What's your Calorie Intake number?
Can you eat just 500 calories a day? What about 1000? Some swear by 1300....others say "who cares"! I've been trying to figure out the best number for me for years. It's not an easy number to figure out and to be honest it's not an easy number to stick to.
Off and on for 6 years, has it really been that long, I've been using My Fitness Pal (MFP) to help track my calorie intake. After about a month I get so frustrated that I stop for a while and the cycle repeats. I actually just had to check when I started using MFP. It was the day after my mom's birthday, February 26, 2012. I'm sure, I was on a serious eating bender the day, probably the week before, as I have done almost every year since she passed away in 2003. As the years go on the eating benders have pretty much stopped around her birthday which I call a success. I've been celebrating her life and accomplishments more than I have been mourning her loss. I truly believe that is all part of the grieving process. BTW, don't comment on my grieving process; because it's MINE! We all grieve in different ways; no one person's is better than the other! =)
If you've read my blog over the years you know that I occasionally do the hCG diet, low carb and keto way of eating. For those that don't know, the hCG diet has the person injecting the hCG hormone once daily and then eating just 500 calories a day for 26 or 46 days depending on the amount of weight you need to lose. After the 26 or 46 days you are allowed to increase your calorie intake, up to 1000 calories per day, for the next six weeks. In that time you determine if you are going to do another round of the hCG hormone injections or if you are going to move on to maintenance. The one thing you are NOT supposed to do is go back to your old eating habits. Not an easy task! Unless of course you go right back to your bad habits...then it's easy peasy lemon squeezy! OK, WHO CAME UP WITH THAT SAYING?
Let's not kid each other, THIS IS TOUGH! It is! There's no denying it! However, the results are amazing. But, in my case, I can fall off the proverbial wagon WAY TOO EASY! Can anyone say Emotional and Stress eater? Yep, you can point my way!
My OB/GYN had been offering me the hCG diet for several years. I finally decided to do it when I saw a picture of myself dancing with Zoey in the Magic Kingdom in February 2014. I was so disappointed in myself. Here I was about to be 40 years old and I didn't like what I saw in that picture. So about a week after I got back from Disney, I talked to my OB/GYN about the hCG diet; and I started the following week. Over the next several months I lost 53 lbs! I felt amazing, I looked amazing, and I was well on my way to a better me. That year I did what I thought was impossible, something I didn't think I would ever be able to accomplish. I ran the Atlantic City Marathon!
Ladies and Gentlemen that is 26.2 miles of running!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was my 40th birthday present to myself; Yep I'm crazy! But it was a feat I am so happy I did. I don't think I would have been able to do it without first losing that much weight and I thank Dr. C for suggesting it to me.
So fast forward four years to February 2018 and unfortunately I am right back where I was in February 2014! Over weight and on several maintenance medications; DAMMIT this is not where I want to be! So I talked with a friend who has done hCG several times herself and she recommended an online pharmacy for the injections. It's a lot cheaper and I don't have to go to the Dr's office every week. Well that made me very happy and after the first half of the summer being a crazy merry-go-round this is exactly what I needed. I was hoping, seriously hoping, that I would have the exact same results this time around that I did back in 2014.
Well the first week was a huge success! I lost 10.6 lbs and 17.5 inches. HELLS TO THE YEAH! I was so dam happy and said "This is it; I'm going to make it!" And then the next week only 5.2 lbs and only 7 inches lost. Not too shabby! and then Nadia Food came into the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let's talk my typical day of eating for a moment.
A typical day for me is doing intermittent fasting where I don't eat anything until between 11 AM and Noon. In which I have about 200 calories, give or take for lunch.
Iceburg lettuce, sauteed chicken (in water) with spices, one mini cucumber, Walden Farms Salad Dressing and one melba toast. Believe it or not this fills me up.
My lunch varies, but it's typically always a salad with a mini cucumber, some type of fruit (strawberries, mandarin oranges, apple, or grapefruit), walden farms dressing, and one melba toast. FYI, I do not put the grapefruit on the salad; let's face it that would be NASTY! But I do eat it on the side.
I eat a snack between 2 and 3 PM that consists of a granny smith apple or natural applesauce. If I have apples on my salad I do not have apples for snack. I will eat one of the other fruits instead.
Followed by dinner between 5 and 6 PM of again around 200 calories give or take.
I could not finish this meal! I was so full! I only ate about half of the asparagus and about half of the onions with all of the fish and salad.
Here we have a salad with one mini cucumber and Walden Farms dressing; 3.5 ounces of Cod Fish with a light coating of cajun fish fry (definitely not part of the diet but oh so tasty and added 30 calories), sauteed asparagus (in water with spices), and some sauteed onions (in chicken broth).
Dinners vary as well. I have fish once a week as I'm not a fish person and I have veal once a week. The rest of the week I have beef in some form or another.
Then the intermittent fasting starts again and follows through to lunch the next day.
Eating this way takes a lot of preparation and discipline. Being a stress and emotional eater doesn't always work with this way of eating. Let me say that again!
Being a stress and emotional eater doesn't always work with this way of eating.
Too many times during this round of the hCG diet I have found myself CHEATING!!!!!!!!! I was actually doing REALLY well, REALLY WELL, until my hubby needed a Nadia order! You all know, or at least have heard of our friend Nadia, Moroccan Chef.
And here we are back to Nadia and her wonderful food!
You all know, or may have guessed, that I ❤ Nadia's cooking! She's been talking about all this bread pudding that she's been making for the Hard Rock Casino and Chuck fell in love. So what does he order......well I have to order because he has a thing about talking to people, even those he knows! ;)
Bread pudding
Corn Bread
Hasha (OK so I put this on the list for the kids)
Pasta Sauce (And yes I put this on the list because Jesse and I LOVE IT)
Corn dogs (Mary wanted these)
Nadia includes homemade ice cream....I think it was banana and it was delicious!
The food smelled so good I seriously think I was put into a trance. I am picturing one of the old Scooby Doo cartoons where Scooby and Shaggy are in a trance walking around while a Zombie (AKA some weirdo) is terrorizing innocent people).
By the time Chuck and I got the food home I don't know how I was functioning. Guess what? I wasn't! I could not stop myself from eating, and eating, and eating, and eating. This food was in the house for several days and I just could not control myself.
WORD TO THE WISE FOLKS.....do not get Nadia food (or whatever food you love) when you are trying to diet and behave yourself. IT DOES NOT WORK! That is your PSA for the day!
It's been almost 2 weeks and I have seriously struggled to get back on track. No matter what I seem to do I can't get myself to get back tot he 500 calories a day. Well, I managed two days to do it but they weren't in a row. I am scheduled to finish my injections on August 30th and I am in fear that I will have no weight loss to show for this at all. And to be fair "Why should I"; I haven't follwed the program the way that I'm supposed to.
Here's one of the biggest downfalls for the hCG Diet and ME! I love to exercise! People look at me and they see a large woman. Their immediate thought, I know because some folks are so sweet to actually say that thought outloud, is that "wow, you don't exercise at all!" On the contrary you wonderful people! I love to exercise. I run, swim, bike, do workout videos, etc. However, when you are on the hCG Diet and only 500 calories a day you are NOT SUPPOSED TO EXERCISE but a casual walk no more than 20 minutes. Let me tell you that is very difficult for me.
My stress level and basic mental needs required me to exercise. SOOOO, since I can't seem to stick to the 500 calories a day anyway, I'm going to do an experiment with hCG.
Starting yesterday I upped my calories to 1000 per day, continued my injections, and started exercising again where I burn a minimum of 500 calories but would prefer more than that. I'm not eating those extra calories.
Now I do weigh myself every morning and I was happy to see that the scale did move in my favor this morning, albeit, not as much as I would have liked but I'll take it! Tonight I'm going back to Body Combat and can't wait to do that workout.
As for what a 1000 Calorie day looks like for me; here you go...
Intermittent Fasting until Lunch where I have a salad just like before but more of it. I could not finish this salad yesterday. I ate all the good stuff and left about 3/4 cup of the lettuce. I was just stuffed!
What's in there?
Craisins, Shredded Carrots, Chicken, Pecans, Mandarin oranges, Walden Farms dressing
Snack was an applesauce and yogurt. I got the yogurt from the cafeteria and it was more calories than I had hoped for so I will be searching the grocery store for my own yogurt this weekend.
Dinner last night was homemade chili! Now that I am upping my calories I can go back to several of my keto friendly dishes that I love. I'm looking forward to that!
This chili is YUMMY and so EASY to make. I gave it to Mary and the kids too.
Mary, Jesse, and I all enjoyed it. Zoey wasn't thrilled but she really doesn't like anything that isn't PBnJ or Pancakes!
3.5 ounces of 96% lean ground beef, 1 cup crushed tomatoes, cayenne pepper, black pepper, chili powder, minced garlic, onion powder, cannelloni beans (I didn't have any kidney beans), fat free cheddar cheese and light sour cream. SO GOOD!
Don't get me wrong eating just 1000 calories a day is still seriously tough. It takes a lot of discipline to eat that little. Most folks don't realize that when you snack on cheese, nuts, and anything else you find while you are making dinner that you are putting several hundred extra calories into your system. This is an issue I have all the time!
All in all my experiment is under full swing. It's DAY TWO and we'll see how it goes from here!
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