lesson's learned...gearing up for another try...

I am near where I was to start. Isn't that sad? The reason is not a failure of the diet, but I have learned lessons I will apply to the next time which is coming soon. Lesson #1: Make sure you don't have an internal yeast or candida overgrowth or thrush. This fights you on phase 3 and 4 (see the 3/6/09 post for more info on this). Lesson #2: Phase 3 (right after you stop hCG) is the one area YOU DO NOT CHEAT OR COMPROMISE ON. It is the key to keeping the weight off. If you follow one part religiously, it is this part. Lesson #3: Portion control. Err in eating way too little in phase 3 and 4 (actually for the phase 3 part, just double the diet from phase 2-you need about 1000 calories and that is about 1000 calories). You have a "NEW" amount you eat at each meal, not the amount you used to eat when you were heavy. This is my biggest lesson's learned by the way. You can always eat a little more later if you are hungry. Remember it takes 2 days for your body to adjust to a change in your intake (it adjusts how much it will take from fat stores and how much it "expects" you to intake). You may have to be hungry for 2 days at times as you get this under control (this is what a steak day is doing - telling your body to not expect a lot of intake, while keeping protein level high for your brain and muscles). You can guess how I did on the above 3 items....not so good. Please don't write the diet off because of my troubles, but learn my lessons and be successful. For those who were successful where I wasn't, please post a comment with your success here for other to see. I know I am in the minority.

i finally know what is rocking my progress

I have a "yeast overgrowth" in my mouth, sinuses and intestines that is causing me to crave sugar and yeast products. That really does explain what my trouble is from going right back to where I was. Now taking care of it is the hard part. I know I got it from taking 4 months of strong anti-boitics a while back, and not taking pro-boitics to keep my natural bactrias strong, which allowed the yeast to take over. This may explain why other folks I know could never stay on the VLCD while taking hCG too. They needed to deal with the yeast overgrowth first. My symptoms are hives (that is a recent thing), red hands, thrush on the tongue, of course the craving, a sinus infection that wouldn't go away (fungal treatment is working now), and the test is to, first thing in the morning, spit from the mouth in a clear cup or glass and watch for strings and how long it takes to migrate to the bottom of the cup. Spit is from mouth (saliva) and not the throat (phelgm) and you can just save the saliva for a couple minutes first. If you have no yeast, it will stay floating. The more you have, the quicker it will go to the bottom. (5 minutes to 1 hour) and the more strings you get, the worse. Mine went to the bottom in 1 minute and that was shocking to the health store lady. Their treatment did absolutely nothing. The Dr prescribed something, but too little and after a week, I am right back where I was, though at first it made my hives disappear, they did slowly come back after a week. I will follow up after the yeast is taken care of.