I am posting this because I was having an off day and thought I needed a cheat day... and that opened a whole can of worms over in another thread

So... I would like for anyone who cares to, to comment on what they think of my normal on plan day... any help and advise is appreciated.

First of all... I am not "counting" calories... I have just cut way back and started exercising so far, but here's what it normally looks like.

Breakfast
Breakfast bar (nature valley with yogart)

Lunch
Lean cuisine
Sometimes I also have some pretzels

Supper
Veggies cooked in olive oil (like squash and zuchinni)
shrimp (also in a little olive oil

another example of supper.....
turkey and cheese wrap on a wheat wrap with pretzels
or
2 scrambled eggs with cheese on a wheat wrap
brussel sprouts

Snacks
100 calorie pack
fruit roll up
sugar free jello cup
or...
sometimes snacks will be
a medium apple
1/2 cup baby carrots
pretzels

I usually have 1 to 2 cups of instant cappachino mix (90 calories each cup)

Exercise - 30-45 minutes of moderate exercise per day.

OK... so there it is... have at it

I love posts about specifics because they always result in so many good ideas to incorporate into my own plan.

For me, if I don't count, my servings get HUGE. "Oh, yeah, that looks like a serving right there," I say as I heft a turkey wrap that contains most of a turkey to my mouth. Same with 100-calorie packs; I haven't let 'em into the house because I fear I'd tear into every one of those packs in an evening. If you can hack it without keeping close tabs on your portion sizes or can have just one snack pack, more power to you; it plain old does not work for me.

Do you have the time and/or inclination to do some cooking? Not everyone's schedule is flexible enough to allow every breakfast, lunch, and dinner to be a home-cooked meal, but if you can fit it in, you'd probably benefit from fewer convenience foods even if those convenience foods are low in calories. You'll get more caloric value from a lot of home cooking than you can from pre-made bars.

I cook a TON of food that keeps well so that it's on hand when I'm wanting to be lazy. Right now my fridge has a chicken-vegetable curry, two balls of pizza dough plus an array of toppings, lean turkey, half a chicken, a nest of boiled eggs, and last night's meat loaf in addition to the usual 3FC assortment of healthy eats like yogurt and mixed greens. With so many possibilities, I'm totally unmoved by less plan-friendly options and I'm pretty much never hungry.

Do you like a variety of fruits and vegetables? One of the best hints I ever learned here was to consider no meal complete until it contained a fruit or vegetable. Just by adding those to more of my meals--even if it's just something like spinach and tomatoes on a wrap or an apple with my breakfast Kashi--I've found my meals a lot more satisfying.

I never thought of using those wraps as breakfast burrito type things--that is awesome and I know what I'll be having for breakfast tomorrow. Thanks!

so how do you FEEL on those days? does the meal or snack satisfy you? have you tried keeping a journal keeping track of the kinds of foods you ate and their effects? It would be a really good idea to do that, for a week or more. or at least think about it as you go through your routine. If you are happy, satisfied with your plan most of the time. maybe you just need some variety. if not, then you may need an overhaul. depending on how you feel, how your body reacts, will determine what kind of suggestions would be most helpful.

you've written about feeling too tired to cook. the best way to deal with that is eating great, healthy fruits and veggies. but also planning ahead. many of us make some soup or other dishes on the weekend, then portion it out for the week. there's lots of recipes for freezing. then you could just cook a few times a month, and just add things to add variation, some salsa, seasonings, whatever.

i'm sure that once you are eating better and as your fitness improves even more, your energy will be better. sleep is obviously important, hopefully you are getting enough.

i would suggest switching a few things. maybe try experimenting with bread vs wraps. unless it's a really big wrap(like flat out brand) they tend to leave me wanting more. so i often just do bread. or try romaine leaves. chicken tacos or lowfat curry is absolutely delish that way.

it sounds like you like pretzels. i like them too, but they aren't very filling. can't really think of a similar flavor snack right now. a really easy dip is hummus. you can make it with canned chickpeas or any white beans in your blender. (i just mash it with a fork) there are a million variations and i can post in more detail how to make it, but it's really just bean dip that tastes really good. i put it on sandwhiches, use as a dip, perfect for raw veggies.

just in general, there's alot to learn. we can get so much for our calories.

here's a few fruits/veggies to try since it's winter, it seems harder to know which ones are good to get.

sweet potatoes(baked, easiest side dish EVER)

winter squash(ditto, but the stores may be running out)

clementine cuties, easier to peel that a regular orange and sweeter too. my kids LOVE these! and so refreshing!

cranberries- i love these in oatmeal and many other dishes. lots of color and vitamin C

dried figs(or regular if you can find them)- like fig newtons, but better. i didn't like the cookie part anyway. with any dried fruit, it's more satisfying to plump it up in a little water in the microwave.

pears- and they are on sale now too

yeah the breakfast wraps are awesome Sometimes I even sprinkle just a few bacon bits (for salads) inside... tastes yummy without real bacon calories

Gidget Hi! I noticed you changed your avitar picture...you are so pretty! Your diet looks good. You did say have at it...so here goes my two cents worth
Right now is a great time of year if you like fruit. The stores around where I live are filled with huge lovely navel oranges, red seedless grapes, tangerines, etc.
I am a calorie counter but I do also watch my sodium and fat. A huge navel orange is loaded with potassium and vitamin c and only has approx. 115 calories. I have been eating 1 orange every afternoon and it makes me feel full until dinner. Red seedless grapes are good too. They have approx. 105 calories in a 8 oz. cup. They are loaded with vitamins K, A and C.

Do you like green leafy salad? You can really fill up on it and add lots of favorites...baby carrots, tomato, snow peas, a few mandarin oranges, etc. I use light ranch dressing a little on the side and dip my fork in it with each bite- to conserve how much of it I am actually eating.

Lets talk about cheese. O my goodness I love cheese. But...you really have to watch that amount you use. It has a lot of fat and those calories can add up there too. I switched from cheddar to monzerella and I limit the amount and how many times each week I have it at all. You can put 1/4 cup on your roll up and melt it...yum. I treat cheese like a special treat- not an every day food.

When the stores run chicken breast on sale I buy two packages of those. I bring it home, wash it, pull the skin off and package each one in individual freezer bags and freeze it. You can take each one out of the freezer and add spices and bake it frozen for about an hour and a half on 350. I usually pop that into the stove early as possible so it is ready to eat for dinner with a salad and some steamed veggies. I do the same thing with the Talipa fish. It is frozen individually and it cooks in one hour and if you like fish it is soo good!

Last thing I promise...olive oil is yum, but it does have 120 calories in 1 TBS. so you have to be sparingly using it. That can add up. For drinks I have cold water from my purifier pitcher, welches light 50 calories in an 8 oz. glass yum, v8 light, coffee, skim milk.
I guess each of us has to find our own way in what we eat and how we prepare it. Your doing good

I think you need more bulk.
I don't know how many calories in a breakfast bar but you might get the same total for more volume in a big bowl of hot porridge (plain old oats and water, 2 mins in the microwave).

The same with lunch.
I don't know how many calories in lean cuisine but you could add green salad or green veggies for more volume.

Dinner sounds lovely but do you measure you olive oil to the drip? O.oil is good for you about 120 calories per Tbsp. Great if all budgetted in but very easy to over-do.

Pretzels are yummy but very salty, which makes them a) very moreish and easy to overeat and b) will hold water.

Adding in the volume of veggies and of breakfast oats will make you feel fuller but are also great in their own right nutritionally and to (ahem) keep everything moving well.

If it were me, I'd easy up on the prepared stuff - bars, lean cuisine, pretzels, cappucino, jello, (don't know what a fruit rollup or a 100 calorie pack is) and focus on more natural things; that way you know Exactly what you're eating, especially salt and additive-wise.

You sound like you're really focussed and organized, well done! Just, you could get a bit more bang for your calorie by adding some more bulk.

Okay. Good. I'm glad you followed this up. I asked you this ? in the other thread. This also explains the dilemma in another thread you started - the one where you haven't lost any weight for a while.

Sweetie, cutting back your calories is great, but it still doesn't mean that you're creating a calorie DEFICIT, which is what's needed to lose pounds.

At some point, (and I think now could be it ) you're going to have to track/monitor, yes count your calories. Why wouldn't you? Why guess with something so vital? Why work hard to see no results? Kick it up a notch. Give it your all. It's time. Make losing weight your job, your mission. Become passionate about it. Make this a tippy top priority. Keep it front and center. Realize that it is worthy of all the thought, time, effort and energy that's put towards it.

"If it's extraordinary results you're after, extraordinary measures will have to be taken"

Calorie counting is forced portion control and accountability. Having that budget to stick with will also help you to learn the values of foods, so that you can make more educated choices. It takes a while to learn, but not all that long. Fitday.com, livestrong.com,, loseit.com are all websites to get you going. Don't dread this. but look at it as a tool to obtain your goals. A tool to the best you possible. A tool to transform your life. A tool to help you shed the pounds, keep them off and therefore give you untold amounts of joy and pleasure.

I'd be starving, cranky and wanting to "go off my diet" too if I ate what you did.

Okay. That breakfast? Zero filling power. Zero. Granola bars and all that stuff are glorified candy bars. They are over with in seconds and you feel as if you haven't eaten. Think oatmeal, egg white omlettes, low fat cottage cheese and berries, a couple of FF yogurts with Fiber One cereal mixed in.

Lunch? Lean Cuisines? Teensy, tinsy and zero filling power. Think enormous salads, loaded with baby spinach, romaine hearts, red onions, hearts of palm, cukes, bell peppers, shredded carrots, pomegranate seeds, grape tomatoes with turkey breast or grilled chicken. Think veggie burgers and soup. Chilis.

Dinners? How's about a large bowl of soup with Teriyaki Salmon and piles and piles of roasted string beans. Or chicken or turkey breast. I make the best chicken in the world. All sorts. Lemon chicken, chicken with wine, onions and mushrooms with rosemary, garlic and thyme, chicken meatballs with Spaghetti squash, chicken stir-frys, the list is endless. Be creative.

Snacks? Fruit roll ups? Fruit roll ups? Fruit roll ups? Okay, I'll stop and move on. Yes pretzels are health-ier then chips, but they are by no means healthy. Total air food. Zero filling power. And they will keep your wants for carbs high - like that pizza. 100 calorie packs. Uch, don't get me started. They're awful on so many levels. It's like giving an alcoholic beer instead of vodka. They keep your wants for sugar really, really high and will keep you craving for more and more of them. They have zero filling power, take seconds to eat and it's real hard to stop at one.

Think sliced apple with cinnamon, a huge bowl of soup, an egg white omlette, raw string beans, veggie stew, 25 grapes (try them frozen if you're home), a pear, cut up veggies dipped in salsa, FF yogurt with 1/4 cup of Fiber one thrown in, berries, cooked veggies (roasting veggies takes them to a whole new delicious level), air popped pop corn.

Please check out this recent thread on filling foods. I think you'll get some great ideas.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/calo...ing-foods.html

I hope you've gotten some ideas and will strongly consider counting your calories and eating more wholesome, satisfying foods, ones that will help you be the best you possible.

I would be really, really hungry if I ate your example diet. White knuckle, hold me back from the fridge hungry!

Robin gave some great suggestions (as usual)! In addition to the concept of voluminous foods (you can really eat a BIG, satisfying plate of food for the same calories of some of your stuff), I really have embraced protein for helping to avoid the hungries. None of the snacks you listed would do anything but make me hungry for more. Any chance you'd consider a boiled egg or piece of low fat string cheese to replace the pretzels or the 100 calorie packs? Cottage cheese, a small handful of nuts? I have been very successful avoiding being too hungry by always accompanying any carbs I eat with a protein.

Your diet looks a lot to me like all the ones I ever tried that resulted in some weight loss but were soon thrown by the wayside because I was too dang HUNGRY to continue it. More whole foods, lots and lots of veggies, protein and cutting down on those empty, meaningless hunger-INDUCING carbs, and it's much smoother sailing.

Keep working at it, you'll find what really works for you long term if you keep posting for ideas and experimenting!

Edited to add: I'm not doing a low carb diet, and I even still eat a few refined carbs (though I try to limit those), I just don't eat them by themselves and call them a snack or a meal. I'm not much of a snacker, but when I DO need a snack, I'm going for maximum filling power.

The thing that jumped out at me are all the fake foods - bars, frozen meals, fruit roll ups, sugar free jello, 100 calorie packs. There is no nutrition in those, so they can't help your body.

I am glad that Robin posted so that I can just yes "ditto Robin." Count your calories, trash the junk and go fall in love with the produce section of your grocery store.

Oh, yes, and protein as a snack and a part of every meal is huge for me in terms of keeping me full and happy. I usually boil a dozen small eggs (they are from a farm down the street) on Sundays, and then take one or 2 to work with me every day for snack. If I forget them and start eating pretzels I never get full.

I will also cook a bunch of ground turkey at the beginning of the week and then add it to rice and veggies for lunch or dinner.

Having a lot of prepared things in the fridge that I can just mix together for a meal is key to me - rice, some cooked meat or tofu, chopped cabbage, frozen veggies, a little coconut milk for some fat & yum.

Get a kitchen scale and keep your measuring cups handy too.

I didn't see your other post but as a fellow non-calorie counter I agree with a lot of comments from PP's about changes that can be made to your diet. I think the absolute first thing to change is your breakfast. For me I really, really need something heavy in protein first thing in the morning otherwise it sets me up to be hungry all day. I typically eat 3 scrambled eggs+1-2 pieces of turkey bacon (depends on the brand)+a bit of frozen veggies mixed in there and a cup of coffee with fat free half and half. While I don't count calories, I do check the typical calories for my meals and that runs at about 300-330 calories and normally I don't need a snack between breakfast/lunch if I eat that.

My lunch is typically a salad or sandwich but with lots and lots of veggies (normally baby spinach, avocado, tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers etc). You can just never get enough in there! I really really avoid processed foods because they tend to make me a lot hungrier in the end and also have pretty high calorie counts because they sneak so much into them.

Dinner is typically chicken (we bake whole chickens often and eat those for a few days with hot sauce, yum!) and many times roasted veggies or beans or something to go with. We also will eat pasta sometimes too (again with lost of veggies and protein).

I make my own desserts since I don't eat any sugar/artificial sweeteners but that could include anything from cheesecake to sweet potato bars with cream cheese frosting. Even though I use natural sweeteners I normally cut the sugar in the recipe at least in half, sometimes by a third. Oh, and for snacks I typically have apples+sugar free peanut butter or string cheese. And I drink a TON of coffee but I try and watch the amount of fat free half and half I put in there (and I don't use any sweetener).

Basically, by cutting out processed food you can get more volume and less calories. A lot of salad recipes can be pretty easy if you use foods that you can just throw in right away (baby spinach, sliced mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, etc.). Also making something like a baked chicken is really easy and last for days so it's cheap and good!

I started with a similar to plan to yours. I can honestly say this is unsustainable. This plan left me tired, cranky and constipated.

My best suggestion? Pick a meal/snack and change it using Robin's advice. Just focus on one meal/snack. Once that meal becomes easy and automatic, maybe 2 weeks or a month, pick another. Here's an example of how mine changed:

Breakfast: Slimfast became Steele cut oats with soy milk OR fried eggs on WW toast OR a yogurt with Fiberone.

snack: protein bar became a yogurt and an apple OR banana with nut butter OR half a chicken breast and veggies

lunch: 200 calorie lean cuisine became half a WW sandwich and fruit OR last night's leftovers OR a huge serving of cabbage stew OR taco salad made with turkey meat

snack: protein bar #2 became apple and nut butter OR a huge plate of roasted veggies (my favorite so I don't have a lot of options here, but it could be anything)

dinner: My dinner has always been a lean protein and two sides of veggies. I guess I always had this one figured out. Additionally I've discovered new foods like all winter squashes in the glorious abundance, so many vegetables roasted, I've learned to cook asparagus and Brussels sprouts and parsnips. I learned I did not like roasted radishes but I DO like roasted turnips.


If you look at my list, before I had a monotonous same item breakfast, snack, lunch, and second snack. The only variety was my limited three or four choices of lean cuisines because I limited myself to one in the 200 calorie range. There aren't many!

I have made all those changes gradually and it's been a lot of fun. I've gone from a diet that was almost entirely processed to a diet of mostly whole foods. I did not do this overnight. I did it one meal at a time and every month I'm still trying something new. One month it was learning to like Greek Yogurt and now I prefer it. One month it was switching over to soy milk and I love it! It's all I need with my oatmeal, no extra sweetener at all. One month it was roasting every vegetable known to man. That was a fun month. This month it's making over pizza which has been so much fun.

Have fun with this! Don't be afraid to try new things and try those new things 20 times. It takes about that many times of being exposed to something sometimes for us to like it. I particularly have trouble with the texture of foods that are foreign to me. I gagged on Greek yogurt initially so I mixed it half and half with my preferred yogurt. Over time I increased the ratio in favor of Greek and now love it on its own. That and I tried several brands.

Good luck, and most importantly...find something sustainable, something you can LOVE, something you can look forward to now and every day for the rest of your life.

I also forgot to add in my other post that one of the best desserts/snacks EVER for me is a yogurt smoothie (just low fat milk+low fat yogurt a ripe banana and frozen fruit). I could seriously drink that every day and be a very happy camper! The banana being ripe helps how sweet it is, a greener banana means it won't be very sweet and if it's really ripe it could be very, very sweet!

Your banana reminded me of something. I forget where I saw this but a good thing to do is freeze a browning banana and the whip it in the food processor to make "ice cream". It sounds good! I haven't tried it yet.

Sounds good! We actually turn our smoothies into ice cream often (by freezing them overnight, popping them in the microwave for about 30-60 seconds, and then sticking them back in the blender plus a bit of milk). It tastes a lot like soft serve ice cream! Oh, and many times I add frozen peas into the mix to sneak in some extra veggies! My veggie-phobic DH was SHOCKED when he found out I was doing that... weeks later!

Lots of good advice here and I agree with everything Robin said....

I would be STARVING on what you eat.

One strategy that worked like a charm for me was to use portion-controlled snacks. My downfall was that I used to graze and nibble all day, so single-serving snacks helped me, but I quickly learned that I could not touch 100 calorie packs. Unfortunately, if I want to eat mini-Oreos, I want to eat 100 cookes, NOT 100 calories worth (LOL.) The serving sizes in those high calorie foods are tiny and leave me craving like crazy!!!!

Here are a list of single serving things that I eat-- most of them are somewhere between 80-120 calories. so similar to a 100 calorie pack, but satisfying. I work a lot better with simplicity. The more choices I have the more likely I am to eat the wrong thing, so having a short list of grab and go snacks has helped me a lot!

Here are some of my go-to's. Other people are even more creative than me.

Cracker barrel reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese stick (80 calories) it's a small serving but I ALWAYS find it filling.
Apple (about 100 calories)
4 oz container of low-fat yogurt 120 (unlike Robin, I don't eat FF yogurt. I find that I prefer the taste of lowfat and it fills me up longer-- it has about 20 to 30 more calories than the fat free)
4 oz container of low-fat cottage cheese. (some people hate cottage cheese)

I pretty much never go anywhere without a cheese stick and an apple. If I eat both, I'm still under 200 calories for my snack and even if I'm STARVING, it will tide me over....Some people substitute a serving of peanut butter for the apple.