Hello... Remember me???

Despite what you may have thought, I'm still alive and kicking! First, I owe everyone an apology. One of my buddies (thanks Raj ;-) pointed out to me that I really left you guys on a cliffhanger post. I did not realize that my last post was right after I injured my back! You probably thought that I ended up in traction in the hospital or something. Well, that certainly wasn't the case. After a few days of ibuprofen, ice, and heat with my feet up, my back healed up and I was relatively back to normal.


The problem was that by the time I was back on my feet, we were well into the Advent season and Christmas was just around the corner. Between church functions, concerts, plays, family gatherings, present wrapping, etc. etc. etc., it was almost impossible to fit in blogging time. You see, I am an engineer by trade, and I'm all about the details. Because of this, I would spend upwards of two to three hours a day writing my posts. (I know, I know... crazy... but my anal-retentive self would read, re-read, add a little, delete a little, read again, correct spelling, read again... If I missed a key point or sent something misspelled out into cyberspace it would devastate me!) Another one of my "issues" is that if I can't do something right, then I don't want to do it at all! So, rather than checking in with a 5 minute post, I chose not to post at all.


Then, Christmas led into New Years, which led into January, which ushered in the "winter blues" for me. At that point, I was feeling so low that the thought of trying to write a "motivating" blog was pretty much impossible. I had also gained some of my weight back (more on that tragedy later) and because of, well, I'll just say "female problems," I was not in a good position to jump back into the protocol. It was all very discouraging.


Then, as the days in January started ticking by, I came to realize something that shocked me. Up until that point, I really only knew of one or two people who were reading the blog faithfully and responding, and those folks were finished up by that time. But, especially after the new year began, I have been contacted by SO MANY PEOPLE who are asking me to PLEASE get back to blogging. I'm both flattered and... embarrassed!  I'm worried that I left a bunch of folks wondering if HCG really works, and I'm afraid that my abrupt ending might have been discouraging to those that were faithfully following along.  I want to quickly assure you that I am still a card-carrying HCG fan, but, as I alluded to earlier, I have had some rocky parts to my journey. I'll attempt to fill you in now...


Reflecting back to November (go re-read my posts if you want), my Round 2 Phase 2 ending was pretty ghastly. I was experiencing hunger that was bordering on excruciating so I made the decision to stop short of my 40 injections. Also, I was experiencing significant hair loss. I didn't end up with any bald spots, but I might have if I hadn't had really thick hair to begin with.  Then, to top it all off, TOM arrived (early!) almost simultaneously with my final days. I never did figure out what was going on at the end of my round, but it was an unusual one to say the least.  Primarily due to taking a break in the middle of my round for a week-long trip and my ever-present "female problems," I was on the VLCD for about 50 days. Perhaps that is just more than my body could take? I don't know. But, I did know that extreme hunger popping up after the "HCG no-hunger nirvana" signals that I was losing normal fat instead of abnormal fat, and that is not good. Any normal fat that you use near the end of the round will almost certainly be immediately gained back as soon as you resume eating fats in Phase 3, so this is not something that you want to do.


Reflecting back on December and early January: I did not restrain myself as I should have, and I reverted to the American way of "no holds barred" eating over the holidays. I did fairly well during Phase 3, but I really pushed the limits during Phase 4. I fell into the "I'll be starting round 3 in January, and I'll take care of things then" trap. (Flash to Scarlett O'Hara: "I'll think about that tomorrow... because tomorrow... is another day!") And, probably the worst mistake of all: I stopped weighing myself. Notice that I did not say "I stopped weighing myself every day" but "I stopped weighing myself." Period. By the time my "winter blues" arrived in early January, I was well into the habit of not watching what I was eating and not jumping on the scale to face the music and have a correcting Protein Day. Since I was already feeling like I was in the pit of despair, I just couldn't face getting on that scale.  And so... sigh... I didn't. The thing that I could not ignore, however, is that those size 10 jeans that were fitting so nicely at the end of my last round were not fitting so comfortably anymore. And then -- gasp! -- they weren't fitting AT ALL. Boy, was that devastating to me. Thankfully, it was enough to get me to pull myself out of my self-imposed imprisonment in the pit of despair. It was tough, because I was seeing so many people that I had not seen for awhile during Christmas who were giving me complement after complement on my svelte new body, but inside I was feeling quite ashamed of myself because I knew that, slowly but steadily, I was beginning to gain that weight back.


Finally, I got a grip on myself, stopped the pity party, jumped on the scale and faced the music. I said "It is what it is" and made plans to start Round 3 soon. At that point, we had a weekend trip planned with friends coming up, and I decided to start right after we returned. So, on January 19th, I had my first loading day. In the interest of being complete, here's my stats from that day up until today:
D1, Load:    157.6 lbs
D2, Load:    158.3 lbs (+0.7 lbs for the day)
D3, VLCD1: 161.6 lbs  (+3.3 lbs for the day)
Total Gain During Load:  4 lbs
D4,  VLCD2:   157.9 lbs    (Total loss: -3.7 lbs)
D5,  VLCD3:   156.7 lbs    (Total loss: -4.9 lbs)
D6,  VLCD4:   155.2 lbs    (Total loss: -6.4 lbs)
D7,  VLCD5:   155.2 lbs    (Total loss: -6.4 lbs)*
D8,  VLCD6:   153.2 lbs    (Total loss: -8.4 lbs)
D9,  VLCD7:   151.5 lbs    (Total loss: -10.1 lbs)
D10, VLCD8:   152.6 lbs   (Total loss: -9.0 lbs)*
D11, VLCD9:   151.7 lbs   (Total loss: -9.9 lbs)
D12, VLCD10: 152.1 lbs   (Total loss: -9.5 lbs)*
D13, VLCD11: 151.5 lbs   (Total loss: -10.1 lbs)
D14, VLCD12: 150.4 lbs   (Total loss: -11.2 lbs)
D15, VLCD13: 149.0 lbs   (Total loss: -12.6 lbs)
D16, VLCD14: 149.2 lbs   (Total loss: -12.4 lbs)*TOM
D17, VLCD15: 148.6 lbs   (Total loss: -13.0 lbs) TOM

D18, VLCD16: 149.5 lbs   (Total loss: -12.1 lbs)*TOM
*Indicates a day where I either stayed the same or gained.
  These are easily chalked up to clothing change or
  retaining water, so no biggie.


So, there it is in black-and-white. My LIW from Round 2 was 147.9 lbs. I started this round at 157.6 lbs. The sad truth is that I did put on close to 10 lbs between rounds. Now, I can almost hear you saying "Whoa! Hang on! Wait a minute! What about your rested and reset hypothalamus! How did you pack on 10 lbs between Nov 14th and Jan 19th? What a ripoff!!!" But please, please, PLEASE do not let my experience color your opinion of HCG. First and foremost, you must remember the bad ending to my last Phase 2. I am certain that I lost normal fat, and could easily believe that I lost 5 lbs or even more than that, which I would have put back on very quickly. If you were reading my blog then, you might remember that I zoomed up close to the upper end of my LIW+2 lb window very quickly. The truth is that I was having a very difficult time stabilizing within that window, and then -- soon after -- I stopped jumping on the scale. So, I really don't know where my "true" LIW should have been.


And while I'm at it -- I truly believe that me taking a "break" in the middle of my last round was not a good move from a stabilizing standpoint. I did follow protocol, but Dr. Simmeons did only have that as a part of the protocol as a contingency plan. My fear is that I interfered with the so-called "resting" of my hypothalamus. That, coupled with my problems at the end of the phase, had me in a tough spot. The final nail in the coffin: I stopped weighing every day and did not stay on top of things.


I strongly feel that if you have a good Phase 2 with no interruptions, stick to your guns in Phase 3, and eat REASONABLY in Phase 4, you WILL NOT go outside of that window. This was what happened to me during my first round. I ate reasonably and only occasionally went overboard (not until Phase 4 of course) and my weight stayed rock solid. I never had to do a Protein Day or, for you meat-eaters out there, a Steak Day. This time, I was swinging all around right off the bat, and then I made the poor decision not to make it a priority to step on that scale every day. That quickly led to me not stepping on it at all, and that was where I went wrong. And December was a very, very, very bad time to take that wrong turn.


I hope that you are still reading and that you are still committed to the protocol. Let me assure you that THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Even with my struggles over the past two months, I am so much better off than I was when I originally started this journey last July at 201 lbs. And, even if things go awry down the road for you like they did for me, you always have the opportunity to do another round! This thing will have you covered for LIFE.


I'm going to end here for now. Hey -- if you are reading this, post a comment and let me know where you are in your journey and how it is going so far. No need to identify yourself -- keep it anonymous! We can support each other. Also, if you ever have any questions for me, or if you are thinking "Gee, I wish she'd blog about <insert HCG issue here>," PLEASE leave a comment and let me know. I want to talk about the things that you are interested in. I'm no medical expert, but I can give you my honest opinion based on my experience with HCG over the past six months.


Til next time -- LATER ALL YOU WONDERFUL LOSERS! :D