Orange Peel: HCG Smoothie

I just did HCG agian and Orange Peel has a great Strawberry smoothie that counts as 1 serving of fruit. It's super tasty, but it's $5.00!!!! Which to me, is a lot of money. So I came home and whipped one up on my own and I actually liked it better than the Orange Peel smoothie.

Strawberry Smoothie:

1 & 1/2 cup crushed ice, or ice cubes
enough cold water to make 2 cups w/ the ice
1 pkg. strawberry flavored crystal light
10 medium frozen strawberries
fresh lemon juice 1/2 to 1 full lemon, to taste

Blend until smooth. If you would like you can add truvia, or vanilla flavored stevia. You don't even need to have the crysal light. It adds more flavor, but it does add 10 calories. It counts as 1 serving of fruit and this amount will make a huge cup. It makes you feel like your getting a great treat!!!

HCG week 2

Thursday: I am officially on HCG Hiatus. I still have a few day's worth left, but for my sanity I am going off. I ate eggs this morning and they were so good! I am not losing the way I wanted to. My husband has a theory. I have been doing Zumba every morning now for atleast 2 weeks and have been doing it 3 times a week for a few months. He thinks I'm building muscle and that is why I don't see the numbers on the scale that I want to. Doesn't make me feel any better. I'm going a little crazy. I weigh myself morning, noon & night. What good does that do me? It only feeds my craziness. I think I need to regain my sanity and take a break. Keep eating healthy and watching what I eat and exercising. I need to relax and accept myself for who I am, right at this moment. I have lost 50 lbs since April. That is amazing!! I need to enjoy that for a moment. I still think HCG is great! I probably will do it agian, but after the first of the year. To any who may want to start this journey, good luck!!! It's an amazing ride!

Wensday: Weighed in at 193.


Tuesday: Weighed in at 193.8. FRUSTRATED! I am just not losing the way I should be. I wonder if I am growing immune to the HCG??? I know that I had a about a week where I didn't lose weight the first time I was on it, but I lost a lot of inches. Maybe that is what is happening here. Keeping our fingers crossed.



Monday: Weighed in at 194 even, not much.

Sunday: weighed in at 194.4. That's good. A little at a time! Still having a really hard time. I think it's because I am losing weight, even though I am doing little cheats. Got to stop it. I am going on HCG hiatus when this is done. I have been on the program since April and I think I need a little break.

Saturday: Forgot to weigh in.

HCG: Week 1

Friday: weighed in at 195.8. Not much, but I have a confession to make. I cheated yesterday. I'm not as strict this time around as I should be. So my bad. I'm back on track.

Thursday: weighed in at 196.4. YES!! This is the kind of loss I want! It probably had something to do with going to Zumba this morning. I didn't weigh in until after I got home. So we'll see how tomorrow plays out. Zumba is probably why my Monday was quite a bit lower too.


Wensday: weighed in at 198.4. Slow and steady.


Tuesday: Weighed in at 199. That is progress. Although, I was hoping for a bigger number. It's usually pretty high the first few days. Well, a pounds a pound. And if you count from my first wiegh in, it is 2 lbs. Not bad.

Monday: Weighed in at 200.2. Weird. I didn't do a very heavy load day on Sunday, though. What an awful day with my kids. I One of the things that I do know about myself is that I am an emotional eater. It was so hard to no go in the kitchen and eat. Hope today is better tomorrow.

Sunday: Weighed in at 202.4. I did another load day this day.

Saturday: Weighed in at 201. Started the HCG drops for my first load day.

HCG: Here we go agian

The picture in black & white is from about a week ago and the picture in color was taken 1 week before I started the HCG. Big diffrence, huh? It's embarrassing to show the difference, but I think it helps people to see the diffrence 40 pounds makes. I had my little boy take some pictures of me today and I will try to post those in the next few days to show you the diffrence from beginning to end of a cyle of HCG.

That's right I am beginning another round of HCG. I will try to do random updates on the blog to let you know how it is going. I started this morning with my load up days! I ate a coconut cupcake for breakfast! It was heavenly, but I feel pretty yucky right now. I always do on the days you load up. My body just isn't used to that much sugar and fat.

This is my third round of HCG. I am hoping to lose atleast another 15 lbs. Here is my stats in all their awful yuckiness.

I started out at 238 lbs. The heaviest I have EVER been. Three kids later, it was bound to have left a mark on my poor body. I just never lost anything after my third child, two years ago. After two rounds of HCG, I was at 198 lbs. Today I weighed in at 201. They say to stay within 2 lbs. of your last HCG dose day, so I was up 1 lb. this morning. It was the coconut cupcake I had last night and the panini, I am sure, that put me over.

If you want to follow me in my journey, I will post an update every Saturday.

HCG Update

So, I've noticed that alot of traffic has come to our blog from Google, and people looking up the HCG diet. I have also had several of you, my faithful friends and readers contact me about my experience and ask questions. I have posted about my experience with the HCG diet before, click here to check out those posts.

I just recently came off of it agian. This was my second round. I did the shots for 40 days the first time, and drops for 14 days the second time. I liked the drops much better. My energy was much higher on the drops and I wasn't hungry like I was on the shots.

I have lost a total of 40 lbs and I have gone down from a size 20 to a 14. IT'S AN AMAZING FEELING! My self confidence is up and my energy is out of control! I think I may do it agian, but I am going to take a break for a few months. I'm thinking maybe agian in October. The most amazing thing is that I have been able to maintain the weight loss. It's defiently a change of lifestyle and eating habits. I am going to have to really watch what I eat for the rest of my life, because it could be very easy to slip.

Lot's of people have asked me where I got the shots, and I got those online. My friend who also did it actually did the ordering. I'm not exactly sure where she got them. The drops are being sold locally in my town, by one of my friends. I know lots of you are looking to purchase HCG from a reliable source. The biggest question that people have asked me is, where can you purchase it and know it's safe? If your interested in doing the drops, you can contact Karen. She is willing to ship them. If your interested, contact her at campkar@yahoo.com , she and her husband have both done this diet and lost a ton of weight. Karen knows lots about it and she is a great resource for those who are interested. She can fill you in on the price and all the details when she contacts you. Just tell her Brandy sent ya and she'll take care of you. She's great!!

Good luck to all of you who are thinking of doing it!! It's a hard decision and one that it took me almost 9 months to make, but I am happy that I did it. It was the right decision for me.

HCG follow up

So I finished out my 40 day's on the HCG diet two weeks ago. Happily, I've been able to add a wider variety of food to my life. I've found that with more freedom though, I've sorta lost control. Every morning I weigh in and see where I am at. If I go higher than 2 pounds of my last weigh in date, which was the last day I took a shot, I'm in trouble. So far I have yet to do that. I am maintaining my weight loss. I've been able to add in a wider variety of fruit, some cheese, a little milk and a variety of other fun food. Stuff that I would probably never eat before, but it's like manna from heaven!

I lost 29 lbs in 40 day's. You would think that I would be overjoyed about that, right? I am extremely happy, but yet I still feel really fat. I think that is society. Or maybe I am just crazy. I know I still need to lose about another 40 lbs, but I can't seem to be really happy about the 29 that I have lost. I'm happy and yet disappointed that it wasn't more. Does that make sense? I think that society has made me this way. I will never be twiggy thin, and while my idea of beauty is far from meeting the ideals of the media, I still let the media affect me. My own standards do not apply to myself. How does that work?

I am going to do the HCG diet again in 6 weeks. This time instead of shots I am going to use the drops, which are taken twice a day as opposed to the 1 shot a day. I am excited to see if they work better than the shots. The shots work great! I just got really tired of sticking myself every day.

Would I recommend this diet? You bet! It's a great way to lose weight and fast, but it also has really changed my eating habits and my portion control. I thought I was going to starve those first few days, but it really is all in my head. I feel much better and I feel empowered and motivated! I will lose the rest of this weight. I started going to Zumba this week and it makes me excited that I care enough about myself to continue this journey. It's a struggle and it probably always will be, but I have to do it. I want to be around for my kids and I want to be a fun mom who gets out and plays with them. I want to be healthy and happy! I deserve it.

My HCG diet (The Longest Post Ever)

I've had a lot of interest in the HCG program that I am doing. First of all, I am doing this on my own, I am not going to a clinic or being supervised by a doctor. If you google the HCG diet, you will find a ton of information online that you can read. You will also be able to find HCG in many different forms that you can purchase online. There are a lot of people who have had a tremendous amount of success with this diet and there are those who have not.

At this point I have been giving myself shots for 28 day's and have lost 23 pounds. I had several days where I did not lose weight, in fact I gained 1 lb., but was suffering from a serious sinus infection. I was taking tons of Emergen-cee and Nyquil at that time.

The first 2 days of the diet, are called your load up days. These days are fun! You eat and you eat and you eat. You eat all the things you love and all thing high in fat and sugar. I actually gained 3 pounds in those 2 day's, but I lost them on my very first 500 calorie day. For 21 days, following the loading day's you give yourself an injection of HCG. Then you are allowed around 500 calories a day. Sounds crazy, right? The first couple of day's were really hard. But at this point, it's not to bad. I am actually full when I eat my meals. Here is the breakdown of what you would eat in a day.

I have several friends who have done this diet and I am just following what they did. They have all had great success with it and have modified it a little bit here and there. Here is the breakdown of what foods you are allowed.

Meat: You can pick 2 servings of meat per day. Each serving is 4 oz. Grill or bake.

Beef
~Steak
~Extra Lean Ground Beef
~Beef, roast

Chicken Breast ~ Skinless & boneless

Wild Chilean sea bass. Wild Flounder
Wild Halibut, Wild Sole
Lobster, Shrimp, Crab

Buffalo or Veal

You can also do 1/4 cup lowfast cottage cheese or you can do 1 egg w/ 2 egg whites.

Vegetables: You can pick 2 vegetables to eat per day:

Lettuces of any kind / 2 cups
tomatoes 1 cup
Spinach 2 cups
cucumbers 2 cups
Asparagus 2 cups
white, yellow or red onions 1 cup
cabbage 2 cups
Broccoli 2 cups
Cauliflower 2 cups
Beet Greens 2 cups
Chard 2 cups
Red radishes 2 cups
Celery 2 cups
Fennel 1 & 1/2 cups
Chicory Greens 1 cup

Fruit: You can pick 2 servings of fruit per day.

medium sized apple
medium sized orange
1/2 medium sized grapefruit
10 medium sized strawberries

Melba Toast. You can have 2 slices of Melba Toast per day. Or if you can find them you can have one Grissini Breadsticks.

I think that each person has to individualize this to themselves. I tried making a vinegar dressing for my salad and I ate it every day for about 10 days and I couldn't eat it any more. I found Fat Free Italian dressing, by Kraft that has 16 calories per serving. I opted to add 16 calories to my diet, because it gave me another option. Your not really supposed to have oil, while you are on this diet, but I figured it's such a small amount, and it hasn't stopped my weight loss. I also use Fat Free Non-dairy coffee creamer. Your allowed 1 tbsp. of milk a day. So I use that on my strawberries. I have also found that herbal tea is very helpful. I try to drink 2 glasses a day to help me meet the water intake requirements. Green tea, is also very good for you as it is full of antioxidants and aids in weight loss. I was able to find several different brands that carried decaffeinated green tea. I sweeten the tea with Truvia, which you can find at Walmart in the sugar section. It is a calorie free sweetener and it is very good. I use it sometimes on my strawberries or grapefruit. On my very bad day's I have sugar free posicles. They have 10 calories per popsicle, and it just makes you feel like your having a little treat. Your also not suppossed to have diet drinks or Crystal Light, but I have been allowing myself 1 Crystal Light a day. At 10 calories, this hasn't altered my weight loss either. On day's I have a popsicle, I will opt not to have the Crystal Light. You can also find sugar free Creme Savers that have 9 calories per piece.


So here is my normal day.

Breakfast: Melba Toast, strawberries w/ 1 Tbsp. fat free French Vanilla Creame & 1 cup tea

Lunch: 4 oz. chicken w/2 cups steamed broccoli

Snack: 1 orange w/ melba toast

Dinner: 4 oz. fish w/2 cups spinach & 2 tbsp. fat free Italian dressing & 1 cup tea

This diet takes an amazing amount of willpower! One thing that I have learned is that I REALLY need to watch my portion control. I don't miss sweets as much as I thought I would. I miss milk and cheese more than anything. This isn't for everyone. My sister started it with me, but she did not do the shots. She lost 18 pounds very fast, but was very tired and wore down, so she stopped after about 2 weeks. I'm not exactly sure how the HCG works, but it does!!