HCG Drops -- Day 10

First, the nifty news:

• I’ve lost 9 lbs
• I’ve lost 3 inches

Wahoo! I’d love to lose 30 lbs this first round, and since I’m on a 40 day plan, hopefully I’ll make it.

On the downside, during the last couple of days I was hungry, particularly between lunch and dinner. But after researching, I found that I can either up my dose (I’m taking 10 drops 3x a day and can up it to 15 drops max,) or possibly spread out my food choices. I opted to spread out for now, at least for lunch. I had leftover roast beef for lunch, and in a couple of hours I’ll have a tomato. I can throw in a fruit a couple of hours after that. This may not be feasible if I want to do an entree that requires a mix of foods, like chick salad, so we’ll see.

Also, although I’ve been losing inches, I’ve only lost an inch around my waist. If that problem area isn’t whittled down soon, I fear I will begin to look something like this. . .

If you’re as anal as I am, and like to track your progress, allow me to share a couple of charts.

MEASUREMENT CHART

DATE	HCG on/off	WEIGHT	LBS LOST	TOTAL LOST	BUST	WAIST	HIPS

After filling in my chart with dates, I made several copies and counted out the whole process. I did this because I have a huge writer’s conference coming up and I didn’t want to be on the VLCD or Ph III part of the diet while there.

Below, I’ll show you how I filled mine out. (Well, not the personal stuff, of course <blushing>.) Where you see a gap in dates, just imagine the full page with quote marks (or what I do is make a squiggly line down through all of the boxes until something changes.)

FYI:

• load = load days, the first two days of the round where you get to pig out
• VLCD = Very Low Cal Days, the popular acronym that you’ll see often during your research.
• Ph III = The 3-week period where you go off the drops but stay on a healthy carb/no starch diet.
• Ph IV = The 3-week period where you slowly begin to eat normally. * This period lengthens [The entire time you’re off the drops should lengthen] between each round if you need to be on the diet for longer than one round. I’ll be doing 8 weeks after round 2 and if I need to do one more, it will go to 12 weeks. I can’t find where read that, but I’ve also heard it from more than one person. *I’ve edited this as the way it was written was misleading. Go to this site for more info.
• Note: the items in green are actually penciled in.

DATE	HCG on/off
7/14/10	on-load
7/15/10	on-load
7/16/10	on-VLCD
7/17/10	“
8/23/10	off-VLCD
8/24/10	off-VLCD
8/25/10	off- Ph III
8/26/10	“
9/14/10	off- Ph IV

You’ll see that during the first two days I’m on the drops, I load my body with fat. Then, on the third I go on the VLCD. When that’s through, I go off the drops, but stay on the VLCD for two days to help stabilize my metabolism. Then, as I stay off the drops, I move to Ph III where I slowly introduce fats (only healthy carbs allowed, and no starches.) The previous information was taken from here.

My other chart helps me keep track of the food I eat. In the row with the “1”, that number is the day of the month. So, envision a full page of the first 15 days. Do another with 16-31 days and print on the back. (This is assuming you’re using a spread sheet. You can also do the whole thing by hand since it isn’t very intricate.)

p=protein; v=vegetable; f=fruit; b=bread

FOOD CHART

Month _________

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snack	Total Exchange
1  Tea	Chick salad	Roast/tomato	apple/ strawberries/ melba toast
f-          b-	p-   1      f- v-   1      b-	p-  1        f- v-   1       b-	p-          f- 11 v-          b- 1	p-  11      f- 11 v-   11     b- 1

 

Note that I don’t have a calorie count on this chart. I’m not a numbers gal. No no no no. But, I’ve had success with exchange diets before, so this works well for me. Also note that the “1” in the pfvb cells is actually a hash mark. No, I did not have eleven fruit exchanges, although yesterday, that would have sounded good. BTW, it’s 2:15 p.m. right now and I’m not hungry after eating my beef for lunch. Yea!

So, that’s where I am. I’ll update (or not) later. Oh, who am I kidding, of course I’ll update.

**********

I also want to mention that I’ve turned off the comments section of this blog. I was being attacked by Chinese porn spam. I’m hoping Blogger is fixing this issue as the help section seemed full of people with the same problem. I thought I’d keep it off for a month or two then turn it on again to see if they gave up trying to comment. If you know me, feel free to email me. Or you can comment on my Facebook page when this shows up.

HCG Drops – Day 4

Before you wonder what happened to days 1-3, I didn’t post then. I hesitate posting now. Most everyone I know who have been on these miracle weight-reducing drops have kept it a secret until they reveal their near perfect bodies.

I’ve never been one for convention.

You may or may not have heard of this too-good-to-be-true diet. I wouldn’t have considered it if I didn’t personally know people who have been successful on it. That being said, I indemnify myself against anyone coming to me later and saying they had tried the diet and it didn’t work, or worse, did harm to their bodies. Go sue Dr. Simmons. He’s the one that invented the thing.

Speaking of Dr. Simmons, it’s advisable that you read his report: Pounds and Inches, found in it’s entirety free online. He talks about the injections, (I have chosen to use the homeopathic drops instead for. . .um. . .obvious reason,) but the principles are the same. Do your research before attempting this diet! A lot can be found online.

Now, assuming we’re all on the same page, and I won’t have to answer any questions that you could easily find in a Google search, I’ll continue.

No promises on how often I’ll post my progress or struggles. But, I thought if my sharing helps one person, perhaps it would be worth opening this very private part of myself. I intend to be very honest in this series of articles.

First, my before picture:

 

 

You think I’m going to post my real picture? I’m not that honest!

Here’s my diary so far:

• Day 1 – Glut, aka Load Day 1. I ate all my favorite fatty foods, including cookies, Limon potato chips, and Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream. I also had some protein. Hubby and I went to Famous Dave’s for our anniversary, and I brought half of my short ribs home just for this day. By nightfall, I could barely move. The instructions said to pig-out, but I felt like whole hog was a bit much. Still, the reason for this is because the drops don’t kick in for about four days, so this extra fat was to keep me from getting hungry until they do.
• Day 2 – Glut some more, aka Load Day 2. I gotta confess. I couldn’t eat a thing until about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I’d had half a pound of bacon the morning before, and had intended to finish it off on Day 2. Couldn’t do it. I did manage to get more fat into me in the afternoon and evening, though.
• Day 3 – I’ve never been so happy to not eat in my life. What a relief! I think the Load days are more psychological than physical. After two days of cramming food down my gullet, I was relieved to start the 500 cals a day. I did well, but of course, it’s something new. I always do great on the first few days of a diet, but then get bored really quick and want to go back to just grabbing any convenience food I can.
• Day 4 – Scales say I’ve lost a pound from when I started. I don’t count the weight after the load days, which added six pounds. When I gain that much that fast, it’s all water. The true test is my measurements. I lost a total of 1.5 inches, most of that off my waist. Again, I’m being cautious because I know that was water. It had to be. I pee’d enough yesterday!

And so, I’m sitting here at 5:00 p.m., not starving but feeling normal hunger nudges.

Another useful link is the HCG Diet info site. There’s a forum there, so please utilize that instead of asking me questions. I’m still new at this and don’t want to lead anyone astray. If you do comment, I’ve turned on the monitoring option because of spam comments I’ve been getting. So, if you don’t see your comment right away, give me time to approve it.

As I said, I don’t know how often I’ll post. You may not hear from me again until I’ve reached my goal. . .many, many days from now. But, I just wanted to blog about this new adventure, and hopefully it will have a happy ending.

My Best Friend

Thirty-five years ago today I married my best friend. Here is our life so far. . .

met in church. . .became best friends and confidants. . .realized God wanted to bless our relationship. . .became engaged. . .married on the hottest day of July, but our warmth for each other was all we felt that day. . .rented our first home. . .joined the Air Force. . .started a family. . .lived all over the world. . .shared a couple of mortgages. . .shared heartache and laughter. . .shared prayers. . .grew up together. . .grew old together. . .enjoyed grandchildren together. . .now looking forward to another thirty-five years. . .

Happy Anniversary, Honey!  You are my rock when I need stability, my mountain when I need to see beyond myself, my sandy cove when I need peace. You are the one without whom I would be incomplete.

I love you with all my heart, soul, and strength.

A Novel in 16 Weeks? Here’s How.

Hey! Come over to the ACFW Colorado blog where I share the goal sheet that I use when creating my novels! You can either scroll down to it—it’s dated Tuesday, July 6, 2010—or look for it in the Blog Archives on right hand side.