posted
A week ago today I went back into weight loss mode....again. I need to lose about 20 lbs. I did great for a week, but for me the first week of any diet is easy. It's sticking with it in the long run that is difficult and today I blew it quite spectacularly.
I don't need any dieting advice. I know exactly how to lose weight in terms of food intake and exercise output, but I could sure use some emotional support. Does anyone know of any good places on the Internet, preferably free, where one can find support, encouragement, and dieting buddies?
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Besides food intake and exercise, another potential tool to lose and maintain weight is monitoring the glycemic index (GI) of what we eat. Two high-carb foods may contain the same amount of calories but have very different GI's. Lower GI foods decrease insulin fluctuation, and such foods may aid weight loss and improve weight maintenance.
By swapping our favorite high carb foods for similar high carb foods with lower GI's, perhaps we can still have our carbs and lose weight. So, perhaps it is possible to have our cake and eat it too!
(Some claim that lower GI foods reduce the chance of developing type II diabetes and/or improve the symptoms of those who have it. The ADA performed a small pilot study as a preliminary test to this claim , but there is no evidence that a low GI diet is better than current ADA dietary guidelines. But to be fair, there is no evidence that it is any worse either.)
Posts: 293 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
I'll bet I can lose 20 lbs before you do. I'm currently 215 lbs. If you'd like to take me up on it, we can lay ground rules, I wouldn't want this to get crazy. But if not, I can certainly cheer from your corner. Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I just bought a GoWear Fit Active (similar to the BodyBugg made by the same people) that I'm going to use in conjunction with a modified version of Weight Watchers. I'm going to use the point system, but I'm also going to keep track of the number of calories I'm consuming (not a usual requirement of the Weight Watchers program) and how many I'm burning, which is the purpose of the GoWear Fit. I can't wait till it gets here.
Posts: 1214 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Belle: I've been to sparkpeople before, now that you mention it. I may even have an account if they haven't deleted it after however many years it's been...
BlackBlade: I bet you can lose 20 lbs before I can too.
I'd love to take up the challenge, or at least have a weight loss buddy. I especially need someone to help keep me honest with my exercise. I figure if I'm doing the right things, then how fast I lost the weight isn't the most important thing. (Plus, I'm nursing 4 times a day which means I'm almost guaranteed to lose weight slower than you.)
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
There are some Hatrackers who have a weight loss community on Live Journal, and I am finding it enormously, incredibly helpful. It is exactly what you are describing. If you are so inclined, you are welcome to join. It's called thethinfangirl.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
You're not alone! Seems there are several of us looking to lose 20 lbs or so. I've been on Nutrisystem (speaking of the GI) for three weeks and have been liking it a lot. Also, knowing how to eat healthy doesn't mean I do it either, so this has been nice to encourage portion control, good food choices, and the fact their meals are full of fiber and fill you up helps, too. Oh, and there are charts to fill out. This certainly hooked me.
Anyhow, I'd say one of the biggest helps you can do yourself to assist your will power (however much of it there is) is to keep tempting foods out of your house. My fiance has a bag of chips in my cupboard, but since they're not ice cream, it's okay. If he were to bring a carton of normal ol' ice cream in, that'd be another story.
quote:Originally posted by katharina: There are some Hatrackers who have a weight loss community on Live Journal, and I am finding it enormously, incredibly helpful. It is exactly what you are describing. If you are so inclined, you are welcome to join. It's called thethinfangirl.
Do you mind if I join?
Posts: 691 | Registered: Nov 2008
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Please do! It is for everyone who wants to be part of a supportive, positive weight loss club. There are posts just about every day, and the focus is on eating healthy (no fads or starvation) and on exercise.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
Christine: Indeed, a baby can be a extremely tough handicap. But in anycase, I need to lose 15-20 lbs, and I'd be happy to do it with you. Since you've already declared defeat in terms of speed, all that remains then is for us to actually complete the course.
If you wish to join the community katharina suggested, I won't feel annoyed. I still intend to post updates on my own situation in this thread.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Oh, there are no tempting foods in my house. Haven't been for years. I can't keep a carton of ice cream around. The trouble is, I cook. Yesterday's spectacular failure involved flour, eggs, butter, chocolate chips, sugar, and a few spices. In short, I baked cookies.
I tried NutriSystem once a few years ago, before I had kids. It just doesn't suit my lifestyle. I cook. I enjoy home made meals and the boxed meals don't do it for me. Plus I have a family that I cook for. I figure if I were single or didn't usually cook, it would be a good system because it does take a lot of the planning and measuring out of things.
What I'm doing now is using a site called Meal Mixer -- I can create a whole meal plan for the family and it calculates what my portion is and how many calories I'm getting. Actually, it also calculates your points if you're using weight watches. So I get portion control and food for the family, complete with grocery lists and recipes. For example, here's today's plan:
Basic 4(1 of 3)
Ham on Sourdough(1 of 4) Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt(1 of 3) Pretty Fruit Salad(1 of 4)
Zucchini Chevre Macaroni(1 of 4) Oatmeal Dinner Rolls(1 of 4)
quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: Christine: Indeed, a baby can be a extremely tough handicap. But in anycase, I need to lose 15-20 lbs, and I'd be happy to do it with you. Since you've already declared defeat in terms of speed, all that remains then is for us to actually complete the course.
If you wish to join the community katharina suggested, I won't feel annoyed. I still intend to post updates on my own situation in this thread.
I may do both. I figure I need to surround myself with as many positive supports as possible. This is a good time of year for me to get started because there's a fairly clear path between here and November in terms of diet-breaking events.
So at the end of the day (or the beginning of the next day), BlackBlade and I (and anyone else who wants to jump on board) need to answer the following questions HONESTLY (it only hurts you to lie):
How much did you exercise?
Was your food intake on target?*
How many fruits?
How many veggies?
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink?
*I'm making the "food intake" a bit generic since there are a number of different ways to measure this.
*Feel free to add other benchmarks.
ETA: Oh, and on Friday we'll do a weigh-in.
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
That makes perfect sense. If it involved more folks I'd probably have a difficult time doing Nutrisystem, too. Cooking is fun, and while I do miss making more elaborate meals, I'm having fun experimenting with vegetables and all the 'free' items you can use in preparing them (herbs and spices, lemon juice getting a lot of skillet time, etc.). But with cooking for a family...yeah...not doable.
I just joined that community over on LJ, too, but any extra incentive is good, right? Surround yourself away, I say!
Posts: 691 | Registered: Nov 2008
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My kids drove me crazy, which nowadays is my #1 reason for eating badly. So instead of the light and healthy pasta dish I planned for dinner, I had a 1/2 pound cheeseburger and french fries. At least I exercised.
posted
The kids are at kid's day out today so I'm hopeful that things will be much better today. Plus, my husband has a job interview today and that's a very good thing because we're both fed up with his current job so if things go well, that's one less stressor in my life. Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Day 1 How much did you exercise? 30 minutes Was your food intake on target? No
How many fruits? 0
How many veggies? 1
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink? 8
I had macaroni and cheese with some light ground beef, two fried eggs on two slices of bread with cheese. I almost skipped dinner, but my wife made me eat a Mcdonalds double cheesburger.
Man writing that all out really bothers me, but that's probably a very good thing.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
BlackBlade, looks like we both started off on the wrong foot. Today when I'm tempted, I'm going to remember how lousy it felt to write out my failure. Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Christine: BlackBlade, looks like we both started off on the wrong foot. Today when I'm tempted, I'm going to remember how lousy it felt to write out my failure.
I ate a sausage mcmuffin with egg and THEN remembered I needed to write in this thread. Tomorrow is already going to be painful for me, but I'll need that if I'm going to make any real changes.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I like the idea of posting, but I am going on vacation this weekend, so there is no way I am going to eat well. Maybe next week Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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quote:Originally posted by scholarette: I like the idea of posting, but I am going on vacation this weekend, so there is no way I am going to eat well. Maybe next week
Depends on which definition of "eating well" you apply, I hope. Enjoy yourself. Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by scholarette: I like the idea of posting, but I am going on vacation this weekend, so there is no way I am going to eat well. Maybe next week
I'm going to California on August 8th, so I'll try to do well until then, and while I'm there I'll still try to control myself.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by scholarette: I like the idea of posting, but I am going on vacation this weekend, so there is no way I am going to eat well. Maybe next week
Have fun! Come join us next week.
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
I'm also trying to lose 20 lbs or so. If I may, I'd like to get in on this if for nothing else than to remind myself to eat better and exercise. I've lost about 60 lbs in the last year and am taking the slow and steady route.
I haven't worked out much lately but am planning on starting a steady regiment of Wii Active and Ab Lounge soon.
DAY 1
How much did you exercise? 0
Was your food intake on target? Yes
How many fruits? 0
How many veggies? 0
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink? 2
I had three bacon, egg and cheese tacos for lunch, several crackers (some with butter) at work and a couple light beers for dinner. Not terribly healthy. But this could be the kick in the butt to do better.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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My water intake has been off quite a bit. Since I'm nursing, I really need 12, but other than that yesterday was a good day. My calorie intake may actually have been a bit higher than ideal, because I got snacky, but as you can guess from my fruit and veggie tally, I snacked on fruits and veggies. Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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Totally forgot about this thread so I had Sausage McMuffins with egg for breakfast, skipped lunch, and due to a mis-communication I was supposed to eat a great balanced dinner, but that dinner was not aquired. So I had to rummage for food at my parents house and ended up eating hot pockets.
Pretty frustrated with myself, but clearly not enough.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by scholarette: I like the idea of posting, but I am going on vacation this weekend, so there is no way I am going to eat well. Maybe next week
Depends on which definition of "eating well" you apply, I hope. Enjoy yourself.
We will be eating on the River Walk one day (san antonio), so that should be eating well. The other day will be Schlitterbaum, so that's hard to argue as eating well under any definition (well, my 2 year old would define pizza as one of the best foods ever- as long as it has mushrooms on it).
ETA- running around at a water park should however fulfill my working out goal.
Had some ravioli for lunch, and a squash/herbs/cheese ensemble and some buttered curried chicken with rice for dinner. Pretty happy with the day, I could have worked out a bit longer, and I didn't consume enough water but I'll be happy if I can just keep my diet semi balanced.
posted
Friday weigh-in: 171 (goal 150, started at 174.5)
Day 3
How much did you exercise: 20 minutes
Was your food intake on target? Yes
How many fruits: 3
How many veggies: 1
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink: 8
It was a good day. Had fun with the kids, went for a leisurely walk but I did pull a wagon with two kids in it so I figure that counted as exercise. Weight not down from last week but given how I ate on Monday and Tuesday, it's all that I deserve. Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
I probably won't track my food in here with you guys, because I'm already doing it somewhere else, but I did want to point out here in this forum that my new GoWear Fit armband is doing it's job very well and tracking how many calories I burn, steps I take, and minutes of activity I do per day.
In doing so, I think I discovered why Weight Watchers uses points instead of a specific number of calories. I'm not currently attending meetings, but I did purchase all of the materials for this year back in January when they did their yearly update. So I pulled out my books and calculated my points and decided that I would track points for myself to give myself a guideline of what to eat. But the GoWear Fit website tracks calories not points so I've been keeping track of that too. 24 Weight Watchers points average about 1400 calories a day (give or take).
Wow. No wonder they use points. When I walked into my first meeting a couple of years ago, if they had told me I was going on a 1400 calorie a day diet, I'd have turned right around and never come back. But 24 points! Hey, that seems like a lot of food! Wow. I mean, I'm not overly hungry on the plan, it's why Weight Watchers worked for me last time, but I was shocked at how few calories it converted to.
I've already lost a couple of pounds, and I'll keep checking in. Keep up the good work everyone!
Posts: 1214 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Unfortunately, it didn't take me long to directly associate points with calories and now both are ruined for me.
And 24 points is more like 1200 calories. ALl else being equal, 1 point is 50 calories. It rounds up for higher fat foods and sometimes it rounds down for really high fiber foods, but it's far less forgiving for that. In fact, the reason I stopped tracking points was because I found that if I had any dairy in my diet, for example, I quickly ran out of points whereas if I went on the aforementioned 1400 calorie diet, I would have more left. Their flex points, while a concept that gave me more freedom on the weekend when I could curb my food intake during the week, more often than not meant that if I went biging on Monday, the whole week was ruined rather than the whole day.
Anyway, on to yesterday's success:
Day 4
How much did you exercise: 20 minutes
Was your food intake on target? Yes
How many fruits: 3
How many veggies: 1
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink: 8
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
I think I missed a day, but I didn't mean to. I'm not sure how weekends are supposed to work. On Sunday's I won't be exercising for religious reasons.
Day 5: How much did you exercise: 0 minutes
Was your food intake on target? Yes
How many fruits: 1
How many veggies: 4
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink: 6
Pumpkin red curry for dinner, chicken parmigiana for lunch, missed breakfast.
We did have milkshakes for family home evening, but honestly speaking, I go weeks and often months between ice cream consumptions.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I've been on an official "diet" since about Thursday or so. Came from my boyfriend getting sick of me whining about having gained weight over the last few months. My goal is a measley 5 pounds or so. Method? 1. Breakfast. My boyfriend insists that skipping breakfast is worse than a small breakfast. So, I'm eating half a cup of cereal or a single waffle in the mornings. 2. No dessert beyond dried fruit or ~half a dozen skittles (one turn on the gumball machine). 3. No eating out! 4. Trying not to eat so much that I feel really full after meals. You know, that lie-on-the-couch I'm so full! full.
That's it. I expect it will work out fine. I never really grew up with desserts so it's not too bad to go without for a while. I hate exercising. Run a mile to burn 100 calories? I'd rather just eat 100 fewer calories.
Posts: 1261 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
I know I missed a few days. Saturday I ate out for lunch and had dessert with dinner, but I was back in it Sunday and yesterday.
8/3
How much did you exercise: 0 minutes
Was your food intake on target? Yes
How many fruits: 4
How many veggies: 2
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink: 4
Did awful on the fluid and I could feel it when I went to bed last night. I think I'm getting sick of decaf tea. I may need to switch to sugar free kool-aid. Would be nice if I could do water, but I hate water and won't end up drinking it, so I find flavored fluids with no calories or caffeine.
Dabbler -- breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It jump starts your brain and your metabolism. I aim for a 300-calorie breakfast including once source of protein. That can be cereal with nuts in it, an egg, or a piece of bacon. This morning my breakfast consisted of one egg, scrambled (about 100 calories) and two pieces of raisin toast (about 200 calories). I can't emphasize the protein enough. If you're doing a single waffle, for example, you could try topping it with lightly sugared strawberries and almonds. If those are eggo waffled you're doing, that would be about 80 cal for the waffle, about 85 in 1/2 ounce of almonds, and maybe 50 in the strawberries -- 215 for the whole breakfast and you've included 3 food groups.
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
So, I ate and ate and ate over the weekend. Now, to start being good. So, what do we count as exercise? Does mommy and me swim class count? Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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quote: I hate exercising. Run a mile to burn 100 calories? I'd rather just eat 100 fewer calories.
I'm the exact opposite - I hate being hungry, I turn into a total bitch if I don't eat regularly, and it's totally worth a little extra exercise if it means I can eat an amount that's comfortable for me.
I should start logging my food again :\. And my exercise, actually - it would be good to have some measure of progress since my weight doesn't really seem to change whether I have some extra chub or not.
Posts: 1676 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
Regarding the 100 pounds for running a mile: Since exercising regularly also increases your body's metabolism, you will end up burning not just the 100 calories for the run, but extra calories all day long. Plus, as has been noted, there are many benefits to exercise.
Granted, I understand the sentiment because I hate exercise too. I've never found it addictive no matter how much I do it and there is very little of it I find fun. But I also enjoy eating so I take any help I can get!
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
I baked a few cookies to share with my daughter when she woke up from her nap, and I just ate them all. Bah.
Posts: 101 | Registered: May 2009
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