A weight loss thread with no boring diet info

[AcornAutumn]

Hi all
I really need to lose a total of about 4 stone.

I'm not keen on the usual weight loss type chats with methods and foods etc discussed in detail.

So I was trying to think how it could be more interesting.

This might be a crap idea but I know I do better when I have interesting things to do. Today I've done my workout, some drawing and keyboard practice. I've also read a couple of chapters of Women Who Kill (!) and watched The Crown, I'm on Season 2.

It was those things that made snacking on a boiled egg less of a shock 😂

So I was thinking, what about a support thread where we don't talk about the details of our methods, but just check in for support, and tell each other something interesting we've done that day, even just a film we've watched.

Is it a bonkers idea?

Do you like hot @AcornAutumn? I really don't. I'm frequently heard complaining in summer "it's so unfair, so many people move abroad to live in a hot country, I have never wanted to live in a hot country and now I find that I do." I love summer but as it nears 30° I'm done for.

I remember sea swimming in early March with not a bother on me. I thought all kids were impervious to cold, boy was I wrong.

I'm fluctuating emotionally with my spring clean. Part of me thinks it's brilliant and amazing and it's going to be great and part of me is ruined. My leg aches, my ankle feels sore, and whilst I have created pockets of sanity (and discovered a 3 tiered washing up rack is thing!) There is just so much stuff everywhere and I don't quite know where it's all going to go. I long to pull out the shelves and then put it all back better with the other stuff Mari Kondo style but I don't have anywhere to put anything. I'm intermittently wondering if my situation is even retrievable at all.

Inky my kids went to forest school nursery! In Highgate wood. They've been to holiday club there too though have opted for boring sports camp at school this Easter. Well dd2 has (her friends are going). Dd1 is angling to be a free spirit. It's only 3 days so I might let her. She went to the park with a friend today! If it's any consolation they were pretty hardy as forest school toddlers but it hasn't lasted - dd1 barely feels the cold (potential neurodiversity issue) but Dd2 is well nesh. I think I'm actually pretty hardy about the cold. I can do cold water swimming. Made me feel a bit better about my lack of actual fitness!

Well done on the losses. Dh has to follow fodmap too. It's a bit tiresome isn't it?

Oh how amazing! I'm at Forest School School in Queens Woods (training to be a forest school leader.) Free spiriting with friends is a great way to spend the holidays. All my best holidays were spent like that and I think some freedom is important developmentally, though my eldest is 5 so can't quite imagine it yet.

I have a love hate relationship with fodmaps. I've been on it for 2 years now and it's definitely life changing - I can't really leave the house on a bad flare and I have triggers in every group. It totally derailed my weight loss and it's annoying because I used to be a very healthy eater - I like healthy food but with lentils, legumes, cauliflower, sweet potato, butternut squash, onion, garlic, apples, pears, cherries and mangos all out of the picture it's hard to snack/ eat healthily.

It's so annoying and eating out or with friends is a nightmare but as health problems go I have to remind myself that it's minor on the scale of things. I think people who eat unhealthily find it improves their diet but if you prefer cooking from scratch already it feels ludicrously limiting.

Oh wow inky, by Highgate wood I meant queens and Highgate wood really. We probably know some of the same people and a pic of my dd1 is on the nursery website, albeit from some years ago!

Dh doesn't find it so life changing unfortunately, though is better than not being on it.

Thank you for asking after me, the family were very disinterested other than laughing at me.

I have just come back from getting x-rayed and have completely snapped the middle bone in my middle finger.

I am going to milk this for all it is worth

The bad news is that I am out of the game for upholstery until it heals but I have just sold a piece and have another ready to go so I can afford to taken a break for a couple of weeks.

I am trying to 'heal' myself with an excess of mint magnums but it is very tempting...

Oh no Mrs Bob, poor you, you sound very brave!

Dh brought me another sabotaging pack of poor man's frazzles to my desk, which I'm afraid I succumbed to, but I am almost done with my running challenge so swings and roundabouts

Bloody hell, Bob, that sounds really sore.

I've just fallen victim to a chocolate penguin incident. Dr Chatterjee would be very upset with me.

Long I can't work your dh out - he is either very, very kind or a heartless bastard...

Gwen pftttt! Chocolate penguins are very small and nutritious, that's why every school child had to eat one a day during the 1980s. Some may remember the slogan "Go to school on a penguin?" The calcium will do you good!

When I fell yesterday I went back to my house to tell dh. I asked him if he thought I should get the finger x-rayed and he said he'd had much worse injuries cycling and it definitely wasn't broken.

He then sent me on my way to walk an hour to pick up the car but did pull a £20 out of his wallet and say I should get a taxi. He is a really kind man but Jesus Christ, not good with medical advice.

To be fair to dh I haven't made a big deal about dieting at home. It's all been about the exercising, and me occasionally saying "no thanks, I'm trying to be healthy" when offered a snack. Maybe I should be firmer.

He sounds lovely Long - My DH has many excellent qualities but never brings me snacks. I try not to hold it against him

MrsBob oh I'm so sorry! Very gentle hugs. Do you have it in a splint?

Gwen I thought the Rang approach was that he wouldn't be angry with you?

long inky I get confused with Queen's Wood and Highgate Wood.

I am definitely the most weak and nesh person on this thread. If I walk an hour, I consider it a lot, that's on a summer day. No way would I walk that as an errand.

Someone asked if I prefer heat - not in London. The urban heat effect is immense. Dry heat in an airy place - yes but 26 is about my max.

Generally I'm the person who is very fragile or a fusspot depending on your view. When I've travelled - not much - I've noticed that the dry heat of Nevada and the Outback has meant that above 30 is fine and the dry means no sweating. Also, my hair is amazing in those places, no frizz. I look at the photos and it looks like Alicia Florrick's hair, not my hair!

It is in a splint until Monday when I visit the weirdly named 'Plastics dressing clinic'

I am having a proper shit week (it looks likely all three of my dc have Autism) so I went out to get a lovely green ceramic pot to kick off my garden project. Ds2 likes daisies and I'm going to buy a large plant tomorrow so he can see it out of his bedroom window.

Sorry about your week MrsBob

The garden will be lovely though.

Thanks Acorn. I was thinking of you today because in a bid to cheer myself up, I discovered a social enterprise garden centre a five minute walk from my house! The plants are grown by ex-addicts and they sell pallets, old bricks/paving stones, old wood etc.

I've bought a load of bricks to make a paved area, some plants for a pound and some lovely small terracotta pots so I can make an auricula theatre on pallet shelves.

I am going to collect more pallets next week and start to making some fencing.

It sort of felt meant to be if you know what I mean? I have lived here for two years and never noticed it and today, when I really needed a boost, it seemed to appear like the room of requirement in Harry Potter

How is everyone doing?

MrsBob that sounds lovely. Like the shopkeeper appearing in Mr Ben!

You sound very creative, I love that. All I'm doing at the mo is a painting by numbers. It's quite intricate but I'm not convinced by the colours supplied with the kit, or the colours in the picture representation.

I am wondering what everyone is up to...

Evening ladies, I have been decluttering, cleaning and filling mouse holes like a woman possessed for 4 days solid. Peace now reigns in both the living and dining room. The less said about the kitchen, my bedroom and the stairs the better but got loads of stuff out and organised. Gubbins galore! Don't know how the kitchen is in such a state, it's not really seen much action. I've been living off pret runs.

Queens Wood and Highgate were originally connected but are separated by a road and have different jurisdictions - is that the word? My brain is frazzled. Queens Wood is smaller but wilder. Separated by the road Wood Vale from Crouch End Open Space and the tennis/ cricket club.

I'm rather a secretive dieter, I never talk about it with OH or my parents and only certain friends - but those that I do talk about it with we talk a lot 😂 It makes me feel very shy, I don't know why. OH is flattering of me in all my shapes and sizes and very pro snacking and pizza - so supportive in some ways but less helpful in others. Not least because he finds it impossible to gain weight, despite being very sedentary and living off Jaffa cakes, ginger beer and jelly babies. At least I don't those things too tempting. Also I do all the cooking and the shopping so it's not like there's a consultative point. Sometimes I feel ill used 😂 but actually between my fodmaps and my penchant for a fad and my ever changing regimes (I flip between no sugar, SW, low carb, IF and v fussy about provenance of certain items) the thought of anyone else having an input horrifies me.

That finger sounds horribly painful but I hope you could do a fantastic birdy flip.

inky as you can guess, I don't talk about it either.

Sounds like you've done loads.

I have wandered through Highgate Woods, crossed a road looking for a different bus, and then realised I was in Queens Wood the whole time.

Such a plum.

Saw Tamsin Greig last time I went. She is so slim. I often find celebrities are even slimmer in IRL.

Haha, but woods is woods. So long as you weren't trying to meet someone you still got a lovely walk.

Thinking of Tamsin Grieg, my mum has mentioned Gaby Logan on Saturday Kitchen a few times. It tickled her pink. She was horrified at all the "brown food!" Apparently her family only eats nutritious food, nothing beige. She thinks there are plenty of delicious things that are nutrient dense so why not have those instead. Being sporty and on the telly you can see why she would think that though. I do sometimes but chips and curry sauce hold a very dear place in my heart too.

inky I have really alarmed someone by getting lost on Hampstead Heath when we were meeting, but I blame him for his awful directions.

You'd think the ghost chicken would turn up to guide me as I'm so fond of it!

The current crop of 80 somethings, to whom my boss refers as being "the generation made of steel" seem to have been raised on beige food.

I'm feeling a bit stronger with the workouts but I still can't imagine being hardy as many posters are here. I only did every other day this week.

The time change week is always odd for me, I'm naturally a late person so the whole week after, getting up for work seems like the crack of dawn. After that week, I usually start evening walks on top of other workouts. But they're more like strolls so I don't think of them as exercise.

Morning all. I have nothing exciting to report, haven’t been on the scales but I might brave it tomorrow. Feeling anxious at the mo as I need to make some costly decisions about more house doing up stuff and I’m falling into the trap of wanting it to be perfect. I’m worried about spending a lot and things dating, which of course is really hard to avoid. Anyway, that’s what’s taking my mental energy.

Morning all! I feel I haven't got a lot to report either. My life is very routine based at the moment so once I've narrated one week you'll probably get it on repeat! I do love the idea of the room of requirement garden centre though. I think I've mentioned before that my house backs on to the railway. My neighbours and I may have ahem borrowed a bit of extra land which has the kids' trampoline and playhouse on. Could do with some bricks or something to make a proper step up. Actually you might be people to consult re screening next door's junk tip too. Our garden is hardly pristine but theirs is a heap of broken stuff. They started work but seem to have abandoned it halfway through and now there's even more junk because their gazebo they were using to shelter the works has blown away and broken too.

Am almost done with my challenge! Last run today! Don't really know how often I'll go after that as likely to do swimming whenever I get the chance. Might occasionally though if I have a brief window that's not quite swimming shaped.

I went to Highgate/queen's wood yesterday actually for a walk with a pal and her dog and because my doctor's is there and I needed to drop in Was nice. There's a secondary school by the cricket field that I need to check out for dd1 when they open up, though we may not get in anyway. The lad next door goes but he had to stay on a waiting list. The setting is nice though, by the fields.

Just had pancakes but with no sugar on. Am doing ok at cutting out processed sugar though will see what Easter makes of that. That's more to reduce my diabetes risk than weight but it can't hurt I suppose.

Not sure what to do today. Might try and drag girls on another treasure trail walk. Will go to chippy if so but it's next door to sushi place so I will have that and the odd stolen chip. That might be tomorrow instead though depending on how much resistance girls put up. We are playing online games with family later.

Gwen and long hello!

Long exciting that you're at the end of your challenge. Will you carry on?

I haven't lost any more weight this week.

Is this thread still useful? I won't be offended if anyone says no. I quite like it as a chat thread with no stressful stuff on it, and real life is very lonely for me but I'm going to have to learn to live with that.

But I realise people might just be reporting in because they feel they have to. Also I realise how long and dull this weight loss business is going to be. Thoughts?

I'm happy to carry on but if it looks like I'll end up talking to myself, may not be a good idea?

I am enjoying it! I am feeling a bit guilty because I don't feel I am really taking the diet bit that seriously but I think it does help just to have externalised a bit of stuff about diabetes and BMI as I find it quite easy to ignore tbh. I also like chatting. I'm an extrovert without that many friends.

Ps don't know about keeping it up. I'll hopefully be swimming in the pre work window when I'd normally go running. Might manage the odd run. I used to do park run but prefer the parkland walk route really

long I think I also went the wrong way on the Park Walk because I didn't see much!

Off for a care visit, back later.