Week 2, Day 2.

And all is well in the DD household. We've gone 2 days without the latest family or friends crisis, and we've started on the I Diet.

Weekly weigh in was great.

Mrs DD: 3.6lbs lost - new weight 143.6lbs BMI: 23.2
Mrs DD: 7lbs lost - new weight 177.2lbs BMI: 24.7

He's catching up worryingly quickly! Harcombe might have been boring, but it did work. And that's even counting a weekend almost entirely 'off' (meeting the brothers new girlfriend is never a time to seem like a diet loon).

So far signs for this one are mixed. It focusses on very high fibre low cal foods. Unlike Harcombe there is a lot less of a focus on what I call 'real' food - here it's about the calories - margerine not butter, sweeteners not sugar, low fat processed cheese slices not cheese. The fibre is making me feel a lot more full, and I'm not reaching for the chocolate so often. However the chemicals are giving me a headache! I'd much rather have a yoghurt than a jelly for pudding, and a lot of me is fighting the concept that this is actually 'bad' food and not good for long term health.

Mr DD has also reported some side effects on this one. While he also feels a lot more full, apparently all the fibre is making him a bit bloated and gassy. Lovely!

Again socalising on this one looks challenging, as it's very tightly weighed and measured portions of very 'good' food ie fish, vegetables, a little fruit and weetabix.

Harcombe is over!

Okay, we faltered a few times, but largely it went okay. The headaches and boredom aside, technically its not too hard to stick to. But it is hard to socalise, and it is pretty boring especially on the first 5 days.

Tomorrow is weigh in day, and we start our new diet. The I Diet

Halfway through Phase 1

And boy will I be glad when Saturday morning comes. I'm not sure thats the right attitude as I'm supposed to be eliminating cravings, but I'm so bored! Everything tastes bland and green.

Luckily the headache is much better today although still throbbing away. Migrane the other night was a real blinder. Mr DD not suffering at all, which I'm not sure is fair - he's just as bad on the caffeine as me although not the sugar, so why doesn't he have the pain and suffering?!

I keep wondering, given we don't eat much processed food anyway, how much of the cravings are due to being addicted to the bad foods, and how much is simply that we enjoy quality home cooked meals? I'm craving flavour, not crisps.

Day 1 - I'm glad thats over!

Well, the first day has been and gone, and I'm hoping it's uphill from here. After lunch yesterday I started feeling a bit ropey, hot and cold, dizzy, headache, I put it down to the lack of caffiene. By 7pm I had a full screaming, bawling migrane. I do have migranes fairly often, it used to only be three or four times a year, but in the last 6 months we're up to about twice a month.

Foodwise yesterday went well, both stuck to the diet. I didn't really eat dinner though as I felt sick. I'm still missing fruit, although yesterday afternoon's collossal chocolate cravings have subsided to a whimper.

Day 1, Week 1.

I am both excited and scared of the journey ahead of us. Excited in that I think it’s going to be really interesting. Scared in that firstly it might not work, and secondly I might be really, really hungry!

So, the important bit. Starting weights.

Week 1 Mrs Diet Diva: 147.2lbs BMI: 23.8 (less than I thought)

Week 1 Mr Diet Diva:  184.2lbs BMI: 25.7 (more than he thought)

We’ve decided to start with The Harcombe Diet . The Juice Diet seemed a good way to detox and clense, but it’s very anti-social. So we have booked out the first week in the diary (28^th February onwards) that we don’t currently have any social engagements which can’t be moved, and we’ll try not to put any more in it, and that’s the week we’re doing it. Having had a quick flick through the juice diet book it looks miserable. And very, very expensive. I thought it would just be a juice or smoothie of your choice for every meal, but its very prescriptive. More reading is required I think.

So, Harcombe. We’ve actually done this one before to try to shape up for our wedding. The hubby loved it, lost 11lbs in two weeks. I hated it, ended up hugely dehydrated and gained 1.2lbs. The good thing about Harcombe is there is no measuring or weighing, and it’s easy to follow. The hard and fast rule is no carbs and fats in the same meal. It also promotes one of my most strongly held beliefs – no processed food. I am guilty of sometimes reaching for some toast or pizza, and I have a worrying diet coke addiction. However all our meals are always homemade with the exception of bread to go with Mr DD’s lunchtime soup. And ice-cream, somehow I can never get mine to set.

So the good thing is you can go out with your friends and just eat something vegetarian, or a mixed grill or the like.

Harcombe has 3 stages. Phase 1 lasts 5 days. In phase 1 there is no sugar, grains, dairy, potatoes, mushrooms, nuts or fruit. You can have as much meat, eggs and other veg as you like. You can have 50g of brown rice per day, or 150g if you’re vegetarian.

You can’t have fruit juice, squash or milk in your tea in days 1-5. You can have 1 black coffee if you really need it. No fizzy drinks or anything else. Basically water hot or cold, as you can have any spices you could feasibly put some mint or ginger in it.

Breakfast today is a chicken thigh fried in garlic. Mr DD has 3 hard boiled eggs and the other turkey thigh. Weird certainly. And to be honest not all that appetising at 8am. I miss my usual bowl of fruit. Phase 1 is supposed to get rid of cravings for junk food, but all I crave is an orange and some strawberries right now. Surely those aren’t dangerous cravings? 

Oddly the exception to the no processed food rule is Quorn. Surely one of the most processed foods on the planet! But it does make it easier to have whole wheat spaghetti Quorn bolognaise or a Quorn fillet and sweet potato on stage 2.

Lunch today is a pork, spinach, carrot and parsnip curry, cooked pretty dry so I don’t need to worry about not having any rice or naan to mop it up with. I have a huge portion so hopefully it’ll fill me. Mr DD has homemade carrot soup and some more chicken. Dinner will be a vegan curry as a friend is coming over, with our 50g of rice. My theory is throw lots of spice at it and things might not be so bad!

You have to really like either vegetables or meat to make this diet work, and at the start it does feel very odd not to have the carbs on your plate along with the steak or chicken.

Diet disaster!

Okay disaster is a bit strong, but it's a definate set back. We're all set to start the Juice Diet this week (which by the by could bankrupt us it needs so many things!) but we have the somewhat glaring issue that we're pretty social people. On Monday night my vegan friend is coming over and I promised her a curry. On Tuesday we're okay as I do pilates and hubby goes to football. On Wednesday my grandad and parents are over for dinner, and they won't take a smoothie very well. Thursday my best friend comes over for tea after Zumba. Friday we're going to a launch party for a new album for one of hubbys friends - food no issue really but I wouldn't trust a glass of water in a place like that! Sunday is always Sunday roast at mum and dads house with the whole family.

And it just goes on and on. Every Thursday the same friend comes over, and the week after we also have 2 birthday meals out. And the Sunday roast.

Does anyone have any advice for socalising on a diet?

But why are you dieting, you don’t have a shred of meat on you!

So echoed the refrain of my colleagues when I told them I wanted to loose weight. These are people who know I’ve been told to lighten the load to prolong the time before I need a knee replacement (I had my first operation last year, at 25, which has left me with reduced mobility and flexibility in the knee, still perfectly able to walk and drive, just don’t ask me to jump or run), who know I have high blood pressure, and who know I’d like children someday. To be honest I just thought they were being nice.

Then as I drove home last night it hit me – I’m the smallest person in my team. There are 14 people on my team, and with the exception of an ex-army runner they are all overweight or obese. It just struck me that fat is now the norm. So much so that we can’t even really recognise what is healthy and what isn’t. My BMI is putting me at the threshold where chunky normal passes over to overweight, and medically I’m being advised to loose weight, but to most of my colleagues they assumed I was normal or even underweight. Yet most of my colleague’s doctors don’t mention the F or W word for fear of offending their patient, and it’s this fear of admitting something isn’t right which is why we’re all just gradually getting more and more rotund.

Obesity is a topic we are happy to talk about in sweeping societal terms, but somehow it doesn’t apply to ourselves or our loved ones.

One of my colleagues was confronted about being obese when she joined a new practice, to which she replied in all seriousness that it wasn’t her weight but her height that was the issue, if she were 5”10 rather than 5”3 there wouldn’t be an issue.

I’m all for the tough love, sugar coating it isn’t going to help anyone. So let’s call a spade a spade and admit the washing machine didn’t shrink your trousers, shops don’t keep making a size 10 smaller and smaller, and in no world is an apple Danish a healthy breakfast just because it contains fruit.

4 days until D-Day Week 1. I just hope my first diet book arrives soon; I’d like to get a chance to read it before diving in head first.