First of all, I would like to say that I really want some cheese. Something gooey like brie and a toasted bagel. Mmmmm.
I'll pick up where I left off. So on Friday I went to my music festival with Gina and it was simply wonderful. Food and LL did play on my mind a lot though. Gina has just passed her physiotherapy degree and so is very knowledgable about food, weight, the human body, everything. He began referring to it as a cult. I said 'I don't want to get sucked in to it but at the same time I don't want to be so skeptical that I get nothing from it'. She wasn't sold by the whole thing but she did say that just taking that first step towards changing yourself is a big deal so what was happening was positive. She always knows the right thing to say.
Before we went to Hyde Park we went to have lunch with Gina's sister, Alex. She took use to a Japanese restaurant. I had never been to a Japanese restaurant, so was a little unsure of what to have. Gina and Alex were obviously pros on the Japanese food scene and they were flicking through their menus swiftly scanning the dishes. I was fumbling through like a numpty. We all settled on an obento box (I copied them) and I had veggie sushi (hoping that they knew fish was not considered veggie by some of us). It was actually very nice. It was abit strange that it mainly tasted of fish but I think that was the seaweed. I haven't tasted fish in a very long time so maybe my tastebuds were just confused. It came in a little square box with four different sections - two of sushi, one of salad and one of fruit. Now, when I was learning Chinese at college I won the chopstick using competition and consider myself fairly skilled but man is it hard to pick up big chunks of fruit with chopsticks. In the end Alex told me to spear it. I did so but felt a bit self conscious nibbling on a chuck of pineapple on a stick in the middle of a fairly posh (it's London, so everything seems posh to me) restaurant. When we paid the bill Gina noted my lack of fruit eating. It wasn't 'cos I don't like fruit girl!
The sushi was surprisingly filling despite being made up of a little bit of rice and vegetables. Off we went to Hyde Park and in to the festival. As we arrived there were O2 representatives with fluffy angel wings telling people that if you text a certain number you can get a voucher worth £5 for lunch. Five quid is five quid having eaten or not, so we fired our messages off. We walked around the festival accumulating free stuff and trying to work up an appetite. The offer ran out at 4.00, so when 3.50 rolled around and we were stood by a half pipe watched skaters and BMXers fly through the air in slow motion, we ran off like crazed free food maniacs across the park. Gina decided to have an Australian pie for her second lunch. I thought eating any more would make me sluggish and bloated (wow, using my head for once when it comes to food) so I used my voucher to buy a can of energy drink and a bottle of water, which came to £4.50. £4.50!!! Insane prices.
And that's where my food story of Hyde Park ends because I didn't eat any more when I was there. I think Gina was damn full after her steak and mushroom (very Australian?) pie and I was too caught up with seeing bands and not peeing too much. I only started to feel hungry on the train back from London, which was just after 11.00.
Once I got home my tummy was really rumbling so at 1.00am in the morning I ate a small amouth of roasted veggie past (cold) and retired to bed with a Muller cruch corner (vanilla choco balls). Vanilla choco balls have a special place in my heart as one of my beloved yoghurts. Damn, now I'm thinking of all the lovely yoghurts I have eaten in my time. *Sigh* Fairwell fond yoghurts, I will see you on the other side.
So that was the last thing I ate. I was rudely awaken on Saturday but my obnoxious and unthinking alarm alerting me to the fact it was 10.30 and I needed to get up to have a shower. I didn't, then half an hour later and rushed about like a loon getting ready. We arrived at the LL Den hella early but decided to barge in anyway because we couldn't be bothered to wait.
Now, for you info junkies who are considering joining, here's the low down on what happens (bearing in mind we started mid-week and not with the rest of the group):
1. LL person takes your form just to check you're not walking around with unfinished heart surgery or something.
2. LL person weighs you (I am dubious about their scales) and measures your boobs, waist and hips. This involves spinning on the spot, which I enjoyed.
3. LL person takes full length pictures of you front and sideways on. I wished that I had got up earlier and dried my hair instead of leaving it wet. LL person informs me that when I get the pictures back I won't be looking at my hair. I guess I will be staring in disbelief at how much of a heifer I used to be.
4. LL person gives you a little record book with your weight in and a booklet about the first week for you to read before the next meeting.
5. LL person gives you a selection of soups, shakes and bars to last you until the next meeting.
6. LL person takes your money.
7. LL person wishes you good luck.
Here is a picture of my lovely goodie bag.
And here is a picture showing a selection of the wonderful products I am going to consume over the next week together with a tub of water flavouring (which is surprisingly nice and that you have to pay £9 for) and my booklets.
The contents of my bag was:
1 caramel shake
2 strawberry shakes
1 raspberry shake
3 chocolate shakes
2 vegetable soups
2 banana shakes
2 chicken soups
3 vanilla shakes
2 thai chilli soups
1 savoury drink powder
1 crispy cranberry and raspberry bar
1 peanut bar
1 tub of forest fruits water flavouring
1 LL big sippie cup
I then went with my family to the supermarket so my dad could pick up his food for the week. I have never felt so careless about a supermarket before. I was walking round thinking 'Can we just go now? I can't eat this stuff so why bother looking at it?' and decided to busy myself choosing toothpaste and looking for bepanthen (which worked well because they didn't have any). I wanted a stick wizzy blender thing but they were out of stock so I bought a old school cheap-ass electronic whisk thing (you can tell I don't cook, can't you?) for about a fiver.
Once we got home me and mum were pretty hungry (it was about 2.00) and so rifled through our LL bags like kids on Christmas morning. I plumped for a Thai Chilli soup and my mum had a Caramel shake. We tipped the sachet in to the big sippie cup that LL provided and I whisked away. It was unsuccessful because the sippie cup was too deep. I gave up and stirred it with a fork instead. I added hot water and voila! All done. Mummy put waaaay too much water in her shake and the flavour was quite weak. I approached trying my soup with trepidation, God knows what I was worried about looking back. I thought it was going to taste like chemical space dust or something. In actual fact it tasted like an own-brand chicken cup-a-soup. Not that bad but not that good. Definitely no hint or Thai or chilli flavour though. All in all - bearable. Hurrah!
Lumps are an issue with my creations so far, I must admit.
After that I tried a vanilla shake. I put less water in to avoid what happened to mum. It was pretty nice really, except for the lumps.
For dinner I had a vegetable soup. Once again, quite lumpy but enjoyable. I find putting really hot water in helps me feel more full.
My mum gave me this whack method of avoiding lumps, insisting it was how she made gravy. For my next meal (a chocolate shake) I decided to use her method. It was damn awful! It was the lumpiest yet. I must have misunderstood her instructions because that shit was lumpy as hell (is hell lumpy? You know what I mean)!
I expected the chocolate shake to be one of those pathetic "look, you can eat chocolate when you're on a diet - this is chocolate flavour doesn't it taste just like the real thing" monstrosities bu it was actually really good. Really chocolately, really satisfying (despit the lumps). I can see them become a staple in my diet.
I was struggling with the water intake but I did really try to keep sipping on my sports bottle. It has a little measure on the side so you can tell how much you have drunk. I do not enjoy the increase in my trips to the loo though.
By the late evening I felt pretty bad. I had a headache and felt stiff and shrivelled. The feeling continued through the night and I woke up at about 5.30 and just couldn't go back to sleep. The headache was still there and I felt very, very groggy.
I will tell you one thing though and this is very important, I did not feel hungry. I still don't now and that was 7 hours ago and I still haven't eaten. It's bizarre, I can't tell you how it works but I have had no belly rumblings. I still want to eat, of course I do, I want to eat because I like eating food but I am not hungy. It's fucking crazy, huh? I'm not eating and I don't feel hungry!! Stuff you world!
Who knows what today will bring. I'm pretty sure it will bring me a chocolate shake, another flavour shake, a soup and maybe another shake after that. Maybe I will try chicken soup today and even a banana milkshake (I generally hate banana milkshakes) if I'm feeling brave. Maybe I will try raspberry or strawberry. Oh the possibilities are quite limited but feel endless.
Ta ta for now.
