What the heck was I eating before???

wow! would that be scary to log in my old way of eating! Although there wouldn't be a way to keep track as I ate ALL day and way too much!! I'm happy for you and proud OF you for joining MFP!

LOL, we could so be eating buddies. Chocolate, ice cream, those chocolate dusted almonds, Yes, YEs, YES! Seriously though, congratulations on your progress so far. Keep up the good & sometimes hard work to becoming a healthier you : )

I ALWAYS think this. I'm just like, "Wow, what the hell was I doing to my body before." I feel bad for people eating hella bad stuff just because I know what its doing to them. I can't believe we used to eat that way. Blegh!

I hear you here. As long as I eat more than 1,200 or 1,300 calories I seem to do fine hunger-wise and still have a loss, albeit nowhere near a 3 pound per week loss. CONGRATS!

I am in that same boat too! I think I was eating so much fast food, like 2-3 times a day before. Now even when I have a day where I eat "badly", as long as my overall week is ok and in range, i still either stay the same or lose.

I haven't gained weight in years but i had to reduce calories to get to where i'm at now. I don't know that i've reduced my eating by a whole lot. I've always pretty much eaten non processed foods. I gained all the weight i had by years and years of overdoing it. I don't voluntarily exercise at all although i get enough where i work and doing things around the house. I don't eat candy. I basically stopped drinking soda pop 5 years ago and if i split one once a week i'm lucky. I don't go to buffet restaurants much anymore. I know i could eat two whoppers (670 calories each), or big macs (540 calories each) while splitting a large fry with my wife. I used to go to Golden Corral and pig out to an uncomfortable level and two hours later get me a Peanut Buster Parfait (710 calories) at DQ for no good reason lol. The differnence now is i basically eat half of the fast food i used to and i never ate much fastfood to begin with. I have no idea how many calories a day i used to eat. It's pretty closed to what i eat now on average. Someone above posted gaining 50 lbs in a couple months . How in the world sheesh. It took me 20 years of marriage and over eating to put on that much.

I would love to just one day plug in a *typical* pre-MFP food day just to see the numbers. And then, of course, delete it and go on with my day. I live in Baton Rouge now, but until recently lived in New Orleans as well and I still work in Metairie at least a day or two a week. I am sure that other cultures revolve around food, but I have lived many places and never have I seen everyone's world revolve around food like it does in New Orleans. You are either eating out, drinking out, or discussing where and when you will eat/drink out next. There is just such a resturant culture here, not the fast food thing, but real resturants. That is fun and wonderful, but it creeps up on you and hits you in the head with a plate of chargrilled oysters. Now that I live in BR I don't eat out much (who wants to when the choice is Red Lobster or Chili's?--if I'm going to blow some calories I don't want chain food!). I am focusing on eating healthy (I am trying to eat more and more clean, luckily that seems to go hand and hand with eating more healthy). The next thing will be to focus more on exercise. I see people bigger than me who are completing 5Ks and that just makes me feel like a slob. But truly, it is just amazing how much better I feel. Even if I don't lose any more weight, feeling better alone would be worth it.