I need to shift this weight - PLEASE give me your very top tips and bossy advice

[hereidrawtheline]

But dont say eat less exercise more I do know that And I am of course doing it!! I even just bought a swimming suit so I can start swimming. But I have been on a plateau at this weight for months and its driving me crazy!!

I'm a size 16/18 5'7"ish and exactly 15 stone. Cant afford to spend any money! What do I doooooooooooooo?

Cut out wheat, dairy and sugar completely. You'll be amazed.

really?

um...

wow!

So that would be bread, milk, sugar in tea, chocolate, cakes... anything major I am missing?

I meant to say I am veggie so dont eat meat or fish.

Sounds odd but you could be eating too much less IFYSIM. Also are you mixing up your exercising i.e not doing the same old thing week in week out, you need to challenge your body. Don't need to spend money, running is free as long as you have trainers, you could spend a tenner and get some resistance bands which you can use anywhere and get a good body work out. You shouldn't just be doing cardio you should add some resistance/weight work as well. Make sure you eat breakfast and no I don't want to hear about how you couldn't possible eat a think in the morning.

think? I mean a thing.

Also. cut out sugar in tea.

Personally I am not a big fan of the deprive yourself routine but it does work for some people, however it's much easier if you can learn to control what you eat when rather then say no more bread at all.

I do eat breakfast!! I cant function without food and 2 cups of tea! I dont atm do any exercise other than walking a lot, am just about to start swimming. I dont eat loads in the day, just small-normal portions etc and my dinner is easily half or less the size of DH's but I do have a strip of chocolate each night. I dont drink much alcohol/wine but I drink water and a lot of tea, take it 1 sugar & milky.

I'm going to take DS to school please keep the suggestions coming I have DH's birthday and accompanying fairy cakes other than that I want to start!

Try my idea for two weeks and see, it's not hard when it's a short time (and I'm veggie too). Just have oatcakes instead of bread, lots of veg and tofu/pulse dishes with loads of spice, brown rice, all those funny old things like quinoa, stir fries. You can even get non-wheat pasta which is fine.

Stop putting (or at least try to cut down) on sugar in your tea. Are you SURE you eat small-normal portions? Do you eat a lot of small-normal portions?

Swimming good but running fantastic (not so good for joints however). There is a coach potato to 5K thread somewhere in sports and exercise topic - I lost my 2 stone post pregnancy excess by being on that thread, all shapes/sizes/abilities welcome.

Btw exercise itself will rarely make you lose weight but it's the lifestyle changes that usually accompany exercise that mean the weight starts to fall off.

In your case I'd sign up for a free trial at weight loss resources online. Carry on doing what you're doing but weigh and measure everything religiously for a few days and you might be surprised to see where the calories are coming from.

Do you measure your carb portion? I was amazed at how distorted my perception about what was a healthy amount of carb was.

I (on my slimmers diet) am 'allowed' 200g of potato or 60g of pasta for example.

I'd look at portion size and try to up the exercise a bit too. That worked for me.

Shiney has a thread where quite a lot of us are trying different methods - its good for recipe ideas, bit of motivation (because people often put down what they're eating and people suggest what else they might try) - oh, and both Shiney and I are vegetarians. Quite a few people are finding Food Focus really helpful... I'll try to find the thread and link it...

Shiney's healthy eating/weight loss thread here

Sign up to Foodfocus. Its free and you log everything you eat. It really helps you to focus on how much you actually need to eat (I didn't realise how much I was overeating!)

Do a weekly weigh in here.

My mum has been doing the Lighter Life diet for a few weeks (about 8 I think) and has lost over a stone. It's a healthy way to lose weight - you lose around two pounds a week - so you won't just put it all back on again when you stop the diet.

thanks very much everyone for the ideas!! I am very daunted at joining a 12 page thread but will have a go and do the ideas here. Am calming down from a terrible morning right now so will decide how to proceed when I am thinking clearer.

As for exercise, I used to swim, walk and bellydance loads (with the occasional run) and lost loads. Then I got married, got 7 year old DSS and ran out of time. I've recently started losing weight again by cutting out some crap (I've been suffering from the 'people at work having birthday cake' thing in the last month) but when I go to the toilet at work, I do 12 sets of arms up and out exercises, 12 arms up and down, 12 x 4 types of bellydance/waist exercises and it seems to be making me get slimmer for free (and more importantly, I can fit it into my day)! Sounds silly, but it's working for me!

Good luck.

reduce you portions. fill up on veg and salad if still hungry.

join food focus (or equivalent) website. and record everything (even fruit).

eat breakfast.

Keep a food diary. This helps me amazingly, but you do need to be honest with yourself and write it down as you eat/drink it. Don't ignore the banana just because it's healthy! Seeing what you eat each day really makes me think about whether I need that biscuit!

I watched a programme that was on a few weeks back "10 things to know about losing weight" it had some great tips.

It's on iplayer

Herein - some people have joined recently. You don't need to start at the beginning! Just dive in, introduce yourself and see what happens!

thanks so much!! I am coming back to this, I've been really busy, today is DH's bday so I will be away til tomorrow!

I second joining Food Focus. I thought I knew everything there was to know about my eating habits and losing weight, but FF surprised me and helped.

Alternatively, cut out carbs. Or no carbs after 1.00 (or after 6.00 if 1.00 is too scary).

And DON'T HAVE FATTENING THINGS IN THE HOUSE.

Huffwardly - am trying that approach - except I'm not having carbs after breakfast which sounds rather draconian, but is having a positive effect!

i am in desperate need of motivation too. my fat trouser (and they are FAT trousers) are getting tight. i get a fright every time I see myself in the mirror because I cannot believe how much weight i have put on.

going to do the no dairy, no wheat, no sugar thing.

wine is my downfall..... not that I drink and then fall down - bad form to laugh at your own jokes, but I thought that was pretty good!

must also start exercising.