Tuesday, June 7, 2011

HCG Vegan Protocol....Round 2, Phase 1, Gorge Day 2

Last October, I lost 35 pounds by doing the standard HCG diet as prescribed by Dr. Simeons in his manuscript "Pounds and Inches." I have a B.S. Holistic Nutrition and am very educated about holistic nutrition and natural health.  It is truly my deepest passion! Thus, I am always skeptical about the latest fad diet. A favorite client of mine recommended the diet to me because he had lost 25 pounds...and his wife, mother, and father had also lost substantial amounts of weight.  After doing extensive personal research, I decided to give it a try because there are no serious side effects.  Plus, the homeopathic oral HCG is affordable and easy to use (you can go to a doctor and have HCG injections instead).  In addition, the HCG diet has been in existence since the 1950's and is strongly supported by scientific reasoning. You can read "Pounds and Inches" for free at this informative website: Pounds and Inches Manuscript

The diet itself is challenging because of its restrictive nature and must be followed EXACTLY as prescribed. I can't emphasize this enough...it is essential to be disciplined enough to follow the diet word-for-word. Additionally, socializing is difficult while on the VLCD portion of the HCG diet.  However, you truly are not hungry while taking HCG and you WILL lose weight if you do it properly! I loved waking up every morning on the HCG diet.  I couldn't wait to hop on the scale to see how much weight I had lost! Moreover, the diet is also an extensive detoxification for your body.

The HCG diet tests you mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  If you take it as an opportunity for self-examination, you will discover the roots of your "issues" with food, body image, control, etc.  One of the things I learned about myself is how much I do not care for eating meat.  The standard protocol requires you to eat two servings of lean protein daily.  However, you can't use any oil or sauces to enhance the flavor.  I got so tired of eating meat.  By the end of the VLCD, I was forcing myself to eat.  Without the flavor enhancers, the taste of meat itself made me sick!!!


I knew there was a vegetarian option outlined in the Simeons manuscript.  However, it requires substituting skim milk, eggs, and cottage cheese for the meat.  I am not crazy about milk or cottage cheese so I did some research and found vegan options.  One of the vegan options incorporates all raw food.  I am a huge fan of raw food and did raw food cleanses and fasts frequently in the past.  Still, I thought it would be "too much" for me at the moment. Hence, I decided to go with the standard vegan option.

The standard vegan option involves substituting cooked quinoa, raw brown rice protein, and Ezekiel bread for The meat protein and melba toast. The HCG Vegan Protocol for the VLCD is below. You should eat no more than 500 calories per day. Twice daily, choose one item from each group below:

Complete Protein
1 serving of Ezekiel bread, 1/2 cup cooked quinoa, or 28 grams raw brown rice protein powder 

Vegetable (One type only)
 Spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, or cabbage

Fruit (One type only)
Medium apple, Medium orange, A handful of strawberries, or a half of a grapefruit

Other Allowed Items
  • The juice of one lemon daily
  • Dry Seasonings (must account for any calories, but no oil, butter or dressing)
  • Stevia
  • Tea, coffee, plain water, or mineral water

I can live with that! I plan to eat the fruits for breakfast and dessert and enjoy the complete protein and vegetable for lunch and dinner. While I found several outlines for the standard vegan option, I could only locate a couple of blogs where people detailed their experiences while doing the vegan HCG protocol. Hence, this is why I am blogging for you right now!
This blog will honestly chronicle my daily diet, emotions, and thoughts as I embark on round 2 of my HCG journey, vegan-style! My goals are:
  1. to lose 20-30 pounds during the VLCD portion (Phase 2)
  2. to detoxify my body and regulate my appetite
  3. to eliminate coffee, sugar, red meat, and cow dairy from my daily diet
Most HCG dieters start taking the homeopathic HCG and "gorge" for the first 2 days while the HCG builds up in the system (Phase 1).  Today, is my second gorge day.  I plan to spend the day with my best friend and her sweet little babies.  We are going to have a fabulous Cuban lunch today.  Later this evening, we will cook breakfast for dinner with another one of our girlfriends.  Hey, if you have to do a gorge, do it up right!

17 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting! I've been looking for a vegan hcg protocol for while now and I'm ready to go. I would like to know which brand of hcg you used and if you were able to maintain your weight loss. I've done it in the past and have not been able to maintain my loss, possibly because I wasn't successful at the latter phases. Thanks again!

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  2. Hi, Mila! I was able to maintain my weight loss for about six months. Then, I got married, went on my honeymoon cruise, and got a little too comfortable, lol. Luckily, my hubby loves me just as i am : )

    For me, phase 3 was the most difficult because i love my carbs. I've been losing weight again the old fashioned way...by exercising, keeping track of my calories, and eating lots of fruits and veggies.

    However, if i was going to do the hcg diet again, i would definitely do the vegan protocol! I felt amazing afterward!

    I purchased my hcg from: myhcgfatloss.com.

    Good luck!!!

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  3. how's it going? a year and a half later?

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  4. Hi, Cyndi. I was able to maintain my total weight loss for about six months. Then, I got got married, went on my honeymoon cruise, and got a little too comfortable, lol. Luckily, my hubby loves me just as i am : )

    For me, Phase 3 was the most difficult because i love my carbs. I'm now just trying to maintain my weight through the holidays while keeping up my exercise routine. I plan to get back on track in January, but won't be going for another round of HCG.

    I'm planning to keep my exercise routine but focus on trying to work my way to a 50% raw food diet in 2013. I really enjoy vegetable juices and i believe juicing will make that goal much easier :)

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    1. Wow, I can't believe I found you and this blog. Just starting HCG protocol and tried searching for a vegan solution, but obviously not hard enough. I can't wait to read through all your blogs to see how you went. I hope to transition out of the HCG and into a 80% raw food lifestyle. How are you going after another year and a bit??

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  5. Hi, pd! I'm glad you have found this blog to be helpful! I think the hcg diet vegan protocol is a great option to jump start your raw food diet. Like any diet regimen, it works if you do it properly. I found the hcg part relatively easy, however, i struggled with the low carb portion which is MANDATORY to keep it off. Nowadays, I am experimenting with intermittent fasting and find that eating raw food during the day while having one main meal at night works out fairly well for me ;-)

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    1. PS: I probably should have hit the reply button here and then wrote my message.... ooops ! :) First time using this system. I only signed up so I could make contact with you. lol.

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  6. I'm so glad you replied. Thank you. I thought maybe after a few years the message wouldn't get to you. Yay ! I have questions. ;)

    1. Have you heard of Raw till 4? (That may suit you.. check it out on facebook).

    2. Have you heard of the 80/10/10 diet? Dr. Doug Graham... 80% carbs (from fruit and veges), 10% protein, 10% fat... have a google of that one too. haha.. I'm unlitmately wanting to live this lifestyle.

    3. In your response above you state it is mandatory to have a low carb diet once coming off HCG to keep it off. If I was eating carbs from fruit and vegetables though, the fat is low and therefore the carbs would be used straight as energy?

    I'm going completely good on week 1 so far of Phase 2 HCG and am now ready to transition over to the vegan protocol. (I had a few things on this week and couldn't commit to getting to shops to get sorted). I have been predominately vegan for a while and the week of this hcg I was almost vomiting eating flesh and eggs. Cannot tell you enough how happy I am to see your blog and because I hadn't read pounds to inches, I didn't know there was a vegan option.

    Anyway, my ultimate food lifestyle choice is to do hcg, get weight off after baby etc and then go to a raw vegan 80/10/10 - raw till 4 style eating plan. I just hope that the initial switch over to this lifestyle choice will not hinder my loss.

    And not that you may be able to answer all this... I think I just wanted to share and put it out there and see what your thoughts are. By the way from memory I believe you are in USA? I'm in Australia. And where did you study your B.S. Holistic Nutrition? I'm very interested to do something similar.

    Look forward to hearing from you.

    Regards,
    Paula.

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    1. Hi Paula!

      Alright...let me give this a go!

      Yes, I am in the states. One of my dearest friends lives in Melbourne ;-)
      I studied Holistic Nutrition at Clayton
      College of Natural Health online...which is no longer in business.

      The hcg diet is very strict. I truly don't know how it will affect your weight loss switching over to the vegan protocol while you're in the midst of the standard protocol. I would probably do an "apple day" or two if you attempt it.

      As far as the low carb phase 3, I did it the standard Atkins low-carb diet way (lots of meat, dairy, and veggies)...which is why I found it difficult to stay on. You have to do that for 3 weeks then slowly reintroduce carbs for the final 3 weeks in Phase 4. If you deviate at all, you risk regaining all the weight. Unfortunately. The rigidity of this diet is why i've decided to not do it again.

      I looked into the Raw till 4 and 80/10/10. I think you have to know your body and what will work for you. I think being vegan can be very healthy if you are mindful and educated about how to get all your nutrients.

      Personally, i'm doing raw until 4 and then eating a lean protein/complex carb/veggie dinner with a bit of dark chocolate for dessert. It's working because I don't feel deprived. I try to not eat meat as much as possible. However, veganism and even vegetarianism is just not a good fit for me these days.

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    2. I guess you truly just have to decide if you are willing to risk regaining the initial loss. I say go for it because if you are passionate about doing a raw vegan diet, whatever additional pounds you have right now should come off fairly quickly with that type of lifestyle.

      Wishing you all the best of luck in your endeavors. Let me know how it works out ;-)

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  8. can i have almond milk, soye milk or goat milk all low fat for the coffee and tea or not.

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  10. So how did the diet go????? Im starting tomrw! Let me know ")

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  13. Hello, I recently found this blog. I'm starting hcg on Tuesday and I'm vegan. I found several plant based protein drinks out there. Wondering how many carbs are allowed and what's the recommended protein. I'm really determined to loose 30-40 lbs in the next 60 days.

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