h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Kelli,
i really feel for you just now..........not losing weight when you are working hard is the absolute pits and without doubt the worst bit of dieting....when you are working hard and doing everything right and is still doesn't happen for you its sooo hard to convince folk that you are sticking to the plan, working your butt off in the gym and it just isn't shifting. Just remember it isn't your fault, you aren't doing anything wrong. You did it before and you will lose weight again, you just got to have a little faith in yourself, trust your body and keep thinking clearly about it all. I know that when this happens to me i manage to convince myself that it really doesn't make any difference what i eat......it goes something like this:

when i diet i don't lose weight.
when i eat what i want i pretty much stay the same weight. (I wish!)
therefore i might as well eat what i want if i'm going to stay the same weight anyway!
This bit of dieting philosophy has caused me to regain the 56lb that i lost last year!

I usually find the only way out of a plateau is to switch diets, that way you don't feel so locked into what you are doing and it gives you fresh perspective. And new treats! I especially like queeglesproggit take on saving up 'sins' for the weekend!!!!

PS its not all bad news......check out the BBC news page today http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3122319.stm which says that coffee helps you burn more fat during your workout.

Hi Kelli,

Chin up - I was plateauing for 6 months of this year - it is disheartening, but I am really glad I stuck to it, because at least this time I didn't regain the weight I had lost. And I have gone on to lose a couple more kilos as well since really getting back into it.

Last weigh in was not as great as I hoped, but still the right direction - 0.3kg lost.

Weigh-in last night - well, at least I had lost some weight, even though it was just -0.1 kg...

Plateu for 6 months? Well done on sticking to it, Tashalls!

I guess I really shouldn't be muttering about things being a bit slow at the moment (at least I haven't *gained* weight during my 4 weeks of vacation)

There you are then, a plateau is just that - a plateau, we're not gaining, we're just not losing , which is at least, better than gaining

Weigh-in tomorrow, but seeing as I've been having birthday cake for brekkie for the last couple of days - I'm not holding out much hope

Tash, you're doing brill, you've changed your habit of going down and then back up again, which is pretty damn fantastic

Thanks to you guys, I really think! I've had so much support online this time, which makes all the difference - as well as sneaking at other people's pages and postings to find different attitudes (highs and lows). I just hope everyone on this forum finds it as helpful as myself...

Yeah, it is a big help to all!

Weigh-in last night.... over the past two weeks I've Put On 4.5lb Though I think 4 of those have been over the last few days - birthday food etc.!

I'm being super strict now though. Will stay on Atkins for another week, or at least till the end of this week (partly because I'm going out drinking tonight and at least on Atkins I can drink wine! )
Getting bored with Atkins though so I plan to go back onto Slimmers World. It'll be interesting to see if my spots start reappearing again, spots really get me down .

Walked half way to work and home again yesterday. Walked to work this morning. Will do the same tomorrow, and visiting pa at the weekend, but I've already said to him it'd be nice if we took a walk over the downs... last time I agreed to one of those he'd said 'a quick stroll' which lasted 2.5 hours!

4.5lb - I'm back under the stone lost since March

Yes well, it doesn't matter - you have been enjoying your birthday celebrations and having a good time so a little bit of weight gained doesn't matter. You'll get rid of it again soon enough A belated many happy returns btw

I'm going back to my usual diet too at the end of this week, somehow not losing weight on the rapid-weight-loss atkins diet makes me feel like more of a failure than not losing weight on my normal diet. I've read the book and Dr Atkins says that some people are 'metabolically resistant' to losing weight. Yup. He then suggests doing atkins diet with only 1200 calories a day - well duh, everyone is going to lose weight if they are consuming those few calories regardless of which diet they are on. Except me probably I'm still wallowing a bit, but everything in general is rather stressful just now so that is probably why. Like I said, I'll snap out eventually - just a couple of pounds in the right direction would do that for me probably. So fed up being stuck here!

Thanks for your support everyone - not sure I'd have got this far without my friends here

It is annoying, I seem to have been yo-yoing over 6lbs for the last couple of months, going down very, very gradually. I'm not going to feel guilty about birthday bingeing, it was my birthday, and it was good.

What I'm more annoyed at right now, is that I'm sat in here with no work to do, I may as well be at home exercising

Probably also narky through frustration. I've got a bridesmaid dress fitting on 27th, so whatever weight I'm at then, I'll have to stay at till the holiday/wedding. But I'm going up Ben Nevis on the 29th, so I should probably postpone the dress fitting till after then, cuz that's bound to shift a few pounds

You're doing grand Kelli, we just need to reaffirm our goals perhaps?

I spoke to Big Eric too, he's great for a boost!

Kelli, you haven't been eating *too* little by any chance? Because that can make the metabolism slow down... the body thinking it's starving and that it'd better start hoarding, just in case

No, was doing the atkins thing exactly as described in the book, not counting calories and eating as much as I needed to - it just doesn't seem to work for me

I think one of my problems is that I don't know when to stop eating, I seldom feel full/satisfied for long. I think there is something wrong with how I understand hunger and satiety. When that visiting doctor put me on reductil that did have a dramatic effect on how much I wanted to eat, but the postcode lottery means that he wasn't allowed to prescribe it in my health authority area and I haven't been allowed it since that one month (I lost 7 lbs that month). I'm going to try again with a new doctor after I have moved house - with any luck the area I move to will have enough money to help me.

Going to go back to my fruit an veg and low-fat, low-cal diet, as at least my digestive system was happy with that one! I might still try to keep the starchy carbs low, so carry on avoiding potato, pasta, rice etc - but I want some veg, and on that regime I can have as much veg as I want/need to feel full. Does slimming world have a website? Maybe I should check out their system?

If only I wasn't moving house soon, I'd be seriously considering some liposuction. Something has got to change soon - it is driving me mad!

kelli:
www.slimming-world.co.uk

web page is good. must dash, more later.
Fi

That's a good idea kelli - go back to a normal 'balanced' diet, but still keeping an eye on the carbs. After all, us brits have been brought up with 'stodge is good', but that's from a time when we as a nation were a lot more active. Nowadays, the amount of carbs we're traditionally eating doesn't equate for the amount of general activity we do.

Slimmers World is at http://www.slimming-world.co.uk , I found them easier because you don't have to weigh everything or count points, and there are certain foods of which you can eat as much as you like. They've got a 7 day sample menu at http://www.slimming-world.co.uk/food/7day.asp

Different things work for different people.

I'm on my way to getting this afternoon off which means I can go home and tidy my room, so I've got space to do that yoga video!

Do you just turn up for the first class, or are you supposed to ring them beforehand?

...and it is probably time for me to drag my lazy a**e up to the gym for today. Can't spend *all* day chatting on hootoo

Have fun with the yoga queegle

How are you getting on Fi? Do you go to slimming world too?

Hi Kelli,
you don't have to phone up you can just go along. if you e-mail them and they will send you a list of the class nearest to you. It is easy to pick up and you have plenty of options. basically you have red days (as much protein as you want) or green days (as much carbs) and unlimited fruit and veg. Then you get optional 'sins' on top of that. There is a huge range of 'free' supermarket ready-to-munch meals which makes it easy when you are busy. I tended to find that i lost most on the red diet but that could just be my dodgy metabolism. I should 'fess up I have never actually been to a class as i always found the prospect of the public humiliation too scary..just borrowed tips from a friend who went. I guess a class would be the answer for me as well. Do you want to make a pact...I will if you will?
Fi

Ok Fi, you're on!

I have got the address of a class that is near my new house after I move - that means that it is a long way from where I live now but I will be able to get there while I am working in Slough so should be able to make at least the next 3-4 weeks.

The next one is next Wednesday so I'll be going along to that.

I hope, from the blurb, that it won't be like those humiliating experiences that I have had with ww. In fact I didn't get on with weight watchers AT ALL. I didn't enjoy being patronised by a horrible old harpy Am hoping that this will be better, but I suppose it depends on the leader. We shall see. They do say that they don't announce your weight so you don't have to worry about everyone else hearing it.

Am considering wearing lead-lined shoes the first week so that I can at least lose a couple of pounds by the second weigh-in

I have abandoned Dr Atkins and all his works - and yesterday ate mainly fruit. Mangoes are gooooooood, strawberries are goooooood, raspberries are goooooooood. Am having a vegetable stirfry for dinner tonight

In Slimming World they don't announce your weight, which is good. They announce in the group how much people have lost. I'd tried Weight Watchers a few years ago, and definitely found Slim World more friendly, and easier.

I wore my nice new jeans I'd bought on Saturday last night, they were very snug! I'll have to be good so they fit nicely again!

Good luck ladies!

Kelli,
Success! I have found a class that is on my way home from work and is also on a wed so we are synchronised! . Isn't that your weigh in day as well queeglesproggit? I should be able to start next week although you will have to bully me during the day as I know I'll be getting cold feet and no doubt be finding a whole range of excuses not to go.

Like you I went to ww the last time I tried to lose weight and hated it. There was no REAL advice it was all patronising questions about how many points were in such-and-such and as for the leader being an example to us all....her claim to weight loss fame was losing half a stone! Anyway enough moaning about classes past, I'm sure this will be much better, (can't be worse!) so far I haven't heard a bad word about them and besides I absolutely have to do something.

Love the lead lined shoes I think thats a brill idea! We have those little weights for calibrating scales at work so I might slip some of those into my pockets!!!!. The only problem is its going to be torture enough facing up to how much I have to lose again without adding to the total

As for those jeans queeglesproggit dont forget the hot weather won't help!

I think it's more... the birthday cake, 2 tubs of birthday Ben & Jerry ice cream, birthday full english breakfasts, birthday pizza, birthday lollies, birthday peanut butter cookies, birthday crisps and birthday chocolate... than the weather!

Yep, my weigh-in is on a Wednesday too One thing I found, at the first meeting, I didn't eat any dinner, and because you have to hang around to learn everything, I was staaaaarving when I got home! I try to have something light for dinner before I go, because it's horrible starving yourself till after you've been weighed! Plus, I figured if I'm having a light meal before weigh-in every week, than the weight I've lost will still be true. Make sense?