HCG Day 14 - Update

I haven't been blogging as much lately about how the HCG diet is going. But some of you have emailed me or asked me, so I thought I'd do an update.

It's fine. Just fine.

Hunger: Totally manageable
Weight: Gradually losing (averaging 1/2 lb per day)
Clothes: Getting baggier
Ability to Resist Temptation: depends on the day

Overall, I feel good about things. My hunger is completely under control. By that I mean that, yes, I am occasionally hungry. But I'm not starving like I was the first 3 days. I have plenty of energy, my brain is working fine, I feel normal. And if I do get hungry, I eat a grissini breadstick or eat a few strawberries and I'm fine again. It's no worse than when I was on Weight Watchers and had reduced my caloric intake. Only I'm losing weight way faster than Weight Watchers.

I've also gotten a pretty good feel for what to eat. I have my smoothie for breakfast, then I eat fish or shrimp for lunch with cooked spinach or cabbage or broccoli. Or chicken breast on salad greens. Ditto for dinner, only I usually have steak or ground beef. I have a breadstick or two between meals if I need it (most days I don't). And then after dinner to kill off my sweet tooth, I'll eat strawberries with Steveia or make an apple crisp (using Melba toast ground to crumbs, mixed with cinnamon and Stevia, sprinkled over an apple and baked). I drink a lot of water and occasionally herbal tea or crystal light.

The hardest thing with this diet has been consistency. I've had trouble both of the last weekends with having to go places where food was not in my control. A ward party, a family dinner, and of course my own birthday, for which, I'll have you know, I ate perfectly all day and only allowed myself 1 piece of pizza, 1 cupcake, and 1 slice of cake for dinner. That was a serious test of will since normally on my birthday I pig out on every good thing I can think of. (Also because the chocolate ganache cupcakes my friend Kati made me might possibly have been the mos delicious thing I've ever eaten and I wanted to eat 4 or 5, not 1). Anyway, both weekends, the day after I ate things I shouldn't have, my weight slowed, and the day after that I showed no loss or a small gain. That has set me back 4 days overall. It's amazing how much my body sucks up any fat or sugar I eat on this diet. Normally, eating 1 pork taco with salsa for dinner wouldn't affect my weight at all. In fact, I'd consider it dieting normally. But on this diet, your body is eliminating the fat to such an extent that any fat/sugar taken in is immediately metabolized back into normal fat stores.

So aside from that, and I am learning to try to stay away from any situations where I can't eat my usual foods, the diet is going well. Some days I wish my loss was bigger/faster (the last 3 days have been only .4 loss /day. Normally that is a lot, but on this diet, closer to 1 lb is normal). But in the next week before my VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) ends, if I can lose another 3 lbs, I'll still be my lowest weight in at least 10 years. And that is a good thing.

Starting next Tuesday, I will no longer take HCG. I will continue the VLCD for 2 days to let the medicine get out of my system. Then I begin phase 2 of the diet, the Maintenance Phase.

Any other questions? Feel free to ask.


Daily Weight Loss: 1 1/2 lbs!!!
Total Weight Loss: 7 lbs
(FYI, after several days of small losses, I decided to rededicate myself to the Protocol. I had been making more and more minor changes that I think were affecting my weight loss. So yesterday I did an experiment where tried to stick exactly to the Protocol. I drank way more water, avoided salt, plus no diet drinks, no yogurt, no 0-calorie butter spray, no forbidden veggies. I stuck as strictly to the protocol as I could, and obviously it worked!)