Regular exercise? Done. Now, for the 12 week NHS Weight Loss plan!

[kirstyfbates]

Hi! I'm new to this community, as of today, and well, I'd like to introduce myself, and my story, in the hope I can meet any like-minded individuals, be it graduates -- or beginners!

For a start, over the past two weeks, I have done more exercise that I've ever done in all my twenty-one years of existence, and it feels great. I attend Zumba classes, I've completed Week 1 of the Couch to 5K challenge, and I go for regular 5k and 10k+ walks throughout the week. I have rest days, and so far, the exercise I'm doing feels manageable. Above all, though, I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying feeling the benefits: each day, my C25K feels easier -- each day I can run for longer, and when I get home? I feel so clear-minded and refreshed, it's enough to keep me going again and again.

Sadly, though, I've come to discover (via extensive research) that not much weight can be lost through exercise alone, and that at some point, your diet has to change as well, and so with that, I've decided to have a crack at the NHS 12-week Weight Loss plan, starting tomorrow.

The only problem I have is that I'm in a bit of a funny position, in that I cannot actively dictate what I eat each day. I live in Spain, and I work full-time in a school which provides me with a cooked lunch every day (here, they eat their main meal at lunchtime), and when I come home, I come home to a Spanish home-stay family who provide all my dinners for me. It's considered impolite to insist that you eat differently to them, and that you want to buy/prepare your own food, and so my only real option is to cut back on my portion sizes, to eat slower and stop before I'm full, and make the healthiest choices I can -- where possible.

Saying that, I do not eat 'unhealthily'. Fridays and Saturdays are the family's cheat nights: we eat homemade pizzas on Friday, and grilled sandwiches on Saturday. At school, the food I eat is the same as the children's, so there's a large emphasis on healthy food: rice, fish, salad, omlettes, etc. There's an enormous amount of seafood here, as well as fresh fruit, natural yoghurt, etc. I feel as though it's possible -- I just have to be careful, I hope!

I've signed up to MyFitnessPal as a way of keeping track of my calories, albeit I'm expecting that with all my food prepared for me -- I may well be unable to estimate the exact quantities of the food I am eating, and I'm concerned this might set me back a little.

My ultimate goal is to lose around 3 stone, albeit I hope to lose around 1-2 by following the 12-week Plan.

In the meantime, I wish you all luck with your programmes!

[gareth0073 7lbs]

Stick with the c25k been running now for two years started with that lost five stone. I would take a look at the hair dieaters cook books they do a five minute pizza 

[pete_be_healthy]

Hairy Dieters are great, have helped me lose six stone or so

[Seuzan]

Sounds like you are on the right track. Maybe portion size is the answer for if you can't totally control what's on offer?  I love the myfitnesspal ap as it does seem to help me stop when I reach my calorie limit.  Great that you are doing all that exercise!  I want to try the couch to 5k challenge but also teach in a school too and don't seem to have enough hours in the day - my goal is to work on that one.