[Paulina]

Hello and thanks for this forum! I stumbled across it by accident while blog surfing. I am hoping that with the help and support that seems to be abundant on this board I'll be able to stick to it, to loose the fudge factor that seems to haunt me.

I come from a family that has fought obesity it's entire life. My father was over 500lbs, mother 300lbs, sister and I both fight it as well. Both parents had surgery that helped them with the battle. My father was around 300lb when he passed away. My mother has been able to keep herself around 170 and is very happy.

As a child my mom drug me along to her Weight Watchers meetings as well as OA and AA. I like that last one the best as I could eat all the olive and cream cheese triangle sandwiches during the meeting!

I was married for 18 years to a man who never felt I was thin enough, I was too fat, too fourty and too frumpy. He is now TOO out of my life, thankyouverymuch. I now have the support of a man who would do anything for me and is very supportive of my efforts to get healthy, no matter how short lived they are at times.

I have two children, a tall, slender son 17 and a daughter who is 11 and unfortunatly for her, she got my chubby genes.

I've done WW, JC, NutraSystem, Phen-Phen, etc. I just don't know where to start this time. Due to my lifestyle at this time in my life I am leaning towards calorie counting and walking. Calorie counting is new to me, I've got to buy a scale to keep at home for portion sizing.

I own a small pizza restaurant and stand behind the counter six days a week from 9 till 4pm. My downfall is beer. I love beer. I can do without the pizza, so I usually eat a green salad with chicken or turkey everyday for lunch. I am going to study up on calorie counting, buy some low fat dressings and go to work with a new outlook on eating. I'll invest in tea and water instead of diet sodas and beer.

I'm going to try to get up earlier every morning and walk for an hour before work. My evenings are dedicated to my daughter who lives with me and chatting with my son via AIM. I have plenty of chores to do in the evenings and only one day a week off, Sunday. That is our family day. We are good to ourselves in that we most always begin our day on Sunday with a good one hour - 3 mi. walk. I don't have the time or the funds for a gym membership, although the Curves commercial on tv has me trying to figure out how I can squeeze that into my schedule and budget.

I would love the support of this Calorie Counters group to help keep me in check.

I started counting calories a week ago as well as started a Fit Day account. I have a sneaky feeling that I'm not doing things correctly as I don't feel like I'm burning the amount of calories that FD claims I am. I also have a hard time with keeping the fat % down.

I would GREATLY appreciate comments, even the harsh ones, from those of you who know the ins and outs of Fit Day! I am still learning how to enter specialized foods, but when it comes to things like home made pico de gallo, ie salsa, I can't find it....It will just take time I guess and the help of you ladies who have it down!

Thanks again for this forum, and for letting me join you!! Please take a peek at my FitDay and let me have it!!

[srmb60]

We'd be glad to help. Most of us are confused by fitday to start with. The activities are very odd. try setting your activity level at 'seated work' and leave it alone. It'll give you a guesstimate at best, but it's a good place to start.
As for the fat %'s ... beef of any kind has more fat than fish or chicken .... ice cream! How I love it but ... it's got fat. If you scramble your eggs, you can leave out one yolk and it hardly makes a difference to the taste.
There's a couple of ideas for starters. Ask more questions, we're happy to help.

[PhysDom]

Oooh! You own a pizza place? Maybe you could concoct a new pizza special! You could hold half the cheese, use a thin (maybe with some whole wheat?) crust, and load on the veggies (and some chicken, too, for protein). It could be a healthy special that you and your customers would love!

[Paulina]

Thank you both for the replies! I will change my lifestyle level. I was actually thinking of choosing the bedriden option to make sure I couldn't claim to burn more calories than I actually did!

I'm slowly getting the hang of it!

Regarding the pizza idea, I may give it a try the next time I have a carbo jones. We have a homemade pesto sauce that I am missing, big time. It contains lots of olive oil, walnuts and parm. cheese in the mix. Maybe just a spot of pesto and the rest maranara wouldn't kill me...I just wouldn't know how to list it on Fitday. I'll have to look that up!

Much thanks again!

[srmb60]

I make custom foods for almost everything I eat. But I've been accused of being overly detaily