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.