Hi my names Hannah and I'm 26. I joined a few days ago but this is my first post. I've been on my weight loss journey since having my children who are 20 months and 3 years. I never had an issue with my weight before I had children, I'm 5,5 in height and 112 pounds was where I would pretty much always be, regardless of what I ate. In my first pregnancy I went from 112 to 178..I lost the weight pretty quickly after I gave birth and got down to 119 but when I had my second son I went from 119 to 190!!! :| I didn't have any issues with how big I was during my pregnancy and knowing part of that weight was baby weight and water weight made me feel less bad.. Anyway I lost that and got down to 122, my son is 20 months now and slowly but surely I have crept up to 160 and I can't seem to lose it. I wondering if it's because I have gone up and down a few times has made it harder for me to lose it this time. I'm also finding it really hard to be 100% motivated. My husband isn't supportive. He eats so much junk food and buys so much crap and it's to stay on top of my healthy eating
The thing is, I know exactly what I need to do to lose weight.. I just can't seem to do it. Meh anyway so right now here is my plan.

Weigh ins every week on a Friday.
3 gym days a week as that's all I have time for.
1200 calories a day on a normal day.
1350 on a gym day.

This is what I have always done and will lose 2 pounds a week.

Today is day 1! It's almost 5pm and I've been so good! I hate Day 1! Day one sucks ***!

Hi Dandsy,

I'm also from the UK, now living in Portugal. I jumped back on the bangwagon (again) in mid January and so far, so good, but I do sometimes find myself clock watching for bedtime and being able to tick another on plan day!

We're quite different in that I have been an overeater and as a result overweight for almost all of my adult life, my (impossible!) dream is to be how you used to be and eat it all and not gain weight! Also, I'm too lazy to calorie count but do plan carefully and work hard to eat right. For exercise I am upping 'life' exercise by walking everywhere, it is great having so many hills here! and will soon include reistence and strength work at home. I am really trying to retrain my brain this time around and make it longterm!

I am sure your children keep you busy and if you can avoid other people's treats that must be in the house I am sure you will do well

All that said, Friday night in with a cuppa and a healthy dinner cooking isn't all that appealing really!!!

Welcome! I'm in the UK too. It's OK to be finding this difficult, many people with young children are having the same issues. You sound like you might be taking on too much, since you're talking about setting a fairly low calorie allowance, hating it, and dealing with guilt (otherwise why would you say you'd been "good"? Eating is not an immoral thing to do!) Looking after small children is exhausting, I'd go for more food than that.

In fact, how about starting by eating at maintenance for a week or two, while you get used to calorie counting and settle in at the gym? Once you've done that, then try adjusting your calories to lose half a pound a week. If you can keep that up for a while, feel comfortable on the diet, not feel drained, and reckon you can handle faster weight loss, take off another 250 calories, but only if you feel you really can. If you think you might be able to in the future but you are still struggling with the diet, sort that out first, figure out which issues are troubling you and work through them. Losing at 0.5lb/week is perfectly reasonable, and it's much more likely to be successful.

Hello and welcome to 3FC

Ok so I hope I'm doing this correctly.. I wasn't 100% honest in my message above.. throughtought my early teanage Years, I sufferered with a pretty bad eating disorder. I feel like setting the goal I have set for myself is realistical to me considering the goals I would have set for myself before. Setting a smaller goal would have actually been a lot harder for me to maintain. I recovered from my eating disorder when I met my husband and went on to this more realistic eating plan to actually gain weight. In the last couple of weeks since I posted iv been doing really well on my plan and have lost a pound a week. For me, if I go over 1500 I end up gaining so I think calorie intake is different for everyone. When I said that I was good all day I meant that I didn't binge eat 5 chocolate bars and a whole pizza and a tub of ice scream. With my previous eating disorder, starving and binging was what I did. Bing eating is not healthy so I do see myself as being good for not doing it. I had eaten healthy and was excited for dinner and had eaten healthy which is what I meant when I said I had been good all day. My previous eating disorder will always be a struggle for me but I have control over it and feel happy with the plan so far. The first week I did lose 5 pounds due to it being my first week. I am now losing 1 pound a week so I'm pleased with that.

Welcome, and good luck on your journey.

This is my first post on this website, I actually just finished making an account. but I wanted to respond to your post with a couple of suggestions.
You might already be doing these but I thought I would share anyways :P

I've never had children myself but my Mom has 5. She was extremely anorexic 90% of her life and weighed about 98lbs all the way up to her last child (who came out at nearly 11 lbs). Where my mom, over time since, jumped up to nearly 200lbs. She has since lost the weight but like you, her husband has an excessive junk food habit and had no support with trying to keep it out of the house.

Instead she told him that he needed to pick a localized spot to keep his junk food, in an office or in a particular part of the pantry that you would have to go out of your way to get. When you keep them out of the way, you have to make the conscious effort to get them rather them being readily available. In the time it would take you to go for those snacks, it would be your decision completely.
Another thing with this, most woman do the grocery shopping. You can choose to no longer buy the junk food and tell your husband that if its something that he wants then he can go out and buy them and they will be his. There is nothing wrong with doing things this way. No convincing yourself that you have to buy them because your husband wants them (which mentally says to yourself that you can have them too :P). This will make it so you no longer are the one bringing in the stuff you dont want, and gives you that distinction that says "These are his" and you will be less likely to eat them.

Aside from the junk food, you have a 20month old! Right there is the best exercise tool you can get! Have you looked in to Baby Exercise? There are videos on the internet that turns baby play time into a workout. The kid gets to bounce around and be happy, and you get to "lift weights" while enjoying your babies laughter and spending that interaction time with him. It really is a great bonding tool that is helpful to the both of you <3

I really hope this helps, and sorry for the reply being so lengthy. You've got this! the fact that you're here in the first place says you're making better choices and shows a real desire to become healthier. (For me, telling myself im trying to be Healthier, rather than trying to lose weight, helps a lot more)