After a good (!) Summer I felt, bloated, tired, sluggish.  So knew what had to be done...  here is my blog diary for the first  days of my Post Summer Diet Plan.

Monday

Weighed in – it was nasty... 6lb up!  The music had to be faced.  Confessed to my Monday morning class.  I had shamed myself, NOW I had to take action. 

Day one of the Solo Slim Diet was daunting.  I have NEVER in my life used ready meals to replace normal meals, so lots of questions were wizzing around my head, would I feel full enough?  Were the portions big enough, after all I was teaching 3 classes today and surely all that exercise warranted lots of food?!

Had my normal breakfast, did a class, drank 500ml water.  First meal was a Soup with a couple of ryvita.  This was most enjoyable.  The soup was very tasty AND yes, filling!

Didn’t have time for mid morning snack, so had that for pudding.  The main meal was Morroccan Chickpea Tagine with salad, quite spicey but filling.

Did two classes that night, drank 1 ½ litres of water.  Went to bed feeling satisfied and happy I had achieved/survived the first day – at least!!

Tuesday

Day 2.  Three more classes to teach today.  Today’s meals were Spicey Beef and tomato soup and beef casserole.  The day went well, didn’t once feel hungry or tired.   I am feeling more optimistic than yesterday.  Usually on day two of any diet I had previously been on this is the difficult day, where my sugar cravings take over and I want to generally ripp heads off my family members!  This didn’t happen luckily for my hubby and kids! 

Wednesday

Day 3.  Usually on Wednesdays I spend most of the day in the office or in my kitchen doing household jobs etc.  Usually at 11am I am starving and start on the biscuits.  Not today!  Today I didn’t get the urge to take over McVities!  It felt great.  In control.  Empowered!  I CAN overcome my buscuit fetish!  Horray. 

At lunch time I had tomato soup – but had run out of ryvitas so I didn’t bother with anything. Bad idea, by 4pm I felt decidedly light headed and slightly sick.  Reached for a nutrition bar and had a slice of bread with some jam on it and almost instantly felt better.   In the evening I went to my employees  ZUMBA class where I felt lighter and more energetic than ever.

Thursday

Day 4.  Lessons learnt from yesterday, I decided to do exactly what it says in the book.  Went shopping to get any missing items I may need for the rest of the week.  Did a morning class, felt good.  Even my hairdresser said I looked slimmer!  Great!  Instead of having a soup for lunch I decided to try the Chicken and Mushroom risotto, very nice, had it with a large salad and some low fat dressing.  The dinner was Beef meatballs with veg. 

Reflected on the last 4 days of plan and decided that whilst the meals and soups are easy to prepare and tasty, I do actually miss cooking.  Also realised I had only had 2 slices of bread all week, when usually I would be 2 loaves by now!  Feel  motivated by than thought alone.  Starting to feel a little slimmer.  Tried on my Christmas trousers.  Still tight, but can now do them up!

Friday

Day 5.  Final day on Solo Slim and I can’t wait to weigh-in tomorrow.  I am naturally quite a bouncy and happy type of a person, but today I feel even zingier!!  As my 14 year old son would say – ‘I’m buzzin!’  It’s my day in the office today.  Got down to work, then Hubby asked if I’d like to go for lunch with him.  I immediately wanted to say no, but felt mean, as we don’t get to go out for lunch often.  Quickly looked at the eating plan for that day,  I was meant to be having RC cheese on toast.  So at the restaurant there was Welsh Rearbit with poached egg.  So I had that instead.  It was very nice, although it contained high fat cheese,  I felt I could get away with it if I didn’t have my pud and power snacks for the day.  In the evening it was Chilli and salad.

Saturday – Weigh in day!

Got on the scales first thing (as you do!).  Was delighted with the result.  Six pounds lighter!  Yes!

Solo slim has really helped me to get back into the ZONE, helped me to focus on my portion sizes, which were too big and stopped my sugar cravings.  I feel wonderful.  I mentioned earlier in the week how I had missed cooking, so I spent the morning making up some of the Rosemary Conley recipes in the magazine for the days meals and also for freezing.  Feeling ready to lose more next week by sticking to the 1200 cal plan in the current magazine.

Last night was my very first ZUMBA teaching experience.  After 15 years experience of Aerobics, Body conditioning, Salsasize and resistance band training, ZUMBA was a challenge.  But what a blast we had.  

Zumba originated in the mid-1990s when a fitness instructor in Colombia resorted to using tapes of traditional Latin American music in his class after leaving his usual tapes at home. The music caught on, and the instructor developed a class through improvisation based on dances like the merengue and the salsa. 

Our Zumba classes last about for 45 minutes, and consist of a combination of Latin American dances, Hip-hop, regeaton and other dance styles. We choreograph our own class routines, but the fundamentals of the exercise are designed to provide a strong cardio and muscular workout. The whole body moves in a Zumba class, helping to burn fat and build lean muscles.  It particularly slims down the waist and hips. 

Zumba workouts can vary in intensity, and calorie burn depends on an individual's weight, fitness level and muscle composition. During our 45 minute session you can burn anywhere from 400 to 600 calories. On average, a 11st person can expect to burn 450 calories during an hour of Zumba. By comparison, the same person would burn 309 calories during an hour of moderate swimming, 357 for an hour of casual racquetball and 513 for an hour of running at a 10-minute-mile pace.

Zumba classes are designed to be fun and high-energy, attributes that generally make it easy to stick to the program. Anyone at almost any fitness level can start doing Zumba, without purchasing any equipment. Rosemary Conley Diet and fitness clubs – Derby now have a dedicated Slim n Zumba class in Littleover. Every Tuesday night you can strut your stuff in the Derby Moor Community School, The exercise starts at 8pm. Afterwards you get a one to one consultation at the scales where Susan Booth will help you to realise your fitness and weight loss goals in time for the Summer.

Just £29 for 5 weeks of SLIM N ZUMBA, or you can JUST ZUMBA for £4.80 per week (pay as you go).

Last night was my very first ZUMBA teaching experience.  After 15 years experience of Aerobics, Body conditioning, Salsasize and resistance band training, ZUMBA was a challenge.  But what a blast we had.  

Zumba originated in the mid-1990s when a fitness instructor in Colombia resorted to using tapes of traditional Latin American music in his class after leaving his usual tapes at home. The music caught on, and the instructor developed a class through improvisation based on dances like the merengue and the salsa. 

Our Zumba classes last about for 45 minutes, and consist of a combination of Latin American dances, Hip-hop, regeaton and other dance styles. We choreograph our own class routines, but the fundamentals of the exercise are designed to provide a strong cardio and muscular workout. The whole body moves in a Zumba class, helping to burn fat and build lean muscles.  It particularly slims down the waist and hips. 

Zumba workouts can vary in intensity, and calorie burn depends on an individual's weight, fitness level and muscle composition. During our 45 minute session you can burn anywhere from 400 to 600 calories. On average, a 11st person can expect to burn 450 calories during an hour of Zumba. By comparison, the same person would burn 309 calories during an hour of moderate swimming, 357 for an hour of casual racquetball and 513 for an hour of running at a 10-minute-mile pace.

Zumba classes are designed to be fun and high-energy, attributes that generally make it easy to stick to the program. Anyone at almost any fitness level can start doing Zumba, without purchasing any equipment. Rosemary Conley Diet and fitness clubs – Derby now have a dedicated Slim n Zumba class in Littleover. Every Tuesday night you can strut your stuff in the Derby Moor Community School, The exercise starts at 8pm. Afterwards you get a one to one consultation at the scales where Susan Booth will help you to realise your fitness and weight loss goals in time for the Summer.

Just £29 for 5 weeks of SLIM N ZUMBA, or you can JUST ZUMBA for £4.80 per week (pay as you go).

Lisa Before and After March2011.docx (2.68 mb)

Take a look at the above file.  It features Lisa Hibbard.  She has lost 3 stone at our Allestree Classes and looks absolutely fantastic.

Lorraine Marcer from our Mickleover class has this week recieved her 6 stone certificate.  She has worked so hard during the last 6 months to achieve this amazing loss.  She attends 5 of our classes per week and enjoys her new shape enormously.  Well done Lorraine!

Well, at last it is the New Year! And a very happy and healthy New Year to all of you!

I love January because it’s the time when our business is at its busiest. Rosemary announces our 2011 Slimmers of the Year to the press on 5th January in London at a glittering ceremony and on 6th January Rosemary's latest book is published – my Amazing Inch Loss Plan in its new paperback version that has many chapters added to it and lots of wonderful testimonials from slimmers who have followed the diet over the last 12 months and transformed their lives as well as their bodies.

You will see the Derby Slimmers of the Year  below.  She is outstanding. Lorraine Marcer has lost 5st 11lb. Because we teach exercise as well as weight loss at our classes, all our slimmers bodies are amazing. Toned up, sylph-like and looking as though they have never been overweight in their lives.  This is what we do. We help people to lose weight, get fit and live life!

New in the Derby Classes is the New Solo Slim range of ready meals that can purchased at our classes. In a Solo Slim trial we asked 30 folk to stick to the Solo Slim plan for four weeks. They lost 32 stone between them! That means that the average weight loss over a month on Solo Slim was 1st 1 lb. That’s amazing! Just check out our website for more details. It’s the easiest, foolproof way to lose weight healthily. There’s no tie-in tricks or hoops to jump through, you just select what you want to order, add fruit and veg and your preferred breakfast and you lose weight like never before. You decide how long you want to stay on the Solo Slim plan or you can dip in and dip out. It’s dead simple. My new Amazing Inch Loss Plan book has a couple of chapters offering menu suggestions where Rosemary has done all the calorie counting for you for your accompaniments or alternatively,  you will get a free booklet at our classes. It really is so easy.

So, yes, I am excited about January and I hope you are too. It’s a time for new beginnings - making a decision to look after our body because if we don’t, no one else will!

Best Regards

Susan x

Marilyn took the Zumba at our 2010 Christmas Party.

Here is a picture of our fabulous slimmer of the year 2010.  Lorraine Marcer from the Mickleover class, lost 5st 11lbs!  Well done Lorraine.