Weight Loss

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to weigh less. I've tried a few things, here and there, but I'm not a die-hard dieter. In fact, the more I learned about "dieting" in general, the less I was interested in the whole idea.

And then...

I read about a diet that used a chemical, which is produced in *certain* (to be explained later) bodies, which will unlock anybody's potential to use their own fat storage. Before you start to feel like I'm trying to sell this diet to you, it's called hcg, I did one of the homeopathic versions.

Twice a day for about 40 days, I sprayed a chemical into my mouth. During those 40 days, I was on a very specific, very low calorie diet. In that time, I lost about 0.7 pounds per day, making my total loss almost 30 pounds.

Hopefully you can see the difference in these pictures:

Right now, I am in the "maintenance" phase, which means I'm not eating anything with sugar or starch (I can have most fruits), attempting to teach my body that this is the new natural weight. In 3 weeks, I will slowly start adding sugars and starches until I'm back to eating like normal.

It's been an interesting time, eating only twice a day, preparing most of my lunches the day before. As the holidays have been approaching, it's been more difficult seeing and smelling all the candies, chocolates and other assorted treats. One of the things that has helped me recently is the discovery that blended frozen strawberries make something very similar to ice cream. And the best part, I'd say, is being able to fit into some of the clothes that I haven't warn in a few years, since the last time that I was close to this weight was about 2007.

So now, the more specific details about the diet, in case you're interested. Hcg is a chemical that is produced from the placenta of pregnant women. It allows the womans body to access her fat storages so that the baby has a constant supply of fuel, even when the woman isn't able to keep any new food down. This is the chemical that, when present, causes a pregnancy test to be positive.

Scientists have discovered a way to extract hgc from the urine of pregnant women and use it as a dieting tool for any body (male or female, in fact men tend to lose weight faster, which is typical). The traditional method of application is an injection, once a day, but this is far more expensive. There are two homeopathic versions that I know of, one is drops under the tongue, the other is a spray in the back of the mouth. Please note, that the homeopathic version is the "electronic signature" of the hcg, and not the same thing that's being injected. I paid $70 for one bottle of spray that lasted me for my whole 40-day diet.

Basically, on the diet, I'm tricking my body to think that it needs to unlock the fat storage, then I eat only about 500 calories a day, which forces my body to actually use the fat storage. Note, that this is different than a starvation diet because with a starvation diet, your body will use the "normal" fat and then start breaking down muscle. With this diet, you only use the "abnormal" or storage fat and to test this, I took a urinalysis test every morning to verify that I wasn't losing protein. Also, this makes the diet self-limiting, in that if a person were to lose all of their storage fat while on the diet, they would become very hungry and have to end the diet.

The results were fast and undeniable. I'm not sure if I would do the diet again, but I am glad that I did it. Here are the links that I read before I tried the diet, in case you want to learn more.

The original ebook about the hcg diet:

http://www.hcgprotocol.com/pandi.pdf

The weight loss story that convinced me:

http://www.myfatcure.com/mystory2/

The source of the spray I used:

http://www.myfatcure.com/blog/how-to-order/

Choosing the Filling

About a year ago, there was enough stress in my life that I developed eczema on the palms of my hands and finger tips. I received a prescription from my dermatologist for an ointment that was to be used sparingly (and easily so, as it was not pleasant). Since then the weak and dry areas have shifted around my hands, but have not gone away because my stresses have not gone away.

However, recently some of the more major stresses have abated and I'm slowly adjusting to the reduced worries that have plagued my mind. I've been asked a number of times lately if I'm relieved that certain changes have occurred and my response has been something like "I'm still getting used to the idea", but as I continued to await the expected relief, it didn't come. Instead, I continued to anticipate the next wrong thing to happen and I continued to stress over the issues that remained.

In place of feeling relief or joy at my freedoms or triumphs, I only felt an emptiness and eventually I began to wonder why the now empty space inside me that had been so bitter wasn't filling with sweet goodness by itself. I started to question my ability to be happy and thought perhaps I had been altered by my years of fretting.

And then I remembered something that happened to me a few years ago that was perhaps one of the most profound things to ever happen to me.

When I was a late teen, one of my friends had a conversation with me where I was asked why I believed in God. I discovered then that my belief was not founded in something I could easily defend and as such, my faith was shaken. For years I continued to search for my truth, but in the end I finally determined that I must choose to believe in God if I have the desire.

So now, I’m faced with the amazing potential for options to fill this void that with any luck will continue to be left behind from the reduction of stress. I recognize that I must seize this opportunity and not just wait for the happiness to come, I must choose to be pleasant and enjoyable, I must exercise my smile and look for ways to assist others in finding delight in this world.

“You just think happy thoughts. They lift you into the air.”

–Wendy from Peter Pan

Blessed

I feel the need to take a moment to step back and appreciate my life. I've been going through a difficult time recently (and I can take the blame for a good portion of it). That said, it hasn't been easy and I couldn't see an easy way out, so for a little while there, I just shut off into myself. I stopped talking and I stopped feeling. I've been working to change that, to open back up and reemerge, but it's a slow process.

This weekend, I had a beautiful reminder of fact that I still have friends and family that love and support me. I have not been forgotten. So simple, yet so powerful. I'm starting to feel like everything is going to work out and it'll be okay. The journey isn't over, but a new day is dawning, and what a glorious sunrise.

Okay, so technically this is a sunset, but I took the picture with my phone the other day because it was so nice. Of course, the picture doesn't do the sun justice, so you'll have to use a little imagination...