(THE) L0SS IN TRANSITION

I guess I have purged myself dry over the last 3 entries. Well, that usually happens with new blogs, doesn’t it? It is something like the diet itself, multiple postings, then slowing down until eventually the ideas run dry. Blog postings occur in a staircase fashion too! Actually, all the thoughts and musings had been there in my mind for some time since I started the diet, just waiting to be typed out. Hence the triple play on a single day! I told MG, I should have started the blog earlier, it is good for venting and whining!

Today is the last day of my transition phase. I had hope that I could do a correction day, in order to achieve the 10kg loss but my weekends are not HCG-diet friendly. Yesterday (Saturday) was a near disaster, I purposely came home from work a little late to avoid going to a neighbor’s pre-Ramadhan lunch, but they packed and sent some leftovers of chicken briyani to our house. It is the norm of an effluent Malaysian society who scrambled to eat like gluttons pre-Ramadhan, as if after the Holy Month is over we could never ever eat again.

I resisted the briyani and steamed some fish instead and forfeited my fruit and stick for lunch. However, we had dinner at an ikan bakar place and I had to have another fish serving as the grilled fish is the lesser of two evil. The other choice was ‘ayam percik’ which is a definite no-no.  

 I braved the scale this morning to record a loss of 600gms which was a nice surprise for me. To date I have lost 9.3kg in 28days of VLCD. I am hoping that I could make it a round figure of 10kg but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Anyway, by the time Ramadhan is over with me being in Maintenance phase I am sure I can lose another kilo or two, Insyallah! Aminnnn!

I am looking forward to my Maintenance phase. In this phase we are allowed to eat most things EXCEPT starch and sugar. That means a NO-CARB diet which is no hardship for me. The important thing is that I can now have my low fat milk again! What a blessing that is! I have been collecting recipes for this phase as I can now share my meal with the whole family. Let’s see how I do in the next 21days. Until then, healthy living people!

“Come, our stomachs will make what's homely savory"

The above is a quotation from the most famous English sonnet and writer, William Shakespeare. Indeed, he has a very valid point that must have been felt by everyone who had been through hunger and starvation, he just said it better.

The VLCD (very low calorie diet) of 500Cal per day is really a humbling experience.Not only now I understand better the pain of hunger and starvation, but several other facts had been brought to light as well. Let me share them with you! 

As a Muslim I have fasted before, for at least 10-12hours a day during the month of Ramdhan, abstaining from food and drink and things which will make my act of obedience as null and void. But at the end of the 12hours or so, i know that a feast awaits me. Food glorious food! Multiple dishes,sweet, savory and creamy comprises of all the group of food in the food pyramid will be there, and in 20minutes of breaking fast you could replace whatever calories deficit you had while fasting that day.No hardship there.

On the other hand, complying with this diet, you must eat one type of protein with one type of vegetable in the amount permitted for lunch and dinner. You can have one fruit and a small stick of carbohydrate at both times. No more, full stop. You can eat less than the allocated calories but NOT MORE. You eat more, you pay! From this practice, I realized from that it is actually enough to have smaller meals as long as u eat regularly rather than wait until you are ravenously hungry where you tend to wolf down your food like there will be no tomorrow.

Looking at it closely too, I realized how healthy that is actually as well as not mixing various type of food group together. Our prophet Muhammad SAW(peace be upon him)way of eating was exactly as how Dr Simeon recommended. One type of protein should not be mixed with another, especially if they come from a different source, such as a land animal e.g. chicken vs fish, which comes from the sea. The chemical reaction that happens when they interact has some negative impact on our body which might not be discernible to us who had been mixing them all through life. The same goes for vegetable. It is the chemical reaction which helps us in burning the fat as well as boosting up our metabolism therefore making us lose weight. 

I also come to like and appreciate the taste of individual food, which I have taken for granted all these years. Spinach, blanched and ate with just a sprinkle of salt and a little pepper tasted divine. Asparagus, steamed with garlic and ginger played havoc with the taste buds. Grilled chicken with tomato salsa, Shrimp with grated cucumber soup, Dory or Cod cooked in sour broth with tomatoes, tummeric and lemon grass and the list went on and on.Somehow along the way, I found my creativity in creating recipes to satisfy my appetite!

Never a picky eater (which was the trouble to begin with), I now am more careful of what I put in my mouth. If you have limited things to eat, you would make sure that only eat the best! heheh

I also vowed to incorporate this healthy way of eating as much as possible even after I am done with this diet. Healthy living means healthy eating too!

I also learned from this experience that hunger could turn me into a monster. I snarled and grumbled, whined and whined at my friends and my husband, and snapped at my children. I was letting my tummy took control of me, my mood and my relationships.I saw how ugly it was I could be and made efforts to change immediately! It took me a while to school myself from being governed by my appetite and hunger pangs. I trained myself to stop, and control my mood and exercise patience and control. I am still trying but it is not so hard now these days as compared to the first week.

I learned that this diet brings me closer to my friends. A thing in common that makes us lend support to each other and push each other into reaching our goals, whatever they are.

I am still in the transition phase but I am sure there will be more lessons to be learned from this humbling yet enriching experience. Until it comes to light, healthy living my friends! 

Weight Loss Journey-- Core Phase, the start of the challenge!

If you have read the previous entry and the links there, you would know that there are 5 phases in this HCG diet:

1. Loading
2. Core
3. Transition
4. Maintenance
5. Stabilization

I am currently in my 2nd transition day before moving on to the Maintenance phase the day after tomorrow and I do not want to talk about the loading phase at this particular moment. Maybe later, during my better times.. but  I will always remember my Loading phase with fondness and longing, and that is all I am going to say about it for now!

Lets get to the to the core (pun intended) of the business. Core phase is the crux of the matter with this hcg diet. For 13-45days you have a very restrictive calories intake AND allowable specific food ONLY. Luckily, I was methodical enough to go through the protocol carefully, poring through the manuscript and preparing myself mentally before taking on the challenge. 


The key word to embarking in this diet is MENTAL PREPARATION. 

• You have to want your weight loss badly enough - because the core phase is not easy. A hundred grams of protein and a cupful of vegetable cooked without oil/butter or any form of fat. It means soup and soup, and more soup for as long as the Core and Transition phase last.

• You have to realize and understand that it is going to be hard. Working for something good is, usually, so this is no different. I thought I would breeze through it as I had done it before by limiting myself to about 1000-1200Cal per day, but this is 500Cal is like starvation, and therefore be prepared for hunger pangs! I was not prepared for the intense craving for carbohydrate because in my previous diet regime it was allowed albeit in very limited amount.
• You have to KNOW that there will be temptations. The diet is not hard when you are eating alone. You just sit at your dining table and visualize a slimmer and healthier you and the soup will taste delicious. The real challenge is when you have company, the ones who do not understand that you are on a diet who cajoles and teased you into having 'just a little won't hurt' bite. It is bad with an ordinary diet, where the restriction is only on amount of food, but its worse, on a HCG diet because you can only eat one kind of protein and one kind of vegetable at a given meal time. Try going to an office party where they served Nasi Bukhara, pasta, fried chicken, mixed salad etc. Try cleaning up the protein or separating cucumbers from a salad, and you will get some funny stares all around.
• You have to be prepared for the weird way the waiter will be looking at you when you order your food while dining out. There are only a handful of restaurants that can cater for the diet, mainly western ones (read:expensive!) and even they could not comply with absolutely "NO OIL" rule. I made do with grilled beef, chicken or fish (which i blot with bread to get rid of the oil)   and an uncooked tomato. I usually chickened out and asked my friend to order for me hehehe... or if i am alone, i prefer going home to eat.

 "Oh waiter! I'll have the grilled chicken, sauce on the side, no butter or oil please, oh if u must, just a little bit of olive oil then,if u please,  and can you substitute the mash potato and the vegetable with one tomato please?" and still they say, "Maam, i have to check with the chef first"! with their eyes as big as saucers...Duhhh!!!

•  One of the way to avoid such temptations is to choose the right time to attempt this diet. Choose a time when you do not have to attend social functions, or near festivities where there will be parties and open houses etc. Timing is the key!

• You have to have good support system. DO it with a friend, so you do not have to go through this alone. You can have someone to share your sad cravings and makes it funny. You can whine and cry over hunger pangs and have someone tell you to drink your unsweetened green tea or water with apple cider vinegar and go to sleep. It made my core phase certainly more bearable!

An excerpt of my sms with MG:

Me: Damn hungry tonight. Just ate an orange and my tummy is growling.

MG: that happens. I usually forced myself to sleep.Take coffee la

ME: i am surfing hcg support group forum to find solace in others' sufferings lol

MG: hahahah

• You must prepare for the things required in this diet program. The HCG drops, the digital weighing scale, the measurement tape, the lean meat, the stevia etc. This is where friends come in handy. 
• You must be prepared for a realistic pattern of weight loss. The protocol said, a staircase pattern, which means some day you lose then you might stall and then lose again. If you cheat on the protocol, you might even gain, oh myyyy!! and how i gained... but that's another story for another entry:-D
• You must set a limit to this endeavor, either time or weight loss limit. You can't go on blindly and hoping to get the best out of it like I did. It gets tiring and frustrating eating the same thing everyday. The consolation however is the constant weight loss. And if like me, with no goals in mind, by the time i finished my core phase I regret not pushing myself to lose 10kg instead of 8.
• You must not cheat (hehehe), but you must be realistic too and know that you will cheat (more than once) and therefore prepare yourself to get back on track and make amends and remind yourself that you only have to do it for a limited time. 

Alright, enough with the negative preparation. There are certainly positives one you must be prepared for too:

• The fat will melt away. Be prepare for friends, family and colleagues to question you why and haunt/hound you for details.
•  Your clothes will be loose and you will rather keep on wearing them rather than go and buy new ones because you KNOW you are going to lose more weight next week and therefore do not want to spend your hard-earned money for now. Just make sure you invest in a very tight belt on your pants until you reach your target.
• You must learn to accept compliments graciously.  (yeah ! like that is so hard....)
• You must be able to deal with jealousy or envy gracefully too.
• You must be able to curb your impulse to approach anyone overweight you see on the street and blabber to them about HCG- tsk tsk tsk!
• You must be prepare to adopt a healthy lifestyle because you do not want to go on eating like that for the rest of your life

• You must be prepared to really spend some money for a new wardrobe soon because Raya is coming soon and there are sales everywhere now and you KNOW you are going to look fabulous! yehaaaaa!

OK, to be continued... my tummy is growling.. one and a half day to maintenance.....until then, healthy living people! 

I leave you with this list i made for a friend who started HCG diet a week later than me! 

Salam O, here is the list, not in particular order, just top of my head. what u need most though, is the superpower that wont make u eat when people invite or force u to :-D (on our own we will be ok)

1. Hcg drops

2. plastic spoon

3. Measuring tape

4. Digital weighting scale

5. Old levi's jeans

6. Green tea

7. Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar

8. Notebook - to record

9. Small thermos

10. Food container for 100gms protein

11. Chicken breast, beef steak, peeled prawns

12. Lettuce, cabbage, spinach, celery, asparagus

13. Grissini sticks

14. Onion powder,chilli flakes, white and black pepper

15. Dried Condiments- rosemary, oregano etc

16. Measuring cup

17. Kitchen weighing scale

18. Water bottle

19. Laxative tea

20. Multi vitamin

21. Stevia

22. Ziploc containers for takeaways

 

Nothing To Lose .... Just fat, but everything to gain!

My weight and I have a tumultuous relationship. I have been yoyo-ing all my adult life and always had been bordering on the heavier side. I had never been classified as obese but I have crossed the barrier of ' severely overweight' from time to time. Being a woman, I blamed it on multiple factors such as hormonal imbalance, depression, work pressure, family stress, marital discord and everything under the sun except my laziness, procrastination and gluttony.

My relationship with food however had always been a loving one, I love food, I love the smell, the look,the taste, the preparation, the cooking and of course the EATING! My intense and passionate love for food can only be matched with my intense and passionate hate for physical activity unless it is mall-walking. Hence the weight problem!

My wake up call came in the form of two delightful blessings that God has bestowed to me in 2007. I had twins! Being a mother really inspired me to become a better person in so many ways. I was 86kg then, the heaviest I have ever been ( I am 157cm tall, by the way, making my ideal weight around 57 to 59kg). I was unhappy about the weight but not happy to do anything about it either until I had a vision of myself running around after my two-would-be-very-active twins and falling and rolling and stumbling, turning blue and breathless from the exertion. Duhhh!  That was not a very pretty sight. That and multiple other factors such as health issues associated with being overweight, the Humty dumty image, people who are close to my age calling me 'makcik' (talk about self-image, duhhh!!!), knee pain, loin pain, elbow pain etc, Zara, British India and a whole lot of idiot boutiques that do not carry plus sizes, and concerned friends who I am grateful for until now, I was spurred to lose 20kgs in about 5 months by cutting down calories and exercising. 

Oh! and what a transformation it was! I was happier , leaner and fitter than I have ever been in my life, The satisfaction carried through to my relationship with others, my husband, my friends and collagues and even God! I tend to blame HIM less when something didn't go my way .... hehe... Until I went over again after my gall bladder surgery early this year. My surgeon told me not to do any strenuous exercise up to 3 months post surgery. I happily obliged but continued to consume the same amount of calories with occasional rise in calories intake whenever i met up with friends. I extended the no-exercise break until 5-6months post surgery and the weight crept up. I felt my new clothes getting tighter but being the asinine that I was, I continued to be in denial and avoided looking at the scales which cost me 8kg by May this year. Panicked and frustrated, I went back to the old regime of calories cutting and exercising to lose it again. It is a long and tough process although I was healthily losing about a kilo every week, which was OK until i heard of the HCG diet from a friend who had tried it and sworn by it. She was the living the proof that the diet works. Not only does it work, it works fast too! You can lose up to a kilo per day if you follow a certain protocol! 

Being a doctor I was skeptical at first, especially upon hearing that I need to go on a very low calorie diet which only allows 500Cal per day and have to eat only certain food to get to such a loss. But one look at her slimmer, leaner and healthier body and disposition told me that she had not suffered from malnutrition or a diet scam. I went home and did my research and was convinced to give it a try. A kick start or a jump start to get my old weight back so that I can fit in into my new wardrobe again. 

And oh!!! what a kick start it was, as a friend put it, it was like Christmas morning everyday standing on the scale and watched the kilos whittled away. I lost 8.1kg up to today which is my 27th day of the 500Cal per day diet (VLCD). I survived the hunger pangs, the stalling, the gain-after cheating and the weird craving for food that I actually never liked before. On the other hand, I gained a slimmer and leaner ME, a camaraderie with my friends who started the diet with me around the same time, an appreciation towards healthy eating and food choices, a tool to be used later if, and it is a very BIG if, God forbids I ever go above my desired target weight ever again.

I was not tired nor lethargic and able to perform my physician duty, motherly duty and wifely duties as per normal. 8 kilos in 27 days! I had only planned to do the minimum days required by the protocol which is 18days but seeing the drops in 'pound and inches' urged me on until today.

For those who wants to know more of this diet, you can read it here,I am currently on my second day of transition phase and looking forward to the Maintenance phase in two-days time, which I will share with you, if you care to read more, that is!

Until then, healthy living, my friends!