Food, Exercise, or other Reports

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  • eliezalot
    eliezalot Posts: 620 Member
    I've been feeling so hungry for most of the last month. It has been hard to hit my deficit and I've eaten at maintenance more days than I would have liked. Part of it is the lack of morning exercise. My morning runs always kind of diminish my appetite early in the day. But I think I've solved the bigger issue. I stopped having protein heavy breakfasts. Even if I hit my protein targets for the day, I was still hungry. Turns out it was the timing of the protein, not just the total daily amount! Looking back, somewhere along the line, I started having carb heavy breakfasts - cereal, pop-tarts, etc... instead of my usual egg-heavy breakfasts.

    Just the last few days I've been trying to focus on getting some early protein in (and fewer carbs), and I think it is helping! Breakfast has been half an avocado on toast, hard boiled egg, salt and pepper. It gets me through my morning very well. I am hungry enough for a light lunch (usually also protein heavy - tuna sandwich made with greek yogurt). This is enough to get me through to supper time, when I have close to 900 calories left for a large, satisfying dinner of pretty much whatever I want. I'm not sure when I got away from this schedule/habit that has worked for me for so long, but I'm glad I recognized it and found my way back to it.

    We'll see how my hunger goes the next week or so, but I'm really hoping this is the solution!
  • eliezalot wrote: »
    I've been feeling so hungry for most of the last month. It has been hard to hit my deficit and I've eaten at maintenance more days than I would have liked. Part of it is the lack of morning exercise. My morning runs always kind of diminish my appetite early in the day. But I think I've solved the bigger issue. I stopped having protein heavy breakfasts. Even if I hit my protein targets for the day, I was still hungry. Turns out it was the timing of the protein, not just the total daily amount! Looking back, somewhere along the line, I started having carb heavy breakfasts - cereal, pop-tarts, etc... instead of my usual egg-heavy breakfasts.

    Just the last few days I've been trying to focus on getting some early protein in (and fewer carbs), and I think it is helping! Breakfast has been half an avocado on toast, hard boiled egg, salt and pepper. It gets me through my morning very well. I am hungry enough for a light lunch (usually also protein heavy - tuna sandwich made with greek yogurt). This is enough to get me through to supper time, when I have close to 900 calories left for a large, satisfying dinner of pretty much whatever I want. I'm not sure when I got away from this schedule/habit that has worked for me for so long, but I'm glad I recognized it and found my way back to it.

    We'll see how my hunger goes the next week or so, but I'm really hoping this is the solution!

    Breakfast is SO important. It may be optional for some, but it never has been for me.

  • eliezalot
    eliezalot Posts: 620 Member
    eliezalot wrote: »
    I've been feeling so hungry for most of the last month. It has been hard to hit my deficit and I've eaten at maintenance more days than I would have liked. Part of it is the lack of morning exercise. My morning runs always kind of diminish my appetite early in the day. But I think I've solved the bigger issue. I stopped having protein heavy breakfasts. Even if I hit my protein targets for the day, I was still hungry. Turns out it was the timing of the protein, not just the total daily amount! Looking back, somewhere along the line, I started having carb heavy breakfasts - cereal, pop-tarts, etc... instead of my usual egg-heavy breakfasts.

    Just the last few days I've been trying to focus on getting some early protein in (and fewer carbs), and I think it is helping! Breakfast has been half an avocado on toast, hard boiled egg, salt and pepper. It gets me through my morning very well. I am hungry enough for a light lunch (usually also protein heavy - tuna sandwich made with greek yogurt). This is enough to get me through to supper time, when I have close to 900 calories left for a large, satisfying dinner of pretty much whatever I want. I'm not sure when I got away from this schedule/habit that has worked for me for so long, but I'm glad I recognized it and found my way back to it.

    We'll see how my hunger goes the next week or so, but I'm really hoping this is the solution!

    Breakfast is SO important. It may be optional for some, but it never has been for me.

    Yes! Weirdly I've been on both sides of this at different points. Growing up I HATED breakfast. I was just never hungry until I had been awake for a few hours, and having to eat at 6:30 am before school was torture. But as an adult, I definitely do better with it. I have gone through phases (in the last year even) of not eating breakfast (as it tended to make me hungrier), and having a bigger lunch. That worked well for a while. It feels like once i figure what works, by body changes its mind again lol. I think a light, but protein-heavy breakfast is a great compromise. It definitely is working for me now anyway!
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,982 Member
    @eliezalot

    The body changing it mind - ain't that the truth! lol In my case, I think its my body refusing to become predictable and liking to mess with my mind by changing on me just when I think I have it figured out :)


    I almost ended today under but then I couldn't stop myself from nibbling on my tuna casserole leftovers and ended up eating the rest of the 2nd serving of the 3 I had made, and that pushed me over.

    Oh well - I only counted 90 minutes of the 3 hours I spent helping cut firewood and I used the general gardening entry for it as I have no idea how to really capture that kind of activity. I wasn't moving constantly and spent a portion of it driving the tractor with dad in the bucket so he could cut larger limbs, but I was moving some brush, stacking wood in the trailer, and did some splitting and ran the saw some. So I'm saying that the 124 calories I went over today may have been accounted for as the 610 calories I counted for activity may have been too short.

    Besides, 1 day isn't going to break me, and even a series of days in a row being over calorie limit is still a deficit because my base deficit is 750 calories. It might slow me down, but it's not going to stop me.
  • eliezalot
    eliezalot Posts: 620 Member
    @bmeadows380 -I think that's about right! I keep waiting for my body to pick something it likes and just settle with it. Alas. At least we're learning how to change things on the fly? An annoying but useful skill.

    Another day of a higher protein breakfast. I do feel a little hungry for lunch now, but not nearly as much as I would if I had the same number of calories in a high-carb, low-protein meal. Those days I felt like I was just a bottomless pit. Today I'm excited to eat lunch, and probably hungry enough to eat now, but happy to wait a while for it. I feel like this is the solution I needed to get me feeling back on track. Fewer days at maintenance, more days at my very reasonable deficit.
  • eliezalot
    eliezalot Posts: 620 Member
    Another great bike ride today! Same trail as last week, 23 miles total. Picked up a pastry from our favorite coffee shop on the way up to eat at the halfway point (a honey pistacio kouign amann), and really made tracks on the way home. It was so much fun.

    Since I've been craving some carby fatty chicken alfredo all week, I decided tonight was the night to go for it. Map my Ride gave me over 1k calories for the ride (which I don't trust at all, and usually only take 50%). But today, I want my pasta, and I'm not going to ask any questions lol. Already put in my carry out order at Olive Garden and I can't wait for supper! If I eat all of it (and the soup), I'll be a little over my calories for the day, which is fine. And I doubt I'll be able to eat the whole plate anyway. Today is a good day!
  • gewel321
    gewel321 Posts: 718 Member
    I have decided I want to try to ride the bike. I use to bike for fun way back when but haven’t in years. I sat my kid down and told him I was thinking about riding a bike for a bit. He decided that he wanted to ride with me so we spent several hours learning to ride. Can he do it? Nope not yet. But he didn’t give up.

    Yeah I know 10 is a little old to learn to ride but he went over the handle bars when he was little and learning and scraped himself up pretty bad. Hasn’t been on a bike since. I’m super proud of him and can’t wait for him to really get the hang of it so we can ride the bike trails.
  • ntw250
    ntw250 Posts: 15 Member
    [
    gewel321 wrote: »
    I have decided I want to try to ride the bike. I use to bike for fun way back when but haven’t in years. I sat my kid down and told him I was thinking about riding a bike for a bit. He decided that he wanted to ride with me so we spent several hours learning to ride. Can he do it? Nope not yet. But he didn’t give up.

    Yeah I know 10 is a little old to learn to ride but he went over the handle bars when he was little and learning and scraped himself up pretty bad. Hasn’t been on a bike since. I’m super proud of him and can’t wait for him to really get the hang of it so we can ride the bike trails.
    I want to ride my bike too. I know I look ridiculous (325lbs), but it is a big bike and I am out there doing it.

    Have to say that I enjoy it and I can feel it, in my thighs and in my "ahem.....seat". Trying to do 5/6 miles every other day to start and then will build up. It is very flat where I live, which is a bonus, but also very hot (Florida) so plenty of sweating.
  • eliezalot
    eliezalot Posts: 620 Member
    ntw250 wrote: »
    [
    gewel321 wrote: »
    I have decided I want to try to ride the bike. I use to bike for fun way back when but haven’t in years. I sat my kid down and told him I was thinking about riding a bike for a bit. He decided that he wanted to ride with me so we spent several hours learning to ride. Can he do it? Nope not yet. But he didn’t give up.

    Yeah I know 10 is a little old to learn to ride but he went over the handle bars when he was little and learning and scraped himself up pretty bad. Hasn’t been on a bike since. I’m super proud of him and can’t wait for him to really get the hang of it so we can ride the bike trails.
    I want to ride my bike too. I know I look ridiculous (325lbs), but it is a big bike and I am out there doing it.

    Have to say that I enjoy it and I can feel it, in my thighs and in my "ahem.....seat". Trying to do 5/6 miles every other day to start and then will build up. It is very flat where I live, which is a bonus, but also very hot (Florida) so plenty of sweating.

    I love this. Biking is for everyone! I started bike commuting when I went to grad school (about 9 miles round trip), and also built up to it slowly. At my highest weight (257) I've even done 50 and 60 mile rides, and easily could have done more with proper preparation/training. It is so much fun. I just feel like a kid on my bike, and smile the whole ride. Don't think I would have survived it in Florida though lol! Kudos for getting out there in the heat and humidity - that isn't for the faint of heart!
  • eliezalot
    eliezalot Posts: 620 Member
    edited September 2020
    The other day I was recipe hunting (my preferred procrastination method). Somehow I stumbled across this pizza, which just looked delicious. Upon closer inspection, it used a tortilla as the base for a super thin crust pizza (thin crust is my favorite, bonus is fewer calories). I made it for lunch today, and I think it will go into the regular lunch rotation! I used 2 small flour tortillas (90 calories each), mozzarella (1 about oz per pizza) and some fresh shaved parmesan (just a few grams), basil from the garden, and finished with a drizzle of truffle oil for about a 450 calorie lunch. It felt so extravagant.

    https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/10/extra-crispy-bar-style-tortilla-pizza-recipe.html

    kvtxd1ms7ihl.jpg
  • emmyjaykay
    emmyjaykay Posts: 83 Member
    @eliezalot I do this all the time on my pizza stone! It's a great alternative to my preferred bar-style thin crust. Serious Eats is one of maybe three places I trust for good recipes, haha.
  • ntw250
    ntw250 Posts: 15 Member
    @eliezalot
    That looks delicious, I am going to try that
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,982 Member
    gewel321 wrote: »
    I have decided I want to try to ride the bike. I use to bike for fun way back when but haven’t in years. I sat my kid down and told him I was thinking about riding a bike for a bit. He decided that he wanted to ride with me so we spent several hours learning to ride. Can he do it? Nope not yet. But he didn’t give up.

    Yeah I know 10 is a little old to learn to ride but he went over the handle bars when he was little and learning and scraped himself up pretty bad. Hasn’t been on a bike since. I’m super proud of him and can’t wait for him to really get the hang of it so we can ride the bike trails.

    Kudos to your son! That's great to hear! It takes a lot of courage to try again after something like that. I hope he learns to enjoy it!


    ntw250 wrote: »

    I want to ride my bike too. I know I look ridiculous (325lbs), but it is a big bike and I am out there doing it.

    Have to say that I enjoy it and I can feel it, in my thighs and in my "ahem.....seat". Trying to do 5/6 miles every other day to start and then will build up. It is very flat where I live, which is a bonus, but also very hot (Florida) so plenty of sweating.

    Nah, I don't think you'd look ridiculous! Its just great that you are trying!

    When I was close to getting to 300 lbs, which was 75 lbs off, I bought me a single speed coaster as my gift to myself. I wanted it because I grew up riding single speed coasters with caster brakes - I never rode anything with hand breaks and my natural inclination is to slam that foot back when I want to stop. I hadn't ridden a bike in 20 years by that point and was very wobbly when I first started taking it out - in fact, I went out and found a cemetery with a paved drive to practice on for privacy lol. I figured that since I was shaky as a newborn foal and that my natural inclination was to use foot brakes, that I'd better get a bike with coaster brakes because the few seconds it would take for my brain to try to stop by slamming the foot back, only to remember that I need to squeeze the handles would probably be just enough time for me to have a nasty wreck.

    Though where I live, it isn't all that flat, so getting up hills is very hard. And since its a cruiser, I'm not peddling constantly; I figure when I do take it out, that I'm peddling about 1/2 the time, cruising about 1/3 of the time, and walking the rest lol makes it hard to figure out the exact burn!

    I don't take it out enough, though, for my legs and bum to get used to it; there just isn't a nice place to really ride it here and with traffic on the main road being what it is, I'd be afraid to ride it there - traffic around here do NOT "share the road" well. It gets dicey just walking along the edge of the main highway on my walks!
  • conniewilkins56
    conniewilkins56 Posts: 3,391 Member
    Oh my!...I had to chuckle because the only convenient place for me to ride a bike would be a cemetery so I would be close to the grave when I crashed!...my 15 yr old grandson refuses to get on a bike and he doesn’t want a drivers permit...maybe he has some phobia about wheels?...anyway, I can see myself flying over the handle bars and crushing my skull or breaking my replaced knees...I have thought of getting a big trike but that is what old people ride...I guess I will keep swimming but I do envy all of you your bike rides!
  • eliezalot
    eliezalot Posts: 620 Member
    @emmyjaykay Same! Serious Eats has never led me wrong. Normally I'd see a tortilla-based pizza and think "oh some crappy lower-calorie pizza alternative, no thanks" and click on by. But sell it to me as a fast and easy bar-style pizza...:lol: If it is good enough for J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, it is good enough for me!

    @conniewilkins56 Now I really want to get you on a bike! Many places offer adult cycling classes - even if you know how to ride already, that might be a nice way to find your balance again in a safe and supervised environment, and determine whether you'd be comfortable doing more riding! Ours are offered through a local bike advocacy organization, but the League of American Bicyclists lets you search to see what might be nearby you: https://bikeleague.org/bfa/search/map?bfaq=

  • gewel321
    gewel321 Posts: 718 Member
    Update: my son pestered his father (who is a much better teacher than I am at this) to take him back out to continue working on balance today while I was at my exercise class. He was so excited that he managed to balance without touching the ground all the way down a hill. He said the only time he crashed was when he was going to hit a horse. Not autocorrect there was someone riding a horse in the water park parking lot in the middle of my city. 🤦‍♀️ welcome to Arkansas.

    At this rate he will be riding for real by this weekend. So looks like I am in the market to buy myself a bike. I sure can’t flake after he’s put so much work into learning.
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,982 Member
    gewel321 wrote: »
    Update: my son pestered his father (who is a much better teacher than I am at this) to take him back out to continue working on balance today while I was at my exercise class. He was so excited that he managed to balance without touching the ground all the way down a hill. He said the only time he crashed was when he was going to hit a horse. Not autocorrect there was someone riding a horse in the water park parking lot in the middle of my city. 🤦‍♀️ welcome to Arkansas.

    At this rate he will be riding for real by this weekend. So looks like I am in the market to buy myself a bike. I sure can’t flake after he’s put so much work into learning.

    the horse thing made me laugh - I can so see something like that happening here!

    Anyway, your son is a real trooper and I'm so glad he is having so much fun with it! Gives him something he cna share with mom and gives her a fun activity to do with him :)
  • gewel321
    gewel321 Posts: 718 Member
    We went out last night and bought my son a bike that’s his size (I was not spending another dime on a bike until I knew he was going to do it for real). He was so excited when he got up this morning and rushed home from school today so he could practice before scouts. He’s getting better and almost ready for peddling. Looks like I’m going to have to buy myself a bike soon enough! Super proud of him. Happy to report there were no horses at the water park today!
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,982 Member
    Ever had one of those days where the drive to eat was just so strong that you couldn't ignore it no matter how hard you tried? And you couldn't figure out what it was you were craving as nothing satisfied?

    Yeah, that was today for me. So today was an unplanned, unwanted maintenance day because I just could quit eating as even trying to remove myself from temptation didn't help. I wasn't able to get out and exercise at all today, so I was trying to stick to sedentary calories. If I could have gotten a walk in, that would have offset almost all those extra calories, plus the walk could have helped calm the hunger down, but there was no time today. Tomorrow is supposed to rain, so no time there either, but at least I'll be home and can try to hit the elliptical for a bit.