Diet update

So I didn't blog at all last week, that was because the very low calorie diet made me ill, so I stopped. I got very irritable, headachy, tired constantly. I figured it wasn't worth it. This happened to my Mum too. I did manage to lose just under 7lb in a week though, so the diet does work. So I'm going to give it another go. But this time I will be using the diet drops. I don't really believe in these drops, but I'm going to give them a go anyway, to see if they have a different reaction with me. Apparently I will be full of energy on these drops!

The drops also claim to be an appetite suppressant, but the sheer amount of water which you have to consume is enough to suppress anyones appetite! As well as 2.5 litres of water, I also had two boiled eggs for lunch, and a piece of chicken and roasted peppers for tea. Hopefully the weight will keep falling in the right direction, so that I can be at least one dress size smaller before university! Only four weeks to go!

Day 2

On the diet, you're meant to weigh yourself every day to note your "rapid" weight loss. But when I weighed myself this morning, I'd put on 1.5lb, which was a little disheartening, but I won't let it get me down too much. 

Today was hard. I spent most of it feeling absolutely shocking. Light headedness, headaches, tiredness and bad moods. Same as yesterday, I had water for breakfast. I was going to have an egg and lettuce for lunch, but the lettuce tasted horrible, really chemically, so I just had a boiled egg and an apple. For tea I had a small steak and a boiled egg (I was going to have spinach but my taste buds have decided that they don't like spinach any more). I spent an hour feeling terrible, so I had five strawberries and a toffee Mullerlight yoghurt, the yoghurt isn't part of the diet but it probably won't make that much difference, and I was desperate because I felt so bad. My Mum has been feeling the same way as me today, too.

I hope this low calorie diet gets easier, and my body gets used to the drop in my calorie intake, because I won't be able to spend another 20 days feeling like this. 

Day 1

So, after two loading days of eating pizza, McDonalds, chocolate and fizzy drinks, my body was craving good, healthy food! If you read my previous post, you'll see that I'm doing a 500kcal a day diet for 21 days along with my Mum, who's on "Secret Diet Drops". 

Today was my first day on the diet, and apart from a slight headache, tiredness and being bloated from the sheer amount of water I had to drink, it went okay. I think I'll be feeling more tired for the next few days. 

On the diet, you're supposed to have a cup of tea or coffee with 1tbsp of milk for breakfast. But because that sounds vile, I substituted that for some water. Funnily enough, I wasn't even hungry until I had lunch at around 1pm. My Mum cooked tuna steaks and broccoli with chilli and garlic flakes, and to my surprise it was absolutely delicious. And again with the water until tea time, when we had chicken and roasted peppers, which were lovely too, and even more water. I hope I get used to drinking this amount of water, at the moment I feel so bloated, and I still need to drink at least another pint too. Also, I'll be starting multi-vitamins tomorrow, as I'm worried that the diet alone will make me ill.

So my first day went well! I'm determined to keep it up for the full 21 days!

"Secret Diet Drops"

Weight loss is one of the most popular New Year's Resolutions. In fact, two thirds of all people in the UK are on a diet at any given time, and there's no denying that people would like to lose weight with little to no effort at all, including myself.

Upon visiting my Mum today, she told me about “Secret Diet Drops” which seem to have taken Facebook by storm, with hundreds of satisfied customers claiming that they have lost up to a stone in a week by taking the drops, alongside a 500 calorie a day diet. The diet lasts for 23 days, and includes two days “loading”, in which the dieter can eat and drink absolutely anything they want. The next 21 days consists of eating nothing but 140g of protein for lunch and dinner, and only one type of vegetable per meal, nothing but tea or coffee for breakfast and 2-3 litres of water per day.

"Secret Diet Drops"

This is definitely not the first liquid drops diet that has been on the market. Back in the 50's, a physician named Dr. Albert T. Simeons used human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) injections along with a 500 calorie a day diet, there was no evidence to support that this weight loss plan worked, nevertheless, he went on to set up weight loss clinics and manufacturing centres all over the U.S. This diet was dubbed the “protocol”. Unfortunately for Dr. Simeons, he was good at pushing the weight loss dream but no proper trials and evidence were ever undertaken. Eventually, the FDA wiped out the diet due to lack of evidence and disaccreditation from the Journal of American Medical Association. This was the end of the HCG diet, until the 1998 when infomercial king, Kevin Trudeau published a book called “The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You To Know About” AKA the “protocol”, this book basically brought back the work of Dr. Simeons, and despite the diet being wiped out in the fifties, Trudeau continued to push the diet and once more, victims fell victim to the scam, and in 2007 the FTC caught up with him over the claims in his book and he was fined $5 million. Now that the diet was known about again, outlets started pushing liquid versions of HCG, with the same claims as Simeons and Trudeau, but once again, the FDA stamped down, and declared the product to be both fraudulent and illegal. Not only was the HCG an illegal drug, but a very low calorie diet is dangerous to the average person. Now, the tagline of “Secret Diet Drops” is, “Lose weight using the secret protocol they don't want you to know about”, maybe it's just a coincidence that both Simeons and Trudeau used the “protocol” to describe the products that they were selling.

Kevin Trudeau 

There's no denying that people do lose weight whilst on the “Secret Diet Drops” diet, but is that down to the diet or the drops? My guess is that the 500 calorie a day diet is the secret behind the weight loss, and the “Secret Diet Drops” merely work as a placebo. “Secret Diet Drops” have claimed that, [sic] “the diet without the drops may result in tiredness, feeling weak, and muscle loss instead of fat loss, but on the drops, dieters will feel fit, healthy and full of energy”. They have also recommended to me, personally, not to do the diet without the drops.

Despite being told this, and despite knowing the dangers of such a low calorie diet, I will be joining my Mum on the diet. Eating the same as her, drinking the same as her. And we will compare weight losses, inch losses and how we feel ect. The only difference is, my Mum will be taking the drops along with the diet and I won't. I am positive that I will lose weight, based solely on the diet. But I'd like to find out if “Secret Diet Drops” really works as a weight loss aid, an appetite suppressor or acts as a vitamin supplement. Or if it really is just a worthless liquid, and it's solely the diet which holds the “secret” to so much weight loss.  

Don't give up!

It's so easy to fall back into old habits; chocolate, pizza, lounging around in bed instead of working out. This has happened to me recently, and when it does, you feel so guilty about it. Feel like you want to give up, and think "screw it, what's the point? I'll never be healthy anyway", with this attitude, you won't reach your goals. Be the person people say "Jesus, she's lost weight" about. Be the person you want to be, even if no one else believes in you, believe in yourself. For me, when I'm working out, I think about the names I got called at school, and the things that are shouted at me down the street, it gives me more motivation than any dumb quote would. It's never too late to make a change. If you get knocked down, get the hell back up again!

Okay, so you had a bad day, week or even fortnight  Don't beat yourself up about it, don't let one bad decision send you spiralling out of control. Grab those running shoes and get back into it. Get back into making decisions that improve your health and your happiness.

PCOS - You are not alone!

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (or PCOS for short), is one of the most common female endocrine disorders, but the condition is virtually unheard of outside of the 5 to 10 percent of women who suffer the symptoms of this distressing complaint.

Women suffering from PCOS generally don't like to discuss their illness with others (including myself, this will be the first time I totally open up publicly about my experience with PCOS), in fact, four out of the five ladies I spoke to whilst conducting my research were walking the path completely alone. No help from doctors, not wanting to talk to family members or friends about it, and on no medication for it. Nothing. And why should we go it alone? Why should we be embarrassed about our bodies? Why should we have no help from the doctors? To some people it may seem like a tiny, minuscule illness. But for some, it's completely life wrecking.

My symptoms started when I was around thirteen, I'd always been a chubby kid but as soon as I hit puberty, I started to realise hair growth in places girls wouldn't usually have hair (hirsutism), it didn't bother me at first, I put it down to hormones and thought it would settle down after a few years. But it gradually got worse and worse, and as I got taller, I grew out as well, and my weight didn't help the extra hair on my body either. I spent my school days refusing to do P.E because I was ashamed of my body. I remember thinking “I really got the short straw, I'm fat AND hairy”. I hated myself growing up.

As I got older, the symptoms got worse, and more started appearing; irregular periods, my hair got thinner, I had oily skin. I soon went to my GP, who put it all down to me being overweight. So me and my Mum joined Slimming World when I was fifteen, I lost a couple of stone and was healthier than ever. But over the years my weight just crept back up, and before I knew it, I was back where I started. I knew as I got older, it would be harder to lose the weight but I just stopped caring, I had it in my head that I'd never be thin so what would be the point?

And I'm not alone. It's saddening to realise that so many women feel this way.

“The doctors [sic] just shrug it off. I've been there many times with it and they say 'lose weight'. It would be different if they were in our situation...I wear different clothes, mainly clothes that cover my body, my friends don't know what it is and it prevents me from socialising with the opposite sex. Doctors don't understand how it actually affects us having PCOS. No one does, apart from those suffering.”

PCOS is thought to be one of the leading causes of female infertility, due to the ovaries not producing all of the hormones needed for an egg to fully mature, and also producing male hormones (this is also the reason that women with PCOS may have an irregular or absent menstrual cycle).'You may have a hard time conceiving' are words that some women dread. And often, the doctor may start off with this when PCOS is being diagnosed. In a lot of cases, this is not true. A family friend of mine was told she couldn't have children due to her PCOS but then went on to have not one but two healthy kids within two years!

“I was told when I was nineteen that I wouldn't be able to conceive naturally by a very unsympathetic male doctor. I discovered four years later that I was 22 weeks pregnant! Completely natural and no intervention at all. To this day, no one is able to explain how I managed to fall pregnant so quickly. I've never been able to conceive again, but one miracle is good enough for me.”

In the future, I hope for more funding to go towards PCOS research, and that doctors take us seriously when we tell them we're suffering. But there's one thing ladies, you are not suffering alone!

Thank you to all of the ladies who helped me with my research and shared their experiences with me, you're all stars!

Links:

http://www.facebook.com/PCOSWellnessUK 

http://www.soulcysters.com/

Help and support groups for women suffering from PCOS.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion.

Did an hour of circuit training with my personal trainer this morning, it was absolutely horrendous. Seeing my Mum and my Auntie do better than me really put me down, I felt so unfit. Not even half way through I was finding it hard to breathe, feeling sick and dizzy and just had to sit down.
It was painfully difficult but I managed to do three of the circuits, although I don't feel as sore as last time with my PT, so I don't feel like I pushed myself hard enough.
The circuits are definitely much harder than the TRX exercises.

Anyway, I'm working on an article about PCOS (as suggested by a friend), so I should have that up in a few days. Just waiting on some people to get back to me with comments etc.

The quote I used for my title was said by Muhammed Ali, and is one of my favourite quotes at the moment to motivate me. I really hope I stick it out this time, and look back at this in a few years time and see how far I've come. I am determined.