I'm reading too!! I have some in my cupboard as well!

Day 7: With Glucomannan

Total weight loss: 3.6 lb
0.2 gone overnight. Yay - not a lot but at least it's moving.

Calories: 1254
It's quite odd - I still have the urge to snack, usually when I'm bored. But when I listen to my stomach it's not telling me I'm hungry. I feel comfortably full, not stuffed full pretty much all the time. I work from home and I'm at my computer a lot so it's too easy to want to snack. But I bought some little sugar free breath mints and I have one when I think about eating something. I guess I just need to keep busy then I won't think about snacking.

Exercise: 6.15 miles
Dog walking, bedroom C25K. Not sure where the rest came from. The girls are back at school so maybe the walk from the car park to school, and back again twice a day has bumped it up. It is a fair way from the car park to the school - about a five minute walk, so multiply that by 4 and you've probably got another mile so that's about right. Pedometer says 14,478 steps, best yet again.

Stats:
Week 1
Weight lost - 3.6 lb
Average daily calories: 1294
Average daily miles: 5

Day 8: With Glucomannan

Total weight loss: 3.8 lb
0.2 gone overnight again. I'll take it!

Calories: 1305
I was doing so well yesterday then near bedtime I suddenly had an urge for some white bread. So I cut the crusts off and just scraped a bit of margarine on it. It's still 100 calories, but it stops the craving. I was still within my calories so I figure I can give in to the urges every now and again.

Exercise: 6.08 miles
Dog walking, bedroom C25K, school run. 14311 steps on the pedometer. I bumped the C25K up to week 2 today and extended it again for 45 minutes. So it's warm-up, then 10 intervals of 90 secs jogging and 2 mins walking, plus cool-down, instead of the usual 6. Considering I have a sedentary job and I'm sat at my desk all day when I'm working, I'm pleased by how much exercise I'm managing to get in. I have some work coming up which will take me out of the house for six weeks, but it's not desk work. So I'll still be able to walk the dog,although she'll have to make do with a shorter walk, but I doubt I'll have time for my C25K It'll be interesting to see what a difference it makes to my steps. Also I'll have to take a packed lunch instead of making a fresh salad at home.

Day 3 "My daughter left a slice of her pizza, and I didn't eat it - I put it in the bin and put washing up liquid on it."

I like that idea and quick thinking. I should do that. Sometimes i do just chuck things straight in the bin when i get disgusted. But ruining it like that is a good tip. And you know if you can't, that your resolve is wavering.

I think the glucomannan may be psyllium fibre. See if you can buy some from a supermarket or health food shop to compare. it goes all gluggy when mixed with water or juice. So you should be able to tell at that stage. Its a soluble fibre but my gp told me that some people find it constipating despite it being used for the opposite purpose.

Rapid weight loss in the beginning is water loss. We tend to eat less salt when we suddenly start eating better and less. The most salt you eat, the more water your body retains in the cells. But it is always nice to see it drop off so quickly though you need not be disappointed. Weight is size, whether its water or fat and its all weight, right? though fat is the worst of course.

Day 5: the gastric pain is not unexpected either. if you eat too much psyllium it can cause "tummy upset" and it will settle after you get used to this.

I think the danger if you keep on using it though is that you will disrupt your natural bowel function. You should discuss this product you are using with your gp in depth. If they don't know anything about it, ask them to research it or find another doctor or chemist who does. For the sake of your long term health, you should know more about what you are putting your body.

I used psyllium for a few years but have gone back to going without. I took because i had constipation resulting from a combination of my meds and a low veggie diet. I would take 1 dessertspoon a day. If you are taking much more than that you may be risking your healthy but get confirmation on this because i am not an expert. I am just going by what i vaguely remember my gp telling me one day some time ago.

When I got to the part about it going solid in the glass i am just about certain that this is psyllium fibre. You may find you can buy it a lot cheaper as psyllium fibre. Its also used in a product called metamucil which you may have heard of.

Anyway, I want to add a few other things.
1. don't get panicky about not losing weight the way you expect to. You are doing a lot of exercise and probably building quite a bit of muscle which you must know is heavier than fat. This would make sense if you just started doing your exercise very recently.

I'm your height and a weigh a bit more. I think you might find 1200 calories is not enough for the amount of exercise you are doing. Havce you run your plan through a calculator to find out what is a good number of calories for you?

don't be in a hurry to lose it fast. Its not sustainable after you lose a certain amount so its better in the long term to do it slowly after the first few kilograms. I know we all want it off fast but i've done many diets over my life and lost it and put it back on again over and over again. Been fit, got unfit etc.

I have a good exercise for you to try when you are stuck at home. Don't laugh but buddhist style prostrations are very very physically demanding and don't take as long as walking. Though they can be hard on your knees. So put a pillow on the floor. Don't ask me how i came to make this discovery about how strenuous these. If i remember correctly it takes about 20 minutes to 100 full body prostrations.

To do them:
Stand up straight
Bend down and get on your knees, all fours.
Then learn forward into a sort of push up but not a pushup. You are just going to lie face down on the floor. Do not rest there even when you need a rest. Get up straight away.
Back to standing position.
If you need to rest, do it in standing position.

A yoga matt might be good enough too.

don't over do them because you might cause yourself an injury. I know a monk who was doing them for four hours a day or four hundred i am not sure which. He had to do 111,111 for the year, i think. so he worked out how many he had to do a day and suffered the results.

I think i have gone quite enough for now. I hope something of that has been useful and thank you for sharing your experiment.

don't be disheartened by anything i've said. YOu've started now. You should keep going.

Also ask your boyfriend not to eat sweets in your company. Since its your house you could probably get away with a request/rule like that.

Goodluck

Sorry i did a bit of research myself just now and see that they are different products though there's a lot in common. Livestrong has a comparison article. I can't post links yet cause i'm still new here.

IN Australia the capsules are banned because of the risk of getting them stuck in your oesophagus. So don't risk those.

Thanks for your comments. GM is not the same thing as psyllium fibre, although they may have similar effects. Psyllium fibre is from the portions of the seeds of the plant Plantago ovata, (genus Plantago), a native of India and Pakistan.

Glucomannan is from the roots, or corm, of the konjac plant, Amorphophallus konjac.

Day 9: With Glucomannan

Total weight loss: 4.2 lb
0.4 gone overnight again. A bit better today, so that's 0.8 in three days. Now that the first week is gone, this is proper weight loss, so that's the equivalent of 1.86 in a week. Last time I lost weight (I keep all my records) I was losing an average of 1.15 a week eating the same as I am now, so it's a good start. I think I'll get a better comparison after four weeks. Last time, in the first four weeks I lost 11.8 lb. However, on the 10th day of my last weight loss attempt I received devastating news and I could barely eat for a week. That's not like me, usually under stress I eat more, not less, but this was different Anyway, not the healthiest way of losing weight, and I made up for it this winter.

Calories: 1184

Exercise: 6.23 miles
Dog walking, bedroom C25K, school run and a bit of shopping. 14662 steps on the pedometer. Best yet

No more physical side-effects, although I am noticing my tummy is growling mid-morning. I can't take the GM an hour before breakfast as I have my coffee and breakfast as soon as I get up, so I just take the GM first. Mind you, considering the whole point of taking it an hour before meals is to fill your stomach so that you don't eat as much during the meal, it's a bit pointless as my meals are not the problem. It's the snacking between meals that is the problem. So maybe I should try taking it an hour or so AFTER meals, to fill my tummy at the times when I want to snack.

Day 10: With Glucomannan

Total weight loss: 5.2 lb
Yay - dropped a whole pound overnight. Happy happy! So far, average weight loss is 3.64 a week. LOL - wish it could stay that way - I'd be at goal by 15th March! But while it's dropping off I'll take it.

Calories: 1332
Had a few calories left over last night and had the remains of a bottle of vodka left over from Christmas, so I mixed myself a couple of tall peach/vodka/lemonade cocktails while we watched Bad Grandpa (SO funny BTW). I didn't have much - three measures at the lost as I weigh it out and 25 ml = 25g - but I paid for it this morning - had a banging headache, but I've drunk more in the past and not felt a thing. Working theory is that, as I am eating less, the alcohol has a stronger effect. I wonder if there were ever any studied done about the effects of GM when taken with alcohol.

Exercise: 4.92 miles
Dog walking, school run and a bit of shopping. Didn't do the C25K as I was tired and I also didn't have time. It's probably a good idea to have a couple of days off anyway in a week as I find my big toes get sore. Still 11577 steps on the pedometer though, still above my target of 10K.

Day 11 and 12

Total weight loss: 5.2 lb
Not lost anything this weekend.

Calories: Sat: 1179 and Sun: too many
I had a BAAAD day yesterday.

It started well. I had a very late breakfast so I decided I would skip lunch as my parents were coming round and I was doing a roast chicken dinner.

But firstly, by the time I was preparing dinner, I felt like gnawing my fingers off I was so hungry and I found myself grabbing lumps of grated mozzarella out of the fridge as I prepared dinner.

Secondly. My mother has this habit of annoying me. Not intentionally but she just rubs me up the wrong way. I had a bottle of wine left over from Christmas so I decided to open it and have a glass as I was making dinner, to take to edge off her being, well, just her!

Thirdly. I CANNOT resist chicken skin. Nobody else likes it, so add that to the gnawing hunger and I found myself eating pretty much the entire chicken skin as I was carving the bird.

Then, a glass of wine turned into half a bottle, which turned into a bottle, then the nibble cravings kicked in. So, added to my planned calories, I had an entire bottle of sparkling white wine, far too much crispy roast chicken skin and nibbles on top. I've estimated 2000 calories, but it's probably more. I don't know.

Exercise: Sat: 3.45 Sun: 3.49
Dog walking, shopping and just knocking about. Didn't do the C25K as I've had some nasty hip/back pain over the last couple of days so my steps are down, 8213 yesterday and 8117 the day before. But my average is still over 10K - 11598, so that's good.

Out of curiosity, I was looking online about the effects of alcohol and GM. I found this, which seems to indicate a) that taking GM can stop you feeling as drunk and b) that it can help prevent a hangover.

http://www.alcolout.com/en/products.html

IME, neither of these claims is true. I felt just the same while drinking and I actually had a worse hangover the next day.

Well, it's been two weeks.

Stats:
Week 1
Weight lost - 3.6 lb
Average daily calories: 1294
Average daily miles: 5

Week 2
Weight lost - 5.2 lb (1.6 this week)
Average daily calories: 1361
Average daily miles: 4.84

I have decided now that I'm getting into it I'll just do a weekly report so you don't have to just read boring more of the same. If something interesting happens I'll post.

Week 2 wasn't great - I always tend to hit a lull on week 2, I cheat a bit, and the weight loss slows, and I cheat some more because I'm low about the weight loss slowing, and the exercise drops off (in this case I got a nasty back pain). I also might not have logged all my calories as there was a Christmas present bottle of Baileys in the fridge calling my name and I might have snuck a bit these last couple of nights.

What I did do, is for the last couple of days I have been having porridge for my lunch and, as well as having my GM beforehand. I also sprinkle a dose in the porridge, to fill me up even more.

Here's hoping Week 3 will be an improvement. I'm not going to let it beat me. I gave up last time after two weeks. I'm not going to do it this time! I will be thin by summer!!!

Boring?! I am LOVING your daily posts, and I am sure others are too, even though we are not posting! Unless it is a time constraint for you, please continue with your daily posts. I find them to be VERY helpful!

I agree, the daily post were very inspiring.

I started back to counting calories around the 1st of January and despite a few setbacks im still going strong. I loved the daily updates.

Aw - thank you! Not sure I'll have time to post every day though - starting a new job on Monday, just for a few months, but things will be quite busy. Hopefully it will help my weight loss, not hinder it.

I have been doing something new this last week though.

I was eating salad for lunch which is very healthy but not very filling.

So I decided instead to make porridge. I use 1% milk and sweetener to keep the calories down, and I also put a dose of GM in there too, all mixed in. It is VERY filling and even if I have it as early as noon, it keeps me going till 6pm when we have tea. Whilst I do still get tummy rumbles in the morning, I never get them in the afternoon.