MFP Thread 8

[Not2bObvious]

New thread for those using mfp to lose/maintain weight

& not - hope you have a lovely weekend away, catching up with your friend, and no responsibilities!

Sorry to hear about your job situation Loli. That is awful, and must cast such a huge shadow over everything else. Thank goodness for your exercise classes - & that you can turn to that instead of food. That is a huge positive, or rather was, until you injured your leg. Ouch. Care to show us a picture of the bruise? Hope it isn't too swollen. Ice?

Thanks for support yesterday need. Much appreciated. Am taking it easy on myself today too. Long walk with dog, just about to do some tidying up in the garden to boost Vit D levels. Will get stuck into work after lunch. Hope your get through this week OK jonty. Wave to everyone else!

Hi can I join?

Just recently started using MFP.

I find it quite hard to stick to the 1200 on days when I'm going out for the evening as I'm unable to keep awake all day at work without something a bit substantial.

I have resorted to walking loads atr lunchtime to 'earn back' some calories to use later. So on the plus side it's made me move more I guess

Hi Going, welcome. It can be a bit tricky fitting in socialising with a fairly low calorie intake- I've tried 1200 a couple of days this week and it has NOT gone well, as mentioned below. Obviously depends what sort of deficit you're aiming for, but I usually arrange my calories over a weekly average with more on a Saturday, and adjust the rest of the week by e.g. 100 per day to balance it out.

Hope everyone else is ok. Work situation sounds rotten Loli, really feel for you. Hope you have a good trip Not.

Have definitely been MIA this week, eek. Very stressful week with exams, and had an event yesterday that I tried to restrict calories ahead of. I should know myself by now, but noooo, I have ended up bingeing really badly before and after the event and now feel total pants Bath your comments about the pressure of goals/ setting yourself up for failure. That's exactly what I did this week, and it seems really obvious now.

After staying the same last week, a gain this week is inevitable. Only had 3 hours sleep last night so am off to bed and hopefully it'll all seem better in the morning. Though I've eaten so much crap, I have a feeling belly ache might stop me having the blissful long sleep I was expecting

Tomorrow will be better, for all of us. And, if I'm honest, what I'm facing, what all of us are, are first world problems - trying not to eat too much in a world where children in Yemen and other countries are dying of starvation. That's a bit heavy, I know, but I think it's easy to get overwhelmed by our first world issues, and by giving them more importance than they deserve, we make them self-defeating.
Second - there's been a lot of discussion this week about the types of goals that work and don't. What if you matched the calories you don't eat to a money amount you would normally spend on that amount of food, and donated it to a charity you really believe in? I think that could be a really good motivation. I could easily spend £3-5 a day on extra food that I don't need - that's £21-35 a week, which is shocking. From tomorrow, every time I want something I don't need, ,I'm going to check the price of it and transfer that amount straight to my favourite charity. By the end of the week, I'll know how many calories I've saved myself and how much money I've saved them as well. It's a win win.

Blimey that was a philosophical moment last night!
Avo and egg on toast this morning, mackerel salad for lunch and god knows what for dinner.
It's nearly the weekend, I'm on my track for my deadline and I'm off out with my friend shopping tomorrow - it's all good 😁

Morning! Sorry for the feeling sorry for myself rant yesterday. Report to SMT nearly written. 3 options done, I thought of a 4th at 5am this morning. I can protect a fair few jobs until march to give people chance to look for other work. That's the best I can do.
I have a half day to get my hair coloured then DH is taking this evening off so we'll do something nice together.
Oh and I've been diagnosed with Raynauds. Another 'thing' to add to my list lol!

All sounds v stressful loli

And you're right jonty it's easy to get consumed with these things if you're not careful. I think your idea of donating the uneaten food amounts is a good one.

I'm not beating myself up if I go over my calories some days, I figure so long at its in the right ballpark it's better than what I was doing before so it's fine. I am exercising more than I have for ages (so unfit!) which I'm pleased about. For me, the key is to do activities I enjoy and schedule them each week so I'm committed. I've never been one for the gym so I stick to yoga, swimming and walking at the weekends.

Jonty I agree fully with you. If we are truly honest, this thread is a first world problem. Food is fuel for half the world. I donate to a food bank every week, and I've donated £60 to the East Africa famine appeal when I was going to buy something instead.

Welcome Bear, I couldn't survive on 1200 calories a day! Great that you are getting more exercise into your day, it all helps a healthy lifestyle.

Loli You are perfectly entitled to be feeling emotional given the week you have had. You are usually one of the positive ones in the group, we all have off days, don't think I've heard you moan before

Lovely 7.5 mile run on the trails with my friend from the running club. Somehow agreed to a 25 mile race in 3 weeks as training for the 3 peaks. We will do it as training and enjoy.

B - porridge with mango, blueberries.
L - cream cheese and salad bagel, banana, berries, yogurt (some of this is post run snacks tbh)
D - enchiladas.
S - 2 chocolates and wine.

Hmm. That was a week. Met my deadline - good. My boss (who is as new as me) resigned in fairly dramatic fashion. Much fallout to come and she was due to finalise my probation on Monday so that is all now up in the air too. I ended up making spaghetti bolognese for dinner last night purely because it's quite relaxing and gentle to make. Drank lots of wine in the course of doing it and feel a bit more on an even keel this morning. Off to enjoy my day of shopping and lunch today, so that is something positive. Oh I do hate turmoil

Blimey Jonty, it's been a roller coaster of a week for you hasn't it? I'm guessing they will definitely need to you stay given the circumstances. Spag bol and wine are indeed therapy. Enjoy your day.

Having a quiet day here.

Planning to cook from a Mary Berry book this week, rotating recipe books as I have tons on the shelf I don't pick up due to laziness.

Evening my lovelies. Jonty I hope you're ok. Need thanks for the support as always. Going stick with it!
Confession time...I felt so awful last week I only ate porridge for my tea, and that was with doing an exercise class every evening. It definitely didn't help my mood or my sleep. I 'fessed up to DH and we went out for a lovely pub meal last night and I felt much better (go figure!).
Today I've been to a brutal kettlebells class then walked the dogs 5 miles. We went shopping and I treated myself to a new walking/waterproof jacket so guess what we're doing tomorrow??
Having an Indian (from Asda) tonight but I'll come in about 1600 calories. I so need to learn to let go a bit. Arghhhhh so hard.
Hope everyone's having a good weekend?

Oh and now I'm going to bed just to STOP EATING!

Loli hope you made it to bed without being ambushed by the fridge 😁 I think trying to set your maintenance eating habits is really hard - when you've got a goal in mind it's something you can aim towards, and without one it's almost like giving your brain a licence for a. Free-for-all...my rule of thumb that helps a bit is to do myself a portion that always looks slightly too small to my eyes (because my brain is telling my eyes eat more). I usually find i'm full on the 'too small' portion. Then the odd treat or treaty evening doesn't matter so much can, if the general eating is under control...

Just marking place for now - had a great break but vv tired. Will chat more later

Afternoon.

Glad you had a super break Not.

I seem to have eaten ALL weekend Loli, yet the scales say I have lost weight! I think it's probably increased appetite from my running but I feel like I am starving all the time.

All good here. I did a 10 mile race on Sunday and it did go really well. I ran 72 minutes, which is getting close to where I was before I was injured and something of a surprise so soon after getting back into it. Put me 30th female out of 450 and 6th in my age group.

Came back home and cooked for 10 people, roast chicken and all the trimmings, lime drizzle tray bake and chocolate Guiness cake.

Today I'm still hungry!
B - muesli, mango and raisins.
L - chicken breast and salad in a bagel, big bowl of fruit.
D - lentil and veggie shepherds pie.
S - 2 falafels, small piece of lime drizzle cake.

Not glad you had a lovely, albeit tiring break
Need please change your name to superwoman - a race and catering for 10 all in the same day...
Well, my probation finally got approved. I've spent the evening in the pub with my boss who resigned on Friday. And I've spent the train journey home looking at other jobs on the internet. I'll see how it works out. On the plus side, I got some really valuable compliments on an important piece of work I've done today, and I've got Friday off so it's a short week. Maybe tomorrow can be a day where I get back on track with food...

Goodness I think I just saw tumbleweed blowing through this thread 😁
Hardly any sleep, work stuff going round in my head.
B - egg, avocado and a rasher of bacon on toast - super protein boost needed this morning
L - smoked mackerel, chickpeas, rocket, tomatoes, green pepper
D - Kerala Fish curry
S - coffee, coffee, coffee and probably a chocolate bar as well 😴

I'm here Jonty. I'm sorry about your bad nights sleep. Brill news (sort of) about getting the permanent contract, for security at least. Well done on the piece of work too. Fish curry sounds lovely!

I'm going out for a run now, and doing boot camp later.

B - porridge with mango and raisins.
L - some of last nights lentil and veg cottage pie.
D - chicken and veg broth, crusty bread.
S - energy gel, wine, poss a banana.

I'm here, smothered with a nasty cold/stomach upset after my few days away. Well done on getting out of probation jonty, is it cause of something your boss who was leaving said that has you looking at jobs or did I miss something? I thought they were quite decent until the probation thing happened but then I am ever grateful for a job that doesn't make you feel rotten for having to be off with sick kids - some are dreadful but maybe it's different here. I don't want to discuss what was eaten or drank while away, what goes on tour stays on tour. Back to working on good eating the majority of the time. Not a snowballs chance in hell of going to gym until this dose lifts, feel dreadful.

I'm here! I miss everyone. Nothing changes with me. Strong by Zumba last night, loads of burpees and planks and shit. Still 11.6. No idea what weight I want to be or what I should eat. I'm crap at this lol!

Remember me . I am SO SORRY I've been MIA for so long. I promise this is no word of a lie, but for the last few weeks (or however long it is) it's been the first thing on my mind every day wondering whether I'll get time to catch up with you all.

Anyway, so much to bore you all with, but things are fine. Will do a shameless placemark post first here (it's been so long you're not even showing up in the 'Threads I'm on' page now!) and then try to catch up on you all later.

Weekend in the UK was actually lovely. I got my Barbour jacket (size 10 fitted brilliantly - swit swoo me ) and in almost better news - I maintained for that week!! No change on the scales at all last Wednesday - still 62.2kg ~ 9st 11ish. I was thrilled because we did have some naughty dinners, but I tried to be as sensible as I could. I ended up with a weekly average of 1972 but we did loads of walking which probably helped.

So here I am in a slightly grim hotel room in the US. And it's bucketing rain. I picked up a runny nose on the plane but otherwise feeling ok. The last few weeks have just overwhelmed me though. Again, I know first world problems, but I was very disappointed with myself about how disorganised and stressed I was about all the trips. I realised I've never been away from home for this long so maybe that's part of it, but I literally ran myself ragged trying to arrange the house and packing and family before I left.

I ate a lot at home last week - just lost the run of myself a bit - so I had 3 days over 2000 cals. I really can't tell how I'm doing since the flights on Sunday. I feel fat, but I finished on 1633 yesterday which isn't too bad I guess. There's a tiny gym in the hotel (only one treadmill) so I ended up doing 20 minutes on a cross-trainer yesterday morning. Feeling a bit tired today though (morning here now) so I'm not gym-ing today but I'll be very good with my food if I can. I've been to 2 supermarkets already and got a lot of basics so at least I'll be able to control what I'm eating most nights.

I have a tiny crisis though as there are NO SCALES in the room or gym. I thought about it last night and I will try their drugstores (go me with the lingo ) at the weekend to see if they have pay-scales like Boots. I also have no way of weighing my food when cooking so it's going to be a lot of guesswork.

I did have a Eureka moment this morning - I now know that 1 US Cup = 240ml (of milk anyway). Bloody cups always annoy me on MFP .

I've missed you all so I am going to try to read up and chat properly whenever I can over the next few days.

Waves at Loli and Daw. Woop woop on the size 10 jacket. And especially maintenance.

In fact, thinking about it, the maintenance bench is quite full isn't it? Always room for more though.

Nice to hear from you dawg, great that you got your treat jacket - that's a lovely present for yourself, no way you'd have fit into that a year ago! How much longer have you got in the states? I always feel like an elephant after flying, can take a few days to get over that. Fair play to you getting out and stocking up on suitable foods. Will you socialise at all on this trip? I'm sure there must be a scales at the drugstore (hark at us paddies with the americky speak😉)
Scales is coming down nicely but don't bother moving up the bench yet.
Where are new crew of mfp'losers? Still out there working on it? Please do come and share. Bath, Sugar - where you at?
loli you're at a crossroads here imo, please be careful not to go down the road of starving yourself. We had a conversation about obsession about weight loss some time ago and you were concerned on how it was affecting your life, how your dh felt about it (not that I subscribe to the keep your dh happy at all costs of course but ykwim) I told the story of the lady who started this thread who lost 5 stone I think in a short'ish amount of time and then just couldn't stop losing. Eventually had to step away from weight loss, seek help. She'd be the first to say she had problems before with ED, but that's not to say they can't start at any stage. You're more active, either eat more to maintain weight or decide if you want to adjust your goal to a bit lower - that's not unusual either, see it all the time in WW mags. People setting goals and then on reaching them readjusting by 7-10lb maybe. If you did that, at least you could plan accordingly. With work life stress in the mix, don't let food become your control thing. Sorry for the lecture 🌹

Morning.

I think maintenance is an individual thing. It kind of takes a while for the body to work it all out too as well as the mind!

My SiL has lost 2.5/3 stone using SW in the last year. I don't really agree with the 'diet' approach but it does seem to have changed her view on eating, which is definitely a positive and held her back for 25 years. She adjusted her goal once or twice as she has given herself a 'softer' target so as not to be overwhelmed but she's maintained since Christmas. I think this has involved her mentally and physically adjusting her mindset a bit into not losing but she's there (most of the time) and she's happy. She's in size 12 clothes for the first time since forever and happy with this.

For me, I seem to naturally hover now between a 2 lb margin and that feels right for me and especially my training. The last few weeks I've started training for the 3 Peaks and my appetite has increased a lot! A lot of that training is low intensity but fat burning. Yesterday I had 2 slices of cake and wine, piles of bread with my chicken broth, a cereal bar, a Graze box, 6 clementines on top of normal food. I figure I need it, the body adjusts.

I still hate it when my Sil sometimes still says 'I can't eat that, it's got fat in it', which she said on Sunday when we had them all round for dinner, like fat is an issue. I had made lime drizzle and chocolate guiness cake. I don't serve big portions. She's relenting more now though than when in strict loss mode though and she had a (small) slice of both.

ps - I broke my record steps yesterday and did 45k. That was a 10 mile run, Boot Camp and a long dog walk. The latter wasn't planned so much as turning the wrong bastard way.. I was sick of walking by the end of it!!!!