HAVING SUCH A HARD TIME

Don't know if this will help. I've had many problems losing weight, going from diet to diet, succeeding, backsliding, etc. This time I decided to get rid of all the food in the fridge and anything I liked to eat from the pantry, and buy only frozen meals that have around 250-300 cals apiece. I buy them at Target for 1.99 or wherever they are on sale (they're always on sale somewhere). Then I use this tool to set up 6 meals a day: breakfast, at which I have no more than 300 cals (an english muffin, coffee, an egg, no butter or other fat, something like that, or oatmeal). Then I have a midmorning snack (an apple or a nonfat yoghurt), then lunch (a frozen dinner, maybe 250-300 cals), then midafternoon (some carrots, or an apple, or a couple of tomatoes cut up with salt and pepper), and then dinner (a frozen meal). That brings me up to around 1000 cals/day, so I have some after-dinner cheating I can do. I'm trying to hold it under 1500 cals/day. For after dinner cheating I might have another frozen dinner, or a Morningstar black bean burger on a toasted English muffin, etc. Or even one Weight Watchers frozen chocolate eclair if I really want to go crazy. That still puts me under 1500 cals. My basal rate is about 2800 cals/day, because I'm pretty large and tall, so I don't think I can cut back much more than this on average without making my body think it's starving.

This way of eating ranges from about $8-10/day for me. I'm not hungry yet, I've been at it for a couple of weeks, and it seems that I'm constantly eating something. Some of those frozen dinners, particularly the Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers (5 for $11 these days) are pretty tasty. I think once I understand the portion control a bit better I can start substituting some of my own cooking, and save money, but the frozen food helps to keep me from overeating because once it is gone, it's gone.

I also do 2 more things: first, I take a teaspoon of sugar-free Orange Metamucil in a glass of water each meal (3x a day) because it is fiber and helps keep me feeling full while helping also with cholesterol. It essentially tastes like crunchy Tang, but you have to mix and drink it quickly before it starts to gel, because then it is very strange.

The second thing is that I exercise 30 minutes a day: walking, lifting weights, swimming, whatever I can manage to do. I'm even considering doing aerobics in front of the TV, although this would probably cause a lot of derisive laughter in my household. This exercising burns more calories and helps prevent the destruction of muscle tissue from the low-calorie diet.

This is working well for me so far. It's really my version of Nutrisystem. When I read about Nutrisystem I figured I could pretty much do the same thing for a lot less money. Nutrisystem costs about $300/month, or about $10/day, and a lot of people complain about the food quality and taste. Well, for that much or less I can choose frozen stuff that is pretty tasty, so I have no complaints. Considering that I could blow $5 or $6 easily at the drive-thru for lunch, I don't consider the expense to be too terrible, but I think with a little planning you could cut it in half by substituting your own stuff for at least one meal/day.

Not eating what I want is upsetting to me, since I 'm a big eater, and I really like food. I also am a pretty good cook, so taste matters to me. And the exercise thing is hard to force myself to do. I'm a 55 year old guy, and pretty doggone fat right now, so swimming laps is sort of like a whale sighting in the pool, but I force myself anyway.

Little by little I'm making progress. I'm logging EVERYTHING, every day, in MFP. Even the cheating and the laziness. When I overshoot a day, like last night when, after I ate everything I planned to eat for the day, I nevertheless went out with my friend Jimmy and scarfed down a huge burrito, I note the overrun, and I try to offset it the next day by eating that much less, or exercising that much more. I never let myself off the hook. I don't beat myself up for cheating or failing, but I do force myself to compensate for it the next day. Today payback was hell. I had to swim 1/2 mile to make up for that doggone burrito, and eat one less meal than normal.

Anyway, that's my idea, essentially do-it-yourself Nutrisystem plus exercise plus logging everything and accountability.

In my case, I just have to make this work because I can't stand being this fat; it makes me tired all the time and there are so many problems that it causes. So I have resolved to do something about it, every day.

A friend of mine, Demetrios, lost about 85 pounds in 9 months just by cutting back every day and doing things like using I can't believe it's not butter spray instead of butter or margarine. The other thing he did was that he allowed himself one day each week to cheat as much as he wanted. His cheating amounted to going out for drinks and eating whatever he wanted on a Friday or Saturday night. But he still managed to lose a lot of weight. And Demetrios is just an entirely different guy. He looks years younger and is actually handsome now, not just another fat guy.

So I know this can be done. It takes a decision, and it takes follow through every day, and a plan that you stick to. I think there are many ways to skin this cat, but it always comes down to you: do you have the will to keep pushing it no matter how discouraged you get, or no matter what else intervenes in your life that makes you want to say to hell with it and just chow down? It's the question we all have to ask ourselves.

Good luck, and remember you can do this, it just takes steadiness and determination.

You can absolutely do this. There are others here with thyroid problems as well. Sometimes for me the weight comes off easily and other times it is slow going. But eating healthy is going to be your best source for getting healthy and defeating those nasty side affects that thyroid desease has.