size 16 to size 10 and anything to get there: whether you have eaten lettuce and ryvita all weekend or worked your way through a munchy box and a dairy milk get over here for MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

[StealthPolarBear]

Rules of Motivational Monday:
The weekend is the past. You start from now. If not, you'll end up here in a couple of weeks and a few pounds heavier so do it NOW
MM involves healthy eating and some exercise. Your excuses will not be tolerated here.
MM is when we all get back into control and back into the swing of things.
Welcome all and best of luck. :)

Archie I love love zumba, but it took me a number of classes to get into the swing of it! Step sounds very repetitive to me, and I think if your brain already knows what comes next it's all too easy to find it very monotonous!

Don't underestimate the wonderful effects of weight training though, I'm really keen to give the kettle bells at the gym a go!

Yes to eating like a slim person! I try to copy my colleague - size 8 - who is able to fancy some chocolate, buy a 4-finger KitKat, eat one finger to satisfy her craving and then PUT THE REST AWAY FOR THE NEXT DAY. It still astounds me :)

Big swimming session for me this morning but now on our way to stay with friends and then to the Olympic Park tomorrow - shall try and look out for the Innocent smoothies stand rather than Cadbury or McDs!

Zumba is ace by the way, really good fun if like me you are a fan of the dance floor :)

Love your Chinese logic LV Confucious say 'she who goes to gym midst banquet of the orient, will flourish as a stunbags looker'

Haha, love it although not entirely sure what it means

I actually enjoy the gym, so going isn't a chore. Although, I do find now that school holidays are in full swing, the gym is less busy - yay!

Thanks everyone. I felt a bit to admit, yeah- right I get it now. Slim people eat less!

I found zumba hurt my hips, but I only did it once, so should stick to it! I certainly thought it would be good for my stomach muscles though. I am really keen to try kettleballs also. there is a class straight after spinning where I go, so I could stay on.....

Hi everyone, and well done arch for getting through the class! littlemiss that story re.the Kitkat is so familiar - my boss is a size 6/8 and does exactly the same thing.
Well after posting yesterday that my weekly weigh in was 1lb short of what I had hoped, it's come off today so I have now lost my first stone I'm going to a wedding on 7 September where DH is best man so I think I need a new outfit, but don't want to buy anything yet as I would love to lose another half a stone before then. Getting that first stone off is good motivation to keep going (and so are all of you - thanks for your support over the last 3 weeks!)

Re: slim people just eating a bit of a kit kat. My university lecturer taught me when I was doing food science that the first mouthful of chocolate is the best scientifically - something about the temperature at which chocolate melts and the way in which your taste buds respond to it, and your body keeps wanting more chocolate to give you that first mouthful sensation but with every mouthful it gets less and less good from a sensory point of view. So really, you only need one bit to satisfy the need

sleepy well done you on the stone.

Oh meant to say - whoever said a pint of water weighs 1 lbs thank you as I weighed myself last night and I was 3 lbs heavier than I thought, then, later that evening when I'd gone to the loo alot I'd gone down 3 lbs

I looked up zumba on you tube. Tbh I don't think it's my thing - too much hip movement and I'm not a dancefloor kinda girl who has rhythm. I think of myself as a german dancer in that I love it so long as I have a set foot routine to systematically follow - free-styling or wiggling and I'm lost

Right, lunch eaten. I shall wait half an hour and then head out for the gym.

I'm going on the elliptical today - I NEED to lose weight for this wedding on September 1st and my holiday on September 7th. Could I realistically lose 7 or 8 pounds before then? with Chinese consumption I don't think it's possible I can only try I suppose.

I am supposedly having a quiet day to recover from the last few days.
Putting a wash on and pegging it out, doing the dishwasher and in my spare time assembling two five-man tents single handedly, airing them and packing them away.
How on earth do I put that into MFP? It's got to be worth something, I'm worn out now after doing one of them.
I can eat a little bit of chocolate, I find a bar too much. It took me 3 weeks to finish a toblerone and I still have some celebrations chocs stashed round the house from Christmas! Chocolate is not my weakness, cake is. I have a self imposed cake embargo, which seems to be working so far. I had a tea cake at the cafe this morning as exhaustion was making me shaky.

Zumba is great even if you have all the rhythm of a marionette. You are far too busy concentrating on what you are supposed to be doing to even think about looking at anyone other than the instructor.

Back from the gym. Have logged everything into MFP and apparently I'm going to be 500 calories under today...

Think it's because I've gotten out of the habit of eating a whole carton of Chinese takeaway in one sitting, now I spread the calories out lol!

I think, if it's going to be nice tomorrow, I might finally go for that run, maybe...

afternoon all!

Stealth - it will be water weight, IME it will come off fairly quickly even if you don't bust a gut exercising it off. It's v depressing tho, as you feel that 1000 extra cals should not equal any measurable lbs on!

Kato - enjoy the festival, and well done at getting under 12 stone

I am far too uncoordinated to do a public dance based exercise class. I prefer to sweat and get out of time in private in front of an exercise DVD

Chips, it does sound obvious but I had a recent similar set of revelations!
I even started a thread and can't find it. But "thin people eat less" is one of those things - of course you know that, but until you truly realise it for yourself, it actually doesn't sink in.
Mine was - you know that thing where you're handing out the after dinner chocolates? everyone's had one or two, and people start saying "no thanks I couldn't possibly" and you're thinking "really? I could eat the whole box". Well they could definitely eat another - they are applying willpower. It was something FIL said that made me fully "get" this

Evening all :)

Everyone seems very 'up' tonight which is great :) Congrats to everyone who has lost, and congrats to everyone who is plodding on too.

Re: eating patterns of the rich and famous slim and lovely - I have 3 teenage daughters, and the slimest of the three, 9 stone ish 5'6, eats the same size evening meals as my DH who's a muscley builder She will, on occasion, cook herself a family size pasta packet thing and sit and munch through the whole thing. Or something similar. She doesn't have a physically demanding lifestyle. I look at her, with her portions, and i look at me with mine (half the amount of food) and think ...... how?? why??

BUT - she doesn't nibble between meals, she doesn't eat bread after her meal, and she never eats before 11am or after about 7pm. In fact she probably only eats twice a day and has a good amount of decent food at those sittings and nowt else. She's never been overweight and she's young.

When i'm scowling at slim people and their eating habits i try to remind myself that a. they're just maintaining their weight - not trying to loose. b. They may have a higher metabolism than me. c. They've just eaten a massively smaller number of calories than me over the course of years probably.

and d. .... they're just lucky buggers!

and thanks for all the support everyone btw. I have had a good day today, diet wise and in general - been really busy, and been walking a lot whle carrying a 3yo. Not much time for meals and no time to scack. So back on it. I don't feel very motivated but going to fake it. I want to be on L3 shred by Monday - that was the plan.

Totm has descended on me :( Bah humbug.

I'm still going to the gym tomorrow, although might have to reconsider the spinning class on Saturday. I've been brave and started a thread in Style and Beauty, after realizing I have no idea what appropriate wedding guest attire is!

My mum and gran both said my hips look slimmer this afternoon, which made me BEAM! Chinese is all gone (some in the bin - I was full so I stopped eating - hooray!) so it's back onto super healthy foods now.

Maybe if, by the 20th, I've either maintained, or lost some more, I might treat myself to some new holiday clothes/outfit for the wedding, depends.

here is my "truths I have realised thread

they were:

• The majority of people do want another slice of cake or portion of chips. Unlike us they make the direct link between that and their weight so refuse. Some people genuinely don't want it, but many do.
• If you eat less you are likely to lose weight - I know some people do genuinely not, but I bet there are a lot of people who, like me, say diets have never worked and it's becase they don't actually eat any less.
• Nothing bad happens if you don't eat breakfast because you don't fancy it.
• Portion sizes that you get in restaurants are huge. Home made meals should be smaller than that.

Am having a re-read it's quite motivating

Lollipop - may it be over soon! Yay for the slimmer hips :)

I just wanted to quickly say thank you for the well done's on MFP. It's such a source of support. Thank all of you too for this thread which has got me back on my way to being slimmer.

Still not convinced i have actually lost those 5lbs mind you.

Oh my scales are cruel fluffy, I've been bouncing the same pound on and off for the past few weeks!

I'm actually wondering if I should go and get my measurements done at the gym again. I had a personal training session a while back and she took loads then, including hips, she also did weight and blood pressure - although I didn't trust her weight measurement as it was on her scales and I'd eaten during the day. I'm curious if I have lost inches, and if I've lost them in other places.

Might drop her an email and see if she'll do it for me, and if there's a charge (although there shouldn't be).

Did anyone see the Hairy Dieters last week?

They showed their food diaries for a few days and on the first day Dave's breakfast was over a 1000 calories but yet he thought it was really heathy. Yoghurt, nuts, muesli, banana and milk - 400 calories from the nuts alone.

It's amazing how you can skew your thinking about what is healthy and what isn't.

Morning everyone. I've decided to stop the daily weighing as well - I was driving myself mad! Wednesday will be my next weigh in :)

Talking of "healthy" breakfasts, DH is sitting next to me eating leftover takeaway carbonara, cold, for breakfast , at least it will get it out of the house for me though.
I was supposed to go out for dinner with DH last night, but felt too ill so we got takeaway and watched a film. After that I felt much better, so we went out for an hour's walk at dusk, just because the DCs are away so we could. It was lovely, and the walk went quite a way to making up for the half portion of lasagne I had.
I'm a little frustrated that on a 1200 a day allowance, always under calories, after 3 weeks the weight isn't dropping off. I can't eat much less without risking malnutrition, I do plenty of exercise, I have plenty still to lose and it is taking its time leaving. I know I need to play the long game and lose it slowly and consistently, but I am impatient, and want to be slim now .

:( IMST I sympathise.
Urgh at the cold carbonara though!