Hiya...
I phoned mine from the Cambridge diet website.. had to ring a couple of numbers, cause the first said her books were full at the mo, and to honest, I'm very happy with that cause my CDC's an absolute STAR!
Personally, I made my start date a week after seeing her for the first time, so that I could start off just by exchanging a few meals for CD packs tentatively.. I know that many people work down the programmes properly, as it explains in the booklet:
http://www.cambridge-diet.co.uk/brochures/solesource.pdf
You're best preparing. Some of the way I prepared:
-spent time talking it through with my OH to make sure he was genuinely interested, supportive, and prepared to start shopping, cooking, and eating without me.. (took him for a curry a couple of weeks before the start, and indulged every conversation, and every part of the CD plan in relation to what he'll miss out on, and how I can help make it more enjoyable for him)
-Rearranged a cupboard to make space for the packs, prepared a jug, bowl, glass, spoon and wizzey-thing (haha - what ARE they called?? Haha), and made a space on the side for them.
-read everything there was to read (I go a bit over board with these things.. you really don't need to read the 2006 NICE guidelines on obesity!! haha - I just got a bit into reading - must have been the nerves!
)
-spent lots of time on minimins
-talked with friend who was on CD already
-chucked out all the bits of food in the house that only I like (if fresh/ cant last/belongs to my old, unhealthy diet)
things i wish i'd done:
-work my way down the CD programmes properly/gradually.
-weaned myself off caffiene well in advance, cause it's not recommended by CD to have a caffiene detox at the same time.
-got into the swing of drinking lots and lots of water on a regular basis earlier
-had a proper think through about how I was going to handle predictable difficult situations, like telling my colleagues, handling social eating situations, having lunch at work without a wizzey-thing, in the first couple of weeks before you can start having bars at work
-taken more measurements and photos at the early stages
-known about the headache and constipation I'd get in the first couple of days, so I could have got some 'fibre89' from my CDC at the begining..
-known that it really, genuinely does get incredibly easy after the first week
-written a letter to myself talking about the things that make me miserable about being bigger/over weight, so that I can remember what i'm doing this for (mostly i remember why..)
I'd say CD's both the easiest and the hardest diet I've ever done. Hardest because there really is no compromise, no hiding, no pretending to myself that something 'counts really', or I'll do better next week... I feel I'm either on CD 100%, or I'm not - it's really simple.. and that's the easy thing about it. it's simply a case of three CDs a day. end of story.
of course, that's not the end of the story, cause I'm discovering exactly what my difficulties with eating have been about, and that's the tricky bit! ..but liberating too!!
All the very best!
Vxx