11lbs in 5 days

Good Morning Lovely Readers

We are there at last - it's phase 2 time. Hurrah!

Weight loss today: 2lbs

Total weight loss for phase 1: 11lbs

It wasn't so bad you know and we both definitely feel healthier.  I am really thrilled with this weight loss.  I am glad we managed phase 1. It was encouraging watching Sue's progress and thinking that she and LH had done it, so we could too. I really enjoy that on-line support. Yesterday was the first day that we had both felt quite hungry but we really didn't fancy yet one more pot of natural yoghurt. I went to bed around 10pm because I thought if I didn't I was going to eat and I know MrThrifty might well. Since he really doesn't need to lose any weight and was doing this diet for health, I did tell him to eat of he was hungry. I found it quite hard to get to sleep, very unlike me, in fact I was almost a bit hyper.  Seems to have passes this morning though. Anyway, here are today's menus:

Meals  Day 1  (phase 2)
Breakfast: oat bran porridge + natural yogurt + blueberries (yum)
Lunch: feta + olive salad
Dinner: Aubergine boats + side salad
small portion of 85% dark chocolate
Snacks: if needed - natural yoghurt + raspberries/apple

I bought the 85% cocoa bar yesterday!

I know a few of you are watching this blog with interest. I would encourage you to give this diet a try. It isn't that hard and that is coming from a self-confessed food addict.; a serial grazer. I am far too embarrassed to share my weight with you at this time, but I will as it becomes more respectable. I will tell you, however, that I had just gone into size 22 clothing (ouch) and now my size 20s are feeling loose on me .... wonderful. I am delighted with that. More importantly, my BMI has gone down by 1.6 points. As an aside, #3 told me yesterday that he was thrilled because he had put on a whole stone last term at uni taking his BMI just into the normal range. He has been trying to gain weight for a long time and maybe he has stopped going up in height now, so can expand a little. He does look better for it - the kids all seem to have their father's metabolism!

Anyway, it's off to school for me. Two more days!

Let me know how you are doing.

Enjoy your day

Love Mrs Thrifty

xxx

Nearly there

Good Morning Lovely Readers


This is our last day on phase 1 of the Harcombe Diet and I confess I am looking forward to having a wider range of foods to choose from. Sue has given a wonderful explanation of the diet on her blog, so I won't repeat it here. 


Weight loss today: 1lb
Weight loss to date: 9lbs


Menu Day 4 (phase 1)
Breakfast - poached eggs on spinach (eggs Florentine)
Snack - natural yoghurt with cherry tomatoes and cucumber sticks
Lunch - salad nicoise 
Dinner - Mediterranean roasted vegetables and fish Provençal 


The strange thing is I haven't really missed other foods. Mr Thrifty and I love a piece of cake with a cup of tea in the afternoon and I think we have missed the social aspects of food more than the actual food itself. The trouble is we got into the habit of having it every day, with maybe a biscuit or two. I also over-eat on chocolate. I think I self-medicate with it - it is my drug of choice. What I do notice, is that when I don't consume chocolate, I am calmer.


Let me know how you are doing if you have joined us...

Have a wonderful day

Love Mrs Thrifty

xxx

Day 4

Diet Diary Day 4

Good Morning Lovely Readers

Weight loss today: 1lb

Weight loss to date (3 days): 8lbs 

So far so good. The only difficulty for me has been the feeling of not being full which I am not used to - how unhealthy is that? I felt a bit grumpy on day 2 and think I was hungry - I say think because it is so long since I have felt real hunger that I don't recognise it. Yesterday I felt fine. Achieved quite a lot in the house. Mr Thrifty felt tired in the morning but got better as the day progressed. I feel a bit more alert, definitely, and this can only be good. We are definitely not starving. The diet allows you to eat plenty of food - there is no counting of calories or portions. The only exception to this during phase 1 is the 50 gram brown rice allowance daily (can be swapped for oats or quinoa).

Menu Day 4 (phase 1)
Breakfast - scrambled eggs and  natural yoghurt
Snack - natural yoghurt with cherry tomatoes and cucumber sticks
Lunch - sardine salad
Dinner - butternut squash curry with lettuce and yogurt

Are you joining in yet?

How are you doing?

Love Mrs Thrifty

xxx

7lbs in 2 days

Diet Diary Day 3

Good Morning Lovely Readers

All good so far. No headaches or suchlike, but I rarely drink coffee and I guess that would be a major withdrawal for a lot of people.

I jumped on the scales this morning (well, I didn't really jump because if I had I would probably have broken them.... I stepped) and discovered that I had lost another 2 lbs, so that is

7lbs in 2 days!

I am thrilled.

I feel empty a lot of the time but then I would because I am a grazer, but the food is good and I feel healthy and somewhat more alert. I feel that the mental fog is lifting and I don't seem to be as forgetful.

Meals Day 3 (phase 1)
Breakfast - unsmoked haddock and tomatoes
Snack - not needed
Lunch - poached egg salad
Snack - not needed
Dinner - salad Nicoise

Have you joined in yet?

Le me know how you are doing?

Love Mrs Thrifty

xxx

Diet Dairy - Day 2

Good Afternoon Lovely Readers 


Well it's only day 2 and I have had 47 hits and 3 followers - hurrah... I am not talking to myself. So far so good. Sue from Our New Life in the Country is blogging her Harcombe Diet Diary here http://thehowlowcanyougofooddiary.blogspot.co.uk/ -  she couldn't leave a comment and I am hoping that I have fixed this. If you are trying to comment and can't, please leave me a comment over at my other blog and I'll try to sort it.

I got on the scales this morning and was DELIGHTED to discover that I had lost 5lbs in one day. The diet's author talks a lot about the effects of processed foods and particularly refined carbohydrates (which can force the body to store excess water) and has observed amazing weight loss in phase 1 of the diet, which lasts just 5 days. I know I store a lot of water because I suffer from bloating and when I went on one of these 'fat camps' I lost a huge amount of weight in a week (which I managed to put back on reasonably quickly). 


Mr Thrifty is suffering; he feels tired and achy. He doesn't feel hungry though - but then again he never does. They do say that thin people don't really think about food. I am fine physically but I want to eat ... this is 100% habit. I should have been a cow because I happily graze all day long. As a child we didn't snack in my family. We ate 3 meals a day. When I went off to uni that all changed! There is no sugar of any kind on the diet for the first 5 days (phase 1) and that includes all fruits. This encourages flushing of the system, but it is hard.


Meals Day 2 (phase 1) 
Breakfast - poached eggs on spinach
Snack - natural yoghurt
Lunch - sardine salad
snack - cherry tomatoes and natural yoghurt
Dinner - Butternut squash curry and brown rice

We are eating fish on this diet which we don't normally do because otherwise the choice is so limited. Sue is managing brilliantly without eating fish though, so you don't have to. If you are a meat eater there is an even wider choice available to you. 


If you need to lose weight, why not join in? As I said yesterday... all you (or I) have to lose is weight!

Back later

Love Mrs Thrifty

xxx

The Harcombe Diet

I am linking with Sue from Our New Life  in the Country and her new blog on the Harcombe Diet. This seems as good a time as any to give this a go and if you want to find out more, just pop over to Sue's blog at
http://thehowlowcanyougofooddiary.blogspot.co.uk/

I bought my copy on kindle at Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Harcombe-Diet-Counting-ebook/dp/B00584MST4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338054985&sr=1-1

DAY 1

Mr Thifty does not need to lose weight. Like all of our children, he is long and lean. However, he suffers from many of the 'niggles' talked about in this book and so thought he'd give it a go with me. I, on the other hand, have a substantial amount of weight to lose, am classified medically as obese and need to lose weight for my health as well as for my self-esteem.  I will attempt to chart my trials and tribulations here.

I was a low birth weight baby, born 3 weeks early and breach. My mother was told to feed me (formula) 2 hourly and so I guess that was when the rot set in and my natural ability to gauge appetite was well and truly sabotaged. I remained a slim child until about the age of 8 and then developed 'puppy fat'.... mmm... so am guessing it's now dog fat and it hasn't shifted!

My "dieting"  started with my meals being restricted - I am talking late 1960s, when we ate 3 meals a day, no convenience or processed food, no snacks - we had cake and biscuits at Christmas and pocket money sweets on Saturdays.  My mother was very health conscious and 4 out of my 5 siblings are of normal weight. I think I learned to use food as an emotional crutch and have tried almost every diet going over the last 40 years, including...

Weight Watchers
Slimming World
The Cambridge Diet
Slim Fast
The  Atkins Diet
The Cabbage Soup Diet
Rosemary Conley
Fasting
Counting Calories
The You Are What You Eat system
The Food Doctor Diet
A week at a "Fat Camp" (cost £1000)
Food counselling
NLP (cost £300 for 6 sessions)
Chinese traditional medicine
Appetite suppressants
Natural remedies
Xenical

My book shelves are cluttered by every imaginable diet book and none of them has worked for me! My weight has continued to steadily climb over the years and I am not going to blame pregnancy since I only put 14lbs on with each baby which disappeared the minute they were born (their weights were 8lbs 5oz, 9lbs 1oz, 9lbs 7oz and 9lbs 15oz). All the children have good BMIs although the younger 2 (17 and 19) are somewhat low, which I put down to their heights. They were all breastfed, on demand, and allowed to wean when they chose. They were breastfed exclusively for 6 months and then weaned gently using vegetables and fruit. They had no dairy, wheat or sugar until well after the first year of life. I add this because I believe that this has impacted on their health as young adults. Apart from chicken pox, none of them has ever been ill, needed an operation, or has allergies or food sensitivities.

Right now, I feel like I always do at the beginning of a new regime .... 'This is the one' and 'This time I am going to do it'.  Well, lovely readers, join me and see........

Meals Day 1 (phase 1)
Breakfast - scrambled egg + natural yogurt
Snack - tub of natural yogurt and a handful of cherry tomatoes
Lunch - hard boiled eggs with tomatoes, cucumber, mixed lettuce leaves and olives.
Dinner - rainbow trout, brown rice and asparagus with home-made mayonnaise and cherry tomatoes.

Drinks - water and herbal teas

Wish me luck xx