HCG #2: Week Four

Our 4th week on this cycle of hCG has shown promise!  Jacob, of course, continues to chug along like a weight loss machine.  Sarah seems to have finally broken through her plateau.  And I'm hopeful that I may be at the end of my plateau, but we'll see...

In 28 days Jacob has lost exactly 29 lbs.  Not bad, my son!  We still have 2 weeks left on this cycle of hCG, so it looks like he'll reach his goal to lose at least 30 lbs!

Sarah's week started out unhappily.  She did the "apple day" and she actually gained weight!  We were stumped.  We'd tried everything we could think of.  I finally told her to try taking a diuretic one night, just to see if she was retaining water.  I don't recommend this since Dr. Simeons is against using diuretics as a diet aid, but we were desperate. 

It worked.  The next morning, Sarah had shed 3.2 lbs!  I told her not to be upset if the weight returned, that at least now we knew water retention was part of the problem, but the next morning she had lost another 2.0 lbs, this time without the diuretic!  Yesterday her weight remained the same, but today she was down another 0.8, for a loss of 6 lbs this week.  That makes her total loss now 45.0 lbs!

My week was also very frustrating.  I did maintain my 1.8 lb loss from last weekend's "apple day," but all week I lost only 0.8 more.  I planned to do another "apple day' yesterday, but then I changed my mind since I wanted to try a new chicken salad recipe I dreamed up (see below).  I figured I'd have the "apple day" today instead. 

Now I'm glad I didn't do the "apple day" yesterday.  This morning I found I'd lost another 1.8 lbs.  If I'd done the "apple day," I'd have attributed the loss to it, but now I know it was an actual loss.  I didn't do anything different yesterday, other than skipping one of my two servings of Melba toast (weekend days are shorter, due to being able to sleep in, so I don't need as many meals or snacks).  I spent about 6 hours on the computer, scanning in old photos and organizing them into my desktop files, so I certainly didn't get any more exercise than usual.  So it was my first real loss larger than a pound in more than 2 weeks!

Therefore, I'm not going to do any "apple days" this week.  I'm hoping that this loss signals the end of my plateau, too, and the regular losses, even just half a pound a day, will kick back in soon.

My net loss for this week was 2.6 lbs.  If you recall, I stated last week that anything less than a 3-lb loss in a week was unacceptable to me.  I still feel that way!  However, if I'm on the verge of returning to a pattern of regular weight loss, I'm willing to wait it out and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, my total weight loss is now 57.7 lbs.  Not too shabby!

I should also mention that, despite the slowness of our weight loss over the past 2 weeks, the number of compliments Sarah and I are receiving is multiplying at an amazing rate.  The pounds aren't exactly falling off, but apparently the inches are.  Suddenly everyone is noticing that we've lost a lot of weight.  Even my chiropractor expressed astonishment at how much thinner I am when I saw him on Wednesday.  I visit him every two weeks, so he has been aware of my diet since November and watched my progress, but he insists that even though I've only lost a few pounds lately, all of a sudden there is an obvious difference in my size.  (It makes my joints and muscles easier to manipulate, he says.)

Thank you to all of you who have said how great we look.  It kept us hanging in there through the tough times!

One last odd note: Of all the potential side effects of taking a pregnancy hormone (most of which are positive effects, I might add), I am experiencing the strangest one of all.  The hCG is changing my hair color!  Before I became pregnant at age 34 with my oldest, Sarah, my hair was still a bright yellow-white blonde.  During the pregnancy I noticed my hair turned to a richer gold.  Two years later, when Jacob was on the way, it became a darker gold.  By the time I had Dylan when I was 42, my hair was a much darker blonde.

Then, during the first cycle of hCG, several people commented that my hair was darker.  I didn't think much of it until I told Wyndie about the remarks, and she said it was probably the hormone.  I guess she was right, because it has already happened again during this cycle.  I think about a dozen people (including a couple of men I work with) have recently told me they love my new hair color--one colleague even gave it a name: champagne blonde!  They are shocked when I tell them I do not now nor have I ever colored my hair.  It must be the hCG!

Here are a couple of new recipes we have added to the menu:

We enjoy London broil steak quite often, but the asparagus soup recipe was developed by Wyndie.  It's quite tasty.

1 can or 1 bunch of asparagus,

            boiled and pureed

1 can chicken broth

1-2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp onion salt

Dash of allspice

One day I was thinking that chicken salad sounded really good, but how could we make it without some type of fat?

So I diced 3 small tomatoes and 300 grams of cooked chicken breast (that's 3 servings, enough for Sarah, Jacob, and me to share), mixed them up with garlic, pepper, onion salt, and paprika, then put it all in the fridge overnight to marinate.  It was yummy.

Next time I plan to try it with some dill (I was out of dill this weekend) and a few spritzes of red wine vinegar.

And here's a peek into my freezer.  I spent several hours this week cutting up steaks and chicken breasts; portioning out ground beef, chicken, and turkey; and counting out shrimp (7-8 medium make 100 grams).  Now my freezer is packed with little snack-sized bags of protein, enough to get us through to the the end of our diet in about 2 weeks.

The freezer was so stuffed that the little bags would fall out every time we opened it.  I solved that problem by packing 6 little packages per 1-quart freezer bag.  The freezer is still loaded, but the bags no longer fall out!

I also recommend labeling your packages.  Once they freeze, it's surprisingly hard to tell ground beef from steak or ground chicken from chicken breasts!