You are so right it’s very hard, and the mind game of it is everything.
I think there’s a few things you can do. Probably the biggest thing that I realized at least for myself to be able to stick to a round, was that I had to really really care.
YOU HAVE TO REALLY WANT IT
And sometimes screwing up is the only way to discover that you feel that way.
My 2nd round when the diet started to feel really hard, I came to a point for a time, where I didn’t feel like I looked half bad, and maybe I was happy where I was at, and that just made the diet completely not worth it while I was feeling like that. So if you feel like you could be mostly satisfied with your body, I don’t think anything will help you stick to the diet. It was only once I was cheating a lot on the diet as a result, and then gained 15 lbs back after and had my terrible eating habits again that I was like, “You know, okay now I see, this is NOT what I want. I do want to get thinner again and stay that way and have a healthy lifestyle” – so for me it kind of took the school of hard knocks to realize what I truly wanted. Once I experienced that and was able to know inside what I really wanted after screwing up, I was able to be very committed on my next round, as I had that solidly in my mind.
PAY ATTENTION TO SITUATIONS YOU CAN REALLY HANDLE
The 2nd thing is once you reach that place, where you do truly want it, I found I really needed to eliminate all the big tempting situations in my life during Phase 2. Some say they can go on vacation or go out to eat with friends while on P2. I found that while I COULD manage going out to eat or a party here and there and make it through, AFTER the party or event, I would come home and have a very strong urge to cheat or binge. I attribute this to having an exhausted willpower muscle from having to be so “strong” in those environments for several hours. For me it just wasn’t a good recipe for success. In the grand scheme of things, being a hermit for 3-6 weeks is really worth it – I’ve been maintaining 6 years now, in part because I was willing to be different and stay in, not go out, and not try to live a normal life while on hCG. If you think of the long term, you can be willing to make logical adjustments to your time on hCG so that you are not being faced with temptations like that that can derail you.
HCG AND YOUR PERSONALITY
3rd thing: approach the hCG diet in a way that fits your personality.
I read this really great book called The 4 Tendencies – the premise is that each of us have one of these 4 basic tendencies when it comes to how we respond to expectations, and this greatly affects how we are able to carry out habits or accomplish goals we have. Once you figure out which “tendency” you are, her follow up book, Better than Before helps you figure out based on who you are in that way, how best to design your life so that you can accomplish things.
So as an example, I fit into the “questioner” tendency- where in order for me to do something and follow-through with something, I NEED to know why. If I don’t understand why then I won’t be able to get myself to do it. And so I have to research it and understand and then, only then, will I be able to follow through on something when it’s difficult.
Another tendency is the “Obliger” – the author says that a large percentage of people fit into this category. Interesting individuals like this do a lot better when other expect things of them – if they are the only ones expecting something of themselves, they will often not follow through because it’s just not enough of a motivator for them. For people like this, joining an hCG forum or facebook groups, vlogging about your journey on youtube and commenting on other people’s videos, or tracking your progress on IG and seeing others be involved in your journey, creates a sort of accountability that will help you feel more motivated and committed to sticking to it.
It’s really quite fascinating! I really suggest you purchase both books.
I think it’s a mixture of finding the right ways that will help you stay motivated and committed, combined with taking practical measures with how you actually do the diet.
For instance, some need to be strict P2 and not make one error in order to stick to the diet- if they make an error they just fall apart. Others, need to utilize “cheats that aren’t really cheats” to help them stay sane, and this actually HELPS them stick to the diet.
GET ACCURATE INFORMATION SO YOU HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
4th – getting accurate information about what is normal to expect. There are lot of misleading statements out there that don’t make sense with science and how our bodies work, and if we believe them, we can falsely believe we are not getting enough results, and this can be so emotionally taxing and frustrating that it leads to cheating and giving up and an overall constant feeling of dissatisfaction.
I have a few posts to help you with that:
Struggling on the hCG Diet – Causes and Solutions
I hope this helps you!
