Realized that I am along for the ride today.

I checked out the new farm market at Skysong in Scottsdale on Thursday night before heading to class. Friday night, I went to Coach & Willie’s for happy hour with co-workers, then to Casey Moore’s for a “welcome back” dinner and drinks for anderale. Saturday morning, I got up fairly early, picked up anderale in Tempe, then drove out to Casa Grande to see some adorable alpacas. I dropped her off, then went to the Buy Local Festival at the Duck & Decanter. I met up with happinesstogo and Stepahie there, and enjoyed lots of tasty food samples from local restaurants and live music from local bands. After a micro-nap, I headed northward to Cave Creek to hang out with my friend, Alice, for her birthday. On Sunday, I stopped at the Sanrio store in the Mills mall to peruse the sale items before going to a crafternoon at Kat’s house. Our friend Jaime asked me to teach her how to crochet. She picked it up pretty quickly. I was at Kat’s until dinner time.

Tomorrow, I’ll be taking off for an overnight trip to Cali with irena_seraphina to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain on Wednesday! I’ve never been, so it should be fun.

I was a bad eater over the last few days, and ended up 2.5lbs over my Last Injection Weight. That meant a "steak day" for me yesterday. Last time, I lost 4lbs overnight, but this time I only lost 1, not even getting me back to my LIW. I left a message with the naturopath's office to see if they have any advice for me.

It feels good to have my main closet filled with things formerly in the guest bedroom (a.k.a skinny) closet. I tried on a bunch of pants yesterday. I fit in all but 3. Of those three, two get on, but I have muffin top waist in them. They are both regular size 16 from the Gap and have no stretch in the fabric. The two pants that fit the nicest were plus size 14. I was extremely excited to fit into these men's size 36 pants. Women's sizes vary widely, but men's are a bit more accurate to the label. If you have a 36" waist, you expect to wear a 36 pant. It seemed like a truer indicator of where I am at now than the more arbitrary sizing of ladies clothing. I actually cried a few tears of joy when I put those size 36 pants on. When I started out, my waist measured 43". It's no wonder to me now why my size 34 corset easily laced edge to edge without a gap and didn't seem to bring my waist in much! Time to save up for a new one in a smaller size. Time to save up for a new wardrobe!

Though I ended up 5lbs short of my hopeful weight goal, with a final loss of 31lbs (53lbs total), I did make my clothing size goal, a +14. I started at a +20.

I took a round two "after" photo last night and collaged it with a photo taken of me at Kat's shower in June (left) and a photo taken after round 1 (center). The clothes are a bit bulky on me now, so I don't think it is the best representation of how much smaller I am in the middle, but you can really see the changes in my face and neck. More subtly, you can see that my arms are a bit smaller, the sweater seems longer because it no longer stretches width-wise to cover me, and the skirt hangs a little lower because the waistband is big.

I fit back into my mens sz 36 pants! Squee!

As of today, I have lost 29 lbs this round and 51 lbs total. It is my last injection day. I'll be dieting for two more days, so I may still make it to my goal of 30 lbs, but I am ok with being this close. Going into this week, I didn't expect to lose any more weight as I have my period, and the last two times, I didn't lose weight for those few days. Surprisingly, I have. I still have two more days of the VLCD, and I'm really looking forward to Sunday when I have more eating options! When I talked to the naturopath last week, and to someone in her office today, they said that I should slowly ramp up the calories to a normal level over a week and not just start eating normal low-carb right away. They also said that I can start incorporating carbs like beans and whole grain breads one serving a day next week. I'll carefully see how that goes.

I must have worn some very flattering pants yesterday, because two of my female co-workers who I don't usually talk to approached me to ask me about my weight loss. That's pretty cool. I sent them both some info about it.

I actually missed a fit window on a couple of pants in my "skinny closet". By the time I tried them on, they were actually a bit loose! That's ok, they weren't too loose to wear. There are a few things that I haven't tried yet because they are too casual to wear to work. My old job had a much more casual dress code than my current. I'm thinking about making some time to sew some wrap skirts to tide me over until I make it through the next diet cycle, since I don't have anything another size down in the closet.

I went to see the AWESOME Peaches show last night with irena_seraphina, Suzy, and Marc. The show started with her wearing this insane huge collar and essentially a burqa made from fake hair. It was all crazy and shaggy and braided in places. She kept stripping off her outfits to reveal increasingly skimpier outfits underneath. Peaches crowd-surfed all old-school-style, then got people to hold her standing straight up for a while, then kneeled on the crowd for the rest of the song. It was badass. Toward the end of the show, she pretended to fall, and acted all woozy and sick when she got up, then she spit fake blood all over the people in the front. I also ran into a dear friend who I haven't seen in quite a while that I wasn't sure if I had been ditched by, but it turns out that she has been checking in on my blog, which made me feel so much better.

I am surprisingly not exhausted today, even though I worked yesterday, then taught a knitting class from 7-9pm, then out at a concert past midnight. I had a 30 minute nap before class. I may just collapse when I get home tonight, but I hope I can get a little done around the house before I do.

Whittled weight loss to 26.4 lbs lost this round. One week left. 4 injections left. I have been having mad cravings. It has been really tough not to cheat with more than tiny nibbles of things.

I went with Myrna to the State Fair on Friday after work to see an ABBA tribute band, and we decided to leave work early to get in on the 1/2 price admission deal. Myrna let me taste her fair food treats, a smoked turkey leg, buttered corn on the cob, and a caramel apple rolled in peanuts. It was nice to have little tastes of things. We walked around a lot, which was nice. The weather was perfect for it. The concert was pretty cheesy, and not in a good way, which was a bummer.

Weight loss today was a respectable 1.2 lbs, which lifted my spirits, and brought my total up for this round so far to 25 lbs. At this point, it looks like I may at least make the average loss for the program of 30 lbs in the 6 weeks.

Someone brought bagels into the office yesterday, and they were in a cube across the hall and two down. When people used the toaster, there were some seriously yummy toasty bread smells going on. It was really hard to resist having some bagel, but I managed to stay away from them. This morning, while walking into the office, I could swear that I could smell popcorn, which gave me a sudden craving for buttered popcorn. I am not usually that into popcorn even when I can have it, but I really had a hankerin' for it today.

I've gotten really tired of cooking this week. For today, I threw together some pre-shredded cabbage with some fresh basil and chives as a salad topped with some firm tofu I marinated to eat for lunch today. I need to throw some foil packet cooking together tonight for meals for tomorrow, as I will have little time after work between a visit to the naturopath and getting to the sock knitting class I'm going to teach.

For some happier news, I got my car back Friday afternoon. It was nice to drive my pal, Suki, again. The front is all shiny, clean, and dent-free. I had a really good experience with the shop, Phoenix Auto Clinic, which is on 7th St just south of Indian School, so I would recommend them to anyone needing body work on their car. Even with the additional damage found under the hood, they still got the work done within the original 5-day estimate. Plus, they were nice, upfront about the process, and didn't talk down to me.

Today is the start of my last two weeks on the VLCD. I've only managed to shave down fractions of a pound this weekend to get to a total of 23lbs. Yet, I feel like I am smaller in size than last weekend, as I've been able to liberate a number of items from the "skinny closet" that didn't quite fit the weekend before. 2lbs doesn't usually make that much of a difference, and I haven't been doing any extra exercise. At the rate I'm going, it doesn't look like I'll reach my weight goal for this cycle. I seem to have so much more success in the first 3 weeks, so I am thinking about doing a 3-week protocol in January instead of 6, and possibly 3 weeks in March if I still feel that I want to. This will extend my weight loss plans for another two months, but if it is more effective, it may be worth taking my time.

This round's weight loss is up to 22.4 lbs. I'd really like to lose 14.6 more pounds but I only have 16 days left. I may get close.

I haven't been feeling too well for the past few days, and have made soup for some meals. My favorite so far was the mushroom soup with fresh sage that I made with slivers of firm tofu as noodle-like things in it. Myrna said that she's going to bring me some fresh lemongrass from her yard to work for me tomorrow. That will be a nice addition to my cooking efforts.

I took my car in to the body shop this morning. It took a bit to get the car, then I realized that I needed the parking permit for work from my car. When I got back to the body shop, they were already at work on my car. They had to cut a huge hole in the hood to unhook the latch to remove it. They found a lot more damage underneath. So, it looks like it's going to take longer than the original 5-day estimate.

As of day 20, I had lost 17.8 lbs. As of today, day 21, I'm at 19 lbs. At my half-way point I was nearly half-way to a weight milestone. I don't know if I'll make it to that milestone, but things are progressing pretty well.

The apple day did it's job. I lost 2lbs, taking my total up to 16lbs. Tomorrow is the halfway marker. I'm at least on track for the base goal of the expected average of 30lbs in 40 days. I am trying not to be disappointed, but it is hard after I lost so much more in the first round. But, I did have less to lose this time, I haven't been quite as strict with the diet, and I was sick for a week. It's still really good.

A dude from the insurance company came out yesterday afternoon to look at my car and assess the damage. He found a bunch of things that had been damaged. Obviously, the hood, but also the vent area just below the hood, which is now broken off from the bumper piece, a crack in one of the headlight covers, and possibly an issue with the radiator. He didn't want to pry the hood open and not be able to close it again, so he just peeked in through the pretty sizable gap in the hood. Nothing is leaking, and the car seems to drive ok, but it has me concerned.

I'm a little bit sore today, but I think that I'll be ok.

I'm waiting on the estimate from him so I can find a shop to do the repair work. Anyone have recommendations for me that aren't too far from my house or office?

Day 18. No loss again today. 3 days without weight loss is officially a "stall", so I am doing an "apple day" today. All 6 food items for the day are replaced with an apple for each. This is supposed to flush out water you are retaining.

Ouch! Smooshed into the rear end of an SUV when they stopped short to avoid another accident 3 cars ahead of us. Their car just had paint scratches on the bumper. My whole hood is crumpled. No one was injured.

Stuck at 14 lbs for the past 2 days. Need to pick up some apples on my way home tonight, in case I'm still stalled tomorrow.

I'll be going to the naturopath for a check-in tomorrow after work.

My co-worker who is doing the protocol is bummed that he's not losing as much weight as I have. He started 4 days after me and has lost half as much weight. He's also not following the diet plan in the original protocol at all. He's kind of guessing at what he's eating by plugging in things into a calorie calculation web site and thinking that he's around 500-700 calories. I saw him eat a regular pain bagel with cream cheese from Einstein's yesterday. White flour and full-fat cheeses are not recommended for even the looser version of the diet. I suggested that he try following the diet more strictly for a week and see if his results are better, but he brushed me off.

Weight loss to date: 14lbs

I had a back-slide of a half a pound yesterday after eating badly Saturday night. I put myself into a bad position, going from one social obligation to another from afternoon into evening without having a pre-made dinner with me, I noshed various things. Oh well, it happens. I was strict yesterday and lost a pound and a half as of this morning, so I made up for that little gain.

I took another trip to AJ's yesterday to stock up on more beef while it was still on sale. I also got some scallops and halibut on sale and some more crab meat. The lady at the fish counter told me that they are having a big fish sale in 2 weeks. Nice.

For those not on a diet, someone purportedly from Mojo yogurt posted a comment in my entry about KoL Con mentioning the tasy stuff with a link to this buy-one-get-one coupon: www.mojobogo.com. It looks legit, so I thought that I'd share with those that can enjoy it!