Time to stop thinking that my diet is not THAT bad...!

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DietAccountability101

DietAccountability101

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Hello everyone! I am 25-year-old female living in the UK. I currently weigh 10.5 stone (147lbs), which makes me 7lbs overweight for my height (5'3).

My overall goal is to lose 1.5 stone (21lbs). Ideally I want to lose at least 7lbs in the next 5 weeks, which I think is achievable. My current measurements are 37-29-40, and I would ideally like to see 3 inches off each measurement.

I started this blog after having a conversation with my friend about her new job. She has a Nutrition degree and works for a diet company. Part of her day-to-day duties are reading through her client's food diaries and giving the diets marks out of 10. It got me thinking. I could do with some accountability, albeit on a slightly smaller budget. The Internet is perfect for that, and sure enough I found this website within about 10 minutes. I intend to rate my own diet, just like my friend would, but any tips on how to improve would be appreciated. I'd ask her but I would rather not let her judge me on how bad some of my habits can be. Complete strangers on the Internet are fine though!

I think my biggest struggle will be time. I work full-time, and I also go to University on the weekends. This means that I can go up to 12 days at a time without a day off. I'm also in the process of buying my first house. This can be a struggle, as I find that diet and exercise are intrinsically linked. If I don't find the time to exercise, then I really struggle to be motivated on a diet. I intend to go to the gym at least twice a week, ideally 3 times a week. Unfortunately any more than that isn't possible, as I need to use a lot of my evenings to do more uni work. I think I will need to be more disciplined on my diet than I'm used to in order to see results, as when I've lost weight before I've usually managed to exercise more often than that.

So, that's me in a nutshell! Today was my first proper day, so I will write a post below shortly on how that went (I'd give it a 5 out of 10)!
 
Day 1 did not start well.

Now I know that these are Excuses, but there is a reason for this. My boyfriend suggested that we order a takeaway last night. At the time, I thought 'brilliant! A great way to end a bank holiday and it's the last bad thing that I can have before I start my diet'. We ordered 2 pizzas and a chicken kebab.

When I got up in the morning to start my diet, I was confronted with the rest of whatever my boyfriend hadn't taken for his lunch. We haven't really got the sort of budget just to waste food.

Breakfast was 1 slice of pizza (oh dear, and approx 300 calories).
Lesson learned: if there is pizza left over make sure that my boyfriend takes ALL of it for lunch so nothing gets wasted.

I was determined to make a better job of my lunch, so I took out the chicken of the leftover kebab and put it in a salad. Still not great as I have no idea if the chicken was cooked in anything before it was grilled (approx 300 calories). However, my downfall was not having anything with it. By half 3, I was starving. Off I went to office vending machine to get a packet of crisps before I could eat my own hands (158 calories).
Lesson learned: I need to make sure that my pack-up will actually get me through the whole day so I don't make bad/convenient choices.

Dinner was a lot better. My boyfriend and I batch cook to save time and money. It also means that we don't make bad choices because the food has already been cooked for us. We had kipper curry, which had chickpeas, a lot of veg and about 60g of brown rice per person (772 calories). The only criticism I'd make about my dinner was that the sauce we used came from a jar, so it probably did have hidden salt and sugar in it.

Drinks-wise, I had 3 cups of a tea, 2 orange squashes, and about a litre of water (40 calories).

That is a total of 1,570 calories. I would give myself about 3 out of 10 for my diet today.

On a better note, I did a decent amount of exercise today. My first class was Grit, which is the first time I've tried it. I really enjoyed it. It reminds me of Body Pump (a class that I really enjoy), but it was faster paced. I could definitely tell that it challenged me, as the weights were difficult at times and my heart was racing for the full 30 minutes.

My second class was Body Attack, which was also a class I had never tried before. This took a bit longer for me to enjoy. The first 10 minutes required some coordination, and people were clapping their hands at odd moments. It felt a bit like dancing. Still, I persevered and it got better. By the end of the class, my heart was also racing, so I guess it did the trick.

I'm pleased with the exercise I did today, and I can definitely feel it in my legs and shoulders already!

Overall, as I'm pleased with my exercise then I would give the whole day a 5 out of 10.
 
Hi, DA & welcome to the forum. It takes a while for everything to click in when you start a plan. Preparation is key. Well done on the exercise. 5 out of 10 isn't a bad start :)
 
Hey DA - I'm from the UK too :) I'm 27 and we are in the process of buying our first house too! I feel ya on the budget situation, we are living on a shoestring until it all happens! Where in the process are you? We just got our AIP and are looking at lots of different houses :) x
 
Welcome to the forum.

I'm another UK person too. :grouphug:

Most sauces in jars have labels which show not only calories - but also a level of nutritional breakdown including sugar, fat and sodium... A lot of these are done in handy traffic light colouring these days which makes it easier to tell the saints from the sinners among those sauces... All green and they are likely to be good - all red is going to work against you.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...ent_data/file/528193/Eatwell_guide_colour.pdf

It helps such things not be so hidden.

You are now being mindful about your food plan and exercise which is an excellent step in the right direction.
 
Thank you very much for the warm welcome everyone!

cate said:
Hi, DA & welcome to the forum. It takes a while for everything to click in when you start a plan. Preparation is key. Well done on the exercise. 5 out of 10 isn't a bad start :)
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Thanks for your message! Have to admit I didn't realise you meant my username when I first saw 'DA'. I assumed it was some weight loss acronoym that I didn't know about. Will take some getting used to!

Sunflower_ said:
Hey DA - I'm from the UK too :) I'm 27 and we are in the process of buying our first house too! I feel ya on the budget situation, we are living on a shoestring until it all happens! Where in the process are you? We just got our AIP and are looking at lots of different houses :) x
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Good to know someone in a similar situation! I don't know about you, but I will be so glad when we move and I can finally have people over so they can see the place I've sent the last 6 months house-hunting for. We have an offer accepted on our house, and have instructed solicitors on the conveyancing. So excited! I've practically picked out the paint for every room already.

Omega said:
Welcome to the forum.

I'm another UK person too. :grouphug:

Most sauces in jars have labels which show not only calories - but also a level of nutritional breakdown including sugar, fat and sodium... A lot of these are done in handy traffic light colouring these days which makes it easier to tell the saints from the sinners among those sauces... All green and they are likely to be good - all red is going to work against you.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...ent_data/file/528193/Eatwell_guide_colour.pdf

It helps such things not be so hidden.

You are now being mindful about your food plan and exercise which is an excellent step in the right direction.
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Thank you for the link. That is super helpful! I've only ever looked at the calorie part before, but I think if I'm going to be serious about this then I will need to look at the whole picture.
 
Day 2 on the diet was a lot better! I've decided that I'm going to count carbs as well as calories. I haven't decided on what I'm actually going to do with that information as I've not had chance to look up what counts as low carb diet and whether it would suit me. I think it will help me make better choices rather than just looking at the numbers.

Breakfast - half an avocado and a boiled egg (251 calories, 6 grams of carbs)
This went better than expected. I had never bought avocado before, so I got up early thinking that it was going to be an absolute pain to cut up and peal. Took about 10 seconds!

Lunch - 100g of bacon in a salad with tomato and vinaigrette. Also had a yoghurt (400 calories, 24 grams of carbs)
Could have picked a better meat than bacon, but it does need eating as it's about to go off. I was pretty shocked at the sugar content of the yoghurt (16 grams) for such a small pot.

Dinner - Cod in tomato sauce with olives, vegetables and noodles (647 calories and approx 80 grams of carbs)
The noodles were egg noodles, so could have done with them being a more brown/wholemeal type. Happy enough with the sauce/fish.

Snack - 1 mouthful of chocolate (literally just took a piece of my boyfriend's plate as he was eating a bit of his Easter egg) approx 50 calories and 5 grams of carbs

Drinks - 3 teas, 3 orange squashes - 30 calories, approx 4 gram of carbs

Total damage - 1,378 calories and approx 119 grams of carbs.

I'm fairly happy with today as not much of my food went on empty calories. A bit of it was high in sugar and the main carbs I had could have been better. Would give it a solid 7.5 out of 10.
 
Hey sounds like you did well on the diet the next day. Just out of interest have you worked out how many calories you actually need to consume to see effective weight loss based on your current lifestyle ?
 
cate said:
Well done on a better day :) Guess what I just had for breakfast? Avocado & egg :)
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Thank you! Haha - as they say, great minds think alike!

Haleygirl272 said:
What do you use for tracking :)? Good job on today's diet :)!!
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Just Google and my fingers and toes! I have scales for my food so it's easy enough to weigh. Are you referring to apps like MyFitness? I really should download one in case I forget to write down one day!

Elliot Phillips said:
Hey sounds like you did well on the diet the next day. Just out of interest have you worked out how many calories you actually need to consume to see effective weight loss based on your current lifestyle ?
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Thank you! To lose 1lb a week I'm looking at about 1,400 calories at the moment. I have to admit it didn't feel like a lot to me because when I've lost weight before I managed to fit in a lot more exercise. However, looking at these blogs has inspired me to believe that it will all fit into place once I've gotten used to my diet.
 
DietAccountability101 said:
Thank you! Haha - as they say, great minds think alike!



Just Google and my fingers and toes! I have scales for my food so it's easy enough to weigh. Are you referring to apps like MyFitness? I really should download one in case I forget to write down one day!



Thank you! To lose 1lb a week I'm looking at about 1,400 calories at the moment. I have to admit it didn't feel like a lot to me because when I've lost weight before I managed to fit in a lot more exercise. However, looking at these blogs has inspired me to believe that it will all fit into place once I've gotten used to my diet.
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If you let me know how many hours of exercise you are going to be doing each week and what type of job you have (active or sedentary) I can work out what it should be for you
 
Day 3 started when I tried to make breakfast and realised that our fridge is broken. I suppose that's one way of forcing me to lose weight...?

Although in seriousness this may somewhat mess up my plans. We currently rent and we're probably not going to get another fridge from our landlord until next week. I think I mentioned boyfriend and I batch cook our meals in advance (usually about 20 evening meals at a time), since it saves us so much time and money. This weekend was meant to be the weekend that we did all of our batch cooking, but that's going to have to be postponed. The following weekend I'm in uni 9-5 on both Saturday and Sunday, so that rules out the following weekend.

Oh well. We will just have to take each day as it comes. The only reason why it stresses me out a bit is because the batch cooking was a subtle way of controlling the calorie content without my boyfriend feeling like I am hovering over him every time he tries to cook. He will just have to put with me. We are about to buy a house and all!

My food was the following:

Breakfast - 1 banana and 15g of peanut butter (210 calories, 35g carbs)
The breakfast I had planned to have was off the menu when I realised that it had gone off and I spent a lot of time faffing with with the fridge. Had to get a quicker and more carby alternative!

Lunch - Chicken and vegetable broth, and raw carrot with 40g of onion chive dip (375 calories, 28g carbs)
The broth and chive dip was premade and probably had a bit too much salt, but otherwise I'm happy with my lunch.

Dinner - Hunter's chicken (minus the cheese) with asparagus (702 calories, approx 80g carbs)
My tea wasn't great at all. Practically all of those carbs came from the sugar that was in the Hunter's sauce, as the only thing I had with it was vegetables. My boyfriend loves it though. We never eat anything that's cheese-based or tastes too creamy because I can't stand the taste, so compromises have to be made sometimes.

Drinks - 3 teas, 3 orange squashes, 1 litre of water - (30 calories and approx 4g carbs)

Total: 1,317 calories and approx 147g carbs

I think a lot of my calories came from sugar today, but saying that I wouldn't class any of the food I ate as being proper junk. I'd probably give myself a 6.5 out of 10.

Exercise went well today.

First class was Boot Camp. I've done this class before, but it was different to ones that I'm used to. I was expecting weights and circuit training, whereas this class used more body weight exercises and running around. It definitely got my heart pumping, and when I was doing stuff like *burpees I could definitely see that there was room for improvement.

Second class was Body Pump. I've been to this class a lot, and I do really enjoy it. I found it harder than usual, but I think this was to be expected as I was still sore from Tuesday and I had done a class just before it.

Overall, I think the exercise pushed it in the right direction. I'd give myself another 7.5 out of 10 for today.

*burpees not burps. I tried to subtly edit this without anyone noticing, but a forum alert informed me that trying to change burps to burps looked like spam :hat:
 
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Elliot Phillips said:
If you let me know how many hours of exercise you are going to be doing each week and what type of job you have (active or sedentary) I can work out what it should be for you
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Ah thank you very much! I have a sedentary job. Exercise will be about 3 hours a week, as I'll be doing about 4 gym classes a week lasting 45 mins each. I am going to try incorporate a 3rd day of exercise but I might not be able to commit to that every single week, so I've ruled it out as relying on it calorie-wise.
 
Shame about the fridge :( Have you contacted the landlord? You never know, you may get one quickly. Batch cooking is so sensible! Well done on a couple of better days :)
 
DietAccountability101 said:
The following weekend I'm in uni 9-5 on both Saturday and Sunday, so that rules out the following weekend.
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Ah, I'm a student too and do my workshops on a Saturday! Do you work around yours, too? I'm in the midst of exams and in hell right now!

Sucks about the fridge :( I love batch cooking and do all mine on a Sunday for lunches for the week in the slow-cooker.. How are you going to manage without one? So difficult when you are trying to save money too.. :(
 
DietAccountability101 said:
Ah thank you very much! I have a sedentary job. Exercise will be about 3 hours a week, as I'll be doing about 4 gym classes a week lasting 45 mins each. I am going to try incorporate a 3rd day of exercise but I might not be able to commit to that every single week, so I've ruled it out as relying on it calorie-wise.
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Ok so I worked out that your total daily energy expenditure based on the info you have supplied is around 1782Kcals per day .

So you need to make sure you consume less than this to lose weight but you need to be precise as you don't want to eat less than your BMR (the amount of energy your body needs just to function effectively each day which is around 1380Kcals for you. So I would aim for about 1400Kcals a day to see healthy weight loss that doesn't make you hungry or low on energy. Which is exactly what you said so you got it spot on!!! Well done.
 
cate said:
Shame about the fridge :( Have you contacted the landlord? You never know, you may get one quickly. Batch cooking is so sensible! Well done on a couple of better days :)
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Yeah been in touch. Issue is that his office is not open on weekends. I think I'm going to ask my family for a cool box so at least we can still have milk and things. And thank you!

Sunflower_ said:
Ah, I'm a student too and do my workshops on a Saturday! Do you work around yours, too? I'm in the midst of exams and in hell right now!

Sucks about the fridge :( I love batch cooking and do all mine on a Sunday for lunches for the week in the slow-cooker.. How are you going to manage without one? So difficult when you are trying to save money too.. :(
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Yeah I do! I work a 9-5 when I'm not at University. Exhausting isn't it? My final exams are in the next couple of months. Will be so nice to get my life back.

We're going just keep to eating food out of the freezer I think. Stuff like quorn and frozen veg that can be defrosted in minutes, which is probably good for dieting as they're low in calories.

Elliot Phillips said:
Ok so I worked out that your total daily energy expenditure based on the info you have supplied is around 1782Kcals per day .

So you need to make sure you consume less than this to lose weight but you need to be precise as you don't want to eat less than your BMR (the amount of energy your body needs just to function effectively each day which is around 1380Kcals for you. So I would aim for about 1400Kcals a day to see healthy weight loss that doesn't make you hungry or low on energy. Which is exactly what you said so you got it spot on!!! Well done.
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Ah excellent! And thank you very much for working that out for me.
 
Day 4 saw my first challenge - a Friday night! To make it worse, it was the end of our financial year at work so it was a free bar all night. Everyone was smashed. Normally I'm terrible for completely forgetting how to calorie count when I'm on a night out. If I could apportion the 7lbs that tip me to being overweight, at least 5 of those should be attributed to alcohol.

Food-wise, I think I made fairly sensible choices for my meals. There was also a bit of food at the place where we went for drinks, where I made some poorer choices.

Breakfast
A banana and a boiled egg (193 calories, 24g carbs)
I also discovered (to my detriment) that avocado goes off very quickly when it's not refrigerated. Started immediately retching when I tried a piece.

Lunch
Chicken Tikka wrap (approx 450 calories, 27g carbs)
As well as it being end of financial year, it was a colleague's last day at work so we all went out for lunch. It was a slightly up-market food court, so everyone got to go to different places to pick out what they wanted. I picked somewhere which sold all of its wraps with the promise that it was under 500 calories. Everyone else was having stuff like burritos and chips so that they could drink more in the evening...

Dinner
Ratatouille and a small portion of sausage and potato (approx 450 calories, 25g carbs)
My lovely boyfriend made this and left me a lot left for when I came home. I wasn't very drunk, so I did manage to watch my portion size thankfully!

Snacks-
A handful of magic stars (approx 50 calories, 5g carbs)
A small piece of bread with humus and a couple of chips (approx 100 calories, 12g carbs)

Drinks
4 teas and 2 orange squashes (40 calories, approx 5g carbs)
1 glass of water - nil
2 double gins with diet tonic (248 calories, 0g carbs)
2 small glasses of red wine (240 calories, 7.4g carbs)

Total - 1,779 - 1,999 calories (I'll throw in a 200 calorie contingency since I've estimated a few things), and 105.4g carbs

Not great. At best it was a maintaining day, at worst it was a step backwards. I'd probably give myself a 4.5 out of 10.

I'd say that it's going to get better today, but it might not do! It's my best friend's birthday today and she wants us all to come over for drinks and a takeaway. Luckily my boyfriend is driving, so I will try to stick to his pace of drinking.
 
Actually I've thought about my previous post some more and I'm going to revise my score to 3.5 out of 10.

The reason why I gave myself a slightly higher score was because I was crediting myself for a day that wasn't THAT bad. I was surrounded by temptation all day I did pick choices that were a lot more restrained than everyone else around me.

However, that's exactly what my problem is. Just because it wasn't THAT bad doesn't mean that I've done well. It still won't produce results. Likewise, just because I'm not THAT overweight doesn't mean I'm not overweight. I'm still 21lbs heavier than I"d like to be. I need to start looking at my lifestyle objectively rather than comparing it to the people around me.

Funnily enough, the title of my blog was just an afterthought. It seems to sum up where I've been going wrong more than I realised.
 
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