My new challenge - Prolonged Fasting Part #2

Fasting Day #41
I can't believe 41 days passed since I touched solid food. I'm living on water, decaf coffee and cream/milk. My Ketosis is not impressive in these days. Due to the coffee creamer I cannot go over 5mg/dL, so my overall energy and mood is inevitably compromised. But I'm still feeling good, actually great since I lost 10Kg so far (around 22lb). Sometimes I wonder if this awful type of diet that I'm doing, is causing any damage to my stomach or something else inside me, I really hope not. I'm still working out 3 times a week, I would not define great workouts though, due to my terrible personal trainer. But a workout is better than zero and after all it makes feel better knowing that - at least I'm trying. My weight loss is obviously super slow with a ketosis of 5mg/dL, but I'm ok with that. If I lose weight too quickly, I go into the famine mode in no time after breaking this fast, and my weight right now is not extremely high, it gives me the chance to wear some of my dresses that were not fitting anymore - I would say 30% of them. I'm sure I will fast for the rest of August, so approximately another 30 days or so. Days are passing by and I just don't think about my fast anymore; I live every day as the previous one, without thinking on when I'll break this fast. Maybe because I know exactly that my goal is still so far away, that why bother? I'm not even half way through.
Fasting Day #77
I missed lots of days on updating my status, but I'm still here, alive, with my odd-modified-fast that is giving tons of satisfactions after all. I'm not losing weight too quickly, but still ok, always thinking that my body doesn't like losing on a high speed. It gets back everything with interests! I'm getting used to just drinking decaf coffee and creamers, but I had a couple of times bone broth, disgustingly healthy maybe but I can't have more than 1/2 cups every other day. In terms of energy I feel normal really, workout continued as scheduled, although my personal trainer is not the greatest on making work hard. In any case I almost completed all the sessions I paid, so I'll not renew the collaboration with her - never again! I spent so much money I could've paid the gym for 5 years straight. Oh well, live and learn. Now I'm more prone on going back to the gym soon and start to exercise in the real way; hopefully more effectively than before. I didn't check my ketosis since a while, since I'm drinking this cream and sometimes milk, I don't think my body is in high state of Ketosis, but its' ok, I mean I don't feel hungry so I guess the fat burning ...somehow, should still be there, though in smaller amounts. Today I looked at some of my pictures and I feel I look old on my face; I'm not very young but a couple of years ago, when my water fast was ending, my face skin looked so much better. I'm wondering if this 70+ days without eating a proper diet affected the overall health of my mature skin, I hope not. For sure I won't be able to continue for too long in this way though. I don't feel weak or anything like that, my energy levels are good, but who knows my liver, my kidneys, my digestive track and my adrenals what they are thinking right now and how they are functioning so far. I'm having BMs almost regularly, I don't drink much water though, sometimes I add my electrolytes solution to a little bottle and I drink it all - but not every day. Today I have a bad headache, very rare for me - so I'm not sure what could be the cause. I guess my body will soon start to lack on nutrients and essential vitamins, protein and amino acids, so I would need to give up what I'm doing. Not that I feel joy on restraining myself of eating. But I did plan to have some sort of light soup/broth once I get under 59 KG, which is going to take a little while still, since I'm on 62.7 KG today. I was in the 63Kg range for almost a month! It was awful, my weight was going up and then down, and then up and then down, I hated. I don't want to see the number 63 for the rest of my life. I could speed up everything by just drinking water, but it's not a long term solution for me, neither for my body. Too much weight lost too quickly.

7-Day Water Fast - Day #5

Day #5 for my second Water Fast, this is my first short one of just 7 days, but still good for my body to take a rest from food and heal itself in some way. Fortunately today I don't feel all those cravings I had in the past few days, I still look forward on completing this Fast but overall I'm good, I think I'll be even better in a couple of days.

During my lunch break, here at the office, I went downstairs to go for a walk and check out the Black Friday Week deals. I ended up buying a package of Organic Unsweetened Shredded Coconut, a fairly large container of Nutritional Yeast and a big jar of Powdered Peanut Butter the one with no sugar added. I know I'm a shopaholic and I can't help myself, but in my defense I have to say that not having lunch and work to do is not helping my shopping habits.

This morning my ketosis was between moderate and large amount, I would say around 60mg/dL, which is still pretty good plus I believe the amount of water I had yesterday might have changed the real results. I don't feel hungry at all know, I guess also due to the ketosis, but I had difficulties with my BM this morning; I guess not eating anything is not helping me, so I decided to take a probiotic, hopefully will not compromise my fast and will just help me on being regular during this fast, I really don't want to do again a Shank Pashlanka, it takes too much time and effort.

My back still hurt me a bit today, better than yesterday for sure but I have still difficulties on getting ready in the morning, not sure if the heels could be a reason why this pain. I usually don't walk this much during lunch time so maybe walking around with high heels is not good for my back, but today I have just my boots and not high heels.

I wanted to have hot water to drink today because in the past Water Fast I noticed that as soon as I was drinking it, I was going to the washroom! But too much to wait for in the kitchen so I gave up, if the probiotic don't give me any relief, I'll try with the hot water at home this evening.

HCG Diet - Constipation issues during strict diets

This is a topic that might not be pleasant to most readers but, lets' face it, we have all been through this type of discomfort while on a strict Diet! So to recap, in my previous rounds with HCG I never had issues on being regular for my bowel movements, but lately it's not going very well for me. I'm wondering if my body got addicted to the probiotics or the laxative methods that I used in the past days.

I know that based on the Dr. Simeons protocol I should not necessarily expect to have it daily (from Pounds & Inches):  "While a patient is under treatment we never permit the use of any kind of laxative taken by mouth. We explain that owing to the restricted diet it is perfectly satisfactory and normal to have an evacuation of the bowel only once every three to four days", but I'm really not used to have movements so rarely, and in this case where all the food that I had in the past 4 days goes? Will I see a gain just because I'm plugged? Will my ketosis be affected by this? Some days I really feel heavy just because of this problem and truth or not, after the evacuation happens I'm usually down 1Kg! 

HCG Diet - VLCD #40 How can I break my weight loss slowdown?

Today is my VLCD #40 in this Round #3, so far I lost roughly 7 Kg (15.5lb) – it seems a lot but really is not a good number on a HCG Diet; with 40 days of injections I should have seen losing at least 25lb/30lb. Disappointing and definitely not encouraging results. But I knew that every round is different, and let's admit that my decaf coffee addiction is not helping either. Now I have the feelings that my body is getting used to the amount of food I have every day, I'm not hungry most of the day, my mood is good, but sometimes I would like to see the scale going down quicker. Today I also ordered another vial of HCG, apart from the money I really didn't want to go to this path, on staying so long with such a small amount of Calories, but if I stay where I am right now, is like didn't diet at all on this round, this morning I registered a gain and I'm back on 61.4Kg.

One of my fellow dieters on FatSecret was pointing that whatever I gained should not be fat but body food or water, which I agreed thinking about the logic of it; I don't eat much fat during the day anyway, and I'm often constipated lately.

One thing I decided to do is increase my exercise routine, maybe slowly though. I know that with only 500/660 calories per day is not advisable to exercise, plus sore muscles are definitely going to retain some water. But I'm thinking to build up a routine slowly, I also purchased a groupon offer for 10 classes in a Kung Fu school, unbelievable I know! Me doing Kung-Fu? I can barely walk and chew a gum at the same time, but I love challenges and if I don't learn I rarely get hooked in anything.

I have also wasted half year of my gym membership not going at all, I want to try to get back into this good habit, I always loved my Body Attack classes, so Sunday there's one at 11:00AM and I usually go to take a long relaxing sauna after (steam room), so I will try to go this weekend; I might not be able to complete the whole hour since I'm out of shape, but I will try to do my best.

With these exercise activities I am planning on "shocking" my body, consuming more calories and proteins and see if my stalls reduce and I see some good weight losses. In addition to that I will benefit in terms of health and I'm hoping to stay away a bit more from the decaf-coffee-madness that I'm experiencing lately.

Since I'm becoming really desperate on what is happening with my HCG Diet slowdown, I'm also trying to avoid as much as I can supplements in these days. I took lots of probiotics in the past few days; I even bought some strong one: 80 billion strength but nothing is happening anyway, so I will let my body rest from all those bacteria and see if I see any change.

 This coming weekend I'm also going to try an Intermittent Fasting day(s) – I've lots of things to do Saturday and volunteering to the Ukrainian beer festival (I deeply hate beer) – so it will be a good chance for me not to eat or drink anything, just working at the bar and meet people.

Sunday I've my Body Attack class planned in the morning (with steam room in the plan as well), and in the afternoon I have a first date with a friend of a friend, just going for a walk or coffee, let's see if I can fast that day too or I'll have 6 eggs so I can do a protein day to help my muscles after the gym. But, of course, all this is my ideal world plan…that I screw up every time with my insane lack of initiative. In my defense I have to say that I never been like that, I've been always super active, I guess I'm getting old!

HCG Diet - VLCD #39 slow motion losses

My HCG Diet for this Round #3 is going so slowly and I'm not sure exactly why. In terms of food I'm following the protocol, maybe not 100% - since I'm having lots of decaf coffees with unsweetened almond milk. I'm also having lots of constipation issues, not that I feel ever bloated or uncomfortable but I'm not having bowel movements as my usual lately. I've increased the amount of probiotic and laxative teas, but they seem not working at all and it's so frustrating.

I registered a weight loss this morning, which is good but I'm in the 61/62 Kg since almost 3 weeks now, going up & down. I can't wait to be in the fifties!

I'm seriously thinking on buying a new vial of HCG, because if I keep staying on this rate, it will take me forever to reach my goal. I've been on this new vial about a week now and it won't last more than another 15 days or so, I'm sure I cannot reach my goal anytime soon. My Round #1 was so so much better, I lost weight in a consistence pattern; sure I had days were I was stalling or not losing that much but overall, at the end of the week, I always seen a good progress.

I just ordered a new bacteriostatic water vial again, on amazon takes forever to deliver, so better be prepared in case I want to keep on staying on this Round #3 till I'm satisfied with my losses.