How do you diet, I love chocolate, crisps, snacks of any kind.

[bensmum3]

Hi, I need to loose some weight and what seems like a huge amount of fat . Since I stopped breast feeding ds2 just over a year ago, I have been very gradually putting on weight. I'm still not huge, but big for me.
I would like to loose about a stone, but have never had a weight problem and love to snack and eat all the wrong things,(always got away with it before now) and I drink coke .
How can I find the will power to resist these things ? Can anyone suggest a plan to follow that would be easy with 3 children , as we do tend to eat together.

Bensmum, I've just started WeightWatchers NoCount plan and it (so far) seems fab. Though haven't done my 2nd weigh-in yet, so reserve judgement! Basically, you can eat certain food in unlimited quantities and have a number of points to spend on treats each week (I spend mine on vino!) It is a pricey-ish option though.

try shoping online. it's far easier to resist the urge to buy fizzy drinks and biscuits and crisps!

i used to cut up an apple into tiny pieces and keep it in thefridge and have a couple of bits when i got peckish,
also, if you think you are hungry, have a drink first... thirstiness is often mistaken for hunger.
try having a cup of tea, the heat increases blood flow in the stomach etc making you feel fuller!
before eating have a glass of ice-cold water

You can still have these things, just in moderation. Swap crisps for Snack-a-Jacks or Ryvita Minis, only have a little piece of chocolate or change for lower cal/fat bars - Milkyways, Frys cream, Crunchie are all much lower than Snickers, Mars bars etc. Swap full sugar coke for diet coke. These things would make a huge difference initially. I like WW Full Choice and find it reasonably easy, I still eat family meals, making things from scratch and adjusting recipes a little to make them lower in points really helps.

The most difficult bit is getting started, once you have started it's fine.

All the best!

Hi Bensmum, Just started looking at these links over a tasty salad on the first day of my diet. Dd is now 14 months old and I don't feel I've got any excuse to be overweight now!

I love all the bad stuff too and it's not easy to avoid it with 3 kids in the house, but I think I've just got to find the willpower from somewhere.

Do you fancy comparing weight loss online? Perhaps if we have to admit how much we have or haven't lost it would be an incentive not to snack. I've got about a stone to lose too (although a stone and a half would be fantastic!)
Are you up for it??!

This is my prob, I have started snacking on mounds of fruit instead not completely fool proof but does fill me up so I eat less choc etc.
Drinking wise I only allow myself on glass of coke etc a day and the rest cordial or juice or water. I can't drink diet pop as low sugar things almost always include Aspartame(evil) which gives me migraines.

You've inspired me bensmum ! I need to cut down on my sugar intake and of course I've got about 1 and a half stone of baby flab to lose. I've been a very good girl today and only eaten one chocolate biscuit - had homemade soup and bread for lunch and chicken curry for tea (courtesy of dh!) nibbles are my downfall though, especially when feeding during the night, so as many ideas as possible to keep me away from the chocolate please!!

Thankyou, lots of inspiration here,OK Noidea, have you a plan as to how it would work, I guess if I have to admit to not loosing anything it might spur me on a bit.
Just looking at this thread is making me hungry

Hi All, I think I have to cut out the junk altogether because if I start I know one biscuit won't be enough. I've been snacking on fruit and that's kept me going for all of the one day I've been doing this!
How about a weekly admission, Bensmum? Say, on a Monday morning? As of yesterday morning I weighed a horrible 10 stone 7 lbs

bensmum, my only way of resisting such things is to run past the aisles that sell them in the supermarket, with my eyes shut singing La la la Im not tempted

I find it's more about exercising than modifying diet although of course cutting down on 'treats' PLUS exercise should make a bigger difference.

Can you get to the pool at all to swim? I find that the most effective form of exercise in a short time iyswim. I do 20 mins about 4 times a week and it's enough.

Get the Paul McKenna cd and play it first thing in the am to keep you motivated during the day.

Allow yourself a bar of chocolate and a bag of crisps at the weekend. Definitely get rid of the coke, loaded with calories and the sugar rush will just make you want more. TBH if you stop snacking and give up the coke you will probably lose most of the weight without even trying. Don't buy any of the snacks even for your kids then you won't be tempted.

Hi Bensmum,

You beat me to it! I was going to post a thread on 'how to beat snacking'. I just can't resist sweet snacks being at home makes it worse I think.

I always use to be slim/skinny, but after 2 children and getting older, my body has changed and although I'm still slim, I'm not like I used to be around the middle! I can live with the change in shape, but can't afford to scoff for england without putting on a pound!!

I have a juicer and if I have time I make a glass of juice every day (carrots, apples, ginger, oranges, cabbage anything really). It's a great way to get your vitamins in and also fills you up. I also have stocked up on things to snack on during the day that are healthy (rice cake with low fat hummus) and that I like to eat. My problem is I think I have quite a fast metabolism, plus I am breastfeeding, so I seem to be hungry all the time and can feel my blood sugar going down at certain points of the day. I probably do have about 5 meals a day. because I am bfing, I'm not cutting anything out of my diet (apart from Snickers ) and am eating sensibly, just not the high fat stuff.

I'm also exercising, which will help a lot. Swimming and walking mainly, but a couple easy cardio workouts too.

Good luck!

Lipstickmum, I'm in asimilar position - it's really har to start watching your weight when you've never had to before, isn't it? . I'm b/fing atm too and have got 1.5 stone to lose (oh I said that already!). I really can't give up chocolate completely, I would be so miserable, so I'm hoping that if I do enough exercise and eat sensibly I might be able to do it.

So for the record - I weigh 9st10 atm and want to get down to 8 stone. Argh.

Ok, Monday morning it is then . I stood on the scales 5 minutes ago and weighed in at exactly 9 stone.I know its not monday morning and its the wrong end of the day, but its a baseline.
Hoping to stop snacking as from tommorrow, had 2 lots of chocolate birthday cake and popcorn today .

The only way I have ever successfully lost weight is by attending a formal slimming class. The peer support, formal weigh in, and seeing others in the class consistently loose weight spurs me on and gives me iron clad will power.

If I try and diet on my own I flounder quickly and can't resist chocolate and crisps either. But once I start attending slimming classes my resolve seems to strengthen enormously.

Reckon you should join a slimming class!

A slimming class sounds like a great idea, just like MN, support is really valuable when you are trying to achieve something difficult!

If I got my weight down to 9 or 8 st, would look very undernourished though!! I weigh about 10 1/2 stone and would ideally like to waiver at around 10, possibly just under.

I really cannot let myself get hungry (like now) that's when the demons tell you to eat something rubbishy isn't it??!! I've been out at a friends all morning so I haven't been able to snack as normal. I still have a little treat every day, just so I feel human and personally; chocolate is chocolate is chocolate and no amount of blueberries, strawberries and apples will ease that choccie rush

The hardest part of having to watch what you eat is the beginning, once I've cut down I can say no much more easily.

You're right Miaou, it's weird having to watch your weight affter years of never needing to and when you only have a few pounds to lose it seems even harder!

I've just eaten two chocolate biscuits...I'm pathetic, I'd been so good all day!

I'm looking in to going running atm, I live on a very quiet (flat) road and dh has offered to buy me some trainers. Think that might help make up for the chocolate!

Lipstickmum, bear in mind I am only 5'2", so 8 stone is a comfortable weight for me! Pre-children I was 7 stone (down to 6 when I was at uni - I was ill though!)

I think the MN slimming class might just do it . I managed to resist the offer of a piece of sponge cake today, and only snacked once on some mini cheddars instead of having lunch. I promise to try and eat properly and not snack tommorrow. I agree, fruit, however nice is never quite the same.
handlemecarefully, I would need an on line slimming class, as we don't have one locally.

miaou, we must have been writing at the same time there, take it slowly, your ds is still very little, and you need an extra bit of bulk to cope with feeding, unlike me who has absolutely no excuse now.

Hi. At the risk of sounding completely barking, here is how I got from a size 16 to a 12. I read on Friends Reunited a former college mate's blurb saying something like "I'm looking forward to the reunion in 6 months' time. I can't wait to see you all again." Well, that did it. If there was going to be a reunion (and it's so local that I couldn't not go to it) then I didn't want everyone to say "What happened to you? You used to be slim!" I went down in the next few months from 12 stone plus to around 11 and it just kept dropping off. I'm now around 9 stone and 3/4 and it's now about 15 months later. And I don't know what happened to the reunion. I don't think it took place as, despite my best efforts, I couldn't find anyone who knew about it!

bensmum, I've got to see the doc next week for my 6 week check, so I'll ask her opinion. Tbh I don't mind how sowly the weight comes off, just as long as I can see it happening, more cocerned with eating healthily and being fit (and getting out of my maternity clothes )

Ivor, nothing like a bit of peer pressure, is there?

Miaou -

Hi everyone!

Bensmum, that is my downfall as I've said; getting hungry then having a fast food snack

Miaou, I'm about 5' 8", so I suppose my weight would be abot right too. I just came across your birth announcement thread though!! Your baby was only born on the 2nd (??) August!!! Give yourself a chance girl. My dd2 was born on 2nd July and is 9.5 weeks old.

Ivor, well done for losing your weight slowly but surely, shame you couldn't wow them all at the reunion after all!!

Hi, the MN slimming class is definitely working for me! Every time I think about delving into the cupboard that houses the biscuits I remember that I have to admit to you all that I've been bad!
Miaou, I've always understood that you shouldn't diet as such if you're breastfeeding (that's been my excuse for so long anyway!) but, yes, healthy eating is good.
Ivor - respect!