Thread: November 2019 Loaders - Never Surrender

Hi RK - with you there about staying strong in P2! Yay! P3 is like a celebration to me as I can have avocado, bacon, cheese... I can totally fill myself up on that and feel great. The key (for me) is to eat until full and not beyond that. Small portions and pausing often seem to help. Also, eating during the day and not letting yourself get "starving" seems to work as well.

So, as for the loading today - well, I understand the "concept" of loading, but like Leez, it is a cruel joke in many ways because I AM NOT HUNGRY! I'm still eating P3ish, but with the emphasis on good fats and trying to make sure I'm not going to starve or be hungry in the first few days of P2. I've got my chicken bought and in the fridge. Ready to cook it on Sunday, portion it out and get going. I've got shrimp ready too, so I don't get too bored. The trick will be to be around friends who have no idea that I'm dieting. They're used to me not eating much anyway, so I think I'll be OK. Just looking forward to telling you it is day 35 and I AM DONE! ;p

Will check in tomorrow and thereafter to let you know how it's going ;-)

Have a great weekend!

Good Luck today LinderLou!

This weekend I went to a party and out to dinner. The party was easy. It was an open house so I just ate a bit before and drank bubbly water the whole time. That's what i would do with your friends. Drink water with Lemon the whole time...Somehow people are much more comfortable with me not eating if I am holding a glass and drinking something. Dinner out was harder, but I looked at the menu and called in advance. I just keep telling myself when this is over and I am stable I can have occasional treats, just not 2 a day! I actually have started a list of things I wanted to eat at the party for after P3. I am down from the weekend so I am very grateful about that!

Yes I have been reading here and on that HCG Chica website about P3 so I don't go astray...I may try to lose an additional 2-3 pounds so I have a better cushion, if I can.

I also am not hungry when I load, especially by the second day! Good luck today!
RK

Reporting in! The loading days went well. Got all the "bad" stuff out of the fridge (leftovers). Yesterday was P2D1 and we ended up going out to dinner for a friend's birthday - not the best plan, but it was last minute. In spite of that, I ended up losing 0.3 from my post loading weight, so it wasn't all bad. I'll just stay on track from here on out and hope for the best. I'm feeling good and not hungry at all.

Last night we also had conversations about going out for T-day dinner. Both places we discussed were buffets, so I know I can make good P2 choices there. I just hate spending $25 or $40 to only eat 500 calories, but it is only one meal, as I keep reminding myself. Another trick I have learned when eating out or in a situation you have no, or little control over is that if you keep moving food around your plate, people don't usually notice that you're not eating much. They're usually too focused on their own food to pay attention to yours :-) Anyway, last night all dinners came with mashed potatoes, so I just kept pushing it around my plate while only eating some steak and broccoli. No one noticed and I will pawn the leftovers off on DH this week ;-)

OK, off to work and lots of coffee and water today. Have a great week all you losers!

Good Morning,

LinderLou that is a great plan for Thanksgiving! Glad to read that things are going well. This is a good round for me. Down another .6 today. I think the small amount of walking I am doing throughout the day is helping with the losses. I have adjusted my goal weight down 2 pounds. I will see as I get closer, but I would like to have a 2 pound cushion against "the creep" if I can. My body will know... Sometimes my losses slow way down as I get close, and I have to see how I feel.

I have been feeling extra tired which could be due to poor sleep, or maybe electrolytes. Not sure exactly what to do about the fatigue, but Today I am going to take an additional supplement--maybe a little bit of potassium and Magnesium. Also going to have a little chicken broth. Tonight I am going to take some Cal/Mag or Natural Calm to sleep. Any ideas on fighting overall tiredness and not having enough energy to do your work? Please reply!


Have a great day!

P2D3: Morning weigh-in 144.4. Down 1.2 from yesterday and also below SW by 0.4. Not a bad way to start week 1. Trust the Force.

My head was messing with me a bit yesterday, but I pushed past it. Just drank more water when I "thought" I was hungry. Missing my handful of cashews here and there, but I will be able to eat them soon. Living on strawberries and celery for snacks now. Started with the chicken aversion already (day 2!). Planning to have shrimp tonight with some SF cocktail sauce. That should change things up a bit! and then cook more chicken My Way, instead of the way DH cooks it into rubber chicken.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Hi RK,

Posted at the same time... Congrats on having a great round. It's inspiring to me to watch your progress. Helps me feel that I'm not alone in all this! As for the extra "cushion" after goal, I get it. Not sure how that theory works as I've not quite made it to goal yet... Maybe my goal is unrealistic at my age now (63), especially with an under medicated thyroid. I used to weigh 105 in my 20s without a lot of effort. I ate meats with lots of fat (chuck steak was about all we could afford), veggies, salads, potatoes and even pasta (mac & cheese was a go-to). THEN, the "low-fat" craze hit the country and all I did was gain weight. I think it pretty much trashed my metabolism. Fast forward to the late 90s when I discovered Atkins. Helped me reverse pre-diabetes and allow fat back into my life. I also lost about 25 lbs in two years. Nothing like hcg, but def in the right direction!

As for feeling tired, I'm having the opposite now. Can't fall asleep until about 1am, no matter what time I go to bed. Then, the next day I'm dragging, but not enough for a nap. Right now, I'm blaming it on the hcg and not having a glass of wine in the evening. Before starting this round, I was SO tired. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I went to bed about 4pm and didn't get up until 9am the next day. That seemed to catch me up, but that's pretty extreme.

Hope you find a solution to the tiredness. It's hard to function like that! I may try the magnesium today too. I know it helps with sleep and with the bathroom department too. I'm sure that will kick in soon too.

HI LinderLou,

First, I am 59. When I was young I modeled and I could still eat normally and stay super lean. Then when I turned 35 my thyroid started to quit. It was a huge learning curve for me, as I remember fondly when 2 days of no sweets, no wine, soup and salad for lunch and dinner dropped me 5 pounds.....

I went to a sleep doctor who told me 2 useful things: The first is to take "Natural Calm" or (what I prefer) "Natural Vitality Balanced Cal Mag" with a B1 (Thiamine pill). It works. Second, make sure you are getting 30 minutes of bright sunlight between 8:30-10:30 am. Driving to work without sunglasses can do it for me, or a light box. That takes a week, I have friends who saw improvement in 2 weeks, but it really has helped me. Also, no bright lights before bed, and I wear these flip up yellow or amber glasses to block any blue light an hour before bed. Try this and let me know if that helps you... I just need to work on the sleep constantly because no sleep tanks my eating and weight loss plans. It's like my body gets use to the good things I have tried and they no longer work so I need to change my game. Really sucks but okay.

Have a good day! I agree the no sleep thing is a battle for many of my friends, If misery likes company.... The key thing I believe is to never quit. I am going to keep a list so I can re-try things that use to work that I probably have forgotten about.

Too bad we don't live closer or we could play gin rummy at night ha ha.

RK - thanks for all the tips. I will try those and see if it helps. To top it all off, I have tinnitus (ringing in my ears). It runs in the family and has only gotten worse over the years. I am able to ignore it when there is background noise (radio, DH snoring), but when it is too quiet, the volume goes up to unbearable. Trying some supplements to help with that too. At it's worst, it sounds like when you leave the key in the ignition of your car and open the door. On our truck, it just emits one loud squeal...

Anyway, I have a Naturopath lined up for the new year - AFTER I finish this round. I've gotten some very good referrals to him, so hoping he can help me with various issues, one at a time.

As for gin rummy, at least we're in the same time zone ;-)

Good Morning! Very GOOD, in fact. Dropped 2.2 overnight! Not sure how, but a very welcome weigh in this morning. Certainly makes me want to stay the course! I am already down 2.6 from my start weight, not including loading (gosh, don't ever want to see that number again!)

Have a great day and stay strong!

Good Morning!

LinderLou: Wow that is great news! Happy to hear about your weight loss!

AFM: Very frustrated, but will stay strong. My weight has not gone down for 3 days. It is day 22 and I have lost 15.6 pounds so I can't complain if this is a plateau. What is frustrating is I have honestly been POP...and this morning I was UP 0.4! I am so surprised to have gone up. I did eat a bit of a snack last night of POP foods as I was only at 402 calories for the day and was a little bit hungry, so that may account for the increase? Usually I finish eating by 6:30. I am heading into a challenging weekend. Tonight is Mom's 88th birthday and dinner at a restaurant. This weekend is a family wedding with several events. But I don't want to climb back up so I am going to look at the menus and maybe have food in the car in a cooler for me at the wedding events. Because I have noticed nothing usually works at these events for being POP.

Have a wonderful day. Stay strong LinderLou, you can do this!