Progress Report!

So, how was the seven day detox for me? In a nutshell it wasn't a seven day detox, I modified it part way through!
'Oh no! You weak quitter, you!' I hear you cry and yes, you could argue that case but I am going to explain why I didn't stick religiously to the very strict detox.
Reason number 1: I was HUNGRY! 
Having followed a sensible eating plan which is low in fat and which watches the calorie intake, and having a lifestyle of very regular exercise I am not used to feeling hungry. I'm not talking about the normal hunger that I expect and want to feel when I am due a meal but fairly quickly after eating I was experiencing real hunger pains and so I was becoming quite miserable.
Reason number 2: I was lacking in energy. I exercise every day. Either swimming, a couple of hours in the gym, a run or an hour on our cross trainer here at home. I use around 600 calories each session, more sometimes. I had to really drag myself to the gym whereas I am usually raring to go. Once there I completed my exercise plan but it wasn't as enjoyable as usual. This seemed to be counter-productive. 
Reason number 3: I missed my fruit! I wasn't longing for a bar of chocolate, nor even some potatoes with my meal, no, I wanted a banana! I have bananas before a work-out as they give me lots of energy.
Reason number 4:I really missed my first cup of tea! I don't drink a lot of tea or coffee so withdrawal symptoms, headaches etc. were not a problem, but I like a cuppa at the start of the day. Also,I am NOT a bacon and eggs for breakfast person! When someone commented that Weetabix for breakfast was no bad thing it made me think about what I was doing.
Reason number 5: I am not religious! (I am a Christian but there is a difference!)
I don't just follow the rules and regulations slavishly if I can see a genuine reason (Note, not excuse!) for not doing. I am determined and I can stick to something once I've started (I stuck to the Rosemary Conley plan and still do) but not if I really don't believe in it.

So these were the main reasons why I decided to modify the plan somewhat. I still believe that surprising the body occasionally is a good thing, to stop it getting into a rut but having found a successful plan for my body and being joyful in that healthy plan is important. As I said, I am a Christian and a scripture verse comes to mind here: 'This is the day  the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it!' Psalm 118:24. Furthermore, the Bible also says: 'When you fast...' not if you fast. (Matthew 6:16) So, as a Christian I am exhorted to fast and pray and not to look miserable while I'm about it!! The key being that you fast and pray! You take your mind and your thoughts off the physical, off the flesh and put them on the Spiritual. So, fasting is a good discipline both for the body which will be shocked out of its usual routine and thus won't get complacent, and for the spirit as you focus on higher things.

Preach over! Having said all that I did lose 5lbs even with a modified plan! But I am a lot happier to be eating a well balanced diet and feeling full of energy for my exercise.

SHOCK TACTICS!

The human body is amazing. It can adapt to so many situations, so many things we throw at it! We mistreat and abuse this wonderful masterpiece of engineering and it obligingly accommodates us and continues to function, even though it may not be 'firing on all cylinders', if I may mix my metaphors a little! 

For example, my chiropractor has diagnosed an imbalance in my pelvis. The two sides should be symmetrical but mine aren't, they are slightly askew! Not my fault, just as different shaped eyes can occur, different sized breasts, just one of those things! The arrow shows where I am out of alignment.

But my body has compensated for this over the years and because of this I occasionally suffer from the pain and muscle spasms which sent me to the chiropractor in the first place!

I read a lot of comments from people who are trying to lose weight who say that their weight loss has plateaued and they have stopped losing despite only taking in 1,200 calories a day. Therein lies the problem! The body has accommodated this and has gone into life saving mode as it reasons that the body is starving so in order to survive it is holding on to all the fat that it possibly can, hence, no weight loss! This is why, when following the Rosemary Conley weight loss plan, the first two weeks start on 1,200 calories and then the following two weeks you increase to 1,400, thus tricking the body into allowing the fat and the weight to leave!!

So, what's with the Shock Tactics? I hear you say! Well, I have got pretty stable in my routines now. I get a lot of exercise and use up a lot of calories by swimming and going to the gym and even going on the occasional run, though that may not be the best exercise for my back at the moment! I like to ring the changes in my exercise routines but have become a bit too static with my food intake I think! I want to wake my system up a bit so have investigated the Detox that my niece and my sister have both been on and reported success in a number of different ways. 

I am writing about it here because I know I respond well when I am held accountable! So I will report on my progress and what I am experiencing as I completely cut out some of the staples from my diet!

In a nutshell the detox is:

• It lasts 7 days
• No dairy apart from live bio natural yogurt
• No fruit except tomatoes
• No bread
• No caffeine, so no alcohol!
• No mushrooms, potatoes or sweet potatoes
• 3 meals a day, no snacking
• Plenty of vegetables
• All meat, fish and eggs allowed though don't go mad
• 50gs of cooked brown rice or oats a day
• Plenty of water

I think that about covers it!
So, I started today and have so far had:

A cup of Rooibos tea with rice milk - nice enough!

4 rashers of lean bacon grilled with a spray-lite fried egg - lovely but I do like my Bran flakes!

A cup of de-caf coffee with rice milk - not as nice as the tea!

It is now 11am and I realise that I would usually be reaching for my mid-morning snack, my banana but no can do!! I also realise just what a creature of habit I am when it comes to food!!

My niece and my sister and her husband have all found that a week on this detox leads to clearer skin, better sleep and a loss of 7lbs in weight over the week so I will keep you posted on that!

I am also wondering how my exercise will feel on this changed diet! I will keep you posted on that too as we are going to the gym this evening!

A change is as good as a rest as they say! 

HUNGER PANGS!

Helpful hints....

I want to begin sharing some of the things that I learnt along the way which have really helped me. These tips will not be in any particular order, just as they occur to me. Today's tip has just occurred as I have just eaten my lunch and remembered that I have to give my stomach time to register that it has had enough to eat, NOT that it is FULL. 

In the bad old days I was always hungry! Yes, I always felt that I was hungry and that I needed to have something to eat. The problem was that I always answered my whiny stomach's cry for food without really considering if I really was hungry or just bored or wanting a 'hit' of something sugary which would give me a (temporary) high. This problem was a growing one as was my stomach. If you keep feeding your stomach your stomach will stretch to accommodate all the food, hence, your stomach will require more and more food in order that you feel sated.

I had got to a place where I would make myself a sandwich and have a couple of biscuits while I was preparing our evening meal. Then, I would eat a large meal, have pudding and then within an hour I would be reaching for a bag of crisps...a few peanuts...chocolate....I feel embarrassed to admit it but I was eating all the time, grazing, chomping and not feeling satisfied. I seemed to go from feeling STARVING to feeling STUFFED!

So when I began at Rosemary Conley and was looking at the first two week eating plan which was 1,200 calories I received one of the first really helpful pieces of advice: Jill the class leader said "You will feel hungry!"

This seemed to contradict the advice of other famous slimming clubs which maintain you can eat as much as you like as long as the food falls into the correct colour group! (My rough interpretation of the rules, I know!)

But that was the point! I no longer really knew what it was like to feel hungry.

I knew what it was like to want to eat, but was I really hungry? Could I possibly be hungry after what I had already consumed not so long ago?

I realised that I had to retrain my stomach to know when it was actually hungry and I had to allow it to shrink to its correct size again, the size of my clenched fist! So my stomach was the first thing that needed to lose weight! 

I had to begin to differentiate between real hunger and 'fancying something to eat'! I had to give my stomach time to communicate with my brain and vice versa; to reestablish this channel of communication in my body.

So, the next bit of advice which helped...when you think you are hungry...drink a glass of water and wait ten minutes.Examine your feelings.

This is what I have just done before I had my lunch.

Well, it was coming up to one o'clock and I had breakfast at eight so, yes I was actually hungry but the water was a good thing as it did fill me a little and we need to drink two litres of water a day so...good habit!

So, I made my lunch. Tip two, eat slowly and savour every mouthful and DON'T do anything else as you eat as you will tend to be distracted and begin to gobble your food down without appreciating it. Have a drink of water midway. I know there are differing opinions on this but I like to drink water with my meals.

So you finish your sandwich, or whatever and now the tendency is to rush on and have your yogurt, fruit or whatever but WAIT. You have opened the floodgates of appetite and you could go on and on eating. Allow the food time to go down. Wait twenty minutes or so and then ask...do I really want anything else? I truly believe that we eat much of what we eat out of habit rather than need. Have another drink of water. 

Yesterday I rushed straight on to yogurt with berries and still 'could have done with a bit of something else..!' because I was in overdrive and could justify overeating because I had swum 64 lengths (which is a mile in my local pool) and then walked a couple of miles home but...I DIDN'T NEED IT!

So try to get into the habit of taking time and waiting and listening to your stomach. I actually feel well sated and won't be having any yogurt today. I don't want it! 

"Well, a yogurt is only just over 100 calories", you may be thinking. "It's not as if you were going to blow it on a 300+ calories Snickers bar!" 

But as the old adage says: 'Look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves' and this counts for those other pounds too! Every little really does help to make the difference.

LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF...

BEVERLY CURRY

AGE 58

TOP WEIGHT 17ST 2LBS

This was me! 2012, this was me!

New Year's Eve 2011/2012 there I am singing away as the new year dawned. I was 'morbidly obese', as the charts call it and could hardly walk as I had arthritis in my left knee and right hip and the weight I was putting on these joints made them swell and made walking very painful. I couldn't get into the car without a lot of pain and it took a long time as lowering myself at that angle was not easy. We were looking into mobility allowance as we thought a car which sat higher off the ground would be the answer.

My husband adored me! He always has and always will no matter what my size, as long as I was happy he was happy and this is still the case. But we were both concerned with my health and mobility.

I LOVE food! 

If you look through the postings on my other blog: 'Currys in Cape Town' curryhouseza.blogspot.com you will see evidence of that! I even wrote a whole blog in praise of Lurpak butter once!

So I had resigned myself to the fact that I had always been overweight and I would always be overweight so I'd cook and bake what I liked, eat as much of whatever I liked as I  wanted to and I'd stop worrying about my size just enjoy life...was going to be my motto! Be happy! Be the jolly, fat lady who is happy whatever!

Mmm.?

Happy while I'm preparing and eating the food. 

Happy while I'm sitting on the sofa in the comfort of my own home not having to move or do anything. 

Happy until.....I was invited to a wedding, a party, a get together! Then it was:'What am I going to wear? What on earth will I look like?!' 

Happy until...the sun shines and it's hot and I can no longer 'hide' it all beneath a big baggy jumper! (It never was hidden, I know that now!)

I HATED shopping for clothes. Well, to be precise, I loved the shopping and I loved the clothes but I hated the fact that they either didn't come in my size and if they did they looked awful! 

Bottom line...face it Beverly...you aren't happy carrying so much weight. You never have been, you never will be so what are you going to do about it? It was in my hands, only I could do anything and I needed to want to enough to be successful.

The temptation was to think: 'Well...I'm 56, I may as well let go and just enjoy my food.....'

NO! I'm ONLY 56 and I could have 20, 30 years ahead of me...and do I REALLY enjoy my food? The Food and Fitness mentor Rosemary Conley once stated: "Nothing tastes as good as being slim feels!" and I now have to say that she is absolutely right!

What brought things to a head for me, what finally gave me the resolve to do it was a casual comment that came my way last May: 'Oh well, it comes to us all...' that, together with the offer of a walking stick that was surplus to requirements!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That evening I looked up my nearest Rosemary Conley class, phoned a good friend who I knew also wanted to lose weight and we planned to join the class the following night.

We joined. I was weighed. I was shocked. I was resolved and determined.

Jill, the class leader said, 'You're going to do it, I know!' and she was right! 

18 months later and 6 stones lighter my life is completely different. 

This is me... 

...running 5K on the hottest day of the year last year in the 'Race for Life'

This is me! The me that has always been in there but was previously so well covered up!

I begin this blog as I would like to be able to help anyone else who feels like I did and who may be encouraged by my story, by what I have to share in the following posts. The things that helped me, the difficulties and how I overcome them, how maintaining my weight is actually my new lifestyle, not a diet! If I can help anyone who is walking under the cloud that I walked under for so many years then I want to. I see people walking around, carrying such weight, and I'm not only referring to the excess pounds. I want to convince them that they CAN do something about it. You're never too old, never too heavy!

 And if no one is inspired or helped...well, it will do me good to remind myself and keep myself on track!