Weight Loss the Old Style Way! Part 6. Please read posts 1 and 2 before posting.

taplady

Hi Muckypup! you're doing all the right things so far so well done!:T
I'm sure you'll get lots of advice here.

My suggestions for what they are worth are

semi skimmed milk for your DS(all the goodness but half the fat) - but not for your 2 year old.

drinking water or squash can take some getting used to so its worth persevering with him.

limit the sweets(as you are doing) and try not to use them as rewards.

try and get him to have his 5 a day

lots of home cooking and limit the processed foods so you know whats in them

avoid sugary cereals

encourage exercise

not sure what else to suggest at the moment. Maybe you could visit the library for some healthy eating books to give you some ideas and there is also a meal planning thread on this forum that might help.
good luck x

floyd

Hi muckypup,

You are going about things in a positive way trying to make sure you dont give your son any negative feelings about 'diets' and 'ideal weights'. Have you been to see your GP as they are the best person to advise about the right way to go about things.
Generally its not advisable to give growing children low fat options of dairy produce but children over the age of 2 are OK with semi skimmed so it might be worthwhile buying semi for your son but you and your 2 year old stick with full fat. Its good that he likes milk as its a great source of calcium and vitamins but if he is drinking lots of full fat milk in milkshakes, hot chocolate and milky tea then it soon adds up.

Its probably better to make small changes gradually rather than go full-on from the start as he will find it easier to adjust to little things.

Small changes that OH and I introduced to help us were things like:

-Cooking from scratch
-Oven bake home made potato wedges (with skin on) as a substitute for chips
-Make mashed potato with half white and half sweet potatoes (keeps you full for longer)
-Weighing portions of pasta and rice instead of guessing
-No sugar in tea or coffee or on cereal
-No salt on food (makes you thirsty and sometimes you can mistake thirst for hunger)
-2 or 3 Vegetables in or with every meal e.g. side salad with chilli, spaghetti, burritos, jacket spuds, or extra veg with roast meats, home made pies, stews as they fill you up
-Smaller portions of protein (meat/fish/cheese) and carbs (pasta/bread/rice/potato) in each meal but have as much veg as you like
-Cutting down on fizzy drinks

Does your son like pizza? You can easily and cheaply make a tomato sauce for pasta that tastes like pizza sauce which can then be used for chilli or for slow cooking chunks of chicken in with onions and peppers to eat with rice

There is a meal planning thread that may help you with ideas of things to cook that will suit everyone in your family, an example fortnight for us would be:

S: Roast chicken, mash, cauli, cabbage, peas, carrots, broccoli

M: Chicken pie made with leftover roast chicken, a can of sweetcorn and a tin of campbells condensed chicken soup thinned with milk and puff pastry served with cabbage, cauli and carrots

T: Burritos made with the last of the shredded chicken mixed with onions, peppers and spices, a small spoonful of guacamole and sour cream and a little grated cheese served with corn on cob, salad and a small amount of spicy rice

W: Spaghetti matriciana (tomato pizza-style sauce with bacon) with a big side salad

T: Jacket potatoes with beans, chilli or tuna and a big salad

F: Breaded fish (or a HM breaded chicken piece if your son wont eat fish) with baked potato wedges and mushy peas or beans

S: Home made pizza with corn on the cob and a big salad

S: Beef in ale with dumplings and vegetables

M: Chicken zorba, this is chicken that has been mixed with a little lemon juice, olive oil and cumin griddled or dry fried and served in a warm pitta bread with hoummus or yoghurt and mint dressing, salad and some spicy rice

T: Chickpea curry (you can make this with veg if your family don't like chickpeas) serve with rice (measured amount) and cut 1 naan bread into small chunks for everyone to share

W: Cottage pie with lots of veg

T: Stir fry with lots of veg with prawns or chicken served with noodles (measured amount)

F: Veggie burger in wholemeal bun with HM potato wedges and beans

S: Take away night yay!

S: Sausage casserole with mash and veggies

We still have 'proper' meals, I don't buy low fat foods or diet versions as they don't really satisfy your bodies desire for a particular food and they contain far too many additives and more sugar. We just bulk our meals out with veg, eat a good breakfast such as porridge or wholemeal toast and something like vegetable soup or cold pasta salad for lunch. Seems to have worked for us and it doesn't rely on anything faddy or expensive just sensible home cooking, watching portions sizes and no foods being forbidden.

This is a really useful portion calculator to give you an idea how much you should be serving your son http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/perfect_portions

muckypup

Thank you so much guys, it all helps! The biggest hurdle i have with him i think is sugar, he only has 1 in his tea but with things like cereals and does put quite a bit on, and sometimes has syrup in his porrige too. I've told him this morning i will be putting his sugar on things from now on so i can cut it down slowly.

This morning for his breakfast he asked for coco pops, i managed to persuade him to have porrige instead with banana on....but he would only have it with honey too lol. So i did put a little on i figured it was prob still better then the other option.

We do have a busy day today as we have just had a skip delivered and are having a huge sort out, so he is helping. I'm hoping he will be too busy to want to snack too much.

Thank you for your meal plan, it certainly i a great help. I don't buy frozen/processed foods anyhow, i find then not filling and tasteless. So the home cooking thing will work well as i love cooking...he also loves helping mein the kitchen both cooking and baking, so hopefully this will help him out too. I will definately look at the meal plan thread and sit down with him later and see if we can sort a plan out together for next week,

Many thanks x

muckypup

I never gave the Dr a thought either and to be honest now i think about it i think there is a healthy eating nurse there too. I will give them a call monday morning and find out

workhard50

hi all hope your having a nice saturday, since i told my oh im on a healthy eating plan to lose stone and hald by march hes joining me, weve both weighted ourselfs and hes two stone to lose at least so were in it together, wishing all of you good luck and health see you soon

gratefulforhelp_2

Hi guys...*creeps back in shamefaced* can I re-join, please?

Have been off the wagon and it shows.

floyd

Hi all,
Doing OK today, had a nice lie in but as a result I haven't done much round the house but I did do 5 hours of wallpaper stripping yesterday so I don't feel too guilty

B/L: 2 granary toast (no butter) with HM bramble jelly

HM veggie chilli and brown rice with salad

S: 3 choccy digestives

Have a great week guys and gals

sparkle83

Hiya

I'm struggling to find a weightloss thread that I can really get my teeth into (no pun intended), so I wonder if I can join you? I've only recently started to make things from scratch and go old style, but so far so good. I started trying to lose weight last sunday, and lost 6lbs this week! I think its mostly water weight, I always lose lots the first week and then it tails off.

taplady

evening folks!

sparkle - well done on your great loss!:T(who cares whether its water or not:D)
greatful - welcome back - I've only just come back myself after an absence!
welcome also to workhard - my Dh is joining me too as he's put on a fair bit lately that he could do without as he has several health issues.

well so far I'm going greatguns!:j day 4 of my lose a pound a week before christmas challenge and its been another good one.

B - puffed wheat with skimmed milk and a ryvita wholegrain crackerbread with marmalade

S - go ahead bar

L - salmon and roasted veggies

D - watercress and celeriac soup with WW bread followed by a meringue and fruit.

hope you've all had a nice weekend x

Raspberry_Swirl

Managed to go out drinking Friday night and stay just in my WW points allowance so really pleased!

Walked about 3 miles yesterday on a day out at F1 day at Brooklands so pleased with my weekend's diet efforts

Today:

breakfast - crunchynut cornflakes with SS milk
lunch - low fat cup a soup, yogurt
dinner - HM sausage casserole