Me So Thorny

After 10 long days on the HCG diet I began to wonder if my drops actually contained HCG. Why? I was starving my ass off, practically crawling the walls. And I would have crawled the walls if it wasn’t for the splitting headache and lack of energy, not to mention feeling completely out of my skin.

I was starting my days with three Advil and falling asleep praying my headache would go away during my sleep. It never did.

According to the philosophy of the HCG diet, HCG would supposedly make my body burn fat, providing energy, and I would not therefore feel hungry. I finally decided to order an HCG test to see if my drops actually contained HCG, even though the bottle said it did. I ran the test five times and none of them turned up positive for HCG.

So I researched whether or not the test should actually turn positive. Of course when you search for anything HCG related you pretty much only get results for companies trying to sell you the drops — mostly the “homeopathic” HCG drops. All of these sites say, that their HCG drops were not designed to create a positive HCG pregnancy test. Some go so far to say that the drops contain very diluted amounts of HCG and then tell you that you don’t understand homeopathy if you expect their HHCG to create a positive HCG test.

Well how in hell do you expect HCG — a hormone — to do anything in your body if you’re drinking 30 drops a day of very diluted HCG? According to these HCG drop sellers it’s the buildup of HCG over time that starts making it work. Some even say that the formula is homeopathic because it “encourages” your body to start producing HCG on its own. Hello? Unless you’re a woman and pregnant, your body will NEVER produce HCG on its own. Sorry. A big problem with the HCG diet information is that the things you see are provided by sellers. Responses on message boards are either created by them or by people who have convinced themselves that their homeopathic HCG drops actually contain significant amounts of HCG. Or if they’re lucky, there is actually HCG in their drops (unlikely).

If you had a headache, would you ever dilute a very small amount of aspirin in drops and expect it to do anything to stop your headache? NO. Does your body ever produce aspirin on its own, spontaneously? No.

Why do you think trans-gender people have to take hormones the rest of their lives? Take Chaz Bono for example — he has to take male hormones forever because his body will not ever make them on its own. A body not programmed to regularly produce a hormone just won’t.

Have you ever watched Survivor? You know how those people end up getting really skinny after several weeks on the island? They’re starving because they don’t get enough food. They aren’t taking HCG drops and they’re clearly losing weight. I am convinced that this is what is happening to the majority of people who are taking these homeopathic HCG drops. They’re starving and believe that the HCG drops are actually working.

So if you suspect that your drops don’t have HCG in them, order an HCG test to test your drops and see if, in fact, you’ve been screwed. I don’t care what the homeopathic philosophy is, if you’re not getting significant amounts of HCG in your drops then the impact of HCG, as described by the doctor who originated the idea, won’t even be happening.

Get some cheap HCG test strips now.

I would be interested to see if the actual HCG injections work, however. You know — the injections that actually contain REAL HCG? Unfortunately, however, I feel as though I’ve already been screwed by the whole HCG diet idea that I’m really not willing to give it a try again.

I just ate my first phase 2 meal on the HCG diet and found myself enjoying what I was eating, for a change. I made a chicken breast with a spinach salad. For dressing I used apple cider vinegar and lemon juice with some dried white onions. I also had one of the long thin breadsticks.

I have not been hungry today at all, which is probably the result of all the stuff I ate over the weekend during days 1 and 2. I ate everything from Whoppers to brats to chocolate covered marshmallows to a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream. I ate ’til I was sick. It actually became really not fun to be eating so much.

I have high hopes for this plan. I hope that I can look at myself in a mirror and get the outside to match the inside. I hope that I can fit into smaller pants. I hope that I can forget about having to wear suspenders. I hope that I can maintain a reduced weight.

I am really focusing on the mental aspect of this too. I think the binge on the first two days made me realize that I don’t derive pleasure from over-eating, either in the moment or afterwards. I didn’t feel like any of the meals I ate — which were primarily all junk food — were particularly tasteful. It felt gross.

Then today when I actually spent time grilling my chicken and putting a salad together I was paying attention to what my brain was thinking. I was thinking that it was taking a while and seemed putzy. But it really was not. I stopped myself and said, “Okay, this might seem like a lot more work than popping something in the microwave…but it’s really not.” I also reminded myself that once I got into a routine it would be very easy to do. Because of this I pre-cooked a couple chicken breasts and have them ready to go. I also want to mix a bottle of “salad dressing” with the apple cider vinegar, lemon, and some spices — and some Stevia too. My lips are still tingling from the vinegar, but I love it. It tastes great.

I also forgot that I can have a serving of fruit. I have these nice small oranges and apples and they are just waiting for me. I love it!

In any case, since I use a wheelchair I can’t easily weigh myself but I will be paying attention to the measurement around my stomach at the belly button. Today that measurement was 51″. I can’t wait for it to go down.