Hey kazzy,
Iīve read the whole thread and it really looks like youīre having a hard time! I understand many of your points but Iīve understood too that weight loss isnīt easy at all and there are many many things that we must do that we really donīt like. SOme of us hate exercise, some hate keeping track of the food we eat (I hate both) but I think that itīs a matter of prioritizing. In the weight loss/ healthy journey there will be MANY things that we will hate, but we do it anyway because itīs more important to eat healthy and loss the weight.
I understand that you hate having a journal with your food and calories but itīs necesary (not always, but as youīre not loosing itīs necesary to see why itīs not working) so Iīd say look at it from the positive side (itīs hard, I know) but think "ok, I hate it, but Iīll do it to see why Iīm not loosing weight and finally start loosing it" and it will help you.
I swear I hate exercise and journaling and not eating chocolate but I really want to loss weight and be healthy and I know in the end it will be worth it!
So, my humble suggestion.. JUST DO IT (ok, I stole it from Nike lol) whether you like it a lot or not so much, start journaling and counting calories and using your new DVD! I know you can do it!!!!
Are you taking a multi-vitamin? I take GNC's Ultra Mega Active for Women and it really helps stabilize my blood sugar. It also helps with electrolytes, which is important for those of us on low-cal diets. I also take one tablespoon of Flaxseed oil in the morning with juice. My nails are shooting out of my fingers and my hair is thicker now than when I was in the fourth grade! Google these items and decide if they might help you.
We should never be eating throughout the day... Have mini-meals every 2 hours or when you feel hungry. Jerky has a lot of salt (not to mention preservatives) and trail mix is meant for quick energy for those out on the, "trail" hiking/biking. I sit at a desk all day too (with a boss who keeps a 5 pound bag of M&M's on her desk) but all I need is 3 slices of turkey (60 cal) and a piece of flat bread (40 cal) to make my candy cravings go away and to give me the energy I need until I can go home and have a proper dinner.
Remember, if you feel hungry drink a glass of water and wait 20 minutes - I get my water down with a spritz of lemon in it... If it's true hunger you're feeling (that requires fuel/food) you'll know it. If not, the feeling will pass. Don't give in to every urge to eat. Your body may not need the calories.
I agree with all the advice of other posters - You must keep a food log and refer to it at the end of the day to identify where you're eating more than you think. Have you checked out books such as: Mindless Eating, Runaway Eating, The Four-Day Win or Intuitive Eating? All of them really helped me...
Best of luck - Keep up the good work - You're worth it!
Janet
Last edited by CABunnyGirl; 10-23-2007 at 01:59 PM.
I just don't get how something as good as trail mix that is in reality good for you with all the minerals thats in them. They have all kinds of good stuff for you. Yet, it all gets trashed by the fat and calories... How can something that has all the good stuff in it, that the body does indeed need, but yet you can't eat it because in reality it's fattening. Makes no sense.
I'll think of something I guess. going to have to. But for now, i'm stuck with the trail mix this week for snacking. Seems like the more I try the more I fail. Just don't get it....
No one said you cant eat trail mix. I eat trail mix. Its all about balance and choices
Personally I am with you on fruit as a snack. Fruit as a snack for ME is worse than not eating at all.
You feel like you feel because you are operating with less knowledge than you need. As much of a total PITA as counting can be the POWER you get from knowledge is incredible! Right now you are focusing on the trailmix, but that is not giving you the full picture. It isnt about ELIMINATING any food, its about balancing the healthy and the less healthy, the caloric and the less caloric, and finding the foods that satisfy you
I don't snack constantly threw out the day. As I've said, I have a small handfull, sometimes 2 every 2-3 hours. Most the time I get wrapped up in the work that I seriously don't even think about eating, then so many hours later my tummy has to remind me that it's still there. .. 99% of the time I take a drink of the juice stuff I mix together that is good enough sometimes. Somewhere along it's starting to sound like I'm eating a ton when i'm barely eating at all. As I've said before lately just looking at food makes me sick, I have to force myself to eat something real when I get home. *By Real I mean like dinner or something more solid than what I eat at work*. My portions are truly small amounts, a few bites and I have left overs for tomorrow.
I completly understand about balancing food, but I'm already eating so little as it is. I feel like I should be skin and bones for as much as I eat anymore. I'm not starving myself by no means, I'm just simply not so hungry that I have keep filling myself up. Sometimes I'll even chew gum, or brush my teeth when I get into a snacky craving.
I don't know how much more I can balance the food portions compared to what I have been doing. Guess it's harder to explain then what I first thought.
And yes I mean mult-Vitamin pills. I take the centrum chewables, I find as many chewable supplements I can find. That way I know it gets digested and into the blood stream faster. Plus I hate taking pills... Chewables rule!!
Kazzy
I can see that you're frustrated and feel hungry and miserable and for that I'm sorry.
BUT you keep justifying your current eating habits when you KNOW those aren't helping you to lose weight. If you're serious about it, you're going to have to be willing to rethink your current approach to weight loss. I don't know what you eat besides trail mix or how much exercise you do, but I think you need to start being systematic about it. Log your food, think about ways to get yourself as full as possible for as long as possible. Eating regular meals is important, getting enough calories is important, getting few enough calories is important, exercise is important. All these things work together to make weight loss and weight maintenance possible and I think you need to get yourself a real plan to make this work.
Logging your food is an excellent idea, as is counting calories. If you don't want to count calories or points, perhaps you should look into one of the low carb diets.
The point is that what you are currently doing isn't working, so if you want to lose weight, you need to re-evaluate your current approach. It's as simple as that. The path you take after your re-evaluation is completely up to you.
Also, if you really are eating so little that you should be "skin and bones" (although I doubt it--2 handfuls of trailmix 3 times a day is probably between 600-800 calories), it could be that you're not eating enough food or not eating often enough. It is important to eat meals and to fuel your body; if you don't, your body will start hoarding fat thinking that there is a famine. I suspect that this is not actually what's going on here, but logging what you eat and looking at your calories and nutrition will help you either way.
Suggestion: if you need protein and a bit of fat to stay full (as I do), why not make a salad for your lunch each day, with plenty of veggies, 3 ounces of grilled chicken breast and a salad dressing with some oil in it (or a tiny bit of shredded cheese)? That has all the basic nutritional components of trail mix (minus the sugar) and will fill you up for longer and give you energy and nutrients.
I'm not trying to justify what is being said here. I have said I will start a journal, wanted to start one on the journals link but it said it wasn't accepting anymore people. All I'm saying is the way this thread is starting to sound, is making me sound like I'm eating to many or at least big portions and I'm not. That's all I was getting at with that.
Not eating enough and what I am eating turning into fat like you metioned, that is most likely the case I have not thought about that. I go to the store once a week, I have started a list on things that would be better for me to snack on and such, it's still a work in progress though. I did some aerobics that I found on cable to night.
Didn't mean to sound like I was justifying anything. I'm taking all the advice I got in this thread and making the re-evaluation to everything. I even said that I was going to find some better things other than the trail mix. I most likely won't stop eating because I plan on getting back into hiking.
None the less, it's my bed time, thanx again for all wonderful advice.
Hey Kazzy, don't get discouraged...we are all pulling for you. I thought of a couple of things that aren't dairy that you may want to try for a snack:
1. those Starkist tuna salad kits (they have crackers, lowfat mayo, relish and tuna). They are really good and filling and about 210 cals. Not too messy either.
2. turkey pepperoni. 17 slices (which is a lot) is 70 cals. That + a piece of fruit would be filling.
3. 100-cal microwave popcorn. Okay, it doesn't have the protein, but it is filling and can satisfy a salty-junky food type craving. I love it with butter spray and seasoning on it.
4. 1 Tbls peanut butter on an apple. peanut butter = 95 cals for 1 Tbls. apple = approx. 80 cals. It's yummy and has protein.
Those are just some suggestions. You are right: trail mix is very nutritious, it's just a little calorie dense to be snacking on all day long. Your plan just needs some tweaking. Hang in there. I know it's tough. I've been trying to get on track since May and am finally finding my groove, partially in thanks to all the great advice I get here. You can do it. Just find something that works for you and don't give up.
Hi Kazzy!
I've read the thread and I know just how you feel. I've hit the wall in my weightloss (3 months, not a pound lost) and now I have to re-adjust EVERYTHING i've been doing all year to see where/if i'm slipping up. I HATE keeping track of my food. I just count calories but I've never really logged in every little tiny thing that went into my mouth. Like, really...how does one count a bite of a snickers bar I stole from my boyfriend?
But I relize that if I want to lose the weight, I need to do it. Maybe I'm eating too much fat, carbs or salt...or something that's throwing me off...not just the calories.
From what I'm reading, you don't need a lot of food to feel full. I think you said something like 2-3 bites and you are full. And that you sometimes have to force yourself to eat. I have a best friend who was just like this. She never felt hungry, she would go almost a day and half without eating anything more than half a PB&J sandwitch and she would feel fine. Only she weighed close to 200 pounds. She worked two very active jobs AND went to the gym she never lost (or gained) a pound. she was like this for almost 2 years.
Her problem, (and I think your problem too) is that she was not eating enough.
Yeah a person can eat too many calories, but sometimes people eat too little, not knowing that their body is freaking out. Our brain and body are primitive. That is, we live to eat...eat to live. If we suddenly go from all sorts of calories to just enough to keep us alive; Our body is not going to be happy. it will think we are starving.. it will stop burning fat and slowly start breaking down muscles and burning that for fuel. And any fat you eat durning this time will stay fat and go right into the rest of the fat cells for long time storage.
I know we must all sound like a broken record, repeating the same thing over and over again. But it does work, and we want you to be happy and lose that weight that is upsetting you.
Find out how many calories you need to eat every day. For some larger people, they need well over 2000 every day in oder for their body to give up the fat.. Body: "Okay I get it... there is enough food, may as well make use of this cheap and easy fuel" ... and when they start losing the weight they slowly lower the amount of calories they eat. They body has less mass to feed and won't freak out.
Maybe you are eating too much and not know it. Maybe you are not eating enough and not know it. Knowlege is power, once you know... then you can do something about it. OR it could be that you are eating just the right amount... and it's the lack of exersice that's killing your plan. You said that you were having some issues and had not kept up on your regular work-outs.
Stress will make it harder to lose weight. Plus your body could be used to the same ol' work out day in and day out.
Cardio is always best, short bursts of high activity are great for people starting out. Get that heart pumping hard for 10-15 mnutes straight, about 3 times a day. It's great for the heart and it is like a burst of jet fuel to your metabolism. Body: "The engine (heart/body) is reving up again! we need more fuel! (fat)" Your metabolism is lifted and you burn more calores, even when you stop the work-out and get back to normal everyday chores.
Different things work for different people. But things like keeping track of your food and getting good work-outs are the base needed for all healthy weight loss, no matter who you are. It may seem like a lot of work... and it is, but good things don't come without good hard work. And once you fall into your happy balance, it won't be near as hard.
I have issues with snacks too. sometimes they become little meals and it throws me off. A rule I try and keep with snacks is keeping it under 150 calores. And if i feel hungry and I know 150 calories isn't going to cut it... I add low cal fiber or protien.
Calories=fuel...Fat=bad fuel.(BUT..notice the big but...fat helps tell our body we are not hungry anymore.)..Fiber= keeping the full feeling longer. Salt/Sodium=retaining water(aka water weight). Protien=full feeling+fuel for body. Carbs= instant fuel..unless you are not active after you eat it, then it's instant fat.
Eight 8oz glasses of water everyday. 64oz I think. We are made of water... not soda...not coffie...water. Drinking things like soda, coffiee, tea, fruit juice is okay..(keep track of the calores) but getting enough pure water is very important. I love the taste of pure, clean cold water. Other drinks don't quench my thirst as good as cool water. (again, everyone is different, I just happen to like water.) Not many like straight water. They put twists of lemon, lime, or orange in it to give it a flavor. Some people put those sugar free flavor packs in their bottle/glass of water.. ( I think of it as kool-aid of adults, only with no sugar and only like 0-30 calories per serving) I have a little water bottle that I drink from all day long. it holds 24 oz.. that's three servings. I drink about 4 of those every day at work. that's about 96 oz.. it's surprises some people how little 8 oz really is.
Point is, water is key. Water stops false hunger pains, it flushes out our system. and it helps us lose water weight.... kinda ironic huh? I think of it like calories. too much salt in our diet and not enough water makes the body freak...sucking up all the water that it can..(ie, out of the juice/tea/coffiee) out of what we drink and hold on too it to keep a balance of salt and water in our bodies. ( giving us that bloated puffy feeling) When you drink lots of straight water, it flushes out the extra salt, telling our bodies it's alright to dump all the water it was holding. (eating less salt does the same thing)
Wow, now look who is long winded. See there are very many different things going on in your body... it's not always gonna be about the trail mix okay Honey. It took you your whole life to get how you are...it's gonna take a while to suddenly change. we are creatures of habbit.. we fear change.. change of food/drink/lifestyle. The feeling that it's just a hassle, or a lot of useless work is really just our fear of changing. We just have to get over our fear.
Don't give up and it's okay to cry now and then. We're here for you
Yep... I think Sakai has a good point (among several) in that unless you know exactly how much you're eating, you won't know what to change. It could be too much, it could be too little. So, just keep track of everything you eat during a day--what it is, and how much. This is not to change it, but just to see what IS. Post your list here. Maybe we can get some ideas!
Think of it this way...right now you are driving at night on fairly familiar country roads but some how you keep ending up in the same place and cant figure out why you keep missing the correct turn. We are saying that the roads, no matter how familiar they are, are a lot clearer if you turn on the headlights.
It is impossible for anyone to give you useful advice because we dont know what and how much you are actually eating because YOU dont know. Everyone is just taking stabs in the dark about MAYBE this or that is the issue.
Mornings ~ I don't normally eat breakfast, most I have sometimes, is half a peanutbutter sandwhich. Help the iguana eat some of his fruits and veggies. (while trying to save some for him) As a kid and most teenage years, breakfast would make so hungry and sick till I ate lunch. So, just couldn't get in the habbit of eating it. Startch with protein is bad for you, that killed the ceral. Other than that... Lately, it's just what I nibble on while feeding little guy. this is 7am. .
Lunch ~ Sort of the same thing, don't really eat it. at one point I was trying to make regular lunches, salads, sanwhiches. Today around 1030, had the other half of the peanut butter sandwhich. Round noon had 1/2 of a sandwhich I made.... for lunch.. Then the other half at 230.
wheat bread, turkey/ham, very thin slice of cheese and some of my iguanas mustard greens. (Don't tell the lizard I stole his food )
Normally though the past few months, it's just been that trail mix. Sometime the beef jerky. Honestly trying to stay away from the bread, but had to go with what's in the house right now.
Dinner ~ Had some of the home made soup that my boyfriend made. Size of a normal ceral/soup bowl.
Chicken, Brown rice, mixed veggies, small can of cream of mushroom. Cayenne peppers.
Normally for dinner it's pretty much what ever we cook on Sundays. Chilli, Sketty. If we don't cook anything, I go with a melt of some kind. Tuna, just simple grilled cheese, that turkey/ham meat. Don't really stick with one thing for dinner, always something different. If it's noodles or rice, we get the wheat /Brown kind. Last night had pork chops with mixed veggies.
Sometimes for desert will have no sugar added Icecream with sometype of fresh fruit. Other than that, it's whatver fruit I'm giving to lizard that night. The icecream is just once in a blue mood thing.
Other than that, that's pretty much how my diet has been threw the week. Weekends it's a little harder, kind of give myself free days... Past month or so been a bit more pickier at what I get when we go out. Can't eat fast food anymore so no worries there. Me and my boyfriend will go out for chinese and such like that. Instead of rice, I get steamed veggies. Also I don't drink anything while I'm eating. Take a sip of water just to rinse my mouth out, but drinking with food isn't good either so... Course sometimes it hard to do, I've been doing pretty good of getting back into the habbit.
Hope this helps a little bit. It's a start at least.
one thing that i can tell you is first and foremost, breakfast is very important. And it doesn't have to be your typical "breakfast" food...but something. Heck even a low fat turkey sandwhich is great for breakfast. You need breakfast to get your metabolism going. Next what i notice waiting until late in the day is a bad habit. You are forcing your body into "starvation mode". It is important you try to eat every 2-3 hrs. It really helps keep your metabolism high. Next, peanut butter sandwhiches...be wary. Pb is great and high in protien..but one tbsp is high in calories and fat. So if you are carefully ensuring you are only placing a tsbp than that's fine..but you have to be careful.
finally - to me it seems like you aren't eating enough. If you are having a few "nibbles" of the iguanas food (your secret's safe with us LOL) and a pb sandwhich and then dinner with possibly some low fat icecream....i know to me...that doesn't look like a **** of a lot. I know you've said fruit/veggies make you hungry..but it doesnt look like you are getting 5 serving of them a day. VERY VERY important. If eating fruit/veg alone makes you hungry, than eat them with breakfast lunch and dinner...and have a fruit/vegg with a protien. Say for example apple with low fat pb or celery with low ft pb (i'd use cream cheese but i know you and dairy aren't friends). I just really think there needs to be a lot more fresh fruit and veggies. In addtion...it really looks to me that you aren't getting enough calories in a day...but then again...what you posted doesn't have amounts etc. So its hard to say. But one thing i know...i'd be STARVED too with what you are eating. You need to start finding foods that work for you...and you really need to try to have breakfast, than 2 hrs later try a snack. Hope this helped. And please try not to get offended with people's suggestions. We are all trying to help. You asked for advice and you are getting it. Sometimes it may seem like an attack, but in reality most of us are just giving you a lil slap of reality..and gentle nudge in the right direction. I think your heart is in the right direction, you just need to start playing with food and finding what works for you. Go out, buy a scale and really start paying attention to how much you are eating. WE can help you with the calorie counting at first if you are confused. But we need a bit more info including amount (ie oz, lbs, tsp etc).
Hope that helped. Good luck!
I seriously do try to eat more. Always have. I know that eating every couple of hours is good. But when I try to do that I feel like i'm gorging myself, I feel like i'm over eating. I don't know how to get past that, I've tried over and over again. I eat when I'm hungry, I'm just hardly ever hungry during the day. Guess it's just a life long habbit, was the same way growing up and now i don't know how to tell my body that it needs to eat without having that overstuffed feeling.
Like today I could barely get that last 1/2 of the sandwhich down. Do I just force myself to eat when i'm not hungry or what?
Thing is right now for some reason the past month or so, I look at food and it makes me feel sick. Most of the time I am forcing myself to eat because I know I have to. I don't know why this is happening, it comes and goes always has. Sometimes I'm starving and can't get enough to eat, other times like right now can't seem to get anything down my throat. I would love to eat like ... well... normal... and now i have a better idea of what and how to eat portions.. Just don't know how to get my body to listen and get it out of this cycle.
I think that the sickness you feel when you look at food is mental--it's not because your body isn't hungry. Perhaps you ought to see if you can find a doctor who is familiar with food issues or eating problems and see what they say. We aren't doctors here, and we can't give medical advice.
But, I would suggest that you do eat even if you don't want to, especially in the morning. Not to the point that you'll throw up, of course! But try to change your habits. Just eat a little bit more in the morning even when you aren't hungry. (This is assuming there is no medical reason for your lack of appetite.)
I added up what you said you ate, without the trail mix, and I came up with around 1500 calories. Depending on your age and activity level, that's not too far from what you would burn in a day. Is your job the kind where you sit all day?
I think what is happening is that when you add the trail mix, your calories eaten are coming out the same as your calories burned--in other words, no weight loss.
Suggestions...
- Continue to eat breakfast, but try different things. How about oatmeal or other cereal with 1% milk? And some fruit, like part of a banana, or some frozen berries? And, you could have a boiled egg with it for protein. Or some turkey.
- Make set times during the day when you'll eat, rather than grazing. For example, breakfast--snack--lunch--snack--dinner--snack or "dessert." Eat every 2-3 hours, and not in between. You say you feel like you're "gorging yourself," but you're not. That's mental, again. Eat when you're supposed to, and just see what happens. You'll get used to it.
- Find a way to track what you eat, either with a computer tracker or just a notebook and a calorie book.
- Drink water. Don't worry about water with meals--that hasn't been proven. Be sure you get 8 8-oz. glasses a day.
- Oh, and get back into being more physically active. Just taking a walk for 20 minutes is good exercise.
.. 99% of the time I take a drink of the juice stuff I mix together that is good enough sometimes. Somewhere along it's starting to sound like I'm eating a ton when i'm barely eating at all. As I've said before lately just looking at food makes me sick, I have to force myself to eat something real when I get home. *By Real I mean like dinner or something more solid than what I eat at work*. My portions are truly small amounts, a few bites and I have left overs for tomorrow. 
But it does work, and we want you to be happy and lose that weight that is upsetting you. 
It's great for the heart and it is like a burst of jet fuel to your metabolism. Body: "The engine (heart/body) is reving up again! we need more fuel! (fat)" Your metabolism is lifted and you burn more calores, even when you stop the work-out and get back to normal everyday chores. 
See there are very many different things going on in your body... it's not always gonna be about the trail mix okay Honey. It took you your whole life to get how you are...it's gonna take a while to suddenly change. we are creatures of habbit.. we fear change.. change of food/drink/lifestyle. 
The feeling that it's just a hassle, or a lot of useless work is really just our fear of changing. We just have to get over our fear. 
. 
