It has been a week since I started on Cohen's. I had terrible headaches for the first 3 days but things have started getting better, though I can feel myself constantly gritting my teeth - perhaps in determination to stick to this diet or perhaps to prevent myself from opening my mouth and inhaling everything in sight. Whatever it may be, I'm definitely feeling some stress. I am trying to stay positive and motivated but I can feel the inner greedy person taking over...... Am also losing my will to do anything other than to sit in a corner counting the minutes till my next feeding time......I think I need help. Anyone out there?

My starting weight on 28 October was 76.7kg. My goal weight is between 59-62kg. I'm gunning for 59kg, but let's see how it goes. I don't think I have gone below 60kg since I was 10 years old.......

Hello Bear and welcome to our supportive little forum..

Dont sit in the corner, as time passes you will stop watching the clock, try filling your time with drinking your water, when i am desperate or frustrated i log on to the forum read posts and write posts, it is a great time waster.. I have even started getting on top of my housework.. thats scary.. Bears post is all about bear so write anything you like.

Remeber to be kind to yourself and congratulate yourself on your achievements no matter how small it may seem.. well done on your first week. you have done so well, dont knock yourself..

I am having my initial bloods tomorrow, i was using an old program but bit the bullet and paid for a new one.. so fingers crossed...

good luck and hope to read lots more posts..

Chelle

Thanks Chelle! Contact with someone going through the same thing! Yay! My fingers are crossed for you!

Dinner of eye fillet steak. Yum. The problem is that I had gotten hungry by the time I ate so the teeny portion of steak didn't feel like enough. Note to self - must eat before hunger strikes. Must train the husband to keep to agreed times and not keep me waiting around for him if he wants me to pick him up from work. grr. at least he was kind enough to offer a chunk off his arm for me to chew on to keep my mind off real food.

Well i suppose like all things, this hunger too will pass. Time for vitamins. Must be more positive. Must be more positive. Must be more positive.

Meal plan for tomorrow:
M1 - Omelet
M2 - Beef patty with veg
M3 - Fish with veg
Fruit - Grapefruit + Apple

Hi Bear,
Welcome to the forum. Great work to get through the first week and remember that it only gets easier from here!!!
At the beginning I always made sure I ate my meals right on the second that they were due and saved the crackers and fruit for in between. My eating went something like this: Breakfast (7.30am) tomato and mushroom omelette, 10.00am morning tea of 2 crackers and 1 apple, Lunch (12.30) Tuna salad, 3.00pm afternoon tea of 1 piece of fruit and 2 more crackers and then dinner at 5.30-6.00pm steak and veges and then my final cracker later in the evening. I also made sure I had lots of cups of hot tea and coffee with sweetener which also helped to keep the hunger at bay.
When things get tough think of how quickly you will lose weight when on this program, but only if you stick to it 100%.
You can always eat your apple or crackers while on the run if you have to pick up your husband.
Good luck and hope to "see" you around the forum.
Take care
Beck

Hey rjm, great idea about the apple. good thing i saved my fruit allowance to munch on while waiting for the husband to get off work.

had dinner at a japanese restaurant. despite the weird looks i got from other diners, i kept my weighing scale on the table and weighed my tuna sashimi and salad. will have to remember to ask for a plate to place the weighed food on. weighing in portions confused me terribly and made it difficult to carry on normal conversation. but anyway, i declare Mission Dining Out on Cohen's a success! haha..... i think figuring out how i can maintain my lifestyle while on Cohen's is the key to me sticking to the programme till i reach my target weight. perhaps korean bbq will be next....

i have lost 3.7kg so far and 2 inches off the waist. (no measurements beyond the waist though. the first time i took my measurements, waist, hips and bust were pretty much the same, which depressed me too much to continue.)

hope everyone else is having a great day too.

Bear

Hi Bear & a big welcome to the forum. Beck and Chelle are great company and excellent support. It sounds like you are determined to do this. Good for you. I'll be back home again soon with more time to post in more detail, cheers for now, Cate.

Wow bear sounds like you have a few outing options.. what a challenge.. great going... i must post this quickly but will be back full steam on monday.. keep up the good work and you have done so well .. Be proud of yourself...Have a great weekend..

TTFN
Chelle

Thanks everyone for the tips and the warm welcome.

I'm really excited about my menu for the coming week. Went marketing this morning and the wonderful husband bought 2 live crabs and poached them beautifully. We've just finished de-shelling them and I've got a beautiful tub of fresh crabmeat for salads/soups for next week! AND i got myself huge prawns for grilling. and asparagus, zucchini, green peppers and tomatoes (though i think i was grossly overcharged for my veg today. grr.). I am developing a mushroom phobia though so none of those for me this week. and just discovered that those crunchy japanese cucumbers go very well with cottage cheese and onions.

One of the by-products of cohen's is my new found interest in cooking - i'm exploring the use of different ingredients, herbs and cooking methods - poaching, grilling and steaming are pretty new to me. i used to be pretty much a stir-fry, pan-fry, deep-fry kinda cook. i do miss trying out new restaurants though..... oh well, they'll still be there after i lose this weight and if they are not, they are probably not worth trying anyway.

Some news to share, if anyone else is facing the same problem - i emailed my consultant about what i should do about my light-headedness after tennis classes. she replied that i can have an additional fruit and a serving of crackers after the class. well, i'm going to try that on monday and see if that will impede the weight loss.

Steam boat dinner tonight at a friend's restaurant. i can certainly weigh the raw ingredients before cooking them, but i wonder what i will do about the stock......hm............

anyway, current weight is 72.4kg. another 13.4kg to go! wonder if i'll be able to start refeed before christmas. we're planning a trip to Japan after christmas so it might be a bit of a pain if i have to bring the scale along......will try the power of positive thinking.

Hello bear..

God your menu plan sounds delicious and i dont even eat seafood...... I hope you are going along well on your cohens program.. what is a steamboat dinner?

Well I am officially on day 2 of my new program and all is well. even though i had been half of the wagon for the last week, i am suprised at how well the transition went... so hopefull that means quicker results...

Will be interested in how your tennis game goes next time and if that extra fruit and crackers helps you..To begin with you can feel a little light headed so hope it can be resolved...

Better yet i dont have to change my ticker i went up to 102.3kg ( my offical starting weight) but i gave in and weighed today and i am back down to ticker weight...

I think i shall try your cottage cheese, onoin and cucumber... sounds yum...

My washing machine has finished so i better go and refill it..

Good luck and as always 'may the water be with you'....

Chelle

Chelle - i think it's a blessing you are not familiar with steamboat. it's a form of communal eating where everyone just grabs some raw stuff and dunks it into a common pot of broth that is kept simmering. you could either be civilised and just eat what you put in or you could just fish around the pot for anything that has been abandoned. anyway, as you can probably tell from the description, not the best/most hygienic way to eat. but it can be a lot of fun. and i can weigh my food raw before cooking it. AND i can eat out with my friends, like a normal person.

the foolish thing i did was to dunk and fish out my meats before the broth had reached a boil. that was the beginning of a horrible horrible bout of food poisoning. when i got home that night, i started puking my guts out. and for the next 5 days, i was passing everything i ate/drank out the other way. the worst was on wednesday when i just collapsed on the floor of my bathroom too weak to even walk to my bedroom. hm..... on retrospect, i suppose it is yet another of life's experiences seeing as i had never even come close to fainting prior to this. i always thought fainting was one of those things that happen only to really skinny and fragile people. today, i can finally keep my food in once again. dinner was rice. and some braised duck. tummy hurts a little but the good thing is that dinner is still in there.

i have been off cohen's since tuesday. the doctor told me to give it up and to just take some electrolytes and glucose and give my stomach a break. i'm going to give myself till sunday to psych up to restart cohen's. somewhere in my mind, i have somehow associated cohen's to my food poisoning bout so i feel some reluctance to get back on the programme and the thought of proteins just makes me want to throw up. ugh. seafood in particular scares me for some reason.

another interesting fact - weight loss via food poisoining is quick but fleeting. i lost 2kg overnight, only to gain back 1kg in 2 days (without any solid foods). so overall, net loss of 1kg for almost a week's worth of purging. i vote for cohen's as the more effective weight loss programme. less painful too.

sigh. all my fresh stuff from the market last week is now rotting in my fridge. and my crab meat untouched too.... i feel so sad that they have all gone to waste......i think i shall just stick with chicken breast from now on.

sigh.............

Well i think you may be right, bear, i am glad i dont know of it.. though it does sound interesting... I love your approach to cohens its great... I am so sorry to hear of your bout of food poisoning, you poor thing...

i think you need to re - associate your words...

Cohens: Good
Steamboat undercooked : Bad

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.......

Hope to hear from you soon.. I am sure you will get back on the wagon and shrinking again in no time... good luck and i hope this post finds you very much improved...

TTFN
Chelle

It was quite easy keeping to the programme this week. Got a fresh load of stuff from the market on Tuesday. Keeping to stir frys, fish and chicken this week. It's funny how chicken and fish seem to keep me feeling full longer as compared to beef.

Anyway, I am proud to report that I have lost almost 1.1kg since getting back on the programme this week. Hopefully, I can get below 70kg by next week! I'm really looking forward to fitting into my size 12s again.

Just called the clinic today to fix up an appointment for my 4-week bloodtest. i'm a bit nervous about that - i hate having needles stuck into me.

hubby has cooked my lunch for tomorrow. Steamed chicken with shredded ginger + vegetable stir fry. mmmmm........... if only he could cook ALL my meals. dinner today was green peppers + beef stirfry. he's quite happy to be doing the cooking at the moment. i think he treats it like an iron chef competition.

Bear, Your hubbie sounds like a sweetie. Mine loves cooking & the Iron Chef. I usually pop into the forum when it's on. Cooking to me is more of a chore, to him it's a passion.
Doing the program is so much easier if you can put dining out on hold until you finish. It's worth the wait knowing that you will be slim before too long& then you will be able to learn to make wise choices when you eat out and enjoy it that much more. Cheers, Cate.

Ugh..... i caved this morning and grabbed half of my brother's breakfast. AND I took a second helping of turkey just cos it was there. Sigh. I will stick to my allowance for dinner. hope i won't gain too much weight cos of this......

Yikes - the deviation yesterday cost me 0.5kg. I was so close to breaking the 70kg mark but i had to go and self-sabotage.

anyway, zero deviations today and will stick strictly to plan. I have another 10kg to go before I'm requesting for refeed. And a vacation to California over the Christmas-New Year period to look forward to. And many weddings early next year to look good for - one in Malaysia in late January and one in Sydney in March. The last time I met this group of friends (husband's friends actually) was at my own wedding when I was much thinner and I don't want to scare them by looking so much bigger just a year into marriage....

Well, work was terrible as usual - ok the work itself was not terrible, more of my attitude. Tennis today was great fun though, although i was terrible too - as the little bro has pointed out, i do not make any effort to move towards the ball when it is out of the reach of my outstretched arm. haha, as usual he's spot on. i'm just lazy. Maybe golf would have been a more suitable sport for me. at least the ball is not in motion when i have to hit it. anyway, am working on the footwork. maybe today's session will shift some of that weight gained from yesterday's deviation!

i have to go for the 4-week blood test tomorrow. I wonder if my body is going to rat on me and what the repercussions will be........ I promise to be good from now till christmas at least!

Cate - I'm looking forward to getting Iron Chef on TV finally. We've had to resort to watching it on U-tube actually (hubby used to watch it all the time when he was studying in Sydney and he got me hooked to it too when he came back). The ingredient for my personal iron chef's challenge was chicken today and the husband did a panfried chicken breast stuffed with spinach and minced garlic dish for me to take to work for lunch tomorrow. I do thank my lucky stars that I have such support from him.

btw, is the diet messing up anyone else's menstrual cycle? mine has really gone berserk...... wonder if i shld go see a doctor about this or just wait and see if it settles down after i reach my goal weight....... any advice would really help......