Questions from a fellow hCGer (and my answers)

Sherry wrote this morning:

Thanks for all your input on your blog. I'm new to all of this and I just went last week to a doctor who for 330$ gave me the hcg and program. I don't understand everything yet. How far are you? What does round 1,2,3,4 stand for? My list of things I can eat are different than yours, but I understand I think that if you stay under the 500 cal that you should lose.

I noticed that you have used chicken bouillon cubes in recipes?? I just bought a jar of reduced salt bouillon cubes to drink in hot water for 10 cal per cube. I don't like that much water and tea and I can drink a two or three cups of water with one cube with no problem. It satifies and I like it! Do you think this will hurt the diet?? I don't add alot of salt to my other foods and use sea salt when I do.

I started the diet last Friday and ate all I could eat for two days and still lost 3 pounds. On Monday I lost 1 lb and this morning another 1 lb. So, thats five pounds in 4 days??

How do the Braggs amino acids help you in this diet? I see that you cook with them but I know they must have another purpose!!! I do take t3 and t4 as the doctor told me to keep taking them--so I probably don't need the iodine drops as well.

I have a 40 day supply of hcg and will want to order on line next time to save money. Who do you order from? I do use a small needle of 25 (something) right now every morning. The bottle says 10,000 on it. Do you use the shot? I don't understand all the different choices.

I'm afraid I may have blown it last hour when I drank the chicken bouillon for my breakfast.

Also, I have a dinner to go to tomorrow night. The food is unlimited! And drinks, of course. Do you think I could save my meat for that meal and do 200 grams at the evening meal?

Thank you so much for your help.

And here's my response:

Wow Sherry! Thank you for writing in! It sounds like you were sort of given the basics and then left to your own devices to figure everything out from there... :( I'm sorry to read that, but it seems to happen quite a bit where hCG is concerned.

First, have you read Pounds and Inches by Dr. Simeon? If not, I've attached it and I'm sure you'll find it very useful.

Next, I've discovered that there's lots of different lists of what you can eat. I got my list from my nutritionalist, Tami from Daniel's Health Store. She's very knowledgeable about hCG and I trust her implicitly.

I chose to do the homeopathic drops for several reasons. 1) I really don't like needles. 2) They're lots less expensive. 3) That's what Tami sells. 4) They're way more portable than the injection style. 5) I didn't want my niece and nephew to think that the only way to release the weight I've got is by sticking a needle into my body. (I was concerned that they might develop the idea that needles were ok or something for when they're older, which could lead to drugs... I'm probably being just plain old paranoid there, but it is one of the reasons I chose the drops.) 6) I have the option to do 28, 40, or 60 day rounds that isn't available when doing the injections because your body develops immunity earlier with the injections. I got the initial program plus all the support I could need and the vitamins I need to take for $175. Additional vitamin/drops combination is $117. I did have to increase my drops to almost double, so the extra bottle of hCG was $24.95.

I've lost 32# so far on my journey to releasing 150#. So, I'm about 20% there! I started the end of August and this is my first round. A "round" is just how many times you go through the phases. So round 1, you'd go through the loading days, then the very low calorie diet (VLCD), then the maintenance. At that point, you could start round 2, where you'd do it all again.

You definitely need to stay right at the 500 calorie mark with your food. Too much causes no loss or a gain but too little causes your body to go into starvation mode which is REALLY not a loss. :) My list is here: http://lessofmehcg.blogspot.com/2009/08/overview-of-what-we-get-to-eat.html There's lots of people who have a much more strict list of foods, which come directly out of the Pounds & Inches book attached, but there seems to be just as many who have even more foods than I do. I figure I'm right in the middle and can be more strict should the weight loss stop. :)

If you don't like water or tea, I think your bullion cube is a clever idea! There's no restrictions on salt intake on the Protocol, but if your body isn't used to that much salt, it may try to retain water for a while and cause slow loss. If you find that your losses are slowing down to .4 and .5 pounds per day, look to your bullion cube as the first place to cut. I recall a time that I didn't much care for water, either, but the more I drink it, the more I like it *and* it has the added benefit of helping my body feel good, too.

LUCKY you to have lost on the loading days! And it sounds like you're doing wonderfully with your 5# loss in 4 days!! I gained 6# during the loading days... Every body is different, though, so you've just got to remember that your body is the guru here.

As far as Bragg's Amino Acids go, I think they're the best ones to tell you what benefits you get from using their product. You can read that here: http://bragg.com/products/laFAQ.html. You can also get a free sample here: http://bragg.com/samples/samples_24.php.

I muscle tested for the iodine drops. And not all iodine is created equal by any stretch of the imagination! If you do choose to do iodine drops, make certain they're IOSOL iodine drops. Regular iodine isn't compatible with the body and is, basically, poison. Iosol is compatible with the body and is used by it just like it would use kelp. If you want to read up on it, just go here: http://www.wellnessresources.com/products/iosol_iodine.php

Unfortuantely, there's no saving food from lunch to consume at dinner. You eat just 100g of meat at each meal. Dr. Simeon explains why in the Pounds and Inches book, as well as several other things. I highly recommend that you read up on that and try to follow it as closely as possible!

I'm planning to put this conversation on my blog, just so you know, but I promise not to use your last name. It'll just be that Sherry emailed with questions sort of thing. I think that a lot of people are in the same boat as you are - they get from their physician just "here's the basics and now hit the road" -or they go online and buy and don't even have the basics- and are FULL of these types of questions. Tami was invaluable to me for those things and I felt/feel fully supported. If you feel like you'd like to go with the drops and Tami next time around, here's her contact info:

Daniel's Health Store

daniels at gorge dot net

541.386.7328

Here's to less of us!

Hopefully, that will help some one else, too!