Review of 'Zero Hunger' Diet Plan - Day 239

Well, I did mention in my previous blog that I had a wobbly start to this, what with plans of going out etc., and that I had in fact put on weight five days ago.

Despite this, I stuck rigidly to the diet (certainly didn't eat any MORE than I should have, although I may have missed a couple of pieces of fruit here and there!)

I actually quite enjoyed this diet. Although sometimes it said 'rice and mushrooms', I personalised this slightly by making the thai rice that I enjoy so much, and pasta was 'pasta bake' instead. It really didn't make much difference in nutritional value, but made it much tastier. I also really enjoyed being able to eat bread, and having nice sandwiches for lunch.

I weighed in this morning at 15 stone and 3lbs! So despite putting on a lb half way through, I did in fact lose weight after that and lost 2lbs from last week. I'm thrilled with this, as I still didn't show any motivation to do workouts, so this is purely sorting out my diet now, and I'm much happier with this. I only need to lose 5 more pounds to have got to the 3 stone mark. If I manage to continue the way that I am, I think I can do that in about two weeks.

Today is my day off, full of sins!! We are having a Chinese takeaway tonight so I might try to fit in a workout so I don't have to feel quite so guilty about it, then I'm starting back up tomorrow, back on the zero hunger diet, and see how it goes.

I start work next Monday, which is towards the end of my diet, so that will change things entirely. I will have to review how I get on when being back at work, and what I can do to try to sustain all the good things that are happening here. Other things that are happening this week whilst on my diet: tomorrow night I'm going out for a meal with friends, and next Tuesday I'm going for dinner with friends as well, most likely a curry! I may try to change plans so that I cook at home instead, so I'm a bit more careful about what I'm eating, and cook from home instead.

New diet started early...

This is my update of the week so far. Firstly, I decided after losing the 4lbs last week, to have one day off (this gave me time to consider a new plan, and go shopping). On that day I was fairly good, I had a small pizza in the day, but generally I didn't eat too badly! I picked my next diet, which is the 'zero hunger' diet. I wanted this because I found I was very hungry in the mono food diet, and I hoped this would be successful. I started it on Tuesday, however I knew that on Wednesday I was going out and having a Thai meal, and then on Thursday I would miss lunch and dinner entirely and so we had a kebab at 11pm. Because of this, I'm fully aware that I'm not going to be as successful this week, but I'm not giving up. I haven't done any workouts all week so far (I will be doing one today!) - I just haven't felt like doing one at all, and I've been busy redecorating etc.

 So my new diet is this:
 Day 1
 Breakfast: Whole wheat cereal with skimmed milk, 1 orange, 1 tbsp raisins
Snack: Coffee or tea with lemon
 Lunch: 2 slices rye bread with turkey breast, 1/2 sliced tomato and lettuce
 Snack: 1 plain yogurt, 2 dried apricots
Dinner: 3oz whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, 3 cups lettuce with 1 tomato and low cal dressing, 1 apple

 Day 2
Breakfast: 1 cup oatmeal, 1 apricot, 1 tbsp. dried cranberries, 1 plain yogurt
Snack: Coffee/tea with lemon
Lunch: 3 cups lettuce with 4 oz. chicken breast, 1 tomato, 1/2 cucumber, 1 tbsp. low cal dressing, 1 slice rye bread
Snack: 4 dried figs
Dinner: 6oz. salmon or tuna steak, 1 cup steamed vegetables

 Day 3
Breakfast: 3/4 cup whole wheat cereal with skimmed milk, dried cranberries, 1 apple
Snack: Coffee/tea with lemon
Lunch: 3 cups lettuce with 1 can of tuna, 1 tomato, 1/2 cucumber, 1 tbsp. low cal dressing, 1 slice rye bread
Snack: 1 plain yogurt, 2 dried figs
Dinner: 6oz. chicken breast, 1 cup grilled vegetables

 Day 4
Breakfast: 1 cup oatmeal, 1 orange, 1tbsp. raisins, 1 plain yogurt
Snack: coffee/tea with lemon
Lunch: 2 slices rye break with 2 slices turkey breast, 1/2 sliced tomato and lettuce
Snack: 4 dried apricots
Dinner: 1/2 cup brown rice with 3 tbsp. sliced mushrooms, 2 cups lettuce with low call dressing, 1 pear 

Day 5
Breakfast: 3/4 cup whole wheat cereal with 1 cup skimmed milk, 1 pear, 1 tbsp. raisins
Snack: Coffee/tea with lemon
Lunch: 3 cups lettuce tossed with 1 small can of tuna, 1 tomato, 1/2 cucumber, 1 tbsp. low cal dressing, 1 slice rye bread
Snack: 1 plain yogurt, 2 dried apricots
Dinner: 6oz. salmon or tuna steak, 1 cup grilled vegetables

 Day 6
Breakfast: 1 cup oatmeal, 1 apple, 1 tbsp. dried cranberries, 1 plain yogurt
Snack: Coffee/tea with lemon
Lunch: 2 slices rye bread with 2 slices turkey breast, 1/2 sliced tomato and lettuce
Snack: 4 dried figs
Dinner: 6oz. chicken breast, 1 cup steamed veg.

 Day 7
Breakfast: 3/4 cup whole wheat cereal with 1 cup skimmed milk, 1 apricot, 1 tbsp. dried cranberries
Snack: coffee/tea with lemon
Lunch: 3 cups lettuce tossed with 4oz. chicken breast, 1 tomato 1/2 cucumber, 1 tbsp low cal dressing, 1 slice rye bread
Snack: 1 plain yogurt, 2 dried figs
Dinner: 1/2 cup brown rice with 3 tbsp. sliced mushrooms, 2 cups lettuce with 1 tbsp. low cal dressing, 1 apple.

 When I've managed to stick to the diet, I haven't always managed to eat as much as they say! But hopefully thats a good thing. Sadly I've jumped on the scales today and I've put on a pound :( I'm hoping that will change rapidly if I'm good today, and my aim is to do a workout every single day for the last 4 days of the diet, and hopefully that will have a good effect too.

Review of mono food diet plan

I weighed in this morning and thankfully I've lost 4lbs! I've weighed in at 15 stone 5lbs!

I'm really relieved about this, as I felt like I was getting nowhere.

This week I'm going to continue for a couple of days on the same plan, just to finish off left over food from the diet. On Wednesday I'm aware that I'm going out for a Thai, which I want togl be able to enjoy, so from Thursday I'm going to probably start again, or possibly next week as I've got another wedding on Sunday and going out for the day on Friday too, I want to be able to not feel overly restricted. 

I looked into the mono food diet a bit, and found out the reasoning behind it. Forums state that it works because complex meals use a range of enzymes to digest your meal. which doesn't work efficiently enough. When you break it down to one food group, only one enzyme needs to work and therefore your food is digested better. I spoke with a friend who is a biology teacher about this, who said it's not true at all and wouldn't account for weight loss, as any un-digested food just gets passed as stools anyway so there is no truth in this. Therefore I think the mono food diet only worked because it's a diet... You are being aware of what you eat, and eat in proportion. So I'm not going to continue with this one... I'm just going to pick another!! 

Mono-Food Diet Plan

I am halfway through the diet and so far I've done pretty well. I've missed a few days of Insanity, just been busy decorating or working, and didn't feel like doing it. I really didn't feel like doing it today, but I did a full workout. I've had a few fluctuations in my diet... last night I was so hungry and we had been out all evening, so I had a small doner kebab... but no chips, just a pitta bread and a few pieces of meat. And today I ate a packet of crisps. Thankfully it was my 'carb' meal time anyway, so again it hopefully didn't affect the diet too much! So this is the full diet for 7-days: Day One: Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, 2 slices Swiss cheese, 1 slice ham Lunch: 1 cup fresh raspberries, 3 dried apricots, 1 glass orange juice Dinner: 4 oz. pasta with herbs and garlic, 1 slice toast Day Two: Breakfast: 1 cup fresh cantaloupe, 2 dried plums, 1 small pear Lunch: 2 large baked potatoes seasons with herbs Dinner: 7oz. grilled steak (any style) Day Three: Breakfast: 2 slices toast, 1 small banana Lunch: 1 cup fresh spinach, 1/2 cup sliced carrots, 1/2 tomato, 1/2 chopped green bell pepper, 1 tbsp. low-fat salad dressing Dinner: 7oz. grilled steak (any style) Day Four: Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, 2 slices bacon, 1 slice mozzarella cheese Lunch: 1/2 cup rice cooked with 1/4 chopped onion and seasons with herbs, 1 slice toast Dinner: 1 apple, 1 orange, 1 glass pineapple juice Day Five: Breakfast: 1 cup celery and cattor sticks, 1 sliced tomato Lunch: 7oz. grilled steak (any style) Dinner: 2 large baked potatoes seasoned with herbs Day Six: Breakfast: 1 cup oatmeal (porridge!) with cinnamon Lunch: 1 orange, 1 peach, 3 dried figs, 1 glass grapefruit juice Dinner: 7oz. grilled steak (any style) Day Seven: Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs, 2 slices turkey breast, 1 slice cheddar cheese Lunch: 1/2 cup sliced carrots, 1/2 sliced cucumber, 3 halved cherry tomatoes, 1tbsp. low-fat salad dressing Dinner: 4oz. pasta with herbs and garlic, 1 slice toast So far I'm on Day 5 and doing fine. I was 15 stone 9lbs, I think I've lost a lb, maybe 2lb so far... but with two more days to go, I hope to lose a 3rd pound by Monday. On Monday I'm going to continue on the mono diet but just with whatever I've got left over in the fridge, from this diet! I'm then going to pick a new diet to start mid-week next week. I will update on Monday with my weight and new diet plan!

Nervous for tomorrow :-(

II still don't think I'm doing that well. If I'm honest, I'm eating terribly. We went out for a mates birthday this week which entailed an Indian, and another one on Friday. I've also been drinking a couple of nights this week, and my schedule of lunch and dinner has gone to pot. Sometimes I'm healthy and other times I have timely forgetfulness!! It's annoyed me because I've worked so hard for a few months and I'm letting myself down.

I stayed at a mates after a barbecue(!) and drinking(!) last night, to pick up a macdonalds for lunch on the way home (!!!). I weighed in after all this at 15 stone 12, although this isn't my official weigh in, that's tomorrow. But if that is correct (and it wouldn't surprise me) I will have put on 6 lbs in one week!! What a waste of all the hard work!!!

So tomorrow, I'm trying something different. I've been completing insanity every day pretty much. I may have missed one or two, but I don't take the rest days so it's working out pretty fair. That means every day I'm doing a minimum of 40 minutes of hardcore workout!! Not many people do that, I know my exercise regime is very good and I am slowly but surely getting fitter!! But the fitness will come so much easier if I can take some more weight off! 

So to start something new, I'm going back to an app that I used to use. It's called diet pointer, and has hundreds of different diet plans, which include exact shopping lists, and it tells you the average someone loses on the diet. I've already picked a diet that I'm starting tomorrow, which everyone will recognise. It's the mono food diet, where you eat the same food groups together. Ok it may be a fad, but it's calculated that the average person loses approximately 4lbs a week. So I'm going to do it just for one week, and see how it goes. I don't expect to carry on after one week as I will probably be bored of it. But this is probably what I need to do. Mix up my food intake a bit, try some short, 5 or 7 day diet weeks and see what I manage to lose. It's definitely the food intake that is my problem at the moment, so I'm feeling the determination today, to get it sorted!! 

So my diet for tomorrow is as follows:

I think it looks pretty doable, for the first day!! Tomorrow I will weigh in first, fingers crossed it's lower than it is today!!

Day 1 of 7 day diet!

I woke up so late this morning that I didn't have chance to go shopping for the new diet plan! So I looked a few days ahead, and I switched my morning with a future one, and I had scrambled eggs with 2 rashers of bacon and a slice of cheese. I then went shopping and got everything I needed and so far, doing well!! 

Also to add, I weighed in this morning at 15 stone 9lbs. Not quite as bad as what I had seen on the scales yesterday, but yet again, back to my plateau. So frustrating. 

I stuck with my diet all day today with little problems. Tomorrow I look forward to a fruit breakfast, carb lunch and protein dinner. I'll publish it tomorrow. 

Day 216: Back to my trusty scales!

So in two weeks in Gloucestershire, this is what happened: - I started Insanity for one week, but in the 2nd week we had friends staying over and then my parents returned, so it wasn't suitable to be doing Insanity in the house - The hay had to be baled, which was very tough exercise - I always had fruit and yoghurt for breakfasts, but my lunches and dinners wavered depending on who was staying with us, etc. Now that I am back in my home, I feel confident that I should be able to do Insanity most, if not all, days. I'm going to try and do it in the mornings, and then if I feel I can double up and do another in the evening, then I will have the energy. So I weighed in this morning. Last time I weighed in I was 15 stone 10 lbs, and I was quite disappointed with that. Today I weigh in at 15 stone 6lbs! So I have lost 4lbs in 2 weeks. I am so relieved and pleased that I managed to lose weight in this time. I want to be able to keep losing a lot, I really want to get down to under 15 stone by the end of the Summer holidays, if not more than that. I visited my Mum last week when she returned from Canada. She told me she was inspired by me to lose weight herself - she has always found losing weight hard, and always tries to eat healthily, and frequently exercises by her normal daily life and job. I was astounded to hear that she had lost 4 stone, and she looks absolutely amazing. She has struggled for so many years with her weight, and I think that if she can do that, so can I. I need to push myself harder if I intend on losing that much weight. I wish to get down to 12 stone. For my height, my weight supposedly has to be between 7 and 10 stone. However, I don't feel that is realistic in any way. My BMI has always been severely obese, as I am only 5 foot 2. For the first time in a long time, my BMI now measures 'obese' instead, so I have gone down a category. To get down another category to 'overweight' I need to be just under 12 stone. I think this is a far more realistic weight than between 7 and 10 stone. So that means that although I've lost 2 stone 6lbs so far, I've got another 3 stone and 6lbs to lose. That's more than I'm going to manage to do in the next 5-6 months. I probably need another year of dieting in order to get to that weight.