So I lost fifty-ish pounds the year before last to last year, and things were going pretty well. Last spring and summer, when I had my first boyfriend, I relaxed a bit, but I didn't really gain any weight. Then, college!
I thought that it would be easy to lose weight in college, but in fact it is not, for a couple of reasons.
1. No fencing, which was previously my favorite form of exercise and the only one I would ever willingly do or have goals based on. Tried to make a club, but it mostly amounts to me sitting alone in a room for two hours twice a week hoping someone will show up.
2. The food. Turns out, in fact, that there really isn't that much in the way of healthy to eat. Mostly, it's fried food, salad, raw veggies, and cereal. I will absolutely not eat raw veggies as a rule. It makes me feel grumpy and unsatisfied and I unvaryingly eat way too much later. I'm not great with salad, either. I can't stand to eat it plain, I usually put too much dressing on, and I always feel hungry later. And the cereal is nothing but granola and cocoa puffs so, y'know, not actually that great for you although there is oatmeal which I have been taking advantage of.
3. Generally bad emotional state. As I anticipated, I'm terrible at making friends, I'm missing said boyfriend who I'm not really with anymore, there is an enormous amount of work (I'm desperately trying to get all A's so I can transfer next year) and I'm finding it really difficult to share a room and not have any time alone. Coupled with lots of tasty unhealthy food, I tend to use food as a tasty, tasty coping mechanism.
Anyway long story short and to bring up a whole other issue, today I tried to start doing what I did when I lost all that weight again. Back in the day I subsisted primarily on fruit and cereal and exercised an insane amount and was still pretty functional. Today I ate fruit for breakfast and by lunch I was already dizzy and weak and unfocused and generally feeling terrible, so I broke down and ate way too much. I don't understand! I used to be able to do this! *sigh* Anyway, part venting part request for advice: have you dealt with any of these issues before, primarily the physical backlash of getting back on a diet, and how did you handle it?
Sorry school is so rough. In college, I was pretty successful losing weight by eating the vegan offerings. Lots of lentils and stuff, pretty tasty. What about soups? I avoid cream, cheese based soups, but I'm a fan of anything broth/tomato based. They are usually pretty low cal yet filling.
As far as salad and dressing - I swear by the tine method. Get your dressing on the side, dip your fork into the dressing and then spear some salad. That way, each bite gets a little dressing but you don't have to drench your greens.
I am really sorry you arent having fun, college was amazing for me and I hated that it had to end! Stick it out, you will never in your life be surrounded by so many people the same age with similar interests.
I think lots of people have (many) false starts before they truly get into the swing of weight loss. I know I've had lots! But, that aside, it seems to me like your environment is very healthy lifestyle-unfriendly!
Do you *have* to eat the school food? How do they accommodate vegetarians (it might be an option if you have to eat school food)? I think you would be much better off if you were able to eat off the school plan. First of all, you could get much healthier options into your diet and secondly, you wouldn't have lots of unhealthy options so in-your-face.
Regarding the problems after eating just fruit for breakfast -- I'd suggest some protein (yogurt, eggs, NF cottage cheese, beans, or even a little meat) and some healthy fat (nuts, PB, flax, etc) along with the carbohydrates in the fruit. Also, if you haven't had a physical in recent years, you might want to consider getting it checked out to make sure you aren't having blood sugar issues.
It's too bad no one else at your school is into fencing. Are there any nearby fencing studios? If not, maybe some other form of exercise in the mean time to remain in shape for fencing? I hope that if you do choose to transfer to another school, that they have a team you can join. It sounds like you realize you have to take charge of your situation and maybe a new school would also have healthier eating options.
Good luck -- I hope you find healthy ways to eat & exercise in your current environment.
I am actually required by the school to eat school food for the rest of this year, and after that it shouldn't much matter. There is a vegan option, but I am incredibly not into it. I do not find raw vegetables or the sort of weird concoctions that they cook up palatable. Really, I've always just lost weight by eating less of what I wanted to eat, or by basically restricting my diet to lower calorie versions of what I wanted to eat, like fruit and faux- chicken patties.
I'm also a little leery of nuts and yoghurt, given that a decent quantity of them contains a metric ton of calories if there is added sugar, and I'm guessing that there probably is at the dining hall. I guess I'll try eating more bread-y foods rather than the pure sugar fruit sort. They tend to take a tad longer to digest. Really, though, this was never an issue before. The last time I lost a lot of weight I did it by basically eating nothing but fruit and cereal and, debatably healthy as it was, it worked. I just can't physically tolerate that any more for some reason. Maybe it's time to try a more balanced diet, but if I do it's going to mean a lot less volume of food as far as I can tell, and that's going to be tough.
Ah, freshman year in college. Remember it well. I remember the awful dorm food, and going to Subway almost every night and getting the most fattening sandwich there was, and going to McDonald's almost every time I went to the library and getting a quarter pounder with cheese, large fry and an apple pie. My standard meal. Yet somehow I lost weight. I wish I could have that metabolism again!
Seriously, though, it sounds like the dorm food isn't much better than when I was in school 24 years ago. We pretty much had fried foods, salad bar, deli bar and ice cream bar, and that was about it. And you are right - the cereals they offer are not the most nutritionally dense, mainly things like Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies, Golden Grahams, Honeycomb and other processed garbage. Good for you for recognizing that these cereals are not the best for you.
What I would do is buy a little fridge and stock stuff in there that you like to eat. I know that you pre-pay for the cafeteria, and you have to have the meal plan option no matter what, it was the same way with me. So it sucks that you still have to buy your own food, but maybe just buy a few things, like Greek Yogurt, hummus, string cheese, fruit and whole grain cereal that will supplement what you are eating in the cafeteria.
And the only way that I kept my weight down in college is by walking everywhere. You might invest in an ipod and do that.
As for the fencing thing - have you tried meetup.com to try find others who might be interested in fencing with you? If not, how are you getting the word out? That might work to get a fencing partner.
Good luck!
Last edited by jillianfan; 11-09-2009 at 08:28 PM.
It might be time to start eating veggies. Perhaps you are not eating enough of them. By eating only cereals and fruit, you are depriving your body of a lot of necessary nutrients. Maybe it doesn't work any more because you have plateaued... Maybe you body is catching up with you and telling you to do it right. Either way, the previous diet you described is considered an eating disorder, By severely limiting certain types of food and then binging on exercise, you could be classified as an anorexic. Most colleges have a health center and offer low cost services to their students. Find out if they have a nutritionist, and talk to them about your weight loss/health plan. It might scare you at first, and you might think you are eating too much, but you will often read that 5-6 smaller meals a day is the best way to lose weight without getting dizzy or feeling unsatisfied.
New start! New beginning! Aaaand *fizzle*.
