Fettuccine Alfredo!

So if you're someone who has eaten a few meals with me (and maybe only one, even), you know that I'm all about things that are white. Cream, white sauce, sour cream, etc. I always go with the white sauce, not the red. Yes, I KNOW that's a big reason I'm fat, but I LOVE IT!! ;-)

Right now I'm sitting here enjoying a nice bowl of Fettuccine Alfredo as I type this blog post. And the best part? I'm not off plan!! :-)

I am actually eating a SlimGenics "snack" of Fettuccine Alfredo. Is it as good as it would be if I cooked noodles and combined them with milk, cream, butter, parmesan cheese, garlic and butter? Absolutely not. Is it still really good and a warm, creamy treat of pasta? YEAH BUDDY! Despite all the other snacks I've tried being really good, I was still really worried about this one, so I only bought one box. Now that I've tried it, more boxes will be purchased and consumed!

Ok, so back to business. I am back on my normal plan today after 5 days (Mon - Fri) on the BioGenics Plateau Breaker and 2 days (Sat & Sun) on the Fresh Start. Apparently, the weight is supposed to start really falling off again, like in the beginning.

I'm really happy to be back on plan because my snack choices were limited to only those that were 100 calories or less for that entire 7 days and I wasn't allowed any milk or starches. I'm so looking forward to tacos tonight that are actually in a tortilla instead of over a bed of lettuce.

I weighed in again this morning and I am SO CLOSE to my 30 lb milestone - 29.25 lbs! Surely I should hit that this week, especially since the last 7 days was supposed to kick the weight loss back into high gear. Maybe I'll even hit it by Wednesday!

I was thinking this morning about the fact that I'm about 30% done with the weight loss phase already. Based on what I expected when I signed up, I should be starting Week 13 today, but I'm starting Week 8!

I'm really glad I'm ahead of the game and hope I can stay that way, because Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming... ;-)

Results Not Typical

You know when you see those commercials for diets, diet pills, etc. and they show these before and after pictures of all these people who have lost extraordinary amounts of weight, but they put this disclaimer at the bottom of the screen in very small, white letters stating "Results Not Typical"?

Of course, I've never been one of these people. I've tried the diets, the pills, whatever, and had little to moderate success, but never "results not typical" success.

But now, I finally feel like a Results Not Typical girl!! Woohoo!

I weighed in at the center today and I'm in the middle of my 7th week. My total weight loss to date is already 28 lbs!! O_O!!!

And here's what makes it even MORE results not typical. We spent last weekend in Manhattan and I completely went off plan. It was planned and I told SlimGenics about it ahead of time, because I couldn't imagine going to NYC and not having pizza, etc. We left last Friday morning and returned late Sunday night, which was 3 full days of eating whatever I wanted. I couldn't believe that I still lost 3.75 lbs in the past week, which includes those 3 days!

Since they knew I was going off plan and my weight loss had slowed down last week before going, we planned ahead and I have been on a 1-week plateau breaker since Monday, which obviously is working since I'm having such a great week.

Needless to say, I feel that any and all sacrifices have been and are completely worth it, as is the cost of the plan.

Oh! And I was going to post this last week, but I was so busy that I didn't get to it, but I went into the center for my first measurements since the first day I went in and signed up for the plan and I have lost a total of 21.25 inches!! Now, that's adding together the inches lost off my chest, waist, hips, thighs and arms, but still! The largest loss was off my waist, which was 6 inches!

So, apparently this is a really happy post and I'm extremely satisfied with the plan, even though it's certainly difficult at times. But really, what diet isn't?

So far I just want to say Thank You SlimGenics!!

First Plateau?

...or just water retention from being in a perpetual healing state?

So let me start by apologizing for not posting in awhile. I know that I'm more apologizing to myself than everyone else, because it doesn't really hurt you if I don't post, right? ;-)

I need to remember that I started this blog to stay accountable and I can't do that if I'm not posting what I'm going through. So, I will try and do better. I guess that's all I can do.

Back onto the subject at hand. SlimGenics. Dieting. Weight-loss. The seemingly never-ending battle!!! 

I've actually been doing really well, even though I haven't reported it. I survived Zach's 2nd birthday party, which was filled with pizza, salads that are too good to be called "salad", cake, etc. I ate NONE of it. I actually ate a bowl of broccoli for lunch while preparing the Papa Murphy's pizzas - I was proud of my willpower, but I will not lie - it SUCKED!!! I didn't want broccoli - I wanted pizza!! Ok, enough of the boo-hoo fest. 

So, I made it through and then made it through last week, but noticed that my weight loss was starting to come to a screaming halt on my scale as the week went on. I weighed in on Friday and was down a whopping 4 lbs from the Friday before, putting me at 23 lbs total. Yay! However, most of that loss was from the weekend before and early in the week.

So, when I weighed in yesterday morning, I wasn't surprised to see that I was only down .25 lbs since Friday, putting me at an official total of 23.25 lbs for the first 5 weeks. Now, don't get me wrong, 23.25 lbs in 5 weeks ROCKS, but I also know that if something doesn't change, this week is going to be very disappointing.

I talked to them about it and it looks like I may be either plateauing or experiencing water retention. A possible reason for the water retention is that I have had some very sore muscles (both from exertion and from slipping on the stairs and twisting in a bad way) and apparently when our muscles heal, they retain water. So, I am on a 3-day Omit and Flush to try and get that water out (if that's it).

If not and my weight loss stays dormant for the week, they are going to put me on my first 7-day plateau breaker next week. I am going to be straight up here: I do NOT want to do that. I saw my friend at work struggle through one and it does NOT look like something I want to do. If I have to, I will, but please pray that it's just water retention and that I don't have to do that next week!! ;-)

Thanks for sticking with me; I promise I will try and be better about posting regularly. :-)

Well, I Ate Pizza...

So I started out last Friday with the excellent news at my SlimGenics weigh-in that I was down 4.75 lbs for the week and a total of 16.75 lbs! Yay!

But... the day didn't continue down that path. 

I went to the Ford dealer to drop off the Exped for a 60k service, and since I insist on wearing flip-flops until I am simply forced to stop, I was wearing them that day. It was drizzling outside, so the service drive was wet. When I stepped down out of the Exped, my foot went completely out from underneath me and I fell, with the running board of the truck breaking my fall right in the middle of my back. I then ended up on my butt on the ground. OUCH!!

So, not thinking that I am not eating the heavy stuff that I used to eat, I went home and immediately too two Aleve. This has never been a problem for me before, but by early afternoon it was a clearly a problem this time.

I got so incredibly sick and all my energy was focused on not vomiting. I was less than 1 week removed from the stomach flu, so my intestinal fortitude was running low and I didn't want to spend another weekend in that condition. I started having sharp shooting pains and I immediately knew that the salad I was going to have for dinner was not going to do me any favors and that I needed something heavy in my stomach to assist. So, we ordered pizza. I got a thin crust with only mushrooms on it and I only ate about 4-6 small squares, but it sure helped calm down the tummy (and it tasted sooooooooooooooooo good!!!).

Luckily, I got up on Saturday morning and I weighed exactly what I had Friday morning. I weighed in at SlimGenics again on Monday morning and I was down 1 lb from my Friday weigh-in, so apparently eating very little of it was good. I have to admit that if I had gained weight back, I don't know if I would have reacted in the "well, I already blew it, I might as well have the leftovers for breakfast" or if I would have buckled down even tighter. But, seeing that I stayed the same motivated me to get back on it and make sure I didn't backslide at all.

Of course, I've been preparing the leftovers for my son for lunch every day since then and it's been torture to not have any more now that I'm feeling better myself, but I have not!! I even managed to stay on plan on Sunday at the Minnesota Vikings Game (and did that make me want to have a drink or what!?) ;-)

So yesterday morning at the weigh-in we wrapped up my first month on the plan with a total loss of 17.75 lbs. Wow. I am VERY happy with those results - that's a lot of weight to lose in just one month!!

I'm sure I won't lose that much in the months going forward, but it sure is nice to start out that way. :-)

Good News / Bad News

Well, which do you want first? ;-)

Considering it's not really good or bad news for YOU, you probably don't really care, huh? Ok, I'll get on with it then!

The good news is actually two-fold.

1. When I weighed in last Friday for my 3rd week official total, I was down a total of 12 lbs. Yay!
2. When I weighed in this Monday, I was already down 3.5 more lbs since Friday, for a total of 15.5 lbs!! O_O!!

Ok, so that's a direct lead-in to the bad news (which is also two-fold), with the first part being that I spent the weekend with a stomach bug, and it's WHY I lost all that weight. Ick. 

I don't expect that weight loss to stick, as I'm certain that once I'm fully re-hydrated it will go back up. However, this morning when I got on the scale (after managing to eat almost all of my required food for the day and getting in all 80 oz of water yesterday) I was down another whole pound from yesterday morning. I didn't expect that; I really thought I would be back up. So I guess we'll see just how much comes back by the end of the week.

The second part of the bad news is that I would just kill for a pizza right now. I am still so weak, trying to get my strength back and eating light just isn't cutting it!! I cannot shake being hungry and I want so much to eat something filling, warm and comforting.

I brought a salad for lunch today and knew this would be an obstacle, so I tried to make it as appetizing as possible, using one of my fruits for the day by putting raspberries on it and bringing raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Not helping!! I am forcing it down with my Diet Sunkist. :-(

If I were further along in the diet (like, say, 3 months or more), I would so just eat the stupid pizza. But since I'm still in the first month, I just cannot bring myself to go off plan and backslide. I want the 15 lb milestone to stick for the week!!

So, I will continue to choke down my salad for lunch, because I know I will enjoy some leftover turkey tacos (which are actually VERY VERY YUMMY!) for dinner tonight. Then I will have gotten through another day and hopefully tomorrow I will feel better, have more strength and staying on plan won't be so hard, right? ;-)

This Week's Final Weigh-In (and a SHOUT OUT!!!)

So I just got back from SlimGenics for my final weigh-in of the week and I'm down a total of 9.25 lbs!! Yay!!

I also learned that Friday is the day that they measure your weight loss for the week, not Monday like I thought. So when they put down on the chart your weight loss for the week, it's compared to the previous Friday. So with that in mind, my 9.25 lbs breaks down to 5.25 lbs the first week and 4 lbs this week.

Now, for the more important part of today's blog post. The shout out. It goes to my loving hubby, Mike. He has always been so supportive and encouraging no matter what the situation has been, but he has really gone above and beyond in supporting me in this journey and it is making such a huge difference.

There are two things that I really want to mention specifically here. The first is the obvious open support that he gives in that he doesn't eat foods that he knows I would enjoy (like cake at my Aunt's birthday party last week). But more importantly, and less obvious to everyone else, is that he is really doing a lot to make foods that aren't my favorite (specifically chicken) not only tolerable, but likable and enjoyable for me.

He has been creating some fabulous marinades to let the chicken sit in (all with on-plan herbs and such) so they don't have that "chicken" taste that just throwing a chicken breast on the grill has. For lunch we just had grilled chicken that sat in a spicy marinade of green chilies, dry mustard, crushed red pepper, etc. for 24 hours and it was GOOD!!

I really believe his support and help like this is going to be the difference, as my dad said, between success and failure.

Thank you, baby. I love you and appreciate how behind me you are and the help you're giving me more than you'll ever know. We all need a great support system to help us succeed in life and you give me the best one I could ask for.

My First Challenges & Frustrations

Well, it was bound to happen sometime, right? ;-)

This week has not been nearly as motivating as the first week, but luckily I don't feel defeated or anything and I'm still very motivated to stick to this and keep going. 

While I knew the weight loss would not continue anywhere near the pace of the first week, it has slowed much more than I anticipated so quickly. When I weighed in Monday morning, I was so happy that I was down 7.75 lbs. Then, I weighed in yesterday afternoon and I was UP .5 lbs since Monday morning. Talk about a bummer!

But, they stated that it's very normal and to not worry at all. People generally don't lose the weight just down, down, down. It's up and down, up and down, but the average for the weeks is generally more consistently down. They said I'm doing great and that I could still reach my 10 lb milestone this week, which would be awesome.

I think I need to change it up more and eat a larger variety of foods, not allowing my body a chance to acclimate to anything. I need to be more creative and try new recipes!!

So that's the (minor) frustration, now for the challenge. I'm actually not all that worried about it, to be honest, but still. Tonight we are going to the State Fair for the MercyMe/Jeremy Camp concert. YAY!!! So excited for the concert; not so much for all that tempting State Fair food. 

Luckily, I haven't been having cravings and I don't yet really feel like I'm missing fattening food. It's certainly way too early in this journey to even consider taking steps backwards, so I'm 100% positive that I won't actually eat anything. That doesn't mean I'm not bummed that it will be another year before I get the chance to eat those mini donuts or cheese curds. ;-)

I weigh in again on Friday morning, so I'll be back after that to report on my last weigh-in for this week. :-)

Have a great day everyone!