Beta HCG Diet -- Re-entry Day 1: Painful!

Before I went on this diet 41 days ago, my feet were both swollen. I hoped that losing weight would help that. After a few days on the diet, the swelling was completely gone in my left foot and nearly gone in my right. I was delighted!

Two weeks before I went on the diet, I'd had arthroscopic knee surgery. I'd had zero pain. Zero. Unbelievable but true. I was a bit stiff when I got up from sitting for a long time but did okay in physical therapy and afterward so I thought I was doing great.

Yesterday was the last day I had any HCG in my system, which is why I could go back to eating more foods today. Yesterday my feet started swelling again. You've gotta be f*%&ing kidding, I thought. It has to be the HCG because I was still eating the same restrictive way until today after noon.

Also today my left knee hurt so much that I actually took my cane with me when I went out. For all these weeks I took no glucosamine and chondroiten, no Celebrex, no ibuprophen, no aspirin. Nuthin'. So apparently the HCG was doing good things for my knee, too, because without it -- and with that being the only change -- today my knee hurt incredibly much, a lot more than after my surgery, when I also wasn't taking anything. Why????

All day today I've been terrified that if I ate I'd gain a bunch of weight. It's Thanksgiving so I went out to eat. Went to a diner, of all things, because their dinner was much cheaper than a high-tone restaurant and I could get it the way I wanted it. Namely I could get it without stuffing, homemade mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. Those are all things I don't think I could pass up at somebody's house because they'd be on the table and other people would be scarfing them down and I'd be looking at them with that pathetic, feed-me look that dogs give you when they look up at you with those big brown pools of pleading eyes. In the diner, the guy next to me was having eggs and french toast. The people on the other side of me were finishing their meal so I didn't have to see their full plates.

I had turkey and put 2/3 of it in my little plastic bag to take home. I'd intended to take half but found I was only hungry for about 1/3. I also put my whole helping of string beans in a ratatouille-like sauce in another little plastic bag. Can I even eat string beans or are they considered starches? I ate the florets of my helping of broccoli, and that was enough. I had maybe a tablespoon of the gravy I'd asked for on the side, maybe just a teaspoon. Just enough to take the edge off of the dryness of the plain turkey. The salad I probably enjoyed more than anything -- what a joy to eat lettuce AND tomatoes AND a tiny bit of ranch dressing all at once. Not sure if the ranch dressing is in the "okay" column of foods but I'd forgotten my HCG-compliant dressing (which I'm not wild about -- too tangy) so I went with it. The only other thing I ate all day was one little Babybel disk, which was sooo good, as I drove home from the store.

It's nice not to feel stuffed after a Thanksgiving meal. Can't remember when that last happened. And I survived passing up stuffing and the other usual trimmings. Pie doesn't appeal to me. Whew, is that a change from the old me! All of it! I love this and pray that I can keep it this way.

There are still some hours to go before today is over. I may eat some more turkey, and I may have a slice of mozzarella cheese. I think I'll be quite happy with that. And I'll hold my breath until I get on the scale tomorrow morning. I pray I don't gain weight. Given the promises of this diet, I'll be quite upset and disillusioned if I do. Stay tuned.

Beta HCG Diet - Now I Know Why I've Been Stuck!

I feel like an idiot! I haven't dropped more than one pound in a week and only one more in the few days before that. I've been doing all the right things and I couldn't figure it out.

Then yesterday it occurred to me: I've been using a great lotion, an after-sun lotion, since my skin started getting so dry when fall turned more to winter. It's only been the last week and a half or so that I've been using it. Didn't give it a thought.

But it clearly states in the diet info NOT to use anything with oils in it. I've not taken Vitamin E. I've given up butter with my lobster and my veggies. I've avoided lotions, which wasn't an issue because I didn't need them until recently and by then I'd forgotten that lotions have oils in them (if you can believe that a person could forget that). So I slathered the stuff on liberally.

So that's why I've been stuck. Damn!

I can't help but feel that I've wasted the last week or more -- 7 to 10 days -- of my precious 40 days on this diet. Yes, I've lost somewhere between 21 and 26 pounds, depending on from which point I count. But I had a goal in my head of 30 pounds and I was well on my way to that before I started using the lotion. Boo!

So now I know for next time. This round is over as of today. Round 2 starts at least eight weeks from now.

I've been off of HCG for three days and NOT hungry! Tomorrow, when the HCG is supposedly all out of my system, I can go back to eating in a much less restricted way. No grains, sugars or starches for three weeks. I can handle that. But, oh joy, I'll be able to add in a hugely expanded list of foods, including more meats and veggies, plus cheeses, sauces (yay butter!), eggs (oh goodie!) and dairy. Wow. The world will feel like my oyster! (Though I can't stomach oysters.) I will be on basically a high-protein, low-carb eating plan. Somewhere between Atkins and South Beach. Considering I used to live on the Mickey D's plan, this will be great progress!

The plan calls for a "steak day" or an "apple day" if I gain more than two pounds, and I'm supposed to do it on the very day I exceed the two pounds. (Steak day is eating nothing til evening and then a big 'ole steak. Apple day is eating up to six apples, drinking minimal water, and that's it for all of one day.) My "set point" (where weight is set to stay despite daily variations in food types and amounts) is supposed to be recalibrated with this diet as long as I don't blow it in the next three weeks or gain more than two pounds, and I'm hoping and praying it is.

I never want to go back to lugging around those 20-plus extra pounds. In fact, my goal is to get rid of another 25-ish by March in Round 2. So I'm on it, one day at a time.

Beta HCG Diet - Round 1 Winding Down

By next Sunday I'll be eating eggs and cheese for the first time in a month and a half, and I couldn't be more excited! I'm down nearly 25 pounds and am thrilled to be wearing clothes I haven't been able to wear (or I looked like stuffed sausage in them) for literally years. Round 1 is almost over. Whew!

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't IMAGINE going on to Round 2 on this diet. It's tough to do, tough to keep to when you travel, and very tough to do if you don't cook worth a darn. I'm not a bad cook but I am not used to cooking the way you need to on this diet. The food I could have (a very limited list) just didn't taste very good to me and many times I just kind of choked down meals with my eyes squinted and my mouth curled up (and not in a smile). Many vegetables I liked going into this I really hope I never see again. At least not by themselves.

Gee, who would've thought I'd be excited to eat broccoli again, and cauliflower? Zero desire for diet soda, which I used to live on. No craving for sweets, which in itself is miraculous! And I'm determined not to screw it up after I'm off of this diet. I didn't go through all of this to go back to my old eating habits.

So now that I've kind of got this eating plan down pat, I've only got a few days to go. I wish I could stay on it for awhile longer. (What?!?!? Who said that?) But I'm following doctor's orders and going only for the prescribed number of days. There'll be a minimum of six weeks before I can go on to Round 2. And I have to say, I'm eager for it. My first 25 pounds get me started but I want to lose that many again in Round 2.

What made the difference in hating the foods vs. now when I'm comfortable with it? For one thing, I am just in the habit of it all. I know better how to judge 3.5 ounces of meat or fish. I know how to order food in restaurants that is compliant (or nearly so). I bring my own little baggies to take food home with me, and I can cut off the parts I can't eat until another meal, slip them into the baggies and not have them on the plate reminding me of what I can't have. I've made some diet-compliant salad dressings so I can have greens in restaurants. HUGE difference there! Today I had steak and salad for lunch in a restaurant with a friend and it was yummy! And it was a big steak -- 12 ounces precooked -- so I have more for additional meals. Ah, life is good.

One complaint: Old London, if you think we aren't noticing that you have reduced the size of your melba toast by about 1/4, you are wrong! Nasty thing to do. Same package, same little packet size, but I have some "old" ones and the new ones are NOTICEABLY smaller! Screw you, Old London!

So now I am looking ahead to next Sunday when I can eat a wider variety of foods. OMG, am I looking forward to it! I'm also terrified on gaining weight when I do but with still stepping on the scales every day, I will be able to kick in to correction mode if I gain two pounds. (I'll explain that someday if/when I have to do it, and no, it's nothing gross.) For three weeks, I can't have grains, sugars or starches, but I am so excited about being able to eat eggs, cheese, creams, sauces and more than one veggie at a time that I don't care. I admit to drooling over bread but I can wait another three weeks for that.

One of the advantages of this diet, which I really hope holds true for me, too, is that it's supposed to recalibrate my "setpoint," or the weight that is "normal" for me to be at pretty much all of the time despite eating ups and downs. Fingers crossed for that!

Thank you, my friends, pals and random readers, for your comments, cheers and prayers for me during this not-always-fun time of changing my life. I truly appreciate it.

Beta HCG -- Satisfaction, Surprisingly

After whining off and on about all of the savory foods I am missing as I go through this Beta HCG Diet, I realized something surprising tonight.

Here's what happened. I went to Applebees in search of dinner from my limited menu of allowable foods. I ordered a big ole steak, medium rare, and the vegetable medley (had to get the medley to get what I could eat), with a side order of grilled shrimp. I figured I could eat all of one-third of the steak and I'd take the rest of it plus the shrimp home for tomorrow and Sunday. I had been drooling over the yummy-looking chicken fetuccini, loaded cheeseburger with fries and other hearty meals as I perused the menu. I also watched the couple in the booth next to me chowing down on full plates and eating everything on them. They were laughing and enjoying their dinners and each other.

Then my food came. I ate my third of a steak and picked the zucchini out of the veggie medley. I took the annoying tails off of the shrimp but didn't take a bite or even lick my fingers. It didn't take me long to eat what I did and I had a lot of food left. It looked good and I could've eaten more; I wanted to eat more. But I knew what I was "allowed" and I stopped.

The waitress brought me two little boxes for my steak and shrimp. I have taken to bringing plastic sandwich bags and snack bags with me to restaurants and packing my leftovers into them before putting them into the take-out boxes. There's less spillage and the food stays more moist. (I've soaked the bottom of my purse and several things inside too many times when those little boxes have leaked. Yecccch!)

So after the food was no longer visible, I sat back and realized that I actually felt satisfied! I wasn't hungry. I felt satiated. I didn't need more or even particularly want more now that it wasn't right in front of me. I didn't feel stuffed as I have so often as I left restaurants. I felt good. I was surprised. Something to remember as I keep going on this journey. There's hope...!

Junk Food and Me: We're Separated, Not Divorced

Today was Day 27 for me on the Beta HCG Diet. I've lost 18 pounds. My clothes that had fit way too tightly now fit more like they're supposed to. And in general I feel so much better than I did 18 pounds ago. Every day is easier than the day before. I have another almost two weeks to go and then I slowly go back to eating food, just not the food I was eating before.

Last night I went to the grocery store -- hungry. Never a good idea but I knew I wouldn't buy any junk because I'm pretty immune right now to temptation. My behavior I can control. But my desires...well, that's a different story.

I longed for so many foods as I went around picking up what I needed. Crusty bread. Large, fluffy crackers. Colorful vegetable soup with fat noodles. Cheese of all varieties. Oh, for some cheese! I made it out okay, then went to dinner and was fine.

Then I came home and saw commercial after commercial on TV for things they make look so good. Pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. Sloppy, juicy cheeseburgers. A table filled with a huge, beautifully browned turkey and all the trimmings. Piping-hot Mexican food drowned in cheese and salsa. Plump, juicy hot dogs. I want it. I really want it. I want it all.

I've had a love affair with high-sugar food, high-fat food and plain old junk food probably since childhood. My mom and dad tried to get me to eat healthy food, or at least healthier food, but over the years I'd go up and down in terms of how in love I was with the poorer choices. Eventually we -- junk food and me -- got married. We've lived happily ever after for years and years. However, like many marriages, it looked good on the outside and the primal pleasures of it were good, but it was killing me. So now thanks to the Beta HCG Diet we're separated. But not divorced. Will we ever be? It's clear that the attraction is still there. I have the strength to stay away now, during the severely restrictive stage. But what about when I add foods back in to my daily diet? I have no faith in my ability to stay away.

Right now there are fun-size Milky Ways and outrageously rich Berger cookies on my dining room table, left over from my two required gorge days before the low-calorie restricted diet kicked in. I resist them every day. They don't call to me, or if they do, I don't hear them. I rarely even notice them. But that's because I'm committed to this diet for the WHOLE time I'm on it. But then what?

I don't want to reconcile with the food that I've loved and become addicted to while it was working behind the scenes to fatten me up and shorten my life. I don't want to reconcile with it but I also don't want to do without it. Well, for the moment I don't have to worry about imminent temptation. I still have 13 days to go on the low-calorie plan. 16 days, really, because I have to add them on until the HCG gets out of my system. Then another three weeks of no sugars and starches. Then I can add in one or two foods at a time. Maybe by then I'll be ready for the divorce. Stay tuned.

Beta HCG Diet - I Got Nuthin'!

Traveling. Sitting in a big ballroom for 12 hours a day. Expensive food. Nothing tastes very good. Maybe that's because I've now got a cold. Ugh! I've got a sore throat and have been coughing, though not those disruptive, annoying coughs. The sore throat isn't like sharp knives like strep throat is. But it hurts nevertheless and it's hard to swallow. Sleep is a nightmare. Plus, with all of the water I drink on this diet, I wake up and head to the bathroom about every hour and a half or two hours. It isn't that bad during the day -- why so at night?

So, no energy thanks to the severe diet and the cold. Hurting and strained left knee that doesn't like to walk far or stand for any length of time. Brendon Burchard, who's leading this seminar, is big on standing and bouncing physical activities. I pass on a lot of them, both because my leg squeals when I do some of them and also because I just plain feel lousy. Because of those two factors, I find myself in curmudeon mode. "All right already! Enough. Sit the hell down, everybody," I think to myself (and I actually cleaned that up). I don't mean to be a Scrooge but I feel yukky and nearly everything and everyone annoys me. (Except my good friend who's here with me. She's a godsend.)

This diet was especially tough today and I suffered. It was almost like the first few days after the gorge days. I felt on the verge of nausea several times during the day, and, quite surprisingly, HUNGRY! I haven't been hungry much at all the past couple or so weeks, let alone for most of a day. Could it have to do with the plan being disrupted by the Hall's cough drops I take a few times a day? Sorry but otherwise I'd choke to death because sometimes the cough starts deep in my throat and I feel almost like I'll gag if I don't calm down my throat. And that's so much fun for the people around me. So I'm taking the cough drops because they soothe my throat and keep it from clenching. I've only taken two today -- how can they hurt?

So in light of all of the above, I didn't follow the damn diet to the letter today. I ate an extra melba toast. And I couldn't easily get any veggies for this evening's meal so I'm going with an extra fruit. But I figure if that's as far as I go away from this diet, I'm doing pretty well. I've never not used a lot of pills and fizzy tablets and Vicks when I've had a cold like this, so I should get some credit for ONLY taking cough drops. Right?

Oh, and by the way, I wore a knit top today that used to look quite u-g-l-y a month ago. I look smaller all around, I feel less whale-like, so I'm heartened by that. Yes, this is worth it.

All in all, though, tonight I feel like I've just got nuthin'. I couldn't wait til we were dismissed for the evening. I hobbled to my room, turned on the tv, snuggled under the covers and watched the last quarter of the LSU-Alabama game, plus overtime, quite an exciting game, actually. Now I hope to fall asleep soon and I am grateful for the extra hour of sleep granted to us tonight when Daylight Savings Time goes off. Maybe -- hopefully! -- tomorrow will be better.

Beta HCG Diet -- Staying On It While Traveling

In a hotel, no car, tied up from early morning to late night. How do I stay on this diet? I am without a scale to fulfill the requirement of weighing myself every day. It was too big to bring and the hotel doesn't have any to bring me. Well, at least I wangled a refrigerator out of them, which has made a huge difference.

Normally at these things, I worry all day about when they're going to let us out so we can eat. I have snacks in my purse to tide me over and they're only fresh in that they're not stale; it certainly isn't because it's "real" food. I OD on Diet Coke. And I have food in my room, always. But not here.

Several things are different. I'm not hungry, by and large. Thank you, Beta HCG, for that. I haven't had a Diet Coke for three weeks. The food in my purse is one piece of melba toast and an apple. I'm drinking water by the liter. I prefer sparkling water but with drizzles of fresh lemon juice I can drink nearly that much plain water too. I still get a little panicky over meal breaks but it's more about where I can get the food I can eat on this diet than it is about rushing to eat.

I got here Wednesday. I put frozen shrimp in my carry-on so I ate that in the Denver airport during my two-hour layover. And an apple. I brought several pieces of fruit with me -- three apples, three oranges and four lemons. And a box of melba toast. So the challenge is to find vegetables. A friend who's a Platinum-level hotel guest took me up to the concierge lounge at dinner time. They had a great spread! Unfortunately, the entree was turkey drowned in gravy and mashed potatoes. There were wonderful crackers and cheese squares. I don't remember what else. I just know I couldn't eat any of it. So my friend went with me to a restaurant in the hotel and I ordered grilled chicken, hold all the trimmings and sides, and sliced tomatoes.I stuck half of the chicken in my fridge for tomorrow. Only one vegetable yesterday instead of the two I was supposed to eat, but by and large in my mind I did great.

Today I bought a pre-packaged salad with chicken on top. I took all of the chicken out and gave the rest of the salad to my friend, who enjoyed it. Tonight my friend went back up to the concierge lounge but I didn't bother. I went to the high-end restaurant in the hotel and paid $40 for a ribeye steak, hold the trimmings and sides, and ordered steamed kale and sliced tomatoes. I asked the waiter how much the steak weighed before cooking and he said eight to nine ounces. I'd heard bad things about kale (similar to spinach) but had never tried it. It was pretty tasty, which made me think that they probably cooked it in something even though the waiter said it would be steamed. I'm not sure but I ate it all anyway because I was behind on my vegetables.

Interestingly, the very slim and attractive woman in the couple with me at dinner, who was eating normally, told me she had gone through several rounds of the Beta HCG diet and lost some and gained a bit of it back, but then it jolted her out of her previous habits and she lost 70 pounds! That was my intention too, to stop the madness of my crappy food addictions. She also said she lost a bunch of her hair, which definitely disturbed me. She said it is growing back but slowly. I'll have to ask Dr. DeWet about that.

A $40 steak is pretty outrageous. But for my $40 I have two more decent-size hunks of luscious ribeye steak for two meals and some tomatoes for my late-night snack tonight, fulfilling the two-veggie requirement. That isn't so bad. But those damn vegetables remain the biggest thorn in my side. We'll see how creative I can be for the rest of this trip. Stay tuned.

Beta HCG Diet - "It's Not Good For You!"

People who don't know much about the Beta HCG weight loss plan that I've been on for nearly three weeks fall into one of two camps. They either think it's not good for me and say so or they think it's not good for me and don't say so. I understand. I thought the same thing when I first encountered someone who was going on it, but that very same person by his own example, enthusiasm and recommendation of his holistic M.D. turned me around.

I know people mean well. The idea of living on 500 calories a day sounds like starvation and silliness. It sounds like I'll have such pent up cravings for the food I'm missing that the moment I'm off of it, I'll binge on everything in sight. It sounds like I'll gain all of the weight back when I go back to eating "normally."

Well, I urge you to read all of the information about the Beta HCG weight loss plan before you come to your final conclusion. As always, go to the experts, not to the naysayers and ignoramuses.

It turns out that a significant number of my friends and acquaintances have been on this plan and lost weight. They send me private tweets to tell me so, and Facebook direct messages so no one else sees. And who can blame them, with all of the flak they'd get if they went public? Every one of them says they lost weight, did well and gained back some but not nearly all of it. That's a better track record than most diets.

I've always been a proponent of changing one's lifestyle rather than going on a diet as such. Yeah, well, look where that got me. HUGE, that's where! I just don't have the discipline to conquer my food addictions without something drastic to jolt me out of them, and this diet certainly qualifies.

After it's over, it's not really over. In a support call with Dr. Pieter DeWet, to whom I'm going for this plan, I learned that basically these habits I'm developing go on and on. Then I'll be able to moderately add things food by food and do a "steak day" to get myself back on track if I gain more than two pounds.

Frankly, I don't know how I'm going to do after I get off of this diet. I'm suffering mightily with the vegetables and I long to be able to mix them instead of eating just one at a time. I also long to be able to dilute their "vegetable" taste somewhat with some kind of oil or butter or cheese. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I can already feel that my tastes are changing. People can eat the kinds of desserts I used to kill for right in front of me and it doesn't bother me. That's a HUGE relief! I hope that persists. And I also hope I'll be able to exercise portion control, something I've never been good at. I just know I can't go back to my old normal. I have to create a new normal. One that's healthy and doable, both. THAT will be the challenge.