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.

Came back to add , hubby has also bearly lost any weight, so I’m sure that there is something that we are not quite getting right.

we are both overweight, so I would assume that even just sticking to a healthy plan should get some lbs shifted.

he manages to do his 10k steps most days

I struggle, yesterdays 9k had me achey

@Cheekymonkye have you tracked the calories for a few days of what your eating? My fitness pal is very handy at what to aim for based on your goals and lifestyle. For me to lose weight it's around 1200 calories (can't exercise much and work is at a desk).
Tracking it even for a few days can give you a good insight generally portion sizes of things people misconstrue as well. Take cereal as a good example most people go yeah portion size 30-40grams and that's 120 calories but if you ask them to pour it out by eye most triple the size of it.

I would say increase fruit and veg count where possible so a banana with lunch so you don't get hungry. Also protein size helps so seeds or 20 almonds as a snack etc. The time of your meals has also shown to be a factor especially dinner. Don't forget hidden calories like drinks unless it's water.

Weigh in for me this morning of 9 stone 12 so about 0.5lb down from last time I weighed a few weeks ago but definitely had a blip the last few weeks just didn't weigh!

Hi @Cheekymonkye

I Think 2.5lb is good in 4 weeks tbh, plus weight can really vary depending on hormones, amount of salt, carbs eaten recently, amount of poop etc.

I would go on my fitness pal and log your food and drink for a week and calculate how much you should be burning using an online calorie calculator and then aim for a different of about 250 to 500 calories depending on what your figures are and what you can stick to.

Remember that any oils, butter, sugar, drinks need to be counted for too.

I would also look to increase your activity level. It doesn’t have to be traditional exercise, gardening or dancing burns lots of calories and I would try and eat as many fruit and vegetables as possible as there seems to be a lot on the gut microbes. As well as that other tips include lowering stress, getting lots of sleep and drinking lots of water

I recently watched this podcast on YouTube, you might need to search for the doctor’s kitchen on YouTube to find it

https://www.thedoctorskitchen.com/podcasts/262-strategies-to-lose-weight-maintain-weight-loss-and-live-healthier-with-dr-rupy-aujla?premiumplantype=monthly&

I think it sums up a sensible approach to weight loss.

You also mentioned your husband not loosing anything. Is he drinking his calories or secretly snacking whilst at work? Alcohol is very calorific and affects how you digest food.

I would also urge you to get regular support, this thread and its previous incarnations have made a massive difference. They have given me support and accountability. Plus I can bore everyone on here instead if people in real life 😀

Good morning and TFI Friday

I am pretty sore today from DOMs this morning. I managed my 15k steps, chest and back day and a YWA for healing before bed. So a busy day. Food was really carb heavy including bread and pasta so I was surprised to see a drop from 10st 9.6 yesterday to 10st 9.3lb this morning. I was expecting to be back to the 10s tbh so really chuffed with that.

I have been watching a lot of podcasts recently about UPFs and health and something really struck me last night - when you pee after Diet Coke type drinks you are basically peeing your skeleton away 😳 apparently they are worse than I thought especially for women. Being vegan, female, with a bad back, a family history of arthritis and 43, I’m probably in all the categories to be at risk of brittle bones, arthritis and god knows what else. I am going to stop drinking fizzy drinks mid week and either give up completely or keep them to a minimum one or two cans a week.

I need to have a good think about food for the weekend so I don’t put all the weight straight back on.

Yay for Friday and for the weigh in!@Dashel Do you take magnesium supplements? They can really help your bones and prevent osteoporosis. I take it for fatigue but it has the other added benefit.

I take Osteocare vitamins which have calcium, magnesium, vitamin D and zinc which are supposed to be for bone maintenance. They have the Royal Osteoporosis Society stamp on them so hopefully good stuff, but you never know!

I also try to have a good base diet, my trouble has always been the extras such as snacking, puddings and wine, diet drinks etc on top of the healthy stuff.

Morning all

Apologies for my absence, work suddenly got a bit manic again.

Thanks@Scottishskifun Glad that tracking is helping you get your focus back and well done on the loss - it's great when everything moves in the right direction! Have a lovely evening tonight.

Thanks too @Dashel and congratulations on your losses - that's great and so well deserved. Sorry to hear about the stress levels, that must be so difficult. I really hope all the meditation and yoga helps a little bit. Scary about the diet coke too....

@Cheekymonkye I would echo the comments of previous posters - in order to lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit and in order to do that accurately you really need to be weighing and measuring everything and logging your calories (at least to begin with) to help you correctly gauge appropriate portion sizes. The important bit is to record absolutely everything that goes in your mouth. It's really easy to think, oh that was only a bite of chocolate or just a few crisps, but all those little bits add up if you aren't careful. Your diet sounds pretty good and aiming for a minimum of five fruit and veg a day is good. My only comment is that you may need a little more protein to keep you full.

I have had a bit of a mare weight wise. After the euphoria of getting into the 9s I bounced back to 10st 0.4lb on Thursday and then 10st 0.2lb yesterday. This morning I am 10st 0.1lb so moving in the right direction however I was very undisciplined with food yesterday so think I may bounce back up tomorrow again. Hey ho, I guess it's all part of the joyful journey of weightloss 😖

To add to this my shoulder is very sore again so I'm back to walking only this morning. Yesterday was a superset leg day so I've no idea how the shoulder has got injured again but I think I really just need to rest it for now.

Happy weekend everyone 🙂

Morning all

I had quite an active day yesterday and clocked up just over 13k steps plus (apart from two glasses of wine with my evening meal) I was good with my food. The scales have rewarded me with a drop back into the 9s today to 9st 13.3lb. Happy for that but it is pasta for tea tonight and I will no doubt finish the wine off plus I'm off to my parents later so may be plied with cake, so possibly back to the 10s again tomorrow.

I haven't any social plans next week at all though so I'm hoping it will be a consolidation week to try to move me firmly into the 9s and out of the bouncing in and out zone.

Still just walking for me exercise wise but the shoulder is feeling a lot better today so may risk the next Heather Robertson workout tomorrow, which is chest and back - we'll see.

Happy Sunday everyone 🙂

Afternoon all

Yesterday turned out to be just ok food wise - broadly I was restrained during the day (and clocked up 10k+ steps) but I did have pasta and two glasses of wine for my evening meal. I was careful that I only had a small portion of pasta though - I've become a bit more hot on portion sizes since I've had to dial back my exercise as I obviously don't have so many additional calories to play with.

The scales have played ball this morning with the tiniest of drops to 9st 13.2lb. I've just checked and before I went away last year I got down to 9st 12.2lb. We fly two weeks today so I think realistically I should be able to get back to that again and possibly a little lower. Just got to stay focused for the next couple of weeks whilst dreaming of all the lovely Greek food and cocktails I'm going to have when I get there 😎

Have good days all.

Well done @bigdecisionstomake I absolutely love Greece!

I am still STS which is good given a big girls night out and way too much wine on Saturday!

Morning all

Thanks @Scottishskifun we love Greece too. For some reason I've never really found a destination in the Canaries that I would want to go back to and the Balearics aren't always reliably hot in early October so Greece works well for a late September/early October holiday weather wise. Plus there's the food.... Probably need to widen my horizons a bit but DP knows what he likes and tends to want to stick to it 🙄

It sounds like you had an epic time on Saturday and the STS is a good result - well done, you've obviously taken evasive action for the rest of the week to prevent a gain. Keep up the good work 🙂

Frustratingly I have gone back up to 10st 0.0lb this morning so I'm obviously not quite out of the bouncing around zone yet. I'm not panicking too much as I suspect this is just the weekend wine and pasta catching up with me a bit. Plus I had some smoked salmon for lunch yesterday and it was really really salty so that probably won't have helped. I was going to have the other half today but I might re-think that now. DS is out on Tuesdays so tea is usually quite light so hopefully that will help to make up some of the lost ground.

Have good days all.

Morning

@Scottishskifun congrats on the STS after a night out 🥳

@bigdecisionstomake I know that feeling DH would stick to the same places given a chance but I don’t let him. He did go through a phase of anywhere but on a cruise which helped to a point but then even he got bored of them.

Sorry to see you back in the tens, hopefully that will change today. How are you feeling now?

My weight has been bouncing around, we are trying to drastically cut down on UPF which lead to baking bread which was yum but not exactly calorie free and we have been eating more carbs like rice and potatoes.

I have been doing weights and yesterday was abs with GFWR and stationary exercises. I weighed back in the 9s at 10st 9.4lb and I have been keeping up my steps

Evening all

@Dashel I think I need to take a leaf out of your book and push DP into being a bit more adventurous next year but sometimes it's such a battle to get him to agree to book something that I've run out of energy to argue about destinations. I'm contemplating a little solo travel in the next year or two though so maybe that's my time for adventure....😁

I'm still feeling a bit rough to be honest, my neck glands have all swollen up again although apart from feeling a bit pants generally I don't have any other symptoms but the swelling is making it uncomfortable to swallow - hasn't stopped me eating though...

Well done on getting back into the 9s and on your consistency with exercise. I admire your determination in the face of freshly baked bread in the house 😋

I am the proverbial yo yo and was back to 9st 13.3lb this morning. I still need to put some more ground between me and the 10s I think, although I did have a despondent moment this morning thinking that I will definitely be back in the 10s by the time I come back from holiday so I'm going to have to lose these pounds all over again in a few weeks time....

Happy hump day everyone.

Morning all

Quite pleased to see Thursday, this week hasn't been the best!

I am feeling a little better again today so have graduated from walking to the next Heather Robertson workout which was unfortunately HIIT. The thing I like about this program however is that she offers low impact options for everything so I stuck to those. Fingers crossed I haven't jumped in too soon but I'm beginning to find the slow progress a bit frustrating so....

The scales showed the tiniest of drops to take me to 9st 13.2lb this morning but I would really like to see a 12 soon so hopefully dialling up the exercise again will help as broadly my food is pretty good at the moment and I've been watching portion sizes like a hawk.

How is everyone else fairing? 🙂

Morning all

A quick one from me.

The slow creep downwards continues to 9st 13.1lb this morning. I was crossing everything for a number in the 12s as my deficit yesterday was over 500 cals and I was more active than usual but it wasn't to be.

This is annoying as now it's Friday and it's been a bit of a rubbish week I was looking forward to a glass of wine tonight but I'm considering abstaining otherwise I'll probably bounce back to 10st something tomorrow again which would be really demotivating.

First world problems though and I have 2 weeks of eating, drinking and making merry to look forward to shortly so it is what it is.

Happy Friday everyone.

Morning all and happy weekend.

Last night's planned abstinence didn't go to plan unfortunately....but I did limit myself to one small glass of wine which was better than nothing though I guess.

The scales have finally played ball this morning and I am now 9st 12.8lb. I think that will be difficult to hang onto over the weekend but I've tried to get off to a good start with both a Heather Robertson Metabolic Conditioning weights workout and an Eleni Fit walking workout.

My shoulder is still a bit sore so not sure whether the weights workout will have exacerbated it but no doubt we'll see tomorrow.

Have good days all.

Hope your shoulder eases up soon @bigdecisionstomake and well done on the drop!

I'm struggling a lot this week with pain and fatigue management which then means relying on DH to cook so a lot of my aims has gone out the window.
I have a mental week coming with work and will be away so no scales for me.

We did book a holiday today for mid October (scottish holidays) so have an aim of at least 2lb off!

Hi everyone, great news on a peek at the 12s @bigdecisionstomake hoping you've managed to hang on to it!
It's been a really busy start to the month and despite my best efforts, the bad days have outweighed the good. I've got a fairly quiet couple of weeks ahead now to have a bit of a reset and like you @Scottishskifun I think my body is screaming at me to take it easy so it's a gentle return to healthier eating and the odd stroll when I can.
I'm reluctant to weigh as my period is due and I don't want to give myself a shock 😱 so i might hold off til next week.
Sat down to write my shopping list/meal plan thinking of lovely soups and casseroles, only for the weather forecast to show a brief return to warmer temperatures! I've been enjoying the salads that arrive with my takeaway so I think I'll factor some in this week. Hope you've all had a great weekend and managed to catch some sunshine!

Morning all

One week and counting until we go away....hoorah!

@Scottishskifun my shoulder is worse, grrrrr. My own fault for pushing it though. I've always aspired to nice toned arms and when I'm in the 9s I can start to see a bit of definition which spurs me on to do lots of shoulder and bicep/tricep workouts. Unfortunately this year it is not to be - never mind, more first world problems.

Sorry to hear that you're struggling at the moment. My only tip if someone else is cooking and the meals aren't the healthiest is to have a small portion and to eat really slowly. Often when DS cooks he picks high calorie creamy pasta dishes (last night was one of these) so I serve myself a small portion and then eat it really slowly taking sips of water between each mouthful. We're bad and often eat in front of the TV so it doesn't matter that I take an age to eat my meal but I guess this would be more difficult if you were around the table as a family. I often find that I am full before finishing the portion, even if it's a small one and I don't feel as if I've missed out.

Great news that you have a holiday to look forward to and 2 pounds sounds like a very reasonable target - good luck with it, keep battling on 🙂

@NahThen a reset sounds like a great idea and I always think this is the time of year to do it although I agree, the brief return to some sunny days slightly confuses this. Easing in gently is a good idea, I try to do this after Christmas/New Year, rather than go in all guns blazing and giving up after a few days. Making small changes like adding in a short walk can compound and start to add up - we're all here cheering you on 🙂

Against the odds I've managed to stay in the 12s and have actually dropped a little more to 9st 12.3lb this morning. I made sure I had a really active weekend and ate pretty well although I have had a bottle of wine altogether over the last 3 nights.

I will be happy now to stay in the 12s but am going to push on to try to get into the 11s if I can. This would make me a pound lighter than I was when I went away last year and would also put me at exactly the weight my GP says is my ideal weight for height - I think it equates to a BMI of 21.5

I'm going to be tied to my desk all day today so it will be interesting to see if that makes me put a bit back on though due to lack of activity.

Have good days all.

Hi, I'm back! Hope you're all OK.

I've had some stress the last few weeks which has resulted in overeating. I really want to get back on track so I've started logging my calories from today.

My first goal is to lose 4lbs which seems not much but I'm struggling with perimenopause and bloating so may take a while.

I'll check in on Friday after I weigh in 😊

Morning all

Great to see you back @Gemzee but sorry to hear you've had a stressful time. You've taken the first step though by starting logging and posting and I'm sure you'll reach your first target soon. How is the exercise going? Have you kept it up or has it slipped with life stresses going on? I often find I lose the motivation to exercise when life is busy/difficult and that then knocks on to not bothering what I'm eating so much either. I'll cross my fingers you get an initial win on Friday!

Can't quite believe my weigh in this morning - out of nowhere I've dropped to 9st 11.3lbs. I have no idea what I've done to deserve that so I'm not going to get too upset if I bounce back again. My shoulder is still quite painful so still only walking for exercise at the moment although I may try a leg day tomorrow if it's no worse.

Have good days all.

@bigdecisionstomake I've kept up the exercise which I guess is a good thing however I was eating so much and drinking so much wine it had little effect 😂
Well done on the weight drop and the walking (I love walking!) 😊

Welcome back @Gemzee I've been a bit intermittent lately but will try to join you on track! Great news @bigdecisionstomake that's a nice drop!
This week has gone fairly well so far (she says on Tuesday lunchtime). I've knocked booze on the head and plan to keep that up but I seem to be making up for it with bread- it really doesn't agree with me but I'm finding it hard to resist in the midst of awful pmt and being a bit disorganised. Need to clean the fridge and do a proper food shop!
I made a really nice chicken & vegetable noodle dish last night that reminded me that I can make tasty food that hasn't come from a packet/delivery driver!
I'm struggling with fatigue after a packed weekend but the weather is so lovely, I'll do a bit of gardening after work.

Morning all

Well done on keeping up the exercise @Gemzee but I can entirely sympathise with the eating and wine drinking. Hopefully if you're eating cleaner now the scales will show a drop on Friday.

Knocking alcohol on the head is a good plan @NahThen hope you can stick to it. I managed a month for dry January last year (with @Dashel s encouragement) but otherwise I'm a bit useless at giving it up for an extended period. I do usually manage Monday to Thursday each week dry though. Hope you got a bit of gentle gardening done - it's a great de-stressor for me and definitely helps lift my mood.

I have had a bounce back up on the scales this morning to 9st 11.7lbs. It's not really unexpected given the big drop yesterday but I let myself fall into the trap of daydreaming I might get into the 10s before the holiday so I'm a little bit gutted too. Nevertheless, I'm going to keep on keeping on to see how close I can get.

Have good days all.

Morning @bigdecisionstomake I did make it into the garden- mostly sitting and forming a plan of what I'd like to complete before the weather turns, but it felt lovely to be outside with the sun on my skin after being cooped up at my desk all day. Hopefully not too ambitious to be in the 10s- you're pretty close and consistent with losses. Fingers crossed!

I weighed in this morning and despite extended celebrations for DC's birthday (so much cake!) I'm still in single figures all round at 9st8.75lbs.

I've got a wedding coming up mid-Oct and it'd be nice to still be here, or even better at 9st7. Outfit shopping for it next week so glad not to have piled loads on.

Plan is to stay low alcohol (hen party approaching so won't attempt none!) and cleaner food. I've noticed feeling more sluggish and I think it's because I haven't been eating my usual fruit & yoghurt, or as much veg as usual. Supermarket today to stock up! Hope it's a good day everyone.