The beginnings of a new me. My story

I just started this blog here so I thought I'd give some info on me and my blog.

My name is Johanna, I'm 36 and I'm a mother to 4 lovely children, ages 17, 9, 8 and 16 months. And married to a very supportive husband for over 10 years. He has supported me through every venture you can imagine from selling Mary Kay, soap, going to college, to wanting a 4th child and being on bed rest for the entire 9 months and finally going through the hcg diet. Not to mention doing a round with me, in which he lost 35lbs. Woohoo!

I came up with The Domestic Wife's Lighter Side after being a part of a wonderful hcg diet forum. There are so many wonderful people there that offer the greatest support you could ever ask for. As far as the name goes, those that really know me know that I am a domestic wife, I take care of everyone in every way. I'm just that kind of person. I love entertaining at family events, holidays, cooking, reading, learning, spending time with my family, traveling, photography (I do amateur photography such as newborn, family, portrait and landscape) arts & crafts, home decor, making bath & body products, sewing, you name it, I pretty much do it and love it.

Growing up I was a skinny child that everyone always thought was sick, I was teased for it, or told I didn't eat enough or I ate like a bird. Well, when 30 hit that all changed, lol. In October 2006, after returning from a week long vacation in New England with my husband, I ended up with pneumonia and placed steroids. I easily gained 10lbs right there. In Sept 2007 I was in a bad car accident. I was t boned by an uninsured unlicensed teenager. I suffered neck and shoulder injuries. 3 weeks later I ended up in the hospital for an emergency appendectomy (and it was 6 days before my birthday:-(). After my surgery I was back in physical therapy and also seeing a chiropractor.

8 months after my car accident I had rotator cuff surgery. If you have ever had this surgery, you know first hand how painful it is. The recovery alone is horrendous. Well, naturally, I gained another 10lbs. Then I started college and gained the freshmen 5 they call it.

Then a year later hubby and I decided we wanted one more child and of course after I gave birth to her (she was 3 days old) I came down with an extremely dangerous case of pneumonia. By the time I finally decided to start the hcg diet, I was 11lbs heavier. So here I was at 169lbs and I'm 5'4.5" and feeling horrible.

When you are heavier you feel it, in your stomach, your neck, everywhere. You're hotter then everyone else bc you are carrying around that extra weight. I felt so uncomfortable in my own body.

Before I got pregnant I began to read into the hcg protocol by Dr Simeons. I figured I'd try it out after the baby was born.

I started the diet when she was 4 months old and I was done nursing. It was also during the time when we decided to completely remodel our home by making it larger for our new larger family. It was hard no lie, and I did not fully prepare myself. But in the end I lost my first 18lbs, I was so proud.

I decided to try again in Sept in hopes of having a new me by my 36th birthday! But I ended up finding out I was pregnant yet again, only to miscarry at 7 weeks (in no way related to the diet, I am high risk and have had 2 miscarriages earlier in my life and 2 preemies with my last one being an extremely difficult pregnancy and labor and delivery).

So I decided to wait until New years, to start a new year with a new me and be pass the pumpkin pies, ham and green bean casseroles.

And I did, I started on January 1st, with 3 days of loading. I had noticed on R1 with 2 days of loading I was hungry for the first 2 weeks and more then likely did not load properly. I wasn't going to make that mistake twice.

I began as doing another 23 day round, but when 23 days hit I realized I was 7lbs away from my then goal and thought heck why not go on. But I didn't have anymore hcg. So I ordered it and did what is considered as a 2 week interruption by eating p3 style only. NO breads, no starches, no carbs no sugars.

I started right back on at 14 days and did a light load day of heavy p3 foods. Did 15 days and lost it all.

Did a 3 week round of p3 before deciding I wanted to lose about 7lbs more. I did what is considered cycling, this is not protocol and I do not recommend this for anyone. Not only that, if you do decided to do this, you must first complete a full round (3 weeks each of p2, p3 and p4).

What I learned worked best for me on p2 was eating cod every day for lunch with an apple or freeze dried strawberries and about 5 radishes. Dinner was a chicken breast with the same fruit/veggie. I would lose .5-1.5lbs daily.

When I hit 131 (my goal was actually 128), I had a very hard time not losing anymore. When I made it to 131lbs, I realized I was thin, it finally sank in and I wanted to stop. But I was only a week in to my round. So I spent the rest of my 2 weeks (I did a 23 day round) eating more and more of p2 foods until the scale didn't move anymore. My last injection weight was 129.2.

Once I came into p3, I started immediately on the following supplements that I read on and hcg diet forum:

L Carnitine
Digestive Enzymes
Acidophllius
Biotin
MSM
Cholestoff (my cholesterol is a little high)
Omega 3,6,9 (for my cholesterol)
Co Q-10
Potassium/Magnesium
Folic Acid
B12

A few weeks ago I got everything tested. My doctor was amazed at how well everything came out and how well the diet worked for me and recommended I continue my supplements and by also adding in the Folic Acid.

I feel these have helped me tremendously in keeping my weight stabilized, even during tom! Previous rounds left me over liw by 2-3lbs. I have been below, at or just above this time. Amazing!

This time around has been truly amazing. So now here I am working on keeping my new figure.

I am slowly adding in exercise. I have just completed 1 week of p4, which is the forever phase as they say.

So there you have it.


This blog I am going to use for pretty much everything. But mostly for my journey after doing the hcg diet. I'll post recipes, info and updates on my progress as well as many other things that might interest you like they do me.