Zips

Starting to get into some of my trousers with zips. For the past 2 years I have been in elasticated trousers so was very chuffed this week to find I could get back into these trousers. Remember buying the pair I wore yesterday in Cape Town 4 years ago.

Yesterday felt I needed more food after supper. Maybe I did not have enough for supper. Have not eaten outside mealtimes for a while. Went to the fridge and got some cold meat and cheese and was happy with that.

I have to keep my fat intake up or the binging and munchies will come back.

Another 100gms gone this morning. This is a much slower diet than anything I have tried before but then I want this to be my last successful diet. I never want to put on 60lbs again. So another 40 or so lbs to go, 4oz at a time!

Ticker

Just realised I have a problem with my ticker.

I have been using the UK system for dates with the day first then the month then the year. Just noticed ticker is set up for USA system with the month first then the day then the year! Trying to change the data but it wont accept it. Also went through and deleted a lot of old data. Before I was using lbs as I had a scale that worked in lbs. the new scale is in KG but I used the same ticker data so I had lbs and kg showing together. Hopefully I have got it right now and will try and do the dates correctly from now on. Does not seem to affect the display at all.

As I had hoped the scale is moving downwards again. Have not seen 87kg before. So making slow progress. I remember reading about a lady in one of the Atkins books who would only lose 5lbs a month so stayed on Induction nearly the whole time. I think I am going to be doing the same. I have a serious carb/insulin problem.

But I am happy that I dont see the scale go up as my eating is no longer out of my control. So each week I lose about a 1lb. This is very slow compared to my previous dieting attempts when I wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible so would try and starve my body into slimness. This time I am working with my body. It will get rid of the fat at its own pace and I must not try and hurry it.

I am not looking too much at calories now but a 1lb a week weight loss is around 500 cals per day of fat used up. Which is 55gms of fat or about 2oz. But once this fat has gone it has gone for good.

See UK is worried about the out of control obesity over there. This is the one and only answer. Not move more and eat less. Not shakes and slimming potions. Just get back to good plain natural protein, healthy fats and oils and low carb vegetables.

Michelle

slow but sure

I am now getting used to this way of eating and not finding it too difficult. I can see that I am now satisfied with less food but it is more nutrient dense food. They had a silly weight loss system I read about once where you eat more food with less nutrient density to 'fill you up'. That to me now would be a recipe for overeating which I used to do often.

You either leave the table not feeling you have eaten enough and find yourself binging a few hours later or you eat too much low density food to try and get the nutrients your body needs.

My body is satisfied with smaller high fat meals. I eat less and can go longer between meals and am satisfied.

Yesterday was a wedding and I managed to get into a suit I had not worn in a couple of years. I felt I looked good. I had a cheese salad at 12 and then a few pieces of biltong around 5. I felt that was the less harmful of the snacks on offer. Half a glass of champagne and a plate of meat and salad at 8pm. Was in control the whole time and made good choices.

This is the way my body was designed to run. Not on that endless glucose roller coaster.

Confidence

There is something about not being enormous that gives me confidence to start chatting to strangers.

At my heaviest I would try and not be noticed as I felt embarrassed about my size. Now I am feeling thinner I will strike up conversations with people in queues etc.

Made good food choices on business trip and another 300gms gone since I got back.

Getting into jeans now.

Sugar Addiction

I have just ordered some books on sugar addiction as I am sure this was part of my problem.

With cutting out fat, which is what I did for years, I ate more complex carbohydrates to try and fill me up. Trouble is it did not work. All that glucose just made me more hungry after meals and I ate more bread to try and feel sated.

Some of these books are also advising on what I have already discovered. My body is much happier on a higher percentage of fat and I dont put on weight as long as I dont eat grain carbohydrates. At present I am continuing to lose weight.

I dont know where this is going to stop and what I am going to look like when my body weight has stablized. I can already see fat has gone from my forearms and face and the bags under my eyes have gone.

Maybe I was never supposed to be obese but the dieting advice I received over the years was completely wrong for me. Eating bread and pasta and potatoes even though they are low calorie just fed my sugar addiction.

Now I am on a medium calorie eating plan with added good fats and am feeling so much younger than I have felt for years.

My body is thanking me every way it can for finally stopping the sugar diets!

The Fat Diet

This is the most phenomenal diet I have ever tried. It is just amazing how well it is working for me when I have failed at diets so many times.

This diet/way of eating fixes the underlying problem with my metabolism. I dont handle sugar well and have problems with low blood sugar in the afternoons if I have a high carb low calorie lunch.

This is not a low calorie diet. I am eating about 1500 cals per day and am adding butter and good oils back into my diet after being fat phobic for 50 years. I also have between 20 to 30 gms of carbs each day from milk and vegetables.

It is so wonderful to sit down to a meal and feel free to eat as much as I need and leave the table feeling satisfied and know that I am not going to feel hungry again for at least 4 hours. Next time I am hungry is time for another good meal.

For me this is a one way street. Knowing what I know about myself now I can never go back to eating the way I did. Trying to go low calorie so eating carbs with very little or no fat. I did not even enjoy it but thought I had to eat that way to try and keep my weight down. Guess what it did not work.

This is not a crash diet. I am presently losing 1 and 3/4lbs each week but it is very steady. I rarely find the scale going up. Just a nice steady almost effortless weight reduction.

Something I never even dreamed was possible. I thought the obesity and struggle was my lot for the rest of my life.

Jeans

Got into a pair of jeans yesterday. Glorious day.

Yes they are my biggest pair but 2 months ago I would have been no where near being able to zip them up.

Have got a rack of jeans in various sizes so will be great to work my way back through them.

In a few months these jeans may be too big!

I never thought I would be free of that behaviour around food in the afternoons. It has been so much a part of who I thought I was. It was just something I had to live with and fight every afternoon. That burning desire for calories in the afternoon. When I was dieting I would have a reason to try and ignore it but when I was off the diet or feeling weak I would give in and the diet would be a complete mess till the following day when I would start all over again.

Even now having not binged for 3 months I still have that waiting feeling around 3 or 4pm to see if it is going to start again. Whether my blood glucose will drop too low and I will be back in the pantry or the fridge. Every afternoon I make myself a cup of tea around that time and there is no desire to eat abnormally.

To me this is the biggest breakthrough. I always knew how to lose weight, only this is the easiest method I have tried. But with the out of control behaviour I was concerned about putting it back on again as I have done so often in the past. Now I have understood that behaviour and am eating so it never happens I have faith that the weight I am losing will never come back on again.

It is all about reactive hyperglycaemia and insulin. This is a cure.

Normal relationship with food

In 50 years I have never had a normal relationship with food until now. Food, especially carbs, had such power over me. If I knew there was left over chocolate cake, or dried fruit with museli cereal I could not relax in the afternoon until it was all finished or till I was so stuffed I felt sick.

I know now that was a symptom of a disordered carbohydrate metabolism. I ate too many carbs for lunch and as it was low calorie and low fat it hit my system very fast. I ended up with high glucose, followed by high insulin. The glucose would be stored in the fat cells but there was still too much insulin and my glucose blood level would come crashing down and I would have reactive hyperglycaemia. Then I would binge and the whole sorry process would start up all over again.

I believe know that the problem was caused by a) lack of fat and b)too many carb grams.

I am consuming around 30gms of carbs these days. Mainly from milk in my coffee and vegetables including tomatoes and onions.

I have increased my fat intake from zero ( a left over reflex from my years of low fat dieting) to around 50gms per day of butter, olive oil and coconut oil.

It seemed totally counter intuitive to be adding calories back into my diet when I want to lose weight but I had tried everything else I could think of and was still 100kg. It was a blind act of faith and boy is it paying off.

This is just a breeze. Weight is dropping. Another 200grms over the past 2 days. I am eating well and leaving the table satisfied and can forget about any food in the pantry or fridge till the next mealtime. Carbs have lost their hold over me. Free at last!

New You Atkins cook book

The above book arrived from Amazon yesterday. It is a 2012 one so quite up to date.

What is useful is that the recipes are graded as to whether they are suitable for Atkins phases. 1 2 3 or 4 and whether they are quick weekday dishes or weekend dishes that need more time.

They say that you can now have up to 5 cups of low carb veg on Atkins even in the early stages. Some of the recipes need baking mix which is only available in USA and UK but if you stick to the meat veg meals ( rather than the desserts and baking) all the ingredients are readily available in most supermarkets.

Yesterday I made DH some fish fillets dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried in olive oil. For mine I did egg and dessicated coconut ( unsweetened) and fried till coconut brown in crispy and the fish cooked. It was delicious and something I will do again.

I am really beginning to see progress here. My face is much less round with fat cheeks as it was before. I worked out I need to get down to around 85kg to drop under the obese classification and be simply overweight.

I have so much more confidence in myself and my ability to finally do this. All due to putting fat and good oils back into my diet. It may not be fast but it is steady and fairly consistent.

I want to be slim!

Is that too much to ask. To be a 'normal' weight after 50 years of yoyo dieting. For a few brief moments I have been under the 70kg but most of the time I have been up in the 90's.

For the first time, on Atkins, making sure I add the fat, I am beginning to think that maybe it is going to be possible.

To finally lose the weight and keep it off.

The struggle to lose weight is not building up day by day as it does on a low calorie low fat diet.

I take each day as it comes and my blood glucose is remarkably stable. I do not get binging moments or cravings.

I look forward to my meals. Am satisfied as I leave the table and often dont think about food for the next 3 to 4 hours.

I made a ratatouille the other day with olive oil, herbs and some spice. Am having that for supper with half a tin of pink salmon, some grated cheese and some of my hung yogurt cheese. Heat up the lot in the microwave. Quick supper and very tasty.

I am having tomatoes and onions every day and it is not affecting my weight loss at all. I could not live on a diet that bans tomatoes and onions.

My downfall food is bread and cereal. Any grains and I know I would be back on the binging wagon instead of this slow drift weightloss which seems to happen by magic.

7.7lbs a month

That is what I lost last month. This is not so much as losing as normalizing my weight. I dont feel on this diet that the less I eat the lower my weight will be. I eat a good 3 meals a day with added fat and oils and wait to see how my body is going to react.

Before I would be trying to punish my body by with holding food to get a lower weight the next day. It would all end in tears when I lost control around food and went for a binge.

It is amazing to me how that destructive behaviour has gone. It had been part of who I was for so long, since childhood. That daily battle with food every afternoon never went away. I was always waiting for it to start. I would buy 3 chocolate bars in town, eat 2 on the way home and then share the last one with DH!

Now I dont do that any more. Not once in nearly 3 months. It is not that I am resisting the craving. I just do not suffer from them any more. I can easily go 5 to 6 hours without food without any distress whatsoever.

The answer for me was not pills or potions or injections. It was the healing power of good fats and oils. Just adding in around 300 cals of butter, olive oil coconut oil has been enough to cure my eating disorder I have had for over 50 years and I have dropped 11kg in 10 weeks. Only 20 kg to go to get to a normal body!

wheat Belly

Read a couple of good books which just arrived from Amazon.

When you eat at the refrigerator pull up a chair and Wheat belly.

The wheat Belly is a new issue in 2011. The Dr is saying that he believes the nature of wheat has changed over the last 50 years and this plus the instructions to people to give up fat has lead to the mushrooming obesity and diabetes that we see today.

I know that bread is one of my main downfall foods when dieting and I do need fat to stop the binging so I believe he may have the answer to the problem. It is not sugar so much as wheat.

The refrigerator book made me laugh out loud. I will be passing it on to my daughters as I am sure they will enjoy it too.

Why we need fat

For years as a fat person I have tried to cut fat out of my diet whenever I could. I have non stick pans and learnt to 'dry fry' vegetables so that I would not have to add fat. I would never add butter or cream to my foods. I believed what I was told that the reason I was fat was because I was eating too many calories and that if I cut down on my calories I would lose weight.

Guess what It did not work. Fifty years later I am fatter than when I started.

What no body told me was that our bodies need fat and oil in our diet. Certain fatty acids are essential and the body cannot make them. It is not so much about calories as about carbs and insulin that are the cause of the obesity problem.

Now I add a small amount of butter to my eggs. I fry my veg in a little olive oil. I am losing weight and feeling I have so much more energy.

Ladies Diets

While I love the idea of eating all the protein and fat that I want and it has certainly got my cravings and binging under control for the first time in my life I have been finding the weight loss slower than I would like.

So many of these Low carb books are written by male Drs and I wonder if they are aware of the needs of the ladies.

I decided a couple of days ago I was fed up looking at the same number on the scale so took a look at what I was eating.

Luckily I am just not hungry in the mornings so for the past 2 mornings have changed my normal fried omelette and mushroom breakfast to 2 boiled eggs with a dab of butter on each. It has worked and I am now another lb down. Still found I looked at my watch at 12.10 thinking it was coffee time and it was lunch time. So did not make any difference to the rest of the eating for the day.

Keen to get below 14st again!

Attitude to Binging

Because of my long history of craving and binging I have never really felt slim and normal. I have always had the concern that a binge was only a day away and I would start putting back the weight that I had fought so hard to lose.

Because, by adding fat back into my diet, I have cured the binging episodes I now feel that I am on the right course to normalise my body weight. I dont feel that next week I am going to be 7lbs more than I am today.

However this does seem to be a slower process than I am used to. Its a hare and a tortoise method of dieting.

Is it better to be a tortoise and keep the weight off or a hare where the weight drops rapidly but comes back equally rapidly!

I do hope I will have dropped another lb by the end of the month. Just to give me the encouragement of getting under 200lb.

Funny thing is I feel slimer at this weight than I did when I was 170lbs last year. Something to do with being in control of my eating habits for the first time in my life.

seven hours without food

I had my breakfast as normal yesterday. Mushrooms fried in olive oil and a tomato/onion omelette at around 8.

I set off to sort out my D computers at 10.30am and started the antivirus update at 11am. It was painfully slow as it had not been updated for ages and eventually finished at 2.40pm. I could not leave it as the staff are not very computer savey.

So by the time I got home for lunch it was 3. I was surprised at how well my system coped. I was hungry yes but did not feel the need to send out for a pie or burger or some high carb thing. I had the control to be able to wait for my meal and that is very unusual for me. Previously I have been a clock watcher to see when is my next feeding time!

Life does seem less blaah these days. Dont think activities have changed but my attitude has. Have more spontinaity. Am being less frumpy and stuck to my chair!

Learning not to put on weight

Sometimes I think that is just as important as knowing how to lose weight.

We can go into self denial mode, maybe only for a short time before we binge, but the reward is the scale going down.

I have managed in the past to lose 50 to 70lbs over the course of about 10 months in this way.

Because I never understood the underlying metabolic problem that caused the obesity as soon as I came off the diet the weight started coming back. A lb here a couple of lbs there and then I was on the slippery slide back to where I started and maybe even heavier.

This way of eating with 30 to 50% of calories coming from fat is not a low calorie diet. I am eating about 1500 cals per day. So once I come off the 'diet' I am not going to find myself eating everything in sight. That will mean much more control over what I decide to eat and not have that eating without thought that has troubled me in the past.

Am getting into smaller size clothes and looking forward to being able to wear more of my nice smaller outfits.

Once you start doing this, taking a chance on adding good fats back, it makes losing weight a dream come true.

Tim Noakes

Hi

Some news in SA on low carbing.

Sports guru is now saying that carb loading is the wrong nutrition advice. He has just lost 15kg with Atkins low carb and says that is the diet answer. His father died of diabetes after being told to carry on eating carbohydrates.

Was on TV and in the magazine I bought.

I am still plugging away. Found some woolworths diet drinks in town yesterday with sucralose rather than aspartame which I hate. So bought some of those. Tonics, lemonade and bitter lemon. If I do have a sweetened drink will only have it during a meal to try not to produce too much insulin. I will have to see if the cravings come back after the meal.

So far my cravings and binging are so far in the past I can hardly remember what is was like to suffer like that. Every diet in the past I have had binging episodes in the afternoons. Rarely in the morning but afternoons and evenings were always the worst.

Low carb has cured that.

Diet for Life?

I have been a yoyo dieter all my life. Losing 50lbs this year 60lbs the next. I could never hold my weight at a 'normal' weight.

It is going to be interesting this time, once I have lost the next 42lbs, 18lbs have gone already, to see if I can now hold a low weight. Now that I have learnt that my body runs better on a high fat diet.

My low blood sugar episodes in the afternoons are now a thing of the past. I no longer have cravings and drive to find food mid afternoons.

If I can carry on eating like this I really have hope that I might finally beat my obesity problem for ever.

The diet is satisfying, filling and I have no need to nibble or eat for 5 hours after I have eaten.

Fat free diets dont work

For years I have been having a fat free diet.

Low fat milk, dry 'fry' food in a non stick pan. I truely believed that if I ate fat I would be even heavier than I already was.

Now I know that was a total lie. Eating fat as part of a low carb diet is the dieters answer to prayer.

It is satisfying, you dont eat too much, you leave the table having felt you have had a good meal. It holds you for 5 to 6 hours till the next meal and you dont even think about food. It cures the craving and binging. Yes that has gone for good.

I will never go back to my low fat diet. I buy butter by the lb and big bottles of olive oil. I also add cream to my chicken and mushrooms. Make stronganoff. Add proper mayonnaise to my salads.

Every time I get on the scale my weight is down. Failure is not just lurking round the corner any more.

At last something that works without denial, without starving.

Fat Power and Binging

Back under the 200lb on the scale. I never want to go above that again and maybe, just maybe, now I have found this way of eating I never will be that heavy again.

I do find this very counter intuitive. Before on diets I could make bargins with myself and could see that if I ate less on one day the scale would go down.

This diet I eat practically the same quantity of food each day. I make sure that I have my 15gms of butter at breakfast, 25 grms or so of good fat, butter, olive oil, cream or mayonnaise with each of the other 2 meals. I rarely need a snack but if I do it can be peanut butter or a small apple with some hard cheese.

I have had absolutely no urge to binge in the last 2 months. I cannot believe it was so easy to cure that out of control behaviour. I thought I would always be fighting the urge to binge. I can now walk past the fridge in the afternoon or my husbands open packet of biscuits without even a thought of finding a high carb snack.

How I wish I had discovered this 45 years ago. Dont think my life would have been different but I would have been much happier in my skin.

A diet that works

Seen a new number on the scale this morning.

I cant believe this is working as I am adding butter and olive oil back into my diet. I gave up all fats and oils 50 years ago when I first got fat.

Having never willing added calories to my food I am finding this a very strange way to lose weight. But it is working and I feel so much better. Less hunger, more positive getting things done.

It is not particularly speedy. About a lb a week but I can live with that as long as I can continue to eat like this.

Fat is the answer

Amazing I have found my blog again. Thought it had vanished into the ether.

Not posted for a year. Weight started to go up, carb intake increased and I just gave up again!

This is now something new. 7kg gone and I am not starving. I am consuming fat and oils. Butter cream and olive oil at every meal. Been on this now for 2 months and I have hardly felt hungry.

Dont have any cravings or being tempted to binge in the afternoons.

Weight loss is slow but I am feeling so much better and eating so much better so at present I am prepared to let my body set the pace.

LCHF

I have realised over the last few years I have been trying to do a low cal low carb diet. Reading the new Gary Taubes book: Why we get fat and what to do about it. I have seen that the idea behind these diets is to increase the fat and oil intake while dropping the carbs.

I am still very fat phobic and feel that I am tempting fate by increasing my fat intake but I did do it yesterday by having an extra meal mid afternoon which helped me get through to supper. I know I have reactive hyperglycemia which is the cause of the overeating and generally feeling terrible in the afternoons. Yesterday I had no problem at all. I also feel much better this morning and full of energy and plans.

Will carry on like this and see what the scale does. I have a feeling that it is going to increase by about 1lb a week! Will be brilliant if I can lose weight and eat like this.

Elegance

This is what I have decided to aim for. At nearly 60 I am never going to have the figure I could have had in my teens if I had not got derailed by sugar and insulin. But I have decided that I can aim for elegance. Something that was in short supply when I staggered around at over 200lbs.

I felt I was getting there yesterday. We were invited to an engagement party for a couple of people who I taught 10 years ago. I wore a white and black long skirt. White heeled shoes, black top and black and sliver overblouse and a white large hat. You could not see any lumps and bumps and I did feel I looked good!

The meal was lamb and pig on a spit with salads so I had a good plateful and then put together my puddings. Pavlova and black forest gateau. I did not eat those and asked for a cup of coffee instead.

Only going to weigh on Sunday as if I get on the scale now I might find a gain because of the extra food and alcohol I have been consuming over Christmas.

Today I get back on the 3 meals a day with no snacks plan.

made 170.8lbs

Well I did not make the 170 but I am only 0.8lbs above that so as far as I am concerned that is success.

I will make sure I take my irvingia tomorrow. Maybe even a double dose! and will enjoy my food at meal times and try and stay away from the snacks.

I have been going back and working out how long it has been taking me to lose 10lbs. Took me 50 days to lose the last ten. It may be much slower than other diets I have been on but it is much steadier and I feel so much better.

I know I can be a normal size next year. Happy Christmas to those of you who celebrate it.

Not going to make 170lb by Christmas

Just had 2 days away from home Christmas shopping and picking up the first new dining room chairs we have bought in 35 years!

Amazing to feel in such good control over my appetite. I did eggs before I left and then had lunch at 12 grilled chicken and salad. Despite buying chocolate and nuts and cheese, all my downfall foods, I did not eat anything till supper which was more chicken and a greek salad.

Next morning I opened one of the cold meat packets and ate that as it was difficult to organise a cooked breakfast. Lunch same as day before. Had tuna, tomato, salad dressing and blue cheese when I got home. Another 0.6lbs down this morning. Some maybe fluid but I will be happy to maintain this weight over Christmas.

Got in lots of interesting cheeses and olives and nuts. Plus different fish. So will be plenty for me to snack on if I feel the need. Going to try and stick to the 3 meals a day and stop eating between meals.

One pound a week

This is the steadiest diet I have ever been on. I dont get wild mood swings and feel generally happy and I dont get eating binges where I eat everything in sight. I have lost 25lbs since I started on the irvingia and the Richards Leptin diet in September. So that is just over 3 months to lose 25lbs. I am now losing at the rate of 1lb a week but it is not a steady loss. I see no movement on the scale for 4 days and then over 2 days I lose a lb and then it holds again for the next 4 days.

I am used to previous diets where I lose one and a half to 2lbs a week but on those I am much more restricted in my food and I battle with cravings and will power to stay on the diet. This is much better for my brain as well as my body.

I am looking forward to getting under the 170lbs and then under 168lbs within the next month. Even if the weight loss drops to 2lbs a month I know I will still make my goal over the next year and will have cured my obesity.

Looking for answers to obesity

I worked out I have nearly 200 books I have bought on obesity and dieting. If I can discover why I have the ability to put on weight so easily I stand a chance of keeping it off once I lose it again. I never want to be over 200lbs again.

From what I have read it is my : insulin, leptin, BGL that have been the problem. Wild swings in BGL caused by eating too many carbs ( which are low calorie so have been the base of my diet for years) means that the glucose level in the blood is either far to high or drops to quickly and gets too low. The brain then screams for more sugar and as short while after a meal your will power goes awol and you are eating again.

When you eat low carb you dont get these wild swings and the BGL stays within a satisfactory range and it is much easier to resist food outside mealtimes in the afternoon and evenings. Your body also starts to manufacture the enzymes to burn up the stored fat and you have an endless supply of energy on tap from the fat on your hips and thighs and belly.

I have been having bigger breakfasts recently, had tinned kipper with my eggs yesterday. Today will be left over braised rump steak and 3 days ago was bream in cream sauce.

Keeping up with the 45 mins on the stationary bike in the evenings. I think it is helping me sleep for longer as before I started this I would be waking at 3.30 not able to get back to sleep. Now I wake at 5am which is much better.

Stationary Bike

Four days ago I set the stationary exercise bike that has been gathering dust in the lounge up in the computer room in front of the screen. Since then I have been putting an episode of All creatures great and small on the computer and watching each episode while pedalling. I try and do a bit of interval where I speed up for 30 pedals and then slow down again.

I have lost another 0.4lbs in those days and getting down to a weight I have not seen for over a year and my legs feel thinner and yesterday I got into a blouse I have not worn for a long time.

Will keep up the pedalling. I cant say I enjoy it but I can endure if for 45 mins if I have something interesting to watch!

Sure it is going to help my insulin resistance and my leptin problem.

Fete

Went to the fete yesterday and made some mince pies to sell on the cake stall. Normally I love pastry and mince pies and would have eaten 3 or 4 of them. This year I can leave them alone as I know what they do to my body.

Had to pay for an extra portion of lunch at the fete as the 2 kebabs and salad did not fill me up! I skipped the pudding table altogether.

Managed to do another 45mins on the bike while watching a DVD I had not seen before. Tried to do interval training where I speeded up for about 30 pedals and then slowed down again, Will try and keep that habit going.

Had hoped to be 170lbs by Christmas, could still make it if I am careful.

Michelle

Forgot Irvingia again

Yesterday I did really well up to the evening. In the morning I was busy moving the computer desk out of the dining room ( I am not tied to the phone line any more so moved the whole caboodle into the office). Realised it was lunch time and had not taken my irvingia an hour before. So decided to skip it. Big mistake. Afternoon was fine but after my tea I got the munchies. I kept going back to the fridge for blue cheese, cold meat and then had cream cheese with sweetener, cinnamon and vanilla. Ended up finishing the bowl.

I have put it behind me now and am learning from the experience. I have not eaten like that for about 3 months ( before that I always used to eat like that!). It would seem that because I did not take the irvingia my brain did not register that I had eaten my tea and then a couple of hours afterwards I started eating again.

I need to get back into being in control around food. Last night I was verging on the out of control again.

New day today and I will take the tablet and keep in control. I was hoping I was 'fixed' but yesterday showed me the cravings are just there round the corner waiting to come back and make me obese again.

Month Loss

I was hoping for another drop in the scale this weekend but it has not happened. Maybe it is the cream?

I worked out in the last month I have lost 4.8lbs. So I am happy if I can continue to lose weight at that rate.

I had to turn up my jeans by about an inch yesterday as the bottoms were getting caught under my heels. They are much looser than they were but as they are stretchy they are not ready for throwing yet.

Going to write Low carb booklet

I decided yesterday that I will start today putting together a low carb dieting booklet to sell.

I saw a personal booklet binder in our local computer shop so can get that plus some plastic covers and cardboard for the front and back. Will make it A5 size so will also buy a guillotine to cut the A4 pages down.

Looking up booklet printing and they say 2007 has a template option to print a booklet automatically. I have not upgraded to 2007 so it might be worth it to get that function.

Was going to start the text today. Will plan out chapters and see how far I get.

Obesity is a leptin problem

It is wonderful to have the confidence to know that I am not going to find myself overeating and binging and putting the weight back on again.

I am trying to think about to when my hormones first went out of sync and I would find myself continually hungry. I would say it was at primary school. I would always go back for seconds of main course and pudding if I could get it.

I very rarely have a problem in the morning as long as I have a cooked breakfast with plenty of protein and oil. Yesterday was poached eggs and fried mushrooms at 7 and I only started feeling hungry at 11. Now I dont continually worry about food in the afternoons. I know I can wait for 5 hours and then have a tasty supper and then I dont eat again before bed.

It takes 3 hours in the morning after I wake up to feel hungry again, so my leptin is working well and persuading my brain that there is plenty of food and still plenty of fat stores so there is no need to be panicky about food.

I am still 35lbs overweight but feel so much better and starting to feel bones emerging again from the fat.

Forgot Irvingia

Amazingly was so busy on errands yesterday forgot to take my irvingia before the restaurant meal.

Made a good choice fish fillet and salad and had no cravings all afternoon despite shopping.

First hunger pang kicked in 4 hours after the meal and got home to have tuna and cheese salad at 7.30 and was in bed by 8.30. Did not leave the 3 hours between food and bed but was too tired to stay up.

Great leptin worked and I felt satiety after the meal without taking the product. So maybe I will not have to take it for the rest of my life. Just if the cravings come back.

Blood type diet

Have just finished the above named book. Found it a very different approach to dieting and losing weight. I was a bit of a sceptic but in my case he is spot on.

As a type O I should be eating more of a cavewoman diet. Meat and veg. I should not be having grains and milk.

I have found my dieting progress much steadier and more controllable now that I dont have milk at all. I also used to take wheat bran every day but he says that wheat bran is also not recommended for Type O.

My DH is type A so he should be eating less meat and more veg and grains. Mealtimes are not going to be easy!

Neanderthin

That book arrived in the post yesterday. I had ordered it from Amazon. His hypothesis is that obesity is an autoimmune disease like arthritis etc. Only just read the first few pages so will see where he is going to take this.

He had arthritis and then diabetes and cured both with going back to a caveman diet.

I definitely had an intolerance to milk and feel so much better now I have given it up and various little health niggles are cured. I also had a problem with wheat but as I gave up all wheat products 3 years ago that has not been so much of a problem.

Surprised to find I have lost 2lbs in 3 days this week. Weight loss has been slow around 0.8lb for the past few weeks and I was not expecting it to speed up again. The blurb on Irvinigia says it can take 8 to 10 weeks to start increasing weight loss. If this is the effect of the irvingia then I am very happy.

Still no cravings in the afternoons and I am learning about hunger something I never really experienced when my weight was so out of control and I was binging all the time.

Primal Blueprint

Just got the above book yesterday and it is making a lot of sense.

For so many years I have been dieting using artificial sweeteners in desserts and low fat/low calorie meal plans. I have been hungry almost every day and as soon as the weight has gone I start putting it back on again and it takes me months before I can summon the strength to get my eating under control again.

This way of eating with nothing sweet and no starch seems to give me a slower weight loss but it is steady and I dont have to worry about the rebound hunger. This gives me confidence that this is going to be my last ever diet. As long as I stick to the main principles I will be able to stay at my new normal slim weight.

On the move again

Please to see a small weight loss again today. Only 0.2lbs so not a vast amount but the scale is going in the right direction.

Had 3 nice meals yesterday. Poached eggs and bacon for breakfast, roast chicken and veg for lunch and salmon salad for supper.

Reading Eating less and she recommends we change our focus to controlling our eating habits rather than controlling our weight. If we can get our eating habits under control the weight loss will happen automatically.

Only another 0.6lbs to go and I will have lost 20lbs while on irvingia. Noticed my jeans are much looser in the legs and are longer so may have to turn them up. They are not being stretched by the fat that used to be there!

Being able to not have cravings in the afternoon is such a big thing for me. Since starting on irvingia I have not been visiting the fridge once in the afternoon to look for a little something. I have my lunch and then am satisfied until it is time for supper.

I feel now I can eat this way for the rest of my life and finally I have a handle on this obesity. I will never be obese again.

Paleo Diet

The book came yesterday so I read it in an afternoon. I was interested to read it but felt he has unnecessarily down on the low carb diets. Also I dont know any woman who can eat 2200 cals per day. That maybe the recommended calorie intake but on that I would be putting on at least a lb a week. I am not sure if his recommendations were aimed at the obese who want to lose weight or people looking for a healthy diet.

Also I would imagine that early man started taming animals long before he started growing grain crops. So cheese and yogurt may have been on the menu before the grains.

Also the fruit that we can buy now is very different from the fruit that would have been obtainable in the paleo era. Todays fruit is much sweeter and is now available all year instead of only at certain seasons.

Am waiting for Neanderthin to turn up and see if that says anything different. Lost 1.6lbs this week. Not staggering weight loss but at least is steady and consistent. I weigh less every Sunday than I did the Sunday before.

Not eating between Meals

With the assistance of Irvingia I am still managing to go between lunch and supper without having any calories at all.

I noticed yesterday I could walk up the hill from the pigs without stopping to take a breather and without getting breathless. Something I could not do a couple of weeks ago.

Weight has not dropped for a few days but I am not going to cut my calories. Already on 1200 so am going to stay on that level and wait for my body to start dropping the weight again.

Best diet is one you dont know you are on

Came across the above quote in a book called Mindless Eating. Thought it a very good idea. That is what I want to do, to get to the point where this is just the way I eat and I no longer feel that "I am on a diet".

I am enjoying this way of eating and know I will never go back to the way I used to snack and overeat as I did before.

Had chicken and greek salad for supper last night as we had guests in for the meal. Ate a bit more than usual but was still in control and served the ice cream for dessert without wanting to have any.

Living Low Carb

Got a really good book the other day. Living Low carb by Jonny Bowden. Wish I had ordered it years ago as it gives the lowdown on 35 low carb diets and is extremely informative.

Have decided I am probably going to be on Irvingia for the rest of my life to keep those cravings at bay. I never want to go back to eating in a trance the way I used to do. It is better to keep taking that rather than being obese and having to take diabetes medication.

This is the diet and pills for me

This is what I have been looking for the whole of my life. I am becoming unobese for the first time in my life.

Lost another 0.8lb in the last 24 hours so that is 1.6lb so far this week. I am eating so well at my meals but now not having any calories at all between meals.

I dont feel I have to do exercise to lose the weight and with the help of irvingia I just dont overeat anymore or have cravings I cant control.

Yesterdays lunch was a left over chicken leg, with the skin covered in a tomato ratatouille and heated up in the microwave served on a bed of cabbage cooked with butter and spinach.

Nails are still nice after giving up the milk completely. I have never had such strong nail. They look like fake ones but they are real!

This is the diet for the rest of my life. No sweeteners, no pudding, no fruit, no diet drinks. Just good flavourful savoury food with sauces.

Inflammed Fat

Am reading my books again about leptin resistance and inflammed fat. Fat produces its own hormones and causes problems in the body that keep the body fat.

I worked out I lost 14lbs the first month on this Irvingia assisted diet and 4lbs the next month. I would usually not be happy unless I was losing at least 7lb a month and would feel that 4lbs is hardly losing weight at all. But the big plus here is that I am eating great food ( brushing the dust off my recipe books looking for interesting meals) and I do not having any cravings for rubbish food and if I am hungry there is a meal just around the corner.

Was thinking I will be happy to get down under the 168lbs as that is 12 stone and then will drift slowly downwards to under 11 st or 154lbs. Does not matter if this takes 6 months or a year or more as I am eating so well and feeling so satisfied on the eating regime.

Breakfast today will be 2 eggs with a couple of slices of chicken pastrami. Lunch left over chicken with green veg. Yesterday I made a chilli peanut sauce to go with the chicken. Supper was a tinned salmon salad with cream and blue cheeses. I have found a way of eating I can follow for life and am going to be slim for life.

Not expecting Loss

Found this morning I am 8oz less than yesterday. Was not expecting that weight loss at all. They did say that irvingia increases the weight loss after 8 weeks or so but I was not expecting that to happen to me as I usually lose more at the beginning of a diet and then stall.

Yesterday I had family in for Sunday lunch and had veg and chicken myself but again went through the afternoon without nibbling or binging.

Trying to work out an average weight loss so I can get some idea of how long this is going to take me.

Feel that once I get under the 12 st or 168lb then I am more on the normal side of weight loss rather than being obese. So that is 10lbs away. Could be there by Christmas.

Slow Dieting

Got under the BMI 29 today and lost another 0.4 of a pound so that is 12oz this week.
Normally I would feel a failure for losing such a small amount of weight but this time I dont.

I am not craving or binging or in any danger of finding my weight going up by 5 or 6lbs any day. Each day the weight is either the same or has dropped a bit. I am enjoying my 3 good meals a day and am not feeling deprived and waiting till I get to the end of the diet. So if it takes me 10 months and I succeed that is better than taking 5 months and then yoyoing back up again.

Yesterday did a nice chicken thai curry with peanut butter in it for lunch. Am dusting off the cookery books to find interesting meals.

Did Well

Got through GS party without overdoing the food. Had the inside of a mini quiche and a chicken wing. Asked if they still had strawberries available and they did so ordered 10 portions of strawberries and cream for all the adults. So a nice treat and fitted in with the low carb eating. Did not feel deprived at all.

Also had a swim in the pool so got some exercise without having to plan it.

Scale today same as yesterday. This is a much slower weight loss than I am used to. Half a pound a week but it is consistent and I dont feel miserable on the diet so this is all good.

Small Loss

Usually put on weight after a trip to town so pleased to see a loss even if only 0.4lb or 6oz.

This plan seems to give a much slower weight loss compared to previous diets but the weight does not bounce back on again and I dont feel deprived so am happy to accept that it is going to take a while for the fat to shrink.

My body seems happy to give up the weight rather than me try to exercise and starve it off and then have a rebound afternoon when I put it all back on again.

Beef Curry

I made a really nice beef curry yesterday with the left over roast. I found I had a tin of coconut milk in the pantry and put that in it. It was so good I broke my rule and had a bit extra sauce with some veg for seconds.

There was one portion left over so I have frozen it and will have it one day when I do chicken pieces for DH.

No change in the weight but still feeling so much better.

Again under 180lbs

I saw 179.8 on the scale on Friday, but then did not see it again until this morning. Now plan to get under the 180lbs in the evening.

This is a much slower diet than I have ever done before but as long as the weight loss is steady I am enjoying the food then I am happy.

Noticed trousers are longer, the material is no longer being stretched by my thighs so now material catches underneath my foot. I may need to turn up the hems!

This is progress.

Big Tea

I went over on my eating yesterday. D cooked up some rump steak at 3pm as they had missed lunch. I wanted to try it as it was from a different butchery and is known to be a good one. Was very nice and tender and there was plenty so I went back for another dish, and another! Decided to make that my tea and added tomato and avocado and some blue cheese to the last 2 bowlfuls. Then took an irvingia and HCA tablet and decided not to eat again before I went to bed which I kept to.

Hopefully it was just a one off as I would not normally have cooked rump steak available at that time. So enjoyed it, did not feel guilty and kept control although I ate more than I usually do for tea.

Intolerance

Have worked out I have food intolerance to wheat products and milk. Fortunately I do seem to be able to eat cheese but try not to have too much hard cheese. I go for the softer cheeses, feta blue cheese and cream cheese.

Most of the wheat products I gave up about 3 years ago but I found it very difficult to give up milk in my tea and coffee through out the day.

I would think that it is only a small number of calories so I continued to take milk all day.

I feel so much better now I have given up milk entirely.

Under 180

Finally this morning the scale dropped below 180lbs. I have been wanting to see that figure for over a week and a half and finally done it.

I am sticking with the plan to have 3 good meals a day and no snacks and no milk. I am sure I am intolerant to milk. My nails are also much better when I give up milk.

I am intolerant to milk and wheat and wheat products. I used to live on milk and bread so this is a big change.

Am Winning

Am still looking forward to seeing the scale drop below 180 but I am happy with my control around food and the meals I am eating.

I started the different irvingia Leptin Boost yesterday and found exactly the same lack of cravings and good control around food for the whole day. So it also works well.

Controlling cravings

I nearly had my first craving in almost 2 months yesterday evening.

I had a nice salad with tuna and half an avocado ( keeping the seed to plant as it was a nice buttery one with yellow flesh) at around 8.30 I thought I would like an extra piece of blue cheese. That is the first time I have felt an urge to eat outside meal times in nearly 8 weeks. Luckily it was not that strong so I took a couple of Vit C tablets and sucked those instead and later went to bed.

I hope the cravings are not returning and that I am going to be able to control them. I did a deal with myself that I could have a piece of blue cheese with my eggs this morning instead of eating it last night.

Anniversary

Yesterday DH and I celebrated being married 35 years. We went out to a local restaurant for a meal in the early evening.

I had a smoked chicken salad and decided to have a proper drink beforehand. So ordered a gin and soda and put a couple of sucralose tablets in it. Was really nice with a couple of slices of lemon.

We had strawberries and cream for dessert and I have a cup of filter coffee.

So was on the diet plan and had a good evening. No loss today but did not expect one.

Doing milk instead of cream but only one mug

I decided today to go back to milk in my first cup of coffee of the morning. I usually leave a bit in the mug and go back for a refill so each mug gets blacker! On my third already.

My weight has stalled for a bit and I wonder if it is too much cream. Will try this for a few days and see what effect it has. I feel thinner it is just not showing on the scale.

Cream V Milk

I am still undecided about the cream or milk on a diet. Recently I have been buying cream and I usually have some in my coffee first thing and again after supper.

I made a tasty chicken dish with mushrooms and cream and have had that for lunch for the last 2 days. My weight has stayed around the same. I wonder if it is the cream. I could try using milk in coffee and recipes as it has less calories but more sugar. Maybe now I have got the cravings under control I will not get such a bad reaction from the sugar in milk.

Goats

Having real problems trying to keep baby goats alive. Last time I kept goats the babies were really tough and needed no help. In the last week we have had 3 nannies kid. The first 2 both had twins that were born dead. Yesterday the twins were born alive but I did not realise how weak they were till the evening. They had not managed to stand since they were born in the morning and the goatman had not made sure they had had a feed. I bought them up and fed them by bottle last night. One died at 12 and the other was dead when I got up at 3am. Hoping I can figure out what is going on. That is 6 dead kids within the week.

Still on track diet wise. I feel this diet now just goes on in the background while I get on with my life. Feeling much more confident now with the irvingia that I am not going to wreck my diet with an overeating binge. The afternoons are now zipping quickly past and it is soon ready for supper.

Liquid diets can be fatal

Read an article in the UK paper about a woman using a commercial liquid diet to drop form 16st + to 14st + in a few weeks when trying to lose weight after having a baby. She died from lack of potassium. So sad and so unnecessary. These liquid diets should be banned as all that happens is when a person has lost weight and come off the liquid meal replacement all the weight will come back on again and bring its friends!

I have never tried liquid diets and I dont want to. I am happy using real food and irvingia to get my weight down.

The No S diet

Just got a book from Amazon about the No S diet. Which is no sweets, no snacks and no seconds except on S days which is Sat Sun and special days ( holidays etc).

It is basically what I am already doing but I am adding a low carb diet into the mix as well.

Off to town for the day. I often have a problem with snacks on the way back just because I buy them and then eat them in the car. so will have to be aware of that and try and head it off at the pass.

If I get today and tomorrow right I could be under the 180lbs by Sunday and I dont want to blow that and find I have put on 5lbs instead!

Relentless weight loss

I dont think I have ever used that heading before. Usually it is relentless weight gain!

Another 0.8lbs off on the scale this morning. Keen to get under the 180lb mark. Should do that next week sometime.

It is so liberating not to have to worry about overeating or going off my diet in the afternoons.

I just dont go there the other day. DH pointed out a bar of chocolate was missing from the fridge yesterday. 6 weeks ago it would have been me who had eaten it and thrown away the wrapper. But I could tell him I used it in his birthday cake on Sunday.

Food is just not that important anymore. I eat my meals and then forget about food for the next few hours. This irvingia has done something to me that no other diet or eating plan or tablets has ever done before. I am no longer obsessed with food.

Nails and Dieting

Six weeks from the time I started the irvingia and finally got my eating under control and again my fingernails are growing past the ends of my fingers.

I have noticed before that my nails seem to respond very quickly to a change in diet. I used to think it would take 6 to 7 month for the nail to grow out from the nailbed to the end of the finger.

While I was binging and overeating my nails would always be soft and flaky and never looked nice.

I am hoping now that I can control my eating and the weight is coming off that I will also have pretty nails and they will not start to flake and break again.

Irvingia the Diet Enabler

Was very interested to read yesterday that on the low carb forum where I reccommeded Irvingia a few weeks ago 2 ladies have decided to try it.

They are both now reporting very good results from it. The one is over 100lbs and in 2 weeks has lost 15lbs and says she is finding dieting so much easier.

The other has taken a while to notice any difference in her habits but now says she is able to take a small amount of food not on her diet and is much more in control around food. She is also feeling better and walking every day.

I am calling this a diet enabler because with it it is far easier to stick to a diet. You feel satisfied with less food. You dont binge and snack at inappropriate times. You dont feel as though you are living in a fog the whole time.

It will be interesting to see if the effect is sustainable and that we all lose the excess weight and are then able to maintain that new slim weight.

So far I am far more positive than I have ever been that this is the answer for me and for all the obese people in the world.

Feeling Good

I dont think I have ever felt better on a diet.

I am enjoying my food and the freedom from constantly snacking and binging after lunch is wonderful.

I am feeling lighter and slimmer and see no reason at all why I cant finally get down to the normal size and have a normal appetite after all these years.

Son found some more Irvingia in Cape Town so will get that this week. I am making sure I always have a supply in my handbag so I can take some at the right time if I am out of the house.

Exercise

Well got out my Disco burn colleen Nolan DVD yesterday and did the warm up. I did it because I wanted to not because I felt I had to.

I think this diet will work without the exercise but I dont want to end up all flabby so I better try and use my muscles.

Also looked at the one about interval training. Just for a short time you run as hard as you can on the spot and then go back to normal activities. So am doing that around the house to up my calorie use and make my legs work.

Thirty Pounds Down

Am today under the 13st again. I was worried in case I had lost the plot entirely and was heading back up to over 200lbs again. I think if I had not found the irvingia supplement that is where I would be heading now.

Differences I have noticed with Irvingia.

I no longer crave anything sweet.
I feel satisfied after a normal portion of food.
I dont snack and binge in the afternoon and evening.
I can feel hunger without having to do anything about it. I can wait for my meal.
My brain is quieter and I can concentrate on other things instead of constantly thinking about food.

Interesting another lady on the low carb forum has also tried irvingia and has lost 15lb in 2 weeks and has not cheated once and has no longer got a sweet tooth.

There is some great truth in this product about fixing something that is broken in the obese.

Leptin Diets

Rechecking through my books to see which diets work with Leptin instead of against Leptin.

Got Master Leptin, Leptin Boost Diet Rosedale Diet and Fat Resistance Diet.

I plan to do an analysis and compare one to another. Some say you can eat snacks, others say no snacks. Some say you can only have egg white and not the whole egg!

The Diet I have worked out does not allow snacks but allows 400 to 500 calories for a meal and does allow whole eggs. I do not like waste and the idea of throwing perfectly good egg yolks away is a very big waste.

Found some cream yesterday so now having cream in my coffee first thing and also if having with meals. Not having cream outside mealtimes as I am on a no calories between meal diet and it is working.

Blip gone

Good to see a small drop in weight from 2 days ago so the move upwards was just temporary water weight.

For the first time with dieting I feel that my set point is moving downwards as well. I feel my body wants to get thin along with me. Usually I find that on a diet my body is wanting to get the weight back on again and every day is a battle to stay the same weight or drop a bit more.

Keen to get under that 182lb, that is 13st UK size so looking forward to getting into the 12 stones and then only a short drop to get under 12 and back into normality instead of obesity.

Blip

Had a bit of a blip up on the scale. Only 0.6lb since yesterday but there is no reason for it. I stuck to the meal plan yesterday and felt satiety after my meals so I am happy to wait it out and know the scale has to move down again.

Busy learning new skills. Drove with the trailer yesterday to pick up some new farm equipment. Was asked twice to reverse it but that is a skill too far for me! Will have to practice quietly on my own sometime on the farm. Got all the stuff safely back so was happy with that achievement.

The feeling of control around food is unbelievable. I have never had this level of control around chocolate, biscuits dried fruit etc.

14lbs down

I started the tablets on the 12th Sept and today is the 11th Oct and I am exactly 14lbs less than I was then. Am very happy with the progress and now that my abnormal cravings have stopped I dont see any reason why I cant get this obesity under control and finally get down and stay at a good weight for my height. I am aiming at just under 140lbs to begin with and will see how my body looks at that weight. Having been obese for most of my life I am not sure what my correct weight is.

Did lunch at the club after church yesterday. Was later than I normally eat at 1 whereas I usually eat at 12. But I coped fine and did not desire any snacks or cakes at coffee time. Had chicken and the low carb salads and pleased to see a small loss this morning. Did not have any diet coke as I know that stalls my weight loss. Had water.

Four weeks and counting

I am trying to think back as to the differences between this diet and all the ones that have gone before. All the previous ones were of limited success. I would lose some weight but as soon as I came off the diet the weight would come back on.

Even on those diets I would have really bad cravings in the afternoons and evenings and would often blow my dieting efforts in a couple of hours of binging.

In 4 weeks of taking Irvingia plus I have not had one out of control afternoon or evening. I have eaten my meal and enjoyed it and felt satisfied to wait for the next meal.

Weight today 13,8lbs less than 4 weeks ago. Would have been nice to be on the 14lbs but that is what the scale said and I am not fudging it. I know now I will never find the scale going up by 4 or 5lbs after a binge.

This will be the start of the next 4 weeks. I have 7 weeks until Christmas so would be nice to lose 2lbs a week and lose another 14lbs by Christmas. Once I am under the 174lbs I will be nearly home and dry.

Satisfied with food intake

On previous diets I have never felt that I was eating enough to make me feel full. I would actually desire second or third helpings. If I left the table after one helping I would then be trying to resist cravings all afternoon.

Since taking the Irvingia I have been leaving the table after 1 plate of food and feeling contentment until the next meal. I might have a few hunger pangs after 3 hours or so but have not had a binging session when I am out of control around food.

Will have some left over pork sausage with my breakfast eggs so looking forward to that.

This is what it must feel like to have a normal appetite. I have never know what it is like to have a normal response to food until now.

Cravings have gone

For the first time in my life I am able to control myself around food. I eat my meals, one helping only and then I stop eating until the next meal.

I have now lost 13.4lbs in less than 4 weeks. It is not that we do not have nice food in the house and food that I would normally binge on. There are muffins, dried fruit, fresh fruit, cheese and cereal. All food that I would previously have found it difficult if not impossible to resist. Since starting irvingia I am completely at peace around these foods. I can look at them and not want to eat them.

My next order arrived in Lusaka yesterday so I now have 8 months supply. That will take me down under the 140lbs for only about the 3rd time in my life.

Once you get your brain right low carb dieting is easy. I have never had such an easy time on a diet.

No more Binging

For years I have had a problem with the desire to eat more food in the afternoons after having had a good meal at lunch time. If I was on a diet I would try and control this desire and try and get out of the house so I would not be continually visiting the fridge or the pantry to look for food. My intake over 4 or 5 hours could easily add up to over 600 cals or more. I just did not seem to have an 'enough already' button and would continue to eat.

Since the first day I have been taking Irvingia Plus I have found I have had no desire at all to eat in the afternoons except at meal times when I am hungry.

It seems this is all due to Leptin resistance. The message from my fat cells and stomach was not getting through to my brain to say we are all full down here. So I carried on eating trying to get that full signal. Now I get the full signal after my meal and am happy not to eat until supper time. This is what it must be like to be normal. The way I used to eat or not eat was not normal at all!

My skin is feeling good. Interesting to see if this diet has any effect on my nails. Muffin top has gone forever.

Three good meals a day

Went out last night but had my salad ( big one with tuna and feta) beforehand and did not have to use will power to say no to food on offer. Normally I would have either gone ahead and eaten it, a steak roll, or justified that it was meat so allowed on Atkins and just eaten the steak. As it was I genuinely did not want to eat it, my brain was contented so passed on the food.

Am going to go through my low carb dieting books and check again which says yes to snacks and which says no. Maybe someone without a big weight problem could have a snack and still lose weight. My experience is I am better have larger meals and no snacks. Seems to suit my hormonal response to food better.

Aiming to get under 182lbs in the next week.

The Hard Core Leptin Diet

Got off the obese BMI this morning. Now officially 29.9 BMI

This is what I am doing. So pleased it is working.


The Hard Core Leptin Diet.


Leptin is a hormone made by your fat that tells your brain you have eaten enough food and there are plenty of fat stores so it is not necessary to eat any extras.

Obese and overweight people have leptin resistance, where the message does not reach the brain saying plenty of food here and plenty of fat so don’t eat any more. So because of the leptin resistance they are permanently hungry and eat on autopilot.

When you were a child or had a normal appetite you would eat your meal and then run off and play or get busy with the rest of your life and not obsess about eating more food after you have recently had a good meal.

To correct leptin resistance you can take a supplement from RSA called Irvingia Plus which will help the leptin get through to your brain and so your body will feel full. You can also take HCA which is also an appetite control supplement. Both of these are made by Solal and can be purchased at Dischem or other chemist in SA. Link in Lusaka will order for you. The recommended dose is 2 capsules before meals but I have found one capsule of each product before lunch works for me. I no longer want or need to continually eat after lunch and feel satisfied with the food I am eating. One container of Irvingia plus contains 60 capsules enough for 2 months and the HCA contains 90 tablets enough for 3 months.

On this diet you eat or drink no calories at all outside meal times. So only water, black tea or black coffee between meals. You may have a small amount of milk or cream with your drinks at meal times.

No diet drinks and no artificial sweeteners. You will find you no longer have a sweet craving after a few days. No desserts.

This is basically the Atkins diet but with the change that snacks are not allowed, butter is not allowed, snacks are not allowed and you use olive oil for cooking and salads.

Eat no diet products. Nothing that says low fat on it.

Fruit is not allowed as it contains sugar which turns to glucose.

Take a good multivitamin and mineral tablet every day.

Make sure you are leaving 5 hours between each meal and eat your evening meal as early as possible so you leave 3 hours after eating before going to bed. Meal times could be breakfast 7.30, lunch 12.30 and supper 5.30 bed 9.30. Change the times to suit yourself, but keep the spacing.

You must have breakfast. Do not skip meals. Do not have seconds or thirds. Dish up your plate with normal portions and do not add any more.

Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. Tea and coffee do not count. 2 on rising. Warm water is easier on your system. 2 at breakfast, 2 with lunch and 2 in the afternoon. You can have another couple in the evening if you can fit them in.

Broken cooked eggs causes inflammation in your body fat. So breakfast is a choice of poached or boiled eggs. Put some olive oil in the dish, add flavour of your choice: herbs, spice etc. Break the eggs into the poaching cup and poach over low heat until the yolk is how you like it. Two eggs for ladies, 3 or 4 for men. At the weekends you may have some tomato, sausage or bacon with your eggs. Make sure the sausage is all meat and does not contain any bread or flour filling.

You can change menus for lunch and supper around if you need to but it is better to eat your bigger meal of the day at lunch time if at all possible.

I have a cooked meal at lunch time. Low carb. So roast chicken or steak or grilled fish. You can eat the skin that comes with your portion but not all of the chicken skin (!). Steak can be cooked in olive oil. Then any green veg, cabbage, spinach etc. You can make sauces without flour.

Atkins says no onions or tomatoes but I find adding half an onion to lunch and a tomato for supper does not stall my weight loss.

No potato, sweet potato, bread, rice, pasta or any other starch. You may be able to introduce these foods back in small quantities once you have lost the weight.

Supper is a big salad. Get a vegetable serving dish and cut up 2 cups of mixed salad leaves. Chop up a tomato. Add either half a tin of tuna or salmon, or a tin of sardines in oil, add some feta cheese plus a bit of blue cheese for flavour. Stay away from hard cheese for now. It is too easy to eat too much of it. Add a dessert spoon of virgin olive oil and enjoy. You could also add a small amount of left over meat if you had fish for lunch instead of the tinned fish.

What sort of weight loss can you expect? If you can get your leptin communication correct, you may find you are losing weight faster than you ever have before. Depending on how much you have to lose you could find a weight loss of over 5lbs the first week and then 2 to 3lbs each week afterwards. Men will lose more.

You should feel hungry about 2 hours before your next meal but the hunger pangs should not be uncontrollable the way cravings are. Your body should be able to switch over to burning your fat for the last 2 hours before the next meal and during the night. This is the way your body is supposed to work so let it get on with it and don’t give in by eating between meals.

Good Day

Another day gone and yet another day without any sign of failure. I have been so used to failing on diets I cannot believe that this is so easy.

My calories are around 1100 a day and I am perfectly satisfied after my meals. The gremlin in my head that has been urging me to overeat for the past 50 years has been bound and gagged and blinded by the irvingia plus capsules. I no longer have the urge to snack or binge after meals.

Yesterday bought myself a leather jacket. First one I have ever owned. Throwing out the fake one that is all torn and broken.

Another couple of good days and I will be below the 30BMI and only overweight rather than obese.

Still dieting now with Irvingia

Was not sure if I would find this again. Not posted for nearly 10 months and in that time have been binging my way back up to nearly 200lbs again.

All my life I have been looking for that magic something that would help me lose the weight and keep it off and also to control the binges and make me feel satisfied with the quantities of food I am allowed.

Two weeks ago I found a product called Irvingia which is said to overcome Leptin resistance and enable your brain and stomach work together to make you satisfied after a meal.

I have been using it ever since and have lost 10lbs and found the afternoon cravings, nibbling and binging have just stopped from the first day I took it.

I am still using the low carb diet as I know I also have insulin resistance.

This is the answer for me. Low carb plus irvingia plus. Only another 40lb to go.

Aspartame and Urge Incontinence

This is not something I find easy to write about but I feel it is so important I am going to do it anyway.

For over 30 years since I had my last babies I have suffered from urge incontinence. When I need to go and need to go now and am not able to wait! I assumed there was nothing much that could be done. When it got really bad I went to the Dr to ask for help and to see if I had a bladder infection but the test came back negative so I soldiered on always knowing where the next loos were. The situation seemed to get worse when I was on one of my frequent diets and drinking more water than usual. I try to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.

A week ago I decided to see if it would help me to get my cravings and over eating in the afternoons under control by given up all sweetened food and drink. So no more diet cokes, no lowcal fruit flavoured drinks and no canderal added to yogurts or baked foods.

In a totally unexpected fashion I found a few days later that my urgency to get to a loo was gone. Completely and utterly gone. I could go for a walk and not have to rush back the last few yards. I could jump up and down and do star jumps. Something I have not been able to do for years.

I looked up on the internet for Diet cokes and incontinence and Aspartame and incontinence and have found that many people have had the same result.

I love my sweet tasting drinks and foods but after this result will never go back to having them again. It is just not worth the stress. I hope this entry hopes other women and men suffering from the same problem to find an answer once and for all.

6 months to lose 2lbs but am happy

It is so long since I have posted to this blog I have forgotten how to change the setting and stuff.

Will pick it up again soon.

Well it has taken me 6 months to lose 2lbs! But I am happy about that as my weight has been fairly stable at around 154lbs.I have had a holiday in UK for a month and only put on 2lbs despite eating lots of meals in restaurants.

I feel at last that I have found the way my body works and now I can work with it and not be fighting it all the time.

I hope to eventually get down to 135lbs and then have 5lbs in hand for special occasions. Which does not include vast quantities of bread!

Daughter's Jeans

Had a few worrying moments this morning. Grabbed a pair of jeans out of the cupboard and then could not do them up. Thought no way I could have put on 2" overnight. Took them off an checked the label. They are size 34 and mine are size36. Daughter sends her laundry up to be washed and ironed when she is in the guesthouse and her jeans got back into my cupboard. So that was a relief.

I then opened my small trouser drawer as I put some aside that I could not fit into and have found that I can get the cream pair done up. They have buttons on the side of the ankle I bought them years ago during one of my starvation mode diets and they have been languishing in the cupboard ever since. But today I am wearing them.

Had tomato relish yesterday for lunch as veg a bit short. Had some more with eggs for breakfast which was nice. If no ill effects will get some more tins to have as standby. Carbs are 1.5 gms for 2 tablespoons so half the carbs of ketchup.

Did all the difficult bits of the 2 DVD's this morning. So all the aerobics on Brand new you and the 2 salsa tracks on Salasice. Took about 90mins but I finished it. Must have used up at least 500 cals.

Got to lose 1lb a week to get under 140lbs by 20th July.

Under 150lbs

Got the new scale working yesterday. This morning it was showing my weight at 149.2lbs so very pleased about that.

Cutting out the cheese, cutting down on the extra fat and oil and giving up the sweet puddings has definately got my weight loss back on track.

Will soon be down to the weight I was when I married at 147lbs.

Had half a piece of bacon with my eggs and cabbage for breakfast. Done lots of walking today as they were moving the pivot with the tractor so I was walking in to the center and back out again as they pulled it. Should have taken a hat as it was after 10am before I got home.

Lunch was pork chops took the rind off and some of the fat, had it with cabbage cooked in butter and opened a tin of tomato and olive relish as I was a bit short of veg. Tomatoes are highish in carbs but I thought if I had with a meal I would not notice an insulin spike. The carbs ended up at more normal intake for the meal. Was very tasty.

Supper tonight will be the other half of yesterdays tuna with salad and low fat salad dressing. Again carbs for that is 1.7gms for 1 tablespoon so fits in allowance.

Did DVD this morning and for a change did the Brand new you 4 aerobics sessions and then the level 2 salsa. So did all the strenuous bits one after the other. Took a bit longer but must have used more calories.

About to round up grandkids and dogs and take everyone for a walk.

Booked my bus ticket for July from Heathrow to Cornwall. Plane lands at 6.30am and bus does not leave till 10 so will have time for a good cooked breakfast. Hope I can get some sleep on coach as does not arrive till 4pm. But route is straight down the motorways M4 and M5 so no zooming round roundabouts.

Keen to get under 140lbs by mid July.

Down to 150lbs

Have not posted to blog for three weeks as weight was all over the place. I had a couple of bad evenings when I overate. At one point I was back to 154lbs so I decided to take myself in hand.

I am now keeping a food log and write down everything I eat and drink and work out the carbs and the calories. I also started walking in the afternoon when the children came to stay so am keeping up with that. I take the dogs for about 45mins every afternoon. I have set up my sewing room as a mini gym and have the netbook in there with my 2 exercise DVD's on it. I have Salsacise and Brand New You. So I do one of them every morning when I wake up. I am also expecting Jane Torville's Lose It and Colleen Nolan's disco burn DVD's in the post soon so that will be plenty of variety.

On the food front I have increased the size of my breakfast and am now having 3 eggs with any left over veg from the day before. Usually cabbage cooked in a little butter with courgettes and spinach. Lunch is the same as before only I am not having the yogurts and jello. Evening I have given up all the cheese and am now having tinned fish, salmon, tuna, sardines or pilchards with my salad. I have also stopped the home made mayonnaise and gone back to bought slim salad dressing. I measure out a tablespoon which is 1.7 carbs and 17 cals and have that with vinegar on my salad. I am managing with no snacks. Trying to have at least 8 to 10 glasses water every day.

Will keep a record of this as this will be my back to induction menu when I put on weight after I get to my goal weight. I dont feel hungry on it and am eating well and at last am losing weight again.

Got a trip to UK in Mid July and hope to be under the 140lbs by then. Also may do a trip to Joburg next month with daughter as she has to take son for checkups. That will be a 3 or 4 day trip I think. I know I can cope in SA as lots of restaurants now do chicken/ greek salad. Will just have to watch I am not tempted with extras like nuts and trail mix and yogurt. I do think that the yogurt was setting up cravings so when I reintroduce it I should just have in the evening before I go to bed. That way I dont notice the cravings.

Hope to get under the 150 and into the 140's over the weekend.

Am below First Goal

151.4lbs

I have achieved my first goal after a few detours on the way. Despite Christmas, birthdays and eating out.

Next aim is to get into the 140's and down to 147 which was my weight when I married. Strange how I have all these weights in my head! Once I get to 142lb that will be 70lbs lost and will then get under the 10stone and see what weight I feel happiest at.

Cut back a bit on the fat now and have given up my caffeinated coffee, now only having decaf and 2 mugs is the limit. Then it is tea on the menu.

Workout time

I went on to a proper low carb Atkins diet at the end of February. Before that I had been doing a medium carb diet but was still having problems with cravings in the afternoon. Doing the Atkins diet has stopped those cravings unless I am tired. When I do have cravings now I try and eat high protein and medium fat snacks or even bring my meal forward.

Since I gave up all the grains and starchy veg I have found that my sleep pattern has changed. I just dont need the sleep I used to. Whereas before I used to have 9 or 10 hours a night and still woke up tired now I only need 6 or 7 hours sleep and I am awake and ready to get on with the day.

This is a bit tricky as on the farm we are usually in bed by 9.30 so I am now waking up at 3 or 3.30. So I get up and pick up my exercise clothes and then spend half an hour on the internet and do 1 hours exercise from 4 till 5. I have been doing this for a week now and it is working well. I hope to see my tummy and arms toning up.

I am now the weight I was for my daughters wedding 2 years ago but still want to lose another 20lbs or so. I know it is going to be slower now but as long as I can maintain and lose and not put on I will be happy.

Goal in sight 60lbs lost

152.2lbs

So nearly at that first goal. My weight loss this week has increased to 2lbs a week and I am not getting the little up bounces I used to get.

My only change is that I have given up the diet cokes and pepsi. For 20 years plus I have had one a day in the evening as a sundowner. For 6 days now I have had water instead.

Amazing what a difference it has made. I read about diet sodas on the lowcarbdiet forum. Some of my books say no diet sodas but I thought they are zero calories so I will have one as a treat. I did this as an experiment and will not go back to drinking them.

The only drawback is that I am getting leg cramps at night in my calves. Happened three nights running now. Am taking a bit of extra salt during the day to see if it helps. Maybe there was salt in the coke so my system is now short of salt?

Next post will be from under the 152lb mark when I am resetting my goal to 133lb. Dont know what I should weigh but that seems a nice number 9 and a half stone. As long as I dont get a sunken face I will be happy. If face gets too thin will up the goal a bit.

Diet Cokes are off the Menu

153.2lbs

That is a pound gone in 2 days. The only change I have made is I have given up my one can of diet coke in the evening and have had water instead.

I read on the lowcarbdiet forum that some ladies have been finding diet sodas stall their weight loss. So I decided to try it and see if it made any difference to me.
One pound is a lot at this stage of the weight loss.

I may treat myself if we eat out or travel to town for a few days but will try and stick mainly to water. This is working so well and I want to keep it working.

Going to wear a size 12 frock I have not worn for years today with a nice pair of tights and heels.

I feel good on the inside and am going to look good on the outside.

Under 11 stone

153.8lbs

Yes Yes Yes.

Finally have broken through that 11stone mark and am into the 10stones. That is under 70kg.

My weight has been doing little bounces for the past week. Up 0.2lbs and then down 0.4lbs then up 0.2lbs again.

On the lowcarbdiet forum one of the ladies said she is not having diet sodas any more so yesterday I did not have my usual diet pepsi or coke. I did not miss it as much as I thought I would. I may still have one if we eat out but will try and avoid them at home and just have water or no sugar juice.

Will have to decide what to wear for church tomorrow. I am doing the church tea. I may dig out my size 12 navy posh frock with the peplum which I really love and have not worn for years. May even be able to put a belt on!

Hope my weight does not bounce back up over the 154lbs tomorrow as that would be a disappointment but on recent results it might do so I just have to be prepared and wait for it to go down again which on this Atkins diet I know that it will. So great to be assured of a weight loss as long as I stick to the 27 to 30 net carbs per day.

Fabulous Diet

154.6lbs

Weight has been the same for a few days. But I know the scale will start to shift downwards soon. My system is still on a stall from the trip to Lusaka.

I went to the Country Club last night and received lots of compliments. Three of the ladies want details of the diet. I told them this is the Fabulous diet. You feel fabulous, look fabulous and eat fabulous food!

I had a nut attack yesterday and ate more than I should have done but I enjoyed them. It was the almonds I had bought in Lusaka.

Redid my nail polish yesterday. A pretty pale pink colour. Nails and not splitting and breaking all over the place so the calcium I started last August has finally kicked in. Will not stop it now so hope nails will stay strong and pretty. My fingers are much thinner than they have never been and so are my wrists. Last time I had nails like this they were fake but these ones are real!

Looking forward to a quiet day at home last week has been very busy. Still hoping to get below 154lbs next week.

Nearly Under 11 stone

Hope to get under that 154lbs within the next few days.

It will be such a joy to be in the 10stones. Then I will really feel I have got my weight finally under control.

Will post again when I get there.

I forgot about chocolate

155lbs

On Friday I went to town and as I was picking the children up for the weekend I decided to buy a treat and got 5 big kitkat bars. The melted a bit in my bag on the way home so I put them straight in the freezer when I got in while I was fixing lunch. My husband and grandchildren shared 2 bars after lunch and we left the other 3 bars in the freezer.

After supper that evening my granddaughter reminded me about the remaining bars and could they have some before bed. I had completely forgotten they were there. I used to be addicted to chocolate. I would know how many squares were left in the packet.

When I was a child I had to finish my Easter egg the same day even if I had 4 big chocolate eggs all with fillings. I was not able to relax until I had eaten all the chocolate and I knew there was nothing left in the house.

It is wonderful to feel that sugar does not have that hold over me any more. I am no longer an addict.

Newer scale is working

155.4lbs

My new scale is showing 0.4lb that is 6oz loss this morning and the old one no loss at all. So I was right to suspect the old one and get my new one back from my daughter. She said she was not using it.

The new one does not show stones and weighs in lbs and tenths of a pound. So I have to do some maths to work out the actual weight. Old scale weighed in stones and lbs and quarter lbs.

Am still keeping to the 25 grms of carbs a day may be 30 on some days as I do have a whole small avocado sometimes.

As long as the scale keeps dropping I am happy. I do find I have to have my meals a bit earlier than I used to. Breakfast is about 6.30am but I am usually up at 4.30! Lunch is at 12 and then supper at 5pm and after that I dont eat or drink at all.
But it is working so will carry on with it.

Four Stone

155.8lbs

Finally made the 56lb loss this morning. I have been yoyoing up and down by 1 or 2lbs for the past 2 weeks which has been frustrating for me.

I finally stopped having the salty foods yesterday. Bacon for breakfast and feta cheese for supper, had tuna in oil instead, and it has worked and scale has budged off that 156.75lbs where it seems it has been stuck for weeks.

Once I have lost another 2lbs I will finally be under the 11 stone mark and into the 10stones. I still have some belly rolls and am looking forward to seeing those disappear. Am doing the exercise each day. I managed to get my netbook set up with power DVD and can play my DVD's on it. It is much smaller to carry around and the battery lasts longer so I can set it up and exercise in the bedroom if the TV is in use.

Maybe my new black jeans will fit soon.

Only 5lbs to go to First Goal

157lbs.

I am within 5lbs of my first goal weight. Once I get there I am going to reset the goal to 132lbs which is 9st 6lbs. That will be a BMI of 22. Dont know what I will look like at that weight and I can tweak the figure when I get there.

Will try and fit in an hour of exercise this morning before church. If I cant get the whole thing done will do it in 2 sessions and do the second half this afternoon.

Nails are starting to poke out beyond the ends of my fingers again so I put some varnish on them yesterday. Did my toes while I was at it.

Having folk in for lunch today. Hope there are not too many left overs. Always a concern when I make too much food but I think with the low carb diet I am more in control of my appetite as long as I dont eat grain carbs, and as long as I am not hungry I can control myself around food.

I ate 1500cals of food yesterday and still lost quarter of a pound between yesterday am and today.

This has to be the only diet that has worked like this. I felt so hopeless about my weight before. It just all seemed beyond my control but now I am in control.

Hope to lose the next 3/4lb by the end of this week and then get under that magic 11st ( 154) mark into the 10stones.

Doing the Exercise

153.25lbs

Another half a pound gone. I have been surprising myself by doing the whole hour of the exercise DVD for the past couple of days. I have more energy than I have for years.

I put my foods eaten into the www.fitday.com site to see an analysis of what I was eating and found that my carbs were still to high. I was still losing weight at that rate which is good as when I have reached my goal I can increase my carbs to a point where I can maintain the same weight. My carbs the other day were 93gms but I forgot to take off the fibre which was about 30 so I ended up with net carbs of 60+.

I then looked to see where my carbs were coming from and found a surprising number in the milk I was having in my tea and coffee. All my other diets have insisted on having half a pint of milk every day and I just carried on with that without thinking. I have now decided to have 2 tspns of milk in my coffee first thing and then have black tea for the rest of the day.

I also finally cut out the potato and pumpkin I was having for lunch. My cals then went too low on the chart. Down to 1000 cals so I had to decide what I should eat to get the cals back up to 1300- 1400 cals so have added a tin of fish. Either one tin of sardines or half a tin of tuna in oil. I will see if I can buy some pilchards in the local shops but they usually only have chilli ones and I dont like hot food.

Hope to have lost the 4stone or 56lbs by next week and then get to my first goal the week after. Will then reset the goal and carry on downwards to under 140lb. Maybe 138.

Just got the Atkins Diet Revolution from Amazon and that is very helpful. Lots of good stuff there so will have to reread it.

Cut down on Milk

157.75lbs

I put my normal diet into the www.fitday.com site yesterday and found that my carb grms were 93gms. Which is very high for a low carb diet. I was still losing weight on that which means that when I get to my goal weight I will be able to add quite a few good carbs back into my diet and still maintain the same weight which is hopeful for the future.

My main carbs were coming from milk in my tea and coffee (9) yoghurt (9) pumpkin (19) onion (5) potato (5).

I got the figure down to 60 yesterday but replacing the pumpkin with tomato and not having the onion or any milk in my tea.

This morning I have lost a further half a pound and have also turned my keto sticks pink for the first time ever.

I am now having milk in my first 2 cups of coffee, but only 2 teaspoons and will have black tea for the rest of the day.

I will keep the yogurt in the diet as I feel it is good for me and enjoy a bit of sweetness with the coffee and cinnamon flavouring.

Should be under the 56lb loss by the end of next week. That will be 4 stone off.

Still doing the exercise to music and did an extra session yesterday as chose the wrong track so did the fat burning bit as well. Tummmy is definately flatter. Think the last 20lbs will go off my back and front as legs and arms are quite slim now.

Getting Slimmer

158.25lbs

I could change the numbers in the profile today. I am finally back to under the weight I was before I went to SA in January. So this is the lowest weight I have been in years.

I have 2 mini goals in mind. One is to get to 156lbs which would mean I have lost 4 stone and the other is to get under the 150lbs and into the 140's. I am going to reset my goal once I get under the 152lbs. Think I may set it for 5lbs intervals each time. 5lbs is not too much and I should be able to lose that in a month.

Very pleased with the veggie garden. We have sweetcorn ready but only my husband is eating that as I dont think it is on my diet plan! But I am having lovely fresh lettuce every evening for supper with parsely and thyme. Am also putting tomato, onion rings, avocado and a small amount of feta cheese and then olive oil. I had lots of salads last week in Joburg and have now got a taste for them.

Met an ex colleague on Monday who I had not seen for 6 years. She did not recognise me till I got close. She is also losing weight and had been on a diet for 5 weeks and says she is going low carb. I have offered to help her. Maybe I can go round once a week and we can weigh in together. I can certainly lend her some books. I got another six on Monday. Atkins Advantage 12 week plan, Sb cookery books 4 of them, 500 low carb receipes. Still 2 to come.

Found some soya flour in Lusaka on Sunday but not sure what to do with it. I dont want to rock the boat by trying to make low carb bread or biscuits as I am feeling this is working so well. Once I get down to under the 140lb mark then I can start adding things in to the diet and see what I can eat and still stay under that weight.

Got a dinner party on Sunday so will have to plan a menu. Also got a business dinner on 14th March and may go out with son and in laws on the Friday night. Dr Agagston had some good advice and said not to try and cut down before a party as you then get so hungry you overeat at the do. Better to stick to same routine before and afterwards. Go back to phase 1 if you have really overdone it at the evening out. I will try and do that. As over those 2 days we will be eating out Fri lunch and supper and then Sat lunch and dinner. Will try and stick to salads fish and chicken and hope I can maintain weight and not put on.

Will try on posh frock and choose shoes sometime this weekend. Feet have shrunk from size 8 to size 7 since last year.