Hi all!

After reading many of the diaries on this forum, and getting LOTS of motivation from them (there are some fantastic dedicated people on this site), i've decided that it's about time i started my own, in the hope that when i reach my goal, it can offer some much needed inspiration to someone new to all this...like me!

To start with i think you should all know a little bit about the person who's diary you are reading...

I'm 19 years old and live in the north west of England. I live with my parents, younger sister, and (almost) 12 week old daughter (i'll refer to her as 'L'). I'm currently a stay at home mum, after finishing college this summer (where i studied law, psychology, and business). I'm not sure what i want to do next, but for now i'm enjoying my daughter and spending as much time as possible with her.

Onto the juicy bits...(my goals and progress so far)...

I started my diet on June 26th and weighed 175 lbs. I'm now almost 5 weeks into it and have lost 15 lbs so far. My long term goal is to reach my pre-pregnancy weight of 126 lbs, so i have 34 to go. In all honesty i'd love to reach my goal weight by the time L is 6 months old, but i'm not under any pressure and wouldn't beat myself up if it took me until she was 1.

I havn't been following any particular plan, just trying to keep within 1500 cals everyday (i actually find this quite hard!!), exercising aerobically at least 3 times a week, and drinking 3 litres of water daily. So far i've followed these rules pretty well, apart from this week

I've only managed to exercise once this week (no excuse i'm just lazy), and not been drinking all my water. To make matters worse my cal intake has been as follows:

Mon - 1220
Tue - 2293
Wed - 2280
Thur - 1647
Fri - 2133
Sat - 1886

As you can see, so far...not good. I'm definatley NOT expecting a loss after this week, infact i'll be suprised if i stay at 160 lbs

However...on the bright side of things...maybe all these calories will give my metabolism a boost and help me get some good results next week

Well thanks for reading if you've got this far and any comments and advice will be welcomed . Please don't think i'm ignorant for not replying to any diaries yet...i'm just shy ...i'll make more of an effort now .

I'll try my best to update as often as i can, but bye for now!

Hi BP, welcome to the forum! Congratulations on being a new mom and enjoy that little one! The time flies SO quickly! I can't believe mine will be turning *10* on her next birthday! ACK!!

It sounds like you have a great working plan in place. My only thought/recommendation is to try and drop your overall weekly calories a bit more. Based on your weight, your average maintenance calories should be around 1920 and the average you consumed is 1910. To lose a pound a week, you should have around 1420 calories a day, and from there, you can adjust for excercising.

Good luck and don't be shy here - there's no need, besides, we don't bite...
...often
...or too hard...
...or unless chocolate is involved...

Welcome!! If you want any suggestions on food, go ahead and post a list of your daily intake and maybe someone can help with modifying it to get you additional food, so that you're not hungry! Good Luck!

Hey Babypodge,

From one newcommer to the next: welcome. I hope you like it so far, I know I do. Don't be shy though, there is a lot of amazing people in here, and if you ever need a little boost in motivation reading the diaries of others helps a lot... You plan sounds great, keep it up:-)

It sounds like you are off to a great start! Keep it up! Your plan of exercise and dieting sounds great however I do agree that lowering your calories just a bit may help.
Just a reminder that it takes 2-3 weeks to form a habit. If you try to exercise everyday for 14-21 days you'll get into the habit of needing that extra energy boost. Then gradually you can work down to 3 days a week again. Even if it is only 20 minutes a day, it is worth it! I promise! You'll start feeling super!

Aaaarrrggghhhh i'v just written out a whole diary entry and the computer turned off and it disappeared! To make matters worse...i gained 1/2 a lb this week! Suppose it could have been worse though after the fiasco last week (all those calories )

Anyway, i didn't even bother counting the cals yesterday i ate waaaaay too many, why can't chocolate taste like cabbage?!! I'm not one to hang around though...so new day - new start.

I lay in bed last night trying to think of a food that i really enjoyed, but that was relatively healthy and low in calories (maybe that's why i'm so tired today? LOL). The only one i could think of was cereal. I love Kellogg's Fruit and Fibre, and their Special K. Both are very low in cals when eaten with semi-skimmed milk.

With that i've decided to do the Special K 'slimmer waist for summer challenge'. It's advertised here in the UK, you eat 1 bowl for breakfast, 1 for lunch, then a sensible balanced dinner. It's only recommended that you follow it for two weeks, so i'm hoping it will give me a head start. The only change i'll be making to it, is that i will be having a bowl of Fruit and Fibre in the morning instead to stop me getting bored.

On fitday, 1.5 cups of Fruit and Fibre = 279 cals.
10 fl.oz of milk = 155 cals.
This gives me a total of 434 cals for breakfast.

1.5 cups of Special K = 209 cals.
10 fl.oz of milk = 155 cals.
This gives me a total of 364 cals for lunch.

If i give myself an allowance of 1200 calories a day, then i have 402 cals left for dinner...when i'll have protein, veggies, and a small amount of carbs.

I also plan to workout everyday for this challenge, just to get me into the routine of it again as i've really been slacking lately I'll be doing an hour everyday, alternating between high and low impact aerobics dvd's.

And last but not least...water! I'll still be drinking my 3 litres of water daily (96 ounces?) as i can easily manage this (apart from last week ).

So there you go...that's the plan! I currently weigh in at 160.5 lbs, and hope to lose 4.5 lbs at the end of the challenge. I'd love to get to 154 lbs, but maybe this is a bit unrealistic for me.

I'v just got L off to sleep, had my first cereal of the day, and drank my first litre of water. I'll update later and tell you how my first day went

M2M - I know what you mean about them growing up so fast, i can't believe she is 3 month already...it only seems like she was born yesterday

Manaloa - My food eaten will be in my diary from now, so feel free to suggest any changes you think would help me

Mahatt - I love this site so far, so many nice people

Kadie - I've lowered my cals A LOT as you can see, and i've taken your advice of exercising everyday for 2 weeks, i'm hoping it will become routine then!

You sound like you are off to a great start! If you start feeling discouraged get your butt back on here and we'll remind you what you are capable of Good luck!

Well our internet has been down the last week and i've not had a chance to get on and update my diary .

Anyway i gained at the beginning of last week and went to 162 lbs, but by the end of the week i'd lost 4.5 lbs!! So i'm not 157.5

I can't be bothered with the 'Special K' diet, i was bored really easily and i think that's why i gained at the beginning of last week. So instead i'm just going to stick to a calorie intake of 1200 - 1500, and drink 3 litres of water, and do 4 hours cardio a week.

O.k so food for today -

Breakfast -

1 large slice of bread, toasted - 120
50g ww cheese - 92
1 large egg scrambled - 101

Lunch -

Medium chicken breast, roasted - 199
1 medium white bread roll - 159

Dinner -

Microwave turkey dinner (with potatoe and veggies) - 376
2 large scoops vanilla ice-cream - 359

Total cals today = 1406

I'm happy with my food intake today, and reeeeally happy that i managed to squeeze some ice-cream in there I had 3 portions of veggies with dinner, but i really need to work on my fruit intake too (i'm not a huge fan of fruit and veg )

Well i'm going to put L to bed soon and get some exercise in, i need to put lots of effort into the next few weeks as i have an event coming up and i want to be 147 lbs for it, it's the 25thAugust! (wishful thinking? LOL)

Anyway bye for now, and i will update tomorrow xxx

You sounds like you are doing great and you definitely have the right attitude. You can't get discouraged because of a few bad days or because something isn't working for you like you had hoped. Keep it up

BTW, I don't know how picky you are on breads, but if you shop around a bit you might be able to find some bread that you like that are less cals per slice (which means you'll be able to eat more for the same cals) For instance, I bought Sara Lee Deliteful bread at 45 cals/slice which means I can have two and a half slices for the cals of your one. Pretty good deal, huh?

Well, sometimes calories aren't the only reasoning behind food choices. I choose to have whole grain bread whenever I can, even though it weighs in at 220 calories for two slices, compared to the 170 whole wheat bread gives me because it's my belief that whole grain bread does not only give me more nutrition, but keeps me more full.

Hi Babypodge welcome to the forum.