How did we do.
Well, we have been pretty good in not buying the bad stuff (chocolate, crisps, biscuits), and we even had salad for a couple of days (Hubby HATES rabbit food).
We also increased our exercise from three short walks to two longer and two short most days, determined actually by Maggie not us, weather permitting.
We have kept to three meals a day.
We use UHT skimmed milk, have no added sugar anywhere and no butter or spread on our bread.
Breakfast was a bran type cereal.
Main meals were:
Pasty, beans and mash
fishcake and chips (we were out for the day and shared the portion of chips)
chicken salad
ham salad
chicken tikka and rice
tomato pasta **
sweet and sour vegetable medley ***
Final meal of the day was a sandwich or crackers and cheese.
Desserts, if any, were either an apple or yoghurt, but we did sneak in a belgian bun and an ice cream mid week.
I’ve improved my tomato pasta recipe ** by omitting the tomato ketchup and adding fresh garlic and ginger.
My vegetable medley *** consisted of
half a green pepper (sliced) 30p (60p for a whole one)
one small carrot (sliced into sticks) 16p
3 closed cup mushrooms (sliced) 25p
one small onion (chopped) 10p
one clove garlic (sliced) 2p
sweet and sour sauce
I put the sliced ingredients (except the mushrooms) in a pan and softened them in some of the pineapple juice, then added my sauce and cooked for about 10 minutes, finally adding the mushrooms and cooking for another five.
I served it with boiled rice.
Hubby has lost .3 of a kilo
I’ve lost 1.4 kilos
On to week Two
pensitivity101 
Congratulations. Those extended walks are a huge asset to your program in that they are not only an overall heath benefit, but are probably (depending the length and intensity) burning off fat as fuel towards the end. Keep it up. I note regular rice, potatoes and pasta. If they could be reduced a little, it could accelerate your weight loss. 🙂
Thanks for the tips. We eat rice and pasta rather than potatoes (chips and mash aren’t usually a regular occurrence) but the good news is that the weight we want to lose has only been recently gained. We also know where and how : chocolate, sweets, biscuits, crisps and cakes! (sadly missed already, but true) 😀
Yes …………. sugar!!!!!!!!!!! All I can suggest is read all ingredients carefully. Sugar shows up in the strangest of places! It also good to remember that whatever weight you are trying to lose, was not gained overnight so it is unrealistic to expect to lose it fast. Sounds like you are on the right track! 🙂
I am planning for healthy eating with the hope of weight loss , thanks for sharing the plans 😀
Good luck. Healthy eating and exercise are key elements, but what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another. I am certainly no expert, but may I suggest you keep a food diary and record everything you eat and drink (don’t cheat). I found it extremely useful as I could see after a while a pattern of just how much bad stuff (treats) we had and where we were lacking ie. fruit and veg, and that all important water.
Also, making your own sauces instead of using shop bought packets or jars is a good idea as you know exactly how much fat/sugar/salt goes in.
That is the best idea I have heard !!!!!!! I am starting on it tis moment, I really need to know and realize and feel the shame and possibility avert eating them when I see my handwriting !
I’m sure you will find it an eye opener. I know I did. Also it helps you address your eating habits (good or bad). Set yourself realistic targets too… it’s great if you can lose 1-2 pounds a week, but don’t lose heart if it doesn’t work out that way. Muscle weighs heavier than fat, so if you’re toning up, that could account for the weight not coming off as fast as you’d like. I’ve written several posts about my fight of the flab and what worked for me. Losing almost five stones sounds marvelous (and it is) but it took years to come off…….. and it’s stayed off because we changed our eating habits and attitude to food. Good luck!!!
Thanks a million for the greatest tips 😀 ❤ 😀
you’re welcome
Congratulations! I know how hard it is to lose even 1 pound. The big thing is you need to keep it up. I’m sure hubby must be discouraged, to put in all that effort and not see a larger result.
I know I always am. I can work so hard for about a month. Exercising hours a day and sticking to a strict diet and only loosing 2-3 pounds over that time had me so frustrated and angry actually, that I just gave up.
People always say “it takes a long time for it to go on, so don’t expect it to come off quickly”. Well, in my case it does go on quickly. It might take me a month of serious effort to lose 2-3 pounds, but I can (and have) gained back more than that in only one day!
So, you’re right, it is a very individual thing, but I think you need to make peace from the very beginning that you’ll need to change your habits permanently. Good luck with that. 🙂
I have never been able to do it, only simple things like ‘no white stuff” (switch to wheat bread over white, brown rice over white, sweet potatoes over white), no more soda (maybe a diet soda every month or so), and almost no alcohol (I miss that the most, but just because I’m getting older and can’t handle the parties like I used to, same with all my friends I guess, I miss those days!). Also, I do walk every day when I’m home, but only 30 mins or so, no more 3-5 hours of exercise, not when it doesn’t help me lose even a pound, NOT worth it to me!
Those changes have allowed me to stay within about a 5-10 pound range. I’m sure if I hadn’t done those things, I would have just kept gaining more every year. Of course, it probably helps that I have a lap band now too, that would probably help me a LOT more if I could stay at home long enough to actually get it adjusted right. I did lose about 40 pounds in just a month or 2 right after I had the operation.
Thanks for your input. I tried all kinds of diets in my teens and twenties and ended up not only putting on way more than I lost, but screwing up my system in the process.
Thanks to the support and practical advice of a good GP , not only have we changed our eating habits dramatically over the last ten years, but also our attitude towards food and the way we cook it, which is why I lost almost five stone and Hubby three. We have just got a little lazy since Christmas but are addressing the extra before it becomes a major issue. We are both at good weights for us now (forget the damn charts and so called experts I got so sick of), it’s just that these extra pounds are affecting our knees! 🙂
I’m glad to hear that. It’s always nice to hear that someone was successful losing weight. 😉
I wish someone would invent a pill that you could just take to lose a pound every time you wanted to! They would be an overnight billionaire!!
A friend of my mother’s had some diet pills that had been given to her (this is going back to the 60s). She left them on top of the fireplace overnight and they hatched!!!
wow! what did they hatch into?
Some kind of worms apparently. Obviously she didn’t take any more.
I was going to suggest that they hatched into “little diet pills”! 🙂
Pillets perhaps? I have no idea how many she’d actually taken. I was only a child at the time, but thinking about all the fads and mads in the diet industry now, it makes me shudder!!