VLCP Day 7: Supplement review

I am trying to use a few supplements/practices to enhance my hcg protocol. Here are the ones I am using and how they helped me.

Green coffee beans: 800 mg twice a day. I feel like it is a great energy kick with no jitters. Out makes the diet twice as easy to follow IMHO.

Skin brushing: Definite cleansing and skin tightening effect. I don't miss lotion since the skin brushing keeps my skin so soft.

Triphala: Keeps me regular, and is not addictive or problematic with intestinal flora. I highly recommend this.

Probiotics: I generally take these regularly for immune function and GI health, but am hopeful that I can also get rid of excess candida during my protocol.

Msm emergen-c: For skin tightening and immune function.

Callanetics/Pilates: This has really helped my back. It's very gentle, and an easy workout promoting tone without a huge energy expenditure. I stick to shorter workouts.

I currently am fighting a cold. Things like this generally derail a protocol for me, but I don't think that will happen this time. I read somewhere that you MUST do 23 days or you risk gaining all the weight and then some. This makes perfect sense to me. The first time I did the protocol I cheated so much but I finished it. I never gained it back until recently with all of these uncompleted protocols. So now with more at stake, I feel more prepared than ever.

Skin Brushing: A Love Story

So today is day 6 on my current VLCP on hcg. My total loss is 7 pounds and currently TOM is in full swing. I ran out of drops for a whole day, so the timing on that couldn't have been better.

I have between skin brushing every morning. I found a link with picture instructions: http://greensmoothiegirl.com/articles/healthy-habits/skin-brushing/

It. Is. Wonderful. I had tried it before with the simple "brush toward the heart" instructions, but using these instructions have made a difference I never had seen. My skin is soft and glowing, I'm not at all constipated, and when I do it, I feel so great. Its likemaking peace with my body, every part. Spending a few second just on my thighs, or hips, or abdomen . . . like saying, "thank you, thighs, for supporting me, hips, thanks for supporting my pregnancies, let me take care of you now. Abdomen, you've been through it with the surgeries and babies. Thank you for your hard work."

I felt positive all day. I recommend the skin brushing on so many levels.

Just Do It. Never Quit.

I was reading back through this blog and it is amazing to me how many times I have attempted and how many times I have not completed my goal for a protocol. I have gained a bit of weight and I am above when I first started this. My highest recent weight is 240.

Sounds like all failure, right? Not at all! I have not binged in months. I enjoy getting dressed and even though I still have fat thoughts, they don't plague me like they used to. Although I haven't been eating the most nutritionally, I have been able to eat with less judgment. I feel like this progress equals more than a hundred pounds in terms of my mental health.

In other news, I am on day 5 of another round one. My main goal is a successful phase three. I want to lose at least 50 pounds, but my plan is to keep going until I am losing 3 pounds or less a week and then transitioning to phase 3. I want to do phase 3 with some of the leptin reset principles. And then take a break from dieting and try living before another round.