boardwitless
Silver Member
Finally plucked up the courage to put pictures of my before and after, actually, it's taken me ages to search for a 'before' picture as I never used to like my photo taken, for obvious reasons. I've been through holiday snaps for the past 8 years and it looks like my husband was a single parent as I was never photographed with him or the kids :sigh:. Anyway, this is my CD experience...
I began after seeing LL adverts while on holiday, fat and fed up with being fat so I decided to look into it when I came home but there were no classes near to me. Instead, enquired about CD and found a fab counsellor. I've dieted for the past 25 years and just got bigger but this time something clicked and I found it the easiest (and hardest
) diet I've ever done. Previously, I always thought I could outwit the calorie counting or Syn values (obviously not - the amount of 'free' foods I used to eat was ridiculous), however CD was all or nothing - if I ate, I was cheating and it would have prolonged the diet and cost me an extra week's money so £40 for a piece of cake was not really worth it. I started in May 2009 and have lost over 4.5 stones in total, losing the last 7lbs has taken around 10 weeks and I know that I maintain on around 1800 calories now. I also know what 'my' weight is, whereas beforehand, my weight could have been anything within a 3 stone range (typical yo-yo).
I'm writing this not to get compliments (although go ahead if you really want to ...) but to encourage anyone else to get on the plan and really go for it. I know it's meaningless to say 'if I did it, anyone can' because we're all different but this time I really have surprised myself and now I know that I can get to this point and (with work), remain here. I will NOT go back to eating 'normally' as it was that that piled on the pounds in the first place so I have come up through the plans and have taken it step by step. I hope that this inspires others to give it a try as the speed of the losses really was the motivating factor for me.
Some observations:
I'll carry on posting to help with the final point, it's a fab resource here
Hope you can see the pics....
I began after seeing LL adverts while on holiday, fat and fed up with being fat so I decided to look into it when I came home but there were no classes near to me. Instead, enquired about CD and found a fab counsellor. I've dieted for the past 25 years and just got bigger but this time something clicked and I found it the easiest (and hardest
) diet I've ever done. Previously, I always thought I could outwit the calorie counting or Syn values (obviously not - the amount of 'free' foods I used to eat was ridiculous), however CD was all or nothing - if I ate, I was cheating and it would have prolonged the diet and cost me an extra week's money so £40 for a piece of cake was not really worth it. I started in May 2009 and have lost over 4.5 stones in total, losing the last 7lbs has taken around 10 weeks and I know that I maintain on around 1800 calories now. I also know what 'my' weight is, whereas beforehand, my weight could have been anything within a 3 stone range (typical yo-yo).I'm writing this not to get compliments (although go ahead if you really want to ...
) but to encourage anyone else to get on the plan and really go for it. I know it's meaningless to say 'if I did it, anyone can' because we're all different but this time I really have surprised myself and now I know that I can get to this point and (with work), remain here. I will NOT go back to eating 'normally' as it was that that piled on the pounds in the first place so I have come up through the plans and have taken it step by step. I hope that this inspires others to give it a try as the speed of the losses really was the motivating factor for me. Some observations:
- I've gone from a size 18-20 to a 10-12 and can't quite believe it!
- I sometimes had a little chicken on SS but didn't beat myself up if I needed it
- I used to think I could carry the weight because I'm tall but looking at the picture of myself filling the plastic chair, I'm not so sure
- I now do a little weight training to keep toned and it's so much easier to motivate yourself when you're in better shape
- I don't get rubs or sweaty patches in places I never dreamed would rub together
- I love finding new bones
- I can almost see a six pack
- My take on CD is that it's like an alcoholic going on the wagon - cutting out the addiction altogether. As a result, I have found that my tastebuds have totally changed - I can happily eat tons of veg now and cravings for sweets have pretty much disappeared. I can now retrain my tastes in the direction I want them to go, rather than being numbed by too much sugar
- I'm still working at the 'head' side of things as sometimes it feels like I'm on a tightrope but I'll get there. I may have to deny myself certain things but hey-ho, that's life and I want to remain at this size, not just be a brief visitor here.
I'll carry on posting to help with the final point, it's a fab resource here
Hope you can see the pics....
