aweightymatter

An easy way is to make a spinach smoothie. Add your usual smoothie ingredients (milk or milk-like fluid of your choice, yogurt, protein powder, whatever), then 1.5 to 2 c. raw spinach, and at least 1/2 a banana to cut the spinach taste. This is great with the addition of other fruits, especially berries, too. The resulting…

This is interesting -- OP, thank you for a well thought-out and informative post. I used the calculator link you provided and I entered my goal weight (not too far off from my current weight), about 8 hours for resting, and then the rest (16) as "light," because I work a sedentary job and wanted to see the estimates…

I recommend the Savannah Smiles! They are small so you can eat five of them for like 140 calories, and it's fun to eat five of something! :) Other than that, five Thin Mints are not too bad for 200 calories!

Yep, that. I tried it once before I saw the light of proper fat loss. For something that's essentially a fiber supplement it didn't even really make me feel full or anything.

For anyone who has both an HRM and a Fitbit, what is the advantage of adding the Fitbit to the mix? Is it just the convenience of the extra step of logging a burn into MFP? Or does it work with the HRM somehow? I'm trying to decide whether or not to get one, but I already have an HRM with a food pod/GPS, and most of my…

HAHAH SO TRUE. Though you can't see in my pics, I have a decent amount of hours of tattooing (guess it is mostly on sides/back!) and people were always creepily tracing the lines of a tattoo I have between my shoulder blades..... Until I got a boyfriend who has sleeves, leg pieces, etc. -- now they either stay away…

Honestly you're going for a total weekly deficit (or even a monthly deficit) so I don't think it's too awful to create a slightly higher deficit during the week to eat something you really want on the weekends. I'm not actively really trying to lose pure pounds any more but I have done that in the past for special meals…

The point of pointing out tubers, starches, legumes, whatever, is that explaining that shows why not counting "veggies" can be a bad piece of advice for many people -- because many people do not really understand what a vegetable is. Not counting cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens probably won't hurt most --…

I'm just pointing something out because, for many of us, misinformation is what got us to be overweight. Weight loss and this entire journey is a learning process, and sometimes we have to be willing to throw out old beliefs. Good luck with your journey. x

You're right, you cannot. So you cannot decide potatoes are a vegetable, just because they are eaten as a side dish by many Americans. From Wikipedia alone: "The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family (also known as the nightshades). The word potato may refer to the…

Great job on your success! I am an inch shorter and a few pounds lighter than you but I'm going through the same thing -- no longer obviously fat, technically in a healthy weight range, etc. I feel like I have less of an "excuse" to tell people why I don't want to eat x, y, or z that they're eating, or why I want to…

Exactly. Potatoes are not a vegetable -- they're a tuber -- and neither are beans, peas, or corn.

The issue with giving out a blanket statement like this, too, is that what many people consider "vegetables" really aren't, and are relatively calorie-dense. Think of things like corn and peas, which are grains and legumes, respectively, but which many Americans consider/eat as vegetables on a typical dinner plate. Even…

MEEEEEE TOO!!! Hahaha... My workout playlists are all obnoxious hardcore, metal, some punk, and ear-splitting hip-hop... I listen to a billion kinds of music in my "normal" life but to get the blood flowing I rage like a dude. :)

You may not be able to totally "control" everything. For instance, my bf HATES going "grocery shopping" but still manages to make it to the store to buy his non-food -- chips, candy, ice cream, drinks with HCFS, etc. Mostly our tastes are different so not all of his stuff tempts me, but with the stuff that does, I tell him…

OMG I would love to be in a powerlifting couple. What?! That sounds so fun!!!

Yep!! I live with my boyfriend and I am pretty much totally alone with this. He is supportive of *my* goals but if he thinks what I'm making is too "bird food"-like, he defaults to fast food. He also NEVER exercises. He was one of those guys who was skinny without trying in his early 20s and so never learned any good…

I like Star-kist's different ready-to-eat tuna (and salmon, etc.) pouches. You would need to check the label of some of the products, like the light tuna salad -- which otherwise is just 100 calories a pouch! -- because you never know where gluten will pop up, but it's worth a look. If I'm running around and need to eat…

Many of us in the U.S. think they are super gross too, so don't worry ;)

This is so hard to deal with and I'm sorry :( Next time, you have to try to figure out if you are really hungry. If you are physically hungry, then just eat, and eat something you really want to eat. Sure, you may just end up eating maintenance calories for the day, but it is far better than the damage of a binge. If…

This is something I struggled with. I find that if *kitten* is really hitting the fan in my life, sometimes for a few days I need to focus on just eating maintenance calories rather than try to cut at all. Restricting your calories to a particular deficit might feel like one more restriction/stressor in your life, and you…

I totally agree. I'm actually more surprised that so many people on a fitness/health-oriented web site are defending her cooking... No, she is not a bad person and she did not force food into everyone's mouths, but a lot of her recipes really take a certain style of cooking to its unhealthiest extreme. I don't think farm…

HILARIOUS! That's like Rachael Ray's "Late Night Bacon" "recipe": http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/late-night-bacon-recipe/index.html Paula probably didn't create all the recipes she's shown. A *few* TV-type cooks do this but very, very few. That's why when you try a lot of the recipes straight from the Food…

I've tried it, but it didn't really last for me. It's great in that you get tons of produce and micronutrients in, but it is extremely low in fat and hard to follow if you have a professional or social life that involves eating out much. I frankly think fat is important for satiety but if the plan speaks to you, you can…

Honestly, 7 p.m. is such an arbitrary number! What wake-up, lunch, dinner time, etc. is that hard-and-fast rule based on, you know? Some of us keep much later schedules by necessity :) I have eaten after 7 p.m. every. single. day. since I started losing over 50 lbs, and the timing of my last meal of the day has never made…

I'm in South Florida :D I think we're all lucky that we get to get outside, be active, and enjoy the weather even in January. Good luck everyone!! xo

Oh my god, like the OP and some of the other subsequent posters, I totally feel your pain. I, too, am a "recovered" ex-bulimic/ED-NOS type of person who still struggles with emotional eating. I TOTALLY get the high from a binge too and it's freaking insane, and I know it's insane as it's happening. It's funny because I…

I'm about 2/3 of the way through my first cycle and I LOVE it. I couldn't do a proper toe push-up or pull-up when I started, so I have been doing knee push-ups and the resistance band variation for the pull-ups. I can definitely feel my strength increasing, and I started seeing progress from Ab Ripper X within just a…

Banana soft serve!! I just ate this. Cut a banana into small slices and freeze it. Blend it in a food processor or powerful blender, maybe top with a little peanut butter.... Has the texture of ice cream :) Soooo good and it's all real food -- no artificial sweeteners or chemicals or anything. I often find that artificial…

I don't know how that one works specifically but there are a couple of things you can try... Make sure you have your HRM set to running, specifically, if that's an option rather than "general," and if you use a foot pod type of thing, you may have to recalibrate it. I have a Garmin and it was overestimating as well,…