This week has been sort of tough for me. I work a LOT ---at the Mayo Clinic, and at Lane Bryant. Anyway, today I have to work both jobs, and I had a banana when I first got up in the morning, but by 11:00pm I was so hungry!!! I had packed stuff for dinner at Mayo...and a protein bar for in between jobs. I had to stop at Target and get some cat food. I looked around for something healthy to eat---for some reason fruit and vegs were not sounding appealing. I grabbed some fresh veg. sushi at first...but then made a bad choice and got a 6" personal pan pizza from pizza hut.

I haven't had pizza in so long, and I know it was bad for me---I looked up the cals as soon as I got to Mayo. Now I feel sort of blah...and i'm hungry again!

It doesn't help that everyone brings tons of goodies and leaves them laying around all over either... I'm chewing gum like a crazy person...but I feel like I'm going to give in and then when I weigh in on Tuesday (I joined Mayo's really awesome health center weightloss program)...I'm going to go up Any suggestions? What do you do when your co-workers make all sorts of stuff that you LOVE? ...it's like I have no will power. haha

So far I've lost about 25lbs in a little over a month....I don't want to screw it up now...

Am I understanding this right? You ate a banana in the morning and then didn't eat until 11 pm?
You have to try and eat something every few hours to keep your metabolism humming.
No wonder you made a bad choice. When your starved you can't think straight. I don't care how busy you are. You have to take care of yourself and that means planning ahead.
Now plan ahead from now on.

I agree with sharonrr1--what were you thinking? Girl, you can't do yourself like that. You have to plan your meals and snacks and make sure you have your foods with you or there are options available.

Also, I'm thinking that you have been eating too little for awhile now--because 25 pounds in a month at your weight is very fast. In fact, it's too fast. You could be losing lean body mass (such as muscle) as well as fat, and that will only slow down your metabolism more!

Maybe you would want to rethink what you're doing. If you go to the Calorie Counters forum you'll find some Sticky threads at the top of the first page that have a lot of information about one way to track your foods.

Good luck! Plan, plan, plan! Don't confuse starving with healthy weight loss! :yikes

Jay

Congradulations on your weight loss so far! 25 pounds is no easy thing.

Sharon is right - you really, really have to plan ahead to avoid those times. When your body is starving your head is not thinking about veggies. With a 25 pound weight loss I am sure you know this...

Now, chalk it up to a lesson learned, get over it and move on! Best of luck to you!

What everyone else has said.

A banana for breakfast is simply not enough. If you're working a job where you know you might not get a proper lunch break, then you need to eat protein and carbs in the morning to keep you fueled.

Also, I agree that 25lbs in a month is too much, too fast. It's not a completely impossible amount, but it's not sustainable and it's not healthy for a long term plan.

You need to plan your meals and snacks and pack what you need into a cooler in your car if necessary. String cheese, yogurts, apples, things like that - that you can grab and eat on the move.

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sorry...my bad. it was 11am ...not pm

I figured it was .. but even so, a banana is not enough.

Say you get up at 8 a.m. and eat that banana. By 11 a.m. that's FIVE HOURS you've worked on one banana. Your body needs more fuel than that to function properly.

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I've been eatting aprox. 1200-1400 cals a day...and working out quite a bit...and drinking a LOT of water. I cut out pop. I also have personal trainers and dieticians thru mayo's gym and wellness program. I think I'm being fairly healthy. I eat a LOT of veg. I don't know, I had apples and everything in my car. I just didn't want them... and sort of had a mini binge, I guess.

I was going to the gym every day (excluding weekends), but this week I haven't had much time to go. ...Breakfast is also very hard for me. When I wake up, I'm just not hungry. I force myself to eat a banana...Then later in the morning (around 8 if I'm at work by 6...) I have something more filling. But days like today...it's nearly impossible for me to get in a good breakfast unless I wake up at 4am!!! ...I already have to get up at 4:30 most days...so I really don't want to lose that extra 1/2 hour, you know?

mxgirl! So! 11 a.m. is a different story...

OK, it sounds like you are following a supervised program through Mayo Clinic. That's good. But still, some better planning would help you.

Personally, I don't think I could face a banana on an empty stomach! To each their own... What about something like a lowfat yogurt with fruit? Or a Kashi bar and some 1% milk? Those would give a little more nutrition.

A snack doesn't have to be large or difficult--you just have to make sure you get it. It's really hard to lose weight, and being terrifically hungry makes it that much harder!

OK, so you're doin' good. Hang in there! And you also learned a valuable lesson about the pizza... namely that if you eat a whole big bunch of calories for lunch, you'll STILL be hungry later on. Grrr! So, another reason to plan a bit better.

You hang in there, OK! You've got great success so far.

Jay

for breakfast i usually do a serving of Cheerios with 1% milk and a banana. I get some whole grains, dairy, and a fruit all right there. It keeps me going and satiated for about 4 1/2 hours which is good!

I wish I had time to sit down and have some cereal ...I've never really liked cereal, but I'd try! Usually I'm running so far behind in the morning...I have to catch the bus to get to work (Mayo parking is HORRIBLE)...I keep telling myself I'm going to try grapefruit or something...I just can't fit it in ... one of the specialists that spoke to all of us in the weightloss clinic told us that it doesn't really matter what time you have breakfast...just something to jump start the metabolism when you first wake up. This is weird for me though too, because sometimes I work until midnight, then have to be back at the hospital at 7am or earlier the next day... This also makes planning SUPER difficult. I never really know what my schedule is going to be until the week of---or even the day of sometimes.

I try really, really hard to always pack enough food just in case I get stuck working later...I refuse to eat at the cafeteria here. For a really good hospital, they sure have HORRIBLE food!

Any suggestions on what I could do about this--the planning part anyway?

Try eating a string cheese either with the banana or or at your first opportunity after arriving for work. Or have a few nuts. Or half or a full Kashi bar or similar. These are all easy to bring with you and require no prep.

I cut up grapfruits into about 6 or 8 sections and put them into ziplocs. I can just grab n go in the morning. Cut up like that, they're easy to eat.

I'm a grab-and-go fan myself. It's Sunday night, so I just packed up 5 bags of raw veggies to take to work. I also mix up my own dried fruit and nut mix and pack up little 1.5 ounce baggies. Tomorrow I just have to slap some turkey on some bread, grab a piece of fruit and stuff everything in my insulated bag!!

Some other good grab and go foods are yogurt, hard boiled egg... maybe some 2% cheese and a couple of crackers.... a granola bar (I love the kashi ones)....

Once you get into it, it's fun to plan ahead!

Well, yeah, but a single banana doesn't really make a whole breakfast! It's not meant to last 5 hours or more.

Like others have said - some string cheese, some yogurt, a small bag of almonds, anything with some protein to help supplement the banana.

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Hi. I'm new. I just wanted to suggest getting "quick snacks" like we like to have in our house. I buy stuff like the Kashi bars or cereal bars with few calories like the special K bars. I also love fruit snacks. We always have a big bowl of different snacks for around 100 calories. So if we have the urge to snack we can grab something like that. It's easy to grab and go.

If I know I'm going to be gone for a while and I'm trying to be healthy I'll put a few things in my purse, so if I'm out and really hungry I can just have some fruit snacks or something.

I also like having grab and go baggies of servings of fruit like grapes or veggies. Apples keep you filled up for a while. cheese already cut up into the correct serving size in baggies is helpful to me too.