Thought I would post my thoughts. I have been doing the 12 week challenge for 4 weeks now. Well that's not true. I did it for 2 weeks then I have just coasted ( which is my usual pattern). The problem is I am always so tired with my job (nursery teacher) that I have times when I am so busy with work that my eating habits just go on the back burner and I just want to grab what food I can just to keep going. I stop counting and recording calories and obviously the weight loss doesn't happen. I generally eat healthily anyway and so I tend to stick around the same weight but I then feel cross with myself for not prioritising myself.
I am normally a very private person and I am not one to post on forums except for the weekly weigh in but I have decided to become more involved in this community and ask for some words of advice. I am very unhappy with my weight and I am getting to the point where I don't enjoy going out because my clothes are tight and I just feel tired and miserable. My partner is very fit and goes running regularly and he can't understand why I just don't up the exercise and lose the weight if I am so unhappy. He obviously has never had difficulty losing weight!
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks X
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Susie651
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Hi Susie651, I used to be a nursery manager so I know what your talking about with being tried at work. The one thing that keeps me on track is to keep a daily diary with every thing I eat and all my activities in it. Could you plan your daily calories the day before so you know each day what amount your having. When the children have their snack time why not have a fruit snack with them which is low in calories and healthy eating with the children. Hope this helps and have a good week.
" I have been doing the 12 week challenge for 4 weeks now. Well that's not true"
Susie we have known each other only for a few short minutes and already you're lying to me? Tsk, tsk
I totally get the self fulfilling cycle of being tired, not being bothered cooking or planning, eating rubbish etc etc etc
One thing that always makes me more focused is taking time out to plan a weeks food. I find a few recipes, go to my supermarket website, order everything, and it delivered next day.
When everything is there and you know that today is haloumi and pea fritters or chili pepper pork or whatever it is you are cooking, getting motivated to do it is easier.
I make a few days worth and will often do it first thing in the morning as I am an early riser but you could even do it on a weekend and freeze stuff or whatever works.,
When you do not have a snack or your food available and you are tired its so easy to fall off the wagon.
Hi, 'I generally eat healthily anyway' this was me, or so I thought! After being on this forum a few weeks I soon realised my food intake wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either! I wasn't eating enough variety of veg and salad or having enough protein and not drinking enough water! I find a diary invaluable, write everything down, plan and prepare your meals and healthy snacks for the next day, it doesn't matter then if you are busy at work because you will have the right food with you and you will know how many calories you've had. Build exercise up gradually so as not to injure yourself and who knows, one day, you and your partner may be able to go on a run together?! Also, keep coming on here regularly for help and advice, it's amazing how much information you get reading posts on here. Maybe join in one of the challenges to keep you motivated, I've just joined the Autumn Equinox one which is running for 11 weeks, just look on the right hand side of the news feed for a link to it if you are interested. Good luck!
It sounds like you need to deal with the way you react to tiredness, in order to break the cycle. My journey involved doing couch to 5k, experimenting with cutting out foods that my stomach was reacting badly to, and changing habits such as getting home and opening a bottle of wine straight away. I've discovered things like, some foods I thought were energising were actually making me sluggish, exercise was in fact energising, not something to avoid doing when tired, and regular small meals and snacks were much better for me than settling down to a big comforting meal and a glass of wine at the end of the day. If you start to really look at how you react to tiredness through food/avoiding exercise, then it'll all get easier, tackling bad habits one by one, and slowly incorporating better habits. Hope you feel good to have shared on here. The community here is so supportive
Wow, you've had so many really helpful responses to your post, and I really hope that you have been able to select some ideas from those responses to help you with the week ahead. I think it's great that you posted and asked for some suggestions to help you through this - and it's great that you're participating in the forum more, and I hope you'll gain confidence in doing that - and really enjoy the community spirit here.
I would also recommend getting involved in some of our many Challenges - see the Pinned posts - there are several there currently, as they really do help motivate and keep everyone on track with goals etc. Also, have you seen some of the exercise DVDs available in the NHS Choices website? There are some fun ones there, and they are quite short in terms of time etc.
Anyway, hope you have a really good evening and a great week ahead.
Thank you everyone. I have read each reply carefully and I feel that I can take something from each of you. I think the way forwards is to plan my meals and prepare as much as I can at the weekend when I am not so tired. Maybe shop and cook again on a Wednesday evening as I am in the office all day then. I do exercise and occasionally go to the gym but I find that this depends very much on how tired I am. I always feel better when I have been so I need to make myself get out there and do short bursts.
We always have fruit at work so it would be a good idea to have fruit after the children have gone home so I don't reach for the crisps or biscuits when I get home myself.
But the main thing is that I need to write everything down and stop the guesswork.
Do you have the myfitnesspal so on your phone? That makes it easier to log & count calories.
I work in a school & understand how day to day pressure can suck you in - but you really do have to put yourself first otherwise your health (& mental state) suffers and that impacts on your work anyway.
Each morning before work I plan and log exactly what I will be eating for the day. I also plan in snacks for the times j know that I would otherwise reach for the biscuit tin.
Put yourself first and you will be healthy enough to do a good job at work as a result! Good luck!!!
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