Sometimes it sucks to be a scientist...

OK, so after my month of relatively slow weight loss I have learnt a few more things. Firstly, Dr Cohen says that it can take up to a week for any substances that aren't allowed to leave the system. I think I observed this last week when my weight plateaued for 4 days and then began to drop consistently again.

When I started I was losing a bit of weight every day. The last month or so, however, I've been staying the same for 4-5 days and then losing most of my weekly weight in 1-2 days. They say that your body will stall often during rapid weight loss while everything reequilibrates but I did notice that the stalling was for much longer than normal in the past month. Therefore, I will be interested to observe my weight change this week now that I have been totally compliant with the diet (as far as I know) for the last week. If I can pull something decent over 1 kilo then I will assume that Dr Cohen is correct in that little things like fenugreek, the wrong yoghurt and the wrong diet soft drink actually make a difference.

I spoke to my consultant on Thursday and she suggested that I up my water intake to 3L if I want to lose more weight (I currently drink AT LEAST 2 L, sometimes 2.5 L). I purposely drink only 2 L (the minimum I must have) because if I drink more than that, my whole day consists of moments like that new TV ad where the lady is busting for the toilet and can't find her keys to get in the front door. So, because I actually want to test whether or not 3 L a day will make me lose more weight than 2 L, I won't start that until next week because if I pull a big number this week I won't know if it was the water or my new found diet-compliance.

The next thing I have learnt is that Celtic salt is far superior to normal salt, and infact has the opposite effect on the body as the normal sea salt I eat now. Instead of causing fluid retention and increasing blood sugar, it actually regulates your body minerals, decreases fluid retention and helps reduce blood pressure! WOW! Why have I never heard of this lovely goodness??? It even (apparently) can decrease cramps etc., due to the magnesium it contains. Very exciting, but it does add a third variable to my diet experiment. Whilst any normal person (who is in a mad rush to lose weight because they are going overseas) would just start doing all the things she was told to do (stick to the diet, drink the right soft drink, drink 3 L of water and swap to the good salt) and probably get great results, my silly scientific brain will only allow me to introduce one new variable at a time so that I know which variable is making a difference.

So this week, I am continuing with total diet compliance right down to the sweeteners (get this, I can have splenda, but not equal); next week I am going to up my water to 3 L a day; and the week after I am going to switch salts.

I'll let you know how I go!!

M. x