LOSE IT! January 2022 - Thread 2

[TheRealHousewife]

Following on from January Thread 1

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022 🍾 🎊 🎉 🍾

Fresh new year, fresh new start, fresh new habits. Jump right in to reset & refresh to become a healthier version of yourself.

As no one size fits all, members need to follow their own way of eating. 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. 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).

I calorie count based on a lower carb Mediterranean diet. I intermittent fasting and eat twice a day.

Are you in😊 What food plan will you be following? What do you want to change and why?

Useful Link - more to follow

Good morning all,

Yesterday-
Breakfast and lunch both Slimfast shakes, Caramel and Chocolate respectively.
Snacks, Asda Great Shape Cereal Bars, moreish mint and zesty orange.
Dinner was homemade meatloaf with steamed veg. Recipe off the internet for 6, my son and I ate it between us. This is my problem, if it's there, I'll eat it. New food box arrives today, so it's back to healthy eating until next Tuesday, hopefully I'll make a better choice then.

Weigh-in this morning, 17st 1, so back to where I was the day before yesterday, so actually not as bad as I was expecting.

I was a little in shock last night, ex-husband picked our son up from school yesterday and brought him here, they play video games together here for a few hours once a week. He's living with a friend as he hasn't got around to buying a new house yet, so he can't have DS over there. He popped in to the office where I was working and said he's looking for somewhere to live, can he live in my spare room! He offered basically his entire half of the equity from our old house. I said no, of course, then he went into the next room to play games and I sat and cried for 10 minutes.

He put his head round the door as he was leaving to check he hadn't upset me with his question earlier, I lied and said "no". Why do I do that?

A loss of 1 lbs on the scales for me this morning. Bearing in mind I’ve not stuck to my diet at all this week, I’m more than happy with that.

I realised earlier this week that may be my old calorie allowance isn’t high enough for me any more, now that I’m rowing practically every day. It’s both a calorie burner and a muscle builder, and may be the calories I’ve been trying to aim for are just not enough to sustain the changes I’ve been seeing in my body. I think that might be why I’ve not managed to stick to my diet at all for the last six weeks, yet still lost a small amount of weight and a significant amount of body fat.

So, this week I’m experimenting with an extra 200 calories a day. That’s a lot less than what I’ve been chomping my way through over the last 6 weeks, but interestingly I’ve not had the urge to empty the cupboards of every biscuit, packet of crisps and chocolate bar in sight. May be I’m on to something. It’ll be interesting to see what impact it has on my weightloss rate.

@8stone13 I think a lot of people have a skewed idea of what a healthy weight looks like. That might be why people are shocked when you’ve mentioned that you want to drop down to 8 stone something? When I was a lot lighter, I used to get this a lot with medical professionals. Even though my BMI was around 22, they thought I looked underweight and that I was hiding an eating disorder. I have the kind of body type that hides excess weight reasonably well, but I think it’s very telling that even some doctors don’t know what a healthy weight looks like 🤷🏻‍♀️

That sounds really tough @Zalen. I can’t believe he suggested moving into the spare room! I don’t know what your relationship with you ex is like, but that sounds like it would have been an absolute recipe for disaster.

I think you’re just trying to signal to him that you are coping, which you are! It’s just that sometimes coping involves a few tears Good for you for standing your ground and having firm boundaries.

I love how everyone is measuring weight in different units. It's super awesome!

@Zalen that sounds like a rough situation. But well done you for sticking to boundaries. I have no idea what your relationship is like, but don't worry about lying when he asked. He's an ex and probably for a reason. You'll get stronger day by day and get to the point where you can confidently tell him what you want.

I'm posting quickly as can't get my screen to work for long and if I get it back on my TIO I won't lose you.

Weigt wise I'm the same as last week. Oh no I'm not. I'm a pound down on last Wednesday . January nett loss so far is only 2lb (gross was just over 3lbs) but my claim today is I did 6km on the treadmill. My longest on there so far. Have to laugh that I used to be able to run 10-15km outside!

Welcome to the 🐢🐢club @Raspberry12. It's not a bad place to me.

Hello all,

So I'm totally letting the side down today with a gain . Knew it would happen as it's been a crappy week. Re focused, take a copy of @TheRealHousewife 's image from this morning. Meals logged and I will do this.

So todays plan
Meal 1 : Salad with low fat prawn cocktail and some Cous Cous with butternut squash
Meal 2 : Mediterranean gnocchi bake

Have strapped up the poorly wrist and am off to the gym tonight. Popped a banana in my bag to fuel me through the work out. One of my covid colleagues is finally testing negative so the staff levels are getting back to normal and I can breathe again!!!

Those that eat porridge, do you use milk or water? I’ve always used milk, so today I thought I’d try water, to save the 100cals, but as I suspected, tastes a little watery. Do you get used to it? And are any fruits particularly good at making it sweeter? I’ve used maple syrup, not sure I’d like it plain.

@allCrazzzycat and @Rewis, thank you both, he just looks so sad when he says he doesn't want to live alone, but it's not exactly what I envisioned for my future either, youngest son is 17 and hopefully will be off to university in September 2023, so I'll be empty-nesting after that.

The relationship with him is OK, mainly because I don't care enough to be upset by him anymore, he taught me that at least, and he seems to be in denial and maybe just beginning to realise it's actually over and I don't want him in my life. At least not in my life anymore than is necessary to keep our sons happy, whilst youngest is still living at home, I can't refuse his father access to the house without good reason.

@SingaporeSlinky, I know I’m not really answering your question, but I make overnight oats and you don’t need a huge amount of milk for that (100ml for 50 grams of oats). I use oat milk, so like I said, I really am not answering your question 😂

@Zalen, any kind of change is hard for people, so I’m not surprised things are difficult for you both. As Rewis says, it will get easier as you both get more and more used to the new way of doing things. In the meantime keep your boundaries firm, as that’s the quickest way to get him to realise that things have changed and for things to settle down.

Thank you so much @8stone13 that's a lovely message, I am 5ft 1 and people are always a bit 'oh you want to lose x yeahh' when I say how much, but for a shortie it's a lot! Well done on the loss, how are you doing it?

Thanks @TheRealHousewife :) :) I'm quite envious of both your meals!

I've changed my weigh in from a Friday to a Monday because I'm a knob over the weekends so if I have to weigh in that might change it! I'm meant to be working but I'm currently trying to decide what to have for dinner this evening as I won't be in until about 7.30 and want something quick and low cal. x

I forgot to say @SingaporeSlinky, my top tip for giving your porridge some flavour is to add about a 1/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon. I find I need far less sugar (none in fact) if I add cinnamon.

Blueberries and raspberries are lovely in it too. I use frozen ones for convenience, as well as to keep down the environmental cost of my breakfast. But that’s the subject of a different thread altogether!

Thank you @Crazzzycat I’d forgotten about cinnamon. I’ve had overnight oats before and added yoghurt, flax seeds and blueberries, maybe I’ll go for that again next time, thanks!

Well done everyone!

The very big question Crazzzycat is what are you going to spend your extra 200 calories on ?!!! Ooh, such a dilemma. But great you are getting into your rowing and toning up so well. It's good when you find something that works and fits. I tend to naturally want / eat more on big exercise days. My go to this week has been crudités and hummus. I would have had some peanut butter with apple if there'd been any in the cupboard.

Have a good day everyone!

@SingaporeSlinky whenever I make porridge, this is the recipe I follow. Its from blood sugar diet recipe book. I love it

Thank you @Youdoyoutoday it’s interesting that it’s only using 25g of oats, I use 50g 🤦‍♀️

@SingaporeSlinky todays oatmeal recipe is from the online fast 800. 200 calories
My best friend found it too bitter, I however like it.

Thank you @fallfallfall I’ve got cacao powder actually, so I’ll try that one too.

Well done everyone! As someone said upthread - both for the losses and for keeping at it. On this thread, I’m always struck by how many people are dealing with so much more than weight loss - sometimes just keeping on trying is a huge achievement in itself.

I saw 10st 6.6 on the scales today, which brings me to over a stone lost and less than half a stone to get to my 10st target. This thread really helps keep me focused, so thank you.

well done @SunshineCake1, a pound is a lovely loss!
@Crazzzycat, i don't think that the period of documented human weight is representative of a healthy weight. hollywood era with the associated anorexia to maintain a certain look was not healthy, photography came about during periods of world famine and if you go back far enough women died at 55 or there abouts.
as for living longer, women born in the 20-40's have lived longer but still had health issues and lived longer thanks to medical advances.
currently it's recommended that women carry extra weight to prevent hip fractures (grant it is only 5 lbs).

@fallfallfall the point I was trying to make was that obesity or being overweight is so widespread these days that it has skewed some people’s ideas of what a healthy weight (i.e. a BMI between 18.5 and 25) looks like. I’m sure popular culture has an impact on what people aspire to look like, but I think that when it comes to what people think of as “normal”, the people they see around them on a daily basis will have an impact too 🤔

I agree Crazzzycat. I saw a very crude experiment on a tv programme where they showed people in the street some photos of people in different body weight categories and asked them to identify the ‘normal weight’ one. Most people actually pointed to the obese one. When asked why, they said it was because the obese one looked like their own body, which they assumed was normal. The Dr then had to tell them that actually, they were obese themselves.

Weight has been a bit up and down this week but still a loss overall and a decent loss this month.

Husband had made cake when I got in from work 😱 this is why I run 😂😂

17k step count today.

Breakfast: greek yoghurt and blackberries
Lunch: 2 egg omelette + 1/2 avocado, walnuts & dark chocolate
Dinner: chicken breast with spinach, roasted cauliflower and 1 tablespoon brown basmati rice

I have come to the conclusion from the last few months that 2 eggs + 1/2 avocado is the perfect lunch for me. Filling and I don’t get that post lunch slump. I’ll add greens / cheese / herbs to keep it interesting but I’ll try and have this a few times a week cause it’s so easy!

Everyone is doing great 😊 Well done 👏

@Crazzzycat & @SingaporeSlinky This is exactly the case. I've had a few health professionals tell me I "must" be underweight/have disordered eating & been quite surprised when they've got my stats & realised I'm actually healthy & within a good range.

In a previous life I was an academic & over 20 years ago a group of my senior honours sociology of health & illness students conducted a small scale project on perceptions of healthy bodies & calorie/alcohol intake. They produced images of someone who was a healthy weight, overweight & obese & labels such as "unhealthily thin", "unhealthy overweight", "obese" etc & went round the city randomly asking people to assign labels. It was astonishing - people assigned "healthy" to the overweight, "slightly overweight" to images of morbid obesity & "underweight" to people of a normal BMI. The students did the same for alcohol & food intake & overwhelmingly people believed that they need far more food than is required for good health, & from the wrong groups. The amount of alcohol people thought was normal & acceptable was quite frightening.

It was only a final year student project but the basis of what it showed has been borne out in major empirical research since. Our perceptions have become skewed in quite alarming ways.