postnatal weight loss

[Bo]

Any ideas how to safely shift all that post natal weight? 7 months on after having 2 very close together I am getting fed up with all my bulk, but I'm still breast feeding, so feel I need to be careful, especially as I am very low in iron (at least).

I know I could loose some weight when I stop breastfeeding, but that doesn't help me now! I hate cooking and preparing food, so I can't do anything too complicated. my husband had a fit when I even suggested something along the lines of slimfast. Any words of wisdom gratefully received. (Ireckon I need to shift about 15 Kilos)

Have been quite good these last two days. Just a little chocolate at work. Work/daytime is when I snack. Night I don't have a problem with. One tip that works for me is to clean my teeth after my tea then I'm loathe to eat anything else. Its so easy to sit at work and munch that said if I didn't take anything in with me I wouldn't be able to do it. There who needs you lot to solve my problems ha ha!!! Seriously you're doing a great job at encouraging me and letting me read your thoughts on such a wide range of subjects. Have decided to join SW after Christmas (can't before as I'm going to Spain for a month and am too tight to pay for classes that I'm not going to be able to go to). Here's to tomorrow and another good day.

Am trying soooo hard, it better be worth it. Managed a 4 mile walk yesterday and the day before so legs feeling nice and tight (well, tight-er) Lapsed by having a few chips and a hot choc last night but not the end of the world. Sun is shining today so want to get out and about with pushchair again, am supposed to be writing 1200 word essay though - boo, best get off here and get some work done eh?!

Channelno5, If you want to know about g&t cals, nip to local newsagent, look for slimming mags, find a 'complete guide to calories' book and have sneaky look - if you dare!!!

Good luck everyone...

A normal pub measure of gin is about 50 cals, therefore a large one, depends on how large! One tip we were told this week in SW class, is to be really anal and buy a pub measure thingy (can get them from Robert Dyas type shops) Then you can be sure what you measure. I find that once it's a double it doesn't seem to get much stronger f I add more gin, so a measure can work. So saying I only drink G&T on holidays, and DH and I get through a bottle of duty free in a week!!

OK Todays tip!

Food Diary's. Write down what you ate, BE HONEST, don't bother working out the calories, but any food consumed outside of normal mealtimes put an emotion down (why you ate it, were you bored, is it a habit etc) Plan to do this over a week to start with, and then try to commit to doing this for a month.

I found this worked really well for me, it wasn't the calories, it was the reasons why I reached for food that needed addressing. After 4 weeks of this I was too embarrassed to see in Black and White what I ate, so I didn't bother eating 'bad' foods or only 'boredom/comfort snack'. This helped me change the habits I had had for years!

Hello Pamina - I'm still hanging around like a bad smell, it's just now I've cut back on the choc, I'm too weak to type! Not quite that bad (yet!). Really I've been trying to keep out of the house/fridge as much as possible to avoid temptation, also have to fight off kids to get a chance to go on the computer to let you know my progress (in the loosest sense of the word, of course!). But have also spent a couple of evenings at the gym (don't laugh!) although admittedly most of the time is spent in the bar - got to keep the morale up, you see! Do you spell loosest like that - or is lack of choc now affecting my brain aswell? Anyway, don't worry about a little slip up here and there, I have too, I'm just not admitting to it, so that way it doesn't count - cunning eh! Saw on local news yesterday, a woman who had lost 12 stones in 12 months - unfortunately she was only having about 500-600 calories a day, so I won't be following that plan. I'm rambling again - so anyway, did you have a good night out the other night?

Diet update for me: lost 1/2 pound according to WW this week. We were out of town for a long weekend, so everything got put on hold. And for the past two days, rice has been my downfall. I should have looked up the points first!

The food diary has been working for me, too. No chips last night because I didn't want to write them down when I got home! Too bad it didn't work for the second pint.

What pub foods are the best to have? Any ideas?

Jj well done, a weight loss with a week that's been messed about. And like you say, didn't want to have to write down the chips!

Best Pub Food, hmmm, It depends if it is a 'foody' pub or more traditional. Assuming traditional. Steak (trim all the fat off first, with a jacket potato (careful on butter though), Jacket potato and a 'wet' filling like beans or veggie chilli (no need for butter). Grilled Fish, Gammon and pineapple (if it's grilled). All I would suggest is to ask how things are cooked and avoid the obvious chips, butter, extra bead, cheee, etc. If you make sensible choices you can just enjoy that glass of wine or whatever.

OK Todays tip??? Hmm run out of ideas....OK here's one. Take a large can of baked beans and carry it around with you all day. I bet you'd be pissed off with it and after a while it will become heavy. Well that's approx. 1lb. So imagine how a little loss of 1lb makes a lot of difference even if you can't see it!!

4lb since Sunday! Hurrah! I conceded and bought bathroom scales. It might prove to be the best incentive, despite my previous antagonisms.

My biggest battle is, as ever, bread and picking at leftovers. I am going to have to start giving the baby really gross combinations so that I stop doing "one for you...one for mummy"

Still, better week than I've had for a long time foodwise... onwards and upwards (or should that be downwards?)everyone.

Crunchie, I agree, thinking of the weight in terms of actual things does make one realise what one has achieved (or has to achieve - depending on ones perspective at the time). How about thinking of half of a lb in terms of a block of butter! Urgh!

My diet has gone horribly wrong, so will restart again tomorrow or Monday (depending how I feel tomorrow morning!) You've all done really well, so I feel even guiltier, would drown my sorrows with a G&T, but have to drive later (to the gym for another review, will have to wear my tightest, 'holdy-in-est' big pants tonight, I think!) Oh well, best go and cook the kids' tea, it's shepherd's pie, so I can easily resist that - no choc in it you see!

Can anyone here give me the lowdown on Rountrees fruit gums? The ones that come in a long yellow tube.

I am under the impression that a whole tube of fruit gums is just 80 calories. This is what I read years ago in a 'count your calories' book. Since then, I have used them as a compromise whenever my sweet tooth tendencies get too out of hand. Especially useful at work. Typing and chewing, that's me.

In my teens they formed a big part of my doomed 500 cals a day diet. However, I did lose quite a lot of weight while dislodging countless tooth fillings.

Today's fruit gums are far less ferocious. They are softer, without the tendency to form a limpet-like hold on the teeth. But is a tube still 80 calories?

If this is so, could they be a chocolate substitute for the desperate?

Thank you Tigermoth, for offering a glimmer of hope to us sad choc/sweetie-aholics - I'll be straight down the shops tomorrow to check!

OK well according to my fat and calorie guide Nestle fruit Gums (do they own Rowentree?) are 134 cal per tube. Looking at the best chocolate/sweets for us we have

Curly Wurly (put it in the fridge and it takes ages to eat) at 125 cals
Finger of fudge (yuk) 115 cals
Candy Floss (!) 60 cals per medium stick!
Tic Tacs 63 cals per pack
Ferrero Rocher 74 cals EACH!
Galaxy Ripple 176 cals (not bad for pure chocolate)
Maltesers 183 per bag
Revels 173 per bag
Starburst juicy gums 139 per pack
Ftuit pastilles 147 per pack
Kit Kat 107 per 2 finger bar
Polo fuits 114 per tube

However if you allow yourself something as a treat you should be OK

My tip for the weekend! Do yourself and your family a favour and don't buy all the c**p food that you know you can't resist. I have a rule that we don't have crisps, chocolate, ice cream, chips, biscuits etc in the house. However I will buy just one pack for Poppy when we go out shopping. This way she eats oads of fruit, breadsticks or veggies as snacks at home, but I don't mind buying her a treat when we are out. I know it's harder when you have older children in the house, and maybe more expensive if you have to buy these things in single packs, but it's cheaper inthe long run as you won't be eating so much. My weight loss really started to work when I had bugger all to eat in the house that broke my diet. Since SW has loads of free food, I could always eat something if I was hungry, but since there was nothing nice to snack on, I didn't snack. I know it takes willpower, and occassionally I would end up eating a huge bowl of cereal if I needed to snack. But that didn't ruin my diet.

Good luck for the weekend,

Just to let you all know I am not feeling so smug atthe moment, I have been eating like a pig all week and I daren't get on the scales this week. I think I'll make a good effort at the weekend to be good, and then try to get to class on Monday. If I know I have to weigh in on Monday, I'll be too scared to eat crap at the weekend because I don't want to go over target!

Thanks for all that info, Crunchie, you're a little gem and much better than a slimming mag!!

You guys will begin to think I am obsessive! and that I know nothing else but calorie counting and losing weight! I just happen to have all the books etc because I have tried so many times. Now I am the biggest fan of SW and I've got an interview with them next week for a District Mangares job which will make me even more a fan! If I get it it will mean an end to 2hr each way commuting as I will be working from home and in my local district (about 1hr drive to anywhere). I am keeping my fingers crossed as I am finding the commuting is really ruining my life at the mo.

Hope the interview goes well, Crunchie. If anyone really deserves the job, it's you. You have a really good knowledge of calories and handy tips for dieters. Also, because you have been through the weight-loss process yourself, you really understand the highs and lows of dieting, so could provide alot of empathy and support to others who are still going through it. Which region would you be working in? (I'm hoping it might be near me, you see!)

Oh Pamina, you poor love! Sorry to hear you're feeling grotty. It's really hard caring for children when all you want to do is stay in bed. Have you got dh at home today to help? Sometimes when I get a really bad cold, I lose my sense of taste aswell, so this helps to reduce the urge to comfort eat. However, unfortunately my sense of taste is working only too well at the moment, and have been tucking into the choc today. Well, MIL has come to stay and brought M&S choccy biscuits with her, so it's not really my fault when temptation is put right in my face like that, is it!

So, the advertising IS true - Maltesers really aren't that loaded with calories. Only 50 or so calories more than a tube of fruit gums, too. Crunchie, you're a star! your list has made my afternoon.

Good luck with the interview - ask SW to look on here if they want proof of your ability and knowledge!

Crunchie, good luck, you really know your stuff so I'm sure they'll be more than happy to give you the job - do you think you could wangle cheaper rates for us lot in our areas if you get it??!!

Thanks you guys, but I don't know if it's a case of knowing my stuff dietwise, but more a case of also being a high powered (!) business women with responsibility for a team of consultants and team managers!

However so you all realsie I am not a smug git and crowing becase I have reached target, I had a really c88p week last week and although I took it each day at a time, each day went very wrong! However I have learnt to take each day at a time and know that I can get myself back on track (I gained 3lbs in a week!) So i have promised myself 2 weeks of sticking to the plan and everyting will become hunky dory again. I think I was trying to see how far I could push it and go back to my old eating habits. So today I am just stuffing my face with a huge plate of veggie couscous (home-made so I know there's just 5 sins in a saucepan full) and I think I'll put my feet up with a glass of wine (5 sins) so there's my 10 sins for the day!

Good luck, Crunchie. I've been thinking about that can of beans. Is 1 pound also 8 sausages? I've been trying to imagine where those will come off.

Winnie and Pamina, wow! 4 lbs in a week is amazing. Ok, so I can make it through the rest of the night without having a snack. I'd be too ashamed to eat that piece of bakewell tart right now.

While shopping this week I was reminded of a breakfast I used to have which always helps me get through the morning and keeps my sugar level up. Really good for all of you with a sweet tooth and not high in points or calories.
Cinnamon and raisen bagels toasted with honey and mashed banana, lovely, had one this morning.

Had a very pleasant suprise today, I've been using the scales at Boots but haven't used them for about a month, instead have been hopping on the bathroom sclaes every now and again. Today I did it properly and went in to see how much I'd lost and to my amazement I'd gone down 7lbs!!! I'm not joking, so either the scales were knackered or I've actually done it. Its there in black and white on a printout though. On 3rd March this year I weighed in at 14 stone 4 and today its 11 stone 9 - yahoo! My goal was to be 75kgs (right weight for my 5ft10 build apparently) and translated into kgs I'm now 74.6!! So what now?? I'm stunned, of course I feel thinner, fitter and generally great. But I don't look how I imagined at all. My Bum's still big and my tummy's still wobbly - what do you think I should do everyone? I'm thinking another half a stone might do it but I don't want to get caught in the 'diet trap'. Its really annoying because I imagined myself to be super confident and fantastic looking at this point and I'm neither, oh somebody help, am I always going to be miserable then...?!!! (sorry, not trying to play for sympathy here, honest, its just do any of you have any idea how to keep sane through this?)

Joe, that was one of my all time faves, but sadly since giving up wheat (and feeling so much better for doing so) I'll not be able to participate, boo hoo, but thanks for reminding me of such pleasures. I allow myself a 'wheat treat' every now and then (even though am in stomach cramp hell for a couple of hours afterwards)so will probably make it now that I'm drooling over it...!