At Goal & Successfully Maintaining. So Why Am I Doing This All Over Again?

Volume + Dieting = Epic Fail, right?

Wrong!

Have you discovered volume eating?

It’s possible to eat large volumes of filling, nutritious, enjoyable foods for low calories.

There’s even a huge thread devoted to ideas:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10563959/volume-eaters-thread/p1

I enjoy mixing bowl sized salads several times a week. Four cups of greens, 3oz carrots, 5 oz radishes, five of cherry tomatoes, and about ten of cucumbers, with some zero cal dressing (or salsa or a quality balsamic) comes to about 125 calories. Bulk it up with some deli meat or grilled chicken, a serving of feta and you’ve got a serious meal for 3-400 calories.


Grilled chicken breast with some Lawry’s or other simple seasoning is a boatload of protein and low calories.

You can eat a whole package of green beans or asparagus for very few calories.

Roasted vegetables can be a low cal feast. (mmmmm beets!) and the chilled leftovers over salad greens the next day is just as good.

BL’s favorite volume eating right now is anything that our Ninja Creami home ice cream maker churns out. While I was gone, he read the quick start brochure, bought a bunch of cans of pineapple in juice and made himself a pint of sorbet every night for 180 calories. (Amazing what they can do when they really want to….)

We had Mexican for lunch today. BL had chicken fajitas.

Last time we had Mexican, I peeked at his diary, and he had charged himself 371 for a full Mexican fajita meal. We’re talking salad, guacamole, rice, beans, tortillas and the whole sizzling platter thing. 😬

We had a brief talk about trying to be a little more accurate. So this evening I looked and he’d charged himself 671. 😬😬

I do the cooking and weighing and he generally copies my entries. Other than that, it’s the occasional fast food, where he can snag the generic entries.

He really has no clue how large a tablespoon of anything is, or an ounce, or the frequent 15 and 28 gram servings.

He had calculated 10 grams of peppers and onions. We reviewed his lunch and came up with just shy of 1300. (We didn’t have chips and salsa, and he didn’t get tortillas for his fajitas this time.)

That’s when he confessed to me that he’s been really worried about the message he gets when he closes his diary.

You know. This message:



(This is a screenshot from my own diary)

He said he’s nowhere near where the five week prediction generally puts him and it’s had him down.

Y’all, this message is utter BS. Long time users have been begging the folks at MFP for years to get rid of that thing.

One thing you need to understand is “that if every day were like today” doesn’t exist.

No two days are alike. Even if you somehow manage to eat the exact same things every day, your steps are different, your activity is different, you may have applied more salt, drank more or less fluids, been constipated, had work and/or personal stress, suffered road rage, the weather was hot, your didn’t sleep well. NO TWO DAYS ARE ALIKE.

I get the good intentions of posting a banner like that, but it creates unrealistic expectations. IGNORE IT.

He weighed in this morning for the first time in three weeks, and was up half a pound.

Down in the dumps but says he will keep on plan.

We’re going to sit down and review his diary tonight and tighten up on logging.

He’s really upped his activity level, so it’s got to be inaccurate logging. I don’t think he’s cheating because he’s been so invested in this.

I’ve been hesitant to review his diary because, as a grown man, and essentially a retired statistician/forecaster for a major corporation, this is something that should be well within his wheelhouse.

I don’t want to be diet nanny, ya know? But if it helps him stay on track and , above all, healthy, a gal’s gotta do what a gal’s gotta do.

anmlmzdiet wrote: »

I don't know how to quote someone (I'm seriously old school,) but the

(remember the chickens riding goats stampede? LOL

had me rolling.

Springle, your post bring out the best in people. So fun and educational to read.

I haven't started exercising yet. I have some severe physical limitations, but when some of this weight comes off, maybe some of the pain will go with it.

Just hit the “quote” button at the bottom of the post you want to quote. It will prefill in the response box so you can then type your response after it.

Like so:



No worries. I still can’t do a lot of the fun stuff like snips and such.

Regarding exercise. One of the best posts I ever read was from a woman who was morbidly obese with restricted mobility. She made a decision to all to the end of her driveway and back. Then to the mailboxes and back. Then to the first fence post, then to the telephone pole, the next pole. She increased distance every time she felt comfortable with it. Eventually she was walking by several miles at a time. She was overjoyed at her own success.

To paraphrase Bilbo;

It's a joyful business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you keep to your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.