Do you know..

how many foods in our life contain starch? It's insane! Really.

I know this, because for the next 3 weeks I am starch and sugar-free. Although that doesn't take away from my natural sweetness! ( ba dum!)

On Wednesday, I have to fly to San Jose for work, and felt that I should probably draw my diet to an early end. I stopped my shots on Saturday. The last week of the shot portion of the diet, was a struggle. My body seemed to be fighting me the whole way. That's another reason why I decided it was probably time to stop and move on to the next phase.

I ended with a total weight loss of 30 pounds (including the cleanse loss & diet). I am happy with it. Every little bit helps. Right now I just need to focus, make sure I follow the rules and keep the weight off.

I don't have a picture right now, but I'll get one up later.

Diet Week 4

Wow, it's been four weeks. I only have a little over a week to go until I am done with the shot. Sadly, I don't think I am going to meet my goal though. My goal was lofty, but I am very happy with what I have done so far.

Here are my updated tallies:

• Lost a total of 22.6 pounds (increase of 8 pounds since last week)
• Grand total lost of 27.4 pounds
  

Updated picture:

Diet week 3

I totally missed getting my Monday update up and even didn't get an updated picture. Ooops!

Well it's later but better than ever. As of Monday I had lost about 16.6 pounds. Then adding in my pre diet loss, it's a total of 21.6 pounds. Woo hoo!

October 2nd is the last day of taking shots, and then I have a 3 week adjustment period. By
October 2nd I am hoping to have lost a total amount of 41 pounds.

For those of you who have been following my diet and aren't aware of what I am doing, here's a little insight. I began by doing a liver/gallbladder cleanse. After that I went on the HCG diet, which is what I am currently on. Originally, I decided to do this diet because if done correctly it will reset your metabolism. Since I have hypothyroidism, my metabolism was messed up. I am currently on synthroid to correct the issue, but it doesn't set your metabolism back to normal. Once I did the cleanse and lost a little weight, I really got sucked into it and wanted to lose more in the hopes that I would feel more like myself. So far it seems to be helping.

On the HCG diet you are on a 500 calorie a day meal plan, while getting shots of HCG everyday. The HCG pulls from your fat storages and engorges your blood with between 1500 and 2000 calories a day. I know what you are thinking.. aren't you starving? Actually no. Since I have so many calories in my blood I am not starving. I do get hungry but I just eat one of the allowed meals and I am good. On this diet you can lose around a pound a day. You just have to make sure that you are drinking at least 2 quarts of fluid. Normally this isn't an issue for me, but lately I have started to feel water logged with all of the fluid, but I keep pushing on.

This diet may not be for everyone, but so far it seems to be working with me and I am happy with the results. It's also nice to find that I need new clothes because my old clothes aren't fitting anymore.

Diet week 2

I just finished the 2nd week of my diet. I am not finding it too hard, but there are moments when I long for the social aspect of dining out. Unfortunately, since the requirements are so strict dining out really isn't an option, unless you eat a plate of lettuce and have ice water to drink. True story.

I can't really feel too sorry for myself though, because I am loving the results that I am getting. I am finally feeling like my former self. After a couple of years struggling with weight gain caused by unknown causes it's nice to be on the other other end. Weight loss. Yay!

Here are my tallies so far:

• Dropped one pant size
• Lost a total of 14.6 pounds (increase of 5 pounds since last week)
• Grand total lost of 19.4 pounds
  

Updated picture:

Diet Update...

A week ago Sunday I began my new diet. Every morning I have to weigh myself to see my progress. Owning a scale is somewhat daunting to me. Scales and I have a checkered past and haven't always seen eye to eye. Currently this scale is my friend. Mostly because it keeps telling me I am losing weight (except this morning) and gaining more muscle. As of this morning I have lost 9.6 pounds. Bringing my cleanse and diet total to 14.4. I didn't do the best upkeep after the cleanse since I went on vacation the day after I finished.

Here's a picture from last night. Mind you it was taken at 10:30 and was a last minute type of thing so that I would have a picture of my progress for this post. Be gentle.

Phase 2

Yesterday I started the next step in my weight loss adventure. Yes, adventure. I didn't plan ahead enough to get a before picture. I'll try and get Jon to take one tonight, so that it's not Myspace style in front of a mirror.

I'll post my weight loss progress next week.

***UPDATE***
I kind of slacked on the whole getting a before shot, so here is a picture that Jon took before I started the diet, but was mid cleanse. It's kinda embarrassing to see myself this way. Check out the other hot ladies in the pic though.

Dilemma

For the past 20 days I have been minding my p's and q's when it comes to this cleanse I have been doing. I am feeling good and even have noticed a change in how my clothes fit. This has been awesome because I wasn't really expecting to see a change in my weight with this cleanse. As I mentioned in a prior post even others noticed a change without me mentioning to them I was doing this.

Well, that high came crashing down last night when I watched the dvr'd segment of my on the news yesterday morning.

I've always had a pretty good self esteem about myself, but the last couple of years that has all been put to the test with this unexplained weight gain. The gain has worn me down and frustrated me. I don't feel as though I have control over my own body and at some points don't even recognize the person that stares back at me in the mirror.

I have even noticed that I shy away from having my picture taken because the person that shows up in the picture as me, is not the person that lives in my head. I once again came face to face with this reality as I saw myself on tv. The person, "me", that was standing there talking was not me. I was even embarrassed and almost didn't want to finish watching myself.

Don't get me wrong... I know I am a great person and I know things will change. I am just really frustrated with my current state. But, I feel like I am in the right path in getting help to jump start some weight change. Here's to hoping it all works. After the 8th I will be down with the cleanse and will post my weight progress.

For those of you who missed the tv segment. Here are some pics Jon took with his phone. Please keep in mind I am being brave in posting these, since I am obviously not happy with who I am in them.

Random Thoughts

I've been kinda MIA again... I have been busy and haven't exactly been inspired to write on my blog. I used to think that I wanted a blog that people would flock to and read everyday. Then I realized my blog really isn't that interesting. It's just random tidbits of my thoughts, ramblings and other stuff I throw up here on the good 'ol internet. Anyway... I still don't have much to say. This weekend I will try and post pictures from a recent mini adventure.

Side note: I started my medical cleanse as recommended by the Integrative Medicine Center that I have been going to. I didn't exactly love that every doctor I previously went to wanted to give me some prescription to "fix" my problem - so I decided to try a more Eastern approach. It's a 28 day cleanse and I am on day 10. I already notice a difference and others have noticed too. Only downside, I get an occasional craving for a food I can't have. We'll see what a difference has been made at the end of day 28.

If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all

Just as I was feeling like I was getting my busy life under control I got a small cough last saturday morning. I didn't think much of it, until Saturday night it started to get worse. Then Sunday I didn't feel well enough to do anything. Monday I called in sick to work and went to the Dr. By the time I made it there I was beyond a little cough and was full blown sick including a fever.

At the Dr. they told me my temp was either 105 or 101.5. I was so out of it I am not sure which was the true. I also got the joy of my first ever nose swab for the flu test. Here's where my not so lucky luck comes into play. Yes, I test positive for influenza. But, as you all may know there is this pesky type of flu called H1N1 (aka Swine flu). They also tested me for this and told me I would get the results in a few days.

I left the Dr. office and called Jon at work to ask him to pick up my prescription so I wouldn't have to go into the store with a mask on and scare all that might be there. I also called my boss to inform her that the Dr. told me I would be out of work until Monday. Although it had not been confirmed, and H1N1 is just another strain of the flu, you would have thought I was a leper. Everyone thought I might die.

Wednesday the Dr. called and confirmed that yes I had the dreaded "swine flu". Although I don't recall the last time I have had the flu I don't recommend any strain of it to anyone. My whole week is a blur. I had weird and crazy fever dreams and might have possibly lost a few pounds, which is a plus.

All in all, despite what you might have heard, I am not dead. I am actually doing quite well now, but really don't want to be sick again anytime soon.

Thanks to everyone for all of your thoughts!

On my way with my resolutions

Beginning the new year I started with a visit to a new Dr. Yesterday I went to an Endocrinologist. She has some ideas of what may be going on, but will not know for certain until after some various tests. Yesterday, I had 10 viles of blood taken for these various tests. Since we are still in the research phase of this I am going to wait until I get more info on what this might be until I post additional details.

Also, work for Needle and Pin Productions has increased and I am hoping to have goods in my Etsy store before the end of the month. I will post when these items are listed.

Fireworks, First aid and Food

Oh boy what a holiday weekend it was. I managed to start the weekend off just right while injuring myself during a craft project. Unfortunately, I couldn't have done something simple like burn myself with the glue gun. Instead I managed to cut open my index finger with a very sharp pair of scissors. This injury, although a clean cut, was deep and began to bleed profusely. Thankfully Jon was nice enough to drive me to the hospital and reminded me to keep my hand above my heart to limit the blood loss.

Being the evening of the 4th of July the emergency room was very empty. I was expecting there to be people waiting who had blown off a finger playing irresponsibly with fireworks. Nope, just me, the girl who cut herself with scissors.

After quite the ordeal to get my finger numbed so they could stitch me up, I got three stitches.


After the stitches they wrapped me up in a split that I get to sport for at least a week. This is because, once again, I had to make things difficult and cut my finger near the joint and in order to heal I can't bend it. This splinted finger has resulted in many jokes on my behalf from Jon and my coworkers.


The whole weekend was not all tragedy though. On Saturday Jon, his brother Jason and I all went to a new restaurant that opened on Oakley Utah. This isn't just any old restaurant, it's an original classic diner. This diner was originally manufactured in 1939 in Elizabeth New Jersey. It began it's restaurant life in Fall River, Mass. until 1953 when it was sold and moved to Middletown, Rhode Island. There it operated until 2006. Oakley Utah was then picked as the new home for the diner and it was transported cross country here to Utah.

It's a great little place and has great food. There is a very retro vintage style to the diner, but also has modern conveniences such as air conditioning and remote jukeboxes. The jukeboxes weren't up and running yet when we where there but they were cool non the less. They also make their own potato chips, which I thought were amazing. If you go there to eat, definitely get the chips.


For those I didn't get to personally say Happy 4th to, I hope you all had a festive holiday weekend!

Rheumatologist visit part 2

Well... my follow up was today and I am left disappointed. I know what you are thinking.. why disappointed? Let me start from the top. I don't have Lupus, yay. Although I was pretty sure I didn't since anytime I get sick it's always something that no one expects.

Now on to the diagnosis.

The doctor says I have Fibromyalgia. However, I am not so sure about that. I say this because there seems to be limited testing available when determining if someone has this illness. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying it doesn't exist or whatever... I am just saying I don't think it's what is causing my problems. But, I can't really say I know what is.

My biggest problem with this diagnosis is that when I asked the Dr. what can be done about all of this water that I am retaining and how to get rid of it he simply said he had no idea why I am retaining water. um ok. I am not trying to be nit picky about all of this, but we aren't talking a few pounds of water here. During the past year we have figured that I have about 40-50 pounds of water that I am retaining.

The water appears to be the root of my problem. It's the water that is making my muscles hurt, which then causes me not to sleep well, I become tired, I forget things, I get anxious and frustrated and then it all just starts over the next day. From the time this started it was the swelling that was my main symptom over time it was the other things that started to come into the picture and this is why I don't think I have Fibromyalgia.

If anyone has any suggestions I welcome them, until then I sit in limbo again.

Rheumatologist visit part 1

Yesterday was finally the day I got the see the rheumatologist. It’s been over a year, 3 doctors later and hopefully they will figure out what is causing my symptoms and pain.

The doctor seems great. He was very interested in what has been going on. He mentioned that most of the basic tests have already been run by the prior two doctors. He wrote an order to take my blood to have it tested for Lupus. He mentioned that he doesn’t think I have Lupus but wanted to make sure since some of my symptoms do match. Otherwise he is thinking that I have Fibromyalgia. This is not certain and I have a follow up appointment on Monday the 30^th. Hopefully at that appointment I will have more information, an actual diagnosis and treatment plan.

Info about Fibromyalgia can be found at http://www.arthritis.org/disease-center.php?disease_id=10