MFP Thread 7

[Not2bObvious]

Continued chat for those using MFP as a weight loss tool

Sugar nice to see you back!
Kitchen closed at 1540. Baked Banana Bread this evening for DS. Took it out of the oven, did the skewer test, all comes out clean. Turn it out into cooling rack the whole thing collapses and the middle runs out because it is completely not cooked! Meh. The crispy bits from round the edge were nice 😂. Hope everyone has a loss tomorrow!

No luck yet Sesame - I've been really busy lately. Planning to look again in 2-3 weeks. Jonty I hate when that happens. I'm a much better cook than baker tbh, I need more practice. Just don't trust myself not to eat it all.

All organised here- pork shoulder marinated to be thrown in slow cooker tomorrow morning; made a big portion of Slaw to go with it. Guests will have some bread rolls. Bourbon beans in slow cooker overnight, will see how they turn out.

What's on everyone's menu this week?

Your pork dish sounds delicious and I bookmarked that slaw sugar. Awake at 4.30am, got up at 5 and prepped my chicken & broccoli bake that I was too lazy to make yesterday. Meatloaf and mash tomorrow (pizza made on a wrap for me) Not sure about Thursday, possibly freezer fish & chips (v lazy I know) but Friday might be pork escalopes from a hairy biker recipe with italian potatoes as I have company. Kids party with friends on Saturday so we'll be fed there and maybe roast chicken to keep it simple on Sunday. Phew, that's all planned then!
11.9.2, now 4 pound instead of 5 up - this is going to be a lonnng week shifting the bloat.

Sugar I might have to get some slow cooker tips from you, not doing very well with ours yet!
Bit disappointed this morning. With how I've been eating and how my body usually behaves I fully expected a loss this morning, instead of which I've gone up 0.25lbs!! I'm out with work tonight - drinks and bubbles thing that I'm hosting. My first 'no wine' major test!😱 Plus there will be pub snacks. So I'm eating v light for breakfast and lunch to compensate in advance for the pub snacks and steeling my will power for drinking non-alcoholic things only. Could have done with a weight loss boost to help along this morning though..oh well, chin up, maybe tomorrow...

Drinks and nibbles not bubbles! 🙄

Oh morning Not didn't see your post before mine sorry. Glad you've had a loss, the bloat is on its way.
Almost forgot - meals for this week: Wednesday is Thai red curry, Thursday Sticky Tamarind chicken with noodles and veg and Spaghetti Bolognese on Friday.

Wow Not up at 430 cooking! That sounds like some really nice meals! Jonty tamarind chicken sounds right up my street, what recipe do you use?

I'm at a course today and tomorrow so will be tested too- sandwiches, biscuits galore to avoid! My family are around until Wednesday too so hard to eat too differently to them but I'm having smaller portions etc. Working all weekend so DH may have to cook, let's see how that goes! (He's much better at cleaning than me but not much of a cook).

Jonty with regards to slow cooker I have a few things that come out very well. I bought it thinking I'd use it for stews, curries etc but actually was really disappointed with results originally. I think it's brilliant for meat that is best cooked well done and slowly- pork shoulder, beef brisket, gammon, lamb shoulder, duck legs etc. I just season them as I like and put in slow cooker in the morning. Gammon I just add water , bay leaves and some veg. The meat is really tender and falls apart. I'll sometimes do a whole chicken but mostly use the meat in curries/stir fries- roast chicken is nicer in oven. I've perfected a few stews now but you need to use very different ratios of flavours/liquids. Good to look up some designed for slow cooker recipes. You really feel you aren't using nearly enough liquid and too much spice but it works much better!

Stupid hungry day, haven't done too much damage and about to do my class so that might help. Why are some days so hard??

Wow, Not, early start. I would be on strong black coffee by now for sure. Fair play for you positive attitude re those bloaty pounds too. And kudos for cooking so early.

Jonty Soups too, in the SC, in addition to Sugar's great suggestions. Plus, Pinterest is your friend for ideas. Keep strong tonight!

Well, I can see me getting on very well with Joe Wicks ladies, you will be pleased to find. Good job, you must have been sick of me banging on about JO

Been a bitty day today, full of not really being in one place for too long. However I have managed a 6 mile run at lunchtime with my friend and am going to go to Boot Camp later, so lots of exercise calories for me.

Breakfast - Bircher muesli and a huge pile of raspberries.
Lunch - salad pot (massive, and only 325 cals), 2 chocolates from the box DS bought me. Clementine.
Tea - Joe Wicks chicken curry, rice.
Snacks - pre run, a Graze box and small handful of nuts.
Snack - glass of wine.

It turns out my loss that I thought was dehydration was actual loss, so I am going to keep and eye on things and add more snacks if I need to, but I'm not unduly worried. I can take a loss if I know I am eating as well as I am and it's the running, but don't want to drop too much more.

Oh god that class was tough, BUT (did ya see my big but/butt😉) I managed a reasonable few burpees after observing someone else's version! Am quite pleased with myself. Need I'm beginning to think the only way I'll really lose weight is if a limb falls off, and then I'd probably manage to regain the lost limb weight over a weekend... I've the opposite problem to yours, all weight loss is temporary but I've no one to blame but myself. I overeat too consistently, there isn't a skinny person in me trying to get out, there's a pudgy one just about kept at bay from week to week. Sigh...

Hope you'll all forgive me if I don't do call-outs today - slowly catching up so hoping I'll be back to normal tomorrow. Just to say good to see you back Pyjamas .

Friday session went fine this time phew. Nothing controversial although I'm not sure we made much progress - but we're going back to doing a few individual sessions again now before the next joint one.

Dinner Saturday was actually lovely. I felt great getting ready for the first time in years cos it was so easy to get dressed - had to wear a sucky-in thing for my tummy, but otherwise my clothes fit v nicely and I was thrilled that I was comfortably in size Medium tights .

The food itself was superb but I have no idea how many calories I ate. All very traditional stuff - scallops with black pudding to start and then I went for roast chicken and veg for main. Of course the killer was pudding - had a brownie and ice cream. The funny thing was I didn't really feel like it, but felt I should because it was a night out. How stupid is that?! I did stop after about 2/3 but all the old bad habits are still there.
I tried to log it all separately so the estimate came to 1,900 but that might be a bit low .

The other funny thing was that I was absolutely zonked after eating - came home and fell asleep on the sofa (although H did too) so no champers - just as well. Guessing it's cos I'm not used to eating so much volume but who knows.

Not sure what's going on for me, but I'm very down in myself this week. Can't even blame TOTM. It was my idea to get pizza last night AND open the next Xmas box of Roses. Stopped at 4 but really felt like throwing caution to the wind.

Skipped breakfast today to try to make amends so I'm coming in at 1,000 (unless I have more sweets) but that only brings my weekly average down to 1780 . Need I'm nearly at your average without any of the activity - well done on the 15 mile run btw!!!

Just think I'm going to have to write this week off and start afresh after WI tomorrow. Not sure where my mojo's gone but I need to dig it out pronto.

Well done on the class Not. Burpees are hard. The trick is to try to get your knees as high as possible towards your hands. But they are tough.

Keep going Not, you will get there. I'm sure you've lost loads that hasn't gone back on no?

I know very little about eating for reasons other than fuel, but is it worth examining why you feel you sabotage weight loss? I have no idea whether you do actually do this, just going from your last post.

Dawg your meal out sounds lovely and I think you were right to have some dessert, and wow, I'm v proud you managed to leave some. Would be a shame to be out for a lovely evening with dh and be obviously gauging calories, that would be a bit too obsessive. I'm sorry to hear you're feeling down, I'm a bit in the same boat - maybe it's the weather or something, I'm tired & bored at work, can't wait to get home, then I'm tired & bored at home! Foods a comfort for me, that's my problem, maybe that answers the question need, I've never just eaten for fuel, if I did I wouldn't need mfp to try control my eating - not that it controls my eating obviously, it just dispels the myth that I don't feed myself that much & no idea where the extra weight came from... I should say I use mfp to monitor my eating.

Happy February everyone! A shiny new month, and it will be sugar-free for me. Yet to watch that you tube video you mentioned Sesame - sugar the bitter truth, but I know I crave less, and do far less damage calorie-wise, without any. And boy do I need to curb the weekend food / wine binging too! I think I put 5 lbs on too, but back down to 11 7.75 today.

Sounded as though you had a lovely birthday Need. Plus a 15-mile run! Wow!
Welcome back PJ - we're all in the same boat. The more the merrier. Glad you have found non-talking scales !!

Your restraint at dinner is amazing Jonty - you really are back on a mission, & you'll get there in no time. Jerk chicken looked delicious. I did the wine thing too over the weekend. Easiest way for a quick release. Don't think I can face the fear, as Not put so well, to give up completely, but I really like the idea of setting a bottle/weekend limit not , and for it to be red, and so harder to knock-back need

So glad that things seem to be moving forward for you Dawhead. You are dead right about soul needing feeding. Life is so hectic, and we give so much of ourselves to everyone, we need to keep stuff back for ourselves too. I need to give myself permission to sit down and read the paper / my book, whatever.

Glad you had another great PT session Loli & into size 10s. Hope you feel great!

That slaw looked gorgeous sugar - will go nicely with jerk chicken! Hope you have survived having visitors, and ready to put dress-mission into practice.

Welcome mumbod - I remember the 12/11's threshold only too well. It CAN be done, and then on to the next!

Hope that is everyone. Dashing out for another meeting now ....

I seem to stuck. Not losing an ounce - in fact seem to be gaining.

Sailing perilously close to 'fuck it' territory

Dawg lovely to see you back and so glad you enjoyed getting ready to go out
Not changing behaviours is really hard - any new thing you learn takes up to 10,000 repetitions to cement it in your brain, so unlearning behaviours takes the same time and effort, and you won't always get the right behaviour every time...which is ok, because no-one learns perfectly. Just aim to keep increasing the number of times you do the right thing instead of the wrong and gradually you'll re-train your brain.

So, pot, kettle and all that...I failed last night. I drank soft drinks for the first hour, and then caved and drank wine. And more wine. Fell asleep on the train home and missed my stop. Have an awful hangover this morning. I don't learn from my mistakes very well! I think yesterday probably ended up at about 2,500 calories. I did well on not eating massive amounts but the wine did most of the damage. So, back on the wagon today, although I expect to be over 1500 today because I'll need a bit more food/coffee to keep me going. I'm treating last night as an unfortunate blip - back to no wine again, and figure out some other strategies for shoring up my willpower. I have another work do next Wednesday so I'll get a chance to practice them then!

Don't do it mumbod. You will undo the good work til now. Water, water and more water today. Log everything. Limit the carbs. It is a slow & agonising process. But it does work. Sugar, Loli, Sesame & everyone are living proofs of the success.

Oh no Jonty. Hope you get through today OK. Tired, hungover, and having to work is a v bad combination. What soft drinks were you drinking to start with? Any way of sticking to fizzy water, so you don't even get the sugary taste to begin with?

Am back from meeting, and rest of day working from home. Brecky will be poached egg & spinach on seeded toast. L = soup. D = chicken breast + veggies, 1/2 sweet potato.

mumbod its very hard when you can't see results, are you weighing very often? Could you put the scales away & just weigh twice a week. I'd urge you not to give up, you'll kick yourself stupid in a few weeks and you end up heavier. Hang on in there, you're not on your own I promise.
jonty you poor thing, hangovers are grim. Look, sometimes it's hard to socialise and stay on plan - so hard we can swing the other way, trying so hard to be good & then losing the run of ourselves. You'll feel much better tomorrow, but don't be too hard on yourself today - you no doubt have the morning after fear, that won't help how you feel today.
I'm not sore today in any big way, sleep til nearly 6am - positively amazing! Made my meatballs with hairy biker spicy tomato sauce, having that with pasta this evening. No weigh in today, sick of that b*stard scales😉

Thanks all for the welcome and encouragement. I'm feeling a bit more motivated now and it's going ok so far this week, now just to stick at it.

Not much to report but thought I should make a concerted effort to check in from time to time to avoid falling off the wagon again!

Hang in there mumbod, you'll get there

Ok I'm back properly and all caught up.

Sesame that sounded like a good approach to the run for your poor knee. And YY to everything you said about knowing when to stop. I am the same in terms of how I feel about my old clothes fitting and liking what I see in the mirror. Would love to get to size 10s though.

Jonty oh you've had such a hard time lately with everyone (and yourself) under the weather, there's no shame in needing to blow off some steam last night. I'm not a wine drinker but everyone tells me it's lovely so it must be so hard to resist when it's all around you. Don't forget how well you've been doing - loads of resistance Sunday and lost a lb on Monday!! That jerk chicken looked amazing . And you sound like you are back on form already so lots of to shake off the hangover.

Not see the thing is - I just think you're brilliant. And I know you said you're only trying to keep things at bay, but I see someone who's going hell for leather trying to reduce calories AND going to so many classes and trying lots of exercise! I know this is a bit cheeky but is there any way I can help/inspire you? I know my loss has been fairly slow but it's also been fairly consistent. You know I swear by my weekly averages - could you try that for a month - maybe trying to reduce it by something small each week - 50/100 cals? Think of what you said yourself and turn it around - I bet no one has ever regretted losing weight (within reason) - remembering that, might be the difference between reaching for food or finding a distraction. Also, I know you have trouble sleeping sometimes, but I do worry when you're up so early - even in practical terms it means you've such a longer day to spread the calories over. I can't remember if I've ever asked if you can take naps/rest during the day?
Anyway, enough preaching (esp on stuff that I don't always do myself ), but in specifics there's no bloody way you gained 5lbs - stupid scales . And you did burpees!!! That's fantastic !

MumBod would echo what the ladies said - please don't give up. This can be a slow process but I promise it will be worth it. YY to not weighing in so often - there will always be blips from day to day. If your calories are averaging out ok, the loss will come. Loads of big 'losers' on here (IYKWIM) have gone through weeks of plateaus and then had a big whoosh. And you've been under the weather so that will have definitely affected you.

Need just to say again I was sitting here with my mouth open at your 15 mile run - I can't comprehend running for 20 mins never mind 2 hours 20 - well done ! Glad you got spoiled with a dinner for b'day (despite cake being pinched). It's good your keeping an eye on the scales - although in a twisted way I am jealous of you needing to think about consuming more calories .

Bath so good to see you determined and ready to attack February! Here's to a month of loss and finding some Bath-time

Loli swit swoo on the size 10 skirt!! Are you noticing any change in your body shape yet from the PT/weight sessions?

Welcome back again Pyjamas. 2kg isn't bad at all in light of Xmas. Great you're feeling motivated and I love Boots scales too - esp the little print-out and everything. It's what I used every week for years until we got scales at home.

Sugar your slow cooker meals sound amazing - although it's completely over my head being cookery-challenged . Hope you're doing ok with all the temptation at the course - you can only try your best as it's very hard when food is laid out in front of us like that.

Hope I've caught everyone. I'm feeling a little better today. This probably sounds so unprofessional, but there have been a few crappy things going on at work so I'm having a sort of unofficial work-to-rule day - doing what I have to, but not going 'above and beyond' or stretching myself for a change. There's nothing urgent that can't wait until tomorrow and it's doing me the world of good so far mentally.

Also, I have no idea how, but I hit my target on the scales - down 0.6kg to 62.8kg - meaning I'm properly in the 9's yay - 9 12.5 to be exact. I am mostly delighted but also know that I don't really deserve it - ended up eating 5 sweets last night bringing my weekly average to 1830 . Maybe I hugely over-estimated Saturday's dinner (H thinks I did). Also, getting my thyroid re-tested tomorrow so that might explain the mystery. Also TMI but I've been going to the loo a lot so silver linings eh.

Indulged in some sausages for lunch and fish fingers for dinner tonight (haute cuisine here haha ) so today comes to 1275 without any sweets. Will probably have some but will try to limit it 2 - I have to try practising what I preach now .

Daw Sorry, I missed your post yesterday. I'm glad you had a lovely time on Saturday and that things seem a little easier at least. Re calories, don't forget I'm 5ft he he .

Hang in there Mumbod. I think you would feel even worse if you gave up now, and that would make you feel even worse. Be kind to yourself. Sometimes a halt in weight loss means a bit one is round the corner.

Jonty It's done. Gone. Put it behind you, it won't make much difference anyway. Nice bath and an early night, lots of water today and you will be back on it again.

Good luck with the no-sugar February Bath. I agree, I have guilt if I sit down to read too, like I ought to be doing something..

Not Thank you for your comment. It's interesting. Jonty's words seem wise to me.

Working day today.
Breakfast - bircher muesli, almond milk, blueberries and greek yogurt.
Lunch - Lentil and cous cous salad. Big bowl of berries.
Dinner - Omelette and salad.
Snack - my small glass of wine.

Exercise - long dog walk and 7 miles later with the club.

I've cross posted with you again Daw, but I just wanted to say that reaching target is utterly amazing. Bloody well done you. Fantastic. Go Daw.

Interesting advice re looking at the weekly averages and going for slow long term loss, even reducing by just 100 calories a week. Makes sense. Seems to me some folk (not on here I hasten to add), eat insanely low calories for days then just blow up. Which isn't changing eating habits for the better, it's just trying to control weight gain.

Aw Need just jumping on quickly to say sorry, I worded that v badly. I just meant I hit my target for this week I still have about 2kg to go overall . But thank you anyway .

Well done dawg!! That's brilliant, so close to goal now. Thanks v much for your kind words, you're really soo good😘 I'm doing the best I can at the moment, moaning too much I think though😉