Mutual motivation and accountability

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andrew4150
andrew4150 Posts: 30 Member
edited September 2017 in Introduce Yourself
32 year old recent father of a beautiful baby girl trying to live a more healthy lifestyle. I've managed to lose 15 pounds with exercise and very little monitoring of diet. Goal is to lose another 20 to 25. Wanted to kick it up a notch and decided to get MFP and keep going on the right track. Looking for friends to keep accountable and for mutual support. Add me or message if your interested.
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Replies

  • susanayt97
    susanayt97 Posts: 309 Member
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    Hey :) Tracking your food is so helpful, I believe you'll see a big difference, and learn a lot about what you eat.
  • andrew4150
    andrew4150 Posts: 30 Member
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    I just don't know how in depth I should go. I get frustrated searching and inputting all the different ingredients. I guess it gets easier once you have most of your meals already loaded?
  • susanayt97
    susanayt97 Posts: 309 Member
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    It definitely is a lot of work. Whenever I can, I log my food the previous day, I plan my meals. It's annoying to be worrying about it all day.
    For this to work it's important for you to weigh your ingredients. It does take a lot of time, especially in the beginning.
    If there is a combination of ingredients that you do often, you can create a recipe, and if there is something that you eat everyday, you can create a meal.
    If you check out each division of the forum, right on the top you will find some posts explaining how all of these things works, they do a much better job than I do :)
  • andrew4150
    andrew4150 Posts: 30 Member
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    Thanks I'll check it out.
  • BrianAWeber
    BrianAWeber Posts: 82 Member
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    I don't find logging my food to be that difficult. I would recommend getting a cheap digital scale, download the app Convert, which makes converting nutritional labels from grams to ounces, or cups to tablespoons. As your cooking everything just weigh it, and scan the bar code to find the nutritionals.
  • SweatsOnSunday
    SweatsOnSunday Posts: 514 Member
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    Great posts! I'd like to add you all. I like to see how others are doing, what they're eating or doing for exercise, to get ideas to try here.
  • SweatsOnSunday
    SweatsOnSunday Posts: 514 Member
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    I have a scale here that I want to try to use faithfully this week. So much of what I log are approximations. I'd like to be more exact.
  • susanayt97
    susanayt97 Posts: 309 Member
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    Yes, a scale is key, we're often way off when we guess. You'll find a lot of great recipes around the forum :)
  • andrew4150
    andrew4150 Posts: 30 Member
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    Question I have though. Problem I ran into last night while making dinner is I bought some chicken kabobs with vegetables and marinade already put together from the butcher. Do I just give that my best guess or should I just avoid getting stuff like that for now and assemble them myself?
  • susanayt97
    susanayt97 Posts: 309 Member
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    Same exact thing happened to me a couple of days ago! I searched in the database and chose one that made sense, considering the amount of food I ate. But I prefer to pick the ones with the most calories, just to be safe, even if I don't feel like I had that many.
    But yeah, it's better if you make it yourself! If you guess once in a while it's fine, but doing it everyday, you could be waaay off on a lot of meals.
  • KarlaDixon1
    KarlaDixon1 Posts: 5 Member
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    Please add me
  • KarlaDixon1
    KarlaDixon1 Posts: 5 Member
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    I'm On day 3 of my new journey
  • andrew4150
    andrew4150 Posts: 30 Member
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    Is anyone else having issues staying below sugar limit. Trying hard to cut it out as much as I can but it seems everyday I'm either over the limit or very close to it. Read a few posts about it no being such a big deal but have also been told that it can be a major contributor to the nice round belly I'm trying to get rid of.
  • SweatsOnSunday
    SweatsOnSunday Posts: 514 Member
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    I do the same thing with the calorie database, @susanayt97. I choose the one with the most calories and hope for the best.

    @andrew4150, I haven't spent as much time looking at my sugar totals. I will have to take a look at that. Bananas have a lot of sugar, but I must assume they're better than a PopTart. I just try to avoid the processed sugars.
  • Mishmall0w
    Mishmall0w Posts: 3 Member
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    Add me too. I've been on here for quite a while, on and off. I loose some weight and then I gain it.
    I really need to stick to it this time tho because I feel so ill. I know I'd feel so much better being a bit lighter.
    This time I'd like to have some friends on my journey. The previous times I've always just read what others been doing, creeping in the shadows but I think that it would give me more to have some people to talk to who knows and are doing the same if you get me.
  • susanayt97
    susanayt97 Posts: 309 Member
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    @SweatsOnSunday it's better to overlog than underlog!

    I think I'm doing good on sugar, I often go over sodium limit, but it's because I eat a lot of soup (not homemade, so it's full of spices and stuff). But it's something you can improve with time, I think you'll still succeed if you focus more on your calories and macros!
  • andrew4150
    andrew4150 Posts: 30 Member
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    Thanks for the feedback. I really don't think I'm taking in too many processed sugars, really trying to avoid them. Take a look at my diary if you'd like and let me know if I'm missing something. Most of my sugar seems to be coming from fruit.
  • susanayt97
    susanayt97 Posts: 309 Member
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    I think you're good! It's not going over by a lot, I wouldn't worry about it. You're doing awesome, I believe you're on the right track!
  • andrew4150
    andrew4150 Posts: 30 Member
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    thank you
  • andrew4150
    andrew4150 Posts: 30 Member
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    So I've been doing a little research on the sugar thing. What I've come to the conclusion of as long as its natural sugars than don't worry about them and that doesn't necessarily count sugar from %100 fruit juice. As far as I can tell the fiber and other nutrients that you can from an actually piece of fruit helps with metabolism of said sugars. Any thoughts?

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