Once more into the fray my friend

[curly_rae2002]

Hey Elsa
Thank you so much for your posts,
I'm due to have my first weigh in tomorrow after a week on soul source and I've found your story inspirational.
I lost three stone on Cambridge a few years ago but two of those have crept back on so I'm back back on the diet.
I did it all on step 2 last time but my new consultant said I should try SS to get the weight going faster, it's been SUCH a struggle though. When I did it before I just did it and could do it because (like you) with work/social events I could have a meal with everyone. I now feel super restricted. It's definitely a mental thing rather than physical.
Praying for good weigh loss tomorrow so that it motivates me but I am going to talk with my consultant about going up a step as otherwise I don't think I can keep going without feeling really depressed and frustrated.

Thanks for your story, really helped put it all in perspective and great to know someone else is out there going through this with me,

Oh, just in case you want to know, I'm 10 stone 2, want to get back to about 8 stone ideally. I'm only 5 foot and my main goal is not the weight but to get back into my size 8/10 clothes which I currently don't fit. My wardrobe at the moment is made up of very baggy, stretchy items! Knew enough was enough when I had to go out and buy bras that were three cup sizes bigger than my original ones!

Have a good Sunday everyone x

 

[curly_rae2002]

Also gang, no scales in the flat but I measured myself and there's no loss showing... Boo

 

[NunuD]

Wait until you get weighed - weight loss and inches don't all happen at the same time for me, so don't count your chickens before you weigh them!

I know what you meant about the social side of it. I've had to ss+ a couple of times when I've been caught out - feel free to read my diary for the two weekends of plans gone awry - so it is possible to make it work and still lose. But it's not worth it if it makes you depressed as that's not the point . You are doing this to be happier in yourself. Don't forget that.

We are a friendly bunch in here, doesn't seem to be many of us so it's easy to keep up with each other! Have you started a diary of your own? It may help spill all those thoughts on paper

Nadia x

 

[NunuD]

Thanks for the feedback Minerva - it's good to know I'm not alone.

I lost 1.5kg over 2 weeks this weigh in. Which is good but I must admit I have been a little wobbly on the plan. My CDC has suggested that as I have been on plan for almost 4 months she suggest a week off. Not she clarified a free for all, but that I allow myself to eat healthy meals for a week, ie brown rice or sweet potatos, high fibre cereal etc. I've decided to give it a go for a week, just to get myself back on track. Hopefully I won't go completely mad letting myself off the leash a bit...

Hey Elsa

How are you getting on - did the week off help you at all? You sounded like you needed a break to relax a bit - and you've done ever so well! I can understand being frustrated with a slow loss, but a loss is still a loss remember. And slower may be better sometimes as the body will get used to it better.

Your blow out sounded pretty sensible to me - if that's a lifestyle change you can stick to, then you've done good!

Nx

 

[curly_rae2002]

"Wait until you get weighed "

Thanks so much for your reply nadia, you are right about there not being many of us, really tricky to find recent posts,

Love your message thou "wait until you get weighed"..
Looking forward to tomorrow, will let you know how I get on,
Eek!!

 

[NunuD]

"Wait until you get weighed "

Thanks so much for your reply nadia, you are right about there not being many of us, really tricky to find recent posts,

Love your message thou "wait until you get weighed"..
Looking forward to tomorrow, will let you know how I get on,
Eek!!

Please do! I hope my advice comes true and you are surprised with a good loss. Fingers crossed for you!

Nx

 

[Elsa]

Hey Elsa

How are you getting on - did the week off help you at all? You sounded like you needed a break to relax a bit - and you've done ever so well! I can understand being frustrated with a slow loss, but a loss is still a loss remember. And slower may be better sometimes as the body will get used to it better.

Your blow out sounded pretty sensible to me - if that's a lifestyle change you can stick to, then you've done good!

Nx

Thanks N

Yeah had my week off - I tried to be good but I must admit I did slip a bit, some dark chocolate slipped in there as did a bowl of ice cream!! I also had a Turkish roll and a seafood chowder made with sweet potato and some light sour cream. It was all delicious and I needed it. I also spent time looking at some old clothes I had stored in the top of wardrobe from when I was briefly a size 12/14 (can't believe that is almost 10 years ago) the clothes are still beautiful and I'd love to wear that again. So I think I'm back in a better mindset.

I weighed myself this morning and I'm back to where I was a week and a half ago so hopefully if I stay focussed the rest of the week I may even lose a little...but staying the same would be ok too.

 

[curly_rae2002]

So gang, just been weighed and have lost 5lbs! Phew

Going to do ss+ this week in an attempt to find it more manageable..

My consultant gave me "macaroni cheese" to try, anyone else had it??

Hope you all having a good week x

 

[Elsa]

Congrats Curly - 5lbs is great.

 

[curly_rae2002]

Congrats Curly - 5lbs is great.

Thank you!! A real relief to have got the first week out of the way,

Oh, and had the macaroni cheese... Was ok!!

 

[Elsa]

I've been struggling for a few weeks now. I had a week off and I thought that helped me through the worst off it (I put on a little weight but was ok with that. I got back on the diet and felt strong for about 5 days, then I went to the supermarket to purchase some milk and ended up buying some old gold dark chocolate large bar, You know what I don't even like dark chocolate that much but some part of my brain told me dark chocolate was better than normal chocolate so that was ok!!! Then the next day, yesterday, I had to go an evening meeting. I'd been good all day but as I was leaving I passed a chip shop and my brain went something like this ..."well you are not in ketosis yet and you haven't really been good on the diet so far so one more bad choice won't matter". All I can say is that I didn't have any chips I just had a piece of fish (OK fried in batter) but my brain told me that was ok sort of. I've got to stop this silly thinking but it is so hard to change 40+ years of this type of crooked thinking. Anyway I'm putting it all down in writing to show myself how silly this is and how ridiculous the decisions sound out loud. I will do this, I can do this, I am a strong capable woman.......watch this space.

 

[Minerva]

Sometimes, we do need a break from the strict regime of the diet. You ARE a strong and capable woman and I know you can do this and keep going! If anything, I'd say, try to see why you wanted those things, what made you pick them up? Is it habit? Is it an emotion that's craving these things? Or just to break away from this ... possible feeling of deprivation which comes with a VLCD? Or is it just the spiral of having broken the diet and just finding it hard to get back on? The latter is quite difficult as it's not really emotionally driven (just crooked logic making things harder!). I found myself in the same exact spot after my birthday weekend, I found it hard to get back to it. What helped me was to remember where I want to be and ask if I'm there yet. The answer was no. So I gave myself a talking to and a kick up the rump and here I am again, back on it. Treat it as if it's Week 1 all over again. Get through the 7 days. By the end of it, you'll be in ketosis and things will fall back into place again.
x

 

[Elsa]

So I'm back. As per my last post I have been a bit up and down diet wise. I've been thinking about why I suddenly lost my mojo and I have put it down to two things, firstly after 3 months I was getting a bit bored/tired/sick of the shakes But mostly I think it was because I had lost a fair bit of weight, enough to start showing. I had gone down a dress size and potentially 2 sizes depending on the make and style. I was feeling good and comfortable in myself which is normally a great thing, but in this case I lost some of the impetus or desire to follow the diet.
For some reason this week my brain clicked back over into the right mind frame (don't know how it all works), I'm feeling happy and determined to follow the diet for the next 8 weeks until my holiday. I think it helps I have a clear fairly short term end date in sight. I also got my hubby to take a photo of me at the weekend wearing a new dress. It was a size XS (from a big girl shop so it is relative) but my previous dress from the same shop was a M so I was very happy. I felt good and Ifelt sexy but I knew I wasn't anywhere near goal so I thought I'd get a reality check with the photos. I didn't look at them until the next day and it worked. I could see a difference in my weight, I could see I had lost weight but I could also see I had a lot more weight to go. It helped get me focussed again. I might see if I can work out how to upload photos to show where I am.

 

[Elsa]

Here we go - excuse the privacy filter I've always been taught not to post my ful image online. Still a ways to go but it helped get me back on program. If you cant't tell the one on the left is at the start and one on the right is now.

 

[enlightenme2]

Lovely! Yes the infamous comfort zone

 

[Elsa]

Gosh its been a while....so no surprise I fell off the wagon again and put on all the weight I'd lost. My Cambridge diet counsellor gave up the job for personal reasons and as my holiday was coming up so I thought I'd restart when I got back and then whilst I was away I was offered a new job closer to home again, so I put the diet off until I'd moved back home. I then tried the 5:2 diet I tried a VLCD on my own and I joined weightwatchers again for a while.

There has since been some big changes in my life, I've now given up work altogether as my husband (he is 11 years older) retired and we have just been on a 3 month trip camping in Queensland, something we have been planning for ages. In June 2019 we plan to go camping around the Northern Territories and Western Australia. So I've got 6-7 months to do something. I've decided to concentrate on fitness rather than weight loss as I really struggled to keep up with my older hubby whilst we were away I've really let my fitness slip badly.

First step I've joined the Curves Gym which is close by and I've been going for a week now and I'm feeling positive about that. Secondly I've decided I'm not going to "diet" I need something longer term. Whilst we were travelling I did a lot of reading and have decided to follow a low carb eating plan. I bought a diet book published by the CSIRO (which is a legitimate scientific research body here in Australia) which details a recommended low carb diet plan. It differs from Atkins or Dukan in that it doesn't push low carb as the "only" way to lose weight successfully. In fact it clearly states how different diet plans work for different people. It also builds in the low GI principles of good carbs. is So I'm trying to follow the principles of it without following a structured, strict diet plan.

How it works in simple terms is;
Carbs: You are allowed the equivalent of 1.5 slices of high fibre/multi grain bread a day and as many vegetables (excl. potatoes) as you like but no fruit. I tend to have my allowance for breakfast as 1.5 Hi Bran Weetbix.
Dairy: You are allowed 3 units of dairy and a unit is 200ml of skimmed milk, or a low fat greet yoghurt or a 50g of ricotta cheese ect.
Fats: You are encouraged to eat a reasonable amount of healthy fats which for me tends to be avocado (which I love), a little bit of olive oil for cooking and a handful of nuts
Protein: The diet plan recommends limiting protein to 250g in total for the day. I'm struggling to do that actually at the moment but I'll see how it goes.
Indulgences: It only allows a couple of indulgences a week which for me means a couple of glasses of wine once a week. I'm not a big drinker so that's fine for me.

My food diary today was

Breakfast: 1.5 x hibran weetbix w.skimmed milk and a sprinkle of walnuts
snack: Skinny Chai Latte (don't have these every day because of sugar content but I hate coffee)
Lunch: Omlette w ham and mozzarella (150g protein)
Dinner: Seared Tuna w. Vietnamese salad (200g protein)
snack: 5 squares of sugar free chocolate (not really on the diet plan but hey)

I've been doing this for a week now and I've not been hungry, I'm enjoying the food. I had a night out where I drank a bit more than I should and ate chocolate mud cake and I still lost 0.6kg (1.25lb) So I'm to try an keep this going and so how I go.....

 

[Elsa]

Big day today!

I can't remember whether I mentioned it 2 years ago when I started this diary but 7 1/2 years ago I had a gastric band fitted. I had arthritis in my spine and could not walk or stand longer than 10 minutes at a time. (its much improved now) At the time I was a stone heavier than I am right now.....so you can tell it wasn't a big success. Part of the problem with the band is that it is good at restricting protein, high fibre foods and any fibrous or stringy veg but terrible at restricting high sugar/high fat foods. The band is ok for people who eat huge portions and need to learn quantity control but mostly useless for people who just eat the wrong foods (like me).

Today I had all the saline removed, which basically means it will no longer be operational, although I can always have it refilled if I ever want to. The reason for this is that it was actually an obstacle to eating a low carb lifestyle - with the band I could not eat mushrooms or green beans (two of my favourite veggies) or dry protein, my meat had to be in a sauce really to get it down unless it was really soft like eye fillet. I want to give myself the best opportunity to change my eating habits this time permanently and that means no band.....

My meal plan today

Breakfast: as yesterday
Lunch: Chicken soup (tin) - Protein only about 10g according to the can!?
Dinner: Sweet Chilli & Coriander Chicken stirfry - protein 150g
Snacks: Ham and avocado on 2x 9grains vitawheats - protein 50g

I'll also probably have another portion of the no added sugar dark choc mint as well as it appeases my sweet tooth and inner chocoholic without being too naughty. One portion is 20g, 54kcal, no carbs and 4.3g of Fat.

 

[Elsa]

So I felt quite hungry last night even after dinner, I'm hoping that was just my stomach relaxing after the band loosening and not an ongoing effect. I ended up having an extra handful of nuts last night. Nuts are allowed but I do have to watch quantity as they may be good fats but they are still fats.

Anyway this morning I decided to go to the gym first thing and skipped breakfast so that meant I could have a slice of bread for lunch instead which I had with scrambled eggs and 50g smoked salmon. I then had a greek yoghurt mid afternoon. Tonight I'm going out to a BBQ and am planning to have a couple of drinks and a sausage....watch this space.

 

[Elsa]

So Friday I has just under half a bottle of wine a sausage in a slice of bread and a cornetto. Ok not great but i'm not going to beat myself up about it. Yesterday I was cooking and did pick at a few bits and today I had an early Xmas party and although I did not drink I did have to try the homemade pavlova. I feel ok as I said at the start this was not a "diet" with strict rules. I'm trying to stick to the principles but give myself some flexibility. So today for example I skipped breakfast and had an omelette for dinner and as I say didn't drink so it was not a blow out.

 

[Elsa]

So today the menu incuded:
Breakfast: usual weetbix with walnuts
Lunch 90g hallumi w ham and a drizzle of sweet chilli
snack: a handful of nuts
Dinner: Burger and salad (no bun)

So I'm having a hungry day today probably too much sugar over the last few days I'm trying to work through it. I'll probably have a greek yoghurt a bit later to keep me going. What I wouldn't give for a slice of toast right now...