“Argentina Days”
In the new local hCG group I am leading, most members are already in week 3. Weight loss has been amazing for every one of them. One member was a bit disappointed that she hadn’t quite lost a pound a day (or almost) like the others, but when we counted backwards we found out she had had several “Argentina” days. On some of them she had gone outside the diet and enjoyed foods that are definitely not on the list, and one day she’d gone all out and reached 1,800 calories. Well? How bad is it?
When we got our hCG counseling certificate with Dr. Daniel Belluscio in Buenos Aires, we learned that Argentinians approach the diet in a somewhat different, rather relaxed way. In their eyes, keeping to the strict Simeons Protocol is just a bit too hard, too severe for their sensuous life styles. So they introduced permission to drop out one day a week and eat anything you like – the so-called “Argentina day.”
What is the consequence of an “Argentina day”?
We asked Dr. Belluscio and his team members as well as a number of Argentinian dieters. Every Argentina day sets you back about three days, we learned. So if your goal is losing 15- 20 pounds in three weeks, you won’t get there in Buenos Aires: it will take you a good week longer to reach your goal. Does it matter? Only if you are impatient or have a class reunion or some other event coming up that makes you highly nervous about your looks…
The Argentinians are convinced their way is the more natural way. A day of relaxation can give you just the right muscle and resolve to go back to your discipline, and even go back with twice the motivation. Plus, such a day of permissions allows you to feel out what “normal” life, normal eating is going to be like, what the challenges are, how your tastes may change and how your attitude toward certain foods is changing once you have finished the Protocol.
Some people in our groups reported losing all desire for alcohol on the diet. Others lost their taste for certain trigger foods that suddenly lost their attraction. Others again, myself included, experienced a natural shift in portion size as the long-term outcome. Some people find that they are on the whole much less food-obsessed just because they know there is always hCG to go back to. You’ve now got your best new friend in the world of temptations and appetites.
Interestingly, in our present group nobody is worried about Thanksgiving. Some are prepared to evade nagging questions by caring family members by telling them that they are on a “cleanse.” They are now experienced enough with dieting to think they will sail through the holiday with ease, eating very small amounts of the feast, making the offered dishes “work for them.” Or, they go the alternative route, simply calling Thanksgiving their Argentina day…