100% Cohens and Waterwise Challenge - Friday 2 August to Thursday 16 August 2013

[Cazspaz]

Woops have forgotten to check in but have still been going strong!

Have been told not to guzzle my drinks in one go but to constantly sip at it over the day. I carry a 700mL metal water bottle with me EVERYWHERE and will comfortably refill it 4 times a day. I drink small bits from it pretty darn regularly, probably every 10-15 minutes but occasionally I'm sure it goes for a bit longer. Setting an alarm seems pretty regimented for me - and annoying! Having it right next to me wherever I am is generally a good enough reminder for me.

[Blommie]

Whoo its 15:45 today and I have hit my water goal!! Lets do it NME, Gazs, Runninggirl and McBell lets do this!!

[mcbell]

Yep all good so far! I think it really helps having a challenge to stick to.

[Cazspaz]

Yeah I agree! Just makes you have that stronger inner "no" or "water" voice inside your head - yep I'm talking about voices inside me head lol!

[Nomoreexcuses]

All good on this front

Had a bit of a tricky situation last night...was going straight to a friend's after work said can I measure my stuff out for dinner she says fine. I get there and she's got cooked steak and cooked veggies (all Cohen approved) so had to weigh out cooked steak and veggies so wouldn't have been totally accurate. Do you guys know if meat/veg weigh more when they are raw? I wasn't sure whether to overestimate or underestimate.

Also I thought she was making chicken so I ate beef for lunch ( i can only have it for M2) so when I got there and she had cooked beef instead I just had my M2 portions again and I think there was too much oil too. Was a bit worried but I did the best I could given the situation! Thought I would have cheese for breakfast (haven't had for nearly two weeks) then realised we don't actually have any mozzarella which was a bit sad. I actually prefer egg I rarely have cheese makes me feel a bit sluggish but felt like a change.

Happy Cohen-friendly weekend (always a bit harder to get water in I am aiming for minimum 2.5L). HAd 3L today as I had two coffees and I know that dehydrates us

[mcbell]

I think in my experience that cooked portions end up weighing less than raw portions - therefore you should under-estimate when you have to eat weighed cooked food - I think I tested it once, and my 100gm portion of chicken ended up weighing about 80gms once cooked. But it really sounds like you did the best you could.....when I went to visit my sister last year, I checked with her that she had everything I would need - spray oil, small pan etc....and then I got there and she didn't and "thought it wouldn't really matter"... I was glad I had taken my own food weighing scales, but that turned out to be the one thing she had - lol.

[Cazspaz]

It's a bit annoying when you give people clear communications and they still don't listen or understand. Some friends are still a bit like "What you can't eat this or that?" like seriously how many times have I told you now?

I've had to do similar things like you though and estimate other people's cooking. I still had drops in weight and it didn't seem to do any long term slowing or bad things. Obviously try to avoid it as much as possible though because it's teetering just on the line of deviating. They do stress you must have 3 meals a day so I think it's much better to eat it than to go without!

[Nomoreexcuses]

I hate that when it's like "oh surely that's fine it doesn't need to be exact" grrrr. Oh well best to be avoided anyway!! Weekend down stilll going strong. Just hit my water targets of 2.5L always find it hard on the weekend

[Cazspaz]

Was close for me yesterday - only hit my water target as I was reading in bed and realised I had to finish my water so kept sipping at it and hit it at about 10:30pm... weekends are really much much tougher!

[mcbell]

I agree about the weekends being tougher - I really had to remind myself as I was so busy! I put it on the shelf by the door way (as we were shifting rooms over the weeked) and then told myself every time I walked past I had to have a sip. And when I wanted a cup of tea on Sunday night, I made sure I finished my last bottle of water for the day before I had it. All good though!

[Never Give Up]

Hi Blommie, I was going to start one today! Ah well, I'll have to wait until Thursday. Having a few difficulties with exercise and maintenance. And eating...and a little health problem. Anyway, I hope to check in again soon!

[Blommie]

You are all SUPER stars ladies and I am so proud of you. Its like people dont understand that this is our medicine. They will not take less / more pills when they are sick so if we want to follow our program to the T its "why?" So good on all of you sticking to your guns on both food and water! Me on the other hand had a bit of a wobble over the weekend so can not claim a mango at the end of this challenge. Did still do my water so at least I can smile there. You are all such an inspiration to me so please keep it up!
NGU please cN you start a new challenge on Friday as I am going to be your first taker . Need to focus with the last kgs to go! Shame I hope your health issue isnt to serious. Sending you a big hug!!

[Cazspaz]

Well that makes two of us Blommie! Was so close to the end too but it ended up JUST out of reach!



I had a big work team lunch I could not get out of today and we went to Jamie's Italian (A Jaime Oliver restaurant here in Sydney) and 99% of everything had non cohen style food.

I think I still did pretty well considering... I got veal and sage saltimbocca without the prosciutto and made them promise me there was no added butter or sugar to the accompanying tomato salsa. They assured me it was just fresh crushed tomato so it would only have it's own natural sugars... which is true however the salsa was made from cherry tomatoes as well as both green and red capsicum and I only learned this once they bought it out. I ate the tomatoes, avoided the red capsicum, and ate the rocket leaves that came with it. I only ate half the veal as an estimate of my meat allowance - it certainly felt very close to a cohens meal but without weighing it and knowing it had the wrong kinds of tomatoes and capsicum it was a deviation.

Sadface.

Oh well will keep trucking on and will sign up to another challenge if there's a new one starting? I'm still going strong with the water too though so I'm glad this was a double challenge!

[mcbell]

Doh! Make that three. I had an accidental deviation last night. Because I am always super organised, I had a Meal 2 and Meal 3 defrosting in the fridge for last nights dinner and todays lunch.

When I went to cook up my lunch for today (last night) I discovered I had eaten the Meal 2 (beef mince) for dinner, instead of Meal 3 (steak noms)!

EEEEEEeeeeeek! That put me in a little bad mood (mainly because I was obviously distracted and pissed off at how dumb I had been - and scared of repercussions)! My beef mince was lovely though - just with veges (tomato, courgette and mushroom) and some balsamic vinegar om nom nom. I think it meant I ate 10gm to little protein, and about 15gm extra vege than I should for a meat M3 meal.

Anyway, I cooked up the steak (M3) for todays lunch, and I will have a M2 for my dinner tonight - straight back to normal, am not trying to "balance it out" by having two meal 3's today.

Water still good though, but no fancy mango for me (*sits in the corner with the dunce cap on*)

[Nomoreexcuses]

Guys i reckon you still deserve a mango!! Doing the best you could in that situation or a real accidental one!! If not then I was out last week as I had to estimate my meat and veg weight at a friends and accidentally had natvia which I found out later we aren't allowed...

Been sticking to plan 100% despite work week from hell and feeling really sick. Can't wait to be over my work woes and health woes feeling a bit blueee Lucky COhen's is still 100% on track that's the main thing!!

[Blommie]

NME, I agree with you. For both McBell and Cazspaz thing were out of their hands. They could have made decided that it was blown and just throw out everything but they did not!! So I would def say that they can get their mango and water. I on the other hand will only take my water bottle!! So let do this again!!

[mcbell]

Thanks guys, I am happy to accept a mango and water bottle if you think it is ok. Am signing up for the next challenge - it is funny (or maybe arrogant on my part) that I think "I don't have to sign up for a challenge, I know I am going to be deviation free and drink all my water" - because I am in the zone and it just seems natural to be 100% (which is awesome of course)!

[Cazspaz]

Thanks people! This was definitely a challenge but I found it helped to have signed up to it as I felt more accountable for my actions

Will go update my signature now yay!