Week 2 Day 2 ups and down

Well that was fun, I got through the first week, tired and a little bit hungry I admit. But it was a challenge. Especially when you get invited out to dinner at a friend’s and they are serving wonderful food. So I stuck to small portions of the salads. That’s all I could manage while the others dined on chicken and ice cream.

By now I have discovered which Optifast flavours are palatable and picked out those that are nice and those not worth it. The sachets of shakes that rock are Vanilla, Strawberry and Chocolate, while in the bars the chocolate is very stodgy but oh so filling, all the rest were not nice for my palette especially the caramel. I will be soon blending the strawberry with frozen berries in the mornings so that should be nice.

Today I had my first diabetic fuzzy sight and major dizzy spell since finding out I was diabetic (Type 2), kinda knocked me for a six confidence wise, losing my vision to a fractured view, but I knew it was coming due to massive dizzy spells standing up and even while sitting down so I  wolfed down some fruit to balance my blood sugars and it passed thankfully. I now know the signs that lead up to an episode so will watch out for them in the future.
I'm also learning how to plan my food on away trips which my job demands carrying small punnets of prepared veges and salads.
Kath was impressed that I maintained the diet regime down at the Edendale Crank Up in amongst all the lovely snack food on offer but i prevailed and won the day.
Watching my bloods closely down to 5.8 and 6 so gotta take note of them and adjust the medication accordingly if I need to.

Kath's proud of me

Bloods 6.1am 5.7 pm after a meal a wee bit worrying because of the continued dizzy spells

days two and three week one.

Week 1 Day 3

Bloods 8.2 am 5.8 pm

Woke exhausted but in a better frame of mind, tried the third drink flavour today. Chocolate was a massive sugar hit – thanks Nestle- Banana was so-so (oh how I miss Bananas – not good at all for my Diabetes) while the Strawberry at least tasted ok now I have to find some frozen berries to add to it in the blender which should make it much more palatable.

Now if I could not feel so bloated although Wilbur said I would be farting like never before soon. 

Made up my mind to try a few of the recipes from the opticook site.

Week 1 Day 2

Well I got through it - the second day on the diet: Hungry Maybe! Exhausted Yes! Feeling like a bloated cow Yes! But this is what the Optifast website said I would feel like. Started surfing around looking for recipes found a few good sites like opticook.org and the Canadian Optifast company websites are free and great, however the Aussie site costs $99 to join up for the same content –dah!

Feeling good with myself and then the phone rings, due to an illness in the tutors family my journalism course has been delayed until the second semester starting in July, I’m ok about most of it but wonder if they are going to make us take 3 months off in the middle of it – kinda dumb I think.

Then I got to talk with Wilbur, he’s on the Optifast diet and has lost heaps ( OK he had to lose some to start with before his gastro band was put on but he is still living by the diet) and his advice was very, very helpful, he made me see that it was possible to lose the weight and keep it off.

Bloods 8.0 am 6.1 pm

Day One 2017

Day 1    -    the diet in Dunedin

Penny and I at Naseby Jan 2017

As I ripped open the packet of chocolate drink after hours of looking at suspiciously, it dawned on me that today was the start of a new me, one where I could control one of the biggest bug-bears I have been shouldering for the past eight years - my weight.
When they weighted me the other day at the clinic, I knew before I had even stepped on the scales that I’d put on all I had lost before Christmas. Richie’s venison stew, lashings of free range ham and mums pavlova plus hours of sitting around telling tale tales to the rellies from Australia had piled back on the 5 kg’s I had lost by early December. No one else was to blame as I did it and therefore it was my problem.

So today I began my managed diet, and what a diet – not just cutting out sugars or carbs, rice or bread,  it’s the famous Optifast 12 week Very Low Calorie Diet. An intensive diet whereby I replace meals with a sachet drink, and the main meal of the day consists of low starch vegetables, or fruit or soup or whatever‘s left on the non-can-touch list.

Meat isn’t there but oddly diet coke is? Tomato paste is but not tomato sauce although Soy sauce with all its salt is there? I’m scratching my head over that one. Mind you when I went online to the Optifast site I was amazed to see that if you want to join their online program of weight management – a la Weight watcher's – is gonna cost AUD $100 – NOT.

Nestles must be making a packet on the side with that one, So I did some more research on doctor google and found a lovely blog site www.opticook.org in which the writer gives you a eBook of recipes and hints and tips so I guess i will be looking at that one for the immediate future

The idea is to lose a minimum of 10 % of your body weight in the first 12 weeks and then lose more in the following 12 months working on a less intensive version of the diet. Plenty of online comments about the diet- some good and some negative, but most say that while it is the most expensive diet plan out there it does work for those who make the effort and I need to as my diabetes is annoying me, my weight is annoying me and it’s impacting on my life in far too many ways.

It’s a daunting prospect as I know what has to be done but have been dodging the issue for years now, so today is the start…..

Weight: 130.8kg

Bloods 12.2 am, 6.8 pm

https://johncosgrove-travelshooter.blogspot.com.