I’m a Pear ? the sequel part 3 - Wow!

Carbs are important in a healthy diet. So we do need some everyday. It's a matter of controlling portion size. We need a certain amount of salt and sugar in our diets to maintain a healthy body. Yes there are foods with empty calories which need to be avoided if you can if not just have a small amount just to satisfy that craving. I despair at the concept of good and bad food.

I have trouble with potassium in my blood so for the last 10 years had to cut out some foods out of my diet because they are high in potassium. Foods I can't have bananas, pineapple, spinach, nuts , chocolate ,chipped,roasted and baked potatoes, dried fruit tomatoes and mushrooms there are more. But in the list of foods I can have are boiled potatoes ,boiled sweets, wine ,tinned fruit in fruit juice. Plus other fruit and veg.
Who knew mushrooms and tomatoes where high in potassium as they are mostly water.

That's why I say the concept of good and bad food is wrong. Diabetes have to have a certain amount of carbs a day to maintain insulin levels.

Eating less for life is about eating a balanced diet but still having a treat. We are human with human weaknesses. If you cut out everything out of your diet you crave the food you denied yourself and find that's all you think about or is that just me.

Tell me about it ?

Thank you for the encouragement Nankate and Whiff. Isn't it so maddening how easy it is to put on the pounds but so very much harder to lose them ☹️

OK Vioket will have a look properly some time. My Fitness Pal still going okaish for me

violetsky
Photos are the biggest motivator aren’t they? I was horrified at one taken of me at Christmas. I keep trying to blame the camera angle, the way I was sitting and what I was wearing
But I eventually had to admit it’s the weight I have piled on……

Not myfitnesspal, the fitbit app!

I use that to track my heart rate (gives me an idea of whether my thyroid is behaving) so might be best all in one.

Just thought a new app might keep me interested and engaged, I do not have a great attention span lol

Not sure Madgran, it doesn't seem to do anything new or interesting. I've been working a lot though so not much time to play with it. I might just use MyFitnessPal instead

Violet just wondering if you have drawn any conclusions about the NHS app? I had very brief look but bo time at the mo to really look at it.

Good you were motivated

That's interesting flaxseed. I have been realising how much carbs I eat ..love potatoes and rice in things like cous cous!! Hmmm!

I saw a picture of me today on the school website and could hardly recognise myself. It was a big motivator!

Something happened today to make me reconsider what I eat!

I signed up to some 30 minutes PT sessions at my gym.
I wasn’t prepared for him to ask me to keep a food diary, which I need to upload to him before my first session.
It was only looking back through my app (where I record daily) that I realised that although I am, mostly, within my daily allowance, quite a lot of my food is ‘empty calories’ .
If I look at the breakdown of nutrients during the day, I am under on protein and fibre most days, and over on carbs and sugar!
So, I took a swift trip to the supermarket to stock up on more nutritious snacks!
Just when I thought I had this sussed………. !!

cornergran You won’t be disappointed!

pixie We have all been there. Our bodies fluctuate all the time.
When I have gone through a period like that I have stopped weighing myself regularly and only done it monthly. There’s usually a loss in a month so it spurs me to carry on. I self sabotage otherwise.
Works for me

Pixieboots I echo what NanKate has said. Here we support eachother with our ups and downs. Not just weight wise but in our lives. I stayed the same weight for 7 weeks but I looked on it as an achievement. Wasn't the weight I wanted to stay at but showed me I could maintain a weight.

So look on it as an achievement. Here no one is perfect we all have our ups and downs . But the support here is better than any slimming club you pay a fortune for.

NanKate what did you hit Mr N with ? ?.

Good morning Pixieboots. You have no need to avoid posting on this thread. You will only receive support and encouragement to keep going. Posting here keeps your mind on the task in mind ‘Eating Less for Life*. As time goes on your body gets used to less food. We are all on this marathon together. ?

Finally my DH said to me yesterday that he is the heaviest he has been for a long time, 10 stone 3 pounds! It’s not fair.

Oh dear, I have lapsed. Stayed the same for two weeks and avoided posting here because of that ?

Thanks flaxseed. I’ll try anything chocolatey .

cornergran have you tried the Slim Fast caramel choc bars (found in most supermarkets, but check the calories first as there are some higher calorie ones), and the Skinny Dream bars?
Honestly, they are sooooo nice!
I have just eaten the chocolate toffee flavour and it tastes so indulgent.
Straight from the fridge makes them last longer and, imo, better.
All under 99 calories. The Skinny Dreams are available from Home Bargains and B&M.
I hope you feel better soon.

I'm another who finds no chocolate difficult, fourormore. Mr C munches a chocolate bar every evening. It's his treat for the day, everything else he eats is unreasonably healthy. I used to join him until I decided to get a grip on the waist expansion, I really would like my Sumer clothes not to be tight. At the moment I am cheating I think, I have four chocolate buttons every evening and am comfortable with that. I don't feel deprived and it makes Mr C feel less guilty that he has a treat and I don't. Definitely less calories than I was consuming, a step in the right direction.

I'm pretty exhausted this week with a flare up of a long standing medical irritant so there will be little in the way of walking which is my main exercise other than pottering in the garden when the weather allows. It's a case of accepting how it is and trying not to eat sweet things as a compensation for pain. Not doing too badly so far, it will help to check in here, thank you everyone.

Another one with a slim DP. Exercises everyday and eats healthily and never gets cravings or binges like me!!

madgran I want a plan that becomes a way of life and is sustainable, so the keto diet isn’t for me. I have heard people have good results though. Thanks for the suggestion.

Dorset I agree. I found Slimming World too inflexible.
I have done quite a lot of research regarding the more ‘money making’ diet plans and will never get sucked in again.
Once I decided on calorie counting, I was annoyed about all money I have spent over the years instead of following basic science. Less in- more out. It’s a no brainier for me and wont ever do anything else.
There are some fab accounts on Instagram to follow calling out the whole diet industry.
I know lots of people still need that discipline - it’s just not for me.
All I really need is willpower.
There are biscuits here at work today and I have already succumbed to one
But then I thought back to the photo of me at Christmas and haven’t revisited it

whiff I like the idea of freezing cheese in portions!
I had full fat cheese (within my daily allowance) with beans and jacket potato the other day. It’s so much better than that low fat cheese I have spent years using.
I have heard the Lakeland yoghurt making thing is good. I might have a look.
Good luck to everyone this week.
Hopefully the sunshine will motivate us, thinking of those summer clothes we want to wear

Easiyo is a packet mix which makes 1kg of yogurt. The box contains 6 sachets cost just over ££15 a box. I like the fact I always have yogurt in.

cornernan remember it's a marathon not a sprint and be kind to yourself. If you have a bad day it's one day. Don't worry about . I have said before I am obsessed with weighing everything even when I go over my cal allowance I know by how much because I still weigh things?.

I had a husband who could eat anything and stay slim. But he loved me no matter how big I was. Losing weigh is not easy if it was we would all be a size 12. The hardest thing is deciding to do it and keep going no matter how long it takes . I started this journey in April 2017. Still at it. ?

Cornergran I have the same problem in as much as Mr F eats anything and everything! He is also the 'main' cook - a system we established years ago when our circumstances were different. He enjoys it though and our team work regarding sharing the chores and responsibilities works!

As we seem to have so many new fruits coming into the bowl it may be a good idea for us oldies established fruits to remind everyone of our individual systems? We all see things different ways - we all have different circumstances.

Those fruits who live alone can pick and choose what to buy and more importantly what NOT to buy! Fruits like us have to have naughty things around to please the partner.

My system is that I know I cannot live without chocolate so I have 'Sinday' every week. In theory () I can discipline myself from Mon to Sat inclusive but every Sunday morning I weigh myself and record my weight on a weight chart on my laptop. I then don't go mad but will enjoy my Sunday lunch probably a pudding/cake and chocolate in the evening. I know this exceeds my intake but it is one day and I have six days of discipline to correct it and lose a little more.

This won't work for some - it may work for others - it works for me in general as I have lost over a stone in the last 18m or so - slow but sure. Although the last few weeks have been stressful and I admit I have veered off into the wilderness I seem to be more or less maintaining and, this week I am now back on the wagon!!!

Welcome all our new fruits!!! {flowers]

It’s so interesting to read the strategies you all use. Makes me think my approach isn’t thought through enough. Willpower, or rather lack of, stress and increasing physical limitations need thinking about. It also doesn’t help that Mr C eats what he likes and remains slim. I’m aware I feel very flat this week so am trying to be gentle with myself. Onwards .

Years ago I made fat free yoghurt in a flask ?….if I remember rightly 1 teaspoon ff live yoghurt to skimmed milk , can’t remember the amount of milk ….it did work .
I buy M&S ff Greek yoghurt, it is thick and I have that for breakfast with blue berries and a banana when I’m off but my work days I have 40g porridge with water instead with berries and a banana , that keeps me going….

Dorset glad all is going well at work for you.

Mentioning yogurt I brought myself an Easiyo yogurt maker from Lakeland 4-5 years ago. It came with 2 sachets of yogurt mix. Over the first year tried flavoured mixes. But decided to just by a boxes of Greek style unsweetened low fat . Didn't like the fat free. I am never without yogurt. It's easy to make but would say make sure you use a digital thermometer to test temperature of the water before adding the powder. It has to be between 15-20° if it's not it wouldn't work. At the moment the water out if the tap has ranged between 7-10 ° so add some boiled water to get it to temp. In the winter I put it in my living room and wrap a towel round the flask. Leave 12 hrs. Always make it of a morning. Once made it can keep for 2 weeks in the fridge. But I have about 130g a day for pud after my dinner. Flavoured with some fruit 1 have stewed with granulated sweetner. I usually do kilo at a time. And it keeps in the fridge. My grandson's love nannies Yog fruit the older one named it. It's his favourite snack when here.

I found having a pud after dinner stays off the 9 pm munchies . I could not go back to eating ready made yogurt. It's to thin even the Greek ones you buy. Plus I like adding my own flavours in the quantity I want. When I do apple and plum I add a stick of cinnamon. Yum.

We crossed posts Whiff! Totally agree ?,especially with cutting cheese in to portions-I used to freeze mine!