HCG

HCG.  I know by now most people have heard of this.  I know there are some very differing opinions of this "diet".  I know there aren't a whole lot of people who have enough willpower for it.  I wondered about it for a while but at the time only the injections prescribed by a doctor were available so I blew it off.  My mother eventually went on it (the injections), and it took me a whole year afterwards to see she kept the weight off before I actually decided I needed to know more for myself.  I am well aware that there are negative responses to this diet.  "How can anyone survive on 500 calories a day? That's so unhealthy!  You can't lose that weight that rapidly, its not safe!" etc. etc.  I am also well aware that there are people who tried it and didn't like it, couldn't handle it, made them sick, etc.  This isn't a story to make you just go out and buy HCG.  Because if you aren't willing to commit the entire time to it for a true reset, you will fail. Period.  Just settle down there sassy and let me just tell you MY story!

Don't judge me for not being able to pick a hair color!

Let me back up here.  It's hard in my family to be "skinny" and maintain it.  We just aren't built that way, and that is completely okay.  I struggled with weight myself after high school and into college, and I was embarrassingly heavy for my impromptu wedding to Goose.  It took me a little while but I lost about 45 lbs and felt really good that I was back at least to my senior weight, for the most part.  I was never a skinny minny in school, but I did it unconventionally at first, just drank liquids and soups for a week and would drop 10 lbs, plateau out for a few months, do another week of liquids, drop, repeat.  It was about that time I started walking to work, taking advantage of my 3 hour lunch break and walking for 3-4 miles every day, and then the last bit I needed to lose fell off me.  I looked pretty decent, and I kept that off pretty  easily.  Then we moved.

It all came back thanks to the stress of moving, changing the lifestyle I had created for myself to more sedentary, and food and alcohol to be honest.  It was at this point I decided something had to change and the "week of liquid diets" didn't work anymore.  We took a trip to the Virgin Islands, and I was completely mortified to wear my swimsuit there.  I made up my mind then and there to start becoming active again and really focus on losing the weight.  I did manage to drop 20 lbs, but I still wasn't happy.   Then I found HCG.
I studied up on it a lot and knew I didn't want to shoot myself up with a needle.  I read about different variations of the product in liquid form, shying away from the "sprays" they advertised knowing they were pretty diluted.  I wanted something that would WORK.  I found out that in my town, a local wellness center sold homeopathic drops.  I read and read and read all different versions of the diet, and results from the variations.  I read success stories and I read people who quit.  I didn't want to be a quitter.  I called the wellness center and talked on the phone with them a bit, and went up to sign my name on the dotted line.  I picked up my packet and drops in April 2010 and started my journey.

The first three days were pure torture for me.  If you don't know about the HCG diet plan, days 1-3 is "fat loading".  This means chow down on burgers, pizza, ice cream, chocolate, corn dogs, fried foods, greasy funnel cakes, you name it.  If it's crap, eat it.  I had a terrifying fear of this part of the diet because I had tried so hard to not eat fast food, not drink pop, get healthier stuff in my system so to eat crap for the first three days was opposite of what I was training myself to do. For most people this sounds pretty ideal, eat your favorite junk foods and stuff yourself!  The purpose behind this is twofold. Part one is to fill up your fat stores (like a bear going into hibernation) so that you don't feel hungry during the diet.  Part two, is directly related with emotional ties to food.  If you fill up to  the brink of sickness on junk food, you won't even want to LOOK at another burger again.  You will welcome the good foods coming your way.

In my little miracle bottle of HCG I learned that those drops released thousands of calories for me so I wasn't exhausting myself on this seemingly very low calorie diet.  That's the thing some people don't understand.  It's not starving yourself of you are eating 500 calories worth of extremely good for you meals, and taking a supplement that allows an extra release of calories into your system.

Phase two is a strict diet of a short list of fruits and veggies and white meat.  I happen to be part rabbit so eating lettuce all day long was just fine with me.  Even without the salad dressing.  I drank so much water my skin started glowing and I didn't need makeup, and it fluffed out the cellulite in my legs and that was gone.  I logged my food every day, as I try to do still.  I never seemed to cap out at 500 calories.  I was stuck around 380-420 calories per day.  I weighed myself every day and was reluctant to tell anyone what I lost because I was afraid if I did I would jinx myself.  In 7 days, 10 lbs were gone-zo.  I was hooked.  I'm going to list the food items on MY list that I was allowed to eat so you see how strict the diet is, and why some people say "Nope, chuck testa.  Not doing it."

Breakfast: Tea or coffee
Snack: fruit (you are allowed snack if you are just starving to death.  I never did, I liked to have my fruit with my meal) ONE only of either an apple, orange, 1 cup strawberries, 1/2 grapefruit
Lunch/dinner: 4 oz of chicken breast, LEAN beef, white fish, shrimp, lobster, crab and ONE vegetable portion of either spinach, chard, chicory, beet greens, green salad, celery, fennel, onions, radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage, and tomatoes.

That's it.  Nothing else.  Some of these veggies were not my fave so I usually ended up eating a spinach salad, with grilled chicken or shrimp...I did season the meat so I would add a bit of water and use the seasoned water as a salad dressing.  For instance, I loved to sprinkle a little bit of taco seasoning onto my chicken and then use that juice as a taco salad dressing and I would PRETEND it was a lovely taco salad without the cheese, sour cream, avocado, and chips.  Or I'd make naked tacos with a whole onion sliced up and sauteed, use the tomato as my fruit for that portion and toss in a little taco seasoning over the shrimp of chicken.  The packet I got with it also had some good  recipes to change things up but really I just loved my spinach salad with shrimp and a little orange on the side.  I did make some DELICIOUS white fish recipe from the packet.  It was easy too, lay some fish over a bed of asparagus on some foil, squeeze some lemon juice on it and wrap it up like a little tent and bake it in the oven for 20 minutes.  Yum.

I made the drops last 36 days, and then I decided I was finished.  I had lost 20 lbs and I lost it in places I never expected.  I went from a size 9 to a size 2-4 jeans (because jeans are made by the devil and refuses to make universal sizes) and from a medium/large into a small top.   I felt great about this "diet" because not only did I lose the weight in places I never could before, it also changed my mindset on healthy eating.  You relearn to eat like you should and you have a greater appreciation for good-for-you foods while on it.

I didn't quite fully do phase three which is slowly introduce your body back to normal foods.  I did about a week or so of it, but not 3 or 6 weeks (I can't remember right now) like they suggest.  I was real happy and wanted to do another round, and I did.  I lost only 7 lbs that time, and still needed about 10 to go before I was at my goal weight.  I picked a real bad time to do the second round though because I was on my last day and it happened to be the 4th of July and we were in Oklahoma for a big festival (food everywhere) at my dad's house.  So I chose my last day to be that day, and I got me a burger!  I made up for it when we got back though.  But I was very happy with an overall 27 pound weight loss on this HCG diet.

I have kept the weight off, just like my mother did.  After eating the good foods you are more inclined to be disgusted by fast food and junk food and not want it anymore.  Sometimes you just have a craving...but that's okay because you've also learned moderation.

I'm thinking about doing it again, but I'm having so much fun juicing my veggies instead right now!

Virgin Islands 2007/July 4th (after round 2) 2010

2010: March before round one/May after round one