True Health Confession: This Vitamin G Reader Tried the HCG Diet

We've reported on the HCG diet here before. That's the one where you inject yourself, or take pills, containing what's commonly known as the pregnancy hormone--all in effort to lose weight. Whether it works, and whether it's even safe, is debatable. But, one Vitamin G reader shares her story--packed with telling, and hilarious details...

Author and Los Angeles blogger Liz Fenton decided to give the HCG diet a try, and when her mom told her about it over Thanksgiving, she decided to investigate it and give it a try. Here, she shares her experience, exclusively, with Glamour:
Days 1 and 2 "Fat Load”: Can I get an amen? How could any diet be bad that encourages you to eat AS MUCH FAT AS POSSIBLE for two days straight? On Christmas Eve and Christmas day I down more goat cheese and Italian sausage than any one human being should ever consume. Feel ready to go down to 500 calories the next morning. And did I read that I could drink as much black coffee and green tea as I want? I so got this.
Day 3: Um, I'm pretty hungry. Didn't that brochure say I wouldn't be hungry? Try not to stare at the kids while they devour the peanut butter cups Santa left in their stocking and imagine myself fitting into that tiny black dress tucked in the back of my closet. And is it just me, or do the HCG drops taste like a cheap vodka shot? *cue bad college flashbacks*
Day 4: Contact friends who have been on same diet who smugly inform me that they were NEVER hungry when they did HCG. Get strange satisfaction out of making a vat of guacamole, chicken chow mein and two pizzas for the family. Catch husband eyeing me warily out the corner of my eye.
Day 5: Down 5 pounds and decide to take the kids sledding in a futile attempt to escape hunger. Almost black out at the top of the sledding hill. Play game on the way home where I tell the hubs exactly what I would order at each and every restaurant we pass on the two-hour drive home. He quietly indulges me, not wanting the crazy hungry person inside of me to rear it's ugly head. I don't tell him that his arm looks like a meaty hambone and I want to take a bite out of it.

Day 6: Stomach has started to make weird noises and I imagine that it's actually eating itself. May never look at radishes, spinach or those freakin' WASA crackers the same way again. In an act of rebellion, gorge myself on 6oz (rather than the recommended 4oz) of chicken for lunch. Feels liberating.
Day 7: Cannot. Stop. Cooking. Fresh bruschetta, pasta and chocolate pudding for dessert are just a few of the fattening things I'm obsessed with making for others. I've lost six pounds, the hubs has gained five.
Day 8: Realize I've been breaking a cardinal rule and *gasp* mixing my vegetables rather than eating them separately. Lament the weight I could have lost if I hadn't skimmed the directions. Wondering how I'm going to make it through 17 more days of this crap?!

New Years Eve: GAIN two pounds. Have Oscar-worthy meltdown before throwing the HCG drops in the trash and eating so much bread with butter that I get the hiccups. Decide to ring in the New Year by eating chocolate-covered strawberries and sipping champagne.
2012: Swear off fad diets and download a fantastic app called Net Diary that helps me count calories. Lost those six pounds in ten days by just simply tracking every single thing that enters my mouth. (Who knew those tortilla chips were so many calories!) Make resolution that 2012 will be the year I learn to love myself.