Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, you can't have any - you're a Slenderista! Join us to lose 7lbs of February flab

[BitOutOfPractice]

Welcome to the new Valentine's edition of the best thread on MN™ where we encourage and support each other to lose 7lbs in a month (though that happens so rarely maybe we need to change our USP!)

Link to the January thread here

Everyone welcome, new and old

I weigh cooked pasta Rule of thumb seems to be 50gr uncooked, 100gr cooked.
I have eaten a ridiculous amount of chocolate, to keep the children happy of course...oh dear, I can’t even track this but if I had to, it’s gotta be 1000 cals of choc, shameful!

Offfhread I've been doing running long before it was fashionable and I've rarely bothered with GPs for injuries as I find their knowledge is really lacking for injuries? A friend of mine had a stress fracture missed.

Omg, 50g dry! Yes, I’m feeling suspiciously full after my pasta. That’s what I was thinking Queen, what if you can’t afford a physio etc?

So cooked a lovely big but diet friendly romantic dinner for us last night this is all I ate all day bare in mind.
12 olives each
1/3 of a red pepper 1tsp pesto and 10g feta handful of rocket
Whole roasted cauliflower in lemon chilli and paprika rub 1 tin of butter beans 1 small leek 2 red chillis 2 tbsp olive oil 1/2 a pot of hummus (between 2).
Fruit platter with vanilla greek yogurt dip (1/2 cup greek yog and 1tsp vanilla powder) and chocolate sauce for DP
Fruit was 5 strawberries, 1/2 an apple, 5 fingers of melon 1 kiwi and a 1/4 cup of grapes.
Drank sparkiling water.

10.4 so up 2 on yesterday which seems very unfair all things considered... if I knew I was going to gain from that I would have just had something actually decadent.... like pastry... or chips...

I know today is another day but I am sick to death of this 1lb on 1lb of lark. I have plans with the girls from school on Friday and I can gaurentee it will involve pasta and wine.... so there is another week where I mightas well not bothered.

Hair, I'm also feeling dejected. I was another sodding 0.5 up today. That means I have lost a big, fat, zero this week. This is despite having a calorie deficit of between 500 and 800 calories 5 days in 7, at maintenance the other two, and doing loads of exercise too.

It is so disheartening - and we have my parents visiting this weekend to make things harder. I've planned lovely diet friendly meals, but we're out for the day on Saturday so that will be difficult, and I know there will be wine.

Gah! Mutual handhold?

Oh crikey, I ate more like 1500 cals of chocolate, between actual food, wine/fizz, chocolate & cake/biscuits I ate over 3200 calories. Scales is showing a flux of 2lb from all the sugary rubbish, oh that’s not a nice sight this morning. I burned around 2000 so I’m over by 1200, so technically potentially a real gain of half a pound. That’s if the theory of cals to weight gain is true. Going to have to stay on target today, and it really is going to be chocolate free😡

While I was confessing my tales from the scales it appears we’ve all had the same experience - sucks sucks sucks but ‘‘tis all f**ckity flux! Can I make a suggestion for us daily weighers if you can bear it, use the Fitbit (if you have it) app and log the daily weight or use happy scales app - then see what the weekly average is. I believe it takes the horrible emotion out of the up/down pattern and if the average is going up every week then it’s time to reassess the food logging/general behaviour.
Of course I say it takes the emotion out, it’s taking a bit of time for that for me😡

Morning all. Good news here this morning

I finally shifted from a month on 10 10.6 and got 10 9.8 this morning. That's after just one day of sugar free lent.

I know it's only a bit of water but it's encouraging to see that my scales aren't stuck!

Just need to keep it off until official weigh day on Saturday!

Hair it won't be a real 2lbs.
Your DPsounds like a dream.
Today is the start of 7 miserable days to try and get 3lbs off this week.
Please Diet gods...

He is lovely, but can't cook for shit and is generally a bit lazy around the house, very funny and kind, tries his best at most things. He got me an antique cocktail book for valentines day.... I am a spoiled little princess.

Just worked out all the calories for last night's meal
the whole thing came to 2185 but that was obviously split between the two of us, so 1093 and I am including the chocolate sauce in those calories. We didn't even eat late!

Not, I do love the weekly averages!

Do we think it would be cheating to use that number for my tracking rather than my actual weight on specific day each week?

I don’t think it’s cheating feezles, it’s your average weight over a week so it smoothes out the ups/downs. It also gives you the trend, if we can all acknowledge weight loss isn’t linear this is a way of really tracking it.
The averaging is about the only thing keeping me positive, if I were to really take the up/down seriously I’d be very depressed. And the fact my clothes are getting very (very!) slowly looser. I know I have to stick to my cals/exercise, then I’ll get there.

OK! I'm doing it! Weekly averages do currently show an overall loss, I'll check back on Sunday.

Thanks, Not - that was super helpful

Yaw feezles average company

Ah poo. Just looked up what my weight would have to be to have bmi slap bang in the middle of the healthy weight range. 7st 11lb. I'm not sure that will ever happen.

Loving the weekly averages. Has me at down 2lb this week.

Hairspray it feels like a week where you needn't have bothered but just think how bad it would have been if you actually hadn't bothered! That's what I always tell myself when I feel like I'm treading water, like today - big meal last night, and lunch out with my sister on Friday, a wedding on Saturday etc., and it sort of feels like "why bother being good today, the week's fucked" but I have to believe it's evening things out a bit even if I can't "see" it happening like I can when I have four good days on the trot.

I agree with Kiki, February is the worst. People tend to say January, but this February has been especially vile. It just has not stopped raining, and when it's not raining it's unreasonably cold, which makes it so hard not to feel despondent. And like you I'll be ending the month fatter than I started it! DH's birthday next Tuesday and then my Midweek Socialising shitshow will finally be over and I can get back to the boring old business of losing what will probably turn out to be 5lbs...

BOOP I don't even know what Tuile biscuits are! They sound exciting!

How about a lovely whole meal sandwich (lots of fibre) with cheese/ham/tomato/lettuce (lots of protein in the cheese/ham) Maybe get it toasted? Tasty and filling, and nothing particularly processed. Don’t be scared of carbs/fat, you need energy and filling up. Probably be around 400-500 cals so good value. You could have a veggie soup too, get some vitamins into you. I’m starving now😩

The lowest my BMI has ever been is 21.8. And I looked properly skinny! I can't see that ever happening again.

KOKO, what shops do you have access to? I am off to M&S (again!) because all the calories are printed on the packs

Soup is a good idea. I always think Eat. do the nicest soups, if there is one near to you.

Koko we had a lovely sandwhich shop near my old work. I miss it way more than my old job

Ooh, good combo, Koko! I love avocado.

I work in central London, right next to a major landmark, so I am spoiled for places to get lunch. On the downside, everything costs a fortune, you can't move for tripping over a tourist, and the first place I pass when I walk out of the office door is a burrito joint that smells divine, and is one of the reasons why I need to diet in the first place!

Lunch today is

Kafir Quark 90cal
waitrose bright and crunchy salad 30cal
225g blueberries 130

Dinner will be egg and butternut squash bake with rocket and cucumber