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?
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
Sparkpeople! Posted by Anthonie (Member # 884) on :
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.)
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
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. Posted by andi330 (Member # 8572) on :
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.
Posted by DarkKnight (Member # 7536) on :
This link should give you lots of info and support as well Women's Health Belly Off forum Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Christine, are you on Live Journal?
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
Thanks, everyone!
katharina: No, I'm not on live journal.
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.)
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
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.
Posted by Traceria (Member # 11820) on :
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?
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
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.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
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.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
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.
Posted by Traceria (Member # 11820) on :
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!
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
That's great you joined! You should post and introduce yourself there. Posted by Traceria (Member # 11820) on :
I'll try to do that before I leave work today! Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
Day 1
How much did you exercise? 30 minutes
Was your food intake on target? No
How many fruits? 2
How many veggies? 2
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink? 8
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.
There's always tomorrow...
Posted by Traceria (Member # 11820) on :
Oh gosh. Well, at least you're being honest, right? Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
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. Posted by T:man (Member # 11614) on :
I'm a horrible dieter, I forget to eat all the time...
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
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.
Posted by DarkKnight (Member # 7536) on :
Keeping a daily food journal is a very good thing if you are trying to lose weight
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
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. Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
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.
Posted by scholarette (Member # 11540) on :
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 Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
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. Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
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.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
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.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: I'm going to California on August 8th
Oh?
Posted by vonk (Member # 9027) on :
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.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
Welcome, vork!
Day 2
How much did you exercise? 30 minutes
Was your food intake on target? Yes
How many fruits? 3
How many veggies? 6
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink? 4
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. Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Day 2
How much did you exercise? 0 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? 6
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.
Posted by scholarette (Member # 11540) on :
quote:Originally posted by scifibum:
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.
[ July 30, 2009, 01:57 PM: Message edited by: scholarette ]
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Day 3
How much did you exercise: 20 minutes
Was your food intake on target? Yes
How many fruits: 1
How many veggies: 3
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink: 3
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.
edit: Friday weigh in. 213 lbs.
[ July 31, 2009, 10:49 PM: Message edited by: BlackBlade ]
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
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. Posted by andi330 (Member # 8572) on :
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!
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
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
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
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.
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
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.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
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.
Posted by scholarette (Member # 11540) on :
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? Posted by ladyday (Member # 1069) on :
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.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
quote:I hate exercising. Run a mile to burn 100 calories? I'd rather just eat 100 fewer calories.
There are many benefits to exercise beyond calorie burning, but I can understand this feeling.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
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!
Posted by scholarette (Member # 11540) on :
How much did you exercise? Well, I went to mommy and me swimming.
Was your food intake on target?* About 100 calories over
How many fruits? 1
How many veggies? 1
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink? 6
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
How much did you exercise? 0
Was your food intake on target? I was over a bit, kept snacking on dried fruit all afternoon.
How many fruits? I wonder how much dried fruit is a serving...maybe 4?
How many veggies? 3
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink? 8
Exercise going off track lately. I did eat too much, but at least it was fruit I kept snacking on.
Posted by Jamio (Member # 12053) on :
I baked a few cookies to share with my daughter when she woke up from her nap, and I just ate them all. Bah.
Posted by Traceria (Member # 11820) on :
quote:Originally posted by Christine: How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you drink? 8
Nice job on getting the water intake up, though!!!
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
Christine: Dried fruits are very healthy but also chocked full of calories. More than you would imagine.
Banana chips, for example, can be 150 calories per *OUNCE*
Yeah, I usually steer clear of dried fruits for that reason (though I haven't read the label in years and have forgotten how bad they were). But my kids and husband love them. They're the easiest way to get my 3-year-old to eat fruits or veggies at all and as he's all skin and bones, he doesn't need to worry about the calories.
I think I may need to put them on a higher shelf, though, where it's not so easy to grab a handful while I'm pondering what else to eat. Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
Christine: Yeah, that might help. And I need to do the same with the Pistachios. (OUCH!)
Was your food intake on target? No, I need to start eating breakfast.
How many fruits? 3
How many vegetables? 0
How many (8 oz) glasses of water did you consume? 2
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
Looks like I haven't updated in a few days, but I've done fairly well. Today I got off track a bit because we went out to lunch but even then I didn't stuff myself or anything. I just had half a pasta and half a salad which I'm sure had more calories than I should have had. Oh, and a piece of chocolate.
But I weighed in yesterday and I was down 1.5 lbs to 169.5 -- love to break through those ten's digits. Just gives you a psychological bump to say, I'm in the upper 160's as opposed to the lower 170's.
I'm doing my meal planning for the week and will continue to push forward!
Posted by scholarette (Member # 11540) on :
Does it count as eating if you don't keep it down? My daughter and I have been pretty miserable the last few days- hence no updates. Exercise has been bad, but food intake has been good. And lots of fruit or jello with fruit.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
quote:Originally posted by scholarette: Does it count as eating if you don't keep it down? My daughter and I have been pretty miserable the last few days- hence no updates. Exercise has been bad, but food intake has been good. And lots of fruit or jello with fruit.
I don't think it counts as anything except just do what you need to for a few days to feel better. Hope things turn around soon. Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
I hope everyone's still doing well with their weight loss goals. I've finally seen some progress!
I kept blowing my day at dinner. So I picked up a couple packets of the cheap chocolate banana smoothie mix in the fresh fruit section, and I started making a half size smoothie for dessert. (4 oz milk, half a banana, half the powder, and a handful of ice cubes) It's about 150 calories, whch seemed pretty steep for dessert, but I started noticing that I wasn't as hungry the next day.
So I started getting the berry smoothies with some strawberries and blueberries to have with breakfast, and I started dropping weight. We're having a contest at work, so I've been tracking it daily. I was 177 about two weeks ago, had gotten up to 180 last week, and was 175.2 this morning.
Apparently, those milk commercials were on to something. In fairness, I had a fairly serious Vitamin D deficiency when I got my lab work done in August, and Vitamin D is supposed to help you feel full. It could just be my body feeling the way it's supposed to.
Don't care, still thrilled. Now to see if I can get under 175 and stay there. Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I gained 20 lbs while in nursing school. Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
Oh, I'm sorry, Kwea.
The good news is that nurses stay crazy busy all day, so you should get plenty of exercise. As long as you make sure you eat healthy, I bet the weight will just fall right back off.
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Surround yourself away, I say!
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