We met again at 9:30 in the morning to discuss basically new research and new concepts. Assiz showed up again, and Frankie and Mike and I were there, and Dr. Belluscio and the three women: Anna, his daughter, Beatriz the marketer, and Maryelle, the nutritionist. We had a good discussion about lots of research parameters and again, I learned a lot.
So what is the bottom line on HCG? Is it a cure for obesity? No. But it certainly can help control obesity for years and years. Does it reset the hypothalamus? No. But it certainly has a hypothalamic effect, and that is where HCG works. As Dr. Belluscio has said, it has taken humans hundreds of thousands of years to evolve the hypothalamus to what it is now, and it´s not going to change in three weeks.
At one point, we were googling HCG. Three years ago, Dr. Belluscio was the ONLY one with info on the web about HCG. Now there are millions upon millions of hits, and everybody has twenty or thirty years experience. Where they all came from, no one here knows. I still think Dr. Belluscio is the only one with all that experience and everyone else is jumping on the money bandwagon.
I´ve felt this before and I even feel more convinced of it now: HCG should not ever be used without medical supervision.
I think HCG is a very fine way to control weight, provided the patient is compliant and stays on the protocol. The weight loss can be maintained for years, and if, it´s a big if, but if the weight gain should return, the person can always do the protocol again. And again. OR, prevent the weight from returning in the first place. That´s certainly my first choice, and I am going to try to do that from now on.
Around 2ish, everyone had dispersed to do her/his own thing. I decided to go to the mall and walk down Avenida Florida, one of the main Buenos Aires shopping areas. Pacifica Mall borders on Florida. The mall was wonderful – huge, modern, with wonderful paintings on the curved ceilings, replete with Starbucks. One store after another had beautiful leathers, clothes, shoes, books, on and on. And then the streets. They were full of people, walking quickly, shoulder to shoulder. Avendia Florida is a pedestrian only street, with traffic only at the cross streets. There is a large space for people to walk. I was trying to stroll, but the crowd of people was pushing me onward. People were rushing along, talking to each other, or on their cell phones, or to themselves. Buenos Aires is a very vibrant city, full of traffic and people and noise and motion and action. On the mall on Florida were hawkers selling anything from food in restaurants to today´s latest gizmos. There were buskers and beggars, usually women with children. Crosswalks are painted on every street corner, but usually pedestrians and cars alike totally ignore them. They don´t seem to mean anything. I had a lot of fun trying on beautiful leather jackets which I knew full well I couldn´t afford. I did try to buy some shoes, but couldn´t get them in my size. I loved speaking my broken Spanish and being part of the rush of people. On my way home, I stopped at the Starbucks for a dulce de leche frappucino. Only in Argentina. Dulce de leche is a typical Argentinian sweet with milk and caramel. When you order at Starbucks, they ask your name and write it on the cup and when it is ready, they just call your name. The woman had a difficult time with Ruth. Somehow “Bruth” got written on my frappucino, but I correctly identified my drink so all was well. After a few hours, I was starting to get claustrophobic from all the people and the fast pace, plus all the cigarette smoking was bothering me, so I decided to come back to the hotel even though there was still some shopping I wanted to do.
I worked on my notes from the training session for a couple of hours and then Frankie and Rene returned from their outing. We shared our shopping with each other, and then the three of us headed back out to Avenida Florida. In the first block, we came across an outdoor tango show in the street. This place is tango tango tango, for sure. And now it was evening, and all the stores were still open, but there were wall to wall sellers of wares sitting in the middle of the walkway with all their goodies. Of course we shopped just a bit more. We returned to the hotel around 9 pm, still too early for dinner. The two women were exhaused and retired for the evening, but I went back to work for a little bit more and then headed out for dinner.
I decided to go to the same steak restaurant I had gone to a few days ago because the steak had been perfectly cooked, the waiter was great (even though he spoke no English, but he seemed to understand my Spanish) and it was very close to the hotel (about three–quarters of a block away). So there I went. And I once again ordered in espanol and I had a most fabulous incredibly delicious meal. For an appetizer, I had artichokes and shrimp and onions and mushrooms, a main course of a rib eye steak cooked absolutely to perfection (for me that means pretty rare) and for dessert, crepe with ice cream and dulce de lece. Dulce de lece is the very caramel Argentinian thing and as it happens, cararmel is one my most favourite things ever. And the crepe was perfecto. The waiter had definitely remembered me from a few nights ago and couldnt have been nicer. I had a wonderful time, sitting there listeing to the voices speaking Spanish. I left just before midnight, and people were still arriving for dinner. The streets were packed. Maybe because it is a week–end (Friday) there were lots of police and police cars on the street. But everyone seemed very friendly to me, and I wasn´t in the least worried about my safety at all. It was a wonderful evening. And tomorrow, well tomorrow is my last day, Stay tuned to see what I have planned for that.
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