I have emailed my Cohen's rep to ask 2 questions and the answer is "You should repeat blood work for us to know the answer"? Does this seem to be the answer others get when you are just asking a simple question? I dont know maybe it's just me but that just sounds crazy. After listing my daily intake & amounts of food, all I wanted to know was was there something I could tweak to restart the rapid weight loss I had experienced in the very begining. The answer I recieved is have more blood work. That's not happening today since the blood work cost me $70. the first time. I am aware that I will need additional bloodwork in the future but it just seems to me that maybe my rep just couldn't be bothered. I am very gratefull to these boards since I can get suggestions here from fellow Cohen members.
Any thoughts? I am going to begin by cutting out my cracker intake and see what happens.

Torigirl, In Australia we pay double what you do, but get lots of support from our consultants. I will do some homework for you & find a post that explains why we lose so much at the start. It's not just fluid. Type in here when you eat your crackers/fruit etc & we can try to help with some ideas for spacing things out. Personally I would not leave the crackers out as you would not be eating enough to sustain you. How many do you have as part of your allowance & how many fruit? Do you have yoghurt for breakfast? Eating too much cheese can really slow down the weight-loss. How much water do you drink? I'll have a look later today for that post about the initial weight-loss, cheers for now, Cate.

Thanks Cate,
I am allowed 3 crackers a day & I do make sure I get the appropriate grams per day. Water is taken throughout the day & I consume a minimum of 2 litres a day. Soda is 3 glasses a day with ice. I think it's probably within the reccomended limits but it is hard to judge when you pour it in a glass filled with ice. I should measure it before I put it in the glass, shouldn't I? See just by talking about it I realise something I should change.
I am allowed 3 fruits which are usualy a small to medium size apple. Sometimes I have cantaloupe/melon for fruit. I dont usualy eat all 3 fruits but when I do have them they are usualy in the afternoon & in the evening before 9PM.

Breakfast is usualy 1 egg scrambled with the appropriate allowed amount of veg which is usualy green pepper, green & yellow squash. I do alternate the veg to change it up but it is usualy those that I like best.

Lunch & dinner can be a soup made with no salt or a piece of fish baked with no fat just the allowed seasonings & of course the veggies.

I have not had any dairy for a few weeks now, plain yogurt in not a favorite of mine.
What had happened was I got the standard email from my rep "Hello, it's been one month now, how are you doing? Any question please contact us."
So when I did message he/she back I got nothing but "Have more blood work done" I thought that was a bit odd. I just thought the rep would have questioned my eating plan & might have tried to offer a few suggestions.

I'm not complaining about the weight loss, I am happy with the progress so far & no other diet I have done before has kept me satisified for the most part. The good thing about Cohens is that if you are a person with a sweet tooth like I have always had, once you are away from it you dont want it.
Other diet plans out there in the media allow you a bit of these sweets each day & thats OK for some but for me once I get a taste of it it opens up the doorway for more, more, & more. This way if I dont have it at all I dont look for it.
So that being said,,, I appreciate any suggestions. One thought I was thinking of was to try to to cut the soda out for a week and see what happens. This might kill me though

Cohens or any other diet plan is going to lead to a slowdown in weight loss. It's how we are physiologically wired.

Steve, I am aware that weight loss does slow down after some time.
My ? to the rep was any suugestions on how to jump start the weight loss....

Hi Torigirl

there is a forum (mainly Americans) I do remember they started a thread with FAQ's and what responses come back from Dr Cohen. Here is the link
(Unofficial) 1st Personal Diet Support - excoboard.com
They are all following the internet plan in there, I hope you find your answer.
hayleyheyhey

Thanks Hayley

Yea, take a break.

Hi Tori... I couldnt see your diary... thought I might answer there... but couldn't find one! Oh well!

I have circulation disorder, "Raynauds Disease", which means that I have had some REALLY slow losses! Some of the strategies I have have used to kick start things again after a really slow period ...

• Spacing my meals out to 6 hours instead of 5
• Having the same proteins for meal 2 and 3 (but still having the 5 hour rule)
• I have also recently started having meal 2 or 3 for breakfast and having meal 1 for dinner, because I think that my metabolism is so slow because of the Raynauds that if I have the biggest meal at 6 or 7 then then I dont have enough time to digest it properly overnight.

Since trying some of these my losses have increased to the "normal" range (i.e what everybody else seems to lose!)... it is also getting alot warmer here and that helps in a BIG way!!

I hope that some of these might be useful!

Blessya
Kannadew

Why do you suppose putting 1 hour between your meals increased your weight loss?

I'm assuming your calories are constant.

Kannadew,
Thanks for the suggestions, I will give them a try. Switching out meal #1 sounds like a good idea to me. The protein in the fish I have for meal #2 seems to stay with me longer than the 1 egg & veg I have for meal #1. I will give it a try. Thanks again for the suggestions, thats all I was looking for by asking the question.