Want to lose 2 stone...

[Erebus]

...from 12st 8lb to 10 1/2 stone. I'm 50, 5 foot 6 and am currently in size 18.

Why do I want to?

Largely because I can't find 'normal' clothes to fit me any more! I also have a form of body dysmorphia (entirely self-diagnosed ) in that I don't think I'm that fat, til I see the inevitable holiday photo or try and buy say underwear and see myself in those mirrors & . I can self deceive quite well.

My plan is to eat less, eat more mindfully and exercise more. And stop drinking pinot like a fish. DH is along for the ride, too.

My current goal is to lose 2 lbs in one week (Friday morning is weigh-in day).

Just my own little check-in!

[Erebus]

BMI is 29.2!

[wannabedreams]

Wow good luck that's the best way really sticking to three healthy meals a day, try not to snack etc and less pinot............

[Erebus]

Ok, the weigh in was this morning (Friday morning always recommended!):

12st 5lb so a 3lb loss in Week 1.

Still drinking but just one glass of 5.5% alcohol wine, not half a bottle of 13% I also discovered with that I'd need to be about 10 to 10 1/2 stone to get my BMI back to within 'normal' range! It's was 29.5 ish at the start. I can't imagine ever being 10 stone (I'm actually 5' 5 1/2", not 6" and that half inch seems to make half a stone of difference on the BMI calculator, 10 to 10 1/2 stone! Think I'll shrink. It'd be easier!)

Onwards an upwards. Or downwards, on my scales

[Erebus]

Actually, at 5' 5" I need to lose 23lbs to get back to the very top of 'normal' BMI, being 10st 10lbs which feels more manageable!

BMI calculator

I know some people don't like BMI as a measure of size but I think it's right for me in that I'm not disproportionately tall or short and I don't have much heavy muscle, just fat

[2cats2many]

Do My Fitness Pal.com. It's free and has worked for everyone I know.

[Erebus]

Yes, I shall have a look at that, thanks! I so far have been 'power walking' on a treadmill for half an hour 3 times a week and have just started a XBox 360 kinect 'personal trainer' thing.

[whatithink]

You are exactly the same weight/height as me. I am 48 next month. Like you I am aiming for 10 1/2 stone. Would love to be 10 stone but seems far too unrealistic.

[Erebus]

Hi, whatithink- can I ask what your start weight is or was? Have you already begun 'the process'? What are you doing or plan to do?

10 stone is waaay unrealistic for me. I haven't been that since I was a teenager! I sat at 10 1/2 stone for years and years, but I was probably about 11 when I started my 1st pregnancy (DS1 is now 13!) and, tbh, haven't really lost it since! I've had one successful weight loss foray about 4 years ago where I think I got down to about 11 1/2 stone but it crept back on again; and my heaviest was 18 months ago when I was 13 stone.

Good luck.

[Erebus]

My current motivator is not wanting to spend £30 on a pair of (per una, yes, yes, I know!) size 18 jeans that should fall off me in 2 months time!

[Erebus]

Weigh in, and snowed in! About 5'' of snow and an enforced 4 mile return trip walk to retrieve a DS whose school decided to 'heroically' open this morning, but then recognised the error of its ways...

Anyway, 12/2 today! That's a 3 lb weight loss in week 2; 6 lbs altogether.

[Erebus]

Weigh-in.

Was a bit disheartened as I was hoping to a) lose at least 2lbs this week (as opposed to the maybe unsustainable 3lbs of the past 2 weeks) and b) in doing so, hit 12 stone!

But not to be, however, 2 reasons, I think: I haven't been 'very good' around wine. In fact, 2 evenings this week I drank 3 largeish glasses an maybe even more relevant, AF seems to have come. I say 'seems' because I am peri-menopausal and it can come any time though is often not very heavy, but I'm sure even having periods proves I am still subject to the hormonal water retention associated with them!

Anyway:
Week 3:
12st 1 lb
BMI 27.7
weight loss this week 1lb
total loss 7lbs in 3 weeks.

Aiming for 11/13 next weigh in.

[mamaus]

Hello Erebus,
May I please join you in your Friday weigh ins? I have noticed your thread since it started, your self diagnosed body dysmorphia comment really struck a chord with me. I can get to the point of thinking I don't look too bad, until the inevitable candid photo appears! (My sister in law, loves taking candid photos--it can be a real buzz kill!)
Anyhow, I am going to be a bridesmaid (technically, matron) in May, and the dress is horribly unforgiving. Leave it to vanity as my motivator.... Actually, my family history is absolutely packed with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, you name it.
I am 37 years old, with 2 toddlers, and I have a bit of a "party girl" past....
I need to get and stay healthy for them, and me.
I have been doing my fitness pal, sort of half heartedly for 2 weeks now. I realise that if I had joined you when you started, I could also be down 7 lbs--well done by the way!!
So, if you don't mind...
Week 1: 12 stone
See you next week!

[sprucedup]

Right I'd like to join too - I'm getting married on 23 march and want to shift ten pounds to get back to pre baby weight. I do the "eat less exercise more" diet that always worked before, but these days DS1 hogs all my time and I need motivating to get out. Plus hurt my knee so it's harder to do anything. And at his dinner time I often find I've finished his and eaten all his little snacks to boot. Can't quite see why I've not been mega motivated but I really am going for it from NOW. 10st2 now, aiming for 9st6.

Right off to do mastermind general knowledge

[Erebus]

You are very welcome to join me!

I am basically doing PaulMcKenna but without too much woo (iykwim! ). He does tend to associate overeating as being a compensation for un-faced emotional difficulties- which he urges you to confront and recognise, which I do understand but I can wrack my brain and still come to the conclusion I'm overweight because I eat casually and thoughtlessly. It's there, I reach for it, I eat it. I can eat one or two biscuits and don't need to eat the whole packet, for instance- but next time I walk past that open packet, I may well have another. And so on. My meal portions are too large; I end lunch with a packet of crisps etc. I guzzle wine.

Now I am attempting to try and really feel my hunger -not 'feel really hungry', mind- PMc says, more or less, imagine extreme desperate hunger as 0 or 1 on a scale, and being so full you could happily vomit as 10; aim to eat when you're 2 or 4 and stop when you're 7 on that scale.

I am not really calorie counting, but, being a woman in the UK, I have been steeped in the lore of calorific values, 'good' and 'bad' food all my life so yes, I know a slice of malt loaf contains way more calories than the same amount of say rye bread, so I am opting for the rye bread, even though, in theory, I should be eating exactly what I want on PMc but that's assuming I have trained my body to only eat what it needs... not quite ready for that risk yet!

Anyway, please feel free to post your thoughts too; or just to weigh-in with me next Friday morning!

Best of luck and keep those goals in mind! Write the relevant date on a post-it note and stick it on the fridge and on the biscuit tin! I just need to look at my disintegrating size 18 jeans and remind myself I am not replacing them with another pair of size 18s!

[sprucedup]

I like PMcK ideas too, have done a CD a few years ago. I think it worked because I was ready for it and I'm over the years of calorie counting. It's no way to live. Saying that I just signed up for my fitness pal, horrified at today's huge count after a bread binge! So, tomorrow good habbits begin.

[Erebus]

I sneakily weighed myself this morning just to see if I really was 12/1, maybe secretly hoping that AF's worst effects may have passed and with it another lb or so, but no, still 12/1! So I won't weigh again til Friday!

[Samnella]

Hi,

May I join?

Just posted a thread about being fed up of weighing, counting, paying and logging blah, blah. I just want a straight forward plan of healthy eating. I too am bridesmaid this year which TBH having never been a bridesmaid and always wanting to be, I am now dreading.

Starting weight: 12.2 (BMI 29.16

I have been bad all day but I am going to start now and weigh in on Friday as well even though I would not have done a full week. I must get under 12 stone.

[sprucedup]

Done my first day of being good Paul-style, but sneakily using myfitnesspal to count calorie as I too don't trust my body to reject malt loaf in favour of rye bread. My god I'd forgotten how much calories are in cereal -everything-. I'm not sure I'd agree with Paul about my mental anguish either, I think I just really love malt loaf's taste so when it is near me I eat the whole thing. It's boredom that gets me ploughing through baguette though. Anyway, dress fitting today and I am focusing on how good it will look when I succeed and picturing it in my head. Another PMc trick. My mums advise is to swap wine for g&t, and it does seemed to have worked for her waistline so I will give it a go!
Good that the sneaky weigh went well, eyes on the prize for the rest of the week now.

[sprucedup]

Good luck Samnella, keep at it.

[Erebus]

Samnella- welcome on board, but first I need to wag a stern finger at you!

You haven't been 'bad' all day at all. You made a combination of 'suboptimal' food choices or excessive quantities; and/or you ignored your body telling you you'd had enough! There are no bad and good foods, there is just food.

It's really worth looking at Paul McKenna ('I can make you thin' rather than 'Gastric band', imho!). The ethos couldn't be simpler. It amounts to deep eating awareness and reconnecting with 'hungry? ->eat; full enough? -> stop'.

As I've already said, I am not quite comfortable enough to not weigh or totally disregard calorific values (malt loaf v. rye bread...) so you are welcome to snigger at my pontificating above ..... but I am oh-so-trying to put my fork down between every mouthful and really sense each mouthful. At least 20 chews. Every time I look at available food (snack-wise in particular), I think, among other things, 'OK, am I actually hungry or am I bored, or am I reaching for it because it's there?'. I may choose to have some. But I have to remind myself not to decide how much I will eat before I start (as many diets recommend) but I try and focus on my 'have I had enough?' reflex. Not necessarily 'Am I full?' (to PMc standards which is 'just full') as, if it a snack, I don't want any nearness to full, I want 'curiosity satisfied, yes, it's good, it tastes great, I've enjoyed the small quantity I've eaten but now, so as to not undo all the other good work I'm doing, I have to walk away from it now as any more is flying in the face of my new awareness, and here I go!'. I am working on this. Wine is not a good idea, as, guess what? one's ability to rationalise quantity and calorific value is oddly distorted by a glass or two. Who knew?

Do not dread being a bridesmaid, see it as a fortunate opportunity to beat this stupid weight thing. When is the wedding? How much would you like to realistically lose? How much will bring you to a BMI of 25? Focus on that dress and how good you'll look in it!

Hadn't thought about G&T v. wine! Thanks spruced!

And I shall be taking a rollcall of all you lot next Friday! Stand by your beds scales!

And keep posting.

[Samnella]

Thankyou Erebus

I want to lose 2 stone. BMI of 25 would be 10.5 which is just over where I am aiming. Ideally I want to be a bit less than that but I need to take one step at a time.

You are right about food not being bad. I think I might try and dig out the Paul McKenna CD I have knocking about somewhere.

[Samnella]

Question for anyone please

What are you doing about cakes/biscuits etc? I find they just trigger something in me and I just want to keep eating them [bblush]. I want to just ban them for now. My friend has had success doing this.

[mamaus]

Samnella, I saw your other thread, and really relate. Last year my sister lost a significant amount of weight and, while of course I am happy for her, I am also quite jealous! She worked very hard, was extremely disciplined and ate, well not much at all!

I agree, calorie counting, weighing foods and blah blah, I just can't see myself maintaining that forever. I am a snacker, whose portions can easily get out of control.

Some positive steps I have taken this week :

1. My fitness pal, simply to make me aware of calories, and accountable for everything I eat
   
2. When mindless grazing urge comes up I chew gum, or drink water, or ask myself, idle hands? Just to make sure it isn't out of boredom. I quit smoking 3 years ago, but know that sometimes I may snack to fill that void if that makes sense?
   
3. Resisted baking! I am pretty good about not buying biscuits etc. but I have the ingredients available for various temptations--not using them was a small victory!
   
4. Ordered "I can make you thin" from eBay
   
5. Joined this thread--I need to be accountable somewhere!
   

Also, Erebus, I have a photo of my pending bridesmaid dress taped up right next to my fridge door handle, has stopped me a few times already! :)
Good point about seeing it as a positive opportunity, rather than dreading it--I will try and change my attitude.

Nice to know I am not alone! Wishing us all success this week and the weeks to come.

[mamaus]

side note-- I am American, I have never had malt loaf, but randomly almost got some last week! Should I add it to my "avoid and don't keep in the house" list? :)

[Erebus]

Say 'no' to malt loaf at this stage of weight loss!! . Once you get to a stage of really understanding your body's food needs and your desires (can't see me ever actually achieving that, tbh!) I guess you can have malt loaf in the house and have one, small slice now and then.

I don't have cakes and biscuits in the house, usually, though I had to get rid of the remains of the Xmas goodies (see that value-weighting, again!) prior to embarking on weight loss! My family don't have a very sweet tooth which helps. I do tend to have 70kcal muesli bars around though, and might have one mid morning, though I try and have an apple or one ryvita with a cup of tea.

Had a fry up for breakfast today- a piece of toasted rye bread (40cals?), a poached egg and a piece of dry-fried bacon, the 'round' bit, no fat or rind. Rather have a full English though! But an acceptable compromise. Soup and a thin slice or 2 of baguette for lunch, then whatever my mum comes up with for family dinner tonight. Bit of a minefield as I don't want her to know I am on a diet. I don't need it to be splashed all around my wider family and more distant friends where mum knows their mums. The intimate details of gynae issues etc she happily tells me about these women is astounding! Don't want to provide any ammo!

Then I shall do a 30 minute 'power walk' on the treadmill watching telly, 1.75 miles at 3.6 mph, incline of 3! Gets me to break a sweat and raises my heart-rate a fair bit.

Anyway, good luck to all. Keep the goal in sight!