This morning I had six ounces of leftover Parmesan grilled chicken thighs (skinless, boneless, because that's what lived in my freezer), two pieces of bacon, a tbsp of coconut oil (with a little stevia and cocoa, it tastes like candy while really helping my digestion and inflammation), some coffee with a tbsp of cream. This clocks in (with generous assumptions on the olive oil in the chicken dredging) at just under 580 calories and satisfies me for hours. High fat, moderate protein, almost no carbohydrates to speak of. I supplement this with a small salad and some fruit for lunch and I am good until dinner, with well over 1000 calories to spare for it, if I am actually that hungry (I usually am not). It makes for a satisfying, filling way of eating that tastes great while not sparking cravings or the vicious cycle of dietary inflammation I battled for years prior.

I love bread, oatmeal, sugary treats, and even low fat yogurt, but none of these foods are actually healthy for my body and I respond terribly to them. Eliminating them (for the most part, the occasional bite isn't an issue) permanently seems like so much less of a hardship when seed butters, fruit, creamed greens, and roasted meats replace them. Whole foods, prepared with healthy fats, are the focus of my weight maintenance diet. It keeps calories, satiety, and nutrients all in optimal ranges for my particular body's needs and is not only doable but enjoyable long term. Processed foods like bread, margarine, diet ANYTHING, or sugars, are what I avoid like the plague these days. It is no hardship, and that is what makes maintenance that much more simple. I already know how to move, eat mindfully, watch my portions, etc... The composition of the food is the final piece of the puzzle.

With that in mind, for me the food looks like lots of animal and some plant fat (a little olive or coconut oil, lots of lard and butter) someone protein, and filling the rest in with fruit and veggie roughage with the occasional treat of chocolate or a little cheese. Down the road in P4 (long term maintenance) I'm going to work in about 400 calories or two servings a day of low inflammation starches like white rice, plantains, bananas, taro, starchy winter squashes, and the like. The rare serving of bread or wine also won't break the bank, but those can't really be a part of my daily diet and have me looking and feeling my best.

Many of my dieting friends probably think I've gone off the deep end, but what constitutes success and health for each of us varies depending on our bodies and needs, and this is where mine is. It's a great feeling to finally find that sweet spot where I'm not fighting my food for dominant health of my body. Eliminating the problem items and pinpointing which ones were the real issue has been SO helpful, the weight loss is just an fabulous bonus. The hCG has aided in my appetite control and hunger cues to such a level I can barely express the full extent of the blessing it has been. All these little pieces are working together for my health and it makes me SO happy.

The last piece is exercise, and finding a routine I like that strengthens me. That will be taken care of in the next week when I begin my new routine (I'm awaiting my book right now!). I hope TTap is the magic bullet of strength and flexibility I need, and if it isn't then I am going back to "New Rules of Lifting For Women" and building strength that way. But regardless of the specifics, I have a general idea of what plan I need to follow to really build my body the way I want and that is most functional for me, so that's a step in the right direction, too.

All this post is to say that I'm not insane, weird, or going off the nutritional deep end. But I am adopting a paradigm that is dietary heresy to many, and yet is saving my health appreciably each day. Stick with me and let the results speak for themselves over the next few years, yes?

My weight today, with full maintenance calories, 70% of which came from dietary fat, was 176.4. Well within my window, a new low, and all around good times :). The refeed of fat and protein has me feeling and looking great, and overall very satisfied. I even ate a restaurant item (low carb version of the six dollar burger from Carl's Jr.) as my dinner item last night and had no ill effects. It is nice to have some flexibility to eat out again, even though I don't do it more than once every week or two, and have it be no issue.

I am still measuring and calorie counting until I get a better feel for my maintenance window, but I'm also listening to my hunger cues. My mother was right when she made the prediction that I'd be ravenously hungry for a few days into P3 as my body replenished its' protein and fat stores, so I am more inclined to overeat right now than I'd otherwise be, but not by much. So I need a little more structure these days than I will in a week or two. It was the same way in P2 - I calorie counted for the first two weeks to get an idea of what the daily foods needed to look like to reach 500, and then when I'd memorized the basic portions and my hunger cues began working again (yay!) I could stay well within the limit without struggle and didn't need to log to lose weight or not overeat. I'm aiming for that again. I will likely always write down my food for accountability, but I like being in the place where it is just noting items item and not tallying against my daily total to keep me on the straight and narrow. It is a subtle difference, but the former has me with better control of myself and more harmonious feelings about eating than the latter!

Today should be fun - we're going to a friend's house for the girls to play and me to chat. I hope my dietary needs don't put her out too much, though!

I was brave and tried a few new foods to see if I could add them to my daily diet. And I must say, both the sunflower butter and sardines (not together!) were surprisingly tasty.

In terms of satiety, it looks like a larger breakfast, light lunch as my hunger dictates, and larger dinner is the ticket for me. I get hungry enough in the middle of the day that I can't just get by with breakfast until 5:00 pm, but my appetite for lunch (when I am listening to my stomach) isn't generally substantial. Yesterday I had grapefruit and some celery with sunbutter and that was enough to satisfy me for a few hours. Breakfast was am omelet, bacon, and coffee, but I think I'm cutting out the coffee and just sticking with the chai tea I have grown used to. It's lighter and more satisfying. Dinner was roasted chicken thighs rolled in olive oil, Parmesan, and spices, along with a broccoli/carrot/cauliflower veggie mix and some berries with cream. I reached my daily fat goal of about 70% of my calories coming from fat, and my calorie totals were somewhere around 1900-2000 calories for the day (I counted portions generously, so it is tough to say). That's all right in the range I want to be and none of the foods seemed to cause any problems except my system initially getting a little shocked by the fat after six weeks without any dietary fat at all.

Today I'll proceed on in much the same fashion, I'm still watching nuts, dairy, and cheese closely but it doesn't look like they'll cause problems. My biggest issue this morning is that I have woken up with a nasty headache that I think is due to barometric pressure changes (we went from below zero and dry to above freezing and sleet/rain in the space of two days) and that is making the thought of waking up the kids and listening to the daily noise a little less attractive than it might otherwise be >_<

I'll report in of my head explodes or anything interesting happens!

It sounds complicated but it really isn't - eat, log, watch the scale and listen to my body's response. And P3 will be similar. I can essentially eat anything I want except sugar and starch and will just continue daily weighing to maintain my weight, doing a correction day or upping the calories depending on how I shift outside my window.

This morning's weight was right on target again - 176.8 - and measurements are as follows (parentheses are the change in measurements from 1/24/12)

Waist - 34 in (0.0)

Hips - 44 in (-1.5)

Bust - 43.5 in (0.0)

Underbust - 35 in (0.0)

Thigh - 22 in (-1)

Upper Arm - 13.5 in (-.5)

So I lost a little, even in just a week. I am down 3.6 pounds from the previous measurements' weight, and dropped 3 inches to go with it, off of unexpected places. Typically my legs, arms, and hips haven't budged much, so maybe they were due, but overall I am now fitting well into size 14 tops and 14-16 jeans, depending on the cut and brand. For my first round I am extremely pleased with my losses, both pounds AND inches! And while maintaining it will be anticlimactic from a blog perspective, it is an absolutely crucial step before I go and lose more weight. The high fat, moderate protein, high fiber diet of P3 is designed specifically to encourage my body to create a strong set point at this new weight, which will help me maintain and refeed my body's stores to aid in continued losses in the next round. The mental break of being off P2 can't be overstated, either. This is NOT a diet that is intended to go on forever. It is a phase to be done briefly, it is very effective, and the real benefits of the plan are to heal the body's systems and recalibrate the hormones relating to eating and fat storage so that we (the former obese) function more like normal bodies, not ones that constantly seek excess food energy and store fat so readily.

Dr. Simeons goes into this in much detail in "Pounds and Inches", but the short of it is that this experiment of mine, thus far, has worked perfectly, and I can recommend hCG weightloss to those willing and able to stick to the very prescriptive specifics without reserve. But as with ANY diet plan, you must stick to it and be willing and able to continue maintenance behaviors, or you WILL regain. The hCG and protocol it is used with makes it a little harder for your body to do that, but not impossible. Vigilance is required and maintaining your weight and health is a daily process of accountability and good choices.

On a slightly less serious topic, my breakfast today! I am planning on an omelet (two eggs, a little cheese, bell pepper, onion, sautéed in lard), some bacon, and a little coffee with cream. We'll see how that holds me over until lunch. I'm watching my fat amounts (they need to be high) and my hunger cues very carefully throughout this process, am aiming for around 2000 calories a day to see what the scale does.

Lunch will likely be a giant salad with homemade cilantro dressing (sooooo good!), dinner will be braised short ribs, some vegetable side dish (likely lots of broccoli and cauliflower with bacon) and some blueberries with cream.

You cannot believe how decadent and satisfying this sounds to me right now. I don't even miss sugar and bread, because the richness of the meat and veggies and a smidge of dairy sounds just that good ;)

Given that starch and sugar is where my cravings are, that transition will be the more challenging of the two. It annoys the calorie counter in me that I have to ban certain foods from my diet as much as possible, but those foods make me sick and fat and life isn't fair. There are so many wonderful things I CAN eat, that are nutritious and strengthening for me, focusing on the whole world of possibilities within that realm rather than the pitiful, flavorless, artificial junk works much better for me. At this point my palate is unaccustomed to normal sweetness and even rich food, in general. I plan on keeping my mouth delighted with rich, savory, healthful fare and keeping the sugar and sugar substitutes to an absolute minimum. If I don't start down that road, I can't fall down the rabbit hole, you know?

So this is my very last day of VLCD for six weeks (minimum), and while I can't say I am sad to see it go, I admit that food is very simple when my choices are so straightforward. I am keeping that mold as my path to success, in that I am building my maintenance diet around similar types of foods that are nutrient rich and nutrient dense, with fat, fiber, and protein to keep me sated. I'm also keeping a list of no-go foods to keep myself maintaining well, and the trick will be continuing to listen to my newly discovered hunger cues and not falling back into straight calorie counting (where I find myself eating food because I allotted for it, not because of real hunger). I'm going to watch myself like a hawk when using my logging app (Loseit!) that the quantities I am inputting is just for macronutrient accuracy and that I don't slip back into the log it/eat it all mentality that is easy to do.

Tomorrow is measurement day. I don't think I've lost anything significant in the last 3-4 pounds but it will give me a nice baseline to work from for the next round. I mentioned my maintenance goals of staying in my window and adding more exercise last post, and I'll add to that my desire to start the next round at my last dose weight from this one, and lose another 15-20 pounds to put me in the 160-165 range. I'd love to be lower, but that depends on my body and I can't control the scale. Knowing the protocol, a reasonable expectation to lose half a pound a day is about all I'll bet on ;)

Thanks to my bowels, I weighed in at 177.6 this morning. It's always a good reminder that the scale just weighs YOU, and you have a whole lot of metabolic processes going on at any given time that make your weight slide around a bit. Inches lost, increased energy and vitality, a downward scale trend overall, these are the indictors I recommend looking to for success if you don't have a strong scale detachment like I do.

My TOM is still staying tapered off, just a bit of spotting which I have discovered hCG causes for me. So I'm sticking with this transition and calling it good, no need to dose with extra hCG and do more days. Thanks to my mother reminding me, I'm also looking to read through and start a TTap exercise routine. I was thinking of starting Callanetics again but it is a little tough on my neck and back, as well as being a LONG routine, which TTap is not. That, plus starting a dance class, are my reward activities right now. I'm looking into local belly dancing instructors, as it is something I have always been interested in. And building up my core muscles will help my back alignment immensely, as well as be beneficial for things like childbirth. I have a weaker core than I should, and I'm really convicted that it is time to rectify it.

I admit I still love my Leslie Sansone DVDs and recumbent bike, but the vacuum in my fitness is muscle related, not endurance or cardio based. I honestly do enough moving around during the day that I don't think I am doing a whole lot for my health with my exercise time by doing moderate cardio. Strength training is where it is at, and I am one of those gals who is naturally inclined to it and enjoys it. Thus, my next set of goals includes getting regular with my morning exercise time being dedicated to things like TTap or even resistance bands, instead of bike time. The latter is more relaxing, but I need to us my time more beneficially than that!

Nothing much else to note - I got a TON of weight compliments at church yesterday, I must be looking slimmer to friends (finally) and wearing my size 14 jacket and 16 pants, along with some nice heels to give me a little height, drove the point home. I've decided final measurements WILL be coming on Wednesday, right before I start P3, so I have a baseline to see how much more might come off my body during my maintenance break. Everything else is in a holding pattern right now, which makes my posts a bit boring ;)

Day 40, my last hCG dose day unless I change my mind, saw me weighing in at 176.8! I blew right past 177, so from my starting load weight of 207.4 to today, I am down 30.6 pounds! WOOHOOOOOOO!

Barring any last minute changes of my plans, I now have 72 hours to remain on the VLCD and let the hCG leave my system before entering P3 on Wednesday morning. P3 is a time when I have lots of protein, fat, and fiber, but NO sugar or starch, and work on keeping my weight in a two pound range on either side of today's last dose weight of 176.8. That means the next three weeks I need to keep my weight between 174.8 and 178.8, or I must do a correction day to get it back within range. Calories are maintenance level, and other than no sugar or starch (including abstaining from some fruits and veggies that are too high on either of those counts, like mango or potatoes), it's normal food. I hope I stabilize well and it isn't a fight for me.

I might take one more picture to mark the end of this round, and more measurements, too. Let me mull over it and get back with my thoughts later. Right now, it's time to get ready for church. Adios!

I'm hoping it wasn't just dehydration from not getting enough water last night, but this morning I was down to 178.0. That's just ONE POUND away from my goal. And since my TOM appears to be tapering down, unless I have an unexpected resurgence I am making tomorrow, Day 40, my last dose day. Then I have 72 hours from that last dose to continue my VLCD and I am in P3 by Wednesday morning. It's actually here, I'm so excited! Not only do I get to focus on stabilizing and maintaining, but I might actually get to do it at my goal of 177 - which would be 30 pounds lost in this round, 80 pounds total loss since I began in October of 2008.

Wow, right?

I know I'm thrilled about it, I am so ready to make this weight my set point and progress forward to another round or two afterward. I look great, if friends and family are to be believed, and I FEEL great, too.

Tonight in my monthly Ladies Craft Night and I am a little sad I'm still on the VLCD portion of my diet. I wanted to be transitioned to P3 for this but it was not to be, so I have to abstain from my monthly treat and social time - at least the 'treat' portion of it!

I'm planning on bringing pickled cucumbers from my dinner vegetable allowance to snack on, as well as tea and sparkling water. The Capella drops I mentioned before are PHENOMENAL and make killer Italian sodas when mixed with stevia, so that will be my 'treat' along with some caffeine that doesn't require creamer.

I am making a peach coffee cake for everyone else. I know how good that recipes tastes, but as of right now my temptation to eat it, myself, is really quite low. Good thing, right? The weight loss and desire to lose this last two pounds on this round is very, very motivating to me to stick to my guns and NOT cheat myself out of them. I really think I can make it or get darn close over these last few days on my period and that coffee cake is not my friend when it comes to how it makes me feel. In future craft nights it might be worth it to have a small slice of cake or a cookie that aren't grain or sugar free, but my standard daily fare is definitely going to be as close to devoid of those things as possible, so the occasions I DOnhave them don't break the dietary bank and make me gain, have immune responses, etc.

Tonight I will be plying one of my weaker crafts - sewing. I have a few projects to complete (altering a previously made skirt, hemming some pants that were given to me by a much taller friend, finishing two aprons I already started) as well as beginning work on a new skirt. I bought the pattern for it when I was in the 190's and was one of the largest pattern sizes, and now I am the very bottom size offered and that might be too loose and need adjusting! So I wanted to make a few skirts out of it now, while it still fits, and I can just take them in as I shrink more. Sewing is one of those things I am fairly competent in, but I dislike cutting patterns and fabric, and do better when drafting my own patterns than following someone else's. But on terms of fit and style, the professional patterns have an edge and so I'm suffering through my dislike of them to get the final product. I think at least some of my reticence is due to being unconfident and inexperienced with the execution of them, and that I might enjoy this type of sewing more the more I do it. There's only one way to find out, right?

Anyway, craft night looks to be both enjoyable and a little disappointing, all at once. But I can do anything for six weeks, including abstaining from the tasty baked goods of my friends :)

In fact, on the subject of clothes, I do have one thing to excitedly report - I have this picture in my 'before' heap, and it has been highly motivating for me to aim for that weight and appearance as an initial goal:

I still have that tunic and skirt, which I sewed with a friend and her mother when I was fourteen or newly fifteen, if I recall. The skirt has tabs on the waist that can be pinned to adjust the fit tighter or looser, though it can be tied in a knot if it's getting loose.

Now, I am positive I am still ten pounds away from my weight in that picture, and that my shape has changed to a more curvy, womanly one in the intervening decade since it was taken.

But the skirt spent all of yesterday knotted around my waist. While my hips and bosom are much more shapely, my waist circumference is the same as it was back then. If that isn't a non-scale victory, I don't know what is!