Over the course of the last week I lost another 2.5 pounds – which I had not planned for. What I’ve lost I tend to regain in muscle mass and weight. Have been going regularly 2x a week now to swim and also my daily treadmill routine is beginning again to feel like a routine. I’ve even began sticking to my additional weight lifting regimen. My body fat has also nicely reduced and stabilized at a lower level. Hoping to improve this even more with regular workout. To get my inner fluids running nicely, I ordered a rebounder and am looking forward to incorporate this in my whole regimen.

This morning I had a personal talk with the person from Accu Weight guiding me through my transition time. And I can add 2 new items to my regime! This will be a great addition. I definitely am feeling stronger since I’ve got protein added back into my meal plan and I also no longer am suffering under the chills and heat spells. Finally I can do my long awaited Frittata!

I splurged on a specialty pot for cooking asparagus – if it arrives today, that’s what I’ll have, on the other hand, making some butternut squash fries also sounds very tempting and I’m not sure what sounds better to me. Isn’t this a nice problem to have?

The big win though that I had this morning was looking for a pair of pants that fit me from my closet.

I knew that from a pair of slacks I like wearing that I had the same pants a size smaller in a 10, sitting far to the back tucked away. I had bought them either 2 or 3 years ago, thinking at the time that I’m almost there and with a little diet I could wear them. Since them I tried maybe 2 or 3 times to get in them but it was either not possible or such a squeeze it was ridiculous. So there they were, still tagged from the store. Of course you know what is coming: I tried them on and they went over hips and all in one fellow swoop. Not only do I fit into them, they are on the verge of falling off my hips and being too big! I hope they’ll keep on holding for another 2 weeks, I had not planned on buying clothes during the diet for the short time period I’m going to be on it. Hey, almost FALLING OFF. That’s a win. Definitely room between waste and body. Super cool. Last time I was down to this weight was 6 years ago when we moved to Kansas.

Weight is beautifully dropping – almost 10 pounds since I began – but I still feel that I need to drink more. I do see the recommended amount rather as a minimum, the reason being that this is the same guideline I use for when I am not on a diet.

Today might be a bit of a challenge day as I’ve decided to face a get-together. But, even though I’ll have to skip on all of the good food and drink I am quite certain that I can overcome the cake and ice cream with one of these sweet Cherry Coke Zero’s.

Feeling a tad weak. My sleeping times are not yet back to normal, too late to bed and too late up for my liking and I believe this has its influence. I have also not yet gone back to my normal treadmill workout routine which I am beginning to miss.

The tingling and numbness in my left arm have diminished, a back massage from my husband helped a lot, I do have a muscle clump between shoulder blades and the spine. Still working on improving this

I am still having these odd hot flashes – chill freeze spells. It appears that this is totally unusual. They have been less severe yesterday but are still ongoing today. This morning I noticed a bite on the side of  my body with some swelling and redness and pain in the surrounding area. Seeing it I remember that I got that on Saturday. Flashes of warnings like “deadly brown recluse bite” are dancing now in my head and I am following these alarm bells and investigating with a few Google searches to see if there is any warrant for being worried and if that might be the cause of the body flashes.

These two symptoms have so far not troubled me too much. Sometimes I feel a slight headache lurking, but twice I could completely get rid of it with a Diet Coke. The other symptom I have not (yet) encountered.

But what I have is 2-fold and it both could be a coincident… but then again maybe not.

The first is that my left arm feels kind of numb and at times tingly, especially in my pinky and ring finger. At times the feeling grows stronger and then less. Knowing about heart attach symptoms, I am watching out and observing strongly. Currently though it seems to shift and the source to possibly come from my back, between shoulder blade and spine. I’ll have my husband give me a massage and maybe this will take care of the problem.

What worries me less but is by far more irritable is that I have really strong, sudden hot or cold flashes with either sweat pouring down on me or making my teeth chitter - and shopping in Americas overly air-conditioned malls doesn’t help here either -, or it’s a combination of that I suddenly freeze under the sweat.

Now, it could be that my menopause decided to start the same day that I go onto the program. I’m wondering if this is something some people experience when on the program. I am not concerned, just curious. It started with hot patches, similar you can get from Niacin (a vitamin B), like red and hot around the elbows or such, at first I really thought I’m just sweating stuff out of my system as it also works as a detox during the first days and a detox program I had done many years ago had caused some similar reactions.

Yes, this sweating and then again freezing or both at the same time is definitely the most cumbersome so far, especially when trying to sleep or when interacting with other people.

Next to that I was beginning to feel a slight headache building, but I knew it was my mistake because I did not drink enough this morning as I was so engulfed in a project for which my client is under a deadline. I took a dash of salt with almost 2 cups of water and am now sipping my very first DIET COKE – who would have thought that I’d ever go into the pit and consume anything that contains Aspartame? But, after the first 3 disgusting sips it’s not as horrid (far from good though) and my headache has disappeared.

What worries me far more currently is that my left arm feels somewhat numb, right by the arm pit and then the pinky and ring fingers, the feeling is between tingling and being numb. I know I was sitting partially odd, so this could be it, but with all the warnings you always read about signs of a possible heart attach, I am definitely watching… and worried. Hope it will go away soon.