HCG #2: Week Six

We are winding down to the final days of this hCG cycle.  I can almost taste the variety of good foods we'll get to eat next weekend!

It is exactly 6 weeks today (42 days) since we began the 500-calorie diet, and technically we should be done now.  However, Sarah and I decided to give ourselves five extra days to try and shed an extra pound or two.  We will stop the hCG drops after Tuesday (47 days on the hormone), and have our last day of the diet on Friday (48 days on 500 daily calories).

The day after that will be the first day of Spring Break.  The perfect time to start on maintenance!

Since my last post 6 days ago, I've lost another 2.6 lbs.  Still not as much as I'd like, but I'm very happy for a couple of reasons. 

First of all, I realized this week that I've now lost slightly more than a quarter of my former self (and I hope I never find it)!  That is an accomplishment! 

Secondly, as of today my Body Mass Index (BMI) finally dropped below 30.0.  That means I'm no longer "obese" according to the charts; now I am simply "overweight."  I can live with that while I maintain my new weight for the next 8 weeks.  (The length of maintenance increases between subsequent cycles of hCG).

My total weight loss is now 63.5 lbs.  Not bad, not bad at all! 

Sarah struggled again, but she lost 1.6 lbs this week, for a total of 46.6 lbs lost.  We're hoping she can get another pound or two off before we end the cycle this week.

Jacob had originally decided to end this cycle today.  He took the last of his drops on Thursday, planning to finish the diet today and start maintenance tomorrow.  Then on Friday morning, he found he'd lost 1.6 lbs.  This was big, because it finally put him below 200 lbs!  That was his main goal, and there it was staring him in the face from the scale: 199.8 lbs!   

I asked him if he was sure he wanted to stop now.  Odds were, his weight would bounce back up to 201 or 202 during maintenance if he stopped there.  He confessed that his main reason for wanting to quit now was his desire to eat the "good salsa" he'd bought for his SADD Club meeting coming up on Thursday.  He was tired of denying himself while everyone around him enjoyed the food. 

 

So we counted off the days and figured that he could stop the hCG drops today and finish the diet on Wednesday, just in time to enjoy the salsa (but no chips--remember, no grains, starches, or sugars during the first 3 weeks of maintenance).  He'll finish up just 2 days before Sarah and I do. 

Jacob is glad he waited.  He lost 4.2 lbs this week, for a total of 33.8 lbs in 6 weeks!  As of this morning my 6-foot son was down from 231 lbs to 197.6 lbs.  I'm so proud of him!  Now he should be able to maintain his weight at under 200 lbs, as long as he follows Dr. Simeons's guidelines.  Keep in mind that for 6 weeks Jacob is to neither gain nor lose more than 2 pounds.

And so here we go into the final stretch.  Wish us luck!

I dreamed up another new recipe this week, which we found surprisingly tasty:

Herbed Beef and Tomato Soup

300 grams 93% lean ground beef

1 can petite-diced tomatoes

1 can beef broth

1 can water

2 pinches each: thyme

                             tarragon

                        basil

Brown the meat, then combine all ingredients in a saucepan.  Simmer 20 minutes.  Serves 3.

I rarely cook with herbs unless I'm following a recipe someone else developed.  I don't really know what herbs are supposed to go with what foods.  For this soup, I let my nose be my guide.  I chose the three herbs that most pleased my sense of smell, and wow, we all loved the flavor of this soup!

Another new idea I had was to dress up my shrimp.  I've really missed cocktail sauce, and plain shrimp was getting boring.  Then I noticed that a teaspoon of this Louisiana hot pepper sauce has no calories.  I mixed 1 teaspoon of the sauce with a teaspoon of water and used it to dip my shrimp in.  Mmmm!  I'm not a big fan of super hot sauces, but served this way it gave the shrimp a nice kick and only lightly singed my lips! 

And no, you don't have to count the hot sauce as your dinner vegetable!