Losing weight and lifestyle change

[Cheeriochoc]

Aibu to think it’s possible to lose weight right now or should I just give up? I have two youngish children and a full time career. My husband helps out but also works full time.

Each day is taken up for both of us with work and ferrying kids to school and activity clubs, then sometimes more work in the evening.

Weekends always seem to get filled up quickly with kids stuff or visiting friends /family. If we don’t do anything the kids get bored.

Im very lucky to have a cleaner and a husband who helps out but however hard we try the house is always a mess and I don’t seem to have time for anything for myself other than an hour or so when I’m lazy and just browse mumsnet while watching Netflix. I am luckily to get 6 hours sleep a night and we often don’t eat until late. Often we are too tired to cook so get a takeaway.

I used to stay slim by going to the gym loads, running and eating very lightly. Now I seem to stuff my face to make myself feel better / relax.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can make it better without changing my working hours which I can’t do right now? Obviously I know if I could just stop eating so much it would help but I think I’ve developed some addiction to junk food!

I’m in the same boat - it’s so hard - I’m hoping to make some changes by cramming in exercise.

@Disabrie22 sorry to hear you are struggling too! If you don’t mind me asking, how are you planning to get the exercise in? I was thinking I could make more effort to go for a walk in my lunch break but often I skip the break as I’m so busy :(

i identify so much with all of this. Especially that you used to stay slim by going to the gym and running etc! That was me. I was 4 stone lighter on my wedding day than I am today - I have 4 kids so a stone for each bath?! Anyway I started intermittent fasting and gave up processed sugar at the start of the year and I’ve lost a few pounds but it’s so slow and demoralising. I was hoping the weight would fall off!! Turns out I still eat too much 😂

Baby not bath 🤦‍♀️

Six packs are made in the kitchen and not the gym.
The food choices you make are more important than the exercise ones for
now. Can you look at how to watch your Netflix etc whilst perhaps batch cooking for the week? Meal plans deffo help, but eat well rather than eating less… or you'll
fall back into bad habits.

It's small incremental changes that will do it. Things you can do right now that don't use up any thinking or planning time.

So: just don't buy junk. If I want a bar of chocolate I have to leave the house/work to get it. I'm too busy and lazy to do that.

Reduce portion size. Same food, just less

Switch things out to the healthier or brown option, eg bread, rice.
Stock up on easy healthy protein -eggs, chicken breast, nuts, chickpeas. Do what you can with those.

Squat when bathing kids, picking up toys. Play sports with them.

Sleeeeeep!

Exercise makes very little difference to weight loss and unless dietary changes happen too could make result in a weight increase due to some people eating more after exercising.
From reading your post it sounds like you emotionally eat (apologies if I misunderstood) so maybe getting some help with the reasons for that might help.

Hang on OP are you me?! 😅 I’ve started running but omg it’s so hard finding 10 minutes to do it! Someone always needs me and my house is always a tip!

Actually to be a bit more helpful my mum
shared a diet that a nutritionist at the drs gave her to follow and it’s actually really good. I’ve lost half a stone on it in 2 weeks…
basically you have the main food groups and it says you can have so many portions of each food group, and portion size is important too. So for example you can have 7 carbs/starchy foods in a day.

Hi OP I can relate to this so much! Have you looked into 16/8 fasting? It’s brilliant and tbh I barely notice it (and I’m a real good addict!). I don’t even need to cut anything out because naturally you eat less. Also check out grow with Jo workouts on YouTube, they’re brilliant and perfect for beginners.