Introduce Myself

dsueteel

Hi all, My name is Deanna.

Today is day two of tracking what I eat. I love working out, but I can never lose weight because of how I eat. So I finally decided to start keeping track. I am done being fat. I know that I can workout all I want, but losing weight starts in the kitchen. So here I am. I'm 25, 260 lbs, work full time, and have two kiddos. My oldest is 6, and my youngest is just 4 months. So I'm trying to beat back the whole post partem weight as well as already having been over weight my whole life. I have all the typical excuses. No time to cook, tired all the time, I never feel like cooking after work, bad food taste better and is cheaper and quicker. I know, all excuses. I'm a slacker, and I give up easily.

Last month though, I made a goal of going to the gym for 31 days straight. I. Actually. Did. IT. I never have made a actual goal, and then finished it to the end. I always quit. So I'm trying to keep the momentum and start with dieting.

Day one didn't go so well. I did great for breakfast and lunch, but then I got home at the end of the day, and I crashed and ate a bunch of snacks and had ice cream. My self control is a Zero. But at least I was honest and put everything I had. That's all I can say. Today is day two, and i just had lunch.... Its 12:37 in the afternoon, and I only have 150 calories left for the day.....I can only keep trying I guess.

Well community, that's me in a nutshell. We will see how this goes.

P.S Any advice for how to stop craving junks/sweets are appreciated. Or just any advice in general

Emmapatterson1729

I lost around 100 pounds and maintained it around 16 years, until developing a recent illness (totally unrelated to food or health) that caused weight gain.

But when I dropped the 100, I knew it wasn't practical for me to jump all in and snack on celery sticks and raw carrots after living on cheeseburgers, tacos, pizza, deep fried bar foods, etc.

I started trying to cut one simple ingredient, corn syrup (hidden in foods under about 10 different names).

Just making the change from corn syrup to pure cane sugar and raw honey made a huge impact on my weight. I became a label reader.

I found cookies at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's were less calories, more satisfying, tasted better, and cost the same as the ones I'd been buying from regular grocers.

Once a Trader Joe's opened near me, I started using their recipes for dinners, which are all inexpensive, quick, healthy meals that taste great. Also the internet is full of 10-20 minute dinners, one pot wonders, and inexpensive recipes.

Just cutting that one ingredient, we started cooking more things homemade.

Eventually, we got to where we enjoyed home cooked foods more than we ever enjoyed eating out.

Made substitutions like instead of potato chips, we fell in love with plantain chips or quinoa chips with a homemade dip.

Instead of ordering pizza out, would throw together homemade pizzas using Middle Eastern flat breads, lavash or pitas. Quick, easy, and tasted a lot better than the pile of greasy junk the pizza restaurants make.

Track calories but don't set too low, start slow, simple easy changes lead to bigger changes.

Also got to a point, if we couldn't understand all the ingredients on a label, we didn't buy it. And my food motto mostly became, "If there's a commercial for it, don't eat it."

Good luck!

LyndaBSS

Welcome to the community!

I was an emotional overeater and addicted to gumdrops when I started here 6 weeks ago. Within two weeks of eating a plant based diet with seafood, eggs and some dairy and staying at a calorie deficit, I no longer wanted sweets and no longer ate emotionally. The cravings disappeared naturally.

I also fill out the food diary a few days in advance. This keeps me from spontaneous eating.