please help

foxgloves

Hi, We (husband & I) both started this year deciding that it was time to lose lots of weight as we were VERY heavy. We have lost bits of weight before on various diet plans but not stuck to anything long enough to make the kind of difference we need to see for our health. We both have a lot of confidence, but it's reaching the 'wrong side of 40' & finding that my knees/ankles were getting a bit creaky that was scary plus diabetes on both sides of the family is a worry. Anyway, we've been following just a very healthy eating plan, which has 3 meals a day, no eating between meals (I was a terrible 'picker'.....you know that saying 'Little pickers wear big knickers'?, well that could have been invented for me!) My husband has lost 42 lbs so far and I've lost 36lbs. We are doing some things differently this time. Instead of having lots of 'treats' on a weekly basis, we weigh ourselves just at the end of each month on an agreed day. Then, we decide what we are going to do for a treat. Last month, it was coffee & cakes at the 'Betty's of Harrogate lovely teashop. This month, weigh day is 29th July and our monthly treat is going out for a curry. We cook everything from scratch, we don't buy any 'diet food' at all. It's usually more expensive to buy & like a previous post says, it doesn't fill you up. I find that if I eat things sweetened with aspartame, I am craving lots more food shortly afterwards. The dietplan we are following does not involve counting points or anything, but every so often, I just pick a day or two & jot down what I've eaten so I can check the calorie content & check I'm not regularly going over 1500 cals a day. We use Quorn to replace some of the meat meals, as it's so low in fat. We still use our breadmaker as we find that 50g home-made bread/toast is somehow so much more satisfying than the same amount of bought sliced bread. We're not finding that dieting is causing us to spend more money. We do grow a lot of veg which helps, but other stuff we're buying, the cost of that is offset by all the crap we're no longer eating...crisps, salted nuts, cake, chocolate, biscuits, beer, take-aways, etc, as well as all the stuff that lasts much longer such as cheese, pasta, rice, couscous, peanut butter, spread, hummous, etc, because we are eating contolled portions. Finally, we bought a set of Rosemary Conley's portion pots as huge portions were a problem for both of us previously. We nearly died laughing when we saw how small they were.....but when you get used to them, they are fine, and if you stick to it long enough, your weight will start to come down, like ours is doing. Best of luck with it.....lots of motivating people on here xx

23rdspiral

I'm also need ing to loose weight, and spend less. My meal planning is fine, it's the junk I eat between meals that's the problem!

Thanks everyone for the encouragement to the OP, it's been good to hear. Good luck with your goals.

Foxgloves I'm amazed at your success tale. You should be so proud. Thank you so much for the inspiration.

meritaten

I lost nearly three stone and found the secret by accident!
Its simple
Breakfast like a king (ok, in my case it was a couple of weetabix or rice krispies - but at least I HAD breakfast, which I didnt before)!
Lunch like a prince ( it was my only chance at a proper cooked meal -I was in college in the day and had an evening job) the college ran catering courses, so lucky me, the grub was lovely! and yes I did often have dessert (the strawberry cheesecake was orgasmic).
Dine like a pauper - Dinner was always a sandwich or prepacked salad on the bus going home from my evening job!
The wieght just fell off me and I have stuck to those principles ever since and my wieght has stayed the same for nearly ten years now. NO DIET, no diet foods,I just make sure that I eat most of my food during the day and as I now dont work I CAN cook from scratch and I also make sure we eat healthily! But, if we fancy a chinese takeout for supper every now and again we have one! a little treat now and again never hurts!

skintbint_2

can understand where you are coming from. i followed slimming world - the red days and green days - it doesnt take much working out if you are busy - no counting and no faffing about. Do you have a garden? could you plant up some bits and pieces - i did that and to feed 5 of us cost me £1.75 = homegrown onions, tatties, swede, with steak mince. all from "garden to plate within 45mins" - no e numbers, no additives and a very filling and healthy meal and it doesnt take much looking after or cost a lot to set up also the little bit exercise will help you shed those pounds. we have started eating a lot healthier too, the kids(two teenagers) have admitted they prefer "real food" compared to pizza and chips etc- have pots with lettuce, spring onions even peppers and cucumbers and have never done any growing until now. it doesnt have to be prize winning stuff but sure tastes 100 times better than shop bought and a lot less waste. tomorrow our menu is blueberry pawridge oats - like o so simple (make with water rather than milk to keep cals down) poundland £1 for 8 sachets,(will use 4) lunch is wraps £1 for 8 with 6 value eggs (60p)/mayo (about the same cals as light mayo) and homegrown spring onions mixed through it and dinner is rice (45p value packet so will be about 20p) woopsied broccoli (49p) with chicken shredded through it (£1), snacks are bananas, apples, dutch crispbreads if really needed with light philly bought with vouchers from the voucher thread= all value stuff! so for 4 of us tomorrow
breakfast £0.50, lunch £1.60, dinner £1.69 about £4 when you take into account the mayo etc and even with the bananas/apples will still bu under £5 for 4 of us

hth

Jules__2-2

All I would add is to take it a bit steady! If you go nuts trying to do absolutely everything at once you probably wont be able to keep it up for long. So choose one thing to improve (maybe cooking a couple of meals a week from scratch) and work at that, then add something else after a couple of weeks when you're comfortable (e.g. portion control or snacking or something else). You didn't get here overnight so you wont perfect everything over night either! Best of luck