motivation and ideas please!

[misshardbroom]

I have started the New Year by realising just how much weight I have put on, and something needs to be done about it.

I am 5"10 and admittedly I can still (just about) do up my size 10 trousers, but this time last year they went on easily without any horrible fat overhang.

Two main reasons for this: one is that I used to do loads of running and now I don't (I had an operation earlier this year which meant I had to have 4 months off, and I just never got back into it), and the other is that DH and I have got into a really bad habit of stuffing our faces with chocolate of an evening.

I know that I need to stop troughing sweets the whole time (it's making me feel really lethargic and crapola, never mind the weight gain) and start doing some exercise.

However, my previous running partners are now streets ahead of me in fitness so I can't run with them any more, and I'm too scared to run in the dark by myself. There is absolutely no money whatsoever for a gym membership, and I really hate the gym so I wouldn't use it anyway. Classes, maybe.

The food thing is obvious, but a hard habit to break especially when I'm tired and egged on by DH (who plays loads of football so can eat what he likes).

Feeling very conscious of it as my superslim friend has just been round this morning... have gone upstairs and taken off my skinny jeans and put trackies on so I'm not so conscious of my massive blubbery tummy.

Sorry to moan, and I do realise I'm lucky not to have loads and loads to lose... I just don't like what I see in the mirror anymore.

I'm starting the latest Paul McKenna CDs as soon as the postman hurries up and delivers them -that worked for me before. He does a great 'craving buster' CD that stopped me eating chocolate for about a year. Perhaps that would help you stop you wanting sweets?

i'm also a chocaholic, and find it really hard to give up my chocolate treat at the end of a hard day. What i found works quite well is having a square of dark chocolate. Just one if you can manage it!
Nibble it really slowly to make it last longer! It's surprisingly satisfying. (one big square from a Lindt bar is only about 50cals.)
Although milk chocolate seems much tastier, once you get the taste for dark choc,
milk chocolate, which is much more 'more-ish', starts seeming quite bland and soapy.
My other top tip is to look for sweet treats that are low cal. Eg Tunnocks Tea Cakes (chocolate with yummy marshmallow and biscuit at the bottom) are really satisfying and only 100cals. If you just allow yourself one then that's a lot less cals than scoffing most regular chocolate bars (which are more like 300 cals.) Three Jaffa Cakes are only 150cals, and also satisfy the chocolate urge. HTH