Wish me luck, people...
I've been 'festively plump' all my adult life and have been inventing excuses for it: sedentary lifestyle, stressful job, dodgy knees. My sister, who's a bit larger than me, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the summer and that, together with my high blood pressure and acid reflux (neither of which I had until my weight ballooned a couple a years ago), got me to admit that I need to do something about my weight.
I tried Alli pills, but I kept forgetting to take them, and, due to my acid reflux, I was supposed to eat small meals several times a day, so they were not really a viable option.
On another site, I saw a lady I know achieve amazing results using Exante, so I thought I'd give this a go, and hopefully bring my weight down and energy levels and health up. Well, as the four-week bumper pack was half price at £100, it would have been rude not to.
I'm hoping for quick initial results, so it will keep me going, instead of doing what I've always done before, i.e., give up within days, as I'm not seeing any results for all the hard work. Also, losing some weight will ease the discomfort on my knees, so I can start walking again, which will obviously help.
The plan is to do a three-pack day for four weeks, then have a week with the three packs, but with a low calorie, high protein meal, as well, then repeat, then see where I am.
My starting weight this morning was disappointing 90.5kg. Blood pressure pretty shocking 136/103, with resting heart rate 74. I thought of doing the measurements, too, but alas my tape measure only goes up to 100cm..
I'm hoping to lose about 30kg and get down to 60kg, which is pretty well the normal weight for me. My mom's the same height as me and weighs about 65kg, so although the weight loss is a lot, I definitely would not be underweight.
Clothes-wise, I take about 18, and am hoping to get down to 14 before next summer, as I've got lots of lovely summer clothes that I haven't worn for about seven years, so it'd be nice to get into them again.
Now, my normal working day diet is:
Breakfast around 10am at work: Full fat cappuccino & croissant
Lunch around 2pm: Home made steamed fish, rice & veg, followed by low fat yoghurt
Afternoon coffee at around 4.30pm: another full fat cappuccino, sometimes accompanied by a slice of lemon drizzle cake
Dinner around 9pm: Stir fry
All that probably explains why I'm not losing any weight, but nor am I gaining. I don't usually snack, but when I do my grocery shopping, I can't resist the temptation to get some chocolate, which I'll eat at one sitting. Now that I don't have to go to the shops (no family to feed) and I'm finishing a contract next week, I'm hoping there won't be any temptations. When I start a new job, I'll just have to make sure I don't fall back into the cappuccino & croissant habit.
So, Day One of the diet:
I nibbled on the the Choc Orange bar from about 10.30 until 11am and washed it down with black coffee. I'm not big on cereal bars, so it was a bit of a struggle, as it was just so big. I may split tomorrow's Toffee, Nut & Raisin one in two to make it easier.
At 2pm, I had the Vegetable soup, which was surprisingly tasty and large (or maybe my breakfast bowl is deceptively small), and fairly easy to mix even with a small hand held whisk.
Sadly, I'd forgotten that I had to meet up with a recruitment consultant at 2.30pm in a coffee shop and I opted for a hot chocolate, so that put me over the limit. But, I refuse to beat myself up about it, it's day one, after all.
Around 9pm, I had my dinner, a Banana shake. I mixed it with about 2.5dl of cold water, but even then it was pretty disgusting, so I put it in the fridge for an hour to cool. It had a fairly greasy feel to it, so I gulped it down very quickly. I know others have tried it with ice or even heated, so I may try that with the next banana shake.
All in all, the first day was a lot easier than I thought it'd be. I thought I'd be raiding the cupboards by now, but I'm not peckish at all. Actually, I only had the shake because I thought I ought to, not because I was hungry.
I've been 'festively plump' all my adult life and have been inventing excuses for it: sedentary lifestyle, stressful job, dodgy knees. My sister, who's a bit larger than me, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the summer and that, together with my high blood pressure and acid reflux (neither of which I had until my weight ballooned a couple a years ago), got me to admit that I need to do something about my weight.
I tried Alli pills, but I kept forgetting to take them, and, due to my acid reflux, I was supposed to eat small meals several times a day, so they were not really a viable option.
On another site, I saw a lady I know achieve amazing results using Exante, so I thought I'd give this a go, and hopefully bring my weight down and energy levels and health up. Well, as the four-week bumper pack was half price at £100, it would have been rude not to.
I'm hoping for quick initial results, so it will keep me going, instead of doing what I've always done before, i.e., give up within days, as I'm not seeing any results for all the hard work. Also, losing some weight will ease the discomfort on my knees, so I can start walking again, which will obviously help.
The plan is to do a three-pack day for four weeks, then have a week with the three packs, but with a low calorie, high protein meal, as well, then repeat, then see where I am.
My starting weight this morning was disappointing 90.5kg. Blood pressure pretty shocking 136/103, with resting heart rate 74. I thought of doing the measurements, too, but alas my tape measure only goes up to 100cm..
I'm hoping to lose about 30kg and get down to 60kg, which is pretty well the normal weight for me. My mom's the same height as me and weighs about 65kg, so although the weight loss is a lot, I definitely would not be underweight.
Clothes-wise, I take about 18, and am hoping to get down to 14 before next summer, as I've got lots of lovely summer clothes that I haven't worn for about seven years, so it'd be nice to get into them again.
Now, my normal working day diet is:
Breakfast around 10am at work: Full fat cappuccino & croissant
Lunch around 2pm: Home made steamed fish, rice & veg, followed by low fat yoghurt
Afternoon coffee at around 4.30pm: another full fat cappuccino, sometimes accompanied by a slice of lemon drizzle cake
Dinner around 9pm: Stir fry
All that probably explains why I'm not losing any weight, but nor am I gaining. I don't usually snack, but when I do my grocery shopping, I can't resist the temptation to get some chocolate, which I'll eat at one sitting. Now that I don't have to go to the shops (no family to feed) and I'm finishing a contract next week, I'm hoping there won't be any temptations. When I start a new job, I'll just have to make sure I don't fall back into the cappuccino & croissant habit.
So, Day One of the diet:
I nibbled on the the Choc Orange bar from about 10.30 until 11am and washed it down with black coffee. I'm not big on cereal bars, so it was a bit of a struggle, as it was just so big. I may split tomorrow's Toffee, Nut & Raisin one in two to make it easier.
At 2pm, I had the Vegetable soup, which was surprisingly tasty and large (or maybe my breakfast bowl is deceptively small), and fairly easy to mix even with a small hand held whisk.
Sadly, I'd forgotten that I had to meet up with a recruitment consultant at 2.30pm in a coffee shop and I opted for a hot chocolate, so that put me over the limit. But, I refuse to beat myself up about it, it's day one, after all.
Around 9pm, I had my dinner, a Banana shake. I mixed it with about 2.5dl of cold water, but even then it was pretty disgusting, so I put it in the fridge for an hour to cool. It had a fairly greasy feel to it, so I gulped it down very quickly. I know others have tried it with ice or even heated, so I may try that with the next banana shake.
All in all, the first day was a lot easier than I thought it'd be. I thought I'd be raiding the cupboards by now, but I'm not peckish at all. Actually, I only had the shake because I thought I ought to, not because I was hungry.