Weight loss for vegetarians

[LargeInCharge]

Hello!
I’ve been a vegetarian nearly all my life and I want to lose weight to be healthier (and to look better in my clothes) so I thought I’d create a space where fellow veggies (and vegans too) can share their weight loss journeys, food ideas, recipes and how they are feeling.

I started my journey on Tuesday so this is day 4 for me. My daily calorie limit is 1200.

Weight - 15st 4 (weighed on day 1)
Height - 5’ 9
Goal weight - 10st 7

How I gained weight - not exercising, eating crisps, cake, too many carbs and booze.
Positive changes - trying to be more active, ditched the crisps, cake and booze. Limiting my carbs as much as I can.

No pressure to reveal weight or anything that’s personal to you.

Good luck. 🥗🌽🥦🥬🥕🥒🫑🥑🥭🍅🍑🍓🍌🥥🫐

I’m struggling with being kind to myself - feeling guilty for slip ups, and feeling like I’ll never have the body I want. I keep telling myself I’m beautiful and my husband adores me and that whatever shape or size I am that I still matter and am enough exactly as I am. But it’s still hard. Do any of you struggle with thoughts like that?

Meals today:
Bad night with the toddler so toast and an apple at 3.45am.
Yogurt and banana 8am.
Lunch was a rice salad with veg.
Dinner I’ve just eaten - an omelette with veg and a nakd bar.

Yes, at the beginning of losing weight I felt like I was never going to lose anything, very demoralising.
I set myself a achieving goals rewards, I don't know if that would help you? So I bought a hair tool when I got into the NHS healthy weight and now I am allowing myself nice make up and skin stuff. Non food based treats can be rewarding and the added bonus is as I have got slimmer DH has appreciated me in new clothes.

I doubt I will ever be as tiny as I was, but then I accept my body changed to carry my child.

Hugs to you. You're doing great!

Ah thank you, you’re so kind. I find goals tricky as all I need is a bad day at work and I want to head for the biscuits that we have at work! Never have them at home but we often get bought gifts of food from clients.

Non food goals are a good idea, perhaps some nice glassware or stationary?! Oh I would love a new pair of earring!

I'm hankering after a nice set of thali bowls myself ATM. Although that might encourage me to make indulgent curries so there's a danger.
Can you bring in some nice fruit to have when biscuits are there? I had a colleague who did this and it started a bit of a healthy eating trend. I always arm myself with nice herbal tea too(and coke zero- To my shame!)

So yesterday:
Porridge.
Rice and veg salad. Apple.
Aubergine, courgette, and tomato pasta bake.
Really bad day at work so ate extra toast and chocolate after dinner …

Today:
Toast with peanut butter and an apple.
Roasted gnocci with kale and leeks.
Spinach and feta pasty/pastry, roasted carrots and parsnips, broccoli. Just having some yogurt and grapes/banana.

Struggling with feeling hungry a lot. No lighter on the scales!

Hi all. I haven't posted for a few days as, to be honest, I'm ashamed of how much I've eaten this week. I just can't seem to stop eating chocolate/ cake at work. I'm really scared of going back to where I was before I lost weight but I have zero willpower atm. I may brave the scales tomorrow. Today I've eaten:
B - weetabix with a chopped banana.
L - cheese and marmite on toast (was actually a bagel).
D - tomato and mozzarella arancini , a satsuma and 3 prunes.
I will have some nuts and chocolate later.

Yes I know the feeling @Yourownpersonaljesus I've been incredibly bad over covid. Predictably putting on a kg and a half.
My plan is to defrost the freezer on my last day of isolation (Tuesday probably) and have two weeks of low carb combined with fasting. Will write my week's shopping list later and have a think about good meals to do :)

Sounds like a good plan @Goldilocks99. Hope you are soon covid free. I did weigh myself this morning and I'm 10 stone 4. I need to get back to 10. Today's food:
B - porridge with sliced banana and chopped dates (my absolute favourite breakfast)
L - a baked sweet potato with low fat cheddar, coleslaw , tomatoes and cucumber, a satsuma and an Arla protein yoghurt.
D - Better Naked Kiev (a yellow sticker find) with mashed potato, peas and tomatoes, an apple, a few Montezuma half moons
S - some sour cherry Candy Kittens.
Not great but could be worse. I've chopped up loads of veg earlier for a stir-fry for dinner tomorrow. I'm making butternut squash and black bean tacos one night (that I saw on the Matt Tebbutt channel 5 program the other day) but a slightly healthier version. Also planning on making the baked gnocchi too. So lots of nice meals to look forward to.

The black bean tacos sound lovely.

Yesterday I ate:
Toast with peanut butter. Apple.
Baked gnocci with kale and leeks (adapted from the Quick Roating Tin book - she has many versions!)
Dinner was… a mini trifle, a mini cheesecake, and some pasta bake 😂

Today:
Yoghurt with an apple and a sprinkle of oats.
Pesto crusted tofu with broccoli, peas, courgettes and butter beans.
Oatcakes, cheese, tomatoes, cucumber.

The recipe is the second one down: www.channel5.com/veg_episode4
I'm not adding fried onions, feta or guacamole to make them healthier. I'll probably make them on Wednesday so will report back.

Today I’ve had:
Toast with peanut butter and apple (more breakfast ideas anyone?!)
Mushroom and pine nut/parsley pesto filo tart.
Leftover crusted tofu and veg.

Feeling back on it now… but had a reality check looking at my husband today. He’s out on so much weight concerningly on his abdomen (the dangerous fat). I’ve asked him to weigh and measure and he’s 1.5 stone over a healthy BMI. So we’ve had a talk and he is trying to think about his food - he eats less than me so not sure what the issue is really. Are all your husbands slim? Or do they struggle too?

Do you eat porridge @LuckyKitty13? If you do you could have that with fruit and some honey. Or with peanut butter and grated apple! How about yoghurt and granola? That's good that your husband has realised that he needs to make changes - that's half the battle. Does he eat other food out of the house that you don't see? I'm not married so can't answer your question! Just me and adult DD at home She's back living at home after being away at uni for 3 years. She's doing her masters in London so can commute. She's trying to be healthy atm so that helps with my eating habits. Today I've had:
B - weetabix, with a chopped banana and half a bagel
S - some prunes.
L - butternut squash soup and the other half of the bagel, some nuts, a satsuma, an apple and a bliss bar.
S - a bag of Wotsits.
D - Veg and Linda McCartney chicken pieces stir fry with sticky rice, some Montezuma half moons and 3 strawbs.

The great defrost continues so I'm using random freezer dregs lol. I've done a half fast today, satay tofu and carrot rice for tea. Just slipped up and had half a marmite sandwich too.
DH lost a bit of weight since I started slimming, but he doesn't really like it on. Think he may have been borderline healthy to heavy zone NHS, but he's pretty steady in the healthy zone now. In general he's a bad influence because he loves carbs and stuff. But to be fair to him he's had some godawful food as I've adjusted to low carb cooking. I'm a good cook when I don't have to watch what I eat but this is a whole different ball game.

I decided to give intermittent fasting a try while still calorie counting and although I’m only on day two I’m not hungry or tired and the last time I ate was before 8pm last night. It’s quite the revelation.

Hope everyone’s week is going good.

That's great @LargeInCharge intermittent fasting has been the only thing that really works for me so I hope you get results too.
Fast two today and the scales were briefly 64kg for the first time ever. Woohoo.

Thanks and well done @Goldilocks99 you’re doing great.

Well done @Goldilocks99 that's fantastic. Hi @LargeInCharge. Maybe I should try intermittent fasting - my eating is terrible at the moment. I did make the tacos today though. They were really good and pretty healthy too as I modified the recipe. I recon they would've been even nicer topped with guacamole or sour cream though .

My advice for intermittent fasting is:
It feels like hell for the first week. It becomes very manageable after two.

I didn't lose weight for those first two weeks. Then it came off steadily if I did proper fasting days.

Plan in cheats when you are troubleshooting and fall. I use ricecakes on fast days in the evening. Technically breaks the fast but I still lose so it's fine. When I first started I'd got rid of crisps etc and resorted to making sandwiches at 9pm. I put on weight unsurprisingly.

16:8 is apparently easier than 5:2 but 5:2 suits me better as I am an all or nothing girls.

Good luck.

Hi @Yourownpersonaljesus I gained 7 pounds over December and some of January so I figured if I didn’t get back on track I’ll gain all the weight back.

I had a headache on day 3 and half of day 4 of IF but I feel fine now.

What hours are you doing @LargeInCharge if you don't mind me asking? Also are you drinking plenty?

Sorry if these seem fairly obvious. If so ignore haha!

I started with 8pm til 12pm but yesterday and today I started at 7:40pm. Today I broke my fast at 1:45pm because I didn’t feel hungry.

I’m drinking water throughout. I think It was caffeine withdrawals or sugar as I keep my carbs as low as I can and sadly my coffee has 1g sugar so I can’t drink it during the fast.

What hours are you doing and any tips for a IF newbie?

I do 2 days a week fast from get up till tea. I then allow myself three ricecakes to keep me from snacking. I tend to do my fast days at the beginning of the week as everything tends to go tits up by the weekend haha.
I'm very, very naughty and have Coke zero or pepesi Max throughout the day alongside black teas and herbal teas. It's not perfect but it's good for me because I find long term diet really difficult and find I can cope if I know I can eat semi normally the next day. To be fair I've had to massively limit my carbs too and want to try and reintroduce them because I just love them.

I’ll probably stagger my days if I start finding it tough but for now I’m weirdly enjoying it and I like the concept of fat burning after a length of time.

I’ve been watching Dr Jason Fung’s videos on YouTube and they are very interesting.

I think Coke Zero and Pepsi max are fine if they don’t trigger hunger so if it works for you that’s great.

I used to love carbs. I’ve had I think 4 slices of bread since last April. My downfall was pizza but I think I’ve kicked that habit now 🤞🏻

Well after what I thought was a great start, it looks like my scales were incorrect as I now weigh 69kg 🤪.

Fallen off the wagon this week eating treats at work and chocolates at other peoples houses. Plus extra rounds of toast.
Back on it Monday with my meal posting!

Unfortunately once you start dieting your body looks for opportunities to put it back on. I used to be able to eat chocolate and crisps all the time and not gain a kg, now within a day the scales have changed.
@LuckyKitty13 I'd take the new weight with a pinch off salt as it might fluctuate and go down anyway.