Its January 2019 - Join the Slenderistas to kick start the year with a lighter you

[Autumnnymph]

Happy new year everyone!

2018 has flown by and here is a new year for us to lose/maintain/set new goals and push our limits further.

Join the Slenderista to lose 7lbs (or whatever your goal is) in January.

@simonsaysitschristmas - I ws googling a bit and this recipe here www.theendlessmeal.com/curried-vegetablestew-with-quinoa/
is very close to how I made it.

The adaptations I made - instead of using whole spices like bayleaf etc I just dumped some MDH Kitchen King Masala powder - you can get it in any Indian shop and its a very versatile spice powder to have. My version didnt have any butter.

I used chickpeas instead of black beans in this recipe and spinach instead of kale.

Had a sneaky weigh in yesterday and was 2lbs down, DP was 4lbs down and very pleased with himself!

He is about 2st overweight so he really wants to get some off before the wedding.

I am on golden mode all month as I am wedding dress shopping on the 26th and don't want to feel all balloony and bloated for it.

I think a good wedding weight would be 9st for me, 9.4 is my lowest weight (as an adult) to date so I know I can do it!

I've been avoiding you all. My belly is the size of a beach ball and I'm struggling to find the wagon.

I'm going to face the scales tomorrow morning and I am dreading it! I've had a golden week (well, goldenish) but I do quite truthfully look like a pot bellied pig right now. AND next week MrQuim is taking me out somewhere on Tuesday, so that won't even be a Golden Week.

At the beginning of December I was in quite a good place, only 400g over target, but I didn't weigh in after that as the following two weeks had weeknight components, and then the following two weeks after that were the Christmas Eat-And-Drinkathon, so I'm four whole weeks away from the scales. I've just worked out I've had 13 Golden Days in the past four weeks, so about 50:50. But the Non Golden Days were very non-golden...!

Haven't read back but will do now. Mainly staggered at the first post I saw - you weighed in on Boxing Day Kick?!

Thank you @autumnnymph that looks right up my street!!

@simonsaysitschristmas my DM reports that she went wild last night and instead of Indian spices she dunked a pack of Fajita spices and topped it with avocado and it was delish. I may try that version one day this week as well.

@kokoloco Hugz - cold can suck! Do you like soups? When I have a cold I tend to live off of soups!

and welcome back @Quim

So many options @autumn I may have had a frenzied 10 minutes where I decided to give up on healthy eating and weight loss altogether but after a slice of toast and a sneaky slice of cheese I am back to feeling determined new scales are arriving tomorrow which is exciting (for me at least)

Hi everyone,

I hope it would be ok if I joined in? I have been slowly but steadily putting weight on and I’m now 38 years old, five foot 3 inches tall and weigh 11st 10 pounds😔 (as of Saturday 5th)

I would ideally like to get to 9.5stone but be happy if I could get it to under 10st.

I am using Fitbit and MFP to log everything and have started running again.

I am also doing dry January so I don’t eat loads of crap

@kokoloco a few years ago I bought a soup maker and love it ! I toss all kind of random veggies and spices in and go mad. Its so satisfying in winter!

Welcome @Dashel ! You are basically my age and a teensy bit taller. I know what you mean by steadily gaining weight but I am sure you will lose it! You will find lots of support on this thread. :)

I lost most of my weight using MFP and Fitbit so it can be done. :)

Ooooh, just read back and a whole bunch of old faces all suddenly appeared on the thread all at the same time! I was hoping that might happen for the New Year - hello again BOOP, lees, sunshine, fish, paws and stellar!

FATE your weight loss is astonishing What an achievement, well done!

Hairspray so exciting about the wedding dress shopping!

Autumn Big jug of spiced water sounds like a great idea - I think I need to pay more attention to my water consumption over the next couple of weeks and get back into the habit. I find the more you drink the more you want to keep refilling, but if you don't really start, you don't really get thirsty.

What's troubling me now is that over time I seem to be getting bigger and bigger, without necessarily getting heavier. Even a year or so ago, by Friday morning (providing it'd been a good week) I remember thinking I looked quite slim, but it's been months since I've been happy with what I've seen in the mirror, even when I've just seen a good weight on the scale. I suppose that's a question of age catching up with me. I'm only thirty though, not middle aged yet!

Thanks Autumn! Love the sound of your mum's Mexindian twist on the stew, sounds delicious

Dashel it's often the case that weight creeps up over time, I found the hardest thing was to actually decide to actually do something about it, rather than vaguely thinking I'd get round to it one day. This thread was a godsend to me and I'm sure it will be for you too! What approach did you have in mind?

It’s nice too see so many old faces back on the thread 😊

I have a habitat of jumping in at the deep end with loads of exercise and a great diet and then go on holiday or get stressed and revert to my usual ways and put the weight back on with a bit more.

A friend is in AA and was telling me how much it’s helped her so i have been trying to get more support and accountability.

I have even shared my weight with a few trusted people as well 😳

At the moment MFP has me on 1450 cals a day, but I’m thinking about trying something as a short term crash diet, just not sure what yet. I think my gains come from getting stressed and polishing off a packet of biscuits or cake and alcohol and junk food on weekends plus the occasional burger and chips type dinner in a country pub.

Most days I’m at 1800 cals in the week when I’m not dieting, it’s just Friday, Saturday and Sunday that I go a bit mad with food

In my experience, the key to successfully losing weight, and keeping off the crap food, is to make sure you eat a decent amount of healthy/unprocessed food so that you aren't starving hungry.

I think your right fish. When I successfully lost weight in my 20s I never calorie counted and ate plenty. But I ate a LOT of vegetables, was never hungry.

Completely agree with @hoola and @fisb - my other tip would be to make changes that are life changes rather than quick fixes.

Anytime I have tried crash dieting I have put the weight back on.

Also I think for me positive mental health is important. I'm an emotional eater so when the going gets tough I get heavy. I need to sort out my while life to make it work not just try to diet.

Had a minor wobble last night and fell face first into a box of goodies from India and some gin was also had.

DIdn't weigh myself today but have picked myself back up. Clocked in a long 10km walk this morning to make up for last nights excesses. I feel extremely bloated so havent had anything for breakfast yet. Lunch will be some kind of warm vegetable salad.

I need to stay on track over the weekend. My aim for January is no eating out or takeaways.

Right, the jury is in... I'm 2kg (well, full disclosure, 2.2kg) up. This was pretty much my expectation but I'm still demoralised!

Realistically, in light of festivities dragging on a bit, I'll aim to get into the next kg bracket this month, and the "right" one in February.

I always remember the year Christmas fell on a Saturday, so I managed to treat the whole Christmas fortnight as normal with indulgent weekends and a golden week in between, and started the new year at my (then) goal weight. Why can't Christmas always be on a Saturday?!

Dashel I'm actually in favour of a crash diet as long as you have a long-term plan to follow it. They can be extremely motivating in my experience; the problem is when people crash off a stone or two, but don't have any in-between setting so can't sustain it. Finding something that you can do week-in, week-out basically forever is the main thing, but it can be vee-ee-ery slo-o-o-w, so it's easy to become despairing or lose focus after a couple of weeks, so kicking a few pounds of in a short space of time can give you a boost. If you're like me when I first decided (properly) to start losing, just actually seeing the number on the scale go down consistently was kind of miraculous.

I blow out over the weekends as well (by design, not accident!), but to be completely honest, I don't think 1800 a day during the week would give you the leeway to do that.

Autumn 10k before 09:30 is very impressive!

Morning all,

Last day of egg fest 2019 but so far I have lost 5lbs in 4 days... soo I am pretty pleased with that so far!

DP is on 6lbs lost but like I said he has had extra meat with his eggs

Hello all the new faces - I would just like to spew forth some praise for this thread - I joined in Sept 2017 and have lost 6st (ish) with the support of the amazing slenderistas. Reached my first GW in Jan last year (10st4) and now I am pushing for 9st for my wedding day.
On top of all the diet support they have helped me through a very messy patch last year, each and every person on this thread is beautiful and you can find the exact support you need here from gentle hand holds to firm kicks up the arse.

I hope you all stay and I hope you all have good losses this month I promise we will all be here for you and that this really is the best thread on mumsnet!

BONUS - My before and after photo - before 15st6 after 9st4

@hairspraybabe well done on your egg fast loss

Your overall weight loss is amazing and you look stunning!