I have drawn the line

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  • rekite2000
    rekite2000 Posts: 218 Member
    When I started (and now restarting)- I weighed (with a cheap Walmart digital scale) all of my food. I began to learn what a serving was. Chips- I was happy with just a serving usually. Cheese- I was eating 3-4 times more than I thought a serving was! Creamer in coffee (like 150 calories a day). I made small adjustments to each meal. I go to Wendy's and get a burger with a side salad and my own dressing- I don't like fries but got them out of habit. Made large amounts of soup and chili to freeze in servings for easy lunches at work. Sunday I would cut veggies and put into serving bags.

    So- just learn about food first. Weigh it and then look at nutrients. Read the stickie posts (at the top of the discussions posts that always stay there). You will learn so much.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    edited July 2015
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  • pstegman888
    pstegman888 Posts: 286 Member
    If you don't cook, pick up a rotisserie chicken & a big salad-bar salad (load it up with all kinds of good stuff) for a delicious easy meal. Remove the skin (except the wings are a special treat) & dig in! Slice any leftover chicken for sandwiches for the next day, bulking them out with tomato & greens. Or add diced chicken to rice with some sauteed onions & mushrooms. I sometimes get an extra container at the salad bar with mushrooms, spinach, roasted red pepper & onion, chop it all up & saute it quick to throw in with scrambled eggs for an easy meal. Crock pot meals can cook while you're at work, take only a few minutes to throw all ingredients in, & I just use canned veggies if I can't get out for fresh. Watermelon is my favorite dessert/snack right now - filling, refreshing, and sweet! Best wishes and you will never regret getting healthier. Do it while you're young, trust me.
  • Blaked22
    Blaked22 Posts: 18 Member
    Thank you all for the information! So I found the problem.... First off MFP is recommending that I eat 2,300 mg of sodium a day. Today I made two ham+turkey sandwiches with mustard. The sodium from the packaged lunch meat is insane. For the two sandwiches it totaled 2,400 mg of sodium. (Either they are incredible salty or MFP has the wrong numbers)
  • chubbard9
    chubbard9 Posts: 565 Member
    Blaked22 wrote: »
    Thank you all for the information! So I found the problem.... First off MFP is recommending that I eat 2,300 mg of sodium a day. Today I made two ham+turkey sandwiches with mustard. The sodium from the packaged lunch meat is insane. For the two sandwiches it totaled 2,400 mg of sodium. (Either they are incredible salty or MFP has the wrong numbers)

    Go with incredibly salty! Deli Mears usually have a lot of sodium
  • Blondiez73
    Blondiez73 Posts: 33 Member
    Blaked22 wrote: »
    Thank you all for the information! So I found the problem.... First off MFP is recommending that I eat 2,300 mg of sodium a day. Today I made two ham+turkey sandwiches with mustard. The sodium from the packaged lunch meat is insane. For the two sandwiches it totaled 2,400 mg of sodium. (Either they are incredible salty or MFP has the wrong numbers)

    Its the meat.

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Blaked22 wrote: »
    Thank you all for the information! So I found the problem.... First off MFP is recommending that I eat 2,300 mg of sodium a day. Today I made two ham+turkey sandwiches with mustard. The sodium from the packaged lunch meat is insane. For the two sandwiches it totaled 2,400 mg of sodium. (Either they are incredible salty or MFP has the wrong numbers)

    Yeah my husband tries to go low sodium too but it's tough, you pretty much have to make everything from scratch.

    What's helped me a lot is my george foreman grill (you can cook anything on there in less than 10 minutes) and frozen veggies. Super easy to make a meal in no time with that.

    Otherwise, just keep logging what you like... eventually you'll see what's high calories and you can eat less of, what has high sodium and that you can substitute (like you can cook chicken breasts and use that instead of lunch meat) etc.
  • JordisTSM
    JordisTSM Posts: 359 Member
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    this is my standard advice:

    1. Enter stats into MFP and set for x amount of weight loss.
    2. Eat to the number that MFP gives you.
    3. get a food scale and weigh all solid foods, and as many liquids as possible.
    4. log everything
    5. make sure that you are using correct MFP database entries
    6. realize that there are no bad foods and that while the majority of foods should come from nutrient dense sources, there is nothing wrong with having pizza, ice cream, cookies, etc, as long as ones micro and macro needs are met.
    7. macro setting are typically .85 grams of protein per pound of body weight; .45 grams of fat per pound of body weight; fill in rest with carbs.
    8. find a form of exercise that you like and do it < not necessary for weight loss, but is for overall health and body comp.

    I would also recommend the below sticky:

    sidesteels guide:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    There are a few people around MFP that I always listen to, and NDJ is one of them. Don't over-complicate this, it really can be as easy as those 8 points. I have followed them, and gone from 366lbs in January, to 294lbs this morning.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Blaked22 wrote: »
    Thank you all for the information! So I found the problem.... First off MFP is recommending that I eat 2,300 mg of sodium a day. Today I made two ham+turkey sandwiches with mustard. The sodium from the packaged lunch meat is insane. For the two sandwiches it totaled 2,400 mg of sodium. (Either they are incredible salty or MFP has the wrong numbers)
    Deli meat is incredibly salty.

    If you have a butcher shop near you, they can cut you healthier slices and they can slice the stuff pretty dang thin. Ham will always be salty, but turkey is easier to get.

    There is so much salt in processed food. It's just crazy. But the good news is that you can make most things yourself and they'll taste as good or better. You can't make ham, lol. Only God can make a pig! But you can make baked beans and cottage cheese and all manner of things you'd otherwise have to give up...and that leaves room for a bitty bit of ham now and again. :)
  • muziique
    muziique Posts: 82 Member
    I totally understand where you are at. I got to that point two months ago when I weighed myself and couldn't believe how much the scale went up. That's awesome that you are motivated now to get healthy. You can do this!

    My biggest tip for you is one that I started doing this week....Meal Prep!!!! Planning my meals in advance on Sunday was a huge help to stay on track during the week and I didn't have to think about what I was going eat. YouTube is where I found meal prep videos with great healthy meal ideas. I purchased a few Rubbermaid containers to separate all my meals for the week. I made breakfast (eggs) and lunch meals (chicken and veggies), snacks (fruit, almonds, carrots, etc.). Dinner i made salads so that was easy to throw together after the gym. Meal prepping is great and makes things a lot easier.

    Hope you get lots of great tips and best of luck to you!!
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