Dieting Club: 50 - 100 Lbs Community

Hello An_245651

My name is Norma, please don't give up. It's basically changing your habits.. change them one at a time don't try to do to much at once. It will set you up for failure. I tried all those programs other than Jenny and Nutri. It comes down to a balance of both nutritious food and exercise. I found that logging what I put in my mouth and my exercise has helped me immensely. My part time insomnia comes from hot flashes but non the less it still interupts my sleeping. Keep coming in and talking out your troubles and eventually they will be tributes that we can all cheer about.

Whatever you do ..."DON'T GIVE UP"

I think maybe you came to the right place this time. Welcome, home.
I'm Kim or TWO as an acronym if you wish.
When I started out this January on my Journey, I decided not to overwhelm myself. I, personally was like a slug when it came to exercise and I just knew I'd fail at my decision to lose weight if I tried to curtail my exhorbinant love of food AND had to exercise. So, I decided to concentrate on learning single portion sizes, examining all the labels of the foods and condiments that I use and making better choices there, and eating to feed my body nutritionally better foods as alternatives to the things I felt like I craved.
I too was a mad muncher. If I had a big bag of Doves, I'd eat the whole thing. Couldn't stop eating brownies if you paid me too. Drank pop like it was going out of style.... you name it , I did it.
After about a month of the menu adjustments, and logging my food intake(very high at first)/exercise output (lol , very low at first) , only then did I start upping my exercise. I just needed to concentrate and get a handle on the FOOD first. Since it was always the food that controled my life.
Now, 4 months down and 41 plus lbs down , I'm walking longer periods and faster and am making way better nutritional choices in my meals.
You can do this. It's not too hard really. It all comes down to what you think YOU deserve and how much time you are willing to give yourself to achieve a better weight, and healthier lifestyle.
Come, walk with us on the Jouney.

Thank you for your reply, Norma_J and TWO. It was nice of you to give me encouragement. I suppose I can keep trying. I guess the first thing is the binge-eating thing. Because I am an emotional eater (understatement of the year), I can try focusing on de-stressing. We'll see. I deserve, I have to right to not lug around all this extra weight!

Of course you deserve to be lighter and healthier! As for your gout, my ex father in law suffered terrible gout for 40 years, bad bouts about 3-4 times a year where he'd call my ex husband who then had to stay with his parents to lift his dad out of bed and literally carry him to the bathroom and back to bed. Then , he started taking the meds for flairups. They helped but not enough. Finally one of his doctors told him to quit eating all "acidy" foods. Pickles, pickled beets,anything with vinegar in the ingredients, any citrus foods like oj and grapefruit, red or orange tomatoes (yellows are ok because of low acid) . From that point until his death 12 years later, he never ever suffered another bout of gout. Perhaps you should try this and see if your symptoms don't improve.
You know what helped me for binge eating? I know that I liked to munch the most, while lying in bed reading. So I stopped lying down to read. That one simple thing helped curb alot of my "automatic eating". It really is geared to habit. Figure out where you munch the most. If it's in front of the tv, change from sitting to lying down on the couch every 30 min. Or better yet, during every commercial break , stand up and touch your toes 5-6 times, or march, or do some side bends . You'd be surprised how much exercise you can get in a three min time, and you won't eat as much, if you concentrate on the exercise rather than going to the kitchen for munchies.
Also, if you haven't started a dietary journal or log, Please start one either here with a WebMD Food and Fitness Planner or on Fitday.com. Either one is good and you will be able to better keep track of your food intake and exercise/caloric burn.
I cook about 98% of our meals from scratch, and I used to "taste" alot too. You don't realize how many calories you can consume just tasting as you cook. I add a standard 6 calories per taste , knowing I have to add them into my daily intake has sure curbed my habit for doing that.

Welcome An_245615,

Kim and Norma have given you great advice. Just start out slowly making changes; better food choices. Keeps you from feeling overwhelmed. Logging your food is critical to success, in my opinion.

Best of luck.

AND Kim, you are truly knocking on the door to Onederland!!! Congrats!

Welcome aboard!

Hi farah - if you are a stress eater .. try finding something healthy that you enjoy and stress eat with that .. my stress food is air popped popcorn. I do cheat and put a little bit of butter and salt on it occassionally .. Keep coming back .. these wonderful people can help you to realize the ins and outs of a proper journey!

Wait a minute . . . I DON'T HAVE GOUT. I appreciate the advice, really, I do. But while I was counting calories, I was also logging macronutients (Carb, Protein, Fats, Veggies, Fruit, Dairy), meal times and still have days when I didn't care to write down what I ate and binged. But I do like the reminder of stress eating on something healthy. Good reminder! "Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of a mental illness." : )

OH , jeez Farah, Im sorry lol I went and posted on the wrong darned thread last night...... duh. Sometimes.... well, i'm gonna chalk that up to a headache last night and be done with it lol.
THAT gout post was for Mikiva.... MIKIVA please read my gout response!!!!!

OMG lol you werent yelling at me, now im retracting my apology! lol I did post on the right thread...... double whammy this morning , maybe i should go back to bed and start over in an hour... boy, ummmm crazy day already and I've only been up 20 min. wonder what the heck the rest is gonna look like, maybe I should hide my head till its over....

TWO~I'm not mad. Alot of stuff has been going on in your life, I understand that. : ) I am logging what I eat again, hoping (*fingers crossed*) that I won't quit or binge again. Or at least for this month. I weighed myself yesterday morning, up 4 lbs since May 15. =(

Good job, Farah, logging the food. That's a good mini-goal to take it a month at a time. Every day is a new beginning so even if you slip, it doesn't have to be a forever slip, just get back on track right away. You can do it!!!

farah, up 4 lbs.... hmmm. Logging EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth? Are you staying close or very close to daily recommendations and getting the recommended amount of exercise from your charts? If not, push to try to do some more exercising, k? Just a little bit more and maybe decrease your calories by about 150. Not too much, just a little.
Maybe it's time to buy a cheapy little food scale. You may be taking in more than you think you are.
Remember, single serving of most foods is 3-4 ounces.( Meats should all be lean to very lean.) That's about the size of the palm of your hand and about 1/2 the thickness of it when it comes to meats. Most boneless skinless chicken breasts now are about twice that size so I split them through the thickness so I have the same "size and shape of a whole one" but 1/2 thick.
And like Judy says, there are no "FREE FOODS" everything has a caloric value so don't NOT add something because its low in calories. Add what you eat it all adds up.

Kim is right Farah! .. There are no free foods .. even seasonings and garlic and onion need to be added to the mix if you use them. They all contain something. That is why I lilke the WebMD Food and Fitness Planner .. most of the stuff you normally use is all in there. Keep up the good work and keep trying .. like my quote says "Failure is not an option when Success requires just a little more effort!" I believe that these are great words to live by and since I found that quote and started living by it I have done great things with my life and my body!