Detoxing... is there anything to it?

Start Weight: 168 lbs
Goal Weight: 138 lbs
Weight after two loading days:  171.7 lbs (3.7 lbs total gain)
R2P2D18: 158.3  (-13.4 lbs gross, -9.7 lbs net)

* Day 3 of skipping injections due to TOM *

Lost 0.2 lbs...  MUCH better than gaining, but nothing to get excited about.  I'm still retaining water (fingers swollen) so, again, I know that is the problem.  I'm just going to stay the course.  I am very ready for TOM to leave, however!  I keep saying things like "Here's your hat, what's you hurry?" but he's not picking up on those subtle social cues. ;-)

I don't really have a tip today -- more like something for you to think about...  Kevin Trudeau is the author of The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About which was a book written in 2007 about the HCG diet.  I have not read the book (because I'm a pure Simeons girl ;-) but it seems that he took Dr. Simeons HCG protocol and added his own twist to it.  One of the things that he suggested was going through a detox phase (called "Phase 1" by the HCG community) before beginning the injections (which are usually referred to as "Phase 2").  Most people that I have read about have not done Phase 1 (including myself) so I really don't know if it helps or not.  I have never done any type of "detox" so this stuff is kinda new to me. However, as I have researched HCG, I've seen a lot of folks mention things like "cleanses" and "detox teas" and the like, so my curiosity was piqued -- especially if it could possibly help me lose more weight. Well, on one of the forums I look at regularly, one of the members shared a detox concoction that she came up with that she felt would break through a stall and help get the scale moving in the right direction. She would brew a cup of tea using a blend of three different teas: dandelion, green, and yerba mate, and would drink this at night and often wake up to big losses the next day. Well, a bunch of folks tried it and it seemed to work pretty well for them. The forum member did caution everyone a few days later not to "overdo it" because she did break out in a rash, which she believed was a side-effect of the toxins leaving her system.

Rewind to my last round... I had purchased a "Detox" tea during phase 4 of my last round strictly out of curiosity. It was the Yogi brand Detox Tea. I drank it for a few days during phase 4 and I did lose a small amount of weight during that time. You are supposed to stay within +/- 2 pounds of your last injection weight, and while drinking the tea I eventually hit 2 lbs below, so I just stayed within the window. It stayed off, too. But, after drinking it for about five days or so, I developed a headache that wasn't going away. Since headaches are common when you are detoxing, I stopped drinking the tea and -- voila! -- the headache went away. So, apparently SOMETHING was happening.

When I hit my stall earlier this round, I decided I would try a variation on the detox concoction created by the forum member. I noticed that my Yogi Detox Tea contains dandelion. So, I have started brewing one Yogi Detox Tea with one decaf Green Tea. (I'm going with decaf and skipping the yerba mate because I don't drink anything caffeinated in the afternoon or evening.) I sweeten it with a little powdered Stevia. I drink it in the afternoon. I am trying not to brew it longer than 10 minutes or so because I think that might have been what caused the headaches last time -- too much too fast. I drank some during my stall earlier (which did break) and I've started drinking it again over the last few days in hopes that it will help the weight loss. I'll start listing it in my menu so that you can see when I drink it, and together we can see if drinking the tea correlates to more losses.

By the way, the tea does not taste wonderful, and probably some of you will be turned off by it. After brewing for awhile, the Yogi Detox Tea develops kind of a "peppery" taste. I can drink it, but it isn't necessarily pleasant.

Menu time!

2:30p:  ACV concoction

2:30p:  Baby Spring Mix Lettuce and Fresh Spinach mixed with

           diced Quorn Naked Chik'n Cutlet* and 1/2 diced apple,

           dressed with Spicy Brown Mustard and ACV

5:30p:  Yogi Detox Tea/Decaf Green Tea Mix

6p:       Four strawberries* dipped in Walden Farms

           Calorie-Free Chocolate Dip (Serving Size: 2 Tbsp,

           0 cal, 0g Fat, 0g Sugar, 35mg Sodium) 

6:30p:  ACV concoction

6:30p:  Steamed broccoli* and nonfat cottage cheese

8p:       Orange smoothie (1/2 frozen orange, 1/2 fresh

            orange, 1 tsp skim milk, 3 pieces of ice, and

            Vanilla Creme Liquid Stevia blended together)

*OFF PROTOCOL WARNING!

Okay, I need to explain my little "snack" at 6p. It is 'fess up time. I justified it by the fact that I only ate half an apple at 2:30p so I allowed myself a half serving of strawberries. I am sure that this is WAY off protocol, but I was hungry and craving chocolate. (It's no excuse, but I am blaming being off the HCG and especially TOM... I really HATE that guy!!!) I had heard of a lot of folks using the Walden Farms calorie-free products while doing HCG but I steered clear of them during the VLCD part of my last round. Well, I saw this "calorie free" dip during Phase 3 of my last round and figured I'd give it a try to see how it tastes. It was still in my refrigerator and it was calling to me. On strawberries, I thought it tasted pretty good and it helped to satisfy me at the moment.

This little incident tells me that the HCG has mostly left my system, and if I don't take my injection tomorrow then I'll probably be in a world of hurt. So, I plan to go ahead and take it. TOM appears to be considering leaving (thank goodness!) so I hope that I will be okay. I hope that my losses will pick back up once I begin my injections and TOM goes on his merry way. 'Til then -- LATER LOSERS! :D