To those stars who've lost weight - where did you find the inspiration?

[ssd]

I'm desperate to lose weight I need to lose 2 stone.

After ds1 I joined Scottish Slimmers and got down to my "normal" weght.But it was bloody torture, I was always starving and I shudder when I think of this diet!

Now ds2 is nearly 4 I STILL haven't lost my 2 pregnancy stones.I feel fat and unhappy, our love life is a big zilch and my self esteem is at rock bottom.

I find my kids so tiring (they both are poor sleepers and wake early) I just can't find the energy/ gumption to face a diet of always being starving, also I've got zero will power now.

Please please has anyone been where I am now and still managed to pull themselves up from rock bottom and lose the weight?

I'd be really grateful for ANY stories girls, please tell me some!!

bumping in the hope soemone will provide inspiration!!!

ssd - You sound just like me! I weigh just under 12 stone and am thoroughly miserable about it. Like you my kids are early risers, plus I'm back at work so I'm up at 6am-ish every morning. The evenings when I do get a chance to exercise I'm just too bloody knackered to consider it! And some nights I'm in bed at 9.30pm.

I went to 3 Scottish Slimmer classes after ds was born and just thought that I couldn't BE that obsessed with calorie counting. I certainly don't think I could survive on a tiny baked potato with one ounce of cheese for lunch! I wasn't impressed.

I know that my downfall is portion sizes. And at work I graze all day..... although not on biscuits, just on fruit, cup-a-soup, bio-yoghurt. Stuff like that.

Recently I have noticed that I am completely obsessed wtih peoples weight. I look at thin people and think "God they must be so happy, they can wear anything!"

I know that's shallow coz there's alot more to being happy than just your weight. But I hadn't realised until dd was born just how miserable I am. I won't even touch my torso without sucking everything in coz it digusts me so much. I am a size 15 in clothes which is awkward. 16's are just a touch too big and look odd. 14's I could squeeeeeze into but couldn't wear.

I bought a Strider machine. And went on it for 25 minutes every 2nd evening at first. But for the past 2 months (since returning to work) I haven't really looked at it. I don't know what happened to my motivation. When the kids go to sleep I just want to collapse.

Every time I go into the bathroom I look at the laxatives I was prescribed during my pregnancy and wonder if taking that would help with weight loss.... supermodels seem to think it does!

At work I more or less sit at a PC, and can't go anywhere as I'm in a portacabin on a Chemical plant!

So whatever inpsiration you find.... can I have some too!??

Hi ssd. Well, I've lost 1.5 stone since Jan and still have more to lose but I think where you're going wrong is starving yourself. I think any diet where you starve is doomed to fail tbh. So I can tell you what is working for me, don't know if it will for you but here you are:

• For me, my downfalls are wine, butter, chicken skin, olive oil and too much of a good thing. I don't eat junk food and never really have so for me it wasn't a case of giving up biscuits and cake. But I have more or less given up wine, and have totally given up butter, chicken skin and too much olive oil.

• I eat as much fruit and veg as I like and just have to accept that I can have chicken skin, it had just better be the skin of a poussin (average poussin is 400 cals, even with skin), not a chicken.

• I love food and cooking so I bought Fat Girl Slim which is a sort of Nigel Slater for dieters so a cookbook for people who love food

• I am walking as much as I can, excercise does make a difference.

• I DON'T starve, if I'm hungry I eat something but it will be an apple, banana, smoked salmon, avocado, toast and marmite, a rice cake, tomatoes. I make sure there's plenty of non fattening food I like in the house.

• I don't weigh myself all the time, it's demotivating.

• I do allow myself nights where I can eat a pizza, drink some wine, have some chocolate. So the deprivation isn't too horrendous as I can have something I love but not all the time.

I don't know if any of these will work for you but good luck!

ssd - I'm in exactly same position as you. After baby no 1 I successfully lost the 4 stone I gained and was back in size 12 by her first birthday. However I am now 11 months post baby no 2 and still carrying around 2 extra stone.

What spurred me on to loose weight in the past was seeing a fat photo of me and getting a shock at just how guargantuan I had become. I am thinking of getting my dh to take a photo of me in my undies (no not that kind of photo!)to really gross me out into dieting...

You're possibly all going to hate me, but I keep losing too much weight even though I'm not on a diet. The weird thing is that I'm not naturally thin or anything.

And basically I just do all the things that www suggests - didn't think that was a diet! I try to eat healthily and don't weigh myself ever (no idea how much weight I've lost, just know that my jeans are falling off me).

Sorry, this sounds like i'm showing off - I'm trying not to. I just wanted to offer myself of another example of the benefits of healthy eating rather than dieting as such.

You'll find it all falls into place: eat as much veg and fruit as you can - keep grapes/cherries/strawberries in the fridge and dried apricots in the cupboard, then you can snack on those rather than crisps or biscuits. More fruit and veg gives you more energy too and you might just find the motivation to walk more. Also exercise itself gives you more energy.

But also, is there anything else you could do that would make you happier? You might find that if you can find something that helps with your self esteem you'll find it easier to change your lifestyle. A little break once a week? A course? A new social group?

at SkinnySenora!

Habe you tried the GI diet? You can eat loads, you don't feel hungry, and you lose weight!

There's a thread on it.

ssd, I have lots of sympathy for you. I put on a frightening amount of weight over the past few years - some due to 2 pregnancies, the rest through comfort eating after a very painful bereavement.

As others have said, you need to find something where you don't feel starving whilst dieting - that kind of diet is v difficult to sustain and the weight lost tends to pile back on easily afterwards.

I've been doing the GI diet (see thread on here) since last August and found it brilliant, I've lost more than 4 stones.

I can only speak for my own experiences, but I have "trigger" foods which make me want to overeat. They are white bread (and anything else made with white flour) and alcohol. So, I do my best to completely steer clear of them. I don't manage it 100% of the time, but do for 98% and it's been very helpful.

Before I embarked on changing my eating habits, I carefully examined the ones I already had. I did a detailed food/drink diary and took at long hard look at what I was doing.

One big problem was not eating enough during the day - I would forget to eat breakfast, then be starving later and eat all the wrong things. I'd also sometimes neglect to eat a proper lunch. By the time I got the children in bed, my blood sugar levels were so low that I was desperate for food. The dinner I made was not enough and I'd be working my way through bags of crisps, chocolate, bread etc.

The food diary helped me work out the problems with both what I was eating and how I was eating.

Now, I never skip breakfast or lunch. I've learnt I have to make time for myself to eat properly.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I think my main problem is that I eat when I am tired and stressed.And that seems to be 85% of my day......I don't have time to shop without kids so I buy the same old food,I can't be bothered cooking half the time as the kids are wanting attention and it's either see to their needs or go to the kitchen to cook something decent from scratch. So I end up not eating a balanced and filling meal, I just pick at rubbish which doesn't fill me up, so I keep eating....

I know it's a vicious circle, I just don't know how to break it.

And when I'm dog tired with loads to do, I reach for the biscuit tin instead of the fruit bowl as it's comfort food I want, not something I need to think about and prepare...

Does the GI diet really give you more energy? I read that it does, I just can't imagine it working, But I am inspired by the stories written here.

ssd, I have had much more energy on the GI diet, I think because my sugar levels aren't constantly rising and dropping in big peaks. The food I'm eating, gives me steady energy throughout the day.

Can I be nosey and ask what you are eating for breakfast and at what time?

I've found that breakfast is the lynchpin of it all for me.

Puff, I have a cup of tea and 2 slices of buttered toast every morning, usually around 7am.

Then if I've had nothing else I'm starving at 11...

ssd, that's not a lot to give you a kickstart for the day, I think it's easy to forget that our bodies have fasted during the night and need refuelling properly!

I think you need to eat more during the morning to set you up for the day. I know its difficult - I've had to retrain myself to eat breakfast as I've spent years skipping them, even before I was running round after kids.

I'd at least add a piece of fruit (bananas are easy) and a low fat yoghurt to that. Or a bowl of high fibre cereal.

Then, you should also be eating a small snack around 11.00 to get you through to lunch. I usually have 3/4 crispbreads, plus a bit of hummus and some tomatoes. Or a piece of fruit and a few grapes.

When I made the changes to what I'm eating, I didn't do it all in one go, I started with trying to regulate my eating, then I moved on to making more and more healthy choices.

I do think we're coming into a better time of year for having the frame of mind to lose weight, so hopefully that will help you.

Slimming World is very good if portion control isn't your thing, I switched over to SW in January (only went to a couple of classes to get the literature and an understanding of how it works) and there really is no need to ever be hungry on SW. In fact they encourage you to eat tons, although variety is also important.

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Thinking about this further today. I suppose it's inspiration to get started that is the biggest challenge.

I have been obese twice in my life now, the last time just before starting MN Mamas last January (can't believe I got into that state as I was doing fine while still b/feeding, the minute that stopped the weight landed). For me it was the realisation of what I was doing to my health and ultimately my children's lives. I want to be able to keep up with them in their activities and also don't want them picked on for having a fat Mum.

For me I wasn't vain (I think few of us are at the end of the day, we would all love to get into a smaller size but it's not the be all and end all) enough to do it for looks so health was the main motivation with getting smaller a nice side effect.

I am a bit of an exercise addict but if you can't or don't want to do structured exercise it is fairly easy to introduce exercise into your life, walks, taking the kids swimming (making sure there is someone with you who will watch the kids to let you swim a few lengths), trips to the park, making sure you walk at every available opportunity, no nipping in the car to the corner shop etc. Someone had some great advice on MN recently about buying weights to put on your ankles and wrists to wear while doing the housework to make it more of a workout. You could buy a gym ball and sit on it whilst watching TV in the evening and get some abdominal exercise in.

Oh and if you think you're not getting enough exercise you could invest in a pedometer and make sure you are at least taking 10,000 steps a day, if you're falling short it's time to get out for a walk.

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