30 day challenge-anyone in?

[awaywego1]

So it's a month now until all my Christmassy stuff starts properly. My work night out is on the 14th. I've been fannying about and not doing anything about this extra weight for the last year and I need to make a start now. I don't have loads to lose-I'm 5.2 and 9.8 but I'm feeling really wobbly and sluggish and all my clothes are too tight. So I'm going to:

1. be healthy eating-under maintenance cals-lots of fruit and veg, more protein and less snarky rubbish.
2. no drinking in the week-recently I've been drinking nightly 1-2glasses of wine and this is no good for mind or body.
3. Some hand weights, sit ups, a walk or the shred daily-this may be tricky as I do have health problems but I will try my best. Anyone in with their own pre Christmas challenge? :)

How is everyone today?

Just eating now as I have a sore mouth. Having Salad with no dressing, smoked salmon slices, ww crackers and soft cheese and a few ww crisps. Happy about today.

Only exercise today has been about a mile light walk to the shops and back!

Sounds like you are doing great schro
I'm having sausage stew and wine tonight but somewhat offset by only having a yogurt for lunch. However I need to make sure that I'm strict in the week if I'm going to indulge at the weekend.

Ohh, sausage stew...

I could kill a sausage casserole!

No harm in indulging at the weekend, my problem is when I do indulge at the weekend I just don't get back to the diet.

Have relented and also having a WW yogurt (can you tell there is a theme i my fridge? :o) Expected it to be rank but it's yummy!

Schro-sausage stew was lovely but yes I need to ensure I get back on things on Monday. I'm really keen to not let during inflict on 'normal' socialising at the weekends so that's my motivation, but it's easy to let it slip. I find 'up day down day' works better for me than eating the same calories everyday-but we will see in a couple of weeks!
Ps. I quite like weight watchers yogurts too.

It's good way of doing it if it works for you, unfortunately I just can't do it. :(

What ones did you have? Mines were strawberry tart flavoured, really didn't expect them to be so lovely! Think my withdrawl from sugar is wearing off now, thank god!

I need to join as today's fare of crisps, a big bag of toffees and take out isn't going to get me in my jeans!

Am a bit wonky post delivery so the shred looks too scary but my post delivery weight loss has stopped and bitter experience tells me that all the new baby cake and cuddles can soon become weight gains. Don't normally care but I need to get healthier, fitter and be able to keep up with the children. Am less fit than have ever been after a rubbish pregnancy so it starts here. Am 5 ft 8 and 11 1/2 stone. Only healthy stuff tomorrow ( though am a bit scared by just how good some of you are!)

Hi ThreeInOne. :o

You'll do fine and it's not easy after having a baby. My DS is nearly 14 months and that's me just getting round to it!

Hi

To be fair this is the first time I have got round to it after number one seven years ago...:)

Hi threeinone. It has taken me six months after DD's arrival to even contemplate doing any exercise.

Did the Shred again today but food has been a total and utter disaster. Sigh. Must do better tomorrow.

Schro congrats on weaning yourself off sugar. Amazing willpower!

Hi, McNally (good name) you did the shred thus are a hero. Am sat in bed justifying buttery toast on the ground that it is at least food rather than crisps! It would seem I will not find this easy, Schro you must have huge willpower.

Did think about jogging with the dog but am bf and could only do it if I also carried a breast in each hand, maybe if I wait until it is dark?!

Ha ha ha threeinone. That's how I do the cardio sections of the Shred! I keep the curtains closed!

I really don't have much will power. Just getting through day by day and thinking it wont be long until bedtime so it wont matter.

Haven't done the shred in ages!

Hello all. Hope we're well and still keeping up. Quiet one here but seem to have been ok. Next week def need to up the exercise and fruit and veg and water intake!! Not much really! I tend to go for coffee or diet coke if I feel the need for something. Not great at all but suppose it is better than chocolate or sweets. I've been trying those WW puddings - like chocolate mousse. Quite like them. Those ski mousses are nice too.

Think it is going to be very wet here in morning so my walk which has to happen could be pretty unpleasant - hey ho!

Hope everyone has a good week!

Hello
I'm a bit off the radar at the money due to bring ill in bed so the regime is somewhat off until I feel a bit better (tho I can't imagine I'll be mainlining wine and cakes so I should be ok)
Hope everyone else is doing well-the weekends over which is generally bad-but I find it much easier to be healthy in the week.
And (dare I ask) has anyone weighed in yet?

Hey a bit late but can i join in as well. Lost 10Ibs in September using mfp but have managed to put 5Ibs back on. Feeling determined today so jumping back on the diet/healthy eating wagon. Really need to up exercise apart from running after kids, housework and some walking im not that great at it but gonna try and do my fitness dvds a couple of times a week and do more walking. Im 5ft 4in and weigh 10.12 the now. If i can lose 5 to 7Ibs for Christmas would be delighted. Here goes :)

Jes Need to up exercise too, are you doing the shred? Try the strawberry tart ones, they're lush! :o

Away Are you okay? :( I hope you feel better soon and if you want some cake, have it.

My scales are broken! I am definitely at least a size smaller though and one of my blouses now looks huge on me. Will need to get working scales.

Momo Hello. :)

I'm in too, starting today. I'm 61kg and aiming to get to 58kg by the end of the year.

The plan:

• cut completely carbs and sugar for a whole month (no rice, bread, pasta, potatoes, no sweets, no sugar, no pastries)
• eat only 0% or low fat versions of dairy products
• only low carb fruit, which is pretty much berries and rhubarb and apples
• use as little oil as possible when cooking
• if I absolutely need to drink alcohol, I'm allowed only red wine

My level of exercise is low, just walking every day and swimming once a week so I'l try and up that too, perhaps go swim twice a week and walk more at lunch time. I can't be bothered to join a gym or exercise at home :(.

Good luck everyone!

Ankh Welcome. :)

That is pretty much exactly what I am doing. I have been allowing 1 pack of WW oat and wheat crackers a day though which have 15g of carbs. I'm pretty sure this is the allowed limit for the Dukan as well.

Dairy products: Tesco sell a very low fat soft cheese, it's lovely with 37 calories per 30g. Also Hellmans do a "lighter than light" mayonaise at 10 cals per tbsp, Asda are selling big squeezy bottles of it for £1.

Interested to see how you do, seeing as we are doing practically the same. No alcohol for me though and if I was to then it would be spirits only.

@SchroSawMummyRidingSantaClaus what a nickname! :)

Thanks, yes the plan is my own interpretation of Dukan. Should I consider some wheat bran or oat bran as well, is my plan too radical with no carbs at all? I'm not cutting beans and peas and corn as suggested by Dukan so perhaps those will provide some carbs? Also the fruit I'm having has some carb (on Dukan there is no fruit allowed).

0% Yeo Valley plain yoghurt rocks!

Thanks. :o

See, I am not having beans or peas or corn, just green salad, tomatoes and cucumber and spring onion so as to keep my iron levels up so I'm not really getting any carbs from anywhere else, I'm not having really any fruit either unless it's in a WW yogurt which I have only had 1 in 2 weeks..

Atkins suggests a couple of cups of salad a day so I figured it would be okay, the crackers are really just so I don't get bored of really low carb as I had quite the addiction before I started.

Haven't tried the Yeo Valley ones yet, had a look on the pot and it is riddled with carbs!

Are you doing the ice cubes as suggested by Dukan? We talked about it up-thread a bit.

ice cubes? haven't heard of this.

yeo valley 0% fat yoghurt (light blue label) doesn't contain added sugar/carbs, so it's dukan friendly. the sugar that's on the label is actually lactose, hence the high carb number you are seeing on the nutrition box.

"No added sugar this yogurt contains only milk's naturally occurring sugar (lactose)"

yeah, trying to limit beans/peas/corn/carrots in favor of salads but i also have other vegs, mostly roasted like peppers, courgettes, mushrooms, spinach, anything would do... as long as it's not potatoes. that's a no no.

just had a huge salad for lunch, sprinkled with some smoked salmon bits. not sure what to eat for dinner, might roast roast chicken with vegs maybe. dinners have to be DD-friendly as I don't want to cook separately.

In the Dukan book at the start when he's explaining tips he says that hot food is a problem with weight loss as it's too easy to digest as the body doesn't need to warm it to digest it. He suggests eating cold foods and making flavoured ice cubes to suck on as this apparently burns calories because the body needs to heat it. :)

Also, negative calorie foods such as Lettuce where you burn more calories digesting it than you absorb.

I might give the Yeo valley a try then, trying to severly limit anything that tastes sweet though as I have just got over sugar withdrawl.

That's what I love about this, huge salads! They taste lovely and are really filling.

I'm not worrying too much about cooking, I am actually only eating one meal a day and that's salad with some smoked salmon or tuna and very low fat mayo or egg mayo and a pack of WW crackers and sometimes a laughing cow triangle.

How much are you trying to lose?

wrote that in my initial message: about 3 kgs (roughly 7 lbs) so not that much , but my body is very stubborn when it comes to weight loss.

lost most of the pregnancy weight during breastfeeding and then it started going up again. i've been having trouble maintaining my weight where it is now, so i know losing will be tough. having said that, i don't want to kill myself while trying so Dukan seemed too radical. thought about other diets but calorie counting is not for me and i couldn't possibly survive on fasting days so decided to tweak Dukan a bit.

Sorry, I missed that.

Have you read about the South Beach diet? I'm not sure but I don't think it's quite as harsh but still low carb.

I could easily survive on the fasting days, just now I wont go over 500 cals a day and most days work out about 300 calories. I'm just not seeing great reviews about the results on it so decided it wasn't for me.