Anyone else just eating healthier/less and moving more?

[KnickKnome]

I've tried every diet known to man (and done quite well on some- I was down 50 lbs before Christmas, though dreading seeing the damage an all inclusive holiday and Christmas has done!)

I've had enough of counting calories/points/syns or whatever. I'm fed up of following plans or drinking shakes. What I really want to do, after years of yo yo dieting, is to eat healthy stuff (not low fat stuff though) that excites me, in slightly smaller portions and do exercise that I enjoy. I want to cut down/out fizzy drinks (already cut these out), sugary foods, chocolate, processed stuff etc.

I not only want to lose weight, I want to lose it (and enjoy it whilst doing it) and maintain it. Yes it's a cliche, but I don't want to diet, I want a lifestyle change. I want to be able to go out to a restaurant for special occasions and not worry over how many syns/points etc the food will 'cost' me, but be able to enjoy it. I don't even know if this makes sense, but after spending so long on different plans, I'm so excited to just eat stuff that's not dictated to me, but stuff I think I should be eating.

I've just done a meal plan for next week, and an online food shop which has got me really excited to start (yes, I'm weird! )

I still need to lose at least another 50 lbs. Does anyone want to join me?

Hello

Can I join in?

3 stone to shed. Started on Monday. Have been really strict with myself during the week. Got a fitbit and using my fitness pal.

Most difficult thing is breakfast as I have been making myself eat it. I usually don't. Have been trying beans on toast or egg and bacon. Quite filling and has definitely kept me going til lunch.

Lunches are fairly easy - weight watchers soup and a ham salad pita or a weight watchers frozen meal - picked up some marks and spencer balanced meals too. I only have 25 mins for lunch so need to eat fairly quickly.

Dinner is where I struggle for inspiration. We like stir fry which is good I suppose but a bit repetitive. Any good websites I could check for good evening meals?

Definitely trying to cut down on carbs as I have always likes rice, crisps etc.

Hi redlentil, Terra and bryony

I survived the exercise yesterday Annie (btw your name is cool cool cool) but I took it very easy. I used much lighter weights than I used to, but I'm hoping I can build back up again soon.

Cfs must be so difficult to manage, especially alongside having a child. Hats off to you for getting to the park at all!

Pintrest tends to be full of lowcarb recipes bryony. Personally I just tend to eat our regular dinners and leave the carbs out, so I have roast diners without potatoes, bolognese without pasta, chilli without rice etc.

Sorry to hear you are feeling so ill silver

Thanks low. I might try that. I have been really hungry today despite having eggs and bacon for breakfast at 9.30. Have just eaten again - a marks and spencer pulled pork meal which was nice.

Do you not get hungry without the carbs though ie just eating a plate of mince and tomstoes etc if spag Bol?

Hi bryony, welcome! When I'm low carbing, with a Spag Bol I would have half a head of steamed/boiled broccoli, with plenty of parmesan and some good olive oil to season. Some people use a spiraliser and making courgette spaghetti, or if you can find one, spaghetti squash is brilliant.

Thanks Lowcrab just feeling bored and frustrated, I can't walk to the other side of the room without be completely out of breath.

When we make spag bol/curry/chilli in this house bryony it's usually got about 3 differnt veggies in it. Anything goes from peppers and courgettes to carrots and broccolli. It's the product of growing up with a permanently broke, full-time-working, single parent who had no dishwasher. All dinners involved only 2 pans, so meat and 3 types of veg went in one pan with a jar of sauce, then rice or pasta in the other.

Not very authentic, but really filling.

I actually find that if I eat pasta or rice I end up feeling very empty and incredibly hungry about an hour later. If I skip the carbs I'm fine for the rest of the night.

Unfortunately I bloody love the taste of pasta and I would happily eat a bowl of it absolutely plain, so I do feel the loss that way

silver that sounds awful for you. Hope it passes soon.

But do tell me mote about spaghetti squashes. What do they look like? Do they taste like spaghetti.

Also have you tried courgette spaghetti? I don't know if it's worth the hassle or if I'd rather just do without all together.

So far I'm doing ok low carb wise, but I worry that I'm relying too much on cheese to fill the gap and eventually that's gonna backfire.

Oh and bryony I have never found that eggs leave me feeling full. No matter how I could them

Funnily enough low, DH made me bacon and egg earlier in the week and I was starving by noon (lunch at 1). Beans were more filling.

lowcrabSpaghetti squash have a stringy texture that you can twirl into sauce, they taste fairly neutral, more bite than spaghetti courgettes - which I have only tried once but didn't rate too highly either.
Cauliflower rice is pretty good. I have a great recipe for an almond based English muffin. Celeriac fried in butter is delicious, much better than roasted. Cheese is very tempting, I use parmesan because I don't need quite as much.

Have eaten more today than I should have done, due to extreme steriod hunger but my weekly total still looks ok. Only 3 more days to go thankfully.

I've heard good things about cauliflower rice, so I will definitely put that on my to do list for next weekend.

I have never tried celeriac before. I often eye it up in the supermarket, then chicken out, thinking I wouldn't know what to do with it. I shall put it on the to do list too

I agree....when I have done low carb diets it really curbs the appetite. I guess it's cos your blood sugar is really stable.
I am having carbs but only brown rice/wholeweat pasta/seeded bread etc.

Weigh in this morning wasn't great - a small loss of 0.3kg, Dh quite exhausted by looking after the kids all weekend - he does a 65hr week excluding travel, so really craves a rest, my breathing is still pretty crap and my chest infection refuses to budge, so we ordered take away....and the steriods haven't helped with hunger and water retention.

Hope you all did better than me.

I finally got the wii fit working and I'm down 2.5lbs to 9:7. I can feel the difference!

MFP is definitely working for me as I don't have a sweet tooth. I just need to pay attention to portion control and exercise more!

Morning! Fell off the thread early on in the week

Started the week well, was trying to skip snacking and sticking to 3 set meals a day which was working for me. Only time I struggled was on Thursday/Friday evening as I'd been out the house since 8.30am and not home till 6.30pm and had nothing planed for dinner so I ended up eating what ever random stuff was in the fridge . I felt really full afterwards and yucky with how much I ate, but then that set me off for a silly weekend of not watching what I was eating.

Weighed this morning and I'm still same as last Monday so no bad effects thankfully. Just dropped dd at nursery and I walked (she scooted!) so was a brisk 30 mins all in. Going to try this 3 mornings a week and count that as light exercise. It's far more than I do just now anyway!

Got a pot of veg and split pea soup on the go so that will be lunch and I've just had 2 boiled eggs. Half way through my first glass of water too.

Happy Monday folks

That all sounds rotten, Silver.

Be kind to yourself. Any loss in a week like that is impressive.

Sorry to hear you're not feeling great Silver. As Red said, any loss when you're having a bad week is good.

Well, having dropped down to 10st on Wedenesday from 10st 4lbs on Monday today I weigh....

10st 1lbs.

Had a bad day yesterday. Well, it started well (Bowl of soup and some sunflower seeds) then DP popped to the shop and returned with a big bar of Galaxy and a big bar of Cadbury's with bits of Dime bar in. We ate half each while re-watching Mapp and Lucia on iPlayer. I don't even want to think about the calories consumed.

Anyway, it's a new week so hopefully feeling so disappointed with the scales this morning will help me make more sensible choices this week.

Oh, popped into Costa Coffee on Saturday morning and picked up a fitness magazine en route to read. On the cover (THE COVER!) it read "Is your latte making you fat?" What sensible drink do you think I bought having just read that? Yes, a latte of course and two sultana cookies to go with with it. Read the magazine wishing I had a figure like the women in the magazine whilst slurping my latte and munching on biscuits. There's no helping some people.

Still haven't weighed myself but starting to feel a little thinner (might all be in my head though!). Have stuck to my no bread/ biscuits/ pasta/ alcohol (and anything else vaguely enjoyable!) for a week now and have been to the gym when I planned to. Am wondering if I can do it for another 7 weeks. Bit scared to weigh myself as if I haven't lost anything I tend revert to eating tons again as I don't feel it's worth the sacrifice!!!

Sounds like a few of us are starting to struggle. Funnily enough came on to say that I was struggling too!

I find myself often fighting my (many) old dieting thinking. So I have to keep reminding myself that carbs aren't inherently bad, I just have to control how I eat them. I honestly hadn't realised just how messed up my thinking about food had become.

I keep reminding myself to just stick with the general rule of if I make it myself from good ingredients, then that means it's good food. And I'm also trying to be very conscious of how I feel, eg am.I eating for hunger or for emotion.

But all that said, today I have my monthly pre period migraine. Oddly enough migraines don't make me sick, but they make me crave carbs. And I mean crave!!! On days like this I can mindlessly eat a huge pizza followed by huge chocolate brownie desert. I basically only stop when the plate and cupboards are empty

I don't know whether to just cave in tonight or whether to try and fight through it. The bits of my headache that the medication doesn't shift seem to leave me with zero will power

May I join in too please? I am usually around 9 stone 12 pounds and this morning weighed 10 stone 5 pounds. So I want to get rid of these 7 pounds, before they find 7 more friends! I have been up to over 13 stone in the past and do not want to get back there again so difficult to lose, again and again! Not following any plan, just eating less, making better choices and not quite so much wine. I walk every day with my Sheltie so will walk a little farther in future. Good Luck to everyone on their journey.

Hi fiveshelties. I wish I had your sensible attitude a stone and a half ago!

Hi lowcrabdiet - it has taken me many trips up and down the scales to tackle any weight gain earlier rather than later - as you can see I am not a quick learner! I have found the more times I have lost the weight the more difficult it has got - so annoying and I can only blame myself - sadly!

I started off quite well, but there's bugger all difference on the scales.

I've been lurking on this thread, especially as motivation just before doing an online shop (the 'if you don't buy it, you can't eat it' approach). And made soup from scratch for the first time in ages.

I think toast and marmite was possibly the confounder.

Well done on breaking the cycle fiveshelties I hope I can do the same this time around.

AuntieStella it can be so demoralising when that happens. Its another thing I am going to have to tackle with myself; as soon as my losses slow down I need to work hard to stay motivated and remember I'm playing the long game now.

In the past I would either stuff my face with chocolate or starve myself for a few days then stuff my face with chocolate whenever the scales didn't move in the right direction. I desperately don't want to do that again.

I'm feeling quite victorious right now though. DH agreed we could get takeaway tonight. But instead of ordering pizza I ordered a chicken kebab. Obviously not the healthiest dinner possible, but far healthier than a pizza. Red cabbage FTW

AuntieStella - You may find that you have a good loss next week so don't panic!

I used to go to WeightWatchers and often someone new wouldn't see any loss after their first week and the leader said that if they'd overeaten the week before starting WW then often it took two weeks for any benefits of their new diet plan to be seen on the scales.

Just keep at it!

redLentil what activities do you recommend on the wii fit?I have recently bought the wii fit plus and balance board.

Does anyone else use the Wii fit?