hCG Diet Mistakes and Meal Advice

I was recently writing a blog article for our main JulianBakery Blog about tips for people on low carb diets.  As I was writing these Low Carb Dieting tips, there were a few of them that I really wanted to get onto this hCG Diet blog as well because, as I was starting out with this hCG alternative diet, I could have used the advice for myself.  I have posted that blog article to this blog as well, but I will use this post to emphasize some of the ones that I fell victim to so that our readers can avoid those mistakes. 

When I began my diet experiment, the first thing I did was eliminated everything that does not fit into the diet from my kitchen, and replaced it with healthy food that does.  This is a vital step to changing your eating habits.  Having junk food lying around while you’re trying to cut calories is like sitting on a pool float in a wave pool and trying to stay dry.  It’s just too easy to get splashed!  This was not the tough part for me.  The tough part for me is continuously stocking my kitchen with fresh food.  Since I have centered my diet on fresh greens and fruits, I constantly have to go to the grocery store.  The reality of it is that fresh food just doesn’t last that long.  Meat isn’t as bad because you can either freeze it or get canned meat.  I often utilize canned fish, but also eat a lot of chicken breast as well.  I have found a couple brands that make a pretty good bagged grilled chicken that can be found both refrigerated and frozen.  The problem that results from not being able to keep fresh food stocked is that I am not able to pack my lunch at times, or get stuck trying to grab a meal on the go with no luck.  This often results in me breaking the diet protocol, or settling for only a snack as opposed to eating a meal and receiving the real calories that I need.

Snacks are the easiest part of the diet, and often times my favorite part of the day.  Sometimes I find myself not feeling hungry around lunch and settling for a snack as opposed to a meal.  I like buying light cheese sticks in bulk and a lot of greek yogurt.  These items are very easy to transport, have around and eat at anytime with no preparation.  I have found that cutting out so much cheese from my diet has been tough, because I usually put cheese on everything! 

Another one of the diet tips that I wrote about and personally fall victim to is not ‘mixing it up’.  I found a handful of meals that worked well in the diet and tend to only eat those meals.  I have a tough time getting off of the few tasty meals that I created on my own and discovering new meals.  MediPro Direct gave us a sample daily menu in our introductory packets, but not quite a full 30 day meal plan to follow.  After doing some research, I found that none of the other weight loss clinics that offer a hCG program include anything like this in their service.  A number of sites like this one have 30-day meal plans, but only give you a sample of what they have to offer without making you pay for the full plan.  If you aren’t interested in paying for a service like this one, perhaps it would be wise to combine as many of the sample meals as possible so that you can get some other meal ideas and grocery shop appropriately. 

I completely understand the challenge in deciding what to eat while dieting, and the fact that this dilemma causes many people to break their diet.  For one of my next posts, I will try to put together a list of meals I use, combined with ones that can be found on the internet for our readers so that there is a free reference online for dieters.  Also, check out the previous post for more helpful low carb dieting tips.

10 Best Low Carb Diet Tips

1) Start Off Properly
When starting a low carb diet, make sure you complete your due diligence and know what you are getting yourself into. There are a lot of low carb myths out there that could potentially ruin any attempt at losing weight, or even worse compromise your health. Find out as much as you can about each low carb program so that you can pick the one that you think is best for you. Learn the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates, and which foods contain each type. Discover what ketosis is, and how to achieve a ketosis state. When initially starting a low carb diet, your body will go through some major metabolic changes. There are some great references like this one that will help you cope with these changes and adjust your diet as necessary.

2) Don’t Give Up
Starting a low carb diet is not always easy for everyone. Some people may experience physical differences that will indicate that there are adjustments that need to be made.
Many people completely cut carbs from their diet and then experience fatigue and irritability within the first week. These types of unpleasant responses made by your body often times cause people to discontinue their diet attempt. By easing yourself into the diet and learning about these changes before they happen, you can preemptively avoid problems or quickly resolve them to keep you on track.

3) Eat Enough Fruit and Vegetables
A common misconception about low carb dieting is that because fruit and vegetables contain carbs, they shouldn’t be eaten. Avoiding fruits and vegetables in the long term could have some serious health repercussions. You’re better off thinking of fruit and vegetables as the basis of your diet. The micronutrients in fruits and vegetables will help you prevent fatigue throughout the day. Learn which fruits and vegetables are the best during low-carb dieting.

4) Eat Enough Fiber
Cutting carbs usually means that you’re cutting fiber from your diet as well. Additionally, because fiber is considered a carbohydrate many people stay away from it on a low carb diet. It is important to know that fiber is not digested like other carbohydrates and therefore not counted in total carb intake. Fiber plays a major role in digestion health, so knowing these facts before you start a low carb diet can prevent issues in the long run. By eating enough fruits and vegetables, your fiber intake will remain sufficient. Julian Bakery Smart Carb #1 is a perfect food for low carb and high fiber intake. If you eat gluten free, check out Smart Carb GF #3. There are other great low carb, high fiber foods that can be utilized during low carb dieting to maintain a high fiber intake.

5) Count Calories
In addition to counting your carbohydrate intake, it is also a good idea to keep track of how many calories you are eating as well. Low carb dieters often have the misconception that they can eat as much as they want, and as long as it’s all low carb food, they will still lose weight. We must keep in mind that other macronutrients, if eaten in abundance, will also be stored as fat. It is important to stay tuned to your appetite. Only eat if you feel hungry and stop eating when you feel satiated.

6) Plan Your Diet
One of the biggest issues that dieters experience is not planning their meals. By having diet friendly foods on hand and packing your lunch, you will avoid referring back to bad habits. Before starting your diet, cleanse your kitchen of foods that do not fit into the diet and replace them with foods that do. Surrounding yourself with healthy food is a great way to develop better eating habits. Nothing is worse than being hungry, not knowing what to eat, and settling for the drive through.

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7) Mix It Up
When dieting, it is very easy to pick a handful of meals that work and stick to eating the same ones every week. This is a sure-fire way to get bored of your diet. It is important to eat a variety of foods so that you don’t become a slave to the same foods. Different foods offer different nutrients and combine to provide a well-balanced diet. Do not settle for food you
don’t like just because it fits into your diet. It is possible to still eat your favorite meals, just look for the low carb versions.

8) Monitor Ingredients
Some ingredients used to replace sugar and starch should be completely avoided. Low carb or sugar free meal replacement and dessert products are often red flags for dangerous ingredients like maltitol, xylitol, and sorbitol. These sugar alcohols are actually carbohydrates that are not completely absorbed and can ferment in the intestines causing bloating, gas, or diarrhea.

9) Avoid The Carb ‘Ramp Up’
After successfully losing weight on a low carb diet, it is easy to begin adding small amounts of carbs back into your diet. Some people seem to do it as a reward for successfully losing weight, others do it subconsciously. Either way, continuously cheating on your diet will increase carb cravings and eventually cause weight gain. Dieting should be thought of more as a lifestyle change, or else it could result in a vicious cycle of weight gain that becomes tough to break.

Keep your carbs low with Julian Bakery’s Smart Carb Bread!

10) Exercise
There is a very common misconception that if you are on a low carb diet, you don’t have to exercise. Many people can be successful at losing weight while staying sedentary. However, I can not stress enough how important exercise is for more than just losing weight. Exercise increases metabolism, improves cardiovascular and respiratory health, as well as improves overall sense of well-being. Whether dieting or not, exercise is a very good lifestyle habit to form.

hCG and Exercise

After our weekly Wednesday meeting, our Diet Professional, Kelly had alerted me that because I have been exercising more, my protein intake may not be enough to protect my lean muscle as much as I want to.  Immediately after discovering this risk, I purchased a Whey Protein Supplement from Quantum Nutrition to add to my MediPro Slim shake.  This was a great relief, as I have always loved supplementing with whey protein and feel that it is a very healthy supplement for anyone.  I had a good friend of mine in town over the weekend, so I did not make any time for any type of exercise, and additionally came off the diet for a couple days.  I plan on continuing a light exercise routine and have returned to the diet today.  I have had such a great response to this diet and certainly plan to continue this lifestyle change to maintain my progress.      

My body fat was reduced to below 10% after being in phase 2 for 3 weeks.  We discussed that the next step is the maintenance mode; however I do not think I am quite ready to make this adjustment.  I have decided that I would like to continue to lose body fat for a little while longer before I make the actual transition to maintenance mode.  I believe a 7-8% body fat goal is exactly what I would like to achieve from this diet experiment.  I dropped to below 10% very quickly and believe I can achieve my goal of <8% by the end of August if I continue the diet properly.

Back to exercise for a moment; last week was the first time that I tried jogging while on the diet.  Knowing that I have had such limited calorie intake, I only jogged about 2 miles, which is about 1/3 of what I usually jog.  The whole time I was jogging I felt as if my heart was a little bit out of shape from the lack of cardio.  What I began to think about was the fact that my heart is also a muscle, a very important one! 

I hope I can portray this next part as well as I want to:

Thinking about heart health during this time made me want to tell all of my followers that if you are attempting the hCG diet, taking your heart health seriously is very important, especially because you are restricting calories from your diet.  Unsaturated fats are great for heart health, and these fats are allowed on the MediPro diet plan in the form seafood.  I believe that continuing a small amount of cardio exercise is also extremely important to ensuring heart health.  I would not push any cardio activities as hard as you normally would while on calorie restriction, but I have the feeling that many people take advantage of the hCG diet because they do not want to exercise.  Staying completely stagnant and cutting out an extreme amount of calories can’t be good for your circulatory health, nor your respiratory health for that matter.  I’m not saying that everyone has to go on 2 mile jogs, but getting out and walking around, maybe playing some tennis or even golf would go a long way in getting your blood flow going and some fresh air in your lungs.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the yoga classes I have been regularly attending and would suggest this activity to anyone.

Elisa and I will have another weigh-in this week, so it will be interesting to see how coming off the diet for a weekend affected me, as well as to continue to see Elisa’s progress.  Thanks for reading, and keep checking into the Julian Bakery and MediPro Direct hCG Diet Experiment!