One Woman's Experience with the HCG Diet: Standard Protocol and Vegan
This morning, I weighed 158.0#, no change from yesterday. I had a good food day with no cheats, so there were no problems there. This morning, I am going to the gym to work out. I’ll be taking it easy.
Reasons my weight loss may be slower than some:
Yesterday was another good day on hCG. This morning, I weighed 158.0#, down 1.0# from yesterday. That was good for another paperclip on the chain.
Then I went back to bed for a bit. I had a dream that I had eaten some Cheerios without thinking. Then because I had already cheated, I had a couple cookies, too. I woke up and was so relieved! I then went downstairs and weighed again. This time, it was 157.4#, another 0.6# down; but I’m not recording that as the official weight since I had weighed already.
Yesterday’s lunch away from home went well. I put ice into a Ziploc and then into my cooler bag and loaded my lunch into it. Everything fit. Whew! I had made the Arugula Salad with Chicken and Orange from “THE HCG DIETERS GOURMET COOKBOOK” and topped it with the Citrus Ginger Dressing/Marinade. Yum! I packed the arugula in one container; the fruit, onion, and chicken in another, and the dressing in a third. I combined everything at the time I ate, so the arugula was very fresh. I had eaten arugula before and had not cared much for it, but this was delicious! The sweetness of the dressing set off the bitterness of the herbs perfectly. I bought the huge cup of iced tea at McDonalds for $1.00 to go with it. I was able to nurse that most of the afternoon while I did some of my other jobs. And, of course, I had my grissini.
As I went from place to place, I thought about where I would NOT be going. For instance, I would not be going to the See’s Candy store as I passed it or at the mall I went to for one of the jobs. I did not get a pretzel or a Cinnabon. I passed these things as I went about my day and told myself, “Not today!” I did get a cup of black coffee from Starbucks in the morning between shows while doing the trailer checking. I looked at the pastries in the case but passed those up, though. Same thing: “Not today!” (For those of you wondering what I was doing all day, I do mystery shopping for extra income. You can learn more about what I do at Mystery Shopping Information.)
In the evening, I stepped on the scale. I did a little math in my head: “I’m wearing clothes, and I just had some water, so that would bring the weight down to X. I’ll be showing a loss in the morning!” OK, that was a little obsessive of me, but it sure is fun to be losing so much weight every day.
One week ago today, I began the hCG diet. This morning, my weight was 159.0#, down 0.8# since yesterday and 4.8# since I began last week. Physical hunger has been minimal. Considering that the first two days of the week were loading, that’s not too bad. Also, I don’t eat a lot of carbs normally, which would explain why I didn’t get a more dramatic loss the first week.
Yesterday went well. I spent a lot of time working on the recipes from “THE HCG DIETERS GOURMET COOKBOOK.” One recipe that I added to Diet Pro morphed into six by the time I permuted all of the variations. Another morphed into four. Those recipes go a long way toward keeping this from being a boring diet. The food has been great!
I’m still going pretty much day by day, though I did plan today’s lunch so that I could make it last night. I’ll need to carry lunch with me in a cooler today. I’ve got a crazy busy day planned, and I don’t want to take the time to come home for lunch. I’ll take it into the mall and buy one of those huge cups of iced tea from McDonald’s for $1.00 to go with it.
My pants are starting to feel a bit looser again. My measurements haven’t changed all that much yet, but I guess it’s just enough.
Anyway, onward! This is so much better than gaining two pounds a week as I’d been doing.
R1P2D4 went pretty well for the most part. My weight this morning was 159.8#, down 0.4# from yesterday.
I was a little careless capping the needle after the morning dose. The needle went through the cap and pricked me. When I pulled it back out, the needle had bent. When I used it for my evening dose, it would not pull in the hCG liquid. So much for that needle. Fortunately, I have more.
I find that I’m spending far too much time on SparkPeople lately. I never did get around to walking the dog yesterday because of it. I love you all, really I do, but I’m going to have to set a timer in the morning to keep me on track so I can get some work done. I love, love, love reading hCG team members’ blogs about their hCG challenges and successes.
I’m still not planning ahead enough with my meals. *sigh* That’s another reason to spend less time on SparkPeople. It’s taking a little more time to cook than I’m used to, too. Yesterday, I bought a small grass-fed chuck roast and ground it up in my Kitchenaid mixer grinding attachment. It was definitely leaner than the regular grass-fed ground beef I bought at the market for hubby. Next time I grind my own meat, I’m going to get some food handling gloves. That should make things a little easier.
I bought some Zevia soda today. A stevia-sweetened soda will make a nice treat on occasion. There’s still the acid issue, though, and the stuff’s rather expensive, too.
Oh, I forgot to mention earlier that my R1P2D1 weight on Sunday pushed me over the obese mark for that one day. I’m glad that resolved itself quickly.
I marked out my tracking spreadsheet with my phase schedule. My first day of P4 will be on my birthday, if all goes according to plan. That includes the extra days for my planned break day for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary later this month.
This morning my weight was 160.2#, down 2.0# from yesterday. I am now down 3.6# since starting hCG. I put two more paperclips back onto my paperclip chain. I’m very happy about that.
Yesterday’s food went well, even if I did eat a bit late again. I need to get my food planned in advanced. I’m still working on that. I’ve copied “THE HCG DIETERS GOURMET COOKBOOK” into a Word document. As I add recipes into Living Cookbook, I delete the recipe from the Word document. So far, the recipes have been very good. I think they will go a long way toward helping me actually enjoy eating only 500 calories a day.
The first day, I had a bit of trouble keeping the sublingual drops under my tongue for five minutes. I’ve found that biting on the side of my tongue helps me hold the drops there longer.
I missed taking my dog for a walk yesterday. I’ll be sure to get that done this morning.
This morning, I weighed 162.2#, down 2.2# since yesterday, for a net hCG loss of 1.6#. But my weight is actually up 1.4# for the week. At least the hCG part is going well!
When I started on Friday, I removed all of the paperclips on my paperclip chain for all of the pounds I had gained back. I went from 50 paperclips all the way down to 18. This morning, I put one of them back on.
R1P2D2 went well. There was no real hunger even if on occasion I did have an urge to eat. I’m still not planning days in advance. I’m choosing my meals day by day. I’m working on putting the recipes in “THE HCG DIETERS GOURMET COOKBOOK” into Diet Pro to make the planning process easier.
Yesterday, I woke up in the morning and weighed. I had gained 4.0# over the course of the loading. It must have worked, though, because I was not truly hungry at any time during the day. After making some coffee, I opened up my copy of “THE HCG DIETER GOURMET COOKBOOK” and began working on my plan for the day. I probably should have done this a lot sooner, but at least I got it done. I went out shopping for the food and managed to find everything, including the grissini, which was at Whole Foods. By the time I had everything and got lunch ready, it was 2 p.m. The food turned out very nice. I’m pleased with my purchase of the cookbook. This morning, my weight was down 3.4# for a net gain so far of 0.6#. Most likely, that will be gone tomorrow.
I did have one unexpected glitch. I had an attack of heartburn in the middle of the night and had to take some Tums to shut it down. Extra sugar! Ugh!
On Saturday, while I was with my daughter, we went to see “City Island.” One of the characters in the movie was a 350# BBW who had a fetish website where one could watch her cook and eat. Watching that character was an interesting juxtaposition on a loading day.
Yesterday and today were my loading days for the hCG diet. The way I ate these past couple of days would have been insane under any other circumstances. Let’s see if I can remember it all…
Yesterday morning, I had CHEESECAKE after I woke up. On the way to a job, I stopped at a McDonalds and had a SAUSAGE McMUFFIN MEAL. After I finished the job, I went to Panda Express and had CHOW MEIN with HONEY WALNUT SHRIMP and ORANGE CHICKEN. Both of those entrées were battered, deep-fried, and soaked in sweet sauce—very rich! In the afternoon, I had some more CHEESECAKE. For dinner, I had a large link of SAUSAGE with grilled vegetables. After dinner, I packed my hCG in ice and drove down to San Diego. When I got there, I stopped at Denny’s and had BISCUITS AND GRAVY with HASH BROWNS. So that was Friday.
This morning, I had the complementary breakfast buffet at the hotel. I chose QUICHE, BREAKFAST POTATOES, and a few small PANCAKES with WHIPPED CREAM and SYRUP. I also had ORANGE JUICE. After that, I picked up my daughter at college, and we went to her sorority parents brunch (which is why I went to San Diego). I told her about the diet and the loading days. There, I basically had another breakfast. I started with a CROISSANT. Then they served BACON, SCRAMBLED EGGS, and BREAKFAST POTATOES, plus half of a STRAWBERRY and a slice of ORANGE. After that, we went to the mall where I had a large cup of BEN & JERRY’S ICE CREAM. Then we went to the movies. On the way in, I bought a cone of POPCORNOPOLIS CARAMEL CORN, which I shared with my daughter. After the movie, we went to a pizza place, and I had a slice of CHICAGO STYLE MEAT LOVER’S PIZZA. I dropped my daughter off at the local mall and then headed home. Hubby and I went to The Melting Pot for dinner. We had a CHEESE FONDUE, SALAD, and MIXED MEAT FONDUE. After we got home, I finished off what was left of the CARAMEL CORN and the last slice of the CHEESECAKE. My pants are tighter tonight. I definitely ate more than I had a true appetite to eat, but I did not really struggle to do so as so many on the hCG team have reported doing. Scary.
As for weighing, I debated whether to take my scale with me to San Diego. I decided against it because the scale can be a bit temperamental about exactly where on the floor it is put. As it turned out, there was a scale in the hotel bathroom. I decided not to use it, though, because I had no way to calibrate it against my scale. Tomorrow morning’s weight will be a complete surprise. I’m fairly sure my weight will be up.
So that was loading. Tomorrow comes the very low calorie part of the diet.
This morning, I woke up and weighed – 163.8# – Ugh! Then I used my body fat meter to measure that – 38.3%! Then I took a complete set of measurements. Then I mixed my hCG. It was surprisingly difficult to draw up the liquids, but I managed to get it done. Then I took my 0.5 cc dose sublingually. It was difficult to keep it there for 5 minutes. I don’t really think I succeeded in that. In a few minutes, I’ll be having some cheesecake.
Oh, and then I remembered: Before photo!
Tomorrow, I start the loading days of the hCG diet. I can hardly wait! I’ve gained 4.4# since I ordered the hCG on May 6, and I am anxious to reverse that trend. I would have started Tuesday, but I’ve got a foodie event Saturday. I decided to delay start a few days and incorporate the event into a loading day.