may 19, 2008 - day 124 (weight 198.0 - down 60.5)

Down 1.6 lbs from yesterday. To quote the stupidist line in a movie ever: Anikin Skywalker, "It's working! It's working!" It certainly is working! I am 2 days past 4 months on the protocol with no break, other than cheating days, which if you have been reading this, you know there have been a lot. Things I have learned after 4 months; (1) Hunger is not a problem, although you are eating only 500 calories a day, as long as you are consistent and eat as Dr. Simeons tells you to, you will not be hungry. This means skipping beef. This means no more than 4 1/2 oz of veggies (or figure actual calories). This means getting enough fluid. This means being as extremely consistent as you can be. Your body has to preplan fat usage. What you do today affects how much your body expects tomorrow or the day after that. There is a lag time of between 1 to 3 days for cheating. If I cheat today, my body plans for that same level of caloric intake, so it expects it tomorrow or the following day. If it is not there, mild hunger gets turned on. If you get past that hunger, you will reset the expectation. Be consistent and eat at lunch time and dinner time only as Dr. Simeons tells you and you will only get hungry at lunch time and dinner time. Why? Your body expects it. I am going to go out on a limb here. You need zero calories a day while taking hCG. None. Your body can do without it as far as hunger goes, for about a week. The reason you eat is not for hunger or calories. You eat because what hCG is doing, is telling your body that fat utilization is such a high priority now that it shouldn't look on the "list" anymore, but should just get it proportionately from everwhere and it should not distinguish between Structural, Normal or Excess Stored fat. We eat to top off the structural and normal fat stores, or else we will eventually have all the effects other people dieting without hCG have - hunger, dizziness, the blahs, lack of energy, etc., We only eat the minimum amount to stay topped off. That's why the Transformation plan makes me scratch my head. They are eating as if it is satiating hunger. They don't understand what hCG does for you. (2) Dr. Simeons knew what he was doing when he came up with his restrictive eating list. The more variation and flavor and excitement I add to the diet, while pushing the line on what is allowed, the harder it is to not cheat. I am not saying the food needs to be without flavor, but I am saying it has been easier when I eat the meat allowed and not the beef. I end up craving MORE, because it reminds me what I am giving up during the diet and I can't stop thinking about it. If I have a diet soda, all of a sudden I am craving something sweet and it works against me. I think it is best to make it just good enough to eat, and to stick to Dr. Simeons plan and avoid all these other things people now say are allowed. You aren't trying to figure out a new way of eating here. You are only doing this for a short time and then you return to normal living. It is best to forget normal food and just put on blinders and get through it. The more viariation and pizzazz I tried, the harder it got. When I went back to the strict list and as simple as possible - boom. Right back to normal weight loss, in control hunger and a plan that is working for me. (3) On days I skip taking my hCG, I can expect no or low weigh loss the next day. Why this is I don't know, but I am experiencing this and hearing that from a bunch of people. Now with sublingual, I don't have to skip, as no immunity develops. I think even with injections, you should not skip days and just move up the 3 week break. Of course, if you are still losing half your normal amount, this may be sufficuent to just do the skip day. (4) Even if you are doing sublingual, take a 3 week break every 6 weeks. I think it will help you make it. I am not talking about stopping, but going to the 3 week concluding phase (that is called phase 2 or phase 3 by some - i.e. Allowed to eat anything and everything except sugars and starches, in any quantity). I ate correctly today. 9 days in a row now. Not a record, but maybe second or third longest streak. I did well with the first batch and maybe the second. It wasn't until my birthday March 11th that I started to cheat a lot. I am running low on this batch and only have enough hCG for one more 40 day batch.