RadioactivePirate

I make a protein smoothee by using Greek yogurt, fruit, milk, vanilla, and sweetener. No protein powder necessary. I'm not concerned with "natural" but I hate the taste and texture of protein powder, so I avoid it. My usual is 1 cup frozen strawberries, 3/4c milk, 1/2c plain Greek yogurt, vanilla, and Splenda, and it ends…

This sounds like a question for your doctor.

Just brace yourself and go out and run. Pretty soon you'll self-identify as a runner and you won't be self-conscious about it anymore because you're a runner, it's what you do. The fear/embarrassment just kind of melts away once you start doing it.

Keep it basic. Tonight I baked chicken with a spice rub and served with a huge pile of roasted broccoli and a serving of rice... a giant, filling plate of food, and under 500 calories even with tossing the broccoli in olive oil for roasting. I do some variation of this quite a bit, baking chicken or fish with various…

I had this happen to me with my wedding dress last year... I tried on a size 14W and it fit but I was still losing weight, so I bought a size down.... which was a 14! I looked up the measurements and the size 16 regular was exactly the same as the size 14 women's. Trickery! Glad to be out of that in-between plus/regular…

I usually make eye contact and smile, and say hi or nod hello if they return it. I have been known on occasion to high five random strangers who look friendly.

For me it has been tough to separate out losing weight "for me" from losing weight because of my own internalized prejudices against fat and society-based ideas of what women are "supposed" to look like to be attractive. It certainly chafes me at times when I feel that I am far more socially acceptable now as an average…

I use Splenda all the time. Hasn't hurt me any. IMO it's the best tasting of the artificial sweeteners.

My theory is cognitive dissonance. You are doing something difficult and uncomfortable, and your brain is stuck trying to figure out why you are doing something difficult and uncomfortable when nobody is making you do it. The way I figure, your brain just decides to resolve this issue by saying well I must be doing it…

You can do it! It's all "Wow I will never be able to do this" until all of a sudden it's "Holy crap, I just did that!" Also sign up for the race. Especially with a fun run like that, there will be lots of walkers and if you need to take walking breaks you will be able to without embarrassing yourself. It's good to have it…

Kale "chips." WTF. Who came up with this one and why does everybody seem to think it's genius?

34E or DD here, and I have used the Fiona (Moving Comfort), Glamorise 1066, and Shock Absorber. All of them are great and have served me well for running. The Glamorise is probably the cheapest. The Fiona runs the smallest I think and it is most like a traditional sports bra (the others are more separating). I recommend…

Let me let you in on an industry secret... "Works great with no side effects" is code for "This product is total bull**** but we'd really like your money." Over the counter weight loss supplements basically come in two flavors: 1) works, but has side effects, and is potentially dangerous (Supplements do not have to be…

I used to walk for exercise and watch what I ate. Now I can run up to 6 miles at a time and I'm a hundred pounds down. I'd say it works.

I made this tonight for flatbread pizzas! I only had all purpose flour, so I used that, but it came out delicious! Definitely saving this recipe. Thanks!

Definitely this!! I used to eat a lot of stuff that was mediocre just because it was there. Like grocery store bakery birthday cake, donuts at work from a place that really wasn't that amazing, stuff like that. Now that I have the mentality of "spending" my calories I don't feel the drive to eat those things, because it…

I managed a couple pounds a week early on, but for the most part it's been a pretty steady pound a week. Takes longer this way but it's easier, so I was actually able to do it without giving up.

I used to go the gym after work but found that I needed too much of a snack beforehand to get a good workout in, like 200-300 calories, and it was throwing off my goals. So I changed when I go to the gym, now I time it to after when I normally eat dinner. I don't know if that's an option for you or not but it's something…

Oh and to check accuracy for liquids, use water. Water's density is 1g/ml so a one cup measuring cup should weigh 248g. A tablespoon of water should weigh 15g and a teaspoon 5g. That will show you EXACTLY what it looks like when your measuring utensil is "full" if you zero out your scale with the utensil on it, then put…

Okay, so a couple factors come into play here. One is that with dry goods there is a lot of air in between the bits of food, which means there is room for it to be more or less compressed. The measurement that you take at home is likely to be rather more compressed than the one they used to determine the calories. Another…

This may be something you already know but I'll give it a shot. You say you're using a digital scale AND measuring cups/spoons. Well, measuring cups and spoons can be very inaccurate. I find depending on what you are measuring you can easily add 10-15% to a serving if you're using measuring cups, and that's even if you…

There is often some overfill in the package to account for the part you don't eat and to give the company a little bit of leeway. 10% seems pretty normal to me. If you are scraping up every last bit of yogurt, yes you are probably eating a little more than 6 ounces.

I just say "Hey, I don't pick on your ice cream [or whatever their favorite unhealthy food is], leave my veggies alone." Not particularly witty but it gets the point across.

I made a spinach salad with bacon (baked in the oven as seen on the Internet!) and avocado and a couple poached eggs and honey mustard dressing. This was the first time I tried the bacon in the oven method. Just set the bacon on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet lined with foil to catch the grease and put it in a…

So the commercial goes "Studies show that women who eat breakfast tend to weigh less".... Note that studies DON'T say that women who don't naturally feel hungry in the morning but force themselves to eat breakfast anyway lose weight. They want you to draw this conclusion from the statement, but that is not something that…

Stop torturing yourself by trying to quit. Just drink the diet coke. There are worse things lol

Depending on the day, I either eat, go to bed, or craft (it's hard to knit and eat at the same time). Usually though I plan an evening snack into my calories for the day so I rarely end up hungry at the end of the night. If that's when your body wants food why fight against it? I feel like by knowing what I'm going to be…

Check out the Budget Bytes blog. She posts tons of great recipes, usually pretty simple, and all broken down by cost. I've made many of her recipes and never had one turn out poorly.

I got orthopedic inserts from a foot care store. Hasn't been a problem since.

Your swimming calorie counts seem EXTREMELY high. Are you sure you're correctly figuring your exercise calories?