Giving it a go again

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noparsnips

New member
A long time ago I was on here, and dropped from (from memory) 234 pounds to 204. And then many distractions happened, including moving house, and I stopped focussing on losing weight or getting fit. I did keep the weight off, though, which feels good,since I know how easy it is to let pounds pile back on.


And now I think it's time to start up again, and to go from where I am now, which is just about 200 pounds, to around about 150 pounds. I'm not calorie-counting; I'm following the line of "breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and sup like a pauper", and I often don't eat after seven at night. I'm hoping to lose about three pounds a week, and I don't want to even think about how long it'll take me at that rate! Slow but steady is the plan.


So hello, again! Nice to be back! :seeya:
 
Thanks, Trusylver! Thanks, Free!
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So far, so good!


I'm looking forward to tomorrow's weigh-in for the June Challenge, and starting to think maybe I set my sights too low -- I was aiming just to get below 90 kg, but now I'm thinking I can do more than that.


It's interesting how different people seem to have different eating patterns that suit them, isn't it? I'm realising that one of my routes to gaining weight was eating to suit myself, which meant having something like a little meal around five or five-thirty in the afternoon, and then eating again, a 'real' meal, to keep the family company a little bit later. It seems to be fairly easy, so far, to lose weight by just eating to suit myself, but it's also not very sociable. :)
 
With rotation diet, U can safely lose 15+ lbs a month with a little exercise. If U kick the exercise up to 1 /12 to 2 hrs a day exercise (walking, rowing or biking), then you can lose 20+ per month. I have done it several times.


If I ate likely my wife and daughter, I could not lose weight. When we eat out, I have one grilled chicken sandwich. They love for me to cook out. When I cook out, I limit myself to one hamburger.
 
Yay for new diary!!!


That thing about just eating for you not being very sociable is soooo true. It's actually quite shocking how many of our social gatherings are food centred, weekend barbecues, dinner party type things, even something as straightforward as birthday cake, is every social event focused on food? I'd like to try a scenario something like: " There is food in the kitchen if you want it, but tonight for family time we're going play a boardgame instead."


for a long time, my dad worked nights and we would eat lunch together as a family instead of dinner, it was odd but but weirdly empowering to just change a tradition like that.
 
Thanks for the replies! I will try to get more exercise this week -- walking, but also some I got off the internet to do at home, mostly trying to get some shape (any shape!) into the front of me.


Sociability and eating -- Tonight (Saturday) is meeting friends and listening to music, which will certainly involve some eating somewhere along the line... I'm glad the weekly weigh-in is Saturday mornings! (or else I might get thrown out of the 190s Club again.) The idea of shaking up our (social and familial) relationship to food as being empowering -- yes! Not sure how to do it, though.


Two things to share:


I found this on the internet: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm It's a visual guide to what 200 calories of various foods looks like.


And, I found a recipe for "scrambling" eggs, using a poaching method, ie cutting out all added fat. I used it yesterday for my breakfast ("like a king") and it made beautifully light and creamy scrambled eggs. http://www.food52.com/recipes/17328_daniel_pattersons_poached_scrambled_eggs I hope someone else enjoys it as much as I did! (I halved the recipe, and used all the white.)
 
Hi no parsnips. I think you plan of slow and steady is the best. There have been studies done on this about how when you lose more than 10% your start to put it back on quickly afterwards and i have found that to be true. But if you pause as you have done periodically, chances are you can maintain your gains and gradually get down to an ideal weight. My current approach which i've just begun will be along those lines.


Good luck with your program.
 
had a look at the 200 calorie thing and now I want doritos -_- talk about doing it wrong.

useful guides, both. I use a non-stick pan with butter flavoured cook n bake spay for my eggs, often with some shredded chicken in it to make up some extra substance.
 
Congrats for coming back and getting the impetus to start again. Sounds like a sensible way to approach things - what kind of exercise do you plan on doing? Even just a little bit can really help - I find it makes me feel less hungry and less likely to snack, both in a body chemical sort of way but also in a mental "why would I eat in chocolate what I've just burned off?!" kind of way.


Good luck on your journey - of course you can do it!!
 
As to the exercise I'll be doing -- walking, mostly, plus some do-at-home exercises. I don't have access to a gym; when I did, I like dthe rowing machine and the walking machine, and a little bit of hand-held weights. Maybe I should start the can-of-beans-in-either-hand style weights at home?


I know I really do need exercise; I'm in danger of focussing too much on the numbers on the scale, and not on having a good streamlined body. ("streamlined"!! I should be so lucky! ;) ) I don't focus so much on the numbers as in calories; I try to keep aware of roughly how many there are in things I regularly eat, like eggs, but there are also things like cheese and butter, where I find it too easy to sliver off just a little more... just a little more, so that for me, they just have to be more-or-less off-limits most days. Last night for tea, for example, I had a single piece of home-made "Lebanese bread", which had about half a cup of flour in it, ie about 100 calories (didn't bother counting the yeast and oil involved), and some undressed lettuce etc etc salad, and some home-cooked chilli beans -- I didn't bother counting up the calories in the salad or the beans, just sticking to a small serve. I was tempted to add the Dreaded Cheese ("just a sliver...") but refrained.


I would have topped that off with a chocolate biscuit from my husband's secret stash, :reddevil:.... but he hadn't opened the pack, so I couldn't! Phew!
 
Hello noparsnips!! ( great name!! )




Thanks so much for stopping by my diary, means alot!! isnt it so hard some days eating healthy( dont want to say the dreaded d word-diet lol) At this very moment i am still craving chocolate but i do not wanna cave in. So i am upstaires sulking ha.


dont be too hard on urself, walking is just as good exercise as all the others!!


Keep up all the hard work:) And well done for doing so great so far:)
 
Thanks! And I'm just back from a short walk to buy two tins of beans, to fill a commitment I made on Trusylver's diary. :cool:


Stairs are a great help in the house! Not only are they a built-in subtle exercise, they put a whole layer of house between us and temptation! Or two layers -- I think it was on jjjay's diary recently that she mentioned being two floors away from the food. :biggrin:
 
Well, this is no fun! Three days and no change in the scales, and the weekly weigh-in is tomorrow. :) I had hoped to have broken the 90 kg barrier this week, but it's not looking as if I will.
 
Keep thinking positive, even if the scales tomorrow say you havent lost one pound, you more than likely have gained muscle which is more important!!!


Goodluck:)
 
Thanks, Irish Princess. I didn't break the 90 kg barrier, and feel not that good about it. Down about half a kilo for the week, which stinks.
 
Sorry to hear about not breaking the 90kgs barrier Noparsnips!


As the others say don't get too hung up on the scales - I've plateaued for a week and then dropped like 5lbs over night and bizarre stuff like that in the past. One helpful thing I found was to have a pair of "reference" trousers that I try on each week or two when the lbs don't seem to be going down - I have found that I'm still the same weight one week but they pull up an inch further up my thighs or aren't quite so far away from buttoning up!!! Remember, weight loss, aka SIZE-loss can be measured in ways other than lbs!! Or measuring key stats with a tape measure - again, I've lost centimeters and not lbs some periods of time.


There are lots of mini exercises you can do at home - lunges, squats, mini-pressups, crunches or planks - as gentle as you want to start with.


Yeah, it was me that's staying in an attic room when I'm away for work most of the week at the moment - 2 flight from the kitchen, plus the fridge isn't my fridge so I don't keep much in there at all, so not much snacking potential apart from some fruit and a box of crackers I keep in my room.
 
Saw your progress on the June challenge Parsnips.. and sheesh, really, don't sweat it! You're doing absolutely amazingly already, and your attitude says a lot too! I'm sure you'll get to your goal before you know it!

I know how depressing it is to only see a small change in weight, though.. heck, the most I have EVER lost in one week was 3lbs, haha. That's the MOST! And the last two months, my scales have barely changed at all - lost 2lbs, I think, for the 8 weeks. Sometimes I just feel like saying F THIS, IT AIN'T WORKING! But, obviously, it doesn't quite work like that.. so you gotta learn to celebrate every loss, even if it's just 100g! Be glad you've not gone up, be glad you're doing right by yourself. The fact that you lost so much, and kept it off, is also a good representative of how determined you are! Stick at it! You seem a very positive and inspiring person, and I know you'll do fabulously!


Also, what Jjjay said.. you feel SO good about that 'one' pair of trousers! I had a goal pair when I started which I could barely squeeze into.. now, they're too big for me! Definitely get yourself a pair that's one or two sizes smaller than you are now - and enjoy the success once you get there, which I KNOW you will!

Chin up!
 
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