Discussions with Zharphyn

Things have been going well overall. I had a couple of days where I stumbled, which affected me. One day I forgot to take my afternoon drops, and the following day I got margarine on my hands whilst making the kids their lunch, so I think I have only lost about 2 lbs over the last 3-4 days. But still, that is 2 lbs in 4 days! My jeans are looking very baggy on me, and people are commenting on my face looking thinner. I will be happy when I have lost enough weight in my fingers that I can once again wear my wedding band.
I have decided to end phase 2 of my journey on Dec 21, 2011, because that will give me enough time to end the VLCD before Christmas Eve. Although I have been informed that the Christmas dinner at the in-laws will be ribs and chicken wings. Normally I would love that, but since the ribs will (presumably) be covered in BBQ sauce, which contains sugar, and the chicken wings will likely also have a sugar based coating I will not be able to eat them. Even if the ribs are plain, if they are pork ribs, the fat content is likely too high for to consume. I am going to have to start doing some research on allowed/disallowed food during maintenance.
My wife and I are fantasizing about our next gorge period, scheduled for mid-February. The restaurant Montana’s has an all you can eat rib night every Wednesday, during which, everything on your plate is endless, not just the ribs.  My wife is dreaming of a Chinese buffet, and I want a platter of Nachos.  I also am thinking about getting a dozen doughnuts from Timmy’s and eating some jars of Nacho Cheese dip.  Thinking back, we really did not take advantage of our previous gorge period properly.  Alcohol, pizza, potato chips, and chocolate are things that I am definitely missing right now, that I look forward to eating in excess next February.

There are a couple of friends that I am hoping to encourage into joining me for my next cycle.  I am 2 weeks in and, while it is a constant test of will-power, I would recommend this diet to anyone that is overweight and looking to lose 20+ pounds.

It is day 13, I was down 2.5 pounds today, which brings my total to 17.4 pounds.  On my Naturopath‘s advice, I increased the number of drops that I take each dose, and my feelings of hunger have gone away.  I also stopped eating onions because I think my body was having difficulty processing them.  The days that I ate an onion as my vegatable, my loss amount decreased to the point where I actually gained.  Cut out the onion, and my body bounced back immediately, and my daily loss amount went back up.  I have added cilantro as my seasoning of choice, mix that with Frank’s® RedHot® Sauce and you get an excellent flavour with some great heat.  On my GP’s advice, I am going to try and go for 36 days.  This will put my first day of non-VLCD maintenance on Christmas Eve.  This will allow me to eat a little bit of the family Christmas dinner.  I still won’t be able to eat stuffing or potatoes, but turkey will be nice.

Down another 1.9 pounds today!  Brings my total to 10.9 lbs since starting my HCG journey.  When you factor in the 7+ lbs I gained while loading, one could claim that I have lost 18+ lbs, but I am counting from my opening weight on day 1.  I have food cravings almost constantly, and it takes great will power to resist temptation.  My son gave me the remains of his lunch yesterday, and the slice of homemade pepperoni pizza with extra cheese certainly looked very appealing, but I resisted.

I was initially concerned about using Frank’s Hot Sauce for flavouring my food, but I must agree with their  slogan, “I put that * in everything”.  The chicken and lettuce I had yesterday tasted great, and the hot sauce encouraged me to drink my water.  I have also been using balsamic vinegar, curry powder and cayenne pepper.  Hopefully my stomach will shrink soon, because I am tired of always being hungry, it makes the temptations harder to fight off.  At least every morning on the scale is very encouraging to me.

Well, it is day eight and I have not cheated.  I am down 9 pounds, so far, and people are seeing a difference in my face.  My wife wants to go the full 40 days, but that puts us right into Christmas.  I do not think that I can do Christmas functions on a VLCD.  I do not have my calendar in front of me, but I believe day 40 is Christmas eve.  I would start maintenance on Christmas day, which is still VLCD for three days.  Although Christmas dinner with no starches would be tough.  If I have a bad day on maintenance, I can always follow with a steak day, which almost sounds like fun.  No food all day, then a 14oz steak for dinner.  I will decide closer to day 26 to see where my feelings on continuing lie.

Well it is day 2 of my HCG diet.  I am still in the loading stage.  I overstuffed myself yesterday, and I had trouble sleeping because my stomach felt distended.  I woke up this morning, and weighed myself to discover that I had gained 5.5 lbs since yesterday.  I will try to take it a little easier today, but the instructions say that the better I gorge myself now, the better the diet will work.

I went shopping and bought a new digital kitchen scale today.  On sale at Canadian Tire for $20.  Then I bought the basic manual for the HCG diet at the Naturopath’s office now that they have stock.  Tomorrow start the VLCD portion of the diet.  23 days of that and I will see what results I get.  1 pound a day, here I come.

Tomorrow I start my journey through the HCG diet.  Today, I met with Teena at the Selkirk Clinic to discuss the specifics of the HCG diet.  I am excited and nervous at the same time.  The first two days are fun, eat as much as you can.  To quote from written instructions: “If you do not ‘pig out’ properly, you will not see the results you want.”  I am good at pigging out.  It is something that I am very good at.  On day three, the real diet starts;  500 calories a day.  To lose a pound a day, I am will to try.

So a little over a week ago, my doctor recommended to my wife that she and I try the HCG diet.  We were steered to the Selkirk Clinic in Maple Ridge.  I met with the Naturopath on Tuesday to discuss my health and medical history, and my wife and I are scheduled to meet with the HCG consultant on Monday.  Then it is off to the races; 40 pounds in 40 days.  It would be nice to show up for Christmas dinner 40 pounds lighter.  My favourite part of the diet is that I am not supposed to do any extra exercise whilst on the diet.  I will only be consuming 500 calories per day, and the rest of the caloric intake will come from the fat stores that are being consumed.  All the toxins stored in my fat cells are going to be released into my system, should be interesting.  I am looking forward to this diet.  It will be tough to eat so little, but I currently weigh ~320 lbs, and I am 36% body fat, so I have a great deal to lose to be considered healthy.