ONE YEAR AGO I STARTED THIS HCG

This was about the only photo I could find of myself before using the HCG diet. It was the summer of 2009 before doing my HCG diet and getting my gut tight again. Notice my lovely fat face which is very thin now.

2011 right after the Bantam wrestling turnament one year after my HCG diet rounds.

Back in the blue suit that hides not a single ripple or roll of fat from the eye to see, these are much smoother ripples compared to the past year of before my HCG and 5K and 10K runs.

I can't believe it its been one whole year of incredible learning. More then just how to do Dr. Simeons protocol. I have learned what makes me gain what helps me lose, whats my limits in physical strength, how to push myself more or give myself a break. Learning to reward myself without food as the prize at the end. Now don't get me wrong here I still have to pay close attention to this, be consistently monitoring myself, I am not perfect here yet.

Let me just tell you it feels pretty dang good to sit at the Little boys Bantam wrestling in dang tight skinny jeans with a sparkly belt and feel like a million bucks compared to last year were I felt old, fat, ugly, had stupid fat pants that I hated and feeling like I was never going to be pretty again. And I did hide my face from all kinds of photos back then. I felt Like I was the mother of a bunch of boys and out for my league with all these young moms that brought their little guys to wrestle and they were all dolled up wearing super high heels and looking as young as my daughter. My thought was just get me out of here I am too old to be here looking like this. Yes I started my first HCG day on the Bantam wrestling day on year ago and we just finished the bantam wrestles over the weekend. All of my little boys ended up with first and second medals including Jer who was given a medal from the coach as a prize even though he didn't wrestle, he is a bit to little still to do the sport.

So today one before snap shot and one of my new me in my cute little skinny jeans along with the fact that I am 44 years old and HOT looking instead of the mother of 7 children. Thanks HCG and all the other blogs and Friends along the way with many an alternate path that taught me how to or not to get back the me that got buried over the last 12 years of my life. There were plenty of blogs that I read, many personal stories and struggles that helped my resolve. Close family that gave me reasons to keep on trying to reach my goal.

But the most important was my own resolve and WILLPOWER to gain the upper hand something that I will keep continuing on with everyday for the rest of my life from now on.

I better put a shout out to a girl who is working to loose, a fellow wrestler Mom. YOU CAN DO THIS and its so worth the change too. I think you know who you are.

Doing this diet taught me a few of these things belive me there are more but to many to list:

Portion control

Eating when I am really hungry not just because its there to eat.

Calorie combinations that are low.

How to drink enough water for my body.

Paying attention to what is in stuff, (like the hidden names of many sugars).

How to like warm hearbal tea to keep me warm, hated tea at the begining now its not so bad.

That corn chips are evil in many ways, two chips a calorie amount a must stay away from.

That there is a sweetness that is unbelivable in green leaves and celery if you havent eaten sugar for a long time.

What a healthy portion size is, which is about the size of your fist for proteins.

Most of all that I am always going to pay attention to the amounts that I eat when I eat and what it is that I eat so that I keep this skinny look around for a long long time!

The surgery.

LONGEST DAY ON EARTH!!!!!!!! So all went well even if we had to keep Jer from eating or drinking which the eating wasn't hard but drinking on the other hand not so easy. It started when we woke him to get in the car which wasn't early. Last meal was at 1:00 am pediasure in a bottle. So we left him to sleep and sleep until 10:00 am. Which amazingly he did. But this morning he wants food so we are driving in car listening to begging for a drink or alternating for food for at least an hour. Finally he fell asleep. We arrive, water fountains the decorative kind are outside the hospital, he wants to drink the water out of them. Drinking faucet passed in hall he trys to crawl out of arms to get. Registering, he says he has to go potty, no go, but he tries to get to tap to get drink. He pouts while playing with toys.

He sees backpack and knows that I always carry water or pediasure. I have to put it up high and try again to divert his attention playing. Finally we get into the change room and dang there is another sink and Daddy (who thanks goodness got to come with me) does diverting while I sign more papers.

Anther toy waiting room, potty guise again. Fight that he needs water out of tap. This is getting so so so hard to keep him from crying and fighting to get the water. On any other day he could go forever without water but of course not today. I never thought I would be in the mode to say thank goodness he got into the surgery because he was so set on getting any possible water that he could. After two hours they call and they need me to hold the screaming baby who came up out of the anaesthesia wanting you guessed it WATER.

I do not think I have ever seen him drink it that fast. Everyone was scared he would puke after guzzling it that fast, but no he begged for more. And can you believe this the non eating guy downed a bowl of soft rice and butter. A cup worth it, was so fast we had to slow him on his intake followed by vanilla yogurt the whole entire cup, add 4 little hospital size apple juices and at 12 midnight he was like a pack rat holding on to the other yogurt cup insisting that he was going to eat it even though he was so so asleep. Maybe the trick is to starve him more often hmmm lets see how the morning pans out in the eating category, breakfast is not ever a favorite meal on his part.

It was a good thing that they revised his trach hole because they found that scar tissue was holding to the inside of his vocal cords and that got released so now maybe we will have stopped the possible throwing up that has plagued him at times. Only time will tell if that becomes the needed fix.

He has the cutest little white teeth now and the one that was curved because the ventilator tubing rested on the bud area and molded it's growth roots area and made the tooth formed in a upwards curve at the bottom of the tooth is all straight now. All the brown yucky spots are gone. Supposedly, which is not confirmed the Echo reviled no pulmonary hypertension but that is very unofficial as of right now.

Did he eat all that food that he is so nicely buttering NOPE not a thing. He did drink the apple juice and late that night a vanilla pediasure. Hey the nurse said "do I sense a white theme going on with the food category". White rice, white yogurt, he likes white pancakes usually, white bananas once in a while, white pediasure, white milk, white cheese sticks, chicken nuggets that have white insides, white insides on apples, I think I am going to have to pay attention to all this colorless foods he will try.

Visiting a time old tradition.

I remember as a small girl going with my Nana June and collecting asparagus on the ditch banks near her house in Idaho. I can still recall the wonder I had inside me that there would be something growing out there that was edible. She would steam it and cut it up with salt and butter. It was the best treat ever that I always looked forward to in the spring. The year after my hubby and I moved back to his ranch at the beginning of our married life I was so excited to find that there was a whole field of wild asparagus next to our ranch. My Mother-in-law took me across the wild tall grasses and there in a clearing were great big stalks of the wintered over bushes that had gone to seed. These stalks are the tale tell sign that you have a great find. We would gather and gather and be back in a about two to three days to again gather. Alas the field stopped producing because of flooding so now I am back to scavenging along the ditch on our ranch for small amounts compared to the hauls that we used to get.

After learning that this diet called for the wonderful treat of course without butter I was excited to have spring come. This way on my second round I could eat the really fresh wild grown vegetable that I remember finding as a child. So here's a photo shoot of my scavenging adventure on our ditch banks.
Maybe I will even go visit the old field and see if any new starts might have started back up these 6 years later since my last visit.
Thanks Nana for showing me a wonderful God given treat!

What yummy dinners these green shoots make. The first meal is made with the asparagus and a side of black peppered halibut with thin Wasa crackers.
The next dinner is Chicken cooked in Cold Expeller pressed Coconut oil and Wasa bread which is much thicker then a cracker.

Photo Meal Prep that I do for P2 round.

So the freezer is stuffed with tinfoil 3.5 meats cooked and not cooked. Tinfoil because then my kids won't look and cook my meals. Ya know the adage if you can't see it it's not there, well it still works on boys and the fridge/freezer so they will leave my stuff alone.
First time I have ever done beef strips for Fajitas pre-grilled so I can go fast if needed. It's lean rating was 90% so it better be as fat free as possible for this round. I put all the spices that are needed like cumin, pepper,garlic,onion,and even a bit of Stevia.




This one Halibut will make 5 meals of 3.5oz I divide and then freeze. The pile of bits on the side will be made into a fish soup since it's pretty hard to make them stay on a grill if there all chopped up. I did have to peel the skin off which was hard so pick without next time is how I will go for sure.






I always pre-grill my chicken with garlic, onion, pepper, and sometimes cumin then freeze for a very fast warm up meal. Then I can eat them warm or cold when I need it.



This is flattened chicken that I will be stuffing later with Spinach. I forgot to get some when I went shopping. The turkey will also be divided and put into packets to grill as needed. I shall see if I can lose with that meat on board my diet.

Today is a gain n hold 159.2, I think I got to much meat last night cause I snitched off my baby's steak plate since he didn't want it and my fish wasn't making me full. Darn me at least it was protein and not sugar.
Lunch: Tuna Fish, Apple, Celery salad with Homemade Mustard sauce on Wasa Crackers.
Dinner:

Still Holding at 159.2 lbs

I Woke up and had stayed the same yea! So all day went over all well, tomorrow will tell all after increasing the calorie intake a bit more then the last month. I ate an omelet and increased to broccoli salad with ranch dressing and some chocolate milk. Ummmm cheese pieces. I was pretty conservative but went up to 1250 calorie over the whole day. I did walk on the treadmill for three miles and felt wonderfully fit. Late that night I had to get even with my tease of a wild son and sat on him holding him for a very long while. It felt good to not be winded and winning him, he is always pestering and this time he was not sure how to handle the fact that his Mom had the upper hold on him.

PICTURE TRUTH IS NOW ON VIEW. Oh I even had to punch some holes in my belt to tighten it up, that felt amazing. Chin had better get smaller or maybe they do lipo up there. Ah would never be brave enough for that. I will just let HCG melt it on the next round in May. I can not believe how great I feel and no sagging skin either.

Photos on day 20.