Dieting Club: 50 - 100 Lbs Community

Hi Marybeth,

Welcome to our little group. Most of us here don't diet - we have all made a lifestyle change forever. For me, I log my food at fitday.com to keep up with nutrition and calorie intake daily. I eat whole grains, mostly no white carbs, lean meats,nothing processed, lots of veggies and some fruit. I'm sort of a picky eater myself, but I have found lots of great veggies that I enjoy and most days load up on that. Walking is a great way to exercise - start out slowly and build. Don't try to make too many changes at once. You will feel overwhelmed. Slips will happen, but get back on your program ASAP. Tell us more about what you like to eat and between all these great ladies on here, we'll shower you with great healthy recipes.

Welcome, Marybeth!
As Debbie said, we don't "diet" here. If you read back on our past posts, you will not stumble upon that word very often because that's not what we do or focus on. This isn't just about losing weight. It's about getting healthy through better , lighter food choices and learning new recipes and food choices to help accomodate our own lifestyles.
Most of us cook here, so recipes float around quite often. If we try something new, we usually post and blog about it. Most everyone here will weigh in on whatever you post. So be prepared, we are an active blog site, lol.
Like Debbie said, tell us about your food likes and dislikes. We all can help with food choices. Tell us if you are here in the US and we can suggest stores that usually carry some of our personal faves to shop for. Don't worry if you are on a budget, cause, honey, who isn't? I don't usually buy expensive stuff, but I eat really well as I'm sure everyone else does here.
Debbie charts her intake on Fitday, you can also start the charting system here on WebMD food and fitness planner. We all strongly suggest one of these two charting sites. It's almost a necessity for finding out how to reach your goal and sticking to the right amount of food intake(while watching your nutritional values) and exercise output. So do yourself a favor and start your charting system, log your goals and see what you'll need to do to get there.
REMEMBER, it won't be easy at first, and it won't be a short fast journey. But, you will get there and you'll do it by learning how to eat healthily and retraining yourself how to think about the foods that you eat.

Welcome aboard Marybeth,

Hope you make a life style changes. This will work and you will learn to balance. You know that sometime chronic fatigue is due to malnutrition and dehydration. I find that when I exercices to oxygen my body i feel less tiered.

Like Debbie said, change one thing at the time.

You talk about sandwiches and crackers well the bread and crackers are not the problem it's what you put on them.

Try to have whole wheat bread and crackers, most cold cuts have sulfite in them worst thing for your health, so try to replace with an egg, or hummus or tuna in water or salmon or cheese and then stack it up with all veggies tomato, onion, cucumber what ever you like. For me I would stay away from crackers because somehow there is always more than 4 that end up in my stomach when I start.LOL

First stay away from all evil white foods.
White sugar
White flour
White bread
White rice

All should be whole wheat and brown rice It does take time to adjust but after a wile you will wonder how you could have eaten the white stuff.

Try to eliminate all visible fats and skin from meats and use Canola or Olive oils if you can no butter or margarine that is hard for me but I reduced a lot.

Like Debbie said lots of vegetables and fruits.

http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/fruit-and-veggie-color-list

Try to eliminate all juice drinks even fruit juices because quantity will not satisfy and will add to many calories.

Water, water and more water did I mention WATER!!!!

Exercise depending on your current physical activities you can start by walking one block a day for a week and then adding distance and after that you can start shortening the time it takes you to do that distance and start getting endurance. Later you can add resistance exercises with weights to build muscles they are great for burning calories.

I also love Fitday.com and choosemyplate.gov

My weakness is carbs I love carbs but I learn to reduce from 12 to .... portions to 4 max a day most days.
Portions control is the key.
One more thing try to reduce you plate and bole sizes to smaller.

Thanks everyone! I am going to start walking tomorrow evening when the sun goes down and it cools off I hope to do a block. I am really picky and probably eat the worst things . My veggies consist of corn potatoes green beans and peas. Not much else. Sad but true. I also don't drink water but about once a month if that so starting tomorrow I will see if I can get used to it. I am also going to wheat bread . I normally eat ham and cheese sandwiches but maybe I can switch to chicken. Other than supper my breakfast and lunch normally consist of sandwiches Hopefully though I can psych myself up to try some new things. Anyway Thanks for all the help!

Ok sandwich junky. Here's the deal. three sandwiches a day will throw you way over in carbs on your daily allotment. A little science here. carbs break down into simple sugars. They are good for quick energy blasts but burn up too fast and they raise your blood sugar for short periods of time. What we will help you with , with some advise hopefully , is to get your blood sugar levels more on an even keel throughout the day in order to keep hunger at bay and to help you lose weight.
One slice of wheat bread has about 70 calories. Two for a regular sandwich will total up to 140 . Wheat is better than white, but I think we can get that number lower.
If you live here in the US there is a Walmart near you. lol, always......
Go back to the deli and there are breads pitas and flat breads there. Look for the HeartHealthy Flax and Oatbran ones. They are only 60 calories per full pita, so a 1/2 of one is only 30, it's lower in fat and carbs too.
I stuff mine with 1/2 pkt of that Carl Buddig roast turkey , a handfull of baby spinach and some sliced apple, smear on some mustard and a squirt of Fat Free Miracle Whip for less than 150 calories total. In case you weren't paying attention, that's only 10 calories more than just your bread for a regular sandwich.
I also make tuna melts with these, and i leave them whole , unopened and smear pizza fixings on top and bake till done, cuts way down on calories for a pizza fix.

Hi Marybeth
welcome aboard Your food choices are limited most of them are starches only one of the vegies you listed is not a starch ..that would be green beans . You might want to try new green vegies Like broccoli spinach asparagus zucchini.
a variety in vegies will give you better nutrition . Better nutrition means a healthier body ..
I do like what Kim said about the pita pockets make sure the label says 100% whole grain.
to eat healthy with portion control will do wonders for your energy .

try not to change everything at once but maybe try a new vegie once a week at first .
you could also have an egg in the moring on whole grain toast
boil the egg don;t fry it .
do you like any fruits ? berries are good food so are apples
peaches plums pears etc I make sure I buy small fruits that way I have portion control built in..
when you are on plan a while you will become an avid label reader and learn what foods do for your body ..
Please stick around I do know I am a picky eater too but did get used to eating healthier ,,,
I have been on my Nutrition quest for 9 years it does work /
Hugs Judy:)

Judy is right about the label reading. It can become a fun activity that burns calories too. "grocery shopping with a cart burns more calories than just plain walking". So if you like to shop "just to look around", grab a cart, put one or two 25 lb bags of dogfood(or charcoal like me) in it and do a couple of preliminaray circuits around the outside aisle of the entire store. This will start your heart pumping, then just "shop" reading labels on your favorite foods, then trying to find better, healthier alternatives for that food. You shop for an hour and you do just about half of your daily exercise requirements. It's pretty painless actually. Then just drop your dog food or charcoal back to it's spot and put your cart away.
If you don't have exercise equipment, but you have a big box sporting goods store close by, drop in a couple of times a week and "try out" their equipment for 15 min or so, do the stepper, the bikes or the weight machines. Its free and they encourage "shopping" because you may buy something....probably not, but they don't know that, lol.

Marybeth, I'm wondering, are you a picky eater because you have tried all the other fruits,veggies and meats out there and don't like them? or that you have just zeroed in on certain foods that seem comfortable because they are what you grew up with , and you havent tried any others.... knowing this would help us to help ease you into some other foods.
Like I hate celery. Sometimes I'll eat it cooked into something , like stew or Mulagatawny soup but even then, I prefer just the leaves.
Can you tell us what foods you have tried and how you've had them prepared maybe you didn't like that food in that particular recipe but in a different recipe would work for you.
Do you like chicken tenders or roast turkey breast? Fruits???
It seems that you have seriously been depriving yourself of a world of wonderfully flavorful foods up till now. lol
But growing up, I was basically the same way. My father only liked Peas, beans or corn and lots of potatoes. So unless my mom made a salad or some other seperate dish for just us girls, then that's what our meals always had.
I'll tell you, though, I'm not a "grazer" I don't eat a lot of salads. I prefer "finger foods" like grape or cherry tomatoes, raw baby carrots, raw cauliflower and Jicama , when I eat raw baby spinach its usually in a sandwich and I use romaine lettuce leaves as my sandwich stuffing "wrapper" alot to get away from eating so much bread.

Helene's right, stay away from Whites..... There is a saying floating around here, eat a rainbow every day... Foods with bright colors tend to have more nutrients and vitamins in them.
Remember, white is NOT a color, it is the absolute absence of color. So anything that you normally eat that is white, try to replace with whole wheat, flax,oat(oatmeal), wholegrain and multi grain.
Foods made from or eaten raw are always better choices.
Do most of your shopping from the OUTSIDE aisle at the grocery store, raw fruits/veggies, fresh unprocessed meats,
fish, dairy, eggs.
If you do 90% of your shopping there, you will automatically eat healthier.
I also wanted to say, since you are a picky eater, ask a friend or coworker who eats a variety of fruits and veggies, if you can possible "purchase" just a little from them. Get a raw carrot or Piece of tofu or whatever from them so that you don't have to buy a whole pkg just to try something new.

Great start with the walking! Baby steps, you can't change everything at once. You sound like me a year ago, although I have always liked broccoli, I never ate many green veggies until I started my journey. Now, I eat pretty much ONLY green veggies (well, I eat a green veggie daily). I continue to try different ways to prepare them and have really branched out thanks to the ladies here. Sorry Judy, I still don't like brussel sprouts - have tried them your way and others suggestions - just don't like 'em. Like Kim, I use baby spinach and romaine for my sandwiches and unlike Kim, I eat lots of salad which I use those two greens as well.

Hi Debbie that made me laugh Brussel sprouts are a hard sell you may notice I didn;t mention them to our newbie .
even though they are a family favorite..
I also make sure I have green vegies every day and a salad includeing many colors of the rainbow It is dressing that makes salads bad ... I use wish bone robusto Italian that I delute with red wine vinager. It is allready lower cals than most dressings the wine vinager makes it even lower.
Hugs Judy:)

Welcome aboard. You've gotten some great advice already!

First of all thanks so much everyone for all the advice support and tips. I am trying to start slowly so I don't get overwhelmed . I did open a new account with the daily fit so I can keep track.As to the picky eater thing it's just the way I grew up my sister raised me and she was only two years older than me so nutrition probably never crossed her mind. LOL Most things I don't eat I haven't tried I don't like anything sour, anything breaded, skin, anything spicy or anything with a strong smell. LOL I did try and eat a salad once but it didn't seem to have a taste. I do plan on trying new things I think that would help if I had a bigger variety of things to choose from. Anyway Thanks again