New Adventure

In what seems to be counter-productive to my weight loss journey, I have started a new adventure. I am going to be making and selling a variety of chocolate dipped treats. If you are interested, you can go to my other blog at www.dippeddelights.blogspot.com

It is just in the beginning stages but I am so excited about it.

Cobb Salad and Cottage Cheese

I am so excited!!! Tonight, I get to have a cobb salad for dinner and I can even have cottage cheese if I want. That's right, I am officially on maintenance. I stopped my drops 3 days early because I think they had lost their potency and weren't doing anything. In effect, my body did think it was starving, since nothing was being released by the HcG, and was holding on to everything. I decided that the frustration wasn't worth it and made the decision to end them a few days ahead of schedule.

I was very pleased with this round, overall. Sure, I would have liked to have dropped another 15-20 pounds, but 60 pounds in 4 months is pretty amazing! My next goal is to keep things under control over the Holidays, which I am positive I will do. :-)

60 Pounds!!

Yesterday morning I finally hit the 60 pound mark ~ it seemed like it was forever in coming but, in actuality, I have only been on this protocol since June 19. So, just over 4 months, with a 3 week break included in there. Not too bad! :-)
I have noticed the loss slowing down lately. I'm thinking that it's because I have become a little more "normal" sized so there isn't as much to lose. That's good, I guess, (OK, I know :-)) but I was really liking the bigger losses. I only have 3 more days of drops this round and I begin maintenance. Really excited about my spinach quiche and seeing how I manage through the Holidays.

Frustration

Well, this has been a really rough week. I lost 2.4 pounds Monday night and since then I have been at basically the same weight ~ up a little, down a little :-( It is so, so, so frustrating. I know that it will all work out in the end and I am right where I was at this point last round. But, I am at 59 pounds gone and REALLY want to hit the 60 pound mark!

OK, whine over . . .

Progress

I have a thing with pictures . . . I hate them! However, Haley and I are quite goofy when it comes to taking "self-portraits". We usually take about 537,000, give or take a few, before we are happy with them. So, that is why I have so many. Here are four pictures that show some of my progress. I know I need to have some other pictures and I do have some "before" shots, but they will not see the light of day until I have some a.m.a.z.i.n.g "after" pics to post with them.

June 2010 ~ About a week and a half before I started the HcG Protocol

September 2010 - Finished with the first round and ready to start the second round.


October 2010 - Halfway through the second round

Non-Scale Victories

Back when I was doing Weight Watchers they would talk about Non-Scale Victories (NSV), which were things you found along the journey that were not directly related to the number on the scale. So, this morning (in church) I was thinking about this, as I was able to cross my leg over and my foot pointed down, not just across at my knee.
So, here are a few of the NSV I've accomplished:

• I am able to cross my leg at the knee and not have my foot sit on my knee
• I have not hit a drive-through since June 19
• I have gotten over my need to consume massive quantities of food. You know, if a little tastes good, a lot will taste even better.
• I can eat just what satisfies me . . . I was the one who believed that M&M's come in a bag for a reason ~ what person in their right mind wouldn't eat the whole package?!?!? I had 4 bites of a Frosty last month and was totally happy.
• I am in the smallest size that Lane Bryant carries! I am getting down to bare bones in what still fits in my closet. I had a gift card to spend at LB and went in yesterday. I can't wear their tops anymore and this was the LAST time I will be able to shop at that store. Look out bargain clothes, here I come! :-)
• I can sit with others who are eating and be fine.
• My knees and hips have not bothered me in weeks. Now, the ball of my foot is in pain but that is because I refuse to stop wearing heels for any length of time.
• I have a hip bone!! And a collar bone!!! :-)
• I no longer have heartburn or discomfort when I go to bed at night.
• I know that I will succeed in seeing this journey to the end!!! After so many starts and stops with little to no success and many, many times of regaining all I've lost, this is it ~~I will succeed!!!

50 Pounds!!!

I hit the 50 pound mark on Wednesday morning ~ halfway to a hundred and I can see the end in sight. I think I've mentioned before, but I really like being back on the HCG protocol. I do not think of food at all since I get so little variety and I've found that this really works for me.
My OCD brain has "planned" out the rest of this journey. . . according to my plan, as of March 7th I will be completely done with my last round and maintenance and will begin to live the rest of my life. Now, we'll just hope that my body cooperates.
In other news ~ because there is a little more to my life than losing weight:

• My Grams had surgery on her back about 2 weeks ago. It went really well and much of her pain is gone, thank goodness. It had gotten really bad for her lately and this was a pretty non-invasive (all things considered) procedure where they put cement in her cracked vertebrae.
• October 1 was the 2nd Anniversary of my Gramps' passing . . . still a little hard, but definitely easier than last year. It's hard to believe that he has already been gone for 2 years ~ I still have such vivid memories of the last few days with him.
• I am down to only 23 students now. When I took time off for my Grams' surgery, 2 girls withdrew on my first day gone. I was tempted to take the whole week off and see if 10 would move away! :-)

I guess that's all for now . . . not really much excitement, but just wait ~ I am sure I will be bursting with big news one of these days! :-)