The last stone mission......ROLL UP!!!!

[Gemma]

I get shocked sometimes when I see how many calories are in ceratin things, my mum brought some little fruit tarts from tescos and there were nearly 450 cals in each.

At the moment I am useless with the exercise really wanna star going to body jam classes but am paranoid about my size.
I love to dance and would really like to do some sort of street dancing or they do belly dancing to r&b think along the lines of shakira and beyonce but am also to paranoid about my size to bite the bullet and try

 

[clairejen]

Belly dancing is wonderful, very good for the spine too. I have only done one day courses in traditional style, it is very sensual to do. Don't be embarrassed about size, belly dancing actually looks much better on curvy women than stick insect girls. I'm sure once you start going to classes you will find there are all shapes and sizes there and there is a great camaraderie amongst dancers.

 

[Gemma]

Have been having a scout through the internet and theres not many classes in my area, there is one at the local college so might give it a thought once I am a bit closer to goal hopefully will give me the stomach of shakira, long shot i know..

Am going away on holiday on tuesday and after my binge over the weekend am now 7lbs away from goal if i can get below 200lbs before i go i will still be very happy as it is years since i weighed under that

 

[clairejen]

Weight that went on quickly usually goes just as fast so there's a good chance the binge effects will be gone in a day or two. It's a good time to go away, the worst of the heat and crowds should be over. I've got a few days away at the beginning of October, going to the south of France. I was so sure I'd be at goal then, but now I'm not that confident. I'm really not bothered because if I don't lose the last little bit it is neither here nor there, nobody is going to stop me in the street and say "you can't come here, you are 9st9lbs not 9st7lbs".

I've gained a quarter of a pound on yesterday, which is pretty good after an UD, and am not feeling very hungry today. Also I have dancing tonight so it should be quite a successful DD. Now that I've raised them to 700 calories I feel a lot happier and less in need of food, paradoxically.

 

[Gemma]

out of interest what is a typical menu for yourself when having 700 cals

 

[clairejen]

Today is fairly typical I suppose:

Breakfast, strawberries
Snack, nectarine
Lunch, salad vegetables with a few grapes, balsalmic vinegar, and 2 slices of ham
Mini solero icecream
5.00 low fat yogurt and a biscuit
Dinner, chicken breast and small amount of couscous, salad
Small amount of sorbet

I drink coffee black and sparingly, otherwise just have water or low calorie squash. I tend to eat about half my calories for my evening meal and keep carbs and fats low. I make up for that on my UDs so overall my diet is varied and balanced. As far as possible I try to eat home cooked food, but I do have a weakness for biscuits.

You're calorie counting aren't you, how are you liking it? It is good to be aware of how calorie laden foods are, I think that will help us all with maintenance. How are you going to maintain when you get there?

 

[Gemma]

I am currently calorie counting as i needed to lose some weight before holiday with the bad weekend I think I have lost about a stone taking me to about 14.5 stone; when i am back off holiday I am doing a couple of weeks back on calorie counting mainly as a carb cut out and am then gonna do Cambridge diet. I did try to do this once but failed as i felt like i was denying myself but now I have been doing calorie counting I don't feel bad about not being able to have all the food i use to have, even on the times i have cheated the food never tasted good enough for me to think about giving up.
So am hopeing it will now be easier for me to do the sole source.

I ideally want to get down to about 11.5 stone I am about 5'10 so know i will never be under 11 as I don't think i would feel comfortable without my boobs and bum. If I can get down to a size 12 I will be happy with that.

I have made contact with a belly dance teacher in portsmouth, She runs classes that are 90% belly dancing mixed with ballroom, latin and disco dancing. So am hopeing that will be good. I am gonna have a two hour private lesson with her before i start going to classes as i have issues with being bottem of the class so to speak, think its the virgo in me.

How long have you been doing jazz for

 

[clairejen]

Leaving starting Cambridge until after holidays is really sensible, and I have to say that CD is really quick and effective. The big problem is after you finish, you have to be very careful not to regain. I put back about 10lbs until I got things under control, and have now lost them again. It looks like you are aiming for a similar final bmi to me, maybe slightly higher. It's hard to know what will be right until you get there, and even then it's a bit difficult to step back from it look at yourself objectively.

That belly dancing sounds great, a private lesson will get the basics sorted. All dance is about style, once you've captured that the rest follows. Nobody likes to be bottom of the class, at least with dance it is non-competitive. I've been dancing for about 25 years, I didn't start as a child. At first I did ballet and tap, then started jazz maybe 7 years later. Now it's the only one I do, the body shapes suit me as I have poor turn out and a flexible spine. Did you do dance classes as a child?

 

[Gemma]

I agree with being able to step back and look objectively this is the main thing i worry about concerning getting to goal as if say i get to a size 12 but am still not at goal I will feel the need to keep losing vice versa if i get to goal and am not a size 12 i will still keep dieting. Its knowing when to stop but as i have never been slim its hard to know what will look right.

When i was younger i did ballet for a couple of years but gave up, really wish my mum had made me stay and carry on with it for a bit longer. These days i still love dancing and we are always at the clubs shaking our stuff can't wait to be doing that when i am a bit slimmer.

 

[clairejen]

Hi, were the scales good this morning? I lost a little, now down to 9st8.5lbs, the lowest I have been for several years and only a pound and a half from goal (I'm a lot shorter than you, 5'4.5"). Goal is a bit meaningless I suppose since it is just an arbitrary figure I picked in the middle of healthy bmi, and my maintenance will be pretty much like my diet but with a few hundred more calories.

Only 5 days until you go away, you must be counting the hours. Are you having your belly dancing tuition after you get back? Do let me know how it goes and if you enjoy it.

 

[Gemma]

Scales were awful this morning I have got into a bad habit the last couple of days of being good breakfast and lunch then it all goes to pot over dinner, Am showing at 205lbs this morning think a couple of these are carb calories so if I really hold it together over next 5 days am hoping I can get rid of the odd 5lbs am drinking far more water so this should help, I hope!!.

WELL DONE on the weight loss I can't imagine being that close to goal must be so good but a bit weird at the same time having to now think about maintaining.

I am doing my lesson after I get back so that if i enjoy it I can move straight onto doing classes rather than waiting till I get back, I was emailing the teacher yesterday and she has but my mind at ease a bit about being a fuller figure so that is good.

Haven't started counting the hours yet think its because I am still at work so after tomorrow it will probably be a different story, Have not done any of my shopping yet bit of a mix up with the wages so get paid end of the week rather then at the beginning so am having to hold back. Don't need to get much couple of skirts for evening etc and shampoo and stuff. Main problem is trying to find a bikini in my size 38E, Am hopeing La Senza are still stocking there swimwear but I gotta drive to southampton to get to the nearest main shop. Am gonna be haivng a mad panic this weekend me think

 

[clairejen]

At least with bikinis you can mix and match tops and bottoms and get a better fit. Good luck with the shopping, hopefully there will be summer sales still, I don't know about you but I really resent buying stuff when I plan on losing weight.

Evenings are my trouble times too, so it is extra good when I am out at classes because I can't eat then. I'm sure you will lose quickly if you can keep the carb monster at bay. I'm awful about water, never have liked it much, but I try to get it down. Since cutting down on coffee it has been easier.

In some ways maintaining is harder than dieting, I think JUDDD is really going to help me there. Because I'm used to the pattern I just have to keep on with it but with more calories, sounds easy doesn't it?

 

[clairejen]

Weight up slightly after yesterdays UD but nothing drastic, should be gone tomorrow. We have got a heavy day coming up on Saturday, going to eat round a friend's in the evening, so I am expecting a gain over the weekend. No problem, it will fade away slowly over the following week I'm sure.

 

[clairejen]

This morning I was 9st8.25lbs, making a loss of a pound and a quarter over the week with the same amount to go to goal. It really seems to be going well now, whether it is the combination of increased eaercise plus a few more calories or whether it would have happened anyway I really can't say. But life feels good.

 

[clairejen]

Bit of an OTT weekend, and the scales up a couple of pounds - OOPS. Never mind, I'm back to a down day and expect it to be gone by the end of the week, I am no higher than I was this time last week.

Today has been a good day so far, got several annoying little tasks out of the way. It is only two weeks until we go away, I am really starting to look forwards to it now.

 

[clairejen]

A good DD yesterday and back to 9st8.75lbs, a bit over Saturday's weight but not bad. I'm feeling enthusiastic and ready to get on with life. There isn't that much difference between weight loss and maintenance with JUDDD so I'm going for a slow transition. Not sure I'm happy with how I look yet (when are we ever?!) as I saw my cellulite bedecked thighs in angled light this morning - ugh.

I'm getting through a backlog of work slowly, and hoping to have some free time this weekend. I got the go-ahead from the rights-holders to produce a musical in the Spring, now just need to get it passed by committee then I can plunge into planning.

 

[clairejen]

Weight still 9st8.75, I hope it isn't yet another plateau. I'm feeling pretty philosophical about it all, down days are so much part of my life now that I do them fairly automatically. 700 calories is not a big problem, although yesterday we were out all day so I didn't get any proper meals, wouldn't want to do that too often. I can't decide when to increase DDs again, it is only 11 days until we go away, I think I might do the Sunday before we go as a maintenance DD, just so I don't get 6 UDs in a row, a recipe for disaster.

 

[clairejen]

Still no change this morning, and a couple of UDs ahead. So this week the official weight change is a gain of half a pound, these things happen occasionally I know. I'm tempted to say let's just have one really strict week and get it over with, but what's the point, it won't really be over because it will be maintenance. The only thing bugging me really is wanting to get new clothes and thinking I want to have finished the diet before I do that.

Not a lot planned for the weekend, although I can't go out too much because I have the box office phone for the next week and punters aren't always keen on answerphones.

 

[clairejen]

Monday again, how does it get to be Monday so often? I'm now 9st9lbs, the lowest I have ever been on a Monday morning. With a DD ahead I'm hoping to see a loss by tomorrow, although the weekend did contain some excesses - isn't that what weekends are for? Next Monday I go on holiday so it would be good to lose something this week or else I will be regressing, despite the best of intentions holidays always result in a gain.

 

[Maintainer]

Morning Claire!

I've just caught up on the thread and your weight is fabulous! It doesn't look like a plateau to me in the slightest and with a DD ahead of you today, you should be very low tomorrow indeed. One week until your holiday. Will you change things beforehand or continue to Judd? And during your holiday?

Things went pretty much to plan for me, foodwise, on holiday (until this past weekend when I think my silly head thought "so far so good, let's go for it"). I stuck to my plan more or less, with a bit of flexibility for eating out, treats on Sunday and had gained about 4lbs until I started eating stupidly on Saturday lunchtime right through last night bedtime. I'm keeping off the scales for a few days now to see whether I can do something about it straight away.

I wanted to post today but am inundated in paperwork here at work (I was replaced for urgent work only, so anything not crucial awaited me on my chair this morning!)

Speak tomorrow