OK, photo session booked for 1 months time ...

[minkymonkeymoo]

What's the best way to loose weight?

My dh will be away for most of that time and I am working full time (with a ds of 20 months) and have no child care so cannot visit slimming groups or gym ...

I know I just need to eat better but find it so hard to be disciplined when dh away. I am a size 14/16 but would really like to not be so lardy for the photos (pre pregnancy was a size 12)

Any advice please girls (apart from excercise and diet :)) Which diets work best and quickest ...

TIA

Lighter life! In a month you could loose at least a stone if not 2. I lost 5 stone in 14 weeks!

A healthy, realistic weightloss for that period of time is between 4 and 8lbs.

You can actually only lose 1-2lbs of fat a week. After that you're losing lean tissue and it's really bad for you. You have a child to look after and want to achieve fat loss that stays off. A lifestyle change is what you need, not a faddy quick fix.

A 20 month old is a brilliant aid to weight loss. Chasing around a park, out for walks, running around etc. You need to get out of breath and work a bit harder.

What is your diet like? You don't need to starve yourself, just eat healthily. Can you identify problem areas and tackle them? Like snacking in front of the tv? Or finishing leftovers from your ds's plate?

Don't have rubbish food in the house. Try eating things like flapjack for a snack as they will sustain you longer than sugary snacks.

A good breakfast helps.

And make sure you're drinking enough fluids.

Hunger is often thirst so if you're feeling hungry and you know you've eaten plenty, try a glass of water.

Home exercise dvds are great. Davina or 30 Day Shred are very good. In fact the 30 day shred would work well for your time frame! It's only short and you can do it once ds is in bed! Healthy diet and either Davina or 30DS, I reckon you'll see a real change in a month's time.

What's your food routine now? What you need to do is completely change habits that are not to do with the actual food so ie what time do you have each meal and which snacks? what do you tend to have? If you post more detail then I will try and help :)

Thanks all. I do want a realistic weight loss. I have known for ages that I should be doing it (eating more healthily) and am actually quite excited that I have booked this and now have something to aim for!

SOH - I don't know how I am not a size 8 with my 20 month old and the amount of running around I do with him! I need to try harder I guess :-) The shred sounds hard work but just what I need ...

Prinnie - I don't have too bad a diet but do tend to meet friends for lunch and cakes more now we have lo's. I need to check for ideas to snack on (I give my lo fruit and have biscuits myself ).

Thanks for your replies

Sorry Minkeymoo - from your response I don't think I explained what I meant very clearly and I don't want you to think I was implying that you had a bad diet!

Some ideas that worked for me are:

Have breakfast later - I used to have it at 7am before work but then I'd be hungry/snacking by 10am. I don't actually need breakfast until 9.30 - especially if I have a cup of tea, so I have breakfast later and find it lasts me until lunch then.

Have more savoury snacks that sweet ones - eating sweet foods such as biscuits as a snack often just leads to cravings for more sweet foods. Instead of biscuits (or even fruit) I have found that a couple of cheese and crackers or a piece of toast with marmite/peanut butter etc. stops my desire for endless chocolate/biscuits etc. As does having a savoury breakfast as well actually.

If you've got 4 weeks then depending on how often you're meeting friends for cakes/lunch you could probably lose nealy 1lb by just missing this for a month - depending on the types of cakes they could easily 500 calories each and so by missing 7 cakes and just having a cup of tea instead that would be 1lb gone :)

My other major tip would be to cut out all cold soft drinks other than water if you haven't already. I know some people who've dropped loads of weight by doing this.

Best of luck :)

Hi Prinnie. Sorry, I didn't take offence (me writing badly, I think)

Good advice about breakfast. I am the same as you - eat it early but don't really need it then or leave it and raid the biscuit tin! The soft drinks tip is good too - I tend to guzzle coke so need to fill up more on water.

Thanks for the support :)

Cool :)