First The Good News - I'm Back On Lighter Life Diet

Now the bad news. I have put a lot of weight back on in the last few months. I have a great set of excuses but the main one is some real rubbish events at work. I will not dwell on them as they are in the past but suffice to say that any control of my eating went out of my thoughts and actions.

So last Monday saw me back at my lighter life counseling group to restart my diet. One thing about the system is that there is an inbuilt sense of grace and mercy to people like me who put weight back on. What I mean is there is no sense on condemnation or guilt put on you for failing. So my counselor and the guys in the group just said "Hi, how are you" and we got on with the business of weighing in and discussing where we all are in the program.

Because of this system of grace I am hoping that my blog readers will also be the same towards me. I have many email saying how my story on lighter life has helped them. Well I hope that this next section of my story will not send too many people down the tube.

My weight was 19 stones 1 pound. I will do the first 8 weeks and see where I am then. Look back here as I post weekly if you want to follow my progress.

A Holiday in France Without Lighter Life

I am in France for a short weekend break. This weekend is in complete contrast to the last time we came here. The last visit was very difficult because I was still on abstinence.

You cannot imagine how hard it is to sit in a street cafe in Cognac and just have a lighter life bar and plain water. The waiter was completely confused by it all and our beginners french only seemed to make him more confused.

This time I am simply maintaining my weight loss so I will go to the same restaurant tomorrow and enjoy the meal. There is nothing quite like real french food.

I am eating hardly any food packs now as I do not need to. Sometimes I will have a soup for convenience at lunch time but other than that I just eat normal food.

In the new year I may try to lose one more stone but I am very happy with my weight now and can live like this no problem.

3 more lbs lost this week

Not very much weight loss this week and I am not sure why. Still I am taking up golf again so maybe the exercise will help for next week. I am trying out some of the lighter life soup flavours and they taste a while lot better than they did last time. The vegetable one has a new recipes and is now very tasty. It used to taste and fell like polyfilla.

I have got to the point where any whiff of food is testing me. A colleague at work decided to have chips for lunch and the smell was lovely. Not very helpful for me though.

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.

Back from careful eating on my holiday - Diet? What Diet?

If you go on holiday you expect to let things go a little bit and overeat. It would be a crime not to.
This has been my thinking for 30 years but this year my thinking has changed.

My 10 day holiday has been completely controlled as regards eating. I have chosen to eat healthily some days and gone mad on other days. The difference this year is the feeling of being in control and having choice.

My lighter life diet has given me that control and I love it. I am not weighing myself at the moment so I do not know if I have put on any weight - I suspect 1 or 2 pounds. It doesn't matter because I will now be very careful for a week or 2 and the weight will just come back off.

I had an email today from a chap wanting to know some details about the route to management on lighter life. This is the hardest part of the lighter life diet because you have to re-learn how to eat normally. This is the one area where the company who market the diet fall short. The information is minimal and confusing. My lighter life counsellor is brilliant but the materials do not cover the 12 weeks route to management phase very well.

All the information is there but for people new to controlling their eating it is hard to understand. I have vast experience of cooking and menu preparation but I could not devise a day's meal plan very easily from the info given. The authors of the program do know their stuff but they assume that we know what they are talking about. After 5 or 6 weeks I ignored the route to managment guidelines as I couldn't make sense of them.

As I have maintained my weight loss I think I got the idea but some more complete information from the lighter life company wouldn't go amiss.

Still sailing along nicely on my lighter life

I went to my last weigh in and counselling group on monday. Knowing I am not going anymore is yet another readjustment to my new lighter life.
More and more people are reacting very positively to my new look which is great. I still haven't tried out certain no no foods and may not for quite a while. I am sticking to salads and low fat meals. I still have some lighter life food packs but they will run out in a few days.
The big decision is what to have for breakfast instead of a food pack.
I will probably have home made juices most mornings and standard breakfast cereals the rest of the time. The juices I make have a good mixture of fresh vegetables and fruit and taste lovely. My favourite sounds and looks dreadful but tastes great. The ingredients are

Spinach
Carrot
Apple
Pineapple
Celery
Root ginger

I run them through my juicer and close my eyes. I really doesn't look good but the flavour is wonderful. It almost feels like drinking pure vitamins and is a great set up for the day.

The sun is shining and the diet gets easier

Where I live in the UK today is sunny and warm. This has had a good effect on my lighter life diet for some reason. I am not so interested in food and more interested in chilling out and not doing very much at all.

The only slight problem is that my toes are freezing cold even in this heat. Because the lighter life diet is so extreme blood circulation reduces and so my extremities do not stay as warm as normal. (I think I got that right).

Anyway, once I come off the diet My toes and fingers will not be cold all the time.

So today is no longer a battlefield for my mind on this diet. I never realised how things would go up and down on a day by day basis.

A reward for me for doing so well on lighter life

Today is a big day.

I went and bought myself a new synthesiser keyboard - a Roland Fantom to be precise.

It is fantastic to have a new musical instrument to play around with. It records and multitracks and even takes vocals direct. - Heres come a new album eh. I had in mind to buy myself one of these if I was able to lose the weight so I have.

So this evening I spent 4 hours learning the ins and outs of my new roland fantom.
Nothing to do with lighter life really but in another way it is. Who would have thought at the beginning of this year I would have lost 5 stones with only 1 more to lose. Unbelievable!

I can't wait to spend the rest of the weekend enjoying my reward

Musically yours
Ken

nothing in a restaurant to eat!

I went on a business lunch today and there was nothing I could eat on the menu that fitted in with the lighter life diet. So I had a side salad and diet coke. A bit frustrating as I was looking forward to a meal out for the first time this year.
Food Dairy
B: Caramel Shake
L: Side salad and diet coke
D: Quorn on a salad bed with chilli sauce. Sugar free Jelly
S: Nutty Bar

I could get used to this eating

I am hooked on food again but am sticking rigidly to my lighter life route to management.
My scales say I have lost a lb as well which is a bonus. Food diary for last 2 days was the same as wednesday. Tomorrow I am going to have something different. My mum has given me some freah salmon which is great except I don't eat fish - but I might just this once. Many people are at last commenting on my weight loss. I was beginning to think no one was interested.

First day of route to management on lighter life

Well
The final weigh in on abstinence came out at an extra 6lbs loss
For the 12weeks that is a total of 4 stones 7 lbs. Which I am delighted about.
I have today started what is called "route to management" by the lighter life diet people.
My BMI is still a bit high at 29 but I know I can tackle this later on once I have consolidated the weight at this level.
So today I have my first real food since January 6th. A piece of chicken breast with some low fat cottage cheese. It might sound basic but it was delicious. The thing also was the sensation of eating food again. You cannot imagine how good real food tastes and feels after 12 weeks abstinence.
So food diary day one
B: vanilla shake
L: Thai Chilli Shake
T: Chicken Breast with low fat cottage cheese
S: Nutty Bar

Route to management here I come

I have decided that I will start the route to management phase of my lighter life diet after my next weigh in tomorrow.
I have lost over 4 stones so far in 12 weeks and am still a bit short of the ideal weight for my height but I need to consolidate the weight loss I have acheived so far.
So I am now looking forward to a real meal once a day for the next 3 weeks.
I do not know if I will still lose weight on this route to management stage but I hope I do lose a bit more.
I plan to keep a bit of a food diary here of what I eat.
I think I would have found this helpful myself but there seems to be a bit of secrecy about what you can eat on route to management. I do not know why.
So final weigh in of the abstinence stage of my lighter life tomorrow. I will post as soon as I get home from the meeting.

Back from a week in France on Lighter Life diet

Well, I will never do that again. I Stuck completely to the diet and look to have lost a further 6 lbs. But.. A french holiday without food is very trying indeed.
Whenever we go over food is an integral part of the break. So everywhere we went I saw food, thought about food, was tempted by food, etc.
I'm through it now. I cannot wait till the next weigh in on monday to see how things have gone.

A big milestone for me

Well I got weighed and have now lost 4 stones in the 10 weeks.
More importantly my BMI is now below 30. In fact it is 29.7 something. I am no longer obese - just overweight. Fantastic.
So My resolve to stick with the lighter life while on holiday in france is complete. I will not cheat. When I get back it will mean fewer weeks to my goal weight.
I had a look at the lighter life management books this week and it looks really good. I am looking forward to that stage which will be very soon.
More blogging when I get back from france

Decision made about my lighter life holiday

I have now decided not to relax the lighter life diet I am on while on holiday in France. I think this is the harder choice but means that my ultimate goal of losing the weight will come faster.

My lighter life counsellor reckoned I would lose 2 weeks of weight loss by not follwing for the 6 days I am away.

So onwards and upwards. I think my unofficial weigh in tomorrow (On my own scales) will show 5 or 6 lbs weight loss this week but I can't wait for monday's official weigh in.

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.

The most dissappointing day so far on lighter life

Well
I got weighed tonight and the result is a loss of only 3 lbs. I cannot understand that but the counsellor says you get weeks like that. Well that still does not make up for it.
I have not cheated by an ounce. Hmmm.
So total weight loss in the last 9 weeks. 3 stones 8 lbs.
I will persevere and see what happens next week

People are noticing my weight loss at last

OK at last people are noticing my weight loss. At church this morning 3 people remarked on how well I was looking and were amazed at my weight loss.
At last - i was beginning to think my lighter life diet was in my imagination apart from the fact that I have been hungry for 9 weeks.
9 week weigh in tomorrow - can't wait

Looks like a good week this week

I have been weighing myself daily - a bit of an obsession - and I think I will lose 5-7 lbs this week. You would think that after nearly 9 weeks I would not be so focused on the numbers but I am. I think it is because my weight is back to what it was more than 20 years ago. Another stone and it will be back to 30 years ago.
There is no doubt the lighter life diet works for me although I do find it very hard. I feel sure I will be able to maintain this when I finish but we'll see. I intend to keep blogging when the main lighter life diet is ended so that It keeps me on the straight and narrow

Exercise and my lighter life diet

My Lighter Life counsellor has said that I shouldn't overdo the exercise while I am on the lighter life diet. But this week I have worked 70 hours and my job is physically demanding. So it is like a daily work out, particularly this week. I am hoping that this will give me the benefit of a little extra weight loss this week.
I have had a few dizzy moments which is apparently because my blood pressure has reduced because of the diet - My body is getting used to the new blood pressure level.
I am almost decided now to take a weeks break for easter while I'm on holiday in France. I will have three lighter life food packs and one carefully chosen meal. Of course thinking this and doing it is not the same. I cannot contemplate being in france and missing on the fantastic food. I may just decide day by day.
When I come back from holiday I will be straight back on the lighter life diet until I decide that I hve lost enough weight.
Does anyone else on this diet think like this? Let me know