BlueSkyShoal Member

My mom decided that spinach was particularly good for growing kids, which was fine, except she served it by buying a brick of frozen spinach and cooking it in a saucepan. Result: slimy, slimy limp spinach. It wasn't until I started eating it fresh in salads that I realized I actually like spinach, lol.

Grapefruit is a good source of Vitamin C and potassium. But it's not a magical weight loss secret. Basically, include it in your diet if you like grapefruit. Just count the calories for it like you would anything else.

You are definitely committed, which is the main trick to losing weight. It sounds like you're scared of falling into bad habits if you let the pressure off yourself. I get that; especially if you tried before and gained back the weight (which has happened to me and many of us.) Do you have any insight into what caused you…

I'm not a vegan, but I do try to limit the amount of meat in my diet. I've been finding a new appreciation for a lot of plant-based meals, especially broccoli which I used to hate. But now that I've tried roasted broccoli with garlic I'm hooked, mmm! Welcome to MFP by the way!

Unless you live in a specific town that has a polluted water source (like Flint MI) then tapwater is perfectly fine. I guess people get anxious about tapwater because it travels through pipes? But if you think about it, bottled water also goes through pipes, plus machinery. It's not like they send a guy to personally hold…

I started drinking a protein shake every day. I just don't eat enough protein-rich foods otherwise. One day I thought, "Well, I'll have peanut butter toast. Peanut butter has lots of protein!" Peanut butter also has lots of calories, though, so I tried not to use too much of it. I spread it so thin that the piece of bread…

Oh man, that was hilarious.

2% milk is disgusting to me. I hate its consistency. Since I grew up drinking skim, I associate the thickness of 2% with milk that has curdled / gone bad. Skim all the way for me. Sidenote, things that are white and "milky" in consistency have always been called milk since the 1400s. Thus "coconut milk", "milkweed" (which…

I hear you on the tedium, OP. The best thing to do is to find a cardio activity you like. I will add, though, that a lot of times I still do the elliptical machine even though I find it boring, because I'm at the gym anyway and it's there, you know? What I do is use the time to sort through my Pokemon Go finds and get rid…

I also consider calorie restriction to be "on a diet." Also, the clean living thing isn't necessarily related to weight loss (like the guy in my office that tells me "eating peanut butter is like eating POISON"--he embraces pseudosciency stuff but it's not to lose weight, as he's already thin as a rail.) But I am guessing…

I didn't drink much before, but now I hardly drink at all. It's just not worth it to me. Literally the only alcohol I like are the fruity, sugary drinks--I hate wine and beer--so my favorites are all the high calorie stuff.

I'm so sorry for your loss. It sounds like you are getting the ball rolling by tracking what you eat. It's really surprising the things we eat without thinking about it! I think a lot of people are just overwhelmed by the changes that go along with losing weight, especially since eating is often a "comfort" thing. OP, even…

Nonsense. At least with friends and romantic interests, we initially CHOSE to interact with them. There is no logical reason to put up with an A-hole merely because you have similar DNA. If you want to grow something, get a plant.

I also wanted to add that there is no guarantee that the website / app will be around forever, or that it will always be free. Which is one of the reasons I don't want to rely on it too much, even though I do find it a useful tool. (Especially when I was first starting out and constantly getting shocked by how many…

I don't weigh anything at all. I did buy a scale but I never did buy batteries for it. Most days I don't log either. Different people need different things. IMO it is worth at least trying to transition off weighing food. If you find that you're gaining, you can always start again.

Alternatively, carry an iPod and a pair of headphones, and whenever he starts getting rude, very obviously put the headphones in. Stare straight into his eyes as you put them in, then proceed to ignore him for the duration of the song.

I understand that you care about him. You're a kind person and you love him. I still think it is best for you if you cut him out, though. Your health, feelings, and mental state are just as important as his. At the very least, I would limit my contact to phone calls. If he can afford an escort service, he can afford to…

I dunno, if he's been this way all his life (i.e. this isn't a personality change due to mental disease, which I know does happen to some people) then personally I think you should walk away. You could give him one more chance, flat out tell him "It is disrespectful when you do this, this, and this. If you do not stop, you…

I exercise on the stairs at work. Just make sure you stretch thoroughly. When I didn't stretch, I used to wake up at night with terrible cramps in my lower legs.

For me it's certain types of potato chips.

When I went into a Macy's fitting room that had THE most unflattering lighting ever. I looked at myself in the mirror and was like "aw hell no." I had been in pretty deep denial before then, like "well, if I suck in my stomach as hard as I can and really press my fingers against my ribs I can feel them, so I CAN'T be fat!"…

I splurge once a week, on average, and I haven't had any problems. If you get stuck on a weight plateau, or are gaining weight, then that would be an obvious place to look for changes. I also think that splurge means radically different things for different people in terms of how many calories "over" you go.

My tip is to start slow. The first time I went to the gym, I pushed myself too hard and was in pain for the next week--and not going to the gym. (It's normal to feel some aches the next day, but this was like "hoo boy, I can't lift my arms.") So yeah, start gradually. After you get a gauge of where you're at, you can…

OP, try varying the time of your meals and see if it makes a difference. I went through a phase where I ate almost all my calories after going to the gym in the evenings. The trouble was that after the gym I was so wiped out that I would eat only a small portion of my calories, be full, and fall asleep. I shifted more of…

I weigh every day. :) Here's some recent up/down weight loss I've experienced (daily): 156.0 155.6 156.8 156.2 155.4 155.2 154.2 155.0 155.0 154.8 153.8 Hope that helps give an idea. Of course it is discouraging to go from 155.6 to 156.8 the next day, but as long as the general trend is downward, it's all good.

A lot of offices don't allow popcorn. We've had multiple instances of it setting off the smoke alarms. And when the alarm goes off, the floor has to be evacuated just to be safe. You can imagine the dirty looks the popcorn-maker gets after an incident like that, lol.

The drivers where I live are often downright hostile towards bicyclists, and when they do get in an accident they make excuses. You should've heard the excuses I heard someone use after she almost hit a bicyclist who was IN A BIKE LANE, all because she didn't do a simple check over her shoulder.

I can see a difference--with you. And other people. But not with myself. So I'm having the same issue. ;) I think it's because the changes are gradual. But even though they're gradual, they're real.

Thanks so much, everyone! Your support is so appreciated and inspiring! <3 I hope this isn't too disappointing, but currently most of my jeans are (US size) 14 and one is size 12. However, I do have to wear a belt with the 14s to prevent them from "sliding". I used to wear size 18 and 16 . . . My fat mostly sticks to my…

Here's my experience. I'm 5'6" and started out at 200 pounds. When I initially started tracking my food, I set a goal of 1500 calories. And the first week, I was starving. IMO, you just have to push through it. In about a week your body will adapt to getting less food and you'll just get "normal hungry" around mealtimes,…