*SIGH*

One of 'those' weeks ... up, down, up down, UP ... yep, mostly up ... even my inches ... that just isn't right, but those 'in the know' tell me that is common in week two with water weight filling up the empty fat pockets and that it will disappear quickly.

My biggest UP this week? It was a happy UP .. my baby girl bought me tickets to fly to Seattle and join her for a trip to CA to see the rest of the family ... or most of them, we'll only have a couple days .... in May. I was hoping to see her before she heads for Hawaii, but just couldn't see it in the cards. She has been such a blessing to me .. I'm a lucky mom!

Downs, just come and go ... nothing important to share.

I am sticking strickly to protocol, drinking tons of water, cutting out the caffeine early in the day .. not eating late. Have learned if I am eating beef, it should be for lunch and that I HAVE to keep those calories as close to 500 as possible or I'll stop losing for sure.

Was shocked to see a big gain this morning of 1.4 lbs ... am sad but as I said, folks assured me it would be gone shortly and was only water ... I will feel better when I see that reflected in the scale! I so want to get through this in a positive mode with a significant start .. knowing that will make the next round easier! Am hoping that two rounds will be enough.

For those of you who don't know .. this round will include 3 weeks of adding more calories without sugars and starch and another three weeks of adding those to get to 'normal' calorie intake for whatever weight you are at. This is a stabilization period which also allows your body to reshape and adjust to the new weight. Once you do those 6 weeks, you may start the next round. If you must do more rounds to lose more, your stabilization period is increased about two weeks for each round.

Onward and downward ... Happy Scales to those of you working this journey also .. however you are doing it!