One thing I have always noticed is that when I eat fruit for breakfast or something it does NOTHING to keep me full. I always kind of thought veggies were that way too. Like, they are good for you, but you'll just end up hungry again.
I do believe I'll get there. I really do. I just don't want to think I am doing a great job if I am not.
Beautybooty, it's a combination of veggies and protein that is so filling. Fruit alone is NOT filling, IMO for breakfast. And then if you don't have a HUGE breakfast, and are hungry again, well then EAT again. Have some snacks. We want to avoid feeling hungry. Plan on eating every 2 - 2 1/2 hours or so, more often if need be.
A good hearty stick to the ribs breakfast would be a bowl of oatmeal AND an eggwhite omlette. Or Fat free/sugar free yogurt with berries and some Fiber One Cereal tossed in - I have 2 of them for breakfast, spaced about an hour apart very often. Some cottage cheese and berries and some Fiber One cereal tossed in.
A good hearty lunch - a huge salad with romaine hearts, bell peppers, red onions, cucmbers, grape tomatoes, hearts of palm. Maybe some canned black beans. Throw in some salsa. Add in some grilled chicken or a can of tuna.
A good hearty dinner - A HUGE stir fry with broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, cauliflower, peppers, onions and carrots. Have it with either chicken, turkey breast or some baked salmon.
Some great snacks to keep you going through the day. You can have 3 or even 4 of them
-Fat free/sugar free yogurt with Fiber One
-Low fat string cheese with 10 pistachios
-Veggie platter with baby carrots, grape tomatoes, string beans, sliced cucumber dipped in a measured amount of hummus or salsa or both.
-a 3 oz. can of tuna and 2 Wasa Crisps
-Cucumber salad -Cabbage salad (shredded red cabbage, shredded carrots, lemon juice and a little Splenda)- I make A LOT of both of these salads at a time and have it for a few days and nibble on it throughout the day.
-cleminitines - at about 30-35 calories a piece, you can have a few during the day at any time. Same goes with lady apples.
Anyway, don't you dare think of yourself as not doing a great job, because you are. Like has been said over and over again, this IS a process and you are just starting out. Everything doesn't have to be "perfect" from the start (or ever). Just work on getting those portions and CALORIES in check. You've got plenty of time to change things up as you go along.
For those of us who enjoy a good bowl of pasta, I'd like to recommend Tofu Shirataki.
You get a whole 4 oz pack for 3g of carbs and 20~ calories. Of course, you will have to drench these in either a lowfat cheese sauce or veggie rich tomato based gravy, but its well worth the effort. If you want to learn more, just google "tofu shirataki" I got this tip from Hungry Girl.
Rinse fettuccine noodles VERY well. Microwave them for one minute, then drain them and pat dry. Add cheeses and sour cream. Mix thoroughly. Microwave to help melt cheese further, and mix some more. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy. Serves 1.
This Fettucine alfredo has just 80 calories per serving, and is only 1 point on Weight Watchers (if you're counting).
One thing I have always noticed is that when I eat fruit for breakfast or something it does NOTHING to keep me full. I always kind of thought veggies were that way too. Like, they are good for you, but you'll just end up hungry again.
I do believe I'll get there. I really do. I just don't want to think I am doing a great job if I am not.
I never ever eat JUST fruit or JUST veggies. That makes me hungrier than if I had not eaten at all...Like Robin says..with protein. I will stuff a huge amount of sauteed onions, mushrooms, peppers, spinach etc in an eggbeater omelet. My omelets are the 10" frying pan folded in half and sometimes I stuff so many veggies in there that they are 3" tall. CUPS of food. And with eggbeaters and lowfat cheese it works out to ~200 calories - usually less.
Absolutely you will get there. It is all about baby steps. The best way is to look at what you are doing now and say...ok what is ONE thing I can change that might work better. No need to overhaul the whole thing just continual tweaking.
I dont know if that ever stops. I lost about 45 lbs with my morning snack being string cheese and an apple. I weigh less and had to drop my cals a bit so I went to cottage cheese and apple...and then to cottage cheese and 1/2 apple and I usually have that now (although the string cheese is good when I am out and about). Tweak tweak tweak.
I have a dish I love the way you love that chinese dish. So I figured out how to make it at home and I keep refining the recipe and I can make it at home ALMOST as good for way fewer calories (although I do get the real thing occasionally). I had the real thing last night and I think I can tweak my own recipe just a little bit more and it will be perfect. Fortunately my dh likes it and my son loves it. (dd doesnt like anything so she never enters in to the equation of what to make)
rockinrobin - i don't think i mentioned what a picky eater i am. i hate onions, peppers, cottage cheese, and much more, trust me. though I am sure those things you listed could be slightly altered to work for me.
Casandra - i am a texture eater. i have been thinking about these noodles but not sure, they kind of scare me. just how different are they than regular noodles? cause i would be all over them if they were at least remotely like regular noodles.
ennay - that's a good idea to try to make it myself, my own way. or at least something similar. i was just thinking as i was writing this i could make a broccoli, mushroom, rice dish that would probably make me just as happy.
oh i do have one more question though. yesterday i ate about my usual amount of calories and then went out dancing for 2 hours. the amount of dancing i did, when i plugged it into daily plate, dropped my amount of calories i had eaten (once the exercise was subtracted) to below 1000.... does that mean i should have eaten some more? i don't want to work off more calories than what is healthy. does that make sense? i'm just confused, haha any insight would be super
No, no, no!!! Don't add more calories to your day if you've added in some extra activity. That's EXACTLY what we want - to creat MORE of a deficit through exercise and activity. Some days they'll be more of a deficit, because we did more activity. And by the way there is no way on earth that any website can give you an EXACT amount of calories burned through exercise and activity. They are really just guesstimates.
The amount of calories you've eaten does not change just because you've done some additional exercise. That remains the same. Yes, your calories burned does, but that's okay - that's what we're after. IMO, and it's only just that - my opinion, too many people think because they're exercising that they should therefore increase their calorie intake. I think this should only hold true for people who are doing heavy, heavy exercise - like runners. I keep my calories eaten totally separate from my calories burned. I eat what I eat, and I burn what I burn.
And yes, make your own Chinese Food! I do. I love stir fries. I use a little soy sauce, garlic, ginger, a tad of sugar free apricot preserves to make a yummy oriental type sauce. And I cook up a bunch of veggies and chicken breast. YUMMM. I get an enormous plateful of food at a fraction of the calories I would get had I gone to a Chinese restaurant.
Although cottage cheese is very healthy, you will not see it on my menu either. I just don't like it and won't eat it. So, as far as being picky, you need to experiment with new recipes and tweak current ones to make them less caloric. You need to find different methods of cooking foods that will make them more palatable to you. You need to look around and find foods that you LOVE. The more you enjoy what you're eating, the more apt you are to stay on plan- and that's what we're aiming for - you to STICK with this.
Remember, this is a process and it will take time to get this all down pat. It will take time to find healthy foods that you enjoy. Oh and another great thing - believe it or not, once you start eating this healthy stuff and elminating - the not so healthy stuff - your tastes really will change.
You're doing great Beauty. Just keep at it. Keep it up. Keep your eyes on the prize and remember why you're doing this - to get to a healthy weight and be fit and trim. To improve your quality of life and TO BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE. And by all means, keep on asking questions. We're all in this together and we're all here to help one another.
I eat a lot of soup, the progresso light is good. I sip broth throughout the day and add extra veggies to everything. I am a carb addict so I need to trick myself by adding extras to my carbs, and thereby reducing the amount of carbs.
haha ok i didn't think i was supposed to eat more, but i was confused by the whole having a minimum number of calories thing.
and i love the progresso soups too! i think they are great. i too am a carb addict, but slowly, surely i am working my way away from it.
an old favorite of mine: big plate of angel hair pasta with shredded mozz/cheddar on top. mmmm. only had it once since i started dieting, and then i made a reasonable portion.
btw, dropped a few more pounds! 269 today! 13lbs. total! yay!
Sorry, didn't read everyone's replies, but have a great tip for you if you like volume. It's a potato dish, and ends up to 130 calories per 100 grams (sorry, I don't know how you giys count calories), which is around a fruit yogurt value.
I had a pound of it, I just couldn't stop (I was also very hungry because I didn't eat for a few hours), and it added up to 650 calories, which is less than 900
It consists of two pounds of pre-cooked and chopped potatoes, half a pound of canned kidney beans, the same of canned corn, two packs of tofu, chopped and stir fried on 5 tbsp of olive oil. You mix it all together in a teflon pan. You can stir fry some peppers or zuchinni or both with the tofu if you wish, it will not drastically change the calorie value. It is yummy, sattisfying, and low calorie! You can also use meat instead of tofu, I'm guessing with turkey breasts it will be absolutely delicious! Have fun!
Years ago my Dad used to eat the way it sounds like you do. Starve most of the day and then eat a very large meal. Eventually he developed blood sugar problems because your pancreas can't work properly like that, it's very hard on your body. So there's more to it than total number of calories for the day. I would try and space your food out more.
I had trouble the first week or so, was starving all the time and complaining in here about it. It really is true, once you start eating smaller meals you can't eat a big one, cause it just doesn't feel good.
These are just two studies I found on eating one large meal or "gorging vs. nibbling". If you do a Google search, there are hundreds of studies from hundreds of reputable medical authorities and they all pretty much come to the same conclusion: you can seriously screw up your insulin levels and your cholesterol.
Obviously not EVERYONE is going to have negative results - just like some people can smoke 2 packs a day for 20 years and not get lung cancer. But that doesn't mean it's not an unhealthy habit to get into!
They discovered glucose tolerance appears to decrease on one meal per day in comparison with the three or six meals daily, whether measured by oral or intravenous tolerance testing. This, it should be recalled, had earlier been observed in obese subjects. Next, serum cholesterol was measurably higher on the one meal per day regimen. Finally, subjective responses on a confidential written questionnaire indicated that approximately 60% of the participants reported an overwhelmingly greater need to sleep after the one large meal experience. A like number commented on the distraction of extreme hunger during the day.
Quote:
Seven men were assigned in random order to two metabolically identical diets. One regimen consisted of nibbling 17 snacks per day (which incidentally covers the waking hours). The other consumed three meals daily (gorging). Each plan was followed for two weeks. As compared with the three meal scheme, the nibbling plan reduced fasting serum concentrations of total cholesterol about 9%, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (14%) and apolipoprotein B approximately 15%. Of particular note is the fact that the average insulin level decreased about 28%. In addition, the mean 24-hour urinary cortisol excretion was lowered approximately 17%.
Quote:
he subjects were divided into five groups. One consumed three meals or less per day. The second
ate three to four meals. The third subset ingested three to four meals with in-between snacks. In the fourth category, the consumption was three to four meals with an additional snack prior to bedtime. Finally, the last group consisted of those consuming five or more meals on a daily basis. Table 1 summarizes the results. It can be noted that over-weight, hypercholesterolemia, and diminished glucose-tolerance tend to increase as the frequency of meals decreases. The difference between the extreme groups (I and V) in all parameters is clearly statistically significant.
The first study analysis showed that consuming a one-meal-per-day diet, rather than a traditional three-meal-per-day diet, is feasible for a short duration. It showed that when the volunteers were "one-mealers," they had significant increases in total cholesterol, LDL "bad" cholesterol and in blood pressure, compared to when they were "three-mealers."
Quote:
Further analysis of the study group showed that when the volunteers were one-mealers, they had higher morning fasting blood sugar levels, higher and more sustained elevations in blood sugar concentrations, and a delayed response to the body's insulin, compared to when they were "three-mealers." Insulin is required to lower blood sugar levels. Those findings were published in the December 2007 issue of Metabolism.
One great way to have a great big plate of food - make "pasta" with spaghetti squash. 1/2 squash is a GINORMOUS portion that tastes great with a spicy pasta sauce (load the pasta sauce up with lots of vegetables too -shredded zucchini, carrots, mushrooms) with a little sprinkle of parmesan on top - DELISH and HUGE and HEALTHY and GOOD!
I think this is a great example of how different people have very different perceptions of "huge" and "filling."
I have to eat the WHOLE spaghetti squash to get my fix.
