Hello from a female military officer in Shropshire UK!

RAFValentina

Hello All,

I'm Val!

I joined MFP a while ago using the iPhone app. More than anything, I like the fact it makes me plan my meals more and helps make my shopping easier! I've not lost that much weight but I've gotten much fitter. I was already fit (I had to be for my job) but now I'm getting much higher scores on my Fitness Test which means, testing less often and more credibility. I always says there's time to do exercise. I try to work out a minimum of 5 days a week. 4 days are Gym/Cardio sessions with a bit of weights-usually kettlebells and the resistance machines. Tuesday is netball, so focussed around coordination and team skills/cognitive skills, stabilisation and sports fitness, almost like intervals. I signed up to the Manchester 10km last year and used Nike+ and Nike+ GPS to help me train and got a very reasonable score. I now run 10kms as part of my training and have started to race for my unit. So far, of the girls that compete, I'm the fastest girl on the station!.
However, I can't really shift the weight or "size" I've actually gained a few lbs despite eating fewer than a net 2000kcal a day and beasting myself in the gym (approx 700kcal each time) However, I have noticed lots over my time dieting and training.


Here are some of my thoughts.

Things I have discovered over the years trying out various new things. Fitness/Training plans, foods and supplements.

Firstly ... aim for a low GI diet but try not to replace ALL your usual "White" refined starchy carbs for wholemeal... you could end up with some horrific symptoms like me! Mostly demoralising bloating meaning you look fatter and it can be really painful.

CLA - Conjugated lioneic acid, found in red meat and most meat in smallish quantities. It's good if you can up it a bit... but by that I mean maybe adding it naturally to your diet more through eating more protein... but I wouldn't bother with taking the diet supplements such as Tonalin or Safflower oil. It's found in lots of polyunsaturated fats like sunflower oil too. this can, especially in the long term, not be just expensive as it costs about £30-£40 a month as a supplement but it can really be bad for your gut and make you feel pretty rotten.

Fruit-it's all well and good replacing your chocolate cake and biccies as snacks for fruit...but doing this too much and doing it suddenly could also cause you gut problems, especially if like me you have a sensitive gut ... the increase in fructose vs glucose in the intestine can again cause "problems".

Laxatives - yes I have tried them on occasion. Not great, will make you feel emptier and thinner, but will leave you with a very gurgly gut! Thin vs noise and embarassment totally negates any attractiveness gained... and you can't use them long term as effectively, they irritate your gut too. I recommend the charcoal tablets however.

Diet pills... I have tried a number of thermogenics... people I know swore by Grenade. They told me they'd feel like they were wired. I tried them and didn't feel a difference, I gained no more "energy" or drive. Waste of money. I also tried Maxitone Sculptress. the old tablets were better as they had some kind of bulking agent that acted as quite a nice appetitie suppressant too. I did lose a bit of weight with these when accompanied by a healthy balanced diet, exercising portion control and plenty of physical activity.

Going tee-total doesn't really benefit me much. The odd night out every month (maybe once or twice) actually was good. Probably as I only drunk low calorie alcoholic drinks like G+Slimline T which combined with portion control and lots of phys - therefore probably more dehydrated than normal! Meant I got drunk a bit quicker so I ended up drinking less but would still go out for a few hours of crazy dancing... again burning calories from that!

I find keeping a food diary is great. It helps make you make better food choices, look at portion sizes and plan your meals and mealtimes better. It's also good for looking at your food behaviour patterns, planning your food so you don't feel hungry but don't overeat... even if you are going out for dinner. I worked out that i had food intolerances from it...something I had suspected in the past but was able to truly find out from it. It also helps you see what you ate when you were sad/happy and what you eat mainly. It helps you look at the balance of your food too comapared to what's recommended. i tend to be a high carbohydrate eater, I'm not going over my calorie allowance but I probably eat too much carbs which will ultimately turn to fat quicker. I don't eat enough protein or "fats". It's something I'm looking to change!

The best diet I was on where I lost a stone was fairly routine and sustainable if you like the food and eat on your own, but it was a basic diet of some kind of wholegrain cereal for breakfast or porridge. This would usually leave me feeling OK 'til about 1030 when i'd have a cup of tea to tide me over 'til Lunch (being busy in work helps). Lunchtime, I'd have a large salad, often accompanied by a small amount of tortelloni pasta or a piece of bread and some parma ham. normally I'd put on some parmesan cheese too and salad dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, black pepper and salt. Usually I'd fill up on the lettuce. Sometimes a jacket potato (small) with some beans and salad helped.

Dinner I would eat after going to the gym. I bought a steamer and steamed 1-2 pieces of turkey thigh pieces or chicken thigh pieces (skin removed); on occasion salmon, trout or tuna steaks. I'd also have a portion of steamed rice, sometimes with some lime or coriander thrown in and about 2-300g of mixed veg such as carrot, broccoli, mangetout and cauliflower. This was filling, nutritious and left me feeling satisfied. I'd often steam the veg and meat with ginger and herbs and chilli (naturally good and cleansing plus thermogenic) This made the taste less bring. I'd also have a little thai sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce.

Afternoon snacks that worked well for me (and my stomach!) were wholegrain rice cakes (probably 2) with about 60g (2 large heaped teaspoons) of low fat cottage cheese and some smoked salmon trimmings. With the odd cherry tomatoes too.

Puddings - low fat yoghurts, small amount of custard made with skimmed milk and water and granulated sweetener as opposed to sugar with a chopped banana or 30g of prunes. also some chocolate mousses are good too and nice with fresh raspberries.

Phys sessions are massively important to me. I took up running, motivated by the thought of looming manchester 10km great run. I used Nike+ to help track my runs and keep mye motivated. I used the sensor initially attached to my shoe and linked to my iPhone then uploaded the workouts to Nike+ and also plugged my iPhone into the treadmills/elliptical trainers/bikes in the gym to get my workout data from those. Then Nike+GPS App came out which was fantastic as used this to track all my outdoor runs which also gave me some great info such as my instant pace at various points look at where on the run I was lagging or speedy etc. It also allowed me to analyse how my run time was improving.

Please feel free to add me, exchange your experiences here etc!

Val xxx