Maintenance - Day 6

Well, so far so good.

I haven't yo-yo-ed as much as I expected to. I lost close to another 3 lbs, then gained just over a pound back yesterday, but that was totally my own fault. I went over calories. Not going to do that again, let me tell you! haha

I've found some really great recipes online that I want to try. It's amazing how many recipes can be made sugar-free by substituting Splenda instead of sugar, and how many recipes are gluten/starch free.

Example: I was on King Arthur Flour, perusing their products, books, ingredients, etc, and drooling all over my keyboard. I love KAF almost as much as I love Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table....and I guess Chef's Catalog, too. But seriously, I LOVE KAF.

Imagine my surprise when I started following them on Twitter, and found that they were doing recipes for Passover (which I believe is next week....I'm not Jewish, so I wouldn't know for sure). Anyway, one of the recipes they had was for a chocolate cake. OH MY HEAVEN! I so want to make this cake. You have no idea. It looks so good! It does use sugar, but that can be easily substituted out for Splenda. And the chocolate chips...well, you can order unsweetened chocolate chips from KAF. I supposed you could use unsweetened baking chocolate and chop the crap out of it, but whatever's easier for you.

Anyway, I'm seriously thinking about making this cake next week. Maybe I'll take it up to my parents' and we can all enjoy it together on Easter. I'd love to see their surprise when I start eating a chocolate cake! haha

Also, did you know that Almond milk is lactose free, unsweetened, and tastes like watered down skim milk (or blue milk as it's fondly known at our house)? It's not bad with peanut butter cookies. My husband gags everytime I get it out, and it is a little pricey, but it's not bad. Definitely an option I'm going to keep in mind. It only has 40 calories per 1 cup. How much does milk have? Ummm...more than that, I'm sure. :D Definitely a healthy alternative to my binge-drinking milk and cookies/cake days of old. (I used to love milk)

And cream cheese muffins are delightful with a tablespoon of Sugar Free Log Cabin Syrup drizzled over the top. Oh they are to die for!! MMMMMmmmm MMMMmmmm.....I want one now. Good thing I don't have any left in the fridge!! haha

Sugar free candy's not so bad either. You have to be careful, because the calories are still higher, but there's no sugar, so it's okay to have some in moderation. I personally LOVE the Werther's sugar free hard candies, the Dove raspberry truffles, and I'm liking the Russel Stover's peanut butter cups. I haven't tried any other kinds yet, but so far the Werther's are my absolute faves. I'll let you know as I try the rest of the stash (I bought some of everything a few weeks ago in preparation for maintenance, just in case I got a sweet tooth craving).

Maintenance, Day 3

So, this morning when I weighed, I thought I had gained 2.2 lbs. Silly me! It must've been too early, because in reality I lost 0.8 lbs!! haha So, no correction day needed yet.

I'm really quite happy that it's going so well. It is a little tricky at times, because yes! I want another muffin with my breakfast! haha. I've got to re-learn self-control all over again. The first time was with 500 calories a day, and now it's with the 1900-2100.

I've been having fun making all these different recipes, though, and there are some definite favorites that I want to keep around after maintenance is over. Like, the cream cheese muffins drizzled with a little bit of SF Log Cabin brand syrup. Mmmmm.....so good! And the "Magic PB cookies" are fantastic. Bonus about the cookies? My 3 y.o. LOVES them! He loves all things cookie, anyway, but these are healthier, because they are sugar and gluten free, and use natural PB instead of the preservative loaded stuff.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Oh no! She's become one of them! Those people that only eat SF, Gluten-free, preservative-free things!" I haven't. I'm just saying that some of the SF/gluten free recipes that I've been using are really good, and I'd like to keep them around. Don't worry! :)

OH! OH! OH! OH! OH! I almost didn't tell you all! I've decided to do another 49 day round of the HCG protocol. I have 3 weeks of maintenance, then a 3 week waiting period before I can do it, but I so want to. My SILs, MIL, and husband are going to do it all together (probably). My DH has been researching some things, and has learned a lot. I still have 29.4 lbs until I reach my goal weight, and I would like to reach it before we go on family vay-cay this year (at the beginning of July). I figure that if I start as soon as I can after the 3 week waiting period, then I can jump right in and be done with maintenance the day we leave! I know, cutting it close, but totally worth it if I can lose another 30 lbs or so on a second 49 day round.

So! Here's to a successful 3 weeks of maintenance, 3 weeks of waiting, and 2nd round of Phase 2! :)

Maintenance, Day 2

I gained 2 lbs from my weight yesterday. At first I was freaking out that I'd have to do a correction day. I got out my paperwork, and it says that the weight you go off of is the last injection day. Well, I pulled out my paper, and I haven't gained or lost from my last injection day. I stayed the same! Yay! No correction day for me!

Breakfast this morning was great. I had a fried egg, 6 strawberries with whipped topping, and 2 cream cheese muffins with sugar free syrup dribbled over it. I'm really excited for lunch. I'm having my normal spinach chicken salad, but with 7 oz of chicken instead of 3.5. And for dinner I'm having mixed veggies and a nice, large steak cooked in butter. Mmmm.....

Okay, so even though I'm not hungry, because I just ate breakfast, all this talk of food makes me think I am, so I'm going to go work now. :)

Maintenance, Day 1

Today wasn't as bad as I expected it to be.

I ate just over 2000 calories today. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. My carbs were a little high, 14% instead of 12%, but I think I can work that down by minimizing my apple consumption.

I'm not too worried about gaining weight right now. We'll see how my body reacts to this calorie increase tomorrow, but I'm not too worried at all.

Some people have told me it's hard to eat your calories, but I didn't find it too difficult. I spread my meals and snacks out, and adjusted my pre-determined meals a little bit. There were a couple of recipes that I changed a little to reduce the portion size (like my crustless pizza, I decreased the amount of Canadian bacon when I saw the size of the pieces).

Day 49

I get to eat tomorrow morning!! YAY!!

Also, I lost another 1.4 lbs, so I have now lost a total of 34.8 lbs. I am so close to my goal of 35 lbs! I'm hoping to lose that final 0.2 lbs today. :)

I'll let you know how eating 1900 calories tomorrow feels. I'm probably going to have to gag half of it down, but oh well. We'll see.

Day 48

Had my final weigh in today. Here are my results!

Weight loss: 33.4 lbs
change in fat percent: 40.5% down to 33.8% - 6.7% decrease
BMI change: 31.4 down to 25.8 - I'm almost to the "healthy weight" BMI range. I have 4.2 lbs to lose until I get there.

INCHES LOST:
Chest: 5 inches
Waist: 9 inches
Hips: 4.5 inches
Arms: .75 inches
Legs: 1.75 inches
Calf: 1 inch
Neck: .5 inches
TOTAL INCHES LOST: 22.5 inches

I'm quite happy with these results. I mean, 7 weeks isn't that long, but to see results like this really makes me happy :)

Don't think that just because I'm done with my first round of Phase 2 (in 48 hours) that I won't keep blogging. I will. I'm going to continue to track my progress through Phase 3 maintenance and the following 3 weeks before I start ROUND 2 (hopefully). WISH ME LUCK! :)

Day 46

Today was my last shot. I'm so excited!! I did, unfortunately, have a 0.2 lb gain, which sucked, but what can you do? I've still lost 33.2 lbs.

I have 72 hours of the 500 calorie diet, and then, Friday at 10:30 AM, I get to eat actual food again! Well, semi-normal food. haha :) I'm really excited to see what happens.

I have my final weigh in tomorrow morning. I also take my final pictures. I'm so excited to see how they turn out!