Lose Weight 32

margaretclare

I love what Eric writes above. I'd like to thank him more than once! It's such basic common sense.

When I look back over the years, I see a podgy teenager who was only saved from real obesity by the active lifestyle we all had then as a matter of course. The people I grew up with did their best in extremely difficult circumstances, but I grew up eating white bread, pies, cake, everything home-made but with white flour and white sugar.

I've discovered that anything highly-refined, like white flour and white sugar, is no good for me. I don't eat anything like the foods I grew up with. I eat more protein than I ever did. We normally have some form of protein for breakfast to start off the day - yesterday it was a boiled egg with wholemeal toast, today we've had a grilled kipper fillet with a seeded bagel. If I ever have to go into hospital again (which I may do, right hip replacement will probably need revision) I won't be very happy with hospital's idea of breakfast, which is usually some kind of breakfast cereal in little packets and some white bread!! I never eat any of the commercial breakfast cereals now except possibly Dorset Cereals berries and cherries muesli with yogurt, and that's possibly a late afternoon snack. I'm going to the pool for an adult swim 12-1 and then we're having a meaty stew with broccoli. Normally, after a decent lunch, I don't want dinner, usually a light snack at tea-time.

I don't actually want a lot of the type of foods that are advertised and pushed at us the whole time. I'm used to the surprised looks when we have tea or coffee at church and I say 'no thank you' to the plate of biscuits which inevitably comes round. What are called 'treats' are not actually treats to me because I don't want them. I agree with Eric about that. After a while your taste buds change, you really don't want them. We have become brain-washed by all the TV advertising and seeing all these so-called 'treats' all around them. I didn't grow up with the idea of all these things as a 'treat', but equally, the kind of diet I grew up with was much more suitable for people doing active jobs and walking or cycling everywhere.

Hope this makes sense.

PrincessJelly

Fred - I think I forgot to post my loss for last week of 0.5lb, so that should take me to 3lbs this month. Sorry, I am a bit absent minded.... probably due to two small children

Dinah93

Still cereal today (I read the box, shreddies recommends 40g portion which is 138 cals - so my 60g one is still only 207 cals - I know I should think in carbs not cals but they really do keep hunger locked up till lunch!) and embarrassingly a diet coke as I didn't sleep well last night and needed the caffine fix. For lunch though I've listened to advice, I thought about what I could bring in that was high protein and I'd really like, and I made a terrine last night - torn chicken breast layered with shiitake mushrooms and garlic and thyme leeks, wrapped in proscuitto, bound with a thick stock and a little gelatine not fat. According to the recipe it's 350ish cals per serving (but then I've used less chicken than I should have as I ran out, and also I think there is about 6 servings in mine not 4, so it's all guess work really!) and I've got that with lots of rocket and cherry tomatoes. Dinner tonight won't be appauling as I made a vegetable lasagne (only 6 sheets of lasagne and about 8 portions), with lots of veggies, lentils, quorn and the white sauce is made with yoghurt, milk and fresh basil, with just a little flour for thickening, rather than the usual white sauce with cheese I make. No garlic bread, just a side salad. And I do zumba tonight so hopefully that will cancel out a carby dinner?!

I worked out I got 8 of my 5 a day yesterday, 3 were fruit so a bit of sugar there, but the rest were veggies so I feel like I got lots of vitamins. I should be at about 5 a day today too, but I've upped my protein with the terrine and quorn so hoping I'm heading in the right direction. No chocolate yesterday at all either, and I only drank water. A lot of what you all said hit home, I do think I was kidding myself with the treats and they were becoming far too little and often.

vixarooni

Eric_Pisch wrote: »

This is the one thing that baffles me about 99.9% of people wishing to loose weight, in that they want to drop the lbs but they dont want to give up there dietary lifestyle even thou they full well know it was all the stuff they dont want to give up that made them overweight in the first place and it will continue to do so whilst on a diet and once they are done, it baffles me.

My logic goes like this

1) you either want to loose weight or you do not, what ever way you go about it you have to make changes / compromises so why sabotage all the good effort by keep eating all the carp that made you over weight in the first place.

2) you are a grown up, you control what you put in your mouth, you have no biological need to eat carp. to me the "i wont give up what i like" attitude is just self defeating, its seams to be the same logic as a kid lobbing a teddy out of a pram
Life is too bloody short for that crap. If i want a chocolate bar, i'm going to have one. If i'm with a friend having a good time and i want a cake, i'm going to have it. I'll just reduce something else in the day/week or exercise more.

3) after a couple of months eating whole foods your body and taste buds adjust, you literally do not want the carp any more, food tastes sweater and has more flavour and for me eating processed foods now makes me feel ill, i can taste chemicals for hours after i have eaten some processed foods, others give me a chronic migraine or worse was a microwave curry that gave me the cold sweats for 2 days ...
I agree with this point, the less you eat of something the less you want it.

4) control the controllable's - live and die by this. If you have underlying issues (demons) that need to addressed or at least come to terms with then do that before ever trying to loose weight, you will just lose. Then change your lifestyle for ever don't buy into the gimmicks and fads. Control the things in your life that you have the power to change, like what you eat and the things that upset you or push you down the wrong path, everything else should be "water of a ducks back" where possible
Agree, but some poeple don't have any demons. Its just a case of enjoying food too much.

5) once you have lost weight and are happy then you can go into maintenance mode and then you can have the odd treat if you wish, but we need to be aware that when it comes to food we are the equivalent of heroine addicts so we need to be in control for the rest of our lives, its far to easy to let the fatty inside back out ...
Little extreme.

I have dropped 207lbs so far, have I done this with super human will power, hell no, my will power is as weak as everyone else's, the 15 years of yoyo dieting and weighing 34 stone show this ... I have done it by making a permanent lifestyle change, moving over to a diet that is closer to how we ate for 2.5 million years, one that keeps me full most of the time and is very healthy and requires very little will power.

I understand you've done well Eric, but you're writing this as an ex 34 stone man. Not an 11 stone woman. Your circumstances which lead you to get so fat are a lot different to Bettys and you had to lose weight because it affected your life.

I'm probably a lot like betty, where we just like food a lot. All betty and myself need to do is probably exercise more and eat a little less. To be honest, i'd rather be 10 stone and enjoy the squares of chocolate i've eaten, then be 8 stone and not. Likewise when i eat mcdonalds and drink alcohol, i had a good time doing it and sometimes that is all that matters. Its all about peaks and troffs.

efrieze

fredsnail wrote: »

This is interesting. Although not proof (due to small sample), it suggest that any specific diet is better than DIY, despite the DIYers making up the majority and the others being dependent on just a few people.

bettyB_2

Thanks for the input Eric - I agree with a lot of what you said, however I disagree with a few points...

Eric_Pisch wrote: »

My logic goes like this

1) you either want to loose weight or you do not, what ever way you go about it you have to make changes / compromises so why sabotage all the good effort by keep eating all the carp that made you over weight in the first place

But it's not the cake, for instance, that made me fat, it's ME! A fundamental point I am trying to make is that it's not the food you eat, it's how you eat it. I could eat 4000 carrots a day and get fat, or 1 slice of cake a day and get skinny. the carp food didnt make me fat, my inability to eat a normal amount of it and then stop did.

In addition, i dont just want to lose weight. I want to alter my perceptions of food, and completely banning bad food will only reinforce an unhealthy attidute.

If I dont ban anything, but instead limit my intake and take control of my eating, then it's much harder to actually sabotage myself.

vixarooni wrote: »

2) you are a grown up, you control what you put in your mouth, you have no biological need to eat carp. to me the "i wont give up what i like" attitude is just self defeating, its seams to be the same logic as a kid lobbing a teddy out of a pram
Life is too bloody short for that crap. If i want a chocolate bar, i'm going to have one. If i'm with a friend having a good time and i want a cake, i'm going to have it. I'll just reduce something else in the day/week or exercise more.

I agree with vix here
1. Life is too short to deprive yourself of all nice things.
BUT
2. eating a slice of cake with a friend wont make you fat, again, eating 10 cakes on your own will. I bet my thin friend doesn't do that though cos she has a normal relationhship with food and knows when a treat is a treat.

5) once you have lost weight and are happy then you can go into maintenance mode and then you can have the odd treat if you wish, but we need to be aware that when it comes to food we are the equivalent of heroine addicts so we need to be in control for the rest of our lives, its far to easy to let the fatty inside back out ...

this is exactly why I am not going to 'ban' any food. It's far too easy to start reintroducing food and then relapse when you have lost the weight. Much better to never deny yourself the things you like (not just cake, but pasta, steak, olive oil, cheese.. etc) and learn how to love and respect it, and yourself, and develop a healthy relationship with all food, rather than banish it, brand it as evil, and forever fight the urge to eat!

vixarooni wrote: »

I understand you've done well Eric, but you're writing this as an ex 34 stone man. Not an 11 stone woman. Your circumstances which lead you to get so fat are a lot different to Bettys and you had to lose weight because it affected your life.

I'm probably a lot like betty, where we just like food a lot. All betty and myself need to do is probably exercise more and eat a little less. To be honest, i'd rather be 10 stone and enjoy the squares of chocolate i've eaten, then be 8 stone and not. Likewise when i eat mcdonalds and drink alcohol, i had a good time doing it and sometimes that is all that matters. Its all about peaks and troffs.

exactly! Becuase 10 stone is not dangerously overweight. And actually neither is 11. it's just more than I'd like to weigh. it's not a medical problem, much more of a personal preference and a lifestyle choice.
so yes, I need to eat less and exercise more. that's it. And I know that snacks are my downfall - and that my attitude to food is pure lust and greed, which is why there is no point banning food and trying to get super skinny - I am always going to love food, the safest thing I can do is develop a healthy attitude to ALL food 'good' and 'bad' and help myself become a normal person who can have a bit of cake, but not the whole cake!

well i hope i burned some cals writing all that! my fingers hurt! :rotfl:

Matryoshka

Eric_Pisch wrote: »

3) after a couple of months eating whole foods your body and taste buds adjust, you literally do not want the carp any more, food tastes sweater and has more flavour and for me eating processed foods now makes me feel ill, i can taste chemicals for hours after i have eaten some processed foods, others give me a chronic migraine or worse was a microwave curry that gave me the cold sweats for 2 days ...

About a year ago, I ran out of sweeteners. Only found out after I'd made my cup of tea. I had 2 choices - either drink it with milk or add some sugar - I didn't want to add sugar as I have/had a sweet tooth so drank it like that - and found I liked it :j I've had my tea with only milk ever since.

One day, I figured I needed something sweet so added sugar to my tea - I couldn't drink it

somethingsgottogive

Hello all,

haven't been around for a bit because I've been rethinking this whole dieting malarkey.

I'm now 200lb overweight, and i've been trying to lose weight for nearly 2 decades (I've found diaries from when I was 10, talking about how I hate being fat and need to lose weight) and i've also been binge eating for nearly 2 decades. After talking to a friend about it and finding 1001 articles on Binge Eating Disorder that describe every aspect of my relationship with food and my general mental state I've had to finally admit that I can't do it on my own. I'm just waiting on appointments from the Weight Management team and counselling - and I'm trying very hard to stop thinking that I'm just a fat girl making excuses. If it was just that I like my food too much, I'd be a size 12 by now, wouldn't I?

Be back soon, hope everyone's well

SGTG x

lucinad

Dinah93 wrote: »

I know I should think in carbs not cals .

ok am i doing this all wrong? i am counting cals, should i be concentrating on carbs? arghhhh help. i have been trying to keep my cal intake to below 1500 a day but i think i have a lot of carbs, even tho i dont eat bread or potatoes, i do eat cereal, pasta rice and noodles

so help me please what should i be lowering?

sarymclary

Lucinad, whatever way of eating works for you is fine. We all do different plans here. Eric likes to keep his carbs measured, others are happy to count calories, or do Weight Watchers, Slimming World, etc. You can eat whatever you like if you are calorie counting. I think most of us try to incorporate a healthy eating lifestyle into whatever we are doing.

I do the Slimming World plan, and if I were to be following part of their plan that they call 'green', it allows you to freely eat as much pasta, rice, potatoes and other veg on that day. What is restricted are the meat, fats and sugary foods. This suits members who are vegetarian (you still have a dairy/fibre/protein allowance to incorporate on top of this), and they successfully lose weight doing it, so carbs aren't always bad for everyone.

Busy day for me today. Been catching up on housework, ironing, then tidying up our massive shed all afternoon, so hopefully that's helped burn off some energy today. Really wish this cold would beggar off now though, as the sore throat is disturbing my sleep, which in turn is making me feel tired and craving sweet foods during the day. Maybe it will be gone tomorrow?

Interesting reading everyone's perspectives today. We all have our way of doing things, and it is finding whatever suits our way of living life that is the key. Fitting in with a family of 6 makes it harder to impose hardline dietary rules, when everyone else has to be taken into consideration too. As the shopper and preparer of food in my home, I have found it very hard in the past to prepare foods that the rest of the family want, but that my current faddy diet might not allow. At least with SW I have found something that has slotted nicely into the family meals, with little tweaks here and there that none of them have noticed.