R4P2 Starting Weight 184.4
Yesterday – 180.6
Today – 178.4
2.2 lb LOSS Overnight
3.0 lb Over LIW of Round Three (175.4)
6.0 Lost Since Start of R4 (VLCD) 01/22/08
72.4 Total Lost Since Start of Protocol (VLCD) 06/26/07

Here is my menu for yesterday. This is what I had:

An apple and a half a grapefruit. Lunch was Beef and Napa Cabbage, Thai Style. Dinner was Chicken and Baby Bok Choy Soup.

A total of around 432 calories divided this way: 7 Fat, 41 Carbs, 55 Protein

GO HERE AND SIGN UP FOR UPCOMING HCG NEWSLETTER!!! It’s coming honest! Just waiting on my partner to put the finishing touches on it!

Let’s not forget the HCG BOOK CLUB – join in on the fun! If you haven’t signed up for it yet, please do so now. eMail Address Form

Ok! I have formatted and put up the FAQ on “TOM – Aunt Flo Issues”!!! Yeah! I actually accomplished something yesterday!

Our FAQ Question this go round is the following, please spend some time if you can answering this survey:

Foods on Phase 2 – Do Some Work Better Than Others?

HA! 2.2 Overnight! I am on my way! 6 of the 9 lbs above LIW gone in two days, gotta love my HCG! Only 3 more lbs until I am at LIW – when will that be??? Who is a part of my little contest from yesterday?

• Martha – Saturday
• Cathy – Day 6, which would be Sunday
• Mary – Saturday
• Wendy – Saturday
• Monica – Sunday
• Jennifer – Friday
• Rosie – Friday
• Becca – Friday

WOW! I like the way you all think!!! Let’s see what is gonna happen! I am doing everything exactly as programmed in the protocol, no deviations of any kind, so you have my word I am working on it!!!

Brain Fog

What is brain fog? I am sure that each and every one of us has experienced this perplexing problem. You just don’t feel quite right, your spacey, your forgetful, you lack focus, everything around you seems overwhelming.Well, this is how I have felt, I would say, over the last 10 or so days. Actually, I would have to pinpoint it to the day I went completely berserk and ate all that crud. Yup, I would have to say that is when this whole day to day living in a fog just about started.

Causes

In doing some research (isn’t that what I am always doing?), I was shocked to find out the many things that can cause “Brain Fog”. For example:

Insomnia – Your brain needs sleep for optimal function. Your brain is working all the time and requires a tremendous amount of energy to function properly. And when you are deprived of rest, then your brain is one of the first organs to suffer. So we must give our brains a chance to rest. Are we all getting enough rest? I am working on this one.

Candida – Oh yeah, we have heard of this before haven’t we. And what causes Candida? SUGAR. And did I have sugar? Um, YES! What is interesting to learn is that you are hit from both sides of this little puppy. From the GROWING of Candida in your system, and also from the DIE OFF!!! It got you coming and going! I tell you, this might be what I am going through right now, a die off of Candida because of being on the protocol. You think?

Adrenal Fatigue – This is something I am just starting to learn about, so I don’t have enough information on this to give you a synopsis, but I did find that this is also a cause of “Brain Fog”.

Metal Toxicity – Lots of talk recently about Ion Foot Baths over at the HCG2 Yahoo Group, something I am not completely SOLD on yet, but I am looking into it. But it seems that our bodies are full of metals from all sorts of places, and these metal toxins like to take root in the brain and this could cause “Brain Fog”.

Overuse of Artificial Sweeteners – Oh yeah, there is that nasty subject again. Fortunately, since I have been off of Coffee, I haven’t had occasion to use much Artificial Sweeteners so this particular one might not be the reason for my latest episode of “Brain Fog”. Some Artificial Sweeteners are considered “excitotoxins” and that means they are toxic, and can disrupt brain function.

Constipation – HA! This could be a cause of “Brain Fog”? Well, when you think about it, what are our bowels supposed to do? Get rid of waste. If the waste is there and it’s not going anywhere, what does it do? OMG – let’s not think about that this early in the morning.

I have only SKIMMED these causes this morning, this is much more to be learned. It’s actually good to know that there is a reason that I am feeling this way, and it’s not just that I am getting old. ROFL

So what can we do to help “Brain Fog”?

• Get Rest
• Take a Walk in Fresh Air
• Avoid Sugar (and Artificial Sweeteners)
• Clean Out Your System (Bowels)
• Cleanse metal toxins

On to my commenter’s – these are my responses to yesterday’s comments:

Mary – HA! The fog is lifting, slowly but surely! I got your vote recorded!

Wendy – Thanks girl! I got your vote recorded!

Monica – Got your vote recorded. It’s sweet when you load your “gain load” the first night.

Jennifer – I sure enjoyed chatting with you yesterday, you are so crazy! ROFL – I think it’s too much too hope for me making my LIW by tomorrow, but stranger things have happened that is for sure! Although my average right now is higher on two completed days then any of my other rounds, so who knows!

Renee – Thanks girlfriend!

Crystal – I honestly cannot believe what I did to my body during this last break, I swear, I am loving eating natural foods again. OMG! I know exactly what you are talking about. You are going to SAIL thru this girlfriend! WOO HOO – summer? Get ready for us!!!

Becca – I need to update about JPS! She didn’t load on lemon bars, no, she was just the evil temptress who made them! ROFL – no, she loaded on Nutter Butters!!! LOL – She went a little nuts on those puppies! I will post a complete update on her tomorrow. We are in this for the duration. She is a bit shorter than me, so her goals are lower than mine, and we pretty much have hung around the same spread throughout the protocol, so I think we will be doing rounds together until we are done.

Take it easy folks!!!

Biz

LIW – 175.4 lbs (12/17/07)
Today’s Weight – 180.6 lbs
5.2 OVER LIW

Here is my menu for yesterday. This is what I had:

Breakfast: 2 Peanut Butter Drops – and a Pecan Chewy Candy
Mid Morning Snack: Half a serving of REGULAR Lasagna, two pieces of butter toast (white bread mind you)
Lunch: A hamburger (with swiss cheese, pickles, mayo and ketchup) complete with BUN, and some kettle chips, and throw in some Praline Pecans with a small amount of leftover potato salad!
Dinner: A small pork rib

A total of around 2000 calories divided this way: 110 Fat, 154 Carbs, 91 Protein

GO HERE AND SIGN UP FOR UPCOMING HCG NEWSLETTER!!! It’s coming honest! Just waiting on my partner to put the finishing touches on it!

Here is the eMail form for signing up for the New Book Club! WOO HOO! I did my part, I read what I was supposed to read and I filled out the post, now I am just waiting for comments! If you have a chance today, go to the HCG BOOK CLUB and join in on the fun! If you haven’t signed up for it yet, please do so now. eMail Address Form

I have taken down the TOM / Aunt Flo FAQ Question, and I am putting up another but I am going to wait until tomorrow.

I would still like to get some questions from my Sunday’s post about interviews. If you didn’t see it could you go here and take a look, thanks! Thanks goes to Jennifer and Becca for giving me some quality questions!

Just One of Those Days

Yesterday was not a good day for me. I didn’t get good sleep Sunday into Monday, in fact, I had gotten up at 1:30am and by the time I figured out I couldn’t get back to sleep (around 3:30am) it was way too late to take anything to help me sleep (my trusty Benadryl!) for fear I would sleep right through taking the kids to school.

Something about me? I don’t do well without sleep. Sleep has always been something that I require mass quantities of and it’s been this way for as long as I can remember. I seem to want to close my eyes around 2 hours after sunset (which poses a problem as you can understand when it’s sunset at 5pm).

Back when I became pregnant with my daughter, insomnia reared it ugly head for the first time in my life, and it’s been that way ever since. The HCG believe it or not has been the first thing that has allowed me to sleep like a baby through the night without an issue. So when I am on the P2 portion of the protocol, I am pure heaven and it seems like I am making up for lost time. But when off, the insomnia hits me once again.

Needless to say, yesterday morning was a grouch. Couple this with the fact that I am already experiencing weird and strange cravings for sweets this round, and it was a dangerous combination full of unhealthy food choices. Let me add in here right now that the “girls” have been quite sore the last few days, and you have not only a dangerous situation, but you could even call it volatile.

So from about 8am till 12pm, it was a situation of “let’s see how much damage I can do in one morning” – I honestly do not know where all of that came from. I haven’t had a hamburger ON A BUN in what seems like FOREVER (not just since I have been on protocol, but I have grown to really enjoy burgers without the bun since my Atkins days) – and let’s not even mention the potato salad – I haven’t had that in YEARS.

It was like this sensibility switch got turned off and my body was taken over by some alien force – it was not pretty, and seriously, it wasn’t that good either. I was on some sort of auto pilot, not really caring what I put in my mouth.

After that last bite of potato salad, I was done. That was noon, and whatever switch that was turned off got turned back on, and I couldn’t eat another thing all day. I drank water until it was coming out of my ears, and when my husband grilled pork ribs (my fave) for dinner I told him I really couldn’t eat anything and he was like, just taste it, and so I did. I had just a small rib (like maybe 2 inches) and that was it for me for the day.

Two things I have learned from this experience, I seriously need to get my sleep in, and this food that I ate, I need to remember how it made me feel, like pure crud, it was NOT worth it. After all the good I have done for my body, how I fed it yesterday was not helping the cause.

So I had my little fling with stupid food, it sure wasn’t worth it, and it has convinced me to not do it again. I must find another way to deal with insatiable cravings such as I had yesterday morning. One thing I could have done was just leave the house. HA!

Anyway, over and done with. Today is my world famous EGG DAY. I will FORCE these pounds to drop. All in all, I was expecting a 5 pound gain, so I didn’t come off too badly. And Thursday marks the start of P4 so I wasn’t too much longer that I would be able to eat these kinds of foods for real! Oh well, don’t cry for me Argentina. I am over it and on to another day!

On to my commenter’s – these are my responses to yesterday’s comments:

CB - I heard from Renee for a brief second about a week ago, and I sent her another email to ask her some questions, and as of yet, nothing. I am sure it’s the holiday’s, I am hoping it isn’t something more.

Lili – Protocol or not, we have grown attached to each other! Ya know??? I know you wont see this, you are already on the plane, but here are some good safe trip vibes being sent your way!

Wendy – HA! I wasn’t singling anyone out, I just want UPDATES! I am an UPDATE um, well, you know the word! ROFL

B – Posting good and bad shows that we are all human, that we make mistakes and that we carry on. Even when it is just a stat report, it shows that you care about your readers ya know? Carry on my friend!

Biz