Week 1 August 30th - September 6th

First I wanted to start off saying I purchased a weight loss aid from Groupon to kick start my weight loss. It is a pretty controversial product, and I found mostly good things on it. I know there are going to be a lot of skeptics, but I REALLY strongly feel the HCG helped with keeping my energy up while I was going through the detox phase and it kept my cravings and hunger pains down. I was eating the right types of foods, and taking Vitamin B12 supplement and a potassium supplement so I was feeling very healthy and my body was feeling very healthy as well.. but, I purchased HCG drops from  www.sothinsofast.com . I purchased the 2oz bottle because I knew I'd be on it for at least the 28 days up til the 40 days that is allowed on it. After I received the drops I did some research on Google for personal experiences of others on the drops. I came across a great blog at www.hellojody.com .. She has some excellent ideas and menus and foods that are allowed and not allowed on the diet and her experiences etc. That's when I decided to follow her food list because the original food list I had been on for the 1st 3 days was sooo restrictive. The original food list consists of 500 calories a day and included the following:

Breakfast:	Tea or coffee in any quantity without sugar. Only one tablespoonful of milk allowed in 24 hours. Saccharin or Stevia may be used.
Lunch:	1.    100 grams of veal, beef, chicken breast, fresh white fish, lobster, crab, or shrimp. All visible fat must be carefully removed before cooking, and the meat must be weighed raw. It must be boiled or grilled without additional fat. Salmon, eel, tuna, herring, dried or pickled fish are not allowed. The chicken breast must be removed from the bird. 2.    One type of vegetable only to be chosen from the following: spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage. 3.    One breadstick (grissino) or one Melba toast. 4.    An apple, orange, or a handful of strawberries or one-half grapefruit.
Dinner :	The same four choices as lunch (above.)

I followed this for the 1st 3 days and realized I have go to add other things into my diet because being a mother of 3 young kids and having a husband who loves to eat good foods that I love I have to have some way to be able to eat things and still lose weight. That's when I came across Jody's blog. There are 3 phases to the diet. The first phase lasts 2 days and it's before you start the drops. You eat anything and everything you want to eat to Load up on food. I started day 3 which was phase 2 at 173 pounds. I started on this strict diet listed above and by day 6 I had lost 4 pounds. I was at 169 in no time! I hadn't weighed 169 in a few years! I was feeling awesome! So day 7 came and that is the day I was like I don't know if I can do this.. I was taking 6 drops of the HCG under my tongue every 3 hours the entire time. The 4th and 5th day I did have a small headache but really was tolerable and I was ecstatic I had lost so much weight already that it was a motivator. So by the end of week 1 I had lost 5 lbs in 7 days, weighed 168 and was on a high from the rapid weight loss! There wasn't any exercise involved and I only went with the list above. I cut out pop completely even diet pop.. was drinking 10 glasses of water with Mio in it a day and i have to say was feeling really good. Think it was a detox phase for me. I found that Burger King has a good tasting Chicken Breast Sandwich I got but didn't eat the bread.. only ate the chicken, lettuce and tomato. No mayo either! I also enjoyed the grilled chicken breast from wendy's without any bun or anything either. I ate a lot of strawberries for snacks and at the Melba toast when I had a carb craving.