VLCD Sequel: Electric Boogaloo

[castingnasturtiums]

I will definitely be apple crumbling on my next Exante shop.

Thank you all for the good wishes. I had a sneaky weigh in this morning and had dropped to 15st exactly. So that satisfies my, err, compulsive desire for neat numbers. Not a great trait to bring to a diet.

Also I do know that an extra lb is nothing. I will probably put more that on over the course of the day by drinking 4 plus litres of water. But, anyway, feel pointlessly good anyway.

My horrible selection of Slim 'n' Save bars are nearly finished. I tossed two chocolate caramels in the bin because they were basically sawdust with a nasty aftertaste and I was too happy to eat sawdust with a nasty aftertaste. But I breakfasted on the entirely adequate Slim 'n' Save orange truffa bar and had a late lunch of Exante banana shake. Which I actually enjoyed - since it tasted a bit like the bananas custard desert I used to have as a kid. (oh god, I am so much a child of my generation, Knightmare and Banana Custard pudding). So I'm rating it a 4.

I'm staring down a dahl pot for dinner but I might be in open rebellion against it. I might have eaten too many dahl pots.

 

[castingnasturtiums]

Hurrah hurrah. I ate my last Slim 'n Save bar (an entirely adequate 3-4 mint chocolate truffa bar) for breakfast this morning so I treated myself to a box of diet products I actually do like. Life is goooooood.

 

[YellowWatermelon]

Does that mean no more dahl, Nasturtiums?

It kind of disturbs me how much I enjoy ordering boxes of this stuff. I mean, it's not exactly foodie heaven, but I do get slightly overexcited about it. I'm itching to order more, even though I have piles of dinner meals and a good couple of weeks of shakes still here (getting a little low on bars, but probably at least a week left).

 

[castingnasturtiums]

Omg, I'm the same. I mean, sometimes I worry I'm overly emotionally invested but I guess I feel that ... well ... it's okay to have fun? But, yes, I love getting my boxes. And I love planning what I'm going to order next.

I wonder if it's partly a reaction against CWP on my part, because that was the first VLCD I did. And, obviously, it was fine and it worked and my consultant was super helpful but because you could only buy a week's supply of product at a time I found it pretty stifling and it was easy to get stuck having to eat things I just didn't like / wasn't in the mood for. And I know having products you like is a luxury (the aim is to lose weight, not swim in a bowl of apple crumble) but I did find if I was bored I found it harder to stick.

So now I sort of indulge my own whims pretty freely and I do believe it's helping me to stick to the straight and narrow. Like, on Sunday I ate three bars just because it was a hot day and I was chilling in the garden with a book, so I fancied munching on bars rather than going inside to microwave some powder or mix a shake.

 

[castingnasturtiums]

Fairly basic "I'm on a VLCD" day. Which is to say, fine, not challenging, but not super exciting either.

I had a fairly basic lighter life hazelnut bar for breakfast which was ... fine. And then my favourite Exante strawberry yogurt (yay for goo) bar for lunch. And for dinner I tried the New You Plan shepherd's pie. Which was okay. Not amazing in terms of taste but adequate of terms of texture, and did actually sort of resemble a shepherd's pie (like, you know the end of a shepherd's pie and you've eaten all the good bits, like the crispy topping and the best chunks of meat, so you sort of muddle everything together into a comfortingly bland brown-and-white mush? It was like that). Which puts it miles ahead of the Exante version which is ... unspeakably abominable.

Also we had friends round for gaming last night - turned out one of them was also on a diet so we geeked out massively about for a while (which I really enjoyed - being on a diet makes you obsessed with dieting) and meant there was less snacking in general around the table. The other two had pizzas which didn't bother me at all, but then I wasn't mad keen on pizzas even when I was eating all the things. But it felt good to know I could, with care, do ordinary social things and not immediately fall apart and break plan or whatever.

So yes. I rate this day a 4. Would eat it again.

 

[castingnasturtiums]

I unearthed a random stock of CWP products in the bottom of one my office drawers today and fell greedily on a CWP choc and mint bar which were always my favourite.

Friends, I think I have grown spoiled on my dilettante's diet. Because it was ... no better than okay.

My world is rocked. I am shook. I'd been actually dreaming of a goddamn choc mint bar.

 

[castingnasturtiums]

On Friday I attempted to make Exante fajitas ... uh ... I don't think I did them right? I mean, they weren't terrible but they fajitas itself was sorta doughy? And made me feel faintly sick.

Any tips gratefully received!

Also: weigh in today (Sunday) and I am 14st 12lb. Which is a comfortable 3lb from last week (when I was 15st 1lb)

Yessss.

I mean, I'm starting to be plagued by all kinds of random diet worries now like sagging skin etc. But I suspect that's just my subconscious trying to **** with me. I mean, it's better to be healthy. I can worry about the aesthetics later. But blah. Shut up brain.

 

[Darcy15]

Great loss, well done!

 

[#GymBunny]

“I am shook” It would mean nothing to me if I didn’t watch so much YouTube!

So you’ve answered my fajitas question. I think they need to be thinner and drier which you would hope, get rid of the doughiness. I think it’s going to take many attempts to get it right. Someone had mentioned the perfect fajita prep in a thread but I cannot find it for the life of me. They also had the same for pizza.

 

[Ceedee]

I just read this whole thread and you’re all hilarious, and some good tips on what to avoid as so far I’ve only ordered the shakes as I think I might genuinely cry if one of my 3 precious ‘meals’ went on something truly awful.

I definitely need to add the inbred bastard cousin of a toffee crisp to my order

 

[FullFathom]

I have a box of random Exante orphan packs on a shelf in my kitchen. It's like a piece of performance art. You give somebody about 400 different packs of miscellaneous 'meals' made from magic dust, let them slowly and weakly pull out the ones that are least offensive over a period of four months, like some sort of starvation Kerplunk. You then study the rejected marbley detritus left behind. My personal, and literally exhaustive study, has revealed that in this secret dieter's opinion, the least enticing gruel available includes: shepeherd's pie mix (wallpaper paste and nappy scrapings), pasta carbonara (the stuff of nightmares, still getting the smell out of my nose from February), golden syrup porridge (might as well eat a fistful of Canderel and think of England), and pizza mix (more a craft activity than cooking, but you know, distracting at least!)

 

[castingnasturtiums]

Someone had mentioned the perfect fajita prep in a thread but I cannot find it for the life of me.

Gah! I spent a while trawling as well - I'm going to have another go tonight. They definitely have the potential to be good, if only I could figure out how to make the damn things.

I just read this whole thread and you’re all hilarious, and some good tips on what to avoid as so far I’ve only ordered the shakes as I think I might genuinely cry if one of my 3 precious ‘meals’ went on something truly awful.

I definitely need to add the inbred bastard cousin of a toffee crisp to my order

Ah! Welcome! Thank you so much for wading through my nonsense. I agree the shakes have less potential to be inedible/undrinkable than the other products (I've never met a shake I haven't been able to force down, whereas sometimes the meals can be hit 'n' miss) but I definitely find living on shakes a struggle. In practice, I usually have a shake, a bar and a meal per day because I prefer the variety but I'm also a a bit of a flibbertigibbet so occasionally I'll have days where I have three shakes, or two bars and a shake, or three meals or whatever.

I also usually keep on hand a few more products than I need so I a) have a choice and b) if something is truly heinous I can throw it away and eat something else.

I have a box of random Exante orphan packs on a shelf in my kitchen. It's like a piece of performance art. You give somebody about 400 different packs of miscellaneous 'meals' made from magic dust, let them slowly and weakly pull out the ones that are least offensive over a period of four months, like some sort of starvation Kerplunk.

*ded* You crack me up, FF.

I think I have a different system to you - which involves not really bulk buying anything except dahl. I kind of buy one of everything for my first order and then refine based on what I like so it's more like "does my whim take me to pink magic dust or a white magic dust today".

Although probably my obituary will read "She was discovered in a basement surrounded by diet dahl pots."

 

[dreamingmaid]

You two are hilarious. I read your whole diary last night and nearly pissed myself. Oh how we need humour when we put ourselves through this craziness.

Off to read Fullfathoms tonight xx

 

[FullFathom]

I loved dahl. With a dollop of hot sauce. I love the Pot Noodle styley format too - so much easier than the other ridiculous meal packs. Also, it makes the entirely senseless whale-killing-one-use-plastic wastefulness of yer average VLCD, that bit more open and honest. The dahl pot message is: I'm killing the oceans and I'm proud! In fact check inside those dahl pots and you'll find half a dozen multi-laminate pouches too, with a collective half-life of about three million years...

Of course I didn't reeeaaallly buy 400 meals in advance. All the pack overmatter comes from order after order of things I knew I liked, plus a few other things in an attempt to broaden my options.

 

[FullFathom]

You two are hilarious. I read your whole diary last night and nearly pissed myself. Oh how we need humour when we put ourselves through this craziness.

Off to read Fullfathoms tonight xx

I pity anyone who takes any notice of my diary! Ramblings of a diet-addled mind, I tell you.

 

[castingnasturtiums]

I love your diary - it's helped me a lot!

 

[FullFathom]

Good.

By the way, I took a look at that Shake That Weight site. I’m interested in a cheaper source of high protein, low carb snack bars to carry with me, rather than rely solely on The Hut Group. Anyway, despite STW putting me off immediately with that stupid company name, I had a look. I’m afraid I couldn’t stomach the fact they felt the need to put ‘dreamy’, ‘bliss’, ‘joy’ etc... in every product name, so I had to run away!

 

[castingnasturtiums]

Omg, I confess I really enjoy that. I love the extreme need to adjectivise (no that isn't word) the hell out of diet products. It makes me laugh like anything. Like "this is some dust in a foil packet, it's really not going to bring my rapture but I appreciate the effort."

I kind of wonder whose job it is to sit in an office (which I imagine has no windows and a Dilbert cartoon from 1997 half-peeling off thew all) and be like "Voluptuous Vanilla Velvet" and "Splendiferous Strawberry Sensation" as they cry softly into their waste paper basket.

 

[FullFathom]

Urgh. Next you'll be telling me you tolerate products that 'talk' about themselves in the first person...

 

[castingnasturtiums]

*Please* tell me this is an actual thing!