Help me please - 12 stones to lose and a wedding to plan/look amazing at

[ilove]

My son has proposed to his girlfriend, and we are really pleased, she is lovely. They are looking at 18/24 months time.

I'm going to be the mum of the groom eek! And a MIL but that's another thread entirely lol...

However. I weigh around 22 stones, I'm 5' 6" and am hourglass shaped. Boobs are a 38-40 JJ and the tape measure doesn't actually reach around my widest part (tummy) so I reckon that is around 65".

I have previously lost weight on LL and put it all back on again. I am severely gluten intolerant (medically diagnosed) so get bread/flour/pasta etc on prescription.

I have tried SW but lost very, very little and got very demoralised with it.

I think I need to do a combination of 5:2 and low carbing. I have a blender, a juicer, a proper meat slicer for joints of meat etc. I'm reg disabled - I only have one arm that works properly and I have bad pelvic issues due to severe SPD which have left me with a lifelong weakness. I'm trying to get everything into one post so I don't drip-feed, sorry. I can swim and have several free passes for the gym across the road. I HATE the actual gym with a vengeance, I don't have much self-confidence in the way I look, and I really do want to make 2014 the year I sort myself out once and for all.

Please can anyone help me?

Oh, I drink coffee (black), probably 6 large mugs a day of full caff, and one of decaf. Water (tap water) and several large glasses of white wine a week.

Could you swim a couple of times a week. Maybe use the treadmill in the gym while listening to an audio book?
As it's an important occasion coming up maybe a consultation with a nutritionist. They can also be done online if getting there is a problem.

I was going to say SW as it's working for me but understand if it's not for you!!

However - you need to hydrate well whichever plan you go for, so give up the coffee! Caffeine inhibits your body's ability to take fluids properly, and drinking lots of water will help your weight loss :)

Good luck and congratulations! You can do it. You'll look fabulous :o

I could swim a couple of times a week yes, when I did SW I never even had that big first week loss, and by week 3 I was plateauing yet stiking to it.

Re coffee, if I switch to totally (or all other than one) decaff will that be ok?

Decaf is better than caff, yes! :)

I too was going to say SW, but if that's not for you, then obviously need to find something that is :)

Since the end of June, I have lost 6 stones 2lb. I credit a combination of Slimming World and the Couch 2 5k. Dragging my huge lardy arse around doing the C25K was hugely humiliating, and it still is, but it's getting easier.

Now, I weigh approximately 19.5 stones. Still a huge way to go to my target of 13st, but on the right track.

I've gone from a size 32 on top and 30 on bottom, to a 24 on top and a 20 on bottom. I haven't been this light/slim for a good 20 years!

You can do this, and wow, what an incentive! Good luck x

Personally, I think you need to firstly set yourself a lesser goal. I'm not saying you can't lose 12 stones in 18-24 months, because you can.

Why dont you set yourself a goal of say 3 stones in the next 6 months? Once you reach that, it will give you the motivation to set another goal.

Cut out the wine, treat yourself to one or two glasses maybe at the weekend if you have been good all week. Have one Coffee in the morning and perhaps try some herbal teas?

When I diet I have one meal a week whereby I can eat whatever I like.

Apart from that, just try and eat foods that are low in fat and try to avoid too many carbs. This together with some swimming will work wonders.

Protein is very filling, its easy to bulk out meals with lots of veg.

Good luck.

(btw I am no skinny gym bunny, I am about 4 stone over weight, I am good at losing it when I can put my mind to it, but equally good at putting it on!) My diet should start on Monday if my tonsiitis has cleared up.

Sorry - I completely missed the bit where you said you were disabled

Swimming is excellent exercise, could you look into an aqua aerobics class perhaps?

What have you been doing wrong up to this point op? Where has all this extra weight come from? You need to tackle the bad habits that have brought you to this point (sorry for stating the obvious!). Do you need to have gluten free products at all? Is there a way you could just give them all up?

I've got loads to loose and have lost 2 stone since September with 5:2, I would really recommend it, I still manage a couple of glasses a wine a week.
Good luck!

Well, I've been very big since I left home at 18.

Re the GF stuff, I think I have been in the mindset that the GP prescribes it therefore I can eat it - but 8 loaves of bread every ten days, plus bread rolls and GF pizza bases and all the stuff you can buy and bake makes it far too carb heavy.

I never eat fruit but have lots of frozen berries to make smoothies etc with, also I never eat breakfast so that needs to change too.

Carbs are def my downfall

Yes, that does sound very carb heavy. Gluten free products are not low calories or low carb, are they?

No, and they seem to replace the gluten with sugar, especially in the sweet stuff

Swimming : if you do not have both arms working evenly you will struggle to REALLY get moving
unless
you walk / jog up and down the pool
as fast as you can
four lengths forwards - L O N G strides, pulling with hands
four lengths walking backwards - short but very fast strides
four lengths sideways - step, together, step etc back and forth
then swim for 8 - so fast you cannot talk
then repeat
you should be dripping with sweat, but have put no force on any joint

go low carb - seriously low carb, high fish, high white meat, veggie if you can
but no bread of any sort for 4 days a week

and track all that you do on MFP as you go (every hour)

let us know whether that starts the pattern moving the right way ...
the "one guinea pig at a time" thread might be a good support group for you as well

PS NO SNACKING
kitchen is closed other than meal times

I would really recommend complete now/low carb (getting carbs from veg rather than bread, cakes etc). It will be hell on earth for the first 4-5 days and with the amount of carbs you are currently eating you are going to feel crap during that time but after that it is relatively easy. I find that once I introduce carbs I crave them all day and it makes me eat more and more (as I have found out since eating carbs again after 2 years off). If you low carb half the week and then eat carbs the rest of the week you are not going to break to sugar addiction cycle and it will probably just make you miserable. I initially followed the pig to twig book when I started low carbing but there are now some great threads on the low carb section of this board. Everything you need to know is on there - recipes (which is ESSENTIAL for long term weight loss as eating the same things gets boring and you give up), do's and don'ts, tips, support, motivation etc etc. Giving up carbs gives you so much more energy, you feel healthier, don't get bloated, bowel movements and flatulence improve (well they do in our family :blush:), period pain improves, skin improves and it is relatively easy - no weighing, measuring just lots of lovely tasty food. Seriously good luck I would love to follow your progress :grin:

see, I low carb in the week but I luff pizza and toast at the weekend

OP
MFP will be your initial friend - you need to bring your total intake under your TDEE
and then rebalance your food to make it better for you

Vegetables and pulses are the way to go. Lots of chilli / garlic / ginger flavoured green veg is what works for me, and if that means buying preprepared or frozen green veg from Asda/Iceland to enable you to manage the cooking then that's absolutely fine. Smoothies are all very well but very sugary. I agree that you need to ditch as much of the gf prescription food as possible.

How much can you walk? Would a pedometer help? IME the way to lose weight through exercise is either to blast the hell out of yourself through HIIT, which seems unlikely to work for you, or to move a little bit more during every single waking hour. But obviously with your disability you'd need to be very creative to make that work, and the vast majority of the weight loss will need to come from diet.

Best of luck, I'm sure you'll find loads of help and support.

Come and join us on Bootcamp, ilove! The next one starts officially on 13/1, but I'm starting a thread for lots of people who want to do a 'soft' start, from tomorrow.

And congratulations!

Have a look at the bootcamp threads OP.

BIWI and the ladies over there are expert on low carb and quite a few of them have medical issues. There are a few who have started at a similar weight to you and one of those is now under 10 stone!

My understanding of gluten free eating is that using these g/f products is akin to a vegetarian making a large part of their diet from the likes of Linda McCartney sausages and Quorn bacon, allowable but heavily processed and not the healthiest way! If you can make your diet from meat, fish, veg, etc rather than processed food it will help

Good luck

Check out the Harcombe thread on here.

The diet (low carb) is easy to follow and seems to work if you do it properly.

We are all relatively new to it and there have been some slippages over Christmas (I put 4lb back on), but that is now going nicely.

Although there is not a 5:2 version of this diet, I am mixing P1 & P2 days in a 3:4 ratio. That means 3 really strict P1 days mixed with 4 more relaxed P2 days. I am hoping that will overcome the psychological stress of thinking I am on a permanant diet.

PS I am also Coeliac !!

Hello I have 8 stone to lose, also gluten intolerant although my sons are 1&3 so I think it is a while until I am going to be the mil!

I can't offer much advice but definitely support and I have a few lovely gluten free dishes if you would like to hear about them x

I've said this on a couple of different threads recently, but I recommend reading Eating Less by Gillian Riley. It's not really a diet but more of a look at the reasons why we overeat and some techniques to bring it under control.

I have one working arm, am gluten free, and lost 3.5 stones last year and kept it off.

GF stuff is ridiculously high in calories tbh. I calorie counted with Food Focus (would do MyFitnessPal if I was starting again), and it really helped me sort my portions out, which was my problem. I didn't allow for the exercise unless it was really loads.

Its taken me ages to relearn to swim one armed, but I've finally cracked front crawl, and find I can get a good speed now, so if you start setting yourself goals on so many lengths in whatever time it is def worthwhile exercise.

If you can manage on an exercise bike at the gym, then have a look at HIIT - its short, intense bursts of exercise rather than slogging on

Thankyou all so much.

Please can I ask for links to any of the threads you are recommending, and I have no idea what some of your acronyms mean

Swimming I can manage/ish, I do one length breast, then backcrawl, then front crawl, then back crawl - my shoulder is ok it is the elbow and forearm and grip that aren't, so rotating the 4 strokes has worked in the past.

Carbs are DEF my downfall, along with boredom, coffee and not eating regular meals then being starving and eating 4 or 6 slices of cheese on toast, or chips and bread etc. I can cook, make a mean chilli/curry/etc (qualified chef) but my specialism is baked goods (I've been asked to make the wedding cake)

I intend to soft-start tomorrow with a weigh in, proper coffee then continuing on decaff and water, and stopping bread. I'm going to get a chicken out of the freezer tonight to cook too.

Could do with GB friends to support as well...or any friends really!