Well Spring is here! Finally! And with Spring comes the next chapter in the hCG diet. I cannot believe I have been on Maintenance for 3 whole months; actually 3-1/2 months. I must admit that this time around was very difficult. I’m not really sure why. I just know I struggled to keep my weight where it needed to be. I’ve also realized that 3 months on Maintenance is a little too long, especially if you have more to lose. You might ask why? I noticed that I seem to lose momentum. It was almost as though I was finished dieting and that was it. I was raring to get back on at the end of 2 months and then I realized I still had another month to go in the grand scheme of things.
When you start on Maintenance, you really need to decide in your head, IF you gain more than your 2 lbs of weight, how much weight you are going to be okay with. My number this time was 10 lbs. I figured for 3 months of Maintenance, if I did not go over 10 lbs, I would be okay with that. For every other round of maintenance, my number was 5 lbs. and I stayed within that 5 lbs until this round. You need to decide that before you go on Maintenance.
For the most part, I did okay. As soon as I noticed a gain of 2 lbs on the scale, I would have a steak day. I think I’ve had more steak days this Round of Maintenance than any other. You think that if you just push it a little bit, it will be okay. Then you find that you’re gaining a half pound here, a pound there, and you just think that “oh, not a problem. I’ll just take that off in a day or two.” But the fact is, once you start down that road, it’s really really hard to get back on track. I also noticed that if I gained 1-1/2 lbs one day and a couple days later I get another pound, I did not treat it as a 2 lb gain when in reality, it really was. You really have to have that chat with yourself and your subconscious. You know, when you’re fat, overweight, whatever, it’s always a constant struggle to overcome that little voice in your head that says “oh you can cheat just a little bit” and then if you give in, you’re right back where you started. Well, almost. That’s when the other little nagging voice tells you “I told you so. You should have listened to me.” So point taken. I did know, but I pushed the point anyway. When I knew I was full, I pushed that too. Yeah. I know I’m full, but I want more. Been there before?
My stomach hurt for days and I still pushed food into my mouth that I knew I did not want, did not ever care to even want to eat again, but still I pushed. WHY!!!!! Why on earth would I do that to myself when I have worked so darn hard to get that weight off????? Because I was not strong enough?? Heck no! I am more than strong enough. It’s because of that stupid little subconscious emotional mind that thinks it knows better than you really do, and that, my dear friends is when the revelation began.
Revelation? Yep. That’s the point you get to when you finally remind yourself why you wanted to take off the weight to begin with. You pull out that picture and take a good, hard look at it and think “OMG did I really look like that?!?” Of course I did. That was the beginning of the diet. The realization sets in and you have an even longer chat with your subconscious, knowing full well that you are the one that pushed the limits regardless of the outcome.
So, now, you get back on track — you start damage control. So how much did you really gain back? Personally, I stayed within 10lbs of where I ended up before Christmas. When I recently went on a business trip, that number went up. I did not bring a scale with me. I “guessed” — always a mistake — as to how much I had put back on during those 2 weeks. When I finally weighed myself, I almost had a heart attack. That’s when I went out, bought a very large, almost 2# of steak, a large tomato, and ate every morsel of it. The next morning I had a considerable drop in weight — total surprise. I wasn’t sure that it would work. I dropped a phenomenal 4-3/4 lbs by the next morning. That gave me incentive to keep to a stricter, lowered calorie diet for a few days until I got a lot of that weight off that I had gained.
So, now, with a bunch of that extra weight off, I feel better about myself. Now I’m marching into the next round, knowing how much closer I am getting to my goal each and every day.
Take care y’all,
We will beat this together!
Geraldine
