I've started a new diet yesterday, and I want to blog about my progress. I wonder if my friends who still read this blog would be interested in reading about it. Please take the poll to let me know!

Poll #1423401 Wanna Read About My Diet?
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Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: Friends, participants: 6

Are you interested in reading updates about my diet?

I was answering some questions from irena_seraphina about the new diet so I decided to re-post them here.

I’m doing this thing that you inject yourself with a pregnancy hormone, hCG, so when you are on a restrictive diet your body doesn’t destroy your organs and muscle tissue to protect your nonexistent fetus, thereby using up the stored fat first. I'd known the part about the body protecting the fetus in this way, not that I can remember how I came to this knowledge, but it made sense to me. The "protocol", as they call it, using injections of this hormone to aid in fat loss, is highly contentious. You'll find a lot of different, and contradictory information on this stuff on the internet. As my friends, I hope that you will be respectful enough to question but not to bash on these methods, but I will be screening any non-friend comments, as I have seen some crass comments against others that are on this protocol.

I originally found out about it through my friend Lisa, the massage therapist. Her friend is the naturopath that I am seeing about it. She’s doing the protocol herself now, and is on her 2nd round, and has lost 60lbs. Soon after I heard about it from Lisa, I met a gal at the SnB at the Duck that is doing it and has lost 30lbs in 6 weeks. The program is either 3 or 6 weeks; these other people have done the 6-week deal, but I am doing a 3-week to start, as I only have 3 weeks until Comic-Con, and I knew that I would have really limited food options there. People doing the 3-week protocol generally loose between 10-20lbs.

What I'll be doing: For the first two days, you eat as much fatty stuff as you can, allegedly to "plump up" the fat cells for easy and immediate use when you start limiting your calories. For the following 21 days, diet is limited to about 500 calories a day, and you are limited to a very small set of foods components to choose from. You get two 3.5oz servings of lean protein (white fishes {cod, flounder, tilapia, shrimp, etc}, chicken, lean beef), two 3.5oz servings of vegetable (I don’t remember all the choices, but some are; spinach, zucchini, tomato, cabbage, radish, chicory), and two servings of fruit (1 whole apple, 1 whole orange, ½ grapefruit, or 6 strawberries). You can eat any combination of 1 from each category at any time, but aren’t supposed to double up on any of the servings, like you aren’t supposed to eat the whole 7oz of protein at one meal. The preference is for all foods to be organic and meats to be hormone-free. There are a bunch of spices and herbs that you can use, and lemon juice to flavor and cook with. You can’t cook any of your foods with any oil or other fats, it’s got to be baked, grilled, steamed, or boiled. You can have caffeine. You’re also supposed to drink a lot of water, which is pretty standard. Every morning, for the first 21 days, I'll be injecting myself with a small amount of the hCG. There are many variations that others have developed, but this is supposed to be the original plan that was formulated and has shown the most consistent results.

I'm not looking to this as a cure-all for my fat issues. I'm looking for a jump-start to help me to get myself healthier again. I've gotten to a point that I am uncomfortable with my current size and feel that it is limiting me. I've tried "eating better and exercising more" with limited success, for various reasons, and I own that some of them are my fault psychologically. I've stayed away from other diet pills and drugs in the past, as my mother's use of them on and off for 30 years was a major "risk factor" in the development of the pulmonary hypertension that lead to her early death.

I am now on day 2.

Days 1 & 2 are "fat loading" days. I'm to eat as much fatty food as possible, and expect to actually gain 4lbs.

What I ate, day 1:
Breakfast: McDonalds sausage McMuffin w/egg, hash brown, orange juice
Lunch: McDonalds angus bacon and cheese burger, fries, iced tea
Dinner: fresh whole milk mozzarella, Italian hard salami, kalamata and green olives, tiramisu

Weigh in day two - 2lb weight gain
What I ate day 2:
Breakfast: breakfast burrito with bacon from the cafeteria
Lunch: cheese steak sandwich, onion rings, and whole milk from the cafeteria
Snack: Lay's BBQ potato chips
Dinner: Mediterranean chicken and lamb meatloaf, dessert made from mascarpone cheese, whipped cream, cardamom agave nectar, and pistachio nuts. The dessert was super delicious, but I couldn't manage to finish it.

I baked 4 portions of chicken and 3 of veggies for the next two days. I need to pick up some more veg at the farm market tomorrow.