Today's small achievements

poetical333
poetical333 Posts: 20 Member
I want to keep myself motivated by noting any small achievements each day! Please feel free to join in.

Today I managed to stop eating when I was "satisfied" rather than stuffing my face till I was too full to eat any more. That also meant leaving half the lunch I cooked for tomorrow. :-)

Yesterday I almost managed to stay within my target calories for the day - although I did go on a three hour walk, so I guess I still ate way too much.
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Replies

  • poetical333
    poetical333 Posts: 20 Member
    Came in just below my target yesterday! :-) But I did get a bad headache - dieting always gives me a headache.

    Managed to avoid all bad snacking - snacked on salad and fruit instead.

    This morning I started the gradual reduction of the size of my enormous bowl of cereal.
  • ms_leanne
    ms_leanne Posts: 523
    Do you have a set of food weighing scales? I strongly recommend you buy some if you haven't. You won't be accurate if you don't.

    I know what you mean about the cereal though. I've also gone away from any sugary cereal and stick to porridge now.

    In terms of your snacks, try looking at making some of the recipes in the recipe section. For example, I make my own houmous as the supermarket stuff is laden with calories even the reduced fat ones. Means I can have a larger amount for less calories.
  • kendrafallon
    kendrafallon Posts: 1,030 Member
    Came in just below my target yesterday! :-) But I did get a bad headache - dieting always gives me a headache.

    Managed to avoid all bad snacking - snacked on salad and fruit instead.

    This morning I started the gradual reduction of the size of my enormous bowl of cereal.
    I'd say the headache may be an indication that either you're cutting back too much on your overall intake, or you're missing out on something in what you're eating.

    I found my helping of cereal, was well over the recommended amount!! So I cut them out pretty much altogether. I'll have eggs and toast most mornings, porridge every now again and cereal very rarely
  • poetical333
    poetical333 Posts: 20 Member
    I do have kitchen scales, I was planning to cut down my bowl of cereal gradually to a more "normal" portion, but maybe I should be trying something else for breakfast. Trouble is I'm very dozy in the mornings so I'm probably not awake enough to boil an egg!

    Home-made houmous sounds like an excellent idea, I love houmous.

    As for the headache - it is a fairly drastic cut-back in the amount I'm eating, although I have cut back over the space of a few days rather than all in one go. I'm making sure to drink plenty of water, and if I feel like grabbing a snack I'm trying to drink a glass of water and wait fifteen minutes or so to see if I'm actually still hungry rather than just bored or thirsty. I suspect the problem is just too much tea though, as I've been drinking more tea to compensate.
  • poetical333
    poetical333 Posts: 20 Member
    Where can I find the recipes please? Especially for the low-fat houmous? Thanks.
  • kendrafallon
    kendrafallon Posts: 1,030 Member
    As for the headache - it is a fairly drastic cut-back in the amount I'm eating, although I have cut back over the space of a few days rather than all in one go. I'm making sure to drink plenty of water, and if I feel like grabbing a snack I'm trying to drink a glass of water and wait fifteen minutes or so to see if I'm actually still hungry rather than just bored or thirsty. I suspect the problem is just too much tea though, as I've been drinking more tea to compensate.
    How drastic is drastic? There are a shedload of posts on the hazards of very low calorie diets on the forums, not to mention limiting your intake to 1200 cals a day and not eating back exercise calories. I suggest doing a search and reading around the subject.

    As for low-cal recipes, BBC Good Food is one of my fave sites to use, as you can specify the calorie range you want the recipe in as well as type. The nutritional breakdown is given too for the vast majority of recipes used.

    A quick search: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1940690/healthy-homemade-houmous-
  • poetical333
    poetical333 Posts: 20 Member
    Umm, wow, I'm glad you said that. I've done some reading and switched to TDEE - 20%, which looks much more achievable and sensible. Thanks!
  • ruwise
    ruwise Posts: 265 Member
    I went out and did a 7 mile walk (which was pretty hilly) even though it was very windy. It means I can eat something nice when I go out with friends tonight without worry too much that it will be over my calories.
  • ms_leanne
    ms_leanne Posts: 523
    I'm doing TDEE-20% and as long as you are strict with your exercise it makes eating a lot easier for me being able to average out the calories.
  • cat_g_83
    cat_g_83 Posts: 18 Member
    My small achievement today is going to the gym! Sounds silly but I haven't been in ages and I loose my confidence going in. Was brave and went this morning.
  • poetical333
    poetical333 Posts: 20 Member
    Well done cat_g_83 and ruwise!

    My totally non-diet related achievement for today is cleaning up the house - which also got me some exercise. I'm expecting visitors this evening, that's about the only thing that motivates me to clean. But it's also nice to have got rid of the last of the boxes from the living room and bathroom (we only moved in recently).
  • pinksarahjane
    pinksarahjane Posts: 73 Member
    Forcing myself to do yoga on my wii fit
  • poetical333
    poetical333 Posts: 20 Member
    Managed not to eat a whole Domino's pizza last night! I was very sensible and had a big plate of salad while everyone else got started on the pizza, then tried not to eat too much pizza. I did go over my target, but not by so much.
  • I looked up a TDEE calculator and MFP agrees with the amount I should be eating in order to lose weight. I'm still trying to eat that much, but I've gone from random eating up to 1200 cals a day, which is my greatest achievement so far.
  • ruwise
    ruwise Posts: 265 Member
    Put on some jeans today that didn't even fit when I started and guess what they feel kind of loose!!
  • poetical333
    poetical333 Posts: 20 Member
    Came in on target again yesterday!

    Felt very sleepy in the afternoon, as I often do, but instead of going for a snooze as usual I went for a brisk walk instead, which woke me up a bit.
  • ruwise
    ruwise Posts: 265 Member
    I beat my April target (by just over an lb) and have now lost 2 and a half stone since mid January.
  • Mrsshellers
    Mrsshellers Posts: 157 Member
    For the first time in months I have lost instead of gained! :D although the ticker thing s below says I haven't lost anything which is a little disheartening!
  • cat_g_83
    cat_g_83 Posts: 18 Member
    Well done to everybody. These are great achievements.
    Mine for yesterday was not eating chocolate in the evening. I got a real craving for something sweet and had a mug of hot skimmed milk with a teaspoon of brown sugar in it. Very satisfying and didn't lead to wanting more and more that chocolate usually does.
  • poetical333
    poetical333 Posts: 20 Member
    daisykitten - it may be cheating, but you could consider resetting your baseline by deleting all your previous weigh-ins! I did that as I was sort of starting again from scratch.

    I had a bit of an "oops" yesterday, we had an unplanned long car journey and I was very naughty about the snacks I chose. But somehow I still managed a 2.5lb loss when I weighed myself this morning, so I'm happy with that (perhaps it'll catch up with me in a few days).

    Today's achievement: I managed to eat just four out of a packet of chocolate fingers, instead of the whole lot! I think I must be getting better at this self-discipline thing. Naughty to have bought the packet of course, but if I can make it last it'll be ok.