Tips and Tricks
DreamOn145
Posts: 86 Member
I hope you all don't mind a newbie jumping in and starting a thread, but I just could not help myself. I see people in here who are so inspiring with their wonderful weight loss and positive changes and I thought it would be great for those like me, who are stuggling to get started, to hear some of the things that have worked for you!!! I would love to hear some of your tips and tricks if you don't mind sharing them!
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1. Best thing I have ever done for my diet is stop drinking soda pop.
2. I have always enjoyed plain water but after dropping soda, I found a bit of flavor was more enjoyable. I add things like cucumber thin slices, or strawberries, or lime slices. with mint leaves to be a good replacement.
3. I also drink my iced tea without sugar, I like herbal teas as well as traditional black tea for iced teas.
It is so easy to gulp down a lot of calories in the summertime especially in our beverages.
4. I use honey or maple syrup or stevia as sweetener. Stevia is low cal.. but the other two add minerals and flavor when omitting sugar in recipes. One of my go to snacks is plain greek yogurt with a tablespoon of honey or maples syrup stirred in, a lot fewer calls than the pre-added honey yogurts.
5. No forbidden foods, once you do that you find yourself day dreaming about whatever it was. Just plan for whatever it is you have to have. I could never live without wine and chocolate, so they get counted in my cals for the day and I try to really savor them when I have them.
6. Count it, even if it takes you over your goals, honesty helps keep you on track. Logging keeps you focused, do it, and sign up a few friends to encourage you as you take the journey.
7. Move it, move it, move it. Dance, walk, climb mountains, ride a bike, lift your grandkids up in the air and swing them around, lift heavy things, take the long way around in buildings, and just keep moving as much as possible. No gym necessary.
Those are just off the top of my head. Will be interesting to see what others have to say.0 -
PLAN!!
If it's possible, plan out your day. I often log my meals even before I eat them, and I nearly always check calorie counts in restaurants before going out to eat. These nutritionals online are real eye openers!
Logging exercise before you go to the gym, or out to walk, will push you out the door.
Good luck on this journey. We've all been there!
Bobbie0 -
Same here good thread0
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Great advice given here...... I agree with all the points made....and would add to just take one day at a time...try to eat well and move more, wherever your baseline is, just do more activity...and each day - or each week - do more. If you have a good day it will spur you on and if you have a bad day put it behind you...it's gone, don't worry about it, get back on track ... you will get there ... :flowerforyou:
Jean0 -
Great messages and so inspiring. Thank you. We all need to hear this again.0
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I still have the 'newbie' stamp on my forehead too, but thought I'd chime in with some stuff that has worked for me in the past and seems to be helping this go 'round...
1. Agreed with planning and logging. I log my whole day (at least) in the morning generally, then I know what I still need to add. Honestly, I'm struggling with getting all the calories they want me to eat (one of the reasons my diary isn't public) but believe I'm making overall good choices. I close out my daily diary when I'm done eating for the day.
2. Candy, cheetos (yummmmm) and chocolate in general are simply not part of my daily routine any longer. That is one of the most significant changes I've made. I've also cut my diet pepsi intake from 48+ oz/day to 8- 16oz; i'll reduce that further but gradually (can we say migraines?!)
3. I wrote up a couple of documents that I go to when needed. One is 'alternatives' (to grazing my way through bad food choices). it has lots of ideas that work for me - from brush my teeth, read a book for 15 minutes, shop online for clothes in the size i want to be, to go OUTSIDE - mostly just stuff to break my brain thoughts. The other I call motivation - reminders why I'm doing this and motivational one & two liners i've found appropriate for me.
4. I have been forcing myself to get off my rear. Treadmill is my only 'exercise' for now, but i thought I'd die the first time I got on it & I'm doing lots better. Little stuff too - dancing to music while I do my chores, parking further away from the store, etc
5. Don't get down on yourself - even when you mess up. On one of the success stories I read here, he said 'don't let a bad day mean a bad tomorrow'. That resonated with me.
Let's DO this!
-marilyn (ker) :drinker:0 -
I like this idea for a post. I have never eaten breakfast and a long time ago screwed up my metabolism so it is so hard for me to loose weight. I feel so much better when I exercise regularly....so I do it first thing n the morning. I have found for breakfast I grab a Dr. Bernstein bar. It is easy and convenient and not much to eat so it works for me. I ensure I eat lunch even if I am not hungry as I believe if you eat every 3 hours or so it helps boost the metabolism. I am always working on getting my calories in because hunger is not my problem I must reduce the wine intake for sure. Thanks for starting this thread0
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I found that if I am craving sweets (especially, but not restricted to my all time favorite, dark chocolate, which I don't even keep in the house in any quantity anymore) I eat a couple of Big Fat Green Olives.
:glasses:
It gives my tastebuds the big *POW* the are looking for and derails my mind from obsessing about grabbing a sweet.0 -
I found that if I am craving sweets (especially, but not restricted to my all time favorite, dark chocolate, which I don't even keep in the house in any quantity anymore) I eat a couple of Big Fat Green Olives.
:glasses:
It gives my tastebuds the big *POW* the are looking for and derails my mind from obsessing about grabbing a sweet.
I can't stand olives but I do keep a Trader Joe's PoundPlus 72% Dark Chocolate handy. I break off a single square and it is rich enough to tide me over.0 -
It took me a year to talk myself into starting MFP. I had make my own rules because I knew if I felt deprived that would be it. My choice was to lose weight slowly in the hope that my skin would have time to cover the extra wrinkles.
1. I love chocolate so I could have 2 squares and no more of high cocoa dark chocolate per day. I am surprised that my craving for chocolate has actually decreased.
2. Record everything every day. I like wine when I go out for dinner which is quite frequently. The most important part is to still record everything (everything that passes my lips!) even on days when I go way over. That way I am learning a lot more about restaurant meals. For the wine, I wait until the food comes and restrict myself to 1 or 2 glasses. It's easy because I know I need to record it.
3. The biggest help I have found with MFP is the support provided by my ”pals”. I have a great group of people I have met on here who are positive and encouraging.
4. Of course, the more you can burn calories with movement and exercise the better. For medical reasons, I cannot do much so I concentrate on what I eat.
All the best on your journey. It is a journey and it is important to enjoy yourself while you are on it.0 -
My choice was to lose weight slowly in the hope that my skin would have time to cover the extra wrinkles.
That works for ME!!!
I'm enjoying the positive support we can give each other here. We've all been through it before and the fact that we're not giving up now "at this age" is really encouraging to me!!
Also I'm VERY grateful to have a group of peers. It is really not the same to be in a group of MUCH younger people.
The dynamic is different (we may just be "old people" to anyone under 35) and of course we have a different set of challenges to face.
Like just getting out of bed in the morning. ha
:bigsmile:0 -
My only advice would be to log everything! Also, just take it one day at a time and don't give up. Try not to force yourself to give up a favorite food because, in my experience, that only discourages one from keeping with the program. I had to give up gluten 2 years ago for my health and believe me, it has been extremely hard and I'm still not 100% adjusted, though I do feel much, much better (and I have found substitutions for most of the food I had to give up).
Keep logging and moving and don't ever give up on yourself. Good luck on this lifetime journey to better health and fitness.0 -
Two things have really helped me. First, as has been suggested by others, is to log everything that goes into your mouth. Second, to log most accurately, get a good food scale, and weigh everything you can. This has really helped me learn portion sizes. Again, as others have said, there are no forbidden foods...might be some foods you don't want to waste calories on, but still can have occasionally. I still eat pizza once a week, just limit how much!. I have recently started doing more exercising. With arthritis in one hip and one knee, walking was somewhat difficult until I lost some weight. I use a fitbit to keep track of how many steps I walk, and how many calories I burn doing it. Best of luck on your weight loss journey...we have survived this long, now it's time for us baby boomers to take care of ourselves.0
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3. I wrote up a couple of documents that I go to when needed. One is 'alternatives' (to grazing my way through bad food choices). it has lots of ideas that work for me - from brush my teeth, read a book for 15 minutes, shop online for clothes in the size i want to be, to go OUTSIDE - mostly just stuff to break my brain thoughts. The other I call motivation - reminders why I'm doing this and motivational one & two liners i've found appropriate for me.
4. I have been forcing myself to get off my rear. Treadmill is my only 'exercise' for now, but i thought I'd die the first time I got on it & I'm doing lots better. Little stuff too - dancing to music while I do my chores, parking further away from the store, etc
5. Don't get down on yourself - even when you mess up. On one of the success stories I read here, he said 'don't let a bad day mean a bad tomorrow'. That resonated with me.
Let's DO this!
-marilyn (ker) :drinker:
Great advice! :flowerforyou:
Jean0 -
I really enjoyed this thread and all of the great strategies. I would add also, before eating I really think about what sounds satisfying to me. I will not eat anything I don't enjoy, even if I make myself a separate meal. I have always been a fast eater and tried for years to eat slowly. Chew every thing 20 times, put your fork down between bites. Baloney, I like to eat fast! Now I relish my meal, finish and put my plate in the sink . i just sip a drink while my husband finishes. I can drink very very slowly. It helps that II really don't crave salty snack food- and love veggies, all forms of protein and dairy. My weakness is sweets. I could eat choc. ice cream every day! So I do not avoid sweets. Every two or three days I enjoy a dessert and exercise more or cut out some other food to accommodate the calories. Sometimes I will go over my calorie limit by 100 or 200 calories because I really wanted to eat something. I know this will slow down my weight loss but that's ok. I'm not in a race to the finish line, and every pound lost is exciting to me.0
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Here's a thing I did awhile back... and it helped me change my eating patterns.
First.. I'm a gulper. Looking back, it seems like I've felt hungry ( ! ) my whole life, and of course we know THAT is not true.
But. Give me a bowl of ice cream, or a mound of mashed potatoes, a loaf of hot crunchy bread and I would GULP it down like it was the first thing I'd eaten in three weeks.
I had a friend who is very thin--a wisp, a tiny, frail thing. Sweet gal, but I hated her (if you know what I mean).
We'd go out to eat and.. she literally picked at her food. Toyed with the meat. Cut it up into tinnnyyyyy little pieces, shoved the mashed potatoes around her plate. If she had a piece of bread she'd break off a tiny piece and then ignore the rest, or crumble
it up while chatting and not putting any of it into her mouth.
And dessert!!! Once, we ordered some decadent chocolate thing. I inhaled mine. OMG it was sooo good.
Hers? She forked off a tiny piece, nibbled at it then shoved the plate away. It was all I could do to restrain myself from grabbing
her dessert plate and finishing it off myself.
Then it hit me... NO WONDER she is thin?
In fact, as a child I did the same thing. Picked my food apart, shoved it around, nibbled, messed it up..It drove my mom bonkers.
So I decided to Become Her.
This is different from Becoming Like Her, ok.
You have to seriously adopt the behaviors and attitudes of How Thin People Eat.
You can't just be The Overweight Person Who Needs to Eat Less and Is going to "eat less."
You have to PLAN for it.
If you're going to a restaurant.. sure. Eat healthy. And when the plate comes.. eyeball that mound of potatoes.
Draw a line across them and only eat 1/3, and... nibble.
Eat your veggies first. Let the potatoes get cold.
Put the bread where you can't reach it.
Cut your meat into TINY bites. IS that FAT? UGH. CUT IT OFF!
Toy with the meal. Drink lots of water.
Most importantly... BE THE THIN PERSON.
Don't be the fat person CRAVING the potatoes.. LONGING to put that extra butter on them and dive in..
Be the person who is happy with less.
Clearly, if you could see me now, you'd know that I blew it with this.
But I DID lose 20 pounds back then.. partly because I adopted this attitude.
Exercising helped too, because.. who wants to sweat for 45 minutes and blow it all on a doughnut?
Anyway. It's something to think about.
:bigsmile:0 -
Wow! Some fantastic ideas on this thread! Sometimes when I want to eat "just because" I will heat a cup of hot water, go into the office and get on MFP! It is helpful to read about everyone's journey back to healthy eating and healthy weights. If I stay long enough, the urge to eat is gone. I realize it is just a "bad habit" but it is taking a long time to break. Thank you to all who have given such good ideas.0
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i have been doing the same thing for 1 yr. and 7 months, and have lost 73 lbs, have not dieted and eat anything that i want, the trick,,, i weigh, measure, everything i put in my mouth, i invested in a lot, lots, and lots of measuring spoons and cups, a good scale and everything that went into my mouth was measured, a lot of people know what a normal size is, i didn't, i do now, i know that i cannot go out to eat and get a normal size of anything, so i try to eat at home most of the time.i eat salad and to make sure that i was only using 2 tablespoons, i went to a restaurant supple hose and bought a package of those little plastic container that get at some places for the ketchup, i think the long john silvers has them, anyway they are 2 tablespoons and everything i make a salad i use these for my salad dressing,esp. at home.and i also carry them in my car so when i go out to eat. and if it not enough of dressing for my salad, well, i've got to much salad...if my husband and i go out now i buy a side and he gets the dinner place, after the food comes i take half of his meat (you can never get a 3- 4 0z of any type of meat.and i never bring home a whole box of cookies or little boxed cakes, i buy them, take 2 out and either drop them by my children s homes or give the extras to a neighbor,this is what has worked for me, it takes time but i figure that if always eat normal i will get to a normal weight one day, and i will stay at a normal weight if i always eat normal size helpings,, P.S. my husband has also lost over 50 lbs to....0
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sorry, that was meant to be a restaurant supply house0
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That's fantastic! I salute your stick-to-it-iveness and your weight loss!!
:drinker:
There are a lot of people here who inspire me, and I just added you to that list!!!0 -
I have not been on in several days because I had an exacerbation of my carpal tunnel and when that happens I stay OFF the computer for a while. Since then a LOT of helpful hints popped up and I wanted to add my two cents to a couple.
I also have a fitbit. A friend talked me into it and in the beginning I thought it was silly but its great! The reason that its so helpful for me is that you look at that total at the end of the day and it starts to change your way of thinking. I average about 6000 steps right now and I find myself parking at the outside edge of the parking lot at the grocery store. I take a couple of extra laps around the mall just to window show. If its a nice evening I go out and take a few laps around my yard. You think differently when you have a little device that is counting each of those steps and its great that it connects to myfitnesspal!!
Someone mentioned mashed potatoes. Remember when the RAGE was low carb diets? And now I think most of us just try to avoid the "whites" Well, during that time I tried those cauliflower mashed potatoes that so many people were raving about and I'm sorry, but no matter how I cooked them, they did NOT taste like mashed potoatoes! But recently someone told me to boil together 1/2 potatoes and 1/2 cauliflower and then prepare then like mashed potatoes and guess what? It works!! You can actually get the taste with less guilt!! ( just don't say to yourself you can eat twice as much! lol)
I also love both dark chocolate and red wine!!! (an yes they do go wonderfully together! lol) I buy only my absolute favorite dark chocolate (for me its endangered species dark chocolate bars with expresso bean bits) and one of my allowable desserts is one ounce with a glass of red wine. It took me a while but I found some little wine glasses that hold just five ounces! Having a glass that you cannot overfill works for me for some reason!!0 -
One of my friends bought a fitbit, and she loves it.
I have looked at them, but haven't yet purchased one.
I can see how it would be motivational to track your steps.
But.
I am a weird personality, and when I feel like something or someone is "nagging" me, I get angry and rebel.
I can't explain it. Sometimes the kinds of things that motivate other people just make me want to go
buy a loaf of crunchy bread, a slab of butter and sit in a corner, stuffing my face it until it's all gone.
:::Looks around for the men in the white coats::::0 -
I am also new this is my first post. I learned yesterday and today plan your food before you eat it. I went over in my calories both days. Not far over but still had I checked before I ate it a little modification would have kept me within range. I love all the good tips and I want to check into the fit bit. How much do they cost and where can you find them?0
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Welcome. This is a great group! I got my fitbit on Amazon.com and I am not going to look back right now, but I think it was about $900
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Hi! I know my picture says I joined in 2012, but have not been on MFP for a very long time. I am beginning again today! Thanks for all of the tips - they are very helpful. I have a very wide band of rebellion down my back so, consequently, I wake up one morning and decided I just don't want to do "it" any more. The "it" can be exercise, dieting, journaling or whatever. This has been a major problem for me. I am hoping I can stay with it this time.0
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Welcome back!
I'm a returning back-slider too. I think I'd originally joined in 2011. As I recall, this site wasn't as user-friendly back then.. there was no group for people our age. Too bad I didn't stick with it, I would be... MUCH slimmer now.
Oh well, here's to starting over!!!
If you need a friend.. feel free to add me! :drinker:0
