6 weeks until Christmas Day - who wants to lose half a stone?

[Hollyhead]

I have been trying to lose the same half a stone all year, I’m sick to death of it, and if I’m honest I haven’t really tried. I’m not even that bothered about the weight number being exactly half a stone, it’s 2 inches I want to loose from bum/hips/stomach.

I know what I want to do - steps, home weight workouts, some 16:8 fasting and following a set regime of the following diet choices
Breakfast - eggs &a vegetable OR yoghurt with seeds/fruit OR porridge

Lunch - salad OR homemade soup OR plant based tray bake type thing (such as lentils and roasted veg

Dinner - small version of what we’re having with veg replacing carbs where possible - so for instance instead of rice with a stir fry do an extra portion of steamed broccoli.

Anyone want to join me with any weight loss method permissible? Whether it’s vanity pounds or getting a big weight loss kickstarted let’s do this! My wardrobe is full of clothes I love that I can only just get on, I want them back 😁

Hi everyone, I’ve been really quiet, but I’ve been in an awfully down place the past couple of weeks and realised I was/am totally burnt out. I also weighed in on Friday and the results were not as I might have hoped 😳

Anyway, the good news is that I had a great weekend and managed to get a plan of action worked out for how to recuperate and today feels like a really good new start. I’m not sure where to go with the diet and exercise stuff, I’m so bored with it all but I really do need to stop the bad habits I have which are detrimental to my health, and I think resulting in my carrying the 10lb or so that makes me feel really not good about myself. I’ve really tried to accept it but I’m a weird shape and clothes either are too small or too big when I’m this size and I just feel completely wrong and self conscious all the time.

So my plans are basically for 30 days

1. no eating before 11am and stop by 8pm
2. exercise/movement every day
3. track calories on mfp, certainly whilst I get into it.
4. no weighing/measuring until the 30 days is up!

I want to just get on with my life whilst being healthy and see what the result is after a month. So that’s my plan! I’d love it if anyone else wanted to keep this thread going with me, I was enjoying all your company pre Christmas!

Hi @Hollyhead
Sorry to hear you’ve been feeling down recently. Glad that you’ve got a plan in place- sounds like you’re heading in the right direction.

I’ve come to a stand still with my weight loss. Have been eating crap and not exercising as much and can really tell the difference but I’m just not motivated to change at the moment. And today I got told my job will no longer exist in a few months so I’ve got to now motivate myself to find a new one. Hopefully I’ll get back on track with everything soon!

It’s hard isn’t it @Justmeandmyself , and actually I think you have to really dig deep to work out what the underlying issue is. I realised I’m just completely burnt out, I work FT and always have and it’s always been manageable but suddenly I’m finding it hard for the pre teen stage. All my friends who were SAHM or part time are ramping up their work again but I’m just about ready to Jack it all in! Which makes me feel pathetic which is silly. I now need to muster up the courage to chat with my boss about whether they would agree to me reducing my hours. I think they will, but it’s just yet ANOTHER thing to do!

Diet/exercise/well-being activities went really well yesterday so hoping for another good day today. Got tasty but healthy leftovers which I always thing is the key to keeping on track rather than cobbling together a ‘sad’ diet lunch.

Checking in! Courage friends! I'm excited to get back on the horse with you all! Hard plateau the last couple weeks, going to try to recommit to IF and I've made a meal plan for the next two weeks which includes a lot of healthy homecooking. Also I'm getting sick which is always good for dulling my appetite!

@Hollyhead lots of working mamas on this thread I bet. The grind can be so relentless can't it? I actually love my job but I wish all the time it was part time, so much so that I do consider quitting! One reason I don't is I actually think I would gain weight if I had easy access to my fridge all the time!

Sorry been awol been on holiday. 1lb up which I'm actually amazed at given it was chalet food so lots of cream, cheese and cake! But I also stuck to my fasting hours of 16/8 which I think made the difference.

@Hollyhead did you look into a soup maker? Honestly makes life very easy and given its cold a warm soup is great! I don't eat mine with bread but find it filling and will have some protein on the side if I need it.
I also work ft and have 2 under 5 it can be exhausting but found gadgets helps me get time back and feel less exhausted. So I have a food processor with grate blades, slow cooker, soup maker and ninja foodie. Most meals for me take me about 10 mins prep then put on the gadget. I often prep slow cooker pot night before stick in fridge then put it on when making morning coffee. Its truly been a life saver especially as I have rubbish energy levels! I pressure cook and steam/air fry alot in the ninja too. But it has the double benefit of very little fat required so I use a spray oil. I cook a whole chicken in less then 45 mins with the potatoes underneath!

I have a target of 1.5 stone by June, 16/8 and tracking 1200-1500 calories on mfp (other then when on holiday) seems to be a good combo for me.

I'm another 2lbs ish down (actually a kg) but now heading into a month of extreme stress. So I'm either going to be stick thin in a month's time from not eating due to stress or absolutely enormous due to comfort eating!

Hi both! @Scottishskifun no I didn’t get very far with it but thanks for the reminder - do you have to do any frying off or do you literally just have to chop veg add stick and leave. It could be a really good treat for me.

Ive more or less been able to stick on the straight and narrow this week and have picked up a bit of exercise. Just need to keep it up 💪

Soup maker (mine anyway) doesn't fry. Just fill to one line with pre chopped ingredients, sprinkle stock cube on top and add cold water to a higher line. It cooks the lot and will then blend smooth or leave chunky.

I think more expensive ones may have a sauté function? I chop ingredients the night before, leave in fridge, then add to soup maker the next day. It takes less than 2 mins to put ingredients in, add the water and switch on. I do that whilst boiling the kettle for a cup of tea between meetings. It then takes about 20 mins to make the soup.

Which soup maker do you have? It sounds great!

It's a Morphy Richards compact one from John Lewis.

It makes about three portions in one go.

@Hollyhead it depends on which one I have a larger Morphy Richards one which does have a saute function but I rarely use it! Mostly have that one for the size and preclean function!
You can also buy premade soup packs of veg if you don't want to chop including frozen veg packs. I boil the kettle and use that (generally I stick it on when making a cup of tea anyway!) as it seems to make it smoother if using root veg.

Many people go just use a pan and stick blender but it's more you shove it in and your done til you want to eat it. If you use the chunky function it stays at the same size you cut it.

Hope people's weeks are going OK!

I decided to weigh in after a week to see what the damage was from travelling and not tracking for a few days was pleasantly surprised to be down to 10 Stone 13 so a 3.5lb loss. I've been back on my own weird plan since Wednesday.

Have the DCs birthdays over the next week, I deliberately bought a normal cake which I can't eat for damage control and bought myself some nice fruit/herbal teas for the evening.
Also in smaller jeans so will stick to these as I can tell quicker if I am going the other way!

I'm 5kg (11lb) down from the starting point! That'll fluctuate a bit as I head towards period bloat but a nice milestone.

@RidingMyBike that's brilliant hope the month of stress isn't too bad I'm a big fan of yoga nidra it's very hippy but actually really helps relaxation and loads on you tube etc

Oh I'll have to have a look for that. I did more exercise too last week to deal with the stress which probably helped the weight loss too!

My waist measurement seems to have reduced as well - clothes are feeling more comfortable!