Hi Ruthie, Welcome to the forum. I'm sure you will feel so much better when you get things under control but don't try to do too many things at once...sure to lead to failure otherwise. However, I do wish you all the very best in your journey..you have come to the right place for lots of support and encouragement.
Thanks for the welcome Emmaline
I will try not to push myself too hard, but I do want a really good start, with at least 21 good food days.
I think the hardest thing for me to do will be to cut out sugar. I am actually addicted to it. I measure the amount of sugar I put in my teas and coffees in centimetres, not teaspoons
Even sugar on its own doesn't taste quite sweet enough any more... I remember when I was successfully dieting before just the the thought of something really sweet, like a french fancy, put my teeth on edge. Where I had cut out most salt, even a packet of crisps was too salty. Like an addict, you become accustomed to whatever baddies you are eating, want more and more, and soon it isn't even a treat, its just normal, and you need that energy rush just to feel normal. I can easily get through 2.5 big bags of sugar a weeks, and that isn't counting cakes, sweets and biscuits!
I have lost weight twice now. When I was 20, I went from 13 stone 3 to 9 stone 13 (which was a small size 10- I am quite tall at 5 foot 8.5). I kept it off for two years. For most of the time I was losing weight, it didn't even feel like a diet. My lifestyle and attitude changed. Then I discovered cooking, and every week my fridge was filled with creams and cheeses and butter to make calorific dinners. I was at home all day and seemed to boredom eat more, and I slowly gained the weight back. After I had almost gained the whole lot back I went through a stage of eating three jam donuts for breakfast every morning, as well as biscuits in the afternoon, and chocolate in the night-time. I put an extra two stone on. At my heaviest I was 14 stone 13 (209 pounds) A year and a half ago, I went on another diet. This time it was a struggle, and my heart wasn't in it. I did lose 45 pounds in the space of about 6 months, but then started regaining straight away, and now I weigh 204 pounds, or 14 stone 8. I can't believe that I am back here again!!!
But its no point mulching over the past. What's done is done, what's eaten is eaten.
I feel so old! I know I only have three summers left of being young, and I don't want to spend them feeling fat, with my thighs rubbing together. I know that the interior design industry is quite superficial as well, and whether people admit it or not, companies are fattist. Fat people are perceived as being more lazy, and less intelligent, apparently. And whilst I am both a bit dippy, and horrifically lazy, I don't want them guessing that
When I lose weight, my face looks a lot different too. I am never going to win any beauty awards, but I am uglier when fat, because my lower cheeks look very chubby, and my double chin is appalling.
The crazy thing is, that I love healthy foods, I am just addicted too takeaways. I am spending so much money on them. 5 times a week we have takeaways, normally pizza with all the trimmings, or chicken and chips. But the thought of eating a pizza agaion is just urrrggghhhh. I am sick of pizza. One of my favourite things to eat is oven baked Mediterranean vegetables, with garlic and herbs, but I just can't be bothered. Even making a sandwich feels like haute cuisine to me at the moment
So, the healthy shopping is in the fridge. And I can't wait to get all that yummy, vitiman-y goodness inside of me. I want to wake up feeling fresh. I want my kids to eat well again. When you are not cooking healthily for yourself, of course the kids eat less goodness as well. I just thank god their school breakfasts and dinners are so healthy, otherwise the poor ******* might be malnutritioned. I felt so proud of myself when I was eating well before, we all used to cook dinner together, they would eat anything I cooked, and they were happy to have dried fruits and nuts as a snack. I feel like a bad mummy for not keeping up their healthy eating after my diet had fallen down the wayside.
I think I can do this and lose weight. I want to be a size 10 for the summer. Whether I can keep it off, I don't know, but its better to have lost and regained, than to never have lost at all.
Starting measurements-
arm- 15"
chest- 44.5"
waist- 36"
belly button- 45"!!! Yus, I am an Apple.
hips- 44"
thighs- 26"
I will take a undies only fat photo tomorrow eeeek. But no-one will be seeing it till I am at my goal weight of 10 stone 5, which is 145 pounds
calves-