back on the plan, man

the aforementioned "plan" being LA weight loss. i was on it about 2 years ago, and lost 40 lbs. down to 140. then i moved and broke up with john and was generally having a sucky life, and i gained back 20 lbs. that has got to stop. so on friday (that would be yesterday, for those of you who have lost track) i went to the clinic in center city (16th and sansom, for anyone who cares). i had a bunch of questions that i needed answered before i would commit, and the manager, jamie, answered them satisfactorily, so i joined. basically, i wanted to be able to combine the regular and vegetarian plans (i didn't like/couldn't afford eating meat twice a day), and i was concerned about being able to manage it, since i had been hungry all the time when i was on it before. so jamie put me on a different plan that allows more food. we'll see. i think the main thing is the prospect of having to show my face there several times a week, and get weighed--that's motivation for me, for sure!

so today and tomorrow i'm doing the "take off" phase, which essentially consists of eating hardly anything (and certainly no carbs) and drinking some special drink. but i'm supposed to drop up to 10 pounds in 2 days, and i can't argue with that! since i knew i was going to be eating "well" for 19 weeks, last night for dinner i totally splurged and had french fries, an italian hoagie with everything, and a whole pint of ben and jerry's. i was stuffed.

i have a goal weight of 125 (i haven't weighed 125 since, well, probably about 6th grade). so that's 35 lbs i've got to lose, and they tell me that should take 19 weeks, at 2 lbs/week. then, 6 weeks of stabilization (introduction of higher calorie foods), and finally maintenance, where i'm supposed to prove i can keep the weight off. they have this new rebate thing, where if you stay within 5 lbs of your goal weight for 6 months after starting the maintenance phase they refund 25% of the program cost. then another 25% if you maintain goal for another 6 months. i can hope...