I am going to lose this 2 stone, for good!!

[FlossyMcgrew]

I will be taking "after" pictures on July 1st.

I took before pictures yesterday and they are awful. I have at least 2 stone to lose. I have joined other threads here before, with some success. Then quit after getting halfway to my goal and gaining everything back in half the time it took me to lose it.

I am 5 foot 6, have been wavering around the 12 stone mark since having my 2 dc within 13 months. Youngest is now 2.

In my "before" pictures (which I won't post until I get to post them with my afters!). It is painfully obvious that nearly all of my weight is around my middle. This is particularly worrying as my family history is full of diabetes, heart problems, cancer, strokes- you name it.

My plan is this:

MFP to track my calories

30 day shred or alternate 30 min workout 5 times a week

More conscious eating. Re-reading Paul McKenna, "I Can Make You Thin."

Easy on the carbs. My current 2 slices of toast breakfast, 2 slice of bread sandwich and crisps lunch, and insert random carb heavy dinner here, is doing me and my middle no favours.

Drink more water. At least 4 pint glasses per day.

Chew gum instead of mindless snacking.

No baking. I can think up any excuse to bake, and then of course I have to test my product--no more!

And that is basically it.....

I am hoping that I can make all of these things my new way of life, rather than a diet.

I am tired of hating myself in every picture.

I am tired of refusing to buy new clothes in this size, and looking like a slob as all of my clothes are old and don't fit properly.

I want to be healthy and I want to be here for my kids for as long as possible.

I want to be a good example for my kids.

I would like to feel attractive again.

I am going to check in here at least once a week. Monday morning weigh in to keep me honest over the weekends. Please feel free to join me, or cheer me on.

I don't want to be a diet bore in real life so I am going to use this thread for my rambling instead.

So here goes......

Week 1
12 Stone 7

Well I have stayed the same weight for just under 2 weeks so would really like to shift a couple of pounds this week.
Going to try really hard to get my 10k steps in every day and no nibbling on mini eggs!
I have an insanity work out tonight -I look horrendous jumping about with my wobbly bits compared to a lot of the fit slim people there but we are all in a sweaty heap by the end and I guess it's better than sitting on my sofa.
10 weeks until holidays-really want to shift another stone but think its going to be tough going

There is a shop in the city centre that checks which type of trainers you need for running. I think I will go in there though won't be able to afford any until July.

I did race for life last year in 44 minutes. Where I live has an awful lot of hills so walked some of it.

Have you got a park run near you? They are 5k and I think you can be any ability. The local one to me is at 9am on Saturday mornings.

Amelia, yes I am aiming for my local 5k park run but so far my best run has been 3.5k in 25 mins so need more prep first.

What distance is the run for life? You must be pretty fit to keep running for that long!

Its 5k and I definitely did not run the whole way. The hill at the end had most of the non super fit people walking I think. There aren't many places here you can run for 5k without having to go up a steep hill.

There used to be a local marathon but they stopped it because the route was so harse.

The route I do at the mo has a few 'gentle' hills and I slow to a practical walk on those. My DH did the c25k after Christmas and managed the local park run 5k in 25 mins so I feel like a geriatric next to him. He's doing a 10k program now. My brother does marathons, which is superhuman in my eyes!

Super fit men in your family then.

There is a national trust property fairly close that has a path around the edge used by people to run. It is just under 2 miles and has a couple of fairly gentle, or at least short, hills. I think I might give it a go on Thursday after dropping DD3 off at preschool.

Only half a pound off here, but disaapointed as I've been pretty good and was hoping for more but in the right direction I suppose. 6and a half in total for me now

I've got proper shoes Amelia, I've got flat feet and am a bit of a nightmare for injuries so DH bought me some for mother's day last year.

I've done a 8.5 mile bike ride tonight, probably the furthest I've ever cycled!

Before the dc's came along I ran half marathons and stuff, but it's like starting all over again. I did the route of my local parkrun on bank holiday Monday and it took me 37mins. It's a small group of runners on a Saturday though so I'd be quite possibly last which is what has stopped me doing it. I need to toughen up.

Howiwonder - half a pound is good, it might just mean that you'll have a bigger loss next week. Keep positive and do the complete opposite of me

Late check in from me

Week 9
11 Stone 7
1 lb loss
14 lbs loss so far, hooray!!!

Welcome jan2014 low carb isn't sustainable for me either. Do you take any supplements or vitamins? I have been taking some vitamin d3, per my sister the nurse's orders, I have heard vitamin d deficiency can be a big problem here in the uk. Maybe supplements could help fatigue?

Lamby I agree, we shouldn't feel guilty for going out for nice meals or treating ourselves. For me at least , my big issue is balance and moderation, but I'm working on it.

Thank you for your chin up post howiwonder, You are absolutely right.

Thank you for the bmi calculator link Amelia, although I have to admit to being annoyed when it recommended I lose 1 stone 13 to be in the middle of healthy bmi range. I am still working in my original 2 stone goal for now, then we shall see! My dc also like to "help" me do my exercises. Mostly by standing under jumping jacks, and sitting on me during crunches! I figure, it's good for them to see my attempts at good health :)

Well done Magenta on the insanity work outs, I've heard they are just that!

ThatsNotAKnife well done on the running the 25 minutes, that's fantastic.

I did the same as you were saying and randomly bought a tootsie roll today, knowing full well I was the only one who was going to eat it, why??

Great job on your bike ride RunningKatie, you are doing so well at working in lots of activity!

My mini goal this week is to drink more water, have been really slipping on that lately.

Good luck everyone!!

I know what you mean. I think I would have to lose a lot to be in the middle of the healthy bmi range.

I think I am going to pop into town on Thursday for running shoes. I have some money put aside for car tax so I might borrow from that.

I have weighed in this morning and lost half a pound. That's 13 1/4 lbs lost so far.

I shredded 4 times last week and twice this week so far. The weather means I haven't walked so far though. I will definitely make more effort this week.

Howi I also feel the same but need to stay focussed. At least it isn't half a pound on I suppose.

RunningKatie I would love to run half marathons, maybe one day!

howiwonder yes i wonder i am am where you are from lol i know what i mean like??!!

Amelia i am a single parent too its so hard finding the motivation to exercise when you don't have the kids when all you want to do is sit down and.... breathe!

flossy well done on your weight loss you have done brilliant! yes i take vitamin d and lots of other supplements too and nothing is helping, im actually changing GP practises as they aren't listening to me, so hopefully will get somewhere with a new one as nothing is changing with the fatigue, exercise actually makes it worse so i am worried i have some sort of m.e.

didn't have time for breakfast this morning so got a wrap in mcds... i thought it wouldn't be that bad to have an egg and cheese wrap. well, they went and put sausage in it as well and i didn't have time to complain and wait for another one, so that wasn't the greatest start to the day but it was nice i have to say. its a lovely day here and i said to myself i was going to exercise but im knackered and the house is a mess... hopefully later i will do something!

Jan2014 have you had your thyroid checked? I have an underactive thyroid and even though I'm supposedly on the correct dose of medication I still get really tired some times.

Hopefully the new doctors will get to the bottom of it for you. Its not nice feeling like something isn't right but not noting what.

yes had everything checked...iron too. my thyroid was borderline underactive for awhile but must be ok now. im sorry you have thyroid trouble it is difficult when you have that fatigue.

I'm mostly ok now. Just get a bit tired occasionally.

Do you have any other symptoms? Joint pain or anything? Might be a good idea to get the new doctor to refer you to a spealist. My friend has an autoimmune condition that wasn't diagnosed until she was referred.

thats interesting about your friend, i do have other symptoms and brought them to my doctor and suggested the possibility of an autoimmune disease and he actually nearly laughed at me and said no way something like that would come up in my blood results. i need to fill the forms in for the new surgery and see the new doc, i haven't been happy with my current one for a few years they always fob me off no matter what it is (and im not one of those hypochondiacs)

so my friend gave me a pair of jeans she didn't want any more and thought would fit me. gorgeous designer jeans that i wouldn't be able to afford. of course they are too tight! totally raging, and now upset about weight again. need more motivation. i think now my body is used to eating a certain amount of food and its very difficult to go below that, i will somehow have to retrain my mind and body to expect a little less.

Ah dead on, we definitely speak the same language Jan2014!

Do you know, I'm defintely wondering about the idea of retraining my body to this new calorie level. I am allowing myself plenty of calories on this diet- 1800, a figure I kind of plucked out of the air as I'm still bfeeding DS2. Should be more than enough cals I thought. But I'm often getting dizzy, weak etc, when I get hungry, I get really hungry! I'm hoping this will pass when my body adjusts a bit. I feel I would really struggle to do all the exercise the rest of you seem to be doing, I just feel a bit too washed out

I don't think my friends autoimmune condition showed up in blood test done at the GPS. In fact unless the condition is active I'm not sure it shows at all.

GPS are only general doctors and know a small amount about lots of things. To get a diagnosis you need to see a rheumatologist.

I didn't feel great getting up for a run yesterday Amelia but bettter afterwards although hungry!

I've had 3 days now off undoing all the bad choices in April. Feeling positive again and I'm back to eating under my exercise calories rather than up to or over.

Fingers crossed this motivation will show on the scales on monday.

Hope you're all having a good week

Was going to buy running shoes today but its a good 30 minute walk into town and raining quite hard so have put it off until next week.

RunningKatie I always have to push myself to do the shred in the morning but do feel better for it after.

There is talk of a lot of meals and nights out in the next few weeks so not sure that is going to have a positive impact on the diet!

Feels a bit quiet here at the moment.

I have done day 9 of the 30 day shred and walked 9084 steps, which is about 8500 more than normal

Hope everyone is doing well.

Hi Amelia. I've been concentrating on my running this week. I've actually managed to do 5k! My time is rubbish (40 mins initially, 38.30 tonight) but hopefully I can improve that a little bit. I've decided to do a 5k race at my local park run next weekend so that is my next goal! Might get myself some new trainers if I do a decent (for me) time.

All very slow on the weightloss front, it's totm for me too so I'm afraid to even look as I know there is water retention which is disheartening. Feel crap and want to eat rubbish too but hoping if I manage to resist this will pass soon... it's tough though!

ps well done on the shred Amelia. I don't know much about how it works but 9 thousand steps sounds impressive!

38.30 is brill Thatsnotaknife - you're doing great. Have you looked to see how many do your parkrun and what the time spread is?

My parkrun isn't on this weekend, bit sad as having chatted about it earlier this week I was all set to do it, and I can't do next weekend as I'm volunteering at a nearly new sale. So, May 17th, I will be there. DH has said that he and the dc's are going to make me a medal.

I have been trying much harder again this week, have sneaked a peek at the scales and am pleased that I am undoing the mess I made of April.

Thanks runningkatie! To be honest I doubt I'll get much faster than tonight's time, I was pooped after. I don't know the spread of my parkrun but I know the average time is 29 mins so I'm well over that. I'm looking forward to it though - good luck to you for the 17th!