10 pounds in 19 days

This has been an interesting week, to say the very least. When I last checked in here, I was on my way to Chicago. I was attending a Shaklee "A New Year, A New You" event where they were making announcements that will carry us forward for the next few months. True to the rumors, we DID get a new flavor for Cinch. Yeehaw. My yummy favorite, CAFE LATTE. I quickly ordered mine on Tuesday and it arrived Wednesday. Ooh la la, scrumptious.

Now you have to understand, I have never driven by a Dairy Queen without driving through for a MooLatte. I really like to go to the quckie marts and make my own Cappacino with lots of the french vanilla creamers in them. Well, the Cafe Latte Cinch Shake mix tastes even better than those other treats because it doesn't leave that "too sweet" queasy feeling when you drain the cup. Instead, you have satiety for a few hours, with just the Cinch shake and 8 ounces of skim or soy milk. For variety, I even have added the Energizing Soy Protein to the Shake (with an extra 4 ounces of milk) and it is a vanilla-ee Latte flavor. I add the Soy Protein to one shake a day to get the nutrition my diabetic body wants and to help with the caloric intake. I have never been on a reduction program where I had trouble intaking the required calorie count each day. I am just not that hungry.

Which is a blessing. I am not battling any deprivation demons. I am not wanting to gnaw my right arm and left leg off each day. And more importantly, I am not a cranky witch all day long. Kudos for whatever nutrition is in the entire Cinch package. Somehow, this is all working out. I can't explain why I have such a high confidence level in what I am doing. I have NEVER been in this kind of place or space in 30 years of battling this problem. 2007 is my year. I am very happy.

One of the things I am doing is treating myself to more than one Tea stick each day. Shaklee now has added a yummy red tea to the Cinch lineup. It is Pomegranate Tea. I enjoy sipping the Cinch teas as I work throughout the day. I am now having one stick of each flavor per day.

Now, let me tell you about what made me laugh my head off on Monday. I went to Chicago and stayed on the program. I even told Houlihan's that I wanted green beans with my chicken wrap instead of the fries. Mercy, where is Karen??!!! Anyway, normally, I drink 4 or so glasses of water each day, the 30 ounce Tupperware tumbler size. In Chicago, I forgot to bring my bottled water from home and was so rushed, I only bought a couple of 12 ounce bottles each day. The program was so good, I didn't get up and refill my water from the pitchers in the back of the room. I got home on Sunday. Monday morning, I weighed myself and WOW, all "9 pounds" found me again. I just laughed my head off. I knew there was no way I ate 31,500 extra calories in 2 days to cause a true weight gain, especially staying on program. So I patiently continued the program and thought to myself, gee, this is going to be an interesting week. Sure enough, each day, 3 pounds gone. So I "re-lost" the 9 pounds in 3 days this week. Today, one more pound was gone, which is further down the scale on my way to the goal.

On Wednesday, I had the chance to ask the Shaklee medical doctor who was in charge of the Cinch development program about this "weight gain" this week. I told her I stayed on the program and she asked me about my water intake. I told her it was about 80% less than normal each day while I was traveling for 2 and a half days. She told me that I was dehydrated and my body was compensating for a period of water scarcity. She sounded shocked at the AMOUNT of the weight gain, but I laughed and assured her that I had so much to lose that this much was to be expected. This was on a conference call and I know she doesn't know who I am. Once she sees me, this probably would not have raised an eyebrow. My sister is a doctor and I told her about this water thing this week and she agreed with Dr. Jamie.

So this week, I got to "re-lose" my weight loss, because my body was trying to protect me from a drought. Now I know nature is a miracle and has wondrous ways of compensating to keep us alive. In some way, I wish we could talk to our body and say, "hey, don't worry, I will drink a lot of water when I get home" and then it wouldn't have to go to the effort to store it like a camel, for pete's sake. But our embedded physiological makeup does not listen to our brain, sigh.

But here is the happy note. Before, I would have just thrown my hands up in the air and said, screw this, it isn't worth it, and left the program. But because I wasn't hungry and having no deprivation issues, I was able to ride out this "setback", which I don't consider a setback. It just is what it is.

Today I was at a family baby shower. We are blessed that my cousin, who was told she would never have kids, is due on February 14th. It is interesting that she got pregnant one month after consuming the Shaklee basics vitamin strips!!! Her doctor required her to take tests every which way from Sunday because she didn't believe my cousin was really pregnant and the baby was going to be normal. However, I digress. At the shower today, they served the Subway 6 foot subs, some fruit stuff in a sauce with a sugary sauce we were supposed to drip over that. Then there was a slaw kind of salad. I had a small slice of the sub, and the slaw. I also had a small piece of the home made cake, knowing that I was fine, both calorically and protein/carb/fat ratio-wise. Now I did resist going for 2nd and 3rd pieces of cake as well as a plate of potato chips, which is appetite and habit. I have never understood how thin people just stay with one piece of cake out of habit and ignore the bowl of chips. My thin sister eats a piece of pie and leaves the crust!!! What is up with that??!! Well, it could be that when you aren't HUNGRY, it is easy to resist gluttony. I am learning that. I had no problems ignoring all those extra cake pieces today and that bowl of chips.

This entry has been a bit long today, but this has been an eventful week. I wanted to figure out what was happening with the weight fluctuations this week so I could accurately post what the real deal was. So, my 3rd week anniversary on this program is Tuesday. If I don't come back before then, check in then. Happy Cinching.