Back on my diet and feeling optimistic!

[FlamedToACrisp]

DAY 1
Starting Weight: 17st 2.75lbs
Exercise: Spent 6 hours painting the living room and hallway.
Mood: Optimistic

Breakfast: 1 banana.
Lunch: 1 roll with butter, thin cheese and loads of salad; 1 handful of cheese savouries.
Dinner: Cottage pie with sliced potatoes on top, lots of extra veg.(The bloody cottage pie took ages to brown nicely with spray-on sunflower oil instead of butter)
Drinks: Diet Pepsi.
Snacks: 2 nectarines (I don't allow myself any sweet things except fruit until after dinner); saucer of sweet treats to last me all evening (15 assorted sweets and a Freddo)

Good for you! How'd today go?

DAY 2
Weight: 17st
Exercise: Another 6 hours decorating, but fairly low-level exercise
Mood: Happy

Breakfast: none
Lunch: 1 nectarine; 1 corned beef salad sandwich (granary bread)
Dinner: 4 fish fingers, 2 potato waffles and baked beans
Drinks: Diet Pepsi.
Snacks: 1 banana; 1 jam-and-cream biscuit (I was at my writers' group, OK it was breaking my own rule but I usually have 4 and I was ravenous); saucer of sweet treats

And a small bunch of grapes - just found them in the fridge!

Well done, keep at it!

I thought that diet drinks made you hungry?

But well done all the same.

I have lost six stone and have three to go.

@ALoadOfTwaddle thanks for being the first person to encourage me!

@SirJamesTalbotAndHisSpeculum oh, I'm hungry all right, but I'm sticking to it! I tell myself it's because I have to eat 'not enough' in order to use my fat stores to make up the difference, so of course I'm feeling hungry. Hungry is good - it shows the diet will work.

Unfortunately, diet cola is the only drink I like, apart from things like strawberry milkshake or pineapple juice, which are more fattening. I'll probably have a glass of these occasionally, but I hate tea and coffee.

Your weight loss is great - well done! Do you have any special tips/favourite foods?

DAY 3
Weight: 16st 13.75lbs
Exercise: 4 hours decorating. My fitbit wasn't impressed today
Mood: Slightly irritable, but not because of the diet. I'm just a grumpy cow!

Breakfast: 1 banana.
Lunch: Cheese and tomato sandwich (white bread) and a bunch of grapes
Dinner: Roast chicken, beef savoury rice, peas, sweetcorn
Drinks: Diet Pepsi.
Snacks: 1 nectarine, bunch of grapes; saucer of sweet treats

I know. It's just too riveting for words. But it helps to know I will have to admit what I've eaten, even if no one else actually gives a toss.

Well done Flamed. I've kept a food diary since March. I eat sugar free jelly (make up a bowl and always have it in the fridge) it is sweet to help with cravings and filling.

DAY 4
Weight: 16st 11.5lbs
Exercise: um... none
Mood: Lazy!

Breakfast: 1 banana.
Lunch: Ham and tomato sandwich (white bread) and a bunch of grapes
Dinner: Gammon steak, pineapple, new potatoes, peas, grilled tomato (eating out at a chips-with-everything pub - for £14 I expected a giant plateful, but actually the portion wasn't that large and I was hungry again an hour later! Bravely managed to resist a sundae to follow... mainly because they were £8!)
Drinks: Diet Pepsi.
Snacks: saucer of sweet treats

My DH just made himself some delicious-looking buttery toast with Marmite. I want some now...

Ooh, I love buttery marmite on toast.

@ALoadOfTwaddle so do I! You're not helping!

but I bravely resisted.

DAY 5
Weight: 16st 12lbs
Exercise: 7 hours of decorating, mostly balancing precariously on a ladder across the stairwell (will this house never get finished?)
Mood: Hungry! I could have eaten twice this much.

Breakfast: none
Lunch: Cheese salad sandwich (granary bread) and a bunch of grapes
Dinner: 3 skinless chipolata sausages, oven chips and baked beans.
Drinks: Diet Pepsi.
Snacks: 1 nectarine, the last few grapes; saucer of sweet treats

I definitely need to buy some more fruit.

So what diet are you doing? Calorie counting?

You know, you could probably swap your saucer of sweet treats for something more filling without gaining significant calories. Also, you shouldn't really skip breakfast, it's bad for the metabolism.

@Hiphopopotamus At this stage, I'm not calorie counting, but I'm aware of which foods are fattening (all the yummy ones, basically) and trying not to be greedy with them. Once I get nearer my target, or if I stop losing weight, I'll be more calorie-conscious, but I need a diet which fits in with normal life, without poring over the backs of packets.

@ALoadOfTwaddle I do know, but it's only my sweeties which keep me motivated. Gradually, I'll reduce the amount. At the moment, I know I can swap if I'd prefer a snack - but I never do. I don't really want breakfast most of the time, so it seems ridiculous to eat when I don't want to. If I actually feel hungry, I would have a slice of toast or some cereal for breakfast, but I usually only want a banana.

DAY 5
Weight: 16 st 10.5 lbs
Exercise: Yet more decorating
Mood: Sorrowful - my sister died in July, and it would have been her birthday today Felt better after a good cry, and had people round tonight to play silly games to take my mind off it.

Breakfast: Bourbon biscuit and 2 ibuprofen
Lunch: Cheese and marmite sandwich (50-50 bread) and a bunch of grapes
Dinner: Ohhh dear. I knew I'd have to admit it! Lasagne, boiled potatoes, salad, half a slice of bread & butter, sm piece of cheese, 1 Tuc biscuit, 3 gruyere and poppy seed twists, 1 apple pie, 1 bakewell slice, 1 jam and cream biscuit. This is the trouble with buffet meals... but I don't think I was that greedy tbh - I had small portions and skipped my sweeties tonight to pay for the sweet things. It's resisting the leftovers which is the problem!
Drinks: Diet Pepsi.
Snacks: none (so far -oops!)

I’ve just come across your thread, your doing so well, and your starting weight is the same as mine, I’m trying to be good too but it’s so hard.

My I ask how tall you are, I’m 5ft 9in

@Wobblywibblywoo I am 5'4" tall - and about the same sideways!

I've found it fairly bearable so far, although I'm hungry, because I'm keeping busy. Also, I know this diet works for me because I used it to lose weight for my wedding. Stupidly, before I reached a sensible weight I stopped on my hen night and some crept back after the wedding. What are your 'danger' foods? What did you eat today?

I think you’re doing grand. I’m sorry about your sister. It must be very hard. I’m a similar starting weight and starting again tomorrow. I feel like a lump and kids want to go swimming with them and I feel embarrassed.

DAY 6
Weight: 16 st 10 lbs
Exercise: And still more decorating
Mood: Calm

Breakfast: 1 banana
Lunch: Cheese and tomato sandwich (50-50 bread) and some strawberries
Dinner: Lasagne, 2 potato waffles, 1 nectarine
Drinks: Diet Pepsi.
Snacks: sm bunch of grapes; saucer of sweet treats

@Alwaysgrey well, I wish you luck with it, you have a good incentive to get fit for your kids. If you're not ready to strip off yet, how about taking them for a kick-about down the park?

What's your worst temptation? Mine is sugar - as you've probably spotted.

Crisps. And pizza. Carbs are my downfall. I’ll take them to the park but I love swimming and I know once in nobody will be looking but I feel lumpy. I don’t want them embarrassed by me. Especially as one child in my eldest’s class (they’re 10) told her that I was fat 😕

Well done. It's so so hard. Keep at it. Do you like water to drink? Diet fizzy does mess up your metabolism.