What the hell am I supposed to eat??
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kailyamie
Posts: 130
I can't do this counting crap anymore!!!!! I'm going insane!!! I don't know what the hell to eat.
MFP has my calorie goal at 2010 calories per day and I'm already having trouble reaching that goal every day because I am trying to be conscious about what I eat, and eating healthier foods makes it harder to eat so many calories.
I am trying to eat 6 smaller meals every day.
My problem is that that I cannot manage to keep my sodium and sugar down (sodium more than sugar, if I go over on sugar it's usually by just a few grams), it's like a freaking jigsaw puzzle. I think it's absurd that I cannot have an orange and a salad for lunch - a total of 200 calories - and it put me way over on sodium and sugar!!! That's ridiculous! That's not even a BIG salad, we're talking like 1/2 a cup of lettuce and 2 tablespoons of LIGHT dressing. That's barely enough food for my 3-year-old, yet it's like 450mg sodium. I was going to eat tuna today for lunch, but at 550mg sodium!??! I thought tuna was good for you!
I try to eat good things like oatmeal and special K cereal or raisin bran, and fruit and peanut butter, and whole grain or pumpernickel bread, and light yogurt... and it's ridiculous how far over on my sodium I always am YET I will still have a thousand calories or so left over every day. I am going freaking crazy trying to deal with this jigsaw puzzle - I don't have TIME for this every freaking day! I cannot sit and input each hypothetical meal and try to piece together reaching my calorie goal while maintaining a lower sodium level. It's like a part-time job... overly time consuming. I REALIZE that processed foods are higher in sodium, totally get that. However, I do not farm in my backyard, I have 3 kids, and we don't live on a steady diet of raw vegetables.
How to you even begin to have a common sense diet, reach what feels like an obscene amount of calories every day (and eating back exercise calories?!? Some days I have to eat 2400 for the day, that's a LOT, I'm going crazy) and still maintain lower sodium???
And before I get hit with judgmental comments, I realize that I weigh a lot, but this is mostly due to my not eating enough combined with PCOS and a bad hormonal imbalance, so I'm working from several disadvantages that I'm trying to overcome. My biggest issue of all was not eating enough. I wasn't eating all day... no breakfast or lunch... I'd have something around 2 o'clock-ish, then eat dinner, and sometimes have a snack late at night and that was it. I'm trying to re-train myself to eat 6 smaller meals every day starting when I first get up and it's been hard to make myself eat when I don't "feel" like it.
I have read a lot of posts on here, and it's no carbs, low sugar, low sodium, low calories... what the hell do you eat??? Everything is loaded with all kinds of crap, even things that are supposed to be good for you... full of sugar, sodium, HFCS, dyes, etc. etc. etc. I am not going to successfully live on a raw vegetable diet, that I can promise. So what is more important - meeting my calorie goal? Keeping sodium low - which means not achieving my calorie goal every day... ?? I dunno.... but the amount of thought that I have to put into this is worse than being obsessed and compulsively overeating.
My first week or so I lost 8 pounds and I haven't lost a damn thing since. I was up 1.5 lbs from YESTERDAY when I weighed this morning, so I am feeling severely defeated and irritated.
Anyone have any common sense advice for me???
MFP has my calorie goal at 2010 calories per day and I'm already having trouble reaching that goal every day because I am trying to be conscious about what I eat, and eating healthier foods makes it harder to eat so many calories.
I am trying to eat 6 smaller meals every day.
My problem is that that I cannot manage to keep my sodium and sugar down (sodium more than sugar, if I go over on sugar it's usually by just a few grams), it's like a freaking jigsaw puzzle. I think it's absurd that I cannot have an orange and a salad for lunch - a total of 200 calories - and it put me way over on sodium and sugar!!! That's ridiculous! That's not even a BIG salad, we're talking like 1/2 a cup of lettuce and 2 tablespoons of LIGHT dressing. That's barely enough food for my 3-year-old, yet it's like 450mg sodium. I was going to eat tuna today for lunch, but at 550mg sodium!??! I thought tuna was good for you!
I try to eat good things like oatmeal and special K cereal or raisin bran, and fruit and peanut butter, and whole grain or pumpernickel bread, and light yogurt... and it's ridiculous how far over on my sodium I always am YET I will still have a thousand calories or so left over every day. I am going freaking crazy trying to deal with this jigsaw puzzle - I don't have TIME for this every freaking day! I cannot sit and input each hypothetical meal and try to piece together reaching my calorie goal while maintaining a lower sodium level. It's like a part-time job... overly time consuming. I REALIZE that processed foods are higher in sodium, totally get that. However, I do not farm in my backyard, I have 3 kids, and we don't live on a steady diet of raw vegetables.
How to you even begin to have a common sense diet, reach what feels like an obscene amount of calories every day (and eating back exercise calories?!? Some days I have to eat 2400 for the day, that's a LOT, I'm going crazy) and still maintain lower sodium???
And before I get hit with judgmental comments, I realize that I weigh a lot, but this is mostly due to my not eating enough combined with PCOS and a bad hormonal imbalance, so I'm working from several disadvantages that I'm trying to overcome. My biggest issue of all was not eating enough. I wasn't eating all day... no breakfast or lunch... I'd have something around 2 o'clock-ish, then eat dinner, and sometimes have a snack late at night and that was it. I'm trying to re-train myself to eat 6 smaller meals every day starting when I first get up and it's been hard to make myself eat when I don't "feel" like it.
I have read a lot of posts on here, and it's no carbs, low sugar, low sodium, low calories... what the hell do you eat??? Everything is loaded with all kinds of crap, even things that are supposed to be good for you... full of sugar, sodium, HFCS, dyes, etc. etc. etc. I am not going to successfully live on a raw vegetable diet, that I can promise. So what is more important - meeting my calorie goal? Keeping sodium low - which means not achieving my calorie goal every day... ?? I dunno.... but the amount of thought that I have to put into this is worse than being obsessed and compulsively overeating.
My first week or so I lost 8 pounds and I haven't lost a damn thing since. I was up 1.5 lbs from YESTERDAY when I weighed this morning, so I am feeling severely defeated and irritated.
Anyone have any common sense advice for me???
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Replies
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I always go over sugar and sodium. The only think I really watch is total calories.
After that I am trying to increase by protein some, since I always underrun.0 -
I am always over on sugar and half the time over on sodium... I just worry about calories, carbs and protein. It works for me.0
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You should really try to watch your sodium intake as well. Sodium plays a HUGE roll in losing weight. Will make you retain a TON of water.....I always go over sugar and sodium. The only think I really watch is total calories.
After that I am trying to increase by protein some, since I always underrun.0 -
Are you a vegetarian, because eyou didn’t list a single meat or dair product. These will add calories and a re good for you.0
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Can you open up your diary?
What is your activity level set at?
You need to take baby steps and not try and fix everything at once. I started off just counting calories and nothing else. As I got the hang of that I start watching other things. Sodium is a *itch to keep under control because everything seems to have sodium.
Sit back, take a deep breath and just start watching your calories and drink enough water. You can add the other pieces in later. Don't get discouraged; it really is easy to do.0 -
Try to eat most of your sugar in the beginning of the day so your body has a chance to burn it off and if you consume extra sodium drink extra water to offset it.
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You should really try to watch your sodium intake as well. Sodium plays a HUGE roll in losing weight. Will make you retain a TON of water.....I always go over sugar and sodium. The only think I really watch is total calories.
After that I am trying to increase by protein some, since I always underrun.
Not only that, but sodium can lead to hypertension, I realize that low sodium is important, however, managing to eat low sodium is so hard while still meeting a 2010 daily calorie intake need. It's making me crazy.0 -
Sorry I can't offer advice, but I am going through the same thing, and I am not even tracking my sodium. It is a real pain to try to figure out. I keep getting the warning that I'm not consuming enough calories (and like you said, I am not even eating back my exercise calories, bc with trying to eat right, I'm not even making the original goal amt). I am afraid that my body is going to store fat bc it is supposedly in starvation mode, but I'm not hungry for anything more than I'm eating, aside from wishing I could eat bread, etc. Have no clue how to deal with this.0
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Do you have time to meet with a dietician or nutritionist? A specialist will help you make sense of all the info out there.0
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As you said, processed stuff has more sodium. Avoiding it doesnt mean eating raw veg only though. Try lean meats, Tortillas wraps, oats, low fat diary, eggs. All low sodium. Your allowance would be 2500mg a day, as long as you dont get packaged meal, to much processed meat and a McDonalds, you'll be ok. And dont worry about going over on your sugar if its from fruits. Fruit(in moderation) is very good for you. It's the refined sugar you need to watch out for.
Try nuts - very high in calories - no sodium or sugar. And try using sea salt for cooking - it has less sodium than table salt. Hope that helps. :flowerforyou:0 -
Are you a vegetarian, because eyou didn’t list a single meat or dair product. These will add calories and a re good for you.
Dairy is high in sugar though. I love yogurt, but it's high in sugar
And I do eat meat, usually at dinner, and usually only 4 ounces at a time, I am really not a big fan of eating meat, but I do eat meat once a day. 0 -
Counting my calories work for me... unless I have high sodium then I need to up my water intake.0
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Second adding the protein, but you should also try cooking at home. Eating healthy doesn't mean eating raw plain vegetables. Wild/brown rice, stir fry, vegetables, kebabs, etc etc. There's plenty of healthy recipes out there that will keep your taste buds interested so you dont have to eat stuff that doesn't excite you.
ie for breakfast, I know I need something filling, but also tasty, so its: egg+egg beaters (better flavor) + honey smoked ham chopped up + mexican cheese mix. High protein, lower cal because its half egg beaters, high flavor, and very filling! Experiment a little..there's a lot of options out there.
PS 4 oz of meat/protein isn't enough. You should probably find another way to add protein to your diet. Cottage cheese, egg beaters, light yogurt...0 -
I agree with you! I seem to go over my sodium and sugars too....so I decided to take it off the other day because it was driving me bonkers to keep track of it. I know the differences and just make sure its not ridiculously high. I usually eat some oatmeal for breakfast, by lunch I have whole grain rice or breads with low sodium soup. Then I just grab a freezer meal which is not the best choice since it has high sodium. For snacking I usually eat a 90cal fiber bar or fruits.0
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Don't give up!!!! You can do this! I was truly getting annoyed just like you with sugar/sodium. Than I realized I can REMOVE the sodium part from it. I dont even have to look at it. Instead of looking at numbers, I go by how I feel and drink a TON of water. If I see that I am retaining water, I simply lay off some of the foods I have been eatting!!!!0
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I am working with a 1200 calories a day :S... The trick is to exercise everyday to give you the extra calories so i can eat more. Worry more about the fat and calories then the sodium right now eventually you will be accustomed to less of it. Are you going by what is on the package that you are eating or by what someone added to the food database?0
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I think you are stressing too much on the sugars and soduim. (JMO) The natural sugar is not bad for you and the only thing sodium does is make you retain a little water - it doesn't make you shed fat. I think you should worry more about getting your calories and types of food in check before you start worrying about the other two. I have no problem reaching a 2000 calorie a day diet and I eat plenty more than just salad. This needs to be a more common sense approach.0
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you're making it more difficult than it really is. Why is your calorie intake so high? are you a runner? I workout for 30min a day and I never actually reach my 1600-1700 calorie goal. I stay around 1200-1300. All my meals are around 200-400 calories and I think that's pretty good.plus I have snacks. staying withing the sodium limit is tough and sugar too. But it's crazy if you are eating foods that take you way over. a little if fine though and no need to worry. you need to get over the excuses part before you can really make this work. It's life altering but it can be done without stress involved. Find some medium ground and work from there. Don't give up though, this is all a learning process. Just don't say it's too hard. It's not.0
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I honestly don't pay attention to the sodium column and you can delete it if that would help you. Also if you are drinking enough water that will help flush the sodium out of your system. Continue to eat healthy and exercise. If your doing processed foods try to stick to foods with less than 6 ingredients, this will help you stay on track.
What about protein and high fiber foods? If you'll open your diary we can take a look and see what your actually eating and may be able to offer better options.0 -
Completely agree with Halina - as long as you're not eating the majority of your food out of packets and cans, I wouldn't worry about it so much.0
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