For me, what makes me unique (especially on this board) is that I will never (and I repeat, NEVER) give up any particular kind of food for good. Well, besides meat. I gave that up in January but it has nothing to do with weight loss, and it was absolutely no problem to give it up.
The only thing that has ever worked for me is calorie counting/portion control. If I can't eat whatever I want and just control the calorie count, I won't stick to it. No way. Tell me not to eat sugar and I'll swallow a bucket of it.
And guess what, folks? You CAN still eat sugar and lose weight. 110 pounds of it, in fact. I ate tons of sugar while losing all that weight a few years back (and no, sugar isn't what put it back on -- the massive quantity of food I ate when I was pregnant did that). Is eating sugar the healthiest thing to do? Of course not. We should all eat only whole foods that have been around since caveman times, but I bet cavemen would've eaten birthday cake if someone had known how to make it!
- I HAVE to exercise. My weight loss slows to a crawl and eventually a hault without it.
- I don't care about carbs AT ALL. I don't even know how many carbs is a lot or a little, and that doesn't bother me at all.
- I think counting points is easier than counting calories. Even though you have to calculate points and the calories are right on the box. Because points encompass a range, I can relax more. I would be too anal if I counted calories (what if I estimate off by 5!!!!)
- I have to track. Somehow going off plan doesn't count if I don't write it down.
- I weigh myself daily but it only counts on Saturday.
- Snacking is bad for me. It doesn't fill me up and then leaves me with too few points for my meal.
- I hate artifical sweeteners, and therefore, Diet soda and Crystal Light. I can drink over half my days points away if I'm not careful (mmm... regular soda, orange juice, and alcohol!)
- I binge eat, so I have to be very careful what I keep in the house.
- At my very lowest weight, I used to eat three huge thick crumbling slices of my own home-made whole wheat bread every day. (Two in the morning, one with my lunch -- and the latter substituted for protein!!!) I baked every few weekends & froze whole loaves. To this day, I do eat bread. No gluten issues here. No carb fear & loathing, either. But I am **extremely** particular about it & even bread at better restaurants doesn't usually make the cut. (How picky am I? There are about five bakeries in all of Manhattan whose bread I'll even bother with, and the only cellophane package wrapped bread I'll eat is the Ezekiel brand. Yeah, call me Bread B**tch.)
- I am capable of bingeing on sugarfree gum, chewing my way through two whole packs in a matter of hours. The flavor is best after the first few chews. Unfortunately, sugarfree gum in that quantity gives me gas & diarrhea, so I try NEVER to do this when I'm going to be out in public.
- Splenda is my friend. I'll even use Equal. But I prefer Splenda.
- I do not count calories, but I do look them up on new things & I am vaguely mindful of them. I do so much home-made cooking & so many things are stews & soups & etc. that I found estimating them always maddening.
- I cannot lose much weight by dieting alone. I also have to be active. This is probably because I have a sedentary job & most of my hobbies are sedentary.
- I have lost over 100 pounds before, in my early 30s, during which time I developed anorexia & then binge eating disorder. This time around, when I resolved to lose weight, everything I did revolved around doing it for health, rather than vanity, and for me this meant not counting a lot, not being rigid, not being uptight, not being obsessive. I did that before: I obsessively restricted, counted, recorded, filled massive amounts of little notebooks with numbers in tiny pinched handwriting. Everything I did this time around was part of an effort to counter that perfectionistic, and ultimately imprisoning, tendency in myself. I wanted this time to be long slow & easygoing & more natural. And to be athletic because I liked it. Thus, I am always vaguely freaked out by anyone who posts & says they're going out for something Xtreme -- it calls to something dangerous & unhealthy inside of me.
I cannot for the life of me log stuff down, but I always know what I ate and the calorie amounts, and I know what I weigh every day. I have to do a mental tally so I know I'm actually living the lifestyle I've chosen, but I will never write it down.
I'll try for a few days, but it'll never stick for more than a week. I'm the same way with my fitness blog, once a month!
Chewing gum just makes me wish I had food in my mouth I could swallow.
I'm very conceited about how my body's changing. I'm not suffering the self image issues some of the losers feel as their body changes, I feel great.
- I hate water, but can force myself to consume it if it's mixed with Crystal Lite or as Coke Zero. I cannot drink fast so tend to sip throughout the day.
- If I don't keep a close eye on carbs (mostly grains and sugars) then I have to cut calories to drastic measures to lose weight. The weight comes off far easier in less time watching my grains and sugars.
- it's easier for me to say NO to sugar than to have some. Once I have some of it, I require more.
- Splenda and aspartame do not make me crave; I can wolf it down happily until the cows come home. And as for the chemicals, I'm hoping to be so full of preservatives I'll live to be 150! LOL
-Not big on gum but it doesn't seem to trigger anything for me
- I enjoy entering my food on 3FC but I hate the logging software like dailyplate and fitday. It's just a huge hassle and PITA for me and has me thinking about food too much.
- I only weigh about once a month, as everytime I have failed in the past was from demotivation from not seeing the scale move . I refuse to give it power or define my success. I will weigh periodically, as an informational tool, nothing more. Because of this, I have noticed a big change in my attitude regarding weight loss and being on plan.
- I HAVE to weigh in every day. If I decide to weigh in once a week or once a month, I always overestimate how much I've lost and am always disappointed when I get the real numbers. If I weigh in daily, then I don't focus on it so much.
- I have to weigh myself (fully clothed) before I go to bed... I then use that weight and gamble on how much I think I'll weigh in the morning. By weighing at night, I can usually guess if the scale will be higher than I want it to in the morning, so when I DO weigh in in the morning, the number won't ruin my day because I already pretty much know what it is.
- I'm another not-water drinker I've tried so hard to get in my water in the past... and failed. Yellow pee for me!
- I do not believe in "starvation mode." At least not how it's described on weight loss forums.
- Reading threads on 3FC and browsing the board makes me feel like I'm losing weight faster I really should spend less time reading and browsing, and more time doing some cardio... Oh well
I absolutely hate diet plans, they drive me insane.
I am possibly the most picky eater any dietitian has come across.
I drink too much water, and I drink water when I feel like I'm snack craving my pee by the end of the day is as clear as water.
I forget to eat all day long when beginning a diet then run to the kitchen every hour or so once 10 p.m. hits.
I hate weighing myself it makes me obsessive, yet I do it a lot.
If I begin going to the gym every day, I cannot skip a day or else I will begin skipping all the time.
I am horrible at logging what I do, I can't remember, so I refuse to.
I hate taking before/after pictures.
At my weight(I also smoke) I should have high cholesterol and other health related problems. I have perfect levels of cholesterol, health and my bad cholesterol is even lower than what it should be. It puts my doctors in a frenzy.
- I refuse to write down and track my food in any way other than mental estimations, but I keep my weight and exercise recorded daily on a spreadsheet.
- I can chew gum and not go crazy. In fact, when I get particularly snacky and nothing seems to satisfy me, I get a stick of gum and start chewing in the most obnoxious way I can possibly manage to. Works almost every time!
- I have at LEAST four different places that I'm using to keep myself on track mentally - 3FC, A blog, My Spreadsheet, and a Journal. That journal is also where I'm keeping track of my measurements every 2 weeks or so.I like keeping myself accountable.
I love carbs, and like another poster mentioned, I have no idea if my level is high or not because I could care less.
I don't buy into the idea that as a vegetarian, I am not getting enough protein. I probably get too much, if it is possible.
I don't use weights because I am genuinely too lazy. I work out six days a week for an hour and have a couple of work out DVDs, but I can't stand the weights.
Gum only hurts me too. So do preplanned binge days masquerading as cheat days.
I am incredibly competitive. If I have someone to work against, I will win. Without that motivation, I feel a little lost.
I never stretch. I know I am supposed to to prevent injury, to warm up the body and to increase flexibility. But I don't do it. Chalk another one up to laziness.
I am no longer afraid of trying new physical adventures, even if there is a chance it will hurt, I'll be out of breath or I won't be able to get through it. Today, for the first time, I went kayaking. I wouldn't have wanted or been able to do it three months ago.
Reading threads on 3FC and browsing the board makes me feel like I'm losing weight faster I really should spend less time reading and browsing, and more time doing some cardio... Oh well
I so totally relate to this!
Quote:
Originally Posted by asharksrevenge
I am incredibly competitive. If I have someone to work against, I will win. Without that motivation, I feel a little lost.
If I don't have someone to compete against, then I at least need something. The whole idea of "I have to go to the gym and exercise for 45 minutes because I'm fat" does nothing for me. I have to have very precise measurable goals. This is why I'm loving the Couch to 5K program because every week I'm moving ahead in a way that is a very obvious progression. I also have to set specific weight goals. If I don't achieve that goal, it's ok. But if I don't have that goal to work towards I get lazy.
- Splenda is my friend. I'll even use Equal. But I prefer Splenda.
- I do not count calories, but I do look them up on new things & I am vaguely mindful of them. I do so much home-made cooking & so many things are stews & soups & etc. that I found estimating them always maddening.
I became absolutely obsessed with finding the "perfect 100% whole wheat bread" recipe this winter! I found a couple. And I eat it almost everyday, toasted with real butter.
Bring on the artificial sweetners! My latest fav is stevia. I add it to my steel cut oatmeal every morning along with ground flax seed and bananas.
I did count calories for a couple of months while I was losing weight, but stopped when I started to drive myself crazy with it--I was starting to restrict too much. Now I am just mindful of what and how much I eat. I do sometimes calculate calories for some of my homemade cooking, especially if I eat it often. I kind of keep a mental tally of calories in my head while trying to really listen to my hunger.
Quote:
Originally Posted by asharksrevenge
Here's mine:
I love carbs, and like another poster mentioned, I have no idea if my level is high or not because I could care less.
I never stretch. I know I am supposed to to prevent injury, to warm up the body and to increase flexibility. But I don't do it. Chalk another one up to laziness.
Obviously I LOVE carbs! What with my homemade bread and oatmeal. I have swapped out white for brown in most cases though. But I do have a hard time with whole-wheat pasta. My family likes it, but I still prefer the white stuff.
Another non-stretcher here. I'm naturally pretty flexible. I can easily touch the floor with my palms.
Here's my biggie:
Excessive water makes me constipated. I drink 80+ oz of the stuff daily and crave it. DD22 has the same issues. I have to take a psyllium husk supplement to get things moving and grooving down there.
-I have to track everything by either counting points or calories, my "eye balling" is way off with portions lol
-I chew sf gum a lot! I think of it as a pacifier. The need to chew is there even if I'm not hungry.
-exercise is a must for me. When I was losing, at first I had that temporary gain but for the rest of my WL it was smooth going down.
- I graze....all day long lol if I don't have gum in my mouth & it's not meal time you can catch me snacking on a serving of raw veggies. I can make that serving last all day
- I can not keep any sugary snacks like little debbies in the house or I'll binge. I can do this & not feel guilty about depriving my kids or DH too lol I have no remorse about making everyone eat healthy at home!
I've tried so hard to get in my water in the past... and failed. Yellow pee for me!
I so totally relate to this!
And I eat it almost everyday, toasted with real butter.
I drink 80+ oz of the stuff daily and crave it. DD22 has the same issues. I have to take a psyllium husk supplement to get things moving and grooving down there.
