Louisa's Weight Loss Blog

It’s been a while since I weighed myself. As I’ve started a new job, I’ve found routines a bit rough as for the first few weeks we were next door to a supermarket and would squeeze though the fence to get food at lunch time. After 3 weeks, we moved to another office with no shops for miles around. This is good as you can’t pick up snacks in weak moments. It is bad because you don’t bother to go for a walk at lunch time.

Now I’m starting to get settled into the job I decided to weigh myself. I had worried that I would gain weight but I had stayed constant at 11 stone (154lbs). I had dared to think that I had lost weight as both Jonny and his mum complimented me last week but alas the scales don’t lie. Unfortunately, I’ve not been taking Proactol either which means my stomach hasn’t been great. This morning I was seriously considering picking up some laxatives on the way home but it wasn’t necessary. Phew!

I feel much more settled now though and ready to commit to dieting properly. Even though I am a healthy weight, I would like to be fitter and slimmer rather than a healthy weight and a little wobbly around the edges. My BMI is in the healthy range at under 25.

Tuesday’s food diary

breakfast: strawberry museli

snack: kit kat senses (165 cals)

lunch: cheese sandwhich

snack: cinnamon bagel with a tiny bit of butter

dinner: half a pizza

Overall, that’s roughly 1800 calories.

I could have eaten the whole pizza but I didn’t want to. It’s not a signal of self-control or strength as some would have you believe, it is a sign that you are more in tune with your body and you should be pleased with yourself that you can stop when you want to, rather than you think you should. I know I am proud of myself!

Yes, tomorrow is certainly a new day and I am wiping the slate clean and starting afresh. This is because for the last two weeks I’ve not been very well. I started out with flu symptoms for a week and to be honest, I was a bit of a fanny and life completely ground to a halt. My hope was that rest and TLC would cure me but it wasn’t to be as it moved to my chest. This week I have been hacking my guts like an old man with a name like Cuthbert. I’ve also had headaches but I found out this was due to the solvents in the numerous coloured sharpie pens I’ve been using whilst studying for my post grad exam in philosophy next week. Oops.

I am not proud to admit it, but the diet went completely on hold and I stopped taking Proactol as my weight loss experiment is in theory, scientific. This means I should be eating a bit better but exercising too along with taking the tablets. After all, Proactol is a slimming aid, not a magic pill as such a creation doesn’t exist!

It’s weird, since I stopped taking the Proactol my visits to the bathroom have been less frequent and I’ve definitely been more bloated. I think this is because Proactol is a fibre complex and we all know that fibre helps what I shall refer to the less pleasant end results of digestion!

So I’m feeling much better and not coughing anywhere near as much so it all starts tomorrow. However, I won’t be exercising until later on in the week as I have an exam on Wednesday and I am BRICKING myself because I don’t think I have a reasonable enough grip on the course material (that i’ll remember in exam conditions anyway!) Why does everything massive and important all have to start in the same week?!

I’ve sorted out my first day outfit but I’ll iron it tomorrow and paint my toenails tomorrow morning. I’m terrified my alarm won’t go off but I doubt I’ll sleep thanks to nerves and stress about my exam anyway. My diet will start again tomorrow so I’ll be eating properly and taking Proactol as planned. Wish me luck in starting again!

I can think of one very good reason to lose weight quickly: you’re about to go on a date. Not just any date though… you’ve met someone online and you have really got a connection with them. Oh, he’s funny and sweet and attentive and his pictures have all got your heart racing! There is only one problem. You’re meeting him soon and your picture is an old one and you’ve put on a bit of weight since! You don’t really look like your picture any more with your large tummy and second chin and you’re sure he’ll flounce out the restaurant claiming you lied to him.

The first date is always terrifying

Online dating is a minefield of problems as you might feel chemistry online but in person, it is very different and you may or may not be feeling it.

I met Jonny online and at first he said we couldn’t meet as I lived too far away but we got chatting and he announced that he had to meet me that evening. So he booked a hotel room and drove 100 miles to meet me. We really hit it off and the first kiss was amazing as we had incredible chemistry. We fell in love very quickly and six weeks later, we decided that I would move 100 miles away from my family, friends and life to be with him as his career was more established than mine. We are living proof that online dating CAN work. I don’t just want to be with him, I want a life with him.

We all feel anxious on a first date, particularly if your date is gorgeous!

How can you make online dating work for you?

• Always be yourself. It is exhausting pretending you love football too when you really don’t care about anything but the footballers thighs. You will always get found out and he’ll feel deceived.
• Don’t put up a picture of yourself that is 10 years out of date. When he meets you, he’ll decide you are insecure and will again, feel deceived.
• Don’t feel pressured to put out on the first date. If you want to that’s fine but just because your online conversations became sexual early, it doesn’t mean you have to drop your pants at the end of the first evening. Your normal rules do apply.
• Remember your manners! This applies to both ladies and gentlemen! Guys, pull out her chair for her, take her coat and walk on the road side so she is protected from traffic. My dad still does that for me when we’re out and I have always expected that from guys I date. Ladies, remember to say please and thank you, at least offer to split the bill and thank him for a wonderful evening, even if it was average!
• Don’t bang on about your ex! It’s one thing to briefly mention you were hurt by your ex so you’re cautious about dating again. However, there is no need to go into detail otherwise you will just look like you’re not over it and ready to move on.

Hopefully, these pointers will set you up for your first hot date thanks to the internet. If you have any other advice for Total Chunk readers, please feel free to comment below.

It was about time! I’m always on facebook so it’s about time I combined my two internet loves, Facebook and Total Chunk!

Find the Total Chunk Facebook page here:

You may have noticed that today is Wednesday. Well done for that, I noticed it too. What you may also have noticed is that I should have weighed myself on Monday night and I haven’t posted my results yet. Why did I neglect to impart this information?

When using bathroom scales, your weight can vary between different sets

Because I haven’t weighed myself this week! Why would I do such a thing? I’m on a diet, surely I should be charting my progress?

Yes, that is absolutely correct, I should be charting my weight loss progress (using the slimming aid Proactol), but when weighing yourself there are things to take into consideration. If you follow these rules, you should not be disheartened

• Always weigh yourself with the same set of scales. Remember when Phoebe in Friends said “Maybe all the rulers are wrong…” she wasn’t far wrong! All weighing scales are calibrated, meaning that you pay more for your scales to be calibrated more ‘accurately’. It doesn’t matter if your scales cost £5 or £500, stick to the results on the one that you use because your weight will appear to differ. This is not particularly encouraging when you spend the week working really hard to lose weight so don’t open yourself up to the trauma of weighing yourself at your mate’s house. I’ve seen myself scales that vary between 1-7lbs but I saw one girl post in a forum that her scales were a whole 15lbs out compared to the weighing scales at her doctor’s surgery. That is a massive difference! This is why I have been using my wii fit and my wii fit ONLY.
• Always weigh yourself at the same time of day. If you weigh yourself first thing in the morning after going to the toilet and before a sip of water passes your lips, of course you will weigh less than you will do at night after three meals and 2 litres of water have (hopefully!) gone through your body that day. Typically, people weigh 3-4lbs more at the end of the day. If you choose to weigh yourself in the evening, that’s your choice but don’t be upset if you weigh yourself in the morning and the next time you weigh yourself you appear to have lost nothing.
• Weigh yourself naked. Add jeans, jewellery and a thick jumper and you’ve added a whole lb in weight. Stop torturing yourself! I don’t weigh myself naked because so far Jonny has been filming me do it for this website… I’m hoping he’ll sort out the videos soon.

Total Chunk Top Tip: Always weigh yourself with the same set of scales. All scales are calibrated differently so results could very wildly from scale to scale. Don’t torture yourself by weighing yourself on lots of different sets of weighing scales.

Cor! Get a load of that!

Roast Dinner

This is a typical Sunday roast. Very rarely are they not yummy if your mummy has made it! It is eaten in homes across the country and is seen as quintessentially British. Traditionally, the roast dinner was the Sunday treat and the rest of the joint of meat (or a chicken) would be used over the forthcoming week. Bones could be used for stock, giblets can be used for… well, use your imagination and do your own research, I’m starting to feel queasy!

The calories in a roast dinner will obviously vary depending on the trimmings you have with them. Green veggies are good for you and don’t have many calories in so we can discount them comfortably. The problem comes in with your potatoes, parsnips, yorkshire pudding, gravy, sauces (e.g. bread, horseradish, cranberry), stuffing, crackling etc. Then of course, there is dessert which might typically be bread and butter pudding, lemon meringue or a warm apple crumble with ice cream. In food heaven just thinking about it aren’t you? We need to snap out of it! I make my bread and butter pudding with Bailey’s Irish Cream and it is incredible! It’s moist, alcoholic and I could happily munch on it now at 9.38am!

How many calories do you think there are in a roast dinner? Sit down because I would hate you to faint with shock… roast dinners can vary from around 750 calories to 1500 calories! Have you got the shakes? I have! You could be consuming over half of your daily allotted calories before dessert! Then factor in a glass of wine if you’re being social with the family around the dinner table… It is a dieter’s nightmare!

How can you get around the calories in a roast dinner?

First of all, if you’re only eating a roast dinner once a week and being ‘good’ for the rest of the week then don’t get too upset about it, you are allowed some normality! You should not forgo eating with your family because of your diet. How many times do I have to tell you? Dieting is meant to enhance your life, not limit it. There are steps you can take to make your Sunday roast more diet friendly.

• Avoid sauces or don’t pile sauce on your plate. Do you really need a tablespoon of Bernaise or Hollandaise when a teaspoon will suffice?
• Depending on how you make it, gravy isn’t too awful for dieters but do try and cut down as home made gravy can contain up to 162 calories per serving. Onion gravy is better for dieter than say, a meaty gravy but it is all down to preference. I don’t even eat gravy with a roast and most people find that rather strange.
• A Sunday roast dinner could be made up of almost 3/4 carbohydrates! Try and limit your potatoes, parsnips and yorkshire pudding and fill up on your steamed green veggies.
• Be social as you eat. Talk to your fellow diners and savour your food. If you put your knife and fork down between mouthfuls and chew your food properly you will probably feel full before you actually finish what is on your plate. Too often I feel uncomfortably full after eating a roast dinner and that is usually because I have eaten too quickly and didn’t recognise that I was becoming full.

Nobody cooks a big roast dinner just for themselves. A Sunday dinner is usually a social family event and should remain as one. If you are conscious about being on a diet and feel guilty for eating a roast, encourage your family to do something active after dinner. If you need a half hour nap after eating, have your nap and then as a family do something active like go for a long walk, go for a bike ride or play a ball game down at your local park. Family time doesn’t just have to revolve around food, you can all spend time together being active, bowling, go-karting, skiing or just paddling in the sea is great!

Now for Sunday’s food diary:

Breakfast: None – woke up too late

Lunch: Bread, pate and hummus. Roast lamb chop, carrot (raw) and mashed potato. Apple pie, warm strawberries and single cream followed by black coffee. (I had a glass of red wine with my meal)

Dinner: A slice of toast and I picked at Sunday roast leftovers so a little bit of chicken, a parsnip, cooked carrot, broccoli and a roast potato. Then a medium sized slice of coconut cake.

Proactol: Only 2, I forgot to bring the packet with me to dinner.

Exercise: None, I was resting after a very busy Saturday!

Dear dieter friends,

I have reached that stage, middle of the second week of my diet where I am tired, fed up and ready to ditch the diet. It happens to everyone so I don’t feel like I’ve failed or anything because I know I can work through the apathy.

When someone is trying to sell you something relating to a diet, they will always try and market their product as the easy way out of doing hard work. I will never spin anyone a line like that because I truly believe that nothing worth having ever comes easily. Losing weight isn’t easy like clicking your fingers, blowing a whistle or putting your underwear on in the morning (excluding bras… I still struggle some days). I have found the Proactol slimming aid I have been taking after every meal helpful as I believe it  has helped to lessen my appetite but the food that I eat is still my choice and slimming pills that would help you lose weight despite doing no exercise and eating crap do not exist! If you read the leaflet, they all will tell you that they won’t work unless they are combined with a good diet and exercise. This is why they are referred to more accurately as slimming aids.

Without wishing to sound like I’m placing a gypsy curse on you because I am being very honest here: you will lose motivation at some point early on into your diet. You might even gain weight for a while but hang in there! Your body has probably gone into a mild shock and is trying to regulate itself. So many dieters have a good first week and then gain the second so they give up trying and resign themselves to being fatties for life. The trick is keeping your motivation up and you can only really do that with support. Tell your family, tell your friends and tell your colleagues that you are on a diet and you need their support. There is no shame in asking for help and people will be pleased that you have confided in them and trust them to be of assistance in your moments of weakness. Being honest about your intentions and your lack of motivation will allow others to support you when you’re not feeling strong enough to do it yourself. Willpower and determination are not always enough on their own.

Wednesday’s food diary:

Breakfast: Large bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes with 1% fat milk

Lunch: Two seeded bagels and cream cheese

Dinner: Chicken hoi sin sauce stir fry with noodles.

Snack: Cheese roll… I became rather peckish because I hadn’t eaten all my veggies. Doh!

Proactol: 5, one after each meal and two after my fatty cheese roll.

Exercise: 40 mins of walking

Wow! You would not have believed how nervous I was yesterday before my very first weigh in. I have been taking diet pill Proactol to help me lose weight. The last 14lbs is always the hardest as it is very stubborn and I need help! As I have spent the last week updating this blog about my daily progress and scouring the internet for useful weight loss tips, I didn’t want to let you (or myself!) down by gaining instead of losing weight.

Jonny and I filmed a short video of my first weigh in on wii fit, I can rather triumphantly announce that in my first week, I have lost 2lbs in weight! This might not sound like anything to be excited about, but any seasoned dieter will tell you that 2lbs a week is a good rate to lose weight at. If you lose much more per week, you are possibly limiting your calories and increasing your exercise in a way that is not sustainable in the long run.

Think about it, if you cut your calorie intake to 1500 a day and lose weight but then go back up to the government  recommended 2000 cals per day for an active female, you WILL put the weight back on. This is why a diet need to be a life style change, not a quick fix. All of the tips that I publish are small changes that can make a huge difference when combined with other factors.

To see if Proactol actually works, I have tried to eat as normally as possible, minus the constant snacking but increase my exercise as well as taking the pills.

Monday’s food diary:

Breakfast: Large bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes with skimmed milk.

Snack: 3 choc chip cookies

Lunch: Seeded bagel with cream cheese and a v. naughty belgian bun.

Dinner: Chicken korma with poppadoms, rice and naan bread and a glass of red wine.

Proactol: 4

Exercise: None today

Urrrrrgh! I have boobed today! Eating Sunday lunch with Jonny’s parents is always a lovely experience… there is conversation and everyone takes their time eating. It’s rather civilised, it’s just I always end up eating so much! I had a lovely doze in the sunshine in the afternoon, I had some lovely beach day dream as the sun was so warm on my skin that it was really easy to just hear waves crashing around me. Bliss!

Wow, so here goes Sunday’s food diary!

Breakfast: Two shreaded wheat and semi-skimmed milk

Lunch: Moroccan soup, chicken breast, sausage, parsnips, potatoes, sweet corn, green beans, small slice of chocolate cake and two strawberries, slice of cheese and coffee

Dinner: Cheese sandwich and a packet of skittles.

Proactol: Because I ate a lot at lunch and I had a cheese sarnie (high in fat) I had 2 Proactol after each meal – five in total today.

Exercise: 20 min walk with the dogs.

I have been such a good girl today. I walked into town, wandered around carrying a heavy bag and arrived back home after three hours. I think that’s adequate exercise! I did something really stupid though, I’ve dropped my bank card somewhere and can’t remember where I put it so had to report it lost. Damn.

Was messed around about that job I mentioned yesterday but I’m not too worried now, was invited to an interview next friday with an internet marketing company which I am very excited about. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I was also very restrained with food too, I didn’t eat whilst in town so I didn’t have lunch until 2pm but by then I was pretty hungry. I was starving again by 5pm and Jonny was due to come round for dinner until 7pm so I decided to take my own advice and do some writing for TotalChunk to pass the time before the Simpsons at 6pm! I did treat myself and have rather a lot of angel delight left over from yesterday. When I say a lot of angel delight, I mean I finished it completely! I’ve not snacked today so I’m sure it’s fine.

I do of course worry about my first weigh in, has my effort been worth it? I feel a bit slimmer today but I’m not sure if that’s down to progress or wishful thinking!

Breakfast: Museli and skimmed milk

Lunch: Princess spaghetti shapes and two slices of toast

Dinner: Spag bol with a bit of cheese… then lots of angel delight. Glass of wine after dinner watching tv cuddling up to the lovely Jonny.

Proactol: 4, I had two after dinner attempting to be consistent with the amount of pills taken.