In the Beginning....

For many of you who haven't seen me for awhile or those who I haven't talked to for awhile, I have been on an incredible journey since September of 2010.  

Without going into a bunch of details about what lead up to it, I had experienced some health issues since November of 2006 which resulted in me putting on about 40-50 pounds.

I began thinking of the many diets I had been on over the years and what did and didn't work.  Having awesome insurance at work, I even contemplated either the lapband or gastric bypass, but due to my health issues, at the time that was not an option.

In July of 2010 I hit my desperation point.  Besides the feeling of desperation I also felt hopeless, depressed and felt like I had no viable options.

One day my husband came home and told me about a friend of his who had started the HCG diet.  As the weeks went by I would check with my husband as to his friend's progress.  Every week he would report that his friend had lost an incredible amount of weight.  I began doing research on the HCG diet.  I wanted to know everything about it.  What were the side effects, how did the diet work, were there any restrictions as to who could do it and most of all did I think it would work.

After reading everything I could find on the diet, I decided to talk to my husband's friend, who had offered to answer any questions I may have that would help me make my decision. He told me he had gone through his first round and lost an incredible 40 pounds.  He was now on his maintenance phase and told me he found it hard to eat as much as they wanted him to.   

After talking to him I made the decision to start the diet.  He gave me the name and number of his doctor so I called and made an appointment.  I was told I would need to come in for a preliminary appointment to establish myself as a new patient.  I would need to have bloodwork done and have an EKG.  Since I had had both of these done about 4 months prior to my appointment, I was instructed to bring my records from my other doctor. After I had my initial appointment I decided on a date of when I wanted to start my diet and made my appointment. 

The day finally came to start my diet.  I arrived at the doctor's office and checked in.  My name was called a few minutes later and I was taken back and weighed.  This weight was to be my beginning weight.  I was then shown to a room to wait for the doctor.  The doctor came in holding a vial and the office manager came in with a bag, a red container and a brown envelope.  In the bag were all of the syringes and alcohol wipes I would need for the next 6 weeks.  The envelope contained all of the instructions for the diet and a list of the acceptable and the forbidden foods as well as some recipes.  The red container, I found out, was for the used syringes.

The doctor opened one of the bags of syringes and took one out.  He showed me how much I should withdraw from the vial each time I injected and then told me to pinch some loose skin on my stomach.  He injected me with my first dose of HCG.  I couldn't believe it.....I ddn't feel a thing.

I left the doctor's office with a new sense of hope.  What if this actually works?  Little did I know.....