It feels like a new life with food

I have 3 lighter life food packs left which I will have when it suits me. I am maintaining my weight loss with the occasional up and down on the scales. I do not weigh myself very often now as I am not worried about putting weight on. I know that if I do put a lot of weight on - say 1/2 a stone I can simply do a week or 2 on the food packs to correct it. Better then this I can just watch what I eat for a month and the excess weight will be gone.

Being in control in this way is great. We were in an italian restaurant for dinner today and I ordered some grilled chicken on a salad. I had 3 spoonfulls of my wife's dessert and it was easy. I did not overeat and so I know I will not have put on any weight. This being in control is quite addictive but it is better than my previous food addiction.

In 30 days time I am going on a family holiday. I have 3 new swimming costumes (Size Medium instead of XXLarge). A holiday is usually an excuse for overeating but not for me now. I will enjoy all the eating out and special meals with the family but I will also enjoy preparing for the eating out by being controlled at other times of my break. I can do whatever I want and I choose to control my eating and make this a pleasurable part of my holiday. This is, I know, the musings of an ex addict but these are feelings and experiences very new to me. I am enjoying them hugely.

Posts are going to be weekly from now on but do comment on this site and I will respond back.

Lighter life food packs - what are they like?

After finding out that all I ate for 15 weeks were food packs people want to know what is in them and what are they like.

I have no idea what is in them - lots of chemicals probably. The do include all the essential nutrients you need to keep your body going. They are almost zero carbohydrate content. This is one of the main roles of the food packs - to help your body go into ketosis because of the lack of carbs. I think there are also ingredients that keep you feeling full but I could be wrong here.

The flavours are just flavours. I'm sure there are no strawberries in the strawberry shake. When I started the lighter life diet I tried out all the flavours. The soups were quickly reduced to one favourite flavour, Thai Chilli. The shakes were much better and I enjoy them all. My favourites are vanilla, caramel and chocolate. I often make them into a cold mocha chillo shake by adding some instant coffee.

The food bars are the source of great discussion in our diet group as we all like different ones for different reasons. My favourite is the nutty bar but I also like the toffee and the cranberry bars.

I'm not sure you could ever say you like the food packs. They are what they are - a tool to help you lose weight. I have noticed that real food tastes much better now having been deprived for so long. Even salad leaves and radishes acheive a gourmet rating at the moment. They taste terrific. My wife has pointed out the I eat very slowly now - this is a good thing. I used to eat food in a big rush but now I tend to enjoy the flavours and textures much more.

I have only 3 weeks to go now and then no more food packs for me. I may use them to supplement my diet when I need to for the odd week but other than that I'm all for real food now.

My first day since 6th January with no food packs

Today being a saturday was a chance for me to try a day without the support of any lighter life food packs or bars. There are so many permitted foods at this stage of route to management that this was very easy to arrange.
I will go back to one or 2 food packs for the reat of my time on the diet but I wanted to give it a go.

So here is what I had

B: 2 weetabix with skimmed milk
L: Out for dinner at a favourite restaurant. Chicken pieces with salad and sweet potato and spinach lasagne. Very Healthy with hardly any pasta in it.
D: Quinoa, courgette and mushroom stir fry - snack size portion
S: Apple and mandarin

I could get used to this normal food all day.
It is dawning on me that it a few weeks this whole lighter life diet will have finished and I will not need any of the food packs. I also will not be going to the weigh ins and counselling sessions. This has become a way of life for me this year so that will take some adjusting to.

Then all I have to do is keep thin and healthy. This blog is now a major strategy towards my weight maintenance so keep reading

I'm beginning to dislike some of the lighter life food packs

I have been on these lighter life food packs since January 6th and now some of them are not tasting so good. I have never really enjoyed the soup packs but I have been having the Thai Chilli one for months. Today I really struggled to eat this flavour.
So I will give myself a break from the soups for a couple of weeks and see if I fancy them later.

I have however found that by adding a somall amount of instant coffee to some of the sweet shakes it gives me a new range of very nice tasting shakes. The ones that work well for me are Vanilla, Chocolate and Caramel. I also have been adding 6 ice cubes to make the shake more substantial and last longer.

The taste is like one of the coffee chillos they sell at B&B's (In the UK)

Lets hope I do not go off the sweet flavour lighter life shakes as well. I would have to stop then.

We had people round for dinner today but I had to watch the Chelsea v Newcastle game on TV to distract me from all the lovely food. Still not long now

Drinking on the lighter life diet

It turns out I have been depriving myself of some drinks that I can have on the lighter life diet. I can have black tea including earl grey. This may not sound too great to you but for me it is a few more new flavours I can introduce.

The lighter life food packs are fine but it can get a bit boring in the flavour department. So new flavours to enjoy.

Someone asked me why I am keeping a blog about my lighter life journey. Well the main reason is to keep me on it! It is one of the network of strategies I am using to keep me on the straight and narrow. The whole business of writing down what is happening to me on this diet seems to help me focus on staying with it.
This week I have swayed from stopping immediately to keeping going to my ideal weight - no question. The act of keeping myself and anyone reading the lighter life blog is helping my resolve as I find the abstinence thing very hard.