08 June 2013

(DAY 2.20-21)

I'm really sad I didn't take pictures of skinny-Riley for my comparison pictures while she was around. Because stressed-out finals-Riley really ran her out of town with incredible haste. I'm hoping crossfit-Riley will bring her back around, because I thought she was really pretty. And I want to see those pictures compared. I'm determined not to take pictures to compare until I'm back at 130. WHICH WILL HAPPEN BEFORE I LEAVE FOR KOREA. GOAL: SET.

After getting my massage and my dumplings (they really were delicious), and went home and ended up watching Korean dramas until 10pm.  Because I'm a weirdo who's fucked up her body to the extent that it has no idea what time it is or when it should want sleep. I fell asleep around 10:30 I think, and did not get up until 11:00am this morning, which does seem appropriate. Then I spent too much time dicking around my apartment and not doing anything, really. Then I walked to whole foods to buy snacks - thinking that at least this way they wouldn't all come from a vending machine, and so could be marginally healthier for me (HA!).

Finally made it to the library around 4. Did fuck-all for 2 hours. Did good work for 2 hours. Decided I hated the library and needed something that wasn't sugar (which was, of course, all I had bought), and so made the executive decision to get more chicken katsu and walk to my office, where I could work all night with the aid of a printer to actually make hard copies to help me review/revise.  Made it to the office around 8:30, and for the past 3 hours I think I've been... marginally productive.  My stomach is really pretty unhappy and I feel like shit, but at least I'm awake.  And I have an electric kettle in my office so I don't need to be quite so reliant on straight-up shots of espresso, and can instead just drink copious amounts of market spice tea.

THIS PICTURE MAY BE AS CLOSE AS WE'RE GETTING - even tho this was Thursday night, when I probably weighed around 135?  BUT, LIKE, JASMIN is EFFING TINY, and I don't look very big next to her, so YAY!


07 June 2013

(DAY 2.16-17-18-19)

DAY 2.16 - This day made sense. I think I ate food that day. OH I REMEMBER.  I ate a lot of food, I just didn't swallow any of it - literally I did that gross thing where you chew up food and then spit it into a cup.  I was trying to appease my mouth's desire to have crunchy things to maw on, and I did succeed at that. Went to bed around 3am after staying up super late making hockey jerseys out of garbage bags and duct tape while watching the Mighty Ducks 3 and the latest Game of Thrones episode.

DAY 2.171819 started out as a normal kind of day.

SUPER LONG VERSION: It was a Wednesday morning.  I did my thing - got up at 6:30am after about 3.5 hours of sleep, went to work, visited the coffee stand, did some paperwork. Rode my bike to the chiropractor at 3:00. First time I had ever ridden UP to capital hill from U-District - straight up the main rode that the bus takes.  I was always afraid of that hill before, and it really wasn't that bad!  :D  Yay! After chiro I rode downtown to the Korean consulate and picked up my passport, complete with my brand new shiny VISA!  Yay! Then it was back to U-district for a group meeting to prepare for our final presentation on Wednesday. That went well, too!

THEN, it was time to go to the library. Like, for good. Like, for all night. My degree project prof had emailed me Tuesday informing me that I'd be one of the 6 lucky students who got to present their project (informally) on Thursday during class. This meant that I needed to have my shit figured out by Thursday morning, and have a full draft of my paper ready by then. Luckily, Odegaard undergraduate library is open 24 hours a day most of the week, so I had 16 hours or so to work on my paper before I had to present.

I had taken some drops at about 11:30 (I ran home for lunch), but I was also realizing that I was a bit hungry. Or something? I needed/wanted/felt-like-I-should eat at least something before embarking on this journey - and also I should get coffee. Definitely coffee. Unfortunately, the cafe under the library was closed (I was thinking maybe I could get some chicken breast or sliced turkey meat or something). So I headed down to the coffee shop, which also usually has sandwiches. NOT THIS DAY, though - all the sandwiches were gone. So I opted for the teriyaki place next door, and got chicken katsu with a side salad (no rice), and only ate about 1/3 of the chicken (mostly without the sauce - because at this point, I was still trying to be relatively good). I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I got filled up - really after 1/4 of the chicken I felt satisfied. Then I went to the cafe and got 4 shots of espresso and hot water for my market spice tea. And a molasses ginger cookie. Because sugar.

Made my way back to the library, called my mom for her birthday like the dutiful daughter I ought to be, visited the vending machines downstairs and bought chocolate for later while still on the phone with Lisa. (Because sugar.)

Camped out at a desk. Did a good 3 hours of fuck-all. Then did a good 3 hours of legit research (all the research I should have been doing during the past 3 weeks). During those 6 hours ate all the chocolate I had bought, and the leftover chicken from earlier. The cafe under the library opens again at 9pm and stays open till 1am, so I went down at 12:30am to get moooooore coffee. So I got another 4 shots, hot water for hot chocolate, and chocolate froyo with sprinkles. Because sugar. And more vending machine chocolate.

Back upstairs for another 1.5 hours of research. Then ACTUALLY WROTE SHIT for a good 5 hours. NOT a complete draft, but at least a full outline - and a good 25 pages. Definitely enough for me to be able to present. Finished all the chocolate. (Because sugar.) And drank lots of magnesium (I had brought it with me and was adding it to water bottles all night). Felt mentally accomplished, although not particularly lively or clear-headed at this point. Definitely relying on will power and sugar to keep me upright at this point.

(DAY 2.18?) Rode my bike back to work, got a breakfast sandwich and hashbrown at cafeteria next to work (because hungry).  Printed the draft, went to the coffee stand and made myself another 4 shots of coffee. Rode back to campus, bought a cookie & chocolate donut at coffee stand under classroom (because sugar), gave my sorry little presentation at 9:00am. I have no idea if I was coherent. I didn't feel very coherent. By that time, I only had a memory span of about 40 seconds. Ate 3 cookies people had brought for celebration (because sugar).

Then ran to the HUB bookstore real quick to buy tape to fix one of the jerseys for the group presentation I was giving at 11:30am. Presentation went super-well. It was a good thing that I didn't have a big part - because memory retention had gone down to 30 seconds or so, and I had started getting distracted by things like "the wall over there". Ate some candy (because sugar) that the professor always brought to that class.

Yeah! Graduate School! Where we study The Mighty Ducks!
Yes, I totally made those jerseys.
Rode home - how I managed to stay awake to ride home I'm not really sure, but I did. And I ate half an apple while doing it - only half because riding up the ave on a bicycle, sans helmet, headphones in, mostly asleep, trying to eat an apple at the same time seemed like an unreasonable amount of risk. Made it home, changed into shorts and a tank top (did I mention it was hella hot out), took some HCG drops and thyroid pills, and literally ran to the nearest car2go so that I could drive it to my posture therapy appointment at 2pm. Got stuck in horrible traffic, and got there around 2:20pm - luckily her next appointment was late, so I still got my full hour appointment, even if I was yawning and responding like a belligerent 4-year-old to everything she said. Drove back home in car2go, and finally dropped into bed at 4:15pm.

After being awake for 33.5 hours on 4 hours of sleep, I passed out for a whole 3.5 hours before getting back up at 7:45pm, taking a shower, taking more HCG drops and thyroid pills, getting fancified, and heading to MY LAST JKPOP EVAAAAR. TT__TT  So you see, it was important that I be there.  I got downtown at 9pm, ran into the Kaladi Brothers to get another 4 shots of espresso, and then was planning on getting a dumpling from this Russian place near my chiro's office - but it was closed. So I went to JKPOP first, then realized I was pretty hungry? (I still don't think "hunger" is quite right - but either my brain or my body very much wanted calories or sugar to keep it going at this point.) So I headed out to get food, only there wasn't anything quick nearby so I ended up at Cupcake Royale, where I got mint ice cream with hot fudge and a cinnamon cookie (because sugar). Then went back to JKPOP and DANCE-DANCE-DANCE-DA-DANCED. Yay JKPOP! When Heidi got there a took a little break and went out to the street corner and bought a hot dog with cream cheese and ketchup and BBQ sauce (because delicious). Also had a red bull around midnight because I was starting to fade again (can't imagine why). Anyway, DJ Hojo (and Bishie) played all my favorite songs (<3 them for doing that), and I finally headed out at 1:30am after dancing for 4 hours.

Hiked up Broadway to drive a car2go home, getting 2 Dick's cheeseburgers and a chocolate shake on the way (because sugar). Got home around 2:15am. Went to bed around 3:30am, because I'm weird and my body isn't functioning correctly at this point (obviously).


(DAY 2.19?) Woke up at 7:00am after about 3.5 hours of sleep (we've now accumulated 7 hours of sleep for the 3 days I've been awake), took some more HCG drops and thyroid pills, and headed off to work. Drank some hot chocolate (because sugar). Printed out some papers - haven't really done much with them. Went to lunch with Jasmin at 12 and ate pho (because food). Came back to office and continued to be useless. Has literally taken me 2 hours to type this post because I still can't concentrate on anything for longer than 30 seconds. Have a chiro-massage at 5:00pm. Am hoping to get that dumpling.

AND THEN? Who the fuck knows. My body is SO SCREWED UP RIGHT NOW.
I'M SORRY BODY.



And I'm sorry body, but I also have a degree project to finish in the next 48 hours, and also an 8-page term paper that I need to bang out by Monday night. My tentative plan is to go to my massage, get my dumpling, go home, and sleep until my body wakes up. Then head back down to the library (since it's still open 24 hours) and stay there until my degree project is finished, which hopefully won't take me until Sunday afternoon.


OH RIGHT, and my landlords are showing my apartment Monday and Tuesday, so at some point before Monday morning I need to clean my apartment somehow. Because it is a fucking pit at this point. Seriously covered in filth.

I am not sure why I ever thought I could do this diet during finals week.  I can't manage to stick to a semi-normal Riley diet on finals week, much less a crazy-fucker of a diet on the worst finals week I've ever had given schedule and commitments. I don't know if I've gained a bunch of weight back or not. I think I'm around 134 again - or at least I was the last time I checked which was... one of the last times I was home? I don't know why I've kept taking the drops really, except that on top of everything else my body is going through at the moment I don't think it's going to make much of a difference one way or another, so like, why the fuck not. Perhaps the biggest take-away I will have from this whole diet is that now I know what my body can look and feel like at 130 lbs, and that is now a real and tangible thing that I want to get back to, and surpass.

ALSO CROSSFIT RE-COMMENCES ON MONDAY. HELLS YES CROSSFIT. IT'S GONNA HURT SO BAD.



TLDR VERSION: Coming soon. Well, not that soon. (Because sleep first.)




02 June 2013

(DAY 2.14-15)

Today:
Going well.  Feel bloated (see below), but am in cute new outfit so care less than I should.

Captain's Log, stardate 2013.6.03
Wakeup: (7:00am, 3.5 hours of sleep)
- chicken (11:00am)
- frozen strawberries (4:15pm)
- 3/4 tilapia (4:45pm)
- baked apple (5:15pm)
- sugar-free werthers, chocolate chips, BURPEES
Bedtime (12:00am)
Water: 32+32+32oz
Tea: 16+16+32+16+16+20oz
(green, market spice, barley, market spice, detox, sleepytime)


(i have been waiting so long to use this gif)
Yesterday:
WHAT IS IT WITH ME AND SUNDAYS? (AND LATE NIGHTS?!?)  
I wrote that yay!weekly post yesterday and apparently completely jinxed myself by saying that I thought I could totally hold my own for the final week. Obviously I couldn't - my mouth got a hold of something during the day and decided it was not going to be happy until it had eaten everything (that I could conceivably consider "non-" or "low-" fat) in my house. A sweet tooth, perhaps, but more of a "crunchy" tooth in reality, I think. SIGH. Whatever. It'll sort itself out, I hope. Ughnnnn.


Captain's Log, stardate 2013.6.02
Wakeup: (11:30am, 9.5 hours of sleep)
- beef (1:30pm)
- strawberries (3:45pm)
- 7:30pm - chicken, baked apple, frozen strawberries
- 9:00pm -3:00am - sliced turkey, bananamons (freeze-dried banana with cinnamon), hard candies (lots), chocolate chips, grissini toast sticks, ramen noodles (raw)
Bedtime (3:30am)
Water: 32+32+32oz
Tea: 16+16+16oz
(lemon echinacea, market spice, cinnamon apple)


have i used that scrunchy-face gif before? i think maybe i have... it's a good emotion gif.

WEEK 2.2 (6) RECAP

As of today, after 13 (+30)  days of eating 500 calories or less per day, while taking pharmacy-grade sublingual HCG hormone drops, I have lost 22.6 pounds, and 20.75 inches.

ONE MORE WEEK TO GO!

My mood towards diet is still relatively up and down.  Yesterday it was pretty high high high because I went shopping for jeans. I bought my very first pair of 8s at Christmas (I was SUPER EXCITED to be in the single digits, where I hadn't been since junior high), and when I realized that I could literally slide them off now without unbuttoning them I thought I might be due for a new pair - and I doubt I'm going to go down an entire pant size in the remaining week of HCG that I have.

Should I have gone to U-Village to purchase those jeans? Probably not. (It's a relatively expensive shopping center.) But now I can say the size is true - as opposed to if I were shopping at Old Navy or Target or something. Really, I was going and expecting to buy 8s, because even though the 8s I already had were loose, they were Old Navy jeans, and I feel like those definitely run large. BUT NO, YOU GUISE - I'M A LEGIT SIX. Which is crazy. Crazy. I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe. Especially because I still look at my legs and know that are thick in comparison to other people's. They don't feel like they are 6s. BUT WHATEVER.

I spent some time in H&M and then chucked all the stuff I had picked out because the check out line was too long. Then I walked into Lucky Jeans just for laughs, thinking it was worth a try - and a friendly salesperson came up and said "Hi, Can I help you find a pair of jeans today?" to which I replied, "Uh, yeah - actually, you can!" She brought me both 6s and 8s, but the 6s FIT BETTER - because my waist/ass is getting small enough that it's better to be tight on the thighs.  I still have a gap in every pair that I bought, but that's just inevitable.

So I ended up with a nice (the first real, nice pair of jeans I've ever bought - and they weren't actually horrifically expensive) pair of 6s from Lucky Jeans, a pair of 6s from the Gap, and a pair of 2s from Eddie Bauer. (And a pair of 4 jean shorts from EB, too.) DON'T GET OVEREXCITED about the 2/4s - they're the relaxed "boyfriend" cut at EB - their normal jeans fit around a 6/4 but the rise came up too high and had wayyy too much back-gap then. TMI, I know. But anyway. It was an awesome day. And all 3 pairs of jeans are definitely dark enough to be work-appropriate, even in Korea. I also ended up with a couple of super preppy tops from J. Crew that were on sale, also Korea-appropriate.

GAP (6), Eddie Bauer (2), Lucky (6), Eddie Bauer (4)

I think I got a little down this morning because they don't photograph as nice as they look. Or rather, my legs don't photograph as nicely as I want them to look. But when I look at myself in the mirror I'm still, like, "Damn! Lookit choo - working those size 6 jeans!" Also I just slept too long today. I need to get outside and walk or something.

Anyway, overall this week went well - as per usual, I didn't lose as much as I would have liked to (I reeeeally wanted to break 130 this week), but at the same time where I'm at is fucking parallel-universe crazy, so I don't have much room to complain. And I'm in a good enough head space that I think I can make it for one more week without going crazy. I have more important things to worry about this week (GRADUATING) than what I am or am not eating.

STATS:


 

01 June 2013

(DAY 2.13)

RILEY BOUGHT NEWWWWWWW JEANS.
I will tell you more abouts them on the morrow.

Megan found an ab challenge and posted it today on facebook. Today was day 1.  What I have learned from doing the first situps I've done since losing 20ish pounds is that there is LESS PADDING now for the bottom of my spine. I now understand why people at crossfit are so adamant about using their abmats come sit-up time.




Captain's Log, stardate 2013.6.01
Wakeup: (10:30am, 7 hours of sleep)
- veal (9:30pm)
- baked apple (10:30pm)
- roasted turkey slices (11:30pm)
Bedtime (2:00am)
Water: 32+32oz
Tea: 16+32+16+16oz
(green, market spice, decaf green, slim green)

31 May 2013

(DAY 2.12)

Tonight, I'm going ON A BOAT.

For the Evan's School Spring "Ball" ... I haven't been to one yet, and I thought maybe I should participate once before I graduate.



Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.31
Wakeup: (6:15am, 6.75 hours of sleep)
- strawberries (10:00am)
- veal (12:00pm)
- eggs (7:00pm)
- strawberries (8:30pm)
- baked apple (12:30am)
Bedtime (3:30am)
Water: 32+16oz
Tea: 8+20+46+8+16oz
("hot chocolate", barley, market spice, zen, cinnamon apple)

30 May 2013

(DAY 2.11)

So when I was little, I used to forget to chew my food.  And then I'd forget to swallow it.  I would put it in my mouth and chew it a little bit, but then I would just stop and kind of suck on it and daydream until one of my parents interjected with, "Riley - CHEW!"  Or, for some reason with the case of french fries, I would continue to put them in my mouth and kind of half chew them, but not really realize it until I had my face stuffed with somewhere between 8-12 fries, suddenly realizing that I couldn't really get anything else in my face.

So the french fry thing doesn't really help me much.

But the sitting and sucking on your food is a really great technique if you've only got paltry amounts to work with, which is the case for the higher density meats that I get, i.e. beef and veal. Also, beef is like my favorite flavor ever, so sucking all that flavor out of the protein before I send it down seems like a pretty great thing to do.

You get that arm!!!  Jonghyun's such a stupid dinosaur.



Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.30
Wakeup: (6:15am, 4.75 hours of sleep)
- beef (11:00am)
- tilapia (8:15pm)
- baked apple (9:30pm)
Bedtime (11:30pm)
Water: 32+32oz
Tea: 16+16+28+16+16+16oz
(green, market spice, barley, lemon echinachea, market spice, sleepytime)

29 May 2013

(DAY 2.10)



Actually today has been fine, that's just been stuck in my head. I'm missing a lot of my DVDs that I need to collect from people before I leave, and that may be one of them.

Totally forgot to take my drops last night (HATE THAT), so have been spacing them out more evenly today hoping to forestall some kind of... deficiency or something.

Also have discovered a fabulous new way to eat white fish - I reheat it (I pre-cook 90% of my meat) in a bowl, then dump apple cider vinegar on it (like, 1/4-1/3 of a cup?), then mash it up so it looks a little like cat food, then heat it a bit more 'cause the vinegar was cold, then I eat it wish a spoon so that I get ALL THE VINEGAR. White fish has never been more to me than a vehicle for vinegar (and ketchup, once upon a time when I was very young yet and hadn't been introduced to malt vinegar) - and this is a delicious new way to make sure I get every last bit of that fish absolutely saturated.



Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.29
Wakeup: (6:15am, 7.25 hours of sleep)
- veal (12:30pm)
- tilapia vinegar mash (6:15pm)
Bedtime (1:30am)
Water: 16+32+32oz
Tea: 16x6oz
(green, market spice, barley, apple cinnamon, market spice, peppermint)

28 May 2013

(DAY 2.9)

So this morning was kind of a wtf moment - because the scale decided to jump UP 3 pounds?!?

Dislike.

I felt kind of oddly bloated last night so I'm not super surprised, but I am confused.  I think maybe I've been over-doing it on vitamins / vitamins-in-water or something.  So I'm hoping its mostly water weight or something and it will go away by tomorrow.

It also may be my body saying "hey you're not getting enough calories" and trying to store up fat, so I will endeavor to eat my vegetables today, which I've been neglecting for the past few days.

--

So, like, for once in my life I would like to have calves small enough to allow me to wear moon boots. I know that they're ridiculous, but I want / love them anyways:


--

Nehbermind. I think I figured it out - I'd skewed my internal clock so much over the last three days that my body still assumed it was the middle of the night when I weighed myself this morning. Now that it's wake-up time and I've appropriately emptied my bowels, I feel much lighter :P
--
Yep.  Just weighed myself at 8:30pm and had dropped the 3 pounds. I manage to fuck myself up time-wise SO BAD on 3-day weekends.



Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.28
Wakeup: (6:15am, 6.5 hours of sleep)
- 1/4 apple (7:00am)
- beef (10:45am)
- tilapia (8:45pm)
- baked apple (9:30pm)
Bedtime (11:30pm)
Water: 32+16oz
Tea: 16+16+16+16+16+20oz
(market spice, green, barley, barley, barley, sleepytime )

27 May 2013

(DAY 2.8)

So, in avoidance of writing my Capstone project, the dishes have finally been washed and the laundry has finally been folded.

Also, Aloe Vera FTW! My legs don't feel like desserts for the first time in weeks!  Also because I'm definitely starting to see quite a bit of loose skin, and I'd like to help that tighten up as much as I can. I'm hoping it will bounce back within 6 months or so, because it's not such an egregious amount of weight that there will be that much loose skin, and because I'm still under 30 I'm hoping my "youth" will help snap things back into place.

This weekend has mostly consisted of me wearing my ridiculous new heels and dancing around my apartment in new underwear. I'm not gonna lie, it's been relatively glorious.




Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.27
Wakeup: (11:30am, 7.5 hours of sleep)
- eggs (2:45pm)
- veal (6:30pm)
- baked apple (7:45pm)
Bedtime (12:00am)
Water: 32+32oz
Tea: 16+16+16+32oz
(green, market spice, cinnamon apple, sleepytime )

26 May 2013

(DAY 2.7)

Today was fine.  Probably drank too much fizzy vitamin water, methinks.



Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.26
Wakeup: (11:30am, 8.5 hours of sleep)
- 1/2 a turkey slice (2:00pm)
- tilapia (3:00pm)
- chicken (7:30pm)
- baked apple (10:30pm)
Bedtime (3:45am)
Water: 32+20+20+20+20+16oz
Tea: 20+20+16+16+16oz
(green, mint-basil, market spice, market spice, green)

WEEK 5 (or 2.1) RECAP

Restart week FTW!

Things really went pretty great this week.  Mostly because I was losing weight like I had hoped, and so that really tempers any negative emotions one might have towards this diet.  I gained a lot from my loading extravaganza of street-fair food on Sunday, but I've overcome that, and am pretty much on track to meet my goals :D

Yay!

As of today, after 7 (+30)  days of eating 500 calories per day while taking pharmacy-grade sublingual HCG hormone drops, I have lost 18.9 pounds, and 18.4 inches. (And 8.2 pounds this week alone!) Awesomesauce! 




Aaaaaaaand I may have gone shopping yesterday.  I went to Nordstrom Rack to buy underwear (it's my new favorite place to buy bras - and with the drop in my bust size you can see why that's kind of necessary), and I came out with two dresses, a pair of ridiculous heels, and three bras.  This is why I try pretty hard not to go shopping.



25 May 2013

(DAY 2.6)



Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.25
Wakeup: (9:30am, 9.5 hours of sleep)
- chicken (4:15pm)
- baked apple (9:00pm)
- beef (11:15pm)
Bedtime (3:00am)
Water: 20+20+16oz
Tea: 20+16+20oz
(green, market spice, sleepytime)

24 May 2013

(DAY 2.5)

Didn't do so good on the getting lots of sleep. Got some sleep, but not as much as I was hoping for... I did get some actual school work done in lieu of sleep, though, so that's good.

Again, so far HCG mark 2 is going very well.  I'm kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop, but for right now I'm just pretty fucking pleased with things like my waistline. God damn do I love my waistline (pics from last night):

for which i was NOT appreciable sucking-in - even though it kind of looks like i am.
yeah, that's a picture of me with my shirt tucked into my tights.
i had been wearing a dress all day.
Only health issue I'm having today is my right eye decided to COMPLETELY TWERK OUT. Like, it's all red and hurty and uncontrollably leaking water all over my face. How delightful. And so I'm wearing my glasses today. I hate glasses.

No seriously, eye.  You need to stop leaking and freaking out about daylight.

---

Fucking pink eye is pink.  TT____TT
Or rather:  TT__*




Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.24
Wakeup: (6:30am, 7 hours of sleep)
- chicken (2:30pm)
- beef (9:15pm)
- baked apple (9:45pm)
Bedtime (12:00am)
Water: 20+20+10oz
Tea: 16+16+16+16+16+20oz
(green, market spice, barley, barley, market spice, green)

23 May 2013

(DAY 2.4)

Heyyyyy buddy.

How are you?  That's good, I'm good, too!

Things is going pretty well.  Energy is up, weight is coming off, and things are quickly moving forward in the major event deadlines in my life.

Got my temporary visa application number from the school this morning, so now I get to take a field trip to the Korean consulate early next week for my temporary visa application :D
Hellooooooooo South Korea!

(you're right, this gif doesn't really relate.
but lookit how pretty he is, doin' his little dance.)
--
The goal for tonight is SLEEPING - considering my record for the last 4 nights has been 5, 6, 5, 4 hours T_T


Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.23
Wakeup: (6:30am, 4 hours of sleep)
- chicken (1:30pm)
- cod (8:15pm)
- baked apple (9:15pm)
Bedtime (11:30pm)
Water: 32+20oz
Tea: 16+16+16+16+16oz
(green, market spice x2, runa, market spice)

22 May 2013

(DAY 2.3)

Restart is going well so far :D


Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.22
Wakeup: (6:30am, 5 hours of sleep)
- chicken (1:00pm)
- cod (8:45pm)
- kale chips (10:15pm)
- baked apple - totally overcooked this (11:00pm)
Bedtime (2:00am)
Water: 32+32oz
Tea: 16+16+16+16+16oz
(green, market spice x3, green)


HEY FACE NARCISSISM CONTINUED - I call it "FACEVOLUTION" :


21 May 2013

(DAY 2.2)

Wow that loading day was effective. I'm glad I set myself up in my brain this morning for the possibility of the scale showing me a ridiculously high number, because it definitely did.  But that's okay!  Because it's all coming right back off again :D It makes sense - the reason you have to stick to the low-calorie diet for 2 days even after you stop taking the drops is because you gain weight incredibly quickly if you eat fats while having HCG in your system. I assume it's something about HCG making your long-term fat stores more accessible - and how that street probably runs both ways.

Also, most of the food I consumed on Sunday (and man, that was a lot of food) is still in my system - hence the smooth move tea this morning to help get things moving (apparently it was too much for even the magnesium to handle).

Anyway, I feel good and pretty pumped about this.  Making a new graph / starting fresh helped a lot - now I'm just focusing on the next three weeks instead of comparing them to the time that has gone past.

---

3:00pm - It's amazing how much better one can feel after a successful trip to the bathroom. I think the older I've gotten the more I've learned to appreciate bowel movements in general, but this whole journey has marked a significant increase in that appreciation.




Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.21
Wakeup: (6:30am, 6 hours of sleep)
- chicken (11:15am)
- cucumber smoothie (6:45pm)
- cod (7:15pm)
- baked apple (8:30pm)
Bedtime (1:30am)
Water: 32+10oz
Tea: 16+16+32+20oz
(smooth move, green, market spice, sleepytime)

20 May 2013

(DAY 2.1)

So sleeping last night was as terrible/difficult as expected.
I never understood the concept of a "food baby" until earlier this year, and last night was also a prime example.

Also all my tea tastes weird today and I think it's because I messed up my taste buds yesterday with all the popcorn and other bad things.

Also also, I'm not planning on eating anything today until I think I can eat it without feeling sick immediately afterwards.  So I'm thinking probably just beef sometime later tonight.



Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.20
Wakeup: (6:30am, 5 hours of sleep)
- beef (6:30pm)
- baked apple (10:30pm)
Bedtime (12:30am)
Water: 32+16oz
Tea: 16+16+16+16+20oz
(green, throat coat, market spice, market spice, sleepytime)

19 May 2013

(DAY 28) (LOADING?!?)

See my Weekly Recap for explanation of ridiculous Captain's Log entry.  Sigh.

Tomorrow we're starting over again.  Because I! can! do! this! shit! But I need / want a clean slate to start from.



It's 8:00pm, want an update?  HEARTBURN HEARTBURN HEARTBURN.


Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.19
Wakeup: (10:30am, 9 hours of sleep)
- baked apple (11:30am)
- beef (12:00pm)
- fruit xylitol mints (1:30pm)
- STREET FAIR (2:30-4:30): 
>>> hand-dipped corn dog
>>> beef/cheese piroshky
>>> kettle corn
>>> chocolate & mint ice cream
>>> 1/2 hand-dipped corn dog
>>> cinnamon/sugar cashews & pecans
>>> dark chocolate orange fudge
Bedtime (1:30am)
Water: 32oz
Tea: 16oz
(green)

WEEK 4 RECAP

This is what I have to say on the subject of Week 4:


FUCK YOU, WEEK FOUR.
FUCK-FUCK-FUCK-FUCK YOU.
AND FUCK ME.
FUCK.

After eating my corndog/fair-food today, I will be "restarting" tomorrow.
I actually kind of can't believe I haven't thrown up yet.  I tried, actually - but my gag reflex is not cooperating.

Pretty much nothing went right this week.  I was on my period pretty much all week - I cheated for the first time in earnest on Wednesday, then repeated the exact same mistakes on Thursday.  I tried getting creative with what I was allowed, which really just meant that I was rationalizing weird ways to cheat.


So tomorrow is restart. Day 2.1.  It's like today was a loading day, and this is just my second cycle of HCG - without all the not-quite-cheating (I'm looking at you, stevia-sweetened jello) that had snuck in at the end of week 3.

Just fucking do it, Riley.  You can do this.  Your body can do this.  Stop letting your mouth/emotions do the thinking.

And for god's sake, write your fucking capstone project and stop procrastinating.  It's not helping anyone, least of all yourself.



As of today, after 27 days of ATTEMPTING to eat only 500 calories per day while taking pharmacy-grade sublingual HCG hormone drops, I have lost 15.8 pounds, and 15 inches.




18 May 2013

(DAY 27)

Eating very little may have helped yesterday - have almost neutralized my mistakes.

My face is much thinner than it once was, methinks.  I mean, lots of me is thinner - but I see that in the mirror more often than the rest, so maybe it's more noticeable.



Captain's Log, stardate 2013.5.18
Wakeup: (10:00am, 8 hours of sleep)
- chicken (11:30am)
- apple (6:00pm)
- turkey breast (6:30pm)
Bedtime (1:30am)
Water: 60oz
Tea: 16+16+16oz
(green, market spice, watery market spice,)

17 May 2013

(DAY 26) (REGRET SETS IN)

You know how yesterday I was all, like: cheating on Wednesday was great! I feel great! No regrets! YOLO!
YESTERDAY RILEY IS SO STUPID.  I'M SO MAD AT HER.


Because cheater/Star Trek night felt so great, and I was bored at 8:30 and couldn't figure out what to do with the rest of my night last night - I said to myself, "Hey! Let's re-create the awesome that was Wednesday night - because seeing Star Trek again actually sounds pretty great! And I've got time I can walk all the way to the theater and practice my walking!* And I'm still on my period so maybe it won't count!"

So I went to the store, and bought a half-size dark chocolate bar and a Kit-Kat.  And then I walked to the theater, which admittedly was a pretty great idea. THE POPCORN and CHOCOLATE were NOT GOOD IDEAS. Just because you get away with it once, does NOT mean you should try it again. Especially because my brilliant contingency plan was coming home and drinking extra magnesium so that maybe I could push it all out before my system had time to absorb any of it. RIGHT BECAUSE THAT MAKES SENSE.

Ugh, I fucking hate how clear hindsight is.

Anyway, as I was chowing down on popcorn and chocolate I could tell, this was a poooooor decision. And the movie finished and I decided to jog to the little flex-car to drive myself home - that was a pretty good little jog, actually - uphill, etc. Made it home and drank my magnesium WITHOUT STIRRING IT WELL ENOUGH. HEY KIDS, ALWAYS STIR YOUR MAGNESIUM DRINK. Because otherwise it bloats up your stomach and makes you all burpy and heartburn-y to the point where you have to pile 3 pillows behind you so that you're vertical enough that all that foamy shit you just drank has some idea of the basic direction it's supposed to be following through your system. And that's after you've shat out what was left in your system so that it has space to push everything else through.

SIGH.

I woke up feeling pretty shitty still.  Standing up just made me feel like I was going to throw up. And I DIDN'T have some fabulous cleansing and relieving bowel movement like I had hoped. I felt bad enough that I decided to be late to work because I just kept needing to curl up in bed in a fetal position.


Also, apparently eating all that extra food made me completely NOT HUNGRY today.  Maybe that's good?  I dunno.  I guess we'll find out tomorrow morning on the scale.


Captain's Log, stardate 2013.517
Wakeup: (7:30am, 5.5 hours of sleep)
- beef (1:00pm)
- beef (12:00am)
- strawberries (12:00am)
Bedtime (2:00am)
Water: 16oz
Tea: 16+16+16oz
(green, chai, market spice)



*Yes. I'm someone who practices walking. It's what happens to you when you see a posture & movement specialist.

16 May 2013

(DAY 25)

1) Star Trek was awesome.  I have only one complaint, but I won't share it for fear of revealing spoilers.
2) I do not regret last night - I had too good a time to regret anything about that evening.

HOWEVER, I am a little pissed / worried today.  I gave in to temptation last night at the theater and ended up with a small popcorn with "buttery topping" - something about the chemicals they put in that shit to make you want it, plus me being a little extra hormonal 'cause I'm on my period, plus a little emotionally exhausted from the fact that I haven't been losing nearly as much as I'd like to be.... it all just came together.  So I ate that popcorn. And that chocolate bar.  They were delicious.

It was my first (and hopefully only) delineation from the 500-calorie protocol.

It's definitely been getting harder.  Holding on to this diet when you're not seeing awesome results on the scale every morning is really difficult, and I can feel myself starting to rationalize all the reasons it would just be better to stop now instead of sticking it out the whole 40+ days.  I don't like it when my graph line gets flat and further and further away from the linear projection.

It did help that yesterday I really did feel great, pretty much all day.  I had a session with my posture therapist who I hadn't seen in 3 weeks - and that felt amazing.  I think adding to all of this is the fact that I haven't been able to work out, and so haven't gotten any of those happy endorphins that I get from exercise. And considering that even with the popcorn and chocolate, I still woke up to a smaller scale on the number, I think I'm going to add some bike riding back into my life.

Just this afternoon I've felt really hungry - it's probably because I didn't take more drops at lunch, but it still makes me unhappy and grumpy.  Hopefully riding home uphill will cure me of the grumpies.

I just drank some market spice tea, that made me feel a wee bit better.


Captain's Log, stardate 2013.516
Wakeup: (6:00am, 4.5 hours of sleep)
- veal (11:00am)
- kale chips (1:00pm)
- apple (2:30pm)
- eggs (7:15pm)
- strawberries (8:15pm)
- poprcorn & chocolate (10:45pm)
Bedtime (2:00am)
Water: 16+32+32oz
Tea: 16+16+16+16+16oz
(runa, barley, barley, green, market spice)

15 May 2013

(DAY 24)

Can you tell that I'm not enjoying writing these so much anymore?  They're getting much shorter...

I dislike monthly bleeding time. :(

BUT HEY - IT'S STAR TREK DAY!  
YAY FOR THAT!  DOUBLE YAY!




Captain's Log, stardate 2013.515
Wakeup: (6:00am, 6.5 hours of sleep)
- veal (11:00am)
- lettuce'n'vinegar (12:00pm)
- apple (2:00pm)
- veal (7:15pm)
- strawberries (8:15pm)
- kale chips (9:45pm)
- popcorn with "buttery topping" (small) (10:45pm)
- dark chocolate (11:30pm)
Bedtime (2:00am)
Water: 16+32+32oz
Tea: 16+28+28+16oz

14 May 2013

(DAY 23)

Was a total zombie this morning.  That much energy that late at night was apparently not a good thing.



Captain's Log, stardate 2013.514
Wakeup: (6:00am, 6 hours of sleep)
- chicken (11:00am)
- apple (2:00pm)
- halibut (5:30pm)
- lettuce'n'vinegar (6:15pm)
- kale chips (9:15pm)
- strawberries (9:45pm)
Bedtime (11:00pm)
Water: 64oz
Tea: 70oz

13 May 2013

(DAY 22)


Oh, today.  You kind of suck, but I will conquer you anyway!  Or survive, at least.

Food is fine. I feel fine.
Didn't lose much weight last night. Started my period.
Have a new mystery prescription to pick up at the pharmacy.
I think doubling my thyroid dosage was a good thing.

---

OH MAN THYROID DOUBLE BONUS!
Don't know if I'm all jazzed from being done with my midterm (doubt it), or because I took my second dose of thyroid medication (probably), but I have WAY more energy than I've had in a looooong time.

Also, I'm making stevia jello. Mmmmmmmm jello.
It's green, and flavored with lime soda water and vanilla and raspberry and lemon extract.
I put edible glitter in it to make it even better.

Also also, my mystery prescription is different kind of thyroid medication.  Let's see if I combust tomorrow.  Either way, I'm going to enjoy riding this energy high, turn my kpop up loud, and dance while I try and write a few more pages of my degree project.  ^__^


Captain's Log, stardate 2013.513
Wakeup: (6:00am, 6 hours of sleep)
- kale chips (11:00am)
- chicken (12:30pm)
- hard-coiled egg white (2:30pm)
- cod (5:15pm)
- lettuce'n'vinegar (5:30pm)
- apple (7:00pm)
Bedtime (12:00am)
Water: 32+16+32oz
Tea: 16+(14*6)+16oz




12 May 2013

(DAY 21)

I don't know if yall have noticed - if you've been following these daily posts and my eating habits religiously - but I fucking LOVE tea these days.  It's not so much that I love "tea" per say, but rather that tea is warm. And with the lack of fat in my diet now, a taste sensation that I very much associate with warmth, anything that will substitute that sensation is being over-indulged.

I have, however, cut back on my consumption of market-spice, not because I love it any less (it's the one tea that I do truly love. love love love.), but rather because it's seems suspect to me in that it might contain other ingredients that I don't know about... the packaging isn't terribly forthcoming since it's locally produced.  In place of the 8 cups of market spice that I would drink each day if I could, I'm now trying to get in at least 2 cups of green tea (I like green with lemon and ginger, and also I found a green tea with kombucha (how?) and some pomegranate that's pretty ridiculously delicious.

Also, when I say "cup" I'm not talking about a specific measurement of 8 oz or whatever it is.  I'm talking about one "drink" which, and I know because I measured my mugs' capacities last night, is between 16-22oz.



Captain's Log, stardate 2013.512
Wakeup: (10:00am, 9 hours of sleep)
- beef (11:00am)
- hard boiled egg (5:30pm)
- lettuce'n'vinegar (5:30pm)
- apple (7:15pm)
- chicken (8:00pm)
- kale chips (10:00pm)
Bedtime (12:00am)
Water: 32+16oz
Tea: 90oz

WEEK 3 RECAP

So.  For 21 days now I've been eating like a crazy person.  It really doesn't seem that long.

I haven't lost as much as I'd like to, but I've still lost a lot more than I would have sans HCG.

Also, my upper body is great at HCG, totally knows how to work that shit.  Lower body is a little slower to catch on - but that's been the case my whole life.  I really hope it gets into the game in the last three weeks, since that's where I store most of my fat.

As far as how I'm feeling - it's still been a little up and down, but nothing like the first and second weeks.  The biggest difference in my mood now is that now I pretty actively crave all the food I haven't been able to have for the past 3 weeks.  Chocolate, butter, dairy, macadamia nuts, dark-meat chicken, corn dogs.  Really, anything with fat in it. I'm so happy that the "maintenance" phase (for the 3 weeks after I finish the 500 calorie days) will allow me to have fats - still no sugar or starches, but fats are A-OK!  It's pretty much just a strict paleo diet, at which I'm totally proficient by now.  Anyway, on to the stats and the photos:


As of today, after 20 days of eating only 500 calories per day while taking pharmacy-grade sublingual HCG hormone drops, I have lost 15.8 pounds, and 12.5 inches.








Also, just as a fun comparison, here's a couple pictures of me when I weighed 175lbs, and had also just sprained my knee.  All of this gets easier when I remember that 2 years ago I weighed close to 40lbs more than I do today.