How to lose weight when you love food and booze

[surejan24]

I'm hoping there is an answer to this but realistically I know I need to make some changes.

I'm late 30's and have had two c sections so I have the inevitable overhang as well as quite a lot of extra belly fat. It isn't a good look and I'm at the point where I am dreading summer because I live in leggings and baggy tops/jumpers to hide my middle. I'm actually about 12 stone but I look much heavier and my shape is all wrong.

My issue is I love food and booze. I don't eat particularly badly but I eat a lot. I tried eating in a calorie deficit and did ok but then binged on snacks. At the weekends I love having a takeaway (plus leftovers the next day) and a bottle of wine. Occasionally in the week I'll have a gin once the kids are in bed. I treat these as rewards and things to look forward to. I don't get the option to go out much so it's "treats" like this that make life bearable.

But they are contributing to my weight gain and consequent shit self esteem. I don't know what to do. I've tried and failed with dieting so many times because ultimately I enjoy food and fall back on 'life's too short' mentality.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has overcome this sort of thing because im going round in circles at the minute.

Eat and drink what you enjoy but gradually cut down portions. Just reduce by a little, eg leave 10% on your plate or leave the last half a glass.
If that works well, after some time (weeks), cut down a bit more.
etc
i personally couldn’t stand to count calories; I think food should be a pleasure, both individually and socially.

If you're going to count calories, figure out your weekly allowance rather than daily allowance.
If you're a chocoholic, swap the family size bar for a snack size bar - honestly, this works. I can hoover up massive bars of chocolate, but its the first couple of mouthfuls that actually give pleasure.
I don't weigh everything for calorie counting, life's too short, BUT I did use MFP quite religiously for a couple of weeks and it was an eye opener. I have the eye for it now, still eat what I love, don't feel as though I'm on a diet, but still losing weight.

Oh, and another thing. I was always quite indignant that I always did at least 10k steps a day. Turns out there's a difference between strolling and walking briskly.... I now walk briskly😁

Work on reducing your portion sizes.
Chew everything 20 times before swallowing. Eat slowly so you can recognise feeling full before you overfill yourself.

Drink lots of water and stick to three healthy meals a day and no snacking in between. Plan your meals for the week to make it less likely to cave and get a takeaway.

Don't drink on a school night - and you might find that you'll be automatically cutting down on the weekend nights as a result. I add loads of ice to my drink - I've sensitive teeth so it means I drink them slower, plus it dilutes it!

Then, start upping your exercising. Bring the kids and dog for a walk - or get the kids on their bikes and you walk briskly /jog along. Do yoga from You Tube to help with flexibility and toning. 30 day shred is pretty good too.

I do a run/ walk at lunchtime a few days a week and I have a really expensive body wash for my shower as my treat afterwards. So make nice, non-foody/drink treats your reward if that helps?

And all the while, keep working on reducing your portion sizes. The 5:2 or 16:8 diets don't work for every woman because of hormones. It doesn't work for me but my brother and mother had brilliant success with it. I'm also crap with willpower so I don't deny myself anything but I did have some success last summer with the Paul McKenna gastric band hypnosis but then I went on honeymoon and need to get back to it again!

Oscar Wilde was the antithesis of wise lol r u kidding, if he was wise he wouldn't've sued Queensberry, which brought HIM to the attentions of the authorities for his activities with prostituted boys. He wouldn't've gone for Bosie either if he'd been wise. Wilde was actually an idiot. Plus, he was fat.

Can you cut out all drinks apart from water but have alcohol once a week? Gin is alright I think - it's not like drinking beer.

Other than that, I'd say go down to 2 meals. One at 11am ish if possible, another at 7pm ish. Both can be decent and nice, but eat nothing else.

Seconded. I started walking up and down hills, 8 miles a day, lost 2 stone, gave up nowt ( in fact probably ate more) . Diets are miserable.

Clear mind hypnotherapy is working for me. I listened to the binge eating one and it's really helped.

Gin and soda with squeeze fresh lime juice. My drink of choice. Calories negligible.

I also eat low carb which is no effort for me at all.. I’m not crazy on bread, rice or pasta. I eat potato sometimes but don’t eat chips. And I don’t have a sweet tooth.

Read 'Slim for Life' by Jason Vale. It's a kind of anti-brainwashing book which teaches you how we've been conditioned to want foods that aren't great for us (and generally make big companies a lot of money!) It helps you to look forward to foods that make your body healthy (and coming from a life long veg hater that's quite unbelievable!). That's a bit of a simplistic explanation but it's helped me to stop the afternoon binges completely. Diets are full of misery and deprivation- after reading by this book I found that I actually didn't really want those junk foods anymore and therefore wasn't haven't a mental tantrum that I deserve them!

I exercise also because I like how it makes me feel, but honestly I don’t think you can outrun a bad diet.

Try the iDiet book by Gino D'Campo. It allows a glass of wine, the recipes are simple, delicious, and don't demonise carbs. But it does reset your idea of portion size. I've been doing it, not religiously, for 4 months and down from 13.5 stone to 12 without feeling deprived.

Skipping breakfast. That removes about 300 cals a day.

Diets and weight loss methods mostly don't work, because humans love food, especially high-calorie food. It's virtually impossible to fight that long-term for the vast majority of people. Exercise doesn't really work well as a weight loss method unless you are doing absolutely shit-tons of it. There's some study that proved that nomadic tribespeople burn almost exactly the same amount of calories per day as sedentary office workers. Your body compensates.

Recognise that you've a choice between what you want to eat and what you want to weigh. It's either/or. But its your choice to make. Choose, and stick with your choice. If you choose food, put your weight out of your mind and get on with the life you chose, no moaning, no regrets.
If you choose weight loss, then learn to love other aspects of life, and replace recreational/over eating with these.

My new plan is to cut down massively on ultra-processed foods. They make you want to eat more. I'm never going on a diet again!

I've recently done a 4 day fast and it has totally reset my appetite and desire for sugar! It was hard work but worth it I think. I now eat less and really enjoy what I do eat. I lost a kilo a day during the fast and I'm losing about half a kilo a day since. I've cut out booze for a while and have been having CBD drinks with some mocktails.

Keto - healthy keto. By this I mean, very little processed meat and lots of green leafy veg and cauli to replace the carbs like potatoes and chips.
Once you cut out the sugar and carbs, you don’t really get hungry, so now I also go without breakfast because I don’t need anything on a morning.
You don’t feel deprived because you can still have lots of lovely protein, cheeses and gin. I also have a small glass of red wine most evenings with supper.
It’s a lifestyle that doesn’t feel like a diet. I’ve done it for 4 years now (taking a week off for hols and Christmas) and all my health markers are excellent.
Calorie deficits and fasting without keto to reduce cravings just left me feeling ill and miserable. There is amazing low sugar chocolate too, so plenty of opportunity for treats.

Reading. I can't lose weight atm.

Exercise - particularly weight/resistance training and plenty of walking.

You sound very similar to me, including to 2 c-sections.

When I was on maternity leave with DS2 I was in the best shape ever, I actually weighed less than when I got pregnant. He was breastfed and I carried him in a baby carrier on the childcare run to drop off/pick up my eldest. I also carried him periodically in a carrier throughout the day. I walked loads and was forever up and down the stairs.

Unfortunately I'll never get the calories deficit back from breastfeeding 😭. But I've also dropped all the exercise since going back to work. I've put on about a stone in 9 months.
That works out as roughly 1400 calories of exercise I need to do on average each week compared to my current levels. So about 200calories a day.

My intention is to get a weighted vest for more resistance whilst walking and/or get more organised so I can do the childcare run twice a day rather than using the car. I've also been getting back into periodically carrying my youngest (13kg) or eldest (16kg) in a toddler/pre school carrier.

I suspect that should be enough for me to turn the tide. 🤞

I also want to get into the habit of going for a walk with DH in the evening when the kids are ready for bed. My plan is to pop them in the double pushchair in their PJs and then they can hopefully fall asleep in the pushchair and be transferred to bed when we get back. So far we've been too exhausted to do it, but we're planning to do it soon.

This is so true. I have been listening to alot of podcasts from Zoe food and nutrition about ultra processed food. Their is scientific evidence that the chemicals used in UPF's encourage us to eat more which makes us put on weight. Plus they alter the brain so making us feeling low/depressed/anxious in the meantime. Also I think being patient with ourselves is very important as sometimes it can take a few weeks to see an impact of a diet change so not to give up hope in the meantime.

Cut out alcohol completely, and cut right back on ultra processed food.

If you are overweight in your 30s, you are going to be very unhealthy in your 50s.

There isn't a magic bullet. Everybody loves eating. But I don't love it that much that I want diabetes.

Less of each but good quality of both, and move more

Yeah I try to do a less extreme version of this, which is to up protein and veg and reduce carbs in every meal. So will eg have spaghetti Bolognese but with only a small amount of pasta, and with broccoli on the side. Or a katsu curry with tofu and stir fry veg, but with only a little rice. I still eat all foods though, just try not to have crazy portions. The more carbs I eat the hungrier I am and the less control I have over cravings.

Drink 2l of water every day too.