Having taken Friday off after the Magic Mountain jaunt, the week flowed right into the weekend. Friday afternoon, I baked a butternut squash pie for the monthly D&D n' potluck at Doyle's. I experimented with this concoction, making up a flax meal and buckwheat flour crust, altering my sweet potato pie recipe for the extra moisture in the freshly steamed squash, and making a dark chocolate cinnamon sauce to serve with. It was a success. I brought home an empty pan at the end of the night of gaming and eating fun.

Saturday morning, I had to get up at my regular work time to go to Knit Happens for a teacher's meeting. We're putting together a list of classes for winter session for happinesstogo to schedule. Of course, I’ll be doing sock classes again, but the owher has left my other selections pretty open. I know what I want to make, but I don’t know if other people like the same things! I'm having trouble deciding.

That night, I went to Darenna and Kristin's to play Wii and hang out. Darenna made these dates that were stuffed with gorgonzola wrapped in proscuitto then baked in the oven. Those things are delicious!

Sunday, I schlepped up to Carefree to meet Dad and Ellie for a free light jazz concert at El Pedregal. The band was pleasant enough, the weather was nice, and I brought some knitting to work on, so it was not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

Unfortunately, with all the tasty eats, I've gained 5lbs back. I'm back within 2lbs of my last injection weight, after eating better for a few days, and my recently recovered clothes still fit, so I'm not gonna freak out. Just need to make some better eating choices.

We met up at irena_seraphina Wendy's Tuesday morning and got on the road westward from there. Along the way, we stopped to check out the Robotic Dinosaur Museum advertised on the roadside, but when we figured out that it was a creationist front, we didn't want to financially support them by paying admission. Ride entertainment consisted of Brett's MP3 player and games of 20 questions that included our newly-created "mythical" category. We gained an hour going there, so it was still relatively early even after eating dinner, so we decided to see a movie. Wendy hadn't seen Zombieland, and the rest of us didn't mind seeing it again, so that's what we went for. I guess that it was appropriate, since the finale is set in a California theme park. Back at our budget motel, we braved the heavily chlorinated hot tub for a bit before showering and going to bed.

In the morning, we hit Denny's for a light breakfast before heading to Six Flags Magic Mountain. We got there about 20 minutes before the scheduled gate opening time. As soon as we were through the gates, we power-walked to the queue for X2, purportedly the most popular coaster in the park. Others had the same idea, but the wait wasn't very long. The ride was pretty nuts. It was a good thing that we did that ride first, because we could see that the line was FAR longer as we stumbled out of there. Next, we sailed pretty quickly to ride Viper, then a little longer to ride Tatsu. I thought that the other rides would pale after X2, but Tatsu was just as wild. I was feeling wonky and dehydrated so we grabbed some water on our way to wait in line for Terminator Salvation. That line sucked the life out of me. I really wanted to stab someone after being forced to listen to teen pop, country music, and corny announcers. NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TERMINATOR until you are shuttled in groups into the building for the ride. Could it have hurt them to get the licensing to show the movie on a loop on the end-of-maze video screens? Play the movie soundtrack? For f's sake! After that, I needed a break. We stopped for water and snacks. I wandered the park on my own while my pals went on Déjà Vu. They were rattled after that ride. We slowed it down with a little old school log flume action, then Brett and I did the Goldrusher, a mild but respectable old coaster. Brett was refreshed and wanted to go on Scream. Nate went along, but Wendy and I opted for a Ben & Jerry's treat. By this time, the sun started to go down. Our last big hurrah was to be the classic wooden coaster, Colossus. The line was faster than expected, Brett and Wendy ran off to cram in two more rides, Batman and Riddler's Revenge, getting on the last run of the night of the latter. Nate and I had a leisurely wander to the park exit. We closed out the park, leaving the gates some time after 6pm.

We were all pretty spent at this point, and decided to get a sit-down dinner instead of fast-food. We spotted a Red Lobster, and someone exclaimed "cheesy bread!", so Wendy veered the car into their parking lot. The wait was longer than anticipated, and the service was slow. We grew a bit restless as the tiredness set in. Brett and I conked out on our respective ends of the back seat during periods of the ride home, playing the name game with Wendy during periods of increased coherence. Nate managed to stay the course, driving the whole way home, with one break for gas and snacks. We lost an hour with the time change on the way home, getting to Wendy's a bit after 4am. After driving home from there, I got into bed at home around 5am. Timmy was demanding some attention, so I had to kick him out of my room at 7am. Thankfully, I took Thursday off so I could nap on and off for the rest of the day! I decided on Friday morning to take that day off as well.

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.