Promise

I promised myself that I would add one of these stories here every time I told one. I tell them at one point or another throughout the summer. There will be no chronology - not yet anyway - nor will there be much of a schedule. You never know; I might add a story every day and I might not. This is my life. Every day is an adventure.

Anna

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

My hcg Diet

One day my girlfriend, Sandy, sent me an email telling me all about this wonderful stuff she found. She was so sick and so disheartened by it all – she figured she’d be dead in another ten years, if not sooner. But now, as if by a miracle, after hundreds of trips to different doctors, it was all going away, and along with it about a pound a day of fat. A POUND! That’s a whole box of butter just being chucked out every day!

I was totally thrilled for her; her updates were just amazing. Finally, something had been found that made the fat go away without us having to start training for the Olympics or something of the sort. I mean, have you watched Biggest Loser? Personally, I don’t like that show, though perhaps those people need that kind of abusive discipline. I don’t.

I have always considered myself a strong person for a woman. I mean, read my blog. I lift and carry. I walk. Okay, so I don’t do it every day, but still. During the summer I work at a fishing lodge and I probably end up walking well over a mile if not miles every day, and that’s not counting the mile I walk to and from the boat every day in order to go to work. During the winter it’s a different story. Since I’m not working at the lodge, I spend a lot of my time sitting in front of the computer. But I still go out and split wood nearly every day and sometimes twice a day.

I also consider myself healthy. I’ll take aspirin for some aches and pains now and then but I have no other medications to take, not counting the inhaler I use for my bronchitis – one little inhaler has been known to last me up to four years, so even my bronchitis isn’t much of a nuisance.

Of late though, I’ve been feeling really quite old. I love where I live but living in the wilderness of Alaska is not for the old and infirm. I’ve always known that the day would come when we would have to move to town. I mean, if you can’t do the chores necessary to get along, the only alternative is to hire someone to do them for you or move to where life is a little easier.

Well, after hearing of Sandy’s success, I simply had to give this hcg diet a try. I was over 200 pounds now and I’ve been toying with the idea of quitting my job – it was all I could do to make it through an entire day. My feet hurt. My back hurt. I was tired all the time.

At work, I keep the cabins clean, which involves making or changing beds every day and some of those beds are the upper bunks – kids always choose the upper bunk. And since I hate the idea of carting a mop and bucket around, cleaning the bathroom floors was a hands-and-knees job.

When I first started working here there were ten cabins, half of which had a bathroom. Also on my cleaning every day list was the bathhouse which was two bathrooms, each with two sinks and two showers, and the floors here too. There was also a third bathroom but that was just a toilet. Then there were also four outhouses to maintain. When I first started working here, I was able to make it through all of that by noon most days, and then my afternoons were filled with maintaining the flowers and berry beds as well as the assorted trees and bushes. Thank goodness I didn’t have to mow too.

Since I’ve worked here, one bathroom was added to a cabin. In the last couple years, two cabins were taken out of the guest cabin list – a relief for me though they were seldom used anymore.

Believe me, taking care of the bathhouse, eight cabins and the yard is a big job and I was feeling like I wasn’t doing it the way I should. My boss gives me a raise every year and every year I was going out of my way to take short cuts. I felt guilty about it too, hence my thoughts of quitting.

Regardless of my work or my life here, I have been looking for some way to lose all this extra lard I’ve accumulated over the last 30some years. I did the math; on the average I gained at least two pounds a year.

I always check out the diet section at the store when I go to town – they all say ‘exercise and eat right and take this wonderful pill, and watch the pounds melt away’. ha ha ha I even tried a couple. So much for that theory.

Last year I ordered the drops from Sandy, only they didn’t get here before I was grounded to home. I did finally get them in February only to discover that both bottles had broken in shipment – I was so bummed. So as soon as planes were flying again, I sent her another check. I was going to try this stuff. I was desperate (though likely not so desperate as Sandy was when she started).

She told me she felt great, that she had energy again, that all her ailments were simply melting away, but I just thought it was due to weight going away. I had no idea.

I learned that starches are supposed to convert to sugar, which is where your energy is supposed to come from, but too much and it converts to fat, supposedly to be broken down into sugar at need at a later time. However, in some people that fat never breaks down; it just keeps building up and you have to eat more to get the energy you need, only too much of it is converted to this fat rather than the energy – a vicious circle.

Hcg breaks that circle. It tells your body it can burn this fat now, all you need. The fat converts to the sugar, which gives you energy. And oh my God the energy! I’m not talking about something like a caffeine buzz either, just energy, the energy you need to do whatever you are doing. Come the end of the day, I’m tired. I’m 55 years old; I’m entitled to be tired after a long day, and I love taking naps in the afternoon when I get the chance.

No longer do I look at the clock and think, ‘I’ve worked 2 hours, let me take an aspirin so I can make it to lunch so I can sit down for a while.’ And then in the afternoon I say, ‘I’ve done this flowerbed, do I have to do the next one or can it wait until tomorrow? Maybe I’ll go find some bushes to trim or some rocks to pick up, then maybe I’ll go home early.’ Nope – the other day I did all the flower and herb beds in one day. I had blisters on my hand from it, but job done and I was proud of my accomplishment. I’m back to working like I used to – getting the bathhouse, all the cabins and outhouses done lickety-split and polishing the gardens like they haven’t been for a while. Yeah, I keep them weed free and always have but there’s a difference now.

I’m carting around 30 less pounds of lard and that’s part of it, but my feet don’t hurt any more and my back doesn’t hurt any more. I’m not watching the clock any more. Though this summer I’m not eating lunch with the crew. I’ll pass through and grab an apple or banana or whatever’s available within my diet and that’s it, I’m off again.

When I first started working I was proud of the fact that few of the younger people could keep up with me, and since I was always all over the place, finding me was usually rather hard. I’m that way again and it’s wonderful.

My son asked me when we were moving to town. Like I said before, I knew the day would come. I told him, now that I feel 10 years younger, it’ll be a while. I like living here and I want to stay here as long as I can. Sure, we’ll spend some time in town each winter (maybe), but frankly I’d much rather stay out here.

With this session, I almost reached 170 pounds. My next session starts in September. I won’t be working then, so maybe the pounds won’t come off as easily – we’ll see; there’s still the walk to the boat dock I can take every day and that’ll help. Maybe I’ll put in a snowshoe trail around the parameter of the property – now that’s an idea – we’ve a 20 acre plot, rectangular in shape – anyone care to do the math for me? How far is that?

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