LOSE IT! April 2021

[TheRealHousewife]

Hello & Welcome 😊 WOW 😯 April came around so fast. The sunny Spring weather and easing of Lockdown brings so much joy and promise for the coming year.

This thread is for those of us who enjoy healthy eating, exercising and feeling motivated to reach (or maintain) a healthy weight/bmi. The members of these threads are inspirational, supportive and happy to share their progress (the ups and the downs).

We all know that if we eat right, get outside & move more your mental health will heap the rewards. Better mental health = better choices. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

There are so many enjoyable lifestyle options out there without the need to resort to extreme measures. Whatever way you choose, it needs to be enjoyable & sustainable for the long term. This is a long term commitment rather than a quick fix. I rarely drink alcohol and keep sugar to a minimum. I exercise by doing walking vids & strength sessions with light weighs.

As no one size fits all members need to follow their own way of eating. Nonetheless this thread aims to offer guidance, support and a bit of hand holding.

There is no shaming, competition or harsh words to be found on these threads. We are in this together.

Jump right in! If you’re not too shy, post a bit about yourself 😊. How do you plan to do it? What do you want to achieve? What excites you about your future self? Together, we can create a whole new you!

You’ll be glad you got on board this time next month 😊

Useful Links

Useful Tips For Lockdown Weight Loss

Free Recipes

Free NHS 12 Week Plan

MFP

How drinking more water helps you lose weight

Thank you @Puffalicious. We've eaten early so I can get my fasting hours in. Though dh wanted to eat even earlier than that but I told him the kids would have a fit. Even eating at 5 caused a comment . The pizza was very nice then we had ice cream which was a nice treat then I had a small cookie which was a bit burnt. So I'm really going to have to run well tomorrow but I feel I have eaten enough to not panic eat at 8pm. Lunch was left over egg friend rice with a big portion of watercress and spinach.

I missed my 3pm snack time as I was gardening so I am going to try and be busy about that time again tomorrow and test if it is just a psychological hunger because if is mid afternoon. Have a plan for tomorrow @Puffalicious though it doesn't sound like you went mad.

@Puffalicious@Supergirl1958 I think both fellow teachers, hope your first day back was good, I'm sooooo tired! 16:8 fasting seems to be going quite well so far (day 4 for me), am pleasantly surprised! I even managed it this morning when teaching and made it to break before eating and didn't find it too bad. Though it was a bit random eating a hard boiled egg at break 😂
Just got home and had dinner early to try to maintain fasting tomorrow. Had left over meatballs with a tonne of veg and salad. Yum. I'm also calorie counting otherwise I would eat crap
@SunshineCake I want a dominoeeesss!

@CocoaMojo first day back good! 2 chicken pittas at 12.15!! And saved my fruit to treat myself whilst I was marking my maths books!! Ooh the joys!! Luckily I planned group work for English and stretched out my Science to last the afternoon so will mark them on ppa Wednesday before my eyfs course! Going back to eyfs in September! I begged the head on my hands and knees as my family circumstances have been awful so KS2 full time with a baby just isn’t working!

Tea was pasta salad with lighter than light mayo, just about to run everything through mfp, but that’s my lunch made for tomorrow!!!

Just about to do my stats....😭😭

Hope everyone had a good Monday, and those who returned to school after two and a bit weeks it wasn’t too bad!!

Cocoamojo eggs are a great choice for break- protein and low fat! My choice tends to be a Babybel light, a low fat yog and a herbal tea (if student teacher/ 6th year around and can make it in advance ).

Happy first day back!

PS We had inset day so not a real day back!

I put new batteries in the scale today so a bit scared to weigh tomorrow as sometimes that seems to mess them up.

Low carb, high fat (low carb boot camp) is a strange way of eating after a more low cal approach as you do things like adding double cream to your coffee instead of milk, eating full fat Greek yoghurt with cinnamon in instead of fruit or frying all your veg in butter.

I lost 3 lb in a week though Monday - Monday so something about it works. I also dont feel hungry so even though I'm eating things like cream my calorie count naturally comes in under 1400 a day easily because I don't want or need to snack.

At the end of week 1 there are others in the thread reporting 5,6,7 even 12lb losses in 1 week.

I don't think I would sustain the really strict first 2 week rules long term and do worry a little about the cholesterol but as a boost when I plateau it's been a bit of an eye opener.

@Puffalicious jealous of the INSET!

I’m doing 16:8 just worked out that I have a calorie deficit of 369..even with some left over chocolate!! MFP says if I carry on like this I can lose a stone in 5 weeks!!! My fasting times are slightly odd...so fasting from 8.15pm to 12.15 lunch time...it’s not unusual for me to not eat until lunch time anyway!!

My stats...I’m so embarrassed!!

SW-16st8lbs
CW-as above
TW- 12 st

I was around 12 stone when all my baby weight came off and then lockdown hit and I’ve put on nearly 5 stone in a year and 4 months...that’s what a lonely lockdown mat leave did to me!!

Kick up the bum starts now...fasting starts in 7 minutes!!!

@Supergirl1958 nothing at all to be embarrassed about. You are me 9 months ago.

29/07/2020 I was 16st 9lb
14/04/2021 I was 12st 5lb

Goal weight for now is 11stone 10lb then I'll reassess. I'd like to be a comfortable size 12 I'm currently a 14/16 down from a 22.

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo you’ve done a great job, if I lose even half that amount in 9 months I’ll be happy. Ideally have about 18 months before we want to try for another baby so that long to lost the weight.

No breakfast tomorrow due to fasting until 12.15. I have prepared pasta salad which I made a recipe for on MFP and have divided into 3. Prepared a fruit salad for marking! I’ve planned an easy/lazy tea of 2 x jacket potato, tuna mayo and 50 percent reduced cheese and salad (in my defence the jackets are small) probably follow it up with an orange or banana!

All great achievements and planning. I think they go a long way towards the scales going down. Well done everyone. You are doing great.

I've enjoyed my food today. I didn't have my mid afternoon snack. I've probably had no calorie benefit due to the pizza, ice cream, cookie and than accidental baked crisps and two chocolate liqueurs. Eek. But it is dh birthday and I have enjoyed everything. A few months ago I'd have hated myself for eating that. I haven't felt hungry or stressed about eating. I am wondering if I had enough lunch as well to help with it.

Tomorrow I run which is but then after we walk ddog together my son goes back to university .

@SunshineCake happy birthday DH hope he enjoyed the day!

Hope everything goes ok today taking your son back to Uni

Good morning everyone
We took DD1 back on Friday @SunshineCake I am glad she is getting most of her first year there as so many DC on other courses are missing out. What is he studying? Is it his first year? We miss them but it's great to see them successfully making their way in the world.
The planning is key @Supergirl1958 it removes the element of conscious thought when you are busy and the temptation to grab the first thing to hand.
Still 1lb of that weekend weight hanging around so another day of focus then onwards and inwards again.

Just catching up with the posts
@Supergirl1958 nothing to be embarrassed with at all my sw in middle of Jan was 16st 10. Starting is the hard part you got this 👍
Back to full time work tomorrow which should help as I find I can be lazy when I don’t have to rush with school drop offs etc.
Sw 16 -10
Cw 13-12
Mini gw 13-7

@Avocadorable amazing work well done!!

@132orbust definitely feel better with planned meals! Tonight whilst the potatoes are baking for tea, I will take out the chicken for tomorrow and I will make some baby new boiled for a meat and potato salad tomorrow’s dinner! I find if I’m not organised it’s easy to grab something ‘fast’ and not healthy!!

DS took himself back after we had walked the dog with dh. He has a car and he has arrived safely. It is his second year.

Had a really good run and a terrible scales experience. Feel really gutted tbh. Can't run tomorrow so will run Thursday and hope the scales are kinder.

@Supergirl1958 I'm just starting over too and very similar stats. I weigh 16 stone 7 and aiming for around 12 stone too!
@HalfShrunkMoreToGo your stats are incredible 👏 very inspiring!
I'm going to start 16:8 tomorrow and see how it goes for the next 7 days. I'm still a bit undecided about the best approach to get the weight off but going to try that too in the first instance and then I can still eat my lunch and evening meal with my oldest as I don't want her to notice I am dieting x

@SunshineCake it is probably a random fluctuation. I used to weigh daily and the changes day to day can be huge. Dont feel gutted. I've read through previous posts and you have made some really positive changes to your health which is much more important than a meaningless number x

Thank you @ShakerMakerGirl. I'm sure I read that one day of eating a lot doesn't mean it shows up on the scales the day after. I really want to carry on every other day of running and not panic, obsessive run tomorrow. Plus I could only run tomorrow if I got up very very early or did it after the school run and dog walk. I'll see how I feel tomorrow but if not I will run on Thursday then weigh and then not weigh again until Wednesday next week. I'm not going back to daily/every other day weighing. I only did today as tomorrow wasn't due to be a running day. I should have waited until Thursday !

Just to boost myself - SW in October 2018 at diagnosis 14 stone.
SW at running day 1 - 12 stone 9
April start - 11 stone 1.8
Today - 11 stone 3.4 iirc.

It definately does show up for me next day, I used to show an extra 3lb the next morning if I eat something like a takeaway the night before so fingers crossed it is just that. I think it was salt bloating me and then it would be gone again in the next couple of days.
Same here I used to get so obsessed with the scales and it really affected my mood so going to try get weighed once a week but it did make me realise how big weekly fluctuations are. On team RH they weighed everyday and then it works out the weekly average weighloss which makes a lot of sense to be honest x

Wednesday weigh in.

Start of this weight loss journey was 1st Aug 2020 - 233lb, BMI 35.4

31/03/2021 - 175lb, BMI 26.6
07/04/2021 - 176lb, BMI 26.7
14/04/2021 - 173lb, BMI 26.3
21/04/2021 - 169lb, BMI 25.6

Loss this week - 4 lb
Loss this month - 6 lb
Total loss since starting - 64 lb

Scales said I was up another two pounds in yesterday so I'm going for a run. I wonder whether it is more to do with the every other day running instead of run two consecutive days then one day off than the Dominoes pizza .

Super duper @HalfShrunkMoreToGo. Well done you. I'm so pleased for you.

4 lb! That's brilliant, @HalfShrunkMoreToGo !

Your total loss is amazing. You need a name change as you're much more than 'half shrunk' now .

@SunshineCake One day of eating a lot shows temporarily on the scales for me - it's just bloating though, as Shaker says it's probably the high salt content making you retain water.

It's not physically possible for your body to make 2lb of fat overnight so whatever it is will go away when you've been on your normal eating plan for a few days.

@SunshineCake, @Arbadacarba is right water retention is the issue with frequent fluctuations not fat.

There's a couple of things possibly at play here:

• increased salt intake causes your body to hold onto water
• increased carb content causes you to hold onto water
• if you exercise a lot and your muscles feel sore it's because you are building more muscle and your body does this through small tears and rips in the muscle fibre which it then builds on and repairs. That process requires water so your body holds onto it.

The key to all of these is to take in lots and lots of water so your body has an ample supply and doesn't need to retain it.

On the low carb boot camp I am drinking 3lts a day. I have a 1 and a half litre bottle which I refill and just sip on constantly.

Ok oh wise ones. I was 11 5.2 at 7. Walked dog for 70 minutes then just ran almost 7km. Says I'm 11 4.2. So confused with how it all works and with what I need to do. I'm three pounds up since April 1st and up on last week or the week before too so a bit fed up.

I do look less bloated. I'm going to measure. Hang on.