Optimistic October

[Octopus37]

Says she, thought I would start a new thread. After yesterday's triumph, I ended up eating rubbish yesterday (lack of time and planning) and weight out for a Toby (bar snacks) last night to get my Dad out of the house to give DS1 space. Weigh 9st2 this morning, but confident that I didn't eat the 8,000 calories needed to gain over 2 pounds. Aim for the end of October is 8st13.5 (rather than .75 which was my new low yesterday), the sky is the limit

Heygirlheyboy Great article! I am constantly worrying about my 6yo because his teachers keep complaining about him. Then I worry that I'm worrying too much about him and he's getting the attention and meanwhile I'm not worried enough about my 3yo.

64.7kg this morning, half a kilo heavier than yesterday. Easy to worry about that but I know it's a normal fluctuation and actually I'm happy that the fluctuation up is still less than 65.

@Heygirlheyboy

Ham s/w

Ham sandwich!

Thank you! Will read article when I get back from the gym. I'm keeping going with the exercise at least. Fasting today so the gym will definitely be burning fat not food.

Drinking loads of water. Was dehydrated yesterday and hadn't noticed until I found myself drinking litres and still feeling thirsty.

Have been putting on weight so far this month but hope to turn it around. Sorry for my big moan yesterday

@TheHoneyBadger Glad you're back and feeling more in the spirit! Be kind to yourself.

Thank you monochrome. I generally perk up on a Friday lol.

Good workout at the gym and my heart rate wasn't going as high and was more responsive eg if I slowed down my heart rate would likewise slow down. Before it would shoot up and take ages to slow down again. Bit of non scales victory.

Hope everyone is ok. Octopus thank you for being able to empathise. I can understand just imagine the sitting separately on the bus and it made me chuckle to know I'm not alone on the rollercoaster of mothering a teenage boy.

Off to read that article

Good on you HB! Not easy to keep going when you're feeling like that.

Nice article thank you.

Still fasting. Not hungry but freezing cold! Forgot what a long fast is like in winter ⛄️

You're welcome! I'm very weak here and feel like eating crap so I'm going to go to bed shortly and call it a day. Logged at 1434. Going to look up the JS calculations now and allow myself maximum cals, Inc the two higher days in a bid to knock odd the last 3/4 lbs between now and Christmas while feeling I've plenty of cals in the budget each day. Might aim to stop counting in next 6 weeks maybe. Just thinking ahead a little..

Heygirl you are anything but weak, I am in awe of you. HoneyBadger you are doing really well, keeping fasting and gyming. 9st2.5 here this morning, went out for a meal last night and started a period this morning, so I think thats why. Hope everyone has a good Saturday

Hope you enjoyed the meal octopus.

I'm just under 14st this morning. I've just got to keep going.

Thank you octopus, you're very kind and well done Honeybadger! It's not an easy slog. I did almost give in ahead of my post and then I just waited it out and my mind turned right around to no way am I doing that. Not easy to sit with it but I think the same happened over this week. I'm just under 8st8 this AM so I'm back where I was. Somehow my scales changed to kg and I can't see how to change it, thrown completely! It's funny how weight can look different. I remember being this weight at 21 but was so much slighter and probably toned. Oh well that's not my impossible aim anyway just to have a steady weight that feels like 'me'. Hope everyone has a lovely, sunny Saturday!

PS there's a thread here on giving up alcohol which I came across and a lot of the realisations and ups and downs are very familiar and I found it a bit useful in case anyone wants to take a look.

10k steps done and feeling hungry. Also feeling a bit put upon and generally annoyed so I'm on to log my day to help keep me on track.
B: ONO deluxe
L: omelette with veg, feta and a mountain of salad
D: undecided but around the 500-600 cal mark.

Change of plan! No salad leaves in shop
L: left over chicken stir fry and leftover herby potatoes, Strawberries and Greek yoghurt
D: Baked ham, cabbage, potatoes and white sauce... Mmmmm
1452 cals. Portions not massive but lovely, filling food. V pleased with that.

OK so my JS calculations not so nice now I weigh that much less than a stone ago when I used his advice.. My high cal days would now be 1520... And lows 1220. So I'll have to look at another way, perhaps giving myself a 4th high cal day or going 100cals higher on all days. Or maybe I will just lose the last few and go with a maintenance amount which I imagine is around 1750. Anyway, I am 8st 7.5 this morning. Very pleased. Short session of interval training later and aim to hit10k steps. I'm disappointed my activity has taken the dive it has but now I'm in a bit of a groove I see I can hit 10k steps or more 4 days and that will have to be enough. Final target now in place of 8st 3-5 allowing for some fluctuations though I don't seem to suffer from them without good reason!
B: scrambled eggs and baked beans and a lot of coffee
L: Strawberries, blueberries, banana, almonds and Greek yoghurt and flaxseed
D: carbonara with wholewheat pasta
Another sunny day hope you are all well.

Just thought--had i done the oft recommended weigh once a week, my aim of half pound a week loss would have worked out just fine despite the huge cal increase last weekend.. Whereas at time I was really berating myself and almost slashing my tyres over it! Right enough waffling on!

Morning. 13st13 exactly here today which is down from yesterday. Not getting excited as I've been here, and a little lower, several times in the last few weeks!

Made chicken stir fry yesterday so I had that and then some yoghurt with added pumpkin and chia seeds and some black currants I took out of the gin I'm infusing. Alcoholic yoghurt is new.

I also had a kitkat that I couldn't resist and a couple of gin and slim line tonics.

An eating day but not too crazy. Think I need to make filling heavier dinners now it's getting cold to help avoid being hungry later in the evening. Have promised ds I'll make some kind of pasta bake today. The idea of eating pasta worries me, as did the noodles yesterday but it's worth a try of heavier meals rather than empty calories munched later I think.

Hoping friend will want to go to the gym today. She drives and she's usually way more up for it than me as she's given up quite a substantial wine habit so is keeping manically busy Been there, done that before and it's def best to keep busy rather than replace alcohol with main lining biscuits and ice cream!

Chin up everyone. Dare I say things can only get better? Don't forget to touch wood when you read that

Remind me of your height heygirl? Starting to worry we might be enabling you in wasting away!

Ah well done Honeybadger! And that was a nice eating day too. I agree the heavy dinners, works well here and maybe a planned healthy evening snack? I'm going to incorporate that for winter I think. Don't worry, I am only a tiny thing at 5ft2! And imagine very few people have noticed I'm a stone and half lighter which in a way is mad.. I think you're right tho that I'm at a good point now but need to tone up, keep up the exercise. Maintenance a whole new ball game so I'll maybe chat to my good pal who's a dietitian on that. Never got up on her fancy scales in the end.

Hope you get to gym HB, I am finding myself with so much more energy and evenings on the couch now are few and far between. I'm not always active but I'm seeing it a time I can get things done at least rather than dead time.

Alcoholic yoghurt sounds interesting HoneyBadger. 9st2,5 still this morning, but ate M&S carrot cake yesterday and had a Chinese take away. Also started a period, less than 3 weeks since my last one. Stomach feels v heavy. Starting to realise how much I get water retention from salty food. Haven't been as good at drinking water since the weather got colder, must improve that. Starting to wonder how realistic my ideal weight (between 8st7 and 9, closer to 8st7) is, but dont want to give up either. I'm 5ft5 tall and still not a proper size 10 on the bottom at my current weight, have to buy size12s quite a bit and a couple of the Primark ones can be a bit tight.

Sounds like you're the same shape as me octopus.. I am down on bottom half but it's still an 'area' for me.. I do think exercise will help there. I think your weight sounds ideal for your nice height.

Primark stuff is often made in China and not really the proper size. It will def be the salt from the Chinese. I can be 3lbs up if I eat Chinese food.

I'm the same with the water and hadn't thought about it being because it's colder. Makes sense.

If focusing on losing is making you maintain then as long as you're not getting stressed about it it's working?

Relieved to hear you're diddy heygirl. I'm 5ft7 and people tend to say you can't way THAT much if I tell them my weight. Long limbs and loose clothes hide just how overweight I really am. They don't work miracles though

@Heygirlheyboy Yes I was thinking that re your height too! So did you start at just under 10 stone? Well done!

Yes the weighing yourself every day can do odd things to your motivation, but actually so can weighing yourself once a week because you might catch yourself on an up-fluctuation day. I just use an app which plots it on a graph with a trend line so I just look at the shape of the trend line which smooths over the fluctuations. Even then, there have been a couple of upward bumps but it's been going down overall.

Well done TheHoneyBadger. I couldn't do fasting. I'd be ready to eat my children after the first missed breakfast. What is your eating strategy? Are you aiming for a particular calorie budget or just trying to stick to healthy eating?

I started at 10st4+ (didn't have weighing scales till a couple of weeks in) in Jan, really wasn't myself A stone gained in 3months after my mum died.. You'd be very tall next to me HB.