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

@Graphista I've just started a tapestry to keep my mind and hands busy if I get bored, and I'm hoping it'll help my arms movement after my surgery next week. I've read that your arms become like a T-rex after the op!

Diet wise I'm sticking to it well, it's a good habit now and I don't find myself tempted by any "bad" food. Weigh day on first of August so I'll know if I'm still on track. Good luck everyone!

Morning everyone! I’m still recovering from my mega week at work last week. It reminds me that I’m not as young as I was 😂😂

Day off today. Was going to get up and do a treadmill run but decided to stay in bed instead. I think it was a wise choice tbh.

Food has been a bit hit and miss for various reasons but I’m still keeping away from the biscuits. Slipping back into a chocolate habit tho which I will definitely have to reign in again.

@QueenMabby I think we have similar goals… I am losing on average 2lb a month which is slow but steady. I go up and down but each month I’m lighter than the one before which is my goal. I aim for minimum 15k steps a day and 3 litres of water which helps. I’ve cut out biscuits cut down on crisps and try to add veg or salad to my evening meals. It’s sustainable and it’s working.

Good luck!

Good Morning Everyone

Thank you for the warm welcome back ladies! ❤️

@SunshineCake pleased you got your run in and how lovely to be complemented. Fabulous!

I popped on scales today. Up again. I was initially puzzled as didn’t eat much yesterday. When I went to the fridge for the milk for my coffee I saw the left over pear, date, pecan with oat and almond topping crumble from last night 😳. I’d totally forgotten I’d had some 😬 I regret nowt!

Menu
Meal 1:- Kale, red onion, red pepper, leek, broccoli & butter bean stir fry.
Meal 2: - Chicken tray bake. Pear crumble (just a small piece 😳😬)

Enjoy your day❤️

Hi ladies, may I please join 👋

I'm 33, 5'7" and on Monday I weighed in at 75.5kg. Admittedly some of that was bloat from returning from a 2 week holiday culminating in a wedding party but still!

My initial goal is to hit a healthy BMI (I need to double check but I think that's around 72kg for me), followed then by breaking that 70kg barrier (it's been 3 years I think). In my head my ultimate goal would be to lose 15kg and reach 60kg but I haven't been that weight in so long that I think I need to reassess at each milestone in case I'm actually fine to stay at 68/65/63 or whatever.

The plan is to:
-cut out snacking in between meals unless it's eg an apple

• Really cut back on alcohol as OH and I can easily polish off 4-5 bottles of wine together in a week.
• get back into exercising... Initially maybe just 1-2 workouts a week and see how it goes
• restrict my calories to stay under maintenance most days

As you can see I'm easing myself into it atm - I don't feel ready to get back into 1200cals/day or making promises of exercising 5x per week. I think I'd just fall off the wagon the first week like that so baby steps it is.

To add a bit of background - I think I'll be doing IVF end of the year /beginning of next year so this is my opportunity to get fighting fit for that and pregnancy. I also like the idea of then having a smaller mountain to climb in terms of weight loss after pregnancy if I get things under control now - but also my fear is to finally get pregnant and loathe how I look in pictures during the happiest time of my life.

Sorry for the novel! Looking forward to chatting to you all :)

Welcome to the thread @Juno231. Starting slowly makes a lot of sense. I’ve certainly found it much easier (and more sustainable) to make changes slowly. It takes time and a bit of effort for each change to become a habit, so trying to change lots of things all at once and setting very ambitious targets just doesn’t work for a lot of people. One step at a time is a great starting point!

Hi @Juno231 and welcome! I’m with you on the baby steps - it seems so overwhelming to have a large loss goal AND the challenge of low cals and lots of exercise too.
Changing small habits one at a time is a good option.
Maybe pick two nights a week for alcohol and abstain for the rest of the week? That by itself should make a difference.
You’ll definitely be giving yourself the best chance for IVF if you are well nourished and healthy.

Hi everyone

Nothing wrong with the 🐢🐢club @swampytiggaa! @Puffaliciousand I are founder members

Maybe you were up because you didn't eat much @TheRealHousewife? Enjoy your crumble later!

Welcome @Juno231 and fingers crossed for a thread baby.

I went for a run today but managed to turn my watch off when I was trying to get it to pick up my heart rate after I'd done about 3km. All in I ran about 11.5km with ten sprint sessions as per recommended by my triathlete neighbour. Weight is down on yesterday. Monthly loss so far is just over a pound and a half but it's still a loss 🐢🐢

@SunshineCake I’m very happy with being a 🐢 😊 reckon it’s more likely to stay off coming off slow

Well done on your running! I’m properly slipping back with mine 😂😂

A warm welcome @Juno231, it’s great to have you join us. Your plan sounds very doable and sustainable and it would be marvellous to have a thread baby 👶.

@SunshineCake you might be right. Although I think my scales are malfunctioning…. Honest. I can weigh several times in succession and the weights vary by as much as 3lbs 🤷‍♀️. Not buying any yet as need a new iPad first.

In other news I was woken in night by a very painful cramp/spasm in my calm. It remains painful and I can feel a knot in it. One night some time soon I’m hoping to sleep through 😴

Enjoying the last of the sun before the forecasted rains …. It’s quite wintery here today. Blustery, sunny and showers.

Welcome @Juno231 we seem to have quite similar goals. I am also 5’7 and my initial goal was to get to healthy bmi. I’m now 66kg and would like to be 60kg eventually. Also going slow and steady but getting there. I think cutting back on alcohol has made a big difference for me.

Stress of lockdowns, not seeing family (far away) I was drinking more than I used to last year but since cutting back losing weight has been much easier.

I am also ttc (baby 3) but god knows when that will be it’s taking a lot longer than the first 2 but happy I’ve had the chance to lose weight before as I had an 18 month gap between my first 2 and didn’t lose any weight at all before I had baby #2.

Enjoying the sunshine here today after all the rain the last few days. Been out at the park with my boys all morning so I’ve probably done a lot of steps but my Fitbit needs charging so not sure how many but certainly feels like I’ve done a lot!

I just remembered that I promised to post my findings from “Why calories don’t count”, but never did. Anyway, the main conclusion from the book is that, contrary to what the title suggests, calories DO matter. But the calorie estimates we see on food packaging are not the same as the energy that’s actually available to our bodies.

Protein has the biggest difference between the numbers that you see on the package and what your body can absorb, then carbohydrates and finally fat, which is pretty much all absorbed.

The book has a few recommendations for a healthy diet, but worth noting that it’s NOT a diet book. Weightloss itself still comes down to having a calorie deficit. Anyway, the recommendations:

eat ENOUGH protein (just getting 16% of your energy from protein qualifies as enough according to book’s author. I easily manage that on my low dairy vegetarian diet, so I doubt that anyone who eats eggs, meat or dairy needs to worry about this one)

• eat LESS meat
• eat MORE fibre
• eat MORE plant based foods
• eat LESS sugar (the recommendation in the book is to aim for no more than 5% of your energy from added sugar, or sugar in fruit juices)

And that’s pretty much it!

Next I’m planning to read “Why we eat (too much)”. I’ve read some of the threads on MN about that book/ way of eating and I get the impression it’s a bit of a combination of really sensible advice and some more wacky stuff to keep things interesting. I guess I should reserve judgement until I’ve actually read it though 😂

Anybody else logging food but not counting calories. I know that it's the best way, but I've yoyo-ed so much and I find I get a bit too obsessed with numbers after a while.

I'm just writing down what I eat with the eye of being mindful of what I eat as its so easy to just snack all day

@Elle200 good luck with the op! What you having done? Enjoy the tapestry. I've not done one in years but debating ordering one but I'm only on 2nd cross stitch this time around and I think I need more practice still.

@swampytiggaa I'm feeling my age too! Had a few wobbles this week - literally!

Taking time to rest, to recharge batteries is as important as any other health choice

@TheRealHousewife I've 3/4lb on which is annoying!

I need to look over last weeks food diary, see where I'm going wrong. I suspect it may simply be the change from a very active week to an inactive one which couldn't be avoided.

@Juno231 welcome to you

If you're naturally a snacker I think you could be setting yourself up to fail if you just decide to cut it out. Perhaps instead plan for healthier/lower cal snacking?

Alcohol is a tough one as it is metabolised weirdly too. I'm not a big drinker never have been (dad was alcoholic so I'm wary) but it's so easy to drink calories generally

I'm doing the same on restricting cals but rather than just cutting down how much I'm eating I've switched to less calorie dense foods

There's a theory that in terms of volume we eat roughly the same most days, and that as humans most of us eat roughly the same volume. But it's the calorie density that differs.

Baby steps is the way I'm doing it too. Hit 1/2 stone off last week but slight gain this week.

I can relate to the baby thing slightly. I lost 3 before dd, I have endo which was dx after last mc. But I also did my own research at the time and as a result cut right down on additives generally, ate as naturally as possible before ttc again inc cutting out caffeine and alcohol altogether. Can cause bun fights on here! But there was significant research even back then (almost 22 years ago my dd 21 next birthday) that caffeine even relatively small amounts can impact fertility and possibly contribute to mc etc so I cut it out. Where I got caught out was I was unaware I was addicted! I quit cold turkey and within a day was feeling lousy! There was a flu going about so I thought it was that, never occurred to me it was the caffeine. Went drs (I have asthma and other lung issues so when I get flu I have to go drs) and luckily he quickly figured out what was up and advised me to wean myself off rather than quit cold. He was right. Really shocked me how strong the effect was on my body!

@SunshineCake well done on the run and the loss! Definitely 🐢 club is the way to go. Supposedly if you lose it slowly but steadily you're more likely to keep it off.

Much cooler and gloomier here I don't like it very hot but it's nice when it's dry and sunny

@Graphista, thank you! I'm having bilateral mastectomy as I have breast cancer again, op is on 6th of August.

@Juno231 hello and welcome :) You don't have much to lose at all so I'm sure you'll do just fine and be happy with your weight very soon!

@Crazzzycat thank you for your book report! I do look forward to the next one!

@TheLastStark I don't food log I just count calories and it's worked for me so far. When I was part of a psychology group on "our relationship with food", I kept a food log but found it an awful chore. I did have two small children at the time though which wouldn't have helped!!

Thanks for all thoughts on going Vegan. I am really intrigued but also it does sound hard 😅 I would definitely miss eggs and cheese, at first anyway. I'm going to ponder it some more. Graph, our usual dinners are all meat/fish based - chicken/pork stir fry, Spanish chicken, salmon & veg, fajitas, chilli con carne, sausage pasta... 🤔

@thelaststark, I don't count calories because that's not how I want to go on once I've lost the weight IYSWIM. I usually meal plan (Inc. Any snacks) and that's enough for me. Not that I always stick to it!!!

Hello & Welcome Juno! 👋🏻
Good Luck for 6th August Elle200 💕

Weigh Day for me today, 2 LB loss 🥳
Although I am finishing July, exactly where I started 🙈🤣 just a few ups and downs in the middle. Ah well, at least it's back off. For now...
My birthday is first week in August so I am going to relax the reigns slightly, whilst keeping up the usual good habits of exercise & lots of water. A bit of damage control! I have a few meals out with friends/takeaways planned so I know it's not gonna be easy to be good! 🎂 🎈

Forgot to add stats -

SW: 12 st 1 lb
CW: 9 st 11lb
GW: 9 st

Last weigh in of the month for me. 9 st 11 lb. Down 2lb this month. I'm going to a wedding tomorrow and on holiday Monday so will definitely gain and I'm ok with that. Will just start again after hols.

Cesca your start weight and current weight are pretty much same as mine lol although I'm not sure what my goal weight is yet. How tall are you out of curiosity?

joysmoy we are in sync 😅
I am 5 ft 5! I'm aiming for pre baby weight!!

Haha I'm 5 5 as well!

Well done on all those losses! Sorry to hear it’s a gain for you this week @Graphista. That really is frustrating.

I tried out some of the snazzy measurements on my scales today. I can’t say I’m impressed with the results. 35% body fat apparently 😬 If that’s correct, that would be a little unusual as I’m very close to having a healthy BMI, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the scales are a bit off. Still, I’ll keep an eye on it and hopefully I’ll see a rapid decrease

Hmmm. That does seem quite high @Crazzzycat. I’ve just ordered myself some wizzy scales (arriving tomorrow) so we can compare. I like to think I’m quite muscly but know that I’m starting to get a bit fatter around my middle (thank you peri menopause!) so it may be higher than I think. My current old faithful scales only do kg or stones and pounds and only count whole pounds so I’m hoping these new ones will show losses even if they’re small (proud member of the 🐢 club!).

I’d be interested to know what your scales tell you @QueenMabby. I felt a bit gutted to be honest. If that really is my body fat percentage, then I’m not sure where it’s all hiding.

Interestingly, I’ve just added up the percentages for fat, water and muscle and it adds up to 115%. Not sure if I still have the user manual, but that does seem a bit odd🤔

Ignore that! Google tells me those fat, water and muscle percentages shouldn’t add up to 100% as water in fat and muscle is counted twice.

Hope your op goes well @Elle200. Sorry you are going through such a hard time.

I'm not calorie counting at all. I'm back on my IF properly and usually do a good 18-19 hours. Been running today and did sprints but my watch is full so won't tell me my km times which is annoying. DH is trying to sort it. I didn't weigh as didn't think but I'm recording July 1st before running I was 11 stone 1.8lb, after my run I was 10 stone 13. Then yesterday I was 10 stone 11.4 so not a huge loss but it is a bigger gross loss as I went up to 11 0.8 maybe twice so I'm claiming a win plus my running has got really good.

Well done on your loss @CescaCesca .

@joysmoy66 great loss for you too, well done . Enjoy the wedding and don't weigh for a week . Miss out the knowledge of a potential increase.

DS1 has moved to his placement year house-share this morning so I'm feeling a bit fragile. DH knows I'm struggling and is doing all he can to keep me from getting too upset. DS got up early and baked me some cookies before he went ❤️.