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...