Day Twenty Three...

Another good day. As I've said before, work really does make it a lot easier for me. Although it makes my blog dull, I just hope I can keep saying "another good day" for the next 5 months.

I caught up with a friend via instant messaging tonight. He's in Australia so our online times don't cross as much as I'd like. I always get a sense of guilt when we do chat as we're really good mates but don't talk nearly as much as we should. The last time I saw him was at his wedding in Perth in 2003. Since then he's has a child I've never seen. I'm itching to head back and say hello. I met a cousin at a funeral recently who also lives in Western Australia. I got on very well with him and promised to visit him later. This gives me the perfect excuse to head out there later this year or the start of the next.

It may just be the perfect holiday after Lighterlife.

Day Twenty Two...

Today was much the same as yesterday. I really cope far better at work. I'm feeling positive about the fact that I've made it through three weeks and at the moment the next 6 months looks easy. I need to be able to save this state of mind and load it up when times get harder.

However there are a couple of points to note. Yesterday morning a weighed myself on my scales in advance of the evening's weigh in. I wanted to check the accuracy of my scales compared to my counsellor's. There was a bit of a difference, but they were broadly similar. Out of interest I weighed myself tonight and I am 6lbs heavier than yesterday morning and 1lb heavier than yesterday's weigh in. Now, I'm not worried about this, but it really shows how your weight can fluctuate.

Tonight I have a Lighterlife milestone. My first dose of constipation. I noticed myself being a little less regular over the weekend and tonight it felt like I was passing a brick. If I am honest, I was lax with my water consumption over the weekend, so I've promised myself to try harder on days when I'm away from work.

Oh, before I go I must thank you for your comments. They really brighten up my day.

Walking to Mexico

I was bored so I did a little maths tonight. I was running some figures through my head when I realised the following. I found it amazing so I though I'd share it. I hope you find it interesting...

There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat.

I burn up 345 calories walking 4 miles home. Therefore 1 mile = 345/4 = 86 calories per mile.

3500/86 = 40 miles per pound of fat. Multiply by 14 and you get 560 miles of walking per stone.

560 miles is the distance between London in the South of England and Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland.

However, I am trying to lose 10 stones. That is 5600 miles. 5600 miles is the distance between London and Mexico if I walked across the Atlantic and went via New York.

That just goes to show how efficient the human body is. I am currently storing enough energey to walk me to another two continents. Imagine how much petrol that would be in your car.

Day Twenty One... Weigh in

What a difference a day makes. I was pretty depressed yesterday but this morning I woke up happy and positive. I have no idea what caused the difference, but I'm happy my mood changed so dramatically. A few more days of that and I'd have strayed or maybe even given up.

It was good to be back at work and keeping my mind occupied. Unfortunately I couldn't walk home as I seem to have tweaked something in my knee and walking is uncomfortable. Therefore, I only made 9,736 steps, which is shorter than my 10,000 target, but I'm still happy with it.

I went to my weigh in and counselling tonight and for the first time I had company. There were three new faces. This should make things much more interesting. In all my previous session it's just been me on my own.

Anyway, time to cut to the chase. I lost another 6lbs this week. That brings the grand total to exactly 2 stones in 3 weeks.

I am happy with that weight loss. Men are supposed to lose 3 stones in 8 weeks. That's an average of 5.25lbs a week. So a weekly loss of 5 or 6 pounds is perfect.

Day Twenty...

We drove back to London this afternoon. I was much easier than the way there. I drank two litre bottles of water from a Service Station to get my water intake high again. In the station they had lots of fresh cooked bacon and sausage and my stomach ached for some. I quickly exited with my water and continued the drive.

However, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the bacon out of my mind. I even felt physicaly hungry for the first time in a fortnight. The hunger is still with me now after a soup and lots of water.

All I can think of right now is what I'm missing, what I'd like an how long this programme is going to last. It's pretty depressing stuff.

Day Nineteen...

It rained a lot so going outsied was a no no. Luckily we had lots of games to keep us occupied. The problem for we was dinner time. As I explained earlier I was dodging meals. However, I helped cook in the kitchen. The smell of roast lamb and pork with roast potatoes drove me round the bend. I didn't cheat, but I was sorely tempted and pretty depressed that I wasn't having any meat.

The fact that this diet was really causing me to miss out really hit home and I was pretty miserable for the rest of the evening.

Day Eighteen...

Went fishing. I took a couple of friends who'd never been before and I spent the entire day after trout on the river. I caught several, but all were tiny.

For the first time I didn't eat all my meals in a day. I had breakfast, then fished for 12 hours. When I got back I had one more pack and headed for bed. Strangely I wasn't hungry. I also didn't drink enough water and my pee was running very dark.

So not the best of days health wise, but I was very happy.

Day Seventeen...

We left London for our weekend retreat at 1pm in the hope of beating some bank holiday traffic. Fat chance. It took nearly an hour to get to the M4 and then it was more or less solid until we turned onto the M5. The M5 was even worse. Eventually we arrived about 7 hours after we left.

Anyway, we arrived at Coham Manor, chose a bedroom and made ourselves at home. There were 16 of us, so each couple paired off and booked a room.

It had been arranged that each group would do different tasks through the week - cooking, washing up etc... However, I decided to skip mealtimes altogether. It would have been to hard for me to sit through them all enjoying three course dinners every night. So while they ate, I played snooker or on the Wii.

I had to explain, again and again, why I wasn't eating and drinking but most people were very supportive.

Day Sixteen...

It was a crazy day at work today. Things seemed to be going so well yesterday, but I had the carpet pulled from under me today. One of my customers had a last minute change of plans and now wants to do things in a whole new way. I've recently spent £450,000 on IT equipment to support the previous solution which might never be used. Man, I'm pissed off. I walked home (every night this week) and cleared it all out of my head.

I had a few things to do at home tonight before I leave for my long weekend in Dorset tomorrow. Now they're done I'm going to take the laptop to bed and watch a film.

I still have a shake to get down me tonight. I've found if I make them with lots of water I can just down them in one. However, I can't do it too late or I'll be up in the night. I try not to drink anything after 10pm and I can last the night without needing a pee.

WARNING - GRIM CONTENT AHEAD.

What's happening to my guts? They are constantly burbling away and I have loads of trapped wind. When some of it wants to leave I get that feeling that it's not just gas, so I can't risk letting it go. When I get to the toilet I fart like there's no tomorrow and release a tiny bit of liquid. It's a pain in the arse ('scuse the pun).

I'm regular as clockwork in the morning, but the afternoons are bad.

Anyway, I'm off for a few days. See you soon.

Day Fifteen...

What a scorcher. I really enjoyed the wak home tonight. I managed, for the most part, to keep my mind off food and just enjoy the sun.

Work was tough, but somehow it all worked out fine. My customers all seemed happy today, and my suppliers have managed to deliver me a large project with tricky timescales on time.

Tomorrow is my last day in the office before heading to the country house for the weekend and I have to do a lot of tidying up before I go.

However, I did get a minor irritation at work. I stepped out of a leaving party for a close friend a colleague because my Lighterlife session was last night. Today a few people came up to me and asked if it was true I'd stopped eating and drinking. They all thought I was a bit mental. I'm not worried that people know, but it was treated as a bit of a joke. In a way it's a bit of a blessing. The reason I didn't tell people was to protect myself if I fail. Failing seems less likely every day now, so more people knowing just adds to my resolve to make it work.

Day Fourteen... Weigh in

I have now completed week two of the Lighterlife Programme. As expected the second week was much easier than the first. I definitely seem to be getting in the swing of things now.

I walked home from work again tonight as a little more exercise before my weigh-in. With the added walking to my Counsellor that puts today's total of steps to a record 15,488. Which makes me pretty happy. I even ran home from tonight's session, although I was very out of breath when I got home.

Anyway, time to cut to the chase. I lost 7lbs this week. That makes my total loss for my first fortnight 22lbs.

If I'm honest, I don't notice any difference yet. However, yesterday morning my belt went a notch further than normal. I haven't decided whether that's my mind playing tricks on me, or there is a real difference. I'm not to bothered. The scales don't lie, and they're going down.

Also, nobody has noticed anything yet. How much do you have to lose before it's obvious?

Day Thirteen...

Day thirteen. Unlucky for some? Nah, it was another easy day on Lighterlife.

The reason today was easy was quick simply being hugely busy at work. We had a failure at the weekend of a key system which today I had to find the root cause of. On top of that I had 6.5 hours of meeting where I was needed.

This left me 15 minutes for lunch. I didn't think I'd be able to eat lunch (even though it was just a bar) but I managed to wolf a toffee bar down. Between each meeting I drank a 1/2 litre of water, so got back on track after a dry weekend.

I walked home again, clocking nearly 15k on the pedometer. Admitedly I did think quite a lot about chinese food on the way back. Also, I am starting to crave cheese. I didn't think I'd miss cheese. It's funny what you don't realise you have until it's taken away.

Day Twelve...

Got up early this morning after my father phoned my from inside his pocket. I wrote a list of things I needed to do today. I then noticed the weather was perfect, threw the list away and went fishing.

I caught a 5.5lb rainbow trout within about 20 minutes, and then nothing for the rest of the day. It was great to be out on the sunshine. I have a couple of bottles of water and a peanut bar for company.

I'm off to bed early tonight with a book. I feel a little more sleepy these days. I'm not any more tired than normal, but am definitely sleeping more. Even the missus has noticed, and she's usually fast asleep.

Anyway, a new week starts tomorrow. I hope it's as good as the last one.

Day Eleven...

Didn't have tme to post list night.

Yesterday was pretty easy again. I was worried that this weekend would be as tough as last, but there's been no problems so far. The only issue is getting enough water down. It's much harder when you don't have a water cooler beside your desk. I need to work on that.

We went for a random drive yesterday and ended up in Windsor. Had a look round the castle and a wander round town. It was a nice day for a walk, and I enjoyed it. THe only trouble was walking past all the restaurants and ice-cream shops!

Day Ten...

Yee ha. I made it to double digit days with no cheating.

Went to the pub tonight and had water. Everyone else had beer and crisps, but I managed to avoid temptation. Actually that's a lie. I was sorely tempted, I just manged not to give in.

The pub wasn't a great experience when not drinking, but not too hard. I definitely wasn't my normal self, but I had no alcohol in me so it's hardly surprising. I left early as the other were going for a meal. I have another night in the pub next week, then I'm off for a long weekend here http://www.coham.com/ with a lot of friends. If I get through that I'll manage anything.

Day Nine...

A largely uneventful day.

I had my Lemon Bar at lunch and it was quite nice. I'll definitely get more of these and the fruit bar in next week's pack. However, I was pretty hungry in the afternoon.

Also, for the last two day I seem to have a very noisy belly. There's lots of rumbling down there. I don't know quite what's going on, but I wish it was quieter.

Tomorrow evening I have a night in the pub with colleagues as a thank you for delivering a large project. This will be my first night out drinking nothing but water. Woopee!

Day Eight... Return of the Cheeseburger

A mixed day. No hunger, drank lots of water. Work went well and I managed to tick off a few things that have been hanging around for a while.

I decided to walk home again rather than get the tube. My legs were a bit stiff so I fancied giving them a good workout. As I walked, the entire 4.5 miles just taunted me with the smell of takeaway. I passed burgers, kebabs, curries, fish + chips, Thai, Italian, Lebanese, pizza, chicken all smelling lovely.

Honestly, it was hell.

As I walked I comforted myself with the fact that I could have them all in six months or so. As I thought about it I realised that I need to stop looking at food as a reward. It's pretty perverse to reward yourself for losing half you body weight by eating junk food.

I really need to rewire my brain.

I had a fruit bar for lunch. I didn't get any in my first week, but they are easily the best bar I've had. I have a lemon to try for tomorrow's lunch, I hope it's nice too. This is a break through. The Nut and Toffee bars are pretty vile and I really want to eat bars at work. Mixing stuff in the office would be a pain in the butt.

Day Seven... Weigh in.

I had my first week weigh in tonight and I've lost 15lbs.

I'm pretty happy with that. It's a pity it will not go as fast as that over the coming weeks and months. I've picked up another bag of food for the week and am ready to rock.

I'm thinking of food less today, but it was in my dreams last night. I dreamt that I'd eaten food by accident and I was really pissed off with myself for not sticking to the diet. How bizarre.

Day Six...

Easiest day so far. Being back at work helps so much. My mind is on more important things than food, so I feel much better.

I got a step counter from my Lighterlife Counseller which I've worn on work days. I average about 7500 on a normal day. I have started getting on or off the tube a stop further away to make up more steps. However, this didn't do enough so today I just walked home from work. It's over four miles, but it was quite pleasant. I'll try to do that a couple of times a week. Today's step count was 14017 which is just fine.

I wasn't hungry at all tonight, but had a bit of a headache which disappeared after a chicken soup. I think got engrossed in a book and forgot to have my fourth meal. I though I'd better have my last one so have just finished a chocolate milkshake. You can really knock those things back.

Tomorrow I have my first full week weigh in. I am hoping that I make a full stone loss this week.

500 Calories

This is a no brain diet. There is no thinking required. All the food is supplied at your weekly counselling session. You just eat four packs a day and drink four litres of water.

Each Lighterlife pack contains 125 calories. In a day, that's 500 calories. They also contain the recommended amount of all the nutrients required for healthy living.

500 calories is low. Very low. That's why they call it a Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD). Men need 2550 on average per day, women 1940. This leaves me a shortfall of 2050 which my body has to make up. It does this by getting its calories from fat.

A man on the Lighterlife diet is expected to lose 3 stones every 8 weeks. That's a huge amount. Women lose the same amount in about 12 weeks. Men lose weight faster as they have more muscle and therefore burn calories faster.

So, basically I am starving myself down to my target weight in a controlled manner. This does sound drastic. People have said that it could lead to eating or metabolism problems, but let's face it, I wouldn't need to do this if I wasn't double my recommended weight. I already have those problems. I'd rather face these issues from a healthy size that ignore them and eat myself to death.

Day Five...

It's been a good day today.

I decided I needed a new power supply for my PC in an attempt to quieten it down. It sounds like a jet engine at the moment, which is annoying when watching films. I popped off to PC World as soon as it opened, bought one and fitted it. It all runs nicely, but still sounds noisy. I'm going to replace the CPU fan next.

I had my check in with my counsellor today to see how I'm getting on on the diet. I was weighed and have lost 13lbs. That's just under a stone.

With Lighterlife that's pretty normal for the first session and I was expecting it. My suspicion is that it's mostly water. Normally people get a huge boost at losing that amount in such a short time, but I can't bring myself to be that excited. I new it was coming and it's not fat. If I stopped the diet tomorrow it would all come back on in about two days.

What's good about it is that fact that I can do it and I'm doing it properly. Physically, this is the easiest diet there is. I feel little hunger and now have decent energy levels. My earlier tiredness seems to have gone. However, all I can think about is food. Food, food and more food.

Day Four...

It's my first day on the diet without being at work. Saturdays are usually a day where I eat a lot. Normally I'd have a cooked breakfast before heading out fishing. Through the day I'd have a Burger King type meal or sandwiches, as well as crisps and chocolate. Then at night I'd have a meal out with the missus.

Obviously today is different. We went to the cinema this morning as we didn't actually go last night. Twenty Eight Weeks Later was quite scary. Not as strong as the first film but more frightening.

The diet has gone OK today, but I find myself constantly thinking about food. The coming six months fills me with dread. Tomorrow I go for a check in with my counsellor. I hear lots of other dieters losing over 10lbs in their first week so I expect to hear good news. I've stuck to it rigidly and only been having 500 calories a day, so there is no way I can't have lost weight.

I don't feel any kind of physical hunger, but I have a longing for food. I have a vision of a bacon double cheeseburger that will not leave me.

I hope the counsellor has good suggestions for ridding myself of these thoughts. I know I don't need it physically, but my mind says I do.

Day Three...

Everything went fine today. I seem to be coping alright. Although I have noticed a couple of things:

I have been yawning all day. I don't really feel tired, but I spend half the day looking knackered. Also, for the first time in my life I have bloodshot eyes. There is a slightly zoned out feeling in my head. I can't explain it, but it's strange. However, I feel fine, so I'm not worried.

As well as oceans of water, I've had Veg Soup for breakfast, a Toffee Bar for lunch and am currently having a Thai Chili Soup before I go out to the cinema to watch 28 Weeks Later. When I get back I'll try a hot Chocolate before bed. I stopped drinking water a little while ago so I wouldn't have to pee mid film!

Four Litres A Day

As part of the Lighterlife diet you have to drink a lot of water. I mean a lot. 4 Litres doesn't sound like a lot when it's written on a page, but you try to drink it.

I think I've drunk at least 4 litres in the last two days. At work it's easy, I just wander up to the water cooler, drink a 250ml glass and take another back to my desk - bingo, I've drunk 1/2 a litre.

At home it's much harder. There's no water cooler so I have to drink tap water. Tap water tastes more or less the same as water from the cooler, but, no matter how long you run the tap for, it's warmer. Warmer water tastes bad. So I'm definitely no keeping the fluid intake high enough at home. I'll have to work on that, especially at the weekends.

A product of drinking so much is obvious. I pee a lot. At least once an hour through the afternoon I have to head to the loo. I'm hoping my team don't notice. I was warned by my counsellor that that would happen, but I didn't believe it would happen to me. I was up a couple of times in the night, so this evening I'm not going to drink after ten o'clock.

Day Two...

Before bed last night I made myself a raspberry milkshake. I mixed it up with the batter operated whisk they supplied me with. It was pretty poor. It was full of powdery lumps. It had a vague smell of Angel Delight to it but not so tasty. It was a bit bland a gloopy, but not terrible.

I woke up this morning feeling good. I was interupted by a pee in the night and I guess I'm going to have to get used to that. More on this later.

I made myself a Vegetable Soup with some trepidation. I expected these to be the worst tasting. I was surprised to find it was OK. Better than the chicken, but still behind the Thai.

I went to work and wasn't hungry until lunch time. For lunch I had a Toffee Bar. Hmmm. Toffee this isn't, but it was a vast improvement on yesterday's Peanut Bar. I think I'll always have a bar at work so I don't have to go through the rigmarole of making up a soup or a milkshake. It also means I can keep it private from my co-workers.

By the end of the day I was getting peckish so I headed for home and had a Chicken Soup. At the same time I made a Caramel Milkshake and put it in the freezer. Later I hope to have something I can eat with cutlery rather than just drink.

In general today has been much beter than yesterday. I feel pretty good and have not been too hungry.

It's Not All Bad

My new Lens arrived in the post today. It's too overcast to get any sample pictures up, but I've really enjoyed just playing with it.

Pictures will follow.

Day One... This Is Not Going To Be Easy

I started Lighterlife this morning.

It's been a bit of a struggle. It's not been hard making it through the day, but looking forward to the next 6 months is pretty depressing.

The food is bland at best, and very unispiring. I randomly selected a chicken soup for breakfast which was quite creamy and not that nice. Lunch was a nut crunch bar, which was, at best, edible. For my evening meal I had a Thai chilli soup, this was easily the best tasting thing so far. Before bed I'm going to try a 'milkshake'.

All of the packs have the same background smell. I can deal with hunger but the boredom of eating 5 different flavour for the rest of this year really sucks.

All Set...

Ok. It's bed time. I've had my last session with my counsellor and have picked up a week's supply of 'food' packs.

I have a selection of savoury and sweet soups and milkshakes that I add water to and whisk. I also have a bar which I can eat instead of a food pack. I have picked more savoury that sweet as I think I'll miss that taste more at meal time.

Anyway - it all starts tomorrow!

Wish me luck.

The Last Supper

Tonight is the night I visit my Lighter Life counsellor to get my first food replacement packs. I'm pretty nervous. I'm not worried about the counselling, but am anxious as to what living for months without food is going to be like.

I am a very socially active person and this is all centred around food and drink. In the next two weeks I have four work occassions that involve celebration drinks and food. There are also two away days involving lunch.

I think I am going to have a hard time adjusting to this.

As I mentioned earlier, I ordered a new lens. I am now playing 'watch the postman'. I can spend weeks deciding what to buy, but when I press the button I expect it now.

Anyway, I'd better go and cook my last meal. It's a treat tonight. Fajitas.