Good results

The steak day worked. I lost 2.2 pounds, which was more than my gain.

I'm still not ready to say how much I weigh, because it's more than I want to weigh. However, I feel pretty good about my chances of losing the rest of my extra fat. I'm dedicated in my exercise. I have a renewed determination to eat only the foods that are best for my body.

A quick fix like HCG wasn't quite right for me. I'm still grateful for the boost it gave me. But since I always felt hungry on it, I've developed a mentality where I can't stand to feel hungry. So when I start to feel deprived on my strict eating plan (meat, veggies, eggs, a little fruit), I go overboard.

I have an intolerance to wheat. I know this. It drains my energy and makes me feel slightly sick to my stomach. Yet this past month when I've gotten hungry and didn't have a good snack ready, I'd have toast or cereal. I didn't care what it would do to me, as long as it ended the hunger. (Plus I love cereal. I could eat it three meals a day if it was good for me.)

So now I have to balance good eating with keeping my sanity. "Occasional treat" doesn't cut it. I need structure or I'll keep eating the things I shouldn't. I'm thinking of going to free Sundays. I'll eat the way I should all week, but allow myself some freedom on Sundays. That way the restriction of my diet won't feel so endless. If I want something, I'll just tell myself I can have it on Sunday--I just have to wait.

Holding steady

I've been maintaining the same weight for nearly a month now. I'd like to be losing, but I'm happy I'm not gaining.

I've been eating like a normal person. In order to lose more weight, I'll have to go strict again. Every time I gear up to do that, something happens. My latest attempt at strict eating lasted 3 and 1/2 days. Last night I was sabotaged by my husband. A good friend of ours was in town and my husband wanted to take him out to eat. But the friend had a time crunch, so we did fast food.

All my progress of three days was wiped away. But today I'm doing a steak day to erase the damage. I haven't done one of those in quite a while.

Still here

I haven't checked in for quite a while. I just don't have much to say.

I was doing really well. Then came Easter. I brought my own sugar-free dessert, but my sister made peanut butter bars that I couldn't resist. And I sampled the Easter candy. How do you turn down an adorable 4-year-old, blonde haired, blue-eyed niece handing you a robin's egg?

So that threw me off track again for a little while. Food like that robs me of my energy. I felt so terrible, physically. But now I'm eating right again. My weight has been up down, up down. Heading down again now, and I need to keep it that way.

I go on vacation the first week of June. I'd like to be slimmer than I am now for that trip. We'll be heading to the East coast, and probably the beach. If that's not motivation, I don't know what is.

Small update

I'm still doing good. The cravings are gone for now. I'm eating healthy. I'm still having fruit, but I need to remind myself that with my blood sugar instability, I don't have to have fruit every day. I'm skipping it today.

I'm making progress with my exercise and gaining muscle. I feel pretty good.

I'm doing okay

The steak day was a good success. But I gained some back the following day. That's the way it's been--up and down. I was starting to get desperate with all the things it seems I can't eat. Then my husband gave me a bit of his wisdom.

He said just because a food makes me gain weight the next day doesn't mean I'm sensitive to it. It means my body hasn't had it in a long time, and it has to adjust. He told me to ride things out. See if a certain food makes me gain weight every day for a whole week. That makes sense.

Plus, I'm really focusing on exercise. I'm doing some more challenging routines to build muscle. Fat-burning muscle! Because unless I do something to rev up my metabolism, I'm afraid I'll never be able to eat anything but meat and green vegetables for the rest of my life.

So, my weight isn't looking real great right now, but my attitude is so much better. I know that some of the weight I've gained is lean mass. And every muscle in my body is sore! I'll try to remember to check in more often, but I don't think I'm going to report a daily weight for a while.

A go-ahead on the steak day

I need this steak day for many reasons. I've been eating when I'm not hungry. I can't leave the foods alone that I shouldn't eat.

I think the cravings are so bad because my body needs more than I'm currently giving it. Even though I'm taking an excellent multivitamin, I believe I'm still lacking something. I need more vegetables, probably. And I'll keep the fresh fruit in my diet once this steak day is over. Berries mostly because they're the lowest in sugar.

Okay, some of the cravings are old-fashioned "I want junk food" cravings. Nothing profound about those. I'm still an emotional eater when things aren't going well. I need to work on that. I have to turn this around. Those dreams I was having about a flat stomach? Last night I had a dream with a poochy tummy and I was trying to hide in my swimsuit. Mental shift. Not good.

That changes now.

So-so results

Yesterday I lost .4. But I had a not-so-good day, so I didn't make any more progress this morning. This weight is going to take longer to come off than I thought. That's kind of discouraging, and doesn't make my willpower any stronger.

I might do a regular old steak day tomorrow. When this weight came on, I wasn't in any shape to attempt a steak day, but I'm feeling better every day. It won't do as much good as it would have done the first day, but it should do something. Besides, if I go through with it, it will remind me that it's not the end of the world to go without food for most of a day. It might end or lessen my cravings. I hope so, because once they start, they're monsters.