Day Four (again)

Hi Hawklans

How's it going? You've not been on here for a few days and I was wondering if you are getting on OK.

I hope everything is going well for you. Hope to hear from you soon.

Mike has pretty much said what I'm thinking, As someone that has lost 3..1/2stone over only7/8weeks, so only a short sharp shock,mto my body's norm' I then have gone to maintain the full weight loss for the last 8months.. You will no better than all of us here, how you got to the weight you became, As in too much to do in a day,I would eat too late at night AND the wrong things.. So think back, try to avoid the mistakes, plans I believe are also a good idea. We've all heard it before You need a food lifestyle change..As I've previously said, you've taken the control doing this diet VLCD ( it's not for the meek )So maintenance is control, with more choices.. You can do it, IF you've done this diet for as long as you have "RESPECT TO YOU" , I've said from first reading your page AN INSPIRATION....GOOD LUCK.
You wrote that ... many fail after and put the weight back on ....have you seen MIKEYS poem in his blog? ............. HAWKLANS CHOOSE YOUR HARD !

Hi Hawklans

I imagined that the wedding was a major motivator for you. Like you say, it was a set date and gave you a specific goal.

Going back to normal food straight away is never a good idea. Once a diet like this stops I think a lot of people go back to normal food too quickly and it's all too easy to undo all the good you have done.

The main thing is you are recognising the problem so the next thing to do is try for a solution that works for you. I think adding in some veg in the evenings is a good start, then maybe replace lunch or the evening meal. One thing I would recommend is to continue trying to limit your carbs, especially processed white flour and, above all, sugar. These things tend to stimulate you appetite, they cause a spike in your blood glucose which leads to a crash and the desire to eat more. So, try to avoid sugar, white bread, biscuits etc as much as poss. Stick to wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta (tastes pretty much the same to me) and brown rice (again, tastes about the same). Regard carbs with some reluctance.

For years now fat has been vilified as the enemy. As long as you don't eat too much saturated fat or hydrogenated fat the other fats are OK for you. Due to the high calories in fat, if you eat a lot of it you don't get much food for your daily calorie allowance, but normal amounts of fat shouldn't be feared.

Have you considered using something like the My Fitness Pal app? You can track your calories and it will also give you your ratios of calories from protein/carbs/fat. Set yourself a ratio target of 40:40:20 and try to eat clean carbs. You can put in what you are going to eat the next day and tweak things to get to the ratios you want. It has a lots of data of loads of food, although I always double check, or start my own. I think you can scan in barcodes.

The Protikee shakes work but they are too far removed from normal eating to be the permanent solution. You are safe while you are on them but in danger once you stop. After all your efforts so far you have to be prepared to make just as much effort to bring a more normal diet under your control.

Hiya Hawklans

I remember day 4 being hideous from years ago on LL, hope u got passed it ok? Think slim honeymoon photos to spur you on, youve done amazingly well, yet another inspirational person on the forums to keep us new starts going!

Belle

Well I'm into day four after returning to the diet. It's amazing just how tough it is even though I've only been eating normal food for a week and a half. I'm finding that nothing tastes as nice as it did before and I've been really hungry for the past two days. Hopefully that will reduce in the next day or so, and I'm pretty sure most of it is mental not physical as I know I'm only doing the diet for a very short time before we go on honeymoon.

However it has been successful, and after 3 days I've lost 9lbs, so I will stick with it of course for a bit longer and then decide what to do. I realise that going from the diet straight to "normal" eating just before the wedding wasnt the best way forwards and certainly contributed to the weight I gained so I'm tempted to start to increase my normal food intake after a week of the diet and slowly build up the normal meals, probably sticking with the kee porridge for breakfast and shake/soups for lunch with either a normal meal in the evening or a meal pack with added vegetables. I'll see, it will depend on how well I'm able to stick with the diet, I must admit that I had planned to do this before the wedding but I kept going until the very last day just because I was always wanting to lose that last few pounds. Really if I was sensible I'd start the exit plan at the end of this week to ensure my body doesnt go into carb meltdown when we hit Canada!

I think part of the reason I'm struggling is down to the fact I know this is only going to be a short session, 3 weeks at most, before the honeymoon (three weeks in Canada). The plan has always been to return to the diet after the honeymoon to complete the final stage and get down to my target weight and then shift into a maintenance plan. I also think I'm finding it harder because I now no longer have an immovable target date. From March until last week I've been so focused on getting as much weight off as possible before the wedding, and of course there has been no way to shift the date no matter how clever the excuse. I do wonder how well I will stay focused after the honeymoon with no drop dead date to aim for. I might have to book a diving holiday to be my next target!

I will try to upload a couple of photos to the site tonight, I dont really have a before photo but the engagement photo is close enough and I will pick one from the wedding which i hope shows the difference, but personally the morning suit isnt the most slimming outfit ever!