Could really do with some help, not great with following "diets"

[ScarletLady02]

I'm 5'10" and just over 12.5 stone. This isn't massively overweight for my height, but I'd love to get back to my happiest ever weight of 10.5 stone.

I'm pants at following "diets". I get overwhelmed by all the counting and weighing and keeping track of things. I would love some tips or pointers on something easy to follow.

I'm vegetarian and I do generally eat quite well. Portion size is a big thing for me, so I'm cutting that down (Mum says - use smaller plate), and I tend to snack a lot (on shit) and drink far too many cans of coke. I've cut coke out completely since Monday and I'm finally feeling a bit better because of it. I've done it before and for 3 days my energy levels are TERRIBLE, but feeling a bit brighter today.

Here is what I ate yesterday, so my own version of a diet for myself to follow - am I going wrong anywhere? Where can I improve? I've been so hungry and would love some help on keeping full longer. I don't think I could survive without carbs to be honest. I have a demanding 2.5 yr old and I've been really snappy with her as I'm hungry.

Breakfast - Porridge with summer berries (fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries)
Lunch - 2 low cal crisp breads with cream cheese (again, low cal), shitloads of salad (carrot, tomato, cucumber, onion, rocket etc), grapes and mango
Dinner - 1 wholemeal pitta with hummus, salad again and couscous.

Snacks - one Aldi's own special K type snack, one homemade biscuit at my Mum (was mainly oats and apple, but obviously some sugar)

Drinks - Tea (I don't have sugar), water and one apple juice with fizzy water.

I'm really struggling to cut out snacks, any tips on healthy ones as I'd rather not rely on the "go ahead" type things all the time.

Any help REALLY appreciated! Thanks

5:2 as you don't want a "diet"?also cd look at low carbing - so less of the porridge/pitta/biscuits/couscous more fish/eggs/meat as protein to fill you up, along with lots of veg. Lots of links on MN for both.

Sorry, just read you're a veggie! Still completely possible, just harder to low carb, eggs are your friend!

Blimey I would be starving if that was all I ate! I think you need to eat a bit more, but different sorts of foods. You definitely need a proper dinner.

I agree you need more protein - eggs, cottage cheese, lentils, beans, quorn if you like it. Nuts and nut butter are good if you can stop yourself eating too much of them.

There is also quite a bit of sugar in what you are eating - grapes and mango are high in sugar, as are those cereal bars and apple juice. I find if I have sugary things I am starving an hour later.

A good rule of thumb is that your plate should be 1/2 veg, 1/4 protein and 1/4 (wholegrain if poss.) carbs.

Oatcakes are not a bad snack. I have just had two with a small bit of dark chocolate which was almost as satisfying as the pain au chocolat I really wanted!

Hello.

I'm shorter than you (5'7) and weighed 12stone in April (just slightly overweight - BMI of 26).

Since then, i've lost over two stone and now weigh 9 stone 13 (BMI of 21). My goal is 9stone to 9.7 stone.

Here's what's worked for me:

Cut out all snacks. I used to think i was being healthy by eating a Go Ahead bar or something similar in between meals, but in fact it was just unnecessary calories. And it also got my sweet tooth going so I'd start to crave chocolate.

So then i swapped for fruit snacks in between meals. But this didn't satisfy me, and again i found myself craving treats like chocolate.

So i cut out all snacks.

It's important that you get used to the feeling of hunger. Feeling hungry isn't a bad thing. I used to shove something into my mouth as soon as i felt myself getting peckish. But now i just have a drink of water or tea in between meals.

I went completely cold turkey with treat foods. I'm a bit of a binger so if i ate two squares of chocolate, it would trigger something in me and I'd end up eating loads of chocolate until i felt sick.

So i didn't allow myself anything. No fizzy drinks, cakes, chocolate, sweets. The cravings were really intense for three weeks. I felt miserable, and wanted to cave in about 5 times per day. I kept telling myself that i'd rather be overweight than be slim and miserable and constantly dreaming about sweets and chocolate. But i decided to stick with it.

Since the 6th week, i've not craved a single thing. The misery has shifted and i feel great. I can now pass my dd a little treat bar from her sweet box without feeling the need to get one for myself.

I meal plan a month in advance so i know what we will be eating. This stops me from eating micro foods like i used to, and also helps me to only buy what i need when shopping.

I also get my groceries delivered each week so i'm not tempted by things at the shops. Tesco do a super saver scheme where you get free delivery for messages over £40 (you have to pay a one off £25 though).

I make myself exercise every day. I used to be almost completely sedentary. Now i make sure i walk at least 5 miles per day (as we should all be doing on a normal day), plus i've been doing 30 mins a day on my exercise bike since April while watching the TV.

I started the 30 day shred last week, too. I was kidding myself if i thought my fitness levels were good before.

I've gone from a size 14-16 to a size 10-12. Ideally, i'd like to be a perfect 10.

I'm also a veggie, and i found some great recipes on BBC Good Food.

Fizzy drinks were my vice before. Cutting them out at first gave me a rotten headache and made me a right grump. But now i see it was the best thing i could have done.

I've been sticking to a 1200 cal diet a day. Some days - rarely - this can creep up to 1500 cals a day, but never any more (My fitness Pal is great for keeping track).

So my breakfast is normally 200 cals (Cereal with skimmed milk + cup of tea)
Lunch is 400 cals - An egg salad sandwich or soup and roll
Then dinner is 600 cals - Various things such as a veggie curry, risotto, large salad, pasta. (I'm obsessed with BBC Good Food - have been trying a new recipe every night since April... definitely obsessed).

Good Luck! You will feel so amazing. And please don't be disheartened if the weight doesn't come off quickly. I lost a stone in about 3 weeks at first because i was initially overweight. Since then things have been incredibly slow. I weighed 9stone 13 on the 1st of this month, and weigh the same today. But i can tell my body is getting firmer, even if the weight loss has slowed.

Thanks for all the tips! That's really helpful.

I know the snacks aren't great, I was more using it as an in between thing while I got all the shit out of my system.

I love lentils and beans, and do usually eat them a lot (I'm having veggie curry with rice and peas for dinner today). I love peanut butter as well thinking about it, so might get myself some of that (I even like the Whole Earth - no salt no sugar stuff).

I would like to cut out snacks completely, or at least have them as a rare treat, but I didn't want to go completely cold turkey as I thought it would just make me give up easier.

I dont' think I could go completely low carb...but I'll check the threads out for some ideas, even if I do it a few days a week, or just for some meals etc Eggs are a funny thing for me. I can't eat egg white, it's rank, so I can only eat eggs that are mixed - scrambled, omelettes etc I do love cheese though (another big vice!). I'm a bit of a fussy bugger.

I know you said calorie counting is a pain, but get yourself onto myfitnesspal and log your calories for a week or two. This will help you evaluate your portion sizes and the calorie content of what you are eating (houmous is very calorie dense!)

What is (very slowly) working for me is:

Myfitnesspal - log food religously (when I don't I eat too much). Its actually pretty quick when you've done it for a while, you can zap barcodes and it remembers favourite meals/foods etc.

Fitbit Aria WiFi bodyfat scales: weigh myself every morning and it automatically uploads the data to fitbit/my fitness pal. I also use this with the Trendweight site which plots the data points and smooths out the ups and downs to just show the overall trends.

Fitbit one: pedometer that shows how much I move around in a day (walking/running). This syncs with Fitbit/My fitness pal so that they know exactly what my calorie burn is every day so can accurately calculate how many calories I can eat.

Beeminder: a website where I pledge to lose a certain amount of weight a week. If I don't meet my goal I have to pay them real money.

Also, remember diets dont work. You need to figure out something that works fir you and that you can continue to do for the rest of your life!

This setup works for me when I use it. It is the easiest system I have found, hence I manage to use it reasonably consistently.

I know this is a massive post. My number one tip is to log your food. I thought I had a healthy diet. Logging and weighing everything showed me my healthy diet was over 3000cal/day! (Portion size)

I find 5:2 and no snacking at all between meals during the weekday very effective. I snack at weekends, if I want too. I was a huge snacker and once worked out that I ate around 600 cals a day in snacks alone! But I found cutting them out really easy - partly because initially I increased my meal size to compensate a little (so I wouldn't get hungry later). Then my body adjusted and my main meals became a little smaller. I also fast once or twice a week and am currently maintaining a 5 stones loss this way.

Looking at your meal plan I'd say eat more at each meal, make it filling eg a bit more protein in each and no snacks; throw in a fast day or two.

I think you've gone from loads to little. How about: yogurt and fruit for breaky, salad with egg/cheese for lunch and whatever you'd normally have for dinner with no snacks. That is low carb for two meals then easy for the meal where you're most tired.

Thanks again for all the tips. I've upped my meals a bit today, and got myself some of the suggested nibbly foods. I'm going out tomorrow night so will have a couple of drinks and I'm going to make pizza for dinner for a treat. I LOOOOOOVE pizza, and home-made isn't AS bad for you

I'm becoming quite interested in 5:2 though, I'll definitely check the threads out.

If you're not good with diets, you might have more luck increasing your exercise. If you swam twice a week (and did it so you got out of breath), or cycled maybe, and got a little routine of some planks, squats and press ups to do a couple of times a week, that would help too.

I find I lose nothing if I only look at what I'm eating - moving more is simpler for me!