Starting today... 2st to lose.

[owlets]

Whilst shopping with my super slim friend over the weekend I realised just how fat I feel - and getting on the scales provided proof. I've put on 2 stone - 1 stone of which has come on very recently ( think a month or two?!).
Other than looking lumpy and increasingly featureless, my legs are achy and I don't feel like I've woken up properly ever.
So, I'm going to start on the diet today. The plan is to eat lots of veg and fruits, lean meats, and limited carbs. I'm going to have 3 decent sized meals a day, and not snack unless I'm truely hungry.

I'm going to weigh myself and post on here every Tuesday. Anyone who wants to join in please do!

Starting weight; 11st 13.
(Target weight 10st so 1st 13lbs to lose)

Can I join? I also need to lose 2 stone. I started the Cambridge Diet in thur, and have lost 7 lbs in 4 days. Though not one morsel of food has passed my lips! Just the shakes/soups.
Pretty hardcore but desperate times call for desperate measures

Hi Lambskin and thanks. Have actually been struggling a bit this last week or so, mainly because I've found it hard to find the time for my workouts and also because I'm struggling to think of things I want to eat that I have enough time to prepare.

I'm not struggling with not eating bad food anymore really, because its been off the menu so long now, that I just don't think about it anymore. I did have some of dh's eve's pudding last night and it tasted ridiculously sweet, even though I had it with fat free natural yoghurt instead of custard.

Good luck with the school meeting, I'll keep everything crossed for you for it being a lovely inclusive school that will do whatever it takes to support your ds. Hope he takes to the idea of going back to school as well.

SuckToBeMe - of course you can join, welcome. I'm afraid there's only three of us left now though and posting can be a bit sporadic sometimes. I still have 16lbs to lose to get to my goal weight, so I'll be here for quite a while yet. Well done on a great start by the way. 7lbs in 4 days is great and excellent motivation to stick with it.

We tend to weigh in on a Friday morning, although as you will see from my posts, I can never resist weighing myself more regularly.

wow, sucks!
and wow, moose! normal bmi? woohoo!

i've had a shocking week and clearly assumed that because i had ramped up the exercise i needed to eat more (well, it wasn't conscious, but having read the scales and actually looked at what happened my 2 lbs on make sense.) i always put on a bit if i ramp up exercise anyway, but not only that it was hallowe'en and i may have fallen foul of that 'wow, look at all this exercise, i really deserve a mini caramel bar' once or twice. idiot. and dh cooked three times and i was caught in that huuuuuuge portion trap where you have to work out whether it's the lesser of the evils to leave half of it and risk hurting his feelings/ being ungrateful, or noshing it downa dn thinking 'better do another half an hour'

so i need to get a grip again.

and i need to sort my typing out, as it's shocking at the mo.

Don't panic, 2lbs isn't necessarily a gain, it well within the bounds of water retention and daily fluctuation.

If you feel you haven't been strict enough with yourself, that's a good thing, at least you're recognising and addressing it, but if you have gone up a gear on the exercise, you actually do need to eat more, so you weren't wrong about that. If you need to work out how much, you could register on mfp fot the sole purpose of logging some of your exercise to see how much you're burning and therefore how many calories you need to eat back.

People keep asking me how I've kept my weightloss slow and steady and I have to be honest and credit MFP. Its really helped me get a proper handle on portion size, realistic calorie burn and good vs bad calorie choices. Not to mention, it really kicks me into touch when I see my calories, fat or carbs in big red numbers because I haven't tried hard enough that day and reminds me actually making sure I eat enough calories is as important as not eating too many. I've vever stuck at weightloss for this long before, or had such good results and the only thing I'm doing differently is logging on MFP.

I have had to re-educate my dh about portion sizes too. I just keep the scales on the worktop, ask him just to plonk my plate on top and note down the weight of each thing that goes on my plate (I keep a small notepad and pencil next to the scales) and make sure I've told him that for example, I can only have 30g of cheddar with that meal or that x amount of potato would take me over my limit for the day. Then I can still eat pretty much anything he cooks, just less of it, without offending him. He's getting pretty good at doing it without being reminded now and I think secretly he sees it as a way of showing his support.

mfp seems like such a fag though

i might have another look - it always seems as though i'd spend more time putting stuff on it than doing anything! dh's portion sizes are way out of whack. i think i'm going to do the 'use smaller plates' thing for a while. dh is a foot taller than me and built like a rugby player... but apparently thinks i need the same amount of calories.

i might track it for a few days and see what it says...

Madwoman, I would agree that mfp is brilliant for keeping portion sizes in check, and for getting the fuel in fuel out balance right. Don't get disheartened it's only one week, next week and the week after will be so much better - especially if you feel in control of your eating which is another thing mfp gives you. The fact that you're doing exercise is the hard part. Chin up!

Hello SucksToBeMe (surely not true)! Welcome to the gang. Don't get frightened off by the fact that we are few, we are also mighty! I must say you have more willpower than me (I seem to be saying that a lot!), how much do you have to lose?

Thanks for the good luck wishes moose, off in an hour and a half - argh! I agree that it's hard to keep thinking of good food choices that are also interesting especially when it's cold and wet. Good that your taste buds have changed though . I keep having to change the days and times I workout to fit around ds2 and have gone whole weeks without doing anything!

How did it go Lambskin?

No workout for me today and I've barely eaten thanks to ds1's blooming SA Request. Still have loads to do on it, but have given myself the rest of the night off to have a long bath and fret about my MRI. Have to be at the hospital for 7.30 am in the morning.

How are you getting on Sucks?

Hi all! I have my way in tomorrow. Six days in to CB I have still lost 7lbs, so not lost anything the past few days. Hopefully will continue to lose. But I just don't know where all my flabby stretch marked skin will go???

How's everybody getting on?

Just to add I started at 11.7 and am only 5 ft so I look like a balloon!! I need to get to 9st. Sorry, should've added stats on first post.

Oh moose was it MRI day yesterday? How was it? How are you?

The meeting at the school went well I think, ds2 and I are having a visit on Monday to their nurture group. His year group happen to have a high proportion of kids with SN - 2 have statements and 1 will be getting one by the end of the year - so they have loads of the experience that was sadly lacking at his last school. Very impressed with the Head and the SENCo. Just have to convince ds2 now

Sucks, are you exercising too? It's the best way to make sure you don't get the excess skin/flab thing and you'll lose weight quicker, but I don't know if you'd feel light headed if you're not eating. I should be 9 stone 3 apparently but am stuck on 10 stone. By body seems to like it here and I've lost motivation at the moment. Too much I fear

Morning Lambskin, glad the meeting went well. The school sounds good and it makes such a difference when they know their SEN stuff and are actually willing to support SN children. Hope ds likes it and wants to go there.

Yep, MRI was yesterday and it was horrible. For some reason I found it much harder than last time, maybe because I knew what to expect. This time I found I was really claustrophobic and had to really try hard to hold myself together and not press the button to escape. Came out feeling very shaky and did nothing but curl up on the sofa for the rest of the day.

Then there was trouble when I went to collect ds1 yesterday afternoon. As if we've not got enough on this week. Basically, he was forced to eat someone else's sandwiches by a dinner lady who wouldn't believe he had just found them on the floor and picked them up! He can't eat gluten fgs and she made him eat the lot! He's even on their 'list' so that they know he can't eat gluten. She tried to defend herself saying she can't possibly know all the children who have food allergies and they can't exactly have photos of them all etc - but she's on a sticky wicket there, because she knows perfectly well who ds1 is, as she was our next door neighbour until she walked out on her husband a few months back!

Despite living next to us for a few years and us only ever having been amicable, smile and hello type neighbours, ever since she started working at the school she has made a point of causing trouble for my boys at lunchtimes. She makes a beeline for ds1 in particular, as she knows she can get a rise out of him. She tends to start an argument with him, accusing him of something he hasn't done - then when he gets stressed, upset and tries to defend himself she reports him to his teacher - when in actual fact he's done nothing wrong. This was the fourth time she's reported him to his teacher in two weeks!

She's had all the autism awareness training along with the rest of the staff, but for some reason refuses to 'get it'. Just the day before yesterday, another child accidentally knocked ds1's lunch on the floor and she accused him of deliberately throwing it on the floor himself, then made him eat it, despite him having OCD type anxieties around germs. She then went and told his teacher that he'd argued and been rude to her! Fortunately teacher agreed that ds1 was in the right. Yesterday she accused him of trying the same thing again, because he got away with it the day before! When in actual fact, he found someone else's sandwiches on the floor under his table and having been taught about and feeling strongly about littering, not to mention the Head recently having a big push on keeping the dinner hall tidy, he picked them up and took them to the bin, where she intercepted him, accused him of trying to throw his own sandwiches in the bin, started a huge row then made him eat them! Luckily they were cheese not meat - as he's veggie as well as gluten free.

Dh was livid when I told him and said he was going to write a formal complaint about the dinner lady, but then by the time he got home from work late last night, he said he wasn't convinved ds1 was telling the truth and what if they were actually his sandwiches after all. I explained that I was sure he was telling the truth and so was his teacher and this was backed up by the horrendous stomach upset he had at bedtime last night. Apparently, he ate the sandwiches because he couldn't get the dinner lady to listen to him and she just kept shouting him down. Then, when he went back to lessons he quietly went and told his teacher that there had been a problem at lunchtime and he was worried because he'd had to eat some gluten and food that had been on the floor. Why on earth would he do that if he'd been lying and the sandwiches were his! Anyway, dh decided to cross examine ds this morning, still said he wasn't sure, so has just said to tell the teacher we will make a formal complaint if there is one more incident involving this dinner lady.

I'm steaming mad with dh. He's not around, doesn't have to deal with the fall-out himself, didn't speak to the teacher and has no reason to doubt ds1, who does not as a rule tell lies anyway - and yet again this bully of a dinner lady is going to get away with picking on our child.

And breathe .....

I was hoping I'd be in a better mood this morning, but sadly not.

lambskin I am not allowed to excersize on sole source plus as I am only on around 450 calories a day! I thought about doing a bit of excersize but I feel light headed just walking up a hill!

How is everybody else getting on?

oh blimey moose. what a palaver.

i'd be tempted to ask for a meeting with the teacher and go through your concerns re the lunch supervision. how was ds this morning? how long will it take for him to get over the gluten? i have to say she absolutely needs a formal warning wrt to her attitude to allergies and knowing which children have them.

it's her job to know that. it's what she's paid for. what on earth would happen if she forced a child to eat something and they went into anaphylactic shock? she absolutely needs a formal warning for her that. (i know in most places they reduce the risk of severe allergic reactions by limiting foodstuffs in school, but that attitude could still be very dangerous at worst, and unpleasant for a child to have to deal with symptoms at best). i think whatever dh said, i would have to discuss the complete lack of responsibility this dinner lady has. just in case next week she forces a child to eat something else and causes a more serious reaction.

sorry to hear the mri was a struggle. hopefully they will get some good clear pictures and can rule out all of the scaries. have you got an appointment booked for your results? hopefully you won't have to wait too long. glad you hunkered down and recovered for the day. sometimes retreating to the sofa is the best thing all round. x

sucks - is that entirely wise? i couldn't exist on that few calories. have you got some medical supervision if your intake is routinely that low? anything that makes you light headed in your normal daily acitivities can't be a good thing?

would it not be possible to take in more calories and do some exercise? healthier all around? at least you'd get some nutrients and be exercising your muscles, which would increase your metabolic rate and lead to faster loss in the end?

Hi madwoman

Just back from parents' evening. We raised the lunch-time incident and it turns out the teacher is as steaming mad about it as we are. Apparently she went straight to the Head about it as soon as she'd dealt with the actual incident yesterday and went back to speak to the dinner lady concerned today as well.

We pointed out that just because he's not anaphylactic and you can't see the reaction, doesn't mean that its not extremely serious with potential long-term health related consequences for him etc, but in actual fact she was already aware and on board. She said it was a failure on the part of the school to protect ds's health, that it was totally unacceptable and all they can do is apologise sincerely and promise to do everything they can to make sure it can't happen again.

We also told her that if there is even one more incident involving that particular dinner lady we will be putting in a formal complaint and she said she would pass that onto the Head as well.

Fortunately she is an Assistant Head and currently acting Deputy Head as well, so she's a good person to have on side.

Ds had an awful stomach upset last night and was up twice in the night for the toilet as well, the second time was in the small hours and he was up for over an hour. He is going to his best friend's house for a sleepover tomorrow night and this is really bad timing, as when his guts get inflamed from gluten he often wets the bed. Of course it affects his behaviour, his concentration - everything really and can take a couple of weeks to settle down. He's only ever had an accidental mouthful before, not whole sandwiches, so we're not sure what's going to happen really - just one mouthful of soda bread on holiday this year kicked off weeks of malabsorption and digestive upset that lead to him dropping a load of weight and becoming very pale, weak and easily exhausted.

oh truly awful for the poor chap.

it is good news that the teacher is on side though. bad enough that ds is suffering (and will continue to do so for a while) but such a potentially dangerous attitude. the fact she attempted any sort of 'how am i supposed to know' wrt to allergies is astonishing. there is a reason the school make a list, and it's not so that she can ignore it.

urgh. hope he manages to get over it quicker than last time.

how was the rest of your meeting? how's he coping at school now?

The rest of parents' evening was great actually. The fact that we were there at all was amazing, as last year's teacher flatly refused to see us, as she said she already saw us at IEP reviews and had nothing more to say.

She said she loves having him in her class, thinks he's great and is particularly impressed with his energy for learning. She feels he is making progress in learning to not shout out his ideas and interrupt and both her and his maths teacher are very happy with his academic progress so far this year.

We found out that she's taught a few children who have AS in the past, which explains why she is so good at handling and motivating him and she offered to tell him some positive stories about a few of them, as he's full of questions about how Aspergers affects him and makes him different than his peers at the moment. She says she thinks she can show him how having Aspergers was a positive thing for some of her other pupils and help us to emphasise that everyone is different and unique, so not every child with AS will be the same - as that's something he's wrestling with at the moment as well.

Ds2's teacher had similarly lovely things to say about him. She said he's a lovely child, a pleasure to teach and is well on target with his maths and literacy. She's selected a piece of his creative writing and put it up on the wall in the classroom because she thought it was so good. It wasn't one that she'd done a specific display for, it was just his work and nobody elses. Apparently, she just did it because she thought it was so good that everyone should get to see it. He was nearly fit to bust with pride!

aw, how lovely! for both!

concentrate on that, now. my orders.

i'm still umming and aaahing about he. ds1 is still pondering. life is rumbling on.

Aye, aye Cap'n Madwoman!

Have you asked him to consider if he wants to be HE'd then? I asked ds1 loads of times, but the answer was always no, even when he was really struggling at school.

we've let him know it's an option. i have no idea whether that's a good thing or whether it's increased his anxiety lol. i'm leaving it open for a bit whilst we all think about it.

he has follow-up paed appt next tues. so i've got to get my head in order a bit. have been putting off the snapIV checksheet, as i know he'll come out adhd. but don't know why i'm putting it off. maybe not being officially dx is easier as it leaves the door open for toher things? tis a no-brainer. i think maybe i know he will come out adhd but i know there's more to it, and so am kind of fighting him being 'boxed' like that... daft, because i know the paed also sees more than one issue. ho hum.

so far he's said no. but he keeps making comments like 'well, if you want me to be homeschooled' or 'well, i don't know if i'll be there for that trip if i'm h-ed' and i wonder if he's trying to get me to make the decision for him. life is never simple.

I understand the putting it off. I was the same with some of the checklists we had to do for ds1's dx. I still have days where I wonder whether ds actually has the correct dx or if there isn't something else thrown into the mix as well.

That school turnaround is odd. Was it in the UK? Could it have been something to do with them suddenly realising that if he had a dx they would have to start supporting him properly and actually expending their precious resources?

I'm suspicious there's a fair bit of that going on around ds1 now his SA request is going in. I know that his class and maths teachers are genuinely fond of him and are working really hard to support him. He's so much happier at school and I have seen some improvement in his work as well, so they are definitely helping, but some of the stuff we're being told he can 'suddenly' do is just a bit too far fetched for my liking and highly co-incidental given the timing.

Had to laugh this evening when his teacher, bless her, said 'when he gets his statement through' perhaps the LEA would hand over some money for him to have a laptop at school, as the Alphasmart is causing its own issues around not thinking about layout and presentation. She obviously has no idea how these things work and thinks if we apply for SA he will just miraculously be given a statement and a nice big fat wadge of cash to spend as we like to go with it! I didn't have the heart to tell her the reality when she was being so optimistic!

bless. dd2 used an alphasmart briefly but it was def too simplified. she needed the freedom of a laptop/ netbook rather than the limited text/ view of the alphasmart. they are great for a lot of kids though. we had spent the best part of a year discussing recording though, and the school were umming and aahiing about funding, so i offered to buy a laptop. more umming, becasue it would be used at school and home/ potential for viruses etc. then someone at the school 'remembered' they had a whole cupboard full of alphasmarts that were never used.

dd2's teacher (who was new to the school) nearly had a cow on the spot. she was practically foaming at the mouth at the ineptitude.

but no, this was a canadian school. (the last one). i have no idea what happened. even after that the same teacher would come out with the 'like einstein' comment, and agree that it was impossible for him to focus, but one day he would do something brilliant etc etc. so whether she was just vehemently anti-labelling, or decided we were going to hang draw and quarter him... i dunno. but sure as eggs is eggs, we're still in exactly the same position. with yet another teacher's view that something is Not Right. they all really like him though, and i suppose are trying to protect him. from what is anyone's guess. (and mrs Perseverance is going to end up being the death of me, let alone him!)

mind you. i suppose i do similar to the school are - they all have good days and bad days. some days i think 'what am i worried about? he's fine!' and the next i'll spend four hours trying to get him to x,y or z with him being completely unable to comply. and crying, screaming. and soiling. and wetting. and have cut down further on allowable foods.

maybe your school are doing the same? just the usual parental vacillating, with bells on?

Morning weigh-in day again already.

Stats:

Starting weight 16/6: 14st 2lb
Weight 24/6: 13st 8lb
Weight 1/7: 13st 7lbs
Weight 2/7: 13st 5lbs
Weight 13/7: 13st 4lbs
Weight 14/7: 13st 1lb
Weight 21/7: 12st 13lbs
Weight 29/7: 12st 11lbs (and 6oz)
Weight 16/8: 12st 9lbs (weighed in Tues not Fri due to holidays)
Weight 19/8: 12st 8lbs
Weight 20/8: 12 st 7lbs
Weight 26/8: 12st 8lbs 4oz
Weight 2/9: 12st 6lbs
Weight 9/9: 12st 5lbs
Weight 15/9: 12st 2lbs - 2 stone off!
Weight 23/9: 12st 1lb
Weight: 30/9: 11st 13lb 6oz
Weight: 7/10: 11st 12lb 6oz
Weight: 8/10: 11st 11lb
Weight: 14/10: 11st 9lb 6oz
Weight: 21/10: 11st 8lb 6oz
Weight: 28/10: 11st 8lb 2oz hmm
Weight: 4/11: 11st 7lb exactly
Weight: 11/11: 11st 5lb

So, I did manage to meet my second target after all. Not sure how, as I've only managed a workout once this week, its my totm and my eating hasn't exactly been saint-like either. Not complaining though.

Will go for a target of 11st 4lb next week, that will be 3 stone off from when I first weighed myself, before I started logging.

Am a bit disappointed that it seems I'm still not in the healthy weight category as expected. Dh measured my height for me the other day and it seems I've managed to lose half and inch somehow. So that's affected my BMI calclulations and I have another 3lbs to go now.

Right, now that's out of the way I will go back and read your last post from yesterday madwoman.

It does sound odd that teachers still seem to think that labelling a child is a problem, rather than a route to support. I know in the UK its down to lack of mandatory SEN training for teachers, perhaps its the same where you are?

As you said, I still wobble about his dx, then I have mornings like todays where he's traumatised at the thought of a birthday party and sleepover and won't let go of my hand in the playground. He wouldn't even go and see his best friend (whose party it is) and that's unheard of, as usually he can't wait to dash across the playground knocking people flying in his haste to reach him. Lots of tears this morning as well.

I know he needs to do these things, but I really wish he wasn't going, especially after last week's film night debacle. It think he'd have been ok with just the crazy golf party, its the sleepover that has him all knotted up and anxious and the fact that he won't see me for 24 hours from when I dropped him at school this morning. I offered to go and see him when I'm collecting ds2 today, but he said no as the other boys won't have their mum's there.

I have a heavy heart for my poor boy today.