Appesat - thoughts so far....

I received an exciting delivery yesterday - the Appesat I was expecting!

So, first impressions... well I was immediately impressed by the leaflet which accompanied the pills. I am instantly apprehensive to the point of being entirely put off, buy any product purporting to be a weight-loss accelerant, but not being clear and honest about its ingredients, or the effects it has on your body... and, importantly, exactly *how* it will facilitate any weight loss!

So, taken directly from the leaflet:

How does APPESAT work?
APPESAT must be taken with a large glass of water (around 250ml). It then swells in the stomach to a soft jelly-like complex which remains stable in the acid environment of the stomach over a long period. During this time the complex floats around in your stomach, coming into contact with the stomach walls and stimulating the sensors which tell you that you are full. On leaving the stomach, APPESAT reaches the bowel. Unlike the stomach, the bowel is a neutral to alkali environment and the complex dissolves completely and is passed naturally through the stool.

So there, you go. To quote the (much hated by me) phrase... it's not rocket science! Well, that's obviously not entirely true as I'm sure that the science and technology which went into researching, growing, harvesting and manufacturing this product in its current safe and stable form, will be pretty advanced. But nevertheless, this is indeed a mechanical, rather than chemical, product!

Now, me being me, has to know exactly what she's putting in her body and I was more than a little curious to see the soft-jelly substance described above so I chucked a tablet in a glass of water. Nothing happened for a while until I disturbed the tablet casing which had softened and broke away... from this broken case sprang forth a rectangular blob of gelatinous gloop (technical name). It's been sitting on a plastic lid for a while now and has started to break down, losing its form which it kept for rather a long time... I'm quite impressed! Being the geek I am, I photographed all this :-D



So there you go, pretty cool huh?! That's only one tablet, think how much more of a surface area the recommended initial dose of 3 tablets would cover!

Another thing I like about Appesat is the fact that it is only meant as a temporary weight-loss tool... they recommend a 12 week plan (which my boyfriend and I worked out would mean over 500 pills, thus more than £300 outlay - eeek! [obviously some people pay a hell of a lot more to reach their goals... but still eek nonetheless!]) and after that, the idea is that you've trained your body to a) recognise when it is full and b) require less food to feel that way. I do deplore diet aids which recommend you basically use them for life as part of their 'maintenance programme' grr

So, yesterday I received my interesting package and discovered that it was the ideal day to try it out as it was my Mum's birthday and I'd booked a table in a rather lovely Lebanese restaurant called Levant. I love Lebanese, Turkish, Middle Eastern... North African... well any type of Mezze, I really love places where you can sit in a non-pressured environment and share dishes. When my partner and I go out and eat we always order something we both like the sounds of and then share both dishes :-)

I was planning to go for a run before we went out so hadn't eaten breakfast as was meaning to do so after I got back (can't run with *any* trace of food in my stomach, I just cramp straight up!). My boyfriend and I are pretty useless on weekends when we don't have to get up for work so I didn't end up surfacing with enough time to do that and by the time we left for the restaurant I was ravenous!!

I took three of the pills with half a bottle of water and was pleasantly surprised at how it totally took the edge off my hunger. Instead of wolfing down the most enormous starter, or filling up on bread (like I did last week when we went to Zilli Fish), I was able to show restraint and did actually experience filling more full than anticipated before even really tucking in - quite conflicting really as my head was saying "hmm, you really should still be absolutely empty" and my stomach was saying "whoa, hold it there, I'm started to feel sated already!".

So, that was positive indeed!

One observation I have is that these tablets will do little to reduce 'picking' and 'nibbling' as that is not hunger driven, more habit-formed and emotional in some respects! I did find it hard to resist the pistachio nuts afterwards... I wasn't hungry, but they were 'there' and they were so little and innocuous looking... ahh well, that's something I'm going to have to work on myself! The manufacturers of Appesat certainly don't promise to provide you with willpower, that has to come from you!

A few other sensible tips/pointers from the leaflet:

Don't forget, your weight has crept up over weeks and months, not just a few days so you need to give APPESAT a good few weeks to work In time, it will help you train your body signals and to listen to your stomach when it says it's full.

Crash diets are not recommended for sustained weight-loss - they lead to a decrease in muscle and can dehydrate the body. A lot of people eat too little to achieve quick results. It is very important to lose weight slowly but surely, i.e. approximately 2lbs per week. Any higher rate of weight loss increases the likelihood of putting the weight back on.

All sensible advice! I really hate those manufacturers who claim their product will guarantee you lose half a stone in a week, or a stone in 10 days etc... they really make my blood boil!!

Anyway, it's all positive so far, and I will continue to keep you informed as to how I get on with this.

Incidentally I did actually end up going for my run yesterday after all... very pleased since I had had a big meal earlier and also a significant amount of rather nice red wine had been consumed... which would usually render me sofa-bound for the rest of the evening!

Today I did a really good weights session and also some pretty damn awesome sit-ups with a medicine ball which I'll comment on at another juncture... I'm just going to see what the effects of said exercise are... if there's no aching tomorrow I'm going to feel cheated!

Also taking my son climbing tomorrow... I won't let him belay for me but he'll get some decent climbs in and I'll do a bit of bouldering... and perhaps also some walls if I can persuade a friend to come along and help!

I do hope you've all had a lovely easter, we had family round today and gave two tasty ducks, very happy homes in our bellies :-)