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

Immediately did the fitness tests at the start of the The Truth About Fitness. Conclusion: am fit as fuck

So body, please kindly shed the excess Lindas, I don't need a month's worth of calories stored round my hips legs and arse. I lost weight so easily when I was unfit is the truth. 20 mins of unfit stop-start jogging burnt off loads 5 years ago!

I'm joking, being fit has changed my life for the better in so many ways, being less able to shift the pounds is a minor annoyance really

I must watch that. I think I'm reasonably fit. Then I see the super fit people at the gym and feel like a slug. In the general population though, I think I'm doing OK

I think the programme will make you feel a lot better about yourself boop, you are definitely fit.

OMG, the will power test is fascinating. My solo exercise efforts where I have little motivation are always awful. It also shows that being on this thread in a group helps us. Don't drop off the thread folks!!

Ooh I'm on the running and knees bit now... regular running is good for knee repair folks! Blood flow to our knee joints is generally awful so anything you can do this to increase blood flow will help. Get started on those couch to 5k apps non-runners!

I've had my weights out while watching this too. It's very motivating

So 1st Feb weigh in for me is 9st 5lb I'm down 2lb from last month so only 26lb to go I'm going to try to get there by portion control curving my emotional eating (going to try 15min meditation a day) and switching out my lunchtime bagel for some fresh soup with no bread.

Ooh - can I join please! Was at my ideal weight last year, running regularly and generally feeling great about myself and then serious illness hit the family and the last 9 months have been hell on earth and of course I resorted to eating crap (deliveroo riders became my friends ) and doing zero exercise because I was at home caring for my DH.

Now that things are back on a more even keel I want to get back to how I was. I've lost 3lb in the last couple of weeks and ideally have another 7 or 8 to lose. I weighed in last Saturday at 133lb (9st 7lb). In my dream world I'd love to get down to 120lb but I know that would take far too much hard work so I'd be totally happy at 125lb - that puts me right in the middle of the healthy weight range for my height.

(In reality however I know that 128lb seems to be my body's comfortable spot where I need to put very little effort into maintaining at that weight so who knows - I could easily go down to 125 and then straight back up to 128 as I've done before.)

I use MFP and generally don't find it too difficult to eat what I should but I know my downfalls and one of them is being stuck indoors. I don't work so I generally am out and about all day when the DC are at school - I walk loads and that's good for my mental health as well as my physical health. If I'm stuck indoors however I don't know what to do with myself and I eat out of sheer boredom. Yesterday I was stuck in all day waiting on a delivery and I managed to consume 2300 calories instead of the 800 I should have eaten bearing in mind I was totally inactive all day! (Actually - I should have done Davina too while I was in - that would have earned me some more calories - but I had zero motivation!)

Urgh! Back at it today!

Hi all, please can I join? After getting to 10’7 at start of dec and maintaining throughout, I’ve gone made in jan!

Back to 10st 10-would like to get to 10’5 by end of feb.

I’ve been on a bag of mini eggs a day for past two weeks

I saw a bit of the truth about fitness last night but have downloaded the whole thing to watch later.

I did see the step and chair tests and tried those and came out as very fit - I think though that I am just lucky when it comes to heart health due to genetics! My bp has always been low (symptomatic since I was 11) and my heart rate is low too - average resting heart rate is between 48-50 and even when I'm running flat out it never goes above about 135. My Garmin hardly ever gives me my intensity moments no matter what I do because my heart rate just doesn't go fast enough - I brisk walk usually for at least 2 hours a day Mon-Fri and do on average 15-18,000 steps a day and yet regularly end up with only about 20 intensity minutes a week out of the recommended 150! I have to run a few 10ks a week to get my 150 - very irritating.

Hey everyone - joining in if that's alright!

I lost 7lbs in January going from 172lbs to 165lbs this morning. Would love love looove to lose another 7lbs but I've got so many plans this month.

How do you all contend with weekend plans? Just stay healthy/on plan Mon-Fri? I'm using MFP!

Rylan I'm the same - I walk a "very brisk pace" walk every day and go to the gym at least 3/4 times a week and last week I only ended up with 37 "active" minutes... quite annoying! Maybe I'm not working hard enough?

For weekend plans, I assess menus before hand and will happily skip other meals in the day if I know I am going to have a big dinner out.

I try to avoid having multiple days of plans, and I don't count Friday night as a weekend. So I will either have a day of shopping lunch out coffee and cake on a Saturday, or a big date night with wine and food, or a big Sunday brunch with all the pastries, coffee, smoothies and avocado, or a Sunday dinner with pudding and wine etc.

Basically I TRY to only have one big indulgence at the weekend, or two small indulgences - for example, this weekend is my SILs 18th - we are going for sushi, that I don't really like so won't eat much of and a few cocktails on Saturday evening. If I have 3 drinks or less then I will count that as a "small" indulgence. On Sunday we are going out for brunch, so depending on what I drink on Saturday I will either have poached eggs and avocado or a stack of pancakes. If I have pancakes I won't have birthday cake.
I then will probably only have something small at 4ish, soup or scrambled eggs or something.

That is the theory any way! Weekend before last I took this approach and only "gained" 2lbs over Saturday and Sunday. Last weekend I ate everything that the light touched and "gained" 6lbs, four of which I have kicked to the kerb, but I could have done better if I had focused on not nibbling and going overboard at every single meal!

I find "no snacks" at weekends is a really good rule for myself when I am at home as I have the tendency to just nibble my way through anything if not, a few almonds turns into half a bag, a little bit of cheese turns into 1/4 of a block etc.

I treat weekends like any other day except I have one treat meal and eat more or less what I want. I'll definitely skip breakfast on that day or try to eat a bit less generally and keep up the no snacks rule. I don't really drink very much (I do if I'm out "for drinks" but that's about it) so that's not usually an issue.

I find it easier at the moment as everyone is going out less and so we're not having much in the way of nights out, dinners at friend's houses etc. Once the weather gets better and everyone is out of hibernation that's when it might get tricky.

Ii is virtually impossible for me to have a golden weekend as apparently I am a social butterfly.

I don't enjoy it though, often need a weekend in hibernation as I feel burnt out when I am constantly on the go!

Afternoon all :)

Dunno what happened with my weigh in this morning - I'm up two lindas. Gonna ignore that and work from my lowest weight of last month - 225.6lbs

If I don't reach the 7lbs this month, I'd like to at least get to 220.

My weekends aren't really any different to my weekdays. Bonus of being somewhat agoraphobic I guess

I'll have a look at the truth about fitness, but I don't need to do any tests to know I'm at the nearly dead end!! My resting heart rate atm is around 90, I'm officially tachicardiac - I have a letter proving it 😂

I'm kinda glad it'a not just me then Pip - the thing is, although I know I have a generally good overall level of fitness, I don't feel "fit" iyswim?! I guess I did when I was running 8-10k 2-3 times a week or when I was motivated doing an hour of Davina 3 times a week, but still not exactly peak fitness - my best 10k time is 55min so it's a decent time but I know plenty of people doing it in under 50 and they aren't hardened athletes either. Right now the most I can run is about 4k so definitely don't feel fit and yet these blooming intensity minutes just don't go up!

My DH has a naturally fast heart rate and I swear that's why he never put weight on no matter what he eats - even just a regular walk and he's in the fat burning zone

Can I join in?
I’ve lost over 7 pounds in January .But only want to weigh myself once a month as I don’t want to call this a diet!
I’ve cut out alcohol during the week and have been trying to eat healthily with the exception of last weekend. When I had an unexpected period ( am 53) and all my old cravings for salty,sugary stuff came back🙄. I ate my own body weight in M&S mini flapjacks and apple tarts.Now I’m back to normal for the first time today and will start again.

Warn your DH rylan - I never used to put on weight til I was laid up either. Then all of a sudden I was massive

I try most of those things too Hairspray, I've been trying to be super active on weekends too, long walks etc as it makes up for pigging out. I've got my DD this weekend so it'll be an normal, healthy dinner on Friday.. I've got a late lunch at my DP's parents on Saturday so I'll just not eat anything until then (as Val always puts on a massive spread) and have something small for dinner... so far so good! Sunday we have an afternoon tea that is massive so that'll be the first meal of the day then I'll have something small again on Sunday. I CAN DO THIS!

Hello all you lovely newbies

Because I'm going away in the morning (did I mention that?) it feels like Friday today. That's good in one way, but I can feel the old "what the heck, it's Friday!" feeling creeping in! Someone restrain me!

Also my Garmin says my resting HR is an average of 62, but then most days it sits at 57?

Is a higher or lower resting HR good? I get confused by it

Where you going Bit?

I dunno if this will help (it helps me) but list all the things you'd eat right now if you could get away with it?! I quite often moan to my partner that I'd love a pizza, chocolate, scone, panini etc etc and I just list everything I'd eat if I could then by the time I'm done ranting I feel a bit better and tend not to go overboard!!!

Canaries! Can't wait for some sun!

I've settled for a freddo and a coffee. I really know how to push the boat out don't i?

Hello! Lovely new thread! And lovely new faces too - welcome welcome welcome to Bored, Hoola, tears, bungle, delphini, lurking (your name is hilarious , Rylan, Buster, Pip and teta . You're going to love it here!

I'm weighing in tomorrow. I've been so bladdy golden this week, I deserve a win.

I'm in a bit of a spin about this month. I've got three weeks on the trot with midweek plans: a black tie thing next week, Valentine's the week after and DH's birthday the week after that. Hopefully the damage won't be too terrible as I'll still have 3 golden days a week, but it makes me anxious as I'm already still a bit podgy, and I suspect still a kilo or so up. Tomorrow will tell.

Small victory though - I've been hooping 40 mins 4 times a week for 4 weeks (Actually I think I missed one day but whatever.) When I get in I whack on an episode of Grey's Anatomy and hoop all the way through it. I'm not sure it's making the blindest bit of difference but it can't be doing any harm...