Hi everyone, I lost 17 kilos or 34 lb in just under 18 weeks, because of Diabetes I had to go on a Low-Fat, No added Sugar and No added Salt diet, that was the beginning, I read the Nutritional Value of foods on every product, be it Tin, Package or whatever the product came in, that I bought. I stuck with the advice I was given and on the Nutritional Value on Products, I checked the 'Per 100 grams' of the product and if it came in at 10grams of Fat, 10 grams of Sugar and 500 milligrams of Sodium, or under, then it was okay for me to eat it. You can play around with the Fats and Sugars a little bit, but the Sodium cannot be over the 500 mg. I changed from Full Cream Milk to Skim Milk (You can use Low-Fat if you want, but remember that that adds to the fat allowance for the day, I was on 5100 kilojoules and 31 grams of Fat per day. I was not allowed to eat Cakes, Pastries, Biscuits, no more than 4 slices of bread (preferably Wholemeal or 9 Grain) a day, no Alcohol. Meat to be no bigger than 100 grams, or the size of the palm of your hand, or the size of a Pack of cards, Vegetables you can pretty much eat anything, even though there are maximum sizes you are allowed to eat, and they all vary. Shaved Turkey is a very good one, but when it comes to Ham, that is very high in Sodium, so is a no-no. If you drink tea or coffee, that is not good for you, however, if you can get Decaf Tea or Coffee, that is fine, for anybody who drinks Timmies or Starbucks always get it with Skim Milk and NO CREAM. I usually had cereal for breakfast, using 1/2 to 2/3 of a cup of milk (Skim), I measured out 250 ml of milk in the morning, used the allowance for cereal and the rest went towards a cup of coffee. And I only had one per day. Nestle 'Diet' Yogurt is the best to have, but if you cannot buy that in your ‘neck of the woods’ then just read the Nutritional Value, I love Passionfruit. Home baked Muffins (Cakes) I could have 1 per day as long as they were within the amount specified per muffin in the recipe. I have got to the point now where I cannot eat a meal that weighs more than 400 grams, so that is your piece of meat (100 grams), one 100gram potato, and five vegetables (frozen is ok), that usually makes around 250 grams, so you could have a meal that weighs up to 450 grams. The meat has to be totally devoid of any fat, if there is fat on the meat you have to completely remove all of it. Use Spray Oils instead of liquid oils, it is amazing, you dont need much of it and it still cooks everything. You can have chips, not deep fried, only cooked in the Oven. Every product gives you a Serving size of what is in the package. Stick to that and you should be fine. You will feel hungry for a few days, but then your stomach will adapt and you will wonder why you ever ate the amounts you have...Hope this helps... I suggest you copy and paste this to keep as a guide.

What I suggest you do is reduce the size of your plate from normal dinner plate to maybe an Entrée sized plate, divide it into half, this wont be easy, but you have to think of an imaginary line down the plate, one half of the plate is the size of the vegetables you have, then divide the other half into quarters, this is one quarter for the meat and the other quarter for the Potato.

I also suggest that you all find a Book Store and buy a book that gives you the Calories, Kilojoules and Fats of every product that you can buy in your part of the world. From this day on you will call this your ‘Bible’.

There is probably a lot more that I can tell you all, but I don’t want to overawe you all right now, I just want you all to get stuck into this Diet, never give up, I am still trying to find out how to maintain your weight once you reach your goal weight, but this information will come to you in due time. Please don’t expect to lose all the weight in a short time, there is a surplus that you will lose in the first 2-3 weeks, but this will reduce as you go on, please don’t get disappointed, towards the end, there was a time when I only lost .2 of Kilogram in a week, but if you can achieve between 500 grams to 1 Kilogram per week, you will be doing fine.

Remember it is all up to you, and if you CHEAT, there is only one person you are cheating and that is yourself.

Now that I am at Goal Weight, my Blood Sugars are down from 13.9% (Really Bad) to 5%, and this is what has made this diet all worth while for me. The healthy range for Blood Sugars is between 4% and 7%, so I am hoping that, after a very recent Blood Test, it will either be stable or I will have reduced it a little more.

P.S.: I also suggest that you buy a notebook, rule it into 4 columns, one for quantities, one for the food you are eating, another for the Cals/Kj and the last one for the Fats. Also exercise will help you as well, approximately 30 minutes per day walking, if you have an exercise bike, you can do 6 lots of 5 minutes, or the whole 30 minutes in one session.

Remember, I am always here on my email which is: aussie46mum@yahoo.com.au
Where you can email me with any question or problem you might have, I will endeavour to give you the right information to solve any worry you have.

GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY, I HAVE ALL THE FAITH IN THE WORLD IN YOUR SUCCESS, AND PLEASE KEEP ME POSTED ON WHAT YOU LOSE, HOW YOU ARE FEELING AND HOW MOTIVATED YOU ARE.

SIGNED: The Unprofessional Dietitian, who did it!!!!