Diet for Summer Challenge 2024

[bigdecisionstomake]

This is a continuation of the previous Diet for Christmas and Diet for Summer Challenges started by myself, @OhFatty and @Dashel

It is open to everyone, whether you have a lot to lose, just a small amount to go or you're at target but facing the enormous challenge of maintaining your loss ongoing.

Your target doesn't need to be summer - you can set if for as soon or as late as you like. There are no rules other than being supportive and cheering each other on. Occasional kicks up the bum are available as and when requested.

Hopefully previous members of these threads will join us again and new members are always welcome.

I will update shortly with my start point for this challenge.

The kilo I went up yesterday has come back off today so definitely hormones! Hope you are feeling better today @Backinthedress

@IchGlaubMeinSchweinPfeift that made me laugh about you eating ben and Jerry's in the kitchen. I know it shouldn't, but it is relatable and very human. You seem to be weight wise in a similar place to me. It is always nice to get into a different stone bracket.

Yes and I echo getting the weight off before you hit 40. I somehow thought that wouldn't happen to me 😂losing weight always happened quite fast in my 20s and 30s. I certainly know how relatively fast it was now as it is labourious these days. I've probably said it before, but I'll say it again, as I need to convince myself, that the benefits of eating healthy go beyond just managing your weight.

Anyone else got any non scale related benefits they've experienced since joining this thread? It might keep us motivated on days we feel frustrated by the lack of movement on the scales.

As a recently-turned-41 year old you're all scaring me! I desperately want to lose and maintain this weightloss. I've heard perimenopause makes it harder, so I'm hoping to beat that, if not my 40s.

Feeling a bit more sane today, but still tired. Have upped my vitamins and am taking iron, but just want my period to start now so I can get past this bit and move to the next bit.

Sorry to hear the spring viruses are hitting again. It is miserable. I have become the demon "wash your hands" mummy monster. I wish they'd bring back the emphasis on hand washing at schools that they had during covid. I loved how few bugs there were then. Am also dosing the kids on high strength vitC and zinc. The oldest is at secondary now and the illnesses are definitely less often and less serious, but the yougest is year 4 and still seems to be problematic.

Fingers crossed the weather will.improve and the sunshine along with a break from school will help you all recover.

Happy bank holiday eve everyone 🙂(sorry if you don't get one where you are).

So sorry you're having such a tough week @Backinthedress it sounds really rubbish. Like you, running used to be my stress reliever until I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my hip about 4 years ago and I was told to stop running. I started walking in earnest around that time and although to begin with it didn't quite give me the endorphin rush that running did I find now that it does. For me it also helps to look at green when walking - I find it very calming. I'm lucky that I live quite rurally and within 50 metres of my front door I can be on a footpath through a field. I really hope the Pilates helps and in the meantime sending you a big hug and lots of love 🤗

@Yocal I think that's really sensible advice to think about the health benefits when you are stuck on a bit of a plateau - I'm trying to channel that myself currently! Glad the pound you found took its leave again as well. In terms of Non Scale Victories one for me is increased confidence with how I look which plays out in lots of ways, including at work and being more assertive of my needs and wants at home. I feel more inclined to take care of my appearance in other ways too when I'm at or around my ideal weight rather than 2 stone over which is what I was in January 23. It's actually quite surprising how much being overweight dents my confidence but I wasn't aware of it until I took myself in hand last year.

Huge congratulations on another pound gone @NahThen - well done. You're right, bodies are funny things and never behave exactly as you would expect.

Great news that you managed a short run @Backinthedress and hear hear to how supportive everyone has been - I love that about this thread, there's always someone there when you need them. Like you I'm hoping for more sunny weather over the weekend to give us all some positive vibes.

I can't believe your DC are ill again @IchGlaubMeinSchweinPfeift that's really bad luck and I can see why Ben and Jerrys was called for. You are doing an amazing job, keep it up, slow and steady progress is the best kind 🙂Hope you manage to get some solid sleep soon 😴

I have STS again at 10st 4.8lb this morning - which is a little disappointing seeing as I have stuck to plan wholeheartedly for the last few days. However, my tummy is definitely looking a little flatter so that is really encouraging. I am going to stick to my calorie deficit today but may move on to maintenance for the four day weekend as my shopping came yesterday with a few Easter treats in it which it would be a shame to miss out on.

I've done a 30 minute Walk and Tone with Olivia Lawson this morning followed by Day 20 of HR 4.0 which was quads and hamstrings so I'm likely to be sore tomorrow. I'm going to try to keep active over the weekend to balance out the additional calories if I can.

Have good days all.

Morning all and hello bank holiday weekend!

Disappointingly the weather is a bit pants here today as I was hoping to get in the garden but it's forecast to be better tomorrow and Sunday so fingers crossed for that.

I had another good day yesterday food and exercise wise and I abstained from alcohol even though it felt like a Friday night.

Watch out for the tumbleweed though as despite being on plan I have had yet another STS on the scales at 10st 4.8lb - I think the display must have got stuck or something 😆

DS is out tonight so DP and I are planning a takeaway, probably pizza. I'm going to try to stay on track for the rest of the day and be moderate with my alcohol consumption so hopefully the damage won't be too bad. In preparation I've done two walking workouts this morning with Ingrid Kick totalling an hour and 15 minutes so I already have 7.5k steps in the bag and 450 extra calories to play with which I'm hoping will set me up for damage limitation later.

Enjoy the weekend 😃

Well done everyone you all sound like you’re doing great! Sorry your having a tough week @Backinthedress
I am feeling so much better this week, finished a course of antibiotics yesterday and went back to PT (which was tough after two weeks not exercising and being ill). My appetite is back so trying not to get carried away! We are going away for the bank holiday weekend which I’m really excited about after weeks of sickness and being stuck in the house.
Hope everyone has a good bank holiday

Hi all! Happy Bank Holiday weekend 🥳

I lost another pound, still doing extra workouts (6-7 a week now instead of 4-5) and it's clearly still paying off.
Away tomorrow & Sunday and will eat/drink whatever I like so there may be a gain next Fri but that's OK.

Hope you all have a good weekend! 😊

👋 hello everyone looking to join to spur me on a bit more and decided to set my target to my holiday date of mid June!

I started end of November I do calorie target of 1200 a day. Regular exercise isnt an option for me unfortunately as I also have long covid and POTS so fatigue management is critical for me. I do gentle walks when I can. I also intermittent fast 16 hours a day - this is mainly to help with long covid symptoms.
I've lost 2.5 stone so far.

CW: 10 stone 4.5lbs (today's weigh in)
TW: 9 stone 10 lb

Morning all

Fantastic that you're feeling better @LBB2020 but I can imagine going back to the PT after such a long break would have been gruelling! Hope you have a lovely weekend away 🙂

Smashing it again @Gemzee another pound gone is awesome and will give you a bit of wriggle room for letting your hair down this weekend - have a great time 😊

Welcome to the thread @Scottishskifun That's an awesome loss so far, huge congratulations, especially given your limitations around exercise. You are a similar weight to me currently and our targets are similar too. My GP says my ideal weight is around 9st 11lbs however I got down to that last year and still had a bit of a tummy so am going to try to get to 9st 7lb this year although I do find the last few pounds really difficult so I'm going to play it by ear. Keep posting to let us know how you're getting on.

I had a great day yesterday, got lots done including some time in the garden and my steps ended up coming in just short of 14k. Fitbit says I burned 2300 calories in total but as planned I had takeaway pizza and garlic bread with DP last night, accompanied by a couple of glasses of wine. I'm not sure of the calorie content of the food as it was from a local independent takeaway rather than a big chain but I should imagine overall I probably ate and drank all my calories at least yesterday so no deficit.

I was expecting a gain on the scales this morning, just due to the carb content if nothing else, but actually I've had yet another STS at 10st 4.8lb. I guess I can't be too disappointed with that in the circumstances.

I'm hoping for another active day today with lots of time in the garden as the weather is much better today. I've started the day with a 4000 step walking workout with Kat Gates-Beuttner followed by Day 21 of HR 4.0 which was upper body circuits.

Have a great Saturday everyone 🙂

Thank you @bigdecisionstomake
Yes it's been a big adjustment working out how to do it and I have to be a lot more restrictive on the calorie front in order to do so. Only silver lining is I hope it will put me in good stead for peri /menopausal weight management (I'm late 30s)
My soup maker helps me out a lot and I add protein a bit like croutons.
I had a big stagnation for 3 weeks from end of Feb to mid March but it's started coming off again. I've also learnt my cycle plays a big part and now avoid weighing myself around ovulation and period week so that it doesn't demotivate me.

Have a fabulous Easter weekend.

Morning all

You sound like you've taken a really sensible approach @Scottishskifun but I guess you needed to think hard about it all as you won't have much wriggle room in your calories. The soup maker with protein croutons sounds like a fantastic idea! Hope everything continues to go to plan and you don't get any further plateaus 😃

Finally this morning my weight has moved - unfortunately not in the right direction. I'm up to 10st 5.6lb. I'm not going to worry unduly about this though as I think it's a combination of the takeaway on Friday night and ...ahem... the chocolate and salted caramel bread and butter pudding I made yesterday for an Easter treat! In my defence, I did only have a very small portion but I suspect the additional carbs/sugar has caused me to carry a bit of extra water, I certainly feel bloated this morning.

The rest of the day yesterday was on point food wise and I gardened for nearly 5 hours so came in at just over 2300 calories burned for the day again.

Today we have a big family gathering and there will be cake so whilst I'm going to try to keep the rest of the day on plan, I'm going to enjoy the cake this afternoon

Have good days all

Morning All and Happy Easter!
We’re having a lovely weekend and so far the weather has been lovely so we’ve spent a lot of time outside running about with the children. Food wasn’t the best yesterday cakes, ice cream at the seaside and chips/chocolate but I’m not going to worry too much I just want to enjoy the break after being ill!
Salted caramel bread pudding sounds delicious @bigdecisionstomake

Hello everyone, belated Happy Easter! Hope you've all enjoyed the weekend. It's been full of delicious food and very little exercise for me, starting to feel the effects but it's been SO nice not tracking everything for a couple of days and having a bit of a break. Not sure how much damage I have done!

@Scottishskifun thanks for the reminder about soup- it's one of those things I forget exists now and again. Maybe a nice pot of something homemade will ease me back in?! I have a spicy parsnip recipe to try somewhere.

Back to work tomorrow but schools aren't back until next week, so I think I'll save my big reset til then. In the meantime, get back to my pilates and try not to end the day feeling sick from too much chocolate (again!). That's about all I can commit to for now!

Hi everyone and welcome @Scottishskifun

Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. Mil has just left and I must say I didn't keep to my calories as much as I wanted! We had a McDonald's before her arrival on Thursday evening which I very much enjoyed, but we ended up eating cake (was late birthday cake for mil), cupcakes which DS1 and mil baked, ordered a dominos and had Easter chocolate over the whole weekend. The boys' sinus colds also passed onto me but with mil here, I was able to rest a lot! We have gorgeous weather later on this week (27 degrees on Saturday!) so I feel very happy and optimistic that the winter sickness of 2023/24 will be over soon😆 and the nicer weather and lighter nights means we can start getting out after dinner again for a walk / play in the garden which I love.
I'm back on it today.. not looking forward to my weigh in tomorrow but I still have 3 weeks before dh's birthday weekend trip so I'm really hoping I'll get into the 14st bracket for then.

Hope you're all having a good start to the week

Hi everyone, hope you're all getting back in your stride and off the chocolate eggs now.

I'm absolutely delighted to stand on the scales this morning and be just over half way. 15kg down 15kg to go!

I'm going to celebrate with a GIF (oh and I did prebook a spa break to celebrate)

@Yocal congrats, I hope you enjoy your well deserved spa break!

My weigh in was as expected really, maybe even not as bad as I had thought 😆

+0.8lbs this week.
CW: 15st 1.2lbs

It's frustrating to move away from that 14 st bracket I'm so desperate to see right but I just have to get back on it. I've got 3 weeks to shift just over a pound. That's perfectly feasible.

Have a good Wednesday all

Morning all

After doing so well for the first half of the bank holiday weekend it all went a bit pear shaped on Sunday afternoon/evening and Monday 😳. I then managed to roll over awkwardly in bed yesterday morning and have caused my costochondritis to flare up quite badly. That means exercise is out for a while as I can't take a deep breath and a lot of movements cause pain.

The combination of no exercise and being in pain and tired/fed up means my eating has stayed off track. I need to get a hold of myself and get back on it soon otherwise I will undo all my good work of the last few weeks.

I haven't weighed in as I've had barely any sleep last night and am a bit grumpy but will try to pull myself together today.

Hope everyone else is doing well and better than me!

Oh no @bigdecisionstomake that sounds miserable! Hope you’re feeling better soon.
We’re back from our break away and I really need to get back on the wagon as I imagine I’ve put back on all the weight I’d lost before we went 😳
Back to the gym tonight and back on the healthy eating train tomorrow, that’s the plan anyway!

Congratulations @Yocal ! That's excellent, half way!
It's been lovely to have a glimpse of nicer weather- a bit of warmth, sunshine and time outside- I'm looking forward to more time outdoors too @IchGlaubMeinSchweinPfeift hope the illness reprieve continues for you.
Sorry you're feeling rubbish @bigdecisionstomake hope you get better sleep this evening. I suffer with costochondritis occasionally too- the best tip a physio gave me was to roll a towel up, put it behind your neck and lay down near the edge of your bed. Gently let your head 'hang' over the side. I stay like this for a good 10-20 minutes and it helps relieve the sharpness when breathing. I do it before sleep and it usually helps a bit. But yeah, other than that it's rubbish and you need to rest it!

Positives- I'm tracking again and have got back on with Pilates (I'd like to do it every day for April if I can).
Negatives- I'm over my cals already and got a sweet craving. Weirdly I've done two things that I haven't done for a long time- eaten my feelings (stress!) and bitten all my fingernails off. I haven't done either of these things for a long time! Bring back routine..

Morning all

Sorry I was in such a grump yesterday - I think I've just spent the last year or two adjusting to having some permanent discomfort/pain in my arthritic hip that suddenly having a new pain elsewhere made me really fed up. Aaaaaanyway...normal service resumes today 😂

Thanks for your kind words @LBB2020 and happy to have you back on the wagon alongside me. The salted caramel bread and butter pudding was indeed delicious but I only had one quite small portion - DS and DP have polished off the rest.

Ooooh, thanks for the tip @NahThen I'll give that a try later - anything that helps with the pain breathing will be very much appreciated - it's not like you can avoid doing it for a while! I did sleep much better last night though, I think I must have been exhausted from the night before. I too need routine to stay on plan so well done on the logging and the pilates, try not to focus on the negatives and see if you can find some distractions.

@IchGlaubMeinSchweinPfeift sorry for the gain but it's only a small one and you can easily get rid of the 1.2lbs in the next 3 weeks if you put your mind to it - good luck!

It's a whoop whoop from me for being half way to target @Yocal huge congratulations 🙌👏💪15kg is an immense amount to lose. Enjoy your success for a few days and enjoy your spa break.

I am logging again from today and aiming to be within calories consistently until we go away at the end of April. I have weighed this morning and am currently 10st 6lb 🙄. I'm hoping there is a small amount of water weight that might go quickly but we'll see.

As any strenuous exercise is out for now I've just walked (gently) for an hour first thing. I'm going to keep at that for the rest of the week then re-evaluate on Monday. Last time I had a flare of costocondhritis I started back with weights too soon and kept aggravating it which made it last much longer than it should have so I'm keen not to do that again this time.

Have good days all.

@bigdecisionstomake Hope you're feeling better soon.

I've had a stay the same on the scales this week, which after the BH weekend I'm pleased with.

Hope you have a good weekend 😊

@bigdecisionstomake hope you feel better soon.
I can't exercise either I intermittent fast (for my condition it helps) and then aim for 1200 calories due to static job.
Honestly homemade soups with some lean protein. Carrot and coriander with no oil is around 100 calories, same with mushroom. Then 100g of quorn piece is 100 calories have as croutons or some lean chicken etc and that way lunch stays low.
A low lunch means dinner can be pretty standard I just have a smaller carb portion and extra veg portion.

Very slight loss for me this week (which is good for a ovulation week for me due to water retention) of 10 stone 4.5lb

Sorry to hear you're in pain @bigdecisionstomake perfectly understandable to be grumpy! How are you doing now? I hope it gets better soon and in the meantime you aren't too uncomfortable.

I've been on point with calories so far but steps have not been great. Going to walk to pick up DS1 today. It's 24 degrees and I want that fresh air and sun. We're out tomorrow for the day so will get lots of steps then too.

Happy Friday all

Hi everyone, how's it going? Hope you're feeling a bit less sore now @bigdecisionstomake though I know it can take a while for a flare to calm down!
How's your step goal going @IchGlaubMeinSchweinPfeift? 24 degrees sounds heavenly! I'm so looking forward to some drier weather- I can hack the cold but the relentless rain is really starting to bother me.
@Scottishskifun I tend to keep lunch low so I can have a relatively normal dinner too. Usually it works fine but occasionally once I start eating I can't seem to stop.. which leads me to..
The wagon has left me! I keep trying to get back on and failing miserably (here eating Easter egg as I type. There's about a dozen more of them- DC will never get through them and I can't leave them alone!).
I think I've lost organisation as well as motivation which is making it all too easy to overeat. I'm quite shocked at how easy it has been to slip back into my old ways of eating to excess (e.g pasta this eve- mountains of cheese on top of a large portion of pasta then chocolate afterwards).
I have a couple of very long days at work to get through this week which I'm trying not to use as an excuse but I need to have a think about my weak spots and think of a strategy before i pile the weight back on!

@NahThen would trying on some of your wardrobe help get you back on? So your not aiming for scales but to fit into x dress or trousers?

I think you need to factor in having the chocolate for a bit so you don't feel like your too restricted and then doomed if you have a few days not tight on it. 1 meal isn't going to cause much its then going back to every meal.

Have you got a slow cooker? I find that handy when I'm busy just put it on when making a coffee (I also prep mine before bed stick the bowl in the fridge then add the hot liquid in the morning). BBQ pulled chicken or a chilli is comforting and can be done healthy with sweet potato wedges in the air fryer?

My weigh in was a small loss of 0.5 lb now at 10 stone 4 Lb.

The halves all add up @Scottishskifun good job! I did try on some clothes and happily/annoyingly they mostly fitted well! I have a fancy tweed jacket that I could hardly fasten before - I'm going to wear it tomorrow 😊

This, combined with a hellish work week, has not helped my motivation. However, my awful digestion, crashing mood and general feeling of "I've overdone it" have nudged me back in the right direction. I have had chocolate this eve but not too much and I've meal prepped a feta/couscous pot to take with me tomorrow- lack of planning and organisation is definitely where I go wrong.
Tea will be some leftover homemade pizza so not catastrophic, then I can get back to tracking properly. Hope everyone is doing well, Wednesday already!!