Noticing a Difference

I guess it must be the change in my diet, at least I hope it is, but I've noticed a difference in some subtle things. It's my time of the month at the moment. Now usually I am an evil cow for the week leading up to it and a few days into it, made worse by excruciating pains and bloating. This month I have had no bloating (my trousers are so loose that I keep worrying that they've come undone), hardly any pain, just an occasional dull ache and my temper is fine (I don't even feel particularly grumpy let alone homicidal). I haven't even had a craving for chocolate, not even the teensiest bit. If this is the future then long may it continue!

Mixed Feelings

I'm feeling a bit of a failure today. After stating in my other blog that I was going to go walking every day, I only managed that one day and haven't done it since because of the weather. I know I ought to make more of an effort, but really can't get motivated to do it when the sun isn't shining. This is a 'head thing' and something that I really need to get sorted. I do own an umbrella so there should be no problem with me going out, whatever the weather. If worst comes to worst I also have my treadmill which I should be pounding away on having not been out. I can feel me sabotaging myself but can't seem to do anything about it.

One thing I did manage to do today was to go through my kitchen cupboards and chuck out everything out of date and sort out for disposal all the things that I won't be able to eat after Easter (with, I have to admit, the exception of my cajun food collection - that is going nowhere and I have to live with the fact that if I choose to stuff myself with all that wonderful food then I'll be paying for it for a while).

The one thing I have got my head round with the IPD is that it is a change for life, not just for a few weeks or months. It is vital that I stick to it 100% for at least the first 2 weeks which is why I am not starting till after Easter - but I'm positive I can do it. I am determined to be smaller for Jo's wedding if only so that I feel more comfortable in the baking heat, although of course it would be lovely to fit into something not resembling a tent too.

Today my M&S magicwear dresses turned up. They seem tiny due to the control fit (I knew they wouldn't fit immediately) but this (the black one, not yet sure about the check) is my first motivational goal. I WILL FIT INTO THAT DRESS!

One good thing about changing my eating habits is the quality of my meals. I am finally cooking again and everything tastes delicious. Tonight's meal was a starter of prawn and avocado followed by a marlin steak marinated in fresh lemon & lime juice, with a touch of chili oil, balsamic vinegar and black pepper with a baked potato (properly baked rather than microwave pinged as I usually do as it'll be one of the last I'll be having) and green french beans and broccoli. I was supposed to have a baked banana with some greek yoghurt for dessert, but I am too full (yay!)

Tomorrow will be a bit of a challenge as I will be eating out before the concert - but I'm intending to take cous cous bolognese for lunch and that and the scrambled egg I'll be having for breakfast should give me plenty of scope for food later in the day. Tomorrow I also get to try the Rooibos tea that I bought a few days ago as my spiced chai ones have run out. I haven't yet managed to work out wheter I can continue to have my spiced chai teabags during phase 1, I have a feeling that I can't as they aren't decaffeinated. I just hope that the Rooibos tastes OK. I'm already not looking forward to having to switch to soya milk (I still remember how awful it tasted the last time I had some, although I'm hoping that was 'cos it was sweetened).

This is getting confusing ...

Trying to stick to one plan while getting ready to move to another is getting confusing. This is because they are so different to each other. Loads of the food on the IPD is high points on WW and loads of stuff I can eat on WW is a complete no-no on IPD because of the high carb content. The problem is that since I became aware of all the carbs I've been subconsciously (or maybe not even that) moving away from the carbier foods. Instead of the chicken pittas I had planned I had chicken and vegetables and I've had salads etc. instead of sandwiches. Except for today, when I had scrummy macaroni cheese. One of the problems is that using loads of points on non-carby things is leaving me hungry beacuse I can't eat all the things IPD would allow or my points would be sky high, but I'm not ready to switch to IPD till after Easter. Having looked in my cupboards there is so much that I have to get rid of, and eating it is not going to be the sensible answer. Time to get ruthless in the kitchen and have a big clearout.

Vitamins and Other Stuff

I finished the IPD book last night (now to be forever known as the pink bible or PB). I have decided that this is definitely going to be the way to go. However, as I'm going to be in it for the long run (I expect to be on Phase 1 for at least 6 months) and it is going to cost more than any other eating plan (note I'm trying to not say the 'D' word here) I am building up to it slowly.

My current plan is to start after Easter. I want to be able to drink and eat what I want over Easter as mum, Jo and I are having a girly weekend complete with wedding dress shopping so it makes sense to start after that as it is vital to stick to the plan for at least the first 2 weeks.

Having done a serious study into the vitamins required I've finally found (I think) the best places to get them. If anyone knows a better place for any of them please feel free to let me know. I have decided to buy them this month, offsetting them against my rising shopping bill next month.

Multivitamins - I&N recommend Solgar and although you can get cheaper, having checked, it definitely is a case of you get what you pay for (most multivitamins either contain iron or the coating is made of carby oils). So I'm going to go with these. The cheapest place I've found for them (and the psyllium husks) is a site called Nutriglow*. For the milk thistle and the Coenzyme Q10 Holland & Barrett have both in their sale at the moment, although Healthspan come a close second in price (even without a sale). I have ordered the chromium, fish oil and vitamin B complex from them - good prices and using voucher code VPOL-RN I saved another £2.

The weirdest thing about the eating plan is the stuff I won't be able to eat on Phase 1. In fact it takes quite a large mind adjustment to realise that whilst I know that pasta, rice, noodles, potatoes and bread don't do me any good at all, neither does a lot of the 'healthy' food I buy. As I reported the other day aubergine has the same carb content as a potato and so I guess they are off the menu for the rest of the year, but also so is most fruit (definitely no bananas), starchy vegetables and all those seeds I have in salads etc. - in fact most of the food I currently eat. Also a no-no is yoghurt, milk and fruit juice, in fact just about everything apart from water and herbal tea ... now where do I find Rooibos tea?

* Edited to change the Solgar supplier. I had originally recommended Nutrisun, however their online checkout didn't work, and when I phoned them to place my order they were too busy to talk to me. They took my number and promised to ring me back, but still haven't done so (it is now almost 6pm). Bored of waiting I found the other supplier who was doing the same things at the same price and had no problem with their online ordering system. Obviously I used them instead.

Tempted ...

Well now I am really tempted by the IPD. I got to the nitty gritty of Phase 1 (of a 3 stage plan) last night and have to admit that almost all the food you could have sounded lovely, although a bit worried about frying almost everything. Obviously it would mean retraining my stomach to accept different foods for breakfast - currently it is very picky and only what I consider 'breakfast food' can be consumed. I am definitely NOT the sort of person that can wolf down last night's curry, in fact the idea is enough to make me feel queasy. This is likely to be a big problem if I can't get used to eating other things as no-one can live on a diet of bacon and eggs every day for the rest of their lives (although I did do marmite toast every day for nearly 2 years once). Also I have to consider the cost as it will mean basically emptying my house of just about everything currently in my cupboards (all bad food has to be removed to stop temptation and apparently just about everything I eat is considered bad) and replacing it with wholesome, expensive (as mentioned yesterday) organic and free range food - plus of course those zillions of vitamins.

I think I was swayed by the accounts of huge weight and inch loss as it would be nice to see a result quickly (yes I did read about the lousy feeling days as well but strangely that didn't put me off), but of course I know that in reality it won't be that easy.

I have decided that the best course of action is to continue with the way that I am eating now for a month and see how it is going. I am now in week 3 and with any luck by the end of the month I will have lost another 4lbs - which will mean almost 1/2 stone. It will also give me the opportunity to get better acquainted with exactly what the IPD needs and get an idea of how much the food is going to cost. Hmmm maybe I better start saving for the vitamins now ...

Still Losing ... Just

Well despite the slippage last week and all that party food at the weekend, I did, amazingly, manage to lose weight - not much granted (3/4lb), but a loss is a loss and I'll accept it. So total weightloss now stands at 2 1/4lbs

Thanks to the IPD forum I found this site called Fitday which is useful for recording your food, exercise etc. Obviously being american it doesn't list all the food that we have - marmite is a good example, and trying to add a custom item can be extremely frustrating (like in the case of quorn mince which is higher in fibre than carbs, but isn't allowed to be according to the site) but it does produce some lovely graphs showing exactly how your daily food breaks down and shows the split between protein, carbs, fat and alcohol. One thing it has shown me is how much of my diet is made up of carbohydrates. Obviously since starting the diet I have restricted my intake of pasta, rice and potatoes as I know I have a problem with them (although I am still eating too much bread - but nowhere near what I was eating) but it is amazing to see how much other stuff that I eat contains huge amounts of carbs (aubergines have the same amount of carbs as a potato).

I have been reading the IPD book since it arrived yesterday and it seems to make good sense. However, I won't be starting this one just yet as I'm not sure I can afford to do it. For starters there is a huge list of supplements that you HAVE to take every day. Doing a quick recce, it would cost almost £50 to buy the required vitamins etc. from Holland & Barrett, and over £90 to buy them from their recommended supplier - and that's just 1 month's supply! I have to admit that I worry a bit about a diet that needs quite so many supplements (on the forum someone said it takes them almost 20 minutes every day to take all the tablets). They are also very insistent on eating only organic food (and under NO cirumstances any economy food ... although I do understand that). So see my weekly shopping bill increase hugely too then as of course the diet is made up of meat, meat and more meat. I shall see how the current plan works for me and then maybe move to this when I reach that plateau that always happens eventually.

Bad Day

After completely sabotaging my diet last night with the wine and the chinese, I have had a really bad day today - I just can't stop eating! Not sure if this is because I'm feeling a bit down, or if it's just because the time of the month is coming. Whatever, it means that I've consumed loads more than I should have done, and although in the main it's been healthy fruit etc. it doesn't make me feel any better for having done it. I just hope tomorrow can be a better day.

Had a bit of a spend up this afternoon. Having heard about M&S magicwear dresses I thought I'd get one and see whether they are as good as they're touted. Fortunately they are in the sale so got 2 dresses for less than the price of 1 before the sale.

Slippage

Had a bit of a slippage today. Not only did I have a buffet lunch (one of the worst things for a diet ever - and this is the 2nd day in a row!)including chocolate brownies during a meeting I was at, I have just spent the evening at Andrea's where I had a chinese takeaway and a few glasses of wine. Had a great evening and really enjoyed the meal, but now I have to buckle down hard to make up for that takeaway otherwise there will be no weight loss next week.

Busy, busy, busy ...

Went food shopping today (should have been yesterday, but I managed to survive an extra day as I couldn't be bothered to go after getting back from Spain). This week I didn't have a shopping list as I hadn't had time to devise one so it didn't go quite as smoothly or quickly as last week (although I still resisted buying any books) and I ended up buying more food than I needed for the week. I also bought some snack type foods this week as I missed having something other than fruit to munch on when the need for 'a little something' cropped up. I still have the fruit but now also have some Special K bars in case I need something sweet. Not yet worked out what to do about savoury, but may take Tina's advice and get some rice cakes to have with marmite (although i'm not keen on them) - any advice would be welcomed.

Spent most of the evening doing some cooking. Firstly, to combat the high amount of points I've been having the last few days I made the scrummiest mushroom curry using 4 different types of mushrooms. I had this with tomato couscous (low in carbs compared to rice & pasta - but horridly high on WW points compared to them). A tasty and filling 2.5 point meal - with enough left over for another meal later. At the same time I cooked a large pot of vegetables and herbs (although I completely forgot the carrots) to which I added a very small amount of mince and yet more tomato couscous. This has given me another 5 meals for a shade less than 3 points each.

Still feeling very positive about the diet at the moment - I just hope it continues.

Good News!

Yep it's official. I've lost 1 1/2lb. Not the greatest weight loss ever maybe, but I'd be happy with that on any week, but after the weekend I've just had it's wonderful that it's that much.

Week's End and a New Beginning

So the first week is finished. Started OK, continued fair and ended badly. Of course I knew it would - not really a fantastic time to start a diet when I had a 45th wedding anniversary party and Mother's Day to celebrate (especially as I knew there was going to be a hog roast at the party and I LOVE roast pork and crackling!). I suppose that the best thing would be to hope that I've not gained anything this week, but I am hoping that I was good enough earlier in the week to have still lost a pound. Tomorrow we shall find out. If not, a new week has started and I shall just have to buckle down and get serious.

Whilst I was in Spain, Jo told me about a diet book that she has been reading called Neris And India's Idiot-Proof Diet by India Knight and Neris Thomas. According to the blurb they lost 10 stone between them in a year - 5 stone each. It is apparently a proper diet for real women! What I found attractive was this part of the blurb:

So how is this book different from all the rest?'This is a diet book that tells you jokes, gives you genuinely delicious recipes, and lets you into our heads as well as our stomachs. This is a diet book for real people - people like us, with kids, jobs, dogs and the rest, who don’t have the time or the energy to cook themselves separate meals, or to sit miserably in the corner with a lettuce leaf. People who actually have a life, like going out, going to the pub - and who want to carry on with all of these things while dieting. Above all this is a diet book that started off from a place of love.

"We are so sick of women being made to feel terrible about the way they look. During our research, we came across a pile of diet books - many, though not all, written by middle-aged blokes - whose basic premise was 'You're a fat freak and you're killing yourself'. We start off with the premise that you're pretty fabulous, and that you're going to be even MORE fabulous when you slip into that tiny little dress you thought you'd never in a million years fit into. It's not about body fascism: we're not interested in dropping from a size 12 to a size 2. But from a 22 to a 14? Yes please.

This sounds like my sort of thing so I've ordered a copy. It may help to set me further on my way and give me some fantastic recipe ideas, it may just give me a laugh reading it, but it can't do any harm. In fact their weight loss works out at approximately 1.5lbs per week, which should be achievable, shouldn't it?

They also have a blog which is worth checking out, although I'm not sure I'm too happy about the domain name of it (as it seems to contradict what they've said in the above blurb). However, already it's put me onto a website for the most fantastic purple suede boots which would actually fit me ... if only I had the money to buy them *sigh*.

Ah the irony...

There I was, sitting watching the finals of Masterchef, with all that fantastic food (and it really was very very nice tonight), whilst eating a slightly less exciting salad. The salad was very nice, for salad - but it didn't have the inspiration factor of the lamb and mushrooms or chocolate pudding with plum sauce. I would happily of swapped, which is of course the reason that I need to lose weight *LOL*

The week continues

So I'm 1/2 way through the first week and it hasn't really been too bad. I have even been really good and made my own sandwiches (spicy cajun chicken fajitas today) rather than going to the canteen so I know exactly how many points they are. Generally I have managed to keep reasonably near my points (drinking does not help the points total, especially when it's pints of snakebite!) although I have blown it a bit today with the addition of a custard danish and cha latte to my eaten list, due to meeting Nicky for coffee (I'd forgotten I was meeting her or i'd have rearranged my food a bit to take account). I really haven't really eaten anything else that naughty all week so I think a little treat isn't so bad.

The main thing i've noticed is how bad my skin has suddenly got - loads of spots and I seem to be very bloated even though I am still having a probiotic yoghurt every day. Hopefully these symptoms will soon pass - especially the spots, they're the last thing I need with a party fast approaching!

Good plan but not quite good enough ...

Whilst the sandwiches had the desired effect of stopping me eating the pub food, we were so busy because of the football and rugby that I didn't get to finish eating them. Neither did I eat the apple or clemantines I'd taken (Tina finished the sandwich and Roy nabbed a clemantine), although I did manage the banana. So not very good on the fruit front, nor was I very good on the beer front due to a visit by Dick and Sheila which meant that I stayed longer than intended and drank more than I'd scheduled for.

Redemption

I've managed to offset the 'naughty' smoked salmon against my diet (nothing I can do about the bread rolls, unfortunately they are just plain bad and they've already been eaten) by using it in sandwiches for my lunch today. This is definitely a good move as it stops me picking at the high calorie food they provide at the pub (I hope). I'm also taking lots of nice fruit too, a real picnic!

Shopping Done

So my first week's shopping is done. The advantages of planning the week in advance: I don't wander around the supermarket aimlessly for hours buying loads of special offers that I don't want or need and I don't go down every aisle, just visit the places I need to go - so no spending a fortune on books that I 'need' to have but are going to sit on my shelf for months on end. The disadvantages are what happens if the supermarket doesn't have any of the items you need - in this instance aubergines.

Of course it doesn't stop temptation, and it's always a bad idea to go shopping when hungry so instead of sticking rigidly to my list I did end up with a couple of 'extras'. Unfortunately, the need to get some bread meant I got seriously tempted by some lovely looking bread rolls (definitely NOT part of the diet and a complete downfall for me) which I have already eaten and some smoked salmon - the mackerel was sooooo tempting, but I managed to abstain and opted for the salmon at a much smaller points value instead. So a little naughty but not terribly bad.

The fact that I've only bought enough food for the week means that I have a much better chance of sticking to it, but enough leeway to re-arrange days as required. My mood is quite positive at the moment ... just hope it lasts!

A Moan Already!

So how are you supposed to stay healthy, yet maintain a diet?

Trying to juggle food into a weekly menu that will stay within my points has taken all evening. Take fish for example: We all know we should eat lots of fish as its good for you, and oily fish is especially good for you. I love fish and eat lots of it, and at the moment am going through a phase of eating lots of smoked mackerel. However, this is to be no more because tonight I found out that smoked mackerel is 10 points on the Weight Watchers plan. As I only have 28 points for the day you can see how excessive that amount of points is - I mean even a Mars Bars only 6 points!

In fact all the 'healthy' things I've been eating over the last few months will be going out of the window. It may be healthy to eat lots of seeds and nuts, but it sure doesn't fit in with the WW plan. Of course all the carbs fit in, but I really shouldn't be eating those. So how do i find food that doesn't involve the carbs but doesn't go over my points?

Finally Ready For The Off

Well I'm finally ready to post on here. I set up this blog with the intention of using it to record yet another (hopefully successful this time) attempt to lose weight, rather than put it in my main blog - but then couldn't decide how or what I was going to do. In fact motivation was rather seriously lacking.

But today I feel very motivated and having completely emptied my fridge, freezer and almost all of my cupboards I've decided on going for basic healthy eating, using Weight Watcher points, although I will not be rigidly sticking to their plan. Neither will I be paying for meetings, magazines or cook books (mainly 'cos I already have them all!)

So my first week's shopping list is finally complete and on Saturday evening I shall be filling my fridge with all those healthy things which will hopefully set me on the right path.

Expect this blog to be full of moans and grumbles, rants and raves, highs and lows. Whilst I won't be revealing my starting weight ( a girl has to keep some secrets after all) I will be recording my weight loss (or gain) each week - in fact I may have to see if i can find a nice little graph or something as the time goes on.

So let the fun begin ...