How am I doing so far? What can I do differently?

Firefox7275

Sorry to take over your thread but i'd love some feedback on my stuff too - I've got a fitbit for christmas and that is where all my exercise calories come from and I try to only eat about half back, since i think it overestimates for me. I jsut started working out again (running and lifting) but still havnet really gotten into a routine. I know I have processed foods, but its so hard to not! We live 45 minutes from the nearest grocery store so we tend to stock up on things that wont go bad, hence the lack of fresh fruits and veggies in the diet

Plenty of longlife healthy foods - dried beans and lentils, canned beans and lentils, canned tomatoes, canned oily fish, brown rice, wholegrain pasta, jumbo oats, pot barley, any nuts, any seeds, frozen fruit and veggies, dried fruits, dried herbs and spice blends, block creamed or unsweetened dessicated coconut, powdered or UHT milk, various pickled vegetables, jar olives in brine or oil, jar garlic. Fresh meats and fish can be frozen as can some traditional/ natural cheeses (some go crumbly but taste good and cook fine) and many dishes can be made in bulk when you first grocery shop then frozen for use as ready meals when the fresh stuff starts to run down.

Aside from the frozen, fresh root vegetables are long lasting if stored carefully and the excess can often be chopped and home frozen. I live alone and just got through 4kg of red onions, 2kg of fresh carrots and a whole red cabbage over somewhere between a month and six weeks, I frozen some of the onions and tried to keep the carrots cold and dry but still bagged, cabbage no special treatment. There is tons of information online about careful storage and not wasting veggies that are going bad (eg. soups).

It's not just fresh fruit and veg you are not having, all your proteins and sauces are processed and high in salt. If you can't bear to switch from bread to other carbs maybe consider buying a sack of stoneground flour and baking your own bread, pizza bases, pancakes. At the end of the day it's up to you if you want to make excuses or do as you say in your profile, fruit and veg is far from the only healthy eating guideline you are not meeting, not sure you are managing a single one.

Do you have a near-ish neighbour or work colleague that you could share a little grocery shopping with? Both do your own BIG longlife shop as often as now plus just fresh fruit and veggie items for the other household, and alternate that way so you go to the grocery store the same frequency but get a 'delivery' of fresh produce in between?

soccerella

Sorry to take over your thread but i'd love some feedback on my stuff too - I've got a fitbit for christmas and that is where all my exercise calories come from and I try to only eat about half back, since i think it overestimates for me. I jsut started working out again (running and lifting) but still havnet really gotten into a routine. I know I have processed foods, but its so hard to not! We live 45 minutes from the nearest grocery store so we tend to stock up on things that wont go bad, hence the lack of fresh fruits and veggies in the diet

Plenty of longlife healthy foods - dried beans and lentils, canned beans and lentils, canned tomatoes, canned oily fish, brown rice, wholegrain pasta, jumbo oats, pot barley, frozen fruit and veggies, dried fruits, dried herbs and spice blends, various pickled vegetables, jar olives in brine or oil, jar garlic. Fresh meats and fish can be frozen as can some traditional/ natural cheeses (some go crumbly but taste good and cook fine) and many dishes can be made in bulk when you first grocery shop then frozen for use as ready meals when the fresh stuff starts to run down.

Aside from the frozen, fresh root vegetables are long lasting if stored carefully and the excess can often be chopped and home frozen. I live alone and just got through 4kg of red onions, 2kg of fresh carrots and a whole red cabbage over somewhere between a month and six weeks, I frozen some of the onions and tried to keep the carrots cold and dry but still bagged, cabbage no special treatment. There is tons of information online about careful storage and not wasting veggies that are going bad (eg. soups).

It's not just fresh fruit and veg you are not having, all your proteins and sauces are processed and high in salt. If you can't bear to switch from bread to other carbs maybe consider buying a sack of stoneground flour and baking your own, you can also use that for pizza bases and in pancakes. At the end of the day it's up to you if you want to make excuses or do as you say in your profile, fruit and veg is far from the only healthy eating guideline you are not meeting, not sure you are managing a single one.

Do you have a near-ish neighbour or work colleague that you could share a little of the grocery shopping with? Both do your own BIG longlife shop plus a few fresh bits for the other household,

I'll have to look into storage options for things - i dont buy alot of these types of things as well because my husband is away for work 2 weeks a month so its just me at home eating and I find things go bad when I buy bulk of them (onions, salad greens, carrots, etc), but its very frustrating to not having it available, especially when you crave it like I did for dinner last night. Freezing fresh vegetables is something I hadnt even really considered but maybe i can divy up things like that and keep some stored frozen until I need them and thaw them out that way!

Unfortunately alot of the long -life items you mentioned I just dont like (tomatos and beans being the main ones) but I get the point. There are things I could do in there - I just kind of always went with the assumption that canned things tended to have alot of preservatives and such that would be bad? I prefer frozen veggies to canned ones, just for taste reasons, but even those I just never seem to stock up on enough and should change that. We have a freezer of fresh fish and deer that I actually forget about since its in the garage, but would be beneficial to thaw some out and make up enough for lunches for a week or something.

Oh and we are way out in the country so no neighbors/ work collegues near by. I usually do my grocery shopping on the way home from work on day. I wish there were people closer cuz that is a really good idea!

Sodium is def something to work on. I usually go for meats more like turkey, rather than the roast beef we had this week (needed to get rid of it) but even that is still high in sodium. Not sure the best way to go around that rhough? I like beef and turkey as my main protein sources, and like we said those can be processed and full of sodium. Are there certain cuts of these I could buy instead of the lunch meat versions that would be better. Is the lower sodium lunch meats worth buying or shoudl i switch totally?

bombedpop

Sorry to take over your thread but i'd love some feedback on my stuff too - I've got a fitbit for christmas and that is where all my exercise calories come from and I try to only eat about half back, since i think it overestimates for me. I jsut started working out again (running and lifting) but still havnet really gotten into a routine. I know I have processed foods, but its so hard to not! We live 45 minutes from the nearest grocery store so we tend to stock up on things that wont go bad, hence the lack of fresh fruits and veggies in the diet

1. The only veg you have consumed in the last few days is frozen french fries. You have little access to fresh produce you say, but you can get frozen veg and they are just as good for you as fresh. Add in veg to every meal. Like half your plate should be veg. You can roast the veg, stir fry, steam, add to soups, anything really, just add more, not of the Ore-ida variety.

2. Pretty much your entire diet is processed. Kraft singles, hot dogs, pudding cups, and the like. You can get fish, chicken, beef and freeze it, thaw when you are ready to use. There are tons of websites that have fast and easy recipes if you need help cooking. There is a group MFP for people who trade recipes and cook. You don't need to shop daily to cook more than hot dogs and Kraft singles.

3. Make swaps - swap the kraft process cheese singles for real cheese, white bread for wheat - read the label - if it has more than 5 ingredients or something in it that is unpronounceable, don't buy it.

4. You have a FB - great, you are on your way to getting some idea of how much you actually move in a day. Wear it and try to meet the goals - 10,000 steps in a day. Set your workout routine - Start with 3 or 4 days a week, something reasonable for you. Set specific days and times aside for your workout routine. Add more as you like.

lelaspeaks

Log accurately and calculate your TDEE -20%. Eat that much.

lelaspeaks

Also - at least 25 grams of fiber a day. Tons of water. I try to drink about .5-1 ounce per pound of body weight a day.

bombedpop

Sodium is def something to work on. I usually go for meats more like turkey, rather than the roast beef we had this week (needed to get rid of it) but even that is still high in sodium. Not sure the best way to go around that rhough? I like beef and turkey as my main protein sources, and like we said those can be processed and full of sodium. Are there certain cuts of these I could buy instead of the lunch meat versions that would be better. Is the lower sodium lunch meats worth buying or shoudl i switch totally?

Skip the deli meats. You like turkey - buy breasts in bulk, split them up into individual portions and freeze those when you get home. You can pop a portion out of the freezer before you go to work or the night prior to thaw and cook for dinner. Cook a bit extra and use the leftover to make sandwiches for work. You will get far less sodium cooking your own than buying the sodium laden deli variety.

akaMrsmojo

I never ever understand not eating back your calories. I am starving afterwards. I know that my metabolism is working properly and needs the fuel.

I eat them back and feel great and consistently lose.

hottamolly00

Think about the amount of calories you eat in a cheat "day." That basically ruins all your good-doing from the week. You should give yourself a cheat "meal" not a cheat "day."

1. You didn't log anything over the weekend
2. Don't chose taco bell if you made your own. Log what you ACTUALLY ate

1. No, I didn't. My original plan was to have one cheat day, but it turned into two. I still wasn't/am not eating anywhere near as poor as I had in the past, I was/am still mindful. But I guess perhaps I should just try forgoing cheat days.
2. Noted.

melmonroe

With all the reasons that you cannot prepare your own meals or have any control or knowledge of what goes in your mouth etc, perhaps this is not the optimal time to attempt weight loss.:flowerforyou: Best of luck with your endeavors.

lilmisfit

3. Measure. And weigh your food. A digital food scale can be had for less than $15 and can be used for baking, weighing mail/packages, your cat, all sorts of things.

This made me :laugh:

But, yes, get a food scale. They are SO beneficial!!!!

hottamolly00

Maybe it's just my personal opinion, but I can't trust someone's food-related judgment when they've never been overweight. How can they honestly relate to your situation?

Oh! One thing I forgot to mention: My BF's parents are living with us for a bit. They cook our dinners. They're relatively healthy dinners, all homemade from scratch. I'm careful about my portion sizes, and try to keep it light on the more carb-y stuff. I try to figure what calories from researching online the different ingredients, but I'm sure it's not 100% accurate.

Before someone says it, no, there is no way I can just stop eating what they make. If I were to come home to pasta alfredo or something OBVIOUSLY bad, I could say no, because they know I'm trying to lose weight. Which is why they're being mindful of what they make (and neither have ever been overweight, so I do trust them). If I were to just say "NOPE NO WAY, NEVER" because I didn't make it myself, I know I'd insult them (different culture, if that makes any difference). I need to draw a line between keeping the peace and doing what's best for me, which is what I've been trying to do.

if someone else is cooking your dinner for you, there is no way for you to know how many calories you are eating. I would suggest asking parents if you could help cook with them because you are trying to lose weight and need to count calories. Good job upping your water intake. Jillian Michaels says burn more calories than you eat. She also says eating between 1200 and 1400 cals/day is okay. So I DO NOT eat back my exercise calories. Nope. Won't do it. And I AM FULL throughout the day.

Unfortunately, that's not an option. By the time I get off work, and get home from zumba, it's 8pm-8:30pm. Dinner has already been made, and in most cases, they already ate and saved me a plate. Again, I realize it would be ideal for me to tell them to stop making me food, but I really, truly can't. You don't realize how rude they'd perceive it, especially since they're already cooking pretty healthy food. But, I will try to keep my breakfasts/lunches tiny so that I can afford it, just in case. And not eat back my exercise cals anymore.

da_bears10089

Similar to above but I would say only eating up to 50% of those calories back as MFP tends to over-estimate calories burned. I doubt you're burning nearly 1,000 calories in a zumba class.

I have a HRM and when i do my 50 minute zumba class, i easily burn over 600 calories, so it is very doable.

Razbet

Make sure you are eating 4 -1 cup servings of raw vegetables or 1/2 cup cooked and 2 fruits everyday. You will be surprised!

Firefox7275

I'll have to look into storage options for things - i dont buy alot of these types of things as well because my husband is away for work 2 weeks a month so its just me at home eating and I find things go bad when I buy bulk of them (onions, salad greens, carrots, etc), but its very frustrating to not having it available, especially when you crave it like I did for dinner last night. Freezing fresh vegetables is something I hadnt even really considered but maybe i can divy up things like that and keep some stored frozen until I need them and thaw them out that way!

Unfortunately alot of the long -life items you mentioned I just dont like (tomatos and beans being the main ones) but I get the point. There are things I could do in there - I just kind of always went with the assumption that canned things tended to have alot of preservatives and such that would be bad? I prefer frozen veggies to canned ones, just for taste reasons, but even those I just never seem to stock up on enough and should change that. We have a freezer of fresh fish and deer that I actually forget about since its in the garage, but would be beneficial to thaw some out and make up enough for lunches for a week or something.

Again being harsh you can make excuses or you can make a change. I am sure you know yourself you cannot raise a child to have no healthy foods with a fussy parent, that is not going to teach them the right way to live. I made excuses until I got so sick I could not work for a couple of years, my lifestyle was not the sole cause but it was a major factor - feel free to bite back I won't be offended but, please, learn from the stupidity of others. I was very fussy with my foods, lived alone when I started eating healthier and was on a very tight budget, ditto now. I do have stores much closer than yours but I don't drive so I bulk shop and I make that work. Sometimes food gets thrown away but it still works out cheaper than ready made food.

Fresh salad items do go bad fast so do many fresh fruits and they are expensive because of all the waste in growing, transportation and sales so I don't buy much of either. If you eat the recommended nine servings a day it's amazing how fast you can get through fresh produce before it goes bad. Most root vegetables (onions, carrots swede, sweet potato, parsnip) should last weeks if you don't let them get too wet or dry out and keep them dark; look online for the best way to store maybe you are not getting it quite right. Celery, cabbage, whole bell peppers and eggplant (aubergine) are all pretty good too - if they start going funny all these make great soups or tomato and meditteranean vegetable sauce for pasta and cheese, fish or meat. I make the flavour richer with red wine and you can freeze the sauce or the soup.

I retrained myself to like healthier foods by just keep trying them and hiding them in (homemade) sauces, don't like everything now but a decent variety. Some canned beans and lentils have added sodium but it's not going to be as much as you are eating now, drain them into a colander/ sieve and rinse under the running tap, canned tomatoes come with nothing added, I wouldn't personally buy most other canned veggies only frozen. All these foods have other nutrients that will 'balance out' the sodium in the body which boxed foods just don't. Your deli meats and processed cheeses will likely be stuffed with preservatives, not just salt.

Definitely cook up the fresh fish and deer, that is perfect!

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Firefox7275

Maybe it's just my personal opinion, but I can't trust someone's food-related judgment when they've never been overweight. How can they honestly relate to your situation?

Now apply that logic to every medical/ health/ lifestyle/ fitness professional you have ever dealt with, for yourself or for a younger or elderly relative. They have to be the right age, gender and have that precise health issue to be able to diagnose or treat? Blind opticians, physically disabled trauma doctors, male cosmetic surgeons with breast implants, morbidly obese personal trainers, elderly geriatric nurses, GPs who are too sick to be able to leave their beds bringing a whole other meaning to 'bedside manner'.

soccerella

Again being harsh you can make excuses or you can make a change. I am sure you know yourself you cannot raise a child to have no healthy foods with a fussy parent, that is not going to teach them the right way to live. I made excuses until I got so sick I could not work for a couple of years, my lifestyle was not the sole cause but it was a major factor - feel free to bite back I won't be offended but, please, learn from the stupidity of others. I was very fussy with my foods, lived alone when I started eating healthier and was on a very tight budget, ditto now. I do have stores much closer than yours but I don't drive so I bulk shop and I make that work. Sometimes food gets thrown away but it still works out cheaper than ready made food.

Fresh salad items do go bad fast so do many fresh fruits and they are expensive because of all the waste in growing, transportation and sales so I don't buy much of either. If you eat the recommended nine servings a day it's amazing how fast you can get through fresh produce before it goes bad. Most root vegetables (onions, carrots swede, sweet potato, parsnip) should last weeks if you don't let them get too wet or dry out and keep them dark; look online for the best way to store maybe you are not getting it quite right. Celery, cabbage, whole bell peppers and eggplant (aubergine) are all pretty good too - if they start going funny all these make great soups or tomato and meditteranean vegetable sauce for pasta and cheese, fish or meat. I make the flavour richer with red wine and you can freeze the sauce or the soup.

I retrained myself to like healthier foods by just keep trying them and hiding them in (homemade) sauces, don't like everything now but a decent variety. Some canned beans and lentils have added sodium but it's not going to be as much as you are eating now, drain them into a colander/ sieve and rinse under the running tap, canned tomatoes come with nothing added, I wouldn't personally buy most other canned veggies only frozen. All these foods have other nutrients that will 'balance out' the sodium in the body which boxed foods just don't. Your deli meats and processed cheeses will likely be stuffed with preservatives, not just salt.

Definitely cook up the fresh fish and deer, that is perfect!

I don't think straight up not liking something is going to completely ruin my success if I don't put it into my diet . I don't like beans and that's not going to change, but there are certainly other things I could eat that would be healthy instead. I'm not saying that i should skip all fruits and veggies, but having a couple things that I cannot stand would be acceptable - assuming I'm getting the right nutrients/recommended servings/etc

I definitely need to look more into storage of things, Ill buy a head of lettuce or celery hearts and they are brown before I even remember I had put them in the crisper. Ill do some research and look into how to properly store these things. There are times like now when its so cold and snowy that you dont want to go to the store and you end up just eating what you have at home, which is why I need to do better with having these things around and more easily accessible. We literally have no vegetables in our house after I ate the frozen asparagus the other day, except the ones that are "hidden" in the juices and applesauce I have (which is negligible at best). I hate wasting food (and thus money) so if i can figure out how to store things a little better than that would be a huge step and I'd definitely keep things around more.

I really dont like fish either but I'll eat it haha.

Tonight for dinner we are supposed to have shepards pie, which will have veggies and be made with the venison, but will still have processed stuff (mashed potatoes) but at least its a little better.


We'll do some shopping today or tomorrow and I'll try to buy some cut meats and natural cheeses instead of the stuff that I have been (I do love cheese!), plus frozen veggies and fruits too, and some of the fresh stuff once I figure out what I'm doing wrong with that! Thanks

Its pretty interesting though that you can think you are doing alright and then get someone elses perspective from the outside and its no where near what you thought!

hottamolly00

Your logic is missing the obvious. Those are all LEARNED traits. One can't just learn to have good genes. What you're trying to argue is that just because they've never been overweight, they are experts on how to eat healthy. That may not be the case. Sure, she can trust them, because she knows them better than any of us, but again, who's to say they're just thin because they were blessed with "skinny" genes.

Maybe it's just my personal opinion, but I can't trust someone's food-related judgment when they've never been overweight. How can they honestly relate to your situation?

Now apply that logic to every medical/ health/ lifestyle/ fitness professional you have ever dealt with, for yourself or for a younger or elderly relative. They have to be the right age, gender and have that precise health issue to be able to diagnose or treat? Blind opticians, physically disabled trauma doctors, male cosmetic surgeons with breast implants, morbidly obese personal trainers, elderly geriatric nurses, GPs who are too sick to be able to leave their beds bringing a whole other meaning to 'bedside manner'.

dan_IRL

Regarding cheat days: If you are going to take one, make sure you track everything. Even if it's 3000 calories. By tracking everything, your cheat day may not be such a bad day after all.

Also, quit with the negative comments about "No fatty, you don't deserve that cookie" Replace that kind of thinking with thoughts like "I've worked really hard and I'm proud of myself. As long as I budget my calories for the occasional cookie or other treat, everything will fall into place."

positive thinking goes a LONG LONG way!