Discouraged and in need of some serious help...
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OK, I'm super busy as well. Here are some things I do, and I think you can do. Please understand, I'm not trying to be mean. I just don't think you want to be back on here in 3 years with 100 pounds to lose instead of just a few.
If I get a few straight hours at home, I cook. I'll make things like whole wheat pasta salad and put them in tupperware. Grilled chicken breasts last 3 or 4 days. So do sausages. Like I said, I'm not a health nut, I love my carbs. I could eat 2 servings of pasta salad and have a grilled sausage or the cost of one large fries. Would I rather watch the baseball game and drink a beer than slave over pots and pans. Yes, I would. But what's more important is that now when I go to the beach, I don't wear a shirt in the water. Yes, I'm vain.
When I'm on the road for school or taking the kids to lacrosse games, I bring a cooler. That way then the kids DEMAND fast food after a game, which they always do, I can grab something else quick. The smell of french fries still makes me drool, and there have been times when I literally coveted the food they were eating, but after a few minutes, I start to remember why I'm doing this. It sounds weird, but sometimes depriving yourself feels good. And when you see a change, you feel even better.
Even if these road trips you are taking are long, and you can keep the food good by just getting cups of ice when they pull through the drive through and keep the chest cold. Stopping at a hotel for the night? Ask a parent to let you borrow the car for 30 minutes so you can run to the store to grab some bread and deli meat or some prepared sushi. When you stop for gas, grab a bag of peanuts. I have a container full of Pistachios that just sits in my car, I'm eating them constantly.
And btw, I love Madison. I have a few buddies that went to college there. State Street has great food. I even remember the sushi being good.
As a last resort, tell your parents they can either take the time now to support you in making good decisions, or shell out thousands later if you develop high blood pressure, diabetes, or worse from all the sugar or salt in that fast food. Seriously, even the french fries have added sugar.0 -
Yes, the chipotle chicken snack wrap is a winner! And I like the southwest chicken salad too. McDonalds is actually the best at offering controlled calorie choices. Even a small cheeseburger is a good option, but most people don't get them, just kids.
By the way Notusuallyacalorie counter, I see exactly where you are having trouble, and it's such an easy change. It's the soda . . . . too much sugar. Way too many sodas a day too. Just think of all the real food you could have instead of all those sodas. Easily another cheeseburger or chipotle snack wrap. Also your morning coffee should not have 100 calories, not sure how? Just switch to diet soda or water, and the weight will easily come off. Also, too many servings of grain at breakfast, and not enough protein. Instead of toast or a granola bar, eat a hardboiled egg or piece of choice or even a turkey frank with your cereal, and you'll feel fuller and meet your protein target better. I remember they used to show a slice of toast next to the cereal on the cereal box when we were growing up, but that's not what they recommend anymore. If you continue to consume so many carbohydrates in the form of sugar, it could lead to diabetes and probably not to a successful pregnancy.
Have a great day!
Ruthi just saw your post about fast food, i work for Mcdonald's as a manager and i actually find it pretty easy to eat well there. my favorite things are the chiptole grilled chicken wrap (250 cals) , a side salad (20 cals) with grilled chicken (120 cals) with southwest dressing (half a packet 50 cals, a little spicy, mmm!) apple slices (15 cals per pack) the banana nut oatmeal (250 cals) and surprising enough a hazelnut iced coffee is only 190 calories! fast food doesn't always have to be bad food!
What's the best way to determine all these values? Like fat and carbs and such? I see online calculators but (much like the calorie counter) they all give different answers to the same input information. Don't these values depend greatly on metabolism, body type, lifestyle, etc?0 -
Some of the ideas others have posted are good and worth trying (eat more and especially more nutritious food). I'd add more fiber... you're seriously under on a regular basis. Less sodium would probably help too.
Good luck!0 -
OK, I'm super busy as well. Here are some things I do, and I think you can do. Please understand, I'm not trying to be mean. I just don't think you want to be back on here in 3 years with 100 pounds to lose instead of just a few.
If I get a few straight hours at home, I cook. I'll make things like whole wheat pasta salad and put them in tupperware. Grilled chicken breasts last 3 or 4 days. So do sausages. Like I said, I'm not a health nut, I love my carbs. I could eat 2 servings of pasta salad and have a grilled sausage or the cost of one large fries. Would I rather watch the baseball game and drink a beer than slave over pots and pans. Yes, I would. But what's more important is that now when I go to the beach, I don't wear a shirt in the water. Yes, I'm vain.
When I'm on the road for school or taking the kids to lacrosse games, I bring a cooler. That way then the kids DEMAND fast food after a game, which they always do, I can grab something else quick. The smell of french fries still makes me drool, and there have been times when I literally coveted the food they were eating, but after a few minutes, I start to remember why I'm doing this. It sounds weird, but sometimes depriving yourself feels good. And when you see a change, you feel even better.
Even if these road trips you are taking are long, and you can keep the food good by just getting cups of ice when they pull through the drive through and keep the chest cold. Stopping at a hotel for the night? Ask a parent to let you borrow the car for 30 minutes so you can run to the store to grab some bread and deli meat or some prepared sushi. When you stop for gas, grab a bag of peanuts. I have a container full of Pistachios that just sits in my car, I'm eating them constantly.
And btw, I love Madison. I have a few buddies that went to college there. State Street has great food. I even remember the sushi being good.
As a last resort, tell your parents they can either take the time now to support you in making good decisions, or shell out thousands later if you develop high blood pressure, diabetes, or worse from all the sugar or salt in that fast food. Seriously, even the french fries have added sugar.
I feel really stupid for not having thought of the cooler idea! We always bring one, but it usually is just full of water. I will definitely be doing that for next weekend! I think I just leave too much faith in my parents to take care of me sometimes >.<
And yea, I love Madison. Thankfully, I have avoided the call of the ever tempting 5 Guys that is threatening to make me consume my monthly calorie allowance in one meal.!0 -
OK, I'm super busy as well. Here are some things I do, and I think you can do. Please understand, I'm not trying to be mean. I just don't think you want to be back on here in 3 years with 100 pounds to lose instead of just a few.
If I get a few straight hours at home, I cook. I'll make things like whole wheat pasta salad and put them in tupperware. Grilled chicken breasts last 3 or 4 days. So do sausages. Like I said, I'm not a health nut, I love my carbs. I could eat 2 servings of pasta salad and have a grilled sausage or the cost of one large fries. Would I rather watch the baseball game and drink a beer than slave over pots and pans. Yes, I would. But what's more important is that now when I go to the beach, I don't wear a shirt in the water. Yes, I'm vain.
When I'm on the road for school or taking the kids to lacrosse games, I bring a cooler. That way then the kids DEMAND fast food after a game, which they always do, I can grab something else quick. The smell of french fries still makes me drool, and there have been times when I literally coveted the food they were eating, but after a few minutes, I start to remember why I'm doing this. It sounds weird, but sometimes depriving yourself feels good. And when you see a change, you feel even better.
Even if these road trips you are taking are long, and you can keep the food good by just getting cups of ice when they pull through the drive through and keep the chest cold. Stopping at a hotel for the night? Ask a parent to let you borrow the car for 30 minutes so you can run to the store to grab some bread and deli meat or some prepared sushi. When you stop for gas, grab a bag of peanuts. I have a container full of Pistachios that just sits in my car, I'm eating them constantly.
These are very good ideas. :flowerforyou:0 -
In the U.S. the major food chains have their nutrition information online. At least the basics... what you'll need to track on MFP will be there. (It's probably here too, but if you look on their sites, you can see and compare the choices.) If you feel that you need or want to eat fast food, look up the choices. Maybe even print out the nutrition information and carry it with your for awhile. As others have pointed out, there are better and worse choices in not only fast food restaurants, but high end "slow" ones also tend to have a range... from things that will fit into a plan well, to those that can mess up your entire day (by being more than your entire allocation in one meal).
Keep in mind, it's not all about calories... you also need nutrients... vitamins and minerals. No one food has all you need, so limiting your diet to the same meals day after day, you're likely to miss out on nutrition. This is also the case with many fast foods... even if you keep picking the low-cal ones, so that calories aren't a problem, the lack of a range of nutrition will eventually harm your health. It's hard to eat a full spectrum of the nutrients you need at a reasonable calorie level if you eat many nutritionally poor foods. I'm not one of the people who will say you need to make everything from scratch; prepared foods can be fit into a reasonable dietary plan... but it's unlikely if everything you eat is fast/prepared foods. Fruits and vegetables are key to a healthy diet.0 -
In the U.S. the major food chains have their nutrition information online. At least the basics... what you'll need to track on MFP will be there. (It's probably here too, but if you look on their sites, you can see and compare the choices.) If you feel that you need or want to eat fast food, look up the choices. Maybe even print out the nutrition information and carry it with your for awhile. As others have pointed out, there are better and worse choices in not only fast food restaurants, but high end "slow" ones also tend to have a range... from things that will fit into a plan well, to those that can mess up your entire day (by being more than your entire allocation in one meal).
Keep in mind, it's not all about calories... you also need nutrients... vitamins and minerals. No one food has all you need, so limiting your diet to the same meals day after day, you're likely to miss out on nutrition. This is also the case with many fast foods... even if you keep picking the low-cal ones, so that calories aren't a problem, the lack of a range of nutrition will eventually harm your health. It's hard to eat a full spectrum of the nutrients you need at a reasonable calorie level if you eat many nutritionally poor foods. I'm not one of the people who will say you need to make everything from scratch; prepared foods can be fit into a reasonable dietary plan... but it's unlikely if everything you eat is fast/prepared foods. Fruits and vegetables are key to a healthy diet.
I think that's the part that I struggle with most. I'm really good at not eating over my calories, or working off the little "oops, I ate too many" calories, but I have no idea how much of the other nutrients to eat. As can be seen in the other comments, I've heard "more fat" "less fat" "less carbs" "same amount of carbs" "more protein" "less protein", etc.. i think the only thing we all agree on is less sodium! How can I find out what values are right for me?0 -
... I was at 150 when I started, which is "obese" for my height. ...
No, at 5' 4", 150 is overweight, but not obese. For that height, 145.7-174.8 is overweight; over that is obese.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmi-calculator0 -
... stuff about nutrition...
I think that's the part that I struggle with most. I'm really good at not eating over my calories, or working off the little "oops, I ate too many" calories, but I have no idea how much of the other nutrients to eat. As can be seen in the other comments, I've heard "more fat" "less fat" "less carbs" "same amount of carbs" "more protein" "less protein", etc.. i think the only thing we all agree on is less sodium! How can I find out what values are right for me?
You're also way under on fiber. In comparison to other sites, MFP doesn't recommend as much as many other sites, and you're even below that.
The balance between fat/carbs/protein is a bit of a "religious" war. I'm not going to get into that argument, my sense from what I've read is that you shouldn't go below 20% of your calories on any of those three categories, but whether it should be 30-30-40 or 20-40-40... I don't know, and I rather expect it's different for various people. MFP only tracks some of the nutritional information. On a regular basis only 2 vitamins and 2 minerals. I'd suggest tracking on a site like the usda.gov's "my plate", which is not as easy or supportive as MFP, but where you can see how you're doing with many more nutrients... just try it for a few days or even some key foods, and you can get a sense of where you're doing fine and what you may be missing and want to track more carefully for awhile.
In the meantime, I'd recommend a daily vitamin. Personally I like children's vitamins... they don't have 100% of what an adult needs, but I figure I am getting at least 1/2 of what I need from what I eat.
Good luck!0 -
... stuff about nutrition...
I think that's the part that I struggle with most. I'm really good at not eating over my calories, or working off the little "oops, I ate too many" calories, but I have no idea how much of the other nutrients to eat. As can be seen in the other comments, I've heard "more fat" "less fat" "less carbs" "same amount of carbs" "more protein" "less protein", etc.. i think the only thing we all agree on is less sodium! How can I find out what values are right for me?
You're also way under on fiber. In comparison to other sites, MFP doesn't recommend as much as many other sites, and you're even below that.
The balance between fat/carbs/protein is a bit of a "religious" war. I'm not going to get into that argument, my sense from what I've read is that you shouldn't go below 20% of your calories on any of those three categories, but whether it should be 30-30-40 or 20-40-40... I don't know, and I rather expect it's different for various people. MFP only tracks some of the nutritional information. On a regular basis only 2 vitamins and 2 minerals. I'd suggest tracking on a site like the usda.gov's "my plate", which is not as easy or supportive as MFP, but where you can see how you're doing with many more nutrients... just try it for a few days or even some key foods, and you can get a sense of where you're doing fine and what you may be missing and want to track more carefully for awhile.
In the meantime, I'd recommend a daily vitamin. Personally I like children's vitamins... they don't have 100% of what an adult needs, but I figure I am getting at least 1/2 of what I need from what I eat.
Good luck!
Ah fiber....we won't get into why I reluctantly eat it haha XD That sounds like a good idea though; I'll definitely check out "my plate." Like I said, I just don't want a repeat of the calorie fiasco where I sent my body into a very unhealthy place. Thanks for the advice!0 -
i started my change when i was on vacation from work, so when i got ready to go back i went to the McDonald's website http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/food_quality/nutrition_choices.html and literally wrote down anything under 450 calories. that way you can make better informed decisions. most chains have this i've personally looked at burger king, culver's and subway. honestly, part of the problem in going into those places is people all around you are making poor choices, and they smell sooooo good! resist, trust me when i tell you you can eat decently on the go, just do your research, you don't know where you're going to stop so research their favorites or most visited, or just stuff in the area. and you don't sound lazy, sometimes i don't get up until 11 either (i work late) it's still considered breakfast, and if you're not hungry eat a piece of fruit or like i do drink a cup of coffee. get your metabolism going. i've never been a breakfast person but years before i decided to change i wanted to test the theory "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" and i PERMANENTLY dropped 10 pounds. since then i've been a believer. once again, i will say that is what worked for me and i am in no way licensed to tell you what to do. lol0
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i'm probably going to catch crap for this but i suggest eating breakfast, i only looked at a couple days of your diary but i immediately realized you weren't eating until lunch.
You're correct. My mother's taking a nutrition class and the instructor said you need to eat within 1 hour of waking up. And you need to eat regularly. Remember the genes we had as hunter-gatherers are still there and if our body thinks there is famine, it will start holding on to things.
This is going to sound extremely lazy of me, but lunch IS within the first hour of me waking up....I've been sleeping until 10/11 almost every day >.<
Than wake up earlier and pack food or continue eating junk. It's your choice.0 -
Like someone said, at 150 you were nowhere near "obese". You were less than 5 lbs. over "normal/healthy" BMI. Are you sure you see yourself accurately?
People do lose eating mostly restaurant food so if you really have to have it, it's possible to be ok. I think if I had to eat it, I would use a food scale to weigh my 'usuals', at least once, to get a feel for if my bean burrito really IS the XXX gram serving size Taco Bell gives me the calories for, and so on. Obviously a burger is going to be a burger. But the fries might be 25% more than specs say and you would be missing logging those if you didn't know it.0 -
There are books you can purchase fairly inexpensively that have calorie counts for restaurants, or you could print out the nutrition info from online to bring along with you. That way, no matter where you stop, you'll know what you can choose to make smart decisions.0
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Like someone said, at 150 you were nowhere near "obese". You were less than 5 lbs. over "normal/healthy" BMI. Are you sure you see yourself accurately?
People do lose eating mostly restaurant food so if you really have to have it, it's possible to be ok. I think if I had to eat it, I would use a food scale to weigh my 'usuals', at least once, to get a feel for if my bean burrito really IS the XXX gram serving size Taco Bell gives me the calories for, and so on. Obviously a burger is going to be a burger. But the fries might be 25% more than specs say and you would be missing logging those if you didn't know it.
This is the most sensible advice on here, OP. If you have to eat out, just remember that the calorie counts can be off by a bit. Something like a prepackaged salad at McDonalds might be more accurate than, say, the fires.
Also, I don't think you need to eat breakfast to lose weight. Breakfast is typically the healthiest meal of the day and can help keep you from bingeing at lunch. But breakfast doesn't jump start your metabolism or anything like that.0 -
Do you wake up at home, or do you guys travel for days at a time? It is difficult when you're not choosing where to go, but if you start out the day at home, you could easily pack an insulated lunch box or cooler with stuff just for you. Maybe your parents will like that you're saving them a couple of bucks, too! Even a pretty plain sandwich with some pretzels (or even chips) and fruit would be a whole lot better than eating fast food every day. And honestly, you could *still* do this if you were traveling for days at a time, it would just be really tough if your parents won't allow a stop at a grocery or convenience store.0
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Forewarning: This is brutal truth not formatted to consider the feelings of readers.
Ignore every post using your BMI as any form of indicator for your health or fitness level.
Asthma is no excuse not to do cardio.
Stop eating fast food, sugars, and grain products (if you still are).
Adjust your exercise to include lifting HEAVY weights at least 2 times per week. Go as heavy as you can, 6-8 reps per set for 3 to four sets.
Do the above for at least two weeks, with your results logged.
p.s.
I did not read the three pages of posts, but what I have written above is likely already stated but not consolidated.0 -
Forewarning: This is brutal truth not formatted to consider the feelings of readers.
Ignore every post using your BMI as any form of indicator for your health or fitness level.
Asthma is no excuse not to do cardio.
Stop eating fast food, sugars, and grain products (if you still are).
Adjust your exercise to include lifting HEAVY weights at least 2 times per week. Go as heavy as you can, 6-8 reps per set for 3 to four sets.
Do the above for at least two weeks, with your results logged.
p.s.
I did not read the three pages of posts, but what I have written above is likely already stated but not consolidated.
I appreciate your bluntness. Honestly, I do.
I will address the BMI comment I made earlier. I misspoke with the "obese" instead of "overweight" classification. I am aware of my body. I've got some fat to lose, but I am not obese. Nor did I say that I cannot do cardio. I cannot do high intensity cardio for a long period of time....yet. I'm working on it. ^_^0 -
I recommended that you ignore using BMI because it's a terrible measurement method. According to BMI: I'm 2 points shy of being classified as obese. I would recommend going to your local gem and asking who's the best with calipers and getting your body fat measured. At least then you'd have something a bit more accurate to go off of. Keep up the good work!I appreciate your bluntness. Honestly, I do.
I will address the BMI comment I made earlier. I misspoke with the "obese" instead of "overweight" classification. I am aware of my body. I've got some fat to lose, but I am not obese. Nor did I say that I cannot do cardio. I cannot do high intensity cardio for a long period of time....yet. I'm working on it. ^_^0 -
I recommended that you ignore using BMI because it's a terrible measurement method. According to BMI: I'm 2 points shy of being classified as obese. I would recommend going to your local gem and asking who's the best with calipers and getting your body fat measured. At least then you'd have something a bit more accurate to go off of. Keep up the good work!I appreciate your bluntness. Honestly, I do.
I will address the BMI comment I made earlier. I misspoke with the "obese" instead of "overweight" classification. I am aware of my body. I've got some fat to lose, but I am not obese. Nor did I say that I cannot do cardio. I cannot do high intensity cardio for a long period of time....yet. I'm working on it. ^_^
That's a great idea! I'm going to look into seeing a dietician so I can sort out all of these issues with food levels. Thanks for all the advice!0
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