Sick to DEATH of diets - turning to slimfast :0 !! Aarrrggghhh!

[fluffyraggies]

Hi all.

I need a virtual hand hold. I'm very fed up. I'm sorry if this has been done to death here.

I've done loads over the years. Cambridge, Atkins, Dukan, plus many more ... some worked, some didn't. The ones that worked were the ones i could stick too - so it's all about that when it comes down to it for me.

Now here i am again. I've got to loose the same old 1 or maybe even 2 stone AGAIN.

I've just spent a couple of weeks low carbing (again). Soooooooo bored with it that i keep cheating and ruining my progress.

SO - yesterday i started slimfast. Shakes. Choc only. 1 for breakfast, 1 for lunch and then a small version of the family meal in the evening. Nowt else. This is the only thing i've never tried yet. So far i'm hungry but so relieved not to be having to go near the fridge and it's teasingly forbidden cargo.

I feel like this is an all or nothing sort of thing. I'm so angry with myself for needing to shift this weight for the umteenth time that i deserve nothing :(

How have others fared on SF please?

IMO diets don't work.

I lost 3 stone over 18 months by going swimming every day (50 lengths).

I didn't change my diet at all. I love food. It's part of the pleasure of life for me. I just needed to do more exercise.

I lost 3 stone doing slimfast a few years ago. I found it really easy as everything was already measured for you - agree with you about the fridge!! I made sure to eat at set times and keep plenty of 100 calorie snacks in the house so I wasnt starving! Also found that making the milkshakes in the blender, making lots of froth/bubbles it seemed to fill me up more!??!? Not very scientific I know!

Wow well done Elliots! Thank you :) So it does work. I think i've been so into low-carbing over the last few years (hence being so sick of it) that i'd kind of forgotten that low calorie works too. I'm on the ready made's at the mo, but for economy i'll move on to the powder in future i think.

< reminds self - In my early 20's i cut butter and/or marg out of my diet and lost a stone. I wasn't even eating that much of it. And didn't need to loose that much weight tbh. It took 8 months and very little thought - so it just goes to show ... >

star - thank you too. I know you're right - but i cant change who i am. I'm awful at sticking to excersie - but i know if i stick to a diet the weight does come off. Keeping it off is a priority for me this time, as my age is against me now, and i cant keep on doing this.

Thing is with Slimfast, you end up eating the same amount of calories each day as you would sticking to a low cal diet of say 1200cals per day, so why not just eat food and not be starving?

I lost 6 stone on Weightwatchers over the course of 18 months, been at goal since June last year, regained a stone and as a desperate measure did slimfast for a week. Never booked so much in my life, the chocolate one was the only one I could tolerate. Then when I checked the calorie contents, I realised I could have eaten a filling meal for as many as the rank shake was. Lasted 6 days.

Now back to eating sensible meals 3 times per day and feel so much better for it. But good lucky to you.

Just remember to snack between shakes, you can do that, being starving is no way to lose weight and maintain the loss regardless of what method you use.

*boaked

Hello, i've just started slimfast too. I have done it before and lost a bit, but this time I have 4 stone of baby weight to lose, eek! I like sf because it means I don't have tothink about food, just a ready prepared shake and that's it. You do get hungry but apart from that it is really easy, you can't go wrong. Good luck with it.

Thank you so much for your input all.

froot - i read on a review site the very same as you said! The person said they could've made themselves reasonable sandwich for the same amount of calories as a SF. Perhaps when i've shifted a stone (Oh joyous day) i'll go back to 'real' food and count calories, lol.

Hello right - good luck right back :) Slim fast buddies? I am hungry. But i've stuck to it today. Went slightly bonkers with the normal meal last night - it was a nice roast and i ended up eating an extra potato and some stuffing that i didnt mean to eat. sigh. I'll try harder tonight.

Incidently i bought the powder today and made my 2nd shake of the day, feeling all smug that i was saving a bit of cash ..... Eeewwwww! Horrible! :( It was nothing like the chocolate ready made. I'll have to finish it - but i'll not be buying it again. I'll stick to ready made in future and sell the kids to pay for it.

I tried slim fast once I tried the cappuccino flavour as thought it might be nice warm, how wrong was I never felt so sick! Sent me straight back to Dukan I lost 6 stone on weight watchers 9 years ago after having DC1 and have kept most of it off, however I do yo-yo a lot and need to shift about 11/2stone atm the key is finding an eating plan you can stick to, we all know the theory eat less/exercise more=weigh less, if only it were that simple!

Another ww devotee here. I started last August (1st) and have lost 40 lbs. Just passed my first year anniversary. It's all the little things that I make work for me e.g. no butter / marge. I replaced this with Phil extra lite for sandwiches. No more full fat cheese. Instead I have a 50 cal slice of Cathedral City Lite. No more crusty, seeded loaves! I replaced this with the small loaf of Hovis. These are just 3 small examples of how I retrained my taste buds.

It can be done. Trust me - if I can do it then anyone can! I have my treats of course. I fend off the munchies with low cal hot choc / Walker's French Fries / things like R White's lemonade ice lollies etc etc.

My latest discoveries are butternut squash chips done in the oven sprinkled with cajun spices (yum) and cauliflower mash atop my shepherds pie instead of normal mash. Just ANYthing that makes each day nice foodwise.

The trouble with shakes is that at some point you will have to come off them and the body WILL revert. I prefer the idea of eating normally but retraining your tastes.

Deva i had to smile about the warm cappuccino SF's. It the kind of thing i would've done too though! :)

green - i love hearing all the little things that keep us going when the going gets tough. When it's feeling like a year till dinner i sometimes have a couple of teaspoons of peanut butter. Sounds a bit uninspiring, but it's 'claggy' and buttery in the mouth, i love the taste, and it feels filling. I find going and cleaning my teeth (if i'm at home) can take away the munchies too.

I'm afraid i went out today and bought some more ready-made chock SF shakes - i just cannot be doing with the make your own. Blurgh. Such a shame.

I'm starting SF in the morning (Sunday). I've always thought it sounded mad to replace meals with shakes but its worked for a couple of people I know and, at the moment, my main problem is going to the biscuit tin for one biscuit and eating several so I'm hoping that, if, by having shakes/replacement bars, I completely stay away from the biscuit tin, cake tin & fridge, then I should be able to lose some weight and get out of the habit of snacking constantly. I also think it would be encouraging to get a few pounds of weight lost quite quickly.
How much weight have you got to lose? I have to lose at least 2, preferably closer to 3. My immediate aim is to stick to SF for two weeks and then, hopefully, another two during which I want to lose at least 7lbs. I'll then think about moving onto something longer term like low carb or WW, both of which I've doe before & had some success on but not when I've been at home with easy access to the biscuit tin (currently on maternity leave with DC2).

murtette i hope you got on ok yesterday :) Did you stay out of the biscuit tin? How are others doing who have just begun?

I would LOVE to loose 2 and a half. That would get me down to the weight i was just before i had my youngest. I havn't been that weight for a looong time though. I will be v happy to loose a stone. I think if i can get there i'll keep going this time.

I wobbled a little on Saturday - but made up for it yesterday. I am really determined now as i'm fed up with looking at myself in the mirror and getting that sinking feeling.

Doing ok today - but then it is still only 10.50am!

I've begun doing daily tummy crunches again, (100) as previously i've found it helps with the tone of my tum and the 'sucking it in' capability :)

I like slimfast and have always done well on it....personally I find it easier not that have to think about food at all so slimfast is perfect for that.

However, it is not a good long term thing so just use it as a kickstart to get that weight loss started and then maybe move onto a more sensible sustainable diet.

I like the meal replacement bars and always have one for breakfast - buy the tesco ones, they are just as good and are a lot cheaper!

Good luck :)

I don't blame you about the powder - it really is not the same. Plus if i could really be arsed to fanny about wizzing up my own shake and washing up after, then i would probably just make myself some food or wouldnt be fat in the first place, laaaazyyyy!

So far so good for me, i have got used to the not so much snacking. Having a bit of fruit or a couple of squares of dark chocolate (instead of crisps, biscuits and choccie bars). Main meal is easy for me as dh cooks. Sadly he is at work tonight, so we are having beans on toast!

Oh yeah, forgot to say the choc and strawberry powders are kind of an aquired taste!! Sorry I mostly stuck with banana/vanilla. Am hoping to get back on the slimfast soon to shift my baby weight but DD is still breastfeeding so not sure I can/should?!? She's 10mths now so maybe not too much longer to wait! Glad things are going well!!

ha ha elliotsmum, it's ok hun - i'm not blaming you for me buying the disgusting powder. I would've given it a go anyway as it would work out half the price ....

I keep eye'ing the tin sitting on the work top. I've only had two scoops out of it!

I survived yesterday without cheating (well, other than one smartie and a lick of the cake bowl!) but it was HARD. After each meal/shake, I was ready for another & that was despite having my meal at lunch. Today has been easier but then I have both my toddler & newborn at home so never have a chance to think! Again, I had my real meal at lunchtime as I'm never as hungry in the evening and its much easier to explain to DP why I'm having a shake rather than a meal than it would be to toddler DD.

So far, I've had the ready made shakes & have really like the cafe latte, thought the strawberry was very artificial & didn't mind the vanilla. I think I've got banana lined up for this evening. I also really liked the chocolate caramel bar but was disappointed with the crisps. I'm not sure whether to get a tin of mix or not. It would be so much cheaper but I'm worried my tin will be used as much as Fluffys.
I haven't attempted any exercise yet as the two DC tend to keep me on my toes and, given how hungry I was yesterday, I didn't want to use any extra calories. Later in the week, I may do a few weights and sit ups. At some point, I should actually unwrap the Shred DVD I bought a few weeks ago!

Elliotsmummy, i think its fine for breastfeeding mums. I'm bf too. It has a third of all the nutrients you need and probably a lot more nutritious than what i'd eat otherwise (a jam sandwich, crisps and chocolate!).

I cheated a bit yesterday, but it was dh's fault! He bought me a chocolate bar on his way home, rude not to eat it. ...oops! Nevermind, today is another day!

Murtette -well done! :) I've toyed with the idea of the bars, but for me they may lead on to the nibbles! I'm sticking with choc as, although it sounds odd, i want eating to be a simple practical affair, without allot of thought IYKWIM? If i start playing with different flavours i'll start wanting more than one at a time, lol.

Right - the nutrients thing is partly what attracted me to SF too. Don't feel bad about the choc bar. The last 2 days my kids have been baking ( why nooooow !?) and i've had to be polite with fairy cakes and shortbread

I'm continuing to do well. Having drunk tea pretty much exclusively for the last few months, I thought I'd really miss it but I'm not. I think it helps that I'm putting a 2l bottle of water in the fridge each day so I get to drink nice, cool water but I'd drunk it all by 2pm today! And I'm not missing food either as I simply don't think about. Its brilliant. I am so surprised! I feel so well. I think I had been in a real sugar high/sugar low cycle so was constantly eating rubbish. I've managed to resist the scales but did think I noticed that there is now a small indent now between my hips and thighs rather than it being one big slab of fat.
I'm also breastfeeding & haven't noticed any differences to my supply. DS was a bit fussy on the boob on Monday so I wondered if the milk was tasting different or something but he's been fine since then. I have started taking a bf supplement to ensure I (and DS) are getting all things we need and I've started drinking two cups of fennel tea a day as that always helps my milk supply. When I was bf DD, I did WW. On that, I think I would have usually been allowed something like 17 points given my weight & height but, as I was bf, I was allowed another 10pts a day whilst exclusively bf and then five once DD was being weaned. When I was eating the extra 10 pts, I never lost any weight so dropped down to 5 and then didn't have any extra once I'd started weaning her. I figure I have plenty of fat which can be converted into milk. Having said that, I did notice the SF products do all say that you shouldn't do it if you're bf without getting medical advice first.

Hi all, I'm debating starting slim fast again (used it a while ago without much success, but I was eating too much for my evening meal I think). I noticed this three is a week old, and just wondering how much weight you've all lost so far?

I found SF really good for keeping your mind off food, there's no weighing or counting or measuring, just open a can! Agree that the powder is grim but the coffee ready-made ones with ice are like a frappucino! I also used to use the vanilla one as a base and add in some strawberries or a banana for a bit of extra goodness, then cut out one of the 100cal snacks.

I kept a food diary to log exactly which snacks I had each day and what meals I ate in the evening. Looking back I was astounded to see how often I ate something with chips & salad (+ mayonnaise!), but I still managed to lose a stone with the shakes for the rest of the day.

The novelty does wear off but I think to use it as a short-term way of taking your mind off food and getting out of bad grazing habits, they're fab. Quite fancy one for brekky now!

Good luck on your weight loss journey. x

I like the idea of adding some fruit to the vanilla one. I quite like it as it as but its going to get fairly monotonous having that all the time.

Hi all :)

Weight loss = not sure! My scales are saying 5lbs but tbh they're a bit dodgy.

I'm finding it monotonous yes. But that's almost a good thing. Having nothing to do with food all day means i can't sneak an extra this or that in.

I'm using MyFitnessPal (free) to keep a food diary, and it's helping. There are lots of ladies from this forum using it too. You can befriend each other for support. My name on it is fluffyraggies, like here, if anyone wants to add me :)

I would ditch the slimfast, yes you might lose weight in the short term but it will all go back on and probably more when you start eating normally again. What's worked for me is working out my Basic Metabolic Rate (how many calories my body needs per day just to exist), working out the extra calories I need for my daily activity and then cutting 15% off. The weight loss has been consistent at between 1- 1.5lbs per week and I've now lost 16lbs with another 10lbs to go until I reach my goal, but best of all I don't feel hungry and I definitely don't feel like I'm on a diet. I'm using MyFitnessPal to track my calories which has been really useful. Look at the EMTLW (Eat More To Lose Weight) threads in here, they really inspired me and the ethos behind it makes complete sense.