Louise Parker method - final try! Calling the old gang

[TheOwlChronicles]

I know I know. It's another thread

I can't find the last one. Managed to get myself a (cough) small banning for the despicable crime of troll hunting (oops!) but miss the support we all had when we were in the groove of it all

Anyway ... I've held off starting a new thread until I knew I was 'back' instead of this stupid managing a day or two and then falling off the wagon

I've managed nearly a week now and I've lost 7lbs. Have had to dig really deep for this but can feel the immense sugar cravings I had are lessening by the day

Anyone out there?!

Omg @Katrinawaves that plate looks amazing! Hope it tasted as good as it looks!
Oh @Megasaur5keeper hope you feel better soon, what a drag 😥
Hi @sheepdreams welcome to the circle 😁

Well, I'm continuing in similar fashion, doing well all day, ruining it at 11pm with a massive plate of cheese and pickles when I'm back late. I am determined to break the cycle tonight, so here I am, placing my determination to be able to come back and report that I'm in bed having remained on plan for an entire day. I just need to break the cycle!

I came back from my 3 day trip feeling so pleased with myself as I had stayed in the inner circle for all meals with the exception of 2 glasses of wine over the 3 days and had done around 20k steps per day. And then when I weighed myself I was 2lbs up ☹️

I’m plugging on though.

Diving on here to say I did it, finally, a whole day on method with no slips!!
Am back from gigging (hence breaking the early relaxed bedtime part of things) and I have not hit the fridge tonight! Whether I manage it 2 days in a row will be another thing entirely of course!

Today
Banana on ryvita
Hard boiled eggs, veggie sticks and tuna
Egg, bacon and Leek pie with green veg

Had a nice walk just before lunch for a bit of exercise.

Thank you for the welcome. Looking forward to the journey to a healthier and more energetic me hopefully.

preparation continued yesterday with menu plan and food shop. Managed to get a 3 hour forest walk in today (a luxury as I am usually working).

Stick to healthy choices throughout day apart from too much coffee (need to reduce this and drink more water) and homemade wedges with the homemade curry I had for tea!

Need to work on the digital detox.

Her book and the pillars make so much sense. Hoping this time I can achieve weight loss and the health benefits.

Hoping I have not killed the thread! Posting for accountability as I am nearly at the end of prep week.

enjoying snacks of apple rings with almond butter they are delish. Also cheese oatcakes with a smidgen of blue st agur whipped cheese spread. Slowly reducing carbs and I tend to be on plan fully Monday

@sheepdreams you haven't killed the thread, don't worry! We are just a slow and steady kind of group 🙂 sort of goes with the method really, lifestyle not diet and all that. You are so right about the 4 pillars, they really do make sense.

I'm still eating meals at weird times of day at the moment, but am staying on method. Will have a meal out tomorrow which is annoyingly at a pizza type place so I'm going to look up the menu ahead of time and try and see if there's a salad or something I can have.

So today is the first day in the circle so to speak:

Br: Greek yoghurt with oat bran and raspberries.

Sn: oatcakes with whipped st Agur and PM skinny cappuccino.

tea: not strictly LP but lean mince with cauli mash and green veg.

10,500 steps completed but have not managed to do the exercises yet.

I will be refraining from looking at anything digital after 9pm tonight. How’s everyone else doing?

Welcome to the circle, @sheepdreams! I've been doing LPM since March and do not do her exercises. I absolutely hate them, though I do other exercises most days. I have a rule that if I hate it, I'm not going to do it because this should be a long-term thing for me.

One thing that helps me stay in the circle is having handy go-to things to eat. Boiled eggs, frozen diced chicken, oatmeal, and hummus have saved me so many times over these months.

As tomorrow is Halloween, I'm looking very much forward to stepping out of the circle and having a nice bowl of banana pudding (I'm in the US, so it would be banana custard in the UK) for dessert. Then, back in the circle I go.

I've learned so much about myself, weight and food over these past 7 months. I realized stepping out of the circle for a "worth it" and then going back in isn't going to stall my weight loss.

THOUGH, I do advise newcomers to stay in the circle for those first six weeks! It really does make a difference!

Yeah don't worry about killing the thread! We live at glacial pace tbh but we are still here!

I'm just checking in. Properly! I'll have a read through this evening but I'm going to give it a real push between now and Christmas as I've just been so terrible lately. I'll confess my sins later on

Have started the day strong though!

Greek yogurt, fresh orange slices, fresh cherries, flaxseed, chia seeds, little bit of 'Bio & Me' gut health granola.

Just doing lunch now and that'll be a gooey veg sandwich on wheat and rye bread. Sun dried tomatoes, goats cheese, spinach, red onion, sweet potato, vegan mayo

I then have to work for 4 hours but have a snack prepared! Some mixed nuts and a piece of fruit

Really trying to focus now as well... I've given myself acid reflux FFS. Just through eating a load of shit

Back later

Hello 👋 I picked up the 6 week programme a few weeks back and am going to give it a whirl. I was delighted to find this thread and read some real life experience. Any tips for prep week greatly appreciated!

@JanyewithaY WELCOME! I really love the programme-- my advice is to stick to it. Within a few days of starting, I'm surprised how much better I felt.

Have food on hand that you can eat last-minute in case you can't plan ahead. For me, it is diced chicken, boiled eggs, hummus, almond butter...

Good luck.

Yes, happy to re-join. LP recipes form the basis of most of my cooking. Since the original LP thread life has moved on. I joined a specialised gym that concentrates on personalised training & also had a nutrition coach for four months. I kept track of my food via Nutracheck. Over 4 months I lost around a stone. The coach had me on 1800+ calories a day, which seemed too high, so I am down to 1400, which if I stick to it, works. The coaching/Nutracheck accomplished a few things: I learned to focus on fluids & protein & my cravings have reduced considerably. I am on a pause at the moment as I broke a front tooth which is taking a lot of time and £ to resolve. I have a mouth full of prosthetics ATM which means I have to eat soft food out of one side of my mouth - so no carrot sticks, or anything crunchy. With luck this may be fixed on Monday (or maybe not, I will spare you the dental complications!)
So I hope to get back on track next week, and happy to post progress.
For me, it can be useful to check calorie counts of LP recipes & my daily intake, without getting too hung up on numbers.

Hi all, checking back in. So far my last week has really followed a format of sensible breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner, some extra grazing,...then caving entirely and having 4 biscuits, a pice of cake and a glass of wine. Sigh.

So today I have really tried to make myself accountable, I have gone back to journaling which I haven't done for months and really helped me before. I am writing down everything I eat and drink as well as using a mood tracker and trying to look at positives of day and set mini goals for the next day etc. Let's see if it works.

So, today:
2 eggs and quarter avocado on toast.

5 grapes, slice of cold chicken.

'Half the garden' soup. A few nuts.

Oatcakes with nut butter and apple slices.

There is a sausage and cabbage casserole waiting for dinner.

Lemonize, 2 coffees, 1 tea, so far 4 glasses of water, that will be 6 or 7 by tonight.

No major exercise today but been generally active, hope to do some pilates this evening.

Hello! Please can I revive this thread for some accountability?

I have been an inconsistent lurker of this thread and follower of the LP method. I’ve never completed the six weeks before but I did manage a few weeks earlier this year. I don’t want to end this year feeling sluggish and so I am starting my six weeks today.

Today hasn’t been entirely on method but I’m not too far off. I also will eat more carbs than included in the recipes as I’m very active.

Food:
Breakfast - mushrooms, poached eggs and toast
Snack - banana
Lunch - quinoa porridge from the 6 week book
Snack - carrot sticks with a tbsp cream cheese
Dinner - salmon traybake

Rent: dog walk and some stretching

Hi @Runnr welcome to the group. Good for you for starting. My husband started the Monday after Thanksgiving here in the States and he'll probably be mostly on-plan through the end of February. (He has a pretty strong sugar habit he needs to kick.)

I know it's hard, but you can stick to the six weeks! For me, the six weeks really helped me curb my emotional eating.

I've been in the circle since the end of March. Will step out for Christmas and New Years (happily, with dessert!) and will step right back in afterwards.

You've got this!

Hi @Runnr , accountability could be good for me too, I've veered off track recently. Have been loosely in the lifestyle mode for a while I guess you could say so I've not really gained a lot but I've definitely not been bossing it either! Really could do with that final 6 week push, and actually that could hopefully avoid me just eating more rubbish in the Christmas run up. I'll pop back later and let you know how today has gone mealwise etc.

I could do with a few weeks on plan too. I successfully gave up sugar for two weeks, had very on plan meals, no alcohol… then screwed it all up with mince pies and wine!

How long is it until Christmas? Could I shift half a stone by then?!

@Sutra Don't consider it "screwing it up!" I've been on plan for eight months now, and I promise you that I have celebrated everything (birthdays, anniversaries, holidays) and it included food and alcohol. The thing is, save it for the special occasion, enjoy it, and then go back to the healthy way of eating.

I would say half a stone is a bit much. More realistically, it would be about a pound a week if you're on method. If you haven't, I highly recommend you read the books. They are very helpful.

Well, today didn’t go very well. Trying not to let stinking thinking bother me and accept / draw a line under today and stick to my no screens and bedtime ritual.

I got up early before work and went for a 5km run and forgot that I had a work breakfast that meant pastries and so didn’t plan around that and then this evening had a work thing which involved a couple of glasses of mulled wine and a mince pie.

Food:
Breakfast - nakd bar pre run, three mini pastries after run at work
Lunch - wholemeal wrap with grilled chicken and salad with a side salad
Snacks - mince pie, 2 glasses of mulled wine
Dinner - salmon traybake

Rent: 5km run

Also, thank you @ElvenDreamer and @MisshapenHat - I really need to get my arse in gear! I really want to avoid eating too much rubbish in the pre-Christmas run up. I suppose one benefit is that although today wasn’t perfect and I was outside the circle, I didn’t go out for dinner like everyone else did at my work thing and came home to my prepped fish and veg dinner.

I am trying to get into the routine of exercising first thing too, but I can’t work out on an empty stomach. Does anyone have any on-method easy to digest snacks that I can eat first thing?

@Runnr if I'm going to exercise, I typically eat apples and almond butter or snap peas and hummus beforehand. A piece of bread with peanut/almond butter would also work.

This is a hard time of year to start, but there's never a good time, really. We're always having celebrations or vacations or holidays. Just do the best you can right now to not get too crazy. You'll feel the difference.

Thanks @MisshapenHat i don’t tend to keep bread in the house as it means I either eat the whole loaf or don’t eat it before it goes off but maybe I will get some nice bread and keep it in the freezer and can quickly toast that.

You’re right, there never is a good time to start. I have dinner at a friend’s house tomorrow night and plan to not drink any alcohol or eat pudding if there is one and make the best with whatever food is on offer.

@Runnr I understand not keeping bread. I have some Swedish-style rye crackers I have used in the past that were pretty low calorie and boring enough one would never want to eat the whole packet.

Eat as much protein as you can at your friend's and remember to not go into the meal starving. Have a small healthy snack before you go so that you can make good choices! (Trust me, I know from experience.)

Ups and downs for me today.

Food today:
Banana on ryvita
2 eggs
Wholemeal wrap with tuna, sweetcorn and rocket
Cheese and oat cakes
Chicken and green veg
Biscuit, peanuts and raisins

Not too terrible though. No exercise as such but been active all day with jobs. Onwards and upwards tomorrow I hope!

Hmm, not sure that today was a massive success compared to yesterday…

Food:
Poached eggs, mushrooms, wholemeal toast
Wholemeal wrap, grilled chicken and salad
Apple with peanut butter and a nakd bar
Pork, salad and a couple of small potatoes and a small piece of cake and half a glass of wine

Rent:
Dog walk and weights session