The Breaking-Free Round--VLCD 1 on 5/14 Join Me! :)

[dawnyama]

Originally Posted by amylou

What do you guys suppose the reasoning is for not mixing veggies? I find it hard to believe that combining salad and asparagus, or cucumbers and celery for example would have ill effects. I guess I'm a little rogue then, because I do that.

I will tell you the reason. Dr Simeon's felt that mixing veggies slowed the digestion down. I don't have a problem with eating one veggie per meal as I don't like veggies especially those on his list The first thing I cut out when I get bored on P2---veggies!

[dawnyama]

As for me down 1 lb!!! So I have dropped 1.6 since recommitting this week, which is great. Just have to keep it up! Hard to do at work--Chick Fil A is so tempting. Yesterday we were giving away free samples of our new chocolate chip cookies...at breakfast!!! Having to smell those incredible smells is hard to do when you are on P2. I can do it! I can do it!! I will be strong.

[TerriMM]

Woo Hoo Mini that's awesome With all that extra muscle you'll really drop the fat faster.

Congrads Dawn, great to be moving forward.

Well I'm very happy with my low carb load. Lost 1.1 from my starting point. So all my first week losses are mine.

[skinnywish]

Everybody is doing so Great!
It's really inspiring to read what everyone does, so far I haven't done any experimenting, I'm pretty basic, afraid to move away from the protocol, but now know I can especially if I start to waiver.
Yesterdays walk kicked my butt and I didn't get much work done, was tired, but it just told me I should do it again in a day or two and start conditioning my body.
Upped my rx injection just a bit, I started out really low, now at 175 I think if I recall I stayed at that level before for a long time.
Strawberries are so good right now!
Weighed in and was down 1.1.......considering how high my weight went on the load, my weight loss is a bit low overall, but its steady, puffiness is gone and most importantly I feel manageable and in control right now. Something I don't always feel about food, diet and exercise without HCG.
My goal is to be mentally ready for P3/P4 and do another round in August and maybe even another before end of year and work into a lifestyle of managing the 2 lb + or - and keep posting to stay honest and on track
Hoping to take this year as a reset button and incorporate some of Woodall's WLA.

[TerriMM]

Nice drop skinny! After your body recovers from the walk you'll see more. Happens to me every time I start exercising after not for a while.

Got to get me some of those Strawberries, so so good right now!!

[amylou]

Goodmorning ladies! Feeling a little hungry this morning...but downed some water w/ lemon, then succumbed to some coffee after dropping the kids off. I think I'm just going to cave w/ my coffee. It's a vice for me...and I can still have it on plan. If I have to give up all my other vices, at least I can still have my coffee albeit prepared a little differently and not as creamy as I'd like!

You know what I'm really loving to eat on this round? Tacos with a lettuce shell! I found some great little romaine shells at the grocery last week and I have been going between chicken, ground beef and fish, and adding some chopped tomatoes/cilantro/onions and sometimes shredded cabbage. I add a little mustard or SF ketchup depending on what it is too, but it really mixes it up for me and makes me feel like I'm having a (semi) normal meal lol. I actually took a pic of my dinner last night it looked so good to me!

Later after getting the kids to bed I felt that release of exhaustion/stress from my day w/ them and was really feeling the need to binge on something. I hadn't had my 2nd fruit yet...so I got out some strawberries and SF choc syrup and dipped them in for a treat. The stuff is so liquid-y that 2 TBSP goes a long way, and I even had some left over. It did the trick for me at least!

It sounds like everyone is getting their head in the "game" so to speak! It sure helps to have a plan of how we're going to do this. I know I have tried to start P2 at least 2x this year and would stop after a couple days, my head just wasn't in it. Maybe it's summer quickly approaching, maybe it's my recent gain and subsequent feeling of my back fat rolls touching each other, but I'm mentally in it this time.

Mini have you ever done P2 while lifting too? Or do you always wait for P3/4? I am doing some Callanetics but want to incorporate some arm work too...I just don't know how much I should be doing. I have about an hour + 20 mins between picking my son up at daycare and my daughter up at school, so I wanted to hit the gym. My plan is to do a walk w/ some incline intervals, and then move onto arm work. I love to lift heavy and feel it...but worry about the effect it will have on P2. Any words of wisdom? Right now there is not much muscle to expose as my layers of flab vanish lol.

[minimonkey]

Morning, lovelies!

Amy -- I've tried lifting heavy while on p2, and I tanked. I just couldn't sustain it at all. The same goes for intense cardio -- I just can't do it without adequate nutrition. Light cardio is okay, but the HIIT/ interval training type stuff kills me.

Callanetics and other bodyweight exercises seem to be fine, as long as I don't go super advanced with them (the Bar Method gets pretty intense at the advanced levels) .. so that is what I do if I work out on p2. I do lightly weighted, isometric lifting for the upper body, and skip the weights for lower body work.

I love and crave heavy lifting, though, so I do miss it terribly when I am not doing it.

[minimonkey]

I'm not giving up my coffee, period -- but I drink it black, so that isn't a problem. I've always been a black coffee girl, as long as it is good coffee... I prefer it that way.

I am trying to limit stimulants across the board, though, including limiting coffee intake -- adrenal burnout hit me badly during the last year, and stimulants make it worse. I was a terrible offender in that department over the last few months, but I did what I had to do to survive my MFA ordeal.

[minimonkey]

Whooohoo on a loading LOSS, Terri! That is seriously fabulous!!!!

Nice losses Skinny and Dawn! Yahoooooo!!!

I love this thread -- it is so nice to be with a bunch of folks who are in the same boat, more or less, as I am.

I do have my head in the game now, and am committed to finishing at least the minimum round in my own slightly rogue but mostly protocol way. I can't tell if staying off the scale is helping or hindering me at this point ... I don't tend to be one who shows big losses the first week, so in some regards, maybe it is helping to stay off it.

At the very least, I will be weighing when I hit the three week mark, so I can decide if I should continue the round, or stick to a short one...

I'm aiming for a goal of 105 lbs, which is about the lowest my body will go without kicking up a huge fuss and making my life miserable ... I'd love to drop a little lower, but my body just hasn't allowed me to do that in rounds past, and the struggle to do it backfired on me in the long run.

My guess is that I am somewhere in the 115 range at the moment, and that a bunch of it is still residual inflammation from all the over-taxing I did of my poor body. A three week round may well be enough to get me to goal, particularly if the inflammation gets under control again.

[dbunny]

Down 8.5 so far..
For me, P2 is the easy part... the losses are awesome, feel like a champ, etc... In P3, I am so grateful to have FOOD again and I do pretty good for those first three weeks... Then comes P4/real life, and my resolve just crumbles. This is now the THIRD time I have to lose the SAME 30 pounds. I have got to get my s*#t together and realize that this journey doesn't really ever end. I will always have to be vigilant, I just need to find out how.

[skinnywish]

Originally Posted by dbunny

Down 8.5 so far..
For me, P2 is the easy part... the losses are awesome, feel like a champ, etc... In P3, I am so grateful to have FOOD again and I do pretty good for those first three weeks... Then comes P4/real life, and my resolve just crumbles. This is now the THIRD time I have to lose the SAME 30 pounds. I have got to get my s*#t together and realize that this journey doesn't really ever end. I will always have to be vigilant, I just need to find out how.

I'm right there with you. I'm trying to figure out how to get through P/4 as well. I think I can do P3, not sure but since I know the DO NOTS, I will just treat it like P/3 but with more protein and vegies......hoping I will put together a plan for P/4 since we all started about the same time. I hope to learn from everybody and I hope the daily posting will keep me vigilant.

To be honest sometimes during the day, since I work at a computer most of the day I will log on and just re-read the thread to keep my head in the game!

[lemonmama]

This time of day is so hard for me. Just made dinner for the kids and they are eating sweet potato chips--my favorite! And BBQ beans.... I am embarrassed to admit I was *this* close to cheating. But I went down to try on a pair of jeans that I wore earlier this year, and could hardly button them....that's what's keeping me on track right now.

[dawnyama]

Originally Posted by lemonmama

This time of day is so hard for me. Just made dinner for the kids and they are eating sweet potato chips--my favorite! And BBQ beans.... I am embarrassed to admit I was *this* close to cheating. But I went down to try on a pair of jeans that I wore earlier this year, and could hardly button them....that's what's keeping me on track right now.

I am on the edge too. Just finished dinner and I want something sweet. Just finished my walk and took my drops. At least for those 15 mins anyhow I just want to make it through a few days with no cheats. I want to do this right!! And for the last time, too.

We can get through this!!

[lemonmama]

Originally Posted by dawnyama

I am on the edge too. Just finished dinner and I want something sweet. Just finished my walk and took my drops. At least for those 15 mins anyhow I just want to make it through a few days with no cheats. I want to do this right!! And for the last time, too.

We can get through this!!

Yes, we can. You are right. I must keep reminding myself why I am doing this. I thought I had made it through the hard part tonight, but then I was cleaning up dinner from the kids' meal when DH (not so dear tonight) came home from his 50+ mile bike ride and was ready for me to start HIS dinner. Before I could get it going, he asked if I would make him a "recovery shake" first, which is basically a glorified ice cream shake---cream, bananas, cocoa powder, PB--all things delicious.

It really hit me in a bad way. Made me feel sorry for myself and I ALMOST took a big bite of the shake before sticking it in the freezer for him.

That feeling--sorry for myself--is a big reason why I eat and cheat. I have a great husband in so many ways--he's a good father and very sweet and sensitive, but he basically leaves me with everything while he is working and becoming the next Lance Armstrong.

I work from home as a freelance writer, but I work primarily at night when everyone is sleeping, so I'm sleep deprived on top of everything else, which makes it even easier to feel sorry for myself. LOL.

Sorry, this is turning into my journal here, but I just feel like I need to get this out instead of turning to food tonight. And ya'll get to be the lucky recipients!

Dawn---we can totally do this! We've tasted the food before and we can do it again some day (in maintenance) when we are feeling more in control and looking fine! ;-) Thanks for responding tonight...I really needed that bit of encouragement.

[amylou]

I think it's good to vent about our problems...for a lot of us personal issues are the reason we turn to food. That, and there's just too much damn good food around us

I hate that food has such control over me. It's the one thing in life that I can't overcome. I've been through and accomplished so many things in my life...my education, traveling the country alone, divorce...having kids...but I can't seem to accomplish getting fit. Why is it, that the thing we have THE most control over, we have so little control over? I mean, so many things that happen to us in life we can't control...we can only control how we react to it. We have the complete ability to put or not put food into our mouths...and which foods those are. Yet it seems like there's this supernatural power that always overcomes us to make the wrong choices.

I'm tired of obsessing about food/dieting/eating right-wrong ALL.THE.TIME. I wish I could just turn a switch off.

[minimonkey]

Hang in there ladies -- you are doing great!

I think talking about this stuff is really important! Lemonmama, I think you and I share a lot of commonalities -- I am the big "do-er" around the house. My partner is disabled (multiple sclerosis) so he is really limited in what he can do to help -- though he is a champ about working as much as he can these days. My roommate just doesn't do much housework ... it's a long story, and not worth repeating, but I end up cleaning up after her a lot, and the situation seems to be impossible to resolve. So, I do a lot of feeling like the one carrying the bulk of the work a lot of the time.

My problem isn't cheating on p3, and I've never even tried a p4 since starting hcg .... though I do think I tend to eat too much, or at least make the wrong choices on p3. I've never managed to maintain after a p2 ... and, like Dawn, I have jumped back into p2 way too many times rather than figure out p3.

This last gain was somewhat unavoidable, since I had to work myself to death physically, mentally, and emotionally, or fail my degree program. It crashed my health, and the sickness and stress piled the pounds on me very, very fast! I just decided I didn't care about weight for the last two months, ate what I could when I could, and powered through it. My eating was almost all clean p3, but I gained a bunch anyhow. I think some of that was due to having tanked my metabolism from doing p2 for so long!

I'm also sure I ate too many nuts/nut butters, and probably too much dairy -- but done is done. I will be adding those back slowly next time, and only after lasering for sensitivities.

I'm really not much of an emotional eater, in general.

[minimonkey]

I am finding this a bit easier by the day, which is encouraging.

I think I came in a little high today, but not much -- no more than about 600 calories, I think. I've been doing house chores all day, so I have been moving about -- nothing terribly strenuous, but I am fairly sure it made up for any caloric surplus.

Our house was a big mess after the last few months' craziness, and I am now having to find a place to put everything that I moved out of the studio, and from the exhibit... and also catching up on the work that wasn't done while I was so busy. It feels good to be getting some of it done, but the tasks feel big and daunting ... there is a lot of re-organizing and weeding out of stuff that I need to do.

I feel like I am starting to lose some, but without weighing, it is hard to say for sure. I do know that I feel good about having gotten off to a good start with this round, though, and that I am proud of myself for doing it. I'm trying to be patient and just trust the process -- I'm a bit of a control freak, and I have a hard time just trusting that something is working ... but I am trying to do just that.

[minimonkey]

Amy -- I hear you about being tired of obsessing ... I am tired of it, too!

I've been on some kind of diet for so long that I have no idea what it would be like not to worry about food on some level --

After this round, I will be transitioning (health permitting) into a phase of heavy lifting, with an emphasis on body recomposition. That will mean attending to food carefully, too, but I think it will be worth it.

[TerriMM]

I think the thing about only being able to control what goes in my mouth goes both ways. When everything else has gone to H**L, I can still control that and I “choose” to “make myself feel better” by putting crap in it I’ll be sorry about later. Whatever makes me think that will somehow make me feel better is the real question for me.

Ya know Mini I hate to state the obvious, but with all the muscle you’ve built your next 105 is going to be a whole lot leaner then your last 105. You certainly don’t want to lose your gorgeous, which admittedly would be pretty difficult, just don’t let the number rule you. By the way I’m not very good at taking my own advice.

I do pretty well with P2, slow as heck, but it does get me where I haven’t been able to get any other way, and I’ve tried them all (a couple times). P3 is easy, I love low carb/high fat food. P4 starts to get hinky. I get to a point where I’m tired of journaling and figure I don’t need to. A little of this and little of that, some times more than a little, and all of a sudden it’s added up to what the ****?! I need to figure out how to live without being obsessed with every bite. I’m thinking a longer P3 might help, but I seriously don’t know at this point. I don’t seem to be good with eating a brownie once in a while and getting away with it. If I do then maybe I could have a hamburger bun tomorrow. If I’m not journaling it’s pretty easy to forget about the pineapple I had a little of the day before.

So day one went pretty well. Not much hunger, just getting used to empty. This in itself is very encouraging. I still have my second fruit and breadstick to go.

Good evening all, may the scale be kind tomorrow!

[minimonkey]

Terri -- You're sweet -- thanks bunches!

And yes, I am thinking that at 105, this time, I'll be pretty darn lean! I may not even need to drop that low, but I am suspecting that I will want to.... we'll see. If my body is kicking up a big stink and refusing to go that low, I will reconsider the number.

I'm making a real effort not to let the number rule me, which is part of why I am not weighing right now. Honestly, I mostly just want back into my favorite skinny jeans.

I'll probably lose a little of this muscle as I do the p2... that's the drawback of the bulking/cutting approach to muscle building ...but overall, I am hoping for a net muscle gain and fat loss.

I am also getting used to empty -- also not a lot of hunger, but I am aware that I am not eating a lot. That's fine.

[minimonkey]

I do think I will weigh this weekend, though, and probably keep weighing after that -- I am going to want to weigh daily in p3, and be like a hawk about correction days, so getting in the habit now probably isn't a bad idea.

I'm pretty sure I am losing -- my body feels a lot less puffy than it did. I also AM genuinely hungry tonight .. I'll be heading to be shortly, so I can just sleep right through the hunger. Once I get used to being somewhat hungry, I don't mind the feeling all that much unless it gets intolerably strong.

I do have to say, though, that there are days I seriously consider throwing the goal of "thinness" right out the window, and think about opting to go all out bodybuilder mode, and bulk the heck up! I could be a tank of a woman if I fed my body a lot and worked out like a fiend...lol! Problem with that is that I am so short, and so small framed, that I just tend to look blocky in clothes unless I am really lean along with the muscle... so I won't be following that whim.

Plus, I like the shock factor of being very small but muscled-- people tend to assume that I am a scrawny, weak little thing, and when I wear a tank top and people see the muscle, it gets a lot of shocked expressions

[minimonkey]

Terri -- question for you...

Since p3 is easy for you and you enjoy it, why even go to p4? Why not transition to a low carb lifestyle and just stay there? You don't need to answer that, but it is something to think about....

I don't know if I will attempt a p4 or not -- I also like living low carb, and I'm very sensitive to a lot of grains. Once I'm really, truly stable in p3, I may allow for an occasional free meal here and there... with corrections afterward if necessary ... but I doubt I will be attempting to add back most carbs. In fact, I eat more carbs on p2 than I do on any other plan, because of the fruit. I find I lose better if I actually do eat the fruit, at least some of the time, so I tend to include it when on near-protocol.

I love fruit, and would love to be able to keep it in my diet in some capacity -- I know some people continue to eat it on p3, and some don't.... I am not sure which way I will go with that one. I'm thinking the first couple weeks of p3 will just be a continuation of p2, but with increasing amounts of food, and a bit of fat added in.... at least that is the plan right now.

[dawnyama]

Quick post before I am off for the day. I am up----only 0.4 lbs but still. I resisted so much yesterday and even cut stuff out (supplements and an extra cup of coffee) and thought I would drop. Ah.....this is hard. I will stay strong today....I will stick to plan. I know it will come off. I wish I had the nerve to not weigh for a few days. But then I wouldn't know if what I ate the day before was "good for me" or not. I will be cutting out crabmeat for the remainder of the week.

Y'all are doing well. I am so glad I am NOT the only one feeling these feelings while going though this P2. I always feel I have to be rah-rah for everyone else while I feel like crap and struggle. Hate that there are those out there feeling like me, but nice to have company in the journey.

Mini--once I am done with this bottle of hcg, I have no more. So I am stuck-either I go and buy more hcg to get to where I want to go or do it some other way. I hope I have enough for a 21 day cheat free round, but I am not sure. I fear that if I have any leftover if I do go and buy more that I will use that as my crutch in P3. What a pickle I have gotten myself into. If I had not fuzted around and just did a straight P2 when I started this time around I would be done by now!! Frustrating to be sure, but I can only blame myself. I am convincing DH that we should be a gluten free family. I just bought the book "Wheat Belly" and a lot of things I see in there--my kids are struggling with. Should be interesting to transition them this summer, which for them starts next week. So that should make my P3/P4 easier than in the past. Maybe this time it will click for me.

Well, I said this would be brief and it is not! Sorry about that. I now have to go to work. Have a great day ladies!!!

[TerriMM]

Originally Posted by minimonkey

Terri -- question for you...

Since p3 is easy for you and you enjoy it, why even go to p4? Why not transition to a low carb lifestyle and just stay there? You don't need to answer that, but it is something to think about....

I don't know if I will attempt a p4 or not -- I also like living low carb, and I'm very sensitive to a lot of grains. Once I'm really, truly stable in p3, I may allow for an occasional free meal here and there... with corrections afterward if necessary ... but I doubt I will be attempting to add back most carbs. In fact, I eat more carbs on p2 than I do on any other plan, because of the fruit. I find I lose better if I actually do eat the fruit, at least some of the time, so I tend to include it when on near-protocol.

I love fruit, and would love to be able to keep it in my diet in some capacity -- I know some people continue to eat it on p3, and some don't.... I am not sure which way I will go with that one. I'm thinking the first couple weeks of p3 will just be a continuation of p2, but with increasing amounts of food, and a bit of fat added in.... at least that is the plan right now.

I've actually been thinking of doing just that Mini. It just seems to work for me and I enjoy it. I too want to keep fruit. I honestly feel my health is positively affected by it. The last couple P3s I've done more 1/2 servings and that seems to work out well. While I like the starchy carbs, I don't feel too deprived without them. I like the idea of the occasional free meal too. If I keep it to one meal I can not only usually get away with it, sometimes it tricks my body into losing.

Keep the faith Dawn, remember "you can always have that tomorrow". Maybe treat yourself to a non-food reward.

I'm down 1.5 today, love those first week loses! I ate 528 calories and even skipped my second fruit and bread stick. I don't know how people eat the menu and keep it under 500 I also did my lift/squat routine, kept the weights higher this time since I still had good nutrition stores. Tomorrow’s workout I'll likely cut back.

How is everyone doing today?

[amylou]

Well I have been stuck at 174 for my 4th day in a row. So much for not weighing myself. I have been following plan really well...but am wondering if maybe I'm a little short on calories. I've noticed more hunger than my last P2...almost wonder if these doses are working. Kind of contemplating ordering some drops and going from pellets to those.

I'm thinking of switching up my eating to have a little protein mid-afternoon with my fruit, maybe that would help the hunger. I'll track my cals today to make sure I'm getting enough in. Not enough cals could make me stall, no? IDK

Been downing a LOT of water and staying away from sweeteners except a little stevia...I thought that would help with losses too.

Other than that...tired this am. My 3yo woke up at 4am and had wet his bed...hoping for a little nap this afternoon sometime.

[TerriMM]

Hey Amy,
I've found if I stay too little of calories for too long my body goes into starvation mode and really stalls. When I get to that point I usually start alternating calories 500-700 on down days and 900-1500 on up days, using more protein and maybe some fat and that usually gets me losing again.

Nothing more frustrating than doing everything right and stalling. Been there done that. A lot of people say just stick with it and the losses will catch up, but I've never been patient enough. The first time I held in for five days before I got this advice from Nola. Since then three days means for me it's time.

I also started taking B-12 supplements and that really helps with the energy, as well as potassium.

[skinnywish]

Late with my posting today. But WOW, was good to read everyone's posting.

Lemonmama - I'm grateful you vented, when I hear real issues - I feel okay, because I have them too. There will be times I will need to vent and know I'm not just sending it out there to open space but to you all that are going through the same things and can be there to tell me. "Yes its hard, Good for you for working through it!" I know that means a lot to each of us to have a safe place to go with our feelings. Because our feelings are tied into our hunger and our relationship with food.

Amylou -- I'm right there with you - I obsess about food, I wonder whats wrong with me and I am tired of this up down relationship with weight and food.

Reading these books lately, reading all these streams, watching "The Weight of the Nation" and "Sugar the Bitter Truth" by Dr. Lustig. I realize that part of my problem isn't just me, but maybe years of the wrong approach on food. Was raised in a foodie home and I raised my children in a foodie home. I used to think that because I ate "good" food and not junk food I was doing the right thing? So why was I fat? But to be honest my body doesn't seem to know whether it is food from the Four Seasons or Food from McDonalds. When it is more calories than I burn off and when it is more sugar and more fat than I need. It seems that all of america is paying the price of larger sizes in food, processed foods that contain sugar, too many calories, stress and our adrenals being out of wack.

I don't think we are meant to have sugar in our foods daily, or as much processed foods that are available. The food ads on TV and the choices in the restaurants and opportunity to buy food is everywhere you go. We are bombarded with the message that this is how you eat. This is how I have been living for the past 58 years......

I'm realizing that maybe I do need to obsess a little about food right now. Its okay and maybe I will never be normal about food. Maybe I need to have an AA approach to food, knowing that it is my addiction - because my body sure shows the results of having an unhealthy approach about food. I'm tired and somewhat ashamed of my inability to solve this problem, especially when I'm competent in other areas of my life.

It seems that the ones that are most successful after a huge weight loss in keeping the pounds off, are the ones that keep journalling, weigh their food, exercise everyday, and that have a plan for what they know they have to do and can't do when it comes to food.

I haven't been one of those people - but that is what I am doing everyday right now. So my goal right now is to commit to these daily changes and I'm going to use the HCG protocol to help get me there.

Mini-I think you have a good suggestion about staying in P3 and maybe skipping the P4 portion especially when we need to continue to loose. Maybe P4 is only when we have reached the weight level we want and can learn to find the right foods and right calorie level mixed with an active lifestyle to maintain this loss.

I did weigh this morning and I was down .4.....found myself disappointed....you know that scale obsession thing....but I know I did good yesterday I ate protocol and I went to the gym for an hour. So instead of focusing on the number I'm focusing on what I did for the day........OMG do you think I might be able to build a new way to live....I sure hope so.

[TerriMM]

Originally Posted by skinnywish

I'm realizing that maybe I do need to obsess a little about food right now. Its okay and maybe I will never be normal about food. Maybe I need to have an AA approach to food, knowing that it is my addiction - because my body sure shows the results of having an unhealthy approach about food. I'm tired and somewhat ashamed of my inability to solve this problem, especially when I'm competent in other areas of my life.

I'm beginning to realize we ARE the new normal. We're just doing something about it.

[minimonkey]

Originally Posted by TerriMM

I'm beginning to realize we ARE the new normal. We're just doing something about it.

[minimonkey]

I was thinking the same thing -- I don't know very many people who are "normal" about food! A few men seem to be, but most of us seem to struggle a lot.

I'm sorry to hear of everyone's frustrations this morning Stalls, gains, be gone!

THIS is why I am staying off the scale! I've had long, long stalls (weeks at a time) while doing protocol properly, and it is frustrating as can be.

Dawn -- I hear you about the hcg. I'll be running out of my rx drops at, or slightly before, the 21 day mark ... but I have a back stock of hhcg, so I plan to use that to finish the round if I need to.

I'm not sure I know what is going on with your round -- seems you are doing a continuation of a longer round, so technically, you should be able to stop at any point, right? How far are you from your goal?