Anyone else getting their shit together in October?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

I've had a really rubbish few months. I've yo-yo-Ed around on the diet, really good weeks, terrible weekends.
I've lost and gained the same 5lbs about 6 times
I need more sleep
I need less wine
I need to actually stick to the diet which i know works for me
I run loads but I don't look after myself properly and I am getting aches, pains and injuries
I have a interview on Friday for my first work in 4.5 years

I need to get my shit together in October! Anyone with me?

Starting Tuesday:
Cal counting and cut the carbs
Go to bed before 10pm
drink more water, less coffee, and no wine
Take my vitamins
Keep up my running and circuits (I have a race on Sunday) but do some stretching to sort my injuries out

Loads of other stuff as well, but that's a good start!

Thanks everyone. I feel strangely calm about it all, I'll keep you posted!

Despite saying I wouldn't, I did sneak a little weigh in this morning and I'm 2lbs down which is good. Came on today too, so hopefully that's my hormonal roller coaster over with now!

@Stateofsloth, tbh it's not just my weight thats the issue. I've had to take a LOA from uni and I can't afford my rent. I'm looking for jobs but don't know how to write a CV, I'm disabled and receive PIP so I'm unlikely to be hired anywhere but chances are I wont be able to claim Universal Credit because I'm still technically enrolled in Uni and I'm being tested for lung cancer and COPD despite the fact I have never smoked, taken drugs or drank. The stress is making my hair fall out and I'd quite easily throw myself under a bus if it wouldn't devastate my mother.

@ConfusedandStressed95

You can apply for UC and be in full time education if you have a disability. They done me over on this so I had a 10 week wait because they wrongly closed my claim but my pip award letter was evidence enough to open it back up

Confused that sounds awful, you poor thing. Is there anyone you can speak to at the uni if you're in financial hardship? Can they offer you any support for your rent?

@bigfatfatty19 I had no idea that that was allowed. All the info I've seen says students can't qualify. My landlords are pretty good in allowing me to pay my supposed to be termly rent monthly but it's more than my total PIP allowance so I've had to borrow over £300 from my mother who gets less money than I do but who had some savings and a council house so cheaper rent. I have a meeting on the 10 to go over my claim at the office.

@thenewaveragebear1983, I've done the self referral to student services hub and they're going to reply in three working days so I'll hear from them on Wednesday.

@ConfusedandStressed95

I can only speak from my own experience. I was doing a post grad and working (very) part time hours in a casual post. Had to be signed off as my work was inaccessible with my mobility issues and not entitled to any contractual sick pay (SSP in dispute at this point). I appealed the claim being closed and gave my pip award as evidence. This was enough to reopen claim but I'm still having to go through work capability assessment process so for now I'm only entitled to basic rate with £0 work allowance.

www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Full-time-students-and-benefits/Can-full-time-students-claim-Universal-Credit

This might help..

@bigfatfatty19, thanks so much for the link I'm looking for work, but I come from a low income no education or job type family, have no idea what I'm doing and have no support. My rent is £477.97 a month and my PIP allowance is £443.4. It's a sickening feeling. I need to find my PIP award letter and I have diagnosis reports and letters from my GP for uni outlining my health issues so I'm wondering if it's worth taking them with me to the meeting to be photocopied and held under my claim.

My interview went ok today despite my rattling nerves. But tonight I'm having a night off with wine (I know, I know)!

Well done @thenewaveragebear1983 If you can stay away from the wine snacks you're a better woman than me!

@ConfusedAndStressed95 that sounds harsh. Good luck with getting some serious real life help.

I'm at 1400 cals today. Am trying v hard to stay away from the snack cupboard tonight

Argh! Just lost my message

@ConfusedAndStressed95 I’m so sorry to hear of your hard time. That sounds really tough and I hope you’re able to get help to make things easier. Good luck on the 10th

@thenewaveragebear1983 well done - I hope you’ve enjoyed a few well deserved wines!

@flowerycurtain is it too late to say stay away from the snacks?

@Stateofsloth I did give in and have. Apiece of flapjacks made for the kids bake sale! Still 300 cals 150 cals under though.

Today is going to be a lovely day. I'm taking ds to London to my old Uni's festival thing. It's his first time to London and I'm just so looking forwards to it.

Hoping to eat:
B - poached egg
L - ham wrap picnic
T - healthy option from pizza express

@flowerycurtain I didn't exactly stay away from the snacks. Today is, however, a new day!

I'm coasting a little this weekend as my main focus has to be my running tomorrow, which does mean unfortunately I will have to do a bit of carb loading (cake eating) tonight, only in the interests of my racing you understand

I will be relaunching properly on Monday. As I'm going to have a week off from training (certainly from intensive training) I am seriously considering a full week of Fast800 week 1, as in 800 calories, slash the carbs, do it properly. It is rather concerning me that as the days are getting colder I am putting on jeans in the mornings and they are rather more snug fitting than I recall. I have gained about 5lbs over the summer, but some must be muscle as I've taken 9 minutes off my 10km time in 6 weeks so that's a result of some rather intensive training. However, building muscle under my nice thick layer of winter fat means that none of my clothes will fit me soon at this rate!

Fast800 takes some proper planning and dedication so I will sit tomorrow and devise my menu and shopping list.

@flowerycurtain hope you enjoyed your day!

@thenewaveragebear1983 9 mins off 10km in 6 weeks is pretty amazing! Definitely doing something right!!

The weekend hasn’t really turned out as planned for me - got dressed ready to run Sat morning and waited for DH to come home...only he decided to take a long detour so by the time he got back it was time to take kids to a b’day party. I could have done some form of exercise at home but I was so annoyed I just got changed without doing anything. DH had no idea that this was the morning of my great comeback so I can’t blame him really. I now have another cold sore (3 in 4 weeks) and don’t feel like exercising. I have stocked up on vitamins from the pharmacy and am trying to reduce stress so hopefully I’ll be ok soon.

I have decided to sign up to the Beachbody on demand workouts - I lost the baby weight from DS2 with Insanity years ago and love their workouts. My gym membership expired recently and I decided not to renew, so I’m going to do a 3 month trial of this and see how I go. The intention is to get up at 5.30am and do it before work - wish me luck (I’m not a morning person!)

@thenewaveragebear1983 9 mins off your 10k time is amazing! Good luck in the race today. Would be interested to see your plans for the week.

@Stateofsloth wow getting up at 5,30 to work out is dedication. Good luck.

Had a fabulous day yesterday. DS loved London and it was so fun to see my old Uni again. There was tons of free stuff. I'd highly recommend it to anyone london way. Diet went ok too. I didn't calorie count but I did have a healthy packed lunch and then the leggera option in pizza express. Just a couple of glasses of wine and crisps with a friend as a treat.

Plan today is

B- Greek yoghurt, banana and honey
L - roast beef. Will load up on the veg and limit the roasties and yorkies.
T - soup

Have a lovely day all.

My plan for the week will go (a bit) like this:
I'm going to do Fast800 for 5 days so I always like to streamline my menu to make it easier.
Every day I allow for my 100 ml soy milk, plus 2 eggs, a tbsp olive oil, 100g alpro plain yoghurt and 50g frozen berries. This comes to around 300-400 calories.
My evening meals vary but I tend to aim for 4-500 cals, half of which will be veg (so lots of bulk to fill me up) if salad, and half will be my protein so I've planned:
M: chicken wrapped in Parma ham
T: beef casserole and cauliflower rice
W: spicy lamb mince/quorn mince and rice
Th: sausages with celeriac Eastern European hash
F: steak or lamb steak and veg

These will be fairly big portions, particularly with veg.

No snacks. Lots of water. I can have my eggs cooked any way for variety, and my yogurt/fruit either as a shake (mix with water and PB powder) or as a pudding, or as a meal in itself. I will boil a few eggs to have as emergency food in the fridge, but I'm trying to steer away from grazing on ham and pork products from the fridge.

It is very low calorie, but it has high fat/protein, and hopefully after 2-3 days I'll be over the carb detox! I do struggle to get into ketosis as I don't eat enough fat (no dairy sources)

If anyone wants more detailed help with the fast800 or blood sugar diet then we have a specific thread with lots of help and advice and recipes etc (I linked to it upthread)

Official race times are in, I did it in 52.04 coming 217/958!

Have made like a sloth this afternoon, lounging on the sofa eating dairy free ice cream and reading the new Bill Bryson book about the human body - it's really interesting and so readable. I love him!

Tomorrow: big relaunch. I can't wait. I struggled on my run today and I know that's as a result of 8 weeks of eating crap and not being particularly healthy. I will weigh in tomorrow to face the music and then it's 100% on plan for me this week.

Menu planned, shopping list written. I won't be running tomorrow but I will do Adrienne's runner's yoga, Tuesday is circuits, then weds I have a sports massage booked and will take weds Thursday and Friday totally off to hopefully ease my bad foot and my aching hamstring.

Have a great week all

You are v disciplined @thenewaveragebear1983! Sounds like a really healthy week. How did the race go?

Ok day here today. Didn't count on mfp but have eaten fairly healthily and not done my normal Sunday night sabotage so I'm pretty chuffed with that. Weigh in tomorrow.

I had a really good first day today back on track but I didn't quite make my calorie goal for Fast800. I'm ending up on 1100 cals, 30g carbs, 12k steps.

I did not sleep well last night so I plan to go to bed early tonight to catch up as I was really tired today.

Pretty good still though @thenewaveragebear1983

I had a horrid nights sleep last night. Dd was puking every half an hr from 2am - 6am. She was then of course bouncing around today whilst I tried to work.

Only just kept within my cals but pleased I haven't sabotaged. No chance of the hoped for run today.

List 3.5lbs at weigh in this morning though which I'm pleased with.

I've had a good day on Fast800 today , ending up on 835 cals, 51g carbs. I did 14k steps too including a circuits class

How is everyone getting along?

Well done @thenewaveragebear1983

Good day for me. 11k steps and within mfp cals which considering I worked today with a bouncing 5 year old I'm quite happy with.

Really need to get out for a run tomorrow.

1200 cals, 75g carbs (lots of veg today) and 14k steps. I'm going to try for another Fast800 day tomorrow as i didn't quite manage it today

Well done@thenewaveragebear1983

I got out for my run. First 5k in 30 mins for a loooong time. Am aiming for 10k by xmas.

1400 cals today. Only 50 under mfp. Stressful and tiring day though so I'm calling it a win!

Onwards and upwards

Well my 3 days of very low carb have worked because a quick weigh in this morning reveals I'm now 10.5, which is a whopping 7lbs off. Woohoo! I know it's mostly water but it shows just how much water I actually retain. It's probably as a result of not running so my muscles have had a chance to rest, but even so- I will take that. If I can continue this week with the low cals/carbs then hopefully I will be able go reintroduce running after the weekend without too much gain.