Me, the HCG Diet, and a Challenge

Posted by Nat on Apr 30, 2012 | 13 comments

…

I’m not a person of extremes.  At least, I don’t think I am.  I definitely tend to go “middle of the road” in most social situations; I don’t like to stand out, but I’m not a wall flower, either.  But this story here, friends, is a bit extreme for me.

For a long time I had it in my mind that while I was in my childbearing years I would not be hard on myself about my looks.  I didn’t want to work myself into a frenzy after each birth to lose weight and get fit, only to get pregnant again and gain the weight back.  I didn’t go crazy (for the most part) with eating, but I ate pretty much what I wanted.  I exercised as I could, but with the addition of each child it has become increasingly more challenging to workout for obvious reasons.  When you have three kids ages 4 (soontobe5holycow) and under, things are busy. Looking back, I don’t regret that choice.  It was nice to just let myself be me, not worry about it, and let life happen.

With my first pregnancy I did gain a significant amount of weight, and after Anna was born, I had a hard time dropping the weight, so I did a shake cleanse to give my body a boost.  It helped, and then I went back to “normal” eating.  After my 2nd, Jack, was born I had a much easier time losing the weight, probably because he breastfed (Anna and I had a tongue thrust issue) and the weight sort of melted off me.   Once Emily was born, nearly the same thing happened.  I breastfed, the weight came off, and I didn’t think about dieting much.

When Emily turned seven months, we stopped breastfeeding (mainly because the introduction of teeth to the process made it less than fun).   I noticed pretty soon after that my pants were getting tighter and my clothing choices were becoming limited.  Things weren’t fitting.  I was putting back on my “fat pants” because they were comfy and they fit around my waist.  But it wasn’t until I saw this picture of myself from Jack’s Birthday that I realized something needed to change.

I know that the camera adds 10 pounds, but it was very clear to me after seeing this photo of myself that there was more than a 10-pound thing going on here.  But the way I looked wasn’t the only issue.  I didn’t feel good.  I was tired, I’ll spare you all the bowel issues I was having, and I just didn’t feel like I was where I wanted to be.  The day after this photo was taken I turned 36 years old.  It was time to think about things.

Back in November a friend of mine’s son was turning 3.  This friend and I used to work together, so I used to see her on a nearly-daily basis.   At her son’s birthday party, though, I hadn’t seen her since summer time.  I walked across the field at this park and did a mental double take as I saw her walking towards me from a distance.  Was that her?  Yes.  But something was different.

As I got closer to her I realized that she had lost weight.  Not just a little weight- a LOT.  This friend, who I’ll call T, has a similar body-type to mine.  She has a bigger bust, but otherwise we are similar.  The new T, however, was svelte, had what seemed to be a new jawline, and looked flippin’ fantastic.  I hugged her.  I stepped back.  I gave her the once over and asked, “What did you DO?!”  She told me about this crazy-sounding diet called HCG.  I asked about it, and thought to myself, “That sounds insane.”

A few months passed and then T came over to my house.  She had lost more weight.  She was wearing a size 8.  EIGHT.  ”Hmmm,” I thought.  ”Maybe I’ll look into it.”  I read up online.  I thought about it.  I ordered some HCG drops.  They arrived, and I put them in my guest room/craft room in a corner and went about my life for a while.  The tighter my pants got, the more inclined I was to read the literature that came with the drops and do it.  Pretty soon, I had a plan in mind.

If you haven’t read about HCG, it’s a pretty controversial diet.  I’m not going to get into the details of it- you can Google it on your own for all of the details.  The main thing is:

• You take a set amount of HCG drops (which varies by brand)
• You limit your intake of calories to 500 per day.  Yes, you read that right, 500.
• The foods that you can eat are pretty limited.
• Most HCG drop brands claim that you will lose approximately one pound per day.
• You do not exercise; to do so when you limit your calories so severely would be insane; this was nice for me- I didn’t have time to workout anyway.

It’s extreme to many people.  But for me, it also made some sense.  I needed to sort of “break up” with food.  At the time of Jack’s Birthday I had passed the point of just eating what I wanted.  I had ventured into mindless eating.  If I was the slightest bit hungry, I ate something.  Cookies, cake, carbs, high-fat foods- I didn’t have too many limits.  I had cut back on processed food for our family, and had quit drinking soda, but I was still frying chicken, and eating too many baked goods.

I told my husband I wanted to do the diet, and that I had already bought the drops.  I waited for him to tell me I was crazy, but instead he gave me his support, which really helped.  It may have helped him to know that I wasn’t planning on cutting my calories back to 500/day.  That just seemed unreasonable to me.  But I did feel that trying the drops, which were supposed to help with appetite suppression, combined with really limiting what KINDS of food I ate, would give me results.   I wasn’t sure how long I would do it, but I told myself I’d try it for at least a month.

At the time that I started the HCG diet, I weighed 180 pounds.  I did it for a month.  I lost 15 pounds, which felt much better than losing 30 pounds in 30 days.  Here’s my before and after pictures:

(Remember, new camera=bad pics for a while.  And DANG I need to smile!)

 Some people will look at these and say, “Not much of a difference.”  But I feel SO much better.  Some things I did during this last month that have really changed me:

• I cut out red meat.  This is not a requirement of the diet, but one that I made.  I think I ate one steak soon after I started because it was a birthday dinner, and I had a burger at one point, but that was it.
• We joined a CSA.  I’ll post more about this soon.
• I snacked on almonds. A lot. They were my go-to snack.
• I let myself be hungry.  I had become so automatic with my eating habits; at the smallest pang of hunger I would shove something in my mouth.  Now, when I am hungry, I drink some water and wait.  If I’m still hungry I grab a few almonds.
• I drank tons of water and gave up everything else except coffee (I’m a mom of 3; I need coffee).
• I cut out all dairy.  I hated it at first. But now I realize that I need to see a doctor because I think I either have a gluten intolerance or a dairy intolerance; maybe both.

What did I eat?  Mainly fruits, vegetables and proteins via fish and chicken.   I got really close with the chicken breast and my panini press, which can also be used as a grill.

I decided, though, to take a break.  Two reasons.

Reason #1:

I was tired on this diet.  It was a different kind of tired- I actually felt better because of my food choices, but my energy levels ebbed and flowed throughout the day, and I was more tired than not tired.  By the end of the day I would crash and have headaches.

Reason #2:

I’m joining a fitness challenge, and it starts TOMORROW!  I’m so excited to be part of my friend, Wendy’s challenge, called “I Will Rock This.”    There’s cash money involved, and 25 women working together to cheer each other on.  It’s neat- we’re competing against each other AND we’re being nice to each other.  Very cool.

So tomorrow I’m going to be starting a new workout plan, maintain a diet of protein, fruits & veggies (emphasis on the veggies), and we’ll see how it goes.  I will give you updates every week or so, just for grins.

If you have any questions about the HCG diet, please leave me a comment or feel free to contact me.  Just don’t leave me any nasty comments- “to each her own” and I’ll just delete nasty remarks anyway.

Wish me luck!

…and so, it is finished (for now)

Posted by Nat on Apr 27, 2012 | 3 comments

Man, oh MAN!  I had my work cut out for me!  Granted, I did not have eight hours of uninterrupted Pinterest editing, which made it a challenge (Yes, I do place diaper changes above editing my pins).  I did not get nearly as far as I thought I would.  You can tell in my first post from yesterday that I had high hopes to accomplish a lot.

In reality?

I cleaned up one board, my former Food and Drink  board.  Now it’s my Main Course board.  I also added:

Sweet Tooth (for all of the tasty desserts and sweet treats I’ve found)

Side Dishes

Apps. As in Food. 

Drinky Drinks for adult beverages (I need to pin more of those).

Breakfast Bliss (Breakfast is my favorite meal)

Snack It Up

Breads. Carbs. Love.

I can now find pinned food much more easily, so that will be nice.

I’m so glad I figured out a way to edit a pin board quickly, but it still took a lot of time- especially when I found pins that weren’t “legit” due to a lack of a good url, or an incorrect url.  I still have work to do.  I didn’t get to “give credit” where it’s due on every pin.  But my intent is clear:  I want to be a good pinner.

I’m not sure why it’s important to me.  Possibly because I’m a crafter, and I’d like to know that if someone pins content I created, I get credit for it.  Or that if someone pins something of mine, and someone sees that pin, they’ll be able to find me on this huge thing we call the Internet.

Regardless, I plan to continue to update my boards until they are all updated.  I’ll be sure to post when I “finish”- if that ever happens.  I do plan to not add any pins until I’m done, unless I see something I absolutely can’t bear the thought of forgetting about.

How to Edit Your Pinterest Boards; #CUYPB2012

Posted by Nat on Apr 26, 2012 | 1 comment

Hi everyone!

I’m dilligently working to update my Pinterest Boards today.  I came across a way to edit your boards to make it less cumbersome.  I hope you find it helpful.  It is my great hope that Pinterest can develop a way to edit our boards that is easier- more drag and drop, less clicky-click, please.

Also, some other general tips for you including:

-credit

- descriptions

- 502 errors

And lastly, Broken Pin info:

Chronically Distracted Link Up: Love & Marriage

Posted by Nat on Apr 26, 2012 | 3 comments

I’m quickly going to link-up to Chronically Distracted, the Happiness Project gals.  This month is about love & marriage.  I could choose from three prompts, and I am choosing the first, “What makes a happily married couple?”

I’m going to try to not make anyone puke- really.  Because if there’s anything I’m certain of in my life, it’s that I have found the man for me.  We are {happily married} x {a billion}.  I love my man and he loves me.  TLF.

{Did you puke yet?  Sorry.}

When I look back on all of the dating I did before I met Michael (and oh, my, how much dating there was), it’s interesting.  Especially now that we’ve been married 6.5 years, have three kids, and are still going strong.  Each of the men I dated exclusively, regardless of how long, had qualities that somehow led to the end of our relationships.  Ending a relationship is hard and very-not-fun.  But when I look back on each of those guys and think about the things I DID like about them…. Michael is each of those things and more.  He is the complete package for me.

I digress.  What makes a happily married couple.  Focus.

I think that there are so many things, but what it comes down to is… you have to not just love the person, you have to really, really like them and respect them.  Be their hero.  Even when you’d rather do more for yourself or focus on yourself, you put them first.

In our marriage I think Michael is better at that than I am in most cases.  He is the ultimate family man.  He knows that when he comes home from a demanding, challenging job, I need him to jump in and help with our three kids because I’m a little frazzled and need some down time- or at least some time to do one thing uninterrupted, which is impossible with three kids at home.  Our routine when he comes home from work during the week is pretty set.  He walks in the door and the kids jump up to hug and kiss him.  He walks into the kitchen where I am usually cooking dinner and says, “What do you need me to do?”  Every time.  Without fail.  The only exception is when he has a migraine or is sick.

Michael and I do not fight.  We discuss.  He has his MBA, and a big focus in that program, which he finished just before we got married, was negotiation.  It may sound funny, but I think all of his negotiation knowledge has helped more than just his career- it’s helped our marriage.  We rarely disagree on much, but if we do, we find ourselves trying to help each other understand rather than just blowing up and getting angry.  We are also both people pleasers, so we don’t like to argue.

Lastly, and we are getting better at this:  you have to go on dates.  Often.  Our budget is tight these days, but we still spend money on dates, babysitters and the whole 9 yards.  We hold onto the couple we were before our kids, our amazing, beautiful, time-consuming, energy-eating kids came along.  We love all three of them so much, but we also try to focus on the fact that they are here….because we love each other.  If we lose that, we lose a lot.  Plus there’s the fact that unless we go on dates, it’s difficult to have an uninterrupted conversation before 8 p.m.

So that’s my story.  That’s my marriage, or at least a glimpse of it.  This photo below is so special to me.  I love the light, and I love the feeling of it- we’ve just been joined in marriage and are walking out the door into the rest of our lives.  And now that we’re in it- it’s pretty damn good.

Today’s the day! #CUYPB2012!

Posted by Nat on Apr 26, 2012 | 0 comments

Just got back from dropping my two oldest at school!  I can’t wait to get started after I have some coffee and let the caffeine do some work.   If you have no idea what I’m talking about, click here to go to my original post!

Here’s my plan:

I’m going to start with my biggest boards and weed through them, pin by pin.  I’m going to check sources, and then (this will be painful) I’m going to divide them into smaller boards.  My Food & Drink board especially needs work- it’s too hard to find what I want when looking for recipes.

I’m going to look for misplaced pins.  Sometimes I end up with a funny pin in my Things I’d Like to Make board.

I’m going to move to smaller boards as I can.  The big boards may take quite a while.

I’m going to update all of my covers.

I’m going to assess my board titles- do they make sense?  Is it easy to tell what each board is about from the title?

Are you joining in?  Let me know!  Tweet me- I’m @nataliechiles on Twitter, and our hashtag is #CUYPB2012!

Are You Ready for CUYPB2012?

Posted by Nat on Apr 25, 2012 | 0 comments

“What’s CUYPB2012?” you ask?  It’s Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards Day:  TOMORROW!  I am very ready to do a virtual house cleaning of my Pinterest boards.  I’d love for you to join us!

We’ll be tweeting throughout the day using the hashtag #CUYPB2012.

We will also be:

Cleaning up descriptions.

Correcting incorrect sources.

Deleting “bad” pins or ones we have changed our minds about.

In essence:  we’ll be getting our collective Pinterest sh** together.

Who is the “we” I speak of?  I’m hoping lots of people.  For shizzle, it will be Wendy of Wendy Will Blog (did you know she’s got a great fitness challenge going on, too?), and Ashley of It’s Fitting (Ashley is hosting a giveaway for business cards so get on over there!).  These two ladies signed up right away and I will forever love them for it.

It’s going to be the best organizational moment of my life.  Or not.  But I’m sure I will walk away inspired to do more with my Pinterest stuff because it will all ROCK.

Join us!  You can grab the button in my sidebar over there —————————->.

Hope to “see” you tomorrow cleaning up your boards!

Mother’s Day Project & San Diego MNO!

Posted by Nat on Apr 24, 2012 | 13 comments

Are you ready to clean up your Pinterest Boards?  Thursday is Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards Day!  Join us and make sure your pins are legit!  Can’t wait!

Are you ready for Mother’s Day?  I am!  I love having a day to celebrate the fact that I’m a MOM!  I can’t believe I’m 36 and have three beautiful kids.  Before I get into the details of my post, I want to share an event I’ll be attending and am SO EXCITED about!    I’m also on the committee promoting it because I am so thrilled that this group exists for the sole purpose of giving MOMS a NIGHT OFF!  Woot!

If you are a San Diego mom, you should come to San Diego Mom’s Night Out Mother’s Day Event!  Don’t worry, it’s not on the “real” Mother’s Day- it’s Thursday, May 10th.   National Mom’s Nite Out is the first nationally organized celebration of motherhood intended to bring together today’s moms, physically and virtually.  National Mom’s Nite Out unites hundreds of social media groups, companies, local playgroups, mommy bloggers and mother social networks in giving moms a well deserved night off. National Mom’s Night Out consists of local events held across the country including ours!

San Diego Mom’s Night Out Mother’s Day Event is going to be at Bliss 101 in Encinitas.  I live in El Cajon, and let me tell you- the drive will be worth it!  Just a few of the fun things planned: wine, food, skinny shots, massages, and swag bags!  Need I say more?  Go get your ticket, gals!   For reals- it’s going to be so nice!

Now, onto my tutorial- I am so pleased with how these turned out!

First things first:  CREDIT.  I first saw this project on Pinterest, which sent me to Mandy Douglass’ blog, It Will Change Your Life. At the bottom of this post I saw the cutest thing I’ve ever seen for Mother’s Day, and thought to myself, “I HAVE to make this!”  I emailed Mandy, and she so graciously agreed to let me post this tutorial.  Thank you, Mandy!