Want to look GOOD by June 4th - that's just over a month. Please share your weight loss and toning tips

[Cristiane]

Back story is that I have just tried a week of pig to twig (Atkins type diet)

I feel horrific and haven't lost any weight. Kind of feel faint and my head feels very odd and I cannot face it any more. Just ate some boiled potatoes with olive oil and feel a bit stronger. I just don't think that diet is for me. I also slept very badly on it.

But... I want to look better in a month than I do now!

Despite moving house and working full time and having two DDs, I will try to find the time to do the 30 day shred plus I do walk 15 mins each way before getting on bus to the office. I wear MBTs even though they look horrible.

But it's the diet side of things that I get stuck on... If I deny myself something I then fantasise about it. I actually eat very healthily, and cook everything from scratch, don't have diet coke cravings or eat many sweet things. I get low blood sugar moments and have low blood pressure so anything too extreme and I faint or get ill (sounds very dramatic, maybe I'm just a wuss)...

Please share your successful dieting tips. I am 69 kilos and 5'6". I would like to be 59-60 kilos. I was 56 kilos before having DD1. Bloody hell.

Can anyone tell me about weightwatchers, going to join - need to lose about 1.5stone but need a real kick up the bum! Looked at joining online, but confused by the 'join for free' 5.99 a week and the 'monthly pass' which is 2.99 per week, both seem to include meetings but don't really understand the difference and which is best value (i.e. does the first come with more stuff??)

ledkr I was doing the shred 12 weeks after c-section, might be worth checking you don't have diastasis recti first however as if you do you shouldn't be doing her ab work.

dementedma you need to start doing some resistance work, shred would be perfect to start with or if u r a member of the gym then see if they have a bodypump class or pay for one PT session and get them to design a weights programme for you (I swear to god if anyone says "well I don't want to bulk up" I will reach thru the PC and throttle you). Might be worth doing some interval sessions in your running as the podgey stuff on your tummy will still be fat, the muscle lies underneath. If u are familiar with the couch potato to 5K programme then you can use it to jog the walk sessions and run/sprint the jog sessions IYSWIM. Key is to start pushing yourself again.

at libra throttling the people scared of weights! You and I must be separated at birth - I also mentioned the intervals thing (although much further down and not to dementedma.) Hope you are well!

Thanks notyummy, that's helpful (but annoying) - you'd be surprised at what the girl upstairs gets up to at 6am though... [I'm pleased she's having a great sex life but where does she find the energy? emoticon]

I follow the McKenna principles:

• Eat what you want (if I want chocolate then I'll have it)
• Eat when physically hungry (when my stomach feels empty or is rumbling)
• Eat consciously/slowly (slow it right down; gives you time to realise when you're full)
• Stop when physically full (I stop when physically feeling satisfied).

My portion sizes have gone down by 2/3rds eating this way but I've not felt deprived at all as I'm not eating diet/low-fat foods and have no excluded anything.

Without exercise, I've lost 22lbs in 8 weeks and am loving it!

beepbeep, can I say that I don't think WeightWatchers online is much use. Obviously it works for some people but the main reason it works for most people is that you stick to it more when you are going to a meeting. Doing it by yourself at home would be very easy to give up on, I should think. It's a brilliant diet because you can eat literally anything - no foods are restricted, only the amounts are restricted (midn you, this was before they changed their system - I know nothing about the new ProPoints whatnot).

I did 3 days of Shred last motnh but couldn't cope without a sports bra but have now bought one and am going to start Day 1 today. In a minute, when Ive finished MNing :)

Lost 4 stone after dc3.

There is one sure fire way to lose weight, tone up, stay healthy and keep fit.

Eat 3 good meals a day with sensible snacks when required
Drink lots of water
Reduce carbs after 4pm
Exercise 4 times a week (gym, swim, classes)
Cheat one day a week and eat what you like

Works for me, have been around 8 stone now for over a year give or take half a stone depending on how good im being

Hello
[waves]
Can I join please? I have about 1 1/2 stone excess to lose and a lot of toning to do - I'm 5ft 4 and around 10.5 stone at the moment. Two HUGE children (11lbs each) in 2 years. Lost loads after dc2, but all flobbery now. DH is also all flobbery, having hit some kind of metabolic pause (he got a wee bit older and can't eat like a pig the way in which he did as a teenager/early 20's) so we are both doing the Shred.

We tried it a couple of months ago, but got lazy gave up. (This coincided with cheap booze deals at the supermarket. Odd, that!)

We have a wedding to go to in July and I would love to wear something loverly - not to mention look good for summer.

The only way I lose weight is by not thinking about food. So I might go on for months and months slowly putting it on, or staying about the same, and then something happens like I start a building project or fall in love, or both at once! and suddenly food isn't interetsing, I just want to work or feel too nervous to eat and the weight falls off.

Bit too dramatically this time, have lost a stone and a bit (roughly, daren't go on scales!) in about 6 weeks-2 months. I'm not hungry. i feel Ok.

I can't do conscious dieting at all but you'd be surprised how easy it is when you're totally involved in something interesting or exciting.

btw am 5ft7, weighed about 9 3/4 stone in Jan/Feb, now under 8 1/2. I was wearing my larger clothes and now the smallest ones are too big. Oo-er.

Have you heard about hypothyroidism? No matter how little you eat or how much you exercise you will not lose weight. Apparently 1 in 8 women have it so it's worth checking it out. Symptoms include lethargy, feeling the cold, brittle nails and fatigue.

For strength and toning, I like Darcy Bussel's "Pilates for Life". I know pilates isn't fashionable any more but it's really very good, and the abs, my goodness, will last you half the winter (I rarely exercise in the winter).

I don't diet.

Did Shred day 1 today! Did it before everyone got up and it wasn't too bad! I also started the Couch to 5k running program which is something I did a couple of years back and I really want to get back into running. It also co-incides with my targets (i.e. to lose 3/4 stone at a rate of 1lb a week) so hopefully I can not diet too severely, as well as get fit and toned at the same time.

I'm also making a point of dressing quite femininely (without going OTT!) and putting makeup on each day to try and make me feel as good about myself as I can because I find this really helps for some odd reason.

I have just lost a stone of post-baby weight in four months by low-carbing (combination of Atkins, Drinking Mans Diet and Pig to Twig). I have been very strict (less than 20g carbs a day). NO potatoes, rice, bread, couscous etc AT ALL. Instead I have celeriac chips. cualiflower mash, swede mash etc. It an be hard at times but so worth it.

Once I get to my goal (another half a stone) then I will just go back to sensible eating, but will allow myself a bit of brown bread, brown rice etc a few times a week (and small quantities of good quality choc!).

This diet really DOES work if you are completely strict with it. I have done Weight Watchers in the past too, and I am still enrolled as I like the online chart to keep track of my weight (it just feels more official if it is online and I find this keeps me from cheating!) . I just find low carb better/easier to control and suits me more than Weight Watchers.

Thanks Twiglets, I was planning on going to the meetings as I know I won't stick to it otherwise! Just seems they have 2 different types of memberships that include the meetings. Also have had the 30 day shred dvd for about 6 weeks but still not out of it's wrapping!

After reading some of the advice on this thread, I'm having breakfast every day when I get up, small bowl of cereal and a mug of tea.

Eating only when hungry, drinking glass of water before eating anything and eating much smaller portions. I eat pretty healthily anyway (apart from the wine and chocolate I just eat far to much!
I'm having no wine or chocolate during the week and saving it for weekend treats only if I've lost weight during the week.

My Shred DVD arrived today, so I'm going to do that for the first time in a minute (gulp)
Then take the dogs for a good long walk afterwards if I can still move!

I weighed myself this morning...I'm 13 3/4 stone!!
At the moment I'm a big size 16 and evenyually I'd like to get back down to a small 14.

memudmagmnet-you could be me!Apart from the dogs i eat far too much healthy food but am also abit too fond of the vino and sweets,im going cold turkey on that tho.I had 5th baby 12 wks ago at 4 flippin 3 and was huge so have not done what i normally do and snapped back,i have waited for a miracle but it hasnt happened so looks like ill be shredding.A bit of a tip for anyone with divided tummy muscles is to hold them together when you do ab work,it really works and your tummy looks so unattractive squashed that it spurs you on to exercise haha

I've never heard of the couch potato to 5K thing, but really like the sound of it to blast that belly once and for all! I am certain there is a six pack lurking deep beneath after doing Jillian for almost a year!

Try it, blossoming, it does exactly what it says on the tin! I now have buns of steel.

There are loads of support threads in Sport & Exercise to help you through.

Ah, gotcha beep, I misread! You can pay for WW in 2 ways. Teh frist way is by paying to register with WW (an initial one-off fee) and then you also pay for each meeting, which is £5.99 per week. The 'join for free @ £5.99' thing is an offer where you can register for free and then only pay for your weekly meetings. The seocnd way to pay is called Monthly Pass and this is what the £2.99 a week offer is for. This is (I think) a direct debit where you pay for a month's worth of meetings at a time, instead of paying for weekly meetings. It only works out at £2.99 for the initial period though and after that it reverts to the equivalent of £4.61 a week - so you save about £1.30 a week by paying with Monthly Pass. As far as I know, obth ways have the same benefits and you don't get anything different with one or the other.

HTH!

I did half of Shred Day 1 this morning but had to stop as I felt DREADFUL.

Slim Fast. Boring. Easy. Quick. Lost a Stone in about 6 weeks, but had weekends off. Walked a lot with buggy.

Hello everyone thank you for all these tips and great motivation too

I am delighted to see so many of your on here. I can't believe it but i have been so light headed today i can no way do the shred. I ate properly too and not quite sure why i feel so off today. Dizzy dizzy, have just started new contraceptive pill and wondering if that is why,

Will be up early tomorrow to do shred.

Anyone else have a good day shredding?

Not yet. It's quarter to two here so I have time. :) Would love to do it in the a.m. but it would wake DS (teeny house.) So.

Am going to listen to my Paul McKenna CD now and then do the Shred. It's odd I dislike it so much; I love cycling, hiking, etc.

Last summer I didn't go to the beach with DS and DH at all because I was so self conscious. And I love to swim! :( Really want to be able to go this year, so the Shred it shall be.