Kristine's 2008 Diary

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 8: 71 kilos
Loss: 3 kilos
Feeling: Yeah, well, OK. Would have been nice to have cracked the 70 kilo mark, but not to have dropped that extra bit of weight indicates that I have gone past the glycogen stage and am now in the actual weight loss part of the program

My previous pattern was no change for three days, then a loss of maybe a kilo overnight, then steady, then a loss etc. So that's OK, too - not overly exciting but now on the steady way to goal weight

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 9: 70.25 kilos
Loss: 3.75 kilos
Feeling: Very pleased to see the overnight drop. I put it down to three really 'good' meals yesterday which made me feel happy.

It is 4pm and I must tell you about the Buttered Chicken I ate for lunch. I was cutting up the week's meat and chicken and bagging it for the freezer, so thought I'd have a fresh chicken lunch


This is what I did:

I asked Daughter to google 'Buttered Chicken' for the spices

Heat the wok, sprayed with cooking spray, browned the chicken
Threw in: A shake of paprika, cinnamon, chilli flakes, cardamon, cumin
Vegetables: Finely sliced Spring onion, green capsicum (bell pepper), mushrooms and zucchini
Tossed it all about a bit, sloshed in apple cider vinegar, added water, let simmer and reduce to a nice gravy (about fifteen minutes)
Just before serving: Another shake of paprika, and stirred in mayonnaise
Plated over crumbled rice cake

OMG! Buttered Chicken and rice for lunch! About three weeks ago I had Buttered Chicken, Beef Saag and other wonderful, spicy delights in Brick Lane, London which is a street end to end with Indian, Pakistan and Bangladesh restaurants.

While not exactly in the same league, my BC today was, nonetheless, hot, tasty, freshly cooked and just what I needed!

I ground the cardamon and cumin in my Bamix mill - thanks, Loulou for reminding me that I had one hidden in the back of the cupboard - and I will make feta and spinach tarts for dinner.

Oh, it's all happening here!

Isn't Cohen's fun!!!

[indiana13]

Hi Kristine,
That recipe sounds delicious, I will have to give it a go!! Looks like our start & goal weights are pretty similar. You are doing a fantastic job so far, well done on the first week losses.
Em

[Mette]

That recipe sounds delicious! I'll definitely have to try it! I think I might leave out the chilli, though. It always makes my tongue burn...

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 9: 70.25 kilos
Loss: 3.75 kilos
Feeling: Happy! As in, happy. The serotonin levels are rising, and that 'feel good' hormone sure does feel good

'Feeling' happy is a healthy sensation. It has nothing to do with 'mood', more to do with the state of the body. The machinery is now in motion, and the body is starting to hum. 'Happy' is the best word for it.

Thanks, Mette and Indiana, for your comments on the Buttered Chicken.

My Feta and Spinach muffins were not as successful in that there is still some work to do on how to make them. Tasted OK - actually tasted better after I had eaten them than when I was eating them, which was interesting, to say the least.



My Daughter was a Monash Exchange Student at Utrechdt, in the Netherlands, last year. Of course, she met lots of other international students. Last week a package arrived for her from a friend in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.

In the package was:

A packet of Cajun Jambalaya Mix (includes rice)
A box of Crab Boil - spices for cooking Crawfish, Shrimp and Crab 'in the bag' (aromatic seeds & spices)
and
A shaker of Tony Chachere's Spice 'n' Herbs Seasoning ('Great for Blackening')!

Well! You should smell this Seasoning! Although WTH 'Blackening' is, I don't know!

The Seasoning mix is OK for Cohen's, nothing that's not on the shopping list, so guess who will be having char grilled steak, seasoned with Tony Chachere's Seasoning, for lunch!

Mike cooked a lamb roast smothered in the Seasoning yesterday, and none of us could leave the kitchen while the roast was cooking! The power of the sense of smell!

If our food is not aromatic - and this does not mean 'spicy', just if our food does not smell good to us, our whole enjoyment of the meal is spoiled.

So roll on lunch time. This is getting better and better!

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 11: 70 kilos
Loss: 4 kilos
Feeling: Good. A lot more firm across the stomach. I'm not measuring this time, but I can certainly feel the difference. The shrinking is noticeable to me, and I am quite excited about knowing that when I am at ideal weight, I will look quite different, feel to the touch quite different, and experience my body quite differently.

Even at this weight, bending over is not as easy as it should be, could be, but it is certainly more easy than it was two weeks ago

[Ellabelle]

4kg - Congratulations! It's great to see your shape start changing isn't it!?

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 12: 69.75 kilos
Loss: 4.25 kilos
Feeling: Good. I thought I'd be pleased to crack the 70 kilos mark, but instead I am surprisingly cross with myself for having crossed the 70 kilos mark in the first place!

In May I did not weigh 70 kilos, nor in June, but in July I did, so this is the first time since July that I have weighed below 70 kilos.

So that's a relief and only 3 more kilos to go to reach my departure weight, then only 7 to reach the top of the Ideal Weight range for me.

However, this time I intend to weigh 60 kilos AT THE END OF THE DAY.

After all, a body with fluid and food on board is how we are most of the day. A 'dry weight', naked body happens only briefly in the morning. The 'dry' weight is OK to spur us along as we go down the scales, but I want to weigh my ideal weight ie 60 kilos, at breakfast, lunch and dinner, not just first thing in the morning.

So that will mean a probable refeed commencement weight of about 58 kilos. That will mean a new hairstyle, my 1970s folk singer long hair will have to go. Well, I have tried the Number 3 Clip previously, and that wasn't any good, either. Well, plenty of time to think about it. Looking forward to steady progress from here on in.

[pandora]

Hi Kristine, Pandora here, i am back on track and i see you have 9.8kg to go to yr goal weight. I have 9.7kg so i intend to "use you" as my inspiration as if you can do it so can i! I always enjoy yr writing style and i agree with you how much better we feel slim and confident. You are doing very well already and i hope i can do as well in my first 13 days. We shall see! Pandora

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 13: 69.25 kilos
Loss: 4.75 kilos
Feeling: Quite different. Funny how 69 kilos on the way UP, feels quite different to 69 kilos on the way DOWN.

Going UP in weight feels awful. Sluggish, bloated, flabby.

Going DOWN in weight feels good. Tighter, more alert, trimmer.

WARNING: This program can be addictive! Feeling good is a nice way to feel, and I can see the difference especially around the navel. There is now an indent and the cilium curve is starting to show again, instead of my pelvis being covered in a layer of blubber.

When I sit down, the bag on my lap is not quite as noticeable. Still there, but not quite as large as an overnight bag now.



Thanks, Ellabelle, for your encouragement.

Pandora, this program is definitely 'one out of the box' (yes, I know you must hear a lot of 'box' jokes) and it is good to have another person on the program in step with us.

I am sure we will each be successful in achieving - and maintaining - our goals



No# 2 Son has been working very long hours this last week, getting the store ready for stock take. The Main Squeeze works in the store, too, so she is very understanding of what he has been going through, so yesterday she came and collected him and took him to Lilydale Lake for a picnic on the grass.

I haven't been on a picnic for years, but in the interests of Spring Racing Carnival and the approaching Festive Season I have been playing around with the 'muffin' recipes as it would be good to have something to take out which doesn't require refrigeration, or a fork to eat it with.

This is what I did last evening, and ate it in front of the telly while everybody else was eating Mike's home made sausage rolls

Powdered Salada in the Bamix mill (or crush between cling film using a rolling pin or bottle filled with water for weight)
Mixed with:
Chopped feta
Logan Farm spinach (thawed)
Diced capsicum, tomato
Spices: Salt & black pepper, ground nutmeg

Put into sprayed muffin tins - standard size, pressed mixture down lightly

This made six biscuits (bit like a spinach Florentine!) which came out quite brown, and after cooling were firm and surprisingly crisp. I was able to pick them up and bite into them.

The capsicum made them quite sweet and the whole effect was a tasty, savoury biscuit which I could have packed with a piece of kitchen towel into a small disposable container and taken anywhere. They 'ate' better cold, when hot from the oven the biscuit was not firm enough to pick up.

So it was nice to be doing the same motions as the rest of the family ie finger food and good to be eating in a different way for a change.

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 14: 69 kilos
Loss: 5 kilos
Feeling: Really stiff and sore neck this morning. A bit stiff in the shoulder yesterday, but today is very painful from the neck to the elbow. I may have to go and sit in Emergency this afternoon if it doesn't loosen up. No idea what I could have done to twist or kink anything. Ah, well, them's the breaks.

Otherwise, feeling good. Enjoyed a dinner of King Island Steak yesterday, marinated with black pepper and balsamic for about an hour then cooked quickly in the wok (in one piece), turned onto the plate and the wok deglazed with a splash of boiling water, and the gravy poured over the steak on the plate. A crisp salad, and what a nice dinner!

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 15: 69 kilos
Loss: 5 kilos
Feeling: Good

So two weeks completed, and a loss of 5 kilos. Quite pleased about that, so going on my previous rate of loss, it should take four weeks to lose another six kilos. I am particularly pleased at how well I feel (apart from this kricked neck!) and how much I am enjoying the meals.

I noticed previously how the sense of smell and of taste is enhanced on cohen's. Without fat, artificial anything or too much of anything, the palate is not jaded - I can really smell the fragrance of food and every mouthfull is very tasty.

No# 2 Son brought home a store presentation pack of the new Extra Dark Lindt chocolate, and it sat on the kitchen table for a few days (as things do!). The box is beautiful and the contents smell divine, and a few deep breaths of that lovely, rich smell was enough for me.

I know what dark chocolate smells like, I know what dark chocolate tastes like, and the smell satisfied the taste sensation and I had not the slightest temptation to put my hand out to eat any of it.

Bit like being in a museum - we can admire the Mona Lisa without wanting to own it. We learn a lot on Cohen's, a lack of greed being but one - and we do not covet our neighbour's block of chocolate, either!

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 16: 69 kilos
Loss: 5 kilos
Feeling: Good. Weight doing it's stable-few-days trick, no doubt while other bits of me are shrinking. Embarrassed myself yesterday, tried on - well, tried to try on - the pants I wore when I had the franchise. Nope, just couldn't get those pants to meet across my stomach. About a handspan too short one end! Not that I want to wear them, mind, but if I can wear them then I know that I am back where I belong, size wize.

[Lulabelle]

Kristine, you'll be in those pants before you know it!

One of the main motivators for me to start Cohen's was because none of my summer clothes fit me. Literally... I couldn't do them up! Some I couldn't even get past my hips

7 weeks later and with slow losses relative to many other people... and those clothes which were a handspan or more too small are now slowly but surely fitting again!

If someone had told me at the start of the program that it would happen that quickly, I would have laughed. But that's the Cohen's reality.

Keep trying those pants!!! Given how quickly your ticker is moving those pants will be done up in no time!

[Kristine..]

Thanks, Lulabelle

In UK I bought some pants from Neat, which are a size 10 but a very loose fit. I was putting on the weight at an alarming weight and had taken my size 10 black pants with the elastic back to wear to the funeral, and my size 10 stretch jeans had become so tight I bulged over them in every direction, including the backs of the thighs runching up, so the Neat pants got a very good wearing.

Trouble is, they are actually quite badly cut. Just 'fashion pants', designed to last one season and a very loose, almost 'cargo' style, not what I would usually wear but at least I could get into them without too many bulges in the Sainsbury five quid tee shirts.

I'm going out this afternoon and the Neat pants will be worn. Funny, I am probably a size 12 now, a size I would have been happy with before starting Cohen's in 2006, and now it is a size I don't want to be. Having been size 10 (and size 8 in stretch jeans) for a year or more, I am not prepared to compromise on my size or shape any more.

Our bones are our best indication of our ideal weight. If we were our own pet, the vet would be telling us that our ribs should be palpable but not obvious, a nice layer of meat over the bones but no obvious fat layer. Well, I'm no greyhound but I don't want to be an old, fat, waddling labrador, either.

So my ribs, back and shoulders look OK, but the winter stores are sitting in a bag if front of me under the ribs and above my hips. I never did grow a large btm but my thighs and my midriff certainly tell the tale.

I really liked wearing size 10. The cut of that size is quite different to the same garment in a size 18. I have lots of 'large' and XXL size tops which never sat right but the size 10 did sit right and for that golden year I really enjoyed wearing my clothes, I felt 'smart' and everything fitted without leaving red marks at the end of the day.

So I look forward to Christmas when I know I can put on the size 'small' warm weather tops and move easily and not have clothes skew-wiff all the time.

Most of my adult life my fighting weight was around 63 kilos. When, briefly, I weighed 58.5 kilos during refeed I did look a bit underweight but that was the end of the program and all available fat had been used up. At 60 kilos, after about six months, I looked the best I had looked for years. So I am prepared to look a bit 'starved' for a while as the body stabilises and the shrinking consolidates.

The pants are a good indication. When I can get those Neat'n'Trim back on neatly and trimly I will be very pleased. And then, maybe, I can finally clear out the wardrobe of all the clothes which I will definitely never wear again. Including the Neat pants!

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 17: 69 kilos
Loss: 5 kilos
Feeling: Good. Definitely shrinking. The feeling to touch is significantly firmer. Knowing that the body does this loss and adjustment in stages is pleasing, as the shrinkage in 2006 was quite amazing to me.

I lost more than 1.1 metres over the measurement points in 2006. Actually, we lost the measurement points, too at that time. Mike reckons we should have made marks in Texta colour to keep the measure points accurate, as the freckles we used as markers at the beginning of the program had, like the stars are in different position in summer as in winter, the freckles had migrated, too!

So not fussed about no weight loss for a while, I can feel and see that other things are happening, so it's all good!

[pandora]

Hi Kristine and it must be good to have that "i know i am shrinking" feeling. And you are so right, it is ok to allow our bodies to stabilise a tad and hold at 5kg loss and also know the next 1kg drop is not far away. Pandora

[Lulabelle]

Sounds as though it's all happening already for you Kristine!!! It's awesome that you can already feel a difference in the firmness factor - WOW! Your body must be really working it's magic

Thanks for sharing your story of the pants... I'd imagine it's something everyone here can relate to

At the rate you're going, by the time Xmas comes you'll be looking and feeling INCREDIBLE!!!

[Kristine..]

Dear Diary

Start Weight: 74 kilos
Day 18: 69 kilos
Loss: 5 kilos
Feeling: Good. A bit tired today, writing reports till the small hours doesn't help. Ah well, I will try for an early night tonight.

Had a bit of a play with Chinese Five Spice yesterday. Not convinced that I did it right. Found a jar of Fennel seed in the back of the spice cupboard, ground that up - quite a nice anise flavour - but think I overdid the chilli and black pepper. Mouth on fire while eating the beef / celery / capsicum / spring onion over rice cake but nice fire nonetheless. Just felt like a bit of Chinese so adapted the Women's Weekly Chinese Cookery Book recipe for beef and celery.

Used the red wine vinegar for the first time - much lighter than balsamic, just right for the Chinese style recipe - the beef looked as if it had Black Bean Sauce on it, but of course it didn't.

So I'll cook that again (it got rid of the somewhat sad celery that was lurking in the fridge) but without the heat mix and see how that goes.

Chinese Five Spice is traditionally a mix of cinnamon, cloves, star anise, fennel and black pepper.



Thanks, Pandora and Lulabelle: I had one period in 2006 where I stayed the same weight for 9 days, so not fussed. It's all happening, and of course it is because the weight loss is irregular that we are only meant to weigh once each month

I wore my size 10 jeans when we went for a walk last evening, and for the first time in a long time they did not garrott me. Yes, I had indentations from the waist band, but no red marks. And I could feel the fabric slipping on my legs as I walked, instead of clinging and runching.

Hope you both are travelling well and enjoying this as much as I am

[louise41]

Ive just been reading your diary and I salivating after reading some of your recipes, I think I will have to try some when I get home!