The last stone mission......ROLL UP!!!!

Morning Claire and hopefully my moaning minnie posts are now behind me and the positivity will be shining through (like the sun this morning!). Perhaps it's the lack thereof which has been causing us problems and with the fine weather now seemingly with us, it'll all be much easier. Here's hoping.

I had a good diet day yesterday, with no cravings and no "silly thoughts", so feel I'm in the right place again. Early days mind you. I did my walk this morning instead of switching tubes and boy it felt longer than usual! I shall do that every day the weather is fine, without praying for rain(!), and I always have a good day after early morning exercise else I feel I've wasted my time!

Cream scones are so delicious... mmmm! As you say, savour, relish the memory, and move on...

Today's menu for me will also be low on calories, not because I intended to, but because I was surprised at how low calorie prawns are... must have them more often!

B: 1/2 grapefruit, 1 boiled egg, 1 low calorie yoghurt

L: chicken breast with homemade ratatouille, home grown green beans, carrots and parsnips (large portion of veg too cos OH decided he doesn't want to eat veg this week and I can't bear to waste them now that I've steamed them! Old habits die hard.)
1 low calorie yoghurt

Snack: 1 apple

D: prawns (half box, 200g gambas with shells on, so my calorie book makes them 100 cals max - is that right? surely not. My book says 12 cals per oz with shells on. Maybe can convince OH to weigh them once he's shelled them later today, but doubt it somehow!) with salad (but just the veggie bits, no "extras" to appear for a few weeks

3L water
 
Morning, you sound bright and happy today Joanne. That's great, I'm still a bit tired but fairly cheerful - unlike the scales which seem to have forgotten there is any other weight than 9st13.25lbs. Exercise is really good, I've done nothing as yet but will walk into the market later.

Prawns are an absolute staple of my diet, I buy 160g shell on large prawns and they work out 86 calories, so your calculation sounds right. Because of the low calorie allowance on DDs I check values religiously, some things are scarily high when you don't expect it. How high are the yogurts you eat? Not that I could get them here probably, but I never have yogurt on DDs because they always seem to be over 100 a pot.

What is your OH going to eat instead of veg? Salad? I've got lots of salad, fruit and vegetables at the moment because Lidl have an offer on (up to 70% off) which is really handy as it is keeping my strawberries reasonable.

Today is a DD, so the usual menu of strawberries, prawn salad, bacon & mushroom galette, and treats of a mini solero and almond biscuits.
 
The yoghurts are a brand called Sveltesse (Nature de Fruits) so I don't think it's available in the UK. They're 63 calories a pot, not a large pot admittedly...

This link shows that most French low calorie yoghurts are around 50 cals a pot, some lots less even... NED la Nouvelle Epicerie à Domicile produits forme In the winter I love to eat lots of clementines and oranges so this yoghurt phase will probably be temporary. Just that I noticed that my food intake was rather short on the old dairy produce when I took out my cereal + milk breakfast.

I tend to eat veggies + ratatouille (my latest fad) three lunches a week and two dinners, and the rest is salads... OH would have the two veg dinners with me. Then for some reason on Sunday night he pronounced that he didn't want veggies but would have salad. So he'll be having 14 salads this week! Strange lad! I like the change even if it is more salad weather than veg at the moment.

I've not alas seen any strawberries reasonably priced here in ages. I have a couple of peaches should I need an evening snack, but otherwise am just having the 1/2 grapefruit and apple per day as the summer fruits just aren't easy to transport to work in my bag!

Great to know re prawns. I admit that since buying the house I've been keeping the food budget as low as I can, so tend to eat more pork than anything else, which obviously is a bad calorie choice, while wise "purse choice"!

I know it's miserable when the scales show the same numbers or, worse even, show increased numbers when you've been "good". My Mum (who's no longer with us) used to say to me: "just think what you'd have weighed had you not been good"... good to remember that one.

I think the morning walk has really perked me up. OK I've got a HUGE belly right now (sitting looking at it!), but I'm doing something about it so today is the biggest it's going to be!

How did the shed roof fixing go? If you're at home at times during the week, is it that you don't work full time?
 
Those yogurts look good, and low calorie. I know we can get Actimel, but I need something that you eat with a spoon rather than drink, psychology I suppose. I shall have to look and see if any of the others are available. I think 14 salads in a week would be more than I could cope with, I do tend to have salad on my DDs, although sometimes I stirfry or steam veg.

Fruit does seem to be quite expensive in France, although the variety and quality is better. Once the price goes up on the strawberries I may have to find another breakfast for DDs, it is hard one because I like something sweet in the morning. We tend to eat a lot of chicken, it can be really cheap here. Do you have a Lidl's store anywhere near you? They really are worth a look for cheaper foods of decent quality.

We work from home and I probably work part-time hours but spread out a bit. So sometimes if things are quiet we can go and do jobs like the roof during the week. It is nearly finished, of course it was more difficult than DH expected and took a lot longer. So long as the end result is watertight that is good enough for us. Does your OH work for himself?

It must be more interesting walking to work as well as getting your metabolism moving. A bit of exercise always makes me feel better, I really ought to do more - summers tend to be lazy as classes and shows stop. There's nothing like the adrenalin of a show to shift a few pounds, it doesn't stay off of course but feels good while it lasts.
 
Smiling at your liking to eat with a spoon rather than drinking! I'm JUST the same.

I haven't had the wok going for ages. We used to enjoy it but sickened ourselves of stirfries, I think, so tried jazzing them up a bit by adding unnecessary (fattening) ingredients. We've actually a new Chinese supermarket opened up near us, not that I recognise half the ingredients in there and the overpowering smell when you enter the shop is offputting!

At the weekend, I saw a tiny punnet of strawberries on the market for equivalent of £3. We'd have needed two or maybe even three for a decent portion. Of course it would be dear where I live. In the country, it's cheaper but very little choice and the one and only grocer stall at the market had Spanish strawberries last time I went! ugh!

Chicken I eat for lunch four days a week. Lidl we have near us yes but I've admittedly only been in it twice and I was the only Caucasian in the place so felt conspicuous! We also have Ed and Aldi which are similar concepts but I don't frequent either. I know some people swear by them but I like to recognise my brands.

I don't walk all the way to work, just part of the way! I'm about 10 mins from the tube station, and have 8 then 3 stops. I walk the 10 (used to take the bus when big!), then sit down for the 8 reading my book(!), then walk the 3 (mainly uphill) stops, rain permitting. Totals 25 mins, but took longer today cos I was suffering and puffing!
 
Morning, and another glorious sunny day here. 28°C forecast today which is a bit warm for me (thank goodness for air conditioning in the office should I need it!)

No problem with food plan yesterday but I added in a peach mid-evening as those prawns didn't fill me up nearly as much as meat does! Ah well. Scales moved this morning (see ticker!) so another amazing loss, after an incredible gain huh? My metabolism must be mega screwed up.

Today:

B: 1/2 grapefruit; homemade muesli with Fitnesse flakes and skimmed milk

L: chicken piece with tupperware of salad
1 low calorie yoghurt

Snack: 1 apple

D: 2 egg mushroom omelette with side salad

(Piece of fruit in evening, if desperate!)

3L water.
I make it 1,100 calories.
 
That is excellent Joanne, good to know the scales are moving for you if not for me. You'll shift that gain in no time. I am still the same, not sure how to approach this. Either I keep on as I am, on the assumption that things must improve eventually, or try to tweak the diet a bit. I was looking on the traineo forum last night, they have a large JUDDDing community, and several people had hit similar problems. The solutions they tried were either giving up and trying something else (which I am not ready to do), changing the components to increase protein intake (probably the most effective option), and dropping the DDs to about 200 cals (don't want to go there). So looks like I will be taking the protein route, and I am going to try and increase exercise levels, it is so easy to be lazy when classes stop in the summer.

Your menu looks very controlled, nice balance of proteins and complex carbs. We are going to dinner with friends tonight so I am totally unable to control what I eat today - have no idea what Rachel is cooking although she and Daniel have both put on a lot of weight since they moved in together so I fear there will be some damage. Never mind, even diets must allow a social life, and it is why today is an UD.

The last strawberries I bought were £1.19 for a large punnet (not sure where they were from), I've also seen local ones for £1 for a small punnet. Not as nice as your I'm sure but affordable. I know what you mean about the other customers in Lidl, here it is always full of Lithuanians, mind you the same goes for our whole town.

Enjoy your sunny day, the sky is largely blue here at the minute but it isn't warm yet.
 
Hey good to see you feeling more positive, hmmmm I have found myself missing healthy food since ssing......hopefully I will stay like this when its time to eat again.......I have missed yogurts.
 
I would love to weigh what you weigh, though, Claire and I hope to join you there(ish) within a couple of months. At that point, however, I will have to be very careful at reintegrating carbs as they're the first thing I turn to when I lose the plot. Hence my slipping in the odd cereal breakfast even in this strict period.

I totally agree with you that it's not good for you to drop to 200 calories. There'd be no way you could get your fill of vitamins and minerals etc with that few calories, you'd be hungry, and probably end up losing it.

Perhaps alternate a weed of "proper" JUDDing with alternating in the way I'm doing? So one week of alternate 500 / 1,500, then one week of 1,000 / 1,400? OK if we get out our calculators here, *my* weeks are higher caloried overall but I think this is the first week you've tried the 1,500 UP days, no? Perhaps also, on the 1,500 or 1,400 days try to do some extra exercise? Might that work?

Increasing protein and reducing carb is of course likely to work, but perhaps don't do that for too long as I think that's where my yoyo problems initiate from. As soon as I eat too many carbs, I whack the weight back on.

Whenever I hit a plateau "before", I used to look at my food diary and tweak something. For instance, I'd cut out red meat for a week; double check weights of things in case my eyes were deceiving me (they usually were!); change the timing of my meals should dinner have slipped too late; check water intake. All sorts of things to play with. It's *almost* fun getting to the cause of the problem when you know you've followed plan to the letter yet something's wrong. Kind of like detective work!

Tell me - when you know you're eating out at someone's house, and the menu is out of your hands, how do you feel about it? (I admit to feeling a sense of panic...)
 
I'm doing UDs at 1800 at the minute, I don't want them too low as the whole point of the diet is to alternate daily. Apparently if you go 48 hours on a low intake your metabolism starts adjusting to suit - I'm sure mine would. It makes me angry because I used to lose really easily so it must be my age. I can't do anything about getting old - I just don't want to be old and fat. I think overall we are eating about the same amount. I shall try more protein first, I'll look out for some yogurts with the sort of calories yours have, I must admit I'd stopped even reading the pots since I noticed how high they seemed to be. I'm a bit worried about going lower all the time as you are because when I tried cutting back the last few times I just stalled completely and didn't lose at all.

You are right about the water, I don't like it and tend not to drink enough. I will try to make myself have some before each meal. It was my bugbear on Cambridge, they force you to drink loads and I hated it. I hadn't thought of changing meal times, that might be worth a play. I also wonder if I have been underestimating things, salad, milk in coffee etc. It would only come to about 50 calories in a day at most, but that is 10% of what I am allowed.

On any ordinary diet I would be feeling almost resentful about dinner tonight, that sounds horrible - and in fact with these friends it would be easy to change the evening to a trip out to something non-food. Since it is an UD I am not overworried anyway, I am eating lightly for the rest of the day so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I'm not feeling particularly fat any more, just a little bulgy in places (thighs particularly). These last few pounds matter to me because they will make the difference between feeling sort of OK and feeling right. I tried on some old clothes last night, some fit fine again but others are a problem. My waist hasn't gone down nearly to what it was, or my arms.
 
oooh I thought your UDs were going to be 1,500 this week, my mistake.

I won't continue these 1,000 odd days beyond Friday, and will go back to alternating next week; I was just so horrified at how quickly I'd gained so much weight, I wanted to hit hard at the outset (and have lost 6lbs in 2 days doing just that). But of course it'll stall, and I'll get used to it, hence I added in a carb laden breakfast today else I'll have problems soon.

Salad I don't think adds up to much (if you're sticking to greenery and not buying "extras"). Milk I'm still buying semi skimmed for cereal but now add half water. I drink my coffee black always. Water I drink quite happily and endlessly all day, yet it's the first thing I "forget" when I'm overeating!

You AREN'T fat any more Claire. You're under 10 stone. I forget how tall you are but you weigh now LESS than I'm aiming at and I know how good I felt at my target weight... perhaps some specific exercises for waist and arms might help if they're your problem areas?
 
I'm 5'4.5" so I am shorter than you. I know we all think we have figure problems, I have short, plump legs and quite a large bust. Also I look much slimmer side on to front on, which is annoying. I have started doing more exercise in the evenings including girlie press-ups, arm curls, and crunches, I'll see about expanding on that. The fitness freaks (sorry - gurus) say that there is no such thing as spot reducing exercise, but it does no harm to try.

I don't have anything that I feel is that bad in my salad, various lettuce leaves, cucumber, 1-2 cherry tomatoes, maybe a little pepper, a very few grapes and a few drops of balsamic vinegar for dressing. I do have semi-skimmed milk in coffee, but DH usually wants and makes coffee - on my own I have about 2 a day but he is a caffeine addict so I tend to join him. I must say no more often and just have low-cal squash.

You've done brilliantly losing again so quickly, I'm sure you'll see the extra weight out of the way in no time. How do you find dieting now compared with when you were losing in 2002/3?
 
I have a lot of excess skin actually so I look pretty bad from every view at the moment! My stomach is definitely a lot flatter when I weigh 20lbs less but it's never flat (and having read IM's operation thread, I'm glad I chose not to go that route!).

When I first started looking closely at exactly what I had snuck into my salads while successfully maintaining, I had to cut out the odd spoonful of taboule (not sure you get that in England?), sweetcorn (I'd open a tin, put it in a tupperware container, and have a spoonful over it), same with mushrooms in sauce I'd buy here. It added some variety and taste to the salad, but of course calories too. Now I'm strictly on veggies only, boring though it might sometimes get.

Compared to "before", I'm eating a more varied diet, that's for sure. I'm one of those people who can quite happily eat the same things day in day out, so this alternating thing has at least helped me correct that. Weight falling off fast is the "advantage" of having followed a fairly low carb method, but of course the "disadvantage" is that it goes back on fast as well if I don't follow a proper slow reintroduction of carbs.

While I know that potatoes, bread, pasta, rice etc aren't "bad" per se, I only enjoy any of them with sauce, butter or cream (or all three), so it's easier to not eat them, than eat them "bland". Yet I always turn to them when I lose the plot of course!

I'm useless where exercises are concerned... I'll hopefully get my bike out this weekend if the weather stays fine but last time I did, I could barely sit down for a week (and I only cycled 15 mins!)

Today it is exactly six months since I quit smoking. I can hardly believe that.
 
Today it is exactly six months since I quit smoking. I can hardly believe that.
Click to expand...

That is such an amazing achievement, if you can kick that habit you can do anything (except remember where you left your carkeys if you are my DH).

I read Mike's graphic description of his tummy tuck, and looked at some other photos and just know I could never do that. No matter how much flab I had, it would just have to stay there. I'm not too bad, my arms sag a bit and my skin is not taut like a teenager but at 49 I can't really complain. At my heaviest I was 11st5.5lbs, overweight rather than obese, with a bmi of 27, so I don't think I stretched my skin all that much.

I love sweeetcorn too, we do get tabouleh and couscous salads but they aren't as popular here as they are in France, and we never get celeri remoulade or piedmontaise salad, instead we have a zillion types of coleslaw and florida and waldorf salads. I avoid the pre mixed mayonnaise salads, and I'm not keen on bottled low calorie dressings, so now it is just the vinegar or lemon juice. Sauces are my downfall too, I prefer my meat with sauce as well as my carbs.

Cycling is something I think you have to do fairly frequently to be comfy with, I don't even own a bike, it is scary trying to ride one in our town because the traffic is bad (although not as bad as yours I'm sure). I find the gym boring, don't like swimming, and my hand to eye coordination is rubbish. I used to skate until my knees started complaining so now it is dance or nothing. And it is a good social thing for me too, the only downside is the summer holiday.

I must get back to my programming, a customer has asked for a software adjustment, not difficult but painstaking.
 
(don't respond to this until tomorrow; you've got work to do, unlike me! Funny you should mention your programming as I've been meaning to ask you what you do!)

I saw a surgeon when I'd lost about 11 stone - just to see what the possibilities were for me (given that I was fed up with well meaning people suggesting I try this or that cream or exercise for the skin I was complaining about, which fortunately doesn't show too much when I'm dressed!). After examining me intently, and measuring me with calipers, he deemed my target weight to be 11 stone (you can see that I listen to him!), and said I'd need 3 x "body lifts". Starting with the legs, lifting the skin upwards; then the tummy tuck; then the arms and "chest". Each operation one week in hospital, one month recovery... (and from IM's experience, one month sounds optimistic!). He also went on to say that he'd only recommend such arduous surgery to someone who was having psychological issues as a result of the skin because the pain wouldn't be negligeable and only someone suffering psychologically would be able to bear it x 3. Definitely not for me, even though the operations would be offered to me on social security given the extent of my weight loss, he said.

ooh yes those little extras in salads really can add up. A spoonful of this or that. So now I never buy them. I used to, at weekends only when eating whatever I liked, but inevitably some would be leftover for the weekday diet days too. Like you, I never dress my salads, but use a spoonful of coleslaw for that purpose, except for mozzarella/tomato salad when I use a little.

We keep our bikes in the country; riding one in this City is suicidal! Next time I get on it, I'll strap a cushion to my butt to help with the comfort issue!

Speak tomorrow - have a good evening!
 
Hi All, Ive neglected the last stone mission up until the weekend, and Im now on 790, can I rejoin for the last 10lbs or so???

Hows everyone doing, Joanne, that body lift sounded painful, glad you didnt do it, IM has deffo put me off too, as long as you cant see it in clothes then Ill cope!!!
 
Hello there Can I really do this, and of course you can join,

I'm currently out of the "last stone" category, having binged relentlessly for two weeks, but Claire's let me stay here. Today is only day 4 of my restart and the weight is dropping fast for now, but that'll slow of course.

Today's food:

B: 1/2 grapefruit, low calorie yoghurt, boiled egg

L: chicken breast with steamed carrots and green beans and spoonful homemade ratatouille
1 low calorie yoghurt

Snack: 1 apple

D: 6oz medium grilled steak with salad

1/2 peach, 1/2 apricot (shared with OH!)

3L water

I'd be interested in seeing what you're both eating too... How was dinner Claire?
 
I feel soooo rubbish this morning, scales up to 10st0.5lbs (a pound and a quarter up), carb bloated and a mild hangover. I probably deserve it. We had a great night, they are lovely people and we all get on really well. Food was aperitif type bruschettas and falafels to start, pasta with quorn sauce and salad and garlic bread, and apple pie and cheesecake. I overdid it big time so am suffering today. Hopefully a few days back on the straight and narrow will sort me out - gently sipping my black coffee as I speak. Having a DD today will be no problem I'm sure.

Hi Vicky, welcome to the thread. You've lost brilliantly, and on 790 will continue to dop so I'm sure. Are you working up the steps slowly or have you a deadline?

Joanne, I am going to have a look at yogurts today and see what would suit me. I shall have breakfast late, I want to get my sluggish self moving about first, then have fat-free fromage frais with a very few strawberries chopped in. Coffee as little as possible, I needed my morning one but after this it will be just one or two the whole day, and either black or measuring the milk. Lunch - most likely staple prawn salad and yogurt if I find anything. Not sure about tonight, I might make a lasagne using swiss chard leaves instead of pasta - DH has grown a mass of the stuff and I am running out of ways to cook it. Importantly NO CARB TREATS. That's the plan, I don't know if I have the resolve for it. How much have you lost now?

I didn't get my programming finished, or rather I finished but didn't check it or build it. That will take up most of my day, there are sure to be masses of errors. It isn't what I do all the time, most of my work is admin, bookkeeping, ordering etc, but this stuff comes up form time to time and I am more methodical than DH so it suits me.
 
That dinner sounds lovely; you're just as bad as me, though, Claire where those scales are concerned. You really ought to have kept off them this morning because, after a carb filled dinner, you KNEW you'd have a fictitious gain and would get fed up. When maintaining with 80 / 20, and the 20% "bad" was at the weekend, I never EVER weighed myself on a Monday... I just KNEW...!

1.25lbs will come off today. Drink plenty of water!

Yoghurts really didn't used to be my thing; it was only when I input my food diary on WLR that I realised I was low on dairy. I quite like them now, although I do leave "certain flavours" for my OH (cherry ugh! prune UGH!). These 55 cal pots aren't very big, and of course must be filled with aspartame, but at least help me think I'm having something sweet!

I've lost 8.6lbs in 3 days. Silly silly numbers... only because I gained so much in such a short space of time. I was checking my diary and I weighed 10 stone 12lbs on July 12, so gained 21lbs in 17 days. Typical response to OD'ing on carbs, I guess...

I have 2 weeks off work in September and fear the same thing. I wish I could get this off FAST and reintroduce carbs SLOWLY but these spaced out holidays I've taken this year seem to be badly timed for that!

Good luck with your programming checking (and finding the yogs)...
 
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