Pickle

Both of my older kids are drawing mad, so we have a large art box plus a selection of other stuff available to them at all times. I have separate boxes for felt pens, crayons and colouring pencils, plus a drawer full of colouring books. In a large storage box I keep a supply of paper, we cut the front off cards and pop them in (great for them to then cut up and use for other things), stickers, stamps, pipe cleaners, and a variety of other "doodle drawer" type stuff. They will literally spend hours sitting creating things, it's fab. I draw the line at paint, but as they get to do painting at school I figure they're not missing out! Might be worth looking into the Artastic holiday club? I'm thinking about booking my kids in for a couple of sessions in the holidays.

Yes, definitely use all of your daily points. I used at least half of my weeklies every week, generally on a Saturday night for s tskeaway and wine. That's what they are there for, makes it possible to live life and lose weight.

From memory I think I did what Hellosailor suggests too (new baby not quite on solids yet and it's been 4 years since #2 was at this stage). I definitely did milk when they woke, followed by breakfast once we were organised, and a milk feed mid morning followed by lunch just before nap time. Good luck, hopefully re-jigging things a little will help.

That is unusual Nikki - if you don't get a better result next week please do let me have a look at your food diary. Here's to a good result next week.

First week of maintenance for me and I lost half a pound, although technically I wasn't following the maintenance plan as I didn't increase my daily points at all. Instead I ate all of my weekly points, which when combined with the 40 a day I already have makes for a lot of food! My plan is to keep doing this for the next few weeks, which may result in me losing a small amount more. I dont want to increase my daily points to then lose them again once I start my baby on solids in 3 weeks time (at which point half of my extra points for breastfeeding will be cut). Well done to those who have lost this week.

Are you offering food before or after solids? Personally I always offered at least part of a milk feed first, then solids. Dropping half her milk does seem a bit much, as the calories she gets from early weaning foods will be minimal.

Has she decreased her milk intake? In the early stages of weaning you have to be careful to ensure they still get plenty of milk as it gives them what they need in terms of calories, not the food.

Otta, in our case it was Mr Pickle spearheading the campaign for #3 (and I'm pleased he did)

I have three, with 5 years between first and third. Admittedly we are only 5 months in, but it has been great. We've managed without a larger car as we can fit three seats in our existing one, didn't lose a bedroom as the older two jumped at the chance to share rather than using a spare room. We don't have grandparents nearby, with one set being on the other side of the world and the others in Scotland and not hands on. My husband is a very involved Dad and structures his working day so that he starts very early in the morning but is home to help with bedtime most nights which is fab for both me and the kids. My feeling is that once you have two children your life is completely geared up to kids, and the jump from 2 to 3 has been very easy.

We used Tricky Toby in January for our sons 5th birthday, he was great. My son recently went to a party where there was a man with snakes, tarantulas and the like which he hasn't stopped talking about. Not sure who it was, but a fab idea!

Thought I'd revive this thread, as I'm now the proud owner of a Box 4 Blox. It has transformed my life, if you see me walking down the street smiling it's because my Lego problem is no more. The children think I'm mad, as does my husband, but it is the most satisfying piece of kit I've bought in a long time. Not only does it make tidying up "fun", it has really encouraged the kids to play with their Lego in a more creative way, as the pieces are more accessible. I have spent the last two afternoons sitting with them and helping build things from their books and really enjoyed it too, and up until now Lego has been a complete no go area for me. Highly recommended!

Maintenance consists of gradually increasing your daily points to findmthe point at which your weight stays pretty much the same. The biggest mistake many people make is to get to goal and then stop tracking and going to weigh in. I always recommend doing at least 6 weeks of tracking once goal is reached to find your ideal level of points. After that you should be able to easily maintain without counting points (I maintained for a number of years successfully before having my first child).

Sorry, short reply earlier (iPhone typing before I got up!). Thanks for the Morrisons tip, I never think to go there, and it does make life easy if they put points on the packaging. Tesco used to have points values on their healthy living range but I don't think they do anymore. My first few days on maintenance haven't been altogether successful... in that I haven't gone over 40 points either day, it's ingrained for me to structure my day around 40. Good luck over the weekend Pebbles, but at the end of the day it's not going to matter if you have a bit of a blip, your brother is only 40 once! My weekend consists of hosting my daughter's 4th birthday party, and running the school fun run. Rock and roll!

Bellenden Belle, that's very normal for the first week, I lost 3.5 after my first week but then settled into a pattern of 1.5ish a week. If it doesn't slow down don't be afraid to eat more. Most weeks I ate about half of my weekly points - they are there to be used so don't feel you shouldn't eat them. Congratulations on a fantastic start!

Lishyloo, he has been missing for a week now. I'll be out running tonight along Brenchley and thorough Nunhead so will obviously keep a look out, although as these areas are close to home for him I guess they will have already been covered. Still, no harm in trying.

Good idea. I run regularly around the local area and happy to be involved if I can.

Perfect, looking forward to it.

Grotty, sorry my post was confusing, I have been running for years (I did a marathon pre-kids), I just meant getting back into it post baby felt like an impossibility! Pebbles is new to it though. Reren, you just have to do your best. Meals at the canteen will be guesswork, but for something like chicken in a tomato sauce I would count points for a standard chicken breast and add on a couple of points for things like oil that are in the sauce. Personally I would steer clear of curry. Where you can, use nutritional values. The Eating Out Guide is useful for eating on the go if you're using chain type stores like Pret. In terms of eating all your points, it's really just to ensure that you are losing weight in a sensible and healthy way. If you ate 10 points a day for a month you would lose weight, no doubt about it, but you'd be depriving your body of what it needs. I always eat my points, all 40 of them, and in the time it's taken me to get back to goal haven't had a single week where I gained. It will get easier as you become more familiar with it. P x

Thanks for bumping this, I've just had a giggle at my initial post ("my kids are older now, I'm working 8 hours a week") while feeding 5 month old baby. How things change in 18 months or so! And also a huge laugh at Pebbles and her drunken post... that was before we had met, and these days I feel I've known her for ever (in a good way!). So, 19 months on, has anyone changed how they feel?

Oh wow, that's brilliant. Embrace the 40 points!

I did it :-) Lost the last pound, so in 16 weeks I've lost 26lbs in total. In that time I have been strict, I haven't cheated, and there has been just one day (hubby's birthday) where I didn't track my points. 16 weeks ago I started walking a lot with my baby, running seemed like an impossible dream, now I'm happily running 5+ miles. Stick with it ladies, it really does work. Now onto maintenance, so I'm still tracking religiously to find the right balance for me. In 4ish weeks my baby will be 6 months old so I'll lose some of my breastfeeding points as she moves onto solids. I'm hoping that I'll just be able to stick to 40 points a day to maintain even though I won't be feeding as much. Hooray!

Yep I'm in

I truly hope there is some good news soon and that he has found somewhere warm and dry over the past days. Please keep us updated. Wll check out Twitter and help if I can today.

What type of boiler is it?

Agree, an excellent watch, well done!