Piglet to Gazelle - My weight loss journey

First_Trouble

Sorry I have been incognito these last two days, Tuesday morning I woke feeling awful. The downside of working in an office germs are just spread around. So I decided to take these last two days as rest rather than the friday and saturday I had planned, take them to recover and get back on it after some rest. I also worked from home as I just didn't have the energy to get to work. Feeling much better so I am hoping to push myself to complete day 4 of the fitness challenge. I want to be able to get through all 5 days consecutively that is the fitness challenge I am setting myself.
Even being ill I have tried to keep my nutrition in check, one thing that I have noticed since changing my diet is that when I do get ill it doesn't take me as long to recover.

First_Trouble

Tuesday food & exercise

B: spinach and mushroom omelette and a coffee
L: salmon, creamy spinach & peas
Wrap Pizza with a side salad dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil
S: coffee, 2 x honey and lemon in hot water
E: Walked 1,108, miles 2211ft, burned 1683, ate 2002 cals (est), 83g carbs, REST DAY

First_Trouble

Weigh in today.

It is a gain of 1.4lbs I now weigh 11st 9.6lbs and feeling a little frustrated but looking over my food it could be possible that I have been unconsciously overeating (exercise days have been over 2000 cals) or that my thyroid meds need upping (or both), I have a blood test scheduled for tuesday so once the results are in I can make an appointment with the doctor and discuss how I feel some of the symptoms are creeping back. I'm on a very low dosage (50mg) so hoping he will be ok with increasing this. I have lost inches.

Measurements last week
Bust - 38.5
Chest - 34
Waist - 37
Hips - 41.5
Thighs - L23/R23
Arms - L12/R12

Measurements Now
Bust - 38
Chest - 34
Waist - 37
Hips - 41
Thighs - L23/R23
Arms - L11.5/R11.5

First_Trouble

purpleshoes wrote: »

I'm not sure the calorie burn on the garmin is accurate. There are days I've done hardly any steps and days I've done five times as much and there's been little difference in the figures.

I'm hoping the next one they release has a built in heart monitor like the one microsoft have just released. I think Garmin calculate how much your body burns existing at your current weight then adds cals burned from steps.

I'm using the figure Garmin give as a gauge I hope its somewhere in the ball park, but I am going more on food and exercise that I do. I think I will be safer that way.

First_Trouble

Wednesday food & exercise

B: spinach and mushroom omelette and a coffee
L: Greek yoghurt, dark cherries, honey, peanut butter
savoury mince, handful mini roasties made from 1 potato, mixed veg
S: coffee, 2 x honey and lemon in hot water, 25g cashews, 25g raisins
E: Walked 1,303, miles 2598ft, burned 1437, ate 1528 cals (est), 137g carbs, REST DAY

Didn't eat as much today as I pretty much slept most of the morning and afternoon so I missed out some snacks that would have brought it up to the 1800+.

First_Trouble

The monthly tesco shop arrives tomorrow evening and this is the meal plan list for May. Feel free to comment or offer advice on this. All sauces, accompaniments and marinates etc will be home made.

1. Battered Cod, Chips and minted pea puree - I will most likely be just having pan fried cod as I have never liked batter, sweet pot fries and the pea puree.
2. Meal at sister in law's
3. Chicken Curry, Rice, HM Onion Bhaji's and HM Mint Sauce/yoghurt
4. Chilli con Carne & sweettcorn
5. Pork Steaks in a cider cream sauce and veg
6. Lamb chump & stir fried veg
7. Pork & veg pad thai
8. Veal escalopes/milanese, new pots & veg
9. Devilled Chicken thighs, coleslaw & Veg (devilled marinade - cayenne pepper, paprika, honey, tomato puree, red onion)
10. roasted chicken & veg
11. Chicken & Chorizo with rice & veg
12. Salmon, creamy spinach & peas
13. Sea Bass & Stir fried veg
14. Veg Quesdillas
15. Wrap pizza
16. Chicken Enchiladas - also attending a baby shower during the day
17. Cod, chips & minty peas
18. Bolognaise - Husband cooking
19. Cheeseburger, Onions, Mushrooms & salad
20. Salmon & stir fried veg
21. Duck leg & veg
22. Duck miso ramen
23. Pork belly & veg
24. Cheese and mushroom stuffed chicken & veg
25. Spaghetti & meatballs
26. Carbonara - Husband cooking
27. Pistachio crusted chicken & veg
28. Quesdillas
29. Wrap pizza
30. Pork belly & veg
31. Jacket potatoes

Breakfast will consist of spinach based omelettes or scrambled egg but one I am really looking forward to trying is a porridge based breakfast I found on a blog I have been reading (carrotsncake) if you want to check it out. Oats, canned pumpkin, berries & peanut butter. I manage to find a canned pumpkin pie filling that is 100% pumpkin in the ingredients so really looking forward to trying this.
I think I am reigniting my love of new foods. I have found before especially in the faddy diets that you don't cant stick to it as the food can be boring. Whereas I am changing my diet as a lifestyle change so still be able to have good tasty food that is healthy is a must!!

purpleshoes_2

Im still not sure what you are doing food wise, because looking at some of the meals above, you don't seem to be doing Paleo/low carbing which you said some time back you wanted to do.

The problem that you are going to run into is if you do low carb sometimes and then not other times, you wont get the same results as if you consistently stuck to it.

purpleshoes_2

I think you need to make up your mind what you are doing whether that's low fat, low cal, low carb and stick to it.

I think you might be falling into the trap of I'm healthier than I used to be so all is OK.

Yes you have made massive changes to your diet but the weight loss is stalling and the inch loss isn't massive either.

For what it's worth I'm the same weight as you are right now and I'm smaller than you and if I never lost another pound I'd be fine with that.

My advice to you right now is stop weighing yourself. Take inch measurements instead.

And get on with your healthy eating and just enjoy your life.

I think you need to get clarification on how your thyroid is affecting your weight because after a year you are still more or less the same weight.

Ive thought a few times when you've posted your meals that you might be under estimating the calories particularly when you've had takeaway and that might be what is causing the plateau

First_Trouble

Thanks Purpleshoes, I really value your input. I had a blood test yesterday to check my thyroid levels, I had noticed some of the symptoms returning namely dizziness and extreme tiredness so I will be discussing possibilities with my GP next week when the results are in.

I weighed myself this morning (which I will post in a moment), I am happy to go the whole month without weighing myself just measurements each Wednesday and see how I go.

I mostly like the way I eat at present although I will be tweaking it slightly as I have had a think about a direction over the weekend and how I see myself in a years time etc. I want this to be a long term lifestyle change so rather than follow a particular plan. I am just going to focus on eating well and as clean as possible. This means a healthy range of fruit, vegetables, dairy, eggs, fish, meats & when the mood takes me the occasional wholegrain pasta/spaghetti and brown rice. If something has fat in it I will eat it this way, (i.e. I will not be eating anything with the fat purposely taken out). I won't be counting cals but I will be noting them/measuring out food for portion control as I am weird and I like to see how much I eat. But most importantly they will not be influencing my intake. i.e. I will not go back to thinking, 'I'm really hungry but this banana will push me over my cal limit, I can't eat it'. I will just eat the damn banana because my body obviously needs food.
I am getting very motivated with my exercise and have found fitness blender on youtube I find them very enjoyable and dan & kelli are really personable. There are also loads of different lengths of workouts so I am building up a playlist of workouts I enjoyed or want to try for ease of reference.

One thing I have purchased myself this month is some treat items. These are items that are not good for me but occasionally I will fancy something not good for me and I would rather have something small that I can look forward to and really savour than just grabbing something because it is there. Items are:

Reese's mini cups
chocolate covered raisins
Kettle chips - individual packets not big sharing bags.

These should last me a few months too.

First_Trouble

Thursday food & exercise

B: spinach and mushroom omelette and a coffee
L: Chilli & Peas
Chicken & veg stir fry
S: coffee, Nakd ginger bread bar, 25g cashews, 25g raisins, Nat Yoghurt
E: Walked 14,316, miles 5.41, burned 1924, ate 1713 cals (est), REST DAY