling in here to work through it and have a record of it to look back on later.

Mini-goal 1: 205    Size goal – 14

Mini-goal 2 – 185    Size goal – 12

Mini goal 3 – 167    Size goal – 10

Goal weight – 150    Size goal – 8

Weight = 209.2

Goal-setting

This round of HCG is set to last 40 days. The “lose 40 pounds in 40 days” is a bit of a stretch but my goal  is to go from a starting weight of 215 to 185 by Christmas.

1) eat only according to plan

2) no more than 2 cups of coffee per day

3) 1 gallon of plain water per day

4) 30 minutes of walking or gentle yoga each day – there are a lot of yoga classes available now on Hulu

Why am I doing this?

1) energy and quality of life – I feel tired too much

2) I was on WW for 4 months and lost only 4 pounds

3) this diet is gluten-free and I know I feel much better without gluten

4) this diet is basically a paleo diet and I know I feel better without grains

5) my blood test this summer showed I was pre-diabetic

6) I want to look better in clothes – I’d love to be in size 12 pants (in 16 now) by Christmas

Eventually I’d like to get down to 145. My plan is to meet my initial goal of 185 and, after being in phase 3 for a few weeks, do another round of HCG to get to 165. From there I would like to follow a strict paleo diet (again with lots of vegetables) and go to CrossFit classes at the gym.

Mini-goal 1: 205 (met 11/26/12)   Size goal – 14 (met 12/7/12)

Mini-goal 2 – 185    Size goal – 12

Mini goal 3 – 167    Size goal – 10

Goal weight – 150    Size goal – 8

Live weight loss graph

What is this all about?

Over the last week or so I have viewed several documentaries about health, nutrition, and food consumption.Motivated by “Hungry for Change,” “May I Be Frank,” “Food Matters,” and “Forks Over Knives,” I am committing to eating a primarily plant-based diet with only small amounts of oil and animal proteins.

I will use this space to reflect on experiences and keep a food diary.