12 week weight loss challenge diary.

Nessa1980

Full Member
I weigh 234. 2lb This week I have lost around 6lb by dieting then half starving myself then overeating. I have been doing this stop start dieting since Christmas so here I am setting myself a challenge to stick to my diet for 12 weeks and follow it to the letter no matter what. I wanted to keep a diary of this because it will keep me accountable to something and it keeps a record of my progress.
Tomorrow morning I will be starting on the Exante meal replacement diet. I will follow the plan without deviation.

My plan:

Total meal replacement for 3 weeks
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3

Add a meal week
Week 4

Total meal replacement for 3 weeks
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7

Add a meal week
Week 8

Total meal replacement
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11

Add a meal week
Week 12

My challenge will finish on Tuesday 22nd July.

My idea is to follow the plan to the letter I will lose all the weight that my body is able to lose in this time following this plan. It's a challenge and also it will get me out of this dieting rut I have got myself into.
I Will post in the challenge section so if anyone reading reading this diary wants to join me and make the promise to stick to their diet for 12 weeks.
 
Day 1 complete: Feeling great!!!

I completed my first full day of meal replacement yesterday. It was quite a challenge. The portions are tiny in comparison to what I am used to eating. That has to be a good thing though!

My wonderful Husband has a few stone to lose and is doing the diet with me to support me. He has ordered a box full of different flavours so I have been able to try some of the things I would never have ordered for myself. My husband has this amazing ability to not place any importance on food he can eat just about anything and sees it it's nutrition that's it. This is a good thing because if there is something that I seriously can't eat I can pass it in his direction.

For breakfast I had Exante porridge and an espresso coffee. I really enjoyed it.
My hubby had banana milkshake. Take it from someone who hates the taste of fake banana it actually tasted really good and more like a fresh banana smoothie than it did a shake. I was very impressed and the idea of 12 weeks of this diet didn't seem quite as daunting.

Lunch was more worrying the shake I had :white choc and raspberry was really sickly sweet and pasta Soup was bordering on inedible but would have been OK with a little added bouillon.

By mid afternoon I was really hungry and my head was beginning to pound. I felt as though I was hung over and hadn't slept for a whole weekend... (a feeling I thought I would never feel again since the kids were born)

For dinner I had a spaghetti bolognese and hubby had curry. I liked the bolognese although it would have been nice had it been less creamy tasting. Hubby really liked his curry it had had a Thai taste to it and was more like a soup not what what we were expecting. But I wasn't so keen again it it was a little too sickly even with with the addition of coriander.

Last night we sat down down after the children had gone to bed and all I wanted to do was put my head on something soft. I decided to have a Coke zero over ice. Lots of people had posted on here about about how nice it was to drink something normal. I don't know if it was because felt like I was treating myself or because it tasted like it had sugar in it or perhaps because it was so lovely and cold but I started feeling so revived. I had a very early night.

I woke up this morning feeling full of energy my breath smells yucky and I have a metallic taste in my mouth. I must be in ketosis. Yippee!

All I need to get right now is the 20 mins exercise the diet says I should be doing each day. Other than that I am really pleased with myself usually I find some way of cheating on a diet on day 1. So far so good. My plan is to document my first week exactly so that I can back on it for Inspiration if I feel low in weeks to come. After that I will make weekly entries to log my weight loss and will only make other entries if I have a particularly good or bad day.
 
Day 2 Complete: Yippee I'm in Ketosis!!!

I woke up feeling so much better energised and ready to start the day. The hangover feeling and pounding head from the night before was gone. The best thing was the total lack of hunger.
My first job was to tackle breakfast... Exante Pancakes. The packet said that they would make 2 I managed to make 4 crumpet sized lovelies. They cooked beautifully on the little electric hot plate I have. I didn't even need to use cooking spray.
Hubby decided on a chocolate milkshake for brekkie so I persuaded him to go splits and we had half each. I felt really full and as I had cooked the children some real pancakes for their breakfast I didn't feel in the least bit like picking.
At lunch time I decided to try to cook a pasta bake from scratch for the family meal that evening. I drank my my shake (fruits of the forest) whilst cooking.
That evening I had Spaghetti Carbonara which was lovely.

Now let me explain something about these meals . They are not gourmet, if you had given me one of these things to taste and not told told me what it was.. It would probably have made me quite ill. I normally urge at processed foods. I cook all my meals from scratch. The reason I am overweight is quite simply a matter of picking a portioning coupled with no exercise. The The fact of the matter is that my dog (who usually begs at the table) turns his nose up and walks away when he sees me eating. The thing is that I see this as a means to an end. I want to do diet and fitness together along with a sensible low cal plan but I unable to do so many things because of my weight that I have ended up yoyoing up and down. I would try try exercise and fail miserably because my tummy is so large it would get in the way things I used to enjoy doing and find easy are now impossible. I would then get depressed and reach for the food to try and make me better but of course I would just pile on the pounds and feel guilty.
I am hoping that the next 12 weeks on this diet will teach me how I don't need food foods for comfort and actually I can survive without using that when things get bad. And get me down to a weight which will allow me to exercise and push myself.
 
Day 3 Complete: plank and Squat challenge!!!

Ok so now. My Ketosis has well and truly kicked in its time to start thinking about exercise. Nothing too strenuous because being on a high protein vlcd and also doing strenuous exercise would probably kill me. I was trawling through here a few days ago and saw somebody doing a 30 day plank challenge so I Googled it and have to do 10 second of Plank for 2 days it builds up each day till you are holding the plank for several minutes. The squat challenge also caught my eye. You start doing 50 and finish doing lots.
OK so it's not 20 mins of exercise yet but it's a start I also did about 5 mins bouncing on my son's trampoline which was not a pretty sight I can tell you. I would jump and the thin me would go up in the air leaving all the fat bits stuck firmly behind. The fat bits would then spring in the air and try to catch up and meet the thin me on the way back down. In some ways it felt horrid in others it was quite invigorating and also interesting to actually feel the thin me under all the flab!

So pleased with myself day 3 is complete and no cheating not even a sly sneak of anything. I have kept my promise for yet another day.

Breakfast: Exante apple and cinnamon porridge (yum)

Lunch: Exante mushrooms pasta and ham Soup (edible but bleughghgh!)

Dinner: Exante Red bean chilli Best yet yummy!

There were mayday celebrations at my son's school yesterday and I managed to resist the temptation of cake and milk in my tea. Actually I really enjoyed the tea with no Milk. There is something about knowing that I am only doing this until 22nd July that makes it easier. I have 12 weeks that's it during this time I want to lose as much as I can and it doesn't feel like forever... Just a few short weeks.

Hubby has given up on the diet for now. He found it quite hard as he works nights.
 
Day 4: Lack of sleep making me wobble

Well my 2 little monkeys kept me awake all night.. From 2am to be exact. No sleep on a vlcd is very hard.
I really wobbled yesterday. Normally I would drink big mugs of milky coffee and lots of carby Comforty things when I have no sleep. By yesterday evening I decided decided to cut myself some slack and went onto total plus solution for the day. It was lovely to have a green Salad and and a few mushrooms with my mushroom risotto. I didn't even eat the whole 100 cal.
I am off to buy Zero noodles today then I can make myself a stir fry if I fancy it and feel like I need real food.
I am proud that I managed to survive yesterday without completely falling off the wagon. I am doing well!
 
Day 5: Feeling proud if myself

Today has been a good day. I'm feeling really tired this evening but also really positive.
I never go out very often any more but today I went into town it was lovely to walk around the shops with my Mum and the kids. We went into weatherspoons for lunch and I watched my kids Polish off a panini and chips. I was very good and had my strawberry shake a cup of black filter coffee and a glass of Fizzy water. I also had a side Salad with no dressing so I wouldn't feel left out. I have to admit I spent a half an hour umming and ahing about whether or not to have a salmon Salad. I am really glad I didn't. I'm really proud of myself for not caving in.
I now have some skinny noodles and rice which will be fantastic for making lovely low cal Asian salads and stir fries. Looking forward to week 4 when I can add some fillet steak or chicken breast and make a nice hot Thai style Salad.
I may allow myself some chicken breast from the roast dinner tomorrow and some asparagus. It Italia depends on how much I manage to to move around tomorrow.
I am loving this diet. I feel freedom in the fact that it is so regimented: 3 food packs a day 2 litres of water. For someone who fantasises and obsesses about food all the time it is so good to give my mind a break. I I am also learning that my portions were enormous! I had the Bol meal pack tonight and really full afterwards.
The other reason I this diet is because I can be rebellious and have a treat. The funny thing is that actually things I am craving are savoury and crunchy. Lettuce, steak chicken. These are all things I can give in to. In small amounts here and there.
I made myself some jelly today out of some raspberry drinks mix and gelatine leaves. Not sure if it's allowed but thought it would be OK.
My bars arrived today so I'm looking forward to being able to crunch on something tomorrow.
 
1 2 miss a few and oops that's a week gone!

I need to be honest. The last few days have been tough. TOTM has totally mucked up my resolve... But 8lb down which is good. There is also some discrepancy it may be 10lb I have lost I have written my start weight down differently in my calendar and diary to on here. I know not which is which.. What I do know is that at my most heaviest I was over 17stone and that is a number I will never see on my scales again.
So I said my resolve had wavered it did I a have had few wobbly days but I can say with 100% truthfulness that other than tasting my cooking for seasoning I have stuck to the Exante diet. I have merely adjusted plans.
On Sunday I ate a meal in the evening of no more than 250 cal I did the same yesterday and today the meals consisted of 100g of meat and a small Salad. I am going to see how I feel in the morning and decide then if I am ready to back on to the total plan. Normally at this point I would give up and tell myself I had cheated but the weight loss has been fantastic so I know that I have to keep going. The next 11 weeks will pass regardless oi for what I'm going to be eating I just need to get back into that head space where I can just do it. My hormones really make me feel like I can't. 11 weeks isn't long and I am nearly into the 15sts. I can and will do this.
 
Good luck, Nessa! I've just completed six of low-carbing. The first couple of weeks of any diet are mega-tough; this is especially true, I think, of VLCD and low carb. Ketosis is a blessing but can be difficult to maintain - one wee slip and you can be in trouble LOL and having to go through the fire again.

I lost 140 pounds and maintained for three years. Then my dear father passed away and it was one slip after another. Here I am 70 pounds regained. Never mind. The time to knuckle-down is NOW x
 
Hi Nessa,
Good luck and well done so far, I'm not following the same plan as you but at the end of the day I'm dieting/healthy eating to, I'd like to follow your journey x
 
How you getting on Nessa?
 
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