A Great Weigh-In Day!

I was a little worried about this week....again. But it was all a waste of worry as usual, and I have lost another 4 lbs! I can obviously tell I'm losing. My Jeans are much looser. My legs are less swollen. My belly has gone all soft. But its at the point where I can't judge week by week if I have lost any more or not. It's not because I have cheated or not stuck to the plan. How can I? I keep advertising everything I'm eating on here! :) You have to believe me too because I keep losing all this weight.

That took me past my 1 Stone Award!


Then I also got Slimmer of the week again!


And then to top it all off, I got Slimmer of the Month TOO!


I was starting to get a little embarrassed after the 3rd visit to the middle to get my 3rd certificate.

And my graph is still following it's predicted route down. Oh I should probably explain what the graph colors etc are.
Red is what I have already weighed in at week by week.
Blue is my predicted weightloss based on how I have been losing.
The Green line is my Club 10 Target (26 Stones), which is when I have lost 10% of my body weight.

So in Summary, after 1 month (4 weeks) of attending Slimming World I have lost 1 stone 3 and a half pounds / 17 and a half pounds / 8 Kilograms!

Looking forward with renewed Motivation

So the Dietitian had her say and caused a bit of worry, however, after a lot of thought, talk, advice and opinions, I think I have come out the other side with a better state of mind and confidence in what I'm doing.

I also realized just how comfortable I am with this "Diet" or as I'm now thinking of it, eating lifestyle change. An old friend who made a similar lifestyle change 2 years back and is still sticking to it, has encouraged me to think of it as a lifestyle change. I kind of was, but didn't realize just how comfortable I was with it, till seeing the dietitian who tried to take it away from me or at least tried to change it! :P I'm happy with how I'm eating, what I'm eating and can see myself eating like this the rest of my life. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

I didn't ignore her completely. I have taken on board some of what she said. Moved a cereal bar in to breakfast. Reducing the carbs at night. But sticking with the fruit! Essentially, I changed what I could, that fits into Slimming World, and MY LIFESTYLE and whats working for ME!

I'm eating well, I'm eating Healthy, I'm eating regularly, and already feeling the benefits of it. I'm going to stick with that, and as long as I keep losing weight, then I will be happy.

If and when I do ever plateau or stop losing, I'll worry about it then! And do something then to kick start the weight loss again. It really is pointless worrying about it now! Actually, my first day at slimming world, before I even lost an ounce I got that advice from 1 of the guys there, Rob. He said something along the lines of When you stop losing or the losing slows right down. Just change what you eating or how much you eating, and it will soon start again.

PS. Tonight's Slimming World Paella was DELICIOUS! Adding that to the weekly Meal list!

Confused, frustrated and unsure what to do!!

Today I have suffered a blow, which seems to have had a massive detrimental effect on my motivation, confidence and desire to shed this weight.

As part of my doctor's plans to help me lose weight and fix my leg, the third step was to go see a National Health dietician. So I went off to the appointment this afternoon confident the dietician was going to re-afirm that slimming world was great and my weight losses have been impressive, and that I must stick at it, and all is going to be well in the end. In stead I was told the following in order of severity:

1. I'm losing weight to fast and if I don't slow down, it will not be sustainable, will grind to a halt, I'll get demotivated, change my eating back to "normal" and put it all back again plus more.
2. I'm not eating enough carbs in the morning and should have carbs with every meal, including breakfast. Even consider eating another portion of bread?!?!
3. I'm eating too much fruit, which is my current fav breakfast and "go to snack" when hungry between meals.
4. Need to eat less proteins in general, especially eggs.
5. Need to have smaller portions at my evening meal and no carbs after 8pm.

-----

1. I can sort of understand what's being said, but I'm desperate to lose now cause a) I want to get home and b) I want to lose enough so I can start some kind of sport. Sport is such a fun way to exercise. Swimming and gym are no fun to me! --- Also, I'm really enjoying how I'm eating now. It's easy, tasty and satisfying. Trying to slow it, means eating more or differently, which could end up being hard to balance between losing and gaining. What I'm doing now is working.
2. I don't do milk = I don't do cereal, so morning carbs kind need to be bread, or what? Rice? Pasta? Potato? .. Hash browns maybe? :p another portion of bread? I have only just weened myself off that evil stuff, now I need to go back on it?
3. I have just managed to get over my previous go to snacks, bread, crisps, chocolate. Fruit breakfast was so nice to get used to, now I find out it's wrong! I manage to make it through the day without being hungry, by eating fruit when I am hungry...now?
4. Eggs is the only thing I really eat too much of, but I can probably easily reduce that.
5. I rely on my decent size evening meal at 7pm to get me through the night to my usual bed times of 1, 2 or 3am, with minimal snacking after 10pm or 11pm.

What to do, where to find a middle ground, who is best to follow, slimming world who got me eating what I'm eating when I'm eating, or the dietician?

Sigh!!! Help!

6lbs Loss! Slimmer of the week!!!

Thank you everyone for the support and watchful eyes! A great result his week. I aimed higher than previous weeks at albs purposefully to try force a bigger loss, and it paid off! 6lbs!

I could have done with an extra half a pound to make my 1 stone award, but it will be hard not to get that next week.

It was great to get slimmer of the week too. I won a nice big basket of fruit! :D I find that so motivating too. If you doing good and everyone sees it, then it's so hard to almost disappoint by doing bad the next week.

Secrets of this weeks success:
1. Optimised my meals 100%
2. Snacked fruit MOST of the time
3. Aimed for as many Super Speed items in a day as I could.
4. Lots of fruit breakfasts
5. Was fairly low on sins most days.
6. Swimming!
7. Never went hungry.
8. Karen has been super helpful with meals
9. And last but not least, I really think the blog and sharing this publicly, has helped make it easier to keep myself strict!

So again, thank you all for keeping an eye on me!

P.S. In the image the Blue line is the automatic prediction by Slimming World, its not what i have lost :P)

Weigh in Day!

Feeling great

I've decided no matter what the scale tells me on Monday, this diet is already paying off. I'm feeling great! My belly has gone all soft. It Looks as big as it normally does, but it's changed in the way it feels, and that's got to be a good thing!


Duane

Problem with my fruit breakfasts!!

This week I have been trading in the cooked breakfasts for a breakfast of fruit. And it's been great!

It started because I wanted to get some "Super Slimming" melon into my day. Each day I vary the other fruit: apple, pear, yellow plums, banana, grapes, orange. Some days a splash of Fat Free Natural Yogurt. It's been pretty good, and who wouldn't like a good healthy serving of fruit?

So....the problem is: you know how monkeys like fruit? Well I seem to have attracted the attentions of a cheeky little Pink monkey, who keeps sneaking up to my bowl of chopped fruit and steals a grape or piece of melon, or piece of apple! I'll try get a snapshot of the crime in action, but the little Pink monkey is a little camera shy when she's up to no good!

:D I love you Kaydee!


Duane

Friday night supper

Tonight I decided to make my own supper. It's not a first, but it not a every day thing, especially since I started the diet. I normally want to put in sauces and chutneys and olive oil and nice tasting stuff like that! I'm not sure how well the photo is going to come out, but the supper was great!

As part of this week's efforts to lose more weight than previous weeks I am eating "Super Slimming" foods. One of them being cod. And one of my favourite ways to eat fish is how my dad used to cook fish for us. A big selection of various flavours of grilled fish in foil. Anyone who has ever had fish supper with my dad will know exactly what I'm talking about and no doubt agree that trying to compete with my dads fish supper is a wasted effort, but I gave it my best go and kept it a FREE supper!

So I had 4 pieces of Cod that needed some Jazzing up. Spice drawer here I come.

Firstly I did a Ground black pepper and Lemon Fish.
Then I did a Quark and spring onion with a dash of lemon, though I think the lemon may have been a bad choice to add to that 1.
Third fish I tried something Ive never had or even heard of and grabbed the Mustard! (Oh...so not completely free of Syns, add 1 for the Mustard) A bit of Lemon to go with it and some more Ground black pepper.
The last 1 was the 1 that was always going to be made....Paprika and Cayenne pepper with a little red and yellow pepper.

As the fish went in I poured some boiling water into the Mediterranean Cous Cous, and while soaked up the water and the fish cooked I threw together a Tomato and Onion Salad/Salsa, vaguely reminiscent of Sister Carol Clarke's Tomato and Onion Salads (Yum)!

The Cous Cous turned out to be way too much, but the fish never stood a chance as I gobbled it all up flake by flake! My favourite was probably the mustard one, closely followed by the Paprika and Cayenne. The Quark actually turned out much better than I thought it would (it was a bit of an experiment. I would have done cheddar, but unfortunately i used my Cheese Healthy Extra on my lunch this afternoon, so Free Quark was my best option) Sadly I think the Lemon and black pepper was desperately missing their best friend Mr Butter! :( I may suffer some Syns next time and put some butter in with the Lemon Fish.

Mini target

I must be honest, I'm starting to worry about this mini target that I set on Monday, to lose 5lbs. I aimed higher than I have lost in the previous 2 weeks to try push myself, but now after 3 more days, almost half way through the week, I'm seriously starting to doubt that I'm going to make that target!

Is it a good thing or bad thing to set your targets high and risk disappointment?

Would it be better to take the laid back approach of just seeing how it goes and not committing to anything other than sticking to it and seeing where it takes me.

The 2 things I'm doing to try have a better week, is firstly bought some Super Slimmer fruits, and plan to get some fish in before Monday. :p and secondly started swimming again. But is it going to be enough? It doesn't feel any better than last week.

Maybe I should fast from Sunday night to weigh in! :p hehe Unfortunately I don't think that's going to help my next week much.

Anyway, if any of you out there with some advice on the topic, let me have it! And if any of you out there are the praying type, remember me in your prayers!

Swimming

Last night we decided to kick off the exercise phase of my lose weight campaign with a family swim. Although I ended up not spending as much time with the boys and Kaydee as I normally would because I went off and started doing some lengths. An hour and 30 lengths later I was tired. I kind of mixed it up with some fast lengths and a break and then some slow lengths. During the breaks while I got my breath back I would try keeping my legs and arms moving to get some extra exercise. Near the end I could only do slow lengths. :p I'm not sure which is best, fast or slow, or if a mix is best. I see most people there doing slow lengths, but I like to do the fast lengths to get bit of a cardio work out too. Goodness only knows I need the cardio work out! If anyone knows which is best, please let me know.

After I was getting bored with the slow lengths, and because Keenen and Dylan looked like they we're having fun with the hoop throwing game they were playing, I decided to go join in. Once Jaycee saw I was over with the boys playing about, she came over and the inevitable "Crocodile Monster" game followed.....shortly followed by the boys getting more and more aggressive. It soon turned into a "Pile on Dad" game where I think the objective is to see how many of them I can pick up out of the water at the same time, and then see how long they can hang on to my arms. :D

After a good workout, we got home to supper, a beef and veg cottage pie. It was pretty good, though I'm not sure about this cauliflower and broccoli in a cottage pie thing.... :/

After dinner I put on some Heineken cup rugby (the things you will watch in the absence of Super Rugby....hehe actually I have been catching up on Leicester games this year, and it's a pretty high standard.), and fell sleep on the couch. The up side to that is I didn't eat a snack later last night.

Anyway, it was really good to get swimming again and i'm going to try get to the pool at least 3 times a week again. I can't wait to lose a bit more weight so I can go do some slightly more physical stuff. Oh hurry the day I can get on a volleyball court again and actually play the gaMe the way my mind wants to play it!

Inspiration photo

I look at these photos of me in the army and cant believe I looked like this, or that I ever weighed 80KGs! Or that I had so much hair, and even then it was receding! :p

I wonder if the army would take me back or see any potential in my current state? :p Even for just the 6 weeks basic training. Or maybe I can recruit a Personal "Corporal" Trainer to starve me, shout at me, wake me at 5am for daily punishment and PT, then march me up and down the square before "lunch", then punish me some more, then chase me to the boundary fence with a tank track/ammo case/truck tow bar/truck tire, then expect me to stay awake through an hour class by a sergeant-major with turets, then punish me for falling asleep, and just for good measure take me on a long run/march/walk in case I didn't get enough exercise today! Hehe

I'll either lose weight or die. Probably the later since back then I only weighed 95 KGs at the start, was super fit from all the volleyball, felt like I was going to die some days, and still lost 15KGs in 6 weeks!

Well it will certainly take me much longer, but will be far more pleasant a process to arrive at my target weight of 90KGs if I just stick to what I'm doing. The only problem is that I have to imagine Cpl Wolfie in my head keeping me in line!

Summary to date

I covered some of the last 2 weeks results in the opening post, but here is a summary of what's happened in the first 2 weeks before I started blogging about it:

My First Group meeting was on 31/01/2011, and I weighed in at 28 St 12.5 lbs. For the South Africans who just said "HUH?" That works out at about 184 KG! Twice the weight I want to be 14St/196lbs/90KGs, and Slightly more than double the recommended weight for my height 12St 8lbs/176lbs/80KGs.

The first day actually on Diet was 01/02/2011. A nice easy day to remember. Normally Tuesdays are a Day in the office in Leeds, which complicates diet meals dramatically, however, since it was the first of the month, I had a load of month end stuff to get on with, so I worked from home.

I won't give a full diary of what I ate in these first 2 weeks, because basically the Food Diaries have been handed in to my Slimming world leader and I haven't had them back yet.

But the long and short of it was we probably made a few mistakes with some of the meals, but for the most part we stuck to the plan.

1 of the hardest things for me that week was cutting back on the crisps. I used to eat way too many crisps. We almost always have the big multipack bags of crisps for the kids, and I would eat at least 3 of those a day...most days anyway. Weekends I may forgo the small multipack packets and buy 1 or 2 Large bags of Kettle Fried Crisps! So this week I tried to go cold turkey to kill the craving. I ended up buying a multipack of Walkers Baked on the Friday. They only have 98kcal which works out to 5 Syns per single packet. I'm pleased to say in the 12 days since I bought them, I have only made my way through 4 packets of the 6 packet multipack!

As the first week drew to a close I started realizing I had a very very bad habit that I was oblivious to before, because it seemed practical, rather than a habit! The habit is to walk downstairs to the Fridge, Open the door and see what I can grab to eat. Luckily, it wasn't subconscious enough that I would actually take something out when I opened the fridge, but I still found myself standing in front of the open fridge thinking...."what can I eat". At the beginning of the week i thought it was just hunger making me do it, but as the week progressed and I got into the routine of how to avoid being hungry on this diet, even when i wasn't hungry, I would still find myself standing in front of the fridge scanning the shelves and Drawers for something...anything...! :P

The first week came to an end on Monday 07/02/2011, and I went to weigh in weighing 28St 8lbs/400lbs/181.5KGs. A loss of 4.5lbs/2KGs. Whilst some might think that's not a bad start, I would be lying to say I wasn't disappointed. I have had bigger losses in a week in my life before. I probably didn't eat as well as I did that first week, but I have definitely lost more in a week.

The second week started out with a big concern. I was traveling away to Dorchester for some training with the supplier of some new Telecoms Equipment we recently bought, and I would be eating out, and staying over the Tuesday night, then traveling back late Wednesday. How the hell was I going to make it through eating out while on diet!?

With a reasonably sized cooler-bag stuff full of fruit I headed off. By the time I got to Dorchester and the Host took us to lunch, I was drowning in Grapes, apples and oranges, peaches, pears and bananas, and was quite content to sit and chat with a glass of diet coke, while everyone else was tucking in to their Pheasant, Mackerel and whatever else. It was dinner I was concerned about!

Hunger was settling in when we sat down at the restaurant with the menus, and I was ready to eat just about anything taking the night as a "Holiday". 1 of the hosts asked what I was going to order and I said I was just going to sit back and follow the crowd since whatever it was was NEVER going to fit into the diet. So she started asking about the diet and I explained what i could, not being an authority on Slimming World. She listened to all i had to say and then had a look at the menu for me and recommended the steak since it didn't really come with much else, and the meat while not Lean, would probably be reasonable and I could always cut around any fat that was visible. Thats when it suddenly dawned on me that I could at least try stick to the diet as best I could. The Steak was actually fairly Lean and hit the spot along with some of the grilled Cherry Tomatoes that were served with it.

That morning I tucked into the rest of the fruit that was still being kept fresh in the cooler-bag for breakfast. You got to love Fruit!

Lunch was to pose a similar problem to dinner though, but I was hoping there would be a nice salad at the restaurant. Boy oh boy was I in for a treat! I went with the Chicken and Bacon Salad. I probably could have asked them to hold the bacon as it wasn't going to be lean, but there wasn't very much of it anyway, and I just counted it as Syns. But Man was that a proper MAN SIZED salad! I walked away very satisfied, and fairly well on diet!

The drive home was another long 1 and Hunger was banging on the door again, so I pulled into some services to have a quick break and see if there was anything remotely acceptable to eat. unbelievably there was a Subways, who serve a salad. Not the best and about half the size of the salad I had for lunch, but I had a pack of nice lean Tikka Chicken Breast to add to the salad and it turned out great!

Who would have known that my meals away from the house would turn out to be as good as what they did!

The rest of the week went according to plan, and I really felt like despite the 2 days away, I had done really well that week and was hoping for a nice big loss on Monday.

The second week came to an end on Monday 14/02/2011, and I went to weigh in weighing 28St 5lbs/397lbs/18KGs. A loss of 3lbs/1.5KGs. It was a roller-coaster ride of thoughts, emotions and expectations of a week, but I was still disappointed to have only lost what I did. I was really hoping for more, even though when i showed up at weigh in feeling bloated and like I might have put on. :P I did however walk away from the meeting with 2 certificates. 1 for reaching 1/2 St/7lbs/3.5KGs, and 1 for being joint slimmer of the week!? Not sure how that happened with only 3 lbs lost!

This week they asked us to set "Mini-Targets" and I went at what I thought was conservative, yet more than I had lost in a week yet and at least closer to the amounts I want to be losing a week: 5 lbs. unbelievable, that too got a round of applause! They are so easily pleased at my group... :P

The week has started well though and my focuses are to:

• Keep optimising


• Reduce the "healthy snacks" as much as I can so that my calorie intake can be lower


• And try eat as many Super Speed Slimming Items a day as I can


These are things like Berries, Melons, Yellow Plums, Grapefruit, Baked Beans, Peas, some fish (Cod and Haddock are the easy ones)

Slimming World Extra Easy Basics

For those of you who know nothing about Slimming World "Extra Easy" plan, Ill try put it into a a few simple lines:

• Free Foods (Eat Anytime, Any Amount)


Beans, Starchy Veg, Rice, Pasta, Noodles, Eggs, Fat Free Natural Dairy
Lean Meats, Lean Poultry, Lean Game, Practically Any Fish including Oil Fish and Shellfish


• Superfree Foods (Eat Anytime, Any Amount)


Practically ALL Fresh Fruit and Veg
This should make up about 1/3 of what you eat at meals, and shoudl be your first choice for snacks


• Healthy Extras


You need to eat a measured amount of a Healthy Extra A and B every day
HExtra A's = Dairy Products
HExtra B's = Cereals, Crisp Breads, Whole Meal Breads, Soups, Dried, Canned or Cooked Fruit


• Syns


Everything else including extra HExtra A's or B's
There is a extension Branded and General Database of Syn values for almost everything we buy/eat in the UK


• Preparation of the food is Key!


Don't cook with any fat, if you do, add Syns.

So Basically you have a lot of liberty with what and how much you eat as long as you prepare it correctly and stay away from Fat and Sugar.
With an emphasis on Fruit, Veg, Lean Protein and Healthy Carbs.

The Before Picture

The Before Picture
Originally uploaded by valduane

So with every Diet journey you obviously need the "Before Picture". Karen will moan that she could obviously take a better picture, but this will do! :)

Enough is enough!

I'm done with this fat thing! I've started showing signs of blood circulation problems in my legs, which has stopped me being able to fly, and I am dieing to go home and see my dad this year, so Enough is enough!

So the Doctor has firstly referred me to the nurse who has already given me compression sock things that are squeezing the living day lights out of my legs in an effort to get the blood circulating properly.

Secondly she has reffered me to a Dietitian, first appointment next week.

Thirdly referred me to Slimming World, which I started on 31/01/2011 and at my first weigh in (07/02/2011) I had lost 4.5lbs, which was good, althoguh less than expected, and less than I have lost on some hard core diets in the past!

But they always say, "To keep it off, you need to change the WAY you eat, and lose slowly!" Slowly is okay, but I have a serious need to get on a plane and get to South Africa! So...it better speed up a little at least!

Anyway, my Slimming World weigh in days are Monday Nights at 17:30. So last night (14/02/2011) I went to weigh in, and although I really wasn't sure what my weight would do, I was seriously hoping that I had done enough last week to lose a good half a stone (7lbs) at least. In my disappointment at only losing 3lbs I sat there brooding...
thinking where am I going wrong?
Is it worth it at this pace?
Will I stay focused at this pace to see this through not only to my target weight, but to any of the interim targets along the way?

Anyway, as I sat there questioning myself, my motivation, my reasosn for doing this, my expectations, and more, I suddenly thought, Maybe I need to make my plans and results and even my food diaries more public. So All my friends work colleagues and Family can see what Im doing, and hopefully that pressure of being so public about it will HELP keep me Honest, Strict and Motivated! Thats how I ended up here on this blog, explaining myself and sharing my journey ahead with you all.

Well I will make some more posts as I go along explaining a little more about the Slimming World concept, and details of how I am sticking to it, but for now, I will just tell you I am taking it very serious, and have stuck to it pretty well since starting, so I really am disappointed to see how slowly the weight is coming off. Especially seeing as some people on slimming world are reporting 12, 15 and 17lbs a week. (Not in my group, but somewhere int he UK)

Everything you eat that is not free or over your normal Healthy Extra's count as Syns, and I have only once gone over my limit on Syns in 14 days. At least half the other days have been less than 50% of the max Syns I could have a day. And I have been very good at recording what gets eaten....so surely i should be losing quciker?

Anyway, Whatever happens it will be here on the internet for all to read and comment on. Hopefully this blog will have a happy ending and you will all enjoy the journey with me.

Duane