h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was going to say no, because I thought it originated in USA. But I checked, and I would've been talking out of my @rse (again) because I can only find the UK site!

Although, I did just come across a review of Slimming World, by Anne Collins, who's trying to flog her own 'diet' plan - and she says:

"My diet program is a healthy calorie-controlled eating plan FOR LIFE
It follows the official US Food Pyramid Guidelines for good nutrition"

Which made me giggle, cuz I've recently read something about the US Food Pyramid being officialed by people in close connection with various food industries - it's all political, nothing to do with health!

http://www.slimming-world.co.uk/press_room/dl.asp

Hey Fi, are you lurking? Come on, no squirming out of going - we have an agreement!

Hi All,
Sorry for the dearth of communications...i was called away from my desk most of the morning so am just catching up with this now. Thanks for reminding me about the meeting Kelli, I'm not looking forward to it much, but I'm not chickening out on our deal.....I know I'd never hear the end of it . all joking aside I don't think I could do it without all this support from everyone here. Can you give us any idea of what to expect queegle? Just a thought, do you have to take your shoes off for the big moment of truth? Given the temperature today that could be a bit unpleasant...might have to cram in a shoes or tights shopping trip before I go!!!
Fi


PS The Daily Activity Challenge sound like a good idea. Is there anyway we can link it to how many calories we have lost? That might be an added incentive. Although that said I usually end up eating what I've burned up in chocolate afterwards!!!

You don't have to take your shoes off, but it's a good idea. Boots especially can add an extra 3lb.

The first time I went, was with a friend who had done it before. We paid the membership fee, got our 'Passport to Success' , had to fill out a piece of paper that will be their record of your weight loss. You keep your passport, and they keep this slip of paper, each time you go, they'll pull it out and mark your weight loss on it, as well as cumulative weight loss.

Then you'll go and sit down and listen to the host's chatter, how much everybody's lost, slimmer of the week etc... then you'll probably have to stay behind so they can explain the book to you. It's a good idea to do this, otherwise it can be quite confusing!

The good thing is nobody knows anybody else's weight, they only announce how much has been lost.

That's just my experience of it. I hope you guys have fun!

I think, actually, I may start trying to stick around, I only go in, get weighed and come out again. In order to get Slimmer of the Week, you have to stick around. And aiming for that would be a good extra incentive.

Thanks, actually now you've filled me i feel like i know what i'm about so does that mean i can skip the class! Ah well maybe not!! I'm actually starting to look forward to it in a strange sort of way. Just one thing that concerns me: "slimmer of the week"? Sound ominous.
Fi
PS as for sticking around...too right you do, if Kelli and I have to do this so do you! After all it was you that got us into in the first place

If you're serious, stick around. They'll explain the book far better than I can. I haven't even looked at it in months!

Staying on Atkins for a little while longer, purely to keep the spots down. I am planning to get an allergy test done, to see what it is that gives me huge spots when I'm on a normal 'balanced' diet!

You could try to introduce other foodstuffs on a gradual basis, so that might help you identify the things that don't agree with your system.

You pay all that money just to get weighed?

I practically want a cabaret act in return for my dosh

Still looking forward to it though - wish I didn'thave to hang around at work for so long to wait for the class though. Can't wait 'til I move and can start having a 'normal' life

Hi guys!

Daily activity: (that is not part of normal routine)

Yesterday - I braved the inferno that is London Underground to attend a business meeting in Victoria. I joke you not, it was hellish , and then made the return journey. I shall avoid the underground for another couple of months to recover from the experience. However the calories used in my internal cooling system (perspiration) must be phenomenal! I don't know how people do it every day. I'm so glad my normal journey to work is a mere few minutes' walk.

Today I walked further than normal - to the pub - and met a couple of girlfriends with whom I made contact yesterday! Does that count? Or does talking non-stop for 3 hours (with the occasional pause to sip ) burn off calories? It should - we were very animated!! Anyway we decided to start playing tennis together - once the weather cools down a little, you understand! The seed of daily activity has been sown.

So tomorrow, what shall I do?

I must say, although I don't actually mind the higher temperatures - in fact I love the weather, be it hot or cold, wet or dry - I should get a job in the met office but don't want to end up like Michael Fish! ( no offence intended to MF.) But it is too hot for exertion of any kind, in my opinion, so intend to take it easy for a little longer!

Well I am not being a very good example to you am I? It must be the lunchtime that has induced a rebellious streak. Will behave myself tomorrow, and may even find an activity worthy of my attention .

Good luck with your respective weigh-ins. I'm waiting for Saturday .... see you then.

x

ps Spots - my skin has been really good since starting this diet, but I can confidently say that does not cause spots!

Queegles - try introducing some of the staff that isn't part of the Atkins diet first - could it possibly be a slight intolerance of gluten or - uh - *searches in dictionary, in wain* - lactic? Lactos? Lactosis? (it's the stuff in milk and dairy products, anyway)

*sighs*

Not staff - stuff!

Well I went, paid my dough and got my books etc. Am a bit disappointed that I will have to pay out more money to get the *useful* books for assessing the 'sin' value of the M&S COU, and Sainsburys BGTY meals I normally live on but we'll see how it goes. Red days sound a lot like Atkins with fruit, and green days sound like a 'normal' diet.

I wasn't impressed at all with the leader - she is a young girl who's mum and sister also run classes (am thinking it is a family money making scheme). I lost confidence in her when she said 'Well I've lost one and a half stones on this diet. Ok so I put a stone back on but I am back on track and have lost 6 lb'. so she is supposed to inspire us having lost 13 lb in total.

I am also a bit distressed about 'committment charges'. If I miss more than 4 meetings in a year I have to pay for those missed meetings - this is a real disincentive to keep going. I asked about it because I am often going to have to miss meetings because of work. The leader said that if I miss more than 2 consecutive meetings she will have to charge me for at least one missed meeting. This truly sucks.

I think I have come away feeling rather negative about this lot, but I will persevere with it for a while, just to see what the other people are like in the class. It might still be worth going to see them rather than the leader.

Good morniiiiing!

Walked briskly to work this morning and all me endorphins are buzzing around

Weigh-in last night... *drum roll*... I'd lost 2lb! Dead chuffed with that, especially as I'd eaten about 400g of chocolate over Sunday and Monday . Mind you, since the last weigh in, I've walked to and from work quite a bit, which is 5k each time. Plus we walked for at least 3 hours on the beach on Saturday, most of that up to our knees in sea - which we found is great for the thighs!

So, even more committed now! Got till 3rd September to get as low as I can go, as that's my dress fitting date for the Vegas wedding

I'm sad you weren't too enamoured with your first Slimmers World Kelli, see how you go for a while. I get a bit annoyed with having to pay for missed meetings too, but it does give me incentive to go whenever I feel like I couldn't be bothered! I did miss a couple through working in the evening, but I told the bosses at work2 that I couldn't do Wednesday nights, so they don't rota me for them any more.

A lot of it does depend on the leader. I've thought about whether I'd prefer a skinny or larger leader - skinny would be a good advert for the product, but as it's larger ladies that are going, they may relate better to a larger leader

Anyhoo.. hope it works for ya babe!

I wonder how Fi got on?

It does not sound like a very smart idea to 'force' people to go to the meetings - there are other ways, like encouragement. This sounds more like a form of 'punishment', and I've never been found of those, nor believe them to be effective...

I like the idea, in principle. You don't get fingers pointed at you with "you bad! you miss class!" rants But with these things, a lot of the time people (especially me) just couldn't be @rsed to go, which isn't really a good excuse. It does help me to shift myself into going, which of course means you get weighed, which may be a nice surprise, or a into motivating yourself!

Hi All,
I had much the same experience as Kelli and also came away terribly disheartened. I thought the diet looks great and think I could follow it (although can it possibly work to eat sooo much food?) but the leader was terrible and the meeting way too small (6 people). I'm not happy about the forced meeting either. As you say Titania it feels like punishment and makes me want to rebel like a naughty kid. Don't they realise we are choosing to do this?
Furthermore (sorry to rant at length but i have to get this off my chest) I didn't appreciate being told that the diet is bound to suit me as is clearly I love to "stuff my face" and that exercise wouldn't help me lose weight. What piffle!! Well the exercise bit is, i can't really deny the stuffing of face bit

On a more positive note, one of the members told me that there is a huge variation in the quality of classes and attributed it to the leaders being self employed as part of a franchise operation, so while the basic content is much the same the quality varies enormously. In particular at the "better" classes members bring in recipes for food they love which are diet adapted during the class and then distributed to the group. Sometime there are tasting sessions of sin free food. That is more the kind of thing I was looking for, a way to adapt my current eating habits to a more healthy way of life rather than a patronising chat about what a protein is!! Anyway I am going to try 2 or 3 of the other classes and if they are not any better go back to going it alone.

Kelli, for M&S COU, and Sainsburys BGTY meals, you can find out the values on line through the web page, I found it easiest to call up Sainsburys web page and cut and paste the names directly. Its a bit of a fiddle but it does work.

Congratulations Queegles that is FAB news. You are doing so well!!!! Your diet induced spot problem sound similar to a friend of mine who has a wheat intolerance. Her symptoms were spots, bloating, tiredness and fluctuations weight. When she switched to wheat-free pasta it improved within a week. As you say, introducing food groups gradually is probably the way to go.

Annie, walking to the pub sounds like my kind of working out although am less keen on the sweating in the underground regime!!
At least we are all try to do something to change our habits and lifestyle, that's got to be better than noting at all and isn't it the though that counts? So am off to think about it a lot more .

Think i need to work on my positivism (lack of) at the moment. Do you get classes for that??!?!?
Fi

wow, just goes to show about the difference in leaders! Ours is quite nice, and brings in recipes. There's also a little raffle too, if you want to take part, you'll win some healthy food!

Anybody who told me that exercise wouldn't help, well, I'd probably walk out there and then! I mean, What?? I'm quite speechless!

Fi, did they give you any of the Body Magic stuff?

I think telling you that exercise is not important is part of being non-threatening. A lot of people want to lose weight but are scared of exercise and will be put off if they are told to exercise up front. My leader said that you don't have to exercise to lose weight on this diet...but it helps. The other newbies seemed quite relieved they were not going to be lectured about getting to the gym

I think the committment charge as an incentive is fine as an idea, but if I am working overseas I resent having to pay for a class that it would be impossible for me to attend. The class itself was fine, bit of chat about how everyone is doing, bit of chat about recipes and we were told a man is coming in with sin free sausages in a few week's time.

We have to take in some food thing to each meeting, (not really happy about that either) and slimmer of the week gets to take home the collection as their prize.

Like I say, I will persevere with this for a while and see how I get on - thanks for the tip about the website Fi, the leader didn't tell me about that, just tried to flog me a book

Queegle, well done 2lb is fab! Did you manage to move your fitting until after the mountaineering?

Blimey, sounds like you should both trek to Milton Keynes for my meets!

I resent having to pay if it's work that's kept me away too. Maybe I should become a Slimmers World host! I'll do recipes and bring in a spangly hat for the slimmer of the week to wear!

I have managed to move my fitting till after Ben Nevis Even if I don't make it to the top, it'll be a whole day of flippin knackering walking! I'm planning to practice by walking up a huge hill locally on Sunday, it's a near 45 degree ascent, we'll wander round the woods at the top, but the best thing is, there's a pub at the bottom of the hill, so we can treat ourselves to a beer after all that exercise!