Last night was my first night with 500cal. I wont lie. At times it was pretty hard. As my beautify wife (who wishes to remain nameless) would characterize it "my mouth was hungry but my belly was not." I was not having pangs of hunger, but I was craving the comforting crunch of a late night snack. I was in fact, looking for that tiny and temporary dopamine fix that I all to frequently turn to food for. I settled on a tall glass of water with a little lemon juice in it -- that did the trick. I slept fine and woke up early. I was able to go about my morning routine without any problems and I can say in all honesty that I was not hungry when I woke up. I took my shot and washed down the three supplements I am still taking then left for work. Everything gets a little grey at that point. Stepping out of my house, I was immediately accosted by my long time foe -- hay fever. My nose started running, I started sneezing, I started in with a cold sweat and as a result of the running nose (and post nasal drip) I was hungry by the time I got to work. I worked through my 9:15 meeting and then finally got to my breakfast -- coffee. Oh coffee you magical elixir. Halfway through my coffee my allergies started to get a little better and my hunger went away. I am still feeling feverish and my eyes are foggy, but I'm confident that that will pass when my allergy pills kick in. My weight was 273.4 a net loss of 1.6 pounds from my first day of vlcd (very low calorie diet). I'm convinced that the evening cravings will pass by the end of the weekend. I went through something similar when I did Atkins 11 years ago. I've been very pleased with the support my wife has been giving me during this process, despite her reservations and I've been getting awesome support from surprising places -- though much to my great shame they should not have been surprising at all. I'm reminded that part of this healing process has to happen on the inside too and part of that healing is allowing myself to have faith and trust in the people in my life, who have never given me cause for doubt. It's been hard learning to trust and its good to know I have people in my life worthy of that trust. So, now I'm off to get some work done and finish my morning coffee. I'll post again this time tomorrow... until then...