Im sticking to it, but jeez it’s hard.
I reckon the only reason I am keeping on the straight and narrow is that I remind myself that I gave up smoking using the same blody mindedness.

But the temptations are worse and manifest!
Panetone,
Fresh bread
Spaghetti Bolognese
Bread with Soup
the simple bliss of a lovely, deep filed, sandwich!

how are you coping?

A lifestyle consultant will be with you shortly. 😉

Id settle for a chippy chippy
bdum tish

😀

Like it.

I’m not. I tried, failed, tried, failed. Lost 5 or 6 lbs in the first 2 weeks then slowly re-gained it. Virtually impossible with my schedule to make enough food to take to work so I’m stuck with what’s around or boring myself to death with diet compliant misery food (not saying it’s all like that, just that what’s about and easily prepped in work is) and I can’t live like that.

Currently sticking to it quite well. Like you I give up smoking, some 7 years ago now! I’m using the same bloody mindedness to stay on track. However I’m quite handy in the kitchen so it helps when it comes to making varied meals and it doesn’t bother me too much cooking different food for my good lady wife. I’m quite enjoying coming up with different houmous recipes and bean salad recipes. Dirt cheap too with dried beans. Just time consuming!
I know white carbs are off the menu but I’ve been using sweet potatoes as they are used in Paleo dietes. Are they “allowed” on the iDave plan?

how are you coping?

I’m eating porridge with chopped banana and golden syrup…..so badly, I guess.

It gets easier. Sort of… I’ve stuck to it for four months now. Planning seems to be the trick for me. The hardest moments are when you’re looking to grab lunch and all the sandwich shops just become a seething mass of out of bounds temptation. As long as I know what I’m doing in the middle of the day evenings tend to be ok. Like people have already said, cooking can turn into a real voyage of discovery. Also stopped smoking a few years back and the feeling is similar.

Or you could reach for the Book of Kate Moss: “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” Not quite sure about that but for me lighter = faster and admiring attention from my younger partner.

I would say you’re doing it wrong.

I’ve been using sweet potatoes as they are used in Paleo dietes. Are they “allowed”
I’d say they’re Ok, two or three times a week.
See if your weight increases, then decide ?.

While in a Hotel for lunch yesterday, I had some sweet potato chips along with steak, grilled toms, mushrooms and veg, green beans, carrot, broccoli and cauliflower.
All washed down with a glass of red.
Sweet potato chips were very nice, possibly better than the usual chip ! 😯
If, thats possible…

but for me lighter = faster and admiring attention from my younger partner
Aye, while I’m not interested in setting any new speed world records.
Being sub 80Kg has translated to feeling, being slightly quicker on the bike.
And the Ladeez don’t seem to object either.
😉

all the sandwich shops just become a seething mass of out of bounds temptation

It’s frustrating. There are whole branded chains that sell nothing iDave compliant. I think iDave should write to these people and get them to up their game! 😉

Ive tried gram flour – it’s foul. Quinoa is OK, but I bet you cant make Nigri Sushi out of it. Im getting bored of beans, and lentils arent doing it for me. So generally Im eating plenty of meat and lots of veg: mashed parsnip & carrot, spinach, stuff frozen from the garden this summer. Im sure Im eating worse food replacing plain carbs – I eat more bacon, because I cant have toast with my eggs for example.

lost a stone and a half loosly following it early this year….now poor meal planning and a few other things (poorly knee and no running/riding) meant ive slipped back into bad eating habits and beer consumption..back up to full lardiness now!
I find as the mrs can eat what she likes without so much as putting on an ounce (biatch) its hard in these lean financial times to be looking at mucho salad and meats/fish when the rest of the family are eating rice/pasta dishes which are cheapo and last a few days….

going to ditch the sandwiches next week in favour of soups for lunch and get back on the no cereal brekky and loads of dhaal in the eveings! parp!
for me the hardest thing is stopping reaching for the crisps or choc…. no will power at all..im doomed!

for me the hardest thing is stopping reaching for the crisps or choc…. no will power at all..im doomed

Why so ?, isn’t that your day off food ?.
😉

I have never followed the plan in absolute detail but I have understood the general principles and as a result my weight and waistline have gone down, my fitness has improved and I have mostly lost the cravings for the food I thought I would miss most.

My main exception is that my off day is from Friday evening through till Sunday night. Plus mid week beer and wine are good, and a packet of crisps with the beer is allowed. Furthermore sugar in coffee (just twice a day is OK and Branston baked beans are on my allowed list too.

Yesterday I was fairly energetic all day (doing carpentry etc.), fuelled only by an espresso first thing and glasses of water until about 6pm when I had a big spag bol ready for the usual Thursday night ride. That 70g of pasta really gets you up those first few hills.

Tried and failed, the thing that really killed it for me were the breakfasts – I really missed a glass of juice and some toast or porridge…

I just do it in the week, apart from drinking beer during 2 night rides a week (yes during). Weeekends I eat much better than I used to do, less bread and pasta, more rabbit food.

Has it been working Stoner?

As for the other stuff, I think there is a huge variety of possible meals that are on the allowed list. The meal that most people who struggle, struggle most with, is breakfast, but it’s also probably the most important one to ‘fix’.

I would suggest eating whatever you want, whenever you want and accepting with good humour how fat/slim you become. It’s your choice.

And of course you just could do lots of fitness activities and then complain about hunger instead of lack of choice.

Personally I’m to busy worrying about some oak parquet flooring….. if only I had a floorstyle consultant 😉

EDIT: I am looking into solutions to the most common issues that are raised about the diet. Personally, I love food, I like haribo, snickers, toast dripping in butter, mugs of tea with heaps of sugar and sometimes I have those things. But everything has a consequence.

It’s frustrating. There are whole branded chains that sell nothing iDave compliant. I think iDave should write to these people and get them to up their game!

I hear what you’re saying… Even the independents around me are complete no-go areas. I need blinkers every time I nip in to grab a coffee.

Some gram flour stuff is grim but we found some pretty good dosa recipes: they’re great with curries or chillies and that kind of stuff. Mashed swede and celeriac is great and you can still go all out with the roast vegetables on a Sunday.

I’m down two stone since mid-July.

Still can’t wait for a burrito and some beers and the Cinnamon Club in London tomorrow though…

Why are you wasting so much time and energy on the things you can’t have rather than the things you can?

On the gram flour thing, I’ve found salt, caraway and paprika as the best additives to use to make flat breads for savoury meals, and I always add an egg to the mix.

I’ve been doing this idiet thing since march and I have completely stopped losing weight in the last 2 or 3 months despite being about 15-16% fat still. I don’t care too much, it’s just how I eat now.

I am now completely used to ibreakfasts so it’s eggs either on their own or with some meat of some description. Yummy

This morning I didn’t fancy anything so I have skipped breakfast rather than eat the porridge I was making for the kids (and really really wanted myself too).

As with the lack of options, if there really isn’t anything available, then don’t eat anything. It probably won’t kill you and if you think it will then grab a bag of cashew nuts (better than peanuts because there are fewer in a bag!)

I don’t understand why my weight loss stopped, but it doesn’t really matter that much because it us the off season and I am happy to be in better shape than I was at the start.

The meal that most people who struggle, struggle most with, is breakfast, but it’s also probably the most important one to ‘fix’.

My wife’s doing Slimming World rather than iDave, but that essentially rules out having a cereal/milk breakfast so what she’s been having is iDave-compliant.

Usually, it’s smoked salmon with tomatoes, chopped spring onions and a boiled/fried egg followed by some fruit. Quick, easy, tasty and fairly flexible.

On days when I have a similar breakfast (usually baked beans and ham and egg), I notice that I’m far less inclined to snack during the day.

As bread’s pretty much out on SW too, she’s been thinking a bit more about lunches too and so isn’t just grabbing a sandwich.

Our evening meals have barely changed from before and we still eat pasta, etc.

Even with beer and chocolate, I’ve dropped from 11.5 stone to just under 11. She’s dropped about 2 stone since the start of July.

Like iDave says, eat what you like, but accept the consequences. It seems that people who stop iDieting fall right back into pies and chips and beer and crisps and chocolate; so why not just make small changes instead?

Start with breakfast, then change the snacks and so on.

Personally I’m to busy worrying about some oak parquet flooring….. if only I had a floorstyle consultant

So, life’s not treating you too badly then..
😉

I’m down to about 75kg.

I’ve eaten a tub of Haagen Dasz and a whole Grand Mange Blanc loaf and a load of satsumas. iDiet is going great for me.

having followed it pretty well for a few months and lost 2 sotne, ive lasped a bit

and am now on a half arsed winter pseudo diet

small porridge in morning
soup for lunch ( I run a small nursery / garden centre) – so warm it up on a barbeque outside
dinner is some meat with lots of veg, some beans perhaps, no pots etc

trouble is Im intermittently addicted to mince pies it seems!

I’ve eaten a tub of Haagen Dasz

Do they not stock Ben & Jerry’s in Waitrose?

They do Jamie, but it was twice the price and had loads of silly names… phish food, pffft… whatever… I just wanted something with loads of sugar and fat in it… and it was good.

I haven’t tried keeping to it and so far I’ve been pretty much 100% successful. Wasn’t as hard as I thought.

Stoner
I saw some chickpea spageti in Waitrose the other day, in the fridge pasta section. Wasn’t cheap (about 1.60) but might help with one of those cravings.

I did quite well earlier in the year, lost 10kg or so, but now I’m really struggling. I’ve got worries, I’m away from my family, the exercise is really patchy and being generally miserable makes it far far harder for me.

My basic problem is that food treats really make me happy. I LOVE THEM. So it’s hard to give up. The other issue is that now I’m away the only iDave meals available are often veg and meat. This can be okay, but the actual amount of carbs available isn’t very high so I start to feel really quite grim, especially when exercising at the same time.

Before I was working away I was doing lots of riding to work, which meant more carbs were needed. So then I could eat some sweet treats as long as I’d ridden to work that day, and that helped a lot. It was a great motivator to ride.

I dunno what the solution is really, apart from really MTFUing. I feel crappy, and I assume this will pass if I tough it out. But really, I think the issue is that I am stressed.

I’m maintaining weight though at least, rathe than gaining it. Although I think my bf is noticably more than it was previously, looking in the mirror.

Personally I’m to busy worrying about some oak parquet flooring….. if only I had a floorstyle consultant

So, life’s not treating you too badly then..

That was some Friday morning satire…..

bread was the hardest thing not to eat, esp as I love and make really well, italian bread and cakes…

Midweek I rely on soup (tomato or mushroom are both really filling and very low calories) but once or twice a week I do have a wrap with fried beans and spring onion.

Although I think my bf is noticably more than it was previously, looking in the mirror.

I think it’s hard to judge your own BF%… you become too familiar with what you look like and don’t notice the change.

An online peer reviewed picture however…

it’s worse that giving up smoking. at least when you give up smoking the first cigarette tastes shite.

first haribo jelly baby tastes like heaven. 😈

Stoner I would suggest more beans, and also sweet veggies like carrots, peas, green beans.. which aren’t in season though…

I would also suggest disconnecting your past views on what a meal actually is. For me it can be a steak, a handful of almonds, half a raw cauliflower and so on. And yes I also make ‘proper’ meals but there are few rules that have to be obeyed.

Like iDave says, eat what you like, but accept the consequences. It seems that people who stop iDieting fall right back into pies and chips and beer and crisps and chocolate; so why not just make small changes instead?

Not personally true for me, but then I never ate much of that lot to start with. Apart from beer. Mmmm beer <homer/>

giving up nightly alcohol is harder i think. for about a year i’ve really struggled, following idave religiously as i did in the spring/early summer was not hard, but damn alcohol and a boredom with cycling really negated any loss so to speak and a disatrous stressed late summer autumn saw me totally throw in the towel and pile it on.

anyway, hopefully managed/managing to lose the school nights alcohol habit figuring i’d tackle the hardest issue first. think this last week was my 6th off so pretty pleased and still without totally sorting food/excercise i’m losing weight again plus have more get up n’ go about me.

breakfast is easy imho, two eggs scrambled. quick n’ cheap!

Personally I’m to busy worrying about some oak parquet flooring….. if only I had a floorstyle consultant

So, life’s not treating you too badly then..

That was some Friday morning satire…..

Glad you noticed.
😉

Grips. Sorry to learn that you’re not enjoying it at the moment.
As you say, hopefully you’ll turn the corner.

It seems to have come easy-ish to me.

Like eveyone else, I know temptation.
But now, when I find myself having thoughts about eating the rubbish.
I just laugh at myself, and change to another mental track.
Without scoffing anything I’ll later regrett.

I’ve absolutely no idea what my BF is, but I’m down now to a small amount of abdominal fat, which apparently, is difficult to remove.
Regardless of whomever you might e-mail…

Don’t think I’ll be going for the 6 pack, I did a bit of reading on Leangains and that place worried me abit.
Not sure I’m into that scene.
But it was interesting to read about the different approaches some people have taken to answer their questions on body weight and composition, etc.

Nope !, it would seem that Nature insists I keep some fat on my body and probably for good reason.

Still, I’ve lost about 5-6Kg and my 32 waist jeans are slack on me now.
Being sub 80Kg seems fine and easy to maintain.

Come on !, this is Friday.
Life’s no so bad.
Think about me, I may have to drive to Glossop later today.
😀

I’m currently giving/have given up smoking, and seem to be loosing weight anyway, to the point some of my jeans are too big even with a belt 😀