The HCG Challenge

I know what some of you are thinking… how could I EVER say those three letters together on this blog, in this competition. DON’T PANIC!!! I’m not going to do that crap (and I do mean crap) I’m just going to prove a point.
I have recently come across a large number of women that have “lost tons of weight” on the HCG diet. I was talking to a friend that works at Lane Bryant (I call her friend because although we only know each other from the store I’m such a regular shopper there that she knows quite a bit about me and I about her. I love that store!!!). She has mentioned several times over the last year how great I look and she finally asked how much I had lost. I told her nearly a hundred pounds and when she asked me what I was doing she didn’t seem to like my answer at all. I said, “I’m exercising and making better choices about what food I eat. I’m not really dieting at all, I’m just changing the way I live my life and that has changed the way my body looks and feels.” She cocked her head to the side and just stared at me for like 30 seconds. Then she shook her head from side to side like she was trying to get a bad thought out or something. So funny… Anyway, I mentioned she too was looking great and I asked what she had been doing. She said, “I totally lost 30 lbs. on the HCG diet a couple months ago!!! It kinda sucked BUT it’s been almost 2 months and I’ve only gained about half of it back so I think that’s fantastic! I’m thinking I’ll do it again for 30 days in August so that I can finish the summer off strong and be in a good place when the holidays come.” My response, “Wow, good luck with that!” What else could I possibly say? I wanted to say something like, “ARE YOU FREAKING STUPID???” and then rant on and on for 20 minutes about my complete and utter dislike of the whole HCG diet. That and my complete disdain for concept of dieting at all. But I didn’t, I just smiled and walked away.
Well, this little exchange started a conversation between Jen and I (You all know Jen from Jen-uinely Healthy) we talked about how people do lose crazy weight doing this HCG thing and how it’s SO bad for them in SO many ways. Have any of you looked into it at all? You eat like 500 calories a day (can you imagine what that’s doing to your metabolism… not to mention your mental state) as well as the fact you can’t use certain shampoo, conditioner, lotion, Chap Stick or makeup cause you’re body will absorb the fat that is in them. That’s just the tip of the iceberg! WTF?!?!?!?! Who in their right mind would do any of that to themselves? Let’s top it all off with the fact that NO ONE can sustain that kind of crazy diet and since there is no motivation to make true life changing choices once you go back to your old habits (and they ALWAYS DO) then the weight comes right back… this time with a vengeance cause they jacked up their metabolism. ANYWAY, I digress.
Jen and I were talking about how we believe it is TOTALLY possible to lose 15-20 lbs. of fat in a month (because we have more than that of pure fat on our bodies that we can lose still) by eating on menu and exercising. As we got talking I was struck with a huge realization: since I started this whole adventure there has been very few weeks or even days that I have been perfectly on menu. I’ve been slowly changing my habits and slowly making change which is FANTASTIC and I’m doing great but I think it’s time to rev it up a little. So this HCG challenge is PERFECT! My dear sweet friend just started up again on her HCG adventure and so I’m proposing this: I am going on menu this month and I’m going to lose more than her!
The plan: Jack my amazing hubby revamped my menu last night. I’m going on a 3289 Calorie menu that will increase 300 calories on days I work out hard. I will be eating a 15% fat, 55% carb, 30% protein. This means I’ll be eating quite a lot of nutrient dense food every day (perhaps I’ll blog a time or two about what exactly I’m eating). I’ll be getting my carbs primarily from fruits, veggies and brown rice. I will perhaps have pasta occasionally but for the most part I really prefer rice, even if I’m having it with marinara! YUMMY! One thing for sure is I will not, FOR EVEN A SECOND, feel hungry. However, I’m quite certain my friend will be starving for most of the 30 days. I will continue to train for my half marathon (October 9th) running 4-5 days as well as continuing a minimum of 3 days of weight training each week. I’ll be feeling great and exercising while I’m quite certain she will be feeling like crap and doing little to nothing physical because she won’t have the energy to do so.
At the end of the 30 days we’ll compare. My eating lots of food with good healthy exercise and her crash diet with almost no food and no energy to do anything…
This should be quite a challenge but also fun…. what do you think?

Note: I wrote this blog on August 1 but my home computer crashed so I’ve been unable to post. Since then I’ve had (with the exception of skipping 1 meal, which I think is pretty good considering I didn’t eat a tub of Ben & Jerry’s or something) 6 perfect days! GO ME!