Ten years ago, I lost close to 100 lbs (97.5lbs to be precise). Wanna see me then? Click here. Since 1990, I've flirted with
10 to 15 pounds up and down, but managed to stay in my range. Then, in December of 2010,
the "test your mettle" fairies got together and decided to do a drive by. What followed was
"the year of the big loss, and the big gain."
I’m not complaining (too much). I lost a
number of things this year that were very important to me and my sense of
self. I haven't lost people, mind you, and I haven’t lost anything I
can’t get back. But I did lose some tremendously important stuff.
And the big gain? Oh that. That was the 53.6 pounds I put on under
the auspices of 'coping.' Weenie.
See that chick? Me, sans the 54. That
body? That's right, I didn't lose it, I gave away.
And I want it back. I’ve worn sweats every day since April. I’ve
mastered the art of getting dressed and putting on makeup without ever actually
looking at my reflection.
<sigh> Double weenie.
While researching how to fight the good fight,
I encountered a lot of stuff about the HCG diet or HCG as a weight loss aide. I
won’t try and explain how HCG works because I don’t know and
would only be quoting others who could tell you better than I. I will say
this: HCG is touted as a hormone that not just helps you lose weight but
dramatically speeds up the process by using your bodies own programming to your
advantage.
I will also tell you that HCG sounds too good to be
true. Thirty pounds in forty+ days? Really? Really??
But what if there was really something to this
whole HCG thing? I mean, the natural phenomenon HCG is said to exploit
seems to be medically supported – a pregnant woman’s energy stores are used to
help sustain her growing baby. So, what if that process – or the thing
that triggers that process – really was synthesized? What if it could be recreated
by introducing the trigger into a non-pregnant body?
Before I go on, let me tell you one more thing about me: I
believe in data, in facts. As a former software engineer, I collected
facts, and turned them this way and that, watched them for trends, used them to
make predictions. And I trust my own facts. Mine; not anyone
else’s, mine, when others' data can be avoided.
So, I have decided to review the HCG weight loss
diet thing for myself. I’m not in medicine. I have no vested interest,
financial or otherwise, in HCG (other than for my own weight loss success). I’m just a person, carrying around the equivalent of
another smaller person. And both of us want
to know how hundreds – or thousands – of people on one side of
the equation or the other could be wrong?