Lockdown stones to lose, please join me

[poorpaws]

I’ve joined many diet threads on here over the years and in time they have all crumbled into dust. This time it’s dire so I’ve decided to create my own post for the first time and just hope some lovely people will join me and this time stick to it until we are all thinner and happier with our bodies.

During the first lockdown I managed to lose a stone and was overjoyed. Last November my partner moved in with me for six months and whilst I fed him large meals I ate the same plus a lot of evening snacking. He is thin and can eat a lot of food without weight gain because he has a manual job. He left three weeks ago and I have eaten even more food. I can’t fit into any of my clothes apart from a couple of baggy t-shirts and some very old stretch jeans, which to add insult to injury ripped today.

I have to do something NOW. I think (am pretty sure) I have gained 2.1/2 stones. I am 5ft 4 and tomorrow I will face the scales and really lose it this time. Please if anyone is feeling overweight, lethargic and totally overwhelmed by weight gain, do join me, make me feel better and help yourself too.

Well done for climbing back on the wagon @poorpaws.

I've had a really good food day today. I too measured all my portions. I went for a long walk and had a proper lunch. Ive been skipping it and then eating crisps and kidding myself that that's ok!

Long may the good food days continue!

My journal arrived today, two days early 😀 now I have no excuse (and I definitely must refrain from eating a chocolate whilst I look at it).

I'm so pleased your journal arrived early @poorpaws!! Mine did too actually but I didn't want to get your hopes up what do you think of it?

Things have just been manic here and I've had no time to sit, reflect, plan etc... will try to make some time for that tomorrow!

Well yesterday didn’t go as planned. I always start out so well, measured breakfast, ate a light lunch and even dinner was healthy and then the evening munchies started. I was just so hungry and I couldn’t stop eating. I have to sort my evenings out and I do best when I walk the dogs for an hour because I obviously get the steps in but I don’t eat either. Trouble is I was quite tired last night and just didn’t want to go and they’d had a very long walk in the morning so they weren’t bothered.

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl I like the journal, I particularly like the thick pages because I hate thin paper. I think there’s a lot of it I won’t use and I’m not going to start it until Monday after my next weigh in which will be a gain no doubt. Have you started using it yet and has it helped you? I think it will help me focus but I’m just finding it so hard at the moment. My head is in the right place and definitely wants to lose the weight but my stomach keeps telling me it’s hungry and my stomach wins. I keep thinking of a little boy I know, he’s about four, and he always says “mummy my tummy’s hungry”, yes mine is too! I think I need to find something filling and low calorie which tastes divine that I can eat all evening and won’t put any weight on at all. 😀. It’s just boredom eating in front of the tv or iPad and if I go out or clean the house (ha don’t think so) I don’t hunt for food. I’ve got 4 days before I start the journal to sort my head/stomach out. Let me know what you find most useful about it please.

I hope you are all doing well, it’s much cooler in the evenings now and that makes me want to eat more (wish I’d done better over the summmer when it was easier).

@professionalcockney you are doing so well, I need to take a leaf out of your book and lose some weight instead of just talking about it. How do you cope with evening eating?

In spring this year we visited a place where we just sat and chilled and people watched. There was one woman who I could see clearly from where I was sitting and she constantly ate the whole time she was there which was a long time. It has recently hit me that I am exactly the same in the evenings. I just keep putting food into my mouth until I go to bed so really it’s just a habit and I have to break it before I gain all the weight I’ve lost. Another thing I keep reflecting on is that I wouldn’t allow my dogs to eat like this because it would be bad for them so why do I allow myself to eat constantly, that has made me think long and hard. I really need to sort this as I fear this habit has been a problem for a long time so I need to break it. Evening exercise is all I can think of but it’s so exhausting after along day.

I know what you mean poorpaws I start off with great intentions everyday. I usually have porridge for breakfast which makes me feel very smug and self righteous , but then by lunchtime I have crapped out and started snacking on something.

The one thing I have done which is useful is declared the kitchen closed at a certain time (say 9pm) or maybe two hours before bed or something.
Would that work for you, just say to yourself that the kitchen is closed, and if you really want something, you can have it tomorrow? It might stop the mindless snacking. Sorry if that sounds patronising, but it definitely helped me.

@CreepingDeath no I don’t find that patronising at all. My snacking time is from about 6.00 to 9.00/9.30 (I go to bed early due to health issues but read mumsnet in bed). I can consume such a lot in that time, I’m up and down to the fridge which isn’t too far away. I’ve tried my evening meal a bit later but then I’m so hungry (I usually eat at about 5 and I’m always very hungry).

My biggest problem is that all of my adult life I have been a yo-yo dieter (stupid of me I know) and I’ve messed up my metabolism. I gain weight so quickly and am very slow to lose weight. A few of my friends never really believed me until I proved to them how little I can eat and still gain weight, they were staggered. My problem is that the older I get the worse it gets. I think during lockdown (when I fed my partner huge meals) I thought sod it, I’ll be fat but I felt so uncomfortable and couldn’t get in my clothes ... you know the rest, i started this thread.

I want to do it, I really do and I will in time. Autumn/winter cold evenings are the worst for me, I feel cold and just keep eating. I’m looking at heated throws at the moment.

I don’t want to join the pity party , I’m just trying to state the facts. I will do it though, I’m finding it difficult but I’m determined this time.

Thanks to everyone for the great support on here.

@poorpaws Trust me I am terrible at dieting! I've been on a diet all year and I've lost the grand total of nothing! I just keep yoyoing! Which is why I joined this thread.

To prevent evening snacking have you looked into fasting? The Fastic app is good - you set the hours that you want to fast for and it sends you a notification to set your fasting timer.

Have you also given yourself set times to eat? Eg, would a filling snack at 4pm help?

I had a busy day and didn't exercise. We had kebabs for dinner and I had a chicken shish with lots of salad and a handful of chips (not so good).

I have an appointment tomorrow then dinner out in the evening 🤦‍♀️. Will walk to and from the appointment to help offset the dinner.

Forgot to add a little non scale victory - I managed to do my coat up today! The walking must be helping ☺️

@professionalcockney yay to NSV, it’s getting colder you’ll need your coat fastened so very well done,

I seem to have lost my way at the moment. I do walk (slowly) with the dogs which gets my 10,000 steps done every morning but I’m just obsessed with food. As soon as I wake I’m thinking of food and it’s constant until I go to sleep. I think the only thing for me is to exercise in the evening (remember the hula hoop I bought and I’ve never used). It’s just getting started; once I’ve braved the first few times I’ll get into it.

I’m not sure that fasting is for me either, i’d be sure to fail. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I’m very much a fair weather/sunshine girl and I think the change in weather and knowing winter is just around the corner has depressed me and that is my trigger to eat more. So I have to accept the cold, wrap up warm and exercise. This is my plan, easier said than done. I also remember last year I cleaned my teeth more (didn’t want to ruin the minty taste with food) and I chewed gum to keep me away from food, perhaps I’ll try this again.

Also the journal will help I think. I’ve bought it and don’t want to fill it with failure so I’ve got to turn myself around by Monday.

I hope you are all doing well. Monday’s weigh-in is getting close and I want this to be my last weight gain for some time. I can’t believe we are nearly in October, where did September disappear to. It will be Achieve In October 🤞🏻

Hurrah for clothes fitting nicely!

I have had a rubbish couple of days. Trigger point 1 - hungry supermarket visit. All the crisps were bought, and all the crisps were eaten.

The next day another trigger - late dinner. We normally eat at about 18.00-18.30. DC1 has just started another music thing that keeps here out until 19.45. I basically grazed from 18.00 to when she got in, and then ate dinner!

Both of these are easily predictable, and can probably be mitigated against with some careful planning, so I need to be aware of them for the weeks to come.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. I'm in a cafe waiting for DC2, but have just a macchiato, and have swerved the pastries.

poorpaws

My biggest problem is that all of my adult life I have been a yo-yo dieter (stupid of me I know) and I’ve messed up my metabolism. I gain weight so quickly and am very slow to lose weight. A few of my friends never really believed me until I proved to them how little I can eat and still gain weight, they were staggered.

I have read before about how our metabolism changes when we gain a lot of weight, and even when we lose the weight it doesn't go back to how it was.

I think there was a study where they followed contestants on a weight loss show (Biggest Loser?) a few years after they had lost the weight, and their metabolism was much slower than slim people who had never gained in the first place.
I suppose it explains yo-yo dieting, than when people go back to eating 'normally' they inevitably gain weight again. Very annoying.

Anyway, this week not going so well for me. I had a few friend meet-ups which inevitably led to ice cream and chips . Anyway, will try and salvage it by doing a workout today and tomorrow and having a healthy lunch and dinner, and trying not to snack.

Fingers crossed for Monday.

It doesn’t sound as if any of us are doing too well this week. I am preparing myself for a massive gain on Monday but then I’m back on it. I’ve really got to knuckle down.

My lovely chef neighbour told me at the beginning of September she was taking the whole of September off her diet because she was having friends over for a week then family for a week then friends again and she just couldn’t cope with dieting with all that going on. When she told me this I thought that I could lose at least four or five pounds while she is “resting” and in actual fact I’ve probably gained more than she has but this will all change in October.

Are we all going to find it hard in the colder weather? I bought loads of salad this week, had one meal and now keep looking at it in the fridge as I find something more filling for dinner. It will probably end up in the bin which is such a shame.

@CreepingDeath. I saw some programme or other some years ago where a doctor (well actually a group of doctors) said it was healthier to be overweight than to yo-yo diet. I’ve known this for years BUT I STILL YO-YO, it’s crazy 🤦‍♀️

So it’s getting very close to weigh in. It’s no use me dreading it (although I am), I’ll just have to accept the result and do better in future.

Have a great weekend all of you.

I'm sorry, I've been utterly rubbish and haven't even found the time/ motivation to comment on here. New job + no let up in chores + DS2 being hideously grumpy and horrible + DP being unsupportive as usual = tired out me. The only thing I will say is that at least I've done a reasonable amount of exercise, although AF is due soon so even that may come to a grinding halt

I really need to find the time to menu plan, do a proper shop (assuming I have enough petrol or can get a delivery slot!), do some prepping and work my exercise round that. Otherwise I'm like many others and just find myself picking until I can eat something 'proper'.

@poorpaws I recently worked out that I've been on a diet in some form or another for probably around 35 years it all started when I was around 10 and my mum told me how roly poly I looked. With hindsight (and the benefit of school photos) I was a bit plump, but a far better thing she could have done was to encourage me to do more exercise and just stop buying all the cakes, biscuits, crisps etc our house was always full of. I don't think she meant to be unkind - she's always had a problematic relationship with food too - but that combined with her and DF constantly overlooking me and putting my younger siblings first has really made an impact on me.

I'm off to a social occasion tomorrow (my second formal one in two years!) and had a lovely size 14 dress in mind to wear for it. Sadly I can't yet fit into it... maybe next year!

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend with not too much

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl be kind to yourself, you sound overloaded with commitments and stressed. Could you find an hour or so per day just for you? I think that would be really good for you atm.

Yet again I am exactly opposite to you. I was an extremely thin sickly child. I lived behind an horrendously busy shop which my parents owned and they didn’t have any time for me. It was an Off Licence, also selling groceries and sweets. In those days sweets were a real treat and not eaten daily like now and although they were always there on display I wasn’t allowed them. So once I earned my own money I made very sure I made up for lost time. But I wouldn’t allow myself to put on weight, hence the yo-yo dieting began and has continued and is still continuing.

I MUST get into exercise, I really must. I think because I always do my 10,000 steps I become lazy with everything else. I have an old exercise DVD which is quite easy and I did a lot last year before gaining yet more weight and every single day I’m going to do it and I haven’t done it once yet. It’s hard to fit it in during the day. My mornings are all about the dog walk, in the afternoons my partner is always here and in the evenings I’ve always eaten and I’m tired or I’m FaceTimeing my friend. I can always find an excuse.

One day away from weighin everyone and I have promised myself this will be the last gain this year! (Apart from birthday week in the middle of November).

I hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday and obviously doing a lot better than me. Clara find a bit of time for you 😀

Diet wise this has not been a great week. Our kids got us a few days away to celebrate our Ruby anniversary . I carefully packed all sorts of good food - then forgot to actually take it out of the fridge. Cue dinner out, then chocolates bought by a friend then .... well we all know where this is heading. So to sum up, too much food and no exercise! Dreading Monday ...

@Bjarnum congratulations on your anniversary, I am so pleased you had a lovely time. Don’t dread Monday I’ll be gaining weight with you and we can both draw a line and start again. I’m just going to call it my 2 week holiday from the diet, get back on the wagon and set off into the sunset.

I’ve been making a cake today, again. I had lemons and limes left from the birthday cake as well as unsalted butter so I decided to make another of my DP’s favourite cake. As I said before it isn’t one of my favourites so it won’t bother me. It’s just cooling now and it does smell nice.

So it’s nearly Monday and nearly time to get back on this diet, it’s about 7 weeks to my birthday and then a further 6 weeks to Christmas. Surely I can lose quite a bit of weight in that time if I get in the zone (?). You’d think I could lose a stone in 13 weeks but I doubt it, but half a stone should be easily doable (?)

Good luck for tomorrow everyone. I don’t think any of us will be having great losses from what I’ve been reading but we’ll see.

Well I managed another workout today, didn't go for my walk because of the rain but did some weight training, albeit half assed.

But then I scoffed a load of pringles that were in the cupboard , they weren't even that nice, they had gone a bit soft.

Oh well, fingers crossed for tomorrow everyone.

poorpaws your cake sounds lovely, I LOVE lemon cake (drools). So jealous. I haven't been baking much recently, must get back into it now Autumn weather is here.

Congratulations on your anniversary Bjarnum

Morning losers

I've lost 3lb! I've not been working that hard at things this week, so I think perhaps last week's gain was partly a weird fluctuation. I won't get away with that two weeks in a row, so I need to focus. I do have a meal out for SIL's birthday at the weekend, but it's somewhere I don't like all that much, so I might stand more chance of being a bit restrained.

SW 13st 4(April)
CW 12st 0lb
Mini goal 11st 10lb
GW 11st

Morning all, just checking in to say hi! Congratulations @TheTurn0fTheScrew, that's a great loss.

@poorpaws I hope your weigh-in is kinder than you think!

I'm in the maintenance phase now which will have to be an ongoing thing. I've upped my calories (from 1450 to 1650 - I'm short, so any higher and I will gain) send enjoying having a little more wiggle room for treats. Still no booze.

My weight is bouncing around the 8.11 to 8.13 mark which is ideal for me. But I'm going to have to get used to the idea that some weeks I will go up rather than down, as I'm not losing fat now so the random water weight gains are more noticeable.

@TheTurn0fTheScrew that’s amazing! Very well done, you’re not far off your mini goal too. It’s a great feeling when you lose a decent amount, you’ve done brilliantly.🌟

I’ve gained 1/4 lb. I had a sneaky peak at the scales yesterday and I’d gained 1.1/4 lbs. TMI - I had an upset stomach through the night, out of the blue, I think it saved the day. 😀

SW: 12. 2 3/4
CW: 11. 4.1/2
Mini goal: 11st
GW: 10st minimum

So from today I am definitely back on track. I’m starting my journal, logging everything I drink and eat and trying to move more. Hoping for a big loss this time next week.

Good luck everyone 🤞🏻

@MegBusset. Hello.
So pleased you are still letting us know how you’re doing. You should be so proud of yourself 🎖. I bet you look and feel amazing. I hope your good work continues and enjoy the extra calories. I can’t wait until I’m in your position (was supposed to be by Christmas, now postponed to Easter 😳). Please still come and tell us of your maintenance journey.

In other news DP bought me a heated throw yesterday (very early birthday present). OMG it’s lovely, I didn’t want the get out of it last night to go to bed. 🥴

Well done to all your weigh ins and good luck for the coming week.

I managed to lose half a pound.

SW - 12 st
CW - 11.13.5
GW - 10 st