Hi, hope you don't mind if I join in. I've been struggling to keep some motivation up for a while now and thought a daily "fess up" might shame me into being a bit more disciplined. It might also make me face up to why the weight isn't moving

So .... today is 1606

Which I'm very pleased about as I was particularly bad and had both a jam doughnut and a kitkat today (which might explain why I've been feeling like I need more motivation) .

Sorry I have not been posting here too much!

I've been doing pretty decently with my calories. I lost another 2lbs since I last posted here, so I'm down to 185 or 186.

My cravings have pretty much gone away. However, I did have some chocolate covered peanuts this afternoon. My TOM is here, I needed a little bit of chocolate dammit! So... I'm going to play on the safe side and say that was about 470 calories. I'm going out to dinner tonight before I go see the Avengers(!!!), but I don't think I'll manage to go over my 1600 calorie limit. If I do, no big deal. I've been doing a good job with my IFing. Junk food is such a rare thing for me now, so I think I can have a day where I eat a little over!

Is it OK to just log in my food intake? The calorie count and nutritional breakdown of my menus is pretty much the same, as I don't change my meals too often and I usually put a few options into Fitday, so I know where I am. I just find logging in my food every single day tends to make me too obsessed with calories (to the point where it is detrimental to weight loss and health) and I start to play the "how low can you go" game, where I start to cut stuff out to get to a lower calorie level and then I get hungry and... well you get the idea .

Today's menu:
Morning: big salad with romaine, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, green onion, parsley, 1 tsp olive oil, 2 tbsp chickpeas, and 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds; 2 slices light whole grain bread with 1/2 tsp honey; black coffee
Mid-Morning: homemade roasted red pepper hummus (so it's low fat) with raw cucumber and carrot sticks, 1 orange
Afternoon: broccoli, multi colored peppers, and white beans sauted with a little olive oil (1 tsp) and balsamic vinegar and fresh basil; 1 cup chopped melon
Evening: big salad with romaine, shredded carrot, red pepper, green onion, radish, and cooked beets with 1 tsp flaxseed or olive oil (if the flaxseed oil is racid - haven't checked it in a while...), 2 oz marinated tofu (homemade marinade); 2 slices light whole grain bread with 1/2 tsp honey; 1 cup chopped pineapple
Lots of water!
Exercise: 45 minute brisk walk this morning.

Djuna

Today I've scoffed 1630 calories, and done 30 mins wii step and 30 mins wi jogging - I reckon about 500 calories worth of exercise .

Yesterday I did very well with my plan and stuck to my calorie level. I did notice that I had quite a bit of fatigue, though . I took 2 cat naps and the first one I really fell into a heavy sleep, which doesn't happen often with me. However, I did wake up at about 3 a.m. the night before and had a little trouble falling back to sleep (that happens to me in the summer and the days have been very hot and humid here) and I did wake up fairly early for my walk to beat the strong sun. So these might have added to the reasons too. Also, I am basically moving from weeks of eating a lot of junk food throughout the day (like cheese sandwiches, pastries, lattes, chips, and lots of chocolate!) to eating a very vegetable heavy plant based plan, so I'm guessing there's some detox going on too.

Today's menu:
Morning: Big salad with romaine, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, green onion, cilantro, 1 tsp olive oil, 2 tbsp dehydrated chickpeas (a popular fat-free salt-free snack in Israel, but this is the first time I'm putting it in salad and it's really good), 1 tbsp sunflower seeds; 2 slices light whole grain bread spread with 1/2 tsp honey and 1/2 tsp tahina; black coffee with agave
Mid-Morning: homemade roasted red pepper hummus with cucumber and carrot slices; 1 peach
Afternoon: broccoli, peppers, and beans sauted with balsamic and black olives; 1 cup chopped melon
Evening: Big salad with romaine, shredded carrot, radish, yellow pepper, and green onion topped with 1 tsp flaxseed oil and 2 oz extra firm tofu with homemade marinade; 1 cup chopped pineapple and 3 rice cakes with 1/2 tsp honey
Lots of water!
Exercise: 30 minutes brisk walking DVD

Djuna

Thanks for the welcome! Don't worry, I'm saving all my rage for the scales

So today I ...
Ate: 1634
Exercised: 1100
Net: 534

Yesterday I did well with my eating and exercise and I felt a lot less fatigued even though my mom and I were out doing errands and doing a lot of walking for 3 hours. I'm wondering if maybe the high-quality multi-vitamin that I've been used to taking every day is what caused the extreme fatigue my first day, as I didn't take it yesterday because I felt that Fitday shows that I am actually reading most of the RDA for vitamins and minerals. I'm thinking I'll try a few more days without taking a multi and see how I feel and then I'll take supplements only for those vitamins that Fitday shows I am short of and that I know vegans are usually short of (like B12).

Another thing that I'm noticing is that I'm having trouble with my lower back, especially after my morning walk. It's not so painful that it is debilitating and I can't move, but I definitely have to sit down for a little bit after my walk. I also noticed this happens when I go grocery shopping with my mom. My mom is the kind of shopper who, even if she comes with a list of things, she will go down aisle by aisle anyway to see if she's "missing something" so shopping can take quite a bit of time and I'm on my feet all that time. So by the time we get to the car and load our stuff and I go to sit down in the passenger's seat, it's an ease off my back.

I've never really had that big of an issue with my lower back, but I know it's because of my heavy weight gain (I've basically gained about 60 pounds in the last 5 years) and the fact that I'm at my heaviest weight ever. So I'm hoping that as I start to exercise more and lose some weight, the lower back pain will ease.

Other than that, I really like my plan. It does take quite a bit of prep work, mainly because I eat a lot of salads, but I love fresh food (I have this thing about keeping leftovers and eating them too long!) I'm finding I am actually not hungry and can go between meals pretty well without feeling hungry, which is a nice change from what I was previously doing (very low fat, lots of carbs, though mostly whole grains) where I never really felt totally full in between meals.

Today's menu:
Morning: big salad with romaine, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, green onion, parsley, 2 tbsp dehydrated chickpeas, 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds; 2 sliced light whole grain bread with 1/2 tsp honey and 1/2 tsp tahina; black coffee with agave
Mid-Morning: homemade roasted red pepper hummus with cucumber and carrot rounds; 1 peach or nectarine (depending on which one is the ripest)
Afternoon: either broccoli, peppers, and beans or cauliflower, celery, and beans (I'm cooking today); fresh strawberries, 1 cup
Evening: salad with romaine, shredded carrot, radish, orange pepper, green onion; 2 oz extra firm tofu in homemade marinade (this time I added the 1 tsp oil in the marinade itself to see if it will make the dressing "stick" more to the salad greens, as I like a lot of flavor); 1 cup chopped pineapple and 3 brown rice cakes spread with 1/2 tsp honey
Lots and lots of water!
Exercise: 45 minute walk

Djuna

Geez, where is everyone? Including myself??

I am totally busy this week and since I am going on holiday next week, I may not post as much on this forum.
I am still logging my food in MFP--I'm such an addict!
Tuesday & Wednesday, I was a little off track, but I am planning to correct that today. 1400 & 1600 cal days respectively. Too many stinking carbs for each day as well.

I have a huge schedule today, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with my niece graduating from nursing school & packing/planning for Lake Tahoe for a week.

Hope you are all having a great Thursday!

Stick to your plans & if they are not working for you, Switch some things around until they do!!

Been hectic and too many people around peering over my shoulder every time I try and log in here.

Been pretty OP for the most part but the cals are coming in around the 1600 mark which is too much. Trying but struggling right now. Off to do some yard work.

I've been using My Fitness Pal and love that it makes me accountable. It looks like you can friend people on there but haven't figure that part out.

Yesterday I ate 1720 cal and did 330 cal burning exercise.

Today I had cinnamon swirl bread for breakfast 280 cal and for lunch had homemade baked ziti 568 cal

Today I ate 1712 calories. I also managed to sneak in some brie and crackers

Just wanted to note that I've decided to move tracking my food to my 3FC blog. I will try checking in here, though, to report how I'm doing.

I did pretty good yesterday. The only off-plan thing that I had was a glass of homemade iced coffee (basically, instant coffee, water, ice, and milk). The milk is not vegan, though, so it was definitely off for me . I wish I'd had an iced tea instead, as I think I would have enjoyed that more.

On the plus side, I think my body is adjusting to the fiber content in my new plan. When I ate "on plan" before starting with CRON on Monday, I was getting pretty good fiber - about 35-40 grams a day. But with CRON, I'm getting more like 60 a day! So I felt pretty bloated for the first 4 days but today I feel a lot better. My bracelets slid on my arm easily after I went walking today, which they haven't been doing for the past several days.

This weekend is going to be a challenge, though, as most of my bad eating comes in the form of weekend binge eating. However, I'm avoiding going to the store today at all. One nice thing about Israel is that most shops are closed on Saturdays. So it's not like I can give in tomorrow and pop over to the market across the street to get junk food because it will be closed .

Tam

ack!! still alive...just decided to sprint off the trail and tumble down a small hill, so to speak...

Up at 172 again. No problemo, starting over!

b: yogurt (100), tea w. honey (50)

1/2 avacado, 1 egg: (160)

2 rice cakes (100)

bowl of special k (350)

chicken noodle soup (140)

strawberries: (90)

2 fruit leathers and 2 rice cakes: (180)

some orange, tea: 100


total: 1270 today