LOSE IT! November 2021

[TheRealHousewife]

Hello & Welcome

October has flown by and now November is upon us! The outside temperature is actually warmer than this time last month, so feels quite unseasonal. Still have bumble bees and lady birds in the garden 😮. I for one do look forward to cosy nights by the fire and prepping for the coming festive season.

With just 59 days until Christmas there's still time to svelte up for the Christmas holidays. A part of my Christmas prep includes dropping a few extra lbs ‘to make room’ for a little foody extravagance… and a Baileys or two 😬

Carrying on from October’s thread, this is a space 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. The important thing is not to think of it as a diet (based on deprivation and unsustainable) but more a way of life (sustainable & enjoyable).

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

Blood Sugar Diet based on Mediterranean Recipes

Intermittent Fasting

MFP App also available.

25 Tips to lose weight & improve health

The Science behind sleep & weight gain

Holistic approaches to Eat Sleep Move Be

The Importance of Fibre

The Importance of Water for Weight Loss

I'm an ex-pat. I'm from Cornwall, and I now live in NSW Australia. I've been over here 12 years.

I try to stick to intermittent fasting, stop eating after an early dinner and eat a late breakfast.

Ok. I just weighed myself. I guess it's more than I really thought. But I'm willing to working to get that number down.

Start weight: 10 st 12

My initial goal is to lose a pound this coming week.

Hi, can I join in? I need to get serious about weight loss. I’d lost 5 stone and managed to keep it off for about 5 years, but started creeping up slowly a few years ago, and then lockdown and an accident had me back where I started over just 18 months. I also think I may have entered peri-menopause - I’m 48 and started having regular insomnia shortly into lockdown. Taking the mini pill which stops my periods, so hard to tell what’s going on in that area!

My current weight is 14st4 and I want to get to 9st4 so exactly 5 stone to loose.

I’m going to try the plan I did before: intermittent fasting having just lunch and dinner (trying for 16:8 but sometimes slides to closer to 18:6 as work sometimes means I don’t get lunch until late) and tracking in MFP. Eating in the evenings is my bane: I just can’t stop if I have anything! I generally feel a bit sick if I eat later in the day, and I think I just keep trying more foods in an attempt to settle my stomach, but it just makes it worse. So better to stay away from food overall later in the day. Bit of a struggle because it’s socially weird, but I know from past experience this is one of the most important features for my weight loss.

Just facing my first weekend morning on the new plan and realising what had developed as my regular breakfast is nearly all my daily calories! No wonder I was going up. Going to make changes from now on!

Good Morning All

@Youdoyoutoday If I was paying a coach and doing increased exercise I would take their advice; in the short term anyway. I’d start to measure my progress by NSV such as change in silhouette, tape measure readings, how clothes fit and more importantly how I feel. Also I think they mean upping calories in regards to quality protein sources and healthy fats (omega 3s) and not copious cream buns 🧁😬 Keep us posted.

@pennefabredux I love a good home made broth, especially from chicken carcass. All that lovely natural collagen 😋

@Graphista my plateau is because of thyroid issues coupled with eating to many cals (not too many for a fit and well abled body person, but is for a disabled person). If I reduce cals more it drastically affects my sleep and that’s poor as it is. I continually try to increase my activity, even in seemingly small ways, such as a potter around the garden. I need to get back into the habit of doing Lesley Sansone vids at home too but got out of the habit when I had my virus. It’s a continuous struggle but as long as I’m not week on week gaining I’m taking it as a win.

@swampytiggaa thank you for explaining. It’s fascinating and Self care is so important. I particularly enjoy aromatherapy massage but haven’t indulged for a few years.

@buzzofthebumblebee 12k is a great step count 👍👏

@fallfallfall I’m appalled to hear the staff can be nasty, especially when it’s already a stressful time for you. It isn’t kind or very professional.

@DownUdderer. Sensible initial goal of a 1lb 👍

A warm welcome @murmuration love he user name. I always feel joy when I see them up high in the sky. So beautiful seeing nature in total sync with itself. Your plan is very similar to mine = MFP, IF & 2 meals a day. It’s surprising how quickly cals can add up. I generally eat my cals rather than drink. But that’s easy for me as I don’t miss alcohol and don’t do coffee shop fancy coffees.

Menu
Meal 1 - Halloumi, kale, red pepper, carrot, butter bean stir fry.
Meal 2 - Baked cod with Parmesan crust, peas, carrots, broccoli.
Water, tea, black coffee. Conference pear.

I might cross post as been writing this on & off a while.

Have a great weekend!

Don't worry @TheRealHousewife I wasn't reaching for the cream cakes just yet

Welcome @murmuration. Huge well done for losing five stone. That is incredible and shows you have determination and know what works for you. I do intermittent fasting too, 16:8. I don't see the point in anything else as I only start fat burning in the last two hours. Lately I've been doing 17-19 hours of a fast but more my accident than design.

I had a lovely long walk with ddog and a friend and her dog, then week two day one of couch 25km rerun mark two plus then another seven minutes run. 1238 calories burnt. Chicken and rice for lunch. Crackers and cheese or pate for dinner. Feeling good.

Well done all you dedicated people.

Joining today. The scales read 11st 8, which is an all time high. I was planning to deal with this come January, but choosing to get an 8 week head start so I can start the year at 10st something instead.

I will be logging food and exercise on MFP, cutting back on the wine and chocolate, and doing Couch-2-5k. The last time I logged onto MFP I was apparently 9st4lbs. My aim is to get back to 10st, which is a nice weight for me, and maintain. 22 lbs to go!

Welcome @MyAnacondaMight and good luck!

We are going to meet up with friends of my dh later and they are making curry !! So I am mostly eating dust today to balance it out. I am also going to drive as I know I will have a 'fuck it' moment once I am a couple of glasses down.

Those of you kindly offering to help with food ideas . Thank you so much , I don't think I am really fussy but aubergine and fresh tomatoes are a bit grim to me. And porridge . I think they are all a texture thing.
But I do like mushrooms .

I am very impressed with the exercise and bootcamp activity.
@Graphista I am finding WW good so far but isn't that the case with every diet plan ever for the first week ? fingers crossed it lasts. Apparently they are changing the plan soon as well.

So scales did say 1lb down from monday which is far more than I was expecting, given dinner out thursday (with 2 cocktails) and random food choices out on the run wednesday. But agree Time it's about balancing out food during the day to enjoy evening out. Enjoy your curry with friends this eve!

Pumpkin muffins sound delicious fall. Thanks for the nudge to get on the scales too ; ) I really do empathise btw ... would not wish what you are going through on anyone ... keep positive

Well done @buzzofthebumblebee.

Mine were up. Dh didn't believe my exercise today use the calories my watch said. He said it probably wasn't registering my correct weight. I weighed to check. Was only 1.5kg wrong and then I saw I had gained. Bummer.

@SunshineCake1 I really hope so!

@Yoyo2021 everyone has their own journey comparison is largely pointless we all have different bodies and circumstances. Re after 6pm that's not a view I hold with so can't answer on that I rarely eat BEFORE 6 pm!

@swampytiggaa yes my friend that did the aromatherapy massages picked up on stuff I hadn't told her prior to as well. She noted the endo, the recurrent tonsillitis and lung issues and there was no way she could have known this other than what she could feel via the massage and my responses during it the endo wasn't even dx at that point but I had my suspicions

@buzzofthebumblebee haha yea I try not to do that with the measuring tape and keep things honest! 

@DownUdderer Cornwall is a part of the world I know vaguely I don't know nsw but have family and friends that live there 1-2lbs a week is recommended pace

@murmuration welcome I've had a similar shock re the number of calories I WAS consuming prior to embarking on the weight loss small changes actually make a big difference you've done it before so you can do it again. I lost 2 stone with ww mostly kept that off but still wasn't a healthy weight. Then gained about 3/4 stone over lockdown (even though in theory I was in lockdown already my habits changed due to difficulties with supermarket deliveries)

@TheRealHousewife you and I are SO similar. I suspect an under active thyroid here too, but because I have a Mh dx it's murder getting taken seriously with physical stuff! It's always put down to "well she's nuts" 

@MyAnacondaMight great attitude and approach i think get a head start

@Timetobuckup good luck with ww as I say worked for me back in the day - but why they constantly change the plan I don't know! So confusing for people but then it's probably a money making ploy as then people have to buy all the new books etc so they know where they are with points!

It's the lack of a replacement for the usual carrots and salads I think I'm struggling with I need to maybe consider more veggies in other ways - I need to make soup! Cup a soups help a bit as while not nutritionally great they're low cal and fill me up (yes I recognise it's the fluid!)

Just did an online test. Seems I have bipolar .

Hello! I’m joining in the fun if that’s ok. My weight has slowly crept up and I’ve found myself at 146lbs (10 stone 4). I’m looking to shed a stone in total, but I’d be happy with a pound or two a week.

The hard part for me is I’m a professional bakery student, so I’ve often got delicious bread/cakes/biscuits in the kitchen! I don’t deny myself treats, but maybe just one cookie a day instead of 6

My aim is 1400 cals a day, 12,000 steps a day, I do a martial arts class twice a week and lifting weights twice a week also. Good luck to everyone this month! I hope we all achieve what we are setting out to

@SunshineCake1 is that something you'd talk to a doctor about if you feel you could. I'm sure they have different diagnosis methodology. My friend has bipolar she's awesome. You're awesome too.

I'm having a good day. Weetbix for breakfast and scrambled eggs for lunch.

Welcome @Grannybaby. How lovely to be able to bake for a job!

Thanks @DownUdderer. I'm certainly not feeling awesome. I'm not sure if the online test is believable but it wasn't a surprise. I've had feelings of highs and then crashing lows in a short space of time since I was a teenager and I have had depression more times than I can count. Right this minute I know what is making me unhappy but I'm not sure any tablet would help. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can be running Every day. At least I can walk the dog.

Gorgeous autumnal day where I am today, so walked dog, made roast chicken dinner, laundry, and that's about it. Feeling rather tired, so will have bath and early to bed today. Hope for a burst of energy tomorrow for a gym session 1st thing before another busy work week.

What I have NOT eaten: brownies, flapjack, and apple crumble! Watched my family all enjoy, but I have resisted. Go me!!

I did try on old jeans - I've got 3 pairs of the same size & fit - but alas my legs are still too chunky to pull up. I honestly can't remember what weight I was to have been living in the same jeans to have 3 pairs. Size 30 waist. But I long to be back in them!! My wardrobe is so full of different size clothes, most I haven't been able to wear for a while. Here's hoping soon!

Hope everyone are having a good day and enjoyed fireworks. Must be kind to yourselves / ourselves !

10 mile race today. Dragged my companion around 😂😂 she really struggled from 7 miles tbh.

Gorgeous weather for it tho!

I’ve eaten too much today but I don’t care. Stuck with my fasting tho 👍

10 miles is extremely impressive! Well done.

I was aiming for 6 km walk today, I've clocked up 5.2km, so I need a few more steps this afternoon! Sometimes I just walk around the house a few times getting the steps in!

I'm trying to drink plenty of water.

Thanks for the welcome!

@SunshineCake1- how can you tell when you're fat burning? I do it mostly because of my inability to stop eating in the afternoon/evening (plus, I'd have to have smaller meals than I'm happy with to have 3 meals a day!).

I'm finding all sorts of bad habits I've picked up - I had massive urges to snack while cooking. I gave in on Saturday lunch (just a few grapes), but it is clear I've picked up the habit of grabbing something quick from the fridge or cabinet while cooking. I resisted on Sunday. Also sneaking a few bits as I'm making DD's dinner (when I should be fasting).

Also MFP is making me realise I've been quite short on sodium - I have dysautonomia and need to keep my sodium intake up, but because of DH's allergies we tend to cook mostly from scratch so in fact have very low levels. My goal is to hit 2000-3000mg and I was below 1000 regularly. It may be that some of my urge to eat in the evening is a craving for salt - I did find that sneaking nacho chips or other salty things felt "best". So I've gone back to having broth both breakfast and evening, which gets me 600mg each time, and that definitely helped.

@murmuration the app tells me what state I am in. I've currently been fasting for 15 hours and I'm in catabolic state. I'm doing 20 hours as we had a really early dinner last night. I eat twice a day and sometimes have a small snack at 3pm.

Hope you had a good nights sleep @buzzofthebumblebee and good luck with the gym. I went to bed at 8.30, read for ten minutes then admitted defeat. Shortly I'll get up and go for a run, day five of couch 25km so not run as in before GF.

Well done on your run @swampytiggaa!

I've also been known to walk around the house just to do the 10000 steps @DownUdderer! These days with walking the dog I usually get them in but haven't checked for ages.

Morning all - sounds like everyone had much more active weekends than me. 10 miles is an impressive run - even at my lowest weight I could only do 10k, and that was a mix of jogging and walking!

Eldest and I spent about 2 hours gardening on Saturday to fill up our garden bin (it gets collected today) however I've now caught the cold he's been sniffling with for the past week, so I spent most of yesterday under the duvet feeling sorry for myself. Feeling a little better today (thanks to the work of cold & flu tablets!) so going to try going for a walk later after I finish work.

Diet has not been great because I've felt rough, however I did buy a load of chocolate on Friday (as Christmas presents) and have resisted the urge to eat any of it, which is good. This is an improvement on the usual Chocolate Orange Christmas debacle (every year I buy 3 x chocolate Oranges for Christmas stockings. One year I ended up rebuying 3 twice, basically because I kept eating them.(blush) No more!

Keep reminding myself that I'm 50 in just over 6 months and really would like to be a size 14 for that at least (currently an 18).

Keep it up everyone!

I had a healthy weekend, plus two C25K sessions - and then my neighbours dropped round some birthday cake last night. Sweet of them, but bad timing. Cake is sat in some Tupperware while I consider what to do with it!

Eat it! You've been running.

10miles is very impressive Swampy - well done. Max I've ever done is 14k.

Wrap up the chocolate quick fatlump !! Re-buying is my trick too ; )

Gym was good thanks Sunshine. Weights, resistance & core today. And how are you? What are you going to do with your self-diagnosis? Is it a relief knowing that there is something? I say that because I had my own thing going on yesterday, and I self-diagnosed myself as a HSP (Highly Sensitive Person). I ticked all the boxes. Was a bit of a revelation tbh. Nothing I can do with it, but just acceptance as to who I am.

Just had lovely lunch of leaves, salmon, seeds, 1/2 avocado and baby tomatoes with a splash of dressing.

Would salted popcorn work Murm? crunch and salt without the carbs and calories (I think?)

Hope everyone have a great week, low cal food choices, plenty of steps, and see the scales shift on Weds.