hello

[tamara12]

hi everybody! this is my first time joining an online community but reading the posts gave me a feeling of a warm friendly athmosphere so i felt incouraged. im 31 years old 66kg at 160 cm. i am planning on loosing cca 6-8 kg by the end of november and am aiming for maintainance of wight during the winter. i have tried to lose wight in the past but maintaining the weight was a problem for me. so this time i am trying different more deeply motivated approach

[Hidden]

Hi tamara12 glad you found the welcome post encouraging and we are a very friendly and supportive

Have you looked at the NHS BMI calculator which will help give you a calorie range or are you not going to be counting calories ?

[tamara12 in reply to Hidden]

hey! thank you for the welcome at first i was not planning in calorie counting but after a week i admited.to myself that im not disciplined enough when it comes to food so i have to work on that area a bit. i calculated my bmi and installed fitbit today. i will be trying to put some emphasis on the exercises too, but i reckin that will not be a big issue as i spend lots of time outdoors during the summer months

[Hidden in reply to tamara12]

I thought calorie counting was going to be hard work to start with - I set up a spread sheet and now it is second nature - it's great as you can still have something as long as you include it in your calories for that day

Wishing you all the best on your journey

[Hidden]

Welcome to the community!! Good luck to you.

[tamara12 in reply to Hidden]

thank you

[maruska]

Hello Tamara,

I'm a newbie, too, as you can see. I started on Monday and I can already see some changes and the scale begun to go down. People here are very supportive and nice and they will notice if you need some guidance and unselfishly give their best advice

I can't wait my first weigh in on Monday to see and share my 1st-week results. Best of all is you don't feel like you're dieting and you don't have to give up any food as long as you stick to your daily allowance.

You can plan your meals together with us, I find Daily Diary thread very helpful

[tamara12 in reply to maruska]

hey! thank you for the welcome i made my decision about life style changes about a weej ago and also started to be more physicaly active this week. but today i realized that nutritiin is going to be my main issue and i have to take thungs more seriousely if i expect results. so im not really looking forward to my monday weigh-in but hopefully next monday will be another story

im still discoverin all of the opportunities on this site and will try to participate

[Tiggerr in reply to tamara12]

You've made a good point, in that we learn along the way and adjust accordingly. By re-evaluating all the time we can gradually make the necessary changes.

[Pineapple27]

Hi tamara12 and welcome!

This is indeed a friendly and welcoming environment! I'm pleased you got that impression!

I posted in response to someone a couple of days ago about just how difficult maintenance can be! I reached my goal weight (losing 4.5 stone) in September 2014.... but then swiftly re-gained about 1.5 stone.

I had fairly good reasons for letting things slide. We'd had my terminally ill mother in law living with us for just over a year beforehand. Whilst she was living with us, we couldn't go out much and didn't have any holidays. The end of her life was quite traumatic for myself and my husband who had to take on a lot of personal care.... things that a son should never have to do for his Mum, but with the professional support we had in place, it was still necessary...

The year following her death I had 5 holidays! I just gave myself a free reign, and unfortunately the extra pounds I gained from one holiday weren't gone before the next one came along.

Now I feel much more able to deal with holiday weight gain - I am far more retrained with my eating leading up to the holiday, and during the holiday remind myself I don't need to eat everything in sight! We prefer self catering holidays, so it's never difficult to ensure that meals we prepare are healthy and when we eat out, I'll avoid having a dessert EVERY day, will ask for salad in place of chips and sadly... I've gone off the taste of wine, so alcohol isn't too much of a problem.

I am also very careful about evening snacking on holiday. We often holiday in Tenerife and I absolutely LOVE turron, but it's very calorific! I allow myself a small amount and eek it out over a few days.

As part of my "maintenance", I rarely eat pasta, bread, rice, cakes, crisps..... I ensure that every meal contains some fat and don't eat "low fat" or "fat free". Cutting out the carbs and raising the fat keeps me feeling fuller for longer and cutting out the processed carbs definitely has a beneficial effect for me personally. In fact, I feel quite bloated and ill when I eat too much bread these days!

[tamara12 in reply to Pineapple27]

hey Pineapple27 and thank you for the welcome!

i understand that it must have been hard for you during the period when you were taking care of your mother in law and it takes a lot of time to get back from that place and start taking care of yourself .

my main problem is that i was never too attentive to myself, never established healthy eating routine. i saw dieting as some sort of unplesant phase which i had to endure. now i am taking a different approach and am trying to introduce some lasting changes. i also try to see this whole process as a reward. i am trying to get in shape instead of just loosing weight. and also i have set myself a goal/reward for next year- to start learning to kite as this is an activity that requires a lot of physical strenght and endurance

im trying to cut back on pasta, pizza and bread for starters as they were my main food source for a while..

good luck on your journey!

[IndigoBlue61 in reply to tamara12]

It sounds like you have made the very important change of mindset and realised that junk/processed food/sugary snacks are not 'treats' because they are not helping your health. We all deserve good nourishing foods. 😊

Good luck and very best wishes tamara12 😊

[tamara12 in reply to IndigoBlue61]

thank you IndigoBlue61

[tamara12 in reply to tamara12]

i hope my mind set will keep me going this time. i will try not to be to restrictive and not to shut any food out completely but instead to turn over the healthy- unhealthy ratio

all best!

[Pineapple27 in reply to tamara12]

Wow, sounds as though you are in a good place to start this! Do you plan to Kite with a board / kart or just from the ground? I know someone (just via Facebook) who Kites using a kart on beaches.

I absolutely agree that you have to be able to be quite selfish (or as I prefer to think of it, spend more time being attentive to your own needs, as you have put it).

My (one and only) daughter is now 20 and at University, I have more time to spend cooking and being more active (just housework and gardening mainly!)

I have logged everything I have eaten more or less ever since I started (February 2012), but it takes no longer than brushing my teeth most of the time. But I do love to cook from scratch - so inputting my recipes and weighing everything is a bit more time consuming. BUT the time is right and I want to do this for ME!

Nowadays, when we have rice or pasta, both my husband and I have just 50g of dried pasta / rice, whereas we probably once had about 150g each! If you measure it out before you cook it, it ensures that you aren't eating too large a portion. I think the recommended amount is 75g, but we always have a lot of vegetables, and of course they are lower calorie, more tasty and contain fibre, as well as counting to your 5 a day...

[tamara12 in reply to Pineapple27]

thank you. i also hope this time i will manage. the problem is that though i know enough abotu healhy eating i can soon lose track or motivation.. this time i set my self a motivating goal and also i accepted that i cant do it on my own. this community comes more then welcome

i never heard of cart kiting. have to look it up

i have enough time to focus on my healthy eating but i get easily distracted by other activities.. will try to form a habbit oug of it

thank you for your support!

[Wadestreet]

Hi there! Welcome to the forum and they are a great bunch of people with there inspirations You come to the right site.