Cried in the changing room

[PinkIsMyFavouriteCrayon]

Today I went shopping and finally realised how big I've gotten over the past year since having DD and subsequent PND. It didn't help I was stood next to my very thin and attractive mum at the time, but what I saw in the mirror made me cry real tears of despair. So I've decided to do something about it and wondered if there were any nice mumsnetters out there who had any advice to give?

I'm looking at kickstarting my weight loss with lighter life, does anyone have any experiences of it? And could anyone tell me about the costs involved? My BMI is above 30 so would have to go the whole hog and not do food, which seems quite scary, especially with Christmas dinner looming! A few people I knew at my previous workplace tried it, and a fair few seemed to regain the weight, is that common?

A big thank you in advance!

I can't say about lighter life - I've no experience.
What I would say though, is that its probably taken a while to gain this weight and to lose it in a way that will be healthy and maintainable, it will take a while to lose.
Don't lose heart and don't think you can fix this overnight.
Take a realistic look at your diet and level of exercise and activity and start planning some realistic changes - don't beat yourself up too much either.
I'm currently heavier than I'd like to be, and know from experience, that I need to eat and drink less and be more active.

I've gone from a 20 to 16, not massive and it has taken a few months, but i am also toning up as well as losiong weight: swim twice a week so ypu don't get black eyes from big boobs at the gym and eat smaller portions, not daft miniscule portions or you will cave in a eat cake like a dinosaur, and stop eating when you are full!

Hi Pink, sorry to hear about today. It must have been horrendous for you. People will have all kinds of opinions about LighterLife, but not all diets work for everyone.
I lost 5 stone with Lipotrim, which is a pharmacy based version of Lighterlife. You do get counselling meetings with Lighterlife which you don't have with Lipotrim, hence LT is cheaper.

When I did this, I replaced the counselling with educating myself, also went on a forum called Minimins (google them, they're nice!) and that helped with the moral support side of things.

Good luck, it honestly will work for you if you're prepared to commit to it. BTW I did food replacement over the Christmas period and it was not a problem.

Aw pink It's horrible isn't it? I'm on meds for depression which have piled the weight on for me, and I had to go and buy new clothes recently, including a winter coat as none of mine would fasten . I was feeling very down afterwards....and everything I bought has been boring black.

No experience of lighterlife etc, but I have a friend who lost over three stone on it. I couldn't do it personally as I've always been a bit of a foodie and know that a shake just wouldn't leave me feeling satisfied so I would crave food more. I'm also pretty sure that they all contain lots of wheat proteins and I'm coeliac so that kind of rules it out.

I weighed myself this morning and was distraught at the result. Sooner I can stop these pills the better

And i never weighed myself. Ever. Too easy to get fixed on half punds and ounces and a minor gain being seen as failure: I just check how loose my jeans are and what belt notch I'm on, then minor blips aren't noticed so you don't get down about it too easily

Pink, you may look back on today and see the changing room incident more positively.

In May I went to try to buy jeans and cried in the changing rooms and like you just felt sooooo miserable. I couldn't believe my own stomach. I've always been a bit pudgy but I resolved to put off buying the jeans til I'd lost a chunk of weight.

In August I went and got jeans 5inches smaller! I honestly look back on that shopping trip as the moment I needed to get into 'the zone' - I've never successfully dieted before. I did it by calorie counting and trying to eat less than 1500 calories and to make sure I drank 3 litres water a day to fill me up.

You realy have my sympathy. But today could be the first day of the rest of your life...

Good luck!

Pink have you thought about Slimming world (or WW) these are both sensible eating programmes with support. I lsot 5 stone in a year with SW.

Also take a look at exercise dvds or if you have a Wii stuff on there. I can recommend Jillian Micheals 30 day shred DVD

Pink, today will have been what they call your 'lightbulb' moment. Just remember about losing weight, exercising and generally improving yourself, that the only obstacle is you. The only valid excuses for not sticking to your diet and not exercising etc are illness and work emergencies. Anything else is just an excuse. If you live with a dp or dh, then you can get up at the crack of dawn etc and exercise. You CAN do it, you just need to sit down and work out a plan. As soon as you start losing weight, that will be enough to keep you going to your goal

I second Jillian Michaels shred dvd. If you go to any of the biggest loser trainer websites, they have all the tools to lose large amounts of weight and get fit. I did Michelle Bridges 12WBT (12 week body transformation) and it was great. Just go to the 12wbt website and have a read. Good luck.

Thank you for all your kind replies. I am starting to realise I have to take responsibility for my own actions, and cant use my PND excuse forever. I've done WW before and it did work, but just need to get over my shyness at meetings! Getting up early is a good idea, DH gets up at 5am to go to work so will get him to force me to get out of bed and do some exercise!!