All of the advice you have gotten is great. Add protein and good carbs, cut down on the empty calories. The only thing I would add is that a lot of pre-packaged foods (especially soups) have a TON of sodium in them. Whenever I tried to lose weight in the past I would concentrate on the calories or fat content, ignoring the salt and I never lost weight. Then I discovered I am "salt sensitive", meaning just a little bit of added salt can make me retain water like Hoover Dam. I am now doing a VERY low sodium diet of fresh meats, veggies and fruits and am losing weight like crazy. Basically, the only sodium I get is the naturally occuring kind.

Moral of the story....maybe try to reduce or at least pay attention to the amount of salt you are eating and see what that does for you.

Sara

Another good high-protein snack is Gen Soy brand Soy Crisps. Only 100 calories in 17 of the chips, no saturated fat and 7 grams of protein. I love soy products. Soy burgers, chicken patties and chicken nuggets made from soy, things like that. Also the soy crisps have only 14 grams of carbs, which isn't bad when you pair them against things like pretzels. Pretzels are a lowfat snack, yes, but it's basically just hardened white bread. Empty calories, as far as I'm concerned. At least with the soy crisps you're getting some protein and a small amount of fiber.

I love the soy chips too. I buy them at costco and prepackage them in 1 oz packages. I really like Pita chips too (the higher fiber kind). I pair them with cottage cheese made into ranch dip. YUM!

Karma

Ooooooo! What a great idea!

Dangit, now I'm hungry.

lol

210....ok, so using the Cal queens method, you burn about 2500 calories to maintain your weight (assuming the desk job and probably a little of that evening exercise to do it since you're so sedentary during the day--like MANY of us!!!). To lose 1 pound per week, you need to have a 3500 calorie deficit (500 cal/day) so....that would be about 2000 calories. To lose about 2 pounds a week, you'd be eating in the 1500 calorie range. As a starting place, you might want to try 1500-1700 calories which should allow you to eat enough so that you're not experiencing that starving feeling all the time and then depending on how much weight you lose over a couple weeks, you'll have an idea whether you can increase the cals or decrease them (but never below 1200 without doctor's supervision) to get a steady weight loss.

I have oatmeal every morning. It really is a "stick to the ribs" thing for me. I then have a piece of fruit or a V-8 shortly after getting to work, and about 10AM I have a tall, nonfat latte (120 cals) which is MORE protein, gets me a chunk of milk/calcium for the day AND keeps me active with the social thing as people head out for a java about that time. Personally, I only have about 15% of my calories before lunchtime, then 35% for lunch/afternoon small snack, then the remainder for an early dinner and I usually save enough for a banana or yogurt right before bed. There was a thread running awhile ago and it seemed like many people use about 50% of their calories near the end of the day, but I suspect that depends on your daily activities (if I had to chase a toddler around instead of sit at a desk all day, I doubt I could get by with 200-250 calories before noon :lol: )

Well, right now, you are just trying to "diet". That won't work. ;o)

You have to make dietary changes that you can live with for the rest of your life. You have to change your habits, and what you *want* to eat so that what you are choosing is healthy, not harmful.

Nix the cereal in the am as others have said. The honey nut cheerios will not keep you full.

What you will need to do is experiement and see what works for YOUR body. Everyone is different.

Me, for example, I learned that for weight loss, I cut out all of the complex-type carbs. Breads, pasta, rice, etc. But, simple carbs (fruit) work great with my body.

Here is what I usually eat every day. (I don't eat meat, we are vegetarians).

Breakfast:
1C grapes
1 banana (medium)
1 C vanilla soy milk
1-2 tablespoons of natural granola (current fav is mix 5242 from Wild Oats).
This is all in one bowl.. you'd be surprised at just how wonderful it tastes, LOL)

Lunch:

Monstrous salad, LOL!
Romaine hearts, about 3 leaves
Curly spinach, about 2 cups
Alfalfa sprouts
Med tomato
2 mushrooms
1 serving of some kind of protein (current obsession is Chik'n strips from Morning star farms, cooked in 2 TBLSP of BBQ sauce and olive oil)
1 TBLSP cashews OR sunflower seeds
2 TBLSP normal, not low or non fat dressing (currently Annie's Cowgirl Ranch)

Dinner:

At least 1/2 the plate of Veggies. Normally broccoli, some cauliflower, green beans, sugar snap peas, whatever. But it needs to be 1/2 the plate.
1 protein. Could be a Veggie burger, could be a small omelet, whatever.

That's it. It runs about 1400 calories a day. If I was maintaining, I'd add a complex carb to dinner (rice, or pasta), and a complex carb to lunch.

I don't get hungry, I don't feel the need for snacks, etc. I DO drink lots of water.

But that is what works for MY body. Something else may work for yours. But, whatever it is, make it nutritious, and be sure every bite counts. Ask yourself with every bite "What will this cause IN me?".

Do you have a fitday account? It's free. www.fitday.com. You can journal your food, find out how many nutrients it has and if you are meeting your daily allowance, and how many calories you are eating.


For a snack today I had a can of 98% fat free canned chicken mixed with FF mayo, some chopped onions, and 1/2 of my 1/4 serving of sunflower seeds. Drank V8 juice with it.

Just a few things to add...

Unless you're really worried about carbs, why not add more fruit?? I eat a banana for most of my morning snacks -- lots of fruit has fiber as well, which keeps you full. Or add berries to your cereal.

Another of my favorite "to go" snacks are Kashi granola bars. Very low in sugar compared to other granola bars (5 g), each has about 130 calories, 5 g of fat, 4 g of fiber and 5 g of protein. I buy them at Sams or Meijer.

Cottage cheese and yogurt are also good -- protein and calcium.

You're getting lots of good advice -- you don't have to be hungry to lose weight!

An observation on the Kashi Go Lean Crunch.

I started eating 1 (measured) cup of this as a snack, but found that instead of the 8 servings the box said I was supposed to get, I was getting about 6 (or even 5-6). Hmmm... So, I whipped out my trusty food scale and weighed the 53 gram serving that is supposed to be equal to a cup (a 190 calorie serving) and it was about 2/3 of a measured cup. For calorie counters, that means that one measured cup of this cereal is 285 calories, not 190 - BIG DIFFERENCE!! So...I started using 2/3 of a cup as my serving size and BAM - right around 8 servings per box, just like the label says. Just thought I'd pass that along.

Funny thing is that the Kashi Go Lean Cereal was dead on at being 52 grams per 1 cup serving according to the scale. Seems like the manufacturer would realize that the Crunch version is heavier, by volume, than the Cereal...

Well...last night I raided the house to try to be a little healthier today...

Breakfast
A mini whole wheat bael w/peanut butter
lowfazt choc milk

Snack
Trail mix (nuts, raisens, & a few M&M's)

Lunch
Large salad with chopped ham in top (Honey Mustard dressing)
A slice of pizza (removing the peperoni & blotting the fat off)

Snack
Orange

I haven't planned dinner, yet. I know this is not perfect...but I can not starve myself to death. And it still beats my old diet of sodas (Pepsi!!), vending machine snacks (No pretzels....doritos & fritos) & fast food (And by fast food I mean Whoppers, Quarter Pounders, Chick Fla sandwiches).

I need someone to tell me,,....is this really a start? I am almost ready to quit,....then I think of my mantra..."I won't let a small indulgence of today get in the way of the big dream of the future!!" I know , it's corny, but it works!!

There is no point in quitting. The whole idea in this is to become healthier. A nice bonus to that is becoming thinner.

A better start, yes, but still many changes to be made:

Breakfast
A mini whole wheat bael w/peanut butter
lowfazt choc milk

Better...but how about a banana with the peanut butter? And there is lots of sugar in the chocolate milk. If you *must* have chocolate milk, make your own with Ovaltine. At least you will be getting extra vitamins and minerals. As to the peanut butter, make it *natural* peanut butter. The ingredients in that are just peanuts and salt. The other stuff is highly processed and contains hydrogentated oils and trans fats. Yick. Artery clogging stuff. Make sure the mini bagel IS whole wheat. Many are just enriched wheat flour...which is just colored white bread, after all, all bread flour is wheat. White just has the fiber removed.

Snack
Trail mix (nuts, raisens, & a few M&M's)

Ixnay on the trail mix. VERY high in calories and bad fats. You are better off with a serving of Almonds, dry roasted. You still get the protein, and yes, the fat, but it is good fats.

Lunch
Large salad with chopped ham in top (Honey Mustard dressing)
A slice of pizza (removing the peperoni & blotting the fat off)

Better, of course, but twice the salad (if fresh and not some prepared restaurant salad), and the pizza would not be necessary.
Snack

Orange
Much better.

Instead of raiding the house, go shopping. Throw out (or donate if unopened) the bad stuff you have. Replace it with healthy choices. Good snacks, whole wheat stuff, etc.

You've made small steps in the right direction, and that is great! This is not an all or nothing deal. Even small changes are a positive step in the right direction!

jumpd -- I don't know about anyone else, but I started with small steps. I couldn't have just stepped into the diet I have now when I started. I began with portion control and moved from there. I would say my diet STILL isn't
"perfect" and never probably will be. But it's so much better than it was!

That's a long way of saying, yes, that's a start. I think you'll be fine if you make changes slowly. I think you'll know when you're ready. This is a great place to get ideas, as you can see!

I agree with wyllen about the small steps--and you're definitely trying to make those so GOOD JOB. We all have different tolerance levels for what we can live without...and what we can't.

The only suggestion I'd make on your revised diet is about the salad dressing--is it regular? Boy, honey mustard (like many) can be incredibly high in fat! I mean, a couple tablespoons of full fat dressing and you could have had a couple of candy bars instead ;) One of the ladies here at work and I keep telling each other about our salad dressing discoveries. And...some of the low cal ones are awful tasting, but others are gems. I usually try to stick with ones that have no more than 50 cal/2 T which is enough (if tossed in a bowl first) to coat a really big salad and have some good flavor. My favorite so far is Litehouse's Ginger Sesame (sold in the refrigerated section in my Safeway's produce department). It has that "oriental chicken salad" kind of flavor if you like that.

Litehouse is from my town - the family that owns it is great. I have had their kids in class and the mom did WW and has maintained that weight for several years. She looks great. It is a great story. Two college kids started peddling their dad's salad dressing from the family restaurant all over the region and now it is one of the biggest employers in our county.