Re: Lose Weight 4

Savvy_Sue

Just been to the doctors yesterday, I have to lose a stone in weight and I'm hopeless when it comes to portion control and watching what I eat.

You are not alone! Welcome to the club. And LOVE the chocolate message! I'm right with you there!!!

Did the doctor give any helpful advice, or just say lose a stone?

It seems to me you have two choices: change your diet completely and make yourself miserable, constantly thinking about food, and broke because you're shelling out for Atkins chocolate at £1.27 per 50g bar. Or start thinking portion control. Well I know which one I'd be more likely to stick to. ;D And of course portion control can be combined with making changes to what you eat.

Portion control does become easier with practice. I've always weighed out pasta and frozen veg, because otherwise I'd either starve my lot or they would pig out. Thinking about what you eat likewise: most people advise NOT trying to change everything overnight but changing things gradually: going from full fat to semi skimmed milk, for example, grilling rather than deep frying food etc.

And if you're a 'snacker', you have to make sure that you have things to snack on which aren't stuffed full of sugar. You could also try Scheming Gypsy's poster, offered a few entries above this one! Maybe S-G will find one wearing a pink bikini for us girls!

Whichever you choose does have to be combined with increased activity (note I don't use the E word ... I'm not that much of a hypocrite!) Years and years ago I read an article - probably in the Readers' Digest - entitled 'Dieting makes you fat', and I've since seen its conclusions backed up: you eat less, your body thinks there's a shortage of food, so it lays down fat. Whereas if you combine eating less with increased activity your body doesn't think there's a shortage of food and it doesn't lay down fat. Activity can just be walking.

There's a completely free step counter going at http://walkers.co.uk - hope it applies to NI! The idea is that you measure how much walking you do now and gradually increase it, until you're doing at least 10,000 steps per day.

The BBC Fat Nation Pack might be another place to start: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/beyond/bigchallenge.shtml As well as a step counter that has a fridge magnet that's supposed to remind you of the proportions of the different food types you should have in your diet, a terrifying tape measure that says I need to lose a foot off my waist, and an activity game to play with your friends, family etc. I can't see any of my kids rising to any of those challenges, but maybe yours will!

I've recently 'come out' at work and said I'm trying to lose weight, to get down to being overweight by Christmas instead of obese. That's about a stone I need to lose too. Once I'd silenced the cries of "But you're not obese" it started to help: the boss used to bring in cakes on Monday mornings for our team meeting but she's given up as no-one will eat it, we now have fresh fruit.

I do get pretty fed up when I feel I'm eating sensibly and still I don't lose anything for a while, but sometimes it's because I just can't get out and walk. Other times I don't know why it is. But I have got to get a serious amount of weight off and THIS TIME I'm going to do it.

arkonite_babe

Savvy
Thankyou so much for the encouragement! I have printed out s_g's poster to stick up on my fridge door!

Will be trying to increase walking during the day and if I have to snack at night will be looking for fruit or something similar.

Will keep you posted as to how I get on.

shazrazmataz

Just to let you know that I'm finally starting to feel better, I put on 2 lbs, but as I have been so poorly, I have been a couch potato for the last six weeks & not been able to get out & about.
My hubby took me out shopping yesterday for new clothes (as I have lost so much weight) but I felt so poorly that I had to come home after 20 mins :-[
As my hols to Australia are only 5 weeks away, I some how dont think that the shops have any summer clothes left !!!!!!
Anyway I'll weigh my self on Monday & let you know how I get on, good luck everyone ;D ;D 8) xxx

Savvy_Sue

Shaz, welcome back, glad to hear you are recovering slowly, and hope you can manage a shopping trip again soon. Or, take an almost empty suitcase and buy what you need in Oz?

Arkonite, glad I encouraged you, still feeling pretty naff myself, got antibiotics for my cough and either that or the infection itself has kicked in the nausea / giddiness / dizziness I get periodically so I'm hanging on to an upright position with the help of ginger - no biscuits yet, just a rather nice apple and ginger tea I found today.

But what I intended to say rather than feeling sorry for myself was, when you have a minute or 60, skim back through the previous Lose Weight threads and see if there is anything else there to help you. For example, if you can get your head round the Glycaemic Index way of eating then that may help, especially if you always feel ravenously hungry. Porridge, anyone?

Sue7

Hi
Well i have made the decision today that on Thursday i am going to join Slimming World again, i lost 17.5 pounds on the diet last year from February to June (i have since put about 9lbs back on!!), so i am hoping that i will be able to lose at least half a stone before xmas.
Is anyone else on this diet? if so maybe we could share recipies and tips.
I feel really nervous as i do not want to fail.

Titch

Pepita_2

It isn't easy to lose weight but it can be done and if you combine changing your eating habits with changing your exercise habits you can add a few more years onto your life. If you are overweight you are far more likely to get type two diabetes and if you have that you are far more likely to get stroke, heart attack, and a variety of nasty things you really would rather do without.
No one way of eating will work for everyone as we are all individuals - you have to find something that will work for you and your way of life. The way I did it was by cutting out sugar and processed food but all I am saying is that that worked for me - if you feel you are depriving yourself, you won't keep it up and if you return to the way you ate before you are guaranteed to put it all back on again plus 10% extra. Any weight loss plan can only work if you change the way you eat for life. Add exercise, stop smoking and drinking as much alcohol and you definitely will be fitter and healthier.
No, it's not easy but it really is worth making the effort.

Remember the tried and trusted cliche - you always get what you always get if you always do what you always do.

Savvy_Sue

Remember the tried and trusted cliche - you always get what you always get if you always do what you always do.

And a lot of other very intelligent and helpful things to boot. Hear Hear! There may be those who can consider starting some faddy diet but for most of us there are other things to think about than losing weight, and for us there are only two things to think about: eating less and moving more!

(Upbeat today: the 4lbs which seem to leap on and off my scales with me in a fairly random way stayed off today, which could be because a hacking cough and antibiotics last week left me feeling unable to face even chocolate offered by a colleague!)

VelvetGlove

Few new faces on the thread this week welcome to the little corner of Money Saving Expert that is losing weight! We are up to thread 4 as we have been going since around April, so as Sue says, if you get some time, have a read back at all the wonderful ideas and suggestions that have been recorded for posterity!

Sad to say that after another week of walking more than my normal daily step count, only lost 1 of the 2 pounds that seemed to fly on last week. I'm thinking my body has suddenly woken up to the fact that it will need to change it's shape a bit and has put the brakes on the weight just sliding slowly off so it can have a little reshuffle ;D

Jaffa - sorry you had such a scary time on holiday thanks to the hurricane but at least you came through unscathed and are back safe in the bosom of the community!

S-G - thanks for the poster! I've printed it out and I'm thinking of where to put it as mums fridge door is one of the hidden wooden ones so I think on the mirror in my room is a good place.

Shaz - sounds as though it's a slow road to recovery for you, if you are after some Summer clothes for your trip to Oz would any of the online catalogues or clothes places have a sale on at this time of the year? You could maybe browse the internet in short bursts and have stuff delivered - just watch out for the returns policy and cost I guess.

Titch - I'm doing Slimming World and have lost 3 stone since April when we started this thread. I don't go to the club as I still had all the booklets from when I did it back in the early 90's, the only thing I did buy was a current food directory to get the up to date syn values for things. I put £25 a month into a savings account so I have a clothes fund for when I'm happier with my weight/shape - it's the money I would have given into a club so it's doing me a favour One recipe that I do love is the syn free chips - go really well with a grilled chicken breasts and a tin of mushy peas ;D Good luck with it, I find it a really easy diet to stick to and if I do have anything I need to do I save up my syns and use as required.

arkonite - good luck with your stone. Sometimes the doctors say these things as if it is the easiest thing in the world! It helps if they give you some encouragement and support through it too. Two of the nurses at my doctors practice are ace, they are really genuinely pleased for me when I go in for a pill check and have lost more weight (If they are acting then my word they deserve Oscars!). The other nurse there just spits out the make sure you exercise, are you attending a gym, you must goto a gym if you want to lose weight - er hello? I have lost weight and I'm not attending a gym and whose life it this anyway?!!!

If you need encouragement, support, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to bend then we are here. I think it's why I have been so focused on this diet that I know if I come on here I'll have the support and wisdom of others that know what I'm going through - Good Luck!

VelvetGlove

Fiddlesticks! I knew there was something else!

Sue - I got the Walkers step counter on Monday this week and I'm sad to report it isn't very good. I thought I'd do a 'test' with it and wore both my P&P only counter and the new Walkers one. Now I followed the instructions about wearing it along the centre of my body and heeded the warnings about equal pace length, not walking on uneven ground etc.

The Results at noon from walking from the hotel to Clacton branch along pavements and also around the branch, out at lunch time and back to the branch:

P & P step counter - 1442 steps
Walkers step counter - 2399

So, I don't think the Walkers one suits my style of walking. It may be fine with someone else though so I guess it is a case of trying it out and seeing.

Another step counter consigned to the counter graveyard on my shelf!

Savvy_Sue

Sue - I got the Walkers step counter on Monday this week and I'm sad to report it isn't very good. I thought I'd do a 'test' with it and wore both my P&P only counter and the new Walkers one. Now I followed the instructions about wearing it along the centre of my body and heeded the warnings about equal pace length, not walking on uneven ground etc.

The Results at noon from walking from the hotel to Clacton branch along pavements and also around the branch, out at lunch time and back to the branch:

P & P step counter - 1442 steps
Walkers step counter - 2399

So, I don't think the Walkers one suits my style of walking. It may be fine with someone else though so I guess it is a case of trying it out and seeing.

Another step counter consigned to the counter graveyard on my shelf!

Not as radical as the difference I'm getting between my P & P one and the one from Fat Nation: Fat Nation sometimes records 10 times as many steps as the P & P one. Makes it really easy to do 10,000 steps. ;D ;D ;D

Fat Nation sent me two: hubby nicked one but I wore both yesterday and his only read more than mine by about 20 steps, and they were both about twice the P&P reading. I think we're going out together this afternoon (:o radical or what!!!) so will see if we walk the same distance...

On the freebies board there is a post about the Walkers stepometer and someone there says they have a very good counter which was less than £5 and doesn't count 'random' movements as steps but they don't say which one it is. Someone else found their Walkers one went for a walk while they were in bed which is quite entertaining as you can imagine. Must get back there and ask for details of the decent counter but the spuds need peeling for lunch ...