First time on one of these diet forums. I have tried dieting, however to be honest I am not the best at keeping to a rigid eating regime. I thought maybe joining a forum and at least letting people know how I get on might be a motivational drive for me.

I’m a 37 year old male from Glasgow, currently 5’7 and 198 lbs (14.1 stone) and aim to lose around 30 lbs if I could. Don’t have any time limit (well would prefer to do so before I die, LOL.).

My eating habits are bad and I usually find myself with the silly snacks like crisps and chocolates/biscuits – especially at work. I’m also bad with soft drinks although I do only drink diet now and also squash. My favourites though are beer and curries (especially Chinese) and to be honest I wouldn’t give these up, I guess I need to be more moderate in my intake.

Exercise I do have to look at too, I was quite active playing 5-a-side football which was a big help I think, but I’ve sustained quite a bad knee injury and I have been having to curtail my football times now. This isn’t going to help either. Do want to do other physical activities with maybe the likes of weights and the likes of sit-ups etc on a daily basis.

I’ve also got a little spreadsheet running to try and keep a record of everything I eat and was running it off the calorie allowance. I’m not clued up in all these allowances but basically was going to work along the lines of saving around 500 (or more if possible) calorie points per day and hope that I can work from that.

Probably will need to go out and get a set of scales again although I use my WII Fit board to weigh myself…………………how accurate it is I don’t know but at least it would be a guide of some sort.


Hope to speak with some of you soon and will look for some help no doubt.


Cheers

Hi, it sounds like you are working out a decent set of strategies. I think there may be websites (such as FitDay, but I guess that has American foods listed on it) where you can input your calorie intake and aim for a daily goal. I also use a spreadsheet but mainly to chart my progress each week as a motivational tool.

I also love curries (especially Indian in my case) and this was my husband's huge weakness as well so we'd tempt each other to go out for one. I still eat out 1-2 times a week, but since Indian was one of the most calorific options of all, I decided to get a couple of lower-fat Indian cookbooks and try out recipes from those. That's helped a lot.

Wii Fit boards aren't that bad in terms of accuracy as long as you weigh more or less the same time of day with about the same amount of clothing, and do it on a hard rather than carpeted floor. It seems to be fairly consistent with my Tanita scale, when I've tried comparing them on the same day.

There's a monthly thread on this forum (currently called Make Good in May) where people set goals for the month - maybe that would be of interest to you?

Keep away from the battered mars bar are u into hiking? Try and find a walking club and get yourself out into the hills. the Ramblers now have many non coffin dodger groups for the under 40's etc. Also have you though of kayaking? Very good exercise, group activity and outdoors and not knee intensive.

There are also men only weight watcher groups if u fancy going down that route which would allow u to still eat your Chinese and have some beers ad ling as it's within your points

Hi and thanks for the welcome.

I'll take a look at the that section Lora, although guess I'm getting a bit late in the May (see what I did there?) for many goals with only a week left.

Si - I could do the Mars Bars without the batter. Not much of walker, tbh, I hope to get back to the footy but think I need to rest my knees. I'm going to give it a little exercise and see if my knee just needs a little moving around, although I did have a tear in my knee but the doc said I didn't really require any surgery at the moment. But will need to be careful.

I think to be honest that work is a killer for me, as sitting at a desk all day and there's always a sweet or two not far away. If I can start with keeping my watch at work then I think that would be a good start. Then just a case of not going overboard at the weekend, although I do intend to still enjoy my weekend, but not just as much.

My intentions are to start right off from the Monday and keep track from there.


FD

take your own sweet with you. my particular fav for a sweet snack is some yoghurt coated raisins. bunch of grapes is another good one.

as for football everyone knows its for those who failed the man test for rugby

LOL...................well I've always been a bit of a wimp though, so guess your right.

Yes, fruit will be on the list now at work.

I intend any treats to be at the weekend, although not go mad.

Thanks again.


FD

Interesting info for me too!

Well wish me luck folks that's me up and away.

Was quite funny, I walked into work and one of the managers had bought me 2 packs of hard boiled sweets.....................LOL.

I'm keeping track of what I eat and hopefully I can curb any cravings, eating more fruit than sweets.


FD