Today is Day 46..

on the hCg Pound a Day program and Day 3 of the Maintenance phase of my weight loss journey with Allana Polo at Polo Health & Longevity Clinic. Can you believe I made it this far? I can hardly believe it myself! Never have I been so determined to follow a plan to shed the weight that’s been holding me back since I gave birth to my son four and a half years ago.

It wasn’t easy, I’m not going to lie. Eating around 500 calories a day seems crazy, even to me, but for the most part I wasn’t hungry because of the changes made by the hCG hormone. I didn’t have a ton of energy during the 40 days but I think for me there was a complicating factor.

Namely, SLEEP.

As you may have guessed from the title of this blog, I am one tired mama. We don’t sleep through the night in our house as our son continues to wake around 2am, crawl into bed, get up to pee or then refuse to pee and wet the bed. He’s growing and changing and apparently he’s a normal kid this way but we are mental train wrecks.

We’ve been on this sleep deprivation train since he was born, and for me it’s going on ten years. So you can imagine that eating so little food would be incredibly challenging. However, I felt better in so many ways that I knew I had to stick it out.

I feel better

When I took on the Pound a Day program with Dr. Polo it was like going cold turkey. No more sugar. And even though it was tough and downright scary how fixated I got on what I couldn’t have, it was worth it. I think I had to detoxify and go through withdrawals like an addict looking for their next fix.

What I’ve realized, not just intellectually but down to the bone emotionally, is that the food I eat, in particular sugar, impacts how my body feels in the morning. Combine that with a terrible lack of sleep and not only am I a zombie but a hungover one at that.

These days I feel more in control and mindful of what I put in my mouth and that’s a big deal for me. Accountability was important as well as I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, including me! Dr. Polo, you my lovely readers, and the other fabulous bloggers who were on this journey with me were all watching. It was the push I needed to really embrace this process and all the ugly bits.

Blood Sugar

Before going on the hCg Plan it was often a struggle to get my blood sugar stabilized because when I’m tired I reach for quick energy solutions like fruit, bread and chocolate. Nowadays my blood sugar is more stable than it has EVER been and I feel calmer, less jittery.

Back when I was a teen I suffered from fainting spells due to low blood sugar and although I haven’t had them since then, before I went on the hCG Plan I used to suffer incredible highs and lows that go with eating too much sugar. It’s funny but at the time I thought it was normal. The things we tell ourselves…

Hunger, my new BFF

I’ve finally gotten in touch with what real hunger feels like and although it terrified me at first, I now welcome it. Dare I say that it has become the guide post I’ve longed for? What a crazy revelation this has been for me.

[Tweet “RT I’m following Lee-Anne’s progress to lose the baby weight on the hCG Plan! #PoloWeightLoss”]

Medical Tests

I am due to have some follow up blood work to see if my cholesterol and iron levels have improved. I’m also curious if the mild sleep apnea I was diagnosed with has changed. One day I hope to go to the doctor and have him tell me I’m no longer OBESE! When O heard that I was so shocked that I had to write about it.

How much did I lose on the hCG Plan?

I know you’re wondering how much weight I’ve lost as I’ve been pretty secretive up to this point. I didn’t lose a pound a day on the 40-day plan like I was dreaming about in my first post, but I did lose a ton!

Can I have a drum roll, please!

27.6 pounds! I went from 248.8 to 221.2 in just 45 days!

Apparently, women generally lost about half a pound a day, so I exceeded that! Woot!
How’s that for results? Pretty fantastic, right? To see photos I took on Day 37 click HERE. I will post more soon!

I’ll be seeing Dr. Polo next week and will get my final measurements done to compare with the first day’s totals. Namely, weight and body composition. Apparently, on the hCG plan you lose far less lean muscle tissue than you would if you only did a low-calorie diet. So I am pumped to find out what my numbers reveal. I am expecting a significant drop in over body fat and an increase in hydration considering I’ve been drinking scads of water.

But the journey has really just started. I need to keep the weight off now.

Maintenance

As I mentioned earlier, I am on Day 3 of the first phase of the Maintenance Plan. This is a three-week time period in which my body gets comfortable at the new weight, reset my metabolism (which means it’s more fired up) unless I mess up by not sticking to the eating plan.

My eating plan for the first part of maintenance will be high-protein and low carbohydrate, which basically means I still have to keep sugar out of my diet in the form of breads, grains, legumes, sugary fruits and starchy vegetables. This will be easy as the plan allows for more flexibility and my daily caloric intake goes from 500 to around 1200 depending on my activity level. This is still much lower than what I was eating before so I am hoping I will continue to lose a bit of weight but at the very least stabilize at this weight for the next three weeks and start the second phase of maintenance for three weeks, which allows me to bring in the foods I wasn’t eating for the past three months.

At that point I will decide whether I want to do the hCG Pound a Day program again to lose another 30 pounds.

Overall the Pound a Day #PoloWeightLoss Challenge has been an insightful and humbling experience. The support from Dr. Polo was fantastic and I’ve gained a renewed sense of who I am and what I am capable of. I know it may sound silly, but if you’ve struggled with your weight like I have, you’ll know what I mean.

If you’d like to know more about the hCG Pound a Day Program please contact Dr. Allana Polo at her clinic in New Westminster.

Use the hashtag #PoloWeightLoss  on Twitter and visit their website and Facebook page.

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