Beck, Thank you, thank you, thank you. It actually really bugs me but I have been holding my tongue(fingers really) as I don't like bitching either. I wish we could delete the spruiking posts. I report obvious spamming. It felt better getting it out of my system.
I just said to my LH "If no-one's typed in my diary I'll be straight back" meaning back to my recliner chair in front of the fire, sitting near him watching tv. Food safari's on- Maltese tonight. Mm mmm.
I know my diary is read by a lot but I just love it when people post in it. Visit me any day. You're very welcome! Cheers, Cate.
We had a delicious steak tonight with salad. Brrrr. Lunch was tuna mixed with tomato, celery, some fresh herbs, 1 tspn mayo, a little balsamic, salt & pepper on crackers. It's very convenient & what doesn't fit on your crackers can be eaten with a fork. It's quite nice. I will have an egg, mushroom & some tomato for breakfast. It's way too cold for salads. Friday night is going to get to -1oC. OMG. I'll hibernate.
Cheers for now, Cate.

Hi Cate, sounds very cosy on your recliner! This is my last talk about vegemite for a while, but just wondering have you tried some cottage cheese on top of your vegemite and crackers because apparently the added protein is better than just straight carbs. (and more filling too!) And I noticed when reading about the Refeed it said something about no carbs for breakfast, does that mean you can't have toast???? My favourite breakfast is a poached egg on toast with vegemite on the toast of course! Oops that didn't take long did it!! I felt hungry today and am thinking that it might be a battle to get through my second weekend, I have to keep telling myself not to look too far ahead but just take one day at a time.
Anyway, bye for now! Lumpy

Lumpy- Don't break the diet, not even for Vegemite! It'll be there when you finish.
At the moment I'm back on 100% so no Vegemite. You can do this!
Seriously though I thought pre-Cohen's that I would not have been able to survive without toast for breakfast but I have only had it once since finishing & it did exactly what my consultant said it would. 2 hours after eating eggs on toast for breakfast I was starving!! Mostly I have had my eggs on toast for lunch when my LH has been at work or at night. Carb's make you hungry.
Funny thing is bread has lost all of it's appeal. It's a useful vehicle for things like Vegemite (I just had to say it!) & eggs & marmalade & jam & lemon butter & butter & all of those things that made me fat in the first place so guess what? I think I'm going to live without bread as a daily thing. It will be an occasional part only of my new 'diet'. I'm now a cracker nut! Crackers without butter or margarine. I had almost forgotten about butter & margarine. We don't really need them. You have bread, you need to put something on it & so on......
Milk I have given up totally. Occasionally I had a cappuchino on maintenance but it made me a bit nauseous so what's the point.
Lumpy you will be amazed at how your tastes will change. Give this program everything you've got. Trust in it & you will not regret it. At the end you will be able to re-introduce your current 'favourite' foods but, like me, you may find they are no longer so. Cheers, Cate.
My daily diary post(copied&pasted-C&P)
Down another .5kg today, so GW+1.5kg. I think I’ll call this terracing. We have a dinner to go to on Friday week ( a buffet) & are going with old friends. These are the ones I went away with last year, took my own food & did not drink any alcohol at all . Even though they thought it was good that I was losing weight I’m sure they still thought I was a bit of a party pooper. One used to work for us & we used to drink champagne together at knock-off time. I hardly see her these days, mainly because eating & drinking out is what I would have to do to catch up. My husband sees her & her husband regularly as he works with them. I really like them both a lot. I’ll see what I weigh next Friday & then stick to Cohen’s during the day, have the night ‘off’ & then re-assess next morning. If I’m still losing & not starving I might continue.
I have a funeral to go to today. One of our not-so-old customers in the pub has died of cancer & emphysema. I must go. My LH was coming with me but he got called in to work today. It’s a good thing really as we have very little income at the moment. The day he was diagnosed his girl-friend came up to tell me which surprised me really. We have hardly seen them since we left the pub. Once again for the same reason as we very rarely go out drinking in pubs. 8-ball is usually the reason for us entering pubs.
Our YS is going to come up to the finals of the State 8-ball try-outs to watch his dad & brother even though he does not need to. I asked him yesterday & said it would be nice & he said he would even if he needed to change his work roster. Nice.
I will have to really rug up for this funeral today as it is a graveside service & the wind will be coming right off the mountains & it is currently snowing on the mountains. There is a beautiful rainbow. I bought a long black woollen coat last year at the op shop & had a buckle added to the belt so I will wear that today. It’s a very impractical coat as it’s heavy but it will do the trick today. Thermals will be worn as well & gloves. Can you picture it? I would have been a wind-stopper for a couple of people once but now I need to rug up for myself! Before I post this I might go ring my hairdresser & see if I can fit an ap’t in after the funeral as I need one & it will cheer me up. Funerals always make me think of my sister & BIL, especially when the person has died of cancer. I still think of my sister daily but usually I smile. Every night from my lounge chair I see a very bright star that I think of as her.
I am meeting my LH at his mother’s when he finishes work so will do some grocery shopping & then we are going to a friend’s who is going to cut his hair. Hopefully he will have been given some more hours.
I have a few phone calls to make. I must ring & say I won’t be attending tutoring classes & I will ring my boss & ask when I can start doing the Aged Care Course. I will make an ap’t to go see her & line up some work in Launceston. What the heck it’s not that far to go- 120k return. It takes 35-40 mins each way. One day a week would be ok so that it’s not too much petrol.
Bye for now, Cate.

Thanks Cate, that will definately get me through the day. My last day at work today before my two weeks holiday, boy that's when the challenge will start, but I'm off to a good start to the day so I'll go from there! Cheers! Lumpy!

Lumpy- don't forget to take your Vegemite on holidays!
Today was pretty good really (for a funeral). After the graveside service, at his request, Highway to Hell was played. You have to love that! It's the last laugh really. I caught up with a lot of people, some I hadn't seen since we left the pub all those years ago. A few came up to me at the pub afterwards(I drank 2 cans of Coke Zero) & said they hadn't recognised me. I got quite a few really nice comments about my appearance. It's a funny thing that funerals can be such a social occasion but that's life.
I got a hair ap't but had to go before the funeral which was good really as I then went to the pub & socialised. You don't have to drink alcohol to be sociable. I caught up with the ex-employee who I used to drink champagne with & we had a good long yak. That was nice.
My LH had his haircut later & drank wine as he had it cut. A friend does his hair & he buys her a bottle of wine in lieu. We were told this time to def. not bring any wine so took her some seedlings from our garden instead. By the time I got home tonight it had been 7 hours since lunch & all I had eaten in between was 1 apple & 2 crackers. Quick steak & salad for dinner & I was full. Cohen's is amazing. You also forget how wonderful you feel being on it. I must never forget how good eating Cohen's food makes me feel.
No-one much about tonight so will say good-night for now, cheers, Cate

Glad to hear the funeral went well and I'm sure your friend will be happily looking down on you all delighted that you all gave him such a good, happy send off. He sounds like a fun sort of fellow (highway to hell ha ha) and would probaby have loved to be with you enjoying the social scene. Great that you got lots of good comments regarding your weight loss.
It sounds like you and I are twins. I eat almost the same as you do. Mushroom omelette with tomato for breakfast, Tuna with diced tomato, celery, cucumber and a little red onion with mayonaisse and a dash of balsamic for luch and a nice steak with salad or veges for dinner. crackers and fruit in between for snacks.
I also found that after I had completed the refeed last time and gone onto "life after" that a lot of the foods i was dying to eat again didn't even taste good any more!! McDonalds made me feel sick just to walk past the door and felt like the grease was just suffocating me. Your taste buds really do change for the better and I am so looking forward to getting back down to my goal so I can move back on to life after and enjoy living my life after.
Oop, I've crashed your diary again.. I seem to say more in here than i do in my own!! Sorry.
Take care

Beck

Beck- Never apologise for 'crashing' my diary. It's called communicating with me & I love it. I thrive on human inter-action. I'm a very sociable creature. I think I'm a much older twin! I'm going to take some photos today of the view of the snow on the mountains & you can show your kids. It looks absolutely magnificent. We Taswegians have many words for these days- brisk, fresh, bracing, etc but the sun is shining & I love it! I feel so much better for having shed my excess & eating Cohen's food only. I'm sure it's the way to go for me forever with extra food quantities of course & occasional sweets & alcohol. Cheers for now, Cate
WOW!! GW+.5kg this morning so only ½ a kilo to get to my lowest. I am not ravenous. I’m cruising!
Yesterday did wonders for my self-esteem. I’m now getting used to being slim(& actually feeling comfortable typing that) & not embarrassed when people comment on my appearance. I’m no longer ashamed of how I was. It feels very liberating. I think I was ashamed of my body before, lacking in self-confidence & hid behind the fat. Well, at least I thought I was hiding. I still find it a little amusing(?) that I get so much more attention than before.
It is absolutely freezing here today. The Great Western Tiers (Kooparoona Niara) are covered in snow. They look magnificent! I will get my camera book out & work out how to set my camera to take photos more suitable for posting & will attach some photos for anyone who may be interested. I need to do this to start selling on eBay sometime in the next decade! I do feel that I live as close to paradise as is physically possible.
I’ll go have a look about & then we are off wood-gathering. I’m rugged up from head to toe in thermals as I was yesterday at the funeral. It was the warmest I have ever been at this particular graveside. We wouldn’t survive without thermals in Winter in Tassie. Mind you it’s nothing like Winter in the US. Brrr. Baltimore was freezing once when I was there & it wasn‘t the middle of winter.
I tried on the long black top with a grey/silver trim top I bought at the fashion parade & it looks great. I’m going to wear it to the Andrea Bocelli concert. I should look the part! It looks "terribly smart". I started to describe it & thought I will take a photo of me in it instead in the next few days. It’s lovely & looks better now I have dropped 7.5kg.
OK bye for now, Cate. I’ll be back tonight.

Weigh GW+.5kg this morning which was quite a relief as last night I had extra vegies plus some pumpkin & 2 extra crackers. I was cruising I thought but hunger has started to creep back so am not sure how far I’ll go. I’m just playing it by ear. I think that I can still lose another few kilos which will give me some leeway. Back on 100% today. I feel so good being this weight.
I just went to the market & sailed past all the home-made cakes, slices etc, feeling very ‘goody two shoes’. It’s much better than feeling guilty & horrible (& FAT!)
My LH is playing golf today & I was going to stay at home & hibernate but forced myself out the door all rugged up from head to toe in thermals. I can fit thermals under my jeans now! I wanted to go to the monthly market as I want to keep planting more plants along my double bank as it’s really taking shape. I am mostly getting bird-attracting natives such as grevilleas &tea trees & it looks really good. I buy 3 plants each time as then it’s not so much of a chore getting them in the ground.
It is very cold today but not windy thank goodness. It’s sun is fast disappearing though & my LH might get rained on. He’ll continue to play though as he just loves his golf.
We are looking after the GK’s tomorrow night so our son & DIL can go to a show. I hope they don’t play up as there is a new show starting tomorrow that looks like it will be good. Mind you I can’t even remember what it’s called. ABC 8.30.
I’ll go have a look now & then copy, paste & post this, cheers, Cate.

Up 1kg this morning, so GW+1.5kg. I'm not bothered as I have not had a BM for a couple of days. Ouch. I upped the Coloxyl last night & am having extra Metamucil but to little avail.
Well this is an exciting forum this week-end(not). Not much happening around the traps. There has been a lot happening at our place today. A few of my husband's work-mates have been here falling some big trees for us. Our view of the mountains is fast disappearing & we have had quite a few dangerous dead trees that needed removing. Trees self-germinate rapidly at our place so they grow in numbers much faster than we would ever fall them. Some very large trees had very shallow roots so might have come down on us driving down our drive.
There is now so much cutting up to be done. One of them is coming back after lunch to do some cutting with my LH. We were going visiting but won't now. I've got the 3 GK's later & LH has to go to a meeting. They'll hopefully be asleep when he gets home!
Cheers, Cate.

I had a look at the forum hours ago & there had not been one post in our Cohen’s thread since mine yesterday. Does this mean that Cohen’s is not popular in the US I wonder? I go to other forums but don’t feel like I fit in. My problem really, no-one else’s. Perhaps I should get out there & get a ‘real life’.
Just read Vicky's diary entry but I'm feeling too out of sorts to post even though I loved her enthusiasm & joy. Oh dear Cate. I think I will go sit down with a book.
I think I am just tired today & that alone can make me feel melancholy. I must remember this.
Our son & DIL put the 2 older go’s to bed last night & headed off to the show. Our GD needed poppy to settle her down while I played with the grand-baby. He is gorgeous. They all are actually. They are such good , sweet kids. After an hour or so as he got really tired he realised that mum & dad were not there & I had trouble settling him down. I tried putting him down but got him up as he seemed too upset. Eventually I walked around the house until I got him to sleep at 10.15.
When they got back they decided to stay the night which was good because the little fella slept through until 6 this morning. It was nice having them here this morning & they did not leave until lunch-time. We stayed up watching some of the tennis & the Tour but obviously I did not get enough sleep as I feel quite weary today.
My broad-band is not getting connected until Friday now unfortunately but that’s ok. I’ll survive I’m sure.
I weighed an extra kilo this morning but put this down to limited sleep & a little constipated & I have been drinking too much coffee the last few days. It feels like fluid retention. I weigh GW+2.5kg which is not good. I’ll get rid of it though.
I probably won’t be back tonight as it’s so quiet in here so bye for now, Cate.

Hi Cate,
I know how you feel. I check in every day but as my weight loss has been slow for the last week or so, I don't really have much to say and as there are not many people posting I just can't think of anything to post about. Sorry that you are feeling down and I'll try to make a point to pop in and even just say "Hi" more often. I get really p*$$ed off that every time someone new comes in to chat with us, that one person from the other forum comes in and pilfers them (as if they need the numbers). I don't really like the other forum that much either as it is too "Big Brotherish" with the main moderator dictating what people are allowed to talk about. Not really my scene. I prefer to say whatever I want whenever I want.
Sorry to be such a sour puss but there must be something in the air getting us all down.
I am still loving Cohens and this morning was down another .5kg so quite happy that the weight is still coming off but when I have slow weeks always feel a bit less motivated than when I have big loss weeks.
Have a good day
Take care
Beck

Hi Beck & thanks for visiting. It is really annoying isn't it? I agree with you whole-heartedly! I don't post in other diaries when I'm feeling grumpy usually. It doesn't happen often luckily.
I have settled up to GW + 2.5kg. I am starting to think this is where my body wants to sit as this is the weight I stabilised at for 6 months. It's still within the weight range but I was hoping to get down a bit more so that I had more lee-way. My husband thinks I look really good at this weight & look too skinny any lighter. It's just a number I know.
I feel much better mentally today. I slept 10 &1/2 hours last night. I woke, it was raining heavily so did not go walking. It is a nasty day outside. Toasty in here.
I tried taking photos of the snow on the mountains the other day to post in here to show you but my zoom is not so good & it didn't show up clearly. Instead I'll wait for a beautiful sunny day & take photos of the mountains snow or no snow & post them instead.
I'm off to read the other posts & do some emailing for a change, cheers, Cate

Hi Beck and Cate,

I can relate Beck, my wt loss has slowed after 7 weeks and I am just trying to keep enthusiastic after quite a large deviation on Sunday, which I am forgetting about and getting on with the job at hand.

Cate, I too awoke to rain which is lovely because it has been so dry here. I do love sitting near the fire, listening to the rain. I love to be a lazy bones but the kids don't oblige.

I have lost 14kg and am just longing to lose the next 1kg to get into the 70's, but many more days like Sunday and I will be in the 90's again first!!! OK, focus, keep up with the diaries because I love them, especially when I am trying to be 100% and struggling.

Take care, Trudy

Trudy, Put Sunday behind you & go forward. Being slim & healthy is so worth all the sacrifice, dedication & determination needed to get there but it is so, so, very worth it!!
Thanks for the visit! Never, ever again am I going to let myself go back to being that other, big Cate. It will require vigilance but I'm going to stay slim.
I have concentrated on drinking lots of water today & have been peeing constantly. I think I must have been retaining fluid the last couple of days. I hope the scales showme a loss in the morning as Friday's dinner is coming up fast. I'm eating out & off Cohen's regardless but may be back 100% after that I think for a little bit longer. I had decided a few weeks ago to go back on plan but then to re-introduce foods slower than re-feed so that I could monitor my body's reactions to them better than before. I will need to go back on 100% for a while so that I can do that. I'm not sure which carbohydrates were the 'baddies' for me. I will do this & monitor it carefully. Not just yet though. I think I will more than likely end up with my food being mainly Cohen's but with bigger quantities. Carb's(bread, rice, pasta especially) may have to be only occasional. I think wine may have to be once or twice a week only. Chocolate perhaps only once a week. We'll see. Anyhow I don't mind. Being slim is worth being strict. After all I was obese. Who would want to go back to being obese! I probably was morbidly obese(shudder-it sound horrible) Not me! Cheers for now, Cate

Hi Cate,
Don't you just hate those words "morbidly obese". I know I do and those 2 little words alone are enough to make me want to lose weight. I am still in the "obese class 2" range but inching ever closer to being obese class 1 which I will reach as soon as my BMI goes under 35 (it is currently 37.55). I know each of these stages are not that exciting for "normal" people and they probably can't understand how someone can get excited by going from obese class 3 to obese class 2, but, as I'm sure you can remember, a huge amount of effort goes into reducing down through each of those stages and each stage brings you that little bit closer to being in a normal weight range.
I agree with you on the carb thing. I have decided that my body just can't cope with too many carbs. I think sugar is my biggest killer as well as rice. Even before i went on Cohens I had a big problem with rice, and I am sure i am addicted to sugar as it is the main thing that sets off my massive uncontrollable eating binges, so I am sure that these are 2 of the main things I need to stay off. I haven't really been able to identify anything else that is a problem. Good idea to reintoduce the food slower than refeed as it will give you a better understanding of what each food is doing to your body. I have often thought that as some days on refeed you introduce more than 1 new thing it is hard to identify which is causing problems.
Anyway, have a great day.
take care
Beck