NOW, or NEVER, no EXCUSES thread part 4.

[Tortoise]

Here we are, thread 4 .
Time for me to have a large kick up the arse and lose weight! (After Easter!)

Well done Zalen, you sound so motivated. You're right Xmas is a terrible time to diet. Last year I saw it as 4 non diet days and I ate well every other day. I still put on a couple of pounds but not a huge amount. This year it feels like I am taking the whole of December off! I am worried I'll start eating and never stop!

I overslept this morning and didn't manage to weigh in so will try again tomorrow or Wednesday.

I'm glad you are feeling better arty, and let's hope you get some sleep tonight. Good news about your work trousers. I love that feeling when things are too big, it's the most tangible proof that I've lost weight. Nervous about when dds become teenagers, they're so lovely at the moment and childlike! Some of dds friends (6 year olds) are already into makeup and having manicures. So far dd1 isn't interested and she would be happy with Disney or moshi monster pyjamas but I know it won't be long before she decides to be more like her friends.

I hope the doctors visit goes well. I think just the act of going there every week should inspire you to eat better.

It took me so long to write the previous post I didn't see your link Zalen. Wow, what a beautiful dress. I love it.

Fab dress Zalen very elegant!

Well, I am thrilled to bits! I went and had my weigh in and was so shocked as I am exactly 1kg heavier than I was 4 wks ago. I was absolutely shocked and thrilled at the same time. My scales are so inaccurate its untrue. Maybe I will ask for some superduper truthful ones for christmas!! Such a positive start to this week I hope I manage to keep it going.

I am sure you will be fine Johnny, good tip about the 4 non diet days, I think I will bear that in mind.

Good luck everyone for this week.

My week started badly. Lunch was a nice veggie curry and dinner will be a chicken casserole with dds. However in between I have eaten about 8 biscuits and 4 mini boxes of smarties. I feel pleased that before the diet i would've eaten more but I am tempted to throw the treats in the bin as we still have lots of sweet stuff in the house.

Glad you had a good start arty. My diet restarts tomorrow.

Thank you, I loved this dress when I saw it but they the largest size they had was a 16 and given that this is New Look and I don't think their sizes are particularly generous I didn't think I stood a chance. However when I tried on a different dress in an 18 it was actually a bit baggy around the top so I gave this one a try and was thrilled when it fit. Of course the back is elasticated so that gives a bit of wiggle room but I was very happy to get into a 16 and the loose skirt covered up a multitude of sins .

The Christmas party was a James Bond theme so a bit of glamour was definitely required

and Johnny, of course you could get away with wearing it on Christmas day, no sleeves so perfect when you're up to the elbows in anything at all!

Glad your weigh in went well arty.

Can I ask where your scales are? Only reason I ask is that mine used to be wildly inaccurate when I had them standing directly on the bathroom lino, however we had a spare tile left over from the shower room so it now stands on that and on a hard surface they are much more accurate.

I've heard that new look aren't generous with their sizes so you might actually be 14? You're probably slimmer than you think. Did you wear a strapless bra? I would so love to wear something like that but won't get the time to try it on before Xmas. I have so few clothes now I'll probably end up in jeans and a t shirt. I do have one nice cardigan at least.

I have heard that scales vary on carpet too so mine are on a stone floor.

I have them on a tiled surface in the bathroom, I have a particular tile I religiously always line them up on and make sure that they are always on zero before and after a weigh in. Sometimes I have to try several times to get the zero before and after - I am pretty sure its the scales, they were a fairly cheap set, think I will go digital next time!

I am having a rubbish night on the sleep front, my own fault - I decided instead of waiting the 20 minutes for the 2nd bus to take me to the drs I would walk - took me around 25 minutes which I was thrilled at, but since then I have been in agony. I have took 2 of my strongest painkillers but still its agony. I will learn the hardway! On the plus side, I have managed to make all the children in my class a christmas card - all 29!!! I am desperate to do some sewing as I am in the middle of making a bag but am afraid the noise of the machine will wake everyone up!

I have had a horlicks, so I am going to try and go back to sleep, I am shattered but just can't seem to nod off.

Hi Johnny, no bra, the straps on the dress are removable, I was toying with the idea of taking them off but decided no bra or no straps but definitely need one or the other!

Sorry you had a bad night arty, I hope you managed to get some sleep eventually. I got some new scales a while ago, I always used to have trouble finding the batteries for scales once the ones that originally came with them were drained. These new ones are solar powered so no more hunting for obscure batteries that when you find them have been on the shelf so long they only last a couple of months.

What scales have you got? I eventually nodded off about 4ish and slept till about 7.15am. Knee is still very sore so I am going to take another strong painkiller. I had hoped to knock them on the head! Hmm!

I think it's this one though I probably got it in a sale.

I'm glad you got some sleep at least, take it easy, if you push it too hard you'll only end up taking longer to recover.

Oh arty, that's awful. I hope you get a better night tonight. I had a bad night too, I've had a cold for weeks and I was so blocked up I couldn't breathe properly. I got about 5 hours sleep, which is loads compared to you, but I felt like a zombie all day.

Had a visit from my mum today so more entertaining and more birthday cake. As usual she wound me up enormously. I always have to eat a lot when she's around to prove I'm not on a diet. She spent so much of my childhood saying I was fat (when i wasn't) I can't discuss my diet or appearance with her because I feel it's like saying she was right. She noticed I lost weight a year ago and I think I shrugged it off as finally losing the baby weight (even though I am probably smaller than I have been for 25 years!) Nowadays we never discuss my weight although she is permanently on an unsuccessful diet which seems like justice to me.

Sorry to hear you had such a trying day yesterday Johnny, I hope things are better for you today and that your cold begins to clear up soon. If it doesn't might it be worth a visit to the doctors. I wouldn't normally for a cold but if it's hanging around for that long it might be worth getting it checked out.

Having a really hard time sticking to the diet today, MFP allows me 1200 calories and I've been managing to keep within that or fairly close without too much trouble but today I feel like I'm starving. I've got 337 calories left of todays allowance, just enough for a banana before class and a slimfast shake for my dinner this evening with 2 calories left over. If I can get through to 4 before I have my banana I should be alright, wish me willpower please, I've got some treats in for the weekend, I don't want to start on them this early and they are at home anyway so if I give in now it's going to be something from the vending machine and won't be remotely healthy

Oh that's horrible Zalen. I generally find I can eat quite well on 1200 cals and not feel hungry yet some days I just need more. Today i was so hungry my stomach was rumbling at about 11 and that veryrarely happens. I was too busy to grab any snacks fortunately and had a tuna salad (out with mother in law and dd2) and now I'm OK.

Thanks Johnny, I had a cold a few weeks ago and still have the annoying cough left so a friend has given me some cough pastilles. They taste vile and work excellently well to put you off food so I've had one of them and it seems to be holding the gnawing hunger at bay

Tuna salad sounds lovely, I'm going to have to make do with a banana in about half an hour and then a caramel temptation milkshake when I get home around 6. At least after class I'll be too exhausted to even think about food

I'm laughing at the cough sweets, i'm glad you've found an appetite suppressant. I suspect nothing is so horrible that I couldn't binge on it (apart from tomatoes). Dh always leaves the sweetie type throat sweets lying around and I always eat them whether I have a cold or not.

It's good that you lasted this long without eating. You have more willpower than me. Having said that I have had my first good day in ages. For dinner I will have leftover veggie curry that I made a couple of nights ago. Better still I haven't had any cravings for snacks even though we still have loads in the house. I feel like I'm back in the zone and should stick to the diet.

I'm glad you're having a good day, the food cravings have gone off somewhat now having finally eaten my banana at about 16:45. I'll be leaving work in about 15 mins (should have left 45 minutes ago!) so I'll be rushing around to get to class on time and will just have time to gulp down a shake, looks like I should make it to the end of today without exceeding my calories so I'm feeling much better.

It's been relatively easy so far with a planned day of excess for the Christmas party and only one other bad day last Friday so I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop if you know what I mean, that moment when I realise this is far too difficult and pig out on a tub of Ben & Jerry's or the box of shortbread I've got stashed away for Christmas. It's good to find that however much I felt like I needed to eat something extra this afternoon I could get past that.

Well done both of you, I too have had a good day - felt quite proud of myself as I made lasagne for everyone and I just had spaghetti bolognaise. Oh the will power! Long may it last. Mind I am out for supper tomorrow night and I aim to enjoy it rather than look for the lowest calorie meal!

I slept a little more last night - saw 1.30 in but then zonked until 6am, long may it last!

I had my 1st trip to the total knee group this morning - this is instead of having individual physio, they group 8 of us together - all knee replacements and make us do exercises. Really tough but I actually enjoyed it! I did have a chuckle to myself as one of the exercises was with a ball, the physio said just take one off the grand kids, they wont mind! Grand kids I thought - blooming cheek! I was the youngest there by a good 20 years!

I have asked DH for a digital pair of scales, not sure which ones (if any) I will get, but he does like to hunt for the best buy!

Here's hoping to a good day tomorrow.

I hope things are still going well for everyone. My eating is much better, I have generally avoided snacky crap, and apart from a burger I couldn't avoid (out with friends but I didn't eat the bun or half the chips) I have eaten well.

Anyway, the good news is I was finally able to weigh myself and I'm down 1.5 lbs since about 10 days ago. So I'm 9st 4.7 lbs. That's down 60lbs.

Arty, glad your knee group went well and I hope you're sleeping better.

Zalen I hope you're still doing well. I know it's hard but even thin people eat ice cream. I suppose they must counteract it by not eating something else. So if you reach for the Ben and jerry's try to eat less the next day. I still have days which I find hard but then I look at my size 10 jeans and it's all worth it.

Dd2 seems to have tummy bug. Lots of diarrhoea so we may spend the first day of holidays at home. I have booked to see Santa today but I'm not so sure now. We went out yesterday and she needed lots of changes of clothing.

Good morning everyone glad things are going well and long may it continue.

Arty good to hear that you enjoyed your total knee group, hopefully you'll all be able to provide support for each other when the going gets tough.

Sorry to hear dd2 isn't well Johnny, hope she's feeling better soon. I know what you mean about thin people eating ice cream too, the problem is I doubt they wait until everyone else is in bed then scoff an entire tub of the stuff . I was tempted whilst shopping last week and picked up a tub of Haagen Daas Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream when I checked the nutritional value that would have been my entire daily calories in one go, it went back in the freezer!

Well done for putting the ice cream back. It is scary just how many calories we can eat in one go without realising. For me it used to be cheese. I used to just scoff food in the kitchen while the family were eating at the table. They thought I was stacking the dishwasher or getting something. I don't do that as often now.

Dd2 is driving me mad. She's so active, wants to go to the park or soft play and we're staying in. I'm tempted to put her in a nappy and go out.

Eating isn't going so well but I think I was so surprised by my loss today I am being a bit less mindful than usual, it's so easy to get complacent. I had a jacket potato and salad but also dd2 demanded ice cream and then didn't eat it so I ate it instead! And her sausages which she didn't eat either.

Leftovers are a killer, I've always been one for finishing up they're last few chicken nuggets or nabbing a sausage out of a tin of beans and sausages before I hand the bowl over. Because grown-ups don't eat chicken nuggets, or beans and sausages! but nicking a small sample off the kids doesn't count.

Anyway I'm stuck in work now until 7 as I've committed to some overtime so it'll be a whirlwind shop on my way home after that and hopefully I won't have time to pick up anything too bad!

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Having a good weekend. I went to a friends house for a takeaway. I knew I'd eat a lot and so just enjoyed it. I tried to stop when I was full and didn't quite manage but I stopped when there was food on the table rather than scoffing all the leftovers. I also drunk diet coke as I was driving. So while I'd expect a temporary gain I'm generally pleased that I could've been worse.

I got a bit upset by my friends compliments 'wow you've lost half your body weight' as I wonder what they thought of me before. Naturally skinny people can be so insensitive.

Taking dds to Lapland uk and grandparents to tomorrow so I might be too busy to weigh or write on this site for a couple of days. I hope you're all having good weekends.