Maintenance Phase (P3R1) Day #1

Hello everybody! It is a beautiful day! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I am eating! Actually, I am not literally eating this minute, but I have had some really yummy foods today, which has been a welcome change. It's kind of surreal eating stuff other than the very low calorie diet foods. Especially the fats.
My weight was up a little bit this morning, to 177.4 (.6 from yesterday)... I am not really worried about it. I think its just one of those normal fluctuations. Like I said earlier, the time to worry and take action is when those upper or lower 2 lbs are exceeded. We will see what tomorrow brings.
For breakfast today I had 2 eggs scrambled in butter (oh, yum) and an avocado (double yum). For lunch I had chicken salad made of canned chicken breast, mayonnaise (the real stuff), chopped up celery, a few cut up grapes and some seasonings, and I ate that in little romaine lettuce "boats". Oh my, it was so good. I made some coconut bark (aka cocoa-crack because some say its more addictive than crack! ha ha). It is made of coconut oil (which is, by the way amazing, if you like coconut), cocoa powder, vanilla and sweetener (I used Splenda). It is really good. I can't wait to play around with the recipe and try things like peanut butter, nuts, coconut in it, stuff like that. It is melt in your mouth good... hard to believe its so good for you!
This morning I realized that most of my life I have been trying to avoid fat like the plague. As I put butter in the pan to cook my eggs, I realized that the only times I have allowed myself to eat butter as far back as I remember is when I am in diet rebellion mode. I am so interested to see if I really can be healthy and maintain my weight on a diet with a good dose of healthy fats. There's still a part of me that is skeptical, but I am willing to try this and make adjustments as necessary. So far, the HCG protocol has worked for me exactly like Dr. Simeons said it would, so I'm going to keep trusting it!
One thing I noticed was that after eating my breakfast, I was not at all hungry again until about 2pm. Even walking through Costco with all the samples and the smell of pizza wafting through the store, I had no desire to eat. I think one of the benefits of having a good amount of fat in the diet is the satiation that fats give.
This morning I also went to the gym. I ran (OK, jogged) for about 20 min and walked on an uphill incline for another 10 or so. I really didn't want to overdue it, as I haven't really worked out since January, before I had pneumonia. I am just going to do what feels good at the gym, and what I did today felt very good. I look forward to working out often while I am on this maintenance phase.
Tonight we are going to dinner with my parents, who invited us out to celebrate the "end" of the low calorie part of the diet. They are so supportive and generous and I appreciate them so much! Thanks mom and dad! We are going to Ruby Tuesday's, because they have mashed cauliflower (kinda like potatoes, but not) that I have been wanting to try. I am going to have a steak, mashed cauliflower, and a salad with ranch dressing. Doesn't that sound good? I just hope that I will be hungry by the time we get there around 5... like I said my breakfast stayed with me a long time, and lunch may be the same way!
Well, this is getting pretty long, but I had a lot to say (as usual). I hope its a beautiful day for everybody else reading this! Time to go take a shower (with conditioner! and then lots of lotion after! woo hoo).