Decisions

After my Thursday debacle, I've done a lot more research and decision making. Sorry if this is TMI, but on Friday morning, I, being 6 mo post-menopause, started my period. Ohhhhhhhhh, THAT explains a lot.

Part of the reason that I am as calm, clear-headed, happy and inspired as I am is because my high levels of estrogen dropped considerably in the past year.

I did a lot more research on the diet, and was told by two people that I wasn't doing it right (which I agree). The successful people are those who follow it to the letter. However, since I spoke with my naturopath/homeopath who says that the homeopathic drops are not homeopathic in any sense that he understands or recognizes, I'm going to do even a lot more research and thinking.

I did find that the majority of the menopausal women who experienced a renewal of their cycle were on the drops. Having a period really confused me because I thought the hCG was reproducing a pregnancy-like state. I think all these drops did was elevate certain hormones (LH especially) instead of producing the desired state. After all, a homeopathic remedy is like the "hair of the dog that bit you," in that it uses a substance which is like your malady, in order to stimulate healing. Anyway, I'm not sure about all that.

What I DO know, though, is that I have been very happy with my life and who I am for the last year, and that is for the first time in my entire life. So anything that produces a surge in previously quelled hormones is not really welcome to me.

I'm not saying that it is completely out of the question for me -- I'm saying I will have to talk to the right doctors and find the right information for me to try it again. And that I'll use a different form of the hormone if I do try it again.

For now, I'm going to follow more of Dr. Mercola's suggestions. When I read his site, I realized what I was eating that was likely keeping my weight on. My protein and fat levels are good, but I still probably consume too many starches, and I do love fruit. I eat a lot of bananas for their potassium, and likely too many potatoes in soups.

I'm going to try the Miracle Noodles to replace more of the rice and potatoes in my diet.

I have increased my exercise considerably in the last 4 months, but I'm going to increase it more. Thursday night, after talking to an hCG counselor who told me it sounded like I was protein deficient, I had a bowl of black beans, brown rice, and pork. My sour mood abated within 10 minutes. The next morning I walked a couple of miles up near the top of Tombstone Canyon and back. I hadn't had that much energy in a long time.

So I'm back to discovery phase, but I've requested a phone consult with the doctor who treated an entire family with the hCG diet. I'm ordering a diet journal so I can keep track of everything, and I'll keep walking up Tombstone Canyon and researching the best diet for me.

None of this is said to discourage anyone from doing the hCG. I know people who have lost anywhere from 70 to 160 pounds on it. I know people who have lost between 20 & 40 pounds on it. It does work if you do it right; of that I'm convinced.

But having just started my own media agency, plus all the writing contracts I'm taking on, I need to be at my peak -- not fighting hormonal surges and depression for several months.

Again, I eat almost wholly organic and virtually no processed foods. I eat small meals instead of large. I have no hunger. So I'm already living a healthy lifestyle. A few more tweaks in my diet and a major increase in exercise will likely make a large :-) difference eventually.

Doin' it wrong

Okay. Only 6 days in, and I feel like I'm doing this all wrong. I can see that I really need to detox first, and detox as I go along. hCG1234 has products for that.

My head is foggy, I feel logie, and I've been spoiling for a fight all day. So, I'm going to get the products and start over.

Not sure about the advice my friend's doctor was giving his patients, "Go home, eat a gallon of ice cream and start over." Whut?

Unfortunately, I've never been a do or die person (you know that old saying, "Mine is not to wonder why; mine is just to do or die"? Yeah, that has never worked for me. So I'm going to dig for some information and call the hcg1234 support line.

More later. I'm not in the mood to write. ><

Day 5 - hcG

I had a fabulous walk this morning. I tried to gauge my energy level and didn't go too far. I turned around when I just started getting tired. So I only did 20 minutes, but it was all uphill going, plus there was the huge hill up to my house and the stairs down to it. (I decided I could do hill up and stairs down more easily than stairs up -- those are my two choices.)

It is soooo lush right now. Every yard is full of flowers. One large yard was wall to wall blooming blue morning glories. So gorgeous! I am lucky to live in this little oasis in the desert.

I wanted to mention that the homeopathic drops I purchased were the hCG1234 drops. A fairly newcomer to the market. I believe. They have a 24 hour support line for questions which is very cool.

It is strange, though, that there is so much different info out there. I know the hCG1234 diet strictly prohibits Omega 3 oils or supplements, and yet another site touts Omega 3 supplements as the remedy for ridding yourself of hunger and foggy head while on hCG.

So for lunch I had 100 g of red sockeye salmon and 2 rye crisp. I noticed I am eating my full quota of protein/fat earlier and earlier every day. The first day I ate my last protein at 5:30, yesterday is was 3:30, and today, I've already had the last before 2 p.m. That leaves 2 veggies and 1 fruit for my dinner and snack. (I had an orange for breakfast.) Hmmmm...as soon as I said that, I realized that I'm having 3 fruits a day instead of two. The first day I had two apples and then strawberries in my smoothie. Yesterday I had 1/2 grapefruit, an apple, and then strawberries/frozen peaches in my smoothie. This morning I had an orange, and the fruit in my smoothie, and I'm planning on an apple for my evening snack.

I think I'll do alright as long as I stay under 800 calories/day. My friend Wendy told me that her friends who exercised daily while on the hCG did 800 calories/day in order to have more energy. It did not seem to impede their weightloss.

The first day I had 730 calories, and yesterday I had 610. I've already had 512 calories today, but my salad and apple for later shouldn't be more that 130 calories, so I should be fine for a total of 642 calories.

I find I CAN live with no cream in my coffee since we buy a great organic, free-trade Dark Sumatran from Amazon. It's really tasty black, and I've NEVER said that about any coffee before.

Lots of good, brewed iced tea made with PG Tips -- England's most popular brand. I can drink that with or without my Stevia. I use liquid Stevia from Sweet Leaf. I've not really experimented with others because I'm quite satisfied with the Sweet Leaf. As little aftertaste as possible. And less is more. I've found I'm better using 4 drops instead of 6 in 8 - 12 oz drinks. And the stuff can be used to sweeten anything. I also use it in my smoothies.

I still haven't measured myself, and I must, or it will be a bit tough to gauge my loss without a scale.

So all-in-all, at this point I'm not craving, not starving, not tempted, not regretting. Everything is going pretty well. I feel happy and upbeat. But now I have to get to work -- I mean paid work. LOL. More soon.

Jade

So many things resolved

So many things are resolved in my life. I can attribute it to several factors -- my health and well-being is greater than I've ever experienced in my life.

One of my final hurdles to optimum health is my weight. Despite drastically changing my diet, and beginning an exercise program 4 months ago, I don't seem to have lost a pound nor an inch.

I know that I'm insulin resistant, and I have at last been able to equate my insulin resistance with my ever spiking blood pressure, and got that under control with exercise and cinnamon capsules (recommended by my wonderful, crunchy daughter-in-law!). So now that I have both presence of mind and time to implement, I began looking for the perfect diet plan.

I have never been much into "fad diets," and especially nothing that required outside intervention such as pharmaceuticals or surgery. I had lost 30 pounds on a low-fat diet, but gained it all right back after I stopped journaling everything. I had lost 30 pounds on the Atkins diet. I managed to keep that off for several years, until I abandoned the whole high protein/low carb scheme in a prolonged ice cream indulgence with my new partner.

I knew what to do this time, and taking a test on Dr. Mercola's site had identified me as a "Protein type." That went well with everything I knew about my eating habits. So eliminating certain foods, and upping the protein again, completely quelled my hunger. I got into a good regimen, and then started exercising. So imagine that I was very disappointed with no weight loss after nearly 4 months.

I had heard about the hCG diet initially from one of my students, and thought the concept interesting, but dismissed it when she told me she kept it off for about a year but then put it right back on when she got under stress.

I did, though, recall immediately when she told me about it, that when I was pregnant with my first child -- I lost like 30 pounds in the first 6 weeks of my pregancy, and desired to eat nothing but vegetables. I was a little alarmed at the time because I didn't know about hCG or how it works. But putting two and two together upon hearing about the diet, I knew that it could work.

I didn't consider it for a while because it seemed so expensive. But then family members got into it, and it worked for them. I got a writing gig that required me to research it and write about it, so then I was actually informed. The key thing for me was that I had already made serious lifestyle modifications, so doing the hCG diet was simply a matter of rearranging things and making a few different food choices instead of trying to drastically diet from a lifetime of bad habits. So I knew it was doable.

I intended to have a doctor's help, but when I called the VA, they wouldn't touch it, even when I told them diet and exercise wasn't enough for me. I had already made up my mind fully to do it, when, during a shopping trip to Sunflower last week, I spied the hCG drops at the checkout counter. Radically lower priced than anything else I'd seen, I decided on the spot that I would try it. If it didn't work, no great loss -- I would only be out $40 instead of hundreds.

I came home and read the brochures. So these were homeopathic drops. I ignored the many online criticisms I had read of the drops whose complaint was that the drops contained none of the actual hormone. I knew what homeopathy was all about, and those critics missed the point completely. Homeopathy is an energy medicine. The original batch of the remedy has the hormone in it, then it's diluted and succussed over and over to produce various strengths. In the end, it's about the energy of the hormone which is left in the remedy and that its effect is actually anywhere from 10 to a 1000 times stronger than the original substance. Remember Masaru Emoto and the fact that water remembers? Same principle exactly.

So I had great confidence in the drops. I stopped by my local co-op and bought the extra foods that I needed for the diet that I hadn't purchased as a matter of course at Sunflower. I was armed and ready.

So now, I'm halfway into day 4. The first two days don't really "count" in my book, because those are the fat-loading days when you eat all you can of certain fats in order to create extra energy stores for yourself as you begin.

Yesterday was Day 3 on the drops, but Day 1 of the actuall 500 calorie diet. NOW -- THIS is why I'm writing this blog. I want to be support to any of you who remain skeptical about this diet, and I want to encourage you that it can be flexible and not rigid.

People ask, "Can I just eat ANY 500 calories I want?" No. HOWEVER, having said that, this is where I am departing from the rigidity. I know my body and what it will and will not tolerate. Hunger is not my problem, nor is bad food. I eat 90% organic, ovo-lacto vegetarian. I have developed an aversion for most meat as an entree. I keep my protein high and my carb intake lower, and eat enough fat to be satisfied.

That, combined with the fact that there seem to be almost as many hCG food lists as there are doctors who prescribe it (although they all have similarities), and I realized that if I am to be successful at this, I have to do what I know works for my body. Although I haven't been able to lose weight, I know why now, having read Dr. Mercola's diet plan. And I know what kinds of things will sabotage a diet for me every time.

The lucky thing is that often fatties like me are experts in nutrition. We know all about food and how and why it affects us like it does because we've spent YEARS working with it, reading and researching it, and trying just about everything.

All that to say, NO, you can't eat just any 500 calories for it to work. BUT, I am going to work what I KNOW will work for me within the boundaries of true common sense.

I know that the reason I failed at my second attempt at Adkins was because of my meat aversion. I just couldn't eat all that was required. So I knew this would be the same way. My plan? My protein will be primarily milk, fresh farmer's cheese (feta, in my case), occasionally a chicken thigh, occasionally shrimp, and maybe a little more often, nuts.

So, after the fat loading stage, by Day 3 the hCG was kicking in. My breasts were tender (like they are when they get the signal to start building the lactation network).

Because a friend of mine had told me that she fainted one day after walking when she was on it, armed with that knowledge, I decided to make some modifications. No way was I going to give up my daily walks (in fact, I plan to increase them now). And I know low-blood sugar all too well and the effect it has on me. So, between knowing what I have to do to keep from having low blood-sugar as well as my meat aversion, I made some changes in the diet.

I am allowed two vegetables, two fruits, and two entrees (meat or protein), plus a piece of melba toast or grissini. So, I added a third high protein snack and eliminated the bread. I have some rye-crisp on hand if I need more fiber occasionally.

I started my day with a cup of tea and an apple. I took my usual walk. I had 2 cups of salad for lunch. You are not supposed to mix your veggies, but I had read too many comments by doctors who said they couldn't figure out the logic of that, so I ignored it. I had a cup of lettuce with some mushrooms, onion, and balsamic vinegar. My big meal of the day was 8 oz of milk with a handful of strawberries, plus 1 egg yolk and 4 egg whites all mixed into a giant smoothie. That was cheating, too, because I ate 2 protein portions at once. But I had already determined to add an extra protein portion because I knew that was what would keep my blood sugar stable.

Later in the day I had a cup of black coffee, and a handful of nuts (definitely not on the list, but consistent with my own protein/fat needs).

I was very pleased that when I fixed pork tacos and corn-on-the-cob later in the day for Gayle, I was not even tempted to sneak anything, nor did I feel deprived.

And as we watched X-Files in the evening, he had his buttery, cheesy popcorn, and I had a nice Pink Lady apple -- so fragrant and tasty! Again, I had no regrets nor even a twinge of feeling deprived. It was all good.

I did crash for a nap in the afternoon, but that may have been because I had been up till midnight and gotten up at 6.

This morning, I felt refreshed after 7 hours sleep, and eager to continue. I had 2 cups of coffee and 1/2 grapefruit for breakfast. Lunch was a salad of one small cucumber, 7 grape tomatoes - halved, a few slices of onion and 5 rings of a tiny orange bell pepper and topped it with 100 grams of feta. Again, I combined my veggies (bell peppers are NOT on the food list. Nor were yesterday's mushrooms, but at 15 calories per 1/2 cup, I wasn't worried about it since I only had 2 mushrooms. Only cottage cheese is allowed on the list, but I figured it wasn't much different from the feta nutritionally, and the feta was certainly more flavorful.

I'm now sipping a glass of home-brewed tea. Dr. Mercola said you don't want to chug your water/liquids, sipping is best. I always knew the formula was 8 eight-ounce glasses per day (to start), but I never knew why it was framed that way. He said if you drink more than 8 ounces per hour, it just goes right through you into the toilet, where if you sip all day, it will do it's job and flush out all the fat and toxins. Oh-hhhhhhhhhhhh. Makes sense.

I need to measure myself today and write it down. I don't have a scale (what? how can I diet without a scale?), but I know that if the losses are as significant as I expect them to be, I'll be able to tell quickly, and measuring weekly will be a good way to tell as well. (Probably better.) I know you're supposed to watch for 2 pound gains during the rest and maintenance periods, so I'll likely invest in a scale by then. But you know what? I was tired of being fat, and I knew if I put it off until I had all the right equipment and the right this and the right that, that I would put it off indefinitely.

So please -- this could be a great forum of support for the final hold-outs who think it might be a good idea, but are just not sure. Comment, and I'll respond.

How much do I have to lose? My goal is 90 pounds. My naturopathic doctor told me 100 pounds. You know what -- in the 14 years that I've been going to the women's clinic at the VA, they've never once told me I needed to lose weight. Why? Because all my allopathic doctors have been as overweight as I am. It seems they would rather cost the government thousands in invasive tests to find out what's "wrong" with me rather than say, "Hey, honey -- you could stand to lose a few pounds. Like about 100."

I won't write about this every day, I'll do other things in between, because I know not all my readers out there are dieting. But this is in conjunction with my latest adventure, so I thought it belonged here.

Have a FABULOUS day!