The Pounds are Gone

I'm going to use my blogging liberties to just brag on myself a bit here.  When I ended our membership at our previous gym, I knew I had two weeks until the new gym opened.  I decided rather than sit around like a lazy butt and be tempted to eat too much, I would do this little thing called the HCG diet and see how much I could lose in those two weeks.

Jason has done the HCG diet before and had great success, so I was excited that he could answer my questions, help me figure out the food to eat, etc.  The normal HCG diet consists of 500 calories a day for 3 weeks followed by a second phase of increased caloric intake (I think), but now that the FDA has started regulating HCG in the marketplace, any over-the-counter drops no longer contain the hormone.  So, all that being said, the drops I purchased were basically a really good appetite suppressant, in my opinion.  Which is sort of a must-have when you're consuming 500 calories a day.

So here's what I did in those two weeks:

Breakfast - Handful of strawberries, 1/2 a grapefruit, or an orange
Lunch - 4 oz. shrimp, chicken, extra-lean ground beef, or tilapia PLUS 2 cups of vegetables (I had a huge list to pick from, but my favorites were asparagus, tomatoes, celery, and cucumbers)
Dinner - same meat and veggie choices as lunch PLUS one of the fruit selections

And that's it.

For two weeks.

And I actually did it for almost 3 full weeks because the results were so amazing.

Drum roll please.......

I lost 14.5 pounds!

I must say, however, that my ultimate goal would've been to have lost 20 pounds, so I plan to lose the next 5.5 by running my little toosh off at the gym, doing weights and classes, etc. Because that, to me, is the FUN way.

I have only one pair of jeans that fit me now, so today I stopped by Stein Mart to see if I could find some on sale.  I was so happy when I tried on a pair that was 2 sizes below my normal size and they fit!  Yippee!!!

So here's my plan going forward in order to maintain this new figure:

1)  Basically cut out almost all dairy and almost all bread products and pretty much all sugar.  I'm really kind of intrigued by the Paleo Diet way of eating.  Check it out if you haven't... it makes a lot of sense... http://www.thepaleodiet.com

2)  Allow myself two meals per week to eat whatever the heck I want.  Including dairy and bread products and dessert if I want to.

3)  Continue to work out HARD five days a week.  Our new gym makes this pretty easy, and having my kiddos in childcare during this time also motivates me to go.  :)

4)  Relish the fact that my baby-making years are coming to a close and really start to think of this new chapter of my life as my 'fit' years.  'Cause I sure haven't been fit in a long time.  And that sucks.

So that's my weight-loss story in a nutshell!  I can't say that I advocate doing this diet to everyone.  It is HARD, it takes so much stinkin' willpower it's not funny, and if you don't maintain good eating and exercise when you increase your calories again, the pounds will jump right back on.  

Headin' to bed now.  Peace out.