On Day Two I weighed 130.6. So I gained almost a pound from yesterday's binge.
Today, I ate healthier until dinner. Salad, veggies, and, yes, the cupcake. :-) For dinner I made pastrami sandwiches with gruyere cheese and grilled onions. They were delicious. I made myself two and tried to eat them, I swear. But I had to give my last half to my son. I was so full. If I ate another bite I think I might have thrown up. I also had a Beck's. I sort of had it in my mind that this was the day I could eat & drink anything I wanted, so I had a beer. It wasn't until I was about half-way done with it that I kind of remembered that you aren't supposed to drink alcohol on this diet. I don't think there's an interaction problem. I think it's simply about empty calories and also about detoxing the system. I figured one beer was not going to kill me.
I'm not a heavy drinker but I have a glass of wine regularly with dinner and am a social drinker. It won't be hard not to drink while I'm on the diet. It might be hard not to drink after the diet is over but that's a challenge for another day and I don't think I'll be required to do that.
One thing I am struggling with is that you are supposed to drink a minimum of 2 liters of water every day on this diet. My normal consumption rate is nowhere near that. I know that by tomorrow I have to have this aspect down pat. I'm working on it.
I feel so full and fat and gross that I don't really want to eat again for days. I know I might feel differently tomorrow.
Guess what? My husband wants to go on the diet, too! Now I'm really excited. He's got about 30 pounds to lose at 52 years of age. Typical guy of that age with a spare tire that is growing. He'll be a couple of days behind me so he'll be loading when I am on the Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD - that's what they call it in HCG "speak"). But it's only two days. After that we can be on the same meal plan. It will be nice not to be the only one in my house taking this challenge. I was dreading how hard that would be. Fear no more! :-) Yeah, we're both going to look awesome!
Day 2 - Last "Loading Day"
Day 1 - "Loading Day"
Today is my first day on the HCG Diet. I weigh 130 lbs. After I took the dogs out for their morning constitutional, I made coffee and then I gave myself my first HCG injection. I'm using an empty detergent bottle to keep the used needles safe. The nurse practitioner recommended that during my initial visit with her. Of course, you still need to recap the needles. It's kind of weird how you can't even really feel the injection at all. Also, you know that nothing is going to actually happen. You know you won't actually feel different after the injection. But you still want to. It's weird to give yourself an injection and then go about your day like nothing is happening.
Day One and Day Two of the HCG Diet Protocol are called "loading days." On these two days, while the HCG is getting into your system, you not only eat whatever you would normally eat but you try to eat foods with a very high fat content. There are a couple of reasons that this makes sense to me but it's really hard to do it. It feels very counter-intuitive to me to "go on a diet" and then eat as much "garbage" food as you want.
One reason you have to wait two days before beginning the low calorie diet is to give the HCG an opportunity to get into your system first. I've read that some people think it's to give you more fat so that you won't be as hungry when you begin the low calorie intake. I've also read that it is a way to actually trick the body into letting go of the fat because the body believes it's getting plenty of fat. Kind of like the opposite of starvation. All of the reasons kind of make sense. But the overwhelming reason to follow the protocol is because it has been working successfully for over 30 years. The proof is in the pudding.
On Day One I kind of screwed up and didn't eat anything until late afternoon. I don't normally eat breakfast anyway, so that wasn't strange. Then I ended up having to run some errands that I hadn't expected. Finally, I headed over to "twentyfive main: cafe & cupcakes" to pick up some of their fabulous cupcakes. One of my dearest friends and her stepmom were sitting outside having lunch when I arrived. St. George really is a very small town. You always run into someone you know.
One bite and you'll be hooked! I ordered a chocolate raspberry, a strawberry vanilla (which reminds you of being a kid at a birthday party), and my favorite - the orange blossom. I also picked up a chocolate espresso for my son.
You can see more of twentyfivemain here - http://www.twentyfivemain.com/cafe.php
I ate cupcake number one in the car. Not very healthy, I know. Then I headed to Dixie Nutrition and picked up some Stevia to sweeten my coffee, Yerba Mate tea, and one of my favorites Metromint Water.
Metromint is so refreshing and has no calories, sugar, or fats - just natural H2O and Peppermint.
When I got home it was nearly 2:00 pm, and I had leftover Chinese food from the night before. I was poking around trying to find the highest fat content foods I could find in the house. Fried rice and an egg roll certainly fit those qualifications. Alot of people think Chinese food is really healthy but most of it isn't very good for you if you order it in a restaurant here in America. One typical fried springroll with vegetable filling has 115 calories and and almost 5 grams of fat. A one-cup serving of fried rice has 363 calories (35% of those calories are from fat), 16 grams of fat, and 865 mg of sodium. Yikes. It's high in sodium, fat, and calories but it tastes great! I think I filled my quota for the day with that meal.
That night I joined my son, my sister-in-law and my nephew for dinner at Wendy's. I had a crispy chicken sandwich and a baked potato with a Dr. Pepper. I didn't finish the drink or the potato. When you don't eat at fast food restaurants much you don't really have any idea what to order. It's not something that I crave. But it was OK. I ate another cupcake when I got home and saved the best one for Day Two.
