HCG #2: Week Three

We made it through week 3 of our second cycle of the hCG diet, which means we are halfway through the 40 days.  But that patience I've been trying to develop is already wearing very, very thin.

Jacob has left Sarah and I in the dust. 

Yesterday, after only 21 days on the diet, he had lost 25.2 lbs.  Amazing!


If Jacob loses just 8 more lbs, he will have reached the maximum amount of weight Dr. Simeons allowed patients to lose during one cycle of hCG, which is 34 lbs.  He should be able to do that easily over the final 3 weeks.  Then he will be mighty close to his goal weight.

For Sarah and I, though, this cycle and especially this week have been rather disappointing compared to our first round. 

Sarah lost only half of a pound all week.  That is so discouraging for her.  And yet I can see her becoming smaller around the middle, so it may be that the microbiologist I mentioned last week was right about a plateau being the time when the body loses inches.  She has a total loss of 40.4 lbs, so she is still doing well!

As for me, when I weighed myself on Saturday, I looked back to my weight on the previous Saturday and saw that I'd only lost 1.2 lbs over the 7 days between.  It made me mad!  I'm sorry, but on this diet I feel that anything less than 3 lbs per week is unacceptable.

So I decided to have an "apple day," which I described in last week's post.  It's Dr. Simeons's answer to breaking a plateau for us impatient folks.

I wasn't thrilled to do it, since I'm not a big apple eater (now, if it were a "strawberry day" or a "banana day" or a "kiwi day," that would be different!).  Still, I was desperate enough to give it a go, plus I thought it might be helpful to see if it really works and post the results on this blog for others who might wish to try it.

So I chose my 6 apples, fasted all Saturday morning, and ate my first apple at 12:30 (lunch time).  I ate another at 5:15, one at 7:30, and one at 11:00 pm, while I was on the computer.  By that time I was all appled out and called it quits.  I could have eaten the 5th and 6th apples on Sunday morning, but it didn't sound at all appetizing to me.  In the end, I only ate 4 of the 6 allowed apples.

Lo and behold, on Sunday morning I had lost 1.8 lbs!  That brought my total for the week to exactly 3 lbs, which I can live with.  Barely! 

I returned to the 500-calorie diet at noon on Sunday, eating lunch right before we left for church.  I was a little nervous that my weight might bounce back up this morning, but I actually retained the loss even though I weighed myself 3 hours earlier today than I did on Sunday.

That makes my weight loss in 3 weeks 17.8 lbs, for a grand total of 55 lbs gone.  That does make me feel pretty good! 

And, in spite of losing only 1.2 lbs during all of last week, I will say that I received more compliments in that one week than I have during all the rest of the weeks since I started the diet on November 1st.  Again, maybe it was time for me to lose some inches despite the plateau.  (I've lost 10.5 inches off my waist so far.) 

Sarah is doing the "apple day" today.  I hope it does the trick, kick-starting her weight loss off this plateau she's on.  We moms love to see our children succeed!

Here are a few new hCG recipes we've dreamed up these past couple of weeks:

Above, chili con carne.  We browned the ground beef, added 2 cups of chopped onion, and seasoned it heavily with garlic, chili, cumin, and parsley.  Then we simmered it in a little water until the water cooked away.  Delicious!

This one looks a little weird, but it was also yummy.  Jacob diced up chicken breast and added asparagus and seasonings.  Sarah doesn't like asparagus, so this one was just for Jacob and me.

I think this version of a strawberry smoothie has become a family favorite which will continue long after the diet is done.  We've only made it once in each cycle, so it's definitely a splurge, but we love it.

Simply fill the blender with fresh or frozen strawberries (we've used both) and fill it up halfway with a sugar-free strawberry-flavored drink, something like Crystal Light.  Then blend it until it's smooth or just a little chunky.  Mmmmmm!

If you use frozen strawberries, let them thaw a bit so they aren't rock-hard before blending them.

And here we have the finished product, ready to enjoy.  We got a little brain-freeze when we used the frozen strawberries, but boy, was it good!

Tonight Jacob is going to grill us some tiny steaks and make a nice asparagus soup on the side.  Wyndie came up with the recipe and says it is very tasty.  I'll share photos and recipe next week.

Wyndie has completed her 23 days of hCG drops and has just 2 more days on the 500-calorie diet before she begins the 6 weeks of maintenance.  She promised to write up her experience and results, which I'll share here soon.  Stay tuned!