How Kathar Shall Regain Her Old Self Back

It's not really about the number of calories burned; it's about a relative measure of intensity. So if I'm using the same machine, if it tells me I burned 200 calories one time, and then the next time it tells me 280, I know I'm working quite a bit harder.

There's also inherent motivation. If I'm at, say, 80 calories, or 0.95 of a mile, I'm going to want to work extra hard to break the milestone. Stuff like that.
 
Dinner: Grilled chicken and vegetables (eggplant and asparagus), 300 calories. Tomorrow I have fish.

Dessert: Kozy Shack rice pudding, 90 calories.

Total for the day: about 1400

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Exercise: Went to the gym. Did the machines I didn't do yesterday, and did 25 minutes on the elliptical.

Morale: Any issues I have are not related to my diet. Let's hope I don't gain more weight tomorrow.

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EDIT: I HATE reading this forum. I just learned that now I'm not supposed to be eating anything with artificial sweeteners. I have a feeling that the more I read, the less I'll be able to eat until I can't eat anything at all.
 
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I don't understand it either. If the line of thinking is "eat the real thing, you'll feel more satisfied with less," that isn't true for me. If I eat less, I feel like I ate less, because I just DID eat less. I'm satisfied by quantity, not quality. I don't care if things taste different with artificial sweeteners.

Not to mention calories. I'm short with a small frame. I can't eat much even for maintenance. The "real thing" would quickly cut into the rest of my day.

Plus, this means I have to throw away the $100+ of groceries I just bought and buy NEW ones. Finding these was hard enough.

And what about iced tea? My family makes it with Splenda and refuses to make it plain. It's my third day home and everyone's already sick of me, so I don't want to push it.

Places this is a problem:

- Jellies. There are three choices: corn syrup, ridiculously high calories, or artificial sweeteners.

- Yogurt. Three choices again: corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, or impossible to find at our grocery store.

- Iced tea, as mentioned above.

- I'm sure there are more I can't think of.

EDIT: I read somewhere that there's a safe limit, which I probably don't exceed. So I hope I'm OK. I usually heavily dilute my iced tea anyway (not because I like it weaker, but because it's an easy way to sneak more water in)
 
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Breakfast: 1 cup Kashi cereal, 200 calories

Lunch: Joseph's whole wheat pita with one chicken breast, cut up, eggplant, and 2 tablespoons goat cheese - 400 calories.

Snack - Kiwi fruit, roma tomato, one string cheese, and one Wasa cracker - 200 calories.

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Dinner isn't going to be fish anymore. Everyone's sick and nobody is cooking. Must improvise something for 300-400 calories.
 
Keeeep Going!!!!

Ohhhhh KATHAR!!! YOU crack ME UP reading through YOUR THREAD!!! :iagree:

How are YOU gonna think WE aren't here SUPPORTING YOU!!!! WE are ALL Rooting for YOU on HERE whether it is SAID OR NOT, and you have to realize that! :chillpill:

THINGS do get TOUGH a ton of TIMES, and there WILL BE PLATEAUS, and I do know what you mean about having to THROW out the OLD "NEW" groceries, to buy the "NEW" ones that fit the NEW PLAN!!! DON"T.....SAVE what YA CAN, and INCORPORATE it SLOWLY!!! Don't go CRAZY or STRESS yourself out over LITTLE things in LIFE:willy_nilly:!!!

ONE of the first things I thought when reading the first couple entries of YOUR THREAD was "HOW MOTIVATING" you SOUNDED and HOW "CONFIDENT" you were :iagree:!!! Honestly, that's what KEPT me reading THROUGH your entire THREAD!!! LIKE someone said BEFORE...YOU are MUCH BETTER WHEN THAT "TAKE CHARGE" woman COMES OUT IN YOU!!! THAT"S THE MOTIVATING WOMAN!!! :hurray:

YOU are always WELCOME in my threads and EVERYONE is RIGHT, interacting a bit more is THE KEY!! You seem TO BE A VERY SWEET girl, and WANTED you to know that I along with EVERYONE else here, WANT TO HELP and REACH OUT to each OTHER!!!! :grouphug:

KEEP UP the GREAT work SO FAR, YOU are ON YOUR way!!! :auto:REALIZE THAT K!!!! ;) WoooooWOOOO ROOTING FOR YA!@!!!

By the way, I am 25 years old, 5'2 the last time I weighed in I was at 164.....so I HAVE WAY MORE TO GO THAN YOU......and HAVE NEVER BEEN lucky enough LIKE YOU HAVE ONCE been to be AS SMALL as you once WERE...but I WIIIIIILLLL BE!!! I HOPE YOU FEEL THE SUPPORT A BIT MORE!!! KEEP POSTING< CAUSE WE ARE READING!!!!> :p
 
Thanks for the support. I'm really doing OK; I just tend to panic and transcribe my thoughts.

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Dinner: Lowfat cottage cheese with some sugar-free apricot preserves. This sounds really gross, but it was really, really good. 300 calories (it was a generous portion).
Dinner: Green beans, 50 calories. You can eat a ridiculous amount of green beans for this amount of calories. An entire bag is only about 80 calories. Plus, they crunch. A lot.

Dessert: Nonfat lime yogurt, 100 calories.

Total for today: About 1400 calories.

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Exercise: Today's my day off. I'm doing every other day. I'll probably do a few sets of crunches tonight, though.

Morale: Decent.
 
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Hey, hey, hey. Just checking in on your Kathar. It sounds like you are doing great with your diet. Not to be critical, but you always seem to be fretting about something [although, I know this place is kinda your sounding board- which is totally OK- not being sarcastic, either]. I promise you can relax some, you are doing things right!
A few things:

Glad to see you tried the elliptical. It's by far my favorite machine and one I think I will always swear by. How did you like it compared with the treadmill?

Your diet looks great. Don't worry about artificial sweeteners or any of that crap. As long as your ENTIRE diet doesn't come from foods with artificial sweeteners, I wouldn't think twice about your intake. Also, as long as your ENTIRE diet doesn't come from carbs and fats, you are probably getting enough protein. The objective is to eat a BALANCED diet.

People will say what they will about "the real thing" foods and home cooked meals, but almost 100% of my diet is prepackaged frozen foods and kashi brand crap with the exception of lunch meat and fruit and I've lost a lot of weight, so don't put too much stock in claims like those.

In reality, all of us probably shouldn't "count" weight as lost until it adds up to about 5lbs and stays off for 2 weeks. Our body weight fluctuates an enormous amount due to water intake [one 16.9fl oz bottled water weighs 1.1lbs], so DO NOT fret over small weight gains. I really know this is easier said than done [because I've dealt with this as well], but try to force yourself to only focus on the long term fluctuations. This advice is directed towards myself as well. I weigh myself once a week. I SHOULD weigh myself once a month.

One last thing, you said you are doing exercise every other day. While this is good [any exercise is excellent] and I'm sure you will lose weight that way; I've found it's much better for building good habits to do exercise 5-6 days a week. Make it where your body and mind expect to exercise every day and rest days are weird days that are basically out of the norm. I have to force myself to have a rest day each week because my body/mind is so used to working out. I'm addicted to the rush from cardio at this point.

Your hard work will pay off; just give it some time and be consistent. You know you can do it.
 
To be honest, I prefer the treadmill. It's much easier to get lazy with the elliptical, and when I try to fast, sometimes it trips up the pedals. But then, these ellipticals have no touchscreens, which makes them automatically preferable.

Now that I'm home and have 24/7 access to food, I'm having grazing issues. Kind of like bingeing, but at a much lower proportion of food. It adds up, though. I've tried to build this into my calorie counts (you might notice most of them are overestimates) but it'd be better to just stop. If I can't stop, I figure I can provide OK things to graze on, like green beans.
 
Breakfast: Kashi cereal, 200 calories, rice pudding cup, 100 calories

Lunch: Grilled chicken with a few green beans, 200 calories; 2 Wasa crackers, 100 calories

Snack: Nonfat banana yogurt, 100 calories

Going to the gym this afternoon, and tonight is fish.
 
i read above about you feeling that when you eat less you dont feel satisfied as you know you've eaten less, iam excatly the same i have to have good sized potions that make me feel contented and i can go hours with out wanting to eat again!
 
For me it's a time thing. I'm more satisfied with something that takes longer to eat, and vice versa.

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Snack: A peach. Worst peach ever, but it was a peach. 100 calories.

Dinner: One fillet of sole grilled in foil with steamed broccoli and Dijon mustard, and one slice of whole wheat bread, 250 calories.

Dessert: Kashi peanut granola bar and tomato, 200 calories.

Total for the day: 1300-1400.

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Exercise: Went to the gym. Free weights, machines, then 20 minutes on the elliptical, in that order.

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Tomorrow is going to be difficult. A bunch of friends and I are getting together to watch Lord of the Rings, and then we're going out to eat. The going out won't be the hard part; the packing my own food and then eating it instead of snacks will be. I'll improvise something.
 
OK, yeah, there's no way I'm going to be able to eat ANYTHING where we're going. If I was a few inches taller I could, but I can't.

This is going to be the second time I've gone out to dinner with these people without eating. They probably think I have an eating disorder.

For what it's worth:

Breakfast: Cereal, 200 calories.

Lunch: Pita with grilled chicken, some edamame, and lettuce - 400 calories. (60 pita, 200 chicken, 100 edamame, rounded to 400 to compensate if I overmeasured cereal)

Snack (planned): Peanut granola bar, 140 calories; peach, 60 calories.

Dinner: I have no idea. I literally have no ideas. The only thing I can think of is to get a green salad without dressing, but that's just gross.
 
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kathar said:
OK, yeah, there's no way I'm going to be able to eat ANYTHING where we're going. If I was a few inches taller I could, but I can't.

This is going to be the second time I've gone out to dinner with these people without eating. They probably think I have an eating disorder.

For what it's worth:

Breakfast: Cereal, 200 calories.

Lunch: Pita with grilled chicken, some edamame, and lettuce - 400 calories. (60 pita, 200 chicken, 100 edamame, rounded to 400 to compensate if I overmeasured cereal)

Snack (planned): Peanut granola bar, 140 calories; peach, 60 calories.

Dinner: I have no idea. I literally have no ideas. The only thing I can think of is to get a green salad without dressing, but that's just gross.
Click to expand...

Why can't you eat something with your friends?
You know one meal will not undo all the good you have done right?
You are only at 800 cal with the above. You cold safely eat 800- 1200 again every so often and not have an issue....
 
Kathar, 1 lb = 3500 calories. It's unlikely that you will see anything more than a couple points difference. Eat something sensible when you are out and eat only a sensible portion of it and pack the rest for the next day.

Since making the decision to lose this weight I've eaten at Pizza Hut, a lunch buffet at a trade show and Montana's and I've still managed to drop at least 20 lbs.

You aren't going to avoid going out for dinner your whole life are you? Of course not. Go eat and enjoy it. If you feel like you overdid it then cut 100 calories/day the next few days and get back on track a bit. There are any number of ways to do it.
 
I'm at 800 calories (probably 850, actually, since I'm craving a mango and those are about 100), which means I have about 500 calories left for dinner. I looked up O'Charleys online and the only thing under 500 calories that I'd want to eat is grilled salmon with no sides. I'd be paying over $10 for a tiny piece of salmon that'll last ten minutes, tops. It just isn't worth it. I'll eat when I come home, of course.
 
You are too hung up on staying at this 1200-1400 number IMO.

There needs to be flexibility in everything. You can order reasonably and eat reasonably in a restaurant and go over your number and be fine.
Have a 1000 cal dinner. Trust me, it will not have any appreciable difference in your progress.
You can let lose every now and again- just not too crazy...

I hope you understand what I am saying.
 
I know where you're coming from but that's dangerous thinking. It's always made me give up before. Besides, the forum threads said I can't start "cheat days" until 3 weeks from the start of my diet/lifestyle change/whatever the PC term for it is, and it hasn't been 3 weeks yet.

If anything, I have to be MORE rigid about this, since 1400 is now too many calories for me.

Anyway. So it turns out we didn't go out to dinner after all. No, that isn't a good thing. Here's the damage, starting from 600:

1 mango - 135 calories (the site I consulted initially was wrong. I had counted on it being 100. I hate it when this happens.)
1 granola bar - 140 calories
Some pieces of a baguette that got passed around - I'm saying 200. A serving is 150, and I don't think I had one, but I wasn't measuring either.
A few Sun Chips - 100 calories. I didn't have a full serving, and I did count.

Dinner: 1 cup cottage cheese with strawberry preserves, 250 calories. I think. Cottage cheese was 200, unless I misgauged.

Total: I'll be lucky if I was below 1500 for the day. Sigh. It was also very difficult to explain that yes, I was on a diet, and *needed* to be on a diet.
 
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OK, so.

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Breakfast: Cereal, 200 calories.

Lunch: Grilled chicken, 200; two Wasa crackers with three tablespoons of hummus, 250 calories.

Snack: Mango, 135 calories; string cheese, 50 calories; shredded wheat, 200 calories. (Total: 1000 calories.)

Dinner (planned): Sole, 200 calories with two tablespoons of baba ganoush (30 calories) and wrapped in field greens. 250 calories.

Dessert (planned): Changed plans here when I realized I didn't get enough vegetables. Instead, I had string beans dipped in hummus.

Total: 1350.

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Exercise: Went to the gym, the usual.
 
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if you do have cheat days just tell yourself that you have to get back on the plan and plus this time you have us to root for you!
 
I've already got one planned. My mother's birthday is in a few days and we're going out to this fancy restaurant.
 
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