I’m a pear ? the sequel!

Morning.....stayed the same...I dint think my hearts in it, I lose a couple pound, stay the same, pure on a couple....wonder if I'm bored with slimming world, or it could be the climate on what's going round at the moment......wonder a change of diet will give me a boost? ...Mediterranean maybe ! Any ideas?

I’m the same Shirleyw. It’s 1lb on for me this week. There’s been a lot of talk on gransnet about fish and chips so yesterday I succumbed to the chips. While I was rooting about in the freezer for them I found some beetroot sausages and had a few with my chips.
I do like meat and as I like most things I’m not that bothered whether I have it with a meal or no. Just lately I’ve been trying a few of those plant based foods but I find some of them are a tad on the hot side with whatever spices are in them. I’m going to make a carrot and apple slaw today.

It’s a hard slog this dieting lark but it is so worthwhile. My holiday took its toll so I am not allowing myself to slip into the chocolate an evening routine.

Shirleyw well done staying the same. It's so hard at the moment to lose weight. All our lives have altered so much. Everything we do has to be done in a different way. Our normal lives have completely changed and we have had to find a new normal. And it's hard. Before CV19 we didn't think twice about going out but now we have to think do I really need to and if so remember to wear a mask also keep a distance from other people. Some people now work at home some have lost their jobs and those at work have to wear PPE.

I am a person who likes routine don't know if you are the same. My week was mapped out. Monday sit fit, Tuesday craft group, Wednesday usually saw my daughter, Thursday shopping and until March Friday my son and grandson's used to come for lunch. Saturday and Sunday whatever I wanted to do at home.

For months I didn't go out when my daughter brought me my shopping we had to be 2 m apart. I am in the at risk group, but took ages to get delivery spot with Sainsbury's hence my daughter shopping for me. In May my son decided he didn't want anything to do ? with me anymore.

Since the easy down I only go shopping when I need to . Always wear a mask. But the good thing is all the work on bungalow inside has been done for this year. Only 2 things outside and that's all finished. I have completely altered the gardens. Striped them bare and started again. Doing that has kept me going. Plus I read and cross stitch everyday. I moved here almost a year ago and my neighbours are wonderful.

With everything we are having to do to keep ourselves and family safe it's no wonder the struggle to lose weight is harder than usual but we keep at it . It would be so easy to give up but we don't and we should be proud of ourselves that we are still fighting.

Beechnut and NanKate our posts crossed .

Good morning ladies?. Not for the first time I wish it was as easy to lose weight as put it on! There are so many theories about why we gain weight and so many diets! Coco Pops I know exactly what you mean,I saw posts about fish and chips and could almost taste them! Sometimes ideas just take root ! I have a very dear friend who is also struggling with her weight and at the beginning of the year she commented that "sometimes you just want a little bit of something nice". At the time I was doing rather well with a low sugar diet and feeling much better for it. Then lockdown happened and certainly that concept came home to roost. I was baking everything from bread to tray bakes to flapjacks?. There was tremendous comfort in the soothing routines of baking from much loved recipes to the gorgeous aroma,and of course a little treat whilst the world went mad! Indeed Shirleyw the current situation may affect your motivation. I had to try and find some information for the Union re ongoing situation and so was going through texts and emails. I was genuinely taken aback at the fear and uncertainty of those early days. Its probably still there but what was once novel is every day. No wonder I was baking! Personally it's also not helped that I've spent since March wearing comfortable clothes! Theres no better incentive than wanting something nice to go out in and not feeling as happy as you could,or indeed the tightening of work trousers to keep you on track! Indeed it was when my comfy clothes started feeling less comfy I realised something had to be done.! I had to be in the right mood to. The work situation has been put to one side,I'm not going back but will deal with odds and ends in a week or so. I've always turned on tv when I get up. As I live alone and certainly during past few months its felt vital to keep up to date. Unfortunately at the moment it seems to often be full of conflicting theories and lots of hot air. One morning I just didnt turn it on and it was wonderful. I look at one news source a day and a few official websites. I certainly felt in a better place to address my lapses diet.
I do sympathise Shirleyw. I tried Slimming World for about 6 months and found it quite disappointing. A lot of effort but minimum results. There are some lovely recipes but I started to dislike what I called the slimming world taste as I seemed to eat a lot of tomato based recipes. I did however feel a bit stumped as what to try next. I had tried low carb which suited me but was expensive,restrictive and I dont like a lot of meat any more! I liked the old Weight Watchers, circa late 1990s?. I hadn't calorie counted since ,well a long time ago?. I thought I would give it a go. It took a bit of getting used ,especially after slimming club diets where there always seems to be an unlimited element of some food group.It really changed my concept of portion size as well. It's very flexible and theres so much information available. It is so much down to the individual and their lifestyle. I love cooking and enjoy the challenge of adapting dishes and finding recipes. Currently evidence suggests it's best to avoid so called low fat products as fat is replaced with sugar. I think whichever you decide on it has to be sustainable and more a way of life than a short term project.
Beechnut and Cocopops keep on going! Weight loss is such a complex process. Sometimes theres a natural plateau and it helps to change what you eat. In the past I've known people stay the same for a few weeks then lose 4lb. I've also known people who are amazed to have lost weight after a week of indulgence only to put on the week later.! I think it certainly helps to pay attention to what eat as sometimes in the past I've got quite relaxed with things and a tiny bit extra here and there can really add up. Which ever path you are on,good luck and keep at it. I'm sure as Whiff would agree it's a marathon not a sprint!

Morning guys....dog woke me up to go out so wide awake having a cuppa ??.
Low carb suits me too*dorset*...am now watching my carbs again and started the calorie counting on the nhs better health site....it's a bind counting calories but I do have a rough idea after all these years of yo yo dieting but just to keep portion control thought I be good to weigh and count yesterday and I did manage 1,400 which was recommended..shall see how I get on with that......on SW the free food ...which includes pasta, rice, noodles, pots as well as fruit and veg are not portion controlled so that was probably my problem lol....yes, I like the recipes but they are rather over dosed on tinned tomatoes ...
I do a lot of walking so aerobic exercise I do get plenty of but I really should start Pilates again and do more toning....it's motivation....I have hand weights, the rubber band etc also plenty of work out videos on you tube and nhs site ...I watch them more than do them ????...I'm also a starter and stopper of couch to 5 k.....oh I'm a lost cause ????.
Do you guys exercise and stick to it?

What an early morning start Shirley.

I do believe that calorie counting is the way to lose weight but agree it can be tiresome. I like you follow a combination of weight loss/maintaining methods.

Before Covid I went to a weekly exercise class. I started a walking a mile in 15 minutes online but there was no decent music just the instructor rattling on. I did turn off her voice and put on my own music but haven’t done it now for about 6 weeks ! I do a brisk 20+ minute walk every day.

Next month I am having 2 toes straightened and will then have to put my feet up for 2 weeks to stop the swelling ! I suspect my weight will go up, not because I am eating more but because I will be pretty static. However it must be done.

NanKate och . 2 toes straighten. That will be painful. But on the plus side if you have to seat with your feet up you can't go to and fro to the kitchen.

Put a pound on. Start of another week really must get a hold of myself. When over my calorie allowance everyday. Trouble is when I do the garden after 2-3 hours I get hungary . On the plus side my daughter says my arms are slimming down and my mid drift. Swings and roundabouts. How everyone else is having better success.
Have a good week everyone.

Hope not how

Good morning everyone ?. I hope you all had a good week and are keeping cool.! I must admit I'm not a big fan of very high temperatures!
Well I lost 3/4 lb which I'm reasonably happy with.
Whiff you have certainly been kept busy but it sounds worth it! I too usually follow quite a set pattern that has changed a lot since lockdown. I find it falls into a natural pattern now with chores on certain days. I always try and do some sort of crafting each day. At the moment I'm knitting a cushion cover for my daughters birthday in October. I'm quite a basic knitter but gradually extending my skills. This isnt complex but fiddly in that its 84 stitches per row and each of the rows is a different mix of knot,pearl,cable. Fine unless you get distracted. Which I have,despite using bookmarks to cover all but line I'm doing. I got as far as row 5 yesterday.... I do like to have something in the background whilst knitting,but can be quite tricky as cant be anything to distracting that needs to much concentration!
I think the pandemic has affected us in so many little ways. I know lots of people whose concentration varies and find it can sometimes be hard to focus on reading etc,even though they normally are avid readers. I'm the same with tv/radio /music. I have an endless choice of things to watch,including series links on TiVo. That said what I want to watch is difficult to judge. My gut feeling is its all to do with the strange new world we live in and getting used to it. I think I'm used to the socially distanced programmes etc but occasionally programmes pre covid still have power to surprise me by just how different life is!
Diet and weight gain is I think quite common at the moment. I'm sure there are those who have lost 3 stone, coached their 10 year olds to degree level and knitted a life size Taj Mahal whilst undertaking meaningful voluntary work. I think they were the minority,an awful lot of people were scanning Netflix with a packet of Hobnobs to hand and hitting the G&T when kids safely in bed!
Like you Nankate and Shirley W I'm trying old familiar methods and breaking bad habits. I'm calorie counting but so far in a general way,so a light lunch and a meal I've previously cooked and frozen that is calorie controlled plus 2 snacks of around 100 calories each if needed. I'm limiting carbs to occasional small portion of wholemeal pasta and avoid bread altogether.
Carbs are such as complex area,pardon the pun.! In the past I've done very low carb and it has really worked for me. Certainly there now seems to be a rapidly increasing number of diabetics that are finding very low carb diet very effective way of controlling blood sugars. I'm in two minds,I know it works. On the other hand my levels are quite well controlled. Obviously I'm cutting out processed sugar and foods with added sugar,white pasta etc. The current trend however includes everything such as pulses,beans etc and lots of meat and cheese. I was quite surprised to find cereals such as weetabix and porridge big no no. ! Somewhere I'm trying to find a balance and it's got to be sustainable, I dont think an overly specific diet is. I know pre pandemic I was successfully on a very low carb diet which admittedly gradually introduced carbs at a later stage. I was very aware that sourcing very specific fresh ingredients would be difficult during lockdown. In hindsight I should have been more balanced! Still ever onwards ! Have a lovely week everyone ??

We crossed over Whiff! Could that pound be partly muscle? It certainly sounds as if all the physical activity you have been doing is very beneficial and toning up those specific areas is really hard ,so that is a positive. I'm not surprised you were hungry! I must admit I occasionally have hungry days without the exercise!
I know a few weeks ago I read that you're body weight can vary greatly over a week. I must admit I tend to weigh myself daily anyway, I find it keeps me on track and motivates me one way or another. There was a suggestion that weighing monthly is a better gauge but I'm not sure how i feel about that!
Also Dom Joly was on tv. Hes lost a considerable amount of weight. Hes very stringent during the week. At the weekend he eats "normally " ie few pints down the pub,meal out . At weekends he can put on up to 7lb which he then goes on to lose with a little bit more during following week. It seems to have worked for him,but I do wonder how that impacts body and health in general. Hey ho. Heres to a good week!

Dorsetcupcake61 well done on the loss. I always have porridge for breakfast as found other cereals didn't keep me feeling full. As it's a slow release carb it keeps my energy levels up so I'm not craving a snack by 10. I have 40g of oats and either coconut milk then I don't need anything to sweeten it or skimmed milk with honey or my homemade marmalade to sweeten. Decided not to have my usual slice of bread with my soup this week see if that helps. My dinners this week is chicken stew followed by my usual yogurt and fruit.

I alternate my dinners between meat and vegetarian. Last week I had 3 dinners of 3 falafel balls out if Aldi with roasted veg and 2, mini tortillas which I enjoyed. I tend to use sweet potato rather than potato as I need less to satisfy my potato need.

On the plus side my gardens are looking good. My daughter and son in law put my bench together for me yesterday. Just hope the weather holds.

Thankyou Whiff?. I too am a massive fan of porridge as so beneficial for health etc,plus fills me up to. I like mine with some cinnamon sprinkled in and some berries! I'm also looking forward to experimenting with my yogurt maker!
The falafel sound yummy! For many years we were completely vegetarian. Then my youngest daughter and I went a bit meat mad! Now I rarely eat red meat but love chicken and pulses!
Hope you continue to have nice weather. Feels hotter than yesterday here on South Coast?. Bit much for me?

love reading this thread - last year I did SW and it took me nearly 8 weeks to lose 5 lbs, so I gave up and put it all back on again. During lock down I have lost a pound and put it on again. I have tried all kinds of things - eating fresh fruit and veg, cut down on carbs, avoided cake and nothing seems to work. It's like my body just doesn't want me to lose weight! I go for a good walk every day too. So last week I ordered meal replacements. Shakes are ok but have more calories than a bowl of all bran. The soup was so vile that I was depressed just trying to get it down. So today I am back to very simple cereal for breakfast, homemade soup and an apple for lunch and home made bolognese with veg for tea (minus pasta). If this doesn't work, plus drinking 2 litres of water I don't know what will!

Good luck Annab?. I certainly think theres a lot more too it than eating less and moving more! Age,genetics,upbringing etc. I was just pondering how easy it was to lose weight,and indeed my motivations for doing so. Certainly when younger it was to achieve a certain look. I think I had an image of being very slim and slight. Looking back I was a slim size 12 but have an hourglass shape that's not going to turn into the Dutchess of Cambridge even if I lived off thin air?. Now I would be happy with a BM1 of 25?.! Fingers crossed we all feel happily motivated this week. I do empathise though,sometimes there seem so many options and all of them seem to arduous and the only thing lighter is our purse! Good luck?

That should read pondering how easy to lose weight when younger!

Well done all of us who have persevered, with or without success, in these weird times. To be honest I feel we are all on a bit of a plateau? I am sure we are not being anything like as active as we were in pre-virus days - I know I'm not as we are still semi-isolating in case we get called to serious ill relatives.

I wonder sometimes if I am not eating enough? I have put on that wretched 0.2 of a pound again this weekend but as it's a matter of ounces I don't fret - not worth it!
Throughout the day I do drink many cups of tea (2 before I get out of bed ) but all with semi-skimmed milk and no sugar so can't imagine that's too bad?

As we are getting up later (around 9am) these days, by the time we get downstairs, I admit I don't usually eat until about midday. Then I have a bowl of my own made meusli - porridge oats which I keep in a large plastic food box to which I add a bag of mixed nuts and a bag of raisins - no added anything. More oats than extras.

Teatime/evening meal depends upon my Catering Officer (bless him DH has taken on that role so that he can leave me to get on with my photo mission!) but is always pretty well balanced and what he pigs out on (potatoes etc.) I make up for with added vegetables etc. piling my plate up. Yes we have naughty things like fish and chips but that is once a week at most and also a small portion (wrinkly portions -(senior citizens) size!)

No alcohol except on 'Sinday' - Today yehhh! But then it's a glass of wine with our lunch and I usually have a sweet after lunch and some chocolate in the evening - again not huge amounts - just the treat that keeps me focussed through the other six days in the week.

I am not going to panic though as I fear we are not out of the woods yet and I feel that, provided we don't pile it on and are sensible, we can sort it when we get back to normal if ever!

Hang on in there everyone, and don't forget my saying "We're all in the same boat but some of us are able to paddle faster than others!" We will get there but it may take a while!

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

LevHill I have report this post as it is an advert . I noticed you posted on several threads on this forum.

Good morning ! Wise words fourormore ?. I think the pandemic must have affected everyone in certain ways whether it be being less active as not being able to go to classes etc or feeling like more treats. I certainly think maintaining current weight whilst eating as wholesomely as possible is a good place to be.
I do have a strong feeling this pandemic is still in early days. So much is unknown. For me personally it feels chaotic out there with rumours of a lockdown whilst the media shows people living as though pandemic had gone.
I'm still being very cautious but I dont mind that. I'm not sure how viable a vaccine is,I certainly would be surprised if one is available this year. Until then we have to find a way to live with the virus as best we can. For me,other than social distancing the best thing I can do is lose weight. I'm no saint. Everyone needs a treat in life,if I do have one I try and have the healthiest option available. My love is ice cream but I now have the new brands such as Halo,Asda also do their own which very good and much cheaper. To my delight whilst browsing the ice cream selection for my online shop I have found out that you can get no added sugar Magnums. They are certainly not a health food but a better option! I must admit when you look closely at the nutritional labels on ice cream it's pretty scary,even bad enough to scare me off?.
Thanks for reporting the ad Whiff! Have a lovely week everyone ?

Up 0.6lb this week because I didn't plan meals. No. 1 son lost his job because of damned covid 19. He's had a rotten year what with one thing and another. Feel sad for him, supporting him with his job hunting and sensible eating went out of the window.

Cocopops. It's a blip you have enough to worry about with your son. Because all our lives have changed so much since March it's a wonder we haven't all given up. But we still keep fighting. And for that we should all be proud of ourselves. I hope your son finds a job soon. Fingers and toes crossed for him.

Thanks a lot Whiff. Very much appreciated. I am one one side of the pond ( Pacific West coast) and No.1 son on t'other in England and neither of us feel safe to fly at the moment. He would really benefit from a holiday here however we are very grateful for WhatsApp!

Good morning Cocopops. I agree with Whiff! I hope your son finds something soon. My future SIL left a secure job which was making him unhappy to become self employed fitting kitchens just before all this kicked off. Probably the worst timing ever! Obviously he didn't meet criteria for furlough or help for self employed.! Getting another job in lockdown at first seemed impossible but he did get one. He works in a test centre not his ideal job but a good secure income and hes happy. He still has the skills to do what he wanted so who knows in the future? Everyone's situation is different but everything is crossed for both you and your sons?