Will anyone notice if I cheat on my lighter life diet?

I have been near food all week for various reasons and the temptation to cheat on my lighter life diet has been almost overwhelming. I have also had to collect my home grown potatoes from my garden and not eat any of them. Now that is difficult. I am hoping there will still be some when I return to normal eating in 6 - 8 weeks.

The thing is I keep saying to myself that no one will notice. That is true - I am so thin compared to when I started in January that a bad week is something I could easily get away with.

But I know that the way the lighter life diet works using ketosis. This is completely messed up with even the slightest cheating. If I really do want to finish my life of dieting once and for all then I have to be good.

Cold Feet on the lighter Life Diet

I know have gone into ketosis because my feet are cold even though this is the middle of summer. My hands will follow in a few days time I am sure. This is the one big negative for me on the diet. Speaking to the other guys it is quite common so I just have to live with it.

Looking forward to my next weigh in on monday. Speak to you soon

Great weight loss on my first week back

I had my first weigh in today and I had lost 11 lbs. So from 16 stones 11 lbs to 16 stones in one week. I do not know any other diet like lighter life that would give me that level of weight loss and encouragement.

I feel completely positive and confident about getting down to my goal weight. I think my goal weight is 13 stones and I expect it to take about 12 weeks including a 4 week fast track to maintenance program.

The lighter life cousellor feels just as confident as I do because I am so focussed on sticking to the plan. So 7 more weeks of abstinence and then 4 weeks of route to management. At least thats the plan.

One difficulty on the horizon is that I am running an alpha course at my church and part of that is having a meal every week. So I will have to sit out the meal and explain to everyone what I am doing. I do not want to appear rude.

I am now allowed food bars as well as food packs so I am looking forward to something solid to eat this evening for supper. Crunchy nut flavour I think.

2 days in after return to lighter life diet

I had a huge work day yesterday 7.00 - 11.15 and the temptation to order a burger at paddington station late last night was almost too much. I didn't. I got a bottle of water for the train and moped.
Other than that my return to the lighter life diet has gone a lot smoother than anticipated.

I haven't had quite as many withdrawal symptoms as the first time. This is probably because I was eating quite healthily anyway so didn't have lots of 21st century toxins to get rid of.

I can feel my body redadjusting to losing weight. I will not weigh myself at home as I am trying to not get too obsessed about weighing myself.

I have only had sweet food packs so far. I haven't bought any soups as I can't face them as yet.

The only other issue is do I tell people I am back on the wagon again. No one has noticed any increase in weight so I will keep quiet abd just enjoy all the compiments and adulation from my family and friends.
One of the guys in my group has started on lighter life because his wife knows me through work and recommended him to do it. I do not know whether I should let on that I am responsible in part for him being on a diet.

Bad news at my lighter life weigh in

This was very unexpected.

I went back to lighter life tonight for the next phase of weight loss and discovered that I had put nearly 2 stones back on. I was a bit stunned but the scales cannot lie. I have not weighed for months so it was aa bit of a killer. But I have to be honest about where I am.
So its back to the food packs for at least 8 weeks for me.

My weight as of tonight is 16 stones 10 lbs.

The group of guys is completely different now and it will tke some getting used to them. And them to me. One interesting thing was listening to all the excuses I was using last year coming out of other peoples mouths. What is encouraging is that I now know that they are simply excuses and not straight thinking. This means that my thinking about food has improved quite a bit since last year.

Food packs taste a bit better after a break but for how long. Today I had 2 caramel, vanilla and a chocolate one with a bit of instant coffee.

I will write more now I am back on abstinence as I need this to keep me focussed

A Complete Change of Direction - Hope it Works

As many of you will know I stopped short of my ideal weight when I did the lighter life diet earlier on this year. The reason I stopped was because I was finding it very difficult adjusting to being a lot thinner. This is both physically and mentally. So I have taken a break since May.

My plan was to do lighter life all over again next january and february to finish the job. I do not need to lose so much now. I already lost 5 stones. But there is a problem. Next february I am spending a week in Stuttgart for a trade show so I do not really want to be dieting with all that weiss beer and german noodles (Schwabien/schwabisch noodles I think they are called).

So the only other 2 options are to wait until march 2009 or do it now.

I have decided to go back on my lighter life diet now for 8 weeks and then go onto route to maintainance which should see my BMI down to below 25 and my weight within the normal range for my height and age.

I am just waiting for my lighter life counsellor to give me the OK and then I'm back on the potions (Sorry - Lighter Life Food Packs). I have been told that lighter life is much harder the second time but I do not know if I will find this true for me. I do not find the packs particlularly tasty but they do keep you going for the day provided you take them at regular intervals.

A bit of me is very excited because in a few weeks I will be of normal weight for the 1st time in my adult life. Amazing really.

There is one mystery left to be solved. I haven't weighed myself since june so I do not know what I weigh. I will find out at the first session - hopefully tomorrow. I know I have put a little bit on. It will come right off anyway so its not a problem.

To save you looking back in the blog these are my stats for the first part of my diet

Start weight January 2008 - 19stones 11 lbs
Finish weight May 2008 - 14 stones 11 lbs

New Target weight - 13 stones

I will post more often now for a while as it helps me keep focussed knowing there are a whole load of people following my progress

Wish me luck

Are you allowed to drink alcohol on the lighter life diet?

Another of many questions I have been asked on my lighter life diet is can I drink alcohol.
Well the simple answer is no - not even a little bit - In fact don't even think about it!!!
The whole point about doing the lighter life diet properly in the first stage is to ABSTAIN from normal food and drink.

I must admit that there were some dieters in my group who did not stay the course because they could not get their head around this. They would come to the meeting and say how they had been tempted to eat this or drink that.

The whole point about lighter life is that you commit to doing things differently for a time for the long term benefits. So alcohol is off. I can hear some readers asking "Does this mean that you didn't have any alcohol while you were on the diet?" Well yes, of course. No alcohol for 5 months.
For me this is no great hardship as I am not a huge drinker anyway. For some of the guys this was a major issue. Some of them had a beer problem, others a wine problem and of course the hard core whisky and brandy drinkers hated the restriction.

When you drink alcohol you lose some of your willpower and you will cheat on your diet so it is not worth risking an evening of drinking to stop your weight loss.

After about week 5 on the route to management you are allowed some drinks but you get the feeling that the diet is better for you if you abstain totally. Now I am back to my new form of normal eating I do have the odd glass of red wine or a german Weiss beer and it does not make me put on weight.

The lighter life diet only really works if you "get it". And the "it" is follow the rules of abstinence. Just do what the diet says. The weight will fall off you. You will be thin.

Until january 2008 I had lived life as a fat person. I was clinically obese according to my doctor. Now on the 4th August in the same year I am living life as a THIN person. That is worth the abstinence for me. So what If I couldn't have a drink for 5 months. so what. Look at the positive benefits now. Its a no brainer.