the ever decreasing me

Muffins

2007-11-15T15:15:00.000Z

Well I decided to bite the bullet and try cooking one of my packs.
I put 3 desertspoons of boiling water in a ramekin
Added 1 heaped teaspoon of coffee
1 sweetener
mixed until dissolved
then added a vanilla sachet
mixed until it was combined (it was very, very thick, almost a solid dough)
put it in the microwave (800) on full power for 1 minute.

Well it looked like a muffin, and although it wasn't quite a double choc chip it was actually pretty good, and really nice to have something to eat.
I think I will make one again another time. Although I don't want to use all my vanilla packs up on them as I love my lattes. What to do?

Might try the crisps tomorrow as I am feeling brave.

Day 15

2007-11-15T08:41:00.000Z

Well 2 weeks on and I am a stone lighter and pretty chuffed about it.
I can see in the mirror that my tummy is not quite so round.
If I can now lose 3lbs per week I should be down to 12.5 stone by the time I go to my mums on 28 Dec. That would be amazing, I have no idea when I was last that small.
I am after money or vouchers for clothes for Christmas. My sister is a fashion buyer so I am hoping she will take me shopping and sort me out with some nice clothes that aren't frumpy tents.

On the subject of Christmas, it came up at class last night, I get the impression most of the other girls are going to plan lapse. I have definitely decided I won't be. I am going to just go for goal and get this over and done with ASAP. Then I can enjoy myself moderately after. I am really hoping that I will be at goal and a good bit through maintenance by my birthday in June.

So far I haven't made anything out of the packs, but after looking at the recipes on Minimins. I am very tempted to make wither a muffin or some crisps. I am just worried that I muck it up and ruin a foodpack. Tempted to have a vanilla muffin for afternoon snack, hmmmmmm.

Week Two WI

2007-11-15T08:38:00.000Z

4.5lb of over the week making a total of 13.5lbs over 2 weeks. WOW!

Day 14

2007-11-14T17:36:00.000Z

I have now caught up and will post daily from here.

I am feeling quite good, managed to get into a top I bought a couple of months ago that never fitted me so I am chuffed about that.

WI tonight, it is quite exciting. On WW you knew to expect anything between putting on a lb or 2 or maybe a little loss, but on LL you lose every week if you stick to it.

I have been reading some posts on Minimins today, they are very enlightening and inspiring.
Mrs Lard's Guide for LighterLife Beginners (Foundation)
Mrs Lard's Guide for LighterLife Developers (Development)
Mrs Lard's Guide for LighterLife Route to Management (How NOT to do it!)

Also the before and after pictures on Minimins are amazing and really keep you going through the low moments.

Week Two

2007-11-14T16:35:00.001Z

Weigh in

Total loss for this week is 9.02 lbs RESULT, that is bonkers, over half a stone already. Kate Moss look out!!

Day one

Oh yuk, I can't believe that I have suddenly decided I can't stand the Thai chilli any more, can tastes change that quickly?
I will have to go to the stopin on Saturday and change these up. Strangely though, with a little bit of lo salt I have discovered that all the other are quite OK, but particularly the mushroom.

Day two
My cross trainer arrives. I used to quite enjoy using them at the gym many years ago so DH said he would get me one as an early Christmas present. What more could a girl want than a smaller butt for Christmas?

Day three

Stop in, and I have lost another 1.76 pounds, cool. I like this consistent loss, it certainly keeps you going, when there are husbands at home scoffing kebabs, hmph!
Also swapped all my Thai chilli for mushroom, thank goodness.

Day four

Struggling a bit with the water, I have the St. Clements (SC) and Berry Fruits (BF) flavouring but I am getting a bit sick of it. What to do? I have been posting on Minimins and they have helped out with this.
I need to try and vary things a bit so what I am going to do is.
alternate between plain water, plain fizzy, fizzy SC, hot BF, savoury drink (2 per day max), plain SC and a peppermint tea which I always kick my day off with. I have tried coffee and tea without milk, but I just don't like it. Also tried green tea, yuk.
I have been told that your tastes do change over the weeks, so will maybe try these again at some point.

Day five

Really getting into the cross trainer, just doing 2 mins at a time a few times a day, but that has to be better than nothing. I have also started body brushing, using Dove firming shower gel and body lotion. This is all supposed to help with toning and loose skin. I do have good skin, which I am thankful for, so hopefully all will be fine in this department, but just in case I will keep on with the new regime, my skin is definitely feeling softer for it.
On top of all that I do 50 minutes walking every day to take my DD to nursery and collect her again.

Day 6

All is well, have so far only told MIL and my oldest sister and they are very supportive, so now to tell my mum and see if she will help me through Christmas, which we all know is a minefield of chocolate, baileys and Christmas pudd. *sigh*
DH is totally supportive of the whole thing so I know he will help me as much as he can. I just need a distraction for the real tough times. We are going to SILs for Christmas dinner, I am planning on continuing with the diet and not cheating, so I will take care of her baby who will be 6 months old while everyone else has their dinner.
Then we are going to my mum's for a week. This will be tough, it is always a massive fest of stuffing as much in as you can without throwing up.
This will be very, very difficult. I am not sure how I am going to deal with it, what I do know is that I want to continue with the diet and not lapse at all. I know others have talked of having a little turkey, some veg and maybe a teaspoon of pudding, but quite honestly I don't think I could cope with that.
I just have to find a way through and I am not sure what I can do in advance to help myself. I will have all my foodpacks with me so there will be no excuse to eat.
I will speak with my LLC about it and see what advice she has.

Week One

2007-11-14T16:18:00.000Z

As I started this 2 weeks in I am going to summarise for the beginning of my quest and then post daily.

Day one

Ok, this seems easy enough, had the choc shake for breakfast, as a former chocoholic, this was essential, unfortunately this had never even seen chocolate, let alone be related to the heavenly body itself. Let's hope lunch is better. And it is the mushroom soup is actually pretty good.

I AM STARVING - this is only to be expected when you are only eating 500 calls per day instead of 5000, but still I feel crap and have a headache, which is to be expected so have taken 2 paracetamol and will deal with it.
I have also been to the loo 6000 times, that is also to be expected.
By tea time I am exhausted, and starving, but I down another pint of water and a Thai chilli soup and feel ok.

Day two

Starving again, woke up starving, tried a strawberry shake, ooh that's nice, yum.
More visits to the loo and a horrendous headache.
I remember why I am doing this and push on.

Day Three

Woohoo! I feel good, I knew that I would! well this must mean I am in Ketosis and fat burning.
I have a 'stop-in' with my Lighter Life Counsellor (LLC) where I will get weighed and see if I am in Ketosis.

4.84lbs (to be precise) lighter in 3 days! now we are talking. LLC says not to expect to double it by official weigh in (WI) but maybe another 1lb or so. I can live with that. It would take me 3 weeks to do that on WW, so I am chuffed.

I am definitely in ketosis, so am now allowed to take the bars as well as shakes and soups. Result.

Did I mention I feel good???

The rest of week one

All is well, I have been trying out all the foodpacks and have decided what I like, what I can tolerate and what makes me gag.

Shakes
Chocolate - yuk
Strawberry - yum
Vanilla - smashing made in to a latte
Raspberry - also yum.
Didn't try the banana as I can't stand them

Soups
Thai Chilli - yum
Chicken - ok
Mushroom - ok
Veg - pretty good
Wish there was a bit more choice though

Bars
Toffee - GAG
Old style peanut - GAG
Cranberry - GAG
Oh dear!

New peanut - HEAVEN

So now I know what to get next week for my food packs.

Lighter Life

2007-11-14T15:36:00.000Z

On 1 November 2007 I decided it was time to finally take the leap towards a lighter life.
I have been overweight for most of my life and obese for about 5 years since I got married and had my daughter.
I did the Weight Watchers thing for 14 months, the first 8 I lost 50 lbs which was great but a struggle. After Christmas 2006 I stayed on WW but wasn't doing it properly. I would add just that little extra, that can't hurt can it? The odd sneaky choccy bar (if nobody sees me eat it, then does it really count?) You know the score.

So I finally decided that I had to do something to sort my life out, and then I remembered somebody I used to chat to on a board who had lost 6 stone in as many months, and started checking out her posts again, and that is when I discovered Lighter Life.

So now I have signed up to abstain from food for 100 days in which they promise me I will lose at least 3 stone. All I need to do is eat 4 foodpacks per day, drink 4L of water and take moderate exercise.

I can do that, right?

One last supper, what should it be? I decided on a steak pie supper, a bar of dairy milk and a large latte. That is it, that is my last meal for about 4 months and strangely I am OK with that.

So over the next 100 days I shall blog my way through foundation, 400 foodpacks, 14 weigh ins and hopefully 42lbs of lard!!