Hi All Newbie Here!

[Brett Roe]

So I wanted to start off by introducing my self and giving a brief explanation of what brought me here.
My name is Brett, I'm 27 from Nottinghamshire, UK. My weight has yoyo'd my whole life, I've always been weak for the chocolates, snacks and junk food! the lightest I've ever been (since adulthood at least) is 14stone, I was quite happy at that weight, would love to get back to it, maybe even less 13 stone would be nice! or even 12 stone, so I've got to eat and eat and eat to get my weight back up! haha how I envy those people who can shovel food down and never put on an ounce!
I joined this forum because I've realised, 4 days ago, I really need to loose some weight. I walk around 4 miles per day with my dogs and that's pretty much all the exercise I get (my job involves me sitting in front of a computer screen all day). on my walks I was noticing it getting harder and harder to get around what once I flew round no problem at all, my clothes were feeling absolutely awful on me, almost cutting me in half, I decided to get on the scales the next morning and I felt sick with my self! I weighed in at 20 stone 1lb!! I could not believe it! since then I've been doing the Atkins diet, like I say 4 days now, and so far I have lost 6 pounds! I'm pretty happy about that but I've still got a hell of a long way to go! its not fully the Atkins diet I'm doing, I've just drastically cut down on carbs (cannot cope with decaffeinated coffee lol), and as of tomorrow will be increasing the distance of my walks, hopefully double. I have to say I feel a bit better already, todays walk seemed a little easier, and I've been suffering with chronic heart burn for months, all day every day, and surviving on gaviscon lol. since cutting out the carbs I've not had a hint of heart burn which has been absolutely amazing!
I decided to join this forum for a bit of support and to help support others in the same boat as me, I started growing a beard a while back and joined a forum about beards (I wont mention the name of said forum here), but if it wasn't for the support of complete strangers on the internet I would have shaved the thing off months ago and not have this magnificent beard now haha.
So that's me, I hope to be an active member of this community for the foreseeable future, thanks for reading and hopefully we can all shed some pounds (stones in my case lol) together!

 

[MarieDK]

Hi Brett,

It's funny isn't it the things that suddenly bring us to the realisation that we need to do something about weight. I remember sitting and wondering about dying my hair bright pink and then realised that changing my hair wasn't the issue, it was changing my health and weight that was needed.

I think it really helps to actually have thought through where you are and where you want to be, that's incredibly positive. I don't know anything about Atkins but I hope that it suits you well.

Congratulations on your brilliant losses so far - and on your beard!

Hope you have a fantastic week.

 

[Minerva]

Hey,

Forums can help immensely with keeping track and as a tool to remain accountable... It's helped me a lot in the past, even if no one replies, it's just a place to put down thoughts, frustrations, successes and even failures! Documenting the step-by-step, even the bad, can prove as a good reflection point later on, to see where any crooked thinking crept in and to know that mishaps happen.

Good luck with Atkins! It seems to suit men better from what I've seen in all honesty! I've seen tremendous successes on this forum on it, and I've tried it myself, but I just couldn't get past the no coffee business and the limited amount of vegetables - but I understand that's only for phase 1 - first few weeks? I don't really remember.

What kind of dogs do you have btw?

Have a good first week!

 

[Brett Roe]

Hi Brett,

It's funny isn't it the things that suddenly bring us to the realisation that we need to do something about weight. I remember sitting and wondering about dying my hair bright pink and then realised that changing my hair wasn't the issue, it was changing my health and weight that was needed.

I think it really helps to actually have thought through where you are and where you want to be, that's incredibly positive. I don't know anything about Atkins but I hope that it suits you well.

Congratulations on your brilliant losses so far - and on your beard!

Hope you have a fantastic week.

Hey Marie, Thanks for the reply, and for the beard compliment! you have no idea how much jip ive received since I started growing it, the things ive been called lol!
It is funny, to begin with I was putting it down to smoking too much, glad I checked the scales before the situation got any worse. smokings something I need to stop doing as well, but not until I've lost quite a lot, don't want to do too much at once.
now I just need to keep away from the scales, weighed my self again this morning and hadn't lost anything which bugged me lol. its just those first losses that spur you on but you can expect that all the time can you.
Have a nice day .

 

[Brett Roe]

Hey,

Forums can help immensely with keeping track and as a tool to remain accountable... It's helped me a lot in the past, even if no one replies, it's just a place to put down thoughts, frustrations, successes and even failures! Documenting the step-by-step, even the bad, can prove as a good reflection point later on, to see where any crooked thinking crept in and to know that mishaps happen.

Good luck with Atkins! It seems to suit men better from what I've seen in all honesty! I've seen tremendous successes on this forum on it, and I've tried it myself, but I just couldn't get past the no coffee business and the limited amount of vegetables - but I understand that's only for phase 1 - first few weeks? I don't really remember.

What kind of dogs do you have btw?

Have a good first week!

Hi Minerva, thanks for the reply! ive come across this word being accountable and accountability when reading through the forum, was unsure of what was meant by it. Is it like, because its on a forum, youre going to be more inclined not to cheat, cause people will know, kind of thing?
Yeah it really is a good diet, I know there is a lot of controversy around it but its the only one ive ever felt able to stick to and seen results from. The time I got down to my lightest 14st was not even intended, id started new job in a factory working night shifts and some how the weight just fell off me, consciously trying makes everything that much harder it seems lol.
I have a Staffy and A German shepherd, theyre totally insane but I love em, they keep me on my toes! lol

 

[Minerva]

Omg, your dogs are adorable! I love German Shepherds, I really wanted one for a while. It's one of the few breeds I considered (along with a schnauzer), if and when I have a dog in the future. I'm more of a cat person really, but, dogs are wonderful creatures. Completely loopy most of the time! Staffy seems really cute as well, they're great dogs.

As for accountability - it means... Not sweeping things under the rug, so to speak. It's not so much about other people knowing, it's about YOU knowing. People eat mindlessly and discount it, forget it, and move on. Like it never happened and then wonder why they haven't lost weight or have gained. It happens a lot... By writing it down, you're acknowledging it and it's a point of evaluation. A way to realise that you're not dieting for someone else, or for a reason. You're doing it for you... and that extra helping of *something* or that sneaky doughnut (for example) is only harming you and what you want to achieve.

 

[Brett Roe]

stick to the cats, I should have gotten a cat haha. GSDs are amazing but, I think because of how smart they are, they can be quite difficult, and never in my life have I met a more vocal dog than Flex (that's her name), she makes me laugh though. its good, she lets you know when she wants something by coming up to you and wowing and pressing her nose on you, then you start going through the list "do you want, wee wees?" no ok "do you want, din dins?" and when you get to the thing she wants she'll howl and do a little twirl lol, never taught her any of it, its more like shes trained me haha.
I was just catching up on your thread a moment ago before this notification came up, youre doing a degree in computing are you? I didn't get chance to finish reading it all properly yet.
Thanks for the clarification on accountability.

 

[Sexyshell135]

Hi Brett welcome to the forum I have a German Shepard cross lab an a staffy mine are both boys, also a cat tortoise an lizard. Don't know anything about the Atkins diet I do slimming world but this site is full of info help an people here for a chat good luck on your journey.

German Shepard intelligence mine must just be dumb lol he thinks nothing of sitting at me feet begging for me to chuck his ball for hours

 

[Minerva]

Lol, well with cats you either get the best cat in the world who adores you like a dog (my last cat was like that, followed me around everywhere and was always on my lap), or you get very independent ones who merely acknowledge your existence. I've been lucky with my new ones, they're really sweet, one of them even plays fetch. Brings me his mouse or ball when he wants me to throw it, and brings it right back every time! It's adorable. With dogs though it's usually absolute loyalty and happiness. I grew up with them and sometimes miss that over the top excitement!

How is your diet going? Hopefully you're on track! And even if a day-off comes, never be discouraged! Pick up the next day and keep going

 

[Brett Roe]

Hi Brett welcome to the forum I have a German Shepard cross lab an a staffy mine are both boys, also a cat tortoise an lizard. Don't know anything about the Atkins diet I do slimming world but this site is full of info help an people here for a chat good luck on your journey.

German Shepard intelligence mine must just be dumb lol he thinks nothing of sitting at me feet begging for me to chuck his ball for hours

Oh yeah mines ball mad aswell lol she'll just sit there looking at you, whining till you give up, even when she's been out all day! Is yours very vocal aswell?

 

[Brett Roe]

Lol, well with cats you either get the best cat in the world who adores you like a dog (my last cat was like that, followed me around everywhere and was always on my lap), or you get very independent ones who merely acknowledge your existence. I've been lucky with my new ones, they're really sweet, one of them even plays fetch. Brings me his mouse or ball when he wants me to throw it, and brings it right back every time! It's adorable. With dogs though it's usually absolute loyalty and happiness. I grew up with them and sometimes miss that over the top excitement!

How is your diet going? Hopefully you're on track! And even if a day-off comes, never be discouraged! Pick up the next day and keep going

Haha bless em, I've never really had a cat before, I've seen a lot of memes though about em and it makes me laugh.
I remember when I was a kid, dogs would walk around the streets same as cats do and there were never any problems, we had this dog called blackie. He used to go from our house, walk no my grans, get some food, then he'd head off down to my great grans house, rattle the letterbox get some more food and head home lol. It's a shame it's not like that any more, the way things are going with dogs is kind of sad, they're getting bad names and less and less freedoms cause of silly people.
But yeah, it's nice to come home and see their happy exited faces, I wish I could get as exited about anything as dogs do about everything lol.
Diets going quite well thank you, not had any slip ups yet, weight loss has slowed a bit now, lost 9lb so far, weighed my self today and I've not lost anything else but it's just that water loss to start with that causes the big quick losses isn't it I think. How's yours going? I think you've lost quite a bit already haven't you?

 

[Sexyshell135]

Oh yeah mines ball mad aswell lol she'll just sit there looking at you, whining till you give up, even when she's been out all day! Is yours very vocal aswell?

Lol only when someone knocks on the door he's a big softy really an my staff well he's just plain dumb

 

[Minerva]

Haha bless em, I've never really had a cat before, I've seen a lot of memes though about em and it makes me laugh.
I remember when I was a kid, dogs would walk around the streets same as cats do and there were never any problems, we had this dog called blackie. He used to go from our house, walk no my grans, get some food, then he'd head off down to my great grans house, rattle the letterbox get some more food and head home lol. It's a shame it's not like that any more, the way things are going with dogs is kind of sad, they're getting bad names and less and less freedoms cause of silly people.
But yeah, it's nice to come home and see their happy exited faces, I wish I could get as exited about anything as dogs do about everything lol.
Diets going quite well thank you, not had any slip ups yet, weight loss has slowed a bit now, lost 9lb so far, weighed my self today and I've not lost anything else but it's just that water loss to start with that causes the big quick losses isn't it I think. How's yours going? I think you've lost quite a bit already haven't you?

When I lived in Latvia and Russia, we often had neighbourhood dogs, you'd see them go about their business every day, it was awesome. But in this country, they don't have the same freedom, so I know what you mean. It's dangerous to let dogs wander around, and even when walking them, I'd be so scared that some awful person put poisonous (or worse) food around the park for them to find. I've read a lot of horror stories, it really upsets me.

I'm glad the diet is going well, the main thing is to persevere and keep going It's what I have to remind myself, cause staying on track after the novelty has worn off is pretty hard! But it's for a good reason!

I have indeed lost a lot of weight, at my highest in 2008 I was 18 and a half stone, I did Lighter Life for a long time and got it down quite low, but some tough things happened in my life and regained a chunk. But it never went back up all the way, so now I'm 12 and a half stone, so I'm happy! I've come a long way and don't really suffer from disordered eating much anymore. That's the important thing, the weight is something we can change easily enough - but thought processes and our dependence on food is something that takes a lot longer to fix and it's much harder work. ... so now that I've worked on that aspect, I'm getting the last 2 stone off to be healthy

 

[Determinedchick22]

Hello
Well done for taking all the first steps. Weighing yourself, starting a diet and joining a forum. I know that feeling of clothes cutting you in half only too well a constant reminder I can't eat that chocolate! I currently am the heaviest I've ever weighed. Like yourself Im 27 and do enjoy chocolate takeaways etc a little too much!
Let's lose these stones together!