I need some inspiration, please share your weight loss success stories

[Memoo]

I need to lose about 3 stone!

I am really struggling to find any motivation and thought some inspirational stories would help!

Me too!!

Hope i can motivate - and still getting used to the whole thing. Started last may 11stone 10lb and now around 8 stone 6. Reached goal i think november. I am 5foot 1 and 42 and never been on diet before just crept up. I used food focus - porrige for breakfast, salad lunch normal evening meal but majority of plate salad, small carbs and middle size protien. Snacks fruit. For 3 weeks used food focus and then once i had an idea of calories etc slowly stopped and then in Nov went back to food focus to slowly increase calories (as now weigh less need less)dash! i have timetabled exercise still - legs bums tums x1, power pump x1 and 2 swimming of a mile each time (in summer time will go back to 3 swims and one class but i swim in a lido whih has no winter lights. Now size 10 and feel great - adore clothes shopping. Hope this is of help - i feel boasty but honestly I approached the whole thing like a project and did not stray. Oh also weighed myself only once a week in boots and kept receipts. So now got to keep it off as no way do i want to go back.

I was 14.2 in May 2009. By June 2010 i was 10.1, so 4st1 off in 13 months. My loss was c. 2lb per week to start with, dropping to 1lb per week after about 3 months.

I used FoodFocus to log ALL my food and exercise for about 8 months and did 4 lots of 30mins exercise (which raised the heartrate) each week. They key for me was finding that actually i could have a small breakfast and lunch but loved my dinner in the evening. I know this goes against diet wisdom but it worked for me

Crispy that is great - i love food focus and still go back every now and again. I discovered it from here and it was my saviour.

Sorry for jumping on the thread memoo but that sounds great guys, I'm def gonna google this Food focus thing. My problem is the evening munchies, its become such a habit that as soon as the kids r in bed and the soaps come on i dont feel right without a cup of tea and something to munch, trouble is that something usually leads to another something until about 1000-1500 calories later i stop.
I dont usually eat anything until i have tea with kids bout half 4. I've never been a morning eater and usually just live on brews til then.

Karen - i ought to be FF'ing again to shift the Xmas few pounds, but i am pretty aware of what cals are in stuff. Well done you on your loss, i can only dream of 9 stone something, let alone 8!

Flojo, i was on 1200 calories a day, roughly split 100, 300, 700 for breakfast, lunch and dinner with 100 for drinks/fruit. It is very easy to eat more than 700 calories in snacks/wine/chocs and for that you could have fish & chips (oven baked ), a yoghurt and a G&T. Could you have a small tea with the children and then something more filling after they are in bed? I stopped eating with the DCs (just prepared my lunch with them and had a cuppa at teatime) as this was the time i was mindlessly shovelling in food without enjoying it.

Memoo, I've been doing SW as you know and lost just under 2 stone since september, but had 4 weeks off over xmas/new year etc.. so am on course to have lost another stone I hope within the next 6 weeks . I am finding it really quite easy and doable and easier if i have a bad day food wise, to draw a line udner it and carry on better the next day, rather than writing the whole week/month off

You've all done so well!

I might give SW a go lulu, have done ww's before but so bored with it now. I know you go to the meetings, do you find that keeps you motivated rather than just doing it alone?

Crispy there aint no way i can live on 100 cals for drinks, i expect my semi milky cuppa with 1 sugar (reduced from 2) is over 200 per cup and i have at minimum 3 a day.

I cant go to SW or WW meetings cos i have DD 24/7, shes only 2 and no dad or babysitter. Which also means my gym membership hasnt been touch for months (total waste of money :-(, i did buy a wii but novelty wore off very fast. In fact i'm here now cos this is the time when i usually flick soaps on and start munching.
Not 700 cal snacks, more like 1500 cal snacks :-(

I have lost two stone and kept it off over the last two years - sometimes half a stone has crept on but I have always lost it again.

I now weigh 9 stone (am 5.2) and wish I weighed eight and a half, but I am happy with my size and shape now.

The best thing I ever did was start to exercise. I try to do the infamous Shred exercise DVD most days and it has worked so well. I have a girl crush on Jillian

Well done humphrey, i guess the hardest thing is keeping it off

it is for me, as frankly I am greedy

I have just read your last post and it sounds like you are feeling a bit down about it all?

I tend to start a diet slowly - just make one change in a week (like stopping bread for example) and then another change a week later, then another. I find it eases me in gently and the shock isn't too bad.

I've gone back to SW this week after quite a long break (about 2 or 3 years!). Seems to be going ok at the moment. Not finding it too hard. Aiming for 3 stone initially. Will let you know how it goes on Wednesday after the first weigh in!

also Paul McKenna CD has REALLY helped me in the past. I listened to it every day at one point.

You can find a way that works for you Flojo1979

memoo, the meetings do help, in as much as you get ideas and inspiration and support, i've made a couple of new friends... our leader is v v good, with new ideas, recipes , things to taste every week and can answer any question you ask.. whereas I have heard other leaders are far less helpful

you can do it online, but i don't know much about it as i've not done it that way

once you get into a routine, it's not that hard , but i need the weekly expectation of weigh in ( no scales at home ) and hte support of everyone

Have a look at

I often watch it to motivate myself.

I think thats a good idea humph, just making small changes, probably more chance of sticking to it.
Bread it probably my biggest weakness, as i've had bought 3/4 loaf today, as do most days.

bread makes me fat, period. It makes me bloat and it makes me hungry later. So I eat more.

If you eat that much bread, why don't you try cutting it down for a week - four slices a day instead? Having a sense of achievement by making small changes and sticking to them is really helpful in the long run.

good point, at mo i tend to go thro phases, i dont buy bread so find something else to eat and then i do buy bread and convince myself it needs eating else it'll go off. Crazy i know.

I went low-carb on November 2nd, because the 1st had been a particularly humiliating day. I was 194lbs and a size 22.
I am now 157lbs, a size 14, and the number on the scales is still going down every week!
Good luck.

Wow Javotte!! you have really lost 33lbs in what 9 or 10 weeks? Are you just doing low carb or are you doing one of the VLCD like Lighter Life or Cambridge.

Congratulations all of you who have lost weight and kept it off, I am hoping to join you in about 4 months!

Just low carb, with homemade food. It was spectacular, my cravings disappeared in a few days. I eat around 900-1000 calories a day, but I don't exercise a lot (no time!).

cameron, thanks for that, really inspiring.

javotte, never tried low/no carb before but obviously very impressed with your results, well done. Could you post a typical day/week menu?

I tried the low carb atkins type diet and it nearly killed me, ok slight exaggeration, but i never felt sooooo ill. But I'm def gonna try to cut down, starting today, so far - 1 cup of tea - 0 exercise!

If you can do hard core then low carb is a good way of shifting weight fast - although difficult and not ideal as a long term lifestyle as you miss out on lots of nutrients so need to supplement.

I lost 3 stone in less than 3 months a couple of years ago - I've bobbed up and down half a stone when I have overdone it but have maintained the weight loss, although would like to loose another stone to sit well within my ideal BMI.

When I was low carbing I would eat eggs and bacon for breakfast, chicken or ham salad for lunch and then for dinner I would have the same as the family just minus the carbs - so I would have bolognese sauce but no pasta; a roast dinner minus potatoes/ yorkshires etc.

Treats (if you can call it that!!) was sugar free jelly and sugar free sweets.

Let me find a link to Custardos blog cos there is loads of really helpful info on there.