Hello lovely hCGers. This interview is part of what is now a plethora of weight loss success stories with real everyday women (and men! There’s a few dude interviews in there) who have used either hCG injections or drops with the hCG diet protocol to lose between 20 and 150 lbs. You can see the current episodes available here.

NATALIE’S BASIC STATS:

• 42 years old.


• Starting weight: 197 lbs.


• Ending weight: 178 lbs. with the hCG Diet


• Lost18 lbs. in 26 days.


• She did the injections and the intramuscular lipo shots (learn more in much detail about these here). She took the lipo shots every 2-3 days because the clinic said she can do it 3x a week. The interesting thing was, she got a new puppy when she was on her hCG round and she needed to walk the puppy for up to 4 miles. She’s actually amazed that she had the energy to do that because she didn’t have that kind of energy off the normal diet. She thinks it’s either the lipo, the better food intake or maybe both.


• She dosed with 170IU.


• Full time job as police dispatcher, started college, single mom of 3, full time with the kids.(insert jaw drop emoticon!!)


• Natalie had gotten up to 240 lbs at one point. She went through the gastric sleeve surgery initially. But she learned that no matter what size her stomach was, still having the proper food choice was imperative. A lot of the post surgery food was liquid, purees, and soft foods like cheeses. She didn’t feel like it prepared her for long term success. She had a smaller stomach but now she can eat normal food intake when she fully recovered from the surgery.

SHOW NOTES:

• Lipo Shots


• hCG Injections


• Choosing best dosage for your daily hCG


• She noticed that she lost less weight on her work days because of the lack of sleep and less water intake. These are 2 big factors that really affect weight loss while on hCG.
  
  
  
  • Sleep Article
  
  
  • Water Intake
  
  
  • 6 Ways to Make Drinking Water on hCG easy and enjoyable
  
  
  
  


• Rayzel’s Phase 2 Workbook


• The P3tolife Program


• Sugar-Free Treats while on P3:
  
  
  
  • Simply Lite Chocolate – This is Natalie’s favorite on P3. This is sweetened with maltitol.
  
  
  • Lily’s Chocolate – My favorite sugar free chocolate. This one is sweetened with stevia.
  
  
  • Chocoperfection bars – No maltitol. Sweetened with chicory root fiber and erythritol. Chicory root fiber and erythritol have minimal impact on blood sugar levels
  
  
  • PB2 – added a few drops of stevia and dip your sugar-free chocolate in it
  
  
  
  


• Magnesium – helps with constipation. (Rayzel note: It REALLY does you guys. I take actually quite a bit of magnesium every night myself because I deal with constipation but when I take that nightly I have no issues).


• Cooking schedule for P3toLife: She would take a lot of her time on one of my her days. For shopping she does a lot online, Amazon Prime, Amazon Fresh to save time on the store because she spends a lot of time looking for the specialty ingredients. For her meals she’ll take a breakfast, lunch and dinner and spend her day cooking. Or sometimes she do 2 meals one morning before work. As long as she has something prepared for 2 days. She batch cook and she also cook this for her kids.

Natalie’s Experience with:

If you were to explain to an hCGer in just a few sentences why the P3 program has been valuable to you, what would you tell them?

I feel like I wanted to do this “right” the first time!

Having the meal plans and recipes already laid out for me was a huge help since my creativity and knowledge of what is “good” for me is clearly altered from years of fad diets, failed weight loss attempts, and even successful attempts that were short lived due to my regression to eating patterns that are thought to be healthy but in the incorrect combination of foods.

With Phase 3 meal plans I have not had any weight fluctuations more than 1-2 lbs., no panic that I messed up again, and the food (while ingredients are much different than what I would normally buy) is delicious!

What did the P3tolife program provide to you that you feel like you didn’t have before without in on past Phase 3s?

Prior to P3, I was concerned I did not have the proper knowledge of how to nourish my body effectively to curb cravings, avoid bloating or weight fluctuations, nor the “know-how” to maintain my loss effectively.

P3tolife has educated me in more ways that I would have dreamed! I now know that my body cannot tolerate a certain amount of bread (because I tried to sneak it in there one day and gained 2 lbs overnight!) It has taught me that a single day of experimenting with other foods is beneficial and educational to know and feel how other foods affect my body and that another day back on P3 foods balances my body back out right away.

She found out that the sugar is not affecting her as much as the bread and cheese. She ate 3 Reese’s eggs at Easter and she didn’t gain a pound but when she had the cheese and roll she gained 3 lbs the next day. That is just the testament to the fact that it really does pay to try things out with your body and see how it responds because not everything will be a no across the board or yes across the board. Not just because it has carbs or low carb doesn’t make it the deciding factor for you.

How did you end up following the program – did you do the original plan, the simplified, or build your own meal plan or just tweaks to one of these? Can you give a few details of how you utilized the program and tailored it to yourself and your circumstances?

I followed the original protocol for the shots and added the LIPO/B12 shots as well.

I started out trying P2 recipes and found that many of them were just not palatable for me with the aminos and cider vinegar in a lot of them. I just didn’t care for the aminos. What I ended up doing is saving the melba toasts and fruit servings for very last or emergency servings. Those moments I mentally or emotionally needed a “snack”, I would nibble on the melba toast for as long as possible. I also saved an apple to satisfy my late night sweet tooth by baking it with cinnamon/stevia/lemon juice sprinkled over it. I have a huge late night sweet tooth, so that helped keep me from sabotaging my efforts.

For my meals, I ended up making salads a lot since the greens allowed larger portions since they are so low in calories. The one thing I did do that I think saved me from boredom with the food was to get flavored balsamic vinegar and use a lot of fresh herbs.

Two of my favorite salads were a shrimp and strawberry with a strawberry peach balsamic, and a baked chicken cilantro salad with a garlic cilantro vinegar. YUM! I would add cucumber, celery, cherry tomatoes, onion, or green onion to them on various days to mix up the flavors.

Can you share your results – how your weight has been, while following the P3tolife program?

I was worried that Phase 3 was going to be a roller coaster ride with days of fasting or steak days, but I have been super pleased to say that:

I have not once had to fast! (ie no steak days!)

I was also scared to introduce fats and other foods in the week one meal plan, but just decided to go for it! A friend of mine has been telling me how much she trusts all your research and recommendations so I was eager to “try” your P3.

I was trying to gather my own recipes and prepare, but felt so overwhelmed doing so.

I was also very excited because all the thought and experimenting was taken out of my P3 by following someone who has “been there, done that”. I thank you!

The P3tolife Program you have developed has made this vital P