Target achieved - 3st 4lbs (24.3 kg) off - BMI 24.3 - Medication cut - Olympic effort

Great news - weight target achieved - now weigh 12st 12lb from initial 16st 2lb at 1st January.

For the last 3 weeks, I have reintroduced normal lunch and just have a milk shake in the morning.  Started using Slimfast shakes as Morrisons had a two-for-one offer on the large tins.  The difference between Biggest Loser and Slimfast powders is that with Slimfast you mix the powder with milk (I use skimmed off course) and with Biggest Loser you just mix with water.  I really look forward to my morning vanilla milkshake.

I still have not visited a gym or undertaken any extra strenuous exercise - I decided that I would lose the weight first and then go to the gym to tone up - no point hauling an extra 3 stone around the gym and wearing myself out.

When I say I have introduced normal lunch and have not done any exercise, I need to qualify this a bit.  I have been volunteering at the Olympics doing IT support in the Athletes Village.  This does mean that I am walking more than normal since I usually work from home and don't get out much.  Provided it is not raining, I walk the 10 minutes from the station to the workforce entrance plus I'm walking around the Athletes Village as I go around fixing or checking computers and printers.

Also, as part of the perks of being a GamesMaker is that you get a meal voucher where you have a choice of a sandwich, a hot meal, a salad or even a McDonalds.  Occasionally I have the hot meal but mostly I go for the salad option which is usually more substantial than the hot meal.  There are about 12 different salad elements to select from including a green leaf (usually lettuce) and the usual tomatoes, cucumber, cold peas, red/green peppers, beetroot, onions, cauliflower and then with a variety of bean mixes and things like curried rice, cous-cous, houmus followed by a cold meat (choice of chicken, ham, bacon and sometimes beef), cheese (grated or sliced cheddar or cottage cheese) and an egg.  You then select a piece of fruit and a nutri-grain bar.  Usually my plate is overflowing.  A couple of times I went to the McDonalds and tried their chicken salad which wasn't bad - avoid the dressings though which are high in calories.

On my last visit to the doctor, my diabetes tablets (Metformin) have been reduced from 3 a day down to 1 a day.  I expect to drop these entirely on my next review so that I am back to diet only control of my blood sugar.  My 'before breakfast' reading has been hovering around 5.5 although I still have peaks up to 7 if I have indulged a bit the previous day.

Also blood pressure has been very good and constant at around 130/70 so I am expecting a reduction on my blood pressure pills.

This brings me back to why I started this weight loss project.  It was two things mainly.  First, my daughter got married last summer and in the photos I looked huge - even my 46" jacket was pulling when buttoned up for the official photos - I wasn't happy looking at those pictures at all.

Secondly, it was mainly triggered by my desire to get rid of medications and to try to reverse the diabetes - I really didn't want to go from diet-only to medication and then to injections as a doctor had predicted I would.

There has also been another great bonus - a few years ago I went to one of these designer outlet villages and went into the Versace store - I have never been into or bought any designer clothes before - I mean £100 for a pair of jeans - get real!  Anyway, I saw this pair of Versace casual trousers (very dark plum colour) in a sale for about £15 (probably reduced because they were this plum colour).  It was waist 38 (a very small 38 - more like 37 and very slim fitting).  I was waist 42 so didn't even think to try them on.  But I said to myself, one day I will wear them.  And of course you guessed it - I have been wearing these very comfortably recently when going out.  And I can't deny that I do like the comments of friends that haven't seen me for a while.

I've amended my weight targets a little bit - I would like to get my BMI down a little bit more to say 23 and my weight to about 12 and half stone although my wife is saying that I should stop now and not lose any more weight.  I'll probably stick with the shakes in the morning and occasionally use a meal replacement bar at lunch if I see my weight creeping up.  After the Olympics and a short holiday in Scotland, I intend to start going to the gym and go swimming a few times a week again - I might even cycle there if the weather is not too bad.

Hope my diary has been encouraging for others - I'm really pleased, not just with the weight loss but that it has been no struggle at all - I think it is all about setting realistic and achievable goals and giving yourself long enough so that any changes you make to your diet became the norm and so then it is easy to keep it up.

3 stone off (19 kg) - just 2lb to go to target - BMI just into normal range (24.9)

I feel great - a couple of years ago I bought a pair of Versace jeans from a designer outlet village - one of my targets to to be able to get into these and I wore them comfortably for the first time last week.

My main target though was to try to reduce my medications and a recent medical review saw my diabetic medication reduce from 3 tablets a day down to one with the promise that if I kept up with this progress they will be gone altogether and I'll be back to diet controlled again - I really believe I'll be able to reverse my diabetes entirely.

My blood pressure is also looking great - 120/70 - again, promise of reducing if not eliminating these tablets altogether in a few months.

I'm going to be a volunteer Games Maker at the Olympics - my weight loss has boosted my confidence of being around all these fit athletes.

The best thing about this diet is that I really enjoy using these products - I find them tasty and satisfying - it has been no hardship whatsoever.  When I get to my target, I'll need to modify my programme so that I can comfortably maintain my weight.

I gave up my original plan of using Optifast because they (Nestle) made it so difficult to get their product in the UK as they wanted to maintain the idea that is was only to be used prior to gastric band surgery which is how they justified the high price and why they insisted on a private doctor's prescription in order to maintain this perception.  I wouldn't say it was a scam but my pharmacist said the ingredients in Optifast were no big deal and not dissimilar from other meal replacement products on the market.  

I use a combination of Biggest Loser and Slimfast products - whatever is offering the best deals at the time I am in the supermarkets - recently I got a good deal on Biggest Loser through the Groupon discount website.

Getting a lot more hits on my recipepicker.com website after it was mentioned in Martin Lewis's MoneySavingExpert.com forums - a great way to make use of ingredients left over and you can also specify dietary requirements like diabetic, low GI, low carbs, etc.

Another important thing to try to achieve is to give up smoking if you are a smoker.  Check out www.QuitSmokingPal.com for a totally different, smoker-friendly, approach to quitting especially if you have tried all the other methods without any success.

I'm 60 this year and I've never felt more energetic in years - hope I'm encouraging you too.

Will check in again soon with more news about my journey.

27 Feb - 1.75 stones off, HBA1c 4.2, Cholesterol 2.8

Getting some great results - not far to go till 2 stone off then just 1 more stone to go.  HAB1c score is great 4.2 down from 6.8 and Cholesterol down from 3.3 to 2.8.

Still having Biggest Loser shake in the morning then either BL soup for lunch if I'm home or a Slimfast bar if I'm out and then normal meal in the evening - whatever my wife is having but without potatoes.

I feel more energised and full most of the time and avoiding snacking has not been an issue.  Instead of a G&T if I'm out with friends, very happy to stick with sparkling water.

For those wanting a more exciting meal plan - try www.recipepicker.com - this is a website I created that lets you state what type of diet you want to follow and what ingredients you want to include, as well as exclude, and it will search Google for you and give you lots of suggestions of recipes that fit your criteria.

Hopefully my next blog will be when I hit the 2 stone off stage.  Till then - have fun.

8 February - Lost 1.5 stones since New Year so far but not yet on Optifast

In the New Year, my pharmacist tried talking to Nestle again about Optifast.  Initially they were selling the box of 9 sachets of soup for about £30 with the various shakes just a bit lower for packs of 9 sachets.  But when he called up again, they were talking about £200 for a 2 week programme.

Meanwhile, I had been continuing with BL (Biggest Loser) products - replacing breakfast and lunch but having regular supper. I've got to say that their range of flavours was more interesting than Optifast - for instance whereas Optifast only have vegetable soup, BL has Chicken, Vegetable and Curry soups which comes in a mixed box of 5 soups at £7 from Asda.  The shake flavours are Chocolate, Mint Chocolate, Vanilla, Banana and Wild Berry.  Tesco were selling the BL vanilla packs at just £0.50 each - needless to say I bought up quite a lot.

I compared the ingredients of BL with Optifast which had all the same ingredients except for Chloride and Fluoride which was in Optifast but not BL.  The amounts varied a little but essentially they are pretty similar.

The other thing I did was to buy a decent pair of scales.  Sainsbury had an offer on Weight Watchers branded scales that are quite good - £15 reduced from £30.  These scales as well as measuring weight also measure BMI, Body Fat % and Body Water %.

Since 29 Dec my weight has gone down from 16st 2lb to 14st 7.5lb today - just over 1.5 stone.  My BMI has reduced from 30.3 to 27.8 - I have gone from officially obese to overweight - which is great news.  I also feel I have more energy and my stomach is definitely getting flatter.

My dilemma though is this - do I stick with what I'm doing with BL or still try to go on the Optifast plan.  For Optifast you have to have a BMI of 30+, well now I am under that.  On the other hand, although I am losing weight very happily, because I didn't do the rapid weight loss concept with Optifast then maybe I am not achieving the benefit of reversing my diabetes.

My wife has been very supportive of what I have been doing but I'm not sure she'll go with a full replacement plan - it's nice that we sit down together in the evening and share a meal (although I leave out the potatoes) - would be a shame to lose that.

Now I just telephoned Nestle to ask some more about Optifast and to clear up the question about ordering.  At first they were telling me that Optifast is only prescribed as a two week programme for people about to undertake gastric band surgery who are required to not eat for two weeks - hence the two week programme.  When I said I wanted to use it for weight loss only, they said their product is not meant for that.  Then I told them that their own documentation on their website clearly advertises Optifast as a "nutritionally complete low-calorie meal replacement product developed specifically for medically controlled weight loss" and elsewhere "Total Diet Replacement for Weight Control".  

They then said that it can only be used for two weeks - again I challenged this by quoting from their documentation which says "We recommend that Optifast is used under medical supervision, especially if using as a total diet replacement for more than three weeks".

Although they were aware of the study using Optifast to reverse diabetes, they refused to comment on this maintaining their product is just used prior to gastric band surgery. 

The outcome is that the two week programme is based on 2 weeks at 4 sachets a day which equals 56 sachets and they said that the pharamacist would charge between £150 - £190 for this plus £25 for a private prescription.  My doctor must write on the prescription what combinations of soups and shake flavours I want.  Then I need another prescription in another 2 weeks.  When I told them that Optifast is sold over the counter in Australia they said they didn't know what happens in other countries.

Seems very strange to me that they advertise Optifast as a meal replacement weight loss product on their website yet they don't really want to sell it to you.  I suspect that they are making healthy profits from selling Optifast as a special highly priced product specifically for people undergoing gastric band surgery and do not want to devalue their brand by being seen to be selling it as a general diet product - after all it is not that much different from BL products or even the Asda own label meal replacement stuff.  I'm thinking that there is a little bit of a racket going on here.

Even my pharmacist said he can't see what all the fuss is about - he said "after all its only a meal replacement product like all the others".

Now that I am very comfortable with BL products and they are easily available at reasonable prices, I'm thinking that maybe I'll do the Optifast total meal plan but using BL products.  Lot less hassle for the same result.  I will give this some serious thought.

31 Dec 2011 - Can't wait for the pharmacist

I had this idea that I might start with just two meal replacements with normal evening meal as a way of preparing myself for the more extreme programme with Optifast that I was going to start in the New Year.

I have to say that at this stage, my wife was not very convinced.  She is following Weight Watchers and advocates exercise and healthy eating, just as the doctor initially suggested.  However, she is not a diabetic or on medication for blood pressure which was my added motivation for the Optifast plan.

While she was out, I jumped into the car and headed to my local ASDA to see what they sold since they were mentioned in the Daily Mail article I mentioned previously.  I looked at these large tubs of meal replacement shakes.  True that they only cost £4 for nine servings but there was not much variety and I wasn't sure I wanted to buy so much of one flavour - I might have if they did a vanilla flavour but they only sold tubs of chocolate, coffee or strawberry.  I would have preferred it also if they had some soup meal replacements.

Something else caught my eye - a starter box of 5 shakes and 2 soups branded 'The Biggest Loser' which was tied in with the TV programme of the same name.  It was £19.97 for the box so I thought I would give it a go and see how I felt using these type of products.  By the way, on the way home I saw a Tescos and decided to pop in to see what they sold.  They had this same 'Biggest Loser' starter pack for £14.47.  Feeling depressed at such a large difference in price, I bought the Tesco box and returned to ADSA for a refund.

It was lunch time when I got home and tried my first shake - Cherry flavour.  It was not too bad - it did have a powdery texture though so maybe I'll use more water next time but it taste ok.  I was surprised at how full I felt and how quickly my hunger was gone and was feeling optimistic about this concept.

We were going out in a group of 12 to a pub/restaurant for New Years eve.  I was very good - I went for a vegetarian option and I didn't have any alcohol or tea/coffee.  So far so good.

I slept in late the next day and missed breakfast but used a vegetable soup meal replacement at lunch with normal dinner in the evening (turkey again!).  No biscuits or snacks at all during the day.  Will stay at this plan until I hear from the pharmacist on Tuesday, 3 Jan, as to whether he can get Optifast for me.

p.s. one of the persons that was in the group of 12 for New Year Eve that had not been part of our NYE dining group in previous years was a coach from the local gym.  Two years ago, I went to the gym on a doctors referral for 6 weeks and then I carried on for about another 6 months and this guy was my coach - so I felt suitably guilty and resolved to at least go swimming 2 or 3 times a week in the New Year.  Can only be good.   

29 Dec 2011 - Visit to Doctor - Confusion about precriptions

I visited the doctor and explained that I wanted to try this Optifast diet plan.  She was a bit cautious and said she preferred a plan that included exercise and weight loss by changing to healthy eating habits.  I explained that one of the main reasons for wanting to try this programme was because of the potential for reversing diabetes which required the rapid weight loss in order to kick start the pancreas.

She became a bit more interested at this point and I gave her the the information for doctors and the press release articles to keep as she had never heard of Optifast or this research..

She said that unfortunately she could not write out a prescription for Optifast as diet products were not prescribable in the UK which was a pity since as a diabetic I get exemption from prescription costs.  However if I did go on this diet then she would be supportive and that I should come to the surgery after a week or two and get some blood tests.

I was encouraged but disappointed that I couldn't get the product on prescription.  I went home to see if I could buy Optifast on the internet.  I checked eBay and there was nothing available in the UK.  There was a seller in Australia but with the postage and possible customs duty, it would be cheaper to get it from my pharmacist.  I then checked out Amazon and I found a seller in the US that was offering over 50% discount but unfortunately they wouldn't ship to the UK.

Next I found that Lloyds Pharmacy online were selling Optifast at £2.90 per sachet but their website said that you needed a prescription - either an NHS or a private one.  What was odd was that with a private prescription they charged an extra £1.45 for postage.  Being a bit confused by the requirement for a prescription, I phoned Lloyds who confirmed they would only supply Optifast with a prescription and when I pushed them that my GP said she couldn't write a prescription for Optifast, they said to get a private one and I got the impression they wanted me to talk with their online doctor and pay for a private prescription.

I then telephoned Nestle Nutrition.  They told me that Optifast does require a prescription but that the patient would still have to pay full price for the product. Hmm.

Back to the pharmacist - I told him I wanted to order the product but as it is so expensive and I need quite a lot, could he do me a deal especially as it was cheaper at Lloyds pharmacy.  He mad a few calls and found he couldn't get it from his usual suppliers.  He phoned Nestle who were now closed till the 3rd of January and so he would get back to me then.

On the Cycle of Change - see post 25 December 2011 - I would put myself at the Preparation stage - intent on taking action..

28 Dec 2011 - Research

I decided to look into this Newcastle study a bit more by searching on Google for information. I found 4 articles of interest (links provided to all items below).

The first was a press release put out by the university in June 2011 entitled 'Diet reverses Type 2 Diabetes'.  There were related news items on the SKY and BBC websites.  The press release confirmed the results however it was a small study and the conclusion was that more research is needed.

The second item was some more information about the low calorie diet programme.  Basically the three meal replacements provide 600 calories per day which is supplemented by 3 portions of non-starchy vegetables and recipe ideas are given to make the vegetable dishes appetising. 

The third article was an FAQ put together by Prof Taylor as a result of the interest generated particularly by diabetics.

The final article was a document for doctors providing detailed information about the programme and how to monitor their patients if they were going to use it.

Whilst the research motivated to take some action it also made it clear that the patient needs to be medically monitored throughout the programme if they are currently on medication.  For instance if they have been prescribed a diuretic pill (a medication to increase urination) as part of high blood pressure control, this might need to be reduced or stopped as the diet requires the patient to increase their water intake.  Similarly, the diabetes medication needs to be constantly monitored because there is a possibility of  getting a hypo from too lower a sugar level.  Also, iron levels can fall too low on this diet so that the doctor might advise taking a vitamin supplement.

Also, the Optifast Reference Guide from makers Nestle, states that the product has been developed specifically for medically supervised weight loss but it also implied that Optifast was available in the UK.

So my conclusion was that this was something I wanted to do but I needed to talk with my doctor first.  I phoned for an appointment and was surprised to be offered an appointment the next day.

I also went to see my local pharmacist and took along the ordering information I gleaned from the Optifast reference guide.  He told me that he could order it for me but it was very expensive, for instance a pack of 6 soups sachets would cost about £30.  He said that I didn't need a prescription to get it but if I did have a prescription then this would make the programme not so costly (this turned out not to be correct).

So another good reason to see the doctor tomorrow.

27 Dec 2011 - Two week diet to lose diabetes

I read an article today in the Daily Mail entitled 'Dieting for two weeks stopped my diabetes'.

What was all this about - if I could diet for two weeks and lose a stone and lose my diabetes, this would be a miracle.  Not only this but the guy in the story was also able to come off his blood pressure pills which was something I wanted to do as well.

The story was about a guy who had read about a controlled study carried out at Newcastle University, funded by Diabetes UK that researched into the observation that patients that underwent gastric band surgery often reversed their type 2 diabetes as a side-effect of rapid weight loss.

The study with 11 volunteers carried out by Prof Taylor simulated gastric band surgery by putting the people on meal replacement regime that only provided 800 calories per day for eight weeks.  This caused rapid and substantial weight loss and when the body started burning its own fat reserves (known as Ketosis) from the liver and pancreas (fat stored in the wrong places is used up first), apparently the pancreas started working properly again and producing insulin hence the reversal of diabetes.

The meal replacement product used in the study was called Optifast which is not readily available in the UK.  In the US, Canada and Australia it is only available as part of clinic based and medically overseen programme.

Because Optifast was not available in the UK, the guy in the Daily Mail article decided to do his own DIY programme with an own label meal replacement product bought at relatively low cost from ASDA.

This was beginning to sound interesting - here is a link to the Daily Mail article that kicked off my interest.

25 Dec 2011 - Christmas Day 2011 - Contemplation

Christmas Day - everything was out of the window - diet, diabetes control, exercise plans, etc.   Surrounded by chocolate, sweets, biscuits, cream soda and other treats plus full traditional Christmas Day dinner with all the trimmings - just gave in to temptation.

Same thing again on Boxing Day.


There is a chart that I use with my quit smoking clients called the Cycle of Change - I was at the stage called 'Contemplation' which basically means I was aware of the problem but hadn't made any commitment to do anything about it.  Here is a picture of this chart:

You can download a copy of this chart from cycle_of_change.pdf .