Anyone tried the CSIRO diet?

Jaspen, thanks for offering to help re. book one, I'll keep you in mind (except Dec :)). I've lost 3 kilos in two weeks. My goal was to lose 4 or 5 kilos, so I'm lucky I didn't have a real lot to lose. Just losing 3 kilos has made a big difference to the way I look, and my confidence, so that's good. I've just got to keep the motivation up to keep on going.... for life.

Re. the food bill, I think with some fine tuning, we'll be able to adapt the food plans to our budget. For example, this week pesto was on the list, so I bought that. It turns out that you use like one or two teaspoons of it on some toast. I may as well skip that, and save myself $4 or whatever it cost. I've had a look at the jar, and it contains peanuts. My son is allergic to peanuts, so I'm going to give the jar to a friend anyway. I don't like to risk opening something like that in the house. There's lots of examples like that though, were you can skip things and save a lot of $$$.

Congrats on the weight loss - I'd be real happy if I can keep that up for the four weeks before we go away (our holiday in the states will probably blow it but will be back into it once we are home and will try while away to do what we can)

yeh I know what you mean about reducing $$$. I go through the actual menu plan for each week and develop my shopping list from that and if there is stuff that I am only going to use once and not again in the next two weeks or use up I look for a substitute food/meal or don't buy - eg the paella had saffron in it which I left out (didn't have it but it can be expensive too but it was still yummy!!) I think I"m even going to look at the veges and replace some where it indicates expensive ones that I could use something cheaper - eg this week has snow peas at $12.95/kg where as I'm sure I could use beans or something green but cheaper and get a similar result. I just want to settle into the flow a bit before I start playing too much and experiment with the meals to find what I like and don't. I'll also be looking at the meat cuts and making sure the regular ones aren't the expensive ones - had lamb racks the other week and savoured every mouthful due to the price of the lamb.

I need to lose a total of 7kg to be back to pre baby #2 weight (1.5 done 5.5 to go)and then another 6kg to be at pre baby #1 and then another 7kg to be at my dream (but I dont know whether these last 7 are that realistic as it is getting right down in my healthy weight range)

I figure if I stage my goals they'll seem more achievable - especially if I hit a bump at any stage
I just keep remembering that if I was on a lot of other diet plans I'd be spending extra money so hopefully it all balances out

Understand the peanuts situation - my niece is allergic so everytime she comes to visit the cupboard gets rearranged, all the foods that she eats get rebought and labelled so they are not contaminated for her.

We started on book 2 yesterday. We have a sunday fruit & veg market near our house and if you get there early they sell fresh fish straight off the boat. I used to go there all the time but got slack and haven't been there for ages - i went there on Sunday and got all my fruit and veg for this week for $25 and the fish and squid for $15 (the man even cut the squid into rings for me) I remember when i did book one i spent a lot more than that on fruit & veg a week so i'll deffinately be going there every Sunday. Most of the other herbs & spices i had from when we did book one so i didn't have to buy any of them so my shopping bill was reasonably cheap this week. I've just finished taking part in a 40 day physical activity study at the Adelaide Uni so exercise has been part of my daily routine for the past 6 weeks - i'm just hoping i can keep it up now that there is nobody keeping an eye on me! DH & I are going to have a weigh in every Sunday - i'm hoping to loose 7kgs by xmas (1kg a week is my goal) anything extra will be a bonus. I think by making my goal to loose 1kg a week will make it easier for me to stay focussed rather than just focusing on loosing 12kg i'm just taking little steps lol.
Sounds like you girls are doing great so far, I think reading about all your success is going to be great for the motivation. I've also got a copy of book one so if anyone needs any info out of it i'd be more than happy to help :)

Boo I'm in Adelaide too. Which market are you talking about? It sounds great! Thanks for offering any info re. book one. I hope the recipes in book two are as good as book one. DH whinged about last night's tea, but he's pretty fussy. We had the chicken from week one book two. I thought it was nice, and my one year old looooooved it. But then, he's not fussy at all LOL. I'm a bit nervous about cooking the calamari this week. I bought some from Woolworths, frozen, still in those big tube shapes. It didn't work out that cheap. I get scared about cooking seafood for some reason, I feel like I'm going to mess it up, and it will be like money down the drain.

Hey Susanneh,
The markets i'm talking about are the Torrens Island markets, down near Port Adelaide. My squid only cost me $6.00, i thought that was a bargain and I know it's fresh - he was only just taking it out of the bucket as i got there. DH is funny with squid, he only normally eats it if he's caught it himself so he knows its fresh.
The receipes seem alot different from book 1 - there wasn't anything in that book that we didn't like (except for that porridge/oat stuff - i couldn't stand it! Tasted like someone had harvested the wheat and put it in my bowl straight out of the paddock lol). We're having the chicken tonight - i prepared it last night so its ready to go in the oven when i get home, if it tastes as good as it smells i think it will be ok. Hopefully your DH likes the rest of the meals, I'm lucky that DH isn't fussy and will eat just about anything.

Boo thanks for letting me know where the markets are. I've never been to the Torrens Island Markets before. I'll have to make the trip one day. Isn't that porridge oat stuff in the new book? I didn't see it in book one, but I tried the one is book two, and yeah, it tastes a bit weird. When fussy DH saw it, he wasn't even game to try it LOL. I still have some stitting in the fridge. I find that some bought cereal suits me best. Tonight I'm making those beef shaslicks with the cous cous and fancy dipping sauce from week one (day one I think) of the second book. It looks like it's going to be a huge job. I was actually going to swap that one for something else, but didn't have time to change the shopping list on Saturday. I'll let you know how I get on. You're supposed to use a food processor for the sauce, and I don't have one of those, so I'll just be chopping things up fine and hope for the best.

Hi Susanneh, yep the instant oat stuff is in book one as well - i just eat weet bix in place of it! Have you tried the museli they have the receipe of in book two? I haven't had time to make it up yet.
How did your shaslick sauce turn out? I couldn't be bothered dragging out the food processor so i just threw all the ingreadients into the blender and it did the same thing.
4 days in and i feel like i've lost a bit of weight already, it will be interesting to see what the scales tell me on Sunday!

Boo I think the breakfast recipe I was talking about was the museli from book two. Bircher's museli or something. It's not that good. In fact I threw the second half away. I'm having Uncle Toby's Plus Museli Flakes from breaky, and it's really yummy and filling. I think it may technically have more sugar that it should, but it's serving me well.

I have to admit, I copped out of making the shaslicks (hangs head in shame). I didn't have a lime (there weren't any at Woolworths), and I didn't know what to use as a substitute. The meat I had bought was a beef roast, so instead of cutting it up, I cooked it as a roast.

Today I'm planning to do the lamb chops with polenta.

I think I've lost more weight this week too. Once I get to my ideal weight, I think I'll just go to a maintenance plan of high fibre cereal for breakfast, make sure I have protein (ham, turkey, salmon, tuna or egg) with lunch, and our normal dinners. In between I'll keep snacks down to either yogurt, le rice, or fruit, with the occasional treat thrown in. That way I'll stay on track, without having to think about it much. I'm going to keep using the CSIRO book as a recipe book. I'll be sorry to see book one go back to the library. Maybe I'll pick up a cheap copy on eBay (if they get cheaper now).

Lol was there a lime in the shaslik receipe? I must have missed that part because i didn't use one! A roast beef sounds yummo.
We're having the chops tonight to. I've never tasted polenta before so i hope its ok.
I'm pretty fussy when it comes to cereals so i might give the museli thing a miss and stick to my weetbix.
I'm planning on doing the same thing once i get to my goal weight, i haven't actaully got as far as reading the maintenance plan in the book yet.

Hi, I just started the CSIRO diet today and so far I have found it to be really good:) I'm not quite sure what my starting weight is (don't own scales) I think it's between 75-80kg but I do have a tape measure, so I'll post my measurements and update them once a week on Sundays:help:

Bust:105cm
Arm:35.5cm
Leg:71cm
Thighs:114cm
Waist:102.5cm
Hips:110.5cm
Backside:120.5
Neck:33cm

Hi anabelle,
Congrats on getting started. I bet you'll be happy with your results in a week.

See you round,

Well I lost 2kg in my first week! I'm hoping i can keep it up to at least 1kg per week. I have been a bit slack with the exercise so far this week but i'm going to try and make up for it for the rest of the week!

Congrats on losing 2kgs boo! Yes I think finding time for the exercise is the hardest bit. I've done o.k so far with only going for a walk every second day or so.

This week I decided to use the book as a recipe book, and just picked out my favourite recipes to have for tea. Last night we had the hamburgers (or should I say lamburgers) with tziki, and they were really yummy.

Congrats boo - I'm slack with the exercise too - do very little but am still losing although will have to be careful to make sure I don't lose all muscle mass.
I lost another 1.5 so 2.9kg in two weeks so very happy - hope it continues at least until we go away. Am not finding it hard at all now except when out and look lovingly at the chocolate cake LOL. In fact I'm finding I'm not eating everything in a day so need to make sure I do that or I'll be missing out on the balance part again. I think this has a lot to do with the heat up here at the moment though and just the fact that I'd rather drink than eat.

Sounds like you girls are doing great.
Sana - I've been wanting to try those bugrer things, they look really nice.
Jaspen - 2.9kg is great - well done! I know what you mean about the hot weather, i tend to eat less when it's hot - except it's been like winter here the last week!
I've been a bit naughty this week, it was my birthday so my parents took me out for dinner on Saturday night and then i took the day off work on Monday so DH took me out for lunch. I tried to pick healthy meals (was hard to resist my favourite snizt with mushroom sauce but i managed to do it - just lol) but i just couldn't keep away from those white bread rolls and roast potatoes! That on top of hardly any excercise i'll be surprised if i loose much at all this week. The only excercise i have managed this week is a short walk with the dogs on Wednesday night and managed to drag myself to the gym last night and am planning to get there again tonight if i can fight my way through all the traffic heading towards the U2 concert (my gym is around the corner from where it is being held).
While i was writing out my shopping list for next week i noticed there is dinner there (can't remember what its called) but it says to have it with either wholegrain rice or polenta - I used the polenta to crumb the chops with last week but am finding it hard to imagine eating it as a "side dish" have either of you girls tried this one?

Boo you can definitely be excused for going out for your birthday. Good on you for not having the schnitzel :). I made some kind of a pie/tart thingy once with polenta, and it wasn't that good. It was fine on the chops though, so I guess it depends what the recipe is. I tend to alter things like side serves eg. make a simple salad instead of the fancy one in the book. Polenta is a carb type thing I think, so you could maybe have a bit of bread instead??

I'm making the Italian Meatloaf tonight, so I'll let you know how I go with that one.

Thanks Susannah i might just stick to the rice :)
I'd be interested to see what you think of the meatloaf - i wasn't too keen on the sound of it so i swapped it for something else!

The meatloaf turned out pretty good, but I couldn't put the pine nuts in due to my son's nut allergy. The pine nuts would have finished it off nicely. I have to admit, I was naughty and made mashed potato and gravy to go with it, because in my opinion, you have to have the gravy and mash with meatloaf. It was super filling.

How is everyone going with the diet? I managed to loose another kg last week, which was surprising considering i had done very little excercise. I'm finding the receipes are much easier to prepare than the first book, not as time consuming.

Sana - The meat loaf sounds good, i'll have to give it a try next time. Mmm i miss my mash pototoes lol

I'm doing quite well, really just trying to maintain the weight I am at. I'm going to make those lamb burgers again tonight, they were so nice. A friend told me that her husband made the cold rolls last night and they were really nice. Her husband was so proud of how they looked, he took a photo LOL.

Hi ladies,

I will be starting this diet on Monday as I need to lose the weight I have put on since my wedding :doh: and we are on a TTC break at the moment so I thought what a better time than now to get myself fit again. I have PCOS and since coming off the pill around 14 or so months ago I have stacked on the Kg (13 to be exact) I feel a bit disgusted in myself :angry: and I really need to do something about this before we start out IVF journey around May. How are you all going on it? Have you all continued on this and gone on to lose more weight?

I have a copy of the first book in excellent condition if anybody would like it.....for free....you would just need to pay for postage from Tassie to wherever you are.
Good luck girls with your weightloss.....you're an inspiration!!

oh wow, what's the postage likely to cost Rebecca?

$8.80 pre paid parcel or $9.90 express post

I'll take it! Thanks so much Rebecca! I can't seem to pm you, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to put an email address in a post. Are you able to pm me???

I have to admit, I lost 5kg on the CSIRO diet (which was my goal), but since then I've been slack and I've put 3kg back on. I need to get myself back on track. I borrowed book one from the library and really liked it. I have book two, so I think they will go well together.

I have been having problems with people not being able to pm me. My email is beck.cripps@gmail.com

The books yours!!

Rebecca, I've emailed you. Thanks so much :).

Hey guys,

Finally started this - and i've lost 1.5kg in one week (without really trying), so i'm rapt!

Next week we are getting serious!!

The exercise is going great! We have a cross trainer, so i just jump on there for 15 mins, instead of the walk. I'm sure i burn more fat, its easier, i can do it any time is convienent etc...And it has a digital display so it really keeps me going, wanting to make it a certain distance etc! I have to buy a resistance tube thing, will go looking for it today.

Oh, the annoying thing was i left a 1/2 full glass of water next to my book, DS spilt it all over the back of it, and so all my back pages with the shopping list and a few other things are majorily stuck together! If anyone could do me a huge favour a photocopy me the last couple of pages it would be great.. otherwise i will have to try and hunt it down at the library.

Sana, when you have a chance, could you post a few of the recipes from book 1 that aren't in book 2 up here?

Hope you are all well...

Yael

Wow Yael, you've done an amazing job so far. I think you could hope for one kilo a week after the first one.

I'll post my fav recipes from book one when I get it. If I can get DH to teach me how to use our scanner, I might be able to copy the last couple of pages from book 2 for you. Last time I tried to scan something, it came out microscopic, so I'll be needing some help.

I'm not far off my goal weight, so I'm going to be using both books mainly as recipe books, and sticking to just snacking on fruit, yogurt, or a boiled egg in between meals. It's hard to not snack if you stray away from the high protein lunches, so I try to have a tuna, chicken or ham sandwich for lunch. DH loved a chicken salad for lunch, so I've got to start making those again. I've started jogging every second night when my younger son has gone to bed. The first few jogs were really hard, but now I am making progress, and I'm even enjoying it.

My main problem is I'm having trouble avoiding Heaven ice creams. They were on special last week, so what could I do? I had to buy some :). I'll be steering clear this week though.

We are up to day 3 of Book 2 and have had some really nice meals so far. Haven't got the scales I ordered in the mail yet so we aren't exactly sure of our weight lol. Dh looked up the CSIRO website last night and you can print off the shopping lists for each week from the site.
Does anyone have book 1 and could post the recipe for white fish fillets with lemon pepper rub (pg 125) please? Thats tonights meal in book 2 and we unfortunately don't own the first book.

How is everyone going on this?
I lost 6kgs before Xmas, then a week before Xmas i was finding it too hard with all our Xmas celebrations etc so i decided to forget about it until the new year, unfortunaley the new year has been and gone and I'm still being bad, been eating way too much take away and junk! I've made a half hearted attempt to start back on it this week and i'm hoping to be back into the swing of things next week.
MrsMac - i've got book one at home but it's probably too late for me to post the recipe for you - let me know if you need any others.

I was looking into this but was put off a little when I spoke to a personal trainer, who said that he doesn't take notice of it because it's been funded by one of the Australian Meat associations or something. I do love my meat though :)

I agree Kelly, but there are heaps of trials etc sponsered by drug companies and that doesn't always put us off them? Unfortunatly there are very very few things out there that haven't had their integrity comprimised by who is sponsering it.

If you try it and lose weight, why not? And if you don't you can always stop.

The CSIRO diet says for lunch for eg. you need 100g of protein. I usually have egg or tuna, it doesn't have to be meat. I don't like to have too much ham as it is smoked and carcinogenic. Then again BBQ meat is said to be carcinogenic, so I think moderation is the key.

Hi everybody,

I brought the 1st book about 4 weeks ago and just started today...=) I don't really feel any different just as yet but I am sure things will start to kick off in the days to come.

Anywho I will definitely keep you guys posted on my progress =)

Hi waiting4miracles,
I felt really irritable when I started on the diet, and a bit headachy, from having less food than usual. I think it only took me a couple of days to adjust. Good on you for getting started, and good luck. Let us know how you get on.

P.S. it works out cheaper if you substitute some of the fresh herbs for dry ones, and use your usual veggies (other that potatoes), instead of some of the fancy ones in the book.

:

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Hi waiting4miracles,
I felt really irritable when I started on the diet, and a bit headachy, from having less food than usual. I think it only took me a couple of days to adjust. Good on you for getting started, and good luck. Let us know how you get on.

P.S. it works out cheaper if you substitute some of the fresh herbs for dry ones, and use your usual veggies (other that potatoes), instead of some of the fancy ones in the book.

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Yes I felt like that yesterday, I was soOoOO HUNGRY at the end of the night and had a real bad headache- not because the food wasn't enough but because I didn't eat some of the stuff that I was suppose to eat e.g. yoghurt and all those dairy stuff - I am not a dairy person so it was a bit hard.

Anywho I read through the book again and decided that I WON'T be going by the day by day menus that it has set out - I will still use it for reference though. There's a page on the first book (p 22 I think) that gives you an idea of what you should eat in a day. From that I will implement my own menus and ensure that I stay within the guidelines of say how many grams of fruit can I eat, grams of protein and etc.

I dunno if any of you girls notice too but (and if I read it correctly) we can substitute one unit of wholemeal bread for say 1/3 of rice, 1/2 pasta or 150 grams of potatoes per day. I am doing that at the moment because after yesterday I wasn't feeling too good.

It could also be related to my excercise routine, my daily routine at the gym is 10 minutes walking at speed 6 k's, 20 minutes running at 8-9 k's, 20 minutes on the x trainer, 10 minutes on the stepper and some random weights, 60 x sit ups, 20 x push up's, 20 squats and 20 lunges -my body was so weak...I almost passed out..lolz.

Anyways I'd just finished lunch - heres what I had based on that guidelines on page 22 of the first book:

Breakfast

Mini mandarin (I was a bit naughty and did not have my breakfast - weetbix - this was a rush breakfast as I had to rush off to the gym)

Lunch

100 grams of lean beef
20 grams of reduced fat cheese
150 grams of potatoes
half a cup of lettuce with random stuff e.g. carrots, onions, pickes
1 teaspoon of extra light olive oil
1 tablespoon of tomato sauce

When I pan cooked my beef, no oil was used. Once it was medium rare I transferred it to a conventional oven where I melted the cheese on top.

The potatoes I boiled it untill soft and than mashed it. I than made it into 2 small patties and pan fried it with the 1 teaspoon extra light olive oil. The salad that I made had no dressing in it. The tomato sauce I used to put flavour into my potatoes..lolz..

It was delicious...

Tonight, I will have my wholemeal slice of bread accompanion by roast beef and some steam veges.

I don't know whether this approach of mine will work...but only time will tell =)

The good thing about it though is that I have not craved or touched any sweets as yet...I am so proud of myself..lolz

Although the book did say diet soft drinks could be drank in moderation to put flavour into meals - I think I am going to stay away from it and stick with water..

Sounds like you are doing great, but I can imagine you'd be feeling flat after doing that work out with no breakfast. I'm feeling dizzy just thinking about it. I think picking out your favourite recipes, and substituting foods you don't like with foods that you do is the only way to go, otherwise you wouldn't stick at it. I remember one night I spent all this time cooking a batch of vegies that I knew I didn't like. That was just silly.

It says in the book that you can have low fat dairy snacks for dessert, so I sometimes get that chocolate mousse from the supermarket, that says 97% fat free. They are really yummy.

OK LADIES......

I have good news...

I have been excercising everyday (except for saturday and sunday) last week and this week. Last week I stuck strictly to the CSIRO diet but than sidetracked on the weekends till today (though I was still watching what I ate) ANDDDDDDDD....I got my period backkkk....gosh I am so excited...kekekeke.:lol:

From last week to this week, I lost a total of 2kg...

I am so excited...time to go for our lives with the ttc...:)