IsoWhey Verdict

IsoWhey verdict after 4 days: Fail.

I seem to have lost no weight at all, and I've been very well behaved except for some wine on Wednesday. I far prefer WeightWatchers where I always lose weight if I stick to my points and I can eat real food rather than sweet shakes and bars.

If you love sugar and starchy carbs and are very overweight then this will probably work for you, but if you are already on a low-starch high-protein diet and are only a bit overweight then it probably won't do much.

PS. I know 4 days is a short time for a trial, but I also know that on WeightWatchers I would have lost at least half a kilo in 4 days. I was expecting better than that from IsoWhey.

PPS. After a bit of Google research I have found info that indicates that ingesting protein as a liquid does not make you feel full, which is why I was struggling so much when I replaced 5 points of chicken for lunch with 5 points of shake. Our bodies do not register liquid calories and still want solid food. The body building folk use protein shakes to bulk up! So be careful...

IsoWhey Day 4

This morning the scale said I was back down to my weight from day 2, so yesterday was just bloating. I did eat a few rather salty things again yesterday, and I cracked and had half a bottle of wine last night too (I made it to 8pm but the scent of Milord's glass of wine eventually broke me. I have no willpower!) so perhaps if I avoid all salt and alcohol today I will actually see a loss tomorrow? We shall see.

Really, I'd just like to fit comfortably into my jeans for the weekend, when Princess and I are driving 3 hours to Sydney and staying with friends for a few days. Princess needs to see her Sydney eye specialist again next Tuesday, and the timing coincides with a party this Saturday for my goddaughter and her mum, so Girlie Trip here we come! I'm really looking forward to catching up with friends after so long, and doing a few touristy things with my daughter. 5 is such a lovely age.

Anyway, regarding the IsoWhey, this is probably my last day on it unless I see more than a half kilo loss tomorrow. I far prefer Weightwatchers.

Today:

7am: Coffee shot with skimmed milk at home (2pt)
Breakfast: Chocolate IsoWhey bar, eaten slowly between 8:30 and 9:30 (6pt)
11am: Banana (2pt) and carrot sticks
Lunch: Light salad, carrot sticks and celery sticks
3pm: IsoWhey Vanilla shake with skimmed milk (5pt)
Dinner: TBA but I have 11 points over (Mom is doing a grocery shop today. I never know what I'm going to be cooking on shopping day until I get home!)

Still Sunny

I am still here, and life is still good! I really must get back into the blogging habit - I have plenty of time to do it...

My new job is great, even though I have gone backward in terms of technology and methodologies (it is a legacy system). Good money, great working environment and friendly people. Sadly, I'm in a state of limbo because they are finishing off a major release and the bugs are too ephemeral for me to help out much, so I spend a lot of time picking unimportant bugs out of the backlog and investigating them. It's pretty mindless, and they say we won't start new development until JULY!!!

I think I was hired to justify the budget going into the new financial year (I'm working for a government department) - just a bum in a seat. Oh well, I'm being paid a lot to do nothing!

Since I last wrote Milord had a birthday, we had a wedding anniversary and Easter. Lots of dinners and wine, lovely.

Which means I have put back on all the weight I lost coming up to my birthday. I'm trying to shake it off. I am closer to my gym at this job, so I am getting back into my 2 or 3 times a week workout routine.

I also decided to give a crash diet an attempt, instead of my usual Weightwatchers. "They" say that they lose like half a kilo a day on the protein shake diets, so that would be awesome, right? I should lose a dress size in a week! So, here I review Optifast and IsoWhey.

If you have arrived here to compare WW to IsoWhey, I used the old points for fruit to keep it fair. So that's 2 for a banana and 1 for an apple.
Optifast and Isowhey bars are both about 6 points. The IsoWhey shakes are 3 points before you add milk.
My WW points allowance is 26.

Last week I tried swapping out my breakfast for Optifast bars. These were disgusting - incredibly sweet and dense - and I was hungry again within a couple of hours! I thought the whole point of the protein meal-replacements was that you wouldn't be hungry until the next mealtime? The Optifast bars were so nasty that I didn't even try the shakes!

This week I'm trying IsoWhey products.

• On Monday I had coffee at home (espresso shot with skimmed milk, 2 pt), then I had a shake with skimmed milk (5pt) for breakfast at 8:30am (coffee-flavor, quite nice) and I was tummy-growling hungry by 9:30am.
  I had a banana (2pt) and stuck it out until 1pm when I had a light salad and the berry-flavor protein bar (6pt. very nice, like an oversize normal muesli bar) and that kept me going until about 4pm when I ate 2 apples (2pt).
  I was bite-your-head-off hangry by the time I got home! Dinner was a lamb shank (9pt yum) and vegetables.
  Using the Weightwatchers points calculator I had used my normal points allowance of 26.


• On Tuesday I had coffee at home (2pt), then half the chocolate protein bar (nice) at 8:30 and the other half at 9:30 (6pt).
  At 11am I was very hungry and I had a banana (2pt) and some carrot sticks. At 1pm I had a light salad and a soup made from the lamb shank sauce (2pt yum!).
  At 4pm I had the strawberry protein shake (5pt not bad) and an apple and I wasn't hangry when I got home.
  Dinner was a small portion of roast chicken (5pt) and lots of spicy roasted butternut pumpkin and peas (3pt).
  Again I used my normal points allowance.


• Today: Coffee, berry protein bar, banana, carrot sticks.
  I am currently eating the light salad and will shortly go and heat up my lamb shank sauce soup.
  I will have a shake and an apple late afternoon and dinner will be a slice of two of roast lamb with veggies.
  This will take me to my normal points allowance.
  Edited to add: the banana shake is vile!

Verdict so far:

1. I haven't seen any dramatic weight loss (the scale actually told me I'd gained half a kilo since Monday! I hope it is just the salty soups and veggies making me bloat).


2. According to my Weightwatchers calculator I would have been consuming the same "points" anyway.


3. I am WAY hungrier on these protein bars and shakes than I normally am when I eat eggs or chicken for breakfast and lunch.


4. I seem to have less energy, but I'm not sure about this - it could be normal don't-feel-like-gymitis!

So, I am not very impressed yet. Weightwatchers would have had me eating the same amount of calories/nutrients/protein but in a far more satisfying way.

I wonder if this only works for the seriously overweight who normally overeat on mostly carbs? I am overweight by "only" 10kg and I normally eat a high-protein low-carb diet, so perhaps that's why I feel so hungry. I'm actually taking in less protein and more carbs with the shakes and bars!

If I don't see more than a half kilo loss on the scale on Friday (which sticking to Weightwatchers would have given me) then I'll have to call these protein crash diets a real dud. I'll let you know!

Newsletter March 2015

Hi all,

 

I have one hour left at my crappy job and then I am free! I have landed a new contracting job just a couple of blocks away. Double the money! Hourly pay! Paid overtime! I can't wait - it has been a very long 19 months. I start my new job on Monday so I will have a couple of days off to relax before jumping in the deep end again. 

 

So what else is news?

 

Milord got a promotion to COO a month ago and he is Very Happy. Lots more money too... we are both finally back to where we were before we had kids :-) 

 

We are celebrating by replacing everything that has worn out around the house during our dark time. New pots and pans! Whee! New lounge suite. Towels. Perhaps a car upgrade shortly from my poor scuffed and leaky runabout... awesome.

 

The kids are well. Princess started school in Feb (year 0) and she Loves It. 8 weeks along and she is picking up reading and writing at an amazing rate. King has moved into the oldest room of his daycare and we hope this will help him along with his speech and counting - he just isn't interested. It's funny how different siblings can be.

 

Milord has also joined the local golf club and plays a couple of times a week. His handicap is creeping down which pleases him a lot! And I am contemplating finding art or sculpture classes on the weekends - it's been years since I touched a paintbrush!

 

Since I last wrote:

 

We had a wonderful Christmas break. 4 days at home over Christmas and then a week at the coast. Christmas was just us at home with pressies and too much food. New Years Eve we were asleep by 10, woken briefly by fireworks at midnight, and then again by some idiot setting theirs off at 4am! The kids (and the fucking kookaburras!) get up at dawn no matter what, so you learn to sleep when you can. The kids loved the beach - we all did. Lots of sand and sea and sunshine and white wine spritzers. This year we hope to get a place with a pool too and perhaps stay an extra week. 

 

Work has been mental. I've been working long 6-day weeks for months now. Half an hour to go now... LOL.

 

Princess got glasses. We are little worried that she might still not be using both eyes at the same time, I will be taking her back to the specialist in May.

 

For my birthday Milord and I took the day off and spent the day around Canberra, visiting art galleries and eating good food with lots of fine wine, and we ended by spending the night in a posh hotel. Most decadent and it took a few days to recover!

 

Canberra is being good to us. I have a good feeling about the rest of the year!

 

Walking on Sunshine

I am happy.

1. I have a new job! I start in just over 2 weeks. I had a wonderful feeling from the people interviewing me and I am feeling very excited about this one.


2. My income is going to double!


3. Milord has negotiated a promotion and huge raise and a cut of profits.


4. Princess is still loving school and she got a merit award last week. Nerd child - just like her mummy! She is so close to reading and writing already, it is awesome.


5. I have been slowly losing some weight this year. I am back in my "fat" jeans LOL.


6. Work is still very busy, but as I am leaving the project in 14 days I am spending more time documenting stuff than coding, and I am not working overtime any more!


7. My birthday was yesterday. Milord and I took the day off and spent the day around Canberra, visiting art galleries and eating good food with lots of fine wine, and we ended by spending the night in a posh hotel.

Life is good! We are out of the long dark tunnel of the past 2 years.

Hmm, what else?

• I bought Milord a golf club membership as an early birthday present, and he is happily getting back into the swing of it. It is nice not to have him moping around the house all weekend!


• Princess now has glasses. And the optometrist reckons she still isn't using her eyes together, so we are off to the specialist again. wah.


• King has made a BFF at daycare. The other day his BFF didn't come to daycare (they have cut his days because he is getting a baby sibling) and King cried himself to sleep about it. I am trying to set up playdates for the poor little blokes.


• Mom and I have started doing jigsaws - the kids are finally old enough to leave them alone. We are enjoying them enormously.

Princess and I had some quality time the other day. Haircut, chocolate cake, eye test...

On the day of my interview I met Mom and King for lunch afterwards.

Me on a post-interview high!

Princess with her new glasses. "Just like yours Mummy!"

Milord and me at the Very Posh Hotel for my birthday evening.

And the view this morning - if you look carefully you can see 17 hot air balloons in the morning sunshine!

Start of an Era

Princess started Big School on Monday!

She thoroughly enjoys it and looks forward to it every day far, and crashes off to sleep immediately each night! 4 days down, 13 years to go...

In other news I have been on 2 job interviews. The first I wouldn't have minded getting, but my skills weren't right for the role. The second I wouldn't want, as their setup is even most stressful and chaotic that I am in now!

There is not much around in Canberra at the moment, I suppose it will pick up towards the end of the financial year as the departments get their new budgets... I hope so anyway!

Happy New Year!

Sorry for the radio silence. Deadlines and too much overtime sapped me completely.

We had a wonderful Christmas break. 4 days at home over Christmas and then a week at the coast. Christmas was just us at home with pressies and too much food. New Years Eve we were asleep by 10, woken briefly by fireworks at midnight, and then again by some idiot setting theirs off at 4am! The kids (and the fucking kookaburras!) get up at dawn no matter what, so you learn to sleep when you can.

The kids loved the beach - we all did. Lots of sand and sea and sunshine and white wine spritzers. It is good to be home though. The kids were exhausted - they shared a room and stayed up late every night playing. King slept 12 hours straight the first night we were home!

Next year we hope to get a place with a pool too and perhaps stay an extra week. That's if we get more money, anyway!

Work has been mental. I've been working long 6-day weeks for months now. It is a killer project, but the skills I am getting (I'm a Team Lead on it) will be great on my CV. I plan to shop around over the next couple of months to see what is out there, then either leave or ask for a monster raise. I would love to go contracting again...

Milord is in the process of negotiating a big raise at his place. If we both get raises then we can start paying off the principal on the mortgage for the first time in years! And plan better holidays - why else do we work? Oh, and better schools LOL

On that subject Princess will be starting Big School in February and is very excited. She looks so cute in her first school uniform!

I probably have lots of stuff to tell you since October, but if I wait to write them down it'll never happen!

The whole household is now doing a booze-free stint. Day 4 and I feel like crap: tired, fuzzy, achey, spotty and sleeping badly. Hopefully this will settle down soon!

A holiday Royal Fix:

Annapurna

This time 14 years ago I was hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal.

I stayed in every village mentioned on the news. I ate in the teahouses and slept in the lodges. I remember every step of the day we summitted the Thorong La pass (because it was so incredibly hard to hike at that altitude).

Every news report about the snowstorm and avalanches and dead trekkers gives me chills. That could have been me.

Your Royal Fix - iPhone Edition

I plugged in my iPhone for the first time in ages and 6 months of pictures downloaded. Here are some highlights:

When Sis was here in March we all went to a park and played ball. Except Princess. She sat and played games on an iPhone.

Over Easter we went to the coast for a few days.

We went to the golf club for lunch in May and the kids found an unattended golf buggy.

Pics from the dinosaur museum over the kid's birthday weekend.

A couple from our friend's property in the Hunter Valley a couple of weeks ago.

Our awesome paddling pool that we inflated last weekend.

Princess drew this picture last week: Mummy, King, Daddy, herself.
"Why have I got a beard, Princess?"
"No, that's not your real chin, Mummy"

Counting Chickens

Milord is being headhunted! He has just had a first interview for a job that sounds far more his style for a bigger organisation and bigger money. We are hoping like crazy that he will called back for a second interview!

We shouldn't be counting our chickens before they hatch, but we wouldn't be our usual upbeat, positive, impulsive selves otherwise, now would we?

In other news, last weekend was another long weekend (I don't know why they can't spread them out a bit more) and gloriously hot. The temps climbed to the high 20s and we all wore shorts and sundresses for the first time since last summer.

On Saturday we took the kids to the park again, and this time I took wellies and they paddled in the pools and streams. Next time I will also take a change of trousers as they managed to get soaked anyway!

On Sunday we went to the indoor pool for swimming lessons and general mayhem.

And on Monday we did some DIY. The smallness of our backyard has been an annoyance since we moved in a year ago. So last weekend we uprooted several large bushes and put them in pots around the side of the house, then laid fake grass where they had been, then inflated our huge paddling pool on the grass and erected a marquee over the pool. Pow - instant lawn and pool! The kids were seriously impressed.

We also plan to install a security screen door at our front door so that we can get a breeze through the house on hot days - the breeze always comes from the front of the house, and I am not comfortable having the door standing open with no barrier.

Although we are holding off on that for the moment in case Milord lands this job and we have to move closer. And find a new school for Princess. And a new daycare for King. And maybe need another car. And have more income and afford some other essentials like couches that are not broken and bigger beds for the kids and and and...

Aaargh - I hate this part!