My Diet

This is it.  My diet starts today and I am feeling thinner already even though it is only 3am.

I have joined Lite-N-Easy, a diet company that has no contracts or joining fees, just food.  They are going to supply me with all my meals and snacks in calorie controlled portions.

It isn’t vanity that has driven me to this.  It’s the pain in my outer thigh caused, I believe, by having put on at least 15 kilos since I had a tummy tuck ten years ago.

I know I have put on 15 kilos but it could be more.  I looked away when the needle on the scales showed a 15 kilo gain and I couldn’t bear to look back.

So I rang Lite-N-Easy last week and arranged to go on their diet.  I know a couple of people who did it and they lost heaps although they put it back on after they went off the diet.  I will worry about that, however, after I’ve lost the weight.  The excruciating pain in my thigh is good incentive to get the weight off and keep it off if losing it gets rid of the pain.

They delivered the first weeks food yesterday with instructions to start the diet today.  I got home from work at about 2am and took today’s breakfast items from the fridge and freezer so they could thaw.

I was hungry despite having pigged out over the past few days in preparation for the lean times to come.  It will probably take me a couple of weeks to lose what I put on this week alone but I had to have my last pizza, my last Chinese meal and so on.

Anyway, I pulled the package labeled “Breakfast Day 1” from the fridge.

One very small looking egg, one small tomato, one small green apple and a small package of something called “summer fruit mix”.  I was a bit dismayed but I checked the menu and discovered I was also meant to have two slices of soy and linseed toast.  That was written in red which meant it was frozen so I fished it out of the freezer and put it on the bench to thaw.

It was bread but not as I know it!  Little black seeds all through it like little ants and I really HATE seeds in my bread!  They get stuck in my teeth!

It was good news to discover I had a couple of slices of bread, however dodgy they looked, but bad news to see the apple and fruit mix were my mid-morning snack and not part of breakfast.

I was hungry but I decided it was a bit early for breakfast so I hopped on the computer to wind down after my night at work.  Sadly, the more relaxed I got, the hungrier I felt so I decided to have breakfast after all.

I picked up the egg to peel it and saw on the container that it was raw.

“What?!”, I thought in dismay, “I have to COOK?!”

I’d say at least half the reason I am overweight is I am too lazy to cook for myself!  I live on fast food and restaurant meals!

Suddenly I wasn’t as hungry as I thought so I went back to the computer but it was no good.  My stomach kept demanding food so I resigned myself to cooking.

I fried the egg and tomato and burnt the toast so I had to butter it to soften it.  Soy and linseed bread is very, umm, seedy and hard so I fried my egg lightly so the yolk would soften the bread a bit more and then I tucked in.

The bread was very different.  Different texture and taste but not too bad after all.  It only took a few minutes to pick the seeds out of my teeth afterwards and they were not hard seeds so that was OK.

Just knowing I am not allowed to eat again until mid-morning is messing with my head though!

My stomach says I am no longer hungry but my head says I must be hungry after such a small meal.  I would normally have stopped off at MacDonalds and got a burger meal after work or made four slices of toast and jam so this is a big change.

The next step for me, however, is bed.  When I wake up it will be about 9am and I will have the mid morning snack then.

My main goal is to lose that 15 kilos and see if the pain in my thigh goes away.  If all is going well at that point I might just stay on the diet until I get my knees back.

I have fat knees.  I would like my thin knees back.

I’m also hoping losing weight will lead to less aches and pains in my joints and less breathlessness.

Only time will tell but I have been on the diet for almost four hours now and I am going great hehehe.

11:56am

I woke up, as predicted, at around 9am but I wasn’t hungry.  I am never hungry when I first wake up.  It takes my stomach about an hour to come to life after I’ve been sleeping.

It came to life, with a vengeance, about 10am and I eyed the small apple and packet of dried fruit with dismay.  That was not, I felt certain, going to stop my hunger pangs so I went to the fridge to see what was for lunch.

Lamb and fetta pizza and a small pear.  I was pretty sure that would do the trick but, if I ate that at 10am, I knew I would be wanting my dinner around 5pm and I am a night owl.  What would I do for the next 10 hours or more if I ate all my days food by 5pm?

I got on the computer and thought about it for a while but, by 10am, my stomach demanded I give it something so I went back to the pizza.

“Awww,” I thought sadly, “I have to cook that too!”

That settled it.  An apple and dried fruit would do after all.

I cut the apple up and ate it but I really didn’t want the packet of dried fruit.  The problem was, however, that the apple made me even hungrier!  I eyed the packet of dried fruit with reluctance.  I was hungry and it was that or cook.

For the next couple of minutes I wrestled with the packet.

“I’m going to have to take up weight-lifting just to get the muscles to open the darn packets!” I thought disgustedly and then I saw the little cut.  Feeling a bit foolish for not seeing it earlier, I tore the packet open and emptied the contents into my hand.

It wasn’t like the dried fruit I’m used to.  The sultana’s were the same but the apricots were decent sized bites not tiny bits designed to get stuck in your teeth like other dried fruit mixes have.  There was also a couple of bits of some kind of fruit I couldn’t identify.

I tucked in and the unidentified fruit remained unidentified when I finished the packet but the hunger pangs went away.

I will have lunch when I am hungry enough to go to the trouble of cooking the pizza.  Lamb and fetta pizza really doesn’t sound all that appetizing.  I like ham and pineapple pizza so I can wait hehehe.

12:27am

Day one is over and the shine has already gone off this whole diet thing!

I got hungry enough to cook the pizza about 3pm but I made the mistake of microwaving it.

That turned the base into something resembling rubber but I ate it anyway.  It was tasty enough.  If you like rubber.  Next time I will cook it in the oven.  I did enjoy the pear though I am sure they must have searched high and low to find one that small.

It was all going well, however, as my hunger was being satisfied.

I had to run an errand at 6pm so decided to have my afternoon snack when I got home.  By the time I got home, at 7.30pm I was really hungry so I used up every bit of the tiny packet of peanut paste on the little dinner roll and even fished the seeds from my teeth to munch on afterwards!

There was also a small tub of yoghurt to go with it.  I do not like yoghurt but I was still hungry so I ate it.  It tastes OK when you are hungry.

I held off eating dinner until about 10pm then microwaved the frozen cottage pie.  I’m sure there was supposed to be meat in that but I didn’t find much.  It took the edge off my hunger but I’m peckish again now and it’s hours to breakfast time!

I took a look at what is to come.  I’m thinking of having it at 2am again.

Two small pikelets with some revolting looking stuff called fruit compote does not look capable of stilling the hunger pangs lurking in my stomach.

They say I can add 2 slices of bread and a serving of steamed vegies to any days meals if I really need them but I don’t want to take any longer to lose weight than is necessary.

I’m pretty sure I have already cheated by putting butter on my toast this morning.

I’m not unbearably hungry.  It’s just a little niggle that says I’d like a bit more please.  I hope it isn’t cumulative!  Two slices of bread and a serve of steamed vegies would be enough but I don’t have any steamed vegies and I don’t want to eat the bread.

My thigh is hurting even as I type reminding me why I am doing this so I will stick it out but I sure do hope my stomach shrinks!

Sigh.