R3P2D2- Loading Day 2

Current Weight 145.7

Up .9 from yesterday, so it looks like my combo loading day worked.  I think I needed to drink a little more water, as Im feeling vey dehydrated, and I had a huge leg cramp during yoga yesterday that still persists today, so Ill be taking my magnesium just to see if thats the issue.  TOM has stuck around with a bang, but stomach is flatter than its been in weeks, depsite that.  Love the HCG!

Measurements were pretty good this morning, still the same since July!!!! 
Waist- 30
Chest 34
Hip 38
R thigh  21.5
R calf  14
Neck 13
R arm 12
Ankle 8.5

Today, my loading has consisted of lots of nuts, chocolate granola, crostini, and a chicken souvlaki (pita, chicken, tiztiki sauce, and veggies), and chocolate peanut butter ice cream awaits me this afternoon.  I'm going to have a colonic tomorrow to make sure everything is nice and clean for the start of my VLCD (also had one last week), and then start my daily P2 chili and chicken salad meals (pretty much my daily meals during R2P2).  Then tomorrow night starts my yoga training!

Hubby is off to Vegas tonight with his buddies, so I am wishing him lots of luck at the tables, lots of fun with his friends, and safe travels back to his family (and lots of money coming back to us would be good too :)!).

Hope you guys have a great day~

R3P2D1- Loading at 144.8

Current Weight 144.8
LIW R2 143.5
Measurements: to be done after loading

So starts my loading for R3.  So far, Ive had two meatballs (from a Primo's Hoagie), a whole sleeve of Pico De Gallo Wholly Guacamole (YUMMY!) with some crostini, and am looking forward to some mixed nuts and ice cream later.  Im doing kinda of a eat the last bits of what I crave (ie ice cream and crackers) and load up on good fats loading, so I dont gain too much, but do have the fat I need to get me through my first week.  I really dont want to gain more than 3lb from loading, as I really hope to reach the high 120s by end of October (yes, body, we can do it, please ?!?!?!?!).

This is going to be a very interesting round.  I plan to keep exercising throughout (swimming, biking, running, yoga), and am starting my yoga teacher training this Friday night...that will most likely be pretty hard core (8 long weekends in 3.5 months), though I have been practicing at least 2-3xs a week for the last month or so.   Not sure how that will affect my weight.  I also am planning my first shorter round.  My first round was 50 days and the second I believe was 40, so this time 30 days is my max.  I want to be done with my 3 weeks of P3 before Thanksgiving, and maybe even in time for some birthday cake for me and my sons (we were all born within 5 days of each other in November). 

For those of you wondering, I do SC injections.  This morning I mixed 5000 ius of HCG with 14.25ccs of bacteriostatic water, and that will give me approx 28 175iu injections.  If I do my skip days like Im supposed to, and the HCG stays stable (in the frig, in its box, covered by foil to not be damaged by the light), I will only need one batch for this round.  Funny, less than an hour after my injection, TOM arrived (not due for a week or so)...or at least I had spotting.  We'll see if he sticks around. 

So, who out there wants to be round buddies?  I have a feeling Im going to need lots of support this round!

ps-something I want to share, at least to remind myself.  Someone asked me about my spiritual practice, and I said this:  Every thing I do, every moment, is a part of my spiritual practice.  I focus on the stillness inside, and the peace and beauty all around me.   Pretty profound, I thought, immediately after verbalizing it.  And sometimes more true than at other times.  I am a work in progress, and my life is such a blessing.

R2P2D13-VLCD D11

R2P2 Highest Loading Weight 165.3
Daily Loss 1.4
Current Weight 152.3
R2P2 Loss to Date 13
LIW R1P2 159.4
Under LIW 7.1
Total Loss from R1 Start: 36.7

Food Tracker: Brussel Sprouts, Ribeye Steak with Walden Farms BBQ sauce, Fiji Apple, P2 Chicken Salad, Melba Toast, Strawberries with Walden Farms Chocolate Syrup

Exercise: 15 minutes swimming (swim lesson)-learned that I need to use my whole hand for traction in the water, and make sure I push it down far enough to make a difference.

Amazed to find a 1.4 drop on the scale from yesterday, especially since TOM arrived, and he tends to bring out the big guns on D2, and I tend to gain.  And I looked in the mirror this morning, and was also amazed to see my abs, and barely any bloating.  Yippee!  And I look really good in the top I got last weekend for .50 at a garage sale, size M!!!!!  All around, Im feeling pretty good today...

Sorry I haven't been commenting on any of your blogs, my dears, (my goal is to catch up on all of you today), but Ive been furiously spring cleaning...so far Ive done the butlers pantry, dining room (not much to do there), have almost finished my office and the kitchen, and plan to tackle my bedroom and closet tomorrow.  Its exhausting, but really leaves me with a sense of accomplishment and ease to not see all the clutter (and to rediscover all the great things I own)! 

Today my workout will consist of a brisk walk on the treadmill (since its supposed to be only 50 degrees with 30ml an hour winds), and chasing my boys around the house after work.  Im really looking forward to that...

and remember, that offer for Reiki still stands.  Love and healing energy to all of you out there,

R1P4D8-TOM finally arrives

LIW 159.4
Daily Loss .7
Above LIW 1.5
Current Weight 160.9
Food Tracker
Exercise: Nada-does thinking about it count?

So TOM was 8 days late this month...and my main concern was that he would catch me unaware and I would be caught without protection and in white pants. Not that I wear white pants yet (nothing to do with the date, moreso the size of my butt), but you get the point (and I will wear them this summer :)!). Im a little bloated, but no big cramps like normal, and the bitchiness, as you know, was two weeks early and then went away. Next TOM I will be on P2, so it will be interesting to see how it changes once again next month.

My foot is still in pain, and thus I decided to forgo weight bearing exercise yesterday, and instead soak it in a hot bath and go to swimming tonight instead. I am still going to try to walk this afternoon at lunchtime, but have a feeling I wont be able to go too far. Maybe I'll put my spin bike on the deck and ride it in the beautiful weather...can't go for a real bike ride today since my oldest is home for Easter break and I can't leave him by himself and he still doens't know how to ride a bike, even one with training wheels (and the real shame is he doesnt want to learn :(...

Tonight I'm excited to pick up my first food collection from the Doylestown Food Club. Its a food club that orders from lots of different local producers (farms, diary, co-ops, etc) and goes and picks them up and delivers them to a school near me for pickup. It saves members a lot of driving to different places, allows us to eat local and sometimes organic and support the community. And they hope to form a co-op about 3 blocks from where I live...I'm really excited about that! Maybe I could be their resident health counselor...
if you are local and want to find out more about it, visit here .

And if you want to find a local farm or buying club in your area, you can check out these links from my website http://www.flyingdragonwellness.com/ :

Find A Natural Food Coop Near You http://www.coopdirectory.org/
To find a CSA (community supported agriculture) or Farmers Market close to you: http://www.localharvest.org/ , http://www.sare.org/

Here's to eating local, healthy, and hopefully, 100% organic this summer.  And most importantly, to looking and feeling fabulous!
 

R1P3D20-Almost to P4

LIW 159.4
Daily Loss 2.0
Above LIW .4
Current Weight 159.8
Food Tracker
Exercise: Four laps in a pool :(

So I just have to say that I LOVE my new Taylor scale (though I just read the reviews since I was going to post a link, and they are really bad-oops!). I bought it so I wouldn't have to go into the living room every morning and get naked in front of my family, and whomever else was peeking in the windows, to weigh myself on the Wii Fit. Yes, I love getting my stamp every morning, but now that its bright and sunny out in the morning when I weigh myself, and I have neighbors that love to get up early every morning and work on their gardens, lawns, chasing bunnies, I really would rather not share my intimate details with them. And when I weighed myself on both scales this morning, the Taylor said 158.8 three times in different locations in the room-just to test the floor, of course (wow, below LIW!), and the Wii said 159.8. Which would you prefer ;} ? But yes, I have kept the Wii weight up in my tracker above. I really need to test the Taylor scale to see if its consistantly 1 lb less than the Wii before I decide which will be the gold standard. I'll probably just switch to the Taylor no matter what once I start R2.

Re the exercise listed above, I waited to exercise til last night at Masters Swim...went in my swimsuit, coverup and flipflops, and was sorely disappointed when they closed the pool due to lightning. And then I couldn't work out...I didn't even have any underwear, and flip flops dont really work for my feet on the treadmill. When I got home at 9pm, I knew if i tried to do cardio then I would never go to sleep, so I figured I would just watch a little TV and go to bed after a cup of chamomile tea. So exercise is definitely on the agenda today. Probably the treadclimber at the gym if I can make it there during lunch.

Can't believe that Im already 20 days into P3. And while technically I am moving into P4 in two days, I definitely will be sticking close to the P3 tenets until my next P2 starts mid April (three more weeks!)....though I really am sick of steak days. They work well for me, so I'm hestitant to do other types of protein days, but I will need to get over that to make sure I can make this diet sustainable for me until mid June (that will be the end of R2P3 for me). I am looking forward to making some P3/P4 recipes from this site once Im stabilized a little more. Then I need to start working on controlling my candida...fun!

And tomorrow marks the arrival of TOM ( I hope) so I wonder what it will do to my body now that there is no HCG in it? How has it affected you?

R1P2D45-TOM is here!

Daily loss .7
Total Loss 26.5
Current Weight 162.5

TOM is finally here...I was actually a day late, and a little worried last night, but I worry no more!  Thank god I did that apple day, who know's what I would've gained otherwise.  Speaking of apple days, it was actually easy.  I had one medium apple every three hours or so starting around 9am, and one big apple around 5pm, after which, I was definitely not hungry for more.  I totaled maybe 3oz of water all day in addition to the 4 apples, and that was it.  No cravings, no hunger, no huge thirst.  It was interesting...

On a different note, I had an amazing conversation with my 5 yr old today.  It was just this morning while he was getting dressed for school.  I think he was a little upset because he wet the bed, after failing to put on his pull-up last night, but irregardless, he started asking me about death (no idea how this came up).  He asked me how we know when we will die?  And followed it up by saying, after we die do we come back and be a grownup?  After a little discussion (me, pulling out of thin air answers I have no idea about, hoping they make sense to him), I asked him why he was wondering.  If someone he knew or they talked about, died.  I should have remembered that it is Lent, and they are probably discussing Jesus and the resurrection in his class, and he is concerned about it, but at the time, that did not occur to me.  He said in response to my wondering, "Im just missing my other grandpa"-my dad, who passed away in 1999, way before Connor was born.  It made me cry a little, that he thinks of him and was not able to meet him, but I tried to comfort him by saying he was up in heaven watching over us and he can talk to him anytime he likes.   He also asked about dinosaurs, and if they are going to come back to life...and by golly, I had an answer for that one...Heady discussion for a Tuesday morning.  Life definitely is an amazing thing.  The most amazing thing is that this is probably the longest conversation that I've had with my son that hasn't been about Star Wars Lego Wii in months!

I sure do love my boys...

What's the best thing that happened to you today?

It was fun while it lasted

Up .2 today, and I feel my TOM coming on...not because I'm bloated, but because I'm being and feeling really bitchy.  I wouldn't want to admit that if it wasn't TOM :)...I need to remeber to take a deep breath and get through it. 

Did well with my eating yesterday, but did use Bragg's Aminos yesterday, so maybe that is finally catching up to me as well? 

At the office today, so need to get to work...have a great Friday everyone!  And to my not so BMB, I can't wait for our date night tonight, and I promise to be nicer to you than I was this morning...

VLCD 18

Down 1.1 lbs this morning, total down 17.4 lbs since 9Jan10, the day I started the VLCD. Funny and wonderful how much can change in less than three weeks. A mini goal of mine to be down 20 lbs by this Friday, so I have 2.6 to lose in three days. While my body will decide if thats possible (especially since my TOM is due Friday and most people either gain or dont lose anything right before or during their TOM), its nice to have small and large goals (42.6 lbs to go) to focus on.

I love how my body is changing. Hopefully you will too, next time you see me. And I wonder what my measuring tape will find this Thursday am (outside of a painfully inept measurer, that is)?

Lots of work to do today. And an idea that I want to bring to fruition: Im going to contact the people I have seen on the forum regarding whether they would like to be interviewed about their HCG successes and tips, and then I will create an ebook out of it. What do you think?