Doing it all again because life can be horrible

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So....firstly, some of you may remember from years ago I lost loads of weight thanks to some brat on a bus. Old thread is here but for those of you who will TLDR...I basically weighed just over 25 stone/160kg. The thread was a lot of me denying that my diet was that bad, I received some harsh love, which I needed and over the course of about 3.5 years I went down to almost 13st 10lbs or 87kg.

Unfortunately life didn't really give me much else to celebrate and I had quite a run of misfortune since that time, which I wont go into right now, but to top it off I was diagnosed last year with a very dangerous medical condition called IgG4 Related Disease. Its incredibly rare, only maybe 500 people in this country are known to have it and probably less than 10,000 world-wide. The main way to try and cure me was a high dose of steroids.

SO what with comfort eating (thanks to all the rubbish going on in my life) and the effects of the drugs I now weigh 19 stone 2 pounds or 121 kg.

Anyway, I am finally tapering off the steroids and the incessant desire to eat has pretty much gone - I also feel mentally that I am in the right place to start doing something. I still crave things but I feel like I have some choice in the matter and am not constantly feeling the "steroid munchies"....don't judge unless you've been on glucocorticoids (it makes my body crave, digest and store carbs differently).

So anyway...the point of the thread. I'm starting the weightloss journey again! I kinda know what I'm doing but some encouragement or suggestions are welcome....

Also I'm intending to log some measurements on here...it was great last time to actually see the changes over time!

Weight
19st 2lbs / 121kg

Measurements
Neck - 15"/38cm
Chest - 44"/112cm
Bicep - 14"/36cm
Waist - 49"/125cm
Hips - 46"/117cm
Thighs - 27"/69cm
 
Well my first few days were oooooookay. Couldve been better but could've been much worse!

As an idea, yesterday was brown toast instead of my usual which has been a LARGE (about 100g!) bowl of frosties with a pint of milk.

Lunch was tomato soup instead of something like 2 packs of supernoodles

Dinner was mash, scrambled eggs and veg whereas normally it would be along the lines of 250g of pasta smothered in grated cheese or something!

Also I haven't had any chocolate for 2 days...which TBH is probably the first time in nearly 2 months.

I'm just taking it day by day...I'm not throwing myself in the deep end of cutting out everything I shouldn't have and only eating the right things. So what if I'm currently taking white rolls to work for lunch? its a darn bit better than what I was doing....which often was a greggs baguette and a sausage roll.....or perhaps a melted cheese Panini.
 
Remember, you don't have to starve yourself, just eat clean. There's no reason you cant snack on a measured amount of nuts or skinny popcorn or my fave, salt and vinegar rice cakes (3 are around 120 calories) :D as well as the obvious fruit.

I recommend you keep a food diary (I use the myfitnesspal app)

How tall are you, if you don't mind me asking? I'm guessing a lot shorter than me because I used to be 21 stone and at 6'1 I had a 44 inch waist.

You previously lost an incredible amount of weight previously so you know it can be done :)
 
Tomorrow is weigh day again. I honestly don't know how it'll go. Overall I've definitely eaten better most days (lots of fruit and veg and much more variety in meals than before), I had had a shed load of chocolate over the week though...1kg perhaps! It's my kryptonite, and with the trouble the steroids cause it's so hard to not eat it!

Anyway we shall see and if I've put on then I know there's nothing and no one else to blame!

My height is about 5'11. Steroids do make your body store fat primarily around the middle, so it's quite likely that I'm bigger round the waist/hip area than another make of comparable size.
 
Small steps mate. Dark chocolate contains healthy fat, try switching to that. Two things I've found to be crucial to keeping on top of my diet are tracking my macros (calories) using myfitnesspal and preparing/planning meals in advance.

I don't binge at all now but it's slowly reduced over the last year. I used to binge eat because I was being lazy and it was just easier to phone for a takeaway than cook something. Now I'd rather cook food myself because after tracking the macros in fast food, you see how little it offers in terms of nutrition.

Small steps :)
 
Well that could have been worse, I maintained my weight from last week.

I don't know whether to be hard on myself because it easily could have been a loss, or to be relatively happy that it's probably the first week I haven't gained weight since my meds last got dumped up back in February.

I do use myfitnesspal...when I think of it. It very much went along the lines of I logged for 2 or 3 days, then forgot about it for a day...then remembered the next day, maybe the day after I put my lunch on there etc

As I think I said in my OP though, I'm not too worried about macroing and stuff. I just want to get my diet down to what maybe even a mildly overweight person would consider good!!

All the time I'm on my tablets it's going to be a struggle and I'll never be where i had got to last time.
 
You sound almost defeated before you've really begun! You CAN do this, tablets or not!!! Your body may store carbs differently but if you put yourself in a calorie deficit then you'll burn fat! Nothing can physically stop you except your own actions, do you really want to condemn yourself to feeling bad about yourself the rest of your life?

No is the answer, so snap out of this 'my tablets make it so hard, I'll never get to where I was before' mentality and lets crack on. You CAN and WILL!!! :)
 
Stop using the tablets as a reason, they will effect you but as always they cannot break the rules of physics.
Will power and keeping yourself distracted and occupied so you don't just pile in the food is the key.

You've done it before and you've already got a 7st head start this time, there's no reason you can't do it again.
 
I'm not wholly blaming the tablets but trust me it makes a massive difference to me mentally and physically when it comes to food. Don't forget I'm not some average person trying to loose weight, I've already lost a lot once,I know how to use willpower - these tablets make a difference believe me. Back sometime last year when I was on a really high dosage, still over 60mg I think, for a week I put on the equivalent of over 1lb a day.

I've seriously cut out the bad stuff and reduced my intake, using a lot of willpower. As I said originally I wasn't looking to drop straight into the kind of diet I had before, I wanted to eat better, I thought considering my size that even eating the equivalent diet of someone who's a bit podgy would still mean I'd loose weight but evidently not.

Anyway, enough of me making more excuses. The important bit. I weighed myself again this morning and dada daaaa I had put on a pound!

I admit my eating habits are still not great! I ate better than last week when I maintained weight though...which is odd but not unsurprising. During my last bout of weightloss it was a more common occurrence than you'd think to have really healthy weeks and maintain it even put on weight and the have weeks when you thought you did worse and you'd loose weight.

Ahh well I haves new week ahead. I actually have a salad with me for lunch today instead of some salad rolls (taking the roll out is about the only thin left to make it even more healthy) so I'm off to a good start!
 
If you were to track your diet for a week and post the results up here I'm sure many people would be happy to offer guidance!

Goodluck on the journey dude, I know its a hard and at many times ****** road, but its worth it in the end.

Given what you've said, it may be harder for you than others, but if you've got the willpower you can overcome.
 
I can't believe how many times I've read "I know my eating habits aren't great" in this thread whilst simultaneously blaming tablets for putting on weight.

You need a good kick up the ass from someone, writing 4 paragraphs of justification on the internet is not good enough :)

Best of luck with your weight loss.
 
OK so, I don't think this is going to be much of a worthwhile activity but here is roughly what I ate ( I say roughly because I haven't been weighing and measuring exactly).

Thursday
----------
Breakfast - Frosties with skimmed milk
Lunch - Brown rolls filling was vegetarian ham, lettuce and cucumber. Packet of NikNaks. Large Costa Strawberry and Watermelon cooler
Mid afternoon - two cereal bars. Apple
Dinner - Shop bought pizza

Friday
-------
Breakfast - Frosties with skimmed milk
Mid-morning snack - belvita biscuits, strawberries
Lunch - chicken and salad wrap. Carrot sticks. Cereal bar
Dinner - Pasta with baked beans and grated cheese

Saturday
----------
Breakfast - Tomato Soup
Lunch- Salad (lettuce, tomato, beetroot, sweetcorn, pickled onions and gherkins). Burger in a bun with bacon.
Snack - 200g of M'n'Ms
Dinner - no dinner

Sunday
--------
Breakfast - Frosties with skimmed milk
Lunch - Egg noodles
Dinner - Mash, broccoli, cauliflower cheese grills
Snacks - Strawberry mullerlight yoghurt. Packet of Squares. Treat size Twix.

Monday
---------
Breakfast - Frosties with skimmed milk
Mid-morning - Belvita biscuits
Lunch - Brown rolls filling was vegetarian ham, lettuce and cucumber. Packet of Squares. Cereal bar. Grapes.
Dinner - Homemade egg fried rice. Chicken, mushrooms and broccoli in a homemade Chinese spice mix
Snack - Strawberries. Belvita biscuits. Rice pudding pot.

Tuesday
---------
Breakfast - Raspberry wheats in skimmed milk
Mid-morning - belvita biscuits
Lunch - Brown rolls filling was vegetarian ham, lettuce and cucumber. Packet of Squares. Cereal bars. Strawberry mullerlight yoghurt.
Dinner - New potatoes. Carrots. Brocolli. gherkins. Vegeburgers
snack - Homemade cheese panini
 
That is not a good diet. Even for someone that doesn't have the handicap of drugs making it more difficult to lose weight.

It's heavy in processed food in general, heavy in carbs and that's about it to be honest. There's little decent protein in there, and next to no healthy fats.

To be quite honest it's no surprise you're struggling and that's ignoring any effect the glucocorticoids are having on your metabolism.
 
Well I think that's an overly harsh assessment but there you go. I won't bother saying more lest I get told off.

Oh and I lost half a pound when I weighed this morning.

I'm also reducing my dosage again today if the steroids so hopefully by about Saturday I'll have even more control of my eating.
 
Well I think that's an overly harsh assessment but there you go. I won't bother saying more lest I get told off.

Oh and I lost half a pound when I weighed this morning.

I'm also reducing my dosage again today if the steroids so hopefully by about Saturday I'll have even more control of my eating.

To be fair, Tom_e is simply looking at your diet from a nutrient profile and how a human will deal with it.

You have a lot of starchy carbs in there which is not necessarily a problem, but they have a nasty habit of not keeping you full, so you may well eat more.

If you replaced your Belvita biscuits with a handful of walnuts, and your lunchtime rolls with salad (and brotein of your choice) you would probably feel better (as the fats would help manage your hormones and additional roughage assist with gut motility) and lose weight more effectively as your body would have a less frenetic source of energy to play with.

Replace the breakfast with something like scrambled egg, too. :)

You DO need more protein in there, too, which will be addressed by getting some nuts in your diet and a better lunch. And eggs for breakfast. :)
 
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