How does one stay motivated when at least 3 stone to lose?

[Mummalish]

I find the first 3 weeks easy, then I just want to pack it all in. I think its because it's more than just a few pounds I need to lose. I need to lose AT LEAST 3 stone, just to be in the healthy weight range.

I know it's going to take quite some time. I know there's no hurrying it, but I'm just so overwhelmed by it all.

:(

Mental note for next year DD1 only needs one big egg, and she prefers the little eggs - she gave most away to her family, and despite the pleading for a Hello Kitty white choc monstrosity from M&S she has not eaten it and probably won't.

So Hello Kitty just sits there with her slightly broken head askew and shouts at me!!! Think I'll "point her up" (on MFP) so I know exactly where stand with each other.

well done 80/20 - you moved on. Working in your kitchen is an extra challenge but also a blessing as you will be able to prepare fresh, healthy, low cal food at whim

Well today I have been pleasantly surprised. For lunch, instead of a soup or salad, I really felt like a sandwich.

I had made a nice loaf in the breadmaker, and was just desperate for some. So, I made myself a sandwich, with 2 nice, thick slices, some margerine, some hummus and a slice of ham and tomato slices. I skipped the cheese as sandwich was nice and thick and filling looking anyway. I counted all the calories in it, and granted, it was a high number, sandwiches like this are not low in calories! probably between 450 and 550 cals.

BUT, it has filled me up, so much so that I have skipped my afternoon snack, and I cant even imagine wanting my usual dinner, so may just have a light salad.

For a woman with a large apetite, I am very pleased by this sandwich situation, as it had the desired effect, filling, delicious and hunger busting.

Dont know what it was about this hallowed sandwich that has banished the hunger, maybe the wholemeal element of the bread, I don't know, but I think I may have another tomorrow.

It has helped my overall calories for the day stay low, so a winner in my book!

Oh gosh having crap day after awful sleep with babe overnight. My resistance is always much lower when I'm SO tired. I've eaten take away curry and naan bread 850c :( plus I laugh but I've just eaten half my DD1 hello kitty Easter egg as she too prefers the mini eggs, PLUS I've just made 20 cup cakes &a Victoria sponge cake for DD1 birthday party on Sat and licked out the bowl and tested a cup cake :( think MFP will "break" today overloaded Hohum tomorrow is another day.......

My fitness pal is the free version of weightloss resources, it maps your weightloss and gives you nice charts showing the line going down. I am basically just logging everything I eat and staying within 1100 calories a day unless I do exercise then I get more calories to eat. I weigh in tomorrow so fingers crossed. And don't worry about one bad day, you would have to eat 3500 calories to put on one pound, over and above your maintenance level, so don't let it derail you.

Sorry, i was answering a post about what I am using from the last message l left. Looks a bit random there.

Hello! I posted earlier and now am back and ready to go from tomorrow. At my heaviest I weighed 17st10 and at my lowest in the last 15 years probably about 14 st 5. Just before christmas I had got back down to 14 st 8, but then had christmas, became pregnant, had mc and generally felt sorry for myself and comfort eated and have then had easter and too much of DDs chocolate and now am back to 16 st 6. All my clothes are too tight again, I feel like a horrible fat lump again (and know full well I don't feel like this when I am eating properly). I also am a type II diabetic which usually is controlled with tablets and diet, but with insulin during preganancy, since my mc they have kept me on insulin (ready for next time) and so I am also trying to manage that at the same time.

I have registered with My Fitness Pal too and love the scanning thing on my iphone already. I am going to track everything from tomorrow and see how I go over the next few days. I am back to work on Monday (teacher) and so want to be really organised and lose a stone over the next half term (7 weeks).

Sorry this is so long, but I feel better for putting it all down in writing and signing myself up to join in... I shall weigh tomorrow morning and go from there!

Well done to everyone else who has been thinking about what they are eating and tracking well!

Welcome Mrspoirot I've found myFPal really helpful and after a couple wks really quick as it can sort by most used foods. I tend to log in the morn what I plan to eat using "multi ad" button, normally cereal or readybrek breakfast, banana snack 300c breakfast, 300c sandwich using little loaf bread and I block off 500 calorie dinner. Then I can see what I have left for snacks and I do exercise to earn my snacks :)

Had another crap night with babe got about 4-5hrs badly broken up sleep so have low resistantance again today as feel exhausted before the day starts :( but I did log everything from yest and I was net 1800c so I'm not too downheart today. Got 20cup cakes and big birthday cake to ice this morning will try hard to resist licking out the bowl at the end!

Hello. I did OK today, have changed my target weightless on MFP to 1.5 lbs from 2 lbs and that far me an extra 250 ish calories which I think to start with at least is more realistic for me! Went over a little today but generally ate well, cooked and feel very positive.

Fell off the wagon quite spectacularly. Help please. Dont want it to signal the end. Been at it for 6 weeks without a cheat, and now have messed up. Thinking if having few days off, what you all think? Hating myself right now.

Can i join? I lost 11 lb in Jan, then we (all 5 of us!) had a couple of months of illness and back pain. I weighed myself this morning and i have gained back the 11lb, and 5 more! :(

Absolutely devastated. I am now 18st.

So as of tomorrow i am back on MFP, and will start shredding again. Hope to loose at least 10lb before our holiday in June!

Mummalish when you stick to your diet you feel good about yourself.

When you don't you feel what - bad, guilty, failing?

Which way do you prefer to feel?

It was always going to be difficult starting a diet just before Easter. But you did it, you stuck to it and you did lose weight. Now you have lost focus, but it's only been a few days. Get back on it tomorrow. You can't change the past but tomorrow is a brand new start. If you do damage control for the rest of the week you won't gain weight. Or take a new starting weight in the morning, have a really good week and weigh in again next Saturday.

This is a marathon not a sprint. Of course there will be days when you slip up but we're all here to help you and each other stay on track. A few days is nothing in the long run. We can all do this.

I bought a set of zumba dvds today. Going to start on Sunday. Going to take a starting weight, plan my meals for the week and step up the exercise. After all that chocolate and lazing around over Easter I am really looking forward to getting back into it all

I hasn't read all of the thread, I had a moment (not sure what else to call it) in November and decided I had to make changes. I have been between 9.5st and 18.5st in my life but have mostly been between 15st and 13st. I have a massive sweet tooth and due to sickness, loss of sweet tooth and generally not being able to eat as much while pregnant I was less at full term than at conception. I had my ds2 sept 2010 and by nov 2011 I had put on the 2 st I lost when pregnant with him but felt fatter than I had in a long time. I wanted to be healthy for my boys, worried about diabetes with all the sweet things I ate and felt I SHOULD be able to control what I was eating rather than it controlling me. I made the decision not to buy any junk that I was eating loads of and to cut down on portions. The first three weeks I was starving but after that I got used to it and settled into it. I have not cut out anything, I bought hot chocolate, small chocolate bars to help with my sweet tooth, reduced lunch to a single slice of bread sandwich or half a tin of soup instead of a whole one and reduced portions at dinner time. I joined mfp after reading it on my c25k thread and started c25k (now running 5k 3 times a week). I have stuck to a calorie allowance that gives me 1lb a week loss so it's not too strict. Anyway I have lost 3st 8lb and only have 8lb to go to be in normal BMI range and I am still going strong. Happy to continue with this forever at the moment, planned to stop at normal BMI but not sure what I will do when I get there now. If I can do it anyone can, have been overweight my whole adult life and never done anything about it until now. I wish you all well in your weightloss journey and being on a thread with others in tw same boat definitely helps keep you on the straight and narrow :)

Wow that's Fab cinnamon thanks for sharing and spurring us on

mummalish don't feel too bad but try to restart today you will feel better for it

I only logged 1400calories yesterday so feel better after a week averaging high 1800 I think its PMT week plus utterly exhausted with babe not sleeping at night and eldest off school wearing me out I know next week I will be back to stricter 1200 a day.

Weighed myself this morning...2lbs off, grand total of 1 stone 1 lb....whoooo hoooo. Off to the gym this morning...only another 3 stone something to go.

I really need to do better I booked the registry office yesterday and now have exactly two and a half months before I get married. It'll only be me, DP and our mothers and then a lunch, but I don't want to be fat for it. Do you think I could lose two stone? A stone would be ok, anything over that would be amazing.

Today I've done well - orange juice and carrot sticks. Yesterday my friends and I took the dog for a two hour walk over the headlands, which beats our normal routine of lunch!

Can anyone recommend some cheap, decent scales? I don't have any at the moment, but found them really motivating when I lost three stone before.

twllbach I'm 2lbs short of losing 2stone in 3mths at 2lb a week so I reckon you could lose a fair bit running upto you wedding. Gd luck. We got some salter electronic scales from argos cost £20 but they give fractions of lbs which I find really motivating and they much easier to read than my old dial scales, you can also program in a Target and it tells you how far away from your target each time you weigh yourself :)

Joining! I have 3 stone to lose to get to a healthy BMI, then I'll review my target when I get there. I do Slimming World, I've been following it on and off at home myself, which has been difficult as I've been having cancer treatment and it was very hard to stick to after chemo.

I'm done with chemo now, onto radiotherapy this week and last Monday I rejoined class, so I'm really, really looking forward to my first 'official' weigh-in on Monday evening as it's been a long time!

I am a complete child when it comes to motivation - I need presents, stickers, rewards, charts, the lot. I've just ordered myself a basic snake chain bracelet and 40 little silver star charms. The plan being that I earn a star on the bracelet for every 1lb lost. I'm also going to order special beads for every time I fall into a new stone bracket, lose 7lb or lose a stone.

I already treat myself to a cheap bunch of flowers every week if I've maintained or lost, but I'm very excited about my bracelet now.

bubblebobble welcome, I love the idea of the bracelet that's Brill! I think deep down we all need some "reward" I'm also trying to make mine non food related as in the past its always has been. I really hope your radiotherapy goes ok, it must be hard to undertake a change in eating habits when your body is under a lot of stress already, good luck!

Thanks, Ssmile. I was only 1.5 stone away from my target when I was diagnosed, but having to take steroids and not really being able to eat healthy things after chemo (the thought of fruit and veg made me feel really ill so I pretty much had to live off processed food) contributed to it all going back on again. I've managed to pull it back this last month and I'm now 7lb down, but I'm going to go off my first 'official' class weigh-in tomorrow evening and take it from there!

One thing I have noticed is that my energy levels have dramatically improved this past month and I don't need epic lie-ins anymore, I can actually get up at a fairly reasonable time and I've not been able to do that for years.

If anyone is interested in building their own bracelet and is as in love with little stars like me, I can highly recommend getting the ones I did. They look much better quality than they do in the photo, it doesn't do them them justice. I ordered some jump rings too, so I can attach them to the bracelet as I don't think the little hole is big enough. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330701822846?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_1336wt_950

After a few days off I have gained 6 l s. Must try harder.

Good morning - I've decided on Monday as my regular weight in day & I've lost 2 kilos since my last weigh in 12 days ago!!! YAY!!

I'm sure still BF is helping. DD2 is nearly 1, and we feed mornings and evenings. It's only lately I've stopped being so completely ravenous when BF, and got my head into watching what I'm eating. Now I'm going to make the BF work FOR me :)