Five weeks until holiday, looking for realistic weight loss tips

[Kakkilakki]

I have a holiday of a lifetime coming up in 5 weeks. Unfortunately I have had a shitty time recently and haven’t been looking after myself. Drinking too much, eating rubbish and not sleeping well, combined with bucketloads of stress.

I feel rubbish in all my clothes and it has somehow only dawned on me now that my holiday is very soon!!

I am 5ft 6 and just over 10 stone. I have a small frame and don’t carry it well. I will stop drinking alcohol and try to prioritise sleep. Has anyone got any tips to help me feel better about myself asap? I can’t afford new clothes (holiday is costing too much 🫣). Half a stone would be great, more even better.

Prioritise food and movement.
Bin all the rubbish in the house. Yours and the kids’ if they exist. . Everyone can do without junk for 5 weeks. No takeways. No food on you, handbag, car, office drawer and you don’t buy a single item from a corner shop, not even a 99cal cereal bar.
You are going to turn into a rabbit for the next 5 weeks. Mornings you eat rolled oats with flax seeds and chia seeds. No instant oats. Then nothing till lunch which will be a massive cucumber and tomatoes salad with tuna in water. Careful with the dressing. In the afternoon, if you must have a snack, have a unripe pear. In the evening you will have a grilled or poached chicken breast with lettuce, fennel , shredded carrots and so on.
Then move with purpose. Wake up 1 hour earlier , lace up your trainers, and walk briskly for an hour .
Forget bread, pasta, rice or anything with flour. Your carbs will come from oats, lentils or chickpeas and fruit, but not much fruit.
Have sliced bell peppers, freshly cooked green beans, carrot sticks, ….
Don’t eat with a screen and only sitting down at a table. No in front of tv or MN.

I am truly in awe of anyone who could follow @oberuber ’s regime…I would be gnawing my own arm within a day!

However, I am absolutely in agreement that exercise before eating works. It certainly did for me. I doubt I was burning that many calories, but doing it fasted seems to both increase my energy and reduce my appetite for the rest of the day.

Having a really small breakfast also helped me. I find that if I eat a lot early on I can’t stop picking - even if I’ve exercised. I eat a plant based protein yoghurt for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch (if you buy one you can get an approx idea of calories) and dinner with loads and loads of green veg.

And don’t keep snacks in the house!

Don’t do anything extreme, you’ll lose motivation and then feel even worse!

The only thing I’d say be extreme with is if you have a specific “danger” food like crisps! Just stop buying them, ban them from the house. I’m terrible with crisps, I can eat 3-4 packets in one go! Same for chocolate eclairs. This only really applies if you’re like me and have no self control!

You should easily be able to drop 7-10 lbs which will make you look and feel a lot better.

Weigh yourself everyday in the morning but don’t pay much attention to the daily number. Use it to work out your average weight over the week. The weekly average is a more reliable figure because the daily number will go up and down.

Measure your waist and hips - sometimes that can give an accurate measure of progress.

Find an item of clothing that is tight on you now. Take a picture from different angles. Try the same item of clothing on in two weeks and take pictures from the same angles - it will probably still be tight but you’ll notice a difference and this will help you to see the progress you’re making.

Drink loads of water - LOADS OF IT!

If you drink anything with calories in it like juice or fizzy drinks, reduce that - if you usually have 3 cans of coke a day, have one a day with lunch or as an after work treat.

Whatever you’re eating, reduce the portion by a quarter.

Try to eat more high protein and high fibre food.

Get outside and walk loads. However many steps you usually do a day, add 5000 steps to it.

Think about how much alcohol you currently drink and halve it - if you can reduce it even more than that then even better!

Anything else you can do on top of that is brilliant but don’t do anything you won’t be able to stick to. You’ll probably find that once you’ve made a few small changes, it gives you motivation to make other changes.

Cut out alcohol completely,your body priorities dealing with that, you'll almost never lose weight while drinking.
16/8, hard for the first week but try MCT creamer in the morning and cut upfs breads and pasta etc. You should lose half a stone if you stick with that.