Archives for June 2017

Well, I’ve got some bad news and more bad news.

 

I’m fat and…

 

…I deserve to be since I cheated big time on the diet yesterday.

Facing a situation of combined birthday, graduation and Father’s day parties I was forced to eat more than the 800 calories per day that I’m allowed on the HCG Diet.

I didn’t put up much of a fight, to be honest, though.

 

What was on the various menus?  Stuff that was too good to resist!

• Sizzling steak with green peppers, onions, tomatoes
• Mango chicken
• Salt and pepper squid
• Hot braised fish
• Seasoned shrimp with fresh vegetables
• Julienne pork strips with tofu and vegetable medley
• Elegant, bite-sized tapas of arctic shrimp embedded in toast and hoisin sauce
• Taiwanese noodles in savory sauce
• House special fried rice
• An incredible chocolate cake covered in buttercream
• Homemade apple pie from House of M (OK, McDonald’s)

I did try to prepare ahead of time by not eating anything until the party started.  I suppose that helped a little bit as my metrics weren’t terrible (I’m only up 0.8 lbs and 0.8% body fat).

Anyways, these obligatory social events can be extremely difficult challenges to face.  Plan ahead of time (e.g. not eating) but don’t be a diet Nazi (would it have been cool for me to drink a protein shake at these combined parties?)

Today I’ll make up for it by eating a bit less and see if I can get back on track early next week.

Here are my metrics for today:

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Diet

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Waist

Well, today I thought I’d share a little bit with you about another supplement I am taking.  It’s called krill oil.  Krill oil is very similar to fish oil in terms of its benefits.  It purportedly helps to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, balances the HDL / LDL imbalances we have and helps with overall cholesterol management.  One of the advantages it has over fish oil is that is much more easily absorbed by the body.  This means you don’t have to take as much for it to be of benefit to you.

The brand I take is found at Sam’s Club.  Like fish oil I’m not sure if I actually feel the benefits.  It’s just that there have been a ton of papers that seem to indicate that Omega-3s are good for you (which makes sense when you think of the people who eat a lot of fish and have generally better health than the typical American – people like the Inuuit, or the Okinawans of Japan).

As an FYI krill are tiny, shrimp-like which are found in the chilled arctic waters of our oceans.  There are millions and millions of them and they mostly serve as food for whales.  Hey, if they can help whales grow and live a long time perhaps they can do the same for us, too!

Here are my metrics for today:

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Waist

OK, let’s talk about the various supplements I have been taking during my time on the HCG Diet.

The first one I am taking is fish oil.

Specifically, I take Sam’s Club Simply Right Triple Strength Fish Oil with 900 mg of Omega 3 fatty acids per pill.  Supposedly, fish oil has amazing health benefits for avoiding clogged arteries, cardiovascular disease, amongst others that I won’t list here.  Recently, it’s been somewhat controversial.  But, it has been my habit so I continue to take the pills.  Note that I don’t really notice feeling different when I take them vs when I don’t.  That will be the subject for another experiment (where I’d have to go beyond subjective feeling and actually do some blood work before, after and during to see whether it’s affecting any particular marker(s).)

 

Here are my metrics for today:

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Diet

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Waist

I don’t want to gross you out but today I wanted to share with you one of the potential side effects of HCG.

 

Constipation.

 

Thankfully, I haven’t really experienced it in a bad way, perhaps not even at all, as far as I can tell.  Things seem mostly normal to me except it may be just a wee bit harder to “work out my problems” so to speak.

Either way, I haven’t had anything of any consequence really affect me yet.  Just one minor drop of blood when I injected myself once but it was nothing and has never happened since.

 

Here are my metrics for today:

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Waist

Here’s another favorite tool of mine.

The Myotape body measurement tool.  It’s so much easier to use than regular tape (or even the old “use a piece of string” around your body and then measure the string tip). I like it not just because it’s easy but it’s also accurate and you can use it by yourself.  Usually, with the normal measuring tape measure it’s somewhat difficult to measure your body parts on your own.  It’s much easier to have another person assist you.  Not so with Myotape!

Here are my metrics for today:

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Diet

Exercise

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Skeletal muscle%

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Waist

I thought I should point out my favorite tool that is indispensable for me to achieve my ~800 calorie per day diet.

MyFitnessPal.

This app / website has, like, every food imaginable under the sun in it’s database with all the nutrition facts you need for what you are putting into your body.  Everything I need to know about total calories, protein, carbs, fat, cholesterol, sodium, etc. is contained there.  So, it’s actually quite easy for me to calculate the total calories I’m eating in a day and per meal.  Planning my meals ahead of time with the calculator really helps.  This way, if I’m forced to go out to eat (which I was “forced” to do at my daughter’s birthday party recently =) I can look up the menu of the restaurant ahead of time and know exactly what I need to order if I’m going to hit my goals.

Managing your weight is really as straight-forward (note that I didn’t say, “easy”) as “Calories Out vs Calories In” when you have a tool like MyFitnessPal!

Here are my metrics for today:

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Waist

Switching from chicken this week to steak!  Gotta love my beef.  It’s John Soules fajita beef from Sam’s Club.

Very yummy.
Very easy.
Low fat (although more than the fajita chicken).

Still, it packs the protein I need and tastes quite good!

 

 

Here are my metrics for today:

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Diet

Exercise

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Waist

My numbers continue to improve as weight is dropping along with body fat percentage.  After lifting hard yesterday, though, I decided not to go for an hour long cardio run this morning but scaled it back to a nice walk with the wife and the “puppy” (well, she’s not really a puppy at 3 years old but we still call her that because she is still as cute as when we got her at 8 weeks =)

The walk is good as I need to work on my cardio output.  If I can keep my heart at (180 – my age) and do this for an hour per day then I will lower my resting heart rate and improve my cardio output which, in turn, should help me manage the aging of my body!

I’m getting a little more bold.  Today I did eat half a salad from Subway since it fit the macros.  We’ll see what tomorrow’s numbers hold!

Here are my metrics for today:

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Waist

Successfully ate out today at Panera Bread!  Had the Strawberry Poppyseed Salad with Chicken (half portion) and a cup of the Low-fat Vegetable Garden Soup with Pesto.  So yummy!

Lost 1.5 pounds today which sort of made up for not losing anything yesterday.  I believe it had something with me not going to the bathroom yesterday.  Anyways, trajectory is still good.

Also, I worked out and listed heavy but not trying to increase my lifts like I had been doing prior to starting the HCG Diet.

Here are my metrics for today:

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Diet

Exercise

Weight

Body fat%

Skeletal muscle%

Blood pressure

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Waist

Today was a bit odd.  No weight loss and no fat loss.  In fact it went up slightly (0.1 lb and 0.1% respectively).  Nothing to worry about, though, since I had been warned that there are days when you lose nothing.  So, the key is to keep marching on along the six week journey.  The more telling metrics will occur when comparing weekly numbers.

Had my first follow-up with Weighless MD.  They weighed me, took my blood pressure, measured my body fat, talked with me about supplements I should consider (already taking most of what they recommended – multivitamin, fish oil, magnesium, Vitamin D…was just missing on the probiotic).  Overall, they thought I was making good progress since and was not experiencing deep hunger pangs (one of the key things I had wanted to test about HCG).

Here are my metrics for today:

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Diet

Exercise

Weight

Body fat%

Skeletal muscle%

Blood pressure

Measurements

Waist