WWW's 10yy chat and confession thread, May/June 08

[WideWebWitch]

All welcome

Veils drawn over last week...

The rules (anyone can join):

This is about feeling better about yourself...not necessarily a diet per se etc etc

• Sunscreen at all times
• No or little booze. Wine at the weekend is allowed if you want it
• Walking is important, a small amount every day if possible. 30 mins if you can
• Lots of water, aim for 2 litres a day
• Apply body cream as often as possible
• Use hand cream
• Go to bed early, by 10.30pm if pos
• Eat healthily
• Be happy

The idea is that we all feel happier, healthier and glow with the good food, sleep, exercise, water and lack of sun damage.

But does he shoe without his shirt on Duch? And bronzed muscles glistening with sweat from the heat of his fire

Inspired by you I had a very busy day yesterday -planted leeks and broccoli out, sowed lettuce, long walk with the dogs, 3 loads of washing, sorted out my larder and boot room. It made me feel very virtuous. Of course that was all spoiled by the humoungous lamb sandwhich dh made me on his return and the bottle of red we shared to celebrate his freedom.

We are considering holidays. I followed a recommendation on here and we are going here for 2 weeks, but will probably spend the rest of the time doing stuff near home - we are only 1.5 hours from the norfolk coast.

Ureb - bundle is very scathing about homeopathy, so we can't let her hear

Afternoon all, busy here again I see!
Hypericum is also a herbal remedy AFAIK so I reckon we have slipped under bundle's charlatan radar this time pru. Hope the toe is feeling better ureb - and do you rent your sympathetic copper out to women at the end of their tethers? Dh has been leafing through my Slimy World Cookbook (wallet has lost 20 pounds ) and quibbling about such gastronomic tragedies as wholemeal pasta "they sell it in pharmacies in Italy on the laxative section you know" and, more understandably, merit fat-free soft cheese. So if I chop him up will you get me off?
Saggars, think of the calories you must have burned dismembering him and digging that hole though!
Hope all goes well with dh's new job and leave, prufrock - and drool at the holidays. I know we should be jolly grateful for a five-day purgatory "break" at Center Parcs...

Am PMSL at the awful thought of a red-haired Peter Stringfellow farrier, DoNB, sounds like something out of Brueghel! I have had to spend ten minutes gibbering under my desk after reading about your latest activity levels you know!

Moonshine, yoyo - I am still hiding in my saggy clothes and will be for quite a while. Thanks for the tip re initial fast loss on a low-carb diet moonshine, I did wonder if my scales were moribund. Have long way to go before I'll feel comfortable in the gym so am just at yoyo's and others' fitness regimes on here for now .
I got some great tips from kew about diet and exercise on a thread that started with the charming premise that fat people who don't each much in public are fair game for speculation about what hogs they must be in private, so am sticking with walking briskly for at least 30 mins per day, initially. Then when I'm less likely to be scrutinised and found wanting in public I'll head for the swimming pool.

I think the turning point has been our Supreme Being suddenly riding off on the India wagon, yoyo. When it comes from the very top, what else can you do...except maybe dance your socks off at a wedding and enjoy your ds' first laugh - what a wonderful moment L&S, to be brutally and nostalgically frank, they are like jewels in the midden of your first year of life post-baby . Good to hear what a lovely time you had - and you sound full of champagne cheer too batters

TS, we are struggling on the family food budget front too - it is a hard balance. I went into Tescos earlier this week and realised that our Ocado shop could be done more cheaply...but then one has to find the time to visit the shop. Which we do not have, sigh.
Rabbiting on as usual, so:

Water yy
Walking yy
Cream yy
Good diet yy
Early night nn
Happiness y-ish (home fine, work usual bordel des imbeciles)
Wishing all a happy remainder of day, and Frasier-style, good emotional health

Marina - Walking is a great fat burner and very good for the soul I find, especially when outside and plugged into some good tunes. I totally understand about the feeling under scrutiny in gyms which is why I go local council ones - have you tried one/got one near? They are, ime, basic but seem to be far more lacking in vanity because there is such a vast range of people who use them - old and young, the very large to the very skinny (although Sundays at mine seems to be skinny minnies day but I like to up the average).

Baggy clothes are a great safety blanket but not flattering, I think you just need to get used to wearing fitted clothes in public(although Yoyo you went a stage further and wore heels - I have been looking at heels for some time but have not ventured into them properly). But I am terrible at not practising what i know to be (usually) true.

WWW - I started year at size 18 (and growing), did Cambridge for 2 months to drop about 2.5 sizes and have since been growing again to be a size 14 teetering on the edge of going-up-a-size-if-I-do-not-stop-the-rot-now. And that would be my caveat on these carb-lite diets (although obviously the Cambrdige diet is an extreme version with appropriate outcomes) - it is very easy to put on lots of weight very very quickly if you stray from the path because your body quickly stocks up its water and glycogen stores. But you sound very committed and have decided it is a life style choice which for me it couldn't be.

Ooh iamdingdong, didn't realise Kingham was near to Cheltenham which I love, but yes I am so looking forward to being in the middle of nowhere and going on some good long long walks(although rain is forecast ).

Anyway must go off and feed the poor dcs!

Always a possibility Marina, lol.

• Sunscreen yes
• No booze.
• 2 mile hike, plus 15 mins twister.

and an hour meandering around the park.

• Lots of water/weak tea
• Apply body cream lax
• Use hand cream lax
• Go to bed early, 10.30ish I think.
• Eat healthily. Better.
• Be happy. Tired. Work, oh what can I say? Staff are very unhappy. The park was a pleasant distraction.

pru - hotel looks wonderful. I love Italian holidays. Farrier so far keeping his shirt on (smart boy) but he's due again late June/early July so weather might be too hot for him to remain modest. No furnace alas, tis all modern gas burner things in the back of vans these days.

marina - Slimy World Cookbook sounds like something Roald Dahl penned!

Midwife visited today (not MY midwife, but a different useless one) who tells me I have a UTI (which I haven't noticed? ) and wanted to send wee sample off but didn't have any bottles so I had to go to the hospital after the school run just to pee in a cup). Tch! She says the little blighter is back-to-back again (and I have backache again) so I'm going to spend much of the evening crawling about.

Food good, moisturising everywhere good, lots of water. Sleep baaad but not my fault!

Oh no at back to back DofN and how can you have a UTI and not notice? How did she know? Bizarre. You don't have to elaborate on that if you don't want to, obv but since you've told us about yer piles, well... lol at farrier being gorgeous and lechy school run mums recommending him, ha ha, I wonder if they're like tree surgeons? (Moondog maintains they're all hot!)

Unknown, sorry staff are unhappy and work is rubbish but the rest sounds good.

Moonshine, ooh, that's interesting. I think I need to see results, being an instant gratification type and then if I have the odd piece of bread in the future it wouldn't be the end of the world but I will go back to weighing myself once I'm at the weight I want to be, on the basis that, as that Ruth Watson says (she wrote Fat Girl Slim if you catch it when it's only a few pounds you can fix it fairly quickly whereas if you leave it until you've got stones and stones to lose it's much more of a trial etc. I think I can do this as a lifestyle thing although I can't do the suggested vodka and soda instead of wine, so not sure what I'm going to do aobut that. The thought of wine being equivalent of pouring sugar down my throat has been surprisingly motivating from a not drinking it pov. Intereting about Cambridge, is it same then, low carb?

Marina, lol at supreme being, may change my name to that Is it your Slimy World night tomorrow then? Hope the official weigh is as good as your scales, bet it is. Glad you;re feeling motivated too.

Prufrock, that looks gorgeous, I love drooling over your holidays! When we are more solvent etc we are hoping to manage a fk off holiday next year so may be asking for advice. Dh and I managed to argue about whether it would be a break, given 2 children and he finally believed me when I said "NO COOKING, Just room service, fgs. No loading the dishwasher. No laundry."

Unknowm, ah, a LBD. Only a stone heavier than pre kids is great though and attainable, well done. Pre ds I was 8 stone 12 but MOVING swiftly on...

Yoyo, 3lbs is great, well done! And nice that someone thought you looked good. I find using this thread as a food diary is interesting. It would be interesting (only to me mind you!) to go back over the last year and see me posting "drank wine, loads of it, ate toast and bacon sandwiches and fried lard with oil on top" and correlate it to my current size

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Message withdrawn

I can't have iced cranberry Cod on India and Neris although am allowed vod and sod but don't remotely fancy it. Never mind, I am on third week of not drinking (apart from one night, last Sat).

Today:

2 haddock 'muffins' (haddock, egg, cream, coriander, cumin)
salad with spinach, tuna, anchovies, green beans, tomato, avocado, salad dressing
brazil nuts
Port Salut cheese and salami as a snack
tarragon chicken (chicken, tarragon, cream, lemon juice) with salad
lots of water
lots of vitamins
sunscreen at 7am and again before left work at 4.30
now have make up off and Flexitol on and will go to bed early, went at 10 last night but dd came in with us so although it was lovely having a sweet smelling soft small girl cuddled up to me I didn't sleep well. Never mind!

Feel happy as I feel thinner, work is fine and I have next week off.

Have just counted and it's 8 weeks until dh and I have 2 nights in a hotel together so that's something else to look forward to.

There's an idea, what have you all got to look forward to? Do post if it's cheering!

I hate cranberry juice cod. Though new midwife would probably recommend it for my 'imagined' UTI.

www - the midwife gives me a wee-stick which has about 8 different test patches on it for protein, sugar and er... other important stuff. My protein level was purple which is high, apparently, and midwife interpreted this as a UTI. But as I'm not having the slightest trouble or discomfort in weeing, drink at least 2 litres a day (like a good bootcamper should!) and have wee almost the same colour as the Evian that goes in, I think she's wrong! Anyway, sample has gone off to the lab for confirmation but I'll probably have given birth before the result comes back. So now you know!

Thank you both for the explanation and the genulflection

oh genuflection, ykwim!

another good day here food wise, swam after work too, no booze, poss not enough water today - I have had 3 disturbed nights due to excess water consumption of an evening!

I'm off to a spa with my size 8 (on a fat day) SIL next week, so am desperately trying to look ok ish before we go

"Supreme Being" was dd's first phrase, along with "sterminate"...you guess the rest. LOL at name change and at that lush menu www!
OK, for the purposes of enlightment, here is a typical day in SlimyWorld "Original".
Breakfast - Special K budgie seed Sustain and semi-skimmed milk
Lunch - lean roast pork from yesterday, runner beans en salade (tomato coulis with a shedload of garlic), cherry toms, pineapple
Dinner - sardines (nice ones from Connetable in a mustard sauce), plain baked potato, watercress. Half a mango. Yogurt.
Plus 2l of water etc and a large filter coffee
Go on, admit it, you all wish you were me
But six days in, I feel cheerful and energised after losing so much carbs from my diet, I really do
With SW you can also do "Green" which is veggie-friendly and pulse and carb heavy, but am determined to keep to original for now in the hope it will permanently alter my eating habits. Your warning noted moonshine. I do have an excellent council gym down the road actually, it is finding time to get there tbh. Where I work they are all £££ and full of permatanned stringy endorphin junkies alas.
DoNB, I love the useless MWs you almost always get sent at 38 weeks. Mine had me admitted to hospital for "monitoring" and the unit were all LOLing through gritted teeth when I arrived (panicking, it was my first) as I was the fifth to turn up from her day's stint. I would say that the ahem, protein, in your wee, was acquired on exit and from a different part of the forest, so to speak. So sorry about your back though
iamdingdong, if your SIL gives you trouble, tether her in the hottest steam room and hopefully she will melt away entirely.
Ureb, so sorry work is dire. I am temporarily cheerful about mine as my line manager is away but she is coming back all too soon.

Been to gym and did a fairly intensive session. Felt great. All Bootcamp boxes ticked today and will be heading off to bed in the next half hour or so.

SupremeBeing - sadly the lovely comments were made last year before my girth underwent its expansion. I may try the dress on tomorrow to see how it looks.

Marina - Slimy World menu doesn't sound as delicious as the Supreme one's but seems more of a diet as a result. Hope you have a good weigh-in tomorrow.

DoNB - my high protein test with one of the DC was a result of a prolonged show. Labour followed swiftly iirc.

We are all trying hard at the moment. Congratulations due all round I think.

lol at cod appearing here!

DoNB - sorry about your UTI and back to back - lots of scrubbing the floor for you!

Marina - good luck for the weigh in!

L&S - we may well try a veg box I think, when I am organised enough to order one.

We are infested with spots - ds2 is spotty - face and arms. Took him to the doc, who said 'Has he had all his vaccinations? Are you sure he had his MMR? Oh, well it's a non-specific virus then...' - so looked up measles and he has the symptoms - will take him back if he doesn't improve. He isn't 'ill' in himself now, just spotty!

lol at SupremeBeing's assertion as, well, Supreme Being after the would-be Supreme Being's...oh you get my drift....post.

Am making my second appearance today as dh is away at a conference and I just can't be bothered going to bed yet.

Marina - menu sounds fine, although would agree about the (not so)Special K. Put it this way, I have had cold chicken and crisps for my supper plus a couple of squares of Lindt 70% dark choc and lots of melon. But no booze since Saturday's one glass [semi-virtuous emoticon].

WWW - Cambridge is virtually carb-free so that you go into ketosis - but isn't that what the India/Neris diet is doing to you? It means you are not supposed to feel physical hunger most of the time and burn fat.

Of course I will be the last to post tonight because you are all in bed, greased-up from head to toe and plump with water...

Moonshine, yes India and Neris is no carbs, no sugar, no caffeine, no alcohol and yes, I think I must be in ketosis, I'm losing weight anyway so I don't care what it's called! But yes, is v similar to Cambridge but with more cals I think by the sound of it and I'm not hungry at all, which is fab and makes it not feel like a diet at all. Now Marina, that sounds like a PROPER diet! Well done.

Yoyo well done on gym. Yes, try dress on and tell us, it could be your barometer. I must dig out my wide leg trousers and hang them somewhere prominent as added incentive.

Am working from home today so bacon and eggs for breakfast, hurrah.

Ok, I have a question. When I was a teenager (all those years ago), all the healthy eating and 'weight loss' info said 'cut down on fats, sugar etc, eat bulky foods like pasta and baked potatoes.' Now admittedly this could be because I grew up in the North East, where you have chips with everything (dh was appalled the first time my dad had a chip butty) - but when did this all change for the low-carb thing? (This isn't at all a criticism, it's a genuine question!).

Well done everyone who is doing so brilliantly! Bootcamp is looking up!

I've no idea TS. It is odd, it's been quite a shock to me that eating like this has lead to weight loss.

With Dr Atkins I should think (but don't know). When I was growing up and dieting (do we ALL have histories of this?!) it was high fibre low fat and fat makes you fat, that was the idea.

Batters, they do say if you do the low carb and then go back to normal carbs you will stack it all back on again. Also if you do their diet and ADD carbs you will get very fat! So maybe take the bits you like (i.e. the commentary) and leave the rest (i.e the diet)? And carry on as you are? Or maybe cut down on carbs slightly for the last bit? They are in the MOST unexpected things though, so you will still need to read up on that. For example carrots are too carby for me atm. Weird hey? You can repeat the success of the last year I'm sure.

Ooh, holiday, where do you want to go? Where does dp want to go? (sorry to distract you from your work!)

And MArina I do hope one of these days we can get your girl and mine together, she sounds lovely.

TS, tbh I don't think it did. Respected and successful diet plans like the F (off) Plan and indeed SW "Green" still make use of complex carbs alongside low fats, limited dairy and plenty of fruit and veg. They work really well for some.
As do, more medically controversially it has to be said because of the potential strain on your kidneys, high protein/zero carb efforts like Cambridge, Fatkins, Neris & India and South Beach (and SW "Original" although it is not as carb-free as these and bloody mean about fats & oils).

I think it's a case of neither being wrong, but one type or the other will probably work better for you, depending on the underlying reasons for your need to lose weight, other health issues etc

I reckon the rise of Atkins & co is purely down to the fact that they are more fun. Well, they certainly look it . And like all diets, they will work if we stick to them. .

I will dig out something suitably smaller and much missed from my wardrobe and hang it up this weekend too - great idea. Mine's a burnt orange linen skirt, a fitted and smallish size 16. Virtually unworn

Weigh-in is tonight. Will report...

Batters, I too am a carb's best friend. Good luck with Neris and India - and where are you off on hols?

Dd is smarting from being told by some scamps of limited vision in her class that Dr Who is "not for girls". So she and ds have jointly drawn "Invasion of Barbie Daleks on Planet Skaro" featuring pink daleks with their babies (Adipose, one doing yoga, as the most effete activity ds could think of). David Tennant, with legs like Don Estelle and what looks like a comb-over is shrieking "aarrggh" and dd has inevitable written Sterminate over the top. One of ds' minutely detailed cybermen is in there too - I think it is threatening to upgrade them all to Year One

Have a good day all - mine started, not with crisps and Lindt alas, but with budgie seed and blueberries plus a sunny route-march though the City.

There's a book with interesting facts on diets, etc by Gary Taubes The Diet Delusion - the book itself is dry, bah. He's a gen-yoo-ine science writer though and it's very well researched. If you read the blurbs on the amazon page, you'll get the gist.

I am doing craptastically at bootcamp. My son is going into hospital in a couple of weeks for a 2 1/2 hour surgery in which bones will be sawn through and then screwed and plated back together in different positions (shudder). He'll be in for 10 days then off that leg completely for about 6-8 weeks, so crutches and wheelchair and being very very careful. Anyway, am going to keep the 10yy list and try to do the things on it in the interest of keeping something resembling sanity over the next couple of months.

And my mother is coming out for a month to help with my younger boy which is good but still my mother will be staying with us nearly a month and then my lovely mil (seriously) will be staying for 2 weeks to help which is great but still (repeat italics above replacing words as necessary).

And I am off now as I have been most days to pick my son up from school and take him into town for therapy (hydro this time). Thank fuck his school is lovely and kind and not academically pushy!

marina, I agree they do look more fun! You may be right, it may be what suits your lifestyle! It's interesting though, I think everyone would naturally say 'if you want to lose weight, cut out the carbs', which is so different to 15-20 years ago!

JJ - good luck for your ds - sounds horrible, I hope it goes well. And good luck with your houseguests!