20lbs lighter by Christmas Day, anyone?

[notagiraffe]

Hi
Got weighed at weekend in one of those places where you can't shift your toes around on the scale to lose half a stone. Bit of a shock. Does anyone want to join me to be 20lb lighter by Christmas?

That's only 2lb a week. We can do it.

Height: 5'4"
Start weight on 21st October: 159lb
Goal Weight on Christmas Day: 139lb

Food Plan: no sugar or processed foods, lots of water, lots of veg and lean protein. Alcohol free on weekdays

Exercise Plan: Daily Shred plus what I already do (fitness class and walks)

Anyone want to join in and add plans, tips, motivators, anything at all to get us there by Christmas Day?

Made it through thankfully. Took your advice and drank loads of water. I'll be up all night running to loo

Argh, after joining this thread on Weds I've had 2 takeaways and a bucket of wine. So no weight loss for me this week :(. I am starting a low-carb diet tomorrow. Meal plan for Sunday:
Breakfast - cucumber and cream cheese, ham
Lunch - leftover chicken fajita (no tortilla, just the chicken & vegetables)
Dinner - courgette soup, Parmesan crisps
Loads of water

I'm going to a kids party tomorrow afternoon so will be faced with lots of cakes and sweets. We're bringing crudités & dips so I will stick to those when I need to nibble.

Well done everyone, hopefully next week I'll be joining you in the weight loss party!

notagiraffe I agree about the sugar. It's something which I've definitely noticed time and time again that the less I have the less I want.

I have downgraded my morning bowl of granola to a bowl of fruit muesli but I struggle to eat breakfast and this is one of the only things that appeals. Once the weather is cooler we will have porridge for breakfast. The other thing which helps is to accept that sometimes I do want a snack, but to opt for a healthy snack or damage limitation on the size of the chocolate bar/amount of biscuits etc.

I know I need to drink more water.

WishI - enjoy the cookbook, I made the lean lamb hotpot for dinner tonight and had to fight over seconds. Had it with swede and carrot mash and it was fabulous.

haggisandneeps well done on beating the mid afternoon lull!

It is a bank holiday weekend here in Ireland, difficult to avoid the temptations/general over supply of food. I had wine and a Chinese (ate 2/3's) over the last few days and today went to meet some friends in the market and ended up buying brownies from another friend who has a stall. So all is all, made a few on the spot bad choices, but I am not beating myself up:

1. It's a bank holiday and I have learned that I need to plan my approach to extended weekends.
2. I've realised that if I drink wine, it messes up my sleep and the following day I am hung over, tired and lose all motivation and healthy lifestyle approaches. It takes me a couple of days to get back on track after drinking wine.

So tomorrow is going to be a healthy day, and I am also going to change my approach to bank holiday weekends. I no longer want to drink wine or anything at home. I will limit alcohol to when I am out and about with friends.

While I have made some bad choices, I have not been quite as off the rails as I usually would be on a BH.

Molly that's so true about the wine (when will I learn!)

Was on my feet going round London all day - not fast but for many hours and MFP logged that as 600 cals which surprised me.

Today's diary:
Natural yoghurt, small banana and coffee

Falafel with salad from street stall

Grilled salmon with steamed broccoli and sugar snaps
low fat lemon yoghurt

3 small glasses dry white wine.

Came in at 1500 cals according to MFP.

Hi everyone, we had friends round for dinner last night and having had no wine for a week I drank a bottle and now feel hungover. Molly I agree with you about booze, it's bloody good fun at the time but are the after effects worth it? I'm going to continue keeping it to one night a week only for now, but will try not to get over excited, like last night, and drink my body weight.

Today we have a family lunch to go to so will try to make healthy choices.

Notagiraffe that sounds like a v healthy days food there.

Happy Sunday to you all. Enjoy the lie in.

Well a day of 2 halves for me today.....

This morning slept in, got up and did a workout so didn't get breakfast until gone mid day. Had Greek yog so that's all good.

This afternoon had a party so succumbed to 2 glasses of wine and had Chinese BUT flt so full and ick after 1st helping that I stopped eating which is unusual for me and I also put down the wine. I did have a couple of voddies and diet coke but on the whole this evening could have been MUCH worse! We have something in every Sat until Xmas now so whilst I will have 1 evening off each week it's bout damage limitation without ruining the whole weeks effort. Plus I'm going to bed sober so no hangover tomorrow which will help me say on track.

Also someone said down thread about sugar nod it was a bit light a lightbulb moment for me - the less you eat the less you craves - soooo true!!! When I embark on new eating plans I always worry about missing stff r caving in but once you're doing it it lays surprises me that it's easier than I expected because of this exact same thing!

OK ladies I'm late but I'm in (if that's OK?)

Height 5' 6"
Weight 158lb
goal by Christmas 138 (woo hoo that's 9st something)

Food plan: no chocolate at all (I have done this before so I can do it); cut back on bread and eat fruit/veg instead as snacks. Will try to cut back on alcohol too. Just eat less in the evening. Write down what I eat every day.

Exercise plan: swim twice a week; exercise class once a week (I have a gym pass for this so it's free).

Starting tomorrow.

Also gonna try and do one 5k run a week. This will be when I feel I might start eating...

Hi all

Have to agree with the wine thing. When I drink it makes me feel headachey and bleugh and it makes me eat! I just tend to cut it out altogether

Ok I've had a reasonably good week. I did eat out last night - fish and chips followed by caramel cheesecake plus 2 biscuits during the day but I've been super strict all week! I started the diet weighing 9 stone 13 and I'd like to be 9 stone 5 or 6 on Christmas Day. I know it's not 20lbs but I struggle with losing any weight at all really - not sure why? I know I'm a normal weight for my height but I definitely have wobbly bits that need to go!

When is official weigh in day? I'll then see what damage the cheesecake did

Has anybody worked out their metabolic rate? (There's a formula on Wikipedia) I worked out that in order to maintain my current weight I am eating on average 2384.59 calories a day. According to the equation, in order to be 20 lbs lighter in 60 days I need to reduce my calorie intake (while exercising) only by about 200 calories. This seems very doable so I'm thinking of aiming for reducing by 300 calories, but I'm awful at dieting or being hungry so I am wondering about working out what in my day works out to be 300 calories, or what I could replace. It made me wonder... Does anyone else struggle with portion size? If so, how are you planning to manage with that?

Yes mine is 1397 unfortunately!

Your metabolic rate is 1397 or that's how much less you need to take in? Either way, that's very steep, you have my deepest sympathies.

I've just been wondering about eating a set amount of calories during the day (i.e. breakfast, snack, lunch) so that I can manage this more closely.

Ok. So today started with muesli and semi skimmed milk. Lunch was three slices medium sliced granary bread with pate. I'm baking almond biscuits this afternoon with DD1 so will attempt damage limitation on those then beef stew for dinner with leftover carrot and swede mash.

I have cut out sugar in my coffee as well.

As for the managing portion size then I have more than DD1 but less than DH. I try to do what was suggested up thread in that I eat plenty of veg, reasonable amount of protein and less carbs. DD1 snd DH are major carb eaters as they burn the energy.

Oh and our Sunday dessert will be baked rice pudding, something that I don't like much.

Hi everyone! I won't get a chance to weigh in tomorrow, so I weighed myself today.

Starting weight last Sunday was 12st 7lbs.
My weight this morning was 12st!

7 pounds! Seven POUNDS!

I've lost an inch from my waist too.

I've even eaten 2 galaxy mousses and 6 squares of dairy milk.

I've been sticking to between 1200 and 1500 calories a day. Lots of soup. No cheese, less meat. Walking to school, but that's not new. Drinking peppermint tea instead of my usual tea with milk and two sugars.

I've got a killer headache from reducing sugar and caffeine though.

Cor - WELL DONE!

Well done :-)

Thank you! It's given me the motivation to carry on next week....although I'm sure it will slow to a more sensible rate.

Well done!!

Wow that's amazing! Well done!

WOW, Well done, that is fantastic.

Well done happy! That's fantastic.

1397 is my basic metabolic rate. I am not very tall and not very young :)

Wow Happy that's inspiring!

I hate looking into the calories of food but I just examined what I eat Monday to Friday from waking up until 5 pm and it works out at 700 - 950 calories per day. I haven't measured the evening meal as it's less predictable but that's clearly one of the places where I'm going wrong so I might start recording it, boring, boring, boring! And the evening biscuits are nearly 90 calories a piece so although I'm only having 2 or 3 they add up quickly and now seem like very poor quality for the quantity.

Damn it. Better get on with the daily shred now!

My metabolic rate is about 1400. If you work on the basis that to loose 1ib in weight you have to reduce your calorie intake by 3500 per week that leaves me about 900 cals a day - depressing doesn't even come close!

But, if we do anything more than lie in bed all day we will be burning more calories, so more like a 2 lb loss a week.