Can I lose weight with this diet?

[salycinnamon]

I don't know a huge amount about weight loss, diet and excercise so I'm just looking for a bit of advice on how I can lose a small amount of weight but more importantly tone up.
I don't have a great deal of actual weight of fat to lose, I don't have scaled and don't know my weight but I would guess I would like to lose around half a stone over the next 6 months and then maintain that forever.


I've changed my diet massively over the last few weeks, but I'm still not 100% I'm going to lose weight the way I'm doing it. Could anyone help?

Breakfast-
I used to skip breakfast and just have 2 red bulls (disgusting I know- just not a breakfast person but very tired)
Now I have a smoothie of a frozen banana, strawberries, coconut water and a handful of spinach.
If it's my lie in day I usually wake up more hungry and have some oats with yogurt.

Lunch-
If I'm at work I used to have a piece of cheese on toast around 10/11 and then crisps and a sandwich for lunch.
Now if I'm home I have some kind of egg and wholemeal bread/toast so either a poached egg/ scrambled egg/ boiled egg.
If I'm at work I take a tuna or chicken wrap or salad.

Dinner-
This is so disgusting but I would literally have fast food at least 5 times a week, so anything from pizza- Chinese fried rice- McDonalds or KFC meal
Now I have something home cooked but I'm unsure if what I'm actually eating will help with weightloss something like Shepards pie, spaghetti bolognese, jacket potatoes and try to fill half of my plate with salad/vegetables. I know this is a better alternative to the fast food, but am I going to be able to lose weight eating this way?

I snack on veg and fruit now, whereas before I could easily eat 3-4 packets of crisp and then chocolate

I buy puddings on the weekend which aren't great things like brownies or cream cakes, but I think it's unrealistic to say I would never eat these things again.

I have also reduced my fizzy drinks to one can a day, with my evening meal, drinking water the rest of the time. I used to drink at least 5 cans of fizzy juice a day and about 4 cans of redbull on top of that.

I don't do too much excercise my job is quiet physical but other than that I just try to walk somewhere with DS everyday, I'm also going to hopefully join the gym soon, I really need to tone up, but I have no idea where to start and I've been to my local gym before and the trainers there aren't helpful at all, I need to tone my legs and stomach the most, does anyone know the best way to do this and where the hell to start?

The evening meal is what's really worry me in terms of weightloss, but while I know I could probably lose more weight by eating things like salad for dinner, I just can't commit to that long term.

[VimFuego101]

I think it sounds like a a huge improvement. I'm not sure the dinners you mention are really completely healthy, they are quite carb heavy - so just keep your portions small and make sure you stick to your plan to have your plate half full of veg/ salad. Ready meals are not as terrible as you might think - the portions are a sensible size (you can add more veg/ salad - and they might be an easy alternative if going from takeaways every night to cooking a full meal is too much.

[salycinnamon]

Thanks for replying Vim- that's so interesting about the ready meals, when I started this I thought I would steer clear of them because I believed them to be unhealthy, but if they're not too bad in the grand scheme of things that's a great idea, sometimes I really can't be bothered to cook a meal and feel like just phoning the takeaway, which I haven't yet but probably would in the future, so I'll have a good look in the supermarket and stock up for those times.

Is there anything you can suggest for dinner that is nice but less carby? (Is that a word?) these are the kinds of things my mum would cook growing up, so I've just kind of gone from there.

I think my problem is carbs I love potatoes, crisp, cheese, etc but I've been keeping a bit of a diary of what I eat/excercise and how I'm feeling and I always feel bloated after things like Shepards pie and afterwards I almost never do any excercise because of the bloated feeling.

[Pinkheart5915]

Firstly it's good to see somebody with a sensible healthy eating plan instead of a fad diet that will not last long term.
Also good to see you have a realistic goal of half a stone over a few months.
It looks healthy to me, plenty of fruit and veg and a home cooked meal in the evenings. I have always eaten that way and never had a weight problem

I am pregnant at the moment with dc2 but I still eat healthy.
My days goes like this

Breakfast porridge with honey. 2 apples and a fruit smoothie
Early afternoon snack a couple of handful of nuts
Lunch chicken or cheese salad sandwich, Greek yoghurt with berries
Late afternoon snack rice cakes
Dinner me or my husband cook Thai noodles, spag Bol, cottage pie, lasagne, lentil stew
Dessert fruit salad with a scoop of frozen yoghurt

I always have a still do have treats like flapjacks, cakes but I normally home bake them.
I also drink loads of water. But occasionally can't resist a fizzy drink.

You say you want to tone up, losing weight won't do this on its own you need to exercise more and maybe attend a gym. When not pregnant I do attend a gym and I am a dance teacher. Are there any dance classes near you? Dancing does tone you and is fun.

[salycinnamon]

Pink- hi and thanks for that comment about it being sensible, it has given me a real boost.

I would be horrible at a dance class, I'm very uncoordinated and clumsy, struggle with instructions, so things like classes fill me with dread, but the gym really bores me. I just have this feeling that a dance class would be full of great dancers following the moves exactly and then me flapping about at the back all hot and sweaty

I will check It out though and try and find a friend who is willing to come and not laugh at me.

[Pinkheart5915]

Zumba?
Circuit training?
Something that is awesome at toning is pole dancing classes, me and a friend done this every week before my pregnancy you. You wouldn't believe how quick you notice your body is toning up.

You dinners are fine if you half fill your plate with veg, but if you want a few low carb dinners the bbc food website has some nice ideas.

[PacificDogwod]

Not much to add, your plan sounds sensible and achievable, just posting to say concentrate on diet for weight loss and exercise for toning up. In RL I find a bit of both (more sensible eating + a bit of more exercise) works a treat.

And get shot of the Red Bull - disgusting stuff

[salycinnamon]

Pink- circuit training sounds interesting, pole dancing sounds terrifying but actually quite fun!

Pacific- I know I had bad withdrawals from them for around a week and now I can't even stand the smell I do miss them sometimes though..

[NattyTile]

Sounds like a pretty good change to me.

Only thing I might do differently is swap potatoes and pasta for other root veg.

So sweet potato instead of bog standard jacket spud, carrot and swede mash on top of cottage pie, vegetable noodles instead of pasta, that kind of thing.

Tbh just about anything home cooked is going to be healthier than5-7 takeaways a week though!

Puddings at the weekend sounds fab too.

[salycinnamon]

Natty- thanks, that sounds like a good idea and then my meals aren't too different so I don't feel like I'm missing anything, if that makes sense.

I know what you mean about the takeaways I almost didn't post how much fast food I did eat because it's shameful, that kind of food is hugely addictive and also I haven't actually put on that much weight since eating them so didn't really see how bad they were, I stayed the same size 10 but got a bit more of a tummy and chunkier legs, so didn't really see myself as unhealthy, enliven though I really was and still am, but oh my god the difference to how I feel now I have stopped eating them is massive, I have so much energy now, I can't even explain it I used to walk around in kind of a tired haze but know I don't sit down and my skin is getting so much better too.

[salycinnamon]

Even not enliven

[salycinnamon]

And now not know I hate autocorrect

[fwes3]

Hey Saly,

your diet looks good to me so far. I can encourage you as far as that I have lost about 15 pounds with nearly the same diet you proposed! :)

So the only thing I can add is to try adding the organic ingredients as described here bit.ly/22dCbUx
And no, its not an affiliate link :)

Franc