What happened to all the Zoe Harcombe followers?

[youpirate]

Where did they all go? I became a non-fatty , now thanks to christmas feel rubbish! So........ have started Zoe Harcombe again today. Anyone else doing it?

Ooh I missed the what do you do question. I'm a project manager for an investment bank, so another potential boo-hiss for me too!
I work 4 days a week, 2 of which are at home, which is great as it means dd does not have to have long days at nursery (it's a 1.5h commute when I'm in the office)

I've only been in the office twice since starting this diet because of the snow, but I cook loads of everything I cook so I've got spare to take for lunch/ eat the next day at home. For breakfast on Monday, had a huge M&s fruit salad. Well, 2 huge fruit salads actually, they were on offer

Vezzie - I'm intrigued!!

Morning All!
Thanks for all your welcomes. I'll join in with the fessing up: I'm a trade union official, and spend a lot of time wondering why employers treat their employees so badly.
While I'm on a 'too much information' trip, I'm also separated (since June 08) from husband, who is main carer for kids (ds 9 and dd 6), although I am living close by and we 'co-parent' with them coming to me on a regular basis. Trying to work out how to divorce him and keep it all relatively amicable (which it is, even though I have Another Man who ex is still furious about and won't even contemplate meeting), and leave them all in the house as I don't want the kids to have to move house etc as they are very happy where they are with school and friends etc. Other Man lives 150 miles away as well, which is a litte inconvenient. All of this is probably why I've been comfort eating (actually dis-comfort eating - have felt like a foie gras goose some days ) for a while. And hence choice of nickname. You all sound like very wise women and I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better.
Am at home today with massive headache (stress-related, I fear). About to seek out breakfast, which will probably be scrambled eggs and bacon.
For work lunches I am mostly taking a bag of salad (about 80-100g) chopped up small with tomatoes, grated carrot, olives and either cheese or tinned fish and maybe a boiled egg, all mixed up and dressed with balsamic vinegar (yum!) and pepper, and an apple or two for snacking on. This seems to be working so far (have in the past been able to sit at desk/in car and more or less constantly eat crap all day...). Tend to have carb meals in the evening - highly recommend the butternut squash curry, which freezes very well.
Have a good day all, and I really hope your son is OK Shandyleer.

All we need now is a traffic warden!

Not a traffic warden! But if you don't mind, I'm going to remain mysterious for the time being .

Shandyleer - I really hope your DS is ok. At least the medical folk seem to be on the ball.

Vezzie - did you go to Rigby & Pellar for your bra? I go there when I am in London (very rarely, about once a year, and am going next week) - They do wonders there too.

Welcome Badmutha, and MediumOrchid & Privet I weigh myself everyday too! But I will wait until Saturday before I post.

I'm bringing a packed lunch to work tomorrow - millet grains with roast butternut squash & peppers. I'm still cutting out all wheat and caffeine - have discovered that 'Gold green tea' is quite bearable.

The book says that you should aim to leave 3-4 hours between having a fat meal or a carb meal, but I'm finding this quite hard, as what do you do if you have a snack in between? So what I have been doing is having 'carb days' and 'fat days'. It seems to be working well so far, although I don't know if this is right.

Anyhow, good luck to all for weigh in!

Bah. I have only lost 1lb this week.

BUT on the plus side I have lost 2 inches off my waist and can see that the lumps on the side of my hips have shrunk, which is not bad in 2 weeks, so I'm not complaining too much.
Well I was complaining, but then dh reminded me about the tub of mascarpone I ate.

Are we allowed green tea? I thought that was out because it has caffeine? I've been drinking rooibos that I found in the cupboard from my honeymoon (4 years ago..) and it makes quite a nice cup with milk, not too different from 'normal' tea

shandyleer - do you know when your son will get any answers / results? How are you both?

Hi all,

Privetdancer - sounds like you are more svelte - perhaps you have retained water or something.
I think green tea has so little caffeine it should be ok after phase 1? (sorry - have lost track of who is phase 1 and phase 2)

TYOTC - no, it was House of Fraser. I have heard wonderful things of R&P too but they were a little further for me.

Badmutha - I know that stuffed feeling

TYOTC - that snacking thing puzzled me too - you can have very low fat yoghurt next to any meal though, I think, and maybe one or two other things. However I think part of why the diet works is that if you follow it strictly it reduces calories by stealth - eg, in real life, you can't find a suitable snack so you don't have one. I think she is generally anti-snacking, thinking that if you have 3 good meals you shouldn't need to... and I have to admit that in my case, a ravening hunger at 4 pm (when I have had an ok lunch) feels dysfunctional to me - I think to do with hypoglycaemia (sp?) or similar.

Anyway it is over a week since I last weighed, I was trying to wait till Monday, but will I cave in....???

I definitely agree with it reducing calories by stealth.
I had a mozzarella salad last night, and it felt rather decadent, but actually looking at the packet, the whole mozzarella ball is only 163 calories and the rest of the 'meal' was just salad stuff and balsamic vinegar!

Im waiting for monday too vezzie, I have been good on the exercise this week too, so am wondering what loss there will be. However I have been going for it big style with the cheese, cream, everything drowned in olive oil. Basically I have been taking the piss at every fat meal (think steak covered in peppercron sauce with sides of very buttery garlic mushrooms and veg in butter too ), so if the scale does come up with a loss this week, I know this diet really does work.

Ive forgotten whos on phase 1 or 2 now as well. Is there anyone still on phase 1?

Welldone Privet on your loss!

DP has been highly irritating, hes very athletic, we've got mens health supplements coming like fun every day, he does extreme sports an allsorts, while I like to sit watch telly and eat chocolate. Hes been buying cream cakes everyday this week, although he usually doesnt eat them, and after his training will scoff 2 of them down right infront of me. Has anyone tried the 85% dark chocolate yet, harcombe says you can have. Are we allowed it as a treat on phase 2 or only 3?

Re tea - Yorkshire Tea decaff is very good: tastes like a real cuppa. Has anyone found a decent instant decaff coffee yet? Waitrose decaff beans are v good but can't be arsed to grind every time.

I've got waitrose decaff colombian freeze dried and think it's quite nice. I'm no coffee connoisseur but it's definitely better than the stuff at work that smells like gravy and tastes of nothing!
Hadn't actually thought of trying decaff normal tea - will have to get some.

Re chocolate.. well i had pure cocoa powder mixed in with the mascarpone the other night, which in theory is even better than 85% choc as it's 100% I suppose.. she does say it can be a treat for phase 2 in the book - there's a recipe for chocolate balls with it in. But even on the cocoa powder the carbs and fat content are both quite high, so i will be avoiding for a while now. although i suppose you only use a tiny amount.

grr at mrwill!

Well, weighed myself today . . .

Lost 1.8kg (4 lb) so that makes me now 82kg! (12st 12lb).

How did all the other Saturday weigh ins go?

I didn't realise that green tea had caffeine in it (durrrr). I will see if I can get hold of the Yorkshire Tea decaff.

I am going out tonight for dinner & cinema, so will see how I get on (I may find it really difficult to resist wine & dessert).

Has anyone seen the new Meryl Streep movie?

btw, I forgot to mention, don't ever be tempted to try millet! I thought it would be a bit like couscous. How wrong I was! It's really rotten.

Hi all

shandyleer thats must be a worry for you hope everything is ok. My DP has a severe hereditary eye condition and even though my children can't inherit it unless I have the gene (beyond unlikely) I still worry because DD is 2 and thinks everything is yellow!

Like Mrswill and others have said the recipe book is good, at least it looks good . I am hoping it will help because I found phase 2 very difficult because I cant work out which condition I have could be all 3 really but think i will concentrate on candida.

weight history I am 5ft3and 3 quarters and was over 12st 7 in 2007 a year after having ds. I got down to under 12 stone through my slightly nauseus pregnancy with dd (also I was trying to eat healthily in the hope of a 7lb baby but none the less she was 9lb). When I started diet in july 09 I was 11 st 10lb I got down to 9st 9lb by November but weight crept up over dec early jan to 10st 5lb.

I managed 4 days of phase 1 this week and am down to 10 stone! However need to take antibiotics so will re do phase 1 once antibiotics are finished.

Well done Pookey and Theyearofthecat!

I am not expecting a good result on Monday - I have had a very bad couple of days: yesterday was my last Friday lunch with my baby friends and I had FAR TOO MUCH WINE (carried on at home in the evening). Today I am feeling grim and had baked potato with butter and a HUGE flapjack as it was the only thing that would make me feel halfway human.
Feeling very silly about drinking so much, you would think I would know better.
Anyway tomorrow is another day.

Just back from bathtime have to rush back for story in min but well done yearofthecat on your 4lb loss. BadMutha no wonder you comfort eat sounds like a lot is going on for you. I am sahm used to be social work administrator.

Hi everyone, sorry to have deserted for a few days, and thanks to all of you for your goodwishes for ds. His chest xray was fine, we're just waiting on the results of his ecg and blood tests now. He's being really good about all this except for yesterday when I came home with a load of food shopping. He came out to help me unload and I told him not to carry anything heavy (cos doc had told us he shouldn't do sport till he's had the all clear). He started crying and got all upset, and my heart nearly broke for him. Anyway, he doesn't look ill, so fingers crossed.

Well done on your 4lbs YOTC, that's a great loss. And Privet a pound is a pound , think of the two packets of butter thing. Everyone still sounds very committed which is great, usually I've lost the will to live by now on a diet.

I repeated phase 1 again which ended on Wednesday, and was disappointed to weigh in on Thursday to find I'd only lost half a pound. I say I repeated phase 1 but I did have fruit and I also was drinking squash with my water, but i was still fairly strict so can't say I was that pleased with my half pound. I've gone completely off the rails today (am too ashamed to actually list all the crap I've eaten), but I figure I'll write off today and start again tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing what you all post on Monday re weight loss.

You have some interesting jobs between you all - YOTC, my imagination has gone into overdrive now! And Vezzie, your job sounds intriguing too! I'm a very boring sahm, although now that dc4 has just begun school I would like to do something, ideally from home. Trouble is, with dh's health being as it is, I would need a very understanding employer who would let me have lots of time off to look after him! I'm hoping to donate a kidney some time this year, not directly to him as we aren't compatible, but there's a new scheme called paired pooling, where a pool of donors and a pool of people needing kidneys register. The idea is I donate to someone who I can match with as long as there is someone in the same pool who can donate to dh. Don't know how likely this is to happen though as dh is a rare bloodgroup and this will be his 3rd transplant. And if anyone here knows me in RL I have well and truly outed myself! I'm also going on a homestart course at the end of this month which I'm really looking forward to.

Well, now that I've written my life story I'll leave you all in peace to your weekends, and hope that you're all still successfully harcombeing! Lots of luck.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with eating,but I feel the need to share with you how much I love my new boots! They came yesterday, and they're brown suede Fly London ones (can't remember what they're called now) and I LOVE them so much!

Shandyleer nothing better than new new boots!I really wanted some fly boots before christmas DP agreed I could spluge but was so gutted my feet are too wide. Still doing bedtime routine by the way this is the part where I am in my room waiting to make sure they fall asleep. by the way vezzie and shandyleer I went off the rails too have used antibiotics as an excuse as will mess up my system and also dont want candida die off when ill!

Hi Ladies I hope you don't mind me intruding, I am following a low carb plan but not publicly. I just wondered if you had heard about coconut oil. It is very highly spoken of on the Neris and India website and is claimed to work wonders on candida as well as a whole host of other things, including constipation!! My first tub has just arrived today.

I've added a link but if you google there is lots of info on the web. HTH

www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html

Well done with the weight losses

Welcome timeforme I am quite new to this thread too. I have some cocnut oil have used it once or twice for cooking because it is supposed to be healthier than olive oil as can reach higher temperatures without burning - or something like that. I am not quite sure where to store it as have a small kitchen where cupboards are close to oven but it became rock hard in my fridge. Will check the link thanks.

Must remember to check out cauliflower rice aswell that was an interesting sounding tip from mrswill. I just looked through the zoe harcombe facebook fanclub and they also say no to green and white tea however I cant find anywhere where zoe harcombe says this herself. Majority must be right I guess

Really will stay away now until mon eve at least.

well done pookey and yotc!

shandyleer, i'm glad your ds is feeling ok. fingers crossed those results don't take long and are good news.
Funnily enough I got some new boots this week too which I absolutely adore - it's the only sensible purchase when you're on a diet! no point buying clothes! I was actually smiling to myself on the way to work the other day cos I was wearing them

Has everyone managed to work out what is 'wrong' with them, harcombe wise?

The symptoms I had fit all 3, so I couldn't decide (but did take a canesten in case of candida ) and frankly I'm still none the wiser. My legs ached for about a week but finally are ok now and I do at last feel a bit more energetic (since about day 12). I wouldn't say I've had any cravings, although I did really want some wine last weekend, but resisted as I'm having a teetotal January.

But earlier I was picking at some smoked cheese while doing DD's tea and about half an hour later started feeling really sick and have had horrible stomach cramps since. So I'm now wondering if some sort of food intolerance, although generally a bit about that theory if I'm perfectly honest. Why would our bodies crave something that doesn't agree with them? Doesn't make much sense. And if it is an intolerance then not sure if it's cheese as I've had mozzarella a few times this week, maybe it's the 'smoke flavour' whatever that is. Or perhaps it's harder cheese as I do remember feeling sick last saturday when I had some cheddar too. Strange.

sorry just read back again, I'm terrible for skimming! - shandy, I too would be annoyed by half a pound after phase 1! I hope it's not the squash, cos I've been drinking that too.. Were you eating a lot of fruit? If so that could be the problem if you were having carbs through the day with fat meals?

vezzie - I hope you enjoyed your last friday of freedom! don't worry about the diet consequences you can soon get back in to it. Got to enjoy yourself sometimes!

Hi guys! Sorry I haven't got time to write lots now as I need to go to bed, but I just thought I'd post my weight loss ? 6lb since starting the diet on Sunday. So I'm very pleased with that!

I made the butternut squash curry yesterday and it's really good! And so healthy!

Anyway, must go now. I'll catch up on everyone's posts tomorrow.

Pookey Thank you for the welcome . I am keeping the coconut oil just on the side, it doesn't need to go in the fridge. Next to the oven might be good because that will keep it pretty soft. It doesn't go off or anything if it has melted then reset.

Also, green tea is quite high is caffine so that will be why the Harcombe diet doesn't recommend it. I can highly recommend Lemon and Ginger herb tea though, it's nice and comforting. HTH

Welcome TimeForMe. Great tip about the coconut oil.

Shandyleer - I have the utmost respect for you. That is amazingly selfless.

I bought Yorkshire decaf tea last night - and as a hardened tea drinker, I must say, it is very good!