Little and shrinking - shorties trying to lose weight pt2

[neverenoughchelseaboots]

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Well done *swimming! That’s just brilliant. Lots of hard work, but I’m sure it’s worth it.

@WellTidy what a plant haul! all beautiful choices. I got new flowerbeds put in a few weeks ago and I've been sitting on my hands, trying not to buy too much :) I want one flower bed to be all purple and white so have plans for bowles mauve in there. But I went mad sowing seeds a few weeks ago so I'm going to hold off on buying perennials for now as I'm going to need room for all these seedlings. As you can probably tell I like gardening :D

@SwimmingOnEggshells @WellTidy Now I know who to ask for advice when it comes to sorting out my teeny tiny balcony!

*advice from

I hate there's no ability to edit messages

swimming purple and white are my first choices! I only choose anything that flowers in purple, white or pink. I am very strict about this, but I do welcome all shades of green in foliage. I don’t do orange, yellow or red, though I do like them in other people’s gardens.

purple I am very much a novice gardener, so take anything I say with a pinch of salt! I also get very excited in April/May each year, and that’s when I start buying everything I see, so my garden very much reflects this. Come July last year, all I had in flower are salvias, cranesbill and hydrangeas! I have a list this year of things to buy for July-September.

@WellTidy yes yes, me too! I don't like 'hot' colours.

I'm also a novice gardener, there's been a lot of trial and error :) We're in our house nearly 5 years and I went mad when we moved in and it was all a bit of a mess, so now I'm trying to keep it a bit more organised now with varying heights and things in bloom at different times. Hard to get right!

I have also only had pink or purple flowers on the balcony the last couple of years!

I am here for the garden chat as no weight loss to report! I got a reduced foxglove, primula and sedum yesterday at the garden centre. I have my eye on a rose too - that is not discounted unfortunately

I’ve also bought some dahlia tubers for the first time, which I am hoping to grow in a large pot on the patio - does anyone know if they can be planted now, or should I wait, or should they be planted in smaller pots first? Told you I was a novice gardener!

You did well to get reduced foxgloves especially maeve, there was nothing at all in the reduced section when I went.

@WellTidy I think you can still plant them. I only planted some white ones the other day. Never tried to grow dahlias before so I've no idea if they'll take but I read on the internet it's not too late :)

Did you put them straight into the bed/pot swimming?

@WellTidy - my bargains are very small plants in biodegradable pots and the pots were starting to disintegrate hence money off. As you say not usually many reductions in the garden centre at this time of year

You're all inspiring me.... I'm heading to Homebase tomorrow morning to pick up some trailing flowers for the balcony. I've had geraniums and petunias before.

Hoping l haven't left it too late and there's decent stock available.

There was loads of bedding like that in my local one today. I’m particularly pleased with the sennetti that I got in Homebase. But it’s still early for bedding so unless your balcony is super sheltered, be careful of frost. It was glorious here today, but we had frost one morning last week. I will be keeping my runner beans and pea plug plants indoors overnight. I have the bedding plants in a big tub on the sheltered side of the garden next to the house and will just check the forecast.

Back to weight loss! I’ve been super disciplined today (on a high after spending money) so having my ginger biscuits snack on front of the tv now.

Hello, can I join in? I'm continually gaining and losing about a stone. I'm 5' 2" and got to 9st 8lb, which is when my clothes start straining at the seams, and I really don't want to buy any in a larger size. I'm 2 weeks into a VLCD and was 8st 13.5 on Sunday. I'll probably do another week or so and then try to lose gradually - I'd like to be 8st 7lb.

I want to learn to maintain this time, I'm so shit at it. So far the thoughts are ditch the booze (a tough one) and the snacks.

Of course Cardigan, welcome. I’m glad you’re starting to see results, good luck - VLCDs are tough!

I know it’s not Friday weigh-in, but I’m a daily weigher and needed to share my result this morning. I’m 9st 5.5lb, which is a pound and a quarter off. Planning a long walk again today as it is still truly glorious here, and I am looking forward to getting out in it. Accomplished my six miles yesterday, and hoping for around five today.

Welcome @CardiganOfDoom

@WellTidy I wouldn't have even known about the frost so will wait a little longer before buying my plants. Great news on your scales this morning! I only lost 0.2lbs last weeks and am hoping for a larger loss this week.

I went for a walk with a friend yesterday and have just been for blood tests this morning (and did one lap of the park nearby). Only a 20 min walk but it all counts!

B - nothing
L - baked potato, cottage cheese/cheddar
D - leftover rice and possibly a fried egg

purple if you’d like to buy plants now, you can buy perennials. They die down to the ground after their flowering season (so over winter) and then come back the following year. The sennetti that I bought yesterday is a perennial, it will flower all summer. Whereas bedding plants are tender annuals, and they will die after their flowering season and not come back again (though there is a small chance that things like geraniums might do ok over winter if they’re super sheltered or if you bring them in). The funeral directors in our town has had the same geraniums in pots out for a few years, but they bring them in every night. Most people just buy new each spring as they’re cheap and then look their best for that season.

But April is early for bedding like petunias and geraniums, May is more like it but there is still a chance of frost even then.

@WellTidy I didn't even think about perennials (and I had google it!).

I have one of these and will buy another if the dimensionns allow www.amazon.co.uk/Elho-3511484936000-basics-Balcony-Trough/dp/B06WGRBMFY?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

I ideally want something trailing but it's not a deal breaker. I have little space on the balcony and it's my only outside space. I want to it be nice enough that I can sit on a stool (that I need to buy!) and have a short break outside on a sunny warm afternoon

www.amazon.co.uk/Elho-3511484936000-basics-Balcony-Trough/dp/B06WGRBMFY?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

and back to the weight loss chat....

Who here doesn't count calories, and what is your current plan?

I am calorie counting and am tempted to trial a week without. In my mind, this would look like either no breakfast or usual greek yogurt and berries - I can eyeball roughly 150g of greek yogurt now. Still measure portions of cooked rice, cheddar etc as portion control appears to be my issue but not so much the food I have - no chocs, no crisps etc and I'm currently having no ice cream (my current weakness).

I’m still counting calories, sort of, as I can roughly judge amounts of yoghurt, cheese etc.
I would still vastly underestimate a “ portion “ of crisps, chocolate, cake etc. Which is why I’m still avoiding them!
Just replaced an ancient blender with a supermarket stick blender as planning on more soup to up my intake of veg. Used to make it so often, just got out of the habit.
Although cafes are open now with some seating on our seafront, I’m continuing with the “ lockdown car picnic basket” so I’m not tempted to recommence cake and ice cream etc.
Off to the car wash to get all the lockdown crumbs ( husbands not mine as I didn’t waste a single crumb of my carefully portioned snacks!) hoovered out before loading up the boot with the spring/summer season of “ stuff” for afternoons on the beach with flasks of tea and my kindle.

I don't count generally, and my plan was to skip breakfast and always have a salad for lunch. That did tend to incline me to snack mid afternoon though, and I still managed to slowly put on my usual 12lb or so.

This time I'm hoping that giving up the booze will help, and looking for other ideas.

I don't calorie count. Have given up alcohol for a couple of months now, fast 18:6, walk a lot. Cut out all snacks and generally have smaller portions and low carb intake. Weigh in today is 8.11 (drop of 2lbs since Friday).

I calorie count. I’ve never done a slimming club or that kind of thing, so I don’t know any other way to do it.

I make pretty much everything from scratch (save for bread and bakery items), and I log everything on my fitness pal. I use supermarket ready meals as my measure of how many calories a meal is for me. So for example if I’m having chicken tikka masala and rice for dinner, I will put a Waitrose ready meal of that into MFP and adjust the portion size based on how much I’ve eaten. I sort of know how big a ready meal looks as I ate so many of them years ago.