Thread: Accountability Group for 2nd half of April 2014!!

FMD3-2-1

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Bah. Up another half pound. So I guess I'll proceed with my plan to do 2 part2 protein days now, and cut the part3 days to 2 and see what happens. This seems to be FMD experiment week.

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@spedie: I've read where some people shortened the time between rounds. But what can happen is that you can then develop immunity to the HCG while in the round and you will stop losing. You might be able to counter that by dropping your dose, or you may not. Also, your skin needs the time to catch up to your weight loss. I look at it kind of like the cycling idea--its messing around with the protocol and doesn't seem to really work for most people.

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From my own experience, I waited the minimum or a bit longer between all my rounds, and I have no hanging skin anywhere. I can wear sleeveless tops for the first time in decades. In fact, I'm noticing my neck has tightened up after my damage control round (this spring) and that is just happening now, over 6 months later.

FMD3-2-2 Excellent! down 2.2 to 150.6 Yesterday acted almost like an HCG steak day. I wonder what will happen after this second part2 day. Previously, I either lost or held, so thats what I'm expecting. One more day of too much protein, and back to more comfortable eating. Hard to believe I'll be starting week 4 in a few days.

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My day is so much more peaceful when I'm back in my window. Seeing the scale go over that just freaks me out. On the last FMD round, I ended up a pound below LIW. If I end up anywhere near there with the tweaks I've made (dairy, coffee, peanuts) ...I may just continue and tweak a bit more and see if I can find a sustainable pattern that will keep my weight steady without the constant correcting.

FMD3-3-1

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Down another pound to 149.6. Finally down below LIW. I'm glad I went ahead and did the second protein day this week. I'm going to shift a bit by doing 2 part3 days instead of 3, and then next week cut the protein days back to one. So the pattern will be 3-1-3 next week. And then after that maybe 4-1-2. We''ll see how week 4 goes though.

Last day of week 3! FMD3-3-2

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Only bounced up a half a pound. Right at LIW today at 150. Today would be a good day to try an egg because I'm finally back in safe territory. But I forgot about it at breakfast, which is when I'd really rather have it. A soft egg on toast sounds so lovely. I won't be able to do it tomorrow because I'll be back on part1, so maybe next weekend. Unless I get brave and inspired later today!

FMD4-1-1

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Up 1.2 pounds This is pretty normal as far as my patterns go, but it was nice to be at LIW for the last couple days. I didn't even eat the egg. I almost had it for dinner, but had more meals than I had day, so my last meal was a snack instead of a protein meal and it didn't happen. At least I know I can't blame the 1.2 gain on the egg test. I have been ticking down about a pound a week from the 154+ number that started me back on FMD. So it seems it was a good idea to do it just to get backed away from that scary number to a better place.

FMD4-1-2

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super good first day of the FMD week for me: Down 1.6 pounds to 149.6. That retains the 3pound + loss that I got from the two protein days last week. Still having BP spikes which are troubling since I'm trying to wean off the BP med. But I think its to be expected from what I read around people posting about it. Weaning off coreg can cause all kinds of reactions like racing pulse, anxiety attacks and wild readings, so it takes determination not to panic and get back on it. I really do seem to be sleeping better as I decrease the dose though, and I'm only a few weeks away now from being completely off and and I can test my theory that its the coreg that is behind the last 5 years of hot flashes.

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Also, I'm considering just staying on my modified FMD plan after this last week is completed. Its comfortable for me the way I'm doing it, and it still seems to keep me out of the danger zone. If I can continue losing the half-pound to a pound a week it seems to bring me, that would be even better. I could get to my weight goal sometime next spring. And that should knock out any further blood pressure issues, according to my doctor.

FMD4-1-3 Hard to believe it, but I'm down another pound after another fruit/grain day. 148.6! I've been in normal BMI territory 2 days in a row now! That's a big deal for me. I hope the trend continues. Only about a half pound to lose before I get below my window.

FMD4-2-1 Didn't lose, but didnt' gain either. Yay! So going into the protein day at my lowest point yet. Off to have my greek yogurt & stewed rhubarb protein breakfast.

A voice from the past. Sorry I went awol - without making any conscious decision to, I think I just got depressed reporting a catalogue of failures when things that worked suddenly and with no explanation stopped working overnight and all I could offer was that - failure to change anything. So every day Ive been thinking -I must check in here - but just didn't have the heart to, while always intending to come back and tell my sorry tale.

So since I checked in last I haven't had another steak day, but I've been bouncing round the top of my window in the low to middle 153s or middle/high 152s every single day though Ive been eating strictly P3, some days quite strictly, and still never getting close to LDW again. Which has been utterly bewildering and depressing because I could not work out why suddenly everything seemed to stop working for no reason - I know you've been here before Leez. I was coming to the conclusion that my LDW had reset upwards without my realising in the course of the Vietnam holiday and it only remained to work out what the new one was - 1 or 2 lb heavier than my old 151.6. Which in a normal person would be 'so what - whats a pound or two?' but with us as you know ... deep gloom I've been feeling like a bad hCG example all round. So I've been psyching myself up to trail back in and lay all this out.

In any case last week I did several things without reference to the weight thing . The first, a couple of days ago, was get more sleep by going to bed a couple of hours earlier when I realised I was averaging 5-6 hours (!) and was becoming so overtired that when bedtime came I was sort of zombie-wired and unable to go to sleep at all. I feel SO much better just for that change though it can be hard to uphold- suddenly none of this feels that bad because sleep gives the gift of better perspective as you know.

The second was I started taking the Phytoberries my doctor put me on after my blood test results.

The third was I literally bumped my scales. My husband made the point that they'd been thrown around in the cargo hold on our Vietnam trip. He then (being a man of action )gave them another jolt and tested them with his weight. Next time I got on I was 151.4 (below LDW) and I hadn't seen anything near that since before this weird thing began and then despite my husbands birthday dinner last night and a 2.30am finish which included Royce chocolate and vodka - 150.8 today (0.8 below LDW and about as low as Ive been since I began this).

So now Im uber bewildered - have I actually put myself through this whole thing because my scales got knocked around? Or have better sleep or phytoberries made a difference to whatever weird inflammation or hormonal thing was happening? Have any of these 3 things changed anything or not? No clue and it may not last but it certainly feels less as if my fate is sealed whatever I do.

In any case Im so glad FMD is going so well for you Leez. I havent read back to follow your progress in detail but you say you've modified it - is that just with dairy and coffee or have you changed your pattern of P1, 2 and 3 days as you said you might, to get a regular loss? Exciting too about the improvement in sleep. Is your doctor aware you're weaning off the BP meds?

Im hoping you're still losing all out there too Spedie!

Sounds to me like the whole ordeal was caused by your scale, since the weight drop happened immediately after your husband adjusted them. That's just too clear to be coincidental.

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I'm so sorry it took this long to find out. So much unnecessary misery. Anyway, amount of sleep can have a huge impact on how your body processes your food, so getting even lower could possibly be related to that and your new supplement. But not likely, since effects from supplements tend to take some time to build up.

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I'm so glad you reported back again. When your break went on for more than a few days, I wondered if something was going on more than problems with a connection. I totally understand being in a funk, though, and not wanting to discuss it.

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I'm sorry to say that I'm back to bad sleep again. I had to give up on the coreg weaning. I was down to the last dose before stopping, but I couldn't take the withdrawal effects anymore. Aside from just feeling terrible, with dizziness, head pressure, and blood pressure spikes getting too close to the critical range, I started getting jittery and getting anxiety attacks. I have some techniques that can lower it quickly, so I was doing those, and by evening, could get into a better range. I might have even waited that out some, but I had a day where the spiked stayed high all day and into the evening even with all my BP dropping techniques. And I was too close to the numbers where you have to go to the emergency room. At that point, I felt it was wisest to give up. It took about a day and a half to come back in to an acceptable range, but that also dissipated many of the symptoms. I was so close! I'm totally disappointed. Because I think now more than ever that I'm right. Not only was I sleeping better, but the hot flashes had cut back to about half. I'm thinking about asking him for an alternate med to switch out and test it that way. However, a new med could bring new problems, so I really have to consider that carefully.

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I think I have one more chance to try getting off it after I lose the rest of my weight. [btw, some other side effects of coreg is weight gain and insomnia. I have to wonder if thats also been part of my maintainance problems.] I told my doctor I was wanting to wean off. He didn't want me to do it until I lost more weight. But he said I might be able to at that point. He wants my numbers at 110/70. But even the medication doesn't keep me there.

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I did start making the FMD shift last week. The prescribed is 2-2-3. Last week I did 3-2-2. This week I'll do 3-1-3. I just finished the "1" (protein day) yesterday. So heres the weigh in for today:

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FMD4-3-1 No loss from protein day. Holding at 148.6. [Last week, that day brought a 2.2 pound loss--kind of makes it hard to figure anything out] But glad I'm not doing another one today. My modifications this round have been to allow coffee, dairy, and peanuts. Other than that, I've mostly kept to the program. I do occasionally use the raisin Ezekiel bread instead of the plain, or throw a few dried cranberries in my oatmeal, and I've sometimes counted a second slice of Ezekiel bread as a vegetable ^_^, but that's about the extent of my off-plan choices. I'm having toast and peanut butter with berry compote for breakfast today. But for my protein day, I'm either having greek yogurt and stewed rhubarb or I make pea protein cookies with rhubarb for breakfast, so that takes care of my breakfast meat aversion nicely. Protein day is not bad if you only have to do one of them. We'll see how that works out after the weekend eating and I have the end of round results.