[paris81]

Do you ever think of what a typical day's worth of food was before you started trying to be healthy/lose weight compared to after? I do often. It helps me if I falter a little bit, because I know that overall, I'm doing much, much better!

Here's a typical meal not-so-plan before I started trying to lose weight:

Breakfast: Normal, healthy (high fiber) ceral and coffee (for some reason, I always started my day out right)

Lunch: Probably run out for a greasy sandwich with not many veggies and tons of cheese and fats on it. Or I'd just grab a coffee and a BIG pastry.

Plus, in addition to this, I'd be eating whatever came across my path that day. Someone brings in cookies, I eat one, etc.

Afternoon: Some days, go out for drinks. Have, depending on the day of the week, 2-4 beers. Likely share an order of greasy bar food with the table.

Dinner: a box of mac and cheese, those oven mozzerella sticks, chips, dip, ice cream, any kind of pasta and cheese sauce, and it goes on and on. (Dinner was my binge time). This dinner would last from the time I got home (anytime between 1pm and 7pm) until I went to bed.


Now, this is obviously drastically different from what I eat now! How about you?! Do you ever think about this, or is this totally weird!?

[time2lose]

I think of this often. I ate a lot of greasy fast food. The vending machine at work was my best friend. I had frozen pizza two or three times a week. I ate few vegetables and fewer fruits. I secretly ate candy, like no one would realize!

The difference in my diet is like night and day. Even if I don't get my weight as low as I would like, I am bound to be healthier.

[Onederchic]

Yes before I started losing weight I ate completely different, heh

[wendyland]

My diet is close to the same. I was vegetarian for 8 years and ate fairly healthy, but with some bad snacks. I've mainly cut down on the bad snacks. No more sneaking a candy bar on the way home from the grocery store.

[Rainbow]

Before:

Breakfast: cereal with full fat milk, coffee
Lunch: sandwhich made on white bread (often cheese), maybe soup, maybe some salad, fruit, maybe some chocolate
Evening meal: Meat and veg mainly and maybe yoghurt or chocolate or fruit (or all those things). Maybe a pasta dish. Takeaway twice a week sometimes, soemtiems nto at all. Sometimes too lazy to cook veg so would grab chips (like fries but better) from the chippy we live near but that wasn't all the time.
Bedtime drink - hot chocolate (with 115 calories)
maybe snack of crisps (chips to US people) or chocolate
Drinks in the day would mainly be pepsi max - very very bad I didn't even like it much was just addicted and needed the caffien boost as daughter used to keep us awake half the night.

After
Breakfast: cereal with full fat milk (half the quantity as before), coffee
Lunch: something like prawns, mackeral, cottage cheese, occasionally cheese if I weight it, ham, chicken, other meat etc. with salad, sometimes soup too. TOo full for pudding
Evening meal: Similar to lunch with either salad or vegtables but really I'm still too lazy to cook vegtables so have been makign salad as long as I can - now it's getting cold will have to cook them I guess. I prefer them raw too so not so motivated to cook them
Snacks include: fruit, low fat soft cheese with breadstciks, sometimes soup, yoghurt, etc. sometimes a few pieces of chocolate.
Hot chocolate (30-40 cals rather than the 115 cals one I used to have)
Water is my main drink at the moment - I dont' like it much though but do lose much better when drinking plenty of water.


All takeaways are now planned rather than because we had a bad day, etc.
Overall on an average day I didn't used to eat that unhealthily just sometimes but I was a binge/emmotional eater and would binge at least 3 times a week
We also go past my parents' house most days where they offer us 2 or 3 biscuits - most days now I refuse
I can maintain my weight when eating refined carbs but I don't lose weight well so have cut them down.
Cheese used to be (and still could be) a big problem food for me - I can't control my intake of it at all and I'm sure I added at least 200 calories extra a day eating it in the past - I do crave cheese at TOM though but tend to have pizza or something like that instead as at least the amount of cheese is controlled then.

[Butterfly50]

Oh man this sounds like what I used to do I would have a good breakfast and then it seemed when lunch came I would eat till I go to bed and Boy Now I have changed for the better No More Junk Food.

[paris81]

It's crazy! I think it helps to explain part of why this is so difficult. It's just such a big change in your everday life! And all the planning! Before, there was no planning

[Lyn2007]

For real? I had issues.

Before:
Breakfast: 4 pieces of cold pizza, 12 oz Coke, 1 large piece of cake
10am: another piece of cake
11am: bowl of chips and dip, Coke
Lunch: 6 sausages, 4 waffles, "corn syrup" maple syrup, 12 oz Coke
1pm: half bag of Oreos, 4 Reeces' cups
2:30 before picking up kids from school: supersized Big Mac meal with Coke, and 3 chocolate chip cookies
4pm: 3 slices cold pizza, Coke
6pm dinner: 5 hot dogs on buns, lots of crunchy Cheetos, 16 oz Coke, Oreos
8pm: entire pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
10pm: chips or Cheetos

No, I am not kidding. Issues.

Now:
Breakfast: Egg beaters scrambled with spinach and a turkey sausage in a Carb Balance tortilla with green tea
Lunch: bowl of homemade turkey vegetable soup, 6 All-Bran crackers and a wedge of Laughing Cow Light cheese
Snack: apple, berries
Dinner: big bowl of kale with onions & ham
Snack: cup of tea

[DCHound]

Oh fun.

Typical Before:

Breakfast: nothing
Lunch: 2 chicken salad sandwiches from the cold case at 7-11, 2 individual bags of Munchos, 2-3 donuts, bag of Double Chocolate Milanos, diet Mt Dew
Snack: King-sized snickers, diet pepsi
Dinner: 4 piece with fries from Popeyes, lg pink lemonade
Snack: double chocolate muffin, glass of whole milk

Typical Now:
Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs, one with yolk removed, decaf
Snack: 8 almonds
Lunch: 3 oz grilled chicken + 2 cups romaine, water
Snack: 8 almonds
Dinner: 4 oz pan-seared salmon, 6 pc pan-seared asparagus, club soda
Snack: 8 almonds

Kinda different, no?

[Glory87]

Before

B - huge cranberry walnut muffin and a venti caramel latte with whip

L - A big calzone stuffed with cheese and pepperoni

S - chocolate croissant, venti caramel latte with whip

S - either yogurt pretzels or a pack of M&Ms from the vending machine

D - one of my favorite dinners from that time - home made pasta sauce with a HUGE plate of pasta and 5-6 slices of sourdough bread to dip in the sauce

S - bowl of ice cream, topped with chocolate syrup (a full, cereal bowl of ice cream)

Now

B - sliced strawberries, Trader Joe's fat free Greek yogurt with honey

L - big salad with romaine, grape tomatoes, purple cabbage, red onion, carrot shreddies, a little roasted corn, grilled chicken, bbq sauce, a tiny bit of fat free ranch and a very small portion of tortilla strips for crunch

S - tall non fat latte

S - orange

S - string cheese

D - home made pasta sauce with 2 oz of pasta

(I don't eat after dinner anymore, it was a habit, I'm just not hungry after dinner very often, I get snacky in the afternoon)

[KaCee J]

What a huge difference in before and after food huh? Like many on here, looking back at my before food, well, there wasn't much "food" in there at all. Literally everything I was eating did not exist, I would say, probably a couple hundred years ago. (I just sort of pulled that number out) Which in the scheme of the world is not that long ago. Now that I am eating food, I am losing weight. Go figure. Hunter-Gatherers weren't overweight, and I don't recall any of there meals involving pop tarts, twinkies, or Chef Boyardee! LOL

[nelie]

Honestly, it is hard for me to remember.

Before:
Breakfast - Either nothing or maybe some cereal with milk or possibly bread. This is completey fuzzy and I have a hard time eating breakfast so I'm leaning toward nothing.

Lunch - Usually a deli sandwich or a burrito from Baja Fresh. I would sometimes make my own sandwiches but often just buy them. I would also eat out with coworkers wherever if they were eating out, as long as they weren't eating fast food (I always hated fast food). The burritos were often very cheesy although I was never a fan of sour cream. And even though I don't care for mayo, the sandwiches usually had it.

Dinner/After work - Now this is where I really lost it during the day. I'd buy french bread and brie cheese and have that for dinner. Dreyer's cookies and cream ice cream often was part of dinner. Sometimes I'd go to Baja Fresh or Qdoba to get a burrito on the way home. Also, I'd eat large amounts of fruit too. Wasn't odd for me to eat 6+ plums or what not as part of dinner.

Now:
(Of course my now keeps changing but I can give an idea of what I have been doing lately)

Breakfast - water, kind of. I hate eating early in the morning. Sometimes I'll have some tea (like chai) with almond milk.

Mid morning - Brown basmati rice with steamed greens or pumpkin puree with oatmeal, cinnamon, nutmeg and a little ginger.

Lunch - Brown basmati rice with steamed greens, black eyed peas, oven roasted veggies and possibly some oven roasted winter squash.

Mid afternoon - Miso soup with greens, mushrooms and a little tofu.

Dinner - brown basmati rice with steamed greens, adzuki beans, oven roasted veggies and possibly some oven roasted winter squash.

I actually have added more rice to my diet recently and it is working better than I expected. A couple months ago, my diet above wouldn't have been much different other than more beans and less rice.

[Onederchic]

Oh, I wasn't aware we were listing before so here goes.

A typical day before -

Breakfast - 3 grilled cheese with 6 pieces bacon and 2 pieces of velveeta and tater tots or 3 fried eggs with biscuits, gravy and bacon

Snack - 1 big bag doritos and a huge bowl of rotel cheese dip

Lunch - 20 chicken strips, fried and a huge helping of fries or onion rings

Snack - Ramen Noodles, 2 packs..water drained off and smothered in butter or melted velveeta with a sleeve of crackers

Supper - 2 pieces of fried meat, and mashed potatoes with extra butter or some other high fat side and either cornbread or 3-4 slices white bread

Snack - 2 sandwiches with lots of mayo and cheese

LOL...this is all disgusting now

[duckyyellowfeet]

Ugh...this thread is making me aware of a lot of different things. I should preface this by saying that I lived in dorms for the past three years and now dont, so things had to change no matter what.

So on a typical day, i might have...
Breakfast: Nothing. Cause I hate breakfast. Still do, actually. Maybe some coffee, if I got up early enough to buy some.

Lunch: Tuna on dutch crunch with cucumbers, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, salt/pepper and vinegar. 1 bag salt and vinegar chips (the smaller ones). Diet Pepsi. Sometimes: cheesecake.
When I got tired of that (i normally eat the same meal forever) I'd have greek salad wraps: big tortillas, with lettuce, tomatoes, feta cheese, and some sort of creamy sauce. Chips, DP.

Snack: fruit, if I had it. Normally: chips, chex mix, toast...something carby.

Dinner:
If I cooked: Chicken Rice bowls with veggies. Not bad, but HUGE portions.
If I didn't: In-n-Out: Double Cheeseburger with Animal style fries (grilled onions, thousand island, cheese) and more Diet Coke.

Snack: Ice Cream. Haggen-Daz ice cream, normally about half a pint.

[cfmama]

Before:
Breakfast: nothing
Lunch: nothing
Snack: NOTHING
Dinner... reasonable portions of whatever we were eating UNLESS it was pizza or something that I really liked and then I gorged.

After dinner snack? Whole huge bags of chips, cheeto's, dorito's with cheese dips or sour cream dips. Beef jerkey, 2 chocolate bars, some taquito's (often half the box) maybe some jalepeno poppers... ANYTHING that was in the cupboard. Couple bowls of goldfish, some peanuts, spoons of peanut butter and jelly etc... lots of ice cream (entire 1/2 pints) etc. I ate upwards of 5-7000 calories EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.

I honestly deserved every single one of those 377 pounds I had.

Now?
Breakfast: today was cheerio's, skim milk, small banana
Lunch: HUGE mixed veggie salad with 1 cup chicken, 1/4 cup feta, low calorie dressing and nutritional yeast
Snack: yogurt cup and 1/2 apple
Dinner: 2 salmon fillets and 1 cup steamed broccoli with nutritional yeast

Oh yah... and no bites, snacks, tastes, licks.