Read/Watch my own hCG Diet Journey As It Unfolded:

R3- No sugar/carb Loading, veggies instead of fruit on p2, pre hcg low carbing

October 12, 2011

Ever the experimenter, I experiment not simply for the sake of doing it, but I experiment when my life experiences seem to necessitate it.  In this new experiment, I chose a plan of action that would accomplish a two-fold goal: get rid of my sugar addiction again, prepare my body to enter ketosis as quickly as possible to hopefully bring about greater fat loss and less muscle loss on hcg.

About nine days prior to starting my load for Round 3 of HCG Injections, I started a high-fat, super low carb diet (almost no carb really).  We’re talking steak and bacon and grass fed burger patties all day.  Why nine days?  No reason really.  Just wanted it to be long enough to clear carbs from my system and to hopefully get through any period of sugar withdrawal and the resulting torturous cravings that I knew could possibly occur.  But guess what?  From my research, eating high fats is supposed to help with cravings, and indeed it did.  Getting off sugar was the easiest it’s ever been for me!  I removed ALL sugars including fruits and even most vegetables.  This isn’t something I necessarily suggest you do long term, but it was for a purpose- my re-addiction to sugar was no joke and I needed to find a way to fix it before I started the protocol or I knew that I would fail again.  Following the 9 days of the high-fat almost no carb diet, I started loading for this weight loss protocol.

 

Round 3 Loading Phase for hCG Diet: .6 gain in 2 Days – CLEAN / Low Carb Phase 1

October 13, 2011

Low carb loading led me to have my smallest loading gain yet.  Only a half pound gain.  Not sure how this would translate to my experience with hunger and weakness my first week of the HCG Injections though.

Starting my round at 142.6
Load day 1: gain 1.2
Load day 2: loss .6
Total loading weight: .6

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGchica. I’m here to report on my second loading day that was yesterday. This is a first for me. I actually was down .6 this morning so my total load weight gain is only .6. As I said yesterday I loaded on only fats and proteins. I had no sugars or starches all I had in the total 2 days that had any sugar was a 1 small apple from my apple tree so anyway that’s a first for me. My first round I only gained .8 on loading so it’s about the same but I had a lot of sugar and starches at that time and I didn’t actually have any loss so that’s very interesting. .6 is my total gain. I gained 1.2 the first day and lost .6 the 2^nd day. So I’m starting my round at 142.6.

I also did not stuff myself on loading like I have on the past.

I basically just ate like I’ve been eating the last week and a half which is high fat, protein. I’m gonna guess I had somewhere maybe around like 4000 calories or so. Probably around 4000, that’s just a guess but that’s about how much I usually eat like 3000-4000 calories and when I eat low carb I can eat that much and not gain weight. But as soon as I add carbs in with that amount of calories I do gain weight. That’s just interesting. I’m starting out with 45 pounds of fat which is about where I started out last time, last round. I’ll be interested to see how things go. I don’t know if this first week will be tough or not since I did not gain too much loading.

I don’t know like how my hunger will be. Right now it’s actually already 12 o’clock and I’m feeling fine. I’ve had 1 cup of black tea just with a little stevia in it and I’m having my water and I’m gonna have my lunch in a little bit later.

So far I’m feeling really good. I’m taking a small dose of Isocort once every hour or so. I’m taking a total of 15mg of cortisol and I took that the last 2 loading days so that’s encouraging to me because since I did have a loss yesterday even though I ate all that fat and I did take the cortisol. That’s encouraging to me. Hopefully I will be able to continue taking that on this round and that might you know help other people who have adrenal problems. They may be able to take that and still lose weight so we’ll find out. That’s it for today. I’ll check in with you guys soon.

 

R3D1 – 2.2, Ketones at 80, no fruit on p2 today

October 14, 2011

Soooo low carb loading led me to high ketosis after my first vlcd day!  Yup- experiment totally did what I thought it would do.  I was extremely pleased to see that dark color on my ketone strip that morning.  Also a 2.2 loss on the scale, especially after only a .6 loading gain, was quite pleasing indeed.  Another experiment I chose to try is to have no fruit on p2.  This is not something I suggest you do unless you really think it through because I do believe it’s much easier to get low blood sugar if you do this, so just proceed with caution if you choose to do this.  Since I’m not eating the fruits (or grissini/melba- I never eat that), I chose to increase my veggie intake.  I wasn’t trying to lessen my calorie intake below the 500, I was just trying to keep as many sugars out as possible because of my recent addiction to sugar that I was coming out of.

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGChica. I’m here to give you the results of VLCD 1 yesterday. This morning I got out and I was down 2.2 pounds which is pretty exciting considering I only ended up gaining .6 on loading. My second round I gained 3.8 loading or 3.6 and I lost 3.4 the next day. To lose 3.4 on my second round when I still had almost the same loading weight and this time to lose 2.2 after only gaining .6, I’m already ahead of last round that’s super exciting. That puts me 140.4 and that means I’ve had a total loss of 2.8 because I loss .6 after my second loading day, also my body fat went down a whole pound to 44 pounds. That’s significant also cause last round it took me a few days before I lost any fat I think that’s also interesting and then the other thing that’s super exciting is that this morning I did the ketone strip and I was already at 80. I’ve never even seen 80. I didn’t do ketones on my first round, but on my second round I did them for a while and I kinda just gave up after a while because it never showed anything and then finally later I tried it again and then it was showing like really, really light and that was like for a couple days so anyway I have never been in high ketosis but my ketones where at 80 and that is after only 1 VLCD day so that is so exciting to me because for me I was am most concerned about losing fat. I don’t care about how much I weigh what I care about is my body fat percent and how much fat I’m losing. So I’m so excited about that.

The things that I think contributed to me getting ketosis that fast are, one loading on almost no carbs. I loaded only on high fat and high protein and secondly, my VLCD day yesterday I did not have any fruits or grissini. I never did the grissini but this time I also took out fruits and I am eating extra vegetables though so I don’t mind getting to the 500 calorie. I’m just trying to do it without fruits for the time being. Between those 2 things I think that’s what did it also as I said before I did 9 to 10 days of low carb still high calorie but low carb previous to starting this round.

I feel so excited about how well it’s starting out and I actually have really good energy and that is due to the Isocort that I take. I think that this protocol can be kinda tough on your body and this is my 3rd round and I have adrenal issues as it is and I think a lot of people out there may have adrenal issues and the hormone I do think can make it worst, it’s just a lot for your body to go through and it can be hard on your adrenals. So with that in mind I think it would be good if you aren’t feeling good on the protocol or you don’t feel good after it, check in to any adrenal issues that you may have you can actually take a cortisol test it’s a saliva test that you take a saliva like 3 -5 times in a day and send it to this lab and they test your cortisol levels and that will tell you if your levels are low or medium or high. One of the things you can do to relieve that is by taking Isocort which is a natural form of cortisol and each tablet has just a little bit. But I’m just taking that every hour or 2 throughout the main part of the day and that has been helping my energy tremendously pre-HCG and now I’m continuing on here and it doesn’t seem to have hurt my loss the last couple of days and I have much better energy so far than I did the last 2 rounds. That might be something to look into for other people as well who have health issues. Anyway I just wanted to share that.

Yesterday I had black tea with stevia I had a 100 grams of cod and asparagus for lunch. I had shrimp and fennel for dinner and around 10:30 pm I was kinda hungry because I didn’t really eat that much so I had some broccoli. I steamed some broccoli and again like I said I did not have any fruits so I’m not really too worried about having too much vegetables so I’m not weighing over anything because without the fruits I know I could just have as much vegetables I want I’m pretty sure.

I slept for 9 hours last night. I did have some hunger yesterday not a lot. Most of the day mostly fine just here and there and then I would eat a little bit of my food and I was fine. Today I actually injected just a little more. I usually inject a 150ius that what has worked for me all last round and half of the first round. Today I actually injected a little bit more just because of the little bit of hunger I had gotten and to a new HCGer it is normal to be hungry the first to 2-3 days especially if you’ve loaded on higher carb things. It’s like such a drastic change and maybe whatever insulin was put out to bring your blood sugar back down from all the carbs It’s like you might have a hard time the first couple days and be hungry and that doesn’t mean that your dose isn’t right it just takes a few days, usually after day 3 if you’re still hungry then you might wanna think about it adjusting your dose I’m just kinda mentioning that. For me personally I did try increasing my dose just a tiny bit like a 166ius and I’m actually more hungry today, I’m having like it’s only 12 and I was having, I think around 11:30 I was starting already like a hunger grumblings so I had my shrimp but I think I better go back to 150 or maybe a tiny bit lower. Anyway that’s what’s going on with me.

At the moment I’m taking a brand of the hormone called Zykog. I don’t actually think it’s made anymore. I bought it back in February and I bought several ampules and I can’t find it now. It has worked really good for me because none of my rounds had I been hungry. I had always have not been hungry at all. That’s why I liked it because I trusted it but anyway I did order some new hormone from alldaychemist that I’m gonna be switching over to, and that brand that I chose is called Fertigyn. Pretty much if you order from alldaychemist or whatever all those brands are good brands I’m sure any of them would work fine but I was just doing a little research online of you know brands that people like more than other. Some seem to be a little more potent than others because of people having to adjust their dose base on which brand and I’ve decided to try the Fertigyn because a number of people said that they felt really good taking that brand they said they felt like really happy and just mentally and emotionally really good and that’s always a plus. I’m gonna try that when it comes and I will let you know if that feels any different from the one I’m taking now, like I said I inject on my stomach about 150ius a day in the morning and that seems to work good for me for now.

That’s my update and I will let you know how tomorrow goes. I am so excited about the Ketone thing. I don’t know I just never seen that with me so that is so exciting. So there maybe something to this low carb loading. If anyone else tries this and it works well let me know. SeattleSuzi actually loaded that way unbeknownst to each other we each had decided separately to do this I didn’t even know who she was before I decided this and she didn’t know who I was and I saw her vlog and she ended up loading low carbs as well and she actually lost 5 pounds loading that’s pretty amazing but I know she’s still probably loaded with fats and everything. She seem to have good results from that and we’re about on the same schedule I don’t know if I got to see what she lost after her first VLCD day yet. That’s it for me and I’ll check in again soon.

 

Great Teas for P2 on HCG- losing FAT! -R3P2D2 -1.2

October 15, 2011

Tea is one of my saving graces on the HCG Injections.  With a little stevia, I can find a way to be satisfied when I can’t eat.

My favorite black tea is Numi’s Organic Chinese Breakfast Tea– 2 cups of this each morning is what wakes up this Chica each day.

Numi’s Green Rooibos tea and Numi Organic Honeybush Tea are super tasty herbal/uncaffeinated teas.

Tazo Zen Green Tea is so delicious- a blend of lemongrass and spearmint- a truly inspired combination if you ask me.

Zhena’s Gypsy Chocolate Chai Tea

For the chocolate lovers out there, the The Republic of Tea, Double Dark Chocolate Mate is yummy and rich.

Total loss 4 pounds in 2 vlcd days so far.
only had .6 loading gain
Loaded on only fats and proteins
Not eating fruits on p2 right now, eating extra veggie instead.

 

Water and Calorie Intake on HCG according to Dr. Simeons – HCG R3P2D3 -1.4

October 16, 2011

Dr. Simeons mentioned in his book Pounds and Inches that you should drink about 2 liters of water per day while on the HCG Injections.  I never knew how much that was in terms I can understand (like quarts) till I looked it up.  Turns out 2 liters is a little over 2 quarts or 64 ounces.  This was actually surprising to me as when I think of drinking a lot of liquids I think more in terms of like, a gallon, which is twice as much as that.  It certainly possible to drink too much liquids too so this was nice to re-read.

Additionally, some people around the web who do HCG police the policy that “you must eat the full 500 calories on HCG!!!!”  Must you?  Here’s is what Dr. Simeons said….”those not uncommon patients who feel that even so little food is too much for them, can omit anything that they wish.”  Also, “the diet must not exceed 500 calories per day.”  So what I take this to mean is that you feel like the full 500 while on HCG is too much (ie you feel full or not hungry), go ahead and eliminate whatever you want (aside from your protein- that’s not an option), but if you’re purposefully trying to get away with eating only 350 calories or something and feeling super crappy and weak while doing it, in that case it would probably be smart to up the calories to the full 500 in that case.

137.8 this day.

 

R3P2D4 -1.4, total 6.8lbs in 4 days on HCG

October 17, 2011

Since I wasn’t eating fruits on the HCG Injections for round 3, that made my carb intake almost zero, so I felt kind of shaky and weak in the morning.  I added some cottage cheese in the morning to help combat the weak feeling.

I found myself feeling thirsty and ended up drinking a gallon and half of water.  I read online that being thirsty is one sign of ketosis and my ketone strips are at 80 so it seems to make sense- made it easy to get my water in!

Also of note is that fact that I’m probably only consuming about 350 calories on the protocol at the moment since I’m not eating the grissini/melba or fruit at the moment- I’m only eating 2 100 gram portions of the proteins and 2 vegetables- and I’m losing a lot of fat, so overall this seems to be working quite well.

 

Demo of Omron Handheld Body Fat Monitor- HCG R3P2D5

October 18, 2011

I have been using this handheld body fat analyzer by Omron everyday while on HCG Injectionsand off when in P3 and P4- for me personally I have found it to be very consistent and quite accurate.  My model is actually quite old- like 15 years, so I haven’t personally used this newer model.  Several people who have bought it on my recommendation have found it to be consistent, while a few have mentioned that the numbers fluctuated too much or were really “off” from their true body fat percent via hydrostatic bodyfat testing.  This hasn’t been my experience, so I’m not sure what makes the difference for some.

One thing I do know is that it’s very important, in whatever circumstances you use the body fat monitor, to keep things the same every time you use it- I use mine immediately upon waking, unclothed, right after using the restroom.  I stand on the same floor.  If I walk around for 10 minutes and then use the monitor, the reading will be different and will not be a good comparison to other days when I use it immediately upon waking.  So it’s important to be consistent in how you use it. By doing this, this particular body fat monitor has proved to be both consistent and accurate when compared with hydrostatic testing, enough so that it’s very worth having and using while on the protocol- it gives me a general idea of how much fat I’m losing and where my body is at.  Of course ideally it would be great to have a daily DEXA scan while on the protocol so you’d know exactly how much fat and muscle you were losing, but obviously that would cost wayyyy too much, and also would not be too smart for your health either.  So for me this bridges that gap.

You can purchase the fat monitor on Amazon for only $30, and it has literally been the most useful tool in my weight loss journey aside from the actual hormone itself.

 

This has been very useful because I wouldn’t feel comfortable eating the 300 or 350 calories or so that I’ve been eating while on the diet plan without being confident that I was losing mostly fat and that my muscle was staying intact.  The body fat monitor has assured me that my losses are almost entirely fat- and this is interesting, since last round I was actually eating more calories- some days maybe more like 700 calories of non protocol foods and I didn’t lose as much as fat as I am now on only 300 calories of the proper protocol foods.  So that’s why for me the handheld body fat monitor has just been sooo useful as it really helps me make knowledgeable decisions to get the best results from the weight loss protocol.  I hope this helps you guys too!

 

HCGer’s with good p2 and p3 recipe ideas – HCG R3P2D6 -.6

October 19, 2011

Here are some great resources of youtube hcger’s who have great recipes for p2, p3 and p4:

http://www.youtube.com/user/HCGCharm
http://www.youtube.com/user/HcgSkinnyB
http://www.youtube.com/user/MouserNerd   – not protocol usually- this is for those who are doing a rogue HCG Injections round.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MsHcGGirl
http://www.youtube.com/user/hcgbesties

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGchica. I’m here to report on VLCD 6. I was down .6 this morning so that puts me at 135.4 and that’s a total loss of 7.8 pounds in 6 low calorie days so very good. My body fat also went down a whole pound today so I’m at 41 pounds of fat I started at 46 so that’s 5 pounds.

Yesterday I had a quarter cup of cottage cheese in the morning. I’ve been doing that because I’ve been feeling like I need something in the morning and I’m not having fruits right now. I had chicken for lunch and I had a little cucumber not much though, I’m really not liking cucumbers right now I don’t know why. Usually I like them but I guess that’s what the whole oil and all the other stuff so I can’t do that right now.

I had shrimp for dinner and again it’s like I’m out of all the vegetables that I can actually eat on large amount of, because I had some chard and I tried making a salad and I just didn’t like it so I hardly eaten any of it. I had 1 tomato that night because I was feeling hungry and then I had another quarter cup of cottage cheese again just a little hungry and I wanted to go to bed.

That was pretty good though my body fat went down a whole pound. I slept for 8 hours. My ketones were 80 again so all of that stuff was really good and I just wanted to share. I’m assuming that pretty much everyone who’s subscribed to me is already subscribed to these people that I’m gonna mention, because they have the same amount of subscribers as me or way more but since I’m like a really boring P2 food person with like no interest in food recipes or combinations I wanna share some of my favorite HCGers on here who are always telling or even showing recipes online on their videos what they’re eating on P2 and just special and yummy foods since I don’t do that. I wrote them down here. I’m gonna put the link below to their users so that you can find them.

Like I said you probably all know about them already but one of them is HcgSkinnyB she has a lot of good ideas for what she makes. A lot of here blogs whenever she’s updating she’ll mention what she ate that day and how she did it and she even has some recipe blog as well. Also MouserNerd she has some really great ideas, do keep in mind that she is doing her own protocol so it’s a lot of the foods are not on the normal protocol things like mushrooms and zucchini and like 0% yogurt that she’s eating so just be aware of that if you’re new make sure you know what you’re doing and that you’re choosing to do something off protocol. That’s totally fine we all do it but just be sure that you know that that’s not on the regular thing and that it’s your personal choice to actually do that but anyway if you do wanna do that she has some really, really good recipe ideas for how she’s making things and they kinda make your mouth water and they sound really good.

MsHcGGirl she has had a few really good recipe blogs, one is her P3 smoothie another one is I think her coconut bowl bread I think that’s also a P3 recipe so she’s got some great P3 ideas for food. And then hcgbesties they also have some of recipe blogs as well. I can’t remember if they’re p3 or p2 I now there is a couple for p3 at least. Anyway those are some of my favorites if I missed you and you do lots of recipe stuff you can let me know. Those are the ones I thought of at the top of my head. Anyway that’s it for today and I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow, bye.

 

Cravings On HCG? Try removing the fruits…- HCG R3P2D7

October 20, 2011

So far on this round 3 of HCG Injections, I had been eating no fruits or grissini while on the vlcd part of the HCG diet and I have had literally zero cravings to eat more- the diet has been the easiest it’s been for me.

I found myself having trouble cooking and eating enough vegetables though, so I decided to try having an apple- not long later I found myself having strong mental difficulties sticking to the diet and feeling like all I wanted was to eat more food.  I’m not sure if it was the apple or the cinnamon I put on it (I have since discovered I have a bit of an allergy to cinnamon).  It could have been total coincidence, but I highly doubt that when I look at the whole scenario.  This probably doesn’t happen to everyone and I have since done Round 4 successfully with fruits included, but it’s an idea for anyone who finds themselves having a lot of cravings and troubles sticking to the protocol- it might be worth doing a trial of removing these items to see if your cravings abate.

 

Consistency in Body Fat Monitors/Scales is important- HCG R3P2D8 -.8, 134.2

October 21, 2011

P2 Idea folks:  Have a green smoothie to get your veggies in.  If you have a Vitamix or Blendtec, those green smoothies can be quite tasty since they completely pulverize everything into fine particles so the smoothie goes down smooth without making you gag.  My green smoothie was really good!  It was just a mix of water, 3-4 cups of spinach or so, a large bunch of  italian parsley, and some grape flavored stevia. I know!  I know.  It sounds totally gross.  It’s really quite good- promise- and if you try it and come back and say “Chica, you lied, it’s gross!” well I guess that just shows how very unique of a person I am, because I honestly do like it.

Regarding body fat monitors- I had some people asking me if the body fat scales you stand on are as accurate and useful as my handheld one for tracking body fat while on HCG Injections.  I have not used a body fat scale myself- the one that I use is a handheld monitor only.  But after doing a little research it seems that the body fat scales tend to be inconsistent and that the numbers it can give tend to fluctuate a little too wildly when used multiple times in a row, making it difficult to know which number to believe.

The best advice I can give to anyone who wants to know if their particular body fat scale or monitor is useful for body fat tracking while on the protocol is to start using it every day, and under the same circumstances. The numbers you should be getting while not on this protocol should be staying consistently the same (unless you’re gaining weight or something), and while on the diet, the numbers should be fairly consistently going down.

For our purposes, accuracy is of secondary importance. It’s okay if the percent you’re being given on the scale is a few percent off. What matters is if the numbers you are getting as you lose weight are consistently going down, showing your reduction in body fat. If you see wild fluctuations in numbers with no seeming rhyme or reason to it, then that body fat scale is not useful to you.

My handheld body fat monitor by Omron has proven to be very useful to me because the numbers I get from it are very consistent. Additionally, after comparing my results to my hydrostatic body fat tests results a couple of times now, it has proved to be only 2-3% off in accuracy, which for a $30 device that I can use on my own in my bathroom every morning, is superb.

Some body fat scales may prove useful, and some may not. Either way, you need to do your part to ensure it’s ability to be as consistent as possible. You may have a very good body fat scale that is consistent on your hands, but if you are using it improperly, you may come to the conclusion it doesn’t work well and chuck it.

So how should you use the body fat scales and body fat monitors? Biggest thing is just use it the same exact way every morning. Let me give you an example of how I use my handheld body fat monitor. Every morning I, get up, pee (yes- I said pee. On a website/blog), remove my clothes, stand on my weight scale to see my weight, pick up my handheld monitor and plug in the correct numbers, and standing on my tile bathroom floor like I do every morning, hold my arms out to record the numbers for that morning from my monitor. I don’t sometimes stand on the carpet and sometimes the tile. I don’t sometimes take a shower first and sometimes not. I don’t sometimes go walk around and make a cup of tea first then come back and do it. All these actions will alter the results you get on a body fat scale or monitor. So by keeping the conditions under which you use the scale as much the same as possible, you will get the most consistent reliable results. Ideally you would use it the same time every morning, but I get up at different times each day so this doesn’t always work for me. Don’t sweat it. Make it fit with your life, just do what you can. If you happen to be sorely dehydrated one morning, you will find your fat percentage artificially inflated that day- but once you get to know your body and how the scale/monitor works, you won’t freak out about these things- you’ll know- ‘hey, I’m totally dehydrated so I know that number isn’t correct, and if I drink my water today my numbers will come back down tomorrow.’

The body fat scales and monitors are certainly not a replacement for actual hydrostatic body fat testing or having a DEXA scan. But since this is not something accessible to everyone, and even for those like myself who can get this done, it’s not something any of us would do on a daily basis while on the protocol, so in this case, the body fat monitors and scales can be useful- probably on any other diet you wouldn’t need or want to use this tool too much because the fat loss would be much slower and you could simply get a hydrostatic or DEXA from time to time. But for those of who’ve had experience being on the diet, weight loss and fat loss on the diet plan is strikingly fast, so it’s nice to know at what rate you are losing fat, and if it appears that you are losing more muscle than you should, it gives you that knowledge as it’s happening so that you can make alterations and corrections to the diet if need be.

I hope this helps guys!

For more relevant videos check out my hcg vlog.

 

Addressing low blood sugar and shakiness- HCG R3P2D9-11 132.4

October 24, 2011

I continued to eat no fruit on this round so far.

I wanted to mention that I lost 8.2 pounds in the first week on this 3^rd round of HCG Injections, and I only gained .6 lbs loading. HCG R3P2D9-11 was by far my best average from any week or any round of HCG.

I’ve never experienced hunger while on the protocol on any round, but usually I am eating the fruits listed. This round I had chosen to remove the fruits because they were causing me to have sugar cravings. But this was causing me one complication while on the protocol which was that I was getting low blood sugar. One night around 10pm when I was just about to go to bed and I’d had my p2 dinner 4 hours previously, my blood sugar was 54. That’s pretty low from what I know. It doesn’t seem wise to go to bed with your blood sugar at 54 and then fast while sleeping for 8-10 hours. Maybe I’m wrong, but I definitely didn’t feel right. I had a little cottage cheese and that brought my blood sugar right back up to 95 and I felt much better.

One possible reason that I’m experiencing the low blood sugar as well aside from the fact that I’m not eating the main carbs listed in the diet is that I take Cytomel/T3 thyroid medication- this is powerful, active thyroid hormone, so when it’s active in my system, can easily make me hungry and need to eat. Since I take a pretty high dose of this, I thought to myself that perhaps the dose I’m on is now too high for me, so I tried reducing it.

Aside from just that night, I was finding in general that I was getting hungry and shaky only an hour after eating a p2 meal. I was waking up in the morning feeling weak and shaky. The way I was feeling I knew wasn’t sustainable and I had to fix it if I wanted to finish the round.

I reduced my thyroid meds to 50mcg and increased my Cortisol (Isocort) a little bit and I had fantastic energy for the ensuing days. I also started eating more frequently, just in small amounts, but just enough to keep my blood sugar stable. These things combined made me feel a lot better on the protocol.

In a nutshell what I found myself needing to eat to feel good this round is:

1/4-1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese upon waking

50 gram portion of sirloin 1 hour later

100 grams protein + veggie for lunch

1/4-1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese around 3pm (sometimes, if need be)

100 grams protein + veggie for dinner

1/4-1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese before bed

By doing this, my blood sugar was staying much more stable and I felt a lot better. Many may not need to do this, but with my current health issues and the fact that I wasn’t eating the melba/grissini or fruits on this P2, I found I needed to make these adjustments.

For more relevant videos check out my hcg vlog.

 

Increased HCG dose – no more blood sugar issues- HCG R3P2D12-16 130.4

October 29, 2011

One cause of having a gain on while on HCG Injections, aside from the obvious one (you cheated!), is water retention. In my case, there were a hot couple of days in my area and I was doing a lot gardening outside. One day in particular I got pretty hot, a bit dehydrated, and I could tell I was getting a sunburn on my back. All that together and I was up .6 on the scale the following day. I know my body was retaining water to deal with my sunburn and dehydration. So in this case, it’s nothing to cry over- it hasn’t slowed down my actual fat loss.

Another important point is that while eating more frequently did help with my low blood sugar, I finally thought about increasing my dose, and wala! Low blood sugar issues gone. So if you’re having low blood sugar, also give consideration to the dose of the hormone you are on and that you may need to raise or lower it. The dose you need can vary depending on what brand of hormone you use, and I’ve used different brands of hormone on every round pretty much. I had been taking 150iu, which usually worked fine for me, but I increased it to 166iu and I felt MUCH better in the hunger department. Wish I’d thought of that sooner.

Regarding the cooking of food for family members- this may not be possible for everyone, but I was able to talk to my husband and he agreed to cook for himself and our son while I finished this round. I was finding it difficult and very tempting to be around all this yummy food I was cooking- the aroma, the look of it all, everything. Rounds of the protocol are so short and to the point, you want to do whatever you can to make it as easy on yourself as possible so that you can get back to living when you’re done.

 

The Story on Miracle Noodles and Shirataki Noodles – HCG Diet R3P2D17-19 129.2, 10.5 lbs body fat lost

November 1, 2011

Total loss of 14 in 19 vlcd days now.  According to my Omron Body Fat Monitor, 10.5 lbs of this is fat, and puts me at 27.6% bodyfat when I started at 32.1%, which is a 4.5% difference in less than 3 weeks, with no exercise.

I sometimes have Shirataki noodles, also known as Miracle noodles while on HCG Injections.  I wanted to help clarify something about these noodles. Sometimes the packaging can be misleading because you might see the ingredients say “yam flour” or something to that effect. Well, obviously in the  english language, yams are a starchy carb vegetable that are definitely NOT allowed on the protocol, so hence you will see some people on forums telling people that they can’t have miracle noodles on the protocol.

Never fear. These noodles are NOT made with Yam flour- this is just how the Chinese translated the term for the root that the noodles are really made from which is called Konjac. The Konjac root is only soluble fiber- it’s not a starch we as humans can digest or absorb as calories or carbs- it simply goes through our system as fiber. So when the package says 0 calories, they’re not lying. These shirataki noodles are made from this Konjac root. Just be sure not to get the Tofu shirataki noodles- they’re a different story.

However, some people will stay “I don’t care if they are supposedly 0 calories or have no carbs, I had a gain, or I stalled when I ate those noodles.”

One thing to keep in mind is that while these noodles are just fiber and have no carbs or calories, they still have a significant amount of bulk to them. If you eat 1 lb of noodles, and you haven’t gone to the bathroom by the next morning, you have 1 lb extra of food sitting in your intestines- it’s not fat, you just have more food, more bulk, sitting in your intestines, along with a little extra water perhaps to move that fiber along. So again, if you see a “stall” or a “gain” from eating these noodles, it’s not a true stall or gain- just those noodles sittin’ in your stomach en route.

I feel you can safely eat the Shirataki/Miracle noodles while on the protocol. I have done that most of my rounds, and lost significant percentages of fat with those rounds (90% and 80% respectively I think it was).

Updated notation November 2014: I’ve been trying out some of the other styles of noodles made by the Miracle Noodle team- I’m LOVING the fettucine cut!  They are my fav. They also have a “rice” version and a angel hair pasta version – so if you want to have the various custom cuts of zero carb pasta, you can purchase those at the Miracle Noodle’s site here. And keep in mind their shelf life is like a whole year, so you have plenty of time to use them if you buy it in bulk.

 

 

R3P2D20 -1.0, 128.2 Feeling great!

November 2, 2011

15 pounds in 20 vlcd days now. Wow. 1 whole lb lost as of this morning from yesterday.  I did some measurements on myself and realized that I lost 1.5 inches across my bust area in only 2 days, and .5 inches from my belly in those same 2 days.  Talk about a fast change!

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGchica. Today is VLCD 21. I was down a whole pound today. I was very excited about that, that puts me at 128.2 and that’s a total loss of 15 pounds in 20 VLCD days and my body fat right now is 27.7% my ketones were at 80 again as usual and I had miracle noodles yesterday, the day before, I had miracle noodles for the last 4 days. I was so excited to be 128 almost 127 really, because I just haven’t been that way in many years so that’s just- its surreal it’s actually kind of surreal.

I wanted to share real quick a couple of things about measurements. I just been kind of measuring myself randomly whenever I kinda feel like it so there’s no like rhyme or reason to it but it’s kind of interesting just from VLCD 19 to 21. Basically just 2 days ago, basically within 2 days from 2 days ago I loss 1.5 inches across my bust area and I lost a half an inch across my belly which is great cause I have a lot of that back flabby stuff around the bra line so I think that’s going. And also my belly it’s like that’s taken a while to go down and that’s one of the things that bothers me the most, you know after you have a kid and then being overweight. It’s just like this little bulge bellow your waist that shouldn’t be there. It’s finally starting to go away. That’s just crazy to lose an inch and a half in 2 days from my upper bust area and then also I lost a half inch right below my bust.

I’m one of those people that measures like all over, because I don’t know— the inches go from different places you wouldn’t always think of. I’ll definitely do like beginning of round 3 and end of round 3 measurements and then also from my first round to now. If I keep feeling good, I have been feeling really good TOM’s actually supposed to be here like today which he hasn’t come but any day now he should be here. We’ll see how that goes but so far I’ve actually been feeling really good the last couple of days and if I can hang in there feeling this good I’ll definitely keep going my round until, you know I would like to go to 120. I know I could do that if I did the full round I just, earlier this week I was thinking maybe I wasn’t mentally gonna be able to handle that but right now I’m actually feeling really good so maybe I’ll make it, and if I do get to 120 this round then I will most likely be done with the protocol for a while cause 120 is definitely, especially if I lose all fat that would put me at a pretty good spot and I don’t think I would feel you know- as long as I could maintain it which will see but I’m doing so much better this time around, my health is doing so much better and it just makes it possible for me to make the right decisions. I just feel so much more control of myself and my life and I just felt it’s gonna successful so I’m really glad.

That’s my update for today and I’ll talk to you guys soon.

 

P2 Recipe: Asparagus Shrimp Soup- Lip Balm, hCG R3P2D21 -.4, 127.8

November 3, 2011

15.4 lbs in 21 vlcd days on the HCG Injections now.

ASPARAGUS SHRIMP SOUP RECIPE FOR HCG – P2:

Ingredients:

Water

Asparagus

Shrimp and Shrimp skins/tails

Turmeric

Coriander

Salt

Miracle/Shirataki Noodles (optional)

Directions:

Simmered chopped asparagus in water, added turmeric, coriander, salt, and the shrimp tails until the asparagus was soft. Then removed the shrimp tails, and added the actual shrimp. Then blendered the whole thing with my immersion blender and added my miracle noodles (aka shirataki noodles).

 

Stevia Soda- hCG R3P2D22 15.4 lbs down, 11 lbs body fat gone

November 4, 2011

STEVIA WATER RECIPE (USE SELTZER WATER AND YOU HAVE YOUR OWN SODA!)

1 quart water
1.5 droppers of sweetleaf flavored stevia (grape is yum!)
A few shakes Trader Joes Organic Stevia Extract

So far my omron body fat monitor shows that I’ve lost 11 lbs of fat in 22 days.  My hydrostatic body fat test that I took after this round corroborates my results.

As some of you may know, I am writing these blog posts far after the fact when I did these vlogs- it’s been almost a year since this particular vlog. It has been really interesting for me to back and watch all my own old vlogs actually- it’s interesting to me how much energy I had this particular round and how good I felt- the fact that I was eating no fruit or grissini whatsoever and having no cravings and losing so much weight and so much of that weight being fat is really striking.   And that this particular round was the easiest one I ever experienced.  It makes me want to remove fruits on my next p2 again.

 

Losing FAT on the HCG diet, not just weight- why it’s important

November 7, 2011

LOSING FAT ON THE HCG DIET

16.8 lbs in 25 vlcd days now on HCG Injections for my 3^rd round. I’m at 34 lbs of fat according to my Omron Body Fat monitor.

My Ketones have dropped to 15 for reasons I’m unaware of. I thought to remove the stevia in my water temporarily to see if by some minute chance, the stevia could be causing a reduction in my ketones via a blood sugar increase (doubtful, but you never know with HCG). Since I’m writing this post way after the fact of this vlog, I can now tell you that it had nothing to do with the stevia. I think what it comes down to is simply that my body was using the ketones in my body more efficiently and they just weren’t spilling out into my urine anymore. I’m thinking this because I really hadn’t changed anything in what I was doing on the protocol from the first half of the round where my ketones were always at 40 and 80, and I was continuing to lose fat. Yay for efficient ketone use I guess huh.

Another note on Shirataki aka Miracle Noodles- they are literally making this second half of the weight loss protocol SO EASY for me this round. Remember that the shirataki noodles are simply soluble fiber. That is all. You can see another more in depth post I did about miracle noodles on the protocol here: https://hcgchica.com/the-story-on-miracle-noodles-and-shirataki-noodles-hcg-r3p2d17-19-129-2-10-5-lbs-body-fat-lost/

ON TO THE IMPORTANCE OF LOSING FAT, NOT JUST “WEIGHT” ON HCG.

Go online and google “5 pounds 5 pounds muscle” on google images. Wait, don’t bother! I’ll do it for you….click here.

Eye opening isn’t it? The volume that fat takes up is wayyyy more than muscle. If you lost 5 pounds of muscle, you wouldn’t visually look that much smaller- ie your pants would fit about the same. But if you lost 5 pounds of fat, you would shrink visibly quite a bit. And that is what is important right? To be visually smaller? I mean, if you weighed 102 lbs and looked like an elephant, you wouldn’t be too proud of the small number right? It’s the end result of what you look like that counts right? And not just for that reason, but many even more important reasons, we want to be concerned with losing fat and not muscle.

But why am I mentioning this? Don’t we all lose fat on HCG? Isn’t that what this protocol does? Well, when the protocol is followed properly, yes, you will lose mostly fat on the diet. However, in the days and times we are living in, many many people make various alterations to the weight loss protocol. This is not to say that they are all bad- certainly not. Some of the alterations I’ve made to my own protocol has resulted in continued fabulous fat loss. However, I have also made certain alterations to this protocol in the past that I believe led to excessive muscle loss instead of fat loss. So I’m bringing this subject up to encourage everyone to approach variations to the diet with caution and discernment. Don’t just randomly throw in an egg day or mac nut day because you’re bored or because you heard someone else did it and lost 3 lbs the next day. There are certain cases where I believe some variations, especially ones involving the addition of a significant amount of fat, cause that “extra great loss on the scale” the next day to come from muscle, not fat. That’s something you simply don’t want. It will ultimately harm your metabolism, make you unhealthier, and you won’t even look good to top it off!

That’s not to say that you won’t lose some muscle on the protocol regardless of how perfectly and purposefully you do the diet. Depending on how overweight you are, some muscle loss is to be expected and is even necessary in order to reach a normal amount of muscle mass for a person of your height and build. For instance- I am 5’1”. The normal amount of muscle mass for a person of my height is somewhere between 89-100 lbs. When I first started the protocol I had 112 lbs of lean body mass. A normal overall weight for a person of my height is about 105-120. If I were to have kept all my lean mass of 112 pounds, but ended up after weight loss at a total of say, 112 pounds, that would mean I would have absolutely no fat on my body at all! Not only does 0% body fat not exist, it would be super unhealthy- in fact, I’d be dead. We all need a certain amount of fat to be healthy and to be….um…alive. We have essential fat- our bone marrow is made up of fat, structural fat cushions in between our vital organs- this is necessary ya? Oh yeah, I almost forgot, much of our brain is fat!! After looking around I read in several places that while the brain is 75 percent water, what’s leftover is 60% fat! Additionally, enough fat, especially for women, is essential for proper hormone production and balance.

Getting off course here….so my point is that I had to lose some muscle in order to get to a normal body weight for my height. Our bodies naturally put on extra muscle when we gain weight in order to carry around all that extra fat we have. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to keep walking around. So when we lose that excess fat, we don’t need all that muscle we had. We just need a normal amount of muscle for our now normal body size.

As a person gets to the point on the diet where they are no longer overweight by very much, at this point, it is desirable however that most of the weight loss should be coming from fat. At this point your body is most likely not carrying excess muscle since you’re not that overweight anymore. In some cases with men, there is often 0% muscle loss while on the protocol. This is about the only time in my life that I wish I were a guy. We women do not have it so easy- I guess it has to do with the miniscule amounts of testosterone we women have in comparison with men. Oh well. We’ll make do just fine on our own won’t we girls?

On my 3^rd  weight loss round I believe I lost somewhere around 87% fat and my 4^th round was 80% fat- to me these ratios are excellent and more than acceptable.

I hope this post was helpful- I feel like it’s important to draw attention to this because I don’t think the world in general has trained us women to be aware of fat and muscle weight- we have be finangled into thinking that we have to be a certain weight and be “skinny” without regard to muscle. Times are changing thankfully and this will help us to maintain our weight loss and stop the yo-yo dieting effect.

 

Inch loss on HCG, 13 lbs FAT gone, HCG R3P2D26 125.8

November 8, 2011

INCH LOSS ON HCG

-.6 today, at 33 lbs fat, 26.4 body fat percent. 125.8 lbs total this day. 17.4 lbs total loss on the scale, 13 of which my Omron is telling me is fat. This is great because at least 2-3 lbs of my intial loss is water, so that means that I’ve had very minimal muscle loss in relation to fat loss this round. I track my body fat percent daily with the Omron Handheld Body Fat monitor- my model is very old (like 15 years) but you can purchase the current model below:

Ignore the higher ketones from the stevia removal. The ketones were back down again on the 2nd day without stevia. I think my body was just using the ketones more efficiently.

I’m not sure if I’m an anomaly, but I actually have larger fat losses in and around TOM (time of the month aka PERIOD- yes I said the word) while on HCG Injections. That is if I can stick to protocol! I think pre TOM most women get more cravings to eat and that can leading to cheating on the diet, but if you stay strong and stick to protocol, you too might find that you actually have a larger fat loss once TOM starts. Could be worth it. :)-

I show my “before HCG” picture in this vlog- it’s the one I originally printed out from my computer and jotted down all my starting measurements- I measured everything- even my neck! I decided to do that after I saw a YouTube vlog and the woman lost 1.5” on her neck after doing this weight loss protocol- that made me realize I must have fat lurking in many places I hadn’t thought of and it was going to be nice to see on a day when say, my waist measurement was the same from last week. “Hey, my waist is the same, but my elbow shrunk by a half inch!” Just kidding about the elbow of course. What is so crazy to me though is that my starting bust area measurement was 42.5” and at the point of this vlog my bust measurement was now 34”- that’s 8.5” smaller!! In just one place. That is just so crazy to me. My belly starting measurement was 42.25 and as of this vlog was 34.75. That’s a 7.5 inch reduction in my belly! My waist started out at 34.75” and went down to 26.5”, an 8.25 inch difference.

What’s interesting to me is that given my natural shape and how my body has always lost weight, my thighs always seem to hold onto fat till the end, which is what has continued to happen even with this diet. The fat coming off my thighs has been slower, and now I can discuss in retrospect, during the following round, Round 4, I finally lost some fat on my legs! It was amazing to me to despite my small loss in pounds during Round 4, my legs totally reshaped while on this round and I lost quite a bit of fat there.

 

How to Deal with Difficulties on HCG; 124.4 pounds now, 18.8 lbs lost in 28 days so far

November 10, 2011

HCG VLCD 27= Down .8 to 125 lbs, HCG VLCD 28=  Down .6 to 124.4 lbs.

At this point I’ve lost over 65 pounds with the use of this weight loss protocol- I had what I call a “failed” round 2 on this protocol where I regained most of the weight I lost on that round, so some of that 65 lb weightloss involved re-losing some weight I had already lost.  This 3rd round overall was very easy and great for me, but this has not always been my experience, so don’t feel bad if you are having a hard time on the diet.

My first round on HCG Injections, right around Day 11 or so on the VLCD, the cravings for sugar I was experiencing reached a pinnacle where it was literally so bad I almost couldn’t cope- I didn’t know what to do with myself- I felt like if I didn’t have some sugar right now I couldn’t go on living- isn’t that crazy? But it’s true. I called my mom trying to figure out what to do. And I am usually the type of person who likes to figure out my problems on my own. Finally I had a diet coke and that seemed to help me get through the day, but just barely. I remember being curled up in a ball in my bed that evening just waiting for the seconds and minutes to pass hoping that I would feel better soon and that this horrible day would be over. It felt like each minute that I couldn’t eat anything, especially something like brownies or ice-cream, was almost unbearable.

I kind of feel as I write this that almost anyone who reads this will laugh at me about this, but it really did feel that hard to me. I couldn’t give in, even for just an hour or a day because this diet plan takes no prisoners when it comes to fat gain when you go majorly off protocol, and I knew if I gave up then, I’d be giving up potentially for a long time to come.

Guess what happened when the sun broke the following day? My craving had passed- and for the rest of that round the diet became much easier and manageable. I felt like I had gone through a major sugar detox.

These days whenever I fall back into a pattern of bad eating with too much emphasis on sugar, I try to go through my sugar detox before I start the protocol – it’s much easier to get off of eating sugar if you can eat a high fat, high protein diet in it’s place for a time- even a week will usually suffice for me, before I start loading for this diet (low carb loading for me always now). I’ve done this a few times now when needed and it’s much more painless. Once I’m “off the sugar” and the cravings and withdrawal symptoms appear to be gone, I can start my round and it is usually manageable overall.

If you are having a hard time on the protocol certain days, try to tell yourself that you will most likely feel it’s much easier the next day- it won’t feel that hard every day. That is what’s unbearable to me- the idea that how I’m feeling right now- “the diet is unbearable right now”- is how it’s going to feel every day and every hour until the end. If that were true I’d give up right away. But the truth is most likely, the difficult period will pass quickly, and you will find the diet much easier on many days.

Round 2 I experienced difficulties once again and this time it was more health based. This can really be a bear. If your health is too screwed up, ie. hormones, adrenal, or neurotransmitters off balance, this may be a case where you need to address your health first and come back to the protocol when you have some of these issues figured out and under control. That’s what I had to do. I felt so horrible most of Round 2 I pretty much cracked when it was over and gained 14 lbs back in 9 weeks. As I discovered not long after I was experiencing adrenal fatigue and sugar addiction. I was able to address these and when I started Round 3 I felt great, had great losses, and maintained all my fat loss. It really pays to listen to your body and know if you feeling unwell just for 1 day, or if there is something more serious going on that is going to hamper your long term success on the protocol if you don’t stop to address it.

I hope this helps anyone experiencing difficulties on this protocol to determine if how they are feeling on the protocol should cause them to just barrel through it till it passes, or to take a longer pause and come back to the diet while you address what might be something more serious.

 

Fit into Size 4 Jeans! HCGR3P2- 124.4 lbs

November 10, 2011

I remember how I felt this evening when I went shopping and all the size 4 jeans I tried on fit me.  Not just 1 pair.  All the pairs, different makes and brands.  Back when I was a size 16  that had become too tight on my waist and I was dreading the thought of having to shop for a size 18 is when I found out about HCG Injections and voraciously starting researching it online.  I would never in a million years have thought that I would once again be a size 4 as I was in my late teens and early twenties.  It was euphoric really and hard to believe.  What’s even nicer is that I recorded this vlog on November 9, 2011, and today it’s September 18, 2012, over 10 months later, and since then I still wear a size 4 and I’ve managed to gain over 12 lbs of muscle going to Crossfit during that time as well.  This protocol really works people.

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGchica. I just want to share something really quick. I decided to go shopping today just to see what size I’m in cause all the clothes I have are like 6 and 8s which I’ve been in for a little while now. I decided to go to COLES and I tried on like 10 pairs of size 4 and they all fit I couldn’t believe it. I mean some are pretty snug but I could button and zip all of them and didn’t have to lay on the bed to do  it and they all fit.

This is a woman size 4. I can’t fit in any of those teeny bopper jeans that 3 and 5 type stuff cause I have hips, butt and thighs that’s where all the fat I have that’s left is there. Anyway all of them fit so I was like “I can’t believe it, it was like I was size 4 cause they all fit.” I didn’t but anything there cause it like 50 bucks per pair of jeans but I went to a thrift store after that and I tried down like 6 or 7 pairs of size 4 there and all of those fit and I found a 1 pair that’s a Banana Republic brand that fit me perfectly and there’s size 4. I just wanna show you guys cause I haven’t wear a size 4 for probably 6 or 7 years. I just can’t believe it.

I wanna show you. These are the jeans. These are a size 4 I promise I would show you the tag but it’s too hard to get to. You can see like they’re not like all muffin toppy or anything they fit comfortably. That’s it. I was a little excited I wanted to show you I kinda needed a pick me up today I was having a little bit of a tough day and I figured I wanna just go shopping.

The other really amazing thing is I tried on like 10 or 12 pairs of boots at Coles too even the ones that goes all up to your knee. I have always had trouble zipping them all the way up even when I was thinner I couldn’t zip them up and I could all of them fit perfectly fine I had no trouble with any of them and I was like “oh my goodness” I mean I could actually order a pair of boots of amazon and not worry that the cuff wouldn’t fit. That was so amazing too. I just wanted to share that at a 124 pounds, I’m 5’1 and I’m now at a size 4 and I started out at 172 in a size I was in a tight 16 basically when I started the protocol I had been on the 16 and they were all getting too tight and I thought there is no way I am buying a size 18. For a 5 foot 1 person no. Anyway from there to size 4 I just started my journey February and I’ve had long breaks between my rounds as well with the fail round 2 and it’s amazing how far you can get so quickly with the weight loss protocol. So I just wanted to share see you later.

 

R3P2D29 -30 New Body Fat Monitor- supposed to be more accurate!

November 12, 2011

A few tidbits about the body fat monitors out there.  The handheld body fat monitors scan the upper half of your body to give you a bodyfat percent and the scale body fat monitors scan your lower body to give you a bodyfat percent.

The body fat monitor that I decided to try out is both a scale and handheld that’s connected by a cable. Since it’s after the fact now, I can tell you that this body fat monitor turned out to be pretty inaccurate and was off by several percent when compared to hydrostatic. So in short, don’t buy it.

My handheld body fat monitor has proved to be a great little tool as far as consistency goes to tell me where my body is at, and it’s accuracy is even pretty good (especially for costing only 30 bucks)- in general it’s within 1.5-2% of the my hydrostatic bodyfat results, which is excellent.

You can purchase the handheld body fat monitor that works really well for me here:

 

RX HCG vs. Homeopathic HCG – HCG R3P2D31

November 13, 2011

A friend of mine has done both rx pharmaceutical HCG Injections and homeopathic HCG and she did a nice vlog discussing her observations when comparing the two that you might enjoy- most of us have only done one type of the hormone and we often wonder what it would be like to the other type, whether RX or Homeopathic. She has some insightful things to say about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAnLS2EdbTg

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGChica. I’m checking in for the results of VLCD 31 I had another goose egg, so that makes actually 3 days of goose eggs but again, actually happy because my body fat went down another half-pound to 32 pounds of fat and that brought my body fat percent to 25.5% and with the monitor I’ve been using it had started out at 32.1. If this number sticks which I always kinda like to wait a day or two that it sticks. But if it sticks that means I’ve lost 14 pounds of fat in 31 days and a total loss of 18.8 pounds which I am very happy about.

I know like sometimes we would all like to have that 1 pound a day average that Dr. S talked about but in reality if you’re losing almost all fat on this diet which on almost any the other diet you wouldn’t. The technician that I talk too that did my body fat testing hydrostatically he tests all kinds of people all the time and he said a lot of people who do Weight Watchers lose 50% muscle. Remember how I talked about the volume the space the fat takes up vs. muscle is much larger. Just keep in mind that on this protocol even if you’re only having a .5 average or whatever the case maybe if you’re losing almost all fat you’re getting a lot smaller with less pounds loss that on any other diet. Even if you did lose this much weight in this amount of time on Weight Watchers or something, you would be a little larger, you’re smaller because you’re doing it on HCG. And you still wouldn’t lose this much most likely in this amount of time on either diet either. Just keep that in mind when you’re wishing your have the 1 pound a day thing. I think in reality, unless you’re a guy it’s hard to actually lose that much fat every day but I am very, very happy with these results. 14 pounds of fat is a lot of fat.

My ketones are still at 15 I’m just going with that. Guess what my body fat monitor came today. The new one that I talked about yesterday. I can’t believe it, I just ordered it yesterday. I’m doing a free trial of the Amazon Prime. I’m not planning on keeping it. I just thought if I get a free trial then I get a free 2 day delivery that was supposed to be here by Tuesday and I got it today on Saturday so I ain’t complaining. Anyway I have to wait to use it in the morning and I probably need to track it for like a week to see if it’s consistent. I just step on it just for curiosity today but you know I had eaten and it was during the middle of the day but they do say that the scales tend to overestimate body fat percent but again this was supposed to be hand held scale it’s supposed to scan your whole body and the body fat percent was much higher than my hand held and I’m pretty sure it definitely overestimating it but again I don’t care about the percentage being off I just wanna see if its consistent and if it’s gonna help me track the weight that I’m losing how much of that is fat that’s all I really care about.

I’ll let you guys know my first impression just from that one thing today was like I don’t know about this but we’ll see cause the thing is I did it twice like one after the other it’s like 3% different the second time. We’ll see I may have to return it if it doesn’t end up being good but I’ll let you guys know about that. Other than that I know I’ve been having more than 500 calories lately but I‘ve been doing that a lot of the round I’m probably been having a little more yogurt than I usually have lately. My servings have kind of increased from a quarter cup to a half cup each time. But I’ve been losing fat and that’s all that I really care about and I’m totally happy with the half pound a fat a day. I guess because I’m getting to the end here on Monday 32 so I have maybe like a week left. I just don’t feel like being super, super strict. I’m still having the shirataki noodles every day. I have a 16 ounce package every day 8 ounces with each meal. I make a soup for each of my meals and then I have 2 – 3 serving of the Greek yogurt in between to kinda hold me over.

I do find that I have a half cup of Greek yogurt for breakfast sometimes I think like “oh I’m gonna try to go without it today” but I usually after an hour or 2 after I get up I start feeling like I need a little something so I just have that. I’m really happy with my results this round so I’m totally fine with that. I supposed if cut all the yogurt out it’s possible I would lose a little more but I’m just not feeling that mentally gang-ho about being really strict and losing a lot more cause I’m happy where I’m at. I’d love to get to 120 but if I don’t that’s fine I just need to finish out the round. I need to just do it in a way that I can manage it. You know while still losing something and I am still losing fat.

Also HCGmom that I told you guys to subscribe to a while back, my friend. She made a blog, finally, so go watch it. HCGmom nice and simple and she kind of gives you guys an update and what’s neat is she did injections for the first couple of rounds like I did and then for this round she’s actually switch to the homeopathic Buckeye Nutritionals. It might be nice to hear for any of you out there who are curious as to having a different experience.

Between the 2 she actually talks about that, her experience with both and the pros and cons that she has experienced. Even myself I’ve been interested in doing homeopathic before myself. In the end I decided injections would be the easiest and I’ve never had any troubles with them. But she mentioned some issues she had with injections that she wanted to see if the homeopathic would resolve and I think in fact it has resolve those issues. Definitely go and watch that if you want a comparison of homeopathic versus Rx HCG. In fact I think someone I was just talking to wanted to switch from homeopathic to Rx or something, so that will be helpful.

That is my update for today and I guess that’s it. I can’t believe I’m already on day 32 of the round. It’s actually gone really fast. The beginning was kind of slow and now I’m like “oh my goodness there’s only basically a week left” and I could go a few days longer if I wanted but I don’t know. I don’t really know what I’m going to do right now. In general I’ve been feeling really good again on the diet and it’s been easy. Today I’m feeling pretty tired and it’s always hard when you’re tired. And I did actually have an extra portion of basically a Shirataki asparagus soup. I’m thinking that’s only another 40 calories so I’m not worried about it. Anyway still doing good I’m just kinda winding down and I’ll be happy to be in P3 soon about this raw almonds from the farmers market today and I wanted to make sure they were fresh so I did actually eat like 2 or 3 of them and they were really good. It’s so funny when certain like just kinda boring things like playing nuts that are even salted. I like nuts and everything but I never thought they were the its funny when your on protocol and you’re not eating a lot all of the sudden like those simple tastes are just so delectable and I just wanted to eat a whole cup more probably shouldn’t have done that. Just kind of set off my little thing of wanting to eat but that’s okay. Overall it’s been fine. I will talk to you guys soon.

 

My HCG Protocol – Round 3- In Detail

November 16, 2011

This is an in-depth video discussing what I did during Round 3 of the HCG Injections. One of the biggest changes I made because of dealing with a lot of cravings during Round 2 was to remove the fruits entirely from the diet and to eat 0% fage yogurt and extra vegetables in it’s place. This pretty much irradicated all cravings and made sticking to the diet soooo much easier this time. I’ve already never incorporated the melba/grissini.

LOADING ON HCG:

I chose to load low-carb (or what I called loading clean) this time, and after doing it and having fantastic results, I will always load low-carb for this protocol for any future rounds. This means I eat a lot of high fat foods and high protein, but these days are completely without sugars and almost all carbs for me. This did exactly what I desired it to do, which was to put me straight into ketosis after the first vlcd day. Fat burning mode people!

What I Eat on P2 of HCG This Round:

• Ate ¼ cup to ½ cup 0% Fage Greek Yogurt 2-3x’s a day- basically I chose the times to eat this based on the times when I was hungry and needed a little food- breakfast, sometime around 2 or 3pm, and then before bed. This helped keep my blood sugar stable and prevented me from being hungry.
• No fruits and no melba/grissini
• Meat and Veggies: I made 2 soups a day, 1 for lunch, 1 for dinner.
  • Each soup contained: -100 grams of protocol meat- usually lean beef or shrimp-1 veggie in unspecified amount- usually 1 package of asparagus or ½ can of canned tomatoes

– 8 oz. of Shirataki/Miracle noodles

– Water as the liquid

– Salt to taste (I am very liberal with salt myself)

You can watch the actual video for a description of my little “process” for the soup making (it’s very basic). As I stated on the video, I am very boring on p2 during the protocol. I like to keep it simple and straightforward because, let’s face it, the food is very tiny. Who wants to spend an hour preparing a meal that only a mouse would be happy with? Well, I’m kind of kidding because actually once you add in the shirataki/miracle noodles, the meal becomes of a size that is more satisfying for a regular human being.

What I Drink on P2 of HCG This Round:

 

• Hot Tea out of a large mug
• Water with Stevia out a quart canning jar

No Fat on the HCG Diet:

Aside from that what I can say is that sticking closely to Dr. Simeon’s protocol is what brings the best results. I am very careful not to include any fat while on the diet now- that means no chocolate delight, no coconut oil, etc. I have come to agree that Dr. Simeon’s instructions regarding fat were on point and important to follow. The variations I have chosen to include which are the shirataki/miracle noodles and the 0% fage greek yogurt are acceptable to me because neither of them contain any fat and I have seen my percentage of fat loss stay quite high this whole round.

 

Review of Body Fat Monitors. Down to 122.6lbs on HCG now

November 18, 2011

Day 35: -.4 to 122.8, Day 36: +.6 to 123.2, Day 37: -.6 to 122.6

Total results so far: 20.6lbs in 36 days, 16lbs of which are fat.

 

I don’t know if this happens to anyone else, but whenever I take an evening walk with my hubby while on HCG Injections I always have a goose egg or gain the following day. Water retention maybe?

Regarding the body fat monitor that I tried out that was both a scale and handheld monitor combined: I don’t like it! The numbers it was giving me were way overestimating my body fat when compared with hydrostatic testing (by like 10%- not cool). My handheld body fat monitor, which you can see below, is far more accurate when compared with hydrostatic body fat testing and very consistent, so I definitely continue to recommend this one.

Transcript:

Hi guys! HCGChica. I’m here to check in for the last few days results. I think l left you off at day 34 when I had a goose egg. Day 35 I was down .4 which put me at 122.8 which is crazy and then Day 36 the results from that I was actually up .4, back to 123.2 and I wasn’t worried about that because I took a walk with my husband the night before kinda late. And whenever I take a walk with him at night I always have a goose egg or a gain but my body fat stayed the same. Like again it’s probably just a little dehydration.

This morning I was down .6. That puts me at 122.6. My body fat still at 30 pounds which is fine that’s still really good and now I lost a total of 20.6 pounds it 36 days and I’ve lost 16 pounds of fat in that 36 days.

My ketones have actually been even a little lower the last couple days. More like 5 and I took a walk again with my husband last night too so I don’t know if it has anything to do with like using up more of the ketones possibly. But either way I’m feeling really good. Quick thing I wanted to share was my review of the body fat monitor. I know it probably seems a little soon to be giving it but I think its fine. I don’t need to test it out anymore. I wanna show it to you this is the one I had ordered. It’s a scale and a handheld thing that you stand on and hold. Basically I don’t like it. I’m gonna be returning it.

First of all I’m fine if something is a few percent off as far as the accuracy goes. Like I said as long as it’s consistent but this I’m pretty sure this is like super off like at least 8% off it’s over estimating it by at least 8 %. For instance, it’s been saying my body fat is about 36.5 every morning percent where is my handheld has been gradually doing down and the most recent days were around 24.5 – 24.4 percent. So that’s a difference of like 12%. Now this is my handheld one. I am assuming that this one is underestimating my fat via a couple few percent, possibly. So that’s the case. This one is still off by like 8 or 9% and nobody wants their body fat over estimated by that many percent. I don’t think that’s encouraging. I just don’t think it’s very accurate, also my weight on that scale has been different than my weight on the other scale and each day it doesn’t fluctuate by the same amount. I just don’t really like it. I’m sorry guys. I’m gonna continue to recommend this handheld one because I have found it to be very consistent and even if it underestimates your fat just a little bit I do think it’s fairly close to being accurate because I also went online and it’s called fitwatch.com and I guess they have a body fat calculator on there and what you do is you enter your body weight, your waist in inches, your hip inches your forearm and your wrist, and when you enter all that in it gives you an estimate of your body fat and again it’s just an estimate but based on the measurements it should be close to being accurate right?

I did that when I was on 124 pounds and the interesting thing is that results came out to almost exactly what my handheld body fat monitor said. It said that I had 32.6 pounds of fat and 26.35% of body fat. And when I was at 124.4 it said almost that exact thing it said I had 124 it said 32 pounds of fat and 25.6% body fat so it was really close. Just like going to another source and getting an estimate of my body fat that’s kinda what makes me feel that this is much closer to being accurate and it’s consistent and it’s half the price of the other one this only like 30 bucks on the on Amazon and the other one is like 64.

I will be having my body fat hydrostatically tested at the end of this round and that will kind of clarify for sure exactly where I’m at. I guess it’s possible that this thing could be a fluke like it’s totally off but I really doubt it because it’s gone down so consistently this whole round so I know it’s not just random the number it’s giving me and like I said since I tried that calculator it seems to be really close to that which again makes the scale one I tried completely off.

That’s my update for today it did say my visceral cause the scale one does like visceral fat and your muscle amount all the stuff. It said that my visceral fat was 5 which I guess is good I guess it said anything under 9 is normal but again I don’t really know if I can trust that cause I don’t even trust the scale like just for weighing me. That’s my review I really don’t recommend getting it go with the handheld. The thing I wish is my handheld is really old. It’s like 10 or 15 years old and maybe it looks a little different than the handheld it’s the same company called OMRON but I’m hoping that the new handheld worked as well as this one. Because you know sometimes things that were made 15 to 20 years ago were better made than now so I’m hoping maybe some of you who do get the new handhelds could let me know if you find it to be consistent. Because maybe my older model is just better than anything now. I don’t know. I’m hoping that those handhelds are good qualities. That’s my recommendation and I have about a little less than a week left.

I’m technically supposed to have my last injection day I think on Tuesday and today is Thursday and to be honest I’m kinda sad because it felt so good this round. Usually I’m pretty happy to be done with P2 but I’ve just been feeling so good that I’m almost a little nervous to go on to P3. Even for my health I’ve been feeling so good and I know it’s actually due to the other factors. The other things I’ve been doing outside of HCG but still one of those things when you’re feeling so great you kind of want to keep everything the same but anyway I think I might get to 120 by the end. I’ve still got till Tuesday for injections and then of course there’s 2 or 3 days after that of low calorie. Because I’m supposed to go on a hike next Friday so basically the plan is that I need to be on P3 by Friday. I kind of wish I could push it just a little longer but I need to just go ahead and do this and get it done and move on and start exercising again and it’s gonna be fun. That’s my update for today and I’ll talk to you guys soon.

 

GAPS diet for autism, add, adhd, eczema etc.- book title; HCG R3P2D37 +.2, 122.8

November 19, 2011

Hi guys! HCGChica here. I’m here to give you the results of VLCD 37 I was actually up .2 this morning. My body fat has been staying the same at 30 pounds of fat for the last 4 days I have to admit I did have a large can full of pecans yesterday they were really good. I actually had a handful of almonds about 4 days ago- 3 or 4 days ago as well. That could have to do with my weight kind of fluctuating the last few days. Minus 4, up 4, minus .6, plus .2 so I’m on 122.8 which is really good. It would be nice to make the best of the last few days of my round but you know how that is. Sometimes when you’re almost done you just kind of ready to be done already which is kind of the case for me. Those pecans are so good.

So anyway, my last injection will be I think Monday or Tuesday. I’m doing good I lost 20.4 pounds net at the moment in 37 days. My ketones are at 15. I’m pretty excited that I lost 15 pounds of fat. It might seem 20 pounds in 37 days 16 pounds of fat 37 days it may not seem the most weight loss you’ve ever seen on HCG but like I had said I really wanted to just to make sure as much of the weight I lost was fat and so for me has been a very successful round and that I’m very happy with it. Even though I lost 27 pounds in my first 40-day round I had lost a lot of lean mass so I’m much happier with this results. I’d much rather go slower as long as it’s all fat.

I wanted to actually show guys this book it’s not necessarily related to HCG but this is called Gut and Psychology Syndrome and it’s basically a book talking about a special diet for certain disorders. It’s actually mainly for autism but my son is not autistic but he has eczema and this is actually supposed to be a good treatment for that as well it’s actually supposed to treat things like autism, ADD, ADHD, depressions, schizophrenia, and dyslexia and it’s really good cause basically the diet is based on a specific carbohydrate diet which is known to be a cure for things like crones disease and ulcerative colitis. Basically the premise of this book is that a lot of this issues like mentioned here on the front have a lot to do with like having abnormal gut flora and having the membrane of your intestines being permeable for being damage and then a lot of foods you’re eating, a lot of undigested particles are getting into your blood stream and your body is reacting to that. This is a really good diet for people who seem to have a lot of food allergies which is the case with my son. He’s only 2 and ever since we started feeding him real food whatever that was a year ago he seems to be allergic to so many foods he seems to be allergic to almost all fruits for one and then the nightshade family and just a lot of other things and it just really bothered me cause like all of you mothers out there we want the best for our kids and we want them to have the best chance to feel happy and good in life

Basically this diet it’s called GAPS and it’s basically an alteration of the specific carbohydrate diet and the whole point of it is to heal the guts. It’s supposed to heal the lining of your intestines so it’s no longer permeable and it’s also supposed to fix the balance of your gut flora cause basically they’re saying antibiotics or just birth control for long time or just all this different things can affect you so that you end up having more bad gut flora than good and when it gets out of balance like that the bad gut flora it feeds on sugar on carbs even on FOS prebiotic fibers and then it eats that and then the byproducts of those bad gut flora are different toxins that will affect you in other bad ways and the reason it’s called Gut and Psychology Syndrome is cause she has treated all this people with autism and schizophrenia and depression and basically by fixing this issues with the gut and doing this diet a lot of those issues went away. For autistic children she had people just becoming almost normal functioning where their brain was just able to handle things a lot better or for ADD things like that just really calm them down and the whole point of it is that by going on this diet she suggest that most people need to do it for at least 2 years that after the 2 years your supposed to be able to incorporate a lot of the foods that you originally couldn’t eat without having bad reactions. For instance my son he’s eczema is not super, super bad but as I said when he would eat this different foods their supposed to be normal foods he would it would get a lot redder and he would also get a lot more cranky. I know that he’s 2 and that with 2 come certain things like tantrums and stuff like that and I do expect that but I just felt like some of the things that he was doing just really seemed really over the top and just not normal and that’s why I started researching this. This book is really good and so if you have any children or know anyone that have any of this conditions you might want to read it basically there is an introduction phase and then there’s the full GAPS diet that you do that part for like 2 years but the introductions page is supposed to kinda jump start the intestinal feeling and that’s what my son is on right now. It’s been about 2 weeks and we have all noticed a difference in his behavior already before he would complain about something it would just go on and on for like 45 minutes sometimes you just fall apart. And now it’s over much faster he just seems a lot more in control of himself. And like I said he’s just like a normal kid but it seems like he has all this food allergies and eczema and already his eczema looks better as well and a lot of the basis of it involves eating probiotic foods like sauerkraut juice, eating your own homemade yogurt and kefir. Based on this book you’re not supposed to have any commercial dairy products at all. You have to make it all at home from raw milk if possible and then also all this bone broths, having this broths made from bones and marrow and the different gelatinous parts of the animal are supposed to be kind of like the basis of their diets.

Anyway I’m excited to like eat some of the stuffs I’ve been making because I’ve been cooking so much for my husband and my son and I haven’t. It haven’t really bothered me but I’m definitely excited to do it. So anyway it’s called Gut and Psychology Syndrome and it’s by Doctor Natasha Campbell McBride and she kind of came across this stuff based on trying out the specific carbohydrate diet and Elaine Gottschall also had had success with the similar diet with her autistic child many years ago and that’s intriguing other people. Sorry this is long. I just wanted to share because I really- a lot of what she says in the book really resonates with me and makes a lot of sense to me I kind of am the person who believes in meat, in grass fed meats and I mean it can be expensive not all may be able to afford it but she just talks about this different things and I just thought it would be helpful for anyone who has children with conditions like this to help address it in a successful way and also with the nice idea of being able to re-incorporate certain foods that they can’t tolerate now. Anyway that’s what I wanted to share and I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.

 

LDW 122.8, HCG R3P2D40, Future Plans

November 21, 2011

My LDW for this round is 122.8.  It was a bit rough getting off the HCG Injections this round because of getting low blood sugar so I was having to eat a bit more still while getting off in order to feel somewhat normal.

As I watched this video I realized I can now make a nice comparison- I stated in this vid that I wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing shorts in public yet because of the fat still left on my thighs- at 122.8.  During the break between round 3 and 4 I started going to crossfit and I gained 7 lbs of muscle in 3 months and started round 4 around 132 pounds.  During Round 4 I didn’t lose a lot of weight- my LDW was 126.8, so 4 lbs heavier than my previous LDW, BUT because of the muscle gains during my break and the fact that the fat I lost as I went from 132 to 126 was fat I hadn’t lost before (meaning, I had maintained my fat losses when I originally got to 122.8), I lost fat on my legs and my thighs!  Enough so that at 126.8, 4 lbs more than the weight I didn’t feel comfortable wearing shorts, I felt comfortable wearing shorts!  I hope this all makes sense.  For the first time ever after Round 4 was completed, I liked my leg shape!  That was pretty rewarding and helped me to realize when you get to the point where you don’t have a lot of weight to lose, even small losses make a large difference on your body.

Transcript:

Hey guys! It’s HCGChica. I keep trying to make a quicker blog but I just can’t seem to do it. This is my 3^rd time re-recording this. Okay yesterday was my LDW I was 122.8 I decided to end my round a few days early because I was starting to grab a little handfuls of extra things and I just thought I am mentally done with this round so I need to physically stop it. My last dose was 2 days ago, yesterday my weight was the same as the day before I had a goose egg yesterday so 122.8 is my LDW that’s a total loss of 20.4 pounds in 38 VLCD days and I lost 16 pounds of fat. Today I was actually down a pound to 121.8 but my pounds of fat stayed the same and my body fat percent didn’t really go up much like it should have if that was lean body mass, hopefully it’s not lean body mass I sure hope not. I think hopefully just water or something or maybe my body fat will drop tomorrow that would be fine with me we’ll see.

That’s my stats I am having a little rough time getting off the HCG having that low blood sugar again so I actually am eating more yesterday and today just cause I have to. My blood sugar has been like 88 even after eating like small meal and I just feel terrible, very shaky like I might pass out just really not good so I am having to eat more. But I’m still trying to stay away from fats although I did have a little bit of nuts. So that’s that, I’m 122.8 that was super exciting.

The other thing is some of you may think that this is my last round that I’m done losing weight. That is not the case. I am doing one more round and I think if any who’s seen any of my vlogs this round you know that I do things sensibly and scientifically and logically so I’m definitely not just trying to be too skinny or anything. I still have abnormal fat. Believe me I do. And I wanna use my next round to lose more fat. My lean body mass right now looks to be around close to 90 pounds of lean body mass which for my height 5’1’’ is actually still at the top range. I found this lean body mass chart online so for 5’1’’ person like me it said 73 to 89 pounds of lean mass is the normal range. So of course if you’re really over weight like I was you’ll start out having more lean mass than that but this is the normal range for being on normal weight. So I’m actually still at the top range of that which is great and I love that this round I lost almost all fat and during my break which will be long at least 2 or 3 months I’m hoping to be hiking and doing all the stuff that I like to do depending on my health and everything I have to break back into it slowly. That will be that, just making sure that I’m nice and strong and then my 4^th round I would like to get off probably even another— I haven’t actually calculated it out, I needed to figure out what my exact body fat percentage is first before I can calculate how many more pounds of fat I need to lose to be at a certain body fat percent but basically I kinda have a body fat percent in mind that I wanna be. If you look online there is a different ranges like 21 – 24 percent is considered fit and then something like 17 or 18 – 20 percent is considered an athlete. I would love to use HCG to lose fat in order to get into those more fit categories. Right now I’m guessing my body fat is probably in actuality more like 27% at least. I will let you know cause I’m gonna go probably do that this week. I would really like to do that that would be really exciting and that might end up putting me somewhere around 110 or something like that. When I was younger I was that weight for a long time. I was very fit so I would love to be able to do that again. That is my plan so I would be in a long break.

I don’t know that I’ll be checking in as much on P3 just have other things that I’ve been focus on this for 6 weeks and I kinda wanna do this diet for my son with his eczema just wanna focus on some other things for a bit but if I do any experimenting on P3 recipe baking and stuff I’ll definitely check in and give you a review or do a blog or something like that. I hope everyone else keeps doing well and I think some of you guys are all starting again soon so that’s exciting and I’m really happy to be starting P3. For a while it was like “oh I’m feeling so good on HCG and it feels pretty easy” and then just the last few days I just like I really like to eat and maybe it has to do with all the cooking I have been doing but I’m really excited to be eating.

The diet I’m kinda doing with my family is kind of basically a high meat high fat diet we do eat meat that is grass fed or pasture raised or stuff like that so there’s no hormones in it. That’s very healthy for us. I’ve done a lot of reading on that and that’s kinda what I believe in and I do maintain well usually on diets like that so I’m so excited. I’m excited to do that. I’m hoping that I will stabilize okay this first few, it probably will be scary and my first round I stabilize 1.8 above my LDW. I’m fine if that’s where I end up stabilizing this time too. I’m not really gonna sweat it cause I know I have a future coming up to get even more fit so I’m excited about that.

I do still have some good amount of back flab here and my thighs, my hips have gone down a lot which is really cool. My legs are still- I wouldn’t wear shorts in public still. I know that’s probably hard to believe since I’m wearing the size 4 jeans but since I am so short I’m 5’1 my upper body is much slimmer now, my waist is definitely a lot smaller but my legs have always been big which is fine but they have a lot of, they just have a lot of fat on still and I just don’t think they’re attractive so I probably wouldn’t wear shorts or anything yet but I think another- yeah, definitely by 110 I will cause they’ll look a lot better. I’m very happy here though. I haven’t been at 122.8 in, well when I married my husband I was I think 120 and our dating period I was 110 – 120. I did gradually gain a bit but that was almost 11 years ago. It’s pretty exciting I will be very happy here for a while. I’m just gonna enjoy it and then in a few months I think I’ll be ready to do the last bit of fat. Like I said still need to actually calculate out how many pounds of fat equates to what body fat percent for me. I don’t actually know that yet. I have to go calculate it out. I have 33 pounds of fat right now, if I can maintain that, I’m not sure like if I got down to the 20 pounds of fat or 25 pounds of fat what body fat percent that would equate to. I’m not sure so I have to figure that out. Anyway I guess it’s once again not a short vlog but oh well it’s okay you could just watch half of it or whatever alright I’ll talk to you guys soon.

 

1st Steak Day after HCG a success, HCG R3P3D5, 124.2 pounds

November 27, 2011

I kind of over did my start to p3 this time- I felt uncomfortably full those first few days of p3.  I found myself eating too much.  I found myself quickly almost 3 lbs above LDW so I did my first steak day since starting HCG Injections roound.  I had always been pretty shy of doing a steak day because I remember trying to do a fast day in times previous and feeling so weak and hungry by noon that I had to eat.  But surprisingly, the steak day was easy!

I realized that I think this is because of the fact that I wasn’t consuming starches and sugars during p3, so moving to basically what you’d call a fast day wasn’t such a huge drop in carbs, so hunger and weakness was more limited than it would have been had I eaten a bag of chips the previous day. Also my meals had been pretty high fat the whole past week so I think that helped my steak day go smoothly as well.

I actually enjoyed the Steak day / Fast day so much that I thought to myself that I’d almost like to do a fast day once a week. It felt very clean for my body to have a rest from eating and from being full.

Also! My body slid right back into ketosis after the Steak day- and this makes me think that perhaps this one of the reasons that Dr. Simeon’s prescribed “steak days” after the protocol work well- being on p3 with no starches and no sugars, it’s easy for the body to get right back into ketosis under the right conditions- like a steak day for instance. Just interesting to me.

I was down 1.4 from the steak day to 124.2.

I just discovered Crossfit and I talk about it briefly in this vlog. As of now, September 23, 2012, I’ve been going to Crossfit (aka xfit) 3-4 times a week for a little less than 9 months and I’ve gained over 12 lbs of muscle during that time. If you want to get strong and in shape, Crossfit is the way to go, period. Love love love it.

 

2nd Steak day; -2.0 lbs, 123lbs even. HCG R3P3

December 2, 2011

A 2lb drop from my 2nd steak day = one happy girl.  125 lbs to 123 lbs.

I feel like it’s important to state here that I didn’t actually lose 2 lbs. Not 2 lbs of fat anyway. When you fast for a day or so, you have to remember that your body has a lot less food/waste/etc. Sitting in your intestines the following day. If you tried to drink a lot throughout your fast day, your body may have let go of some water weight as well. Sure my body probably burned some fat as well, but not 2 lbs worth. That’s why you should never be alarmed to see your weight go back up some the following day or in the ensuing days.

Transcript:

Hey guys HCGchica! Just checking in to give you the results of my steak day from yesterday. I was down 2 pounds. I see them brighter than my first steak day so that put me in 123 this morning. I was 125 yesterday. Steak day is working guys I never actually done 1 before this last 2 even though I’ve done 3 rounds I’ve never done a steak day before and to be honest I was a little afraid of them but you know what? They’re not as hard as they seem like they would be. Not that hard at all because you’re still having kinda of a hearty dinner really with a good sized steak and I had a tomato and I’m down 2 pounds this morning. So that puts me actually almost exactly at LDW. I’m kinda expecting it to go up a little tomorrow just because in general most of P3 so far have actually been more like 124 – 124.2 so being at 123 feels pretty low but I don’t really expect that to stick but as long as I’d really like to stay within that 2 pounds and I’m just make my body do it so I’ll keep reporting. Talk to you soon, bye.

 

Fighting to stabilize new HCG weight- HCG R3P3D23

December 15, 2011

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGchica. I’m checking in, sorry it’s been a long time. Just been really busy and I’ve been having trouble stabilizing my weight this time. Today is technically P3 day 23. I’ve definitely stuck to no sugar no starches. I haven’t done that, the most I’ve had when I have my smoothie. I have either half cup of strawberries or blueberries in my smoothie and sometimes I might have 2 smoothies a day that’s the only type of sugar that I’m having is just that tiny bit of very fruit.

Today I’m 126.4 which is 3.6 over my LDW. My LDW is 122.8 and I’m doing another steak day today. This is my 4^th one this is my 4^th steak day. I’ve had a lot of weight fluctuations it’s just my weight wants to go up and I haven’t been counting calories cause it’s something I just really don’t wanna do when I haven’t never really done it in the past. And I’ve been trying to avoid it but I’m coming to the conclusion that I may have to start if the problem is the way that I cook I don’t know how many calories are in a lot of the things that I make. That’s kinda my difficulty. Anyway I did start doing crossfit which is a really kinda high intensity interval with like heavy weights and running stuff like that. First I was thinking that maybe it’s that from water retention and I do think I have some water retention but I’m still doing the training so it’s not like it’s that and it’s only twice a week so it’s not like it’s that much. I’ve been taking some bike rides and walks and stuff here and there but I think maybe I’m just eating too much. I must be eating too much. I weigh a lot less than I did at 146 when I was 146 which is the end of my 1^st round I did stabilize well and I felt like I ate a lot I felt I could eat whatever I wanted as long as there was no carbs in it and I’m not finding that to be the case this time.

I’ve been anywhere between 122.8 and I’ve gotten this high as 127. I was 127 this past Thursday. This past Friday and Saturday and on Saturday I did a steak day and I was down 2 pounds to 125 and then I stayed the same on Monday and then Tuesday I was at .4 which is yesterday. This morning I was up 1 pound.

So with the steak days I’m trying to kind of force my body to stay within a range. I don’t really know exactly what the purpose of Doctor Simeons, steak days were originally what he felt that it would do but I’m kind of wondering if he was saying that by forcing your body back within this 2 pound range whenever it went above that you’re forcing your body to stay in that certain spot at a certain way pretty much for 3 weeks and then after that period of time your body will kind of adjust to being that weight. That’s kinda what I’m thinking that maybe he was thinking, I don’t really know. That’s kinda what I’m trying to do is just keeps forcing it back. I did let it get a little high unfortunately because I, well I was doing some intense exercise when I kind of jump up to 126 something and so I waited a day or 2 cause I was really sore and I just didn’t think it was a good day to be fasting cause my muscles were really sore so as a result I am—even when I’ve done like the last steak day that still, I guess it put me within the right, no it didn’t, it put me still a little above my 2 pound range so I don’t know that I’m necessarily trying to stay within that now but I would like to be between 124 – 125 I don’t like seeing 126 on the scale and I definitely  don’t like seeing 127. I’m trying to make it work within there. The other thing is as my husband was telling me when you’re building muscle it’s really hard to build muscle and not gain any fat with it. And I am trying to really build some muscle and be strong so that’s a bit of a challenge and you know I guess I’m gonna have to be okay with gaining a little bit of fat while I gain muscle in this interim period and then when I do my next round of HCG of losing more fat. Because my body fat percent is lower at this current weight than it was like when I was on HCG at that weight which means I do have more muscle at this weight now than before but it’s just that I am getting a little bit of fat back too which is irritating, nobody wants to gain any fat.

Anyway just having a little bit of dilemma with that but I feel really stubborn. I feel stubborn – that I don’t – I’m gonna get it to stabilize but I have to tell you guys I’m not stabilize at all right now it’s been over 3 weeks and my weight is continually just jumping all over the place. I’m not exactly sure what I’m gonna do at this point. I don’t mind the steak days to be honest I kinda liked them. I guess it just gives me a sense of control not eating for most the day I’m just drinking lots of liquid cause I do find that I still tend to overeat and it’s just not a good habit and I don’t know why I do that even though I’m not binging on sugar or anything anymore right now. I’m just still eating a lot which is probably why I can’t stabilize this is just too much, I wouldn’t say I’m burning as many calories as I was after the end of my first round cause I was going to Zumba and I was doing all those gardening. Right now I’m doing some exercise but I definitely wouldn’t say it’s on the level that it was so that’s probably why I got away with eating more before than I can now.

The other thing is I don’t know if I have some issues with my thyroid and adrenals right now. I’ve been getting a little more tired this last week, not feeling quite as good so I’m trying to address that because that has a big role in weight maintenance as well so I was kinda hoping that if I could figure that out that I wouldn’t have so much trouble. But anyway that’s what’s have been going on with me it’s just kinda crazy how I just doesn’t wanna stay in this low 120’s. But it’s just like I said I feel really stubborn and I’m really trying to force it because as I see and I don’t really see a particular weight yet that my body wants to stay at. If it was 4 – 5 pounds higher but my body wanted to stay there I would be fine with that but so far I don’t see a weight like that where it just want to stay there. I just see it keeps climbing until I do a steak day and then it stays the same for a day or 2 but then it starts going back up. And I noticed lately with cheese specially that I seem to have big gains with cheese which is funny because I never have a problem with cheese before. I guess it’s one of those things as you get to be a lower weight your body just can’t have as many calories and I think I’m just not used to that anymore. Even at 146 I guess I could just eat a lot more than I can now. It’s a challenge but I’m up to the challenge because I’m happy with my body right now I don’t feel like I hate my body anymore and it’s worth holding on to, it is really worth holding on to.

I’m gonna keep up the fight. I may have to make adjustments as I continue doing this crossfit and bike riding. I’m actually hoping to train it’s called the Cinderella ride it’s a bike ride kinda like a marathon thing that I’m gonna do with a friend and I think it’s 65 miles, this bike ride. I’m hoping to do that it’s at March 31^st and I was hoping to actually do a round after 11 or 12 weeks but I think now with the timing bike ride I might have to wait until after that so we’ll see.

My goal is to be strong and to be really fit. I may have to make some adjustments and view this more as a long process where I lose fat on HCG, build some muscle but then I will also gain a couple few pounds of fat as well but I’ll still be at a lower body fat percent than I was at that weight prior and then go on HCG lose some more fat and then as I build muscle again and get strong and get more fit. I just think it’s gonna be kind of up and down thing a little bit as I get lower to get the body that I want it’s not as simple as you’re just losing weight I guess. I guess if you wanna get really strong and really fit and be small I guess it’s a lot more to process. I’m okay with that I just had to- I just didn’t know that. I didn’t realize that when you work out a lot. I’m fine with water retention but I have seen my fat go up.

Basically I finished my round at 30 pounds of fat and I’ve been fluctuating between 30.5 pounds of fat and 32 pounds of fat. Every time I get up to 32 pounds of fat I do a steak day cause I don’t like that I’m fine with 31 and half, 31, I’m just trying to stay within that range between 30 and a half and 31 and a half. As you can see even though like for instance I got up to 127 which is actually for 127 is 4.2 pounds over my LDW my fat had only gone up I think 2 pounds. So basically as you can see 2 of that is water/muscle so I am in a better place like I said. Sorry this is very long but I haven’t been on a while I just wanted to explain what’s been going on so you guys can know.

Again I don’t mind the steak days at all I can’t say I’ve been really maintaining the loss from that but it does buy me some time because then my weight takes a few days to go up a little bit and like I said I don’t mind them I’m not really sure I haven’t researched it very much. I wouldn’t mind actually doing the steak day once a week just because it really feels good. I feel like I get all cleaned out I don’t feel bloated. I just feel good. So I might do that once a week but at the moment in order to actually keep my weight the same each week I would have to probably do it twice a week. And I’m not really sure that’s a good thing for me to do or not. I would have to look into that and really it would be better to just get my weight to stay the same and maybe not eat so much. I just hate having limits on food when it comes to the amount. I don’t why that is but it just that is the one thing that kill me it’s like I have to eat a certain amount forever it’s just- it’s hard. I don’t mind being super strict, not eating at all during HCG I can do something super, super strict as long as I know there’s a designated time period for it and then afterwards there’s a lot more freedom. Just having trouble I’m taking a little too much freedom lately. Other than that I am really good but I’ve been so busy I have a lot of things going on right now but they’re good so that’s great. I’ll keep you updated about my training with the CrossFit and the bike ride. I’m not exactly sure when my next round will be at the latest it will be like you know April 1^st as I wanna start my 4^th round at the latest’ I’ve really like to squeezed it in sometime in February but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do that or not, we’ll see. Anyway that’s my update for now and thanks for watching and I’ll talk to you guys soon.

 

Crossfit and sticking to p3- HCG R3P3D29

December 21, 2011

While I can’t say I stabilized, I chose to make going to crossfit and building muscle my goal for the time being. My fat mass has stayed relatively the same while my weight has gone up a bit so I was hoping at this time, and now since it’s after the fact I can confirm, almost all my weight gain was entirely muscle. So I can say with certainty I did stabilize my fat losses from Human Chorionic Gonadotropin.

As far my current diet at this point goes, I was sticking to p3 pretty closely- the only sugar I was having was a small amount of berries in my smoothies, and an occasional sugar free chocolate bar made with maltitol. Other than that, no other fruit, no beans, no grain, no starchy vegetables including potatoes, etc.

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGchica. I’m in p3 it’s day 29 I’m doing really well. I can’t say I stabilize still but basically in a way I have because I’ve been vacillating between 31 and 32 pounds of fat for most of the whole month so I had ended my round at 30 pounds of fat and I kinda had wanted to stay there but the reality is I seem to be sticking between 31 and 32 and if I stay there if I don’t go above 32 then I will consider myself stabilized and the reason I’m basing it of pounds of fat is because as I said in my last blog I’m doing crossfit now which is kind of a heavy weight lifting interval type training class. So I have actually gained weight more than that 1 pound of fat back and forth and actually my LDW is 122.8 and I’ve actually been 127 and 127.2, 127.6 the last 3 days.

Today I was actually down 126 point something but I think it’s just because I was too dehydrated. So as you can see I’m about 5 to 6 pound, yeah, 5 pounds even 5 and a half pounds over LDW. But like I said my fat actually has not been more than 2 pounds above and I am trying to build muscle. I’m not gonna try to get rid of the muscle that I’ve built. Anyway that’s what’s going on with me it’s just kind of a different experience this time around and it’s kind of too late now to try to stabilize my weight. I know some of you mentioned to stop exercising and stuff but my goal is really to get strong not just to be a certain weight and I definitely do understand the concept of stabilizing your weight before doing something new but I guess I didn’t do that this time at first so next round I may try to do that where I do the protocol and then my 3 weeks of p3 keep it light and not do anything too intense until I see my weight stabilizing then get kick started into a program but I already kind of got you know all hyped about it and already started it and I don’t mentally feel like I could just stop exercising now so that’s okay.

I come to the conclusion that I’m okay if as long as most of the weight that I gain is for muscle and just a little bit of it is fat that’s okay with me and then when my next round comes around sometime in March or April then I’ll get rid of more fat and what will I’ll be left with is a higher muscle mass which is exciting. That’s my plan and I’m gonna try a couple of cycles like that. I realize it’s gonna be a little bit of up and down since the results I want to achieve are not just getting thinner but to actually create a certain body physique and be really strong. I’m not gonna try and be like body builder or anything but I would like to get a lot of muscle mass and be really strong and just give me the capability to do a lot of hiking and just for thing to feel easier.

That’s my plan so I’m just staying on P3 as far as no starches no sugars. I just have like one of those Sugar-Free Choco Bars from Trader Joes here and there and I have a little bit of frozen berries in my smoothie by MsHCGgirl and other than that I really haven’t had any carbs. I have vegetables and stuff but no beans, no high carb vegetables, no yam, no potato, no grains at all so definitely doing the right thing I probably still eat a little too much but like I said as long as I see my fat stay in the 31 and the 32 pound range I’ll be happy with that and if it starts jumping up a bunch from there on my fat side then I will have to do something but other than that I’m doing good and I just wanted to let you guys know. Alright I’ll talk to you later.

 

R3P3 Update, and E-book on hcg- beyond basics

December 28, 2011

As of this vlog I was almost 8 lbs over LDW- and yet I ain’t cryin’!  Why not??  Because it’s almost all muscle folks!  I ended Round 3 of HCG Injections at 122.8 and as of this vlog was 130.4.

Perhaps because I’m kind of “new” to this intense exercise (not really new, but new in the sense that it’s been awhile), my appetite has been voracious.

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGchica. Today is day 35 of P3 and I’m just checking in to let you know where I’m at. I have been doing really good with sticking to P3 foods and eating properly in that way. When it comes to my weight it’s another story if you’ve seen the couple of my vlogs you’ll know what’s been going on. But today I’m actually almost 8 pounds over LDW my LDW was 122.6. Today I am 130.4 although yesterday I was 128.6 so I’m basically between 6 and 8 pounds over LDW the last few days. But the reason for that is because of the fact that I’m doing this CrossFit program that’s kind of really, really intense exercise and as a result not only am I building muscle which is good that’s what I wanna do you know muscle does weigh something so that’s fine with me but I am getting little fat with it because my appetite is just kind of voracious right now because of the exercise so it’s kinda hard to reign that in right now. I don’t know how people do that with these extreme workout programs and then eating a specific certain amount, that’s tough. I think for me I’ve decided that I’m gonna be doing this building phase where most of the weight I gain will be muscle but a few pounds of it will be fat and I’ll lose that fat on my next round but I will keep most of the lean mass so that’s how I’m gonna do it. But as I said I am eating the right foods. I’m just eating a lot of it. If I could do this over I would definitely give myself the 3 weeks of stabilization without a lot of exercise. I would keep it super light so that my body has a chance to stabilize and get use to its new weight and I know that’s what others had suggested and I will do that next time and I suggest for others that you guys do that as well. For me this time it was kinda too late because I’m already into it and paid for the trainings and everything.

The results I’m getting are good in regards to building muscle but my results could have been even better if I had had a chance for my body’s weight to stabilize a little better before I started to going to be extreme and doing all kinds of other stuff.

The other thing that makes my case a little different is that I do take small amounts of cortisol. Cortisol is known to make you gain fat. That’s why stress makes you gain weight cause the stress hormone is cortisol however I don’t have enough cortisol so my adrenals aren’t working effectively and so I take the cortisol. If I don’t take it I’m extremely tired and fatigue so it’s kinda something that I have to do. That could be part of it why my case might be a little more extreme as far as the gains go and you guys may not have that to deal with. That’s what’s going on with that.

The last thing is I wanted to tell you guys that I’m actually writing an e-book. It’s not gonna be an HCG primer at all this book will be for people who already know all the basics of the protocol. What it’s gonna focus on is how to make sure that you’re losing fat on the protocol. I know I’m not the first person in the world to track my body fat on the protocol but I feel like I’m one of the first people that I’ve seen on YouTube to do that and I feel like I’ve learned a lot with all the different things that I’ve tracked and the experiments I’ve done and you know pretty much all the information that I’m writing in the book is already in my blogs for free, but I have a lot of blogs to go through and I tried to label them as clearly as I can but I just kinda thought for anyone who doesn’t have the time or wants to have it handy where they can just look at it and read it when they’re trying to figure something out while on the round that this would be useful for them. And I do think the information is useful and I wanted it to be affordable. I don’t know how much will be yet maybe like 10 bucks or something but I’m about maybe if they’re done with it I’ll definitely keep you guys updated about that so I’m excited. I’m excited about it cause I’ve been writing it, it’s just exciting.

There’s a lot of good info out there that we all need to be aware of. And just being informed, this isn’t about weight loss it’s about fat loss and I explained in the book why that’s so relevant and why it’s so important cause even I who’s obsess with fat loss I’m over just weight loss didn’t know some things that I came across in my research. Just even how much fat how much space fat takes up versus muscle, things like that and just seeing that in person how much more space it takes up is really eye opening.

I’ll let you guys know about that. Also I started a Hubpages account where you can write articles. You can write any article that you want and publish it and so I just did my first one which is actually an article proving that the weight loss protocol does  work for fat loss and I’ll put the link to that below if you wanna read the article. It has my before and after photo from the protocol which I haven’t done my before and after blog yet for this 3^rd round but it has a photo of that so you can see that and it also shows my hydrostatic body fat test results. I actually have photos of them. So you can see that for real anyway that’s it for me tonight and I’ll talk to you guys soon. Bye guys.

 

Misinformation re HCG Rant, HCG R3P4- Hiking, Crossfit

January 1, 2012

Out of curiosity one day, after seeing my weight gradually moving upward over time, I decided to track my calories on myfitnesspal to see how much I’m consuming on an average day.  Turns out it was 2900 calories.  Woa!  And I would definitely say that’s about how I eat every day.  Interestingly, in contrast with what I thought was going on in my vlog, once I had my hydrostatic body fat test, it turns out that all these excess calories were put straight into building muscle- 99% of my weight gain during this time period was muscle.  Wheww!  That’s a relief.  But that also brings me to another point which is that those people who believe in that “calories in, calories out” mantra need to step back and realize we humans are much more complex than that.

Since that time while continuing to go to Crossfit, I’ve been able to continue to eat in a pretty high calorie range like this and have almost all my weight gains be in the form of muscle, which makes this chica one happy girl.

ALSO.  Don’t believe everything you read online.  Seriously.  I have discovered so much misinformation, presented as being knowledgeable articles, regarding Human Chorionic Gonadotropin.  It makes me upset really.  This weight loss diet is this amazing way to lose actual fat, so much more quickly than you could with any other diet, and honestly, for some people, possibly the only way they will ever lose fat long term and change their lives, and there are all these individuals out there who’ve never done the HCG Injections, who don’t know anything about it, writing these articles telling people that “it’s dangerous” and “hcg’s a scam”.  Arggghh!  So not true.  Look at all of us successful weight loss stories- there are so many wonderful before and after videos of those who’ve done the weight loss protocol, and yes, long term dietary changes are necessary in order to maintain the weight loss from this protocol, but that is true of ANY DIET.  This weight loss protocol simply facilitates changing your life in a way  that no other diet I’ve ever come across can.  I’m living proof!  I can tell you with 100% certainty that if I hadn’t found this diet plan I’d still be a size 16 and carrying on the daily motions of life while being shriveled and depressed on the inside.  Now I’m vibrant and full of life and happy.  My happiness does not come from being thin- there are many things in my life to be happy about, but my being overweight and unhealthy took away my ability to appreciate and enjoy those things I had to be happy about.  By removing this thorn of excess fat and accompanying health issues, I was now free to enjoy my life and all the things in it there were always there, ready to make me feel happy.

Okay- enough of that rant.  Even now over a year later I get revved up about it!

 

P4 Check in. Eat Stop Eat going great for maintaining my weight

January 7, 2012

2 fasting days down now with the Eat Stop Eat Protocol. I also added back in some healthy starches like potatoes and brown rice. So far it has been going great!

I’m not sure what it is about my genetics perhaps, but I can really pack it away! My husband is 6′ tall, weighs between 185-200 lbs depending on the season and has a very physically active job, and I can out eat him any day!

The intermittent fasting really helps put a control on my eating habits in a way that’s manageable for me. I eat healthy, I just eat a lot. Brad Pilon was really wise to realize that the only thing people will be able to stick to long term is a program that is sustainable for every individual. It has to be something that is manageable and not a drag or that will cause you to burn out and jump ship. Because this is only 1-2x’s a week, it’s more like something refreshing to experience every week and then you get to live your normal life the rest of the time. I’ve been surprised actually how much I have enjoyed the fast days.

One thing I’ve noticed in many of the HCG vlogs I’ve watched is that many of them, even if they’ve experienced a struggle that maybe they didn’t meet successfully (ie. they ate stuff they shouldn’t have while on HCG Injections), they take responsibility for what happened and taking measures to get back on track. That’s what this weight loss protocol is all about. We have all started this protocol with past failed weightloss attempts, eating disorders and the like. These are not going to disappear overnight- it’s a process. There will be time when we totally screw up. But the point is not to give up and think we’re failures forever. This happened to me in Round 2. I freaked out at the end and practically lived on ice cream for the following 9 weeks until I felt mentally ready again to make a fresh start.

There may be a time period in life where this happens over and over a few times- fall, get up, fall, get up. But eventually, at some point, I feel like you reach that essential realization/mental readiness where you have the gumption to make the change a more permanent one. I feel like that has happened for me now. My life has changed so much the last year and a half and I know what certain poor choices I might make lead to down the road in my life and I know I can’t do that anymore. I have a son to raise, a husband to love and support, and I just can’t allow myself to get a point again where I’m just a shadow of a person going through the motions of caring out these duties. My family needs me, and I want to be happy. I value what I have now at this point and the point that this protocol has helped me to get to so much that those other things are no longer worth it.

Well, enough reflection for now. Just suffice it to say that it’s okay if you’re at a point where you’ve fallen and you’re not ready to get back up. Don’t make yourself feel even worse about it by using guilt on yourself. Accept how you are feeling and know that there will be a turning point in your life soon that you will feel deep inside you and then you’ll be ready to take the steps necessary to make the needed changes.

 

Eat Stop Eat / Intermittent Fasting Update, P4 hCG

January 22, 2012

So far, using the Eat Stop Eat protocol to maintain my new-found weight has worked successfully and has been so…..freeing.  No calorie counting.  Eating in the amounts that I feel like on most days.  It’s just so…simple.

I’m came across his protocol in my search to find something that I could follow long term to maintain my weight.

We are all different individuals- some feel very comfortable counting calories on a constant basis and this is doable and easy for them- pleasing even. I’m not one of those people. Not only do I hate to count calories, it’s very difficult to do so because I make almost everything from scratch, so it’s very hard to figure out how many calories are in my homemade recipes. I don’t measure how much oil or butter I put in the pan to saute my garlic and onions. How many calories are in a huge pot of thai-style soup I made with no recipe, and how many portions are there in that pot and how many calories are in one portion?

Do you see my problem?

I knew there had to be something that would fit me and my personality best, I just didn’t know what it was yet. I knew if I just researched it enough, I would find the solution. And then I came across Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat Protocol- it totally fits me!  A more common term for what he promotes is called Intermittent fasting, but of course with his own unique twist, which in my opinion is the best.   I’m a very all or nothing person. So for me to eat what I want some days and not eat at all other days is perfect. It’s so simple and easy- I don’t have to think about it. 2 days a week I’m not allowed to eat. That’s it. No thinking involved. 5 days a week I eat in the amounts I want. That’s it. No thinking involved. This has been great for me mentally and emotionally.  Also, you never go a day without eating- even on your fast days you have one meal- for me it’s dinner.

Additionally, since using the ESE protocol, something in me has shifted. Prior to starting this, I always wanted to be eating- eating always sounds fun, all day. It doesn’t matter if I’m not hungry- I find myself just always eating. Since I started the intermittent fasting twice a week, I have started finding myself not being concerned with food- actually not wanting to eat.

For instance, say I ate a meal an hour ago. If I head to the kitchen an hour later for something, I think to myself, like I usually do, “I think I’ll eat something. I’m not eating, so I think I’ll eat something.” But lately when I find myself in this situation, I actually had a new thought pop into my brain which was “but I’m not really hungry- I don’t really feel like eating. I think I’ll just have some tea.” And that’s what I did.

That is a totally foreign feeling for me. Usually if I think of food or see it, I want to eat it, and it would be an inner struggle for me to refrain. It was so strange to feel satisfied and not feel the need to stuff myself till I’m uncomfortably full- I actually would feel driven to do that in the past.

The fasting also helps me to crave healthy foods. Sometimes after making a dietary change for my health, I would find myself starting to lean too heavily on certain replacement foods that aren’t really that healthy- like some diet bar that’s supposedly low in calories but is full of ingredients that you wouldn’t really call food. Ingredients that in tiny amounts are probably okay, but that shouldn’t be making up the bulk of your calorie intake. But the intermittent fasting keeps me in this constant state where I’m in the mood for real food most of the time, not junk. Broccoli and steak sounds the most appetizing when I have fasting in my life, instead of the sugar free chocolate bar at Trader Joes.

This may not work for everyone, but if you’re anything like, and some of you probably are, it’s a great little tool to whip out when you need it (like stabilization in p3 for instance).

 

Reflections on Why I Eat So Much- re Weightloss Apocalypse

January 28, 2012

Many people talk about the emotional or other deep-seated reasons behind why they overeat. Robin Woodall’s book Weightloss Apocalypse talks about this as well. At first I could really think of a reason why I overeat. I was maintaining my HCG fat loss and I eat super healthy good quality food. I eat no grain, no sugar. However, despite this, I still find that I have a tendency sometimes to get overfull and to want to eat a lot, whether it’s steak or green beans and cheese.

After I thought about it a little more, one of the things that started me being more fixated on food was when I was around 22 years old. Around that time I started having symptoms of an illness that would remain mysterious for another 6 years. All my life I’ve been what you might call a “type A” person- very energetic, somewhat driven, I like to be busy, I like to accomplish things and I hate to waste time.

But I started having bouts of time where I would have such profound fatigue that I could barely do anything. Social occasions in particular, which I automatically get all hyped up and enthusiastic at, caused me to “crash” afterwards- sometimes for two or three days where I would feel horribly yucky and depressed and could barely cope with life because my energy levels were so low and I didn’t know what was wrong.

Others around me didn’t understand as well, which isn’t surprising, since I didn’t know what was going on either. But this was very disturbing and hurtful to me and made me feel very upset inside. My fatigue prevented me from doing all the things that used to be a big part of my life and that I found enjoyable- hiking, my business which was painting and was very manual in nature (I loved the feeling of manual labor).

Eventually I found that eating was one of the only things left that I could do that was enjoyable. All my other activities now caused me to have horrible symptoms afterwards. Sugar was especially enjoyable.

Since I could no longer exercise and I started eating more badly and more of it, my weight climbed.

Even though I eventually discovered what my illness was and was able to address it in stages, it was kind of like the pattern and habit was already there, so I continue to struggle with eating too much (even though now at least they are all “safe” foods).

The other thing that I believe causes me to eat more than others is that I take active thyroid hormone, which makes my metabolism keep running normally, but as we all now, taking something in a pill can never act in our bodies the way it would have our bodies produced it. But it was way better than being an invalid that’s for sure! Thankfully now I’m well enough that I no longer need thyroid medication. I have been off thyroid meds entirely since March 2012 and it’s now October, so it’s been a full 7 months now. I think my Crossfit that I’m able to do keeps me in good straits these days.

That’s all for this post guys.

 

Gains on Scale Was Almost All Muscle! P4 Update

February 28, 2012

I’ve been fasting less frequently lately because I did have goals in mind. While off HCG Injections I really had been intending to gain muscle while doing Crossfit and I was getting the feeling that the fasting was kind of hampering me a little in that respect. I can tell you the actual results now which is that in 3 months of Crossfit I gained 7 lbs of muscle and only a half pound of fat (not the 3.5 pounds of fat that my Omron said). This is what my hydrostatic body fat test results told me. So that was so neat to find out!

I still don’t eat any sugar, but I do eat quite a bit of fruit, and I eat dried fruit for “dessert”- specifically dried figs. Isn’t that pathetic? My dessert is dried figs? I bet you are sitting here thinking, ‘oh I hope I never get in such a sad situation as this gal.’ Really though, I don’t know what I’m missing anymore because it’s been so long since I’ve had the real dope (sugar). 🙂

Read/Watch my own hCG Diet Journey As It Unfolded:

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