LOSE IT! July 2021

[TheRealHousewife]

Hello and a warm welcome to new & established members. July already! Lockdown easing and an end in sight! Hallelujah! Let’s embrace the summer and extending freedoms feeling like our best selves.

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 reap the rewards. Better mental health = better choices. It becomes a healthy cycle.

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. Personally, I rarely drink alcohol and keep sugar to a minimum. I try to not overload on carbs etc, include a protein source with most meals and aim to glug enough water. 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. We generally have WOW (weigh on Wednesday) day each week. However post and share your progress as often or as little as you prefer. I’ve weighed daily at times and weekly at other times. Do what works for you.

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

June 2021 Thread

NHS 12 Wk Weight Loss Plan

Fast800 Recipes Free Content

Benefits of Water to aid Weight Loss

MyFitnessPal

Evidence Based Weight Loss Tips

The Psychology of Weight Loss

I didn't realise grains count too, I haven't been counting them! Never mind!!

Nice salad Graph!!

Oh I've never tried smoked paprika on cottage cheese but I like both so that's a good idea. I definitely need more interesting salad recipes. I really enjoy a salad when there are lots of interesting things in it. When it's just cucumber, tomatoes and lettuce is when I struggle.

@CarolinaWeeper you clearly weren't brought up in the 70's

Paprika on EVERY salad - which was fine for me as I love it - not so good for mum who is allergic!

Yes, grains count too, as long as they’re whole grains.

Parsley is a great herb to add to all sorts of things, like salads, soups, couscous, pasta sauces and so on. And you can easily use it in large enough quantities to get a fair amount of its nutritional benefits. More about the nutrition here 👇 Herbs can bring much more than just a bit of flavour to your dinner!

www.healthline.com/nutrition/parsley

I made it to 12 plant foods yesterday, thanks to:

• overnight oats with banana and pumpkin seeds (3)
• spicy bean wrap (wheat) with beans, tomato, garlic, peppers and gherkins on the side (6)
• kale gnocchi, which added kale and basil (2)
• an apple (1)

I’m eating pretty much the same thing today though, so won’t be adding much to the total

Good Afternoon Everyone

Thank you for your lovely messages, they are much appreciated ❤️

Calmer waters here, nothing drastic happening as yet. Partner has apologised profusely and we both think his turmoil is grief based. Nonetheless I’ve been triggered massively and can’t get my anxiety under control. On the surface I appear calm but internally I’m churning and fearful. He’s the love of my life, my best friend who is struggling himself. Time, understanding and compromise will see us through. Thank you again ❤️

My brain is still scrambled egg and can’t concentrate properly yet. I’ll get a grip in readiness for our new thread. Ps @Graphista your salad looks lush 😋

As you were 😬

Lovely to see you @TheRealHousewife. I whatsapped you but apparently it doesn't go unless you press send so I'll just say hello, you poor love, your poor dh. Mine would emphasise I think with yours. Take good care of yourself. I'm going to take doggy out now as she refused to go this morning without me and I need the fresh air, exercise and space. .

I haven’t posted in a while but I’m still here.

Very sorry to hear of all the stress @TheRealHousewife I hope you have some support around you. Sending love your way.

Well done on all the losses recently. I’ve stayed the same for the last week but I haven’t been eating massively carefully so that’s ok. Only 5lbs away from my goal now but still feel a lot wobblier than when I weighed this much pre-kids. Assuming it’s because I have less muscle now I am not exercising. I may adjust my goal a little lower when I reach it.

Today I’ve had-

B- strawberries and yeo valley honey yoghurt
L- thin with egg Mayo and cucumber, wotsits and some raspberries
S - biscuit
D - will be sweet potato mash with aubergine, peppers and halloumi.

Just need to resist the chocolate chip cookies I made with my children earlier. They are calling my name

Got absolutely soaked on our way back from the park earlier and my poor little lad fell over and landed in a puddle when we were hurrying to get the bus (which we then missed!) and got even more wet. So once we’d warmed up we made the cookies to cheer him up, so he’s happy now at least!

Thank you @SunshineCake and @MarmaladeToastAndAMarmaladeCat … nice to see you back Marmalade. Your menu looks tasty 😋 and ignore the blummin’ cookies 🍪. The little saboteurs 😈

@SunshineCake yes I think we are similar in a few ways.

Menu
Meal 1 - Halloumi stir fry
Meal 2 - Chicken salad & Chips (treat)
Conference pear, pecans & hazelnuts.

Enjoy your evenings ❤️

Good to see you back TheRealHousewife hope you are ok.
I’m back from my hols and WILL be getting on the scales of doom tomorrow morning. I’m posting it on here to make me do it. Today’s been ok food-wise. Half a teaspoon of accidental sugar in coffee (Dh’s mistake!) and one triangle of toblerone snaffled from dd but otherwise:
B: porridge with peanut butter, maple syrup (1 tsp of each), banana and some flaxseeds
L: big salad with added quinoa and some feta
D: teriyaki salmon with stir fry veg and rice noodles.
Also had an apricot, a nectarine and some frozen cherries.
Slightly dreading the scales tomorrow though. Holiday was rather indulgent!

Also a quick question. Does anyone have those whizzy scales that also do body fat/muscle measurements? If so are they worth it?? Thank you.

Welcome back @QueenMabby, hope you had a great holiday! Well done on swerving treats, every bit helps. Your menu looks appetising 😋

My scales are electronic. They are meant to tell me my body fat but never understood them to be honest.

More recently my weigh-ins are fluctuating more than normal so I do think they can malfunction…

Mine tell me water and fat percentage but I've never read up on them.

Looking I forward to running tomorrow after missing two days. Out for lunch at a friends. Ds is moving out in a couple of days and there may be a birthday take away for dd. Given up on ending the month with a loss but given my bad mh I'm not stressing.

I always think parsley doesn't really taste of anything but happy to use it

@TheRealHousewife great to see you back! Sorry you and yours going through a rough time and hope it is all resolved soon for you. 

Thanks re salad

but still feel a lot wobblier than when I weighed this much pre-kids. not just weight is it, it's muscle tone and other things too.

I have the classic c-section "apron" which I'll never be rid of. Even when I got back down to a size 8 after having Dd and was gym-ing it daily it never went away.

Today's menu

Meal 1 - baked potato with veggie bacon and cottage cheese (and paprika)

Meal 2 - ryvita (do the pumpkin seeds on this count?) with light Mayo and Quorn ham and cucumber, crudites and low fat humous, 25g pistachios

Had pistachios last night. So I think I'm on 22? But I've only 2 days left of my "week" before weigh in day.

Not sure if there'll be a meal 3 as I'm very late eating again today as I was shattered.

@QueenMabby I think it's good not to hide from what's happening with your body. I was dreading that first weigh in! It was actually a relief it wasn't as bad as I feared it would be

Nhs is saying at current weight I should be on 1441-1852 cals a day. I've been doing 1600 last couple of weeks though generally I'm approx 200 cals under that on average so around 1400

When do I drop the cal limits and how is it best to calculate do we think?

Ww it was each 1/2 stone lost I think (roughly)

Nuts! I've just remembered I've a half pack of rice I'm supposed to use today so I might have that later somehow - not sure how!

Good to see you back @TheRealHousewife

@QueenMabby, I have snazzy scales that measure water, fat and muscle percentages, but I haven’t really used those functions recently. To be honest, I was so embarrassed by my weight when I first stepped on the scales in April, that I just didn’t want to know how much of that was fat 😳 Now that I’m much closer to a healthy weight, I might start using those functions again (now that you’ve reminded me!) but I really wouldn’t say they’re essential.

If however you are someone whose weight shoots up as soon as temperatures go up by a few degrees or so, or after having a few crisps or a bit of alcohol, those kind of measurements can be useful for working out if you’re looking at a real gain, or just water retention. I guess it depends on whether you think you’d use them for that?

Thanks all for the weigh ins (geddit? groan) on the scales issue. Before last year I was actually a lot lighter than I am now but did no exercise so was just skinny but possibly not very healthy. I’ve taken up exercise, so intellectually I know that some of my weight gain is likely to be muscle but I am struggling to get my mind around accepting that that’s better than just being thin if that makes sense. Some is also just eating too much so I want to lose some weight but also gain some insights into body composition.

Morning all! Have done it and am setting out the numbers:

Today’s weight: 10st 1lb
First goal: 9st 12lb
Goal weight: 9st 4lb

In Jan 2020 I was 9st 1lb. At my lightest I was 8st 10lb although at 5’ 7” this was probably too thin for me. 9st 4lb will be ideal.

I am the master of self sabotage though and a big treater of myself with food. Am going to need a lot of tough love to get me through this! I’m not good with slow and steady - I’m more the have two good days and expect half a stone to be gone type.

Going to do my workout now and then breakfast.

Morning all

Had a run. Was sabotaged by two twigs, a stone, three cans, a motorbike rider who tried to intimidate me twat, a lady who stopped me to tell me I looked good and dh who turned up. But at least I did it.

Weight down on Sunday but not on last week. Down if I go with July 1st weigh in but not by much. NSV favourite skirt is too loose after times it was a bit snug.

Will struggle to maybe not eat feelings - DS1 moving out on Friday, MH still iffy, feel a bit lonely, GCSE & A level results days looming, DD not 100%. Will just keep running, get back on the bike and walk the dog lots.

Have a good day everyone.

Cars, not cans.

You can do this QueenMabby

How nice someone stopped you sunshine, to say you looked good! 🤗

I cant remember if anyone said already but is anyone Vegan here? I'm just dipping my toe into thinking about it now, I'm not sure how it would go but I'm definitely interested in trying it. My OH is a massive carnivore so not sure how it would with our dinners etc. 🤔

Cans would sabotage me sunshine!
Well done on your run anyway and how lovely that someone stopped to compliment you! 💐 for the GCSE AND A-level results days. Not long now…

Cesca I tried Veganuary once and lasted 3 days! It wasn’t so much the meat that I missed but proper milk that tasted right in drinks and eggs and cheese. I also found it really hard to get my head around the volume you have to eat to not be hungry. That and the bloat from all the extra fibre really put me off. However a friend that did it at the same time as me really loved it and is a vegan still.

@CescaCesca I’ve done 2 veganuarys. Well the first one came to an abrupt end 2 weeks in when I got appendicitis but I did a full one this year. I’m pescatarian normally. I have to say I found it really hard! Dinners started to really bore me, I felt like everything I made was a different variation of the same thing, I felt a bit exhausted trying to come up with interesting things to eat and I really missed cheese and eggs. I quite liked milk alternatives so I could keep that up but missed having proper tea too.

My husband and sons are meat eaters. Husband very happily eats most things so our dinners are mostly vegetarian, sometimes I make him and boys a meat dinner and I have something else. One child is very, very fussy though so I cook him something separately so I think if I went vegan I’d end up cooking 3 separate dinners. If I lived alone I’d probably go vegan but it’s too much effort for me as things are.

I hate to add to the “being a vegan is so hard” narrative, but…I tried a vegan diet for a while and failed miserably. For me the biggest challenge was that, as I already have a long list of food intolerances, cutting out all animal products meant that my diet was starting to get ridiculously restrictive. So I settled for a vegetarian diet that is relatively low in diary. I’ve replaced milk with plant alternatives and cut dairy consumption down to usually one, but sometimes two portions a day. I only eat eggs if I can get them from one of the smallholders in the village, which is a rare event as they’re popular! I can’t get too worked up about honey, so that’s still on the table

I’m lucky in that my DH is much keener on living a vegan lifestyle than me. The kids never got a choice (shocking, I know 🙃).

Haha @Graphista you're right, I wasn't brought up in the 70s (80s baby ). I will try the paprika on cottage cheese though, it sounds good to me!

Today's dinner was mozzarella salad. Home grown salad leaves with basil, spring onion, picked red cabbage, carrot and topped with mozzarella and a bit of dressing. I had a busy day today and finished work late and typically would have ordered a takeaway so it's a small victory that I made salad instead. Trying to celebrate the little wins along the way as I have a long road ahead of me!

That salad sounds yummy Carolina. I love a good salad - had one for lunch today with quinoa and feta and it was lovely!

HM pizza for dinner. I weighed and logged mine and it was tiny for 650 calories!

Am finishing the day at 1505 calories though and 12.5k steps. Will need not to get on the scales tomorrow as I know it won’t have made any difference yet but will still be gutted!

@QueenMabby you don't have lots to lose.

I'm bad for "treating" using food too so I'm trying to go against that. Today's "treats" are a new puzzle book and new make up inc a nail Polish. Both are good for distracting mind and hands

@SunshineCake you're doing well with runs and nsv

It is hard/weird when the kids move out but it gives you more free time

@CescaCesca I'm veggie and dd omni so I just got used to adapting meals to account for us both what kind of meals do you normally make?

Some you can add the meat at the end, some you can make veggie/vegan versions and the omni can enjoy them too. Whatever works for you. I'll help if I can.

I find I sometimes have days that are "accidentally vegan" as there are so many new products coming on the market.

@CarolinaWeeper I suspected as much age wise you are but a youngster then!

Today was Asda delivery day.

So meal 1 was scrambled eggs with veggie bacon and a salad. This means I have added to my plant based count:

Iceberg lettuce
Red cabbage
Parsley

So I'm on...

25 I think.

Just heading off to make a veggie stir fry, not sure if I'll have with rice, noodles or cous cous.

Didn't have ryvita etc last night. Had falafel and rice instead as the rice needed using so I'm thinking I'd prefer noodles tonight.

But I have fresh coriander to use in the stir fry so that would be 26, I have tinned bamboo shoots and water chestnuts I could use that would take me to 28...

Could use some ginger and chilli in the stir fry to get me to 30?

Feeling weirdly competitive about this now! But don't think I could manage it every week!