Is it worth it
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Calories are calories and protein is protein even when it comes from Taco Bell, right? Except when it comes from Taco Bell :grumble:
Calories are indeed calories, but it will definitely make a difference in your hunger level if you eat a giant mound of low-cal foods as opposed to a single pastry with the same number of calories. In other words, for the whole day, would you rather eat an omelette and toast and chicken stir fry with a ton of veggies and a spicy shrimp wrap with veggies, or would you rather eat 5 cookies for the whole day?0 -
Calories are calories and protein is protein even when it comes from Taco Bell, right? Except when it comes from Taco Bell :grumble:
Calories are indeed calories, but it will definitely make a difference in your hunger level if you eat a giant mound of low-cal foods as opposed to a single pastry with the same number of calories. In other words, for the whole day, would you rather eat an omelette and toast and chicken stir fry with a ton of veggies and a spicy shrimp wrap with veggies, or would you rather eat 5 cookies for the whole day?
Not the five cookies for the whole day, no
Re-reading the thread, there wasn't as much Taco Bell sucks as I thought :laugh: 0 -
That is not hungry that is hangry....
why are you hungry and grumpy all the time?
I am looking at your diary...
4 cookies @ 1800 calories? yah that wouldn't keep me full either
There are lots of days with cookies, chips etc where you are way over goal or you eat steak and chips are within goal but so little food...
I don't say this very often but you need to look at your food choices...fast food is one thing but everyday? yah you are going to be hungry with so little protien and filling foods.
For example yesterday you had tea and 5 hour energy in the morning, apple juice for dinner, then a slurpee...food was a bun, raisinettes and half a bowl of teriyaki chicken...holy heck.
Start eating real food...don't drink your calories with slurpees and eat cookies all day.
I while losing weight at 1600 -1700 calories most of the time (TDEE so that includes exercise) and I was never hungry...ever because I chose lean meat, lots of protien, filling veggies even when I ate out. Lots of greek yogurt, eggs, bacon, toast, cereal milk etc.
I'm going to quote this too, because it's good advice.
I am 100% in favor of eating the foods you like and fitting treats into your day. But a balanced diet is very important, and a little moderation goes a long way when it comes to diet adherence and overall satiety. Start looking at other food diaries with calorie goals similar to your own and get some ideas for some new meals and food choices you can add to your normal day. My dairy is open if you want to have a look. 0 -
Not every day is a cookie day, but without a log of what I ate before I started trying and logging my food, you can't see that even the cookie days are an improvement. At the end of the day I am an emotional eater. A day filled with chocolate or the like, it was guaranteed to be a bad day that I spent hiding from life. Before I left my last job, I was the girl who kept the candy dish both full and empty. I snacked all day on something. Sometimes M&Ms, sometimes caramel rice cakes, sometimes chips... Since mid April, my calorie intake has dropped for somewhere around 4-5k calories (on average) a day to what is showing now. It was worse years ago before I made the switch to diet soda.
I choked down the 5 hour energies this week due to only getting about 3 hours of sleep on what should have been Sunday night but ended up being Monday morning before work. I have been recovering from our move this weekend and last for some time.
The fast food is mostly due to the fact that is all that is near my work and in my price range. Only place within walking distance of work on my break is Taco Bell and Starbucks. Taco Bell is cheaper. There is a 7-11 as well, but I don't think that is an improvement over the other options.
Last night's apple juice... that is fun. I had food... I saw it... I smelled it... but I didn't get to eat it. Instead of coming home to kids and having dinner, I got to commute in rush hour traffic (both ways because I am that kind of lucky) to get the kids, then back home. The person that was supposed to get them hadn't bothered and claimed to be leaving fetch them when I was on my way home. I drove past the house and they still hadn't left. By the time I got home it was past the kids bed time and I still had to do work in an effort to find our thing among the boxes we are currently living in. Last night I found the couch, the computer desks and troubleshot an electrical issue. After that I passed out. My goal tonight is to find plates, bowls, possibly cups and my inhaler. Inhaler has been on the list all week though, so I'm not holding my breath for that one.
I am an amazingly stupid picky eater. Foods with certain texture gag me. I tried cheesecake once years ago and threw up before I was able to swallow the bite. Things that crunch that I don't think should freak me out. Grew up around too many cockroaches and that has its own side effect. Yogurt is a food I want to like. I want to like it so much, but it is nasty. Super gross. I don't know how my kids eat it. I want to like fish because it is generally pretty good for you, but being near anyone even cooking it makes me nauseous. Milk products periodically cause bad things to happen so cereal of any sort has been removed from what I eat since kid #1. I am a red meet and potatoes kinda girl and most the time I can't afford that either. I used to go to a local place at my last job and have salad nearly every day... but they caught fire and didn't re-open before my job move. Eating protein is expensive. I am just a lowly employee at a school district and count my blessings that my child care costs currently include their meals while they are there. I try to get the best things I can with what I have available, but what I have doesn't last a month if I pay more than $5 or so for lunch. At this point I am not sure even the $5 is going to be sustainable.
In my efforts to maintain a relatively nutritious household for my kids, they are not overweight at all. In fact due to my ex-husbands metabolism that my son ended up with, he usually comes in under weight. I am a HUGE hypocrite when it comes to food and the kids. Just because I eat it, does not mean I let them have it. I get a diet soda or tea with most my meals but make them get juice, milk or water. I want desert, I get a cookie. They want desert they get some sort of fruit or yogurt. I refused to let them have anything but milk, water or watered down juice for the first few years of either of their lives. No chocolate, no soda, no candy at that point. Now days they drink some soda, but usually still get milk, juice or Gatorade. The bubbles burn and they don't like it. I am painfully aware that it is a lot easier to develop healthy habits than it is to break an addiction to food and sugar.
I spend so much time stressing about making sure they are active and eating right that I basically get whats left that I can tolerate the taste of, be it what they don't eat or what I have the energy to make/care about. Cooking right now is impossible. My kitchen is covered in boxes. I am sure that my dishes are around there somewhere, but even if I found them it wouldn't matter, cause the stove is buried. I won't eat most pork, or any fish. I have someone in my house allergic to poultry and fish. If we eat any more red meat my husband is going to die of a heart attack.
When not living out of boxes I tend to cook dinner. Typically two veggies (cause I compulsively feel the need for there to be a green one, so even if it is corn season we still have broccoli, artichokes or zucchini with it too), a carb of some sort and a meat. Inevitably, everyone overeats. I have an easier time controlling the quantity of food that both my husband and I eat, if we eat out.
How do people work full time, cook multiple meals every day, manage to have something to bring as a lunch, raise small kids and have any time for anything other than cooking, cleaning and then the paying job? at least half the time I am tapping my foot at the toaster in the morning, waiting for waffles to pop up so I can hand them to the kids and have them eat them in the car while we rush out of the house... cause "No, you can't have syrup with them. You will turn out like me."0 -
Look up websites about cheap eating. You can eat way better than Taco Bell for less money with eggs, beans, frozen veggies, and packing your own lunch.
And I don't know what you're using MFP on, but if you really can't afford food, you should probably drop Internet or your cellphone.0 -
It sounds like you have a full plate for sure.
It takes a lot of planning, organizing and more planning to pull off a day in the life of parents with small children. It is never done by anyone to perfection. But the preplanning and organizing are an integral part of making it seem easy for some. The chaos and stress of always running behind, not being able to find things, and general disorganization make life almost impossibly stressful for the whole family. Children especially feel the stress. That would be my first goal. To work on getting unpacked and then getting a solid routine in place for the whole family.
The other thing is that children look to Moms and Dads for guidance in what and how they should eat, manage their bodies, well, everything. Making your children eat healthy is great, but remember that what you DO as a parent has more impact than what you SAY. Modeling good healthy eating and exercise will be a terrific teaching tool for you.
Best of luck as you get on track. Read the links in this thread. Absorb the information and put it to use. The healthier you become, the better able you will be to relax and feel some pride in how you are parenting.
edited for my atrocious spelling0 -
Once you get unpacked and get the kitchen put together, would it be possible for you to cook ahead for the week? That would save you some time and make it a little easier to make good choices about eating.
I hope things settle down for you so you can get to where you'd like to be.0 -
A fairly decent option for little money is canned soup. You'll get a bunch of sodium, but if you're relatively healthy with normal blood pressure then the sodium is preferable to being overweight in the grand scheme of your health. You can eat a ton of soup for 300 calories or less. Eggs are another good option. Egg sandwiches or wraps, with some sort of veggies, can come in at 300 calories or less...200 if you're careful about bread selection and throw out the yolk. Personally, I love the yolk, but whites are fine if you throw in fresh herbs and spices.0
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Leftover dinner for lunch is a timesaver for me. It's no harder to cook more servings of the same meal and then I immediately pack them for lunch.
I get the move making it harder, but the dinners you cook shouldn't make portion control a problem. Vegetables are low calories--plan to eat as much as you like, and frozen are cheap and healthy, and depending on where you live in-season might be available at a reasonable price (sounds like you know this). Corn is really more like what you are calling a carb than what is traditionally considered a vegetable (all vegetables are carbs, however). I love corn and eat lots when it's in season here, but I wouldn't eat it AND potatoes, but even that's not your issue. Meat and veggies plus a starch is going to be a LOT more filling than what you have been eating lately, just portion out the amount of meat and starch you eat to fit your calories and make extra for the next day. Also, whatever you make, pack it up immediately so people don't end up eating it with dinner. I bought (really cheap at Walgreens or CVS) a set of plastic containers to bring food to work and they make this super easy.0 -
If you have a freezer and microwave at work, you can eat for a lot less than $5, and it be healthy and taste good. Almost every night at work, my supper has stir-fry veggies, mixed veggies or green beans in some combination. It helps that I love them. But you can find something you love and is healthy too. And eating good makes you feel good. It would be worth it for that alone.0
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Leftover dinner for lunch is a timesaver for me. It's no harder to cook more servings of the same meal and then I immediately pack them for lunch.
Also, whatever you make, pack it up immediately so people don't end up eating it with dinner. I bought (really cheap at Walgreens or CVS) a set of plastic containers to bring food to work and they make this super easy.
My wife packs her lunch. We save the little plastic tubs deli meats come in for to-go containers. They are just right for a serving. She will pack her lunch the night before, so it doesn't take up any of her morning time.0 -
Hi
Working mum who has just moved house - super stress time! Good to hear you know what you are eating is not good for you, and that you have cut back.
Having a healthy diet doesn't mean existing on celery sticks and natural yoghurt.
On the other hand, a healthy diet is definitely not what you diary shows.
Tackle one thing at a time, log everything so you can see - "well that 1000 calories for a bite of crap wasn't worth it - maybe I would be better having chicken breast and vegies for 800 calories" - or whatever. Log honestly (it is hard to do so, I have made my diary private at the moment as I am embarrassed at what I have been eating)! Logging will show what you consume is giving you in calories, protein, etc - log ahead so you can see what foods are not good choices, and then try thinking of something else to substitute for things that are not so healthy.
Plan ahead - if you have a fridge or microwave at work - take food with you.
Plan ahead - some healthy meals for you and your kids. Shop so you have better choices available in the house. Don't buy crap.
If you can't NOT eat stuff (for me it is Nutella) then just don't buy it.
Children learn from you by what you do, not what you tell them. You have to be the person you want them to be - so if you want calm, happy children who eat well - then you need to be that person.
Look at diaries of people who have lost weight - look in success stories, read how they did it - it is a long lifetime commitment you need to undertake for your own sake and for your children's sake - they need their mum/mom!
Another thing that you must do - get some exercise - maybe the Leslie Sansone walking videos - having children makes it difficult to get out of the house to walk around the block - unless they go with you?? Or walking around your backyard 10 times - that's how I started - and just increase it each day. Exercise is also good for depression and I would hazard a guess that you are depressed and angry at things which isn't helping - recognise that and work on getting some stress relief.
Other people have done this so you can too. :flowerforyou:0 -
Mine drink Dr Pepper and Mountain Dew because they like them and, even at a few times a week, those drinks are a very small part of their overall diet. "Should" makes your statement sound more like a fact than the opinion it really is.You are ready for a total redo of both your diets and your children.
Why are they drinking soda in the first place/ It should be a very occasional-couple times a year-treat.0 -
a few ideas that might help:
Tacos are super easy and cheap to make, if you are trying to cut down on calories I like ground turkey as a substitute for the ground beef (IMO it tastes better than ground chicken in the tacos)
fajitas are the same way, super easy to cook, slice up some chicken, peppers and onions, I use a packet seasoning, and throw it on a tortilla
If you don't have one I love my slow cooker/crock pot. You can set up dinner in the morning and its ready to eat when you get home. So man recipes you can use with it!
You mentioned liking salad, one thing I did a lot when I was on a lower calorie goal was cook 2 chicken breasts in the crock pot on sunday. Then I would shred them up and put them in little containers for 5 days of the week. Then each night while I was cooking dinner I would dice up the veggies for a salad the next day and have the chicken ready to go to put on top. Easy to grab on your way out the door in the morning.
Sunday is my chop and organize day. I go grocery shopping and cut up most of the fruit and portion it out for the whole week so I can just grab containers out of the fridge in the morning and head to work.0 -
Reading about your life circumstances, I think you would benefit hugely from some meal replacement DIY shakes for breakfast and/or lunch that you can make in advance and not THINK about. One thing I have trouble with as a busy mom with little kids is dealing with breakfast and lunch. I now do a DIY meal replacement such as this one http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/chocolate-silk
Mine are tuned to be 400 calories in a mason jar. I drink this a lot for breakfast and lunch, usually about 600 calories total for both. Mine are tuned a bit differently than the linked recipe for more protein (much more whey protein, much less flour and masa) which fills me up more but you can see the idea.
One night a week or so I make up my mason jars (bought a case) with all the powder I need so all I have to do is mix up a shake (or three) the night before and stick it in the fridge.
My husband has also been appreciating these; in the past if I didn't make us dinner the night before and he had no leftovers it would be off to Burger King/Taco Bell/Arby's for lunch. But now if he has no leftovers lunch he will take a "Nutrigoo" as we call it. We've been doing this for a month and we are saving LOTS of money.
You can drink it in the car, at work, wherever even if you are busy. I know people poo-poo drinking calories but for me the shakes are extremely filling and before trying this "DIY Soylent" method I have NEVER been one to drink calories in any form. This is about the closest I can get to a "meal pill" which is what I really want!
I also want to reiterate that I not drinking them just as part of my "weight loss" regime; hubby and I are happy to have found these as a permanent meal replacement for busy days. And best yet I always have plenty of calories to enjoy a REAL dinner not "rabbit food" AND I always save calories for after dinner snacks. I love snacks.
You can look at my diary, it's open0 -
Hi OP,
There are a lot of great suggestions here...
Personally, I LOVE my slow cooker... look around online or for books in the library for recipes. Most are just awesome and ridiculously easy.
One suggestion for getting in some good cheap protein is try beans and lentils, especially the dried ones. Try slowly working them into your diet if you don't have them now (as in refried beans in your tacos), as they might upset your stomach a bit at first. Again, look for cookbooks at the library or for recipes online.
There are also a lot of websites that have great recipes that you can make on Sunday and eat throughout the week... it's the only way I survived when my son was little. My favorite was a slowcooker full of chilli to eat every day for lunch - high in protein and fibre! And YUMMYYYYYYYY!!
Good luck!!
Marg0 -
You seem super overwhelmed. This is a site that helped me a lot when I was trying to juggle everything going on in my life: http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/ . You make simple, small changes one step at a time until they become a habit.0
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No, it isn't worth it. Verbally abusing children should be avoided at all costs, even your health.
I never let children drink in my car because I don't want the mess. There is nothing wrong with rules. But screaming at children like that...it's not okay. It's never okay. And there is NO excuse.
You should consider therapy for both your weight issues and your inability to control your temper. Do that for your children, not for yourself.0 -
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/08/31/is-it-really-worth-it/
Is It Really Worth It?
It will require commitment and dedication.
It will require you to say “no” sometimes.
It will require sacrifice.
It won’t be quick.
It won’t be easy.
It won’t be fun all of the time
Your friends will laugh at you for doing things differently.
Your coworkers will gawk and poke fun at your new eating habits.
Your loved ones will call you crazy and ask you to “be normal.”
You will have to change some habits.
You will want to give up.
You will want to go back to bed.
You will want to say “eh, good enough.”
And you will ask yourself: “is it really worth it?”
You’re damn right it is.
You will feel great when you set a new record for push ups.
You will let out a rebel yell when doing your first pull up.
You will feel awesome running faster this week than last week.
You will be amazed at how far you’ve come when looking at old pictures.
You will feel good when people ask “have you been working out?”
You will smile when your kids say “I want to be strong like you!”
You will be surprised when people come to you for fitness advice.
You will feel pride when you look at yourself in the mirror.
You will go to sleep knowing that you’re a better person today than you were yesterday.
It is worth it.0 -
I think so.
And it doesn't have to be so difficult.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/ihad/view/reflections-on-a-year-of-maintenance-6679530 -
Not every day is a cookie day, but without a log of what I ate before I started trying and logging my food, you can't see that even the cookie days are an improvement. At the end of the day I am an emotional eater. A day filled with chocolate or the like, it was guaranteed to be a bad day that I spent hiding from life. Before I left my last job, I was the girl who kept the candy dish both full and empty. I snacked all day on something. Sometimes M&Ms, sometimes caramel rice cakes, sometimes chips... Since mid April, my calorie intake has dropped for somewhere around 4-5k calories (on average) a day to what is showing now. It was worse years ago before I made the switch to diet soda.
I choked down the 5 hour energies this week due to only getting about 3 hours of sleep on what should have been Sunday night but ended up being Monday morning before work. I have been recovering from our move this weekend and last for some time.
The fast food is mostly due to the fact that is all that is near my work and in my price range. Only place within walking distance of work on my break is Taco Bell and Starbucks. Taco Bell is cheaper. There is a 7-11 as well, but I don't think that is an improvement over the other options.
Last night's apple juice... that is fun. I had food... I saw it... I smelled it... but I didn't get to eat it. Instead of coming home to kids and having dinner, I got to commute in rush hour traffic (both ways because I am that kind of lucky) to get the kids, then back home. The person that was supposed to get them hadn't bothered and claimed to be leaving fetch them when I was on my way home. I drove past the house and they still hadn't left. By the time I got home it was past the kids bed time and I still had to do work in an effort to find our thing among the boxes we are currently living in. Last night I found the couch, the computer desks and troubleshot an electrical issue. After that I passed out. My goal tonight is to find plates, bowls, possibly cups and my inhaler. Inhaler has been on the list all week though, so I'm not holding my breath for that one.
I am an amazingly stupid picky eater. Foods with certain texture gag me. I tried cheesecake once years ago and threw up before I was able to swallow the bite. Things that crunch that I don't think should freak me out. Grew up around too many cockroaches and that has its own side effect. Yogurt is a food I want to like. I want to like it so much, but it is nasty. Super gross. I don't know how my kids eat it. I want to like fish because it is generally pretty good for you, but being near anyone even cooking it makes me nauseous. Milk products periodically cause bad things to happen so cereal of any sort has been removed from what I eat since kid #1. I am a red meet and potatoes kinda girl and most the time I can't afford that either. I used to go to a local place at my last job and have salad nearly every day... but they caught fire and didn't re-open before my job move. Eating protein is expensive. I am just a lowly employee at a school district and count my blessings that my child care costs currently include their meals while they are there. I try to get the best things I can with what I have available, but what I have doesn't last a month if I pay more than $5 or so for lunch. At this point I am not sure even the $5 is going to be sustainable.
In my efforts to maintain a relatively nutritious household for my kids, they are not overweight at all. In fact due to my ex-husbands metabolism that my son ended up with, he usually comes in under weight. I am a HUGE hypocrite when it comes to food and the kids. Just because I eat it, does not mean I let them have it. I get a diet soda or tea with most my meals but make them get juice, milk or water. I want desert, I get a cookie. They want desert they get some sort of fruit or yogurt. I refused to let them have anything but milk, water or watered down juice for the first few years of either of their lives. No chocolate, no soda, no candy at that point. Now days they drink some soda, but usually still get milk, juice or Gatorade. The bubbles burn and they don't like it. I am painfully aware that it is a lot easier to develop healthy habits than it is to break an addiction to food and sugar.
I spend so much time stressing about making sure they are active and eating right that I basically get whats left that I can tolerate the taste of, be it what they don't eat or what I have the energy to make/care about. Cooking right now is impossible. My kitchen is covered in boxes. I am sure that my dishes are around there somewhere, but even if I found them it wouldn't matter, cause the stove is buried. I won't eat most pork, or any fish. I have someone in my house allergic to poultry and fish. If we eat any more red meat my husband is going to die of a heart attack.
When not living out of boxes I tend to cook dinner. Typically two veggies (cause I compulsively feel the need for there to be a green one, so even if it is corn season we still have broccoli, artichokes or zucchini with it too), a carb of some sort and a meat. Inevitably, everyone overeats. I have an easier time controlling the quantity of food that both my husband and I eat, if we eat out.
How do people work full time, cook multiple meals every day, manage to have something to bring as a lunch, raise small kids and have any time for anything other than cooking, cleaning and then the paying job? at least half the time I am tapping my foot at the toaster in the morning, waiting for waffles to pop up so I can hand them to the kids and have them eat them in the car while we rush out of the house... cause "No, you can't have syrup with them. You will turn out like me."
I'm a single parent, three kids, a full time job, and a house/yard to take care of. It's not impossible and yes, it's worth it.0 -
When I was first here I couldn't hit my target for more than 2 or 3 days. On the days I went over I felt awful.
Then one day I realized that even a BAD DAY on MFP I was still doing better than I was before MFP.
then i did some math and came up with a range. So i wouldn't have to hit 1 number every day.
++Rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me. (I swear this saved my life.) I was happier once I gave myself a range:
ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 cal
TARGET: MFP Calories for lose 1 lb a week (when that hit 1200 I changed to lose 1/2 lb per week)
TOP OF RANGE: Maintain Calories for my GOAL Weight.
(SAFETY VALVE: Maintain Calories for CURRENT Weight - remember to keep updating this number as you lose)
++Only worry about it 1 lb at a time.
Forget I *NEED* to lose 20, 30, 50, 100 lbs. I'm only worried about 1 lb the next one. I'll worry about the others later.
Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as achievable. )
++Think of losing weight like the stock market. Yes, there will be fluctuations but as long as the overall trend is the the right direction don't worry
++Small sustainable changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress. (and who doesn't have stress?)
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort, sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves. Also rather than having to think about everything all the time. You only have to think about a 2 or 3 new things to focus on.
Food is not the enemy. You need nutrition to fuel your body and make it strong. and healthy just feels so damn good.
Most vitamins are fat soluable... so remember to include plant and fish based fats (HAPPY FATS) so you can access the nutrients in your food.
All of your foods fall into 1 or more of 3 macro nutrient categories
FATS • CARBS • PROTEINS ... I personally think it's unwise to severely restrict any one of these categories.
Instead of eliminating or limiting quantity focus on the quality...
HAPPY FATS (Plant and fish bases)
COMPLEX CARBS (un or minimally processed)
LEAN PROTEINS
Oddly enough, on my journey here I've reduced guilt over food.
I have the occasional treat and I fully enjoy it with no guilt involved.
The thing is since I'm not eating crap all the time, now the occasional treat is just that a TREAT it's special and I enjoy it so much more than when I was unconsciously shovel junk food into my face.0 -
So I have been on and off trying to get my weight under control since my first kid. I have actually been using MFP consistently for the last month or two and making slow but steady progress. What I can't seem to do is not be hungry and be anywhere near my daily calorie goal. I wake up with my tunny talking to me and I get to listen to it all day. As such I have noticed my moods are way worse too. Sure, I am down a few pounds, but I can't remember the last day I didn't loose my temper at my kids. My ability to look at the car covered in soda and calmly tell them to get a towel is gone and replaced with screaming things like "Clearly you are to f****** incompetent to have a cup in the car. No more drinks in my car ever!"
Is it worth it? Is it worth being constantly hungry and grumpy and stressed and tired all the time just to loose weight? So far the journey has brought me nothing but constant frustration from not being able to pull out of my PMS type mood for over a month to irritation with the "good" things, like my pants being looser thus needing to be pulled up constantly. What good does being healthier and living longer do if to be healthy and live longer the sacrifices you have to make to get you there make you miserable?
Nothing is worth ever talking to your kids like that. Get a grip. It is not your children's fault that you can't get your diet under control. They do not deserve to be treated like that.0 -
Also tracking food has helped me to see the connection between what I eat and how I feel... So it's nice to feel that I have more control over how I feel.
Nutrient dense food is the way to go!!! I do allow my self treats,,, but mostly I if it's not nutrition, it's probably a toxin.
The good news is you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be better.
Watch your sugar.
BOTH sugar and ARTIFICIAL sweeteners increase your appetite...
Watch out for hidden sugars especially in anything prepackaged or processed.
I have a sweet tooth so I try to avoid hidden sugars in "real foods" so I can have a snack
Sugar also prevents the absorption of certain nutrients like calcium.
If you get your nutrition FIRST and reduce your sugar it will reduce cravings and make it easier to stay in your calorie range.
One day I thought of it this way...
Hunger is your body's way of saying it needs fuel.
if you don't give your body the nutrition it needs.
You can eat 3000+ calories a day and still be hungry.
You can eat 3000+ and still go into "starvation mode"
Rather than focusing on what I shouldn't eat, I've been more successful focusing on what I should eat.
Here I my goals... haven't come close to hitting them consistently yet.
EVERYDAY:
a green salad,
a green veg,
some other type of veg, (Yellow: carrots, sweet potatoes, White: eggplant, cauliflower, potatoes, Red: beets... etc.)
some berries,
a piece of fruit,
a small handful of nuts and
TWICE A WEEK:
A legume based meal
A fish based meal
ONCE A WEEK:
A mushroom based meal.
All nutrient dense options, which will reduce cravings...0 -
a few times a week is too much for a kid. Of course they enjoy them.
Mine drink Dr Pepper and Mountain Dew because they like them and, even at a few times a week, those drinks are a very small part of their overall diet. "Should" makes your statement sound more like a fact than the opinion it really is.You are ready for a total redo of both your diets and your children.
Why are they drinking soda in the first place/ It should be a very occasional-couple times a year-treat.0 -
My son drinks soda every day. He is perfectly healthy, and has never had a cavity at 14.0
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It doesn't have to be hard or time consuming. Use your fast food money for groceries. You can throw together a wrap or a salad for less $$. Tuna fish is easy and quick. Make some chicken breasts for salads or sandwiches. Eggs or oatmeal for breakfast. Protein bars, cheese, fruit for snacks. Buy a big tub of protein powder, frozen fruit and milk for quick on the go breakfasts. You are crabby because you aren't fueling your body and eating crap. Stop the bun for breakfast, whatever that is. That's a guarantee for a bad start to your day. I personally think you might not be ready to do this. I feel way worse when I eat bad, and great when I eat healthy.0
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other parents are *kitten*. typical "i raise my kid better than you raise your kid" bull****.0
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I really want a cookie now.0
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its so so bad for them. And a horrible habit to start so young. So his doctor says it's healthy??My son drinks soda every day. He is perfectly healthy, and has never had a cavity at 14.0
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