Ready... Set... Go! Time to get loaded!

Today begins round 2 of my HCG weight-loss journey. So, that can only mean one thing: the dreaded "loading days" are upon me. This diet is so counterintuitive to everything you think you know about weight loss.

At first you think: 'Loading days will be so much fun... eat, eat, eat to capacity... the higher the fat content, the better! Yee haw! A free pass to eat anything I want!'

Then you think: 'But I want to LOSE weight... not GAIN it!' It is so hard to stuff yourself once you have fully committed to starting a weight-loss program.

Next, the skepticism creeps in: 'What if this diet doesn't work at all? What if this is some kind of sick joke and I end up gaining ten pounds?'

Well, when I started the last round, that skepticism got the better of me. Even though I had been told by medical professionals that the load days were necessary, and were specifically called for by Dr. Simeons in his protocol, my load days were half-hearted. I indulged in a few treats that I wouldn't normally eat (like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard at the end of my second day), but I mostly ate my normal foods. I certainly didn't "eat to capacity" as required by the protocol. That ended up being a BIG mistake. I was absolutely miserable for the first days.

For those who don't know, the "loading days" are the first two days that you take the HCG injections, and you are supposed to STUFF yourself all day long for those two days. When Dr. Simeons says "eat to capacity," he means it. I did not load well (wrong foods and not NEARLY enough) and, consequently, I was starving and miserable for the first VLCDs (very low calorie days). I really didn't eat a whole lot differently than I usually do, and the bad stuff that I added in were carbs and sugar. The proper way to load is to go VERY HEAVY on FATS, FATS, FATS and MORE FATS. Eat fats until you are stuffed, wait a little, then eat some more! I'm not saying that you can't have sugar and/or carbs, but concentrate on the highest fat stuff you can. This is what I have found in my research: if you don't load, you will be miserably hungry the first few days. If you load heavy but load mostly with carbs/sugars, you will exacerbate your sugar withdrawal (which can be bad) and you will gain huge amounts of weight, AND you will still have some hunger! If you load heavy with fats, you will probably gain weight, but it will all come off in the first day or two and you WON'T be hungry.

For this round, I plan to put this to the test and report back. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to go eat my Chick-Fil-A egg-and-cheese biscuit and drink my coffee with hazelnut stevia drops and heavy whipping cream...