My plan of action

I'm eating normally. I've just cut a few things down and out. I'm also monitoring what I do eat on my little phone app.

Reduced the carbohydrates I consume, as they were a huge part of my diet. It's been a gradual process, but I found bread, pasta and potatoes made me feel bloated and gave me indigestion anyway. So, I won't really miss them!

I am still eating chocolate. But I've gone from eating lots of sugar to gradually eating less. I have Time Out bars and KitKats. But once upon a time I would have eaten 5 bars in a day. I could also eat a full packet of biscuits, a full bag of doughnuts or an entire cake in one sitting. I feel ashamed. Thankfully, I just don't fancy it as much anymore. Some days I do, and I'll have something sweet. Most days, I can quite happily eat nuts and fruit instead.

I still drink tea. I have sweeteners in it at home. I'm not sacrificing tea. It's all good in moderation.

I've upped the vegetables and fruit I eat. Everything is oven baked, grilled or steamed. We have never owned a deep fat fryer.

I've increased the protein I eat - more meat and fish. Cheese and eggs. All good in moderation.

Last night I had thinly sliced steak, grilled. Roasted vegetables (red onion, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic) and boiled asparagus tips and green beans. With a lovely side of mozzarella.

Tonight I had eggs, bacon, sausage and mushrooms. I had sardines for lunch. Nom nom.

I also only eat when I'm hungry. When I'm full, I stop. It sounds simple, but for years I've just ate for the sake of eating. If there was food there, I'd eat it.

I'm getting less sluggish. I still get tired, but some of this is medication. When I am awake, my concentration is improving.

Positive Mental Attitude

If I want it to happen, it will happen. I'm realistic about my expectations. I know I will have bad days, but I will overcome any setbacks and persevere.

I've not always felt like this. I'm a worrier. I suffer with depression and every day is a challenge in itself. I've made myself determined to be optimistic. Why? Because the thought of getting bigger, getting lazier and being unhealthy is more depressing than doing something about it. I may blog about my depression at a later date.

The biggest enemy to fight in all this is my own mind.

Write a list of what you want to achieve but be realistic. Aiming to be a size 6 if you're a size 20 by Christmas, is doomed to failure before you start.

How do you want to feel? What are your reasons for doing it? Writing it all down really helps your plan of action.

Set small goals for yourself. This will help focus your attention on achievement in stages. Promise yourself a reward if you reach that goal. A new outfit, necklace, a new Xbox game... Whatever you see as a treat.

Exercise

Your average Jane finds exercise boring, hard to stick to and tiring. You make excuses about not having enough time to fit it in, or having a bad knee/back/ankle. Going to the gym is expensive and motivating yourself to bop along to that keep fit DVD on your own is hard.

I've tried fitness DVDs. I just feel stupid in my living room, on my own, stubbing my toe on the sofa and hitting the light fittings with my arms swinging away. I do a bit and then have a cuppa, after all: I deserve it. I'll have a bag of crisps too, as I've worked off my fat quota and built up an appetite. I'm too tired to cook. I end up watching the shopping channels, or worse, going to sleep.

wii Fit - I do own one, although it's currently living at my Mother-in-law's house, who probably uses it about as much as I did. It's more fun with a few of you and again, space is an issue. 

I am contemplating going to the gym. I refuse to pay extortionate fees to use the facilities though. I think I may also benefit from a personal trainer to tailor exercise and toning to my needs. Not sure it's worth the money, but definitely something I'm keeping in mind. There are some PAYG services out there, and Groupon and KGB deals do occasionally do discounted memberships or trials. I recommend holding out for one of those, then it's not money down the drain if it doesn't work for you.

Dance studios and exercise classes - I used to be a dancer. I did it for five years. I used to LOVE it. I still do like dancing, it's something I will go back to when I am healthier and decidedly more flexible. The big craze at the moment is Zumba. Is it a fad? Not at all. It's great fun! It's exactly what I need to get in shape. A good cardiovascular workout for an hour with dancing, aerobics and having a giggle with the ladies. I'm going at least once a week and I feel better for it already. The adrenalin rush is amazing and it's encouraging me to do more exercise. I highly recommend this. You don't need to be co-ordinated, and you don't need to be slim, or a dancer. You just need to give it a good go, and want to have fun!

Swimming - anyone can do this. If you can't swim, then swimming lessons at your local pool will help. This is really good if you have aches and pains, and is the best way to exercise if you can't do aerobics or jogging. Again, you can make it fun: Take a mate, take the kids. They also have Aquaerobics and Aqua Zumba, although I've not tried those. They sound good fun.

Walking - something you can do today. I lost most of my weight the first time round by walking every day. I used to walk to town and back at a brisk pace. 30 minutes easy. I may start doing that again actually, now I'm in Rotherham. Harlow was great for walking as everything is flat. Yorkshire is very hilly, so it takes more out of you walking up and down. Good for the calf muscles though. Give yourself a reason to go out: buy a paper, take the dog round the block, push the baby buggy round. If it's cold - wrap up warm. If it's raining, take a brolly. No excuses. Just do it.

Say 'No' to diets

As I've said before diets only work so long as you're doing them. You get to your target weight and then start eating the cakes again and getting lazy with the exercise.

Weight Watchers & Slimming World - you're paying someone to weigh you and tell you what to eat. Although there is the motivation of humiliation if you fail and support if you succeed, and if you're spending money you'll stick to it, right? All your friends go so it's a support network and it's working, for now. No doubting it does work for some people. But here is a suggestion: Why don't you all arrange to meet up, at each others houses? No doubt you have scales, you can cook a healthy meal, get the wii Zumba out and it's all free! You all know what you should be eating. Do you really need to pay for a diet plan?

Any quick fix is akin to crash dieting. If all you're eating is one food, or even worse: drinking and not eating, it's not going to be healthy for you. Sure, you'll lose the weight but you'll also feel ill and put all the weight back on as soon as you start eating normally. Don't be fooled by detox diets either. If you want to flush out your toxins then drink that magical water more.

Realistically, if you start on a diet then that has to be your way of life, permanently. No more cakes, takeaways and beer. Really?!

Magic Pills

Sadly, I have yet to find one. Sorry.

What I can do is run through which ones are useful, which ones have some clinical evidence to say they work, what's in them and what I have had experience with. I can also let you in to the secret of the best natural appetite suppressant there is... fact.

Don't buy weird and wonderful pills off diet sites on the  internet. You have no idea what you are purchasing, or what's really in them. Just don't do it. Also don't believe 99% of the reviews out there. Websites are set up to review their own products to sell them to you. People get paid to write good reviews. It's all about making money and not helping you lose any weight.

On the high street...These are weight loss aids which you take in addition to your plan of action. Remember these are all supplements, not a lazy way out. The blurb is always to be on your 'diet' and do your exercise as well.

Alli. £50 for 40 days worth. That's expensive! It's active ingredient is orlistat. It works by blocking a percentage of fat from the food you eat from being absorbed, and instead is passed straight out in your poop. Nice. All the genuine reviews claim that it does do it's job and it's job is to prevent you eating too much fat. If you do, you get side effects like stomach cramps and diahorrea. It's aversion therapy. I guess if eating too much fatty food is a problem for you, then these may help. But the weight loss will ultimately be from cutting down the fatty foods and the laxative effects of the pills. 

'Natural' Fat binders such as LipoBind with no side-effects all tend to contain Litramine which is basically cactus. Mmm spikey. Unable to find any scientific evidence these work and all the 'clinical' evidence is again peddled by the various companies marketing the product. If it works for you, even as a placebo then give it a go but I wouldn't waste my money.

Adios. Contains seaweed. It also contains Dandelion root which is a diuretic. This will help reduce bloating caused by water weight by the frequent need to pee. All that peeing could lead to you being a bit potassium deficient. I've tried these before, and yes, all that really happened is I peed more. I probably didn't feel as hungry on some of the days, but I think that is in part to monitoring what I was eating (see earlier blog post) and positive thinking. 

Herbal berries and cherries. Hoodia (which always sounds like lady bits to me), acai, goji, green tea, etc. There's no harm in adding these supplements in to your diet as they do have the antioxidant properties to keep you healthy. Significant weight loss will not happen on these alone. It's always good to have natural and organic products over mass-produced sugary and fatty ones. But go for the actual berries if you want to try them, don't just pop a pill. Goji berries taste a bit like cranberries. 

Supplements that I recommend you do take: 

Fish oil. Not cod liver oil. Either fish oil, or krill oil. Something to get your Omega 3 dose up. This isn't a magic weight loss pill either. It will just keep your body and brain healthy. I've just started taking them, so hopefully I will note any improvements in my blog.

Multi-vitamin. Really only while you are sorting out changes in your diet. 

Water. This is the best appetite suppressant there is. If you're hungry, drink a glass of water. It'll fill you up. Now I know not everyone enjoys water on it's own. A little sugar free cordial, or a wedge of lemon and lime will make it palatable. I drink lots of tea, but I drink water as well. It's recommended for a reason. Get it drunk.

Stop weighing yourself all the time!

Yes, really. 

Why? Well, for a start your weight fluctuates all day, every day and at different times. My research and own experience tells me it's between 2 and 4lbs every day. It may be more or less for you. So, reading the numbers on the scales isn't an accurate way to tell if all your hard work is paying off. It can also be quite soul destroying to think you've put on 4lbs in a day. This is my opinion. I have sometimes felt like giving up there and then when the scales go up.


However, If you really must do it, then do it right:


http://www.3fatchicks.com/why-checking-weight-every-day-helps-your-diet/  (try and ignore all the irritating adverts)

Make a note

At the moment I'm definitely 'watching what I eat'. This is something that has and does work for me to eat less. Making a note of everything I eat actually makes me painfully aware of how much crap I can put away. Gone are the days where I had to rely on filling in a food diary notebook which I'd forget to take with me and fill in after the first two days. In this wonderful age of smartphones there's a huge range of free apps you can use for this purpose. I've not forgotten to do mine in 16 days now. If you can remember to plant crops in FarmVille then you'll have no worries!

The app I use is *Fitness Pal. It's free. You can use it on any Smartphone. It also allows you to add more details on the web. Check out the reviews, it's a good little app.

* http://www.myfitnesspal.com

There are also lots of others out there, this is just the one that works for me.

Monitoring what I eat has stopped me overeating. I won't lie, I have still had days where I have eaten too much, but it's not an instant fix, it's an aid. It's definitely helping me so far.

Introduction

So, I thought I'd write a little journal of my progress. Mainly for my own benefit but also to help others if they are also trying to lose weight.


It's so difficult to know where to begin with hundreds of websites and magazines telling you different things. I've spent a lot of time reading up, and in the past (when I had lost weight and succeeded before) I have experimented with many different diets, quick fixes and exercise plans. I can review what I have tried: what works and what doesn't.


At the moment I am 211 lbs. This is 15 stone and 1 lb. 
I am 5' 7" So this makes my BMI* 32.9 which is obese. This scares me. Alot.

*http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/tools/bmi_calculator/bmi.shtml


Now, I don't actually mind carrying some extra pounds. I have been painfully skinny before and I looked ill. But somehow in seven years, I've piled on nearly six stone. My doctor wants me to lose weight and genetics have placed me in a high-risk of heart disease and stroke - both parents having had heart attacks before 65 and one having had a stroke. 


I'm depressed about it now. I already have high blood pressure, aches and pains and trouble breathing at night. I am terribly unfit and I really, really enjoy my food. 


I've not mentioned much about it before as I get fed up myself of reading about people on diets and saying how fat they are. No-one I know is happy with themselves the way they are, and if they could wave a magic wand and change something, they would. 


I also find that people tell you what they think you want to hear. When I say I need to lose weight, I get told I don't and usually offered more food. I then get shown women who are morbidly obese and told that they are fat and I have nothing to worry about. Although I find it a little comforting that there will always be someone worse off than me, it doesn't motivate me to do anything about it.


Surely, this is just a case of people moaning on about something they can easily change because they just eat too much. Eat less and exercise more, right? Simple. No, no. Not so simple. It's breaking a habit and a lifestyle. If it was easy, everyone would be healthy and stay that way. 


The reason I'm doing this is to be healthier, to be fitter and to feel better about myself. I have no desire to be skinny. I also don't believe in diets. Diets only work as long as you stay on them. As soon as you lose your weight and come off them, it'll all go back on. I'm working towards a new lifestyle that I can stick to permanently. Who is joining me?