Meal replacement shakes

We are on hols looking after our son's house and went into Brighton today. I was saddened to see how many obese women ( and men) walking about, often with a burger or very large drink in their hands. I noticed how if the mother was big the children were too.

Many of the foreign women looked far slimmer.

It has really spurred me on not to over indulge because it is so easy to slip into a bad eating routine.

That's a very drastic diet littleflo

My daughter in law has lost a lot of weight on the Cambridge diet. Not sure if it is healthy but she looks really good.

Salt and Pepper here- it was a real relief to go natural and stop colour and highlights.

I've just had two months sat under a blanket because I cut all the bleach bits out of my hair and it was very short as a result. Now it's got to a decent length and it's lightened up from my normal yucky brown colour with streaks of silver running through. I wanted to see what I looked like underneath the bleach and roots look so awful when they are too long. My hair now is in great condition, lovely and soft and I am enjoying seeing the real me for the first time in many years.

I like my combination of blonde light and dark and silver hair.

I used to pay good money to have highlights now I get them for free.

I haven't gone grey!
I'm SILVER!

So would I, Ana. The only connection I can think of is that the cancer was causing the greyness, and it eased off after it had been removed, but it was only a tiny lump. It wasn't stress, because the greying process started before I knew the lump was there.

I di find a theory (maybe it was more than that, it was eight years ago when I found it) that losing hair colour is affected by the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the hair follicles. Not from bleaching the hair, just a natural by-product of time.

If you add to that the way vitamin C is an anti-oxidant which mops up free radicals in cells, using up the extra oxygen molecule which makes up the peroxide, perhaps the 1000 mg a day I was taking cleared out the peroxide and let the colour gradually back in? I don't know enough chemistry to back this up.

If it is true, possibly those of us who don't want to go grey should take vitamin C, possibly at the point just before the hair would naturally fade - I am not sure it would reverse the process. Maybe those follicles which had not been completely bleached could produce coloured hair again. You lose hairs all the time and new ones grow.

Elegran, I'd have thought the anti-oestrogen drugs would have the opposite effect, i.e. hastening the greying process?

Elegran

Not everyone goes grey tchcherry believe it or not !

I haven't , my brothers Have not , my Mother & Father Did not.

Yeah there may have been the odd grey hair here and there , but nothing to speak of.

Just the way things go !

Nine years ago mine was starting to get pepper-and-salt in some places, and I was expecting it to go grey over the next couple of years. Then I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a date for it to be removed. I took a lot of vitamin C beforehand so as to have my cells in good order to heal well (that worked OK) and after the surgery I had Tamoxifen. No chemo so I did not lose any hair.

After about a year I noticed that the pepper-and-salt had become only a few grey hairs, and had not increased at all. That was eight years ago and it is much the same now. My two daughters are much greyer than I am.

The only outside influences could have been the vitamin C and the anti-oestrogen drugs. The internal influence could be my genes - my mother and grandmother were not grey until they reached about 70. I have passed them!

Elegran have you not gone grey?, me neither, only a few hairs are grey and I am a bit surprised because I thought that everyone went grey, I am a bit younger than 75 but was happy to read that your hair is still dark and un dyed!

Although I don't mind going grey, am quite looking forward to it

Jane I too have an under active thyroid, it makes it harder for us to lose weight but it is possible and I agree with you it is a long term aim.

I found that once I got through the first couple of weeks it got a lot easier.

I know someone who has done it several times over the last 10 years and each time she loses masses but as soon as she starts eating again she whacks the weight back on in record time. I am sure I read also that it affects your metabolism so you burn off slower once you start eating. I am sure it can't be healthy and doesn't re-educate eating habits

Freda I noticed you mentioned you are due to see an endocrinologist next month because of an underactive thyroid.

As long as you have depressed thyroid function you will tend to gain weight, because your metabolic rate will be low.
I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in 2005. My weight had been gradually creeping up for years, partly due to this.

Eventually I have lost 10 kg, I'm 5'8" and size 12, but it's taken me 2.5 years and I've done it mainly as Nankate and Aka suggest.

I've never investigated meal replacement shakes - I find the idea of artificial food repellent, and they can't be a long-term solution.

You can lose weight, but it will be easier once your thyroid is sorted out, and the only healthy way to do it is to eat properly, exercise more and above all accept that it's going to take years, not months, there will be times when you put a bit back on, but you'll get there in the end if you persevere.
Good luck

Absolutely Aka.

A large friend of mine has told me she just is just eating salads and I know she much prefers hearty meat meals. She is doomed for failure but does she does not want to know that she can fill up on delicious soups, meat and mounds of veg and never feel deprived. Plus low fat desserts.

I also notice she drinks large quantities of fruit drinks that are loaded with sugar, if only she would water them down.

I feel like bashing my head against the wall as I know she will give up soon and accept the diabetes that the doctor says she is heading for.

Freda listen to what NanKate is saying. This is going to take a long time and means you will have to learn to say 'no' and cut down your portion size.

It's all down to you, the hospital is not going to 'come up' with anything you've not heard on here.

If you only lose 1/2 a pound a week that's 26lb gone by next July.

Don't get dispirited and depressed, get determined instead

Meant to add Freda it took me months to lose the weight, some weeks only half a pound, but as long as things went down I was happy. It is unrealistic to say lose half a stone in a couple of weeks IMO.

Sorry Freda you are feeling down, health problems and weight can be depressing.

Back to diets. In my opinion even if diets work initially the are hard to maintain, so I have banished the word diet and now say 'healthy eating plan for life'.

As soon as I realised that I needed to rethink my eating every day not just for a few weeks all became clear. When we go out to Costa for coffee I always have the skinny cappuccino and one third of the cake. At first I felt deprived, but no longer it just seems the right amount now.

I do have the occasional 'pig out' day and enjoy it.

Anyway everyone to their own method .

Best of luck.

Thanks Nan Kate, I did try a bit of what you advise. I started eating 1/2-3/4's of what was on my plate, but didn't see any difference in my weight! I'm at a loss what to do really! I have a few health problems and am finding it difficult to walk any farther when I take the dog out. I got the dog so I would have to go out walking.
Hi Sue, I am familiar with NHS Choices, I used it frequently when I worked with the NHS recently, I will have a look re diets.
I guess I will wait until my hospital appt in August n see if they come up with anything. I just don't recognise how my body is working or should I say not working just now!
Unhappy and fat, Freda

No, tcherry I am darkhaired (undyed), fat and 75.

If you are not fair fat and forty, then you can drink milk shakes without worrying tha tyou will get gallstones.

I am grey fat and seventytwo.

(A little on the plump side )

No Elegran I am nether fair fat or forty are you?

nanakate that is such good advice!!