I started using hcG on December 31, 2012, my 42nd birthday.
I decided to give it a try because two friends and a family member had had success with it and I really needed something to work.
I've been gradually gaining weight over the last 8 years and have honestly struggled with my weight most of my life. At 5'3" I had reached 161 lbs and decided I had to do something significant.
This diet felt like a godsend to me because I had struggled for so long
and this was finally something that worked, and quickly, which helped
keep me motivated. As of today I've lost 31 lbs !! Can I tell you, being
within 5 lbs of my goal weight at age 42 is about the most thrilling
thing...though I suppose reaching it will be even more exciting.
I wanted to write this blog to share some of the information I've gleaned through my process as I feel very indebted to other bloggers for sharing their precious information and experiences.
Here's the product I've been using.
http://www.creativebioscience.com/hcg-1234.html
What follows is basically a brain-spill of info about what has worked for me.
It
really is only 500 calories a day - 100 grams (3 1/2 oz) of very lean
protein twice a day and one vegetable with that, 2 pieces of fruit per
day and only: apples, strawberries, 1/2 grapefruit, orange (not tangerines,
mandarins, clementines) It is suggested to use lemon juice everyday - I put it on my apples and salads. You can eat a tomato instead of one of the other fruits.
Trader Joe's pre-cooked chicken breast has been my go-to, as well as
their pre-cooked shrimp. The easier it is to prepare your food, the better. Turkey is
actually not recommended, nor is canned fish of any kind, but it may be
alright, as long as it's not in oil. Other bloggers I've read go for water packed tuna.
Salmon and mahi-mahi are too fatty.
You can NOT eat two vegetables at a time which can make salads a bummer, though you can add herbs like fresh basil and mint.
Vegetables
are also somewhat limited - nothing starchy or sugary - the obvious NOs
are potatoes, cauliflower and carrots, but also no broccoli.
Kale, Chard, Asparagus are all very good. I eat a lot of Arugula for my salads as it's got so much flavor and is very low calorie and have recently fallen in love with fennel, which I slice thinly with the mandoline and mix it with finely chopped green apple, apple cider vinegar and a bit of lemon juice. With or without the chicken it's delicious.
Dairy is limited to 1 Tablespoon of skim milk (so for the most part I skip it)
2
pieces of either melba toast (they DO still make it) or Italian
grissini...but I often skip these as it's so good to be 100% away
from wheat.
Of course, you'll want to eat all organic fruit and
vegetables, but the nice thing about only eating 500 calories a day is
that it just isn't very much food, so spending a little more on great
produce doesn't hurt.
There are some condiments that are allowed -
most mustard is fine, vinegar (but not balsamic), Bragg's Amino Acids
(instead of soy sauce which is prohibited, ) all the spices you can think
of - I like cinnamon on my apples - sea salt is recommended daily.
I tried eating some seaweed as I love seaweed salad, but I either gained or didn't lose weight when I tried it so I recommend avoiding it.
You cannot cook with any oil or even put regular
moisturizer on. I've even stopped taking my Omegas vitamins. I use mineral oil
for my body moisturizer and found a great oil free facial moisturizer on
Pharamaca.
http://www.pharmaca.com/Natural-Moisturizers/Andalou-Naturals-Acai--White-Tea-Oil-Free-Moisturizer-21oz/525776/5010-5033-5183/Product
I wash my face and body with Neutrogena's bar glycerin soap.
Corn Husker's Lotion is good for the hands and Vaseline makes a lip balm that's safe - because it's 100% petroleum jelly..mmm, delish.
The
first two days of the experience you "bear eat" or load meaning you get
to eat as much fatty and sugary food as you can manage, meanwhile
saying
goodbye to all the fatty sugary foods you won't be eating for the next 2
months. After that you have either 23 or 40 days of what is called
phase 2. You take 10 drops of the hcG 3 times a day and eat the 500
calorie diet.
The last 3 days of the 23 or 40 days you stop taking
the drops and continue with the 500 calories. Then, for phase 3 you double your
protein intake and triple your calories, but continue to avoid starches
and sugars for three weeks. I moved from 1200 calories gradually to 1500
a day. The point of this phase is to maintain your weight and let the
hcG become effective again as I guess you build a tolerance.
It is
then recommended, assuming you need to lose more weight, that you spend
a few weeks on phase 4, which is maintenance on a regular diet. I
skipped this and went from phase three back to the beginning.
The first time through I lost 1/2 to one pound a day and this time I seem to be losing an average of 1/2 a pound per day.
I
use two apps daily, one for keeping track of all of my food and weight,
the other for checking if something is on protocol - that one is called
Applicious hcG Food or something. They're expensive for apps, but SO
helpful.
A couple other tips - chewing gum can be a crutch too, but even
sugar-free gum doesn't work unless it's sweetened with xylitol - these
lose their flavor really quickly. You can also chew Trident regular mint
and spearmint, none of their fruit flavored gums. You can sweeten
things with Stevia and the one that I've found that actually tastes good
is Natvia. Truvia isn't too bad, but the rest of them are as bad as
Sweet and Low. If you're in a pinch and must have a sweetener, aspartame
is prohibited but saccharine is ok for some reason.
The hcG is incredible in that I'm not often hungry and I
can really handle not eating what everyone else is eating. After the
first three weeks I had a couple dreams about crunchy chocolate chip
cookies, and I drink A LOT of different flavored teas. My blood sugar is
incredibly even because the hcG is releasing your fat stores into your
blood stream and your body feeds from that - really cool stuff!
I go to the Creative Biosciene website blog with my questions
http://creativebioscience.com/blog/category/hot-topic-contest/
and have actually won free product for my questions!
They
also have a 24hr support hotline - sometimes their people are very helpful, sometimes less so. The lady who
answers questions on the blog is quite helpful.
Lastly,
I really like this diet because it's absolute. There are no grey zones
about how much you can eat or what you can eat. It only
doesn't work if you cheat, and if you do, all your progress literally
goes out the window, and immediately. The very hardest thing for me has
been socializing, as so much is dinner or drinks with friends, and
having lettuce while they have steaks can be a bummer, or tea while they
have cocktails (that's harder than the lettuce, honestly!)
I found out about this from my boyfriend's cousin who has literally lost over 100 lbs on it.
OK, there it is.
Have fun with it, but remember - NO cheating! You'll hate yourself if you do.
Here's a link to the original Doctor's protocol which you'll
want to read as well - though I paraphrased everything you'll really
need to know...I think... http://www.poundsandinchesaway.com/dr-simeons-manuscript-hcg-diet/
Please feel free to contact me at likethegin@gmail.com if you have any questions about it. Best of luck to you!!!
