I've had an epiphany. Thank you!

joowelz

Thanks to all of your comments, I took a long, hard look at my routine and compared it to when I was 10 years younger and lost 30 lbs through exercise and Weight Watchers. You are right - I am eating too many calories. When I was on the old WW system (with the booklet), I was supposed to have only 29 points per day, with exercise giving me an additional point for that day. As I was still hungry on 29-30 points, I usually consumed 33 points, on average. Based on my math, that's approximately 1,650 calories!!! You are all right! Guess I've been in denial about how many calories I can really have to be a certain weight.

For the last several years, I stopped tracking and easily consumed 2,000-2,300 calories per day. It's not hard at all to add needless calories to simple meals. ie dried cranberries and seeds to salads, yogurt stirred into rice, hazelnut creamer in coffee, etc. I have been so clueless. I creeped up from 150lbs to 180 lbs in 10 years. I hardly recognize myself in pictures.

It's going to be really hard to reduce calories from 2,000 to 1,650 but I think it's necessary. My lifestyle is so sedentary despite efforts to jog weekly.

JustMissTracy

It's only as hard as you decide it should be; start with little steps! There's nothing wrong with cranberries and seeds in your salad, actually they are highly nutritious! Your best bet is to eat what you're eating, but a wee bit less of it...that way you aren't depriving yourself. You can do this! xo

quiksylver296

I read all of your last post. I love your epiphany! I also hope you still buy and use a food scale, as suggested in the other post. It's a real eye opener. I'm going to drop the video here again, just in case you didn't see it in the other thread.

https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk

Machka9

It can be a bit of a jolt to drop from about 2000 calories down to 1600 or so. But a couple tips that worked for me (and I went from about 2000 calories down to netting 1250 calories for my first 16 weeks) ...

Go to the grocery store and have a good look at what's available. I spent several lunch hours and some time on weekends walking through markets, and grocery stores of all sorts reading labels and really looking at what was on the shelves.

Doing that, I discovered all sorts of things that work for me, and found that my diet became more varied rather than more restrictive.

And I know that you're trying to jog now and then, but also try to incorporate activity throughout your day. I exercise every day (except when I'm sick). Some days it might be a 30 minute walk. Other days I might climb several flights of stairs in my office. Other days I go out for long bicycle rides. Sometimes it is a combination of things. The jogging is fine, but on the non-jogging days, try to include some walking ... make walking part of your commute or what you do at lunch. Or go for a nice stress-relieving walk after work. And consider doing other stuff as well ... maybe you want to join a gym, or take up cycling, or go kayaking or snowshoeing ...

I found being active every day really helped me.

RoxieDawn

Why not drop a 100 a week to make the transition a little easier on yourself. If not take the full plunge, just use that food scale that @quicksylver296 mentioned.. Your life and your weight loss results will be much better for it.

Good luck!