Foods from your past- What you know now...

Francl27

Chocolate... 3 rows of a big chocolate bar or 4-5 truffles/fancy chocolates was a normal serving for me. And cheese... yeah, half a baguette and half a pound of cheese as a snack seems about right. A whole package of Pepperidge Farm cookies (I still love them... never buy them). 2 ice cream bars/drumsticks (Haagen Dazs etc). A serving of ice cream was 2+ cups.

But yeah restaurant food was the worst. Once a week, 3000 calorie meal.

eddiesmith1

It's been a long time since true junk food was a thing, but Cheese..... now Cheese that is an easy downfall form me Grommit

I've been known to sit down after a (big) meal with the remainder of the wine and polish off oh say half a pound of triple creme cheese with half a baguette, or an equivalent amount of stilton and a half bottle of port. ... so say 2600 calories after the meal. in the case of the stilton and port and the meal probably was in the 1600 -2000 range depending on how much wine. Didn't do this daily but regularly enough that when my cholesterol levels would come back normal it drove my doctor nuts.
there was a period where my weekly cheese bill would have run between $80-120 depending on if we were entertaining or not. My weekly food bill (before pets and cleaning products) is less than that most weeks now. Same 2 people eating but different financial circumstances and both out to lose weight




IMGP3022.jpg by Eddie Smith, on Flickr

Cheese is not bad, its the bread and wine you eat with it.

No it's also the portions, nothing wrong with bread or wine either (I don't drink at the moment but I still eat bread and cheese - just not half a pound of stilton and a whole baguette in a sitting. in fact i'm pretty selective on bread because it chews up a lot of my daily calories and cheese i stick mostly to lower fat ones like feta with the high fat ones in small portions
doing the calculation for some of the meals i ate under the auspices of having a couple of people over for dinner was an eye opener (a 3 course meal plus cheese wine and cocktails could easily top 4500-5000 calories or more - and we did that regularly Fun while it lasted (and possible when i was in a less sedentary job) paying for it now

mrsgoochy

Sand and wax?
Would that be a birthday cake eaten at the beach?

ROFL-awesome

alyjb1121

EGGNOG! I used to consume it regularly during season but holy cow, it is disgusting now that I know the consequences....it has an ungodly amount of calories. I maybe had it once this last season, mostly something so unhealthy doesn't even seem as yummy to me anymore when I know the truth of it's nutrition!

The happy ending: I learned how to make homemade coffee creamer and eggnog is one of the flavors I have mastered recently! Its so good, and has less sugar, carbs, calories, and is used in such a tiny amount that it beats regular eggnog any day! Plus it has NO PRESERVATIVES like the store bough eggnog and eggnog creamer both

Charisma_Black

KFC was my biggest thing. Like I mean 3 times a week. It was ridiculous. Having something like that as a treat but reasonable portions I guess is ok.

Bread - I used to have loads of rounds of bread with dinner. Was a hard habit to get out of because I felt full whenever I ate all that bread (obviously!) but I think it was my mindset. Now I rarely eat bread. I don't leave bread in. Although recently I treated myself to making a wee burger so left in wholemeal bread bap. Really enjoyed it too!

Chocolate - When I wanted some I want the massive bars not a tiny bar. Now I rarely eat chocolate. I leave in dark cocoa chocolate and would have two tiny squares to take the craving away plus much better health benefit wise.

kpchefai

oh my gosh pretty much everything here. I definitely had a skewed vision of portion sizes-especially with pasta and ice cream. Now I am weighing everything and I still am shocked by how small my new servings are. BUT the best part is I am not hungry eating those servings. : )

The things I stay away from now are enormous servings of pizza, milkshakes, snack packs of cookies/crackers and frozen yogurt with the toppings bar. Don't miss them at all and I feel they would make me sick if I were to eat as much as I used to.

_John_

I regret nada...I'd be a skinny wimp if I hadn't eaten as much when I was younger.

There's no way I could make myself eat as much as I needed to grow when I was in HS playing football if I'd approached my diet with a "keep it clean" mentality. All that work then has been money in the bank as I'm older, as regaining my prior strength has taken like 4-6 months both times after long layoffs.

alyjb1121

KFC was my biggest thing. Like I mean 3 times a week. It was ridiculous. Having something like that as a treat but reasonable portions I guess is ok.

Bread - I used to have loads of rounds of bread with dinner. Was a hard habit to get out of because I felt full whenever I ate all that bread (obviously!) but I think it was my mindset. Now I rarely eat bread. I don't leave bread in. Although recently I treated myself to making a wee burger so left in wholemeal bread bap. Really enjoyed it too!

Chocolate - When I wanted some I want the massive bars not a tiny bar. Now I rarely eat chocolate. I leave in dark cocoa chocolate and would have two tiny squares to take the craving away plus much better health benefit wise.

I absolutely am I a fan of the Sara Lee bread brand. 90 calories for two slices or 80 calories for a hamburger bun....I can so deal with that, have you thought about trying it? It's very high in fiber too which is good for lowering the carb content (it's like 14 carbs for TWO pieces...total win in my opinion)

ellen3720

One word: Sheetz

Once I realized I was eating ~500 calories in ranch dressing alone...

Jenjenthejetplane1

So this was my normal day before I really got concerned and dedicated to lose weight and get healthy.

Breakfast would be fast food something like Bojangles.
Cheddar Biscuit- 346 cals
Hash Rounds- 230 cals
Pepsi- 230 cals
TOTAL: 806 cals just for breakfast!!!!

Lunch would be fast again since I only had a hour break from work.
Taco Bell usually
Steak Quesadilla- 520 cals
Soft Taco- 190 cals
Large Baja Blast-410
Total- a shocking 1120 cals

Dinner was whatever I decided to cook for me and my husband, usually something not to healthy either.

So total all that up and its 1926 cals just for breakfast and lunch! that's not including the chips or candy I munched on at my desk.

No wonder I gained so much weight so quickly. I was going through a hard time and turned to ALL the wrong foods I gained probably 15 lbs in about 3 weeks.....

NEVER AGAIN!!!!! I allow myself one cheat meal a week and I try to not get to crazy with it.

harperjs

I love baking, and used to bake cookies, cupcakes or brownies once or twice a week. I would eat a ton of batter/dough and then a couple treats when they were done. It wasn't unusual for me to have a stomach ache afterwards.

Also used to do homemade pizza at pretty regularly last year...'personal' size 12 inch pizzas. I calculated it a couple weeks ago and I would easily eat 1000 calories of pizza for dinner. I love it on the grill and am thinking my husband and I should split one instead of having our own this summer.

Beer every night. That adds up fast. The awful food when I'm hungover to make it all better (fries, shake, hamburgers, biscuitandgravy).

harperjs

I regret all the Mocha Frappuccinos from Starbucks! I was having one of those almost every day there for a while when I first discovered them. They are now a once in a while treat that I enjoy when I can work the calories in (400 cal, 15g fat).

I'm so glad I've weaned myself from mochas to black coffee. It took a couple years, but it is SO much better for me. I remember once in college I got a white chocolate raspberry breve, where 'breve' meant it was made with half and half. Can you imagine?! Ugh.

LianaG1115

I used to suck down Tim Horton's or Starbuck's coffee on a daily basis without even knowing how many calories I was consuming!! Now I won't even go near any of those places, it's hard sometimes to not want to have just one but that one can range from 500-1500 calories!!

daniellekunkel1

I had many weaknesses...let's see...I would eat 6 fudge bars (fudgsicles) at a time. I also loved Bomb Pops. I was obsessed with Cosmic Brownies for the longest time. I would commonly eat three or four BAGS of chocolate chip Pop-tarts, which is a total of 6-8! Then, for a while, I'd begin to prepare a box of brownie mix, and before actually baking the brownies, I'd eat half the mix instead! I don't know how I never got sick from consuming the raw eggs in it!

liftsforchocolate

Hah! I had a friend who did that! Don't you just get a kick out what we used to enjoy?! I'm not saying I'll never have one again but I'm considering trying out a recipe with my protein powder and some cocoa powder

I also used to enjoy wine on the regular too but when we decided to clean up our eating, that was the first to go. With no other changes to my old way of eating I lost five pounds in three weeks just from cutting that! This sounds nerdy but using MFP is almost like a game; log your points and 'earn some credits' by working out

Omg, same here! I would rather have one of my 'greek protein bowls or protein pancakes' with some peanut butter than the real thing because I've become so good at cooking with it and adding certain flavors. I actually truly don't ever even feel like eating ice cream.

But @op, I always had a good idea of how many cals I was taking in, just didn't know how to control myself. Unfortunately I must have maybe been 12 years old when I first started to count cals and try to lose weight, so I'm very familiar with dad diets and the macros for everything.

I guess I underestimate the cals in veggies and fruits sometimes, even meats (plain) but that's about it.

mrsgoochy

Hah! I had a friend who did that! Don't you just get a kick out what we used to enjoy?! I'm not saying I'll never have one again but I'm considering trying out a recipe with my protein powder and some cocoa powder

I also used to enjoy wine on the regular too but when we decided to clean up our eating, that was the first to go. With no other changes to my old way of eating I lost five pounds in three weeks just from cutting that! This sounds nerdy but using MFP is almost like a game; log your points and 'earn some credits' by working out

Omg, same here! I would rather have one of my 'greek protein bowls or protein pancakes' with some peanut butter than the real thing because I've become so good at cooking with it and adding certain flavors. I actually truly don't ever even feel like eating ice cream.

But @op, I always had a good idea of how many cals I was taking in, just didn't know how to control myself. Unfortunately I must have maybe been 12 years old when I first started to count cals and try to lose weight, so I'm very familiar with dad diets and the macros for everything.

I guess I underestimate the cals in veggies and fruits sometimes, even meats (plain) but that's about it.

I too have been watching calories since about 5th grade Makes me sad to think about it! I was about a foot taller and already older than my grade because of the cut off, which only made it worse.
Up until now I, for whatever reason, resisted the basic concept of counting calories. Maybe I was in denial; I did the pill thing that slowly transistioned to an eating disorder and all the while mixing in trendy fad diets. In theory I knew about the calories in my wine and snacks but my weight didn't budge and I was able to balance it. It was only when I couldn't take off this last 10 from my pregnancy from last year, that I resolved to clean up my eating .My husband and I started our journey just a few days after Christmas. I thought I'd hate logging; the inconvenience, the monotony and the guessing of the portion. But those reasons turned out to be what was holding me back from dropping those lb's. We'd really like to give our lil' one a healthy aspect on nutrition and not use the 'D' word around her - DIET! haha
Oh and I definetly underestimated the calories in avocados! I still incorporate them but I had no idea how many calories I was consuming in my guacamole and chips! eeks!
TGIF and your post reminded me that I've been meaning to try a few different protein recipes. Message me some of your mentioned recipes if you've got a sec.

Wtn_Gurl

i was shocked when I saw my favorite Red Lobster Restaurant meals are very high in sodium and other things making me fat.

Also Olive Garden.

yeah i enjoy those sometimes.

But wow they have a lot of sodium and fat!