You may have read my post last week about my slimming journey goals. To kick off my weight loss, I’ve been doing a two week trial of SlimFast. Yesterday marked the end of week one.

I lost 8lb.

Yes. 8lb!! I had to weigh myself three times to check my scales hadn’t broken. To put it into perspective, Benjamin was just over 8lb at birth. I lost the weight of a newborn baby in just one week, and for that, I am pretty damn proud of myself!!

I had been looking forward to the challenge but was worried I would find it difficult. I obviously eat too much – so cutting down so drastically would be really hard, right?

WRONG! It was so much easier than I thought. I started off having a shake for breakfast, but then soon realised I need to feel like I’ve eaten something to start the day off, so since day two I’ve had the meal replacement bars for breakfast. By 10am I have been hungry, so had a snack around that time. Some days this has been one of the SlimFast snacks, other times it has been a banana. Lunch has been one of the shakes. About an hour after lunch I seem to feel hungry, so have had a snack (less than 100 calories) around that time. Some afternoons I have had just one snack, other days I’ve needed one about 4pm. The busier I am the less I feel I need one. Dinners have been our normal meals, which have always been relatively healthy. This week I had:

Baked potatoes, mackerel and salad

Roast dinner

Homemade burgers

Pasta and meatball bake

Baked potatoes, pork chops and salad

Baked potatoes, roast beef and beans

Mashed potato, roast pork and vegetables.

Not once have I ‘denied’ myself anything at dinnertime – I had cheese on top of my pasta, I had gravy, I had butter on my potatoes and some mayo with the salad. It proves you don’t have to cut everything out to lose weight – just cut down.

I’ve generally enjoyed the SlimFast products. The chocolate shake that you make up yourself is lush. The mocha latte one is also really yummy. I’m not overly keen on the strawberry one – it’s a little sweet for me. What I do love are the snacks, buy adipex, especially the chocolate bars. They taste far too good to be eating on a diet!!

This week, I’ve learned so much about my eating habits. I’ve learned:

• When my ‘dangerous’ times are in between meals. This seems to be about 10am and 2pm. This is when I would have ended up having a biscuit or four. Now, I have a low calorie snack.
• That sometimes I think I am hungry when I am actually thirsty. When I feel peckish, I go and have a cup of coffee, and about 80% of the time it’s stopped me wanting anything else.
• That I do have some willpower. Graham sat and munched through a bag of Doritos (my absolute favourite thing!) in front of me. I had one crisp, and that was it.
• That bananas are excellent for filling you up and for a boost of energy.
• That boredom makes you feel hungry. When I’ve been out and about doing something I’ve not noticed that I’m hungry. When I’m sitting at home, I notice it more, and so more likely to snack.

I feel really proud of myself for this week. I’ve stuck to the plan (apart from the one dorito!!) and feel all the better for it. I have my sister in law’s wedding next week, and this has given me an amazing boost. I’m off to a Food Festival today, so no doubt will end up deviating from plan a little, but that’s ok. I’ll not overdo it and be straight back on plan on Sunday. I’ve had an amazing amount of support from Graham, from my family, from friends and from blog readers. One of my friend’s has been doing the plan at the same time, and she lost an amazing 6lb this week (well done Claire!). We are texting each other every day to see how each of u has been getting on, and that is really helpful as well. I know if I felt tempted, I could text her and she would send me a ‘DON’T DO IT’ messsage!!!

So that’s week one. 8lb down. Just another 70lb to go!