Here we go…

[MrsHippopotamus]

I lost 10lb at the back end of last year… weighed myself this morning and I’ve put on just over 8lb over Christmas! I don’t even feel like I overate that much. I blame the baileys.

Anyway, today is a new start, going to get that weight back off and lose another stone on top.

MFP is my friend again and today shall be somewhat of a fasting day as I’ve got so much to do and feel horribly bloated.
Day 4 of no alcohol, going to keep that going for as long as possible as it’s empty calories and my evening wine was becoming far too much.

SW - 10st 8.8lb
GW - 9st

Goal weight for now is back to 10st.

Feel free to join or at least wish me luck 😬

Ahhh blow it, I'll weigh tomorrow too! 😀

Aww lol yeah me too. Weigh just before I get dressed although I don't feel like I've lost anything recently, so not going to bother. Worked really hard tonight. 20mins slow walk on treadmill and 10 mins imaginary hoola hoops (not sure if there's a proper name for it), but nice muscle stretch.

Haven't felt bloated much last couple of days so quite pleased about that.

Checking in here - I'm not going to weigh in this am- as not 100% sure I've lost anything

But I will on Monday morning, after I've been low carbing for a full week, as surely to goodness there has to be some change then ..

Good luck with your weigh ins this morning, may the scales say what you'd like them to say

And the results are….. -3.2lb

Scales are now reading 10st 5.6
Not too bad considering I ate quite a bit over the weekend.

Morning all, weighing in at 10st 5 so I’m happy with that, given my shaky start.
I decided I’d start logging on MFP again after all. Seeing it written down motivates me more. It said my starting weight 3 years ago was 10st 10 so the fact I’m starting here again at 10st 7 is frustrating, I basically went back to my old habits.
BUT I’ll take the small loss and keep going.

Plan for today is to limit coffee to just the one. More green tea. Hot water with lemon, which I enjoyed yesterday.
Food wise, NO naughty snacks! Salad for lunch. Tacos for dinner with the kids.

Omg amazing all!!!
I've lost 1.5 pounds since Monday which I'm chuffed about. Might be a stretch but I'm really hoping for another 2 pounds off this week!

Wahey! Well done all!
I agree about MFP, I need to see it in black & white or I just start kidding myself.

Feeling quite rough today. Not covid thankfully but I’m feeling wiped out and pretty sore from the workouts this week.
Might take a rest day instead. I’ve been on a mini walk which is better than nothing.

I’ve realised I need to start listening to my body more. I’m not going to restrict my calories too much as my hair has only just started thickening up again and I don’t want it to fall out like last time 😆
So if I need a few more cals to get me through today, then so be it, I just won’t go crazy.

Let’s have a good mindful eating day everyone!

@Wednesdayafternoon I’d love another 2lbs off this week!
The few pounds I’ve put on don’t sound like a lot but I really do feel it.

Hooray, well done people

I'm on 63.2kg this morning, so down about 1.5lb from where I started earlier this week 🎉

Trying to stay off the snacks and sugar today. I've just had some seeded bread, hummus and tomatoes for my breakfast, that should keep me going until lunch time.

Well done everyone!
MrsH did your hair really fall out? Do you know what caused it?

My skin gets really spotty if I’ve had too much sugar/chocolate. I always thought that was a myth but it definitely happens to me. I’ve got oily skin anyway but I get bad breakouts and can always link it to a chocolate binge a few days earlier. So I’m hoping a reduction in that, plus more green tea and lemon will massively help my skin.

Yeah I thought logging everything was too time consuming, but as it remembers my favourites from before, I can mostly speed through it, and I’m just not being too pedantic about finding exactly the right things. As long as I know roughly a slice of bread, say, the brand or weight doesn’t vary too much, a few calories here and there won’t matter.

It did 😔 I noticed quite a bit of hair fall to begin with, loose hair in my bed etc, then when looking in the mirror I could quite clearly see my scalp!
It was quite the confidence knocker.

Had some blood tests done expecting my iron to be low, but it was fine. The only thing low was my vitamin d levels.
So I can only put it down to my diet. I wasn’t eating enough, and I particularly wasn’t getting in enough protein.
After a lot of reading up on it, I found out that because hair isn’t essential to life, the body will not put any effort into maintaining it if you don’t have enough fuel to run the rest of your body. If that makes sense.
And once I started eating more, my hair started growing back! Coincidence? I think not!

So ladies, don’t go cutting out meals or half starving yourself! It’s just not worth it, your body just will not function properly.

Sorry, that was quite long and rambling!

No that’s good to hear! It’s about balance isn’t it. I try to aim for a good range of foods across the week. I don’t think anyone can have a perfect diet every single day. It makes me laugh when people post their day’s food and ask for comments. Of course everyone piles on that’s there’s not enough dairy, not enough protein, not enough vegetables, not enough carbs. It’s impossible to eat plenty of each group in a day, but I think it evens out over the week. So of course a snapshot of one day might look carb-heavy if I’d had a curry with rice, and the next day might look too low if I’ve had chicken and veg. But I’m sure the body gets what it needs overall. I’m not going to eat a handful of nuts every day, but once a week I’m sure is fine.

I think MFP is recommending 1200 kcals for me, which to some people sounds very low, but have to take into account I’m only 5’4” and am quite sedentary during the day. I’m sure some people would faint on that amount of calories, but maybe they’re much taller, more active etc. For my height I’d say I need to lose a good stone to be where I’m comfortable. I mostly need to lose the tummy weight, and I already feel better in myself by not feeling so bloated after dinner.

Yep, I absolutely agree. One 24hrs isn’t important, I find it’s how it’s spread over the week that counts.
MFP is handy for this, if you click nutrition at the bottom of the diary page it’s tells you your weekly average calories. I find this much more helpful, if I go over one day, I can make up for it the next and it all balances out. Same for nutrition, like you say, one day might be carb heavy, the other not.

I was given 1200 calories on MFP. And it does bloody work.
My problem was, I ended up eating closer to 1000 calories. On the days where I was over 1200 cals, it was because the calories were coming from wine 🤦‍♀️🙄 obviously no nutrition there.
So alcohol is out the window for now.

I’m not sure how accurate my Apple Watch is, but on an active day it says I burn up to 2300 cals (this isn’t everyday) So I’m aiming for just under 1500.

And yes, tummy is my problem area too!

A few people recommended not logging exercise on MFP - and not ‘eating back’ the calories and I think that’s good advice, not that I’m doing much yet anyway. But I think any exercise is just a bonus, because the calories it tells you that you’ve used can vary so much person by person. So I would still aim to stay around 1200 even if I’d supposedly used 500 extra by going for a run.

I don’t really drink alcohol unless I’m going out for an evening with friends, and that’s so rare these days, so it’s not an issue for me. But at least you do log it, I think some people forget to include drinks when they log everything, but there can be so many calories depending on what you’re drinking. Once I started logging my sugar in coffee, I realised that was a lot of empty calories adding up. That’s why I’m switching some to green tea.

I saw a doctor on tv say that things like Starbucks frappucinos should be classed as desserts, not drinks, because they’re so laden with calories. If I had one, it would have to be instead of lunch, not as well as!

Well done everyone - amazing!!!!

That’s another problem of mine. Quite a few calories get used up by my tea & coffee. I have 2 sugars in both and milk 🙈 if I could just cut out the sugar then I’d be much better off.
Luckily I don’t buy drinks when I’m out & about anymore, I just think they’re a complete waste of money. But I agree that some of those Starbucks & Costa drinks can be absolutely shocking.
Makes sense that they should be classified as a dessert!

Might try and wean myself off the sugar in hot drinks… one thing at a time though 😜

Have you tried switching to brown sugar? I find it gives a different flavour, so use a bit less? Or honey is really nice, and although it’s still sugar, again it gives a different flavour and feels more natural.

I’ve just logged everything my today on MFP inspired by this thread. Actually I feel loads better!! I realise I’m only eating 1200-1300 calories actually per day and I’m quite active all day and I’m also fairly tall!! I just need to maintain that over the weekend, then I’d easily be at my target weight!

That’s good Kimmy, how much do you want to lose?
From what you’ve been posting, your meals sound great, so if it’s just a few sugary coffees and a few snacks that you need to cut out, I’m sure you’ll be fine.

I need more of an overhaul of my diet, so it’s harder to break habits. I’ve been really good today and stuck to my plan, but I have to admit I’ve spent most of the day thinking about food. Not necessarily craving it, but thinking about what I’m eating, what I’m drinking, what my meal plan is for tomorrow, what I’ll buy on my next supermarket shop. It’s mentally tiring. I think tomorrow I need to do some chores or go for a walk to distract myself.

Thanks @SingaporeSlinky ! Yes it’s just weekend snacks and sugary hot drinks really. It don’t weigh myself but I’m just feeling a bit bloated, slightly tight in my clothes and my face is puffy. I wasn’t like this two years ago - the snacking and coffee habits have come through lockdown and stayed. It’s a slow creep up of weight that I want to stop. I find it a lot easier if I eat the same sort of thing at the same time of day so I don’t have to mentally plan all the time - but still with enough choice that I don’t get bored! So I have three different breakfast options that I know I like and work for me that I select one of and have at a certain time. Same with other meals. We choose what we’ll have one week in advance and buy it in (do online shopping so we can select from the usual favourites on the list and not buy other things we spot in the shop). I genuinely only eat things that I love though - just in smaller portions and the healthiest version of them I can. I’m so used to it now that it’s almost automated to eat those things at that time. For me, I need to find a weekend rhythm that works because mon-fri are fab and then I just go wild!! 😂 This weekend I’m going to try planning out my breakfast and one other healthy light meal (maybe soup or something similar) and that leaves room for spontaneity the other meal. Either dinner out or a takeaway or something. We’ll see how that goes!!

Ohhh and the weekend wine! I need to limit that too.

That sounds great. Hopefully I’ll get into a good rhythm like that.
Yes I think the odd meal out or takeaway, or few drinks or whatever is absolutely fine if you can build it in by a lighter meal before or after.

I tend not to be hungry in the morning and focus on getting the kids ready for school, but then by 10am is when I start reaching for biscuits and crisps, which I know is terrible. I’ve been good this week though, so I need to get myself into a good sustainable routine too.