Dieting sucks but I press on

I'm on the third day of my diet and well, it's not that much fun.

I am finding myself totally focused on food and what I eat and what I put in my mouth. I keep thinking about food and eating. It's almost an obsession. Very odd. I think the calorie counting and tracking everything I eat will do that to me.

I have weighed myself two days in a row and I really should not do that. It only recommends that I weigh myself once a week. Of course, after two days, there was no change. Color me disappointed. :-(

That said, I know this is a slow process.

When I had to lost quite a bit of weight about 4 years ago, it took about 18 months to lose 17 lbs. That was a long time. I was only losing about 0.5 lbs or 1 lb a month, but the weight stayed off for quite a long time after that.

So, slow is good. I just need to be patient.

Last night, after dinner, the beloved had a Kit Kat bar, which we worked out was about 900+ calories. I had an apple, which was 45 calories. I was feeling rather righteous about that. :-)

I also had about 295 calories leftover which I didn't consume yesterday. I could have had a small dessert or a piece of chocolate, but I didn't. Need to pat myself on the back about that. It's so easy to succumb to naughty eating.

This weekend we're going to the fresh food market and stocking up on apples.

Right now, I've just had my 11am breakfast bar and a large cup of black coffee. The breakfast bar has 226 calories and black coffee has no calories (hooray!!!).

I wonder how long I have to go before I start to see some progress? Progress is good. Progress is encouraging. I'm looking forward to progress.

If I fall off the wagon, remind me that I need to get back on it. :-)

Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/langshipley
Makeup and beauty blog: http://langshipley-deannasworld.blogspot.com.au/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/langshipley (this is the best way to reach me, I will always respond to this the fastest).
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Getting serious about weight loss, calorie counting and a small Plexus Slim update

 

So I'm onto about Day 18 or 19 of the Plexus Slim and it hasn't done a lick of good for me. I have started taking it more consistently, every morning, rather than the way I was taking it earlier and hoping that would help, but so far I am not seeing any results.

I am not willing to invest more than a month into it, and if someone tells me I'm doing it wrong and hence why I've not seen results after a month, well, I'm not willing to shell out more money to try it for another month to see if it works.

I also really think that it only works well if you use the Accelerator, but that's a stimulant and has a ton of caffeine in it and makes you very twitchy and jumpy and not sleep, which I've read online about. I'm not willing to risk that as I'm very sensitive to caffeine.

Onto other weight loss stuff, I've started a calorie controlled diet to help me lose weight. I have found in the past that only watching what I eat has been particularly effective in helping me to lose weight so I'm back on that.

I'm determined to lose weight again since I've gained some weight since I reached a healthy, comfortable weight level. It's a constant battle and it's necessary to stay vigilant all the time (I confess it gets tiring after a while, hence the up and down battle!).

I downloaded a calorie counter app to my phone from Calorie King, which is specifically Australian. It has all the Australian brands of food in it and is updated regularly, so it's easy to find things that I eat on a regular basis on it and also allows me to customize and add things that are not on there by adding up the various ingredients. I'm on day 2 of this.

I got the basic free app which only allows you to search for the food and look up calories, and I also got the paid app which was $4.99 which allows you to track your calorie intake daily and set weight loss goals.

I'm learning a lot from this experience, in particular, how things add up really, really quickly in terms of calories.

First impressions so far is that calories add up quick. There's not a lot you can eat at 1300 calories a day and it is going to take a few days before I stop feeling constantly hungry.

So far, my routine has been as follows and it seems to be working:

• Vitamins and a big glass of water first thing in the morning
• A cup of black coffee about 10am
• An Optifast meal replacement bar at between 11am and 11:30am
• A cup of tea between 1pm and 2pm
• Another Optifast meal replacement bar at between 3pm and 4pm
• Lots and lots of water in between
• Normal dinner (still keeping under what's left of my calorie count for the day) in the evening when I get home
• A small dessert treat if I am under my calorie count and there's room left. I don't want to entirely deprive myself, that would be unhealthy and non motivational

This seems to be working and I'm not starving at any point of the day, though I am feeling quite hungry just before dinner. That said this is only day 2!!!

At the end of the first day, I was quite pleased with myself because I had 143 calories left over, which meant I could have 2 Lindt chocolate balls if I wanted to. Bonus! I have learned over the years to always leave room for the treat without feeling guilty.

I don't have huge aims as I am not grossly overweight.

I am 137 lbs and I am hoping to get to 130 lbs over the next few months. That's the weight that my doctor is happy with me at to keep my pre-diabetic condition and other health conditions at bay and be at a healthy happy weight.

Ideally, I'd like to get to my post-marriage low weight which was a happy 123 lbs but that might be very hard work. I remember a lot of dry soda crackers and plain steamed vegetables in my diet to achieve that and that gets pretty boring along the way, plus that was 15 years ago and I'm fairly certain my body and metabolism has changed over the years.

I don't plan on anything crazy or drastic and I want to take this slow, because slow is the only way this whole thing will remain sustainable, without me going crazy, and without it being too onerous and me quitting along the way.

I don't want to deprive myself, because depriving myself will just make me be rebellious and not so what I'm supposed to.

I will keep up with the exercise too, which to be honest is not much, but it's what I can do so far. I walk about 30 minutes each day, 15 minutes each way to work and back, and that's a nice routine. On top of that we get 1 or 2 hours of walking in over the weekend to supplement that. I don't know if I will do better than that just because of the work schedule and working it into my lifestyle. More just might not fit into my lifestyle right now.

So that's it for my first overview of my weight loss journey.

I'll try to blog about it semi-regularly to keep a regular update going on how I'm progressing.

Right now, I just need to get to the point where I stop thinking about food all the time.

The Plexus Slim is going to be a bust, I'm pretty sure of it.


Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/langshipley
Makeup and beauty blog: http://langshipley-deannasworld.blogspot.com.au/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/langshipley (this is the best way to reach me, I will always respond to this the fastest).
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Cooking blog: http://dazinthekitchen.blogspot.com.au/

Plexus Slim experience - my first 16 days of taking Plexus Slim

I decided to try Plexus Slim after hearing some really good things about it for weight loss.

For those of you who do not know what Plexus Slim is, it's a "pink drink" that supposed to help with weight loss. You're supposed to take it daily and it is to help with losing weight.

I tend to be rather skeptical about these things but I read enough good things about it that I decided to let myself be suckered into trying it.

This is my journey.

Day 1: Was surprised to find that the Accelerator has caffeine in it. I'm very sensitive to caffeine, so I'm a bit concerned about what this will do to me.

Took the Accelerator in the morning with my breakfast. Been drinking the Plexus Slim drink throughout the day. About midway through the day, I noticed that my mouth got really dry, like all the moisture has been sucked out of it. I do not know if that I supposed to happen, I have emailed the person I am in touch with to check but have not heard back from her. I have been drinking a lot of water, but no amount of water seems to help.

It's about 3pm and I'm kinda lightheaded and dizzy. I'm not twitchy or jittery from the caffeine, which is probably a good thing, but I am feeling rather lightheaded. Wish I could lie down, but I'm at work.

Is it weird that I feel like I'm extra sensitive to my perfume because of the Plexus I've taken. I feel like my perfume is getting to my head on top of everything else. Either my perfume is making me lightheaded or it's compounding the fact that I'm lightheaded from the Plexus.

This Plexus thing is making me extremely dry mouthed, not thirsty, dry mouthed. It's making me drink a lot of water. Probably not a bad thing.
I'll give it a few days, but I'm not sure I like this and I'm not sure I want to continue this, given the way I feel.

Ugh, really hating the way my mouth feels and the way I am feeling. Don't know if I can do this another day. What possessed me to try this fool thing?

It's about 4pm. I'm no longer lightheaded but the whole dry mouth thing is driving me crazy.

I've made a decision that because of the caffeine and the way I feel, I'm going to return this product for a refund. I'm not willing to put up with the side effects and the way I feel to lose the weight. I will find other ways to lose weight.

It's a little past 5pm, the crazy dry mouth feeling is starting to pass. I am considering just using the Plexus Slim and not the Accelerator tomorrow. See how that works. I have emailed Customer Service about a return and a refund. I will wait to see what happens with them too. If they do not respond and I lose my money, it will be a lesson well and painfully learned about weight loss stuff.

7pm - finally feeling back to normal and that weird dry mouth thing is gone. It has not been an easy day with all the side effects from taking the Plexus products.

Day 2: My stomach is very bloated and a bit sore. I don't know if it has anything to do with the Plexus Slim from yesterday or not, but I know I did not eat anything last night that would have caused this. I have made up the Plexus Slim pink drink but haven't started drinking it yet since my stomach is not happy.

I have not heard from Plexus customer support or the "Ambassador" that I was in contact with yet. It's been 24 hours.

Only halfway through the pink drink. I have no appetite at all. Haven't eaten all day except for a few bites of toast and that held no appeal.

At some cheezels late afternoon even though I was not really very hungry.

Had dinner as normal.

Day 3: Got up and weighed myself this morning. I have lost 2 lbs. That is very encouraging. I will continue with the pink drink.

11:20am just about to start my pink drink for the day. Will take a slug and then have some toast.
This drink thing is awesome for controlling hunger. Usually I'm hungry by now. I'm not hungry at all and it's still leftover from yesterday. 

I'm still not sure how this drink makes me feel. I keep feeling like I am slightly off but not really. I haven't figured it out yet. I'm hoping it would normalize over a few days.

I'm also wondering, if the 2 lbs I lost is because of the Accelerator or just the pink drink. I've stopped taking the Accelerator because of the caffeine in it and I don't like the way it makes me feel.

12pm I just had one slice of bread with orange marmalade. I feel really full and slightly nauseous.

I think the pink drink makes me feel slightly off. I don't know how to describe it, except that I just don't feel quite right. I can't think of anything else that would make me feel off right now. The pink drink is the only thing that I am doing different.

1pm It could be that I was hungry and was feeling faint from it and did not know it because I did not have an appetite and was not feeling hungry. It could also be that I was not feeling great cos it is absolutely freezing in the office today. Either way, I just had a hot cup-a-soup and I'm feeling much better. My equilibrium has been restored.

I am definitely feeling much better after a cup of hot soup.

The pink drink has a rather vile taste. It tastes like plastic sugar.

3:25pm My appetite has returned. I'm feeling rather hungry now. I would like toast.

Had toast. That definitely helped with the hunger. Maybe it has taken that long for all of the Accelerator to get out of my system? I'm looking forward to dinner tonight.

Day 4: Nothing much going on today. Took the pink drink through the day. Feeling pretty normal.

That's unusual for me.

Day 5: Finally heard back from the pink drink ambassador and customer support. I am going to return the Accelerator for a refund.

Day 9: Skipped 2 days of the pink drink as I was away and didn't get a chance to mix it up to drink. Weight back to what it was at the start. Put back on the 2 lbs I thought I had lost after the 2 days of being on the drink. Will see how getting back to a normal routine goes.

Back to feeling normal though.

Day 10: Completely forgot about the pink drink till about 2pm. Weight back to what it was before the start of the pink drink. I think the Accelerator makes a huge difference in the weight loss, unfortunately, I get too many adverse effects from it to take it.

Day 15: I have not been weighing myself, so I do not know if this is working or not, but I don't *feel* any lighter. LOL. I have 18 packets of the pink drink left, so as you can see, I've been skipping a few times. Not a lot, but I have skipped a few times. I will weight myself tomorrow and see if there is any progress. If there is not any noticeable progress by about day 25 or so, I don't think that I will re-order it and chalk it up to a failed experiment. It's too expensive to keep trying it to see if it will work. I'm not expecting much, I'd like to see about 3 or so lbs of weight loss. 5 lbs would make me very happy.

If you've stuck with me this long, you might want to know that I drink my pink drink in two blocks. I put it into a 600ml bottle of water and shake it up, then drink 1/2 of it about mid morning, before lunch and then the rest about 3pm.

Day 16: Well, this is not going well ... I actually Put. On. Weight!! So far, I'm up 2 lbs. Some serious dieting is now necessary, which when you read the Plexus literature, doesn't not mention anything about dieting. They just say, drink the drink.

I missed taking the pink drink today, BTW, since I was in an all day meeting and just didn't have the opportunity to mix up the drink and drink it.
I have to say, that the fact that I'm missing days might not be helping much either. I expect consistent day to day drinking might be needed for it to work? I don't know. Nothing I've read has ever provided a realistic commentary on the experience. I've just seen people rave about losing 40 lbs in two weeks which just seems crazy.

As an aside, about 4 years ago, I went through losing about 17 lbs which took me about 18 months to do with controlled eating and exercise. It was a slow and difficult journey, but the weight stayed off for a good 4 years. It's a slow process and I guess I'm just hoping for a short cut this time and I don't think this is it. More thoughts as this continues.

... this post is getting very long, so I'm going to cut it off here and continue with another post for the next 15 days, until I'm done with all my pink drinks.

Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/langshipley
Makeup and beauty blog: http://langshipley-deannasworld.blogspot.com.au/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/langshipley (this is the best way to reach me, I will always respond to this the fastest).
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My experience with the Clarisonic Mia - initial reaction and breakouts

I bought the Clarisonic Mia 2 weeks ago because I've heard so much about it and so many people have raved about it. I've got friends who have them and love them. They say it's the reason their skin is clear, acne free, etc.

I have generally, really clear skin. It's super unusual for me to ever get a zit or a pimple or a blemish or anything like that. I might get 3 zits in a year if that, and usually they are tiny and clear up overnight with some zit cream.

I thought that getting the Clarisonic would be good for me because I did want cleaner skin. I mean, who doesn't want cleaner skin, right? And I'm very big about keeping my skin in good condition.

Now, I know that it's possible to get breakouts from using the Clarisonic initially, they call it the purging phase, which happens during the first two weeks or so of use. I did not think that it would happen to me because I have really, really clear skin but boy, was I wrong.

Here's what happened to me:

The first time I used the Clarisonic, I broke out the very next morning. It was a mild breakout, along my jawline. The breakouts cleared overnight.

The second time I used the Clarisonic, which was about 3 or 4 days later (I had decided to use the Clarisonic 2 or 3 times a week, mostly 2 times a week), I used a new moisturizer as well, and I thought but was not sure if it was the moisturizer that broke me out, or not. This time I had a few more breakouts along my jawline and cheek and again they cleared up relatively quickly with the use of some zit cream. I also used the Clarisonic on my neck for the first time.

The third time I used the Clarisonic, I also used the same moisturizer again and this time I was convinced that it was the moisturizer that broke me out, and I had a few more breakouts along my jaw line and a zinger of a zit (you know, those horrible painful ones that last forever and leave a scar) on my chin. I chucked out the rest of the moisturizer since it was just a small sample.

I was still thinking that it was the moisturizer, but then after a few days, my neck broke out and I have NEVER EVER had a breakout on my neck before ... NEVER! There was only one zit, and with some zit cream it cleared out overnight, but then today, during the day, I noticed fresh and more breakouts on my cheek (which I thought was attributed to a new foundation) but then also more breakouts on my neck.

Now if the breakouts were only on my face, I'd attribute it to the moisturizer or the foundation, since those things *can* cause breakouts even though I very rarely react to ingredients in products like that. It is rare for me to breakout due to products I put on my face. However, I broke out in my neck and since I NEVER breakout in my neck, I now know for a fact that it is the Clarisonic that is breaking me out, because that is the ONLY thing different that I have done in the recent times (over the last week) that has changed in my skincare routine around my neck area.

So, yes, the Clarisonic breaks me out. I am going to clean my face again tonight (for the fourth time) with the Clarisonic, treat it with zit cream and persevere with the Clarisonic and hope my skin clears up over the next couple of weeks. I've read, watched videos and heard reviews that say that you need to ride out the purge period and let the Clarisonic do it's work. Since I paid good money for this product, and also I've heard so much good about it, I want to give it a shot and I'll ride it out for another 2 weeks. That said, seriously, I've never had so many pimples on my face before.

I will check back in again in a few weeks time and update with another blog post on how the Clarisonic is treating me and whether it's going to be a go or no go for me moving forward.

*** UPDATE ***

Thought I'd jot down a quick update ... I'm 5 days after my last Clarisonic use and there have been no breakouts. Maybe it was the first breakout was due to the moisturizer I used, and the second one was due to a new foundation? ... but that still does not explain the breakouts on my neck.

I do really, really like how squeaky clean my face feels after I use the Clarisonic to wash it. Makes me want to use it all the time.


Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/langshipley
Makeup and beauty blog: http://langshipley-deannasworld.blogspot.com.au/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/langshipley (this is the best way to reach me, I will always respond to this the fastest).
Twitter: @langshipley https://twitter.com/langshipley
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Cooking blog: http://dazinthekitchen.blogspot.com.au/

Welcome to Deanna's World

 

Hello there!!

This is my beauty, makeup, health and general blog.

It will focus on all things beauty and makeup related, as well as some health / diet related stuff as I try new things and want to talk about my experience.

There might be some general posts too, book reviews, raves about things that I love that are random, but I expect those will be few and far between.

I do not plan on posting very much right now, only when there's a particular thing that I'd like to blog about or talk about, so this won't be updated very often but I will be updating it from time to time.

I will always post to my facebook page when I have updated this blog with a new entry.

In general though, here's where you can find me:

Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/langshipley (makeup and beauty)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/langshipley (this is the best way to reach me, I will always respond to this the fastest).

Twitter: https://twitter.com/langshipley
Instagram: langshipley
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/langshipley/
Keek: http://www.keek.com/langshipley

And of course, my cooking blog: http://dazinthekitchen.blogspot.com.au/

See you around.