HCG Day 38, 39, & 40!!! - Final days!

Well .. day 40 of the HCG has finally arrived.  These past few days have been full of dancing and just hanging out with my bffs.  I ate food that I was not suppose to eat .. but it also has been a while since I gone out and had some time with my bffs.

The weight has definitely stayed put at around 220 .. I haven't been able to go decrease anything lower than that.  The phase after the 40 days of the very low calorie diet is called Phase 3 - Maintenance or Stabilization. I start my personal training at the gym on Tuesday .. and I will go twice a week .. with cardio about 3 times a week.  Just because I'm not taking HCG anymore .. I'm still going to update this blog with my progress .. perhaps you guys can give me a new title for the blog! :-)

This is an explanation of Phase 3 .. taken from this website.  www.hcgloss.com

The maintenance phase is the 3 week period after you finish your injections. Dr. Simeons outlines a few rules here:

• you must weigh yourself every day
• you must remain within 2 pounds of your last injection weight (over *OR* under) and,
• you cannot eat sugars and starches (which is carbohydrates minus the fiber)

It is extremely important to eat plenty of protein during this period, a lot of people can eat at least 100 grams of true protein (about 400 grams of actual meat weighed raw). If you go over the 2 pounds, you must immediately do a steak day (this is explained in the protocol and in the tips and tricks page - see it here). We want to be clear that this 3 week period is crucial to the success of the diet. The process is explained in Pounds and Inches here. This part of the process is very similar to Atkins Induction. Further down in this article is a list of foods, but first read an excerpt from Pounds & Inches:
"When the three days of dieting after the last injection are over, the patients are told that they may now eat anything they please, except sugar and starch, provided they faithfully observe one simple rule. This rule is that they must have their own portable bathroom-scale always at hand, particularly while traveling. They must without fail weigh themselves every morning as they get out of bed, having first emptied their bladder. If they are in the habit of having breakfast in bed, they must weigh before breakfast.

It takes about 3 weeks before the weight reached at the end of the treatment becomes stable, i.e. does not show violent fluctuations after an occasional excess. During this period patients must realize that the so-called carbohydrates, that is sugar, rice, bread, potatoes, pastries etc, are by far the most dangerous. If no carbohydrates whatsoever are eaten, fats can be indulged in somewhat more liberally and even small quantities of alcohol, such as a glass of wine with meals, does no harm, but as soon as fats and starch are combined things are very liable to get out of hand. This has to be observed very carefully during the first 3 weeks after the treatment is ended otherwise disappointments are almost sure to occur."

OK, so here is the thing: The day that you give yourself your last injection, you count 72 hours (continuing on the 500 calorie VLCD for those 72 hours) from that last shot, *then* you start your maintenance/stablization phase. It is critical that you follow this phase as faithfully as you did the injection phase, because *now* is when your hypothalamus will reset, clearing off all the 'bad old days' of yo-yo dieting and poor eating habits. That weight that you were the morning of your last injection is the weight that you use as a basis for your maintenance phase. Many call this LIW (Last Injection Weight). Anything OVER two pounds from that weight calls for a steak day.