HCG Diet - VLCD #45 Exercising during P2

Again this morning I registered a gain, I know it's my fault and for all the candies I had yesterday, sugar-free but not sugar-alcohol free, plus I had an extra portion of asparagus before going to my Kung-Fu class. I knew this morning, during my usual weigh-in that I will see a gain, I still had hopes though, I always do anyway.

It's becoming a really long round this one, it's been already 45 days on the diet, and although I've seen people doing longer than that, I must to say: motivation tends to bend down after so many weeks. This morning I had my large apple with a tbsp of cacao powder, not sugar only a bit of stevia but this for me is a sign that my cravings are taking over me. I also had already 3 candies but I promised myself I won't buy any for now, I finished the package within a day, I'm obviously out of control.

Sometimes I think this is due to my binge eating habits but I don’t' think it is, I'm just hungry, I want something sweet, but having it under HCG would be a big mistake, my fat/carbs content should stay as low as possible during P2.

I'm also not that busy at work, since I'll be transitioning in a new role by the end of the month, so motivation is all over the place and being bored is a diet-killer let's face it, we often eat for boredom, well at least I do.

Yesterday I went to my first Kung-Fu class, apart from the unfriendly instructor that didn't even look my face, overall was not that bad. I was surprised to see that in terms of strengths I had no issues, I didn't faint, I felt normal, sure I'm out of shape, but that's another problem. I need practice to build my core, to become stronger. I've paid for 10 classes so I'll take all of them and after I'll decide on what to do, if I want to keep going or not. It's been a good test for me that I wanted to understand if I was able to handle a full hour class…without feeling weak or dizzy. I'm positive I can start slowly to go back to the gym and get back into my body attack classes to consume extra calories and enjoy the health benefits of exercising!

HCG Diet - VLCD #40 and P3 on the way

I'm officially out of P2, in the 72 hours that precede my Phase 3, I might classify this stage as P3 too I guess, not really sure since I'm still on a VLCD regiment till the end of tomorrow. And as VLCD today's the #40, I cannot believe 40 days have been passed by for my HCG Diet and I'm stunned on how I feel, how my diet and weight loss was. I think it's something that you need to experience to fully understand, this is really not a Diet it's a cure, a revolutionary weight loss journey that changes perspective on how I see food and fat in general.

I'm still not feeling hungry most of the day, sometimes in the morning I've some cravings; I feel a bit hungry around mid-morning, but usually a decaf coffee or my lovely chamomile fixes the problem.  I will set my LIW (Last Injection Weight) as 56.6 Kg, I feel comfortable in this weight and I'm happy to stabilize it at this level, hoping I will never go back on where I was. Of course I still need to lose some fat but I will do it in the next round of HCG, I'm still waiting for my solution to arrive from US where I ordered. I do have at least 6 weeks of P3/P4 anyway, not in a rush definitely.

In my P3 I'm not supposed to gain or lose any weight, just let my hypothalamus reset on my 56.6 Kg, I'm a bit scared I've to admit it, maintaining is the most challenging part of all for any diet. But I also think that 40 days have passed as a breeze and I'll try to be disciplined and follow Dr. Simeons advice, checking every day my weight on the scale and trying to correct any big variation that I can encounter.

I'm thinking to introduce new food very slowly, I'll continue with P2 food for now (which I love anyway), if tomorrow my weight is going down I maybe take some fat free Cottage Cheese and some extra celery to compensate with the Calories, going forward I think I will have a better idea on how my body reacts when introducing more food.  I am aware already of some type of food that I can have easily and some other not; I need to play with this to be successful.

The list of food items that I can have on P2 is so limited that makes everything really easy, you don't have to think much: it's either A or B, not much choice here. So after 40 days having baby spinach chicken salad I still love it! I look forward every day to eat it, I like my dinners too, I was never been able to have regular dinners before, always concerning that I will see the scale going up the next day, and that how it was all the times! Now the scale goes down; I cannot believe I'm eating roughly 500 Calories per day and not feeling weak, dizzy, hungry, and grumpy. HCG is changing my life and I look forward already for my next round. I'm just wishing a smooth P3!

HCG Diet - VLCD #35 - Ready for P3

Today is my VLCD #35 – I can't believe it's been already 35 days of my HCG Diet. Time really flies and so far I'm really happy with the results, with how HCG made me feel through the whole weight loss process.

In the past few days I had very small traces of Ketosis and I thought I would stop with the injections doubting the potency of my HCG solution, but no hunger, no weakness, no cravings, having lots of water convinced me to continue with HCG another couple of days or so, I think till I actually have solution to do the injections, I also noticed that the Ketones are less visible in my urine when I drink lots and lots of water before bed, which can make sense…I think.

So today I was between small and just traces of Ketosis, I'm not that hungry but I cannot be 100% sure that is not due to my long diet journey. I do feel ready for P3 though, I'm good with my weight as per today, sure I need to lose more but I'm ok on stabilizing what I've achieved so far. Most of my dresses now fit comfortably, not all maybe but enough to make me feel good about myself.

P3 will be a challenge I already know, it will be mostly about calories because I won't be any more under the easy directions of Dr. Simeons for 500 Calories and clear and concise meal plans. I'm thinking to continue with P2 food and just increase the protein dosage, maybe a bit more vegetables here and there, but without going crazy of course. I'm finding so easy prepping my meals for the next day, it takes me 2 minutes and I enjoy my spinach chicken salad as never before, I'm even loving my breakfast orange in the morning, which is odd for me that I never been a fan of oranges.  

In the morning – with my HCG injection – I'm also doing a 30IU B12 injection, in a different spot with a smaller insulin syringe. B12 is something I learned with the Dr. Bernstein Diet and, after lots of researches I came to the conclusion that it's good for energy and to keep the fat moving, how much? I don't know, but it's a water-soluble Vitamin so drinking plenty of water will eliminate it anyway with no harm for my body.

When my P2 officially ends I will be for 72 hours still on the VLCD, but no HCG injections. I'm not worried about the 72hrs I have to say, I already experienced no-HCG effects for a couple of days during my period and I was ok, maybe some cravings but those come all the times, I'm taking L-Glutamine to compensate a bit, it doesn't do miracles obviously but somehow placebo-effect or not, it helps. The most important thing for me is that my binge episodes are not going to come not now or never. I want to end up feeling normal of not eating sweets or fatty junk food and not forcing myself not to do it.

This can only be achieved with time, the body needs to adjust on this new food intake lifestyle, if that makes sense, everything would become normal, reality, not privations, no frustrations on desiring what I cannot have.

HCG Diet - VLCD #12 - Protein Powder for P2

Today is my VLCD  #12, the Diet is proceeding well, this morning the scale reported a promising loss and I'm now officially into the 61 Kg mark. Being over the 62Kg-s is motivating for me, although I know slowdowns and brief stalls are part of the Diet, nobody likes seeing unchanging-weight when having such a small amount of Calories.

I've to admit, today for lunch I might had way too much chicken, I had hard time to portion exactly gr on Sunday when I cooked in advance all my meat. I bought 3 packages of organic chicken breast at the supermarket and I wanted to grill and portion so I'd have ready for my salads for the whole week and more. I tried to give estimation on how many portions I will have with the amount bought, but then – since I removed lots of fat from it – I estimated a slightly smaller amount of portions. I don't think I was over that much, I'd say rather than 100gr of chicken breast I had maybe 120gr or 130gr. Cooked chicken has an extremely lower weight than the raw one, I have the proofs!

So now it's just after lunch and my stomach feels full, due to the large amount of spinach I had with the chicken too I guess, I should remind myself to be careful with my portions if I don't want to waste a week worth of HCG and hard work. I don't believe in the typical suggestion that lots of people give when dieting: "don't be hard on yourself if you cheat, it's ok", no it's not ok, I need to be disciplined, I was a compulsive eater for this reason, allowing myself to binge and thinking that would be better tomorrow….which never happened. That's the similar reason why people go to those boot-camp gym classes, to be yelled in their ears to push hard on exercise and never stop. We need strong directions on our weaknesses; well at least this is for me and might not apply to everyone.

I'm researching to buy some protein powder for my P2 Phase, I know it's not in Dr. Simeons protocol but I believe that if I find a non-fat protein blend I'd be ok with that. The reason why I want to buy Protein powder is because I know the importance for my body to have my Protein intake every day. Sometimes I find myself skipping a meal and that means skipping a Protein serving. The body gets in alarm-mode, hunting for food and it's not healthy for my metabolism and a healthy food-relationship.

I checked online which could be the best Protein Powder I could buy, and I found a brand name called Jay Robb, apparently it's a guy that makes some good tasting Protein powder with 0 Fat and very low in basically everything. I want to find it today after work, I might use it just once in a while but I thought it could be a very good habit even for my HCG P4-life Phase, learning on how to properly nourish your body is fundamental at the end.

Talking about protein I read a very interesting article about it, so true that when the body has the right amount of protein is content, that's why sometime is good having protein before bed, so you can sleep better, rather than being on alerting hunting-mode (explained the strong nap-desire after meals!).

Another thing I noticed affecting a lot my weight loss is the amount of water I have daily. If I don't drink more than 2L of water, I don't lose weight, I don't feel right either. When we lose weight we release lots of toxins that are stored in our fat cells, those toxins need to be eliminated from our system, or they will make us sick or with uncomfortable feelings. One proved way to help this elimination is drinking water, it helps a good kidney functioning so the liver (which is the main organ for the detoxification) is not busy doing double job!