What does Sensible Say?

I don't know? What does sensible say? Well, when I look around at work at the few people I know who were doing the hcg diet either with me or before me, they have all put their weight back on. I luckily have not. I continue to struggle since I hurt my back in May since exercise went from walking 2-3 miles to barely covering a mile. In the beginning after I hurt my back I couldn't walk up or down the stairs without serious risk of falling. Trust me - I know this first hand after having fallen several times. After a month or so I could really feel the weakness setting in due to inactivity. It's weird how quickly you can go backwards. Not so fast going forward. Little steps for me included short flights of stairs, using a handrail and short walks.

Well as of today or yesterday as it is now, I actually squatted down to the floor to pick something up and I was able to get back up by myself! No hands on the floor and no one had to lend me a hand. I was pretty excited about that. I can walk just about any distance now without problem. Oh, I get stiff and I feel it the next day but nothing some Ibuprophen won't take care of. And most exciting news for me~~ I actually walked up the one flight of stairs at work (the same one I tried this with back in July and fell down the stairs backwards) no hands holding the rail and I did it! I made it to the top and my legs weren't shaking and I didn't fall!

My weight is pretty much dropped from the 160 # to about 145#. I'm steady there though and only fluxuate a pound or 2 either way. I was hoping to be 140 for Christmas but with my December vacation that didn't happen. I'm going to head back to the gym starting in January. I think I could safely walk on the treadmill and I should be able to monitor my progress there better than out on the street. I still am a bit weaker than I was before my back issue and so an icy road or something like that I'd be likely to fall. Certainly don't need that!

My husband lost about 20# swimming everyday. He looked really good, but life got back in the way and getting up at 0400 to driving to SLC to be in the pool by 0500 was losing it's fun-shine. Needless to say, it only took him a few short months to put his 20 back on. This is obviously a lifetime committment to sensible eating and exercise. I'll never be one to commit to a marathon or anything like that, it's not my style. I am looking to commit to 30 minutes - one hour of really good walking everyday. I'd like to eventually work up to 4-5 miles/day.

1 Year Later...

That had to be the craziest diet I've ever done. I would not recommend it for everyone. I finished 21 days by the seat of my pants. Not eating was a breeze compared to how I felt. I barely had the energy to walk from the car to work and work back out to the car. Exercise was out of the question. I didn't lose as much as many, I lost about 15# total in my 21 days. I'm happy to say however that after a year I am still down those same 15#. I could sure use another 15# boost like that again but to be honest I couldn't do it feeling that crappy again. So I guess I'll have to do it the old fashioned way, less food in, more calories out. Simple math.

Big Fan of the Fruit Smoothie!

You can really make a lot of smoothie with not a lot of berries. 9 Strawberries, a cup of ice, a packet of stevia and you have an amazingly tasty smootie and an filling way to get your fruit for the day. Another thing I've discovered that is 0 cal is the juice of one lemon 2 packets of stevia and 2 cups of ice. Blend and again you have a smoothie but because of the intense flavor of the lemons you can now freeze this mixture and then use an icecream scoop and make more like a slush. Scoop some out, add cold water stir and yummy cool drink for summer. I'm down another 1.2 lbs for a total on the week of 10lb from my 1st dose weight and 12 lbs from my 1st very low cal diet day (Wed). Wahoo either way. Today I have the grandkids and we are headed to the movie, we'll have to see how I do with the smell of popcorn right next to me. Wish me luck.

Day 7

Quik Post: Yesterday was my first trip to the grocery store.. kind of rough. I had a list and I stuck to it. I bought $8 worth of apples, $5 of Strawberries, some spinich, lettuce, lemons and then a few things for Wayne. The smell of the roteseri chicken in the deli was killing me (Never bothers me any other time). Seen the powdered sugar donuts and had to walk fast. Once I was home I really wasn't hungry. Today is Sunday and I'm not really hungry. I've had 1/2 of an apple for breakfast and that has really been plenty. I'm sure I'll be hungry later so I'll save the rest for later. I lost 1 1/2 pounds yesterday and 1.2 today. Not too bad. I've lost a total of 10 pounds since Monday if you count my loading days and 8 if you don't. Either way, it's better than I was doing. Hopefully just getting off all of the carbs will be helpful in the rehab of this carb attict. Well, it's off to church.

Day 5

Well I made it 3 days on the very low calorie diet (VLCD). I lost 2 1/2 pounds the first day and 1 1/2 pounds today! Yeah! I'm pretty tired but I've also been working really long hours this week. I'm hoping as my body gets used to the no sugar and no caffeine. I'm hoping by Monday. I find the morning hours are actually the hardest hours for me. I could eat all of my daily allotment by 11:00 if I let myself. Today I had my steak that I had planned for lunch somewhere around 10. Things got really busy and I actually ended up not eating lunch and I didn't even miss it. I did snack on some cucumber slices with salt and pepper. A major change in snack food for me. Definitely not the chocolate covered cinnamon bears from earlier in the week. Don't suppose I'll ever be able to sit down with a bag of those again. Oh well. I'll mourn their loss but not for too long. I look forward to feeling well again. I thought I'd be brave and post a picture that Karie took of me while we were at Lake Powell. It's about as current as I have.

How it feels to gorge

Well Monday began my most crazy and probably unusual attempt at weight loss. By now everyone is familiar with the hcg diet so I don't need to go into detail. I just wanted to comment on what it feels like to be able to eat all you want of whatever you want for 2 days. It feels terrible. It feels so unnatural and by the end of the first day I was so nauseated. I began my day pretty well with a fruit smoothie but it quickly went down hill from there. Between breakfast and lunch and over the course of the next 48 hours I would finish off an entire pound of chocolate covered cinnamon bears! In addition, for lunch I ate chicken fried steak and mashed potatos and gravy. By dinner the very thought of food made me ill but I knew that the instructions to this diet clearly stated that the sucess or failure of the diet depended on the success of the loading phase. So for dinner I went out with Wayne to Olive Garden. It was all I could do to eat a bowl of soup, 2 breadsticks and a strawberry lemonade. I brought my dinner home to eat the next day. On Tuesday my breakfast was a scrambled egg. Lunch was 8 chicken nuggets and a diet coke and dinner was my left overs from the night before. We had buttered popcorn for a snack before bed. I was actually looking forward to starting the real diet part of this diet. I got on the scale on Wednesday morning and I had successfully gained 2 pounds from Monday! Boy I hope this works or I shall really look foolish. Today is Wednesday and my first official very low calorie diet day. For breakfast I turned a handful of strawberries into a smoothie with ice and splenda. I had 2 melba toast snack crackers and 3 oz of lean steak for lunch and 1/2 apple for a snack. For dinner I had another 3 oz of steak. I even made it through all 2 liters of my water. No cheating today!! No gum, no pop, no candy no fun. And I didn't even snap at anyone - or at least I don't think I did. They say you aren't hungry on this diet and for the most part this is true. I am not starving but I definately notice the lack of food. I'm pretty tired and it's only 9:00. Well I'll keep you all posted. Michelle

Week One

This week you need to weigh in if you haven't all ready as well as time yourself running the mile.When you get your mile time, feel free to post it up and we can see where everyone is at. Also what are everyones thoughts on adding a before photo to the side bar, and at the end of the 12 weeks an after photo? It would be encouraging to have, but if everyone isn't in we won't do it. Thanks to everyone who joined in, and good luck! :)