[avi0903]

Hi all - I haven't been here in ages. I've been up and down and all around, and now I need to get a handle on myself. My daughter keeps begging me to lose weight, and I am at a point where I am afraid to go to the doctor because of the lecture I know I'll get.

I'm wondering, what do you all eat in a day? I've tried medifast, where I couldn't stand the food, I've done weight watchers, where I can't keep track of the points.

I wonder if I had a menu to follow, if that would help me. What do you all eat for breakfast , lunch and dinner, and do you eat snacks?

Thanks!

[JeniH]

I'm a calorie counter (my fitness pal) and I tend to eat whatever I want that falls into my calorie range so I'm not sure what I eat will be helpful but here it goes.

I get 2060/day for a scheduled 1.5 a week loss. Sometimes I go over but normally I am under.

Today I had:

Lunch (got up at noon)- Jimmy Dean Delight breakfast sandwich, light strawberry yogurt

Dinner- 1 cup of creamy garlic shells and a cup of cheesey chicken potato skillet dinner

Snacks! (I'm a HUGE snacker...) 2 babybel white cheddar cheeses, a Luna bar, 2 cups of light popcorn, fiber one 90 cal brownie, jello cup and a snicker doodle cookie. I currently have 500 ish calories left.

Obviously I'm not the healthiest eater. I don't like most veggies or fruit. I also tend to believe that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie... I normally try to eat slightly better (home cooked vs frozen foods) but I'm at my bf's and he lives on Hungry Man dinners so... I don't eat clean, or do low carb or anything like that. I've lost 12lbs in about 45 days which is good for me. Obviously a healthier diet would be better, I'm working on it.

[Mozzy]

Typical day for me:

Breakfast: 2cups of Cheerios and 1/2cup of milk
Lunch: 2cups of cheese tortellini (no sauce)
Dinner: varies, depends on how many calories I have left. I can eat a burger, chicken, or a pb sandwich.

Snacks: 100 calorie snack packs, trail mix, weight watchers ice cream bars

[HelloNurse]

I am a low carber, AND I calorie count, AND I try to stay mostly Primal. I do OK at the third one, but the first two combined are what really keep me losing.

Here is my typical day:
Wake up, have a cup of coffee. I am never hungry when I first get up.
Breakfast at work: 2 boiled eggs, or some plain Greek yogurt with an ounce of sliced fruit mixed in.
Snack: 1 oz nuts
Lunch: A nice garden salad, about 4 oz worth of veggies altogether. A few ounces of protein and an ounce of cheese on top of the salad.
Snack: a piece of string cheese, maybe with a slice of deli meat if I'm really hungry.
Dinner is my wild card. I'll have anything from a pot roast, to homemade chicken soup, to taco salad, to...whatever. Looking forward to a delectable dinner is what makes it easier to stay on plan the rest of the day.
At least once a week I usually buy one of those grocery store rotisserie chickens and throw it in the fridge. Life is so much easier when the fiance and I know that we can peel some meat off of it for a few meals a week, and then I boil the bones into broth. It's so yummy and tender, and it costs the exact same as buying a raw whole chicken.
I also have been drinking a couple cups of spearmint tea daily. It seems to have quite an appetite suppressant effect on me.

[elliemackay07]

lots of fruit

[Lyn2007]

You mentioned you already did Medifast and didn't like it, but this is what I am eating:

7am: black coffee
8am: Egg beater omelet with mushrooms, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, light cheese, more black coffee
10am: Medifast chocolate shake
Noon: Medifast chicken soup and a small salad
3pm: Medifast bar, diet soda or green tea
6pm: steak, mashed cauliflower, broccoli
9pm: Medifast pudding topped with fresh raspberries

[big girl 129]

well i'm just starting (again lol) a couple of months ago i lost 8lbs with low carb, i'm going to continue that as well as doing a kick start where you switch lunch for a replacement shake but have a good breakfast and evening meal with healthy snacks too

my main issue is laziness and i opt for takeouts far too easily so i also try to bulk cook and freeze so that i can reach to the freezer rather than a takeout

[avi0903]

Thank you all! I think the thing that I see in all of your plans is that you have plans! I tend to start out the morning with the general notion of how I'm going to eat that day, but around 11:00 at night that goes out the window. Either I'm hungry, or the kids are in bed and I'm alone for the first time that day, and I want to eat! And then I raid the fridge.

Or, sometimes I'll go out for lunch with someone and eat what I shouldn't.

I need to stick with a plan.

I also need to journal, and don't know how to stick with that either.

Today I had two packs of instant oatmeal (with dinosaur eggs). Beyond that, I don't know what I'll eat.

Maybe if I write down my day here, I'll stick to it.

For lunch I'll have a tuna salad. For dinner I'll have turkey sliders with salad. If I need snacks, fruit.

Thanks for your help!

[HeidiNicole]

I do low carb, but still watch my calories too. Normally I don't plan out my days in advance, I just know what I can eat and what I can't (i.e. I can eat eggs, meat, veggies...I can't eat cupcakes, potatoes, or cookies lol). I know a lot of people don't like it, but it works better for me to have things that are completely off limits right now. Here are a couple sample days for me

Day 1
B- Atkins Cafe Caramel shake
L- Salad w/ lettuce, spinach, tomato, cucumber, turkey, egg, bacon and dressing
S- pc of colby jack cheese
D- 6oz chicken breast, green beans, cauliflower
S- 1 oz dark chocolate

Day 2
B- 3 Scrambled eggs w 1oz shredded cheddar cheese
L- 3oz leftover roast, carrots, green beans
S- 1/2 cup cottage cheese
D- 6-8oz grilled salmon, brussel sprouts, cauliflower
S- Atkins choc chip granola bar

Day 3
B- Choc/PB protein shake (made w/ almond milk, choc protein powder and PB2)
S- 5-10 raspberries or 3-5 strawberries
L- Tuna salad (tuna, mayo, pickles, egg) on lettuce or just in a bowl, sliced tomatoes
D- 4-6oz ribeye, asparagus, yellow squash
S- 1 oz dark chocolate

[Lyn2007]

Planning really IS key for many folks, even if you just have a *general* plan (like "eat a large breakfast, smaller lunch and dinner, and two snacks about 100 calories each. Have vegetables with each main meal and one fruit a day for a snack. Make sure to eat protein with each meal.") I know I am eating at certain times of the day so it makes it easier to hold off for an hour or two if I am wanting to eat at a non-scheduled time. Good luck!

[HelloNurse]

Originally Posted by avi0903

Or, sometimes I'll go out for lunch with someone and eat what I shouldn't.

I need to stick with a plan.

I like to keep a stack of cheat cards in my purse for just such occasions. For each of my favorite restaurants, I like to have low, moderate and splurge options that I have already looked up on the restaurants' web sites and written down the relevant information. I also then create an entry for that particular meal in MyFitnessPal if one doesn't exist, so that choosing and logging is a breeze.

I won't eat at any chain restaurant that doesn't publish its info, so Cheesecake Factory is right out! For local places, I just do the best I can to guess the components of a meal. If I go somewhere that I don't have a cheat card for, I look them up online before I go and make a plan. If I don't have time for that, I make a general outline. "I'll have some kind of soup and salad bar option" or "I'll get a tasty meat, save half for tomorrow, and get double veggies instead of my starch option." Sometimes I just throw caution to the wind and let it be a cheat meal, but I have to make sure I've eaten very little that day and I don't have any other cheat meals planned that week. A cheat a week at a restaurant can easily undo almost your whole calorie deficit from the rest of the week.

That reminds me, I need to make a new set of cards. I threw out my old ones because it was a bunch of places I don't eat anymore.

[JeniH]

I wouldn't say I have a food plan but I do tend to know how many calories each meal should be. I know I like a big dinner and I like to snack in the evenings so I tend to not go over 300/400 calories for lunch. My dinner is usually between 400 and 700, that leaves me lots of left over for snacks and I like having left over calories at the end of the day as a buffer in case the foods I log are incorrect (mostly a worry when I go out).

[avi0903]

Thank you all!!

[evolving]

Right now? I'm bad. Really bad. As an example:

Typical Work Day {I work 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at an airport, behind security so my options are limited}

Breakfast: either nothing or 2 scrambled eggs with ketchup and 2 pieces of wheat toast with real butter and grape jelly

Lunch: romaine lettuce with shredded carrotts, diced tomatoes and chicken marinated in sweet baby ray's sweet & sour, & a pepsi

Supper: 'taco salad' made with 80/20 ground beef, flash frozen onions & corn, seasoned with McCormick's mild low sodium taco seasoning, tossed with shredded iceberg lettuce and A-1 sauce, served on a bed of crushed Lay's classic potato chips.

Snacks: 2 oz of rold gold pretzels

Typical day off:

Breakfast: same as work day

Lunch: hot dogs on wheat bread with ketchup or tomato soup {campbells}

Supper: Pan seared tilapia drizzled in olive oil and dusted with a mix of paprika, Parmesan, and either bay leaves or oregano

Lots of room for improvement obviously.