Total Solution My Exante journey..

womble35

womble35

Full Member
Hello everyone, I'm brand new to this forum but been having a peek around and think it's a wonderful way to support each other!

I never had an issue with my weight until I hit my 20s and then seems to gain overnight... I was around 13 stone for most of my 20s, and only ever lost weight when doing Atkins. But then, in my 30s, my weight ballooned. I'd like to blame it on baby weight, but my son is now 3 year old and I'm much heavier than I was when he was born. I'm 18.3 stone and 35.

In the past I've made excuses to myself as to why I've gained weight. Yes, I have an underactive thyroid (3 years now, currently on 125mg of thyroxin) and I have also had some auto-immune issues. But I've realised it's time to be honest with myself... I need to eat less and exercise more.

I've been seeing a personal trainer once a week for the past year and I've started going to the gym 3 times a week too, but exercise really doesn't seem to shift the pounds for me! So I decided to try what seems quite a drastic diet - exante. I got the mixed pack from an offer on Groupon - amazing value!

Yesterday was my first day and I had the choc-mint shake at breakfast, the chocolate crunch bar at lunch and the carbonara meal in the evening. I actually thought they were all ok, which surprised me!

This morning I had the honeycomb shake... less of a fan of that (tasted really malty), but just took my time drinking it and got through it. The only thing is that I am really feeling it today! I'm not hungry but I definitely feel a bit shaky and my legs are KILLING after a 1hr personal training session / 45 mins gym cardio session. Usually I'd be ok after that, but assuming it's just because I didn't fuel myself with extra calories like I usually would!

Anyway, that's where I'm starting from. Wishing the best of luck to the rest of you starting your Exante journey too, and looking forward to reading your diaries too x
 
Well done on your first day.

You might want to ease up a little bit with the gym stuff for the first week, obviously you don't want to stop all together as getting fit is the best thing to do but the first week can make you feel a bit wobbly and weak

Stick with it and you will be very happy with the scales come weigh day x
 
Hi womble and welcome.

I could've written your post myself. we are very similar. I have had an underactive thyroid since my sons birth 2.5 years ago and I'm on 125 thyroxine too. Nothing and I mean nothing worked to shift the weight and when I started exante in January I weighed as much as when I gave birth. I've lost 2st and starting to feel better and although I didn't think it would work with hypothyroidism, I'm really pleased it has. I probably won't fully believe I can control my weight until I get down to about 14st but I feel much happier now than in the past year trying no end of diets.

Be careful if you're doing hard exercise especially during the first couple of weeks. If I go to a class I have 4 packs that day and a bit of protein like quorn chicken.

Stick with it and you'll notice a difference in no time.
 
Thanks both for the encouragement and looks like you have both been doing really well so far - well done!

Yup, think I'm going to take it a bit easier on the cardio, but I do really enjoy it... I'm definitely not going to the gym today anyway!

I had to go out to lunch with a client today and was really nervous about blowing the diet on the second day. I'm in a line of work where I do have to entertain clients sometimes and it would be ridiculous to sit there sipping just water while they tuck in. But I did good - I had a grilled tuna steak with steamed green beans to eat, and sparkling water and mint tea to drink. It was insanely delicious, and according to MyFitnessPal app, only a shade over 200 calories, so about the same as an Exante meal. I have a dinner out with friends on Saturday too, so might try and find a restaurant that has grilled fish on the menu (would happily go for tuna again but know you're only meant to have it once a week due to mercury content).

I'm also taking my son to a birthday party this weekend. Does anyone else find these hard? It's when there's just plates of nibbles and cake lying around and it's just far too easy to pick... Think I might try and engross myself in whatever entertainment they have planned with my son and just keep a very safe distance away from the food!

Have a lovely evening x
 
Welcome on board and good luck with your weight-loss journey.

Children's parties can be difficult as they rarely have any pure protein choices. I tend to take a bottle of sparkling water and sip on that. Focus on the end goal, you can be slim and slinky by Summer:) but take it one day at a time so you don't get overwhelmed.

Have a great weekend.

Liz X
 
Hi Womble, you're off to a good start.:)

Good food choices on your working lunch. I can't imagine having to fit in this diet if work required me to entertain clients as that always means food is involved :eek:
 
Yeah, those lunch are going to be tough but I told them I was gluten and dairy free, so didn't feel awkward asking for grilled fish and steamed veg at the restaurant. And I can't hold my booze anyway, so it's easy for me to turn down a glass of wine!

Agree with Liz that it's the kids parties that are harder for me. The family hosting the party always have such yummy indian food too... but will go armed with my sparkling water and with all the good will in the world. To be honest, I need to pee so much on this diet that I'll probably spend all my time in the loo and won't have time to eye up the food at all :)

Tried the tomato soup for dinner last night. Not too keen on that one but managed to eat it as was hungry. And the strawberry / banana smoothie for breakfast was yum. Funnily enough, I woke up not feeling too hungry today and with oodles more energy than yesterday, so process seems to be working. My breath feels really yucky too!
 
The tomato soup is the worse of the soups if you ask me, I really struggle with them.

Well done for being so good at the restaurant, it will all be worth it when you see how much you have lost in your weigh in!
 
Here to follow, looks like you are doing brill so far especially with the temptations :)
 
Hi Womble, how are you doing?
 
Hi Everyone, hope you all had lovely weekends and not feeling the Monday blues too badly today...

I'm proud of myself for getting through the first total solution weekend without any slip ups - weekends are always my hardest part of the week food-wise and I was really struggling at times to avoid temptations but managed it! Had a busy Saturday - starting with a museum with friends visiting from Dubai and kids - managed to avoid coffees and sip on a sparkling water instead. Then, while husband and my son had lunch out, I sat there chomping on a Raspberry / White Choc bar instead. I did have a dinner planned with friends for Saturday night and was really good - I did have one cocktail (vodka martini, so no added sugar / fruit juices), and then had fillet steak with steamed beans with sparkling water. And then fresh mint tea while they had more cocktails. According to MyFitnessPal had a total of 840 calories for the day, so not a total meltdown and I'm happy with that.

Sunday was hard. Had the dreaded kids party but managed to avoid all temptation. Stuck religiously to my three packs for the rest of the day but did relent and cave in to a Coke Zero. One of my packs was the cereal - must say I'm not a fan, think I'll stick to shakes for breakfast in the future.

Can't wait for weigh in day this week (Wednesday morning) - already I've managed to fit into something that was way too snug beforehand so hoping my hard work is reflected in the numbers!
 
Well done, well managed :) Good luck for weigh in!
 
Looks like you made good choices at the weekend :)
 
Thank you. Feeling very virtuous :)

Thought I was going to crack last night though. I made a thai red curry for my husband and the au pair (I'm the only one in the house that can cook!), and it just smelt divine. So I decided to try the chicken noodles, adding a few chilli flakes as I've been finding all the meals a bit strangely sweet tasting... they were really really yummy. Didn't feel jealous of them tucking in after that!

I have another dinner out tonight (luckily last one for a while) so going to stick to the meat / fish + steamed veg combo as that seems to be working well... I know I have to weigh myself tomorrow morning so I'm determined to be good and not undo any of this hard work!

On another note, I went back to the gym yesterday as was really missing it. Felt great, and had lots of energy - really bizarre, as thought it would be tough going given the lack of calories on the diet, but actually seemed more energised than before... personal trainer comes tomorrow morning too and we do lots of body weight exercises / pilates, so will be interesting to see if my strength is still the same too.
 
Good morning all (although almost afternoon now)! So... last night I was out for dinner and was good, but probably could have been a little bit better. I did have a vodka slimline tonic (just one), but then I did have a starter and a main for dinner. Neither of which were particularly bad (small salmon fillet on bed of undressed salad to start, and grilled sirloin steak with steamed veg for main), but of course it was probably a ton more calories than I should have had.

Despite that, I managed to lose 8 pounds for the week, which I'm pretty pleased with!

And.... totally over excited today as my friend last night gave me a ticket to the BRITS this evening!!! woo hoo! Am going to buy a new top to wear and get my hair done so that I can feel super glamorous. My friend also said last night that she noticed I was losing weight, so it's great that it's visible already. A real confidence booster.

Personal training session went well this morning too - don't seem to be losing any of my strength, so pleased with that. All in all, today is shaping up to be a great day (did you notice the sun is shining on London today, too?!?), so hope you are all having great days too x x
 
Have a great evening, it will be amazing!!

Well done for the 8 pound weight loss, a great start. XX
 
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