Dilemma!!

Tonight I hit a hard spot as I debated what to do. To bathe, or not to bathe. Okay, well maybe not bathe... it might have been more like shave... and wash my hair lol Not to totally gross everyone out, but I haven't washed my hair since the day before I started the HCG drops, which would be last Tuesday. EWW I know. I've been wearing a cap to hide my hideous hair. The bottoms look fine, but the top looks like a 70's guys' hairstyle gone horribly wrong. Nasty. That and my legs and pits are starting to make me look positively bearish. The reason for this is that while on the HCG diet, you have to be careful of what you put on your skin. Bathing hasn't been a problem, since I've got an approved brand of soap. But I haven't been able to find anything online about shampoos and shaving cream brands other than like 2 organic ones, and lets face it... this girl ain't rich enough for the organic stuff which is 2-3 times more expensive than non organic.

Finally, out of desparation, I started just looking up all the ingredients in my shaving cream, and discovered that yes, the second ingredient is a fatty acid derived from the oils in animals. So that was out. Not to be thwarted, I slathered up my legs with my soap and went from there. Man do I hate shaving with soap... it leaves my legs all itchy. But itchy is better than furry.

There are WAY too many ingredients in my shampoo and conditioner to look up (I use Tresemme) but there's just no way I can keep hiding my disgusting hair. Sooner or later the cap is going to fall off and I'll look up to see that suddenly there's a 10 foot wide circle around me in which people hold their kids back from getting any closer to the beast that my hair is. So, I took a very conservative approach. After my bath, I drained the tub. Then I turned my hair upside down, put shampoo directly onto my roots, and then really quickly lathered and rinsed, before it had too much time to settle into my scalp and hands. I did the same with the conditioner, but only did the ends, and rinsed immediately rather than waiting as I usually do. I immediately wrapped my hair up to keep any leftover conditioner from soaking into my body. Extreme? I think so. I'm laughing at the image of myself attempting to not allow any possible oils or fats to seep into my skin and ruin my weight loss! I think it's ridiculous. But until I know if there's anything to be wary of, this is me, when my hair gets so bad I'm offending myself.

The good news is, I've completed one week of my HCG diet!! Only 2 left to go before maintenance. And I don't have to be around any family until then :) so I'm good to go with my nasty, greasy, cap-covered hair.

There's more good news too! So, earlier, I wrote that I had saved half of my tomato and strawberries for later. Well, I went and did some manure shoveling in an area Jim needed to work in, and then worked with the horse a bit. I burned some extra calories, and got hungry, so I'm really glad I saved that food. It was about 3:30 when I finished them. I had a meeting this evening, so prepared my food, put it in my handy little lunch box containers, and headed out. About the time I was headed there, at quarter to 6, I was feeling a little snackish, so ate half of my bread stick. Apparently that was enough, because even though I had intended to eat the rest of my food when I got to the library meeting room, I completely forgot about it, and didn't realize it until after 7! Even then I was only feeling slightly hungry, so I ate my chicken. Around 8 I ate my bread stick and apple sauce. I was drinking lots of water and feeling great. THEN... on my way home, I suddenly realized that I hadn't had my cabbage yet, and still needed those calories for the day! The only problem was that I wasn't even slightly hungry. I know how important it is though, to get all 500 calories, so I set them out on the edge of the bathtub while I initially soaked and read a book, and snacked on them. I was feeling almost stuffed by the time I was done with the portion.

This means it is really working. I'm doing good on 500 calories a day. What's funny to me is that people who believe everything the FDA tells them say that "of course you're losing... it's the number of calories and has nothing whatsoever to do with the HCG." If that was true, though, then why is it that people who have a really hard time losing weight because their body is in starvation mode can eat 500 calories and not lose and ounce, but as soon as they add HCG to the mix they start losing? The other thing I find funny is when people who work for the HCG injection companies point to the homeopathic version as being a scam... even though it is doing exactly the same thing as the shots. If I wasn't in starvation mode, and was losing weight on this 500 calorie diet, I'd be exhausted all the time, no energy, I'd be weak, my body would be breaking down. Instead I feel really good, I'm not hungry all the time (the periods of time in which I notice hunger are always around the time I usually eat, and as soon as I start eating I fill up really fast). I'm not tired, in fact I'm able to get up earlier than usual and feel just fine without needing a nap or going to bed early.

I guess I'm a pretty firm believer. The mirror and tape measure don't lie. This stuff really works :)