I'm sure I've sabotaged many attempts to restart my healthy eating because I was in depression mode and comfort foods and the thought of giving up all those comfort foods was too much to bear. I've always been the clean cut drastic change dieter. I try to cut out all the bad stuff at once, and it's so hard to mentally prepare yourself for that. I wish I'd approached it differently. Maybe I wouldn't have gained all my weight back. I could have stopped it before it got this bad through more subtle changes...but then again, maybe not, becuase when I'm in an unhealthy place in my head, I'm not sure I'd even be able to stick to subtle changes.

Right now I'm fighting with myself over the fact that I eat certain processed grains (white rice and white flour tortillas and white pasta) and think I need to cut them all out and switch to whole grains only, but I can't get whole wheat tortillas up here unless I make my own, so I should really start making bread again and switch from wraps to sandwiches. And I absolutely despise whole wheat pastas of any kind (fortunately I rarely eat pasta)...and I love white rice (jasmine rice, especially) and dislike brown rice. So do I beat myself up over my choice of white rice and white flour tortillas, or give myself encouragement for the other good things I'm eating. I'm a perfectionist, so I am beating myself up over it and trying to figure out ways to kick all processed grains.

I'm curious, how many of you who have been at this for a while, really do eat only whole grains in rice, and pasta?

Well, at home that's all I eat. But out (say, at a Chinese restaurant, or a pasta place) it isn't always an option. If it is an option, I get the whole grain one. If it isn't, I typically try to eat less of whatever it is but don't worry about it too much.

Me. I will eat white rice or refined pasta if I have no other choice, but that's uncommon. I frankly prefer brown rice and multigrain pasta.

Did you prefer them when you first tried them, or was it something you had to become accustomed to? Like I said, if I had to eat whole wheat pasta or nothing, I'd cut pasta from my diet completely. Brown rice is not as bad, but still not a pleasurable experience for me. But maybe I have to start mixing them and change the proportions until I am completely switched to brown.

Hard to say, as I've preferred brown rice for a long time. However, I recently discovered brown basmati rice, and I like that even better.

I don't like whole wheat pasta as much as I like multigrain pasta. But I'm not huge on pasta in general. I usually prefer rice because it has more chew. Regular pasta seems like it goes down in no seconds flat and doesn't fill me.

I just have always preferred chewier, nuttier grains. Bread the same way.

I'm a whole grain/brown pasta/rice/bread person only. I didn't mind the switch, although when I eat asian cuisine I much prefer white rice. A lot of italian restaurants will now sub whole wheat pasta, but I don't know how good the quality is.

Also, my father has always cooked with whole wheat pasta so I was used to it. Like Julie, I also prefer the texture. Unfortunately, I have to limit my intake due to sensitivity, but when I do cook with it it's always "brown".

Oh man. I just discovered basmati recently and I'm in love. The texture is awesome, the flavor is awesome, the calorie count is lower and I'm not as sensitive to it. It actually fills me up.

I'll have to look for the basmati brown rice. I bet the health food section has it in the bulk grains. Thanks for the tip.

I'm with you on the whole grains in breads. Except for french and sourdough, I don't think I've purchased a loaf of white bread since my early 20's. Oh except at harvest bread company...their white bread is to die for, but only as an occassional treat. And fortunately I don't have a harvest bread company near me. I did get my recipe for seedy wheaty bread from copying theirs though. It has lots of different seeds in it and is really wonderful.

I bought some whole grain black jasmine rice (it's actually a dark purple when cooked)/ I bought it to make thai sticky rice (where it's boiled, discarded and then glutinous rice is boiled in the purple water). It's only purpose is to make the glutinous rice "pretty" (I think to simulate an actual purple rice that you can't easily get in the U.S.).

I've never made the sticky rice, and I haven't tried the black rice yet either. I wasn't even sure it was good to eat (as I'd been told it wasn't), but at the Hmong/Thai restaurant we often go to, they don't throw out the cooked purple/black rice, but incorporate some of it into the sticky rice for a nice chewy texture. Although the owner told me you can't use too much of the black cooked rice if you're making it for sticky rice, or the rice won't stick.

It's made me less hesitant to try the purple rice on it's own. As much as I love sticky rice, I've decided not to make it at home. I would eat far too much of it.

I totally agree- I hate the whole "eat less and move more."

That did NOT work for me- I actually was down to 1200 calories a day and totally starving myself and didn't move- sure at first I went down a few pounds- then that was it- NOTHING. I gave that up and ended up gaining 35 pounds during college. I started at 155 and ended at like 190! Getting married packed on another 30 freaking pounds UG- my hubby loves fast food but haha not anymore too bad for him. It's funny over the holiday we went to taco bell and he was like omg I can't remember the last time I went to taco bell!

I do the fat smash now- and before my lunch would be a lean cuisine and a yogurt- now my lunches consist of a meat (usually chicken), veggies, brown rice or lentils, and water.

I look at my co-workers lunch and it's always a sandwich on white bread, chips, cookies, and so on. They look at my lunch like wow looks good lol.

Today my lunch was a huge bowl of lentil soup and a two tangerines, water to drink, and normally I'd have a third item- but I brought a large portion of lentil soup so I wasn't worried (that and I need to go shopping today lol).

I hate when the "thin ones" would say "just eat less" and I'm like uh that doesn't work smart ***....

I found that I wasn't eating enough during the day and also wasn't really paying attention to what I was eating.

I started my food journal and it was great cuz I realized I was eating 2100-2300 calories a day! No wonder I wasn't losing! Now with my log book I'm averaging like 1800 calories a day, and losing 1-2 lbs a week

I always give people details on what I do- and the ones who say they can't I just say well sorry but there is no magic cure to weight loss.

THOUGH I've heard about those Vitamin B injections- they work- but if you don't learn how to eat you'll just gain it all back I'm assuming.

Sometimes I eat whole grain foods, other times I don't. I eat brown rice at home, but I will have white rice out. I just don't eat more than 1/2 cup of it, regardless! I cannot stand whole wheat pasta--I'd rather eat cardboard. I don't do that well with whole wheat products in general.

There are many things I would do for a fresh loaf of San Francisco Sourdough...

It's possible to make food choices so hard that one ends up backed into a corner and unable to eat anything without feeling bad about it. Is that any way to live? I don't think so. I do think it's good to eat whole grains and fresh foods as much as possible, organic even! But not if it becomes oppressive.

recidivist, if you have the time and energy to start making your own bread, that's great. If you don't, then manage however you can! It's OK!

Jay

oh I googled "flax bread" and a ton of recipes came up I think I'll be trying this one:

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/bre...axbasicfoc.htm

I've got the time and energy, it's the kneading and rising that's a problem. I have bad shoulders and sometimes can barely stand to carry the weight of my arms, let alone try to knead a dense bread. Too dense for a bread machine. I've broken several of them trying. And when I make bread it's very dense and hard to knead. And my house is usually too cold for the yeast to work properly. Although I am using some small oil filled heaters that I might be able to rig up a way to put the rising dough near them. I'm going to have to do that today, because I really do need more whole grains in my diet and that's the best way to do it.

For those who do like to make their own bread, here's my recipe for seedy wheaty bread. It's not exact, as I just estimated based on some other recipes and you may need to change liquids to get the right consistency.

2 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp honey
1 1/2 cups warm water (or more as needed)
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup seed mixture
2 tsp salt

seed mixture (I mix up a big batch of this and keep it in the freezer):
raw sunflower seeds
raw pumpkin seeds
chopped walnuts
poppy seed
flax seed
fennel seed
caraway seed
buckwheat
rolled oats

Well now I just talked myself into it. I have to see if I can make some rolls today. Even if they are hard little bricks, I can make myself eat them.

I use a bread machine for the dough setting then shape and bake my own.

I do use whole grain whenever possible, but I always have. I was raised that way. MTA: on pasta I use the Barilla plus. I liked some brands of whole wheat fine, but my dh did not and this was our compromise.

Personally, I think the reason why people can get a little peeved by people using phrases like "Eat less, more move." is because it's a platitude and people hear platitudes all the time. It's something so cliche and overused that it can lose it's meaning. Or people can respond to something like that like "Ok, that's all well and good but what should I eat less of? What kind of movement should I do more of?" etc etc with all kinds of questions because it is so easy to just say something like that but if they don't give specific examples it can seem like they're callously saying it and those who are being told it can take it the wrong way. I think it's really important for people who use sayings like that to be able to back it up with examples so it doesn't seem like they're brushing it off and it seems like there's some actual thought and concern behind it which I think is something that overweight people need or if they have gone through the process before have a better understand of.