Jason, you are doing great! Isn't this wonderful?
Pretty soon, after you are completely finished with your cold, you will probably notice that you have more energy than usual, etc. Most of us see those benefits anyway. And, if you have been suffering from blood pressure a little higher than you'd like to see it, you might very well see the blood pressure go down into a better range. I did anyway - went from about 145-150/90 to 113/80 in just four weeks of eating this way.
I am still in the post-induction stall. Or, I should say, I'm still working on the 5 lbs. that my body decided to gain back in water weight (went on literally in a couple of days when I wasn't eating many carbs or calories so I know it was water weight.) I'm no longer as puffy - my body is adjusting - I've lost 2.2 lbs. of the excess weight so far and hope to lose the other 2.8 lbs. by the end of February or the first week of March.
Just warning the newbies, this isn't unheard of, to stall or gain back a few in water weight. Your body gets dehydrated those first two weeks, panics, and sends out antidiuretic hormones to try to get some of that water back. Some people stall for 3-5 weeks, some people like me even gain a couple three pounds back.
Please don't get discouraged during those 3-6 weeks of stall time. Your body is working so hard, still losing fat steadily, and you will probably notice your body shifting and reshaping itself during that time. Your body kind of has to have some time to adjust to losing this weight, before it's ready for the scale to go down again.
And that's okay. Because on this "diet" (I think of it as a way of eating rather than a diet, hence the quote marks) you aren't starving all the time, you aren't fighting with cravings every minute of the day (cravings might pop up here or there, but they won't be overwhelming like they are on other diets) and you just plain old feel better than normal instead of worse than normal like you do with most diets.
So the thing is, you can do this diet forever. It's not so hard. So since it's not so hard, you won't really mind if the weight doesn't come off all in the first month. You know that if you keep on the path, it will come off, and your body will become fitter and healthier.
I like to pick a date in the future - lately I have been thinking the first week of June - and tell myself to see how things are progressing then. I'm thinking by the first week of June, we will all have made visible progress towards our goals.
Firefly, you are doing awesome too! Let's all just keep on going, and see where we are when summer comes!