My New Years resolution: who's with me?

[Amanda_George]

Just checked the NHS website and I'm verging on being obese.  I know I need to lose weight so my New Year's Resolution is going to be to drop a single clothes size from 16 to 14 for skirts and trousers (I'm ignoring the top half of me 'cos my huge but totally natural boobs mean that I'll always be size 16 for tops) during 2019.  That'll take me down to being half the size I was when I came out of hospital (Neurology ward) back in 2003.

I'm taking the weight loss slowly by increasing my exercise (walking the pup every morning) and cutting down on portion sizes.  It's taken 15 years but I'm getting there slowly.

Is there anyone who wants to join me with my New Year's resolution?  Either losing a clothes size if you're overweight or gaining a clothes size if you're underweight?  I'm avoiding the pressure of Weight Watchers and Slimming World etc, I'm just re-educating myself to become healthier is all.

Anyone want to join me?  Please?

[Pip]

I am

Well I am obese anyway but I am struggling as I don't have any will power, nor has Rick.  We belong to a health club so we don't have any excuse for not exercising.  Knowing someone else who wants to lose weight will help me get more motivation.

[Amanda_George]

I am

Well I am obese anyway but I am struggling as I don't have any will power, nor has Rick.  We belong to a health club so we don't have any excuse for not exercising.  Knowing someone else who wants to lose weight will help me get more motivation.

I'm the same way, Pip.  Don't pressure yourself to lose a kilogram a week or anything, go by your clothes.  I weigh 75kg and I'm 5 foot 1 according to last years "over 40" MOT with the nurse, but I've gone from size 28 when I came out of hospital in 2003 down to size 16 and I'm hoping to be at size 14 by this time next year.

You don't have to starve yourself or anything, just stop eating as soon as you feel full 'cos it takes 15 minutes for the feeling of fullness to go from your stomach to your brain. 

You don't need to do much exercise... I walk the pup for about 20 or 25 metres every morning then that's it!  Listen to your body and it will tell you when it's had enough - feel free to push yourself, but only when you've learnt when your body tells you it's too much.  Start really slowly and don't push yourself too hard until you've got used to listening to your body.  I started just doing 5 meters a day with the pup and really slowly increased it, now I'm happy to do 100% but after that I take my lead from the pup.  We did 1300% EXTRA last week which is 13 days walks in 7 days so we did a total of 2000% instead of 700% which is awesome.

Take your time with the exercise increases and don't push yourself too far too soon.  Maybe see if there's any way you can walk somewhere instead of taking the car if it's a short journey?  How far away is your church?  Within walking distance or not really?  Maybe make that your first target... to walk to your church for the Sunday service?  If it's too far to walk, maybe park the car slightly further away than you normally do?  Park in a street near the church instead of in the car park to start off with sort of thing?

Bin those scales though and set yourself a realistic target - you'll be re-educating your whole body to start on a healthy lifestyle instead of what your body has been used to.  It's hard going, but so worth it and you're not allowed to use rain/snow/sun/wind etc to stop you from exercising - I take the pup out in all weather's for her walk - there's no such thing as later when it comes to the exercising - as soon as you give yourself a day off the exercising, you've lost all the work you've already put in and you'll have to go right back to the start again and again... are you really going to let a few sploshes of water stop you from progressing?

I'm not and never will again.

[Amanda_George]

OK, so tomorrow is the start of 2019 and the start of my resolution... to easily fit into a size 14 pair of trousers or skirt by the end of 2019.  I'm gonna do that by continuing to slowly decrease my portion sizes and walking our pup at least 20 metres a day which is 100%.  I've got a walkies bank account that I deposit extra percents in every day so I'd like to keep getting over 1000% in the bank every week, but that's just an added bonus... as long as we do 100% a day, I'm gonna take the pup's lead from then on.

Happy New Year and good luck with your resolutions everyone!

[Pip]

I am okay with portion sizes as I have got down to child portions it's the nibbling between meals where I fail,  This year I'm determined to eat healthy snacks.

We recently joined up with Bannatyne health club which has a good gym plus a spar area which has a steam room, sauna, jacuzzi and pool and I enjoy swimming.  Of course having a dog and now a puppy it encourages us to go out for walks.  We live on the outskirt of town so there are plenty of routes we can walk.

[Amanda_George]

I am okay with portion sizes as I have got down to child portions it's the nibbling between meals where I fail,  This year I'm determined to eat healthy snacks.

We recently joined up with Bannatyne health club which has a good gym plus a spar area which has a steam room, sauna, jacuzzi and pool and I enjoy swimming.  Of course having a dog and now a puppy it encourages us to go out for walks.  We live on the outskirt of town so there are plenty of routes we can walk.

What sort of meals and snacks do you have?  If you're still snacking then maybe you need to increase your portion sizes to those of an adult and have more filling meals so that you aren't hungry?

Maybe keep a food diary for a week to see what you eat, when and why?  You don't have to show it to anyone if you don't want to but you need to be totally honest in it with all your food and drink.  It's OK to snack if you're hungry but they need to be healthy snacks and because you are genuinely hungry, not just out of habit.

Don't restrict your treats, just cut down on them a bit each week and keep them as treats instead of snacks.

With the exercise, use the gym then treat yourself to a sauna or jacuzzi session or whatever as a reward for doing whatever in the gym?  Don't pressure yourself and build up slowly.  There's no rush and your body will tell you when it's had enough.  At the start of 2018 I was walking Mitzi 5 metres a day but 100% is 25 metres now and we did 400% this morning.  Take things reeeeeally slowly and don't push yourself too hard, too soon or you will feel disappointed when you can't manage it every day.

You can do this, Pip... just don't push yourself too far too quickly is all!

[Amanda_George]

Food and drinks for today:

3 fingers of carrot cake
1 mug of Knorr vegetarian minestrone soup
1 large (500ml) mug of strong black tea ("normal strength" tea just tastes like hot water to me and I'm allergic to milk so I have it black but if you prefer weak, milky tea or coffee with 10 sugars in it then go for it, just make sure you regularly brush your teeth because of all the sugar!  Your dentist will love you but your teeth won't if you keep forgetting to brush your teeth)

Throughout the day so far I've also guzzled about 1 litre of Sainsbury's Tropical Crush

Tea will either be "sarnies or something from Yummies" according to the hubby and hopefully another mug of tea or hot chocolate before I head to bed.

There are no restrictions with my "diet" (no calorie counting or syns or pressure to do this or that every day on top of sprinting a marathon in under 10 minutes), I've just learnt that sometimes my body interprets thirst as hunger so instead of eating now, I try having something to drink instead.  It takes 15 minutes for the feeling of fullness to reach my brain so I stop eating as soon as I stop feeling hungry now.

I allow myself 2 pig-outs a year when I eat so much I feel bloated, but that's only for my birthday and Christmas.  By the end of this year, if I get down to a size 14, I'll be literally half the size I was when I came out of the hospital (Neurology ward) in March 2003 when I was a size 28.

It's been a looooong and at times difficult road, but I've only got 3 clothes sizes to lose now before I'm size 10 again.

Exercise this morning was 400% which is about 100 metres and other than walking to the bathroom at the back of the house on the ground floor, that's it until bed time when I'll walk upstairs and crawl into bed.

What about you?  Totally up to you of course, but if we are honest with each other about what we eat, drink and do every day, hopefully that will help us all to re-programme our brains to eat less and drink more?

Bin those weighing scales and just rely on what your body tells you what it can do.  Push yourself occasionally, but not too much or too often.

Set realistic goals and we'll all get there together eventually.

We can soooo do this!  Together!   

[Amanda_George]

Having cheesy chips and baked beans for me tea and I've cracked open a bottle of pineapple and grapefruit crush that'll hopefully keep me going until tomorrow afternoon/evening.

Like I said, no rules or food that's off limits.  It's done me well for the last almost 16 years and I ain't about to change it now.  It's taken over 1.5 decades but slow and steady wins the race and all that jazz!

[Amanda_George]

Only managed half of it before my stomach said "no more!"  Bit of a waste, but never mind!  Wouldn't have had the carrot cake and soup if I'd known!  lol

[Amanda_George]

The pup only wanted a short walk this morning... only about 60 metres, so not as far as yesterday, but better than nothing.  Our grocery shopping is coming this morning and Steve's already promised me a toasted cheese sandwich again.  Taken me four supplements and had a couple of drinks of the pop so I'm not hungry any more.  Definitely thirst, not hunger so far this morning.

What about everyone else?  How are you getting on with losing/gaining weight?

[Amanda_George]

5 cake fingers, about 300ml of squash for me supplements, toasted cheese sarnies for lunch and I'm gonna finish off the bottle of pineapple and grapefruit crush this afternoon.

We've got a bag of banana's to finish off before Monday now, so hopefully my snacks will be healthier than so much cake lol

Prolly won't eat anything else for the rest of the day now, cos I'm nicely full now so don't want to get bloated   

How are you all doing with your eating and drinking and exercising and stuff?  You don't have to eat or do more than your body can cope with, but it'll take a looong time to do it and you won't feel pressured to exercise - this is a lifestyle choice for a better, healthier you instead of a competition to see who can lose the most each week!

[Amanda_George]

Just finished off a take-away curry.  Yumsk.  All I've eaten all day in preparation for the curry was 3 Viennese whirls.  Nicely full now and I've already taken my AP so I'm off to bed now.  Absolutely nothing is off limits, just stop eating before you're bloated is all.

Nite nite orl!

[Amanda_George]

Just got back from walking the pup.

We'd done 400% the rest of the week and I was ready to come home after that today too.

The pup kept walking to our previous best of 500%.

Carried on walking.

600% came and went.

My body was starting to tell me to go home but the pup wasn't listening.

700% and my body was like "you've got to go home now or I'll give way and you won't be able to get up and walk home.  I'm totally serious".  The pup wanted to carry on walking but I knew by that point that it'd be stupidly dangerous for me to carry on walking so we came home and I haven't moved since.

I'm not going to be able to move for the rest of the day now, but in a single morning I've done 975 steps of the 2000 target and there's still 10 hours to go before bed time lol

[Amanda_George]

We had another curry for tea last night and we did another 400% on the pup's walk so in 7 days, we've done 2500% extra  :happy0064:which is a grand total of 3200% in 7 days, instead of the 700% we used to do!   

Aiming for 400% every day next week, which is about 100 metres a day.  I know you're prolly thinking that that's nothing to be proud of, but when I came out of hospital I was too ill to even leave the house!

I'm also keeping a record of the number of steps I've walked too and I'm feeling sooo proud of myself for getting over 1,000 steps when the pup took me for a Snickers the other day.  Again, that's a huuuuge achievement for me, even if it isn't for you.

I'm gonna try and remember to put a screenshot of the spreadsheet on my site every Monday morning so that I can see how I do for exercise (walking) by the end of the month and hopefully this year too.

How are you doing Pip?  How is the snacking and exercising going for you?  I hope you are still keeping up with your want to lose weight and exercise more!

[Amanda_George]

Another 400% this morning and my left knee is giving me grief for doing so much walking last week.  This week and next week will have to be 400% (100 metres) a day, tops, so that I can recover from last week.

I'm glad that we achieved 700% but my body is seriously complaining now, so it'll have to be nothing over 400% this week so that my knees don't give way and I fall to the floor, unable to get to my feet again.

How are the rest of you doing?  You been to that spa thing yet, Pip?  Get your swimming costume and a towel ready 'cos you're going at least once this week, aren't you?  I'm not going to spend the year exercising alone!  It doesn't need to be a lot, but if I'm walking the pup every morning, you need to encourage me to keep going with you swimming too!  Start off really slowly and gradually build it up once a month.  This week do one length, then in February make it two lengths, March is three lengths etc etc.  How about your eating?  Maybe slowly increase the portion sizes and reduce your snacking starting this week?

We can do this together, Pip!

I've hopefully attached last week's activity levels to this message... who is gonna join me and hold me responsible for doing at least 400% and at least 750 steps every day?