How I Broke my 2-Week Stall on HCG

I've heard of the dreaded stalls. My understanding is that a 5-6 day stall is perfectly normal. One very experienced HCG'er says she has a 10-day stall in every round. It's your body's way of catching up with the fat release.

Dr. Simeons also said that as your body releases fat the fat cells become empty. It takes some time for your body to break down the empty fat cells and your body can sometimes replace them with water. So the scale may appear to not budge, when in reality, your body is actively breaking down empty fat cells and you are still losing inches.

That seems to be what has happened with me. While I had a 2 week stall I still lost inches. Several :-)

I did something OFF protocol to break my stall. It is not recommended, but I was desperate and many people have done it with success.

I did a "fat fast" day. It's adapted from the Atkins diet. You eat nothing but healthy, fatty foods, up to 1200 calories. I did it only for one day. Some people do it for 3-4 days, but because of the HCG you are taking a risk that you might gain fat instead of losing it.

I ate eggs, butter, peanut butter, cream cheese, etc. No veggies, no sugar, no carbs. Just fatty foods.

The idea is to shock your system, but also eliminate all your carbs/sugar so you get into ketosis. When you are in a state of ketosis, it means your body is pulling from your fat stores for energy, instead of the carbs or sugars you ate. That is what we want!

The day following my fat fast, I gained .2 on the scale. Then the next day I lost 1.4 lbs! It seemed to take a day to catch up.

I am back to eating very strict and POP (perfect on protocol). 
I am pumped to start a vigorous weight-training program again as soon as I'm done. I may even start up before I'm done if I become impatient :)

My plan is to do Beachbody's home workout program called "Body Beast"! My husband is starting it, and I think I will join him. The main goal of the program is to gain a ton of muscle and "get big". However, women do not have sufficient testosterone or growth hormone to get big. All that will happen is you will get lean and get that "cut" look, where you can actually see your muscles.

I recently saw a saying that said, "Lift like a man, look like a goddess."
So, that is my plan!

In total, I have lost 12 pounds in 25 days on this round. I lost 10 inches in the first 14 days, but I will measure again in another week.

I will check in again soon!

Week Four

I just did my first workout of week four this morning. Feeling like I have a little momentum now. I'm still loving it, even when I hate it. Sometimes I don't want to. I would much rather read a book in my special chair with my coffee and chill. But then I find myself pushing back the coffee table and rolling up the living room rug and pulling out the weights. I'm like, "what am I doing?..... Ok.... I guess I'm working out." It's almost involuntary. I think my body secretly likes this. Or I'm slowly becoming an endorphin junkie. Either way, I'm all for it, especially when I get the results I want.

Okay, so this woman is my HERO. I can't make that word big enough. Her name is Toni Cook and she's in the ChaLEAN Extreme videos and appears in some otherBeachbody workouts as well.

The kicker? She's had SEVEN babies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So apparently, she's had a single, then twins, then quadruplets! Holy freakin crap. I know tons of women who have never had babies and don't look this good. Even if she had surgery to remove excess skin, there's no way anyone can look like this if they don't workout like she does. It's all a matter of building your body. You can design the body you want, however you want to look. It's all a matter of which habits you adopt. In the past, my habits were a) somewhat watching what I was eating, and b) half-assing my workouts. I wasn't working out at a level 10. I was giving it a 6 maybe.

Well, this lady is my thin-spiration. Big time....seven babies.... and she looks like.... just, wow. Anyway, I keep looking at these pictures and knowing that she can do it, I know that I can definitely do it too.

I decided I'll wait until Monday to share my stats since Mondays are the days I weigh myself and take all my measurements. Right now inches are key over what the scale says. The scale is a big liar, I've realized. It does not differentiate between muscle gained, fat lost, water retention, etc. And I have a feeling I've gained quite a bit of muscle already. So at first, it looks like my weight is going up. That's actually a good thing, but it's hard not to freak out. Muscle is dense and is what makes women smaller, tighter, and leaner. We want muscle. Men have much more testosterone, so that is why their muscles make them bigger. God just designed our bodies to respond differently.

As for my diet, I'm still doing two RVL shakes a day, plus a couple snacks and dinner. My biggest crutch is that I get super hungry in the evening. Like 9 or 10 comes around and I am starving. At that point I'd really just like to munch on something crunchy. So the other night, instead of popcorn I had baby carrots. Wasn't filling. And I ate the whole rest of the bag, what was left of it. I was still really hungry. So I had something after that, I think it was a piece of toast. That helped. I'm sure my metabolism is starting to kick up a notch and that might be why I have such raging hunger all the sudden. I'd like to eventually cut out those evening snacks entirely and not eat after 7pm. That's the goal.

Starting from today, I'm going to start filling my tummy with a cup or two of green tea in the evenings and see if that helps. And if I'm still starving, I'll just munch on some veggies or fat-free popcorn perhaps. I just love my salt.

My abs are still sore from my 11 minute ab workout 2 days ago. That feels nice. I finally worked them hard enough. It's hard to do that since we use our abs everyday for everything.

Now.... waiting for my clothes to start getting looser!

The Ugly Truth

I`m over three weeks into my new workout regime. I started a couple weeks before Christmas. I thought about waiting until the new year like everyone usually does. But why would I? I figured if I started before the new year--and especially through Christmas--I'd really be on a roll, not just a new year's resolution whim. I figured if I really want this, I'll do it now, I'll do it today. It might help me bypass the Christmas baking and goodies. It worked. I did have a taste this and that, but I can't say I indulged at all, except for a few drinks.

The ugly truth is enough to make me start here and now. All I know is I can't
stand the way my clothes fit, I can't stand being in my own skin and I hate not feeling like myself. I haven't felt like myself in years. Over 6 years to be exact. That's when we started having babies. We have four now. Our oldest is still five. Let's just say my body is not what it was.

When I was six months pregnant with our first, I remember being completely horrified with the changes to my body. Suddenly I put on a lot of weight and things did NOT look the same! That's me sparing you the details. The weight did not come off easily afterwards, even though I nursed and watched my diet. We had three more babies after that. In a row. I have about 10 lbs per kid that is hanging on to my body for dear life. That is my ugly starting point. Everyone has one. I don't think we are having any more for a while, unless God intervenes. But God knows how much my body needs to recover and He knows my plate is currently full of blessings that I am still learning to manage and steward. I think God wants me to be in shape. My kids need a mama with energy. My kids need a happy, joyful mom. My husband needs a happy, joyful wife (who is less shy and ashamed!).

I'm feeling more driven now than I ever have. I don't want my old body back. I want to redesign a new body and actually get ripped. The stretchmarks will still be there, but they'll only be faint battle scars when I've got a smokin' pack of abs. I can already visualize my end goal. That will keep me going.

My Workout:

ChaLEAN Extreme. Holy. Crap. This is the best workout EVER. I love that it has three phases. Each phase is 4 weeks long. First is the "burn" phase. Next is the "push" phase, and finally the "lean" phase. Each phase has a series of weight training circuits. There are also short ab workouts and 2 cardio workouts plus a flexibility/stretching workout. It's a balanced, complete package.

I'm not easily motivated by home workout videos. Trust me. But this one is different. Chalean is seriously motivating. The gals (and guys) are motivating to look at and see how hard they push themselves. The stuff Chalean says really makes sense. Like, for example, the reason you're getting fatter even though you're not eating more, is because you're losing muscle. Muscle burns fat. Muscle feeds on calories, even when you are sleeping and sitting on the couch. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn 24/7. Of course! Well, that solved my mystery. Pregnancy hormones seriously softened me up and I lost so much muscle. That explains why even when I watch my diet, nothing happens. I'm changing that now.

Supplements I'm taking:

MonaVie RVL. Amazing stuff. I've got the protein shakes, the fat-burning supplement and the mini protein bars. I have dinner with my family plus one or two extra snacks during the day if I'm still hungry. This stuff alone is supposed to help the average person lose 30 lbs in 12 weeks. So I'm on that plus I'm doing my muscle-building workouts. Should be a win-win scenario. More on this stuff later.

I started this blog to keep myself accountable. If you read this, please keep me accountable. I will post my progress regularly. I my next post, I'll share how much I've lost or gained and actual figures.
I have too much at stake here. I need to do this. I am doing this. I will succeed.