Another Year, another diet?

Well, 2011 was a pistol. After all of those rounds of hCG, I've regained much of the weight. Clearly, the diet works, but what doesn't work is my ability to do "maintenance". Add to that, Walt (my husband) has had a year of dealing with atrial fibrillation, culminating in cardioablation  surgery at the end of November. The poor guy has been too exhausted to exercise or care for several months and only now is beginning to return to some semblance of himself. He's regained all of the weight he lost last year and in 2009. So we are looking for a better way. I've told him that whatever he comes up with, diet or exercise, I am going to support. I love him and I want him around for a long time, and any movement he is willing to make in the direction of taking better care of himself is great.
I think that this year was a year of real learning for us... about how much we love each other, about how much God loves us, and about the necessity for discipline in every part of our lives - but especially in how we take care of ourselves. Discipline has always been an issue...and I'm really believing that if we can get it  right here, the result will be seen in every other part of our lives. I'm willing to be teachable and to look at everything again with fresh eyes.

Rather than weight loss, we will be focusing on health this year, and I believe that if we just do that, weight loss will follow. We just got a great deal on a used bike from a friend, and we're reading several books and lots of research on nutrition (which we thought we knew something about -and maybe we do know a little - but there's always more to learn).

Meantime, it's almost Christmas, and we need to be fed spiritually as well. We are looking forward to celebrating the birth of Christ and the incredible gift of salvation over the next few days. May your Christmas be blessed, bright, beautiful and merry!

mmmm...steak! again!

Yesterday was a "steak day". I had put on more than two pounds since my last hCG day, so I took Dr. Simeons' prescription. Nothing but pure water till dinner time, then wolf down (believe me that is the appropriate terminology for what happens next) the biggest juiciest steak you can find. In my case, that was two New York strip steaks, because that's what the grocer had on sale. So how is it possible that I ate a pound of beef and lost three pounds? I still don't get it, but I like it. I'm back on track - just 6/10ths of a pound over my ending weight and a total loss of 24 pounds since the first of the year, but really only "dieting" for 9 weeks total during that time.
You might remember that we discovered a couple of months ago that our scale wasn't working properly, which is crazy-making on a diet like this when you are supposed to weigh in every day, especially during the re-set phase (3). I went on line and did a bit of research and turned up this little beauty. It got great reviews from tons of customers (haha). Seriously - at the time I purchased it, there were 702 reviews, all positive. It really has lived up to its reputation as an inexpensive, good looking and extremely functional piece of technology, and something an hCG dieter can't live without - a bathroom scale that works!

Water Works

There's so much to learn on this hCG diet. I thought that the second phase would be pretty much the same this round as the last time, but wow, was I wrong. This time I found I am able to eat much less cheese, need more animal protein, and need to drink a lot more water in order to maintain my ending weight. It seems the body can retain water in a sort of "water starvation" mode if I'm not getting enough, just like it slows down my metabolism and holds on to fat stores when I don't eat enough. Our bodies so are cleverly designed to ensure our survival.
We did make another exciting discovery these past few weeks and that it this - our bathroom scale sucks. I have my eye on a little beauty over at Amazon which I will share with you once I know that it really is as good as they say it is. Meantime, Happy Easter! We have something extra to celebrate and be thankful for, besides the amazing and glorious resurrection of Christ (as if that were not enough!). Today is the first day of full-on maintenance which means we get a piece of 100% rye toast with breakfast - the first carbohydrate in three weeks.

Winding Down

Weight loss 21.2 lbs


Today is the last day of round 2 of the hCG diet, and I am getting hungry as the hormone is leaving my body. Total weight loss is now 21.2 lbs. I did average about 1/2 pound per day again, but had such a food orgy during the loading phase this time that I had to first lose all of the weight I gained doing that. It is amazing how much weight I was able to put on in 48 hours - about six pounds. I've learned a couple of things this round, and not going beyond 3500 calories on a loading day is one of them. The other has to do with developing an immunity to hCG. Dr. Simeons indicated in his manuscript that we do develop immunity to hCG - hence the 23 day cycle, and if we go longer, we have to take one day a week off from injecting or ingesting it to stave off immunity, while still maintaining the 500 calorie a day diet. This time around I had no hunger at all until about the 10th day and then suddenly - there it was. It occurred to me that its likely immunity wouldn't develop all at once but gradually over time. Then when we enter the resetting/resting phase we just as gradually become re-sensitized to the hormone. So it makes sense to start each round at the lowest possible dose at which we don't feel hungry and then gradually increase the dosage each time we experience hunger for a couple of consecutive days, of course staying within the 125-200 mg recommended range. This seem like such a "duh" to me now, but I really didn't get it until a couple of days ago. It baffled me that I started out with no hunger and then became hungry a week and a half in. I plan to test my theory the next round, which, if all goes well will begin on May 2nd. I'll start at 125 mg and increase if/when hunger sets in and stays. Tomorrow begins the 3 week hypothalamus reset - the "fun" phase complete with eggs, cream and all sorts of other goodies - but no sugar or starchy carbohydrates. I'll be getting out the measuring tape, too, to see how many inches I lost. I think I've finally started losing girth in my thighs, which were impervious the last time. I did have to put almost all of my pants in the donation bag and purchase three pairs at resale to get me through till weight loss resumes again. A problem I didn't mind having at all!

Weight loss 16.2 lbs and counting

I hit a milestone the other day. For the past several years, every time I have dieted, been careful, "watched my weight" etc., I have not been able to get down below 150 lbs. It was both a real and a psychological barrier for me. I had secretly come to believe it was a threshold my body just wasn't going to cross, ever again. That perhaps I was the only person in the world whose weird body would not respond properly to the hCG diet and  I would be forever stuck in my chubby pants. The doctor's manuscript even addresses these plateaus - they do happen - but assured me that eventually I would break through. It took an entire nine days, but on Thursday, I cleared 150, and I lost nearly another pound since then.

It is strange going to a restaurant and drinking coffee or tea and watching your friends eat. This has happened several times during the weight loss phases. I think they are more uncomfortable about it than we are though - for the most part, I am still not hungry most of the time.
One thing that is very strange is the way I am losing. During the last round, there were a couple of days when, despite still having quite a bit of padding everywhere else, my right ribs became very distinct. Not my left ribs, just the right ones. After a few days, they evened out, and I would up with a three inch loss around the waist. This time, I have a small but distinct crease in my lower right abdomen. It really looks funny. If there is a pattern here, my belly should be flatter in a few days. Now for those hips and thighs!

So far...

Six days in, four days on VLCD. So far so good. I haven't been very hungry, nor have I had a detox reaction like I did the last time around. My brain is a little fuzzy at times, though. Walt is going for 23 days, and I've pretty much given up the idea of doing a 40 day round, thinking that it will be much easier for both of us if we are in the same phase of the diet as we go through this. At some point Walt will have to go on alone, as he has more total weight to lose. but I'm not sure where that will occur since he also, because he is a guy, loses it more quickly than I do. This of course falls into the not fair category, but it is what it is. In looking at the calendar and our upcoming travel plans, it also will work out pretty well doing it this way.

I made a mistake this morning, which turned out to be a nice discovery. I thought I was adding Vanilla Creme stevia to our morning coffee, and I added Apricot Nectar instead. I would not think this would be a winning combination, but it is. We had already been adding the Apricot Nectar to a cup of English Breakfast tea as a nice nightcap or afternoon pick me up - it's yummy and dessert-like, especially paired with some fruit. Now we will be adding it to coffee too. Who knew?

This time around I am really surprised by how little hunger I am experiencing. It wasn't severe last time around but this time seems to be even better. I hope I am not going to regret saying this out loud in the near future. So far ...

Round Two

Yes it has been a long time since I have posted here, and I do feel a little guilty about it. February was a tough month at the Broadbents. Besides the ice and snow, there was a virus, followed (for Walt) by the flu, for goodness sake. There were also business challenges, spiritual crises, and all sorts of human hi-jinks, some of which continue to baffle. Everything conspired to delay, among other things, the start of our second round on the hCG diet, but we finally got off to a great start today following two days of loading.

I learned some interesting things about food and the changes that are supposed to occur during the post-VCL (very low calorie) phase during this hiatus. After three weeks of no carbs, we were allowed to start adding them back in, a half cup at a time, with a daily weigh-in to make sure they were being tolerated and not adding back unwanted pounds. I started with a little oatmeal, then progressed to brown rice and Trader Joe's 100% rye bread. I also tried a bit of chocolate and a couple of brownies and I discovered that I really don't crave carbs and sugar the way I used to. I enjoyed the whole grains but the white stuff & sugar literally nauseated me.
The other thing that has changed is that I can consume a lot of fat and not gain an ounce - as long as I am avoiding junk food carbs. I consumed olives, cheeses, olive oil, organic half and half, eggs, uncured bacon, peanut butter, salmon, and steak with no weight gain, and felt good while I was doing it. So from my highly subjective point of view, the diet does what it claims, which is reset the hypothalamus, and consequently, the way the body handles metabolism and fat storage. Yippee is all I have to say about that.
Loading was a challenge again, with the second day of high calories being more difficult than the first, but now we are past that and on 500 calories a day again. I can't wait to get into my skinny jeans!
During the flu when he was too sick to do anything else, Walt was watching day time TV and Dr. Oz had a show about this diet. His conclusion - the diet has merit and deserves further study. We're going mainstream, baby.

mmmm...steak!

We went to our National TEAM Convention last weekend at Nationwide Arena in Columbus - a wonderful weekend of learning and hanging around with great people - but also a weekend of stadium food and sleep deprivation. It was a bit challenging finding the right stuff to eat, both in and out of the arena. We were fortunate to have a great grilled burger stand and a Tim Horton's coffee shop right near our seats, so we drank a lot of coffee and ate some fabulous cheeseburgers (minus the bun). The late hours and odd mealtimes took a toll though, and when I got home I discovered I had gone more than two pounds over my ending weight from my first round of weight loss. Time for what Dr. Simeons called "a steak day" in which you are admonished to fast on water until dinner time and then down the biggest steak you can find, followed, perhaps, by an apple. It sounds crazy, but I thought it was worth a try - what's the worst that could happen? I'd have a great steak and no weight loss. So off I went to the grocery store - and I had to go anyway, with a huge winter storm brewing and an empty refrigerator - and came back with $16 worth of Black Angus porterhouse steak. I honestly don't know what the thing weighed (forgot to look) but I'm sure its the biggest steak I've ever eaten on my own. I managed to make it till about 4:45 before I ate it - devoured it like a snarling animal is more like it - and followed it up with two very small apples in the evening. And lo and behold, when I got on the scale Tuesday morning, I was two pounds lighter! I've managed to stay within the two pound buffer range for the rest of this week. It's pretty cool - I'm learning what I can eat, how much, and when. Late night snacking is definitely out, and if I do have a little nosh after dinner and before bed, I'm finding that fruit, or fruit and a little lean protein is my best bet for not adding weight. I can have a pretty substantial breakfast, and lunch, or smaller meals interspersed with snacks, but dinner needs to be lighter with more emphasis on vegetables than protein and fat. I can also eat nuts. Right now I have cashews and almonds in the fridge, but Walt only has to look at a nut and he puts on weight. Funny how we are so different. I like it that this diet is designed so that I not only lost weight but if I pay attention, I'm learning a lot about my relationship to food, which is just as important in the big picture. Once I get it off, I want to keep it off!

Cream in my coffee again!

Weight 150.2
Inches lost 9

Today is the first day of the next, three week phase of the hCG diet. I'm supposed to maintain this 14.4 pound weight loss for the next three weeks, with a 2 pound buffer, and then embark on the next (and hopefully final) round of the Very Low Calorie Diet, coupled with hCG. When I took out the tape measure this morning, I wasn't sure what I would find. It was interesting - there are places that I have not lost anything at all, like my thighs and my arms, and other places where the inches lost is significant (calves?!). The biggest loss was around my waist - three full inches in a month, and that without doing any exercises specifically targeted to the area!
I had fun shopping at Trader Joe's yesterday, buying things that we have not had in the pantry or refrigerator in quite a while, like extra virgin olive oil and a wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. It's a little scary making this transition. The losing phase is so regimented, it's very clear when you are off track, and meals are so simple that planning and clean-up are very easy. This phase really does not have the same kind of limits so there's more discretion required. The only real limit is no sugar and no starchy carbohydrates. This morning I made a pot of freshly ground French Roast coffee and when I poured my cup, I put in a splash of organic half and half. Then came one of the things I have missed the most, a triple shot of MonaVie Pulse, Active and (m) Mun. Breakfast was an organic egg omelette with peppers, a little bit of Italian sausage and a sprinkling of the aforementioned Parmigiano Reggiano.

Perhaps even better than the food was putting a medicated, heavy duty moisturizer on my skin, and my regular facial moisturizer and eye cream. Now I'm going to do a light work out, and put on real makeup. Life is good.

Chicken & Spinach Soup

Weight 152.0

Winding down - today was the last day of injecting hCG for a while. My weight has been hovering the last few days between 151.6 and 152.2. I'm hoping to shed another pound or two in the next couple of days, as I continue to eat the VLCD until the hCG has left my system. I'm glad to say good-bye to the needles for the next three weeks. According to Dr. Simeons this next phase, where we re-introduce healthy fats and continue to avoid all starchy carbs and sugars, is just as important as the weight loss phase. Come Tuesday morning, there will be organic cream in my coffee and organic eggs on my plate, and I can hardly wait. I've learned that being hungry won't kill me. I've also learned to savor my food, and I've got a new healthy favorite - chicken and spinach soup, Since I've been shopping at Trader Joe's a lot, most of the ingredients come from there, but you could get the equivalent anywhere.

Here it is: Steam an entire bag of organic baby spinach and add it to1 cup fat free, free-range chicken broth, 3 oz chopped cooked chicken breast, and the following to taste: Himalayan salt, fresh cracked black pepper, parsley flakes, minced onion, and garlic powder. Chop up the spinach further with kitchen shears, and gently heat until it's the perfect soothing temperature. Mmmm, so good on these single digit January days we're enjoying.

Strawberry Smoothie

Weight 153.0

I am holding steady at 153.0 - this seems to be another natural plateau. On other diets, I used to plateau, sometimes for weeks at a time, so a few days is OK with me, now that I know from experience that I will start losing weight again. My hope is to get below 150 by the time this round ends a week from tomorrow. I have not been able to crack 150 for years (decades?) despite trying other programs and diets. That number is a bit of a bogey for me. If I can get to 149 or below, then I know I can continue to lose until my body says "enough". Walt continues to roll blithely along with a 20 pound weight loss in 18 days.

One of the best discoveries I've made on this diet is Sweet Leaf Flavored Liquid Stevia. I'm planning to go right on using it after this diet is completed. It comes in so many yummy flavors (there's a plain version too) like Root Beer, Chocolate Raspberry, English Toffee, and Apricot Nectar. Two of my favorites are Lemon Drop (great in a can of LaCroix Lemon sparkling water), and Vanilla Creme, (to sweeten a cup of Earl Grey). I've also been using the Vanilla Creme to make a strawberry smoothie. I think this would be a treat even if it didn't come at the end of a day of VLCD: 20 small to medium sized strawberries, a handful of ice cubes, 20-25 drops of Vanilla Creme Sweet Leaf Liquid Stevia. Crush the ice and puree the strawberries in the blender, and add the Stevia to taste. Sip or eat the semi frozen treat with a spoon. Mmmm....

Back on Track

Weight 154.8


The "stall" appears not to have been a stall at all - lost 2.2 pounds when I got on the scale this morning. I noticed that my output of liquid was significantly increased from the past four days when nothing appeared to be happening. I ate some of the things that may cause a problem yesterday, and still the numbers on the scale went down. This is great news for me - it appears I can eat any of the foods on the list and still lose - but it's not going to be consistent every day. I'm glad - I like strawberries, oranges and shrimp, and didn't really want to have to eliminate them. Making it through this first plateau will (hopefully) make it easier when the next one hits. It's amazing to me that I have lost 10 pounds in 11 days. This diet is not for the faint hearted - too much discipline and thought involved. It's kind of like ripping a bandage off fast - it doesn't feel great when you're doing it, but them it's over. I like the idea that I'm not going to be doing this for the next year to get the weight off! I can do anything for 26 days at a time... or maybe 40 days next round - we'll see how much I lose by the end of this one. Only 13 days to go, and then I can put cream in my coffee, yumm.


By the way, the Himalayan crystal salt rocks. Not only is it pretty in pink, but all of our muscle cramps are gone, just from the little bit that goes on our food. I love this stuff!

Stalled

Weight 157.0

I'm "stalled" at 157.0, .4 higher than my lowest weight so far, 156.6 on Saturday morning. I spent yesterday being very very good, and registered a loss of two 10ths of a pound this morning. Meantime Walt goes on losing between one and four pounds a day (isn't that just like a guy), with only one day of slight gain - Sunday morning, when we both went up.  I think the gain was due to our inability to eat at the right times on Saturday. We had our monthly TEAM seminar, and the demands of the schedule found us both eating our last meal in the car on the way home at 11:00 pm. We didn't drink much water that day, or on Sunday for that matter, another day that found us running around like the proverbial headless chicken. That reminded me of Mike the Headless Chicken, who lived a long time after his attempted murder. I digress.

Anyway, yesterday I read up on all of the things that can cause an actual stall, as opposed to an apparent stall which is really just the body breaking down fat and the fat support system (capillaries and other goo) and holding on to water until it's ready to flush it all out. I was scrupulous. I had fish for lunch instead of shrimp, grapefruit instead of oranges or strawberries, used only liquid stevia, had spinach and cauliflower instead of cabbage, and drank lots of water, all things reported to help end a real stall. I'm not sure if I'm back in the losing mode - .2 pounds could just be a fluctuation. Tomorrow will tell.

Learning How to Use a Scale

Weight 158.4

Small drop in weight today - only .2 lbs., but I understand from my friends who have gone before me that this is normal. It's not unusual, they tell me, to go for a couple of days without a loss and then suddenly be  a few pounds lighter on the third or fourth day. We had fun and games with the bathroom scale this morning - discovered that it matters where you put it - all four feet have to be firmly anchored on a tile to register a consistent weight.  Not rocket science exactly but a revelation when you are stumbling around in the morning half asleep. I feel good this morning. Still a little sleep deprived, but not hungry, no significant aches, kind of light and clean. Nice. Walt and I are thinking we will try the Miracle Noodles tonight.

Himalayan Salt

Weight 158.6

Six pounds lost in 4 days of VLCD - today is day 5! This diet is a mind game. I was in Staples yesterday buying a new mileage book, and realized I was surrounded by candy. It was calling to me! I heard it!
On Lynn's recommendation I'm going to buy some Himalayan salt today. Walt and I have both been having some muscle cramps, so some minerals are in order - just not sure which ones. Cramps usually mean calcium is low, but with this diet, I've read that there can also be a potassium deficiency. Although it does not really come from the Himalaya's (it's supposedly mined in Pakistan, which is near the Himalaya's) it contains between 10 - 84  trace minerals (depending on who you ask) in addition to sodium chloride (commonly called "salt") Perhaps its most endearing quality is that it's pink. It has not been refined, or adulterated with anything else after it comes out of the ground. I can get on board with pink salt if it's also good for me.

Here's a link to Dr. Mercola interviewing an expert on Himalyan salt.

Detox

Weight 160.6

Total 4 pounds lost since Sunday. Yesterday I weighed 160.2, and I don't know if I have a lousy scale, if the veggies I ate last night after dinner pushed me over 500 calories, or if it's something else that made my weight go up .4 pounds. I'll take the 4 pound weight loss, though! I've increased my dose to 150iu yesterday and I am less hungry. My fat is getting wiggly and jiggly, which means it is being mobilized. This is a good thing. Yesterday was a nasty day of detox - and I'm not surprised since I really was pretty self-indulgent over the holidays. I'm sure my body didn't like the key lime cheesecake or the English trifle, and I paid the price over the past few days, with nausea, headaches, chills, body aches and fatigue. The good news is today I am much more alert today, no nausea, and most of the aches and stiffness gone. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the worst of the detox process is over. I got really brave and injected myself in the gluteals, gluteus medius, I beleive. A full length mirror is a must for shooting up in the, um, derriere.

Losing

Weight 162.0
I lost 2.6 pounds since yesterday! Oh, I think I'm going to like this. I ate one of my fruit servings plus a cup of black coffee with stevia before I left the house this morning and I felt much better this morning. I think spacing my food out during the day will work. For lunch I had a grissini, poached tilapia and an entire bag of organic spinach, lightly steamed and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and bit of dried orange peel. Yummy, and I'm not hungry. Walt bumped his dose up a bit this morning - to 150iu.

Last night I felt very cold, but today I feel much better. Yesterday's fatigue and detox headache are gone. I drank a glass of water with the juice of half a lemon, a detox trick I picked up somewhere along the way, and I think it helped. The only odd thing I am noticing today is some intermittent muscle cramping, mostly in my legs and gluteals. Perusing the diets forums reveals that this is not unusual and probably related to an electrolyte imbalance (maybe low potassium). The folks out there selling the sublingual form of hCG have lots to say about it, trying to convince potential dieters that their drops are better than shots, and won't result in leg cramps. I'm committed to stay the course with the shots and so far the cramps are very tolerable. No unsightly lumps and bumps either, which the drop promoters also warn about. Time will tell, but one thing I really hate is when people bad mouth any product in order to sell their own. We get that in our business frequently and it sucks, plus it makes the person doing it look cheesy. So there.

Diet Day One

Starting weight: 164.7

Today was the first day of the very low calorie diet (VLCD). Yesterday was our second load day of 3500 plus calories. I thought it would be fun, but the hCG must have already been taking effect - or maybe it was purely psychological - but eating a lot of fatty food was actually quite a challenge. Load Day 2 included a breakfast of an egg, fried potatoes, a big fat Italian sausage, and toast with peanut butter and marmalade for breakfast, pasta and sausage in red sauce for lunch and a big fat steak, baked potato and sour cream, salad and a whipped cream and Nutella concoction for dinner. I waddled off to bed, and got up this morning to a breakfast of black coffee and a nice shot of hCG. It was easier to give myself the injection today. I didn't have to wait for Walt to take the lead - I just sucked it up and did it.
Here's what I've noticed so far: I seem to be having a bit of a histamine reaction at my injection sites - just a little redness and itching that goes away in an hour or so. A little research indicates this is pretty common and nothing to worry about. There is a lot of liquid (mostly water) going in - I'm really thirsty - and a lot of liquid coming out. Walt and I were both a little grouchy today and had to make an effort not to be jerks with each other, and I have a mild detox headache. It was a little sad disposing of most of the contents of the fridge today - it looks so bare in there!
Today we discovered Bragg's Aminos, a healthy substitute for soy sauce and one of the mainstays of the hCG diet. We sauteed (well sort of) our 100 gram chicken portions and fresh organic broccoli in a mixture of low sodium organic chicken broth, Bragg's Aminos, minced garlic and fresh ginger for dinner. The broccoli was crisp, the chicken tender, and the whole dish delicious - no deprivation there. I would make this again, even if we were not on this diet.
I waited until lunchtime to eat today, but I think I am going to have to eat one of my servings of fruit in the morning, because I got a little woozy during church, and it felt like low blood sugar to me. In addition to the aforementioned chicken dish, today's festivities also included an apple, two grissini (the teensiest Italian breadsticks I have ever seen - almost not worth eating) eight succulent shrimp, and a raw cabbage salad with a balsamic vinegar dressing. I'm about to eat half a grapefruit and then it's off to bed, to blissful, though frequently interrupted by bathroom breaks, sleep.