Missing meals

Marc and I are now on our last week of the most painful part of the HCG diet (the starvation 500 calorie-a-day part) and it's been a tough go.
We're whining and crying.
This is our second time through so we thought we were better prepared.
But maybe because we are a little older and maybe because we did pretty well the first time as diet newbies, we thought this would be easier.
We knew what we were getting ourselves into pretty much. Nothing but fish and chicken and lettuce for lunch and dinner for 21 days starting with an orange, an apple, a grapefruit or six strawberries for breakfast.
But it hasn't been easier.
I think it's been infinitely harder and we watched the days go slowly by.
I'm not sure why it's been so difficult but it's definitely been a mental as well as a physical challenge.

A meal these days

Maybe it's because we've been more strict with ourselves — the minestrone bean soup from Olive Garden that was a mainstay before was ruled inadmissable. So was the chili we relied on.
I've been home and Marc has been at the office, the reverse of our former work situations so I've had to deal with living with available food at my beck and call and he's been packing a hearty lunch of fish and apples.
We're also convinced that the TV stations have upped the number of good food commercials they show at prime time. Never have restaurant entrees and desserts looked so delicious.
I think we're also more anxious for the pounds to fall away and although we've both now lost what we did during the entire diet last time, we're greedy. We want more for our suffering, like an extra 10 lb. loss.
But we're almost home free and we're noticing a change in how we fit into our clothes. We've both lost a chin or two.
Next Monday we can have eggs again and bacon and milk and cheese and we can hardly wait. If we watch the sugars and the starch, we can almost have dessert.
Protein replenishment — here we come!