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

Cohen's Diet Weigh In; Week 12.

Wow,  I've done it - I've survived 12 weeks! When I signed up for this diet I made an agreement with myself that I would try it for 12 weeks as an experiment and see how it went and this week I have cracked a big number on the scales that I haven't seen in 4 years. I am back to my 'skinny weight' that I maintained for about 18 months around 2007 and am enormously proud of myself. :) All I can say is, if I can do it, anyone can.

I thought that I might do a bit of a 'lessons learnt' for this week's blog. In the last 12 weeks I've learnt that:

1) I can sit through a big work morning tea or lunch and watch people eat a myriad of chocolates, cakes and other unhealthy foods and not have to join them.

2) I don't need to rely on alcohol as a stress release.

3) I can eat a main meal that will sustain me for 5 hours with only a cracker to snack on in between.

4) I can cook a stirfry without using fish sauce/soy sauce/oyster sauce and still have it taste good.

5) I can cook without any oil.

6) I really don't need to eat much food at all to fill me up.

It's funny - I feel like I've learnt so much more than what I can write here, it's more like I am in training for the rest of my life. Little habits that I am developing now will stay with me forever. I have always had a problem with having breakfast and being starving mid morning or not feeling like eating at all and now I have discovered the perfect breakfast that sustains me. I love my mango smoothie and can't wait until I can add other fruits to it when this is finished. I used to love having 'Up & Go' drinks for breakfast but they didn't fill me up but my morning smoothie is even better and sustains me perfectly! There are so many new ways of cooking that I've learnt and so many things that I will carry forward, I can honestly say that this journey has been one of the biggest eye openers and really has been one of the greatest experiences of my life!!!

Ooh and before I forget, I lost 0.9 kg this week giving a grand total of 16.7 kg. I am still continuing my experiment of sticking to the diet one million percent and I noticed that for the past 4 days I've been losing weight consistently, something that's not happened for 4-5 weeks. I think it might have taken a few days to get all of the wrong sweeteners etc. out of my body but I'll let you know for sure after the next weigh in if it made a difference!

M. x

PS - The picture is of my first attempt at cooking kangaroo. Very good for you so I thought I would try to get over my wierdness about it and give it a go. :)

Yummy Recipe

I found a recipe this week that I just had to share. It's called 'Apple Slice', and it is delicious!!

Ingredients:
2 Kraft Premium crackers
1/2 an apple
Sprite Zero
Cinnamon

Cut up the apple into chunks and put into a microwave-safe container. Splash with sprite zero and microwave for 2-3 minutes or until soft.

Place a cracker upside down on a plate and top with apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon and top with second cracker. Pour remaining juice from apple over cracker and refrigerate for a few hours. I turn the slice over and give it a little squeeze to get some of the juices soaked into both layers. YUM! Another way to make this is to use water and sweetener. The recipe suggests sprinkling sweetener on the outside too which is nice.

It is so tasty, it feels like I am cheating. It is a delicious dessert and it actually tastes like a little apple pastry. YUM!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

M. x

Cohen's Diet Weigh In; Week 11.

Well hello! Hope you are all having a great week. :) I weighed in this morning and lost 0.8 kg, giving a grand total of 15.8 kg. I stuck to my crackers apart from one day I think, which I was really pleased with.

I noticed that my weight has been going down by less than a kilo for the last month and did a bit of exploring to see if I could work out why. With no cracker binges I was surprised I didn't pull a big number this week. I could say that it was due to some emotional or spiritual reason given that I am 0.3 kg away from smashing one of my biggest goals and so maybe my body was hanging on to it but I decided to get scientific and do some research. After much extensive searching and reading Cohen's Forums/Blogs, I discovered a few things that were helpful.

Firstly, it does not appear to be uncommon to be losing over a kilo a week even in your last 10 kg (which is in contrast to my theory of it just slowing down as I got thinner). This is good news and made me think about what I have changed in the last month that has given me 3 weeks in a row of less than 1 kg losses. The big thing that I have changed is soft drink. I have been drinking a different brand of diet soft drink recently. After a stack of research and consultation with my clinic it turns out that I can't have them. The Cohen's Clinic give us a list of diet soft drink that is allowed but I assumed it wasn't comprehensive. So even though the drinks I've been having have the same calories and nutritional information as sprite zero (which is allowed), some of the sweeteners are different and excluded from the program. D'oh! So from now on I'm asking about everything.

Secondly, we were told we were allowed natural yoghurt provided it doesn't have more than 2% fat. Turns out Vaalia (which, coincidentally is the yoghurt I switched to 2 weeks ago), whilst complying with the 2% fat rule, contains an ingredient called inulin which is not allowed on the program and can hinder some people's weight loss. They've said that Yoplait Yoplus natural yoghurt, which is the one I'd been eating previously, is fine.

Thirdly, I'd been having the wrong multivitamins. I thought I would get the super duper expensive ones and got the Swisse Ultravite Women's and it turns out they contain sugar. I've taken one every day of the program and have just been out to get some of the allowed Blackmore's Sustained Release Multi which is apparently ok.

Fourthly, I've been using the wrong curry powder. Apparently fenugreek has been banned and so that rules out most of the easily accessible curry powders so I'm just sticking to my cumin for now.

So this week I am endeavouring to stick to everything 1 million percent and see if it makes a difference. Just stuck all my softdrink in the cupboard and went out and bought a stack of the stuff I am allowed. This brings me back to the old Landmark saying, 'without integrity, nothing works.' Well, it's working, just not as well. So let's see this week if all of these little things actually do make a difference.

M. x

Measurements :)

Hi :)  Haven't posted twice in a week for aaages! Thought I might do so this week because:

(a) I seem to stay more motivated when I am blogging and I am still trying to stick to my diet 100% this week; and

(b) I measured myself Thursday night for the first time in 3 weeks and I thought I might share.

15 kg into my diet and I have lost the following centimetres, measuring the fattest part of the areas listed:

Left arm: 3 cm;

Bust: 10 cm;

Waist: 10 cm;

Hips: 7 cm;

Thighs: 9 cm around both held together; and

Left thigh: 6 cm.

YAY! So as you can imagine, I am shrinking! Can't wait to see what the grand total is at the end! Doing well (miraculously) and sticking to my crackers and fruit. I would love to be off this thing by my birthday. I have a graphed projection based on my average weight loss per week and I'm going to be pushing it so I need to get cracking!!

Have a great weekend,

M. x

Cohen's Diet Weigh In; Week 10.

Woah - week 10? Where did the time go? Can't believe it's been 10 weeks, or that I've kept up this diet and this blog. Even though it was my intention to do so, it really is a suprise to me that I've stuck with both and that I haven't posted a blog beginning with, 'Ok so last night I drank a glass of wine. Err... did I say glass? I meant bottle...' So, yay for me!!! Also - I've been to yoga 5 times in a row now. 5 times! Even when it's been cold and raining. Don't know what's happened to me but this is good stuff. :)

This week I lost 0.9 kg which brings me to a grand total of 15 kg! Ta da! I am 1.1 kg away from my arch nemesis on the scales, a weight I haven't cracked (well, in the right direction) since my honeymoon in 2007. So almost 4 years later, here's hoping I crack it this week.

I must say that despite all the great stuff I've just written, I feel like this week can be summed up with the phrase, 'Willpower (or lack thereof) - 1; Mel - 0. Even after my last post, Cohen's Diet Weigh In; Week 9, where I recommitted to my diet and was hoping to stop my cracker binging, there has barely been a day when I've only eaten 5 crackers. In addition, there were a few days where I also ate an extra apple. Not only am I eating extra crackers but I'm eating them within 2 hours of previous crackers or sometimes eating 3 when I'm only allowed 2 at a time. Sigh. I am afraid my willpower has gone out the window. I am the self-sabotage queen. I can honestly say that most of these extra crackers/apples were not eaten because I was hungry, mostly because I was bored or emotionally stressed. This annoys me because I am not getting on top of the urges and behaviours that made me overweight in the first place.

I was voicing this annoyance to my lovely Ange last week after eating some extra crackers and she asked me if I could find a positive in the cracker binge I had just had. I promptly replied that I definitely could not see a positive given I was completely aware of the fact that I was shovelling crackers into my mouth when I was not hungry and that I was not allowed to eat them but I coud not seem to stop myself. Then she asked what I would have done in the past...? I realised that previously, after coming home stressed like I was, I would not have eaten 3 extra crackers. I would have drank a bottle of wine and ordered a pizza. So in that sense, eating 3 extra crackers is a bit of a victory over past behaviours. I suppose I just have to keep on keeping on.

So wish me luck for this week. I am recommitting to you and myself, AGAIN, that this week I will follow the rules, do the program as it is meant to be done, and not the way Melanie thinks it should be done.

Have a great week!! :)

M. x

Cohen's Diet Weigh In; Week 9.‏

Well hello there! The weeks are just sliding by, can't believe I'm at the start of week 10! This week I lost 0.8 kg which brings me to a total of 14.1 kg. Yay! My lowest weight loss to date has been 1 kg in one week (twice) so my story about the 0.8 kg is that it's because I went out for lunch last Thursday. I am fairly sure there was sugar in that salad dressing. Whether or not it made a difference - who knows, but I'm kinda glad that I didn't have a great week this week as it probably would have encouraged me to eat out more often. I don't want to get into that habit so this is a good thing. :)

I'm starting to get a lot more comments now as people are really noticing the change in my body, not to mention the change in my face. My boss asked me the other day when 'all this nonsense' would be over. He misses our Friday night 'Wine Time', which we often started at 4 pm, as well as me going to the Office lunches. I said, 'Hmm... in about 15 more kilos?' and he looked me up and down and said, 'that's a bit severe!' I thought it was nice that people are starting to wonder where I am going to get 15 kg more from, I've had a few similar reactions this week. I think it is obvious. Whilst I certainly feel much thinner, and oh my goodness I look much thinner, there are still some parts of me that could do with more shrinkage and I am certainly looking forward to that. I think they are just using my old shape as a frame of reference and compared to before I look brilliant.

I am recommitting to my diet this week. I know that to you I must already seem committed and seem to be sticking to it and getting amazing results but I have gotten somewhat slack over the past month. I often lose count of my crackers or eat a 5th one when there is a crumbed cracker on my schnitzel and I have been eating lots of small apples the past few weeks. I am sure there have been days where I have eaten one too many. This is in contrast to the first month where I was only eating 4 crackers a day and only having one piece of fruit most days. So I am committing to myself this week that I am going to make sure I don't eat too many crackers or have too much fruit because that could be the difference between finishing this by my birthday (end of Aug) or finishing this before I go to France (end of September). I need to speed up a bit or I'll be doing this forever and my commitment is slowly fading.

I hope you all have a great week - wish me luck for pulling 2 kg this week - that's my goal!!!

M.x

PS - I know the photo looks wierd but it's a turkey burger with onion and mayo on top. I ate the salad while I was cooking because I was hungry. :)