RESULTS ARE NOT TYPICAL

It's true. There are so many factors that go into weight loss, that the smartest thing to do is to just compare yourself with yourself, and remember all your own personal factors.

I was tempted to be disappointed with the weigh in this morning. Wait, wait, wait. Back up. First I should tell you what my mindset is as far as using the scale. I prefer to step on the scale each and every morning. It works for me. For some it could be totally bad. But I figure that as long as I keep my own personal factors in mind, I'm good. My morning weigh reflects how I did the previous day. I don't want to weigh in once a week and have to remember details from a whole week in order to analyze which behaviors work and which probably don't. In fact, I weigh myself every night before bed. I know so much about how much I weigh at different times of day and under several different circumstances--and I like it. It works for me.

Several months ago I read, in a book, to commit TODAY, to step on the scale every single day for the rest of my life. Well, I do understand and respect the fact that for some people that would be a bad idea. That being said, I did commit to step on the scale every day for the rest of my life. And I have! (Although I did not take the scale to Disneyland in August). After all, I'd already been doing that for a long time anyway.

I so easily lose track if I don't step on that scale. It is so easy for me to justify a little extra bite of something here and there. And now that I have little girls who leave so much food behind on their plates, and older boys who can be particularly picky, it's hard to not eat off of their leftovers. But they do add up. They do make a difference. And it's really not in my favor! Same thing with licking my fingers when I bake, or whatever it is. Whenever I'm tempted to do that, I just know I'll pay for it in the morning by feeling disappointed with the number on the scale. And when I give in anyway, the scale does indeed reflect it, allowing me to renew my commitment to do better that very day. Not a whole week later when my extra little side eating is a little fuzzy in my memory.

At any rate, yesterday morning I stepped on the scale. I got an official "start weight" for the juice fast. Unfortunately, Sunday I made a few allowances for myself, like those cookies I wrote about. I also had some of the kids' leftover pizza. I mean, come on! I hadn't had ANYTHING even slightly bad for 2 whole months, and was facing 2 weeks of straight vegetable and fruit juice. And I make homemade pizza for my kids every single weekend, and always have passed it up in favor of my alternative menu plan. Yes, I've had the homemade pizza before. But week after week goes by, and I pass up that darn pizza. So once in 2.5 months--why not, right?

So Monday morning my weight was up to 196. Grrr! But look at that, it reflected my Sunday eating. I wasn't too worried, though, because I knew that with juicing it would all be gone again very quickly. I can't deny it, I was WAY excited to get on the scale this morning.

Let's back up again just for a sec. Joe Cross did his juice fast for 60 days. He lost 80 pounds. Then Phil did it for 60 days. Phil is this truck driver guy that Joe met while he was on the road during the last 30 days of his juice fast. Phil decided a few months after that to give Joe a call and get started on his own. Anyway, he ended up losing even more than Joe did. I can't remember Phil's exact number, but he did say he lost "9 bowling balls." =) Then my mom did a 5 day juice fast a couple of weeks ago, and ended up losing 10 pounds.

Now. I need to remember that the primary purpose for doing the fast is not weight loss. It's cleansing. I have to keep that mindset, because it's true. The weight loss is definitely a fringe benefit, though, and I have to admit that it does seem to be my driving force for motivation. I fight that, but let's just face the truth. I want the weight loss. I've been trying to guess at how much loss I should expect. And I had really thought that I would at least break even after day one. That would mean weighing in at 193 again. And honestly, I really thought I would be at least 192! I didn't think that was an unrealistic guess.

But I guess it was, because this morning I was 194! =( Terrible. But luckily for me, I keep my personal factors in mind, and I got over it pretty quick. I mean, it is true that results aren't typical. I have spent the past 2 months eating 500 calories a day (it's an HCG thing, don't freak out, it was totally fine). I haven't eaten sugar or cheese or anything. My body has been in the mode of getting vegetables, fruit, lean meat and a small amount of grain. So I did not start this juice fast with a bunch of sugar, sodium, starch, etc. to flush out of my system. I have to remember that since I was already eating so well, I will probably not be lucky enough to get that initial major loss. And that's okay! I'm glad I don't have soda to quit cold turkey, or candy or treats or anything else. I did have that stuff on Sunday, but I wouldn't call that any kind of build up.

So now I'm pretty curious about how tomorrow's weigh in will be, and how it will be for the rest of the two weeks. To be honest, I had really really hoped to get a 20 pound loss out of this fast. I'm betting that's unrealistically high. I think I'm going to have to be extremely happy if I am able to squeeze out a 15 pound loss.

I have to maintain for the entire month of November, up to Thanksgiving. So I won't have any loss to look forward to. But I am convinced that the maintenance at that time will be more valuable to me than any lost pounds, so it's all good. Still!

I am hoping to be 177 by Halloween. And I say that with no idea AT ALL if it will happen. The good thing is, it's pretty much out of my control. I will do what I'm going to do with my juice, and take whatever loss I get. And then maybe I'll have a better idea what to expect for the next juice fast in December.