Right, here we go again - losing weight because I need and want to. Come and join me.

[StealthPolarBear]

I am at the age where it is just a matter of (short) time before I develop a health problem relating to my weight - joints, Type 2 diabetes or even a heart attack. It really is that serious.
I am sick of not having any "nice" clothes (don't want to invest until I lose weight ).
I did it in summer, stuck to it for ages which is something I have never managed to do. I CAN do it again.

So here's the plan. Back to foodfocus as of tomorrow. No days off (logging, although I may choose to eat more than I am "allowed". Everything must be logged.
No excessive competitiveness with myself. I truly believe this is part of the reason it all went wrong.

3 or 4 lb to lose every week. Might sound a lot but it's easy when you're big - I'm sure I could do it by just eating 3 normal sized usual meals a day. So pathetic if I can't.

Coming back here to report on progress. Caring and supportive thread but not accepting bullshit excuses!
Anyone want to join me?

think i will raid the quorn aisle tomorrow then. Ive had a ww hot choc to take edge off and a big glass of water!
ive downloaded those hideous pics of me off fb and i am going to print them off tomorrow (from a self service machine!) to keep me on track.

Im going to try the ww hot choc when i go shopping next. Lydia, you are brave re: pics! I'd do that but worried dp may see them and flee.

Today I was tired & ended up scoffing a pack of sweets, grr weak. Have calculated points and luckily i saved some over last 2 days so it balances out, am now having salad with roasted veg for dinner (quite nice actually).

This is the hardest part- wait till we all weigh in and hve lost pounds..

pasta is one of those things that does fill you up. Ive often just made myself a bowl of pasta for lunch and Ive put in what I thought was a small amount, but never finish it all.

Right Ive finished eating today so today I have had:

• Banana and Toffee Muller Light yoghurt
• Choc Brownie and 2 hot chocs (I know I know very naughty)
• Wild Boar Burger and half a bottle of Coke
• Bag of Walkers C+O crisps
• Lasagne and bottle of Apple and Mango J2O
• Sips of water throughout the day (I keep a bottle topped up in the fridge to have a swig when thirsty)

Not a brilliant first day, but tomorrow will be better as Im not going in town so the brownie and 2 hot chocs wont be consumed. Also my lunch will be something a bit more healthy. So will my evening meal as our home-made lasagne is not exactly healthy at all, but I really really like it and if we made it healthier it wouldnt taste the same.

Lydia I did have 100g of quorn mince plus tomatoes onions and cougette with my pasta wich took the meal to 8 points, I would still be starving if I only had the pasta. As others have said protein is more filling than carbs. The extra lean minced beef is also low in points only 6 points for 125g.

I have done a count down of the weeks until my holiday today, only 18 weeks, yay! I have also realised that I have another 18lbs to lose to get me to my goal weight. I pound per week aim from now on, fingers crossed :)

I too love pasta. Agree a tiny amount is so high in cals though.
No hot choc, that would have been a good idea :(

If pasta is so bad for you then why do SW say you can have as much as you like? Whats their reasoning behind that anyone know? I bought some pasta in specially (along with other things) for my lunches.

I'm not sure- think white pasta has a very high GI, bit like white bread, and so you get a sort of carb rush, then a drop, and feel hungry? Anyone else know a better reason?

I have tried SW and WW- I stuck to SW religiously the first week, ate tons of carbs and lost bugger all- it just didnt suit me. Think I have no portion control stop button, & I need the discipline of WW to see what a normal portion is like...

I think go with what you like notveryinventive- if it works then eat the pasta!

Have just eaten a load of chocolate orange bits, cos feeling sorry for self with period from hell. Gah!

well I did lose a stone on SW in about 7 weeks or so , but not strictly doing SW this time just trying to watch what I eat a bit more and lose weight. Then again as Ive said Im taking it slowly and just changing a couple of things at a time so for now I might still have some pasta for my lunch from time to time see what happens for now.

Decided to stick to WW as friend was explaining R Conley to me today and it was v confusing. Have only got 26 propoints a day so have added 7 a day from the 49 weekly allowance.. voila, 33 ppoint a day. Better

Been good last 2 days but today friend and kids came over and they were all having pizza and I couldnt resist a little slice and then 2, then the chocolate coins came out so went over today. Can even blame premenstrual

Back to the plan tomorrow. At work so must resist the biscuits at tea break.
Weigh in Thurs.
Dreading it!

"mynameis are you using your weekly point allowance too? If not use it thats what it's for the days when you feel you need a little more that your daily allowance"

That would be EVERY day then...

Am currently feeling a bit gutted because my healthy-looking pasta bake thing I had for tea (only 385 calories per portion which seems fairly saintly to me!) comes in at 10 WW points which is pretty huge when I only have 26 a day to cover everything

Also I finally admitted to DH that I was doing WW, and he promptly signed himself up as well, even though he's not got much to lose really (they have a v good offer on so could get it nearly free for 3 months) - but he gets at least 5 more daily points than me just for being male, even though we are pretty much the same height and loads of extra ones because he sometimes bikes miles to work (which I can't cos of dropping off kids etc!).

Well done all the WW & SW people. I am on counting calories from tomorrow, have just fininshed a few days of low-carbing which I am hoping will have got my greed in check, I have lost 3lbs (I know mostly water but it is a start). Am going to log calories on food focus.

I also agree with others about Quorn, it is very effective at making you feel full.

MABS good luck for tomorrow.

Well done everyone else. Now watching bigeest loser.

Today ahd 2 slices toast and Lurpak for breakfast, hamd and cucumber sandwich and an apple for lunch, and apple for break, a packet fof polos, jacket poato beenf and left over veg salad for supper. I have been naughty I admit but bot two bad.

Just polished off the last of the chocolate,dd back at school tomorrow and me and dp back at work.Normal service can be resumed. Anyone heard about wheat being bad for a diet? I have two shredded wheat in a morning and it keeps me going for four hrs but Ive read its bad for a diet. I need food that makes me feel full or I will raid the fridge ! PS dont like quorn.

thanks fivegomad :)

glitter ww hot choc is best if you mix the three spoons in to a paste with a little bit of skimmed milk, i know you shouldnt add milk but it tastes sooooooooooo much better. I have the making of it down to a fine art and know if dh hasnt mixed the milk and powder first! (god i sound so anal!)

snowsister i like your thinking! hmmmmThinksOfWhatToStuffFaceWith

good luck everyone!

Portion control has definitely been my biggest problem and is a very bit part of why I am overweight I think. As the 'proper' serving sizes I have now looked up appear tiny to my greedy guts.

DH and I don't eat badly at all - I cook fresh well-balanced meals virtually every night and veg/salad always make an appearance at every meal - I just make far, far too much of everything. I suspect my pasta portioning in particular is almost double what it should be.

I have always been a greedy bastard, and in my early twenties my metabolism let me get away with eating/drinking something obscene like 7,000 calories a day - and yet still stay skinny. Now I'm in my thirties I think my metabolism has quietly died... drowned in a sea of wine and cheese

My other weight issue is that I like my wine, and then once I've got my wine going, cheese and crackers always seems like the very best idea in the world. I have now told DH very firmly to not buy me any more wine (he goes to a wine shop after work on a Friday night - and I don't have a car atm so can't drive there myself.)

So hopefully a combo of no booze or whole blocks of cheddar and whole packets of crackers and smaller portions will get rid of a bit of this blubber for me.

I have been pretty good today - 45 minute walk earlier, not at any great speed, but still - being out walking must be better than being inside sat on my bum.

I had a single slice of wholemeal toast with a smear of peanut butter on for breakfast, then made a lovely chicken salad for my lunch and had veggie soup for my dinner. Have had no juice or fizzy drinks - just water.

I did have two mugs of coffee with milk and 2 sugars in each of them... but I don't want to deprive myself of everything I enjoy in one fell swoop!

DH has decided too that he could stand to lose 20lb, so that may be great for me (in that he won't be stocking the cupboards with beer and crisps and I will not have to listen to the siren call of the Doritos rustling my name) but I suspect I will end up as he loses what he wants to lose effortlessly while I am still quite busy with my whale impersonation.

Well, yesterday I ate leftover Indian, then for dinner made fried cheese sandwiches.I have decided that maybe what is MORE important than crash dieting for the family reunion, I ought to just get out of my binge eating/starving cycle and focus on eating well and healthily. I will go back to WW and do it properly... but 26 points is too small for me too, so I will use 4 extras a day and take it to 30. And I will focus on eating lots of fruit and veg. And cutting down on wine. My ultimate aim is 9.7 stone. I will just work slowly and steadily....

Oh portion control!! I've decided that I am just downright greedy.

I had veg curry and rice for tea last night, put a tiny portion of rice on my plate, weighed it and it was 270 calories worth - I would normally have at least twice that.

My first day back at work yesterday so the exercise went out of the window, I will try harder today but I was so tired when I got in from work, it seemed that the only thing to do was collapse and watch Sherlock.

Piggles - you are me!!

My dh isn't very tall - 5ft 8 and weighs 11st 10, ( a whole stone lighter than me ), but has decided that he feels better at about 10 1/2 stone. The weight will drop off him, and I will struggle.

It's so dispiriting when he weighs himslef and he has lost 4lb and i've lost a measley 1lb.

It also upsets me when he says that he thinks he is too big and i'm shorter and heavier . He has never said that I'm too fat, he always says that I look lovely but knows that I would be happier if I was lighter.

I'm officially starting today. Had obscene amounts of takeaway pizza, birthday cake and pringles from DD's birthday. I've come out in big lumpy spots a s have an ulcer that won't go away and really need decent food.

Well, I've just weighed myself after a week of trying not to be too bad and I've lost 4lbs. Not too bad to say I haven't been very strict .

Fork - I know what you mean about being embarrassed about running. I haven't started the C25K yet though as I need to do it on a night when it's dark and then hopefully less people will see me! I am going to start it this week though. No excuses.

My portion control isn't great and I struggled when I did WW. A portion of pasta for me always had at least 4 points in it. I find SW easier for this as I can eat until I'm full. Just have to make sure that at least a third of the meal is superfree foods (fruit & veg). I generally do this by having pasta with a tomato and roasted veg sauce. I then add some protein such as lean meat or kidney beans to make it a bit more filling.

Well Ive just registered on Food Focus and all I have to say is with what I had yesterday. Though I did cut down on evening food usually involving chocolate and I didnt have as much coke as I used to have. No wonder I was putting on weight.

So far today Ive had

• banana and Muller Light Yoghurt for breakfast
• 2 Shortbread fingers and a hot choc for mid-morning

According to Food focus I have got another 1049 calories to go today.

BBL

May I join too? Although frankly I don't really plan on starting until Monday when the kids are back at school and life gets back to being more routine. In the mean time I am getting my head round things and clearing the crappy food out of the house mostly by eating it.

I am about 5'5" and I weigh around 220lb or so I think. About 7 years ago I did WW and got down to 140lb (goal weight), the very week I hit my target weight I found out I was pregnant with child number 3, and I have been nowhere near that weight ever since! I have tried WW a couple of times on my own since my successful time, but it hasn't worked as well since then. I treat it like a game that I can cheat at, so I'll be really really good on the couple of days leading up to weigh-in, then on the evening of weigh-in I will stuff myself with all kinds of crap, then get progressively more on-track as weigh-in day gets closer.

This past summer we went away as a family to a 'family camp' - it's like a kids' residential camp experience except for the whole family. I was by far the biggest person there. :( I didn't go in the water, I couldn't go in a kayak because I couldn't fit into it, I didn't do a lot of the activities available because of my size. My daughter got snap-happy with the camera one evening when I was playing a running game with my kids. The results were not pretty. We are going back to this place in August and a lot of the same people will be there. I don't want to be the resident fatty again.

I did diet as soon as we got home from there last summer and lost about 30lb, then we hit my bad time of the year - my birthday, Hallowe'en, DD's birthday, Christmas, New Year...I find it very difficult to stay on track through all of that so I have put about 20lb of that weight back on already. Maybe more....

My plan is to use MFP with a goal of 1200 calories because then I still get to choose what I eat. I am also planning to switch my diet to vegan - I am already vegetarian, and I hate milk so really it's only cheese and eggs that are going. I also really need to avoid carbs so I will be avoiding bread and pasta, I have very little control over eating these things and it's actually easier for me to avoid completely than to be moderate.

Exercise-wise I think I might try Just Dance on the Wii. It looks like fun when my DDs play it! I have a treadmill downstairs but find it mind-numbingly boring.

I used to run a fair amount and would like to again, but outside and in a group. I have actually managed to work my way up to running 10K! Seems kind of unbelievable now! C25K people, I would recommend finding a friend to run with, it made all the difference to me. I joined a running course and met people to run with, you're nowhere near as self-conscious if you're with someone else, and if you know someone is expecting you, you are more likely to go and do it.

I'm not telling anyone that I'm doing this right now. I speak to my mother once a week on the phone and she will ask me religiously how the diet is going if she knows I'm trying. Pisses me right off!

Sorry for the novel!

Another half a kg gone

I'm struggling to eat my full allowance of calories though. I've cut out white carbs due to PCOS which is making it really hard to bulk out my meals and I'm averaging 1000kcals per day. I know this isn't good but I'm eating as much as I feel I need.... oh well.

I bought half the veg section today so I'm going to make a massive batch of soup to have with meals so hopefully that will add things up a bit.