HCG Day 2

Day 2 was awful. I couldn't even begin to eat all the fatty horrible stuff I was supposed to. I was still completely full from the day before and my stomach did not feel good. What is amazing to me is that there are people who eat that way ALL THE TIME. Fast food, greasy food, high sugar and fat content, processed food... my body did not like it. I can't imagine anyone's body likes it. So I toned it down quite a bit for day 2, even though I was supposed to be living it up.

For breakfast I had 1/2 bowl of Mini Wheats.

For lunch I had a fish taco and a beef taco, a little rice and beans, a few chips with guac, and an apple beer. Not exactly excessive. But normally I would have had only one taco, no chips, and probably no drink.

For a snack I had two Tag-Alongs (Girl Scout Cookies) and 3/4 cup of milk.

For dinner I had a bowl of lobster bisque soup and 1/2 a can of Coke.

For dessert I had a piece of cheesecake.

So overall, not terribly over-the-top. But my stomach felt awful all day and I could not force myself to eat the turkey, spinach, artichoke sandwich I had gotten to go with my soup. It's still in the fridge. Anyone want it? It's delicious, I'm sure.


Now I'm at the start of Day 3, the day the real diet begins. Big Daddy and I went shopping last night and bought all the food we'd need for the next three weeks: halibut, shrimp, crab meat, ground beef, steaks, ground turkey and turkey breast (which isn't actually on the diet, but chicken is and turkey probably didn't exist in Italy in the 1960's when/where the doctor wrote this diet, so I'm sure he'd have put it on if it had.), cucumbers, asparagus, radishes, lettuces, tomatoes, a few other vegetables that I can't recall off hand, apples, strawberries, grapefruit, lemons, and oranges, hard breadsticks, and melba toast (these are the only carbs allowed). Plus some herbal tea and some Truvia. Truvia, if you haven't heard of it, is a natural sweetener from the Stevia plant. The leaves and stems are very sweet but contain no calories, so it truly is nature's perfect sweetener. We also bought some seasonings and stuff to dress up our meat. So this is what we will eat for the next three weeks:

100 grams of protein 2x a day
vegetables 2x a day
fruit 2x a day
melba toast/breadstick 2x a day
tea and water as much as possible
1 TBS of milk is also allowed (for coffee or tea, or wherever, I guess)

I took all the meat out and cut it down to the 100 gram size last night, which is just shy of 4 oz, and it actually didn't seem that small. I really don't think I'll be starving. Probably not 100% satisfied, but not starving I hope!

I'll update you tomorrow on how the first day of the real diet went.

And if you're bored by all the HCG talk and just want to know how much weight I'm losing, you can scroll down to the bottom of every HCG post and just look for this:

Daily Weight Loss: -0.6 lbs, Total Weight Loss +0.8 lbs

HCG Q & A

I've had some questions asked of me about this diet, so I thought I'd post some of my answers in case anyone else is wondering the same thing. If you've got more questions, please feel free to ask and I'll try to answer them as best I can based on my research.

Q: Do you really eat 500 calories a day on this diet?
A: Yes, you only EAT 500 calories a day. But the HCG unlocks the abnormal fat stores, which usually go untouched by dieting because the body first uses normal fat stores when there is a lack of calorie intake, so up to another 2000 calories a day are released into the blood stream from that fat. The reason behind it is that when a woman is pregnant and building a baby, her body needs to make sure that energy is pulled from stored fat, not from the muscle or healthy fat tissue that is becoming the baby. That's the whole key to using HCG. It is nature's way of making sure a woman can build a healthy baby. And I for one can vouch for the fact that my metabolism is awesome when I'm pregnant. I only gained 17 and 18 lbs with my two kids even though I ate like a fiend the entire time.

Q: Is it healthy to eat 500 calories?
A: Normally no. Normally that's called starvation and not only is it not good for you (because it forces the body to get energy from muscle tissue) but it also jacks up your metabolism. That's where the HCG intake is crucial. Like I said above, extra calories are being released into the blood stream as those resistant fat stores are broken down. So a person doesn't starve. in fact, their body is getting plenty of energy. Therefore not only are the fat stores broken down, the metabolism never goes into starvation mode.

Q: Can you keep the weight off?
A: Well, if you follow the whole diet--minimum 23 days on HCG + 21 days of maintanance diet (reintroducing fats and sugars slowly), you should have reset your hypothalamus to use the abnormal fat stores more readily. But like any post-diet, it depends on what the individual person does. If they go back to eating a lot and not exercising, yes, they will gain it back. If they maintain a reasonable diet with moderate exercise, they shouldn't. This diet requires people to continue to monitor weight every day for a while after the diet ends, and if weight goes up more than 2 lbs, there is a temporary food regimen the person can use to stop the weight gain. But again, it's all about what you do after the diet is done. The diet is not meant to be one you live on for the rest of your life. It's meant to get the weight off and then you have to be sensible to keep your weight. I think this is true of any diet or even gastric bypass: If you lose the weight, you have to eat and exercise in a way that will allow you to keep it off. Of course, this is all theory for now. We will see what happens to me once I go off! I have been pretty good about staying within 2-3 lbs of my current weight for the last 2 years, so I feel pretty confident that once I go off I can stay there. I'll keep you posted!

4) As for whether it is a fad diet that will later turn out to be dangerous, I highly doubt it. First of all, this diet has been around since the 1950's or 1960's. It has been used by obesity clinics on thousands and thousands of patients on several continents. And the amount of HCG used for the diet is 1/100th of what a pregnant woman's body produces in a day. (Pregnant woman 10,000 iu's of HCG per day, this diet 125-175 iu's). So I can't imagine that small amount could be unhealthy. I read through a lot of websites before starting this diet, and I couldn't find any sites that claimed any health dangers from it. And it's been around so long, that you'd think by now something would have come up if it were dangerous.

I hope that helped. I'm not an expert; I've just started. But I did have a lot of reservations about this diet and tried to research a lot before starting it. I really hope it works because I just didn't have much hope of ever losing these last 15 lbs without some help.

HCG Day 1 - Best Diet EVER

Day 1 and 2 of the HCG diet are called "Loading." When you load, you take your HCG (which for me is sublingual, not by injection. Because even using the seringe to mix my HCG concoction almost caused me to pass out) and you gorge on fats to build up your normal fat cells. This is what your body will live off of while it acclimates to the HCG and begins accessing the abnormal fat reserves. According to the diet, (tested through thousands of trials with obese patients) if you don't laod before you start, you find yourself very hungry until several days go by and the HCG kicks in.

And frankly, loading sounded pretty awesome to me.

So.....for breakfast yesterday I ate....

Eggs Benedict
hash browns
a side of pancakes
milk

I really didn't feel hungry at lunch time, so I just had one peanut butter chocolate chip cookie to tide me over until I was hungry enough to go eat again.

At 4pm I had...
A Six Dollar Mushroom Swiss Burger (1/2)
Fried Zucchini Rounds w/ Ranch dipping sauce
and an Oreo milkshake.

At 10pm, I had some dinner. Ish...

A five piece Chicken Fries and 1/2 a coke. Again, I wasn't really hungry.

I know, it sounds totally disgusting. But it was the most fun I've ever had on a diet EVER. Yes, I felt sick. Yes, I don't want to look at food ever again. Yes, I have to do it again today. Yes, the HCG is already kicking in and I didn't really feel hungry all yesterday or today. But still, to have a signed permission slip to eat all the things I never ever eat alone, let alone together, was like my birthday and Christmas combined.

Today on the menu...
Blueberry waffles and bacon
Steak quesadilla, chips and guacamole
Pizza hut PAN pizza with sausage and mushrooms
Lots of coke
Cheesecake
and if I can't think of anything else, there's always these delicious ideas from thisiswhyyourefat.com:




Cadbury Creme Eggs Benedict--
Sliced doughnuts topped with brownie mix, melted Cadbury Creme Eggs and frosting, garnished with red sprinkles and served with fried pound cake chunks.


Meta Meat Cake
Four types of sausage, bratwurst, chorizo, ground beef, ground pork, diced ham, Canadian bacon, pepperoni, hickory smoked bacon, hot cappy, queso blanco, provolone and sharp cheddar, wrapped in sausage, bacon and cheese ball dough and baked. Then decorated with American, cheddar squeeze cheese and bacon strips.


Doughnut Upside Down Cake
A bed of brown sugar and butter topped by a layer of 12 mini doughnuts baked inside of cake mix and topped with heavy whipping cream and brown sugar.


Cherpumple Pie
Bottom: pumpkin pie inside a spice cake, middle: apple pie inside a yellow cake, top: cherry pie inside a white cake, all surrounded by cream cheese frosting.


Deviled Corn Dogs
Corndog hotdogs pureed with cheese, mayonnaise and tater tots, then re-baked inside a corndog shell.


Cupcake Kabobs





Oh, I will be crying and starving and miserable day afer tomorrow, I'm sure, when I start the VLCD (very low calorie diet) portion of the diet. But right now, I am in stomach ache heaven.


REVISED: I wrote this post last night before bed. This morning I woke up absolutely disgusted by food. There have been no waffles. There has been no bacon. I forced down half a bowl of mini wheats and now I want to puke. Was it the binging yesterday or the HCG starting to work? I don't know. But today it will actually be hard to force myself to load. UGH.

Also, I didn't know it was possible to gain 1 1/2 lbs in 24 hours. But, trust me, it is.

HCG Diet Breakdown

If you don't know much about the HCG diet, other than that a lot of people are trying it and losing a lot of weight on it, I'll give you a brief background (in my own words).

HCG is the hormone released by the placenta of a pregnant woman. When on the HCG diet, the patient either injects or absorbs sublingually (under the tongue) tiny amounts of this natural hormone. The doctor who started this diet observed that his obesity patients who used the hormone and followed a strict diet of lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and a very small amount of specific starches, lost--and kept off--large amounts of weight. The HCG tells the body to draw fat from the abnormal fat reserves (those on the body which enlarge fastest as one gains weight--often the tummy, hips, thighs, buns, etc.) rather than from muscle, healthy fat reserves (such as those that cushion the organs) or from normal fat reserves (those which can be broken down quickly to give the body energy when there is insufficient nutrition). Therefore, a patient on the HCG diet doesn't lose muscle or healthy fat (this would be counter-productive to a pregnant woman trying to grow a fetus), but from all the "right" spots. And as the abnormal fat reserves are unlocked and broken down, the energy from them is released into the blood stream, so that although the person is on a very low calorie diet, their body is actually recieving quite a lot of calories and shouldn't feel hungry. Also, the body begins to reset the hypothalamus, so that when the diet is finished and the maintanance portion of the diet is finished (3 weeks of slowly re-introducing normal fat and sugars), the person's metabolism is better and they are less likely to regain the weight than with any other redued calorie diet.

So that's the background. If you want to read the actual manuscript, it's quite intesting, and the whole thing is online here.

Most people lose 1/2 lb to 1 lb (more for some men) of fat per day. PER DAY. You can see why this is such an attractive diet. When I lost 18 lbs over four months on Weight Watchers, and tend to lose 1/2 lb per week when I exercise and try to eat right on my own (if I'm lucky), the idea of losing all the weight I need, which is about 13 lbs, in only two weeks of dieting (although you have to finish out the whole 3 week diet + 3 week maintanance diet if you want to keep it off) is absolutely amazing. I can honestly say I am EXCITED to be donig this diet. Knowing it will work and that I will actually be skinnier at the end, is just thrilling.

Hip Fat, Meet My New Friend, HCG

I have three words for you:

Human Chorionic Gonadotropin.

Yes, I've reached the point in my "weight loss," which has been more like a giant weight plateau, where I'm ready for a little extra help.

Judge not lest ye be judged, Peeps.

I know there is a lot of flack out there about this diet. But I'm giving it a try. I've read the original manuscript by the doctor who invented this diet, like 50 years ago, and all the work he did fine-tuning it, studying it, trying it out, etc. And I've read about how it works to help your body only pull fat from the right places, how it helps your metabolism fix itself, despite the low calorie diet, and how it should, supposedly, hopefully, keep one from feeling hungry. And I've known dozens of people now who have tried and and lost a lot of weight.

There are people out there who I'm sure are rolling their eyes, gasping in horror, tisking their fingers, and doing all kinds of other shocked-old-lady mannerisms right now. If you're one of those people, I'm sorry. But I've decided to give it a go.

And I've decided to document it. For myself, for you, for anyone out there wondering if it really works and just how well. So feel free to sit back and watch, join in the discussion, ask questions, or tell your own success story.

And check back daily for updates on how it's going!

Hopefully in three weeks, you'll be hearing from me, 13 lbs lighter.

Mommy, Do All Blog Readers Go To Heaven?

Have you noticed, over the life of your blog, that sometimes very faithful readers just suddenly disappear into thin air?

Over the last nine months, a very dedicated new reader went back and began reading my blog from the very beginning. Moderating the comments for those older posts caused me to go back and read a lot of my older posts. And I found in the comments from those posts, faithful readers who I had totally forgotten about. Readers who read every post, commented every time, for months. And who were now nowhere to be found. Where had they gone? Why had they stopped reading? Had I said something to offend them? Had I stopped being funny? Or interesting? Or relevant? Had I pushed the 12-hour lipstick too hard?

I just wonder. Has this happened to you? Has this BEEN you? Where do the good readers go when they disappear from your blog?

You Stay Young If You Eat Straight Sugar From a Spoon, Right???

I'm not much of a candy eater. I've mentioned this before. I take my sugar with flour, baking powder and eggs, baked, please.

Sugar is just too sweet for me now. Especially candy. Especially milk chocolate candy. And marshmallow candy. And sugary-crystal-coated candy.

But every year I eat just one Peep, out of respect for my childhood. As a child I loved Peeps. I no longer love Peeps. I might even be just a little bit disgusted by Peeps. But I think part of me fears that I will be betraying my inner child if I shun the Peeps completely. So I pay my homage to the Gods of Continuous Youth by eating sickeningly sweet seasonal children's candy and hope for the best: one yellow peep and one Cadbury cream egg, every Easter. Like medicine. GAG. (Shhh, don't tell The Gods. Cadbury Cream Eggs were my absolute DREAM candy as a child. A chocolate egg with an egg yolk made out of pure liquid sugar? Are you kidding me?!?)

I seriously hope it's keeping the wrinkles away. Please tell me it's keeping the wrinkles away. 'Cause it sure as hell isn't helping my hips.