This could change your life

[fraggletits]

Anyone doing Zoe Harcombe?

I would never have known about her had I not tried her diet that was serialised in the news of the world magazine 3 months ago.

It appealed to me because it was proper food, no calorie counting - but I was going away on hols so decided to do a kerry katona last blow out and then I'd start it when I got back.

I've bought the book and am so far 5lbs lighter and I am only on day 4 of the 5 day kickstart. Phase 2 looks really good and Phase 3 is a return to completely normal eating and drinking with just a couple of simple rules to follow.

It's brilliant. I can't recommend it highly enough. I thought I was a hopeless big dinner portion fan - a crisp and chocolate addict with alcoholic tendencies. But she has just blown all that apart for me. (It's more than just a diet - it's an explanation of why we crave things and why we feel helpless - phase 1 and 2 eliminate these cravings pretty painlessly so that by phase 3 you can eat all the things you used to but with a couple of simple rules and with a new found awareness and control over food, gained from phase 1 and 2)

She's got a couple of websites - one under zoe harcombe, one under thedietguru I think.

Hope this helps anyone struggling with calorie counting and exercise

franch it was set i was attempting to eat....i have gone straight on to runny NYL now which is much easier to eat. I did have two squares of dark choc after my meal yesterday....had to....commiserating the fact that my poor DD missed out on the pass mark for the 11+ by four marks....she was very upset, although in typical ten year old fashion has totally forgotten about it this morning! We luckily have good comps near to us so not too devastated...

i had salmon and veg stir dry for dinner. very nice it was too.

today:
NLY
cauldron sausages and eggs and cherry tomatoes

not weighing myself today as don't think it would be accurate due to my period. i feel slimmer already and know that this is working and don't want to be upset by the fact that water retention makes the scales lie....

Thank you so much to fraggletits for starting this or else i'd never have heard of it. I'm on day 3 of phase 1 and have lost 3 lbs , i'm wading my way thru all of the posts and finding them great reading but I had to share this with you. Sign up for amazon credit card and after your first purchase of anything you get £15 credited to your account, you can then spend it and cancel the card. I've just ordered the diet & recipe books from amazon for £11.98 so I'll get £15 credited to my card - so I;ve got them for nothing!!

Hi all, have been off the wagon for a couple of weeks after losing 6lb on phase 1. I definitely felt better, more energy, less mooody etc. So have decided to get back on the wagon. I am not giving up my morning coffee though - I like one cup of great coffee mid morning, it sees me through until lunch and it's my treat!

Well tonight I finish phase one and would have lost around 7lbs

Can I ask about phase 2? I have the book, but in it she never mixes meat and cheese, so her recipe's are either cauliflower cheese, or bacon and eggs. Could I not have cauli cheese with bacon in? or chicken stuffed with cheese?

Am finding it not too bad at the moment, but need to increase my carbs so I don't miss bread too much - looking forward to a baked potato tomorrow

Welcome back BPW

Well done bees! Yep you can have meat & cheese

fallen off wagon tonight.

went to pizza hut with DH and i had a tuscani and then chocolate and banana pudding with custard then 80g of dark chocolate....it was not even nice and i didn't really enjoy any of it....

according to my scales which are value scales from asda that i bought about five years ago and very difficult to read i haven't lost any weight AT ALL on phase one which is ridiculous.....i know i have as clothes are looser and feel much less bloated....or at least i did til this evenings dinner....

straight back on phase 1 again tomorr....

feeling very disenchanted with the prospect tho....

Hello all, may I join?

Can I ask how much you have all lost so far? Does it work after phase 1.

Off to shops to get:
Decaf tea
Soya milk (is this allowed phase 1?)
NLY
Coleslaw ingredients
Protein
Got rice in.

I have a hangover this morning so had home made mince with chilli powder and brown rice 50g for breakfast.

Not got the book yet.

Hi MrsD, welcome

I've lost 9lb so far but have had several weeks 'off' and put a few pounds back on the last couple of weeks, so could've done a lot better. When I stick to it I can lose 3lb in a week on Phase 2.

Soya milk's a grey area -
"In Phase 1 (the first 5 days), ideally don't have Soya Milk, as we're trying to get you away from things that you've eaten regularly. It's not an absolute 'no', however. And, particularly for vegetarians, it can be useful to get some more food options.

In Phase 2 - yes you can. Soya milk is naturally low fat (it is less than 2% fat, which is only slightly higher than skimmed cow's milk). Check the fat content on your particular product. If for some strange reason your version is a more concentrated version of soya milk, it may be higher than c.2% in fat. If this is the case, try and find a lower fat version. If it's no more than 2-3% fat, it's absolutely fine with pure porridge oats or brown rice cereal - perfect carb breakfasts!"

I know the trick is to plan more. I binged a bit on prawn crackers on Friday night. Yesterday I had:
porridge
lamb curry; NLY; 2 squares dark choc
3 bowls of kallo & NLY (I keep doing this when I don't plan and am tired/short of time); tiny morsel of cake.
Not brilliant but could be worse I guess.

I'm off to stay with my parents for a week this Thu, and will have almost no control over what I eat PLUS my mum always tempts me with gorgeous home cooking and baking. So I really really need to have a strict few days before I go.

I'm on phase 2 - can I have NLY after a carb meal? seems a bit odd as NLY is a fat surely? (I've got the greek stuff now I can )

good luck at your mums Franch, not sure I could resist someone else's cooking!

Thanks for your advice Franch.

I just want a diet that really does work, 9 pounds sounds good to me.

Today I had
brown rice and mince for breakfast
coleslaw with NLY and mince for lunch
salmon, brocoli and cauliflower mash made with a little bit of butter for supper

I bought the book, it is a bit muddled but I get the gist. Is it worth buying the recipie book?
I am worried about constipation as post dc's had piles and don't want them back
I am going to log in every day in phase 1 to keep me motivated.

bmh I am not up to speed on phase 2 so cannot help, sorry.

MrsD

that sounds like my kind of breakfast mrsD!

bees: You can only have low fat NLY after a carb meal. After a fat meal you can have Greek, full fat, whatever.

IME MrsD if you keep up your veggie intake you'll be fine.

Today I had
kallo rice cereal (late breakfast)
NLY (not hungry for lunch)
baked-then-chopped-up-and-roasted jacket potatoes (loads) and roast veg; low-fat NLY

Also stupidly had a tiny bit of cake with icing, and a square of milk chocolate. I clearly need a proper phase 1 re-detox to stop these silly habits. All encouragement gratefully received!

Hello!
Am on day 3 of Phase 1 after my mumlent me the book, and it honestly has changed my life already, I was bulimic/anorexic for years, and have never had a good relationship with food since. She's finally hcanged my attitude towards food and myself! Feel physically and mentally better than I thought possible.
Would recommend to anyone.

Fojo, I had a dreadful hangover this am hence the comfort food breakfast! It was nice. Last night's excesses spurred me to take action this morning. I think I ate about 3 tubes of pringles. I hate pringles but they were there and I was drunk and the rest is history. My guts were not happy.

Franch why don't you join me on phase 1, it will all be over by the weekend.

Wow Harrumph, that's really inspiring. Really pleased for you.

Thanks MrsD. I think I'll only manage 3 or 4 days on phase 1 as I set off for my mum's on Thu, but that's better than nothing so you're on! Have started with NLY for breakfast and have cooked up enough brown rice for the next 3 days.

Great that you can join me. So including Harrumph that is three of us in phase 1.

I had NLY, brown rice and two eggs for breakfast.
I have the slow cooker on with mushroom free bolloinaise (? spelling).
I plan to make another coleslaw and eat a cauliflower at some point during the day.

My general query is that there is not much on the internet about ZH or her diet - other than stuff she has written herself.

Other thing is that is this food combining on phase 2? MY understanding is I will not be able to eat egg whites with rice or white fish with rice - neither of these proteins are high in fat but still regarded as fat?

Hello another newcomer here I've started phase 1 today after spending most of last week reading this thread, then the book arrived Saturday.
It's my 30th birthday Wednesday, and the penny has just dropped that unless I do something about my weight I'll be spending my 30s being fat and frumpy too!

The day started well, went for an early birthday breakfast with friends, and ordered poached eggs and tomatoes which were lovely!
I'm interested to know how much NLY people are eating? I had a whole 500g pot for lunch
Going to have rice with veggies for dinner and try and invent a wonderful sauce for it.

Welcome Wisp

I eat tons of NLY. Phase 1 first time round I ate at least 1 500g pot a day. It's fine.

Today I had:
NLY
rice salad; NLY
a bite of DD2's muffin - but resisted eating one of my own which was a superhuman effort (the cravings clearly need killing)
potted crab (to distract myself from the cravings)
tiny bit of chicken and some veg; NLY

Hi all and welcome wisp

Today I had
NLY
Coleslaw
Mince
Rice
Eggs,

Not in that order!!

Bit wiped out tonight and demotivated. Went to my exercise class but had no energy, body not working.

Keeping to the diet but hitting a bit of a wall. Tomorrow is going to be tough as on a course all day so probably will skip the free lunch and go and get a steak and salad. That's the plan anyway.

not having a very good week so far. Clearly to confusing for me to start phase two so early. i will get back to phase one tomorr. really need to do some exercise....my metabolism is slowing down now i have hit my thirties.....at 25 i could drop 7 lbs in a week no prob but now it seems each pound weighs more.....

welcome to everyone.

books turned up and am going to plough my way through (and stop eating pizza's.....)

Hello all, how is it going? Boodleboot, are you going to start phase 1 tomorrow?

Day 3 and I survived today. I sat at a desk on my course and managed to resist the sweets on my desk it was painful, and the 100% coated chocolate biscuits and the pastries on offer in tea breaks. It was grim , I wanted to cram them all in.

This is what I had today
NLY
eggs and bacon
half a chicken
mince, pork, cauliflower and coleslaw ( i know odd combi!)
no decaf tea on course so had two green teas - not sure if has caffeine?

By the way is the recipie book worth buying or is another book better for phase 1 recipies?

I did not get my rice as had to leave house at 5.30a.m. and just got back.

Better day not feeling as wiped out as yesterday. But still hanging by a thread and want Friday to be here.

Hello all MrsDenning, I found day 3 the hardest of phase 1, I think it's when the cravings come to a head (well they did for me).

I am now 3 days into phase 2, and again am struggling. It is my time of the month though, and I am super hungry this week. Am surviving on 3 meals a day, but generally cave in in the v=evenings and have a bowl of NLY, which I know is not great, but is better than a cake right?

Am starting to doubt how a bowl of full fat yoghurt can possibly be better (calorie wise) than a cake. Someone help me stay on track!!!!

I have a posh do to go to in 2 weeks so i need to be thin

Hang in there bmh!, you can do it. I too want to be thinner in two weeks time and definitely for xmas. Just get through tonight. How much have you lost so far?

Agree that day 3 of phase one is the hardest. Just finished day five, looking forward to big bowl of porridge and banane for breakfast!
BMH- NLY is so much better than cake. It aids digestion, is sugar free, completely inprocessed and you will lose weight!
I've eaten more NLY on phase one than you can shake a stick at. Fills you up and is fine!
BTW everyone in phase one a lovely salad dressing is olive oil, crushed garlic and lime.
Today I had:
Porridge and water for breakfast
HUGE salad with prawns, eggs and lime, olive oil and garlic
Mussels, tofu and roasted veg for tea
Good luck everyone!

Harrumph how much did you lose in phase 1? I need some motivation