Hey FatCat,
My Cohens Suggested Goal Weight is 57 - 60kgs in a weeks time I will be 2 kgs off my Cohens Suggested Goal Weight therefore I will need to order my refeed program. I have actually set My Own Goal Weight at 56kgs, 1 kg under the lower end of my Cohen's Suggested Goal Weight. But and it's a big But... If I get the insatiable hunger where my body is telling me that this is My Natural Goal Weight at any time between 60kgs and 56kgs then I will have to start my refeed immediately. My consultant tells me it is an unbearable hunger and you need to have your Refeed Program on hand so you can start straight away and not deviate. So I don't want to wait until I get the hunger and then order it as it takes a few days to get it and I don't want to be starving hungry for those few days and blow the whole thing by eating anything in sight!
In your eating plan on page 14 you will see this at the bottom:

Approaching Goal Weight
When you are 2kg from goal weight, contact your clinic to order your Refeeding Program! (Remember the Refeeding Program stabilizes the body, to assist you in maintaining your natural goal weight for life!) You are ready for your Refeeding Program when you start to getting hungry. If you are weighing your food accurately, drinking sufficient water etc etc etc, you should not get hungry until you are at your Natural Goal Weight. Starting your Refeeding Program before you reach your Natural Goal Weight may result in weight gain; therefore you may not start your refeeding program until you are within 2kgs of your Suggested Goal Weight.

I hope that it all makes sense now.
Have a great night!


Oh before I forget... ad4ad it's great to see another Perthy in here!! who is your consultant - I'm with Gaye.
How's your journey on the Cohen's bus treating you? And how freakin Hot is it!!!

Hey FatCat, thanks for sharing about your friends. It's tough isn't it? But we will persevere My sis is a bright girl who is mostly reasonable - i hope she will come round to the idea that I'm going to be much slimmer. And when she sees the results, I hope she considers spending her money on one less holiday and investing it on doing something about her weight @ health.

I'm having so much fun cooking creatively on Cohen's. Just did a spicy prawn stir-fry that tastes yum but I won't know if it's good until I have it for lunch tomorrow. I always cook the next day's lunch after dinner so that I can bring along to work.

And I'm going to try that mango cheesecake idea this weekend. It sounds super delicious!

Hi all,

I'm back on Cohen's again. Finished re-feed in Oct but stopped before I reached my own goal weight. reached the weight that Dr Cohen suggested. Anyhow, I'm back on again cuz I put on some weight while I was on my honemoon, so I'm determined to reach my own goal weight by end of March...?

Hi everyone

Hope you are all well and losing.

Just updating my ticker

It's all good new I've lost and I am now in the 60's yeah!!!!!!!!!!

A few more to go and I will be at refeed.

Thanks for all your support eveyone who's offered it I definitely believe if it wasn't for this forum i wouldn't have been this enthusiastic.

I haven't been around lately so to any new people, I started cohens on the 11/12/06 at 79kg and have lost 10.7 kg in 8 weeks.

This programme is unbelievable - I love it and I have never said that a about any diet.
Take care all

Sam

Winnie - Glad to be of assistance anytime yeh i think that a few months after ive been maintaining goal weight theyll find something else to whinge about lol! after all, were in our 20's and alot of the girls are still in highschool phase of thought haha

Melly P - we have the same consultant! have you seen her before photos on the wall? its so good to know we have a consultant thats been down the same path hey.In regards to refeed lol i have read that bit of the booklet too haha over and over and good idea - i will probably call for refeed then but hang on to it until i know im ready (ive still got lots to go though ha) thanks for the advice hun! PLEASE let us know how refeed goes whether its complicated etc etc!!

Windy Blue - you probably will find as you get slimmer your sister will have a Dr phil moment and ' get real' haha.My best friend is now on her way to shedding 5 kilos thats been bugging her ever since we left highschool, and ive been her motivation - so we can go shopping together when i have my goal weight/ belated birthday bash at the casino we can both look hot!

Ladydenning - WELCOME!

Nans68 - ooh im so envious! your so close to refeed! hehe CONGRATS on the 8 week weigh in!! no doubt your looking like a hot mamma these days

Happy losing everyone

Caroline x

only 2 more sleeps till my 12 week weigh in!!!

Starting Weight: 99.7KG (17/11/06)
Ticker updates...
24/11/06 (1 wk) = 94.5
15/12/06 (4 wk) = 89.7
12/01/06 (8 wk) = 84.1
09/02/06 (12 wk) = ??
09/03/07 (16 wk) = ??
06/04/07 (20 wk) = ?? HOPEFULLY AT GOAL WEIGHT!!

Melly P and Fat Cat - we have the same consultant!!!

Yes it has been ridiculously hot - I have been loving the aircon!

Some good news to share with all - I put a suit jacket on that I have not worn since the start of the program and it fits my so much better! No straining against the buttons.

I had a really hard time day 4 and yesterday it wasn't that I was hungry but that I wasn't able to have what I wanted to have. So I took out the tape measure - measured my waist - saw that I had lost 7cms and said to myself - what more do you want?

My little internal 'naughty' voice dissapeared straight away!!!

Hi Melly P,

Just want to share something with you. My supposed goal weight is between 62-64 kg. And I was aiming to reach 64 kg. But I was facing great hunger at 68 kg onwards. So what happened was that weight loss slowed and because I was hungry, I got tempted. And sometimes I caved into temptations and gained a bit of weight but then will lose it again if I stick to the program. But most of the time, I couldn't help it cos I was really very hungry!

So I was actually in a dilemna. You see, spore celebrates chinese new year next Sat onwards and even though ideally, I would have loved to reduce to 66 kg (2 kg towards goal weight) or even 64 kg, I didn't want to jeopardise my refeed process with the Chinese New Year festive season. So in the end, I decided to get my refeed program ready so that I could start anytime I wanted to.

So I gave myself a time period to stick to Cohen 100%, cleanse my body of its "impurities" before I start on refeed. And surprisingly, the moment I'm on refeed, I'm still losing weight! I'm on Day 7 of refeed and I have lose about 2 kg so far! I'm pretty amazed that I'm losing weight even though I have been eating MORE food and fruits containing more sugar.

So if you want to lose more weight but your process is slower, you may want to start on refeed at 60 kg and hopefully you will lose some weight during the process. I can understand the hunger and I know it's a terrible feeling and the tendency to deviate is higher.

To me, even though I'm not ay my goal weight, i'm still a happy girl because I have officially lose 60 kg! So yay!!! A dream come true for me! I have lost 60 kg off me! Yipee!

Dear all,

I'm really very proud of myself.

Let me tell you why.

My waist line has shrunk again to about 29.5 inches. To date, my waist line has gone down by 16.5 inches! =)

My office has just instructed us to take our weight so that we could have a body-fat analysis. And here are the stats:

Body Fat Percentage 26.9%
BMI 23.5
VFA 3

i'm pretty stumped by these figures. For once in my entire lifetme, I'm in the normal range!!! Wahahahah... last time, I was in the dangerously high level but now, I'm in the normal range.

I think last july, if I'm not wrong, my body fat was still in the high range of 30 plus % but now, it's within the normal range.

i'm a happy girl.

And for the past two nights, perhaps I have been sleeping early, I've been losing more weight. I lost another 400g today and I'm now 65.2 kg. Pretty amazing yah? Considering that I've been eating more food and all that, I'm still losing weight!

i'm eating a bad fruit today and that's a banana. I'm curious as to whether the banana will make me gain weight. Will tell you all tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm more than halfway with refeed! I'm happy, excited and encouraged.

i will keep going and be a super good girl!

Stay on strong, all!

Hi Newlife

I'm glad you answered this question Of MellyP I was just about to ask the same thing. I did my 8 week weigh in and I am 3kg off refeed which would make me at 65kg but ideally I would like to be 60kg.
My consultant spoke of the uncontrollable hunger as well and she said to order refeed the moment this starts, but she also said you will continue to lose some more weight.

AND I AM SO ANGRY AT THE MOMENT I'VE COOKED MY DINNER ALREADY TO HAVE SOON. HUBBIES HAS COME HOME AND GONE AND HELPED HIMSELF TO ONE OF MY MEATBALLS........Agh!!!!!!, THEN ASKS WHO'S DINNER IT IS. MY GOD I AM FURIOUS NOW.

Bye for now
Not a Happy Sam

Hi all,
everyone is losing along so well. very impressed.

AD4AD - i am on to my second week tomorrow and i found the same thing with day 4. the mind games with myself were enormous. but since them it has been SOOO much easier. it just feels like a way of life for me now and i love it. so hang in there. each day gets easier.

NEWLIFE - i am soooo proud of you!! you have worked so hard to stick to your non deviations and with much success. the last 6 days have flown and you will be finished in no time. GOOD ON YOU!! i am so envious....

NANS - that is so funny. i swear i am like an eagle hovering over my food as my family (hubby and 2 young boys) have not been gameto go near my food. i cook them all they're usual meals but hubby has been thinking mine smells much nicer and hovering over me as i cook. the glare soon warns him off. ha ha ha. funny stuff.

WINDY - it is funny, i have been the fatty of my three closest friends and I and i am sure that has made things much nicer for them. Now i have finished my family (2 boys quite enough thank you!) they are all pregnant right now. so is funny to me that as my body is changing, so is theirs in the other direction. so be interesting how they feel about me once i am skinny minnie as they are calling me already. they are very supportive at the moment which is great. i do worry a little how this will effect my marriage. he seems so excited that i am doing this but we are quite a social couple and i dont know how he will react at the other end if i am to get attention from others when we are out. i cant wait for that just quietly butfingers crossed he copes all right.

WELL, 1st WEEK OVER. and i measured and nearly fell off my chair!!! 17.5cms all up in teh first week. i am so very excited and motivated. was soooo tempted to weigh but held in there not to. i had to remeasure 3 times thinking it was incorrect. my colleagues in the cohen clan said to just take it and love that the hard work has paid off.

does anyone out there go to the gym whilst on Cohens?? have the opportunity to take over a cheap fernwood membership and wondering what kind of workout would be ok to do on cohens???

Lose on friends

Tanya

Hello fellow Cohen-ites

I've (FINALLY) strated my programme with Cohen's on Saturday and so far so good. Thank God for crisp bread and chewing gum (sugar free of course) - I've have minor 'moments' where the gum and crisos have helped me get through my working day (I work shift with horrendus hours).

FatCat - I've have similar nightmares too! I dreamt that I ate some sort of cake or bread and was devestated...luckily I woke up and realised it was a dream. I also find that going to Garden City is both a joy and challenge - the smell of the evil food and cakes is very hard to resist BUT in saying that - the beautiful clothes and amazing outfits that Garden City has to offer is very motivating - and I want to loose the weight even more

Like everyone else on this forum, I'm glad we all have one another - as the support and words of confidence help you back on track

It's only been a few days for me, but I've already felt my bloated stomach disappear (thanks to a pizza I ate last week - 'ah mcaine, you've done it again!' ).

I have'nt felt sick or thrownup up as yet...is that a problem?? I had a minor headache yesterday (cause I ate late), but that's about the only issues I've had. Is this normal??

Windy - don't worry about what your sister says. My lil sis has been a major meano too - but hey...at the end of the day when we're skinny, you know they will turn to us, and we'll treat them nice. Hopefully they will realise how bad they have been towards us. Just hang in there

Loosing - I haven't had a chance to say this to you, but I'm on the same track as you. I think I'm the same height as you, so the 20 kilos I aim to loose will bring down my BMI by almost 10! I find that even if it's a kilo, for shorter women it makes us look like we've pilled on 5. I've always been the shorter of my friends, but when other shorter girls came along, they were VERY skinny and have never had the problems I have. I've always had the struggles of being fat and looking morbidly obese due to my height espically since I finished uni and started doing shift work. I've been reading your posts and have to thank you for motivating me. Thanks

Keep up the good work everyone! You have ALL been very motivating and inspirational THANK YOU! 2007 is the year for us! Happy loosing

Hello from chilly Belfast! I have internet connection for the first time since I've been away.
I've had a lovely time sightseeing in London, Oxford and Bath over the past few days. Its been very refreshing! Now, I start work!

Food wise, its been a total disaster!! I was staying in a fairly basic hotel, and my room was absolutely tiny! I couldn't even fit my suitcase in there! So, I had nowhere to store food or prepare anything. I went to Sainsbury's to buy salad stuff (thanks for the tip, lessfatty!). So, I had that with me, and some fantastic apples. But finding places to buy cooked meat, prepared in a healthy way, that was reasonably priced was pretty difficult. I think its very hard to eat healthy food on a shoe string budget. The problem with the exchange rates is that even cheap food is horrendously expensive. I think also because it has been so cold, and I have been doing loads of walking - probably 4-6 hours a day, and I've been stuck on sightseeing trips without being properly prepared... Anyway, enough excuses - hopefully the extra exercise will have burned off the extra calories.
Today I start work, and I'm on work's budget, so I can spend more and buy more healthy food. and I won't be doing much exercise! I have forewarned all my work contacts that I'm on a diet, so that should also help. But we'll have to see how I go these next few days!
Don't know when I'll get internet access again, but I'll update you when I can!
HL

nx6 - thanks - it is really nice to think that I am motivating someone else - that does wonders for a girls self esteem.. Weight sure does show the shorter you are - my hubby reckons I am looking shorter the more weight I lose - he thinks the weight hid my height.......

BTW = I haven't thrown up at all - so I think thats normal

A word of warning - I don't tell people my goal weight as it sounds too small - I just got sick of people saying that it was too much weight to lose and I think this would play mind games in my head the closer to goal I get.

Best of luck

HEllo to HEavenly Lamb -enjoy your trip

Hello NX6

I agree with Losing - we are the same height and had about the same amount to lose. A single kg looked like I had put on about 5 kgs!

I also agree with Losing's comment about not telling people about the goal weight. When I say that I'm supposed to get down to between 48-51 kg - everyone (without exception) has said that that is ridiculous, you'd look anorexic, etc, etc, etc ... While I admit that it is hard for me to imagine weighing in the 40's - I am very interested to see if I can achieve it ... how wonderful to go from nearly 78 kg to 40 something!

I did throw-up but it is not a pre-requisite ... Only had the one bad day (sick and headaches) and that was on Day 2 ... have felt sooooo good since!

Had fun last Friday - bought a 'modern' top - a size 14 (and it was a small cut) with ... wait for it ... the no-no of all fashion patterns when a fatty ... HORIZONTAL STRIPES!!! Can you believe it?!? - and it looks good and I got lots of positive comments.

I'm finding the 'behavioural psychology' of being smaller very interesting ... having always not wanted to draw attention to any part of my body, I now find I'm doing things differently .. I now enjoy wearing fitted tops, accessorising, etc - and the first thing I did (which I had probably only done half a dozen times in my life before) - was to paint my toenails - and that was only after a couple of weeks on Cohens ... I'm now the proud owner of a rainbow collection of nail polishes! This change in behaviour has all been subconcious on my part ... as I said, I find it very interesting.

One of my Book Club friends (who I also work with) commented that she will be interested in watching me whan I sit down on the sofa at the next Book Club meeting. I said why? She said she will be very interested to see if I still pick-up a cushion to place on my lap and 'hide behind' ...! That is something I was conscious of doing - trying to make myself look smaller ... but I wasn't aware that other people noticed.

Oh yes - I also have to invest in a belt soon ... otherwise I just know I'm heading for an embarrassing moment ... ie when my pants fall down!

Enough rambling from me ... keep up the good work everyone and take care!

Kind regards

Taffy

ok say i started tuesday and am doing really well but am so hungry. does the hunger last much beyond the first few days?