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My wife and recently completed the HCG diet.   We both had great results with the diet.  I lost about 20 lbs. and about 2 1/2 inches from my waist in 26 days.

The diet is pretty brutal for a few days after the Very Low Calorie Diet starts.  During the first week I thought about food often, there were even a few nights it was easier to go to bed than think about food.  The Very Low Calorie diet part of the diet is 500 calories per day.   We measured and prepared most of our food in advance.   It seemed weird in the sense that we really do spend a lot of time preparing meals and eating.  This left an extra amount of time during the evening.  An example of a meal (250 calories) is a 3oz piece of chicken and 2 cups of spinach.

The HCG diet does require injections of the HCG hormone.  The HCG hormone helps unlock abnormal fat and burn it.  I have given many injections over the years but this was the first time I had ever given myself an injection.

The diet consists of three phases:

• Loading  – This phase is when you eat a lot of foods.  Focused on fatty food to help you make the transition to the very low calorie diet
• Very Low Calorie Diet – This is when you will lose weight.  Eating only 500 calories per day.
• Stabilization – You keep your body weight within a 4 pound window determined by the weight on the last day of the very low calorie Diet.

Here are my results

Since the January 26, I have been maintaining my weight within 2 pounds of 207.6 on just 2000 calories per day.   I have one more week of stabilization at 2000 calorie and then plan to decrease my calories and increase my exercise to finish up and get to my next goal weight of 190 lbs.  Since college I have not been able to get below 195 lbs but I am hopeful that I can get there.

 

About three years ago I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea.  Sleep Apnea occurs when the airway is obstructed and you cannot breathe while sleeping.  This causes a brief and unconscious waking up (This is a called an apnea).  If you have enough apneas, sleep will become very fragmented.  The most common symptom of Sleep Apnea is extreme daytime sleepiness.

For the last three years I have had a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine to treat my sleep apnea.   The machine works by blowing air into my nasal passage. The positive pressure of the airflow inflates the airway much like a balloon so that it will not collapse and obstruct my breathing.

Over the last month or so I started to question my sleep apnea therapy.  My CPAP machine is set to a fixed pressure based on one crappy night of sleep in a sleep lab three years ago.  The CPAP machine I got was not too smart; it recorded every four hours that I used the machine and the total amount of time it has run.  I don’t have any other data to look at for how effective my therapy is other than how do I feel.  Some mornings I feel great other not so.

At the start of December I decided to try a new approach and get more information about what is really going on when I sleep.   I purchased a new DeVilbiss Travel Auto Positive Airway Pressure Machine (APAP).   The APAP machine works on the same principle as the CPAP except that it has sensors and can automatically adjust to the minimum effect pressure.   I can  collect lots of information from the APAP machine to that with my doctor.

My experiment for December:

1. Baseline my sleep for a week with the new machine
2. Stop taking Sudafed and see if my sleep is impacted

Baseline sleep for one week with new machine

My sleep didn’t look too bad during the baseline.  Here are some of the cool graphs I extracted from the monitoring software.

Apnea Hypoapnea Index(AHI) – Number of Apnea and Hypoapneas per hour

Apnea Index (AI) – Number of Apneas per hour

Stop taking Sudafed and see if my sleep is impacted

I have been taking Sudafed daily for the last 10 years for nasal congestion.  It has been nearly impossible to get off the stuff.  I have not made it more than a few nights without it for the last 10 years.  I have researched what the side effects of Sudafed are.  But I could not find any conclusive information on the long term side effects.  I am making an educated guess that over time the body becomes resistant to the effects of the drug.  However the symptoms that it relieves are likely to get much worse when Sudafed is stopped after long term usage.

I have experienced a full 1.5 weeks of sleep without Sudafed.  The first 4 days were pretty horrible,  I experienced stuffy nose, dry eyes and lack of energy.

From my experiment I determined:

• I need about 15 minutes more sleep per day than I did when taking the Sudafed
• My AHI/AI numbers increased but are still in range of effective therapy

Other observations

I have noticed in the nightly report my snore index has increased significantly without Sudafed.   The snore index is related to the vibrations (not audible) that are sensed by the machine.  I believe the algorithm used by the APAP detects snore vibrations prior to actual snores and increases pressure until the snore vibration stops.  The system makes a similar correction to bring the pressure down. When it lowers the pressure and starts detecting snore vibrations it will raise the pressure to minimize snore vibrations.   The real advantage of an APAP is the constant search for the minimal effective pressure.  The snore index is the primary feedback the system has on how you are responding to therapy.

Here is a snore index chart for a typical night taking Sudafed.

Here is a snore index for a typical night with no Sudafed.  Notice that there is a significant increase in the snore index events without Sudafed.

Conclusion

I don’t really want to use Sudafed again and correlate the results of my experiment with and without Sudafed.  However  I can say that Sudafed seems to help sleeping with Sleep Apnea but its effect is not significant and the long terms risks of Sudafed are probably not worth taking.

I have been without Sudafed for a little over a week and feel pretty good now.  The first 4 days were very difficult.  I recommend that if you quit Sudafed you start on a Friday and hopefully by Tuesday morning the worst of it is behind you.

Please remember these are my results,  they may not match yours.  Please consult with a professional before altering your sleep therapy.

Later this year I want to experiment with playing the didgeridoo.  I have read that several studies have shown it to reduce sleep apnea.

 

After the housing bubble popped, I started thinking a little different about my home.  I now believe that a home is not always a good investment.   The Real Estate market from 2004 to 2008 was probably the largest bubble ever blown in the history of the world.  Today we are still feeling the effects of that boom.  In Phoenix there is a huge inventory of house for sale at significantly lower prices than during the boom

When I look at a typical suburban home today it only provides shelter and status.   Most people living in a suburban home do not make an income at their home.  The typical suburban homeowner goes to an office or other work environment for their income.  Almost no one I know uses the raw resources of their suburban home to create wealth.

The pioneers that settled the west would have a different view.   To the pioneer the home was shelter but it also had to produce most of their food and energy.  How do we make our suburban houses produce something today?

As 2010 draws to a close, here are a few things I want to investigate next year to see if my home can produce more and take less from me:

• Investigate a 4 kW solar system.
• Add solar shades to the house.
• Finish replacing most often used light bulbs with more efficient ones.
• Follow the watering guidelines set by Maricopa County to reduce watering.
• Investigate rainwater catching systems for the house to be used for irrigation
• Expand my garden and add more fruit trees to the property.
• Investigate raising 2-4 chickens but not sure how that will go over with the neighbors.
• Look for rural land that could be used initially for camping but ultimately some sort of homestead.  A place that could produce a significant amount of my food and energy.