Help me get going

[Uphillanddowndale12]

I need some help to get myself motivated on losing weight. I need a proverbial kick up the bum. I keep coming back to fasting or the blood sugar diet. I'm struggling to keep to any diet for more than a few days at present as I've been going through a lot of stress with my mum who has dementia and other health problems and is now is in a nursing home. I've put on over a stone in weight over the past 9 months and have problems with acid indigestion, insomnia and ibs - all stress and diet related I feel like I'm in a viscous circle: I'm stressed and overweight and get indigestion and ibs then I get more stressed because of being overweight etc

I'm 5' 7" and 12 st 11lbs. My main diet is breakfast: raw oats, seeds nuts dried fruit and yogurt; oatcake biscuits and cheese for lunch or soup and bread, with pasta or potatoes and veg with fish or chicken or beef or pork. I'll have a glass of wine or 2 and a piece of dark chocolate 5 nights out of 7. I think I eat healthily and try to avoid bread, sugar and yeasty things as they make my ibs worse. I think my biggest problem is that my portion sizes are too big and that I will indulge in a cake with coffee or eat crisps with my wine.

DH has successfully done 5:2 for about 3 years but I have struggled with it and gone on rebound eating after fast days and also I seemed to get headaches when I was on it. I've lost weight on weight watchers but dislike all the faff of points and that. I kind of eat similar meals to dh on his fast day except I will add pasta or extra cheese to a meal.

I've thought of trying to ease myself into fasting gradually to avoid the rebound and the headaches -as I can often go for about 5 or 6 hours after my breakfast before I feel hungry, but then if I eat a late lunch I feel full when it comes round to my evening meal - I can't seem to get this right

Can anyone advise me and perhaps get me going on losing weight again - I've successfully done it before so I should be able to do it again.

[Uphillanddowndale12]

Anyone??

[BIWI]

If you're suffering from IBS, then I'd seriously consider looking at a low carb diet, rather than trying to do 5:2 at this stage.

I started low carbing to lose weight, and only realised a few weeks in that my IBS had completely cleared up. You've already identified that some carbs make your symptoms worse, so I'd have a go at excluding other carbs like potatoes, pasta and rice (as well as sugar).

[Uphillanddowndale12]

Thanks BIWI have you any suggestions on a particular diet programme?

[BIWI]

There are loads of different low carb plans - but there's always Bootcamp, which I run here

Seriously though, have a read up of the different ones, to see which might suit you best.

[BigChocFrenzy]

5:2 has helped several folk here with IBS,
e.g. tip's DH has had no further symptoms since he started 5:2, iirc over 2 years ago

However, your problem is that you have far too much external stress to fast, whether 500 cal FDs or the 800 cal BSD.
Intermittent Fasting is NOT suitable for someone under such pressure, especially with additional health problems; it is just too much cumulative load for your system.

You would probably feel more relaxed with the same daily eating routine.
Would you feel able to make the switch to low carb ?
If so, BIWI's Bootcamp is a very good place to get support and advice.
Good luck

[paulinuk]

Hi your diet seems quite good to me, cant you have half a glass of wine or full glass every otherday and other days diluted fruit juice.strong chocolate is good for you 85% cocoa solids is best I buy aldis, use honey in drinks 99p in aldi , b & m stores 89p for 340grm jar, you said it portion sizes to big , make em smaller drink water to fill you up,