Thanks Losing & Fatcat for your good advice.
I too hope this flatness will pass, and that a new flatness will appear! (LOL Losing!). Gosh I think I'll need plastic surgery to get this tummy flat.
As you mentioned it, I had forgotten to take my vitamins today, so will do that right now.
Yes I know I have done a good thing by starting on Cohens. I initially heard about it on the radio, and then found this forum. I read hundreds of pages, and was completely inspired, particularly by people at the start like Moni , Mel & now all of you who are doing such a great job. Lessofme's before and after photos are AMAZING - it makes me believe I can do it too, even though the last time I was in the 50kgs range I was about 16 (am now 39). I have quite a fierce determination to succeed. It's nice to have a fire in my belly about losing weight as I have been very complacent for a lot of years. My blood pressure is way too high - I dont want a life of medication before me, so 2007 is the year of me!
I am on holidays this week and it's disrupting my schedule. I'm waking too late, having breakfast too late, eating dinner very late ( and barely have the energy to cook it) and then trying to hold onto to consciousness for two hours after I eat dinner. This is probably part of the flatness also.
Anyhoo
GOOD ON YOU EVERYONE! Keep putting in those new notches on your belts!
Cath

Hi Cath

Don't take the 'Two Hours Before Bedtime' routine too seriously. Enjoy your holiday without putting strain on yourself.

You may find this article interesting Dr Rosenbaum on Human Growth Hormone as it explains what we are actually doing with the food.

The 'doses' of protein and other foods actually stimulate the body to do certain things. Our careless eating over the years has stimulated the body to convert food to fat and to store the fat for a rainy day. As we are 'hunters and gatherers' this is what our bodies are meant to do. Actually, we resemble camels more than any other animal - we can survive long periods without water, and even longer periods without food. We are remarkable!

In modern life, the most active hunting and gathering we do is to put the cornflakes in the supermarket trolley, and we eat and graze continuously. The rainy day never comes and we end up with these reserves sufficient to survive an ice age!

Cohen's reverses the storage pattern and stimulates the body to draw down the reserves.

Human Growth Hormone is most effective when blood sugar is lowest. As the largest 'pulse' of HGH occurs between midnight and 2am, it makes sense if we are asleep at that time and that our blood sugar is low.

Blood sugar is lowest about two hours after a protein meal, hence the 'don't eat after 9pm' guideline.

However, if you have had Meal #1 at, say, 11am, and Meal #2 at 4.30pm and Meal #3 at 10pm, don't fret, just go to bed with a book, relax, and go to sleep when you are ready.

Don't start doing the ironing at 11pm just to stay awake. There is no need to take this to extremes, and it is far better to wake up refreshed (and probably earlier) and to have Meal #1 at 10.30am because you got to sleep at a reasonable hour.

If you can, try and wake up, get your Meal #1 (yoghurt takes 3 minutes to eat), have a glass of water and go back to bed for a bit of a snooze. After all, you are on holidays!

Remember that you can eat the Meals any way you want. It is not 'Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner', it is simply 3 Meals per day. Make yourself a cheese and veg 'pizza' the night before, then just grill it on a rice cake for a quick preparation breakfast while you are boiling the kettle for a cup of tea. This sort of breakfast fare is more in holiday mode, anyway, than just endless yoghurt.

Alternatively, have the pizza for supper, rather than meat and veg. I work very irregular hours (mortgage broker) and would often do a savoury supper for myself rather than a meat & veg meal if I came in late after an evening appointment.

Check out the Cohen's website Cohen's Lifestyle Clinic - Weight-loss and Wellness through Nutrition for lots of meal ideas. Don't forget good old savoury mince or casseroles or hotpots, things which can be prepared and cooked ahead so that you aren't cooking at midnight.

Above all, enjoy yourself. It really is great fun and can be a very creative and pleasurable experience.

I took 20 weeks to shed 25 kilos. Your 39 kilos will be gone in no time!

Ciao!

Chelsea

Remember: Play the Mexican Bean Game - have Meal #3 for breakfast, Meal #2 for lunch, and a light Meal #1 for supper! Mix and match for what suits you - if you were a Night Nurse you would be eating to your circadian clock, anyway, so keep to the 5 hour guidelines but eat the Meals in any order you like!

Sometimes Chelsea your descriptions are very amusing , I would like to state catagorically that I dont resemble a camel, and wearing your size 8 pants and stilettos Chelsea...neither would you

Chistmas has come and gone, I had my deviation time I allowed myself, I put on 1.2kg in the ten days I was off Cohens, and I'm now ready and raring to go!


I found that although I allowed myself a break from the rigorous routine of Cohens I wasn't craving the foods I thought i would be like carbs etc, instead I really wanted my protein for brekky which surprised me.

I think it will be so much easier for this stage. Bring on the next ten kilo loss yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Happy New Year all

Good news today, 89.9KG, I am in the 80's, just a little bit more to go!

Hi Everyone,

I strayed a little bit by not weighing the turkey meat that I ate Christmas day lunch. Then I also picked at it a bit before I took my dinner piece. Naughty!

Anyway, I paid for it with half of my usual weekly weight loss. Let's hope it picks up again this week. Fingers crossed!!!

lessfatty

Congratulations on breaking the 90 kilo barrier!

Reaching this milestone is just wonderful. Bet you never thought you'd lose 33 kilos - it is quite incredible, isn't it, looking back at ourselves. Was that big, flabby bloke really you? Yep?!? And now that slim, trim bloke is you.

Well done! Won't be long before you reach your own person goal

Best wishes

Chelsea

Congratulations LessFatty!!!

Janine

Hey everyone i have a quick question!...

i did it again...thought i knew my food allowances back to front but ive done it again!

today i was at a friends house and was feeling a little lethargic and remembered i hadnt had my afternoon snack,my friend (knowing i was on cohens) offered me some fruit from the basket but all i could see was grapes,strawberries,plums and pears (who doesnt have apples or oranges in their basket anymore?hehe)
i DEFINATELY knew i couldnt have the first three fruits but i grabbed the pear thinking 'oh good i can have this'..

maybe i mistook it for an apple seeing i was so tired?

so anyway im home now and ive got this really weird tummy feeling and after reading my manual i saw i CANT have pears!!!

the question is, even though i had fruit and not chocolate or biscuits etc, will this affect my weight loss much seeing its probably counted as a deviation?

oh i could just shoot myself in the foot!!

Any thoughts???


xx

Hey Fatcat

I wouldn't be too worried - you could have done a lot worse. Be kind to yourself you have done so well - but I bet you'll never look at a pear the same way again.....


Are you in Brisbane - Sue gave me a purse size laminated card with all my allowed foods - if you don't have one I'd be happy to send one if you want to pm your address to me....

Hi fatcat

It's interesting on refeed what fruits are introduced and when in the sequence they are 'allowed'.

Pears are a restricted fruit becuase of how we react to them. Pity, 'cos a nice pear is a real treat!

You haven't done yourself any permanent (!) harm, but depending on how your system is working now you may not lose the full complement of weight this week. Then again, we're not meant to weigh ourselves more than once per month (wink, nudge) so by the time your next official weigh comes around your body will have well and truly compensated for this deviation.

Never mind: I used to eat a lot of brussels sprouts - yes, I know I'm weird but I love a good sprout! - they were on my shopping list, but apparently they are now on the forbidden list due to high carbohydrate levels!

Darn! If I had known I might have finished the program three or four days earlier!

Anyway, the pear, like the sprouts, are things of the past! Tomorrow is another day - Keep On!

Cheers

Chelsea!

Hi everyone, Just a quick note to sympathise with all that deviated over Xmas, I was amongst you. Had about 9 functions leading up to Xmas and so have an extra 2kg's to loose.

Thought I would share a quote from a friend that has been really inspiring for me and have put it on my fridge in BIG letters.

We were at an end of season windup for golf and dessert was plum pudding and all the trimmings. I didn't have any and nor did she, but when I asked why wasn't she having any she said "I KNOW WHAT PLUM PUDDING TASTES LIKE" and I was like WOW, she is so right. Hope that helps some of you to stay on track. I"m going to use it as my motto from now on.

Happy NEW Year and keep up the good work.

Bad news from my side... my dad had a stroke on Friday. He is stable now, but paralysed on his right side and unable to speak. It was caused by high blood pressure over a prolonged period of time........ another good reason to lose this weight.
The most difficult thing is that he was primarily caring for my mum who has dementia, so now my brothers and I are taking care of her as well as dad. So, we will have a busy few weeks ahead of us! We'll see how I go with following the plan moving back and forth from the hospital to mum's house to our house........ I think it could well be a struggle.
HL

Hello heavenlylamb

Very sorry to hear about your Dad - and your Mum. My Mum had dementia and we all took it in turns to visit her each day, cook meals and keep an eye out for her.

Perhaps your Mum can go into Respite Care for a while. Much safer for her and less stressful for your Dad if he knows she is being cared for.

Without sounding trite, but yes, our genetic disposition is a great incentive to stick with the weight loss even if it is going to be difficult over the coming weeks and months.

I just wish there was some way of staving off dementia. Having witnessed this dreadful condition at first hand I would not wish it on a brown dog! I can lose weight to reduce the likelihood of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and other obesity related diseases, but I don't know what I can do to reduce the likelihood of developing dementia.

My thoughts and best wishes are with you

Regards

Chelsea

Hi Heavenlylamb,
How distressing for you and your family. You have my sympathy.
I hope things improve for you soon.

Lily/Pumpkins