June 2007 Mummies making a fresh stab at being healthy.

[JammyQueenOfTheNewYear]

OK, I'll start. My name is Jammy and I want to be healthy. I need to lose a lot of weight. But I'm not going to focus on that. I am going to focus on being healthy, and looking after myself. I joined the gym today, so that's a good start, right?

Hi there jammy.

Right, here goes...My name is Holly and I need to stop being a lazy arse snack fiend! I need to actually go out more and stop eating when bored. I am also a fat cow and need to lose 2 stone by summer (good goal methinks).

Good goal indeed Holly. I've got the (slightly optimistic?) goal of 3.5 stones by end of July. I have a gorgeous (if rather bold coloured) Monsoon dress I want to wear.

I have sold all my size 12 jeans except 1 pair. I want to fit into them by the summer!

Is the Monsoon dress new, is it on their website? I want to see it! What is it like?

It's 3 years old Holly. Or will be by July. I wore it in May 2006 to a wedding in Rome.

It's similar style to this only with a ruched bit across the middle, instead of that pleated bit. (Good for hiding tummy wobbles). And it is in a bright green colour, not too disimilar to this only it's a cotton material, not silky.

See, losing weight will not only make you healthier, but also save you money. You can save money on food AND not have to buy a new dress! Bonus!

Ooo, that's nice. I am liking green atm. I bought myself a cardi and matching tights that colour. The style is good too, v sophisticated.

I'll join

My name is daisy and I'm a choc cake crisp cheese food-a-holic.

Mains issues are sweets and chocolate.

I need to lose 3stone to be at the upper end of the normal BMI range

and I'd like to do it before my holiday at the beginning of August. Although as we're away this weekend, I'll be officially starting on Monday

I am officially starting when I have finished all the treats I just bought myself at the supermarket! Fudge, chocolate raisins, hot chocolate, nachos, nice cheese etc. etc. I love nachos. I want nachos. I neeeeeed some nachos!

I think really making an effort not to eat when you are hungry makes a difference. But you should probably do it after a week or two of dieting so that you are less hungry in general .

I also find that drinking a cup of tea when I think I am hungry fills me up for a little bit longer.

You really have to get the DPs on board too. We are terrible for encouraging each other to eat badly.

I'm determined to get back into running and hope the book I've bought helps. It has this run/walk plan which I must stick to. Usually I would just run without any plan until I feel exhausted then be put off for the rest of the week. The walk run plan is slow but I think it is better for the long term.

I think sometimes I eat because I feel I should be hungry, not because I actually am. A cup of tea is a good idea, I might try just a cuppa instead of a cuppa AND a biscuit!

I hate running. It hurts my knees (v dodgy). I may look for a yoga class, I think I'd enjoy that.

I think I might join

I am foxy (oh no I'm not!) and I have lost 11 lbs since Christmas, and have 7 more to go until my first goal.

I will be a size 10 for my friends wedding in March (OK, that's an M&S size 10, not a Karen Millen 10 ). I don't care if I'm a size 10 for one day, and one day alone.

My top tip is before you start a diet, keep a food diary. Its amazing what you shovel in but don't actually 'eat'. As long as you write everything down, eat as your normally
would. I was quite shocked.

My second top tip is after the food diary, eat what you like, but only at mealtimes. So have biscuits if you want, but make them part of a meal.

I lost a good few pounds this way, and then went onto weightwatchers, as it allows me to indulge my need be obsessive about tracking my food and counting up points.

My old knees won't stand up to running wish they would.

I have booked into my first pilates class on Sunday. Going to work on my Mum Tum!

Well, I resisted DH's kind offer of half a slice of choc & mint cake, and had an apple and a yoghurt instead Mind you, I am having lunch at a friend's tomorrow and going out for an all-you-can-eat chinese buffet with 2 other friends tomorrow night. so much for my good intentions. Am planning on going for a swim and then taking jamlet for a splash on Sunday though, and am booked in for my gym induction Feb 7th. Eeek! I need gym wear!

11lb since Christmas . Fuck me! I'll have what she's having

I just can't get on with ww, stresses me out trying to figure out how many points are in my spag bol or a homemade muffin. Plus, for me anyway, it doesn't necessarily encourage healthy eating, i.e. ordinarily I would use olive oil, pumpkin seeds etc in my cooking which, while high in fat, are high in good fats that you need. So I'm going to have to rely on good old fashioned will power! One of my problems is that I hate seeing things go to waste so I will eat them. I nearly ate some leftover curry at 10pm last night just coz I was peckish and it needed eating, but I opted for Special K instead!

Another tip from me, if you need a sweet/chocolate hit in the evenings dark or minted chocolate works well (plus I find mint makes me less inclined to eat afterwards) or cocopops are quite a good low fat chocolate hit.

Being aware of what I ate made a huge difference. I can't stress how writing it all down made a difference. If LO got into the Quality Street tin and took the wrappers off, rather than throwing the chocs away I stuffed them into my mouth.

I have a thing about waste, so eat to 'save'. Although I now realise that the lard on my arse is still waste - albeit a by-product of what should have gone in the bin.

I have trouble with portion size, so do measure things a few times. A large portion of spaghetti is precisely 60 strands (of the short stuff). How interesting I am!

I also have problems with portion control. Have got used to years of eating good meals, and I think that we just eat too much. We don't always have the healthiest meals for sure, but we don't fry much, and NEVER deep fry, we don't often have cakes and biscuits or crisps, we eat plenty of fruit and veg, don't have sugar in drinks, use semi-skimmed milk. So for what we eat I don't think we should be as fat as we are - so it must be due to how much we eat.

Portion sizes just creep up don't they? My plate of Sunday roast is as big as DPs. But his shouldn't be huge, as he needs to drop a bit too. Heck, if he's having 5 roast spuds, I am too! (now I have two)

Dinner plates have got bigger too. Honestly! Its a fact. They are bigger and we fill them up. I read it somewhere.

Jammy, get some smaller plates and bowls.

Well I added a mile onto what could have been a half mile walk to the children's centre this morning. And I turned down mayo and butter and cheese with lunch (baked potato, tuna and salad) at a friend's. And I turned down pudding, but had an apple when we got home instead. So I am going to give my halo a little polish if you don't mind?

polish away!

Well, I ate twice as much today as I should have. My first real blip

But that's OK. I've been power walking pushing a double buggy today, and been to the gym.

I think you deserve a blip with all that exercise Foxy.

I didn't want to back out of our night out, which had been arranged before I decided to be healthier, so went anyway but exercised some restraint and didn't go too overboard although it was eat as much as you like, and tried to have dishes with plenty of veg with boiled rice, and only had one glass of wine. So I don't feel too bad about it. in fact I don't feel at all bad about it

This morning, instead of just pouring myself my usual portion of breakfast cereal, I weighed it out. Shit, what a titchy portion that was I topped it up with a couple of cups of tea while I was doing chores and survived the morning on it though

Nor should you feel bad Jammy You made good choices and in moderation. That's the key. Well done!

And I think that's the way to go. Diets are something to be endured, and we are set up to fail, beat ourselves up about it when we do, give up and take comfort in our failure by eating, then we feel shit, our self-esteem is in tatters, and so it continues.

Personally its about breaking the habits and associations. I know I eat to 'reward' myself, I eat to indulge. Or sometimes I'm just greedy, I admit.

Often its not what we eat, but why and when. Set new rules like don't eat after 7pm, have a bath if you need to indulge, or a magazine as a 'treat', not a pudding as in my case.

I do believe that by looking at why we eat the amount/rubbish/time we do is the problem more often that what it actually is. And if we can crack that, we could never diet again.

Says the one following Weightwatchers to the letter!

That will become the norm though, and it'll be fine. Like you say, you can survive on it. Buy small loaves of bread, they are just smaller slices,so you can still have your two slices in the morning. You won't notice the difference. Let it cool down before buttering it so it doesn't suck up the butter.

Am I sounding a wee bit obsessed here?

I did the kids hotdogs last night, proper sausages in finger rolls with ketchup. I really fancied one, and rather than shoving it in my gob, I thought about it, and decided that yes, I could have it. Then I ate my dinner as I had planned it, although I wasn't really hungry.

Today I realised that that sausage in a roll undid all of my good gym work. Not just the gym work, the getting up at 6 am to go, the effort to actually get there.

I'm annoyed at myself for that. It wasn't worth it.