HC3 Diet - Days 1 & 2 - "The Loading Days"
We met with the Optimum Health nutritionist, Kelly Hall, on July 11th to discuss the diet in full detail with the plan to begin the diet on the following Saturday (July 16th). We figured if we had to consume 3500 calories of high fat foods, it would be much easier to do that if on the weekend when we could focus on eating!
It really does sound fun, eating all those fattening foods you always feel guilty eating. And while you would think that you can eat whatever you want, you really do need to focus on high fat calories, not high sugar. You won't get the same results if you eat all deserts!
So Saturday rolled around and we took the hormone in the morning when we got up and then we began our fatty feasting! We decided to use the, iphone app, myfitness pal to make sure we met our minimum calorie intake of 3500. We ate scrambled cheese eggs, bacon, sausage, burgers from McDonald's, Hot Dogs, KFC Original Recipe, Bologna, Steak, Pepperoni, Block Cheddar Cheese, Peanut Butter, Cashews, Pecans, and to end each night we each had HUGE slices of Cheese Cake! Check out the details below on the images from the calorie counter!
The first day seemed to go smoothly, and I was actually proud of myself for getting through it, because while it seems like a pretty simple thing, it's quite hard! But we both made it through the first loading day. Now day two wasn't as smooth, I was definitely struggling to reach that 3500 calories, and the things that helped most were the nuts and peanut butter. They pack a lot of fat calories for a smaller amount of intake, so you don't feel so full. We also had a very fatty steak for dinner that night and while I struggled to finish it, I actually got it all down! And then had to move onto the cheese cake desert. By the end of day 2 of loading I was miserable and actually started crying I felt so disgusting! It was rough! All I wanted to do was go to sleep.
But in either case we both made it through the loading days, and the total weight gain for myself over those two days was minimum I think I gained about 1.5 lbs total.
And we were both ready to start the low calorie, low fat diet!
The HC3 Diet - It's Time to Drop the Weight!
So after an awesome first 6 months of marriage, both Paul and I found ourselves packing on the weight, and faster than we ever imagined. We were gradually less and less interested in being active and more and more uncomfortable with how we felt about our bodies.
One of Paul's clients, Optimum Health, provides weight loss management options, and as a jump start to the weight loss they supervise the HC3 Diet. Paul and I had talked about it for a while as an option, but were contemplating if we couldn't do what the diet requires by just a eating better low carb and low fat diet. But on HC3 it's very different!
They tell you how you will take a hormone and supplements and only eat 500 calories and my first thought was, I can lose that much weight if I was eating 500 calories without a hormone. But the burning question was how could I actually get by only eating 500 calories. It seems crazy, especially considering I had on many occasions done calorie counters and struggled to stay under 1200 calories.
The HC3 Hormone is a homeopathic version of the HCG Hormone, the pregnancy hormone. And while taking it, it is telling your body that it needs to provide additional nourishment to you and the baby you would be carrying. So the hormone causes your body to consume the additional calories (of fat) while you only consume 500 calories. To start the diet off, you have two days of loading, in which you consume 3500 calories of high fat foods to set the basis for the hormone to burn those same calories for the next 40 days. After the "Loading Days" you drop down to 500 calories and your body begins to consume the remaining 3000 calories from the fat that is stored in the body. It's pretty miraculous, but we have already begun and it is working!
I will be posting details of our experience from the first two loading days and at a minimum weekly updates of our weight loss as well as, our highs and lows, and of course great food options that have helped us get through this 40 days!
If your lucky... I may even post some before and after photos of us both!
