Day 9 of VLCD Done!

Starting weight: 186.2
Yesterday: 175.8
Today: 175.8
0 lb. Released Overnight
10.4 lb. Released Since Start of VLCD 1/14/2008
1.16 Avg Daily loss

Hmmm.... this is getting frustrating, but I'm hanging in there & it's still not a gain.

Yesterday's menu was:
B: organic apple cinnamon tea with stevia & lemon
L: chicken sauted in orange & lemon juice, romaine lettuce and tammy's orange vinaigrette. 2 melba toast rounds
D: chicken sauted in lemon juice & water. boiled cabbage seasoned with garlic and spices. apple & 2 melba rounds

First of all something strange happened yesterday. TOM looks like it came back! I already had that the day I started my injections and it lasted for 3 days. I noticed that it was heavier & earlier than normal. I thought that was strange cus you can set your watch by my TOM normally. Well yesterday, I thought I was just spotting, which never happens, but by the end of the day it was clearly more than that. I haven't read any posts or blogs where that's happened to anyone else. I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm going to do my injection today anyway. I guess this is how the hcg is affecting my body. I think I'll read P&I again to see if I can find any hidden clues.

Jennifer asked me yesterday what kind of beef broth and crab I'm using & I immediately thought. DUH! I'm using store bought beef broth! Hah... that's why those onions are so good! :) It's Swanson's low sodium, fat free and I'm not sure what's in it cus I transferred it to a jar after I opened it and I had it before VLCD, but it's probably made with carrots and maybe molasses or something. I should have learned my lesson with the vegetable stock incident last week, but I'm a little dense sometimes. I'm also using a good quality canned lump crab meat by Phillips. I'm sure there's a lot of salt in that. Well... besides the little bit of salt in my cabbage yesterday, I haven't had any salty food since the crab & I've been drinking an insane amount of water (for me anyway). I had 3.5 liters yesterday.

Ok... so I'm in a stall and when I think about not losing any weight I'm a little bummed over it, however when I think on it more, I realize that I've been living perfectly fine on 500 calories a day for over a week now! I actually have more energy than normal & I generally feel great. I haven't really been hungry except for bedtime & then I just drink some tea or water and go to bed. Obviously something's got to be happening because I just HAVE to be burning calories, don't I? I've taken measurements, but I've always been bad at it. They never seem very accurate when I go to do it again. Anyway, here they are:

	Week 1	Week 2	CHANGE
NECK	15	15	0
BUST	41	41	0
UNDER BUST	36	36	0
WAIST	36	35.5	0.5
HIP	40.5	40.5	0
UPPER THIGH	25.25	25.25	0
LOWER THIGH	22.25	20.5	1.75
KNEE	15.5	15	.5
CALF	16	16	0
UPPER ARM	14	13.5	0.5
LOWER ARM	12	12	0
INCHES PER WK LOST			3.25

This weeks measurements were actually taken on monday, so I guess they could be different now.

In response to yesterday's comments:

Jennifer - aw well... counting day 3 now. Still in good spirits though and not going to do an apple day. I grabbed that cursor code from this site called http://www.dynamicdrive.com/. There's alot of cool stuff on that site. It takes some web programming skill to get them to work on this blog though. I can help if you want something like that on your blog.

Biz - As long as I don't see a gain, I'm good to go. You're blog has been a huge help. I find myself going back to your earlier days on VLCD to see how you handled things. It must be great to have that as a point of reference for yourself. I'm so glad you and other bloggers are around.

Renee - I think that might be part of it as well. I've always been sensitive to salt. My feet & fingers used to swell when I had to much so I should watch it in the future.

Marshall - TOM has passed, but somethin else was goin on yesterday. No BMs in a few days. I have some Smooth Move tea, but Dr. S writes that it's normal to not go for 3 or 4 days. I'm on day 4 now. I'll drink some of the tea tonight. Thanks for reminding me.
AARGH! You're killin me, marshall! The OTHER guys need to be brought DOWN. That's ok... we're used to being the underdogs. That's when we do our best work. lol

smacmo - Welcome. Thanks for stopping by. It's nice to have a new P2 blogging buddy. I'll check it out when I'm done here.

becca - I'm a web & software programmer by profession. I'm not a web "designer" but I have a few tricks up my sleeve. I'm glad you like it. HA... after saying that, my blog probably looks kind of boring now. I'm sure I'll have a loss soon. As long as I don't see a gain, I won't get too concerned (probably)

Day 8 of VLCD Done!

Starting weight: 186.2
Yesterday: 175.8
Today: 175.8
0 lb. Released Overnight
10.4 lb. Released Since Start of VLCD 1/14/2008
1.3 Avg Daily loss

Day 2 of my stall, but I didn't gain and that's a good thing. I had decided that I wouldn't do an apple day before I began, so I'll just wait it out. I followed the protocol 100% yesterday so I should be fine. It's disappointing to not see a loss again though.

Yesterday's menu was:
B: none, just water
L: 1/2 grapefruit, tomatoes & a 3.5 oz crab cake. I just followed my own recipe omitting the egg & mayo.
D: Strawberries, 3.5 oz lean steak, 1 carmelized onion

My crab cake:
I just followed my own recipe omitting the egg & mayo.
I didn't measure anything, but here are the ingredients
7 oz crab meat
dry mustard
onion powder
garlic powder
essence
squeeze of lemon
4 crushed melba toast rounds moistened with a bit of milk
dried parsley

Shape in a custard cup or muffin tin. (it won't keep it's shape with no egg). Broil for about 10 minutes or until it's brown on top. Makes 2 servings

I hope the steak isn't causing my stall. I'll just eat chicken and fish until I have another loss. I'm hoping that others are right and it's just my body playing catchup, but I can't help 2nd guessing myself. I knew my daily average would start to even out to about 1 lb a day, but I was hoping that it wouldn't happen so drastically. Hopefully, I'll have a loss tomorrow.

Not much happened yesterday. We just sat around playing video games & watching movies. Good times :)

In response to yesterday's comments:

Renee - It's actually been easier than usual to stay away from the junk. It must be the hcg. I love that. As far as the half & half goes, I'll use it as a treat. I can find other uses for my 1T of milk that I can use skim or 2% for.

Becca - I buy a shoulder roast and cut it up into 3.5 oz servings. Heat the pan up to high heat. I use a stainless steal pan for this to get a better sear. Put the steak in the pan with your seasoning on it, but no liquid. Cook about 1-2 minutes on each side depending on how you like it & how thick it is. If it's getting too brown and you want it cooked more, you can throw it under the broiler to cook through, but I like mine pretty rare. Take the steak out of the pan & deglaze the pan with beef broth. Throw in the onions and saute them on high heat until their a translucent and a little brown. Keep adding beef broth as the pan gets dry during cooking with no oil.

Jennifer - I really did enjoy my day off. Thanks. I'm not so sure about the tea tree oil anymore. I did wash it out. I think I'm just in a normal stall cus I didn't do anything shady yesterday and still no loss.

Biz - I did take new measurements yesterday by your suggestion, but I don't have time to post them today. I will say that I lost a total of 3.25 inches though, so something IS happening thank goodness.

Renee - Yup... my thoughts exactly. Thanks so much for the encouragment. It really means alot.

Day 7 of VLCD Done!

Starting weight: 186.2
Yesterday: 175.8
Today: 175.8
0 lb. Released Overnight
10.4 lb. Released Since Start of VLCD 1/14/2008
1.5 Avg Daily loss

I didn't gain :) I'm happy about that because I was expecting it after washing my hair with tea tree oil & peppermint oil shampoo, and then putting olive oil moisturizer in my hair yesterday. I'm going to try to not put anything in it until I get the brilliantine.

Yesterday's menu was:
B: 1/2 grapefruit & coffee with half & half
L: Grilled chicken with Emeril's Essence & salted sliced tomato. 2 melba rounds
D: Crab cake from tammy's cookbook (no onions) over a bed of romaine lettuce (very tasty)
Snack: 1/2 a medium apple (I couldn't finish it)

It was such a great day yesterday! We had company over for the Giant's playoff game & had a great time. As you can see I changed my blog skin... at least until the superbowl :) I made everyone hot wings, and I had my crab cake salad. I only got a few questions about it. I said I was trying to take off some holiday weight and that was that. One of DH's friends brought him oreo double stuffs though. That was the only real temptation I had cus I make hot wings all the time during football season & I was kinda getting sick of them myself, but the crew's just gotta have them. No biggie. For the superbowl party, I think I'll have Baked Cajun Chicken, but since I like it really spicy, I'll dip the chicken in hot sauce instead of milk.

I've been having half & half instead of skim milk in my coffee and I'm not going to have any this week. I made a conscious decision to have it because I think my coffee tastes awful with skim milk, but I don't think half & half is really allowed. I just decided today that I'm being so careful about everything else so why am I having half & half? Coffee is not a necessity for me anymore anyway. By the way, I broke my addiction when I was on Atkins. That was the best diet I was ever on before this. I lost 50 lbs on that and cured myself of my addiction to carbs and coffee. I gained everything back except the addictions :) Since I don't like black coffee, I'm going to go without it or I'll just have it once in a while with half & half if I'm really going insane. I still had a loss when I had it, so it must not be a horrible offense for me.

Ok... off to have a great day off from work!

Renee - I'm gonna have that steak and onions again today. That was so good, it felt like cheating!

Jennifer - There's no way I could go without moisturizing my hair either, especially in the winter. I wear it natural so it's more delicate because of the tight curl. All my hair would fall out!

Wendy - Thanks a bunch! I feel wonderful on this. I'm so glad I found it. I'm even more happy about the giants win last night. None of the ESPN commentators picked them to win either. On to the superbowl!

Biz - You know, I think I only saw it because I was looking for a loophole for my hair situation. Funny how the mind works.