Bad week

[Beardy]

Ive had a bad week so far as i have had a take away every night. But thats me skint now till pay day so will be back on the diet tomorrow eating whats in the fridge and cupboards

[Hidden]

Hi Beardy.

You rather need to find a solution to the take-aways, don't you?

Maybe you need to think about what is driving you to have them and have them repeatedly. Are you really too busy to prepare food for yourself / your household? Is it that you're not all that good, or maybe actually quite good but not very confident about cooking / food preparation? Is it that your running around very busy and see it as a time-saving solution? Do you see doing something different about eating as difficult? Or time-consuming? Or a great palava?

If so, I'm sure you can figure out ways to change that. And if it's some other, you can probably devise a way around that too.

Remember this is about lifestyle change. It's about adapting to new habits and leaving old ones behind. For sure, planning your food does take a wee bit of time and effort. Hell, planning anything does! But as you get into the swing of it, not all that very much.

The simple fact is that if you keep to the ways that caused you to gain the weight, then you will carry on gaining the weight..

If you change things, then you can change the weight and all the consequences and sequels of carrying that weight too.

O.K. I've still got some way to go, but having changed my eating habits and exercise / activity levels and already lost 2 stone doing that, I can tell you it is just sooooo worth the investment in time, energy and effort.

In perhaps only a few weeks time and certainly within three months or so, if you make the changes, you'll be very grateful to yourself that you did.

One little trick that might just help you - it's helped me. It's a pain, in my view, trying to remember what you need to buy food wise and not ending up chucking out loads of stuff which has been over-bought. I don't want to sound pretentious, but I've just got too many other things going around in my head.

So I bought this wee A7 size notebook ("BlacknRed") wiith an elastic, 'keep-closed' band on it. I now jot down in this things I need to buy, when I notice they need topping up, and just slip in back in my pocket where it permanently 'lives'. When I go shopping, I check out what I've noted down in it. I'm now much more focused on buying my actual needs rather than my fancies and always have the right things around to make a meal with. (You can use the note facilty on your mobile phone in much the same way).

It also helps me avoid stocking up with the 'wrong' things too.

And it only takes moments.

[Hidden]

Woah! Sorry to be blunt, but you will never lose weight that way. Though I can empathise with you. After a really busy day, I too couldnt be bothered to cook and ended up at the takeaway up to 3 times a week. I ended up with fatty liver disease which was my wake up call, but please believe me, you dont want it to get that far.

I now prepare my meals the day before if poss and have a stash in the freezer for those busy days.

In the time it takes you to pop down to the takeaway (and if u have them delivered, the time it takes between ordering and delivery), you can pop a pan of pasta on to boil, tin of veg (or frozen) add half a jar of sauce and a handful of whatever meat you have in your fridge or freezer (i have a bag of frozen precooked chicken strips from Farm foods or asda in my freezer for such occasions).

Low cal ready meals are another quick standby, as is a microwave jacket potato which does in less than ten minutes and you can serve with beans or coleslaw.

I hope this helps. Good luck this week

Tubbytii

[Beardy]

My trigger is boredom as i was off work there for a few days. Whilst am working am fine preparing all my food the night before. My shifts are changing at work again to a normal working week with weekends off for the first time in years so hopefully that will help with the boredom trigger. I will get there ;-0

[Hidden]

Hi Beardy,

There are strategies for dealing with boredom eating. They're pretty similar to dealing with comfort eating. It's about putting boundaries around the situations, distracting yourself away from it, or making it impossible to achieve it.

You might like to have something 'up your sleeve' for the next time you have a boredom problem that might railroad your weight loss efforts.

Throwing away all the fast food cards and flyers and taking the numbers out of your mobile phone, etc., might assist.

By the time you actually find the number, you might have just got your self-control back, or thought of a better idea.

Keep riding the weight loss bus.

Good luck.