I decided to go with OfficialHcgDietPlan.com to obtain my supplement.  My husband did it with me so it was great to have that support.  I loaded over the weekend and when I went to work Monday, I forgot we were hosting a catered breakfast.  We had also just moved into our office space and my cubicle was near the kitchen.  So I was smelling bacon, eggs, french toast and syrup all morning!  I struggled through the first day but then the next day, we were celebrating someone’s birthday with cake!  I did not tell my coworkers that I was dieting because I did n’t want their input.  So I had to make an excuse why I did not want cake when I normally would be the first one to ask for seconds!

I would have my apple for breakfast, then if I still felt the need to “eat”, I would have 1/2 of my breadstick.  Lunch was a big salad with apple cider vinegar as my dressing and a piece of grilled protein.  I did the diet over the summer so we basically grilled all our protein.  In the afternoon, I would eat the remaining half of my breadstick.

Dinner would be the meal that is pictured or something similar.  Then I would have an apple sliced up and sprinkled with Saigon Cinnamon.  Saigon Cinnamon is SO much more flavorful than regular cinnamon!  The aroma itself was sweeter!

Some mornings I would allow myself an iced Americano from Starbucks and I would add 1 mini-moo creamer.  Then I discovered Coconut Creamer!  Oh my, that was heavenly!  Personally, I love coconut so I was super excited to see coconut creamer.  One night, I broke down and cheated.   I took one tablespoon of cocoa powder and added just enough coconut creamer to make it into a paste.  It was like eating chocolate!  I would share my chocolate dessert with hubby and we’d be sitting there, licking our spoons!

I drank a lot of herbal teas, when I felt like eating.  And it hit me, I wasn’t really hungry, I just missed the sensation of chewing and eating.  I did not feel any hunger pains or weakness or anything of that nature.  I just wanted to eat.  Eating is fun!  Food is tasty!  But the food I was eating WAS tasty.  I liked all of it.  We even made meatballs!  I was craving Italian Wedding Soup so we made a variation of it.  My husband made meatballs, using our allotted breadsticks of course.  He portioned out the meatballs, boiled up some chicken broth and poured it over spinach so it cooked/wilted the spinach and added the meatballs.  It was really good!  We even made chili!

One of my big take aways from doing the HCG diet was realizing how much we use food as an outlet, whether it be for happy or sad occasions.   We had fallen into the unfortunate habit of going out to eat if we had a bad day or had something to celebrate.  Need a pick me up?  Let’s get some ice cream!  Toward the end of the program, we had a trip out to Nashville, to visit some friends and also work related stuff.

We still ate according to the guidelines but I did have a White Castle burger.  I never had one before and I love hamburgers but I did not enjoy it.  It was too greasy and the bun was flavorless.  I ended up just eating the patty but even that did not taste good to me.  We did have one night where we went out drinking with some friends and we were ok.  But that trip just reinforced how much socializing revolved around food.  Not that there is anything wrong with that but it is too easy to fall into that fat trap.  I know I don’t have enough will power to stop eating a handful of peanuts while I also have a beer and the nuts are just sitting there, in front of me.  You talk, have some beer, laugh, grab some nuts, drink more beer and before you know it, you’re on your next beverage and look, nachos!  Yeah!  It takes effort to stay from food, when everyone else around you is also indulging.

So here we are, a year later and hubby has kept the weight off.  I have not, because I am currently pregnant with number 2.  We are very excited, especially since I had two miscarriages prior to this successful pregnancy.  We have brought more carbs into our diet but we definately don’t indulge like we did pre-diet.  I plan on doing the HCG diet again, once I have the baby and stop breastfeeding so that could be another 18 months!  eeks!