My "new way of eating for life" is to cut portion sizes. I know I eat way too much food (I feel happiest with a stuffed belly. Pushes down the stress and anxiety) and tired of eating like a fat person. Right now, I'm having a hard time stopping myself from eating more than I need. I feel very little self control, but not because I'm hungry. Once I start eating, I pretty much go into a binge. Eating makes me feel good. Staying away from food is the only way for me to control how much I put in my mouth. I wish I didn't have to eat. But even though I have had some binges this last week, I have kept my daily calorie range under 1500. It's been very hard.

I walk 5-7 times a week, an hour each time. This isn't helping me lose weight, but I love to walk, so I'm sticking with it. I'm thinking of adding weights into my back pack purse to get my heart rate up. Walking is easy for me. I've been walking with my mom for years.

I need some encouragement to keep on trying. Right now, eating right and exercising is not making the scale move at all. They say you lose the most the first week. Well, I lost nothing. This does NOT encourage me to keep going! If that's the most, what do I have to look forward to? Just being miserable and fat, that's all.

Thanks for listening.

Heidi
180/180 (still)/135

Hi Heidi,

I am just starting to grasp the idea of eating less. I have been at this non stop since the beginning of february (not sure how long you have been working at this). I am starting to realize that I don't need to eat so much to be feel full. So I cook less and put less on my plate.

I know lots of people here 'frown' upon those lean cusin frozen meals (in a sense) becayse they are processed and not that good for you. But I just read a thing on them (a study) and how this one doctor recommends people eat them for 2 weeks or so just to get an idea of what a potion should look like. This little tiny meals really are one portion. I still eat more then them, but I am doind better. He also suggests that you save the container they come in and use them to eat out of when making your own foods - to help you get idea of how much to eat. I have been thinking about this because I know I need to cut back. My worst meal is dinner - the rest of the day I do okay!

Good luck!

I never thought I'd get used to smaller portions, but now I can get what I think looks like a portion of pasta in a bowl, weigh it and realise I need to add more.

It does happen, and if you want bulk one way to do it is to have lots of vegetables, salads etc which have very few calories compared to their size and only concentrate on cutting down the amount of the higher calorie stuff - one example is having pasta with loads of vegetables, you weigh out the pasta carefully but have as many veggies as you want.

Don't just concentrate on the scale either, there are many more benefits of losing weight and if you celebrate your non scale victories it will help you feel sane throughout this!

Sotypical- I agree about the frozen dinners!! That has been a great help to me in determining portion sizes. I still eat them for lunch 4 or 5 days a week. Whats funny is the portion sizes in most restaurants are huge...this is what we've been conditioned to think of as a normal size meal. My husband and I went to Applebees last night (I had a WW dinner) and he ordered Asiago Chicken, the mashed potatoes under his chicken were atleast 8 servings!!!!

doIlookfat- you can do this!!! 1500 calories sounds reasonable, I keep mine between 1000 and 1200 to lose 1-2 pounds a week. Are you keeping track of those "little bites" of things??? They add up, LOL I am not a binge eater myself but sometimes I find myself eating one bite of a cookie when the kids want one or one bite of ice cream, etc.... As for the walking, it sounds like you are getting quite a bit of exercise in weekly....maybe you are losing inches instead of weight? Experiment a bit with you calorie intake over a few weeks, eventually you will be able to find the right balance for you to lose weight.

Heidi - were the same weight and i try and stay around 1500 too. juust lowered from 1700 so dunno yet how well its working

I agree with the lean cuisine portion size thing. It's really how I learned portion size. I suddenly realized that all my life I'd been eating more than I really needed. It's amazing how much food we eat that we don't need. Although I ate Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice for many lunches and almost all my dinners for a lot, lot longer that 2 weeks (a year or two), and it really opened my eyes. Now when I'm over at my family's house or out at a restaurant, I find myself automatically deciding how much would be equivalent to a 10.5-12oz Healthy Choice meal, and I know that's all I should be eating! I know they're not the freshest, most nutritious foods, but heck...it worked well for me. I'm now transitioning back to cooking dinner, and have been able to maintain well b/c of what I learned from Lean Cuisine!

Im just learning about how out of control our whole families portions were. I bought the Sonoma Diet Book, very resonable diet plan just alot of cutting and dicing. Anyway what I learned this week a 9 inch plate is about an inch smaller than my normal dinner plates. So I fill the plate 1 inch from the rim, 1/4 meats, 1/4 grains, and half veggies. It takes a few days to get your tummy to shrink down and think that it's enough, but it does happen. So this should help with portion sizes when you are out and don't have the option for a frozen dinner. Snacking is our families worst issue, we all muched all day long. Cutting the munchies down to only a few a day has made my ears ring with complaints, BUT the effort is showing on the scale so they are motivated, just not happy. It's a learning processes that dosen't happen over night. You will fall off the wagon now and again, but I promise you that if you get up and dust yourself off you will have sucess. I have had good sucesses by sticking with it bad or good days. And I never miss the chance for good food at a party, I figure I've been good all week and I can be good tomorrow. It's fun to be bad, but now my bads aren't even really to bad coz I learned after a few times that I am so used to eating good most of the time when I over eat alot I feel like crap latter and usually have a tummy ache. Never feel guilt about cheating, if you don't cheat once in a while you will fall hard off the wagon instead of just a bump in the road. And sometimes my cheating goes on for whole weekends, and Mondays are really hard after it but it can be done. Please don't take my bad and good analysis the wrong way, it just works for me. Just try to take the oh well attitude if you do trip and over eat don't get upset coz it's normal EVERYBODY does it!

What you are talking about here is kind of what intuitive eating is about. I asked a question about it yesterday but would be really interested if this kind of discussion was on an on going basis.

More power to you for cutting portion sizes. That is something I just cannot manage. I need to feel full to feel satisfied.

My way has already been mentioned: adding in lots of vegetables. I can't just eat plain veggies, so I make a lot of one-dish meals where they're under a sauce.

Re the walking, I know what you mean. I was a major walker for years, but it did nothing for my weight -- except maybe it kept me from gaining even more. Right now I'm sidelined with a knee problem, but I'd started walking in a hilly area before that, and it made a difference. I thought I'd walked hills before, around my old neighborhood, but that was nothing compared to the park's hill paths. If you have such an area nearby, trying walking hills and you may find it burns off more calories. It's definitely more challenging, even slight inclines.

The other thing to do is walk faster, so that you're breathing faster and more deeply. If you can keep up the speed for 20 minutes or more, you'll burn some calories.

Here are the portion control rules I've been working with:

Don't cook more than is going to be eaten.
Don't put it on the plate or in the bowl unless it is a proper portion.
Don't eat it if it isn't on the plate or in the bowl.

My household no longer has the table with the plate of bread, the bowls of sides and veggies, the platter of main dish. Instead, each plate is filled in the kitchen before it is put on the table. And, once a meal is plated, that's it. That's the meal: no seconds, no "a little bit more"s. If I think I am still hungry after a meal, I know this is either head hunger or I just ate too fast and my body doesn't realize there is food yet. Either way, I generally wait for the next eating. Since my meals are all about 3 hours apart I never have that long to wait. (And I can always dole out a proper portion of extra snack if it fits my calorie count for the day- but only after the last meal has settled for a while.)

It works for me.

Thanks for the encouragement and ideas. I wish Lean Cuisine wasn't so expensive. The family is on a tight budget while we wait for dh to make a few paychecks (he works in real estate, I'm a first grade teacher. 2 kids) I like the idea of using the trays as plates. I may buy a few, just for the trays! It sounds like it would help me get control of how much I eat.

Stress is my weakest area. I am full of it! Full time teacher, 2 small kids who fight all the time, no money, messy house, I feel so overwhelmed. Food helps me to relax when nothing else does. Sometimes the tightness in my chest is very painful. I know if I eat, the pain will go away, so I reach for food. I wish food wasn't so powerful and easy to get.

I've been trying to lose weight for about 10 years now, (I'm 35) but I've steadily gained instead. I'm desperate to try anything that will work, and so far less calories in vs. more calories out seems the most sensible. I need to control my eating and eat less. It's the only way out, I know it.

Thanks again.

Heidi

I actually buy the Health Choice entrees instead of the Lean Cuisine ones most of the time. They are cheaper and IMHO better. Kroger has had these on sale for 5 for $5 a few times in the last few months. I stock up when I find a really good price as we are on a tight budget here also!

That's just because they're not considered to be 'clean' eating. And that's fine for people who like to eat clean, I say more power to 'em. But I eat Lean Cuisines and I agree, they're great for portion and calorie control.

I get kinda sick of seeing people bash the Lean Cuisines so much. Okay, so it's not perfect food. But they DO serve a purpose and I don't bash what you're eating, so stop bashing what I'm I'm eating, you know what I mean? With these meals you know how many calories you're eating and how many fat grams, etc. If you'll notice, the nutrition information of many of the Lean Cuisines has changed. I'm having to basically revise them all, one by one as I eat them, in my fitday food log. They're removing the hydrogenated oils from them all, which changes the nutrition info a bit. The calories a little less, as well as the fat content.

I get Healthy Choice as well. It just depends on the entree. I have Lean Cuisine favorites as well as Healthy Choice

Great rules, and may I add one?

Don't eat until you're full; eat until you're no longer hungry.

I agree with Heidi, trying to cut portions is rough. Pushing away that plate with food still left on it was one of the hardest things I had to conquer. But I did it eventually, Heidi. I would talk to myself, sometimes in my head, sometimes out loud, and say, "Okay, you're full, now push it away... PUSH IT AWAY... PUSH IT AWAY."

Boy that first time was hard, but I did it. And after that it got easier. I realized that I DIDN'T have to eat everything that was on my plate and I felt so much better about myself for gaining that self control