I'm gonna Rock the Y!

I'm so excited tonight! I've packed my bag and tomorrow I'm starting my workout commitment at the YMCA. I'm going to walk over at lunch and ask the guy that runs the place if anyone will be there when I get off of work to show me how to work the machines. I'm too excited to sleep tonight! I've made a commitment to work out at least three days a week. I was assigned a new parking spot at work and I have to walk right past the Y to get to my car, so NO EXCUSES!!! Love Life!

Post-HCG Weight Loss Update

I just wanted to pop in and give a quick update. After finishing up my six week round of hcg in the middle of June I started phase 3 and finished that up in the second week of July. My last injection weight was 207.4 so I lost a total of 35 pounds while doing the hcg. In the month that followed I got on down to 198. I was so excited! I have not been in the 100s since I got pregnant with my daughter back in 1999. I decided to start another round of hcg the second week of September. The week before I started my injections again I noticed that my hair loss was increasing rapidly. I had been losing more hair than usual over the summer but now it is coming out at a scary rate. I do believe that the rapid weight loss from hcg stressed my system and it is the cause. I only did three injections of the hcg and decided not to do any more right now until my hair shed slows down. This happened to me before when I lost a lot of weight in a short period of time. I am taking biotin and BioSil along with using a special shampoo from Sally's. I have been using the shampoo for three weeks and taking the BioSil for two weeks and the hair loss has not slowed down, but I can't believe how bright and fresh my skin looks. I do see new hairs coming in around my hairline, but unfortunately when I style my hair on top I can see more of my scalp than ever before. :-( It's quite disheartening! I'm keeping up the fight though! The false start on the hcg put a few pounds back on. I'm weighing in at 203 now. This week I plan to start working out at the YMCA. I have a free membership through the new job that I started three weeks ago. The gym is right on the next block over from my office building so there is no excuse not to take advantage of it! I'll post an update after I get started to let everyone know how it is working out for me. Love Life!!!

HCG Diary - Finished Round 1 Phase 3

I finished phase 3 of round 2 on Monday, which was four days ago. Unfortunately, the last four days of my phase 3 was spent without electricity and I wasn't exactly eating strictly no sugar, no starch. But, guess what? I didn't gain any weight at all and I am so thrilled with that. To be honest we were so busy running around trying to keep gas in the generator and find water and everything else that is needed when something like this happens that I wasn't really eating much at all. When I did eat, though, it wasn't always on protocol. Today I am at 204, which is 3.4 pounds below last injection weight. I have 2.5 weeks to go before I can start on my last vial of hcg. I only have one vial so I will probably just do three weeks on phase 2. I would like to be down below 200 before I start and it is looking like that just might happen! Yay!!! for eating according to appetite and not eating for emotional reasons. I have to take some after pics because I didn't get to do that yet, but I can really tell that my clothes are fitting much looser. I'm almost 38 pounds lighter than I was when I started round 1, phase 2.

HCG Diary - R1P3D7

I'm almost finished with my first week of phase 3 and I must say that I'm certainly enjoying being less restricted on my food choices. Unfortunately, I got a sunburned badly on Wednesday, which was the second day of phase 3. For the next three days I was weighing heavy due to fluid retention. Even today I am 1.4 pounds over liw. I'm not worried though, because I'm not eating sugar and starch so I know that it is just more than likely water weight. I lost 35 pounds in phase 2 so I am extremely pleased with that. This was in spite of my thyroid issues and going without any meds for three weeks. The last week of injections I started back on my ArmourThyroid and I'm taking it morning and afternoon. I'm also grinding it up in a mortar and pestle. I feel awesome since I've started doing this. I have two more weeks of phase 3 and then I will probably ride out the next three weeks doing low carb before I start round 2 again. I'm happy with my phase 2 results!

HCG Diary - R1P2VLCD32

I've released 29.8 pounds so far! I am on the third and last day of my fat fast and I feel soooo good. I started day before yesterday and only had 5 servings of mac nuts all day. The next morning I had released 1.4 pounds. Yesterday I had chocolate delight, mac nuts and bacon and eggs. This morning I had released 1 more pound. I'm having only mac nuts again today and I'm very excited to see what the scales reveal in the morning. I have been flooding myself with stevia tea and water because the nuts are kind of salty. My planned last injection day was supposed to be next Friday, June 8, but I figured that if I ran out of my vial before then that I would just end this round early. I went ahead and drew up my injections just to see what I would have in the vial and it was just enough so that I can do the last injection when I'm supposed to on Friday. Do you know what that means? The universe is on my side!!! LOL...Yay for that one! I can't wait until I can add the fat back to my diet. I think my hair might be falling out because of the lack of protein that I've went through for the last 5 weeks. Well, it won't be much longer. That's what I keep telling myself.

I started back on my Armour Thyroid today again, too. The synthroid just wasn't helping me at all. I have been off of the synthroid for three weeks and taking the supplements that I felt would replace it, but they still aren't bringing my basal temp up to where it needs to be. I've taken my temp several times in the last few weeks and it has been as low as 95. I want my body to be working correctly when I finish with my hcg phases because if my metabolism is still shot then it is going to be extremely difficult for me to keep the weight off. One of the supplements that I've been taking is the Metabolic Advantage. I already feel more energetic today with just taking this plus the Armour. I got it at the local health food store but it's cheaper at Amazon. The link is below.

HCG Diary - R1P2VLCD28

I've released 26.8 pounds so far. It seems like I'm kind of stuck in this same area for the past few days so I'm thinking of doing a fat fast to get on down. I read about it on lowcarbfriends.com . It seems that there are a few rogue gals (maybe guys, too) that have done it off and on during phase 2 and it really helps them. My body really needs some fat right now. I'm freezing all of the time and it has been really hot. I don't feel like I'm thinking clearly either. I'm going to go to the store and get some mac nuts so that I can start doing the fat fast. Well, if I wake up tomorrow with a huge loss I probably won't do it, but otherwise I will. Wish me luck!

HCG Diary - R1P2VLCD21

I'm getting tired of this limited regime. I've lost 22.2 pounds so far. I'm not even sticking that closely to protocol. Well, I'm not eating much over 500 calories a day but I have been eating Jay Robb's Whey Protein powder. It doesn't really seem to be hurting me though. I so look forward to having my strawberry protein smoothie. I've been putting a tbsp. of coconut flour in it too.

HCG Diary - R1P2VLCD14

I started injections today after doing sublingual for the last two weeks. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I've been doing great with the weight loss. As of today I am down 17.2 pounds...YAY!!! I've ate off of protocol on Mother's Day when my fiance made shish kabobs with ribeye. They were incredible! I had at least three times as much meat as I should have had and they also had mushrooms, tomatoes, green peppers and onions. So, the next day I was up .4 but today I'm down 1.2, so it came back off. I've noticed on the two days that I have gained, on the very next day I have lost at least double the amount that I lost the day before the gain. I would LOVE to get down in the 100s on this round of hcg, but that's 26 more pounds to go so I don't know how that will work. I'm just taking it one day at a time at this point. One thing that I have noticed is that I'm not drinking as much water as I was at first so I plan on bumping it up today.

HCG Diary - R1P2VLCD8

I feel so much more like myself today than I have the last few days. I've released 13.4 pounds so far and I'm thrilled. I did increase my hcg slightly and I think that combined with a little extra protein is helping me. I took my dopa munuca today and yesterday, too, so that has helped. Planning is a big part of this program. Looking back, I can see that it has been the times that I haven't pre-planned adequately that I've kind of messed up. I'm having a yard sale Friday at my cousin's house so I will have to make sure that I take my lunch because they're having hot dogs, which would definitely be a no-no for me. I haven't been cooking my vegetables much so I'm looking into different dishes that I can have to change things up a bit. So far, so good!

HCG Diary - I'm still losing after using Jay Robb whey protein

I don't think eating the Jay Robb whey protein yesterday hurt me any. I intended to use in place of one of my meats, but I had several bites of roast last night while fixing my honey's plate. I couldn't help it...I was hungry! Really hungry! So, I've decided that if I start to feel like that again I'm just going to eat some extra protein. Anyway, I was down another pound even this morning. I had another whey protein shake this morning and I put a T of coconut flour in it for some fiber. I've been having problems going to the bathroom, so will probably drink Smooth Move tonight. I had chocolate whey protein yesterday and when I went to Krogers I got a bag of vanilla, which is really my fave. Yum! It is much less expensive to order a 24 ounce bag from Amazon so I plan to do that next time. Click on the picture of it below and it will take you to Amazon. I like using the vanilla and adding strawberries to it.

HCG Diary...Week 1 Results

I'm pleased to report that I've released 11 pounds at the end of week 1 on the HCG rx sublingual drops. I kind of got caught unaware on Saturday evening when had to eat out and hadn't planned on it. We ate at Cracker Barrel because I thought that they served roasted chicken, but that's only on Sunday. I ordered the 8 ounce sirloin and cut it in half, and had a garden salad which I pulled the croutons and cheese off of. There was still a few shreds of cheese left on there and the salad had lettuce, onion and tomato. I put vinegar on it. The next morning I was only down .8 pounds. I had my greatest loss Thursday morning, which was a four pound loss. I'm trying to be more diligent about keeping track of what I'm eating so that I can look back and see what works for me and what doesn't. I've also lost 1.5 inches from waist and 1 inch from hips. The same day that I had the sirloin and salad I had cottage cheese and strawberries for lunch. I think that was just too much deviation in one day. I love Jay Robb whey protein shakes and I'm trying to find out if anyone has tried these and if they stalled. I might go ahead and try one today to see what happens. I love getting on the scale every morning and seeing that number going down. YES!

HCG Diary...VLCD Day 3...YEE-HAW!!!

I can't believe it, but I'm down three pounds from yesterday. Today's weight is 235.4. I really flooded myself with water and stevia iced tea yesterday so I guess that helped a lot. When I woke up yesterday morning I found my Smooth Move tea still sitting on the counter from the night before. I let it steep and was so tired that I forgot about it and went to bed. I was afraid to drink it yesterday because the tea bag had been sitting in the water for so long that I was afraid it would really cause cramping. I made a cup and drank it last night and it has really helped me...ahem...clear some things out this morning. Well, I'm so stoked today after seeing how much weight I'm losing. I am celebrating with some Bigelows Perfect Peach tea. It's in the fridge getting cold...yummy. I'm cooking enough chicken tenderloins to last me the next three days. I also figured out that I can do better with half a grapefruit (only has 41 calories) than an apple. The nutrition facts on the apple bag says that it has 130 calories and I figured that was way too much. I'm going to the store to stock up on some things as soon as my chicken finishes cooking. I wasn't sure about the vegetable thing but I guess as long as I stay within my 500 calories after the protein, melba and fruit that I can have whatever it takes to get me there. We're planning on going camping in June and I'm pushing to at least wait until the 16th, which will be my last vlcd.

HCG Diary...VLCD Day 2...down 4.4 pounds from yesterday!!!

OMG...OMG...OMG!!!! I got on the scales this morning, my second VLCD and only Day 4 of drops and I weighed 238.0 so I lost 4.4 pounds from yesterday. I was very tired last night when I went to bed, around 10:30. When I woke up this morning I realized that my Smooth Move tea was still sitting on the counter, untouched. Oh, well...guess I'll reheat it and drink it today.

HCG Diary...VLCD 1

Wow! I was totally unprepared for today. Well, I mean I knew before hand what I was going to eat because I had everything planned out, but I was kind of taken aback by the hunger that I had. I assumed that it would be smooth sailing with no hunger. I can't even say that what I experienced was a true hunger, but more like blood sugar being off and getting that sicky feeling in my stomach. For the most part I had been eating healthy in the two months leading up to starting on hcg. I had not been eating gluten or transfats. Then when I realized that I was starting the hcg diet and how calorie-restricted it is I kind of went hog wild so to speak in the three days leading up to starting the drops. Pizza and draft beer Friday night, junk on Saturday, hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and dip and brownies on Sunday. Then, on my two load days I didn't eat healthy fats like I had planned, but instead at Burger King, and other junk.

Monday, 4/29/12 weight was 241.8
Wednesday, 5/2/12 weight was 242.4 (surprised I only gained .6 pound on my loading days) and this was the first vlcd. For lunch I had 2 chicken tenderloins, half a green pepper, an apple and five mini melba toasts (40 cal.) I drank 2 cups of black coffee at breakfast, 20 ounces of stevia iced tea for lunch, I didn't eat all of my dinner at one time but stretched it from about 5 pm until 9 pm. I'm not sure that was such a good idea, but I wasn't sure how I would handle only eating twice during the day. For dinner I had the same thing as I had for lunch except I had radishes instead of green pepper. I don't think I've had enough fluids today. I am going to drink a cup of Traditional Medicinals Smoove Move tea so that I can clear out the junk that I loaded in the last few days. I'm not sure that coffee counts as total fluid intake so I need to find out about that. Without the coffee and including the hot tea that I'm going to drink I have only had about 64 ounces. I'm going to get some grapefruits tomorrow and use those instead of apple for my fruit because the apples that I have say 130 cal. Two of these would be half of my daily allowed caloric intake.

How I increased my platelets when I was diagnosed with ITP

***Disclaimer*** I am not a medical doctor and this advice is not intended to be taken as professional medical advice. I'm sharing some things that I tried which worked for me. I am not telling anyone to do what I did.

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I wasn't really scared when I first found out that my platelet count was too low because I felt fine. I didn't feel sick and I was still going about my life and my business as usual. I was clued into a possible problem in late October 2011. My platelets had dropped to 90,000  so my nurse practitioner sent me to a hematologist and he had me do a spleen scan, which came back fine and a bone marrow biopsy which came back normal, as well. When I went back to see him for the results of the bone marrow biopsy my platelets had fallen all the way down to 25,000. This was the Tuesday before Christmas and the time when I really got scared. The doctor told me that my blood wasn't clotting at all. He put me on 40 mg of prednisone to be taken each morning with 10mg Nexium. Prednisone can cause ulcers and I couldn't take a chance on having any internal bleeding. He showed me spots on my hands and legs which I thought was a rash, but it was actually petechiae and a result of blood vessels leaking under the skin because my platelets were so low.

So, I started the prednisone and nexium. By the time I went back to the doctor my platelets had increased to around 50,000. He was excited about that, but the prednisone made me feel horrible. I was training for a stressful position as a customer service rep with an insurance company. Every day, like clockwork, my head would start to pound about 10 a.m. It lasted until I got off at 4:30 p.m. and would usually be gone by the time I got home. The doctor said that it was the prednisone coupled with the stress of the job. I would go to the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror. My face and chest would be so flushed I didn't hardly recognize myself and my blood pressure was staying high all of the time. Sometimes I couldn't get to sleep until 2 or 3 in the morning.

 His initial excitement with the prednisone died down when I went back to him a couple of times over the next week or so and he saw that the most the steroids brought my platelets up to was 50,000. A few days after New Years my platelets fell back down to 33,000 and he advised me that the steroids were not working and he wanted to try immune globulin treatments (ivig). I had a treatment that same day and one a week later. I came back each week and my platelets were slowly climbing. The highest they got after the ivig treatments was in the 90s. Then they started to fall back down again. Towards the end of January or beginning of February he decided that the ivig didn't work as well as he had hoped it would and he wanted to try yet another treatment. I don't even remember what it was called but you have to be on an iv for 7 hours and you have to do it four weeks in a row.

I had researched for countless hours on the internet and at the library since I was first diagnosed so I asked him to please allow me to try one of the herbal remedies that I heard about before doing any more expensive iv therapy. The herbal remedy is papaya leaf and I had read many success stories about cancer patients and dengue fever patients taking it and it increased their platelets by a good amount. He agreed to let me try it and advised me what signs to look for in case my platelets dropped really low again. I knew to look for the petechiae developing on my body, too. I ordered the papaya leaf that same day and started it a week later. When I saw him one week after being on the papaya leaf my platelets had jumped to 94,000 from 50,000 two weeks prior. He was still a little skeptical that it was the papaya leaf because he had never heard of it but told me to keep doing what I was doing an come back in two weeks. When I came back in two weeks my platelets had falled down to 78,000. I was advised to not quit taking the papaya leaf if my platelets decreased so I kept taking it and began researching some other things that I thought might be causing it.

I found several sites on the internet that had lists of things that people were claiming had caused them to develop low platelets. Almost every one of those lists had aspartame on them. This was something that I consumed a major amount of and thought that it would definitely be worth a try to cut it out of my diet. It was difficult at first because I was consuming 3 to 4 cans of diet soda each day, plus eating treats and gum that contained aspartame. I cut aspartame completely out of my diet. I also found out that gluten sensitivity can cause autoimmune. I knew that something was confusing my immune system and causing it to eat up my own platelets so I cut out all wheat products, as well. When I went back to the doctor two weeks later my platelets had increased from 78,000 to 173,000. I was so happy and excited. It was a major breakthrough for me. Two weeks later they were 183,000 and two weeks later they were 170,000.

Now I can go back for labs once a month and on the third month I will see the doctor. I pray that this continues to work for me and that he will send me on my way when I see him in July. It just goes to show you that you really do have to take charge of your own health. If I wouldn't have researched and found out what I did he would have had me taking more expensive iv treatments that we don't even know whether they would have worked or not. If you want to try the papaya leaf extract it can be purchased from Amazon. I have included the link below. I take one of the capsules each day and the bottle lasts me two months. I also purchased the tea bags, but I've only drank the tea a few times.

Programs I've tried to lose weight

There's no way in the world that I would be able to make a full, complete list of all of the programs that I've tried to lose weight but here goes:
1. Ayds diet candy - early teens with no substantial loss
2. Dexatrim - mid teens with no substantial loss
2. Fastin diet pills - 18 years old, around a 20 pound loss

3. Early 20s - extreme caloric restriction, around a 40 pound loss
4. Early 30s - Adkins, without supplemention, lost 40 pounds in one month, down to 180, got pregnant and weighed 260 when I delivered 
5. Early 40s - McDougall program, lost 27 pounds in one month. I probably would have done great if I would have stayed on this program, but I let family (ex-inlaws) who thought they knew all about medicine to talk me out of it, saying that it wasn't healthy to not eat animal products
6. Late 30s, early 40s and mid 40s - Weight Watchers - I think that I could have done better on this program, too, if I would have stayed away from bread, pasta and high fructose corn syrup. Unfortunately, the program doesn't take into considered how wheat affects different people and HFCS is just a no-no for some (me).

These are just the programs or products that I remember trying. There have been countless times over the last 30 years that I have said "okay I'm going to do 1200 calories a day and exercise every day" only to fail after a week or two. My highest weight that I remember was 283 in the fall 2004 and the lowest weight that I remember was 160 in my early 20s when I did severe caloric restriction. I weighed 170 - 180 when I started college in Fall 1984. I had to go to the doctor the next Spring because I was sick and I weighed 203. That was the first time that I had ever seen the scales go over 200 and I was devastated. I was 19 and weighed over 200 pounds. When I went for my first prenatal visit with my son in February 1991 I weighed 208. When I divorced my first husband in October 1992 I weighed 240. When I got pregnant with my daughter in 1998 I weighed 180 because I had just lost 40 pounds on Adkins. When I married my second husband in 2002 I weighed 230. I gained 50 pounds in 2 years. After we divorced in 2008 I went from 270 to 230 doing low carb and lost it in about 8 or 9 months. I went up a little bit over the next year and in August 2010 did low carb seriously and lost down to 210 in a few months. The holidays rolled around and destroyed me. Fast forward a year to this last Christmas when I had to take steroids for over a month and I got back up to 250. Right now I am at 238 and so ready to get started with my hcg diet. The mail man is supposed to deliver today. I'm doing sublingual and already have my b12 and colloidal silver. I'm really pumped about this!

Diagnosed with ITP

In October 2011 I was diagnosed with ITP. I had heard of it once before when my girlfriend was diagnosed with the same condition, but I really didn't understand what it meant. Routine labs for my thyroid check revealed that my platelet count was 97,000 and it is supposed to be between 140,000 and 390,000. She sent me for additional lab work and then that one came back even lower I was referred to a hematologist. He explained to me that low platelets can basically be caused by one of three things: the spleen is sequestering your platelets and not allowing them back into the bloodstream, or your bone marrow may not be producing enough platelets, or it could be drug-induced. The first thing he did was send me for a spleen scan to determine if my spleen was enlarged. That test came back fine. Then he did a bone marrow biopsy to see if platelets were being produced and that came back fine. Incidentally, the same day that I went for the biopsy on November 16 my platelet count was 170,000 which is well within range. The same day that I had the bone marrow biopsy my fiancee informed the doctor that I take a lot of herbs so he made me promise that I wouldn't take anything except for my Armour Thyroid until we could find out what was causing my platelet drop.

Because I had just started a new job I decided to wait a month before going back to get the results of my bone marrow biopsy. The hematologist told me that if he saw something to be alarmed about he would give me a call. I wasn't having any active bleeds so there wasn't any concern about me bleeding to death. The doctor also said something that day that really troubled me. You see I had already spent countless hours studying at the library and on the internet so that I could understand what ITP was and how it could be treated. I asked him the day that he did the biopsy what would happen and what treatment avenue we would take if my marrow biopsy came back okay. He said that would mean that my body was chewing up my platelets because my immune system was working in overdrive and that we would hit it with steroids. Hit my immune system with steroids? Are you kidding me? Apparently that is the accepted protocol in my situation.

When I went back for that follow up visit my platelets were alarmingly low and I had petechiae on my hands and legs. I thought that it was a rash but the doctor explained that it was a result of my platelets being so low and the vessels were rupturing under my skin. He put me on 40 mg of prednisone to be taken every morning along with 10 mg of nexium to be taken at the same time. Apparently when you take that high of a dose of prednisone it can cause a stomach ulcer, which would be a very bad situation with low platelets and the inability to clot. I was very scared. Here it was the week before Christmas and I my platelets were 25,000 and I didn't know how in the world this happened or what could be done to change it. I had heard so many bad things about being on long term steroid treatment, but I didn't have any choice but to start the treatment or I would end up in the hospital with an internal hemorrhage. That same day we discussed the possibility of the ArmourThyroid, which I had only been taking for 6 months, causing an autoimmune reaction so he took me off of that and put me back on 75 mcg of Synthroid.

My Jumbo Eye-Opener

It was August of 2004 and I was substituting for the secretary at a primary school that I subbed at as a teacher sometimes. I don't guess I realized how bad I felt at the time, but looking back it's a wonder they didn't have to carry me out in an ambulance. I remember the day quite clearly even though it has been eight years ago. I was wearing a blue jean dress - one that didn't touch my body anywhere, kind of like a tent. My head started hurting really bad and my vision seems a little blurry. The principal told me to go to the clinic and have my blood pressure checked. When the nurse saw what my pressure was, she got this really grave look on her face and told me to go straight to my doctor. My doctor just happened to be close by and was actually at a clinic that I worked at for over a year when I first moved to town.

I went there and explained that I had been sent from work because my bp was high. When the nurse assistant sat me in the area that they use to draw labs and took my pressure it had gone down a little. She went to tell the doctor what my pressure was and left my chart on the counter. I opened the chart and looked at the first doctor's note I saw which was from my last visit only a few months prior. My eye was drawn to the area at the bottom of the page where the doctor puts the main diagnosis or the cause of the problem that the patient presented with that day. Mine said "morbid obesity". When I read those words it was like a punch in the gut. They recorded my weight that day as 283 pounds and put me on thiazide for my blood pressure.

I thought back to a day 13 years prior when I went to the obstetrician for my first prenatal visit with my son. The note that he wrote on me the first day he examined me contained the word "obese". I was 24 and weighed 208 pounds. That was the first time I was ever presented with that ugly word in relation to my body. I mean I knew that I had some weight to lose, but I didn't realize that it was enough for a doctor to label me as "obese". If I would have gotten my head out of the sand and been prompted to do something about my weight when I weighed 208 I might have forgone the "morbid obesity" diagnosis. When I googled the term that day I found out that the excess weight that I was carrying would lead to health problems that would eventually contribute to an early death.