Things that surprised me since I started MFP.

I think about food all day every day now.... before I used to think about it only right before I ate... Now I think about it hours (sometimes days) in advance. I get excited to plan out and eventually eat my meals/snacks now.

This is such a great thing to think about- the things you learned on MFP

I LOVE bread too! I have found that if I only keep the Trader Joe's sprouted 7 grain in my house then I will only eat that. It has a very high glycemic index so it gives you a lot of nutrients. It is also healthy enough that even with butter you wouldn't want to eat a ton of it : )

I like your observations!

PS - I live in Wisconsin (the dairy state!) so I hear ya how tough it is to give up cheese and milk! LOL - one of my good friends is a dairy farmer so I get some weird looks. However now when I do "treat" myself to it my body gets very angry and I'm reminded why I gave it up in the first place.

I agree that the small things do add up. I never drank enough water before MFP either!

I've found that I've absorbed a lot of nutrition and exercise information from this site (and others) since I began this project of getting fit. Things that I think are common knowledge, really aren't. A few times, talking about exercise or something with someone, I've made an offhand comment about nutrition or how your muscles work, and they have acted like they never heard it before. I guess there was a time when *I* had never heard it before, but I don't even remember anymore. It's built into how I live my life now.

Finding out actual portion sizes have been my biggest surprise for me. I bought a food scale when I started MFP and I was so surprised and it was definitely a light bulb moment for me. I wanted some ice cream so I got my food scale out and weighed what the package said was a serving size, it was TINY. I then for shiggles put my typical serving size. I was about 6 servings at 250 calories per serving so over 1500 calories just in ice cream. No wonder I was the weight that I was.

I always thought I ate pretty good...I've always been one to cook most of my meals from scratch...never really into too much processed food...never ate at restaurants much, etc. I was really shocked when I had my checkup last October and my blood work came back so bad (horrible) and my doctor told me I was borderline obese and needed to drop some weight. I just though I was cursed with bad genetics because "I was doing everything right and overall ate pretty nutritiously." Here's what I discovered when I really started logging...

- My portions were huge...yes, a lot of homemade foods, but one of my servings was at least two actual servings.

- I didn't eat a ton of highly processed foods, but more than I thought I did...really showed up on my sodium and sugar tracker. In particular, stuff like potato chips, crackers, etc

- I drank a LOT of soda without ever thinking about it or how much sugar and empty calories I was getting.

- I cooked with way too much oil/butter, etc. I still cook a lot with oils, but I've found I can accomplish the same thing with a couple of teaspoons of oil vs a couple of Tablespoons.

- I consumed way too much dairy...I was averaging a good 1/2 gallon of whole milk per day and a good 1/4 - 1/2 Lb of cheese

- I ate a lot of candy without even thinking about it.

- I ate fast food far more often than I admitted to myself.

- Not nearly enough veg and fruit...was getting maybe 5 servings of veg per week and a couple servings of fruit per month...now I get 4-6 servings of veg per day and 2-3 servings of fruit per day.

- I was way, way, way sedentary

The good news is that I don't have ****ty genetics...I just wasn't doing stuff right. I've completely reversed my blood work and hit my initial goal BF% of 19%. Now I actually am eating very nutritiously and I love exercise and working out. I've been maintaining for a couple of months now and really focusing on my lifting, but I'm thinking I'm going to cut some more and try to get down to 15% BF..why the hell not I say.

I've been on a few calorie counting sites over the years. One thing I have noticed is that these sites attract anorexics and bulimics like flies to ****.

Another thing is that more males are starting to join these types of sites, so you don't have to constantly walk on egg shells and be PC to not offend the hypersensitive female majority.

Things that have changed/I have learned since using MFP:

I NEVER drank enough water and it was the source of a lot of headaches/fatigue.
I am lactose intolerant. I never had acid reflux or IBS.
I am probably Gluten intolerant also. Cutting out gluten removes the rest of my digestive problems, headaches, and facial and back acne and boils on my back and legs.
I never realized the sodium I ate.
Black rings around the eyes aren't normal or permanent. Once you detox and get healthy, balance your hormones, and get rid of chronic inflammation in your body, these decrease.
Going gray at 22 isn't always hereditary. Stopping the stress and getting healthy can halt premature aging.
I was sleeping either way too much or way too little.
Walking for 15 minutes on the treadmill at 2.5 mph hardly counts as exercise.
Doing 10 crunches before bed has little to no affect. Exercise needs to be challenging, abundant, and frequent.
Sweating is a prerequesite.
Beef Jerky from the gas station is not really a healthy snack.
I'm allergic to splenda and stevia (thanks ragweed.) Go figure.
Trust your clothes and measurements, not the scale.
There is fat on the inside of you, around and inside of your organs, that you also need to lose.
As much as I despaired and dreaded the possibility that it might not, my skin has slowly and surely returned to normal better than I thought it would.
The stretch marks fade and it's not so bad.
Making excuses that my chest is too big to run is a lame excuse. There are ways. lol.
You get freaked out by the amount of food restaurants serve you and that you see other people finishing. Then you realize you used to eat that whole serving, an appetizer, desert, and have your coke refilled three times.
You suddenly realize fiber is important, and why.
I can't even imagine drinking a monster energy drink for the fear of the crap/calories/sugar it would put in my body. Let alone the 2-4 I would drink DAILY before.
I realize now cheese and wheat are in EVERYTHING.
I was completely infertile and not cycling at all, everything halted for at least a year at my most unhealthy. (only 21-22 years old!) Now everything is back to normal and goes on just like clockwork. Sorry for the TMI but important to note, a balanced diet and balanced hormones affect a lot of things...
I realize now the amount of money I used to spend between fast food/junk food and cigarettes was astounding. I have at least a few hundred bucks per month now extra to spend on new clothes or save for my new healthy life.
I thought my body was ruined, but I realized it was all by choice and it's REVERSIBLE. The body wants to heal.


All of these tough realizations were worth it though.
Thanks to it, I'm down from 315 to 212, and still plugging away. I'm acne and boil free, headache free, heartburn and stomach ache free, able to exercise, able to cross my legs and fit in the bathtub, and I gave up both smoking (was a pack-a-day smoker) and drinking for the most part.