My Personal Diet Story

I thought I was doing the right thing and following what Jess was telling me to do, changing several things including drinking hot water through the day. And of course the hot lemon water which is quite refreshing.

But of course everything doesn’t go to plan when you think it is… I’ve been following the plan every week, and even when I go out I have been watching everything I eat and drink. I have found it hard to lose the weight. Sure I’ve been losing centimetres around from my bust, hips and waist and yet, losing the kilos had stopped until this week.

So I was surprised when I went to the doctors after having some blood tests done to find that I was almost 6 kilos heavier rather than less and he told me I should cut down the calories. I’m not sure where I can cut down my intake because I am eating the fruit and vegetables that are required each day, my protein intake has reduced (and I was never a big eater) and I hardly eat bread, and yet I enjoy my cereal.

His thoughts were I should try meal replacement – which was my biggest meal of the day? That is a hard question to answer because I have learnt to graze because I still have the lapband in place.

Yesterday my doctor really believed that I sit and eat and eat and eat all day. I wish… I’ve never been able to do that, and I certainly don’t eat big meals because if I do, then I throw up because of my band. You can imagine my surprise when he told me it was time to start a diet. What the hell have I been doing all this time?

I walked out of his surgery feeling like I had failed because I have trouble managing my weight and yet I try every day to ensure I follow the new plan that I’m on. Short of starving myself which caused so many problems before, I’m at a loss as to what my doctor expects.

I had my thyroid checked early December 2006 and now we’re at the end of February 2007 and he wants me to wait 2 more months before I am to have my thyroid checked again. I can’t wait that long. I know there is something not quite right, but then what would I know.

I’m in the process of making an appointment to see my specialist again and I will go from there.

Unfortunately I cannot bring myself to use meal replacements especially when I used them before my thyroid problem was diagnosed and I ended up in hospital for 4 days. I’d dehydrated and couldn’t keep anything down. His response to that was, I should have drank more water…..

I’ve had my vent for the day… and I will continue to work towards losing weight no matter how hard it is.

Toni Livesey

Lifestyle changes don’t mean you have to starve yourself and for some people they know what that is like. Since having a lapband, losing many kilos and discovering that I was malnourished, I’ve discovered how to eat well and how to eat good foods that are healthy.

One of my favourite meals is garlic chili prawns and salad. I start with green prawns and I marinate them in the garlic for a couple of hours. I use green prawn cutlets and I remove the tails before I marinate them in the garlic.

I leave the prawns in the fridge until the salad is prepared because they don’t take long to cook in a hot wok.

Salad consists of lettuce, tomato, beetroot, cucumber and some capsicum. It’s not a big serving. Just enough for me, and just enough for my partner…

I place about a teaspoon of olive oil in the wok and when it is hot empty the prawns into the wok and they immediately start cooking. During this process, I add a little chili oil. It isn’t a lot just a dash because I don’t want the prawns to be full of oil.

The prawns are cooked when they are nice and pink and for some reason I always give them just a minute or two more before serving them out next to the salad.

This is such a simple and easy meal to prepare and cook and it tastes delicious.

Even though I can not eat a lot I like to enjoy my meals when I can…

Toni

I was sitting at one of my favourite cafés and while sipping on my cappuccino I was watching the news on the big screen TV. There are some things that really get up my nose and that is those ads that promote healthy foods and dieting. Not because the foods that they are promoting are healthy or the fact that the ads are about dieting, but the fact that the makers of those ads use girls or men who are slim.

Those men and women have no need to lose weight and yet they portray those ‘good foods’ as wonderful items to make slim people… slimmer.

Come on world… this is a real world and it is time the makers of products and advertisements used their heads a little. If they really wanted people who needed to lose weight to be healthy or to live a healthy lifestyle, then come up with an ad that portrays women who are a little overweight and how the those foods will benefit them. Have it as a progressive ad…

Of course the ad that I saw this morning was something of a sad ad really. It showed a woman who had children and she was trying to eat what she could fit through a straw. Now I am not sure if the makers of these ads do any research at all, but most know that some women gain a little weight when they have children, some even have trouble losing it. The comparison was done with a young lady, with obviously no children and her figure was a nice slim one.

But another moment to reflect with that ad was the woman was trying to eat what she could fit through a straw. For people who have had the lap band operation are too well aware of that saying. There is one doctor here in Australia who tells his patients when they first have the operation that there intake should be minimal and you can have what you can fit through a straw.

I’m not looking for sympathy here, but the makers of those ads should really take into consideration every person in the world before making those ads. Remember that most people are not slim and others have issues that go way beyond what many would consider text book cases.

Toni

For years I have fought with my diet. The ups and downs the roller coaster rides that are filled with so many emotions you just want to get off and hope that all those issues have gone away..

Hi, my name is Toni and you have found my site that contains some of the secrets and my personal diet story.

Personally, dieting has played a major role in my life or as some in the weight reduction area have told me is that I should not look at it as dieting but as a change of lifestyle.

Ok a lifestyle that I hadn’t expected had me gaining weight in a relatively short period of time and during that time I set myself up for a fight to lose it. It has seen me battle the bulge in many ways possible including those awful fluid diets, the shake diets, Jenny Craig… and the list goes on..

I had to put up with negative responses and criticisms from family and friends and the harshness of it all is enough to lead someone to suicide or to attempt suicide.

It seemed like I had tried everything to lose weight but until the underlying problem of why I suddenly gained so much weight in a very short period of time was discovered first.. I would continue to try and lose weight and continue on that roller coaster ride.

My decision to share my personal diet story with you is not me looking for sympathy and I am not looking for people to feel sorry for me.

I decided that there has to be other people in the world out there that have endured that roller coaster ride like me and have either made it to the end and are happy with their lifestyle change or are still on that coaster looking for answers.

I have shared many a story with other sites about my life, but I have never written anything about me and who I really am. I actually had to think about that for a moment before starting this blog.

Me. Who am I?

My name is Toni as I mentioned before and I live in Australia, in a place I like to call Paradise. I call it Paradise because it has taken many years for me to feel comfortable. I am not comfortable with my weight but I am coming to terms with who I am and who I enjoy having in my life.

I believe being happy within yourself is very important when it comes to who you are.

I am a woman who is almost in her mid forties, I have six children, four step children and I am a grandmother to three wonderful grandchildren. I’d be lying if I said I’d had an easy life so I won’t glorify that part for you at all.

I work online with my partner running a copy text service for many businesses world wide. I love working for myself because I am my own boss and I have been able to develop something from nothing. Building my business was a challenge which I believe is going well, but I have a long way to go with it.

Working online gives me the opportunity to work with many people. I can be me, without pretending and I can share my thoughts, my story and my life through various sites I run. Some of those sites include Sensual Woman and Women’s Health Information along with a site that I first built in 1996 called Adoption Origins Tasmania.

As this site grows you will learn a little more about me. I will share with you my ups and downs through my dieting and lifestyle changes. You will be able to read the good, the bad and the ugly sides of my life and the fight against weight gain.

I will share with you the successes that I had and enjoyed and the fight with an underactive thyroid that managed to tip the scales for me, once too often.

If you would like to share your story with me, dieting tips, special recipes that you enjoy, then please do so. I am sure others would like to experiences some of the special things in life that have worked for you.

At the same time, please don’t be afraid to share the bad times with me. I am a very good listener and I believe there are other people in the world who feel they are alone when it comes to issues and weight loss.

Also remember and it is something that I believe in… Everyone one is an individual, we are not all text book cases and therefore we should be treated as individuals.

Toni