Thread: Samprand's Exante Diary - It's Time To Make Some Changes: Goodbye "Fat Me" :)

Friday 06.01.12 Bit of an epic first entry

Well, here it is - my Exante TS diary. I placed my order earlier today, so I think it should be here on Tuesday.

Hello, my name is Sam, I'm 24 and I'm fat lol It's taken me a while to get to this point. Having been 'big' all my life, I never really paid much attention to my weight, and up until around September 2010 I was a steady(ish) 12 stone. I then moved in with my boyfriend, next thing I know I've rocketed up to 14 stone without even noticing it. It's such a cliche that you put on weight when you move in with a partner, but it's true! I just thought it was some kind of conspiracy by clothes shops to make clothes smaller lol But no, it was me getting bigger. Needless to say the weight carried on creeping up and up...and up some more...until I hit 16 stone in April 2011, which is around the time i thought "hmm I should start doing something about this now"...which didn't happen lol In an effort to address my weight issues I joined minimins, and tried the JUDDD (Johnson's Up Day Down Day) diet, which consists of 'up days' where you can eat up to 1600 calories a day, alternated with 'down days' where you eat a maximum of 500 calories. I did this for about 2 weeks, and did lose weight, I got down to 15st 8lbs I think, but fell off the wagon big style and landed in a tub of mini chocolate donuts And that, as they say, was the end of that!

I ended up reaching my maximum weight of 16st 12lbs in October 2011. I went to visit family abroad and thought 'Ok, have the holiday, enjoy and relax, then when I get back home, it's diet time'. And it worked...for a while. I got down to 16st 4lbs, so an 8lb loss by Christmas 2011.

Then disaster struck - my boyfriend managed to break the bathroom scales. Since then I've gone rogue and have no idea what I weigh now, I would guess around 16st 7lbs, but can't be sure until I buy some more scales which should hopefully be within the next few days.

So here I am. Fat and fed up. Bored of intending to lose weight but never actually doing it. Bored of getting red faced and out of breath for nothing, sick of getting a sore back from trying to hold up all my bulk when I've been on my feet all day, fed up of sweating in unnatural places lol I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) and also arthritis in my knee. I'm now at the stage where I neeeeeeed to lose weight to try to fix, or at least lessen these issues. I would like to reach 9 stone - a magical, mystical weight I've had in my mind for years, but haven't been this weight since secondary school lol

I've decided to use Exante to lose the majority of weight I want to lose, so until I reach around 11 or 12 stone, and then to lose the remaining weight using an old-fashioned combination of healthy eating and exercise to try to reduce the amount of saggy skin I could be left with. I want to achieve all this within the next year and a half, which is when I graduate from University

Since deciding to do Exante, I thought it would be a good idea to have a huge blow out this weekend, starting today. And I'm regretting it already lol Today I've eaten fishcakes and beans, pizza, 3 bowls of veg and pork soup and a huge piece of chocolate cake, trying to eat all the lovely yummy junk food I'm undoubtedly going to miss over the coming months. But I think I've managed to overdo it, even by my standards, and am feeling pretty sick right now God knows why I let myself eat this way to the point of feeling ill, but it's something I've began to be able to do quite regularly. In a twisted kind of way, I think I see overeating to this degree as an achievement of some sort. How messed up is that lol For example, while eating a huge meal, I will consciously make the choice to not stop until my plate is clear, then when I'm finished I feel satisfied - incredibly full, but satisfied. Then I tend to think 'Maybe that wasn't the greatest thing to eat', start to feel bad, then comfort eat. What a lovely cycle I've got myself into! I don't just eat for comfort - oh nooo! I eat out of boredom, I eat to retain control over something when things are going a bit wrong, to celebrate when theyre going right, when I'm stressed, when I'm upset, and out of habit. So pretty much whatever the situation, I'll use it to eat, to the point I am pretty much eating non stop all day. As soon as I wake up I am thinking about food, then sometimes even while I'm eating I'll be thinking about what I can eat later on.

Needless to say, my eating habits are not good lol And are very dysfunctional!

This is where Exante comes into it - having a total break from actual real food will give me a chance to reassess me relationship with food, and to educate myself about how nutrition actually works in time for me to come off of Exante at 11/12 stone ready to begin healthy eating and re-establish my eating habits whilst continuing with losing weight until I reach 9 stone.

Also, the brilliant losses Exante is well known for won't hurt either and will help that 9 stone get that little bit closer with each weigh in.

I've been reading around the Exante forums for the past few days and have been very impressed with not only the weight losses, but also the realisations people have been having about food, like the amount we actually eat when there is no physical need.

I'm excited but scared to be starting this diet, scared of failure, scared of messing up, scared of being hungry too although I realise how ridiculous that sounds!

This is something I need to do to sort out my health issues, as well as address my low self-esteem and poor confidence. I'm always suspicious whenever anybody so much as glances at me. I instantly think 'They're looking at me because I'm huge', which makes me feel like poo! Then the comfort eating starts, then I feel bad and guilty, then I comfort eat again...and the cycle continues.

But I've got my game face on, I'm ready for this.

BRING IT ON!

Once I get my new bathroom scales, I'm going to take my measurements and - if I'm feeling brave - some notorious 'before' pictures to motivate myself to carry on and track my progress.

I've made a list of things to do to try to keep myself occupied and distracted from eating:

Have a nosey on minimims
Go for a walk
Take the dogs for a walk (Prince and Skye)
Play with our cockatiel (Ollie)
cycle on exercise bike
Watch tv shows/a film
Go on the wii
Go on the dance mat
Have a bath/shower
Clean the flat
Read a book
Do uni work
Drink water
Look at wedding dresses/slim clothes I would like
Look for 'thinspiration' - google weight loss pics
Look at my own 'fat pictures'
Have an early night
Knit/sew/cross stitch
Look around on ebay
Listen to music
Watch weight loss videos on youtube
Do a jigsaw
Play warcraft (yes I'm a bit of a geek sometimes, I admit it lol)
Pluck my eyebrows
Draw something
Put on a facepack
Use body lotion/moisturiser
Brush my teeth
Have a nap
Write in diet blog
Text/phone family and friends
Brush the dogs fur
Play Scrabble
Give myself a manicure/pedicure
March on the spot
Munch on some ice if having a hunger pang

It really shouldn't take such organisation to NOT do something (in this case - eating) lol

Well, that's it for now Come on Tuesday! xx

Hi Sam
Your really in the Zone by the seems of things to start Tuesday . Great ideas there ! Best to have a plan as we spent so much time eating now its time to find another hobby ! good luck and i'll be watching how you do !

Thankyou so much hun xx I can't wait to get started now, but I think I'm going to struggle a bit while I'm at work, it's so tempting to nibble x

Well they key is when you think a bad thought of food quickly move away from doing the action , later you will see the food sitting there and you wont even have the same thought about it , but at the time that your thinking like this you may carry out the thought . remove yourself from doing the action !
Roll on Tuesday Sam , so your exante is coming Tuesday . think of it as every day is different on this diet !

yeah i need to get out of those situations, if im feeling tempted i'll find something to busy myself with, ill do something on my list

almost weigh in day hun, u excited? nervous? x

Hello sam and welcome.. i will follow your journey good luck x

Welcome to exante Sam!

I am sure you will do brilliantly and this site is great for support and even better, a distraction from food!

A lot of this diet is in the mind I think. If you can conquer that, you can achieve anything!!

Good luck for Tuesday xx

Hi Sam,

It sounds to me like your in the right frame of mind for this and you will do amazing! I started on Friday and am now half way thru day 3 and its going good. I would take it one day at a time and plan out your day. Thats what I do, I plan everything I have to do and if I think I dont have a busy day Ive started adding in things to do to fill it out. even planning a DVD night with the duvet is something to look fwd to. It doesnt have to include food.

All the best on Tuesday. You will do it!!

Originally Posted by Samprand

yeah i need to get out of those situations, if im feeling tempted i'll find something to busy myself with, ill do something on my list

almost weigh in day hun, u excited? nervous? x

If you need to get your lips on something , find a hunk and kiss him lolthink that might take your mind off things :-)

Good luck - you sound very much like me - for every emotion there's a reason to eat!

I'm on my first week of Exante, having done LL a few years ago, and yes, it's incredibly liberating to not have to think about food. Also, I found it so hard getting into ketosis that I didn't want to break that with food and have to start again (rather than my last diet [WW and SW] of 'oh, that won't hurt if I have one)

My goodness hon, I could've written that reasons for eating list myself!!

Good luck with your Exante Journey, it's the best thing I've ever done to lose weight

I recommend looking into sw for when you reintroduce food. That's what I'll be going back to to maintain my weightloss, you can eat till you're full and nothing at all is completely denied x

Thankyou all for all your support and kind words it means a lot to know there are people out there who understand my thoughts around food. After having a nosey at all your stats, huge well done on the losses so far

emmamissfun, I think I'll take your advice about making a plan for each day. The idea of doing Exante on days when I'm out and busy seems a lot easier than doing it at home while I'm having a lazy day. My boyfriend has just bought a kindle-type 'tablet' thing with e-books and games on it, so I'll be using that to distract myself if I find myself with spare time on my hands which I would have previously filled up by eating. Isn't it ridiculous how much of a focus food can be

MsJMC, that's a bloody good idea lol

KnitNat, there's a lot to be said for comfort eating I think! I'm sure everyone does it but to different degrees, and with me for some reason I take it to extreme, like I don't think 'oh I'll have a cup of tea and a biscuit', I think 'I'll have the whole pack', and that's become normal for me which is incredibly unhealthy. I think I'd be too worried to break the diet too, with all that effort and restraint I would need to get through the first few days, I wouldn't want to slip up at all. That said, I'm sure I will at some point lol

wannabeme, looking into SW would be a good idea actually, I didn't even think of that. Reckon I'm going to need some education about food, so hopefully I can learn some valuable food-related lessons from them

Hope you're all ok and have had good days xx

Hi just had a read through and just wanted to say hi and wish you good luck

thankyou very much, best of luck to you too x

Originally Posted by Samprand

thankyou very much, best of luck to you too x

Thanks was today a good day?