Diet For Summer Challenge

[Dashel]

This is a continuation of the diet for Christmas challenge that was undertaken in 2022. Thank you to @OhFatty for starting that.

It is a group of us wanting a supportive environment to loose weight in the long term. Hopefully the posters from the Christmas challenge will sign up again and new members are welcome.

We each have our own way of doing this and there are no rules other than being encouraging to everyone and cheering on successes.

Good morning

@Gemzee you are killing the workouts! I would struggle not to have an evening meal, I can do hungry during the day but not before bed. Any tips?

@bigdecisionstomake that sounds like heaven and hell being next to a French bakery and trying to loose weight. Even trying to ease up a bit on holiday, you still know you are trying to loose so can’t eat what perhaps you would if you weren’t worried about it at all. Hopefully that makes some sense?

Sorry to hear that you are back, I much prefer being away apart from missing my bed and the cat 😊 I hope you enjoyed all the walking and activities and I can’t believe you did workouts as well!

Hopefully Monday will be a pleasant surprise!

I have been struggling to loose much which is frustrating, I’m seeing more 10st 3s that 10st 4s which I guess is good, but I am hugely bloated at the moment so I wasn’t expecting a good weight this morning so 10st 4.0 didn’t seem too bad. Maybe when the bloating clears it will be better.

I am still having Huel for breakfast and calorie counting and walking and I picked up my weight bench so can do more in the gym - when I can plan a routine that mainly involves lying down😵‍💫 no idea how I can do a good leg day lying down but I will do some research.

@Dashel I just literally go to sleep very early then I dont get hungry 😂

Happy to report a stay the same on the scales this week 😊
Not sure if I'll weigh in next Friday, we're off early to a family wedding - the whole reason I joined this thread & started getting healthier etc 😁 nearly 6 months ago I started deiting and I'm 6lbs under my dream target weight, I'd have never believed that if you'd told me in January!!
Have a great weekend all.

*dieting

The first couple months it was strict calorie counting and avoiding alcohol. The last few months I walk 10k - 13k steps a day and do 4-5 home workouts a week (30-45 HIIT or Resistance with Team Body Project). I now eat lowish calorie 2/3 days a week, very low calorie 2 days a week (I only eat lunch & a couple snacks on these days for under 800cals) and whatever I like 2/3 days a week including alcohol.

I dunno if that makes sense, it's very much a made up by me plan 😂 Basically, to maintain my weight right now I workout & watch calories roughly 4 days a week and eat/drink what I like 3 days a week.

I only had 14lbs to lose intially so it may not work if you have more to lose or it would be a slower process.

I think of it moreas my life now rather than a diet

@Gemzee i think I would be going to be at lunchtime then 😂 you are really disciplined and have done amazingly well. I definitely agree it’s a lifestyle change and also for me an acceptance that I will never be able to eat whatever I want every day and not put weight on.

@may23 2kg in 3 weeks is great! But keep tweaking until you find what works for you.

I have had horrendous bloating and period pains so have had a couple of lazier days and possibly a bit of chocolate.

However I weighed in at 10st 3.3lb which is m lowest since I have been back from my holiday. I just need to get back to my steps and in the gym.

DH bought an air fryer so had chips last night too, I don’t know if it will help but will do some research into diet air fryer meals and see what it says

Good morning everyone and hope you are all having a great weekend!

Yesterday was pretty good except I only got to 14k steps. I was great with food and did a Joe Wicks weights video on pecks. I must have missed that before as I think it’s the first peck workout I have deliberately done) so I have sore pecks today. It was so good to do it though and use my bench. Because I was lying down I pushed myself to 5kg on the flies 😊

I am going to try and do those videos each day.

I batch cooked a bean chilli for midweek lunches in the slow cooker and will look at batch cooking something else today, maybe lentil and vegetable curry?

We went out with friends last night and I drove so good excuse for the diet cokes and unlike DH and the others I kept to no snacking. So pleased with that. I weighed in at 10st 3.0lb so a small loss, where are those 2s??

Morning all

Sorry you're bloated and crampy @Dashel that's pants. Good to hear your weight is starting to go in the right direction again though. Fingers crossed when the period bloating goes you'll have a bit of a whoosh. I'm really interested in your thoughts on the air fryer. I've considered one a couple of times but haven't taken the plunge yet.

Thanks for posting your plan @Gemzee I think your maintenance plan sounds very much like I want mine to look - careful 4 days a week and then less so over the weekend.

@may23 well done on the weight loss so far, that sounds like a great result. I'm always interested to get tips and ideas from others about what works so if you find any good tweaks in July please share 😃

I've taken the plunge this morning and weighed in. I'm 10st 5lb and whilst there was an internal groan to be back in the 5s again for the millionth time I am pleasantly surprised at that - I was expecting it to be much worse. I did drink half a bottle of wine last night though so may be a little dehydrated. I'm not going back on plan fully today but will be mindful and as I finished a bottle of wine last night and don't want to open another and waste half of it I've decided that I'm not going to drink tonight....we'll see later if I can stick to that 😐

It was 10 weeks yesterday until we go to Crete which gives me 10 weeks and 9lbs to lose to get to target (am now aiming for 9st 10lb to give me 1lb to play with).

As it's our busiest time of the year coming up at work with 2 weeks in particular (last week of July and first of August) where it will literally be work/eat/sleep/repeat for at least 10 days on the trot I know from experience I can count them out diet and exercise wise. I will be out of the office and reliant on getting food out and about with no time for formal exercise and the thought of a glass of wine when I get back home is the only thing that gets me through. I tend to live on either ready meals or takeaways too as there's no time for cooking. On the plus side I'm not sat down at my desk for those weeks so am more active which usually helps a little with damage limitation. In reality therefore it's 7 or 8 weeks to lose 9lbs. I'm going to go for it even though I'm not convinced it's achievable.

Back on plan fully from tomorrow therefore and I'm toying with the idea of dropping alcohol altogether for a bit again - maybe the first 3 weeks of July - as this really helped in January to get me off to a good start. Wish me luck!

@bigdecisionstomake sounds like we are pretty similar, it was 8 weeks yesterday till my cruise and then 11 weeks until Mauritius 😵‍💫

I would like to be 9st 7 or lower for then so I am definitely giving up alcohol until then. I will need all the help I can get tbh. Could you swap wine for a clear spirit and diet mixer?

If it’s affordable, M&S do some quite nice ready meals on a reasonable calorie level - DH eats lots of these for work lunches, there aren’t too many vegan ones for me to have.

I might do a countdown timer stuck to the fridge with daily motivational quotes - my style of motivational quotes probably wouldn’t be mass marketable though

We have a large a Huel order coming and if I get desperate I will be living off that, but I’m hoping to avoid that.

Right I need to get off the sofa a do a GFWR

Good morning all.

Aaaahh scales say 10st 3.3lb 😭 so I have gained 0.3lb. I have been super good all weekend, yesterday I was on 1600 calories 16k steps with 20 min yoga and a biceps and triceps workout so I hope it’s that. My pecks are still sore.

I really could do with some results on the scale soon. We are due to pay for the rest of the holiday soon and I desperately wanted to be under 10st by then.

The Huel order did come yesterday so will probably have that today as DH is away tonight

Morning all

@Dashel I'm really interested to hear your motivational quotes 😂Mine are usually muttered in the midst of a particularly tough CG workout and wouldn't bear repeating in polite company. Good advice about the ready meals, I will fit in a trip to M&S if there's time at some point.

I've still got some flavoured tonic left from January to substitute for alcohol and I put some tomato juice on the online shopping order last night. I found that worked really well as it gave me something tasty and with a bit of substance but for not very many calories.

Sorry to hear you're sticking in the 3s - you're doing all the right things so the weight will come off when it's ready.

I didn't count calories but was pretty good food wise yesterday and stuck to no alcohol. The scales have rewarded me with a 0.8lb gain this morning to take me to 10st 5.8lb. Obviously this is a bit disappointing but I suspect it is a more accurate start weight given the excesses of the last couple of weeks. I'm not letting it put me off and have been up and worked out this morning and will start back logging calories today.

I'm changing it up exercise wise. For the next three weeks I'm going to try to do some cardio and strength every day and see how that goes. I've swapped out CG for Joe Wicks temporarily and have re-started his 21 days of strength. I do like to have at least one rest day a week though so may not manage 21 days straight but we'll see how it goes. Today was Biceps and Triceps so am wondering if it was the same one you did at the weekend @Dashel ? I haven't done any strength training for nearly 3 weeks now so I suspect I will be very sore tomorrow 😩

Hope everyone's weeks get off to a good start 🙂

@may23 thank you. You will get to your goal weight if you keep focused and don’t give up. I think it’s a hard journey regardless of your weight and goal weight. Good luck with your fasting. I couldn’t stick to that when I tried it, but it works for a lot of people.

@bigdecisionstomake my motivational quotes would not be suitable for family publishers 😂DH loves flavoured tonic with ginless gin.

It probably was the same workout. They are a good workout that I can do a slower pace and avoiding injuries has to be my main focus. I did legs yesterday, my back was getting sore so I did the last set of goblet squats without any weight. It’s frustrating but better safe than sorry. I hope you enjoy the workouts and see a drop today on the scales.

Yesterday with no DH I managed to get to 15k steps and probably had too many calories around 2k but I also did my workout and somehow managed to get on the scales and be in the 2s 🥳 10st 2.8lb so very pleased with that and body fat is according to my scales under 35% again.

Hopefully I can stay in the 2s or less now.

I hope you all have a great day

Happy Tuesday to you too @Dashel 😁

Good luck with the fast 800 @may23 I think it can be very effective if you can stick to it. I have a friend who did it a few years ago and managed to lose 2 stone in a relatively short period of time. She found it challenging but manageable.

Your motivational quotes sound similar to mine @Dashel 😂Whoop whoop for the 2s - fingers crossed you'll hurry through them to the 1s.

I've tried a couple of alcohol free gins but not yet found one I liked enough to 'spend' my calories on. During the week I'm happy enough just with a low cal tonic - it's the weekends when the wine cravings seem to hit. Going to try to tough it out for the next few weeks though as I really do want to be in the 9s by the time I go on holiday and when you take out the 2/3 busy work weeks when I'm likely to lose some ground again there really isn't that long now to get there.

A day of clean eating and exercise has shifted the scales to 10st 4.4lb for me this morning - hugely motivational. I'm not going to lie though, the sugar/carb cravings were a bit of a battle and I spent an hour before my evening meal reeeeaaaaalllly hungry. I usually find my body adjusts quite quickly so hopefully by the end of the week this will have passed 😣

@bigdecisionstomake I am glad that you had a big woosh on the scales. It is motivating on tough days. I seem to be hungry a lot recently and it is frustrating especially at night time.

I weighed in this morning at 10st 2.6lb so a tiny loss from 2.8lb.

I managed 16.5k steps yesterday along with JWs back and shoulders workout. I had Huel for breakfast and a Huel meal for lunch and bean chilli with a jacket for dinner with salad with no snacking. The sweet and sour wasn’t great but I will finish the packet.

I hope everyone has a good day

I'm definitely going to just keep swimming - I so dearly want to be in the 9s as a minimum before we fly out to Crete and being at target would be even better. I had hunger pangs again early evening and kept picturing myself in a bikini to avoid eating anything 👙😁

Glad everything's still moving in the right direction for you @Dashel a loss is a loss, even if it's a tiny one! It sounds like you were very disciplined with your food and exercise yesterday.

I've kept up with JWs 21 days of strength so far so it was legs yesterday and chest today. My triceps are still sore from day 1 and my quads are sore from yesterday so when my chest joins them tomorrow I'm going to be pretty much sore all over 😖I've been doing some cardio each day too although haven't managed to fit in an additional afternoon walk yet - I'm still ploughing through a backlog of work so have been too busy.

The scales have been kind again today and I'm now down to 10st 3.8lb. I'm guessing that's probably the last of the water weight from cutting back on carbs/sugar/alcohol purging so hopefully from tomorrow I might start to get a little bit of actual fat loss kicking in.

Happy hump day everyone.

@bigdecisionstomake you have worked so hard on this and I truly hope you smash your targets. I certainly think you deserve to get to 9s.

Like you my holiday is getting closer and I am giving it my all. I found the chest and pecks ones very tough for DOMs. I did the legs and abs one yesterday and although I swapped out some moves (I was doing crunches when my back went badly so I’m not risking those) and I have been told to do high planks instead of normal ones, but it was a killer. I think it was day 5 or 6. I also was mainly using 5kg weights.

I managed to get 20k steps in and two Huel meals followed by lentil and vegetable curry with rice, salad and berries afterwards as I needed a treat and pudding.

Thankfully the scales were also kind to me and I weighed in at 10st 2.0lb, but there were a lot of night time toilet visits so I’m tired this morning. The other thing I have really noticed is my body fat is really falling now I’m back to weight training. I know it’s not particularly accurate but there is definitely a pattern there and it’s decreasing a lot quicker than it was before so 🤩

I hope that everyone has a great day

Morning @Dashel

Thanks for your kind words. I think we've both worked really hard and hopefully we'll get good results in time for our holidays!

You must be a day ahead of me with JWs. I've done shoulders and back today and it's legs and abs tomorrow - good to hear it's a killer...I'll look forward to it then😫

My abs are particularly bad at the moment - CG tends to do them as separate sessions to her main workouts and I haven't been adding many in so when I do do them it's a struggle. I was planning to start adding them in several times a week when I got back from France but haven't so far so will need to start thinking about that.

Sounds like you had another on point day exercise and nutrition wise and got the loss to show for it - well done! I was very slightly over calories, but only 40 or so so hopefully that won't make a big difference. I've had another tiny loss to take me to 10st 3.6lb, so creeping in the right direction. Just need to stick at it now!

@Dashel just reading back what you said about body fat percentage - that's really interesting that it decreases quicker with weight training. I guess that would make sense given you're replacing some fat with muscle. Hopefully this should make us look a bit leaner in the mirror too 😁

DP has been on and off a diet for a couple of months now and frustrated with his progress the other day ordered some new scales which are quite fancy and do your body fat, muscle mass etc... (obviously it was my old scales fault he wasn't losing fast enough 😂) I tried them when he got them but they weigh me a pound and a bit lighter than my scales so I haven't been using them as I like the consistency of sticking with mine which still seem to work fine. I might have a go at the body fat percentage thing though as they have an app where you can track your progress so it would be interesting to see.

@bigdecisionstomake definitely blame the scales 😂

We have Fitbits and Fitbit scales so they tie up nicely.

I would start using the fancier scales if I was lighter! I don’t believe that any home scale will give you an accurate figure for fat but I think it gives you a general idea and allows you to see the trends. I am hoping for the lender look myself😊

If I was 10st 2 with great looking muscles and abs then I would be much happier than I am now. I think doing the weights is kind of classed as body reconditioning as hopefully we are changing some of the fat to muscle and getting rid of some of it.

DOMs is starting to kick in on my bottom and thighs, so I’m happy!

I am pleased you got a little loss, I’m sure we will both have some bad days on the scales due to DOMs but hopefully both go down steadily.

DH is being pretty good too and is loosing a fair bit. He has cut down on the snacking a lot as I think he is worried about how little time we have left. He asked me a week ago if I thought she was doing enough and I replied that we could both do better and so we have really been working hard.

Just got on the scales and it was 10st2.8lb 😤 I know it’s probably DOMs and a salty dinner but I am willing that scale to drop every morning, body fat dropped by another 0.1% though.

I did 17k steps and chest and triceps with Mr Wicks. I found that quite hard and speed 3k with Rick first thing.

I just have to keep swimming, I know it’s a blip as I ate ok and I just have to keep it up. It’s been a long week and I’m tired and would love to go back to bed!