"Pounds & Inches"

In this post I would like to talk about "Pounds & Inches". When approaching Dr. Simeons Protocol a.k.a. HCG Diet, inevitably we come across this manuscript. Lots of people think that "Pounds & Inches" is just a book, to read in the spare time…if! Well that's the worst thing you could do if your intention are to embrace this HCG journey.

Pounds & Inches is – without any doubts – an instruction manual for the HCG Diet, written by hand by Dr. Simeons, with all his thoughts and results from his past experiences trying to fight obesity. Latest version – which I believe is the 7^th edition – was published in 1971.

In this manuscript you'll find all the information you will need to follow the protocol, it's a complicated Diet, lots of details are explained, as well as the reasons why he did or did not something. Dr. Simeons talks also about cases he studied during his researches, and it's impressive how everything makes perfect sense.

I personally read it three times, I highlighted some information that I considered relevant for me, and I often go back to read, searching for answers. I could not start this Diet without "Pounds & Inches", not only from an instructions point of view but also, and most importantly, because it gave me the reason why this HCG Diet is so effective, why people are losing weight as never before and be able to maintain it. This little manual gave me the motivation and the excitement that I was looking for since years now, this manuscript made me understand why all my previous tentative on losing weight, since I was a teenager, were unsuccessful, and the more I was trying the more I was failing.

Do not underestimate this manuscript, read it more than once, keep it always handy, you will need it along your journey. The more you strictly follow the Protocol (detailed in Pounds & Inches) the more your Diet will reward you. Don't believe only on my words, search online about it, how many people went slight off from the Protocol and they had stall, weight gain and general unpleasant feelings during the treatment.

Kevin Trudeau wrote his own book based on Dr. Simeons Protocol, but his is really a book, he's not a doctor, he took all the details of the HCG diet to make a fortune his own. "Pounds & Inches" is a free – PDF downloadable – manuscript, a quick search online and you can find it everywhere for free. It's just few pages, easy to read, classified in clear chapters, so no excuse for anyone to skip this mandatory step when starting the HCG Diet.

HCG Diet - on my VLCD #7

So today I am on my VLCD #7 and I'm still astonished about this Diet and HCG. What I believe is absolutely amazing is the fact that I am not hungry at all. Yesterday I had barely 400 Calories and I was ok, yes maybe at night I felt a bit hungry, since I skipped dinner, but it was bearable, plus I did skip dinner by choice, I really didn't want to eat. Without HCG I would be starving every second of the day, but with this hormone I know that my fat has been released in this right moment (without me being hungry) – and that's all I need to know.

Dr. Bernstein Diet puts you in starvation mode and, although being in Ketosis could be a good thing that means you're reducing carbohydrates, being in starvation is extremely deleterious for your metabolism. Every person on a Diet wants to lose weight and fast, but nobody wants to gain it all back and some, and that's pretty much what happens if you are starving yourself. It does suck I know.

I lost pounds every day so far, it's been only few days but I can feel the effects of HCG, it affects my mood making me feel happy, everyone is telling me that they see me different and better, I feel I'm not depressed anymore about my weight, my shape, although I'm still overweight and far from the end of my Diet, but I'm extremely motivated and I believe 100% in this Protocol, I've tons of energy – something amazing for me since I'm having such little Calories per day.

I don't know which Diet are you following but if you find yourself more than often starving, well my suggestion is: quit, whatever you're shedding off with so many sacrifices, it's going to be back on pretty soon.

I've to say I did everything exactly as Protocol …and beyond. I started a pre-Diet phase detoxing with Detox Tea and Detox bath with Himalayan salt (I've one scented with Vanilla that I love). I stopped to eat sugar almost a month before starting my HCG injections, I eliminated all the carbs like bread, pasta, rice, pizza and so on, many days before my Diet. I started to add more fat to my Diet and my loading Days were clean of sugar, carbs or starchy vegetables. I tried to eat healthy fat as much as I could, gorging to capacity. That helped me to get into the Diet smoothly and with no issues whatsoever, I felt a bit hungry on the very first VLCD and after that day my food-life completely changed, my mood changed and now I'm so happy, that just thinking about what is happening to me makes me smile; this is priceless!

HCG Diet - VLCD #5

Today I'm on my VLCD 5 – so I'm on a very low calories diet since 5 days and 7 injection days. Although I've been on the Protocol just for 5 days, it's been an extremely positive experience. My weight is going down, first couple of days really fast, now obviously it is slowing down, but totally normal; I cannot expect my body to lose 1Kg per day, which wouldn't be healthy for sure. For me, as long as the scale goes down: I'm happy! Even for just a little…

What makes me happy even more though is the way I feel, the energy that I have, is almost unbelievable to me, injections are easy to do it, painless, the hunger is almost inexistent and I still can't believe I'm eating only 500 Calories in a day, if all! In the past days I either skip a fruit serving or a carb serving, but really not feeling any desire or restriction on doing so. The Diet is easy and simple: just one protein type, just one vegetable type, just one fruit.

I was always struggling with Dr. Bernstein Diet with all the chopping and the preparation of breakfast and lunch and dinner, I was constantly cooking, and although I love to cook, that was too much even for me. With Dr. Simeons Protocol the choice is so limited that it removes the headache of what to eat and what not, definitely I can cook in many ways the same ingredients but guess how I feel about it?! I cannot care less about eating neither of what I eat! It's not that I don't enjoy food or anything; I'm just more focused on everything else in my life.

I had a Binge Eating Disorder for more than one year and my mind was constantly occupied thinking about food and what to eat next, for me this feels like freedom, finally healing from a mental disease that I thought I should live with for the rest of my life and restrict myself every time I was desiring food. Now conscious of the fact that portion control is obviously important I don't feel any challenge going forward, I'll check my weight every day, and if I gained a couple of pounds, I'll cut back my food intake for few days to get back on track. Now I know I can do it because food is not controlling my mind anymore.

It does sound that I'm blabbing just about my psychological status yes, but what I think is that we struggle almost all our lives about dieting and food and don't eat this and that, and I personally never accepted the advice of: "You have to love yourself as you are", sorry but I don't. I do not like seeing me fat and I will never love it, hence I want to lose weight. Those struggles are our enemies, all the thinking about what we can eat and what not makes dieting an important primary thing in our lives, we live for that…that's why we tend to care too much about food – well at least it was for me – but the point is that if you just could make food and eating something really not important, something that even when your stomach is growling you could think: "stomach it's growling, so what?!", that almost-impossible-to-believe thought will make your diet way easier. Nobody under a torture diet could have any long term success, I tried…multiple times; I ended up with anxiety, semi-depression, obesity, eating disorder and I could go on and on.

For you reading my post, if you never did before: search HCG, you have to give it a try!

Amazed by HCG - VLCD #2

It's Saturday today and I am speechless on what's happening to my body. I woke up a bit later this morning, had my HCG injection and went to bed again, I felt kind of hungry when I woke up, but too tired to do anything else. Good news was that my scale reported a 2Kg weight loss this morning; I thought ok, that was exactly what I gained during Loading Days so no big deal. After sleeping another 3/4 hours I woke up again and wondering if I was hungry or not, I'm really trying to listen to my body, to see how this Diet is going, and mostly because I did not find any trace of Ketosis this morning in my urine, so I was worried about the overall diet. Well I wasn't hungry – at all – I tried to drink a bit of a terrible French Roast decaf coffee, I couldn't swallow and I throw it away.

Since I had to work today I prepared my lunch and snacks to bring with me in the office, with my Vitamins and Detox tea too. Since this morning I do not care about food, I don't feel hungry but mostly I do not care about eating! I felt a couple of times my stomach growling but I didn't care much eating, it was like my brain, my desires were completely disconnected by the urge to eat, to think about food, I wanted to do other things, I felt anything else would have more relevance than "eating", and trust me for a Binge Eater with compulsive desire of food and addictions, this is absolutely astonishing!

I'm speechless, HCG gives me so much energy, I feel I can go for a run, at the gym, talking even faster than my usual (wherever is possible!), eventually I had to force myself to go in the kitchen and grab my salad, I'm trying to eat an orange and I'm not even enjoying it. It's just incredible to me how this hormone is changing my body, my mind, that's what I always wanted, I'm on a 500 Calories diet and no hunger pain, no desire of sugar, not even thinking of what I'm going to eat tonight or so. I used to have food always stuck in my mind, constantly thinking: when I'm going to eat and what I'm going to eat next. Now I don't care, I can't even believe it! It's the first time since more than a year that I didn't feel like this. During my Dr. Bernstein Diet I felt always hungry, dizzy, constantly weak and sleepy, even though the doctor told me that I should've felt fabulous all the times, well it didn't happen to me, with just Vitamins B and a starvation Diet what do you expect?!

I've to admit it, although I read so many good things about the HCG Diet and Dr. Simeons Protocol, I was a bit skeptical about it. I thought it was too good to be true, I had to try in person and have my personal opinion about it. At the end everybody is different, someone can find Dr. Bernstein Diet perfect and be able to maintain what is lost forever. Me, I wasn't and what I read in the past about dieting in general and how human body reacts on stressful diet (see my Binge Eating Disorder), made me realize that I need more a cure than a Diet, something that will set me free from this food-addiction in my mind. I hope I found it, I'm already thinking if I could just use HCG for the rest of my life, to remove from my brain the obsession of food, to help maintain this positive and healthy approach on what I eat!

HCG Diet - VLCD #1 The Begin

I had my third injection of HCG today, and this signs the begin of my VLCD days. So far I'm ok, it's just early morning but I feel I had so much food in the past two days that I could go for a while without eating, but of course I'll be starving pretty soon knowing my body!

I'm excited that I've finally started this Protocol, I know that there will be challenges along the way, hunger, dizziness, ketosis and all those things a strict diet can bring with it, but I believe in Dr. Simeons "cure" for my metabolism and I will continue until I reached my goal following meticulously the protocol.

Today the injection was a positive experience; I used 50 IU (0.5cc) of the solution and – apart from a small amount of blood coming out – it was extremely easy and quick. I do not mind the blood per se but I figure that some HCG will be lost when blood is coming out after the injection and, since the quantity is already so small, wasting any amount of HCG is a big loss that in general could compromise the hunger feeling of the day and the results on weight loss. But I was happy to notice that the cheap insulin syringes that I'm using don't have dead space, the top part behind the needle, so no solution gets lost in the syringe after using it. They're still cheap in quality though. For some reason today, after the injection, I believe I felt the HCG getting into my system, maybe it was just a placebo effect but the procedure went well and if I keep on doing my injections like today's one, I think I will have soon a positive pregnancy test that validates the trace of HCG in my body!

Second Loading Day

I'm approaching the official start of my VLCD – Very Low Calories Diet under HCG and Dr. Simeons Protocol. Today is my Second Loading Day, I'm definitely less hungry than yesterday and I do not want to eat much, I believe is mostly due to all the fatty food I had. I'm drinking lots of water though, I guess it's a normal reaction to all this fat I'm eating, and I feel always thirsty. I had an increase of 2.1 Kg today and my BMI was the same as yesterday, strangely my body fat was just a tiny bit less, which I think it's just a machine error! I planned to check my BMI every day, together with my weight, the inches of body fat lost I might check on a weekly basis rather than daily, I don't think I would see any substantial change every day anyway. I also want to take some pictures today, which introduces the begin of the real diet at the maximum weight I ever had in my life, I do hope to see drastic changes in the coming weeks. I planned to take pictures of my body changing on average every week; I might not do it every week if I don't see big losses. From my previous experience with Dr. Bernstein Diet often I did not have any weight loss, sometime due to certain type of food that was not absorbed by my body in a good way (see tomatoes), sometimes when I reached a former weight that I had in the past; those stalls are the most annoying ones, it might take days before you can see the scale going down again. I think I kind of know now where I might find in the future a former weight, I can be totally wrong but I bet I will have hard time to go down 62Kg, 58Kg and 55Kg; I maintained in my past those values for a while so my body could remember and stop there again.

Sometimes I wonder if this new Diet and the fact that will bring me again into ketosis and starvation mode, could somehow generate new and strong urges to Binge. That's a fear for me; because they can halts the Diet and the emotional stress will be huge. Some people reported to have actually trained themselves using the HCG Diet, to stop bingeing. For me it's a new experience with the Eating Disorder consciousness, so I will have to see myself. I did though some sort of withdrawal from sugar and carbs already. I wanted to start my HCG Diet with no sugar and very low carbs intake; otherwise the withdrawal done during a 500 Calories Diet might be super tough for me that I'm a chocolate addicted.

Today I'll go to the grocery store to buy some organic vegetables and some chicken breast to prepare my meals for tomorrow. With my previous Dr. Bernstein Diet I use to prepare lots' of dishes in advance, some of them I use to freeze, but most of the time I frozen already washed and pre-cut vegetables. This time I might not do it, I would prepare my meals on a daily basis mostly. The reason why I do not want to have food pre-cooked is because I got sick of it! Eventually the frozen vegetables and my dishes tasted very poorly and I never enjoyed eating it. I could tell the difference between meals that were coming just from the stove than one that was coming out from the microwave. I might have stated the obvious here but that's ok, it still explains my point of view…

The only thing that I might prepare in advance is the chicken breast raw meat, I can buy it and remove the extra fat – if any – weight it and save in plastic bags in the freezer. That should not be too bad once defrosted. At the end the amount of food that I eat every day it's so little that a meal shouldn't take that long to prepare, why bother to do too many things in advance?! There are only 2 meals a day: lunch and dinner, and I must to say, I'm almost happy not to have breakfast. I was tired of preparing omelet during my Dr. Bernstein Diet; I'm glad I can skip altogether or just have a tea and an apple.

First Loading Day done

My first Loading Day is done; it was almost painful by the end of day. I truly believe I had a couple of Binge episodes during the day and it was concerning me a bit, since I'm going to approach a very low calories Diet starting from tomorrow, I cannot deal with urges to binge. I hope I won't.

This morning the scale reported an increase of 2.1 Kg, which is almost scary to me, I was expecting the weight gain with all the food I had yesterday but somehow I was hoping the HCG will give me the benefit of keeping the weight off, oh well maybe tomorrow, who knows…

My injection procedure today was terrible I have to admit. I took the little vial from the fridge and I gently shake it, thinking that the HCG powder might be residing on the bottom of the vial; after that I took one of my insulin syringes of 1ml and I started to draw – what to me looked as mixed solution, after removing the needle from the vial I found it completely crocked! I must to say those syringes are extremely cheap and I'm already thinking on buying better ones for my next injections. Anyhow, I decided to try to straighten the needle and continue with my procedure, so I did, but I couldn't tell if there was just air in the syringe or there was HCG in it, seriously it was hard to see due to the grey colour of the syringe! So basically I proceeded injecting only air in my belly….yes that was what I stupidly did! So, afraid of the subcutaneous air I had just injected in my tummy, I had to continue with I was trying to achieve there: having my HCG daily dosage. The second time I pay more attention on how I was drawing the solution from the vial, I was able to see liquid going inside the syringe, so I took around 52/53 units from the bottle and injected again in my belly, but in a different spot. BTW yesterday injection gave me already a big bruise, what a surprise. I decided to increase slightly my dosage today, thinking about the amount of HCG that can get wasted in the top of syringe and also because I wanted to be sure I had enough HCG in my body to saturate my blood with all the fatty food I'm eating in these 2 Loading Days. Hopefully my assumption can work for me; I figured I might need to understand exactly what dosage works for me just going forward with the VLCD days. This is actually a good point on why is not advisable to pre-prepare all the syringes with HCG solution in advance, if you need to change the dosage it might be impossible to do so without wasting HCG. The required daily amount is so little that really working around it, it's definitely not easy and the margin of error is always quite relevant.

Someone might argue why I don't use the drops, way easier in terms of administering. Well I do not believe in drops; it's scientifically proved that HCG cannot be absorbed in the body via mouth, it simply doesn't; it needs to be injected every day. HHCG is the Homeopathic version, which is just a scam from my point of view, there's no HCG whatsoever in this product, so why bother using it? Do your researches first before choosing this type of Protocol, we are never enough careful when dealing with our health and well-being.