Day 51

Fruit/Veggie Day.  Technically.  But I had some crab at lunch and it was DELICIOUS.  I got the Dungeness crab, and substituted the potatoes and corn for broccoli and onion straws (yes, fried, bad me, I know, blah).  And I stole some crab dip and chips.  I ate one of the knuckles, and took the other two home, so I have it for the weekend.  Tomorrow I will begin counting the maintenance days.  I went back in for my final visit.  I now have a ball taped to the front of each ear - each in a different location on their respective ears.  There is no rotating required for these (yay!), they just kind of sit there.  Perma-pressure.  My maintenance phase has begun.  14 days of maintenance, then I remove the balls and I'm done!  I go back in a month for a check up (and to return the balls, I guess... they didn't really say what to do with them other than to take them off) to see how I'm doing.  That will be JUST after my Vegas trip, so um, that'll be... interesting...

I only lost 2 pounds this cycle.  Which is only 1 pound more than the last time the balls were in this location, and the last time, I majorly cheated.  I didn't cheat nearly so much this time, I don't think, so I think perhaps my body just doesn't react to that location like others.  But, remember, the second location (intestines) I had a really good loss, which was unusual - so, I'm weird, apparently.  Unfortunately, this means I didn't break the 180 mark before maintenance, which is kind of sad.  But overall, I'm down 27 pounds, and that is CERTAINLY an accomplishment to be proud of!

So what's the plan now?

Well, a ball on each ear.  Still need to eat between noon and 6pm.  Wednesdays and Thursdays are to be milk days - so no more 2-day rotations.  The rest of the days is more of the same - 1.5lbs of 3 types of fruits and veggies, with the addition of 4-6oz of seafood (any kind of seafood) for the day.  And I keep taking the vitamin and herbal supplements.  I should also definitely ramp up the exercise to three days a week - no more slacking off in that regard.

My new little card also tells me what to do AFTER maintenance to help keep the weight off.  Nothing really surprising about it - eat healthy, don't fry things, make most of your meals be veggies with about 4-5oz of protein on the plate (Andre explained it as "fill half the plate with veggies, a quarter of the plate with protein - be it meat, beans, etc - and a quarter with good carbs - and don't plunge straight into a baked potato, work your way up to it with rice, whole grain pasta...").  Try to eat between noon and 6pm.  One day a week as a milk day, one day a week as a tea fasting day, and keep taking vitamins. 

I'll be weighing myself once a week from here on out - once I'm off maintenance, I'll likely scale back the blog to be a once weekly check-in, so I can continue to have the accountability of you all, and to keep track of my weight.

Day 50

Fruit/Veggie day.  Wow, I made it to day 50!  Tomorrow I go back in for a weigh-in and start my maintenance phase.  I probably will not be technically allowed to have fish tomorrow - technically I should probably finish up my fruit/veggie 2-day and have my first fish on Saturday.  However, I am heading out for lunch to Joe's Crab Shack with some friends, and there will be fish!  I'm so excited!!

Two weeks of maintenance, and then, I'm done!  I'm pretty confident I lost more weight this cycle - each time I step on the scale, it goes down a little.  Oh yes, I bought a scale for myself for home.  About time, huh?  Really it's more for when I'm not going down to Sadkhin every 10 days, so I can keep myself on track at home.  The gym will have to become a regular part of life, instead of this random, every-now-and-then thing that I've been pulling.

Yay fish!!

Day 49

Milk day.  I think I hit burnout at work.  Yesterday's extreme grouchiness and lethargy coupled with the annoyances of the day just really did me in.  When I woke up this morning, I just couldn't get myself up.  Lots of aches all over, pounding headache, and light was evil.  So I took the day off, and I'm feeling immensely better after sleeping half the day away.  I managed to drag myself downstairs to get my vitamins in the morning and have some tea before going back to sleep, and I think I hit about every OTHER rotation (missed the 2pm one though - slept through it) between sleeping.  Clearly, I needed it.

I only had  the remnants of the store-bought yogurt left from the container I bought to make my first batch of yogurt - I was in no mood to go out, buy milk, and make more of my own last night.  Especially since I won't be having another milk day until next Wednesday, if I'm reading the maintenance literature correctly.  I'm pretty sure I didn't get up to the 20oz for the day, but whatever.  Half cup of yogurt around noon, and another cup combined with a little cheese (tiny bit) for bolstering, cooked up with onion for a creamy onion soup about an hour ago. 

My cat has been curled up on top of or next to me all day.  I think she's just happy to have me home all day.  Back to work tomorrow with fruit/veggie day - having cabbage salad again.  Because it is that good.  Don't judge me.  And then it's a three day weekend, with maintenance beginning!  I have a salmon fillet all ready to go, and I intend to have shrimp, scallops, tilapia, and maybe even some crab over the next week.  Mmmm fish!

Day 48

Milk day.  We went out for lunch to an Indian restaurant.  So I could get a lassi!  Whoo!  And then the day spiraled downhill, FAST.  Really awful afternoon, made me want to cheat and have a big bowl of spaghetti or something.  With lots of cheese.  AFTER 6pm (gasp).

But I didn't.  Sort of.  A little cheat, perhaps, but not horrible.  I made a cheesy onion soup - finely chopped up onion, with garlic.  Added in my "cream cheese" and let it melt, then tossed in the whey that I had... and then added a little bit of shredded every-cheese-in-my-fridge.  And topped it off with some Bacon Salt.  Oh it was delicious.  And I am much calmer now.

Later tonight I'm heading to Kohls to return some capris I decided not to keep, and then spend my Kohls cash from last week.  This should do the trick nicely, methinks!

Day 45-47

Milk day, then fruit/veggie days.  I was traveling in Canada over the weekend, and was without internet, so sorry about the lack of updates!  Saturday was filled with winery tastings - yes, you can still do that, you just have to master the art off swish-and-spit.  Nothing was actually consumed - well, maybe one or two sips that were just too smooth or too good to spit.  I brought along my yogurt and an assortment of stir-ins for it, as well as my "cream cheese" stuff.  There was also some excellent cheese.  We ended up at a nice restaurant for dinner, where I had a lovely cheese plate, with a fun coffee for dessert.

Sunday was the trip home, and I had put together more of the cabbage salad for the trip since it travels pretty well.  I left the dressing off until I was ready to eat it, which seems to extend the life of it.  Stir in the dressing and grind a little sea salt on top, and it was once again the awesome salad.  I am also loving the POM stuff, so that was my fruit for the day.  I did cheat a little in the evening and had a bit of chocolate.  Lindt truffles... who can resist?

The remainder of the salad was for today, as well as the POM.  There wasn't quite enough salad left, so I steamed up some carrots for my final meal.

I'm finding that I'm being more tempted by regular food the past few days.  Possibly because I know this is almost over now, and I'm just so looking forward to being able to have some of these things.  Pizza, mac 'n cheese... yeah.  I'm really starting to wonder now what the maintenance phase includes.  I know fish gets brought into it, but what other restrictions are lifted?  Do I get to start cooking with olive oil again?  Or maybe vinegar?  Can I start mixing fruit into my yogurt?  I'll find out on Friday!