[jasmine721]

I've been checking this site out for months, have figured the amount of calories I should be eating a day and as soon as my foot has healed from surgery will start to exercise again. My dilemma is that I just don't know how or can't seem to wrap my brain around getting started reducing the amount of calories I take in. I always think I'm going to do it, then the day is over and I've eaten just as many calories as I've always eaten. Sometimes everything I read just overwhelms me. Sometimes I think I've made healthy choices only to find out that I totally ate way more calories that day than I should have...

What have some of you done as far as planning ahead to get started in the right direction?

How have you made that transition?

[FB]

Welcome! Since you've been reading around it's likely you've discovered The Daily Plate and Fitday for tracking calories.

If you're overwhelmed (understandable) I'd start simple. I'd begin by not changing a thing with food and merely track what you do eat right now. Every bite, be totally honest. A week or so, at least a few days to see patterns in your eating.

Once you've got a few days of 'normal' eating tracked you'll be better able to analyze your diet, see where you can begin cutting out unhealthy foods, add more healthy in. You could post a true day's intake here, get some ideas on how to better your diet.

I'd set a start date and not go by anything vague. Once you begin, you begin - I find for me concrete goals like that work so well. That's about all I did as far as planning ahead, told myself I'd start on New Year's Day and hyped myself up for about a week. In retrospect I would have better served myself by actually coming up with a game plan, figuring out what my previous intake was.


ETA: I don't know your living situation, but while you're tracking your eating you can also begin to rid yourself of unnecessary junk, clean the cabinets and fridge - sort of organize everything for your start date - go shopping for eating clean, make grocery lists, look at different gyms (if you're going to work out at a gym) - plan ahead. That way you'll start with all the planning work done. I think for many, it's hard to begin new habits without an action plan, it's easy to become overwhelmed and quit in the beginning otherwise.

As far as finding you've consumed too much at the end of the day - totally preventable and an easy solution is to track while it's happening. Tracking as I eat - or before I've eaten, not at the end of the day is critical for me. I wouldn't be honest with myself, and I hate math Even when going out to eat, with The Daily Plate I can look up nutritional information beforehand and have no excuse for my intake.

[ronni62]

When I started my current plan on 9/15, I simply picked the day and started. I have a really cute notebook that I write every item I eat along with its calories and keep a running total all day. I even keep my calorie counter book on the table so I can look things up before I put them in my mouth. I put all the 'bad' stuff in a cabinet so it's not sitting out tempting me and I stocked up on the things I was planning on eating, lettuce, tomatoes and cukes from the garden, Kashi granola-type bars, raisins, etc. I, also, decided to make it a little easier for myself, so I got several Lean Cuisine meals for lunches, so I'm not tempted to do a refrigerator raid at lunchtime.

I think what's helping me most is the notebook and keeping track. I even make a point of listing out what I eat at the Friday and Monday football games and I have brought home the nutritional info listings from all our favorite eat-out places, so I have no excuse to overdo it. When I know we have to eat out, I plan ahead, so I'm not tempted to splurge on something higher calorie than what I need.

Hope some of this helps. Keep coming here for the support-it's really helped me! Best wishes and hugs I know how hard it is to work a plan.

[AngelMae]

What helped me is I count down my calories. I set a limit for the day and count down. So I know at any point how many calories I have eaten and how many I have left. That really helps me! And I dont get too upset if I go over by a few as long as I dont do it everyday!

I agree with what everyone else said get the junk out of the house so it isnt tempting you.

[bargoo]

AngelMae has a good suggestion. I do pretty much the same thing. Plan ahead. I make my menu for the entire day , staying within my calorie limit.

[PhotoChick]

I agree to start by tracking what you DO eat. It''ll make it much easier to see where you can cut out calories w/out cutting out too much food.

If you'd like, you could post one of your daily logs here and we'd all be happy to make suggestions of where you could cut back or substitute healthier / low cal items.

And sometimes just eating a smaller portion size makes a difference. It's hard to know what a *real* portion size is, unless you're actually measuring and weighing your food on a regular basis.

.

[Satine]

I started back in August and have lost 24 pounds so far...it is hard to drastically cut your calories right away and adjust so what I did was I started high, say 2000 and each week I brought it down 100 calories until I hit 1500...and that is where I have stayed.

I agree with the others about the notebook and food journaling...I write everything down daily in my notebook ( small enough to fit in my purse ) and that way I know exactly what I have had.

Good luck!!!

Carri

[chick_in_the_hat]

Sometimes it helps me to track ahead of time. I put in what I plan to eat for the day - check the total - and then I stick to it.

It does get easier - tracking has become a habit for me. Sticking to it...not so easy, but at least there's a plan.

[cdiem4994]

I would go crazy planning ahead of time. I started very slowly with just walking every night. I increased my time as I built up endurance. Than I read an article about how people are most successful if they write down what they eat, so I started doing that.

No calorie counting, didn't know about this website, I just wrote. It made a difference immediately. No way I was wiling to write down that I ate half a bag of chocolate or whatever, so I stopped the 'big' eating. After a week or two, I started getting ideas about how to start subbing one food for another.

THAN! I found this website. So I started counting calories on the boxed items. Fruit and veggies didn't count cause they didn't have enough calories to matter. I'm not saying this was correct, I'm saying that is how I thought to keep myself from being overwhelmed by it all.

Eventually, I got a scale and started counting ALL the calories. It probably took me at least two months to get all the way to that point. I have a program on my phone that has all my foods with calories in it and that tracks my calories, protein and fiber for me. (It's an iphone) and it has made life sooo easy.

I'm still learning. Recently I have started adding more fiber and I am learning to substitue emotional eating with excercise. I constantly learn about what is healthier, new ways to eat.

Good luck!