I don't know if this will help anyone or not, but I thought maybe writing down SPECIFICALLY what our plans were might help some of us (*cough* *cough* me *cough*) to stay "on plan".
I keep seeing the "30 days on plan" thread and think to myself: "I couldn't POSSIBLY stay on plan for 30 days IN A ROW". Then it occurred to me... duh... If I can't stay on "my plan" for so such a period of time as 30 days, how can I stay "on plan" for a lifetime - maybe I need to re-evaluate what EXACTLY my plan is.
MY PLAN:
- Track food on sparkpeople.com (need to be better with this!)
- Eat 1600 - 1850 calories a day
- Eat lots of veggies
- Cut out (as much as possible) HFCS, MSG and Trans Fats
- Do "intuitive eating" for holidays, weekends, social gatherings (suprisingly, this is working out VERY well for me)
- Limit booze to NO MORE than 2 times a week
- Exercise - 2 - 3 days of running a week, 2 - 3 days of strength training, 1 day Zumba
- No more buying "trigger" foods (for now, anyways) (ie. pretzels or cheddar rice quakes)
Trouble Zone: Evenings
Specific Plan: 300 - 400 calorie dinner and a 100 - 200 calorie snack and nothing else
ETA: I just wanted to do this to state my plan firmly and to see what kind of things others are doing. Meaning, I hope no one passes judgements or tries to tell anyone how to "do it better". Not that I think anyone would - but I just wanted to add this little disclaimer in.
eat 15-1600 calories a day
3 meals and two snacks
over 100 grams of protein per day and under 25% fat
5-10 fruits and veggies
NO "junk" food as it sends me into an overeating spiral
no pop/juice
staying on plan 99% of the time and if I am going off plan I PLAN IT from start to finish
+ Eat 1300-1400 on days I do light exercise or no exercise (which should really be no days, but I digress)
+ Add an addtional 300-400 calories on the days I exercise hard (I'm talking my one-hour bootcamps or long runs)
+ Water Water Water like 80-100 ounces a day, no excuses
+ No meal is a "meal" without a fruit and/or vegetable
+ Do some sort of physical activity every single day
+Cut the junk down to 1-3 treats a week
+ Start cooking, when I make it, I know what's in it
+ Track every morsel that enters my mouth online; because who am I cheating by not doing it?
I just started calorie counting, but allow as many fruits/veggies as I want so, my plan is as follows:
I keep my cals in the 1200-1400 range and I don't count fruit or veggie cals.
BREAKFAST
-Quaker lower sugar oatmeal + at least 2 pieces of fruit of any kind. Sometimes I'll have a yoplait light yogurt with it.
LUNCH
I like to give myself options for lunch and dinner, but keep within my calorie range, so some things I'm likely to have are, a low cal salad, a grilled chicken sandwich, a lean cuisine, a veggie steamer bag, or a veggie sandwich + fruit.
DINNER
One of the above + fruit
I let myself have two snacks that AREN'T fruits or veggies or dairy per day. For instance rice cakes, popcorn, sugar free/fat free pudding cup or jello, fiber 1 bar,
On Wednesday's I replace one of my meals with 2 slices of pizza from a local pizza place that sells healthier pizza. The one I get is loaded with veggies and has about 170 cals per slice.
On Friday's if I've been on plan all week I get a fat free medium peanut butter frozen yogurt from a local yogurt shop.
I do cardio 7 days a week, and add strength training 4 of those days.
I cut out any sweets that are not my ff frozen yogurt, or ff/sf pudding cups or jello.
I didn't mean for this to happen, but my plan has turned out to be largely vegetarian. Even before this journey I was never big into red meat except when I had burgers. But now that I don't have burgers I eat no red meat at all. Sometimes I'll have a grilled chicken salad or tuna on lettuce but most days I eat vegetarian. To keep from getting bored, sometimes I'll replace one meal with a soup or a bowl of cereal.
This plan works for me for several reasons:
1. Keeping my cals this low has been REALLY tough and I find myself hungry a lot, so not counting fruits or veggies allows me to still EAT even if I have depleted my allotted calorie amount for the day. Most veggies have few or no calories at all, and fruits are healthy and good for you, so I see no reason to put limits on how many I can have. Typically, in the course of a day I'll have 3 oranges, 2 bananas, and a bunch of grapes.
2. I can have almost anything (I mean within reason, maybe I'll throw in some cheese sticks or cottage cheese as an additional snack, for instance) as long as its within my calorie range. I still never eat any sweets save for the ff ones I listed, or any burgers, fried food, or anything gooey or cheesy. But if I want sushi for one meal, for instance, and its in my cal range, I can have it, even though it isn't written in my plan.
3. I like that I give myself lots of options to keep from having to eat the same thing every day.
Seeing this plan written out, which I'd never done before really makes this whole journey seem more bearable. I really am able to eat lots of good food and still lose weight.
Track my average calorie deficit and keep it in a specific range. When I started out that average was 1100 cals per day deficit, now 500.
Calories were logged for first 17 months at mypyramidtracker.gov and I really watched the "smileys" to keep saturated fat and fiber in healthy range and tried to get smileys in fruit/veg/dairy. Now have been experimenting with a different site so can't get smiley faces but still pay attention to those areas.
To get that deficit, exericse at least 6 hours/week.
Seeing this plan written out, which I'd never done before really makes this whole journey seem more bearable. I really am able to eat lots of good food and still lose weight.
That is what I thought, too, when I wrote mine! I thought, geez, that really isn't so bad - it also helped me see that my next step is to be more strict with tracking my calories.
My plan is to eat between 1400-1500 calories per day and to move more. I just find I naturally choose foods that are better for me since I like to eat so much - I usually eat 5-6 times per day. So far, that's it! Oh, and another part of it, is that I always eat my calories, so no calories ever come in the form of a drink. Except beer maybe once every two months or so.
-1200-1550 calories a day (depends on exercise)
-track all calories, even things I want to deny
-juice/pop no more than 1x a week
-red meat no more than 3x a month
-average 2.5 cups of vegetables daily each week
-exercise 3x a week for 30 minutes
-eat minimum of 3 meals a day
-have 1-2 vegetarian days a week
-have fish 2x a week
-no more than 7% satuarated fat
-keep fat-carb-protein ratio about 30-50-20
-cook all but 1-2 dinners a week and learn new cooking techniques
-keep sodium under 2300mg
1.) 14-1500 cals a day in a 40% carb 30% protein 30% fat ratio
2.) Exercise 6 days a week. (right now this is no more than 10 mins a day due to chronic pain from fibromyalgia but am hoping to build strength and endurance through the little I can do + PT exercises.)
3.) I think I will borrow what someone else said! A meal is not a meal without veggies, and I am trying desperately to add fruit to my diet (I honestly like it, but forget to eat it!) PLAN PLAN PLAN!
4.) 64 oz a day at least of water.
5.) I am boycotting the chinese buffet, I think they put crack in the food! Just say no to drugs!
6.) Cooking more, eating out less.
7.) most importantly, retraining how I THINK about food, i.e:
a.) Eat to live, not live to eat.
b.) Food is NOT family, it is nourishment. Family is family and they love me and I will be around longer to be loved if I am healthy.
c.) Food is NOT celebration, it is nourishment. Celebration is being with friends and family, regardless of the junk that may be around.
8.) DON'T beat myself up if I make mistakes!
-Do not eat or drink anything that has not been accounted for.
-Absolutely no HFCS. No processed foods. No added sugar.
-Very limited artifical sweeteners; one to two diet cokes per week; need to limit the use of sugarfree gum.
-Alcohol in moderation and only in social settings. No more bottles of wine in the bathtub.
-No unplanned trips to the grocery store; no unplanned purchases at the grocery store.
-Exercise every day.
track my calories while I'm at work 800-1200 and the rest of the time intuitive eating.
monthly goal for exercise currently 500 min, next month is 600.
Avoid most white foods, fast food, sweets and desserts, soft drinks, juices.
Cook my own food as much as possible
Lean meats, and usually have fish 2 times a week.
Avoid HFCS and processed foods whenever possible.
Know the ingredients/calories of whatever I'm eating so I can make educated decisions.
On my off exercise days I try and play a WII game that involves movement and/or walk during my lunch hour at work. I don't count these in my exercise min
Eat things I actually like
Drink Water for the most part, crystal light when I need a break. Ice coffee with 1 creamer twice a week.
No ice cream or foods I have issues with in the house.
Eat when Im hungry, stop when i'm satisfied.
DO not eat for emotional reason, because I'm bored or it just sitting looking all good and stuff.
Wave at the other Intutive Eaters and
LOL @ lottie I think they put crack in all buffets.
Last edited by Obsidianbbw; 10-22-2010 at 03:45 PM.
* Eat around 1400 calories. Usually in the high 1300s.
* Eat around 100g carbs. Sometimes up to 120 but not often.
* Eat starch carbs at breakfast and lunch but never at dinner. (starch carbs = oats, potatoes, corn pasta, rice; don't know if that's the real term).
* Eat my last meal before 8pm.
* Drink around 100 fl oz water, in addition to black tea and coffee. I don't bother with milk in my coffee, I'd rather save the calories, except that ....
... occasionally have a milky coffee in the evening, if I have enough calories.I generally use lactofree longlife, I like the taste.
* Don't eat wheat bread or wheat pasta, they make my ankles swell.
* Don't eat ready made foods or artificial sweeteners or manufactured 'low-fat'.
* Say 'no thankyou' whenever anyone offers me a random cookie or cake. That's not to say I don't sometimes have the occasional biscotti or gluten-free cookie when I'm out alone but it's always by choice, not by chance.
* Log everything in DietPower. It's a bit stiff, being a stand alone, so I can't import food from other users, for example, like sparkpeople can, which means I have to manually add anything new, which means most UK brands; but I've had a graph going on there since December 2004 ~ and in just 8lbs time, I'll be back at that weight!
* Weigh daily, after the bathroom. I record each down and up faithfully in DP, although I don't change my ticker except for whole pounds.
* Walk daily. I have joined many gyms in my time, and all I lose are cash pounds not weight pounds. We keep hearing/saying that the best plan is the plan we can stick to, and I can't stick to a gym.
* Read here, and try and post, if I have something helpful to say. I can tell I'm going off the boil if I don't come here frequently, or if I come here and read the posts and think, "So what?"
1. Keeping my cals this low has been REALLY tough and I find myself hungry a lot, so not counting fruits or veggies allows me to still EAT even if I have depleted my allotted calorie amount for the day. Most veggies have few or no calories at all, and fruits are healthy and good for you, so I see no reason to put limits on how many I can have. Typically, in the course of a day I'll have 3 oranges, 2 bananas, and a bunch of grapes.
Just curious, but do you know how many calories and carbohydrates you are adding in every day with the fruit you listed? 3 oranges - around 200 calories and 48 grams of carbs; 2 bananas - about 210 calories and 54 grams of carbs and one cup of grapes (I don't know how much a "bunch" is so I just guessed one cup) - 104 calories and 27 grams of carbs. I would be hungry a lot, too, if I were eating this many carbohydrates not balanced with protein.
1) Weigh daily (when at home).
2) Log my food.
3) Consume the calories I need. Right now, I'm still losing weight, so I eat 1700 calories a day on average, with no day below 1000 or above 2000 (unless I'll still have a 1000 calorie deficit).
What EXACTLY IS your plan?
