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

I honestly don't know if I'm even supposed to begin a personal thread like this or not. If not, I'm sorry, and I'll stop. :) But if it is okay, I'm going to start posting daily here.

I have had both incredible success and incredible failure with HCG (homeopathic for me). I reached a dream weight of 143/size 6 last fall...after beginning HCG in February 2011. I stabilized perfectly after Round 1 in February, but after my fall 2011 round where I reached my dream weight, I just couldn't stay disciplined. I leveled-out around 150 for months, but then hit a stressful period the last couple of months and returned to my old emotional eating ways. It has been so sad to feel out of control again and to pack-away all of my clothes I was so excited to wear 6 months ago.

I've attempted to regain control a couple of times this year...with TWO failed rounds. I just couldn't get my head into the game.

I'm both horrified, and ashamed of these failures. I would load and then maybe complete 3 or 4 VLCDs...only to talk myself into quitting for various reasons (such as, you are too stressed, you deserve to eat like a normal person, you are missing out on life, you don't have time for this, etc. etc.). All lies....

So...I've decided to come out of hiding, throw off the shame, and lay it all out right here.

I am starting VLCD 1 tomorrow May 14th, 2012. I will see this through. I will reclaim control. I will not let excuses get in the way of my goals. I will wear my size 6 jeans again comfortably. And I will break-free from emotional eating once and for all.

Want to join me? :)

I will be happy to join you. I've also had some issues (emotional stuff, stress, hormone therapy, a perfect train wreck of no discipline) and have gained 15 lbs in 2 months. Although I have not reverted back to my crappy eating habits, this medication causes HUGE hunger cravings and I have been eating non-stop for weeks. Even low carb foods will cause weight gain when you're eating thousands of calories a day. :sad:

I stabilized perfectly on my rounds so all I can say is the resetting of the metabolism really did not work for me. Which was majorly disappointing. But I know that hcg works wonderfully for weight loss, so I will take it!

Best of luck to you! And us!

Thanks, Lilac! I'm so sorry you've had a lot of stress and hormonal stuff too. It's the pits! Are you starting a new round soon? I feel more motivated than ever today, so I'm believing that THIS is going to be the round that sticks for me. After the first round, I really felt like I was able to conquer my emotional eating stuff, but I allowed it to rear it's ugly head once again, and here I am!

Lots of luck to you as well. Post here if you want and we can encourage each other!

I am starting today too, so I am in it with you! How many days are you doing?

Great! I'm planning for at least a short round (23 days)...maybe longer. But I think if I stay totally focused I can meet my goal in 23 days...

LET'S DO THIS!! :shake:

I'm starting R2 today, so I'm in! :)

Yay, Plum!! Thanks for joining us. I'm so looking forward to reporting a drop in my weight tomorrow. Who cares if it is "water weight," right? ;-)

I am joining you guys!! My head has been out of the game too, for about a month now...was doing low-carb/clean eating, and have just been mentally stuck in a rut. I did HCG in June of last year and I liked it...liked that it got me out of thinking about food so much.

I'm going to at least to a 23 day round...last time I got stuck there and nothing would move weight wise after that so I moved on to P3. I didn't do any exercise then, but now I'm going to do some Callanetics and arms...and some walking.

LB, I remember you from last year...you look great! Glad to be back on the bandwagon with you!

Here's to a fresh start!

Well, I don't know what I should do. I told my doc yesterday that I was starting the diet again and he tells me that it would be pretty much pointless until the hormones start to leave my body. From what he said, weight loss is SLOW and/or almost non-existent when you are dealing with synthetic hormones, especially Depo.

I have been on Depo-Provera, not for birth control reasons so much as it was necessary before my Essure sterilization procedure. I had a miscarriage in February and decided to "get fixed" and the Depo was needed to thin the lining of the uterus so that the implants could be inserted more easily. NOW I have to take Depo AGAIN until my confirmation tests shows the implants are at 100% blockage because an accidental pregnancy could actually be life-threatening. I'm so upset. I worked SO hard to get where I was at and the thought of another 90+ days of ravenous hunger and weight gain is making me want to find a bridge to jump off of. :cry:

I'm totally willing to try anyway (most on here know me as really stubborn), if for any reason than to STOP any more potential weight gain. And who knows, maybe I'll prove the doc wrong - I have before.

Lilac Bruze! Welcome back! :hiya: And :hugs: for all you've been through the past few months.

So here's my 2 cents...take it or leave it! I say go for it. I am currently taking estradiol, testosterone, cortisol and T3/thyroid meds and I have through all of my rounds. Endocrinely (if that's a word), I am screwed up six ways to Sunday. HCG still works for me. As long as it doesn't make the Depo ineffective, I don't think it can hurt. What do you really have to lose anyway...except the excess weight! Good luck whatever you decide.

Shelby!! Hi!!

And uh... you knew the answer to that already, didn't you? Of COURSE I am gonna go for it!

I messed up my first day of VLCD though... made DH a low carb casserole and it just smelled SO good that I uh... sampled it... yeah, sampled... that's what I did.

Today is another day!

I say go for it too!

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day on pellets, but I could not for the life of me find them! I did find my bottle from last year, about a 1/4 full maybe, but I just worry about the potency of them. I have an almost brand new bottle...I just have no idea where I stuck it :dunno: I searched the house for over an hour and a half yesterday! Guess I will have to order a new bottle...and I'm sure I'll find the other one after I receive the new one lol.

So for now I'm just going to take the old pellets until the new ones arrive. With that said, today is day 1 of P1 for me...


Lemon how was your first weigh-in?

SCRATCH THAT! I just found the bottle...at work!! No wonder I coulnd't find it at the house lol! :doh:

Just think of it as a third load day... :D Good luck doll! Rooting for you over here in redoing-my-last-round-land! :hyst:

Man! Wish this were 2 weeks from now! I'm doing another round the end of May. Loading memorial day weekend. Good to see these old familiar faces!! Rooting you on and wishing you much success!! :high5:

Lemon-:hugs: don't beat yourself up. WE can ALL relate!! :console: you're back in control and you can do it!!

Oooh, oooh! Can I join in on the journey? I am back after a good P3/ horrid p4. I have been eating horribly.. call it the stress of owning a motorcycle shop, school, moving, and feeling sorry for my self that makes me stuff my face~ IDK. But I am ready to get started again!
I love the support of this sight, and think that sometimes I may have failed because I strayed from posting for accountability.

Hey, the more the merrier! So glad to see everyone stopping by to check in. :)

Julie--thanks for the kind words! I have been trying not to beat myself up. It is so frustrating to have to lose weight I've lost before, but I'm just going to keep my eye on the prize. Hey, I think you have a good plan--Memorial Day weekend is a good time to load!!!

Amy--glad you found the bottle! I'm a weirdo with this protocol and avoid weighing every day. I found that I became super-obsessed with the scale. This time, I'm going to weigh twice a week and see what happens. I'm thinking I'll go for Wednesdays and maybe Sundays.

DBunny--sounds like we have similar reasons for stuffing our faces! Yep...feeling sorry for myself is my #1 reason. Accountability is huge for me, so glad we can do this together.

Lilac--I did a 3 day load last time. It was fun. I'm glad you enjoyed the dessert, and now you are fully prepared for VLCD time. We can do this!

DBunny!! :hugs: :hiya: :jumpjoy:

No, it wasn't a dessert (lost much of my sweet tooth last year doing my long rounds), it was a ham/cheese/egg casserole. :yummy:

Yum...that sounds really good! I wish I would lose my sweet tooth...I try really hard, but it sticks around.

I am having the strangest day today. I'm not hungry at all! This is highly unusual for me, as I usually must deal with some level of hunger in P2. I usually get used to it and guzzle green tea to curb hunger, but I've probably only eaten 200 calories today.

Here's a question for you all, are you familiar with the book/blog Weight Loss Apocalypse by Robbin Woodall? I have read the book and follow her blog and videos on YouTube. She takes a different approach with the protocol and talks about the importance of only eating according to hunger, even in P2. So if you aren't hungry, don't eat. I know in previous rounds I always felt like I needed to try to get all the 500 calories in, but according to this method eating when not hungry would be doing hormonal damage! Anyone have thoughts about this?

Lemon-Dawn just recommended that book to me on a different thread. Too funny! I haven't read it, but apparently she's doing more current research on Simeon's protocol and seeing what works. Not sure about the hormonal damage. I've had 3 miscarriages and had lots of hcg in my system, without the resulting baby. My metabolism wasn't damaged by that, or my other 2 successful pregnancies. (at least not any worse than it already was). I'm not sure how much the hcg actually does. I'm sure it does something while you're pg, sourcing enough nutrition for the baby even if the mother is throwing up and not keeping enough down, etc. Just don't think it does all that "resetting". I'm skeptical, seeing as I haven't been "reset" personally, even though I really hoped I would be. The scientist in me always wants to know "why" things work the way they do. We'll see. I'll dig around and try to find out more info. :D

I'm late to the party, but I'm joining in, girls! I've inched up 5-7 pounds above my goal weight due to vacation, birthday and other lame excuses for eating badly, and I feel the need to do a round to get where I should be before it's fully summer clothes season again! I started VLCDs yesterday. I haven't even weighed--sheesh. I'll do that and get some numbers updated!

I messed up my first day (Monday) too, but you're right, yesterday was another day and I did well! Yay! :jumpjoy: How did it go for you?

I did JUDDD for P3 and it worked well for me, but now I have to get my head out of that cycle.

Hang strong and good losses to everyone! Off to work.

Good morning, everyone! Just have a quick minute to report, but I weighed in this morning and on VLCD 3, I'm down 4 lbs! I'll take it. :) I already feel SO MUCH better...poofy stomach is going away.

Hope everyone has a great day!

I have not weighed in yet since starting. I know, I know, BAD LilacBruze! The thing is, I do not need any more stress in my life right now and daily weighing will definitely stress me out. I obsessed over every single 2/10th of a lb on my other rounds, obsessively weighing at the same time each morning, only after I voided, removed all my jewelry, etc. It was not pretty. And now that I have the Depo working against me, I will positively FREAK OUT if I don't like what the scale says on any particular day.

It will be hard, but I am going to try to only weigh in once a week. I figure, if I stick to protocol, and I already know things like beef and cabbage don't stall me, but Splenda and body creams do, and just keep my nose to the ground, it should be okay. It should, right??? Ack!

I'm still dealing with the frustration and depression over gaining. I know you're supposed to weigh all the time and be accountable after 2 lbs over LDW, but I stabilized so well and the scale was so consistent that I just got lazy. I was low carbing and eating mostly P3 style and I felt no need. Even when my appetite started increasing and I started eating a pound of cheese, 6 eggs, and a ton of meat every day, I thought I was safe because there were no carbs and carbs are my downfall. Well, the thing is, if you are eating 4k in calories daily, no carbs or not, I've discovered you WILL gain weight. Grrr!

How's everyone doing? Lemon, great loss for you!! :jumpjoy:

I think not weighing every day especially when you first start out again can be smart. We have to know what works with our own particular sort of kooky, lol! Good for you!

I agree completely with you and LB. I learned that I absolutely cannot weigh every day. Our body goes through normal fluctuations that cause a slight uptick on the scale, and if you see that when you are P2, you freak! Or at least I do. It got to the point for me where I was allowing the number on the scale to dictate my level of peace an happiness for the day. Not good.

I'm going to weigh twice a week, but I may change it to once a week if that still seems like too much for me. We'll see. :)

This. Oh... this. Which is exactly what I don't need at this point in my life!

Morning, friends. I forgot to weigh today before I drank about a gallon of coffee, but yeah, Lemon and Lilac (sounds like a song--crimson and clover?), the numbers on the scale should never be the main focus--our behaviors should. (Although those scale numbers can sometimes give you some pretty powerful inspiration!)

This will be VLCD 3 for me, and I'm feeling good and strong and not hungry. Isn' it strange how when you slip into the groove it's so easy, but when you're not in the groove, it's completely impossible?