Small steps lead to big changes...

beanielou

No easy answers.
I too am not a cooking fan.
I have no energy for it all at the moment & am gaining weight not loosing it.
I am slowly realising that my falling also impacts.
So cheesed off with it all.

jwil

ladyholly said:

Have you tried ice on your knee. I use an ice pack well wrapped in a towel so it can stay on for a while. I appreciate that finding time to sit with your leg up and an ice pack when you have a family is hard but it might help depending on exactly what is wrong with it. I must join you with the motivation for losing weight as I suspect that my breathing wouldimprove is I was carrying much less fat. Good luck.

I haven't actually, I normally use a hot water bottle.  I might give it a go thank you!  I can do it in the evening once the kids are in bed so I won't be jumping up and down.  The physio said either ice or heat were ok to use.

It's so hard finding the motivation amongst general life isn't it.

Humdinger1 said:

I do TRE @WinterWarrior and think it's helped though consider any gap over 12 hours as qualifying. Dr M*k* M*s*ley says it's important to get hungry as it does help reset blood sugar (I think, summarising a whole book from memory).   I only weigh myself every few weeks for the exact reasons you describe.  Agree, mental health is so important. You are doing brilliantly love Humdinger xx 

Thank you.  I remember that about getting hungry now too.  I read a really interesting book that looked at the time periods, and it concluded that there are real benefits for choosing a time period that suits.  12 hours will give some results and is really easy to manage for most, 10 hours is better, and 8 hours is even better, but often outweighed by people finding it harder to stick to. 10 hours suits me well and leaves me room to go to 8 hours if I feel I need to in future.

WinterWarrior said:

Extra good luck jwil. I have told myself it might take a year…there’s no quick fix, but you will see a downward trend. Calories are working for me, so smaller portions of normal meals. Like you, I struggle with meal plans. I’m almost reverse engineering it by working out how much I can have with my leftover calories. If I have 100 calories left then I weigh out that amount, instead of doing it the other way around. You are in good company as we all seem to be ‘doing something’. 

Thank you.  You are doing really well with yours   That's an idea about working out based on calories.

pennywisepoundstupid said:

Good luck jwil, keeping weight off is hard especially as us women get older and it's even harder if you are in pain, i think you just have to find what works for you.
I don't count calories or own weighing scales if my clothes start getting tight thats when i think ok cut back on the cake..For me I focus on keeping moving but not in a structured way,I hate gyms and formal exercise classes and the thought of going and being judged made me so anxious it just wasn't worth it. It has taken time to find what works for me which is walking my dogs which I do twice a day and taking them to dog training which is also good for my mental health so win win, also the dogs don't care about my wibbly bits  . xx

Thank you.   I do need to do more general movement in the day.  It's so easy to find I've been sat in the same position for hours.

jwil

beanielou said:

No easy answers.
I too am not a cooking fan.
I have no energy for it all at the moment & am gaining weight not loosing it.
I am slowly realising that my falling also impacts.
So cheesed off with it all.

There are no easy answers are there.  Sorry to hear you are struggling, you have done really well.  I'm not surprised your falling impacts as I'm sure the last thing you want to do is cook, and more likely comfort eat (well, I would be).
Big hugs from me, and hopefully spring will come along soon and bring us some motivation along with some sunshine.

jwil

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate the support and advice.

I have eaten a lot of calories today, no wonder I'm this big!  I'm within the top end of my allowance, but over what I think I should be at really.  I've had another realisation - I treat myself like a human dustbin, and I need to stop doing that.

I had a decent breakfast, and was planning soup or salad for lunch.  However, I realised that there were bread rolls needing using up so I ate those instead.  I didn't particularly want or enjoy them, but I hate food waste (and thus wasting the money).  I do this all the time.  I buy something for the kids, but they might only want a portion or two of it, so I wind up eating the rest so it doesn't go to waste.  It means I'm not eating what I really want to, I don't really enjoy it, and it's essentially unneeded calories.

I need to get better about freezing bread in particular, as I am eating a lot of bread to use it up, it doesn't make me feel good.  So that's my learning point for today.  I am not a dustbin and I should be able to eat food I like! 

jwil

I've also learned that it's a flipping nightmare attempting to calorie count a meal made from scratch, especially when it's portioned up into various different sized portions.

I have however, made up a couple of extra portions to go in the freezer as ready meals so that's good progress for me.

doingitanyway

I agree with only eating food you actually want.
I think you are doing well. You walk much more than you used to before your before your BS issue too.

WinterWarrior

Do you feed the birds? Throw the bread outside, it’s not wasted then as you get the pleasure of feeding them. I throw a lot of food waste in the garden as the wildlife will eat most things. The blackbirds and rabbits like apple cores, the gulls will eat the raw fatty bits cut from meat. No one will eat salad though 😅
For scratch things I try to count all the elements separately, but I might look for a similar ready meal (weight and size) to give me an idea of calories. E.g. if you made a shepherds pie you could look for the calories in an m&s shepherds pie and base yours on that. It’s not exact, but gives a decent idea.
I weigh frozen things before cooking to get an idea. I once weighed 50g of frozen chips (6 if you’re interested 😬), so I knew how many I could have out of the air fryer when they were done! It’s getting to be a habit now and it does get easier. I know you’ll do really well.

Sun_Addict

If you keep on making small changes you’ll make progress. It might be slow but it will still be progress and you’ll get there in the end. 

jwil

doingitanyway said:

I agree with only eating food you actually want.
I think you are doing well. You walk much more than you used to before your before your BS issue too.

Thank you,  You are right, I'm a lot more active now than I was the last couple of years.

WinterWarrior said:

Do you feed the birds? Throw the bread outside, it’s not wasted then as you get the pleasure of feeding them. I throw a lot of food waste in the garden as the wildlife will eat most things. The blackbirds and rabbits like apple cores, the gulls will eat the raw fatty bits cut from meat. No one will eat salad though 😅
For scratch things I try to count all the elements separately, but I might look for a similar ready meal (weight and size) to give me an idea of calories. E.g. if you made a shepherds pie you could look for the calories in an m&s shepherds pie and base yours on that. It’s not exact, but gives a decent idea.
I weigh frozen things before cooking to get an idea. I once weighed 50g of frozen chips (6 if you’re interested 😬), so I knew how many I could have out of the air fryer when they were done! It’s getting to be a habit now and it does get easier. I know you’ll do really well.

We do feed the birds, but I don't really want to put bread out as there's rats next door and I don't want to encourage them into my garden.  I've seen them wander through the odd time, but I don't want them to feel welcome 😆  Despite being a terrier, my dog does not have a hunting instinct, and my cat is no longer a hunter either.

When I cook from scratch I just add by eye so it's a faff weighing everything.  I'm so lazy!  I can probably make a decent estimate if I have a go though.  Good idea about using a ready meal as an estimate thank you.

I shall make the effort to weigh more, as like you say I'll get to know how much is a portion.

Sun_Addict said:

If you keep on making small changes you’ll make progress. It might be slow but it will still be progress and you’ll get there in the end. 

Thank you, I need to remember this!  It's why I titled my diary like I did.  I'm too impatient for sure.

jwil

We are off out today, I think headed to Lyme Regis and area.  Should be lovely!  Shame there's no sun but at least it's dry.

I've moved into a new age band on surveys 😭  But have been spoilt

Have a good day everyone