Day 32: Looking Ahead

Woohoo!  Down another 1.1 pounds this morning!  I LOVE that!  I can't believe that we have less than two weeks remaining for the low-calorie diet.  The time has gone by much faster than I expected it to, and I'm really going to be sorry to see the 500 calorie days go away--mostly because I don't have to put much thought into what I'm eating.  I've been hearing and reading horror stories about people having trouble stabilizing in Phase 3 of the Protocol, but I keep dismissing those troubles as problems of people who don't continue to eat healthfully after Phase 2.  I certainly hope that by remaining vigilant about keeping artificial ingredients and processed foods out of my (and the whole family's) diet, stabilizing will be effortless.


When Phase 3 begins, we must drastically increase our protein consumption, but continue to stay away from sugar and starch.  I will likely continue to "pre-cook" a lot of food (albeit in larger portions) in an effort to prevent slip-ups.  Pre-HCG, I often "just didn't feel like cooking," which meant fast food or frozen pizzas.  If I can make sure that we have healthy choices quickly and readily available, perhaps I can keep from falling back into old habits.  


I am quite fearful of adding items back to my diet.  It's been easy to say, "No, I can't have ANY cashews," for example, but how easy will it be for me to say, "Yes, I can have a FEW cashews"?  (Notice I didn't say ANYTHING about cheese?!?)  I ate like crap before, and I felt like crap.  I've been eating better now, and I feel better.  What if I can't tolerate some foods anymore?  I've decided it's going to be absolutely essential for me to keep a detailed food diary so I can see exactly how my food choices affect my weight and my overall well-being.  I intend to add foods back slowly; I'm not sure how practical it will be, but I'd like to reintroduce foods one at a time so I can more accurately pinpoint the cause of any weight gain or adverse reaction.  


The plan is to finish up injections ten days from now, followed by three more days of the 500-calorie diet without the HCG injections.  Then we begin the three weeks of increased calories and food choices (without sugar or starches), before we can supposedly add those back to the diet as well.  That puts us right before Thanksgiving.  I want to begin another cycle, but I must wait at least six weeks in between cycles to make sure that I've stabilized and to help prevent immunity to the HCG.  Rather than begin again right before Christmas, however, I'm going to wait until the beginning of the year, which will put me into March before Round 2 is complete.  I haven't even finished this round yet, but I'm already anxious to get started on the next one.  I'll likely have somebody else going through Round 2 with me, but I think it will be much more difficult to not have HS doing it with me.  It's been really nice to have him injecting with me (did I ever mention that I had to give him his first shot?), weighing with me (and good-jobbing each other by the scale most mornings), eating with me (even if it's yucky burned chicken or the fourth beef day in a row), and celebrating newly-baggy clothes with me.  *sniff sniff*  I'm gonna miss that guy (although the hot one who took his place is alright, too, I guess.)