2011 - The Big Fat Diet Thread

[dustybear]

Hi Mifford

One of our cats is overweight, has been for years. I have spent a fortune on prescription diet food from the Vets and all it has ever done is INCREASE her weight !!!

She now has the same food as the other cats and she has lost most of the weight, so I won't be buying her diet food again.

[Mifford]

Hi Dusty

the biggest problem I have with her is that the diet food is actually one of the only ones she can eat.  When she was a kitten she picked up a really nasty stomach virus called campylobacter which nearly killed her - I sat here one afternoon when she was about 6 months old where I honestly thought she wasn't going to make it through the afternoon because her temp was so high she could barely lift her head and it was awful.

the vets at the time didn't pick it up for 6 months even though she kept being really sick and with the runs all the time - they kept telling me it was a food sensitivity and I was changing her food constantly with no joy.  When it was finally diagnosed she was put on human antibiotics as they were the only ones strong enough by that point but her then vets missed they needed to give her strong probiotics to rebalance her afterwards.  I switched her vets eventually as they were so bad and the new ones are great - they got her on a really strong probiotic which settled her stomach down and stopped her being sick all the time but unfortunately she's been left with the most ridiculously sensitive stomach and really struggles with "normal" cat food.

Once she stopped being sick her body started storing food like crazy - we're guessing her metabolism had been set slow to try and retain as much as she could of the food when she was ill - and she went up by over 1.5kg in a year.  That was when she first went onto the diet food and her weight came down that summer and the vets were happier.  So we switched her off the diet food but it sparked her stomach again so had to switch her back to ultra sensitive food until it calmed down and she regained again.  This morning she's back up to 5.45kg and they are now starting to worry that she'll end up diabetic if she keeps gaining this amount.

I think part of it could be that she was at the cattery last month and they always massively over feed her which might not have helped.  Plus I don't know how much more she'd put on on the sensitive food before I switched her back to the obesity so it is possible she's actually lost weight as she may have been bigger than we knew.  So now its monthly weigh ins to keep an eye on her and see if we need to change anything, I have to cut out the few treats that she does have and I'm going to actually weigh her daily food into individual bags for the cattery in future so that she only gets the correct amount of food when she's there.

Although it doesn't help that when I cut her food back she just goes and finds "take away" and I keep finding remains of birds all over the garden!!!!  On the bright side if she's catching them then hopefully it means that she's actually getting some exercise because the rest of the day she curls up under a bush and does nothing but sleep - she's the laziest cat I've ever seen lol

How are you doing at the moment anyway? Weight still coming off now that you aren't kitchen designing? 

[Mifford]

so since Friday I've been down by 2lbs.  Saturday I was still down 2lbs.  Sunday - yep 2lbs down.  Monday still down 2lbs.

Tuesday being weigh in day I get all excited to see what the scales say before I go for the official weigh in tonight - only down by 1/2lb!!! What the?????

I'm hoping it will have balanced itself out by this evening because if not then I'm going to scream 

The only thing I can put it down to is carbs.  I had risotto last night and had more carbs during the day then I've had all week so if it hasn't evened out then next week is going no carb.  It makes it hell trying to make up the points for the day but even if I have to have a peanut butter smoothie every night just to use the points then I'll do it! I am so far beyond fed up with only coming down 1/2 lb at a time.

[Mifford]

it was 1/2 lb again 

I'm happy I'm losing but its getting frustrating - it doesn't seem to correlate to what I'm eating at all.  Last week I ate loads and used my full weeklies and lost 1/2lb.  This week I was a lot stricter and stuck to my daily points and only used about 5 weeklies and I lose the same amount.

So having had a chat with my leader tonight I'm going to have a go at switching to the healthy and filling diet alternative.  Basically I can eat as much as I want without counting points as long as its either 0 or on the healthy and filling list of foods.  Plus I have to have 2 teaspoons of olive oil - I need to check if that's daily or weekly though!  I then have a weekly allowance of 49 points to cover anything that doesn't fit the healthy and filling list.

In theory it should fit in with the kind of things I eat more and I will be minimising my carbs without having to worry about how to increase my intake to get my points up for the day.  I'm giving it a one week trial and I'll let you know how I get on next week!!

How's everyone else doing - all seem to have abandoned ship lately! 

[JBYAWN]

Hi all, I'm back and had a fantastic time, Fjords and Iceland are spectacular for scenery etc Climbed half way up a mountain, bathed in the natural thermal springs, visited an ice bar, which was fantastic and the meds must be working as I was very happy in the ice box, although I think the champagne cocktail helped!! Yes Mifford I have deserted the sinking ship before I put on so much weight and sunk it  Although I'm convinced sea air shrinks your clothes!!

I obviously ate far too much even though I went thinking healthy options when the waiter asked what I wanted someone other than my angelic self answered  But every meal was delicious and worth every calorie and pound I'm sure I've gained over the 15 nights. Also the cocktails were irresistable and I've also developed a taste for Morgans spiced rum n diet coke, yum!! I was very good with chocolate though, apart from the box in our cabin on arrival which was shared with friends, I only ate 5 of the 15 chocs left on my pillow each evening! Go me 

Haven't had the courage to stand on the scales yet though, I will do that tomorrow morning  and whisper the results 

Well done Mifford on your loss, you are losing every week which is fantastic, but I know from our similar experiences with weight battles you wont be happy with it, and I don't blame you when you are working so hard, but keep up with the measurements as often the tape measure reduces even when your weight doesn't seem to be shifting very fast. How much have you lost now?? Don't forget to pat yourself on the back for losing every week, that is impressive 

Where is everyone else?? Hope you are all still on track and if you're not don't worry the track will be waiting for you when you're ready 

[yorkylass]

Hi Mifford, how you doing on the filling and healthy plan?

I have an ap on my with daily tick boxes for water, fruit and veg, milk and oils, it's 2tsp olive oil every day.

If this works for you I'm going to give it a go. Stayed the same then lost 1/2lb last week when I'm being very strict.

I printed off a list of filling and healthy foods off WW site, have you got one? I'll try send it to you if you haven't.

Looks very hard to have full meals. I notice there's no bread on there! 

I did read on WW site about another plan, it's dividing your weekiles into 7 days and having the same PP's every day using all your weeklies, apparently it stablises your metabolism.

Hi JB glad you enjoyed your holibobs. I'm still struggling in the background. 

Sounds like you had a really good time! That must be the main thing rather than losing weight.

I'll watch out for your post, hope you haven't gained too much.

I remember years ago after having my eldest lad losing loads of weight before going away, we were there 2 weeks and half way through the second week I had to go and buy clothes that were a bigger size.  Couldn't get any of my holiday clothes to fasten

Good luck everyone!!! and don't forget while doing the dishes to clench 2 3 release 2 3. Or is that just me? 

Yorkster xx

[Mifford]

my dishwasher does the dishes - I did try telling it to clench but it didn't seem to make any difference 

The simply filling plan is interesting - you can have WW bread on it without having to count which is awesome because its the only bread I can actually eat without getting hideous joint pain and heartburn.  I don't eat a lot of bread anyway although that does make it slightly harder for me as I have to point rice cakes or crispbreads this week.  The great thing with it is that you do still get your 49 weeklies so if you want something that isn't filling and healthy then its ok its just that you have to point it.

Its taking a little bit more planning than I did before but I kind of like it.  Only started it yesterday so its a bit too early to see how I'll get on but I do feel more like I'm actually dieting as opposed to before where I was constantly adding in stuff I didn't really want just to have enough points.  My menu yesterday and today has gone like this...

Yesterday:
Breakfast = Boiled egg, slice of toast with WW bread, bowl of honeydew melon

Snack = melon

Lunch = salad, beetroot, celery, smoked salmon (3 points - didn't realise that its only salmon that's healthy & filling and not smoked salmon - doh!)

Snack = Curly wurly (3 points)

Dinner = Steamed cod, new potatoes and a large corn on the cob drizzled with olive oil.  2 x meringue nests (3 points) and drained mandarins

Today:

Breakfast = melon & mint smoothie made with low fat probiotic natural yogurt and a teaspoon of flaxseed oil added

Snack = went fruit picking and a number of the cherries either didn't make it as far as the pay station or failed to make it home with me 

Lunch = celery and apple salad, 10 cashew nuts (2 points) and homemade yogurt, lime, olive oil & bazil dressing (should be parsley but didn't have any), melon

Dinner tonight will be stir fried chicken with stir fried veggies and possibly 100g new potato.  Considering making rhubarb crumble for pudding - I'll basically stew the rhubarb in a little bit of water and then top it with gluten free rolled oats and maybe a sprinkle of sugar on top.  Everything is free on this version of the diet except I'm guessing the sugar but haven't checked that yet.

Today is a classic day where because I went fruit picking I was munching away on the cherries while I was there and on the way back and then didn't really want a lot for lunch.  The apple and celery salad was really delicious and made a nice change from lettuce and I certainly don't feel like I'm missing out on anything and when I do dinner tonight I'd rather have a big plate of stir fried veggies and I'm not too worried about potato or pasta etc so by the end of today I'd be really struggling to have enough points today on the traditional plan.  So what I've been doing up until now is having less of the fruit and veg because otherwise I don't have enough room to fit in the pointed foods and it just doesn't make sense.  I have no idea how its going to work from a weight loss point of view but it certainly fits better with the kind of foods I tend to steer towards when I'm "dieting".

JB it'll be interesting to see what effect the holiday has had on your weight - to be honest I think that if it was me I would have just gone ahead and eaten whatever I wanted and then worried about it when I got back so good on you for being even slightly restrained!  As long as you get back on track now you are home and it doesn't make you fall off the wagon altogether then its not a problem - after all we all have to have diets that fit in with the reality of life or it doesn't work.  Really glad you had a good trip 

[JBYAWN]

Mifford, I think my last post maybe gave you the impression I was restrained  if only!! The only restraint shown was chocolate at the end of the day and that was probably because on many a night I was too drunk and fit to burst and maybe wasn't able to get the wrapper off  Plus I think I've dieted for so many years of my life I tend to choose healthy options anyway, I don't like cooked breakfast, to be honest I don't like breakfast full stop. I like fresh fruit and yogurt, I enjoy a prawn salad but I also indulged on hols in a pasty or curry for lunch which I never do at home and had afternoon tea three times, go me!! Trouble is my stomach isn't used to so much food and I end up feeling so bloated even the next day and the thought of more food just isnt appealing.

Weighted in tonight and have gained, drum roll please drrrrrrrrrrrrrr 5 pounds, am over the moon with that as thought it would be so much more! When you are eating a 4 course meal every night and drinking for 15 nights I thought I'd gained at least 10 pound. Although, in my defence I did walk up half a mountain and went to the gym 4 times plus the ship is so big it feels like walking 1/2 mile just to get where you want to go (prone to exaggeration!!). So not too much damage done, although I am now very tempted to go back to Cambridge or lighter life, I know I shouldn't but I just want to shift this poxy weight (excuse my French).

Is anyone else out there so sick of being fat? I watch any and every programme about weight loss and see people eating crap food in vast quantities and moaning about their weight and I think well you deserve to be fat if you eat muck like that, and yet I am not much slimmer than these people and I don't eat anything like that, am always chastising myself if I fall off the wagon and am constantly obsessing about my weight and future events coming up, what I'll look like, how fat I'll be, what clothes hide me best, it's like a broken record playing in my head.  I've let my weight prevent me and hubby from doing so many things, rather than being excited about upcoming events internally I stress out and try to come up with excuses for avoiding things, how pathetic am I??

Sorry have plunged into self pity mode, snap out of it!! Right , abck on track and looking forward again, I will be slim and lose this weight, must excercise more as I know that is the key, but I'm often too tired but hopefully my meds are sorting me out now, come on armour do your stuff!

Yorky, sorry your struggling, I know how you feel, at least we can struggle together, don't give in being thin, it will happen
Hugs to all xxx

[Mifford]

ok that made me laugh - although I still hold that leaving the chocolate whether its because you couldn't open it or not is being very restrained 

5lb gain isn't bad - get back to pointing this week and you can take that off again reasonably quickly.  I did Cambridge before and I have the same dilemma of knowing that I have shakes in the kitchen and could kick start myself by 7lbs in a week without a problem - but I'm resisting that temptation.  I'm much preferring being able to eat and as frustrating as the 1/2lb a week is (especially knowing how easily I can regain weeks of work!) my instinct is to stick with that until it doesn't work any more.  Yes its slow but its liveable and I'm very VERY aware that doing Cambridge screwed up my whole relationship with food even more than it already was.  Plus it landed me in hospital with a kidney stone which meant I had to cancel a holiday as well and there's no doubt at all that it makes my thyroid a LOT worse.  I did it before because it was what I needed to do to prove a point to the doctors and it served its purpose in getting me diagnosed because they couldn't keep blaming my weight for causing symptoms.  I have to be honest and say that it did work and the first time I did it I found it easy (not so much now though) and I felt better while I was on it than I'd felt in a while but I still hold that if there is any way of losing it that isn't so extreme then it should be an absolute last resort even if the more "traditional" way takes so much longer.  The diets that drop your calories that low do take a seriously big toll on your system and your body is under major stress going that route and our bodies are already struggling with so much anyway.

If you're finding the propoints frustrating then try the simply filling for a week and see how you get on with that.  I swear that if nothing else the amount of fruit and veg I'm eating on it will certainly help to reduce the thyroid induced constipation 

The exercise thing is weird with me - if I exercise but don't diet I lose weight, if I diet but don't exercise I lose weight (slooooooowly) but if I do both I don't lose weight - or at least I lose less of it.  I've never understood it.  Maybe I need to increase what I eat when I exercise or something.  At the moment I'm planning on increasing little bits and pieces, like going for a 3 mile walk this Sunday with a friend if the weather holds, but not doing too much and then once I've lost quite a bit more then I will reintroduce my cross trainer and get myself toned up.

[JBYAWN]

Morning Mifford,
I too have the Cambridge in the kitchen and am still resisting the temptation but you know how I feel, cos I'm sure you think the same, if you didn't you would have thrown them away. They are like a safety blanket in the cupboard that I can run to if I need them, but I know they are no good. First time I went on extreme diet I did Lighter life (but have done Cambridge since) and I did feel so much better whilst I was following it, but my hair and nails suffered.

The first week I remember feeling awful, headaches, tiredness and a gnawing in my stomach like never before, but after that I felt great, better than when I was eating, no idea why though. I lost 4 stone following it and felt fantastic, I can't blame it for scrwewing up my relationship with food, I did that when I was a teenager, never ate breakfast, spent dinner money on fags...

I'm with SW not WW so will have a scour of the booklet again and work out what and where I'm going from here, thanks for taking the time to reply re Cambridge, you've written me out of it, I will stay strong and resist the temptation 

I'm moving up to 2 grains of Armour next week, so hopefully that will be my utopian dose, am feeling so much better than I did this time last year when I thought I was losing my mind, that was before diagnosis and finding this site which made everything slot into place!  Am going to see Take That tomorrow at Wembley so with all the singing and dancing I'll be doing, I should lose another pound 

Hope everyone is doing well or at least feeling well, hugs to all xxx

[Mifford]

ooo I never used to eat breakfast and my lunch money was spent on cigarettes as well  - I swear if it wasn't for my thyroid I would have been SO skinny when I was younger because the amount I ate wasn't enough to even fill up posh spice!

I've definitely had a screwed up body image and food relationship from teenage-dom and possibly even earlier but Cambridge definitely made it even worse.  When not doing it made me start gaining the weight back even though I wasn't eating badly I then started to feel guilt whenever I ate anything.  At one stage towards the end of doing Cambridge I was craving an apple so badly but I knew I couldn't add that in for another few weeks ... so I started eating Haribos instead because I wasn't allowed an apple.  Now I look back and wondering what the hell I was thinking and why I didn't just eat the damn apple!!!!!  Its taken me a few weeks on WW to get my head round the fact that its ok to eat normally and to try and give up being quite so controlled with it as it doesn't work.  I have a friend that was anorexic and she's found it quite interesting watching how I'm adjusting - she said that its like watching her when she first got treatment and I have to give myself permission to eat.  That was the first time it hit me just how long I've been "dieting" in order to try and keep my weight down and it did have an impact mentally - its what made me decide that this time is the LAST time I'm doing this and I think that's part of why I'm dubious about going near Cambridge again - if I do Cambridge it'll be quicker but then I have to relearn everything and I have the battle to keep from rebounding.

Doing it the way I am its a lifestyle change and I genuinely don't feel like I'm dieting as such - to some degree I'm simply coming out of years of dieting and teaching myself how to eat again 

If Slimmers World isn't working for you have you thought about giving the new Weight Watchers plan a go?  From what I'm seeing it does seem to be working for a lot of people with thyroid problems when nothing else ever has.  I know that the old Slimmers World never worked for me - but then again WW never used to either until they switched to the new plan that lets me adjust it for what works for me.  I think the low GI is crucial in my case and I don't know how well SW lets you stick to that but WW I can definitely work my way round it so might be worth a try?

[Chatcommander]

been trying to catch up ...... Cambridge diet - if I could turn the clocks back I would never have followed Cambridge!  It messed me up big time, for years afterwards I would stuff myself over the weekend and eat hardly a thing all week.  I cannot go near milkshake after cambridge yuk yuk yuk I really don't agree with it or the lighter life either.

I have gained 6.5lbs in 3 weeks as I went haywire towards the end of hols and since I returned.  I am back on plan now though, I am either really good or really bad.  I am just getting ready to go to an evening wedding reception with slimming world pals.

I don't want to drink tonight as I am back on plan and want to have a good week but we are going on a minibus.  Yes I know it's ok to have a few drinks but we also have friends coming on Saturday and Sunday!

[yorkylass]

Hey CC maybe you could alternate your drinks, one of your choice follwed by a diet lemonade/cola or something.

It should keep you hydrated too, make sure you do lots of dancing   as exersise.

Dreading tomorrow, I took my little lad to big school and had a white bread sandwich for lunch while I was there, bunged me up, stomach pains and still suffering!

If I've lost another meesly half a pound I'm going to ram a big fat juicy kebab  and fries down my neck  sod it.

Running out of ideas...

Yorkster xxxx

[Mifford]

Yorky I'm with you - I did a mid week weigh in this morning and said the same thing that if its another 1/2lb this week I'm going to scream.

Just keep in mind how much you've lost overall rather than looking at it as being the amount each week.  I'm keeping in my head that I'm 8lb down already and just not thinking about how long its taking.

And then come next week I'll end up doing a week of Cambridge and saying sod it and just not tell any of you about it 

[JBYAWN]

 that devillish Cambridge is calling to you then Mifford, stay strong and NO SECRET gorging on the yukky milkshake made without milk that is the Camb!! I think Yorky's idea sounds much nicer a big kebab and fries, do they do that flavour in the Cambridge 

That would take restraint alternating your drinks, although I do order diet coke but I have a morgans spiced rum in it, so does that still count??? HIC!

Getting ready now for Take That tonight, meeting friends at 2 for something to eat and a few drinkies in town first then off to Wembley to dance the night away, can't wait!! Diet will have to be shelved for another day I'm going to enjoy myself tonight.

Whatever you're doing this weekend have a great one and pat yourselves on the back for coping with what we have to cope with re thyroid, when you think about it even trying to diet and get your head around diets when you can feel sooooo rough at times is an absolute triumph. To lose 1/2 a pound when your body doesn't work properly is such an achievement, maybe what I'm trying to say is positive thinking! I'm prone to waffle 

Good luck everyone and big positive hugs all round  Go Us xxxx