Piglet to Gazelle - My weight loss journey

purpleshoes_2

I would always go for a half and half with smoothies, half fruit and half veg for a lot of reasons. If you eat too much fruit in smoothies, you might get the nutrients but its not passing through your body the way it would if you were eating it, fibre can be lost and you can end up just drinking a big sugary drink.

Overall, I think maybe you could have a fresh look at your diet again. You were low carbing for a while, now it looks like you aren't.

I wouldn't snack on coffee either, you would be much better with green tea or water.

I know you have health issues that make it harder for you to get weight off, but you are 8 months down the road, you've lost a few pounds, its either your eating that needs tweaked or your exercise, or both.

Walking is fine, but I dont think its enough. I walk 4-5 miles a day, but you wont get the afterburn of calories from walking than you'll get from HIIT.

The good thing is that you are writing down what you are eating, but its very easy to fall into the trap of thinking something is "healthy" when its actually not and Id put graze into that category.

First_Trouble

Really struggling at the moment to bring up my weekday walking to 8 miles. This may improve as the days get longer/weather gets better and can take the dog out when I get home/longer walks at weekends. Mainly I will be focusing on doing at least one/two HIIT sessions a week and a run on Sundays. I do miss my Sunday run

purpleshoes_2

First_Trouble wrote: »

Really struggling at the moment to bring up my weekday walking to 8 miles. This may improve as the days get longer/weather gets better and can take the dog out when I get home/longer walks at weekends. Mainly I will be focusing on doing at least one/two HIIT sessions a week and a run on Sundays. I do miss my Sunday run

I dont think you'll need to walk 8 miles a day to be honest, if you want to, great, but fitness wise (in particularly dropping body fat), you'll get more out of 3 x 45 min HIIT sessions a week than a daily long walk.

First_Trouble

purpleshoes wrote: »

I would always go for a half and half with smoothies, half fruit and half veg for a lot of reasons. If you eat too much fruit in smoothies, you might get the nutrients but its not passing through your body the way it would if you were eating it, fibre can be lost and you can end up just drinking a big sugary drink.

Overall, I think maybe you could have a fresh look at your diet again. You were low carbing for a while, now it looks like you aren't.

I wouldn't snack on coffee either, you would be much better with green tea or water.

I know you have health issues that make it harder for you to get weight off, but you are 8 months down the road, you've lost a few pounds, its either your eating that needs tweaked or your exercise, or both.

Walking is fine, but I dont think its enough. I walk 4-5 miles a day, but you wont get the afterburn of calories from walking than you'll get from HIIT.

The good thing is that you are writing down what you are eating, but its very easy to fall into the trap of thinking something is "healthy" when its actually not and Id put graze into that category.

I posted my last post (3.37) before I read this.

Yeah I had really looked at what I have been eating and I have done a full shopping list for next month with some new meal ideas. I will be eating more fish and have included more low carb meals, also I think my portion sizes are creeping back up so I will be keeping an eye on that too.

My intention for smoothies is to do half and half but it will be some experimenting with flavour combinations initially. I like the idea of kale as a base as I liked the taste but not the texture.

Snacks are anything I eat/drink out of my three main meals. I have been contemplating cancelling the graze as I am not really enjoying them any more. The only one I really enjoyed was the olives and I can just buy them from a supermarket.

I am also going to be building up my HIIT sessions as I have let them fall to the wayside lately and I do like the feeling after.

First_Trouble

Oh I almost forgot.

On the 18th March was my none-smoking anniversary! I have now been 1 year smoke free!!

First_Trouble

Monday food & exercise

B: Smoked salmon & cream cheese bagel and a coffee
L: LO Roast Chicken dinner
HM Chicken Bhuna and B.Rice
S: Banana
E: Walked 11,128, miles 4.21, burned 1867, ate 1657cals (est), carbs 162g, 10 mins housework

First_Trouble

Tuesday food & exercise

B: Greek yoghurt medley
L: Pennette al Salmon - I think that is how it is spelt. Anyway it was smoked salmon in a creamy dill sauce on pasta. It was a payday treat and I wanted to get something different to the usual pizza.
HM Chicken & Lamb Kebabs with mushrooms & salad
S: Berry burst Trek bar
E: Walked 15,484, miles 5.86, burned 1947, ate 1324cals (est), carbs 122g, 10 mins housework

First_Trouble

Had the food delivery last night with lots of tasty produce.
Here is a snap shot of the meals I have planned for this month.

1st cheeseburgers with sauteed spinach, onion and mushrooms (no bun)
2nd Soy marinated cod with stir fried vegetables
3rd HM Pizza topped with Spinach, mushrooms and prosciutto
4th Mushroom risotto with sauteed vegetables
5th Chilli con carne with mixed vegetables (haven't decided with/without rice yet)
6th Chilli Nachos with HM guacamole
7th Jacket Potatoes
8th HM Pizza topped with Spinach, mushrooms and prosciutto
9th Chicken Enchiladas with HM guacamole
10th Bolognaise with mixed vegetables
11th Lasagne with salad
12th HM Vegetable Ramen with Rice noodles
13th HM Prawn Pad Thai
14th Chicken Stir fry
15th Carbonara
16th cheeseburgers with sauteed spinach, onion and mushrooms (no bun)
17th Quesdillas - Goat's cheese, tuna, red onion and chilli
18th Goat's cheese, tuna & beetroot salad
19th Salmon, b.rice and spinach
20th Soy marinated cod with stir fried vegetables
21st Pesto Crusted Salmon with stir fried vegetables
22nd Chicken and Mushroom Pesto Pasta

I will add in the rest of the month later.

rainbowfairydust

have been looking at your menus for the last couple of weeks, and in the above post. It tt was me - i would be removing pizza off your menu - they are calorie laden even home made.

If you really cant do without have you considered using an alternative base? Such as cauliflower or quinoa?

I doscovered this website today called budgetbytes - i know its an american site but there are receipe conversion sites on the net such as this website
and there are receipe converter websites such as this one . No need to type the ingredients in - i just copy & paste. Then convert into the number of meals i want to make.

ETA - I also agree about the walking - you would probably lose more doing a high intensity class (such as spinning) or could you go for a jog around your local park?

ooh also - have you had a "blow out" day - these can kick start your metabolism again if its slowed down. It might help to get things moving again.

Good luck

sorry one last thing - on some days i dont think you are eating enough. Have a read of this post. I found it to be quite an interesting read.

First_Trouble

rainbowfairydust wrote: »

have been looking at your menus for the last couple of weeks, and in the above post. It tt was me - i would be removing pizza off your menu - they are calorie laden even home made.

If you really cant do without have you considered using an alternative base? Such as cauliflower or quinoa?

I doscovered this website today called budgetbytes - i know its an american site but there are receipe conversion sites on the net such as this website
and there are receipe converter websites such as this one . No need to type the ingredients in - i just copy & paste. Then convert into the number of meals i want to make.

ETA - I also agree about the walking - you would probably lose more doing a high intensity class (such as spinning) or could you go for a jog around your local park?

ooh also - have you had a "blow out" day - these can kick start your metabolism again if its slowed down. It might help to get things moving again.

Good luck

sorry one last thing - on some days i dont think you are eating enough. Have a read of this post. I found it to be quite an interesting read.

Hi Rainbowfairydust,

The base I am using is a wrap at the moment but will be looking into alternatives. Problem is my husband doesn't want to change what he eats so I am trying to work around what he will eat and cook the more adventurous stuff when he is at work (he works nights).

The local park to me is only open from dawn till dusk and is locked in between, I can only run at weekends but the weather hasn't been that great for me to get out. I'm hoping that the weather will be getting better soon as I do really enjoy this.

I do struggle to fit in extra food into my day but here is my schedule on an average work day it might help if someone else can see it.

5am - wake up, take thyroid tablet (has to be taken 30min-hr before food)
5am - 7.15am - feed pets, sort out clothes, get dressed, make up etc, wash up plates from night before, sort out food for the day, make sure all items for dinner have been taken out of freezer, have a small snack before leaving the house
7.15am - leave to catch the train
7.25 - 8am on train
8am - 9am walking to work from station
9am have breakfast at desk
10.30 - start to feel peckish, have a snack
1pm - 2 pm have lunch
4pm have a snack
5.30pm leave work walk to station
6.20 - 7pm on train, may also have a snack on the train if I am really hungry
7.20pm get home start cooking dinner/ exercise while dinner is cooking
8 - 9pm eat dinner
9pm - 10pm - relax
10.30pm in bed

Typing out the above I could try and fit in a small breakfast at around 6ish.
Weekends I was having a cheat day but I was indulging in too much of the wrong things so I am taking it back to basics, Easter sunday maybe an exception though. I am also trying to convince my husband to stop having so many takeaways or if we do kebabs only as our local one is actually a restaurant quality and then only once a month if that.

I do get confused over how eating a low carb diet you can eat 1800 cals or above a day I am not going to lie I do struggle eating that much. This could be down to the fact that I have eaten around 1200 for a very very long time. This is something I can improve on though.