Fat Men Can't Jump: My Personal HCG Journey: Ding! Ding! Round 2 of My Prize Fight Against Fat . . .

Ready for Round 2!!

Ok, so now that I have lost over 30lbs in a month using the HCG Diet, I can jump a little higher I suppose, but I'm no skywalker that is for sure. However it is very nice to do a few things without discomfort.  Simple things like tying my shoe without fretting a hernia or asphyxiation; reaching and scratching behind my shoulders and not having to rub up against furniture like livestock; wearing a neck tie without borrowing the neighbor's wench to get the top button secured because my neck has more chins than a Chinese phonebook; eating a meal with the confidence that if I happen to lodge anything organic or low fat in my throat, someone nearby will actually be able to get their arms around me and hoist me up to perform the Heimlich Maneuver; and finally being able to actually rise out of bed or off the couch as opposed to, what I like to call the "beached whale," wherein I hoisted my fat arse off the edge and attempted to catch myself with one hand and foot - this proved to be a very unfortunate mishap when one of those supportive appendages had fallen asleep!
Which brings us to this post and update. Since my last post, I have gone through 4 weeks of the maintenance phase and then about a week and a half of no diet at all. I tried to time the protocol so that I would be off the diet completely during Spring Break because Stacy (the smokin' hot wife!), and I went to Austin and Vegas for a little vacation, and I can assure that I wasn't going to worry about calories, maintenance, organics or "HCG-anything" while in those two cities. Fortunately, I am very happy to report that I did not blow back up like a blowfish while on vacation, and I certainly ate enough to do so. Stacy and I held nothing back while in Vegas (easy, folks I'm talking about eating)  - we visited the Bellagio Buffet, Pinks Hot Dogs, the House of Blues, and the Sugar Factory (a couple of times).  So I definitely threw my system for a loop while taking in large amount of calories, carbs and sugars compared to what I had been doing for the past 4 weeks on maintenance. On top of that, when I returned home I began loading for my second round of the HCG protocol. I started the drops and loaded up on Saturday and Sunday and began the 500 calorie diet (VLCD) on Monday when school started back. Here are the results from the vacation and loading days:
*Gained a total of 5lbs on vacation and 2lbs on loading days
*felt horrible after eating big meals (I can't believe I used to eat that much food regularly)
*was very tired for the first time in a long wile and began falling asleep on couch again
*began having headaches again

I really thought that I had gained at least 10lbs, at least that is what my body felt like, so I was very upbeat about the idea that I did seem to have a faster metabolism and my body was burning fat more rapidly and frequently. Obviously I was anxious to get back on the drops and lose the pounds I have gained back and also because I wanted to get down to 170lbs, which would be 50lbs total loss (my goal). I was a little fearful that I would not lose as much weight as rapidly as I did the first time on the drops, because I did not have as much to lose, but boy was I surprised coming out of the gate this time. After one week on the low calorie diet, I had lost 13lbs!!! Now, I did have some headaches the first few days and was a little tired at the end of the day, but some of that could have simply been getting back into the swing of the full work day. But by the end of the work week, I was feeling energetic and focused like I did the first go round on the drops. Here is a typical day of what I ate the first week back on the low calorie diet:

No Breakfast

Lunch (noon): 3.5 ounces (weighed raw) of organic or all natural skinless chicken breast; 2 leafs of green or romaine lettuce; 3 pieces of Old London brand wheat melba toast OR 1 piece of Wasa Crisp Bread Sticks; approximately 1 cup of Classic Yellow Mustard (my new ranch); 1oz of homemade, all natural salsa;1 medium apple

Dinner (between 6-7 pm):  3.5 ounce lean ground beef patty;  2 leafs of green or romaine lettuce; 3 pieces of Old London brand wheat melba toast OR 1 piece of Wasa Crisp Bread Sticks; approximately 1 cup of Classic Yellow Mustard;1oz of homemade, all natural salsa; 1 orange

Water: I tried to drink at least 2.5 liters of water each day - this is very important

Snacks:  there is no snacking, however, Beef Broth is a free food and sometimes in between meals (especially on the weekends), I will heat a cup up and drink it - I enjoy the beef, hearty flavor and it seems to pacify me.    Stacy will sometimes only eat half of her fruit allowance during her meal and save the other half for a snack between meals - which is a very good idea. She often will eat half a grapefruit an hour or so before going to bed.

It doesn't sound like much food, because it isn't!! But amazingly you don't feel like you are starving because of the HCG working in your system - it has convinced your brain that you are taking in 2000-2500 calories, so it continuously releases stored fat into your bloodstream which allows you to lose a pound a day, sometimes more.  Well that gets us to the present. I am on day 8 of the 500 calorie phase and I am excited about losing weight again, getting closer to my target weight, and feeling good. I am only doing 23 days on the drops this go around but it is my plan to update this blog each day throughout the duration of my second round of the HCG protocol, letting everyone know what I ate and also my weight loss or gain. I hope that you will check in frequently and also post your experiences with HCG. I would really like others using the drops, especially my customers, to post periodically to detail their experiences. Also, if you have any questions about the protocol or dynamics of the phases, please post them and I will do my best to answer them. Also, don't forget to check out a couple of new pages coming soon - Jimbo's Recipes and Before/After Pictures, where I hope to have some visual testimonials from some of my customers. Finally, I have left you with a couple of images signifying great things that happened in my life since my last post. Until tomorrow . . .