Motivation- weight loss and other goals

emsahib

emsahib

New member
Ok I did start this before, but then thought I didn't have time for it and deleted it. I was probably a bit hasty, I guess it's just a bit difficult thinking about keeping up with a food diary, and then maybe there's the thought that I probably don't want to be told what to eat. But I should be open to advice. So here I go again :) I can't promise I'll remember to write this every day but I think I should give it another shot.

Weighed myself 2 weeks ago and I was 10 stone 7, then a day or two ago I was 10 stone 6. I'm female, 25 years old, size 14 (occasionally 12 on some skirts, tops and dresses, but never trousers). I'd like to get down to 9 stone 7 and be a size 12.

Yesterday I ate

Breakfast Fruit and fiber cereal with yogart

Lunch Tinned tomatoes on 2 pieces of wholemeal toast

Snacks Piece of toast and jam, then later on an orange, oh and a two tomatoes, oh and a 40 calories cup of hot chocolate, nearly forgot that

Dinner 4 vegetarian sausages, half a tin of baked beans

Then when my bf came home at 10ish I made him dinner, and stole 3 of the handmade potato wedges I'd made him.

Exercise I didn't do any exercise yesterday, I had been quite good with exercise but now and then I get a bit of leg pain in my right leg, actually it sometimes seems to come on if I haven't done any exercise for a while. I have been to the doctor a few times but both doctors said just to stretch it.

Reading for my disertation Absolutly nothing! ok I shall do some today!!
 
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Yesterday I ate

Breakfast fruit and fiber cereal with yogart

Lunch had my main meal for lunch, a soya mince thing with tinned tomatoes, lentils and corgette with some pasta and peas, and a bit of cheese on top

Dinner Beans on 2 pieces of toast

Snacks was sacking through the day on cheeries, also had a piece of toast and peanut butter

Exercise Again nothing, unless you cound going to the shops twice

Reading for dissertation Read for about 2 hours
 
Hey - keep up the good work, looks like you've got similar goals to me. I'm about 10 stone 6 at the moment and initially want to get down to 10 stone, and then hopefully end up about 9 stone 7. I'm also a size 14 on my bottom half (sometimes even a 16) but on my top I'm usually a 12. Would just be nice to fit into a standard size!!

It's hard work updating a food diary every day but I do find that it helps focus the mind (and the appetite!!) and I'm looking forward to looking back and seeing the progress!!
 
thankyou :) yeah actually I'm already finding that I do feel a bit more controlled, but that might be cos the day or two before starting the diary I had chocolate lol but its before the diary so it doesn't count lol. I expect I will have treats from time to time anyway, but I think that's ok so long as I don't over do it. If I didn't have a few treats and bad stuff now and then I'd go mad! :)

Ok so yesterday Wednesday 6th July

Breakfast Porridge made with water, and a little bit of brown sugar. Followed by an orange.

Lunch Ciabatta cut in half, two halves topped with goats cheese, tomato, red pepper and a few broken walnuts all warmed in the oven. Was so nice

Dinner I made a brocalli, cheese and onion tart using read made puff pastry. Had about an 8th of the packet of pastry, served with lettuce, tomatoe and cucumber, and 1 and 1/2 small baked potatoes with a tiny bit of cheese. (I know pastry isn't the healthiest, does anyone make their own pastry? Can it be healthier to make it yourself?)

Snacks Just had a few cheeries, not as many as the day before though. Really need to use them up before they go off!

Exercise None. (But I've done some this morning)

Reading for dissertation Finally finished reading Frankenstein. :)
 
yesterday Thursday 7th July

Breakfast half tin of beans on two pieces of toast. (plus two small bites of the tart from yesterday, my bf was having an early lunch as he was working early)

Lunch Ciabetta with reduced fat cheese and mushroom cooked, was a bit of an experiement (not a good one lol)

Dinner 3 small baked potatoes and cheese, loads of salad consisting of lettuce, tomatoe, cucumber, yellow pepper, grated carrot and half tin of black eyed peas. (Never had black eyed peas in a salad before wasn't sure if I should cook them first or not, but I did just to be on the safe side.)

Snacks Bowl of Nestle Clusters, orange.

Exercise My leg was feeling better, did 10 mins of the original Minister of Sound, then my leg was twingeing a bit so I thought I'd do something different that would be kinder on my leg. So then I did about 25 mins of Flat Belly Fast, one of the 10 min solutions, as this is mainly abs so this didn't hurt my leg.
Total 35 mins

Reading for my dissertation Don't really know where yesterday went but didn't manage to do any reading. Still waiting for 3 books to be delievered as well.
 
just found the piece of paper with my measurements on it from about a week ago. I got my bf to write down the results. It's really cute, where he's meant to have written bust arms, thighs etc he's written boobs, muscle arm, and sexy thinghs lol bless him :)
 
Friday 8th July

Breakfast Nestle Clusters, with yogurt

Lunch Vegetable burger, brown roll, salad, tomatoe, cucumber, cooked peas and carrots

Dinner Made a curry using a premade weightwatchers sauce, actually I don't know why I used the sauce, often I just make a sauce up myself, and I ended up adding more tomatoes, and more spices to it anyway. Had potato, carrot, courgette, pepper, mushroom, 1/2 tin of black eyed beans, 1 tin of borlotti beans. Basmati rice boiled with a bay leaf.

Snacks Toast peanut butter. Toast marmalade. Orange

Exercise None.

Reading for dissertation None :S

Saturday 9th July

It was my friends birthday so we went to the beach :D was awesome!

Breakfast Fruit and fiber with yogurt

Lunch 2 sandwiches using french bread stick, low fat cheese, rocket and tomato. A tiny weight watchers carrot cake which was 84 cals and a little fruit pie which was 231! lol still at least I only ate one of each. They're quite small would be easy to put away a few! Oh and some strawberries :) love strawberries

Dinner Basic cheese pizza that I added peppers, sweetcorn, jalapenos, mushroom, tomatoes and chilli flakes. My bf also suggest we cook this packet rice thing so I had only about a spoon that as well, with some salad tomato, pepper. Also I'd like to add that I haven't ordered any dominos all year, I was at one point ordering them a few times a month! So even if I do still have pizza I'm pleased that I'm not having an even bigger more fatty and way overpriced one!

Snacks Chocolate digestive. I could have put the other "naughty" things here but they were part of my lunch

Exercise Was running, walking on the beach all day and running in the sea, plus there was digging in the sand lol. Attempted to play badminton but that really didn't work with the slight wind the shuttlecock being really light weight.

Reading for dissertaion NONE! but me and my friend are going to arrange a couple of days a week to meet up to do work :) hurrah
 
also I should've said I didn't eat the whole pizza myself! It was a fairly biggish pizza, thin base, we split it into 6 slices and i had 2 my bf had 4. Also I got a set of digital kitchen scales, and also some digital bathroom scales. I always found it a bit difficult to tell exactly how much I was on the old scales as you have to count how many lines. But now I just read the number so much easier! Also I weighed myself recently and checked it was the same on the old scales which it was. Weighed myself a few times at different times of the day just to check and I'm down to 10 stone 4 :)
 
Sunday 10th July

Breakfast sainsbury's whole grain raisin wheats (they're like an own brand of mini shredded wheat) with yogurt

Lunch Tin of tomato soup and some french stick. Think I should have only had half the tin as I couldn't finish it all. But it was nice :) I don't always like tinned soup but I think I'll get that again. Was a be good to yourself range.

Dinner Curry that I made the other day with brown rice.

Snacks Piece of marmite toast, orange, chocolate digestive, few strawberries, few almonds, square of dark chocolate. hmmm must of been hungry today, maybe that's why I didn't eat all my soup

Exercise/ Reading Nil
 
emsahib said:
also I should've said I didn't eat the whole pizza myself! It was a fairly biggish pizza, thin base, we split it into 6 slices and i had 2 my bf had 4. Also I got a set of digital kitchen scales, and also some digital bathroom scales. I always found it a bit difficult to tell exactly how much I was on the old scales as you have to count how many lines. But now I just read the number so much easier! Also I weighed myself recently and checked it was the same on the old scales which it was. Weighed myself a few times at different times of the day just to check and I'm down to 10 stone 4 :)
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Whoop whoop!! Well done, I'm crossing my fingers that in my weigh in this week I'll be between 10 stone 4 and 10 stone 5....

Just reading about that pizza has me drooling, if I had to live off one food for the rest of my life it would be pizza!!
 
Thanks for lemsip recipe - funny, I had forgotten that I used to have a similar one as a child and used to make it a few years ago - no drugs in it, but just honey, lemon, sugar and hot water - I think it sweats the cold out!! I will try that this evening, but maybe with some asparin in like you suggested.

I also SWEAR by ginger, whenever I feel bloated or a bit dodgy I have fresh ginger in hot water - works a treat, even the bf buys into it!!
 
tanyajp said:
Whoop whoop!! Well done, I'm crossing my fingers that in my weigh in this week I'll be between 10 stone 4 and 10 stone 5....

Just reading about that pizza has me drooling, if I had to live off one food for the rest of my life it would be pizza!!
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:S sorry about the drooling. You know I practiclly did live off pizza when I was a teenager and began a vegetarian. I've borrowed a bread maker from my bf's Mum so sometimes we make our own pizza dough. Haven't got round to make bread though, should really give that a go, especially as we've had it for ages! oh well she said she didn't use it anyway.

Good luck with your weigh in :)

Monday 11th July

I've been looking alot more at food labels and I'm going to try and start counting calories. I may not get it right straight away, and I think I'll definatly struggly counting them in home cooked meals, but with practice maybe it'll get easier. Also I've worked most of this out this morning so I couldn't quite work out everything.

Breakfast sainsbury's whole grain raisin wheats with yogurt. I didn't exactly measure the yogurt, its more of a guess. 276.8 cals maybe I should round up.

Lunch French bagette sandwich with low fat cheese, tomato, and rocket. Don't think I can work this out because there was no nutritional info, I didn't weigh the cheese, or the tomatoes, or infact the bread. No idea cals lol And a small glass of apple juice which I did measure 88 cal

Dinner I've never been a big fan of quiche, but now and then we get these amazing (and expensive) quiches from sainsburys called Higgidy Quiches. They're actually more like pies and they have more interesting flavours. But I'm really surprised at how many cals are in them. They do mini indiviual quiches (I could probably easily eat two, though obviously I didn't) And that tiny tiny quiche is 446 cal does that seem alot? I'm not used to counting. Anyway had that with 150g of small potatoes 105 cals oh and I had a tiny bit of marg on them dunno exactly how much though it says 63 cal per 10g, guess I'll have to measure that too next time. Salad, had grated carrot, something called Lambs lettuce (strange name for lettuce lol) tomatoes and cucumber. I'll guess about 55 cals for that

Snacks Two pieces of toast and marmite (also used marg and didn't measure that or marmite, so again an estimate) 260 cal

Total cal (plus however many that sandwich was) 1294

Exercise Went to the gym! hurrah :) Was really busy at the time. Did 20 mins on the cross trainer, then 20 mins on the exercise bike. Total 40 mins

Reading None, but my excuse is my books still haven't come. (Even though I could read something else) Plus I really don't know where the day goes.
 
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tanyajp said:
Thanks for lemsip recipe - funny, I had forgotten that I used to have a similar one as a child and used to make it a few years ago - no drugs in it, but just honey, lemon, sugar and hot water - I think it sweats the cold out!! I will try that this evening, but maybe with some asparin in like you suggested.

I also SWEAR by ginger, whenever I feel bloated or a bit dodgy I have fresh ginger in hot water - works a treat, even the bf buys into it!!
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You're welcome hope it works :)
 
Tuesday 12th July (where is this month going!!)

Trying my best to count calories again, but it does take ages. I did it by writing down what I was having through the day how many grames etc and I did some of the maths yesterday and some today. I actually think it made me hungrier as well, maybe because it meant I had to think about food more as I was working out what I'd had. But I think it also took some of the fun and satisfaction out of eating it. I don't think counting calories is really for me, but at least I've learnt a little about what calories are in certain types of foods. I think I'll still look at food labels and I'll still weigh some of my food and try to measure portions but don't think I can keep up all the counting! :)

Breakfast

Quite a few calories here
2 pieces of toast and peanut butter. I used 5 teaspoons of peanut butter in total altogether comes to 409 cal and a green tea 2 cal lol

Lunch

houmous and tomato sandwich 152.5 cal and some strawberries 19 cal

also I've learnt that tomatoes (or the ones in my fridge anyway) are 17 cal per 100g! thats great I love tomatoes :D though obviously I didn't expect them to be much. Also when I was looking up how much strawberrries are I read something stupid about how even though fruits healthy for you it still has calories so you shouldn't eat too much. Ok I can see what they're saying but surely its better to eat too much fruit than too much something else that's far worse for you.

Dinner Ok this took ages to work out! Had a chili with soya mince and beans, used up a few mushrooms. Had it with 2 taco shells, some basmati rice and some cheese. For the chilli I worked out the calories of the whole thing. Then I was going to weigh it and then weigh my portion and the empty saucepan afterwards, but my new set of scales is actually quite small and its kinda hard to see the number displayed. So I dished up with a big serving spoon and counted how many spoons I was having and how many the whole thing was. So anyway, the amount of chilli I had was 215 cal 2 tacos 134 cal 35g cheese 114.3 cal about 60ish g rice 211.2 cal whole dinner 674.5 cal

Snacks 50g apricot wheats dry (I don't like milk on cereal makes it too soggy, that's why I usually have yogurt) 160.5 cal

15g walnuts 105.75 cal really needed those walnuts

hot choco 40 cal 2 pieces dark chocolate 66.5 cal

Total for today (may as well round up) 1630 cal
 
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Oh and I did reading yesterday! Didn't get very far as I'm a slow reader but still its something. No exercise though, although I should point out most days I do get out the house so walking to the shops surely does something.
 
Well done on the calories counting - it can be really painful and tedious:banghead:, especially when you're making things from scratch. But just doing it for a while with your usual foods will give you a good idea of what is low, high, and how much you can have of things. Then you can usually get a good idea of what your meals have been without having to weigh and read everything.

I've had a couple of days with pretty low calories so have decided to up my limit a bit - am starting right now by eating a chocolate chip cookie - yum!!
 
tanyajp said:
I've had a couple of days with pretty low calories so have decided to up my limit a bit - am starting right now by eating a chocolate chip cookie - yum!!
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Good plan! :D

I think you're right about the counting calories, if I end up eating the same stuff I'll know how much it is already so that will be easier. Plus I don't think I'll feel so bad having some cake or something if its within how many calories I'm allowed.

I did that Basal Metabolic Rate the other day which came to 1487.5 X by 1.375 which was the number for exercise 1-3 times a week (sometimes I have good weeks sometimes not so good lol so I thought 1-3 seemed right for that)

Then it recommends taking away about 500 if trying to loose weight which came to 1545.3. It also said for women eat no less than 1200 (though I guess for some women that would be ok as this is an average)
Anyway so I'm going to aim for between 1200 and 1545.3 Let's see how I do :)

Wednesday 13th July

Breakfast 70g apricot wheats and yogart 294 cals

Lunch Baked potato, half tin of beans, 15g cheese, 315 cals

Dinner Chilli from the other night, this time just with one taco (I was gonna pass on the taco completly but my bf was having some, he can eat so much more than I can lol lucky guy. Ok he moves around at work alot, I'll let him off) With rice, total 529 cal

Snacks 2 pieces of marmite toast 260 cal
Plus I made tiny gingerbread people. They were quite nice actually, though they were a bit on the dry side, maybe more milk? I had 2 which came to 120 cal plus a green tea 2 cal

Total cals 1520

Exercise None

Reading Tiny bit. Would have done more but the apprentice was on!!

Thursday 14th July

Breakfast 70g apricot wheats and yogurt. I actually weighed the yogurt today I've just been estimating before. 296.7

Lunch Bought some bigger bread, Hovis is tiny! Got kingsmill although unfortunatly its more calories obviously being bigger. 118 per slice. Its got seeds in as well maybe that's part of it. It's actually slightly more than two pieces of wholemeal hovis which is, but it is tiny bread! lol Anyway lunch was tin of Heinz tomato soup and slice of bread with some marg, came to 386

Dinner Went round to my bf's parents house, so I'm not sure on the calories. Had ciabatta which had butter and paprika on it melted. Courgettes and tomatoes cooked with herbs walnuts and I think mozzarella, and garlic mash, I'm not sure what was in that. Also had some cold peppers. And some fruit salad for desert, which had berries, kiwi and peaches. I'm guessing 600 for the dinner and about 80 for the fruit salad.

Snacks 1 tiny gingerbread man 60 small orange 62 10g walnuts (this is midday, so not the walnuts at dinner) 70.5 5 dried apricots 75

Estimated Total 1630.2 could be more, could be less, but I think I did alright :) plus I did Exercise 50 mins 10 min solution Fitness Ball Workouts, which you do on one of those gym balls. There's 5 sections, I'm the worst at the lower body workout, there's one bit where you're stomachs on the ball and you have to lift your legs upwards and I can barely move at all! I think I'm good at the upper body, not so much the plank part but I feel I'm mastering the weights :D plus I like the core workout as I really enjoy doing situps on the ball, I don't think I would ever do a sit up on the floor that just doesn't seem appealing at all! Plus at my bf's parents house we played a bit of badminton, probably about 20 mins even though I was wearing a long dress that I had to hitch up so I could move! lol.

Reading None of what I was meant to be reading.
 
I've been away for a week with my bf at his parents house looking after their dog while they were on holiday. It actually felt like a mini holiday for us too. Was so nice to have a garden for a week, plus even though they're only a 20 min drive from where we live they're surrounded by fields so was lovely taking the dog for walks every morning. Also as it was kinda of mini holiday my food diary went out the window, I didn't count any calories (which I don't think I'm gonna do any more anyway) and I didn't even write down what I had every day. Plus his mum had made us a victoria sponge cake which was lovely, and she had loads of handmade mince pies in the freezer left over from xmas which she said we could have. I also had chocolate and one night we made nachos. The meals we ate were pasta couple of times, nut roast (from a packet but I think its really nice) chilli couple of times, and some veggie ready meals from Morrison's. Also played a bit of badminton and went swimming one day. My bf's teaching me to swim, that was the second time I've been in a pool in over 10 years. Amazingly I can actually do breast stroke and crawl, but I've only managed to do half a length, also I'm not too keen on going to the deep end. We popped back home on thursday when we went swimming and I weighed myself and I was 10 stone 3, which plesantly surprised me as I'd been having lots of cake :) still I had been doing alot of walking. We came back yesterday evening and I weighed 10 stone 3 again. This morning I actually weighed 10 stone 1, but I think that's just cos it was first thing and obviously I hadn't eaten or drank anything during the night, so I expect later it will go back up. Still I'm feeling really positive that I can have a few (or quite a few) treats now and then without going majorly off track, I think this is alot better in the long term for me :) Also I had two really good days where I read for ages, but then the rest of the week we ended up playing games and watching tv and walking and going to the cinema and the zoo etc etc Oh the zoo is really nice, it doesn't have many animals so they've got alot more space, its got Elephants, Tiger, Snow Leopard, Gorilla's and other monkeys, Deer, Tapirs, Lemurs, Capybaras (which had babies, so cute!) there are some other ones, but yeah not so many animals.
 
Oh dear this isn't going so well, I've been neglecting my food diary (possibly because I've been having a few too many treats at the moment so at the back of my mind I don't want to write them down, which then makes me think that its not really counting some way, what am I thinking!) lol Ok so I have decided I am going to make every Wednesday and Sunday my Treat Days I'm not entirely sure how this will work, if I should allow myself one chocolate bar or piece of cake, or some sort of pudding, or if I'll end up becoming so relaxed that I eat everything! That doesn't sound like a good idea.

Ok how about this, on treat days I'm allowed 2 treats at the most so if during the day I have a chocolate bar then I could also allow myself a pudding in the evening perhaps. Or if I make cookies (like I did yesterday and ended up eaten 3 or 4!) I'll have 2 instead.

Hopefully this will work having allocated days, as at the moments its just been easier and easier to say "oh go on then" lol Think I need to go to the shops and get some carrot sticks :)
 
From the US here....

I just found this sight this morn. I was trying to figure it out and as I was browsing, your foods caught my interest! I don't even know what it is you all are eating! Hahaha
Anyway, I would love, love, love to lose about 40 pounds? Anyone want to go at this with me?
 
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