Slimming World to Harcombe?

[FourArms]

I've been doing SW since 29/8. Initially on EE and now mainly on red days.

However although I've lost 1lb short of 2
stone I haven't lost any weight this week and I've stuck to the plan with the exception of maybe not enough syns / HEB.

Have seen the Harcombe diet and this seems to be more like what I'm doing at the moment although I'll have to swap coffee and skimmed milk for herbal tea and stop my 10 a day satsuma habit ;)

Just wondered what people's losses had been in phase 1 switching from SW? My BMI is still in the low 30s so I've got plenty to lose!

Hello Rosina and welcome

The coffee this morning won't matter as long as you don't keep having more and more.

Ask if you aren't sure about anything, we will try to help.

Enjoy not counting calories and don't be scared of fat! This way of eating works, definitely

Another windy wet day here in Yorkshire.

Yesterday I had

B: bacon and eggs
L: HM chicken and veg soup, salad with HM mayo, slices of salami
D: fried Mediterranean veg because the stew dh had made wasn't great, it was watery and salty!

I didn't drink enough water though. Also had some 90% choc mid afternoon

Have a good weekend everyone. Hope you're all safe in this awful weather.

Hi Kazz!

I've just had bacon and eggs for breakfast with a few cherry tomatoes.

I'm drinking a cup of liquorice root tea at the moment, which is a bit of an acquired taste, but is naturally sweet so I hope that's ok? I really don't like the herbal teas.

I think I'll have a ham salad for lunch and pork chops and veg for dinner, with roast parsnips and green veg, does that sound ok?

Rosina, that sounds fine to me

Parsnips can be a bit carby, but it's never been a problem for me. I guess if you found weight loss was slow you could cut down on parsnips or cut them out, but probably you'll be fine. Just make sure you eat three meals and that you are full, so lots of meat and veg, try to make sure the cuts of meat you eat aren't too lean. Try not to snack, but if you do, stick to eggs or chicken drumsticks or slices of ham etc.

I drink black decaff coffee or black decaff earl grey tea a lot of the time. I also like water with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. I go through phases of drinking herbal tea, mainly peppermint, or fruit tea, but am not that keen.

Welcome Rosina,

Your food choices sound good to me, although I am nowhere near as experienced as FA & Kazz.

Attended a Day course at the Uni today, all about the development of the Chocolate Industry in York. Fascinating, but possibly a little bit too much Chocolate tasting to call this a Harcombe day.

Ooh NotSure, that sounds interesting I daren't go to the chocolate museum in York, because I don't think I could cope with that much chocolate!

I'm by no means an expert, just muddling through I need to reread the book tbh.

Today I had

B: bacon and egg
L: cheese and ham omelette with salad at the local pub (our belated valentines day treat!), a glass of red wine
D: fried plaice and Mediterranean veg

I ended up making the BNS curry recipe off the website and it was really nice, so I had half of that for my tea last night with the rice allowance and will have the same this evening.

I cheated a bit yesterday (which doesn't really bode well does it?) as I had 2 cups of half caffeine coffee with milk. Then when it got to the evening, as usual I couldn't resist a snack of some crisps. Followed by a twirl. And 2 glasses of wine when a friend called round to return something

But the scales this morning whowed me 2lb lighter than yesterday, so I've got to be happy with that haven't I? And I'll try and stick to it 100% today to see if I can add to that.

Hello everyone and welcome Rosina :)

Sorry I've been quiet for a few days - tired at the end of term - had 14h sleep on Thu night!

Having another plateau-ey week. Probably too many lattes or TOTM. I'm not bothered - yesterday I got into a pair of jeans that didn't fit a fortnight ago and also a size 12 skirt :)

Had a big wardrobe sort out - two blue IKEA bags of size 16+ clothes are going to my MIL this afternoon. Lots of 12/14 clothes (many of which are 10 years old!) are back in!

Hope renovations are proceeding well Kazza? And the power is back on NSHTH? :)

Rosina - sorry, cross posted!

I'd try and focus on having a 100% day today.

Can you get some snacks ready for when you're peckish tonight? Boiled eggs, chopped veg or slices of cold meats?

TBH - I never managed to give up the coffee, even on P1. I still lost weight :)

Rosina, I love the butternut squash curry, but I make it with chicken instead and serve with cauliflower or mashed swede instead of rice. Yum.

Today I had

B: bacon and eggs
L: salami and cheese
D: roast chicken, swede, carrots

One tip on the Coffee front Rosina is the Taylors of Harrogate Cafetiere range. They do a half decaffinated and a full decaffinated one.

I used the half decaffinated to wean me off caffiene and then switched to full decaffinated.

I would defy anyone to know that either were not fully caffinated.

You can get them 2 for £7 in Waitrose, 2 for £6 in Sainsburys and 2 for £5 in Asda

I have drunk decaff from the minute I started harcombing and honestly could not tell the difference. The only way I know when someone serves me caffeinated by mistake is by the way my heart races! I drink instant decaff all the time and love the fact that it tastes of coffee, not of milk or sugar.

B: bacon and egg
L: HM chicken soup
D: chilli con carne, no beans

Yesterday went off the rails a bit.

Started well with

B: bacon and egg
L: ham salad
D: BNS curry and rice allowance

But I also had wine and chocolate (chocolate now all gone, thanks kids!!)

Notsure I've just bought some taylors decaff to try (currently on their half caff). Thanks for the Asda offer tip, worth a trip I feel as I do love my coffee!

I'm trying a phase 2 day today with porridge oats, NLY and fruit for breakfast, ham salad for lunch and probably brown pasta for tea.

The reason for abandoning phase 1 is that I've got to go for a CT scan on my digestive system next Mon and the preparation for that means eating 'low residue' foods (white bread, pasta, rice, no fruit or veg) 2 days before and then no solids on the day before - they suggest just yoghurt, jelly and ice cream! Then no food at all until after the scan, which is thankfully mid morning. There is also a dye drink to take each evening. It's pretty grim, and I went through it a few weeks back, only to turn up on the day to find the scanner wasn't working! So I figured I'd ease myself into Harcombe doing phase 2 until the weekend, get this out of the way and then try phase 1 again as the preparation for the scan is bad enough without giving my digestive system such extremes of being very good followed by very bad! And I know that sounds a bit of a feeble excuse, but I am hoping that getting on with phase 2 will help me to stick to phase 1.

Rosina, that's bad timing isn't it? I hope your scan goes well. You are probably doing the right thing, doing phase 2 until after the scan. Let us know how you get on.

Today I had

B: bacon and eggs
L: salami and cheese
D: chicken mushroom and bacon in cream sauce
S: dark choc

Hi! Does anyone mind me joining in? I started doing the Harcombe diet last week. It was going well for the first 3 days of phase 1 and then I got a tummy bug. Since then I've been struggling. I had a couple of days where I could only really face eating plain carby stuff. Got back on it on Monday which makes today day 4 of my second stab at phase 1! I'm really finding it hard now, I've gone off the red meat I was eating before my tummy bug. I'm trying out some of the recipes - loved the butternut squash curry!

Today I've had:
B - Scrambled egg and bacon
L - left over curry with brown rice
D - Sausages and salad

I know the sausages aren't great but the kids were having them for dinner!

Tomorrow I plan on having

B - NLY
L - Spicy carrot soup
D - stuffed peppers

Then onto Phase 2 on Friday! Can't wait!

Hi LingDi!

I made my second batch of BNS curry yesterday and had it with pasta as a phase 2 meal. I think I'll be eating it loads over the next few weeks.

So, yesterday I had:

B: 0% fat NLY with oats and fruit
L: Ham and cheese salad
D: Pasta with BNS curry sauce (nicer than it sounds!)

Today I have had:

B: 0% fat NLY woth oats and fruit
L: Ham and cheese salad
D Pasta with BNS curry sauce

I reckon I'll eat the same again tomorrow and Friday before my carb fest on Saturday. I don't mind having the same foods over and over again, as long as I really enjoy them and when I did SW a few years back I ate pretty much the same thing 5 days a week and it worked well.

Also, even though I do have coffee with skimmed milk, I am definitely losing weight, and generally feel a bit healthier, and less tired. And I used to have quite a bad Red Bull habit - usually 2 cans a day - but I haven't had any since starting this, which I'm quite surprised by. And my ham salad lunch always looks so lovely and colourful and tastes great so I can happily eat that every day for the forseeable future. I just hope it changes my shape and helps me get rid of my tummy (which is a perfect 5 months pregnant shape and size, except that I'm not!)

Ah yes, I'm very familiar with the 5 month pregnant tummy - I have one myself, despite being very definitely not pregnant.

I was doing quite well having the same food too but now I can't face any of it so I'm still trying to find replacements! Curry will definitely feature heavily.

Rosina - I hope the scan goes well and that you don't get another last minute cancellation. :(

Welcome LingDiLong :) Good luck and hope the tummy bug after effects don't last much longer.

The scales finally went down for me today! I've been between 166.2 & 167.8 since the 6th Feb. today I'm 164.8. Hope it's not back up again tomorrow!! That means I've lost over 3.5 stone now since 29/8. Slow but steady - it's taken since 19/1 to lose half a stone, but I only want to lose 11lb more so nearly there :)

Good luck with the house sale Kazza.

I wish I could drop the coffee NSHTH. The taste isn't the problem for me, it's the crippling headaches. My consumption is right up again from the one/two I'd got down to. :(

Have a good day everyone :)

Hi Ling Hope you feel better soon.

Well done FourArms

Yesterday I had

B: bacon and eggs
L: HM soup, salad
D: chilli with swede
S: 90% choc

Welcome lingdilong !!

Fantastic FA. You have done so well especially if you have been yoyoing since mid Jan.

I really don't have a clue what is going on in my head. Emotionally last week was a bit of a nightmare and it has reflected on the scales today. Up from 146 to 151. I know I deserve to have put on, but not quite that much.

Am trying harder today

Fingers crossed for your scan Rosina

NotSure, hope you manage to get back on track.

Today I've had

B: bacon and egg
L: HM chicken soup, salad
D: fried salmon and swede
S: 90% choc

I'll weigh in tomorrow morning before my carb fest, which will give me my weight change for the week.

I'm not looking forward to eating nothing but refined carbs as much as I was last time, so maybe my tastes have changed a bit already. And I'm not missing snacks as much as I thought, either, so hopefully I can get back into following Harcombe without too much effort next week.

Today I've had:

B: Oats, 0% NLY and fruit
L: Ham and cheese salad
D: Pasta with HM sauce and roast parsnips
S: Half caffeine coffee with skimmed milk

3lbs lost this week!

15/02/14 148
22/02/14 145

Please with that, but no idea how eating a strange diet over the weekend will affect me and my weight. I've had a bagel for breakfast and feel a bit bloated from it, but I suppose that might be my imagination.

Anyway, it's sunny here at the moment, so I'm going to get outside with the dc while it stays nice. Have a good weekend