As a woman of many diets, I’ll try pretty much any diet/cleanse once, if for no other reason that to see what might happen next.  By treating my body as a science experiment, I can understand how the diet works first hand.  The proof is right there, and there can be no denying.  There is always a lesson or two to be gleaned.

The lemonade fast (aka the hummingbird diet) helped me to realize just how little food I could eat.  I don’t need nearly as much as my well meaning German grandmother lead me to believe :-).   I also determined that sugar (traveling incognito as honey) is not my best friend when weaning off the diet gave me some nasty headaches.

The Ultra-Simple Diet Cleanse taught me exactly which foods were not ideal for my specific body.  By stripping my diet down to the bare essentials (lean protein, most vegetables and berries) and then slowly reintroducing each food type to see what happened when I did, was well worth the trouble.   I got a runny nose with corn,  headaches with wheat and stomach cramps with various forms of nightshade.   I didn’t break out in hives and no, it isn’t that I am allergic in any meaningful medical way, but yes, I certainly felt better if I leave those selections to the occasional party.  Donna’s Squeaky Clean diet was born.

The Atkins/South Beach diet melted off the pounds but it was hard to sustain and established a few not so good habits such seeing bacon fat as a seasoning.

Weightwatchers taught me positive routines for eating less as well as the importance of consistency and camaraderie.  I bought smaller plates and put pre-measured portions in baggies for the refrigerator.  I left the almond butter at the supermarket.  But they had no idea of how to deal with an athletic person.  No, I can’t eat 2000 calories when I get back from a 20 plus mile run unless I want rapid weight gain.

When my friend extolled the virtues of HCG, I was instantly curious, albeit dubious of the magic potion aspect of the drops themselves.  But when I heard the lists of food you could eat (essentially the “squeaky clean” selections of the Ultra-Diet: lean protein, vegetables and berries) I waited for the time to give it a chance.  Early marathon training is the perfect time.  Training is not intense enough to be compromised and the loss of a few extra pounds could certainly inspire me.  So here i go.

Step One is to gorge which I initially did with great glee.  I made a batch of popcorn, poured butter and honey on top and ate the whole thing.  I anticipated French Toast after my eight mile run.  But rather than coming home with a smile on my face, full to the brim of comfort food as I had imagined, I immediately crawled into bed, exhausted and suffering from a miserable sugar high headache.   Just plain weird.  I originally planned to start the diet until after my friends party on Tuesday but I pushed up the start date and started today!  Ugh.  I can already say that I have learned a valuable lesson.  The changes I have made in my diet are right and true for me.  So here I go, HCG day 1.  Wish me luck.