What do you do....?

sgp329

What works for me is drinking water all the time. Also, I take mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks to work. Usually they are fruit of some kind, but occassionally I will have a crunchy granola bar (they are 200 calories/pack though so I only have these on my zumba days).

By always having my snacks at my desk, I eat them whether I am hungry or not, to get the calories in. I am having a bit of trouble sometimes with getting enough calories. The last thing I want to do is to kill my metabolism by allowing my body to think it's starving and therefore not lose weight.

Drinking water combined with a healthier way of feeding myself has given me tons of energy. I feel so good! Also, my skin seems to glow. I used to get so tired sitting at my desk that I could barely stay awake and in the mornings have to force myself to get out of bed. No more! I bound out of bed and stay pepped up all day long. I am loving this!

Best of luck to you! Add me as a friend if you like. I am a cheerleader by birth and would be glad to cheer you on!

chefswife1975

So, my husband is a chef. He's a fine dining chef who cooks with butter and bacon and fat and we have dinners with lots of courses and lots of wine. I have spent the last 5 years or so trying to figure out how to get back to being fit and happy and still incorporate my life with my husband and our love of food. I mean we want to open our own place, we write menus together and we need to know what the food trends are so we need to eat out.

So, what I did was learn about flavors. What are my favorite flavors? I also don't deny myself things. I just eat a LOT less. I used to call myself a flavor *kitten*, because it wasn't necessarily about putting things in my mouth or filling my belly, it was more about how delicious things were and I wanted more and more. So, I really started paying attention to my stomach and how full I really felt while I was eating. I also started eating more fresh food and learned more and more about coaxing flavors out of the food so I'm more satisfied by eating less.

The other thing to remember is a lot of pre-prepared foods have a lot of preservatives in them that isn't good for your body and it confuses your digestive system. They also have a lot of salt in them that makes you thirsty which fools your body into thinking it's hungry. It's also a lot more expensive to eat pre-prepared food.

So far I have lost 20 pounds in about 2 months eating this way, although I just found this site.

My kitchen bible that has really helped me learn great flavor combinations is called Culinary Artistry and it's not a cookbook. It just tells what goes with just about anything you might have in your kitchen so you can learn to be fearless when you're trying something new.

http://www.amazon.com/Culinary-Artistry-Andrew-Dornenburg/dp/0471287857#reader_0471287857

I hope this helps.

Jess

sassiebritches

I eat low carb.......now that I do, I am rarely hungry and when I am I just eat.....if you notice my diary, I am often under or at cals and I am still losing........I tried the low cal low fat way most people here eat and I found the same troubles you are talking about......just takes getting used to eating this way..

Good luck!

LittleSpy

I eat when I'm hungry.

I've been at this for over a year now (about 53 weeks so far). I've lost (at least) 78.4 pounds. It took a long time for me to get to the point I am now but I've found a lifestyle that works for me and will work for the rest of my life and it's all pretty easy and habitual for me now. It wasn't like that in the beginning. I had to tweak my diet, I had to learn how my body responds to food. I learned that if I eat significantly more protein and fiber than MFP automatically recommends, I can easily make it through the day without being hungry at all between meals & snacks.

But if I've eaten all my calories for the day and I don't feel like exercising to burn more to keep my calorie deficit and I'm super hungry, I eat something healthy. Who cares if I lessen my calorie deficit a little? I'm not going to torture myself to lose weight, that's a surefire recipe for failure.

So, become familiar with your body and pay attention to how you feel. Increase your protein intake and see if that helps. Increase your fiber intake and see if that helps. Just keep tweaking and adjusting until you come up with a plan you're confident you can continue for the rest of your file.

chefswife1975

But if I've eaten all my calories for the day and I don't feel like exercising to burn more to keep my calorie deficit and I'm super hungry, I eat something healthy. Who cares if I lessen my calorie deficit a little? I'm not going to torture myself to lose weight, that's a surefire recipe for failure.

I completely agree. I do exactly that too. This shouldn't be about denial. It should be about finding a balance you can live with for the rest of your life.