DIET FAILED AGAIN thread 6- everyone welcome

[thenewaveragebear1983]

We made it to 1000 posts on thread 5, here is thread 6

That's a great plan @Theredjellybean. I'm spending way too much time trying to puzzle out a routine that works around work and family life and actually normalises exercise in my life again. At the moment I'm doing 2 runs a week (should be 3) and 20 mins Caroline Girvan every other day - her advent calendar series.

Sorry about the blouse @poorpaws. I had that too, I bought a pair of flowy trousers for work last year and was embarrassed because they were too loose and I worried they looked silly. Sadly they are now too tight and felt like I was being squeezed yesterday!

@poorpaws sorry about the blouse. That's a good motivator and non scale incentive though, and you will be back in it in no time!

@triplecheeese it's hard to fit exercise in to a busy life, the only way I can is to get up at 6 every day and that gives me half an hour. I'm lucky that both dh and I work from home, and he does the dc in the mornings because I do after schools.

I had an ok Tuesday but true to form I came home absolutely ravenous, I ate done peanut butter and a handful of dried fruit and nuts. Sounds tiny but it was probably 300-400 calories. But anyway. It's within my calories and I then reminded myself that I do this because I'm thirsty so I drank a pint of water and am now sipping another one. Hopefully that will keep me going til my dinner is ready, I have chicken breasts and veg which is quite boring.was supposed to be wrapped in bacon but there's no bacon left 😢

@thenewaveragebear1983 sorry about the missing bacon. That's a sad story.

@poorpaws I have a summer dress that my mum bought me last year that now is not ever close to be able to zip up. I'm keeping it as motivation clothing.

I managed my longest run yet yesterday, running 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. I felt amazing for an hour afterwards and then tired and foggy for the rest of the day. Think my body might take awhile to get used to exercising.

My mum is having DD for tea this evening so I'm hoping to get out for a walk. Walking is my favourite activity. Just wish I had more time to wander off!

@Storyland the struggle is real 😢

Hi all. Just people mentioning running makes me go in a sweat.

I do a fair bit of walking though and have cut down quite a bit of junk food. I'm still on my soup and started making smoothies again, so hopefully I will lose some weight soon.

I did have a chinese takeaway last night and a mcdonalds today, but these are not as regular as they used to be, so hopefully it won't cause too much of an issue.

@Storyland that's a great pace...5km is 3 miles and I literally nearly die running it flat out.
My best time is 31.45 minutes but I stopped a squillion times.
Tomorrow I've got to aim for 31.15 ... unlikely
I'm sorry for everyone's clothing issues..maybe they shrunk in the wash ?

It's lovely to see I'm not alone with the clothes not fitting, although I would rather none of us have these issues.

It's still going well here although I'm a little bit worried about the next two days. I'm having Friday lunch at our cafe a day early and then on Friday evening I have a carvery (dessert included in the price) meal with my SIL. I've texted to tell her I can't have any dessert containing milk chocolate as I've given it up but I might find a dark chocolate or fruit type dessert that I am allowed.

I really, really want to see if I can break this milk chocolate habit. I'd love to taste it in six months time and think blerrr I'm never eating that again. Very unlikely scenario and more hope of spotting flying pigs.

It is so far so good though and I haven't cheated. I'm keeping fingers crossed that we will all fit into our smaller clothes very soon. Have a lovely Wednesday evening everyone.

Good evening all
@poorpaws glad the chocolate experiment is going well.
@Storyland and @Theredjellybean great running.

I started the morning with a workout class called meta-fit, in all my years of working out in various guises I have never done a class like this. I can only describe it as 30 minutes of high intensity cardio crossed with body weight strength. All done to a recorded session which the instructor sort of guided us through. Very intensive. I'm not sure if I liked it actually, it felt too much like an aerobics class and I am uncoordinated at the best of times.

My food has been really good again today, I feel like it's really clicked into place again. I know this, but it pains me to admit it, but I eat too much and too much of the wrong stuff. As soon as I take them out, everything just flows a little more smoothly. Tomorrow pm I am out with school mums and I will most likely have a drink or 2 and food, I've checked the menu already and there's a nice Thai coconut curry which I will have. If I drink I think I'll have red wine, it's harder to guzzle down and I won't feel so tempted to have too much. It's not perfect and I hope it doesn't break the spell but I also do need to be social. I really don't have a lot of friends and rarely go out so I have organised this to try to pick up my social life a little bit.

I've still not weighed myself, I kind of want to but again I'm enjoying this and don't want to break the spell. It's totm for me anyway so not an ideal time to weigh, maybe I will next week. I do think I'm doing ok as my rings are going on loose and usually my fingers are the first to show if I'm retaining water.

Morning and happy (I hope) election day!

I'm 1lb lighter today which is encouraging. Yesterday, I went for a 5 mile walk in the afternoon. It took 2 hours because I kept stopping to look at good trees. But was absolute bliss to get out and move about at my own pace.

I'm trying to make the most of the opportunity to exercise right now because I start a 9-5 job soon and know it will be harder to fit in exercise and to resist office biscuits.

I agree @thenewaveragebear1983 social occasions are tricky food wise but are really important. Life is for the living. Hope you have a great evening!

@thenewaveragebear1983 you should be mighty proud of yourself, you are doing so well to stay on track with every aspect of your diet. I'm sure your can have a lovely time with school mums without totally wrecking your diet and fitness plans but also if you do go a little off track you'll get back to it later.

I agree with @Storyland we have to let our hair down occasionally or life is dull and boring. Mine definitely is.

I'm still on track, still trying hard. I had my usual meal at our cafe as I am trying to keep my food as normal apart from the evenings so that I can get a true picture and if I lose any weight it will be due to the non-binge dark chocolate experiment and can't be attributed to anything else I've eaten or avoided eating.

My plan for the carvery tomorrow night is to pile my plate up with the veg. I do love cauliflower cheese though and they do a lovely one at this particular carvery. The roast beef is cut thinly, I don't mind missing out on the Yorkshire pudding or the roast potatoes so I think I can have a good main meal without breaking the calorie bank. Dessert will be difficult to navigate but I'll do my best to choose something diet friendlier than I would usually choose. I will skip the white wine and possibly the coffee too so I think I'll be ok.

I find it difficult to believe I've completed four days already, where the heck have those days gone.

Keep doing your best everyone.

@poorpaws hope you enjoy your carvery tonight! I'll probably also be having a pub roast dinner this weekend. As far as big meals go I think a roast/carvery is pretty good. At least there are lots of veggies involved and they are delicious!

Yesterday, was a good day. Encouraged by @Theredjellybean I pushed myself running and ran 3 miles in 34 minutes. I have never run that far before! Felt really good, though the last mile was hard work. I'm beginning to believe that I can be the kind of person who can have exercise as a daily part of their lives.

I had a really nice evening last night. I had a vegan curry and a very small portion of rice, 2 glasses of wine and no dessert. To be honest, I might possibly have had one but they closed the kitchen at 9 so we missed orders! Blessing in disguise! I felt really hungover this morning and feel really tired. I'm surprised I feel quite so bad as I didn't drink that much but maybe it is because I hadn't drunk for 2 weeks and didn't sleep well. All day today I've been craving doughy carbs. As yet have not given in, but who knows. I did skive off my planned run this morning though!

So glad you had a nice night out @thenewaveragebear1983 , hope the hangover eased off.

Yesterday, DH and I did a 5 mile walk together at a fairly brisk pace and then shared a salt and pepper box from the chinese takeaway. Not the best food choice but I did stop eating when I felt full even though there were lots of chips left. I also really enjoyed sitting on a park bench with DH, feeling comfortably tired and sharing our food together. It was a nice low-key date.

Don't really have much of a plan for today except catching up on housework. Will probably go on the rowing machine for 30 minutes at some point.

Hope you all have a lovely Saturday!

Morning. I made it through my hungover Friday without too much drama, also yesterday. In fact yesterday I actually had a really good day. Went to bootcamp, had breakfast and lunch, we had friends over to watch the football and I didn't drink, and I also didn't eat! I'm not one for skipping meals, I had done pizzas and my plan was to have some salad and cold meat, but I just wasn't hungry and just didn't. At about 10pm I had done humous and cucumber. Do weird, I never skip meals! I didn't drink alcohol, and actually had a few of those CBD Trip cans, they were really nice and I did actually feel a bit relaxed after drinking them. So both days of the weekend so far I have come in on my calorie target. This is very unusual for me, and is actually 2 weeks running as well.

Today I need to go to a supermarket, and I have promised the dog a long walk, plus I'm meeting my friend later also for a walk. No running or heavy workouts today but I want to do a bit of yoga, I need to stretch. I have condensed my working hours now so tomorrow is my first non working Monday. I'm excited about this and am planning my long run and a bit of chill time.

All in all it's been a very good few days. I have just under 3 weeks until I go on holiday. I'm going to weigh myself today I think. The scales have been hidden! I'm not expecting miracle results but I do feel a lot less bloated and a bit trimmer so 🤞

Have a lovely Sunday

Sounds like a great weekend @thenewaveragebear1983 ! Hope the scales give you a boost too.

Over the course of this week I've lost 3lbs. I'm delighted with that. I am now 4lbs away from losing my first stone.

Sundays are a bit of a rest day for me. Church, pub lunch, and then I always crash in the afternoon. I tend to order a roast which keeps me full for the rest of the day. It's not a day that I get 10,000 steps in. Maybe I'll rouse myself for a jog this evening but I'm not holding myself to that.

Woohoo - 150.4lbs! It's only a small drop, maybe 1.5lbs, but it's such a long time since I have had even the tiniest drop I am very pleased. Maybe the plateau is starting to end? 149 is my first mini target because that's under the lowest I have been that's the lowest end of the big pendulum swing of my plateau! When I get to 149 that means I am actually losing again rather than maintaining. It's been at least 3 months

@thenewaveragebear1983 and @Storyland well done both of you, great weekend for you and the scales moving down, brilliant!

@thenewaveragebear1983 I know I said I was hiding the scales and I have, but in the interest of the dark chocolate experiment I feel I should weigh in the morning to have Week 1 results and then hide the scales again.

This might sound ridiculous or wishful thinking but I feel a little less bloated and feel I've lost a little weight. I might be bitterly disappointed tomorrow morning but at the moment I am on a high of "maybe". If I've maintained I will be happy just so long as I don't gain as I have for the last 2/3/4 weeks (I don't actually know but it's been a while since I've seen any sort of weight loss).

So shall I get the scales out tomorrow? I really would like to but it does go against my "no more scales" rule. I really am curious though.

Have a great Sunday everyone. I love Sunday, I am quite lazy all day apart from the dog walk and I have to have a lazy day today to match last Sunday for the experiment. I have tried really hard to mimic as closely as I can from the previous week in both exercise and food so that the results are definitely due to the dark chocolate.

@poorpaws well I was hiding mine too and I weighed twice this week....but only twice. And normally it would have been much more so... I suppose you need to assess what difference the scales make. If you hop on and find you've gained a pound (not that you would) would that negate the good week you have had, the self control, the feeling less bloated.... or conversely, if you jump on and you've lost, is that better than all those good feelings? 🤔

I am really addicted to my scales but I do feel a lot better without them because I was using them in a really cruel way to basically punish myself. I think a genuine weight check after a week in plan is not a bad thing. I don't intend to weigh until next week now.

I'm feeling really good today! This is day 14 of my clean eating/whole foods and I just feel really clear headed and fresh, I have an energy I've not really had for a long time. My skin and eyes look better and I just feel very well nourished. I counted my calories up thinking I must have had loads because I don't feel hungry and I'm only on 1100 for the whole day..... definitely weird but very positive and I'm sticking with it! Could be a busy week, we are going to see James acaster on weds, I have a few classes planned at the gym and I want to do a long run in my day off tomorrow. I went to the supermarket today so all fully stocked. Tonight we are having bbq pulled pork

@thenewaveragebear1983 thank you. I've decided I will weigh in the morning because if I don't the wondering and "what if" will do more damage than a gain will I think.

I feel strangely nervous considering I usually weigh daily but I feel I need to know.

I'm feeling quite hungry this evening so I'm going to make coffee and eat the dark chocolate. I don't want to eat anything else tonight.

I will post in the morning after Week 1 is completed.

Wising you all a lovely Sunday evening.

Congrats on the loss @thenewaveragebear1983 ! Good luck @poorpaws with the chocolate experiment.

I get how the weighing scales can become domineering. I feel the need to weigh in daily at the moment because it gives me the motivation to stay on track. After a very large pub roast, a full fat Coke and a glass of wine yesterday, the scales have crept up a lb this morning. But that's OK because it's helping me to recognise how many indulgences in one day is too many. At the moment it all feels like useful information.

I'm doing the food shop today and assignment writing for uni. Would love to do another long walk but don't think I'm going to fit it in today so will probably do half an hour on rowing machine instead

Good morning lovelies, I hope you are all well on this grey Monday morning.

@Storyland I do get how the scales are helpful, I've been there but in my case, when I had no motivation and the scales were going up daily (or nearly every day) it just wasn't helpful. When the scales go down they are definitely my best friend 😁

I wouldn't worry too much about a one day overindulgence in a week of keeping to plan, it happens, and sometimes for the good as we all need a diet break occasionally. Hopefully you'll be back on track today.

Dark Chocolate Experiment

I've kept as closely as I can to my normal three meals a day, same food at our weekly cafe etc. The carvery was an extra but I didn't go mad with any of it except dessert which was quite small (Malibu and coconut cheesecake with vanilla ice cream - oh my it was delicious). The only extras I've had have been strawberries and those Kenco latte sachets (around 60 cals I believe).

I've added about half a mile to my dog walk every day not because of the experiment but because injured dog is a little better and we need to get back to our usual walk which is quite a lot longer.

During the evening I've had nothing but 25g of 90% cocoa chocolate. <drum roll> I've lost 4.5 lbs, I'm delighted.

I do realise this is week 1, water retention and all that, but I'm happy. I'm hoping for a pound off every week for as long as I can keep this up. I'm going to weigh on Monday, just Monday no other time, to see how it goes from week to week. It just proves how much junk I was eating during the evenings.

Have a great day everyone and try to stay on track.

Fantastic @poorpaws
I'm away with my DPs parents...I've definitely eaten my feelings 😂the last 5 days.
Plus rather a lot of alcohol...it was a necessity.
But we're going home today and I'm going back to being sensible
I did manage one good run while been away...and a few walks

Wow @poorpaws! That's a very successful experiment! Must feel pretty good!

And you are right, I think one day of indulgence is needed now and then!

@Theredjellybean sometimes alcohol medicine is very necessary. Have a safe journey home.

@Storyland as I said it is only Week 1 but it's a good start and if it's only 1 lb a week it's so much better than I've been doing for the last five? months.

@poorpaws 🌟 🌟 🌟 well done! That's amazing!

I'm off work today after rejigging my contract to a 9 day fortnight, so I went out for a long run. I did 21km, honestly I could happily have stopped at 18, it's the longest I've done in a very long time and I think it was a bit of a psychological hurdle I needed to get past. After a year of ill health and injury, I had been quite wary of going long so I am very glad I have done that and still made reasonable time- something to build on now, in prep for London.

And now I need to EAT! I have great plans for a lovely brunch of eggs, bacon, sweet potato and avocado. 😋