Andy's "to be a thin dad" diary

SerenityValley

SerenityValley

Surgically happy.
I've been here years, and I've done every diet under the sun. Just this year, I've done calorie counting, Exante and Slim and Save. The latter two I'm still doing, until my exante packs have finished then I'll be on s&s only.

I've probably been dieting for 25 years and am very close to turning 40 (July).. I got married last May, and we are now expecting our first child in November. I so desperately want to be a thin dad, so my kids don't miss out like I did, and I'm using it as my main motivation for completing this next stage of my journey.

Vlcd is the only way I've ever lost a significant amount of weight - I have lost as much as 154lbs in the past, and currently am around 97lbs down. I intend being slim by November and staying there.

I'm having to give up a lot, and I don't just mean food. No special celebration for my wedding anniversary (the oh understands), and no 40th birthday celebration. But there is so much more to gain.

Will try to keep this diary going, before during and after. I intend calorie counting when I'm finished, as it helps me control my weight very well.

Thanks for reading :)
 
Here is something I wrote in July last year, when I was battling to stay on lighter life. I've had to delete some which are no longer relevant.


SerenityValley said:
The ONLY thing that got me through week 1, other than my OH and my desperation to be slim was a list I wrote on day 4. I could probably add to it now but I thought I'd share it as it'll give me somewhere else to read it (it's on a bit of A4 that I can't take with me).

I tend to read it every 2 or 3 days and/or when things are hardest.

1) Don't want to end up being so obese that I am unable to do things for myself.

2) Want to be able to eat without people thinking I'm greedy.

3) Want to be happy with my size.

4) Want to feel fit and healthy.

5) Want to stop feeling ashamed of how I look.

6) Want to set a good example to my kids (when I have them).

7) Want to be able to buy whatever clothes I want.

8) To get rid of the aches and pains in my feet and back.

9) Want my wife to be proud of me.

10) To wear all the clothes I already own but are too small.

11) To have more energy

12) To prove I can stay slim.

13) To stop feeling guilt when I eat.

14) I *deserve* to be thin

15) I dread a future with sweat rashes on my inner thighs!

16) I want to live longer

17) I want to enjoy life *now*

18) Don't want my weight to stop me doing things I want to do.

19) Weight will affect my fertility (not good when planning a family)

20) More respect at work/may find better job.

21) Want to be proud of myself

22) Want to eat normal portion sizes.

23)

24) Want to break my dieting/binging cycle.

25) Learn to stop using food for comfort

26) Reach the end and be sure I will never be obese again

27) Want my parents to be proud of me.

28)

29) Want to go to work without a jumper on to hide the flab (achieved that last week!)

30) To look at photos of me without seeing a fat man.

31) Want to learn how to make healthy choices

32)

33) Want to take control of my life.

34) want to take control of my eating

35) I want more energy for ... ahem.... bedroom activities :eek:

36) Being fat can affect my libido :eek:

37) Don't want to risk getting diabetes.

38) Want an active lifestyle.

39) Want to be able to play with the kids when I have them, instead of having to sit and watch.

40) I want people to stop making negative judgements of me based on my weight.

And one I didn't realise wasn't on my list - don't want to be a "fat family" - it's so terribly sad when you see fat parents and fat kids, knowing the same lessons are being learned by the next generation.
Click to expand...
 
Something I wrote years ago and posted in a couple of places. Setting I think I need to remember for myself.

SerenityValley said:
Like many of you, I have successfully failed time and time again.

I'm almost 37 - and have watched the last 20 years disappear into a black hole, not completely wasted but large chunks of it certainly.

Every year I was thinking "next year". Every month I was thinking "next month".

I was thinking "when" I lose weight.

And the time just passed me by.

I tried pretty much every diet going. And always gave up because of the time it was taking, or going to take. It is so easy to think "it's going to take a year. That's so long. I can't do it" and the moment you utter those words, or think those thoughts you are doomed to failure.

All those plans, all that hope, it's gone because time is such a large, immovable object.

Only it isn't.

It's a constantly moving, forever changing, fast and furious ride - where your whole life can pass you by and leave you wondering what the hell happened.

Think about every year - how on earth did it get to be Christmas again already? It flies by.

So it's the end of March (i guess its mid april this time lol) now and there are 9 months between now and Christmas (8 this time!). If you can get it in your head solidly, that Christmas is coming regardless of whether you're your current starting weight, or whether you're your current target weight.

I chose last september to say goodbye to "Fat Andy". I became "Losing Weight Andy". I'm not "Healthy weight Andy". And yet, it could have been so different. I could have STILL been "Fat Andy", because time waits for no man, no woman, no person - it flies by.

So which person do you want to be? As you are now, or who you could be? Whether you lose the weight or not, you'll be there - so might as well lose it, eh?

It's hard I know, but if the time is going to pass anyway....

GOOD LUCK!
Click to expand...

I need to read this often. I'm fat Andy again.
 
Andy

You won't be fat Andy for long I'm sure. You have all the right reasons to lose weight and keep it off. I wish you all the best and congratulations on the baby!!! That will be the best motivation ever!

Pomooky
 
I just want to pop in and wish you luck :) I can relate to almost everything on your list, i posted one of my own when i started to change my lifestyle last year!

You have the most wonderful reason for motivation, determination and succession...a new baby on the way..congratulations! :)

Believe in yourself, your original list shows just how much you want to do this..so keep going, for your expected baby, your wife..and most importantly..for YOU :)

Good luck!
 
SerenityValley said:
I've been here years, and I've done every diet under the sun. Just this year, I've done calorie counting, Exante and Slim and Save. The latter two I'm still doing, until my exante packs have finished then I'll be on s&s only.

I've probably been dieting for 25 years and am very close to turning 40 (July).. I got married last May, and we are now expecting our first child in November. I so desperately want to be a thin dad, so my kids don't miss out like I did, and I'm using it as my main motivation for completing this next stage of my journey.

Vlcd is the only way I've ever lost a significant amount of weight - I have lost as much as 154lbs in the past, and currently am around 97lbs down. I intend being slim by November and staying there.

I'm having to give up a lot, and I don't just mean food. No special celebration for my wedding anniversary (the oh understands), and no 40th birthday celebration. But there is so much more to gain.

Will try to keep this diary going, before during and after. I intend calorie counting when I'm finished, as it helps me control my weight very well.

Thanks for reading :)
Click to expand...

Congratulations on your baby news. I have made the decision to face up to years of emotional over eating, my beautiful daughter is following far too fast in my footsteps and at 5 is "a fat kid".
I put the food on the table 85% of the time - one night with their dad and one Sunday lunch at nan's - so I have to own it. Sitting crying about it hasn't helped - so it's time to take action.
We can do this :family2:
 
Thank you everyone for your lovely posts.

My first week on a vlcd and I lost 11.6lbs. Now I hope to lose 3.5 to 4lbs a week for a while. I'm down to 231.8lbs today, meaning I've hit one of my targets - losing over 7 st in total.

Today starts day 9, and feeling pretty good just now.
 
Had a pretty good week, and hit two big milestones today. Have lost over a stone on my latest diet, and have now lost over 100lbs in total again (been there a few times).

Anyway, onto the major point of this entry.

Having a bit of a moment here, where I think some scales have fallen from my eyes (I'm tempted to weigh myself on them lol).

Every diet or lifestyle change I've ever made, has revolved around the end result or destination. I've been unable to feel happy or get on with doing the things I want to do while I lose the weight. Why that is, I don't know. I think I focus on what being at my target weight brings to me without realising that I get many of those tings during the journey, and not at the end.

How did I get to 39 years of age and not realise this?

One of the things I need, is to feel co for table in my work clothes, so that I can stop wearing a jumper. I hate the way my shirt gets, untucked itself in places, and I feel like an explosion of (manly) muffin top. But this actually comes around 15 and a half stone. So I'm less than a stone from one of my major targets.

I want people to not see me as a fat man. Again, by the time I am 15st I already look like I'm just chunky. And yet I don't enjoy this before I hit 13st.

Need to absorb this and give consideration to everything else, but I think the long and short of it, is that I should be enjoying myself now, reaping the benefits of a lighter weight as soon as they come, rather than some fairly arbitrary figure that I like to get to. Doing the type of diet I'm doing, I'm lucky enough to know I'll get there (as long as I stick to it).
 
Got this moved in here (Thank you mods!), as I think it'll help me to be around people on the same plan.

I've bought the men's 5 a day pack, added 14 bars, and now have enough to do 6 weeks on s and s at roughly £30 a week, and keeping the pattern I want of 2 shakes, 1 bar and 1 meal.

I still have 3 weeks of exante, which I'm keeping at the moment, as I have no doubt I'll use them but just now I need the variety and taste of s and s.
 
Can't wait for tomorrows weigh in - after a difficult start to the week, the weight has been coming off again. This is the end of week 2 and week 3 is always my hardest early week, as it's normally a low loss week, and I start to realise this is a long, hard slog.

I'm hopeful that this time around, it will be easier than with lighter life. It should be, it's got so much more choice, and costs a damn don't less.

Week 4 is one of my favourites as this is the one I start to feel different, thinner and know that it is noticeable. It also means that I've made enough headway that I am confident I can get where I want to go.
 
i loved reading this , being a similiar age i know how you feel..why did i waste my 20s and now the majority of my 30s i could kick myself...but im turning things around now
 
4.8lb loss for week 2! Very happy with that, as the first half of the week was nothing. 16.4 in 2 weeks, and by this time next week I should be in the 15s again!
 
Well done on your loss thats bril!!! keep it up :) x
 
Andy just read your diary and you are doing really well! I do understand the many years of dieting though I was fortunate not to be dieting in my 20's and early 30;s. But like you many of will have been and off our chosen diet plan including vlcd's.

I hope once the arrival your baby in November (a) you will reached goal and (b) will continue the hard work of maintaining. x
 
Been a strange couple of months. I decided to restart, to do the next phase of losing weight but then came right off for a holiday. Went mad on the holiday and am currently getting into ketosis (just finishing day 2 - drinking lots of water and sadly starving!).

Have a lot going through my mind just now. If I'd stuck to this in my and June, I'd be done now, instead of having gained a stone!

I'm doing it till July 2nd, which is my 40th birthday and then back on for the next phase. I already know I can only do 3 or 4 week blocks, as when I go over that, I'm climbing the walls desperate to stop. Normally at that stage I'm finished. But from now, I'm going to have to consider it a work in progress, no matter how long it takes.
 
Don't dispair your so nearly there! It's hard getting back into it, just that wee bit longer and it will be dog breath again! Lol!

Sent from my iPad using MiniMins
 
Thank you hon :)

Day 3 has been good. I've still been hungry but much better. Weight is whooshing off nicely (6.6 in 2 days)

Difficult day in other ways, have had to have a pet rat's arm amputated today. He's doing fab but it's hard to look after a front leg amputation in rats.

However, I'm in good spirits and frame of mind. Only 19 days to go till my birthday and a minor break :)
 
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