A long journey towards healthy weight: third week review 16/01-21/01

[happyhealthyjane]

Hi everyone,

It's weekend again, hope you are relaxing. Just want to share a bit about my weight loss journey this week, so the result is ok, I lost 0.5 kilo, which for some people is how much weight fluctuates between morning and eventing, so not a big number, but within the range. But I really struggled this week. So these are things I struggled most:

1. Finding time f o r strength and flexibility training, which I hoped would help my back pain, as predicted, I didn't have time for it given my already busy life.

2. Counting calories and cooking from scratch. I'm a good cook, and kind of lucky in the sense I don't like most of the junk food, always prefer real food. From quite young age I decided not to bake, cause I'm the kind of person wants to bake my cake and eat it, knowing how much sugar, butter and other high calories ingredients going into a cake, I decided not invest my time on baking. Even so, this journey has been an eye opener for me, with all the good suggestions from you, I just started to get a bit better on cooking low calorie tasty meals. Weighing my food is great for my portion control. The harsh truth is, no matter how healthy your food is, you eat too much you still put on weight.

3. I call it unconscious eating. One night I was so tired and didn't have a meal plan, so I made myself a quick noodle dish and kept eating in front of tv, the result was I ate too much and so stuffed, and had no idea how I end up eating so much.

If there was anything positive about my week, it was exercise. I exercised 5 times this week, 30-50minutes brisk walking or swimming. (And water intake of course, I've been good on that one:))

I'm aware that you learn most when you're struggling, failures can make you start again more intelligently.

So here is my plan for next week

1. Keep to my 150s minutes aerobic a week, but within 3 days, have 3days for strentghth and flexibility training

2. Cook simple low calorie meals, batch cooking so it's manageable

3. Stop eating in front of tv any more( have herbal tea when watch tv), I'll start mindful eating (except when eating out of course) and chew more.

Wish everyone a great week ahead!

Jane

[JacksonPollock]

Well done on your weight loss, it keeps going down so brilliant.

When making noodle dish why not measure out the recommended portion size that it states on the back, do you have some kitchen scales? That way you will have a portion for one in the first place.

It sounds like you are doing a lot of exercise don't do too much that you get sick of it and give up all of it, I hope you enjoy it to some degree?

Well good luck on your endeavours. All the best. Jp.

[lizzy65 in reply to JacksonPollock]

Well done on your weight loss, it is not always easy. Instead of noodles, can you use butternut squash spiralized? I tried them yesterday in a stir-fry, they are delicious.

Good luck on your journey x

[happyhealthyjane in reply to lizzy65]

Thanks for the suggestion, I made some pumpkin soup (leftover frozen pumpkin from halloween today.

[happyhealthyjane in reply to JacksonPollock]

Yes I definitely use the scale more than I ever did before, trying to get into the habit of measuring every ingredients when I cook. I used to always cook too much, and being a kinda frugal person, I finish the "little" leftover.

About exercise, I do need get the balance between aerobic and strength and flexibility, my back pain a warning sign that I need to restart on building a bit core muscle!

[Hidden]

I also love noodles when I come in late from work. I've started having the rice noodles that you just soak in hot water for 3 mins. It sounds like you'll find things like this that fit round your lifestyle though, looks like you have a very healthy attitude For strength, have you found the 10 minute workouts on the NHS Livewell webpages? I like the lower back exercises and to a certain extent the abs ones... But generally if all I manage is a few squats here and there e.g. while brushing teeth etc, it still all adds up

[happyhealthyjane in reply to Hidden]

Thanks! Yes I am a fan of noodles dish, quick and easy, you just throw a few things in and a bit stock then that's it. Recently found buckwheat noodles, good for blood sugar level (it's considered low GI food), and tasty as well. you can get them from Tesco

Do you have the web link for the lower back and ab exercise? Or is it part of the strength and flexibility podcast? I downloaded them but haven't opened one yet.

[Hidden in reply to happyhealthyjane]

Have a look through these nhs.uk/livewell/loseweight/... and here nhs.uk/Livewell/Backpain/Pa...

These are more useful as a sort of loose guide, pick n mix what works for you - I find them easy to fit in as and when. Whereas you may find the strength and flex podcasts need a bit more commitment timewise. But lots of people find the strength and flex a great introduction towards creating your own "routine"...

[happyhealthyjane in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Ruth! Will look through them and pick the one suits me.

[IndigoBlue61]

Some excellent points there happyhealthyjane 😊

This weight loss journey is about taking a series of small steps, the changes don't happen overnight, but well done on finding where you are successful and minimising the occasions where you arent quite as much! 😊

Onwards and downwards 😊

[happyhealthyjane]

Thanks Anna:0 )

Yes I guess I've learnt few things over the years, one is taking small steps and give myself a bit credit (I can be quite harsh on myself and it's certainly not good for mental health!). Every day is new day, this week's success doesn't guarantee next week's weight loss. But I am happy knowing I'm a bit more informed and hopefully healthier person.