New Mums: Pre-diet we had pride, now we want new bodies!

[SolitudeSometimesIs]

Here we go again!

Ok it's the magic thread where we find inspiration, motivation and actually see the results we want and manage to hold on to them once we get them.

No more excuses (unless they are hilarious or necessary).

Welcome all!

Hi everyone, back to WW today. The official weight gain was 5.5lb. I'm confident that it will be off again in the next couple of weeks. I really want my 10% award within the next month too, so I'm going to use that as motivation. ( I have to lose 8.5lb to reach that)

I do recommend the new WW plan Beyond. It's really good for low carbing too. Low fat meats have all reduced a lot in points. Maybe have a look at the new magazine? If you do decide to join and use the WW app you can link your Fitbit to it too, which is fun (well not really).
I'm impressed with your C25K progress too. I would have given up by now. It is definitely much better than doing nothing. I've heard that it gets easier too, although I can't vouch for that!

How are you both doing today Sol and Rachey?

My back is okay now thanks. It's just really weak, so all the extra housework before Christmas had an effect. I think it's just a combination of split muscles and having 2 C sections? It was really bad after DD1, but then they removed a lot of scar tissue when I had DD2 and it is much better. I think the pain from the scarring was making me walk and move differently which was causing pain.
It is amazing what chilbirth and pregnancy does to you, and I had very straightforward pregnancies too.
Anyway, if I get started with the exercise at the weekend it should hopefully strengthen everything. Then I can build up to more serious exercise.

Have a good day.

5.5 lbs is easily dropped if you stick to your ww plan, you were doing so well before Christmas Green. I can't wait to hear how the mutu system goes, you'll have to report back.

Are they going to put your pics up on Instagram Rachey? Or will they wait until you have finished the plan? I took before took before I did Exante last year, just of me in clothes that were a bit too tight, it helps when you can see your figure change. I get the spicy bean burgers from Lidl, they are so nice. I used to make my own but they were always a bit dry and crumbly.

How are you getting on with Exante Beyond? You are right, it would be impossible to do a high protein diet without chicken, I forget not everyone is a vegetarian. Next week you will be in the 11's and Exante will be a distant memory.

I'm doing well with having no dairy, I was late home from work and ended up with bean burgers for dinner again, I hate eating the same thing over and over again but I hadn'time to do anything else. I had a huge salad wrap with hummus for lunch which was gorgeous, so I made another one and ate it too, I am a vegan pig. But at least I wasn't hungry when I was in work (there was loads of chocolate on offer). Trying not to weigh myself for another few days.

Your meals are lush Sol . I'm going to get myself to Lidl for those bean burgers. I always though that vegan would involve lots of complicated cooking and ingredients. Once I get settled back into WW I might try dairy free for a week or two.

Just got an email from WW, I got 2 months free for losing 10lb in 8 weeks.

Have you seen all the pictures of Davina? I was looking at her new DVD, but it looks to high impact for me at the moment.

That's brilliant that you got a 2 month free pass, you must be delighted. If you lose 2lbs per week you'll be 16 lbs lighter and it won't have cost you a penny. It will get you back on track in no time. I haven't seen the pics of Davina, she has a fantastic figure, I'll have a check on google.

Dairy free is easy enough, Tesco do a range of vegan ready meals in the freezer section with burgers, pies and stuff in them. There's a recipe for vegan cheese for nachos on the Veganuary thread in Chat, it's made with potatoes, yeast and carrots, I'm going to give it a shot over the weekend. I don't want to rely on ready meals too much but they are fairly healthy and if I chuck a bit of salad on the side I don't feel to bad.

Here's a recipe for chickpea soup that is lovely, though I tweak the seasoning as I go along to suit my taste:

225g Chickpeas 1 tbsp ground coriander
1 onion 1 tbsp paprika
60 ml olive oil 2 tsp cumin
2 garlic cloves 2 fresh thyme springs
1.5 litres veg stock 1 large potato
2 carrots 3 tomatoes
2 tbsp coriander salt and pepper
1tbsp tahini

Basically heat the oil in the pan, fire all the ingredients in the pot, except tahini.
Cook for about 40 mins.
Add tahini and blend.

I use dried herbs if you can't find fresh and the tahini isn't essential but it is nice, it thickens it up a bit. It's really nice soup for this time of year.

Oh balls, the layout of the post changed when I hit send. So put a space between the ingredients as there are 2 on each line. Should have previewed my post. Sorry about that.

It was a good introductory offer. I think they are doing it again. I love a freebie so it was more motivating than other offers they have done before.

Thanks for the recipe, it sounds delicious. I'll make it for the weekend. I like Middle eastern type food. DH went to Israel last year and said I would be in food heaven.

I didn't have any meat yesterday either. Just some prawns with dinner. I've got a river cottage beg book and I think it's all vegetarian so I'll have a look at that at the weekend.

Let me know how the nachos turn out too. I'm slightly scared of vegan cheese though. I'm also a tea addict so don't really want to give that up. But it might be easier in the spring!

I forgot to pause my subscription for Hello Fresh this week (they send you the ingredients for 5 meals). I haven't had a box for ages and I was slightly annoyed at myself. But I'll try and point the meals and tweek them if they are really high. It might actually stop me from giving in on Saturday and ringing a takeaway, so maybe it's a good thing really?

I think you should make the best of the Hello Fresh, even if you don't stick to all of the meals I'm sure you could freeze some of it. Takeaways are my Achilles heel too, I love putting the kids to bed and having one. However, funds are tight here this month so I will be avoiding.

I love Middle Eastern food too. I love to order lots of different bits to try, we rarely go out to eat so when we do I like to go somewhere a bit different.

I was telling DH about the vegan cheese, he was horrified. There was no way he will try it but I will give it a swiz. If it's shite I will pretend it's nice and chuck it in the bin (I will not let him win, he was immediately dismissive of it).

5.5lb will go very quickly green, you sound really motivated :) Glad your back is better. Have you started your exercise yet? Ive not heard of hello fresh? do they just send you loads of ingredients for recipes that they recommend? Im sure you can tweak them to fit in with ww.

My lidl do not stock those yummy burgers you described sol :( No I wont allow my pictures on instagram......I am horrified how bad I looked, even though I weigh 12stone I look alot bigger and I have a huge overhang from my 2 c-sections.You sound like your really enjoy the vegan diet. I have to say I will not be trying the homemade vegan cheese :)

How are you getting on beyond?

I got my plan today and I am going to start it on sunday. I have alot of shopping and prep to do. i have told my oh that if he wants crisps/chocolate/crackers ect he will have to buy them as I dont want to buy them. Also If he wants something different to what Iam cooking as per my plan he will have to give me plenty of notice as I dont want to be stuck in the kitchen all night cooking 3 different meals (ds's, mine and his) I am determined to do well, I dont care if the scales still say 12stone I want to look good in my underwear :)

I had a bit of cheese yesterday - so a bit of a wobble. It was a tough one though. We were invited to a party and the hosts made me nachos as I am a vegetarian, they had gone to quite a bit of trouble so I couldn't really hand them back and say no. So I gave the kids the ones with the most cheese and avoided all the cakes, buns, chocolate and desserts. I reckon I ate about half the size of a matchbox amount of cheese. But I woke up this morning and have the worst stomach ache, so it's back to avoiding dairy for me.

My menu today is:
Breakfast: Wrap with loads of salad, veg and hummous. Sounds like a weird breakfast but really filling and not stodgy.

Lunch: Homemade veg soup. I made a load before Christmas and froze it so it is defrosting away in the kitchen.

Dinner: Slow cooked chickpea and vegetable tagine with wild rice. This is the food of the God's. It takes about 5-6 hours to do properly, the flavours are gorgeous and the chickpeas and aubergine are melt in the mouth (I hate undercooked chickpeas).

As for snacks, I haven't really been having any as I haven't been hungry. The kids and DH are out of the house this afternoon so I have plans to blitz the house and hopefully burn some calories!

Rachey I too have a huge post c-section overhang, so I feel your pain on that one. Are you ready to start your plan tomorrow, what are your menus like? Is there exercise you have to follow? I hope you are busily eating all of the nice food in your house so there will be no temptation.

Feeling like death on a stick today, have a dreadful headache and feel really shaky. There's a virus going around work at the moment but I hope I haven't got it. The temptation to go to bed with a stash of chocolate is overwhelming, but I've heated up soup and I'm hoping to not have comfort food.

I weighed myself today, after breakfast which was a bit idiotic, and I still weigh 205. Ugh! The weird thing is that I feel much better, I have more energy but I still look like a house. So I'm thinking that while I will remain dairy free I will have to look at reducing my carbs. I will have tofu, mushrooms and spinach for breakfast, soup or wraps for lunch and then some sort of pulse based dinner(or if I'm working I will bung a shop bought thing in the oven).

I need to lose weight soon

You poor thing sol, I hope you feel better soon.

I'm sure you will start to notice a difference soon. Have u taken measurements? Your menu looks delish, I started my diet yesterday as I thought no point putting it off.

Menus are fairly nice, lots off eggs, lean protein and green veg. The only down side is a lot of prep,weighing and cooking. Tonight I'm having spicy Turkey mince with broccoli, avocado and sour cream.

Hope you feel better soon, I'm sure that soup helped

You menu sounds really nice Rachey. How is all of the prep going? Can you buy pre-cut veg to cut down on the prep a bit?

I still feel a bit crap but not as bad as yesterday. I weighed myself and I'm 5 lbs down on last week so I'm happy about that. I had spinach and chickpea falafel in pittas with pilau rice for dinner, they were delicious and definitely something I will do again. I got them in my local shop, yum!

I don't know if you've seen but Heinz have brought out new tins of beans and pulses, so there's spicy mexican beans, a lentil dahl one and I think an Italian one. I bought the dahl one, it's 173 cals per half tin so I'll try it and let you know when I try them.

How's everyone else doing?

i cooked extra at the weekend as I batch cook ds's dinners, made bits and pieces for oh lunches (bulgar wheat, koftas and breaded turkey steaks) in the week and the made my own stuff as per diet.

Glad your feeling a bit better sol wow 5lbs is amazing, Im trying not to weigh myself too often as this diet isnt just about losing weight its also about building muscle so they say the scales may not be a true reflection on your progress.

Your dinner sounds delish. I love falafel I make big batches as they are handy to have in the fridge. I have seen the beans although I havent tried them, the dahl one sounds lovely.

I have a day off from the gym tomorrow as Im told only to exercise 4-5 times a week instead of the 6 I was doing. I am undecided what to do with the kids I was thinking of soft play but ds1 (2) doesnt play on his own and ds2 is only 8 months so spends most of his time on his back or front :)

Hope everyone else is getting on well?

You sound like a fab cook Rachey, I think if I made food for DH's lunch he would think I was trying to poison him. He generally takes dinner leftovers or gets something himself

I don't think I could manage 6 workouts per week, you sound really motivated. You'll be looking amazing in 90 days. Not weighing yourself is wise, it can really annoy me all day if I don't lose weight.

I have made a huge pot of veg soup for lunch and I plan to freeze half for lunches for next week. It's absolutely freezing here (-3 here at the moment) so hopefully shivering burns calories. I have my thermals on to keep the cold away but it's not working. Really missing hot chocolate to warm me up. There are vegan ones but the reviews aren't great.

You're both so organised. Hope everything is going well. 5lb is excellent Sol, well done.

I've not had a great week. I have lost 1lb, which was amazing. Going to have to kick my arse starting tomorrow. I didn't start my exercise either. I don't know how you do it all Rachey. I just seem to spend all my time trying to do housework.

Enough self pity. I've planned meals and bought food for the next 6 days.
The Hello fresh box is good and I did tweek it, but DH is in so late that I ended up eating stuff while I was waiting for him. It isn't always the type of food that reheats well.

I hear you about the housework Green, it's a never ending hamster wheel of tidy-kids mess it up-tidy-DH makes a mess-tidy-the laundry reproduces somehow and then it's tidy again-the the kids wake up and the house descends in to chaos again. Sometimes I think that all the tidying is pointless but then I dread to think how bad the house would be if I didn't do it.

The 1lb loss really good Green, you sound like you have gotten yourself very organised with meal planning. I did a huge shop in Lidl as we had only 105 euro to do us for food until the end of the month. Our Lidl has a shelf of shame that is amazing so I filled the freezer and all the presses so we are set. I just have to get menu's organised for when I am in work and DH has to cook.

I think I am going through some sort of sugar withdrawal slump at the moment. I feel as if I have no energy and everything is a struggle. Going to root out my multivits and try and pep myself up.

I had a bit of an idea re. exercise. I'm going to buy weights I can strap to my wrists and ankles and use them when I am in the house. I figure it will make me work twice as hard but it means I won't have to find time for regular exercise. Imagine how much more effort I would have to put in when mopping and hoovering and when I go up and down the stairs? I think it could be quite time efficient too.

I try to cook all lunches as oh would happily spend at least a fiver a day on lunch.

sol wow that is cold, I do love a pair of thermals long johns :) did your soup warm you up. I love soup but I need a huge hunk of bread and butter which means its no longer healthy :( Have you tried cacao powder for your hot chocolate? Im pretty sure its vegan although it can be quite bitter and not sure its suitable to mix with water so maybe ignore my suggestion. :)

green 1lb is still a loss. do you stay for the meetings and find them helpful? I thinks thats why I failed WW in the past?

I love my boys but that 1 hour at the gym is me time that why I find the time and energy for it. As DS2 is very clingy (he will only nap on me unless in a car or pushchair) I struggle to do any house work until gone 19.00 when ds2 is asleep, by that time im exhausted and ready for bed :)

I weighed myself yesterday.........I know I shouldnt have done but I was curious and I have lost 3lb since saturday. still have a few more pounds till im back to pre xmas weight

Amazing weight loss Sol Rachey and Green well done!

Sorry having a hectic week, on my weigh in on Monday I lost albs. So now 11.13 but away for the weekend, might skip weighing in Monday and hope for a loss next Monday.....

Still on week 1 C25K - I plod on!

How much weight did you lose Beyond? Skipping your weigh in if you are going away sounds like a wise plan. Are you going somewhere nice? That's brill that you're still doing C25K, take it at your own pace, at least you are exercising.

3 lbs is amazing Rachey, all your work is really paying off. You sound so dedicated, you are going to see some really amazing results. I don't have bread with my soup any more, I really had to train myself not to have it.

It's freezing here, -7 last night when we were heading to bed. Thankfully we have central heating and a real fire so the house is toasty. I have this fear of the kids being cold, I was cold a lot as a kid and it was bloody miserable (growing up in the 80's recession meant central heating was rationed in our house as it was so expensive to put it on).

Finally shook off my virus so I feel much better. I haven't weighed myself but I feel great. I think eating less processed food and sugar has really helped me, my portions are big though so I need to reduce them (my plan for next week). I tried the Heinz dahl in a tin, it was delicious, so well worth buying.

I also tried Dee's vegan sausages - they are not like real sausages at all but are really nice. I bought Quinoa tortilla chip things to try as well, I'll find out the brand and report back. I'm trying to make my snacks healthier and be a bit more careful in my food choices, I'm not sure if it will reflect on the scales but it has to be better for me.

Another dairy free food that I found was the fresh pastry that Lidl sell in their fridge section. It's puff pastry and suitable for vegetarians and vegans. So if you're looking to reduce dairy or have to cook for a vegan friend it's a handy one to know. It's really nice and costs 89 cent here so hardly braking the bank.

Still 5 lbs down this week, which considering I drank sooo much wine over the weekend I am really grateful that I didn't put on anything. Went for a big walk yesterday which was nice and had a coffee while trotting around, it was nice.

How's everyone else doing?

Hope you had a good weekend away beyond. Congrats on the weight loss

Sol, sounds like you had a good weekend also . Well done for staying the same. I couldn't handle it that cold, I bet a nice veg stew would warm you up. Can you get vegan dumplings. Glad your feeling better

I'm at 11st 7lb at the mo, which in pleased about. Only 2 / 2 1/2 stone left
I'm feeling a bit stressed at the moment just about returning to work. I've been there for 13 years and it's really my first job, I think I might have to start on a cv. But I'm worried about finding somewhere as well paid for part time work.

How are you doing green?

Hope you all have a good Monday

I've got in to my veggies and rice this week. I'm trying to cut back on the amount of bread and wheat I've been eating, so I'm having rice and also halving my portion sizes. I went for a walk with DS2 in the buggy this morning and felt energised after it. Going to try and do a walk every day and continue my tweaking of my diet.

11 stone 2 is great Rachey, the 2 and a half stone will be gone in no time of you stay so committed to your plan. What sort of work do you do? Are you looking for a similar job in a different company? I've gone back to work in a term time job which is fab. No real worry about childcare during the holidays and it's not too challenging.

sol I used to love a good walk with Ds1 but as he no longer likes the pushchair I cant take both ds's out. Glad you felt energised, is it still cold where you are? the temp has dropped here, and ds1 hates gloves and hats so I look like a awful mum when he is running about in just his winter jacket.

Im a pa/admin at a cosmetic dental practice. The dentist is pretty busy and has lots of other side projects that I assist on. I would love to cut down my travel as I have to travel the other side of london for work, can take 1 1/2 hrs door to door.

You job sounds ideal, my oh would love me to find a term time job (even though kids arent at school, i think he is thinking long term.)

Have you tried quinoa? thats nice and filling, actually I like any kind of grains. I make a nice bulgar wheat with tomatoes and peppers. :)