EmmySweet's Weight Loss Diary

E

emmysweet

New member
Hey everyone, I'm brand new to the forum. I figure posting a diary of my progress up here will keep me honest ;)

I'm 20 years old, I volunteer at an emergency services nonprofit in my spare time, and I'm a student for the next three years. Several of my overweight friends have gone on Jenny Craig and lost 20-30 pounds. They look great! My problem? I live on grants and scholarships, so there's no way I can afford the Jenny Craig program.

I'm going to do the following:

-A 1200-1300 calories diet.
-Two lean cuisines a day
-12 8oz glasses of water to offset all of that sodium!
-Unlimited vegetables
-3 servings of fruit
-Walking the mile to and from school 4 days/week
-Light at-home weight lifting exercises with 2-3lbs weights

My first goal weight is 170. I'm currently at 192, so I've got to drop 22 pounds. I'd like to have this accomplished by September 1st, 2011.

I'll be adjusting the diet mid-August, since I'll be going on a 10-day trip climbing mountains and participating in extreme physical activity.

I'll post my success/updates! Wish me luck ;)
 
Welcome to the forum :)

are you sure the lean cuisine is your best option ? as a student are you living somewhere you can cook ?
 
I take a lot of classes and don't have a whole lot of time to cook, so that's what lead me to try Lean Cuisine.

A couple of the websites I've looked at said that it can be really successful, however they recommend drinking 12 8oz. glasses of water instead of just 8 glasses. It sounds like the main issue with Lean Cuisine is that they're really high sodium, but that drinking extra water should counter that :)

Do you have any other ideas? Similar easy-prep meals that might work better? :)

Thanks!
 
Day One:

Uh oh, I went a little over on calories already. I had 1455 calories, so about 155 over budget. Tomorrow I'll do better. At least the water intake was great! :)

Calories: 1455
Glasses of water: 14
 
Day Two:

Calories: 1500
Glasses of water: 17

I've been having some difficulties *already*. I'll want to eat even when I'm not hungry, and I think it's because I'm eating small meals very frequently, when I used to barely eat all day long, and then eat like 2000 calories in one sitting. I think I'm feeling like I'm hungry when I'm actually not, because I've gotten used to feeling really full once a day.

I overdid it in calories by an even 300 today; which was a bag of popcorn. I tried to drink a couple bottles of water instead, but I'm also starting to quit smoking cigarettes, so I think the 300 calories are worth the increased lung capacity for future exercise ;)
 
Do you have the time/ space to cook big meals and then put them in the fridge or freezer for leftovers? This is what I do, and although you have the time investment of cooking, you have it much less (I tend to cook meals for 4-6 people- I live alone- and heat them up in the microwave on the following days). There's not much more time/ effort/ etc involved in cooking for 4 as there is cooking for one. If you can manage it, you should save money (and sodium, which is absolutely a problem with preprepared meals).

My feeling is that if you're hungry you should eat. But start by having a glass of water- if you're still hungry in 20 minutes eat something low calorie and healthy (a vegetable or piece of fruit) to see if that wards things off. Work out what foods help keep you full and satisfied (they're not the same thing- think foods you enjoy as well as foods that ward off symptoms such as low blood sugar) and incorporate them more into my diet. (For me it's porridge/ oatmeal, rye bread/ rye crackers, and cottage cheese, but your mileage may vary)
 
@Amy1985 That sounds like it might be doable (at least over the summer while I'm taking lighter classes!) I might try to transition to some mass-cooking after the first week or two, that was I'm on the eating pattern before making any more changes; but that sounds like it'd be a whole lot healthier ;)

Do you have any low-cal recipes that would would recommend for large-scale cooking? I'm watching calories more than the food I take in, since I've found that by limiting myself to around 1300 calories, I'm not going to be eating any cookies or junk food! Lol! I'm really into spinach, feta cheese, and meat :p
 
It's hard to recommend specifically (given differences in taste, budget, location- and thus differing prices of things- etc), but I use these websites for my recipes- (go to advanced search and search among other things for low kilojoule- roughly 4.2 kilojoules to a calorie) and (refine recipe search, then look for the calorie range that suits you). Your mileage may vary with calorie amounts, so I'd recommend calculating them separately (I add up the total recipe calories then divide by servings). You can get a (reasonable, not foolproof) estimation of the calories in a recipe here:

This is another website that gets rave reviews from some of my friends, although I've never used it.
 
So, here's an example of what I've been eating in a day (using yesterday, Day Two, as an example). I've been tracking it all on an iPhone app!

Within 20 minutes of waking up:
1 Fried Egg (78 calories)

Lunch:
1/2 Unseasoned Corn on the Cob (55 calories)
Turkey Meatloaf Lean Cuisine (290 calories)

Dinner:
Low-fat Turkey Sausage w/ Jasmine Rice (350 Calories)

Snacks:
Diet Lemonade Rockstar Energy Drink (20 calories)
2 Servings Spinach Feta Salad (101 calories each, 202 calories total)
1 cup Watermelon (40 calories)
1 Bag frozen Vegetables w/ sprinkled feta (130 Calories)
1 Bag low-fat popcorn (280 calories)
17 glasses of water!!
 
Another thing you can do to improve the calorie/ budget friendliness of a recipe is to slash the meat content. I aim to eat no more than 100g (about 3.5oz) a day, so find myself as much as halving the meat in recipes, which makes the calorie content a lot lower. I fill up on vegetables on the side (I chop them up into bits, put them in a microwave safe container and cover, and zap them until they're a little soft but not mushy- steamed veggies without the equipment)
 
amy1985 said:
It's hard to recommend specifically (given differences in taste, budget, location- and thus differing prices of things- etc), but I use these websites for my recipes- (go to advanced search and search among other things for low kilojoule- roughly 4.2 kilojoules to a calorie) and (refine recipe search, then look for the calorie range that suits you). Your mileage may vary with calorie amounts, so I'd recommend calculating them separately (I add up the total recipe calories then divide by servings). You can get a (reasonable, not foolproof) estimation of the calories in a recipe here:

This is another website that gets rave reviews from some of my friends, although I've never used it.
Click to expand...

Those websites look great! :) Thank you so much! It could probably be pretty cost-effective to cook and store :) I'll just need some tupperware!
 
Day 3:

Oh my goodness! So, I'm not counting the weigh-in as official until the 7th day, however today I cheated and looked at a scale. I apparently am already down to 185... which means that I lost 7 pounds in 3 days. I checked at the same time that I always weigh myself, so it feels like it might actually be a realistic representation. If I'm drinking 2 gallons of water per day, is it still "water weight" that's being lost? How does "water weight" work?

Since this feels like it's a bit too much of a loss all at once, I'll be changing my calorie intake to 1300-1500/day.

Today:

Calories: 1392
Glasses of water: 16 (so far)
 
Now the scale is saying I lost 8 pounds (I've got to stop checking... I can't help it when I'm in the bathroom though... What to do?)

I've got to take some measurements and before pictures today before any more change! lol
 
I realized that the only veggitable I'm really eating is spinach :p I need more variety, so I'm going to make a HUGE batch of this super super low-cal (I read it's around 20 per cup) soup from Weight Watchers.



I'm going to have a couple cups of it a day :)
 
Congratulations on dropping so much weight already. You're hugely inspiring. I look forward to tracking your progress.
 
Uploaded with

Oh jeez, here are the before pictures :p

Measurements are starting @
Waist - 36in.
Hips - 45in.
Thighs - 27in.
 
emmysweet said:
I realized that the only veggitable I'm really eating is spinach :p I need more variety, so I'm going to make a HUGE batch of this super super low-cal (I read it's around 20 per cup) soup from Weight Watchers.



I'm going to have a couple cups of it a day :)
Click to expand...



I just finished making a batch! I used chicken broth, left out the green beans, and used green onions! There's also some low-fat feta sprinkled on top. It was absolutely delicious!
 
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