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.