HeavenlyLamb - I really appreciate the tips! I'll bear them in mind. In fact, I'll put in a few laps in the pool in the morning. Will try very hard to keep to portions. At least I'm not mixing proteins and trying to follow according to my meal guidelines.

HeyFatty You are so strong not to deviate in the face of chocolate and smarties! My husband couldn't resist two bites of chocolate cake on the flight here even when I nearly popped my eyes glaring at him...

I'm staying in the Nusa Dua area. First time here and I really like Bali. Local food is excellent - especially the grilled chicken breast, even when it's without skin and with chilli sauce scrapped off! However, because food can't be the highlight of my trip unlike pre-Cohens time, the most fun I've had since I arrived was the silver smithing lesson I took today - made two rings and a bangle all for about US$30. I've been traveling around alone and found a very good guide and driver who charges reasonably. Let me know if you need the contact.

__________________

Ended: October 2007

Hi LF,

Well, I haven't had a chance to do a grocery shop since I came home. So, I've had 3 lunches out and 2 dinners! But I'm now back to 78.5 which is the weight I was when I left. So, it took 4 days to get back down to what I was previously.
My first day back, I weighed 81.5 (YIKES! that was a shock! but even flying business class, I swell up!) Second day 80kg , third day 79.5kg and today 78.5. I think that once I can get organised with some salad things and veges then it should go down even faster.

I think I was prepared psychologically for coming back and going strict again, and I was SOO ready to eat less and feel better. So, apart from not being organised, I'm feeling pretty good about being back on the plan again. I guess I travel and eat out so regularly that I don't find it so hard getting back on the wagon again.

HL

__________________

Hey Fatty,

Keep going Tanya and forget about yesterday or the day before and get back on. Let me know how you do with your weigh in.

Kids had a swimming carnival today and the hot chips smelt so good, but I was good and ate my crackers and came home to a salad. It is getting hard and a bit boring so I have to go back on the net and get some more recipes to liven things up again.

Stay strong

Rachel

__________________

Hi everyone,
just into my second week, had a loss of 4.5 and 19.5 cm in the first week. However have had no deviations at all, drunk all my water had 3 walks and the last 3 days have remained the same weight. I think its something to so with the fact that I am a bit constipated. Would this be why and has anyone any ideas as to what the answer to this problem is? I have bought pysillium husks today. Is Metamucil allowed, I have some sugarfree and it doesn't seem to have any nasties in it!!.
Thanks for your help....

__________________

Welcome back on the Cohen wagon. When I got back from the holiday it was hard, but not too hard to get back on the wagon, but getting back on after I was sick was really hard.

Always a shock on the scales after a flight!!!! I think the sitting, drinking, the low air pressure makes for some fluid retention.

With the Cohen diet there seems to be a little to much pushing of the "deviation = disaster" idea; eat a mini-tomato, a green bean or 10grams more of chicken or a salad that wasn't weighed or the wrong dressing and 1 week of weight loss with be forfeit. This is in my opinion a little bit of a nonsense. Whilst I believe that strictly following Cohen will get you from A to B, Fat to Thin in the shortest possible manner, I also believe controlled deviations are not as bad as presented. The more we deviate the less weight we lose a simple as that, its a sliding scale, rather than a black or white. Key point I suppose is not to give ourselves permission to deviate just because we feel like some "x" or we deserve a taste of "y". Yet when we cannot prepare Cohen meals such as business trips it is OK to just do our best to fit the plan as much as we can without getting panicky about it. It is just a matter of fact that as a result we will need to be on the plan longer than minimum time.

__________________

Status: On Refeed (Started Sat 17 Mar 2007)
My Diary

Hi babyegg,

don't fret over it anymore. Move on with the Cohen program. I think it is rather commendable to share your confession with us here and try to resolve to move on with the program. Keeping to Cohen is really tough but you will feel victorious once you have a day free of deviations. So aim towards it - to achieve one day of no deviation, followed by 2nd, 3rd, 4th day.

I hope you are back on the bandwagon now. No matter what, pls persevere ok? Stash away all CNY goodies and try to work your brain to say no...

Keep us updated here... this channel will help you vent your difficulties and keep you going on...Go for it!

Dear all!

The CNY celebrations are over and all that feasting is almost done...

Anyway, I finished my refeed last Thurs, 15 Feb. Funnily enough, even though I didn't eat all my carbs but I ate all my proteins, I was gaining weight in grams. I also had a major problem of constipation so I increased my fruit intake to the full 4 servings. I thought I could rely on just the 2 servings of bad fruits but I realized that I needed 4 servings to move my bowels.

So on Friday, 16 Feb, I begun my rounds of normal eating. Strangely, I was not used to normal eating so I had yogurt and fruit for breakfast, the usual pre-refeed stuff for lunch and for dinner, I had a Chicken breast subway sandwich. And cos I had bread, that caused bloatedness in my stomach. I also ate dumplings (also known as tang yuan) for dessert. When I weighed myself the next morning, i actually lost 100g! Ha ha...

Then came Sat... as usual, had my yogurt brekky. And for lunch, it was my first time eating at a restaurant. And because I have not been buying my meals outside for a looong time, I didn't know the system of ordering in the restaurant! it was so funny... Luckily, I had my family to update me about the system of ordering and the types of food offered at the place. So for lunch, I ordered a chicken salad, with thousand island dressing separated. And for dinner, I totally broke free because it was the chinese reunion dinner. And boy did I suffer a lot from that. I had very bad indigestion. It was so bad that I felt my stomach was choked up. I wanted to vomit the food out but I couldn't. In the end, I took some indigestion tablets.

And on Sun, when I weighed myself, I gained 1.5 kg. I was stumped at the weight increase so i told myself to work it off through exercise. So on Sunday, I did my rounds of visiting, ate, feasted and then on monday, i weighed myself, I gained another 200g.

Monday was another round of feasting and on Tues morn, I gained another 400g.

And on Tuesday, I ate the cohen meals, snacked on goodies and I had another great dinner. This time, I minded carefully what I ate because I didn't want to have indigestion and i didn't want to gain so much weight. But on Wed, when I weighed myself, I gained another 2 kg! I was completely stumped...

So right now, I think the challenge for me is to stabilise my eating habits. I definitely want to lose the 4 kg I had gained over CNY. But on the other hand, I still do not know what food will make me put on weight. In fact, I am totally confused about what I can eat now.

Let me share with you what I'm doing now... i'm actually afraid of eating outside food now. So i'm actually sticking to the pre-refeed food of cohen, not eating rice or bread, eating 4 servings of fruits, having my 10 crackers. I do deviate by eating some CNY goodies. So far, I have lost 600g over 2 days.

honestly, I'm very very confused about what to eat after refeed. Would anybody like to guide me on this? i'm actually very afraid to eat outside food now because the food that is for sale outside in spore is quite unhealthy. I'm scared of carbs because I have been reading that carbs will make you put on weight and having eaten the bread last time, I feel so bloated after eating bread. So honestly, I am very confused about what I can eat after refeed, especially when spore eateries sell mosting chinese food which is not free from oil.

I'm going to try very hard to lose the 4 kg I gained over CNY. Then I will be 65kg.. and then my next target will be to reach 63kg. I can't stand the 4 kg I put on. Everytime I look at myself in the mirror, I feel that i'm such a fat slob... Yucks...

that's bascially the downside to life after refeed. Someone, pls help me to stabilise my eating habits!

I thought I should share with you all my upside experiences as I venture back into reality eating...

One, I noticed that I have a low threshold for sugar now. What I find too sweet is actually normal to my family. So I have stayed away from sugary drinks and canned fruits in syrup.

Two, I am still surviving without much consumption of bread and rice. A little bit of bread makes my bloated.

Three, I'm into exercising now. i find it easier to exercise by doing brisk walking and all that.

Four, my relatives who have not seen me for 1 year are totally shocked at this complete transformation I have. They claimed that I look taller, prettier and thin. They encouraged me to stop dieting. The best part was, now they are asking whether I'm going to get attached soon instead of asking me the same question for the past 26 years about when I'm going to lose weight. =)

Five, i look so good in my clothes!

Six, I'm cultivating my taste buds towards cheesecakes and cheese now. It's great as desserts right?

Seven, I'm still buying healthy stuff at the supermarket. Peaches, nectarines, kiwis, apples...

Eight, fried food doesn't taste that nice after all.

Nine, my stomach has definitely shrank over the past 1 year and 2 months of Cohen. Its capacity is definitely not as large as it was pre-Cohen.

Ten, I am determined to train my tastebuds to the cohen lifestyle. After having some meals outside, I conclude that having homecooked foods in cohen style is the best. Outside food has too much oil, too much MSG, salt, sugar such that it doesnt make me feel good eating them. I enjoy Cohen style of cooking now. Perhaps that's why I'm still keeping to the Cohen portions of food...

But... this is a resolution I hope to achieve by mid April... to lose weight till 63kg then I can officially announce that I lost myself (start weight was 126kg)... Hahahha...

Newlife: thanks for all posts, they are really interesting - especially keeping us up to date with life after refeed. I'm almost certain that if you were obese before starting the program, you are only supposed to limit yourself to 1 piece of fruit a day after refeed. Speak with your consultant if you can about this, but from a bit of reading, fruit is still sugar - so if you have an empty stomach and are snacking on fruit, it will spike your insulin levels. The increase in insulin just get's that fat factory going again. It's recommended you have some protein with fruit if you want to snack (so a bit of cheese, or yogurt and fruit).

Have still been under the pump with work. Hoping it will slow down soon s can get a little more active in here.



Started properly: 21 Jan
Next weigh in: 21 March
Goal: double digits ASAP!!

__________________
_______________________________________

I will one day love my belly button.

I have been back on the wagon since the 4th day of cny... and yes i am slowly feeling less bloated and think i am losing the weight.. not weighing till next week.. cos now i am having my "monthly routine" which i think will make me weigh a little bit more.. I think i agree with you that its really tough to stick to Cohen... but i am going to complete it hopefully by May... going to work hard.... Now most impt is to go back to my weight before i deviated which is 70.9kg..... HERE I COME!!!
Thanks for the encouragement given... very very much appreciated...

__________________
Restarting Again....

__________________
Started Cohens 17/11/06.Cohens Goal Weight 67kg-70kg

Newlife

Am I right in saying that if you put on 4 kgs you should go back on the plan for a few days???? I am so interested in how you are going and I thank you for your posts -


Caroline (SkinnyCat)

Are you finding that is enough for dinner and how do you go eating meat for breakkie - this morning I had run out of veges and as a non yoghurt eater had to eat egg and califlower - YUK YUK and double YUK....

THe things you do........


Oh but on the upside then I went shopping to get some veges and bought myself some new clothes while I was at it......

__________________
Weight loss Nov2006- May2007 27kgs
Current weight 57.8kg
Goal before Tummy Tuck in May 2008 54kg

Dear all,

I did an experiment yesterday... I kept to my Cohen meals - Egg for brekky, 120g fish for lunch and 90g for dinner. I also ate my crackers. I had 3 servings of fruits (old fruits). On top of this, I deviated by eating biscuits, goodies, etc...

But guess what??? I lost 1.5kg in just ONE day. I'm surprised. I wasn't expecting that much of weight loss, more like a few grams or so. But 1.5 kg was way too much.

So... i'm beginning to suspect that it's not the carbs that making me put on weight. It's rather the mixture of proteins. For example, if I'm eating the forbidden proteins with my old proteins, I may actually gain weight. I was looking through my refeed diary and I realized that as my new proteins increased, I was slowly gaining weight in a few hundred grams.

So... i'm doing another experiment again. I'm eating the usual crap carbos that I'm eating, but this time, I'm mixing the proteins. Like for lunch, I ate fish with sweet meat (barbequed pork... it's a sinful dish by the way.) So... if I gain weight the next day, it might have to do with the mixing of proteins.

OR... it could be because I overate the proteins...

Anyway... I'm glad to be at 67.5 kg now. I'm going to aim to reach to 63 kg by mid April as well as stabilise my eating habits and lifestyle... I mean... I have to learn to eat in the right quantities and mixture as I venture out into eating at restaurants and places right?

I also told myself that from Mon to Fri, I'm going to keep to the Cohen style of meals but on the weekends, I'm going to relax and be free to eat whatever I want. This is what I'm training myself to do.

Oh yah! And i realized that i'm not so into fried food anymore. For example, my sister was buying some fried spring rolls for the family. And surprisingly, I was not turned on by the spring rolls. Last time, pre Cohens, I was very turned out by all the fried stuff. But now, i'm not even tempted. I'm gonna keep at that... taming my tastebuds...

I guess in spore, it's kinda difficult finding the western style of food since most of our foods are asian and they are usually deep fried, stir fried. Even the soupy dishes have fried ingredients in them. so that's why, I'm having some trouble going back to eating normally...

Anyway, I will fill you guys in about my weight tomorrow. hopefully, I will not gain any weight with this experiment. *cross fingers*

Hi dreamer,

yup, I know about this fruit intake. But I have a major problem with this. if I only eat 1 serving of fruit, I will have constipation problems. So I actually did a few experiments, and i realized that eating 3 to 4 servings of fruits will help me in my bowel movements. And while I was on cohens, even though i ate more than the 2 servings of fruits allowed, I was still losing weight.

Either way, I tend to limit to 3 servings of fruits plus now with psyllium husks.

As for going back to Cohen after gaining 4 kg, yup, I'm back there but mostly because, I am still not used to eating the outside food. I kinda prefer the no oil, bland Cohen stuff. It's really funny how when we are doing Cohens, we crave for the forbidden foods. And now, when we have it, we crave for Cohen food. Hahahah...

As for sugar triggering, I try to alleviate my 3 servings of fruits with not consuming any sugary stuff at all...

I guess I'm still experimenting so that I know what my body can take and cannot take...

Keep going Babyegg...

You will be a greater winner by hitting back on the wagon after falling off! Resilience is the key! Keep going!