So, I am really trying hard to lose some weight and eat healthier. I haven't been doing much by way of exercising because I tend to overdo it - try to eat super healthy AND exercise and it is just too much at once. I'm trying to be more active in a more natural way (walking, swimming, biking on vacation, that kind of stuff.)
So, after 2 full months I am finally seeing a little bit of weight come off. It seems that I can stay within my calorie allotment but if my carbs are too high then I won't lose. I'm not doing a low carb diet. I am doing 40% carbs/30protein/30 fat. I'm finding it hard to get that much protein on some days but it's working out. It's actually hardest for me not to get too much sodium but I am just trying to overcome that by drinking tons of water.
Anybody else ready to get back to it? Still doing it and want to chat?
Some things I've recently changed: I now do Franz 40 calorie whole wheat bread. This was really hard for me. I LOVE white bread. Especially that home made type that is so soft and fluffy. I love PB&J sandwiches so it's been hard switching to wheat. It's just not the same. But, it has a lot fewer calories, more fiber and less carbs.
I also switched from drinking milk to using Hood Calorie Countdown "diary beverage." LOL Sounds gross but it actually tastes okay to me. I mainly just have milk with my cereal and I can't tell a difference. They have 2%, fat free and chocolate. I found that their 2% seemed better than regular fat free milk and I don't mind it at all. I also use it in my protein shakes and it's good.
I recently started using flat out bread. (flat bread.) SO good. Only 90 calories, 9 grams of fiber and not very many carbs. It is really good and versatile. I use it for wraps, fajitas, burritos, pizza, and even used it instead of a hamburger bun. It was actually REALLY good having a hamburger in it.
Also, I meticulously log everything into my fitness pal. I just can't do it any other way. If I try to do it mentally I overestimate how active I am and underestimate how much I eat. I also find that I snack much more when I am not logging there.
Last thing for now - sugar free jello packs (10 calories) have become my new best friend. I love them. They are sweet enough to satisfy a little sweet craving and don't really impact my calories at all.
I really like the sugar free jello tip. I need to do that, especially to help curb my late night snacking before bed.
I need to do something, I'm tired of not feeling happy with myself. Of course, it didn't help to break my effin toe, but I also need to stop using that as an excuse. I haven't tried biking yet, I'll give that a shot after I see the doc next week. I was supposed to keep weight off the foot for 2 weeks, but with Dom being away on travel that was pretty impossible.
Dom really needs to drop some weight too, so we're making it a goal to eat better together. We've been having oatmeal for bfast and salad for lunch. We've also cut out caffeine.
I need to drink way more water and do a better job of having ready-to-go healthy snacks handy, and to eat every few hours so I don't get too hungry.
One of my FB friends started a 20/20 challenge group, to lose 20 lbs in 20 wks, so we just started that.
I really like the sugar free jello tip. I need to do that, especially to help curb my late night snacking before bed.
I need to do something, I'm tired of not feeling happy with myself. Of course, it didn't help to break my effin toe, but I also need to stop using that as an excuse. I haven't tried biking yet, I'll give that a shot after I see the doc next week. I was supposed to keep weight off the foot for 2 weeks, but with Dom being away on travel that was pretty impossible.
Dom really needs to drop some weight too, so we're making it a goal to eat better together. We've been having oatmeal for bfast and salad for lunch. We've also cut out caffeine.
I need to drink way more water and do a better job of having ready-to-go healthy snacks handy, and to eat every few hours so I don't get too hungry.
One of my FB friends started a 20/20 challenge group, to lose 20 lbs in 20 wks, so we just started that.
It's perfect as a late night snack! Or a mid morning snack...or mid afternoon snack, LOL! It satisfies my craving to eat when I'm not necessarily hungry or I'm in between meals and wanting something super light. :)
Sounds like you have a good plan! Remember - you don't have to exercise to lose weight. In fact, I think with your toe you should just give yourself a break for the time being and focus solely on getting your eating how you want it to be.
I never thought I would say this but I kind of miss oatmeal! With what I'm doing now it just has too many carbs for me. But I loved the maple and brown sugar (high fiber) oatmeal.
See for me the jello does not work. I crave salty carbs :( When I want something, I want a crunch.
I am pretty much dairy free. With the exception of fresh mozzerella and some other cheese here and there. I noticed a HUGE difference when I shifted to non dairy. I use to put milk in my coffee and now just drink black. It all added up. Plus, high in sugar.
I actually do very good with eating for the most part and I think that is how I have managed to maintain the weight I have so far lost, but now I am just at a stand still. Not sure what I can do. Well, that is not true. I think the only thing left is exercise and I am flat out awful at it.
See for me the jello does not work. I crave salty carbs :( When I want something, I want a crunch.
I am pretty much dairy free. With the exception of fresh mozzerella and some other cheese here and there. I noticed a HUGE difference when I shifted to non dairy. I use to put milk in my coffee and now just drink black. It all added up. Plus, high in sugar.
I actually do very good with eating for the most part and I think that is how I have managed to maintain the weight I have so far lost, but now I am just at a stand still. Not sure what I can do. Well, that is not true. I think the only thing left is exercise and I am flat out awful at it.
I do crave those salty/crunchy carbs as well. But I also crave sweet stuff so the jello works for that. Honestly, with the other craving I just have a few chips with my lunch. If I crave something - I really crave it so I have to just have some and be done with it. I am to the point where (for the most part) I can have a little bit of something and not go crazy. Now I will put a few chips in my sandwich instead of a huge handful on the side and get my fix that way.
I could easily sit and eat half a box of cheez its or chips though. I love salty/crunchy carbs!
I really like the sugar free jello tip. I need to do that, especially to help curb my late night snacking before bed.
I need to do something, I'm tired of not feeling happy with myself. Of course, it didn't help to break my effin toe, but I also need to stop using that as an excuse. I haven't tried biking yet, I'll give that a shot after I see the doc next week. I was supposed to keep weight off the foot for 2 weeks, but with Dom being away on travel that was pretty impossible.
Dom really needs to drop some weight too, so we're making it a goal to eat better together. We've been having oatmeal for bfast and salad for lunch. We've also cut out caffeine.
I need to drink way more water and do a better job of having ready-to-go healthy snacks handy, and to eat every few hours so I don't get too hungry.
One of my FB friends started a 20/20 challenge group, to lose 20 lbs in 20 wks, so we just started that.
It's perfect as a late night snack! Or a mid morning snack...or mid afternoon snack, LOL! It satisfies my craving to eat when I'm not necessarily hungry or I'm in between meals and wanting something super light. :)
Sounds like you have a good plan! Remember - you don't have to exercise to lose weight. In fact, I think with your toe you should just give yourself a break for the time being and focus solely on getting your eating how you want it to be.
I never thought I would say this but I kind of miss oatmeal! With what I'm doing now it just has too many carbs for me. But I loved the maple and brown sugar (high fiber) oatmeal.
you're right, I need to just focus on getting the healthy eating under control first
hmmm, I wonder if I should explore the low-carb thing too. I love oatmeal, though. And bread. We do plain oats and spice it up with different combos of fruits and flavors. Works well for us to try different varities.
I really like the sugar free jello tip. I need to do that, especially to help curb my late night snacking before bed.
I need to do something, I'm tired of not feeling happy with myself. Of course, it didn't help to break my effin toe, but I also need to stop using that as an excuse. I haven't tried biking yet, I'll give that a shot after I see the doc next week. I was supposed to keep weight off the foot for 2 weeks, but with Dom being away on travel that was pretty impossible.
Dom really needs to drop some weight too, so we're making it a goal to eat better together. We've been having oatmeal for bfast and salad for lunch. We've also cut out caffeine.
I need to drink way more water and do a better job of having ready-to-go healthy snacks handy, and to eat every few hours so I don't get too hungry.
One of my FB friends started a 20/20 challenge group, to lose 20 lbs in 20 wks, so we just started that.
It's perfect as a late night snack! Or a mid morning snack...or mid afternoon snack, LOL! It satisfies my craving to eat when I'm not necessarily hungry or I'm in between meals and wanting something super light. :)
Sounds like you have a good plan! Remember - you don't have to exercise to lose weight. In fact, I think with your toe you should just give yourself a break for the time being and focus solely on getting your eating how you want it to be.
I never thought I would say this but I kind of miss oatmeal! With what I'm doing now it just has too many carbs for me. But I loved the maple and brown sugar (high fiber) oatmeal.
you're right, I need to just focus on getting the healthy eating under control first
hmmm, I wonder if I should explore the low-carb thing too. I love oatmeal, though. And bread. We do plain oats and spice it up with different combos of fruits and flavors. Works well for us to try different varities.
I should say that I'm not doing low carb. I've been logging everything on MFP and even though my calories were good I wasn't losing weight. Exercise didn't change anything. Zig zagging my calories didn't either. Fiber was good, water was good, everything BUT carbs were good. I was eating well over 200 and my weight just wasn't moving. So, that was the last thing I tried and it has helped.
Now I am eating around 140 carbs a day and it is helping. It's definitely not low carb in the traditional sense of low carb diets. I couldn't keep that up permanently so I didn't want to do it temporarily.
I don't get bored eating similar things so that helps too. I do the special K cereal with protein. It doesn't taste great but with a little bit of agave in it, I like it. Or I do eggs with some cheese. Sometimes in a wrap, sometimes just by themselves.
I've switched from regular milk to Hood Calorie Countdown (2%) and am finding that to be a good alternative for me. I basically only use it in my cereal and protein shakes so I can't even taste a difference and it is lower in carbs and sugar.
I've also switched my bread so that I am now either doing the flat out flatbread (GOOD!) or Franz 40 calorie whole wheat that has (obviously) less calories but also less carbs and sugar. So, instead of getting rid of things like cereal, milk, bread, etc. I've just tried to find the best alternative that fits into my ratios.
It's also helped me in the sense that my snacks were always carb types of snacks - chips, crackers, etc. and even though I could eat those and fit them into my calories they don't fit in when I stick to my carb goal so I'm just not mindlessly snacking on those either.
On MFP I set mine up for 40% carbs, 30 protein, 30 fat. The actual amount will be dependent on how many calories you are eating - mine is set at 1360. I couldn't lose weight doing 1200 calories (not focusing on carbs) but I am losing with eating more calories but less carbs. I honestly just think I was way over on carbs so I got it in check. If you see that you are already eating a good amount of carbs I wouldn't worry too much. It just wasn't working for me. :D
Not on a weight loss diet here but just thought I would mention that I had to go see an endocrinologist last week (I got diagnosed as being diabetic about 2 weeks before I got pregnant) and he gave me a few tips for helping me lower my sugars. He said to eat a about 1/2 a cup of sugar free jello before every meal because it lines your stomach so that you absorb the sugars in your meal slower, meaning not as bad of a spike. The jello, I believe, is also used as a way of making you feel full sooner. Also he said that the 30 minutes a day of gentle excercise that is recommended doesn't have that much of an effect on sugar levels but that I should do 15 minutes of low impact straight after I finish eating, even if it just means that I end up pacing the kitchen for 15 minutes. That way the sugar in my blood is sent to muscles instead of just staying in my blood.
They were things I hadn't heard before and are totally doable. Since having kids I had the attention span of a gnat and so doing anything longer than 10 minutes of any one excercise sends me nutty, but I can totally handle 15 minutes of walking round the house - I usually end up spending 40 minutes or so just walking round picking up toys and putting things were they should go.
Anyway, thought you ladies might find that useful too. The idea of sending the sugar to muscles instead of having it 'lying around' waiting to be converted into body fat made lots of sense.
Not on a weight loss diet here but just thought I would mention that I had to go see an endocrinologist last week (I got diagnosed as being diabetic about 2 weeks before I got pregnant) and he gave me a few tips for helping me lower my sugars. He said to eat a about 1/2 a cup of sugar free jello before every meal because it lines your stomach so that you absorb the sugars in your meal slower, meaning not as bad of a spike. The jello, I believe, is also used as a way of making you feel full sooner. Also he said that the 30 minutes a day of gentle excercise that is recommended doesn't have that much of an effect on sugar levels but that I should do 15 minutes of low impact straight after I finish eating, even if it just means that I end up pacing the kitchen for 15 minutes. That way the sugar in my blood is sent to muscles instead of just staying in my blood.
They were things I hadn't heard before and are totally doable. Since having kids I had the attention span of a gnat and so doing anything longer than 10 minutes of any one excercise sends me nutty, but I can totally handle 15 minutes of walking round the house - I usually end up spending 40 minutes or so just walking round picking up toys and putting things were they should go.
Anyway, thought you ladies might find that useful too. The idea of sending the sugar to muscles instead of having it 'lying around' waiting to be converted into body fat made lots of sense.
Thanks for that! I already have the sugar free jello so I will definitely try that trick. I also like the idea of just getting up right after eating and being active in whatever way is possible.
You know what I hate? I hate feeling like I'm making progress and then seeing pictures that are unflattering. I know I'm making progress but it's so defeating!
