My HCG Diet Journey

I’m stuck!

I am not totally sure what is happening here but my weight has gone like this:

Day 1:  137.2

Day 2:  134.8

Day 3:  134.6

Day 4:  134.0

Day 5:  134.4

Day 6: 134.2

Day 7: 134.2

This would not be such a big deal if I wasn’t working my ASS off every day with my calorie burn.

I’ve pretty much also every day eaten 1200 calories of protein / veggies / fruit

And my burn has been around 2700 each day.  To understand, it’s taking me around 1.5 – 2.0 hours of VIGOROUS activity, plus another 1.0 – 1.5 hours of MODERATE activity.

One can not live a normal life and work out like the above … and then to not lose any weight … it’s just a slap in the face.

That said, mind you … today is day 1 of my period … so, I am sure I am holding on to some stuff.

But, I am a little scared that my body is going into starvation mode and is trying to cling on to these last few pounds.

So, just for today … I am going to take a break from all VIGOROUS activity.  I’ll do at least 1 hour to 1.5 hours of moderate.  I’m sure this will get me somewhere in the 2000 calorie burn for the day (I think).

I’m also going to allow more carb calories in the way of Oatmeal for breakfast.  And a Sweet Potato for Dinners.

Food wise, everything else stays the same.  Between these two carbs I am adding 120 calories for the Oatmeal and 160 calories for the Sweet Potato … so, let’s say my new calorie intake will be 1500 a day.

I’m going to also shoot for 2500 a day for the total Burn:  but with 1 day off a week, I wont get the burn that day (today)

Weight Training 3 x a week (every other day) will replace 30 minutes of vigorous cardio.  And then elliptical the other 30  minutes.  And another hour of moderate (walking)

This should raise my metabolism so I don’t have to work so hard.

The other 3 cardio days will be running 1 hour a day and walking 1 hour a day. (Hopefully this will count for a 2500 calorie burn)

So, beginning Friday …

Eat breakfast 10AM

11 AM Weight Train

11:30 AM cardio

12:00 PM shake

5:00 PM walk 1 hour

etc ….

Saturday

10:00 AM Run for one hour (however long it takes)

12:00 PM Shake

5:00 PM Walk 1 hour

…

We’ll test this out for 1 week and see what happens.

I’ve been trying to get a chance to do a blog post for nearly 5 days now.  Yesterday, which was day 4, I wrote the Title of this post.  So, today is actually day 5.

“Day 5 of what?”  You ask.

OK, let me back up for a moment.  So, since the time I went through the whole HCG process and the maintenance and all of that last year, I managed to put back on around 12 pounds.  (I was 137 pounds as of Day 1 of this diet).

Good news and bad news.  The fact that I managed to put ANY of the weight back on, and 12 pounds at that, is the bad news.  And I have made very meager attempts to try and get the weight off again, like doing a 10 day master cleanse, that took me down to about 127 pounds, very temporarily.  But, I managed to climb back up to 137 again pretty quickly.  I thought I’d try and get in shape for Las Vegas and I did not and I always feel ashamed (even though I’m not that out of shape) when I let myself down about looking the way I want to look.

So, here I am back again to take another crack at it and I am feeling really good about things right now.

I’ll admit, I have a lot of confidence in my ability to lose the weight.  I always seem to lose at least 90% of the weight I want to lose.  I’ve hit my goal weight, only to feel a bit disillusioned because there seems to still be more to go to get my body fat where I would like it so I at least LOOK like I try to work out, especially in my thighs.  The problem has always been KEEPING it off.  That said, now for the Good News.  The Good News is that it was ONLY 12 pounds in a year.  So, did the HCG Diet work for me?

It’s hard to really say.  I believe it did something as far as locking the weight down.  My set point seemed to stay around that 135 – 137 range for quite awhile, even though I was going way out of my way to put the weight back on (no, not literally trying … I was just not trying too hard to keep it off). So, I think that some of the effects of the HCG diet were definitely at play in resetting my weight to that lower level.

So, what is the 30 Day HCG Plus Journey?

Well, this is my own made up diet and exercise plan with elements taken from the HCG diet.

It’s basically like this:

I eat the same HCG approved foods, i.e. just the veggies on the list and just the fruit on the list.

I am skipping the breadsticks

I’ve added:

I can have a protein shake made with Organic Fat Free Milk, Fruit, and Whey Protein Power

1% Fat Cottage Cheese

Eggs

So, basically I am eating 1200 calories of these foods in whatever way I wish throughout the day.  I can go as high as 1500 or 1800 calories, but it means I have to increase my work out, and so far in 4 days I have managed to stay within the 1200 calories, while showing a total burn at the end of the day on my Body Fit Media watch of 2700.  Which equals a 1500 calorie a day deficit.

The bottom line is, I am going to burn 3 pounds off per week and weigh in at 125 before we leave for our trip to London.

Yesterday, I was already down 3 pounds.  (Of course, some of that being water weight).  I weighed in at 134.

Have not done the weigh in yet as of today.

Is it hard?  For the average person it would be.  I have a well above average tolerance for putting myself through these things, so I’m a trouper and hanging in there.

Activity wise, the basically means I’m out doing vigorous activity for roughly 90 minutes and moderate activity another 90 minutes a day.  My body is achy and tired.  So far I have not managed to get more than 6 hours of sleep.  So, I am hoping each day for a better nights sleep.

I try going to bed at 1AM and getting up at 9AM.  Those hours seem to work for me, but so far it just hasn’t produced the 8 hours of sleep I am looking for yet.

Anyway, more to come soon!

So, Monday August 2nd was the last day of Phase 3 Maintenance. I was on vacation in Las Vegas as you may recall. I didn’t really go on any binges or anything crazy and I drank the right type of drinks (refrained from high sugary alcoholic beverages) and had desert a couple of times. I always ate till I was satisfied or more. Now that I have been home for nearly a week, I can’t seem to get myself to trust eating carbs at all. I avoid them. I don’t even really want them. I do eat lots of fruit and I had a baked sweet potato … but, other than that, my diet has mostly consisted of the same stuff I ate during P3.

That said, I am at 124.3 today, which is my lowest weight since the freak day I had the day after my first day of maint.

I have decided though that I want to be 120 or maybe 115. We’ll see at 120. I just have a little more fat on my legs and my lower abs that is being a bit stubborn so, I don’t think it will hurt me at all to lose another 5 or 10 pounds. But, the difference is, I am not stressed out about it. I’m just like, hey if I can lose a .5 or 1 pound a week till I’m there, I’m good.

I’m running about 5 days a week or so. But, I want to integrate my new plan of doing Hot Yoga (Bikram) 2x a week and Cross Fit 2x a week and running 2x a week. I wish I could run more, maybe on my Cross Fit days I can do a 20 minute evening run? I’m happy to be running again. I missed that. I was finally able to do 4 miles the other day in under 41 minutes. A far cry from my 34 or 35 minutes I was doing in the past, but we’ll get there again.

So, it’s hard to say if it “worked” or not because I’m not really giving it the full test. I can say that I feel like I bounced back pretty easily from my Las Vegas trip where I came home and I was in the 127 / 128 area … so that seems relevant to report.

All in all, it comes down to the fact that I am feeling very happy and in control of my weight now.

Tomorrow is supposed to be my first totally FREE day. I am going to have Margaritas with my Hubby and maybe even get a desert. So, that will be a true test of course.

I’m back from my trip to Las Vegas and wanted to make an update on how things went.

So, for the first couple of days of my vacation, I was still technically on P3 where I couldn’t eat carbs or sugars and I stayed true.

I had brought along my travel scale but instead of using it, I just used the scale in our hotel at Aria. It had a more consistent measurement, though it was in .5 increments. I weighed in my first morning at 125.0 on the nose.

I moved into P4 gradually. First day I had potatos. I tried to really stick with just a serving and I did just that. Next day was rice day and on that day I had sushi. Then it was my birthday. I pretty much let it all go that day. French Toast for breakfast. I had champagne, wine, desert … I ate till I was very content and didn’t have a care in the world.

Next few days, I resumed normal eating, just trying to stick to one type of carb a day, but I definitely wasn’t 100% with it. Also, I continued drinking Vodka SF redbulls and Vodka Sodas most of the time. I had a Tequilla on our last night … actually, we had mexican all together that night.

The results????

First off, the day we came home was the day I was due to start TOM. And…. I’m only up 1.5 pounds on my wii, from the day we left to the day after we came home. I didn’t count the first day because it was a travel day and I was swollen like a balloon like I always do when I fly. And today the weight stayed the same.

So, all in all it has been a success I feel. I am pretty confident this 1.5 is all the other “stuff” water, waste, and period weight.

I’ll still be making blog posts to share my results.

I’m very happy with this.

Cheers!

Hey there!

OK, this video is from 7/26/10. I was down .7 (125.9) that day. And then the very next day, yesterday I was up 1.3 pounds. (127.2).

And today …. drum roll please???

Down 2.2 pounds! I’m 125 today exactly.

Yeah!

That said, I ran 5 miles yesterday. I came up with my own little trick that works for me.

I had able 4 apples yesterday, 1 at each meal.

I had 2 eggs and 3 slices of Turkey bacon for breakfast.

Then apples throughout the day

Then for dinner a big hunk of organic chicken

And then an apple and strawberries.

I quit eating around 9:30 pm.

And of course, I burned lots of calories during my run (and sweat).

So, we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

But, at least now I am 125 again. Yeah!

I just came back from a run / walk. 4.5 miles. Yeah! I love running! Anyway, so the Apple & Cheese day did not have quite the results I was expecting, but it did put me within range. EXACTLY within range. I was 126.8 on the wii yesterday. So, it was a .4 drop. Nothing like the claims on all the blogs I read about it.

I have a feeling that for ME in particular .. the cheese is just no good!

So, anyway … I’m still working on getting back to my “final weigh in” weight.

This morning I was down another .3 pounds @ 126.5. So, we’re inching closer to it.

I have a feeling after today, I’ll be down a bit more tomorrow.

I’m still working my butt off. Working out fairly hard every day and staying true to my diet.

I could be doing a wee bit better on my water. And for me, I’m not sure if having more fat helps, as Wendi had mentioned it would. I can’t tell though. I think everyone’s body just reacts different and I am finding my own way. I think for me, it’s just common sense that since I have always had difficulties with “regularity” cheese is something I should, not necessarily avoid altogether, but just limit it. Especially now with all this high protein stuff and not a lot of fiber (except apples) Gotta love those apples. Had 3 today and 6 of course on my cheese and apple day.

OK, report back tomorrow.

No “Chicken Day” . I weighed in at 127.2 this morning. So, I’m still in the safe zone. I thought I would be way better off than that after the crazy day of calorie burning and sweating my butt off at the concert and standing in line outside in the heat for so long. But, it’s probably offset by water retention as well.

I’ll be happy to get back to my normal routine for awhile where I have a completely controlled environmnet again to get back to my original weight. Gimme a week and I’ll be looking at 125 again easily. I already have my work outs pretty much mapped out for the time I am in town between now and Vegas.

Well here’s the situation.

I was up this morning on my travel scale to, I don’t know, 127.8? Yes, it was .2 pounds over the 2pound deal.

I didn’t want to do a chicken day and I’m not.

What I did was I immediatlely went for a walk. I have the day to myself today so I can eat what I want and I just went grocery shopping last night so I have a lot of good choices.

I told myself if I come back and I don’t lose at least 1 pound on this walk then I have to do the chicken day.

I came back weighing 126.6 … so that was down 1.2 pounds from before.

The thing is, we got home so late last night, went grocery shopping so late, and hence ate so late. Then I had to get up earlier than usual to take Krissy to work. So, it just all was not set up for me to really digest the food in time to have a reasonable weigh in.

So, I burned a bunch of calories. I just now had a big breakfast of left over salmon, asparagus, a grapefruit, and apple, 2 slices Turkey Bacon, a handful of nuts, and 1 egg. I know … it’s a lot. But, I will probably only get to eat once more today in all reality before the concert tonight.

And then I’ll be jumping up and down acting crazy at the concert so I will definately burn some more calories there.

I’m getting ready to walk to starbucks too, to get a venti coffee.

I feel like I will nip this weight thing today. I plan to drink lots and lots of water too.

I hope I can stay down in the morning.

I should be able to. I am burning some serious calories today. It’s still only 12:35 PM here and my calorie count is already up to 1694 and I’m getting ready to go take another walk to Starbucks, so I should be well over 2700 or so for the whole day if not more.