Looking forward to reaching my goal.

rtasker1969

Hello, my name is Robin I have been doing this for about 3 weeks now. I am trying to figure out how to eat right and fit exercise in with my schedule to reach my goal. I leave for work at 6PM and get home about 6AM in the morning Monday thru Thursday. Plus I take care of my mother. Finding time to eat proper and to get exercise in is hard. I am to eat 120g of protein a day and Xi find that difficult to reach without going over your carbs. Any and all help and suggestions welcome.

BarbaraInSarnia

I try to stay as close as possible in carbs but they go over very easily. So I concentrate more on the protein and total calories. I just try and eat as little as possible of pasta, potatoes and bread. I am starting over after a bit of a wild year. Good luck

Sinisterbarbie1

I sympathize on the eldercare front - I take care of both parents and an aunt - luckily I don;t work a night shift though. I did that for a short while many decades ago when I was in college and I ended up so sleep deprived I would cry all the time. Congrats to you for already fitting so much in and for doing so much for other people. It can be brutal.

Congrats too on thinking about looking after your own health. You don’t say what your goal is or provide any current statistics so it is hard to give particularized advice, but in general — at least it was my experience that especially when you are starting out diet helps you lose more quickly than exercise. Exercise is great for overall health and maintenance of lean muscle and strong bones and important for your sanity too, but you can do a lot more damage to your waistlne regularly overeating by even a small amount daily than by not keeping a perfect exercise regime.

So I personally focused on weighing and logging everything I ate, analyzing how I could do better in terms of feeling better (more satisfied and still enjoying what I am eating while trimming overall calories) by looking at my daily logs and trimming or reducing the frequency and/or size of certain foods). I Also do a lot (almost all) of my cooking & eating at home (or packed with to work) now where I have better control over what I am eating, when and portion size. If you prelog your meals you can adjust to see what you might want to reduce so as not to go over on carbs before eating for the day. It might also help with time management and keeping to a plan if you know what you are eating and when rather than grabbing random stuff while standing in front of the fridge at the end of the day. For me these are tasks I can group together a few times a week for food prep and planning so that the cooking itself is very quick on a daly basis. The food logging takes me just a few minutes daily and I like being on MFP regularly and renforcing good habits that way so I don’t seek to cut that back. Get on throughout the day when I have spare time to add food or read comments.

This might sound and feel impossible to do, and for a while it will be, but the other thing that helps me is meditating. find a time at the beginning of your day before you start responding to everyone elses needs (esp by email and text/phone) to sit still and quietly meditate for 10 minutes to set some calm intentions and focus for the day. I Find it gives me the ability both to say no to temptations and to keep my frustrations with the inevitable unpredictability, worry and sometimes tedious nature of the tasks eldercare can demand (even though you are doing them with love). That makes me a stronger, healther and better daughter all around and it saves me loads of negative energy expenditure.

sarabushby

Hi Robin,
It sounds like you’re doing well under some challenging circumstances!

Regards the 120g protein goal, what’s making you choose that? Are you comfortable to share your height, weight, goals etc? It might simply be an unnecessarily high target.

You can also Google or search the forum for high protein foods/snacks. Many come alongside far; eg eggs. Quark or low fat cottage cheese or 0% fat Greek yoghurt are usually good options plus of course lean meat and fish.

Do be aware there’s a max amount of protein your body can process & benefit from in any one sitting; 20g I think but do check. Note that’s 20g protein, not 20g cooked chicken breast… the two aren’t quite the same.

Good luck!

AnnPT77

This thread might help you identify some additional good protein foods:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also

rtasker1969

Hello. Sorry I forgot to list my goals. I am 54 yrs. old. I am looking to lose at least 50 lbs for now. I am trying to lose weight and work on getting healthy for me. I just got tired of feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. I started going to a health center that focuses on weight loss about a month ago. My doctor set my parameters as far as my protein, carbs, fat and fiber. As I said in a previous comment she has me eating 120 grams B of protein a day, which I find difficult to reach without going over my carbs. I started at a weight of 228.7 and last time I was there I was down to 224.6. I am really trying to learn exactly what I can have and reach my goals and not go over them.