And since we all make mistakes…we all have to figure out how to let them go and forgive ourselves. If we don’t then we can’t move on. And if we handled our everyday mistakes this way…we’d all get so bogged down and overwhelmed that we’d end up with a mental breakdown from regret and guilt.

These theories about mistakes and forgiveness can be applied to dieting quite easily. Every diet is dependent upon one thing: rules. The rules of a diet tell us what to eat, what not to eat, when to eat and when not to eat.

Most people decide they want to be on a diet and they really try to stick to it. But sometimes even the most dedicated make mistakes. They’ll slipup and do something they were not supposed to do while on their diet of choice. Sometimes it’s eating a food that isn’t allowed while on the diet. Other times it’s doing something you weren’t supposed to do while on the diet. Sometimes it’s forgetting to eat something that you needed to eat. Anything that goes against the rules is a mistake on the diet.

Once you’ve made the mistake (whatever mistake it happens to be) you feel terrible. Many feel like they just failed at their diet entirely. Everyone decides to go on a diet for a reason. They are sure they can do it. They just know that they won’t be breaking the rules.

So finding yourself breaking the rules after swearing that you were going to stick to them (either to yourself or to others) leaves us feeling retched. But it happens to everyone. You might have let one small mistake slip past your guard. Or it’s possible that the mistake was in no way small. You may have indulged in a third helping of birthday cake for all I know.

But regardless of the size of the mistake…it’s still just that. It’s a mistake. You have to get right back on plan as soon as you can. It’s like falling off a horse. You just get back on immediately. There’s no use in beating yourself up about the mistake. You just need to recognize it as something you don’t want to do again and get moving forward with your diet.

Very low calorie diets call for extra dedication. Dieters who are considering starting one should make sure they have adequate info. Homeopathic HCG weight loss plans offer extensive homeopathic HCG weight loss plan dieting info. Some distributors even include all the info in a handy pocket guide that can be easily carried in a pocket or purse. This makes it easier for dieters to avoid mistakes because they’ve got access to the rules at all times.

Chad’s low calorie diet started on Day 3. It’s been giving him plenty of experience picking and eating healthy foods and severely limiting his serving sizes. He’s started to be able to get through the day without being distracted because he wants to eat.

His trouble time period falls between dinner and bedtime. He identified it early on. To make it easier he saves his fruit servings for this time period. He thinks that it seems to be working.

The scale told Chad he was at 232 pounds on Day 8.

Chad’s been reading up on the diet and the industry. He finds the info on unhealthy diets and the way the body reacts to them most telling. It’s especially telling because most Americans have an unhealthy diet. Most Americans eat way too much; servings sizes are much smaller than most people realize.

He’s learned the fast food is horrible; at least it’s horrible for the body’s health. It should be the very last eating choice for anyone who is trying to eat healthy. The first choice for anyone trying to eat healthy is eating at home.

He’s also noticed (for the umpteenth time) that there is no workout required on the homeopathic HCG weight loss plan. There’s actually not supposed to be any working out. And Chad finds that part of the diet requirements to be fantastic.

He didn’t want to question the workout rule because he likes it, but he did want to know the reasoning behind it so he called the HCG Diet Direct Support Center. They told him that the low calorie diet is limiting dieters to weight losss per day and that’s not enough to support a workout. It sounded perfectly reasonable.

Day 8 is complete. Chad made it through and he feels great. He’s no longer feeling hungry. The first few days were tough. It’s always difficult to break an old habit. But Chad feels as if he’s got it under control and he’s comfortable.

About Homeopathic Medicine

The science of homeopathy goes back to Hippocrates, the “Father of Western Medicine” who lived in Greece over 2500 years ago. It was Dr. Samuel Hahnemann however, who codified these principles and developed modern homeopathy back around the turn of the 19th Century in what is now modern Germany.

Homeopathy is based on the principle of “like treats like;” in other words, the best treatment for a given disorder is a medication that produces similar symptoms. This triggers the body’s own natural healing mechanisms. One example is the use of onion for colds and hay fever. Like allergies, onion causes itching eyes and a runny nose – but ultimately relieves the symptoms of the former.

Homeopathic HCG works on a similar principle. By itself it does nothing, but when used in conjunction with a low calorie diet, it activates the body’s own fat-burning mechanism.

How Homeopathic HCG is Made

Chorionic Gonadotropin is a hormone unique to primates – shrews, lemurs, monkeys, apes and humans. It is not present in any other mammal species. HCG is the human form of this hormone (hence the “H”). It is produced in the early stages of pregnancy, its primary purpose being to protect the fetus and provide it with a healthy environment in which to develop.

HCG is excreted through a pregnant woman’s urine (in fact, this is what early pregnancy tests are designed to detect. However is should be noted that presence of HCG in the body will not always result in a positive reading on a pregnancy test.  Nor will placing drops directly on a pregnancy test necessarily result in a positive reading.  Additionally, homeopathic HCG like that usually found in drops will not result in a positive reading either.) Before it is turned into medication, the hormone must be separated from the urine and other substance and purified.

All homeopathic remedies are made the same way; they start out with an extract or hormone, which is then diluted several times while being mixed thoroughly. During this process, the active molecules leave a biochemical imprint on the water molecules. At the end of the process, a small amount of alcohol is added as a preservative.

Using Homeopathic HCG

Taking homeopathic HCG as part of the HCG weight loss program is simple and straightforward. Unlike the injections, HCG drops are delivered to you in a ready-to-use form. When you start on Day 1, you will take the medication three times a day (prior to each meal) by placing approximately 15 drops under your tongue (about 0.4 milliliters). It is important not to swallow the remedy directly; otherwise, the active substance will be destroyed by the digestive enzymes in the stomach (this is true of virtually all homeopathic remedies).

Remember that you must take HCG for two days prior to starting the low calorie diet, while loading up on fats. This is part of what increases your body’s metabolism and prepares it to consume your excess fat reserves.

Likewise, it is important to continue the diet for at least two days after you stop taking HCG, in order to give your body a chance to clear it all out of your system.

• a handful of nuts
• a slice of apple pie
• one slice of pizza with “the works”
• a baked chicken breast and a small piece of corn on the cob (sans butter)
• one cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• one hamburger with cheese
• two cups of brown rice

Perhaps any one of these would do for a single meal – but while on the HCG program, this is all you get for an entire day. (Fats, carbs and added sugars are strictly off-limits!) A normal person requires at least four times that amount just to maintain reasonably good health.

Of course, people on the HCG program do not “waste away” as they would if they were actually starving. HCG is, in fact, a completely safe and natural way to burn off excess fat without suffering the effects of undernourishment.

Hormones – Nature’s IT System

“Human Chorionic Gonadotropin” (HCG) is one of several hormones that exist in the human body at some point during the lifespan. The basic function of a hormone is that of a chemical messenger. It carries chemical messages between cells consisting of “marching orders.” It is how cells “know” what and whatnot to do.

HCG comes into play during the early stages of pregnancy. (You may be interested to know that home pregnancy tests are designed to detect HCG levels in a woman’s urine.  But presence of HCG in the body will not necessarily result in a positive reading on a pregnancy test.  Nor does placing HCG drops directly on a test necessarily result in a positive reading.) HCG protects the fetus in two ways:

• it prevents the mother’s system from stealing nutrients from the fetus
• it prevents the mother’s antibodies from mistaking the fetus for a pathogen

Beyond this, HCG regulates overall metabolism and the processing of nutrients. This is exactly what it does when it is re-introduced into the human body in the form of HCG injections or homeopathic HCG drops.

Possible Side Effects

In extremely rare cases, an individual may experience any or all of the following symptoms while using HCG:

• water retention
• constipation
• moodiness
• headaches

If this happens to you, it is important to discontinue the HCG diet and contact a physician right away. For a nominal fee, you can also consult with our own resident physician here if you have questions or concerns about HCG.

Hormones: The HCG Effect

There are dozens of different hormones in the human body, each of which has its own function. In essence, however, they are all chemical messengers that allow the various physiological systems to communicate with one another. Specifically, hormones deliver messages to the cells, which then carry out the instructions encoded in those biochemical messages.

HCG, or Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, is one such chemical messenger. Its primary tasks are carried out during the initial stages of pregnancy. It is actually excreted by the fetus. The biochemical message to the mother is essentially “back off.” Without HCG, it is possible that the mother’s system could leech nutrients away from the fetus. Her immune system might also detect the father’s DNA and attack the fetus as if it were a foreign pathogen.

HCG prevents these things from happening.

HCG is a Hormone Therapy

As people age, production of certain hormones begins to taper off. HCG production ceases toward the end of pregnancy, though babies are born with quite a lot of it still in their systems. During childhood, HCG tends to regulate the metabolism, but because of various factors, the natural supply of HCG gets used up. It is virtually depleted by the time a person reaches adulthood.

At the same time, many people tend to collect excess fat as the age. It is different with each individual, and the reasons are varied. According to Dr. A.T.W. Simeons, who pioneered the use of HCG in the treatment of obesity, fat accumulation is a combination of genetics, modern eating patterns, dietary choices and culture.

Regardless of the causes, the particular form of fat that gets stored is one that is not particularly accessible. This is a major reason that most “traditional” diets fail. When a person reduces their caloric intake, the first thing that happens is that the hypothalamus slows down the metabolism. Next, the body starts feeding off of muscle tissue and structural fat that protects the internal organs.

By the time this has been used and the body turns to these adipose deposits, the dieter is tired and discouraged and usually gives up.

The HCG Difference

Adipose – the excess fat that we all try to rid ourselves of – is a form of fat that needs to be broken down in order to be useful. This is what HCG does: it breaks up these fat molecules so that when one is one a Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD), calories from fat are available to make up the deficit.

At the same time, HCG insures that the hypothalamus gland doesn’t turn down the thermostat while you’re following Dr. Simeons’ protocols, which is what leads to the dramatic weight loss results that people have enjoyed on the HCG program.

Very Low Calorie Diet

At the heart of the Simeons’ weight loss method is a Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD). Under normal circumstances, a low calorie isn’t often effective. The reason for the plan’s success is rooted in how the body responds to starvation in a state of nature and how this response is modified by the presence of HCG.

As Nature Made Us

Due largely to our evolution – descended from forest-dwelling apes who were driven out onto the savannas of central Africa between six and eight million years ago – our human physiology was adapted in such a way as to hold on to fat stores, which are in a form known as adipose. It was a survival mechanism that came into play. However, with the rise of civilization and the invention of agriculture, normal feeding patterns were forced to change and new foods were introduced into the human diet.

According to 20th-Century endocrinologist Dr. Albert T.W. Simeons, who first developed the HCG program in the late 1940s and early 1950s, this is among the root causes of modern obesity.

What Happens

When the body senses starvation, it first responds by slowing down all metabolic processes in order to conserve energy. Next, it reaches for the most easily available source of nutrition, which unfortunately consists of lean muscle mass. Next, it will feed off the visceral structural fat that cushions the internal organs. Needless to say, this is very dangerous to good health.

According to Dr. Simeons, the excess fat that we are all trying to lose is much like old motor fuel that has been stored too long. Still very volatile, it has nonetheless solidified into a form that cannot be used in the gas tank to run the car. HCG breaks this adipose down into a form that is more readily available, and forces the hypothalamus to use this source before any others.

The Dangers of Exercise

Because of the HCG, your system is burning up calories at the maximum rate. Strenuous exercise pushes your body beyond these safe limits, and can cause severe dehydration while pushing our heart rate to dangerous levels.

This said, it is actually a good idea to engage in mild exercise, such an a daily stroll around the block in order to get oxygen to the brain – which in turn, will help to maintain a positive outlook and assist you in completing the program successfully.

Those who still have doubts should take a look at the video testimonials that are available on our site. Still, it may help to understand something about the science behind the “miracle” – which is not so “miraculous” once you understand how hormones operate in the body.

It’s really just simple biology.

What Hormones Are, What They Do

You’ve probably heard a great deal about hormones, but don’t really know what they’re about. A hormone is a biochemical substance, meaning that it consists of a chain of organic molecules that form amino acids. The primary function of a hormone is communication. It carries messages from one cell to another.

All multi-cellular life forms on earth produce hormones, including plants. Among animals, hormones are excreted either from endocrine glands or specialized cells, and are transported by the bloodstream. Once released, a hormone will seek out and bind with a cellular receptor that is specific to that particular hormone, causing the cell to carry out certain functions.

Some of the hormones that may be familiar include:

• insulin: excreted by the pancreas, this regulates glucose levels
• oxytocin: regulates circadian rhythms and body temperature
• testosterone: the “male” hormone that stimulates the growth of muscle and secondary sex characteristics (body and facial hair, penis size, deepening voice)
• estrogen: the “female” hormone, regulating fertility

HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, is a hormone that is excreted by the fetus during gestation. It has two primary functions:

•    provide a viable environment in which the fetus can develop
•    Suppress the mother’s immune system and prevent it from attacking (rejection might otherwise be a problem because of the father’s DNA).

In addition, HCG protects the fetus in the event that the mother is undernourished by preventing her system from leeching nutrients.

During his years in India, Dr. Simeons also discovered that HCG can affect the part of the brain responsible for metabolism as well as break down the fat content locked up in cells, making it available to the body as fuel.

This Is The Key

When combined with the Very Low Calorie Diet, HCG causes ongoing fat consumption, regardless of your level of activity. Even when at rest, your body requires a minimum number of calories in order to function. Since these calories won’t be coming from the food you eat, the deficit must be made up by burning excess fat. HCG is what makes this possible.

One of the big advantages of the HCG diet is that it leaves muscle tissue intact – so there are no loose folds of baggy skin to deal with afterwards.

It is important to follow the protocols established by Dr. Simeons closely and pay strict attention to the required diet and menus. This understood people have found it possible to lose as much as two pounds a day while on the HCG diet.

What Is HCG

The “Human Chorionic Gonadotropin” hormone is a byproduct of the gestation process. During pregnancy, it protects the fetus and helps to create a viable environment in which fetal development can take place.

While humans retain a large amount of this hormone in childhood, it is generally depleted by the time adulthood is reached.

During the early and mid-twentieth century, Dr. Simeons worked in India and had an opportunity to observe patients with thyroid conditions that had caused them to become morbidly obese. He treated these patients with small doses of HCG and discovered that the treatment actually caused these patients to drop pounds when nothing else worked.

In 1954, Dr. Simeons published his findings in a paper entitled Pounds and Inches. According to his research, obesity is not a natural condition at all, but rather an abnormality that is due to a number of different factors both genetic and environmental. For reasons that are not altogether clear, some people are predisposed to fat accumulation regardless of how little they eat, while others can eat as much as they please and never gain a pound.

How HCG Restores Balance

If obesity is primarily the result of imbalance, the HCG diet can restore the balance. Used according to Dr. Simeons’ protocols and a Very Low Calorie diet, HCG restores proper balance by first making these excess fat deposits available as an energy source. Then refocusing the hypothalamus gland (that part of the brain responsible for the control of metabolic processes) toward utilizing this energy source.

Thus, when you reduce your caloric intake to 25% of the amount required to sustain normal metabolic levels, your hypothalamus is forced to make up the deficit from fat.

Learn More

Elsewhere on this site and in many earlier blog posts, you will find several pieces dealing with the fascinating history of HCG and Dr. Simeon’s story. Just use the search function here at HCG Diet Direct and enter keywords relating to any HCG topic you want to learn about.

Start With Overindulgence

One of the surprising aspects of the HCG diet for most people is the fact that before starting Dr. Simeons’ protocols, they are expected to spend two days gorging themselves on as much rich, high-fat foods as they can possibly ingest.

Enjoy it while you can – that is about to change very dramatically.

Very Low Calorie Diet

The low calorie diet consists of eating only weight losss a day. This equates to a little more than a handful of rice. Now, you won’t be eating a handful of rice a day – actually, you won’t be eating any rice at all. The quality of what you will be eating is much better, consisting of lean, boiled meats and fresh vegetables, but you’ll still be eating very minute quantities.

You won’t waste away, either and your energy levels will remain normal, or even improve. This is due to the HCG drops that you take three times a day.

The HCG Difference

Normally, a human body requires between 1,500 and 2,weight losss a day in order to function properly. If only weight losss are being ingested, the extra calories have to come from somewhere.

HCG literally “unlocks” the excess fat deposits around the abdomen and hips. These are rich sources of calories that would otherwise be unavailable. So, assuming that you normally require 2,000 calories a day for your basic metabolic needs and you are eating only 500 under the Simeons protocols, the other 1,500 will be drawn from your excess fat.

This is why people are able to lose a pound a day or more while on the HCG diet.

Another benefit is that you won’t feel hungry or deprived after the first day or two. Feelings of hunger are triggered by low blood glucose levels. (Interestingly, THC – the active ingredient in marijuana – absorbs blood sugar ly, which is why people who smoke cannabis get “the munchies”.) Since nourishment is flowing into your system from the breakdown of fat molecules, glucose levels remain level so hunger is not a problem.

What To Avoid

Any skin creams that contain vegetable or animal fat should not be used while on the HCG diet. In addition, you should not engage in strenuous exercise, such as aerobics or weight training. A moderate stroll in the evening is fine, but since your body is already burning calories at a prodigious rate, it is best to keep physical activity to a minimum while following the HCG weight loss plan.

Following the entire HCG diet protocol means losing weight fast. At first, the 500-calorie diet seems difficult but you can do it.

The VLCD

One of the major components of the HCG program is the Very Low Calorie Diet, or VLCD. This amounts to a mere weight losss a day. Under normal circumstances, the human body requires between three and five time that amount. weight losss a day is no where near enough calories to survive.  Normally, your body would go into starvation mode.

So, why does this not happen to people on the HCG diet?

It has to do with how the body normally responds to starvation and how HCG modifies that response in such a way that good health is maintained.

Because of the way in which we evolved, our bodies have been programmed to hold on to life-giving adipose, which is the excess fat that collects around the abdomen, hips and thighs. Dr. A.T.W. Simeons concluded that this is a very unnatural phenomenon that became increasingly common after our physiological evolution collided with the development and demands of agriculture, which changed our diets and eating patterns dramatically.

What happens is that when the body goes into “starvation mode,” it will begin to literally cannibalize itself, first feeding off of lean muscle tissue, then the visceral fat deposits that are vital for protecting our internal organs but providing lubrication and cushioning.

What Dr. Simeons found is that adipose is rather like old gasoline that has turned to varnish. It is still combustible and full of energy, but it cannot be readily utilized as a fuel source. On the HCG program, adipose is “unlocked” so that the body uses it as a primary fuel source when on the VLCD. So, while you are ingesting only weight losss, the body will automatically make up the shortage by dipping into energy rich adipose instead of muscle and viscera.

Why Exercise is Not Recommended

Naturally, during weight loss on the HCG program, your body is already burning calories at a furious rate in fact; it is burning these fat calories at the maximum rate. By engaging in strenuous exercise, you are literally “pushing the limits.” High-intensity aerobics and weight training will cause you to become dehydrated very and your heart rate may exceed safe levels. People have been known to lose consciousness while engaging in strenuous exercise while on the HCG program.

What You Should Do

If you do combine the HCG Diet and Exercise, it’s a good idea to simply take a 1-2 mile stroll once a day, and this is in fact recommended in order maintain a healthy mood and get some oxygen to the brain.