1.5 stone to lose. fucking hate salad. Any tips??

[SatinHeart]

Thread title says most of it. BMI just over 26 - would love to get back to healthy weight and size. Have DC age 4 and 2 and work full time. DC2 is not a great sleeper do I'm constantly tired and hungry. DC1 has SEN and selective eating so I dont want them to see me doing an obvious diet. I also hate salad with a passion.

Any tips??

• Cut snacking on crap and replace with healthier snacks
• Cut your portion sizes
• Eat less bread
• Drink more water
• Move more
• Rather than thinking of foods as 'good' or 'bad' think of it in terms of how much or little it will nourish you and set yourself up for being there for your kids in future. It will help you put down those biscuits and reach for a banana instead.

There's no need to go on an old school 'diet' and it would be good for your kids to see you eating healthily instead of whatever you normally do (I'm assuming that if you're always tired and hungry you often grab for sugary or convenience foods like I do).

I can't believe someone hates all salads, there's so many different things you can put in one, it doesn't just have to be limp iceberg lettuce and cucumber. But if you don't like cold meals then try making different soups instead.

One word … protein

I have food ready to munch on in the fridge

Ill make a big bowl of cilli, chopped vegetables, all ready to pop in microwave and eat - so when tired im not reaching for the wrong foods

I like the craze of chopped vegetables, peppers, beetroot, red onion, cucumber etc (just an example) all put in a bowl with a decent dressing. Ive found some great couscous ideas on TikTok with feta and med style vegetables

It doesn't have to be salad. Just eat fewer calories including plenty of veg. Fewer calories is sufficient but more nutritious and higher fibre makes it more sustainable.

Cut all carbs. Cut all sugar. I’ve lost 2 stones in 3 months.

Loads of high protein foods to fill you up- switching cereal for Greek yoghurt and peanut butter keeps me full and stops me snacking. Also chick peas in the air fryer with fajita seasoning on are an amazing crunchy snack.

Zero ultra-processed food and absolute minimum of processed food.

Calorie count. Less in, more off. That way, you don't have to restrict what you eat, just the quantities.

I think the answers here have it covered! One tip - how long have you been that weight? Takes longer to turn around I've found the longer it's been. Some can go on a 'diet' - don't use that word imo - if it's been a short spell of being 'overweight' and it works. But longer, and it's harder to shift because the fat cells have to become more efficient.

I did very well cutting out rubbish but hit a plateau because it was like the body thinks, okay, something wrong here but 'normal service' will be resumed soon so just hang on in there, waiting to be fat again. It takes a while to cotton on to the new you, when it does the weight falls off. That can be months down the line. I found interval training at the gym helped, namely do say 8.5km running for one min on the treadmill then one min at say 13.5km, alternating.

@SatinHeart my top recommendation would just be to try and make 1 change at a time and make that stick first. For example, always getting your first meal of the day right.

There’s a quote I quite like which is “If you want to change the world, start by making your bed” -> the analogy is: getting the very first thing of the day right, from the start, sets you up to conquer the rest of the day.

When it comes to healthy living, if you can get your first meal of the day right, and consistently get it right no matter what happened the previous day, then you really set yourself up for success.

Your first meal is very likely going to be breakfast, unless you have success with intermittent fasting and have your first meal at lunch. So my advice would be:

• Have a high protein meal that you really enjoy (and that you know is healthy)
• Eat until you’re fully satisfied + full; which will keep you fuller for longer until your next meal and reduce cravings & snacking

The key is then to find the meals that you really enjoy, and are happy to make every day. This might mean getting up 30 minutes earlier in the morning every day to give yourself enough time. Some examples:

A) For about 5 years, I used to make oat + blueberry pancakes every morning
B) If you like yoghurt, then you could have some full-fat greek yoghurt (no added sugar) + some berries e.g. blueberries/strawberries/blackberries
C) Have 3-5 eggs of your choice (e.g. scrambled) with some tomatoes + avocado (+ optional bacon if you like/eat bacon)

If you did nothing else and just focused on this habit until you had it consistently sorted, I have a feeling that you’d be in a really great place to make your next habit change.

Hopefully your kids might enjoy the pancakes as well!

@NewspaperTaxis - completely agree, I think that is one of the hardest parts of sustainably losing weight (i.e. getting through the weight loss plateaus). There's quite a lot of interesting scientific research out there with various theories e.g. the set-point theory which basically says that you need to stay at your weight for 6-12 weeks in order for your body to recalibrate at your new lower weight before you can sustainably lose more weight (Wikipedia explanation or more detailed explanation).

But 6-12 weeks is quite a length of time to wait! Which I think really re-inforces the whole notion of trying to move away from short term dieting and towards long-term sustainable change. If only it was as easy to do as it is to say 😅

I use weightlossresources.com
It is calorie counting so it is "dieting," but the format really suits me, I think it's great. There's a free trial too

It doesn't matter what you eat, just stay at a calorie deficit.

If I want a treat, I'll have it, but it just means I have a low cal dinner or miss out on something else to stay below my 1400 calorie limit. I also try and get 10k steps a day but that's it. Losing about 1-2lbs a week with it at the moment.

Needed this thread thank you.

I'm keen to give up sugar/carbs/increase steps/eat more veg etc and find the days where I've been organised and got out of bed at 7am to walk to shops (handily 8k steps) before work I can buy a small amount of fresh veg to graze on.

If I've boiled some eggs and made some tuna mayo and put bottle of water in fridge overnight it all gets kicked off on the right note.

The days (way too many I'm afraid) I've stayed up late arsing around on phone I then can't praise myself up or out so feel sluggish then am hungry with nothing heathy to eat so reaching for toast or biscuits by mid morning.

Would love to kick the old habits for good and be the sort of person who makes healthy choices day in day out.

I've kicked booze and now going to four exercise classes per week and walking much more than I did before (the dog helps with that) so mustn't give myself too much of a hard time.

Thanks all, some really good tips here. I'm going to start working hard on cutting out sugar first I think.
To answer a PP, I haven't been this weight for very long - only a few months. A year ago I was 1.5 stone lighter than I am, 6 months ago I was probably just under a stone lighter than now. But my clothes are not fitting any more and so time to do something about it.

Not sure why you'd think salad was compulsory. Making vegetables a higher proportion of your diet is a good weight loss habit, but that doesn't mean they have to be raw, cold vegetables!

@HabitChangeM - please can you share your pancake recipe ? I like this sound of this one change at a time thing <currently starts the day with tea and chocolate biscuits>

Calorie count and up your activity. Learn to love boiled eggs (the white) - low cal high protein!

Popcorn popped in a dish in the microwave is a filling healthy snack.

@HairyMclaryz sure thing: pancake recipe - there's an instructional video of how to make them as well.

Really would recommend the 1 thing at a time. My partner literally only changed their breakfast (previously sugary cereal) and lost about a stone over 3-6 months with no other changes. Then after that they just moved onto the next thing (slowly replacing fizzy drinks & fruit juice with water).

Seconding protein, although be careful, my tummy got upset from too much (protein shakes)

Breakfast porridge & berries, banana
Lunch - eggs ( boiled, scrambled, omlet) with veg ( pepper, onion, corn...) And maybe some Salmon
Dinner - veg veg veg some carb( potato, rice, pasta) some meat

In between ... Fruit, water,

I not too keen on salad either so base my lunch around eggs more so.

Lost a stone 10 weeks have fallen off wagon past two weeks hope get back on track now another 1/2 to 1 stone to get rid off.
Good luck it hard need to be thinking about it a lot and organised.

@HairyMclaryz why don't you just pop down to Donaldson's dairies for some milk to make the pancakes? 🐶 (love the name)

OP please do not start gulping down protein shakes as has been suggested here. They are not at all necessary and nor is salad.

All you need to do:

Reduce processed foods
Eat when you are hungry, stop when you are no longer hungry
Eat mainly lean meats, fish, potatoes, vegetables and some nuts/seeds
Doing more exercise is great but not essential

Simple as that.

oops

Forgot to mention that you should have some fruit too.

Good luck with the weight lodd.

Cut all carbs. Cut all sugar

And please do not do this.

It is not even slightly sustainable for 99.9% of the population. Anybody can do this and lose several stone for a short while but if you want long term solutions please eat a balanced macro diet.