2nd attempt

Hello all,

I am new to this group but have been reading lots of posts which have had some really useful tips and I thought i would add a post in the hope that some of you may help me

I did slimming world 2 years ago and lost 2 stone, the weight just effortlessly fell off, I found it so easy and I really enjoyed doing slimming world.

Sadly my biggest downfall is emotional eating (which i thought i had learnt to control!) but I went through a bit of a hard patch in my life and fell completely off the wagon and gained all my weight back and then some !

I have now rejoined group and love the group I go to, my consultant is lovely and a real inspiration and the group is very supportive but I just feel like I am struggling so much more this time. I feel so motivated and desperately want to lose the weight but just can't seem to relax about it like I did last time and I feel like I am constantly worrying about whether I will lose etc.
I want to lose weight for myself but i feel a lot of pressure from friends and family etc and even when I have what I think is a really good week I seem to be only having small loses whilst last time I was losing 2-4lbs each week.

I mostly follow the green plan and usually have porridge for breakfast (a&b). Fruit mid morning and/or alpen light bar(b). Jacket potato, mug shot, or a free pasta dish and free mullerlight yoghurt for lunch. Fruit and/or an alpen light bar in the afternoon and then my dinner which is usually a SW friendly meal incorrporating a few of my daily syns as well as super free food and any remaining HE's etc

My consultant says I am not eating enough and i need to eat a lot more free food but this is the same sort of thing I ate last time when I lost all my weight and I do feel full and satisfied with what I'm eating.

I usually have 5-12 syns a day, drink about 2.5 litres of Water and do an average amount of exercise. Admittedly I sometimes have one day a week when I am a little more flexible with syns but this isn't every week and is not as if I fall off the wagon on these days.

I am so frustrated as i loved the SW plan last time and dont think i am cheating or doing anything that wrong but just dont really understand where i am going wrong or how i can speed up mu weight loss. I even got my partner to hide my scales in an attempt to chill out and stop midweek weighing.

I have only lost 9.5lbs in about 13 weeks which does include some gains which compared to last time round is ridiculously bad/slow -- although admittedly I have had been on holiday and been poorly which hasn't helped

So a few of my questions to you are :
Please can anyone can give me any guidance about whether I am eating enough/too much? How I can eat more and whether it is more beneficial to snack on free food or superfree? Eg my consultant says to fill Up on free things like Mug shots whereas last time i thought i had to snack and Fill up on fruit.

Have any of you been through similar difficulties getting restarted and getting those lbs off?

Is portion size a problem? I do tend to have quite large evening meals but i never eat until I feel really stuffed and they are SW acceptable dishes.

I just really want to get this sorted and get into the swing again but would really really appreciate any guidance, help, or advice anyone may please have for me.

Thank you ever so much
:sigh:
 
Hey!

First of all I want to say that the same thing happened to me. The first time I done SW the weight seemed to fall off, I lost about 2 or 3 stone in a few months before I fell off the wagon. My 2nd attempt didn't go so well, I felt like my body had almost got used to SW so it was like "eh, I know this trick" and I hardly lost anything. However, on my first attempt I hadn't dieted in years, and I was 100% all the way - filling up on fruit, cold meat on it's own (I was a reddie!), free yoghurts etc. Then on my 2nd attempt I was lazy, I ate pasta n sauce, mug shots, savoury rice etc and I knew how to cheat. It was a very lazy attempt and I quickly fell off the wagon again. (I'm not saying you're lazy btw just giving you my history and how those foods affected my losses) This is my 3rd attempt! It feels different this time, I have so much motivation and I've been 100%. I have put my first attempt (and second) behind me and I'm happy with whatever I lose, whether it's 1lb a week or 3 if I'm lucky. I think you should forget about the last time and don't pressure yourself to lose at the same rate you did before. Just put it behind you and pretend this is your first attempt:)

If you have been following the green plan completely perhaps you should try another plan, red or extra easy? Even if you just throw in a red or EE day every week it could make a big difference. I have to say that your consultants advice to fill up on mug shots isn't the best. I didn't even think they were free? You're right to think you should fill up on fruit! Fat free yoghurt with chopped up fruit mixed through it is lovely and would probably fill you up more than a mug shot (which I think are tasteless anyway! Would rather have fruit!) You could also try upping your syns, it sounds daft I know, but I find the more I eat the more I lose, so those extra 3 syns you could have a day might make a difference. What you are eating seems fine but I would definitely add in more fruit and swap the mug shots for something else. It could be the carbs too, so try adding some meat and having extra easy days.

You have done well to lose 9.5lbs in 13 weeks! You shouldn't let slow or small losses bother you. They will all add up in the end!

I hope this helps! xx
 
Agree with penguin, the first time I did this it seemed so easy, I lost 4, 5, 6lb in a week (or so it seemed...), whereas various attempts since I have given up when I seem to be trying my best and only losing half a pound. :(

So Id say a few things: partly maybe this is less of a shock to your body than the first time so a little bit harder.

Also I used to keep graphs of how I was doing last time, as I have this time and when I went to look back recently its not as glorious as I remember it! :eek: I remember the great bits, all the 4, 5, 6lb bits, the SOTW awards, the 6 stone award - but looking at the graph I see it wasnt like that in real life - there were many, many weeks when I put on (a LOT), stayed the same, lost half a pound - its just I dont seem to remember these as brightly for some reason! :rolleyes: When I calculate it Ive lost at almost exactly the same rate overall - my personal average is 2lb a week. In fact Ive done better this time even though it seems a lot slower as I havent done the gigantic 6-8lb gains and more on holidays etc that I then had to lose again. Slow and steady is the way to go.

Can I ask, in what way are friends pressuring you? Sorry if its private, just wondered if there was anything we could do to change that/find a way to politely dismiss their concerns.

9.5lb in 13 weeks is not terrible. It also depends how much you have to lose etc.

Your breakfast and lunch dont sound ideal, but theyre OK for Green. Personally I would up the superfree a lot. Potatoes, pasta, mugshots - all starchy calories with nothing good for you in it whatsoever. Maybe have a little less potato/pasta and pad it out with more superfree stuff. On the other hand maybe its true youre not eating enough, its hard to tell without seeing quantities etc. Have you got a food diary on here? If not maybe try starting one? Loads of us do it in this room, mine's here.


Looking back the first time I did SW I didn't do it very healthily - I was far, far too obsessed, I didn't eat on WI day, I worried over stupidly small things. And tbh I didnt really eat properly, it was seriously DIET stuff - salad with Quorn sausages, Ryvita etc etc etc *fingers down throat* - then with massive overindulgent 'treats' thrown in. This time my attitude is far healthier I think (!), I really cook properly, enjoy it, I dont starve myself, I get weighed in the morning so I dont have to worry about eating/not eating for WI, I seem to stuff myself on fab food and I've created something I can stick to for life.

Also one last thing, if things are really tough and you dont feel you deserve to be losing this slowly for the weight you are it might be worth going to your GP and letting them know. Its always possible your thyroid hormones are low (I'm hypothyroid myself).

Anyway, stick around, theres loads of great advice and friendly people on here :)

And just realised my own War & Peace is probably even longer than yours! :D Sorry bout that :D
 
Thanks for the messages, which are much appreciated.

Evilpenguin: Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with me, it was really reassuring knowing I wasnt the only one who struggled to get back on the plan after a break. I think what you said about being lazy has slightly struck home a bit, I have definitely had a lot more things like pasta n sauce and savory rice etc, and this is absolutely something I am going to try and cut down on and spend a lot more times planning my meals. I guess because these were free or low syn and quick and easy to make I started to think they were acceptable to eat lots of, but thinking about it, I didnt have them as often as I did last time round.
I am also going to try and up my syns and fruit intake in the hope that this makes a difference.

Ermintrude: The friends pressure thing may not seem like a bit deal to some, but to me it seems to get me really stressed. Whilst I am primarily losing weight for myself, I get home from group and my partner asks how i got on, before the evening is out both his and my family have rung, and the next day at work my colleagues ask how I get on. I also have comments about how much healthier I looked when I was slimmer - I know those around me have the best intentions and they think they are motivating me, but actually it just psychs me out and I seem to want to rebel against them...which is silly because both their and my intention is for weight loss!
I do have a lot to lose, I am currently 15 st 6lbs and am 5ft 9. My aim is about 11 stone but last time on SW I got down to 12 St 4lbs and could have easily shed more weight without looking too thin or getting too silly about the whole thing.

Just posting on this board and getting all my thoughts and stresses down in writing has helped. And hearing your feedback has been really useful also. Already I feel a lot more positive about things.

Thanks again to both of you :)
 
Hey

Those foods are fine if you're in a rush, but for every day lunches and dinners I don't think they're too great. It's so easy to rely on them for convenience. I remember I ate nothing but Marshall's Cheesey Macaroni for dinner for about 3 weeks and wondered why I wasn't losing weight:rolleyes: I've seen some people who use the pasta n sauces for dinner but they add in their own veg and low syn sausages to bulk them up a bit, rather than just have them on their own, you could try this if there is a time when you need something quick & easy for dinner. I still have the macaroni sometimes, but with a mountain of veg beside it lol.

I hope these changes make a difference for you. Glad to hear you'll try upping your syns. You have 15 syns so why let them go to waste? Eat up!:D

I totally agree with ermintrude, a trip to the doctor may resolve this for you if you are being 100% and make the changes we've suggested, if nothing happens for you it could be an underlying medical problem. Like me, I have PCOS which causes weight gain (amongst other things:rolleyes:) and this has made it more difficult to lose weight in the past.

But remember you've done really well so far! Don't get disheartened.

Good luck hun!
 
Thanks for your reply again and for the advice, I will implement a few of the changes discussed and keep my fingers crossed - in a few weeks if nothing changes I will defo look into the medical side of things. Whilst I know my eating isn't perfect and I don't exercise loads i do something's think I am larger then I should be considering what I actually eat as well as the exercise i do.

It sounds like you have both had great losses which is very inspirational.

Tomorrow I am having my first red day in weeks :)

I just re-read my last post and realised some of it (ESP the second half) seemed a little blunt- I wrote this is a hurry so I'm
Really sorry if it came across as rude because it really wasn't meant to be. :)

Once again I'm very thankful for your help :)
 
Have you tried keeping a food diary? I kept a notebook alongside the sheets I filled in for the first 4 weeks, and continued to do this for a couple of weeks. As soon as I let it slide I noticed I was less strict with my eating. I find I can also look back at good weeks and bad weeks and understand where things have gone right or wrong.

Either way, you've done it before and you'll do it again
:)
 
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