It's 5 weeks to Christmas... Is it possible...

[Karbea]

To lose weight, look better, feel better, be fitter?

Anyone fancy joining me in a 5 week super drive to amazingness????

[missmakesstuff]

Cocktails I have mid brown hair, mousey really, with some a lot of grey, the greys go a proper bright red, which is nice actually, and the rest goes varied shades of red, dark to more true red.

It makes me feel a bit funky, more like myself too. I am very boring otherwise as I am a teacher, but can get away with the hair as it isn't over the top. I am also mid 30's...I had every colour under the sun throughout my teens and 20's, purple to black, to red and blonde - now fairly boring bob, but the red I like .

They do a brown/red, marron I think it is called, bit less scary, but with henna you can layer it up, it's like coats of varnish (not literally...!)

Everyone sounds so positive. I swam tonight, 24 lengths, would have done more but the pool was busy and I was getting fed up being behind really slow swimmers (not fast enough for fast lane, too fast for slow lane...)

I have had a good food day, although allowed myself a small slice of fruit toast just now, was loverly..

really going to have to try the shred tomorrow morning, I need to it everyday now as 30 days till we go away to china to visit the family....arrgh!

Think I will still aim for 4 times a week, swim and pilates on the other days.

[Karbea]

Today's update from me!

Sunday : no alcohol
Monday : No Choc's/Crisps
Tuesday : no caffeine
Wednesday : Run


Tomorrow I think I'm going to have a portion of fruit with my breakfast.

[winkle2]

Another good day for me. Nearly caved and had wine but remembered this thread

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Still off chocolate (polishes halo) even when making chocolate crispy cakes for DD school fayre.

Ate 2 bags of liquorice this week, (but I'm sure it's got iron and vit-a-mins in it, innit)

Hair- this week
Teeth -next week

Need to work on my nails and hands (damned vinyl gloves and crappy work soap).
I'm going to concentrate on everything else and weigh myself in 2 weeks

[Rockchick1984]

Rubbish day today - ended up with a Chinese take away followed by a galaxy caramel

Ah, well, tomorrow is another day, so will try to get back on it properly. Still managed to cleanse my face properly, and drank my 2 litres of water so at least that's something which will help the beauty side of things even if the diet didn't go to plan :)

[rusmum]

Can I join? Lost 3 stone this year (c25k and my fitness pal) but last month been AWFUL!!!! eating crap- drinking wine too often . feeling flabbier than I have in ages, I WILL- exercise 3 x a week, log into MFP daily and drink some water everyday! x

[Karbea]

Woo! Just completed today's run, much happier getting it done early in the day as far more likely to actually do it!

rusmum welcome :) I've never used MFP is it helpful - what does it actually do?

[Eliza22]

Severe weather warning?! WHATEVER. I'm off for my walk/run.

Wholemeal toast with a scrape of Marmite and cuppa (no sugar) downed. First water of the day had. I'm out there in ten....

Hope it's another good day for us today!

[Jammygal]

Well done all for making lots of changes ;)

I have done my yoga but no walk today as weather is hurricanised out there!
I have been eating ok although hungry a lot this week.....need to improve water intake but find tap water totally bland....any tips for jazzing it up?????

[Spoiltexpatbrat]

Jammygal, try squeezing some lemon into the water, it's cleansing as well as some other stuff, but I can't remember what

Machine Pilates tonight, I love it! Tomorrow I have Zumba in the morning and personal trainer in the evening. We had to cancel last night due to dh feeling poorly so two lots of exercise for me tomorrow!

Have just sat and buffed nails to a fantastic shine. I used the babyliss blocks. Fantastic!

[BiddyPop]

I managed to get to the gym this morning, and while I didn't actually run, I did do a decent fast walk and 2 full rounds of the weights I use too. And remembered my tummy exercises. Cos I was later getting into work because of that, M&S was just open so I got raspberries and blueberries to have with the last of my tub of yoghurt, orange juice (and I only got mini cupcakes and mince pies for tomorrow afternoon's glass of wine at work - we promised this to ourselves after the last manic deadline period that we'd do it this time, and the session just finished today so tomorrow we drink wine!!). And I remembereed to make my salad last night.

Ugh, it's pretty miserable here today, and I know DD wants pizza tomorrow - but I might get pizza for her, curry for me and let the au pair choose which she'd prefer (there's a good Indian takeaway next to the local Dominoes).

[Cocktailsorcakes]

Thanks Missmakesstuff I have also found the odd a plethora of grey hairs so good to know they get covered!

Today I have drunk my water, stopped the snacking and walked briskly with the pram for an hour (well two lots of 30mins).

I have the choice of veg stir fry and noodles or 3 slices of homemade pizza for tea... I know what I want but it's the wrong choice isn't it...

I need to book DH to stay in so I can go swimming a couple of nights as I feel I'm way behind in the exercise stakes!!

Plus I found the scales and weighed myself today, I figure I have a stone (at least) to lose...

[yumyum]

Hi, can I join too please??

I need to lose at least 2 and a half stone and have been thinking about joining slimming world. I just cannot keep off the chocolate and crisps!!!
I like the idea of trying to change little things every day, so my aim is to drink more water - at least 1litre a day and have at least 1 portion of fruit a day (yuck!) ha ha, there I said it..I hate fruit! I also hate exercise, hence the extra weight.

Anyway.. I'll give it a go! :)

[BarefootBaritone]

Doing my best (a half *rsed version of WW)

but have resigned myself to the fact that the "apron" will never go without surgery!

Must try to stay away from the .......

[plaingirly]

I just want to feel young. There are clothes I like that I don't buy as I feel too fat for them and just don't have the confidence.

I shop in Bon Marche!! I am 26 the same age as Lauren Conrad, Megan Fox, Leighton Meester, Jenna-Louise Coleman and Lady Gaga. Can you imagine any of them shopping in Bon Marche?!

I just seem to have given up on myself and got old really fast. Hoping that losing weight and getting healthy will cure me but I feel like I have missed out on the years for experimentation with fashion, hair and make up.

[LivingThings]

Have come down with a nasty cold- good start eh! Snuggled on sofa in hoodie feeling poo. Have still moisturised, make up etc but then always do so nothing new there. Have now not run for nearly a week which always makes me a bit stabby - must get to running club at weekend.

[Karbea]

Oh no everyone seems :(

I've been pretty good today, although haven't really got the hang of drinking that much water.

I would say I'm feeling pretty good actually and my skin looks better, maybe just a coincidence but either way I'm happy.

I'm not sure what to add to my list tomorrow... Any suggestions?

Sunday : no alcohol
Monday : no chocolate or crisps
Tuesday : no caffeine
Wednesday : run
Thursday : portion of fruit with breakfast.

[VividVanilla]

I'd love to join this discussion. Thaks for starting this thread, Karbea.
At 5'4" (on a good day), I'm not exactly tall; I'm also not exactly a spring chicken, so now need to watch what I eat before I turn definitively globular.

I had started looking positively rotund in photographs, but couldn't be bothered didn't really know how to shed the weight. About a month ago, someone I bumped into (quite literally) and got talking with told me about what she claimed to be an "easy" diet from Australia? I wouldn't go as far as to say it's easy, but it does seem to be working - although only to an extent but that's probably because I haven't done the minimal exercise that's required alongside it. I've NEVER dieted before, but something prompted me to give this a go.

Only meat and eggs every three hours for the initial three days. Nothing else. Except water. And tea/coffee with minimal milk and no sugar. For three whole days. Ugh. Then - on days 4, 5 and 6, you add a slice of granary/wholemeal bread (only for breakfast) and veggies (no root veg.) throughout the day.

Day seven was the clincher for me: you get to have a complete blowout . ALL DAY. Cream cakes, chocolate, the lot. Sin.

No more "just meat" days after that: you just do the predominantly-meat-and-a-slice-of-wholemeal/granary-bread-and-some-veggies thing after that, punctuated by a blowout day.

The strange thing was - I didn't really even WANT those sinful, decadent things when my blowout day came round: instead, I wanted fruit, yoghurt and milk! Possibly all the things my body truly craved - rather than what my tastebuds THOUGHT they needed.

That got me thinking, and I decided I NEEDED the dairy, too - and the fruit. So I adapted the diet to include moderate portions of fruit and dairy (skimmed milk).

I've lost 4 kg over the past month - going from 64 kg to 60 kg (my target weight is what I used to weigh two years ago: 53 kg). (Admittedly, there's only minimal exercise mixed in: all I do is walk the dog that doesn't really like going for a walk once in a while. The DCs take her the rest of the time. I put my hand up to having gone for a "proper" walk three times over the past month.

And I now have two blowout days a week.

Must do more exercise, drink more water. It HAS helped that I've stopped drinking the red. It HASN'T helped that I'm lumbered with impossible project deadlines atm and have to keep going tappity-tap at my PC all day long.

Is that my blowout day I see approaching on the horizon?

[Rockchick1984]

Karbea what about something to do with the beauty side of things? Start using a gradual tan moisturiser, body brushing or something like that?

[Spoiltexpatbrat]

Plain girlie, are you in France too? Or do they have Bon marche somewhere else?

Just in from Pilates, just enough time for a quick sleep before Zumba at 9am, and training at 8pm!

I'm forcing myself to eat fruit during the day so my body doesn't think I'm starving it.

Still no batteries so have no idea if the scales are moving, hopefully it will be sorted by the weekend.

My personal trainer is also doing the Zumba classes and she mentioned that the other instructor said I was fit! I did do the biggest weights in the class and nearly killed myself but that was due to not knowing what was coming up and being the last to get the weights and getting left with the heaviest!

The thing is I did it so tomorrow I will have to use the same... I can already feel the burn

[roxasofi]

Hi everyone, i'm a new mummy , i got a lovely 6 month old baby girl and i'm back to normal with my weight so i'm looking forward to Xmas . if somebody want to do running in the park and live around Colindale, let me know.

[Meggles76]

My update:
Sat - 5k
Mon - shred
Wed - 5k
And this morning I will run 5k.
Been a hectic week which has not had a good impact on the diet. Eating on the run and crap takeaways. I don't need to lose weight. I just want to be healthier. And feel better about myself.
Tough week in terms of low mood which I suffer from. It probably sounds pathetic but I feel lonely. Yet I am surrounded by lovely colleagues everyday and know lots of people where I live.
Still thinking about what to take away with me for xmas clothes wise... Been to Center Parcs before and it's pretty casual so my usual skinnies, leggings, tops and wedge trainers should be fine. I might pack a dress for xmas day.

[Karbea]

meggles don't want to be a bore, but I do think diet and mood are related.
I get the lonely thing, I don't work and my nearest friend lives 45mins away, dh works all the time and when he isn't working he is asleep.
Well done on the exercise!

spoilt you're my exercise hero :)

[VividVanilla]

Mood and workload/stress definitely impact what you eat and how you look at / feel about food.

Something else I'm going to force myself to do from next week onwards (once I've got a couple of deadlines out of the way) is actually use that piece of exercise equipment that I'm currently using as a clothes draper and have used properly only once since I bought it.

Motivation isn't easy to come by at the best of times. I hope we all get to that place we've defined in our heads.