This morning I woke up in pain, more pain than usual I should say. My limbs were all aching, my throat felt like it had been cheese grated, and my body was all swollen and bloated. What caused it? Who knows. Although it looks like I gained weight this week, I don’t think that I actually did. I know that at one point this week I was down to 278. I’m not sure what’s going on with my body but my swelling has been slowly going down all day. My hands are almost back to normal now.

So, no progress this week from most appearances but I did lose a bit from my hips. My hips and my neck I lost from, everywhere else supposedly gained but I really think that it was just from really bad bloat. With working out four times and eating so little calories all week it would be physically impossible for me to have gained weight. Maybe it’s from being sick, maybe from the medicine, maybe from too much V8 juice, who knows.

I started Phase Two today (WOOHOO!!) and had some steel cut oats for breakfast. They were heavenly. I cooked one cup of oats in three cups of water and then added a heaping spoonful of peanut butter, a dash of vanilla extract, salt to taste, and some milk for texture. It was perfect. I am so excited for breakfast tomorrow.

Later in the day I had some blueberries. Oh. My. Goodness. I had forgotten how good they taste. I ate 3/4 cup one at a time and as I put each one in my mouth and squished it with my tongue I just let the flavor explode in my mouth and it was a heavenly experience.

I’ve been counting my calories despite the fact that the South Beach Diet says not to, I’m just trying to make sure that I get enough calories. I improved a bit today but I still am short of the 2000 that I am supposedly supposed to be getting.

Oh, goals for the week:

1) Sleep by 2am
2) Workout four times
3) One upper body weight training, one lower body weight training
4) Plan six meals a day