How Kathar Shall Regain Her Old Self Back

I do try. Today was one of the better days. (at least food-wise; otherwise, it was a terrible day.) I think I hit 1400, or close. I'm going to try to stay in my room for the rest of the night, maybe that will help.

And I'm literally never hungry. I'm beginning to wonder if I have a thyroid problem. My father did.
 
kathar said:
I do try. Today was one of the better days. (at least food-wise; otherwise, it was a terrible day.) I think I hit 1400, or close. I'm going to try to stay in my room for the rest of the night, maybe that will help.

And I'm literally never hungry. I'm beginning to wonder if I have a thyroid problem. My father did.
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It could very well be, I would strongly suggest going to see your doctor, not being able to recognise these things are symptoms of more serious problems.

Thats great for hitting 1400! Thats about where I try to aim, except usually the cheese cravings hit and I go far past that!
 
OK, so:

Breakfast: Cereal with fruit, 300 calories

For lunch I'm meeting someone at a Mexican restaurant. Again. This is a problem. I have no idea what to eat.
 
OK, actually, problem solved. They have a grilled chicken salad which is just chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers (I'll ask for it without the cheese). I'll use hot sauce as dressing.

Sounds boring, yes, but I don't really like Mexican food in the first place. Too many peppers.

Now for the calories. 100, tops, for the lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers. The chicken depends on how much it is and whether it's cooked with oil. It won't be more than 500.
 
So it turns out it was fajita chicken over shredded lettuce with 2 tomato slices and 4 cucumber slices. I have no idea how many calories fajita chicken is. The Internet values seemed to include tortillas and guacamole and stuff. Otherwise, my chicken was 1300 calories. I just can't believe that. I'm going to say 500 for the salad.

Breakfast: Cereal and fruit, 300

Lunch: 500

Snack: Yogurt with a Wasa cracker, 200
 
Kathar, just a suggestion (not a damning judgment of character), try using fitday to not only track your calories, but to determine how your macronutrients stack up. It will show you how your calories are divided among carbs/proteins/fats. I think a healthy distribution for losing weight is 50/25/25 for carbs/fats/proteins with +/- 5% or so, of course (not an exact science). I'm guessing you might realize (if you take the effort and follow my suggestion before coming up with an excuse for why you cannot) that your diet is heavily made up of carbs. Cereals, crackers, fruits, yogurts, and granola bars that while healthy foods, when eaten for most of your diet can slow down weight loss if eaten disproportionately to proteins and fats. It's all about balance.

And I may be totally wrong and you could be eating a completely balanced diet as far as carb/fat/protein, but we both will never know until you start using something like fitday to make that determination. I don't want to hear any excuses until you give this suggestion a try. It's not that hard. It's something that is annoying for me to do everyday, but I force myself to because its impossible to keep track any other way. I'm just trying to help; I want you to succeed at this.
 
I already use Fitday for some things. A lot (or, really, most) of what I eat isn't in their database, but I do what I can. You're right, though; I eat mostly carbs, because they're easiest to come by. I've mentioned several times how getting enough protein is difficult, especially when your family doesn't cook and rarely goes grocery shopping. I have to relegate meat to their groceries, since I have yet to find, say, individually sold chicken breasts or filets of fish or things like that. Instead, I have to buy the enormous packages which can run from $10 to $20. I'm reluctant to spend that kind of money when that alone can buy pretty much all of my other groceries.

I'm trying my best. Yesterday was a better day for protein. There was a LOT of chicken on the salad, hence my 450-calorie figure. I also didn't mention dinner, which was a pouch of salmon (roughly 20 grams) with string beans.

I pick brands of cereal and yogurt that are higher in protein. I forgot the protein on cereal, but one tin of yogurt has 9 grams. I also eat individually wrapped cheeses and tofu. If I can't find meat for dinner, I eat cottage cheese.

Anyway, today:

----------

Breakfast: Cereal, 200 calories
Breakfast: Banana, 100 calories

Lunch: Rice pudding cup, 100 calories
Lunch: 1/2 serving edamame, 50 calories
Lunch: 1 piece of cheese, 50 calories

Snack: Granola bar, 100 calories
 
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individually sold chicken breasts or filets of fish or things like that.
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those are hard to find - however you can buy smaller packages - not the huge family size packs and cook hem all at once and freeze or refridgerate portions for later...

Have you said why you can't take over the grocery shopping and cooking duties while you're home for the summer? it'd probably be a big help to your family...
 
I'll try on my next trip to the grocery store. We still have some boiled chicken left over from the party. It isn't very good at all (at the party it was going to be soaked in cream sauce and whatnot), but it's there, and it's free.

I've brought up the subject with my mother multiple times by now. She doesn't want me to do the grocery shopping. I don't know why, but she doesn't. The closest she's ever come is giving me $50 to buy my own groceries, but that was only once, and she didn't seem very happy about it. She's been very angry at me for the past week or so, so I'm not about to ask her for money again

I also offer to cook dinner every night, but she tells me not to bother. I figure she picks up takeout or something instead.
 
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kathar said:
I have yet to find, say, individually sold chicken breasts or filets of fish or things like that. Instead, I have to buy the enormous packages which can run from $10 to $20.
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7oz pouch of water packed chunk light tuna, generic / store brand = $1.48 at Walmart. 51g of protein, 230 calories. My Walmart also has 16oz bags of wild-caught Atlantic salmon, with 4 4oz pieces per bag. $3.98 for the whole bag, which has 400 calories and 80g of protein. IMHO it's not very tasty salmon, but it's cheap and easy protein, and it's a change from tuna.

Your current fallback of cottage cheese is a good one, too. A big carton (6 half-cup servings) is 84g of protein, and about $3.

Dried legumes are really, really cheap, but I need a crockpot or I always burn them. I figured it was about $8 for 16 cups of sausage-lentil soup with a ton of veggies, at 200 calories and 16g of protein per cup. (It also has 12g of fiber per cup!)
 
Yeah, tuna and salmon pouches are another staple of my diet. In fact, I'm eating one right now. I hadn't thought of dried legumes. Is it possible just to boil them, or do you need something else?

I checked the kitchen; there's a bag of gross-looking steak out. Translation: "Find your own dinner, I'm cooking steak." (I really don't like steak at all, but everyone else in the family does. I ate it on Mother's Day because the day meant I couldn't argue.) I'll probably do something with the chicken. Not sure what.

Anyway.

Snack: Pouch of tuna with 2 roma tomatoes, 200 calories (total for day so far: 800)
 
Dried legumes are really, really cheap, but I need a crockpot or I always burn them
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If you've got a really heavy pot (grandmas old cast iron dutch oven) you can do them in the oven... 1 lb bag of beans takes about 5 -6 hours in a 275 degree oven... though the crock pot is far more efficient...

Or just bring them to a simmer on the stove and leave them on low - covered for a few hours...
 
I think I'll have tofu instead for dinner. Boiled chicken is sounding gross.

Snack: 2 Wasa crackers with one tablespoon peanut butter, 200 calories
 
there are about a billion different ways that you can prepare chicken breast - doesn't have to be boiled...

Just another thought for you - spend some time either in the morning - or in the evening for the next day - planning your meals -sometimes it can be a little less stressful if you've planned out ahead of time what you will be eating.. and plan for snacks too - and if you give yourself some extra calories.. .you can give yourself some indulgences too..
 
The chicken's already been boiled. My mother had a party at the house last weekend, and one of the dishes there was chicken with cream sauce, or chicken salad, or something. There was a lot of chicken left over. I've been eating it for the past few days, usually in wraps.

I'll start planning my meals more carefully. Right now it's a bit relaxed.
 
I already use Fitday for some things. A lot (or, really, most) of what I eat isn't in their database, but I do what I can.
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Basically none of the food I eat is in their database. You have to enter the nutritional information yourself for most items from the package. It saves items you enter information for, so you never have to enter the same item in more than once. It sounds like you have plenty of time on your hands, why not be more proactive and take some initiative- use fitday for each piece of food you eat for a week & work on getting your percentages right. That is, if you are unhappy with your current results. If you are satisfied with your progress, you probably don't need to go that in depth. Cheers-
 
And it turns out that I'm not having tofu after all. I found a filet of fish in the freezer. It's flounder (sigh) but I coated it with enough herbs and spices that it might have something resembling a taste. The rest of the day, planned:

Dinner: Flounder, 200 calories
Dinner: Some sort of vegetable, 50 calories

After dinner: Something for about 50-100 calories, not sure what.
 
uyis11 said:
Basically none of the food I eat is in their database. You have to enter the nutritional information yourself for most items from the package. It saves items you enter information for, so you never have to enter the same item in more than once. It sounds like you have plenty of time on your hands, why not be more proactive and take some initiative- use fitday for each piece of food you eat for a week & work on getting your percentages right. That is, if you are unhappy with your current results. If you are satisfied with your progress, you probably don't need to go that in depth. Cheers-
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Wow, you can do that? That changes EVERYTHING.
 
if you can't add custom foods in fitday -there are tons of sites that you can - is one you absolutely can...

Sparkpeople also allows you to create recipes and add portions of the recipes to your daily food..
 
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