Half a stone off in July? I mean it this time!

[RhubarbRhubarbRhubarbRhubarb]

Following on from the ‘half a stone off in June’ thread, where I lost 5lbs, I thought I’d start another one and hope to lose the full 7 this time!

I have a weekend away booked for 4th August. There may be swimwear involved - eep! So that’s a good motivator.

Would anyone like to join me?

I’m planning to do a bit of intermittent fasting (16:8) and also MFP.

I’m still feeding my 5mo, so won’t be doing anything too drastic so as not to lose milk supply.

Also will try it do some more exercise. Yoga and gardening might be my limit, though I’ve been threatening to start running too.

I'm just heading out for a run.
Will have banana pancakes when I come back (just mashed banana and 2 eggs), omelette for lunch probably and will have to think about dinner.

@thenewaverage yeah... it might be a bit challenging! It can be done I think, but requires a lot of will power. Something I’m sadly lacking in. The plan is to eat lots of veg, berries, some other fruit, nuts, nut butter, coconut milk & cream for creamy things, seeds like quinoa etc.

Plus I will have the odd bit of meat, eggs and dairy. I’m not vegan, just try to eat less of those products.

Rhubarb i suppose there’s fish? I try to have one meat free day a week, and I also have a fish only day so it is possible. I’ve been trying to eat less cheese as well as I have a real cheddar addiction! My favourite meal at the moment is: ribbon courgette, quickly stir fried, then throw in some petit pois, some pesto, creme fraiche and prawns and some Parmesan. Perfect gloopy comfort food, a bit like risotto.

Well done everyone for getting through the week.

I lost 1.25 lbs this week - which I'm taking as a win considering that I ate out twice. I had hoped that heat might work to kill my appetite but no, I'm chowing down everything i can find.

I will resume logging everything in MFP (MFP fatigue is indeed a thing) tomorrow and plan on seriously upping my water intake as I think some of the food consumption is probably thirst related.

I did attend 3 out of 4 bootcamp exercise sessions though (which given the heat is a miracle) and would have attended 4/4 if I hadn't been out on Wednesday.

Yeah, I’ll probably do a fish day per week and the odd bit of meat.

I’m so impressed with your bootcamp attendance @whendoisleep! Was it you I was talking to on the old thread about the Roxanne burpees? Hateful routine! Very well done for going to three this week.

I’m possibly being a bit silly here and having a last hurrah in preparation for low carb this week. So I’m doing roast veg and basil with spaghetti this evening. Maybe a too depending on how the evening goes. Had a lovely family day today. Wish it wasn’t Monday tomorrow.

Just realised I could do my roast veg with courgette ribbons instead of pasta. That’s a better, lower carb, choice. Might as well start now!

Fruit compote (no sugar and I’ll try to stick to lower carb fruits) and plain, coconut yoghurt for pudding.

Low(ish) carb and vegan . Shouldn’t get quite so excited over one meal should I...? Especially considering the less healthy choices I’ve made this week. Oh well. Baby steps.

I use courgette ribbons for pasta, and very thinly sliced red or white cabbage in place of noodles. They both hold their shape and bite pretty well.

Oh that’s a good tip, thanks @thenewaverage. So, do you tend to stir fry the cabbage or leave them raw?

Stir fry it- I suppose you could just add it to a stir fry but somehow if it’s separate it feels more of a proper substitute! Courgette ribbons I do in a bit of water and a spray of oil in a frying pan, they can tend to burn and stick a bit whereas the cabbage are more resilient. Spiralled broccoli stalks are also said to be very nice as noodles.

Oh I just do raw courgette ribbons, but actually, cooking them would probably make them more pasta-y...

I sadly don’t have a spiralliser, so don’t know about the broccoli. I’ll try the cabbage.

PS: slicing cabbage sounds a lot more convenient than grating a whole head of cauliflower for cauliflower rice! Will try it with the next stir fry / Thai curry I make.

I have a spiraliser(sp?) though the first time I used it I sliced my finger and haven't bothered since..it's eeeevil!

I buy the pot of carrot noodles from Tesco though

Ouch @silver! Not sorry I’m missing out there then. How is your dd?

I haven't tried courgette ribbons, I must give them a go.
Today has been a bit tricky food wise. I had friends over to help me paint dd's bedroom so I did bacon cobs for everyone. I did trim the fat off though.
Then I have had pasta for tea because I wanted a something quick therefore it's been a bit carb heavy today.
I'm also enjoying a glass of wine but I did sweat buckets painting in this heat so hopefully it won't do too much damage.
I'd love to get 3 pounds off this week.

Well done on the bootcamp WhendoIsleep, and 1.25lbs is definitely a win.

I didn't do that run on Friday, but when I weighed this morning I was down to 62.3 kg, so that was good. I've just done day 1 of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I'd love to say it was a breeze and I felt cool as a cucumber, but I felt sick as a dog afterwards

Still, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

Oh well done on the painting and shredding! Fingers crossed at weigh in tomorrow.

I love Jillian Michaels, but that 30DS workout is hard to me, even when I’m reasonably fit, (so not right now ).

Rhubarb not sure it was me you talked about burpees with, but I totally agree they are hateful. Although this time last year I couldn't do any and now I can manage a few.

Thanks Lougle. I like bootcamp but can't go in the week when the DC are on holiday so I was thinking I might break out my old 30 DS dvd and use that instead.

I did it with DH, and I was crying out at one point, saying "she wants us to do more stuff! It must be nearly over!!" Then she said "now this is the point when you just want it to stop..." and I yelled "yes! Exactly! That's what I was saying!!" ..."but we're going to keep going, because good bodies don't come free..." "Arrgghh!"

I don't think I'm a candidate for her demo videos!

It kills me too! I sweat just doing the warm up. Stupid Jillian annoys me too, don't phone it in bla bla shut up I'm dying here.

Dd was poorly from tues-fri evening and was a long old week. She's back to her bossy self now so all good thank you, she's only 1 and just kept going 'eeehhh' by the end of it I was like WHAT DO U WAAAANT

Weighed in this morning and have 11 pounds left to lose before going back to work mid September . Not sure I can do it as weight loss has really slowed down but will keep trying!

I'm with you in 30DS! I did it once and thought I might die. It went back in the box and had stayed there ever since! I think that was about 4 years ago.
Weighed in this morning and I have lost 2.75 pounds so happy with that.
It just feels like such a long way to go though!

Well done that's a great loss!

I've gained. Boo! I'm feeling determined now though. I spent the whole day yesterday wishing I had the confidence to wear summer clothes and there's only one way to help that along...lose weight!

Well I haven’t had the best start to low carb (almost) veganing, as lovely dh brought me a lovely, sugary cup of tea this morning! Oh well.

On the plus side, I’ve somehow managed to lose half a lb, which I’m fairly pleased with, all things considered. But, because I had gained 2lbs between the start of the thread and the first Monday weigh in, that’s actually a gain of 1.5lbs since the beginning of the month, which isn’t so good. So a total of 3.5lbs off since the start of June, bringing me to 11 stone, 6.5 lbs... hmmmm definitely could do a lot better than that.

Right, I’m off to make breakfast. I’ll also have to do my legs etc today, so I can go swimming. Possibly will go tonight if I get my big arse in gear!

Oh and well done @ale! That’s fab! Your hard work is paying off.

@silver, you’ve had a horrible week by the sounds of things. Hope this week is better for you!

But Rhubarb you need to think that if you weren't trying or on the thread you'd have gained 3.5lbs on top of whatever you started at... So it might not be a huge amount but it's a loss not more gain