The new crown is settling in but still needed adjustment as I was still more in pains then not, still could not eat properly and drinking any diet coke over the milk days was impossible. Got an adjustment yesterday and I think this might now finally be it for that.

During the week my weight was continuing to climb. The 2 milk days brought me again down to almost where I was last week. But I am not fooled, my body weight has not yet reset. The body fat percentage has climbed 2.5% over the past few weeks. I am still not able not to fall into bingeing at times – Halloween and too much left over candies any one?

For this reason I announced to my Accu Diet counselor this morning on the phone that I intend of going back 2 steps and onto veggies and protein mainly and that I want to do that for 2 weeks and to get the weight settled around my end goal weight without having to have milk days in between. This did not fall onto happy ears, cutting back and having just veggies and protein yes, but not that I want to make it without any milk days.

The counselor even stated that 2 milk days are needed for the chemical balance and to flush the body of wastes from the former 5 days and that 1 milk day is not enough for that. This actually confused me, because I was told earlier, that once you are through transition you only do one or two milk days if you have gained during the week. But maybe this “has to be 2 days” approach is what you need and do during Transition?

I definitely want to get my weight truly locked in before Thanksgiving, actually even before the 22nd as then my dad will come visiting and by then I do not want to have myself on a too restrictive diet any longer but rather be in Maintenance mode.

The wedding was great, but I was having all those pains from the temporary crown and had a hard time eating. But with the help of painkillers I still managed to gain weight, even though for the most we did not overdo it. 8 hours on the roads, twice in 3 days, that was the hardest part food wise.

On Monday I then went to the dentist to receive the final crown. And more pains while others went away. My jaws are all locked up by now, biting anything harder than a raw bell pepper is impossible and I fear that I will never again be able to eat normally or drink anything colder than lukewarm.

But there where good news all the same. I had my blood work done and all numbers came back in great shape. My doctor said she’d be happy if more of her patients would take care like that of themselves. That comment went down like honey! The only thing which was too elevated was my thyroids, they showed as being a bit over-active.

Drumroll please. OVER ACTIVE thyroids !! Last year they where under-active and for that reason I was put onto thyroid supplements. Why the drumroll? Because finally all my unexplained chills and elevated heart rate since on the diet fell into place. That are symptoms of over-active thyroids! Woohoo. Not menopause symptoms. Nope. Obviously the Accu Diet kicked my thyroids right back into gear and with the daily supplement it became more than I needed. Reducing the amount of the supplement drastically has fully handled the problem.

After cracking and breaking one of my fillings in a tooth I first had a temporary filling to get me over the weekend when we were photographing a wedding in Minnesota. That week had been painful by itself, but not for the temporary filling but for my migraines coming back – which had been gone for months now.

Last week I received my temporary crown and ever since I’m really in pain. Avoiding medication where I can, I am not a happy camper to have Advil suddenly becoming part of my life and the only thing which allows me to get through a night or a day.

Weight wise I am trying to stabilize, but since I got the taste of sugar, wheat and oils last week I am having a very hard time getting back down to moderation. The weight shows it, I’m increasing, even with 2 milk days. And I have another out of town wedding to photograph this weekend. It should be less invasive on my weight, but I’m still worried.

I knew exactly that this week would not be “good”. And as good as I can be, just as bad can I be too. And I knew I would be. Not much more to expect of myself after over 8 weeks of complete absence from anything remotely sugary, floury or cheesy and also no breads, no pasta, no wine, no oil… and no chocolate. And five days away from control and home, on the road, for a wedding, to meet family and friends but also business meetings with a few clients.

Thus I was really not surprised to see the jump in weight when I came back. Put myself on 2 days milk of which today is the second. Already my weight has dropped again well, but it needs still some little work.

This coming week is a good week to get my balance back. End of next week there is another trip out of town for another wedding – hey, that would be the fifth one this year!  But I do not think that it will be as bad as the last week, that was just my all out. Now it’s the path to balance and to truly stabilize for the future which means moderation with some foods and a lot of others.

I am looking forwards to the next few weeks to get it really well under control and balance.

I had nothing get between me and my 6 per day allowance of candies. Those were what helped me through the evenings. I personally did not need any pepermint oil or Jello (ugh, I hated that!) and even the ice popsicles made of allowed Cristal Light stuff I did not care for. The Skinny Dippers were good, one a week on average was plenty. But not the candy. The candies I loved. Which is all fine as they are part of what you can do during protocol.

BUT DO NOT BITE THEM.

OF COURSE you know you should not bite them. So do I. But how often does one listen? I plain LOVE to bite my candies, I think I am not even able to suck them “normally”. YEARS of biting plus intense daily biting over the past 8 weeks now took their toll: it broke one of my old – 12 years or more – fillings and shoved 1/2 of it up and further in. It did not hurt. But last night I noticed with my tongue that the teeth were not even and today after lunch I suddenly felt a hole. EMERGENCY! I knew I could not leave it for our out-of-town trip, I definitely did not want to end up with some kind of infection or ridiculous pains. I was so, so lucky to find a dentist who could still fit me in! He said I got my money worth out of that filling, it’s not so unusual that they break because this was one, way too big for the tooth. This means, no re-filling but – ugh – my very first Porcelain CROWN. This makes me feel old. Oh well. If I would have resisted the urges to bite my candies, I am sure it would had lasted another 2 or 5 years. That’s an expensive biting treat! $1,200. Ouch. Lesson learned: you can find a dentist even in a clinch and:

DO NOT BITE YOUR HARD CANDIES !!!

It will be actually a stress test week because I’ll be 5 days out of town: wedding, client meetings, friends dinner out, family dinners… I don’t have so much action usually in 2 months and now all combined in 1 week. As I have lost this much during transition, I am not too worried. It will be definitely interesting. I will NOT begin writing what all I am now indulging in or able to eat – it is too personalized the transition and my path could be very different from what you will experience.

Following my good-by letter to the accu-list – this group of people, old timers helping and newbies learning plus everything in between – has been a big part of my success during this program. Only fair to say thank you.

Thank you.

Alright, guys and gals – today I am on my first day of week 4 on my transition and I am moving on to the accu-grads list. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone here for helping each other as you do.

I consider my “voyage” (trip) on the beads a super experience and I am really happy to finally have gotten back “my” body I had lost 10 years ago.

For those fretting about transition I have a little tidbit: I was horrified that I might gain again 1 or 2 pounds back on it and so I ensured to be actually 1 pound below my end goal number when I started on transition. If I would have known then what I know now, I would have saved a whole week: during the past 3 weeks on transition I lost another 7.5 pounds! Now, I know this is a tad unusual to lose this much – I attribute it to my metabolism kick starting back into gear due to the diet and now burning again way better then it had over the past few years – I mainly want to point out that: yes, start transition when you are at your goal, no need to try and over-shoot it.

By the way – from being a 10/12 I am now a 6 (I am 5′10″), oh wow and my underwear is a 5 and considered a Small at Target. My new set of bra’s has the same size of cup but from a 38 I went to a 34. That’s 4 inches less fat. The fitting lady was really impressed that I did not lose on my cup size! But this is what you’ll hear here over and over again: you lose fat, not muscles or flesh.

There are only 2 things I recommend for all on basics:

a) if you have enough energy, do some light exercising from the beginning.

You are going to lose weight so tremendously fast that your outer layers of your skin will be happy if you help it a little and for this reason doing some regular toning (not heavy weight lifting!) helps wonders on the way to a new you.

b) try committing yourself 100% and adhere to the absolute no BLT – no Bite, no Lick, no Taste.

It is not the calories which will mess you up, it is the chemistry as this diet works these wonders because it only contains milk and veggies. No vinegar, no oil, no protein, no starches, no flour, no sugars, no nothing. That one – single lick of salad dressing containing vinegar can set you back a week.

I know I was lucky, the timing of my participating was perfect. I had no major obligations during 2 months or only such which I could handle without falling off the wagon. And even though I had a horrible rough emotional few weeks due to a loss (which usually would have resulted in bingeing), the protocol and the rubbing of the beads helped me during the hard times by allowing me to cling to the routine of the protocol. And this diet was such an opportunity for me to finally be done with the 10-year diet which lead to nowhere (aren’t you sick and tired of always thinking “I should diet”, only to falter again?) and to do it with no hunger and with such an easy to follow protocol, it felt to me personally like a “last chance” to really make it and in no way was I going to mess that up.

Wishing you all a smooth ride to YOUR goal.

You are worth it and you can do it.

—marlyse

Haha. If I would have known, I would have gone onto transition a week earlier.

I am on my last day of week three of transition and I have lost unexpectedly another 7 pounds during those 3 weeks! I am actually battling, not to lose more because I do not want to end up with that what is called to be underweight – yeeks! I’m doing this by lightly “cheating” here and there, such as not to only eat two small fruits a day but either having a third one on that day or to eat large fruits instead. But even so – the weight is still dropping.

Isn’t this a great problem to have?!

Of course, this next week will be a big test, with 5 days out of town, client meeting(s) next to a wedding and dinners out with old friends long time not seen – I am sure I’ll work my way back up on those 7 pounds pretty darn fast. The nice thing about this (probable) fact is that I do not have to worry if or if not it will happen.