This is a good article covering the basics

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...1.aspx?np=true

The biggest hurdle for me is always cravings. I am the classic gourmet cooking diva. I use only the best ingredients and even though most is fresh and natural, my weakness is overindulging.

Juicing helps me with cravings, energy and healing. I might consume 3 pounds of veggies a day, all fat free and full of micro nutrients. When I stick with this I always lose faster and feel better. The moment I start cutting corners, eating to many processed foods my weight loss is slower and I get headaches and my sleep isn't as good. So when I look at my life changes and long term goals I need to keep this in mind.

Today I'll cook a steak. I eat red meat now and then and I want it to be perfect. I'll cut it up and eat over several hours. Eating every three hours works for me. It keeps my blood sugar stable too. My juicing sometimes counts as one of those 3 hour meals but not always.

I have a hard time working out. I'm trying to stay active on the farm gardening, walking, bending. I tried doing my gizelle and my ass hurt so bad. I wish I didn't have this block about working out. I can't wrap my head around making time to do something I really don't enjoy. Maybe its all in my head...lol , I need to play more.

I need to find a kayak buddy who likes to fish.

Howdy all,

Sorry I’ve been absent for a bit; Wow! 4 pages of great posts to catch up on. I see that everyone is making great progress and a normal few setbacks, overall the group is in excellent form. :balloon:

I hit a milestone (not weight related, just hit the half-century mark) and decided to treat myself to a 10 day road trip up through Ca., Or., and Wa. and back. This included a digital sabbatical so I have been reading like crazy to catch up since returning last night.

How this relates to healthy weight loss is that I wanted in part to see how I would do with:

a) No computer tracking of foods, weight, or activities that I usually use.
b) Limited food choices to just what I could pick up along the way and little to no refrigeration. No restaurants allowed, roadside fruit stands and grocery stores only.
c) A couple of days visiting my (remarkably still alive) parents and no real control over what they might feed me.
d) Much less exercise than usual, just some day hikes, and rock scrambling for fun; I did include these things everyday though.

I did take some precautions to give myself a good chance of staying on track. I took along my small food scale and a notepad so that I could at least record what I ate and review it after returning home, naturally:glasses:. I also took along some homemade jerky and dried fruits, as well as nuts to fill in any blanks along the way and avoid stupid decisions out of plain old hunger.

My only real goal, weight related, was to not gain more than a couple of pounds and hopefully just maintain weight with no other pressures and to just enjoy the trip. A great advantage was that I was by myself and did not have to deal with anyone else’s food expectations or temptations.

Well, the results are in and on average my calorie intake and macronutrient balances all stayed within 20% of how I would eat at home, some variation by day, but the overall average was good. And, I seem to have dropped 4.4 lbs. over the 10 days, so I stayed on my normal track in spite of myself and had a great time to boot!

I really want to thank everyone for being here. A good part of what keeps me on course is knowing that I will come back here and let you know how it is going; and both receiving and giving encouragement and hope.

Thank you.

:thumbsup:

I feel off yesterday. I have been having a couple of rough personal days, and I broke down. I ate a Burger King Whopper and fries. I feel like shit for it. Outside of this thread, I don't have much support. My family is addicted to this type of eating. I do all of the cooking, and everyone eats, but if there is a day that I don't feel like cooking, Burger King here we come. Under normal circumstances, I am really good about cooking. I just couldn't find the energy or the want to. I still don't want to...lol, but I know I need to. Sorry for dumping, but I need to own this, and well, seeing it in words, certainly makes me have to own it. Thanks for letting me be here.

((( lillith ))) ....don't beat yourself up about a bad day. We've all had them (at least I know I have :) )

Sometimes, you just have to say...okay, that sucked. I'll do better...and let it go. :rrose:

Awww, thank you, Ladies! Your words of support and encouragement do amazing things. I am sitting here searching for words to express my gratitude, but the only words that I can think to say are thank you! :)

Today I rode the exersise bike for 61/2 miles in 19.03 minits,I was sweating big time but the calorie chart says I only burned 123 of those little buggers..felt like more.Then I went to the weight room and cranked out a bunch or reps on several things useing 40 to 50 pounds.The guy that works the weight room says I shouldnt be useing so much weight..I says why not?! He says Well mam, women of your age must becareful.This boy must have a death wish is all im going to say about him.I contenued pumping iron a then tuned him out...he was a good boy and went back to his ipod and desk.THere were other people in there that didnt say a thing,but when I was going to the elevator two of the other people that were in the room gave me a pat on the back then said for me to keep doing what ive been doing....and I will.

Sugar Free Dessert
 

I found a sugar free dessert in a cookbook that was given to me.

Enjoy!

What you will need:

3 small boxes of sugar free strawberry jello
2 containers of strawberry fat free yogurt
5 to 6 fresh strawberries <optional>
cool whip <sugar free or low fat>
1 pie shell

Directions:

Boil 3 cups of water, take off stove and mix jello; after it starts to get thick, blend in yogurt< don't add any additional water>. Pour in pie shell, cut the strawberries into pieces and let it cool for a few hours. Put the cool whip on top and if you want, add a few more strawberries on top.

Enjoy,

Zimmy

((Lillith)),

I agree with Jo Jo and Tonya. I suffer from depression and sometimes it is hard for me to go power walking. But I go anyways and I forget the world exists. If you want to start cooking healthier, I have a cookbook from Shape Magazine, which teaches you how to cook better. I like having Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers TV dinners in my freezer on the days when I don't feel like cooking. If your going to eat at Burger King, just ask for a side salad instead of the fries. Do you have a Chik-Fiil-A near you? They are much better than Burger King.

Have a great night and you have all of us here to help support you..

Zimmy

Rewiring the thinking
 

Daily Overshare Alert!


Another small victory today: This one wasn't about battle against the food per se, but more about battling against unhealthy thinking patterns.

We had to endure a 4-hour-long session with human resources today at work. It had the potential to be super-stressful and uncomfortable for our team and many of us were wringing our hands about the possible conversations. Our unit administrator decided to order pizza to try to ease tensions. He had said yesterday that they would "provide a healthy lunch" so I didnt pack lunch today and opted for packing just snacks and water.

I kinda freaked out a little in my head when I heard that the healthy lunch was pizza because my head is super black and white about what I can and can not do on my plan for better health. The black and white stuff says I have to go cold turkey off of anything resembling pizza, hamburger, ribs, ice cream, fettucini etc. (the stuff I love!). The real me knows that it is simply not reasonable to go the rest of my life without ever eating another piece of pizza or cup of ice cream so today I turned off the yakking in my head and ate ONE piece of pizza and used my snack cup of cantaloupe as a side item.

I ate that one piece of pizza and did not feel guilty and did not feel shame and THAT is truly a victory for me. The guilt-feelings and shaming stuff usually would have meant I ate the pizza, felt guilty and decided "Fuck it, I've ruined everything and I suck so I might as well cram my face with....you guessed it....MORE PIZZA!". Self-sabotage, front and center.

I refuse to do that ever again. I will not use shame and guilt as an excuse to let unhealthy thoughts take over so that I can sabotage some more. What I WILL do is say to myself "Is eating one piece of pizza reasonable?" When I can answer "Yes, that is reasonable" (taking into consideration that I have eaten a healthy breakfast and had plenty of water), I will proceed with the food (in moderation of course). I plan to walk a little longer tonight, not because I feel like I need to "work off the pizza" but because that's what I think will make me feel balanced.

Woman can not live by salad alone! We also can not live on shame, guilt, or self-sabotage. Sometimes we gotta turn that love-mirror on ourselves and say "A piece of pizza for lunch does not mean the end of a healthy lifestyle!".

Baby steps toward health. Whoomp!

Wrap it up!
 

Another tasty find!
 

Butterball Deep Fried Turkey Breast - Thanksgiving Style

http://www.butterball.com/system/pro...JPG?1265987229

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 slice - 28g
Amount per Serving
Calories 30
Calories from Fat 9.0
% Daily Value *

Total Fat 1g
1%
Saturated Fat 0g
0%
Cholesterol 15mg
5%
Sodium 260mg
10%
Total Carbohydrate 1g
0%
Dietary Fiber 0g
0%
Sugars 0g

Protein 5g
10%


http://www.butterball.com/product/th...rkey-lunchmeat

I will often times take my wrap, my turkey, load up on veggies, and use 1/2 a serving of Ken's Light Options Caeser Dressing and wa-la!

http://sweetbay.gsnrecipes.com/GetIm...lo8jdaqitFi03g

EEK! Seeing that photo above reminded me that I bought a package of whole wheat tortillas last week and completely forgot about them!

I still have some chicken that I grilled the other night so I think tomorrows lunch will be grilled chicken, lettuce, purple onion, cucumber, fat free cheese, and that friggin' AWESOME tomato basil vinaigrette on one of those whole wheat tortillas!

Soooo, today I think I had a small victory as well. T has been working really hard at work, and I show people I care through food. Working on that as well lol Anyhow, I seasoned some ground beef and we made burgers. However, I eliminated the buns and had small side of potatoes to come to a 500 calorie total for dinner, WHICH, gave me a grand total of 1000 calories today including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2 snacks!

I can relate to Medusa's pizza post. I usually say "screw it" if I am going to cheat I am going to go nuts with it. But tonite, I eliminated the things that I knew would put me over my daily allowance of calories. Even though it wasnt the greatest choice for dinner, I was able to enjoy a meal with T knowing that I made some "healthier" choices. :)

Tomorrow a new day! Wish me luck! We leave for South Dakota tomorrow night and I am dreading "vacation food"...I can do this..I can do this!!!!!

This could be dangerous!
 

Ohhhhhhh hell.

So Jack has a serious snack addiction and loves to munch on snacks after dinner pretty much until we go to bed. This often has her rooting through the kitchen for cookies, chips, nuts, etc.

Tonight, she got out the trusty yellow popcorn bowl and was in the kitchen popping some popcorn. Imagine my surprise when she sad a small bowl down at the dining room table for me and said, "I'm about to dump a ton of butter on mine and wanted you to have the low-calorie scoop before I ruin the rest of the bag". Im like "LOW CALORIE? It CANT be if it's KETTLE CORN!"

"Read the bag", she says.
Sure enough, I checked the nutritional panel and this popcorn (Act II Buttery Kettle Corn) only has 30 CALORIES per popped cup and it tastes amazing.

I had it in my head that it must be terrible since it's kettle corn but they apparently used sucralose as the sweetener! GREAT snack!

2 ingredients
 

Loving all this good information :)

And amen to the portion thing...I'm one that normally would say "I can't have *insert favorite food here*" and then get depressed, and then eat tons of that same food, beat myself up and (you know the rest of the cycle).

It makes such a difference when I say, yes...I can have that food and simply watch the amount.

Scoote and I went to the movies the other night. Instead of eating the movie popcorn loaded in butter and a diet coke (both not great choices), I smuggled in (yes, I admit it :) ) a Sobe Life Water and a sandwich size zip lock bag of Smart Food cheese popcorn. At that size, it was only about 130 calories.

Not only did I get to enjoy a little snack at the movie, but I didn't feel guilty (or sick to my stomach) when we left.

X-posted from FB
 

Weigh-in after 10 weeks: Dropped 1.2 from last week for a total of 15 pounds. Belly measurement is down a total of 3 inches.

Nine pounds away from goal weight.