SilverMoonsong, thanks for the recipe site. I will definitely check it out.

Postal, I would love to have an on-line exercise buddy. We can try it here and if it is too much for the other thread readers we can go PM. I am starting with baby steps this week - 15 minutes or about .75 miles today.

Having someone else cooking the meals would be hard. In my case, I cook about 80% of the meals. I am trying to eliminate the between meal snacking as a start and adding a salad to each meal. Living in France, there are not so many of the prepared meals, which helps.

You're right down the far end of France from me, pitegny, otherwise we could have been exercise partners ...

There are some simple things that can easily be incorporated into everyday life: swap butter for a low fat spread (et 'Bridelight' in France), 0% fat yoghurts and dairy products as opposed to the full fat version, when frying food spray the oil onto the pan using a pump-pressurised oil sprayer. 50 sprays = 1 tsp, which is enough for almost everything, and way healthier than the three or four soup spoons full I would have used otherwise, Rye bread (pain de seigle) is much more filling than regular bread for the equivalent caloric value... Keep fresh fruit around always for emergency snacking, and if in dire need of a soda go for a diet version (0 calories) (unless you don't want to consume artificiel sweetners).

I always have several portions of homemade soup in the freezer. This has become my 'fast food' for those days when I really don't want to cook. It has regularly saved me from heading out for pizza or Mc Donald's just because I couldn't be bothered cooking. I add a slice or two of ham or chicken and three high-fibre crackers, follow it with a yoghurt and a spoonful of jam, and you have a well balanced meal which will keep you ticking over until the next meal time.

The key to success (for me) though really lies in getting back onto the the straight and narrow immediately after a little (or big) slip up!

I couldn't agree more, if you have a bad day (or days!) get back on the "diet trail" as soon as possible

Thanks SilverMoonsong, it's not exactly a lie, and he could stand to take off a few pounds himself.

Our summer was so bad this year that for two months we sat in front of the A/c and just panted.

But now it's wonderful weather, and much too nice to sit around.

I ended up doing 4 hours of going back and forth in my car then short walks. It was not "exercise" but it did wear me out. I didn't rest on my laurals this time, I played "retrieve" with my dog for a good ten minutes when I got home to reward her for not tearing up the house while we were gone.

I'm going to be ready for my doctors visit to get a baseline weight, then I might tally along with you.

Thanks for the tips Santana and Jane. The frozen soup sounds like a good idea. I saw a recipe for baked apple rings that I am also going to try. Just apples and cinnamon.

Postal, it sounds like your dog gives you a good workout! Having an online buddy is a help. When I sign in to play a quiz it reminds me that I need to work in the physical exercise. 15 minutes of walking, .8 of mile today.

My goal is to be able to do an hour walk without killing myself by the end of the year.

Hello all, I'm back and after my first week I have lost 1 kg, I think that is 2.2 lbs

Hi Playmate. Congratulations. Keep up the good work! Hopefully I'll soon be following you on the downward trend.

Yesterday was a no-exercise day for me. I waited until the end of the afternoon to walk and we had an unexpected snowfall. I love snow, but only when I am inside in front of the fire. It melted by today, so I did another 15 minute walk. Definitely baby steps, but want to ease in to it gradually.

Hi everyone, I took a break yesterday too.
I've decided that sweeping or raking leaves would be good for the upper body. I have tons of leaves in my yard.

I think that just the moving part is important. Alternating the walking with something else will be more interesting.

So Sunday--rest day

Monday--15 min. walk

Tuesday--sweeping 15 min

Wednesday--walk

Thursday --sweep

Friday--walk

Since the duration is only 15 minutes, every day doesn't seem like too much. If I start having cramps, I plan to wait 15 minutes, then try again.

In Febuary I have a doctor's appointment
I'll tell my weight then.
I don't even own a home scale!

That's excellent progress, Playmate, and it's about the upper end of what you should aim for on a weekly basis. 500g-1kg but no more, as it'll only leave you frustrated.

Nice schedule, Postal!

Errmm, no change for me this week, I did no exercise, and I really need to get back to it. I can't wait till the clocks change again so I can walk every evening. My stationary bike is looking daggers at me every evening, but I just can't find the motivation to pump the pedals

Oh postal, 15 mins x day x 6 days = 95 minutes of activity, that's a whole hour and 35 mins over the week, definitely not to be sniffed at!

I've been having several days off as well, but on my way home from work on Thursday morning, I hit a deer. I'm fine, the car... not so much. She goes in to get fixed Monday morning, so I'll be missing several days next week as well. I DID go today, and got an hour of circuit training and lifting weights. I'm going to try and go again tomorrow since I have to drop the car off early Monday morning at the body shop, and they will have her for 4 days.

Poor deer and poor dear! Thank goodness you wern't hurt. I had a deer jump into my car as I drove, the window was closed, thank Goodness.
Not survivable for the deer, poor thing.

pitegny: how's your schedule going with the walking?

I may have to scale back to 10 minutes on the sweeping, seems my upper body likes to cramp more than my legs.

It helps to look at a leafless front porch, that's progress too.

So sorry to hear about the deer. What a terrible shock that must have been. We used to have to be careful about deer crossings around here, but there has so much construction in our area that we rarely see them anymore. It is lovely that several of you still have deer where you are.

Postal: The snow day apart, I am sticking to my walking schedule - 15 minutes per day, except for Mondays. One of my friends asked me to help her improve her English. On Mondays, we do an hour of lesson, have a salad lunch and then go for a 30-minute walk at a small nearby pond that has relatively flat trails. It was frozen over this week - a lovely visual reward for my efforts. Between the schedule with my friend and checking in here, I should stay on track.

I am also getting a lot of exercise cleaning out my study. The last few years at work involved really long days, plus a one hour commute each way and often doing work-related tasks at home. Consequently, I amassed piles of paper and other stuff in my room. My family even had our own equivalent of the Richter scale for it and I had reached the top. The room is slowly re-emerging and all that bending has been another form of good exercise.

A little slip up, as I put on a quarter of a pound this week! Ah well, it should show a good weight loss this coming week!

In my weigh-in today, I was half a pound down. Not much, but I have not yet started recording my intake or changing the content of my main meals. I cut back (not yet out) on the in-between meal snacks and got my husband to take the remaining Christmas chocolate to his office. So far I have also successfully ignored the two walnut pies he baked and has sitting in the kitchen. Fortunately they are walnut and not pecan, which have called more loudly to me.

It sounds to me like everyone is doing well.

Great idea to count de-cluttering as exercise, pitegny. Two birds with one stone solution.

So far no sore muscles for me and only a little bit of cramping. Raining here all day, so sweeping will be my exercise. I have a wrap around porch, so plenty of leaves there also. Covered, so the rain can't get me.

I'm starting tp look forward to my doctor's appointment, just to see if the scale reflects any of my efforts.

Doesn't just doing the exercise tend to cheer a person up? Fight that flab, fight that flab, yay!

The exercising is going well, but visions of chocolate are dancing in my head. Normally I crave salty foods, but this week I keep thinking about sweet treats. I found that a few dried cranberries help and have a fruit basket on the counter. Does anyone else have any low-fat, low-carb snack ideas?

I like to keep protein shakes and bars in the house. It fixes my craving for chocolate, and replaces one of my little meals. Keeping fruit is also good. Oranges, bananas, apples, just watch out for grapes. They are great, but higher in sugars.

I got my car back from the body shop today, so I was able to go to the gym. YAY!

Congratulations on being mobile again! You mentioned little meals. Do you have one bigger meal each day and two smaller ones? If so, is your main meal at midday or in the evening?

I actually eat 5-6 times a day. I'll have 2-3 *meals* with 2-3 *snacks*. My snacks can be something as simple as a protein shake or bar, or perhaps a piece of fruit. Bananas are a perfect snack for me. Because I tend to lean towards being hypoglycemic if I'm not careful, eating more often keeps my glucose level. If I start skipping meals, my glucose drops, and that's bad.

Also, my schedule is crazy. I work overnight, so my day is opposite from most people. My breakfast is usually around 6pm-ish. So for me, a mid-day meal is around 2-3am. I eat a good meal before work, then I have one of my protein bars as a snack in the middle of my shift, and then another good meal when I get home. If I go to the gym after work, I'll eat something again when I get home, otherwise I just have a salad or protein shake. How much I eat depends on how hard I workout that day.

Thanks for sharing SilverMoonsong. It sounds like planning for snacks might help dampen the siren call of the kitchen. Being newly retired, there are more temptations than I was used to when I worked. Living with a sportive family (I am the exception that proves the rule), all three of whom eat like horses and burn off every calorie, it is impossible to avoid having snacks around. I am looking for different ways of building up my will power. The planned snacks might help. I will definitely give it a try.

I noticed you are from North Carolina. I lived there for eleven years - Greensboro, Charlotte and Davidson. It is a beautiful state!

SilverMoonsong, I worked overnight for 26 years. When I retired, I had a terrible problem with insomnia. I still can't sleep at night.

Being diabetic, I also have to eat something every 3 hours. A small apple, carrot, or a handful of raisins works for me. Before I got adjusted, was just eating too large of portions 5 times a day.

Once I realized that was the problem, I scaled down. I'm maintaining my weight, but it's still too high. I recently tried some of the bottled diet drinks, Boost, Ensure, they come in chocolate flavors. Some are especially for diabetics, but they are expensive. I substitute one bottle for a meal, once in awhile.

This week I lost another pound, making me 9 stone 10 and a half pounds. That's 4 and a quarter pounds off in the month of January I can not recommend enough to have the "goodies" stored in a basically inaccessible place, somewhere where you really WANT to get at them. Me and Mum store the "Christmas goodies" (Chocolates, biscuits, cakes etc) in the shed/outhouse. Because if they come into the house, they will be eaten a lot sooner!

That's great. It is really inspiring to the rest of us!

That is a very good weight loss for only one month.

It's been hard to stay away from sweets for me, but it's a matter of health. That does make it easier.

I try to visualize the little sweet calories going into my bloodstream causing havoc and fat to block my arteries. Kind of comical, but it works for me. Suddenly that piece of cake looks like the enemy.

Half a pound in this week's weigh in.

As you can tell, I'm still not into the diet phase. Renovation of our bathroom started this week and is proving to be quite stressful. Water from a pipe burst (the reason for the renovation) had seeped into an enclosed part of one wall, which turned out to be too badly damaged to save. When the wall came down, we discovered a large space behind it. That was a good surprise, because we have been able to rework plans to incorporate it. Unfortunately, other surprises were not so good, such as finding out that existing piping could not be used and that the contractor had failed to take into account the extra width of another new wall when determining the size of the sink we could have. We are finding creative solutions, but it is definitely hard on the nerves. Every time that the head workman says he needs to see me, I cringe. The constant jackhammer doesn't help. Add to that about 30 cm of snow in the garden and subfreezing temperatures, with the doors constantly open as the workmen move back and forth with debris and materials.

I'll confess, mid-week I broke down and had a fast food hamburger and fries as a much needed treat!

The Monday walk had to be postponed until this weekend, but otherwise the exercising is going well.

Hi all,

I have put on a LOT of weight over the past four years. I think it's a combination of getting older, quitting smoking, and going back to school. Well, not going back to school per se, but the residence forcing us to buy outrageously expensive meal plans and then keeping whatever we don't spend at the end of the year. Talk about incentive to buy loads of junk!

I joined a gym last week and I plan to go 3x per week for the first couple of months (plus my volleyball game Thursdays). After it feels more routine I'd like to step it up and go an extra day, but I think I need to work up to it. I don't want to over-exert myself right at the beginning and either injure myself or become put off by it. I REALLY want to take some of this weight off! I refuse to diet though. I don't mind if it takes me longer to shed the weight, but I don't think I have the willpower to change my lifestyle so completely all at once. I think as long as I cut out the junk and eat sensible portions and snack on healthy things, I should be fine, in the long run.

I'm so happy to have found this discussion! I don't have much of a support network here, with my Mom living so far away and I haven't met many girl friends in my new city yet.

Good luck to all of you!

Hi Lady Caitriona,

I'm glad you're joining in. I think it really motivates to have a place to share the challenges and successes.

Like you, my weight moved upwards significantly these past five or six years. I spent a lot of time behind a desk - my exercise limited to moving from house to car and from the car to my office, in the same building, and back again. During the day, my only walking was to the other end of the office to consult with colleagues. I at least avoided calling or texting so that I would get some steps in. I usually worked for lunch, stopping only long enough to grab a sandwich or pasta dish in the same block. My mind was moving around the globe with my work, but body was vegetating. Not healthy! A real recipe for disaster.

I took early retirement at the end of December and my primary retirement goal is to slowly get the weight off and to get the body moving again. I am really stiff, so have to go slowly.

I think this thread could be a good source of inspiration to us all.

Depressed.
I have kept absolutely within the calories advised at Lose it. I walk briskly every day. I have lost 2 lb since Jan13th. I am fed up and about to give up yet again.

Hi LadyC! Glad to have you here

Pitegny> Stress is definitely a diet-killer. Having one burger and order of fries won't kill you, though.:) Just remember, exercise is good for getting rid of the stress

Ren> How far, or how long, do you walk? What types of food are you eating? Have you been watching your fat and sodium intake? And WHY do I not have you in my network on LoseIt? If I could see some of what you are doing, I might be able to give you better advice.

If anyone wants to find me on LoseIt, let me know and I'll send you my Screen name privately.

On a happy note, I've just made it over the -50 pound mark. YAY! Yesterday, while sitting around at the audition (waiting for hours), I showed my friend my passport photo (which is a little less than a year old). The changes are so amazing, I've been told it might be a good idea to get another photo done because they might not let me cross the border.