Who else is on a diet? - Page 2

cradlecatholic5 · #16 Jun 21, '12, 11:00 am

Anne, I've been watching what I eat ... trying to cut down. I/we rarely eat red meat (much to my husband's dismay). Lots of chicken and I've recently added more fish.

I drink Crystal Light Raspberry Green Tea and love it! I always have it w/ me. It helps me fill up.

Chris, thanks for Sparkpeople. I'll check it out.

I will keep all in my prayers. Losing weight is very hard to do.

Hugs

TheRealJuliane · #17 Jun 21, '12, 11:58 am

I do not believe that sugar is evil. Anything that God made for us to eat, such as cane sugar, is natural and good for us, in reasonable quantities. It's when we start messing around with natural substances and come up with abominations like high fructose corn syrup that things go awry. Before HFCS, almost no one was obese. Now, it's a plague. HFCS has been in almost all of our food for decades. The corn industry says it's not a problem. They are lying.

As for diets, I know that if I forbid myself any one type of food, that is the food I will crave. Deprivation just doesn't work for my type of brain/personality/temperament. Moderation in all things is key for me.

I just quit Weight Watchers, lost about 10 lbs. at first, but then I started to struggle with how obsessive the whole "point" system is. People were talking in meetings about breaking up one tortilla chip into 8 pieces so they would feel more satisfied...

All you have is 1/8 of a tortilla chip, not 8 tortilla chips!! If I spend all my time and energy obsessing about food, I go crazy and I become possessed by just the thought of it.

So I quit that. When both my sons are out of the house as of September the junk food is going with them...Already put the hubby on notice that I am not going to have a lot of sweets in the house so if he wants something, he'd better get it himself and eat it on the spot! I've been doing family cooking for over 20 years now and it will be nice to switch to not cooking the same old stuff. No diet, just a change of lifestyle. I enjoy red meat and I'm not going back to being a vegetarian now.

Good luck to all on diets! Remember, no food is evil, and moderation is key.

exoflare · #18 Jun 21, '12, 12:03 pm

I won't go so far as to call sugar "evil" but how on earth can it be said to be good for you? Our bodies have absolutely zero need for it, unless maybe your only other option is starving to death.

Robertanthony · #19 Jun 21, '12, 12:20 pm

(CONTINUED) Now, 250 cal daily deficit+ 250 cal worth of physical activity equals more or less a pound of fatloss a week (3500 cal=1 pound of fat, a fatloss rate that is sustainable). Say you need 1360 cal a day, you need to figure out the macronutrients (macros), hence it could look like this: 150g carbs/100g protein/40g fats (150/100/40 would be your macros) You could always play around with those figures, removing a few g of carbs, adding some fats (bear in mind 1g of carbs yields 4 cal, 1g of protein yields 4 also and 1g of fats yields 9 calories.) If you have an Android phone you could sign up on mypalfitness.com, enter the foods you eat on a regular basis along with their caloric content and macros and from day to day you need to type what you eat in what quantity and it does all the calculations for you. You can even scan bar codes on produtcs you haven't listed and you'll know all the nutrition facts. Here's what it looks like (from a bodybuilder's prepping for a contest diary) http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/dia...ate=2011-07-03 There is a trend right now called IIFYM (if it fits your macros). Simply you can eat stuff like pancakes, kids cereals, Skinny Cow stuff as long as it's done in moderation, that you plug in the numbers and that they add up. You don't have to eat skinless boiled chicken, steamed brocoli plain and brown rice to lose weight. If you don't want all the calculations hassle, eat lean protein at every m,eal/snack, lots of veggies, fruit and carbs in moderation, a handful of nuts maybe or ground flaxseed along with some activity. Most activities will burn 5-10/min depending on intensity and person's weight. Good luck.

Robertanthony · #20 Jun 21, '12, 12:26 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRealJuliane

I do not believe that sugar is evil. Anything that God made for us to eat, such as cane sugar, is natural and good for us, in reasonable quantities. It's when we start messing around with natural substances and come up with abominations like high fructose corn syrup that things go awry. Before HFCS, almost no one was obese. Now, it's a plague. HFCS has been in almost all of our food for decades. The corn industry says it's not a problem. They are lying.

As for diets, I know that if I forbid myself any one type of food, that is the food I will crave. Deprivation just doesn't work for my type of brain/personality/temperament. Moderation in all things is key for me.

I just quit Weight Watchers, lost about 10 lbs. at first, but then I started to struggle with how obsessive the whole "point" system is. People were talking in meetings about breaking up one tortilla chip into 8 pieces so they would feel more satisfied...

All you have is 1/8 of a tortilla chip, not 8 tortilla chips!! If I spend all my time and energy obsessing about food, I go crazy and I become possessed by just the thought of it.

So I quit that. When both my sons are out of the house as of September the junk food is going with them...Already put the hubby on notice that I am not going to have a lot of sweets in the house so if he wants something, he'd better get it himself and eat it on the spot! I've been doing family cooking for over 20 years now and it will be nice to switch to not cooking the same old stuff. No diet, just a change of lifestyle. I enjoy red meat and I'm not going back to being a vegetarian now.

Good luck to all on diets! Remember, no food is evil, and moderation is key.

You're right Julianne, there is no intrinsically evil food, to use a Catholic analogy. I believe in moderation. I don't always practice moderation but God do I believe in it! The end result of eating any carbs (pasta, yams, brown rice) is glucose in your bloodstream, the only thing is, sugar has no nutrients, it's just calorie with nothing else. Everybody knows that huge amounts of sugar is not doing much good for anyone, but I wouldn't place it on the Index, nonetheless.

tomarin · #21 Jun 21, '12, 12:40 pm

Sugar is far from evil. Its value is not in its nutrition but in the pleasure it brings, and pleasure is, for the most part, good.

PennyinCanada · #22 Jun 21, '12, 2:09 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomarin

They're mostly water, aren't they, so why would they upset one's digestive system?

Protein takes longer to digest and slows things down. All veggies means there's no 'brakes' and it can give diarrhea. Adding protein helps you to feel full longer too, so that's a help for dieting.

tomarin · #23 Jun 21, '12, 2:11 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by PennyinCanada

Protein takes longer to digest and slows things down. All veggies means there's no 'brakes' and it can give diarrhea. Adding protein helps you to feel full longer too, so that's a help for dieting.

Interesting. Does the same logic apply to fruit? I normally think of say a banana as something that's easy to digest because it's easy on the digestive system.

PennyinCanada · #24 Jun 21, '12, 2:32 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomarin

Interesting. Does the same logic apply to fruit? I normally think of say a banana as something that's easy to digest because it's easy on the digestive system.

Fruit will tend to fly through, so having a balanced meal with it is a good plan. Banana is not the same, it's a binder.

When recovering from digestive troubles, chicken and rice soup is the 'go to' thing here, with an egg scrambled gently into the bubbling broth. Maybe extra white rice. No fruit. lol

catholicanne · #25 Jun 21, '12, 3:25 pm

I had more protein today and my tummy isn't hurting as much. I think that was a very useful tip.

PennyinCanada · #26 Jun 21, '12, 6:02 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by catholicanne

I had more protein today and my tummy isn't hurting as much. I think that was a very useful tip.

Very good! Thanks for the note.

Cat · #27 Jun 21, '12, 7:37 pm

For the last five years, my husband and I have been working towards a healthier lifestyle and food choices.

We don't "diet." We try to eat healthier.

I've lost about 80 pounds, but it's take all those years. Very very slow process, and at times, discouraging, but we keep plowing on.

About six weeks ago, I had a terrifying allergic reaction to my wonderful Celebrex and haven't been taking it now for over a month. (I had to go to the ER, and I now carry an epi pen with me JIC.)

Since then, I've gained ten pounds. Without Celebrex, my osteoarthritis is so painful that I can't move as easily, and so I've been "avoiding" the kinds of activities that have kept my weight healthy and helped me to burn off the sweets. Sigh. I also wake up several times during the night with such painful knees that I have to get out of bed and walk around to limber up.

Of course, this means that I am a zombie the next day, and that is my biggest stumbling block when it comes to food. When I'm tired, I overeat, especially simple carbs that are kind to the stomach. (Veges, fruits, proteins, and whole grains don't sit well on a tired, slightly upset stomach.)

So I finally asked my doctor for a referral to an allergist, who ordered a ton of lab tests to see what might have triggered the allergic reaction. She didn't mince words--she told me to stay away from Celebrex because it could kill me. But she did prescribe a new anti-inflammatory, and already, I can feel less pain in my joints. So hopefully this will help me to get more active again and lose not only that ten pounds, but continue to drop weight every so slowly.

My suggestion for everyone reading this is to do something that Dr. Storck (from the TV show, The Doctors) suggested in his book--incorporate small movements into your daily routine. E.g., don't sit while you're on the phone--pace or dance around. Dance, pace, jog in place, or do jumping jacks during ALL the commercials on any television shows you watch. Deliberately do your household chores inefficiently--make several trips back and forth to the bedroom to get laundry rather than gathering all the clothing into a basket. Or make several trips back and forth from the sink to the cupboards with your dishes. If you're at work, don't email or phone--walk to the other person's office or cubical.

Dr. Storck cites studies demonstrating that this kind of inefficient daily "nervous" activity can burn well over a 1000 calories a day, and this will result in the loss of at least a pound a week= four pounds a month= 48 pounds a year. Not bad! And it's fun--I'm really hoping this new anti-inflammatory works out for me so that I can start doing that kind of thing again, because it worked so well for me.

I agree with Juliane about sugar. I LOVE sugar! Rather than giving it up entirely, I'm trying to get to a place where I don't eat so much of it. I'm doing OK, and it's been a long time since I've had a real binge (eating a whole cake, eating an entire box of Oreos, all three rows, etc.) I think that moderation is the most realistic way to eat, unless, of course, the doctor orders you off a certain food for health reasons.

TheRealJuliane · #28 Jun 21, '12, 8:04 pm

I hope that everyone on this forum will have enough sense not to jump into the latest diet craze, HGC. It's a pregnancy hormone that is supposed to cut your appetite and allow you to starve yourself (500 calories a day) without feeling hungry. I have a couple of friends who are using this substance to get thin and it really makes me sad when women do this to their bodies. A starvation diet is horrible for your body and only re-sets your weight loss so that losing is even harder next time. Your body thinks it is being deprived so it holds onto the calories even more fiercely (yes, I know that is just imagery, your body doesn't "think" per se). Please do not fall for the hype.

Also some people might think that going gluten-free is going to cause weight loss. It's a medically necessary diet for people who can't tolerate wheat, barley and rye, and if you don't need it, you don't need it. Eating naturally gluten-free MAY cause you to lose weight but that's only because you can't eat all the junk food and fast food and baked goods most people do. There are plenty of higher-calorie gluten free substitutes and you can GAIN weight eating gluten-free too.

exoflare · #29 Jun 21, '12, 9:20 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomarin

Sugar is far from evil. Its value is not in its nutrition but in the pleasure it brings, and pleasure is, for the most part, good.

Is this what you meant as well, Juliane?

Rejoice Always · #30 Jun 22, '12, 8:52 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by catholicanne

Don't they have bones, though? Do you just crunch through them?

The bones are edible -- I rarely noticed them. When I first started getting into them, this was something I really worried about. Sometimes, even now, I see them and think, Oh Yuck! But ... they don't even have a crunchy bone texture when you eat. Don't even notice them there.

Also, they are so cheap that you can really experiment with different brands and types without breaking the bank. I've recently been buying some from the local Chinese grocery store, and it's opened a whole new tin of sardines for me.