This is realllllly weird, I know. But today I ate egg whites and a peach for breakfast, then broccoli for a snack. It was really filling and extremely low cal- but because I actually feel full, I feel like I'm still doing something wrong. And I read online that broccoli makes you bloated or something.

Or like yesterday, I got a Jamba Juice smoothie for lunch- (only strawberries and bananas- 300 cals) and I was all proud, but then my friend was like, "yeah.... but that's so much sugar which turns into fat."

I'm annoyed. I feel like the only acceptable thing to eat is lettuce! Can someone clear this up for me??? Haha thanks!

It sounds like you are your own worse enemy as you are setting yourself up. First off do not listen to the nay sayers and secondly you need to be good to yourself emotionally, take it baby steps. At the end of the day I feel full like I have eaten so much and blown it but then I look at my online journal and calorie log, I know the next morning I will feel better and I do. Keep your chin up and keep posting, we are out here to support you.

I was having the same problem the first couple of weeks. I'm doing weight watchers, and to eat my "points" and still make healthy choices, it's SO much more food than what I generally eat. (I used to be a one big meal a day, no snacking kind of person... and on WW i feel like all I do is eat all day long)
I was certain it couldn't be working, and after I'd have a tiny WW treat I'd feel super guilty like I should be trying harder... but in a months' time I finally just accepted that it's WORKING, and let go of the guilt.


What helps keep me on track is simply being realistic. I know myself, I know that eating nothing but plain fruits and veggies is a plan I can not stick to. You have to allow yourself to feel full (not stuffed... but full) and allow yourself to eat some things you ENJOY... otherwise, it's not realistic to stick to it in the long run.

A lot of people feel like being fat is a "sin"--a sign of weakness or laziness--and so a diet needs to be "punishment", like misery burns calories. It doesn't.

My recommendation would be to look at what's GOOD in the foods you eat--the fiber and vitamins and such. It's why I say that I eat lots of protein instead of saying that I don't eat many carbs.

For me, too, good record keeping really, really helps; when I look at my Fitday overview and see my low average calories and other long-term details, I feel good about myself.

Keep it up, and you'll start feeling more relaxed. Have you been sticking to plan very long? I really think that will change for you as you go along and see that you can be reasonable and still get results.

Also - we don't have a Jamba Juice here, but I looked on the menu and it looks healthy. Keva Juice uses sherbet in their smoothies, but it looks like Jamba Juice is more 'clean'. Tell your friend that fruit is good for you and the benefits of the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber you get from it outweigh the fructose in two servings of fruit.

Keep it up, you're doing great!

Oh, boy. Can of worms, girl.

Dieting & nutrition is a complex subject & it is prone to all kinds of disagreement, debate, firmly held beliefs & divisive sects splintering off. I mean, there's science involved, but since when did that ever make people behave rationally? In fact, it's more like religion sometimes.

I encourage you to explore. Think about your own needs & your body's responses. Look around at the various reputable functioning diets. Then pick your religion (or, if you prefer another metaphor, your sports team to root for) & follow it. But not blindly. Always keep in mind what its critics have to say. Diets get debunked, or they fall out of fashion & come back into fashion. You are always going to run across people with different dieting "beliefs" than yours. You have to work out for yourself what you believe.

(As for me, I did a sort of a la carte thing with various diets, choosing foods & practices that made the most sense to me. There are very popular diets out there that I think are unintentionally hilarious, but I just stay away from talking about them, lest I run off at the mouth & get in trouble.)

One thing you **don't** want to do is feel guilty every time you eat, no matter what you eat, just over the act of eating & feeding your body & sating your actual physical hunger. That way leads to disordered eating. Which we don't want. You want to be healthier & happier, always.

This may be way off base, but I wonder if you would do better with a plan of someone else's devising, at least to start. One that's defined well enough that you know for sure if you're following it or not. Perhaps an exchange plan like you would get at MyPyramid.gov or something from a book like South Beach or the one I'm currently following The Complete Beck Diet for Life.

Another idea that can be paired with a diet of your own devising or one from a book or website, is to write down everything you're going to eat tomorrow the night before. Use FitDay or SparkPeople if you want to get a good tally of calories at the same time. That's another way to know how much you are on plan. Just compare what you really ate to what you wrote down and see how big a percentage you got. If you didn't get as good a "grade" as you would like, aim for better the next day.

I have a little trouble with this. I will finish eating, and then start to worry about having eaten too much. Even though I've measured everything, even though I've got my day's food all planned out in advance, even though I know better, I often start second-guessing myself. Like, I don't know, I somehow forgot that I accidentally ate an entire pie, or something.

This is where my food journalling really, really, REALLY helps. I flip open FitDay, and scroll through my list, and mentally check off everything I've eaten, and everything I've yet to eat. It's written down right there! I am slightly obsessive about it, haven't missed a day of journalling in two years now. I never, ever forget to do that. If I ate an entire pie, even though it would kill me, I would write it down. So if there's no pie on that list, I haven't eaten a pie, and I just need to chill out and stick to plan and it'll all be fine.

?

i think i cautioned you about the all or nothing attitude before. The others are right as you keep going, you will get more relaxed, but...

gardnerjoy has hit the nail on the head. I suffer the same attitude. and an other devised plan makes me feel more secure. I use the exchange system. I can relax more...and i don't go nuts with every bite.

i experience this sometimes too. but i think it is because it is still early days and i am still learning about how my body reacts to different foods and different levels of things. like, for example, veggies, which can sometimes cause a little bit of a bloated/full feeling in the immediate term, but which longer term actually work to keep things moving because of the fiber. and of course they have so much nutritional value. so i'm hoping this will fade as i get more comfortable with what i am doing. so maybe some of it is this early days learning experience kind of thing. hang in there!

To explain to OP: In that sentence, I was referring to the colloquial term: "You have just opened up a can of worms." What I meant is that by raising the subject of what food should be allowed on a diet & what should not, you have brought a very complex & wriggly subject out into the open. As intricate & knotted & tangled-looking as a can of worms.

oh saef i thought you meant like "Oh it's Can-of-Worms-Girl posting" hahahaha!

I think starting a new eating plan is often angst-inducing. I hardly ever ate breakfast in my "before" life and I was so worried about adding the extra calories to my day. Now, it seems perfectly normal to eat breakfast.

It's funny how we can adapt to these new ways of eating better than we imagined we could ... if we give them a chance to "take."

Ha! I understand, Neveragainbabe.

Come to think of it, I believe that a can of worms would be permitted by many currently popular diets. I suspect they are low carb. They are certainly a raw food. And might be considered primal. And some would use them as a substitute for pasta, since lots of us are always looking for pasta substitutes.

Worms: The New Canned Tuna.