317.2  Just a quick status report

319.4 This blog is about failures as much as successes.  Yesterday I was away from home for much of the afternoon and evening. I failed to put any snacks in the car, so of course I started getting VERY hungry. At about 7pm I stopped at Publix and bought a can of almonds, but because I was aleady in hunger mode I ate WAY too many of them. Then when I got home I had a late dinner besides ( steak AND an Isabar AND more almonds), since I was now in “hunger-eating” mode. So I really short-circuited the second day of cleansing by 1/3 of a day and a huge meal. Between the last sentence and this one I put a jar of snacks in the car. That was one of my big “good things” from my last cleansing experience, so I hopefully will not have any more moments of weakness like this one now that snacks will always be close at hand. I also left the can of almonds in there, but they should probably come in the house. I have found in the past that I can’t just eat a few, so they are not a good addition to my program.

I should have been more prepared. The second cleansing day is always a bit tough on me, and is the only time in the program I feel any hunger. Next week I will have snacks close at hand. Lunch today was a 6oz steak and a half bag of cauliflowers.

320.4 I have lost nine pounds in two days, and the first cleanse day was surprisingly easy. I am a bit hungry this morning, but have not yet had my morning dose of Cleanse For Life or my snacks, so hopefully that should kill it. It is actually encouraging to be hungry again, because I have been eating so much for the last couple of months that I don’t think I was ever hungry for even a minute. Some days I had 5-6 meals just out of boredom (or one continuous meal some days). Some of it may have been nutritional deficiencies also since I quit taking my supplements during that period (and was drinking pretty regularly).  I think poor nutrition is an underrated cause of weight gain and hunger/eating habits.

324.6 You have to love a program that lets you drop five pounds the first day. Why didn’t that motivate me to stay on it? Is it just too easy? Anyway, today is my first cleansing day.

329.6  That is just ridiculous. I worked hard to lose weight last year, and just gained it all back over a 3-4 month peirod of laziness and mild depression. The good news is that I know how Isagenix can work for me with a small amount of discipline. So today is a pre-cleanse day, followed by an aggressive program planned for this month. The usual 2 shakes and stuff. Lunch was the last piece of lasagna, along with a bag of veggies in mid afternoon.

I hit a pretty strong weight loss plateau at about 40 pounds after my first cleanse.   A lot of it had to do with the fact that I was unwilling to make some structural changes in my life, including leaving behind the alcohol habit of weekend drinking. Over the years, I have found that drinking alcohol is just incompatable with losing weight. The liver can only do so much, and if it is busy metabolizing alcohol it can’t burn fat.  In my experience, even one drink causes a disruption in weight loss momentum for about a week.

In the last few months I have also been doing excess carbs, and basically gone back to my (abusive) old eating habits.  I let a 2-3 week carb “reset” turn into a four month reemergence of old habits.  One day I ate a whole box of cereal. I ate an entire lasgana over a two day period. I ate a 4.4 pound bag of M&M’s in less than a week. Ugh…. The weight is coming back, and as of this date I am back to 325 pounds. I have regained most of the weight I lost in my original cleanse.  In hindsight, one hting I noticed is that when I was actively doing the Isagenix system, it has indeed changed my body so that I could eat most of this junk and stil not really gain weight.  But when I compeletely cut out the shakes and other supplements, a few weeks later the weight piled on really fast. So what I have learned is that a little cheating is okay, a lot is NOT.

My plan is to try to be disciplined and serious starting January 2nd.  I am hoping for a three month alcohol-free period, but that will be really difficult for me. I am really gonna miss drinking wine with dinner. The New Year is a good time to insititute new changes, so we shall see. Stay tuned here for results.