The second time around is not so bad. I find a lot of comfort in "the known". The known is that this is worth it, I will lose a good chunk of weight and I will be able to keep it off with a pretty normal lifestyle afterwards. During the first round, these were all unknowns. I am delighted that I can eat plenty of delicious and satisfying foods after HCG.
What has worked for my husband and I was to eat a lot less simple carbs. I don't eat white bread or sugar cereals. I don't drink much fruit juice except for a small glass of o.j. once a week or so. I don't eat full blown sweets on a regular basis. I'll have a little piece of cake at a party or something and honey you know I ate me a Reese's PB egg or two during easter! But as a rule, I wasn't a sweet eater after HCG. HOW CAN THIS BE ACCOMPLISHED?!! For me, it's because I eat lots of other super satisfying things like eggs and cheese and ranch dressing:) I make sugar free pudding with one cup of unsweetened almond milk and one cup whole cream. It's pretty darn good. And I didn't gain back a single pound. It isn't fat that makes me fat. It's sugar and white flour. I still eat cereal and bread in small amounts (1-2 servings a day) but they are always whole grain. Real whole grain, not the lying cheezy Nabisco type of "whole grain". So, eating real fats, real grains, veggies in large amounts etc, I feel full, I eat less and don't have wild swings of overwhelming cravings for ice cream and sugar and other pop tarty type junk. This experience and knowledge has comforted me during this VLC phase.
There are still hard things, like last night I made my homemade Italian meatballs and simmered them in from-scratch tomato sauce. Sigh...watching my kids dip their buttery, crisp garlic bread in that goodness was brutal! Cooking it, rolling the meatballs, cleaning up the dishes and then being NO PART of that meal was emotionally hard. I'm such a weirdo, I know, but cooking and eating is a big joy in my life. Taking that out for 35 days is hard. HCG food has no soul:) I've tried so many recipes and it's just not good. Sorry. So, we eat it to stay alive and to loose the weight.
I know this is such a long post, but I'm determined to record all of these thoughts and realizations. I look at this second round as not only a time to lose weight, but as a refresher course in portion size and a reminder of how good it feels to be off of sugars and junk.
Speaking of sugars and junk...MY CRUISE! Holy cow. My stable weight after Round 1 P4 was about 174-176 lbs. I maintained that easily for two months. Then came the cruise. I remember sitting down to my first breakfast and feeling so crazy eating french toast with a pastry on the side and drinking o.j. and milk and piles of this and that covering my tray. It didn't take long to get back into that style of eating and it didn't take long to reflect on my body. My stomach swelled up, my pants got tight and I could see my face puffing up as the days went on. I didn't worry about it too much because ...IT'S A CRUISE!! But when I got home I weighed 184. Some of it came off before I even started Round 2 on Saturday. My body was just crying uncle. So this morning's weigh in was 175.6. I'm back in my stabilized range and can now make some real progress!
Now it is just patience and eating a whole bunch of boring food for the next month. Looking forward to peanut butter again!
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