Losing weight for good.

[TwllBach]

I wanted to stop hijacking somebody elses thread, so I thought I would start my own!

I am about four and a half stone overweight, although I lost about three stone two/three years ago (after putting seven stone on in a very short amount of time) and want to lose it for good.

I lost the three stone by only eating dinner and exercising a crazy amount, which put me in a permanent bad mood and obviously isn't healthy. I want to lose the rest of it in a way that doesn't turn me in to someone who isn't very fun to live with.

I've dabbled with WW and SlimFast and I just don't stick to it, so I am going to see if I can do it my own way.

I have two major problems:

1. I crave sugar. At about 3pm every day, I crave it for about half an hour.
2. I lack motivation.

My diet, if we ignored my 3pm cravings, is actually quite healthy. It's just that if I have access to anything sugary, I will eat it and then hate myself afterwards. I am also convinced that exercise, more than food, is the key to my weight loss. Once I am exercising, I love it, but it's the starting it that is the problem. I've had a really shocking year and I can sit down on the sofa after work and watch three films and by the end of it not even know what I have watched because I have just asllowed myself to sink into this No Mans Land of mild depression.

SO, I am going to use this thread as a bit of a diary. I know that is quite self indulgent, so please join in with me! I just think that I spend a fair amount of time on MN so I might as well put it to good use!

Yesterday:

I had porridge with a spoonful of raspberry jam, a chocolate fairy cake with meringue icing and pasta with a cream, mushroom and garlic sauce. I did my 10 min pilates DVD, arm section, and took the dog out for a 40 minute 'proper' walk.

I am scared to do the abs and thighs part of the pilates DVD at the moment because I am in a lot of pain with sciatica, but I haev promised myself to do it soon!

Today:

I did the arm section of the pilates DVD again before my morning shower, then did a lot of heavy duty cleaning at work, so that counts as another arm workout I ate a low fat raspberry yoghurt, a very small bowl of leftover pasta and then had a hot chocolate at 3.15 to combat the sugar cravings. Unfortunately, this did not work and I just ended up dipping a mars bar in my hot chocolate We will be having pasta bolognese for dinner.

I finish work at 6 and then have a 2 hour Welsh lesson at 7, so I don't think I will have time to walk the dog (we have somebody who very kindly walks her during the day for us, she won't go without a walk!) but I will do the leg section of the pilates DVD after I get home from work and then maybe another section after I get home from my lesson.

Are you wanting contributions on this thread? Because if I have one vaguely useful thing to say it's this: you'll never lose that weight while your diet is so carb heavy. That's a LOT of pasta you're eating. I lost 5 stone a few years ago, and the only way I got that weight off was low carb. It does work, and it'll get rid of your sugar cravings too.

Contribute away!

The pasta thing isn't normal - we are trying to save money by spending less than £22.50 a week on groceries. We haven't had pasta in such a long time (honest guv) that DP has been nursing a craving! It was his week to pay for the shopping (we alternate) and he suggested pasta, so I agreed. Normally we have a pretty set routine:

Sunday - roast veg with whatever cheap meat
Monday - Veg soup with whatever veg is on offer/cheap at the time
Tuesday - leftover soup
Wednesday - leftover soup if possible, if not then jacket potato with beans/tuna
Thursday - Omelette (a big one, I get free eggs from work as they have hens) probably with cheese and home made coleslaw
Friday - pizza and chips
Saturday - left over pizza.

I understand that the above actually isn't much better than pasta!

However, if low carbing will get rid of the sugar cravings I am happy to give that a go - so I should cut out pasta, rice, bread?

low carb is hard to do if you are veggie as you seem to be - and also expensieve as protein tends cost more ...

Try to replace all white carbs with brown - make soups very filling with lentils and barley - all cheap and low GI

Take chromium supplment as it stops sugar cravings..

try porridge or eggs for breakfast

And potatoes. If I were you, I'd get a copy of India Knight's Idiot Proof Diet from the library and see if it's something you can see yourself doing. I found it really helped me get in the right mindset to lose the weight, and the diet makes perfect sense. It really does get rid of your cravings, and you won't go hungry. And I kept the weight off, and don't go without things now. I've just had a bowl of pasta myself, but that's a treat tbh and I'm only eating it to try and boost my energy as am hugely pregnant and flagging But it does work. I started at 15 stone when I started the diet, I;d put on a lot of weight after having my son due to PND. I got down to just over 9 stone, which tbh was a little low for me, settled at about 10-10.5 stone with no problems. Even now I'm pregnant, I've got 3 weeks to go and have put on less than 2 stone. Both previous pregnancies, I've eaten for England and put on 5 stone plus

Low carbing insn't the only way! I feel really ill if I take carbs too low, but as long as your calories are low enough (not too low - I just mean lower than usual) and you exercise you will lose weight. I have lost 9kgs since New Year by using a vaguely SLimming World approach. It goes a bit like this:
Breakfast: bacon or banana sandwich (wholemeal bread) or 2 weetabix and banana, or omelette
Lunch: salad with cottage cheese and some sort of meat or homemade veg soup with some meat.
Snacks in day: lots of fruit
Dinner: meal made of 1/3 protein, 1/3 veg or salad and 1/3 carb (rice or pasta or pots or couscous)
EVening: wine or some chocolate - you couls have this at 3 when you need sweet stuff. A cream egg or similar sized choccy thing is fine.

Sounds a lot, doesn't it! As long as you keep the fat content low it seems to work.

Oh, and I walk at least a mile every day (longer at weekends) and have an hour session wth a Personal Trainer doing weights/resistance once a week.

Cardibach that to me sounds really good and the sort of thing that, after I have lost a bit of weight, I would want to end up following, as it just sounds like a healthy eating plan as opposed to a diet IYSWIM.

When I was really skinny (about 8.5 stone, which is a stone and a half under the BMI recommendation) I was doing so much exercise that I could binge eat sweets all weekend and not have an ounce of fat on me. In my head, I need to up my exercise and change my attitude towards food, which has always been unhealthy. And obviously stop the binging - so I will see if I can grab a copy of that book fuckity

The silly thing is, when I eat the right thing, I feel so much better. When I binge on sugar I feel sluggish and miserable. It's so silly!

I had porridge with a spoonful of raspberry jam, a chocolate fairy cake with meringue icing and pasta with a cream, mushroom and garlic sauce.

Far too much carbs, esp sugar and refined, not enough protein.

I'd recommend south beach diet if you don't want to low carb. its moderate carb focussing on healthy carbs like pulses and wholegrains (which are also cheap).

Sunday - roast veg with whatever cheap meat - fine
Monday - Veg soup with whatever veg is on offer/cheap at the time - ok, I add dried soya mince or quorn mince to increase protein content
Tuesday - leftover soup
Wednesday - leftover soup if possible, if not then jacket potato with beans/tuna
jacket potato very high gi..

Thursday - Omelette (a big one, I get free eggs from work as they have hens) probably with cheese and home made coleslaw, good
Friday - pizza and chips - carbfest!
Saturday - left over pizza- more carbfest!

forever is porridge not ok obviously I know the cake is crap and am now aware that I shouldn't be eating pasta (especially not with cream.)

And potatoes? I thought potatoes were healthy. And I also thought that porridge was good because it fills you up and has slow release energy?

No wonder I am fat

**I am not fat because I eat porridge and potatoes, I am fat because I eat fairy cakes and dip mars bars in my hot chocolate.

Of course porridge is ok. It's a fabulous breakfast, diet or no diet. As you point out, it's filling and slow-release energy.

If you add something low GI and/or low fat like baked beans to a jacket potato that's fine too. Other good toppings are cottage cheese or tuna. I quite often have this with a little salad.

Carbohydrates are not the enemy. Just watch what portion sizes and what you have with them.

Although, today I think I am doing better than yesterday -

Breakfast - low fat raspberry yoghurt. I think they are 150g pots if that makes any difference.
Lunch - one slice of brown toast. No butter, tiny tiny scrape of strawberry jam. It was about a quarter of the little portions you get in cheap restaurants.

I am probably going to have either a hot chocolate in about half an hour or another slice of toast. I don't know which. Or maybe even both. If I have both perhaps I will feel like I am being naughty and therefore not tempted by the boxes of mars bars, twixes, kitkats and dairy milks sitting within arms reach of my desk here.

Then for dinner DP is having pasta and tomato sauce and garlic bread. I am having the tomato sauce with a huge salad. By salad I mean the bag of salad leaves that I found in the discount aisle in the supermarket last night. I probably will have a few pieces of pasta, but I have officially been scared off pasta now

I did my pilates arm thing at 6.20 this morning (with one eye open) will take the dog out for at least half an hour before dinner and then try the leg section of the pilates DVD after dinner.

OK - so far today I have had a bowl of porridge with a heaped teaspoon of raspberry jam. I did ten minutes of pilates that focussed on my 'buns and thighs' and then at work today I did an hour of heavy duty cleaning. I know this can be called exercise because I was in so much pain with my back and hip (sciatica and intense pain in my spine due to ignoring sciatica for over a year) that I was shaking by the end of it.

I have also just got back from a brisk hour walk with the dog. Tonight we will be having bolognese made with quorn.

I also got myself another little job it's just for three or so hours on a Friday evening, but it is sort of in the field that I want to work in, so will look good on my CV and also makes me feel useful and like I am 'giving back.' It pays rather well as well, meaning that, even after I have been taxed at second job rate, I am now up also an extra weeks wages . This means that I can put a quarter towards closing my overdraft, a quarter to top up what I already pay to pay off my loan and then half of it to save for my wedding

I just had to say congratulations for getting the other job I read your other thread and your boss sounds like a pig. Good on you for doing this for yourself, you sound lovely and so positive.

aw sucks Lamb that's really nice. I had a really good time doing it this evening as well! We sung along to les mis all the way to his class and back.