Need lots of help and support!!

tnewcom · February 2010

My name is Tracy and I am 27 years old, i have 2 kids ages 9 and 2. I have been married for 9 years. I was diagnosed w/ PCOS when I was 18. I have never counted calories, carbs or sugar which I know w/ PCOS you have to watch your carbs and sugars. When i was diagnosed my dr put me on Metformin...well i could never handle the side effects so never used it...i got back on it recently and have been having no side effects! YEAH! I have made some changes recently in what i eat/drink.
I used to drink mtn dew everyday...well now i only drink water w/ great value drink mix in it...I CAN NOT drink water alone. yuck. I watch how much i eat throughout the day (i work at home) i use to have a HUGE bowl of cereal for breakfast well now i only have 1 cup w/ 1/2 milk. for lunch i would eat whatever was leftover from what i made for the kids...now i eat half a turkey sandwich and was eating progresso soup until found out the sodium. For snacks i would eat 2-3 granola bars, honey buns, cheese danishs, ice cream, candy bars. now i eat 1 100 pk snack in the afternoon and if i am i am still hungry after dinner....Now dinner is what i find that confuses me. i make alot of casseroles so we can have leftovers for hubbys lunches. well most are in a 13x9 dish hubby says that would be 6 servings...is that right..and a 2 qt dish would be 4 servings. I get so confused when making meals and then entering them in the food diary b/c first i have no idea how many servings there are or what size a serving should be! I just been making sure not to eat as much i used too..like going for seconds! Can you lose weight by still making all the regular meals (spaghetti, pasta meals, pizza) but eating a small amount.. Not sure if my kids and hubby want me to totally get rid of everything we normally eat and to try new things.
I dont know much about fruits or fresh veggies b/c never grew up having thing..we never had fruit or fresh veggies! the only fruit i have ever had would be grapes, apples and bananas...never bought veggies...except occasionally cauliflower, carrots and lettuce.

So basically i really need help...in 2 weeks i have lost 4 lbs which is great and all i just dont know if i am doing this right. Anyone wanna come live w/ me for a week to teach me about nutrition and servings! I feel like quitting b/c i am soooo confused but i keep telling myself i CANT Quit and will not quit. I need to change my lifestyle and the way i eat. I just really need some support and LOTS OF HELP!
thanks everyone!

ETA: i do get some excercise in every day at least 20-30 of walking which is something i never did before

epoeraven · February 2010

Have you considered going to a nutritionist? I am sure your doctor could recommend one. Even just one time would really help you I think. I went just once on my doctor's recommndation and I had several "ah-ha" moments. It really helped me to get just some basic coaching. For examplee two things that were huge for me.....1. I was eating foods that were good for me I just had my portions too big. 2. I was eating most of my calories at the end of the day - I would totally skip breakfast and then by the time lunch would come arounds I would be so hungry I wouldn't make good choices about what I was eating.

As far as counting calories and carbs goes.....MFP is fabulous for tracking just about anything you want to. It defaults with the basics but you can add to also track sodium, sugars, etc. if you want to.

melbhall · February 2010

I'm right there with you...measuring out things is tricky. I spent a whole afternoon stressed about figuring out how many servings where in the chili I made...then I realized I could put all the ingrediants into a large measuring bowl before they went to the pot to simmer...turns out it was about 10 cups. Maybe you could do that with some things. As far as casseroles, if you follow a recipe, does it tell you how many servings there are in it? You could try to google it or find new ones. I love fresh fruit and veggies but sometimes get discouraged when I log them, a medium banana has about 100 calories so I sometimes feel greedy like I'd rather have 100 calories worth of chips or chocolate then I tell myself a 100 cal banana is way better. Don't be frusterated and want to give up, it's a learning process for us all. I don't think you have to change any of your families favorite meals just revamp them. I now make tacos, chili and lasagna all with ground turkey breast instead of hamburger. We always have FF milk, cottage cheese, and spray butter on hand. We only buy whole wheat light bread check the back of every box before it enters the shopping cart. And you're right it is about portion sizes. I think most people not on the site would be surprised by how little a cup of anything is. Just know that when you think you are alone in struggling with these issues we all are! I know I drive my hubby crazy when he brings me OJ in the moring just to be nice because I nag him about exactly how much he poured, etc. We will all survive this and it will get easier and maybe even routine for us all!

SASSYJAX · February 2010

Hi, well good for you for coming on here, I know exactly how you feel - it can just all seem like such a big mountain to climb cant it! I find that to start with try having what you normally would eat but have a much smaller serving of it, like you have with your cereal. You can learn along the way, its a marathon not a sprint hun, one step at a time. Dont expect too much of yourself, make healthy swaps for things like you have with your drinks too. That way ou can learn what you need to know and not fill your head with too much info at once.
So swap you white bread for 50/50
Full fat milk for semi skimmed
Full fats yoghurts and ice creams for lower fat versions
Leaner meats.
Healthy snacks instead of sweets ie - air popped popcorn instead of crisps.
This site is just brilliant for healping you and educate you. Just ask there are lots of folk here who are the same as you.
Well done for making the positive step to change.
I find the main problem is portion control.
SO you can look up portion sizes ie - an ounce of hard cheese is about a cubic inch, a chicken breast portion is about the palm of your hand,

You can do it, you go girl!
GOOD ON YA! xxx

kristinlough · February 2010

I echo the nutritionist! Especially if it's one who lives near you and can point you to a good farmer's market, produce stand, the best grocery store, etc. (I moved to a new area and have found that there is not a good produce stand/farmer's market and I'm heartbroken for lack of good tomatoes ... so having a good stand helps a lot).

I also want to recommend some of the "Eat This, Not That" articles, etc., Hungry Girl, Biggest Loser cookbooks, etc. that show you how to sub out the unhealthy stuff in your meals, replace it with healthy foods and not lose flavor.

Also - stick with MFP. It helps so so so much!

flinchyny · February 2010

I make casseroles in a 9x13 dish for me and my husband, and we probably divide them into 9 or 12 servings, depending on what's in the casserole, i.e., how heavy it is.

mromnek · February 2010

Hang in there, eat sensible. Lots of suggestions, but the wife wants to get on the computer.

FabulousFifty · February 2010

You might also consider joining Weight Watchers. They teach you portion control and balance. It is a good eating plan for life. Congratulations on a good start. I recommend just eating "real food." Anything in a box or bag that has a shelf-life should be thrown out. This will be great for your whole family. Hang in there and take one day at a time. :flowerforyou:

kwardklinck · February 2010

Add fruit to breakfast and add a salad at lunch. They help you feel full without adding much in calories. For your casseroles, you may have to put in all of your ingredients to get the calorie count and then divide it by the number of servings you have. I do eat with my family a couple of times a week. I just make dinner and put in my cals. Usually I just reserve about 500-600 cals for dinner and keep my portions small. I have been able to lose weight this way. Be careful in your measurements. I was getting a lot of extra cals by not measuring my servings. I also really like the sandwich thins for sandwiches. It's 100 cals for a roll and it has 5 grams of fiber. I toast them and get that crunchiness that I like.

PinguimPraiero · February 2010

Totally, that is the ticket! Yummy casseroles and turkey sandwiches are perfect foods for your whole family, so just limit how much you eat of that plate each day. I am glad you are seeing a difference already!

I got into a habit of eating whatever I wanted, but never the same thing twice in the same day. I made up this rule to avoid the "I finished the whole bag!" days. This gives you a variety of foods in your diet that will better assure you are full, satisfied, and with the right stores of energy to keep you from over-eating at night. Perhaps, you may start adding things, that probably only you may eat, to compliment what you sit down to eat with your family. Here are some ideas:

have snacks like cut up sticks of carrots and celery to dip into a hearty salad dressing, to eat while you wait for everyone to come to the table (cut up celery stores for a whole week in a container of filtered water)

a busy mom can't prepare a soup everyday, but it freezes well so pick a weekend to make soups and store it away for the whole month, defrosting a container every three days. Then when the others go for second servings, have a piping hot bowl of soup to help you slow down your eating, let your full-meter kick in and alert you that you have just had a tasty and full meal

maybe to acclimate your palate to fresh vegetables, try preparing a salad a few hours ahead to marinate and the tastes and textures will be softer and less tart. Just don't use leafy greens in this type of salad as they wilt quickly (although finely chopped cabbage does well here, too)

have you tried to embellish the toppings on vegetables to make them more welcoming at the table? sliced parmesan works great for all the dark leafy vegs like broccoli and brussel sprouts; carmelized onions with curry powder (or just a dash of cinnamon and paprika) make carrots a totally new experience!

tnewcom · February 2010

Thanks everyone for you support and suggestions... I am going grocery shopping tonight w/o the kids hopefully so hubby and i can really look at the foods.

i plan on getting some cauliflower and broccoli..think i will steam those and have some low fat cheese dip to dip them in if we desire...(small steps)
i plan on getting some carrots and eating those w/ some salad dressing for snacks.
i am going to get some fruits too, grapes, apples, bananas and whatever else looks good to have on hand when we get the munchie.
getting turkey meat instead of hamburger
gonna get some cheese sticks to snack on or part of a meal.
gonna get some shrimp too! never made it before!

Just gonna look and read everything...this is a start...u normally wouldnt find this stuff in my house but for now on you WILL!!

urso99 · February 2010

I also suffer form PCOS so I know your PAIN!! I have been on a constant diet since having kids it seems! In the beginning I was very ignorant and thought diet pills were the way jusst so i could eat my white bread and butter at every meal!. So fast forward to 15 yrs later and I focus more on healthy options over anything else!

To answer a few questions, the casseroles, I have to suggest maybe making smaller casseroles for the kids and hubby, and making a broke down version for you! Say chicken cass, well have a grilled chick breast with the same sides you put into the casserole! It will be much easier for you to gauge your cals.

As for adding fruits and veggies, heres what I trained myself to do,

Look at your plate in thirds,
Veggie,....... should take up half your plate
Protein........take up a 1/4 of your plate
Complex carbs.... takes up a 1/4 of your plate

It helped to reconfigure" my portions of whats most important nutrition wise on my plate!!

Have you tried different kinds of veggies? I LOVE the frozen green giant boxed and bagged veggs that are lightly sauced! Makes me think I am eating something bad, and it's only 50 cals per serving!
Do you like salads? I will put manderin oranges and almonds in my salad, and cut the dressing in half a serving, 1 T instead of the 2T stated on the label. And once you add a salad to your plate, it takes up so much room, that you only have just enough room for your protein and carb!

Sweet potatoes are a wonderful complex carb! Add some spray butter, and cinnamon, YUM! (I used to be adicted to white potatoes, and now prefer sweet pots!) Brown rice with lime juice squeezed over it is another great carb!

I also wanted to add this, I have found it sooooo beneficial to include FAT!!! I mean healthy whole fats! Nuts, olive oil, avacado, and butter! YES REAL BUTTER! Not the "I can't believe it's not butter tub kinds"!! Your body needs fat, and if you log your cals in to MFP, you can see you are allowed a lot of fat everyday, and if you eat only no-fat foods, where are you going to get that fat from!!

Good luck hun, and really just do some research, head to your library to look for the books listed above. Educating yourself is your best tool!! YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!

PinguimPraiero · February 2010

Hey, tnewcom, ex-ce-llent!

Here are some tips on a few of those foods:

When you steam broccoli or cauliflower, do so just until they are a bit soft but still crunchy in the middle; dump them in a colander and rinse them in cold water immediately. This is a modified blanch and it helps stop the cooking. Now cooled off a bit, you will see they are much more palatable for salads. You can always heat in microwave when sitting at the table for a warm meal. Steaming 'al dente' and blanching keeps more of the nutritional value and we're talking cancer-fighting antioxidants, here! I find the texture more palatable than when they get wilty soft.

Also, to store them, lemon juice keeps the cooked broccoli a bright green, and preventing it from turning a purply dark color.

Crunchytxmama · February 2010

You absolutely can lose weight by making the same things for your family for dinner, and eating smaller portions. Honestly, if you've ever looked at people who seem to be "naturally thin" this is what they do! When I started losing weight one of my "rules" was that I wanted to be able to eat what my family eats. I have found a few lower calorie dinners, but we usually eat a lot of casseroles, soups, pasta dishes, meat &potatoes...all home made and mostly the same recipes I used when I was heavy. I use a recipe calculator....for some things, I'll pour the whole recipe into my large 4-cup pyrex measuring cup so I can get an accurate idea of what a serving is (I do this a lot for stuff like mashed potatoes or soups). For casseroles and stuff, I can pretty closely eyeball what 1/5 or 1/6 of the pan is....err on the side of underestimating. I always portion out my food first, because it's easier to see what a portion is when I'm looking at a full pan. Because it's not exact, I used to have a tendency to want to be a perfectionist about this, and feel like I wanted to throw in the towel because it couldn't be perfect. All or nothing thinking will keep you fat, believe me. I wanted to be able to measure out my dinners just like I could measure out a bowl of cereal--but that's just not reality. After a while, I started to trust what I was doing, and it has worked.

tnewcom · February 2010

You absolutely can lose weight by making the same things for your family for dinner, and eating smaller portions. Honestly, if you've ever looked at people who seem to be "naturally thin" this is what they do! When I started losing weight one of my "rules" was that I wanted to be able to eat what my family eats. I have found a few lower calorie dinners, but we usually eat a lot of casseroles, soups, pasta dishes, meat &potatoes...all home made and mostly the same recipes I used when I was heavy. I use a recipe calculator....for some things, I'll pour the whole recipe into my large 4-cup pyrex measuring cup so I can get an accurate idea of what a serving is (I do this a lot for stuff like mashed potatoes or soups). For casseroles and stuff, I can pretty closely eyeball what 1/5 or 1/6 of the pan is....err on the side of underestimating. I always portion out my food first, because it's easier to see what a portion is when I'm looking at a full pan. Because it's not exact, I used to have a tendency to want to be a perfectionist about this, and feel like I wanted to throw in the towel because it couldn't be perfect. All or nothing thinking will keep you fat, believe me. I wanted to be able to measure out my dinners just like I could measure out a bowl of cereal--but that's just not reality. After a while, I started to trust what I was doing, and it has worked.

Thank you so much for posting this...seeing your picture and how wonderful you look and still eating what you make for your family is soooo inspiring

WonderNoodle · February 2010

Everyone has spot on advice. I add this, here is your opportunity to make a healthy diet "natural" for your children. Be sure their portions are relative to them. Make sure they have a veggie on their plate at every meal. Have all those fruits you mentioned on your grocery list availble as snacks for them.

You are so on the right track and "small steps" is right. If you overhaul everyone's diet and put tofu in front of them, you're not going to get any support. If you introduce these changes gradually, ground turkey replaced hamburger you mentioned, everyone will accept them and probably not even notice.

It's my goal for my 7 & 9 year old girls to make them NOT think about food. NOT think about the scale. I want a healthy lifestyle and good choices to be natural, something our generation obviously struggles with. I don't say it's fattening or high calorie, I say it's "not a healthy choice". I don't say "I'm too heavy, overweight, fat", I tell them I'm trying to make my body healthy.

Good luck shopping!

Crunchytxmama · February 2010

You absolutely can lose weight by making the same things for your family for dinner, and eating smaller portions. Honestly, if you've ever looked at people who seem to be "naturally thin" this is what they do! When I started losing weight one of my "rules" was that I wanted to be able to eat what my family eats. I have found a few lower calorie dinners, but we usually eat a lot of casseroles, soups, pasta dishes, meat &potatoes...all home made and mostly the same recipes I used when I was heavy. I use a recipe calculator....for some things, I'll pour the whole recipe into my large 4-cup pyrex measuring cup so I can get an accurate idea of what a serving is (I do this a lot for stuff like mashed potatoes or soups). For casseroles and stuff, I can pretty closely eyeball what 1/5 or 1/6 of the pan is....err on the side of underestimating. I always portion out my food first, because it's easier to see what a portion is when I'm looking at a full pan. Because it's not exact, I used to have a tendency to want to be a perfectionist about this, and feel like I wanted to throw in the towel because it couldn't be perfect. All or nothing thinking will keep you fat, believe me. I wanted to be able to measure out my dinners just like I could measure out a bowl of cereal--but that's just not reality. After a while, I started to trust what I was doing, and it has worked.

Thank you so much for posting this...seeing your picture and how wonderful you look and still eating what you make for your family is soooo inspiring

Thank you! I'm glad it was helpful! A few tips when you're making home-cooked stuff (especially casseroles): try to use a leaner meat if you can, always cut down on the cheese and butter, avoid toppings like french fried onions and stuff like that, and serve a big veggie on the side. In some things, you can also add extra veggies, which will help you feel more full and sneak in extra fiber for you and the kids. I always grate carrots into my spaghetti sauce--I found out later that traditional Italian sauce is actually made that way! (and here I thought I made it up) My family has never noticed a difference!

farmgirlh · February 2010

Sounds like you are off to a great start. It all takes time, think of it as a marathon not a sprint. Changing eating habits is hard and not an overnight thing.

When you make your cassaroles measure out everything that you put in (grams/cups/ounces) in a large bowl then measure with a 1 cup measuring up into your pan that will give you how many cups are in it. From there you can go to a recipe calculator is use http://www.caloriecount.about.com you can decide based on how many calories are in the whole dish how many servings you want it to be.

Veggies are important, start with something that you like, green beans, peas (frozen are better), broccoli, ect... I try to make sure that over half of my plate is veggies then the other half I divide between protein and a bit of bread (depends on what we are having).

I have lost most of my weight by still eating my normal foods, changing some of the recipes to be more figure friendly, but mostly just watching portons and always MEASURE.

Good luck and keep going! You can do it.

alagrape · February 2010

casseroles are a definite nono. They are very high in calories and fat. Green beans have no fat and you can eat all you want of them, the same with cabbage, cooked or raw. Nothing fried, either bake, grill, boil or broil all meats. Broccoli is no fat, snack on raw baby carrots, celery sticks, you can dip them in low calorie dressings. Don't drink anything with caffeine , it slows down your metabolism. Hope this helps! I joined about 10 days ago and I've lost 7lbs. You can do it !

tnewcom · February 2010

Sounds like you are off to a great start. It all takes time, think of it as a marathon not a sprint. Changing eating habits is hard and not an overnight thing.

When you make your cassaroles measure out everything that you put in (grams/cups/ounces) in a large bowl then measure with a 1 cup measuring up into your pan that will give you how many cups are in it. From there you can go to a recipe calculator is use http://www.caloriecount.about.com you can decide based on how many calories are in the whole dish how many servings you want it to be.

Veggies are important, start with something that you like, green beans, peas (frozen are better), broccoli, ect... I try to make sure that over half of my plate is veggies then the other half I divide between protein and a bit of bread (depends on what we are having).

I have lost most of my weight by still eating my normal foods, changing some of the recipes to be more figure friendly, but mostly just watching portons and always MEASURE.

Good luck and keep going! You can do it.

thanks i will try and do that the next time i make a casserole!

Crunchytxmama · February 2010

casseroles are a definite nono. They are very high in calories and fat. Green beans have no fat and you can eat all you want of them, the same with cabbage, cooked or raw. Nothing fried, either bake, grill, boil or broil all meats. Broccoli is no fat, snack on raw baby carrots, celery sticks, you can dip them in low calorie dressings. Don't drink anything with caffeine , it slows down your metabolism. Hope this helps! I joined about 10 days ago and I've lost 7lbs. You can do it !

With all due respect, I disagree. Nothing is a no-no. That is the beauty of learning to control your calories and portion sizes. You can eat almost anything in moderation. I eat casseroles 3-4 times a week. Now, I don't smother it in cheese and top it with french fried onions, and I've learned to make my own white sauce since I don't like all the crap in cream soups. Casseroles can have healthy ingredients and fit well into a weight loss plan, if you learn to moderate your portions.

Need lots of help and support!!

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