482.6 - All Things New

Revelations 21

1Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”^a for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’^b or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” - even new beginnings when we get back on the narrow path after having strayed from it.

485 - Mental Struggle

I HAVE to be eating more calories than I am NEEDING!!!  If I can consume nearly 4,000 calories a day as my BMR, and it takes an additional 3,500 calories to gain a pound, and (I know...this is a run-on sentence!) I gain 3 pounds in one day, then that means I would have had to consume 14,500 calories in 24 hours!!!!!!!!!!  That is NOT POSSIBLE!!!  Unless, my math is off or I'm retaining water or there are more calories in spaghetti squash than I thought!  I don't get it.

And at this point, the gain is so discouraging, I am feeling the temptation to give up and cheat.  Why kill myself, deprive myself, if deprivation is gonna cause weight gain.  I hate it! 

482.0 - The Numbers Game

Time to start calculating the calories I actually eat in a day.  Thought I stayed on track as to what I ate, but maybe I'm eating too much.  I'm going to keep track of it all today, so, at the end of the day, I'll know what is going on.  My aim is 1,000 or less calories.

Let's see:

479.8 - Welcome to the 70's!

It has been a decent time since my weight has seen the 470's, but I'm praising God to see it now!

Heather and I went to Bible Study last night.  We had an enjoyable time, but I almost didn't go, cuz I feared the temptation the food they were going to have there that night.

I have to remind myself to eat plenty of greens, to help keep myself regular.  I don't know if one can of spinach at lunch is gonna do it.  So, I added some green leaf lettuce and some Mezzetta Sweet Banana Wax Peppers in between school classes.

482.4 - Rice-less

Last night, we spent time with Kris, Andrea, Grady, Brady, Ben, and Gracie.  Our whole family loves them dearly.  The food was delicious!  Teryaki Chicken with avocado salad.  Of course, there was rice there, but we neglected to eat it.  I love rice.  I could have it for every meal.  I could have rice krispies for dessert.  Have seen some jumps in my weight, so I went without the rest of the night, and I was rewarded this morning with a drop.  Thank you, God!

486.2 - Black and White

There is no gray area when it comes to this protocol.  If you eat too many calories in a day or if you eat the wrong thing, you are not going to lose weight.  You may even gain it.

Last night, I stayed up with my friend, Steve.  We stayed up till 6 this morning.  Big mistake!

But is was semi-planned.  Up till about a month ago, I was pulling all-nighters with Steve, working on sorting and selling MTG cards.  Then, I would make up for it by sleeping half the day.  I was able to get a lot done, because my little ones were not underfoot.

The problem with staying up all night, other than it robs my family of family time, is that it puts me on a different eating schedule.  To be honest, it meant I was eating fast food at night.  Selling cards is quite a sedentary activity; what better way to mediate this then with crunching on food to keep one awake?

This went on for several months before Steve got hurt throwing his back out, etc.  But, while he was gone, another friend, Dave, took his place.

This last week, I have been going to bed between 10 and midnight, which is early for me.  But, I've needed the rest, since I've been on calorie reduction and this has been like the HCG Hell Week as my body has gotten used to the new eating plan.

And although I didn't eat any fast food, I did eat an extra meal of spaghetti squash and lean ground beef.  But worse yet, I had about 4 servings of peanut butter on a spoon or roughly 800 calories.  So, while I should have been sleeping, I consumed about 1000-1200 extra calories.

And there isn't anything gray about that or my resulting decision.  It's black and white.  You stop losing weight and actually gain weight cuz your body retains the food you shouldn't have eaten in bulk weight, especially since you are not having normal bowel movements due to the low amount of total food consumed.  Truth be told, I was miserable last night.  My body said in every way, "Go to sleep!"  But, Steve was there and I wrestled to stay awake all night.  I even ate off my protocol, but I thought to myself, "I'm not eating really bad.  I'm not having fast food!"  Hence, I figured, "There's some gray area here."

NO.  There isn't.  When it comes to HCG, there isn't.  My decision:

No more staying up all night.  I need to stay on schedule.  If that mean I don't get any work done or I don't get any help, so be it.  My health is more important; and my family is more important still.  Hopefully, this means I'll stay on my protocol and continue to lose weight.  I've been told that your eating decisions today really show up 3 days later.  So, please pray that my eating decisions today and later will somehow atone for bad decisions last night, and I'll drop it back down.

484.6 - Stray

This morning, Heather showed a .2 lb gain, and I showed a 1 lb gain.  Heather confessed she ate a cup of Bugles yesterday.  I confess I ate about a lb of breaded tilapia around 10pm last night.  We both strayed from the Protocol, sucking down some starchy carbs, which is a definite no.  But, it's Friday.  The weekend is here.  No time to slack off.  Not a good idea to stray.  No, we are back on it!

483.6 - Back Door

So, yesterday, while making dinner for my boys, I ate a breaded chicken breast, not on my diet.  Then, I ate two.  Well, that led to feeding them dinner, but my sons did not like part of their dinner.  I didn't realize when I was buying a microwave dinner that it said "buffalo" chicken.  My kids don't like spicy.  Well, I couldn't let it go to waste, could I?  So, I ate like 10 of them, which isn't on my protocol.  I stopped, there, thanks to the Lord, but I had allowed dinner preparation to be the back door to sabotaging my efforts to follow the protocol.  Gotta watch out for the back door; make sure it's locked.

489.0 - Naps

I've been in the computer lab this week.  It's a lot of sitting and watching others work on their projects.  Although I'm not working very hard, I am feeling quite exhausted, especially around the afternoon.  It doesn't help that I worked out at the gym late last night.  I find myself snoozing during my conference period.  The protocol warned this might happen during the first week on, which is called Hell Week for a reason.

492.0 - God is Faithful

Last night, right before I went to bed at 10:30pm, I ate a bowl of spaghetti squash, lean ground beef, 3 slices of fat free cheese, and butter spray.  It was amazing!  But, I'm not supposed to eat after 7pm, because it messes with my weight figures the next day, as well as making it more difficult for me to sleep.

However, God is gracious.  He allowed me to lose weight in spite of the meal.  8 lbs down!  I am pumped!

My wife lost 2 pounds, which is awesome!  Proportionately, we both lost a lot of weight for the first day, as the protocol predicted we would. 

One of the drinks that has been helping me avoid the sugar free candies I'm so used to sucking down is Gold Peak Diet Tea.  I drink at least 59 oz of it each day at work.  The protocol calls for drinking sugar free drinks sweetened with Stevia, but it doesn't have a great taste.  I used to use it with my Body by Vi shakes to sweeten my spinach shakes, but one time I used it and it tasted awful.  When it happened again, I abandoned it altogether. 

So, although Gold Peak Diet Tea uses aspartame, which mean I may catch cancer (who knows?  who doesn't?), I love it's mellow taste.

499.9 - Chemical Persuasion

I'm used to sucking on a chemical flow of sugar free butterscotch discs from early in the morning to late at night.  Going without one when I have a drawer full has been the toughest matter of will power thus far today.