Hi all! Well I haven't been in a 'weight-loss frame of mind' over the past week. So instead I have been eating as I intend to once I've lost all my weight (plus 1/2 a pizza ). Anyway, my weight did go up a bit through the week - but only after it had gone down. It still ended up less than last Friday, so if I hadn't been weighing every 5 mins I wouldn't know about those fluctuations!

Instead of losing 2-3kg that I possibly would have if I was eating Cohen-style, I lost 0.5kg. But I'm still happy with that. It means that I am developing an understanding and awareness about what it is my body needs to get me through the days!

Plus I fit back into my little Summer skirts that I used to wear, so I'm feeling more like myself again.

As of last night, I'm back on the Cohen's-style eating wagon. Have a HEAP of things on next weekend - night out with good friend, engagement party and family Christmas gathering. My plan is to eat Cohen's style all week, then just eat normally (not stupidly) over the weekend. I'm pretty sure I can handle that. Hopefully lose a kg or 2 over the week (would LOVE to bust through to the 70's!), then enjoy my weekend events without having to stress too much about weighing food etc.

Anyway, have a kitchen that needs cleaning so better get back to it.

Skinny thoughts everyone!
Linda

Just thought I'd update my ticker. I realised I was ripping myself off from some of my achievement! I had my start weight as 94.5kg, as that's what I was in April when I started really trying to lose weight. But when I had my baby in January I was up to 107.7kg - so really I have been losing weight since then! I lost that first batch by breastfeeding, eating well and going for walks. So although I wasn't actively dieting as such, it still is an achievement

Oh and something else I'm excited about. The wheels are in motion for me (and a group of friends) to start belly dancing lessons this week. How exciting! I'm really looking forward to getting out of the house, learning a new skill AND getting some exercise!!!

Anyway, that kitchen is still calling... So back to work!

Cheers,
Linda

Hi all! Well here I am again. It's been nearly 2mths since my last post. I'm kind of ashamed to say my weightloss hasn't really happened in that time It's not all doom and gloom. I currently weigh 80kg. About a month ago I weighed 76.4kg and have been on holidays since then. So I only gained a net amount of 0.6kg over my month-long holiday

But lets face it - had been serious about things over the past 2 months I could be looking at busting into the 60's now - not still fighting with that evil demon that is the barrier between 80 & 79kg!

So a little update on where I'm at. A week or 2 before Christmas I signed up for the Tony Ferguson diet. I know this is a forum for Cohenites - but I find you guys all so supportive, so I've decided to keep posting my journal here

The TF diet is quite similar to the "Cohen's inspired" diet I was following previously. Plus I still follow some of the Cohen's principles with the TF diet. Basically I have a shake for breakfast (this replaces the yoghurt breakfast I was having). I have a salad for lunch (I stick to the Cohen's approved vegies for my salad). When I get home from work in the arvo (about 4pmish) I have my 2nd shake. I find this helps me get through those late arvo cravings. Then for dinner I have a protein portion (about the same size as Cohen's allows) plus a vegie salad, or pureed cauliflower etc. I am allowed 2 fruits (same as Cohen's list) a day, or if I wanted to I could swap 1 fruit with a glass of wine. Not a big wine drinker though so I tend to have my fruit for morning tea & dessert - or I often use fruit in with my dinner to make mango chicken curry etc. I also try to dirnk 3L of water a day and I take Chromium suppliments to help with the sugar cravings.

So that's the diet. Now to just get back on track and stick to it! I'm off to the shops in a few moments to stock up on my salad vegies. Tomorrow I'm back 100% on this diet. Today I'm just aiming for the water intake.

I had my baby's 1st birthday party yesterday so tonight will be my last chance to polish off all those yummy party leftovers. Fortunately it's bin-night tonight so anything left after dinner is going in the garbage.

Here's a pic of me now. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to post a new pic looking much slimmer! My next goal is 75kg which I hope to be by 17 Feb (friend's wedding). I also think I will put away my scales and only bring them out weekly for weigh-ins. See how that goes!

Anyway, keep up those skinny thoughts everyone!
Cheers,
Linda

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Well it's almost bedtime so I guess I can now say I've made it through day 1. Only a few hiccups... I had a small glass of coke, and I ate 2 homemade chocolates. Oh and for dinner I had curried sausages, but that wasn't too bad - just not the best protein choice. But I have leftover sausages coming out my ears after my baby's 1st birthday party on the weekend and we ain't rich enough to just throw them out

So anyway, as I said it was a pretty good day. I did 3hrs of walking up and down hills around the streets helping a friend collect her Avon books. I would have laughed like a crazy woman had you told me a year ago that I'd be volunteering to do such a thing. I probably would have had you committed for insanity had you then suggested I'd enjoy myself doing it!

But enjoy it I did. I'm actually at the point now where doing some good hard work feels great WOOHOO!

I have a bit of a crazy possibly unattainable goal for this week. It is my baby's 1st birthday on Thursday. My highest weight - 107.7kg is what I weighed on the morning of the day I had him. So how awesome would it be for the scales to show 77.7kg (or less) exactly 1 year later. I have a weigh-in on Wednesday so I guess I'll find out then. All I can do is be really good tomorrow and Wednesday and see how I go - but it's an exciting prospect to think I'll be able to say I lost 30kg in one year. Having said that I'm kind of disgusted that I actually had 30kg to lose, but it's going so that's the main thing.

Anyway, it's bedtime so I'm off for one more drink of water (I always seem to be thirsty just before I go to sleep ) then it's off to bed. I start back at work tomorrow after a month off, so I'd say it'll be a bit of a shock to the system!

Cheers,
Linda

Hello to all my fellow Shrinkies! Well it was weigh-in day today. The outcome - 79.8kg... a LOSS! Woohoo! I've been back on the wagon for 2 2/3 days now, so 0.2kg loss if fine for that amount of time. Hopefully there'll be a decent figure next Wednesday!

I still haven't made it a day without eating something not quite right. Mainly because we have leftover sausages galore, so that has been the main component of my dinner and technically I don't think I'm allowed sausages! I think there's only about 4 left, so might have to feed them to hubby ( or the dogs) and have a decent chicken meal tonight.

At this stage I'm still enjoying my salad lunch, and I'm being very good with my water. Given how hot it is at the moment, the water thing isn't too hard to accomplish though! Winter is when water becomes a challenge for me.

Speaking of challenges, I have quite a few coming up. Tomorrow is my baby's 1st birthday. So tonight I will be baking a cake. Challenge 1 will be to refrain from licking the spoon. I have already decided 1 can have a slice of the cake tomorrow when we cut it - so that's one less thing I have to wrestle with. Challenge 2 will be ensuring it's only a SMALL slice!

Challenge 3 will be tomorrow night. I have a feeling hubby is arranging for us to go out for dinner with his mum. That's not too bad - I can have meat and salad on my diet. The challenges here will be a) not eating chips that come with the meal; b) saying no to dessert; and c) saying no to hot chocolate after dinner!

Challenge 4 will be on Friday - Australia Day. The local park puts on a free breakfast with sausage sizzle, pancakes and damper & tea. I think I will just have to say no to going altogether for that one!

Challenge 5 - Saturday night. I've invited friends over for dinner. I'm doing bbq steak & salad - so that fits my diet. Lots of challenges with nibblies though. Will be making sure there are LOTS of celery sticks on offer!

I think then I should be right for Sunday, Monday & Tuesday, then it's off to weigh-in again on Wednesday. My gosh, before I typed that out I just thought "oh there's a few things on this week". But there is HEAPS on. ARRGGHH!!!!!

Anyway, I'm waffling aren't I?! The other thing I wanted to commit myself on here to was exercise. I plan on incorporating some exercise into my life at least 3 times a week. Tonight I hope to get out and go for a walk along the waterfront. It's a really nice walk - so fingers crossed the rain waits until after I've done that.

I also am going to set up a CD that counts 8second/12second intervals for 20mins. That way I can get on my exercise bike, put the recording on and do that interval training they've just discovered (8s/12s is apparently much more effective than longer intervals) and see how I go with that. Basically it'll be me saying "gogogogogogogogogogogogogogo" for 8 seconds, then 'relaaaaaxxxx'. 12seconds later the "gogogogogogogogo" will start again. I'll probably throw the CD player through the window after the first attempt - but at least I'll be able to say I tried! hehe!!!

Anyway, 4.8kg to go till my next goal. 3.5wks to go till my next major outing/event. Here's hoping I reach my goal before then.

Till next time, keep thinking thin!
Cheers,
Linda

Congratulations Linda for getting back into Cohens. I found it hard after I hada break to get back into the momentum of the program but I'm up to day 4 now and I feel pretty goooood.

I too find it hard sometimes to accomodate everything that is happening in my life and like someone said before becoming a hermit is not a bad option. Go in fat come out skinny

Well your doing good and if you can get the strength to exercise regularly then I guess this may improve / increase the speed at which you loose weight?

I'm not sure if it makes a difference. Theoretically it should but if it makes you excessively hungry that could be a problem.

Let us know how you go.

Faithie

Thanks Faithie for your kind words. I need to point out that I'm not actually doing Cohen's though. I started out following a friend's Cohen's diet that was working for me, but have found the Tony Ferguson diet suits me best. I figured since there are so many wonderful, inspiring people in this forum that I'd keep posting my efforts here.

Cheers,
Linda

Hello Linda

Wahoooo on getting to the 70's wahooooo well done..

Thank you for the very delishous dinner last night, it was so good to go out for dinner and stick to my plan 100%. I'm so proud of my self and had such a good time.
Thanks again..
P.s How yummy was that mango. yum yum yum

skinny thoughts
Dianne

Well the weekend is nearly over. I had posted a big story about all the challenges I had coming up. Here's how I went

Challenge 1 - refrain from spoon licking when making cake: FAILED - however did refrain from spooning mouthfuls of mixture into my mouth before baking cake - so that's an improvement on previous efforts

Challenge 2 - make my slice of b'day cake a small one: SUCCESS! And I haven't had anymore since bub's birthday. Very proud of myself for this.

Challenge 3 - Dinner with MIL - Hmmm Fail & success here. I ordered steak, but it came with lashings of mashed 'tato and vegies which were carrot, zucchini and beans. I ate every skerrick on my plate (nearly licked it!). But did say no to dessert, and it was way too hot for hot chocolate!

Challenge 4 - Australia Day picnic - SUCCESS! Didn't go near the picnic, so no sausages sizzle, pancakes or damper for me Infact, I didn't deviate once on Friday - so very very proud of myself

Challenge 5 - 2nd birthday picnic/bbq for friend's boy (ok so I forgot to list this one in my last post). SUCCESS! Took my own sprite zero and salad for lunch - they served up sausages with breadrolls, onions etc (my FAVOURITE) and I avoided them completely. Even ended up convincing hubby we should leave straight after lunch so avoided the cake situation too.

Challenge 6 - BBQ with friends - Mixed results again. Decided I was going to do some drinking, so I guess that is a major slip-up - but I rarely drink these days so was comfortable with my decision. Had steak & salad (no pasta salad, no breadrolls etc) so was successful with my meal. Avoided all the nibblies before dinner. Did crack and have a few BBQ Samboys late in the night - but no where near the amount I would have scoffed previously. So quite happy with my efforts.

Today I have been doing well. Will be tucking into a nice salad soon for lunch. The scales rewarded me this morning with a reading of 78.4kg. I think that is possibly my lightest so far. Soon I won't be able to say I need to lose 20kg anymore - how cool will that be!

Di - it was a pleasure having you guys all around, and I seriously had the best night I've had in ages. It was stress free, and catering for your diet is a breeze given you can eat real foods. You did really well avoiding the nibbly temptation, and I think the fact that you were able to helped me keep my filthy mitts of all that nasty stuff too

Anyway, it's nearly lunch time and it would be good to be able to eat before bubs wakes up and wants half my meal.

So keep thinking thin people - won't be long and it's exactly what we'll all be!
Cheers,
Linda

Hi Linda

I was just wondering if you get excessively hungry while doing Tony Ferguson
I tried it last winter and failed miserably due to my over whelming hunger, in the end not even will power worked, I was so hungry.

You did mention in one of your other post's that you are incorporating Cohen's with TF how are you doing this? And how has that helped with you weight?

Good luck with your weight loss
Sam

Hi Sam,

At this stage I don't really find that I get very hungry at all on TF. But then I've pretty much been dieting for about 8mths now! So hopefully I'm well past that horrible phase of trying to shrink my tummy and get used to smaller portions. Having said that - I don't know how I'd go doing this in Winter. I hope to be at my goal before then so hopefully I won't have to find out!

In regards to the Cohen's side of things, basically I try to follow the fruit & vegies that are allowed on Cohens - TF allows some carrots, bananas etc - I try to avoid those if I can. I was trying to keep my meals 5hrs apart, but I find what works for me best now is to have a shake for breakfast (8amish) a salad around 12ish, another shake around 4pmish and dinner is usually around 7ish. Then I have my fruit or diet jelly and cups of tea in amongst those when I'm peckish.

So far I've lost almost 30kg since this time last year, so I think I'm doing pretty good. I obviously could have done a lot better - but then I could have done nothing at all and still been 30kg heavier than I am now I have a few weeks now before my next big outing (a wedding) so I am hoping I'll be able to get a bit of a run on my weight-loss.

I was a very good girl today and didn't deviate at all. Fingers crossed I can manage the same again tomorrow!

Cheers,
Linda

Hi Linda

You should be proud of yourself 30kg loss that is a big accomplishment.

It's good to hear when a diet works for someone.

Take care and good luck with the continued weight loss.
I enjoy reading your post.
ATB
Sam

Hello fellow Shrinkies Today was my weekly weigh-in. After being good (except for mashed 'tato at my baby's b'day dinner, 2bottles of Asti Riccadonna & a handful of potato chips) I was reasonably confident of a loss. 1.7kg to be precise. After only losing 0.3kg the week before (baby's b'day party, subsequent leftovers and no real inclination to be good) it was nice to have a good number come up.

Just think - I lost 1.7kg in a week even with those little slip-ups (ok so 2 bottles of bubbly isn't a little slip-up ) - so imagine how I'm going to go next week with a whole week of no slip-ups and some exercise to boot! I'm thinking another kilo at least hopefully...

My next goal is to be under 76kg by Valentines Day (which just happens to fall on a Wednesday Weigh-in). We have a wedding to go to on the 17th and I'd like to be 75kg by then, but Valentines is my real goal. My reward, should I succeed, is to have my bottle of Angel perfume refilled. Angel is my fav perfume, but the last time my bottle was refilled was just before my wedding 2 1/2 years ago. So it'll be nice to have it filled again.

Anyway, I'm off to organise dinner. Tonight is a new recipe - Fried "rice". Obviously I can't use rice, but grated cauliflower substitutes quite nicely. So I better get cooking/creating .

Keep on thinking thin!
Linda

That sounds really nice. Can you please put the recipe on the recipe thread. I would love to try it.

Thanks
Allana

Hi Allana, because I'm not actually on Cohen's, the recipe I'm following isn't really suitable for Cohen's. But you could follow the basics of it and maybe experiment with some spices & water to make up a saucey part to fry things in. From what I understand you can't use oils right?

Anyway, the basics are:

• meat allowance - cubed
• a little bit of onion - diced & some garlic
• remaining vegie allowance as cauliflower (this is the 'rice'). If you want you could maybe finely dice up some zucchini, squash etc to add a little colour - but this will mean sacrificing some 'rice'.

1. Grate up your cauliflower - including the core.
2. Brown the onion & garlic in a wok (or frypan)
3. Add the meat and fry until just lightly browned
4. Add the cauliflower (and any vegies) and any spices you've come up with to use and continue to fry (about 5 - 8mins) until meat is cooked.

I haven't made it yet so I don't know how it'll go, but I do know that curries go well on a bed of mashed cauliflower, so it should be okay.

Cheers,
Linda