I'm baaaack!
It's been a very long hiatus (a fact for which I apologize greatly). I won't bore you with all the details, but life simply got in the way. We had some family tragedy, I graduated from college (two of them, actually) and got a degree (well, technically, three), and changed careers.
Actually, I am now a fully licensed and actively practicing esthetician and nail artist working full-time in the salon (the dream has become reality), so my YouTube journey has ironically come full-circle. I have a new look, a new attitude, a new degree and a new career. I'm certainly not a new me, but I do think that I'm well on my way to finally being the TRUE me, which is even better... :)
I want to thank all of you who have stuck with me during the past few years - you are tried and true and I appreciate every one of you! Thank you SO MUCH for your loyalty :)
I will be posting new tutorials soon, so stay tuned and let me know what YOU'D like to see!
PS - I have discovered an obsession with trying new products in my search for the "latest and greatest," so if you know of a company that would like to send their products for review, please have them email me at auraofbeauty@msn.com
Monday, April 15, 2013
Sunday, September 11, 2011
The Wayne Goss Method (IE - getting rid of cystic acne) - AN EXPERIMENT
THE EXPERIMENT
Try a different (and hopefully successful) acne solution.
THE LOGIC
I first heard about this “formula” through Wayne Goss (www.youtube.com/gossmakeupartist) – a well-respected makeup guru on YouTube. I won’t even begin to go into the story of how hard it is to get me to listen to a lot of the “gurus” and their makeup or skincare advice (being an esthetician, I have issues with a LOT of the information being thrown around out there), but suffice to say, Wayne has earned my respect and my willingness to try something he suggests.
THE HISTORY
For those that are unaware, I suffer from an incredibly painful condition called cystic acne. Unlike the normal breakouts most experience, this consists of “cysts” that are beneath the skin, horribly swollen and painful, and don’t seem to be affected by things like how often or what I use to wash my face, etc. While I do get the occasional normal “breakout” – usually a few days after being lazy and not washing my makeup off, and such, it is rare, and I tend to always have this other kind of acne instead.
Thankfully speaking, I do not suffer from this as badly as most who have the condition do. For me, my “blemishes” are localized mostly in the lower, outer portion of my face. Translation: always below my cheekbones, usually on the outer half of my cheeks, rarely on my forehead, some onto my chin, and most of it along my jawline (both just above and below the bone). Believe it or not, these cysts become so painfully swollen that there have been times where it becomes difficult to eat or even talk because it hurts to just breathe, nevermind MOVE.
I have tried just about everything under the sun to clear this, with mixed results. Proactive made it a thousand times worse, for instance (and before I get lectured on this probably being my skin “purging,” PLEASE keep in mind that I am a trained esthetician and I know that your skin has to cycle and therefore skin care can take 30-60 days to really show results one way or another). We’ll just settle for saying that I have tried everything from chemical peels to toothpaste in an attempt to solve the problem and nothing ever fixed the issue.
THE “PLAN”
According to Wayne’s story, he finally gave up on trying on these different solutions and came up with one of his own:
In the morning, he would wash his face with an ultra mild cleanser (something like Cetaphil, for instance), then he would follow this with a heavy layer of a 2.5% benzoyl peroxide gel. He would then repeat this process in the evening, before bed.
The logic behind this process is that there is bacteria somehow trapped beneath the skin, deep enough that normal washing will in no way resolve the issue, and that it stays trapped deep in those under layers, continuing a problem that there is no simple solution for.
According to him, he started this process on a Tuesday evening. By Wednesday night, his face had started to get very, very dry, and “smiling would make his face feel like it was cracking” so he started trying moisturizers to help alleviate this tight feeling, with nothing seeming to work. Eventually, he opted for sunscreen due to how emollient (greasy) it is, to help it settle down. On the second and third day, his skin became very red (because of how incredibly irritated it was). By the fourth day, his skin was red and irritated, but the spots were “DRAMATICALLY different.” And, by Saturday morning, he claims to have had an 80% improvement in his acne. He says he had a complete clearing of the acne within two weeks (completely free of acne, although some scars remained, obviously).
Apparently, he did this for about four months, eventually cutting down on the amount of product he was using from a three-inch long strip of this gel every application to more like a half-inch strip. At this point, now that his acne is totally under control, he uses a gentle cleanser, a BHA liquid from Paula’s Choice (a UK store, perhaps?), and a pea-sized bit of the OXY Spot (the benzoyl peroxide gel) every 4 days.
MY PART IN THE STORY
Alright, so where do I come into this story? Well, I’ve decided to try his system. After all, worst case scenario, my skin will dry out a bit and I’ll stop using the stuff and I won’t have any improvement in my acne. Best case scenario? Maybe it will work…
One of the interesting side effects of benzoyl peroxide is that it is actually a bleaching agent, meaning that it will bleach your skin somewhat over time (it also means that if you are not careful to wash your hands REALLY well after applying it, it can bleach your hand towels and will SERIOUSLY burn your eyes if you rub them). The neat factor to this is that it will most likely help with the severity of the scarring. I exfoliate often enough that my scars do fade relatively quickly already, but it would really be nice to have them fade even faster. Especially if my skin were clear – it would be nice to be able to be without makeup without looking like death warmed over.
So, here’s where we’re at – Friday, the 9th, I went to Walmart and bought the Equate Spot Treatment (it is a 10% benzoyl peroxide lotion that is the generic of the OXY Spot treatment). It was $1.94 or something, and is a minute amount (I think it’s like 0.36 oz or something), but I figured I’d see how I reacted before buying a big version and I didn’t have a huge amount of time to look for something else, as I only had like 20 minutes to shop before I had to grab my munchkins from school.
Day 1: Friday night, I washed my face with Cetaphil and applied a good coat of this to only my affected areas (no point in disinfecting what isn’t infected). Can’t say that I felt much of a reaction to the cream (ever used milk of magnesium as a primer? Then you know how it felt – just kind of dry, but nothing major).
Day 2: Saturday morning, I followed the same process, noticing that my skin felt MUCH tighter after applying the cream (similar to what you feel when you get a moderate sunburn and your skin is very dry but not painfully blistered or peeling). Recalling Wayne’s story of how painful his skin became, after about an hour, I went and put on my oil-free moisturizer (the Equate version of the Neutrogena Oil-Free Lotion), which took the feeling away. I washed and treated my face again before bed.
Day 3: It is now Sunday evening (so I washed and treated my face this morning and will be doing so again shortly). I actually applied a second layer of the spot treatment in the early afternoon, as I frankly wasn’t feeling much, again followed an hour or so later by moisturizer. I guess I was expecting my skin to be in serious trouble at this point – from his story, he was super miserable at this point (using 2.5%, and I am using 10%), with skin so dry as to only be alleviated with sunscreen – so when I am not anywhere near that, I guess I was thinking that maybe a third treatment couldn’t hurt.
THE RESULTS
Today, my skin is very dry compared to normal. It’s actually very interesting, because my forehead (which I see no reason to treat as I never break out there) is the only part of my face not getting any treatment, and the rest is so dry that it makes my forehead feel super oily… Anyway, my skin is dry, but not overly so. Without the moisturizer, it would feel tight, but is not red or particularly irritated. I find it hard to imagine that my little moisturizer is doing so much when he was forced to use something as greasy as a sunscreen, so I am wondering if my product choice is as effective as his. In theory, the benzoyl peroxide should be creating a type of constant chemical peel effect – causing my skin to shed it’s top layer or two every single time, and if that were truly the case, I simply should be having MUCH more irritation than I am.
That said, I AM seeing results. As I said before, my skin has dried up quite a bit, even considering the moisturizer (which would normally leave me a greaseball a few hours later, when instead I am dry again a few hours later). I have also seen a number of my spots drop drastically in the swelling department, and most of the smaller ones actually come to a head. I do not seem to have any new spots, and the ones I do have are smaller, very dried out, and hardly painful at all. I did wear makeup successfully yesterday, so my skin is not overly irritated or sensitive, and it was much easier to conceal the spots as their redness has also gone down drastically.
THE OUTLOOK/MY PLAN
I am optimistic – obviously, it is doing something so the theory is sound. Whether or not it will solve things remains to be seen.
I am almost completely out of my stupid miniature bottle of generic spot treatment lotion, so I plan to spend some time at Walmart in the next few days trying to find an actual gel rather than a lotion, and one in a much bigger bottle so that I don’t need three of them to get through a week.
I also want to try to find a gel that is not so strong. He claims to have had this kind of result from a gel that is 2.5% BP, so I am certainly not going to slap four times that strength on my face without first seeing if my skin can handle it. My opinion thus far is that the combination of the BP being IN a lotion and the moisturizer I have been putting on have been somewhat shielding my skin, both a blessing and a curse, and something I want more control over. I should be having many more issues from such a high percentage than I am so far.
I have taken some BEFORE pictures, which I will post when I actually have an updated photo to show you – at this point, all the spots are still there, just much less swollen, which cannot be seen with a camera.
Let me know your response to all this – have you ever tried anything so extreme with your skin? What were the results?
For those who want a more in-depth explanation of this system, feel free to visit Wayne’s channel (just search his uploads for “acne” and it will pop right up), or visit acne.org, which has entire threads dedicated to this particular “recipe for success.”
Monday, January 17, 2011
hCG experiment - day 7/8
Weight 1/16/11: 299.8 (+0.8 lbs)
Weight 1/17/11: 297.2 (-2.6 lbs)
Starting Weight: 306.0
Current Weight: 297.2
Total Weight Loss: 8.8 lbs
Has been a hard week for me. The diet is not the problem, it's just the rest of the things falling apart around me that make it hard. Makes it hard to want to go through the effort of sticking to a diet that is SO restrictive.
Am always full but really not satisfied. I want cheese. I want sugar-free creamer for my coffee. I want a piece of bread. Hell, I just want to be able to not worry if I make chicken soup for lunch if putting celery and onions in it for flavor and then straining them out is breaking my diet...
Was up 0.8 lbs yesterday morning - attribute this to it taking a full 24 hours to see full results from my night out with friends. While I lost 1.2 lbs and then gained back 0.8, an overall loss of 0.4 was achieved, so am not too disappointed.
Still holding the diet at arm's length. It's been about a week (or just under, depending on whether my loading days count), and I've lost a total of almost 9 lbs, which is great. Still sort of expecting it to end up being a fluke (or expecting my body to stop doing so well, anyway).
Have felt great overall - no crazy side effects or anything like that. I'm just a bit hungry and a bit frustrated with the food allotted me, but I'll cope. I figure, if the weight slows down to an average of a pound per day, at the end of a month I will have lost 30 pounds, just under 1/3 of my ideal goal - this is worth doing this crazy diet until then. Am starting to think that I will do 3-week to 1-month increments rather than the 6-week to 60-day increments you're allowed to extend it to - will see how I feel in a few weeks. May be so happy with the weight loss that I stay on it...
Time for bed now, have to work in the morning...
Weight 1/17/11: 297.2 (-2.6 lbs)
Starting Weight: 306.0
Current Weight: 297.2
Total Weight Loss: 8.8 lbs
Has been a hard week for me. The diet is not the problem, it's just the rest of the things falling apart around me that make it hard. Makes it hard to want to go through the effort of sticking to a diet that is SO restrictive.
Am always full but really not satisfied. I want cheese. I want sugar-free creamer for my coffee. I want a piece of bread. Hell, I just want to be able to not worry if I make chicken soup for lunch if putting celery and onions in it for flavor and then straining them out is breaking my diet...
Was up 0.8 lbs yesterday morning - attribute this to it taking a full 24 hours to see full results from my night out with friends. While I lost 1.2 lbs and then gained back 0.8, an overall loss of 0.4 was achieved, so am not too disappointed.
Still holding the diet at arm's length. It's been about a week (or just under, depending on whether my loading days count), and I've lost a total of almost 9 lbs, which is great. Still sort of expecting it to end up being a fluke (or expecting my body to stop doing so well, anyway).
Have felt great overall - no crazy side effects or anything like that. I'm just a bit hungry and a bit frustrated with the food allotted me, but I'll cope. I figure, if the weight slows down to an average of a pound per day, at the end of a month I will have lost 30 pounds, just under 1/3 of my ideal goal - this is worth doing this crazy diet until then. Am starting to think that I will do 3-week to 1-month increments rather than the 6-week to 60-day increments you're allowed to extend it to - will see how I feel in a few weeks. May be so happy with the weight loss that I stay on it...
Time for bed now, have to work in the morning...
Saturday, January 15, 2011
hCG experiment - day 5/6
Didn't post last night, so will do an overview of the past two days...
Weight 1/14/11: 300.2 (-3.4 lbs)
Weight 1/15/11: 299.0 (-1.2 lbs)
We went out with some friends last night. While it is not a part of the diet, I did plan on drinking and, as such cut back on what little I ate throughout the day. My weight loss for the day ended up drastically stunted, but I still lost weight so I was thrilled and it was worth the bit of loss to go have such fun with our friends.
Am getting used to the diet and learning how to make myself happier with the food I have. Hardest is becoming the ONE vegetable per meal. I can't, for instance, have tomatoes and onions so I can't have salsa. This is very frustrating on a lot of levels.
Spent a while today researching hCG diet meal recipes. There is a lot more one can make within the meal restrictions than you would think, so I will be trying some of those recipes and posting them here if I find a great one.
My two days off was a nice break from how crazy life has been lately, but it was also the hardest few days for my diet. It has been brutal to smell corn dogs or pizza or french toast when it's time for the kids to eat. I do realize that they are not on a diet and shouldn't suffer, but it doesn't make it easier.
Went to a local store today and found some really fun things that are already making a difference in my point of view, though. One is called Liquid Aminos. Suggested by one of the sites with all the recipes, it's some kind of amino acid compilation derived from soybeans and is touted as a healthier alternative to soy sauce. It's amazing. Had boiled cabbage for dinner with that and some Veg-Aid seasoning on it and it was really good. The Veg-Aid was another thing I bought that seems to have been money well-spent. I also purchased Vanilla Creme liquid Stevia drops that I'm hoping will let me make diet chai and/or coffee. I always used Splenda and nonfat milk in my chai so it was relatively low-cal before, but since I can't have the milk I'm hoping the drops will be a good alternative. Also FINALLY found the grissini (breadsticks). MUCH better than the Melba toast I have taken to calling the "damn crouton" (LOL!!).
I go back to work tomorrow for a day, then Monday is my dentist appointment, so I expect that Tuesday morning my weight loss will be off. I am terrified of the dentist enough that I have to take anti-anxiety medication to cope with the visit, so will probably not be taking the drops/eating properly.
Overall, I'm thrilled to be back under 300, and glad that my step out of the diet didn't derail me too far. Realistically, I expect to switch to around a pound per day anyway here sometime soon, so a pound is a really reasonable amount of weight to lose.
I'm finally starting to be a believer. It's a miserable way to eat and live my life right now, but I've 7 pounds if you start from the morning of my first loading day, 7.6 if you calculate it Dr. Simeon's way - on the morning of the beginning of the VLCD. I am thinking that I will probably do a series of 3-week increments rather than the 6-8 week ones, but I'm excited to be smaller before my wedding in August.
Weight 1/14/11: 300.2 (-3.4 lbs)
Weight 1/15/11: 299.0 (-1.2 lbs)
We went out with some friends last night. While it is not a part of the diet, I did plan on drinking and, as such cut back on what little I ate throughout the day. My weight loss for the day ended up drastically stunted, but I still lost weight so I was thrilled and it was worth the bit of loss to go have such fun with our friends.
Am getting used to the diet and learning how to make myself happier with the food I have. Hardest is becoming the ONE vegetable per meal. I can't, for instance, have tomatoes and onions so I can't have salsa. This is very frustrating on a lot of levels.
Spent a while today researching hCG diet meal recipes. There is a lot more one can make within the meal restrictions than you would think, so I will be trying some of those recipes and posting them here if I find a great one.
My two days off was a nice break from how crazy life has been lately, but it was also the hardest few days for my diet. It has been brutal to smell corn dogs or pizza or french toast when it's time for the kids to eat. I do realize that they are not on a diet and shouldn't suffer, but it doesn't make it easier.
Went to a local store today and found some really fun things that are already making a difference in my point of view, though. One is called Liquid Aminos. Suggested by one of the sites with all the recipes, it's some kind of amino acid compilation derived from soybeans and is touted as a healthier alternative to soy sauce. It's amazing. Had boiled cabbage for dinner with that and some Veg-Aid seasoning on it and it was really good. The Veg-Aid was another thing I bought that seems to have been money well-spent. I also purchased Vanilla Creme liquid Stevia drops that I'm hoping will let me make diet chai and/or coffee. I always used Splenda and nonfat milk in my chai so it was relatively low-cal before, but since I can't have the milk I'm hoping the drops will be a good alternative. Also FINALLY found the grissini (breadsticks). MUCH better than the Melba toast I have taken to calling the "damn crouton" (LOL!!).
I go back to work tomorrow for a day, then Monday is my dentist appointment, so I expect that Tuesday morning my weight loss will be off. I am terrified of the dentist enough that I have to take anti-anxiety medication to cope with the visit, so will probably not be taking the drops/eating properly.
Overall, I'm thrilled to be back under 300, and glad that my step out of the diet didn't derail me too far. Realistically, I expect to switch to around a pound per day anyway here sometime soon, so a pound is a really reasonable amount of weight to lose.
I'm finally starting to be a believer. It's a miserable way to eat and live my life right now, but I've 7 pounds if you start from the morning of my first loading day, 7.6 if you calculate it Dr. Simeon's way - on the morning of the beginning of the VLCD. I am thinking that I will probably do a series of 3-week increments rather than the 6-8 week ones, but I'm excited to be smaller before my wedding in August.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
hCG experiment - day 4
Today was interesting.
I lost quite a bit of weight (3 lbs, to be exact) so I'm feeling rather chipper, and I sort of knew what to expect food-wise, etc. Am finding myself holding back on hope, though, as I don't want to get all excited and have my body tell me in a week it can't handle this diet.
So far, I feel fine, other than being slightly hungry, and even that is getting better. Had my melba crouton (whoever decided that thing was toast is on CRACK, lol) for a snack in the morning again, and ate an identical lunch today, except I wasn't hungry enough to include my apple (this is very good news), so I kept it for later. Was totally satisfied until I got home, at which time I made a steak and salad dinner with an orange and my toast. I then had my apple as a later-in-the-evening snack the same way as last night.
This "apple pie" seems to soften the cravings for all the junk. I'm not really a junk eater normally as far as candy and the like, but found myself craving "just one" M&M or Hershey Kiss or something. I find that I miss cheese the most, as I am such a big fan. As frustrating as these "needs" are, I am heartened by it as the cravings get stronger - I like to think it is my body beginning to "detox" off a diet high in calories, refined sugars and fats, and the like. By the end of the day it was easier, and I have the next two days off so it will be interesting to see if it is harder or easier to stay on my diet at home.
Dale has been super supportive, cooking and serving dinner before I ever get off work, so that I'm not tormented by the smell or sight of the normal food the rest of the family eats. This is sweet and very helpful, but I am aware that I will eventually have to face a life in which I eat drastically different from my partner and children.
The nausea seemed to come less often today, which I am hoping means it will soon stop (I want my body to think I'm pregnant but I would prefer to not have morning sickness for no reason), and again I have felt energized throughout the day.
I have also been sleeping. A lot. From my first full day of drops forward I have slept around 10 hours a night, like a rock, and found it difficult to drag myself out of bed in the morning. I have trouble getting to sleep normally, never sleep this long, and if I am woken up in the morning CERTAINLY do not roll over and go back to sleep, all of which I have found to be switching. It's not that I'm tired, just that I'm comfortable, sleeping well, and able to drift back in. It is very pleasant overall, and I probably desperately need the sleep after the way Christmas season and it's 80+ hour work weeks went.
Today's weight: 303.6 (-3.0 lbs - YAY!) Looking forward to tomorrow's weigh-in. Am hoping to do a video or two this weekend to post on YouTube about my experiences with this.
I lost quite a bit of weight (3 lbs, to be exact) so I'm feeling rather chipper, and I sort of knew what to expect food-wise, etc. Am finding myself holding back on hope, though, as I don't want to get all excited and have my body tell me in a week it can't handle this diet.
So far, I feel fine, other than being slightly hungry, and even that is getting better. Had my melba crouton (whoever decided that thing was toast is on CRACK, lol) for a snack in the morning again, and ate an identical lunch today, except I wasn't hungry enough to include my apple (this is very good news), so I kept it for later. Was totally satisfied until I got home, at which time I made a steak and salad dinner with an orange and my toast. I then had my apple as a later-in-the-evening snack the same way as last night.
This "apple pie" seems to soften the cravings for all the junk. I'm not really a junk eater normally as far as candy and the like, but found myself craving "just one" M&M or Hershey Kiss or something. I find that I miss cheese the most, as I am such a big fan. As frustrating as these "needs" are, I am heartened by it as the cravings get stronger - I like to think it is my body beginning to "detox" off a diet high in calories, refined sugars and fats, and the like. By the end of the day it was easier, and I have the next two days off so it will be interesting to see if it is harder or easier to stay on my diet at home.
Dale has been super supportive, cooking and serving dinner before I ever get off work, so that I'm not tormented by the smell or sight of the normal food the rest of the family eats. This is sweet and very helpful, but I am aware that I will eventually have to face a life in which I eat drastically different from my partner and children.
The nausea seemed to come less often today, which I am hoping means it will soon stop (I want my body to think I'm pregnant but I would prefer to not have morning sickness for no reason), and again I have felt energized throughout the day.
I have also been sleeping. A lot. From my first full day of drops forward I have slept around 10 hours a night, like a rock, and found it difficult to drag myself out of bed in the morning. I have trouble getting to sleep normally, never sleep this long, and if I am woken up in the morning CERTAINLY do not roll over and go back to sleep, all of which I have found to be switching. It's not that I'm tired, just that I'm comfortable, sleeping well, and able to drift back in. It is very pleasant overall, and I probably desperately need the sleep after the way Christmas season and it's 80+ hour work weeks went.
Today's weight: 303.6 (-3.0 lbs - YAY!) Looking forward to tomorrow's weigh-in. Am hoping to do a video or two this weekend to post on YouTube about my experiences with this.
hCG experiment - day 3
Just realized I forgot to post this yesterday, so here goes....
Today I did my first VLCD (very low calorie diet) day. I was surprised by how much food I could eat even with such severe restrictions, and how full I was overall throughout the day. Am not normally a breakfast eater, so it wasn't too shocking to my system to have nothing in the morning, although I did definitely miss having my coffee drink. Made tea last night so I drank some sweetened with stevia, but it wasn't the same.
Got hungry around the time I would normally have eaten lunch (my shift at work has changed, so I now eat lunch about an hour later than normal), so I had my piece of Melba toast - which is a RIDICULOUS little bit of bread, LOL! - this actually satisfied the growling, believe it or not.
Had chicken, cucumber slices with a bit of vinegar (one veggie version of cucumber salad), and an apple for lunch.
No snack in the afternoon, so I moved onto a similar dinner (exchanged the cucumbers for celery and threw my apple in the microwave with cinnamon and allspice on it for "dessert"). Was hungry before bed and in the afternoon, but not unbearably, and had great energy throughout the day.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with my reaction to the diet so far - I anticipated things being much less pleasant. Curious to see what tomorrow will bring on the scale....
Today's weight: 306.6 (+0.2 lbs). Rather happy with the fact that I clearly didn't eat enough to do much of anything weight-wise yesterday, as I was deliberately TRYING to eat high-cal foods but simply couldn't stomach them.
Today I did my first VLCD (very low calorie diet) day. I was surprised by how much food I could eat even with such severe restrictions, and how full I was overall throughout the day. Am not normally a breakfast eater, so it wasn't too shocking to my system to have nothing in the morning, although I did definitely miss having my coffee drink. Made tea last night so I drank some sweetened with stevia, but it wasn't the same.
Got hungry around the time I would normally have eaten lunch (my shift at work has changed, so I now eat lunch about an hour later than normal), so I had my piece of Melba toast - which is a RIDICULOUS little bit of bread, LOL! - this actually satisfied the growling, believe it or not.
Had chicken, cucumber slices with a bit of vinegar (one veggie version of cucumber salad), and an apple for lunch.
No snack in the afternoon, so I moved onto a similar dinner (exchanged the cucumbers for celery and threw my apple in the microwave with cinnamon and allspice on it for "dessert"). Was hungry before bed and in the afternoon, but not unbearably, and had great energy throughout the day.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with my reaction to the diet so far - I anticipated things being much less pleasant. Curious to see what tomorrow will bring on the scale....
Today's weight: 306.6 (+0.2 lbs). Rather happy with the fact that I clearly didn't eat enough to do much of anything weight-wise yesterday, as I was deliberately TRYING to eat high-cal foods but simply couldn't stomach them.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
hCG experiment - day 2
Going to make this a short post (I just spent most of the evening setting up my world for the low-cal portion of the diet so I'm super tired).
Today's weight: 306.4 (+0.4 lbs) - not surprising as this was "loading day" #2.
Symptoms:
Have continued to have mild levels of nausea off and on throughout the day, reminiscent of early weeks of pregnancy (ironic, right?). Otherwise, feel fine.
Have gotten progressively less hungry throughout the day. Still not a believer, so we'll see how hungry I am tomorrow - am still convinced it's psychological or that it is a result of the amount of food I've been eating (which truthfully isn't that much if I'm honest - had coffee in the morning (I managed to drink half in 4 hrs before I threw it out) and bought a cranberry-orange "muffin top", which I never did eat. I had a salad and a chicken quesadilla for lunch and was stuffed by the time I was done. Then, for dinner, some spaghetti (about half a plate and was STUFFED). Looking back on essentially a meal and a half with no hunger or anything, I'm inclined to say this is a good sign. Felt energized, happy, and "smart" all day long - went and visited my mom for a bit and she asked me if I was "feeling wired" - this was about an hour ago, so this is again a good sign for energy levels.
Preparations:
Bought all the stuff for the diet that I didn't get a few days ago, then spent about two hours preparing. While I was at mom's, borrowed her digital scale, then came home and portioned out a family pack of boneless, skinless chicken breast and one of lean steak into 100g portions, then bagged them all and stuck part in the freezer and cooked the other bit and put it in the fridge ready to go for meals for the next few days. Also made a gallon of iced tea (which I will sweeten artificially) for caffeine and cut up a bunch of veggies and stuck them in tupperware for an easy grab in the morning.
Summary:
All seems well so far and am curious to see what happens over the next few days as I transition to the VLCD (very low calorie diet).
Also got the "Weight Loss Cure" by Kevin Trudeau to read in the interest of a more recent point of view on this diet (since the manuscript "Pounds and Inches" by Dr. Simeons is from the 50s or something).
See you tomorrow!
Today's weight: 306.4 (+0.4 lbs) - not surprising as this was "loading day" #2.
Symptoms:
Have continued to have mild levels of nausea off and on throughout the day, reminiscent of early weeks of pregnancy (ironic, right?). Otherwise, feel fine.
Have gotten progressively less hungry throughout the day. Still not a believer, so we'll see how hungry I am tomorrow - am still convinced it's psychological or that it is a result of the amount of food I've been eating (which truthfully isn't that much if I'm honest - had coffee in the morning (I managed to drink half in 4 hrs before I threw it out) and bought a cranberry-orange "muffin top", which I never did eat. I had a salad and a chicken quesadilla for lunch and was stuffed by the time I was done. Then, for dinner, some spaghetti (about half a plate and was STUFFED). Looking back on essentially a meal and a half with no hunger or anything, I'm inclined to say this is a good sign. Felt energized, happy, and "smart" all day long - went and visited my mom for a bit and she asked me if I was "feeling wired" - this was about an hour ago, so this is again a good sign for energy levels.
Preparations:
Bought all the stuff for the diet that I didn't get a few days ago, then spent about two hours preparing. While I was at mom's, borrowed her digital scale, then came home and portioned out a family pack of boneless, skinless chicken breast and one of lean steak into 100g portions, then bagged them all and stuck part in the freezer and cooked the other bit and put it in the fridge ready to go for meals for the next few days. Also made a gallon of iced tea (which I will sweeten artificially) for caffeine and cut up a bunch of veggies and stuck them in tupperware for an easy grab in the morning.
Summary:
All seems well so far and am curious to see what happens over the next few days as I transition to the VLCD (very low calorie diet).
Also got the "Weight Loss Cure" by Kevin Trudeau to read in the interest of a more recent point of view on this diet (since the manuscript "Pounds and Inches" by Dr. Simeons is from the 50s or something).
See you tomorrow!
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