Im going to lose 10 stone

[ImLosingWeight]

Today is day two of my self made diet I've been overweight since the age of about 12 and am 29 now, I have been hovering at about 21 stone for the last ten years or so, I'm lucky that I can still get out and about I guess, I have a job I like, which is one good thing but I am just so fed up of being this fat. I can rarely afford to buy new clothes because they cost me so much, this is a big motivation for me to lose weight.

Also the past few months I've been aching when I wake up in the morning, I guess it's to be expected at over 20 stone but I hadn't really noticed it *that* much in the past. Another really big motivation for me to do this is general self confidence.

The thing is I hardly think I overeat, I eat the wrong foods but not in the quantities you would expect would get me to the size i'm at today. One thing I hope to address with this diet also is binge drinking, I would say 7/10 times I drink I binge drink, I'm pretty sure it's related to my self image. I'm a guy, and when I get drunk I tend to regress into the stoneages ... ...getting drunk doesn't agree with me. As part of this diet i'm going to stop drinking alcohol completely and I think apart from the weight the health reward of doing that will be really worth it (i probabally binge drink at least once a month - sometimes more)

Apart from alcohol my main downfalls are pasta with sauce as an evening meal, fizzy drinks, alcohol and unhealthy fast food lunches (a kfc, or unhealthy coffee bar pasta or something)

Yesterday I woke up and just felt so unhealthy. The day before I had been listening to a Dalai Lama podcast (yeah random I know but bear with me!) - in it the Dalai Lama was saying life is about making ethical choices, and ethical choices are choices that improve you or another, and unethical choices are choices that hurt you or another. Well my diet is obviously hurting me, however much I enjoy eating unhealthily at the time in the longer term it is just hurting me (physically - with the discomfort I'm starting to feel) - and emotionally, and psychologically, and socially... the list goes on.. So having all those thoughts finally come into my head yesterday morning I decided to start trying to eat healthy.

My excuse for a long time has been 'i can't afford' to start a diet, I dieted once before about 4 years ago - with slimming world and lost 3.5stone (which i've since put back on!) the diet worked really well for me. But lately I haven't had the money to go and buy a months worth of healthy food + subscriptions to slimming world etc.

But yesterday I decided to just make healthy choices in the day, and instead of spending money on junk spend it on healthy food - and logically I have to lose weight right? So far i think I've been pretty good and it's working ok - I'm coming up to the end of day 2 now.

Day 1

I ate no breakfast (I hardly ever eat breakfast I know that's bad... but for someone that doesn't like eating breakfast and is conscious of their weight it has always seemed stupid to me to eat it for the sake of it )

For lunch I had a salmon pasta salad from tesco, and a portion of pineapple from their ready to eat fruit section.

I also had a tuna pasta salad box from the Co-op as a snack when I got in.

For my main meal I had boiled rice (uncle ben) and vegetables (carrot, brocoli, cauliflower)

I drank nothing but water

Day 2

I also had no breakfast. At lunch I visited the same supermarket and spent a bit more time looking at labels, yesterday I was mainly interested in calories but today as I was walking with my salmon pasta salad of 400ish calories to the pay counter I saw it had 16g of fat in it! This sounded high to me... I went back and checked and sure enough certain foods had much less. It got me thinking maybe I need to be paying attention to the fat as well as the calories.

After spending 35 minutes in the place (lol) I decided on a salmon sandwhich at just under 300 calories with 4g of fat. I also brought a mini fruit portion (equivalent of about an apple) and a bottle of water.

For my meal when I got home I had uncle bens rice, and vegetables again.

Just drank water again today.

I'll probabally eat something else today as I feel like eating, I'm going to have to get used to feeling like this I think as I have reduced my portions so my stomach isn't full hardly ever now - I'm quickly realsing though that your stomach being full and being hungry are two different things. I'm so used to my stomach being full it doesn't feel right when it isn't....

Plan going forward

Going forward I want to basically stick to what I've been doing which is making sensible choices and trying to eat as healthy as I can. I'm limiting myself to about 1100 calories a day (i say about because some days I might have 1000 and some days 1200) - Yesterday in total I had a little under 900 calories by my calculation and today it's going to be about 1100.

Weight now and goals

On the way home today I weighed myself. It was worse than I thought so I'm pleased I've started this diet. :wave_cry:

Current weight: 21st 13ib (139.5KG)
Current bmi: 44
Ideal weight: between 9st 3 and 12st 7

Overal goal for my weight loss diary here (-10 stone) - target weight: 11stone 13ibs.

That's my main goal, once I get there I might lose a bit more I'm not sure but getting there would have been a huge achievement.

My next goal for now is to lose 2 stone so I drop under the 20stone ceiling.

I'll update here regularly!

Thanks for reading!!

 

[soccermom]

Hi and good luck with the weight loss.

I to have 10 stone to lose and i'm following the sw plan which I find great I am fortunate to have already lost almost 5 stone of that

If you dont mind me saying you are not eating much at all I know I couldn't cope on so little food and would soon cave in and probably end up binging.

Have you still got the books from slimming world can you not follow the plan without subscribing to class?

Hope you dont mind me posting this, I was just a little concerned at how low your food intake seemed to be.

Good luck with your journey.

 

[ImLosingWeight]

Hey Kaye,

That's great that you are already halfway through the journey I'm just starting, really motivating

I think you might be right about the amount i'm eating, I remember when I was on slimming world I used to really make the most of their 'free food' rule and always lost weight still no matter how much free food I ate. It was a very different feeling to eating what I have done the last few days that's true. Part of the problem for me is it's hard to find meals when you're out that are quick etc when you're purely looking at calories and fat that are substantial meals - so I've just kind of ended up eating what I am more by chance than anything else.

I threw my sw books out a couple of years ago, not sure why really i think maybe deep down I wanted the reminder out the way, reminding me that I should be back there.

You're right though and reading your post has kind of made me wish I was back at slimming world. I'm going to budget myself next month and get myself back over there I think :checkmark green:

 

[soccermom]

thanks its a shame you threw away the books.

I'm glad you were not offended when I mentioned about how I thought you were eating to little food and that you took it so positively.

You are right about the amount of food you eat and for me feeding 4 men in my house I dont find it that much more expensive eating healthily as I have cut out buying loads of convenience rubbish.

Anyway if you can afford to binge drink you can afford to go to class (saying that with my mums head on)

What ever you decide good luck with your weight loss its a fantastic thing to feel so much better about yourself and i'm also very much happier than this time last year when every minute of every day was consumed with my negative feelings about my weight.

Best wishes

 

[Lynn_]

I have to agree with Soccermum that if you can afford to binge drink, you can afford to go to class

But its also about priorities, are you saying that you can afford to be so overweight? But you cant afford to be slim and healthy and happy?

The great thing is that you have arrived at that happy mental state where you know you can now do something about it, and however you decide to do it will be right for you as long as you can maintain the momentum. Obviously the slimming class has helped before and its a good starting point, but long term its hard to keep going, and you have to understand that you cant go back to your bad eating habits. Ever. What you do now has to become the basis of how you move forward in your life. You have to make those healthy changes permanent, so try not to think of it as being on a diet, but being on your normal healthy way of life. There will be good weeks and bad weeks, the key is that you must not let the bad weeks be the reason for not keeping at it.

Its a difficult challenge you have set yourself, but it will become such a positive change for good. Its good that you are actively looking at what is in the food you are eating.

Good luck with your journey! I wish you all the best success and look forward to sharing your successes with you

 

[downsizingmycurves]

Welcome to this section and good luck on your journey.

Those packaged salads are often not as healthy as they appear are they, nor are the low fat sarnies for that matter. On SW a low fat tuna sarnie is 14.5 syns so the whole days allowance!

I'm sure you will work out what is best for you and do very well. x

 

[ImLosingWeight]

At the end of day 4 I logged in to post an update and saw all your comments, thank you :thankyou:

Anyway if you can afford to binge drink you can afford to go to class (saying that with my mums head on)

Good point you're right, thanks for pointing it out. Time for excuses is over, I was reading recently again something the Dalai Lama said (I'm not a Buddhist, just - really attracted to his enlightened way of thinking) - he said people make the mistake of thinking they are the sum of their work, or the sum of their money, they get into the habbit of letting their work rule them or their money rule them, when it should be the other way around. Your work and money should help you to live a good life.

Can't think of anything worth spending money on more than achieving something that really matters and living a healthy life. Saying I can't afford to eat healthy was a lame excuse!

The great thing is that you have arrived at that happy mental state where you know you can now do something about it, and however you decide to do it will be right for you as long as you can maintain the momentum.

Thanks Lynn, yes as I'm now approaching the end of day four, I'm remembering what it feels like to be doing something positive with your life, something that isn't easy but you know you should be doing. That feeling that you're doing all you can, and making big steps to get healthy, makes you feel really good in itself and aside from the health and weight benefits - the benefit i'm getting mentally just by feeling good about what i'm doing is worth a lot too!

Obviously the slimming class has helped before and its a good starting point, but long term its hard to keep going, and you have to understand that you cant go back to your bad eating habits. Ever. What you do now has to become the basis of how you move forward in your life. You have to make those healthy changes permanent, so try not to think of it as being on a diet, but being on your normal healthy way of life.

Thanks I think I know this deep down but it is going to take a while to sink in. Part of me still believes this is a temporary thing I'm doing to lose weight, that sometime I'll be able to eat kfc when I fancy it and stop watching what i'm eating so much when I'm where I want to be with my weight. Then the realistic side of me knows this isn't right, well sure sometimes I might be able to eat junk in moderation - but I'll always have to be conscious of what I'm eating and drinking overal for the rest of my life, that's going to take some time to get used to but I guess by the time i'm minus ten stone I will have had plenty of time to think about it!

Those packaged salads are often not as healthy as they appear are they, nor are the low fat sarnies for that matter.

Yes you're so right. I'm learning alot about this. This is a real learning curve, but I know it's worth it, and it's kind of cool to be learning about food after being in the dark for so long Thanks again for all the comments
---

Since my last update 2 days have passed and I'm now at the end of day 4.

Day 3

I didn't have any breakfast as usual (I am going to try to introduce that in a week or so). I was pleased that I made the effort to go out for a walk at lunch time and walked for about 40 minutes, By the time I had walked 20 minutes away from my job I realised it was going to take me 20 minutes to walk back, and I hadn't eaten yet as I was running late on time as I had to be back to work, I went into a little coffee shop and chose the healthiest sandwich I could see on the list which was egg mayonaise, I know mayonaise is bad, but I remember from the supermarkets that the egg mayo sandwhich was one of the lower calories. I asked them to leave the butter off which they did. Because I knew the mayonaise was likely bad, I didn't have anything else for lunch apart from that sandwhich so am pretty sure I was still on track calories wise for my 500 or so maximum I try to allow myself for lunch.

On the way home I walked an extra station to get a bit more excercise which is about a 20 minute walk - I bought a coffee with milk on the way home (I'm not a big coffee drinker but like some now and again) I made sure I had it without suger, but didn't pay attention to the milk (just used the jug in the coffee shop, but I didn't put that much milk in) next time I should make sure I use the half fat milk I guess - it was the filter coffee not a latte so I'm pretty sure it wasn't too bad.

When I got to my local shops I made the effort to look for some different food (uncle ben rice and vegetable two days running was getting a bit boring!) after spending a fair bit of time in my co-op, I found some tuna pasta bake. It had a some small cheese in it, and I like pasta. It was one of the healthier ready meals in there at 321 calories it did have 8.4g of fat though and 5g of that was saturated, but I thought it was probabally ok, the main thing i'm looking out for at the moment is calories and it was well within my range I'm working with. Saturated fat is bad but I wanted something quick, and I didn't think 5gms was the end of the world???

I also found some 'splendidips' in there which is some cracker type snacks with philadelphia light and some chutney type sauce. I brought two of these thinking I could have 1 on day 3 and one on day 4. They are about 130 calories (from memory)

I also brought two pots of soup which are about 180 calories in each pot but they are big pots.

My plan was to have 1 of these cans of soup, my pasta bake, and a splenidip, which would have approx 631 calories.

In the end I had the pasta bake, both splendidips , but didn't have the soup :clap: - so it kind of evened itself out.

My friend called me in the evening to go to the pub (he's healthy and hardly drinks but likes to socialise) - I didn't like the idea of sitting in a pub that much, and also wanted to try to be a bit more active - so suggested we went and played some pool. We did - and i'm pleased I just drank 2 bottles of water and didn't eat anything.

So as day 3 drew to an end I had 631 calories (from my evening food) plus my egg mayo sandwhich for lunch, so am pretty sure I was at my 1100 calories that I'm aiming for daily or there abouts

So all in all day 3 went pretty well.

Day 4

Today has gone pretty good. I didn't feel like walking too much today. I have to walk quite a bit to get in and out of work anyway (have to walk ten mins each way to station and then about 30 mins overall between stations - so 50 minutes each day ) so at lunch I got a bus into town instead of walking like yesterday. For lunch I had a salmon salad, it was fresh in a bistro type place so I didn't have the calorie value, but I know it was healthy as it was all fresh salad (lettuce, tomato, chopped peppers) as I asked them to put only those in and the salmon. In the chopped peppers there was some small olive oil i think but not much the rest of the salad was completely natural and I just had pepper and fresh lemmon juice on top so all in all a very healthy lunch i think. I had lots of lettuce and tomatos in there.

At the time of eating it I didn't feel like it was *that* filling, as it's all kind of light, but funny thing is as I write my update here at 11pm I still haven't had my main evening meal, it's done a good job of sustaining me! On the way home I had a coffee and brought two splendips which I ate when I got in at about 6.30pm and have felt pretty full since which is really good.

It's worked out well as it's friday night (and I tend to like staying up late fridays and saturdays) so I can have my evening meal in a little while.

So I've had the salmon salad, two splendips, one coffee (starbucks filter) and one coffee at home (no suger, half fat milk) - so far for a total of no more than 800 calories. So by the time I've had my tuna pasta I should be finishing the day at about 1121 calories.

Overal so far

I'm pleased with how things are going. I'm finding breaking old habbits the hardest part of these early days and am looking forward to being a couple of weeks in when things are a bit more usual, at the moment I'm kind of playing it by ear, and old habbits (such as wanting to drink some alcohol when out socialising) are dying hard, but if I keep drinking water when I'm out socialising I'm sure it will not be too long until I don't even fancy drinking bad drinks in pubby type places.

I've been trying to think of something to do over the weekend to get me out because if I stay in I am sure I'll be tempted to cheat... so am going to try to go out tomorrow and do something maybe go into town. The thought of weighing myself on Tuesday (when it will have been one week) is motivating me to stay true to eating healthy. Also this diary is a nice little extra incentive to be good, it's nice to be able to write here that things are basically on track

Ultimately I just have to think of why I am doing this, and how much better my life will be when I have reached my target and my desire to keep true to it starts to feel strong again when I feel like going back to old eating habbits.

It's kind of liberating to be doing my own thing and counting calories, I feel like I'm still picking what I'm eating - and the food I'm eating isn't leaving me feeling hungry which is great.

So ... so far, so good

Will update again on Monday!

 

[ImLosingWeight]

The weekend went well I did what I said I would and found things to do (went to library on saturday and played pool with my mate on sunday) - was good all weekend which is nice. Had one diet coke when playing pool, and a slimming sandwhich for lunch on saturday.

Overall sat and sun I stuck to about 1100 calories a day.

Today I had a 300 calorie lunch and went out to the library on my way in, so am a bit below calorie count as i write this for the day, as i'm eating my 500 calorie main meal as I type so daily count at about 1000 calories as I also had an apple earlier and some coffee with milk.

Ill probabally have 180 calorie snack before bed.

Pretty pleased with the first week all in all, hopefully the weigh in tomorrow will go well!

 

[soccermom]

good luck for your weigh in, you are sounding so positive about your weight loss.

keep up the good work

 

[Lynn_]

Hiya! Glad to see you are doing so well! You sound really positive about the changes you are making and thats really wonderful to see, getting through the first weekend is really important, its when things have a habit of going wrong, its easy to think 'oh its the weekend, ive been good all week so i can afford to let go a bit'. You cant let go, even at weekends im afraid . Having said that ive just got back from a weekend in Cornwall lol, and i ate like a pig, albeit a thin pig lol. And i didnt put on any weight!

You are doing really well, but i would like to suggest that you do try to have something for breakfast. I wasnt a breakfast eater either, but it really does help even if its just a piece of fruit. It doesnt have to be cereal or anything more complicated. Weight watchers do really nice yoghurts that are only 54 or 58 calories each, im going to try one of those and a peice of fruit for my breakfasts this week.

Good luck and keep up the good work!

 

[Nutmeg]

Really interesting to hear your progress - good luck with your weigh in!

 

[lindseyjac]

Firstly never say you are on a diet, you are making heathly food choices, the amount of food you can eat in no way feels like a diet.
Please start a class it is very hard to succeed without it.
You must eat breakfast, it kick starts your metabolism, even if you only grab some fruit.
I stopped drinking and feel so much better for it but you can save your syns and use them for a drink, you need to have your treats otherwise you will give up. Look in archives there are loads recipes and they are really nice, also you will get lots good advice from us on here, so keep up the good work. PS I have stuck pictures of me fat and thin on the fridge and food cupboards, they keep me on track, i also prepare all my own food and rarely buy prepacked, if you make it yourself you know exactly what is in it and you can make so many free foods that you can eat, eat, eat. I eat a lot of food and still losing weight. Take each day as it comes and prepare for the day, you can't go wrong then.

 

[ImLosingWeight]

Thanks for all the great comments

Yesterday, I went to weigh myself and then thanks to the date on the machine printout from last week I realised I had weighed myself on a Wednesday last week not a Tuesday, so gave it another day.

I went to weigh myself today but the machine was out of order, so I used my scales at home, I wore exactly the same clothes (even the same shoes!) - and am pleased to say I've lost 6ibs

I also weighed a kg of suger and the scales weighed it as 2.2ibs so seem to be spot on which is nice. I rounded the odd 0.5ibs up rather than down and still lost 61bs so am really pleased.

I'm going to celebrate by making myself one of those cool ticker signatures. On the serious side, it's nice to see some progress, I just need to stick to this for a year or so and I (well my body at least) will literarlly be completely transformed - that's a pretty exciting prospect. Almost 25% towards my first goal of losing 2stone. Will update again in a couple of days

 

[soccermom]

well done you thats a great loss.

keep up the good work and i'm sure you will have a great result as well next week.

 

[ImLosingWeight]

thanks soccermom do you have a diary, i looked but couldn't see one? looks like your weight loss is going great from your ticker

 

[Hope123]

Aw, well done for your loss....ur doing so well.

 

[ImLosingWeight]

ty

297ibs this week so -4ibs, which I got to be happy with

So I've lost ten pounds since I started two weeks ago.

Really felt like going to the pub and drinking the past few days (well since the weekend as it goes!) but managed to resist!!!

Diet aside I've got a fair bit to sort out in my life (I still live at the same house I grew up in with my younger brother and parents...) The place is just full of negativity, you can't walk through the door without being bombarded by some negative comment (not about me of course, but about life in general from someone). I've been staying out late after work at the library which is helping, today I came home at a regular time as I had to weigh myself, and already am regretting it... I'm going to try to rent my own place in the next six months which will help... Anyway! I digress lol, this is about my diet.

SO it's all going well! It hasn't been easy, but it hasn't exactly been hard either - kind of in between if that makes sense.

Here's to a good week next week! The thought of one day being able to wear whatever clothes I want and looking decent in them and being able to go wherever I want and feeling comfortable is something that's really driving me.

I've already started to notice the trousers I bought three weeks ago are getting looser!

Thanks for reading - onwards and upwards!!

 

[soccermom]

well done on your latest loss. Sorry that your home life is full of negativity but dont let that let undo the positive start to your weightloss.

Instead of going to the library why dont you go for a walk and burn up some more calories

Keep it up

 

[ImLosingWeight]

as always your posts are an inspiration soccermom! I shouldn't complain really, I hate the act of complaining it's so pointless everythings relative. How many people homeless would love to be surrounded by 'negative' people with a roof over their head! I'm a very positive person though, and however much I ignore the strife in the place it does bring your mood down. I mean I've been studying tibetan buddhism, reading works about transcending human thought, all sorts lately - I have a great time at work, and out and about feel great and then this house... it's just so disabling! But like I say it's all relative. People are in bed now so it's peaceful and all of a sudden not that bad.

I have lived on my own when I was at uni and also about 4 years ago for a year, and it was so great, I loved it. Obviously uni was years ago, and with other people so not really comparable. But being able to go back to a peaceful house is something that would certainly be a luxury for me. I have a full time job what am I doing not renting my own place if I want it so much? It comes down to basic organisation... time to pull my act together

Very pleased with my weight loss though. I walk alot already to be honest soccermom, about an hour a day if I add up the walking I do in getting into and home from work/at lunch/en route to library etc.

I guess it's no surprise at nearly 30 I'm feeling like I should have my own space! If I get organised no reason why I couldn't have within the next 3-4 months.

 

[Neonshock]

Hello!
I love listenening to insightful podcasts but I never knew the Dali Lama had one! Definatly going to try and find that one for the commute to work.
Secondly Im going to subscribe *clicks* to your diary since we both have similar start weights and goals. Might be helpful too each other? I just started my own diary, literally a second ago so not much interesting stuff there at the moment but bare with me!
Thirdly, I think you are doing really well but wanna echo Soccermom (Apologies if it was someone else) in the fact that buying salads from shops is gonna do both your calorie count and your wallet absolutly no good whatsoever. I realise you seem to have some strain with your family but are you able to whip yourself up stuff in the kitchen at all?
And well done on the loss!