Weight Watchers

[alameals]

Morning Everyone
I went for another run last night,legs are stiff today so running the past 2 nights I'll have a rest tonight and go out again tomorrow. Feeling great but come the weekend is when I'll probably have a craving for a few sweets and fizzy drinks, through the week work and family keep me busy but it is having that free time at weekends is when I slip. How often does everyone weigh themselves? I don't want to be jumping on the scales every day really,maybe once a week?

[havingascreen]

once a week should suffice......hello everyone, going to try and get on here more often.....has everyone managed to maintain a healthy wieght, reach their targets, eat all the right things??

I'm tipping the scales at 13 1/2 stone and i have to get back into the healthy scene......eating soup and rivita for lunch, fruit and yogurt (low fat) for brekkie.....the dinner portions still have to be worked on a bit maybe too much of the old scrumpy too BUT have started badminton once a week so gotta get back into zumba

[Diane65]

Welcome back havingascreen Wow you are all in the zone and I'm ashamed to say my workout was very half hearted last night Also I can't find any elderberries so where are you finding them?

Just had moviemann's potato and chick pea curry for dinner followed by a banana. I'm a bit topsy turvy this week as working NHS/private on different days this week plus now just me and the cats to feed at the moment so feels odd plus need to give the house a good clean as got behind with my trip to Venice, then DD going away the following weekend. Now just had the roofer at the door saying he's starting next week I was hoping for the following week so much for a catch up weekend as now have to empty the loft this weekend but at least it will give me some exercise so will be back living in a tip especially as I'm out every night next week (3 involve eating ). Basically it's a bit chaotic hence eating/exercise patterns need to be sorted otherwise Christmas will be here before we know it and I'll still have the excess lbs on

[havingascreen]

nice to be back Diana.....hiya xx Life seems very hectic for you just now and eating out three times in a week scrummy yummy. Are you going to places that have calories on the menu do you know? They are such handy additions when you're out and about or you can use a weight watchers/slimming world book to plan? You've got lots of experience now with the weight watchers way Diane, you'll be grand. Halfhearted workout is better than none atall xxx

[biggins]

Nice to see you back havingascreen. Haven't seen you at the cinema either recently.

We are all trying to lose weight before the "pigout" at Xmas. Mind you I have a holiday next week when I will be eating and eating as it has lunch and evening meal included as well as cooked breakfast so will have to be really good when I get back as I know I will be too weak to resist when confronted with lovely food. Well all that sea air on a cruise is bound to make me hungry.

[John Milton]

We are all trying to lose weight before the "pigout" at Xmas.

Less than 14 weeks...

[Diane65]

nice to be back Diana.....hiya xx Life seems very hectic for you just now and eating out three times in a week scrummy yummy. Are you going to places that have calories on the menu do you know? They are such handy additions when you're out and about or you can use a weight watchers/slimming world book to plan? You've got lots of experience now with the weight watchers way Diane, you'll be grand. Halfhearted workout is better than none atall xxx

I know but it is all due to me keep on saying yes Scrummy yummy is exactly what it is www.lafamigliahale.co.uk is Wednesday evenings meal, Thursday is www.kro.co.uk/kro-heaton-moor‎ and Friday is an Italian but not sure which one as yet but will post the website address so you can see what a dilemma I will be in re healthy options as you have seen me in action with my cakes

We are all trying to lose weight before the "pigout" at Xmas.

Less than 14 weeks...

Exactly especially as I have got my Christmas going out dress already which is fairly fitted so I can't afford to have a gut

Nice to see you back havingascreen. Haven't seen you at the cinema either recently.

We are all trying to lose weight before the "pigout" at Xmas. Mind you I have a holiday next week when I will be eating and eating as it has lunch and evening meal included as well as cooked breakfast so will have to be really good when I get back as I know I will be too weak to resist when confronted with lovely food. Well all that sea air on a cruise is bound to make me hungry.

Have a fabulous holiday and you are not weak you are a woman after my own heart and like to make the most of our holidays

How are your legs now alameals? Preston1990 where are you? What a fabulous idea re you all doing a 5K run sadly I am busy on that day (I know that you haven't named a day but I'm sure it is a day I can't make nothing to do with the fact that I can't run) but will be there in spirit.

Menu of the day:
Milkshake with a banana and raspberries (300 calories)
Poached egg on toast with an apple (280 calories)
Sausage and mash with loads of carrots and runner beans (500 calories)
Will have a 150 calorie snack later.

When I get my act together I will go for a 4 mile walk today as I was just thinking that I am doing the classic bigging up jobs How long does it really take to empty a tidy loft? Its purely winter bedding, Christmas decorations and some computer bits plus I've got some regular housework to do do I just need to move my body and get it done as I'm out tonight and at the cinema in the morning so have plenty of time if I actually get on with it.

What is everyone else up to today? Have fun and keep posting

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

Morning Everyone
I went for another run last night,legs are stiff today so running the past 2 nights I'll have a rest tonight and go out again tomorrow. Feeling great but come the weekend is when I'll probably have a craving for a few sweets and fizzy drinks, through the week work and family keep me busy but it is having that free time at weekends is when I slip. How often does everyone weigh themselves? I don't want to be jumping on the scales every day really,maybe once a week?

Yay, great to see a fellow runner on board, awesome Regards to your stiff legs...are you stretching after your runs? That is so important, do a 20-30 sec stretch on each calf, each hamstring, and each quad. That's just 2-3 mins altogether. Its so important to do that because this prevents your muscle fibres platting up which causes the aches and stiffness following day. Do the stretches at the end of every workout and you'll find you wont have the stiffness or aches following...at least not as much at first. Oh and make sure you do the stretched as soon as you finish your run while the muscles are still warm and loose.

Regards to your weighing question, the ideal interval is two weeks. One week is too short to allow for daily fluctuations, two weeks gives you a better idea of progress because whatever you weigh on the day, it would always be within the day's fluctuation of ±½lb. So two weeks ideal. If you weigh too frequently, it only makes you more frustrated. DOnt leave it longer either, because guaging yourself is obviously important. Two weeks strikes the right balance.

Dont worry about enjoying the sweet stuff on weekends, make that your reward for eating well during the week but be moderate. However, the fact you are mentally craving for the sweets, suggests you may not be eating your meals proportionally and perhaps groing through several hours of starvation periods? Never starve! Doing so increases those sweet cravings because the brain switches into emergency mode driving you to pick up the quick energy food, the sugary stuff.

So to everyone, never starve.

Eat slowly so that the brain has time to register when you are full to avoid overeating. Ideally, split your meals into 4 or five a day or if you have only been eating twice a day, improve that by splitting your meals to three a day. Ideally five meals should be the target, breakfast, mid-morning, lunch, mid afternoon, supper. I know its like living the life of a Hobbit but by adopting that lifestye of eating, does amazing things. Number one. it raises your metabolism rate for fat burning. It absolutely does. Number two, it prevents you from having sweet cravings because as I said earlier, you dont starve.

Finally, there is a magic trick that works most crucial for reducing body fat quickly which you probably doing already. For 5 or 6 days a week, you ration your calorie intake, then on your 7th day (and 6th day to start with), eat as much you like with moderation but make sure you eat more calories than previous days. Make that eat anything day your reward day, some of us call it our comfort day. This comfort day is actually crucial, which sounds bizarre but here's why. When we eat too little in order to lose the body fat for more than a week, the body realises that hey, we got food crisis! So what then happens is that body tries to replenish fat storage as priority, slows our metabolism rate right down making it very difficult to lose any body fat (called plateauing) . So the trick is to eat less calories for a few days but before the body clicks on whats going on, we "fool" the brain once a week with a message, "hey, everything's cool, look look, lots of food mmm yum yum""

One thing I would like to add if you are all serious about gauging yourself in health and fitness is to measure your body fat percentage because that is the real target of your health and fitness goals. Just losing weight doesnt mean anything, could be just water and worse, muscle. Your weight loss target should be purely on body fat and ideally, add a little more muscle too for strength (and no, that does not mean bulking out) in your everyday activities including breathing! Because body fat has a shorter scale of movement than weight, I measures mine once a month and although I can do it myself, I like to got to a professional who is also a nutritionist.

Personally, i find the term, losing weight is meaningless. Looking fitter, however, means a lot more. If you lose weight but look weak, skinny, what was the point? Fit is sexy. Skinny is not. Looking healthy is sexy too, nice skin, vibrant. To achieve that, we make sure our diet contains variety colours of vegetables (as much as possible, no limit), 1/3 portion of protein and moderation consumption of complex carbs (starchy stuff such as potatoes, rice, pasta, bread etc) and good fat food (nuts, seeds, oily fish). And cut down as much as possible on saturated fat foods (unsaturated are the good fats, we need that).

If its sounds like too much effort to split meals etc, its ok. The main thing is that we at least improve our diet/lifestyle with more exercises, less sugar in tea, water instead of orange juice (dont forget fruits have a LOT of sugar), more variety veggies to cover all the required nutrients. Every little bit of improvement helps, and then keep on improving bit by bit. That way, its easier to adapt to a healthier lifestyle FOR LIFE.

Those are quite a few tips that I learned on my own personal journey to body fat loss. Early days on this thread, I was 19 stones then went down to 12-13 stones, 13% Body fat and to ensure I learnt the healthy path to health and fitness, I did a Fitness instructor course and qualified as a level 3 with GP referral. Alas, I havent yet taken bog enough strides in making that a career, still doing my day job but I tell, I am still loving pursuing goals. And that is the last point I'd like to end off with...,make sure you set yourself a goal. With the goal, its difficult to drive yourself all the way, you may have the good intention but you need that practical goal to drive yourself.

Currently my goal is to top the quash league, odds are against me with all these damn youngsters whizzing around the court, every time I think I have hit a winner down line, they whizz past me like a bullet and keep it in play, bah! But I am not having it, I will show them, hmpphh. This morning, I had to win my league match to stay in the division, best out of 5 games. In no time, I found myself 2-0 down It was such a blur, alas this guy is good, well its division 2 what did I expect. But then I saw a vision of me holding the squash league cup (actually they dont give out cups....but I imagined it anyway, ooo nice shiny cup, we wants it precioous, yes alright I'll book an appointment for the doctor's couch). I said to myself, I just need to win the next game. Then the next and then just one more. So I won the next game. Then the next. 2-2. At this point I felt like fire, my opponent became more agitated, making more errors...but damn it so was I, I was getting OVER confident. Wise up MrG. Get your rhythm...Shiny cup shiny cup...I won! Alas, no shiny cup but by winning, I stay in the division. Very happy :) I wouldnt have won the game if I had no significant goal in sight. Set your goals and keep envisioning them EVERY DAY. In all honesty, he was technically the better player but seeing my goal, drove me. My goal is to get to division one. To do that, I need to improve on some techniques and work a lot more harder on my fitness which despite my sporting progress, has actually taken a dive.

once a week should suffice......hello everyone, going to try and get on here more often.....has everyone managed to maintain a healthy wieght, reach their targets, eat all the right things??

I'm tipping the scales at 13 1/2 stone and i have to get back into the healthy scene......eating soup and rivita for lunch, fruit and yogurt (low fat) for brekkie.....the dinner portions still have to be worked on a bit maybe too much of the old scrumpy too BUT have started badminton once a week so gotta get back into zumba

Oh wow, Havingascreen is here! Great to "see" ya back :) I too have been away so long. Badminton, great sport to get into! Before Squash, that was my primary racket sport, you are going to get really fit if you play that couple of times a week. Its basically like doing interval training which is the most effective fat burning kind of exercises. just half hour of badminton is more effecive a fat burner than running at a steady pace for an hour. Whats more, after a game of racket sport, the heart keeps working extra for the rest of the day. Excellent stuff with your meals too

Thanks all. I'm aiming for a 10k run before xmas.
And as for goal weight Diane, I don't really have one. I just wanted to lose my cinema belly

Brilliant goal You dont need the weight goal if you gotta 10km lined up, you know you gotta get fitter to run it :) Are you aiming for an event? or just to be able to run 10km? How are you training for it? Are you building up the weekly mileage gradually etc? Make sure you mix your runs with some hills, to strengthen your quads, hamstrings, calves too. Also add some interval train runs (example, alternate between 2 min steady run and 20-30 sec sprints. Or randomize your run speeds in one session (called Fartlek training).

I want to get back into running more myself as I have been concentrating more on sports and gym. Both you and alameals, do you use Iphone or Android running apps? I use runkeeper, perhaps we can join a as fmuk team and encourage each other? Here's my runkeeper profile if anyone like to add me in their team. It has shamefully very few entries in recent months The shaming is good, the exposure should give me a kick up the bum to get me running more again :)

http://runkeeper.com/user/RunTejRun/profile

Oh and guys, if you are free on a Saturday morning, I strongly recommend doing a 5k Park Run which is all over UK. In London, there is a park run in almost every public park. Its free to enter and attract numerous runners. Bushey Park in Kingston has the most with 800 runners every Staurday morning. Its a great vibe and there is an incentive to run as many as you can, as when you do your 50th run, you get a free special 50 t shirt, same with 100 runs. This is a no profit organisation sponsored by popular sports brands, which is why the club is free. But you gotta get up early as the run starts 9am :) They record your times too and you can momitor your progress and also be ranked by age groups.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

Diane, Preston, Moviemann, you guys rock as usual, thanks for the encouragement and well done on your relentless pursuit of your own goals sharing your journey with so much gusto, humour and charisma, you guys are a joy and inspiriation. Keep it going oh and Moviemann, thanks for your blessing on a fmuk run event, we'll gauge the interest, I'm willing to travel to anywhere to make it happen be it London, Manchester or Edinburgh...in UK though, lol.

Right, my fingers are getting numb from typing, think they had enough exercise for the day...

[havingascreen]

awww its so nice to be back guys thanks ...i love badminton Glassy and its great to know it burns off so many calories. Such a fun way to exercise. Good to see you're still doing your running and that others are joining you. You are still as inspirational as ever with the healthy living advice.....much appreciated

See you are still adventurous as ever Biggins....looking forward to seeing you at the cinema....it has been a while....bet you're still as trim as ever.

Diane you've no idea how comforting it is to see your menues up here again. I haven't clicked through your restaurant links yet as i'll end up hungry. Did you do you 4k walk somewhere nice?

I walked miles today on the march for independence today but want to go for a proper hill walk tomorrow as its meant to be 18 degrees

[SOLACE]

Morning Everyone
I went for another run last night,legs are stiff today so running the past 2 nights I'll have a rest tonight and go out again tomorrow. Feeling great but come the weekend is when I'll probably have a craving for a few sweets and fizzy drinks, through the week work and family keep me busy but it is having that free time at weekends is when I slip. How often does everyone weigh themselves? I don't want to be jumping on the scales every day really,maybe once a week?

Yay, great to see a fellow runner on board, awesome Regards to your stiff legs...are you stretching after your runs? That is so important, do a 20-30 sec stretch on each calf, each hamstring, and each quad. That's just 2-3 mins altogether. Its so important to do that because this prevents your muscle fibres platting up which causes the aches and stiffness following day. Do the stretches at the end of every workout and you'll find you wont have the stiffness or aches following...at least not as much at first. Oh and make sure you do the stretched as soon as you finish your run while the muscles are still warm and loose.

Regards to your weighing question, the ideal interval is two weeks. One week is too short to allow for daily fluctuations, two weeks gives you a better idea of progress because whatever you weigh on the day, it would always be within the day's fluctuation of ±½lb. So two weeks ideal. If you weigh too frequently, it only makes you more frustrated. DOnt leave it longer either, because guaging yourself is obviously important. Two weeks strikes the right balance.

Dont worry about enjoying the sweet stuff on weekends, make that your reward for eating well during the week but be moderate. However, the fact you are mentally craving for the sweets, suggests you may not be eating your meals proportionally and perhaps groing through several hours of starvation periods? Never starve! Doing so increases those sweet cravings because the brain switches into emergency mode driving you to pick up the quick energy food, the sugary stuff.

So to everyone, never starve.

Eat slowly so that the brain has time to register when you are full to avoid overeating. Ideally, split your meals into 4 or five a day or if you have only been eating twice a day, improve that by splitting your meals to three a day. Ideally five meals should be the target, breakfast, mid-morning, lunch, mid afternoon, supper. I know its like living the life of a Hobbit but by adopting that lifestye of eating, does amazing things. Number one. it raises your metabolism rate for fat burning. It absolutely does. Number two, it prevents you from having sweet cravings because as I said earlier, you dont starve.

Finally, there is a magic trick that works most crucial for reducing body fat quickly which you probably doing already. For 5 or 6 days a week, you ration your calorie intake, then on your 7th day (and 6th day to start with), eat as much you like with moderation but make sure you eat more calories than previous days. Make that eat anything day your reward day, some of us call it our comfort day. This comfort day is actually crucial, which sounds bizarre but here's why. When we eat too little in order to lose the body fat for more than a week, the body realises that hey, we got food crisis! So what then happens is that body tries to replenish fat storage as priority, slows our metabolism rate right down making it very difficult to lose any body fat (called plateauing) . So the trick is to eat less calories for a few days but before the body clicks on whats going on, we "fool" the brain once a week with a message, "hey, everything's cool, look look, lots of food mmm yum yum""

One thing I would like to add if you are all serious about gauging yourself in health and fitness is to measure your body fat percentage because that is the real target of your health and fitness goals. Just losing weight doesnt mean anything, could be just water and worse, muscle. Your weight loss target should be purely on body fat and ideally, add a little more muscle too for strength (and no, that does not mean bulking out) in your everyday activities including breathing! Because body fat has a shorter scale of movement than weight, I measures mine once a month and although I can do it myself, I like to got to a professional who is also a nutritionist.

Personally, i find the term, losing weight is meaningless. Looking fitter, however, means a lot more. If you lose weight but look weak, skinny, what was the point? Fit is sexy. Skinny is not. Looking healthy is sexy too, nice skin, vibrant. To achieve that, we make sure our diet contains variety colours of vegetables (as much as possible, no limit), 1/3 portion of protein and moderation consumption of complex carbs (starchy stuff such as potatoes, rice, pasta, bread etc) and good fat food (nuts, seeds, oily fish). And cut down as much as possible on saturated fat foods (unsaturated are the good fats, we need that).

If its sounds like too much effort to split meals etc, its ok. The main thing is that we at least improve our diet/lifestyle with more exercises, less sugar in tea, water instead of orange juice (dont forget fruits have a LOT of sugar), more variety veggies to cover all the required nutrients. Every little bit of improvement helps, and then keep on improving bit by bit. That way, its easier to adapt to a healthier lifestyle FOR LIFE.

Those are quite a few tips that I learned on my own personal journey to body fat loss. Early days on this thread, I was 19 stones then went down to 12-13 stones, 13% Body fat and to ensure I learnt the healthy path to health and fitness, I did a Fitness instructor course and qualified as a level 3 with GP referral. Alas, I havent yet taken bog enough strides in making that a career, still doing my day job but I tell, I am still loving pursuing goals. And that is the last point I'd like to end off with...,make sure you set yourself a goal. With the goal, its difficult to drive yourself all the way, you may have the good intention but you need that practical goal to drive yourself.

Currently my goal is to top the quash league, odds are against me with all these damn youngsters whizzing around the court, every time I think I have hit a winner down line, they whizz past me like a bullet and keep it in play, bah! But I am not having it, I will show them, hmpphh. This morning, I had to win my league match to stay in the division, best out of 5 games. In no time, I found myself 2-0 down It was such a blur, alas this guy is good, well its division 2 what did I expect. But then I saw a vision of me holding the squash league cup (actually they dont give out cups....but I imagined it anyway, ooo nice shiny cup, we wants it precioous, yes alright I'll book an appointment for the doctor's couch). I said to myself, I just need to win the next game. Then the next and then just one more. So I won the next game. Then the next. 2-2. At this point I felt like fire, my opponent became more agitated, making more errors...but damn it so was I, I was getting OVER confident. Wise up MrG. Get your rhythm...Shiny cup shiny cup...I won! Alas, no shiny cup but by winning, I stay in the division. Very happy :) I wouldnt have won the game if I had no significant goal in sight. Set your goals and keep envisioning them EVERY DAY. In all honesty, he was technically the better player but seeing my goal, drove me. My goal is to get to division one. To do that, I need to improve on some techniques and work a lot more harder on my fitness which despite my sporting progress, has actually taken a dive.

once a week should suffice......hello everyone, going to try and get on here more often.....has everyone managed to maintain a healthy wieght, reach their targets, eat all the right things??

I'm tipping the scales at 13 1/2 stone and i have to get back into the healthy scene......eating soup and rivita for lunch, fruit and yogurt (low fat) for brekkie.....the dinner portions still have to be worked on a bit maybe too much of the old scrumpy too BUT have started badminton once a week so gotta get back into zumba

Oh wow, Havingascreen is here! Great to "see" ya back :) I too have been away so long. Badminton, great sport to get into! Before Squash, that was my primary racket sport, you are going to get really fit if you play that couple of times a week. Its basically like doing interval training which is the most effective fat burning kind of exercises. just half hour of badminton is more effecive a fat burner than running at a steady pace for an hour. Whats more, after a game of racket sport, the heart keeps working extra for the rest of the day. Excellent stuff with your meals too

Thanks all. I'm aiming for a 10k run before xmas.
And as for goal weight Diane, I don't really have one. I just wanted to lose my cinema belly

Brilliant goal You dont need the weight goal if you gotta 10km lined up, you know you gotta get fitter to run it :) Are you aiming for an event? or just to be able to run 10km? How are you training for it? Are you building up the weekly mileage gradually etc? Make sure you mix your runs with some hills, to strengthen your quads, hamstrings, calves too. Also add some interval train runs (example, alternate between 2 min steady run and 20-30 sec sprints. Or randomize your run speeds in one session (called Fartlek training).

I want to get back into running more myself as I have been concentrating more on sports and gym. Both you and alameals, do you use Iphone or Android running apps? I use runkeeper, perhaps we can join a as fmuk team and encourage each other? Here's my runkeeper profile if anyone like to add me in their team. It has shamefully very few entries in recent months The shaming is good, the exposure should give me a kick up the bum to get me running more again :)

http://runkeeper.com/user/RunTejRun/profile

Oh and guys, if you are free on a Saturday morning, I strongly recommend doing a 5k Park Run which is all over UK. In London, there is a park run in almost every public park. Its free to enter and attract numerous runners. Bushey Park in Kingston has the most with 800 runners every Staurday morning. Its a great vibe and there is an incentive to run as many as you can, as when you do your 50th run, you get a free special 50 t shirt, same with 100 runs. This is a no profit organisation sponsored by popular sports brands, which is why the club is free. But you gotta get up early as the run starts 9am :) They record your times too and you can momitor your progress and also be ranked by age groups.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

Diane, Preston, Moviemann, you guys rock as usual, thanks for the encouragement and well done on your relentless pursuit of your own goals sharing your journey with so much gusto, humour and charisma, you guys are a joy and inspiriation. Keep it going oh and Moviemann, thanks for your blessing on a fmuk run event, we'll gauge the interest, I'm willing to travel to anywhere to make it happen be it London, Manchester or Edinburgh...in UK though, lol.

Right, my fingers are getting numb from typing, think they had enough exercise for the day...

This has got to be one of the best pieces of health advice i've ever read. Its real, its honest, its practical , its simple, effective and most of all its something that can be taken on board and adhered to for ones entire life . Honestly Mr Glass I take my hat off to you, you really are a true inspiration not just from what you were to what you have become but far more importantly for what you have learnt along the way. This journey of yours has obviously had its physical rewards for you, but i think the knowledge and the experience you have been rewarded with holds far more worth as with this you not have only changed your life but will have (and will continue to) change the lives of many others too. Who knows how many lives you will possibly save (literally!) by inspiring and motivating others to live a better, fuller and healthier life. I wish there was an icon for taking my hat off to you as i would have filled the page with it !

Thank you !

And best of luck with your Squash goals, i'm very sure that if anyone can do it, its you !

Good luck also to you r33ceh for your 10k run ! 10k is a fantastic achievement to reach so I really hope you succeed ! Maybe some of us FMUKERs can support you on the day by showing up to clap you on and wearing t-shirts with REACH R33CEH REACH ! printed on !

Best of luck to everyone else too with all goals !

:)