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R5P2C4 Starting Weight 150.6
Yesterday – 144.6
Today – 144.6
0.0 lb LOSS Overnight
3.6 lb UNDER LIW of Round Five Cycle 3 (148.2)
6.0 lb Lost Since Start of R5C4 (VLCD) 09/02/08
106.2 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

No loss, no gain, no problem.  Totally expected a gain in fact.  We had to unexpectedly take a guest speaker out to early dinner last night and we went to Chili’s.  Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, as I would have made some choices that would have benefitted me, might have been a deviation, don’t know but I would have been ok.  The unforeseen circumstance was that someone was there that has been on protocol less than 2 weeks and I had to set a good example.  LOL

I asked before we sat down what she would rather have, chicken or steak, and she decided chicken.  I knew better, I should have told her we were going to get the steak.  Who knows what evil lurks in chicken in restaurants, whereas steak I believe is a different matter.  I ordered correctly, showed her how to do it, and we were fine.  The chicken was tasty, but there was something about it that didn’t set right.

Anyhoo, I have gotten into the habit recently of weighing myself at night as well as in the morning as I like to see the differences, and when I came home I was a full 5 lbs heavier than I weighed in the morning, and I was like, OMG – I am gonna gain like 2 lbs.

Something happened over night where I lost all 5 lbs, kind of amazing as the difference between my night time weigh in and my morning weigh in is about 3 lbs.

So then, my menu for yesterday is here:

• Coffee with 2% Milk – Hershey’s Unsweetened Cocoa
• Grilled Chicken from Chili’s – Steamed veggies which included broccoli, slivered carrots and peppers and sliced tomatoes.

Unforeseen Events

So that being said, let me say something about Unforeseen Events – and let’s first remember what Dr. Simeons’ says:

Faulty Dieting

Few patients will take one’s word for it that the slightest deviation from the diet has under HCG disastrous results as far as the weight is concerned.  This extreme sensitivity has the advantage that the smallest error is immediately detectable at the daily weighing but most patients have to make the experience before they will believe it.

Persons in high official positions such as embassy personnel, politicians, senior executives, etc., who are obliged to attend social functions to which they cannot bring their meager meal must be told beforehand that an official dinner will cost them the loss of about three days treatment, however careful they are and in spite of a friendly and would-be cooperative host.  We generally advise them to avoid all-round embarrassment, the almost inevitable turn of conversation to their weight problem and the outpouring of lay counsel from their table partners by not letting it be known that they are under treatment.  They should take dainty servings of everything, hide what they can under the cutlery and book the gain which may take three days to get rid of as one of the sacrifices which their profession entails.  Allowing three days for their correction such incidents do not jeopardize the treatment, provided they do not occur all too frequently, in which case treatment should be postponed to a socially more peaceful season.

Notice what he says – he says that these things happen.  It may take 3 days to recover, but all you have lost is time.  And he also says that if it happens, then do not automatically assume that your course is a wash.  He says that it does NOT jeopardize the treatment, provided that they do not occur all too frequently.

Isn’t that interesting?  Now he does mention “dainty servings” – not all out pigging out – but all those of you out there that have had to make a sacrifice for one reason or another because of situation like I had above, or some other unforeseen circumstance, it is NOT the end of the world.  Pick up and move on.

Interesting.

The 18,000 times I have read the manual, it didn’t hit me until just now that this kind of thing is TRULY not the end of the world.  Don’t make a habit of it, just suffer consequences if it happens.

It also goes hand in hand with the belief system that the hypo is reset in the stabilizing period rather than the P2 as some people believe.  Do you see how that works?  If not, just ask me.  I gotta run right now, but if you folks don’t understand I will explain it another day – maybe tomorrow.

LIW – 163.0 lbs (05.28.08)
Today’s Weight – 163.4 lbs
0.4 OVER LIW

Wow! I have to tell you folks, you are the best. I cannot believe the outpouring of concern that was shown to me during my absence. Please understand that it was unavoidable – and know that I missed my readers so terribly much. I am sincerely sorry for any cause of concern during my absence – there were a few people that knew I was not available, but evidently not enough.

Please know that during this time I and my family have been fine. It was a case of things happening around me that were not fine and that had to take precedence. That all being said, I am totally ECSTATIC to be back! I also have to tell you that I stayed true to the protocol, even tho everything around me was falling apart. WOO HOO FOR ME!

Ok, let me bring you up to date on how my days went while I was absent – what can I say? My last post was on the 22nd of May and at that time I weighed 163.0 – I stayed that weight until my LIW which was on the 28th of May – I even gave myself ONE MORE DAY past my original day scheduled to finish to try to break this INSANE stall I was in – LONGEST stall of my protocol history – and it wouldn’t budge. I had too much happening in my life to really care about trying to do an apple day or some other day, I was doing really well to stay on protocol so I just let things happen. I can imagine that the stress I was under contributed to the stall and that is why I didn’t make my goal of 160 this cycle. It’s ok. I am VERY OK with where I am.

I proved to myself that I am most capable of handling myself under pressure. And that pleases me to no end. For the first time in my life I didn’t allow an extremely stressful situation be an excuse for me to lose control of my eating. WOW – looking back on that, I am most proud of myself, I must say.

Saturday the 31st was my first P3 day for this cycle – and since then my weight has been fluxing a bit. Believe me, I was happy to see the scale move, no matter WHAT direction! So here was my fluxes since Sunday morning:

• Sunday – 0.2 over LIW
• Monday – 1.0 over LIW
• Tuesday – 2.4 over LIW
• Wednesday (Today) – 0.4 over LIW

I ate late on Monday night and I really attribute the 1.4 gain to that, but I promised myself for my last round that I would follow the strict “over 2 lbs” rule and so yesterday I did a “chicken day” and I lost 2 lbs. So I am well back into the legal limits of the 2 lbs.

We are starting again on the 9th, going straight back into VLCD on that day with no loading or anything. Our break will be 9 completed days long. I am hoping to stay within 3 lbs of LIW by the start of VLCD on the 9th of June – I figure at only 3 lbs above LIW then this cycling thing is definitely WORTH IT – just an experiment – I am the guinea pig.

Update on JPS – she ended at 135.2 – that was a 10.4 loss for her in 22 completed days.

My update – since I ended up at 163 – that was a 13.8 loss for me in 22 completed days. Not quite where I wanted to be, but excellent considering the circumstances.

A couple of interesting things. At this weight I am 12.6 pounds away from having lost 100 pounds on this protocol. My one year anniversary is this month, June 23 was my very first injections – I am so hoping that I will be able to make my 100 lbs lost in one year goal by then. It will all depend on how well I handle this break!

Once again, thanks SO MUCH for the outpouring of affection – I think I am up to date on all my emails. If you wrote me and I didn’t write you back, please write again. I had SO MANY emails to answer!

Until tomorrow – yes, people, I AM BACK!

R3P2 Starting Weight 193.2
Yesterday – 179.2
Today – 177.8
1.4 lb LOSS Overnight
9.6 UNDER LIW of Round Two (187.4)
15.4 Lost Since Start of R3 (VLCD) 11/26/07
36.6 Lost Since Start of R2 (VLCD) 09/16/07
73.0 Lost Since Start of R1 (VLCD) 06/26/07

Here is my menu for yesterday.

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OMG! Where did THAT come from??? I was all ready to come here this morning and write that I was a bad girl yesterday. I didn’t eat any dinner. I was prepared to tell you that I honestly don’t know what happened but around 5:30pm last night I started feeling very rough, very sick to my stomach, and the thought of food seriously repulsed me. I couldn’t imagine putting anything in my mouth. So I just went to bed, and I was out like a light at 7:30pm.

Do you think that maybe my body was doing some chemical thing to dispense with all that fat I just lost overnight and I needed to give it a rest? WHO KNOWS but I will TAKE IT! WOO HOO FOR ME!

Seriously tho, I was NOT feeling good last night, and it came on me all of a sudden. And my husband grilled London Broil last night for us, and I couldn’t bring myself to eat it! Something was up. I am feeling better today, and I certainly do NOT recommend going without food, and I wont be doing that again, but still, this is amazing for me.

This round has blown my mind, seriously. I do NOT know what is going on. I am just “letting go of the wheel”.

All right, let’s discuss plateaus/stalls. I am sure this is all information you folks are already familiar with, but repetition is the mother of retention, so it doesn’t hurt to go over the material again.

Let me preface this discussion that I am talking about plateaus/stalls that happen when you have done everything you’re supposed to be doing according to Dr Simeon’s manuscript.

Dr Simeon’s told us that plateaus/stalls most likely would occur, and that there would be several different reasons for them to happen. Interesting that the words he uses to preface this section of his manuscript is “Interruptions of Weight Loss”.

Interesting here too, right before this subheading he tells us “After the fourth or fifth day of dieting the daily loss of weight begins to decrease to one pound or somewhat less per day.” So before we even start, he basically is telling us that we are to NOT expect the decreases we saw in the beginning to last throughout the course of treatment. Elsewhere in the manuscript he mentions that our averages should be around 300 – 400 grams loss per day, or 10 – 14 ounces loss per day.

We are SO excited with those first few days, or even a week or more of one pound or more losses each and every day. He simply tells us this will NOT continue. We cannot expect to maintain those losses throughout the protocol. He does mention that there will be SOME men that “often continue to lose regularly at that rate, but women are more irregular, in spite of faultless dieting.” So the women need to really pay attention!

He tells us that “these fluctuations are entirely due to variations in the retention and elimination of water, which are more marked in women than in men.” Then he goes on to tell us the process by which or cells break down, fill with water, blah blah blah.

Now, back to the subheading “Interruptions in Weight Loss” – Dr S first tells us about the “Plateau” – interesting that he starts with this. And interesting to that he describes a plateau as being 4 – 6 days. A plateau isn’t two days at the same weight, a plateau isn’t three days at the same weight, a plateau by HIS definition is 4 – 6 days at the same weight. I see most people start to fret because the scale didn’t move one day, and then all of a sudden they are scrambling to find out “what went wrong”, when in reality, NOTHING. Now don’t get me wrong, at the first sign of a stall, it’s a good idea to look over your menu in previous days to see if there was anything that might have contributed to the lack of weight loss.

Some things to look for:

1. Did you get all your water/liquids in? (Dr S mentions at least 2 liters)
2. Did you have a lot of sodium? If so, you need to drink more water than he recommends.
3. Did you do ANYTHING to deviate off the protocol according to “his” plan? I say this because I know there are people out there doing different plans, and when all else fails, look to the one that started it all. In other words, go back to the basics.
4. How are your bathroom habits?
5. If you are a woman, is it time for Aunt Flo/TOM or is ovulation near? Dr S this could even cause a GAIN!
6. Some people are very sensitive to chemical additives, ie Diet Soda, Artificial Sweeteners and the like.
7. Any new medications?
8. Any new cosmetics, lotions, deodorant, bath lotions?

Ok, so let’s say you looked at all of this, and you did everything right, then you know what? DON’T FRET! Let the process happen. Or as Paul (Imago Embraced) said, “LET GO OF THE WHEEL!”

Let me tell you that I have experienced stalls. In my first round, I had 9 separate times I stalled, 4 times I was the same weight 2 days in a row, 4 times I was the same weight 3 days in a row. In my second round I had 7 occasions at 2 two days the same weight and then 1 occasion where I was three days at the same weight. But in the big picture, look at the weight I have lost.

Sure, I am human; I want to see something happen every day just like the next person. But when it doesn’t happen, I look back, did I do anything to deviate from the protocol, if I didn’t then I just “let go of the wheel” and move on to the next day. Things will even themselves out.

Ok, so let’s go back to this “4 – 6 days at the same weight”. Dr S gives us an answer for that. He calls it an APPLE day. He is very specific about this, “In such cases we consider it permissible, for purely psychological reasons, to break up the plateau.” He gives us this apple day for purely psychological reasons. In other words, he does this to make us feel better. Totally warranted. We are after all, only human, and it’s discouraging to be on 500 cals and not see a weight loss of any sort for 4 – 6 days. But get what he ALSO says, “It is useless to give either an apple-day or a diuretic unless the weight has been stationary for at least four days without any dietary error having been committed.”

So what is THIS telling us? HA! The apple day is ONLY to be used and in fact is ONLY useful if you have been stellar in your eating habits, following the rules to the letter. This is NOT the answer following a deviation. It is NOT useful for that purpose. So it would NOT be wise to veer off course and then think to yourself “hmmm, I will do an apple day to lose everything I just gained” – nope, this will NOT work. The apple day is for a specific purpose.

The next thing he mentions is “reaching a former level” – This one I can truly vouch for. I had a set point in my 220’s, and it took me FOREVER to get thru that decade. You are forcing your body to obey your will, get passed it. What is interesting about this? He tells us that this ‘plateau’ could last for TWO WEEKS despite being good. WOW – that one would be hard. But it is being done. I have known people to be stationary for 10 days, and then BAM their weight loss resumes. I have known one person in particular that was stationary the entire 14 days, on the 15th day? BAM – 3 pounds loss and then her weight loss continued. Disheartening yes, but he warned us about it.

He mentions the dreaded AUNT FLO interruption, well, we all don’t need to discuss this one. We know how this affects our ability to lose. One thing to remember, and in doing research I have seen this time and time again. Us women are putting our bodies in some extreme chemical processes, our menses, which are usually fickle to begin with, could rear its head at almost any time. From what I have seen, there is no rhyme or reason when our menses can appear. So, when us women have a stall, always expect that this might be the cause!

And then of course he talks of dietary error. HA! I don’t need to delve into that one. But I will, but I will leave that one until tomorrow! HA! Gotcha! This is already too long!

Update on my son: From Thursday (the last day we weighed him) to Monday, he lost a net of .2 pounds. Something happened, but they are not telling me. That is ok. He is back on track now, and home and his environment can be controlled. One day at a time for him. He is at 176.6 – Tomorrow is his picture and measurement day, so I will post those results on Thursday, so stay tuned.

Update on JPS: She is at 156.2 which is 13 lbs for her, she lost .6 yesterday. She is LOVING life! She has now lost a total of 56.8 since the start of her protocol in July. WOW! We sat around lamenting about clothes yesterday. She says she is really going to have to buckle down and buy things. The size 14 skirt she was wearing yesterday was WAY too big!

On to my commenter’s:

Amy – Thanks for the vibes for my son, he seemed to be doing better yesterday, so we are just taking it one day at a time. Can’t wait to see your update sometime this morning.

Crystal – Figuring it all out, that is what this protocol is good at, forcing us to really LISTEN to our bodies for the first time ever!

Jennifer – OMG! Ba-donk-a-donk, that was TOO FUNNY! Someone told me I was losing all my “junk in the trunk”! Crack me up! The only thing I can tell you about the scale is that I feel that during the week of my deviations, I had much slower losses. The kinds of losses you could expect on being on a “normal” diet, you know, like only 2 pounds. HA! I can’t even believe I typed that! 2 lbs is hard on ANY diet! ROFL Your hunger? You drinking enough water???

Michaela – Thanks girlfriend, for the nice words on the pics, and for the vibes for my son. One day at a time ya know?

Tracey – HA! Even I see the difference! How cool is that??? Will you ever be posting some pics???

Whew, another windbag post! ROFL – I am so surprised you folks aren’t tired of me yet! ROFL

Biz (Miz Skinny Minny)