[miss_elisha]

Hello chicks!

I've been counting calories for quite a while now (about a year and a half), but lately I've been running into some problems.
At the beginning of last year I lost about 40 pounds, but have gained about 15 of them back. I attributed this to starting birth control and letting my diet/exercise slip, so no surprise there. But I switched birth control a couple of times to see if that would help, and even stopped taking it for a while to no avail. Also, I have gotten back on track (for the most part) with my calorie consumption and exercise, and I've also made a concentrated effort to include more fruits and veggies, though still not nearly enough (I used to go literally days without any veggies and literally weeks without any fruit, so this is a major improvement for me). I generally drink about 120-130 oz of pure water every day. I take a multi-vitamin with iron (I'm iron deficient) and a fiber supplement with added calcium. I exercise 4-5 days per week for a minimum of 30 minutes cardio (cardio is usually either the elliptical or WATP)and 15 minutes of weights (days I don't do weights I try to get at least 45 minutes of cardio). I'm 5'10 and weighed in this morning at 214.0. My goal is 165-170.

The problem is, my weight still isn't improving, and I'm not losing inches either. When I was losing weight before, my intake was about 1500-1600 calories per day. Now I find that right around 1600 calories is the "magic number" for weight loss, but I just cannot seem to get there without being hungry all the time. I've also found that recently the foods that used to keep me full are no longer keeping me satiated for very long (read: my egg sandwich for breakfast used to last about 4-4.5 hours, now it's lasting about 2-2.5, etc). Also, if I don't eat every few hours I get light-headed and irritable, and I know from experimenting with my diet in the past that I need a combination of carbs, fats, and proteins in every meal if I want to feel satisfied (physically and mentally).

One more challenge to throw in, then I'll give you a sample menu...

Dinner is the hardest meal for me, because I don't do the grocery shopping or the cooking. My boyfriend and I are in the process of buying a house, and after we move (who knows when that will be?) it will be considerably easier, but right now we are living with my parents, and my mom usually has dinner ready when I get home. I've asked her to cook healthier meals, but her idea of healthy simply means that it has chicken or a vegetable, even if it's deep-fried and smothered in cheese. She doesn't really like to cook (she does it because she considers it a duty--she doesn't work, so she feels like she HAS to take care off all the housework/cooking/etc), so she doesn't experiment or try anything new, and we end up eating a lot of convenience foods like mac & cheese and frozen hamburgers. I have even gone to the grocery store to buy healthy foods and planned out menus with her to no avail. And I am usually so hungry when I get home that I don't want to take the time to cook a separate meal for myself (I'd be snacking the entire time I was cooking and defeat the purpose). The rest of my family has weight problems too, so we could all stand to be healthier. I just don't know what else to do.

OK, so, now that I'm done rambling about my situation, let me give you a sample of my daily intake.

Breakfast:
1/2 c coffee with LF non-dairy creamer
2 sl. reduced-calorie wheat bread
1 egg (fried, scrambled, boiled, or microwaved)
1 sl. fat-free American cheese
Usually a frozen sausage patty
If I skip the sausage I'll have another coffee with regular flavored creamer when I get to work (usually the motivation for skipping the sausage).

If I get hungry I sometimes, but not usually, have a mid-morning snack, either a rice cake, a nectarine, or some grapes.

Lunch:
Lean Pocket or Michelina's Lean Gourmet frozen dinner
If Lean Pocket I'll have some baked Cheetos or FF chips
1 small chocolate (Hershey's mini or Snickers mini--keeps away the chocolate cravings)

Afternoon Snack: I eat lunch around 12, and am *always* hungry before I go home at 5:30--usually have a snack around 4:30
String cheese, yogurt, fruit, or some pb sandwich crackers

Dinner: This is the hard-to-predict meal, so I'll give a few examples from this week
Monday: frozen pepperoni pizza
Tuesday: chicken and rice casserole, green beans, and cottage cheese
Wednesday: mac & cheese and soft tacos (with ground beef, lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream)
Thursday: boyfriend took me out for Mexican, had fajita stuffed steak burrito (steak, green peppers, and onions with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sour cream on top), plus too many tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole--but this is not a regular thing with us, and I brought half of it home

Yeah, so I know my eating isn't great. I've generally been coming in around 1800-1900 calories recently, and I know that's too high for me to lose, but I just can't seem to get any lower. I know there are things I can cut out, like the chocolate with lunch (50 cals) and the creamer in my coffee (regular creamer, about 80 cals; LF non-dairy, about 30). I try to watch my portions at dinner, and I have cut out the evening snack I used to have. We never have odd or hard-to-find or expensive foods at my house, and I don't have much money to buy them, let alone time to cook them. I need to find some healthy foods that are easy and keep me full.

I feel so down about this right now and I'm at the end of my rope. If you've got any other questions for me, just ask (I check 3FC all the time). Any suggestions you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for listening to my ramble.
~Elisha

[Suzanne 3FC]

Congratulations on losing 25 pounds! That's a huge accomplishment and you should be proud. Please don't be upset about not losing right now. Most people hit a plateau at some point.

Have you considered increasing your exercise? You might try exercising for 30 minutes in the morning, and then again in the afternoon or after dinner. Your metabolism keeps the boost for several hours after exercising, so doing it twice a day can give you much more than twice the benefit.

[oliviacw]

Good for you for keeping 25 pounds off! Sometimes keeping it off is much harder than losing it, so keep it up!

Now, when you look at losing more.... you're not doing badly at all with your eating, but it sounds like you need to manage your hunger and develop a plan for eating lightly at dinner. The dinner part may be hard: you talk about your mother not being willing to change her cooking style, but will she also be hurt if you eat less of the meal? Be prepared to deal with that - talk to her about how you need to eat less in order to lose weight, and your eating doesn't reflect at all on her cooking or the time and energy she expends to prepare meals.

The first is easier: since you describe being hungry all the time, I'd suggest trying to break up your meals into much small, more frequent meals. I've rearranged your sample menus into a "nibble-all-day" format with similar foods.


Breakfast: (7am?) (~ 200 calories)
1 c coffee with LF non-dairy creamer (heck, drink a whole cup of coffee!)
2 sl. reduced-calorie wheat bread
1 egg (fried, scrambled, boiled, or microwaved)
...and throw some veggies into the egg - if you mix in a half cup of corn, diced carrots, or broccoli bits, it will be easy and good for you.


Mid-morning snack: (10am) (~ 250 calories)
2 or 3 small whole wheat crackers (or rye crisps, etc), about 50 calories worth
1 sl. (1 ounce) fat-free American cheese
coffee with regular flavored creamer
nectarine


Lunch: (noon) (~ 400 calories? not sure how much is in the Michelina's)
Michelina's Lean Gourmet frozen dinner
8 baby carrots
1 small chocolate (Hershey's mini or Snickers mini--keeps away the chocolate cravings)


Afternoon Snack: (3pm - you should eat before you get really hungry) (~ 200 calories)
1 cup non-fat yogurt
rice cake


Dinner:
for this, you're going to need to focus on portion control. For each of the samples below, I'll suggest what you should eat.

Monday: frozen pepperoni pizza
Eat one slice of pizza. Add a piece of fruit, and microwave some frozen veggies.

Tuesday: chicken and rice casserole, green beans, and cottage cheese
Eat the green beans and cottage cheese, and take half a cup of the casserole.

Wednesday: mac & cheese and soft tacos (with ground beef, lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream)
If you can eat the tacos without the cheese and sour cream, have two. If not, choose between one taco or a cup of the mac and cheese. Add a piece of fruit, and microwave some frozen veggies.

Thursday: boyfriend took me out for Mexican, had fajita stuffed steak burrito (steak, green peppers, and onions with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sour cream on top), plus too many tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole--but this is not a regular thing with us, and I brought half of it home.
It's ok to splurge occasionally! But half of the burrito without the cheese and sour cream would be plenty! If you can limit yourself to just 10 chips, with salsa and without the guacamole, that would be a reasonable appetizer.


Evening snack: (~75 calories)
piece of fruit

[melra]

Hi miss-elisha! I hope I'm not butting in here, but I think in addition to the exercise, you might need to take another look at your menu. I'm worried that you might have too many processed foods on your list. You might be fuller if you moved some of your calories around a bit. I know that you are somewhat at the mercy of your mother's cooking (sounds like my mom!) but you might be able to put some whole foods in there without a lot of extra work.
Just some suggestions:
Try getting rid of the nondairy creamer and using skim or 1% milk. It may take a while to get used to, I know. I just made the switch myself a few months ago and now I'm on black coffee after a lifetime of cream and sugar.
In the morning, use only one sl of whole grain bread for a half sandwich and then eat a small apple with it. Get rid of the american cheese, even lf it's still pretty processed and try a tblspoon of cheddar or even a little swiss instead.

Instead of the chips at lunch, try some baby carrots with hummus or bean dip or a tblspoon of peanut butter. Instead of the frozen food, bring a salad or a half sandwhich--I like half sandwhiches b/c you can still load up all the ingredients on one piece of bread. Or try using a whole wheat tortilla and loading it with lots of veggies and then some lite turkey or chicken breast. For salads, you can get all your "toppings" together in one container and the salad greens in another, that way the spinach or whatever doesn't get soggy before you eat it. If you need the chocolate, keep the chocolate, but maybe wait to eat it like 30-60 min after you finish your lunch.

I would cut out the sandwich crackers for an afternoon snack and maybe replace them with whole grain wheat thins or triscuits--no trans fat and whole wheat. The rosemary ones especially are delicious and really good with the laughing cow cheese and slices of cherry tomatoes!

I know dinner will be a challenge for you because it's not always up to you what you guys have. The best thing I can think of is to have salad ingredients on hand for yourself so that instead of a full serving of casserole or mac and cheese, you can have 1/2 or 3/4 cup with your salad. I made tacos for my family the other night and used ground turkey mixed with black beans. For myself, I made a taco salad--1/3 c of the meat /bean mix with 1tbspoon cheddar cheese on a biiiig bed of spinach. I added some random veggies and used salsa plus 1 tblsp lite ranch for the dressing and threw a few jalepenos on top. For crunch I allowed myself one small taco shell which was 40 calories and baked, not fried. It was very filling and very good!

Convenience is a big issue for anyone trying to work and eat with a family, so I know how hard it is to cook after work! I've been working on doing a lot of the prep work for some meals on the weekend or "hump day" so I don't get bummed by having to chop veggies at 5:30. This is already a really long post, but if you want, you can pm me. I've got a fairly simple meal list I modified for myself a little while back and I can copy it into an email for you if you want.

You have had great success so far--you have been maintaining that 25pound loss after all! Good job on the exercise too. Lots of luck on the new home once you guys get it!

[srmb60]

I'm gonna butt in with my thoughts too. You can never have enough good ideas, can you?

Breakfast:
I think someone already said to try coffee with low fat milk instead. If you took 4 eggs but only one yolk, you could have a nice big cheese omelet with maybe only one slice of bread. You don't need butter for any of that. and I'm not sure you need the sausage. Turkey sausage?

If I get hungry I sometimes, but not usually, have a mid-morning snack, either a rice cake, a nectarine, or some grapes. That's all good!

Lunch:
Lean Pocket or Michelina's Lean Gourmet frozen dinner. Add salad or mini carrots to add bulk.
Have fruit for a sweet.

Afternoon Snack: I eat lunch around 12, and am *always* hungry before I go home at 5:30--usually have a snack around 4:30
Low fat string cheese, no fat yogurt, fruit, rice cakes

Dinner: eat whatever your Mom makes. Can you have salad usually? eat smaller portions and salad if you can. Or eat a lot more of Mom's vegetable than her casserole

[flipafart]

vegetable stirfry do it for me lots of veggies