{round 2...a little update...8 months later}

Not that it seems like anyone reads this or anything...
so maybe just for my own posterity.   :)

It's been 8 months since I started R1 (round 1) back last February.  I stayed on hcg for 62 days, a technically off-protocol, extra long round.  I was still losing, and found my "groove" so to speak, so I stayed on it as long as I could mentally handle it.  I knew for me, it was so hard, that I didn't want to have to do multiple rounds.  I have several plateau-memory weights that it would take me awhile to get past, so really...the whole process just took awhile.  In hindsight, I am so, so glad I did the long round, but it was probably the hardest thing I've ever done.  I learned a lot about myself, my eating habits, and made some real changes.  I ended up losing a total of 32 pounds.  Wahoo!  I went into the spring and summer feeling so much more confident in the way I looked.  My last dose weight was around 118.something or the other.  I seemed to stabilize fairly well.  Not within the 2 lbs Simeons talks about, but within the 5 lbs the long-time moderator of the yahoo group I'm a part of says is more normal now in our chemical and hormone-laden food environment.

I had always tentatively thought I may possibly do another round in October.  I knew there were at least another 10, maybe even 15 pounds I'd like to lose.  Like I mentioned earlier, my pre-baby weight was 103, but I was only 17 then, so I don't know that it would still be a healthy weight for me now at 32.  Regardless, I know 118 is still a bit high for me, I can still see noticeable belly fat, not just baby flab, so I figured if I could wrap my brain around it I'd try it again.

As the summer went on, and the kids were super busy, I found myself eating fast food more and ahem...indulging more often.  My weight was still around 123, so not too bad, but I could tell it was slowly creeping up...so round 2 it is.

I kind of got into a pre-loading mindset the week before I planned to begin, so my total pre-loading and "official" loading gain was a little over 4 lbs, but that was still almost 9 lbs over my LDW (last dose weight) so even now, on vlcd 5, I'm still now down to my LDW from R1, but it is what it is and I think overall I've done fairly well.  Learning to change a lifetime of eating habits, emotional eating, boredom eating, stress eating (which I've realized this summer may just be my main trigger) and also change one's palate is a process.  I'm in it for the long haul.   :)    

This time my youngest sister is a partner in misery joining me, so somehow that makes it better.  I will say, while I've had my moments, round 2 is proving SO much easier on me mentally than round 1.  I know anticipating it to be a short(er) round and the excitement of getting my weight down into territory I've not seen since my late teens is exciting!

So there you have it.

tastes just like fried potatos{alternatively titled, "i'm saved!"}{phase 2}

After a particularly rough day yesterday
(yes, I know I keep saying that)
I was ready for the weekend.
Yesterday I took my little kids to a Valentine's Day party
and also took my oldest son out for his "day" with me which means he got to choose his lunch as well as get a treat.  I was feeling quite pathetic.

But being home today with my sweet husband is good for me.
AND I discovered a radish recipe that tastes just like fried potatos.
I'm not joking.

_______________________________________

Radishes sliced into rounds

Phase 2 compliant chicken broth (or you could use water with spices)

Onion Powder

Garlic Powder

Garlic Salt

________________________________________

Slice your radishes into rounds.  

I had a nice bunch of radishes and measured out it was only like 3oz and they made a very satisfying amount.  It was enough to make my "side portion" of my plate look full so it was also mentally satisfying.

Boil them in the chicken broth and generous amounts of the spices until they can be pierced with a fork but are not mushy.

Drain the chicken broth.

Put them back in the dry pan.

Sautee in the dry pan until they seem a bit crispy.

Season generously with garlic salt and regular salt and pepper if you desire.

Watch them and stir often so they don't burn or stick.

I have never had radishes before but have heard they can be spicy.  

These were not spicy at all and are so much like fried potatos or french fries I can scarcely believe it.

This is going to be a game changer for me, I can tell.

Hcg Phase 2 French Fries has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Or how about Hcg Phase 2 potato chips?

People; they crunch, they are salty, and you can eat them with your fingers!!!

I'm saved!!

Many thanks to Terri on the {HcgDieters yahoo group} for the recipe.  You are a life saver.  :)

{it's a good thing he's so cute}

Today was a bit disappointing.
I'm on vlcd8 and lost zero weight yesterday.
That would be 0.
"They" say that's normal and perfectly acceptable.

So it was nice when my 11 year old son looked at me this morning and told me with a shy smile that he could tell I'd lost weight.  Did I mention he's my favorite kid?  ;)

I was promptly set in my place about an hour later when my four year old son was making a joke about a fat mama.  So I said, "What?  You think I'm fat?"

"Yes," he giggled as he patted my tummy.
"But just right here."

Good thing he's so cute.

::sigh::

{why my husband rocks}

My husband is awesome.
Not only is he an amazing dad to our 8 kids,
but he is also a stellar husband.
The never-in-a-million-years-would-you-have-ever-deserved-someone-so-awesome kind of awesome.

But he is a skeptic by nature, so going into the whole hcg thing he had his reservations, despite the fact that he personally knows my friends that have done it with great success.

"So...you're taking a hormone from the pee from women in another country and putting it into your body and by doing this you are going to lose a lot of weight and keep it off long term?  Okay, cool."

Yet, despite his skepticism he is full-on supportive.  He counted calories once as a teenager and remembers it being crazy-hard.  He prayed for me the night before I started; because he's cool like that.

He knows it's hard for me, especially being here with the kids all day.  He knows how much I enjoy eating out and how much I always look forward to my nights out with my sister and my aunt.  The guy cares.

So far he has offered to skip our Sunday eating out meals, to which I declined the offer since the kids love them and it makes coming home after church and going straight to naptime a heck of a lot easier.

He has called to see if I need anything at the grocery every day.

Has told me repeatedly that it is totally cool if I don't feel like making dinner; he and the kids will deal.

He has refrained from eating treats.  Well, at least around me.

.....and, wait for it...

Has offered to be in charge of all the grocery shopping AND making dinner every night until I'm done.

I haven't taken him up on that offer completely,
I at least have to hang onto a semblance of being a good wife.
I do have my dignity, you know.
Plus I want him to still be alive when I'm done.  ;)




 

feeling smaller in my skin{day 6 stats}

Being on the hcg diet is great for being motivated to get out of bed in the morning.  My youngest still doesn't really sleep through the night and even though I'm up with her once or twice I'm still eager to hop out of bed and see what the scale says.

I may or may not weigh myself during the night when I am up with her.
I mean, no one sees me, do they?  So it must not be happening.
Me, OCD?  Never.

I have noticed when I'm up that I feel...smaller.  Truly.
It's not my mind playing tricks on me.
I can kind of tell.

It's nice when the scale confirms it and the clothing fits a bit better.
150 is a lot for my frame.
It's a tad heavier than in my profile picture.
Not terrible, but my face was increasingly puffy and I was becoming miserable in my clothes.  I was wearing my yoga pants and the same black shirt every.single.day because none of my clothes were fitting.  I was feeling frustrated and depressed about my weight all the time.  I became desperate.  Hence the hcg diet.

On the morning of vlcd/day 5 I was down to 143.7, a loss of 6.1 lbs
On the morning of vlcd/day 6 I was down another pound to 142.7
This is a total loss of 7.1lbs in 6 days including my loading weight.

Today my face is noticeably thinner and my clothes are fitting better.
Progress!
Yay, me!

Rosemary Chicken & Spinach Soup{Pretty Much A Fail}

Today I went into the kitchen intending to water sautee chicken with a bit of garlic and rosemary.  I still hadn't decided what to do for the vegetable portion seeing as how I'm, you know...
{Vegetable Challenged.}

While I was throwing the chicken in the pan I had the bright idea to turn it into a soup.  I'm a bit chilly today and wanted something that looked like more food than it was so soup seemed like a good idea.

I added more water, threw in some garlic powder, rosemary, ginger, a squeeze of lemon juice, and some onion powder.  It looked like it was creating a nice broth.
When the chicken appeared mostly done I took it out to cut it up for the soup and meanwhile tasted the broth.

I had forgotten the salt.

I reached for the salt grinder since we use sea salt.
You know, because we're healthy like that.
But seeing as how I'm a salt person, I said to myself,
"Forget this," and reached for the bag of pre-ground salt.

You probably shouldn't do that.
You should also go easy when using rosemary.
Just sayin'.

But wait, it gets better.

Like I said, I'm a salt person, so I could deal.
Added a bit more water and put the chicken in it.
Took my very full bowl back to my desk and took a bite.

Like I said, you probably want to add salt in smaller quantities.
And, the chicken tastes much better grilled or sauteed with the spices, not boiled.

So I kept the broth and spinach and went to fix another batch of chicken.
I sauteed it like I did for the {Sauteed Chicken w. Spinach} and it was much better.
So I decided to not throw it into the soup.

With great reservation I retreated back to my desk and enjoyed my now lukewarm broth and chicken.
It was an okay lunch.
::sigh::

6 days in{a little perspective}

This is vlcd day 6.  I haven't died.
And I haven't eaten out, so part of me feels like it's dying.
I have to keep telling myself

 "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"

                  and

"it will all be worth it, it will all be worth it, it will all be worth it."

Shoot, this is hard.
I want to eat and I am highly irritable about it.
I sure hope that aspect gets easier.
A lot easier.

You know the saying that there are two kinds of people; those that eat to live and those that live to eat.  Yeah, I'm in that second category.

I hope to arrive on the other side of this with a significantly decreased desire to eat fast food, snack all the time, emotionally eat, and eat out of boredom or just because I can.  I want to eliminate my cravings, my palate, my likes and dislikes, my preferred foods of choice, and be better equipped to feed my family healthy meals.

I mean, we're not horrible eaters by any means.
By most standards we're fairly "crunchy" and eat pretty healthy.
My husband was diagnosed with ::celiac disease:: four years ago.  That did a lot to change some of our family's eating habits but there is still tons of room for improvement.
One of my greatest roadblocks is I'm a southern girl through and through.  I grew up on meat and potatos, vegetables cooked to death (often in fat and/or sugar), and casseroles.  That's how I learned to cook.

I can see that I'm already learning to be a bit more creative, but I am going to need to learn creativity with a lot of foods, not just these select few.  But I am trusting that will come with time.

For me personally, another huge aspect is spiritual.  I've not really mentioned spirituality on here so far, but the truth is that my faith is the absolute bedrock of my life.  I know some of my body image issues and eating issues have emotional and spiritual roots that need to be dealt with during this time.

I firmly believe that this is the "right" time for me to be doing the hcg diet and I also believe the severe restrictions are serving a huge purpose in helping me deal with some of these things.  I believe it is an answer to prayer.