The more appropriate title for this page should be:
Tools for Staying Sane During the hCG Diet. You know. Like this:
A collection of people’s favorite sanity savers.
And please note: some of the links here are what are called “affiliate” links, meaning when you purchase an item through that link, at no extra cost to you, amazon/other vendors here lets me have a small percentage of the price of that item- I think it’s typically like 3-7%. For something that’s say 11 bucks, I’d get maybe 77 cents. Hope that’s okay with ya’ll. 🙂 Just wanted to keep it clear!
The “oh my word I can’t have chocolate so I’ll drink 8 cups of chocolate tea” type stuff.
The 5 Biggies
1. Online providers of actual hCG
These sources are all for real prescription pharmaceutical hCG – the real deal. You do NOT need a prior prescription to get this- the companies have their own medical staff and will prescribe you your hCG then ship it to you.
2. A phase 2 hCG diet tracker and food journal
3. Recipes for the hCG diet
4. Getting DOSE of hCG Right
5. Should you add Lipo or MIC shots to your hCG program?
K on to simple tools and products that will help keep you SANE on hCG!
(Click the links to jump directly to a particular section)
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- Let’s Talk about Stevia – The #1 Necessity on hCG
- Stuff to Make Your Boring Phase 2 Food Taste Better
- Yummy Teas
- Stevia Soda – Totally P2 Friendly!
- Kitchen Tools
- Travel on hCG
- Other Tools
- Skincare & Makeup
- Mitigating Occasional Side Effects hCGers deal with
- No Time to Cook? Sanity Savers On The Go
- Body Fat Testing Places
- Health Stuff
#1 necessity on HCG: Stevia of course!
This is what I consider to be The Core Stevia Kit – the main flavors you’ll likely want for some variety on the diet.
- Best Powdered Stevia for hCG – I have tried many brands in pursuit of finding the best one and this has: 1.) The best taste and least bitter aftertaste. 2.) Contains ONLY stevia and no starchy fillers at all. 3.) It’s organic. This one is a good choice because it has no fillers. A lot of stevia products now have starchy fillers like maltodextrin added to them. This matters because our bodies are extra sensitive to starch levels on Phase 2, so it’s best to be safe.
Because it comes in a bag which I find hard to use, I recommend personally transferring it to an old spice jar with holes in the top/shaker so you can more easily sprinkle stevia or empty out another stevia shaker brand you don’t like ????, like I did:
Small travel in-your-purse stevia container:
So this is actually a travel spice container and comes like in a 3 tier thing- I just use 1 tier and keep this little thing in my purse- it’s great because it really is quite tiny AND it has little holes so you can sprinkle hCG in your tea or coffee when out and about.
- Grape Flavored Liquid Stevia
– a personal favorite that I used in spinach smoothies believe it or not. Seriously, stick with me here. K so you put a ton of spinach, water, ice (if you like), and grape flavored stevia, along with a dash of regular powdered stevia – I do use my vitamix. It’s SUPER good. Don’t knock it till you try it! Counts as one Phase 2 veggie serving.
- Chocolate Flavored Stevia – this added to a simple quart of water is divine. Well, maybe in reality it isn’t, but when I was on Phase 2 with an empty stomach, it tasted divine at the time and did quell the chocolate quivers.
- Chocolate Raspberry Stevia – now this one I used on this recipe for Phase 2 hCG “chocolate” covered frozen strawberries. You should totally go check the recipe video out – my 4 year old at the time helped and he’s pretty much adorable. Not that I’m biased in any way or anything.
- Valencia Orange Stevia – This can be used in Phase 2 type smoothies with ice, water, and your 1 tbs. of milk to make a creamsicle type desserty type thing.
- My New Fav! Stur stevia flavor extracts – the Stur Variety Pack with 5 flavors is cool to start with and then some of my favorite flavors of that pack ended up being the Pomegranate-Cranberry Stur, and the Strawberry-Watermelon Stur flavor. Now just fyi here, these are more flavor and less sweet – so having the sweet tooth I have, I like these best when I combine them with a couple dashes of regular powdered stevia. These do not give me any indigestion btw. Another fyi, they don’t go far. But on this diet, these little sanity savers are worth every penny- that’s how I look at it anyway.
Measuring your Powdered Stevia:
Stuff to Make Your Boring Phase 2 Food Taste Better:
- Awesome Phase 2 hCG Recipes! Can’t go without that right? From yours truly. Check out hcgchicarecipes for that.
- Miracle Noodles – Noodles on hCG? What planet am I on? There’s 2 things you need to know. They have 0 calories. Zero. And they are considered “off protocol”, so fyi. I used them daily on 3 rounds and I feel very comfortable and safe with their use on hCG. You can read more my breakdown of what miracle noodles are and why I feel comfortable with them here. The noodles are to me a GREAT way to feel more satiated on the diet. They really fill you up and are quite satisfying. They’ve got several “cuts” of noodles including angel hair and fettucine.
- Kelp Noodles – One hCGer made this discovery which could be an excellent substitute for miracle noodles. For those of you who don’t like the texture of miracle noodles, you can try these. She found this at her local Whole Foods. The only difference is that they’re crunchy not soft. But they have no taste so you could put them in or eat them with anything. They sell them at Wholefoods and they sell them at my local co-op, and probably at other natural food stores or Asian grocery stores. They are in the Asian aisle, not refrigerated.
- Tammy Skye’s Gourmet hCG Diet Cookbooks – These cookbooks have hundreds of recipes and are highly rated by many people on amazon.com. Check out a free recipe from one of her books!
- Sauces made with Stevia not splenda! Yes we have arrived. :)- Bare Foods Inc (owner Diana) has this new line and she sent me some to try- The ‘Soppin sauce? Thumbs up and 5 calories for 2 tbs. #thataintgonnahurt The Sweet Mustard Dressing? Thumbs up. 15 calories for 2 tbs. #thatstillaintgonnahurt. These really did taste really good and I’m just not a fan of splenda myself (hurts my tummy) so I’m very glad to see a stevia sweetened product line.
- Braggs Liquid Aminos –
- Pomi Chopped Tomatoes – What’s great about these? The only ingredients is: “Tomatoes”. How refreshing. Tomatoes add SO much taste and pizazz to P2 meals.
- Pure Beef and Chicken Stock Powders – This has no added salt or seasonings.
Yummy Teas
Teas are one of those things that become your new go-to “food”, if you can call it that. If you weren’t a tea drinker prior to the hCG protocol, prepare to get tea-ified.
My Favorite Teas for P2:
- Honeybush tea – I love it because it taste like it has, well, honey in it! But it doesn’t. It’s just a plant without sugar that happens to taste like it has sugar. A very good thing on hCG.
- Tazo ZEN Green Tea – One of my all time favorite teas. It’s the blend of lemongrass and spearmint that does it for me.
- Zhena Gypsy’s Chocolate Chai Tea and the Republic of Tea, Double Dark Chocolate – When chocolate is not in your future for the forseeable several weeks, these two teas really hit the spot for me on P2. Is one jar of tea really worth $13?? You bet your chocolate-less fanny it is!
- Tazo PASSION Tea – love love love.
Other hCGers Favorite Teas:
Harney and Son’s Cinnamon Tea – the hCGer who recommends this says that it’s so good it doesn’t even need stevia.
Homemade Stevia Soda – Totally P2 Friendly!
hCGer submitted tip: Homemade “soda” spritzer with Perrier water, vanilla stevia drops, and add my 1 tbsp. of milk to make like a cream soda, or skip the cream, and add mint leaves and a strawberry.
Store-Bought Stevia Sweetened Sodas When Desperate
I don’t recommend these on a regular basis during Phase 2. The reason is they aren’t sweetened only with stevia- they also contain the sugar alcohol erythritol and this could effect blood sugar and results. I did use them on occasion, like I said, when desperate. #desperatetimesdesperatemeasures #betterthaneatingcakeya’ll
Examples of desperate situations:
- You are at a family get together and the place is infested with nachos. If you’re smart, you might bring your celery AND a stevia soda. 😉
- You’re dealing with sugar withdrawals on the diet and are about to quit entirely and drown yourself in an entire box of donuts. Turn to a stevia soda or two to save yourself.
Brands of stevia sodas:
- Zevia – Grape is one of my fav flavors of this brand. Lemon Lime Twist Zevia Soda – This one is the closest tasting to a 7-up type drink that I’ve found so far.
- Blue Sky stevia soda – my VERY favorite? Cherry Vanilla Creme Soda – it somehow actually does taste creamy.
- Honest Fizz – Professor Fizz flavor
- Virgil’s Zero Better – Root Beer flavor, Black Cherry Cream Soda (note – this brand actually doesn’t contain erythritol and stevia is the only sweetener! That’s a win).
And just being honest, I do not like any of the stevia soda Cola flavors. I don’t know they just don’t cut it.
Kitchen Tools:
Food Scale – A food scale is a must for weighing your meat proteins during Phase 2. The first one I bought for my first round is still working today, over 5 years later.
George Foreman Grill – Many hCGers find this little grill to be a lifesaver on hCG.
Electric Tea Kettle – maybe this is already a commonly known awesome tool, but I didn’t know about this till I went on vacation with my hubby a some years ago and there was this wonderful little tea kettle that boiled water in like 30 seconds, and automatically shut off when it was done boiling, no stove, no screaming kettle to make me come running to turn it off, or god forbig I was outside and it boiled dry and almost burnt my house down. Genius! I used mine every single day. On hCG, I drank LOTS of tea and this made it super convenient to do. This kettle is glass and looks cool.
Spirooli – the way to make noodles out of vegetables. Oh yes they did. On P2 you can use this with cucumber, and for Phase 3 you can make squash noodles, carrot noodles, it’s practically endless.
Travel on hCG:
Keeping hCG cold: I found a few different small insulin coolers which would work equally well for vials of hCG – so far based on reviews, the following seem the best choices:
- Insulin Cooler
- Portable Medical Travel Cooler Bag – cuter looking one.
- Fridge-to-Go Medical Travel Cooler – pricier, but excellent Amazon reviews.
Watch Vicki’s Full Interview here
Other Tools:
Myo Tape – Body Measuring Tape. I love this thing! It makes measuring accurate and easy for round body parts, which is…oh yeah, every part of us.
hCG Diet Workbook for Phase 2 – by…yours truly! This workbook is pretty comprehensive and is essentially 3 books in 1. You can read more about the details of what’s in it and how the hCG workbook can help you here.
The REFILL hCG Diet Workbook for Phase 2 – this contains just the tracking for phase 2 for doing later rounds. I highly recommend getting the original workbook to start because of all the coaching articles and explanations for what and why, and then once you have that under your belt, later rounds of hCG you can get this much slimmer/easier to manage refill workbook just for tracking your progress.
Tracking your Blood Sugar: don’t get scared- totally not something you have to do. I just happen to have a small scientist living in me that finds this type of stuff fascinating and IF you feel like it, it can be very useful information for you both in Phase 2, Phase 3 and beyond.
To test your blood sugar you just need 4 items:
- Blood sugar meter – this is the one I use by Freestyle – it’s the LITE model meaning it doesn’t suck up tons of your blood. #Win.
- Test strips – set of 50 – The meter itself is pretty cheap and it can fool ya. It’s the test strips that add up.
- The little blood prickers (called lancets – is this like supposed to make us think of tiny swords or something??)
- The thingy to HOLD the blood prickers – you only have to buy this once.
Okay now that I’m posting this here the cost is really adding up! Sheesh! But remember, once you have the meter and thingy that holds the blood prickers, you only have to buy lancets and test strips forever after that. I will try to write a post in the future on how testing my blood sugar has helped me, but one thing I was able to catch is when doing the hCG protocol without fruits, I could see when my blood sugar was too low for me to feel well and take immediate proper steps to correct.
Oil Free Lotions:
(or containing only mineral oil which is OK on hCG)
Oil-Free Makeup brands safe for the hCG Diet:
Click this link to get the list.
Mitigating Occasional Side Effects hCGers deal with:
Replacing Electrolyte balance during first week of diet:
Sugar Free Electrolyte powder – Blueberry Pomegranate Flavor
Lemon-Lime Flavor
Raspberry Flavor
Leg Muscle Cramps:
Usually a magnesium or potassium deficiency
I take this Magnesium
Potassium – same electrolyte powder as above! Kill 2 birds with one stone
Hair Loss:
This is infrequent but happens from time to time.
One POSSIBLE tip that another hCG said really did seem to work for her was to spray a solution of MSM powder mixed with water on her BODY after getting out of shower – air dry. She swears this stopped her hair loss while on hCG.
MSM Powder
Small Spray bottle
Biotin – really does make fresh hair grow! Take this product on Phase 2 only if you are comfortable taking the small amount of coconut oil that’s in it
Loose Skin:
NO Time to Cook Sanity Savers On The Go
Protein Powder
Grass fed beef paleo protein powder (I PROMISE tastes nothing like beef – I make chocolate and vanilla smoothies with this and it’s AMAZING! I seriously don’t how they do it and the texture is super amazing- I make mine thick with lots of ice)
Egg White Paleo Protein Powder:
I mix this with 1/3 cup water, 8 ice cubes or so, 1/2 tsp. vanilla powder, stevia
VERY low fat Wild Canned Salmon – I found this at a gas station believe or not while on vacation recently – not only was it delicious, the size of the can was perfect for 1 serving of protein, it contains only salmon and salt, and had some of the lowest fat content of any canned salmon I’ve seen, which makes it a suitable rogue (off original protocol) choice for phase 2 – I figured I’d just CHECK to see if it was on Amazon and would you believe it- it was.
Eat this plain, or squeeze some mustard on it, and if you have 30 extra seconds, some diced pickles for a quick p2 protein.
Body Fat Testing Places
In regular people terms, body fat testing allows you to find out how much of you is fat, and how much of you is muscle. This can be INCREDIBLY helpful on your weight loss journey. Mine would not have turned out the same without knowing these facts. Our regular bathroom scales have really been holding back and not telling us the whole picture.
There are 3 types of body fat testing that are most reliable – hydrostatic body fat testing (dunk you in water deal), bod pod (air displacement), and DEXA scan or DXA scan (scan your body). Here’s some resources for finding a location near you for these types of testings – I recommend doing before after each round if at all possible.
- Bodyfattest.com
- Fitnesswave.com
- Bodpod.com – look at bottom LH corner of their page to find location near you.
The other thing is to simply enter in one of these type of testing + your location in google to find a center near you that does one of them. Ie. Dexa scan + milwaukee.
Health Stuff
“Restore is unlike any supplement on the market. Made in the US, Restore is a soil-derived, scientifically-backed mineral supplement that has been shown in lab studies to strengthen tight junctions in the gut wall, our firewall against toxins entering the body. Restore helps create a biological environment for good gut bacteria to grow and flourish, to support improvement of overall health.”- for more info on Restore Function/ Usage Guidelines