- Burger King almost every day (worked there during my teens, that's when I started gaining weight)
- Lots of alcohol on weekends
- Not enough water during the day
- Lots of junk food anytime during the day (chocolate, chips, cake and ice cream were my favorites)
- White rice every single day
- Nothing whole-grain, ever
- No vegetables

I never cared about calories or what I ate. I was confident in the way I looked and felt fine. Whatever looked and tasted good to me I would eat.

Days were different. No one in my family is really healthy. I pretty much had anything I wanted. No breakfast usually. Lunches would consist of anything from canned spaghetti o's to frozen pizzas. Dinners would consist of ice cream and boodles with loads of butter on it. I had snacks all throughout the day. Almost never drank water, I loved Arizona Iced Tea. It was pretty bad.

Wow, this is an interesting thread!

My family was never health-conscious and my mom is the kind of person who couldn't gain weight if she tried, so she never "got" why my dad and I were never stick thin. (I wasn't overweight as a teen, just not "stick thin").

So....she was in charge of the food:

- cereal for breakfast
- chips and snacks anytime
- "real meals" but stuff like fried chicken, meat and potatoes....never salads, fruit etc.
- take out, pizzza, etc.

As a later adult...at my lowest weight, I was losing without even trying,...used to eat HUGE bowls of low-fat yogurt, berries and bananas....or smoothies. Paleo-type of meals.

Then,....when I gained it back....
- healthy stuff for breakfast and lunch...
- minimal snacks during the day, but at night...pizza....popcorn....chips....binging on cake and cupcakes....cookies.
- HUGE portions too.

Loving my new app! Calorie counting is actually making sense to me now! :-)

I eat pretty much the same just way smaller portions and more green stuff in between. Never been a junk/sweets/soda person...I'm big on meat and potatoes. No more pasta with cream sauce that's for sure!

My problem was always portion control, not necessarily what I was eating.

I was a Cheese Queen.
Cheese pizza almost every night and when I wasn't eating that, it was stuff like macaroni and cheese, corn dogs and cottage cheese, cheese burgers and french fries, chicken tenders and french fries. I love french fries and vanilla ice cream so I ate those pretty frequently. Anything with sugar or cheese was an addiction for me.
I didn't eat a huge portion size, but pizza is so calorie-dense, that it built up over the years. And my portion sizes did slowly increase over the years without me noticing because restaurants and grocery stores keep bumping up portion sizes and relabeling them as "small". I did always get the small size when going to restaurants, but the definition of "small" keeps changing in America.
I hated cooking so anything I could microwave or eat straight out the box was what I lived on. Things like canned soup, canned ravioli, microwave popcorn, sandwich meat and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, club crackers. I never liked soda because I wasn't raised on it at home as a child. I was only ever given milk, juice, or water.

I liked things like spaghetti, mashed potatoes/gravy, corn, carrots, green beans, broccoli, but only ate that at restaurants or when mom cooked them for me.
In general, I avoided veggies and only occasionally had them as sides at restaurants. I didn't hate veggies, but they didn't taste as good as sugar cookies or my obsession with cheese, so why should I eat them regularly? I was a hedonist.
I still dislike salad. I prefer to eat my veggies separated and cooked instead of all mixed together and raw.

I started losing weight in September by calorie-counting the foods I was already eating like cheese pizza. I didn't change the food, just the amount of it. And I was left very hungry because foods like pizza are calorie-dense, but don't fill up the stomach if you eat an appropriate amount. So I started researching low-calorie food and discovered veggies/fruits were my best friend for not starving to death and still able to lose weight.
As I researched further on my own, I discovered why veganism is so good for people and makes perfect sense unlike the crazy system in America today. So I started eating less and less meat in November by swearing off beef, followed by chicken, followed by fish until I wasn't eating meat anymore. I also found good vegan replacements for my milk and butter and quickly gave up eating eggs altogether. I like eggs, but was never obsessed with them like cheese.

Now for cheese. Cheese was the one hurtle I thought might stop me from becoming truly vegan. Because after all, there are wonderful replacements in the vegan world for milk, butter, and vanilla ice cream, but not cheese. And I was a Cheese Queen. How could a Cheese Queen survive without a good replacement?
Daiya vegan cheese is pretty good, but it still isn't cheese. All other vegan cheeses taste awful.
I slowly started phasing cheese out of my diet anyway, and I was fully vegan by January. The cheese addiction took much longer to fade than any other product because I loved it and there were no good replacements. But it did eventually fade after a couple months. It's like learning to quit smoking, though I've never smoked in my life.

So here I am, almost a year later, a successful and extremely healthy vegan! who's learned to cook more, but still has a long way to go. But at least it's all healthy food now regardless. If you talked to me, the Cheese Queen, from a year ago, I would have told you you were crazy if you said this time next year I would be a Vegan Queen instead!



P.S. forgot to mention pork and alcohol. That's never been a part of my diet because I was raised Seventh-Day Adventist, and our church is heavily against those items. I've never liked the taste of pork because I was trained to avoid it since birth. The SDA have preached vegetarianism for over a 100 years, long before anyone else started talking about it. There's a large population of them in Loma Linda, California that's famous as a "Blue Zone" because they, on average, live at least a decade longer than most people because of their vegetarian diet.

^^^That's a great story, Arwen - it was not at all what I expected when I started reading... That is an amazing transformation from almost no veggies to vegan!

I am stuck somewhere in between. I am very vegan-friendly but I still eat eggs sometimes and very occasional cheese and now I am even eating some fish again as I am trying low-carb but I haven't eaten beef, pork, chicken etc for years. I don't have that much weight to lose and I think I am going to try to be very close to vegan when/if I ever get to maintenance.

To the original question: I always ate an aspirationally healthy "pescetarian" diet but with lots of pasta, pizza, whole wheat bread, alcohol... I never had to worry about my weight until I turned 35. Then I put on 20-30ish pounds rather quickly, mostly in the middle. So I started "dieting" - I did South Beach diet but stayed on Phase 1 for like 7-8 months (supposed to be 2 weeks). That was the beginning of my binge-eating disorder (self-diagnosed). Ever since then, I have been known to consume huge amounts of carb-heavy items such as white bread, flour tortillas, cookies/milk chocolate/chips/crackers and sometimes straight-up sugar or honey

When I am eating "healthy" I am ensuring I get plenty of veggies and protein and am not consuming refined grains or sugar. I hope to be there again soon (Day 3 so far...)

Hmmm, at my worst it was something like this:

B: No time, so I would get a Starbucks hot chocolate and lemon cake on the drive to work.

L: A sandwich I had grabbed from the store, soda, a candy bar

D: Go out to eat and have pizza or something similar and lots of soda.

Snacks: soda, soda and more soda.

I literally lived on sugar and carbs.

I was neglected/abused growing up so I fended for myself with food - whatever I could carry from stores was what I ate. So I grew into a habit of eating 1-2 items at a time, that were dense and filling. I also never slept due to misery so I ate at all hours. Sometimes for a year or so it would be peanut butter, chocolate spread and bread. Other times I subsisted solely on grain and broccoli and regained 24 lbs on that. I still have these eating habits and I realized that calories don't matter nor taste. Its about eating at all hours, so now I just eat low cal food and somewhat intermittent fast.

Childhood/teen years

• Sweets/candy (all the time)
• sugary cereal
• sandwiches
• canned soups
• spaghettios
• goldfish crackers (lol)
• ice cream (like all the time)
• pasta
• hot dogs

Now/adulthood

• Chicken & tuna
• sushi! (the simple rolls)
• beef, soms
• broccoli, spinach
• carrots
• peppers
• sardines, oysters
• fruits: apple, bananas usually
• oatmeal, sweet potatoes
• rice cakes
• lentils, peas, beans
• Sweets still! dark chocolate, gelato, soms baked goods...

I really should eat more veggies but eh, my diet is always a work in progress. I've come a long way

Before:

Breakfast: Large bowl of granola with milk. Probably 4 servings, if not more. Some days, 3 pancakes drowning in real maple syrup. Some days 3-4 rolls with toppings like Nutella.

Lunch: Turkey and cheese sandwich with chips/fries or leftovers from the night before.

Snack: Whatever was around. I remember eating like 150g of chocolate at a time back when I lived abroad. Ack.

Dinner: Double portion of whatever the main course was. Eating out was never the problem. I became a massive fattbutt eating too large of portions of homecooked meals.

Dessert: 5-6 cookies, big slice of cake, 2-3 servings of ice cream, etc.

Now:

Breakfast: 1 packet of instant oatmeal OR eggs and bacon OR 1-2 pancakes with jam instead of syrup or 1 cinnamon roll with egg white or 2 egg white mcmuffins

Lunch: 1 packet of instant oatmeal during the workweek. On weekends, I do not eat 'breakfast' because we don't even get up until 10-11am. Lunch is breakfast and then dinner at the normal time.

Snack: I generally do not do this anymore. If I do, the limit is around 100 cals.

Dinner: Normal measured single portion of whatever we are having. Tonight it is pork loin gyros. I normally split a beer with my husband.

Dessert: Measured serving of ice cream or candy miniatures or a small cupcake or alcohol.

I have a pretty good diet during the day, if I plan and take my food to work.
B- oatmeal or protein shake/smoothie
S- fruit or veggies, nuts, etc
L- varies. Lots of leftovers. Loaded salads
Then when I get home from work I might eat constantly all night. Nuts, (which in large quantities is not a good thing!), fruit, veg, proper dinners, but also candy, chocolate. I love carbs

Not enough water. Sometimes coffee and tea, and sometimes nothing. I am just so picky about the taste of my water.

I don't get a lot of takeout. But if I do, I can eat a whole pizza.

I can eat anywhere from 2000-3000 cals! I have even eaten more than that in a day. UGH

I have been watching supersize vs superskinny and and realize that I could finish off the supersizer's meals usually! That was eye opening.

Should mention this is my before because I just joined!

I used to eat all the time - I didn't eat fried stuff because I never liked it but I was a sandwich person. I could eat them all the time - except in the morning and later in the evening - that time was for cookies and chocolate - Big milka or Nutella with a spoon. MY biggest problem were by far sweets.

Before I lived off prepackaged stuff. Very little veggies. Breakfast was often cereal. Lunch usually was a sandwich or chips or a quesadilla. Dinner was often the same as lunch! Sometimes I'd just have popcorn. Lots and lots of pizza and tons of eating out. Fast food was a problem as well. I realized looking back that while I was gaining weight I was eating 3000 calories a day! Ugh
Typical day right before I started making healthy changes was:

Breakfast: Hue serving of special K cereal and an english muffin with butter and jam.

Snack: Starbucks

Lunch: 12 in veggie pattie sub(extra cheese and mayo), chips

Snack: cookies, chips, popcorn

Dinner: 2 bean and cheese burritos, french fries

Snack: more cereal, crackers+cheese, pie, cake. whatever I wanted.

Now:

Breakfast: Protein smoothie-I have this 5-6 days a week and have come to crave it.

Snack(on lifting days): Protein powder mixed with almond milk

Lunch: Big salad

Snack: Fruit with soy yogurt

Dinner: Vegetable stew and eggs

Snack: maybe a small piece of dark chocolate, hard boiled egg, veggies, gf crackers if I'm hungry before bed.

I discovered on this journey that I'm lactose and gluten intolerant. And I'm a life long vegetarian for religious purposes so I have to make all of my own food now. That more than anything made the hugest change in my diet. I can only eat at a few select restaurants now, fast food isn't even a possibility. Pizza which had been a huge addiction also has lost its appeal bc if I want edible pizza I have to make it from scratch and with the vegan cheese its simply not the same. I only eat bread if I bake it myself now. Chips which were also an addiction also have lost a lot of appeal bc I can't many brands.
It was so interesting bc before I just thought I was a very sickly person and turns out I was sick all the time because I was constantly having allergic reactions to dairy and gluten.

Oh. Man. Where do I even begin? Let's see...

Diet coke immediately after waking and all throughout the day. I *never* drank water. I occasionally would drink that Arizona Tea in a can crap stuff.
After a few glasses of diet coke after waking, I'd eat breakfast which was something like a gigantic bowl of fruitloops or like two cherry turnovers.
My favorite thing to snack on was lays potato chips dipped in sour cream. (Gross, I know, but it is super tasty to me, lol).
Lunch was like a whole frozen pizza for myself.
Dinner was probably like a can of ravioli AND a can of speghetti o's.
And I'd have dessert every night, like a full on sundae with ice cream, chocolate sauce, nut, whipped cream, the works.

Seriously, looking back, I can't believe I was not over 200lbs. It was SO BAD.

Snickers, Milky Ways, Pizza, Cheeseburgers, Diet Soda, Dots, Hot Tamales, Twix, Cadbury Fruit and Nut bars, Gummy Bears, Ice Cream sandwiches, Chex Mix, Fritos, Mrs. Fields Cookies yeah I pretty much stuck to those foods.