Emmah's Diary

Status
Not open for further replies.
E

Emmah Day

New member
Day 1, Introduction:

I've been overweight since middle school. I've tried and failed many times to get in shape. I now weigh 204 lbs and I hate the way I look. My family has a history of diabetes, hypothyroidism and I know that by allowing myself to be overweight I'm putting myself at risk.

I joined this forum because I'm hoping that this year will be different. I really want to make a positive change in my life. My goal is to lose 20 lbs by the time I graduate in the spring. I think this is a fairly reasonable and achievable goal, and I can't wait to get started.

I plan to update this diary on Tuesdays and Saturdays (at least). I'll record my weight, food and caloric intake, and excersise. I hope that by sharing my progress publicly I'll have an easier time staying on track.

In the past, my major problem has been staying motivated. Please feel free to comment with suggestions or anecdotes to help me stay motivated. Thanks!

Day 1, entry:

Sleep: I stayed up late, but slept in til 10, 8 hours of sleep.

Brunch: homemade eggs benedict. Black tea with cream and sugar.

Snack: chex mix, some chocolate toffee almonds

Dinner: baked ham, green bean casserole. Water.

Calories: 1216

Exercise: 30 minute walk

Notes: my will power is weakest in the mornings and I subsequently tend to make poor breakfast choices.
 
Hi Emmah & welcome to the forum.
Emmah Day said:
I really want to make a positive change in my life.
Click to expand...
Good for you. There are so many small things that can add up to significant change. One would be to start drinking black tea straight. Totally skip the cream & sugar. When I was about 20 I decided to stop adding milk or sugar to my tea and coffee & I got used to it fairly quickly. Instantly you are cutting lots of fat & sugar out of your diet. If you can't cope with total withdrawal add some skim milk.
Experiment with breakfasts. Try having yoghurt & fruit, with some almond meal for extra protein. Make an omelette & include some veggies.
Do you get regular checkups for hypothyroidism, blood sugars etc?
Make small changes every day. Tell yourself you are going to make positive changes, rather than trying to. Our brains are powerful things. If you set your mind to do it, you almost probably will. We'll be here to cheer you along. All the best, Cate.
 
Welcome!

Adding skim milk instead of cream to tea is a good idea. You could also try stevia instead of sugar. Though would probably be best to add skim milk or stevia, not both.
 
I'm not sure about tea but coffee - cream was my go-to every morning and milk just didn't work. I ended up learning to drink it black. About 2 weeks later, I love black coffee. Cream can be a treat occasionally but doesn't need to be a daily or even weekly thing.
 
Day 2

Sleep: didn't sleep well. Collectively, about 9 hours.

Brunch: mango, orange. Black tea (without cream or sugar as suggested by several people!).

Snacks: half cinnamon roll, some potato chips. 2 pecan sandies. (my house is full of holiday treats and I have a terrible sweet tooth)

Dinner: whole wheat spaghetti with veggie and ground beef sauce.

Calories: 1387

Excersise: 1 hr walk.

Notes: thanks for the suggestions to try drinking tea black. I like it, I'm going to make the switch. I can't stand black coffee, but I can easily avoid coffee altogether.

I need to come up with some method of avoiding unhealthy snacks. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-Emmah
 
My personal favorite way of avoiding unhealthy snacking is two-fold: we don't keep junk in the house (apart from special occasions where it stays around for 2 days and is then tossed or taken to my husband's workplace) and we make sure there are healthy snacks in the house.

Fresh fruit and veg are plentiful - apples, bananas, oranges, tomatoes etc. Chickpeas for hummus (which isn't often made but can be on a whim), canned tomatoes for homemade salsa, stuff for smoothies etc.

Right now, hubby is munching on carrots and I'm munching on tomatoes lol.

We also just started a 30 day sugar-free challenge to get over the holiday sugar-rush. Supposed to start today but starting tomorrow due to a wonderful bout of my son having the flu and me eating chocolate with no shame after the 4th tummy trouble episode.
 
I do the same as Sam - if it's not in the house, I can't eat it! Or I do little snack bags in the morning..so crisps, treats etc that I have allotted calories for. That way I know I can eat them all without guilt but that's all I get.
 
Day 3

Sleep: approximately 9 hours? I kept waking up though.

Brunch: plain yogurt, frozen blueberries, granola. Black tea.

Snacks: clementines, sesame sticks, peanut butter fudge.

Dinner: homemade chef's salad. Green tea.

Calories: 1194

Exercise: 40 minutes, cross-country skiing.

Notes: A pretty good day I think. Wish I could have skied longer, but the weather was bad. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

Thank you Samantha and Sunflower for the advice. After the holidays it will be easier to control what snackfoods are handy as I'll be returning to dorm life. Until then, I'll just have to work on my will power and keep my parent's house stocked with healthy snacks.
 
Last edited:
Your calories are quite low honey - especially with that exercise.. have you worked out how many calories you will need to consume to lose weight at a healthy rate? i.e. according to your height, activity levels?
 
Days 4 and 5,

Friday: we didn't have power all day so I wasn't able to login. For breakfast I had a ham, cheese, tomato and spinach omelette and black tea. Lunch: ham, cheese and tomato sandwich on multigrain bread. For excercise I tried to go snowshoeing but gave up after maybe 15 minutes and made a snowman instead (which I still count as excercise) for another 45 minutes. For dinner we had split pea and ham soup and biscuits (which we had a lot of fun preparing by flashlight and then cooking with the woodstove). I treated myself to a bit of coffee and a saltine toffee. Other snacks: an apple, 2 clementines.

Calories: 1305 (Sunflower, I've been aiming for around 1300 calories a day because that seems to be the usual recommended amount for women attempting to lose weight. I've hit a bit low the past few days because of a general lack of appetite. Thank you for your concern.)

Saturday: The power's back on! I forgot to weigh myself this morning, I'll be sure to do that when I wake up next year ;)

Breakfast: pancakes... Because my sister is home for new years, and she makes the best pancakes. Coffee. Water.

Lunch: leftover spaghetti. Water.

Snack: apple, clementine, saltine toffee, chocolate chip cookie, coffee w/ cream and sugar.

Dinner: New England boiled dinner (that is: corned beef, potato, turnip, cabbage, carrot and onion. A traditional new year's eve dinner in my family). A buttered biscuit. A dark and spicy (a modified dark and stormy with spiced rum instead of dark rum because we already had spiced rum and alcohol is expensive).

Calories: 1425

Exercise: not much. I did wander around the grocery store with my mum for half an hour, but that's not much of a workout. By the time I really felt like going for a ski or a walk it was already dark out. Ugh. Winter. Anyway, I had a lovely lazy day.

Notes: Happy New Year!
 
Butterfly88 said:
I think 1,300 calories is for a dieting woman with little to no exercise. Happy New Year!
Click to expand...
I'm using the my fitness pal app to log my calories. It says I should aim for 1390 calories daily based on my height, weight, goals and activity level. I chose "lightly active" as my activity level because I tend to do light activities like walking and for short periods of time. (I said "around 1300" in my last log because I couldn't remember the exact number). Again, thanks for the concern. It is my ambition to lose weight safely. I also know that if you don't get enough calories you're metabolism actually slows down, and I don't need my metabolism to be any slower, that's for sure. Happy 2017:)
 
Happy to hear it. It's always good to have new people on board who want to make their lives healthier and happier instead of just thinner.
 
Mmm your special dinner sounds lovely! I've never had a biscuit, we don't have them in the UK. I imagine they are a bit like scones?
 
Hi there.
I've joined (again!!) today. I'm going to do a Smoothie/Juice detox for a week to get over the horrendous food/drink binge I did over Christmas then I am going to, like you, use 'Myfitnesspal'
Well done on your journey so far.
Xoxo
 
Emmah - you're around my area of the world (I'm in New Brunswick)! That windstorm was crazy!!! My parents (lower NB) had lost power for almost 10 hours. Ours stayed on thankfully but what a mess. On my run today, there were areas that are just a sheet of ice and trees down (made for wonderful obstacles but oh dear).

Take care!! Happy New Year!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top