A New Experience

D

douknowjello

New member
I'm starting a new journal and I'll link this one from my old. I was using somebody elses motto for my title anyway and I think it's time to begin anew.

For those of you who don't know me my name is Lisa. I'm 37, 5' tall and at my doctor visit a few weeks ago weighed in at 356 lbs. I've and have had a weight problem my whole life and my mom actually had me on Atkins at around age 4. It was the 70s so I guess they didn't know any better, lol. Looking back on pictures though my weight ballooned up over night my sophomore year and I went from 140lbs to 180 and ended up at around 200-210 when I graduated.

My mom took me to doctors and I think they should have known something was wrong but all he said to me was "if you were at my house you just wouldn't eat". Idiots is all I can say. It was either my junior or senior year but I got into a sport, was walking to and from school PLUS an extra hour a day, doing aerobics and watching what I ate and the weight I lost was minimal. This has been the case with every attempt I've made at losing weight, including the year before I met my husband when I managed to drop from 305 to 237 but it took a year and a half and fighting my body the whole way.

Finally a few years ago I was trying to lose weight and while DIETING gained 45 pounds in two months, which scared the heck out of me...not to mention other symptoms I was having that finally the doctors had to take notice of and not just say "oh you're fat". I was sent to an endocrinologist and finally got a diagnosis of PCOS and insulin resistance. The doctor prescribed metformin and the first week I lost 8lbs without even trying. Then I got excited and put some work in and joined this forum. My doctor showed me last week where during that time period I'd dropped 50lbs....I hadn't realized it was so much.

So what happened, right? Well I seem to have this huge problem with long term endurance. I take care of everyone else around me and put myself last and then when life shoots me a curve ball, my weight loss and health is the first thing I seem to drop. This was time was no different after my husband got diagnosed with a pituitary tumor and was off work a year and we are just now getting back on our feet, financially and otherwise.

But this time I have a plan, I hope and I think with enough research and trial and error it may evolve into something great :D
 
Last edited:
The Problem

Ok so this is what I think my problem is. I will go for months at a time where I'm on top of things and feel good about it. I'll get stuff done, organized etc. and at this point I'm usually on top of my food as well. But long term, sooner or later I have weeks or months that I feel like absolute crap, or something happens in my life that stresses me out to the point any thoughts of my health and weight loss go out the window.

I've learned SO much on this forum and when I go to the store, get what I know to eat and start watching my calories it's not about feeling deprived or going hungry. That's not it at all. The problem is this takes a consistent amount of pre-planning and work. And yea...logging everything that goes in my mouth every day....I just get sick of having to think about it. So the problem is a combination of putting others first and myself on the bottom of the list, real life stress, and just flat out laziness....maybe due at this point to my poor health from the weight. I'm not sure yet lol.

So the ongoing pattern here is me getting it together, going great guns and having success only to get thrown off and not trying for months, even years at a time.
 
Great to see you back Lisa and I really hope that you are succesful with your weight loss. You sound determined and it always helps to have a plan. Looking forward to reading your new diary :)
 
The Plan

So I need to work around this vicious cycle I'm in. Sometimes instead of trying to change yourself, you have to find a plan that works around your personality and life and then it can become a life change. As much as I may WANT to be that super woman who does it all and cooks 3 full meals a day EVERY day, thats not me and probably won't ever be.

In the past I've thought if somebody just told me what to eat and I could just eat it, I would.
So I tried Ediets and that worked for a time. It was great because they even printed you out a grocery list and a menu that you could sub out what you don't like. But the problem is it still required a schedule and life style where I could cook and prepare food every day OR sub in frozen meals. By the end of it I was eating all lean cuisines and got bored, eventually going off all together.

Then I heard about a local place called "my girlfriend's kitchen" where you go in and assemble 10 freezer meals all at once but you pay a fortune. I thought why can't I do that myself and found a website with tons of recipes and even a program that lets you load a cooking day into it and print out a grocery list. Unfortunately in the past, while this has helped me get away from fast food, I've cooked whats inexpensive and to please my husband and so far the meals haven't been what I'd call low calorie or diet friendly. I have spaghetti and meatballs, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and alot of other stuff ready to go in my freezer but the minute I start watching my weight, I'm afraid to eat it, lol.

I see the nutrasystem stuff on tv all the time but it's way too expansive for my budget and after reading so many comments about the food being nasty, I don't think it'd work. But if I could combine all the stuff I've learned here and the freezer cooking, along with some weekly prep work I think that would work.

So the plan is for me to find as many freeze friendly recipes as I can and plan once a month, not every week to the point I have meals on hand for the most part and can cook when I feel like it and have time. Calories already counted and less work. I think this will evolve into something great if I put in the research and planning. Here's a link I found today in this woman's blog . While not everything on there can be froze ahead, much of it can and the menus are along the lines of the nutrasystem diet....although I bet they taste alot better, lol.

So I'm going to post in my journal any and everything I find thats helpful and PLEASE, if you have any recipes or tips that you've found work pls share them with me :) My hopes at the end of this is to have a 3 month menu of food for Fall/Winter and one for Spring/Summer with a ton of options of predone food so I can roll with the punches, not get knocked out of the game.
 
Last edited:
The point is that she has tried all that and it hasn't worked for her so what she seems to be doing is working with healthy foods but preparing it herself before hand and freezing it so she has her own supply of healthy convenience foods. Sounds like a great idea Lisa.
EDIT: My post no longer makes sense as the post I was referring to was by a spammer and has been deleted.
 
Last edited:
I finally got a couple of minutes to sit and read. I'm sorry abou tyour hubby's health problems. How is he doing now? You guys have had some adversity to deal with huh?

I like the overall plan, it sounds pretty good to me. I'm glad you are around, I'm trying to stay around here and there too.
 
ecky said:
The point is that she has tried all that and it hasn't worked for her so what she seems to be doing is working with healthy foods but preparing it herself before hand and freezing it so she has her own supply of healthy convenience foods. Sounds like a great idea Lisa.
EDIT: My post no longer makes sense as the post I was referring to was by a spammer and has been deleted.
Click to expand...

Glad I have people on my team to defend against the spammer! Back one day and they are already attacking! lol. But was good to see your response...thats exactly what I'm trying to do so made me feel good that you got it :) Thanks for the support *hugz*
 
thecabbie said:
I finally got a couple of minutes to sit and read. I'm sorry abou tyour hubby's health problems. How is he doing now? You guys have had some adversity to deal with huh?

I like the overall plan, it sounds pretty good to me. I'm glad you are around, I'm trying to stay around here and there too.
Click to expand...

Hey Mr. Handome :) long time no see and don't you look great! Just shows me where I COULD be atm if I'd stick to things. As far as me and hubby, we still have alot of financial stress but we're working on it. His health is much improved for the most part. Mine on the other hand ....yea I need to drop at least 30lbs like NOW before I'm going to feel better.
 
Ok I've gotten started but this is overwhelming and such a huge project. The initial freezer cooking stuff I have...well I have to put it on THIS computer now because it was on my old one. Well the website has changed and its no longer as easy so I'm spending time doing alot of clicking to add each one. After I get all that done then I'm going to have to start looking through them all, plus some other resources I have and figuring out which ones will work and are on the healthy side.

This is going to take some time for sure BUT GUESS WHAT? AMAZING WHAT YOU CAN GOOGLE!!! I found a site where somebody had sort of done what I'm already wanting to do, on a very simplistic level so anyone can modify it and add stuff in like I plan to. It was $15 for this freezer cookbook so I can make my own diet freezer meals and save money too.

(easy does it diet cookbook)When you make your frozen meals, add a pat of butter or ghee to the vegetables unless the entrée has plenty of sauce to flavor the veggies. You don't cook the veggies in advance – you just add them frozen to your plastic container, put in the entrée, and put the container back in the freezer. The veggies will steam perfectly while the pre-cooked entrée heats up.
This diet plan emphasizes health-giving fruits and vegetables for many reasons. Weight loss may be most important to you right at the moment, but you’ll also appreciate the fact that eating more fruits and veggies may lower your cholesterol level, and your blood pressure readings may improve.
Click to expand...

The rest of it has me adding salads, fruit etc...what I normally do to fill up and get more for my calories so I think this will work out well. Basically the 5 componants it lists salads, whole grain bread, their entree I make ahead, veggies, fruit and fruit smoothies. I'm not going to stick exactly to that since I found some of those other breakfast recipes but I'm just going to make sure my planned ahead menu is already figured out calorie wise.


I have to say this is the next part is why I went ahead and spent the money for the cookbook.

On a recent Saturday afternoon I cooked an entire freezer-full of healthy Easy-Does-It frozen meals. Here’s what they cost, along with the cost of similar commercial meals:
Healthy Choice® Sweet and Sour Chicken…………$2.99
Easy-Does-It Sweet and Sour Chicken………………$1.21

Healthy Choice® Country Herb Chicken …………..$2.99
Easy-Does-It Country Herb Chicken…………………$1.11

Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine® Chicken & Vegetables…$3.49
Easy-Does-It Chicken & Vegetables…………………$1.02

Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine® Honey Roasted Pork…..$3.49
Easy-Does-It Honey Roasted Pork…………………..$1.02

The estimates for my costs tend to be a little high, because I’m not sure how much a teaspoon of mustard or two tablespoons of soy sauce really costs. “Not much” seems like the right answer, but calculators don’t know what to do with that kind of number.
So, how much does it cost to fill your freezer with your own frozen meals?
Using only four recipes, and spending only about 2 ½ hours total, I filled the freezer with 27 meals, (enough for 5 ½ weeks-worth of lunches at the office!) for only $29.22. The same number of mass-produced meals would have cost $88.23!
Click to expand...

I'm sure she took her best numbers but still, if I even save 30 bucks and get better food its worth it. I'll definitely keep you guys posted on what I cook and how this works.

So basically I'm going to start with this and use some of those recipes from that other link I posted where the woman did her own nutrasystem food at home....especially on some of those breakfasts. THEN once I have the basic foundation I'm going to slowly go through all the other recipes I have from my advantage cooking software and "the30daygourmet" and all the stuff I printed out when I was on ediets and slowly adapt this for me :) I have to work tonight and tomorrow night but Wed. I can go shopping and get the stuff and Thurs. I plan to at least get started. Ohhh I also need to order some of those debbie meyer green bags ;/ I can't find them anymore and all my veggies go bad way too fast. I hate going to the dang store every 3 days for produce.
 
Oh....one last thing that did kinda piss me off ;/ I was reading and the book doesn't use artificial sweeteners except for a bit of honey and stevia since it's natural. Why? Oh because of all this research recently showing that it leads to insulin resistance....

Well geez....I was drinking diet pop (I don't drink pop at all now) and all kinds of artificial sweetener for as far back as I can remember and I'm just fine.....

OH WAIT!! I FREAKIN HAVE INSULIN RESISTANCE!!! And did I mention the PCOS that goes with it?

Bleh....so I guess I'll be checking into the Stevia and doing some research since I saw some at the store anyway. I can't drink my ice tea without some sort of sweetener ;/ And I use like 15 packets a day of sweet n low so this will be interesting.
 
Just checking in :) I'm trying to limit my time on the pc. Still downloading those recipes into my cooking software and I work tonight but planning on going to the store tomorrow to get some of this started. I didn't find anything conclusive about Stevia contributing to insulin resistance....just it's more natural. Not sure what I'm going to do yet...probably decide after I try it since it's not on the cheap side.

I ate ok today...took one of the ladies I do assisted living for to her job at a college and had breakfast in the cafeteria there with her. I had eggs, one biscuit with gravy, a bit of ham and 5-6 tatertots and some fruit. Since then I've had one lean cuisine frozen dinner and haven't been all that hungry. Slept most of the day since I work night shift mon. and tues so thats prolly why cuz i'm starting to get hungry now. Unfortunately not alot of food at my house to grab atm...that's where I always get in trouble lol.
 
Hey Lisa, one of the reasons I chose the road I chose was because I was diagnosed with type 2 last January, so paying attention to sugars has been a bit of a thing for me. I never heard the one about artificial sweeteners though. Good to know.
 
Hey Lisa, great to see you back again! And with a positive plan of action. The thing I always have to remember to do when making home freezer portions is to make them a tiny bit smaller to a)eek out an extra portion or two and b) to trick myself into reducing the amount I'm eating rather than unknowingly increase it by being generous! Once your dinner relies on defrosting and reheatnig something frozen, you can't go back for more because it would such a palaver and you'd have to cook an entire frozen portion so this works for me to prevent me dipping in for another spoonful or two!

I'm also really healthy and good and organised then something stressful throws me off and I give it all up and binge. This isn't about WHAT you are eating, its about using food as an emotional crutch - I majorly do it in the little day by day decisions. If I'm having a bad day then chocolate bar after chocolate bar will make it better...because i tell myself that I deserve it. What kind of mad logic is that?!? Anyhow, i just wanted to say that if you think this is also what you do then you have to work through why and recognising when you are about to do it in order to stop doing it - like rethinking your relationship with food.
 
jjjay said:
I'm also really healthy and good and organised then something stressful throws me off and I give it all up and binge. This isn't about WHAT you are eating, its about using food as an emotional crutch - I majorly do it in the little day by day decisions. If I'm having a bad day then chocolate bar after chocolate bar will make it better...because i tell myself that I deserve it. What kind of mad logic is that?!? Anyhow, i just wanted to say that if you think this is also what you do then you have to work through why and recognising when you are about to do it in order to stop doing it - like rethinking your relationship with food.
Click to expand...

I think sometimes that's it but more often being exhausted or stress and being busy prevents me from keeping up with making sure I have healthy choices that I can grab. Often my schedule changes at a moments notice, like last week I ended up working 3 midnights instead of 2. My shifts are min 10 hours long, sometimes longer. I hadn't had time to shop and by the time I got off work I was starving and knew there was nothing at home. I run into the same problem also when my sleep gets interrupted and then I have to find something before work. The good part is I NORMALLY get 3 days off a week.

I'm not saying I'll never fudge a little, no pun intended :) But I know me and if the meals are already preplanned, laid out and ready to go I think thats the trick to me not droppin the ball by week 4.
 
So here's some thoughts I'm having...at the house I work at the girls have a menu book that was designed by a nutritionist and it has recipes in back...I guess that's the same concept I'm trying to come up with. Although they have one month of meals they eat for all of spring/summer and a fall/winter one and just rotate. I think I'd like to ultimately have more variety than that but we'll see.

Also there's going to be some things on the menu that are not freezer meals but I was thinking I could have a substitution list so if something comes up and I can't cook I'm fine. Or vice versa....I figure if I make a master list of all my meals with calorie contents, I could easily swap out if I find I feel like cooking on a day off.

I just am so tired of counting calories and I figure this is the best way around this, count them ahead of time. Before anyone says it though, I'm not going to penalize myself for going off the menu like I'm on a strict diet. But if I do then I'll have to do the extra calorie counting work. Just most the time I won't be hunting and foraging in my kitchen, weighing and measuring all day long or plugging daily calories. I can get on with stuff and not have to think about what I'm going to eat all the time.

Oh and I've found some lower calorie versions of things I like at fast food places. I'm going to do some of those too for on weekends when I'm at work and most tempted to grab fast food. The rest the week at home I'm too lazy to drive that far, lol.

Once I have this menu mapped out I can also make master grocery lists. The other thing I want to commit to improving on is drinking more water and taking my vitamins consistantly. I cut out pop entirely a year ago and drink ice tea instead but at times realize I'm not drinking enough water.
 
I think having stuff bagged up and measured calorie-wise is a big trick up your sleeve. That way when you reach for somethign to eat, you don't think of portion size with your "hungry-head" on !!!! Because you already sorted that bit out when you weren't hungry!!

I have like one fast food thing I allow myself to have every now and then (chicken selects from McDonalds) as I know that that plus the fries is like 710 cals so if I haven't got round to eating all day at work, I might have that. Apart from that though, fast food is off the menu! I think it is kind of addictive to be honest. You know like when you walk past a fast food joint and CRAVE teh food...then you wean yourself off of it and just lose the taste for it completely and it doesn't appeal. Must be some additive in it I think.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top