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.