I've been officially done with the hCG diet for the past couple weeks, but there are still some recipes I haven't shared with you. I know there are many people who would like to consider trying the program but aren't sure what they would eat on the 500 calorie a day regimen. I can honestly tell you that I didn't have any trouble coming up with things to eat. Here are some examples of beef recipes I prepared while on the hCG diet.

Filet with Grilled Radish

Ingredients

7oz beef filet

7oz fresh radish

1 garlic clover minced

2 pinches of rosemary

1 tbsp chicken broth

1 ice cube

salt  & pepper

Directions

1. Preheat grill to medium high.
2. Bring beef to room temperature, season with pepper and rosemary.
3. Slice up the radishes and place in foil. Add garlic, rosemary, chicken broth and ice cube. Wrap and place on grill for 20 minutes.
4. Grill filet for 3 - 5 minutes on each side, remove from grill and wrap in foil for another 5 minutes.

I actually don't have a grill and cooked this on the stove top with a little water. It turned out just fine, as pictured above, and was very tasty. Turns out I kind of like cooked radishes. That's one thing I really liked about the hCG diet; it really exposed me to new tastes and ways of cooking I hadn't tried before.

Grilled Top Sirloin

Ingredients

7oz sirloin (fat removed)

7oz onion

pepper

kosher salt

Directions

1. Trim any fat off the steak and weigh out two 3.5oz pieces.
2. Let steak warm up to room temperature, should take about 30 minutes. Add only pepper to steak prior to grilling. Adding salt will make the meat less moist.
3. Preheat grill to high heat.
4. Place steaks directly over the heat and place onions either on the top rack or off to the side. Grill steaks about 3 minutes on each side to desired doneness. Once steak and onions are done, place in dish and cover for 5 minute. Garnish steaks with kosher salt and pepper. Serve with onions.

Again, I chose to cook this on the stovetop, rather than the grill. I believe it would work well in the broiler as well.

These recipes were adapted from the book, Easy hCG Diet by Celeste Wilson.

My last hCG diet update was three weeks ago. At that point, I had lost 18 lbs and 4 inches from my waist. Since then, my weight hasn't dropped dramatically, but I have lost a few more inches. I'm feeling fabulous. In six weeks, I've lost a total of 23lbs and 7 inches from my waist! Here are the photos.

Sorry that last picture is a little off from the other two. Norah took it - she did her best! I also apologize that I don't have Bill's final numbers. I believe he lost 27 lbs total. He loooks great. I'll be sure to post a picture soon! Here are my beginning, middle and final numbers for comparison.

On March 21st, I weighed 247 lbs. with a 46" waist, had 42.3% body fat and a BMI of 38.7. On April 11th, I weighed 229 lbs with a 42" waist, had 40.1% body fat and a BMI of 35.9. On May 2nd, I weighed 224 lbs. with a 39" waist and a BMI of 35.1. For some reason, I don't have the body fat percentage listed for this latest measurement, but I'm absolutely thrilled with the overall results.

I would recommend the hCG diet to anyone, as long as they talk to a qualified medical professional before beginning. I also advise seeking medical supervision throughout the process. Thank you so much to my chiropractor, Dr. Jaison Golojuh, for his guidance and support throughout the program. I still have three more weeks of a maintenance phase in which I can add oils, fats and dairy to my diet and am permitted to consume up to 1500 calories a day. I'll need to keep my weight fairly consistent during this time. but I plan to work toward adding exercise to my everyday routine and continuing to eat sensibly, with the result of losing more weight throughout the summer.

It's been about three weeks since my husband, Bill and I began the hCG diet. I've gotten a lot of questions from friends, and even strangers, about the diet. It is a rather extreme program, but we are being supervised by our very capable chiropractor, Dr. Jaison Golojuh. I am confident that this diet is a step in the right direction toward lifelong changes in my family's health. I wrote a post over at Type-A Parent in defense of the hCG diet, explaining my thoughts on the program and why I feel it is right for me. Feel free to take a read. Here are some tangible results you can see, in terms of how Bill and I are doing on the diet so far.

Here's Bill's before and after photos. Wish I were a better photographer because you can really tell how much he's lost by the way his clothes are fitting now. Also, you can really see it in his face. In three weeks, he's lost a total of 17 lbs., though I suspect it's actually more. For some reason, he didn't show any weight lost in the past week. Jaison says sometimes the weight sticks around for a bit and is flushed away a few pounds at a time.

Can you see the difference? Just three weeks ago, I was wearing mostly shapeless pants with elastic waists because they were much more comfortable than my jeans. This week, I'm wearing this pair of size 16 jeans, one size down from my previous size. I am super excited! Here's the numbers

March 21st                                        April 11th

Weight                         247 lbs                                              229 lbs.

Waist                         46 inches                                           42 inches

Body Fat %                  42.3%                                               40.1%

BMI                                38.7                                                  35.9

I've lost 18 lbs. in three weeks! And four inches off my waist. I am so excited, and I'm feeling pretty good. I don't have a great spurt of energy like some say they experiece, but I rarely take naps these days. I used to nap every afternoon. That's right. Every. Single. Afternoon. Do you know how much of my life I've wasted napping? I just couldn't help it. I was so tired and fatigued. This is the step I needed to take to be able to keep up with my kids this summer and really, truly spend time with them. I'm so happy and am indebted to Jaison Golojuh for helping Bill and I to take this journey to health.

I will keep you posted on our progress. There are three weks left in the 500 calories a day regimen, and then we start a three-week maintenance period where we begin to add certain foods back into our diet. I'll tell you more about it when we reach that stage. What are your thoughts on the hCG diet? Would you try it?

If you would, I strongly urge you to do it in conjunction with a medical professional. A friend of mine tried it with drops she bought on the Internet. She said she felt tired all the time and even nearly fainted once, so she quit. Be careful with your health.

Last week, I talked about beginning the hCG diet, and since then, many people have had lots of questions for me. One of the most frequently asked questions being, "What do you EAT?" Actuallly, I can eat a number of things. Unfortunately, I haven't developed a taste for many vegetables nor meats like fresh fish, but I'm working on expanding my tastes. In fact, I just purchased fresh cod this week at the grocery store and will be preparing it for tongiht. Wish me luck!

I do, however, eat a great deal of chicken on the hCG diet, in addition to fruits and vegetables that are low in sugar and carbs. I found a fairly thorough list online that offers allowable foods and calorie counts. Feel free to take a look. I'd like to share a couple of my new favorite chicken recipes that fall within the limits of the hCG diet.

Grilled Chicken Salad

Ingredients (makes 2 servings)

7oz. all natural chicken breast

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

7 oz. fresh spinach

12 strawberries

salt & pepper to taste

1 clove minced garlic

1 tsp chopped basil

1 lemon

Directions

1. Clean, rinse and trim fat off the chicken breast. Marinate with half lemon, vonegar, salt & pepper, garlic and half basic for at least an hour.
2. Preheat grill to medium heat.
3. Cook chicken breast about 6 minutes on each side or until internal temp reaches 165F.
4. Meanwhile rinse spinach and place on two plates. Rinse strawberries and slice in half. Divde the strawberries between the two plates. Slice chicken in bite size pieces and add to the salad. Garnish with remaining basil and half lemon.

This salad is one of my favorite things. Even when I wasn't on the diet, I ate a lot of spinach salad with chicken and strawberries. But I added poppy seed dressing to my salads back then! This one is truly almost as good.

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients (makes 2 servings)

7 oz. chicken

7 oz. lettuce or cabbage for wrap

2 tbsp soy sauce

1tsp grated ginger

1 clove of garlic minced

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 oranges sliced

Directions

1. Marinate chicken in white wine vinegar and garlic for an hour.
2. Preheat grill to medium.
3. Grill chicken for 4 minutes on each side.
4. While grilling, combine soy sauce and ginger. Mix well.
5. Cut chicken into thin slices and divide evenly on lettuce leaves, drizzle soy mixture on wraps and garnish with orange slices.

YUM! This is the first time I cooked with fresh ginger, and I am now definitely a fan. I'm really enjoying experimenting with different spices, vinegars and seasonings.

Balsamic Baked Chicken

Ingredients - (Makes 2 servings.)

7 oz. chicken breast

7 oz. fresh green beans with their ends snapped off

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 garlic cloves minced

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp onion powder

1/4 cup water

Directions

1. Preheat skillet to medium high.
2. Add red wine vinegar, garlic and onion powder. Saute for a couple minutes.
3. Add chicken and 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, bake covered for 7 - 10 minutes, flipping chicken over halfway through.
4. Next add water, remaining balsamic vinegar, rosemary and green beans. Cook for another 4 - 7 minutes.

I particularly enjoy this recipe because of the fresh green beans. Before this diet, I was a strictly canned vegetable girl. I liked them bland and soft, not flavorful and crisp. It's what I was brought up on. I'm branching out into the world of fresh veggies and herbs, and I'm loving it!

These recipes are from the e-book, Easy hCG Diet by Celeste Wilson.

I've been on the hCG diet for nearly a week now, not including the two days of fat loading that come at the very beginning of the program. Surprisingly, I'm doing quite well. Better than expected, actually, as I am admittedly a serious sugar addict. As a reminder, the hCG diet only allows you to consume 500 calories a day, no sugar, fat, or starches. Because the hCG hormone causes the unnecessary fat stores to be targeted before essential sources of fat, your body is essentially burning more than the 500 calories you are eating. So, in answer to everyone's primary question, I am not starving.

How I Feel

I will admit that I feel a little hungry at different periods throughout the day. Especially in the morning. I drink a cup or two of coffee with a splash of 2% milk and that's it until lunch. During that time I take a few drops of the Appetite Control by DesBio that I got from my chiropractor, Dr. Jaison Golojuh, and it helps.Many times I don't think that I'm actually hungry, so much as that I just want to eat something. I've developed a bad habit of eating while I'm working at the computer or reading.

Jaison is overseeing the entire program that my husband, Bill, and I are doing. We see Jaison every week to be monitored, measured and weighed. While I haven't noticed the tremendous amount of increased energy people talk about, I am feeling better overall and at least a bit more energetic. I've noticed that my bra is fitting more properly, and my jeans are a bit loose, though I'm not yet able to fit into the size too small jeans I've been pining to wear. But it has only been a week.

What I Eat

I'm actually enjoying this new kind of cooking very much. I'm experimenting with vinegars and spices, and the recipes I've tried so far have been quite good. I will share them in more detail in future posts. I cook a lot of chicken because Bill and I don't care much for fish. We also eat lean steak and beef, but only twice a week. Today, we substituted scrambled eggs for one of our meats. We're permitted two meats, two fruits and two vegetables per day. And lots of water. We can also have coffee and tea, which we sip throughout the day when we're starting to feel like munching something. Stevia is allowed, and I put that in my tea.

Have I Cheated?

Yes. I will readily admit that I have cheated this week. Twice, actually, which I don't think is too bad. Yesterday, while at Sam's Club, I took Brady to get him the pizza we promised him. Sam's gives you two slices per order.  I had to make sure they weren't too hot for my toddler, right? So I had two bites of cheese pizza. I paid the price. I only lost about half a pound yesterday, according to my scale. It was worth it. That cheese was awesome! I also snuck a few marshmallows earlier this week when my kids were having them for after-school snack. Not so much worth it, but I can cut myself some slack on that one, too.

So how much weight have I lost? I'm going to wait until after tomorrow when I'm weighed at Jaison's office to give you the official numbers. While his scale reads about five pounds heavier than ours does, I don't trust our scale because it gives a different reading every time you step on it. I will tell you that I believe I've lost a significant amount of weight in just one week - at least the pound per day that is to be expected on the hCG diet, probably more.

So stay tuned for hCG recipes and more updates on my progress. I do think this diet is probably the best thing I've done for myself in a long time. Have you done the hCG diet? What were your results and thoughts about the program?

Synopsis of the hCG Diet

The hCG Diet, it is a diet that uses the pregnancy hormone, hCG, to reset the hypothalamus and target the non-essential fat stores other diets just don't reach. The diet has several phases. In the first, the dieter begins to rid himself of the toxic chemicals stored in the fat, due to the toxicity of today's food and environment. Next comes a two-day fat loading phase in which you consume as much fatty and sugary foods as you'd like. You begin taking the hCG supplement on these days. This overload is done so that your body is aware of the kinds of fat to target. After this two-day phase comes the 500 calorie very low calorie diet phase. Finally, there is a 3-week maintenance phase in which calories and a variety of foods are slowly reintroduced into the body.

I've really simplified the overall diet, but I encourage you to read more about it. My husband, Bill, and I are working in conjunction with our chiropractor, Dr. Jaison Golojuh to complete a 43 day protocol of the hCG diet. Check out what Dr. Jaison has to say about the hCG diet on his website for a more thorough description of the program. It is to be expected that dieters will lose between 1/2 and 1 pound per day on the hCG diet. Because the hCG hormone causes the body to take fat from non-essential stores, 500 calories a day are plenty to feel satisfied and to be healthy. If you follow the plan, your body's metabolism will be reset, and the weight will stay off.

Detoxification Phase

Bill and I started this phase on Monday. Dr. Golojuh gave us six-bottle homeopathic detoxification kit from DesBio. Four days a week, we take the Detox I, II and III, as well as Matrix Support. We place 20 drops of each in a 16 - 24 ounce bottle of water and sip it for 3 hours. The other 3 days of the week, we take Cerebromax and Spinalmax. These are adminstered the same way as the others.

Prior to giving us anything, Jaison met with us. We were weighed, our BMI was determined, and we were measured. He also talked to us about the program and answered our questions. I highly recommend seeking the assistance of a doctor in order to be sure you are putting your health first and that you are using the most quality products on the market. Not everyone should take part in the hCG diet. Women who are pregant and diabetics are two groups who should not use hCG.

Our Progress

It's obviously early in the program. Thus far, we haven't had to change our eating habits at all. We've simply been taking the detox products in the morning along with a whole foods multi-vitamin called Catalyn by Standard Process. I will copy the measurements from Jaison and update the post with them later, but here are our current photos. My weight is 243 pounds. I am truly hoping to reach a 40 pound weight loss over the 43-day protocol, but I will be satisfied with 25 pounds, as I am so tired of being fatigued and not fitting into my clothes. I'm told that energy levels skyrocket on the hCG diet, and I've already begun to feel a bit better since beginning the detox and taking the Catalyn.

We go back to see Jaison on Monday and will meet with him once a week throughout the process. I'll keep you updated on each phase, posting pictures and measurements. I plan to update you on what we eat, how we feel and what's involved in each phase. Wish us luck!