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)