Probably my biggest hang up to date is trying to balance out my food. I count calories, which is working well for me, but I notice that I eat more carbohydrates than anything else. Why? Because they are good and that is what I crave. If I try to eat something else, I still want whatever it was. I'm trying to eat more complex carbohydrates and mix it with protien. If I eat toast, bacon and an egg, I'll be hungry in about four hours. If I eat oatmeal I'm full longer, but not always...argh.

My other issue is not hoisting myself from the wagon anytime I make a bad food choice or eat too much. I've gotten better at stopping myself adn counting my losses rather than undoing it all.

We have those raman noodle cups that are 190 cal each! For noodles? No way! It's still tough, especially with emotional eating and all.

I read something ( not sure if it was here or not)...a Dr. who counsels people who are emotional/impulse eaters pointed out that we eat to capture a feeling, not so much the taste of the actual food. Hence why we want it so bad, but then when we eat it it's kind of a buzz kill.

Cookies are a huge thorn in my side. I love cookies adn it's so easy to take one or two, adn then pass by the container for more...soon, they are all gone. If I know that there is no way I can go with out cookies with out resorting to homicide or a hostage situation, I'll take out what I know I can have with out messing up my day, count the calories into my allotment and set them aside, just for me.
I've also gotten better about playing mind tricks on myself using smaller plates, eating slower or left handedly, and making foods that take up more room ( like salads), or just putting the spaghetti noodles spread out on my plate so it looks like more.

I'm the opposite. If I eat a high-protein breakfast, I feel fuller longer. If I eat oatmeal or any other hot or cold cereal, I'm starved by 10am.

I had tons of bad habits. Soda was probably the worst. Fast food was another weakness. Chips, Candy, Cookies, Bread, Crackers, Fried Foods, Pizza, lots of ice cream, Pasta, Cake, Anything Chocolate, Rice, Potatoes, all these were things I could definitely over-indulge in. No wonder I'm fat. LOL

I eat mostly healthy, but I eat too much of it. Coupled with a very slow survivor metabolism has made me the weight I am now.

My problem also is speed. I inhale food. I need to learn to slow down; bite, put fork down, swallow, repeat. If I can conqure that and portion control I think I could loose and maintain.

My weakness with foods is definitly soda was drinking 7-9 regular sodas a day, also french fries cant seem to stay away from those, and chocolate donuts I actually ate one yesterday couldnt help myself

My main problem would be the mindless munching and "having" to finish things (i.e., PB, ice cream, etc). I never eat fast food or regular soda and most fried things turn my stomach but if I could just get over the whole eating just for the sake of eating. My boyfriend doesn't understand how I can finish eating dinner then go on to read a cooking magazine and talk about how amazing some new recipe looks.

Also, I bake way too much. I love trying new recipes and always bring to an event or a friend's house but there are those samples that add up really quick. Not to mention leftovers! Too much temptation.

You know when I started this whole thing I was honestly a bit mystified by my whole predicament, I always kind of resented all those people who “eat whatever they feel like” and “never gain and ounce”. Because I want to eat whatever I want too, it just didn’t seem fair! But I almost never ate fast food, didn’t drink much soda and when I did it was diet, I cooked at home a fair deal. I had to really scrutinize and keep a meticulous food journal for a couple of week before I figured out what my problem areas. First of all, cheese was a big part of my food just about everyday. A three egg and cheese omelet every weekend? Not necessary. Beer, I don’t even want to go there. Pasta and pizza, my weaknesses. Even if you eat reasonably 80% of the time, you can do enough damage with the other 20% to keep you perpetually fat, and that’s exactly what was going on. I don’t forbid myself anything, but I’ve learned that moderation is a necessity if I want to allow myself certain things on occasion.

My bad food habits were legion:

1. Lots of sugar in tea/coffee

2. Had to order the biggest of everything. If I ordered a coffee, it was the Venti. If I got ice cream, it had to be 2 scoops. If I split something with a friend, I made sure I got the bigger piece. Not being aware of portion sizes - a serving of pasta is not a heaping plate.

3. Hated all breakfast foods that weren't sugary. My breakfast for 4 years was a cranberry walnut muffin and a venti caramel latte with whip - about 800 calories and 50 grams of fat. For breakfast. Every work day for 4 years.

4. Difficulties stopping with a single portion. If I opened a box of cookies and took out 2 cookies and ate them and sealed the package, 5 minutes later I would open the package for 2 more cookies, repeat.

5. Rewarding myself with food treats. Hard day at work? I needed ice cream. Promotion? Fancy dinner out with appetizers, drinks, dessert. Traveling for work? So hard I should order whatever I wanted from room service - maybe I should get TWO desserts, just to "try" both, why not, I deserve it.

6. Eating too fast. I'm still bad at this, working on it.

7. Deliberately blind to the calorie/fat content of food. I knew stuff I was eating was "bad" but I didn't want to know how bad. Learning that the blooming onion from Outback has 1200 calories, the all-the-way nachos from Qdobas that I used to eat once a week had 1200 calories, the banana eggroll dessert from P. F. Chang's had over 1200 calories - big big big eye openers.

8. Not paying attention to eating. Eating soup with packages and packages of crackers (crackers don't count!). Eating while cooking doesn't count!

9. Being unprepared to work late, eating dinner out of the snack machines. A pack of M&Ms and a coke is not a good dinner. Not having anything to make for dinner, ordering pizza.

10. Fast food. Particularly McDonald's fries and shakes and Taco Bell. I ate a LOT of Taco Bell.

Mmmmmm...Qdoba...drool. I think I forgot about my jumbo burrito with cheese, guac and sour cream addiction.

Oh geez...

1. Get more sleep. I think I get maximum, 4 hrs of rest a night and it's contsantly making me feel sluggish and less motivated at school...That isn't a bad food habit, but with more sleep, I'm sure it would help me lose weight easier

2. GET OVER THOSE DAMN OATMEAL COOKIES. I've been eating these oatmeal cookies at my school cafeteria (which are surpisingly delicious) at least 3 times a week (sometimes more than once in a day) for the past four years. One would think it's about time to get sick of them but I just can't get enough!

3. Not eat when I'm bored and/or have nothing else to do. I think I'm better off avoiding the kitchen since everytime I pass by, I have the tendency to look inside the fridge, even when I'm certain I ain't hungry.

4. Most of all, I really should get help for my ED-NOS. I chew and spit waaaaaaay too much food when no one's around (gross I know, BUT im trying to stop) and even though I try to spit everything out, I still swallow a tiny bit just to make me feel like I've eaten some. But I guess it adds up when you swallow tiny bits of 10 granola bars. I must stop doing this. I must, I must, I must!!! It's not helping me fight my sugar cravings and neither is it preventing me from gaining weight. Without fighting this, my entire attempt at a diet/lifestyle change is futile!

Errmm...yeah, so those are some of my worst. You know what they say, old habits die hard. THOUGH....I know I'm graduating next year, so if one thing is for sure, I won't be having any of those oatmeal cookies anymore

...It's oh so sad...

Oh and I used to have a lot of sugar in my teas/coffees/whatever...now I just abuse the sweetners, which isn't any better...:S

LOL I love those things too! I never drink them when I am here in Seattle as I go to Cash 'N Carry and have more coffee syrups than Starbucks LOL (that is actually the truth as they don't really have much). In fact I just finished a butter rum mocha made with a mixture of english toffee/chocolate velvet/french vanilla coffee LOL. (I mix the coffee beans in the store and grind them together; then put a spoonful of Hershey's dark chocolate powder in the grounds before I brew.) Sooooooooooooooooo good for so few calories!!!!

BUT when I travel to Missouri and can't get a decent latte or mocha anywhere I end up guzzling those gas station cappuccinos... they are sooooooooooooooo good and sooooooooooooooooooo horrible LOL. I'll have to give THAT up next time I travel, for sure!

I read everything - thinking I would respond to Opticals post, but glory pretty much covered it for me. Double (or triple) the portion size a thin person would eat at every meal, and BOOM - over 200 lbs in the blink of an eye.

But back to Optical.

I had gestational diabetes with my second pregnancy. I was able to completely control it through eating right, so it wasn't a big deal. What was a big deal was my meeting with a dietition at the hospital. Because of the gestational diabetes she had me do the following.

• I was to limit my carbohydrates to no more than 2 servings per meal.
• Wait at least 2 hours between meals.
• A serving of carbs is considered about 15 grams.
• Have 14 servings of carbs per day.

Then we started talking about the food pyramid. She was not actually putting me on a low-carb diet. This is how much a normal women should be getting per day. The concession to gestational diabetes was to spread them out over time so as not to have spikes in blood sugar. She said that although it was better to eat complex carbs, that complex or not they were still carbohydrates and that they would still raise blood sugar.


Here is some perspective of what this entailed

A bowl of oatmeal = 2 servings of carbs.
8 oz Orange Juice = 2 servings of carbs.
1 slice of bread = 2 servings of carbs
A tablespoon of sugar in my coffee = 1 carb

So basically, if I didn't have seconds with breakfast I was already 7 carbs into a day that only allowed 14. And I would have to spread the breakfast out over 8 hours.

1 cup of pasta is 4 carbs. That meant if I had 1/2 cup of pasta for dinner, then I could not have milk, or bread, or fruit, or anything else that had carbs in it.

It was very difficult for me to gain weight during those last 2 months of pregnancy.

I realized, very quickly, that carbohydrates were my real, lifelong, problem. I never felt better than when I followed that program. I didn't get hungry. It was amazing what leveling out my blood sugar did for feeling hungry. Keeping things even all day kept away the eat, sluggish, hungry again cylcles.

It was crazy. I never realized how many carbs I was eating per day until that diet put it in perspective. I would guess that I easily had double (or triple) that amount in a given day.

Before that "talk" with the dietition all I counted when dieting was calories. Now I am much more inclined to make sure I don't have too many of any one part of the pyramid. I try not to exceed my daily carb allowance at all.

Try it for a day or 2. Remember THIS IS NOT A LOW CARB DIET. This is what you are supposed to have by the food pyramid. According to the USDA, a female who consumes about 2000 calories per day should get about half of her caloric intake from carbohydrates. Since each gram of carbohydrate has 4 calories, this works out to about 250 grams of carbohydrates per day.

Here is the breakdown
1000 calorie a day diet = 125 grams of carbs or about 8 servings
1200 calorie a day diet = 150 grams of carbs or about 10 servings
1400 calorie a day diet = 175 grams of carbs or about 12 servings
1600 calorie a day diet = 200 grams of carbs or about 13 servings
1800 calorie a day diet = 225 grams of carbs or about 15 servings
2000 calorie a day diet = 250 grams of carbs or about 17 servings

My bad habit is carbs, most definitely. And sometimes, oddly enough, I eat too much fruit which elevates my sugar intake by a lot for the day.

1) EATING OFF OTHERS PLATES. I may be eating a vegetable and lean chicken in a whole weat wrap while my family eats fast food, but I still pick off their plates when they offer which can add up to as much as 300-500 calories!

2) Slipping up and eating a bowl of ice cream and then getting discouraged and spiraling and just eating every sweet in the kitchen.

3) Eating before bed.