Day 9 VLCD

Today has been better than yesterday. Hunger pains are about gone and I'm feeling almost 100%. I think that 7 drops a day dosage is working and if I don't improve in 2 days, I'm backing down the dosage.

Yesterday was an interesting experience. I wanted to get a blender to make smoothies, just to give me something else to curb the craving of ice cream and such. So I went to Walmart, got the blender then thought I'd look around for some extracts but ended up walking down every isle practically drooling at all the food I couldn't have. It was almost hysterical in an insane kind of way as I looked at cookies, nope, can't have those. Then chips, nope can't have those! To salad dressings and really, REALLY wanting ranch dressing! I had a mental image of myself sprawled on my back in the middle of isle 12 in Walmart, covered in opened boxes of crackers, cookies, and croutons, covered in ranch dressing and passed out!
Then I sighed, counted to ten, let my tummy rumble as I picked up some apples and cilantro and headed for the counter.
Now, I don't know about ya'll, but for some reason my Walmart has 20 billion lanes with only 2 regular ones open and 1 ten item or less and 1 20 item or less opened! Annoying, especially when I was about to have a carb attack!
As I waited and watched this uber thin woman in front of me, maybe about my age, with one kid on her hip and another in her shopping cart I started to sweat. I tried not to look at the candy and focused on how I wanted to be like this chick in front of me when I have kids one day. I grabbed a bottled water while waiting and really debated opening it up before I got to the register. My back was getting hot and sticky as I could smell the chocolate candy in front of me! My sense of smell has improved 10 fold. Like when I noticed it after quitting smoking, too, but this makes it worse because I can't HAVE anything! UGH.

Regardless of my mild attack, I made it out of Walmart only slightly dizzy and to my car where I downed the whole water bottle. I felt better.

I get home and opened my new blender, cleaned it out, tossed in some strawberries, powdered stevia, and a tiny bit of coconut extract and HEAVEN!

The ice was perfect smoothy/slushy mixture and it tasted like a strawberry pina colada! I really, really needed that!

Here's the awesome Ninja blender I got:

Pretty cheap and it has a blender part and a little mixing bowl part if you want to do some food processing. I'll probably make my salsa in it tomorrow but I just wanted it for the ice chopping!



Oh, yes, my weight for the day is 216.8 which is a -1.4lb drop overnight. :) I'm pretty happy about that. :D


Lunch yesterday was tilapia on a bed of spinach and dinner was cajun style shrimp with raw celery. I didn't know how much celery to have, so I just grabbed like 5 stalks. I was hungry by dinner!

Today's lunch was veal on the go and cucumbers with my apple for breakfast and my usual cup of coffee. I did stop at Mustard Seed Market which is this big, fancy, slightly pretentious organic food store and got some Vanilla Creme liquid stevia.

(which was $14 btw! WTH? Too expensive!) I'm going to try it in my coffee tomorrow as everyone says it's great in coffee. I think I might try it in a strawberry smoothie for my snack today.


Some random things I was thinking about this HCG diet as I was driving around today: I'm on a birth control called Reclipsen which allows me to skip my periods up to 3 in a row so I don't have to worry about that dreaded "time of the month" like most women. I'm happy about that!

I adjusted my drops up 1 extra drop per dose, but people say to decrease your drops if you're feeling ick. If I am after this weekend, I'm dropping them down to 5 drops 6 times a day.

I'm drinking only coffee, water, and my slushy today. No green tea. I want to see how it effects me with out the green tea. Tomorrow I'll drink it again, but someone said on the forums you want the majority of your liquids to be just plain water.

I noticed a difference in how I looked today when I was going to the bathroom in the store. I can see it gone in my belly, with my sides and top belly fat shrinking and my boobs. Would love to get the fat off my arms, soon. Legs, I can cover them as it's not terrible. I have muscular legs from all the walking and dancing I've done. I am looking forward to taking more dance lessons as soon as I can. Also, I need to read up how long I should be on P3 before I jump into round 2. Or do I have to do P3 and P4? (adding of more foods then adding of sugars and starches) I need to figure that out. I updated my ticker all the way at the bottom of this blog...10.6 pounds lost and 57 to go. I'm going to be happy when I at least get this 34lbs off. A few more weeks, maybe?

Day 8 VLCD6 and...

I feel MUCH better today! I think it had to do with I added another drop to my dosage and I was getting over my physical addiciton and crankiness. I think it's kicking in today!

Woke up to 218.4# which is a 1.2 # loss since yesterday! Hurray! Also today is measurement day (I'm doing it every week on Thursday since I started on Thursday) and it's as follows:
W: 44in B: 43in Hips: 45in No change in my arms and legs yet, though they feel a bit different. That's 2in off my waist, 4inch off my bust, and none from my hips yet. Can you tell I need to lose it more in my tummy and boobs? However, I feel good about this now. I was skeptical and yesterday was a trying day but it seemed to really pay off after only 1 week of hard work.

If it's hard then it's worth it! That phrase has gotten me through a lot of tough times in my past. I can do this because it's hard and rewarding in the end!



Last night I was so grumpy about food, while I sipped my chamomile tea and watched So You Think You Can Dance for 2 hours I kept track of every single food commercial. Neurotic, I know, but I was also curious as to the brainwashing, errr advertising we get constantly.

Wendy's x3
Can't Believe It's Not Butter
Kit Kat x2
Olive Garden x2
Subway
McDonald's x3
Magnum Ice Cream x2
Red Lobster
Reeses's PB cups minis
Taco Bell
Jello
Chili's
Panera Bread
And even 2 non food commercials LOADED with close ups of food to tempt me: LG Appliances and Charter One Bank


It's interesting, isn't it? In 2 hours I was bombarded with poor food choices on tv and if I wasn't conscious of my food decisions (okay, desperately craving bad foods!) then I wouldn't have noticed the advertising and brainwashing being done.
All of these foods are not good for you. Either high in fat, sugar, processed foods, man-made ingredients, and not healthy foods, at least, that's not what they are advertising directly!

I loved Subway's the best because they are making you believe you are making a healthy choice by adding avocado to their menu. *snorts* Sure, you can go in there and get a salad with all of their..."fresh" vegetables that come from a bag or jar, (I know this because I've had friends that work at Subway and won't eat there ever again!) and don't get me started on their processed meats! Twist the truth anyway you want, Subway, but I don't buy it and I won't again! Remember that whole Jared thing? Yeah, I loved that. Get one guy in a billion to say he lost weight losing their food and make him your spokes person and instant star overnight! Oh, he's a real person, he did it eating Subway, now you can, too! But the normal person goes in, buys a whole sub, cookies, chips, and a fountain drink and don't do the low fat choice. Why would they? That would be HARD to make that decision alone when you are bombarded by advertising to eat more than you need every day!
And it's not just Subway. Wendy's was advertising their Berry Almond Chicken Salad which has 450 calories, 16g of fat, 42 carbs, 30 sugars, but high in vitamin C, A and protein. Sure, it might be a healthier choice, but then you have to add the human factor into it. Maybe I'm paranoid, or getting more paranoid, but it's hard for me to trust fast food workers anymore. (A friend of mine found a piece of chewed gum in her salad from a well known fast food place. Will not say where!)

I honestly now prefer to make and prepare my own food. That way I know what I'm getting into my body and making a better choice for myself instead of someone making it for me.

Speaking of which, I had a great breakfast of sliced apples that tasted like apple pie!
I combined the juice of 1/2 lemon, a capful of ACV, a small dash of imitation vanilla, a dash of stevia, some cinnamon and nutmeg, and put it in the microwave for 20 seconds. Then I coated the apples in the mixture, then poured the rest on top of the plate and nuked it again for another 30 seconds. SO GOOD I can't even tell you! Just try it yourself.

I also needed to up my coffee since I like coffee with my creamer, not vice versa.
I added 1 TBS of cocoa powder, a dash of vanilla, 1 TBS of our allotted milk, and stevia and mixed it together with my coffee! MUCH better. Like a mocha which I really needed today. Going to make lunch in a bit and I'm not hungry! YES!

Today is a better day. :D

Day 6 But Day 4 of VLCD

I've felt better. And worse. Mostly today I've felt out of it but no headaches, no dizziness and only hungry this morning. I decided to cut the bread sticks today. If they were causing my serious hunger then I don't want them. Will only be able to tell how I feel tomorrow. I've also increased my drops to 7 drops/6 times a day instead of 6 drops. And I'm trying to hold them under my tongue for a few minutes and not eating or drinking anything for at least 15 minutes. It's all trial and error to find out what works best for my body.

Today woke up to 220.0# which was a -1.6lb loss since yesterday. I was hoping for another 2lb+ loss but I'm still getting used to this. 1lb+ a day is good, from what I've read.

Breakfast was half a grapefruit and I made my lunch of chicken and my version of salsa again. Since I'm on the go around lunch time during the week, this worked out pretty good today.

Felt satisfied after lunch but still weak and out of it until around dinner time.
For dinner I wanted soup so I cooked some onions, 3 large stalks of celery in a pan with some ACV, spices, and some beef broth until it was tender. Then I added 2 cups of beef broth and my veal chunks to make like a beef stew. I also tossed in a tiny bit of spinach just to add something else to the soup. It was tasty and I'm still full for the last 2 hours. That's finally a good sign!

I'll have an orange here in a bit for a snack and we'll see what tomorrow brings.
So far, I think this might work but I need to feel a little bit more normal to make me feel better about doing this protocol.
I really want Hostess cupcakes, and a glass of wine, and mashed potatoes, and pizza. I never want pizza, but today it sounds so freaking good! Everywhere I go, I see food I can't have. On tv, driving by restaurants, opening my fridge, in my mind, in my dreams (I had dreams about eating bacon and spitting it out just so I could have the taste in my mouth!)

I can almost taste the cupcake...uhhhhhghhhhghgh!!



But....
I have to beat this addiction and learn how to handle food not as an escape, but for nutrition, for my body, and to live better.