I've made note of the variables I've incorporated into my own protocol after doing it FIVE TIMES over the course of a year. I do these things after having done the protocol 3 times just exactly as it is in Pounds & Inches, and with full awareness and responsibility. I don't tell my clients about stuff like this unless I see them really struggling with physical issues of true hunger, or unless their body really seems to need it because frankly, in the first round, especially early in the first couple of weeks, you need to learn the difference between a 'want' and a 'need' and it is too easy to justify a 'want' and convince yourself it's a 'need'.
Also please note I do not call these variables 'cheating'. There is NO cheating on this program! If you think of these variables as 'cheating' it makes it far too easy to justify cheating in general.
6-10 macadamia nuts(a small handful) or 2 tsp. of chocolate delight in response to a physical need due to excess exertion or a blood sugar swing due to hormones is one thing...adding it in the first week or in the absence of a physical variable may just make the protocol harder. I don't know. I didn't do it until the last two rounds. I've allowed myself to be a human guinea pig on number of counts. That doesn't mean it will be helpful for other people to screw around with the protocol. I really, really want this to work for everyone as well as it worked for me, but I can't tell you for sure if it would have worked as well as it did if I'd done the stuff I do now when I first started.
Case in point...I just had someone this week who tried a tsp. of coconut oil on her skin because it was cracking and bleeding and the suggested remedies from Dr. Simeons weren't working. She hadn't tried other oil-free alternatives we have that Dr. Simeons wouldn't have had in the 50's (or even 70s) because they had chemicals in them. She wanted all natural. ONE TSP. of coconut oil on her skin caused her to gain 2 lb. Just because it worked for me once doesn't mean it will work for everyone. Heck, just because it worked for me once doesn't mean it will work for me every time. She now has to choose between oil-free moisturizer with chemicals, cracked skin, or wasting days worth of 500 calorie meals.
She's probably a month into the program. What if she were in the first week or two? Might she she decide this program 'doesn't work'? I tell my HypnoBirthing clients who come in and take the class but don't do the work that the class isn't magic, and paying me money does not create their birth experience: doing the work does. Granted, there are instances when chocolate delight makes the difference between eating regular chocolate with sugar (which WILL set you back days) or eating something that MIGHT set you back for days. And, BTW, I've talked to enough women about this that I'm convinced it's not just any sweet women want...it's something in the chocolate; magnesium to be specific...
Women seem to be more prone to chocolate cravings than men. The Diabetes Association report found that only 15 percent of males appear to crave chocolate, as much as 40 percent of women do - and 75 percent of them claim that absolutely nothing other than chocolate can satisfy their appetite.
Because chocolate cravings may be influenced by a deficiency in magnesium, that this may be why some experience an increase in chocolate cravings during PMS.
I know even women who aren't that crazy about chocolate normally want it during their period. So, if it's going to keep someone from blowing the whole thing, yes, it's worth it.
However, it's not a good idea to try to figure out ways to change the program until you KNOW how it works for you just the way it is. The magic is not in the hCG...it only makes the hard part of maintaining 500 calories doable because it helps you draw off the adipose fat. But the hypothalamus creates set points by reacting to blood sugar levels and the intake of fats. If you mess with the levels he so carefully figured would result from the foods he chose, over 30 years of tinkering, you do so at your own risk and may just lessen the efficacy.
Later-
My honey is home and grilled up a fantastic meal of asparagus and steak. I had the melba and I had a handful of strawberries with chocolate stevia.
For lunch, I split it up because of my schedule. I had the apple around 10:30 am, chicken and melba around 12:30 pm, and cuke slices around 2 pm. I had coffee with stevia all morning. What I wouldn't give for cream in my coffee! I miss it. And as I've said before, a nice glass of red wine would be nice once or twice a week. But, I am currently drinking my decaf and then I'll be drinking water for the rest of the night.
Shopping was hard tonight. I went before dinner. 'Never go hungry' is our motto, and we did. My meals for the week will be the same as they have been, but I may substitute oranges for the grapefruit. I know people who must substitute (because they take meds that can't be mixed with grapefruit) who do just fine. If I have 3 more weeks of this, I may need the variety.
To put this in perspective, in the last (approximately) 350 days, I've spent 167 of them on protocol. The rest of those days (except for 11 days total 'loading') I have spend on stabilization (no sugar, no starch) or maintenance (limited sugar and starch).
Now, frankly, I'm hunky-dory just hanging out in stabilization and maintenance most of the time. Because I so strictly adhered to the protocol part, I no longer want sugar or bread (not even bagels!) most of the time. I'm really, really choosy about both. If it's not high quality and a worthy reason, I'll skip it. Even my favorite restaurant foods sometimes don't taste as good as I remember them. But in order to change the taste buds, 'shrink' the stomach and get rid of systemic Candida imbalances (not to mention resetting the hypothalamus and regulating insulin response) the PROTOCOL must be followed as much as possible and more importantly, the new set point then has to be locked in. Otherwise, the weight will come back.
I can tell you when I've thought I could get away with something, I usually regretted it. The macs and the chocolate delight usually are ok for me, but not always. And I don't know what the oranges will do. We'll see.
Part of my blogging this is so that people learn from my mistakes...not repeat them.
Am I losing slower this time because I'm closer to my goal? Or because I've used the macs? Or because I started out without 'loading' (essentially) when the first hCG was discovered to be no good. I don't know. If anyone sees a pattern, let me know.
I can't say it often enough or emphatically enough: If the emotional responses to food are not broken; if the social associations with food are not broken; if the ritualistic aspects of food are not changed...the weight that comes off with this method WILL COME BACK. The protocol is a fresh start, it isn't magic. It removes and repairs some of the physical obstacles to getting rid of the fat, but it can't touch emotional and spiritual healing that may need to take place. This is a body/mind/soul issue, and it must be approached that way. Dr. Simeons was a saint, but his work only opens the door for us to walk through.
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