Starting the no 'S' eating regime today to lose weight, anyone want to join in?

[standclear]

Hi, have got decidedly porky over the past few years.
I feel tired and lethargic, and none of my clothes look good anymore.
I also need to lose weight for health reasons and increase my (currently woeful) level of exercise.

I want to follow a simple and 'do-able' eating plan that is fairly simple and that I will be able to sustain ie hoping to lose 0.5 kg each week.

I'm planning to follow the no 'S' "diet":

book here

A summary of the basic rules is:

no snacks
no sweets (it's an American book so that covers puddings as well as biscuits and confectionary)
no seconds

except on days that start with 's' ie the weekend, and 'special' days ie birthdays and big holidays such as Christmas.

I've got the book so can answer further questions but that is basically it!

I'm going to be using MFP to log calories and I have also found the free NHS weight loss plan (includes exercise) helpful too

see here

I am planning to post my weight here every Sunday too (but that is not obligatory of course).

The other reason for posting on here is that I don't want to bore my family and friends to death about it in rl!! But it would be nice to have some companions along the way .

Anyone want to join in?

SC If you're an expat, the chance that we know eachother or have people in common is incredibly high. (worried that I've outed myself now).

Lots of Biology/medical related jobs it seems.

Pumpkin houmous is just houmous which I add pureed pumpkin to. I bake the pumpkin in the oven (never bother peeling, but I had one type of pumkin with skin much tougher than the others, so keeping that for a soup) then puree it, make houmous with a tin of chickpeas (though I think I used white bean this time, as that is hat I had,) lemon juice, tahini, salt cumin, coriander, pepper, olive oil, and then plop in some puree.

I had a glut of pumpkins and now have pumpkin houmous, pumpkin puree, pumkin seeds, roasted pumkin and pumkin guts in the fridge. Has anybody ever planted pumkin seeds?

Nothing sciencey here. I'm a very lazy lawyer. I happily stepped down from all the high-powered stuff when I had kids though, so it's not normally too stressful. Just Tuesdays.

I've eaten appallingly today. Lunch was some chunks of chorizo and a packet of crisps, and dinner was pasta with veg sauce followed by anything remotely tasty I could find in the fridge and half DD's post-swimming chocolate bar. It's for her own good but not mine !

I really want to make something with pumpkin now, but we haven't even carved ours yet as we ran out of time on Hallowe'en!

Yes you guessed right grumpy I'm a police officer. Shift work, stress and donuts.. Not great for the waist line!

Speaking of which, I just had to drag myself away from grazing in the kitchen.. Feeling pretty despondent about stuff at home (dp has chronic health problems which make planning for the future very difficult and it's getting me down) but need to remind myself that pointless eating won't help (if only it did!), it'll just make me feel bad. Gah!

It's fascinating to hear about everyone's very different careers and lives.

Never planted pumpkin seeds rivier but my dad used to roast them in the oven with salt which was very tasty.

Yesterday's menu:
B - protein bar, apple
L - enormous salad (shop had run out of the medium size container and I didn't want to waste money) with grains, beans & 2 boiled eggs
D - quorn stew, salad, roll, reduced fat cheese (massive portion again), fruit & yoghurt
Grazed a bit on fruit and extra salad with ketchup in the evening
Bed at 11.30. No wine.

Portion sizes way too big and stomach still feels distended. Need to cut back today.

Have a good day all, whatever exciting things you're up to .

Wow! I think that, between us, with having a doctor, a policeman, a scientist, a teacher, a lawyer, and a lowly copy-editor (that's me ) (and apologies to anyone I have forgotten) that we would have pretty much any emergency covered !

Respect to those of you who are trying to diet while doing shift work though!

And Rivier - don't worry - I've probably outed myself more than you!

[Had a dreadful dieting day yesterday btw - was surrounded with lots of hungry pre-teens who'd just emerged from a six-hour dance workshop - it involved boxes of pizza and ice cream - you can draw your own conclusions; dieting disaster darlings, disaster I say!] ]

Today, for my penance, I shall be eating bean-sprouts three ways ...

Your menus always look incredibly healthy Heron which I am sure will counteract the doughnuts that are circulating around at work! Very sorry to hear about your dp's long term health problem; which must be very stressful for you both.

Julie despite the half choc bar, hang on to the fact that you have cut down on sweet things generally, which has to be good!!

Waves to anyone I've missed - have a good day avoiding the snacks everyone!

Forgot to say, heading off on short break for a few days later today, so will "see" you all next week! Have a good one!

[NB please don't judge my editing skills from my posts on here when I am always rushing and grammar and spelling are utterly appalling!]

I won't judge your editing skills, if you don't judge the number of posts that I clearly send during the working day
Have a good break!

Thanks Grumpy, mum's the word

Wow when you line us up like that SC we sound like a child's idea of what they want to be when they grow up (we're just missing some kind of driver).

Helen What goes in to a quorn stew? I feel like a good stew and I've never made a decent one.
I will be roasting most of the seeds, but I have a huge bowl full.

Yes Rivier any astronauts around I wonder?

"See" you all after the w/e!

Or any fairy unicorns?

Me I'm an aged ex art teacher who was good at working with teenagers with special needs and those with challenging behaviour. Now I try to be an artist when I'm not fighting battles on behalf of my mum.
Perhaps we have a particular way of thinking that means that something like the no. S diet appeals to us

Oh dear rivier, you have forced me to admit that the secret ingredient to my quorn "stew" was dolmio pasta sauce! (it also included courgette and aubergine and was really rather tasty though ). My favourite proper homemade stew is chickpeas and onions in tinned tomatoes and veg stock with lemon juice and rind and chilli and loads of garlic. Mmm.

Posting today's menu now as I have a stupidly early start tomorrow:
B - protein bar
L - egg sandwich, salted cashews, celery sticks
D - fish fingers, baked beans, broccoli & a little bit of potato. Fruit and plain yoghurt.
No wine and already in bed .

Well I am not sure if I am having a good day or not. Snack wise I have been really well behaved. General food wise not so good

B- roll and sausage
L- 2 slices of homemade banana bread
D-spaghetti bolognese.

Sounds tasty though eltsiht! Mmmm now craving banana bread. Did you make it yourself?

Today has been stressful here (12 hour shift ). Tonight will definitely be a test of my ability to abstain from wine!

Yes home made. The boys helped me. It is very yummy

The kitchen however needed a good clean afterwards

Near disaster yesterday at breakfast: thought I'd be super organised and brought in nuts & an apple but after opening my bag of nuts realised that a colleague next to me in the car had an extreme nut allergy. Eek! Had to bin them and ended up going for a cooked breakfast later. (Colleague was still alive last time I heard!)

So yesterday's menu:
1st b - apple, 2 nuts
2nd b - 2 poached eggs on 1 toast with a side salad
L - mini tuna mayo baguette, kale crisps
D - prawn & calamari dippy thing, carrot buttons, giant pretzel, apple.
No wine. Bed at 11.30. (found it very hard to "switch off" after a long day but really pleased that I didn't succumb to the vino).

Uphill - I'm not sure about you or anyone else, but my way of thinking is that I'm bloody sick of diets and stressing about food and just want to eat like a "normal" (but healthy and slim!) person . BTW artist definitely completes the set of "things children want to be when they grow up". (well, except for a fairy unicorn who drives a space ship). That sounds like an amazing job.

Happy Friday everyone!

Helen I think that 2 poached eggs on toast is a healthy breakfast, not really a disaster (unless it is absolutely not what you wanted to eat, in which case it is a disaster, but for different reasons [if that makes sense]). I didn't have any wine last night either, if that makes you feel any less deprived....

Uphill I agree about artist completing the list :) I have zero ability at art, so I'm always super-impressed by people who can draw, paint etc.

I have a work lunch today (pub) and am also taking the DC into London tonight to see a show, so we will end up eating out beforehand. So eating out twice in one day - yikes! That's not going to be good for the diet (but otherwise very nice, I'm sure).

Have a good weekend everyone.

helen, your healthy menus really do put me to shame - and how on earth can poached eggs be a problem??

I've had a couple of bad days with far too much pasta, some evening toast, wine, cheese... I still think it's not as bad as I could have been though. Knowing that I'll log on here each day really does help me massively.

Inspired by all the pumpkin recipes on here, I did roast the seeds but forgot they were in the oven and burnt them. I really shouldn't try to do cooking while also putting the DC in bed

Enjoy your Fridays, especially grumpysquash with two meals out!

Grumpy & Julie - the potential disaster was colleague collapsing with anaphylaxic (sp?) shock - was quite pleased with the poached eggs

Enjoy your show grumpy!

Just in case I wasn't clear - he didn't actually collapse, I was just worried that he might!

Ah got you now. I did think you were getting a bit hardcore!

I had a wonderful fish lunch today with loads of kale, tomatoes and just a couple of chips. Followed by an ENORMOUS chocolate pudding with icecream. I'd like to say I regret it, but it was very extremely delicious

Hope you all have lovely weekends and enjoy your treats!