Hi Julie Just wanted to drop by to say hello and say thank you for stopping by my diary. Wow, look at you, missy! More than 4 and a half stones off - that's brilliant! Might have to read through the whole of your diary to see how you kept yourself on track.
That's brilliant, Julie - well done! :clap::clap::clap: Weight loss does slow down a bit towards goal - annoying but true. How many dress sizes are you down now?
3.5lbs off today taking the grand total to 5 st!!!! I am delighted!!
Now I have a weekend off plan! Bad timing, I know, but it's well overdue! Aiming for 10 st 13 lbs in the next 2 weeks. It's been a looooong time since I saw 10 anything!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Wow congratulations....how long did that take???? I can't see your signature on my phone
I think I'm talking to myself on this diary but never mind. Anyway, the 10's are STILL not here! Why is it when you're near to getting that new number something gets in the way and makes you wait what seems like an eternity! My period is now due - although no major symptoms yet .... so not sure how close it actually is. I must be retaining a little water as I am still 11st after 2 days but my body feels thinner. I feel like the scales should be shifting but nope! I suppose the positive in this is that I would previously have gained up to 4 lbs or maybe more at this time of the month. But that seems to be much less these days.
Anyway, It will all balance out in the end and I will get to the 10's.
I was meeting a friend tonight and it was going to be dinner (which would have been protein only) but I changed it to coffee. So at least I feel like I have improved my chances of getting there this week. Although I have a meal out with friends on Friday that I can't get out of. I will pick at some chicken and try to eat very little but make it not noticeable hopefully. No drinks either. Then weekend after next I have a girls spa weekend away. Surely I can be a good few lbs lighter by then? There may be swimsuit action so praying I lose a little bit to boost my confidence a little. on the plus side, my skin is not too bad. I was worried about loose skin but it's been fine. As I lose, I get 'baggy' but it improves after a month or so. Then I lose more, get baggy then it improves. So I know it will probably be fine ultimately. I have ruined my skin over the years with weight fluctuation and there's nothing much I can do about the stretch marks but I can live with that. I have been overdosing on body butter, body balm, firming lotion, you name it. I do think it's all helping.
I am still motivated to get to target. I'm not coming this far and stopping. I see so many people on here who get close then decide to move up the steps before getting to target or try something new. Many end up back here. Who knows how I will go but I want to try to do this completely. Get to target then move up the steps, maintaining at each step before moving on. But I am starting to want target to just be here already. I've been here for 7 months doing this and, while it is a LOT quicker than other plans, it's still a long time without real and regular food. On the other hand, as long as I'm here and doing this, I am in control, not socialising with food all the time and most importantly not gaining. so do I want it to be done? Do I want to go back to counting calories and thinking about planning food? It's much easier to remove the choice and have my products. Not sure. But .... I don't need to think too much about it just now. I'm here till the job's done. No debate. So I'll carry on for now and face the future when it comes!!
I'm here! I don't know what's been going on with this site but I couldn't get on last night or this afternoon for a while.
I have had pretty much all the thoughts you're having. First time around I lost 5 and a half stone in 6 months (it really slowed down once my BMI dropped under 30 - frustrating.com). And then I went on holiday. It wasn't that I came off the plan completely after that - I just lost focus. I started eating things I shouldn't. Chocolate found its way back into my life, along with pizza. And you think you're going to be able to stop, to rein it in. And some weeks I did, some I didn't. I carried on seeing my consultant for a long time, all the while watching the scales creep back up. Bizarrely, I felt fatter at a stone above my lowest weight than I had at my highest ŵeight (obviously I'd love to be back there now!).
And then the mind games start. You manage to persuade yourself that it's time to give up on Cambridge, because after all, surely it's not healthy to be on it forever. And of course, well meaning friends and family beg you to stop "that stupid diet" because it makes them uncomfortable when you don't partake in the BBQ they're having. They'll go along with it when you're really fat because they worry about you being big, but when you look more acceptable (even if you still have miles to go before hitting a healthy BMI) the support goes away. And worse, you feel embarrassed that you're still doing the diet and getting nowhere. It all adds up to finally giving up.
Bur as I've often said here, Cambridge ruins you for all other diets. Nothing else is as fast or as rewarding. The returners come back not because the diet failed, but because they remember it was the one diet that actually worked (because it was the one they had to stick to for the least amount of time to get great results!).
All diets work. It's the individuals who find it hard to get it right. If you go to any of the other forums here - SW, WW, low carb, 5:2 (there are many!) you'll find just as many returners, probably more! And actually, as time frames go, you're probably talking about the same length of time of commitment on the various plans - it's just you can lose a lot more weight in 4m on Cambridge than you can on WW or SW.
Not sure where I'm going with this. Probably just to say, you've done so amazingly well - and to say, don't be too hard on yourself. It's likely not to be plain sailing, keeping the weight off. What's really good is that you're thinking about this now.
And those 10s will make an appearance really soon!