HCG Diet Information Lose Weight Now

Well, today marks day 26 — the final implementation of the initial phase of the HCG diet protocol.  My last week was traveling on business abroad and by far was the toughest week for food I had.  The main reason was the unfamiliarity of places that might have what I could eat.  In the US I could always count on a Jack-in-the-Box and get some grilled chicken for example.  In Iceland and Ireland, not so much!

While abroad I did my best to essentially maintain portion control and stay away from starches in foods.  When you attend meetings where dinner menus are prepared and you are a guest to the country, it’s hard to be picky without being rude.  Everything was fantastic and it was hard to hold back devouring it :-).  My hardest challenge was drinking enough water — which I didn’t.

But I’m home now, waited until the morning to do my weigh in at the same time and place.  Got on the scale…

203 pounds!

WOW! I was so surprised that I came home a half-pound lighter than when I left.  If I chronicled all the food I ate, you’d be surprised too!  I think it was a testament to my portion control.  So here I am at the end of the first part of the HCG diet with the drops and 500 calories per day.  It was tough, it was hard to adjust to, but my overall 12.5 pound weight loss is the motivator I needed to think differently about weight control.

I’m a far cry from the 185 pound goal I set out for myself.  I had lofty ideas that I’d at least lose 20 pounds.  Perhaps if I didn’t travel this last week I might have…who knows — I can’t second guess.  I’m in maintenance phase now for the next 3 weeks — avoiding the starches still (which will be hard) but getting back on a regular caloric intake (I’m going to try to stay under 1500 per day.

What are my thoughts on the HCG protocol?  Mixed.  First, I did the drops (homeopathic) and not the hormone injections.  This was mainly due to cost as well as demonstrated results from a friend who lost 25 pounds doing the same drops I did.  I think everyone’s bodies are different.  For my friend it worked a lot.  For me, it worked less than my expectations, but I’m willing to admit the last week could have yielded a lot more if I was home and following the previous weeks regimens exactly.

For me it comes down to how the process changed the way I currently look at food.  I still love it, but realize I don’t need it constantly to survive.  I need to enjoy things in moderation and otherwise count the calories — duh.

I’ve decided on a maintenance plan that works for me, which I’ll write about shortly as I gather my thoughts.  But hopefully this has helped others understand the HCG diet and perhaps be motivated to start losing weight!

Woke up to 203.5!  Woohoo!  I had a really stressful day yesterday with work and some life decisions.  Avoiding temptation was tough.  Admittedly I cheated.  My kids went to Paradise Bakery.  I ate one of their cookies.  Sorry about that :-).  I needed that though (I’m a stress eater).

Lunch/dinner was quite good.  I made my own salad that I enjoyed while traveling…had the same for both meals:

• Iceberg lettuce, shredded
• Grilled chicken strips, cubed and dressed with mustard/hot sauce

Was very good and satisfying.  But man, that cookie was good.

Tomorrow I head to Iceland and Ireland for business.  This will be the toughest part as I’m at the tail end of the 26 days and want to keep going, but it will be a challenge.  I’m going to do my best!

Day 16: 203.5 pounds

Woke up this morning of Day 15 on the HCG diet telling myself that if nothing has changed I want to re-evaluate.  Of course the scale teased me with another 1/2 pound weight loss from the previous day.  Enough motivation?  I hope so.  I’m really concerned about my travels starting Sunday.  I will be in a foreign land where trying new foods is my passion.  Hopefully the food will suck :-).

Yesterday’s meal plan was pretty simple (and not bad):

• 2 apples (Gala)
• Lunch: grilled chicken breast and chopped asparagus.  I basically did a little stir-fry (no oil of course) with these ingredients adding some curry/cumin/lemon for taste.  I had too much spices so it wasn’t the best, but it satisfied the hunger for the lunch time.
• Dinner: decided we still had too much asparagus so I did the stir-fry again but this time with shrimp and just garlic as the season…much better.  Add some Melba toast as a side dish :-)

Today I think I may do much of the same…it was tasty enough and having smaller bite sizes made me think that I had a larger meal…who cares if my mind plays tricks on me right?  I’m out of Gala apples though (my favorite) so I’ll be going with Fuji.

Next week I’ll be on a plane for a long time.  Plane food sucks…we all know that.  I think my travel day might be an opportunity for me to try the 6 apple day plateau breaker (assuming I’m still hovering on Sunday).  If I can get past security at the airport and find a place that sells apples, I might be okay.  Otherwise the airport travel day will suck…usually NOTHING healthy in the airports.

Day 15: 204.5 pounds

We conquered Disneyland (and in the rain)!  Being away from the comfort of your own prepared food portions for HCG diet was tough.  We brought the following with us:

• Stevia
• Bunch of apples (Fuji/Gala)
• Strawberries

We were going to bring some chicken and the George Foreman, but realized that just wasn’t going to work being with another family and our kids, etc.  We trudged along.  It was tough…real tough.  Being surrounded by delicious smelling food was really hard for me.  Here are our tips for where we went for some options:

• Jack-in-the-Box: Get order of grilled chicken strips (4) and Chicken Club salad.  On salad, remove everything but onions/lettuce/tomato (no cheese, bacon bits, etc).  Take one of the chicken strips from the 4-piece and add it to the salad (you get 2 with the salad).  Separate the salad in half (order an extra bowl).  Cut up the chicken into pieces and put some mustard and hot sauce on it and mix it together.  Add some salt/pepper, then add to salad.  This order is for 2 people.
• In-n-Out: Protein burger, just burger, grilled onions, tomato.  Add mustard, salt pepper.  This sucked for me.  NO flavor what so ever.  But it killed any hunger pains, just didn’t taste great.
• Del Taco: 3 chicken soft tacos – order with just chicken, lettuce, tomato.  NO cheese/sauce.  Take the contents of the tacos out and mix together with hot sauce (mild).  Eat.  This was hands-down my favorite.  Better than the Jack-in-the-Box variety.  Perhaps because it was shredded lettuce.  (note: 3 soft tacos contains about 100g meat).
• Chili’s- Fajita’s – don’t get the mix, just get the chicken.  Ask wait staff to ensure no cooking in oil and no oil on the skillet.  Split the portion between 2 people.  Tasty.  Grilled vegetables were really good.  Watching our friends enjoy fried jalapeno and onion strips was hard :-(.

We made it out alive though.  Because we didn’t have a scale we were not motivated at all.  There were times we said we’d quit.  All we could think about was better tasting food (not necessarily larger portions).  Having the apples was huge (strawberries just didn’t keep well traveling).  We kept some in our backpack as we walked around Disneyland.

This morning we both got up and I was at 205 – down 10.5 overall an 4 from the beginning of the trip.  I was hoping for it to read 200, but I’m semi-motivated to keep going.  Tomorrow may be judgment day for us.  As I’m traveling next week on business it will be even harder than Disneyland.  Wish me luck!

Day 13-14: 205 pounds.

I woke up this morning after going to bed early to stop thinking about food.  Got up, went to the bathroom and weighed myself.

TIP: Make sure you weigh yourself on the same scale, the same time and wearing the same clothes (or none).

I’m happy to report that I am at 213 pounds…that’s 2.5 pounds lighter than when I started on the HCG Diet.  It’s pretty motivating results.  I suppose of course if you only ate 200 grams of meat in one day you’d suspect a pretty decent drop.

I’m hoping to see this trend continue (safely and healthy) while on the HCG Diet for me.  I’m excited!

I’ve also set up a Twitter account so if you want to follow my little thoughts and daily weight updates that way, please feel free to head on over there (link on the right side of the blog here) or directly here.

Today’s meal plan:

• Morning Apple (Gala variety)
• Lunch: chile chicken (chicken cooked in spicy sauce), lettuce, Melba toast.
• Drinks: going to try some of the fruit flavored green teas with Stevia and I’ll report back.
• Dinner: Talapia fish cooking in garlic sauce, tomato, Melba

Seriously though…immediate results!  The HCG Diet could be the thing that gets me on the road to healthier sustaining eating and exercise.  I hope so!

Day 3: 213 pounds