125!

(According to the scale at Publix)

7 more to go!

Multivitamin

Alli clearly warns you about some some inability to absorb vitamins while on the pill, thus you should be taking a multivitamin at nighttime. I always forget. Starting tonight, I will set up a phone reminder so I don't forget to take it.

Left home empty handed.

Not preparing your lunch ahead of time can be a real problem. I went to bed late and left home in a rush this morning and didn't bring anything to the office except my Alli. After 30 minutes here I was starving! So I had to leave, go to the grocery store and look for something, and trust me when you already are hungry it's hard to not buy something you shouldn't. Thankfully ALL CRAVINGS go away if you give it a few minutes. I was able to gain my clarity back and bought some carrots, sliced mangoes, protein shakes and a delicious 140 calorie spinach soufflé! ( which I'm enjoying for breakfast with some Cholula on top). I was also freezing so I bought black coffee instead of my regular tea :( I miss my regular breakfast but that's what I get for not leaving everything ready the night before. Forgetting to pack your lunch can be dangerous for your goals, not as healthy and expensive.

Terrible

Terrible Sunday/Monday. My bother visited from out of town and I love to cook and eat with my family. We indulged in chocolate chip pancakes, turkey bacon, banana babies, all kinds of snacks, tacos, cake! I had a great time but I'm back on track now, recording my calories and all. If you slip, pick yourself up the next day and don't give up!!

Concerns

One of the effects of Alli as we all know, is that some fats will not be absorbed and they will go right through you. This morning I became a little uneasy when I saw oil a different color than the normal yellow/transparent stuff you see while on Alli, this time it was red.. Of course I was alarmed and my first thought was "blood" but then I tried to be calm since the salmon I had last night was reddish on color. I will monitor this closely throughout the day. I guess in the back of my mind I worry because I did not meet the weight requirement before starting Alli. If this continues I will have to stop. :(

Sick of Carrots.

I have been bringing baby carrots to work every single day for 2 weeks and I need a break from them! I'm learning that one of the keys to staying on track is variety and planning ahead of time, otherwise you are bound to give up! Today I brought Campari tomatoes with light tofu, balsamic and oregano. With a little creativity you can create a mishmash of healthy and flavorful meals.

Dinner

I'm a little disappointed. I have been losing "volume", slightly, but not the drastic change in weight I'd like. It's only been 2 weeks watching what I eat and just 1 week and 2 days on Alli so maybe I'm being impatient. Yesterday and today I was hungry but still managed to stay under my allotted 1200 kcal. A quick yummy dinner I made consisted of quail eggs (LOVE THEM, and so does my schnauzer) wild smoked salmon, some fruit and a cup of grapefruit juice. I was satisfied but when my sister saw my dinner plate she sort of felt bad for me ;)

Update pic

A little over a week on Alli and trying to stay under 1200 kcal. except on the weekends (without going overboard). You be the judge.

Weekly check in

It has been a week since I've been on Alli. I definitely think its working. And it definitely punishes you if you aren't careful. I didn't take it on Sunday because I had family from out of town and I knew they wanted to go to a restaurant, but it didn't matter. Alli was already in my system so it's not like you can just skip it if you want to eat something"bad". Other than that, I weighed myself and I am losing weight way faster than I anticipated and even though it made me happy, I know that if I want it to last I have to make sure I eat all my calories and not under. I've been staying on 1200 but I might have to bump it to 1400, we shall see. I will post official numbers and measurements later. My stomach had shrunk a little and I already feel a lot better. I can't stop now. :) below is a picture of a typical snack at work. Baby carrots and a MINI Luna bar.

My Fitness Pal

If you can, go online or download the My Fitness Pal app. It lets you track calories of what you eat throughout the day and you can record your advances too. You can also add friends or family and make comments or send words of encouragement. It has been VERY helpful to me, I highly recommend it.

Saturday

Last night I has sashimi, which is not only delicious but great to lose weight since its all protein and omegas, but I also had a little bit of Tom Yum soup, which had a little bit of oil in it. This morning I saw all of it again :-/ Stay away from oil if you are on Alli. I am starting to feel a little better, so I'm looking forward to my first weigh in. I don't want to lose more than a couple of pounds a week since I'm not really dieting but making long term changes in my diet. I do need to work out more, I wasn't able to go to tennis this week because of the weather, but that won't be an excuse anymore, there are plenty of other activities I could do. Green tea before my breakfast today. :)

Green Tea

This morning I had a cup of organic hot green tea, no sweetener. I will try to have 3 cups a day to help my liver and other organs detox. There is nothing great about green tea, very blah in my opinion. I prefer Moroccan Mint tea lot more refreshing also with no sweetener. But green tea has more benefits and I really don't mind drinking it :)

Second day thoughts

Today was a Little bit better. I didn't get many afternoon cravings and I was able to stay slightly below my 1200 calorie daily allowance. I drank lots of water and no Diet Coke. The Alli is definitely working.. And I can already tell that some of the fat is just not absorbing. :) Today was a good day!

Ceviche <3

I love Peruvian ceviche. It's light, fresh, filling, packed with protein and SO tasty. I'm not from Perú but they definitely have the best version of ceviche. Oh and get this, it's low fat so Alli won't punish me later. I love it. The catch? Too expensive to eat every day. Had my second pill with my ceviche. I only had a couple of bites of the boiled corn. By the way what does "with a meal" exactly mean? Before or after? That has always bothered me so I take my pill in the middle of my meal.. That should count as "with", right?

Good Morning

I was up bright and early today and already at work. Beating the temptation of that pizza last night was hard and I also had some things in my head, but I managed to fall asleep. I always seem to see better in the AM and realize that what I was feeling was just a momentary craving. Distract yourself for a few minutes and the craving will most likely pass. No major changes to report on the pill. I'm about to have a cup of Kellogg's All Bran, a cup of non fat organic milk and my first Alli of the day . Also, I am drinking a big glass of water before ingesting anything in the morning. I feel it "wakes up" my digestive system. :)

Challenges

This is exactly what I'm talking about. It's 10 pm and my family just baked a huge and toasty margherita pizza. Smells great, but I'm trying to be strong and not succumb. After all my fat rolls are made of delicious things too, right?

Short Introduction and Day One

Hello everyone and welcome to my second adventure using the weigh loss pill Alli

First, let me introduce myself, my name is Verónica, I am 33 years old,  I am 5'4 and my starting weight is a startling 133 pounds.  I almost cried when I read the scale at the Supermarket today, especially since all last week I tried to be more conscious about my eating.  I know that 133 pounds is not what many would consider overweight at my height, but in my type of frame that kind of weight is very noticeable (I have a very thin frame). I am used to weighing anywhere between 123 to 125 pounds, although in my opinion, with my type of frame I should weigh 116-118 in order to be  look good, not be underweight and feel great.

The first time I attempted Alli I did lose some pounds but I really didn't use it right, I would cheat a lot and think the pill would take care of those extra calories. The side effects were unpredictable but for the most part nothing crazy really happened so it allowed me to cheat. Maybe forgetting to take the pills didn't help either,  I was unorganized and didn't take it seriously, perhaps because I didn't really need Alli back then since I only needed to lose about 7 pounds; nevertheless I became very interested after seeing how well it was working for my sister.  Needless to say, I didn't follow through and ended up finding the jar with most of the pills, expired in a drawer. 60+ bucks down the drain.

Over the last year my weight has fluctuated quite a bit.  I went thorough a health-nut phase (did not use Alli) where I was very strict about counting calories, staying under 1200 a day and eating mostly veggies and one of those tiny versions of tuna cans. Lots of hot sauce. I would have a different kind of frozen veggie everyday and within a couple of months I went from a size 8 to a size 4 and to about 121-122 pounds.  I felt great.  But as it turns out I couldn't keep the weight off and I slowly started to gain it back. My beloved dog became very ill and went to Heaven after a few months, I had a lot of stress, personal problems and sitting at work for 8 hours did not help. 

After gaining the weight back, after things quieted down a little, I started doing some Jullian Michaels work out videos and I lost a few pounds for a while, going back down to 124. But again my job and stress of life didn't help me at all, I started eating out a lot and realized how badly addicted to Diet Coke I really was. For some reason I get the hungriest at night or if I take an afternoon nap. I love chocolate, and dining out. I guess eating felt extra good while I was stressed.

The last couple of months I could see myself going down but I didn't do much about it, expecting to "hit rock bottom" the truth is that I had no idea how much I had gained until today. I remembered how great I felt and how energized I was during my "skinny moments" and I missed it. The thing that really pushed me was watching a documentary on Netflix called "Preventing and Reversing Diabetes Naturally", listening to the panel of doctors describe their sick patients who started once just where I was. After researching and being honest with myself  about my bad habits, I decided to give Alli a second try, and really mean it. I ate very lighty today and I took my first pill about an hour ago after having a sushi roll. This time I am determined to do it right and be serious about this. We will see how it goes.