I know I know it is not a gain but how many days can I be the same weight! It has only been 2 days but I would like to see progress!

The one thing that I have noticed and I don’t know if it’s because I was sick but I just have not been that hungry the last 2 days in fact yesterday I felt like I forced myself to eat after 4 hours because that’s what you are suppose to do.  Today I haven’t eaten every 4 hours in fact I didn’t even feel like dinner so I just had 2 hard boiled eats and a bit of turkey.  Maybe that’s wrong but for the first time in a very long time I am beginning to understand when I am hungry and when I am not.

I thought that it would be harder to resist food but this afternoon we had a little make up birthday party for my son and we had little party pies and sausage rolls but I didn’t want them.  We did also have chips which I thought about but I had made sure there were carrots and celery so I had something to eat.

I am sure glad that Susy and I decided to do this diet diary (blog) because I feel like it is keeping me in check and the whole big wide web is watching (ha ha not!) but you get what I mean.  There is something about having to check in and I suppose that is why Weight Watches (WW) does well because you check in each week and then stay for a support meeting.  I do think WW is right for some people I certainly manage to lose 23 kg about 10 yrs ago with WW but it did take me 3 yrs to lose that weight!  I tell you it is not going to take that long this time I hope even if I do have more to lose.

So some more facts I am 173 cm tall so my goal weight I have decided is 70 kg a nice round number.  That is a total of 31.5 kg to loose and 29 kg to go! See 29 even sounds better already.  Time frame of doing it well that I am not so sure about but I would like to think I can do it in a year!  That should be achievable especially if I lose 9 kg in the first 4 weeks which is what Tim says is possible!  I do need to get those kettlebells!

Jo

This was harder that I thought it would be. I mentioned in my last post that I was actually up a bit on weight (106kg) than I had been the day before so perhaps this was a subconscious influence on what I did or didn’t eat yesterday.  But I found it really hard to eat the sorts of high fat, high sugar, high “white” foods that Tim Ferris talks about eating on his cheat days.

It was interesting. I found myself naturally making the sorts of food choices that I have been making this past week. Jo will laugh but I had to consciously tell myself NOT to have beans for lunch. I did have fruit though. I think for me not having fruit has been the hardest thing over the past week. I would normally have had 2 -3 servings of fruit a day. Before I started this diet I would have had to say that I, and my family, normally eat what is considered a fairly conventionally healthy diet. We eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. I don’t feed them a lot of highly processed food. All bread in the house, which I never really ate anyway because I don’t really like bread, is brown, whole grain or “yucky nutty bread”, as my 13 year old step daughter calls it. Apart from the rare times that we have sushi all rice is brown.

But we do do dessert. I will also admit that I have been known to have very unhealthy chocolate laden snacks when I am feeling peckish. So for “cheat” foods we had pancakes for breakfast – made with corn, buckwheat, sorghum, spelt and wholemeal flours – with maple syrup. I had 2 minute noodles for lunch. I ate the really very yummy little cheese and bush flavours snacks that they fed us on the Qantas plane, and I splurged and had creamy gnocchi from room service for dinner. I did only have an entre serving of that and I wished that I had ordered a mains size because it was yummy.

All that is gone again for this coming week.

Breakfast at the hotel was not too bad as it was buffet and I was able to get poached eggs with spinach, and bacon (oh dear – yum). I was tempted by the little shot glasses of apple carrot and ginger juice. They just sounded, and looked, yummy.

I am up in my hotel room for the end of the lunch break as we have receptions this evening. Lunch was harder. So I took some of the wraps and rolls and just ate the filling. Added crumbed bacon and then the beef and mushroom something that they had. It looked like there was more of the gnocchi I had for dinner last night (sigh) as well as something else that was creamy and smelt yum. And cheese. I had to be strong about the cheese.

I also didn’t even look at the dessert table. My table mates returned with little glasses of some creamy chocolaty thing that looked like solid B52’s (the cocktail) but I was good.

Sigh

Susy

Well I’ve made it one week!

So what an interesting few days it had been!  I was so looking forward to my cheat day and what happens!  Well all Saturday night I was up chucking my guts up!   I was so sick I couldn’t believe it….I didn’t want to get out of bed Sunday let along eat.  Pretty much the whole day all I had to eat was a banana till after 8 pm!  So I weighted myself in the morning and I was 98.3 but I am sure that was because I had nothing in my system.  We even cancelled my son’s birthday party I was so bad…..by 8 that night I forced myself to eat some of the party food that we had 2 little party pies and some chips.  I finally felt a little better and I had some ice cream not because I really wanted it but because I thought I can’t have this again for another week.

Today when I weighted myself I was 99 kg so that is a 2.5 kg loss for the week I am happy with that.  Tomorrow will be test as my system gets back to normal. Today I just haven’t felt like eating legumes and Tim say you need to have them at almost every meal.  I think when you are not sure to eating a certain food then trying to eat it all the time seems difficult.

I am looking forward to getting the kettlebell for the training part of the diet.  Tim does say that you only need to follow the diet and do about 20 min exercise 2-3 times a week but using the kettlebell.  So hopefully I can get one in the next couple of days.

For me the second week is always hard although I have had good results so far let’s hope it all goes according to plan!

I know I know things are not supposed to happen that fast but that does not stop me wanting them to!

So where are we up to?

I was 107kg exactly to start with on Wednesday the day after I bought the scales.

Thursday 105.6kg. Yea! Things are happening.

Hmmm 105.6kg.Nothing

Saturday 105.4kg.  Ok. Little by little.

Then Sunday – 106kg! What happened? Yesterday was not even a cheat day.

What a roller coaster. I thought things were going so well. Perhaps I should take my own advice from my last post. My body will naturally retain water as I go through my natural cycle so such fluctuations are normal. Tim Ferris and others tell you not to weigh yourself everyday. Now I know why. It is hard on the psyche!

Tim does talk about a weight loss system where you weigh yourself each day, plot the results, and all you have to do is stay within the daily range. You don’t follow any eating regime. By simply being aware of your weight you tend to make food choices that will slowly lead to weight loss. In a later post I will discuss this further. First some more important things

Today (Sunday) is my cheat day. This is a good thing as I leave this afternoon to go to a work conference for three days and it starts with a reception this evening. That will be interesting. It will be hard sticking to the diet with hotel /conference food. Hopefully the breakfast is buffet.

But first things first – my first cheat day. What shall I have for breakfast?

Susy

Day 6 for me today and I weighed myself this morning and I am still 99.5kg!  So my elation of losing 2 kg early in the week has gone a bit flat!

The thing that surprises me is that I have been able to cope through the hunger parts of which I have had a few….. especially last night around 4.30 pm normally we would have dinner about 5.30 but hubby and I were going to friends for dinner so I knew that we would eat till about 8 so I had to have something but what!  I haven’t got the snack thing under control yet so I had 3 handfuls of peanuts!  I couldn’t help myself admittedly I would have before had about 6 so I suppose that is better

Ok some facts from me I also have one of those fancy scales and my body fat was 40.9% which is massively high and makes me cringe to write it down!  But that is all part of it I have to know where I have started in order to know where I end up!

I haven’t been as successful in finding a place to do the DEXA scan so not sure what I will do.  Amazing how we have such a high obesity rate in Australia yet it is so hard to measure your fat!

Tomorrow is my first cheat day and I know it is important to have it as you don’t want your body to go into starvation mode but I am a little worried as I usually just have to look at food and it goes on.  I am excited though as it is my sons 3^rd birthday and it will be nice not having to worry about what I eat. I am looking forward to the cake.

I have been telling my hubby a bit about the diet and he thinks he might start on Monday! We shall see as he is a massive bread eater and I think he will find that hard.  I am very happy though that he is willing to give it a go I know as he gets results then he will get into it.  Luckily he loves beans……

As we get started on any journey of change it is important to establish a starting point. How else do you know how far you have come? Thus measurements are a must.

I got on my fancy new scales on the morning of day 2 of this diet. 107.0kg. So what is Jo complaining about? Actually I am a few centimetres taller than Jo, so weight does not tell they whole story. Remember that muscle weighs more than fat, so gain in muscle and loss in girth may not translate into loss of weight.

My fancy new scales also gave me a bunch of other measurements that I noted down – now I just have to work out what they all mean. I think the scales said that I had a body fat percentage of 41.6%, but I have not read the scales instructuons yet so I’m not sure. I also have to remember to take my weight at roughly the same time each morning – and wearing the same (or lack of) clothing. This is the only way that you can account for the variations during the day due to time, meals, water intake and so on. I also have to remember that my weight will be affected by where I am in my own natural cycle. All women retain water at certain times in their cycle so the changes inside may not be totally reflected in the measurements.

Tim Ferris talks about the only true way to know your body composition is to get a DEXA scan taken. While they do do these scans in Canberra, unless you are an elite athlete at the AIS, they are only for assessing the risk of osteoporosis.

Other Australian cities are more aware of using these scans for athletes and those members of the general public who are interested. As I have to be in Melbourne next week for work I have decide to take the opportunity to get one done while I am there. I found these guys: www.bodyscan.com.au who had an available appointment slot. So watch this space to see the results.

Susy

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley.” (The best laid schemes of mice and men / Go oft awry) comes from the Robert Burns’ poem “To a Mouse” and was the inspiration for the title of the John Steinbeck book Of Mice and Men. And so aptly describes the first day.

First day of the diet – and the plans went awry! How am I to get through the other 5 weeks and 6 days if I can’t get through one day?

Most of the plans worked. I had eggs and greens for breakfast. I had beans nuts and vegetables for lunch and we had wraps for diner – where I substituted more beans for the wraps. I managed to buy a decent set of scales that say that they will tell me body fat percentage as well as bone density and a bunch of other things I can’t remember. All was going well. I found myself throughout the day consciously looking at

I thought I had been so good. I ate what I should and nothing of what I shouldn’t until after diner. A dear friend called to ask if she could come round to borrow my oven as hers had gone kaput that morning – as she turned it on to bake cookies.

Of course! I can be strong-even though her idea of cookies usually includes lashings of butter, and chocolate, and nuts, and fruit.

Alas it is not that easy. She also brought a packet of mint creams to eat while were we waiting. I did try to be strong. Actually I was. I had one mint cream and one of the nutty, gingery fruity melt in your mouth things she was cooking. And milk in my tea. I keep forgetting the no milk in the tea thing.

So come tomorrow morning I will weigh myself on the fancy new scales. Hopefully  things will have started to happen, despite my slip.

Susy

Today is 4 days into this new diet and I can’t believe it but I weighed myself this morning and I was 99.5 kg!!! That is a loss of 2 kg in 4 days I am over the moon.  I know you are probably saying its water loss or something like that well I have been drinking about 3 – 4 liters of water a day so I don’t think that.

Ok I will be real it hasn’t been all smooth sailing day 2 was really hard!  I was so hungry and all I could see was food that I couldn’t eat.  I know when you start a diet you should get rid of all the “bad” foods in the house well that is a bit hard with a hubby and 2 kids so what did I do?

Tip 1:  When you crave something really bad like a piece of cake write it down in a little book so as to remember to eat it on your cheat day.

Tip2: Drink about 750 mls of water you will feel so full after you won’t want to eat anything. (Oh and drink it pretty fast)

What I realized about day 2 was that I hadn’t eaten enough legumes….yes BEANS I so do not like beans if red wine is the easy park of the diet then BEANS with most meals is a killer for me.  I must admit I have been having chick peas instead because those I can handle and lentils but so far no BEANS.

I have found the eating nothing that could be made white like bread, pasta or rice not that hard I thought it would be but Tim does say to eat more legumes and you should be ok.  I have really been replacing the carbohydrate and using the chick peas instead.

So I was going to have my cheat day on Saturday but it’s our sons 3^rd birthday on Sunday so I think I will change the cheat day to then  It is almost too hard to explain to everyone what I am doing…. I am sure some of you know the feeling the looks of ‘Oh another diet Jo….What is it THIS time?’  (That’s usually from the skinnies  (you know those people who don’t know what diet means because they have always been skinny)).  We have a few of them in our family!

If you want to know why check out our Why Now page

Well I’m off to enjoy the best part of the day kids in bed with a glass of red wine!

Jo

Sometimes things jump out at you and you really feel that perhaps – this time – it might work. Such was my feeling when I listened to Tim Ferris at a recent two day event in Melbourne. He was talking about his latest book – The 4 Hour Body – I was inspired!

So inspired I bought the book then and there. I started reading it that evening, even though I had not gotten back until well after 11pm. I brought it with me the next day to the event as well, and dived back in at every opportunity. I was so excited about it that I babbled all about it in an email to my sister – so she bought the book – and this blog is the result!

Tim talks about something that we all know about: Pareto’s Principle, or more commonly known as the 80/20 rule. With himself as the guinea pig he has looked at what are the key things that you need to do to (amongst other things) lose weight and gain muscle.

This all sounded logical and really hit home. His ideas of minimum effective dose really appeal to the scientist in me. So I decided to start the diet. A method of eating that he claimed could help you lose 9kg in 6 weeks. What have I got to lose? Apart from all those unwanted kilos?

My first goal is the loss of 9 kilos. This is enough to be really noticeable and should make an amazing difference in my appearance and image of myself.

To know if progress is being made it is important to have knowledge of where you start from. Tomorrow’s job is to go buy some bathroom scales. I need to take body measurements as well because the scales don’t tell the whole picture. Actually most people could not care less what they actually weigh. What they really want is to look good in clothes and feel healthy and energetic. So the combination of actual weight and body measurements should be enough to get a balanced picture of the changes.

In these pages my sister and I will chronicle our attempts to stick to this diet. You will hear about our trials and tribulations and share in our successes. I don’t know if it will be a traditional weight loss / diet blog – I have never read any – but it will be about our combined journey with this diet.

Wish us luck!

Susy

Ok Ok Ok so today was the day I started a new diet!

Well I know that’s not earth shattering but for me it is….I am a recently turned 40 yr old who has battled with their weight for about 25 years!

Over that time I am sure I have lost my body weight more than once.

Why this blog well I recently read in Tim Ferris book the 4 hour body that it is very good to keep track of things so this is my way along with my excel spread sheet of how I am going to keep  track.

So the cat is out of the bag and yes I started Tim Ferris 4 hour body today I think it was the fact you can have 2 glasses of red wine every night that did it for me!

You don’t know me well yet but I have started a lot of diets and what I am also going to do is review all/most of them here and hopefully together we can muddle through the my diet blogs and you might just rind one that works.

Ah ha that is the key I think a wise doctor told me once that every diet works for some people the key is finding out what works for you! By the way only you can work that out unfortunately I can’t tell you what will work just like you can’t tell me bummer!

So how did today go well the diet consist of eating 6 meals a day but no food that can be white like potatoes, rice, bread or pasta meaning that you can’t eat the brown version either…..

It also entails eating a lot of protein and greens with NO fruit and NO dairy……

I love my latte so we shall see how I go.  Tim Ferris does suggest that you put cinnamon in your coffee instead of milk and you know what I tried it and it wasn’t too bad.

Oh and by the way you have to weigh yourself everyday and keep track and measure yourself once a week. I think I said that already….

Drink plenty of water that’s a given……

The best bit other then the red wine is you can have 1 cheat day a week best on a Saturday oh I am looking forward to that.

Oh I want to eat the chocolate cupcakes that I made on the weekend for Halloween but I think I just need to DRINK more WATER and go to bed!

PS. Once again my husband is NOT participating…. Though he and the kids did eat the red lentil spaghetti  no complaints!

PPS. I better tell you where I started 101.5 kg YUK I can’t even get in to the measurements yet I leave that for later once I recover from telling you my weight……

Jo