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Wednesday 29 August 2012

the one with the slim and save start!

Bloggers; near and far,

I reach you in a state of despair.

Well, I say despair - I'm feeling more positive, yet more anxious than I ever have. Positive in terms of things I am trying to change, despair as things I took for granted are no longer around.

On Saturday I made a conscious decision to try and shift some of this massive burden around my shoulders (or bones), otherwise known as extra (extra extra) weight. I researched, I thought long and hard, and I did my homework on the various different diets. I credited and discredits certain programmes that I never thought I would (Slimming World, Weight Watchers) and realised I needed something more full on. Or, something that basically doesn't require me to eat ;) Short of starving myself (been there, done that), I decided to embark in a VLCD - (aka Very Low Calorie Diet) - otherwise known as a meal replacement programme.

I looked at the various types, the costs and what they could give me in terms of support. I dismissed several because they were stupidly expensive (£60 for a week? Are you having a giraffe? - I could kit myself out in caviar for that), dismissed others because they apparently tasted rank (I have a rubbish gag reflex at the best of times) and settled on a relatively new one - Slim and Save. They have very good feedback and response rates, which appealed to me. I needed something I could at least sustain for some period of time. I read a lot of reviews on Minimins, where I've been a member off and on for the last two years and was instrumental in my weight loss with WW back in 2010, and they came up glowing. Obviously you have the people who are more likely to stick with something, and those that fall by the wayside, but most all said it was value for money.

I ordered the 2 week package (£56.99) - you get to select 42 items out of a bunch of different options (shakes, bars and meals) - you can of course have a "taster" selection pack that sets you up for a week, so you can try different shakes, but I was fairly certain of the ones I'd like - I'm not a fan of synthetic chocolate type stuff so I went with the fruit shakes.

It comes by next day courier - you can chose to have it all day, prior to 12pm or prior to 9am - but I went with the all day option. Fortunately it came around 10:45am, so I was able to start to diet there and then! I'd had black coffee during the morning, so this was fine.

I'm not going to go into massive depth about how the diet works - the website is pretty informative and I can always give you a heads up (I'm still learning though!).

Anyway - weigh in. I've hovered around the same weight for the past 2 months - anything between 19st 12lbs and 20st 4lbs depending on what I've had to eat/drink the night before, and the time of day. I weighed in at 20st 3lbs this morning - which isn't quite my highest weight (I managed to top 21st something at the end of May, for shame, but dropped a bit of weight from work), but still ridiculously high. I'm not going to aim hard and fast, I'm just going to take it as it comes; I'd like to be a healthy size 10-12 and around 10st 7lbs-11st, but we'll see.

So, my weigh in day will be a Wednesday. Starting at 20st 3lbs.

I worked out there are 16 weeks between now and Christmas. I'd like to think, at a rate of 4lbs a week, give or take a few over and under weeks, I could lose 60lbs - this equates to 4st 4lbs - that would be lovely to have off by Christmas and will make me just a smidge under 16st - that would be brilliant! I am fully aware there are going to be no-go days and I know we've got a holiday in October (although nothing is booked) so I'm not going to put any pressure, but I'd be happy with a nice dent in that number.

Anyway, I'm babbling - I'm going to work out what I'll have for tea now.

xox

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