Leez

In P3 and beyond, the HCG protocol gives us a remedy for sudden overnight gains, which is the steak day. That is wonderful and mostly dependable. But then, how does one go about figuring out what caused the gain in the first place in order to avoid a repeat crisis?

This is a checklist you can review if you find yourself in the position of experiencing a huge overnight gain of multiple pounds. Knowing the reason for the gain can help you avoid or at least recognize future re-occurrences. ...

Clinics and diet centers often mislead people about how to stabilize in P3. If you are using a clinic that tells you to just increase portions of P2 foods, or to ramp up calories slowly over the 3 weeks, they are giving you very bad advice. More people have problems in P3 by eating too little than eating too much.

P3 is not ever about low fat or counting calories. It is about lots of good healthy fats right away, and about throwing everything you "know" about calories out the window. ...

It's very common to encounter sleep issues or insomnia during P2 because of the very low calorie diet.

There are a some things you can try to mitigate the insomnia. You may find one or a combo works for you. It's important to address, as sleep quality affects weight loss. I've dealt with disturbed sleep for years, so I've done a lot of hunting for ways to make it better.

1. Cup of hot broth before bedtime. Try having it with one of your fruits. That feeds the adrenals

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Your hypothalmus has been undergoing adjustment and healing during P2, so it will be sending you hunger signals. It will be a new experience for some. You have the opportunity to get in touch with those signals in P3. Its important to realize that there are different hunger levels. Basically:

Thoughts of food: You are involved in something else and suddenly you start thinking about food. This is the beginning of hunger.
Food looks good: If you are already thinking about ...

For those crunchy/salty cravings in P3. btw, I've made this with dried spices instead of grating fresh ones, and its fine.

1/2 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pepita seeds (or pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup water
1 large garlic clove, finely grated
1 tsp grated sweet onion
1/4 tsp pink or sea salt, or to taste
Herbamare & kelp granules, to taste (optional)
...

For decades, nutritional junkies have sworn by Braggs as a healthy seasoning product. I think it had something to do with the old belief that if you were a vegetarian, you had to somehow manage to fill in the missing aminos in your diet from not eating animal protein.

But if you delve into the research a bit, it turns out that its "healthiness" is really just hype that everyone bought into. Its a highly processed soy derivative that isn't very natural at all. And for anyone ...

Some that do HCG get to the 34 pound loss limit before the maximum injections have been reached. That's awesome and we'd all like to have that scenario, but the reality is that most of us will lose 20-25 pounds over the course of a long round. Those are the people that this little essay is written for.

It seems to me that the protocol wasn't really designed for us to have a choice on doing a short or long round. It appears that the long round the protocol way to do it UNTIL you ...

In trying to find a comfortable way to stabilize after reaching my goal weight, I've been working through some of the choices Grammy talks about as good ways to proceed, since they use real foods and you do not restrict or count calories in any of them.

Yes, I am disciplined. What motivates me to be that way is terror of becoming fat ever again. Its just too important to not take seriously. Doing a planned P4 actually takes more focus than it does time. I don't bother with a lot ...

For us who miss our pasta in P3!

I've found that I'm pretty happy with some pasta alternatives:

Spiral sliced zucchini: this is my fave actually. It really surprised me that it has about the same "tooth" as al dente pasta if you cook it right. After spiraling, quick-saute in a bit of olive oil and garlic. You don't want to boil or steam it, because then it's too watery.

Kelp noodles: made from kelp/sodium alginate. These are great. Crunchy like waterchestnut ...

The best recipe I've ever found for homemade salsa. Thanks, Ann!

This is great for FMD phase 1, or if you don't mind mixing veggies, as a condiment for HCG Phase 2...since there is no oil or sugar needed. If you still have some garden tomatos to use up, you can make a huge batch and freeze any leftovers (good luck) to use later as a mexican pizza sauce. Top your pizza with jack cheese and experience the yum.

PICANTE SALSA
1 medium to large sweet onion ...