Day 15

WAHOOOO! Down another 2.7 as of this morning to 206.1. That's 8.7 pounds in 3 days. I'm doing it a bit differently this time and wonder if it has anything to do with the success. I remixed with bacteriostatic water only, as I mentioned yesterday. I am doing a whey protein shake in the morning (mixed with coffee, a little cocoa powder, and truvia) from www.lifetimewellness.com. I'm also taking the Tonalin CLA which I was not taking during my pre-vacation VLCD days. I am feeling so good about this! 15.9 pounds down in a total of 14 days on VLCD. WAHOO! I haven't seen weight loss like that in years. 4 more pounds til I take my 20 pound progress pictures. Amazing.

Well, obviously, I'm great....and with that, I leave you for the day. See you tomorrow!

Day 14

Good Morning! Yesterday was another successful day on protocol. Down another 1.6 to 208.9. That's almost 6 pounds in 2 days, and now I have caught up to what I'd gained while on vacation and some! So, in 13 days I've lost 13.1 pounds. Not shabby at all, best diet I've ever done!

I am noticing that this 13 pounds is so much different than any 13 pounds on any other diet. My inches are remarkable. My stomach has decreased in inches so much faster than on any other plan. It's a drive to keep on going.

I did remix this time so that I had fresh HCG and I chose not to mix it with the sodium chloride that came inside the package with the dry HCG. Someone had recommended mixing that solution with the HCG instead of doing all bacteriostatic water. This time I mixed all bacteriostatic water and have seemed to have better results so far. Very interesting.

When I reach 20 pounds, I will take some "after" photos and depending on how different it looks, I may actually post them here. ;) So check back in about 7-10 days for those. If I choose not to post them it's because I still feel too nasty. lol!

Have a great day! See you again in the morning!

Day 13

Good morning, well I feel refreshed and back on track again. Down 4.3 pounds to 210.5. Not to shabby to make up for a weeks worth of mess-ups in nearly 1 day. I'm feeling great. I'm taking a variety of supplements during this protocol that seem to be great additions to the protocol.

potassium (we lose potassium)
L-glutamine powder (helps with cravings and weakness)
B complex (metabolism booster, mood booster)
Tonalin CLA (fat loss, muscle retention)
Calcium (self-explanatory)
Life Caps (the survivalist vitamin, to help with hunger and ensure nutrients)

Yesterday was a breeze, had some delicious foods and felt great all day. See you tomorrow!

Day 12, starting over

Well, vacation packed on 5 pounds, which wasn't too bad considering I filled myself with cake, cookies, chips and eating out....and not really making wise choices. So, I'm happy I'm still down and I'm excited to be back on track. The nice thing about the gain is that I really didn't gain much in the way of inches. So, my weight as of this morning is 214.8. Feels good to be home, and back on track.

See you tomorrow!

Back from Vacation

Well, vacation was a bust for my diet. There was so much stress. The day after we arrived, we had my Daughter's 3rd Birthday party, and on that same day my husband's Grandpa fell and was hospitalized for a brain bleed. He is now in a nursing home, not expected to live but for a few more days. Then there is a possibility that Grandma (married to the Grandpa that fell) has breast cancer. Those things all in one day. Then you throw in children who won't sleep well, a hot house, too many things for the little guy to get into, too much to do and with too many people, AND too much food around. So, needless to say, I stopped injecting probably 4-5 days ago and have been eating poorly. I'm guessing I'm up about 5 pounds, but plan to be back on the plan on Monday. I will mix a new solution and plan to do about 29 days to finish out my first 40 day round. This will allow me to finish phase 2 around the 12th of August.

I'm not excited that I was unable to stick to the diet during vacation, but I AM excited to start again. I've had so many compliments on how 13 pounds has changed my look, that I can't wait to get more off.

Bye for now, see you on Monday.

Weigh in Day 11, from VLCD Day 10

Pure frustration sets in this morning as I hop on the scale to find I've gained .5. I have a couple of theories. 1 could be the collard greens, maybe my body doesn't do well on them. Both times I've eaten them, I've gained. 2 is that I have a cold, and read some of Dr. Simeons manuscript last night and it mentioned the common cold can cause a gain. Both of which have happened simultaneously. So, it's hard to pinpoint the culprit. So, today, I'm back at eating the exact menu that I lost the most pounds on last week. Stick with what works. Hopefully it'll prove to be sufficient come tomorrow morning.

I have lots of packing, laundry, and cleaning to do today for our trip. I will post again in the morning and hopefully with better news.

Weigh in day 10, from VLCD day 9

Well, today is a MUCH better day. I've recovered from my cheat, to bring me down 1.3 pounds to 211.6 which is .3 more than where I found myself the day of my cheating adventure. 2 days to recover isn't horrible, so I'm grateful. That puts me down a total of 10.4 pounds since day one. That is still an average of 1.15 pounds per day including those cheat days! So.......I feel good. I can't say I'll never cheat again, because I know myself......but I can say that I will choose carefully and understand the consequences before hand.

We are preparing to head out of town, have a lot to take care of......house, laundry, etc etc. I will check in tomorrow!!!

Weigh in Day 9 from VLCD day 8

OY OY OY. Take my advice people, don't test your own theories. Don't cheat. I am up again to 213 another .4 gain after my cheating weekend. I have no idea why you can't cheat and then speed up your weight loss, but so far it seems you just can't. I have spoken with other dieters who have said that it took them an entire week to make up for their cheat. UGH! I certainly hope that's not the case. I even stuck to protocol yesterday, but had also introduced a bunch of new foods. What my plan is today, is to go back to the foods and "formula" that I know worked last week. We'll see how much of a difference it makes on tomorrow's weigh in.

I'm frustrated with myself. I do think I've finally gotten the dose right, now up to 175. I didn't feel hungry yesterday at all, though I could still be living on my food from the weekend. Hopefully today will prove to be better. I need to drink more water today and stay away from new tastes.

I'm still down 9 pounds though and have not been here in 7 months, so I will continue on and consider this a learning lesson. Come Saturday at my daughter's birthday, we'll have to see what happens. I'm not sure this is worth a cheat.

Have a wonderful day! We are preparing to head out of town, so in the upcoming weeks my posts may not be daily unless I can have some needed computer time to update.

Weigh in Day 8 from VLCD Day 7

Yesterday proved to be another difficult day for restraining myself. Company, having to cook dinner I can't eat, ugh. So, I cheated, again only a little but it did prove to be a bad idea. I was up this morning .7 pounds bringing me to 212.6. However, in the grand scheme of things I am happy with a 9.4 pound loss in one week. I will take it, and am glad my gain was .7 and not 3. Back on track today as I won't be surrounded by the stuff that makes me tempted.

I am sick again, with a sinus infection, for the 2nd time in 3 weeks. My first round lasted 2 weeks, I was well for 4 days and then got sick again. This is NOT fun! So, I'm a bit under the weather today and don't have much else to share. I'll be sure to check in tomorrow morning!!!

Just a little addition, I did measurements today and have lost 5.5 inches. Wahoo!

Weigh in Day 7 from VLCD Day 6

One more day in this week left to weigh in after today. All I can say about yesterday is WOW. I have been seeing people discuss having a protein shake in the mornings and how clinics are selling these as HCG shakes. I also have heard about people using the Arbonne shakes as well, so I did a little googling and discovered that my whey protein shake that I have been drinking for almost a year, from www.lifetimewellness.com was far better as far as fat, sugar, carbs, and protein. So, I decided I'd have one for breakfast. It helped so much with the satiety. I wasn't hungry after drinking it and that pleased me greatly because the mornings are when I usually struggle most with hunger.

After lunch came to a close, I began finding myself more hungry than I've been so far on this protocol. I wanted to eat someone, and we were headed for a BBQ, which I wasn't sure I could restrain myself with that kind of hunger. We arrived and ther were chips and salsa laid out, so I decided, I'd have some of the fresh tomato salsa. That immediately helped my hunger. I didn't eat chips, I waited for dinner. I had brought a piece of fish with me, but after seeing steak, I decided to have about 100g of that instead. It may have even been slighly more, but we didn't have a scale present. It was marbly, fatty, and against the rules. I also had a wonderful spinach salad with dressing that had oil and sugar in it, and almonds in the salad. I had 2 bowls of that. MMMM, good. Then, after dinner, out came this jello cake. A white box cake cooked and then jello poured through small holes made all over the cake. Topped with ff whipped cream and strawberries. I had a piece of course. I couldn't restrain myself. I was, however, no longer hungry and began to wonder what I just sabotaged. It felt so good to be that sastisfied. Not stuffed, not gorged, but satisfied. That satiety carried me through until this morning with no hunger pangs.

I hopped on the scale before my shower......WHOA, WHOA WHOA, HOLY COW. I am DOWN 2.7!!!!!!! WHAT? How could that be with a cheat like that? More weight in a single day than any other day this week except the day following the load. I am down 10 pounds in 6 days. That is amazing. I even looked at myself in the mirror this morning thinking "could my face actually be thinner?" I was wondering if it was my imagination. I am amazed. I do not plan to cheat everyday, but next Saturday we have a party and I hope to do as well as yesterday and not get out of control. Moderation.

I feel so good. I did up my dose of HCG this morning to 175 after being so hungry yesterday. I'll see how it goes. Normally, I would skip today as far as injecting goes because I am on the 43 day protocol, but I will do that next week. I wanted to get control of the proper dosage first.

See you tomorrow!!

Weigh in Day 6 from VLCD day 5

Good Morning! Down another 1.2 this morning which brings me to 214.7 from 222. 7.3 pounds in 5 days. Wonderful! I felt great yesterday, other than I may be coming down with another cold or I'm having a bout with allergies.

There is one thing so far that I really struggle with on this plan, and that is driving through town and seeing the places I used to frequent for food. My mouth waters, but I keep driving. Yesterday I so wanted some KFC, which I never eat. I wanted a huge frappucino. I wanted to load. lol. BUT....I didn't. I kept driving and ignored those signals. Those emotional signals, not physical signals. Though I don't doubt for a minute that I'm actually addicted to that stuff and to some degree, my body still craves the food.

This morning, my husband and daughter are off to meet family for breakfast at a diner. A diner full of the smell of bacon, biscuits and gravy, eggs, hasbrowns. All of which I know I can't eat, therefore I opted to stay home. Home with my 1/2 of a grapefruit & coffee and supplements. lol. It's well worth it, however. I know if I go to that diner, I'll lose my mind with all those smells. I'm not yet strong enough to endure that, but perhaps I will be at some point.

I AM learning to figure out the difference between real hunger and emotional cravings. I never realized how much I ran to food before. For various reasons, I was always grazing. We have some events coming up, next weekend a 3rd Birthday party for my daughter on the 4th of July. There will be lots of good food, cake, and homemade ice cream. I haven't decided what I will do. I may take some morsels of it and pay the piper the next day. I would like to conduct an experiment with that situation. We load on this diet, we load for 2 days gorging ourselves to gain so that we're not hungry and so that we lose more efficiently.....we do that before we begin VLCD. I want to know what happens if we have a day where we eat sort of normally, not gorging, but once and a while do it while on VLCD. While I realize it will make you gain, what are the results after vs. if we don't do that. I'm wondering if it helps or hurts. Maybe I'll conduct my own experiment with it with the party. I'm probably just crazy, but hey we'll see what happens.

Weigh in Day 5

I am down 1.1 pounds this morning, bringing me to 215.9 pounds from 222 on Monday! What a great feeling. I also just put my capris on and find that the gut region is not as tight as it used to be! This is great! My total loss for 4 full days on VLCD is 6.1 pounds.

I was a little hungrier yesterday, but managed to do well anyway. I had to make a trip to the OB and got a little off track because I didn't eat as often as I would've at home. I am very hungry this morning. It's time to get things started, where's my piece of fruit? Grapefruit seems to do really well, so for now I'll stick to it.

A diabetic on the protocol had mentioned to me, after my low blood sugar on Monday, to eat some nuts throughout the day to help with blood sugar. I did try that on day 2, and I didn't lose as well so I've not gone back to the nuts and my blood sugar seems to be just fine when I spread my meals out. So NO NUTS. Dr. Simeons did the research, he found what worked and what didn't work. If I follow HIS instructions I'm sure to have the most success. On the yahoo group, I find so many people adding this and that to their diet. I can't help but think that it's going to stall the losses and that their success would be largely different if they just followed Simeons' protocol.

Have a great day!!!

Weigh in Day 4

GOOD MORNING!!! Yes, it is a good morning! I am down 1.4 pounds this morning! That brings me to 217.1 from 222 at the start on Monday (3 full days on the diet). Here's what I changed yesterday: I had a morsel of chicken for breakfast (what I was going to eat for lunch, just trimmed a piece off) as well as 1/2 grapefruit. I also had a cup of decaf coffee with stevia and a life cap. Mid morning, I ate the other 1/2 of a grapefruit and my melba toast. For lunch I had: the rest of my chicken, franks hot sauce, and some celery. I also took my b-complex sublingually. Mid afternoon, I took some L-glutamine under the tongue when I was having some cravings and a bit of hunger. I also ate some cucumber with dill and vinegar. Then for dinner, I split my meal in half and had chicken again (yes I know it's not recommended to have the same meat twice, but fish and marinara sounded gross) smothered in my own homemade marinara. I got to eat 12 ounces of marinara last night and still didn't eat my entire daily amount of calories. I ate my other half of a meal about 2 hours later. I then had some great flavored water (strawberries, cucumber, lemon) and was satisfied the remainder of the evening. I went to bed late at 11pm and was hungry, but ignored it and went to bed.

So, we're off and running this morning. I'll check back later!!

Weigh-In Day 3/VLCD Day 3

When I post weigh-ins, they will always be posted the morning of the next start day. For example, I've done 2 full day's on the plan, and weighed in this morning (Day 3). So, even though it says Day 3, it's losses for 2 days.

Well, I hopped on the scale this morning and it showed a .7 loss! Wahoo. Secretly, I wanted it to be another 3 pounds. I wanted to be one of those people that just bust out the weight loss. I'm definitely okay with .7, however. That brings me to a total, in 2 days. of 3.5 pounds. That's fantastic. An average of 1.75 pounds per day.

So, this morning, I had a morsel of chicken, a 1/2 of a grapefruit, and a life cap. Now to make some coffee with stevia and I'll be good for a couple of hours. I'll check in this evening and report on the day again.

......well the day has passed, I chose not to bore you with too many extra posts so I will just add to the morning's post in the evening. It's 7pm and I feel great. It was a fantastic day yet again. Some small cravings, but that was due to torturing myself looking at some cake contest winners. One of my favorite new hobbies is cake decorating. Though these things looked like something other than cake, I couldn't help but think about how I'd like to take a huge bite out of it. I discovered something wonderful today on the menu. Since tomatoes are on the menu, I decided to make my own marinara out of tomato paste (no sugar). I got so much sauce, lathered over a piece of chicken and dipped my melba toast in it. I was so satisfied because I was allowed so much sauce. I could eat marinara every day. It's always been a favorite of mine to make and stevia wasn't too bad in it either. I was very pleased with the results. Now, what a great meal it will make when my miracle noodles arrive!

I also made a tasty little drink today. I just stuck some frozen, whole, strawberries; some cucumber; and lemon in a large pitcher and filled it with ice water. I let it sit and had a nice lemony, fruity drink. Of course, you could add stevia and have a sweet refreshing drink. It's a nice change from water. Don't get me wrong, I love water, but when you are drinking the quantities we drink on this plan, your taste buds get a little bored. :)

So, it was a great end to another great day. I will post again the losses in the morning. Thanks for following!

VLCD Day 2

Wow, today was a remarkable day on the protocol. I was hardly hungry, and when I was, it was time to eat. I split my meals up even further. I cut my designated lunch and dinner meals in 1/2 and ate more throughout the day. This prevented any blood sugar crashes like the one I experienced yesterday afternoon. I have to rave about life caps for a minute. These things are miraculous. I took one at lunch and felt so good all afternoon. I will take one before bed to help with the nightime, morning hunger. It's amazing how it suppresses your appetite. AMAZING. Love them, and FAST shipping. I ordered them on Saturday and they arrived today! Granted they are one state away, so that helps my objective a whole lot. lol

I have some more veggies to eat this evening and a life cap and then that's it for today. I did mention in my last post that I also upped my dose of HCG to 150 iu. This may be playing a role in the hunger as well. I feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be! I only had one headache today, this morning which I took advil for. It went away and I felt great the rest of the day.

I will tell you a little secret. I'm deathly afraid that I'll get on the scale tomorrow and not see any progress. I've been so programmed to think about traditional diets and the continued disappointment I experienced on them, that I'm feeling like it just can't work. I will post tomorrow and let you know!

Seeing those first pounds disappear

Wow, I got on the scale this morning, to reflect a 2.8 pound loss, bringing me back down to 219.2. I haven't been under 220 in months. Like probably 5 or 6 months. My first knee-jerk reaction is that "this is water weight," because of ALL of the other diets that reflect this kind of change usually don't ever reflect it again after day one. I know it will be different, but the traditional rules have been ingrained in my brain for so long it's hard to change the way you see things initially. That is why I was skeptical of this plan in the beginning.

I won't sugar coat it, but yesterday was rough in the afternoon. I'm glad it's just a combination of detox and that severe drop in blood sugar. So, today, I'm splitting up my meals for a more even day. Cutting each meal in 1/2 and eating more frequently. I just took some advil for my headache and am sipping on a cup of decaf chocolate cake coffee with stevia. Not bad, considering typically my coffee would be filled with creamer and sugar.

I realize that this first week may have rough patches, the candida in my body is going to die off without access to sugar. It will have nothing to feed on, but I'm assured by other dieters that thiss will pass and I will feel like a new woman come next week or the week after. Good thing because we are heading out of town for a couple of weeks to visit family and friends and I need to be STABLE by then. :)

I'll post more later, once my day is winding to it's end. Have a wonderful day everyone!

VLCD Day 1

Well, I successfully finished the 2 loading days. The first day, I lost .5 pound due to the stomach upset from so much fat. The second day I dialed it back a bit and was comfortable. I showed a total gain during loading days to 2.5 pounds. That brought my weight up to 222.

Well, the day didn't go as great as I'd of liked. This morning was a little rough, but I made it through, was feeling great until I ate an apple mid afternoon. Not that long after eating the apple, my blood sugar took a dive and I was so sick. Headache, nausea, diarrhea, shakes, chills. It took me a couple of hours to realize that it was very likely blood sugar related, though I'm not a diabetic. Once I had a couple of sips of juice and a bite of yogurt, I was back at 'em. I feel much better and just now realize that I MUST space out my meals more. I will do that tomorrow, and potentially look for a substitute for fruit as I suspect the spike and fall in blood sugar was related to the apple on an empty stomach. A diabetic suggested nuts in the equivalent calorie intake. I will definitely look into that as well as spacing out my protein a bit more as well.

Overall, aside from that incident, I feel very good. I have a minor detox headache, but don't feel hungry as much as I did when, years ago, I tried a 700 calorie a day diet. That was insanely silly. Without HCG in my system, I'd not survive this. I'd of been back on cheetos by 3 pm. lol

I will report my weight changes in the morning, for now it's off to bed for me after this tiring afternoon.

Injection Day 2, load day 2

Well, yesterday got off to a rocky start. I ate WAY too much fat and was miserable. Was nauseous most of the day and numerous trips to the bathroom if you catch my drift. So, I realized, there is only so much I can eat. I will eat what I can, and load up on fat when I can within reason. I now know the limits of which not to test my stomach, so I won't go there. lol. I still managed to lose .5 pound yesterday, which you aren't supposed to lose on loading days but hey.....what do ya do?

I had my second injection this morning, woke up ravenous, but as soon as I gave myself the injection I was amazingly not hungry. I really hope, come tomorrow, that it proves true and I can do very well on the VLCD (very low calorie diet). I'm still so excited.

So, here are my stats today. Weight 219.5. Height 5'6". Total starting inches (waist, hips, chest, thighs, arms) 227.7", BMI 35.5. You know, I really am tired of hearing "you aren't fat." Um, yes, technically I'm clinically obese. Sometimes clothing hides fat well, but people don't see the reality of what faces someone, with a weight problem, each morning in the mirror. Those that say "you aren't fat," are either #1. lying #2. naive or #3 just don't see what you see. As if someone is really going to say "ya you are fat." I certainly wouldn't say it. So, I'm working through this protocol for people to really mean it when they say "you aren't fat." I really am not going to be fat someday. I like the sound of that.

I'm feeling good today, had some french toast for breakfast for Father's Day....but really can't wait to start the VLCD tomorrow.

Have a wonderful Father's Day!

Injection Day 1, Load Day 1

I decided to start the protocol early. I'm tired of being fat and wanted to get started. With this, I realize that traveling in a few weeks may pose to be a bit of a challenge. I can do it. I will do it. I have to do it. I have to get this weight off and be healthy and a good example for my children. No more excuses. Today is the day.

Today is the first load day of two in the beginning of the protocol. A load day is where you load your body with as much fat as possible for 2 days before beginning the VLCD (very low calorie diet). The idea is that the fat prevents you from being as hungry in the first days of the VLCD as well as aiding in the fat loss during the VLCD. I did my first injection this morning, not too bad. Didn't even really feel it. I am doing 125 iu per day. I followed the new recommendations for mixing, where you add the 1ml from the vial that comes in the package with the HCG plus the bacteriostatic water. One of the successful dieters who was followed by her Dr, received these recommendations from her physician. I have ordered life caps to help sustain the hunger (I pray they arrive in a timely manner). www.lifecaps.net I will head out today to get some potassium and L-Glutamine powder and take those along with my b complex vitamins. I will also order "Miracle Noodles" a noodle made entirely of fiber with no calories. http://www.miraclenoodle.com/index-2.html These are all things that have been suggested by other successful dieters on the HCG Diet.

I can't tell you how excited I am to do this. Finally, something that offers permanent, safe, healthy results. Does the traditional way of diet and exercise offer results? Yes and many people are successful keeping off the weight, however if you truly have issues with your hypothalmus then that effort can prove to be more difficult than it would with a properly functioning hypothalmus. The HCG Diet aims to solve a lot of issues that I personally struggle with. First, the weight. Second, the dangerous impending diabetes. Third, a healthier pre-occupation with food. Fourth, a healthy self-esteem. Fifth- a skin condition called hidradenitis suppurativa. Other dieters have mentioned that they no longer sweat like they used to, and that they've felt better than they have in as long as they can remember. These things can save my life.

Today, I hope to load load load. We have a dinner BBQ this evening, but need to get in as much fat as possible today. Some say this is hard to do. It very well may be. I will take some pictures and measurements at the end of the 2nd load day (tomorrow). I will save you the agony of the pictures until I've taken some pictures with some results to show. :)

Before I Begin

A couple of weeks ago, my Aunt called me on the phone and mentioned this crazy sounding diet to me. She gave me a basic run thorough and I immediately had flashbacks to all of the other diets she'd told me about. The one, in particular that stuck in my mind, was the 700 calorie a day diet where I literally felt like I was starving myself. I vowed never to go back there again. I love her dearly, but as long as I've known her, she's been after the latest weight loss gimmick. I gave up on those several years ago after many failed attempts to lose the weight. I think she immediately sensed my hesitation, so she suggested that I go to the website and "do some research." Okay, sure. I went to the site, got an overview and thought "SHE'S CRAZY."

I'd talked with a couple of people, even an Osteopathic Doctor and my Chiropractor, both of which said "don't do it." So, I had decided I wasn't going to. I had decided that any diet that wants you to inject a hormone into your body and try to live off of 500 calories, was sure to never provide permanent results. Not to mention, I was convinced I'd just starve to death on that plan, so forget it.

I had resigned to the fact that this was going to have to happen the old fashioned way. Somehow, the 80 pounds I had gained since my husband and I were married, would have to be lost through gallons of sweat and a diet like weight watchers, biggest loser, or something Sparkpeople suggested.

Let me back up a little......I was married at the age of 19, weighing 145 pounds. I slowly started to gain, first when spending time in Okinawa Japan with very little to do when my husband (a Marine) was working....therefore frequent trips to the vending machine became my only highlight for a day. That and one television station. Trips to the vending machine turned into buying bulk candy bars at the store to save money. We lived on ramen noodles, hamburger helper, and cereal for those 3 months. Love was all that mattered, but fat was something that soon popped into the picture. I left Okinawa weighing 155 lbs, 3 months later. Those eating habits didn't stop just because I came home to await the return of my prince. I continued to gain and when we found ourselves at our next duty station, that scale kept climbing. In 2 years, I had gained 35 pounds. I weighed 180 pounds when we left North Carolina after my husband had served his 4 years in the Corps. When we arrived home, the eating habits didn't change much and my activity just became less and less. Throughout these years, I tried slim fast, diet fuel, chitosan, Adkins, Herbalife, and probably a few other pill popping solutions.

I had balooned to 205 pounds by 2002 and sought out the advice of an endocrinologist, after my family practioner suggested I may have PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome.) I had my appointment with the endocrinologist who bluntly put it "you are just fat, there is no fair term to put on your condition. You just need to lose weight. " EXCUSE ME?? Yikes. So, she put me on the South Beach Diet. I successfully lost 20 pounds and then plateaued.....and then went on to do Body for Life and lost another 10 pounds. I decided at that point, since I had been working out 6 days a week on BFL, that I would seek out a personal trainer. I was excited, I was down to 175 for the first time in years. I had my appointment, did my measurements and heard the dreaded words from my male personal trainer "when you reach your goal, you will be attractive." That sent me into " I don't care anymore" mode where I gave up. I was done trying, a personal trainer basically just told me I was nasty. At least, that's what I heard.

In the fall of 2005, I became pregnant with my first child. I weighed 191 pounds when I conceived. During that pregnancy, I ate it all. Arby's, ice cream, junk food, etc. I gained 51 pounds and delivered at 242 pounds. I started Weight Watchers when my daughter was 3 months old, and in a matter of 3 months I was down 20 pounds. I felt wonderful. I was down to 203 pounds from the whopping 242. Then.....the Holiday's had come, I had started to "cheat." I tried and tried to get back on the wagon but never got below 200 pounds. I even climbed back up to 211 and decided to start Jenny Craig. I lost 8 pounds in 2 weeks and.......then, I discovered I was pregnant again. I was at 203 when I started the second pregnancy. This pregnancy was not void of junk food, but was better than the first round, though I still managed to get up to 250 pounds when I delivered. It's 13 months later now, and I'm still at 225. Up and down 5 pounds or so constantly. I lose my hope and faith in weight loss plans because I don't see results and I give up. That's where the HCG Diet comes into play.

Like I said, I thought it was totally whacko. I decided, well I'll go ahead and do the research. It can't hurt to research something, right? I dug, and I dug, and I watched YouTube videos and I read articles and I joined the Yahoo HCG Dieters group. Holy cow, could this be real? Could I really lose 1 pound a day and have 30-40 pounds gone in 6 weeks? HUH??? Well, it really appears to be true. I have found no adverse effects, and below I will share with you the details of the plan. This blog is going to be my daily journal, my journey through this program. To share with you how it works, what I struggle with, and what I could/should do differently. It's my raw attempt at making this work for the last time. No more being clinically obese and trying to hide. There is a skinny girl hiding in this fat body, I want to find her.

There are 4 conditions that abnormally fat or obese people suffer from
1. Real, constant physical hunger
2. Low metabolism (you look at food and gain weight)
3. uncontrollable urges to eat when not hungry (cravings, emotional eating, addictive type behavior)
4. The body sotres fat abnormally (hips, thighs, butt) and no matter how hard you try, it never seems to go away from those problem areas completely.


Dr. Simeons, the founder of the HCG Diet, discovered the cause of the above conditions. The Hypothalmus. It functions improperly when we become obese/fat and needs "reset." Dr. Simeons spent some time in India after WW II and discovered that there were famished thin, emaciated women who would give birth to perfectly healthy babies. Normal weight, healthy babies. He was fascinated and wanted to know what in the world was allowing this to be. So, he did some research and discovered that the Hypothalmus, when a woman is pregnant, tells the body to release the fat for the babies nutrition. So, he decided to inject an obese patient with HCG, reduce the caloric intake, and discovered that the presence of HCG in the body triggers the Hypothalmus to release the fat. Doing the HCG Diet opens our fat stores, and releases it to burn for energy. It releases about 2000-3000 worth of calories per day when on HCG and combined with a low calorie diet, results in a loss of about 1 pound per day

There are phases on this plan, 6 weeks you inject and do low calories. Strict diet, certain foods only. VERY low calorie, BUT with HCG because of it's design and its work on the Hypothalmus, doesn't allow you to be hungry. Why? Because you are releasing those 2000-3000 calories to burn along with the low calorie eating plan. After 6 weeks, you go on a low carb plan, kind of like Adkins. You do that for 3 weeks, this begins to reset the Hypothalmus for the new weight. BTW the Hypothalmus is responsible for yo yo ing. It is set at your obese or overweight....weight....so you may lose a little on other plans but gain it back the second you eat one thing different. After 3 weeks on phase 3 which is the Adkins, you go to phase 4 where you begin eating normally again. After 3 weeks on that, if you have more weight to lose, you go back to phase 2 which is the HCG and low cal. Phase 1 is a cleanse if you choose, but not necessary and I'm not going to do that.

When you go back to eating normally after you have lost all of the weight, you don't gain it all back because your Hypothalmus has been reset. 1 year later, 85% of the people on this plan have not gained the weight back.

The reason our Hypothalmus' do this is because our diets are so genetically modified. That is why our obesity is constantly increasing in this country. If you look at, say, someone who moved here from Vietnam, they've eaten the same meals here that they ate there but suddenly gain weight. They can't figure it out. It's the genetically modified foods. So, if we go back to eating MSG and loads of junk constantly, we probably will find ourselves in that state where we first started putting on weight. Slowly gaining again.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is responsible for the malfunction of the Hypothalmus. Artificial sweeteners as well, and Candida Albicans (too much yeast in the body...gas, bloating etc). The HCG diet, cleanses the body of all of these things, giving it a reboot.

My Aunt has lost 30 pounds in 6 weeks. My uncle has lost 25 pounds in 6 weeks. They are getting ready to start round 2 when I go see them and start my first round. This is supposedly the last diet anyone would ever need, I'm up for trying. I'm tired of being fat and taking off and putting on 10 pounds regularly and never getting beyond that.

I officially plan to start this diet on July 5th or 6th. I am overly excited about this, that there is hope to lose this weight and keep it off....most importantly, to be alive and well to watch my children grow and be the best Mom I can. I want to start yesterday but my supplies aren't here....and I have to learn to have patience.

If you'd like to read up on this plan, go to www.hcgdietinfo.com and make sure you read the article called "Pounds and Inches." I will post more info here as I learn. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your support even if this isn't what you would choose for you.

God Bless!