Revamp's Journey

Hello! I'm posting on here to kick myself into action... I managed to lose 2 stone in 2 and a half months at the end of last year, but in January have managed to put half a stone of that back on.

The great thing about the way I lost the weight was that I wasn't following a diet, I wasn't starving then bingeing, I was eating healthily and exercising. Then I took it a bit too far, and somehow slipped back into the binge-diet cycle.

So I'm coming back off that now. I'm going to try and take each day as it comes, and not worry about how fast or slowly the weight is coming off, as long as it comes off (rather than going back on).

I'm going to have some daily rules to kick start me:
3 meals, 2 snacks a day. Healthy eating, but treats allowed on occasion, but have to replace a meal or a snack.
Exercise: 30 mins a day, five days a week
Drink: 2 litres a day

Post my plan on here the day before so I have an outline....

And that's it. Nice and simple.

Interim goal: To get into the tens (1 stone to lose)

Wish me luck!

Plan for Day One (2/2/10)
Exercise:
Run 40 mins with dog before going to Uni
(Optional extra: 30 mins video in afternoon)
Food
B: Yoghurt & oat bar
L: Salmon, brown rice & veg
S: Crudites with hummus
T: Chicken soup
S: Glass of red wine & apple & small piece cheese

I can never stick to a plan! But it still really helped to have one. And I’ve bought a little notepad to write my plans v. actual in (I don’t want to repeat myself too much here, that’d make for very boring reading.
So today I had:
B: Oat Bar & banana
L: Small portion sag aloo, small portion chicken in curry sauce (Waitrose cafe, pleased because I made sensible choices and stuck to small portions!)
S: raw carrot
T: Child’s portion home-made lasagne, broccoli, glass of red wine
S: apple & reduce fat cheese
Exercise: 6.5 mile run
Day one done and dusted. I can’t help but wonder how many calories I ate today. I’ve no idea but I’d love to know. Am trying to avoid getting too obsessed though.
Plan for tomorrow similar. I’d like to run 3 miles, but have a chest infection and the run today did it no good at all, so I’ll play it by ear. I’m working all day, so will take food with me and try and avoid being lured in by the canteen....
Hope everyone else had a good day.

Hi Revamp

Well done on the idea of planning the day before.

Remember the 5'ps of planning!
Proper Planning and Preperation, Prevents Poor Performance )

Not sure about calourie counting myself and if its just calories or grams of saturated fat to consider also - im sure you could google some stuff on it but some of the other diarys are calorie counting... so have a read of them too.

Best of luck

Amber

Hi Revamp

Okay i looked this up for you re calorie counting!
Calories are basically the amount of energy it seems that you will get from eating something. Obviously to many calories and not enough energy buring will result in weight gain.
Quote....

Here's how many calories are in 1 gram of each:

• carbohydrate — 4 calories
• protein — 4 calories
• fat — 9 calories

That means if you know how many grams of each one are in a food, you can calculate the total calories. You would multiply the number of grams by the number of calories in a gram of that food component. For example, if a serving of potato chips (about 20 chips) has 10 grams of fat, 90 calories are from fat. That's 10 grams X 9 calories per gram. Etc...


Hope this helps!


Amber

Ahh, thank you amberstone. Such support, and I'm delighted that someone's bothered to read what I've written.

I hope Cambridge is going well for you - I did lighter life once (v. similar to cambridge) and it worked very well, but I didn't stick to it for long I will say though, that although everyone says you put the weight back on quick, I didn't. I lost a stone in two weeks and kept it off for about a year.

Anyway, best of luck and thanks for popping by...!

So I've been on track a few days now (3, I think), and I have been calorie counting, even though I said I wouldn't. I just like the reassurance that I haven't gone completely over, because lets face it, weight loss boils down to calories in v. calories out.

Yesterday I worked out at about 1300, which is fine, maybe a bit low given the amount I exercise.
Today was 2010, after a lovely evening out in pizza express. But instead of getting home and plonking myself on the sofa with another glass of wine, I managed to do 3 miles on the treadmill, and burn off about 400 calories, which takes it down to a more reasonable 1610.

I'm pleased. So two things helping me at the moment:

Planning (you are so right, amberstone!) - I'm writing my plan for the next day in an exercise book so I have the info to hand in the morning when I'm making my lunch!

Not counting calories till the evening
This way, although I'm making decisions based on healthy eating and keeping a low calorie count, I'm not getting too obsessed with the numbers during the day, but am satisfying my inner number crunching geek in the evening.

So here's what I ate over the last couple of days:
Wed 3rd Feb
B: Quaker Oat Bar (137) and Costa Soy Latte (86)
L: Innocent Mexican Chilli Sweet Potato Pot (368)
S: Munchie Choc, banana & apricot bar (109)
T: Salmon fillet & spinach (300)
S: Cashews & raisins (200)
General milk in tea & coffee (100)

Total: 1300
Exercise: 3 mile run
Thurs 4th Feb
B: M&S Instant Porridge Pot (250)
S: 30g reduced fat cheddar, apple (130)
L: 1 carrot, 1 stick celery, 4 ryvitas, mini pot low fat hummus (35, 15, 112, 121 = 283)
S: Lunchies bar – choc, banana & apricot (109)
T: Pizza express: fiorentina pizza, med. Glass red wine, 2 scoops vanilla icecream (817, 226, 115) OOPS!
Milk in tea / coffee (100)

Total =2030
Less exercise calories (400 for running just over 3 miles on the treadmill) = 1630.
Actually, considering what I ate, that’s not too bad. And I’m so pleased with myself for going on the treadmill when I got home, because it was quite late and I could so easily just have plonked myself in front of the telly with another glass of red wine…

Just read through your diary and wanted to say very well done on your loss so far. Our journey is simmilar as well

I started my weight loss mid October and managed successfuly to get rid of almost two stones, then xmas came and gone and I put on half a stone.
But was straight back on track in Jan so managed to get rid off it in first 2 weeks of Jan. Now I am on CD as I am getting a little bit impatient with other diets and like seeing results so quickly.
Still having over 2s to lose so should be there for a while.

I like your idea of calorie counting but what I found very difficult while doing WW was the fact that eating everything really caused numbers of cravings. I weened myself of sugar completely and this itself allowed me to have a better control as to what I was eating.

Later I decreased carbs (well bad ones anyway) and since then I've never felt healthier in my all life...

But everyone has to find something what actualy works for them.

Your plan looks great - have a smashing Friday hun xxx

revamp said:

Ahh, thank you amberstone. Such support, and I'm delighted that someone's bothered to read what I've written.

I hope Cambridge is going well for you - I did lighter life once (v. similar to cambridge) and it worked very well, but I didn't stick to it for long I will say though, that although everyone says you put the weight back on quick, I didn't. I lost a stone in two weeks and kept it off for about a year.

Anyway, best of luck and thanks for popping by...!

Click to expand...

Awww, your more than welcome and yes CD is going well, i did LT before and put back on 6 stone over a few years 2-3 but i really just fell off the wagon and got complacent so not the diest fault just mine. This time round, no complacency it will be a rocky road up and down, little blips but i will stay on the wagon forever , be it on CD or just healthy eating!

Thanks for your words too

Amber

Oooh ooh how exciting, people visiting my diary!!!

Minimimi, I totally agree that it helps to have "guidelines" - I try not to eat carbs with my evening meal (didn't work last night with pizza tho!). I'm going out tonight, and i know it'll help me stay on track if I skip the carbs.
Good luck with CD! I want to lose about 2 stone too, but it'll be slow This first week I've lost quite a bit I think, but only because I ate loads the week before so have loads of water / glycogen to shift, its not fat

Amberstone, so easy to fall of the wagon (sadly...). Am just popping along to have a look at your diary now, will say hello there!

Oooh, it was a bad weekend. I overindulged majorly on Friday evening (2 bottles beer, half a bottle wine, steak and chips followed by a large cheese platter....oh dear....) but could have got away with it because I went for a mammoth 9 mile run on Saturday morning (which took over an hour and a half). Ate well the rest of Sat but another party, a few glasses of champagne, seconds of dinner and a large slice of cheesecake. And to make things even worse, I just gave up on Sun and ate for England!

I don't regret the lovely meals out, but Sunday was a waste. I MUST NOT binge. It's pointless, self destructive and makes me feel crap.

So new start. I struggled to get back on track today, and nearly did the whole "I'll start again tomorrow", but somehow managed to avoid the newsagents on the way home, and went for a 4.5 mile run. Once I'd done that I felt better and back on track properly.

I've put back on the weight I lost last week which is a real shame, and now, for the last six weeks, I've gained 2lbs, which is awful. So I'm going to go for losing a stone, starting now. I read somewhere on here that you should not go below 1200 kcal, even with exercise. So therefore, having run 4.5 miles today, which I'll conservatively estimate as 400kcal, I need to eat a minimum of 1600kcal (1200kcal plus 400) but could go up as high as 1900kcal (1500kcal plus 400). Which makes me feel good as it gives me lots of flexibility, is realistic and hopefully will stop me binging (which I sometimes do when I haven't eaten enough because I run so much.

So here goes another week, this one's going to be a success!

Hey revamp

Good idea, and well done on avoiding the newsagents! )
Your doing so much running, so yes you need your energy - gawd i wish i could run up the stairs let along that many miles! laughing, perhaps if they held up a chocolate bar , i could run towards it? laughing...

Amber

Today's calories:

Milk for tea & coffee (100)
B: M&S Instant Porridge pot (230)
L: Baked potato & beans (400)
S: 2 biscuits (170), cherry tomatoes (15)
T: Stir fry veg (80), chicken breast (150), broad beans (85), wagamama's stir fry sauce (70), glass of red wine (100)
Natural yoghurt & honey (110)

Exercise: 4.5 mile run (450)

Total calorie budget: 1650
Total calories eaten: 1510