Fail safe way to lose weight in FIVE WEEKS

[dinny]

somone get me on straight and narrow (that inc wine 4 times a week) - totally lost focus!

Those doughnuts aren't in the least bit delicious VS, they will taste absolutely disgusting, have some more water instead.

Mascara - well done on losing 4lb since Friday! What's your secret?

I had more water
Still haven't had my yoghurts so I shall feed the baby (takes forever as he is protestg about being given EBM rather than breast, you're 10 weeks old! Do as you're told!) and have my yoghurts as lunch then possibly grab some quavers at the shop (I know they are crisps but I love them lots and lots and they are only about 90 calories a bag, they are my one thing I refuse to cut out).
Then a proper dinner tonight.
I may buy myself a smaller dinner plate.
DD was getting a bit chunky and I realised I was serving her up almost as much as her dad and more than I was eating she is even, so we started giving her dinner on one of those kiddies plastic plates that she got as a present and she has slimmed down loads without even realising that I had cut down her food.

Halfway through low-carb day one. So far I have had some cheese and a coffee for breakfast. Then salad leaves with tomato, avocado, brie and about four cherry tomatoes for lunch (small drizzle of balsamic dressing but not sure if balsamic allowed, will check book) with large glass of water with spash of lemon juice. Going to have a coffee soon with double cream (yum) and dinner tonight will be sausages with pan-fried greens. Will include some potatoes for dh and dcs.

toadette that is exactly what I am like.. lose half a stone or so and get all cocky with a treat or two or 3 etc and then just fall off the wagon andf have to start over

Fanella, to answer your question.. I have a pretty good way of losing weight that works for.. I loosely base it around WW point counting but by choosing specific foods I can stay full and eat a lot less points than I'm allowed. I also exericse. I've lost 4lbs since Friday and I ate a big roast dinner and apple pie with custard on Sunday.

Yesterday I ate
breakfast: porridge (20g oats 200ml water with 2 tspns of golden syrup)

lunch: Salad Sandwich (fresh granary bread, small amount of 'buttery' spread, tbspn light Salad Cream and then lettuce, spring onion and cucumber - but you can use basically salad items like that)

Snacks: 6 melba toast with tesco finest coleslaw (naughty treat)

• a medium sized apple

dinner was 1 poached egg on one slice of toast with 2tspn of buttery spread

evening snack was a rice krispie cereal bar

drinks: 2 litres of water and 3 cups of tea with skimmed milk. plus a variety of other teas (peppermint, spiced apple, etc)

All that added up to about 14 ww points and I wasn't hungry and I burnt 523 kcal at the gym

today's menu is

Breakfast: as above
lunch: as above + a big bowl of home made veg soup
dinner: home made beef stew, either with rice or a few little roast potatoes

Probably won't snack today as big lunch and dinner

I have avoided the doughnuts and am on my way out in ten minutes!Woo!I did it!
So far today I have had;

Breakfast - 1 slice of marmite on toast
Lunch - Yoghurt with a handful of raisins and two mini sausage rolls.
Snack- One of my chos out of my box, but only one!
Drink- about 4 pints of water.
For dinner I shall have spaghetti bolognese and some salad, but a smaller portion than normal.

oats for brekkie
(porridge or bircher muesli with low fat yoghurt)

Salad for lunch and dinner or a low cal sarnie for lunch and salad for dinner

Eat more fish
avoid sauces
avoid dairy apart from skimmed milk and v low fat cottage/cream cheese

drink more water

no carbs in evening

Mascara you're menu is quite similar to the kind of thing I try to stick to.

I think maybe the thing for me to do is build up my stamina and exercise a lot more. I enquired about joining the gym but our budget just won't stretch to it atm.

I've been doing more walking so I'm going to concentrate on building that up.

So far today I've had:

Breakfast - one slice of seeded bread toasted with thin scrape of spread and marmite.

Lunch - 3 garlic and rosemary crackers, a few cherry tomatoes, handful of olives, ham and salad cream.

Lots of water and I'm just enjoying my first brew of the day!

Dinner will be a big salad with sliced chicken and probably more seeded bread. I'll try and fit in a nice long walk with the dog as well.

Am I right in thinking the low carb diet is pretty dependant on dairy?

re gym membership - all the gym's that advertise generaly are fairly expensive but if youi enquire in local (large) schools and other gym facilities you can often find little gyms that are fairly cheap.. espeically if you can go 'off-peak'.

I go to a little gym in a 'gymnastics centre' they don't advertise and it's costs me £16 a month

Otherwise, you could try some classes? locals ones are often only £3-4 a session

Or could you get out on a push bike for 30 mins or so in the evning?

Goodness this thread had moved on a lot! Just to pick up on some comments/questions about low carbing:

Dinny - your carbs for the day look reasonably low, but not sure how many you're aiming for!

And just be aware that if you're looking for a quick fix, low carb isn't really it. The danger is that once you re-introduce levels of carbs you will put several pounds back on. And if your BMI is already 23, then weight loss will be slow anyway

Xenia - low carbing isn't about cutting out carbs, it's about cutting down and ensuring that carbs come from highly nutritious sources, e.g. vegetables and salad leaves, as opposed to refined stuff. And I hate brown rice, so not tempted by that!

toadette - balsamic vinegar is pretty much ruled out as it is quite sweet, but I guess in moderation it can't be that bad.

re breakfasts, you don't have to eat bacon and eggs every day! I tend to rely on eggs because I like them, but sometimes I might have leftovers from the previous night's dinner - breakfast doesn't have to be a particular kind of food. On Sunday, I had a version of bubble and squeak; creamed swede mixed with chopped courgettes, onion and leeks, with a fried egg on top. Delicious!

Not sure about tomatoes and induction - worth checking as they are quite carby.

Fanella - low carbing is no more/less reliant on dairy than any other diet. In fact, milk is something to be avoided/kept to a minimum as it is quite carby, which is why many people drink coffee with cream. As I think this is truly vile, I still have coffee with milk. You can go over the top with cream and cheese on this way of eating, often because it's such a novelty to be 'allowed' to eat them after years of following a low fat diet! I rarely have cream and only occasionally use cheese as a snack (although I do cook with it)

So today so far:

Cheese omelette for breakfast, and 3 cups of coffee this morning
Lunch was a M&S chicken breast stuffed with mushroom and wrapped in parma ham, with garlic butter and rosemary (gorgeous!), servded with left over bean salad and roast peppers from last night

Dinner will be chicken fillets marinaded in lemon and garlic, with roast vegetables (peppers, courgett and onion) and salad. DH and DCs will have potato wedges or savoury rice with theirs.

Sorry - that will be green bean salad, not the more carby bean salad equivalent!

Going to make dinner soon, just found out dh working late now and normally in this case I would just make dc's tea early and then pick throughout the evening without making myself a proper meal. Would probably have a glass or two of wine as well! So plan is to eat a proper meal so that I don't snack later and NO wine of course.

BecauseI'mWorthit or any other lowcarbers, how do you find your energy levels are when exercising? I run 4-5 miles at least twice a week and just wondering if the lower carb intake may have an effect on stamina?

BIWI - not sure - 20 a day, that's the induction level, isn't it?

am going to have dinner soon and nothing after - hypnotherapost added a bit today to stop me drinking wine/snacking in the evening!

mmmm, I wonder that too Toadette - I run about the same usually

BIWI, is this low-carb meal? - salmon fillet with herby butter, courgettes, avocado and some green beans

Ah. Exercise . Couldn't tell you about that one! Having said that, on the low carb forum I use there seem to be plenty of regular (and quite hard) exercisers there who manage.

dinny - meal looks fine, but be careful with the avocado, I think that is a bit more carby. However, it's an excellent choice because it will give you potassium, (or is it magnesium? Need to check!) which many low carbers apparently can lack, especially if they drink loads of water.

Thanks, BIWI. I'm wondering more because I run with a friend and we match each other pace for pace. Wouldn't really mind if it was just me out on my own as I would just take it a bit easier. We have a 5k this weekend and I don't want to hold her back if I feel wretched after a few minutes running. Might start a thread and see how other Atkins fans have found it so I can be prepared

Try this forum

www.low-carbdiet.co.uk

There might be some useful advice for you here.

I'll have a look there, not having much luck so far on the other thread

Thanks

Those doughnuts were calling me last night. As was the mars bar DP bought me home for some reason.
BUT, I had my dinner (which ended up being chicken lattice and boiled spuds - everyone else had mashed spuds, but I put cream & huge amounts of butter in mash so I just ate boiled with a tiny bit of butter) I drank lots of water and when I really wanted a snack at about 9pm, I ate grapes.
I forgot to weigh myself in town yesterday though so shall do it today.
Also I walked from the school to town (about 20 minute walk) rather then get the bus.
Think I might wear the baby in a sling today surely that is more exercise than pushing his buggy?

Morning all - hope you're all feeling happy and motivated..

VS, well done! what a good day..

Think we should start handing out virtual merit badges or rosettes for achievements?

I had a good day too. Dinner was a big salad, followed by one of the batch of cupcakes dd made with Nanny yesterday (I couldn't have said no and disappointed her now could I?)

I then walked up to my sisters (up being the operative word - everywhere's uphill round here) - about 35 min walk. Drank loads of water, feel good this morning, if a bit tired.

Well glad to report that I'm 2lbs down this morning!!! It's great to see the scales starting with 9 instead of 10.

And I'm very pleased with myself because last night was also wine-free, even though DH was drinking. And interestingly, I didn't even want any wine. Must mean that my head is truly in the right place for once!

This thread is really helping, so thank you all.

It definitely helps.
I could so easily have had a really bad snack last night, and if it was just me that would know I probably would've but I thought about writing it on here, and decided not to.

I've had 2 pints of water this am already, had a slice of toast with the DC's at about 7am and am now eating my yoghurt and raisins.

Just got some chicken out of the freezer so I can have a chicken salad wrap for lunch, and will have lasagne and salad for dinner.

"Xenia - low carbing isn't about cutting out carbs, it's about cutting down and ensuring that carbs come from highly nutritious sources, e.g. vegetables and salad leaves, as opposed to refined stuff. And I hate brown rice, so not tempted by that!"

In that case I suppose my diet is low carb. Brown rice is lovely. You don't need much of it. For me it makes the difference between feeling happy with my meals or not. I suppose my diet, by which I mean how I eat rather than a reducing diet (although I would like to lose 7 pounds at some point), is low GI/GL.

I've never really liked drink actually and I very rarely drink.

I think, then, you've also hit the nail on the head Xenia - you're happy with your diet, and it's working for you! (I read an article recently that said most people want to lose a stone, so you're obviously doing better than most!)

I would like, ultimately, to include more pulses/grains into my diet, but have found low GI very confusing. It's easier to stick with what I know, as well as what I know gets results for me. I also know that I'm eating healthily in terms of plenty of veg/salad as opposed to a diet full of low fat, low cal and therefore highly processed stuff.

Well done everyone. First day wasn't too bad but I did have a couple of small glasses of wine and some peanuts last night. Will be alcohol-free from now until after 5k at the weekend.

Haven't decided what to have for breakfast, this is where low carb is a struggle for me and why I can normally only do a few days at a time! Having said that a few days off the refined carbs (sometimes even one day) seems to sort out my snacking habit as I start to crave fruit and wholegrains rather than biscuits and chocolate.

I know I'm going to undo all this good work on sunday as we are going out for the day, to a music festival, so will be drinking copious amounts of warm beer. So I have to work harder until then!

morning - well, I did my first day yesterday of induction - went amazingly OK!

this morning, I had feta cheese, an olivem a slice of cucumber and a boiled egg for breakfast. just having a peppermint tea now, will have smoked salmon, prawns a bit of salad for lunch

BIWI - will I switch to fat-burning soon, you reckon? also, do you know of smoked mackerel is an allowed induction food? cheers, and well done everyone, Dinny