HCG Day 20, 21, and 22

Wow, what a busy week! Sorry for the delays in writing.

I'm currently stalled on my weight loss so I'm just hanging in there, getting in as much water as I can and taking my protein in the form of powder with soups. It's so cold out (brr!) that I really don't mind the hot meals.

Last night I made my tomato and basil soup in advance, brought in my protein powder to work, heated up the soup in the microwave then added the powder. Delicious! I should do that more often. ^_^ I had it with a handful of strawberries and a breadstick.

I'm wearing more jeans than I could before. I'm not quite to wearing EVERYTHING I own yet, but I have an "almost" pile. I definitely look different, especially from the side. My profile is so much leaner, clothes that were previously tight on me are now very loose and I have two pairs of jeans I can take off without unbuttoning. :D

Tonight is Indian style soup with tomatoes and the protein powder. Not sure what my fruit will be just yet, but thinking a grapefruit would be lovely.

Current weight: 130
Goal weight: 120

HCG Day 19

Another pound bites the dust! :D

Just 10 more to go...

Breakfast: detox tea with stevia

Lunch: meatless soy crumbles, cucumber and dill salad, 1 handful strawberries, 1 breadstick

Snack: Melba toast

Dinner: tomato and basil soup (with a liiiittle too much red pepper, oh dear) with protein powder, 1/2 grapefruit

Current weight: 130
Goal weight: 120

HCG Day 17 & 18

Did an apple day yesterday as I had some bloating going on--which I should've recognized as a symptom of mild dehydration but didn't, and found myself paying the price for not having had enough water the day prior. Got VERY sick, went away with fluids and lots of rest. But I persevered! I'm now down another pound and feeling much better.

Please please please learn from me: you need a LOT of water on this diet, and I naturally need a lot of water to begin with. I'm okay now, didn't need a hospital trip or anything. But you need fluids, lots of them, especially if you go for long walks like I did yesterday and out dancing like I did the night before.

Breakfast: detox tea with stevia

Lunch: 1 serving steamed tofu with onion, garlic, and ginger with Bragg's liquid aminos, cucumber and dill salad, 1 handful strawberries.

Snack: 1 Grissini breadstick

Dinner: tomato basil & protein soup, 1/2 grapefruit, lemonade made with stevia and juice of one lemon.

Snack: 1 melba toast

Current weight: 131
Goal weight: 120

HCG Day 16

Down a whole pound! YES!

I even tried on some jeans I haven't been able to wear in years. They fit.

I'm so happy I'm crying. ^_^;;

Breakfast: Detox tea with vanilla stevia

Lunch: 1 serving lite silken tofu with 1 serving with kale, steamed with ginger, garlic, onion, and Bragg's liquid aminos, 1 handful of strawberries with chocolate stevia

Snack: breadstick

Dinner: soup made with water, basil, onion, garlic, oregano and a dash of paprika with the protein powder, asparagus cooked in red wine vinegar, garlic, oregano, and basil, 1 orange.

Snack: 1 melba toast

Current weight: 132

Goal weight: 120

HCG Day 15

Down another .5 pound! I can't wait until my TOM is over, lalala...

Oh I know. I'm being impatient. Where else can I lose half a pound a day and I'm COMPLAINING! I will hush, and continue my good work.

Breakfast: detox tea with stevia

Lunch: 1 Boca burger with spicy brown mustard, cucumber and dill salad, 1 handful of strawberries, one melba toast.

Dinner: I went Indian this time! Red curry, cumin, corriander, ginger, garlic, and onion with tomatoes, cooked as a soup with the Garden of Life protein added after. Yum. 1/2 grapefruit, homemade lemonade with stevia, 1 breadstick.

Going out dancing tonight! Yay.

Current weight: 133
Goal weight: 120

HCG Day 14

The weight loss has definitely slowed down, but I'm not officially over with that whole female monthly thing yet, either. Hoping once I am there'll be a nice drop!

I am drinking a ton of water, but with allergy season upon us I need to drink even more. That might also help! ^_^

Breakfast: detox tea with stevia

Lunch: 1 serving meatless crumbles, cucumber and dill salad, 1 handful strawberries, melba toast

Dinner: the usual tomato and basil, but I added some oregano and red pepper flakes for a bit of a kick! 1/2 grapefruit, lemonade with juice from one lemon, lemon stevia, and reg stevia. And oh, a breadstick.

Current weight: 133.5
Goal weight: 120

HCG Day 12 & 13

Still fighting through the plateau. I hear this is common for women during TOM. But I'm impatient, so I went for another apple day yesterday.

And eureka! Another pound gone. :D

Breakfast: detox tea with stevia

Lunch: 1 Gardein chik'n scallopini, diced cucumbers with dill, garlic, and onion powder, a handful of strawberries.

Snack: 1 breadstick

Dinner: tomato and basil soup with Garden of Life protein, 1/2 grapefruit, 1 breadstick.

Current weight: 134
Goal weight: 120

HCG day 11

Stalled again. :( Given it's that TOM, I shouldn't be surprised. Also I don't think I drank enough water today, and well...things just aren't moving as they should. So I'm going to drink far more water today, take in as much in the way of liquid as possible, and eat vegetables like cucumbers.

I've also decided that when I'm done with the HCG diet, I'd like to experiment with raw veganism. I'd probably never be fully raw but I think it'd be healthier for me. Plus I have a juicer. ^_^

I'm already down 15 pounds. I can do this!

Breakfast: Smooth Move tea with vanilla stevia

Lunch: 1 apple and celery in a juicer with ginger and Garden of Life raw protein

Snack: 1 melba toast

Dinner: 1 orange, 1 bag of spinach, 1 lemon in a juicer with ginger and Garden of Life raw protein

Snack: 1 breadstick

Next time I leave out the lemon. It's just that the one orange and the spinach didn't yield enough juice! So I added stevia and chugged. Live and learn...

Current weight: 135
Goal weight: 120

HCG Day 10

Down another pound and a half, and all of 15 more to go! :D

Breakfast: detox tea with vanilla stevia

Snack: 1 Grissini breadstick

Lunch: tomato and basil soup with natural vegan protein powder, but no broth this time--made my own! Brought strawberries over to a BBQ event for my fruit.

Dinner: 1 veg burger, and grilled asparagus with red wine vinegar, garlic, onion, and oregano. Best ever!
Dessert was my baked apple with cinnamon and stevia.

I succeeded in going to a BBQ event and STAYED ON TRACK! :D

Current Weight: 135
Goal Weight: 120

THIS IS NOT AN ANOREXIA BLOG!

I am painfully aware that I must be a responsible individual, and hence am including this warning/advice for those reading this blog and wondering how to get the results I am getting.

I don't want people trying this VLCD (very low calorie diet) without doing it on the HCG program, either taking the injection or the drops, homeopathic or not. IT WILL NOT WORK. You will put your body into starvation mode, your health will suffer, and any attempt to eat more will cause the weight to gain back and then some.

Please believe and listen to me! I'm not a stranger to fitness or nutrition. I work out heavily (P90X grad!), I know what works and what doesn't. When I was inactive and ate less than 1,000 calories a day I weighed more than when I was working out and eating 1400-1600 calories per day.

Also, I don't recommend this diet for anyone only looking to lose 5-10 pounds. This is a good diet if you have 20 or more to lose, HAVE tried conventional methods and know in your gut that something just isn't right and you need a detox. This may look like a quick fix, but not if you intend to go back to eating fast food, fried food, and very little in the way of fruits and vegetables.

I have had people laugh at me being vegan, having some not-strictly-protocol foods and claim that this diet won't work for me and I'll gain it all back--and why don't I just eat meat like a normal person. o_O Yes, I'm sure if I went to couch-and-eating like many people of this culture it wouldn't. I'm not sedentary. I work out 6-7 days a week doing HIIT training, regular cardio (running, elliptical, etc), strength training, and yoga. I also know how to acclimate one's diet carefully once you're at your goal weight so you don't gain it back and you're sure that your metabolic rate can handle it. And the only way to do that? Exercise.

So, in short...I won't be sitting on my butt eating bon-bons after this diet. ^_^ I'm sure for a lot of you that would be your dream! But it's an unrealistic dream. Even if you try this diet, please please please...eat a clean diet and start exercising. And if you don't believe me nor know where to begin, please watch this movie: http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com

Thank you for listening. ^_^ If I sounded harsh, I'm sorry. This is me being fiercely compassionate! I'm only deathly afraid that desperate teens and other well-intentioned but uninformed souls will stumble into here and think that starving themselves is the answer to a perfect body. It isn't. Please, take good care of your body. You only get one per lifetime....

HCG day 8 and 9

I stalled yesterday, no weight loss. So I decided to go for an apple day! I eat 6 large apples from lunch to lunch of the next day. So rather than write up yesterday as a boring post of "here's all the times I ate baked apples with cinammon and stevia", I'd combine the day's posts.

The stall could've been something I ate, but I'm more inclined to say that since I started this when I did and I'm due in a few days, it's undoubtedly water retention. I will keep a close eye on my meals, however.

Today's lunch consists of two apples cooked in the microwave with cinnamon and stevia. Now, I'm sure some of you are reading this and thinking, "Why not eat them raw??" Well, the answer is two-fold: 1) they taste better cooked and 2) I have a raw fruit allergy. So this works for me, and I think the cinnamon is a good spice to have to aid digestion anyhow, so no worries there!

And...it worked! Happy to say that I've down another 2.5 pounds today! :D

Breakfast: water

Lunch: those two delicious apples with cinnamon and stevia

Dinner: The remaining meatless crumbles with the tomato-basil salad, tossed into a wok and cooked with a bit of extra spices, a melba toast crumbled on top, 1/2 grapefruit.

Snack: chai with vanilla stevia and 1 TBL unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Current weight: 136.5
Goal weight: 120

HCG day 7!

Down another pound! woooo And new numbers! I love it when I see the new numbers. ^_^ That's 6 total since the third day. :D

Breakfast: detox tea with stevia

Lunch: meatless crumbles with the tomato and basil salad, 1 handful strawberries

Snack: 2 grissini breadsticks

Dinner: I tried a different soup this time: "no-chicken" broth, some onion powder, onion flakes, rosemary, garlic, basil with the protein powder. Delicious! :D Also had baked kale with garlic and Bragg's Liquid Aminos, 1 apple baked in microwave with vanilla flavored stevia and cinnamon, and lemonade made from the juice of one lemon, lemon stevia, and water.

Current Weight: 139
Goal Weight: 120

Finding time for mindfulness

I live a really busy life and have found it sometimes hard to maintain that very special mindset, especially with a busy career.  Some people take walks during lunch, others keep reminders by them on their desks, others are lucky to live lives where their jobs are more in keeping with their spiritual lifestyle.

Maybe it's the constant "always on the computer" thing, which encourages multitasking. And reminds you of either work or socializing--neither of which are conducive to actually being chill and observing the rest of the world around you, or allowing  yourself time to introspect.

I am trying to find ways to incorporate mindfulness every day. I meditate before I go to bed. I have regular rituals I do weekly, monthly--or as occasion calls for it.

But it's not easy! I'm looking for more ways. Perhaps in looking I will become more mindful without the effort of doing so. ^_^