I can't afford most of these diets...

[KookieDoh]

I know how you feel about cost. I'm on incapcity so I am limited money wise. There are some things you can do to lower the costs.

Ask your doctor about getting counselling. Everyone is entitled to 8 weeks at a time of free counselling. This will give you the chance to explore the emotional sides of why you overeat, confidence issues, etc. It really is one of the best things you can do to help change your habbits.

Books and DVDs are also useful and you can buy them second hand on amazon and ebay. I recommend the dummies series and anything by Lee Janogly personally. Have a look on these forums to see which DVDs people are using and see if any sound good.

Walking is a good free exercise. The bonus of walking is you don't necessarly have to get a lot of sports gear for it and no one has to know what you are doing. You can wear your normal clothes and it just looks like you are going somewhere in a hurry.

Supermarkets are great for vests, jogging bottoms and sports bras extremely cheap. Have never paid more than £5 for a sports bra.

Weight resistance is important but you don't have to run off to the gym or buy mad equipment. Your own weight is enough to start with and if you need a bit more, a couple of tins of beans will be enough. If you want something a bit more challenging go for resistance bands instead of weights. They are far cheaper, sometimes come with a free DVD, you can firm up a lot more body parts with them, and they are easy to chuck into a cupboard or suitcase.

Sign up with Change 4 life on the NHS website. They do ocassionally send you some free stuff such as recipes, charts, and I even got a free pedometer off them once!

Explore these forums and have a look at what everyone is doing and see if anything would work best for you.

Hope that helps X.

 

[discombobulation]

Hiya

This is the EXACT reason I couldnt carry on a diet. I was getting no support, only shruggs and 'again?' so i would give up pretty much straight away. And I am also unemployed so I cant buy fresh foods all the time or anything.

So I have came up with a few ideas for myself.
The first one was minimins. I went on a hunt for a forum I could join in order to have some one there that I didnt want to let down.
Second of all, I made a chart, I have hung this chart in the kitchen and am listing anything I eat and when I eat it. Remember: what u eat doesnt ALWAYS have to be the healthiest of food...just lower ur portions and cut out ur snacks.
The third thing I've done is, A daily to-do list First thing in the morning, before Ive gone into the bathroom and even before breakfast and jeremy Kyle, I make a list of the things I want to achieve from my day, and even if u want a rare lazy day, you can list things like 'Try and drink 8 glasses of water' 'watch Corrie' etc...Just something to aim to and keep ur head up. This gives u a sense of achievement when the day has ended.
Another thing I have started is An online blog,in this blog (even if no one is reading it) i have written what I have done with my day, how im feeling, etc. It really does help.

Good Luck xxx:flirt2:

Hi,

This advice is so so helpful! I think it all sounds really really good advice and I'm keen to see if it works for you!
I'm definitely gonna have to cut out the snacks, or at least find acceptable alternatives!
I'm giving myself monthly targets but until I see any effects I don't wanna publicise - I'm bad at accepting failure!
I should just go ahead and scream 'em across the forum shouldn't I haha?

 

[discombobulation]

I know how you feel about cost. I'm on incapcity so I am limited money wise. There are some things you can do to lower the costs.

Ask your doctor about getting counselling. Everyone is entitled to 8 weeks at a time of free counselling. This will give you the chance to explore the emotional sides of why you overeat, confidence issues, etc. It really is one of the best things you can do to help change your habbits.

Books and DVDs are also useful and you can buy them second hand on amazon and ebay. I recommend the dummies series and anything by Lee Janogly personally. Have a look on these forums to see which DVDs people are using and see if any sound good.

Walking is a good free exercise. The bonus of walking is you don't necessarly have to get a lot of sports gear for it and no one has to know what you are doing. You can wear your normal clothes and it just looks like you are going somewhere in a hurry.

Supermarkets are great for vests, jogging bottoms and sports bras extremely cheap. Have never paid more than £5 for a sports bra.

Weight resistance is important but you don't have to run off to the gym or buy mad equipment. Your own weight is enough to start with and if you need a bit more, a couple of tins of beans will be enough. If you want something a bit more challenging go for resistance bands instead of weights. They are far cheaper, sometimes come with a free DVD, you can firm up a lot more body parts with them, and they are easy to chuck into a cupboard or suitcase.

Sign up with Change 4 life on the NHS website. They do ocassionally send you some free stuff such as recipes, charts, and I even got a free pedometer off them once!

Explore these forums and have a look at what everyone is doing and see if anything would work best for you.

Hope that helps X.

Thanks for being so so helpful. I'm so happy so many people are replying and taking the time to make such detailed responses.
I have an exercise plan, it's just disrupted due to my personal situation at the moment (between jobs/moving house/loads of ESSAY pressure) and I plan to stick to it religiously.
I've signed up to Change for Life! I'm interested to see what they say!
I've got 2-3 more weeks of complete upheaval and resettling and then I'll be 100% free to commit - until then I'll do the very best I can with what I have available to me!

 

[chocolatecat]

It sounds to me like your only problem is portion control.

Check out what a portion of pasta/bread/rice etc really is and I'm sure you will be shocked! I was!!

I nearly cried when I weighed out how much bran flakes I can eat!

I would say, if you struggle with motivation then dont go for a diet that restricts the foods you can eat or that put you into ketosis as if you have a binge or a carb binge then it will affect you really badly! Plus, you say you love your carbs, atkins is very low carb and the maintenance is too, which for a carb lover can be difficult to change over to.

It sounds like calorie counting and low fat might be beneficial for you xx

 

[Chunky_Monkey]

You're welcome for the advice I only started my journey officially on monday but have been cutting back since last week and i have already lost 5 lb's which feels like no effort at all. The targets I set myself have been reasonable because I didnt want to be strict (otherwise i will quit again lol). Good Luck anyway xxx

 

[Circes]

If you like your veggies and your carbs then it might be worth your while taking a look at the Slimming World plan. You could go along just for one week to collect the books and get the introductory talk and then do it from home. There's also a very active SW on this board where you'll find loads of support and many other people in the same position.

SW has a number of plans to choose from based on your lifestyle and you can even switch between them from day to day. I got to target on it 8 years ago without ever being hungry and find it very flexible. I'm vegetarian and enjoy healthy meals every day of pasta, chilli, curry, noodles, cous cous, potatoes etc as I love my carbs.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[CrazyBrit]

Look on the bright side. If you get the portions under control, you'll save money, which will seriously improve your cashflow situation!

 

[discombobulation]

If you like your veggies and your carbs then it might be worth your while taking a look at the Slimming World plan. You could go along just for one week to collect the books and get the introductory talk and then do it from home. There's also a very active SW on this board where you'll find loads of support and many other people in the same position.

SW has a number of plans to choose from based on your lifestyle and you can even switch between them from day to day. I got to target on it 8 years ago without ever being hungry and find it very flexible. I'm vegetarian and enjoy healthy meals every day of pasta, chilli, curry, noodles, cous cous, potatoes etc as I love my carbs.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Thanks for this advice.
I do love veggies a lot so I might have a look at how SW work...I'm looking into quite a few at the moment. I am hoping to be in a financial situation that means I can spare the money within a couple of months so it'd be great if I could actually join a group - if not these forums are so good anyway!

 

[John-]

I'm in the same boat, all of these have extra costs associated with them. Weight watchers charge you for meetings you've missed! Anyway, I have a few suggestions. Protein is the biggest cost for me, I have 100g a day and that gets quite expensive. I typically have tuna and also whey powder (which is more expensive but handy when I go out). After that my biggest cost is frozen veges, 500g a day. Then it's fruit etc. I prefer a simple diet and it also means that I don't have to cook.

It all adds up but I you're not paying for any additional costs. However, you're not getting any additional support which can help.