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Published 12:00 10 Sept 2013 BST
Updated 07:30 18 Dec 2014 GMT
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Embarking on a healthier lifestyle is tough at the best of times, but it's a whole lot easier with your buddies by your side.
Knowing that to be true, we paired up with our pals at Weight Watchers to offer a group of friends who live together a free place on a 12 week Weight Watchers programme.
Households across the country got in touch, and now we've found our new Weight Watchers ambassadors for Her.ie!
The emphasis is on eating healthy meals, not starving yourself or pushing yourself beyond physical limitations, and nothing is ‘forbidden’ as long as you stick to your ProPoints allocation.
These housemates will be sharing their story and inspiring others by writing a weekly blog for Her.ie, giving an honest first-hand account of their efforts.
The lifestyle change began for our volunteers two week... here's their second report!
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WEEK TWO
Sarah Smyth
Just starting into week two, and I’m still struggling a little bit with planning all the meals out, but it’s worth it when you do it! Writing everything down is key, along with planning, making sure you’re in the correct mindset and trying to break bad habits. I feel I have more energy already! My friend got engaged and I have booked a holiday for December so I have to keep myself motivated for the challenges ahead.
Height: 5:5
Starting weight: 15 ½ stone
Planned weight loss: 2 stone
Warren Barry
After the weekend's activities I figured Sunday was a good a day as any to get back on track. At our last meeting, my group leader Gwen had stressed the importance of planning, to avoid making poor meal decisions. With the old adage of 'Fail to plan, plan to fail' in mind I set off shopping, having planned and worked out several meals for the next few days. The contents of this shopping list can be summarised best as a lot of chicken breasts, some cuts of steak, spices, coconut oil, cottage cheese, oats, nuts, fruit and a lot of vegetables. I have planned to eat 4/5 times a day and I normally wouldn't be too keen on breakfast. However, this is a habit I will have to change in order to have 4/5 meals a day.
Breakfast has been the same every day, porridge with some nuts and seeds followed by a small portion of fruit salad.
My mid-morning snack has been a portion of cottage cheese with blueberries and a small portion of almonds.
Lunch has been a chicken salad of some sort. Chicken, Broccoli and Feta was the salad I was most impressed with in terms of taste and feeling 'full'.
My afternoon snack has been a small portion of almonds and a piece of fruit.
My dinner has been a chicken or beef stir fry bulked up with lots of vegetables. Again the reason being is that they are "healthy and filling", as Gwen would say.
My meals have been fairly similar in terms of content and I will need to change this up soon as I do not want to get bored of what I am eating and end up making poor choices out of boredom. This is something I will need to spend some time on over the weekend. I have also been drinking around 3 litres of water a day as well and I think this has also helped with 'feeling full'.
The Meeting
This week’s meeting talk was at about the several subjects that contribute to success in weight loss.
· English: Keeping an accurate food journal that is not a work of fiction.
· Maths: Making sure your sums add up correctly and that you are consuming the correct amount of ProPoints each day.
· IT: Using the website www.weightwatchers.ie as a resource
· Geography: Knowing where you are going!
· P.E: Exercising
I dropped 3lbs this week and when asked what I felt to be the most important factor that contributed to my weight loss I felt that in addition to eating properly (as above) that I felt exercise played a major part as I had a poor weekend, (I ate out twice on Thursday and Saturday and had several drinks on Friday night). I had three personal training sessions in Fitness Together in Ranelagh and I went on two long cycles since last Wednesday evening.
I felt that the combination of proper diet and exercise was responsible for this success. I find that I sleep a lot better at night too!
Height: 5'9
Starting weight: 15 stone 3
Planned weight loss: 1 stone
Laura Kavanagh
This week’s class discussion helped me realize that I needed to be eating more zero ProPoints foods, such berries, mixed greens and fruit. I found that I was hungry most evenings after my dinner so going forward I will have to fill up and eat more of these zero points.
I picked up some great tips and examples from the group discussion on how to keep track of my eating and to never guess my ProPoints when writing them down. I didn’t lose/gain weight last week so going forward I’m going work harder on varying my meals while adding a lot more zero ProPoints. Over the next couple of weeks I am hoping to get cleverer on making weekly plans and sticking to them!
Height: 5:3
Starting weight: 11 ½ stone
Planned weight loss: 1 stone
Sarah Moore
This week’s class was all about the ‘subjects’ which contribute to your overall weight loss. I realised quite quickly that I was better at some of the subjects than others. English, for example, was one of my strongest – writing down accurately all of the things I had eaten each day! This is meant to be a work of fact, not fiction! On the other hand, I’m not too god (yet) at realising the foods which keep me full. I’m eating plenty of fruit and veg (chopped carrots, apples and bananas when in work), but I’m still feeling hungry between my meals. This could be down to the fact that my overall meal size has been reduced. I’m improving in PE, well trying to; I have started training in the last week or so, so I am hoping that this and the changes to my eating regime are going to help. I lost 1lb this week but I know that’s because I didn’t do too well on the eating front last week due to celebrations etc. but this now I’m back on track and hoping for more next week.
Height: 5'7
Starting weight: 13.5 stone
Planned weight loss: 1.5 stone
Check back on these pages weekly for regular updates from the foursome, and if you want to find out more about Weight Watchers classes in your area, you can do so here.
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