VLCD Day 10, 157.4 (-0.6) TWL 7.8lbs

I am officially back! I have now actually lost the weight I gained and more, since my 'pre stall-diet-panic'.

I'm happy. I will begin the shots again tomorrow after 3 full days without them and continue on this diet. I have to be honest and say that yesterday I did increase the calories a little. I think I ate about 650 cals. Still, it didn't seem to hinder anything. I will try and stick to the 500 today, but if I go over a little I wont beat myself up.

Tomorrow when the shots start back up I'm religiously back to the 500 cals again. Hoping I can get on track and potentially still get to the mid-high 140's before I go off the diet for a 6 week break. (We have a family gathering here in late February). Here's hoping!

I have a lot of things to get done today, and will hopefully fit a trip to the beach in before the day is over. My husband and 6 year old and our puppy went fishing at the ungodly hour of 7am (on a Sunday!) today, which left me with an awesome 9:40am sleep in time. Silence engulfed the house, this is usually unheard of. It was heaven!

Hope everyone is having a successful weekend.

VLCD Day 9, 158.0 (-0.8) TWL 7.2lbs

Well this is getting better! This is what I want to see! I guess I am getting back on track and if I can continue to see losses (no matter how small) I can continue to be motivated and work this thing! I am still not taking the shots and will probably do this for 3 days after reading all comments on this subject (which will be tomorrow) I will then begin shots again Sunday.

I wish everyone a happy weekend, its Saturday here and I need to get in my office and do some organizing. I will leave you with this picture taken at the beach near our house this morning - such a great day for a walk.

VLCD Day 8 158.8 (-.4) TWL 6.4lbs

TOM arrived! I have an erratic cycle so this can never be predicted for me. It explains EVERYTHING with regards to not losing any weight and I am so excited. I was really starting to think this diet was just not going to work for me at all. It's a big relief.

So does anyone have any suggestions with regard to injecting or not? I did not inject this morning, thought I might give it 2-3 days and then begin again (with no loading of course) and in the meantime continue the 500 cal diet. Anyone else have any experience with this?

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and suggestions. I was actually ready to give up on my injections and start the HHCG I had here in case as  Sunny and Caitlin suggested, there was something wrong with my batch of HCG. I think now I can be assured its all OK and in 5-6 days I can begin to see those losses again - hopefully even before that.

I will say that in my misery yesterday of thinking all was hopeless on the HCG, I ate one of the brownies that I was baking for my son for school - so I did have my first (and hopefully only) cheat.

Given that and the TOM arrival, I was happy with the (undeserved) .04lb loss I had. Hopefully I will soon be back on track.

Thanks again to Sunny and Caitlin and HCG Willpower for your amazing support!

Happy Dieting Everyone!

VLCD Day 7 159.2 (+1.0) TWL 6.0lbs

Im pretty defeated.

It was a holiday yesterday with lots of good foods, wine, beer etc and I never deviated from my diet. Ate 100g of shrimp plus lettuce with lemon juice for lunch 100g beef for dinner with tomato. 1 grissini. I drank all my water. I am not mixing my vegetables and not cheating. I really dont know what else to do.

I assume my gain is water weight because I drank a ton yesterday and when I weighed in before bed last night I was 161.8 and was terrified I wouldn't lose all that overnight by peeing! I was right.

I am going to do an apple day today, just because Simeons stipulates this, but if this doesnt work, honestly I think I will be ready to give up. I have lost only 2lbs in a week (not counting the loading day weight) and I have been able to do that on my own before, without being hungry, just making good choices and exercising.

I wish I knew what was wrong.

I spent hours last night on other blogs reading through months and years of other peoples successes...and failures. I know there are a lot of people that stall, but, honestly from what I read a lot of people seem to cheat or not follow the protocol to the letter and then they stall, but within a day or two manage to lose it and then some. I haven't cheated at all! (except for my issues with the blueberries that was quickly remedied before I even ate 1/2 of it).

So rather than being inspired by other people I felt more ripped off! I felt like they got to cheat, pay a price and then continue the journey. I haven't cheated and yet I am going nowhere. I know this sounds like a real whine. I'm just disappointed. I wanted this diet to work for me.

Like I said, an apple day today, and we'll see what tomorrow brings. I do find inspiration in other peoples wins, so I hope you are all doing well so I can read your successes today. Good luck!

VLCD Day 6 158.2 (-0.0) TWL 7.0lbs

OK I admit it, I am very disappointed today again. Being hungry and missing out and seeming to get nowhere is pretty disheartening. However, I had some great comments from Caitlin and Hailey this morning that helped get me over the hump and I am determined to carry on. (thanks so much girls!)

I am home today - its Australia Day here, a big public holiday that encompasses cooking out, sunshine, beaches, and family and friends. I have prepared for the day by buying some delicious king prawns (shrimp) for myself so I don't feel deprived while everyone else eats up a storm. Thank god its an allowed food!

I will also carefully monitor my water and be sure I get it all in. I know the past two days I was below what I needed to be - not by a ton, but enough that (clearly) it mattered.

I still need to remember that as of today I am still at 1lb/day loss, which is great for any other diet. If I don't lose SOMETHING by tomorrow I'm going to go ahead and do an apple day so I cant almost certainly lose the next day and will stay motivated. I have a plan.

Thanks again for all your encouragement!

VLCD Day 5 152.8 (-0.0) TWL 7.0lbs

Grrr... this does NOT make me happy. I knew I was off by about 1/3 on my water yesterday but other than that I did everything right. Its pretty frustrating given I am STILL hungry. I have to say its a little disheartening.

Its 8:30 at night right now and I also drank less than I should have today and probably wont make it up. I have been doing a lot of running around and they days just get away from me. I'm not sure how to make the time to get more in.

Oh well, its a setback but its not as though I gained. I'm REALLY hoping tomorrow I get a decent loss or Im going to be pretty defeated. Here's hoping. Hope everyone else is doing better than me!

R1 VLCD Day 4 - 158.2 (-1.0) TWL -7.0lbs

Well this is definitely a smaller loss that I guess I can attribute to my screw up with the blueberries :( Gosh, 2 mouth fulls can have that much of an effect, huh?

I will keep on track today and hope for a larger loss tomorrow. Still I AM happy that it went down, and 7lbs of weight loss in 4 days of dieting is still more than I could ever have dreamed of in another life!

I'm off to decide what to cook for my meals today and get my son ready for a new year of school, as his summer holidays are over this week! Have a great day everyone.

Dinner

I have been eating my foods pretty plainly seasoned and baked or roasted with a green salad, tomato or vegetable of choice. Nothing too exciting.

Tonight I decided to "create" something from the array of weird things I had around! I made what I will call my "chunky chicken thai soup"

I put a cup of water in a pan with spices including lemongrass, ginger, onion flakes (dried), garlic and tumeric I then added the chicken pieces, topped it with a lid and cooked for about 10 mins. I then added Bok Choy (Chinese cabbage) and cooked for a few more minutes...and... not bad, not bad at all!

Don't get me wrong, if I went to my favourite Thai restaurant and they served this up, I wouldnt be happy! But for this diet, made quickly and with things I just had laying around. Pretty darn good.

I also weighed and separated my meats into little baggies for the week - something that I am sure will help when I am deciding what to eat. I have rations of shrimp, chicken, steak and fish, all ready to go. Yipee!

Todays Fruit Is...WRONG.

Ok, so you have heard me whine and complain about how hungry I am. I know a lot of it is emotional, but I have really been hungry. I think I may need to up my dose which I will do tomorrow, because I did cheat today - though it was by accident!

I was at the market yesterday and for some reason I thought blueberries were OK on the protocol so I brought a punnet. (Turns out I mixed up the strawberries and blueberries, I haven't bought any strawberries!)

In a fit of desperate need for sugar today I decided to add a bunch of them to a little water and sprinkle one 3g pack of stevia on that and boil it down to make what (would) be in a (good) life, a berry compote - something you would put on or drizzle over a cheesecake, french toast, pancakes or something similar. Normally you would add lots of sugar and some cornstarch to this to thicken it, but I just did the above and then added a teeny bit of lemon juice to it.

Here are some pictures of my experiment:

It was good.... like, REALLY good!

....And of course it was not allowed, which came to me after my second bite when my husband asked which fruits were allowed and I started to think... and couldnt remember, so I went to the protocol.

OH NO! So I couldnt finish it (so sad). But, my point is that it could be made with strawberries and it would be equally as good. So I intend to try that tomorrow, and in the meantime, pray, pray, pray that I dont gain from my screw up!

NB. My husband was more than happy to help me out and finish it - right in front of me! He told me that he would eat it in french toast or pancakes any day, he thought it was delicious and as good as any he had ever had.

R1 VLCD Day 3 - 159.2 (-1.6) TWL 6lbs

SO great! Averaged out thats 2lbs a day! I am hoping I can continue at least one pound a day for the next 7 days - after that I will be resigned to the .5 or .6 I hear about that seems to hit in the second week. I'm so excited and fascinated by this process!

I was unsure how my loss would be today because for the 3rd night in a row I have been unable to sleep. Lying wide awake at 2 and 3am. I wonder if anyone else has had this problem on HCG? It just seems weird I have had 5 injections and 3 nights of bad sleep.

I have been getting up at 6, so that's really not enough sleep for me and Im SO TIRED. Wonder if it would be OK to take a tylenol PM tonight? I know pounds and inches says only aspirin, but I really need some sleep!

I cant wait for one week to be up where I can compare my measurements along with the weight. I know I could do it now, but I want it to be spectacular so Im going to wait!

Its summer here right now and Sundays for our family always mean the beach! Im off to get some sand and sun, with a little better attitude that in a few weeks time I might actually look forward to being in a swim suit!

Hope everyone is having a great day, and thank you so much for your advise and support - its been invaluable!

R1 VLCD Day 2 - 160.8 - 2.4 (TWL-4.4)

Another great loss, 2.4 pounds is great! I am finally under my original start weight, thank goodness!

Thanks to 'The Incredible Shrinking Me' for responding to my hunger question, it feels better knowing it should subside, but I am disappointed I didn't have the 'no hunger' I kept hearing about! I will try the L-Glutamine powder you recommended. Thanks for the tip!

I'm still confused about the egg, my clinic says I can have egg, but others say only as an exception. Does anyone know why my clinic would say its OK to replace a protein with Egg white and 1/2 yolk? I guess Ill email and ask them.

An Addition To The Day

Its 5:45pm and I have already eaten my 500 cals for the day and I am HUNGRY! Im wondering if I am doing something wrong? I have heard from so many people that they aren't hungry on this diet, so I have to say Im a little disappointed.

Though I'm sure I will get though tonight ignoring the hunger pains, I am worried about my long term success. I'm assuming on day 10 when I'm still starving again by 6pm, there will be more chance that I will cheat. The idea of white-knuckling it for the next 4 weeks is not very appealing!

Does anyone have any suggestions for me as to what to do and/or something I may have done wrong to cause this hunger to happen? Any suggestions gratefully received.

R1 VLCD Day 1 - 163.2 - TWL (-2.0)

WOW! I lost 2 pounds the very first day of VLCD.

I'm very happy with that. If I only lose one pound tomorrow I will have lost all the loading weight and be on my way to losing what really weighs me down..... those 7 years of yo-yo-ing the 30 pounds I put on in pregnancy.

Its summer here in Australia and though I go to the beach with my husband and son, its always in short and a tank, or at most a swimsuit and coverup. I never feel good enough to be out in just a swimsuit. Summer officially ends here at the end of February, so I'm hoping before then to feel good enough to at least beach it once with just the swimmers!

Yesterday I ate:

150g beef
Lettuce
Tomato
1 Grissini Stick
Apple
1 egg white
1/2 egg yolk


I'm wondering if any of you have eaten eggs? My clinic says I can have 1 egg white and 1/2 yolk a day, but I havent seen anyone else have eggs in their diets.

Obviously I did it yesterday, and lost, but wondered if it was really the right thing to do? Could I have lost more without the egg?

If anyone has any insight I sure would appreciate it!

Here's to a good second VLCD today!

Round 1 - Loading Day 2

So my final weight this morning (day after loading day 2) was 165.2. I guess that loading sure did its job!

Today is my first VLCD, and as I expected since I felt so bad while loading, I am not hungry at all and food does not interest me! Im sure by this afternoon I will feel like something but for now the mere thought is...UGH!

I am excited to see where this process takes me, and will check in daily with my weight and anything else that the day may bring.

Round 1 - Loading Day 1

This is my first loading day for the HCG diet.

My start weight is 162.8lbs. My ultimate goal is 132lbs.

I plan on doing this first round of the diet for 28 days total (26 days VLCD) and losing (hopefully) 20lbs. At a minimum I plan to lose 15lbs. (I have heard this diet can vary depending on your body as to what you lose.)

So this means by 20th February (family reunion!) I will be 148lbs at worst and 143lbs at best.

I am looking for another HCG dieter to blog and partner with to encourage one another, so if you have just started or about to start the HCG diet, please comment and I'll give you my email address so we can buddy up!

I have both the homeopathic HCG and the injections here, I can't decide which to use, I think I will go with injections, even though I am fearful and if I do fine on them I will try homeopathic the next round. If I freak out I have a back up plan with the homeopathic right here.

Here's to a slim 2011!

Foods eaten so far:

Rhubarb pie
ice cream
risotto cakes
steak
fries
squash
carrots
creme caramel x 2
BBQ chicken

(yes I have taken this loading process very seriously!)