Fueling with Green Energy

I wish it was as easy as simply going for a run, riding the bike, or doing the daily dozen.  Then there is that "eating thing" to consider.  Damn.

A couple of weeks ago I was driving the girls to swim team practice, and heard one of the many radio commercials for a varity of diet products.  This particular commercial promoted a Human Chorionic Gonadatropin, or as it is most regulary referred to, HCG.  In general, HCG is a protein based hormone produced naturally by the body of pregnant women.  I'm not a girl doctor so I'm not going to try to explain what it is supposed to do for pregnant women, but it has been promoted since the 1950's or so as aiding in wieght lose.  In the last 5 - 10 years, it has become increasingly more popular here in the United States.

I have friends who have used HCG and followed the associated diet protocol with great success and have the pictures and scale resultes to prove it.  So, when the commercial stated things that I was vulnerable to ("conducting product research in your area", "first 50 callers", etc) I called the number and ordered my HCG.

There is a strict diet protocol to follow while taking any form of HCG product.  Last Tuesday I began the most challenging portion.  My food intake was limited to 500 calories a day, with a very strict menu from which to find those 500 calories.  The theory is that the HCG causes your body to burn body fat in order to provide the requisit daily calories.  This portion lasts for 21 days.  Following are two more 3-week periods with associated diet protocol without taking any of the HCG product.  During the first 3-week period, body wieght losses average about 1-2 pounds per day. 

Now, when I started on Tuesday I told myself I was a willing participant as long as I could continue to workout.  If I couldn't workout because of fatigue, then I was done.  If the HCG would cause my body to burn body fat to provide the necessary energy through calories, then I reasoned that if I was exercising, the HCG would cause my body to bun more fat to meet the needs from a workout.

- Tuesday: 500 calories, HCG drops, and a workout.  The workout felt good.  I felt good aside from being hungry of course.  When I woke up Wednesday, I had lost 5 pounds!
- Wednesday: 500 calories, HCG drops and a workout.  Again, the workout felt good.  I still felt good.  Still hungry, BUT on Thursday morning I had lost another 5 pounds!  10 pounds in 2 days, holy @$%&!
- Thursday: 500 calories, HCG drops and a workout.  Except...I couldn't finish the workout.  It was just a run around the neighborhood of about 1.5 miles.  I had a headache all day long and I'd been constantly hungry for 3 days now.  On Friday morning, I had lost 1 pound.
- Friday:  500 calories, HCG drops and no workout.  Headache all day long....again.  Now, add in "brain fog" and occasional jitters.  Fourth day of being hungry all day long, and now it was effecting my mood at home and elsewhere.

When Kim came home from work Friday I told her I didn't think I could do the HCG.  I know that without a doubt, I have to change my diet.  But jumping into the extreme end of the diet pool wasn't going to work for me.  Kim asked what the alternative was, which we discussed, and I settled on a diet program that came with the Rip-60 Fitness system I bought, and it started then and there at dinner on Friday.  More importantly, she supported me by saying, essentially, one-size does not fit all and do what is best for your goals.

I really shouldn't call what I'm doing now a "diet".  Rather, it is eating right, with an appropriate amount of calories.  Fish and lean meats for clean protiens.  Vegetables, fruit and whole grains for clean carbs.  Healthy fats which the body requires.  Extremely limited sugars and starches.  Incidentally, the HCG protocol also calls for a very clean diet over the course of the program, it is just extremely calorie restrictive in Phase 1 and I couldn't handle that physically or mentally.

HCG works for some people.  My friends who did it and had great results are proof, and I have great respect for them for being able to do it.  I couldn't.  Another friend of mine lost 15 or so pounds by simply cutting his portions in half at each meal.  (Unless I buy lunch for him, then he always seems to order the adult portion) 

The point is, find something that works for you. And find something that is sustainable so that it isn't a diet for a period of time, but rather becomes a habit or way of life.  I know I found mine.  The proof?

Thursday I couldn't run 1.5 miles without stopping, and I haven't run more than 2 miles in a long, long time. 

Tonight I went on a run and when it was over, I had covered 3.8 miles and I did not stop once.