9 Tasty Tips for the HCG Diet Protocol

Getting bored with your food during Phase 2 of the Protocol can have a dire effect on your mood and on the success. Since eating food is as much an emotional experience as a practical one, and satisfying food brings a higher sense of well-being, it's important to make sure you're having food that's enjoyable to eat. These tasty tips will help you stay enthused about your food and enjoy each meal.

1. Get a diet cookbook. Our cookbook, 101 Worry-Free HCG Diet Recipes, has a wide variety of super-tasty, diet-friendly recipes. Use it to develop a delicious, diverse menu ahead of time to help keep you on track for the protocol.
2. Use an onion to flavor and moisten your meat. The George Foreman grill may dry out your meat more than you'd like, but there's an easy fix. Simply choose a Vidalia onion for your vegetable and cut it into somewhat thin slices. Put the slices on both sides of the meat and grill them together. The flavor of each will benefit that of the other and both the meat and onion taste wonderful. This recipe actually makes my coworkers jealous when I make it at the office…and it smells great (unlike tuna and fish recipes)!
3. Drink more tea. A delicious cup of mint or green tea, one that boosts metabolism or cleanses your body, can be a real pick-me-up when you're feeling peckish. Just be sure to check the ingredients list carefully and avoid any teas that contain fruits, vegetables, oils or other unallowed ingredients.
4. Have Simple Girl salad dressings, BBQ/Hot sauces, and seasonings on hand. These products were all designed for the diet, so you get great taste and convenience without having to worry about unallowed, sneaky ingredients like the 100 names that are basically used to hide the fact that the ingredient is a sugar. All Simple Girl diet-safe products are available at www.hcgdietstore.com.
5. Use condiments to flavor your food. You can safely use plain yellow mustard, Simple Girl Hot Sauce, Simple Girl Carolina Kick BBQ Sauce, and Simple Girl Southern Blend BBQ Sauce. Most single ingredient spices are allowed on the HCG Diet and other similar diets like Nutrimost, Shape Reclaimed, and the Ketogenic diet. Check the ingredients list carefully for added sugar, and note what condiments you used on your weight chart so that if your weight loss slows or stalls, you can eliminate condiments to see if one or more were the culprit.
6. Substitute a pickle for a cucumber. When you're in the mood for a lot of flavor, choose a dill pickle instead of a cucumber. The crunch and acidity are very pleasing to the palate, but check the ingredients list carefully for added sugar or other ingredients that are not allowed on the diet.
7. Enjoy fresh-squeezed lemonade. Combine the juice of a lemon with water and stevia for a delicious glass of ice-cold lemonade when your sweet tooth strikes. You get the juice of one lemon, approximately 2 tablespoons, per day to use however you like. Other uses for lemon are to flavor iced tea or to splash on your fish or salad.
8. Try a microwave-baked apple. Cut an apple in half and sprinkle with stevia and cinnamon. Cook in the microwave on high for about two minutes and enjoy. Some participants crumble up a breadstick on top for some extra crunch.
9. Get creative with stevia. Stevia comes in a wide range of flavors and tastes great in water, coffee, or tea. Try one of these in your coffee along with your allotted milk. You can add powdered or liquid stevia to foods like strawberries or other dishes. Click here to check out the stevia flavors we carry.