Weight loss accountability/support 2024 edition

Gotcha! I interpreted '3 whole eggs' to mean hard/soft boiled, rather than omletted.

Yeah, I'm talking lining up 3 sushi maki rolls, holding all three in your chopsticks, dip them in sauce and eating 3 at a time. Picking up the noodle bowl, and using the chopsticks to shovel them down your mouth.
Honestly, I think I eat slower with a knife and fork.

I came to this a different way, I had to take some anti biotics last year and then looked up what to eat to restore the digestion bacteria that it destroys. I came across the discussion about ultra processed food and a lot of it made sense like the surfactant effect of emulsifiers and the psychological issues caused by a lot of replacement ingredients.

So I pretty much cut out all of it and noticed that I started losing weight without counting
calories or cut down food amounts. I just try to eat the real food instead of the
replacements which makes it quite a lot easier because you can just ignore most of the products in a supermarket.
For treats I have the dates, fruits and nuts and mixed into yoghurts. . For protein meats, cheese, eggs and I do soups
where you can shovel in all kinds of vegetables. I make sure everything is seasoned heavily so it's not some kind of bland health food.
I think if you don't cut it out and even if it's zero calorie products it keeps you primed for those taste profiles and you don't overcome them to taste them for what they are.
Sometimes I buy regular sweets on long bike rides and some of them are a real chore, I used to love Snickers but now the chocolate on it tastes really strange.
It's only been around a year so far so I can't really say how it will work long term, if it's the same after another year then I will be convinced.

Made up a ginger and lemon tonic today, it's fabulous, I'm using it like a cordial. Fresh whole ginger and lemons cold pressed then diluted with soda water. An eye popping concoction. Haven't checked the carb content yet. 😬

This sounds right up my street - could you give a recipe/quick break down of what you mean by 'cold pressed'? Cheers!

Cold pressed just means it's gone through a posh juicer. It's an auger press so it squeezes as opposed to a spinny cutty juicer. Produces more juice and retains more of the nutrients as you're juicing less destructively as well as more efficiently. Invest in one, they're great

You can make a similar version by simmering a whole lot of ginger in water, adding lemon juice, chill and leave in the fridge.
Sweeten with honey, or stevia for the calorie conscious.

For a calorie / caffeine free tea, I cold brew Korean barley tea.
Its better when brewed hot and then chilled, makes about 2l per 10g teabag.

Ginger & Lemon tonic is a hit, wasn't sure about it last night, it's a bit hectic, but the flavours have had time to meld together in the last 24hrs. Approved.

And it looks like pastis. 🏆

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Question - how do you manage your eating when not at home? I'm travelling a lot for work at the moment, and finding it hard to keep on the wagon when I don't have the option of cooking for myself. Ordering salads at a restaurant feels wrong somehow.

Go to places that list calories
For proper sit down dinners with nice food, just try not to pig out, but for other stuff : itsu, wagas, Leon, etc tend to show calories. Eat fruit as well. If the corporate croissant trolley trolls past, just do the black coffee.

Ah gotcha, I've seen them. Something else to add for the list when I have more counter/cupboard space....

I juiced whole lemon, including the pith, and ginger. That's it. I was thinking about getting some stevia before @Acliff mentioned it but not sure I'll bother now, it's fine as it is.

I froze as much I could last night and the texture has changed, it doesn't dilute as well or give you that intense pastis colour like up there ^ but still tastes great. Hopefully it'll put a little extra zing in my step.

One thing I noticed this week was that my knee pain has gone, the extra steps I'm doing seem to have cleared that all up. Amazing, I'm gonna go for a bike ride this weekend!

Yeah this is actually quite tricky.

If you are staying in one place for a bit then this is my routine:

Don’t eat food on the plane - it’s crap and full of calories. I pack some fruit, healthy snacks and drink tons of water.
Buy food from a supermarket and keep it in hotel fridge. I usually get skyr, fruit, water etc. I travel with protein powder.
I will then make breakfast and have it in a hotel room.
When I’m away I can normally workout more than when at home, so I try to do this.

During the working day do not drink your calories! If you are able to choose your own lunch great. If not then try and opt for a salad - nobody will bat an eyelid at this during the day.

I default to not drinking, it’s easier and more common now. Means saving calories. If that’s not an option for you then maybe try and just drink less.
Then for food just try to order something reasonably healthy . I tend to just under eat and even if I leave a bit hungry I know I could eat something relatively low calorie in my hotel room

^ thanks both, helpful. Always used to see time away for work as treat time, which was fine when it was twice/yr, less great when it's >twice/month. Finding it surprisingly hard to adjust my mentality.

I'm really struggling to get back into a routine after the summer break.

Before the break I would get up early, do laundry, eat a healthy breakfast and be in a good place for the day before anyone else was up.

Follow up with a gym trip during the day and sensible eating and all was going swimmingly well.

It felt easy.

Now I can't get out of bed before I absolutely have to, and everything else spirals leaving the day in tatters, from a physical and mental health perspective.

I know that if I can just start the old habits then it should all fall back into place.

But how to kickstart?

I went to bed early last night and set an early alarm, but failed to get up.

Grrrrr.

Have you heard of tiny habits?

I wonder if you're trying to get everything back to as it was before and the barrier is too great.
Feels like the getting up early is the key point to getting back on track. Are you getting good sleep and enough? Did you have a sleep routine before which has now changed?

perhaps for the next few days, get to bed early and set an alarm. If you don't get up, don't stress it you've started to get some routine. Then the next few days after that, early to bed, set alarm and wake up. Perhaps put some clothes out before bed so you can just get up and put those on. Sit downstairs and don't try to achieve anything but be up. And then keep going from there.

Literally just get used to ordering salads (as long as they don’t sound totally shit).

So often you realise it’s just as satisfying having a salad and it’s further satisfying because you feel good for making a healthy choice. These little challenges and successes actually make a big difference in my experience.

Post holiday/summer break can be real tough!

I’d suggest a staggered approach of adding good habits. The routine you got into wasn’t built in a day.

Sounds like getting up early helped achieve all the rest, so deal with that and the healthy breakfast first, and leave the gym for next week.

Set an alarm for the latest possible time tomorrow, on your phone or watch program the next day for 10 minutes earlier and so. Progressively train your brain to get out of holiday mode.

I’m trying to do that now, 3 weeks of sleeping late and waking up late staying at parent’s in law’s place and going by their schedule means that food and sleep timings are out of whack.

I’ve had a slow creep back up from 78 to 80-81 kg. I’m still in good shape, but after a hectic period I’m trying to refocus. Like I say above, just trying to make sensible choices when there’s a chance to indulge.

Still trying to eat dinner around 6pm and not eating til noon, which definitely helps a lot.

And I’m booking a climbing trip for November, so good to have a goal in mind. Time will tell.

/csb

That's the hardest part, eh? Taking the first fucking step. I struggle with it so much. Keep at it, you'll get back there again. 🙌

I'm still at a plateau, averaging about 13,000 steps per day and feeling better even tho' I've been battling the tail end of a virus for the last 2-3 weeks. Planning to get on a bike tomorrow!

This can be hard when travelling with work. Like I say at lunch is often easy but if you are taking clients, colleagues or teams out for dinner/drinks then ordering a salad without at least feeling silly can be tough. Add on the drinking element of lots of these and I understand it. Food cooked out is also often made with more oil/butter and in the states even a salad isn’t really a healthy choice all the time!

Order a steak, have it with green veg no potatoes, order the fish, don’t order pudding etc etc. There is always a healthier choice available. Drink spirits / with diet mixer if needed. Yeah you might not manage to be perfect but you’ll do a lot better moderating those choice compared to just saying “I’m out at a restaurant so I might as well eat everything”.

It took me a while and I don’t always manage, but you can’t ignore such a significant source of calories.

I'm not disagreeing with you but I think depending on types of job etc it can be more or less difficult.

I did this eating out with a client last night, rump steak, broccolini, green beans and a side salad (and a Peroni 0.0%!). It was delicious and I didn't even bust my carb total. Unlike today. 😬

I wish I could see salads as being as satisfying as pretty much anything else on a menu, but I just don't. I do know what you mean, especially the satisfaction of good decisions, but salads are more of a head decision than heart (stomach) decision. Easy to stick to when rested and relaxed, less so after a day's work & travel.