Days 161 - 164

My last blog post was a bit miserable because my poor knee gave up on Wednesday and I was feeling really sorry for myself. I missed a day's work and had to spend the next two days doing only a little light exercise. When my knee gets painful, which is not too often these days thankfully, I find the best way to deal with it is a slow stroll and some very gentle exercise rather than complete rest otherwise it seizes up and it takes longer to stop hurting. I went for a wonder to try and get a bra that fits me but after trying on lots and taking home a couple which I had to exchange, I gave up completely. I think I'll just have to make do with my half dozen ill fitting bras for the time being until I settle down into a size that is actually manufactured by humans, maybe that'll be after my TOTM, who knows. I'm not willing to spend days trying to buy simple underwear, I just hope my spine doesn't snap before then because my bust hasn't got any smaller yet, even after losing all this weight. What a swizz!!

I'm feeling horribly pre-menstrual, so horrible in fact, even the boyfriend has run away for the weekend. He's been off work again this week and my diet has gone a bit more awry than usual, what with the PMS and all. I've had a lot to do this week and I was hoping it would help me shift a few pounds but my eating has been bad, I feel all bloated and nasty due to the hormones, my sleep pattern has gone a bit crazy again and I've put on 1lb since my last weigh-in.


Boyfriend's absence has given me a chance to eat sensible stuff for the day, easily within 810kcals rules, and hopefully tomorrow will be similar. If I can keep the diet going at that sort of level until my next CDC meeting on Wednesday, I think I might actually lose some weight!

Days 155 - 160

I've had a shockingly busy time since my last post. I've been up and down like an emotional yo-yo and cheated horribly at the weekend..... again! I've had so much to do I'm pretty sure I've burnt off any excesses quite quickly, but it's no excuse and I wish I could keep it in check. I think the boredom of CD is really getting to me these days rather than hunger. I'm just desperate for other flavours and textures and I almost wish I could start moving up the stages already. The only thing putting me off is the fact that I'm still losing weight at a good rate, even with my regular cheating, I just don't want to go back on the carbohydrates quite yet if I can get away with it.

I guess the fact that this is my 100th post here on this blog is something to celebrate anyway.

Day 154 - Meeting with CDC

Today I've been feeling great. I wore a skirt that I bought at least 3 years ago that I had intended to slim into, I had never been able to fit into it before and now it fits me perfectly. Also, I popped out to grab some cash for my CD sachets and bars and ended up going out for a walk and doing shopping instead because I had so much energy I didn't know how to contain it. I had a good but somewhat motorbike related CDC meeting. I told him I was looking for a motorbike, just a 125, and we had a chat about the different bikes he's had and the upcoming changes to the DAS test, I guess it makes a change from rabbiting on about computers.

I'm incredibly relieved that I've had a good loss this time after a slow month, here are my results:

• Weight: 14st 4lb
• BMI: 31.8

I hardly noticed those 7lb losses at the start of the diet but now, they seem huge and I guess compared to my overall weight, they are quite huge really. For a change, I was willing to accept my CDC's congratulations on my weight-loss, it's been a while since I managed to shift a whole 7lbs in a fortnight, although I did have pangs of guilt at having cheated over the weekends. I guess all my walking is balancing out the extra calories I had, I am curious as to what would happen if I could stick to the diet and maintain my current level of exercise, that's what I'm aiming for between now and my next weigh-in and if I succeed, the results should be great.

Days 152 + 153

After much fiddling about on Monday, I completely failed to solve the problem with the laptop. I solved a few problems the boss didn't know he had and got rid of some registry entries and directories left over by viruses and trojans but I didn't solve the main problem as it turned out it was not a problem with the computer after all, but actually a problem with either the mobile broadband modem or the account. When I went to drop the laptop back to him on Tuesday, I was really expecting disappointment but he was pretty cool about it and I still have a job, in fact, I may be going to his home to sort out his family computer soon.

Later that day I decided to go over to my favourite motorbike kit shop and get a new cheap and cheerful crash helmet. I left around 3pm, the bus journey usually takes about 1.5 hours but the traffic was horrible and I didn't get there until 6:20! It took over 3 hours and I completely missed the shop so I grabbed a bit of food for the boyfriend from the supermarket and headed straight back home. I didn't get home until nearly 9pm, I wasted 6 hours just buying the boyfriend's lunch but at least I didn't have time to eat that day.

Today I figured out how to get to the motorbike shop by tube and DLR and after my afternoon appointment, I tried to get there again. I didn't manage to get out of the house until 4pm and I was a little worried it would be a wasted journey again. However, I got to the shop in just under an hour and had plenty of time to browse. I chose a reasonably priced flip-up helmet but they didn't have any in my size apart from in black (which was a bit of a shock as I'm a medium size) so I went home empty handed and bought one by mail order on-line instead. On the way back I took a detour via Marks and Spencer on Oxford Street and treated myself to some proper thermals. I was very pleasantly surprised to find I only needed a size 16 for the longjohns and although the size 16 top was a little tight on me, I figured as I am still getting smaller and it'll stretch anyway, it should be fine. So it looks like I'm a big size 16 from the waist down about about 18 on top. It's a big difference from when I started, I was about a 20 - 22 bottoms and a 22 - 24 on top! When I think about it like that, it seems like a bit of a miracle but when I think about all the hard work I've put into this diet I'm just glad I did it.

You've probably noticed that I've given the blog a little bit of a makeover. I recently dyed my hair blue-black, just to help me get some work. I didn't want to get rid of my green hair but I need the money so I had to tone things down for a while. Hopefully when my new boss gets to know me a little better, some odd coloured hair can creep back into the picture, maybe a few streaks at a time. I also recently got some new spectacles, I bought them on-line and they were very cheap and have a lovely transparent purple frame. I've added a new photo to my profile and the new blog colour scheme is to reflect my new colour scheme. Hope you like it.

Days 149 - 151

I'm ashamed to say I pretty much had a weekend off the diet. I started off with good intentions and behaved quite well at my brother's birthday sushi lunch but when the offer of my favourite wine came up later that evening I rashly decided on a few slices of pizza to knock me out of ketosis so I could have a couple of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. The few slices became almost a whole 10" pizza and the couple of glasses of wine somehow became pretty much a whole bottle.

On Sunday I decided that lots of water and lots of walking was the answer to my problems. I must have walked about 10 miles and thoroughly enjoyed it despite a fuzzy feeling, post wine brain. I'm assuming it helped though because on Monday morning I was back in ketosis and weighed 3lbs less than I had before work on Friday morning. I also tried to explain a little more about my diet to my lovely gran seeing as she was kind enough to comment on my weight-loss since I'd last seen her. I explained to her that it was a very low-carb diet with lots of nutritional suppliments, which is fairly accurate I guess, and I managed to wriggle out of eating cake and sandwiches without too much difficulty.

I really think my new job is going to be a big help, I'm going to get way more exercise than I did when I spent most of my time sitting in front of various computers. As long as I can be reasonably good on the diet, my weight-loss might get a bit of a boost. My new boss already seems to like me and hopefully he'll like me even more if I can sort out this laptop he gave me to fix. He also mentioned to me that he might like his website updating too, every little helps. If things keep going like this I might even be able to buy myself a motorbike soon, I have my eye on a Honda Varadero XL125. Even though it's a 125 it looks like a 'grown-up' bike and has a V-twin engine!!! Amazing!

Days 144 - 148

I've been a lazy blogger this week but very busy in the real actual world. I got really fed up with my poor finances recently and in the last few days I decided my casual job-search had to become something a little more effective so I spent a few days applying for every job in sight. I'm only looking for some part time cleaning or something else physical on boring, just to keep things ticking over while the IT stuff is a bit slow.

On Thursday I applied for a local part time cleaning job which seemed ideal and by some strange miracle, it wasn't already taken, I had an interview at lunchtime and a days work today! Today was just an extended interview, sort of. We all went along to clean a house to get it ready for new occupants and the people who worked well would be offered more work and those who didn't do so well would just be paid for that day. I'm quite pleased to say I worked hard, did a good job and have been promised more work and also I've come home with my new boss's wife's laptop to fix too! Hurrah!!

Needless to say, I've been too busy this week to think about eating and I've been a good CDer for most of it. I'm hoping I can find enough to occupy me this weekend to take my mind off eating because weekends are usually pretty hard for me plus. Tomorrow I'm taking my brother out to lunch for his birthday. Luckily he's a big sushi fan so I should be able to eat out with him within SS+ rules if I'm careful. I'm pretty sure a load of tuna sashimi and some daikon hair will be OK.

Days 140 - 143

I seem to be quite good at this diet during the week but every weekend things go a bit wrong and temptation gets the better of me. I never go completely crazy and eat lots of cakes and potato though. I have just about enough self-control to steer clear of the carbohydrates but I eat the wrong types of meat and too many vegetables every time. I know I have some willpower, I managed to do 3 months on CD before Xmas by the book pretty much but that level of control seems to elude me these days.

I find the diet really tough when boyfriend is at home. It's not that I can't cope with watching him eat at all, but I've noticed that if I don't cook for him, he doesn't eat very well and because his job is very physical, he gets run down very quickly so I regularly feed him. The problem is, I end up eating some of what I cook half the time. I've tried feeding him on larger portions of things that are OK for me to eat the diet which does work sometimes but when he fancies a bit of pork, lamb or beef, I will quite often eat it too. I'd say my recent weekend diet is a cross between CD and Atkins and has slowed my weight-loss somewhat but hasn't knocked me out of ketosis.

It's a shame I can't behave myself these days, I'm really starting to feel completely different, like my brain is finally catching up with the changes to my body. I'm trying to find some extra part time work at the moment to keep things ticking over while the computer repairs are a bit thin on the ground so I'm going to throw every thing into my job search this week and hope it distracts me from food long enough to have a proper CD week. I know I can have some pretty spectacular results when I do things properly and I know I have it in me somewhere to do that. I'm hoping that the momentum of a good week will be enough to propel me through the weekend without misbehaving.

Days 137 - 139 - Meeting with CDC

I've not posted for a few days because my life has been quite boring. I've had a little bit of work and a lot of sliding about on slushy ice and snow, much like the rest of the country. More importantly though, I've been just getting on with the diet with minimum fuss and deviation from the plan and today's weigh-in result reflects that I think. Here are my stats:

• Weight: 14st 11lb
• BMI: 32.9

It feels great to be past my halfway point and in the 14s at last, I'm not sure why but I really feel like some sort of milestone has been reached. My CDC was saying it might be because '14 stones' has a sort of normal sound to it, it sort of sounds like a normal sort of weight range to be in and I know exactly what he means. I'm really beginning to feel comfortable with myself, not in an 'I'll just stop here' sort of way, more in an 'I can reach my weight goal, it's not so far away any more' way. I'm just a couple of BMI points away from being out of the 'obese' range and into the 'overweight' range and I'm looking forward to that.

Although I am still losing weight, I feel like I'm not doing as well as I was before my Xmas break. I'm cheating and deviating from the plan far too often so I think it's time for a little extra push. I'm going to set a few mini goals again now so I have something to aim at. I'll have a good hard think about it over the next few days and decide what I want. I still have that cute, stripy, size 16 dress to fit into and last week I picked up some black and grey striped, skinny jeans in a size 14 that I hope to be able to wear when I reach my goal too, but I need some interim goals too just to spur me on a bit.

Days 135 + 136

I've had a busy weekend which means the diet has been pretty easy as I've not had time to think about food. I've also had the great bouncy energetic feeling for the last couple of days so I took advantage of it on Saturday and got some much needed (and much dreaded) shopping done.

I've been having a few problems with my clothes lately, most of them are too big now and seeing as work is a little thin on the ground, I don't have the cash to buy smaller ones right now. I've picked up a few bargains on eBay and in the local charity shops but I've been struggling to find a good, cheap winter coat so I braved my old stomping ground and headed on down to Walworth Road and East Street market and managed to find a waterproof, windproof, bright green jacket in a size 18 for just £10! It's a hiking type jacket and it's extremely warm, well padded and roomy enough on me to wear a good sized jumper underneath too, in fact, it may even be slightly too large.... but it's a huge improvement on the massive size 22 parka coat I was wearing before which was so huge on me it seemed to suck up freezing air from the bottom everytime I moved, and freeze my whole body. Although my new coat is short compared to my old one, it's much warmer and it was cheap enough that I don't mind if it's useless by next winter.

Today was a little more leisurely. I had a little bit of work to do, setting up a new laptop and configuring and securing a wireless router and the boyfriend came home from his weekend away. I cooked him a big dinner and managed to eat a tiny sensible portion of the CD friendly elements. It wasn't totally CD-legal, but it was carb free and a nice small portion so I feel OK about it.