Mindful eating but giving myself 2 evenings off a week?!

[Tansie]

Was away last weekend with 2 friends, one of whom has been doing SW for 4 weeks and has lost 7.5lbs. She was quite 'well-behaved' apart from too much vino! But it reminded me that I have to shift 1 1/2 stone. It won't be 'fat to thin' as I'm 5'5", 12.6 now and would like to be 11st by July (holiday); BMI 28 to BMI 25. I'm 51 for the record! Whilst we were away the other 2 were trying on clothes for one's DD's wedding (to which I am invited) and the SW friend mentioned how nice it was to feel better about her shape. I should add, she's not big, but is 5' exactly with long legs so all her weight sits around her middle. I was finding size 18 tops a bit clingy (You might not think my proportions put me in that range, of '18' being too small, but it does!).

SO, to this end, I have decided to be a bit Paul McKenna, asking myself if I want food etc rather than just hoofing it in! I have never been a 'whole bar of chocolate/2 litre tub of ice cream' gal but I do like me vino a bit too much . I tend to snack a lot, too, as there's always food at work!

Just made a Hairy Bikers shepherd's pie which was nice but, bit non-PMc, I grazed throughout the preparation, only raw veggies, mind, and drank 2 wine glasses of low-cal tonic and a glass of fizzy water so by the time I sat down to the meal, I actually could have left it! But I guess that way leads to bedtime binge eating!

I am trying to walk, fast, 2 miles every evening on a treadmill watching telly (30 mins at 4mph).

I have also decided to give myself Thursday and Saturday evenings off. Thursday is because my DM, (81) comes around and we have shop-bought curry or Chinese, plus I drink 2-3 glasses of Pinot. She has always been thin and a heavy smoker (with no ill effect...) and has spent much of my life dropping remarks about my eating so, frankly, I don't want her even knowing I'm 'dieting'!

I have read that 80:20 works, in that if you're disciplined 80% of the time, a 20% lapse won't undo all the good work.

What do you think?

11/9!

Half way there (to my 'just under 11 stone' target)

Despite much over indulgence

I guess for me it's a combination of being really mindful most of the time, drinking loads of water and, I'm sure, 2 miles fast walking 6 out of 7 days a week.

Seems AF isn't going to make more than a cursory appearance this month so maybe I won't get 'the bloat'.

So, Day 46, 11 lbs lost from 12/6.

I'm glad this is working for you tansie I am on a mission to lose 21lbs can't actually believe it's come to this

I started with a very intense three day detox and I'm now on the 5:2 but with strict calorie counting on NFDs. Eventually I want to get to a combo of fast/calorie count but with at least a day where I can eat/drink whatever.

Past thanks. I know exactly what you mean about 'how did this happen?!'. At my heaviest, 3 years ago, I was 13 stone! The loss from there to 12/6, my starting weight for this, was gradual and unplanned, it just sort of happened.

For me the ability to have a bit of a blow out now and then was key for me to be able to stick to this woe, otherwise I wouldn't have. I also find myself a bit less inclined to 'go mad', even then, as my retraining via Mindful Eating makes me consider whether I've had enough to eat or not.

Let us know how you're getting on.

11/9- still. But via a foray back to 11/11 (yesterday's weigh-in)!

AF did 'make an appearance' which may have had something to do with that. Also, I drank like a fish on Friday evening (oops).

However, I've been mindful Sat to today and am very grateful my scales are still heading south, albeit gradually.

DH 'joined' me in doing my daily fast-walk yesterday in that he stepped on the treadmill after me. He needs to lose weight as well. His snoring is becoming 'an issue' between us again, and he his getting that dangerous belly that middle aged men get. His father had a triple bypass.

DH needs to consider his food intake and exercise output a bit but I know it's not helpful to 'nag'. You can only do it when you know 'it's time'.

11/7!

One lb off a 1 stone loss in 53 days or 7.5 weeks.

Am actually quite surprised!

Grr.

Still 11/7!

I admit I may have been partaking of the holiday spirit a little too lavishly!!

I'm going to cut that right back to see if I can restart my weight loss. I have it all recorded on a graph that I find useful. There are 3 straight lines heading southwards, one requires a loss of 1.8lbs a week, the next a loss of 1.6lbs a week, the top one 1lb a week. Right now I'm between the 1.8 and 1.6 lines but if I don't register a 1lb loss in 2 days, I go above the 1.6lb line which is a bit demoralising so I must try very hard not to!

Slight problem today is that I am taking my mother (and DC) to a garden centre for lunch and don't know what I'll find to eat there; and it's DS1's 15th birthday dinner tonight and he's chosen a Japanese tasting menu.... I find you have to be careful with Japanese- it's easy to think it's all clear soups and raw fish but calories do creep in there!

Well done on what you've already achieved. So you're combining a few things in your approach - mindful eating; 5:2 (in the sense of two days off) and weight loss targets which I would associate with more standard diets.

From personal experience a few years back, the mindful type approach can be a more gradual process in terms of weightloss results than a bog standard diet with, say, an expected 2lb loss each week.

I think the important thing is to sort out (and focus on the success of) achieving sustainable long-term eating habits, rather than giving too much importance to meeting a target weight loss within a certain timescale. The problem is - as per your post above - if you're focused on the numbers and they aren't quite in line with your targets, you can become demoralised. If it were me, I would be very pleased with your overall success of implementing better ways of eating, with desired weight loss a welcome, but secondary, by-product of your approach.

fascicle wise words, indeed, thanks.

I admit that I am a bit focused on the numbers, mainly because my initial 'targets' were in given time frames (the first is 12 weeks from the start, which is now 3 1/2 weeks away). I agree that in the long term, they're not helpful.

I do find a regular weigh-in useful to guide me as to whether I'm on the right tracks i.e. what I'm eating, or, more to the point, not eating is causing weight-loss! But I hope not to be a slave to it. Right now I really want to hit 11/6 as that will be One Stone Lost. 8 weeks would have been a nice symmetrical period but heigh ho!

11/6. Thank god! Took me 2 months but a stone down!

Have had to be really mindful (and not swill wine) for a few days to pip that 1lb, though

11/5 today! I'm directly 'on' the '1.6lbs loss a week' line on my graph, and this is 9 1/2 weeks in. 2 weeks to The Wedding and 8 weeks to The Holiday.

Wonder if I can make 11/2 for the wedding? It's do-able but I have family down this weekend that so far involves three meals; a pub tonight, mine tomorrow night, my mother's on Sunday. As it is I feel I hoofed into last night's Chinese with too much gusto! So realistically I might only manage one more lb before the wedding, but that's better than nothing!

11/4- finally! Took 10 days to lose that pound! What 'went wrong' was the weekend as detailed in my last post, then, tbh, I think I carried on celebrating various things too well, shall we say; then AF has just started and I can literally, genuinely gain and lose 3lbs at this time (I was 11/7 yesterday morning but I knew why).

Also, I wonder whether substituting a family bike ride for my 2 miles fast walk (a couple of times)is a good idea- although they're 8-10 miles and do involve a couple of lung bursting ascents, I wonder if the consistency of the treadmill is better? But I can't treadmill and ride on teh same day as my legs are too sore!

Anyway, being strict until Saturday and The Wedding! ; no alcohol, strict adherence to PMcK mindful eating!

I won't make The Goal of 11/2 by Saturday but if I can maintain 11/4, I shan't beat myself up.

Then I will look towards the family holiday, end of July for my next and possibly final 'target' which I'm not sure of right now. It could and should be 10/7 which, at 5'6" and 51 years old is a 'sensible' and realistic ongoing weight.

(I appear to have gained an inch since my initial weigh-in! - I'm 5'5", not 6"- which makes a dramatic difference to BMI, actually!)

Hi Tansie! - I think one of the things you should definitely consider is to up your exercise a little. This is simply because now that you have been doing your two miles for a while, your body is going to have adapted to it, and it won't be needing to burn as much energy to get through it.

It would be a really good idea to have a couple of days where you try and do your 2 miles a little faster than usual, but also have a couple of days where you do three miles - or even four!! - at the same slower paced that you started out with.

Otherwise you will find that you weight loss will plateau much faster.

Fair comment. I was actually 'worried' that my daily exercise, was too much as exercise programs usually emphasise having 'rest days' which I try not to have otherwise it's 'my day off' -and so is 'tomorrow', and before I know it, it's 3 days off. I am not disciplined! I did try 4.4 but it's a fine line between 4.2mph and 4.4, fast walking versus having to jog! I can't jog.

As for 3 miles, yes, but I am also (excuses?) concerned about exercise eating my life! . 2 miles takes 28 minutes which of course has to be added onto 5-8 minutes getting changed, making the recalcitrant telly work; and post exercise a very necessary 10 minutes to cool down then a shower, so the whole she-bang takes an hour. With a family, that's all I can allow right now.

It's a definite problem- but that is 'the issue' with exercise: You can never stop. Any amount of good work is undone in a fortnight's indolence. And you must always increase, increase! Few of us have the time let alone the inclination to do so.

Yeeha. 11/3. 'Missed' a target by one pound but I can live with that!

You could maybe increase the speed or the incline on the treadmill so you do a little further in the same amount of time if you're worried about plateauing. I wouldn't worry about the rest day thing. It's important for athletes whose training causes muscle tears which need to heal for maximum results - for example olympic lifting- or for people who do either very long or intense cardio (so marathon trainers would typically take a day off after their "long run" which might be a 16-20 miler). Also, the concept of the rest day is often misunderstood. It really means an easy day or "do something different", so a marathoner might go swimming, a weight trainer might go for a cycle. If you're not getting stiff or injured, don't worry about it.

Well done btw. I'm glad you succeeded. You've proved a little theory of mine that it's all about cutting out the worst excesses.

Thanks, bunting- yes, I am thinking I might increase the incline of the treadmill a bit- I'm 'worried' that if I make it it ant faster, I'd break into a trot and I'm concerned I risk injuring myself if I do that, wot wiv being over 50, etc! Thanks for the explanation about rest days, too.

I am going to get back properly into my mindfulness for the next 7 weeks (and swill less Pinot!) as my next target date is a sunshine holiday. Yesterday's target date was a friend's DD's wedding (glorious, incidentally) where I felt good in my dress!

11/2. So 12 1/2 weeks and 18 lbs down.

11/2 was my target for last Saturday (wedding) but I'm pretty happy with it!

Onwards and downwards!

Well done, Tansie. You've done so well.

About the exercise.

that is 'the issue' with exercise: You can never stop. Any amount of good work is undone in a fortnight's indolence. And you must always increase, increase!

You don't always have to be increasing, and you won't lose all your fitness in two weeks. (Actually, I've just realised you might be talking purely in terms of exercise as a calorie burner. There are all sorts of other benefits, which help with managing diet/having a better relationship with food.) You can up the exercise that you do (frequency, intensity, duration etc) but another approach is just to mix things up all the time with different sessions.

May I ask: what have you got against running? It's a great form of exercise if you can do it.

Thanks, fascicle-

Re: running, as much as anything I am concerned about my increasingly creaky joints! My lower back is often a bit dodgy (HCP, years of pulling heavy people around); and although my knees are generally OK, they twinge from time to time. I am worried that pounding along might cause an injury which, at 51, would take ages, if ever to fully recover from. I do like exercise to involve a bit of impact, however, for ongoing bone-strength.

I have increased the incline on my treadmill from 3 to 4; and we're been taking advantage of the great weather (speaking too soon?!) to go on family bike rides in the New Forest every weekend. The DSs are 13 and 15 so well able to not only keep up but beat me!

I try and get my HR to about 130 and keep it there for 10-15 mins when I exercise.

My understanding is that running might be good or bad for back pain and joints, depending on the individual and the nature of their issues. Running is often undeservedly criticised for being generally harmful to joints (people often mention knees), but I think that rather depends on whether your joints are compromised in the first place, and also running style, terrain, how much running people do etc.

Anyway, not trying to change your mind! Adjusting your treadmill incline sounds like a good way of mixing things up and your bike rides sound rather idyllic.

OK! Back again!

Have been on my holiday (Andalucia- fab) and am now back at the coal-face of weight loss!

Briefly- I wanted to be 11 stone for this holiday- July 30th, for 10 days), and I more or less was! I know that the w/e before we went I was 11/2, but I wasn't very 'mindful' that last week... so I guess I was > 11/2 the day we went (but I didn't check). 10 days later, we returned and I was 11/5 ()- though why I should be shocked considering the number of sub £1 bottles of very acceptable local vino I demolished, I don't know! Although it was also very hot and very hilly so we did do a lot of walking. And the food was protein-heavy.

So, that was Monday Aug 11th (the 11/5)... so imagine my surprise when on Weds I hopped on again- to find I was 11/1- then, on Friday 15th- 11 stone exactly! TBF, I hit the treadmill hard twice this week and have been low- carbing, which I think is the key, although I am not 'on a low carb diet' as such- but it makes sense to me, with all the new science coming along, that keeping sugars under control definitely does have an effect on weight; that 'low fat' was completely misleading all along.

Anyway, I am now aiming to get under 11 stone and stay there, for now- maybe, just maybe I will aim for 10/7 as my 'maintenance weight'.

'affect' on weight, not 'effect'! I may be fat but I'm not illiterate!