Time to get shifting these pounds!

[Bear's-kitten]

Hello All,

Just joined minimins after being a reader of the forum for quite some time. I'm just starting out on a weight loss mission to try to drop 100lbs.

I'm about to turn 30 in under 3 months, and get married in just over 9 months time and would like to be slim, for once in my life.

I've always been a big girl, and although I carry it quite well (I think people would be amazed if they knew i was 18st10!) I want to know what it is like to be slim. To wear skinny jeans, shop in Topshop, to be noticed. Being fat just makes you invisible to so many people. To be a 'normal', healthy weight.

We'd like to try for a baby after we're married and I can't bear the thought of being this big plus pregnancy weight and feel that if I don't shed the pounds now, I never will.

So, I'm trying. I'm hopeless at sticking at things, I guess the voices in my head say that I cannot do it, so I'm hoping that a bit of support here, and writing down my feelings might just help make the difference.

Good luck in all of your journeys.

Kit xx

 

[MsJean]

Hi Kit and welcome, keeping a food diary is a great way of keeping on track, good luck.

 

[Bear's-kitten]

thank you Ms Jean. I really want to succeed this time. I know the only thing standing in my way is myself, and it's time to move over and make a change to be a healthy, slimmer person.

 

[BlondeGem]

Hi Kit,

You've come to the right place, you'll get lots of support and advice on here so stick around

 

[happylauren]

You can do it! Good luck Kit! xxx

 

[BarbaraG]

(I think people would be amazed if they knew i was 18st10!) I want to know what it is like to be slim. xx

Hi Kit,

Hope you don't me piggy- backing on your intro to add my own. I am the same height as you and would love to be 18st 10! I do know what it is like to be slim, because I was, for a few months, over a quarter of a century ago.... But only after losing over six stone. My natural shape appears to be fat and getting fatter.

You've probably all heard this story, indeed lived it yourselves- always been big, seem to be hungrier than most people, love all the wrong foods, done every diet going, with varying degrees of success, but ultimately the weight keeps on coming back. For me, there is no mystery to this - the weight comes back because I go back to the old eating habits.

No more! I started this year at 21st 7lb and my all-time high is 22st. I have type 2 diabetes, struggle to put shoes and socks on, and spent most of last year sweating at the slightest exertion or rise in temperature. I have had enough.

I'm not following any specific diet, just doing the things we all know we need to do: less snacking, less fat and sugar, more vegetables and fruit, more activity. I'm also taking orlistat and going to the gym 3 times a week. I am trying to find a routine of eating and exercise which are truly sustainable long-term. I am down 1st 5lb in 8 weeks, have rediscovered that photo of myself at 10.5 stone and plastered it everywhere as my inspiration. I am also using Susan Hepburn's Hypnodiet book and CD to support my resolve to clean up my act once and for all.

It's either this, or surgery. Let's hope it's this! I turned 48 last month, and my target is to be fit and fabulous at fifty!

Barbara

 

[Bear's-kitten]

Ahh well done Barbara - that's a great loss in 8 weeks! Great idea about the photo inspiration. I need something like that to put on the fridge!

Thanks for posting on my thread, it's nice to know there are other people in the same boat with a decent amount of weight to shift. It seems like an awful long journey but I'm sure if we all stick together we'll get there.

What do you think of orlistat? do you think it's been instrumental in the weight loss? I was considering talking to my GP about it but am worried about the unwanted side effects ;-)

I'm off work atm and am managing to eat ok, but dreading going back to work on the 5th as at work all I think about is fooooooood!

 

[IreneH]

Good luck with the pounds.

Irene xx

 

[BarbaraG]

This is the second time I have done orlistat. Three years ago I lost over two stone inside four months, but then got stuck (i.e started eating wrong), then started gaining, and decided it wasn't worth continuing with it because I was so much eating the wrong things.

Ah, the side effects.... here's the thing: they are 80% of how it works IMO. If you stick to the recommended low fat guidelines - no more than 15g fat in a meal - the side effects will be mild, and will settle down after a few weeks anyway. If you can put up with going to the loo (you know what I mean) more frequently, and occasionally needing to go NOW, then orlistat could work well for you. It will accelerate your weight loss by about half a pound a week. That may not seem much, but for those of us with a lot of weight to lose, it is nearly an extra 2 stone in the first year. I set out with 11 stone to lose, I would much rather lose 7 stone in my first year than 5.

But if you ignore the 15g limit, and got to 20, 30, 40g fat in a meal, you will know about it pretty soon. You will suffer abdominal cramps, explosive diarrhoea, and you had better not be far from a toilet. So really, they work as aversion therapy. The choice is to cut the fat in your meals, or stop taking the pills.

This time, it feels like my head is in a better place, in that I am so aware of the impact my weight has been having on my quality of life, I am even willing to have surgery, if that's what it takes to keep enough weight off to make a difference.

I believe there is an orlistat sub forum on here, which I'm gonna check out, plus an area for big losers. I'll probably be hanging around there before too long.

See ya,
Barbara