Before: (not the same everyday)
B- sausage egg and cheese on a croissant/roll/bagel
L- ham, cheese & salami with mayo on white bread, or Big Mac meal
D- pizza (2 slices) with garlic knots, wendys, BK

drinks were chocolate milk (1-2%), soda, water (ive always loved water) or juice. snacks were cookies, cake, ice cream whenever I wanted...

My big problem is outside food!!!!


After:
B- 1c cheerios, 1/2 c fat free milk
s- fat free yogurt
L- pb & j on whole wheat WW bread, 100 cal pack snack
s- 1 string cheese (90cals), ff yogurt
d- 4oz grilled chicken, tons of veggies
s- skinny cow ice cream sandwich

It's not so much that I ate so UNHEALTHY before...but I definitely had WAAAY to much food in one day.

Before:
Breakfast: chick-fil-a bagel sandwich with egg and cheese and chicken OR a bagel with cream cheese
snacks?: no way!
Lunch: an entire chipotle burrito or a foot long subway sandwich or salads from trader joes loaded with dressing
Dinner: some sort of pasta dish where my husband and i split an entire box of pasta or some sort of chicken or pork dish with an entire box of flavored rice with butter
Dessert: Ben and Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough cones

Today:
Breakfast: Smart ones breakfast quesadilla with 8oz. of soy milk mixed with instant coffee
Snack: skim milk string cheese
Lunch: Lean Cuisine
Snack: roasted red pepper, hearts of palm, and a couple olives with fat free balsalmic dressing
Dinner: Baked chicken with an artichoke and 1tbs. of olive oil mayo

Before: I'd eat a lot of the same things now, just in MUCH bigger proportions. (Eating that much now would definitely cause me some serious problems.) And on top of that i ate ALL day, when i was bored mostly. Like i always say "If I only ate when i was hungry, i wouldn't be this fat". That's my response to all those "Cuts your hunger by 30%" Shpeals.

After: Quite a bit less proportion wise, but quite a bit more veggies wise . And control has played a big part in my past constant eating.

A lot of what I ate before is a blur because I didn't care. I could go days without a veggie or piece of fruit.

Before:

B: Was usually from the job's cafe. Breakfast sandwich of meat, eggs, cheese, on potato bread. And then since I was special he would toast my bread on the grill. He will grease it up with this fake butter and lay the bread in it to toast. (Oh Yum...NOT!)

L: Was back at the cafe. I did not pack my food at all. It was always the deli special. Sandwich or Burger and ALWAYS got french fries. This is my biggest weakness to this day. No VEGGIE

D: It could be anything that is quick food. We didn't have a lot of money to spend eating out everyday, but bought plenty of hotdogs, hamburgers, frozen pizza, frozen breaded chicken, fish sticks. But we always had money to order from the Pizza place on Fridays. The special 1-lg cheese pizza, 20 buffalo wings, 2-cheesesteaks, large fries. (I am just shaking my head as I type this. It is so SAD)

So sad now that I think about it. I was killing myself and my family!

Now...
Today's menu

B:1egg, turkey hotdog, slice of 2% cheese on ww english muffin (or I will have cereal)
S: Fruit mix pineapple and cherries
L: 2 roasted chix drumsticks, 1/2c brown rice, 1c cabbage.
S: Apple
D: will probably be 4oz salmon, cabbage and rice.

Now a days if I want fries I cut up a regular or sweet potato and roast it in the oven. This works GREAT and has saved me many times.

I didn't eat that bad before to be honest. I just ate a LOT. And I ate a lot of snacky stuff. I also love to bake and would eat a lot of what I baked in one sitting.

Like I'd make homemade bagels. Recipe makes 8. I'd easily eat 3 of them in one day in addition to my normal meals that day.

When I think of the way I used to eat, it makes me a little sick.

BEFORE:

B: A big bowl of froot loops and 1% milk and some days I would go to work THEN get a muffin and a frozen coffee drink.

L 1/2 a medium pizza or a value meal from burger king.

S: pretzel or perhaps chocolate, or maybe a big cookie from the coffee shop

D: A box of mac & cheese, or half a pizza, or chicken nuggets and tater tots.

S: Half bag of pretzels or chips. and ice cream, or 5-7 oreos and milk


Seriously...no kidding :-(

After:

B: Oatmeal, half a banana, 4oz milk
S: LF string cheese
L: Vegetable soup, LF yogurt, carrots
D: Veggie burger on a whole wheat english muffin, roasted mushrooms and green beans.
S Grapes, FF pudding cup
Wow what a difference.

You know what I wish? I wish I thought all the "before" foods were icky and gross and turned my stomach. But really I would still eat all that greasy fake junky food if I could get away with it and not be unhealthy and overweight.

I do love the foods I am eating now, though... veggies and all!

I also just remembered another habit I used to have and that was a lazy habit. Sometimes I'd buy cans of olives or cans of pineapple and that would be my dinner or just a loaf of bread (fancy, crusty type). So weird that I'd just eat 1 thing. I was pretty lazy. Although some days I'd hardly eat anything and other days I'd go crazy.

Me too! Crazy! I'm reading everyone saying "ugh, this is so gross, I can't believe I ate this" but I'm thinking "Oh, that sounds so great, I need to stop reading this thread because it's going to trigger some nasty cravings!"


I would eat it all if I could. Ah well. The healthy stuff is delicious too, just different.

I don't think I always ate a lot before (now granted, it depends on what point of my life I was at). At my highest weight there was certainly a lot of fast food and junk. Before I started eating better this time around, I was being lazy and concentrated on convenience food.

I still have to force myself to cook and prepare meals, even though it's basically a habit now. I so wish I had a live-in cook.

Part of my past behavioral eating including skipping meals then lots of bingeing totally overcompensating...

Portions typically 3-5 times a portion size .....I really decreased the amount of fast food and real sugary high caloric pop. It makes me cringe and shutter to think what I have eaten in my past, not to mention--what a waste of money!!!!!

I always of wondered over the years how much money I let pass through my hands on fast food and other garbage....

I would eat whole large pizzas with a 2 liter of pop, or get 2-3 plates at a buffet table. I don't do buffets anymore. When I found out the real serving of pasta, I about passed out, due to I was eating 4c. of pasta plus lots of bread in one sitting.

Now, I physically get ill to think how I abused my body. I am not cured, yet I don't binge like I used to....ugh.

I am right there with ya - greasy hamburgers - lots of red meats and pastas and potatoes.

I think the great thing is finally--many of us--know why we weighed as much as we did and know what not to do anymore.

Also, knowing we aren't purposely killing ourselves feels better too.

Well my before was as recent as three weeks ago, but the way it has been for years now was:

Breakfast- if I cooked for the kids I would eat what they did like pancakes or bacon and eggs. If they had cereal then I typically skipped breakfast.

I would then get busy with my day and start feeling hungry about dinner time. For dinner I would eat huge or double/triple portions of whatever I cooked. Spaghetti would be a huge heap of spaghetti noodles with about 2-3 cups of meat sauce piled on. Half a loaf of garlic bread. Then I would continue eating until I fell asleep. No matter what I was eating it was in excess. Cheese and crackers would be about 10 slices of cheese with one sleeve of crackers. I sometimes bought the frozen cookie dough that makes 1 dozen jumbo cookies and eat them all with several glasses of milk. Hagaan Daaz ice cream, a pint at a time. McDonald's- two Big Macs, Super size fries and Diet Coke (like the diet coke made a difference). If I made a cake I could eat the whole cake in a 4-8 hour period. I am amazed at how much I could eat in such a short period of time.

So, that is why now I am struggling to feel that full feeling and because I don't feel that full feeling I feel like I am hungry. Realistically, I realize I am probably not hungry, but am looking to fill that void I normally stuff with loads of food.

Today I had:
B: 3 Scrambled eggs and 2 round sausages
s: yogurt
L: 1 slice of cheese, 1 cup beans with a dollup of light sour cream
s: single serve pizza slice (was jonesing for carbs or something)
D: 1 boneless skinless chicken breast and 1 cup of chicken rice

Total calories 1750.

i was thinking more about this thread today, and I started thinking about the "outside" food I didn't even consider in what I ate for a day.

There was a period where I would have a Venti Mocha Frappachino from Starbucks every day. 500 calories and 17 grams of fat. Just kinda thrown into my entire day of food. That a meal...and not a very good one at that! There were lots of choices like that, where I wouldn't even consider that "food" in a day, yet it would be a huge calorie source. Its amazing conscious I've become of choices like those, just knowing the caloric information.