365 Days Wedding Weight Loss

E

Eskim0

New member
Hello!

As you may have guessed from the thread title, I have 365 days to get in the best shape of my life. I have been intermittent fasting for the last 6 months which has been successful to a point. I now need to increase my accountability on non-fast days. I have had success with this in the past using a daily journal like this and so I am grateful to have found this community! Sorry that this first post may be a long one!

I will begin by saying that I'm not overweight and I'm aware of this. In the last 5 years or so my weight has crept up by 1-3lb a year and it is those sneaky wee pounds that I would like to shed and they seem to be the hardest. My target is to lose 14lb in 12 months which will bring me to around 120lb. A healthy weight for my height and a weight that I will feel confident with.

As mentioned above, I have had some success so far with intermittent fasting (the 5:2 diet with water fasting on the "2" day rather than restricted calories). I have found this easy to maintain but I have recently become complacent on my non-fast days and I think this has been a barrier to further weight loss. The changes that I will make from today is to ensure that I do not exceed my TDEE on my non-fast days. I will be holding myself accountable with a daily forum post outlining my intake for the day.
A further change I have recently begun to make is committing to 3 work-outs a week. These have been going well so far.

I know this is a public forum and to receive engagement would be a bonus but my main goal through these posts will be personal accountability so if I have bored you to the point where you stopped reading then absolutely no problem lol! If you are still reading then thank you for your time and patience! To cover all bases, I have copied the suggested questions from the moderator and will respond below:
  1. What is your current weight and height? 5'4" and 134lb
  2. If you were at an ideal weight now, what would that weight be? 120lb although I might find this difficult to maintain and so I am happy to wait and achieve this closer to my wedding day
  3. At what weight would you like to be at four months from now? 126- 129lb
  4. Why do you want to lose weight? To feel good in my wedding dress, I am getting married in Spain which will mean lots of bikinis and summer dresses and I want to feel confident in them.
  5. Do you want to lose weight for a specific life event such as wedding or reunion? If so, when is that event? My wedding is one year exactly from today
  6. What obstacles could get between you and your weight loss goals? I am currently working from home and I struggle to stay away from the fridge. I hope when I return to work I will find it easier to build a routine. However, returning to work would mean that I may find it difficult to fit my work-outs in.
  7. Why do you think that you now have a weight problem? I don't think I have a weight problem. I am healthy but I am finding that I don't fit in some of my older clothes and sometimes I am conscious of token areas such as my upper arms, under my chin and my hips. I have also been very lazy with exercise which can be bad for mental health.
  8. What lifestyle changes do you think would help you lose weight? Regular workouts and improved accountability
  9. Have you lost weight in the past? If so, what has worked in the past to help you lose weight? Yes, around 10lb with intermittent fasting. Maintaining a daily journal was definitely helpful
  10. Why do you believe that you did not lose weight or you gained the weight back? I didn't make a lifestyle change. I lost weight for an event and when the event was over I became complacent. This time I would like to make a lifestyle change and so I am enjoying exercise and trying to look longer term.
  11. What, if anything, has not worked for you in the past in helping you to lose weight? Why do you think it did not work? Exercise alone. I became stronger and fitter but didn't lose any weight.
  12. Would you try writing down all food and drink consumed for a given period of time? Yes, this will be one of my accountability strategies.
  13. Do you cook at home often? If so, what do you cook? My fiancé usually cooks. We usually eat meat (chicken or steak) with lots of baked veg and either baked potato wedges or rice. We also like big pots of food like chilli, soups, lasagne. For lunch we would have eggs, salads, bacon, soup, etc. I think the food we eat is usually quite healthy although we could reconsider our portion sizes!
  14. How often do you go out to eat? Where do you go? Recently (covid-19) not at all but as a young unmarried couple with no kids, eating out is one of our favourite activities so probably around 5 or 6 times a month. We love seafood and Mexican food. For a date night we might go out for steak.
  15. What are your three favorite foods? Cheese, sausages and chicken thighs
  16. What are your three favorite restaurants? Mexican, Seafood and maybe either a Chinese or Indian place.
  17. What are three things you can do differently when it comes to food? Avoid binging, recognise when I am just eating because I am bored, try to reduce carbohydrates
  18. If you woke up tomorrow and your body was exactly the way you want it, what would be different? Some of my soft areas would be less soft!
  19. Do you eat when you are not hungry? Yes
  20. Do you binge eat (large amounts at a time)? Occasionally
  21. Do you hide your food or eat in secret? No
  22. Do you eat when you are sad, nervous, or depressed? Yes but no more than usual
  23. Do you eat as a reward? Sometimes we will eat at a restaurant to celebrate something
  24. Do you eat while watching TV or using the computer? Yes - I love to have a coffee and a treat while watching TV
  25. What do you normally eat for a meal? See question 13
  26. What type of snacks do you eat? I prefer a savoury snack like cheese but I often eat biscuits or chocolate
  27. In terms of exercise, what, if anything, are you currently doing? I work out from home 3 days per week. Mostly body-weight training but adding weight as I become stronger/more tolerant.
  28. Where do you go for exercise? A local public gym? School/work gym? Home? Home
  29. What, if anything, are your three favorite types of exercise? I have a bad habit of preferring exercises that I am good at instead of writing more challenging things into my work out so I do a lot of pushups, wall sits, planks... just because I know that I won't find them difficult!
  30. What is your daily/weekly/monthly/yearly motivation to move towards your goals? Daily - how far I have come since January, Weekly - hopefully weight off on the scale, Monthly - hopefully clothes fitting better and yearly - my wedding!
  31. Do you have rewards for certain goals? My reward will be looking and feeling better
 
Hey Eskim0 welcome to the forum! And congrats on your upcoming wedding.

It seems your goal and plan is very reasonable, and doable. One thing that may help with the accountability thing is to post your progress to this diary regularly.

I am looking forward to following your progress.
 
alligatorob said:
Hey Eskim0 welcome to the forum! And congrats on your upcoming wedding.

It seems your goal and plan is very reasonable, and doable. One thing that may help with the accountability thing is to post your progress to this diary regularly.

I am looking forward to following your progress.
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Thank's Rob, it's nice to be welcomed and encouraged so quickly after making my first post :)
 
Welcome to the forum, Eskim0! Congratulations on your engagement and I think it´s great that you´re starting this now and not last-minute.
 
Hi, Eskim0 & welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your engagement. I love that you are quite happy with your body & are planning on losing a little weight sensibly & slowly. Maybe adding some steamed greens to your dinners at night & little less potato or other starchy carbs would even be enough to drop a bit of weight. Your food sounds really healthy.
Thanks for providing the info. It really helps us get to know you better & is a useful tool for you to look back on.
Maybe reading about you doing 5:2 might just inspire me to get back into doing it again. As far as I know no-one else here does it.
 
Cate said:
Hi, Eskim0 & welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your engagement. I love that you are quite happy with your body & are planning on losing a little weight sensibly & slowly. Maybe adding some steamed greens to your dinners at night & little less potato or other starchy carbs would even be enough to drop a bit of weight. Your food sounds really healthy.
Thanks for providing the info. It really helps us get to know you better & is a useful tool for you to look back on.
Maybe reading about you doing 5:2 might just inspire me to get back into doing it again. As far as I know no-one else here does it.
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Thanks Cate,
Steamed greens sound good and I know that it helps to preserve nutrients so I will give them a go (I love them with salt, olive oil and parmesan though so I will have to try to steer clear of those!)
I have found the 5:2 really easy to stick to and it has helped me go from 144 to 134 but I don't think it is enough anymore for me as I have hit a plateau and the last few lbs are going to take more of a kick up the bum than the 5:2. When I shift those lbs I would happily remain on the 5:2 indefinitely.
Looking forward to getting to know you all a bit more and thanks again for your well wishes.

Rachael
 
DAY 1/365 (fast day)

Yesterday was supposed to be a fast day. As mentioned, I have adapted the 5:2 to include intermittent fasting (IF) so a fast day for me usually means black coffee and water only. This might seem extreme to some but it is a way of life for me now and not difficult at all. I am happy that IF has become a more acceptable/mainstream habit as I feel I really benefit from it.
Despite this, I do find socialising difficult on fast days and yesterday I visited my grandmother and had a slice of cake with a coffee. I don't regret this as I enjoyed visiting her so it was worth breaking the fast for. Aside from that I had a mandarin orange. This was mostly to get the taste of coffee out of my mouth!
I don't think that eating around 400kcal on my fast days will prevent me from losing weight but I don't want to make a habit of it. Caloric deficit is really the strategy so accross the week I need to ensure I'm eating less than I'm burning. Non-fast days are the main culprit for this plateau I've had for about 2 months but breaking a fast certainly dosnt help.

Calories:
Around 400 (hoping this is an over-estimate)
 
i am confused about why 5:2 is called an intermittent fast...? to me intermittent fasting means you actually fast a portion of the day. what your diet sounds like is simply reducing your caloric intake (calorie restriction) two days of the week. where is the fast?
 
Weeeeell... She said the 400 kcal was an exception and she normally didn´t consume any calories on her fast days. Beside which fasting doesn´t necessarily mean not eating at all as far as I know, just abstaining from certain things. in the Catholic church not eating meat or not drinking wine counted as fasting. And during Ramadan some people say even swallowing your own saliva breaks your fast. It all depends on how you define your terms.
 
I think 5:2 is not usually called IF, as it is more of a modified fast on 2 days of the week. A lot of people combine the two. It doesn’t really matter what it’s called, Flyer :)
I just can’t seem to get back into 5:2, Rachael. Those “FD”s are a bit brutal. Kudos to you!
 
LaMaria said:
Weeeeell... She said the 400 kcal was an exception and she normally didn´t consume any calories on her fast days. Beside which fasting doesn´t necessarily mean not eating at all as far as I know, just abstaining from certain things. in the Catholic church not eating meat or not drinking wine counted as fasting. And during Ramadan some people say even swallowing your own saliva breaks your fast. It all depends on how you define your terms.
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Hi,
Thanks for reading! Usually on my "2" day I just fast. So I finish eating on a Monday night and then I resume on Wednesday morning. This means twice a week I fast for around 36 hours. As I said, this may seem extreme but I have been doing this for around 6 months and it has become a way of life for me and I remain fit and healthy.
The last few weeks I have struggled to say no to a snack on my fast day and I am comfortable to allow a few hundred calories without feeling feeling too guilty!
 
DAY 2/365

I feel I need to be more clear about my intermittent fasting and 5:2 combo. I usually water (or black coffee) fast from dinner time the day before a fast day to breakfast the morning after the fast day. Twice weekly. This is not something I usually find challenging and I do occasionally allow myself to have a small snack (eg in my last post) if I feel I want to.
I have been asked to explain how this is a fast so I feel like perhaps the commenter hadn't read my posts completely. Despite having 400kcal on day 2 and technically breaking my usual 36 hour fast, eating at lunch time on one day and then again at breakfast time the following day is still a fast so either way I was a little confused by the comment.
Anyway....
Day 3 has been a write off. I broke my fast at around 1pm (soup and a slice of buttered bread which I felt I had to eat before it went stale). I also had chocolate which I felt comfortable with until my fiance asked me did I want to go out for dinner (and drinks). What can I say... I'm irish so I can't say no. We drank all night and calories were out the window. No deficit today.
I had a good night though and I am willing to put this aside and get back on track ASAP!
I did work out for around 60 minutes (body weight and weighted exercises) so hopefully one or two drinks were sweated out before I got to them!
 
i actually did a search on 5:2 fasting and that's where i picked this up ....

The 5:2 diet, also known as The Fast Diet, is currently the most popular intermittent fasting diet.

It was popularized by British journalist Michael Mosley.

It's called the 5:2 diet because five days of the week are normal eating days, while the other two restrict calories to 500–600 per day.

the explanation of your version clears it up.
 
Day 3/365

I feel like I should put a disclaimer here to explain why it seems like I have not made any effort for another day in a row!.. we have a bank holiday weekend here in the North of Ireland which I am spending with my in-laws. They are avid feeders and difficult to say no to so trying to go with the flow until I get back home on Monday.

Day 3 I had a chicken wrap for lunch. Not bad, not good... the crisps I had to follow were definitely not good though. I had some chips for dinner and then some cheeky cheese and crackers..... wine again too. Day 4 the in laws are preparing a large roast dinner so aI imagine it will be a similarly relaxed eating day.

Anyone reading this for healthy eating ideas or diet solidarity, maybe check back in in a couple of days lol. I will continue to post since if nothing else, this weekend I have maintained my commitment to hold myself accountable with a daily journal.

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend.

R
 
This is your diary, and it´s great that you don´t just come here when you have perfect days to brag about! You´re out in the real world, socializing and enjoying yourself. Where you are weightwise and with how much time you´ve got to reach your goal it´s enough to not gain weight on special occasions and then just shave off a couple of calories on weekdays. No need to make it harder than strictly necessary.
 
LaMaria said:
This is your diary, and it´s great that you don´t just come here when you have perfect days to brag about! You´re out in the real world, socializing and enjoying yourself. Where you are weightwise and with how much time you´ve got to reach your goal it´s enough to not gain weight on special occasions and then just shave off a couple of calories on weekdays. No need to make it harder than strictly necessary.
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Thanks so much for the positivity you have shown! It helps stave off the food guilt that I might otherwise have.
Hope you are well,
R
 
Eskim0 said:
It helps stave off the food guilt
Click to expand...
Food guilt does no one any good, the past is past, what matters is today and the future.

LaMa is right, the diary is for you to express yourself and interact with others, many of us need more of that when things are not going well. Its also a great place to confess your food sins, you will get my forgiveness (probably everyone else here too) and no need to feel guilt. Of course the best way to avoid food guilt is to eat well, and I encourage that! However if you have a bad day you need to just move on, so long as you do well today all will be fine!
 
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