Christmas weigh-in

I stayed the same! what a result! Especially when you consider the amount of food I ate.

In all fairness, i have been better than most years.

In other news, I will start going to the gym again. A new one has opened up in my town www.thegymgroup.co.uk.  its only £10.99 a month and on a monthly rolling contract so no commitment necessary!

Ate out successfully last night!

So, it was my mum's birthday meal in an italian restaurant last night.

I had calamari to start, which i wouldnt have had if it said on the menu it was in batter, but never mind.

Then i had a caesar salad. Go me!

So thats a low carb restaurant meal dealt with. Not bad.

Have had a couple of slices of home made pizza that the baby wouldnt eat. Its always the weekends where i struggle amd cheat. Ive been up since 4am with the baby and am practically asleep on my feet. Thats why i make bad food decisions at the weekend.

Oh well, roll on Thursdays weigh in to check the damage.

Now with added Carb Hangover!

Yesterday, my boss bought me a hamper full of goodies for Christmas. Bugger!

I gave everything carb-related away. Everything except a box of luxury fruit pastilles.  Last night, I ate the whole box, probably around 600 Calories because I'm stupid, stupid, STUPID!

S-T-U-P-I-D

Anyway,  I'm not worried about the extra calories, but, I have the mother of all carb hangovers!

Seriously, it feels like I drunk 8 pints last night! It feels exactly the same.  Slightly nauseous, slightly tired and lethargic, foggy-headed and a little irritable.

You can go over on your calories a bit, but you really shouldn't eat a whole load of carbs when your body isn't used to them. It just isn't worth it. So no more cheating on the Cambridge Diet for me (hopefully)!

You'd think I'd know better, but clearly I don't. Well, lets hope I've learnt the lesson at last...

I now have a couple of days of feeling ropey until my body settles down again. Bah.

This weekend, I'm going out to an Italian restaurant for my Mum's birthday.  Hopefully, with this carb hangover fresh in my mind, I'll do the right thing and have a chicken salad.

Back to Blogging... Where am I at and where have I been?

Right, here's a little update as to what's been going on.

I last posted at the end of July and was still a pretty respectable weight of 14st2lbs, but had fallen off the wagon a bit.  In my last post, I mentioned that I had moved up to the 1000 calorie plan and that I was struggling to get to grips with it.

For a few weeks, I was putting on the odd pound here and there, occasionally losing a little but basically ended up hovering around 14st4lbs.

Then we had one of those little challenges that life throws at us from time to time. The wife had a ruptured appendix and was rushed into hospital for an emergency appendectomy. She was very seriously ill, which caught us both off-guard as we assumed that because it's such a common operation, it was a minor one.  How wrong we were.

The rules of the Cambridge Diet say that you can't be on a VLCD within three months of any surgery. As the wife and I are doing the diet together, we both came off the diet together.

Because the wife was so ill, it meant that I was doing everything. All baby-related duties, all the shopping, the cleaning, the washing etc.. absolutely everything for our little family. All whilst working full time.

Between the general tiredness and stress of it all, I was eating for both comfort and extra energy so I put on a little weight. 

I ended up at 15st4lbs.  I felt pretty bloated, pretty ugly and my 34" jeans that I was so proud to be in were getting pretty bloody tight!

So, as soon as the three month's time limit was up, we got straight back on the Cambridge Diet to finish the weight loss journey that we started back in January 2012.

This time, we've started on the 810 calorie plan as opposed to sole-source.  This means three food packs a day and a dinner (no carbs).

I have to confess, I've been having the three food packs, but having a smaller than recommended dinner as I'd prefer to be on sole source because I don't want to run the risk of eating like a pig.

My current weight is back down to 13st12lbs as of 13th Dec 2012.

My lightest weight on the diet was 13st8lbs.  I'm going to remain on the 810 plan until I'm down to 12st.  Then we'll see how I look.

In terms of BMI, I want to be smack-bang in the middle of the normal range.  For my height (6'2") That would be somewhere around 12st7lbs.  I'm going below this because I know that when I add carbs back into my diet, my body will retain up to 10lbs in water.

Cheers,

Rich

Still on it, just differently.

I got down to 13st 8lbs, which was amazing.  I've been consistently err... cheating on the diet.  Essentially, I moved up a couple of steps to the 1200 plan which basically killed it for me.  I found it all too much.  Over the last couple of months, I've stabilised at around 14 stone 2lbs.

That's not a bad result, all things considered.  Not good enough though.

I've also been going down the gym, only once a week, and i've missed a few sessions due to work/baby/life commitments, but I'm seeing results in terms of muscle growth.

The wife and I have decided to re-double our efforts and we're back down to the 810 plan.  I'm hoping to get down to 12 stone dead.

I'll keep you posted.

A month since my last post

And basically fuck-all has happened.

I'm down to 13st, and am stuck there. I'm eating like a pig and am cheating on my diet every day as I'm absolutely crazy for carbs. I just can't help myself.

On the plus side, my gym antics mean I'm starting to see muscle growth which means I must in theory be losing some body fat if I still weigh the same each week.

So even if I continue this way, my body should be looking better in three months time. Of course, I'm desperate to knock the cheats on the head but I can't seem to stop myself.

Must. Do. Better.

Omg! Eating like a pig on the 1000 plan.

I've only been on this plan for just over two days and instead if satisfying me more, it's actually making me hungry!

I've cheated and eaten 3 pepperami's yesterday, thankfully no carbs and only 100 calories each. I also added about 50g of ham to my lunchtime salad which is supposed to be plain. To make up for this, I didn't have chicken with my dinner. According to an app on my phone, I consumed around 1600 calories yesterday. I also did some exercise which might have helped a bit.

Thankfully, I should be able to get a grip on this and still lose a little weight this week. I still ate less than the maintenance amount of calories so should be ok.

My CDC wants me to stop losing weight anyway so I guess I'm helping her!

Day 94 result, and the start of my food rehab

4lbs off!

I'm now 13st 10lbs and am officially on the road to foodie recovery! My CDC has now moved me up to stage 3 which is 1000 calories. I have eaten so much food today it's unreal!

I also cheated a little as it's Easter. I ate a cadbury's creme egg. I figured what the hell, if I'm going to be eating 1000 calories and exercising too then why not? A normal, thin person wouldn't worry about it and nor should I.

So far, it seems as though what I'm choosing to eat has improved so maybe my brain is being rewired as part of this process.

Weigh in tonight. Will I be in the 13's?

I have no idea, I certainly hope so!  I'll let you know!

:-)

Gym and excercise in general

I've reached the point where losing fat isn't enough any more.  Although I'm extremely happy to be where I am in terms of my body shape, I know that being slimmer isn't the end of the journey.

I have good solid legs from carting too much fat around for years, but my upper body strength is almost non-existant.  For some reason, I thought that once I'd lost the fat, I'd have a good body with some muscle definition, however there's none.

This means I must excercise!

Because I have a baby, I have no idea how many times a week I can get out to the gym, therefore I run the risk of losing out financially if I go to a posh gym and pay the ~£60 monthly fee.  I need a gym where you can just turn up, pay a fiver and think no more of it.

Now, this rules out all the "corporate" gym chains like Virgin Gym, Fitness First etc.  Luckily enough, there's two council run gyms in my town.  One is tiny and only has about 10 machines but has the benefit of being 5 minutes from my house. The other is a bigger "flagship" gym in the sports centre across town which has more kit, but is further away, and costs more per session.

I had my induction at the local gym with a lady who was in her 50's but was as fit as a fiddle. She ran me through all the machines and knackered me out quite sufficiently. She was totally lovely and put me at ease as I was actually pretty nervous.

I now know what I'm doing and will be hitting the gym regularly. 

In order to build muscle, you have to lift heavy weights.  It's no good running miles and miles on a treadmill. That will keep you slim certainly, but you could actually lose muscle doing that.

Also, bigger muscles burn more calories so it's a win-win situation really.

I'll keep you posted with photo's and logs still.  This blog will continue to include my weigh-ins, cambridge diet plans too. I'm just expanding it a little.

This will take a while, be very hard work, but should also be well worth it.

Day 84: Weigh-in result

14 Stone dead!

That's a total of four stone, two pounds off since the fifth of January this year. That'll do me nicely.

My CDC also told me that this will be my last week on step 2, the 810 plan. Because apparently my BMI is now 25 ie NORMAL woohoo!

The next step for me will be to move up to step 3: 1000 calories. This mean that I eat the following:

Breakfast:
Something like shredded wheat
1/2 pint skimmed milk
1 Cambridge diet food pack

Lunch:
Green Leaf salad

Mid afternoon:
Cambridge diet shake

Dinner:
Same sort of dinner as per the 810 plan but with carbs! That's right, CARBS!!!! Home-made oven chips for me, jacket spuds with cottage cheese etc! Mmm delicious!

This actually sounds suspiciously like a regular diet to me :-)

4st down: Photo!

This is what approx 4 stone off looks like!

Back From Centre Parcs

Hi everyone,

I'm now officially back from Centre Parcs where I had a lovely time with the wife, baby and my brother. We did every activity going from Tennis, to Pedalo-boating, we surely burnt a few calories there!

I suspect you'll be wondering how the dieting went...

My Mum and her new fella came up to visit and took us out to dinner so we could hardly refuse.  I stuffed myself silly with a Calzone pizza, Mozzarella balls to start and a chocolate ice cream for dessert. I felt like I would go pop!

We also had a £50 food voucher from Centre Parcs because we had a plumbing problem in our villa so of course we ate out again, this time I had a Philly-style CheeseSteak sandwich which was absolutely divine!

Each of these meals were probably well over 2500 calories, but frankly I don't care.  The only thing that I did care about was the fact that I knocked myself out of ketosis so I knew I was in for a rough couple of days whilst my body used up the stored glycogen etc from the carbs I consumed.

Yup, I had the dreaded "day 3" again. and this time it was a real drag.

I absolutely refuse to feel guilty about eating two big meals as I've lost nearly 4 stone.  Also nothing will make a mess of your head like guilt will.

One thing that did massively surprise me was how groggy and sluggish I felt for the following couple of days. I also developed carb-face. It visibly adds chins, bloats cheeks and makes you look 2 stone heavier than you are.  I also weighed myself on the Centre Parcs scales just to get an indication as to how much damage I'd done.  They calmly (somewhat too calmly for my liking) informed me that I'd put on 6lb by eating 2 large meals.  Obviously that's not 6lb of fat, most of it will be glycogen and water.  To prove this point, as soon as I got back on plan it all fell off again within a couple of days.

So, those meals notwithstanding, I ate strictly as per the 810 plan, and I continue to do so. A blip, or a break from your diet is not a cheat, it's a decision. You know that you're delaying your weightloss a bit and you know that you'll need extra will power to get back on track again, and that's fair enough.

So, I'm back at work and the scales (at work) are showing 14st4lbs. Now, my last official weigh in 12 days ago came in at 14st5lbs, and these scales over read by 4 lbs so I'm looking at around a 5lbs loss over the last two weeks which no doubt could have been 7lbs but thats the choice I made.

Having said that, this is all conjecture until the official weigh-in, in two day's time. I may have lost another pound or two by then anyway.  I'll let you know.

In other news, I've joined a gym, kind of. Actually, I'm having a hell of a time trying to join the gym.  I'm attempting to join the local council run gym which is near my house.  So far, I've registered on their website for a leisure card, traipsed over there complete with ID to get said leisure card.  I even attempted to go there and use the gym and this is where the problems occurred. Not content with making me jump through hoops to even be allowed through the door,  I apparently, for insurance reasons, have to have a gym "induction", whatever the hell that means. I also have to pay extra for this for some unfathomable reason.  Of course, there was no one around to sort this out there and then, so I stood there like a plum in my shiny new gym kit like its my first day at school or something and got told I wasn't allowed to do anything!

Apparently, my induction will be this thursday at 7pm, but I've not had confirmation so I'm really none the wiser.  I think this is why people actually pay a fortune to use nice gyms, it's all a lot easier, you just join up and start lifting weights. Stoopid Gym.

Day 70 weigh in result

Wow! 70 days in...  that's mental.  And it's gone rather quickly too.

So, now the result. 4lbs off!  I guess I just can't trust the scales at work any more.  Either that or they were having an off day.  I'm now officially down to 14st 5lbs.  Giving me a BMI of 25.8.

Just 0.8 of a BMI point before I'm in the normal category! woohoo!

According to the NHS BMI Calculator here, in order to get into the "normal" category, I need to get down to 13st 12lbs which means another 7lbs or half a stone off.  Now, if I were to remain on either Sole Source plus or Sole Source, I'd have this done in less than two weeks.  As I'm moving onto the 810 plan, I have no idea what the weight loss is going to be like so it will probably take longer than two weeks to get into a the normal BMI range.

I should be going into the 810 plan today, however, in order to keep it fair with the wife (who's lost over 5 stone now!) and so that I won't be rubbing her nose in it by eating in front of her, I'll be on sole source until Monday when we go to Centre Parcs at which time she'll move onto SS+ so she can eat too.  This means that this week will not be a fair test of 810 when it comes to weight loss figures as 3 days will be just SS.

I may not be able to update the blog until I get back, and of course there'll be no official weigh in next Thursday as I'll be away.  Hopefully, they'll have a set of those scales that cost 20p a go somewhere so I can at least have a rough idea of where I'm at.  You *might* see an unofficial weigh-in figure, just in case that sort of thing turns you on!

Final Weigh-in on Sole Source

Hello everyone.

Tonight is my final weigh-in on SS / SS+ (I'm supposed to be SS+ but often forget the milk!)

As you know, I weight myself daily at work just to get a rough idea of how the weight loss is going throughout the week.  I had a little shock today, somehow I've put on 2lbs since yesterday despite not cheating.  Weight loss can be a funny thing, but WHY did it have to happen on a day when I get weighed?  bah.

So, I guess all I can expect therefore is a measly 2lb loss this week, which would take me down to 14st 7lbs.

That is still totally awesome, although I still have another 14lbs of fat to shift on the 810 plan.

The 810 plan is 3 shakes/bars/soups per day, with a meal of protein and veg. Still no carbs at this stage which is fine by me.  I am a bit nervous about eating real food again to be honest.

Anyway, I'll blog again later with the weigh in result, and what I plan to do about eating in the 810 plan.

This is not the end of the journey. It's not even the middle.  I'll still be losing weight.  The maintenance stage comes much later.

In other news, once I'm on the 810 plan, I'll be able to start exercising so I'm getting ready to head for the gym soon.  This isn't something I've ever wanted to do before, but now seem to have a lot of enthusiasm for it!

I should really put more effort into this blog

It's been pointed out to me that in recent posts, all ive been doing is pretty much putting my weigh in results up here, which isn't really good enough. I shall put in more effort, I promise!

So, what's been going on? Well you know that I now fit in 34" waist jeans, which is nothing short of amazing. But something even more miraculous happened today... I went and tried on a t-shirt in a size L. Not XXL, not XL, just L. The amazing thing was, it was quite loose on me, so I thought that I'd be brave and try on a medium. Well it only went and bloody fitted! So now I own two medium t-shirts! :-)

To say I'm happy is an understatement. However, there's still work to be done. Underneath that medium sized shirt, lies a fair amount of flab. There's no denying it, I still have at least a stone or two to lose.

There's also the issue of muscle, or lack of it. Being a fat bloater all my life means that I've never built up any muscles to any sort of size. Unless I deal with this, I will end up what's known as skinny-fat. So, the plan is this: move up to the 810 calorie plan and start building some muscle.

I can't do this on sole source or sole source plus because there simply isn't enough calories to safely exercise at the level of intensity required to build muscle without causing nasty side effects like getting sick, going into starvation mode etc.

If truth be told, I'm actually shitting myself about joining a gym. I think it's because this time, I know results are attainable and it's down to me and me alone to get the results I desire. Having said that, I do remember distinctly saying the same thing when I first started this diet so I guess anythings possible.

In terms of a timescale, I'll be moving up to the 810 calorie plan in 5 days. Thursday next week. I'll give myself until Monday to allow my body to adjust to the extra calories. This also coincides with us going to center parcs, which is basically a fitness camp in disguise. Their whole ethos is about sports. Everything from swimming to clay pigeon shooting. So, I'll have a pretty active week, then when I get back, I'll hit the local gym. Not the expensive Virgin gym, probably the local council-run one.

Not long now!!

Day 63 - Weigh-in

Just a 4lbs off this week, this seems to be where I've levelled out to in terms of a weekly loss.

I'm now down to 14st 9lbs. Looks like I'll be going up to the next step soon!

New Jeans!

My 38" waist jeans which were too tight only a month ago were now falling off of me.  I figured maybe I should be brave and try on a pair of 36" jeans.  I haven't worn 36's for years and years so yes, I had to be brave!

The Wife, Baby and I went over to Matalan to try some on.

The 36's were actually too big!  I couldn't believe it but I then went to try a pair of 34" jeans.  They slid up my legs, then up my thighs, and before I knew it, I was in them and they were a perfect fit!!!!  Unbelieveable! I laughed out loud nd did a little dance in the changing cubicle.

Needless to say, I bought them.  I've never been so happy with a £7 pair of jeans in my life!

This is so excellent, I can now safely say that I could go into any shop and just buy a pair of jeans off the peg. What a result!

Here's a photo of me at 14st 13lbs:

Day 56 - Weigh in Results

Sorry I'm a bit late with this one...

5lb off!  taking me down to 14st 13lbs.

This truly is uncharted territory. The last time I weighed this amount was probably back in college, circa 1997, so what's that? 15 years ago?

I'm so pleased, and when I went out to a gig the other day, everyone commented on how much weight I'd lost. It was grand!

An actual meal!!!

Right, as you know, I'm on sole source plus.  This is your 4 foodpacks per day plus a 200 calorie meal or 200ml's of skimmed milk.

Normally, I'd just have the milk but last night decided to make a 200cal meal.

So, what does a 200 calorie meal consist of.  I made an omelette.

• 2 Medium Eggs
• 80g of spinach (there's only a limited list of available foodstuffs)
• black pepper.
• That's it!

But, my god it was delicious!

And in other news, i'm unofficially 15 stone now.  I'll know for sure on my Thursday weigh in.

Day 48 - Weigh In (1 day early)

Our weigh in was on a wednesday instead of a thursday as usual so the results were always going to be a little lower, that and I did have a hadful of peanuts (approx 20g) so I wasn't expecting much.

I lost 4lbs. Result!

That takes me down to 15st 4lbs. I still can't believe that I'm blitzing through the 15's as quickly as I am.  I'm only 2lb off of a total loss of 3 stone!  I'm only 3.5lb off being a stone lighter than my lightest weight as an adult!

Blimey.

I can't remember if I said what I did about the peanuts.  I went and looked up how much 20g of the peanuts were in calories and it works out nearly the same as 200ml's of milk, so that night, I just didn't have the milk.  I know the calories are made up differently but it seemed a sensible move at the time.  It seems to have worked.  Not that I'm recommending this.  I don't recommend cheating on the Cambridge Diet at all. Not ever. But I did, and this is how I made up for it.

My First Cheat on the diet.

I ate a couple of handfuls of Dry Roasted Peanuts, just because they were there.

It's weird because I managed to avoid a massive, delicious looking buffet the other day.

Oh well, not to worry, we'll see how it affects the weight loss this week.

My weigh in is a day early this week so the loss will be less anyway. I'll let you know how I get on!

Day 42 Weigh-in. All good in da hood

So this week, I lost 6lbs which takes me rather amazingly to 15st 8lbs. This is frankly startling. It just goes to show you that keeping your water intake up is most important.

I also had a bit of a better chat with my CDC about moving up the plans. Because my bmi is getting much lower, she wants me to move up the plans. However, I'm going all the way down to 12 stone if I can. We've agreed that I'll stick to sole source plus until I hit 14st 7lbs and then will start moving up the plans to lose the last 2 stone. We kind of haggled and reached that decision.

It's kind of exciting to know that in just another 15lbs, I'll be beginning the end of this diet. Also kind of scary.

I look down and don't recognise myself

Something strange just happened. I looked down.  OK, that's not strange in itself, but what I saw was strange.

As I looked down, at my T-shirt and my jeans and so forth, I didn't actually recognise myself.  The bulge of my belly has gone, my T-shirt is loose and I look, dare I say it, like a normal person. My stomach, whilst still a bit large is mostly flat instead of massively round and bloated.

This T-shirt was tight when I got it and the 38" waist jeans that were so tight just a couple of weeks ago are now falling off me.

Because the weight falls off so quickly on the Cambridge Diet, your brain takes a while to catch up.  Your self-image is still that of a fat person when the reality is different.  Yes, I'm still overweight, but am now getting to the size where people don't point and laugh (not that they did but you know what I mean).

When I picture myself in my mind, I still see a fat person. I guess having been 18st-odd for like 10 years will do that to you.

Please note that this may sound similar to body dysmorphia, but it's not. I just haven't got used to the new me yet.  I don't know how long this feeling will last for but as the goalposts keep moving with every week I lose weight, I guess I'll just have to get used to it in time!

And in other good news, my (long standing and long-loathed) moobs are shrinking nicely.  What a relief!  These were always the thing I was most self-concious of.

An unofficial weigh in at work

Yes, I know you shouldn't weigh yourself on two different sets of scales but I know how much to compensate in order to make them match.

I was interested to see if my weight loss has resumed since last week was a bit of a slow week probably due to being ill and not drinking enough water.

I always find the weekends harder that during the week because at work, my routine is pretty much fixed which makes sticking to the diet much easier.  At work, I have foodpacks at 11am, 1:30pm. 4pm and dinner at 8pm once I've put the baby to bed.  At the weekend, my days are completely different so I have to be double-careful to make sure I drink enough water and remember to eat at the same times. Remember my wife is only on 3 foodpacks so at the weekend, we end up "eating" at different times.

Anyway, I did a sneaky weigh in on the scales at work this morning. In fact, I did it twice in order to get an average just in case the scales where being a little temperamental.  Here's the results.

#1:  15st11lbs
#2:  15st13lbs.

So, I'll take that as 15st12lbs.  Now subtract 4lbs which these scales over read by in order to match the ones my CDC uses gives me a "real" weight of 15st8lbs.

That's a total loss of  32lbs in just over 5 weeks.

That puts me at a 4lb loss since last Thursday (today is Monday btw).  It looks like I'm back on track, but also am now definitely voyaging into uncharted waters.  I'm now the lightest I've ever been as an adult.  Strangely, I'm not feeling jubilant about it, more relieved that I didn't sabotage myself like I did when I was on Weight Watchers and hit 16st 0.5lbs.

It's funny as I expected to be all self-congratulatory, but I think that this diet makes you re-evaluate how your mind works.  Because I've always felt that losing weight was such an uphill struggle and an unattainable goal, I'd have been massively happy to be in the 15's. But because this diet works *so* well, it has become almost a given that I'll be passing through this weight pretty sharpish and into smaller numbers on a weekly basis.  That and I still look fat in the mirror with my shirt off.

This is why I'm coming round to the idea that maybe the BMI charts aren't wrong and something to be dutifully ignored.  They tell me I should be 12.5 stone roughly.

Looking at myself in the mirror with a critical eye (don't we all?), I can see that at approx 14st I'll start to look slim. So maybe, just maybe, the BMI charts aren't all wrong.

Onwards and errr... downwards!

Poorly again! (FFS!!)

Ok so having just got over my cold last week, I now seem to be falling to pieces! Last night I had a load of bright spots and dizziness and collapsed into bed, this morning my throat is killing me.

Bah.

I'm keeping my water intake up though so hopefully will be back on track asap.

Incidentally, this is not caused by the diet, which is 100% nutritionally complete.

Saw my brother today, he's on CD too, and has gone down from 20st8 to 18st4 and the difference is phenomenal. I hope the same can be said of me!

Just a thought about ketosis and last week

You know what?  I dont think I was really in ketosis much last week.  Although I had a cold and wasn't drinking nearly enough water, my hands weren't cold and my breath wasn't as bad.

I'm wondering if dehydration and illness had knocked my ketosis for six!

In contrast, today, with no trace of illness, and 4 pints of water inside me, my hands are freezing and i've got my ketosis breath back.

How curious!

Why did I get Angry?

So, it's a new day, and now the post-mortem of yesterday's weigh-in can commence with a clear head.

I actually got most worked up about only losing 3lb this week.  Yes I know there were extenuating circumstances like having a cold or whatever, but I see them as excuses.

The thing is, I thought I was angry at Jo, my CDC for putting me onto Sole Source Plus (4 foodpacks as per normal but with the addition of a 200ml glass of milk each day) because I wanted my weight loss to be as rapid as possible.  I thought I'd get demoralised by slow weightloss and fall off the wagon.  Yes, I understood her reasoning which was so that the wife and I will move back onto food at the same time and yes it does make sense.  But it still pissed me off and 3lb just proved my point.

However, I was wrong. I can safely say that I was being a stupid little girl about it. And if truth be told I was angry at myself for what I considerd was a failure.

The truth is, over the last week, I maybe managed to drink 2 pints of water per day if that.  You're supposed to drink at least 4 pints of water per day. I just couldn't stomach it is all.

I don't think that 200ml of milk is going to slow my weight loss by that much. But I do think that not drinking enough water will make your body retain water which obviously carries a weight penalty.

So, the solution is obvious.  Drink more water.

That's why today and from now on, I shall make sure I'm drinking a minimum of 4 pints per day.  Not rocket science is it?

I don't think I gave SS+ a fair crack last week due to the lack of water, which means that really I have no basis to complain about it until I've done a "good" week where the results would be more honest.

The interesting thing will be the results of next week's weigh in.

PS I think I mntally put too much pressure on myself to get into the 15's.  Maybe that's why I got worked up.  I'll be in them next week for sure.  No more 16 stone something for me thankyouverymuch.  I've NEVER been in the 15's as an adult.

Day 35 - crap weigh in

Well, thanks to being ill over the last week, and even more thanks to not drinking enough water, I only lost 3lbs.

Not bad I guess, but that leaves me at bang on 16st when I wanted to be firmly in the 15's which us hugely disappointing.

I'll drink more water and hope for a "woosh" next week!

I mustn't beat myself up about it but I will probably have a sulk tomorrow!

Day 35 - Wiegh-in tonight!

Morning all,

Just a quick post to let you know that I've had a cold all week.  Although I've been flawlessly sticking to the diet as usual, I'm concerned that I'll not show any weight loss on the scales tonight.

I'm sure I remember the lady at weight watchers telling me that you retain water or something when you get ill.

anyway, just thought i'd throw that out there in in anticipation of tonight's epic fail.

2 Stone Off Photos

As promised, yesterday I was 1st13lb off so today I should be about bang on 2 stone off.

Here's the photos, still fat but a lot slimmer than a month ago!

Day 28 - Weigh In

So, it's all good in the hood.

I lost another 6lbs, taking me down to 16st 3lbs.

What a result!!!

However, Jo, my CDC, is making me add 200ml of skimmed milk to my daily rations in order to slow my weight loss down. This is because I'm doing CD with my wife and men tend to lose weight quicker than the ladies. The idea being that we'll both get back onto food around the same time.

I was actually a little upset because I really, really want to get the fat of as quickly as possible. Having said that, Jo assures me that I'll still be in ketosis which is excellent as I'm petrified that as soon as I'm out of ketosis, I'll be hungry and would therefore completely fall of the wagon.

So, I'll be trying this starting tomorrow.

I can't believe it's been a month already, it's gone so fast! I wish I'd have done this years ago. Why did I waste my 20's being fat??

In other related news, my new bmi means that I'm no longer obese, just plain old overweight!

Ace!

Still bloody cold and i'm now a weird shape!

The official cold snap has started.  According to GMTV (daybreak or whatever it's called these days), We're going to get maybe as cold as -6 degrees C.  Frankly i'm freezing already due to the ketosis.  I drive home from work in a Saab (designed for cold swedish winters!) with the heater on full just to keep my hands working properly.

Anyway, that's not why i'm writing this blog post.

I told you last week that I've gone from 42" waist jeans down to my 38's.  They are more comfortable this week to be fair.  However, I'm finding that they're getting loose around the wasteband, but are still a bit tight around the thighs.

Whilst it's encouraging that the wasteband is getting looser, I'm beginning to think that I'm not losing weight evenly around my body.  That's a bugger as I'm not going to look in proportion for the foreseeable future until my legs shrink and I lose some more belly.

I think the lack of shrinkage in my thighs is going to be down to Visceral fat.  This is fat that's between the layers of muscles and in the organs of the body.  From what I've read, this will break down soon enough, and does so quicker than subcataneous fat which is the kindunder your skin that you can pinch!

Weigh-in tomorrow.  I'll let you know how I get on...

Cold Hands, Warm nothing actually!

Christ-on-a-bike it's cold this week, and I'm really feeling it.  Previous winters haven't been a problem when you have a whole bunch of carbs and calories to keep you warm.  Also, a thick layer of fat helps!

Anyway, having been in ketosis for a few weeks now, I'm well used to my extremities feeling cold, but bugger me does it hit you when you go out!  I'm in the office, in a jumper, with the heating on and my hands are still freezing, to the point where my typing has gone to the dogs and I'm having to correct typos constantly. Very annoying.

Other than that, the Cambridge Diet (sorry - Weight Plan) is going well for me.  I'm having no trouble in sticking to it.  Over the weekend, I've made use of the bars and pre-mixed cartons when we've been out, which is dead handy.  You have to plan ahead though when making your order with your CDC otherwise you run the risk of missing your foodpacks which is a bad plan.

I did jump on the scales at work rather sneakily, and I know I shouldn't do this, but I just like to double-check.  They say I'm down to 16st6 which is 3lbs off since last Thursday. I've taken into account that these scales over-read by 4lb.  I hope that these scales constantly over-read by a consistent 4lbs (as opposed to the scales being more accurate on lighter weights) otherwise I'll not be able to compensate for their inaccuracy to get a roughly true reading.  I'm not sure I made any sense there oh well.

So it looks like I'm heading for a 6lb loss roughly this week.  This would get me down to 16st3.  Only 2.5lb heavier than my lightest ever weight as an adult.  The following week should hopefully see me into the 15's!

I'd be ecstatic to be in the 15's.  Of course, my body may well rebel on me and not give me this goal so quickly.  Weight loss isn't a fixed thing with no guarantees per week.  The trick is to not get despondent about a slow week.

I'm wearing my smaller jeans still, I have two pairs so that'll do me for the time being. My moobs are shrinking and pretty much all my clothes in my wardrobe of any size now fit, some better than others!

With regard to my biggest clothes, some look stupid on me, others shrink down in the tumble dryer so they still fit.  That's a bonus.

My Wife is looking really good.  She's lost over 3 stone now and is starting to get back into her more fashionable clothes.  I can see the boost in her confidence and it's great! I'm so proud of her.

hmmm... 5lbs. is it a problem really?

So, last night I whacked up a blog post about being disappointed with regard to a 5lb loss at my weigh in.

Just thinking about it some more, apart from a few teaspoons of baby food, the only other thing I'd changed was the fact that I'd added one CD bar per day instead of a shake.

The reason I'm saying this is because the bars contain more carbs than the shakes which is why you're not allowed them for the first two weeks.

This week, I've dropped all but two bars for the weekend (because they're convenient), so we'll see what difference they make.

I shouldn't be disappointed in losing 5lbs in a week. That's still a hefty amount to lose. 5lbs of fat looks like this:

This is just a random photo from a google image search for "5lbs of body fat". However, it goes to show that what I've lost this week is actually a fair volume of lard. I'm pretty bloody pleased to be rid of that!

Oh and my greatest loss on weight watchers/slimming world has been approx 3lb. So yeah, I'm happy. :-)

Day 21 weigh-in - not sure really!

Ok so this week, I've lost 5lbs.

Stupidly, I'd set my hopes on a seven pound loss so found myself rather grumpy about the whole thing. Still, carry on regardless.

I know what did it. It was taste testing the new batches of baby food which are mostly vegetables that did it. Vegetables make you retain water, but also contain carbs. I'm still in ketosis so I'm not worried about the carbs.

I'm hopeful that it's just a little water weight I'm retaining, I guess I'll find out if that's the case next week. It's either that or I'm going to be losing less per week than I have been.

We'll wait and see!

A little milestone

So today has been a result for me!

I'm wearing my 38" jeans. I managed to fit in them for a total of about two weeks when I bought them a couple of years ago.

So, in less than three weeks, I've gone from 42" jeans down to these. I'm well happy!

Day err.. 18. Nothing to report.

Ok, so this is a pointless blog entry, but important for two reasons.

1) If I stop blogging, I'll stop forever and it's far too early to do that.
2) People at work have started noticing my weight loss.

Regarding point two, I actually feel lighter than last week. It's very odd. I wonder if that'll translate into lb's lost on the scales this thursday. I'm really hoping for another 7lbs off this week, but I know that's nigh-on impossible to expect.

I just like it because half a stone per week is something tangible, we all know that half a stone is a lump of weight. when you measure it in pounds it just sounds "less". make sense? pah.

As I'm sure I said in an earlier post, the lightest I've been as an adult is 16st 0.5lb. Just over a week ago, I turned 32 so realistically, I've been an adult for quite a while and really should have lost weight a long time ago.

So, If I get half a stone off per week, it would mean that on thursday week, I'd be at my lightest weight as an adult again, which is some sort of milestone for me.

It's funny though, there's not much you can do to increase your weightloss rate. On Weight Watchers, you could excercise or cut out food a bit. On CD, you can't. You don't have the extra energy to excercise and you are under strict instructions not to miss any foodpacks, so literally, you're playing the waiting game.

Thank goodness you don't have to wait long because the weight does fall off!

Just a thought about photos

I did put up a photo of how I used to look for reference, it's only fair that I keep you updated with a progress shot. I don't think I'll do it monthly, but how about every two stone? Does that sound reasonable? I figure that two stone is enough to show a difference...

Day 14: Weigh-in results!

Well, that went better than I expected! What a relief!

I lost 7lbs in 7 days. So I guess that my calculations in the previous post work out about right then.

I'm really pleased with this result, that's 1st 2lbs in two weeks.

This means that I started out in the 18 stone bracket, and have just flown through the 17 stone area and tomorrow morning will be heading firmly into the sixteens. This is somewhere I didn't think I'd get to. The lowest weight I've been as an adult us 16st 1lb. With any luck I'll be able to demolish this and cruise into the 15's in less than 3 weeks.

When I hit 16 stone, I know there's going to be a mental wall. This is the point where I failed before. I hope I hit 16st in the middle of the week and by the time my Thursday night weigh-in comes round, I'll have sailed right past and won't have to worry about it.

Day 14: Second Weigh-in tonight!

Right, so it's been a few days since my last blog. I've been mega-busy with work so having the foodpacks hasn't been a problem whilst I'm sat at my desk.

I've found tiredness to be an issue, not during the day, but come around 9pm I'm shattered. Having said that, I guess it's fair enough as I veg out until 10pm and go to bed.

This week has been hard on the water front. I've not had a chance to drink nearly enough of the stuff. I wonder if that will have hampered my weight loss at all. I'll find out at 8pm tonight and will report back!

I know there's no chance of repeating last week's 9lb off because a lot of that will have been water leaving the body. This week I should be burning pure fat.

Now, 1lb fat has 3500 calories roughly. Now, in order to calculate how many I burn off daily, here's the rough formula:

1. take my weight in lbs * 10.
2. take this number and multiply it by 1.2 (ie adding 20% for sedentiary lifestyle, add up to 50% for very active lifestyle)
3. take this number and multiply by 1.1 (ie adding 10% to allow for calories burnt in digestion).

This figure comes in at approx 3465 calories per day. So, in theory, I should be burning just under 1lb a day on the cambridge diet.

Therefore, I'm hoping for say, a 6lb loss. I'll let you know.

PS: My brother is now doing the CD so hopefully it'll go well for him too!

Day 10, hit the wall!

OK, so something weird has happened...

Although we've not cheated on our diets, both the wife and I seem to be self-sabotaging our diets.

We've been obsessing over Papa Johns pizza and chinese food etc and frankly, it's doing our heads in.

It's like we're settings ouselves up to fail. We've been chatting about it, and the best we can come up with is this:

We've had the first weigh-in and now we know the diet works, and works well. WE've both been overweight for so long we have no concept of what being a normal weight will look/feel like, hence we're scared of change.

Still, heads down, and power on through.

Day 7, and 1st Weigh-In

So the first week has flown by with no drama and it all seemed to be quite easy.

At my weigh-in, It turns out I've lost 9lb!

in a week!

yay!

I was obviously very pleased with that, and although it's probably mostly water weight, it's still a nicely large number of pounds.

Day 5: Nothing Interesting to Report

So, on the lighterlife diet we gave up after 5 days as we found the wife was pregnant, which meant that day 5 on the Cambridge diet was a bit of a mental block.

Well, it turned out to be no worries. Both of us were ok, no major problems today.

Just a little tired now at 9:22pm so bed around 10:30pm as usual that'll do me.

You do feel the lack of calories, because anything physical really is tiring, but it's not so bad.

I'm well used to the shakes and soups now. I've not found a flavour I don't like apart from the butterscotch shake so all in all, that's quite a result.

Day 4 - Changes are afoot.

The Wife and I woke up feeling particularly alert this morning.  That makes a change.  We are both showing signs of weight loss, which is frankly startling.

My belly is moving inward, with T-shirts getting looser, and the wife is losing it from her bum, tummy and legs.

This is really positive as I think it's important to see losses early on as it spurs you onwards. Especially during the first week when you're still adjusting to the new diet.

Also, my 42" waist jeans are now beginning to look stupid on me. I'm sticking with them until i've completed at least two weeks on the diet, then hopefully I'll fit into some of the many clothes I've still got from when I was smaller.

Thank god that men's fashion never really changes eh? :-)

The Dreaded Day 3

I was quite worried about Day 3.  Our CDC (Cambridge Diet Counsellor) said that Day 3 is when you really feel like crap as your body has used up all the blood sugar and glycogen stores and makes the switch-over to burining fat and apparently this makes you feel terrible.

I also remembered that Day 3 on LighterLife was like this and that I had a headache for 3 days whilst my body adjusted to the lack of calories/carbs.

As it turns out, it wasn't a problem.  Day three was absolutely fine. I had my usual 4 foodpacks, 3 shakes and a soup for lunch, and although I ran out of steam for an hour in the afternoon, a cup of coffee sorted that out and I was fine again, right up until bedtime.

So, Day 3, not so bad!  I do understand why my CDC said to cut down the carbs in the week before we started the diet, it's to make the transition easier on yourself.

Day 1 - headache and stuff and day 2 stuff.

So, For lunch I tried the spicy tomato soup. My CDC told me that it wasn't that nice, personally I enjoyed it. Let's be honest, it was never going to be heinz was it? It did taste good though, like a cuppa soup with Worcester sauce. At 4pm I had a butter scotch shake, to be honest it was a bit shit. I'll probably not order them again. By 5pm my head was thumping. I think I caused a Massive blood sugar crash because the night before, I had a papa johns pizza blowout to mark the start of my diet. Anyway, a couple of ibuprofens did the trick. It may have been that I was dehydrated, so I'm upping my water intake now. This is day 2 btw, I've not been hungry so that's cool. I've had a chocolate shake at 11:30am for breakfast, soup for lunch, shakes for afternoon and dinner.  No probs.

Cheers, Rich

Day 1: Unexpectedly Nervous, and a pleasant surprise!

So, as the title says really.  I've been bricking it a bit.  I know it's not manly to admit this, but fuck it. I've been worried, not even sure about what really, but now i'm bollocks-deep in foodpacks for the week, I have to dive in and crack on.

This is Day 1. Traditionally, an easy day where you're lulled into a false sense of security.  Anyone can go one day without eating.  It's day 3 that's the killer.

Days 1,2 and 3 involve using up your blood sugar and Glycogen stores in your liver. Once these are depleted, then your body wil go into Ketosis (fat burning mode).

On the CD, a man can have 4 foodpacks a day, women only 3.  I feel for the wife, but it's because us fella's burn more calories.

I've never really bothered with eating breakfast, so I didn't have a foodpack until around 12pm.  I chose the Chocolate Shake.  I'm a massive fan of Milkshakes anyway, with Chocolate being my favourite.

They're easy to make, just add approx 8oz/227ml of water and mix it up. Drink within 20 minutes.

Guess what?  CD choccie milk is bloody delicious!  Unlike the lighterlife one which is just "ok" and tastes a bit chemical.  This CD one is ace, shame there's not more of it, but I wouldn't want to water it down as right now, it's lovely and thick.

If all the foodpacks are this nice, then that's half the battle won. Incidentally, the foodpacks look as though they're roughly 140 calories each, so that's a total daily calorific intake of 560 calories. That's not a lot is it? Still, it'll be ok.

Next up, I've got Spicy Tomato Soup for lunch. and then I'll do a Butterscotch Shake around 4pm.

This week, i've just ordered a mix of most of the flavours of shakes and soups, but have stayed a little safe by getting plenty of chocolate shakes just in case.  Having said that, it doesn't matter if I don't like any as Jo, my CD "mentor" has said we can swap any that we don't like.

oh and here's a picture of my fat with some Lemurs for you to see the extent of my gut:

Cheers!

A Little Bit of History...

So, I've always been fat.  I'm not going to mince my words such as "overweight", "plump", or "cuddly".  I'm F-A-T.

At 6'2, I thought I could carry it off with my height.  Well, up to a point, I could.  I'm currently 18st 2lb according to my starting weigh-in last night.  I've been bigger. I've hit 19st7lb before.

I tried Lighterlife last year, but only managed a week because we found my wife was pregnant, and obviously a Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) is a massive no-no when pregnant.  I wasn't going to stick it alone as we couldn't afford that and to buy food.  Lighterlife was approx £70 per week each, so a hefty investment.

Now we've got the baby, and the wife isn't breastfeeding anymore, we can go on the attack again.  This time round however, we're going to the Cambridge Diet.

There's two main reasons for this:
1) It's significantly cheaper.  it's approx £45 per person per week.
2) You don't need to sit through the boring meetings talking about why you're fat every week.  Important because I have a baby at home to look after so can't waste my time with that thank you very much. Also, I'm fat because I love food. simple.

One thing you won't know, that I was told last night by my Cambridge Diet err "mentor"(?) is that the Cambridge Diet's factory actually produces the lighterlife food packs anyway so it makes no odds which you go for.  That and the CD foodpacks actually taste better because they keep the good stuff for themselves.

Anyway, that'll do for now.