A lot going on around here lately, the largest impact of which is my husband's weight loss quest. After not having a lot of luck through conventional means, he has decided to try the hCG Diet.
We met with the naturopath on Tuesday, who walked us through it all. If you haven't heard of it, it is basically an extremely restricted diet combined with injections of the pregnancy hormone hCG. Some people do drops or creams, but apparently injections are the way to go. There's a lot of information on the internet about it, a number of pro and cons, a whole ton of testimonials and a whole ton of people warning people against it. The key principle is that with the hCG, the body instead burns it's own fat (not muscle) and can subsist on a very low number of calories. In his case, he has been put on around 800 calories a day. People have reported losing .5-1 lbs a day loss, and are able to keep it off.
This entire thing is crazy. I've seen lots of crazy diets, the most recent of which came in the form of the Paleo diet. Now, I'm not saying it doesn't have it's merit, absolutely there are very positive things about it. Everyone should be eating a lot more vegetables. I think my thought on that much restriction was summed up by a friend who tried it. "I wanted to punch the person that suggested this in the face, and force feed her a sheet cake."
Intentionally sticking a needle in oneself every morning, so you can go through the rest of the day eating almost nothing? I'll be over in the corner, eating the baked potato that you can't have because you're on it. Good by me, I need the potassium.
The naturopath said, "Typically, success is best with the support of a spouse." I agree, but not I think how she meant it. There are two decisions I made where this was concerned:
1) I am not doing the hCG diet. While I know that it would help my husband to have someone go through it with him, I have a number of reasons. For starters, I don't like diets like this; I lost 60lbs the old fashioned way, by eating sensibly and exercising. It look me longer, sure, but I did it. Perhaps the even larger motivation for me is the headaches: I have been having headaches almost constantly since February or March. Doing the math on that, that's months of headaches. I've been taken off of birth control pills and I now have an IUD. I'm starting to improve. HCG would raise the levels of progesterone in my system, which would risk putting me right back where I was, pain wise.
Plus, to put it plainly, this shit is wack.
2) I have decided to eat the same foods that he does when he can. Obviously not in the same quantities; I need at least 1200 calories, and preferably 1400-1700 based on my activity level. I can eat the same stuff he does for the most part, and then use the rest of the calories on the other foods I need that he can't have.
It's a very restrictive diet, though. Amazingly so.
The first day, the naturopath gave him the shot. It's a fairly standard needle, but gets plunged straight into the leg.
Did I mention my husband hates needles? When I got my first occipital nerve block he had such a look horror on his face when the doctor stuck the needles in the back of my head. He pales at the sight of them. He hates having anything stuck in him at all.
Those of you who read back will see: I have no fear of needles. Even I cringed when she jabbed him, and I was certain I'd be giving him the shot from there on out. It has to be fast, like a Needle Ninja, or it hurts like a bastard.
The first two days were loading days, where he was told to eat everything in sight. That was fun because then we both started destroying all the foods he couldn't have. Not so good for me, but hey, at least I got some cake and pumpkin pie out of the deal.
Day 2, he had to give himself his own shot. I took it out of the fridge and put it out for him. By the time I came back, he was sitting there staring at the syringe. I asked if I needed to give him the shot. He said that he'd already done it.
This is huge, people. HUGE. I'm so proud of him, because that's determination. I'd have a hard time putting a needle in my leg.
Today's experience, day 3 and the first day of really following the plan, has made me think that perhaps I should be blogging about all of this. More to come.
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