Preparing for your HCG round

Mom's decided that she wants to go another round.  She's having some trouble stabilizing and keeps gaining back about half of what she loses each round.  I'm sure you can guess that she's mighty disgusted over the whole thing, too, since you're supposed to reset the hypothalamus with HCG and hers just seems to be determined to have a mind of it's own and wants to be set high.

I have to tell you, though, my Mom's a real trouper.  She's absolutely amazing and such an inspiration every day for me (and, we're told, lots of you, too)!  The good news about this situation is that I get to test on her to find the best way to:

1. Prepare for a round
2. Get the most out of each round
3. Stabilize once you enter maintenance
4. Support your new body

So, to prepare for a round and really get the most out of it, there's a few things Mom's been doing.  Here's the list of the things that we automagically just "do" and don't really think anything of it, but find that it's really helpful for the success of the round.  I tried to make a list of the stuff we do and the products we use at the store, so it's all easy to find.  At least a week before and through loading days we do these things that might not be things that "everyone does" but that we do in preparation for the round:

1. Epsom salt bath WITH OIL each and every day (maybe even twice a day).  Use almond oil, lavender oil, tea tree oil, whatever-pleases-your-nose oil.
2. At least one meal each day, generally breakfast, is nothing but apples and cheese.  Ok, that's not completely true because I still enjoy my breve and Mom still enjoys her chai tea.  But the things we *chew* are only apples and cheese for the meal.
3. Do a couple oil treatments on your hair.  Really.  It doesn't really work if you've got that "Bed Head" hair style going, but if you have long hair, get some hair oil and put it on (lightly, of course).  It makes my hair have fewer fly-aways, gives it a healthy shine, and makes styling a little easier.
4. Use Heeltastic on your feet, hands, elbows, knees, and anywhere else that's got a tendency in your normal eating life to be a little dry.  Once you get into your VLCD part, it's just going to get worse, so prepare for it!
5. Use detox foot pads each night for a week.  It gets your system ready to be "clean" and makes the cravings and hunger *much* less (as reported in our testing grounds).

There's some other stuff we do, but I've not been watching closely enough to find those things we "just do" and recognize them as out of the norm.  I'll keep watching and let you all know when I find some more stuff, k?