Need to lose 5 stone but not remotely in the headspace to do it

[LongTermIssues]

I tried going back to slimming world a few weeks ago (I first joined back in 2020 but then stopped when I got pregnant mid-2021). I’m 5 and a half stone away from the top end of a healthy BMI (am classed as obese) and I know I desperately need to lose that weight but I just have not got the headspace at all to deal with it.

im 5 months post-partum with my second child and it doesn’t help that I see fellow mums with same age babies and they look incredible already.

also, I’m under the perinatal team as have suspected BPD/EUPD so my mind is obv all over the place.

do I just forget about trying to lose weight at the mo until mentally I’m more stable or should I try find some motivation somewhere?!

Ah OP, congrats on your baby! It's soon to add in the weight worry although I know it's there anyway. I'd try a month of small changes. I need to lose 5 stone too & have had a shit year & MH not good.

I'm going no alcohol in the week from Monday & early to bed-just got a puppy so that adds in chaos! Small habits like drinking water & no snacking after e.g. 7pm can have massive impact.

The small habits I want are to go for a 15 minute walk in the morning, make sure playroom is clear before going to bed & drinking water.

Good luck & don't pressure yourself

I think the op came on here to say she wasn't in the headspace for it, has mental health issues. Then all she gets are a whole host of more advice on how she could lose weight. She doesn't need more pressure to conform to society's unreasonable expectations of pinging into shape in a certain time frame. She needs to focus on her mental health and her baby nothing else

My granny used to swear by that method!

Whenever she wanted to lose a bit of weight, she cut out bread, and it worked wonders.

My best trick is to stop eating in the evenings. Once you've had your evening meal, apart from drinks, that's you done for the night.

Op firstly congratulations on your baby! That's a huge deal in itself.
I understand the feeling of being overwhelmed by the task, the realisation that it's going to take work & time to get to where you want to be & the urge to just say fuck it I'm tired today & can't think about it so I'll have this takeaway & 2 glasses of wine & I'll start tomorrow...except in my case tomorrow never came...

I'm early 50s & after a life time of being very slim I woke up to realise I'm 2.5 stones over weight now! I've gained it all in the last 3 years. I hate it. I hate now my clothes don't sit right & I don't recognise myself in the mirror. Don't talk to me about photos!!

But more than that, I had bloods done recently & I have high cholesterol & my knee joints are dodgy.

My husband (also always v slim but gained some weight over past couple of years too) also got his bloods done & his cholesterol is also high & more worryingly he's pre diabetic.

So - a wake up call for both of us! I'm early 50s & he's late 40s. We're too young!

Since we found out 2 weeks ago we've radically over hauled our diets. Cut out alcohol entirely & pretty much all white food apart from potatoes one night.

We've also cut out processed meats & cut WAY back on salt. We've added lots of lean meat, fish esp salmon, salad, veg & fruit.

We've added a good multivitamin each & I have added B12 as was v low in bloods

We're in it together & viewing it as for our health rather than 'diet' & that helps to be honest.

We have holidays coming up in a few weeks & we've agreed we will be ruthless & stick to it until that date. We can relax a little for the week we're away & back to it once we get home. That way treats really are treats for us, not the daily occurrence we'd allowed them to become.

Two weeks in & I'm 5lbs down & feeling good.

Work is stupidly busy & I'm exhausted but hoping once I get out the other side of this project I'll have energy to walk innthe evenings too

A typical day for me might look like yesterday's meals:

Porridge with low fat milk & a small sprinkle of brown sugar, coffee with low fat milk

Salad - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, half an avocado, freak herbs, a hard boiled egg & a drizzle of home made dressing

A small bowl of fruit salad - melon, nectarines, grapes & raspberries

Bbq chicken breast (skinless, marinaded in lemon zest & juice, garlic, rosemary & a spoon of extra virgin olive oil), griddled courgette, red pepper & asparagus. A spoonful of sweet potato wedges (homemade & I left some)

Water with slices of lemon / lime) to drink

You can do it OP ! And if you're anything like me you'll feel better once you feel you're in control of it. Wishing you all the best luck

No, the OP came on here to ask if she should forget about it or try to find motivation. Two options. Not 'make me feel ok about putting off losing weight'. The people who believe it would be helpful to find motivation are as entitled to express their opinion as you are to express the opposite, and its not helpful to try and censor the comments so OP recieves only one side when she's asked for both.

She needs to focus on her mental health and her baby nothing else

Completely agree. Luckily, countless studies have proved that exercise is beneficial for mental health, while alcohol is a proven depressant.

So if all the OP does is try and focus on her mental health, by giving up booze completely and exercising for at least half an hour a day (walking/running/yoga/whatever), this may help her feel healthier physically as well. And yes, losing weight may be a side effect of that.

Focusing on your mental health does not mean ignoring your physical health and continuing behaviours that have been proven to make you feel worse... such as sitting on the sofa, drinking wine and eating cake.
It's very easy to dismiss being healthy as "too hard", but I'm a firm believer that you choose your hard. Because being overweight, unhappy and unfit is hard too. Just look at the thread about how to cope as an overweight person in the heat - to me, that sounds a lot harder than going out in the heat for a run.

Given that you have a young child and MH issues to deal with I think your focus should be on general health.

Cut down on sugary and processed foods. Eat more whole grains and fruit and veg. Get out for a walk with the baby every day and get as much sleep as you can (with a baby!)

This should stabilise your weight and you might start to lose a bit but should be a massive amount of extra pressure when you already have so much on your plate.

Should not be a massive amount of extra pressure

Start small. Just start by tracking what you currently eat for a week. Then the next week try and cut 100 processed cals per day (for me that worked out to a single biscuit or 1 slice of bread). Just by doing that, at 5 stones overweight, you could easily lose 1-2kg per week. Then once you’re in a better frame of mind try adding movement in a similar way.

Investigate Saxenda. I have been prescribed it for 5 months now and it working steadily. I have a similar amount to lose and have lost nearly 2 stone with just being sensible. However, you have to inject it every day (tiny needle... I was worried, but it turns out to be fine) and on the full dose it costs about £250 a month. In certain circumstances it is available on the NHS, but that is for extreme cases.

Hi OP
Just some words of encouragement.
I started Slimming World in Feb-22. It has taken me 10 months to lose just over a stone. But, hey, I’m a stone lighter now!!

I generally lose .25 to .5 lb per week.
I cut down on alcohol and bread and sweets treats. I try to keep an eye on Syns. I had weeks where I didn’t lose any weight and weeks where I was was up .5 to 1 lb.
I treated myself to several pairs of new jeans (in smaller size) for Christmas. That stone weight loss meant old jeans are too big now!! Yay!!
Slowly but surely wins the race.

You can do this!! Every little bit counts. Lots of little weight loss all mount up over time.
Best of luck !!

Intermittent fasting. Start by only adjusting the times you eat and see how you get on, don't do anything too extreme, 16:8 is quite easy. I find that it kick-starts weight loss and that creates motivation to keep going and address your food choices.

Don't think about the five stone - make your goal the first stone, first half stone...
whatever works for you that does feel acheivable

There's lots of supportive people in similar circumstances over on the weight loss threads. Come and join us.

I found the app Noom incredibly helpful.

I eat all that and am still losing over a kilo a week, it's the quantities that matter.

Keep going with SW OP, stay on plan when you can x

Sounds obvious: if you don't buy it, you can't eat it.
Don't go food shopping on an empty stomach and avoid the biscuit/chocolate/fizzy drink aisles.
Eat plenty good protein.
I once heard a (skinny!) bariatric surgeon say "I never eat white food" (bread, rice, pasta, potato...)

All great advice.
Stay away from dips and sauces too.
White food is awful, stay away.