Cake, cake and cola

Had to face a challenge today - a children's birthday party! I went without even a thought that it could be a problem, only to discover that the first thing that happened was the offer of a glass of coke or orange squash to drink and I so wanted to say yes.  Then I was faced with a plate of crisps leftover by my child and I picked one up without thinking, it never touched my lips I promise. The final thing was special made cupcakes for the adults, which I sadly turned down.  It was a testing 90 minutes but does show some of the challenges. 

I'm feeling very bloated today and I'm hoping it isnt the milk. I've had 3 cups of decaf coffee today with a little bit in each time, so not a lot but the diet does say that bloating is one of the signs of intolerance.  I will moniter it and see. Might try not having any tomorrow and see if the bloating improves.

Today's food

Bacon and fried eggs for breakfast
Ham salad for lunch
Homemade korma curry and chicken followed by natural yoghurt for dinner

I'm finding that I cannot eat much at each mealtime but I'm also not getting hungry between meals, which I suppose is a good thing but it just seems weird. I've never eaten large meals but would have eaten a large amount of chocolate and cake inbetween.

Weigh day tomorrow.

On to phase 2

Sorry about no blog yesterday but as I started to feel a bit better the rest of the household decided to go down with it, so an early night was called for.

I have to be honest, I really struggled with the diet yesterday. I still felt quite nauseous and I really wanted something sugary, the chocolates and cakes in Tescos were just shouting at me to buy them....all of them.  And I was very tempted.  I was strong but could have cried at the thought of what to eat at the next meal.  I asked the forum for the diet for some advice and it sounds like I could have been experiencing candida die off. This is where I would have had a serious overgrowth of candida (which is possible when I look at the symptoms) and suddenly starving it by following the diet starts to kill it off and it creates a lot of the symptoms I felt for the last couple days.  This could also explain the sugar craving as the candida was trying to get something to feed on.  Or it could just be that I had a virus and being ill made me feel like that.  Either way I made the decision to start stage 2 a bit early.

I've started by introducing milk.  I had porridge made with milk for breakfast, I can't say it was scrummy but much nicer than made with water and I've had a decaf coffee with a bit of milk in this afternoon. Having read about phase 2, it is more complex to get your head round. The main rule is not mixing fats and carbs at the same meal. This is because of the way your body breaks them down and stores them.  Once I get my head around it it will be fine but at the moment it seems very strange.

As for the greater variety of food on phase 2, it is advised to introduce them slowly over time so you can see if any of them give you symptoms or stops weight loss. This would indicate an intolerance and you leave them a few weeks before trying them again.

My weight loss will slow and as some of it came off while I was ill I am expecting I might gain a little or plateau during the first couple of weeks.  But as much as I want and need to lose weight,  it is also important to me that we eat real food, so we don't inadvertently eat horsemeat or worse!

Today's food

Porridge with milk for breakfast
Tin of tuna and cucumber for lunch
Salmon, crudites and homemade zatziki for dinner

I'm going to cook a curry tomorrow from the recipe book, see if we can make anything exciting.  We can't have chicken and rice with it as that would be mixing, it is one or the other. Fingers crossed that it is tasty

Phase one total weight loss......

..............is 8lb!!!!  Cannot believe it, seemed so easy.

Sorry I didnt blog yesterday but I've been really ill for the last 24 hours with a cold/flu type thing. Still not great but well enough to do a quick update.

I've asked on the diet forum about whether the illness could be linked to the diet but looks unlikely and that I've just been unlucky in getting ill while starting it.  As always trying to follow a diet while ill is difficult, I've been off my food but trying to eat as much as I can at each meal. The thing that has surprised me is usually if I'm ill I live on junk and yet I have chocolate biscuits in the house and never entertained eating them.  I've not gone off the diet at all other than not being able to eat much.

The recipe book arrived yesterday so if I feel better tomorrow I am hoping to be able start planning phase 2. We should be starting it on Sunday and I am looking forward to introducing a variation to the food.

So to recap my start weight was 15st 12lb and in the first 5 days on phase 1 I lost 8lb so my current weight is 15st 4lb.  I will next weigh on Sunday morning at the end of the 2nd round of phase 1.

How much can I lose in 10 days?

Day 5 - nearly the end

The weight this morning was 15st 5.75lb, which is a loss of 6.25lb in 4 days. I'm pretty impressed especially as it hasn't been that hard to do.  Tomorrow morning will be the last weigh in to find out the total weight loss for phase 1 but I have concerns about tomorrow's weigh in. I'm made up with a stinking cold and I've hardly eaten today because of it. I have tried to eat something at every meal but don't know if it will be enough to have a weight loss.

As it has been easy we have decided to do phase 1 for another 5 days until I have read and understood phase 2. Quite a few differences in phase 2 and a bigger selection of food.

Sorry for a short and sweet blog tonight but feeling pretty rubbish.

Fingers crossed that I've not done too much damage today.

Day 4 and T.M.I (sorry)

This morning I had put 0.25lb on, I was a bit disgruntled until I remembered that .....here it comes......I hadn't poo'd for a couple of days (told you it was t.m.i) and there we had the challenge of the day. How do I solve this?

I have continued with the diet as planned but started doing a bit of research.  It turns out that this problem isnt uncommom during phase 1 because of how the diet is adjusted. We are mainly eating meat, vegetables and eggs.  We can have the dreaded porridge or 50g brown rice which didn't much appeal but both of these could have helped with my problem.  The other cure which is recommended by Zoe Harcombe is vitamin c.  Now I have never heard of this as a cure for constipation but found loads of information on the web about it. Turns out that because it is water soluble your body takes what it needs then dispels what it doesn't need along with whatever else is there.  Tah-dah, I've learnt something today.

Another t.m.i moment now, but this morning I disovered that I had been suffering my p.m.t days for the last few days and I hadn't noticed! No cravings, no 'I need chocolate NOW', nothing. Normally I eat non stop during this last week and yet I've still survived. I'm feeling more and more confident that this diet is better for my body and is the way to go.

Feeling much less fuzzyheaded than I have done for a few days but I have started with a cold so feel rubbish from that but otherwise I think I'm starting to feel brighter.

We tried the brown rice tonight.  I was worried it was going to be bland but I boiled it and then fried it in chilli olive oil with some celery, spring onions and peas and it was very tasty. Will definitely be using brown rice again.

Now, fingers crossed that there is a little bit less of me in the morning.

Day 3 - still going strong

I now weigh 15st 6.75lb, which means I have lost 5.25lb in just 2 days and yet I've never been hungry and eaten real food the whole time. The diet seems to be what it says on the tin so to speak.

Today is a Saturday and usually that is where any diet we do goes to pot but we had planned this weekend carefully knowing that we wouldn't feel good but also because we didnt want to put temptation in our way. And guess what.....we survived it!  And that includes an unscheduled visit to McDonalds, aren't we doing well? Already watching people eating burgers and drinking fizzy drinks were stomach turning, reading Zoe Harcombe's book Stop Counting Calories and Start Losing Weight explains what processed foods do to your body and it really makes you think.  I found it hard to even buy the food for my 4 year old daughter but as much as we would like to have her eat the healthy food, I think it best to do it a bit at a time. I would like her to eventually choose healthier options for herself.

We have to be very careful when we talk about diets as our daughter often talks about what she can and can't eat and I worry that she is too young to be focussed on food. So we try to talk about healthy eating rather than diet and hope she learns by example.

Today's food

Scrambled egg and bacon
Ham salad with olive oil and herb dressing
Roast chicken with roast parsnips and mixed veg
Natural full fat yoghurt for desserts (yummy, I'm serious I love it)

No cravings at all and don't even feel hungry, just need to break the habit of eating whenever I feel like it.  Still feeling tired but hard to tell if that is a cold, or poorly child or diet.

What will tomorrow's weight be? I'm stupidly excited about getting weighed in the morning.....think I need more of a life!

Day 2

After finding yesterday relatively easy, it was a pleasant surprise this morning to discover that I had lost 1.5lb already. Now weighing in at 15 st 10.5lb. Could not believe it, in previous diets that could be a full weeks weight loss. I'm not naive enough to think that that size of weight loss will continue but as a start I am loving it. I was hoping for a 1lb a day during phase 1, so running ahead at the minute.

Spent a couple of hours at the hospital with my poorly daughter during last night, so was feeling pretty rubbish this morning. In the past I would have used this as an excuse to spend the day drinking coffee and eating biscuits and cakes but I was determined I wasn't going to do that this time. I've stuck to it again and finding that I don't need such big portions even though I'm not hungry between meals. I had 2 scrambled eggs for breakfast at about 9am and had 1.30 had lunch because I thought I should.

It is still hard not to just put things into your mouth, a couple times today I nearly had a crisp or a bit of biscuit. It was done without any thought and I just stopped at the last minute. It will be a hard habit to break.

I've had headache today but not sure if that was down to lack of sleep or withdrawal symptoms but either way it has gone now and day 2 is completed without any problems.

Here is to day 3 - bring it on