Sustainable Weight Loss with Busy Schedule
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Jackibrazil
Posts: 124 Member
Hi!
I am a full time student who also works full time. I have a busy and active social life and am often found volunteering in many areas. I like to live my life passionately and in the present but sometimes that makes weight loss and personal health a little challenging. My current BMI hovers around 29-31 (fluctuates based on my activity levels week to week). I'm trying to lose enough weight to be in the healthy range but still a little thicker. I'm 5'3" and go from about 160-170 usually. I wear a US size 8-10.
I just want to do something sustainable and easy that can be incorporated into my daily busyness. I used to be a whole foods only, food prep twice a week type but that took away from me actually enjoying my life. I was food obsessed! I'm trying to just do healthy easy meals during the week. Eggs or oatmeal or yogurt and fruit for breakfast, rice and beans for lunch, and chicken and veggies and sweet potatoes or something similar to those meals during the week and maybe splurge for a meal or two on the weekends (while I'm spending whole days walking around Disneyland or going for beach bike rides to offset).
I want to hear others stories about their life-friendly diet routines and how you keep your calories low and your food healthy amidst the busyness and social dinners, etc.
Please share tips, routines, challenges, etc!
I am a full time student who also works full time. I have a busy and active social life and am often found volunteering in many areas. I like to live my life passionately and in the present but sometimes that makes weight loss and personal health a little challenging. My current BMI hovers around 29-31 (fluctuates based on my activity levels week to week). I'm trying to lose enough weight to be in the healthy range but still a little thicker. I'm 5'3" and go from about 160-170 usually. I wear a US size 8-10.
I just want to do something sustainable and easy that can be incorporated into my daily busyness. I used to be a whole foods only, food prep twice a week type but that took away from me actually enjoying my life. I was food obsessed! I'm trying to just do healthy easy meals during the week. Eggs or oatmeal or yogurt and fruit for breakfast, rice and beans for lunch, and chicken and veggies and sweet potatoes or something similar to those meals during the week and maybe splurge for a meal or two on the weekends (while I'm spending whole days walking around Disneyland or going for beach bike rides to offset).
I want to hear others stories about their life-friendly diet routines and how you keep your calories low and your food healthy amidst the busyness and social dinners, etc.
Please share tips, routines, challenges, etc!
3
Replies
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You do have a busy life but counting calories and working out (you don't even have to work out, but it helps) is very much doable! However, in reality, if I had your schedule I'd probably settle for having a food/gym journal rather than measuring and counting everything I eat. I'd make sure to eat protein, fats, carbs with each meal and maybe 1-2 servings of my favorite treat per day. I'd stick to bodyweight workouts (Which is not the easy way out cause that's my workout routine now and I'm dying after every set) and at the end of each week look back to see how my diet was.
Good luck!3 -
All you need to do to lose weight is consume fewer calories than your body burns. Really, it's that simple.
If your usual dinner is a MacDonald's cheeseburger with medium fries, start ordering a hamburger without cheese and small fries instead.
You don't need to do a complete 180 and revamp your entire diet. You can continue eating all your regular foods in smaller portions. You may find that suddenly you're much more hungry than you used to be, if you're used to eating lots of calorie-dense, non-filling foods. If that's the case, incorporating more lean proteins and fiber-rich veggies into your diet may reduce your appetite.5 -
Busy life is just an excuse. Everyone is busy these days
You just need to plan more for your ating habits. You have to find time to plan and make meals. Eat less than you burn and that's about it
Wieight loss is simple we just over complicate it.Not easy to do but the how is simple.
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I'm feeling like you didn't really read my post. I didn't say I'm not counting calories and working out. My point was that I'm not going to extremes or doing elimination diets anymore to do it. I didn't make an excuse for myself NOT being healthy, I stated I was trying to do sustainable things. I even talked about my diet during weekdays. It's a pretty healthy diet AND I'm keeping my calories low.8
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Social dinners and busy lives are some of the biggest excuses we make. It's as simple as eating smaller and healthier proportions. With a BMI of 29-31, it should be relatively easy to lose a decent amount of weight without counting calories just by cleaning up your diet.
Splurging on the weekend is a bad idea, even if you exercise more. Weight loss is 80% diet, 20% exercise. It will take you a very long time to burn off "extra" food, way more than most people expect and is probably the biggest reason why lots of people don't see weight loss when dieting.
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I have two meals I vary between for breakfast and one standard lunch that I pack for work if I don't have leftovers. That kind of thing makes grocery shopping easy and fast. Then our dinners are pretty simple too. I don't know. I just don't think it takes a lot of time to get food together even when weighing and measuring it. It's a priority for me so I just do it.2
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Jackibrazil wrote: »I'm feeling like you didn't really read my post. I didn't say I'm not counting calories and working out. My point was that I'm not going to extremes or doing elimination diets anymore to do it. I didn't make an excuse for myself NOT being healthy, I stated I was trying to do sustainable things. I even talked about my diet during weekdays. It's a pretty healthy diet AND I'm keeping my calories low.
I did read the post and you mentioned prepping food made life worse. It's something you have to do though. Maybe you are focused on too complicated foods as far as prepping goes.
I prep all my lunches for a week in about 30 minutes. Typical meal is qinoa, chicken breast and a veggie. I use different spices to change flavors. I do sub In fruit , yogurt and a shake or bar if things get crazy but that's not very often.1 -
Social dinners and busy lives are some of the biggest excuses we make. It's as simple as eating smaller and/or healthier proportions.
Splurging on the weekend is a bad idea, even if you exercise more. Weight loss is 80% diet, 20% exercise. It will take you a very long time to burn off "extra" food, way more than most people expect and is probably the biggest reason why lots of people don't see weight loss when dieting.
I hear what you're saying, but when I say splurge, I mean I get nachos to split with my boyfriend and might have a late lunch and no dinner. My calories still stay low but maybe instead of 1250 I'll have 1600 that day since I've walked Disneyland for 8 hours. If weight loss is 80% diet, then one unhealthy meal A WEEK shouldn't hurt if calories are maintenance level or lower. A social dinner is the same for me. I choose something that's a little lighter but still tasty and eat half and box half. It's still a splurge to me because M-F my meals are all self made from whole foods.1 -
liftingbro wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »I'm feeling like you didn't really read my post. I didn't say I'm not counting calories and working out. My point was that I'm not going to extremes or doing elimination diets anymore to do it. I didn't make an excuse for myself NOT being healthy, I stated I was trying to do sustainable things. I even talked about my diet during weekdays. It's a pretty healthy diet AND I'm keeping my calories low.
I did read the post and you mentioned prepping food made life worse. It's something you have to do though. Maybe you are focused on too complicated foods as far as prepping goes.
I prep all my lunches for a week in about 30 minutes. Typical meal is qinoa, chicken breast and a veggie. I use different spices to change flavors. I do sub In fruit , yogurt and a shake or bar if things get crazy but that's not very often.
Making time to prep meals can make weight loss a lot easier for some people and it's a great tool for maintaining weight loss. But I wouldn't go so far to say that it's *required*. All that is required for weight loss is a calorie deficit. Prepping meals is just a tool to make that happen, but if someone didn't want to do it, there are ways to get around it (especially if one has more disposable income).3 -
This thread wasn't made to shame me or anyone else and point out excuses. It was made to exchange and share tips for making eating healthy and losing weight a little easier on people who don't have much expendable time. My time constraints aren't an excuse, they're reality. I go to work 40-50 hours a week and get home every day to a pile of homework that I work on til I fall asleep, get about 6 -7 hours of sleep and then start the process over again. Saturdays I volunteer because a certain amount of hours are REQUIRED for my degree and the one liesure day I have I am not going to spend for hours in the kitchen. It isn't healthy at that point. People need rest.7
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I have a few lower calorie fast food go to's for various places that I know the count for, they taste fine and keep me satisfied. I like to prebuild smoothie mixes to keep in freezer, and if I do make something that has enough for leftovers, I can freeze for a quick meal when I need it. Stick with what you knoq, and then you can add it later, when you have a fee minutes. I also will often grab some healthier prepacked options from the store, hummus and pretzles, deli packs with cheese, fruit and ham, tasty salads... Basically stuff that I know is good, fast and healthy and doesn't need to be eaten immediately.
Restaurants with friends, don't worry too much about actual calorie count, because it's seldom listed and rude to search. Just avoid things with lots of sauces, cheeses or breading, and assume you probably only need half to feel satisfied. The rest can be taken home to eat later.1 -
If prepping meals is a pain, there are a few rare decent frozen meals out there.
I highly recommend Healthy Choice Cafe Streamer frozen meals. $2.50/each, and they vary between 200-300 calories plus have a very good mix of everything you need when dieting. Lots of people vouch for them, and personally they are the only frozen meal I found that both taste good and isn't loaded with sodium. I have lost 21 pounds in ~2 months and I eat one a day, sometimes two. They make the process that much easier when you are busy and need a meal in 4 minutes.2 -
Jackibrazil wrote: »Social dinners and busy lives are some of the biggest excuses we make. It's as simple as eating smaller and/or healthier proportions.
Splurging on the weekend is a bad idea, even if you exercise more. Weight loss is 80% diet, 20% exercise. It will take you a very long time to burn off "extra" food, way more than most people expect and is probably the biggest reason why lots of people don't see weight loss when dieting.
I hear what you're saying, but when I say splurge, I mean I get nachos to split with my boyfriend and might have a late lunch and no dinner. My calories still stay low but maybe instead of 1250 I'll have 1600 that day since I've walked Disneyland for 8 hours. If weight loss is 80% diet, then one unhealthy meal A WEEK shouldn't hurt if calories are maintenance level or lower. A social dinner is the same for me. I choose something that's a little lighter but still tasty and eat half and box half. It's still a splurge to me because M-F my meals are all self made from whole foods.
The healthfulness or unhealthfulness of a meal is irrelevant for weight loss. When it comes to weight loss, all your body cares about is if you're taking in less than you're burning.
A deficit can include nachos. The catch you might face if you're regularly splurging on the weekend is correctly estimating your calories. Let's say those nachos have double the calories you think they do (and this can happen easily when someone else is preparing the food). All of a sudden you may not just be at maintenance level for the day, you may be cancelling out the deficit you're creating on other days. This doesn't mean it will be impossible for you to lose weight, it just means your progress may be slower and being very consistent on the other days of the week will be more important for you.5 -
All you need to do to lose weight is consume fewer calories than your body burns. Really, it's that simple.
If your usual dinner is a MacDonald's cheeseburger with medium fries, start ordering a hamburger without cheese and small fries instead.
You don't need to do a complete 180 and revamp your entire diet. You can continue eating all your regular foods in smaller portions. You may find that suddenly you're much more hungry than you used to be, if you're used to eating lots of calorie-dense, non-filling foods. If that's the case, incorporating more lean proteins and fiber-rich veggies into your diet may reduce your appetite.
A cheeseburger fron mcdonalds is only 310 calories, that a a diet soda no fries are a great meal for me
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liftingbro wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »I'm feeling like you didn't really read my post. I didn't say I'm not counting calories and working out. My point was that I'm not going to extremes or doing elimination diets anymore to do it. I didn't make an excuse for myself NOT being healthy, I stated I was trying to do sustainable things. I even talked about my diet during weekdays. It's a pretty healthy diet AND I'm keeping my calories low.
I did read the post and you mentioned prepping food made life worse. It's something you have to do though. Maybe you are focused on too complicated foods as far as prepping goes.
I prep all my lunches for a week in about 30 minutes. Typical meal is qinoa, chicken breast and a veggie. I use different spices to change flavors. I do sub In fruit , yogurt and a shake or bar if things get crazy but that's not very often.
I think maybe we have a different idea of what I meant by food prep. I used to spend about 6-8 hours in day going grocery shopping and working out meals for my entire week in one day. I do a small amount of prep every morning though. I cook my eggs or gather my breakfast, I make rice and chicken or beans and rice for lunch and I cook dinner every night. I figured that was an obvious take away when I explained my diet during the week.
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Jackibrazil wrote: »This thread wasn't made to shame me or anyone else and point out excuses. It was made to exchange and share tips for making eating healthy and losing weight a little easier on people who don't have much expendable time. My time constraints aren't an excuse, they're reality. I go to work 40-50 hours a week and get home every day to a pile of homework that I work on til I fall asleep, get about 6 -7 hours of sleep and then start the process over again. Saturdays I volunteer because a certain amount of hours are REQUIRED for my degree and the one liesure day I have I am not going to spend for hours in the kitchen. It isn't healthy at that point. People need rest.
I have met very few people who successfully lost weight over the long term without meal planning or some sort. Not every meal of the day but probably at least one. I typically only plan and prep lunches & snacks.3 -
Jackibrazil wrote: »This thread wasn't made to shame me or anyone else and point out excuses. It was made to exchange and share tips for making eating healthy and losing weight a little easier on people who don't have much expendable time. My time constraints aren't an excuse, they're reality. I go to work 40-50 hours a week and get home every day to a pile of homework that I work on til I fall asleep, get about 6 -7 hours of sleep and then start the process over again. Saturdays I volunteer because a certain amount of hours are REQUIRED for my degree and the one liesure day I have I am not going to spend for hours in the kitchen. It isn't healthy at that point. People need rest.
This is kind of confusing because you're also presenting a day walking around Disneyworld for eight hours as a regular or semi-regular thing for you, regular enough that it justifies consuming extra calories on the weekend.
You don't have to justify how you spend your time to anyone. If you want to spend a day off doing stuff like that, it's fine. It doesn't mean that you have challenges to weight loss that other people don't have, though. We're all dealing with a relatively limited amount of time and choosing what we want to do with it. Some of us are choosing meal prep/cooking/planning, others aren't. Weight loss is possible for all of us though -- it just requires a deficit.10 -
Jackibrazil wrote: »I'm feeling like you didn't really read my post. I didn't say I'm not counting calories and working out. My point was that I'm not going to extremes or doing elimination diets anymore to do it. I didn't make an excuse for myself NOT being healthy, I stated I was trying to do sustainable things. I even talked about my diet during weekdays. It's a pretty healthy diet AND I'm keeping my calories low.
I think the general confusion is coming from:
a.) You posting in the General Diet and Weight Loss Help and not actually wanting help
b.) You repeatedly telling us how busy you are (and us trying to explain how being busy doesn't effect your portion sizes)
Either way - glad to see you have a system working for you. I'm not really sure what types of "tips, routines, challenges" you're looking for - maybe you could elaborate? 10 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »Social dinners and busy lives are some of the biggest excuses we make. It's as simple as eating smaller and/or healthier proportions.
Splurging on the weekend is a bad idea, even if you exercise more. Weight loss is 80% diet, 20% exercise. It will take you a very long time to burn off "extra" food, way more than most people expect and is probably the biggest reason why lots of people don't see weight loss when dieting.
I hear what you're saying, but when I say splurge, I mean I get nachos to split with my boyfriend and might have a late lunch and no dinner. My calories still stay low but maybe instead of 1250 I'll have 1600 that day since I've walked Disneyland for 8 hours. If weight loss is 80% diet, then one unhealthy meal A WEEK shouldn't hurt if calories are maintenance level or lower. A social dinner is the same for me. I choose something that's a little lighter but still tasty and eat half and box half. It's still a splurge to me because M-F my meals are all self made from whole foods.
The healthfulness or unhealthfulness of a meal is irrelevant for weight loss. When it comes to weight loss, all your body cares about is if you're taking in less than you're burning.
A deficit can include nachos. The catch you might face if you're regularly splurging on the weekend is correctly estimating your calories. Let's say those nachos have double the calories you think they do (and this can happen easily when someone else is preparing the food). All of a sudden you may not just be at maintenance level for the day, you may be cancelling out the deficit you're creating on other days. This doesn't mean it will be impossible for you to lose weight, it just means your progress may be slower and being very consistent on the other days of the week will be more important for you.
OH FOR SURE. I always grab nutritional info when I eat out. If they don't have it I skip that kind of entree. And I'm aware of healthfulness not influencing weight loss, but my goals are both health and weight loss. 0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »This thread wasn't made to shame me or anyone else and point out excuses. It was made to exchange and share tips for making eating healthy and losing weight a little easier on people who don't have much expendable time. My time constraints aren't an excuse, they're reality. I go to work 40-50 hours a week and get home every day to a pile of homework that I work on til I fall asleep, get about 6 -7 hours of sleep and then start the process over again. Saturdays I volunteer because a certain amount of hours are REQUIRED for my degree and the one liesure day I have I am not going to spend for hours in the kitchen. It isn't healthy at that point. People need rest.
This is kind of confusing because you're also presenting a day walking around Disneyworld for eight hours as a regular or semi-regular thing for you, regular enough that it justifies consuming extra calories on the weekend.
You don't have to justify how you spend your time to anyone. If you want to spend a day off doing stuff like that, it's fine. It doesn't mean that you have challenges to weight loss that other people don't have, though. We're all dealing with a relatively limited amount of time and choosing what we want to do with it. Some of us are choosing meal prep/cooking/planning, others aren't. Weight loss is possible for all of us though -- it just requires a deficit.
I'm an annual passholder. I go every week. Sometimes twice.2
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