So I've tried doing weight loss blogs in the past doing the old exercise and diet routine. For the last year or so, my diet has cleaned up significantly to where I've also dabbled into veganism while excluding processed and refined sugars and oils, except for a little bit of olive oil when I roast or saute veggies. In July 2010, I had some general blood work done, assuming that I was heading toward a heart attack and getting back results that said my cholesterol and glucose levels were the shock therapy I needed in order to get myself focused on losing weight again. (I did lose 30 lbs from strict diet and exercise over the summer of 2008.) Well, those results come back, my fasting glucose was 86, cholesterol was 195, and most shocking was my triglycerides were at 50. Well, that wasn't the wake-up call I was looking for. I have the blood work of a triathlete. Hmph.
At that time I was also being tested for prolactin levels as I was having some issues with my body doing things that it really shouldn't be doing. Long story short, turns out I have a small brain tumor on my pituitary gland. Since that diagnosis, I've been reluctant to believe that the tumor has also playing a factor in my weight loss, or rather the lack thereof. And up until about a month ago, I still believed that.
Then comes last week, a close friend of mine mentions that someone we know mutually had started the sublingual HCG drops and was having some success with it, and his friend that turned him on to it had lost 150 lbs from it. After some hemming and hawing, I decided, to hell with it. It's only $100 and it's better than signing up for yet another gym membership that I never go to and throw money out the window. Or two more Xbox 360 games (Kinect is awesome, btw!!) or what have you.
The bottle comes, I decided that I was going to start that Friday, which was February 25. I stepped on the scale to see 236.1 which was lower than I was expecting. Not by much. I'm a daily weigher and was anticipating something in the 237 or 238 range. The first two days of the protocol tell you to eat to capacity the most fattening foods you can. And so I did. French toast, pizza, teriyaki, and McDonald's. Since I eat crazy healthy to begin with, all four meals were very difficult for me to consume because of the fat and fried content of everything. I gained a few pounds from that, obviously and was 239.9 on Saturday according to a friend's scale, but not my own. So there could have been some variance in there that I am unaware of.
Today is Day 5, so after four days of being on the drops, my weight this morning was 234.4. I'll take that. Each day since being on the 500-calorie diet has been a loss on the scale. I had an issue for the last few days of not pooping, and after the gorge-fest from last weekend, I knew there was tons in there just waiting to come out. A couple laxatives later, I was finally able to have a movement this morning. So now I don't feel so bad.
A lot of people did not report headaches or anything during the first week of the diet, but I'm definitely experiencing those lack of sugar headaches. Haven't taken anything for them yet, but they diminish shortly after eating a piece of fruit or taking some more drops. The fruit lasts longer than another dose of HCG. My muscles are sore like you're low on potassium, so I bought some supplements today (finally) to try and help that, too. I am longing for a chewy brownie, or one of the 180 cookies I had to buy for work, but I'm doing a very good job of saying no. I've had the equivalent of 1/3 of a chocolate chip cookie over the last two days. I took a bite today, rolled it around my mouth, and spit it out. People say that any deviation from the diet will make the scale stop, or even increase. And I can't risk that. I do have a few pieces of semi-sweet chocolate chips at night because I just need something. Otherwise, my diet has consisted of two pieces of fruit, two pieces of melba toast (blech), two 100g pieces of meat before cooking, and two 2-cup servings of either spinach or broccoli. Plain. That's been an adjustment in and of itself. The meat has been poached, so there's no oil or drying out.
Anyway, I'm really happy with the results that I'm seeing so far. I'm really looking forward to what the scale and the tape measure say Friday morning after the first week on this protocol. It's hard, don't get me wrong. Telling yourself you can't have the corn dog that your coworker is eating for lunch takes a lot of internal strength. And learning the difference between an empty stomach and a hungry stomach also takes a lot of work. I do dream about the foods I haven't been able to eat. And if I choose to do a second round of HCG, I'll definitely be satisfying those cravings, if they still exist. Since this is essentially a low-calorie South Beach/Atkins type deal, I can imagine that taste buds will change and become more accepting of food as fuel rather than pleasure. Cause I'll be damned if eating plain, dry spinach tastes anything like a rice krispie treat or baby back ribs.
My goal with doing this? Just anything, at this point. I've been stuck in such a rut over the last year. My weight loss stopped in 2008 due to my father getting sick and making daily flights between Seattle and Pullman for a week and a half. Then a few months later, my mother had a heart attack which was stressful; mostly because it bothered me that they didn't tell me she did until 11 hours after my dad took her to the hospital. They said they didn't want to worry me while at school. Seriously? I told them not to do that ever again. If something happens, you call me immediately no matter what I might be in the middle of. Anyway, back to goals. My short-term goal is getting to my driver's license weight of 197. While still overweight, I've always carried my weight very well and don't look like I weigh as much as I do. Several tests of lean tissue suggest that I'm about 31-38% fat, depending on when the analysis was done over the years. Once I reach something below 200, my real goal is about 165. I don't want to focus on a number as much as how clothing looks on me. And being able to buy even a size 12 would be amazing to me. Perhaps I should shoot for an 8 and call it good. I don't know. But I don't want to focus on that goal before I hit the first one.
That's all for now. Hopefully I get to posting daily about how I'm feeling, what I'm eating, and what my numbers are. If not, it'll be every other day. If this helps just one person want to change their life, that's all I need to make it feel worth the effort.
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