Soooo, yeah. I was on the HCG diet for two days before my friends begged/bullied me into trying
a regular diet first. So I farted around with the Okinawa diet for a few days and then I just started eating more raw foods after picking up "The Sunfood Diet Success System" at Half Price Books over the weekend. In my opinion, this book makes the most compelling case, so far, for a raw food diet. David Wolfe gets you to understand not just that eating raw food is better for you (yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know that), but the impact that cooked food has on the planet (it's pretty bad; I'd never made the connection). The author is a little "out there" so please beware the bible verses, bizarre poetry, and the "karmic food scale" (it indicates which raw foods have the highest and lowest karmic values - whoa). I quasi-started his diet plan today, although it would be WAAAAY too much food for me to eat in a day. I had a pound of watermelon (he recommended three pounds!) and a handful of walnuts for breakfast. Lunch was one papaya (not two!) for lunch with three stalks of celery and a half of an avocado (not a whole one!). I have felt full all day and I've had no cravings. I think the reason that I am having better success this time on a raw diet (yeah, before I couldn't even make it for one day) is because a) I transitioned by increasing my raw intake to about 60+% before switching and b) I've read that you are supposed to load up on fruit in the morning, which will prevent hunger pangs/cravings. Dinner is supposed to be a huge salad, which I can handle. My husband and I plan to walk to one of our favorite places this evening, where, in the past we would always order frites and champagne and sit outside in the sun. We'll see if I can resist the frites..........I'm going to try!!!! Wish me luck :)
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Vegan HCG adventure!
I've gained 11 pounds since I got marrried 4 years ago. I've been thin my whole life, but I'm struggling with some areas of really gross fat deposits (particularly my stomach). Several co-workers of mine went on the HCG diet and had amazing results, so I am embarking on the HCG journey in an effort to lose fat in stubborn areas.
So far, I have been "easing" myself into the diet. I am using "HCG Activator" homeopathic drops ($13 on Amazon) and started to take the drops on Saturday, 4/29, knowing that the Phase 1 of "loading" would be easy while I was vacationing in Missouri. I attempted to go down to 500 calories on May 1st, and everything started off ok. I cannot do the just tea/water business in the morning so I made apple-chard-ginger-garlic juice and mixed in a scoop of SunWarrior natural protein powder which amounted to 149 calories. So far so good! At lunch time, I was a good girl and made a delicious SunWarrior spread and had a wrap plus one cup of Thai Sweet & Sour soup. After this, I had some majorly weird symptoms (dizziness, continuous yawning/ear popping), which I chalked up to protein overload - I normally consume about 20g per day and suddenly jumped up to 40+. I was still starving, and now feeling yucky which led to some really unhealthy cravings. So, I solved that little problem by binging on "junk food" (which, sadly, only amounted to corn chips and Sour Supreme with jalepenos) all afternoon and had a vegan hot dog for dinner. I don't even want to tell you the number of calories that I consumed. Fat and starches are a big no-no on the diet, so we'll chalk day one up in the epic failure column.
Day two was a little bit better. I started off with an orange-apple-chard-ginger-garlic juice with the protein powder, which amounted to 254 calories. Uh-oh. There goes half of my calorie allotment. Maybe I'll do the modified 800-calorie-per-day diet, I justify to myself. For lunch I have a big salad with 1 tablespoon of vegan caesar salad dressing (a no-no) and even with the dressing, I was still at 117 for lunch. Not too shabby!! In the afternoon I had some dehydrated kale chips for lunch, amounting to just a handful of calories. For dinner, another big salad, this time with a little fat-free dressing that I make out of Bragg's Liquid Amino's, vinegar, water, and basil, but I cheated put a 1/4 of an avocado and about a half ounce of walnuts on top. This took a 170-calorie salad up to 401 calories --- oopsie! Live and learn. On the upside, I was full so I think I did alright. If I hadn't splurged on a 1/2 cup of Daiya-Field Roast-Penne-Chard-Tomato casserole that I made my husband for dinner (deLICIOUS, btw - the casserole, not the husband), I would've been right around 684 calories for the day, but that little cheat cost me 300 calories, sigh.
Last night I discovered that I haven't been doing the drops right. You have to wait 15 minutes after taking them before eating or drinking anything else. Gawd, I suck at this. Now that I am taking them correctly, my hunger is under control. Today I started with a rice cake with some peanut butter on top -- both of which are banned on the diet...WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?!?! -- and I had a banana (banned), orange smoothie with protein powder. I have had two slices of an apple since then and it is an hour past my lunch time and I'm only a little bit hungry! I have also had a LOT of water and tea. After I eat my lunch salad, I'll be nearing the 500-calorie mark :( But, I'm going to hold strong and at least keep under 800 today. Even though I have girlfriends coming over tonight, I WILL endeavor to resist the urge to snack and drink wine.
The moral of the story is that this is HARD, but it's getting easier. I am having a problem ignoring the things in my refrigerator/pantry that are still left from my regular diet...plus I have to cook for my hubby or he'll starve or go all carnivorous on me and we don't want that! I'm proud that I've embarked, that I've given up alcohol (oh, I miss you, red wine), caffeine (although I barely had any before), and have MOSTLY not had any sugar (I forgot to mention that my husband brought me vegan chocolate chip cookies from Trader Joe's last night). I am optimistic and I'm not giving up. I will beat you, fat stomach...oh yes, you are going DOWN.
I've gained 11 pounds since I got marrried 4 years ago. I've been thin my whole life, but I'm struggling with some areas of really gross fat deposits (particularly my stomach). Several co-workers of mine went on the HCG diet and had amazing results, so I am embarking on the HCG journey in an effort to lose fat in stubborn areas.
So far, I have been "easing" myself into the diet. I am using "HCG Activator" homeopathic drops ($13 on Amazon) and started to take the drops on Saturday, 4/29, knowing that the Phase 1 of "loading" would be easy while I was vacationing in Missouri. I attempted to go down to 500 calories on May 1st, and everything started off ok. I cannot do the just tea/water business in the morning so I made apple-chard-ginger-garlic juice and mixed in a scoop of SunWarrior natural protein powder which amounted to 149 calories. So far so good! At lunch time, I was a good girl and made a delicious SunWarrior spread and had a wrap plus one cup of Thai Sweet & Sour soup. After this, I had some majorly weird symptoms (dizziness, continuous yawning/ear popping), which I chalked up to protein overload - I normally consume about 20g per day and suddenly jumped up to 40+. I was still starving, and now feeling yucky which led to some really unhealthy cravings. So, I solved that little problem by binging on "junk food" (which, sadly, only amounted to corn chips and Sour Supreme with jalepenos) all afternoon and had a vegan hot dog for dinner. I don't even want to tell you the number of calories that I consumed. Fat and starches are a big no-no on the diet, so we'll chalk day one up in the epic failure column.
Day two was a little bit better. I started off with an orange-apple-chard-ginger-garlic juice with the protein powder, which amounted to 254 calories. Uh-oh. There goes half of my calorie allotment. Maybe I'll do the modified 800-calorie-per-day diet, I justify to myself. For lunch I have a big salad with 1 tablespoon of vegan caesar salad dressing (a no-no) and even with the dressing, I was still at 117 for lunch. Not too shabby!! In the afternoon I had some dehydrated kale chips for lunch, amounting to just a handful of calories. For dinner, another big salad, this time with a little fat-free dressing that I make out of Bragg's Liquid Amino's, vinegar, water, and basil, but I cheated put a 1/4 of an avocado and about a half ounce of walnuts on top. This took a 170-calorie salad up to 401 calories --- oopsie! Live and learn. On the upside, I was full so I think I did alright. If I hadn't splurged on a 1/2 cup of Daiya-Field Roast-Penne-Chard-Tomato casserole that I made my husband for dinner (deLICIOUS, btw - the casserole, not the husband), I would've been right around 684 calories for the day, but that little cheat cost me 300 calories, sigh.
Last night I discovered that I haven't been doing the drops right. You have to wait 15 minutes after taking them before eating or drinking anything else. Gawd, I suck at this. Now that I am taking them correctly, my hunger is under control. Today I started with a rice cake with some peanut butter on top -- both of which are banned on the diet...WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?!?! -- and I had a banana (banned), orange smoothie with protein powder. I have had two slices of an apple since then and it is an hour past my lunch time and I'm only a little bit hungry! I have also had a LOT of water and tea. After I eat my lunch salad, I'll be nearing the 500-calorie mark :( But, I'm going to hold strong and at least keep under 800 today. Even though I have girlfriends coming over tonight, I WILL endeavor to resist the urge to snack and drink wine.
The moral of the story is that this is HARD, but it's getting easier. I am having a problem ignoring the things in my refrigerator/pantry that are still left from my regular diet...plus I have to cook for my hubby or he'll starve or go all carnivorous on me and we don't want that! I'm proud that I've embarked, that I've given up alcohol (oh, I miss you, red wine), caffeine (although I barely had any before), and have MOSTLY not had any sugar (I forgot to mention that my husband brought me vegan chocolate chip cookies from Trader Joe's last night). I am optimistic and I'm not giving up. I will beat you, fat stomach...oh yes, you are going DOWN.
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