Six days in and have lost a pound!

[catinthehat]

I am four foot ten inches and over eleven stone. Just had my second baby, he is three months old and would like to get back into pre-pregnancy clothes and out of my maternity wear! After six days of calorie counting with My Fitness pal I have lost a pound, hurrah! going in the right direction.

It is hard work though, I feel as though I am hardly eating and I can't believe how much calories there are in foods. Special K cereal is over 400 calories and that's only usually part of my breakfast, really hard to keep it down to 1400 calories a day. I have never counted calories before and it is a challenge.

I was really pleased that I managed to go to a Zumba class with a friend this week even though I was quite tired as my little boy is still waking for 3am feeds. I have been to Zumba before, started going a couple of years ago with friends and then stopped when I got pregnant again. I kept all my movements to low impact, but it was still quite tough going. I felt much better for getting there. I have to admit I was on the verge of cancelling as not sure if I had the energy but didn't want to let my friend or myself down.

I slipped up food wise on Weds, I went to the cinema and I couldn't resist my favourite treat 'toffee popcorn'. Turns out the half a bag I ate was 416 calories and took me way over the daily limit.

My aim next week is to keep within the daily food allowance of 1400 calories and not give in to my cravings for chocolate during baby's naptime and when my eldest is at preschool. Wish me luck!

[Hidden]

Hi catinthehat

Well done on the weight loss. It is hard to completely stop all the habits you have built up over time, it will take time to unlearn them and create new ones.

Best of luck for the next 11 weeks, I am in the same boat, I started plan last Monday.

Take care, Jo x

[Hidden]

Hi catinthehat,

That's the important part - "going in the right direction".

I've actually gone in the wrong one, over the last couple of days, I've slightly increased, but it neither surprises me nor worries me as I've had a rather grotty cold-like bug and probably ate a bit more than I meant to and I just couldn't face the exercise. Back on track this morning though.

As for food, well firstly I'd say weigh your cereal portions and maybe cut them back a bit from what the manufacturer says (after all he wants you to use them up so you'll go and buy some more). Same is true for rice and dry pasta and that sort of stuff.

I use only skimmed milk - o.k. that's a matter of taste, but it does have less fat and calories in it.

The big trick, I think, is to snack. So have a decent, but not enormous, breakfast and then say 3 hours later or so, have a small light snack to tide you over until your lunch - it might just be an apple, or a ricecake with something on it.

Doing that stops your blood sugar level dropping too low and helps to prevent your body going into fat storage mode. Note though, I saying snacking - not grazing! Then have your sensible lunch, and in the late afternoon another snack to tide you over to your evening meal. That will also help you to not feel so hungry as doing that usually fools the ghrelin hormone which is what tells your brain you're hungry.

Also, it's o.k. to eat some high calorie food, but the trick is to only eat a very little of it. So instead of having your own bag of toffee popcorn, nick a 'taster' of your friend's! Similary, when eating out, use the same strategy and share a desert between two or three people around the table.

One of the problems with sweet things, like toffee popcorn, isn't just the calories. If you eat things that give you a sugar spike, you can trigger your body into fat storage mode that way too. And as the name of the game is to burn fat, not store it...... So where you do eat or drink sweet things try to mix them in with other less sweet foods and drinks.

For those reasons, avoid fruit juice drinks with added sugars. Also eating the fruit itself, rather than drinking the juice, is usually preferable as you'll also take in the fibre in the fruit too.

Good luck.