Wildflower are you veg? I LOVE tempeh!!

Lackadaisy congrats on the thesis! I'm working on 3 research papers right now too, and it's so hard to keep focusing when I have 3FC and Facebook all day to distract me. Good luck

Still at 130.8 AGAIN this morning. WTH. Will post my food at the end of the day. Feedback welcome.

yeah i am hopping back out because i used to calorie count ALL THE TIME. and i would cry when i would eat something that i didn't know the calories for, like if i went out to eat or had something weird. but, it drove me up a wall and it would just..stress me out waaaaaaaay too much. i am atkins induction anyway and they say not to count calories...

unless you guys want to see what i am eating, i can certainly do that but the calories...ugh. i hate numbers!

Ok, today was a marked improvement. Still not totally clean, but at least I kept the grazing under control. Feedback is again welcome!

B: Homemade smoothie (low-fat yogurt, bran, 1 banana, 1/2 c strawberries)

L: 1 slice veg Dominos Pizza, spinach salad with 2 tbs homemade vinaigrette, 1/2 c strawberries, 2 squares Cadbury chocolate almond bar

D: 3/4 c homemade Indian chole (aka channa masala- chick peas in a tomato/onion sauce), 1 homemade atta chapati (aka water/whole wheat flour tortilla)

Snacks: ANOTHER banana, 3 carrots, currently eating frozen banana (don't really know what's up with me and the bananas today)

Total: 1265 Calories

Today was a disaster waiting to happen that eventually happened. I won't write specifics on here, but I ate more than twice my target calorie range (1200-1700) due to *sigh* starting and finishing a whole 255g jar of natural peanut butter. Not the fluffy Skippy/Jif kind with sugar - this was the real deal, so my insides are literally packed with pure peanuts. I feel a bit disgusting and I'm sure my weight will be up in the morning.

Had a strange chat with my dad about binge eating. He's pretty big and I suspected he was a binger and he confirmed it. He's a former bodybuilder and I think it's really tearing him apart that he let himself get so out of shape and heavy.

Yep, in June I will have been veg for 16 years. I love tempeh too, I buy the smokey kind that's meant to taste like bacon. Ha. Been trying hard to not live on processed soy (like veggie chickn) and stick to tempeh/tofu.


Lackadaisy Wow, aren't you still in undergrad? What is your thesis on, if you don't mind me asking?

Krampus At least pb is a healthy fat...it's probably not too bad?

Here is my today:

Breakfast (440): Bagel (300) with 1 T margarine (100). EmergenC packet (25). Few sips of rancid coffee with almond milk (15).

Lunch (300): Salad with herb mix (10), grape tomatoes (20), 3 slices tempeh (100), 2 T hummus (80), 2 T avocado dressing (60), 10 green olives (30).

Snacks (255): EmergenC (25), Sunflower Mango Cracker (50), Pear (80), dark chocolate (100). Green tea (0)

Dinner (350): Amy's Black Bean Enchilada (280), chocolate marzipam (50), few raspberries (20).

Daily total: 1345

Awesome, wildflower! I'm going on 11 years veg myself. I miss tempeh so much living in India. Fortunately India is the most veg-friendly country in the world so there's tons of channa masala, palak paneer, and other deliciousness to sort of make up for it, so I can't complain. Still, looking forward very much to tempeh when I go back to the US.

Your meals yesterday look great! Way to go.

krampus interesting about your dad. How did the conversation come up? Is he a supportive presence in your weight-loss/anti-binging process?

indiblue Indian food is my absolute favorite! Your posts have me drooling. Yuuum.

I had a pretty good day today, didn't even cave into my Friday night indulgences. I didn't really count calories up, but I think I did pretty well. Any comments on my diet? We went grocery shopping tonight so I'll be eating better next week!

Breakfast: Bagel with 1 T margarine. Tea with soymilk.

Snack: pear

Lunch: salad of spring mix, cucumber, tomatoes, kalmata olive, boiled egg, 1 T feta, dried cranberries. Balsamic vinegar over the top. Breadstick.

Snack: yogurt with 6 almonds

Dinner: half a sandwich of mock chopped liver, green olives, herb mix. baby carrots, hummus. glass of homemade sangria.

indiblue the thesis is a DISASTER. no congratulations. and it makes me want to stuff my face all the time so even fewer congrats there. xD

yesterday was a terrible eating day. at least i learned to use the elliptical for the first time and got in a legit 30-minute elliptical session (technically two; I was winded after 20 minutes and took a "thesis break," then went back at it for another 10).

food: 1,600 calories
-- all kinds of cookies / rice cakes / protein bar / cashews for "breakfast": 800 (LOL)
-- no lunch (still felt sick/full)
-- ridic quantity of arugula, cucumber, onions, grape tomatoes, small bit of olive oil, about 4 oz baked cod, 1 boca burger, broccoli for dinner/afternoon snacks: hilariously, this was only ~400 calories.
-- around 10 pm, lots of tortilla chips + hummus + salsa: 400 calories and i don't regret it.

burned off ~200 on the elliptical = just about my daily range. still a little embarrassing. this is what happens when i actually only eat 1000 calories in a day (thursday) and wake up in a fasted state.

Indiblue: Your food looks good, sounds interesting too, so you're never bored! It really is a challenge to diet abroad and try to count the calories, it's never going to accurate.

Yesterday was actually pretty good food wise, but I was out all day and never got a chance to count it all up. Thursday was a disaster, plus I threw a huge dinner party. I never really got a chance to eat the high calorie food I prepared for the party, but got more than enough calories from the many glasses of wine I consumed while slaving away in the kitchen.

HOWEVER: today is a new day and I have done wonderfully!
B: Milk with calcium enriched chocolate powder (so yummy!)
L: noodles with spinach, a sip of my friends avocado smoothie
D: burrito bowl w/ beans, a little cheese, avocado, corn, tomato, cucumber, lime and homemade salsa.

All in all just over 1400, plus had an active day of playing with kids and teaching on my feet for 7 hours. Wahoo!

Today:

breakfast: bagel with margarine. tea with almond milk.

Snack: carrots and hummus. a few brown rice crackers with mock liver and green olives.

dinner (cheat meal): 2 slices pizza with onions, tomatoes and yellow peppers. a ton of sauteed asparagus. emergenc packet.

lackadaisy it's not turned in yet, so it can't be a disaster! You still have time and soon it will be done, so keep going girl!

Your meals yesterday looked good- 1400 net right including exercise? Well done!

maenad and wildflower you guys look super in control! Wildflower, no lunch yesterday?

My food yesterday looked great until dinner when the train wreck happened.

B: 1 slim fast with skim milk

L: 1 banana spinach smoothie (homemade) with low-fat yogurt and bran.

S: 2 cups air popped popcorn (no butter), <1 oz brie cheese, 1 morning glory muffin, 1 sheet roasted nori (seaweed)

D: (here's where the fun starts) 1 c steamed rice, garlic chili steamed fish (no idea how much- 2 oz?? who knows?), 2 lettuce wraps, 2 steamed veg dim sum dumplings, a few spoonfuls of some sort of steamed mushroom/garlic/chili thing in gravy, 1 glass of red wine.

I don't even know how to COUNT dinner... how the heck do you look up online "Nutrition facts for mushrooms in garlic, ginger, soy sauce." These dishes don't even have standardized names. I sort of guessed and ended up with 1600 calories, plus 30 minutes moderate exercise on the elliptical plus 10 minutes of abs and jump roping. Net was calculated at 1400, but there are so many reasons why that is probably inaccurate...

Thanks indiblue now, if I can only see the scale move sometime.

No lunch cause I ate that bagel with tea around 11:30 AM...I slept until 10:30 and then talked on the phone for an hour with my mom so I got a late start to my day.

It's hard to count calories when you don't know how much you are eating...Maybe you can get pictures of portion sizes on the internet?

This link doesn't really have the foods you listed, but i find it interesting. You have to click on the picture to see the food on a plate and get a good idea of how much it is. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-20...-look-like.htm Also, this is a good guide - http://www.fitsugar.com/What-Does-Se...ok-Like-762806

Finally, an EXCELLENT day!

I ate what seemed to me to be a LOT including, for the first time in weeks, a major indulgence: tater tots (seriously one of my top five favorite "guilty" foods in the world, and i'm including every kind of dessert on that list). I thought I'd blown the day with 8 of them. But it turns out that all the rigorous/neurotic calorie counting in the world yield:

breakfast: small bowl of oatmeal (I think 6oz, but assuming 8oz) + strawberry topping + brown sugar, handful of cereal = 330 calories
lunch 1: AMAZING "mexican" chicken salad: grilled chicken, 1 cup salad mix, 1 cup cucumber, ~3 oz overcooked/saucy black beans, 1 oz salsa, generous heaps of cilantro & scallions = 270 calories
lunch 2 -- just because: 1 cup green beans + 8 tater tots + a bit more salsa = 170 calories
dinner: 12 oz soup (half miso, half quinoa/veg), 1 cup broccoli, most of a boca burger because parts were burned = 180 calories
evening snacks: 1 banana, 1/2 KIND bar, 2 wafers, 1 starburst = 250 cal
calorie-free: 16 oz diet coke, 6 cups of tea, 2 cups coffee (I'm an addict)

Doesn't seem possible, but my all-day eating only added up to 1169, even overestimating my portion sizes. Clearly soup, broccoli, boca burgers, and beans are great for keeping me full in a way that cereal is not. I didn't feel deprived at all today -- I just didn't even want more.

Exercise: 30 min pretty high-intensity elliptical (machine said I burned 350 cal, I recorded 230). Also walked about 45 minutes to meet my friend and get back back to my dorm, all at a pretty speedy pace -- recorded ~170. All in all, a 750 net cal day!

Thank you Wildflower! Those websites are super helpful. Even if I can't count calories as rigorously as I want, I can at least really be extremely careful about portion size. I will definitely use the sites you shared as resources.

Yay lackadaisy! Looks like a healthy day. I LOVE using salsa, scallions, and cilantro as low-cal flavor additions to Mexican (or any) food. My boyfriend does an awesome homemade salsa where you heat in a frying pan until slightly charred 3 parts tomato to 1 part red onion to 1 part green chili, then blend in a food processor and sprinkle with fresh lime, salt and cilantro. It is soooo tasty.