Original email: I will complete phase 2, but go on a 7 day cruise the very next day after. I don’t intent on going crazy, but I’m not going to restrict myself. After all, it’s a cruise! The plan is to do another round shortly after the cruise. Should I be that concerned with my eating in the cruise since I’m doing another round?
This is an email that makes me think perhaps you might want to do a bit more reading on the hCG protocol. This diet doesn’t work like other diets where you can stop the diet and eat freely without major weight regain. If you don’t restrict yourself, and it’s the first day of P3, I am just being completely honest here- you will likely regain a good portion of the weight you just lost. Should you be concerned? I guess if you don’t mind gaining the weight you just spent many days depriving yourself on hCG prior to this losing and re-losing it on the next round, then sure, I guess you don’t need to be concerned.
I’m sorry if this sounds a bit harsh- I’m just really trying to let everyone know that it’s important to take this protocol seriously and it’s simply unwise to plan to get off P2 right before a cruise like this and to not plan on eating within P3 guidelines.
Again, if you don’t mind re-doing what you just did, I guess it’s alright, but we have also seen that when people yo-yo on and off hCG, they find over time the protocol does not work as well for them, and it takes them longer eating the same few calories to lose the same weight. I just really encourage you to think about what you are doing here.
If you rethink this a bit, then my advice on the cruise would be to really adhere as strictly as you can to P3 guidelines – getting things like lean proteins and veggies at lunch and dinner, and if you do that, perhaps you can get away with one or two small cheats – that seems reasonable- but having an overall carefree attitude about P3 in general will pretty much ruin all your hard work. And I’m just speaking from experience here! I’ve been through one phase 3 where I treated it lightly and didn’t follow it and I gained 15 lbs back very quickly. 🙁 Just trying to save you some distress here!
As far as when to restart hCG, if you plan to have your cruise as an interruption on hCG, then you can restart the diet within a couple of weeks – but if you did this it’s best if you this doesn’t make your total time on P2 more than 6-8 during those 2 rounds- your body needs time to recover from this extreme protocol.
If you’ve already done hCG for about 6 weeks, in that case it would be best to take the full required break before your next P2 – I have a post all about proper hCG breaks here – if this is your first round that will be a full 6 weeks.
I hope this helps and again I’m sorry if I’m a bit harsh in a couple spots, but I’m just not sure you realize how volatile your weight will be right after P2 and I’m hoping you won’t have to learn the hard way like I once did!
Love,
Rayzel
