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,

I wish it was a bank holiday!

Back into the 1s at 10st 1.9lb this morning so happier with that. I managed 16.5k steps which included a fair bit of GFWR as it didn’t stop raining here all weekend. Hopefully that will stop and I will want to go outside.

My legs are a bit sore but I’m not surprised and won’t be if it gets worse.

I hope everyone has a great week

Morning

Like you @Dashel I'm not desperately happy to see Monday. Well done on the drop back into the 1s and your meal prepping and planning. Thanks also for the advice about the next JWs legs day - I'll make sure to warm up properly first. If this week goes to plan it will be Thursday morning so that's something to look forward to...😅

I was completely off plan yesterday and ate far too much chocolate. As a result I've woken up ravenous this morning - always happens when I have too much sugar. I have had a few nuts and I'm just going to ride it out. I need to put my big girls pants on and make this week count which means making it a good week diet wise - no excuses. My exercise habits are good but my food has really slipped since I've been back from holiday.

The scales reflect the slippage and I'm back up to 10st 3.2lbs this morning. Goal for this week is to lose a pound and be in the low 2s by Sunday.

Have a great week everyone.

Good morning

@bigdecisionstomake it is hard getting back on it after holidays.
I hate waking up starving, it’s not a good start to the day. I hope you have your big girl pants on and smash this week!

I woke up at 2am in pain and my DOMs has been getting progressively worse since they started. I tried walking it off yesterday at lunch and after work but it didn’t help very much and I couldn’t face any more walking so only got to 13.5k steps. I did do a shoulders workout which was surprisingly hard,

Due to the DOMs I was expecting a gain this morning so was shocked to be back down at 10st 1.2lb. I think I’m going to struggle to get my steps in today but I will try.

We checked in for the cruise yesterday so that means it’s 44 days till we set sail 😳 every day has to count

Morning

Big girl pants firmly in place @Dashel hopefully I'll need a smaller size soon 😆

Sorry you've been in pain again - is it just DOMS or is it your back too? Don't risk making anything any worse. Good to hear you're still moving downwards on the scales though.

Exciting that it's only 44 days to your cruise. Just keep swimming, the weight is coming off consistently you just have to keep going now and not get distracted.

I had a disturbed night too but for me it was the cat again. I'm going to have to do something about it but I'm not sure what - need to do some research.

I've woken up tired and a bit late again this morning and originally decided just to do some quick gentle cardio but once I'd done that I felt more energised so I've done the JW back and chest workout in the end too and feel better for it although I found it quite challenging. I managed a walk yesterday and am going to try for one today too.

The scales have crept slightly lower to 10st 3lb - just need them to keep moving in the right direction now 😀

Good morning,

@bigdecisionstomake my big girls pants are firmly on until they fall off as they are too big 😊 thankfully it’s my legs and bottom and just DOMs so I’m not worried.

Have you tried Feliway and playing with him until exhaustion and locking him in? If being outside is causing the fighting (?) issue then it sounds like you might have a rough adjustment period but I’m sure eventually he would get used to it. My cat spent most of yesterday in an Iglu of blankets hardly visible.

I am glad the scales went down 🥳

A mixed bag for me this morning. No weights yesterday and only managed 10.5k steps as my legs were sore and I was tired. I need to do a bit better today. However my body clearly needed the rest as I had a drop to 10st 0.7lb😳 my fat isn’t dropping at all though in the last 10 days so hopefully that will fall soon! If I was 10st with body fat of 25% I would probably be ok with that.

Fitbit also shows my BMI as 24.9 so I’m now in the healthy weight BMI range again 🥳

I hope everyone has a good day, two more get ups till the weekend.

Morning

@Dashel now you're frightening me....is the JWs leg day so hard that the DOMs are bad enough to keep you awake at night 😱Glad it's not your back at least!

Last night was uneventful cat wise so am going to monitor for now but if the problem persists I'll try the Feliway and tiring her out to see if that helps her adjust to being kept in at night.

Excellent news at dropping into the 0s - you are getting so close to the 9s - keep up the good work. It's really motivating to see someone else getting there and know that I'm not too far behind 🙂

I'm a bit disappointed with my weigh in this morning. I've STS at 10st 3lb. I've had two really good days food wise, Monday I had a deficit of around 650 calories and yesterday 850 so I was really hoping to drop into the 2s today. I do have some DOMs across my chest and back though so maybe that isn't helping.

I've woken up with a stonker of a headache - not sure if that's the sudden cutting out of chocolate or the result of a bit of a restless night. Either way I've just walked this morning so no JWs. Will try and get back on it tomorrow. I'm out and about all day today so will be a more active day than usual but will need to try to keep on top of my food and not go mad with Meal Deals/MacDonalds etc...

Happy Wednesday!

The body benefits from the green leafy veggies' high nutritious value, calcium content, and effective cooling impact. Your summer talismans are kale, spinach, lettuce, amaranth, and Chinese cabbage. They may be consumed as a side dish with food or in salads and smoothies. Cucumber juice, in my view, may do wonders for your skin.

Good morning

Thank you for our summer talismans, I do eat a lot of those but we don’t get them all here.

@bigdecisionstomake nearly Friday 😤 I hope you did better than I did yesterday and had a good result on the scale. The DOMs doesn’t usually help with that though so hopefully they are gone too.

I was out of the house from 6.30am to 7.30pm and only managed 7.5k steps. I needed a shower and dinner and so I ended up doing yoga for the core to at least do something and it was surprisingly tough.

I need to do much better today! I had a tiny gain of 0.1lb so the I could be back in the 9s any day now if I can get my arse in gear.

Hopefully today will be better x

Morning

Sounds like your day was similar to mine yesterday @Dashel although I was back in my home office by 5pm so not quite as long. Lets try and give it a really strong push heading towards the end of the week.

My day was just ok yesterday food wise. I had a supermarket sandwich and banana for lunch but was very active, up and down a lot of stairs, so was hungry when I got home. I tried to stick to a high protein snack but did cave in to 3 squares of dark chocolate as well. I came in only 25 calories over my target deficit though so all in all I was happy with that.

I've had a loss finally on the scales this morning down to 10st 2.2lb - back to the weight I was when I went to France. Very happy with that. The challenge is to hang onto that now and not bounce back into the 3s again. DS is cooking pasta for tea tonight so I'm going to have to be really careful with my portion size.

I think we both need to work on our core strength @Dashel I did JWs abs day today and it was really tough. I had to sub a couple of the exercises out as I just couldn't manage them without my back pulling - I obviously need to work up to that level. It's the dreaded leg day tomorrow - not looking forward to it 😨

Here's to a really good Thursday x

Good morning!

TFI Friday!

@bigdecisionstomake I am going to speed watch some yoga and Pilates workouts for core to see if they would be better for me. I have attempted any of Joes.

Sounds like a pretty good day overall and if you stuck within calories it’s good!

I hope leg day goes well!

I had a gain of 1lb this morning but I am (sorry tmi) a bit bunged up and had way too many carbs so hopefully it should come off quickly. I did my 15k steps and day 17 chest yesterday which was just two exercises repeated and a tad dull. It’s the short bicep one today so I might add on a few tricep exercises to it.

I hope you have a great day and thankfully it’s not too long until the weekend,

Hi all, I put another pound on, which I feel sad about but know exactly what's happening. My 'end goal' was that wedding I went to a couple weeks ago and now I'm self sabotaging 😔
I have got back on track exercise wise this week but it was my sons birthday on Monday so I've had plenty of cake!
What's crazy is I'm sad about the gain but if you'd told me in January that I'd be in the 8stones I'd have been ecstatic!
My belly measurement has stayed the same which is good.
Me & dh have next week off work .. I can see lots of food & drinks - going to try to workout everyday still but probably be another gain.
Only positive I have is that I'm still exercising, after end goal (in the past I'd have stopped).
Hope you all have a great weekend

Good Morning

So happy for Friday!

Well, you weren't lying about the JW leg day @Dashel . I've just finished it and then tried to go up and downstairs and had to cling onto the banister as my legs were like jelly 😲Not looking forward to the DOMs over the weekend.

I've had a sore wrist since Tuesday afternoon which I think might have been a result of going too heavy on bicep curls. It was fine today for just holding the weights for legs but I'm hoping it's going to be ok for shoulders tomorrow when I should imagine some lifting will be required.

Let me know if you find any good core yoga or pilates workouts - I really do need to work on my core strength now I think.

Sorry you've had a gain this morning but if it is just 'food in transit' it should sort itself out soon - kiwis and chia seeds are meant to be good to, ahem, move things along!

@Gemzee so sorry to hear about your gain. What you have written sounds so familiar and just like me with the self sabotaging after reaching target. I think maintaining is as hard as losing and requires just as much will power. At least you've recognised it and are carrying on with the exercising, that will give you a bit of wriggle room. As you've got a week off with DH I would cut yourself some slack for a week and then get back on it proper the week after. We'll still be here to cheer you along. Don't be sad though - you've achieved an amazing thing to get into the 8s and have a flat belly too! Maintaining is just a new challenge that you need to get your head around.

I've had another loss this morning which I'm super pleased with and wasn't expecting. I'm down to 10st 1.6lb which (apart from the post donation anomaly weight) is the lowest I've been since starting this. Given we had creamy pasta for tea last night I'm really surprised but am going to try my best not to put it all back on again this weekend!

Have a good Friday everyone x

Bloody thing just deleted my message 😤

@may23 I am sure you will smash your target, a wedding is a great goal to focus on, have you got an outfit yet? What is your plan as that is quite a bit to shift?

@Gemzee have you thought about getting another motivational target to keep you on track? My solution will be to book another holiday as I don’t want to put on the 1.5 stone I have lost. Keeping up with the exercise is an achievement though, hopefully you are enjoying it? I hope you have a great week off.

@bigdecisionstomake I hope your wrist is ok today and the DOMs is not too bad. I found that the hardiest of the series by a long way. I plan to repeat it when I have finished it. Congratulations on your loss and for getting to a new low (blood donation excluded) that is really great, hopefully more lows to come!

I had another gain this morning to 10st 2.0 🤦‍♀️😭😫 I did have a few Friday snacks but nothing too bad. I did my 15k steps including GFWR and 15 minutes on the elliptical and my bicep workout with some tricep moves added on.

I must do better! We are having a day out today so will hopefully get lots of steps in and relax a bit. Things have been very stressful for DH and I’m a stress sponge. He hasn’t been sleeping well so I haven’t either but hopefully things will calm down and improve. The big DIY project just needs a tiny bit of snagging, so hopefully I can get him to focus on wellness more.

I hope everyone has a really great day x

Hooray for the weekend.

@may23 Having an event is a great way to focus your mind and keep yourself on track. Great that your weight has now stabilised rather than bobbing up and down a lot. Are there any small tweaks you could make to start a consistent downward trajectory do you think? e.g. an extra 30 mins walk a day or swapping a particular food for something lower calorie/healthier?

@Dashel I am like you - I like to have a holiday booked to look forward to at all times....DP not so much - he just can't get excited about stuff that far in advance so constantly puts booking something off. It is a bone of contention between us 😂

My wrist is feeling better than it was thanks although still a bit uncomfortable if carrying too much weight. I've managed shoulders today though without any problem so that's good.

Enjoy your day out today and hope the stress levels start to ease a bit for your DH and you both manage to get some better sleep. JW always goes on about how important sleep is and I think it's easy to not prioritise it if you've got a lot of other stuff going on.

I had a really good day exercise and food wise yesterday. I came in with a deficit of 750 calories, managed a walk as well as some cardio and JWs and didn't have wine. The scales have rewarded me with a gain to take me back up to 10st 2lb. The wonderful non linear journey of weight loss strikes again!

Just got to keep on keeping on.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Morning all

Another good day food and exercise wise for me yesterday. I came in at almost exactly a 500 calorie deficit after squeezing in an afternoon walk. I did have a glass of wine with my evening meal but this was allowed for in my calories.

The scales are resolutely stuck on 10st 2lb though this morning. Overall I'm happy with that. It's a 0.8lb loss this week and although my calories for the week suggest it should easily have been 1lb or even slightly more I think that's just the way weight loss goes unfortunately.

Next week is a funny one, likely to be very busy towards the end of the week although I worked a full day yesterday and will do the same today to try to make sure I'm as prepared for the big rush as much as possible. I'm hoping all the preparation will mean I'm still able to get a morning workout everyday, at least up until Friday but we'll see how that goes. I'm also going to try to keep my food on point at least until Friday but after that all bets are off for the next 7-10 days.

I'm really going to make an effort to try not to lose sight of the holiday because I'd be gutted to get back on the scales on 6th August (when hopefully the worst should be over) to find myself back in the 5s or 6s again.

That's the plan anyway - wish me luck!

@may23 if you want to loose 2.5kg is two weeks I would be looking to make a tweak or two as @bigdecisionstomake , it’s a big target and getting in a bit of a head start can only help.

@bigdecisionstomake DH is happy to book in advance as he likes them organised - thankfully. He doesn’t look forward to them as I do but considers having them booked and parking sorted out etc as a job ticked off the list.

I am glad your wrists are feeling better and it sounds like you are had a perfect weight loss day, it’s just the way it goes sometimes as we both know! Keep on swimming and hopefully today will be better.

I am very down in the dumps today. Firstly I have gained another half a pound so 10st 2.7 after being so close to the 9s only a few days ago. I didn’t eat particularly well yesterday but (I don’t really want to type this or admit it to myself) I’m in a load of pain. I was redoing the first leg day with heavier weights (7.5kg) and then I did the single leg glute bridges and where my neck meets my shoulders started hurting and has got stiffer and more painful since.

The rest of my back issues have been lower so this is new. I will get into the physio as quickly as I can and will stick to walking for now. You can appreciate why I didn’t eat well now. I’m worried as hell, fed up, tired and in pain today and struggling to get comfortable, none of which is great news.

Cross posted with you.

It sounds like you are as prepared as you can be. I hope everything goes well and you come out the other side of this crazy busy time lighter.

I do know someone who lost a load of weight living off ready meals, he just picked healthy low cal options and didn’t snack or drink alcohol and has kept it off. If you want to graze through stress what about pre cut carrots? DH uses those occasionally

@Dashel so sorry to read your update. I can only imagine how gutting it must be to have neck/back pain again, especially after you've been so careful for so long. I think it's actually worse when things have seemed to have been getting better and you've been able to start back with the weights again but then have to take a step backwards again.

Rest up as much as you can and see what the physio advises. In the meantime, forget about any bad food so far - that's done and can't be changed. Focus on keeping your food good going forwards if you can (I know it's difficult when you're stressed/worried and in pain).

Sending healing thoughts and a big hug x

@bigdecisionstomake thank you.

Physio is booked for Wednesday evening so will see what she says. In the meantime painkillers keep it moving gently and try to stick to good food and lots of walking.

I really need lots of hugs at the moment! It’s not like my injuries have been quick to heal either 🤦‍♀️

Morning all

Not desperately happy to see Monday, especially as it's pouring with rain here (again).

I worked most of yesterday and had half a 95g bar of dairy milk in the afternoon when I was a bit fed up. Plus wine in the evening. I was good about everything else though and did get a 45 min walk in (rest day for any other exercise on a Sunday). Overall I ended up coming in pretty much spot on maintenance calories so not too bad in the scheme of things.

The scales are still stuck at 10st 2lb. If I can get to Friday sticking to plan I will be happy and re-evaluate from there. I'm out at a friends for dinner tomorrow evening though so will have to try to make sensible choices about food and drink.

How is your neck/back this morning @Dashel l ? I was thinking about you while I was doing JWs pyramid biceps today and hoping your pain is lessening.

I would love to be in the 1s by the end of the week so here's to a good week for all of us.

@bigdecisionstomake I am sorry that the scales didn’t budge for you but pleased you managed a walk.

I am still in pain and gained again to 10st 3.5lb 😭so a STS is better than that. I don’t know if some of the recent gains will be swelling or whatever but I am pretty fed up.

Quick update, decided I'm going to enjoy myself this week on our week off. Just accept the inevitable gain on the scale on Friday and do a big restart on Monday. New target, hopefully renewed motivation.
Have a great week all 😊

Morning

@Dashel ashel sorry about the gain and that you're still in pain. Just do the best you can for now until you've seen the physio. We're all here rooting for you and sending you virtual hand holds and hugs 🤗

@Gemzee emzee that sounds like a great plan - enjoy your week off and go back to it on Monday with renewed motivation 😀

Scales at 10st 2.8lb this morning - a gain of 0.8lb. Entirely my fault. I let work derail me yet again. It seems to be the way I deal with conflict/stress and yesterday I did it in style with crisps, chocolate and wine. To say I am cross with myself is an understatement.

Had a bad nights sleep on account of being over full and drinking too much and I have the dentist at 9.30am today to add to the joy.

Just got to keep swimming.