Day 55

All this week I’ve been on the 1200 calorie plan.  I think it’s step 4 but I’m not sure.

I haven’t weighed any of the food items before eating.  As a general rule I’ve eaten good quality meat and broccoli, green beans and cauliflower with every meal.  As you can imagine it’s not been the most inspiring of menu’s although, to be fair, I’ve had worse.  I bought some mustard (the lowest carb one I could find) and a pepper and chilli grinder to spice things up a bit.

Except for the bottle of wine on Friday and the vodka and Princes low sugar juices on Saturday this week’s been pretty low key.  I shared a bag of sour jellies at the Rock Band gig mid week and had some nuts last night.

On the subject of nuts, I tried a bag of roasted and salted soya beans, which were next to the nuts in tesco.  Looking at the stats they are pretty good.  Low fat and carbs, high in protein and fibre.  They taste like a cross between pistachio’s and those roast corn things and are quite nice.  My Noot says I should eat some almonds if I’m peckish but I couldn’t find any.  I’d be interested to see how they stack up against the soya beans.

Anyway, my back’s righted itself so I’ll be down the gym again next week.  I’m going to stay on the same eating plan next week as well.

Day 54

All this week I’ve been on  the 1200 diet.  If I’d have been exercising then I’d probably lose a few pounds.  As it is, I buggered me back up while I was away so, except for an evening on Rock Band I haven’t done any exercise.  As a result, this weeks weigh-loss will no doubt be compromised.  Still, if it’s not going back up then I’m happy.

I’ve just read a BBC news article about the ‘exponential’ increase in the use of gastric bands to ‘help’ reduce weight.  It’s amazing that so many people seem to think it can help them reduce weight but are utterly ignorant to the fact that the shit they were eating got them there in the first place.  As it happens, it can help but I know two people who are just as big now as they were before they were fitted.

Being very fat, like obese, is a psychological condition, not a physical one.  These people, and I include myself before I start getting any more hate mail,  have emotional baggage that needs looking at before they start to address weight loss.  Gastric bands are a sticking plaster.  They do not get at the route cause of why people are massively overweight.  My advice to anyone who is depressingly fat wanting to lose weight is: look at your head before you look at your body.  It’s likely that once you start dieting your psychological well-being improves simply as a result of purging the body of all the toxic crap you’ve been eating for years.  So, if you start in the right frame of mind things are likely to get very much better.  It did for me.

BT Bullshit

Well, it seems I was right.  According to a recent news story, the latest BT broadband TV advert has been banned because it was deemed misleading.

Oddly, only seventeen complaints were lodged.  This’ll no doubt be one from each of BT’s competitors and probably none from the broadband using public. This is rather worrying as it clearly shows either the internet using public are completely ignorant of what is and isn’t reasonably possible in terms of broadband service or that they are aware and don’t really give a fuck.

Well people,  it’s your money, so WISE UP.

Day 50

I’ve just finished off 4 grilled fresh mackerel fillets and a pile of broccoli, cauli and french beans.  I’ve no idea what the calorie intake was and frankly I don’t care.  If you do your reading up you will find it’s not just about how much you eat but what you eat.  Essentially  it was a very low carb meal at, I would estimate, about 600 calories.

I’m stuffed.  I’ll be letting it settle for an hour then I’m off down the gym for a burn out.

I found another useful website called glycemic-index.org.  It tells me pretty much what I need to know about foodstuffs and eating regimes.

I’ve also had another quick look on the CD forum to see what’s of interest, now I’m on the 1200 cal plan.  Nothing much, as it happens but I see there are lots of dieters querying what is allowable and what isn’t.  This baffles me.  It seems to me as people are taking a blinkered approach to the CD diet by focusing only on what info is provided and trying to rigidly stick to it.  This strikes me as wrong.  Dieting is about redressing the balance of body chemistry but at the same time realising that ones eating habits are at fault.  When you know and understand that  you start to look at the food you eat differently.

For example, whats worse: eating 4 pieces of mackerel when you should only have eaten two or eating one packet of crisps when you shouldn’t have had any?  The both have around the same calories.  Well, there’s every difference.  This has been my argument on the CD forum.  Oddly, no one seems to think so.

Day 49, Week 8

In terms of sticking to a diet, this week has been a fiasco.  In terms of trying to eat low carbohydrate foods while avoiding wheat based products, this week has been a nightmare.

Coeliacs of the world, you have my utmost admiration.

It is no wonder the western world is expanding in waistline.  Unless you intend to eat cottage cheese, tuna and lettuce every day this kind of diet takes total planning.

Firstly, I left all my CD stuff at home as I was in a rush to get away, so from Wednesday until Friday I ended up eating the above concoction all day.  I did manage to cadge 5 sachets from a friend on the way down South but it set the tone for the rest of the week in terms of organisation of the diet.

Secondly, I challenge ANYONE to find none carb foods that you can buy in a shop as a snack, for a car journey, for example.  The bloody stuff doesn’t exist. At least you’d expect a Scotch Egg to be higher in protein than carbohydrates.  Fat chance.  As I said, you would have to plan well in advance for unplanned food stoppages.

As a result of this weeks nonsense I have no idea where I am weight-wise.  The only positive outcome from this week is the though of next week being perfectly organised.

Day 43, week 7, day 1

Well, bafflingly I lost another 4 pounds this week.  I was expecting it to be less but happily, I was wrong.

Regardless, I have come off SS and gone straight onto step 4 (1200 cals per day) with the intention of maintaining my current level of physical activity without feeling light headed, cold or the urge to scoff off-diet.  This is 2 shakes a day and two meals of about (? goes to read the booklet) 400 cal meals.  So far today I have had my shake, a portion of strawberries, a piece of steak and some mushrooms.  Now, this is my sort of diet!

All this food added to the mix raises some important questions. What is the cost of a healthy diet?, how convenient is healthy food to prepare and cook?  If one is still on a low carb/no wheat diet, how does the CD plan cater for that?

Very good questions, indeed.  Cambridge, clearly indicate in their literature that bread, cereals and pasta are part of the mix.  Staple, cheap and readily available.  Also fruits, high in carbohydrates are also referred to in their diets.

Now this puts the low carb dieter in a bit of a quandary.  It puts the no-wheat dieter in a real pickle (no bun [sorry, pun] intended).

So, where there is bread and cereal in the breakfast menu, the wily dieter must look for low carb substitutes.  And where is one getting ones calcium?

This is the real hardship for the dieter.  Not suffering the pain of getting into ketosis.  That’s only for a few days.  This is for life.

If the dieter can worth through this little lot then the journey to dietary enlightenment is coming to an end.  In jest, but clearly intended as a challenge, a friend suggested we see where things are in 12 months time.  I agree entirely.

Here is the food receipt from todays health shop outing.  It’s low on veg as I’m away for a few days.  The meat I can freeze.  Not a pie in sight!

Day 42

Yes, it’s been ages since my last post; due mainly to being busy but I also did a couple of days dog-sitting for a mate which involved a stop over.

I’ve tried to stay on track but have had more than the odd slip-up.  Overall, I think I’ve been at the 1000 calorie level on average.  It’s been hard this week to stay focused and I suppose the further into the diet you get the harder it gets.  I started the week well due to my meagre fat reduction last week.  A few times this week I have felt light headed and my hands and feet have been quite cold at times.  I noticed that last week as well.  I consider that coincident with the start of my heavier exercise routine.  I wonder if I’m overdoing the exercise and my body is compensating for the energy required against the fuel source it’s been given.  As a result, maybe my body is becoming more efficient at using the energy supplies it is being given.  If at the weigh-in tomorrow there is only another couple of pounds lost then I will be coming off the SS diet.  Frankly, I don’t see the point in spending £50 a week on diet stuff that’s having a minimal impact on weight loss while at the same time effecting my exercise and my eating enjoyment.  I’d rather eat stuff like proper food at a higher calorie intake and do more exercise.

Watch this space.

Day 36, week 6

Just catching up with everything.  Managed to get Lou’s comments to show up in the blog.

I rather hope you weren’t suggesting men’s lives are far more straight forward and, had you been one, you’d have done better on the diet!  I sense a little frustration but I can’t tell if it’s a result of me waxing lyrical or because you can’t quite achieve the results you desire.

Anyway, I’m sure all my fans will be delighted to read that I lost just two pounds this week.  So my official weigh-in is 15st 8lb.  Personally, it’s a bit disappointing and one single pack of mints is not likely to be the sole reason.  Not withstanding, I can look back at last week and at least on the food front, I can’t complain.

This week I’m back on SS and, at the current time of  22:00 I have already faltered.  I’ve downed my allocation for today but have had some grilled strips of ham to take the edge off my grumbling belly.  That means I will definitely be going down the gym tomorrow.  This isn’t a good start for week 6.  I am determined to get down to 15 st 2lb this week if I have to cut a limb off to do it!  An unofficial target weight is 13st 9lb which is where I was 7 years ago.  It’s the last time I weighed myself and thought  “these scales are wrong, these scales HAVE to be wrong”.  Fingers crossed for the end of next month.

Day 35

You remember I mentioned getting a lot of stick from fat-club forum members regarding my forthright opinions?  Well, once particular response caught my  eye.

Regarding: is it better to be 100% on a diet?- clearly in respect to my curry and mints posts, I replied:

Sorry, for not getting back sooner.  I’ve had a lot of hate mail to deal with..
So, to answer someones question about is 100% better than 90%?  My answer is this?  Ask yourself why you are told to stick to the diet.  See if it agrees with my understanding.
CD SS is the quickest way to safely lose weight.  Losing weight is about not eating as much food as your body can burn off.  Except for the calories, what’s the differenece between me eating 4 shakes or 2499 calories worth of sensible food?  There isn’t one.

The CD diet has two roles: it limits your calorie intake and it also attempts to train your mind to accept less food (calories) by dint of being aware of the food you are putting in it.

While it is preferable for all lard-arses to stick to, dare I risk any more hate mail, religeously to any diet it is simply human nature to eat food that is pleasurable, NOT what is good for them.  And, like us all here, I speak from experience.
Now, Otto said that if you are going to committ to the CD in terms of time, money and effort then the effort you should make.  And I agree.
Now for me, as you know, I am pretty single minded about this diet.  I make no appologies for that.  I’m not going to piss about on a diet for years because I’m yo-yoing up and down, feeling good one week then guilty for falling off the wagon the next.
My CDC knows how I feel about it and she reads my blog.  I have nothing to hide.  As Roara said, if she can only stand 4 weeks before going bananas (food pun again) or, shall we say stepping down from, rather than falling off, the wagon.  Then that’s fine by me.  I hope she can manage to go all broccoli and tuna rather than pizza and buns.
So, finally, to answer your question, I’d rather be a 90%er and stay on the wagon than than 100% than off it on some unacceptable yo yo situation.
That other 10% which may equate to a packet of mints or a curry is the way I stay ON the diet, not falling off it.  These are not items of food I ate in desperation.  I didn’t feel guilty after eating them.  I didn’t avoid water for 24 hours before my weigh in.
They were REWARDS.
I have felt pretty ugly for the best part of 10 years.  Since the diet all that’s changed.  I feel good that I am on a diet that I get on with.  I feel good about the fact I am losing weight and most importantly, I feel good about the fact I am, for once in COMPLETE CONTROL of what I eat.
Personally, I think I am right about all my comments and I think the results vindicate what I have said, and the way I have gone about it, despite Otto’s weak (sorry Otto) attempt to stick up for you lot.

Day 34

I measured my neck diameter yesterday for the first time since week 1.  It’s comfortably below 18 inches now.  Yesterday I missed a meal because I went out and forgot to take a shake.  I went looking for something suitable in the Coop.  It ended up being a toss between a scotch egg or some crab sticks.  I went for the crustacean of which I ate half of, just to take the edge off my appetite.

As a result of some female types on the fat-club forum taking great offense to my beratement of dietees snacking on baked potato instead of anything else, I am going to enlist the assistance of someone who perfectly qualifies to comment on what it’s like to me a mother, a working professional, very busy and with a requirement to lose just a few pounds following the birth of her last child.

I would imagine this will do one of two things: either vindicate everything I have said in the fat-club or show me up for the bigoted chauvinist (but effective) dieter that lot think I am.

Anyway, we’ll see.

Just had a shake recce and I seem to be over supplied by 7 shakes.  I’m a bit baffled as I’m sure I only got 21 this week.  That means I’ve either had some left over from last week (likely) or I’ve skipped a fair few shakes.  Also, very likely.  I can’t remember any major meal skipping or swapping for proper food, although I did have a curry last Tuesday.  In a way I’m glad I’m going back onto SS next week as it’s a lot easier to schedule.

I had an unofficial weigh-in on a pretty knackered looking set of scales and the reading was 15 stones 6lb.  The only thing I can safely confer is that there is still a downward trend.  I have grown weary of unofficial weigh-ins and don’t usually bother unless provoked to weigh myself.  All I can say that my trousers are becoming much slacker.