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R5P2C4 Starting Weight 150.6
Yesterday – 146.6
Today – 145.6
1.0 lb LOSS Overnight
2.6 lb UNDER LIW of Round Five Cycle 3 (148.2)
5.0 lb Lost Since Start of R5C4 (VLCD) 09/02/08
105.2 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Another good day.  I was looking over my numbers, like I usually do in the morning, and I started to get just a tad down on the percentage, as you know that is something that I look at all the time.  But this is the first break I have taken that I didn’t gain massive amounts of weight to lose quickly so my numbers are not meeting up to the past.  Once I figured that out, I felt better.  Yup!  I am 5 lbs down so far on day 5 – not too shabby, that is 1.25 lost per day – and I am no longer playing catchup, this is all virgin territory!  GOTTA LOVE IT!

My menu for yesterday is here:

• Coffee with 2% Milk
• Cottage Cheese and Blueberries
• Tuna with 1 T Light Mayo, Mustard, SF Relish and Lettuce – Chopped hard boiled egg
• One of the 48 Calorie Shakes – recipe to follow sometime next week!

UPDATE ON HANNA:  It was pretty nerve racking last night, the winds were howling and the rain was pelting – but we made it through unscathed.  Thank you everyone for your concern – things have indeed worked out for the best.

Support

Whenever we deal with anything in our lives, it really helps if we surround ourselves with people that share the same values, goals, passions, ambitions and beliefs.  This is even more important when a very focused part of our lives, changing the way we eat to lose weight, comes into play.  Just like anything else in life, we can do this by ourselves, but when we do it with a group of people that share our ideals and direction, well then, it makes the journey much more enjoyable.

I knew early on with the HCG Journey to Weight Loss that I was about to embark on that I was going to need a strong support group to help me with my journey.  In the beginning, I chose the HCG DIeters group over at Yahoo Groups, because back then, they seemed to have the most knowledge and were very true to the protocol – which as you all well know, was the purist attitude I maintained during most of my journey.

One thing lead to another, and I found myself becoming part of a support team that to me is unbreakable.  I went from the original group, to another YahooGroup (HCG2) to an online support forum (that was actually more my cup of tea format wise) to what you see now available at My HCG Journey Community Forums – and all along the way, I have surrounded myself with little pieces of the puzzle that pretty much created the team of members that I call my ROCK with this protocol.

Creating a Core Support Group

To create a support group, two things have to take place.  First, the important aspects of you, what makes you tick, what your passions are and what your needs are, they need to be rock solid in your own mind – in other words, you need to know what you want in order to know how to ask for it.  Then you have to give them reasons to want to support you – most importantly realizing that this is a two way street.  You must also GIVE support in order to GET support.

Your should surround yourself with a team that handles things you do not excel at, so that they too can fit into the puzzle – one person should never be greater than the next, it should all work like a well oiled machine so that as one, the goals of the GROUP can be realized.  Then you have something you can work with that can accomplish ALL your goals.

The team I have surrounded myself with, they fulfill different needs in my journey, which I am hoping that I do the same in return for them (they tell me I do anyhoo) and in so doing, I have seen 3 of the core group of 6 that I surround myself with already reaching goal, and maintaining nicely I might add.  Their reaching goal while on this HCG Journey while I am a part of their lives has given me more motivation than you can ever imagine.

Extending That Group

In My HCG Journey, I have come across literally THOUSANDS of like minded individuals that have shared the same goals, desires, ambitions, beliefs and so on (in regards to the HCG Protocol).  Some are around for just a moment, others hang for the time frame that it takes them to lose their weight, and still others flutter in and out of my life, but each time I have a moment in life with one of these individuals, I deem it a privilege to have shared in this journey with them.  I cannot tell you how exciting it is to see an email from someone that I have been in contact with along the way that I haven’t heard from in a while drop me a line to tell me how they are doing.

All This to Say…

Thank you for being a part of my support group.  I truly believe that I couldn’t have done it without each piece of the puzzle you all have provided being here to help along the way.  I am here, here for the duration, here to help in any way I can to share this miracle with anyone who will listen.

•Get my updates via eMail: Subscribe to My HCG Journey – Blog
•Click here to JOIN the My HCG Journey Newsletter and here to see the September, 2008 Issue!
•Click here to join in on the fun at the My HCG Journey Community Forums!

R5P2C4 Starting Weight 150.6
Yesterday – 148.2
Today – 147.0
1.2 lb LOSS Overnight
1.2 lb UNDER LIW of Round Five Cycle 3 (148.2)
3.6 Lost Since Start of R5C4 (VLCD) 09/02/08
103.8 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Can you say “VIRGIN TERRITORY”???  Not too shabby!  Everything is GRAVY now!  And my goal is that much more close!

I got an interesting email yesterday.  I asked the writer if they had any issue with me posting their question and then my answer.  They said no, so here it is – her email:

No urgency whatsoever, obviously you’ve got plenty on your plate. But I’m curious about the menu you posted.  You just know from experience that blueberries work for you? It didn’t look like much food and no veggies. I struggle sometimes with getting my veggies in. I’m definitely not criticizing you in any way. Just want to learn a little more to understand the reasoning and you said you’d be happy to share.

My answer:

No problem, I am always reachable by email, much more so then my blog or the forums.  I am a WAHM and spend alot of time on my computer!

Anyhoo, the blueberries?  I found on my 4th round that I could do them with no issues.  My 4th round in fact was pretty much the first time I played around with the protocol whatsoever.  I had a huge loss really quick (2 weeks) and did my whole goal for that round in two weeks, so in the interest of “research” I started experimenting with different foods.  I tried green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, not to mention some different crackers, even flat bread.  I tried peaches and blueberries.  I opted to try things I had seen other clinics use and see what the consequence was.  I found that if I stuck to pretty much the same “families” of veggies, that I was aok.  Any berry worked, and the peaches did to.  I would never go with any high glycemic stuff, asking for trouble there (grapes, watermelon, catalope).  The flatbread?  It was the only time I gained.  So that is a NO GO for me.

Every so often I go thru this thing with my mouth.  I develop sores in them – it’s usually around TOM and always focused in on one side (where my only filling is) and when this happens, it’s hard to eat much of anything.  So that is why I focused in on the eggs and cottage cheese/blueberries yesterday.  Today was the same thing, but I found I could add a bit of tuna so I subbed the one egg for the canned tuna.  When these sores go away, I will focus in on my veggies again, cause quite frankly, I love them, and would rather live on them.

I added this in a subsequent email:

Yeah, I worry about how things come across online also, and I have been called on the rug a few times for things I do, but I always say, when you have come as far as I have and been on this as long as I have, then we can talk. ROFL – For my first 4 rounds (well, 3 rounds and the first 2 weeks of my 4th round), I was the poster child for the HCG Protocol – and most of the stuff I have done has been in the interest of research. Lots of people doing lots of different things depending on what avenue they are taking (clinics and docs) and I wanted to find out why these clinics allowed what they did.

So there you have it people, that should explain why I go a little “against” the flow – I usually have my reasons, they are MY reasons, and they are MY consequence should I encounter issues with those decisions.

That being said?  Here is my menu for yesterday:

• Coffee with 2% Milk
• Cottage Cheese and Blueberries
• Tuna with 1 T Light Mayo, Mustard, SF Relish and Lettuce – Chopped hard boiled egg

Ok peeps – we are not out of the woods yet, those storms are still churning out there, we apprise the situation each morning as to whether or not we will be leaving, today it’s a NO GO – so stay tuned tomorrow!  Did I mention TOM was in the house?  UGH – maybe that explains my mood.

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R5P2C3 Starting Weight 160.4
Yesterday – 152.2
Today – 150.8
1.4 lb LOSS Overnight
2.2 lb UNDER LIW of Round Five Cycle 2 (153.0)
9.6 Lost Since Start of R5C3 (VLCD) 07/14/08
100.0 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

What more can be said – look at that number, that represents the amount of pounds that have been lost by me! This momentous occasion happened this morning – I couldn’t believe it when I stepped on the scale and I saw this:

It was only 13 months ago (almost to the day as I started on this journey on June 26, 2007) that this number was a full 100 lbs higher. And in 13 months, look at what I accomplished with the HCG Protocol. Unreal.

It sure made me pay for it. On my last cycle, ending June 29th, I had a stall for the last few days and was stuck at 153. Since Monday of this week I was at 152.2 – stuck at that weight all week, never thinking that I would drop the last 1.4 lbs in one night.

I hung true to the protocol, even took measurements yesterday to see if I was indeed still losing (yes, even I get nervous still!) and indeed I was so I relaxed, and then was blessed with a nice drop to give me my long awaited 100 lbs.

It feels good, I have to tell you. Really good. It was a long time coming and its here.

I would like to thank the academy – wait, strike that, I would like to thank all of you out there reading this, whether this is your first visit to my words, or you’re a long time friend – without each and every one of you I could not have made it this far. Each one of you has touched my life on this journey in one way or another and words just cannot possibly convey the thanks that you all deserve.

I have so much to say, but as you can imagine, I am at a loss to put this into words at this precise moment. I will however reserve the right to expand on this feeling over the next few days.

So I leave you with my sassy self!