Nourishing November

[Octopus37]

Right here's the new thread. Thought I would find a kind title as October has been a challenging month for so many and at the risk of sounding pessimistic, November is likely to be to. I'm starting at 9st2.75, my aim for the end of November is to get into the 8s.

Beautiful Systema

I forgot to weigh myself again before breakfast. I might wait until the weekend though. Today will be a 10 mile day as I'm walking up to my mum's after the school run. Somehow I managed to forget to add salt to my loaf of bread yesterday so breakfast wasn't all that nice.
Hope everyone has a good day. It's going to be beautifully sunny here and I hope it is for you too.

Monochrome, I understand about the sneaking snacks thing, getting that extra bit of whatever it is, I do that. The defiance thing resonates with me too, I think mentally I have a diet therefore starve mentality. Its like a fear that you can only do it and cope with being hungry for so long. I'm trying to learn to cope with being hungry, to try and let it pass etc, one day at a time. 9st1.5 this morning, Have actually managed not to snack the last couple of days. TBH though my stomach hasnt felt great, I dont know if anyone else finds that unless they only eat a small amount of veg/fruit, never quite been able to pin it down, they dont feel good. My stomach just feels so heavy and bloated (didn't even have that much) and gassy (sorry tmi). Why is it that healthy eating doesn't make me feel healthy, also makes me tired, dont know if anyone has the same.

Morning. 13:11 this morning despite yesterday's pasta mountain.

I think we all have our triggers or danger zones. Mine's late night insomnia.

Feeling relieved that my bingey few days or so of comfort eating and drinking beer hasn't done lasting damage. Guessing it would have been worse if I hadn't gone to the gym four times over half term.

I couldn't tolerate a lot of veg after my bowel surgery. Sounds like you are not coping well with fibre. I found a few months solid of taking decent probiotics and trying to eat more prebiotic foods really helped octopus.

Well done HoneyBadger thats fab, your pasta yesterday sounded delicious

Stayed the same again his morning which is still great after I ate so much it hurt on Saturday. Won't be expecting any losses in the next week or two as I am going out for dinner tonight and i know no restraint when at restaurants. Still, will have a month to make it up.

Octopus it might be a case of a few days of the healthy stuff sorting things out but yes too much veg especially and when teamed with pulses can be tough on the stomach, a little atna time best when it's not the norm. We'll done HB. Just a reminder from JS that it's never lasting damage unless you give up! Good message I think. Still no move here on 9st but feeling good, great night's sleep, good menu ahead as well as a busy day. Aim to get even a 20 min walk in and another decent bedtime. I have that absolute compulsion to eat shite a lot of the time, it's not even a craving, very weird but think I am done with it now. Someone commented on my weight loss yesterday which made me more resolute! Have a good day all.

My digestive system prefers white carbs over fruit and veg. Fruit especially leaves my stomach feeling full of acid and unpleasant. Too much veg and I blow up like a balloon. Too much dairy or sugar is the same. My body hates me.

9000 steps already today so I'm going to nail my targets. I am hungry though with all this walking.

Thank you for your helpful words Sistema, Marmite, Octopus and Honey. All food for thought and all helpful comments with useful questions. I'm glad I joined this group. :-)

I'm feeling much better about it all today. The snack compulsion isn't even hunger! I don't know what it is, but fortunately I seem to have shaken it off today. I think it'll always be there lurking, but not every single day.

Sistema those pics are beautiful. They're actually not dissimilar to where I am as we have a canal and countryside close by, although I'm in a town. I get to cycle along muddy footpaths to one of my jobs which makes me feel good on those days.

@Monochrome4 I can really relate to the feeling of defiance. I often have a 'fuck it' attitude, and over eat. Hunger doesn't bother me, I don't get a panic, it's more a 'fuck if I'm having it' feeling. I do eat for comfort too.

Thought I had a good day yesterday until I weighed 1 foil covered chocolate ball that the kids had from Halloween. 6g, I must have eaten 15 of the fuckers which added on 400 cals without me even thinking or noticing 😩

9st13.75 this morning so 2lb of the half term binging has gone. Think it was mostly hormone / water related.

Yesterday 1650

B yogurt & banana
L carrot & cori soup with rice cakes
D scrambled eggs & bacon
S coffee, tea, chocolate balls!

Today: aiming for 1400

B coffee
L pumpkin soups & rice cakes, hob Nov bar
D veggie & bean chilli, rice
S tbc!

Nice to hear people feeling positive. I'm just back from my last visit to the gym. Nearly 12000 steps and 2500 calories burned already today just from work and gym visit. Thinking part of that is my heart working harder after giving blood but whatever, I'll take it.

Fasted up to now so hopefully lots of those calories came from fat stores. Dinner is on. Fish and lots of green veg and a tiny portion of rice for me. My meals are not very varied. Will probably make a slow cooker stew tomorrow as I have lots of veg to use up.

Going to strain and sample my black currant gin after dinner then curl up warm in bed.

HoneyBadger, interesting about the probiotics, might give some a go, what brand would you recommend. I didn't even go mad with fruit and veg on Sunday with dinner (about two portions) and some melon), no veg other than a bit as part of a Chinese take away on Monday and Caesar salad for lunch yesterday whih started my stomach off, sorry tmi no going to the toilet but bloating, discomfort and pain in stomach and back. Pain gone today but still uncomfortable and tired. Have had similar on and off for years, have always suspected mild IBS and have therefore not eaten loads of fruit and veg, just a bit. My stomach is definitely happier on a diet of junk wierdly. Hope everyone has had a good day.

Exercise is going well with 24,000 steps today and 155 active minutes. Late dinner today due to daughter drama but I won't eat after this.
I've just read that the previously shielded like me are to stay at home as much as possible during lockdown so that exercise of the school run is going to be treasured. I think I'll wind along the canal and through the woods as much as possible on my way back in a morning abs make sure we get out at weekend too.

Yes octopus I can relate to that as after my op my stomach suddenly loved white bread and stodgy bland carbs that are slow through the body.

My doctor and chemist were both big on probiotics and needing to rebalance the gut biome. They also say to have fibre but it gave me the same symptoms as you describe.

The chemist explained that the probiotics were building up the bacteria that can digest fibre and complex stuff and then that they would need feeding with fibre but that I could use literally just half a teaspoon of fybrogel initially and gradually build up. If I took a whole sachet I felt like I had swallowed a space hopper.

If you're lacking those bacteria that eat eg fibre and you have a lot of fibre then your bowel can't cope. If you're building up that bacteria and gradually building up fibre to feed it then you can balance out the 'ecosystem'. Pretty bizarre really how much bacteria we have and need.

Can't remember the brand I took but will look when I pick up my prescription. They were about £10 per month. You can buy cheap ineffective ones or crazy expensive ones but these were good.

You can also start prebiotic foods like kefir (Yeo valley do nice natural yoghurt with kefir), apple cider vinegar with the live element and fermented foods.

I was sceptical and it took some time but really helped. Sorry for the essay.

I just used to sip apple cider vinegar as I'm weird and like it and it really quelled my appetite when fasting but you can add it to a drink or in salad dressings. Will shush now. Bowels are kind of my thing. I had horrible ibs through much of my 20's and then near death experience with a twisted herniated colon last year and half my colon had to be removed in emergency surgery. Obviously not my strong point health wise lol

I don't dare count the calories from dinner but no regrets. Back on it tomoz. Nearly the weekend.

Whats the difference between a prebiotic and probiotic?

Probiotic contains live bacteria, prebiotics are foods that encourage the growth of friendly bacteria.

13:11.2 this morning and muscle mass up by 0.1lb so I'll take that.

HoneyBadger, you poor thing, sounds like you really went through the mill. Going to go to Holland & Barrett later and see what I can find, more likely to go for probiotics, cause I dont fancy keffir, dont like milk products and have heard that apple cider vinegar can damage your teeth. Thanks very much for the advice, would be good if I could get things to rebalance. Weighted 9st1.25 this morning.

I'm fine now. I was actually saying to a friend how resilient and 'ok' I feel I seem to be (touch wood) despite stress at work, time of year etc compared to what I'd become used to feeling like.

Think my general health including mental health is better than it's been in a long time and I'd gotten used to being exhausted and overwhelmed as my base level.

I meant to say also make sure you're taking vitamin d. A lot of correlation between bowel problems and disease and vitamin d deficiency. I looked into it because I was found to be deficient in the weeks leading up to ending up in hospital. I was having weird symptoms of numbness and pins and needles in my legs and had lots of blood tests but all they could find was vitamin d deficiency. Afterwards when it turned out what had been brewing I looked into it.

Another essay sorry!

But the finally feeling better meant I could start tackling the weight and recovering some fitness hopefully. I'm actually curious too about whether getting my bowel balanced and vitD levels up is why my mental health is so much better 🤷‍♀️

Interesting to hear about people's guts and how they react to different things. I think there's a lot of stuff going on inside our guts that we don't yet fully understand and there's potential for a lot more research.

I had a much better day yesterday and weight 62.7 this morning which is great. I shall see if I can get down 62 in the next week or two. Then I shall stop weighing myself once it starts going up pre-period so that I don't spend a week panicking.

Now that I'm eating dinner early and snacking much less in the evenings I'm not getting up to go to the toilet in the night nearly so much! Has anyone else noticed this?

Wow the temptation of emotional eating is very very strong right now. I'm annoyed about work and feeling the 'fuck it' thing very much.

Evening everyone,
Trying to find the balance with food and calories. The days that I'm working a long shift definitely need more calories but need to balance the days off.
B: toast and tea
L: turkey wrap with salad
D: egg fried rice and slow roasted pork belly

Hang on in there I don mind marmite. Interesting what you say about vitamin D, going to make sure I keep up taking it. Also bought some probiotic supplements today. Hoping in time these will make a difference. Due to feeling uncomfortable and tired havent eaten very healthily the last couple of days. Also a bit down on my steps, have only managed 9,000 today, just felt quite wiped out. O well, new day tomorrow, glad its Friday