What do you eat?

[Kinokokao]

[Kinokokao]

[Onigiri]

[Kinokokao]

[Maxine MagicFox]

Somehow this turned into a LOOONG rant. o_O;
I thought journal entries were helping me get this stuff out, guess I needed to vent about it a little more. LOL. Sorry. ^_^ You can ignore. I just didn't have the heart to delete this after I typed it all up.

[spoiler]>_> I wonder if my direction in cutting down food and trying to cut back on certain foods is doing me any good. -_- I need to get me a scale maybe in the near future. But, I just don't wanna be one of those people who obsess about their weight. I just wish that I knew what I was doing was doing actual good.

<_< My family is not helping, either - well, they try. One of the things mom does for me (which has probably helped me get into this situation) is surprise me with food treats. It's just a given. No thought put into it. She got me two HUGE honeybuns. The ones that are iced over and everything. I could live on those things. Except... well... -_-; uhh, the calories... I've discovered it's one of the worst foods that I've ever eaten in my diet.

I felt so bad! I ate one of them and as I was eating I struck the conversation up of "Mom this is very good but... you know... (please god don't make her feel bad! I appreciate her getting me this) maybe you shouldn't get them for me anymore."

She gave me this wide eyed look and was like "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't even thing!" x_x I sent her on such a guilt trip, too.

Though, today it seems to have the unexpected result of mom surprising me with YOGURT! :3

Though... for dinner... we had hamburgers... but, then it's like ok maybe it's not a good food for me but it's a 'dinner'. I still cut back on what I put on it (maybe I should have had only one instead of two but I was hungry). And it's just, that and my eggs and ham breakfast and one orange are all I've had today. So, maybe it's not "good" but... would Meatloaf have been better?

<_< Maybe I should try finding someway to hook up with a nutrionalist or something. Mom has started worrying that I'm being a little obsessive over this. And I even got the surprise comment "Just promise me you won't starve yourself - that just makes things worse." I'm not starving myself - just cutting back on how much I eat and when!

I'm only sticking to my "two meals" a day (breakfast and dinner). And then my fruit which is usually before dinner or after. And, what I'm REALLY TRYING to get rid of, I've been giving myself one "guilty pleasure" a day - the snack which is never healthy for me. The honeybun that I ate that day was my "guilty pleasure" for the day. Lately though it's been Fig Newtons. I eat about 6 or 7 of those.

What gets mom upset and what made her say that comment - I have a problem that after dinner (around 8ish) and in between bed (anywhere from 12-2am)... I get hungry. I've been placing my guilty pleasures in here but the days that I ate it during the day while watching TV... it's harder. I've grabbed gum or small suckers as an alternative. Well, the one night I had a sucker in my mouth and... -_- it wasn't helping, and I said "I'm hungry *sigh*" And then mom snapped at me and said that maybe I was overthinking this and that I shouldn't put this much thought into food and that thinking about it is just making the problem worse. That my main problem is just my inactivity.

Personally, I'm almost tempted to believe she's right. I never use to think about food this much. :\ But, I don't wanna go to the gym and just continue eating the same stuff and failing at this so miserably.

x_x I really wish I had someone professional to talk to.

Still, I watched a nutritonal show the other day on the health channel. I think I'm one up on the people that it was talking about since I really have no "emotional" reason that I go to food, which the guy was saying is a lot of people's problems. They eat due to stress etc. Me, I just eat 'cause the foods are good and I sit and play video games, my computer, or whatever. Maybe the only "emotional" thing I've got about this problem is one that I've already mentioned - food has always been treated like a reward in my house. "You got an AB Report Card! Yay! Let's go get you a strawberry sundae!" ... ^_^; I noticed the other day even when I was playing my game, I beat a boss and wanted to stand up, stretch, and was like "how 'bout a snack." before it suddenly dawned on me what I had just said. "oh... wait... I can't get a snack." ... o_O; That felt very unsatisfying suddenly! ^_^ But, the end result of the day was satisfying when I looked back and thought "Yay! I didn't go grab a snack even though I wanted one!"

Meh, maybe I just need to stick with it that right now I'm just learning and that one day I won't have to put the thought into it like this and will just do it naturally.

FYI: the second honeybun remains untouched. >_> Maybe I should give it to Clarissa... or should I just save it for another guilty snack.... *sigh* -_- Problem with guilty snacks is... they do just that. Cause "guilt".
[/spoiler]

[Seniwac]

fruit>candy

eating a whole bag of grapes gave me more pleasure than eating chocolate

[Maxine MagicFox]

:3 DOESN'T IT?! ^_^ I love fruit already, so it's no problem fitting them into my diet.

I'm still going through my Orange-fest! :3 DEAR GOD THEY ARE GOOD!!

[Twat]

Weight loss is pretty wild. Haven't been on Wii Fit or done any exerting activities for the past 11 days. Not only that but I've been eating really unhealthy. I had nothing but PIE to eat on some days and I've gone to sleep after eating stuff like this no less. All I have done lately is sat around doing nothing. Then I get onto Wii Fit today.

Lost 4 lbs.

I feel like stuffing my face with a cheesecake. ^-^;

Edit - Stability went from 28 to 50%. That's an all-time high for me. :O

I guess my above post doesn't apply to all body types. :/

[Kinokokao]

[scy]

Also not an expert, just my thoughts from having done a routine recently. The best way to view it isn't results but as a way of life. Like Kino said, 5 small meals a day (~3 hour intervals) is the way to go. Balance your diet the best you can (when I worked out, I did ~40% Protein, ~40% Carbs, ~20% Fat) and stick to it. Again, the focus is a change to your way of life, not something for results. Starvation diets, heavy sweats, etc. are good for short-term weight (but not fat) loss; you tend to lose muscle mass (starvation) or deprive your body of nurtients (sweats).

Sample Meal Plan
[spoiler]Breakfast 1 (8 AM):
1.5 Cups (~6 Egg Whites) of Egg Beater Eggs
2x Toast with Sugar-Free Jam (i.e., non-preservatives).

Breakfast 2 (11 AM):
1.5 Cups of Egg Beater Eggs
1/2 Cup of Oatmeal
Fruit (Banana > Apple > Orange for me)

Lunch 1 (2 PM):
4 oz. LEAN Cut of Steak (I forget the exact type of steak I did; I'll look it up as I had made extensive notes >>)
1/2 Baked Potato (plain)
1/2 Cup of Broccoli

Lunch 2 (5 PM):
4 oz. Salmon (Atlantic)
1 cup of brown rice
1/2 Cup of Broccoli*

Dinner 1 (8 PM):
4 oz. Grilled Chicken
Salad w/ Light Italian Dressing**

Dinner 2 (11 PM):
Lean Cut Turkey Sandwich (dry) OR Tuna Sandwich OR Skipped

*I cooked Broccoli by the cup so ... yeah. Sub in Corn, Carrots, Green Beans, etc. when I swapped around.
**Not a good guideline here, to be honest. Just made a relatively "small" bowl of salad with light dressing for flavor.

It takes roughly 2 hours to digest a meal so Dinner 2, in the 6 meal cycle, was put around 2 hours prior to sleeping. The 6 meal thing, though, is a pretty fucking tight fit so I wouldn't try it unless you REALLY think you can squeeze it in. 5 meals isn't too hard.

My sample day was pretty much waking up at 6 AM to run, shower, Breakfast 1 and then day starts. Evening jog depending on if I felt like it. For what it's worth, though, this did kind of strain things with friends and going out since missing a meal is a pretty big deal (though I did do weights while doing this so it was more of a "fear" of deteriorating muscle mass I just built up).

If you do the above, I'd definitely supplement it with cardio. 30 minutes of cardio (45 ideally) a day or so (~3-5 days a week) is a huge boon. Huge. Squeeze in a brisk walk or jog; no need to run or anything. Walk at a brisk pace. Just try to do things to keep you active. Work towards eventually jogging/running but even walking will be fine.

Other thing worth noting is that your body DOES adapt eventually so the gains slow down as time progresses. A way to get around this is to "zig-zag" your calorie intake. That is, every few days (I did every 4 days), just increase your calorie intake for the day by a bit (~15% or so). Easiest way for me, personally, was to just up the Lunches to a 6 oz. serving.

As an added bonus, 35 meals a week means that you can totally fuck up a meal (i.e., GUILTY PLEASURES) once or twice a week and not completely destroy your efforts. Hell, as noted by the zig-zagging, it can be somewhat beneficial. Just don't overdo it.

Think over the summer I did about 30 lbs off (2 month period) and gained ~10 lb muscle mass. I've since lost all that effort thanks to school and back to terrible diet, lots of beer, and lack of excercise so ... bah.

ps, scales are the devil. You begin fretting and worrying over each loss. If anything, I'd suggest NOT having a scale readily accessible or tell yourself (AND STICK TO IT) to weigh yourself every week or so (I'd honestly say bi-weekly).

I think when I started I did once a week (Sundays) and it was all good for awhile (~5lb a week for awhile) but then I hit a week where I net gained and it freaked me out. 'course, my BMI dropped and I had noticeably increased my biceps/triceps/etc. but ... THE WEIGHT IT WENT UP.[/spoiler]

MATH (okay not really)
[spoiler]One thing to keep in mind if you do count calories and all that jazz:

1 pound = 3500 Calories = 500 Calories a day.

The sample meal plan I outlined was, if I recall, ~2200-2400 calories (~2600 on higher days). If your normal intake was over 3000, which is a hell of a lot easier to achieve than one may think, then merely dropping to a 2200 calorie diet, with no cardio, is 5600 calories a week (1.6 pounds a week). Add in 300-400 calories burned via cardio and you can easily get to 2-ish pounds a week.

There is no quick fix. This is the best way I know of to lose weight and keep it off. The slow-and-steady change. A paradigm shift, if you will.[/spoiler]

[Maxine MagicFox]

Problem with "five small meals a day" is that >_> I have work. I work at a fast food. I work at a very VERY UNHEALTHY fast food. And I don't exactly have the time to eat while getting orders out, you know.

But ^_^ I appreciate your guys' ideas and I'm definitely taking notes. Even if I say I might be rejecting the idea... who knows what I'll be feeling like in a week or more LOL.

Thanks guys!

[scy]

Quite simple: pre-cook the food and bring your own lunch. Lunch can merely be a sandwich and fruit. The goal is to get a healthy balance of protein/carb/fats and low-ish calorie counts. My average meal was 400-ish calories, if I recall (started higher in the day, tapered off as the day went by; I swapped to a mid-day heavier when I started weight training though).

As long as you have the willpower to avoid the food at your work while working, bringing your own meal shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Edit: In retrospect, I should take less time editting posts so they get seen before replies happen. Heh~

Edit2: The 5 meal plan is a bit more flexible than you'd think, though. Assuming 16 hours "awake" and t=0=1st meal, you have 16 hours to squeeze in 4 more meals so ... a meal every 4 hours. Since a meal AS SOON AS YOU WAKE UP is a bit unreasonable, it's a little below 4. Realistically, this means you're looking at a meal every ~3.5 hours ... or somewhere in the 3 to 4 hour range. As long as you stick to that, you can take a "break" to eat whenever possible as long as it fits as the "window" for the meal is an hour long (or more, if you can, say, take a break before 3 hours is up; you don't need to be PERFECTLY ON TIME OMG or something). Or just take a bite or two when things die down. Whatever.

Sorry, not to sound mean or anything but to say "I can't because I ..." is the first hurdle to overcome: excuses. Starting off isn't easy and sticking to it is harder but it can be done and it will pay off.

[Twat]

There are mint chocolates.
There are chocolate mints.
There are chocolates with mint in them.
Then there are mints with chocolate in them.
I ate one the above.
And it tastes terrible.

I have tasted some great minty chocolate treats but these ones specifically are the worst.

[Riseatrance]

[Kinokokao]