HCG Meals

I've had lots of friends contact me with interest in the HCG diet that David and I have been doing. We started on June 18th (I got this date wrong the other day on Facebook) and I have lost 20lbs and David has lost 28lbs in less than two months! So I finally decided to upload the pictures I've taken to give you a little insight into what we've been eating.

For this phase of the diet we would prepare our lunches for the week on Sunday evenings. David would grill chicken and we portioned it out into tupperware containers while I measured out cauliflower, broccoli, and salad. We both had apples and I would take strawberries to my office for snacks and David enjoyed celery and cucumbers with his lunches.

Day One of HCG VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) Phase 2

You don't really have "breakfast" on HCG but I was convinved I needed something since I don't drink coffee or tea and grapefruit is on the approved-food list.












Day 1: Lunch! 3.5oz grilled chicken with 4oz lettuce, seasoned with lemon juice and pepper. 1 melba toast and an apple.

Snack: 1 handful strawberries. Occasionally I would have strawberries for an after-dinner snack if I was still hungry. But my favorite "dessert" was an apple! I would slice an up with my fancy apple-corer and sprinkle on stevia (hcg-approved natural sweetener) and cinnamon. Microwave for 30 seconds-1min...YUM!!!

Another Lunch: 3.5 oz grilled chicken breast w/onion from the kabob and 4 oz steamed broccoli. Since we pre-portioned our veggies in ziplock containers, it was really easy to steam them in the microwave by adding water and cooking for 1min.













Shrimp, it's what's for dinner!
This was definitely one of my favorites and "shrimp nights" felt like a treat. This time we seasoned with lemon pepper, shown with 4 oz broccoli and grissini breadstick.


Italian Chicken and tomato
I loved this little recipe I cooked up! This is my 4oz chicken breast which I cooked in the skillet with italian herbs, garlic and pepper. Then I cut up a tomato and added it to the hot skillet- cooking it down until it was "sauce-like". I had it with my grissini breadstick. Yummy little lunch!

Another Dinner Entree
We stayed away from all red meat until the final week of the VLCD. This is a 4oz burger (98% lean organic beef) seasoned w/pepper and garlic powder. Yum! Roasted asparagus- we did this a lot because broccoli and cauliflower got old. I would measure out the 3-4oz of asparagus (trimmed) and put into a foil packet with a little water and whatever seasoning you like. We tried pepper, lemon pepper, etc.

Pan seared cod with fresh cabbage!















On to maintenance! During Phase 2 while we were on the VLCD taking our HCG drops 3x a day, I lost 17lbs and David lost 21lbs...in just 23 days!

During the first week of Phase 3 (maintenance) you SLOWLY begin to up your calorie intake from 500 calories a day to 1,200-1,500, wherever you are able to maintain your new weight. If ever you go 2lbs over your weight you're supposed to immediately have a "steak day," keep in mind that you continue to weigh yourself every morning as soon as you use the restroom and undress. We had to do a steak day once, and made it a point to never have to do that again. A steak day consists of eating nothing all day long (you can have as much water, tea, coffee as you like) and then for dinner consume the largest steak that you are able. David bought us both 15oz ribeyes. I am not a steak person anyway, especially not a marbled cut, but it was pretty delicious. We lost 2-3lbs each over night but that sucked and can't be healthy.

During the maintenance phase you are also allowed to add back in exercise (it's generally not recommended during phase 2 because you're taking in so few calories.) So now David and I are working out at the gym 3x a week and doing Wii Fit on the nights we're not at the gym. This has allowed us to occasionally "cheat" and recover as well as take off more weight. In the last couple of weeks since we began maintenance I've lost another 3lbs and David's lost 5-6 and we've both taken off additional inches.


My favorite post-hcg recipe! One of the salad dressings I've enjoyed is Kraft's sun dried tomato vinaigrette so I went to their website and searched for a recipe to make using it. Yummy! David and Emma enjoyed it too! Served w/spinach salad and oven-roasted cauliflower.

We try to keep to the original ingredients as much as possible: organic boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cod, tilapia, and shrimp as well as lots of fresh veggies: peppers, cucumbers for David, tomatoes, etc. We can now eat "whatever we want" but we've learned so much about what we put into our bodies that we don't miss the excessive carbs, processed and fried foods. We're still human though, I crave sweets and David gets hungry for burgers. Moderation is key.

This is what I have for breakfast everyday. Thanks to my brother for turning me on to greek yogurt. This is honey yogurt w/fresh strawberries. I happened to have a package of granola from ChickFilA left over so I use a pinch of that for a few days.

More on ChickFilA...I love their chargrilled chicken and fruit salad. It's only 220 calories but it's still pretty high on carbs, sugars and most of all sodium, so you definitely can't have it all the time, but in a pinch it's a good option when I'm running around w/the kids. I use just a small amount of the berry vinaigrette dressing and save the granola packet for breakfasts :)

I hope this was helpful for those of you w/questions for me and who are considering giving HCG a try. We used the X-30 Hcg from GNC. I should also mention the amount of water intake is so vital to success. David and I both bought 1/2 gallon water bottles and filled them up each night so they'd be cold in the morning and drank them all day long (2x).

I'm excited about my meal plan for the week:

• Grilled pork chops, green beans and grilled peaches w/cinnamon/stevia for dessert (Emma loves this meal too!)
• Chicken fajita tacos. I found whole wheat, gluten-free tortillas with only 10g carbs and no sugars. After the dietary fiber, your carb intake is only 3g. We'll have these w/peppers/onions, a little cheese and avocado. The kids will probably go more for the quesadilla route with fruit.
• Ground chicken sausage stuffed shells with fresh parmesan! I am so excited about this one! The italian chicken sausage looked so delicious at Sprouts I just couldn't resist, so I stood there until I could come up w/a recipe idea. So I'm going to boil some whole wheat large pasta shells and then fill them w/the chicken and bake with my fresh tomato/herb sauce and sprinkle (not cover) with cheese and bake. Yumm-o!
• Taco salad in tortilla shell. I got this idea from Kraft I believe. You briefly bake your tortillas in muffin pants to make them rounded and then fill with ground beef, shredded lettuce, etc. I think Emma will think this is cute.

This grocery shopping trip will actually last us a while because on the nights that we work out, David and I are having meal replacement shakes and we feed the kids before we go to the gym. I love feeling proud of my shopping cart at the grocery store now! But we're by no means perfect, just a far cry from our former habits. I was having sandwiches everyday from Thundercloud or Subway and we were doing the burger/fry thing 1-2 nights a week and ordering pizza at least once every other week. We had salads, sure, but would douse them in ranch. I am SO thankful that David and I did this together. I wouldn't have been able to do this without his love and support. I was so funny because it seemed as though we would rotate giving/needing support. I would have a grouchy day and he'd be there for me and then the tables would turn. It's mind-boggling when you realize how much you live your life around what you eat. Once I realized what poisons (with little to NO nutritious value) I was putting into my body and those of my children and husband I was pretty disgusted. My sister-in-law who is credited with guiding me in our HCG journey, also told me about lysa terkeurst's Made to Crave.

One more thing, here's a great youtube video that helped me get started w/HCG. For additional recipe ideas, just google HCG recipes.