7/12/09

I am doing very poorly at eating right. I had ice cream again last night, but at least now it's out of the house. I also had cheese & crackers at work. I did not eat lunch yesterday or today because I slept in. I do not feel energetic at all today like I did yesterday. I feel myself returning to how I felt before the hcg. That is the last thing I want, so I am not going to buy any more off-list foods.I thought I could have one mini icream treat per day to satiate my cravings, obviously that was like an alcoholic saying they could have one drink a day and keep the stuff in the house. Pretty stupid of me to think I could manage the self control. 

Going out shouldn't be a problem, I'm not even off work again until Friday. I'm going to try to exercise again today even tho I feel crappy. Oh ya, I gained 3.6 lbs. Back up to 151.0, another motivating factor. 

7/11/09

The last couple of days have been surprising. I have succumbed to cravings more than once, particularly for sweets. The cravings are much worse than before the hcg. I guess the deprivation made things worse for me now that I'm trying to integrate normal healthy foods. I did start taking a L-Leucine supplement yesterday hoping it would help maintain hypothalmic function from the hcg. Maybe it worked. Something certainly worked unexpectedly. Yesterday's weight was up 0.4 lbs from the day before, today's weight was down 1.6 lbs! Shocking to me since I ate about 300 calories and 21 grams of fat worth of ice cream last night right before bed. I still feel bloated from it. (hopefully remembering the feeling of not being bloated while on hcg will help me to control myself better, I didn't realize until the last several weeks that it had been years since I hadn't felt bloated.) 

I am disappointed that removing sweets for the hcg period didn't curb my cravings for them but made it worse. I am going to have to work very hard on self control. I'm going to exercise today and control myself better on the sweets. I hope that after letting myself have sweets, I am going to be able to control myself better by allowing a tiny bit of sweets every few days or so. 

7/9/09

149.0 again,  which again makes me happy since I ate a couple of small pieces of chocolate yesterday and extra melba crackers. I am going to stop the injections because the hunger is really coming back. I also just want to get back to 'normal'. I'm sick of feeling tired and unable to exercise. I am going to follow the reintroduction period exactly (no more chocolate!) then lose the rest with diet and exercise. And the occasional little piece of chocolate. 

I know it sounds like I haven't learned my lesson. But I have. I am not going to go back to eating fast food, drinking soda pop and consuming ice cream almost daily. I will be keeping track of calories, fat and portion size. I will also be mindful to seriously restrict my intake of foods that combine fat+sugar. I will keep this blog updated with my success on the reintro period. 

7/8/09

149.0 lbs. Even after increasing my dose to 200 i.u. and I was hungry yesterday. I guess I'm getting immune to it. I was really depressed yesterday for some reason too. I would have given up and stopped the injections except I'm broke and don't want to spend $ grocery shopping until my next payday. Due to being hungry I also ate 4 melba toasts over the day. So really, I'm glad to have lost the 0.4 lb. I  know that you get out of this diet what you put in to it, so I can't be disappointed with anything other than myself. My goal now is to reach 145 and keep it there thru and after the 6 wks of reintroducing foods. 

The main thing I would tell people is that hcg sounds like an easy way to lose a lot of weight fast, and it isn't (easy). It takes iron will. And while you may think you have that because you're so sick of being fat, it's harder than you could ever imagine. I am however glad that I did this diet because I have developed a much stronger resistance to temptation. I have also grown accustomed to measuring portions which is something I will not stop doing. After my 6 weeks of reintroducing foods, I will go back on weight watchers to lose the rest. I won't do hcg again because of the way I feel so drained and literally unable to exercise. I enjoy exercising and will have the opportunity during the fall semester to use the university gym twice a week.  

7/7/09

149.4, a little disappointed. I skipped lunch yesterday because I woke up late. Every thing else was on-diet. I did have dreams about eating candy bars then remembering I was on this diet. I'm pretty sure that means I didn't get enough to eat yesterday. No more skipping meals. 

7/6/09

Down to 149.6, which makes me very happy considering that I succumbed to the temptation yesterday and ate a half a cookie. I know it was an emotional/stress response. But I am still proud of myself for cutting it in two and leaving the other half, because it was really good. I'm pretty sure I will be able to resist any more temptations because I am so happy to see 149 and I want to keep below 150 very badly. 

I am going to mix my last batch of hcg today, and I think I'll mix it at 200 iu instead of 175. I know I'll have one less day, but I'm hoping it will reduce the hunger I've been feeling lately and maybe even up the weight loss a little.  

I drank 32 oz of water yesterday and a glass of tea but am still having dry mouth this morning. I'll shoot for 64 oz today. 

7/5/09

150.0 again. I was really hoping for 149. It's been years since I've seen one-forty-anything.A woman I work with who started the hcg diet a week and a half ago is already down 12 pounds, the same as me after 4 weeks. I'm really angry at myself for giving up that one time. I wonder if the next two weeks will be worth it. Surely it will be if I can get down to 145 or less. I'm also really worried I'll gain on the reintroduction part. I'm already carefully planning my meals for the first 3 weeks. I will be sorely disappointed if I end up at 150 after all of this. Of course I know I have only myself to blame for falling off the wagon that one time. 

Yesterday was a long day. I got up at 8AM and did yard work, then went to work from 4PM-2AM. I ate exactly on diet. There was a lot of food at work but I was not really tempted by any of it except I was a little bummed about the specialty bakery cookies. I feel dehydrated again today tho. I didn't drink enough yesterday, I was too busy. I'm going to start taking my water bottle with me to work that's marked w/volume increments to make sure I drink enough water from now on.  

7/4/09

150.0! Another whole pound. I ate my fruit and cracker this a.m., I was actually hungry when I woke up which is new. Hopefully I'm too busy at work to think about being hungry. 

I stayed up late and read Dr. Kessler's book "The End of Overeating" and it had such vivid descriptions of 'hyperpalatable' foods it may be what is making me think so much about food. However it had good explanations for why we become addicted to certain types of food. I would totally recommend it, at least before someone starts dieting (that way you don't have to read about tempting things while you're already deprived). 

7/3/09

151.0 again. I was hoping for another loss of course. Today I had my usual a.m. cracker but I also had half an apple. I have been only having one fruit serving a day. But today is my day off so I'll be able to space out my meals better and wait longer before lunch. I would rather lose the same small amount every day than bounce around like this. 

P.M.

I have been hungrier today than before. It's frustrating. I wonder if I am becoming immune to the hcg. Tomorrow is my no-injection day, and it will be hectic at work, there will also be a load of tempting food at work. I really hope I am not hungry like I am today, or more so. I just ate 3.5 hrs ago, and my tummy is growling. (And I feel hungry.) I guess I'll go eat my dinner and hope I don't get hungry again before bedtime. 

7/2/09

Down to 151.0 !!! Almost a pound and a half! There were some super-delicious looking gourmet cookies at work yesterday and I was bummed about not having one. But it was worth it. I still tell myself all that good stuff will be there when I'm done, and I know now I will have the self control to eat it in moderation while paying attention to my weight. 

7/1/09

Still at 152.4, but not too disappointed. I feel bloated (period) and am just happy I haven't gained. I have been feeling more tired again, and tried to use my elliptical yesterday but couldn't go more than a minute or so. I can't wait til this is over so I can exercise again. 3 1/2 more weeks of the 500 cal/day diet left. Tho I guess I still can't exercise for 6 wks after that since you're not supposed to lose weight during that time. 

6/30/09

Still at 152.4 this morning. I'm not going to be disappointed tho, because I've started my period and I'm just glad I haven't gained (yet). I didn't have time to eat my last cracker and my fruit yesterday. Hopefully work isn't so hectic tonight. 

6/29/09

Down a whole pound this time! (152.4) Yesterday I ate both servings of cracker, one serving of fruit, both proteins and one serving of veggies. Hopefully I have found the 'magical' formula. I guess maybe I really wasn't eating enough before. Tho I understood from Simeon's book that you didn't have to consume all 500 calories, and a girl I work with was told to cut out some things when she hit a week long plateau near the end of her treatment. Oh well, if I am back to a pound a day, I'll be really happy. I did not do any exercise yesterday due to time constraints. I may not have time today either. 

Also, I felt better at work yesterday than I did the day before, however I overslept (10 hrs almost) today. The dehydration is getting a little better too. 

6/28/09

153.4 today. What a roller-coaster ride this has been. I am wondering if my cutting out fruit, crackers, and one salad serving has made my body think it's starving despite the hcg. I keep having dreams every night about eating off diet then regretting it. I am considering putting back in the fruit and one serving of cracker. Of course the fact that this week will be my period week could cause a little gain, so it does not seem like a good time to do this, however, because it's my week, I should need more nutrients/calories than usual. I felt really sluggish at work last night and got light headed every time I stood up. I also was too weak in the legs to exercise. Maybe I do need to go back to the full 500 cal/day. Simeon's book says that if you do not consume the whole 500, it's ok. I really don't know what to think.  

6/27/09

154.0 today. Not even a whole pound, after eating only one meal yesterday and exercising twice. And I have an upset stomach this morning, I suspect from exercising right before bed. I'm not sure my legs can take the elliptical again today. I'll try. But I will be on my feet 12+ hrs at work too. 

I have the feeling this treatment will be a big disappointment. I plan to continue with it to the end tho, for a couple of reasons. First, I am able to get up after 7-8 hrs of sleep, which is really new for me. I have been a chronic hypersomniac for about 10 yrs or more. Also, I do not want to gain what little I've lost back. If I'm going to go thru the 6 weeks of reintroducing foods, I might as well finish the last 4 weeks of the diet. It will hopefully relieve me of a few more pounds, and increase my self control as well. 

6/26/09, PM

This afternoon I dug out my old elliptical and brought it in the house to start using to aid in weight loss. I figured I'd give it a go for 15 minutes since I'm so out of shape. I thought that because I rarely get to sit down at work, even for lunch, that I am not that sedentary of a person. But I must be, because I kept having to take breaks every 2-5 minutes! While disgusted with myself, I am happy that I discovered how bad I've gotten so I can get back on the right track in that department too. From now on I'll be using the elliptical at least once a day, and reporting my progress on it too. 

I'm feeling more sluggish this afternoon than I have been all week. I would have taken a nap if my dogs would have let me. I have been guzzling water to fight the dehydration/dry mouth, but maybe I need some caffeine. 

Also, if anyone out there is reading this, I have a question I haven't found a confirmed answer to. I know that if you are doing 2 treatments, you are not supposed to gain/lose >2 lbs between them. It messes up your 'resetting' of your metabolism. However, I wonder if it is OK to lift weights during this time (if I plan on continuing to lift after all treatments). I wouldn't think weight gain from muscle mass would affect things the same way as gaining fat. Anyone know? 

6/26/09

154.8 this morning! I ate exactly the same as the day before minus one serving of cracker. The only thing different about my day was that I overslept and work was more stressful because of a brain surgery being done at our facility, but otherwise not as hectic as usual. Also I consumed less tea and more water. Speaking of drinking water, for the last 3 days my mouth has been getting increasingly dry. I guess I need to drink even more than my usual, which is about 64 oz. Maybe caffeine helps burn fat. Or maybe it was being up longer. I'll definitely be up a long time tomorrow, I'm scheduled to go in to work 2 hrs early. Unless they call me in even earlier. 

An odd side note: last night, obviously before I consciously knew I gained, I dreamed all night of forgetting that I was dieting, and ate a bunch of sweets, then realized my mistake. How odd that I'm dreaming of that now.  

This slow weight loss is really disheartening. I don't think it's water weight. I don't usually start that til Monday or Tuesday. Another thing is that I've been having short bouts of more realistic hunger than I've had on the hcg. I really hope I'm not getting immune to it. I guess I'm just not burning enough calories. 

6/25/09

I seem to be back on track. Down another pound to 154.6 this morning. I did eat my melba toast yesterday because I was up from 8AM-2AM and was hungry between meals. I did not have my fruit. I had half a serving of tilapia( I was in a hurry) and a whole serving of chicken/greens. I also had a sugar-free apple cider. I guess I need less than 500 calories a day to lose weight. But surprisingly, I am not having the huge emotional let down watching my coworkers eat Olive Garden breadsticks. I'm getting more OK with the deprivation thing. 

It's amazing to think if I am back on track, that in a week I'll be down in the 140's. It's been years since I've seen 149 on a scale. I'll be really happy. (Guys may want to skip to this paragraph.) I wonder if having my period will slow down my weight loss. I plan to continue the injections unless it causes too heavy  a flow (which is the reason they suggest not doing the injections then, but I've read several blogs where women say it is no problem for them.) I anticipate there will be 2-3 days w/o weight loss, maybe even water weight gain. Well, next week we'll see. 

Two of my coworkers started injections yesterday. So starting Saturday I'll have some more moral support. However on the 4th of July we're having a potluck as we always do on holidays, and there will be plenty of goodies. I'm sure I will be ok as long as  I don't hit another plateau before then. I will be happy to have the support of my hcg-coworkers tho. 

6/24/09

*sigh of relief* down a pound to 155.6 this a.m. Yesterday I did not eat fruit or melba toast. And I worked my butt off. Really I'm a little disappointed to have lost only one pound. I guess from now on there will be no more crackers or fruit. And daily aerobic exercise. 

I have been able to get up in the mornings a lot easier. As a matter of fact, when the dogs inevitably wake me up an hour early, I can't go back to sleep. My mind is buzzing. I'm afraid I'll be really tired at work tonight tho. But I have gotten a lot done around the house. 

I have also found that broiling the fish instead of baking it helps with the fishy taste. (That and lots of chipotle pepper!) 

I'm going to try to eat dinner earlier too. I think that if I eat too few hours before bed, the weight loss may not be as substantial. The weight loss seems to occur at night. (I guess that's why you weigh in the morning.) 

I just ordered a book from amazon.com, that I think will help me to deal with cravings. It called "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite" by Dr. David Kessler (the guy that accused big tobacco of putting carcinogens in cigarettes). It talks about how restaurants and processed food manufacturers add sugar and fat to everything to make you want more. 

6/23/09

WTF!!! Aaaack! At 156.6 this A.M.! I did everything right yesterday. How can I be gaining weight on 500 cal/day?  

And yet, surprisingly, I am not ready to give up. I am going to cut out my fruit and work in whatever exercise I can tolerate before passing out. I am still eating tilapia for one meal, chicken for the other. I'm not ready to go fish for both yet. And yes, I'm weighing everything. I didn't even have the Walden Farms dressing yesterday. What gives?

6/22/09

Down a pound to 156.2. Thank goodness. I was really ready to give up. Back to feeling drained. I guess thats the price I will have to pay. Hopefully I'm over this plateau and back to normal weight loss. I lost a whole weeks worth after my screw up, so I'm sure I'll have to do a second round of hcg after the winter holidays. 

6/21/09

157.4 again. A colossal disappointment. I don't know what I'm going to do. I ate tilapia yesterday and and stayed on diet. I did use the Walden Farms dressing and have the previously mentioned sugar candy to alleviate my hypoglycemia. I guess today I'll nix the candy again, and the dressing. I've read on some boards that people have used the Walden Farms dressing and lost weight normally.  I still think it was the off day that caused this. According to Simeon, plateaus will cease, tho they are abnormal this early in the game. And eating off diet once is supposed to resolve itself in about 3 days. I guess I'll give it one more week. 

6/20/09

Down a half a pound to 157.4.  A little disappointing but better than nothing. I tried the Walden Farms Thousand Island Dressing yesterday. It is not bad. It will make salad much easier from now on. I think the trick is to only use a tiny bit of it. Also I bought tilapia last night which will be one of my meals today and from now on despite my dislike of fish. 

I got to feeling really light headed and hypoglycemic last night at work. Tonight I will take 2 candies with me in case it happens again and see if it works and I can still lose. 

More people at work are jumping on the hcg bandwagon. This will make it easier for me not having to deal with so much restaurant food under my nose. The skinny kids will still order pizza once a week I'm sure, which will be unpleasant. I just keep telling myself that all this yummy stuff will still be there when I'm ready to go back to eating it- with far less frequency and in much smaller portions of course. 

I am also not as weak as I've been tho I do get exhausted easy at work. 

6/19/09

According to new scale I'm at 158.0, old scale says 156.5 like yesterday. I'm going to start using the new scale and start from the 158.0. Dr. Simeons book says if you eat off diet for a meal it will set you back about 3 days. I should be getting past that now. It also talks about plateaus coming and going. I'm not going to do an apple day, simply because it only functions as a diuretic not a fat-burner. 

I do think one mistake I've made without realizing, is instead of top sirloin, I bought 95% hamburger thinking it would be just as lean. But it is not. I learned last night on NutritionData.com, that 100 g of it comes in at 7 g fat, whereas sirloin is 4g (so is chicken). Either way, I'm going to feed the rest of my yummy hamburger to the dogs and get some cod this evening. I find it perfectly disgusting but it carries a measly 1 g of fat per 100g. Maybe this will help me get over my faux pas-induced plateau.

6/18/09

Maybe only down .5 lb (156.5). I am not trusting this cheap scale I bought tho. I am going to get another one today. When I get off it, the needle doesnt go back to zero. So how do I know if it's accurate at all? 

Yesterday I did not have time to eat my dinner, so I expected to have lost a pound or more, especially since I'm back to feeling as crappy as I did before the screw-up. I'm not sure that I haven't, because even tho my weight fluctuates a LOT, the scale at work said a pound less than the day before, even tho the home scale didn't. 

More people at work are doing the hcg diet (thru doctors) and I am being told that feeling drained is common and that you should get over it. Speaking of people at work, they got pizza last night and it sucked to have to smell it and not eat any, but I felt better about it than I have before. (The people I work with eat out almost every night.) 

5 p.m.

The new scale I bought says 160.6 (not a morning weight). I put on a pair of my usual shorts this afternoon and am surprised at how loose around the waist they are. Even if I am only 4 lbs down from my starting weight (whatever that was) it is already making a difference. 

Also, this afternoon I generally feel a little better. I have had episodes of feeling drained, but I keep going and they go away for a while. 

I read online about Walden Farms' ø cal/ ø fat/ ø sugar salad dressing. It has to taste better than any vinegar concoction I've made so far. I'm going to get some on my way to work tomorrow. It doesn't sound like it should be a no-no, just a bunch of herbs and spices in some diluted chemical substance that resembles salad dressing. 

Tonight I discovered an AWESOME!!! way to eat an apple serving and a melba toast serving. Get the single serving (50 cal) of sugar-free natural apple sauce, load it w/cinnamon, add artificial sweetener, and crumble your cracker into it. Yum! It doesn't taste like it's diet at all!

6/17/09

Still at 157.0. Really bummed. I ate one candy yesterday evening, as it was a long night at work and I was exhausted. It helped. But I think I will nix them to see if I can still lose any weight. I really screwed things up by eating off-diet that one time. And I was doing so well on the weight loss. I just felt so crappy. I hope I don't have to take a break from it at this point and start again later. I'm almost two weeks in. But if I'm not back to a pound a day by Sunday (today's Wed), I will have to give it a rest so it will work next time. Six weeks from Sunday will be the 1st week of August and that will allow 2 wks before classes start for me to get over the crappy feeling. I don't know that I can go to work full time and school full time feeling that way. I could barely handle it just working. 

6/16/09

Down one pound this morning(157.0). Really surprised after my gain yesterday. I figured I had really screwed the whole thing up. I didn't feel weak yesterday, I think probably because of the meal I had the day before. I guess it will take a day or two to get to feeling that way again. I can tell the 4lbs I gained is right back on my belly. How amazing that we can make fat that quickly (or burn it!). Either way, my coworker who is on week 4 (with great results) said she felt really crappy the first 2 weeks as well. But you could never have guessed it, she is always the most energetic person around. 

After yesterday and the day before, I realize that this journal isn't just about my taking hcg, it's about my battle with food. What a stupid thing to have control my life. A basic necessity has become my enemy. I have a renewed determination to stay on track this time. 

I had bought the candy I spoke of before work yesterday, and it was a good thing. I did not get to feeling really weak, but it was somebody's birthday and there were cookies and ice cream. I bit the bullet and had a total of 4 candies over 10 hrs. They're 15 cal each w/0 fat. The diet says if you get hypoglycemic you can down a tsp of sugar, and I think this is basically what I did by eating the candy. I do however feel that 4 is too much, I want to cut it down to 2 or less, at least when there's no ice cream around. Ice cream is my biggest demon. It's like heroin to me. 

I do wonder how consuming even small amounts of sugar will affect my reintroducing it after the injections and 3 wks. I do figure that it will be about the same as consuming the fruit which I have cut out, just because I'm not really hungry enough to eat 2 servings a day when I need sugar. (Tho I was eating it for the sugar when I was feeling crappy, and it did not have any affect that I could tell. I guess it's because the sugar is fructose which doesn't help much w/hypoglycemia due to the way it has to be paired w/another sugar to be used by the body). 

Anyway, I'm very happy to see that I am down a pound, if I had gained, I may have given up soon. I hope that the rest of this treatment feels better than the first week. I know that I am at a very critical point after having fallen off the wagon. 

6/15/09

Wow. That one meal caused me to gain four pounds. Up to 158.0. I really hope I haven't screwed up the whole process. And I hope the sugar thing works. I'm going to the health food store on my way to work today to see if I can find some hard candy with real sugar instead of HFCS. 

On a side note, even tho I took my injection yesterday, today my stomach is growling up a storm. Tho I don't really feel particularly hungry. Yet. 

6/14/09

Started out the day at 154.0 lbs. Another pound lost. Felt so weak and miserable people at work were noticing. Decided to postpone hcg diet until Fall so I could get a bunch of projects done this summer that I won't have time for in Fall. People at work were ordering out from one of my favorite restaurants so I caved and ate pasta (really fattening cheese dish). Then everybody at work got surprised and started trying to encourage me not to give up. One girl mentioned that I may just be hypoglycemic. I had considered that but ruled it out because I have always been prone to hypoglycemia and the way I've been feeling is not the way I've felt when my BG drops. But I am going to give it another go, this time having small amounts of real sugar (not HFCS) every 4 hrs or so and see if I can still lose weight. 

6/13/09

Felt really weak and crappy yesterday, didn't do anything. Overslept today, so crappy feeling I thought to myself if I haven't lost  a pound today I'm going to quit and go back on WW. Why does food have to be such a huge part of my life? 

I didn't lose one pound. I lost four!!!!! Eureka! (down to 155.0) Today is my first no-injection day. I'm worried about being hungry and I'm figuring I won't lose a pound today. I know the stuff is supposed to stay in your system....I guess I just worry too much. 

I did find some salad dressing recipes, mostly mixing apple cider vinegar w/water and spices. I really don't like vinegar tho. I have found that making a chicken or beef salad works. 

(recap: down 7 lbs first week) And I think it's coming off my belly. I thought I was imagining it at first, but 7 lbs of fat has to take up a noticeable amount of space. 

6/12/099

Well I'm down to 159.0! Haven't seen that number in a while. 

Yesterday I didn't feel energetic, but I got out and mowed and did yard work anyway, and I was amazed at my stamina. I only quit because the sun went down! I can't believe it, given how weak I felt before I got going. And I wasn't particularly hungry afterward. I'm off work today so I'll see how doing extra exercise (probably chores) makes me feel. 

First Post

I am a 32 yr old woman with a relatively inactive lifestyle. I had no weight problems until my mid-20's when the inactivity began. I lost 10 lbs in a couple of months on WW, but when the holidays hit it all went to hell. I found out about Hcg from a coworker who is having great success with it. The purpose for this blog is to document my experience with Hcg for myself and others. I have read a lot of posts from others and feel like that has helped me in what I expect from the diet. I will not be able to update every day, but I will at least a few times a week. 

I started the Hcg injections on Sunday, 6/7/09 and began the 500 cal/day diet yesterday 6/10/09. My starting weight (from 6/7/09) according to the cheap scale I bought at WallyWorld was 161.5. This mornings weight was 160.5. However I do not put much stock in this since my weight fluctuates by 3-5 lbs within a single day. (Yes, I am weighing at the same time every day, when I first get up.) I'll be much more impressed if I see 7 lbs lost at the end of the week. 

I bought the Hcg over the net and mixed it myself with supplies from my job. I used sterile water and am using 26ga needles since that was the smallest I had available. And having given myself allergy injections with the same size needle, I can honestly say, OUCH!!! The next time I mix a batch I will make it 2X strength and inject 0.5 mL instead of 1.0 mL. I got the bright idea to inject my thigh the 2nd day, which didn't hurt nearly as much as in the glute, but the bruise is much worse (duh, not as much fat to cover the bruised muscle). So I'm back to the buttocks. I did notice today that the injection was far less painful than it has been. I am wondering if my solution was not mixed well and perhaps I got a weak dose. Tho my appetite is in check.  

I noticed the first day of injection (still gut loading) that my appetite was greatly reduced. Hunger is strange and fleeting, and is strongest when faced with yummy-smelling food. I also find the food on the diet (Simeons) to be really unsatisfying. (except the meat). And I am having trouble choking down greens with no dressing of any kind. I am definitely sticking with it though, because I want to learn to view food as fuel and not a feel-good drug. I know that I am addicted to sugar and I hope that phase 3 allows me to re-wire that part of my brain chemistry. 

I have also noticed that I feel much more drained of energy than usual (not that I had energy to begin with). I had read that sleep would be reduced on the Hcg but I have not found this to be at all true for me. Tho I am not actually hungry most of the time, I feel weak as I do when I've been too sick to eat for a day or two. I really hope my body adjusts. Soon!