⭐️LOSE IT! February 2023 Edition⭐️

[TheRealHousewife]

⭐️Open to previous members as well as new members⭐️

Fresh new month, fresh new start, fresh new habits. Jump right in to reset & refresh to become a healthier version of yourself. These threads are for those who’d like to lose and those who wish to maintain whilst eating a healthy varied diet.

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 fast and eat twice a day. Im a long time healthy eater and overall I’ve lost over 3 stone. After having been on the wrong side of 12st Im now hovering around 9st. I had a blip a couple of years ago when my thyroid went wonky but now back on track.

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

Feel free to share your own links, tips & recipes 👍

Welcome @pottypotamus - do you have a plan for losing weight? Are you counting calories or changing what you eat or exercising etc?

I also weigh every day because I like to see quick results, and waiting a whole week, perhaps to find no change would be very demotivating for me. Once I reach my target I’ll reduce to once a week, just to check it’s not started to creep up again. But while I’m really making an effort, I want to see changes asap.

Did a supermarket shop yesterday and was so tempted by all the crisps. Could have easily bought a sharing bag and scoffed the lot right there, but felt very smug by resisting. I knew if I bought it, I’d eat it sooner or later, so it really was better to leave it.

Lunch today - Greek yoghurt, blueberries, strawberries, granola and seeds.
Dinner - the other tuna steak I cooked a few days ago, with spinach again.

If I can avoid a chocolate hunt, I should do very well with calories today. I’ve stopped logging on MFP again, because my lunch is pretty much the same every day, and dinner is the hardest to log when there’s loads of ingredients. Unless I end up snacking on chocolate, or biscuits, it becomes too much of a chore, when I know I’m having less than 1200 anyway.

Good Lord LittlePea that sounds epic! Hope you enjoyed every bite. A 6-8he eating window would probably do me the world of good too, but I just can't work up to it at the moment so am sticking to normal meals with no snacks.

Welcome @pottypotamus and @menomonster I enjoyed reading about your motivations for losing weight. You're in good company here with lots of very different people and approaches all supporting each other. Meno I shall definitely be looking up that recipe!

Surprisingly calm and collected foodwise here today considering it's the weekend. DP has just suggested Chinese for dinner and who am I to resist - will have a relatively sensible veggie option.

so, I had one g and t and one and a half glasses of crémant last night. That is a result for me and I am feeling pleased.
everyone’s weekend food sounds delicious.
sausage and mash here tonight but I may have something else depending on how I feel.
the scales are still moving far too slowly for my liking. I am feeling better in myself though so I think I need to focus on NSV for now
it really is a marathon not a sprint!!!!

Thanks, Cloudberries123, I really like these threads and hope that they could provide motivation when I could be lacking it elsewhere! The bean recipe is amazing (although I sometimes make the eggs separately, boiled or fried, rather than cooking them in the beans).
I know lots of people who find the 16:8 plan really helpful, I sometimes skip breakfast if I have had a big dinner or get up late, but the thought of always skipping breakfast (dinner is out of the question) seems quite difficult as I get moody and grumpy if I feel hungry. But I guess you get used to it?
I tend to weigh every third-fourth day or so when things feel as if they are going well, but then not at all when I don't think they are. But I count Saturdays as the 'official' day and keep a record of that.

Good Afternoon Everyone

@Shortkiwi Welcome to the thread. With mindful eating you can definitely make a difference before your March wedding!

@orangegato I don’t have much of an appetite in the AM so eat my first meal is around 12:00 - 12:30 and 500 - 550 cals. Second meal between 17:30 - 19:00 and again 500 - 550 cals ish. It really is an easy routine for me. I’m not very tall and limited exercise wise.

@midnight90 You could read previous threads, most of which have useful links 👍 Also the ladies on these threads are super supportive! ❤️

@menomonster Thank you for the recipe suggestion … I will definitely look that one up!

Welcome @pottypotamus … love your username 😬

Apologies if I’ve missed any tags. It’s just a quick visit in between trips out. See you all later.

Happy Sunday everyone.
hopefully lots of end of week progress.
progress comes in all forms :)

Happy Sunday all. Managed to hold off until 10am yesterday. Hoping for the same today as it really helped me stay within calories.

Not weighed in 10 years but my clothes are starting not to fit so trying to lose a bit to avoid the upsetting holiday pics later in the year. Finding all your meal ideas and tips helpful, thank you.

Thanks everyone!!

@SingaporeSlinky
I'll be calorie counting. I generally don't eat in the morning. I'll have a coffee when I get to work and then a tea mid morning.

If I behave myself for lunch and dinner, I should see some results.

I generally weight myself every morning if I remember. I forgot again this morning. So will start Monday morning.

Good Morning Everyone

@greenspaces4peace I’ve everything crossed for you 🤞 I’m sure you’ll make some progress!

@orangegato Well done on sticking to your plan 👍. It won’t be long before your clothes are swishing rather than hugging around your frame. Recently I put on a belt I’d not worn for a few years and it was too big (I’ll photo and post it later) It was a belt that saw me through my ‘growing years’ where I’d gone up a hole periodically. Used every hole 😮. Now it’s too big. What shocks me the most was during this time that my waistline was clearly expanding I was oblivious to it (disclaimer during this time I’d developed some health conditions) It took seeing a photo where I didn’t recognise myself to wake up and make positive changes.

Menu
Meal 1 - Roast chicken, carrots, cabbage, leeks, green beans, boiled potatoes with skins, onion gravy. Mixed berry fruits, Greek yoghurt & fresh cream.
Meal 2 - Might end up OMAD.
Tea, black coffee and water.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Morning everyone - goodness, this thread is moving fast!

Good couple of days both diet and activity wise.. made a huge spicy prawn dish on Friday which was ridoculously low in calories, being mostly veg! I was left with plenty of leftovers so munched thr last of it yesterday so geelong healthy. I also made it out in my first decent (20k) hike of the year which almost finished me off but the weather is absolutely perfect for it at the mo - cold but dry!

Got a full on kids day today but will squeeze in some swimming and have Coq au Vin for dinner - one of my favourites and if you use the red wine stock cubes, really low in calories so yum!

I'm a purely weekly weigh-in type person as I think I'd become a little over invested otherwise. I'm also a bit more focused in the week so, as I only weigh on Fridays, gives me a few days to undo any damage from the weekend 😁

I think I'd also struggle on two meals a day although, like you, meno, I do sometimes skip one due to overindulgence the night before or if I've been out for lunch. I do try and have a couple of lower calorie days a week though - under 1000, so not quite 5:2 - which means breakfast is very small ie banana or raw fruit & nut bar or similar.

Right - talking of brekky, need to fill my DS up before we head out for a morning of coding fun! Have a great day everyone!

Morning all! Everyone is doing so well! I resisted all temptation last night because seeing 60kg on those scales by the 17th is more important than sweets. I'm saving them for the holiday, will eat junk there, then come back to a more restrained way of eating. We are only away 4 days so 4 days can't undo too much. We will be swimming and walking lots when there so not lying idle on a beach somewhere. I'll be taking porridge oats with me. Much more likely to fill me up and keep me full than toast although I will eat toast at times. We are going to get logs for the fire and go on late night walks to hopefully see the stars without light pollution. Dd is seriously excited and so an I now.
Anyway... what's everyone up to today? I think it's quorn burgers and chips for dinner tonight.

Jumping in too.
I started on the 1st of feb. I weighed in at 244, a whole stone more than I thought I weighed! I'm just calorie counting really and trying to move more.

I try to weigh myself fairly frequently too when losing weight (I've previously gone from 230-200 and did a lot of dieting in my 20's)
I find looking at the trend rather than an individual number helpful because it helps me not panic about gain/loss especially as mine seems to fluctuate a lot with periods etc. For example last time there was a week where I put on a pound in a day according to the scale, but it's obviously just a quirk of water weight, and the curve corrected it by the next two days weigh ins. I'd of been confused if that was my weeks weigh in! It also reduces my fear of the scale, and discourages me from trying to do anything drastic before weigh in (I know in slimming world it was common to wear your lightest clothes for weigh in, and people would fast etc that day)

I'm looking to lose weight because I'm going to a wedding in the summer, then hopefully planning my own. DP keeps looking at wedding things (we had hoped to elope this year) but I just can imagine get married at this weight.
I've tried to break my goal weights down as they are so far away and don't want to get dispirited

I'm also finding my weight is beginning to take up a lot of headspace. I'm bored of worrying about if chairs will support my weight, putting off going to theme parks and trying to cover up a lot

So
SW:244
GW1:165
GW2: 135

There ive written it, must mean it's time to take action!

Can I join ?

B
2X rolls with peanut butter
2X Choc protein puddings
a few coffees
a few green teas
dark chocolate 11g
walnuts 9g

L
100g of porridge
60g of protein powder
berries
Fibre One bar 88kcal 10g of protein

Current weight 69.5kg
Hoping to get 1-2kg off by end of week.

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!

We had a rare child-free weekend and went away, meaning two lunches, a dinner and cocktails out. All the menus have calories on now and the numbers blew my mind every time we sat down.....

I enjoyed myself, moderated my choices slightly based on calories, (apart from for our evening of fabulous Thai food 😂) but accepted I was going to be over this weekend. I will get back on it tomorrow!

A rare day of being pretty much bang on my aims. It helped that I got out for a walk with the little one first thing, set a good tone for the day.

Breakfast - coffee, ham and cheese sandwich

Lunch - Yogurt, baked potato with beans, bit of cheese and sour cream. Biscuit

Dinner - enchiladas.

Had a couple of teas in between, plus water and a glass of juice. Staying really well hydrated helps a lot with distinguishing hunger and thirst or snackiness.

More in a bit but baby life calls!

Finishing up the day on 1500 calories. I got a good walk in this afternoon of just short of 4 miles but otherwise it's been a lazy weekend. I'll be bouncing on my ball later watching Vera and Happy Valley. Three hours of bouncing will be a positive end to the week. I've been a little hungrier and wanting chocolate and crisps this week and I'm hoping that goes this next week. It's hormones as always.

Have a good evening everyone and maybe see some of you on the HV thread.

Well done folks on all the walking. Impressed by resistance on weekend away Fara and your forward holiday planning Autistic.

Welcome Rainforest and great incentives!

Quick check-in from me:

B - fruit & porridge, 12 km run, yoghurt & seeds (extra rations!)
L - salmon, salad, brown rice, beans, rocket
D - roast chicken dinner, heavy on veg
S - 2 x apples

Here's to us and to another week for good choices.

Evening all. Today went okay up until dinner, had scrambled egg on toast for breakfast/lunch. Then ate a load of cake mix and icing while baking and went out for a curry for tea. Did a long ish walk though so I don’t feel too bad. Made it to 11:30am without eating which has helped massively, and I feel a lot more confident cutting calories when I have fewer meals to worry about. Hope everyone’s Sunday went well.

mid afternoon over here :)
149.1, lowest i've seen this week.

lots of aspects of weight management going well but the little extra effort i need to put in for loss is not quiet right yet.
i'll continue to poke along: healthy food, IF, exercise, multivits, fiber and water
i look forward to monday's weigh in and starting the week focused.

Evening everyone. Today has been ok, got up late so it was easy to wait until lunch to eat. Joe wicks video this morning. Salmon and scrambled eggs with toast for lunch and roast pork for dinner with lots of cabbage.
i did bake with my daughter this afternoon so ate some saffron bread plait. But it was worth it 😋
not had any alcohol Saturday or Sunday so am pleased with that and not snacked on any rubbish. It does get easier the more you resist and get out of it being habitual.
@SanFranBear i like the idea of giving yourself time to undo any weekend damage. I think I might join in the Friday weigh-in!
@Rainforest6 you have taken the first steps which is already a massive achievement. Keep the end goal in mind!
@greenspaces4peace i feel the same. I am doing the right things but it is just not coming together for real loss yet. I really want that whoosh people keep taking about!

have a good week all

I'm hungry!! I really want some toast. I've not had toast for weeks.

@AutisticLegoLover go to bed and have some in the morning instead!!! 😁

I could but I always look forward to my porridge for breakfast. I could have it instead of crumpets for elevenses.

I'm in bed having resisted all temptation. I don't normally eat after dinner so it's strange for me to have wanted something. I best it so that's a victory. I'll be eating porridge in 7 hours so not long.