All new Not Quite NT thread - 2013 for weightloss and answers

[madwomanintheattic]

Weigh in tomorrow chez mad.

[madwomanintheattic]

11stone 9.5lbs.

Two stone off.

Target set.

Ds's birthday today.

[silverfrog]

Ooh, can I join (I do have a not-quite-NTer )

It's time to shift some weight. I can keep kidding myself that it's baby weight, but it was there before I got pregnant with ds , and even if it is baby weight, it needs to shift.

I currently weigh about 10st 10. Target: ooh, about 9 st 7 ish I guess.

[silverfrog]

And Happy Birthday mini-mad

[moosemama]

Hey hey - found you!

Happy New Year Madwoman. Oo and happy birthday to ds for yesterday.

I was going to start a thread on New Years Day, but couldn't think of a title and was then really poorly for about 48 hours with all sorts of weird head stuff going on following my EEG on the 31st.

Still enough with the excuses ...

Decided not to start until next week, so that all the remaining Christmassy junk will have been cleared out before I begin, so I won't be setting myself up to fail.

I am going to weigh in on Monday morning and am absolutely dreading it. None of my clothes fit and I have have vegged and pigged for months now so am pretty sure I will be nudging 13 stone again at least.

Still I only have myself to blame and it's time to get things back on track.

I'm not going to be as gung-ho about it all as I was last year, mainly because it will be a long time until I can get back to exercising properly. What I really want is to take hold of my eating habits again, start logging my intake and give myself a sharp reality check. With the main aim being to improve my health rather than worrying about my dress size or looks.

So I'm going to weigh-in and start logging on My Fitness Pal as of Monday morning. It depends on my weigh-in weight, but I'm thinking of setting targets in small easier to face bites this time, so probably going for something around 11 stone 7lbs initially and then taking it from there.

I am back to walking without my crutches for the first time since August, although to be honest it really hurts - and I'm going to start exercising gently as of Monday as well, with a 15 minute exercise bike session per day and building it up from there, hopefully adding in some walking with the dogs as I get stronger.

[moosemama]

Hello silverfrog - yes, come and join us.

Although your starting weight is where I was after losing 4 ish stones in March this year.

We do a lot of talking, often absolutely nothing to do with weightloss and in my case on the last thread, not much if any actual losing weight, but I mean to put that right this year.

[silverfrog]

Congrats on the weightloss so far!

I am a total newbie to any kind of weight watching. It's only the last few years, with too much sitting around doing statement documents, and even worse, long drives to dd1's school and lots of nibbling in the car that have made it necessary.

I too want this to be as much about cleaning up my eating habits ( have a terrible haribo habit!) as about weightloss which is just as well as have been vaguely watching what I eat and doing a bit more exercise (tricky as I am marooned on the sofa bf ds a lot of the time) for about a month now and no difference

In fact, it was only over Christmas week (where I certainly didn't hold back!) that I lost 1lb

[moosemama]

Thanks. It was good while it lasted. I worked really hard at it from June 2011 to March 2012, but then my health took a nosedive and my weight has pretty much been going in the opposite direction ever since.

For me personally, logging my food intake on My Fitness Pal was the best way to lose the weight and I learned a lot about portion size and what constitutes good and bad food along the way. The chat boards are also a hive on information on that site.

After a while it was easy for me to chuck a healthy meal consisting of a well balanced protein and carbs etc in sensible portion sizes without even thinking about it.

The other thing was exercise. I started off walking, built up to several miles a day and then threw myself into doing Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred and then some more of her DVDs - all of which are based on circuit/interval training either with our without weights. They are sooo hard, but they really do get fast results and the exercise did far more for my body shape and general wellbeing than the dieting did.

I started off at a smidge under 15 stone and in March last year reached 10 stone 9lbs - although I didn't manage to maintain that weight for long.

Last time I weighed in, which was a couple of months back now, I was over 11 and a half stone and still going up. Unfortunately being on crutches since August and then the neurological stuff on top and finally the seizures, I didn't really feel motivated to try and sort it out. BUT I feel like I want to take the control back now - so next Monday it is.

Believe it or not, with the breastfeeding you might actually need to be eating more - just more of a healthier variety, iyswim. If you don't eat enough it can stall weightloss or even make you gain. That would explain why you lost a pound when you ate more over Christmas.

People used to think it was because the body went into panic 'famine' mode and started storing weight, but it's a lot more complicated than that - stuff to do with various hormones and stress responses. There's quite a bit about it on the My Fitness Pal chat boards and some really interesting sticky threads with useful links for getting your head around it.

[silverfrog]

thaks, moose, really interesting.

I have a fitbit (bought on amazon black friday deals) to try to help motivate me, and have logged some food bits on the website tracker bit - it does get you to focus, certainly. I found I was drinking more too, as I was supposed to log how much I drank each day - this can only be a good thing as I can often go the best part of a day without actually drinking anything

I would hate to mislead you into thinking I was actually doing any serious food-watching . mostly I was cutting back on haribo and fizzy drinks (I don't normally like them, but do drink them in pregnancy as they help me with nausea, and the habit stuck this time around), and also making sure I ate breakfast every day (am usually a breakfast skipper )

all other food as normal, with extra bits thrown in if I felt peckish when feeding, but trying to make sure the extra bits were eg fruit rather than haribo!

I have the 30 day shred somewhere - I did start it ages ago, but then got pregnant so obviously that went out the window. will have to dig that out and re-start it, slowly. my stomach muscles still aren't quite back where they should be after having ds residing in them for so long, so will need to go very slowly with any abs stuff.

will take a look at myfitnesspal - will give me something else to read while sitting up half the night with ds

[madwomanintheattic]

Oo, silverfrog!
And hello moose! - I had to stalk you in the end

I'm not really starting until tomorrow what with finishing off all the pies and birthday cake, and I'm not intending to do anything drastic.

Sil came over for Christmas and skied. She has lost 66lbs this year!!

I've had to quit boot camp in favour of earning money as we were really struggling with mortgage payments, but new job (Tis where I was working at my summer job, but different department) has pool and gym. all I need to do now is create the willpower to actually go. AF timing meant that this week was never going to work to kick off anything, least of all clothes, but I have signed up for my month's free membership again to see what happens.

And I will try and remember my mfp password to log in - will sort it out over the weekend.

I only lost half a stone in a year, silver, but I felt much fitter as I assume loads of the flab turned to muscle. I got into jeans from two years before, anyway... I suppose that means I'm a fifth of the way to my target...

On a kids note - ds's psych is pregnant, so whilst I was picking up vibes that she wasn't going to be seeing him again, it wasn't because he was being discharged, so I've postponed the city psych that did his assessment to see what's going to happen. She was going to discuss issues with school.

I was going to agree with eating more as well.... This weight loss stuff can be frankly bizarre. I have to say that I think the whole weight loss whilst bf thing is a con, although I did lose freaking stones after Ds (he fed every 2 hours for thirty minutes 24/7 for 10 mos). I have photos of me in a frigging bikini ten mos after the birth of my second child ffs. I was running a lot though, too - it was the only way to escape the house and the children!!

And now I am (almost) 42. I've never been a bikini wearer, but I haven't even worn shorts for about seven years. So my goal (apart from the one up thread) is to actually be able to wear shorts next summer. not short shorts. Just regular long shorts instead of three quarter length trousers....

I'm so pleased life is treating you well, silver.

How did the EEG go, moose? When do you get results? Bike should be ok, better to be non weight bearing? What about swimming whilst dd is at nursery? (It would be quiet enough for you to do the changing room dash?)

[silverfrog]

Hi

Fitness is definitely my goal. I cannot believe how unfit and flabby I am. I used to be a ballet dancer fgs. Thought nothing of putting on bikinis and wearing fitted stuff. Then I caught sight of myself in a shop window the summer before I got pregnant and was

Started up some fitness bits - wii fit mostly, and then 30 day shred. I have a horror of gyms, and tend to drown rather than swim . Obviously now have ds so childcare a factor once more.

I want to be toned again, and not care what I wear anymore. My target weight is based on what was (pre children) my previous heaviest weight so should be achievable but agree its more about body size/shape than the actual number.

I can beat 2 hourly feeds - up until a few weeks ago, ds was feeding every 45 mins or so 24/7 due to undiagnosed tongue tie. It's a good thing he's cute . Thankfully sorted now, although he's still feeding every 3 hours or so - it just feels like an age between feeds!

How is your ds doing (lack of psych aside)? Any luck with any dietary stuff? I've had to go dairy free while feeding ds as he seems to have inherited dh's dairy issue. Dd2 is now on a normal diet finally, and loving school dinners as a result - she came home one day and said "mummy, today we had something really special. Have you heard of it? It was custard". I had to laugh, poor little deprived mite

[madwomanintheattic]

We've relaxed it a bit, to get an idea of what his meds are doing. I'm going to start again actually - I don't know what he ate yesterday (he was out with dh) but he had his first soiling accident for ages yesterday. He's also ran out of some of his supplements, and we were so skint I didn't buy any more. Have been working since 17 Dec though, finally, so can go and restart everything.

Rofl at custard. Mil smuggles Birds to us occasionally.

I have a friend whose dd was fairly free, but only until 12 mos when she outgrew it. It was a pita for friend, as she had to go df as well, but they were all sorted by 12 mos.... Fingers crossed?

[moosemama]

Weigh in:

Monday 7 January 2013 - 175lbs = 12st 7lbs

Initial goal: 11st 7 - 1 stone off

Checked and last time I weighed in was four months ago. I was 166lbs then, so have gained a stone in that time. Still, not quite as close to 13 stone as I thought I might be, but bad enough all the same.

Have already updated MFP and started logging. Apple cinammon porridge made with water this morning, salad for lunch and don't have a clue for dinner - possibly home made veg soup.

Set up MFP for a pound a week loss at sedentary settings to begin with, as I have to be realistic about what I can achieve in my current physical (not to mention mental) state. I'm apparently allowed 1350 kcals at that rate, which I know from before is easily doable.

Hoping things will be helped along this time by the addition of a microwave to our kitchen, which makes it much easier to prepare food for one person.

[madwomanintheattic]

Oh, bless you, moose. You've not had a chance really, what with everything else.

Still, you've done it once, you'll just have to be gentler this time xxxx

When is your neuro appt?

[moosemama]

I know the odds have been kind of stacked against me, but eating the chocolate was my choice and now I'm facing the results.

I'm determined not to get too down about it though. I was 15 stone when I started this, so have to keep hold of the fact that I am still two and a half stone lighter than I was in June 2011 - and I'm still in my size 12 jeans even if they are from Next, so actually a size 14.

I still don't have a neuro appointment. Had my EEG last week, my MRI is next week and I suppose the next thing will be a neuro appointment. Dh has tried loads of time to get hold of the neuro's secretary, but she's either left a message on her machine saying she's on holiday or she seems to be permanently away from her desk. We don't even know at this point if the A&E/AMU Dr notified her like she said she would.

I have decided to book a double appointment with my GP and go through everything with them. I still haven't had my physio appointment through for my foot/ankle and that referral was supposedly made around the first week in October. The only problem is booking one when there's someone around to give me a lift and have the dcs. I seem to have endless appointments at the moment and of course I can't get there without help. It's two bus rides, into town and out, even though it's not actually that far and the second bus actually brings me back half the way I've already come. Costs me £4.00 each way in bus tickets as well.

[TheLightPassenger]

tired wave.

12 stone 12. Eeeek. But proves my theory that I always, always, weigh more than MooseMama at whatever weight. My lowest weight last summer was 12 stone 2, so it's not that bad really. Just completely lost it with work/stress/etc in run up to Xmas.

[moosemama]

Hi TLP, I bet you'll overtake me this time - I'm taking it very slowly this time. I think we all lost it in the run up to Christmas - although in my case, I lost the plot a looong time before that.

Well, have logged my evening meal and am within all my goals, with enough left for one more decaff coffee. So not too bad.

[madwomanintheattic]

Frick, I am the lightest. First time for everything, I s'pose!

How many calories do you think there are in the average bowl of leftover soup and a small bread roll? (Staff canteen. Definitely leftover soup. Could be anything that didn't get served in the restaurant turned into staff soup... From seafood to lentils, to chilli, to carrot...) I haven't got round to resurrecting mfp account yet, but I think I'll try to do it this weekend.

[madwomanintheattic]

MRI appt will hopefully kick off neuro, moose. What a pain having to wait around.

[silverfrog]

Ok, according to kellymom, I should be having between 1800 and 2200 calories per day as am ebf ds.

Even aiming for the lower end of that, I come within my allowance on mfp even with some general post-Christmas scoffing going on

Oh well, will see how it goes. Obviously can't restrict calories too much, as don't want to jeopardise bf - will be in it for the longhaul again due to the dairy intolerance - dd2 has only just grown out of hers at nearly 6! So need to get ds well into toddlerhood if possible as don't really like any of the gf/cf alternatives tbh.

Hope your appts come through soon, Moose.

[madwomanintheattic]

My body just stockpiles flab when I bf. I can't lose any weight at all until I stop, however much/ little I eat. It's as though it retains every last ounce of everything I ingest, just in case. It seems to work a bit like the 'eating too little' thing. Sort of shuts down due to starvation/ milk production.

And I'm like fecking daisy, me. Any farmer would be dancing with joy with me shackled up to the damn milking machine. When dd2 left SCBU I had to empty 82 bottles of expressed milk from the freezer. She was only 5 weeks old, and had obv been fed it as well... it was kinda neat, as when I stopped bf, she still had milk for another couple of weeks....

I am knackered. This week is keeeerrrrrrazy, and I can't even think about exercise. Am vowing to get my act together as of Monday at work.

[moosemama]

Another daisy here. I could express a full 9oz bottle for the dcs night feed in just a couple of minutes. Mind you, you'd think these ridiculously oversized objects would be good for something, other than causing men to speak to my chest instead of my face.

I have had a very odd couple of days. Spent most of this week arguing about what was agreed at the school/lea/inclusion meeting before Christmas and then retyping the actions, whilst simultaneously trying to get a CAMHS referral for ds1 and speak to our statementing officer about getting him into an out of area, independent secondary. Been meeting myself coming back between phone calls, answer machines, call backs and emails.

GP said Paed had to refer to CAMHS, so to arrange an appointment with him. His secretary said ds had been discharged - he hadn't - and there are no appointments until the end of March. Eventually got to speak to him and he said CAMHS won't see ds because it's school related anxiety and therefore the EP should be dealing with it. BUT Paed was on the ball and keen to help, so is calling the EP himself to come up with a plan of action for current school anxiety, sorting the school out so that the cause of the anxiety is removed by them supporting him properly and also sorting some proper emotional support through transition.

Then today I took ds2 for his OT assessment relating to his hypermobility. What a revelation. Saw a fantastic OT, who is the lead OT for our area and is amazing. I thought we would just get fobbed off, as we were with physio, but no.

1. They are going into school to assess his seating and support and tell them he needs specialist seating.
   

1. They are going back to paed physio, who refused to see him because he'd already been seen at the hospital by useless main physio dept, to ask for advice on pain and pacing and to try and get them to see him.
   

1. They are arranging for the school nurse to work with them and school on a care plan to ensure he can tell someone when he's in pain or exhausted.
   

1. They tried him with lots of different pencils/pencil grips/cutlery/rulers etc and came up with the best ones to suit his needs. Also noted during this that his fingers are extremely hypermobile - in that the end joint of his index finger bends back severely if using the wrong writing implement.
   

1. They are sending in a specialist PE teacher to the school to teach them how to differentiate for his needs during PE.
   

1. They are referring him for support from the physical disabilities inclusion team!
   

I was gobsmacked at how helpful they were - much better than when ds1 was assessed.

I was also when the got him to tell them about all the things he struggles with and how much pain and exhaustion he suffers from. We really haven't given his needs enough attention what with my health and the last few years of battling for ds1 and I have to admit, I hadn't really taken in how bad things have been for him. He rarely complains and if he does complain or cry, then things are really bad.

I dread to think how the school is going to take it. I did explain that we are already persona-non-grata at the school because of our fight for ds1's support, but they were lovely and said I'm not to worry, let them deal with it.

THEN, when I got home, I had a message from dh to say the LEA is approaching the independent school we want to see if they'll take ds1. The school has already told us they don't see a problem, so fingers crossed. It doesn't mean the LEA will agree to send him there and we still won't hear either way until February, but the SO said school placement is very much open right up until the name actually goes on the form and she has altered the file to put the independent first for us! (We are confirming this in writing of course. ) I think it helped that she came to that meeting, saw what things are really like and that we aren't ogres, just parents that care about their children and have been really messed around by the school.

Meantime, the school still isn't supporting ds1 properly, as in not doing the things they agreed to at the blooming meeting and ds1 is a mess, manic one minute, exhausted and despondent the next. Same-old-same-old.

Anyhoo ...

All that has meant that I have been too busy to fit in meals and have easily come in under my calorie etc goals on mfp this week. In fact, I have just eaten my breakfast at 2.00 pm for the second day running. It also means I haven't had much time to sit down, so - although my foot is officially killing me, hopefully I've been burning a lot more calories than I was during the previous few weeks.

I have a fridge full of salad and the sun is shining (albeit it in a freezing cold wintry kind of way) so I am feeling much more like eating it than I have been.

Only sticky moment was when I was exhausted last night after the dcs went to bed. Nasty chocolate craving that wouldn't die BUT I didn't give in, even though there is a tin of tunnocks caramel bars in the kitchen and they are one of my favourite, favourite treats.

[moosemama]

Yay megapost! I'm back!

[madwomanintheattic]

And oooooo, independent! Yay! OT sounds lovely - I'm a big fan of decent OTs, dd2 has had a lot of them, lol. Was she adamant about the pencil grips and stuff, or is she intending to transition to laptop in the future? Dd2 now uses an iPad with an external wireless keyboard and the 'pages' app. It seems to be working for now...

And oi, make sure you are eating enough, ok?

[moosemama]

Well, still on the up. Decided to step on the scales this morning, despite knowing full well I shouldn't and I was 171 lbs. Gotta love that first week of dieting water loss!

Timed perfectly actually, as I am out to lunch today at a place that does gorgeous cakes and it has doubled my resolve not to indulge.

I am eating, honest - and all really healthy stuff. It was gf chip shop night last night and I had a salad pitta with a bit of garlic mayo. I'm not quite making my calorie limit, but then it's a couple of hundred calories higher than it was last time I did this, so I'm not worried.

Still having horrible sugar cravings in the evenings, but hoping that will gradually reduce the longer I'm not giving in to it, although I haven't done my strict sugar detox this time, so might take longer than usual.

Googled ds2's OT yesterday and discovered she was involved in the development of the new Cbeebies programme that is supposed to help children with DCD and other co-ordination problems, Tree Fu Tom. The dcs are seriously impressed, as the all like that programme, particularly dd, who loves to join in all the Tree Fu Moves, which is great, because I strongly suspect she has JHS as well.

Not sure about handwriting long-term for ds2. We discussed ds1 and she pretty much agreed that there's little point in pushing one they get to 10/11 as handwriting is unlikely to improve much from that point onwards. She said she is a keen advocate of teaching children with co-ordination and fine motor problems to type early on, so that they are proficient later and she did suggest we start teaching ds2, so she might be thinking along those lines for the future.

Obviously really pleased about the indie school thing, but with a healthy side order of scepticism, there's no guarantees that even if the school says they'll have him the LEA will agree to fund it and we won't know either way until 15 February (dh's birthday ).

Despite all the positive stuff, I do have some sad news. My belgian sheperd x border collie is not well and we're pretty sure she may not be around for much longer. She seems to have suddenly developed a tumour on her tummy. It wasn't there just before Christmas (last time we had chance to groom her ) but is now the size of a kids bouncy ball and looks like it has a really good blood supply. She's restless, doing a lot of pacing and whining and generally not good, she only seems to settle when I sit and stroke her quietly. Dh has booked her at the vets at the weekend.

She's had a good innings, but these things are never easy and for some reason I thought she'd be one of those dogs that lives to a ripe old age, getting fatter and smellier as she went. She would be 14 if she made it to next December. Such a lovely gentle (yet bonkers) girl, not one ounce of nastiness in her at all.

[madwomanintheattic]

Aw moose. are you sure it's not just a fatty tumour? (Can't remember what they are called) brown dog has one sort of under one armpit (you know what I mean) and it's also pretty big... But supposedly harmless... Fingers crossed for the vets. Our last dog (a kleine munsterlander) had a tumour in her intestines and it was really very awful for everyone, including her. Keep soothing x

Lol at chip shop - I read it first as 'gluten free' chip shop. I'm like 'wow, there's clever!'

Dd2 had a choking episode at school at lunch. The TA had to do the Heimlich manoeuvre and it was a bit of a side show by all accounts, so dd2 was teary all afternoon. I left work early to make sure she was ok once she got home. Poor wee mouse. Her teacher called me to get some background info (and obv tell me what happened) but it's all on her file. And they aren't going to give her closer support when she's so variable. She did admit that it was a bit of a salient reminder for all of them that she is more vulnerable than they generally assume, though, so I think that's a good thing... I mean, in the UK I made sure that everyone who supervised was trained in dealing with choking incidents, and it was written into her statement, but there isn't that capacity here... (Well, there is, but only for the most complex kids, and she's so generally capable that she tends not to fit the framework for extra support in those terms....)

Ah. I'm very tired. I'm going to have a wee sit down and a cup of tea (and the very last slice of Christmas cake). And then it's done. I've got to go grocery shopping later, so there will be fruit and veg ahoy. With a side of protein.