Day 19... +.8oz

Gained all the weight I lost from yesterday... +.8oz. I was painting my daughters room yesterday and just realized this morning that I touched the paint. Big mistake.

Ok, now I'm worried. I won't make it to my goal unless I lose 1.5 lbs a day. Only 2 more weigh in's before I have to increase my calories and maintain. Then afterwards I can try and lose again on my own. Frustrating!

Day 18...-.8oz.

Lost .8 pounds!!

I might just make it.

I tried the apple cider vinegar & the 1/2 lemon in a glass of water yesterday to see if it would help me lose more...YUCK!! Never again. I think I'll stick with the hot baths, those are much more pleasant. I ran out of drops - not enough to take this morning & tonight, so today is my official first day off the drops. I'm hoping I can make it on 500 calories without the drops. I'm a little scared.

I am not only excited to eat again, but I can use lotion - my hands are SO dry.

Day 18...

More suggestions on losing weight faster...

Someone posted this on a HCG site. More suggestions to lose weight faster...

Try taking nightly detox baths, 2Tbsp apple cider vinegar per day(diluted in water), cut out all apples and have 1/2 grapefruit as your dinner fruit, increase your water to as much as you can handle and try to not eat past 6-6:30pm. Also try squeezing 1/2 lemon in a small glass of water and drink it in the morning and use the other half to do same thing in the evening.

Day #17...-1.0lb

1 whole pound down! Yeah! So far I've lost 12 pounds!

The only thing I did different yesterday was drink 96 oz. of water and take another HOT bath. I think I found my secret weapon. Only 3 pounds left. Tomorrow I stop the drops and go 3 days eating 500 calories without them. Then I have to maintain my weight for 3 weeks.

Here's what I've been eating EVERY single day...

9:00am - take drops
9:30am - drink 12 oz. water
10:00am - orange (about 100 calories), 12 oz. water
12:30pm - 3oz. chicken w/ creole seasoning (94 calories), 1 cucumber (20 calories), 2 melba snacks (25 calories) 12 oz. water
IN BETWEEN LUNCH & DINNER - 12 oz. water
6:00pm - take drops
7:00pm - 3oz. sirloin steak w/ salt & pepper(160 calories), cherry tomatoes (20 calories), 12 oz. water
HOPEFULLY GET IN ANOTHER 12 OZ. OF WATER
9:30pm - apple (86 calories) or strawberries (40 calories), 12 oz. water

This diet is not for everyone. If you have health problems, I would recommend talking to your doctor before you start. My sister-in-law wanted to do this diet but her doctor told her she couldn't.

Other than those meeting the criteria below, anyone over the age of 16, male or female can take HCG.

*Pregnancy or Lactation—If you become pregnant during treatments, you should stop.
*Cancer and/or Tumors
*Large Uterine Fibroids
*Gallbladder Colic or Attacks—Resolve dietary issues and stop acute gallbladder attacks before beginning the program.
*Heart Disease—You must be stable and have a clear ECG for three months prior to and periodically during treatment. You should obtain approval for the program from your cardiologist.
*Healing Fractures—Wait until healed to start. Fractures that happen during the program are handled on a case-by-case basis and you should consult your personal doctor.

Day 17... -.6oz

Another .6 pounds down! And only 4 more to go. Hopefully I can get there in the next 6 weigh ins.

I think taking those hot baths might be helping.
I also switched my deodorant and my body wash this week too. Kind of a last minute switch, but I needed to find something that would speed up my weight loss.
This diet gets a lot easier the last week and a half. I actually have to watch myself because I can eat under my calories and have no idea.
Day 17...

Day 15... -1.6lbs

Lost 1.6lbs. Thank goodness.
I took a long, HOT bath last night hoping I could sweat off some pounds - it worked.
I was a little off with my eating schedule, but it looks like it didn't make a difference.
It was hard to watch my family eat that great smelling roast last night, and to top it off Duane made cookies. Grrrrrr!
I'll be glad when I can eat and not feel guilty.
I have only 6 more days of this diet left.
I'm at the home stretch...

Day 14... +.4oz

I gained .4!

I have one more week left. Then I have to figure out what I can eat that has no sugar or starch in it.

Day 13... -1.0

I lost another pound today. It looks like my body is following a pattern - gain, lose a little, lose 1 pound, then lose another pound. I have 6 more pounds to go before my goal and I'm hoping to reach it in the next 8-9 days. Here's hoping my body cooperates.

Day 12...-.6 oz.

I only had a small lose today... .6 ounces.

I must be at a stall. Hopefully it doesn't last long, if not, I'll have to do an apple day (eat 6 apples from lunch to lunch the next day).

Here's a little info for those wondering what HCG is...

HCG stands for human chorionic gonadotropin. It is the hormone secreted by the cells that eventually become the placenta. While it does appear in trace amounts in pretty much all women--even non-pregnant and post-menopausal, when you become pregnant, it doubles every 48-72 hours until you're about 12-14 weeks along, then it slows down and plateaus. Home pregnancy tests and the blood tests you get at the doctor's measure for this to see if you're pregnant (to an amount that those non-pregnant and post-menopausal women wouldn't have in their bodies).

The four phases of this diet are: 1st phase is your "binge" days which lasts for 2 days where you eat as much fat/sugar/grease as you can. The 2nd phase is the 500 calorie diet plus the HCG drops for 3 weeks. The 3rd phase you stop taking the HCG drops for 3 days and only eat 500 calories. The 4th and final phase is your maintance phase - you need to have a minimum of 1500 calories of everything but starch and sugar for 3 weeks. This is the time your hypothalamus (small section the size of an almond in your brain that controls body temp., hunger, thirst, and fatigue) can reset itself. Then, you can resume your normal life and eat what you want (within reason). You don't want to go back to what you were eating before because it obviously wasn't doing you any favors.

Day 11... +.4oz

The scale didn't give me what I wanted today... I gained .4 oz.

I ate the same foods and stayed within 500 calories. I'm assuming it could have been a couple things: I salted my cucumbers, I only drank 64 oz. water, I touched Kaman's hand which had oil all over it, I cooked with oil and could have gotten some on my hands, and I washed the dishes (Duane's been kind enough to take over that job for me because I'm not sure what is in the dish soap). If I keep making these silly mistakes I won't reach my goal.

This is such a sensitive diet, you have to be very careful with everything. Not only is there no room for cheating with your food, but you have to be careful about your environment.

Day 10... -1.0lb

The scale was good to me today, I lost another pound. Yay! Total= 9 pounds.

I had a good day yesterday. I don't know what was up with me on Monday, but Tuesday was much better. I can see a difference and am so excited!

My soccer game went well, I only played about 8 minutes, but we won, again. And after wards, I felt awesome, so alive! I can't wait to get back to exercising so I can have that feeling every day.

My symptoms I talked about in a previous post aren't as bad anymore. I hardly get the swimmers ear sensation and only once in a while I'll get tunnel vision when I stand up. My heart has calmed down, except when I play soccer, of course. But, I still get weak and can't do much. I'll be glad when I'm done and can get back to my old self again. Day 10...

Day 9... -1.0lb

I lost another pound this morning!

Yesterday was one of the harder days. I was weak, tired, cranky, craving food and really cold. Not a good day. Hopefully today is better. I have another soccer game tonight. I was careful on Friday's game and didn't push myself so I should be ok tonight. I only played about 8 minutes but we won and I scored a goal so I did my part. I only have a week and a half left and I know I can do it. It's encouraging to see the weight come off everyday, otherwise this would be harder then it already is. So far, I've lost 8 pounds in 9 days, that's awesome! Normally it would take me two months to lose that. Ok, day 9 here we go...

Day 6, 7, & 8...(#6) -1.6lb (#7) +.2oz. (#8) -.6oz.

It's been a roller coaster ride this weekend with my weight - as I would expect it being Valentines, of course. I didn't cheat, but I did wear make-up on Saturday. Duane and I went to a wedding for a friend that night and I did put on a little blush, some eye shadow and mascara. I wasn't able to drink as much water as I have been (only 64oz instead of the 100oz). And for dinner I ate the salad with no dressing (note: salad is not good without dressing), and I scraped off as much bread off the chicken as I could. As a result of all these little shenanigans, I gained .2 pounds. The next day, Sunday, I stuck with my diet (even with valentines candy every where I turned), drank 74oz of water, and didn't wear makeup to church. The next morning I lost .8 pounds. Now I'm back to the weight before the weekend started. Let's just hope I have another successful week...

Day 5... -1.2lb

Another 1.2 pounds bites the dust!

Today I feel drained. My body feels sluggish. I'm not tired, like I have to go to sleep, but depleted (obviously). The side affects I've been experiencing with this are - swimmers ear or the sensation you get when your ears need to be popped (which I usually get with extreme exercising or when I'm pregnant, and since the drops cause your body to think it's pregnant, I can believe it), tunnel vision when I stand up too fast, I can feel my heart beating when I lay down, and just walking up the stairs causes my heart to race, I'm irritable, oh, and weird dreams about food.

I'm a little concerned about playing my soccer game tonight. I should have enough players there so that I won't have to do much, but this will be a test to see what I can do. And don't worry, Mom, I won't push myself.

update: I realized I didn't eat enough calories yesterday, that could be why I'm so tired today.

Day 4... -1.2lbs

still working...today I lost 1.2 pounds.

My kids/husband give me their pitiful looks every time I sit down with my measly meal.
This is a typical meal for lunch.

3oz. grilled chicken, 1 cucumber, 16 oz. water.



And my dinner.

3oz. sirloin steak, 6 cherry tomatoes, 16+ oz. water.


Then, It's usually an orange for breakfast, and an apple right before bed (I can't sleep when I'm hungry).

Day 3... -2lbs

It's working! I lost another 2 pounds. I'm on my way.

I found out I can still use my shampoo/conditioner and deodorant but I have to stay away from lotion/make-up with oils in them. My hunger is a little uncomfortable but I'm anxious to see if it goes away completely. One day at a time. And what's great is I'm rewarded every day on this diet. Instead of getting on the scale at the end of the week and hoping to have lost 1 pound, I get to see my results immediately. Because this diet is so strict and one little slip up can cause you to gain, it really helps you to stay focused all day long. Whereas before I would be on track all day and then eat what I wanted for dinner. Not only is this diet helping me lose the weight, but it's helping me get back my focus. I've lost weight before but for some reason this time around it's SO much harder. I needed a boost and I think this is doing it.

Day 2... -3.4lbs

Well, good news....I'm still alive (apparently my mother thinks I'm killing myself slowly by being on this diet)! But, aside from that...I lost the 3.5 pounds I gained on my binge days over the weekend. Now we are back to square one. And, I hear it just gets easier, so I'm all for that. Honestly, it wasn't too bad. I didn't feel as hungry as I do when I work out like a crazy women and only eat 1700 calories. It got to be uncomfortable before dinner and right before I went to bed - that's when I usually get the munchies.

Ok, day two here we go..

Starting the HCG diet....

I have resorted to new measures. No more working my butt off (or not) and getting no where. I'm going on the ever so popular HCG diet. I heard about the HCG diet from my sister-in-law (Debi) and within an hour I had it in my hands. So, I will be starting that diet tomorrow! You are supposed to take drops in your mouth two times a day and then eat only 500 calories. A very strict diet. You can only eat 3 oz. of chicken, beef, shrimp, veal, white fish, lobster, crab or eggs for your protein two times a day. And only one serving of spinach, chard, chicory, beets, salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus or cabbage for a vegetable twice a day. Then only 2 fruits a day an apple, orange or strawberries...oh, and a melba toast or some sort of breadstick I've never heard of. Yum! I'm just hoping the drops I'm taking actually work like I've heard and you don't get hungry.

This is very extreme for me, it's not something I believe in doing for weight loss. I'm usually all about losing the weight the natural way - exercise and low fat diet. But what's frustrating is I've been doing that for 3 weeks now and I've only lost a pound. Something in my body is not giving those pounds up. So, I'm going to use this detox and hope it works. Apparently you are supposed to lose 1 - 2 pounds a day! You can't wear any make-up, lotion or touch anything with oils on them, or you could literally gain a pound. Crazy! I'll have to change up my shampoo/conditioner, lotion, make-up and deodorant to something all natural. This will be interesting. Oh, and did I mention you have to eat like a pig (literally) the first 2 days so your body has some reserves to take from on those first few days of your extreme diet. Yesterday I had cookies and chocolate milk for breakfast, in-n-out cheeseburger/fries/root beer and chocolate shake for lunch and then a donut for dessert. Dinner was pizza loaded with meats and a cinnamon sugar dessert, plus cookies, and another donut. Holy cow, I feel like crap! And I'm supposed to do this today, too. They say the more junk food you eat, the less discomfort you'll feel the first few days.

Ok, so I'll be logging in every day to let you know how much weight I've lost that day....here goes nothing.