My Diet Dream

I've been too busy to write!  I have now gone under 10 1/2 stone, I'm hoping to soon report that I did actually lose half my bodyweight but I need to wait until I have an official lighterlife weigh.  Life is so busy I can't even get to my group for 3 weeks so it's pop in's only.

I am still losing a little weight but I'm not aiming too although as I'm still on a low calorie diet (2 foodpacks, snacks and one meal) it's inevitable that I loose some weight and that's why I stopped the VLCD before I hit my personal target.  The one thing that is REALLY annoying me now is that people keep saying "oh don't lose any more weight - youv'e lost enough, you'll go to far".  How do you tell them to naff off without them thinking you've developed an eating disorder.   Heres what I think.

I've been overweight my entire adult life, I was a size 16 when I left school.  I was a size 28 when I started lighterlife and I weighed over 20 stone and was "morbidly obese".  I still weigh over 10 stone and I have a "healthy" BMI.  I don't look in the mirror and think I'm fat - I look in the mirror and think I look amazing!  The only thing I am "unhappy" with is the flabbyness.  I have a lot of flab - there are still "rolls" of loose flabby skin on my tummy, my legs are flabby and wobble and I have TERRIBLE bingo wings.  Despite all of this I am a size 10 to 12 and I AM NOT FAT.  I don't think I look fat and I DON'T think I need to lose weight - but if I do still loose a little thats OK, in summer I may put on a little so having a "cushion" is good.  I do need to tone that flab though.  Hence the gym.

Heres a few of the meals I've been eating lately - lovely salads and prawn cocktails.  Oh and the odd three course dinner with a fruit & low fat yoghurt for desert.  Oh yes and diet coke!

Salady dinner

3 course meal

It's just SOOO funny when people don't recognise me.

I went to my old workplace last week and got a million strokes.  I wen't down to the canteen to see the dinner ladies, I saw the manager in the High Street a few months ago and promised her I would come in to see the girls when I went into school.  In I went and I just stood there, couple of them looked over to me but it was only after Yvonne saw me and I spoke that any of them recognised me - they were astonished, they had thought I was a rep wandered in!

Another woman there was actually lost for words - first time in her life as well.

Then there was James old babysitter, he was on lifeguard duty at the club and when I waved through the window he didn't recognise me, it was only when I stood next to him and spoke that he realised who I was.

Then there was a Mum from James' old nursery, and there are loads of other people, I smile at them and they wonder who I am.  The phrase "OH MY GOD!" is something I hear a lot these days.

It's rather nice!

Yes it's allowed from this week.  I don't usually drink at home but having lost 10 stone I thought I'd have a little celebration.  So rather than open a whole bottle I bought a mini bottle of champagne.  The first glass made me squiffy!

I guess my 10 pints in a night are over.

I can't say I'm desperate to have more, but it's nice to know I could enjoy a drink if I ever go out (not very often!).

I also had my first glass of fresh orange juice this week - tasted as good as the champagne.

I'm keeping off the cranberry unless it's a special occasion, I used to drink at least 1 litre a day which probably contributed to my weight problem.

No I havn't pulled - its my friend George Foreman!  I bought a grill and griddle. 

I am totally sick of prawns and now allowed bacon, its the only sort of meat I can really stomach but I have to have thin cut streaky cooked to a crisp.  It wasn't much fun to cook though as I have a huge range cooker and the grill pan is HUGE and heavy and then you have the oven door open and cant really reach the hob to cook your onions etc (all "fried" in water!).

So I bought George - he's a marvel - I can do my bacon to perfection whilst on the other side I griddle mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and leeks.  I have to say I love him - and he's easy to clean when you know how the only downside is I seem to use a lot of kitchen roll which is bad for the planet.

fry up

Well with all this toning to do I really needed to get back to the gym.  I thought about what I did and didn't like before.  I liked the working out but not the journey.  I didn't like waiting till James was in bed to go as I was too tired.  I wouldn't swim there because the changing rooms were DISGUSTING - dirty & dingy. 

So I started to look at Stock Brook Manor, the country club in Billericay.  TBH once I saw the swimming pool on their website I was mostly sold but a telephone enquiry showed it was pricey.  But James and I went for a look around anyway.  And we loved it.  Then I found out that as a teacher I join at the LOWER associate rate, very comperable with other gym memberships, in fact only £2 per month more than full membership of the gym I left earlier in the year!  Although there was an up front joining fee - but that's a one off. So I signed on the dotted line.  I also have to pay monthly for James to be a member as he then gets access to included Kidz Club activities, I can book him in for an hour or 2 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and he is happy whilst I go to the gym.  They do games, art, aquasplash, tennis etc in the Kidz Club - James loves all that! 

So I get to go to a nice gym, use a nice pool and James gets to play wiht other kids and do some interesting activities, he's booked in for art Tuesday, Aquasplash Thursday and 2 hours of games galore and aquasplash on Saturday.

They gym equipment is state of the art and a spcial programme is loaded onto my key which I put into each machine and then I get setup information, it counts reps or time and even tells me which machine to use next.  Some of them even adjust the chairs automaticallly!  The treadmills have their own screens for the TV - as well as the ones on the wall, oh and the treadmills have their own aircon vents.  Its a million times better than my old gym and not a million times more expensive!

To top it all they even do Costa Coffee.

Well finally allowed to cook those veg.  So I started with a stir fry.  TBH it was a bit bland, could have done with some nuts but they are a few weeks away.  Would also have been nice on a bed of rice, but thats weeks away too. I remembered why I don't usually have home made stir fry - I'll stick to the salads!

stir fry

At weigh in yesterday I'd lost 6 pounds since Tuesday! (I knew I hadn't really gained 2 1/2 pounds!).  That puts me down to 10 stone 8 which means I'VE LOST 10 STONE!  Thats more than a lot of women weigh.  It also puts my BMI down to 24.63 which is "healthy".

As for the food, I'm enjoying the fruit but the protein is still a chore.  I'm not finding it hard restricting myself to 1 meal a day, I'm not finding it hard being down to 2 food packs a day either, especially now that I can have them both as bars.  I'm still not much fussed about having "snacks".  For me I don't think snacking is very positive but when I'm back at school next week I'll not have my breakfast of fruit and a bar, I'll save the fruit for break time as I do want to eat when I'm in the staffroom and all my colleagues are eating.  To be honest the conversation at our table is so dull (results, results, results) that eating is a highlight.  I do miss a good chat and a gossip!

And other fruit.  WOOOHOOOOO!

I love fruit - have missed it quite a lot of course when I went to Waitrose to buy some its all flown for miles, there isn't much in season here so anything which was British will have been grown indoors with energy hungry lighting and watering systems.  Rhubarb (which I don't like!) is of course in season but is extortionatly expensive, something my Granny was moaning about just the other day!   There were Cherries - at £13 per KILO!!!  They came from AUSTRALIA.  As did the plums.  Surely nobody needs out of season fruit that badly that they have to fly it halfway around the world.  I stuck to things that had come from Europe, apples, peaches and of course tomatoes.  I did buy some Kiwi fruit from Chile though, which I feel a little guilty about BUT its been a long time since I ate any fruit.

At weigh in last night I'd put on 2 1/2 pounds since Saturday, which I don't believe for one minute that I have it was one of those days when I weighed heavy and to top it all I felt dreadful as I'm suffering from a nasty bout of cystitis - which may have had me retaining some water even.  Funny thing is that I've not been testing for being in Ketosis as I thought the food would have brought me out of it but when I did a sample at the Doc's she said there were ketones in it - so I am still in Ketosis which makes it even less likely that I've put on that weight.  Still I have some strong antibiotics now so fingers crossed the infection will clear up, the nurse also said drink cranberry juice but I won't as I think cranberry juice (which I'm not allowed yet) was one of my weight problems, I used to drink a couple of litres of it a day and it had too much sugar in.  I am allowed 100% fruit juice so I may have an OJ when I'm out.

I did enjoy my fruit, I had a peach with breakfast, an apple with lunch and tomatoes with my salad.  I made sure to keep it balanced though and not go over my 5 portions of fruit and veg with the salad.  I also had a great mix of colours to my fruit and veg, green, white, red, orange.

This week there is also a long list of protien foods we can add - of course I don't eat any of them.  I must be starting to look like a prawn!  Its down to 2 foodpacks a day now, so I'm having them all in peanut bars. 

I did a pop in today and I've lost 3 1/2 pounds so weighing in at 10 stone 12 pounds now!  Which is actually the same as Mum weighs, although she is a little behind me being 5 inches shorter!

Got some fantastic bargains in the charity shops today.  An evening gown, seperate bustier and skirt for just a tenner - looks divine on and there will be a piccy soon.  I also got some glittery river island jeans, hipsters!  Size 12 is good!!!

Food wise again there havn't been a lot of thoughts, I had a skinny latte today so I used some of my milk for once.  I didn't get my dinner until really late tnight because I was waiting for an Ebay pick up and they were late.  I did ring the changes a little by adding some white crab meat to my protien and making a little fromage frain and chive dip/sauce which I had over my mushrooms - it tasted a bit like sour cream and chive dip and was quite yummy.  Still no real thoughts after eating though.  All along I've had trouble with lack of "thoughts".  Never mind, at least I'm writing them down.