Tales from the Secret Dieter

Just had my lunchtime power walk and then downed a shake in about three seconds. How exciting my life is. First pickling, then striding down a B-road listening to Radio 4. I'm so rock 'n' roll. Cherries and Berries blah blah... To be honest it might as well just be three bottles of generic matter a day, or three tasteless tablets, for all the difference it makes. Bad attitude I know, but cherry or choc, it's just become a slightly different portion of gruel to the pints of water that I down each hour! Works a damn treat on the weight-loss front though, obviously, which is the game. Ketosis is still the revelation for me that it was on Day 3. A stunning thing, that I had read about many times, but didn't fully believe. There really is no easier way to diet in my opinion. I was on twice these calories for six weeks and it was really, really hard not to cheat. Now after just a very few weeks on this stuff, I'm too protective of ketosis to even sniff real food! I've got a couple of actual meal packs and meal bars arriving this week in my mahoosive bumper order of shakes, just to try them out. Illogically, I'm already feeling reluctant to try a carbonara wotsit or a peanut bar - just in case it reminds me that eating solid food is sort of a nice thing. It just feels instictively troublesome when I imagine it, although I know that's daft.
 
You've inspired me to go read up on ketosis again! Its been a while. I do agree though. For me it's all or nothing. Once I crack day one (and Ive had many many failed starts) I WILL NOT go back to day one again until the end of my run. This time my target is May 6th for re-feed, so far so good! From day one I had a mixture of packs, in fact I very rarely have more than one shake a day. Sometimes I force it! Definately play about with the variety, thats the beauty of Exante. I have 49 pizzas on the way haha. Sounds crazy but I know I could happily have a pizza a day for 7 weeks so why not!! Your willpower may be stronger than you expect! (Plus it really does not simulate real food that closely! I LOVE carbonara and the packs are nothing like it haha).
 
Howdy. I didn’t even know there WAS pizza! I saw the porridge and carbonara and bars. Must look more closely. I also have a bunch of DietNow shakes to use up. Every now and then if you Google Exante then a ridiculous DietNow offer pops up. I think I got 50 shakes and a shaker for £19.99 or something crazy. They got me with a Latte one, which is the only flavour that Stands out - a brilliant option with light almond milk on an early start. Aaaanyway. I’ve already ordered oodles, so no pizza for a while. Like you I’m three-a-day until another two stone has gone - hopefully in about 9-10 weeks. We’ll see!
 
Deliberately not weighing this week, to fall in-line with everyone else! Normally weigh every morning, so felt a bit weird.

At work by eight. Will be here 'til seven. As with every day. I'm armed with just two shakes and a watercooler. Wish I was pootling about at home, saving my taxed brain from searching for non-existent glucose to burn up all day. Hey ho. Pfffffffft. :/

Going easy on the daily walk. Was a bit light-headed yesterday PM and assume it was over-exertion, what with a day of tricky meetings too.

A day off in three weeks, but I plan to spend that day standing on the scales smiling (maybe...)

Jarred the pickled onions last night. House smells ridiculous. Few more things to jar this evening while putting off the 'last supper' feed.
 
Thought I'd talk about 'mixers' this lunchtime. I've done my walk, I've drunk my shake in three seconds flat, and so it's time to burble.

I frequently use up to twice the water I'm supposed to in the shakes, which until today have been my sole expereince of Exante food. I cannot see that it can do any harm? I seem to prefer more drink and a nice full shaker is all, than thicker drink that is barely a swallow's worth :) I've also found many of the flavoursare extremely sugary and can stand a bit of dilution.

But sometimes, I use 250ml of Alpro Unsweetened Roasted Almond Milk instead of water. This makes the shakes creamier (also it's my mixer of choice to get through the DietNow VLCD Latte sachets I sometimes have for breakfast). Anyway. This almond stuff is pretty weird on its own, but great in shakes, especially white/cream ones, and the nutrional stuff is all good news. No carbs, a source of fibre and calcium etc. I think it helps with that low blood pressure feeling that I get sometimes, but who knows. It's not as nice as Cashew Milk would be, but its nutritionally far more suitable to this diet:
  • 100% plant-based
  • Easy to digest as naturally lactose free
  • Naturally low in fat
  • Antioxidant vit. E
  • Low in calories + calcium & vit B2, B12, D
  • Free from dairy and gluten
  • Free from colours and flavours
  • Suitable for vegans
  • Source of Vitamin E
  • Low in calories + calcium & vit B2, B12, D
  • Naturally low in fat
Nutrition
Typical Values Typical Values per 100 ml
Energy52kJ / 13 kcal
Fat 1.1 g of which- Saturates 0.1 g
Carbohydrate nil of which Sugars nil
Fibre 0.4 g
Protein 0.4 g
Salt 0.13 g
Vitamins:- D 0.75 µg E 1.80 mg
Riboflavin (B2) 0.21 mg B12 0.38 µg
Minerals:- Calcium 120 mg
Lactose nil


Ingredients
Water, Almond (2.3%), Calcium (Tri-Calcium Phosphate), Sea Salt, Stabilisers (Locust Bean Gum, Gellan Gum), Emulsifier (Sunflower Lecithin), Vitamins (Riboflavin (B2), B12, E, D2)
 
Evening all. Not only am I home already, there was a mahoosive box of Exante shizzle waiting for me. I’ve gone from having a small variety of basic flavoured shakes, to umpteen new shake flavours (chocolate orange, cherry bakewell etc...) plus a few things to try, like cereal, some bars and a couple of soups. It’s £111 worth of powder basically (although I paid £50 obviously).

Anyway. The upshot of this is that I shall try the pasta carbonara tonight, and attempt to nuke some porridge at work tomorrow morning, with a lemony shake for lunch. Hmmm, not bad. Gonna wait another hour before discovering the inevitable gastronomic perfection of the carbonara though :)
 
That's fantastic news. Great weight loss and even with eating when you're in the peaks you will lose with the exercises if you're sensible and use fuel foods which I don't doubt you will. Wow half way to goal.... Be very proud.
I hadn't had a notification you had replied on here, ticked follow on your profile so should be told now.
Keep going. I'm proud of how well we are all doing. We do keep each other going.
 
FullFathom said:
Evening all. Not only am I home already, there was a mahoosive box of Exante shizzle waiting for me. I’ve gone from having a small variety of basic flavoured shakes, to umpteen new shake flavours (chocolate orange, cherry bakewell etc...) plus a few things to try, like cereal, some bars and a couple of soups. It’s £111 worth of powder basically (although I paid £50 obviously).

Anyway. The upshot of this is that I shall try the pasta carbonara tonight, and attempt to nuke some porridge at work tomorrow morning, with a lemony shake for lunch. Hmmm, not bad. Gonna wait another hour before discovering the inevitable gastronomic perfection of the carbonara though :)
Click to expand...
Let me know how the carbonara was. So finicky when it comes to savoury meal replacement I find them sickly and they give bad 🍃 wind lol. Or is that just me?
 
I didn't have the carbonara in the end. I stood there looking at the (new style) packet and just couldn't bring myself to have it. But I thought I should at least try something other than a shake as I had the supplies, so I tried the Golden Syrup porridge. Hahaha, how can you call that porridge? I made it as suggested, let it rest a long time to at least give it a chance to thicken, and popped a bit of nutmeg on top for added psychology. But come on, it's just thicker shake with more sweetener and about seven oat flakes floating in it! That said, I actually quite enjoyed the sensation of spoonfuls of hot for a change rather than gulps of cold, and it made me laugh how gruel-like the experience was compared to the promise. Any tips? Less water would be my first guess, but I was spot on 140mls. Anyway, it was another 100% day done with oddles of water, so that's how many now? It's 23 days of it, today is Day 24 on just Exante. Lemon for breakfast in a bit, mint choc (I was disappointed that it was brown not green!) for lunch and no idea yet what to have for tea. Could be anything! Anything at all! From ooh, a yellow shake, to a a a a... ...a cream coloured one!
 
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I really like the carbonara........my tip is to add boiling water and let it stand for about 10 minutes to soften the pasta, then microwave for 2 mins. If you follow the Exante instructions, in my experience the pasta is rock hard and the product explodes all over the microwave!!

The porridge is nice and thick if you add less water and microwave for longer.....it takes trial and error to get it right, but I’m a bit of an expert after all this time :classic_roll_eyes:

I love the eggs too......but again I ignore the Exante instructions and microwave them after adding a bit more water and whisking well. Trial and error with the timing, but about 2 mins is usually right :classic_smile:

I only have the hot meals and don’t do shakes as it just feels more ‘normal’ to eat a meal, and I found the shakes disgusting to be very honest :classic_confused:

Interesting how we are all so different in our tastes :classic_big_grin:
 
Darcy, with great power comes great responsibility. I will now be relying entirely on your superior experience when I make up my next meal pack. My whole evening will now hinge on your culinary tips :) In all seriousness, both ideas are much appreciated and I will certainly see how it goes. Your carbonara plan makes a lot of sense to me - maybe tonight then.

Last night's porridge was the first thing I've had in three weeks or so which wasn't liquid, so it was sort of fun even if it wasn't really porridge. I'll mainly be sticking to shakes, which at least just taste exactly like shakes do *just over there* in the normally-fed-world. But I at least now have some bars for convenience if I need 'em. And if the sausage or burger mix ever comes back, I'll be making those up with herbs and spices and a bit of bouillon. I'd buy pizza too, partly for the distraction of actually baking something.

The Lemon Cheescake shake was okay for brekky. Mint Choc is waiting in the fridge for lunch. I normally go on a walk from 1-2pm every day then have the shake afterwards, but I've been feeling really light-headed most of the time recently, so instinctively feel I should perhaps use less energy - dunno.

A bit floaty is sort of fine most of the time, but not on the car journey home. I'd like that to stop, ideally.
 
When it comes to pack instructions make your own lol. Porridge is like soup as you know following their instructions. The cwp spag bol was the same. Bad to add less water and micro longer.
 
I'm posting at work this week because I'm doing pretty long days and well, I can. I've not been on the forum long, but it helps me focus. This day has really dragged on, and a bunch of people at the hot desks ordering in pizza was a bit deflating. They even left one. And some wedges. And two bottles of full fat coke. It's all sat next to the chocolate eggavalanche and Mount Muffin. But I'd take even a crust of that pizza over a whole easter egg.

Anyway, enough of that treacherous nonsense. Loose talk costs pounds, and I ain't for turning.

I had a mint choc shake at lunch (amid a cloud of pizza fumes), and it wasn't bad at all, even though I (deliberately) made it with too much water.

*However* tonight I have far more ambition! I'm going to make up a carbonara pack with some cooking tips from Ms Darcy. I'm also going to add some chilli, because I like hot and spicy, and maybe also - unless someone tells me not to with some conviction - stir some steamed spinach into it? That might not sounds great to some of you, but actually I love veg and miss it a lot, so some greens to bumpf the pack out a bit would be aces.

If it looks half decent, or even comically bad, I'll take a photo for y'all - you lucky people.
 
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Fooood! I’ve made something that tastes like actual food! Numnumnumnumnummmm.
 
Right. That was good. I had the carbonara, my first savoury in 24 days of shakes. I poured the pack in a big bowl and added black pepper and half a finely diced habanero chilli without seeds. With scissors I cut up half a dozen leaves of spinach (less than 1 calorie, no carbs). Using the advice above, I then poured in boiling water, mixed, covered, and left for ten minutes. Then I nuked the goop for two mins, let stand, and gobbled it down. Fantastic! Woohoo! I mean, it obviously tasted like an out of date Mugshot made in the dark by somebody who had never even heard of pasta — but wow! Hot and spicy and filling - that’ll do.
 
FullFathom said:
I'm posting at work this week because I'm doing pretty long days and well, I can. I've not been on the forum long, but it helps me focus. This day has really dragged on, and a bunch of people at the hot desks ordering in pizza was a bit deflating. They even left one. And some wedges. And two bottles of full fat coke. It's all sat next to the chocolate eggavalanche and Mount Muffin. But I'd take even a crust of that pizza over a whole easter egg.

Anyway, enough of that treacherous nonsense. Loose talk costs pounds, and I ain't for turning.

I had a mint choc shake at lunch (amid a cloud of pizza fumes), and it wasn't bad at all, even though I (deliberately) made it with too much water.

*However* tonight I have far more ambition! I'm going to make up a carbonara pack with some cooking tips from Ms Darcy. I'm also going to add some chilli, because I like hot and spicy, and maybe also - unless someone tells me not to with some conviction - stir some steamed spinach into it? That might not sounds great to some of you, but actually I love veg and miss it a lot, so some greens to bumpf the pack out a bit would be aces.

If it looks half decent, or even comically bad, I'll take a photo for y'all - you lucky people.
Click to expand...
Lol I use more water in my shakes too. Fills me up for longer. I tried with the amount they say but I feel hungrier faster. Did the spinach to take the taste away? Or was it really not so bad after all 😂 lol I'm going to have to be daring and just order one next time.
Well done on resisting that pizza it will pay off.
I don't have a single savoury pack too chicken to try them after not liking soups and I'm not a spicy fan.
 
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