One of the reasons that I chose to go on this diet publicly is for the accountability.

If I blow it, I have to confess it to all of you…so here we go.

I will start slow and break it down.

I started on the 21 day HCG diet weighing 160.4 pounds.

And today is day 21 and I weigh 152.5 for a total weight loss of 7 pounds, 14.4 ounces.

That is of course nowhere near my goal of 20 pounds which may have been unrealistic to start with for the time range allotted.

But the nicest result so far is that my face is thinner and people are noticing the results.

A funny side note to this story is that my 111 pound Jockey boyfriend who is not on a diet has added more vegetables and water to his daily intake and has lost 4 pounds without trying!

Along the way, I did some testing to see what cheats I could share with you, and I did some emotional eating and sabotage.

My house was burglarized and that put me into the emotional eating stage for a couple of days. But with any diet, if you don’t make sustainable changes, you will only gain the weight back anyway.

(My posts often contain affiliate links to products or information that I believe will be useful to my readers.)

I previously shared that the HCG diet  is the only one that has ever worked for me before. I previously lost 19 pounds and kept it off for 7 years.

When I reread the instructions to the diet is says that menopausal women may need to repeat the diet.

So I’m raising my hand so say that I fall into that category.

At this point I’m determined to continue and you are going to think I’m crazy when you here the plan that I have devised to do that as inexpensively as possible since I have already invested $199 so far plus $80 worth of steak.

But before I tell you about that let’s look at some of the numbers.

The HCG diet restricts you to taking a hormone, eating a very limited 8 portions of protein, carbs, fruits and vegetables. Your caloric intake is 500 calories per day which is VERY small.

On this diet an average person can lose almost 1 pound per day.

To put that into perspective, you can also lose one pound per day by fasting, which is eating NOTHING as long as you do it for several days in a row. My first fast was 9 days and my record was 21 days but I did them both for spiritual purposes not weight loss.

I have recorded my data below so that we can all see what worked and what didn’t.

My Weight Loss Log

6-11-16: 160.4 pounds. I had pre-loaded my system by taking the HCG for the prior 3 days and started the diet portion on this day. Please note that the time of the day you weigh yourself can change your results. I always recommend the a.m. when you are the most dehydrated.

Breakfast: First I put 3 oz of steak on to cook with a little seasoning while I prepared everything else.

I also fill 4 22 oz. BPA free bottles with alkaline ionized water to drink throughout the day.

I made a juice/shake in my Nutra Bullet large container using the following: Peeled orange, celery, fresh basil leaves, fresh spinach, Zeal and alkaline ionized water from my Chanson water ionizer.

Please note that some days I put an orange, other days a whole apple including seeds and peel and other days I put in strawberries as my fruit. From here out, I will refer to this basic recipe as “Juice.”

I drink about 16 ounces of the juice/shake and put the other half in my bag to take to work for lunch. I just put the lid on the Nutra Bullet container and take it with me. I throw the 3 oz. of cooked steak into a zip lock bag and take it with me with the 4 bottles of water, juice for my lunch a few hours later.

It’s very important to stay hydrated and we are not looking for water weight loss but fat loss.

My entire breakfast ritual takes me 10-15 minutes including drinking the juice.

Lunch/Snack: Eat the steak, and later as a snack drink the juice. 5 wheat thins can be consumed as a snack as well twice a day and I found that very helpful but as you look at my results as me move along, I found that my weight loss was better without them even though they only added 40 calories.

Dinner: 3 oz. steak, salad consisting of spinach with Mother’s Vinegar and tomatoes and sprinkled dry basil and 5 fresh organic strawberries for dessert.

The above was my diet for most days and most of the time I was not hungry. There were two days where I was hungry and two days when I was weak.

I will list what I ate each day along with that days results but if it was exactly as above, I will refer to it as “basic” since this is my basic meal plan every day. If I cheated it was usually by adding 2 extra strawberries or 2 extra oz of meat.

Please note that each days food relates to what I ate the day before. I write it down in the morning related to the prior day.

6-12-16: 159.3 pounds. Basic food intake from above, 1 pound 1 oz loss off to a great start.

6-13-16: 158.4 pounds. Basic. 15 oz. loss, very happy camper.

6-14-16: 158.2 pounds. Only 2 oz. lost, Basic food, no cheating, even went for a walk. Grrrr not happy with the

results.

6-15-16: 157.9 pounds. Basic can u do the math here, I can’t figure it out.

6-16-16: 156.9 pounds. Basic food, exactly 1 pound of weight loss, YAY! I was still eating the wheat thins twice a day at this point as part of the “basic” diet.

6-17-16: 156.6 pounds. Only two ounces lost. I ate the basic but substituted mushrooms as my vegetable instead of the salad and I got greedy and had an extra serving of the mushrooms.

6-18-16: 156.8 pounds. Up 2 oz. even though I stayed strictly to the basic diet. Not too happy.

6-19-16 156.1 pounds. Down only 7 oz. even though I stayed strictly to the basic diet except I stopped eating the Wheat Thins so all future references to basic exclude the Wheat Thins unless they are noted. Not too happy about it.

6-20- 16: 155.5 pounds. Went a bit off the rails this day. Used 3 apples in my juice. Ate 2 3oz. portions of steak which is part of basic, had my spinach salad but also had one bite of hamburger meat and 1 slice of cheese.

6-21-16: 154.7 pounds. Basic, but I stuck a piece of Manchango goat cheese on top of my steak. (It was tiny and the diet allows for 1 spoon of creamer 1 time per day which I’m not doing so I wanted to test the little cheat.)

6-22-16: 154.2 pounds. Down 5 oz. Grr. Basic + 2 oz extra steak + more Manchango goat cheese on top of my steak.

6-23-16: 155.2 pounds. UP 1 POUND! My house was burglarized and I went off the rails with food and emotional eating this day and the next couple of days. Juice, 3 oz steak, 6 oz chicken with cream sauce, 2 Taco Supremes, and 2 desserts.

6-24-16: 155.9 pounds. UP 7 oz. Juice, 3 oz steak, 6 wheat thins, (2 cheese crackers, 2 cheese stuffed dates at a

reception) 8 oz chicken with cream sauce, garlic BREAD.

6-25-16: 154.7 pounds. Down 1 pound. 2 oz juice, 3 oz steak, strawberry, 5 wheat thins, spinach, strawberries, and

3 oz Chicken w/chipotle cream.

6-26-16: 154.7 pounds. No movement on weight. Ate basic but had 16 ounces of steak instead of 6 and had cheese on top of all 16 ounces.

At this point it’s very clear to me that I’m not going to make my goal in the 21 days. Every day that I cheat, I’m wasting money because I spent $199 on the weight loss drops that I’m consuming every morning. So now I’m going to let you in on the crazy plot that I hatched.

But before I do, I will tell you that I’m not called The Penny Pinching Princess for nothing.

Clearly I need to extend the diet. So I could spend another $199, or as I decided, I could use the really old HCG that I still have on hand. HCG is known for being a little unstable and not necessarily lasting that long and this stuff I have on had is OLD. And it’s injectable rather than drops.

You cannot get syringes without a prescription but I had some–or so I thought–for a B-12 prescription that I had gotten but never used.

So I decided that since I don’t know if the old HCG is any good, I would take the drops in the morning instead of 3 times per day, and take the shot in the afternoon so that at least some HCG would be in my system.

When I went to administer the shot, I found that the doctor had prescribed me syringes without needles! That’s beyond crazy. So I had 3 old pre filled syringes and I’m reusing them. I know, I know, I’m not supposed to do that. But I’m not sharing them with anyone so I’m convinced it won’t kill me.

6-27-16: 153.6 pounds. Down 1 pound, 1 ounce. Looks like the shot worked and maybe even better than the drops. Humm. Ate basic with the following exceptions added 5 wheat thins, 2 extra oz. of steak and tiny cheese.

6-28-16: 152.7 pounds. Down 15 ounces. Still very happy. Basic + 3 extra ounces of steak+ tiny cheese. My theory is that if I eat a little extra protein once in a while, my body won’t think it’s in starvation mode.

6-29-16: 153.2 UP. Hmmm. Not happy. Juice, 5 wheat thins, 8 oz steak, spinach, strawberries, 2 bites of cheese, 1 bite mac and cheese and I used hair conditioner.

6-30-16: 153.8 pounds. Up 6 ounces. I ate 1,000 calories instead of 500 which included the basic, plus extra chicken and 5 tiny chocolate covered figs that were 100 calories.

7-1-16: 152.5 pounds. Down 1 pound, 3 ounces. Juice, 3 oz steak, 3 oz chicken. 500 calorie salad, 100 calorie candy chocolate bar.

It’s very important to remember that you should not try this diet without also taking the HCG since you want to lose fat not muscle.

On the HCG diet, you use NO skin or face creams and you are not supposed to use hair conditioner. The goal is to add no fat to your body as you want to burn fat not muscle.

Here are two areas where I may have affected the results of my diet: I did use hair conditioner every 3 days. And I use lip balm about 100 times a day every day compulsively.

I am going to continue the diet as long as my supply of HCG lasts or until I reach my goal weight and will update you on my progress when I am finished.

DISCLAIMER:
I am not a doctor, please consult a licensed medical professional before embarking on any new health regimen.