No More Orange Belts

DivaOnaDiet

Member
Hi all,

I'd like to start a diary - and I really hope I maintain it - to keep me honest on my new weight loss mission (attempt 6782).

I'm 28 now and when I was 20 I left the UK and haven't lived there since; instead, I've been working in travel and during the past 8 years have lived in Ireland, France, Gibraltar, Mallorca, Finland, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Thailand & currently in Costa Rica.

Working in travel is great - but it's very different to a 'normal' lifestyle. Your whole life needs to fit in to 2, 20kg cases, I'm usually in a country with either no diet groups or at least no diet groups in a language I understand, I'm usually in a country where I can't read the labels in the supermarkets, I often live in hotels and thus have no personal cooking facilities and have to either eat out or eat in the hotel restaurant for every meal. It makes dieting very difficult.

Not only that, but in this line of work you tend to have a lot of young, sociable colleagues around you to tempt you - on a daily basis - to head out for drinks, go to a restaurant for dinner, etc. This also makes dieting very difficult.

In the past I have bounced between 17 and 21 stone, safe in the knowledge that whenever I felt motivated enough I could normally drop weight very quickly. However, this January I gave up smoking and since then have rapidly gained weight - 23 stone, 5 lbs as of today's weigh-in - and for the first time I feel like it's completely out of control and that I can't just put the brakes on it when I feel like it... I feel like I can't stop it ballooning and that I'm approaching an age where the damage will become harder to reverse.

I've also seen the impact on my life worsen dramatically; I work from home most days so I don't have to leave my bed, which is becoming more difficult to get out of by the day. I avoid bending over whenever possible. I actually notice myself stop breathing as I fall asleep now as my sleep apnea gets worse. In Thailand, this February, my swim shorts split open during an island excursion and I had to try to hide the massive rip with a t-shirt for the rest of the day - I was then unable to find anyone who stocked my size in the country and thus could no longer go swimming (no swimming, in Thailand!). Now, in Costa Rica, my work colleagues and suppliers are desperate to get me on a zip line through the rainforest but I'm 50lbs over the maximum allowed weight. Every flight I dread the initial sit down, never sure if the belt will fit or if I'll need to request the dreaded... orange belt.

Well - no more - Whilst in Costa Rica I am living in an apartment rather than a hotel or the next year or so, so I do have limited cooking facilities - I went out today and bought some meal replacement mix, a blender and some bathroom scales - it's time to take back control.

I will try to post an update most days and would like to invite you to join me through the trials & tribulations, success & struggles, on my mission to avoid the orange belt.

Joe x
 
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So I guess today is my 'real' day one, because when I weighed in yesterday after I bought the scales it was around 4:30pm and I had already eaten a lot, etc - it certainly wasn't a diet day!

Today, I got on the scales first thing in the morning wearing just underwear and before I'd eaten or drank enough (how I normally weigh-in) and I can confirm...

Day 1 - 23st, 3.4lbs / 147.6kg

Today I literally only left the house to get a subway at lunch time and go to the supermarket.. and that was in my car.. so I've certainly done no exercise but I've stuck to the first day of the plan at least!

940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American, Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
200 calories - GNC French Vanilla Meal Replacement Shake
100 calories - 7up (approx 200ml) before realising it wasn't diet, then I threw it away!
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
1240 - Total Calories

Apparently, at my weight, height and activity level, 3705 calories per day would cause me to maintain my current weight - so 1240 today is a nice little victory for day one!

Tomorrow I have a meeting with my staff at lunch time in a restaurant so that will involve food and... well things might not go quite as well tomorrow, but I will try to make good choices!
 
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Hi Joe,

Well done for getting through the 1st day.

I've gone up and down over the years, but know like you once you decide to do something, it is possible to lose.

Looking forward to following your journey!
 
Hey Buffy - thanks for following! :)

Day 0 - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs (starting weight)
Day 1 - 147.6kg / 23st 3.4lbs
Day 2 - 146.2kg / 23st 0.3lbs
Total Loss - 2.1kg / 4.7lbs

So... yesterday obviously went well but unfortunately - as mentioned previously - I had a lunch meeting arranged today and it's hard to say no in the Hard Rock Cafe so... here's the food diary...

200 calories - GNC French Vanilla Meal Replacement Shake
1477 to 1712 calories - Chicken Fajitas
287 calories - French Fries
127 to 159 calories - 1 large White Wine
150 calories - 1 bottle of Imperial Beer
2241 to 2508 - Total Calories

The calorie ranges are because I don't know exactly the values so I've taken best and worst case scenarios based on what the internet says!

So... hardly an exemplary second day for someone starting a meal replacement diet! That said, it's still a calorie deficit of between 1197 and 1464 for the day (when compared to maintenance level of 3705 calories) so... considering I consider this to be a bit of a 'cheat' day I don't actually think I've done bad at all.

Plus it's quite rare that I have meetings over food so I don't think these challenges will come up very often - today, on Day 2, could easily have derailed me... but no... here I am posting, declaring the fajita's and wine, ready to kill it tomorrow! x
 
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Evening all!

Day 0 - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs (starting weight)
Day 3 - 145.4kg / 22st, 12.5lbs
Total Loss - 2.9kg / 6.5lbs

So moreorless half a stone in the first few days (I know, water weight, blah blah blah - but still it's nice to see!). Looks like I got away with the Hard Rock Cafe lunch yesterday. Today I've been on an excursion in the rain forest for work.

A bit off topic but I made friends with sloths!

Photo 10-07-2017, 11 08 13.jpg

How cute is he!?

Anyway - back on topic - because I was on an excursion the lunch was provided and I have no idea of the nutritional content or weights.. so.. perhaps you guys can guess better than I can on the calories, here was the lunch:

Dinner.jpg Icecream.jpg

I didn't eat all the rice and didn't eat the bread thing that the banana is sitting on - and not shown is approx 200ml of their home made lemonade which I am going to guess was about 100 calories (based on how many calories there are in full fat 7up).

Anyway because of this I don't really know how many calories I've had today - after the excursion, in the evening, I had a 6 inch sub. So for my food diary:

475 calories - 6 Inch Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
??? calories - Meal featured in above photos
100 calories - 200ml home made lemonade (calories guess)
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's (about 3 litres)

575 + excursion meal = Total Calories

Need to start making a little more effort with using the shakes - tomorrow morning I'll make sure I have one before work. It's annoying though because the GNC I have locally only stocks Vanilla and Mixed Berry, and neither of these flavours blew me away, really I wanted chocolate and was surprised to see they didn't offer it! Walmart opens on Friday so hopefully they'll have some sort of Chocolate meal replacement I can grab.

3 days in and feeling good :)
 
Thanks Cynicalgirl ^_^

And evening all!

Day 0 - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs (starting weight)
Day 4 - 144.6kg / 22st, 10.8lbs
Total Loss - 3.7kg / 8.2lbs

So I knoooooow I said I would make an effort to have a meal replacement shake this morning but... I was running late getting to work and didn't have time so that didn't happen. But to be honest, my appetite has reduced so much over the course of the last few days where my calorie in take has been much lower than normal, so I had my normal sub today and that has actually filled me up - I haven't felt like I've needed anything else.

940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
940 - Total Calories

I must admit - I do drink a lot of of diet soda and whilst this is probably helping me stop the hunger, I know it's not ideal because there's loads of crap in diet drinks too so I need to start pulling back a little bit from the diet soda's. I have bought a load of Club Soda (for those in Europe, this is basically Sparkling Water) so I'm going to try to go to these first. But you know... when there's a club soda in the fridge sitting next to a Diet Vanilla Coke... it's tough to take the Club Soda!

I won't beat myself up too much about the soda because it is early in my journey and at least it's calorie free.

Very happy with my progress so far, just 5.8lbs to get to my first stone - which to be honest, I think I might be able to achieve by Day 7. A stone in a week - fingers crossed!
 
Evening all,

Day 0 - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs (starting weight)
Day 5 - 144.0kg / 22st, 9.5lbs
Total Loss - 4.3kg / 9.5lbs

So I knoooooooow I'm meant to be making an effort with the meal replacement shakes but... if it gets to dinner time and I feel like I can pull through without one then surely I should just not have one!? Calories are the devil right?

So today's predictable intake...

940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
940 - Total Calories


But I did go to the supermarket today (not to pick up food obviously), and whilst I was there I saw that they have the chocolate version of my meal replacement powder in ready made shakes! Very exciting as I haven't been able to buy chocolate in the powder so I'm planning to treat myself to a chocolatey meal replacement breakfast tomorrow - yum, yum!

I also signed up for Subway card today because... if I'm going to live on it I really should be getting something back!
 
Evening all,

Day 0 - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs (starting weight)
Day 6 - 142.8kg / 22st, 6.8lbs
Total Loss - 5.5kg / 12.2lbs

Diet going excellently! To be honest - I get the boredom pangs that made me want to eat, but I don't get genuine hunger at any point. I think it's because I'm drinking so much.

So happy to have a 1.2kg drop overnight - just need to lose 1.8lbs tonight and that will be a stone in a week - which will a be lifelong new personal best! We'll see what the scales say in the morning, will try not to pin my hopes on it.

I had a meal replacement shake for breakfast during a meeting today - so it was a good job I picked up the ready made ones.

940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
170 calories - GNC Chocolate Ready Made Meal Replacement Shake
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
1110 - Total Calories

Sticking around the 1000 - 1200 range. I don't know if that's considered a Very Low Calorie Diet? I don't think so. It's definitely low though - and at my weight it's basically dust.

Might need to start eating soon before my body goes into some sort of starvation mode that hinders the progress but for now I'm enjoying the extreme results and it's giving me the mental boost I need!

In other news - Had my first Spanish lesson today, he came to my place and did 2.5 hours. I'm absolutely in love with him. And I think when I know enough Spanish to propose I absolutely have a chance - mainly because he's scheduled my next lesson for this Saturday morning and after the lessons he's invited me to drive with him to his home town (an hour away) to join him at 'the fiesta' for the afternoon!

Basically I'm planning to have Spanish teacher babies now so I really need to crack on with the weight loss, STAT.
 
Evening all,

Day 0 - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs (starting weight)
Day 7 - 142.5kg / 22st, 6.2lbs
Total Loss - 5.8kg / 12.8lbs

So, we're at the one week weigh-in and we're coming in at 12.8lbs lost - which is an excellent achievement! Not quite a stone, but I'm certainly not going to be disappointed as it's an amazing loss.

As mentioned yesterday, I'm a little concerned that I might not be eating enough and the losses could dramatically slow - so today I used this as an excuse to make my way through a kilo of grapes! haha. I was starving coming back from the supermarket and I have no regrets.

170 calories - GNC Chocolate Ready Made Meal Replacement Shake
940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
674 calories - 1kg Seedless Green Grapes
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
1784 - Total Calories

Total calories are still fine so still a 'good day' - tomorrow I have my Spanish lesson and potentially a trip to 'the fiesta' afterwards which... I guess will involve some sort of alcohol, maybe dinner, who knows - so tomorrow I think will probably be my Week 2 cheat day, we'll see what happens.

I did make a couple of purchases whilst at Walmart that I'm very happy with today:

Photo 14-07-2017, 18 01 54.jpg

That's right - Fish Oil and Multi-Vitamins! I bought these because I'd like to genuinely improve my health and I'm conscious that living on a subway and a shake most days means a lot of vitamin & mineral deficiency.

In addition to health benefits though, I've done a bit of reading on both since getting home and apparently they might also assist with the weight loss:

"Overall, adding fish oil to a current exercise program (and a overall healthy lifestyle) looks like it can decrease body fat as well as cardiovascular disease risk."
- https://draxe.com/fish-oil-benefits-health/

"They found that body fat mass decreased with the intake of fish oil."
- https://draxe.com/fish-oil-benefits-health/

"A randomized, double-blind study of obese women found that those taking a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement lost an average of 7.9 pounds, compared to 2 pounds for those taking calcium and half a pound in the placebo group."
- https://www.drwhitaker.com/20-little-known-reasons-to-take-a-daily-multivitamin

It's not effort at all to pop a couple of pills while I'm eating my subway at lunch so.. if it's going to make me healthier and boost the weight loss then happy days!
 
Morning all!

I was tired last night and didn't do yesterday's update so I will do it this morning whilst it's still fresh in my head, and then I'll try to do another tonight for today's update. :rolleyes:

Start - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs
Week 1 - 142.5kg / 22st, 6.2lbs (5.8kg / 12.8lbs lost)
Day 8 - 141.9kg / 22st, 4.8lbs (0.6kg / 1.4lbs lost)
Total Loss - 6.4kg / 1st, 0.2lbs lost

Really over the moon with how quickly I've seen the first stone leave the scales - before I started the diet I really did think I was eating a 'normal' amount of calories and thought I should really have been maintaining maybe even losing weight at the time. When I then got weighed and saw I'd been rapidly gaining weight, at a speed faster than I'd ever gained it before, I really did think my weight could no longer be controlled and felt that I wouldn't be able to lose weight the way I used to when I stuck to a diet.

This first week has shown me that I can easily lose weight when I put my mind to it, just as I have done in the past, so today has really been an excellent boost and given me a bit of faith in sticking to the plan!

Now as you know, gorgeous Spanish Teacher promised 'the fiesta' after my lesson today - it turned into a BBQ at this place so here's how we did for food:

170 calories - GNC Chocolate Ready Made Meal Replacement Shake
150 calories - 454g Strawberries
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
258 calories - 1.5 large glasses of Rose Wine
145 calories - 330ml Estrella Beer
126 calories - 300ml Imperial Beer (330ml can, but I left some so lets say 300)
? calories - Gorgeous BBQ Food. Only grilled chicken and salad, but chicken marinated with lovely stuff, salad had Caesar sauce, etc.
859 + ? Gorgeous BBQ Food - Total Calories

To be honest, for a date night type scenario with a BBQ at home things could have been a lot worse - the only reason I feel like I cheated is because I don't actually know the calories in what I ate - but for sure if I did know them exactly and calculate them correctly I'm pretty sure it still would have been a fairly good calorie day so I think I did well.

Love Life Update!

So I plan to use this blog primarily for dieting and weight / food tracking, but it is the only diary I maintain so I will probably add the odd saucy bit here and there to get it out of my head and in to writing somewhere!

So I'm in a small dilemma with gorgeous Spanish Teacher. During the first lesson there was lots of chemistry, a bit of sexual tension (I think at least) and then after the lesson whilst chatting in WhatsApp we were sending kiss emoji's and he told me I was handsome, etc (he's clearly blind but we'll forgive it due to his many redeeming features).

Yesterday I went for the second lesson. Now I pay $25 a lesson (which is a really good price for a 2.5 hour private lesson) and yesterday was at his place (add $20 fuel) - to make it a 'practical lesson' (he has warned me he likes lessons like this) he arranged for his friend who is a chef to come round to cook a Spanish meal with us and everything would be done in Spanish - he recommended that his friend 'just needs a tip', I asked how much and he said $30 would be good (add $30 tip!). We also had to go to the supermarket to buy all the ingredients and things we needed for the meal, which of course as it was my lesson I paid for (add $60!). So the total cost of the 'lesson' was $135 and... well I didn't get $135 worth of Spanish teaching out of it put it that way. But, I do know from his teaching materials that this type of cooking lesson is a normal thing that he does with other students as well, as part of their learning.

Now before his Chef friend arrived we had a kiss (a really bad one I must say) and he was talking about how I'm "The first foreigner he's dated" (not sure if it was a translation issue but, 2nd time we've met and according to him... we're now dating?) - I think he see's this turning into a relationship.

Now... I'm in a pickle. Me being his 'customer' for Spanish Lessons, whilst the potential dating thing happens on the side is really messed up - and I can't work out if he's basically added the flirting and dating side of things to the equation just to string me along and to buy more lessons, or whether he genuinely wants a relationship.

There are very few good Spanish Teachers around so changing teacher isn't really an option - I messaged him when I got home and he asked if I had fun, etc - I said I did but that I didn't expect to spend so much and, had I have known the cost of that lesson, I'd have taken him on a hot date instead! He responded that next time he'll be paying for whatever we do so... I don't know. Maybe it's all legit?

Side note: Lots of horrible moments during the evening re: weight. Like sitting outside eating together whilst he's cool as a cucumber and I'm sweating all over the place with the Costa Rican humidity. Got to make sure I stick to the plan!!

 
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Evening all!

Just a brief update as I bored you all this morning.

Start - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs
Week 1 - 142.5kg / 22st, 6.2lbs (5.8kg / 12.8lbs lost)
Day 9 - 141.4kg / 22st, 3.7lbs (1.1kg / 2.5lbs lost)
Total Loss - 6.9kg / 1st, 1.3lbs lost


I've had quite a few calories more than intended over the past few days with the BBQ and then the grapes & strawberries (#wild) - so today I went back to the old faithful and that alone!

940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
940 - Total Calories


I know I should calm down on the bread but it's working and I bloody love bread so I'll keep it going while it works!
 
Evening all!

Well, we knew it couldn't keep dropping literally on a daily basis - there had to be a point where it started to go up and down and sadly, we have reached that point with very small upwards fluctuation today (+0.2kg):

Start - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs
Week 1 - 142.5kg / 22st, 6.2lbs (5.8kg / 12.8lbs lost)
Day 10 - 141.6kg / 22st, 4lbs (0.9kg / 2.2lbs lost)
Total Loss - 6.7kg / 1st, 1.0lbs lost


Now obviously, 0.2kg is nothing and I know that weight goes up and down daily and that really you should only look at the weekly result, so fear not, in no way has this disheartened me. From the start of Week 3 though I will try to weigh every other day to avoid this.

To be honest - historically my losses have always alternated weekly. Amazing Week, Ok Week, Amazing Week, Ok Week, etc all the way through my weight loss journey if I stick to it properly. It's normal for me, for example, to lose 10 pound Week 1, then 3 pound Week 2, then 7 or 8 pound Week 3, etc and continue in that cycle - so to see the losses start to stagnate around day 10 is absolutely in keeping with how my body normally reacts to a diet.

Now with regards to food today I wanted to eat a little bit more - for some reason I felt more hungry than I have been recently today - So I have let myself eat a bit more just so I don't go crazy and fall off the wagon. Please consider though that - at my new weight - I am allowed 3475 calories a day to maintain my current weight (apparently) so I'm still well under that and therefore still in the right direction.

170 calories - GNC Chocolate Ready Made Meal Replacement Shake
940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
? calories - 3x Tacos*
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
1110 + ? Tacos - Total Calories

So with regards to the Tacos... I really have no idea but I really wanted to try them. I bought them from a place called Chorotacos and I had 2 of the 'Jerk' ones and 1 'Herbivore' - photos below!

Photo 17-07-2017, 20 04 18.jpg Photo 17-07-2017, 20 14 57.jpg

Now they were quite small really - but they were pretty sauce covered, as you can see. In terms of calories I just have no idea where to start.

The closest guess I could make was looking at the nutritional info from Taco Bell's website. Taco Bell says one of their 'Soft Tacos with Chicken' is 170 calories each. A 'Soft Taco with Beef' is 210 each. Let's be generous therefore and say my tacos were 250 calories each - 750 total putting calories at around 1900 for the day.

I think that's fine with my current 'maintenance level' of calories considered - and it kept me happy - and tasted bloody good!

And I actually think - given I had an amazing food day yesterday and still fluctuated upwards - that I'm due to have a get-away-with-murder weigh-in tomorrow anyway.
 
Evening all!

Start - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs
Week 1 - 142.5kg / 22st, 6.2lbs (5.8kg / 12.8lbs lost)
Day 11 - 141.2kg / 22st, 3.3lbs (1.3kg / 2.9lbs lost)
Total Loss - 7.1kg / 1st, 1.7lbs lost

Very quick update!

Today I fluctuated back down so the weight loss continues - and I don't want to spoil the surprise but I had a naughty sneak peak at my evening weight today (I know, I'm terrible) - and I think tomorrow is going to be an excellent weigh-in, hurrah!

Very busy day at the airport for work and only had time to grab the usual so a great calories day:

940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
940 - Total Calories

Also still having my Omega 3 pill and Multi-Vitamins so I should still be getting all the vitamins and nutrients I need :)

Can't wait for tomorrows weigh-in!
 
Evening all!

So I didn't post anything at all yesterday, which is a shame because I had an excellent loss! However I was a bit busy last night (which I'll explain shortly) so for now we get two days worth of info!

Start - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs
Week 1 - 142.5kg / 22st, 6.2lbs (5.8kg / 12.8lbs lost)
Day 12 - 139.4kg / 21st, 13.3lbs
Day 13 - 139.3kg / 21st, 13.1lbs (3.2kg / 7.1lbs lost)
Total Loss - 9.0kg / 1st, 5.9lbs lost

So that's 9 kilo's in total lost and back in to the 21 stone bracket! God I can't wait til I'm under 20 stone but a fair few weeks yet for that! Really proud of my losses; 12.8lbs in week 1 and it's looking like week 2 will finish at around half a stone as well - which I think is a personal best for me in terms of my first 2 weeks on any diet ever, so hopefully a sign of good things to come!

In terms of the food I've eaten yesterday and today... I can't say I've been a model citizen.


Wednesday
? calories - Bacon & Cheeseburger with Frenchfries (and a small amount of coleslaw and BBQ Sauce)
276 calories - 660ml Imperial Beer
135 calories - 330ml Imperial Silver Beer
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
411 + ? Restaurant Meal - Total Calories


I wouldn't like to guess the calories but I guess it's still under 2000 for the day.

Thursday
940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
230 calories - Barbeque crisps
? calories - 3x Tacos
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
1170 + ? Tacos - Total Calories


A really naughty today but I felt like I needed it and again, if we use the previous estimates using the nutritional info from Taco Bell, today should also be under 2000 calories so I don't think either day are really that bad when we consider that my maintenance level is well over 3000 calories.

(I'm going to keep using my insane maintenance level as an excuse to cheat until it stops working and there's nothing you can do about it)

What was bad is I didn't take my Omega 3 or Multivitamins either day and I really want to get into that habit!

Anyway... why the bad days and missed post I see you wonder...

Love Life Update


Just to set the expectation correctly - I'm not normally this Sex and the City. The fact I have two updates on potential love interests in the same week is exceptionally out of character.

With regards to the Spanish Teacher - I've moreorless drawn the conclusion that he has no genuine interest and is trying to get money. The last lesson was at my place, and we did the lesson like normal and then after had some kiss and cuddle time (which is just a really weird set-up in itself) - anyway during that he went into this vacant, stare off in to space, try not to cry look. I asked if he was okay and then he started talking about all his money problems etc etc. It became very apparent that he is definitely just working on squeezing out the dollars - I'm not entirely convinced he's even gay now to be fair.

So. The best way to get over a man is to get under another. Yesterday 'the Cowboy' messaged me. Now the Cowboy I've been chatting to online since I arrived in the country. He is a legit spur-wearing, horse-riding, sombrero-wearing, cattle-lassoing cowboy, which is of course super butch and attractive. He lives about 3 hours away so the logistics of meeting have been difficult but he's handsome and we talk / flirt a lot.

Anyway yesterday, after I finished the stuff I had to do for work in the morning, I had a message from him - he was in the area but getting a bus home - however available to meet up if I had time in the day. So that was that - I went to meet him, we got dinner, watched the sunset, a few beers and he ended up staying the night and leaving this afternoon. Lovely times were had, I'm unlikely to see him again for a little while due to the distance thing and it completely got me over the Spanish Teacher idea - now he's just my Teacher, nothing more or less!
 
Ooh gosh! I'm finding your romantic moments very intriguing .. and me being 82 it's bringing back memories of yesteryear :whistle: Go you!
As for the weight loss it's going along quite okay IMO .. stick with it and if you do get a bit despondant about having only a small loss here's a little poem to remember ..

Only One Pound

Hello, do you know me?
If you don't, you should. I'm a pound of fat,
And I'm the HAPPIEST pound of fat that you would ever want to meet.
Want to know why?
It's because no one ever wants to lose me;
I'm ONLY ONE POUND, just a pound!
Everyone wants to lose three pounds, five pounds, or fifteen pounds, but never only one.
So I just stick around and happily keep you fat.
Then I add to myself, ever so slyly, so that you never seem to notice it.
That is, until I've grown to ten, twenty, thirty or even more pounds in weight.
Yes, it's fun being ONLY ONE POUND OF FAT, left to do as I please.
So, when you weigh in, keep right on saying, "Oh, I only lost one pound."
(As if that were such a terrible thing.)
For you see, if you do this, you'll encourage others to keep me around because they'll think I'm not worth losing.
And, I love being around you - your arms, your legs, your chin, your hips and every part of you.
Happy Days!!!
After all, I'm ONLY ONE POUND OF FAT!!!

P.S. A good site for checking out your calories etc. - MFP


 
Evening all!

Hehe, thank you both for reading and your comments - The cowboy ended up going to another nearby resort that he's wanted to visit a while and had planned to go home today - but I've, literally just this minute, received a message from him saying he missed the last bus back to his town by about an hour so now he's stuck in a city just up the road from me. I imagine he has nowhere to go so... looks like I may have a gentleman caller for the evening again! (Would have bloody saved some calories if I knew)

Start - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs
Week 1 - 142.5kg / 22st, 6.2lbs (5.8kg / 12.8lbs lost)
Week 2 - 140.3kg / 22st, 1.3lbs (2.2kg / 4.9lbs lost)
Total Loss - 8.0kg / 1st, 3.7lbs lost

Anyway - first the weigh-in. After an excellent couple of days and being a little naughty with the eating it's no surprise to see I've fluctuated upwards by 1kg, which means week 2 is in fact close on 2.2kg lost, which is more consistent with my normal week 2 loses.

With regards to eating - I do feel I'm getting a little out of control and I need to get back on track, today for example:

170 calories - GNC Chocolate Ready Made Meal Replacement Shake
940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
556 calories - Hard Rock Cafe Chicken Quesadilla (I don't really believe the calories are this low but it says so here so... we'll take it)

1666 - Total Calories

I guess actually that's not a bad total calories, as it's moreorless half my maintenance level so I'm not really out of control - but it just feels like I shouldn't be allowed to eat out twice in a day!

I also took my multivitamin and fish oil today, which is great - need to try to maintain this habit!

Most importantly though - I stepped foot inside a gym today! - At 140kg / 22 Stone, I often feel ridiculous walking in to a gym particularly the type of gym I walked into today, which was a bloody CROSSFIT muscle-head gym. But it's the only gym in the area with air conditioning and I'm not getting any exercise at the moment so I went inside to ask about prices and things.

Anyway I spoke to the owner (spoke, dribbled over, same thing) - he offers one to one personal training and said he'll set up a special deal for me when I'm ready. So I'm thinking I start on 01-08, pay $50 to just have normal membership with gym access only for one month so I can work out at my own pace and just get used to actually using muscles again, and then from 01-09 I will pay for training sessions instead (membership is free with personal training) - he said I could do 1 per week for $50/session, 2 per week for $30/session or 3 per week for $25/session. I need to look at my finances but you know... I might go all in with 3 per week. If I can be strict with my money I can probably balance both that and Spanish lessons. Who knows, a year down the road maybe someone will be dribbling over me. :p:cool:
 
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Hi Joe.....interesting reading. Love the sloth and jealous of all your travel. Use the Spanish lesson money for the gym and learn Spanish for free by talking to as many people as possible.
 
Well done on the gym visit Diva .. I'm sure you'll soon get the hang of it all .. used to love going myself .. rather a long time ago now but if I could go again I would be there immediately!
Make the most of everything while you can my dear .. life's too short to worry about what other people think :innocent002:
... and good idea what Tippy said.
 
Thanks all ^_^

Very excited to now be on to page 2 of my forum diary! I always worry about being another diary that never makes it to post 21 - but now that's not the case, hurrah!

It's a great idea Tippy but I seriooously lack discipline with languages - I'm probably worse with learning a language than with food! - I've already lived in Gibraltar once, lived in Mallorca twice (so had Spanish immersion during 3 previous lives), I've also tried audio-learning, school book learning, DuoLingo, Rosetta Stone - you name it! Anything though that does not include someone else keeping me accountable sadly, but inevitably, fails - the only thing that's helped me progress in the past is knowing that I have a teacher coming round who is expecting me to have done my homework! haha.

Anyway we've got about another 5 weeks I think before I consider investing heavily in the gym with a Personal Trainer so who knows how circumstances will develop in that time - #watchthisspace.

On to today's update!

Cowboy did stay over last night; which was most inconvenient because by the time we got back home it was nearly 21:00, I had a huge amount of work to do (so I stayed up doing it while he went to sleep), and then had to wake up at 5:30 today for an excursion to the rain forest so there weren't many hugs and kisses last night, let me tell you! I did however have a beer with him which was after my food diary was posted, so please note there is an extra 135 calories on yesterday for 330ml of Imperial Silver beer!

Start - 148.3kg / 23st 5lbs
Week 1 - 142.5kg / 22st, 6.2lbs (5.8kg / 12.8lbs lost)
Week 2 - 140.3kg / 22st, 1.3lbs (2.2kg / 4.9lbs lost)
Day 15 - 139.8kg / 22st, 0.2lbs (0.5kg / 1.1lbs lost)
Total Loss - 8.5kg / 1st, 4.8lbs lost

So, we're on the first day of week 3 today and we've started with a pound off (or we've fluctuated that way anyway) - today has been a really difficult day because like I said, I've been on an excursion. Now it was an amazing day. I walked 8 skywalk bridges across the rain forest and had hummingbirds perch on my finger!

hummingbirds.png cloudforest1.jpg

And also on the plus side is the skywalks involved a 3km hike - lots of up and down at high altitude - so it was a bit of a work out. The down side is the excursion started really early (like I said, up at 5:30) which meant my hunger started really early today as well.

I had a muffin at the first coach stop and then at lunch time I just had the chicken, rice and salad from what they gave us:

Photo 22-07-2017, 12 23 19.jpg

Which was pretty healthy - but we had lunch around midday and didn't get back until about 7pm, after hiking, so I was absolutely starving when I got home. I hoped the Taco place would be open but as it's the weekend they weren't (crazy, I know) - so... I went next door and had the subway usual. And I really didn't want to add an extra 1000 calories or so to the day right at the end but really... I was starving.

So that puts the food diary for the day as follows:

170 calories - GNC Chocolate Ready Made Meal Replacement Shake
350 calories - Blueberry Muffin (might have been less, I'm using Starbucks nutritional info to guestimate)
940 calories - Footlong Subway (BMT, Italian Bread, All Salad, American Cheese, BBQ Sauce)
? calories - Excursion lunch above
0 calories - A thousand diet soda's
1460 + ? Excursion Lunch = Total Calories

As I left most of the lunch (literally just had the chicken, salad and some of the rice... and a scoop of coffee ice cream), I reckon I'm around the 2000 mark... which isn't the end of the world considering the amount of exercise involved in the day.

Let's hope for more discipline tomorrow!
 

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