What's on your mind today?
Replies
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@kcjen -
I calculated my TDEE. On a day with light activity my TDEE is approximately 1,730 calories a day. With moderate activity it is approximately 1,950. I set my daily calories to 1,550. That way my activity is already averaged in. If I’m having an extra active day, I may add in another 100 calories. I do weigh my precooked portions because without doing so it is easy to think I’m eating x when I’m really eating 5x.
I also focus on my macros and have them set to carbs 45%, fat 35%, and protein 20%. If I don’t eat enough protein I am starving all day no matter how much I eat. If I don’t eat enough carbs, I get a headache and I’m sluggish. I find the fats take care of themselves.
It may sound like I focus on my eating a lot but after some trial and error, it gets easy. I tend to eat the same things over and over, I mainly just switch up my vegetables. It’s just easier for me to eat this way. I don’t have a lot of time and I’d rather not spend any more time than absolutely necessary to cook.
Also, I don’t exclude foods. I love cake and ice cream. If I want it, I do my best to make it fit. If I see the scale creeping up, I re-evaluate how much of this I’m eating.
I started with quitting smoking 7 years ago. Then started exercising and learning what and how to eat. It takes time to learn and then implement proper nutrition. I am doing my best to eat healthy not as “on a diet” but as a way of life. I will admit, I make goals and I don’t always achieve them. It takes time to establish new habits. Be kind to yourself. You will get this.
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Thank you @Dory_42 @TerriRichardson112 and @readyornot1234 Your posts are very helpful to me. I am learning that slow and steady is the way, and no more diets, but rather a healthy lifestyle is the new way of life.
Today for lunch I had leftover individual meatloaf, from last night. I made them in my new ramekins, which they are soooo cute!! I forgot to take a picture. I normally have a salad for lunch, because my diet brain says I need a salad for lunch - every single day. It was nice to not have a salad today, and I am still good on calories for the day.
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@KCJen Ramekins is a clever idea. We did individual meatloaves tonight with an asian flavor profile, and I think they would be great leftovers too. I used broccoli, but you could skip the broccoli totally. I put the meatloaf part into the MFP recipe builder so I can vary the veggie and track it as seen fit. http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/281050/honey-sesame-turkey-meatloaves-with-broccolini/2
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@SModa61 I am using my ramekins to help with portion control. I hope this will help my son learn what healthy portions look like as well. Tonight I made spaghetti and corn and used ramekins for both. They looked so cute!! And I learned how to add homemade spaghetti to the recipe section in MFP, so it was a good night. I will check out the recipe you posted 1
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@SModa61 I am using my ramekins to help with portion control. I hope this will help my son learn what healthy portions look like as well. Tonight I made spaghetti and corn and used ramekins for both. They looked so cute!! And I learned how to add homemade spaghetti to the recipe section in MFP, so it was a good night. I will check out the recipe you posted
@KCJen wonderful that your son is learning along with you. That is a great gift to him.1 -
Thank you @Dory_42 @TerriRichardson112 and @readyornot1234 Your posts are very helpful to me. I am learning that slow and steady is the way, and no more diets, but rather a healthy lifestyle is the new way of life.
Today for lunch I had leftover individual meatloaf, from last night. I made them in my new ramekins, which they are soooo cute!! I forgot to take a picture. I normally have a salad for lunch, because my diet brain says I need a salad for lunch - every single day. It was nice to not have a salad today, and I am still good on calories for the day.
Salad for lunch in winter .... Portion-aware and suitable-to-the-day meatloaf sounds SOOOOO much better!
The key being Portion-aware and suitable-to-the-day. It has already been said farther up, food just IS. (barring medical reasons like food allergies of varying degrees, or controlling / recovering from certain medical conditions etc and always go with sound professional guidance where applies) .
Moderation in all things INCLUDING MODERATION! DH is minimal-pre-diabetic, and had to cut out most of the sugar he used to have in multiple cups of tea. We get ten packs of "fun size" kitkats (those little halloween-sized ones) and one pack is in the fridge at a time, beside the six-packs of smaller sized Coke zeros. There is one pack of smaller-sized regular Coke at the back of the fridge, so that if he gets a set of stress-reaction shakes the sugar is available if required.
I leave him the mini kitkats but have my own Dark Chocolate Bark Thins supply. If there is room in my diary after supper, then it can become a part of my accounted for evening snack if I choose.3 -
Mrs_Hoffer wrote: »I'm new here, but very excited to be in this group and to meet other like-minded mfp-ers! I'm trying to find ways to become more "involved" on mfp and not just log on everyday just to log my food in the diary. I'm looking forward to getting to know y'all!
Welcome! This is my 4th month. Time flies. You will enjoy the group very nice folk. Thanks for the friend request too😁. Be well!!0 -
Second month for me as well.
Here is a question I posted in the FAQ's of the october challenge. Was interested in input as I sort out how to proceed with November.
@RangerRickL For FAQ #11, what are your thoughts on excluding or including exercise calories? I am finishing up my first UAC this October, and have excluded the exercise for this round. Thinking through the pros and cons for my next. Thx
As far as I understand, you decided on how you will handle this. You set your calorie goal for the challenge, which includes how you deal with exercise calories. You also decide what counts as exercise for you.
Personally, I’ve always excluded exercise points. Im working on weight loss, so lowering food intake regardless of exercise helps me w that goal.2 -
I searched on my tablet's connection to my public library's digital collection (both e-book and audio 21-day download options) but they didn't have How to Stop Worrying and Start Living in the collection. I did find The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. This is very interesting reading.
Could anyone point me at "what walking meditations are about" (either audiobook or youtube format) that I could listen to while stationary biking, as a lead up to a planned before-work walking habit? (I got 5 minutes on my bike / 55 cals burned plus over 3500 steps before I even had my morning coffee / the sun broke the horizon this morning)2 -
I searched on my tablet's connection to my public library's digital collection (both e-book and audio 21-day download options) but they didn't have How to Stop Worrying and Start Living in the collection. I did find The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. This is very interesting reading.
Could anyone point me at "what walking meditations are about" (either audiobook or youtube format) that I could listen to while stationary biking, as a lead up to a planned before-work walking habit? (I got 5 minutes on my bike / 55 cals burned plus over 3500 steps before I even had my morning coffee / the sun broke the horizon this morning)
Not sure if this is what you're looking for but Jon Mooallem is a New York Times Magazine journalist with a podcast of him...walking 🤷🏿♀️ I find it meditative to hear his foot falls and I walk along with him in real life:
https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93YWxraW5ncG9kY2FzdC5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw&ep=14
He talks pre- and post- walk. Not much during unless he comes across someone he knows (at least not in the ones I've heard)1 -
If I were still 5'3" i'd be ~ 2 pounds into "BMI-Normal" and the very upper edge of my maintenance zone.
I admitted to the Wii that I am now 5'2" (olde-age spine compression type thing - I turned 62 this year) so I am BMI-25.40
Still 2 pounds on the WRONG side of the dividing line between BMI Overweight and BMI Normal, plus 3 or so additional pounds after that to get below middle of maintenance range)
The sun is already almost-set behind the houses by 4:30 - 4:45 (after-dark by the time I "commute down the stairs at ~5:00" ) and it seems we don't do the after-supper walks any more. It's gonna feel like a long winter this year ....
I am not precisely a "winter snow-bunny" type .... and probably not the only "not-one" here ....
For those in the Northern Hemisphere what are your plans to get through a more "house-bound winter than usual"?
For those in the Southern Hemisphere, what DID you do to get through both cold-weather and lockdown at the same time? (I grant that different jurisdictions have different weathers, and what your part of the world considers cold might be what I would consider a taste of spring)1 -
Speaking of weather ... most of our front lawn was "random wild flowers".
That's me in our garden BEFORE the flowers had reached their fullest height ....
We ARE in Northern-Hemisphere November ... a few nights of killer frost just before Halloween made everything "spooky-droopy" and we pulled it all out last week .... we have had one snow followed by unseasonable warm days and some of the wild flower seeds are actually SPROUTING in the raw earth!!!!!
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@BMcC9 - I am in northern New England in US. I have arthritis as a bonus to my autoimmune disease. Once the cold really sets in, my cane comes out of the closet. This winter I am planning to head it off at the pass. I will bundle up and walk on days when walking outside is doable because I think fresh air is huge to both mental and physical health. But since that’s weather impacted, I bought an indoor bike and a subscription so I will cycle, lift, do yoga, meditate and do lots of stretching exercises. My plan is just to keep moving even though I will be in the house for the most part, if not the whole winter with COVID.
What’s your plan?3 -
I lost my little streak, but I have been keeping track all week. My desk has post-it notes of every day's calories. Time to get caught up. Busy week and needed a break from online. Hope everyone had a good week. I am off to go get my postings and read what I have missed.2
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I lost my little streak, but I have been keeping track all week. My desk has post-it notes of every day's calories. Time to get caught up. Busy week and needed a break from online. Hope everyone had a good week. I am off to go get my postings and read what I have missed.
Update: The post-it notes was not a smart move on my part, however, I am glad that I am all caught up. I have used up 3 pass days, and I am one pass day away from being disqualified, but my goal for November is to use fewer pass days then I did in October, and continue being UAC's consistency builder I will keep moving forward. 5 -
I lost my little streak, but I have been keeping track all week. My desk has post-it notes of every day's calories. Time to get caught up. Busy week and needed a break from online. Hope everyone had a good week. I am off to go get my postings and read what I have missed.
Update: The post-it notes was not a smart move on my part, however, I am glad that I am all caught up. I have used up 3 pass days, and I am one pass day away from being disqualified, but my goal for November is to use fewer pass days then I did in October, and continue being UAC's consistency builder I will keep moving forward.
Bravo for moving forward. I am the reverse. At the end of the month, I have 4 problem days in a row. It would be so easy to just say that I'll skip November....., then December...... I've decided to do the best I can for every day that I can, and that is so much better than I was doing before, so its ok.
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For those in the Southern Hemisphere, what DID you do to get through both cold-weather and lockdown at the same time? (I grant that different jurisdictions have different weathers, and what your part of the world considers cold might be what I would consider a taste of spring)
We didn’t have a particularly cold winter, I even swam in the sea more often not to mention jumping into the seal pools regularly in our apocalypse uniform (bikini and shorts because we were the only ones there to enjoy the sun). Winter here doesn’t mean snow and is only cold to us because we can’t really escape it to easily as there is no central heating in our buildings. Cold is below 10 C during the day. Very few areas in the country get below zero! Yet another reason to love my home country.
Sorry that isn’t much help for your question.2 -
I lost my little streak, but I have been keeping track all week. My desk has post-it notes of every day's calories. Time to get caught up. Busy week and needed a break from online. Hope everyone had a good week. I am off to go get my postings and read what I have missed.
Update: The post-it notes was not a smart move on my part, however, I am glad that I am all caught up. I have used up 3 pass days, and I am one pass day away from being disqualified, but my goal for November is to use fewer pass days then I did in October, and continue being UAC's consistency builder I will keep moving forward.
This is my goal too! I have 3 pass days as well. I don’t need to be perfect - I just need to do a bit better.3 -
readyornot1234 wrote: »I lost my little streak, but I have been keeping track all week. My desk has post-it notes of every day's calories. Time to get caught up. Busy week and needed a break from online. Hope everyone had a good week. I am off to go get my postings and read what I have missed.
Update: The post-it notes was not a smart move on my part, however, I am glad that I am all caught up. I have used up 3 pass days, and I am one pass day away from being disqualified, but my goal for November is to use fewer pass days then I did in October, and continue being UAC's consistency builder I will keep moving forward.
This is my goal too! I have 3 pass days as well. I don’t need to be perfect - I just need to do a bit better.
@Readyornot123 I love this: I don’t need to be perfect - I just need to do a bit better.3 -
I lost my little streak, but I have been keeping track all week. My desk has post-it notes of every day's calories. Time to get caught up. Busy week and needed a break from online. Hope everyone had a good week. I am off to go get my postings and read what I have missed.
Update: The post-it notes was not a smart move on my part, however, I am glad that I am all caught up. I have used up 3 pass days, and I am one pass day away from being disqualified, but my goal for November is to use fewer pass days then I did in October, and continue being UAC's consistency builder I will keep moving forward.
Bravo for moving forward. I am the reverse. At the end of the month, I have 4 problem days in a row. It would be so easy to just say that I'll skip November....., then December...... I've decided to do the best I can for every day that I can, and that is so much better than I was doing before, so its ok.
Good for you in not skipping November and December because I have done that before, and put my diet on hold until Jan 1st!
November and December are the worst months for me to try to start my diet again....ummm I meant to learn my new way of a healthy lifestyle. I am still trying to fix the mindset of "diet" vs "healthy lifestyle". But my goal for November and December will be consistency in tracking food - all days - including the good, bad, and the ugly. Continue working on building my food diary database, and developing habits of using my food scale and individual servings to control proper portions. As well as eating within my calorie range, and having fewer pass days then I used the previous month. If I can do that - November and December will be ok.5 -
Last month I remember talking about the ticker not working on our profile page. I noticed that my ticker is now actually working, but I had to go in and make my ticker public in the ticker settings. I am glad to see my ticker back and working as it is a motivational help for me 😊
I wanted to share that in case others want their ticker back on their profile page as well.1 -
readyornot1234 wrote: »@BMcC9 - I am in northern New England in US. I have arthritis as a bonus to my autoimmune disease. Once the cold really sets in, my cane comes out of the closet. This winter I am planning to head it off at the pass. I will bundle up and walk on days when walking outside is doable because I think fresh air is huge to both mental and physical health. But since that’s weather impacted, I bought an indoor bike and a subscription so I will cycle, lift, do yoga, meditate and do lots of stretching exercises. My plan is just to keep moving even though I will be in the house for the most part, if not the whole winter with COVID.
What’s your plan?
What did you buy a subscription to? (I also own a stationary bike)0 -
readyornot1234 wrote: »@BMcC9 - I am in northern New England in US. I have arthritis as a bonus to my autoimmune disease. Once the cold really sets in, my cane comes out of the closet. This winter I am planning to head it off at the pass. I will bundle up and walk on days when walking outside is doable because I think fresh air is huge to both mental and physical health. But since that’s weather impacted, I bought an indoor bike and a subscription so I will cycle, lift, do yoga, meditate and do lots of stretching exercises. My plan is just to keep moving even though I will be in the house for the most part, if not the whole winter with COVID.
What’s your plan?
What did you buy a subscription to? (I also own a stationary bike)
I love the peloton app. You can use the app with any stationary bike - it doesn’t need to be theirs. It has so many different classes in so many areas - bike, tread, outdoor running and walking, strength (weights, strappy things, body weight and all different body areas), stretching, yoga, barre, meditation. I used to have many different subscriptions to get all these things but then a friend introduced me to the peloton app. I have cancelled all the others. And the music is fantastic - classical, pop, rock, Broadway and basically anything you can think of. They have live classes that then become on demand classes. There are so many on demand classes. Classes run from a quick 10 minutes to 60 minute plus. Because of my schedule, I have only taken one live class, the rest I have taken are on demand. There is a free trial period. I haven’t been to a gym in about 10 years because of my disease. I kept getting a pneumonia 2 times every winter for about 5 years. So the app works great for me. Much cheaper too and it’s on my schedule. Okay, I’m a bit hooked.1 -
I lost my little streak, but I have been keeping track all week. My desk has post-it notes of every day's calories. Time to get caught up. Busy week and needed a break from online. Hope everyone had a good week. I am off to go get my postings and read what I have missed.
Update: The post-it notes was not a smart move on my part, however, I am glad that I am all caught up. I have used up 3 pass days, and I am one pass day away from being disqualified, but my goal for November is to use fewer pass days then I did in October, and continue being UAC's consistency builder I will keep moving forward.
Bravo for moving forward. I am the reverse. At the end of the month, I have 4 problem days in a row. It would be so easy to just say that I'll skip November....., then December...... I've decided to do the best I can for every day that I can, and that is so much better than I was doing before, so its ok.
Good for you in not skipping November and December because I have done that before, and put my diet on hold until Jan 1st!
November and December are the worst months for me to try to start my diet again....ummm I meant to learn my new way of a healthy lifestyle. I am still trying to fix the mindset of "diet" vs "healthy lifestyle". But my goal for November and December will be consistency in tracking food - all days - including the good, bad, and the ugly. Continue working on building my food diary database, and developing habits of using my food scale and individual servings to control proper portions. As well as eating within my calorie range, and having fewer pass days then I used the previous month. If I can do that - November and December will be ok.
Just spotted your reply. Notifications as so oddly done.
I think your plan is perfect. Healthy lifelong habits are more important than any two months.
Good luck!0 -
readyornot1234 wrote: »readyornot1234 wrote: »@BMcC9 - I am in northern New England in US. I have arthritis as a bonus to my autoimmune disease. Once the cold really sets in, my cane comes out of the closet. This winter I am planning to head it off at the pass. I will bundle up and walk on days when walking outside is doable because I think fresh air is huge to both mental and physical health. But since that’s weather impacted, I bought an indoor bike and a subscription so I will cycle, lift, do yoga, meditate and do lots of stretching exercises. My plan is just to keep moving even though I will be in the house for the most part, if not the whole winter with COVID.
What’s your plan?
What did you buy a subscription to? (I also own a stationary bike)
I love the peloton app. You can use the app with any stationary bike - it doesn’t need to be theirs. It has so many different classes in so many areas - bike, tread, outdoor running and walking, strength (weights, strappy things, body weight and all different body areas), stretching, yoga, barre, meditation. I used to have many different subscriptions to get all these things but then a friend introduced me to the peloton app. I have cancelled all the others. And the music is fantastic - classical, pop, rock, Broadway and basically anything you can think of. They have live classes that then become on demand classes. There are so many on demand classes. Classes run from a quick 10 minutes to 60 minute plus. Because of my schedule, I have only taken one live class, the rest I have taken are on demand. There is a free trial period. I haven’t been to a gym in about 10 years because of my disease. I kept getting a pneumonia 2 times every winter for about 5 years. So the app works great for me. Much cheaper too and it’s on my schedule. Okay, I’m a bit hooked.
I've been hearing a lot of good things about the Peloton app. It may become a new tool. We'll see. I am also very curious about the upcoming Apple Fitness App.1 -
@SModa61 - Yes, I'm curious about the Apple Fitness App, too!0
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Bill70sStrong wrote: »@SModa61 - Yes, I'm curious about the Apple Fitness App, too!
@Bill70sStrong Fingers crossed that it is good. I recall thinking the price was reasonable and has a family option.1 -
I didn’t know about the Apple Fitness+ but I see it won’t be in South Africa at first anyway. I use the Nike Training Club for workouts. I just need something extra to add to my Jiu Jitsu, running, yoga and gym Pilates reformer classes and while it’s not perfect it gives me workouts to do. I use the free version which has some limitations but does enough for me. It links to the Nike Running Club but I like to run on my own plan so I don’t use that aspect.1
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I need to do some serious exploring about home based apps or youtube based alternates to my exergame (which I still love, but past time I broadened my spectrum to something beyond "brisk walking in front of tv" )
I DO have a stationary bike in the basement. And a big Swiss Stability Ball and some resistance bands and loops. Even a small collection of hand-weights and strap-around the wrist and ankle weights. (pairs of 2.5, 5, and 10 pounders plus each strap-on is adjustable to between 1 and 5 additional pounds per appendage)
And I have a hula-hoop gathering dust in the basement.
I know ABOUT bodyweight-exercises and isometrics and yoga etc.
So it's not like there aren't alternative options.
We are going into very-cold winter here - and it is dark when I get up (Sun will soon be barely up by the time I actually fire up the work-computer) / already dark when I finish on the computer for the day and "commute" back down the 14 stairs to the main floor.
Frost on the cars and roofs of houses in the mornings (at least for this year I won't have to scrape the windshield before driving to the office - or dig out the end of the driveway later on)
Maybe it is past time to explore some "paid for it so I had better show up" Zoom classes so that I feel like I have company or something.
I am just blah ... down-beat ... I don't want to say "getting depressed" and devaluing the very real clinical-depression challenges that some are facing.
I just need to find some sparks for daily "quick-wins / progress via low hanging fruit" alternatives to my non-exercise default activities (which are all very stationary like reading or tablet-based "pseudo cross-stitching" - especially this time of year when I am even MORE likely to want to hibernate ....
I am missing the me who is
but morphing more into
'Nough stalling, I have pre-identified two "work-related frogs" to be eaten by mid morning ... time to Pitter-patter, just get att'er."4 -
I am still around - reading and lurking more that daily reporting .... so don't feel I should be a "champion" this time round.
I AM cheered by Dory's daily adventures - ("HOW did the little penguin get out?? / Glad I went to the goodby party after all, 'cause I found our missing non-venomous snake ... ") and also how well all of you-all are doing as both Regular-Reporting Champions and on-your-way-to Winners Circle qualifiers.
what follows in the spoiler is a "pout - pout - pout" (nothing truly major can be pin-pointed as wrong besides "work-pace fatigue" vs "at least I have steady income AND a safe, well-set- up at-home work-station so what right do I have to complain?" mentality)AM giving myself credit for continuing to log into MFP if nothing else - missing the after-supper outdoor walks from all spring-summer-fall and not really settled on something to compensate (and it is dark so early now - long before 5:00 pm) Dropped the food-intake setting but not enough (down in and/or active-calorie burn combination) to get off where 1am and back to where I where I stabilized from ~April-May until mid-October.
Applying the "eat the frog" strategy to some work-related things, and that is going well so far.
Time I made a commitment to "play Go For The Green" (pre-log) again every day before work. Never mind the rest ... get that steady between now and end of Nov while I dither about what exercise / activity strategy to add in beyond my walking exergame (I still do that) that is more than "stepping" .
Looking for specific "What I do when in a funk" input from others ... hoping to spark ideas for innovative / adaptive thinking, leading to change of headspace.
My solution will be my own in the end, due to my own tastes and circumstances ... but I need Define / Design possibilities (no such thing as wrong answers / bad ideas at this stage) before I can start considering how to build a personal-fit plan .... and my current headspace isn't feeling particularly innovative at the moment. Just grey-fog blah.3
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