weight issues, diet pills and a general get-it-off-your-chest-moment

[Swampyseifer]

Well done on posting an honest account, but you need to fix this (exercise)

I got home from work late last night. Felt knackered, had a list of TV programs I wanted to watch etc, but still dragged myself reluctantly to the freezing cold garage to spend a hard hour on the bike turbo trainer (I don't stay freezing cold for long lol). Its not easy, and theres always an excuse to do something else, but it has to be done. I do this because I know that if I don't I will a) put weight on over time and b) not achieve my targets for next race season.

You know what? The resulting dinner and TV session felt so much more rewarding

I know I know...

I also have the perfect oppertunity as well with work as I come into London at Euston on the mainline and work up at the Angel...so I could easily walk to and/or from work (for someone in my state, walking up Pentonville Road is a killer!!)

The only reason I dont really is in the morning, I dont want to get to work all sweaty and sit in it smelling...and at night I just want to get home asap....but yes, I know I will just have to put up with it if I want this to work. I should be thankful, I used to come in at marylebone, now that is a walk!

 

[SkScotchegg]

You seriously need to change your diet, and you seriously need to start reading and learning about nutrition. You should always eat breakfast and I'd recommend 5 meals a day, one meal every 3 hours. Stop eating processed food, eat more protein, complex carbs, veg, fruit. And hit the gym atleast 3 days a week.

 

[Swampyseifer]

I know I need to change my diet and learn more about what I'm eating (and shouldnt be eating)...its kind of why this thread exists

Also, for those who havent read back over the whole thread...I'm not in a position to just run out and pay to join a gym nor can I afford to empty the kitchen of all the current contents and pay for a load of healthier stuff, so for now you'll just have to put up with trying to make good of whats there.

anyway...food log for Tuesday

breakfast: 30g of shop-brand coco pops with skimmed milk
mid-morning: single-finger bar of timeout
lunch: chicken caeser wrap
dinner: cauliflower and broccoli florets with grated cheese and then grilled
drink: 330ml can of cherry coke, 1 litre of shop-brand flavoured water, half pint of very watered-down fruit cordial, bedtime cocoa

As for excercise, I did actually walk back to Euston mainline from my work place up at the Angel...and it was in the rain!!

 

[Badgi]

I'm really not sure on the quantities that you're eating. Yes fruit and veg is good for you, but that is not an excuse to eat shed loads of it. You really need to read up on what size meals you should be eating, you don't have an active lifestyle so you should only be consuming what the body is actually going to use, anymore would be counter-productive.

Also, on the subject of pizza's, these are a diet nightmare, loads of cheese not to mention all the salt and really are not a good source for veg intake. Unless you are going to make your own pizza using a homemade wholemeal base, I would avoid them like the plague.

Edit: If you really can't live without cheese in your diet, I would recommend switching to goats cheese.

Have you asked your GP for advice? He might be able to refer you to a weight loss clinic.

 

[Haircut]

Looking at your diet here, I think the biggest thing you need to change is what you drink. You're probably consuming almost as many calories through liquids as you are through food on a daily basis.
I used to think I didn't like straight water (used to get through about 2 litres of strong vimto cordial each day) but now I find you can't beat the feeling you get of drinking pure water when you're thirsty.
It may take a while to get there, but I'm sure you will do eventually.

I think the main thing, as others have said, is to think of this as a lifestyle change rather than a diet.
The thing with diets is that they're temporary, so you restrict yourself from certain foods for a while and once you're off the diet you gorge on those foods.
This is something that needs to be for the rest of your life, so you need to be comfortable with what you're putting in your body.

I'm of the opinion that nothing should be restricted, but just be sensible about things. I eat whole grains, lots of fruit and veggies and generally just drink water, but if I feel like eating a pizza, chocolate bar or can of coke then so be it, and I don't worry too much about it.
If you eat pizza every day, then you need to think about it, but I find that if you treat it as something that is forbidden (as you would do on a diet) you're more likely to crave it.
I have pizza when I feel like it, but this is probably only once every month or so.

One last thing I want to say is to look at your portion sizes as well.
When you have a cheese sandwich is it two pieces of bread with a thin slice of cheese, or four pieces of bread slathered with butter and thick cheese wedges?
It might be good to weigh what you're eating as part of your food log just to get an idea of exactly what you're putting into your body.
You don't need to do this forever, but just until you're comfortable with what a portion actually is.

 

[Swampyseifer]

I'm really not sure on the quantities that you're eating.

well I havent cared as much about quantity so far as just trying to stop with the bad stuff....so yes I probably had about 14 medium florets all together between the cauliflower and brocolli last night....but it was better than eating a dinner of oven chips, nuggets and baked beans!

I might look into homemade pizzas actually!

I have asked my GP before about it, they explained the two different pills they can subscribe(including the one that makes you crap fat!) but said that I couldnt have them anyway - well not unless I could prove a marked decrease in body weight to show willing, if I had no problem shifting body weight I wouldnt need the pills :S .

He then just proceeded to tell me the same as some of the more less-useful comments I've got on this thread...."eat less and excersize more". I asked about nutritional advise and he palmed me off by saying there wasnt a resident nutritoinist at my health centre......so I just left - me and him have never got on well

 

[Swampyseifer]

Looking at your diet here, I think the biggest thing you need to change is what you drink.

Trust me I have!! A month or two ago, I was slurping my way through a minimum of 7 litres of full-fat coke a week!

as above I agree that my portions are likely to be bigger than they should be...but no, if I have a cheese sandwich then its 2 slices of bread, unbuttered, with enough slices to cover the bread from crust to bottom (not overlapping) and the slices are around 1cm thick. I like cheese but not too much at once.

Back to the pizzas again, atm I probably have 1 a week. its not a 14" deep crust that is topped to the brim with cheese either...its a 9"-ish italian crispy, thin base.

 

[Badgi]

You realise you have every right to change what doctor you see or ask for a second opinion.

You can also look on the NHS website, I'm sure they have some sort of advice on there, may even be able to point you in the direction of some weight loss support group in your area.

As for exercise, what's stopping you going for a walk when you're not at work?

 

[Swampyseifer]

You realise you have every right to change what doctor you see or ask for a second opinion.

You can also look on the NHS website, I'm sure they have some sort of advice on there, may even be able to point you in the direction of some weight loss support group in your area.

As for exercise, what's stopping you going for a walk when you're not at work?

I'm on the third doctor in that practice now, they all seem to be the same. I have checked to see if there are any other health centres near me but I'm not in the catchments for any of them. I could probably take it up with the NHS about wanting to be elsewhere but I just havent bothered...

I know my partner wants to go back to Slimming World at the end of the month, is that the kind of support group you mean?

Well, I get up at 530am for work and get home between 6-8pm depending on when I can get out of work...because of the early starts I generally go to bed around the 930-10pm mark...so the only real thing that stops me excercising outside of work is the thought of spending possibly half my "free time" that day doing it! However, as I think I have said before, at the end of the month I will be signing up at my local gym again so the excersise will pick up then

 

[Badgi]

The gym, although a pretty daunting step for a lot of people, is probably the best thing. Any good gym will sit down with you and set you up with a plan that is within your capabilities, make sure you're honest though.

Slimming World would also be a good step, I think, I personally don't hold high opinions of them, but then I've never been in a situation that I've had to join one and those that I know who have joined seem to stay until they've lost their target weight and then leave, only to join again when they pile on the pounds. But, that said, it could be the kick start and support that you need.

 

[Dicehunter]

Please for gods sake stay away from cheese, its pure fat, chocolate bars too, come on bro stay away from the foods that made you into what you are today and eat some food *in healthy portions* that will actually do you some good.
If you keep eating what your eating now, going by a previous list, the chocolate finger bars, cheese, pizzas etc then you will stay your current weight and not loose any.
Those type of things are ok if you burn off the calories but you dont.
Remember if you want to loose weight then you will loose it, but if you dont put the effort in then you wont and you might possibly get bigger.
I know i sound harsh but no one else can loose the weight for you, only you.

 

[Sagalout]

anyway...food log for Tuesday

breakfast: 30g of shop-brand coco pops with skimmed milk
mid-morning: single-finger bar of timeout
lunch: chicken caeser wrap
dinner: cauliflower and broccoli florets with grated cheese and then grilled
drink: 330ml can of cherry coke, 1 litre of shop-brand flavoured water, half pint of very watered-down fruit cordial, bedtime cocoa

As for excercise, I did actually walk back to Euston mainline from my work place up at the Angel...and it was in the rain!!

Until I got to the exercise bit I honestly thought you were on a wind-up with this thread. The food is just rubbish and surely you must know it:

breakfast: 30g of shop-brand coco pops with skimmed milk <- chocolate and sugar

mid-morning: single-finger bar of timeout <- seriously?!

lunch: chicken caeser wrap <- sounds ok, depending on if its homemade or a shop bought one full of fat

dinner: cauliflower and broccoli florets with grated cheese and then grilled <- Cheese! and too big a portion by the sound of it

drink: 330ml can of cherry coke, 1 litre of shop-brand flavoured water, half pint of very watered-down fruit cordial, bedtime cocoa <- I give up

Portions are absolutely critical too, especially with things like cheese. Do you seriously cut slices at 1cm thick or was that a typo? I like the odd cheese sarnie, but will slice the cheese at less than half of that.

Sounds like you need to ditch the food in your cupboard, or if you really really cant afford to (and lets face it a banana / apple would cost 30p and replace the timeouts) then you may as well forget about losing weight until you can do a healthy shop.

Sorry fella, but you're eating crap, especially far too much sugar, and too much of it

 

[Scrutinize]

He then just proceeded to tell me the same as some of the more less-useful comments I've got on this thread...."eat less and excersize more". I asked about nutritional advise and he palmed me off by saying there wasnt a resident nutritoinist at my health centre......so I just left - me and him have never got on well

What you need is a lifestyle change and some motivation. Posting on here is unlikely to get you the motivation you need to do this. without this, the best advice in the world is going to be wasted.

If you go the gym, you will start to see some results, even if that isn't weight loss initially, it may be some strength and fitness gain, which in turn will motivate you to do more. Just training near other people will also help.

But, knowing it is one thing but doing it is a whole other world of.........

I know all about diets, how to train and what it takes to look good. Unfortunately, these days, I simply lack the motivation to do it, so I am now an out of shape 13 1/2 stone 30 year old.

Do try Maximuscle Promax Diet powder though. Tastes ok with skimmed / semi milk and as a meal replacement will stop you getting hungry and may be enough to break some habbits. There are other ways to achive the same effect with a mix of pills and basic protein powder but this is the easiest and most effective combo that I have found.

Helped me get down from 16 1/2 to 12 1/2 in 12 months. Luckily that wasn't to chuncky a monkey 16 1/2 due to build and some gym.

 

[Haircut]

if I have a cheese sandwich then its 2 slices of bread, unbuttered, with enough slices to cover the bread from crust to bottom (not overlapping) and the slices are around 1cm thick. I like cheese but not too much at once.

Sorry to say it, but that sounds like too much at once.
I reckon that much cheese has got to be between 100g and 150g.
Combined with two slices of bread and that's a 700 calorie cheese sandwich.

I reckon for a few days you really need to weigh what you're eating and work out what the calories and macronutrients are in the food you're consuming. There are plenty of resources on the web to get that info and it will probably surprise you just how much you're actually taking in and where the calories are coming from.
One you have that info you can start to make more informed choices about what you're putting into your body.

 

[edscdk]

Sorry to say it, but that sounds like too much at once.
I reckon that much cheese has got to be between 100g and 150g.
Combined with two slices of bread and that's a 700 calorie cheese sandwich.

keep the cheese drop the bread, stick some letice and jalepinos on and wrap it in chicken, then beef... nomnom low carb fat-meat-wich....

 

[Swampyseifer]

mostly @ sagalout

sorry if you think I'm wasting your time or something...

and no, I really really dont have the money. My wife has been off work now for 7 weeks with a really bad bout of glandular fever/laryngitis and as such she has had her wage put down to SSP, so she's bringing home maybe £700 less a month at the moment...so I'm covering everything I can.

If this was a proper spoken conversation I would be horse by now for the amount of times I have pointed out that I can't really do a lot until the end of the month...but I wanted to start the change NOW, while the catalyst for the change is still in my mind. I'm doing what I can, with what I got

the log of what I'm eating might seem bloody awful to someone of a more normal diet already, or someone who maybe weighed 3 or 4 stone more than they should and dieted. But I've got to like twice what I should weigh, my diet was absolutely diabolical...for example, on the rare occasion that I did have breakfast in the past, it was probably more likely two full bowls of cereal and near a pint of semi-skimmed milk between them.....so to me, that fact I'm having 30g of cereal with a splash of fully-skimmed milk is a vast improvement.

 

[tom_e]

If you want an easy way to keep track of the kcals you are eating then www.foodfocus.co.uk is a good diet tracking site

 

[platypus]

I'm on the third doctor in that practice now, they all seem to be the same. I have checked to see if there are any other health centres near me but I'm not in the catchments for any of them. I could probably take it up with the NHS about wanting to be elsewhere but I just havent bothered...

However, as I think I have said before, at the end of the month I will be signing up at my local gym again so the excersise will pick up then

Without meaning to sound too harsh, these things have leapt out of me, and yes I've read this entire thread. I'm a moron on an internet forum so it may well be that I've got it entirely wrong, so feel free to ignore what I'm about to say.

It sounds to me that the main problem isn't your diet, lack of exercise, or weight, but your attitude to the problem. You've taken a huge step by admitting to your doctor, and to a bunch of strangers that you have a problem, and yet you post excuse after excuse as to why you haven't changed something yet, or that you're going to change it soon..

The fact that your doctors all "seem to be the same" smacks of wanting to blame everyone but yourself. They're probably ****ed off with seeing you come in because it doesn't look like you're willing to make much effort. Not giving you pills until you lose some weight isn't your doctor being an ass, losing weight is all about motivation, and it doesn't appear that you're motivated enough to do so.

Plenty of people in this thread have given you great diet advice, and you've fobbed a lot of it off. People in this sub-forum particularly are really knowledgeable, and it's good advice.

I'm really not sure if you're motivated enough to go to the gym. Going to the gym will do you absolutely no good if you don't want it too, and will just be bloody expensive.

I cannot understand your diet, as most people I assume. There is so much nutritional advice on the internet you have to go a long way to avoid reading something useful. I realise money might be tight, but buying sugary things is just as expensive, if not more so than buying basic things. Changing to the flavoured water from coke springs to mind - seriously just man the **** up and start drinking water, why do you need a transition period?!

You have made some good changes, everyone has to start somewhere. But for me, you need to find some motivation from somewhere, and fast.

Best of luck.

 

[Swampyseifer]

Without meaning to sound too harsh, these things have leapt out of me, and yes I've read this entire thread. I'm a moron on an internet forum so it may well be that I've got it entirely wrong, so feel free to ignore what I'm about to say.

It sounds to me that the main problem isn't your diet, lack of exercise, or weight, but your attitude to the problem. You've taken a huge step by admitting to your doctor, and to a bunch of strangers that you have a problem, and yet you post excuse after excuse as to why you haven't changed something yet, or that you're going to change it soon..

The fact that your doctors all "seem to be the same" smacks of wanting to blame everyone but yourself. They're probably ****ed off with seeing you come in because it doesn't look like you're willing to make much effort. Not giving you pills until you lose some weight isn't your doctor being an ass, losing weight is all about motivation, and it doesn't appear that you're motivated enough to do so.

Plenty of people in this thread have given you great diet advice, and you've fobbed a lot of it off. People in this sub-forum particularly are really knowledgeable, and it's good advice.

I'm really not sure if you're motivated enough to go to the gym. Going to the gym will do you absolutely no good if you don't want it too, and will just be bloody expensive.

I cannot understand your diet, as most people I assume. There is so much nutritional advice on the internet you have to go a long way to avoid reading something useful. I realise money might be tight, but buying sugary things is just as expensive, if not more so than buying basic things. Changing to the flavoured water from coke springs to mind - seriously just man the **** up and start drinking water, why do you need a transition period?!

You have made some good changes, everyone has to start somewhere. But for me, you need to find some motivation from somewhere, and fast.

Best of luck.

I didnt say I went to the doctor and asked for pills....I went there and said that I wanted advice and/or help to lose weight and all the advice I was given by them all was that there is no nutritionist based at the practice and that what I need to do is eat less and excercise more. They then told me there was NHS pills that could help, but I couldnt have them. I never asked them for the pills, I only bought the other ones mentioned in the first post because I was on a real downer for being shamed by a child...but those pills went in the bin long ago.

I dont remember listing of a load of excuses...I've had an excuse all the way through, which is I can't afford to do the changes yet.

I have no problem with motivation for the gym...as mentioned before I spent 9 months going in the past, before I had a serious injury and stopped. Since then I started again, but then moved 20miles away to live with my then-gf, so ended the gym. Then about 3 months ago I joined the gym again with her, after about a month we then took 3 weeks off to get married and go on our honeymoon...we came back and since then she's been too ill to go. So between work and looking after her I havent had the chance...and now, this very moment I dont have the money to pay to rejoin....which is why I have stated over and over and over again that I am joining by myself at the end of the month.

yes money is tight, but no I'm not out buying sugary things...I'm just eating them because they are already in the kitchen and until I get paid we cant get any more food. the only real alternative is to eat nothing till lunch, which is what I was doing, but there was such a call on this thread for me to eat something for breakfast, that I started.

As for my liquid transition....I know how easily I fall off diets...it really wont take much for me to go "oh sod it, one can of coke wont hurt" and then before you know it I'll be drinking it all the time again. Regardless of how testicle-less it makes me sound to say it, if I just stopped drinking anything but water, I wouldnt last more than a few days, its true. So I'm sorry if I sound like a pansy but to me it made more sense to drink something that only has 0.4g of sugar, no salt, no fat and only 4kcals per 250ml serving instead of the coke that has god knows what in it.

 

[Sagalout]

mostly @ sagalout

sorry if you think I'm wasting your time or something...

and no, I really really dont have the money. My wife has been off work now for 7 weeks with a really bad bout of glandular fever/laryngitis and as such she has had her wage put down to SSP, so she's bringing home maybe £700 less a month at the moment...so I'm covering everything I can.

If this was a proper spoken conversation I would be horse by now for the amount of times I have pointed out that I can't really do a lot until the end of the month...but I wanted to start the change NOW, while the catalyst for the change is still in my mind. I'm doing what I can, with what I got

the log of what I'm eating might seem bloody awful to someone of a more normal diet already, or someone who maybe weighed 3 or 4 stone more than they should and dieted. But I've got to like twice what I should weigh, my diet was absolutely diabolical...for example, on the rare occasion that I did have breakfast in the past, it was probably more likely two full bowls of cereal and near a pint of semi-skimmed milk between them.....so to me, that fact I'm having 30g of cereal with a splash of fully-skimmed milk is a vast improvement.

Its not that you're wasting my time - I can just recognise all the excuses I used to make and it frustrates me!

For arguments sake I'll go with the issue that you simply cant afford to ditch the poor quality food for now. That still leaves the conscious decision you made to drink a can of Cherry coke. You could have had some water, a cup of tea / coffee. It might not sound as nice because you're body is constantly craving sugar, but these are the decisions you need to make. As for the timeout - if you really haven't got 30p for an apple then just dont eat anything for a snack. You don't NEED it, especially as you did have some breakfast.

You have to exercise self discipline with everything you eat. Read the labels and be concious of portion sizes (this will also save you money!)....its all common sense which is actually quite straight forward if you can couple it to self discipline and motivation.

Whilst calorie counting has its flaws, I think you would find it helpful to do for at least a month so you can get a realistic feel for the levels you're eating and what should constitute a normal portion size. If you have an iphone download the Livestrong App which tracks what you eat - I'm sure there are similar ones for all the other phones.

On the plus side, well done on the exercise