Hannah's Lighter Life: The RTM Edition!

Hello!

This is my new RTM diary, thought it might help people out who are curious about RTM or about to embark on their own RTM journey!
I am no RTM expert, but hopefully i'll be able to shed some light and let you all know how I get on.

So far i've lost 62ibs in 14 weeks on LL foundation and then 2 weeks in developers. I still have 7ibs to lose to get to my original goal, but I now feel happy in myself and feel that it's the right time to move to RTM. If I lose 3 more pounds i'll have a healthy BMI which was my reason for doing Lighter Life. I'm now a dress size 10/12 which I never ever thought i'd be! If I lose the 7ibs it'll be a great bonus, but I won't lose sleep if I don't!

Another reason i've moved to RTM is because i've really struggled with combining exercise and LL. I know some people seem to manage it, but I always found that it slowed my weight loss (from 3/4ibs losses to 1/2ibs!) and made me even more tired. So hopefully with introducing food i'll be able to start toning up a bit more. Lately i've also been feeling quite light headed, really fatigued and getting quite bad stomach cramps, so think my body feels ready for RTM!

So overall, mentally and physically I feel it's time for RTM I'll update this as frequently as I can, and try to include photos so that you can see portion sizes which i've heard can be a bit vague in the route to management book! I'll also pass on any recipes and tips I get from my LLC!

You can read my LL journey on my original diary
Hannah's Lighter Life

xxxx

Hi Hannah

You go girl!!!!!

Good luck gorgeous. I'll be following you and taking notes (for the future )

Hannah as i said to you earlier I wish you so much success with your journey on RTM, you dont need the luck as I know you will do fab! I will definitley be following you. Im so so happy for you and get you!!!! size 10/12 what an acheivment, hope your proud of yourself as you really should be, massive WELL DONE xx

By the way Hannah - loving your new title x

Day 1

Thought i'd give you a quick summary of what is allowed in Week One of RTM!

Week One:
Day 1-2: Protein foods only e.g chicken, fish, quorn.
From Day 3: Green leaf salad, herbs and spices, chilli, soy, tobasco and worcester sauce, balsamic vinegar, lemon and lime juice, fat free or virtually fat free salad dressings, skimmed milk and powdered sweetener.

Am still debating whether or not to have milk! I've got so used to drinking black coffee, but I used to LOVE tea. But when I drank tea i'd have 4-5 cups a day so part of my feels I shouldn't drink it...argh another dilemma to consider!

But on to the exciting part of today...had my first piece of food!!
At worked popped into Sainsburys and bought myself some fresh salmon fillets, spinach (can eat it on Sunday and it's the only salad I like! Will try others but at the beginning I want to eat food I know i'll enjoy) and got some Worcester Sauce as can start using that on Sunday as well, so am planning to marinade it with some chicken!

Can you tell which shelf in the fridge is mine? Haha!


Got home from work and decided that I would eat the salmon at 6.30pm as didn't want to rush in to it. Had a black coffee and caught up on some telly! It got to 6.30 so I fired up the George Foreman grill!

Me with my first bit of food!


Set it all out like a proper meal!


Really took my time to eat it, paused between each mouthful and put my knife and fork down regularly to take a sip of water. I ate the whole thing and it tasted good, but not quite as amazing as i'd set myself up for. Think I over cooked it a tad, but will just improve tomorrow Was a bit worried that I ate the whole thing, as i've read other people's RTM blog's and they've said that they 'struggled to eat' all their first meal. But I think it's just because i'm really anxious about eating again. When I was having a panic I did think to myself 'right i've tasted food again, now i'll go back on the packs', the packs have been my security blanket for the past 16 weeks and I need to accept that I CAN eat again and I WONT end up how I was before LL.

It's funny feeling food in my stomach again, I don't feel stuffed or like i've overeaten, I just feel comfortably full.
So today i've had:
Breakfast-Vanilla Shake
Lunch-Vegetable Soup
Dinner- Salmon Fillet
and I still have my toffee bar to eat! But will save it for a bit later on.

So all in all day 1 of rtm has been good. Feel a bit funny now, not sure why! Guess it is a bit of an anticlimax and part of me is feeling worried. But I need to accept that RTM will be different, and I will have issues to overcome.

xxxx

Hmmmmm interesting. This thread is going to be sooo helpful for people like me who never did RTM before!
Thanks Hannah xx

Hannah

You are an absolute superstar and am loving the interactive pics - its so lovely that you want to share your experience x

what a great read that was Hannah,and the pics were great!
I can imagine it must have felt quite strange eating that, like you say its your first meal (food) after 16 weeks!!!! please keep posting here as im really findind it interesting and i know it'll really help me when i move over to RTM aswell ....thanks hannah x

Hi Hannah,

Very interesting read. Thank you for sharing your journey, I look forward to following your journey.

Nutty x

Hi Hannah,

I read your previous thread and think you've done brilliantly. Thanks so much for posting about rtm. Love the photos!

X

Great pics Hannah! I will definitely be tuning in, in preparation.
The Exante "re-feeding" scheme seems to be packed into 4 weeks and involves much more food, and I think I'll feel safer doing it the LL RTM way. It's great as I've followed your diary since I started that I can see how the next step unfolds!
Can't wait to see what's for tea tonight!!!

Day 2

Ah am glad you are finding this blog interesting, was worried I would bore you all to death! If there's anything I miss out on, don't cover or your curious about feel free to ask questions! I want to make this as informative as possible

Well that's day 2 of RTM almost over!

Had quite a busy day as was at work this morning, got home around 2ish and had my lunch (LL Chilli Con Carne), then spent the afternoon cleaning my room...bathroom...kitchen, went on a mini cleaning spree!
Sat down at 6.45pm to have my main meal!
Had salmon again, and didn't over cook it this time so it was a huge improvement! Tasted a lot nicer than the bit I had yesterday, was really moist and soft and yummy. Didn't take a photo today as it literally looks identical to what I had yesterday! Ate it slowly, pausing to take sips of water. Felt comfortably satisfied once i'd eaten it.

My LLC posted me the Week 1-4 recipe book and food/mood diary as she didn't have any on my meeting on Thursday, so they arrived today.
So here is everything you get on RTM

Theres the big RTM book a.k.a the bible! It has all the weeks, what you can eat when, plus some activities/articles similair to those in the foundation book. Then there's the recipe book, you get a new one every month. FInally there's the food/mood diary. You are meant to write down everything you eat, how you feel before eating it, and how you feel an hour after eating it.

The food/mood diary to me is quite strange. It seems odd writing about eating the LL packs as i've been eating them for 16 weeks and don't feel any particular feelings towards them! I can understand writing down how I feel before my main meals, but I have to keep reminding myself to do them. I think it might come in more useful when I start introducing snacks etc. but for now it doesn't really make sense to me.

So today i've had:
Breakfast- Vanilla shake
Lunch- Chilli Con Carne
Dinner- Salmon Fillet
and have a nut fudge bar for later!

Have had a few 'negative' thoughts today, and they've been going round and round my head. So have decided to write them down, and reckon it'll help me get them off my chest!

Have I moved to RTM at the right time or should I have stayed in abstinence? Am I still too big?
I HAVE moved to RTM at the right time, I was beginning to feel worn down and fatigued. I've lost well over 4 stone and am the dress size I always dreamed i'd be! All I need to do is get back in the gym and tone up a bit, i'm just not used to my 'new' body. Plus my LLC would never let me move to RTM unless she was sure I was ready, and she was definitely sure! I was starting to get fed up of the packs and losing motivation, RTM gives me a new challenge to focus on and being able to include healthy meals will keep me on track. If i'd waited any longer to move on to RTM I would have been less motivated and more tempted to cheat. I'm in the right frame of mind to stick to RTM and make sensible choices.

Will read this whenever I have a moment of doubt!
xxxx

thanks hannah, im still loving reading this! please dont stop x

Hannah, i know what you mean about losing motivation, i am counting the days (there a 10 and i have done 100) on CD so that i can move up a plan and introduce food before i go away, but i have to say that i am really scared about going on holiday because i know no matter what a holiday last for a week or two but my battle with my weight will last forever so i really don't want to go mad. I am scared i won't have learned anything and how much i will put on whilst i am away. I know what i should do, of course i do - but i gotta do it?

Narkyknickers said:

Hannah, i know what you mean about losing motivation, i am counting the days (there a 10 and i have done 100) on CD so that i can move up a plan and introduce food before i go away, but i have to say that i am really scared about going on holiday because i know no matter what a holiday last for a week or two but my battle with my weight will last forever so i really don't want to go mad. I am scared i won't have learned anything and how much i will put on whilst i am away. I know what i should do, of course i do - but i gotta do it?

Click to expand...

Hi Narky!
Funny you should talk about holidays actually, a lady in my group came back this week from Majorca. She's on abstinence but she went on a girlie weekend. She drank, ate and had a great time. She got home and felt low, kept eating but has got back on the wagon now. In fairness she put on 7ibs, but that's also because she kept eating when she got home.
But our Lighter Life counsellor made a really good point. She said
'If someone told you, you could be a healthy weight but enjoy yourself on holiday and put on 7ibs, and after Christmas put on 7ibs, but each time eat healthily and lose the weight, would you say yes or no'
Obviously we all said yes! And that's the truth. There are going to be times of the year when you put on weight, but EVERYBODY does!
You will surprise yourself with what you've learnt over the course of CD, just don't go mad, make sensible choices, if you put on weight just accept it and move on, don't beat yourself up about it!
Hope this all makes sense, my LLC worded it a lot better than I can!
xxxx

Day 3

I'll warn you now, today's post is going to be a long one!

Day 3 has almost been and gone!
Had another busy day today as had to work at an event. This meant a horribly early 6am start (should be illegal on a sunday!) felt awful that my noisy hand blender would wake my housemates up...but needed my vanilla shake! Then for lunch had thai chilli soup, made in to crisps as knew I wouldn't be near a kettle. Those thai chilli crisps have SAVED my life during abstinence, and really helped to keep me on track, as there is no real 'portable' lighter life option and without the crisps I reckon I would have been tempted to stray off plan. Had a busy busy day but fortunately got home at 3pm which is unusually early for an event day! Am absolutely knackered, so found myself trying to pass the time between getting home and dinner, as was bored and looking forward to cooking. So I went straight to Tesco's! My jeans had been falling down all day, and I was getting so fed up of it. Had been telling myself to wait a bit before buying new jeans as was worried the size 10 wouldn't fit, and it would get me down and make me more likely to cheat. But couldn't go on looking like some sort of rapper with my underwear showing!
And I am very pleased to say that the size 10 fit!!

Please ignore my hideous work polo top! I was so happy that I bought the exact same pair in grey as well! As i've always bought the exact same pair of jeans from tesco, in the exact same dark wash. So no-one can tell that they're new jeans! So hopefully might make people notice that i've bought new clothes!

And whilst in tesco decided to treat myself to a little haul of sauces and spices to liven up my dinners!

Bought soy sauce as I LOVE it, ginger as read a recipe online for salmon which said to marinade salmon in honey, soy sauce and ginger, wrap in tin foil and pop in oven. So am planning to give that a go this week, just without the honey! Also I love thai food, its my favourite food in the world so decided to give the thai spice mix a go! Also couldn't resist treating myself to some prawns as it was two for 5 pounds! So shall be having prawns tomorrow, and there are some prawns chilling in my freezer!

So for dinner I decided to get experimental! I poured some lea and perrins over my chicken breast, then sprinkled in with the dry ginger and rubbed it into the chicken as a sort of coating/marinade. I then grilled it on the george foreman grill! Today was also the first day I could eat salad, wahooo! I have to be honest...i've always hated salad. But strangely I like spinach! So today was spinach day! I drizzled it with balsamic vinegar, then cut up the chicken and placed it on top. I'm still struggling with the protein portion sizes. My LLC says it should be the same size as your palm, but i've read on here that it should be 100g. The chicken breast was 125g but a lot bigger than my palm, so I am getting VERY CONFUSED! The management book is so vague on portion sizes. So I cut about a third off the chicken breast and will have it tomorrow with my prawns I reckon. Although, after having a huge panic this evening thinking that i've overeaten and that I will become obsese once again (all down to a silly bit of protein!) I read the recipe book which says 'exact serving sizes are your decision' and all the recipes in the recipe book (which are created to serve 1 person) say 1 chicken breast or 1 salmon fillet, and make no mention of weight or size. So think i'll make an executive decision and stop panicking about sizes! I'll eat a breast or fillet and not panic about palm size/weight. Then i'll talk to my LLC about it on Thursday.
So anyways, long thread over, here is my dinner!

Mmm yummy! I really enjoyed the chicken, which was suprising as I really wasn't a chicken fan before Lighter Life, always found it a tad plain and boring. But it tasted really moist and just scrumptuous!

So after my long thing yesterday about how I didn't see the point in a food/mood diary. Today I actually sat down and really considered how i've been feeling. And I wrote loads! Now I see the point in it! Theres also a page to write daily achievements which I found very therapeutic. So i'll admit I was wrong!

So today I ate:
Breakfast-Vanilla Shake
Lunch- Thai Chilli Soup made in to crisps
Dinner- Chicken and Spinach 'salad'
and have a toffee bar for later!
Wow this is a long post, hope everyone is having a lovely weekend
xxxx

Day 4

Can't believe it's day 4 already! This week is flying by!

Tonight's dinner was some leftover chicken from last night, along with some prawns on a bed of spinach drizzled in balsamic vinegar. Was a nice easy dinner as nothing required cooking! And have the rest of the prawns to eat tomorrow

I have to say the prawns were DELICIOUS! I was a huge fan of prawns before LL, could literally eat a whole pack of the cooked prawns! So was a little wary of buying prawns at all, as thought if I had them in the fridge I might be tempted to snack on them. However, couldn't resist tesco's special offer! And I feel that I need to test myself, the prawns were yummy and i'm looking forward to eating them again tomorrow. I just have to have the willpower to not snack on them.

So today i've had
Breakfast-Vanilla Shake
Lunch-Vegetable Soup
Dinner- Prawn and Chicken Spinach Salad
and will have a hot vanilla shake in a bit.

I'm still debating whether or not to have bars everyday. On LL abstinence I used to have bars Thurs-Sun, then hot shakes Mon-Weds as I convinced myself that it would help me lose more weight each week (this is just me being silly, if you eat bars everyday i'm sure it makes no difference!) Now i'm on RTM I am tempted to have a bar each day, but will see how I get on at my weigh in on Thursday.

Forgot to mention yesterday, but was in the car with my boss's wife, who is actually my 2nd boss she just rarely comes in to the office! And she was telling me how tired I look and how she's been worrying about my health. It left me feeling a bit mixed, I mean it's nice that she's concerned for my welfare, but do I really look that bad? Maybe that's why people haven't commented on my weight loss as they think i'm ill?! Haha oh dear.

Anyways, am off to catch up on desperate housewives!
Hope everyone is doing well
xxxxx

Darlingif you look anything like on the pics you're posting on here, you have nothing to worry about! You are stunning and you don't look tired at all. People are weird..

Day 5

Hello,
Todays post is going to be a short one! Have had a really bad day so am planning to get in to bed with a hot vanilla shake and a good film in a bid to cheer myself up!

Today i've eaten:
Breakfast-Vanilla Shake
Lunch-Vegetable Soup
Dinner- Remainder of the prawns with spinach and balsamic vinegar.
(Haven't taken a photo as it looks the same as yesterdays but without the chicken!)
and will be having a hot vanilla shake shortly.

Have felt quite bloated today but am not too worried, haven't had any real side effects to eating so far (have heard some horror stories about indigestion and worse!) so am counting myself lucky!
Not long now until my first weigh in on RTM. Am half looking forward to it/half anxious, will just have to wait and see.

xxxx