Countdown to Easter

[ItRainsItPours]

All welcome!

Supportive thread for setting goals including self care and fasting, and chat in between.

@loveyouradvice great idea re brisk walking. A major one that I keep putting on here but failing at is to be in bed before midnight. I have to stop thinking just one more episode … falling asleep on the sofa, then bumbling up to bed for a few hours in the middle of the night. Basically I need to stop behaving like a teenager!

An easier one - although initially very difficult - is not having toast/bread. I think the bread and butter combo is the main reason I am overweight. I literally would happily eat toast for every meal and find it hard to eat in moderation when I start. I have been toast free for 2 days. I am having wheat as an ingredient for now though as I don’t think it’s necessarily wheat itself that’s the problem.

@Clearingaspace I can so identify with both of those - I'm still prone to the occasional late teenage night watching something in bed and feeling furtively guilty .... BUT it is now occasional (at least I hope so!!). I feel so so much better when I get my eight hours and I've only just started doing that consistently so I'm hoping not to jeopardise it ....

And the toast!! Aged 17 I must have gained 20lbs just because toast and butter was available in the sixth form common room... it is the devil!

How are you helping yourself NOT eat toast? Is there any way of making it more difficult? I'm guessing not having it in the house is not an option? But even putting it on a high shelf can help you stop and think if you're reaching for it... What ideas have you had?

I too find bread problematic. We have to have sliced in the house for school packed lunches. I do find the seedy brown loaves less addictive and try to limit it to one toast/sandwich session before bed.
I have had a nice active day so far, where I live if I walk out the door there is a decent hill which gets the heart rate up. Just managed to miss the rain with a quick walk over the hill before lunch.

@ItRainsItPours your attitude to bread sounds ideal - I have spells where I can just eat a bit of seedy and be satisfied but other times it’s a gateway to what ever upf bread products are in the house! Hill walk sounds lovely!

@loveyouradvice, I can’t really put the bread out of reach but keep it in a large tin at least. I do have some strategies for the toast addiction!

• I am trying to accept that this is not a weightloss change but necessary longer term for lots of reasons- bread needs to be an occasion ‘treat’ food like cake for me I think.
• From reading what people eat in weightloss threads etc, it is a change lots of women seem to need to make, which kind of helps psychologically.
• I am reminding myself that if I have toast it won’t satisfy me - I will just want more later.
• I am trying to satisfy the crunch with walnuts if necessary, and the butteriness with avocado or peanutbutter. I have swapped in avocado for my breakfast with eggs, although it’s not what I want to eat I feel fine once I have eaten it.

It definitely forces me to eat more vegetables, which is good. But let’s see if I can keep it up!

Not crazy, Stealth, I always love your posts.

Thanks for another supportive, friendly week, team. I'm going to post a weigh-in tomorrow even though I'm not expecting to be celebrating. That's significant for me, because usually I absent myself unless it's good news.

@StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans i wonder if your body having what it needs -,the right kind of food, exercise, enough sleep etc allows the good nicely behaved quiet bacteria to take over. Also I have read about certain bad guy bacteria thriving with the upfs and then creating cravings for more junk; so it all makes a lot of sense. I think there have even been studies suggesting links with gut microbiome a deficiencies with adhd - crazy how what we eat can change how we behave.

I will be weighing in too @loveyouradvice and sadly I think I will be up on when I last dared to log my weight. I have this strange habit of maintaining on a holiday then gaining like crazy after the holiday. But I have had a much better week so far; I have gone to bed a little earlier every evening and was almost in bed by midnight last night so hopefully I might make that target tonight. I have also stayed toast free! That and not eating after dinner has definitely meant I have lost a bit this week even if technically I am up.

I'm up 0.2kg this week, which is fair.

I think the most useful thing I can do for myself atm, weight-wise, is to pledge to weigh myself every Fri from now to Easter and share it here.

Happy to have made some good progress in January:

SW: 72.5 kg beginning January (I was as high as 74.9kg last year!)
GW1: 70 kg end January (achieved and reset to 69kg)
CW: 68.5kg (4 kg lost) 31st Jan
GW2: 65 kg end March (in time for weekend away)
GW3: 60kg end June then assess next steps.

I am doing 16:8, 2 meals a day, lower carbs, trying to pack in protein and veg, and hitting 2l water per day.
Have had occasional blips with choc/wine, but otherwise been fairly disciplined at not eating and drinking unnecessary stuff.
No extra exercise in January, apart from my normal walks, but planning on increasing my steps in February. Hope to be under 67kg by end of February.

Thanks for that suggestion, will listen to that podcast @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans

@IDareSay wow fantastic progress this month we’ll done and your plan sounds v good.

@loveyouradvice that is a tiny increase - practically maintaining after a 5 day fast is really fab!!

so my weigh in was not as good as I hoped 196.3 and will likely be more tomorrow as meeting friends tonight. still it’s down on last week. Gah this is hard work 😭 so annoying to keep losing and gaining. I really need to aim for consistency.

I have gained a lb this week but not really surprised. I have a weird stomach pain and GP says I have to eat regularly and take antacids. Fasting so helps me keep on track so I am actually glad I haven’t gained more.
Well done on all the losses and positive steps.

That’s annoying @ItRainsItPours hope it settles and you can come off the antacids in time. Apparently a 12 hour fast is still beneficial - that might work?

Hello lovely peeps – Friday checkin here we come!!! Yes a tad late on my part as second weekend in a row of birthday festivities - hugely enjoyable, but rather challenging on the food front

Mmmm @ItRainsItPours . I agree, I find the seedy brown less addictive and try to only have it occasionally. And as you’ll see below, I’m telling myself a one or even two pound gain doesn’t really count as a gain – just a natural fluctuation! So I think that goes for you too!

@Clearingaspace Your strategies on the toast front sound great. And congrats on staying toast-free. I think that is very powerful, switching it to an “occasional treat” food..... I’m going to reflect on which foods I could take move into that category. Love this approach! And let’s all aim for consistency this year: tis my biggest challenge. (At least I think it is, now my sleep seems sorted: I definitely find I eat more when I’m underslept and am loving getting better sleep this year, I'll look forward to hearing how yours goes too. )

@HarpQuartet – congrats on your commitment to post every Friday – yes, it is a big step! We’ve all been there on the ups and downs, and it’s great to support each other through both the good and less good... We know you can do it and it’s fine to give ourselves permission to have times when it goes less well. And just 0.2kg up is not exactly a gain! My favourite phrase in 2024 was "and that's okay"... saying it out loud to myself was ridiculously soothing!!

@StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans – Staying happily at 68kgs after a decade of being 71-75kg is a triumph! I am enjoying being the lowest I’ve been in over 20 years, albeit only by a pound or so!

And fab progress @IDareSay . 4kg on top of the 2.5kg you had already lost! Good luck with the under 67kg this month. Like you, I’m mainly 16:8 and 2 meals a day, lots of protein and veg and fairly low carb. It really suits me.... and does give space for sociable days with a bit more in them.

@StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans Gosh, how gorgeous to have switched off sugar! That’s magnificent. I think I might have too, but I know how little it takes for me to activate that switch again. Just last weekend, I was at the same wonderful farm shop/restaurant as 6 months ago, and all I wanted to buy was fruit, veg, fish and wonderful cheese this time. I marvelled at my not feeling remotely tempted by the piles of gorgeous looking cakes, the icecream and pork pies – all of which I indulged in in the summer, in a very unrestrained manner.

I too am finding what I eat delicious and I suspect my gut biome is in a great state, given I eat sauerkraut, yogourt, kefir and kombucha most days and have been eating very little sugar for several months. But I do relish really dark chocolate and I think that eating 2 or 3 squares of that a day, alongside some nuts, is satisfying my sweet spot.

I am a little scared even just writing that... this change does not feel permanent, just deeply enjoyable while it lasts. And I would love it to last for A VERY LONG TIME

As you can tell I've just caught up with this thread... Huge thanks @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans for the podcast recommendation. I've become a big Rangan Chatterjee fan, and have just bought all his books and booked to go to his gig in London... part of the Thrive Tour. Great name!

Fascinating insights about breast milk and buttered toast having the same combo of high sugars high fat! I’m going to remember that next time I reach for a second slice of hot buttered toast with lashings of marmalade...

Mmm... not today, perhaps another day ... Yes, a great mindset to cultivate. I’ve been using Gin Stephens Delay Don’t Deny mantra for a few years now and it is really helps me, looking at yummy things and thinking, perhaps tomorrow or next week.

I am SO celebrating how happy and grateful to be alive you are feeling, and that you like yourself now... this feels like such an achievement after all you have been through. I hope you can relish every moment

And me... well.... rather annoyingly after a day of eating not much I’ve gone up a pound, how did that happen?? Especially as I was looking to go DOWN a pound... Ah well, I am being sanguine about it. It is after all the dark time of the year, and I've been socialising a fair amount

So here goes:
SW 14.2
TW 11.2
CW 11.1 (It was 10.13 last week)

I've another weekend partying with friends: two in a row is so NOT my usual style and I'm rather looking forward to being at home for the next one. It does mean that my goal for next Friday is to weigh 11.1 again - ideally a bit less but I know I’ll be rebalancing after 4 days away

And alongside that three things for the coming week:

• More brisk walking
• Dancing 10 minutes EVERY day – I love it but even though its only for 10 minutes I still seem to not fit it in more than half the time!
• Start an online Tai Chi course and do 3 x a week with DH (15 minutes each time)

hello, how was your weekend everyone? @loveyouradvice i remembered you and upped the pace on my walking!

I think I need some daily posting for accountability as I am a big undisciplined mess! My one aim today is to be in bed before midnight.

Sleep is absolutely essential for every measure of health. I am getting exhausted at the moment but the plus of that is not long after 10pm I have to go up to bed as otherwise I fall asleep on the sofa. You’d think I would then wake up well rested but this morning ds woke up at 5:45am and decided to go down and get himself breakfast. I woke up totally confused about what time it was and what all the crashing about was. He is not in my good books today.
My stomach pain is through the roof today and yesterday I had a bread heavy day. I am a bit worried I have developed an intolerance as I bloody love bread. So today is going to be a boring wheat/gluten free day and I will see if that helps.
Will get back to fasting and good habits when things ease up, pain makes all of that so much harder.