On Vacation . . .

What a week! I was off on Friday and I don't return until after the Labor Day Holiday. Yeah!! Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away today. So, I am taking the girls to Alabama for the funeral service. It will be good for them and good for my dad. He will like the fact that the wild children are around. It sort of turns my leisurely week into a different mode, but at least I have several days to get ready. I'd hate to pull this together and go into the office.

I need to check my lottery tickets. : )

I did order this handy little gadget to try with Chloe for the flight. Since my husband is not flying with us, I was really trying to figure out other options beyond the large Britax car seat. This little item is FAA approved. I'm looking forward to using it.

HCG on hold

I had to call uncle this evening. I have no food in the house. I have scarfed down my fruit, but I need meat. My husband is stuck on the couch (knee surgery) and I am taking care of the girls. I want food. I am stressed out. I need to not think about food and I need to get out the house. I must take care of the girls and my recovering spouse, so here I sit.

So, I decided not to make myself crazy. The HCG diet is hard enough when you are prepared, it is impossible when you are not. So, I will not take my evening dose and hope that regular food won't result in a weight gain. My plan is to start again in a week or two. Not a problem, this I can do and it will be easier when he is up and moving.

Uncle!!

(Of course, I am happy to have lost a few pounds this week, I just don't know if they will stay off when not following the stabilizing part of the diet - Phase III). This will be a good experiment.

Ready for Round 2 - HCG

Okay, since I've stabilized. I've had a ball. I've gone to a conference in San Diego. I spent two weeks on a college campus where all of my meals were prepared by someone else. Over the lst couple of months, I have not been on a diet. I eat cookies, cakes, ice cream, spaghetti, bread . . . Ugh. Now, I know some of this was because I knew that I was going to do another round, but can I tell you that I have gained only under 4 pounds. That is freaking amazing. Honestly!

Okay, so I want to continue to lose weight because my BMI is not normal yet. I need to lose another 10 - 15 pounds (from my stabilized weight) to get there. Actually, I think the exact number is 136 for the high end of the healthy range. So, I would like to get firmly in the range for natural weight fluctuations.

Like I said, it's a tough diet, so it's not easy to follow with two small children and full time job, but during the week I am happy for the work distractions. The kids send me looking for the carbs. You can find a lot of information on HCG on Yahoo Groups (HcgDieters) and there are a lot of you tube videos providing proof of weight loss.

Round 2 - Starting Weight 146.2
loaded to 149.8
Week 1 141.8 (below my stabilized weight)

I'm anxious not to fall into the same pattern as my first round. I'm thinking that I will keep these rounds to 3-4 weeks, and then go on to Phase III. Even if I do that for the next few months, I am so more likely to end the year at the best weight for me. Heck, I could stop now and feel good, but I want my BMI in the healthy range.

HCG - key to my weight loss journey

Okay, so I knew I needed to lose weight, but that wasn't news. What was key was that I only needed to get my waist size down to 1/2 my height. That seemed doable. For the first month February 2010, I went on a low sugar diet and lost 5 pounds. From March 13th through June 11th (with a 13 day break for a vacation. I lost another 20 pounds on HCG. I started with with homeopathic HCG for the first few weeks. I purchasedd mine from http://hcgboutique.com/ There are a lot of places to but this stuff, but this seemed like a good place to start and it turned out well for me.

While continuing to do research, I began to worry about stabilizing on a homeopathic version. So, I ordered Rx HCG from http://www.alldaychemist.com/

Let me just say that this diet is hard, it a very low calorie diet with many restrictions. I have tried all variations of cheating and they really don't work. What I really accomplished is gaining and losing the same pounds for several weeks, when I finally decided that short bursts were probably more effective for me.

Here are some of my numbers
Began at 159
Week 1 154.8
Week 2 150.2
Week 3 148.2 (began Rx HCG)
Week 4 147 (stopped HCG)
Week 5 Vacation
Return from vacation 154.4
Week 6 145.6 (changed ratio of drops)
Week 7 141.6
Week 8 141.0
Week 9 139.8
Week 10 139.6 (stopped HCG)
Week 11 141.2
Week 12 141
Ended phase 3 at 142.8 6/11/2010

During the weeks of 9 and 10, I was actually down the full 20 pounds, but had a really hard time. Too many restaurant meals . . . if you analyze my chart, I really should have stopped at Week 8. I just regained and lost the same pounds for the next month, because I was tired of dieting.

Waist size determines risk of diabetes. Yikes!!

So, I haven't been very active on my blog, but earlier this year I embarked on a weight loss journey. I learned on the Dr. Oz show that if you reduced your waistline below a certain number, you actually metabolized food differently, thus dramatically cutting your risk for pre-diabetes. It was a light bulb moment for me. I had gestational diabetes with both of my daughters, so I knew that I was high risk for pre-diabetes and the eventual disease. It seemed to be one of those inevitable things. What I didn't understand was that I actually processing food in an impaired way that made that disease more relevant than a healthy person.

What I heard on his show that got me motivated was the following,

Belly fat: A big belly is the number one risk factor in America, and Dr. Oz has a simple test to see if you have too much: "If your waist size, measured at your belly button is more than half of your height, then you've got too much belly and you're at risk for diabetes."

Pasted from <http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Diabetes-101-with-Dr-Oz-Dr-Ian-Smith-and-Bob-Greene/print/1

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Disneyland was fun!

Okay, so we are back from Disneyland.  This was the first time for Naiyah and obviously, Chloe’s first visit.  Naiyah loved Disneyland.  We would arrive in the morning.  Have lunch – put the girls down for a nap and return for the evening.

In addition, we drove down to Farrell’s in Mission Viejo.

It was a great trip.  More pics coming to a FB album.